We have a New Year’s Eve party at my house every year. Six people in my 1,200 square foot home, with enough food intolerances and allergies (shellfish, gluten, soy, milk, casein, mushrooms, yeast, vinegar, and corn) to make eating a challenge.  This is one of the dishes from 2011′s party; we ate them for breakfast on New Year’s Day. Simple to put together and tastes amazing. We made the sofrito, sausage, and spinach the night before, so our morning preparations were very minor.

The original recipe is from Tapas, by Richard Tapper. I have, as usual, modified it to fit my tastes.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
1 lb whole roma tomatoes
4 oz chorizo sausages (the smoked, pre-cooked kind)
12 eggs
4 cups raw baby spinach
Salt
Penzey’s California Pepper

In a large frying pan, heat one tsp of olive oil over medium-high heat and wilt the spinach. Remove spinach from heat and season to taste.

Mince the garlic, finely dice the onion, and dice the tomatoes, removing the seeds and gel from inside the tomatoes. Cut the chorizo into half-moon rounds, about 1/4″ thick.

In the same frying pan, add 1 Tbsp olive oil and the chorizo. Fry over medium-high heat until the sausage has crisp, brown edges. Remove the sausage but leave the paprika-stained oil in the pan.

To make the sofrito, add the onions to the oil and saute until onions are light brown, soft, and translucent. Add the garlic and continue sauteing until the garlic is fragrant.

Add the tomatoes to the frying pan and cook down until the sofrito is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Season to taste.

Use the remainder of the olive oil and a paper towel to coat a six-count jumbo muffin tin, or, if you’re fancy, six individual ramekins. You’ll want about 3/4 cup minimum volume per container. I made my last batch in oven-safe coffee mugs. The olive oil coating keeps the eggs from sticking to the container you’re cooking in; if you skimp on this, I hope someone else does your dishes.

In the bottom of each container, layer: sofrito, sausage, and spinach. Then break two eggs into each container and then season with salt and Penzey’s California Peppper .

Bake in a 350-375F oven until eggs are cooked to desired doneness. Since I don’t care for runny eggs, I bake for about 30 minutes.

Serves 6. Goes very well with a garlic-y aioli and some toast wouldn’t be out of the question.

I learned cooking in Girl Scouts, outdoors, over a #10 can with strategic holes and a tuna fish can filled with cardboard and paraffin. After the catastrophe with the almond flavoring and my older sister’s birthday cake, I wasn’t a requested chef in my family. My first apartment on my own was filled with box mixes and frozen bags of food. When I was finally diagnosed with gluten intolerance (at 30), I found out that the staples of my pantry were no longer safe for me to eat. So I decided I was going to learn.

Cooking gluten free is easier if you can cook, instead of relying on boxes and mixes and canned soups. I started with watching Good Eats and reading Cookwise, by Shirley Corriher, which suits my scientific mind. I decided to focus on cuisines that were already mostly gluten-free, like Thai, Indian, and Chinese, instead of tackling the task of adapting my childhood comfort food.

I still haven’t made passable fried chicken.

The basic skills that I needed to be a successful gluten-free cook (not a baker, mind you, but a cook) were: fixing eggs, making a gravy, cooking rice pasta, and stir-frying.

Fixing eggs was important because suddenly I ate eggs all the time. (I’m not much on the cold cereal.) Eggs take practice, but they’re cheap and basically hard to ruin completely. Buy a new non-stick pan so the eggs don’t stick and have at. Omelets, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, and simple fritattas are a good place to start.

Gravy did not originally come out of a jar. Gravy is flavored, thickened, water. The best method for making a gravy is to to make a roux: cook flour in fat so that the end product doesn’t taste like raw flour. Some recipe call for a specific level of browning, like ‘blond’ or ‘chocolate’. The darker the roux, the less thickening it provides and the more flavor it has.

Making a roux with a gluten-free flour mix is a little different than a wheat flour. Flours brown at different rates, which is a bit of a shock. I was used to the roux changing color gradually and that little dark-brown specks were the sign of a burning roux… but now I know that one of the flours browns a touch faster than the other ones do. It takes some experimenting, but once I got used to the idea of throwing out a couple of tablespoons of GF-AP in order to get better at making a roux, I burned with impunity.

To get away from that, I usually ‘fake the roux’ by sprinkling the gluten-free all-purpose flour over vegetables or meat while they’re sauteeing and then stirring the ingredients over the heat until the flour is cooked. That way, I have a buffer zone in case I have the heat too high. When sprinkling the gf-ap over, my sister usually uses a sifter to get a fine dusting so that she doesn’t get clumps. It’s a good method, but I’m lazy, so I use a fork to sprinkle.

Rice pasta cooks differently than wheat pasta. Overcooked rice pasta will dissolve into paste – which is no good for anything. Bring the water to a boil, salt the water per instructions, and then add the pasta, stirring frequently to break it away from each other until the water boils again. At about 8 minutes, I start checking. The pasta should be slightly chewy, and after biting it, there should be no pale streak in the center of the noodle. I normally cook enough pasta for leftovers, so I pull the pasta before it’s done, rinse the leftover portions with cold water, and leave the about-to-be-eaten portions in the strainer over the pasta pot to keep warm.

Starting from scratch was what I did – from a convenience food re-heater (in truth) to a scratch cook. It took a while to get good and (I think) it keeps getting better. I have a whole pile of cookbooks. None of them have the words ‘gluten-free’ in the title. Since I don’t bake, I can handle simple substitutions on my own. We eat a lot of rice dishes (paella, risotto, jambalaya) and corn dishes (arepas, polenta, grits, tamales).

And I’m still a mean campground cook.

I hope you enjoy our collection of recipes. We do.

This is our interpretation of a spicy Thai beef salad we were first introduced to at Typhoon!, a Thai restaurant in Portland, Oregon. The dressing is hot, but if you like it hotter, go for Serrano chiles rather than jalapenos. The dressing is the classic southeast Asian blend of hot, sour, spicy, and sweet and can be made easily in the blender.

1 pint grape tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 small red onion
1 lb flank steak
1 head Romaine lettuce

dressing:
1/2 bunch of cilantro, stems and leaves
2 Tbls fish Sauce
2 Tbls brown sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 jalapenos, seeded
3 cloves garlic
1 stem lemongrass

Remove outer leaves of lemongrass and roughly chop the bottom four inches and put in the blender with all other dressing ingredients, starting the blender and adding the garlic and jalapenos first. Blend until smooth.

Grill steak to medium rare. Slice thinly into bowl. Slice onion into small strips, cut tomatoes in half or quarters, and quarter and slice the cucumber. Add to bowl with steak.

Pour dressing over steak and vegetables. Serve with lettuce leaves.

Serves 3-4

Total Size 1665 g / Calories 1,211 / Calories from Fat 219 / Total Fat 24.4g / Total Carbohydrates 73.5g

I make a double-batch of the grilled chicken thighs, then eat this meal in varying forms for about a week. It somehow never gets old.

3 Tbsp fish sauce
five fresh limes
3 Tbsp brown sugar
one fresh jalapeno
three cloves garlic
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 carrots, grated, peeled, or matchsticked
1 cucumber, sliced thinly
1 shallot, sliced fine
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed and washed
1/2 cup basil leaves, stems removed
1/2 cup mint leaves
1 small red serrano chile, sliced thin
1 bag of salad-ready lettuce/spring mix *
1 package of round rice papers. (Look for the ones with the elephant on the front.)
1 skein of cellophane noodles (mung bean threads) (optional)
1 package of rice vermicelli (optional)
1/2 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar (usually for sushi)

Directions:
Make the dipping sauce (nuoc cham). In a measuring beaker, juice the limes, which will get you about 9 tablespoons of juice. Add fish sauce and 1 Tbsp brown sugar. Either mince fine or grate using a microplane both the jalapeno and the garlic cloves. The fresher the ingredients are, the better the dipping sauce is.

Pound the chicken thighs flat and put them in a zip-top bag with about 1/3 of the dipping sauce. Add another 2 Tbsp of brown sugar, salt, and black pepper. Mush around and let sit for fifteen minutes before grilling or broiling until done.

If using rice noodles, boil them in hot water for about a minute, then drain and rinse in cold water. If using cellophane noodles, soften according to package.

Prepare bowls of the fresh vegetables and herbs (cucumber, carrot, mint, basil, cilantro, lettuce). Pour the sushi vinegar over the shredded (my preference) carrots for a light pickle.

Set your table (for two, in this example) with a plate for each and the bowls of vegetables and herbs and meat in the middle. Ladle some dipping sauce into a small bowl for each person. Scrounge up enough serving utensils. Put a pie pan half-full of warm water accessible to everyone at the table (use more if serving more people). Stack the rice papers to the side.

To eat: Separate one piece of rice paper from the stack, and dip both sides into the warm water. The paper will become hydrated and slowly will become rubbery. If you leave rice paper in water too long, it will completely dissolve. Pull the paper out when the middle just starts to get rubbery, and put it on your plate. Pile lettuce, cucumbers, hot peppers, carrots (drain well when serving!), and whichever herbs you like onto the rice paper, about three inches down from the “top” of the paper. Add meat if you like, and carefully pull the top of the rice paper over the pile of stuff. Fold the sides over, as if making a burrito, then compress the package and roll it. Dip in nuoc cham and eat.

The rice paper hydration and rolling are the tricky bits, but it’s pretty easy to get the hang of it after a while. This is a fun, noisy kind of meal to share with anyone, especially since the rolls are assembled at the table and each person can adjust seasoning on his/her own.

*If you are non-lazy, boston lettuce does well in these wraps, as does red leaf and green leaf lettuce. Anything but iceberg!

I made potato salad for a potluck a couple of weeks ago, starting with Alton Brown’s recipe for “Cold-Fashioned Potato Salad”. I modified. The end result has potatoes that are flavored all the way through, with a creamy, light green sauce. The onion and celery added crunch, and the vinegar in the potatoes meant that the absence of pickles in the salad wasn’t noticed. Tarragon adds a green-grassy anise flavor.

I like to add cubed ham to make this a full summertime lunch meal.

5 pounds red potatoes, washed and halved.
1/3 cup cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Penzey’s Green Goddess salad dressing base
16 oz mayonaise
2 teaspoons mustard powder
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
3 big garlic cloves, minced
1 red onion, finely chopped
5 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place potatoes into a large heavy-bottomed pot. Cover with cold water and place over medium heat. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat and remove lid. Gently simmer until potatoes are fork tender. Pour off the hot water, replacing it with cold, and add ice. Stir to cool the potatoes.

Slice potatoes into bite-sized cubes and place into a zip top bag. Add the vinegar and Green Goddess salad dressing base and toss to coat all of the potatoes. Place the bag into the refrigerator overnight.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, parsley, tarragon, garlic, onions, and celery. Store in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning, add the potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Let the salad chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

Total size 3051 g / Calories 4,884 / Calories from Fat 3195 / Total Fat 355.0g / Total Carbohydrates 387.0g

My mother made chicken and mushroom bake once a week when I was growing up. When I found out I was gluten-intolerant, after a period of cooking all new foods, I started to make the foods of my youth gluten free.

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
16 oz fresh button mushrooms, sliced
1 can chicken broth (low sodium)
3 T gluten-free all purpose flour
2 tsp dried thyme
2 T butter, divided
3/4 cup whipping cream or fat-free evaporated milk
1 T cornstarch
salt and pepper

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, saute the sliced button mushrooms and dried thyme in one tablespoon butter. Salt and pepper to taste. When the mushrooms exude liquid, remove to a bowl.

Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour. In the same pan, over medium heat, brown the chicken in the remaining butter. When the chicken is brown, add the chicken broth and the mushrooms and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the chicken breasts are cooked through.

Mix the cornstarch and the cold cream. Pour into the pan, stirring constantly. Sauce will thicken quickly after coming to a boil. Sauce is done when it coats the back of a spoon. Check seasoning and correct.

Serve with starch-of-choice.

Serves 4.
Serving Size 1887 g / Calories 2,069 / Calories from Fat 797 / Total Fat 88.6g / Total Carbohydrates 49.9g

I seriously love Carrabba’s. Good food, easy to order Gluten Free items, fun for the whole family. My favorite item to get there is the Chicken Bryan, which is a grilled chicken breast topped with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and a lemon basil butter sauce. So I hunted the web until I found a recipe that mimics the taste, and then made it my own. So here’s my Chicken Faux Bryan.

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

1 cup italian vinaigrette *
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, dry-packed
1 oz basil
1 medium sweet onion
2 large cloves (or 4 small) garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp butter
4 oz chevre (fresh goat cheese)

Put the chicken breasts in a zip-top bag and pour in the vinaigrette. Place in the fridge for at least fifteen minutes.

Chop the dry sun-dried tomatoes into strips and then put them in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and let sit for ten minutes prior to straining.

Chiffonade the basil by stacking the leaves, rolling them into a cigar shape, then slicing across the cigar. Finely chop the onion and garlic and gather the rest of the ingredients. Cut the chevre into quarters, so one ounce per chicken breast. Cut the butter into eight pieces.

Start your chicken on the grill or broiler. It takes us about fifteen minutes to get the chicken done, so while it’s cooking, I make the sauce.

Start a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and soften the onions and garlic. When the onions are translucent, add the white wine to the pan.

Reduce the wine until a spoon dragged across the bottom of the frying pan leaves a distinct trail that slowly closes behind the spoon. Then add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Reduce the liquid until you can do the spoon thing again. Turn off the heat, add the basil, and then add the butter, one fourth of a tablespoon at a time, slowly stirring it in.

Now, at this point in the sauce, you could reserve some to the side to freeze to use next time. I do this when I’m doing dinner for two instead of for four.

Add the sun-dried tomatoes to the sauce to warm.

When the chicken is almost done, top each breast with an ounce of the chevre. Serve with a big pile of the warm sauce. I like to have mine with garlic mashed potatoes, but your side choice is up to you.

Serves 4.
Total size 1890 g / Calories 3,102 / Calories from Fat 1532 / Total Fat 170.2g / Total Carbohydrates 82.4g

I love Carrabbas’ spicy Italian Sausage and Lentil soup, so one afternoon I faked it. For really good tasting vegetables in soup, I brown them first in the fat from the sausage and then add to the boiling stock rather than just putting them straight in to the soup. This whole recipe can be accomplished in under an hour.

Check the sausage, tomatoes, and chicken broth for gluten and Hidden Gluten. Johnsonville sausages are almost all gluten-free, and I like Pacific Foods Free-Range Chicken Broth. While it is tempting to buy lentils from the bulk bins, if there’s wheat or granola or anything else dangerous also in the bulk bins, there is a risk of cross-contamination.

1 lb fresh hot italian sausage
2 14-oz cans diced tomatoes (I use ‘fire roasted’ sometimes)
8 cups chicken broth or stock
1 very large sweet onion
3 medium carrots
4 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic
2 cups green lentils
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 tsp italian seasoning

Remove the sausage from its casing, if it came in links. In a big skillet (12″+) , brown the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking it up thoroughly.

In a large pot (I use the one for pasta), put in the cans of diced tomatoes and the chicken broth, and put the pot over medium heat.

Dice the onion, celery, and carrots. When combined, there should be two parts onion, one part carrots, and one part celery. Mince the garlic.

Wash and pick through the lentils. Add to the simmering chicken stock.

When the sausage is brown and cooked through, remove it from the skillet with a slotted spoon and put it in the pot with the stock and tomatoes, leaving the fat behind. Put the vegetables straight into the skillet and saute over medium-high heat until the veggies are soft and the onions are lightly brown. When they’re done, transfer the veggies to the pot with everything else.

Add herbs and seasonings, tasting the broth to make sure that it tastes the way you want it to. Simmer over low heat until the lentils are done, about 45 minutes. Makes killer leftovers and freezes well.

Serves 8-10.

Total Size 3964 g / Calories 3,516 / Calories from Fat 1328 / Total Fat 147.5g / Total Carbohydrates 305.8g

1 cup pulled pork
8 oz marscapone cheese
2 tablespoons dried shallots
1 tablespoon dried jalapeño
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup lime juice
8 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
1 cup fresh pico de gallo

Heat butter over medium heat. Add shallots and jalapeño to toast. Deglase with lime juice. Add marscapone cheese and stir over heat to melt. Add in shredded cheese and the pork. Stir until cheese is completely melted, then add the pico. Serve with tortilla chips.

The original recipe is from one of Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbooks, as “Aloo Gosht”. Indian cuisine is naturally light on gluten, and this recipe calls for a pretty minor set of spices. I’ve adapted this over the years to use more canned goods and to make it a little easier to accomplish on a normal work night. The addition of the sun-dried tomatoes makes the dish taste like it’s been on the stove all day. I serve it with jasmine rice, which is light and fragrant. If you don’t like or can’t find lamb, this recipe works well with beef stew meat.

This is also a good recipe for putting into the slow cooker after the meat and onions are browned. The stew doesn’t freeze well due to the inclusion of potatoes, but I make a batch without them and freeze it for long-term.

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
3 big sweet yellow onions, finely chopped
1 can chopped green chiles
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2.25 pound boned lamb (from shoulder) cut into one-inch pieces
2 14-oz can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes
1 tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 14-oz cans of whole white potatoes, drained well

Put oil into large, heavy pan on high heat. I use my 6 qt dutch oven, usually. Brown the lamb in batches, removing to a bowl when browned. Add onions, chiles, and garlic to pan, and sautee until onion is slightly brown.

Add the meat, canned tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and salt. Stir and cook on high heat for about 15 minutes, or until the sauce is thick.

Add the potatoes. Reduce the heat to medium-low (closer to medium), and cook for an hour until the lamb is done and fall-apart tender.