Book of Yum

Herbed red potato home fries in a yogurt honey-mustard sauce with Farmer’s market purple-greens with tahini and a fried egg.

I don’t know what your Easter plans are, but our Easter plans drastically expanded this week when we found (and bought) our very own gorgeous Gypsy RV Van. We had been considering renting a RV for the week, as we had a little unexpected free time, but it was so expensive we thought it might make more sense to look into used RVs instead. We didn’t really think we’d find anything- but we fell in love and somehow ended up driving her home. Oops! We’re planning on going on a week-long road trip and so our menu of the week is a bit simple, and all foods I can easily prepare in our new camper van! Making this menu was very helpful, as I’ll have to figure out how to stock our van, and now I at least know the foods to bring.

Have any of you had experience with gluten-free RV camping? Please share any tips (and menu ideas!) in the comments!

Gluten-free RV Camping Menu
Breakfasts:
Pamela’s Mix pancakes, Eggs & fried potatoes, Bob’s Red Mill Hot Cereal or Arrowhead Mills grits, Fruit sweetened GF cornflake cereal OR GF rice chex

Lunches:
Egg Salad Sandwich, Almond Butter and Jelly Sandwich, leftovers

Monday: Italian
GF Pasta and Balsamic Eggplant pasta Sauce

Tuesday: Indian
Rice and Indian Packaged Meal

Wednesday: Mexican
Corn tortilla quesadillas and fresh salad

Thursday: Thai
Rice noodles with Peanut sauce and veggies

Friday: Comfort Foods
Corn Muffins and GF soup (Amy’s)

You can find more great menus over withOrg Junkie. As always, many thanks to Cheryl for temporarily housing the Gluten Free Menu Swap at her blog. This week, she is also hosting the gluten-free Menu Swap with a flax seed theme. I’ll be on the road, so I don’t know that I’ll have much of a chance to use flax seed, but my favorite way to use them is in baked goods. I also enjoy them in raw food recipes, so I might have some in a prepared GF raw snack bar.

This week I had to share some special Easter appropriate recipes with you. Around Easter time, eggs seem like a natural ingredient. Previously, I shared a recipe for Asparagus Cheddar Red-Pepper Quiche that I had made for a local Celiac Bay Area potluck. But, I had actually made two different quiche for that potluck, and my favorite was actually the one below with olives, sundried tomatoes, and feta cheese. As with the other one, you can use your favorite GF crust, whether it is Whole Foods GF bakehouse, GF Pantry pie crust mix, or Bette Hagman’s recipe for dream pastry.

Here are more gluten-free Easter egg recipes:
Pickled Eggs and Beets

Gluten-Free Sundried Tomato feta Spinach Quiche Recipe Main Course  Vegetables  Dairy  American

Ingredients Gluten Free Pie Crust* 2 tsp. olive oil 1 onion 1/2 jar artichoke hearts, chopped 1/4 cup (or less) sundried tomato, in oil and rinsed or dried and reconstituted in water for 30 minutes 2 tbsp. sliced olives (kalamata etc) 2 large handfuls of spinach 2-3 ounces feta mozarella to taste 3/4 cup milk 4 eggs fresh basil, julienned herbs (dill, provincial etc) salt to taste freshly ground pepper Directions Sautee onion in olive oil. When it turns translucent, add other ingredients through the spinach. When spinach has wilted, put filling in pie crust, sprinkle with cheese. Mix milk and eggs together, whisking and seasoning. Bake 35 minutes or so at 375 or until quiche is firm and lightly brown on top. Notes *I used Gluten-Free Pantry pastry mix, but think I prefer Bette Hagman’s Dream Pastry Mix for handling OR, for an easy “cheating” move- use Whole Foods GF Bakehouse pre-made pie crust. Follow directions on pie crust recipe for crust and pre-baking.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Contents of my brain, do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Recipe ID:  1375 Added:  March 15, 2009 Last Modified:  March 17, 2009

Naturally Dyed Easter Egg Main Course  Dairy

Ingredients Base: 1 quart water +2 tbsp white vinegar Color Elements: Blue: Red Cabbage, 4 cups Yellow: 3 tbsp turmeric You Can also try the following color elements: 4 cups onion skins (12 onions) 4 cups chopped Beets 1 quart strong coffee, no water Directions To make each dye, bring water, vinegar, and color element to a boil, lower the heat, simmer 30 min and strain dye. You can boil eggs with dye or cold dip, for 5 seconds up to overnight, and dry on wire wrap. For Turmeric, you can just add the powder to hot water without boiling it. Deep yellow- soak eggs in turmeric for a long time Teal- Soak eggs in turmeric solution for 30 minutes and then cabbage soak for 5 seconds. Bright Blue- Soak eggs in cabbage solution overnight (or just for a long time)

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Martha Stewart Recipe ID:  1214 Added:  March 25, 2008 Last Modified:  April 2, 2008

This month I was delighted when I found that the challenge for Daring Baker was NOT just another sweet cake or high-calorie dessert but instead a lovely and savory one dish meal that I could really sink my teeth into; Spinach pasta lasagna. The original called for a non-vegetarian ragu sauce, but it was easily replaced by one of my favorite delicious vegetarian red-lentil bolognese sauces.

Of course, the original pasta recipe was not gluten-free, but Mary of Beans and Caviar offered a gluten-free version (sans spinach). I tweaked her gluten-free recipe a bit, using a superfine grind of brown rice flour for the corn flour she used as her base, and adding the spinach back in. I was concerned that the original gluten recipe’s suggestion of uncooked spinach might make it difficult to work with the dough, so I looked online for other homemade spinach pasta recipes and found that many called for blanched and pureed spinach. I tried it, and happily, it worked beautifully. I’d never had fresh gluten-free spinach pasta and certainly never made it before, so this recipe was a special treat all around. I did find that the dough was rather sticky and I had to strike a balance between using too much cornstarch and too little. Initially I rolled the dough out on wax paper and found I had to use a sharp knife to separate the pasta from the paper, but later experiments with saran wrap were an improvement and made the knife step largely unnecessary.

It’s just a shame that as usual, despite my enthusiasm, I procrastinated and found myself making the whole recipe, photographing it, and writing this post on the posting deadline. *cough cough* Because I also made a delicious gluten-free vegan version of this recipe, I ended up with enough lasagna for a month- but I have plans to freeze pieces and enjoy it slowly over time- I’m sure I will appreciate this dish all the more when I can take it out of the freezer at whim whenever hunger strikes. This pregnant lady is now thoroughly exhausted after daring-bakering on her feet all day, but I feel a great sense of satisfaction and am thrilled that I’ve got a working recipe for gorgeous, green spinach lasagna pasta.

How to Make Gluten-Free, Vegetarian Homemade Spinach Lasagne from Scratch:

Visit my Gluten-Free VEGAN version of this challenge HERE! (Different pasta recipe, allergy friendly un-cheese recipes etc.- it was even my DH’s favorite over the cheesy one, if you’ll believe it!)
For the record:
The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Gluten Free Homemade Spinach Egg Pasta #1 Main Course  Alternative Grains  Italian

Ingredients 1 c superfine brown rice flour (or other flour of your choice) 3/4 cup cornstarch scant 1 cup tapioca starch 1 cup potato starch 3/4 cup sweet rice flour 1 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum 1 tsp. salt 6 eggs 10 oz. or a little more fresh spinach, a little water 3 T olive oil Lots of cornstarch Directions Microwave fresh spinach with a little water for about two or three minutes and try to drain water. Then place in food processor and process until spinach is pureed. Whisk together dry ingredients (brown rice flour through salt) and then add to the food processor with the spinach. Whir together and with processor running, add eggs one by one and finally drizzle in your olive oil. When a ball of dough forms in your processor, remove and place in a piece of saran wrap, wrapping up into a nice ball. (You may need to use two pieces, placed to form a cross.) Let dough rest for about an hour and then remove one forth of the dough into a smaller ball. Lay a piece of wax paper and then saran paper on your rolling surface. Sprinkle with lots of cornstarch and then place your dough ball on it. Sprinkle the ball of dough with more cornstarch and cover the dough with another large piece of saran wrap. Roll out dough as thinly as possible into a long strip of pasta and then cut into lasagna sheets. Peel off saran wrap to get sheets of pasta. You can use a sharp knife to separate the pasta from the saran wrap if it helps. (This is especially important if you roll it out on wax paper and not saran wrap.) You can use immediately in lasagna or boil the pasta for a few minutes and then drain and use.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Adaption of Daring Baker Recipe by Mary of Beans and Caviar. Instructions and version my own. Please do not replicate without my permission. Recipe ID:  1385 Added:  March 29, 2009 Last Modified:  March 30, 2009

Gluten Free Dairy B�chamel – Brown Rice Flour White Sauce Recipe #2 Sauces & Condiments  Dairy  Italian

Ingredients 2 & 2/3 cup milk 2 tbsp. unsalted butter and 2 tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp. superfine brown rice flour Salt and pepper to taste Freshly grated nutmeg Directions Mix the brown rice flour with 1/2 cup of cold milk. Heat the rest of the milk in a small sauce pan until steaming but do not boil. Add the milk/flour mixture to the steaming milk. Stirring constantly, raise the heat and heat the mixture until thick. Once it is thick, remove it from the heat and add the butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Have the b�chamel warm or at room temperature ready to assemble the lasagne. Whisk the sauce occasionally if it becomes stiff or thick. Notes Worked well, nothing special.

Rating:  5 Original Source:  Daring Baker of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno) Challenge bechamel with my modifications. Please do not replicate anywhere without my permisison. Recipe ID:  1386 Added:  March 29, 2009 Last Modified:  March 29, 2009

Daring Bakers Lentil Bolognese Sauce Recipe #3 Main Course  Vegetables  Italian

Ingredients 1 onion, chopped 2 whole garlic cloves 2 carrots, coarsely grated 3 tbsp. olive oil 2/3 cup red lentils 1 14 oz. can tomatoes 2 tbsp. tomato paste 2 cups GF vegetable stock 1 tbsp. fresh marjoram salt and freshly ground black pepper Directions Saute onion, garlic, and grated carrot in olive oil in a large dutch oven until it is soft. Add lentils, tomato, tomato paste, stock and seasoning and simmer for 20 minutes until thick and lovely. Taste and season as needed.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Adapted from The Complete Encyclopedia of Vegetables and Vegetarian Cooking. Please do not replicate anywhere without my permission. Recipe ID:  1383 Added:  March 29, 2009 Last Modified:  March 29, 2009

Gluten-free Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe from Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno) Main Course  Alternative Grains  Vegetables  Dairy  Italian

Ingredients (Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish) Preparation Time: 15 minutes to assemble and 40 minutes cooking time 10 quarts (9 litres) salted water 1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe in files)#1 1 recipe Gluten-Free Dairy Bechamel Sauce (recipe in files)#2 1 recipe Vegetarian Red Lentil Bolognese (recipe in files)#3 1 cup (4 ounces/125g) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Extra cheese (I used sharp cheddar for topping) Directions The dough does not need to be precooked before being assembled into the lasagne *but in my opinion it might be nice if it is boiled for a few minutes before baking*. Method Working Ahead: The red lentil bolognese and the b�chamel sauce can be made up to three days ahead. The red lentil bolognese can also be frozen for up to one month. The pasta can be rolled out, cut and dried up to 24 hours before cooking. The assembled lasagne can wait at room temperature (20 degrees Celsius/68 degrees Fahrenheit) about 1 hour before baking. Do not refrigerate it before baking, as the topping of b�chamel and cheese will overcook by the time the center is hot. Assembling the Ingredients: Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Oil or butter a 3 quart (approx 3 litre) shallow baking dish. Cooking the Pasta: Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked. Assembling the Lasagne: *GF NOTE: Before assembly, pour plain water into the pan, enough to form a thin film of water over the bottom. A 9 x 13 inch or 25 x 33 cm pan required almost 1/2 cup (125 mL) of water.* Spread a thin layer of b�chamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the b�chamel. Spread a thin layer of b�chamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the bolognese. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the b�chamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with b�chamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese and, if you like, extra cheese. Baking and Serving the Lasagne: *GF NOTE: Once the lasagne is assembled, pour a tablespoon or 15 mL of water into each corner of the dish. (I didn’t do this part-Sea)* Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Raise temperature to 375 and remove the foil and bake another 10 to 15 minutes. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served. Notes I think I might try a different kind of cheese instead of parmesan reggiano next time to make a creamier, milder sauce that complimented the red lentil sauce a bit more.

Rating:  8 Original Source:  Daring Baker Challenge from The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna with GF notes by Mary and myself. Recipe ID:  1387 Added:  March 29, 2009 Last Modified:  March 29, 2009