Book of Yum

The other night DH and I settled down to a deceptively simple feast of homemade vegetarian pinto bean burgers, corn tortillas, lettuce, and baked onion rings. And yes, I just said BAKED onion rings. Of course, they were totally GLUTEN-FREE. But the real secret… they weren’t even that hard to make! I had been thinking about baked onion rings for some time when I stumbled across an intriguing recipe at Cooking for Engineers. It used a nice buttermilk batter (alas, not gluten-free) and a crispy coating of potato chips and (non gf) saltine crackers. I just happened to have some buttermilk in the fridge so I converted the batter to be gluten-free, and then reworked the coating. I was reluctant to use FRIED chips for a BAKED dish and cancel out all that healthfulness, so I decided to use the newly gluten-free and crunchy Rice Chex instead of potato chips. DH and I had recently discovered a new type of Glutino Cheese crackers at the local New Leaf health food store, and I decided to use them as a substitute for the saltine crackers. The result was cheesy and flavorful with less fat than the gluten-based-recipe that inspired me. To accompany this traditional American fast-food restaurant treat, I took some homemade slow-cooked organic pinto beans and sauteed them with some caramelized onions and garlic, adding peanut butter, tomato paste, green pepper, and fresh cilantro for flavor. Then I added some freshly cooked brown rice and shaped the mixture into patties and floured them with pure GF buckwheat. I pan fried them in a little peanut oil in a cast iron pan and then sprayed them with nonstick cooking spray and baked them until they were firm and perfectly brown. We enjoyed them in a non-traditional corn tortilla with mayo and ketchup (and a little chipotle salsa) and they were the ideal accompaniment for golden, perfectly baked onion rings. Onion rings have always been a rare treat, due to all the trouble (and guilt) of all that oil and deep frying, but with this recipe, they can be on our regular menu. In fact, DH has insisted that we have them again… soon!

*I know, I know, the pinto bean burgers don’t have exact proportions. This is one of those recipes that I created as I went along, tasting and adjusting as I liked. That’s the fun thing about veggie burgers- you can make them up as you go along, just making sure they will shape into a croquette at the end of your kitchen witchery. Enjoy- and tell me all about your version!

Question of the day:
What is your favorite gluten-free breading, either homemade or purchased? Tell me in the comments!

Baked GF Onion Rings Side Dish  Vegetables  American

Ingredients *3/4 cup GF Glutino Original OR Cheese flavored crackers (or substitute) *1 1/4 cup GF Rice Chex (check the box) or similar unsweetened GF cereal 1 large onion (cut into wide 1/2 inch rings and separated) 3 tbsp. white rice flour 1 tbsp. potato starch 1/4 tsp paprika or cayenne pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 large egg 1/4 cup fine brown rice flour Directions Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place large NOT oiled cookie sheet or baking tin in oven. Grind Glutino Crackers and Rice Chex in your food processor until you have smooth, even crumbs a similar texture to coarse corn meal. Whisk together your white rice flour, potato starch and spices with buttermilk and the egg in a medium bowl. Put the onion in a plastic bag with the brown rice flour and shake until onion slices are coated with flour. Bring over your buttermilk mixture and shake the ground cracker and cereal onto a flat plate. Dip the floured rings into the white rice flour-buttermilk batter and then place each ring in the ground cracker-cereal mixture, covering both sides. Try not to get extra liquid into the cracker meal. Take the hot pan out of the oven and baste it with a small amount of your favorite oil OR use a nonstick cooking spray. Place each coated onion ring (flour, batter, cracker meal) on the cooking sheet not touching each other and place in preheated oven. Bake for eight minutes and then turn and put back in the oven for 5 to 8 more minutes, checking after five minutes. Take out of oven and enjoy with ketchup or plain. Yummy! Notes DH loved these more than those made with a conventional breading mix. In fact, we both thought they were delicious and WILL be making these again- soon. Amount of chex and glutino crackers is approximate. Use more chex than glutino, but cut down proportions to suit your taste and cracker supply.

Rating:  9 Original Source:  Inspired by Cooking for Engineer’s take on Cook’s Country recipe, but made gluten-free by ME. Do not replicate anywhere without my permisison. Recipe ID:  1284 Added:  August 22, 2008 Last Modified:  August 26, 2008

Many of you may not know that I have a “scale of difficulty” for baking.

I think in the world of gluten free baking, the scale of labor intensive -ness goes something like this:

1) easy- yeast free muffins/pancakes
2) takes (waiting) time but easy- yeast breads
3) More labor intensive but not difficult- tortillas
4) Labor intensive, a little tricky, requires patience-Pie crust
(requires chilling dough, rolling out & repairing crust)
5) Labor intensive,fiddley-sugar cookies
(requires chilling dough, rolling out & cutting out individual pieces)
6) Labor intensive, homemade crackers
(requires chilling dough, rolling out, cutting in shapes, adding details- also many pans in and out of oven, unless you make small
recipe)
7)SUPER Labor intensive, requires insane willpower- GF filo dough (a la Rebecca Reilly)

For reference, I would put cakes, crumpets and rolls at 1.5 and bagels at 3.5. Personally, I start balking at around difficulty level 4… I will do it, but must have lots of time for “baking play” and some seriously strong motivation.

You will note that homemade gluten free crackers rate a 6 on the scale, two points above my point of resistance. Pie crust is generally a 4. Well, luckily, I find Chebe dough so easy to work with that when I make recipes using it, I have to knock things down a point or so on the scale. I will cheerfully roll out dough for perogies/ knishes out of Chebe like nobody’s business, because it’s extremely supple and forgiving dough that is practically fun to work with. It’s even a weekday dish, rather than just a weekend, because I find it so easy to work with. But you won’t find me making pie out of normal pie crust on the weekday, no sir. It’s just too much hassle! Given this, yesterday when I felt the urge to bake, I found myself doing one of the more unlikely baking projects- making Chebe goldfish crackers! I make crackers extremely rarely, but they are worth the effort when I finally do it. My favorites are Rebecca Reilly’s gluten free graham crackers and Bette Hagman’s various crackers, but don’t ask me the last time I made them. Anyway, I kept hearing people say they made crackers out of chebe, and I was finally so curious I had to try it for myself. I took a recipe from Chebe’s recipe page and adapted it slightly, adding garlic powder for additional flavor, and dusting the baking tin with cornmeal for additional crunch and to make it easier to remove the crackers from the pan. They were surprisingly easy to make, and my fish cookie cutter worked very well, although it created more of a “whale” sized cracker rather than a little fish sized cracker. (I can’t imagine making hundreds of little fish crackers, I think I’d go buggy!) I only made up half of the recipe, and the other half of the dough is reserved in my refrigerator (I have an idea about tart cups, hmmm…), but I had a very nice little stack of crackers when I was done. The crackers themselves were very tasty, with the characteristic tapioca chebe flavor and good crunch and flavor. Like most Chebe products, unless you bake them until really crispy, they would be best reheated in the oven like chebe pizza or knishes). So, if you’re feeling slightly ambitious in the kitchen and want some cheesy gluten free crackers with more personality than little bland circles, why not make your own fish or whale shaped crackers? Or, how about seasonal crackers- I think pumpkin, bats, goblins and ghost crackers would be pretty darned cute, myself.

Here’s some other recipes I’ve created using Chebe

Gluten Free Cheeese Cracker Recipe: Fishies Snacks  Alternative Grains  American

Ingredients 1 Package Chebe Bread Mix 1/2 cup grated parmesan 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 1/3 cup water 2 tbsp oil 2 eggs 1 tsp garlic powder (optional) cornmeal (optional) Directions Set oven to 375 F. Combine Chebe bread mix with oil and eggs. Mix in cheese and garlic, and add water a little bit at a time. Knead dough until it is thoroughly mixed and forms a smooth ball. Cut open a large Ziploc bag (gallon size) at the seams, leaving the bottom seam parallel to the opening intact. Place half your dough inside the ziploc bag, making sure a layer of plastic is between you and your rolling pin. Roll dough out carefully to about the same thickness as pie crust- thin! Take any cute cookie cutters you have (I used fish shaped ones) and cut out your crackers. Dust a large, light colored cookie sheet (not the kind with air pockets) with cornmeal (if you want) and place your crackers on the sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes and then carefully turn them over using a very sharp metal spatula. Be careful of any cracker edges that have turned brown, as they will be very brittle. Bake for 5 more minutes or until golden on both sides and they have reached your desired texture. Remove from oven and enjoy your own Gluten Free Goldfish Crackers!

Rating:  7 Original Source:  Adapted from Chebe web site Recipe ID:  1121 Added:  August 18, 2007 Last Modified:  August 18, 2007