Welcome to 2015

Robert and I have been doing a read-aloud each night of things that we wrote on that date in India. It's reminded me that having this here blog is a wonderful chronicle of our lives, but only if I, you know, use it. So I'm going to try to do that more, even when we aren't living in other countries.

Today was a very mixed bag. On the plus side we had a pretty relaxed day. The sun was shining, Rosie had a nice walk, I made scones and sausage for our New Year's breakfast. Robert and Zion played LOTR Risk, and we Skyped with my parents.

On the minus side, Liel woke up sick (and ended up throwing up a few times), Rosie tore her dew claw about halfway up (and into the quick), but only tore it half off, so it's hanging there. It clearly bothers her some, but no way can we cut it off. She hates having her nails trimmed under the best of circumstances. The internet tells me this isn't a rush to the vet thing, and if her nail breaks the rest of the way off I'll be pretty pleased. If it doesn't, I'll take her to the vet so they can do the honors.

Furthermore, when I went to block the amazingly gorgeous sweater I finished yesterday I was met with the worst smell I've ever experienced while working with wool. NO idea what it was about, but trust me, it was awful. The yarn company was incredibly responsive, but equally confused. I tested yarn from another skein of the same dye lot, and it was fine. Guess I got a bad one?? Anyway, that turned out OK, once I rinsed the crap out of the sweater, so to speak. Now it just smells like a wet sheep.

And the other things will turn out OK too. Liel will be better, and hopefully soon. Rosie's nail will either fall off or the vet will remove it.

After the kids went to bed I decided that what I really needed was some kind of tasty potato snack. So I made a super small amount of potato salad. Robert said he didn't want any, but he ended up eating half of it, since "super small" is apparently relative and I couldn't actually eat it all.

So to sum up: delicious breakfast, sunshine, sick child, mildly injured dog, rescued sweater, potato salad, 2015. 

Dosa

I have a new food love, and its name is dosa.

Dosa are these amazing pancake/crepe things made from a rice and black lentil batter that's been fermented. They taste sort of like an amazing, buttery, crispy sourdough pancake. If you get a plain dosa it comes with sambar (a saucy vegetable stew) and coconut chutney. Masala dosa comes stuffed with yummy spiced potatoes and a red chile paste (apparently this is largely a Bangalore thing- the red chile paste, not the masala dosa!), and sambar and chutney. Set dosa, which are particularly popular here in Karnataka, are pretty much just like pancakes in texture (ie not thin and crispy on one side), come with chutney and a different vegetable stew, flavored with turmeric and no tomatoes. Onion dosa come loaded with sweet purple onions, and yes, chutney and veg stew.

I'd had dosa before coming here to Bangalore, though not often. My favorite Indian restaurant in Harvard Square served them at their Sunday brunch, but the line was long, and I often just skipped them. Honestly, the dosa I've had in the US have been fine, but not great. Not the kind of dosa you might find yourself dreaming of at night. Not that I know anything about that, mind.

But when we got here and I had dosa in India my whole perspective changed (side note: it also sort of changed about spicy food. Now I just accept that my mouth will be burning to some degree while I'm eating, and that when I'm done I'll have some curd or plain rice and it will go away). I love and adore dosa. I think I'd eat them every day if I could. In fact, I'm going to have dosa for dinner tonight, and then again for breakfast in the morning before we fly to Kochi. I'm giddy at at the thought of having dosa two meals in a row!

What I am not giddy about is returning to the land of sub-par dosa. It has become abundantly clear to me that I'm going to have to learn to make dosa upon our return, and quickly. My friend Tiju recommended that I buy a dosa pan before we leave, but what I'm more concerned about is a grinder. Traditional dosa are made by soaking or parboiling rice and urad dal and then grinding them into a smooth batter. I've started reading up on this a bit, and the consensus seems to be that the only American appliance that might be up to the job is a Vitamix. I know folks who swear by theirs, so I might go that route, but those suckers are $300-400, and while I can't put a price tag on my devotion to dosa, $300 would buy you one heck of a dosa around here.

Actually, once I typed that I had to do the math. $300 would buy you 1000 plain dosa or 820 masala or set dosa at our favorite place. I wonder how long it would take me to make and eat 1000 dosa? Not in a food race kind of way, just in the course of normal life. Hmmm.

If you have tips, recipes, or recommendations for making dosa, I'm all ears! It really is one of the best foods in the entire world. My friend Aaron says they're kind of like buttery Indian burritos, and I think the comparison is apt, especially since burritos are another of my all time favorite foods. In fact, I'm generally a fan of foods that are their own (edible) containers. So helpful and delicious. 

Cranberry Banana Bread

OK, enough with the sickness and worry and the whining! How about a nice, vaguely holiday themed recipe instead?

When I was a kid my mom made the most delicious cranberry banana bread. I have a photocopy of the recipe she used, which I think may have come from Sunset magazine. Yesterday I decided to adapt it, making it gluten and egg free. It could easily be dairy free too, though I did use some butter in mine.

The bread came out really, really well. It is in fact my most successful gluten free, egg free quick bread! It doesn't crumble at all and at nearly 24 hours old it is still moist and delicious.

See how pretty it is?

And maybe a little close up...

Om nom nom!!

Recipe

Makes one loaf, can be doubled.


Pre-heat oven to 350, and oil a bread pan.  Whisk together:

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca starch
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3/8 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs worth of Ener-g egg replacer

In another bowl beat together

1 1/4 c mashed banana
5 T of melted butter OR oil of your choice or a combination (I used butter and sunflower seed oil)
1/4 c plain yogurt

Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then stir in 1 cup chopped fresh cranberries. Pour batter into a loaf pan and bake for 50-55 min.

Enjoy!

Gluten free pie crust guesses

I've been fiddling with my GF pie crust recipe for months now. I can make a pretty good GF crust, but not one that was so good I was willing to stop trying something new.

Today I made an amazing GF pie crust. Trouble is, I can't entirely remember what I did! Still, I'm writing down what I think I did now, before I forget that too.

1 c GF flour
4 T unsalted butter
2-3T cream cheese
pinch of salt
some sugar
some xanthan gum (1/4-1/2 tsp? Liel had spilled some on the counter and I just swept that into the bowl. I probably shouldn't admit that)

Pre-baked at 350 (on bottom rack) for 30-ish min. Cooled, wrapped in saran and used the next day.

More gluten-free baking

I've left out some important gluten-free baking staples up to this point. Mostly that's because I found recipes that I like and I use them. Since I didn't make them up myself I didn't bother to post them, but it occurs to me that having everything in one place will be useful for me, if not for anyone else. Plus I have another of my recipes to post!

First up is gluten free, egg free, dairy free, and soy free bread. I found this recipe about 9 months ago and I've been really pleased with it. When fresh it is delicious for eating plain, with butter, or with olive oil. I've even brought it to departmental parties, not told anyone it was gluten free, and had it eagerly devoured with many a compliment. It does go stale rather quickly, but makes nice toast on the second day.

Next is pizza crust. I tinkered with the recipe just a little bit, because this one, from Gluten-Free Goddess, uses egg whites, which Zion and I can't tolerate. She does note that you can use egg replacer, and I've made this recipe with both Ener-g egg replacer and flax seeds and water, and in the end I've found it's better if I just increase the water and oil slightly. I've also omitted the rice vinegar, as it didn't seem to make any difference. But it really makes a delicious crust, so delicious that gluten-eating friends have said that they prefer it to wheat crust. Admittedly only a few of them, but still. We can't all have good taste AND a sense of humor, right?

And finally, one of my recipes! This one is for pancakes. I tried a number of gluten-free pancake recipes when we first went gluten-free, and none of them were particularly good. My kids ate them, because they are pancake fiends and not particularly discerning, but I felt sure I could do better. Or rather: I felt sure that I could instruct Robert on how to do better, since he does most of the pancake making these days. And I did!

Gluten-free, vegan pancakes

2 cups GF flour (I use a blend of brown rice, potato and tapioca for this)
1-3 T of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp each baking soda and salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

Mix all that together.

Combine 2 cups of liquid (could be all water, all milk of any kind, or a mix. I usually do about half water and half rice milk)
3 T grapeseed oil
1 T vinegar or lemon juice

Mix that with the dry ingredients. If it seems too thick, add more water. If it's too thin you could add more flour I guess, or just call it crepes.

I like cooking the pancakes in grapeseed oil too. Nom. If I turn a burner on to medium under my huge cast iron skillet right before I start mixing ingredients it's usually ready to go when the batter is.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Since today is Thursday, and I don't teach on Fridays, I thought I should celebrate the end of another work week. Also, it's my half birthday, and that is clearly deserving of recognition, no? I mean, 35 1/2 is kind of a big deal! So I decided to make a pineapple upside down cake.

But, as you know, we don't do gluten or eggs in my house. And also, while I love to bake, I often find myself choking a little at the amount of sugar and butter (or oil) that many recipes call for. I mean, I like fat and sweet as much as the next person...especially fat...but man. There's gotta be balance, you know?

Anyway, I read a few pineapple upside down cake recipes, compared proportions in a half-assed way, and did the following.

1. Melted 2 T of salted butter in a 7x11 pan. Then added 4 T of brown sugar, and topped it all with pineapple chunks.

2. Mixed 2 T of salted with somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 c of granulated sugar. I beat them a little while, then added some vanilla, and some rum.

3. Added 1.5 cups of GF flour mix (for this kind of thing I use a blend of brown rice, potato and tapioca), 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 tsp xanthan gum. Mixed that all up with the butter, sugar etc.

4. It was not battery, not in the least.

5. So I used an idea from Smitten Kitchen and added pineapple juice til it looked battery. This did double duty actually, as I'd been planning to add some vinegar since the acidity, combined with the baking soda and baking powder, provides lift and fluffiness in egg free recipes. But pineapple juice is acidic too, and adds sweetness and pineapple flavor!

6. Then I spread the batter on the pineapple and put it in a 350 oven and cooked about 35 min.

Verdict: Yum! The amount of sugar was totally fine (maybe even more than needed). Next time I'm going to up the butter a bit, but over all, a success. I'd post a picture but, you know. We ate it.

Gluten free, egg free scones

My kids love scones. I used to bake them regularly- in fact, I baked a batch when I was in heavy labor with my daughter, to try to distract myself. I had to pause every 2 min and grip the counter and breath deeply, but after she was born Robert, the midwives and I all enjoyed fresh scones!

Anyway, since we've become mostly gluten free I've stopped making scones. The recipes I've seen (and admittedly I didn't look too deeply) relied heavily on eggs or egg whites, which won't do for us. Every so often the kids would ask me to bake scones and I'd say no. Lately these requests have been more frequent, and I started thinking about recipes in a vague, back of my mind kind of way. Today I decided to try out the one that seemed most promising. So when the kids finished their school work I told them I was going to make scones, and Zion announced that that he was so happy he, "almost cried". Not that that translated into him wanting to help *make* scones. Liel came into the kitchen to help (and nearly broke my liquid measuring cup in the process) and Zion ran around the house playing imaginary football.

Here's what I did.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Mix the following dry ingredients in a bowl:

2 c gluten free flour (I used a blend of brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch)
1/4 c sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

blend in 5 T butter (vegan sub: coconut oil. I haven't tested this, but it would be my first try. I don't like that vegan margarine stuff. If you do use it, cut down on the salt). I use my hands for this, but you can use whatever method you prefer. If you're using unsalted butter (which I generally recommend for baking, but I didn't have much around this afternoon) you might up the salt a bit.

Then add raisins, or dried cranberries or whatever you want. About 1/2 a cup. We were out of raisins, forcing me to pick through trail mix Robert had made last weekend. Toss them in the flour to coat them lightly.

Next add 1 1/2 c milk (I used rice milk) mixed with 2T of plain yogurt. If you're vegan you can add another tablespoon of milk and a 1/2 tsp of a mild flavored vinegar. Mix that all in with the dry ingredients. It's a fairly wet dough, but should hold together enough for you to gently scoop it out and place lumps of it on a greased cookie sheet. I got 8 scones of out of this recipe, to give you a sense of the size I was making them. Then sprinkle them with a bit of sugar, and bake about 16 minutes. They'll only be slightly browned on the top, but they should be done. you can open one up to check and bake a little longer if you like.

That's it! Cool them on a rack. Two minutes is sufficient; even children can eat them at that point (if they are careful and very eager for scones).



I have to say, I'm really pleased with this recipe. Really pleased. They're delicious! And nearly identical to the gluten version I used to bake :)

Gluten free biscuits x2!

Last night we had some friends over, and I wanted to make strawberry shortcake for dessert. I've made a GF shortcake before (as far as I'm concerned biscuit style shortcakes are the only proper shortcakes), and it was pretty good. But not really good, you know? So last night I wanted something different.

Now we have egg allergies in our house, and a lot of GF baking relies on eggs to provide the structure that gluten provides in traditional baking. Sometimes egg substitutes works, sometimes they don't. Hell, sometimes GF works, sometimes it doesn't. The combination of GF-EF = lots of trial and error.

So anyway, yesterday I read about a dozen GF shortbread recipes and finally combined what I'd read into my own thing. And it was good! It was so good that I told the kids I'd make them cheese biscuits for lunch today. Again, I created my own recipe, and again it was good! I think the yogurt might be part of the secret for these two...it helps leaven the dough and provides a bit of structure.

Biscuit recipe A (rolled biscuits)

1.5 cups of GF flour blend (I used a combination of brown rice (from Dakota Mills) flour, potato starch and tapioca starch)
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 T sugar
2 tsps Ener-g egg replacer powder
Mix all that stuff up (I used a food processor), then add:
4 T cold, unsalted butter
and blend until the butter is all worked in. Then add:
1/2 c milk (I used soy)
2 T vanilla yogurt (or plain if you don't want a sweet biscuit)

Blend into a dough, then pat out, cut into circles and bake at 350 for about 15 min :)

Biscuit recipe B (dropped biscuits)

1. 75 c GF flour blend (I used same as above)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp xanthan gum
Mix that all together. Then add:
4 T unsalted butter
1/3 c grated parmesan cheese
Blend until the butter is mixed in and then add:
2/3 c milk
1/3 c water
2 T plain yogurt
Blend until it forms a wet sticky dough. Fold in some grated cheese of whatever kind you have/like. I used colby jack. Then drop onto a greased baking sheet (you can make the biscuits whatever size you want! I made mine about 2") and bake at 400 for about 15-17 min. They're fluffy! And delicious.