Eating Gluten-Free

I (Laura) discovered recently that I am gluten intolerant. This is kind of a bummer since I really enjoy bread, croissants, homemade pasta, beer, and being able to eat out without analyzing and worrying over everything.

However, there are luckily plenty of wonderful foods that do not include gluten as well.  As a result of my diagnosis, both Jeremy and I have been eating a gluten-free diet for three weeks now. From now on, everything showing up on here will be prepared without gluten.


Macarons au Café
This is the best basic marcaron recipe I've tried yet.  It comes from On Baking by Sarah Labensky.  I left out the dried whites but allowed my fresh whites to sit out uncovered overnight to evaporate some of the moisture.   I suspect that one of the major differences leading to my success was the step of processing together the powdered sugar and almond flour prior to sifting.

• Cookie: almond flour, powdered sugar, egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, instant coffee
• French Buttercream: instant coffee, yolks, turbinado syrup, salted butter 

Lobster Mac and Cheese
We made fresh lobster stock the other day with a few gallons of lobster shells that I snagged headed from the trash at work.  Reduced down, that stock forms the basis of this dish.  A desire for glutinous things led us to try out some dried brown rice penne and a brown rice flour-based roux.  It was outstanding with grilled scallions and brats, topped off with gluten-free bread crumbs.

• Sauce: brown rice flour, butter, lobster stock, various cheeses
• Garnish: grilled scallions and bratwurst, gluten-free bread crumbs

Negimiso Onigiri
We picked this recipe up from Maki over at Just Bento.  Negimiso is essentially caramelized onions cooked down with miso, mirin, and dashi to form an umami-packed sauce.  Smeared onto toasted rice balls and briefly cooked, you have negimiso onigiri.  

• Onigiri: brown jasmine rice, sushi rice (nishiki), rice wine vinegar, agave 
• Negimiso: onion, miso, mirin, dashi, turbinado 

Chicken Quesadilla with Rice Stack
Homemade tortillas, garden tomato concentrate, sushi rice topped with cumin shiitakes...  


Steamed Rice Bun
Leftover chicken and steak come together with negimiso to form the stuffing for this wonderful "bun".

• Bun: sushi rice (nishiki, rice wine vinegar, agave), chicken, steak, negimiso
• Vegetables: green beans, zucchini, jalapeno, garlic 

Glazed Homemade Tofu Tacos
Fresh tofu is so light and airy.  It kind of reminds me of sweetbreads, but less fatty.

• Tortilla: hominy, masa harina, salt, water
• Fillings: glazed tofu, adzuki beans and ground beef cooked in lobster stock
• Tofu Glaze: Lime juice, agave, soy sauce, garlic, sriracha

Tuna Melt
This attempt at gluten-free bread was not the best (I may have added too much water), but when toasted it made a more than suitable base for a sandwich.

• Bread: See Gluten Free Goddess' recipe here
• Filling: tuna, green onion, mayo, jalapeno, Comté cheese, sriracha, pickles 

Tours au Chocolat
Ganache-dipped little cakes.  The cake was a little dense and toothsome, but had a good flavor and reminded me a bit of madeleine.

• Cake: corn-based yellow cake from You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free, by Roben Ryberg
• Ganache: Côte d'Or dark chocolate, cream, salt 

Breakfast
Lovely surprise breakfast from Jeremy:

• Poached egg, kohlrabi microgreens, potato cooked in garlic butter with Comté cheese

S'more (with Strawberry Marshmallow)
Our last gluten-laden dessert.  Cooked over fire pit with the largest marshmallows ever (which annoyingly have wheat in them!).

• Graham cracker, Hershey's dark chocolate, strawberry marshmallow