.

An important part of this dish is the texture: it should be smooth, almost like a gravy. So to that end, we’re going to do something a little special and actually blend this chopped onion into a fine pulp. Onions contain a fair amount of water, so you ought to be able to do this in a regular blender if you want.

.

Next, pour the onion puree into a large, deep pan and start sauteeing it gently. You can add a little oil if you want, but you may find it’s not necessary since we’ve gone and released all the liquid from the onion already. Incidentally, this trick will work for a wide variety of dishes if your kids don’t like onions.

.

Add in one Tablespoon of minced ginger…

.

1/4 teaspoon of cumin…

.

and 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon.

.

While your onion paste is cooking, chop up 2 medium tomatoes, then dump the whole cutting board’s worth into the pan, seeds and all.

.

Turn the heat up a bit and stir frequently for 10-15 minutes. The goal is for the tomatoes to disintegrate completely. Also toss in 1 teaspoon of McCormick garam masala when you get a second. Don’t be thrown off by the foreign name; it’s a common spice blend and you’ll easily find it in your grocery store. But like all blends, cheapo-brands may try to cut it with plain flour, so be careful. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

.

Stirring, stirring, stirring. This is a good cooking task to let a kid help out with, because it’s so shallow they’ll have a really hard time sloshing any over the side of the pan.

.

Okay, we got the “Indian” part, now for the “Kidney Bean” part. You can use two cans of drained and rinsed beans, or go all out and cook your own (starting with 2 cups of dry beans.) If you use canned, double-check that they contain nothing but beans, water, and salt. Most brands are going to be plain like this, but every once in awhile you’ll find one that includes “natural flavors,” or unidentified seasonings… all sorts of potentially-glutenous crap. Why? Beats me. Just sell us beans, for Pete’s sake.

.

Finally, add in roughly 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Canned beans will already have a certain amount of salt added, so go with your tastebuds on this one. It’s a very rough estimate.

You can serve this as a main dish with rice as is traditional, or make it a fantastic side. It’s especially good as a pot luck dish, if you ever find yourself attending that sort of thing.

.

Happy Eating!

.

Indian Kidney Beans (Rajma)

1 onion
1 Tbs minced ginger
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp McCormick garam masala
2 tomatoes
2 cans (about 4 cups) cooked kidney beans
1/2 tsp salt

.

We start with 3 cups of water in a small pot.

.

Next, add 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. Please note this is not quite the same as balsamic vinegar, though you could probably use the latter if you prefer. Both are made with grapes, but balsamic vinegar is made immediately with fresh grapes, while red wine vinegar calls for the grapes to be fermented into wine first, and only then turned into vinegar. The flavor of both varies wildly across brands, so the question of which type you use is probably less important than choosing a quality brand. As always, make sure it is a pure vinegar, and does not contain the word “malt” anywhere on it, as this will indicate the presence of gluten.

.

Add 1/4 cup of honey…

.

1/4 teaspoon of black pepper…

.

…and 1 teaspoon of salt.

.

Now add 1/4 teaspoon each of minced garlic and ginger. A real chef would prep their own, of course. My goodness I’m lazy.

.

Bring the mixture to a boil, and allow it to simmer for 15-20 minutes, until it’s been reduced to about 1/2 cup. (That’s about one-seventh of what it started out as, if you’re trying to eyeball it.)

.

Pour the remaining liquid into a small jar or bottle, and you’re set for any soy sauce recipes that might come your way! This mixture will keep in the fridge almost indefinitely, especially if you close the lid while the sauce is still hot and let the cooling air form a vacuum, just like in real canning. You can strain the garlic and ginger solids back out if you really want to, but I don’t bother. Makes it more rustic and authentic, I think.

.

Happy Eating!

.

Soy Sauce Substitute

3 cups water
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp minced garlic

.

Plus, there’s so much less room for error this way. I mean come on, the crust is only five ingredients! With other recipes you might have to blend five flours before you even start with the other ingredients. But here, all we need is 1 1/2 cups of Honeyville almond flour. This crust recipe comes from The Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook, by the way, which is about as accurate a book title as you’re ever going to find.

.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and blend it together evenly with a fork.

.

Then pour in 1/4 cup grapeseed oil (or whatever cooking/baking oil you prefer,) and 2 Tablespoons of agave nectar, and mix thoroughly. You could also substitute honey for the agave nectar if you like. There is a taste difference, but it’s hard to notice over the abundant pumpkin flavor.

.

Mix everything thoroughly, and there’s your pie crust, in crumbly form! Now you just have to press it in place, kind of like you would with a homemade graham cracker crust, if graham crackers weren’t poison in this new universe you’re living in.

.

For the sides of the pie pan, I find it helpful to squeeze a small handful tightly in my palm in order to get a little cohesion going before I try to get it to hold a vertical shape. At any rate, just keep molding it around like playdough until it’s all where it’s supposed to be. (Or like Moon Dough, since playdough contains gluten.)

.

In theory you’re supposed to pre-bake this basic crust recipe for 7-10 minutes at 350 degrees, but a pumpkin pie has to cook so long already that I find it isn’t necessary here, and may even result in overcooking your crust. So pre-bake at your own risk. At any rate, it’s time to start making the filling. Start with three eggs in a large bowl.

.

Add one 15-ounce can of pumpkin, being sure to chose one that’s plain and not a “pumpkin pie mix” or anything of that nature.

.

Mix in 3/4 cup of sugar…

.

1 teaspoon of ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon…

.

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and just a pinch of ground cloves. Please be very careful if you’re going to attempt to use a pre-blended spice mix, because they will often have flour mixed in to prevent clumping.

.

Now pour in 1 1/3 cups of coconut milk. I’m using this random can I got at the Asian market, but Thai Kitchen is a good national brand. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

.

Pour the filling into the waiting pie crust. You’ll want to leave the standard half-inch ledge of crust around the top, which may mean you end up with a little extra in the bowl.

.

When that happens, I just whip out a mini muffin tin and fill a handful of paper cups with the remaining pie filling. The pie is already going to be cooking, so you can just slide it right underneath in the oven. Think of these little crustless pumpkin pie tarts as your snacking reward for doing all this baking.

.

Bake your pie at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, until the middle is just set. Let it cool for another 15-20 minutes, and you’re ready to triumphantly serve your GFCF masterpiece to the whole family. Along with, of course, your turkey with gravy, mashed potatoes, corn casserole, green bean casserole, and sweet potatoes. Oh, and don’t forget your deviled eggs and spiced walnut appetizers, either. Gosh, that all sounds so good, can I come over to your house?

.

Happy Thanksgiving!

.

GFCF Pumpkin Pie

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
2 TBS agave nectar (or honey)

3 eggs
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
pinch ground cloves
1 1/3 cups coconut milk

.

A lot of GFCF families also have to avoid soy, and this Coconut Aminos is a fantastic substitute to use if that applies to you. It tastes just like soy sauce, and nothing like coconut. It’s a magical little nut, I’m telling you. Of course if you do use real soy sauce, you’ll still need to choose carefully — La Choy is one gluten-free option. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

.

So put 1/4 cup of either soy or not-soy sauce in your bowl, then add 3 Tablespoons of dry cooking sherry. It should be 100% wine, and contain no malt or grain alcohol.

.

Add 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar…

.

and 1 Tablespoon of honey. Because two kinds of sweetness are better than one!

.

Now add 1 Tablespoon of minced ginger, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon of Five Spice seasoning. Like any spice blend, you’ll want to double-check that your brand is not mixed with flour to prevent caking.

.

Next, chop up two green onions. A pair of kitchen shears will take care of that even faster than a knife.

.

Now throw the whole sauce plus the green onions into a ziplock bag with your two pork tenderloins, and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. If it only gets a few hours that’s not the end of the world either.

.

When you’re ready to cook, line a pan with foil and place your tenderloins on a raised rack. But don’t throw out that little bag of marinade! First, scoop out one Tablespoon of the marinade, and set the rest aside for a second.

.

Add 3 Tablespoons of honey, and brush the mixture over the tops of your tenderloins. This will lead to a fantastic carmelized glaze on the surface of the meat that will have you falling out of your seat in flavor ecstasy.

.

Stick a fork into the marinade bag and scoop out the ginger, garlic, and green onion solids, spreading them evenly over the meat. You couldn’t do this a second ago because then your honey brush would have just wiped them all off again, you see?

.

Pour enough water in the bottom of the pan so that it’s just beginning to creep up the sides, but not so much that it’s touching the bottoms of the tenderloins. Then carefully place the pan in a 450 degree oven, and cook for 30 minutes.

.

Meanwhile, pour the remaining marinade into a bowl, and mix in another 1/3 cup of honey. This ratio of honey-to-marinade is much lower than that first little bit of glaze we made, so the final sauce will have a lot more of those wonderful savory flavors.

.

Now this step is important: you must sterilize your sauce, since it just spent a very long time hanging out with raw meat. You can either bring it to a boil in a small pot on the stove, or microwave it for a couple minutes, either way. I know which way leaves me with fewer dishes to wash.

.

Drizzle across your cooked tenderloin slices, and clear the area of any loose toys or furniture. You wouldn’t want to injure something when you fall out of your chair like I promised.

.

Happy Eating!

.

Chinese Barbecue (Char Siu)

2 lbs pork tenderloins
1/4 cup Coconut Aminos (or La Choy soy sauce)
3 Tbs sherry
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs + 3 Tbs + 1/3 cup honey
1 Tbs minced ginger
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
2 green onions

.

Okay, maybe that’s an obvious statement. But sometimes it’s hard to remember a world where food ingredients weren’t mysterious, where “seasoning” was something the average at-home cook was responsible for. Making your own breakfast sausage does not require a factory, it just requires a pound of ground pork and a spice drawer.

The spices we’re going to use are sage, savory, nutmeg, and ginger. There should also be salt and pepper in this picture, but I didn’t have space to fit them in. In fact, after deciding I’d do them in a separate shot, I then completely forgot to photograph them at all. Come back to me in August when school’s back in session, and I’ll be less of a mental wreck, I assure you.

.

So that’s 1/2 teaspoon of sage, 1/4 teaspoon of savory, 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon of ginger. Nevermind that my cute little measuring spoon calls it a “dash,” I’ve measured and confirmed that the spoons in that set are 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64 teaspoon respectively. (They’re useful for measuring tiny doses of powdered medications as well, incidentally.)

.

We’re also going to add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of grapeseed oil to help everything bind together. As always, you could substitute canola, olive, whatever kind of oil you have on hand.

.

Then add 3/4 teaspoon of 100% real maple syrup. Please, please don’t use one of those bottles that are nothing but high fructose corn syrup and “maple flavoring.” They are not only terrible for you, but many have gluten as well. Real maple syrup has a completely different taste, and that’s what we’re trying to add to our sausage here, not sugar.

.

Toss in 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, then squish and knead everything around until the seasonings are all evenly distributed.

.

I form them into little link shapes, because I already make miniature hamburger patties for the kids out of ground beef, and it might blow their minds to have two foods that look the same but taste different. So sausage gets one shape, beef gets another.

.

As each side browns, roll them forward a bit to get the next side. (Or just flip your patties, if your kids aren’t as neurotic as mine.)

.

In the proper order of things, these should be served with a full breakfast, which would allow you to sneak maple syrup onto the sausage under the auspices of syruping your waffle. But if you’re not actually having a waffle, don’t be ashamed to just put extra maple syrup right on the sausages themselves. It’s so dang good.

.

Happy Eating!

.

Maple Sage Breakfast Sausage

1 lb. ground pork
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 tsp savory
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 Tbs grapeseed oil
3/4 tsp 100% maple syrup

But can I really improve on these delectable GFCF chicken nuggets I showed you how to make way back when? Oh, indeed. You may recall that at the time, I said, “I’d probably bread everything in nothing but almond meal, if the stuff weren’t so darn expensive.” Well it turns out, there was a less expensive source sitting right under my nose. Much less expensive, in fact!

.

Honeyville Grain sells blanched almond flour at half the price of Bob’s Red Mill. (The price drops even more if you buy it in 25 lb. bags, but I realize most of you aren’t going to be able to go through it that quickly — though it does keep for a very long time in the refrigerator…) I’ve been experimenting with this stuff like a madwoman, and I have to say, I’m an almond flour convert at this point. The texture is just miles better than anything else out there in my opinion, and with the obstacle of cost removed (or at least reduced to the equivalent of every other GF flour out there,) there’s no reason not to use it in practically everything.

.

I’ll try to post some recipes for baked items involving almond flour in the near future, but for now, let’s get back to these amazing chicken tenders, shall we? I was exaggerating slightly when I said “nothing but” almond flour, there are a few seasonings that help this meal reach its full potential. Specifically, that’s 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, garlic powder, and ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon of paprika.

.

Blend all that into 1 cup of almond flour. (That’s another important distinction between the Honeyville product versus Bob’s Red Mill, by the way: Bob’s Red Mill officially makes almond meal, which is a coarser texture, and doesn’t work as well for baking. It would still work fine here, except for the part where it’s twice as expensive.)

.

I’m using 2 pounds of chicken tenders straight out of the package, but you could certainly cut up your own chicken bits if you’d prefer. As always, make sure you get chicken meat that isn’t injected with broth, as that may contain gluten. “Retained water” = good, “up to 3% solution” = bad. There’s really no need to do an egg wash in this recipe, especially since the almond flour is already packed with protein. I just use about a Tablespoon of high-quality olive oil.

.

Roll your oiled chicken in the breading, and lay them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

.

I sprinkle any leftover bits on top for a little extra crunch. The reason you can get away with doing these in the oven instead of frying them in oil is because the almond grains are too dense to get soggy in the oven like other GF breadings. They come out just as crunchy, with less effort.

.

30 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees, and just look at that golden deliciousness! My whole family prefers the taste, plus it’s more nutritious, costs the same as anything else a gluten-free cook would use, and involves less work and cleanup than frying. Time to light the fireworks!

.

Happy Eating!

.

Oven-Baked Chicken Tenders

2 lb. chicken tenders
1 Tbs olive oil
1 cup Honeyville almond flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika

Both!

.

First, the runny peanut butter kind. I promise I won’t think less of you if this is the kind you prefer. Well, I promise I’ll try. Start with 1/4 cup of peanut butter. There are a very small number of peanut butters that do contain gluten, believe it or not. Ideally you should just choose one where you can recognize (and pronounce) every ingredient listed, but if you don’t have a fancy organic one available to you, Jif is one national brand that’s GF. [As always, the products I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without warning. Always check your labels!]

.

Mix in 1/2 cup of coconut milk. If you’re looking for something to do with the rest of the can, you could make Tandoori Chicken, or a partial batch of Mango Rice.

.

Whisk them together until the peanut butter is totally blended. Then add 2 Tablespoons of Thai Kitchen fish sauce, and 3 Tablespoons of rice vinegar. (Do be sure that you’re using real rice vinegar and not some fake “flavored” vinegar, because it might be fermented from barley – malt is the key word you want to always avoid.)

.

Mix in 2 teaspoons of minced ginger, and 1 teaspoon (2 cloves) of minced garlic.

.

Finally, add in 4 Tablespoons of brown sugar. You would think this makes it sweet enough for me… but it doesn’t.

.

You can keep this in the refrigerator for a good week if you store it in a nice airtight container. But enough of this nonsense! On to the better — er, I mean other version of peanut sauce.

.

Alright, I confess. I don’t bother to replicate this elusive sauce from scratch, I cheat and use a bottled base. Actually, “I don’t bother” is misleading, because I have tried many times and failed. I just can’t get that awesome flavor of restaurant-style peanut sauce on my own. If you can’t find this Premier Japan sauce at your local health food store, it is available online as well.

.

Start with 1 cup of the hoisin sauce, and mix in 1 Tablespoon of creamy peanut butter.

.

Also add in 2-3 teaspoons of water to thin it out just a bit. And that’s it!

.

Of course it helps if you have some spring rolls on hand to dip into your batch of delicious peanut sauce. If you don’t know how to make spring rolls… stay tuned.

.

Happy Eating!

.

Peanut Sauce #1

1/4 cup GF peanut butter
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 Tbs Thai Kitchen fish sauce
3 Tbs rice vinegar
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
4 Tbs brown sugar

Peanut Sauce #2

1 cup Premier Japan hoisin sauce
1 Tbs GF peanut butter
2-3 tsp water

Fast forward to the beginning of our GFCF adventure, and I learned some very important equivalencies: gram flour = chickpea flour = garbanzo bean flour = the main ingredient in Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend. All of a sudden, this whole book of recipes was useful again!

Confession time: that whole introduction was a bit disingenuous, because this recipe did not in fact come from the Indian cookbook in question. But it is an Indian recipe, so I stand by the moral of my story. I’m an “ends justify the means” kind of gal.

Anyway, here we have a can of coconut milk, which is in general an excellent milk substitute. Pour one cup of the liquid into a bowl, which should be about half the can. (Save the other half for later in the week, when you are compelled to make this recipe again because it was just so dang good.) Make sure you stir the contents of the can thoroughly before pouring, because coconut milk has a tendency to separate.

Then add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of McCormick curry powder. Because curry is a spice blend rather than an herb in and of itself (there is no curry plant,) you must be extra careful about buying a brand without gluten. Manufacturers will often add flour to spice blends to help keep things from clumping. Not all McCormick spice blends are safe, but the company has committed to always clearly labeling the presence of gluten on their spice jars. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change ingredients without warning. Always check your labels!]

Then add 2 teaspoons of paprika, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

3 Tablespoons of lemon juice…

1 1/2 Tablespoons of minced ginger (I’d show you how to mince it, but I get mine out of a jar. Life’s too short, you know?)

And 2 cloves of minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon of the jarred kind.)

Now dice up a medium onion, and get out 6-8 boneless chicken thighs, or a couple pounds of whatever kind of boneless chicken parts you prefer. Always make sure your chicken is all-natural and not injected with broth.

Throw the chicken, sauce, and onions all together in a giant Ziplock bag, and punch it around until everything’s mixed.

Seal it up and let it marinate in the refrigerator for several hours, or however much time you can spare.

Later, when you’re gearing up to actually cook the meal, peel three medium potatoes and chop them into big chunks.

Pull the chicken pieces out of the marinade bag and set them aside on a plate. Don’t worry if some of the onions stick to the chicken, it’s all going to back together in a minute. Add an extra 1/2 teaspoon of salt into the bag, and toss in the potatoes so we can get a quick coating on them.

Shake it (like a Polaroid picture, even,) then dump the whole bag into the bottom of your dutch oven. (You don’t have a dutch oven yet? For heaven’s sake, why not?) Make sure to squeeze out all the extra sauce too, like the world’s largest ketchup packet.

Lay your chicken pieces on top of the potatoes, and give the top a good sprinkling of paprika. Put on the lid, and place the whole thing in a 450-degree oven for one hour.

Look how beautiful that is! And those potatoes are perfect, I’m telling you right now. You will practically be able to hear the sitar music right there in your kitchen.

Happy Eating!

Tandoori Chicken with Potatoes

1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 TBS McCormick curry powder
2 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp salt
3 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS minced ginger
2 cloves minced garlic

1 onion
6-8 boneless chicken thighs
3 medium potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
additional paprika for garnish

It’s a pretty standard culinary concept in Asia to stuff a ball of dough with various fillings and steam the whole thing into a delicious bun. There are over a dozen variations of this, and even though mine aren’t really all that similar to the traditional Vietnamese version that banh bao officially refers to, that’s what I call them because that’s the first name I learned for them.

First the dough, and then the filling. So we start with 3/4 cup sugar in a bowl, and add 2 tsp of salt.

Add 2 Tablespoons of baking powder, and one cup of your milk substitute of choice. Make sure your baking powder is gluten-free. I use a generic brand, but Clabber Girl is one safe national brand. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change formulas without notice. Always check your labels!]

Also add in 2 teaspoons of xanthan gum, and mix well to dissolve the sugar.

Now, we’re going to add in a total of 4 cups of brown rice flour, but it has to be added slowly.

Start with two cups, and mix well until it looks like the above. Then add in cup number three and get ready to get messy.

Fold and squoosh everything through your fingers again and again until it’s nice and mixed.

You’ll probably want to have the fourth cup of flour already measured out and waiting, so you don’t have to wash your hands an extra time. After you add the fourth cup it should start to be thick enough that you can’t really squoosh it anymore, you’ll have to start doing more proper kneading. Just fold the far edge towards you…

And mash it down again. Repeat until there’s no more loose flour in the bowl.

It’s still not mixed well enough yet, but at this point I lift the cohesive dough unit out and move it to a cutting board on the kitchen table. I do this because it’s lower than my kitchen counter, and I can get much better leverage for pushing down as I knead.

Just keep folding and mashing, folding and mashing, for a good five minutes at least.

And eventually you will end up with a smooth, even ball of dough. Now, set it aside in a bowl covered with a dishtowel while you mix the filling. I don’t actually know why it needs to be covered with a dishtowel, but my original recipe said to do it, so I do it.

Alright, we’re ready for the filling. That’s a head of baby bok choy up there, which is kind of like an Asian spinach with a very distinct flavor. Chop the leaves off, and throw the stalk away.

The leaves are very firm, so you can chop it up pretty easily without all the bits flying everywhere.

Once you have the baby bok choy in little confetti pieces, add in 2 chopped green onions, and 1 Tablespoon of grated ginger.

Then add 1 teaspoon of salt, and a pinch of white pepper. It’s probably not something you’ll use very often, but I’ve tried making it with black pepper and with no pepper, and the taste just isn’t as good. Use the white pepper.

We’re almost there. Add 2 Tablespoons of water…

1 Tablespoon of cooking sherry (which should naturally be GFCF since it’s made of grapes, but make sure you don’t accidentally pick up something weird like sherry-flavored grain alcohol…)

And 2 teaspoons of sesame oil.

Okay! Now you can mix in one pound of ground pork, and your filling is ready to go.

This being a fancy recipe and all, it does require a bit of special equipment. You can get a bamboo steamer at any Asian market, and it comes as a set of large stackable trays that you can combine to be as tall as you want. The other thing you’ll need to prep is these little squares of parchment paper. Traditionally you would use lettuce leaves to keep the dough from sticking to the tray, but then you just end up with a bunch of wilted lettuce. I mean, if you like super-wilted greens, go for it, but I would just be throwing them away, so I use somehing that’s cheaper and easier to clean up.

Pull off a piece of the dough and roll it into a ball about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter.

Then roll it out flat on a cutting board sprinkled liberally with more brown rice flour to keep it from sticking. Remember to get yourself a new rolling pin that you’ve never rolled in gluten flours before, or you’ll risk significant cross-contamination issues. If you look at the scale of my hand, you’ll realize this is a teeny tiny rolling pin that’s only maybe 6-8 inches long. Fits right in my utensil drawer with all the other junk.

Now spoon about a tablespoon of meat into the middle of your circle of dough…

And fold all the edges up around it.

Pinch everything together so it holds, and place it on top of a parchment square in your bamboo tray.

Repeat about 20 times. It’s important that the parchment be in small pieces like this and not just one large cover, because the steam has to be able to come up in between the spaces and cook the buns.

Somehow I always end up with more meat than dough, so I roll up any leftovers into little meatballs and toss them in the oven for about half an hour. They make for a great lunch the next day.

Fill a large pan with water, and balance your bamboo steamer on top. Once the steam really gets going, put the lid on and let it cook for about 20-25 minutes.

And they’re done! These typically should be dipped in some kind of sauce, but what kind is entirely up to you. We like a sweet chili sauce that they sell in the Asian section of our grocery store, but you could also do a sweet-n-sour sauce, straight soy sauce (gluten-free, of course,) or even a barbecue sauce.

Happy Eating!

Banh Bao

3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 TBS baking powder
1 cup milk substitute
4 cups brown rice flour

1 lb. ground pork
1 head baby bok choy
2 green onions
1 TBS grated ginger
1 tsp salt
pinch white pepper
2 TBS water
1 TBS sherry
2 tsp sesame oil

First, some spices: 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, 1/8 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, and 1 teaspoon of Five Spice. If you’ve never heard of Five Spice, it’s a Chinese blend of cinnamon, anise, ginger, fennel and pepper. There are some traditional regional variations, but it should always include the key flavors of cinnamon and anise. If you’re lucky you might be able to find it at your grocery store, but if not any Asian market should have it. It’s so good, there are areas of Hawaii where it’s just served on the table right alongside the salt and pepper.

Chop up two chicken breasts (make sure they’re not injected with suspect “broth” in the packaging) and toss them with the spices until everything is evenly coated.

Set the chicken aside for a moment while you get out half a cup of dried cranberries. Like chicken breasts, dried fruit is another tricky ingredient that they can sneak gluten into–make sure yours aren’t dusted with flour to prevent sticking. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change recipes without warning. Always check your labels!] We don’t really want them to be totally dried in this dish though, so fill the little cup with water and let them soak while you cook the rest of the meal.

While the cranberries soak, you can start sauteeing the chicken pieces in some olive oil.

Once they’re opaque (but not necessarily cooked through all the way,) add in about 8 oz. of mushrooms. Fresh is better, of course, but when you’re desperate, canned works too. As it turns out, I’m often desperate because I’m really no good at planning ahead.

Then, start to boil your pasta. This is 8 oz. of Tinkyada brown rice pasta, but I forget what cute name the Italians gave to this shape. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t count as penne, even though that’s what the package said, because penne is supposed to be ridged lengthwise and cut diagonally at the ends. But anyway, pretty much anything other than spaghetti will work–macaroni, fusilli, those little twistie shapes that I also can’t remember the name of…

Now! While your pasta is boiling, and your chicken and mushrooms are continuing to sautee, and your cranberries are still soaking over on the counter, it’s time to toast some almonds. Put half a cup of slivered almonds in a bowl, and microwave it for one minute at a time, stirring them around a bit in between. It should be around 2-3 minutes, but you’ll know when they’re done because they will start to smell good, and when you bite into one it will crunch instead of squeak.

This was the part of the recipe I was terrified to try to emulate. Used to be, we’d be pouring in 2 cups of half-and-half at this point. Is it any wonder we loved the dish? How could a milk substitute ever hope to compare? But I’m over the grieving process. I am completely and totally happy using 2 cups of almond milk instead. Mostly.

Fortunately this part didn’t have to change: 1/4 cup of Grey Poupon dijon mustard.

And 2 Tablespoons of honey.

Of course plain almond milk is just not robust enough to make a cream sauce by itself, so add in 1 Tablespoon of potato starch to thicken it up (and like corn starch, you want to dissolve it in a minimal amount of water before pouring it into your pan, otherwise you’ll never get the lumps to dissolve properly.)

Drain your cranberries, and add them to the pan while the sauce thickens.

Only add the pasta once the sauce is the right consistency, or it will continue to cook in the sauce and get mushy.

Toss in the nuts just before serving so they stay crunchy. And there you have it! I will admit, it’s much less visually-appealing than it used to be. Rice pasta just has a kind of grayish tint to it that no amount of sauce seems to be able to cover. But the kids agree that the taste is pretty close to the original, so I put it in the win column.

Happy Eating!

Creamy Penne Pasta

1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. Five Spice
2 organic chicken breasts
8 oz. rice pasta
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
2 cups almond milk
1/4 cup Grey Poupon
2 TBS honey