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.

Getting Started...... Now What?

It's been a little over a year since I found out that I have celiac and need a gluten-free diet. And unfortunately, this isn't a diet with which you can "cheat".
Adjusting to this new lifestyle has been a food labyrinth.
I used to be a big sandwich and tortilla wrap guy... Gone!
Desserts? Pretty scarce and very few good mixes
Good luck with going out to eat!

These problems, these walls were pretty prominent in my life only until recently. A big turning point for me was in the form of a new cookbook, America's Test Kitchen's The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook.

As soon as I heard about this cookbook, I was like....
Once I got this and started making some of the recipes, I knew I needed to have a Julie/Julia moment with it.

You might be thinking, "Wait... That's all that this blog's going to be about? A cookbook?"
The Answer- For now. The majority will focus on my experience and growth with these recipes as someone who wants quality food that happens to be gluten free. I can't type up the recipes (I do NOT want to get sued!), but you can access some of recipes and sign up for a newsletter on the link to the side. ---->
I think I can throw in some personal favorites of mine too. ** Warning** I take no responsibility if digesting my recipes leads to heart burn, nausea, numb lips, a ringing sound in your left ear, depressed thoughts, tingling sensations, dry mouth, fish mouth, baby fish mouth, butterfly kiss twitching, loss of ambidexterity, loss of bowel control, and winking eye.
I will also talk about the problems or "walls" that I mentioned earlier because I think we as a food conscious society can help each other out, getting a better perspective over this culinary/cultural maze.

From here, let's find out together.