You can easily make this an appetizer recipe too, if you happen to be lucky enough to have a party to attend. Just put the stuffing we’re going to make into a bunch of small mushrooms instead of 4 big portabellas. Portabellas will need a few minutes of pre-baking, though, so if you are keeping this meal all to yourself, then brush them with a little olive oil, and put them in the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees while you mix up the rest of it.

Can’t have crab stuffing without crab, can you? Important note: fake crab, sometimes labeled as “krab” but more often masquerading as the real thing, is made with wheat. Lots of it. Those crab sticks that go in sushi rolls are a prime example, they are jam-packed with gluten. Most of the crab you see in the market these days is going to be the fake stuff, so be very careful to choose a container that is only 100% real crab meat. You’ll want about 6 to 8 ounces of it.

Finely dice half of a red onion. Red onions tend to be stronger than white, which is good if you’re trying to balance a strong flavor like crab. But if you don’t like a lot of onion flavor, you can substitute a white one, or even sautee it before adding it in so it can caramelize a bit. Did you know that process is called pyrolysis? Well it is.

Slice up 2 green onions, and add them to your bowl along with 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon of Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change recipes without warning. Always check your labels!]

Dump in 1 teaspoon of parsely, 1 teaspoon of dill…

1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

Now then, mix it all together with 1/2 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise. You can add a little more if the consistency is too dry, but don’t try to take any out because that totally won’t work.

Spoon your mixture into your mushrooms, be they big portabellas or little creminis.

Sprinkle with crushed Rice Chex or your preferred brand of gluten-free breadcrumbs, and bake them at 350 for about 12 minutes. Little ones may be done a minute or two sooner, big ones may take a minute or two longer. Serve them to your guests or eat them all yourself, I won’t tell.

Happy Eating!

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

4 portabella mushrooms, or about 36 cremini mushrooms
6-8 oz container of 100% crabmeat
1/2 small red onion
2 green onions
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp Lea & Perrins worcestershire
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp dill
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise
1/4 cup crushed Rice Chex

First, we’ll prepare the hollandaise sauce. The basic ingredients are butter and egg yolks, so it is not exactly a heart-healthy menu item. But boy, does it taste good. Here we will start with one whole stick (1/2 cup) of Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine (NOT the Original flavor, as that contains casein.) Your list of possible substitutes is going to be a bit truncated here, since it will need to be butter-flavored, but some other options include ghee, Earth Balance spread, and Spectrum butter-flavored shortening. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

Gently melt it in the microwave, inside a measuring cup. We’re going to need that handle and pouring spout later.

Separate 4 eggs, and place the yolks in a metal bowl. To separate an egg, crack it over a bowl and pass the yolk back and forth between the two shell halves, and the white will just fall off. I throw the whites away, but I guess you could make an egg-white omelette with them, or maybe whip them into a meringue for that pie you just had sitting around.

Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice, and whisk the egg yolks very rapidly for a few minutes, long past when your arm starts hurting and you have to switch the other one. They say it’s done when the mixture has doubled in volume, but I’m not a good judge of that sort of thing, so I just do it until I can’t stand it anymore.

Now, this is why it needed to be in a metal mixing bowl. If you don’t have a metal bowl, you can use the top half of a double-boiler, or just a regular metal pot that will fit snugly inside the rim of another pot like we have here. But it’s easier to whisk in something that has a rounded bottom, especially when it’s turned sideways so you can whisk in an up-and-down motion instead of around in flat circles.

That bottom pot contains water, heated to just barely simmering. This way we will gently heat the sauce without allowing it to get above 212 degrees F (the boiling point of water,) and thus not end up with scrambled eggs. And yes, I know my pot isn’t actually on the burner anymore. I was turning the handle around this way and that, trying to get a good angle on the bowl-inside-a-pot for you to see. That, or maybe my super power is getting water to boil without any heat, and I’ve just blown my cover.

Keep whisking — yes, more! — while you gently stream in the melted margarine from the microwave. I only stopped whisking to try to take a quick picture, don’t be like me (unless you, too, have a website with lots of people wondering why you haven’t updated in over two dang weeks!)

Look, more whisking! When the sauce has thickened from the gentle heat and again doubled in volume, you’re done.

Well, almost. Add in a pinch of salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper, unless you’d rather garnish the final product with the cayenne on top. There’s only so far I’ll bother going for presentation, and I’d rather not delay eating for even a moment once these babies are ready. Also, my kids are usually like, “OMG that’s got spices on it, it must be spicy!” and I’d rather not listen to it.

Cover the pot and stick it in a warm spot while you assemble everything else. This is not something you want to make ahead of time and store in the fridge for awhile, since it’s made with raw eggs. (Though before you go freaking out about the thought of eating raw eggs to begin with, remember that fried eggs with even slightly runny yolks are also technically raw.) If you’re really concerned, you could buy those pasteurized eggs they have at the store now.

Okay, so! The rest of the meal. Properly speaking, this should be on English muffins, and there are a few gluten-free brands out there. But they’re harder to come by, so I go for the simpler solution and just put them on O’Dough’s hamburger buns instead, which are appropriately dense. And of course Canadian bacon is a processed meat, so you have to make sure it’s GF as well. This Hormel product says it right on the back of the package, so that’s convenient.

Put several inches of water in a wide pan, bring it to a simmer, and ignore the rest of the photo. The chef who told me to do that thing you see me doing above is a complete liar. It has no quantifiable effect. The man is a charlatan and a scoundrel, and I have told him so to his face. He suggested pistols at dawn, or something, I can’t remember.

If you’re really deft, you can crack the eggs directly into the poaching pan. But I find it helpful to crack them into a little measuring cup first…

…and very gently slide them into the water, which should be just barely simmering by now.

Boy they do look ugly while they’re cooking, don’t they? But you see how the one on the right has a clearly defined central blob of egg white, with the thin skirt around it? That skirt bit is going to mostly fall away and cloud up your pan some more, the blob is the real part of the egg we want.

Cook them for exactly 3 1/2 minutes to achieve soft-set but still slightly flowing yolks, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon. Also, let’s blame the blurriness of this photo on the steam from the pan, rather than my palsied, uncoordinated hands.

Drizzle with hollandaise sauce, and dig in! You might want to serve this with some fruit or something, so you don’t feel guilty about all that extra sauce you know you’re going to put on.

Happy Eating!

Eggs Benedict

4 egg yolks
1 TBS lemon juice
1/2 cup Fleischmann’s Unsalted margarine (NOT Original)
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

6 eggs
1 pkg GF canadian bacon
3 GF english muffins (or GF hamburger buns)

Speaking of standing, have you ever heard that joke about how you can tell a male bell pepper from a female one? — the answer being that the female peppers have four nubs on the bottom, so they can stand on their own, but the male peppers only have three, so they fall over without another pepper to lean on.

It’s not actually true, the fruits of the pepper plant have no gender, and the number of feet is just genetic variation. Factual biology isn’t very funny after all. But it is true that the ones with more feet tend to have more space inside, so choose your serving size accordingly. You can fill anywhere from four very-large to eight rather-small peppers with this recipe.

The fastest way to clean them out is to use a pair of kitchen shears to snip straight down the inner ribs…

…then just reach in and pluck the guts out whole. Very efficient.

For the filling, first chop up 1 cup of cilantro, which is conveniently about one bunch, in grocery store packaging terms.

Also dice up 1 onion, and dump in two 4-oz. cans of diced green chiles. Don’t worry, “mild” in this case means truly mild, it’s not too spicy for kids at all.

Add in 2 teaspoons of cumin…

1 teaspoon of chili powder…

…and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Now mash around 1 pound of ground turkey until everything’s nice and meaty. Incidentally, I originally got this recipe from the fantastic Elana over at Elana’s Pantry, but somehow mine come out looking completely different than hers. I think she must use fresh chopped up turkey, even though her recipe says ground. It would certainly be a good way to use up leftover holiday poultry.

Stuff the meat mixture inside each pepper, making sure to press it all the way down into its little feminine feet.

Lay them in a greased dish, and bake at 350 degrees for an hour. If you’re especially fastidious in choosing well-footed peppers, you could save space and cook them all standing up, but only if you don’t overload them like I did here.

Mine are so crammed full of deliciousness, they couldn’t even make it down a chimney.

Happy Holiday Eating!

Stuffed Red Peppers

4-8 large red bell peppers
1 lb. ground turkey
1 cup fresh cilantro
1 onion
8 oz. diced green chiles
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt

“Brawndo’s got what plants crave! It’s got electrolytes!”
“Look, what are electrolytes, do you even know?”
“It’s… what they use to make Brawndo.”

Okay, so let me demystify: electrolytes are salts. Not only straight table salt, but the group of salts according to the periodic table. They’re necessary because your body needs to maintain the proper balance of salts and water in your cells, and when you sweat or urinate a lot — or more notably, when you have the loose/frequent bowel problems commonly associated with autistic individuals — you lose salts faster than you can take them in from food, and your whole metabolic process works less efficiently. But in the end, yes, it’s all just a form of salt water.

So why would you want to pay a ton of money for the privilege of having a bunch of artificial dyes and chemical sweeteners added to your salt water? I certainly wouldn’t. Oh hey I know, let’s make our own!

First, take an empty water bottle, preferably with a lid so you can shake it up when it’s ready. Then add 1/16 of a teaspoon of Potassium Chloride. For the accountants out there, note that that’s $4 for 648 servings. You can get tiny measuring spoons here, and while they give them useless names like “pinch” and “smidge,” the five spoons are actually 1/4 tsp, 1/8 tsp, 1/16 tsp, 1/32 tsp and 1/64 tsp. Alternatively, you could make it in larger batches so you could use the larger measuring spoons you already own.

Next, add 1/16 of a teaspoon of baking soda, AKA sodium bicarbonate. See, salts! Again, this ingredient goes for less than $1 for 1,612 servings.

Fill the drink bottle with about 8 ounces of water, which should hopefully leave you with some space at the top, unless you have a particularly undersized container.

Fill that remaining space with the fruit juice of your choice. And that’s it! You’ve just made your own Pedialyte/Whatever-ade, with no extra junk and for only a few pennies (including the cost of the juice — not counting the juice, it’s a small fraction of a penny.)

Of course you could always add a little more juice if they don’t like it so watered down. You could also use 1/2 Tablespoon of honey instead, or even a bit of granulated sugar. But it is important to use some form of sweetener, not only to cover the mild salty flavor, but also because a small amount of glucose is actually necessary to help with absorption. It’s all about the chemistry, baby.

Happy Rehydrating!

Electrolyte Drink

8 oz. water
1/16 tsp potassium chloride
1/16 tsp baking soda
2 TBS fruit juice, or more as desired

Now for one of my many dirty little secrets: I love the kind of cranberry sauce that comes in a can. Always have. It is more like cranberry jello than cranberry sauce… which is awesome. But the new me couldn’t accept all the chemicals that typically go into that sort of thing. Strictly speaking, you can easily make the canned version just by making this jello recipe with bottled cranberry juice. But I’ve come up with this half-breed jellied cranberry sauce that I really like, so I’m going to show you how to make that here. I guess we’ll find out if I’m the only one who likes it! First, we have to make some traditional cranberry sauce, so start with a ten-ounce package of frozen cranberries, and dump 1 full cup of sugar on top.

Add 1 cup of water, and stir it all around. Another option is to use one cup of orange juice instead, which is a great flavor if you’re going the traditional route, but it does change the texture quite a bit if you go on to make my mock-can preparation, so you have to decide in advance which one you’re going to make.

Boil for about 10 minutes, until the skins of the cranberries begin to pop.

As it cools, it will thicken and goo-ify. Bet you won’t find that term in the Joy of Cooking glossary. Now, you can be a curmudgeonly coward and stop here, serving up a perfectly traditional but classy cranberry sauce. Or you can be a wild, modern trend-setter, and read on for something completely different.

First, make your sauce smooth in a blender or food processor.

There are probably still going to be some small bits, which I suppose you could try to strain out if you really wanted. Then, pour your puree into a large bowl.

Sprinkle one packet of Knox gelatin over the entire surface.

Pour in one cup of boiling water…

…and stir quickly to make sure all the gelatin dissolves.

Pour it into whatever container you want it to set in. These round tupperware containers are my homage to the metal can, of which I have precisely zero available in my kitchen.

Let it set in the fridge for several hours, and voila: jellied cranberry sauce! Fair warning, you may have to thwack pretty hard on the bottom of the container to get it to come out like this. But you could also leave it in the container — this stuff is still a bit spreadable, kind of like a very thick jam, which is the way I like it.

And while you’re planning your Thanksgiving table, don’t forget these great recipes:

Thanksgiving Turkey
Deviled Eggs
Sweet Potato and Apple Bake
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Corn Casserole
Pumpkin Pie

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cranberry Sauce

10-ounce bag frozen cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water (or 1 cup orange juice)

Optional:
1 packet Knox gelatin
1 cup boiling water

For this salmon we will, not surprisingly, be using a lemon. No fancy prep here, just cut it into several slices.

Then do the same with half of an onion, long thin slices.

Toss your salmon filet onto a large piece of greased foil, laid over a baking sheet for sturdiness. I used Spectrum coconut oil cooking spray if you’re curious, but oil is oil, it all prevents sticking. Then haphazardly arrange the lemon and onion slices all over.

Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of dill and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper over the top, then fold up the sides of  the foil like you’re making a little boat.

If your foil piece is big enough, you might be able to wrap the whole thing up in one package. If not, just get a second piece of foil and cover the top, making sure to pinch tightly around the edges so it isn’t leaking steam. Place the pan in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish filet.

You have probably heard before that fish is done cooking when it flakes easily with a fork. The problem is, this also means it completely falls apart when you carve off servings to put on plates, and I didn’t think to take a picture of it until after I’d done that. So this salmon is sort of raggedy looking. But don’t let that fool you, it tastes fantastic. I mean, as fantastic as fish can taste in my book, anyway — but I find that the easier things are to cook, the better they taste to me, so by that measure it is truly fantastic after all!

Happy Eating!

Lemon Salmon

2 lb salmon filet
1 lemon
1/2 onion
2 tsp dill
1/2 tsp pepper

See, it’s all about balance. Glutino, for example, can do the work of making these incredibly good gluten-free pretzels, and I will do the work of opening the bag. Sounds fair to me. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

The nice thing is, this recipe (which was originally given to me by my mother-in-law back in the Pre-GF Era) always called for a crushed-pretzel crust, so it was really pretty simple to convert once I decided to revisit it. A wide, flat crushing tool will be the most effective, but you could also enlist a child with a mallet if you happen to have one of those tugging at your sleeve.

Ultimately you want to end up with 1 1/2 cups (measured in its crushed state.) Then add in 2/3 cup of Spectrum shortening, which is kind of like a whipped butter substitute if you’ve never worked with it before. You can also use melted dairy-free margarine if you would rather, but shortening is one of those old-school ingredients grandma used to bake with, and there’s a reason. It adds a fluffiness to baked goods that just can’t be beat.

Add in 2 Tablespoons of sugar, and mix everything thoroughly with a fork until the shortening is evenly spread through.

The result will be kind of like a crumbly cookie dough, which you will then press into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Wet your hand with water occasionally while you’re doing this, otherwise it will want to stick to your fingers instead of staying down in the dish where it belongs. Bake it for 10 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees, then take it out and allow it to cool completely while you’re working on the rest of the dessert.

Speaking of which, here is step one of the rest of the dessert. This is a 10-ounce bag of frozen strawberries that I have allowed to thaw, and then poured off the extra liquid into a measuring cup. You want to use frozen strawberries for this exact reason, even though you’re going to bring them back to room temperature, because the freezing breaks down the inner cellular structure so they do release all this lovely strawberry juice, and are softer in the final product.

Add water to the measuring cup until it reaches the 2 cup mark, then pour it all into a large bowl.

Sprinkle the contents of two gelatin packets over the surface of the liquid. You can buy plain gelatin packets in the baking aisle of any grocery store, and it is way cheaper and way healthier compared to buying that little box of chemicals that rhymes with yellow.

Now, measure out another 2 cups of some sort of strawberry-based fruit juice. Strictly speaking, it doesn’t even really have to contain any strawberry, something like a white grape juice would still be overwhelmed by the flavor of the strawberries and strawberry juice we’ve already put in the bowl. Heck, this “strawberry kiwi” juice I’m using is mostly apple juice itself. So use whatever you want.

Microwave the 2 cups of fruit juice until it’s lightly boiling, about 2-3 minutes, and then pour it into your bowl and stir immediately until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

In another bowl, whip up one refrigerated container of MimicCreme Healthy Top (also known as the most unbelievable dairy-free soy-free whipped cream substitute I’ve ever come across.) You also could have done this part earlier while you were waiting for your crust to bake, if you wanted to be more efficient about the whole thing.

Glob large spoonfuls all over the pretzel crust…

…and smear it out into a smooth layer with the back of a spoon, all the way to the edges of the dish. It’s important to really get it smeared across the edge of the glass, because this needs to form an airtight seal.

Spoon your strawberries on top (I know, they look pretty wilted and sad. But it’s okay because we’re going to cover them up.)

Then carefully pour your giant bowl of not-yet-solid gelatin over the top. You may need to squash a few of the larger strawberries down so they’re all submerged. If you left any gaps between the whipped topping and the glass, this is the point where your liquid will slowly seep down to the bottom, and everything else will float unevenly to the top. The end result will be just as tasty, but very jumbled and messy-looking. Look closely: if you see any large bubbles coming up after you pour on your gelatin, stick your finger in there and smear the whipped topping to close the gap. No bubbles = no problem.

Refrigerate the whole thing for a couple hours, until the gelatin is solid. This is a great dish to bring to a potluck dinner, by the way. It’s quick and easy to make, serves a lot of people, and no one will ever suspect that it’s one of those weird GFCF things you make your poor family eat.

Happy Eating!

(Not really) Jello Pie

1 1/2 cup crushed Glutino pretzels
2/3 cup Spectrum shortening
2 TBS sugar
10-oz package frozen strawberries
2 cups strawberry kiwi fruit juice
2 packets plain gelatin
1 container MimicCreme whip cream substitute

This isn’t exactly a complicated recipe, but you know what? Before I was dragged kicking and screaming into Susie Homemaker land, I had never made french toast before, and I have to assume there are others of you out there who never have yet either. And you should! Because it really is a great way to make an otherwise questionable loaf of gluten-free bread into something enjoyable by all. And if you actually start with a good loaf of GF bread, so much the better!

First, blend together 3 eggs and 1/2 cup of almond milk in a dish with relatively tallish sides.

Next, mix in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Some people like to add sugar as well, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Many milk substitutes are already sweetened anyway, and I honestly have never seen the need to turn breakfast into dessert. Eating sugar all the time is part of what’s turned the average Western diet into the atrocity that it is.

Some people actually like to keep the cinnamon separate and demurely sprinkle it on each bread slice after it has been dipped in the egg mixture. Me, I’m not a fan of additional steps, but it’s not like this whole thing takes many steps to begin with, so do whatever you feel up to.

Just a couple of minutes per side in a greased pan on the stove, and you’re good to go! The problem, of course, is that they’ll be able to eat them just about as fast as you can make them, so make sure you cordon off a few slices as sacrosanct for the chef.

Eat them standing up if you have to, but make sure you get some. And here’s another tip: if you forego the syrup and spread jelly on it instead, you can make a decadent gluten-free sandwich that can make it until midday in a lunchbox without fear of drying out or crumbling.

Happy Eating!

French Toast

3 eggs
1/2 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8-10 slices gluten-free bread

Wait, that doesn’t sound right — I mean for one thing, I don’t even get minimum wage.

Fortunately, I already had everything I needed to throw together some steak sandwiches, GFCF Lady style. You probably do, too. It really doesn’t require much. I started with one onion, cut into long strips and sauteed to extremes in a little oil. To get the onion fully soft and caramelized without burning, it helps to put a lid on the pan to trap in the moisture and cook it from all sides. I let the onion cook the whole time I was making everything else, so probably about 20 minutes in total.

Next, a steak marinated in Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!] I just laid it on a rack and tossed it under the broiler in my oven for about 6-8 minutes per side. (I’m morally opposed to using an outdoor grill when it’s still above 100 degrees after sunset, you know. But if you don’t live in a state adjacent to Hades itself, you might choose to see things differently. I’m also morally opposed to cleaning greasy pans, which is why I always line mine with foil.)

Meanwhile, I whipped up a tasty little sandwich spread by combining 2 Tablespoons of gluten-free mayonnaise (try Hellman’s if you’re looking for a national brand) and 2 teaspoons of worcestershire. The GFCF Husband likes to call this “flavornaise,” and I like to ignore him.

Thin slices of steak, thin slices of onion, thin slices of tomato, all on a sandwich-spreaded gluten-free bun. Oh my god y’all, it was so good.

But here’s a tip: do not, I repeat, do not put this on a round hamburger bun like I did. Use GF hot dog buns instead. There’s a reason this kind of sandwich typically gets put on a long roll, and for once the children weren’t the only ones making humongous messes on their plates. We gave up and got out forks within the first 3 bites. But man, I totally didn’t care.

Happy Eating!

Steak Sandwiches

1 onion
1-2 lb. steak
1 tomato
2 Tbs Hellman’s mayonnaise
2 tsp Lea & Perrins worcestershire
2-4 Kinnikinnick hot dog buns

Indeed, when shellfish are the main course, they can be quite lovely, as I will demonstrate today. First, we have to prepare three bowls. In bowl number one, we will start with 1/3 cup of potato starch (or tapioca starch, or cornstarch, or arrowroot starch… yeah, it totally doesn’t matter.) Then with a fork, blend in 1 teaspoon of salt…

…and 3/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

Bowl number two should contain 3 egg whites. To separate an egg white from the yolk, just crack the shell over the bowl, and carefully pass the yolk back and forth between the two halves a few times. The white will slip right off and fall into your bowl. Toss the yolks in the trash with the shells, unless you have some other random thing you want to do with them. But please don’t tell me what it is; this is a family blog.

Beat the egg whites aggressively with a fork for a minute or two, until it gets really foamy.

If you did this long enough, you’d end up with a meringue. But it would take a long time, your arm would get sore, and you’d have no lemon pie to put it on anyway. So this right here is foamy enough for our needs.

And finally, in bowl number three we will put about a cup of flaked coconut. I like this kind from Bob’s Red Mill, because it contains no preservatives, added sugars, or anything else gunky, just plain coconut. But you can get the wet kind from the baking aisle too, if you want.

Finally, we’re ready to start cooking! Don’t worry, it goes fast from here on out. The amounts we put in the bowls will cover about 3/4 lb of shrimp, though of course you could do more or less to suit your family’s needs. I bought my shrimp pre-shelled and deveined, because I have neither the dexterity nor the time for such a ridiculous task. Grab one by the tail…

Flop it around in the starch mixture…

Dip it in the frothy egg whites…

And stick a bunch of coconut to it. Make sure you get your hands all messy too, that’s important.

Repeat the tar-and-feathering process, placing each shrimp on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper as you go. Technically foil will work too, but you have to oil it pretty thoroughly to prevent the little guys from sticking. Nothing ever sticks to parchment paper. Then, bake them in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes, turning them over about halfway through.

Look how golden and crunchy they are, with absolutely no frying necessary! It’s kind of this weird tradition that you’re supposed to eat coconut shrimp with orange marmalade. I really don’t know where that idea came from, but the GFCF Husband considered it important, so I tried to oblige as best I could. I used Cascadian Farms apricot jelly (which I have on hand because I also use it in this fantastic recipe,) and mixed in a few drops of lemon juice for more of a citrus-y tang. It worked well enough I guess, since their plates were almost empty before I even got to sit down.

Happy Eating!

Coconut Shrimp

1/3 cup potato starch
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 egg whites
1 cup shredded coconut
3/4 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

Optional:
1/4 cup Cascadian Farm apricot jelly
1/4 tsp lemon juice