el Alce con Nopalitos (Elk and Prickly Pear)

In our travels to Mexico I have fallen in love with nopalitos.  I first had them in a tortilla with farmer cheese and a yummy different salsa.  They're supposed to be really good for you.  I went searching for the farmer cheese here and found some at the local grocer, but it was more aged, what I found in Mexico was more like a fresh cheese.  But I found nopalitos, in a jar.  Today I had elk steak thawing and Stan asked when we were going to eat the nopalitos.  The wheels started turning and this is what I came up with.  This goes really fast-the longest part was waiting for the rice to cook.

el Alce con Nopalitos

1 1/2 pounds elk steak, cut in small cubes

3 Tablespoons potato starch

1-2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 chipotle pepper, chopped

10-12 ounces chicken stock

12 ounce jar nopalitos, drained and rinsed (the jar I found had serrano peppers, cilantro and onion-bonus!)

Combine potato starch, salt and pepper; dredge elk in mixture. Brown in oil.  Add cilantro, chipotle and chicken stock.  Cook over medium heat until elk is done-5-7 minutes.  The combination of stock and potato starch make a nice sauce.  Add more stock if it gets more thick.  Add nopalitos and heat through.  Serve over rice, or in my case I served it over bean threads.  Stan had the rice and loved it, his exact words were, "Yeah, you can make this again."  High praise for Mr. Cool.

I think I can make it again, too!

Crackers! (Gluten Free)

I finally more or less perfected my cracker recipe after months of fooling around with ingredients. The recipe was originally for tortilla chips, but they were a boatload of work and super messy, so I set out to make it my own.

Chickpea Crackers

1 cup tapioca starch
1 cup chickpea (garbanzo) flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons ground flax seed
1/4 cup cold water
Extra tapioca starch

Beat egg together with oil, flax and water, set aside.  Stir dry ingredients together, stir in egg mixture. The mixture will be pretty soft. Turn out on a surface generously covered with tapioca starch. Knead a bit.

Don't be afraid to load on the tapioca starch.

Roll out in small batches. Try to get the dough as thin as you can. It's pretty sticky so just keep dusting with starch.

Cut out with a dusted cookie cutter. I use a small round cutter but you can cut them bigger if you like, adjust cooking time for the size. I've also used a pizza cutter and made squares, much faster but the round cracker is more uniform.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and prick with a fork. You can put them pretty close together, they don't spread.

Sprinkle a little salt over (don't skip this, it really makes a difference in the flavor). Bake at 375°. Start with 10 minutes and add time, a minute at a time until crackers are brown on the edges.  A good way to tell if they're done is when they loosen from the pan. Recipe makes about 100 small

I had a hard time keeping them from cracking in two, so I added the egg, switched from butter to oil, and added the flax.

It's so nice to have a good snack alternative. I've done just cheese, but my favorite is a smear of cream cheese and a dab of homemade pepper jelly. Yep, I eat pretty well for being an allergic chick!

Garden Bounty

We harvested the rest of the garden yesterday, since a huge snowstorm is forecast to roll in tonight. So what do I do with a ten pound cabbage? Well, first I cut a chunk off, about a fourth of it. Then I gathered up some of the carrots that we dug yesterday. Then I made this yummy stew.

CHICKEN CABBAGE STEW

1 1/2 pounds coarsely cubed raw chicken. (I prefer boneless thighs.)

1 small cabbage cut in bite sized pieces (Or 1/4 of a monster)

1/2 large onion, quartered and sliced

2 T butter, divided

4 carrots, coarsely sliced

Chicken stock, preferably organic or you could make your own

2 tsp Kirkland organic no-salt seasoning (If this isn't available, use your preference)

2 T potato starch

1 cup cold water

Salt and pepper

Cook onion in 1 T butter on medium heat until transparent. Add cabbage and carrots. Turn down heat and cover. Saute until cabbage is starting to cook down. At the same time Brown the chicken in the second tablespoon of butter. Salt and pepper to taste. When chicken is mostly done dump unto the pot with the cabbage, juices and all. Pour chicken stock over mixture-just until you can start to see it. Cover and simmer until everything is tender, about a half hour. Mix potato starch with cold water and stir into stew to thicken.  Serve over potatoes, rice, or my favorite-mung bean threads.

My Mom's Ginger Cookies (Gluten-Free)

After the success using chickpea flour for the chocolate chip cookies, I moved on to the ginger cookies my mom used to make.  Stan and I have both made the recipe and people just go nuts over them.  So now the challenge-would they still drive people nuts if there was no wheat in them?  That would be a big affirmative!  We were coffee hosts at church this morning and we heard comments like, "These cookies are so good!" and "You're kidding me-these aren't gluten-free!"  Yay!

So here is my recipe:

My Mom's Ginger Cookies

1 cup softened butter

1 2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 eggs

2 cups chickpea flour

1 1/3 cup tapioca flour

2/3 cup potato starch

4 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

Of course use safe-for-you ingredients.  Preheat oven to 375.  Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and molasses.  Beat til fluffy.  Stir together the rest of the ingredients and stir into butter mixture.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment.  (Don't skip the parchment, makes all the difference)  Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.  Check, if cookies need a bit more browning turn pan and give it one more minute.  Remove from pans and cool.  Makes about four dozen.

"The Best Cookies I've Ever Eaten!"

That's what my gluten-free friend said after tasting my latest chocolate chip recipe.  Then she qualified her statement by saying it might be because she hasn't had a real cookie in over a year and a half!  At any rate they are yummy.  Sydney eats one every time he walks by the kitchen.  I decided, after finding a very delicious chickpea tortilla chip recipe that I needed to try this wonderful food in other baking, hence the upgraded cookie.  I have to say, this is the closest I have come to the taste of a real cookie in the four years I've been dealing with these allergies. It's a lot like my former recipes, with some small alterations.  Be sure to use safe for you ingredients, what works for me may not work for you.

Chickpea Chocolate Chippers

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup chickpea flour

1 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup potato starch

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

1 bag (2 cups) chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts, if desired (I leave those out-allergic)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Stir together dry ingredients and stir into butter mixture.  Stir in chips and nuts.  Drop by teaspoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  I set the timer for 8 minutes, then turn and finish with 2 more.  

Cool and inhale!

Communion Wafers

A few months back, I found this recipe for tapioca gluten-free bread.  Of course I latched onto it immediately.  It's quick and easy, and very delicious.  The recipe instructs you to make rolls but I make a small loaf instead, it stays softer and makes pretty dandy toast.

I've been making communion wafers for church for a couple of years now, but I haven't been impressed with the taste.  Not that it's a big deal, I'm just glad that the few of us at church who can't tolerate wheat can participate in communion.  But still it's nice to have something that isn't totally yucky!

Sooo-why not roll the Pan de Yuca dough out really thin and cut out wafers?  Why indeed, so I did just that.  Success!!

Nice and crispy.  In the next few days I'm going to make regular sized crackers out of the dough.

I put one each in little pill bags and store them in the church freezer.  30 or so will last a year.

Nomato Sauce

I did not invent this recipe.  I found it here, on a recommendation of another tomato-allergic friend..  It didn't take very long and turned out quite nicely.  I made spaghetti sauce with it and it wasn't half bad.  The batch made a generous amount-I had enough left after the spaghetti sauce to freeze in two containers.  I'm looking forward to pizza sauce or barbecue sauce-the list is endless.  It calls for beets (I used canned in this batch) and Stan suggested pickled beets, which would work well if I were making barbecue sauce.  Oh, the possibilities!