Chances are you know someone who is rocking a gluten-free diet. Either gluten causes them mild GI discomfort, or maybe it's even elevated to the point of Celiac Disease.
Either way, as a chef it's important for us to be able to cater to the different dietary needs and restrictions of our patrons. I find joy in cooking foods with these restrictions that actually taste good (i.e. vegetarian meals where you don't miss meat). Gluten-free certainly doesn't have to mean taste-free...it's the year 2010. We humans are smart. We've figured it all out, right?
Well in this case, absolutely. Cookies made without flour? Check. Corn BREAD that's gluten free? Yep. Gluten-free noodles? Done.
But does it taste good?
Let me say that the chocolate chip cookies we had Friday had to be some of the best I have ever had. It's so good, in fact, that I will post the recipe for you gluten-less peeps when I find myself free from work for a day. Even if you can handle gluten, you might want to check it out.
The corn bread improved drastically from Friday to today. There was some tweaking of the recipe --less salt here, a pinch more sugar there-- and it was really quite tasty. I think it would be better with a heavier hand of Cheddar cheese and some minced jalapeno in the mix, but that's me. It was certainly still a moist, tasty version of corn bread that can be enjoyed by all regardless of gluten tolerance.
The Mussels Mariniere was delicious. I love mussels...and it's amazing how simple ingredients like tomato, wine, garlic, green onions and butter can really take them to a whole new level. Give me a spoon and 20 mussels and I will show you a satisfied Mark Shugar.
Homemade gluten-free noodles served as the sauce mopping bed of tastiness for the mussels to rest on. Making the pasta from scratch was a near-identical process to making normal noodles, the trick is just figuring out how to substitute traditional flours.
In this case, we worked with items such as tapioca flour, cornstarch, potato starch, Xanthan gum, rice flour, corn meal and gluten-free baking powder to sub for typical all-purpose flours. It's a few extra steps, sure, and you have to find the right aisle at the supermarket to collect these ingredients, but to give someone who can't eat gluten say...bread? I mean that's a win.
I will post up our recipe for gluten-free flour when I get a chance too.
The beef dish was pretty typical. Rice noodles and gluten-friendly soy sauces were the only major changes to make the dish gluten-free. Aside from that it really didn't incorporate components that relied heavily on gluten. Meat and vegetables work for everyone.
OK, we're on to diabetic food next. Only eight days of class remain before I get a week and a half or so off school. Now if I can only get that time off of work too...hmm...
Check back for recipes! Later on...
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