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The Food Allergy Queen is teaching in LA!
My little kitchen has been a beehive of activity for the past few weeks as I've just confirmed that I will be teaching about cooking with food allergies in two places in the next few weeks! It's very exciting.
First I will be doing a free one-hour demo at Surfas Gourmet Food & Restaurant Supply on Saturday, June 13 at noon. Go to the link and click on "Calendar" to see the schedule. I'll give a quick overview of cooking techniques to avoid the top 8 food allergens and then make gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free chocolate chip cookies.
On Saturday, July 25 from 2 p.m. - 5 p.m., I will be teaching a recreational class at the New School of Cooking, in Culver City. The New School is fun because you don't just sit and listen to the teacher, you actually get to cook the dishes in teams like Iron Chef and then everyone shares their dishes at the end! The recipes for this class also avoid the top 8 US food allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish and peanuts). The menu will include Breakfast Corn Muffins, Turkey "Katsu" Curry, Gnocchi with Pesto, Fake Pho and Pizza. The one-time class is $85, see the full class description here on page 11. I always take these classes with a friend, it's tons of fun for us as well as informative.
Whew! So I'm running around like a mad thing polishing up recipes that have been half-baked for a little while, and getting them ready to bring them out into the sunlight so that you can taste them instead of just looking at pictures. And then make them at home!
If you are (or interested friends and family) are in the Los Angeles area during either of these days, please come on out! I'd love to meet you!
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The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Battle, Round 1.5
As much as I love exotic and complex foods and flavors, sometimes I crave just the simple basics. Like really good bread with sweet butter. Or a cold refreshing glass of lemonade. Both of which are now off-limits to the Food Allergy Queen. Argh. Tonight I was craving a warm, freshly-baked chocolate chip cookie after watching a movie where two people were sitting on a rooftop eating cookies and milk... and it just made me feel a little deprived being allergic to both. But not for long....
I've tried making chocolate chip cookies before using my go-to baking book, Gluten-Free Kitchen. They tasted good, but they looked so pathetic that I couldn't bring myself to shoot a picture of them. I only gave that effort a .5.
Tonight I adapted a recipe from Gluten-free Baking by Rebecca Reilly, who is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. Not surprisingly, her recipe worked better technically. The shape held up, but the flavor was a little bland, but considering the cookies were gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free, they were good. I personally think they were a little thin on the chocolate chips, which is an arrestable crime in some countries. But still, it was preeettttyyy dang satisfying to cram them into my mouth as soon as they came out of the oven.
The Battle for the Ultimate Chocolate Chip recipe will continue. Many cookies enter, but "there can be only one"...chocolate chip cookie. I'll post the winning recipe when I get there. Stay tuned!
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Babycakes NYC cupcakes
I was totally excited to get my new Babycakes NYC bakery cookbook this week. If you are not familiar with Babycakes, they were one of the big bakery names bragged about during the bizarre Cupcake Craze of 2006 (you know, there were videos, arguments about the merits of red velvet and long long lines on both coasts). Here's the kicker -- Babycakes bakery goods are (mostly) gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free. So, basically, vegan cupcakes went mainstream and hit it big! Whoo hoo!
A few caveats about the cookbook before I get to the actual results. Although the cover says gluten-free, I'm sad to report that not all of the recipes are actually gluten-free. Some of them use spelt flour, which is an heirloom wheat tolerated by some who are intolerant to gluten. For us allergic people, it's no good, spelt has gluten. Bummer. That means more workarounds for me. I'm sure Erin McKenna, the author/baker tried hard to make them all gluten-free, but it IS a difficult job replacing so many ingredients after all, and she does have higher standards than most cookbook authors I've run across. That being said, the pictures are gorgeous and everything looks DELISH so I was excited to dive in. Props to Erin anyhow.
So I made the Vanilla Cupcakes that started it all. Honestly, it was harder assembling the ingredients than actually making the recipe. Some items were completely unfamiliar to an old dog like me -- coconut flour and dry soy milk powder for example. Bob's Red Mill (my hero) makes the first, I'm going to investigate the second, but not too hard since I can't use it anyway. I used almond milk as a replacement for the soy milk and left out the lemon peel since I'm allergic to citrus, otherwise left everything else intact. Anyhow, the cupcakes themselves were WONDERFUL. Moist, springy and light with a natural balance of vanilla flavor -- meaning, they didn't taste like they were supposed to emulate something they weren't. Not too sweet. Really lovely texture. I admit user error and screwed up by accidentally putting in too much baking soda (it was supposed to be the baking powder first!) and most likely that was the reason that the bubbles in the cupcake were so big!
The ingredients were expensive, but she notes that in the opening section. Specialty flours are about $5 for 24 oz., and the coconut oil ranged from $6-$8 per pint or so. Agave is not cheap either. She doesn't note a few details, like whether to use light agave or dark, so I went with the middle ground on those. Also, coconut oil varies widely on the consistency (one was 100% liquid, one was almost solid, and one was a pleasant slurry), so again I took the middle ground to be safe.
The vanilla frosting I was not impressed with. Because I could not use the soy milk powder and had to substitute with coconut milk powder, the texture ended up more like royal icing and the flavor was a little too coconut-y to taste truly like vanilla. However, they worked together pretty well, but the frosting was nice but not as outstanding as the cupcake itself. I took these to work today (I work for a cooking store), and the foodie people I work with were impressed with the taste and texture of cupcakes with all those replacements. One woman whose child has a gluten allergy noted that they were perfect for an adult but would not be sweet enough for her son and would pump up the agave in her version.
Food allergy note: I just discovered from my friend Allergic Girl that coconut is considered a tree nut by the FDA. So technically, I can't call these nut-free. Who knew? :P
On a surreal note, a customer (hi Laura!) walked up to me today at work and said, "excuse, me, can you tell me about the different gluten-free flours you have that I can use in baking?" omg. My mouth just dropped open, mentally and physically, I think! My reply, "Would you believe that I just made gluten-free, dairy-free cupcakes and have the cookbook in the kitchen?" Crazy convergence in the universe today!
Anyhow, I'm posting pictures of the cupcakes. Verdict: thumbs way up on the cupcakes, neutral thumb on the frosting. More to come as I make other recipes. Sweet days to come!
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Shepherd's Pie
I made Shepherd's Pie one evening when it was chilly. This is what we would call "rib-sticking"....hearty and comforting, it makes sense that's it's a staple in cold British households! This is easy to make, and I adjusted it to be FAQ friendly. Great if you have leftover meat or mashed potatoes around. I served it with a salad to balance out the heaviness.
Shepherd's Pie
From Cookie | October 2007 by Victoria Granof
Yield: Makes 6 servings
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped (I deleted these for my allergies)
1 pound ground beef (not too lean or this will be dry...I used 15%) **
1 tsp salt
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I deleted this for me)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or dry rosemary
1 teaspoon dry thyme
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley (I omit since I can't stand parsley)
1 cup frozen peas
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
6 tablespoons unsalted butter (I used olive oil)
1/2 cup milk (any fat content) (used almond milk)
Kosher salt to taste
1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. In a large oven-proof sauté pan (I used my cast iron pan to cook it all in one dish). over medium-high heat, heat the oil, then add the onion, carrot, and meat and salt. Cook until browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Drain the fat and add the broth, tomato paste, and herbs. Simmer until the juices thicken, about 10 minutes, then add the peas.
4. Meanwhile, bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water. Cook until tender, about 20 minutes; drain.
5. Mash the potatoes with the butter, milk, and salt.
6. Spread them over the meat mixture, then crosshatch the top with a fork.
7. Bake until golden, 30 to 35 minutes.
** You can also do this with ground turkey, add a little cumin to help pump up the flavor since it's blander than beef.
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