Gluten Free Homemade Granola

Since I’ve been on my big granola kick I decided it was time to make some myself. After all, the store bought granola is very expensive, and this way I know exactly what is going in the granola, and I can control the flavours.

As this was my first time trying it I didn’t want to go overboard, and stuck to simple ingredients: rolled oats, raisins, pecans and cinnamon. I know that some Celiacs steer clear of oats, but I’ve found that as long as I stick to certain brands I am okay. I used Bob’s Red Mill rolled oats.

I started out by mixing about a 1/3 cup of pecans with 1/3 cup of raisins and about 1 1/2 cups of the oats. I actually didn’t measure any of the ingredients, this is all a guesstimate!

Rolled oats, raisins and pecans

I mixed in some cinnamon, vanilla and canola oil. I wanted to add in some brown sugar to sweeten the granola up a bit, but don’t have any around the house right now, so I sprinkled in just a little bit of white sugar (I know, I know, WHITE sugar?? but it’s all I had).

Cinnamon, oil, vanilla and sugar added in

Ready to go in the oven

I spread the granola mixture onto a foil lined cookie sheet and baked it at 375 F. I stirred it up after about 10 minutes and then baked it for an additional 15 minutes. I think it left it in the oven about a minute or two too long, as the pecans are on the verge of being cooked too long, but it’s still pretty good!

Finished product

I would have liked to add some honey into the mixture, to help some of the granola clump up a bit, but I also don’t have any of that. The granola is very loose, but I think mixed in with some yogurt it will be really good. As it is I’ve already been nibbling on it straight out of the oven! Next time I’ll experiment with some different nuts and maybe some cranberries, and I’ll definitely make sure I have some brown sugar and honey!

Gluten Free Beef Stew

My fiance and I had his grandma, Bea, and my mom, Val, over for dinner this past Friday. They’ve never met, and with all of the wedding planning we thought we would get them together. We discussed going out for dinner, but decided to eat in, as it would be more comfortable and, let’s be honest, cheaper! Since we’re planning a wedding that has come into play a lot lately!

I wasn’t sure what to make, considered enchiladas, but then decided to make something more traditional and kind of comforting: stew! When we go to grandmas for dinner she always makes comforting, traditional meals; roast beef, lasagna, pork chops with mushroom cream sauce, etc…so I wanted to make something that fit into these meals.

I’ve only made beef stew once; in school, and that was a portion for two people, and I didn’t have all of the ingredients at home needed, so this was going to be a bit of an experiment. I looked at my recipe from school and in one of my cookbooks and basically refreshed my memory!

I decided on a simple beef stew with potatoes, mushrooms, onions, peas, corn and carrots. The peas, corn and carrots I used were a frozen vegetable mix, but they worked out okay. I was disappointed because I had hoped to use pearl onions, parsnip and button mushrooms, but the grocery store had none of these!

As I was making the stew I was remembering the proper steps we learned in school for making stew, as well as the steps in the Rouxbe online videos we watched as part of our curriculum. The first thing to remember was to pat the meat dry, then season it and then brown the meat in batches, making sure to not over crowd the pan.

Browning the meat in batches.

After all of the meat was browned I removed it from the pan and sauteed the onions until translucent.

Sauteing the onions

When the onions were nice and soft I singed (san-jayed) the pan with rice flour. This is a way to thicken the stew without adding a traditional roux.

Adding the flour

I continued by deglazing with some red wine. But not before slicing my thumb on the wrapper on the neck of the bottle!

The evil wine bottle!

Deglazing with red wine

Unfortunately I didn’t have any beef stock at home, so I had to use water and beef bouillon. I thought about using chicken stock that I have and adding the beef bouillon, but I wasn’t sure how the flavours would work. So I added the water and bouillon, then the mushrooms, vegetables, potatoes and the meat. I seasoned the stew with salt, pepper and thyme.

The final product simmering away.

The stew turned out all right. I’m not really the biggest fan of stew, but I thought it was okay. Everyone enjoyed it, but I thought it needed some more seasoning. I think the fake beef stock probably didn’t contribute much flavour; if I had used real stock the stew probably would have had a more rich flavour.

I’m not sure if I’ll make this stew again, but if I do I will definitely use real stock, as well as some more seasoning.

Enchiladas!

Last week at work I made enchiladas for one of the lunch specials, and I have been craving them ever since! Unfortunately they were made with flour tortillas so I wasn’t able to try them.

This weekend I was looking in the fridge and cupboards to see what we had for dinner, and I noticed I had everything needed for enchiladas! Except for a few spices and seasonings, but the taco seasoning pouch would substitute perfectly!

I started out by sauteing a chopped red onion while browning the ground beef. I added half of the onion to the meat and added some tomato sauce to the other half. To the beef I added the taco seasoning, as well as some cumin, salt and pepper. I added the same to the tomato sauce, save the taco seasoning, as well as some oregano and chili powder. The only thing missing was some coriander, which would have gone really well in the sauce.

When the sauce was warmed and the beef ready to go I started assembling. I started with some of the tomato sauce in the bottom of the dish, and then the rolled enchiladas. I rolled the beef in brown rice tortillas, cut them in half and placed them in the dish. I continued until all of the beef was used up, then sprinkled some grated cheddar on top of the rolls, and then more tomato sauce.

Enchiladas before going in the oven.

The finished product! Sorry it's a little blurry!

The enchiladas were great! They definitely lived up to my expectations, and it was nice to make something different for dinner. My only complaint is that that tortillas get really soft when cooked. They come apart really easy, and even come close to falling apart. But even with that, I will make them again!

Soups, soups and more soups!

I’ve been working the past couple weeks, and the first thing I do everyday is start off by making soup. I love making soups! I always have. I find them so comforting and simple, yet complex. You can add so many layers of flavour, colour and even texture. So when I found out I would be making soups everyday I was pretty psyched. I’ve made all of the soups gluten free, except for one, which had gnocchi added to it.

I’ve been told what kind of soup to make, but really just given a guideline. I’ve had a lot of freedom with seasonings, thickenings and soup style. A few of the soups that I’ve made have really stood out; carrot ginger, cream of mushroom with rosemary, potato bacon and roasted red pepper, tomato and garlic. The potato bacon and red pepper, tomato and garlic soups are the ones I make regularly at home, but it was great to hear some feedback from them, other than from people who always eat them.

One of the comments that I got for my potato bacon soup was that it tasted just like mashed potatoes! I haven’t heard that one before! The potato soup went over really well. Of course it did turn out a little bit different then when I make it at home. At home I use real chicken stock, but in the kitchen the stocks are bases; powder and water.

My roasted red pepper, tomato and garlic soup went over fabulously. People loved it! I was told it was really good because it wasn’t like a typical tomato soup. The red pepper really sweetens it up, and the garlic flavour really changes the taste from a bland tomato soup to one with more depths of flavour.

The carrot ginger soup was something different. I wasn’t really sure how it would turn out; I’ve never made a carrot ginger soup before, but it was great. I started out by sauteing onions, then added some celery. Then I added about six carrots, roughly chopped. I sauteed this all for awhile, and then added some finely chopped ginger. I used the vegetable stock base and added some salt, pepper and water. After it had simmered for awhile I pureed the soup until smooth. I worried that I might have to thicken the soup a bit, that it might be too thin, but the consistency turned out pretty well.

The flavour of the carrot ginger soup was really different. The carrots have quite a bit of sweetness to them, but the ginger really adds a freshness and almost a tangyiness to the soup. I seasoned the soup only with salt and pepper, because I didn’t really want any other flavours to compete with the ginger.

This is a soup that I will definitely make again and try to experiment with and see what else I can do to change the flavours. I would prefer to make it with a fresh stock and not a base, and I think that could add a bit more flavour to the soup.

The cream of mushroom with rosemary soup was probably my favourite soup that I’ve made so far. Typically a cream soup has flour in it for thickening, but I managed to make it without, and the consistency turned out just as well. I started out by sauteing onions, added a little bit of garlic, and then a lot of sliced mushrooms. I let it all cook for awhile, then added the vegetable stock base and water, some salt and pepper. After it had cooked for awhile I pureed it, and then finished it with some cream. It was at this point that I decided to add some rosemary to it.

When I was in Alberta last summer I had a mushroom rosemary soup, but it was quite different then this one. That soup was very watery with really large needles. For this soup I crushed the rosemary a bit, and it also released a bit more flavour. The soup tasted like a typical cream of mushroom soup, but with a rosemary aftertaste. The mushroom and rosemary flavours work really well together.

This soup turned out fabulous! And like the carrot ginger soup it didn’t need any thickening either.

It’s really hard to find homemade soups that are gluten free. Restaurants all generally use flour to thicken them, and I don’t really know why. These soups have all been fabulous without flour, and the consistencies have been great. I know that typically cream soups do have flour, but mine have turn out great without!

I’m making more soups this week, and hopefully I can continue to make them gluten free. I really dislike sending food out that I can’t taste, so the more I can the better! And my soups are something that I’m really proud of, so I love to be able to taste them all!

Split Pea and Ham Soup-With Fake Roux!

My dad’s specialty in the kitchen is soups. Soups of all kinds: split pea and ham, lentil, vegetable, you name it. If there’s vegetables in the fridge and some kind of lentil, pea or other legume lying around, he’ll turn it into a soup. Well, my dad’s been away on business since the beginning of April, so the family has gone with no soup for a while now. I decided to change this.

On Tuesday this past week I was making dinner and using a pork roast that I was cutting up into strips for pork stroganoff. In the middle of the roast was a large bone that I had to cut out. I decided that instead of throwing it out, I would try making pork stock out of it. I’ve never made a pork stock before, but figured, “why not?” Off I went, stock simmering away and thought about what I could do with it. Well, my boyfriend had been asking for split pea and ham soup (his favourite) for awhile, so I figured I could use the stock for the base of the soup.

A few months back my dad had found a deal on a ham hock at the grocery store and cut it all up into chunks and froze them in bags ready for soup. I thawed one of these out and was good to go!

I started out by starting the cooking process on the split peas. My dad buys bags of dried split peas, and he had told me  to start them by boiling them for about ten minutes, and then they should be good to go in the soup. In another pot I was heating up my pork stock, so then when I started ladling it into the mirepoix (onions and celery) it wouldn’t lower the heat in the pan.

Split peas simmering away.

Mirepoix of onions and celery cooking in margarine.

Heating up the pork stock.

As I have problems with dairy I decided to sweat the onions, celery and garlic in margarine. I know some people really don’t like margarine (my dad included), but I frequently use it as a butter substitute. Once the mirepoix was soft I singed (pronounced san-jay) with rice flour. This is a technique I learned in school that you can use when making soups or stews. It’s kind of like making a roux, but you put the flour in when there are other ingredients already in the pan. It’s almost like making a roux after the fact. And as I would be eating this soup, I had to make it gluten free! The rice flour worked really well, and I didn’t notice any flavour difference with it. The typical grittiness that comes with rice flour was not apparent in the soup.

Rice flour mixed in.

When the mirepoix is soft you mix in the flour until the moisture (oil, butter, etc…) is absorbed. From this step the hot stock can be ladled in. I ladled it in one spoonful at a time for the first few, once the previous ladle was incorporated.

While I was doing this I started cooking the ham in a separate pot from the soup. When my dad makes the soup it’s a one pot deal. Everything goes together. I didn’t want to cook the ham in the same pot as the rest of the soup because there was a lot of fat on the ham that I wanted to render off first. I knew that by doing this I might be losing some of the flavourful bits from the bottom of the pan, but figured I could forgo those for less fat in the soup. I also added the carrots in around this time. I didn’t put them in earlier because I didn’t want them to get too soft; I wanted them to keep a bit of crunch for texture in the soup.

When my dad makes this soup he puts in a ton of other vegetables. He leaves out the carrots, but puts in tomatoes, potatoes and bok choy. I decided to do the potatoes, but leave out the other two. I cut the potatoes into about a medium dice size (6mm cubes) and tossed them into the soup with the ham and carrots.

Finished soup simmering away.

I let the soup simmer away to cook the potatoes through, as well as to thicken up the soup a bit. I finished it with just some salt and pepper. I was racking my brain trying to decide what other spices to put into the soup, but just couldn’t think of any! I know somewhere in my notes from school I have written “ham/pork loves ____” but just couldn’t remember!

The finished product was great. It was a very comforting, flavourful, homey soup. My dad would be proud!