Saturday, January 25, 2014

Oatmeal Coconut Cookies - Gluten and Dairy Free Recipe





Gluten Free Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Cream:
1 cup solid coconut oil
2 cups organic cane sugar

Beat in:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Add:
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves (I was out so did not add)
1 ½ cups brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca starch flour
½ cup millet flour

Mix well, then add:
2 cups gluten free oatmeal  (original recipe calls for 3 cups, so try this next time)
1 cup flaked coconut

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper.
Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Black Eyed Pea Sausage Soup



Black Eyed Pea Sausage Soup
New Year’s Luck Soup (a soup version of Hoppin’ John)

2 lb dried black eyed peas
1 lb cooked link sausage of your choice (I used a chicken sausage – Adelle’s Pineapple-Bacon)
3 quarts chicken or vegetable broth plus water
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 yellow onions, chopped
3 cups carrots, chopped
3 cups celery, chopped
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 bay leaves

1.    Sort through black eyed peas, removing pebbles, debris, etc.   Cover black eyed peas with water – about 2” above the level of the peas in your pot.  Soak for 4 hours or overnight.
2.    Caramelize onions in olive oil, then add the other vegetables and sauté them until all are tender.
3.    Add vegetables and bay leaves to stockpot and add drained, soaked black eyed peas.  Add broth.  Add more liquid as needed to keep the peas submerged during cooking.  Simmer several hours until peas are soft. 
4.    At this point, you may wish to remove several cups of the mixture and puree in the blender to make a creamier soup base.  Return the puree to the pot and add the diced cooked sausage and Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Simmer 30 minutes longer, taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
5.    For my New Year’s Open House, I made this soup the day before and reheated to serve it from the crock pot.  The flavor seemed to improve the second day.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Shanghai Chicken Wings



Shanghai Chicken Wings
Adapted from “More from the Gluten Free Gourmet”
By Bette Hagman


2 ½ lbs chicken wings
1 cup honey
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger root
¼ cup dry white wine (or rice wine)
¼ cup apple juice
¼ cup Tamari sauce (gluten free soy sauce)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Pat chicken wings dry.
In a small saucepan, over medium heat, mix together the honey, ginger, wine, apple juice and soy sauce.
Place the chicken wings in a 9” x 13” pan or casserole.  Drizzle with the marinade.  Let set for at least 1 hour (may be marinated in the refrigerator overnight), and bake for 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes until golden brown and tender.

Serve immediately, or cool, refrigerate and reheat the next day.

Serves  8 to10 as an appetizer.

* I confess, I do not eat these myself because the Tamari sauce does contain soy - which is a problem food for me.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Caramel Corn


 I have been making this recipe for many years.  This adaptation uses coconut oil.


Cindy’s Caramel Corn

About ¾ cup unpopped corn.  Pop and pour into a very large bowl or kettle (2­+ gallon size)
Place up to 1 lb nuts on top (optional).  Raw Spanish peanuts, pecans or almonds are good choices if you choose to add nuts

Caramel:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
½ cup coconut oil
2 cups cane sugar
½ cup honey
1 t. salt

Add caramel ingredients to saucepan.  Stir constantly over medium high heat until boiling.  Boil 5 minutes without stirring.

Mix together 1 teaspoon vanilla extract with ½ teaspoon soda.  Stir this into syrup.  It will foam and bubble.  Then, pour syrup over popcorn, mixing lightly and trying to coat the popcorn (and nuts, if added).

Spread into two 12” x 18” baking pans (or equivalent)

Bake at 250 degrees for one hour.  Stir every 15 minutes, scraping syrup from the bottom of the pan and redistributing over corn and nuts.

Spread onto waxed paper to cool.

*  I have made this successfully substituting with 1 cup safflower oil  – completely eliminating the margarine/butter.

* To make  a "lighter" version of this recipe, just pop more popcorn.  Then, the coating is distributed over more popcorn, making a thinner coating.  The last time I made this, I popped up 1 cup of popcorn and used the same syrup recipe.