Garden at the Cellar, Boston area restaurant

Hi -- I may have found another potential restaurant for a nice gluten free meal in the Boston area. A couple of weeks ago, we ate at the Garden at the Cellar, a small restaurant near Harvard Square in Cambridge MA. It focuses on preparing food made with local ingredients. There were four in our party, none of whom are gluten free and we had a delicious meal. However, the restaurant clearly knew what was in its food, and it is a restaurant with a small kitchen with a personal touch, so I asked our waitress if the restaurant could accommodate gluten free. She said absolutely -- in fact, she herself had celiac! She said that in addition to herself, the other staff could also help someone with celiac order a safe meal. Eating out is risky, but I think that a restaurant like this one, which prepares meals to order and has an emphasis on seeking out excellent local ingredients, is a good possibility. (And our waitress said the french fries were gluten free.)

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today, I tried baking gluten free chocolate chip cookies using the classic Nestles Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (off the back of the chocolate chip cookie bag). I used Better Batter flour instead of wheat flour, and used 2 teaspoons of vanilla instead of 1. (Better Batter is a premixed gluten free flour, that also includes the xanthum gum). They came out perfectly! I'm planning to bring them to a 4th of July picnic tonight, where there are no gluten free eaters at all, that's how good they are.

I've been using Better Batter flour for baking cakes, cookies and muffins for some time now, and find that it is a great substitute for all purpose wheat flour in these types of recipes. Check out their website for a lot of good recipes as well, including a very versatile recipe for the "World's Easiest Crescent Rolls." I've used this dough (with cottage cheese) to make rolls, chocolate rolls (using Nutella), pizza crusts, pot pie crusts, and cheese "hot pockets" -- yum. I have no financial or personal connection with the site -- I'm just glad to spread the word about a gf mix that really simplifies baking. (By the way, it is currently on sale at Amazon -- the shipping rates go down as you buy more product.)

Gluten free in Mexico

We just returned from a one week trip to Mexico. We went to Akumal -- a beautiful, laid back beach village about an hour and a half south of Cancun, but a world away in style and ambiance. This was our first international trip since Emily's diagnosis but Mexico turns out to be a pretty reasonable place to eat gluten free. The following were some of our strategies:

1. We stayed at a condo with a kitchen: we had previously been to an all inclusive, and I have read that many people have success eating gluten free at all inclusives, with advance warning to the chef. However, even aside from food issues, we prefer the space and amenities that you get with a condo. Ours had a fantastic location, right on the beach, with a balcony overlooking the sea -- we ate breakfast and lunch on the balcony just about every day. (We rented ours through vrbo.com.) We ate 3 dinners in, and went out 3 nights plus a lunch -- however, had the dining out not worked out, it was comforting to know that we could eat all our meals in if necessary.

2. We brought some gluten free food with us: Pamela's mix (for pancakes); a gf brownie mix and a gf muffin mix (w/ chocolate chips), as well as disposable foil pans to bake them in; a couple of boxes of nut thins; a couple of bags of corn thins; a jar of peanut butter; small size disposable containers of peanut butter that we were able to carry on to the plane; small packets of salad dressing, ketchup and mayo; some freeze dried fruit packets; a couple of bags of Tinkyada pasta; small packets of lemonade mix; small bags of Ian's gf chocolate chip cookies; Zone bars. We also brought along some basic cooking gear -- we've found that it is hard to predict what condition pots and pans will be in at a rental condo. Sometimes they are stainless that you can clean and use with comfort, other times they might be scratched Teflon. For this trip, we hit upon the perfect set to bring with us-- a nice sized camping set of pots and pans, that all fit into each other and didn't take up that much room in the suitcase. We also have a collapsible colander that folds flat, and also bring a large spoon and spatula. Next time, I'm going to add a set of silicon muffin "tins" and a one cup measuring cup. We did bring most of the gluten free food in our hand luggage -- last time we traveled, the one bag that was lost was the bag with the gluten free food in it, and we didn't want to replay that experience! Although you do need to declare "food" at customs in Mexico, we didn't have any problem bringing the food in; it was all in its original packaging.

Of course, we had to buy additional food in Mexico. We stopped at an enormous, well stocked supermarket in Playa del Carmen, which was very similar to an American supermarket. We bought eggs, butter, yogurt, oil, cheese, milk, some chopped meat, rice, fruit and vegetables, 100% juice and a few other staples, including a couple of bags of corn tortilla chips. Mexico stocks a lot of the same brands and products that you find in the US -- in fact, some of the products are directly imported (you can tell because there is a big sticker listing ingredients in Spanish added to the product.) Although I was not able to verify this 100%, it is my understanding that Mexico does require labeling of major allergens, and we certainly saw allergy statements on many products. However, we tried to be cautious and stuck primarily to brands we were familiar with (such as General Mills and Kraft) and products that were not particularly processed with lots of strange ingredients. Finally, on one of our excursions to the Akumal "pueblo", we bought a big packet of homemade corn tortillas -- there must have been 50! -- for about a dollar. (Note that we did not call manufacturers to verify the gluten free status of the few "processed" items that we bought (jam, tomato sauce, potato chips) -- we felt comfortable with the combination of reading the labels to ensure that ingredients were "safe"and wheat, rye, barley, oats weren't listed, in conjunction with the products being from manufacturers who fully disclosed gluten in the U.S. or who maintained gluten free lists (such as Sabritas, which is the name that Lays products are sold under in Mexico.) If you don't feel comfortable with this, you should bring all processed food with you.)

3. We used a Triumph restaurant card for eating out: we ate at 2 restaurants in Akumal, each of them twice. La Cueva del Pescador is primarily a fish restaurant, although you can also get chicken a steak there. We used the restaurant card there, and the waiter really seemed to get it. One night, Emily had fish; the other night chicken. Both times, her meal was prepared separately, with just lime and salt for seasoning. According to the waiter, the homemade tortilla chips were fried separately from items containing gluten (and this made sense, because the restaurant didn't have any items such as onion rings or chicken nuggets). We also ate at Turtle Bay Cafe -- Emily had the chicken caesar salad (with our own dressing) both times. The owners of the cafe are American and are often on site, so I was able to verify with them that the chicken was not grilled in the same area as items containing gluten. Again, we used the restaurant card with the waitstaff, and sure enough the salad arrived without croutons or dressing, as requested. We also went to Lucys for homemade ice cream (not from a mix) -- I speak some Spanish so I was able to verify what the ingredients were with the person serving. Several times we went out for drinks in the afternoons, and brought our own tortilla chips with, because many times the chips served are fried in the same oil as gluten items such as chicken nuggets.

Do you have strategies for international gluten free travel? Is so, add them to the comments!

Easy gluten free cheese straws

We've decided to try adding photos to the blog, but are having a few technical difficulties. Anyway if you crane your neck, you can see a photo of some gf cheese straws that we made today. These were incredibly easy -- a combination of gf flour, Parmesan cheese, baking powder, black pepper, water and olive oil. The recipe is from the September 2007 issue of Cooking Light magazine, and is called Pecorino-Black Pepper Breadsticks. To me, they seem more like cheese straws than breadsticks. I followed the recipe ingredients and instructions pretty much as written, although I substituted gluten free flour for the regular flour called for in the recipe (remember to add xanthum gum as well, if your flour mix doesn't include it already) and used Parmesan instead of Romano. I couldn't quite get the breadsticks to roll out, so instead I shaped an 8inch long rectangle on my cutting board, and sliced thin strips with a knife. I moved each strip to a parchment covered baking pan and baked. That's it!

Gluten Free Chocolate Lava Cakes

We made excellent gluten free chocolate lava cakes last night. These are small chocolate cakes with oozing chocolate insides. We used a Ghiradelli recipe as a starting point. Instead of using the regular flour called for by the recipe, I used a gluten free flour mix (brown rice, potato starch, tapioca starch) and added 1/8 teaspoon of xanthum gum. The recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of flour, so I suspect that pretty much any gluten free flour mix would work. We've made lava cakes before that don't really ooze -- the secret of this recipe is that you make up a mixture of chocolate and cream first, and chill it. You then shape it into balls, and insert it into the batter right before baking. This allows the cakes to bake to the right consistency, while the warm chocolate melts. I sprinkled a little confectioners sugar on top -- the sweetness was a nice complement to the bittersweet chocolate called for by the recipe. I think that next time we might use white chocolate centers.

Yom Kippur Break Fast, Gluten Free Style

We hosted a Yom Kippur "break fast" for about 22 people last night. Yom Kippur is a Jewish holiday calling for a 25 hour fast, from sundown one day until one hour after sundown the next. It is traditionally marked by a "break fast" -- a festive meal -- at the close of the holiday. We served the following -- these foods would also work well at a brunch:

1. Jocelyn's Kugel -- this is a somewhat sweet, very rich noodle pudding.
1 pound of noodles (kugels traditionally use egg noodles. I used Tinkyada rotini, which worked well)
1 pint sour cream (save about 1/3 of this amount for the topping)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, beaten
1 pound cream cheese

Boil and drain the pasta. Mix the other ingredients together, then add the drained pasta and mix. Pour into a 9 by 13 inch pan, and spread the remaining sour cream on top. Bake at 325 for 35 minutes.

Add additional topping:
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons gluten free flour
3/4 cup ground walnut (can be omitted)
2 tablespoon buter

Mix these ingredients together, and sprinkle over the kugel. Put back in the oven, and bake for an additional 45 minutes.

2. "Bagel and lox" pizza
This is based on a recipe from Fast and Festive Recipes for the Jewish Holidays, by Marlene Sorusky. It is an alternative to serving bagels and smoked salmon.

1 recipe of gluten free wrap bread, baked in a 14 inch pizza plan
I got this recipe from some terrific cooks at the Delphi Forum. See this link for Cindy's Wraps as adapted from 125 GF Recipes by Washburn. Or, see Gluten Free Gobsmacked experiments with the recipe. I make a few changes when I use it, based on GFG's experiments as well as ideas from others on the Delphi Forum -- I use sorghum instead of rice flour, only 1 tsp of yeast, I substitute one tablespoon of Expandex for 1 tablespoon of regular tapioca flour, and I don't let it rise.

Once the crust is baked, let it cool. Then, spread it all over with cream cheese, and top with thin slices of English cucumber, small pieces of smoked salmon, and capers -- the same way that you would top a pizza. You can also add red onion slices and dill. Slice it as you would a pizza.

3. Gluten free quiche I made one with asparagus, and one with broccoli

4. Cheese and crackers. For crackers, I used Glutano "ritz" like crackers, and Blue Diamond almond nut thins.

5. Egg salad and tuna salad, with Real Food corn thins. (Corn thins are a bit like rice thins, but less crumbly. They are larger than crackers, and a good bread alternative.)

6. A friend brought a platter of hummus, carrots and stuffed grape leaves (Trader Joes says that their grape leaves are gluten free.)

7. Another friend made a spinach salad.

For dessert, we had the following:

1. A friend brought fruit salad.

2. Chocolate chip cookies from Gluten Free Baking Classics, by Annalise Roberts. I made the dough a few days before and froze it in logs. You can slice the dough even when it is frozen, and bake it without needing to defrost it.

3. Lemon squares, again from Gluten Free Baking Classics.

4. Trader Joe's meringue cookies.

5. Foods By George gluten free brownies.

Sadly, we forgot to take photos.

Gluten Free Quiche

We made quiche this past week, using the Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse pie crusts. These crusts were really tasty -- in fact, two times I went back to the freezer to double check the bag to make sure that they were really gluten free and that I hadn't picked up regular crusts by mistake! We used the following recipe, which is modified from the quiche recipe in the original Moosewood Cookbook -- ingredient amounts are somewhat approximate.

GF Broccoli quiche 1. Defrost pie crust (it can continue defrosting while you make the innards) -- we used Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse crusts. 2. Preheat the oven to 375. 3. Saute vegetable of your choice in butter or oil (can saute with onion too if you like it) -- I used broccoli this time, although I also make this with asparagus. I think that I used about half or 3/4 of a cup of vege this time -- you want the total amount to cover the bottom of the pie crust nicely. Add salt, pepper and whatever other seasonings you like. 4. For the custard, whisk 4 eggs, 1.5 cups milk, 3 tbls gf flour, and salt together. (Note -- if you are using more vegetables or a smaller pie crust, use one less egg and only a little more than 1 cup of milk or there will be too much custard. This time, I originally started with the 3 eggs mixture, but there wasn't enough custard so I added the extra egg and milk at the end. Also, the particular gf flour blend that you use doesn't matter much in this recipe, because there isn't that much of it -- I use the Annalise Roberts brown rice flour/ tapioca starch/ potato starch, but use whatever you have on hand) 5. I put the pie crust into a round Corning pie dish before filling and baking -- I find that otherwise the filling can spill out during the baking process and make a mess of the oven. You could also put the pie crust on a cookie sheet if you have a strong one that doesn't "bend" during the baking process. 6. Sprinkle about 1.5 cups of grated cheese on the bottom of the defrosted pie crust -- I used cheddar this time. Place the sauteed vegetables on top of the cheese. Pour the filling on top of the vegetables and cheese. 7. Bake at 375 for 40 -45 minutes, until the middle is set. Enjoy!