Tesco FreeFrom fruit loaf - gluten, wheat and milk-free

I tried Tesco's own FreeFrom Fruit Loaf, a sweet lightly-fruited bread.  It can be kept for up a to month before use, and can be frozen.  The package contains what looks like a half loaf (one crust) with seven slices.

I enjoyed the slice I ate.  The recipe includes psylliam husk powder, xanthan gum and hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose, so if you need to avoid these completely this bread will not be suitable.  I eat such items sparingly, but an occasional treat like a slice of this fruit loaf is okay.

allergy advice: contains eggs, cannot guarantee nut free

Is bad food a good thing? Keeping safe with the rise of gf options.

Yesterday I ate at ASK Pizza, trying one of their gf pastas.  We were the only people in the restaurant - we went in purely for research as we were passing, and four o'clock in the afternoon is clearly a quiet time.

I recognised the pasta when it came.  I had ordered a sauce that was normally served with a long pasta - spahgetti or linguini, I forget which.  I got a stiff twirly short pasta.  It held it's shape through the meal, but had that distincive stodgyiness I expect from all but a few gf pastas.

Later the same day I noticed Adriana Robinovich, who ran a gf baking class I went to a few years ago, posting that her daughter had been given the wrong pasta - she didn't say where.  Her post was a short guide to how to respond and what sort of emergency supplies you should always carry with you.

I had intended to write to ASK pizza to suggest they used a delicious tagliatelli and other shapes made by La Veneziana.  It just struck me - would I be happy eating a pasta that was delicious and tender in a bustling restaurant?  That would surely increase the chances of being fed the wrong pasta without knowing until it was too late. 

Stewed! New range of gluten free stews (and what about the one with beer in?)

I just followed up a link from Glutenfreeguerillas about Stewed!'s new range of ready to eat stews, which are labelled as gluten-free.  I haven't tried them yet, but well done for adding to the variety of foods made from wholesome ingredients and making them readily available.


I had a quick look down the list and checked ingredients.  I noticed beer in one stew, so wrote to the company.  They replied within a few minutes.




Bob's British Beef in Ale

Chunks of tender British beef slowly cooked in Dorset ale with tasty root veggies and potatoes.

Ingredients
Beef (23%), onion, chopped tomatoes, carrot (10%), Dorset ale (10%), potato (8%), water, swede (7%), parsnip (7%), refined rapeseed oil, tomato purée, beef stock (beef stock, salt), cornflour, salt, garlic purée, mustard, ground bay, dried thyme, cracked black pepper.

• 2 of your 5-a-day
• British Beef
• No artificial flavourings or preservatives
• Gluten free
• Can be frozen

reply from company:


Hi Lois

Thanks for getting in touch.

The beer we use is a Dorset ale which does contain malted barley. The gluten is broken down into smaller protein molecules during fermentation process and the resulting barley gluten levels in the beer are tiny, it is tested to less than 5 parts per million (ppm) and the guideline for gluten free is 20ppm.  We add the beer to a level that is about 10% of the recipe.  This would result in a further dilution of the gluten, down to a maximum of 0.5ppm.  The beer is also clear of other artificial nasties.

The products once made are tested for the presence of gluten and the results are clear.

Interestingly when we started out, we weren't specifically aiming at the Gluten Free market, however, as we were cooking it exactly as you would at home our products were gluten free.  Since then it has become apparent to us how important it is, and how with a reasonable amount of effort you can achieve the same great results.

I hope this helps.  Please let me know your thoughts, especially after trying one!
Thanks
Mark


Mark Seymour Mead
Operations Director

www.steweduk.co.uk




So, if you can manage gluten at very tiny levels this stew should be fine for you.  I won't try it as  I can't even eat the 'made in a factory which also handles wheat' foods without trouble.  I will keep an eye out for the other varieties and try them at some point.

Yorkshire Pudding tests - gluten-free

I decided to test a yorkshire pudding recipe I got from the BBC Good Food website.  I used my standard gf flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal).

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9020/best-yorkshire-puddings

Basic recipe

Oven – as hot as you can get it – 200C (recipe calls for 220C)

2 eggs

70 g flour

100 ml milk

Grease tins with oil and put in oven to get as hot as possible. 

Mix batter.  When ready pour into tins as swiftly as possible and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

As gf flours don’t brown the same way as wheat, if you want a darker Yorkshire pudding without burning put a little sugar into the batter.

First pudding.  

They rose up to the top of the muffin tins I was baking them in.  This was a lot less spectacular than the descriptions of the puddings posted as comments on the recipe webpage.   The puddings were pleasant to eat, and better than some I have been served in people’s houses before I went gf.   I cooked them longer to try and get them browner.

Second pudding

Recipe 1 gave an acceptable result, but I wanted to see what would happen if I made them dairy free.  I had two egg whites left over from a previous recipe, so made a batch with these.  I had meant to try one egg white only, but it is so difficult to separated a bit of egg white out that I just put both in.  I expected these to have more body, to be less tender, as that is what egg white is supposed to do in baking.

Recipe

1 egg

2 egg whites

75 g flour

100 ml water

Whisk batter together and cook in hot oven as before.

These puddings were paler (less egg yolk) and seemed slightly tougher but not chewy.  TT said there wasn’t much in it apart from this slight toughness.  I thought they tasted eggier.  When cut in half you can see that the middle is more structured, with air bubbles visible, rather than the almost custardy base of the first pudding.

Third pudding

Following on from the doughnut tests yesterday I thought I would find out what baking powder does for this recipe.  Purists will say it is no longer a Yorkshire Pudding if you add baking powder, but it is probably not a Yorkshire Pudding really once you skip the wheat!

Recipe

75 g flour

1tsp baking powder

½ tsp oil (haven’t tried this without, don’t know if it helps)

2 eggs

100ml water

Mix wet ingredients together

Mix flour and baking powder (whisk or sieve)

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until smooth.

Put in hot greased tin in hot oven for about 25 minutes until puffed and golden.

These ones puffed the highest and they didn’t collapse immediately on leaving the oven.  They taste more like the first traditional YP, and have the same slightly custardy base, but rose twice as far.  I don’t think most people would know they were gluten free or dairy free. 

The three types together - uncut and cut to show the middle texture

recipes 1, 2 and 3

recipes 1, 2 and 3

recipes 1, 2 and 3, cut

Batter three worked very well and gives a lactose and well as gluten-free Yorkshire Pudding.  

I have put some in the freezer to see how they will be defrosted.  Ideally with this sort of food, unless you are cooking for a crowd (and maybe even more then) it is good to be able to get a single portion out of the freezer when needed.

I used to always use hard white vegetable fat for the base of the tins and to get the tin very hot by having it on the stove and getting the fat to smoking point.  This always struck me as a bit arduous and dangerous.  These little puddings worked so well I shan’t be bothering with that in future.

Gluten-free Lasagna sheets - home-made then frozen

lasagna made from sheets of frozen 'fresh' pasta

Some time ago I made lasagna and stored some of the sheets in the freezer.  Yesterday I made these up  for supper.  Some had been frozen direct from making, others had been cooked in boiling water.  I was curious to find out what the best method of freezing lasagna would be so that a single batch of making could be enjoyed as a convenience several times.

The sheets frozen before cooking were easy to handle as they did not stick to the plastic wrap I had stored them in.  I cooked them in boiling water for  a few minutes and layered up with tomato sauce and baked.

The pre-boiled sheets were a nuisance.  As they weren't flat they had stuck into folds of plastic wrap.  It took me longer to get these disentangled than it did to cook the dry sheets.

In future I would freeze the fresh pasta dry and just boil before use.

Both pastas tasted pretty much the same after cooking.  I didn't do a blind testing, but neither I nor TT had any preference.

Genius gluten-free bread and my weekend with the grandchildren

We just had the grandchildren, their mum and the dog visit for a few days.  Fortunately it was sunny and hot - quite a surprise for April, and they played in the pool most of the time.  As I have been busy getting the house ready to sell I haven't been baking.

The kids are happy with crepes for breakfast, and are becoming expert in their handling of the classic french tools for spreading and flipping.  Because their mum was visiting, and she always wants toast, I bought some Genius Bread.  I won't eat it as the xanthum gum means I cant leave the house the next day, but I used a few slices to make breadcrumbs to make chicken nuggets.  The girls did the chopping, dipping in egg, and breadcrumbing, and ate a large portion of these baked morsels each.

The next day was windy indoors even though calm and sunny outside.  I can only conclude that their guts don't like xanthum gum much either.  The rest of the bread went out for the birds this morning, and several hours later is still untouched (still there the next day).  My own gf bread, when I throw out portions that are too stodgy due to hasty cooking, get gobbled in minutes.

The dog ate gluten free dry dog food for the first time.  I figure that she eats her food and then spends the day affectionately licking people, so switching to a gf dog food reduces the chances of me feeling unwell.  The girls father, busy working over the weekend, phoned to find out how this experiment had gone as the dog gets the runs from many dog treats and is only allowed one type of food.  Pleased to report absolutely no problems in that direction, and a bouncy and happy dog the whole visit.

I bought James Wellbeloved hypo-allergenic, no cereal kibble in three flavours.  I was surprised to see how much choice there was at our local pet store for dogs with gluten intolerance.

Meringue - why they aren't always the safe option for a gluten free desert

We stopped off in Stroud for lunch after a visit to Shipton Mill to discuss the possibility of bagging my flour.

After a disappointing lunch ( it turned out the chef had put soy sauce in everything but the hummus in the cafe) we had a coffee at a delicatessen.  TT had some delicious meringues with vanilla cream.  As he said they were very good I had a spoonful - and then I spotted that the tongs the waiter had used were brown at the ends - they were obviously used for the chocolate brownies too.  I am normally super careful about checking how the staff avoid cross-contamination but forgot to this time.

the soup is Heinz ...is that ok?

we are in a 'brasserie' in Gloucester Docks, having rejected four sandwich shops as a place to get lunch .  I didn't even want to go near the one called 'Toast'.  Nothing promising on the menu so I ask about the soup .  "What flavour is it and does it have gluten in?"
The waitress came back from her fact finding mission to say it was tomato or veg and it was Heinz, was that ok?

I ate my handbag food.  Blueberry and white chocolate seed bar.  Fortunately it tastes so good I am glad to have the opportunity to eat it rather than some bad soup.

I have no idea if the two soups are safe.  I don't think it should be my job to know the ingredients in the food a restaurant is serving when they don't.

Almost instant sausage rolls - dairy-free, gluten-free

sausage roll, gluten and dairy-free

Usual thing, had the TV on to see a programme about artisan beer and they started eating sausage rolls.  Immediately I wanted one for lunch.  I had some gluten and dairy-free hotdogs in the fridge.  I had some of my flour pre-mixed (40%urid, 40%tapioca, 20% cornmeal) and I had a block of hard white vegetable fat.

I grated some of the fat into a bowl.  As it turned out to be 60gm I added 120gm flour, stirred them together, then added cold water until the mix stuck together.  I didn't knead it at all as I wondered if it would produce a flaky effect.

I rolled this out and wrapped pastry around each hot dog.  Cooked sausages would have worked fine too.  I placed these on a baking sheet, brushed a little egg yolk mixed with water on top - I thought the pastry would be unlikely to brown by itself as it didn't have butter or egg or sugar in it.

I cooked these for about 15minutes at 180C until they were golden and the pastry firm.  You can see the pastry has slightly shrunk away from the hot-dog because it hadn't been kneaded at all.

These were crisp and amusing to eat.  The pastry holds together well enough for them to be finger food or taken on a picnic.  From seeing the initial sausage rolls on TV to eating them for lunch took about 20 minutes.

Energy Bars - gluten free, dairy free

I spent some time trying to make a flapjack without oats, but was disappointed by the texture and appalled by the amount of butter and sugar needed to hold the ingredients together.  I watched nutritionist Ellie Krieger make energy bars on TV and thought her recipe would adapt well with gluten-free ingredients.


energy-bars-recipe/index.html


 She did use oats and wheat flour; here is a version using buckwheat and my usual flour mix of urid lentils (40%), tapioca (40%) and cornmeal (20%).

These bars are sweet without being cloying, hold together well and can be eaten without crumbs getting anywhere and, for the person that said they wanted quiet food to eat in the library, make hardly any noise at all.

Elie wrapped hers in clingfilm and stored them in the freezer so that she always had a wholesome snack to put in her bag when she was in a hurry.  Otherwise, she suggested a week at ambient temperature.


I have tried to produce a complete nutritional breakdown but had to use a combination of pack backs and websources, so data on all the minerals, amino acids etc. are not available.  Actual figures on the vitamins and minerals should be higher.  However, you can see that these little bars are good for protein, fibre, and iron.  They are also packed full of slow-release sugars so will be good for combating hunger for longer.


Ingredients (substitute whatever fruits and nuts you have in your store-cupbard.  Next time I will try cranberries and lemon zest for a sour flavour).

125g pumpkin seeds
125 sunflower seeds
230g apricots
110g blueberries
125g dates
100g whole buckwheat
100g whole almonds
125g flour (gluten-free mine is urid, tapioca and cornmeal)
3 large eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
150g maple syrup

Method
Put all the dry ingredients in a food processor and whizz until it starts forming a paste.  I had to do this in two batches.  You want some of the fruit to pulverise so that it holds the mix together, but some bits to be large enough to notice what you are eating.

Add the egg and maple syrup and stir until evenly mixed.

Place on a greased baking sheet.  I lined mine with baking parchment just to be sure that it wouldn't stick. Press down to make a flat top so that things will hold together.

Bake at 170C fan for about 20 minutes until it just begins to go brown.

Cut into slices while still warm and place on rack to cool.

Nutrition Data

20 slices from batch (I made 40 but regarded two of these as one serving for this calculation).  Percentages are approximate RDA for adult female.

219 calories
Total fat                 10g                15%
Saturated fat            1 g                 6%
Sodium                  14mg              1%
Total carbohydrate 30mg            10%
Dietary fibre            3 g               13%
Sugars                   17g
Protein                    7g                  14%

Vitamin A  6%
Vitamin C 1%
Calicum 4%
Iron 11%

Have a look at  this website for useful help with analysing recipes - www.NutritionData.com


If you want to make these a more complete protein source add some powdered milk as Elie did - I kept these dairy free because I am mildly lactose intolerant.  Being made with nuts and lentils and buckwheat makes them pretty good as they are.

empty cupboard vegan gluten-free minestrone

minestrone with rosemary crackers

I need an easy supper after all the complex meals I have been making and I haven't been grocery shopping. I fancied a minestrone and thought the River Cafe winter minestrone looked good.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1732/the-river-cafes-winter-minestrone

Of course I lacked a lot of the ingredients, so here is my version.

250ml left-over vegetable gravy made with vegetable stock and caramelised onions.  Otherwise, slow cook an onion and then add stock or a stock cube.
250ml water
1 garlic clove
pinch black pepper
1/2 red pepper, chopped - I like the long pointed ones.
1 can tomatoes, chopped, pureed or whole- but then smash a bit.
1 can borlotti beans -  put half in soup whole and the other half blitzed with some of the stock to make a puree to thicken soup
1/2 tsp tamari ( gluten free version of soy sauce)
chunk of savoy cabbage, chopped
handful flat-leaf parsley
handful gluten free pasta - I used Tesco Organic shells - they hold their shape well.


Put all the ingredients except for half the parsley, the cabbage, the pureed beans and the pasta to cook.  The flavours will improve if you can leave this simmering for twenty minutes or so.  Then add the cabbage, pasta and the rest of the parsley.  When the pasta is nearly cooked add the pureed beans.  If you put the pureed beans in earlier you will have to stand over the pan stirring as they will tend to stick to the bottom.

If you have other vegetables that you want to use up add as you think fit.

If you like and can tolerate dairy, grate some Parmesan on top.  Alternatively, drizzle some pungent olive oil on and serve with my rosemary crackers, toasted pine-kernels, or Lazy Bread spread with garlic and toasted.  An easy, nutritionally balanced and warming supper that will be good to eat tomorrow for lunch if there is any left.

Gluten-free brandy snap baskets

I posted about making brandy snaps a while ago, testing two commercially available flours, Doves Farm and Bob's Red Mill.  This blog shows you how to make brandy snap baskets, for a flamboyant desert where the last minute effort is minimal.

I used my standard flour mix of 40%urid lentil flour, 40% tapioca and 20% polenta for these.  Having done a lot of tests I am happy that this mix makes most things in a direct swap for normal wheat flour.  Bread is a bit different, but cakes, pastry and cookies, and in this case brandy snaps, work fine without any extra ingredients or effort. Look at the earlier blog for the ingredients if you don't have a recipe: http://blissglutenfree.blogspot.com/2010/11/easy-gluten-free-brandy-snaps.html

Take you mixture and place on a baking sheet.  Put four blobs about 1cm in diameter widely space- they will spread a lot.

 Pat them out a little bit with a damp finger or swirl with the back of a spoon.  They do spread anyways but I found they produced a more even brandy snap with this little bit of help.

Bake until they go amber coloured.  You need to shape them where they are hot enough to be supple and not so hot they fall apart while burning your fingers.  I found that leaving them on the non-stick mat but sliding this so that two were on the cooling rack and two still on the tray allowed me to shape the first two while the others stayed hot enough from the heat of the tray.

brandy snaps - non-stick sheet half on and half off hot baking tray

If I took them all off the tray the second two were too stiff to shape and I had to put them back in the oven for a few seconds before shaping.

I made small baskets by forming them around some little individual tart cases as I wanted to be able to pack them in tart cases for a friend.  Use an upturned glass or small bowl - whatever has the sort of shape you want. Have several ready so that you can shape several and leave them to cool while the next batch are baking.  I oiled these using grapeseed oil, which has very little flavour.

Taking a hot brandy snap that will hold its shape, place on the greased mould and press lightly so that the brandy snap takes up the same shape.  Leave to cool and pack in an airtight box or plastic bag until needed.

Shaping the brandy snap basket

this video has no sound - it wasn't clear enough to post - another thing to learn

To serve - place on a plate, fill with whatever takes your fancy, and be prepared for 'oooh's of delight.

easy gluten-free vegan lasagna

gluten-free vegan lasagna

I was exasperated the other day that I had to wait in for a courier that never came.  I set out to make lasagna but had no eggs, and couldn't go out to buy any.....so here is a vegan version which turns out to be much better than my usual lasagna.  This is so much better that I have ordered an electric pasta roller for my Kenwood food mixer so that I can make loads for my sister.  I tried rolling the pasta in my old pasta machine, which I have used for polymer clay, and it rolled very easily.  I threw that batch away (speckled blue and orange..) but it did at least allow me to be sure that a normal pasta roller would be helpful.

I made the lasagna with tapioca gel and what has now become my standard flour.  I put the flour and the gel in the food mixer and let it do all the hard work.  When the dough was soft I let it rest, wrapped in plastic, in the fridge for a while, and then rolled it thinly.  I tested the wet rolling - between dampened clingfilm, and dry rolling with flour, and found the dry rolling worked fine and made the resulting thin sheets easier to handle.

I then pre-cooked the pasta for a few minutes in boiling water and made two lasagnas.  One we ate for lunch, the other has been frozen to see how the lasagna copes with being frozen as a pre-prepared meal.

I also made a tiny lasagna with some of this dough that I had made yesterday, pre-cooked in water and then dried.  Layered with a simple tomato sauce and covered in cheese (dough is vegan - use how you want) and baked - it worked very well.  The layers of pasta stayed distinct, had a smooth soft texture, and tasted good.  The long-term hope is to be able to make neat pre-cooked lasagna sheets so that they can be made in advance and used as a convenience food by people who don't like cooking.

tapioca gel - 10g tapioca flour, 100ml water, stirred together and cooked until clear.
150g flour - 40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% polenta.

If any UK readers would like to try this flour mix if they would let me know - I'd like to get some feedback from others about this mixture. I think it is better than any of the other flours on the market and doesn't need xanthum gum.  I now use it for cakes, pastry, cookies, pasta and bread.

.........................

reheated in microwave from frozen this pasta is still good

Stokes salad dressing -are they really gluten free? Reply from company.

I bought some salad dressing by Stokes the other day.  It says gluten free in big clear type on the front.  It is part of their Go Free range which says both gluten free and the RSPCA Freedom Food on the label.  I always like to encourage companies that are so considerate in their labelling.  However, it also contains barley malt vinegar, and I am wary of anything derived from wheat, rye, barley or oats.  I wrote to the company to check the status of these foods, and received a letter back the next working day.  I have told them I would blog this response, so have included the whole text.

I haven't tried it yet, and tend to avoid things which might even have the tiniest amount of gluten in (I don't eat things which say 'made in an environment which also handles wheat' for example), but as a salad dressing for Tolerant Taster who switched from his favorite Cardini's Caesar Salad dressing which does contain wheat to help avoid risk of cross-contamination it is worth trying.

My understanding of vinegars is that the distillation process removes the gluten, so highly processed vinegar would be fine.  Artisan non-distilled vinegars would not be gluten free if derived from gluten- bearing sources.

also a link to a conversation about gluten in vinegar and the tricky issue of malt vinegar  http://ibstreatmentcenter.blogspot.com/2008/12/gluten-in-vinegar.html
and another: http://noglutennoproblem.blogspot.com/2010/04/rethinking-malt-vinegar.html
http://www.coeliac.org.uk/gluten-free-diet-lifestyle/gluten-free-diet-faqs

Reply from Stokes (they are Essfoods on the Internet)

Gluten Free

The products manufactured by Essfoods are gluten free.

Food labelling legislation makes it clear that where cereals containing or are derived from gluten are present in a product, then they have to be labelled as so.

The definition of ‘Gluten Free’ is defined by a governing body called Codex Alimentarius.  They have stated that ‘gluten free’ means that the total nitrogen content of gluten-containing cereal grains used in the product does not exceed 0.05g per 100g of these grains on a dry matter basis.  It is this definition that the food industry works to.

Therefore, a product can contain a gluten cereal, so long as it doesn’t exceed 0.05g per 100g of gluten and still be labelled as ‘Gluten Free’and this is the situation that you will find on the labelling of some of Essfoods products.

For example Malt Vinegar is produced from barley, which is why food labels have to clearly state this.  However, although malt vinegar is made from barley, it does not contain gluten.  It is recognised by The Coeliac Society as safe for coeliacs to consume.  Any gluten in the malted barley is removed by the vinegar manufacturing process (double fermentation) and is not present in the vinegar.  To confirm this, the vinegar industry has tested for the presence of gluten in malt vinegar and have not been able to detect it.  This is why our label also states ‘Gluten Free’

Where gluten derived ingredients are declared on our labels, we have statements from all of our ingredient suppliers stating that that level of gluten present in the ingredients falls within the Codex Alimentarius definition.

Essfoods products containing gluten derived ingredients but within the 0.05g per 100g of gluten limit:

French Dressing Coronation Sauce

Balsamico Dressing Real Brown Sauce

Caesar Dressing Suffolk Pickle

Tartare Sauce Real Ale Chutney

Cocktail Sauce Bengal Chutney

Balsamic Sauce Spiced Apricot Chutney

BBQ Sauce French Bean Relish

Whilst we understand that legislation makes this situation confusing, we don’t want to rule a coeliac out from eating our products, when actually we have been advised that they would be safe to do so.

Desperation Desert- raspberry and chocolate gluten-free profiteroles

I don't normally feel in need of a desert, but after a highly effective dash to late night shops and doing almost all my Christmas shopping in an hour I arrived home wanting a sweet treat.  A raid of the freezer found raspberries and choux buns, cream from the fridge and chocolate from the store cupboard.

Choux buns are very easy to make using gluten-free flour.  They are one of the few baked foods I make using a standard flour mix - in the case Doves Farm.   They freeze well.  I would usually crisp them up in a  hot oven, but this time they had about twenty seconds in the microwave.  A quick zap of the raspberries, and then melted the chocolate with the cream in the microwave.  From the start of the craving to the giant bowl of desert took about two minutes.

I'll make sure I write up the choux buns sometime, but do have a go with any standard recipe. They are very easy to make, just use a little less flour to butter.  I make these for mass catering at parties - the last time I made three hundred choux buns for a summer party, served in a giant plastic tub, with another large bowl of cream, one of chocolate, and a load of strawberries.  People were left to assemble their own bowlfuls of desert with whatever proportions they liked.  I was once startled at a party when someone had their chocolate sauce with the iceberg lettuce, but hey, why not?  Lettuce is a perfectly good carrier for flavours and chocolate sauce is not that different that salad dressing - sugar, fat, complex flavours...

Lasagna

I made ravioli, which I wrote about in the last post.  I had a little pasta left over so I thought I would find out how it worked as lasagna.

I made thin sheets of the dough - made from tapioca gel and urid and tapioca flours, by pressing between damp layers of cling-film.  I wanted to know if this needed to be pre-cooked or not so I did two tiny lasagnas, layered simply with the tomato sauce left over from a previous meal, and just a little cheese on the top.  I used lactose-free cheese for the texture and a tiny bit of Parmesan (I can cope with a little dairy) for some flavour as the lactose free cheese doesn't have much taste at all.

For the first lasagna I simply interleaved sauce and sheets of the pasta.  For the second I pre-cooked the past sheets for two minutes in boiling water, and then layered it with sauce.  The photos don't really look very much like lasagna as this was a functional test and not a properly balanced layering of pasta and suaces.

 I baked both at 180C for twenty minutes, until the cheese on top was bubbling and brown.

After leaving these to cool for a few minutes we tested them.  I knew which was which as I had put a ring of foil around the handle of the dish that had the pre-cooked lasagna.

Tolerant taster did not know which was which.  He like both pretty much the same.  I thought the textures of both were good.  The sheets of pasta had stayed distinctive and were smooth and yielding to the teeth.  In the past I have found gf pasta mushes into the layers of sauce in a disappointing way.

non-precooked lasagna

precooked lasagna

I found that the lasagna made from the pasta that had not been pre-cooked tasted of raw tapioca flour.  I found it rather unpleasant and quite dominating, even though the sauce was a highly flavoured one with chili.  Even with a repeat test with a specific request to pay attention to the taste Tolerant Taster didn't notice this, so I am clearly more sensitive to the flavour.  

I will make this again but I will pre-cook the lasagna.  It may be that with longer cooking the flavour of the non-precooked lasagna would change, but I wouldn't want to be risking over-cooking the sauces just to be sure.

 I haven't tested how this responds to being chilled and reheated and frozen and reheated - the samples I made today were so small that there isn't really enough left over to do this.  However, I am confident that this lasagna recipe would be happily eaten by people who eat wheat all the time.

I also need to test whether this pasta can be dried and used later, or frozen after pre-cooking in sheets for future use.  I always like to find out if foods can be converted from 'make-from'scratch' to 'convenience' foods.

Ravioli

gluten-free egg-free ravioli

I was asked for a description of the ravioli I referred to in a previous post.  I hadn't yet written up how to make ravioli as I wasn't  satisfied with the texture.  Today I was feeling in need of some experimental therapy - I am supposed to be marking essays - so decided to have another go at the ravioli, altering the proportion of the flours I use.

When I used to make fresh pasta with wheat flour I had found that the more egg you used the more succulent the pasta was.  I ended up using Jamie Oliver's recipe rather than Nigella Lawson's.  Up until now I have always used egg when I have made pasta.  However, I realised I had run out of pasta and I was waiting in for a courier so couldn't nip out and get any.

I made some of the tapioca gel I have used in the past when leaving egg out of recipe.  I took 5g of tapioca flour and stirred it into 50ml of cold water, and then cooked it, stirring continuously, until it was a clear gel.

tapioca gel

 I let this cool a bit while I weighed out 50g of urid lentil flour and 60g of tapioca flour, and then I squidged the flour into the gel.  I needed a bit more water to get a dough so just added some until the dough held together nicely.

mix flour into gel

I mixed this thoroughly until the dough was soft and a bit stretchy. Start with a spoon but you will soon need to pulverise it with your hands. The gel is bouncy and resists the flour.  Once you get a smooth dough knead it until it is a bit stretchy. I just held it in both hands and pulled and folded and pulled and folded until I was happy with the texture.

I tried rolling this out but found that the dough tended to stick and then tear when I made ravioli the usual way.  It was much easier to make individual pockets of dough by squeezing a marble of dough in my hand until I had a thin disk, putting the filling in the middle, dampening the edges and then gently sealing them together.

I made a second batch and found that the easiest way to make the ravioli (sorry any Italians out there who think I am using the wrong word for the shape) was to dampen a piece of clingfilm / plastic wrap, place a marble of dough onto this, fold the cling film over and squeeze the dough into the desired shape.  Provided you don't get over excited and make it too thin this gives you a smooth circle of dough for your filling.  Keep the whole thing damp and it wont stick too much and it also means the dough sticks to itself when you press it around the filling.

ball of dough on damp cling film

press out a circle between two layers of damp film

place filling on circle

fold over cling film and use to press edges together

I cooked these for about eight minutes in boiling water.  The length of time you need will depend on how thin and large you make them just as with wheat pasta.

boil in water

These little pasta parcels had a smooth yielding texture and held the filling well.    Enjoy playing with fillings and sauces - the choices are endless.


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I froze some of these ravioli and cooked from frozen.  They retain their shape and texture though the filling used went a little rubbery.  Pasta worked fine - need a different filling.

Can you tell what you are eating?

This morning I got an email outlining the new European Food Labelling legislation about to be submitted for the second reading.  The other day on the Archers (a long-standing Radio Soap Opera about rural life) one of the characters were being dismissive about the other person having been to a lecture on food labelling.  Why am I telling you this?

I bought some rice noodles today.  I bought them even though I wasn't sure what the ingredients were and so therefore did not know if they had gluten in or not.  Those of you who have seen me don plastic gloves to pick up glutened food debris or dishes will think this very strange.

The packaging was transparent and the letters very tiny.  They said Brown Rice Vermicelli Noodles, so I thought they were probably OK.  By hunting for quite some time I found a tiny set of words which looked like they said Ingredients - Thai Brown Rice and Water.  So what was the problem?   In between the word Ingredients and Thai were two more words.  The first looked like Ingredients as well, the second something beginning in Z.  In order to be sure what it said I had to scan it into the computer and blow the image up large.  It turns out it said Zutaten, which also turns out to be the word for Ingredients in German.  The French and German consumers have to read their ingredients in  English.

enhanced and enlarged scan of packaging - Ko-Lee noodles

When I was at school one of my friends wrote an exam question about the properties of gases, solids, liquids and viz.  She didn't know what viz was so invented a whole set of properties for this forth state for matter, whereas it actually means as follows and was meant to show that a list was about to appear.

I had to be sure what this word Zutaten was as I didn't want to eat it if it was dangerous.   Of course, if the writing had been bigger it would have been obvious from the position of the semi-colon that the first three words belonged together and only the last two were actual ingredients.

I carry super magnifying glasses with me when I shop as writing is often small..  One of the worst culprits is actually Doves Farm, who you think would know better since they are in the business of selling foods to people with wellness issues.  One of their most widely distributed biscuits has the ingredients written in yellow writing on yellow paper.

I know it is a nuisance to producers to have to write everything in clear type that is easy to read.  Some have started producing fold out labels to get all the text onto small products - and then you can feel like a vandal if you open them before you buy as they don't stick back down.  However, I am looking forward to a time when I can read what is in things and where all manufacturers and not just a few clearly list the allergens in a separate box.

I'll try these noodles later in soup.  They may be great or they may be revolting.  At the moment they are just a new purchase that has used up about half an hour of my time to be sure what was in them.  If I hadn't fancied fragrant noodle soup I certainly wouldn't have bought them.

Perfect pastry pies

Using week-old gluten-free pastry from the fridge:

mini butternut squash pie

A while ago I posted about making mince pies.  I had meant to make a large batch and freeze half of the composed but not baked pies, so I could pull a few out whenever I wanted.  Two large patties of pastry sat in the fridge for a week...

Today I wondered if it was still good to use.  I have frozen pastry and used it before but never just kept made-up pastry in the fridge for more than a couple of days before. I took a little bit and baked it - it was still light and crisp and hadn't any strange flavour.

I had some chilli beef in the freezer, and a portion of the steak in gravy I use for steak pies, a good dollop of the butternut squash and chilli mix I used as a ravioli filling yesterday, and some apple sauce left over from breakfast, and blackberries in the freezer.  I didn't mix them all together, for any of you who have started feeling panicky.

By slicing the pastry I could roll it without having to wait for it to warm up.  I made one steak pie, mini chilli beef pies, butternut squash pies, apple and blackberry pies and a strawberry jam tart with the last bits of leftover pastry.  I hate to throw pastry away, and often use the last trimmings for a single mis-shapen jam tart - I love the way the jam goes chewy.  The jam is some made by with the grandchildren - a trip to the fruit farm is one of our standard summer holiday activities.

The pastry is a mixture of urid lentil flour, tapioca and polenta.  The full recipe was posted a few days ago: http://blissglutenfree.blogspot.com/2010/12/finally-gluten-free-mincepies.html

mini chilli-beef pie

Some of the pies were eaten for lunch, the rest are in the freezer for easy meals some other day.

 I couldn't resist adding this picture - the sunlight shining through the pastry is so warm and inviting.  The weather here has been freezing for a couple of weeks and the last two days have been freezing fog.  This shaft of sunlight was the first I'd seen this week.

Beef Burger on gluten-free bagel

I spent a couple of years in Camden, London, where there was a very good burger restaurant about half a minute's walk away from my flat.  I don't eat beef often - usually only when I feel I need extra iron, but when I did I liked a burger on ciabatta with lots of extras.

The other day I took one of my gluten-free bagels, made from urid lentil and tapioca flours, toasted it lightly, and layered it with a home-made organic beef burger, some of my own chilli jam, the last of my own home-grown onions caramelised in olive oil, and a handful of rocket.  Very delicious.

The hole in the bagel just made the burger easier to bite, and didn't seem to allow the contents to cascade all over my lap, as I thought it might.