Wait... What's my progress been so far?

Ok. So, let's reflect here. I can't believe that it's nearly HALF of a year since I've started making stuff out of America's Test Kitchen's Gluten-Free Cookbook, which leads me to the big question about this Julie/Julia project with the cookbook.
"Am I starting to feel like Julia Child, with sharpened techniques, a more developed taste palette, and an overall better cook?"

Nope.

No, in the sense of "I can't touch Julia's epic-ness". I'm still a hot mess in the kitchen, but I feel like I've gotten better with my skills. Here are some examples.

Example #1- Chocolate Bricks to Moist Brownies
When I first started baking with this book, I made the recipe; followed all the steps with the ingredients; put it in my batter in the pan.... It looks fabulous. (See below)

That was a solid brick. Solid. I didn't have the right 8x8 pan; I had a 9x13 and thought "This will work." WRONG! With that extra room of the 9x13 pan, it cooked faster, and by the time I pulled it out of the oven, it was DOA.

This may sound ridiculous, but I have to be very conscious in my cooking and (especially) baking. I can't take anything for granted: checking the oven, getting the right proportions for each serving pan, figuring out the butter temp.

Example #2- It's All About the Butter

It's ridiculous how much butter I have on hand. Not as much as above, but not far off. The butter can be pretty finicky. It either has to be ice cold for biscuits or juuuuuuuust melted enough to be liquid. If it's too long, that butter is useless.
It almost doesn't matter what the other ingredients are. If the butter isn't done right, it just ruins the recipe. (Does it RUIN it? No, but I've got some high expectations.)

Example #3- Recipe Sharing
I've learned that I won't get sued. So, I'll start sharing the recipes.
BTW...
Fudgy Brownies
3/4 cup plus 2 T gluten-free flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 t xathan gum
7 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse
8 T unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla extract

**This recipe is for an 8x8 pan. Adjust accordingly**

Spray the pan with vegetable oil.
Whisk flour, salt, and xathan gum together in bowl.
Microwave chocolate, butter, and cocoa at 50% power for 1-3 minutes until melted and smooth
Whisk sugar, eggs, and vanilla, then the cooled chocolate mix, and then dry ingredients.
Pour into prepared pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 30 minutes
Heat oven to 350 degrees, remove plastic, leave in for 45-55 minutes.
Let the brownies cool completely in pan. (It says for 2 hours, but who wants to wait THAT long?)

Enjoy!

Belgian Waffles: ATK vs. Bisquick

In honor of the Belgium VS USA soccer game, I decided to try out American Test Kitchen's gluten-free Belgian waffles.

Normally, I would just use the gluten-free Bisquick mix, but if I'm going to commit to this Julie/Julia idea of mine, I gotta try it out.

But this recipe turned into a really interesting dilemma. It wasn't a home run hit like the rest of the recipes that I've have had. So... let the battle begin!

1. Preparation- Bisquick

Does this seem like a surprise? With Bisquick, it's dump the mix out, pour in the milk and oil, add the eggs and badabing badaboom. Done.
Meanwhile with ATK, separate your dry from your wet (except sugar went with the dry)-

 A phrase which here means a lot of extra steps.

 

This is me, mixing really fast... with one hand... while I take a photo

2. Flavor- ATK

This time, I've got to give a slight edge to ATK's waffles. Both have a good flavor, but ATK has almost a nuttiness to the batter. Don't ask me where that came from! Maybe it's the brown rice flour? Bisquick has a very light almost tasteless taste. (A tasteless taste?...) The buttermilk helped ATK's batter with a little extra tang- not tangy, but definitely not watery.

3. Texture/Fluffiness- Bisquick

Now, if you want a fluffy light waffle, hands down, go with Bisquick. As a batter, I thought it just wouldn't rise, but put it on the waffle iron and watch it rise to its fluffy airy goodness. ATK has a thick batter. I was mixing and mixing that batter to make sure there were no lumps. (Yes, I put my phone down to mix it.) If you like a thicker, heartier waffle, then ATK's waffles are for you! They have substance and easily fill you up. I'm really glad that I had bananas to eat with this. Those waffles were heavy! Without the bananas, I would've dropped into the apartment below me.

4. Longevity- Bisquick

This is a no-brainer, unfortuately. Bisquick waffles behave like those with regular flour. After a while, they soften from the steam and being stacked on top of each other, but a toaster does well to fix that moistness. Sure, if they're left out too long, they get stiff too. But ATK, I'm prrrrrreeetty sure that just goes straight to the stiff stage. You get a very heavy frisbee if you don't eat that up quickly.

Overall, Bisquick wins this waffle war. I might come back to this recipe later to try it again to see if it wasn't something I did (e.g. using a hand or stand alone mixer instead of hand whisking it). It just goes to show that cooking is a science, and the slightest of changes affect everything.

Quinoa Patties AKA Veggie Burger Tastiness

Hey everyone! I just got back from my vacation, and even while I was down there, the fam was trying out the ATK drunken noodle recipe! We couldn't find large rice noodles, just vermicelli. It's amazing how this dish needs larger rice noodles to soak up that delicious sauce.

Anywho! While I was on vacation, the possibility of making quinoa patties came up, but it never occurred. After making it today, I'm ok that cooking them didn't work out.

Don't get me wrong! It's certainly a tasty dish. The patties just took a LOT longer than I expected. There's a little chunk of prep work at the beginning: green onions, garlic, quinoa.

One thing I really appreciated was using the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes to cook the green onions and garlic. Once those were ready, I added the quinoa and water....... and then I realized that I didn't have a cover for my pan... So I ended up using my cookie sheet. !!! Warning !!! Use an oven mitt to uncover the cookie sheet. Or. Better yet. Use a skillet that has a cover.

After letting the water boil down 20 minutes, then you have to wait about 30 more minutes for the quinoa to cool down. Meanwhile, more prep: cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, lemon zest and juice, even separating eggs.  

Combine all that good stuff together when the quinoa cools, pat out some patties, and then put them into the fridge to cool for another 30 minutes.

In the ATK cookbook, it says to have the patties cook 8-10 minutes on each side, and I underestimated my oven top.

My "medium" is just too hot, and I can't get distracted by watching the FIFA world cup. Appearance-wise, my patties definitely fell flat. Flavor-wise, they did very well: a tad salty, but savory. The lemon juice and zest kept the patties light, while the sun-dried tomatoes were delicious and a vital ingredient. I found adding mustard and sriracha sauce to compliment the patties was a nice touch and zip.

The patties can be very crumbly. Be gentle when you flip, or suddenly you'll deal with a quinoa crumble.

In honor of the World Cup, I'm pulling a Suarez as I dig in. 

Enjoy! Go USA!

Crêpes- Fruit's Delicious Blanket

So, quickly-going-south bananas dictated what I worked on next.

The bananas whispered to me, "Make me into crêpes." (Yes, I will use the circumflex. It's not everyday that I get to use it corrêctly.)

At first, I was really apprehensive. I recently had a bout of stomach issues. (Some how I ingested some gluten. I don't know what for sure, but my body let me know that I definitely DID.) So the idea of me eating some possibly heavy deterred me.

I'm so glad I changed my mind.

Please note that, in my first crêpe batter, I dealt with my botched ATK flour mixture. I actually had switched the amounts of tapioca flour and potato starch around. While that didn't dramatically change the taste and texture of my food, I noticed the batter was a lot clumpier. Not massive chunks, but little bits of misshapen globules that was residue in my mixing bowl. It made me wonder if the melted butter was too hot and cooked the eggs.

Those two ingredients--the eggs and the melted butter-- are the most fickle yet most important ingredients for making these crêpes.
The eggs, along the the milk (it calls for whole milk, but it easily works with 2%), will be separate from the dry ingredients and well incorporated with each other.
Then! The butter has to be melted, and that always takes finessing. First, make sure to have the butter sitting out to slowly warm up. The less time that the butter can spend in the microwave, the better. I usually have to do about 20 seconds in the microwave, and then stir up the rest of the remaining clumps with the remaining heat of the melted butter. But don't put that in yet! No no no no. There's a process. There's this fine line between hot liquid and clotted too-cool-for-the-room butter.

You pour in half the liquid into the dry ingredients, stir that around (no clumps), THEN you add the melted but cooled butter, stir that around (no clumps), and finally adding in the rest of the of the liquid (no clumps!). Actually, I've yet to have a batter that hasn't had residue. It may just be the nature of the crêpes. I'll keep working on it.

First try

Looking nice!

Getting warmer

The heat from the skillet is such a hard thing to get right. You don't want to wait forever with little heat, but if too hot, the crêpe will turn into a brown crispy frisbee. Like a pancake, you want to look for those slightly browning edges before you flip the crêpe over. Also, I don't know if this is the same with others' batters as well, but the batter will become a little translucent as it's cooking on the other side after I've flipped it. When it's more translucent, that's usually the cue that both sides are done.

So far, I've yet to have a bad combination with crêpes. And that's saying a lot!
Here are some of the combos I've done:

• bananas and peanut butter
• bananas and nutella
• bananas, nutella, pecans and a little cinnamon
• strawberries and nutella

Nutella just seems to go so well with the crêpes. I know that it's a simple thing, but it's a blissful combo. What are your favorite crêpe combos? Has anyone tried out more savory crêpes yet? I'm curious.
This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Frequently Asked Questions/Situations

Ok. School is out. I can relax more. Still occupied, but more relaxed. And I can get back more into blogging. Woot!
Over the past couple of years--whether seeing my dad and brother answer questions or now myself dealing with the same situations-- I've noticed the same questions popping up about food.
As I'm getting back into my Julie/Julia moment, I thought it would be good to address some of these questions.(I am not a registered gastroenterologist. I am not a doctor of any kind. If you have serious questions about celiac disease or a gluten-free diet, go to a real doctor or dietician. Like now.)
 
So what happens if you eat gluten? (Usually asked while eating)
*poot*
That's what I would like to say, but actually it depends on the person.
For me, it can be described in a couple of different ways. It feels like an alien is about to pop out of my stomach; like someone threw a rock into washing machine; and like my stomach tried to fold itself into a paper crane, but ended up being a crumpled piece of paper. And that's just the initial pain.
Typically, I don't feel that cramping and twisting and writhing until the day after I eat gluten. Also, I get really achy like I have a fever, but I don't have a temp. I can't get enough water.
For the next two weeks+, I have to deal with the gluten getting out of my system. I'll refer back to what I would first like to say.

So it's an allergy?
I usually tell people, "Sort of". My throat doesn't swell up. I don't sneeze. I know some people do break out into a kind of rash if they continue to eat gluten. But actually, it's more of a disease where the gluten inflames my intestines, and I can't digest food correctly. That leads to a whole lot of issues.

Can you just pick off the croutons/fried chicken skin/crust of the bread?
Can you wipe off germs if I sneeze on a salad?

Oh..... Sorry. I didn't mean to talk about how good this was.
Don't feel bad about talking about something delicious. I can live vicariously just as well as anybody else. You shouldn't have to feel bad about enjoying what you're eating. What makes me sigh is that, every time you do enjoy it, you remind me by pitying me. I appreciate the kindness and empathy, but I don't need the regular pity party.

I wish you could try this.
No. I don't. Read above as to what happens to me.

Can you eat this bread? Can you eat (fill in the blank)?
It's amazing how many times I will get asked this question. I wonder if it's just a natural human reaction to think a slight change might mean I can possibly eat it. "Can you eat whole wheat bread instead of white bread?" "Well you can have rice krispies, right?" 97 out of 100 the answer will probably be "Nope". However, when I can say yes, I play that up.

Can't you eat just a little bit?
Nope. Unfortunately, this isn't something I can just cheat on. If that were the case, I think everyone would do it. But no, even the smallest bit, even when it touches other food like the croutons, food in the same fryer, food touching the same counter space (like pizza dough), my stomach becomes the Titanic.

What's wrong with soy sauce? Isn't soy sauce made from soy?
Yeah! What's wrong with soy sauce?!? Why does it even need that wheat in there? It's got soy. It's good enough.
Now, there is tamari sauce for my alcohol-drinking friends. It's basically soy and alcohol. Tamari is a great substitute, and some restaurants can easily accommodate for that request instead of regular soy sauce.
As a Baha'i, I need to avoid consuming alcohol in my diet--whether drinking or cooking with it. Fortunately, there's a brand that I can get locally that is a gluten-free soy sauce. I'd hate to have to special order.

It's alright. It doesn't have any gluten. It's just tempura.
Ok. I can understand most people not know about celiac and which foods do and don't have gluten. But if you work in the restaurant business, you have zero. excuse.
You work with food day in and day out. You don't need to know the details of celiac disease, but I do expect for you to know what is in your food. I expect for your waiting staff to know too. Also, if the dish has some sort of drizzle or embellishment that's not on the menu, write it down or let me know. I don't want to order something just to find out I can't eat it as soon as I get it.

Powder-Palooza

 

Since working out of the How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook, I've realized that you've got to go all in. In order to do these recipes justice, I need to invest in making my own flour blend.
With America's Test Kitchen, AKA ATK (say that 5 times fast), their recipes call on a lot of different "powders".
There are rice flours--both white and brown-- mixed together. No segregation here.
Then, the rest sound like ingredients out of the Half-Blood Prince's potion textbook.

Manioc Extract
Starch of Spuds
Scraped Kashk

And then! Sometimes you need these two things: xanthan gum and a husk from a psyllium.

I have so many bags of powder that I had to dedicate a whole drawer in my frig for it. (I like to call it my Powder Box.) My small pantry is crammed full of supplies.
The reason for most of these bags of powder is that I had an extremely magnanimous friend who gave me a lot of Bob's Red Mill mixes. Half of which I can't use right now. I don't have a bread machine or the equipment to do that correctly.

**BTW- If you are wanting to donate to my Julie/Julia moment with this cookbook, please pop me an e-mail or comment below.**

If you're not into making your own powder potion, I really appreciate how ATK put in a section in their cookbook on different flours, and two brands kept coming up: King Arthur's and Bob's Red Mill.

King Arthur's is the closest thing to a general substitute that's pre-made. (If ATK sold their mix, I would buy that puppy in a heartbeat.) I never got it to work 100% like flour, but it was worth the expensive price tag.

Bob's Red Mill is a hit and miss for me. While ATK really values and recommends using Bob's flours and starches, I can't really endorse the mixes.
Bob, I don't know what happens between point A with quality products to point B with..... whatever those mixes are, but they have what my family calls "a nutty and complex" flavor.

If you've had more success with flour mixes, let me know! Better yet, bake with me. Let's try them out together. Besides, I really try to make these recipes for others and not just for myself. Papa needs to keep off the weight he's lost since going gluten free!

Drunken Noodles- To Substitute or Not

Just to save some confusion, I've been working out of this cookbook for a couple weeks.
So this post will be in two parts.

Day 1: A Hot Mess

As I was first flipping through the cookbook, I saw the drunken noodles recipe, and I gasped. I haven't had drunken noodles (AKA pad kee mao) in what feels like years... at least two.
So, I didn't care if I had all the ingredients. I needed to make. it. happen.
I took a note from the website Budget Bytes with their recipe for Dragon Noodles which used sriracha sauce instead of a chili garlic sauce. Also, I happened to have lime concentrate but not limes. (Don't fret. I checked what the ratio of the concentrate to amount of lime juice was before I added it.)

Here were the results of the first time. It was ok. But meeeeeeeeeeessy! I--in true Bishop fashion-- stained my book while compiling the sauce.
Note- Put the brown sugar in the bowl BEFORE putting in the soy sauce. Or at least having the measuring cup closer to the bowl because that brown sugar will land with a thud and liquid will go everywhere. Everywhere. It's not like I tilted the measuring cup at eye level. It's not like there was a lot of liquid. It just went everywhere!

Day... Recently: Knowingly Substituting



I took another crack at this recipe a couple days ago. My mindset going into this was "redemption". I went to the Asian market, got the thickest rice noodles, bean sprouts, basil, limes, and chili garlic sauce. BTW- If you have the opportunity to support diverse grocery stores where more rare ingredients can be found, do it.
I decided to get bean sprouts because in the cookbook it calls for cabbage. I've never heard of cabbage in a Thai recipe. Have any of you had a Thai meal with cabbage? Am I being deprived of some Thai culture?
The biggest difference this time of cooking, aside from making it with pork, was using the limes. Real limes made such a nice change. Brightness of the limes was refreshing, tangy, yet not too acidic.

I liked my second drunken noodle attempt much better. The thicker noodles could soak up all that goodness. Again, the limes. The basil gave a nice note of earthy savoriness. The sprouts were deliciously crisp. (Sriracha is needed to bump up the spice for my spicy friends.) Also, the green onion didn't overwhelm the bean sprouts either. Them green stuff made my meal look perrty too.
If you follow the recipe in the cookbook, I found the amount of oil too much. I don't see the need for that much. If someone would like to illuminate me on it, please comment below. Meanwhile, photos!

Thanks everyone for your patience with this blog. While trying to add this blog into my routine is another level of coherence about which I'm learning. Kiki says it best about what happens when I get home.