Gluten free recipes

Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread
MAKES 1 LOAF


If you’re longing for a good, gluten-free sourdough bread, this recipe is for you. It’s naturally egg free and can be made dairy free, too. (Just use coconut milk for the sourdough starter.) Yes, it takes a few days to get the sourdough starter going—but it’s not a lot of work. So before you say “it’s too much," think again. Fresh sourdough bread is well worth the time.

3 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour blend of choice
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 cup “fed” Sourdough Starter
3 tablespoons unsalted butter or dairy-free butter replacement, melted and cooled
1½ cups warm milk or milk of choice (about 100°F)

1. Generously grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, xanthan gum, cream of tartar, sugar, salt and yeast to combine. Add Sourdough Starter and butter and mix to combine.
3. With the mixer on low, pour in the milk in a slow, steady stream. Once the flour has begun to incorporate the liquids, beat the ingredients on at least medium speed for 4 to 6 minutes. The dough will be pretty sticky—thicker than cake batter, not quite as thick as cookie dough. Scrape the dough into the greased loaf pan and smooth the top with wet hands.
4. Allow the dough to rise in a warm, humid place for 30 to 45 minutes or until it has about doubled in size. (In a colder, drier environment, this will take longer. If the environment is warm and humid, it may take less time.) While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.
5. Bake the loaf in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a nice, golden brown crust has formed on top.
Each serving contains 170 calories, 3g total fat, 2g saturated fat, 0g trans fat, 8mg cholesterol, 231mg sodium, 31g carbohydrate, 1g fiber, 3g protein.

Gluten Free Soft Pretzels

I tried several different flour mixtures to get this one right. Every time Shawn and I go to the local mall, we crave Annie's Pretzels. How could you not? The smell of those soft pretzels when you walk by gets your attention like a slap in the face.

These turned out great. Salty, chewy, giant soft pretzels. Just like I remember. They were easier to make than I thought too, which is a bonus.

The flavor of soft pretzels comes from 3 sources. Butter, the baking soda/salt bath, and yeast. These are the three flavors that when combined are irresistible.

Ingredients

1 packet of Active Dry Yeast
1/2 cup Potato Starch (not potato flour)
1/2 cup Corn Starch
1/2 cup Tapioca Flour
1 cup Glutinous Rice Flour (sweet rice)
1/2 cup Sweet White Sorghum Flour
2 teaspoons Guar Gum
1 cup warm water
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted sweat cream butter (softened)
1 tablespoon Clover Honey
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pretzel salt

Alkaline Bath Ingredients

1/4 cup baking soda
3 tablespoons sea salt
4 cups water

Begin by whisking together the flours, starches, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and the guar gum until thoroughly mixed together. Make a well in the center for the liquid ingredients.
Mix the yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and 1/4 cup of warm water together and set in a warm place to proof the yeast.
Pour the yeast mixture, 3/4 cup warm water, the butter, the honey, and the olive oil into the well you made in the flour mixture and begin mixing together using the dough hooks of your stand mixer.
This mixing will take a long time and will not completely incorporate all the wet into the dry. You end up with a crumbly mixture like this.
Begin working/kneading the dough into a solid ball with your hands.
Continue working/kneading the dough in your hands until it is a smooth ball. Spray a large glass bowl with Crisco Olive Oil nonstick spray. Place the dough ball in the bowl and spray the dough ball so it's coated with olive oil. Cover the bowl in plastic wrap and let sit for about an hour. (it will swell to almost double its original size.
Remove from the oiled bowl after about an hour. Divide the dough ball in half, then half again, then again. Continue dividing the dough until you have 8 approximately equal balls.
Begin with one of the balls, and knead it in your hands until it becomes smooth and pliable. The guar gum and yeast combination will become very pliable if warmly kneaded in small portions. Do not rush this step. Once the dough is "doughy", roll between the hands at first then on the worksurface. Keeping your fingers together at first, begin rolling into a rope while gently pressing down and slowly spreading fingers apart to elongate the rope. (if you can't get it right, ask your kids to help. I am sure they do this in school with play-dough and or clay.)
Roll out to approximately 12 - 18 inches long. Grasp the ends and bring together, twist, and press ends into a side to make the pretzel shape. (notice the one pictured below was not kneaded long enough, so it cracked and tore.)
After you have made all of your pretzels, bring the alkaline bath to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, place each pretzel into the boiling bath for approximately 1 minute. It will swell slightly and change color to a pale yellow.
Place each pretzel straight from the bath onto a cookie sheet that you sprayed with the Crisco Olive Oil nonstick spray. Sprinkle with pretzel salt. Bake for 12 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Cool on a wire rack, but serve warm.
Instead of making the pretzel shape, I wrapped some hotdogs for dinner, and prepared them the same way. (notice in the photo, there are 4 yellowish, and 2 white. The yellowish ones were boiled in the alkaline bath)
Absolutely a delicious part of any meal.
***This recipe makes 8 large soft pretzels. I do not know how long they store for or how well they hold up in storage because we ate them right away.
Enjoy!

Recipe reprinted with permission from Gluten-Free on a Shoestring by Nicole Hunn. Reprinted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2011.

Haloween recipes

Banana Ghosts

Halloween trick your child will have no trouble pulling off--turning a ripe banana into a Halloween treat.
Remove any stringy fibers from the peeled banana, then cut it in half widthwise. Push a Popsicle stick into each half through the cut end, then cover each pop with plastic wrap and freeze until firm (about 3 hours).
Next, place a 1.5-ounce piece of white chocolate candy in a microwave-safe bowl and cook on high until melted (it generally takes about 1 minute). With a butter knife, spread the melted white chocolate on the frozen banana halves.
Set the pops on a waxed-paper-covered dish. Press on candies or currants for eyes and mouths and return the pops to the freezer until ready to serve. Makes 2.

Cheesy Corns

Combine the taste of cheese pizza with the look of candy corn and--abracadabra!--you've got one crowd-pleasing snack.

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat the oven to 450º.
2. Cut two small round prebaked pizza crusts into wedges that resemble the shape of candy corn. Top each wedge with rows of white, orange, and yellowish cheeses, as shown.
3. Bake the wedges on a cookie sheet for 8 to 10 m

Mini Caramel Apples

Bite-size versions of the fall fair treat, these tiny "caramel" apples are a great party snack.
Ingredients
4-inch lollipop sticks
Melon baller
Granny Smith apples (one apple makes about 8 mini apples)
Butterscotch or peanut butter chips
Chopped nuts, nonpareils, sprinkles, shredded coconut (optional)
Small paper candy cups

Instructions
First, cut the lollipop sticks in half at an angle (the pointy end will go into the apple pieces easier). With the melon baller, scoop little balls out of the apple. Each ball should have a section of apple peel. Push half of a lollipop stick into the peel of each ball. Pat the apple pieces dry.
Melt the chips according to the package directions. Dip and swirl the mini apples in the melted chips, then roll the apples in nuts, sprinkles, nonpareils, or coconut, if desired. Place the mini apples in paper candy cups to set.
*****
If you plan on using caramel with these apples you will find that caramel does not like wet surfaces to remedy that problem try dipping the apples in a candy coating first (any flavor you like, chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter, , chill in refrigerator then coat with Caramel and your favorite candies.


Caramel Apple Monsters

Ingredients
1 14-ounce bag individually wrapped caramel candies (about 50)
2 tablespoons milk
4 to 6 medium apples (see guide, page 123)
Craft sticks
Assorted candies
Instructions
Place the unwrapped caramels in a shallow microwave-safe bowl.
Mix in the milk and microwave on high for 2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute (the caramels will keep their shape as they soften, so be sure to stir them).
When the caramels are melted, remove the dish from the microwave with pot holders and stir the sauce until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
To thoroughly coat an apple, roll it in the caramel sauce, then hold it upright so the sauce slides down the sides.
Generously butter a baking sheet. Twist off the apple stems and spear each fruit with a craft stick.
Roll one apple in the caramel sauce until it's thoroughly coated. Place it, stick pointing up, on the baking sheet.
Working quickly, coat the remaining apples in the caramel sauce. The caramel coating will be gooey, so refrigerate the apple for 15 minutes or until the caramel is slightly hardened.
Holding the apple by the stick, use candy to turn it into a monster.
Refrigerate again until the caramel is hardened and the candy is set. Makes 4 to 6.


*Taken from familyfun.com

Apple Bites


Ingredients
Apples
Slivered almonds
Instructions
Just quarter and core an apple, cut a wedge from the skin side of each quarter, then press slivered almonds in place for teeth.
Tips:
If you're not going to serve them right away, baste the apples with orange juice to keep them from browning.

Have a nice Haloween day/night!

Mediterranean way of nutrition:Mediterranean Diet

Mediterranean people know how to enjoy in life. They are such a bohemians and they charish it a lot! Every single tourst love their bohemian tradition, enjoying in fresh sea air, walking without shoes, eating delicious fresh food and glory to the sun. I bet you would like to do this ,, waking up by the Sun, having great time exploring the beach, enjoying in lovely and fresh air, walking trought olive yard and having great lunch on the coast with the glass of perfect wine." I bet you would love to!That gives you all experience that food can give you.

So let me introduce you in kind of food which is mostly extremely healthy, basics on the fresh sea food, vegetables and lovely dressings.They tend national culture of food, preparing it with many love and embelish it for the eye. Mediterranean area comprises the lands around and surrounded by the Mediterranean sea;climate with with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers allow you to visit it at any time of the year.People there eat fresh, less processed foods, foods with a lot of nutrients, and their fruits, vegetables and baked goods are of excellent taste. For them, the meal time for enjoyment and relaxation, and the portions are large.
About the agriculture, wheat is the dominant grain grown around the Mediterranean, pulses and vegetables are also grown. The characteristic tree crop is the olive. Figs and citrus, especially lemons, are grown where irrigation is present. Grapes are an important wine crop, grown for fruit also . Rice and summer vegetables are grown in irrigated areas.All that hapends under the wing of warm Mediteranian Sun and with rich gifts of nature!

Did you know that mediterranean diet succesfully influence on many things?
This type of food is very old and thats why its based on ballast of healty nutrition. All olive products are extremely healthy for example, olive oil minify the value of blood-fat. Beside that, for all nutrients olive oil is ideal for:the digestive tract , prevents diabetes, the brain tissue, the growth and bone development of the child
has the effect of mother's milk and slows the aging of the high content of antioxidants.Yes, they use a lot of oils but this people dont have any problem with heart that is ussually linked with consuming oil in bigger portions. Many women also use olive oil for SPA treatman.Olives and wine, indeed, is traditionally present two specific and important elements of Mediterranean diet. Many experts claim that small amount of quality alcohol, like wine, are good for health. One glass per day can be a part of Mediterranean diet.Olives and wine, indeed, is traditionally present two specific and important elements of Mediterranean diet.
This diet are based on :local and seasonal fresh produce, moderate consumption of various fish, less use of full-fat and moderate cheeses, dairy products and yogurtl, ess meat consumption, olive oil is mostly used as a spice, many fruits, vegetables, potatoes, legumes, nuts, various seeds, bread and cereals. This is magic Mediterranean diet.
Risotto, Greek salad, tapas, fresh seafood, great dressings as tzatziki....it sounds delicious even before you try it!About the dishes, I ate great one in Greek:Cut the carrots into thin sticks and dip them in whole or in low-fat sauces such as the hommus or Tzatziki. Put olives, little feta cheese, green salad and pour a little olive oil.Grated carrot adds a tremendous feel of the many raw vegetable salads. This is rich meal that will give you a lot of power and not make you sleepy, of course, very healthy meal. You can add whatever vegetable you preffer and enjoy in great salad every single day!
They dont enjoy in fast-food, they dont like it at all. Maybe thats the recipe for healthy long living, by what Greek are known.The Mediterranean diet is based on consumption of foods rich in fiber like whole grains, fruits, legumes and vegetables), olive oil and fish, and it is recognized as a kind of healthy and nutritious diet, and also helps fight against cellular aging and cardiovascular disease.
Bread, fruits, vegetables, olives, and traditional glass of wine certainly help in establishing the longevity.
Dont forget this:European Union (EU) supported the proposal of the Spanish government to recognize the Mediterranean diet as a world heritage by UNESCO!
Live healthy, eat fresh, use Mediterranean tips for diet and you will have healthy, long life. Even better, take their way of preparing food, living and enjoying in every single moment and you will have extremely rich life!



Here are some fast recipes based on this diet that can help you ti start healthy life in 3,2,1...lets go!

Classic Greek salad

You need:
Ingredients (4 serves)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 choped small red onion
1 crushed garlic clove,
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano leaves
200-250g tomatoes
1 large Lebanese cucumber, chopped
1 small red capsicum, chopped
1/2 cup kalamata olives
100g Greek feta cheese
*Place lemon juice, garlic, oil and oregano in a screw-top jar, add soem salt. Secure lid. Shake to combine.
Combine tomato, cucumber, onion, capsicum and olives in a large bowl. Top with feta. Drizzle with oil mixture. Enjoy in taste!
Tip: This is classic Greek salad - feel free to add less or more ingredients if you like it that way!

Sesame sweets

Ingredients (4serves)
300g turkish delightes
200g cooking chocolate
20g margarins
200g baked sesame
*melt turkish on small fire, add there melted chocolate,and add bakes sesame.Leave it for a while and then, on oil base, put mixture and than chop it to look like bombone.
Tip: Add little lemon juice in mixture.Left for an hour and enjoy in taste!



Couscous with spicy fish on Spanish way

Ingredients (4 serves)
1 cup couscous
600g firm white fish fillets, trimmed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 small red onion and 1 small yellow capsicum, finely chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons spicy Spanish seasoning
*Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook onion until softened, add capsicum and cook for 2 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring stock and peas to the boil in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Place couscous in a large, heatproof bowl. Pour stock mixture over couscous. Stir to combine. Stand, covered, for 3 to 4 minutes or until stock is absorbed. Add onion mixture and parsley. Stir with a fork to separate grains. Cover to keep warm.Coat fish lightly in seasoning. Heat remaining oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook fish for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until cooked through. Serve with couscous mixture.
Take a glass of good wine and enjoy in lovely & healthy life!Cheers!

Serbian national kitchen-original recipes 1.part

In future, I will share with you many nationals kitchens. I will start with mine, and continue with the I love to.
All this recipes are Serbian, mostly are very healthy, cjeap and fast.
So, enjoy in this :)


I will start with one of the most popular serbian-balcanian meal.

Cheese Burek

You will need:
fat
2-3 eggs
cheese cream
salt to taste.
600 g leaf crust for baking
150 g of salty cheese
How to make it:
Grease a bit the baking pan, then place into a two or three crusts so that the edges of crusts hang down around the outside of the pan.
In a medium sized bowl stir eggs until blended, add cheese and cream cheese and stir well with a fork or a whisk, and salt to taste.
Crumble cheese as desired, and other bark crease and arrange them in a baking pan one to the other, sprinkle with cheese and those prepared topping with eggs. At the end of lap one ends through complex crust, add some of the remaining of those prepared topping with eggs (just a little without crumbled cheese) and put to bake in the strong temperature.
Usually, burek ut into a quarters or eighths with a bakery knife.


TIPS:Although there are other ingredients with which it can be filled (meat, pizza ingredients, mushroom), burek with cheese is the most popular.

Serbin pancakes

Main difference between this and american pancakes are in tickness!
You will need:
oil for frying
3 eggs
1 / 2 kg flour
1 / 2 liter milk

and then:Well whisk egg, add flour, put a little salt and add milk.
Mix continuously to become equal weight with no blob. Put some oil in a frying pan and put on stove to heat up well.
At the heated oil, pour a small ladle batter and immediately spread quickly in a pan to make pancakes that were thin. As soon as one side turn over and fry bake another.Ready-made pancakes you can pour the jam, nuts, sugar, or euro-cream, and roll in the reel. Serve hot.
Enjoy :)

Fried dough

This is quite fast meal for breakfat, brunch or whatever you feel like.
You will need:
250g flour
1 sachet of baking powder (12g)
salt
1 / 4 l oil.
4 eggs
1 cup of sour cream (2 dl)

Preparation and cooking of these fried dough without yeast takes about 20 minutes.
It is served with white Serbian cream cheese or jam, with sour milk, regular milk or tea.
In mixing bowl break the eggs, mix them, add cream, mix on and gradually pour the flour with baking powder and salt. Continuing rile mixer or wire until the dough is completely equal. Leave it for about ten minutes to settle the interference.
During this time in less pan heat oil. Spoon drop the dough in the pan and bake in a moderate temperature. When fried dough become flush with all sides, remove them and dispose of a small strainer into a bowl.
Drop new dough and bake until the dough to spend. Serve warm.
TIPS:You can serve this with whatever you want like nutella, cheese, sour creme.

Some unussual food

I watched on Tv a couple of interesting films about molekular cooking. Its brand new, its unussual, its great. I found very interesting frozen olive oil in shape of rain! This is basic things about it, in case you have never heard about it!

,,Imagine an orb shaped dish brimming with fluorescent orange foam is placed in front of you. As you place the spoon on your tongue, the foam vanishes leaving behind nothing more than the essence of fresh, sweet carrots lingering in the back of your throat.
A single peeled grape, still attached to its stem, is dipped in creamy peanut butter and then wrapped in a gossamer sheath of brioche. In a play on a childhood classic, it elicits at once the comfort of familiarity and the shock of the completely unexpected.
Progress for the Food Movement's SakeDespite the ultra-modern equipment and strangely presented food, the goal is not to completely alter the concept of cooking, but rather to find a new way of expanding on a foundation that has been building for centuries.
Ferran Adrià, the chef/owner of the restaurant El Bulli, explains it as a way of using "new techniques to elicit new emotions." He considers this type of cuisine a play on tradition, one which is at once both familiar and jolting.
The term molecular gastronomy conjures images of laboratory derived experiments more than a dining experience, but in most cases it's actually both. Many practitioners do create in laboratories, which are simply modern kitchens outfitted with new high-tech equipment.
Anti-Griddle. A reverse cook top that instantaneously, at minus 30 degrees, transforms liquids to frozen solids.
Sous vides cookers. Food encased in plastic is placed in water and slowly cooked at a precisely maintained temperature.
CO2 dispenser. Converts practically any liquid into an ethereal froth or foam.
As the meal progresses, however, facial expressions alone seemingly capture the essence of the entire philosophy. With each bite his expression shifts from fear to curiosity to confusion and ultimately morphs into to a huge smile that at once exudes the whimsy of childlike wonderment and the realization that the concept does make sense. You cannot help but smile along with him.The intent of molecular gastronomy is consistent with the chapters of the culinary movement that have preceded it-innovation, amusement, inspiration, and ultimately pleasure."
Is this a future? Can be.We will see.
Think about this!

Sources:
Wall Street Journal Online Portrait of an Artist as a Chef, by Kat McLaughlin
Kymos.org Molecular Gastronomy and the Science of Cooking
The Observer Molecular gastronomy is dead. Heston speaks out
Andreas Viestad A Bulli in My Kitchen
Chow You're Mispronouncing "Achatz", by Lessley Anderson

Poison in food

There have been a lot of talking about additive in food.Many researches told us its a posion, dont use it! But how we can absolutely avoid it?
Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and appearance. Some additives have been used for centuries; for example, preserving food by pickling (with vinegar), salting, as with bacon, preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as in some wines. With the advent of processed foods in the second half of the 20th century, many more additives have been introduced, of both natural and artificial origin.

To regulate these additives, and inform consumers, each additive is assigned a unique number, termed as "E numbers", which is used in Europe for all approved additives. This numbering scheme has now been adopted and extended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission to internationally identify all additives,[1] regardless of whether they are approved for use.
E numbers are all prefixed by "E", but countries outside Europe use only the number, whether the additive is approved in Europe or not. For example, acetic acid is written as E260 on products sold in Europe, but is simply known as additive 260 in some countries. Additive 103, alkanet, is not approved for use in Europe so does not have an E number, although it is approved for use in Australia and New Zealand. Since 1987, Australia has had an approved system of labelling for additives in packaged foods. Each food additive has to be named or numbered. The numbers are the same as in Europe, but without the prefix 'E'.

SOME OF THEM:
Preservatives
Preservatives prevent or inhibit spoilage of food due to fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms.
Stabilizers
Stabilizers, thickeners and gelling agents, like agar or pectin (used in jam for example) give foods a firmer texture. While they are not true emulsifiers, they help to stabilize emulsions.
Sweeteners
Sweeteners are added to foods for flavoring. Sweeteners other than sugar are added to keep the food energy (calories) low, or because they have beneficial effects for diabetes mellitus and tooth decay and diarrhea.
Acidity regulators
Acidity regulators are used to change or otherwise control the acidity and alkalinity of foods.
Anticaking agents
Anticaking agents keep powders such as milk powder from caking or sticking.
Antifoaming agents
Antifoaming agents reduce or prevent foaming in foods.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants such as vitamin C act as preservatives by inhibiting the effects of oxygen on food, and can be beneficial to health.
Bulking agents
Bulking agents such as starch are additives that increase the bulk of a food without affecting its taste.
Food coloring
Colorings are added to food to replace colors lost during preparation, or to make food look more attractive.


In September 2007, research financed by Britain's Food Standards Agency and published online by the British medical journal The Lancet, presented evidence that a mix of additives commonly found in children’s foods increases the mean level of hyperactivity. The team of researchers concluded that "the finding lends strong support for the case that food additives exacerbate hyperactive behaviors (inattention, impulsivity and overactivity) at least into middle childhood." That study examined the effect of artificial colors and a sodium benzoate preservative, and found both to be problematic for some children. Further studies are needed to find out whether there are other additives that could have a similar effect, and it is unclear whether some disturbances can also occur in mood and concentration in some adults. In the February 2008 issue of its publication, AAP Grand Rounds, the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that a low-additive diet is a valid intervention for children with ADHD:
"Although quite complicated, this was a carefully conducted study in which the investigators went to great lengths to eliminate bias and to rigorously measure outcomes. The results are hard to follow and somewhat inconsistent. For many of the assessments there were small but statistically significant differences of measured behaviors in children who consumed the food additives compared with those who did not. In each case increased hyperactive behaviors were associated with consuming the additives. For those comparisons in which no statistically significant differences were found, there was a trend for more hyperactive behaviors associated with the food additive drink in virtually every assessment. Thus, the overall findings of the study are clear and require that even we skeptics, who have long doubted parental claims of the effects of various foods on the behavior of their children, admit we might have been wrong."

Celiac desease

This is my other blog about celiac desease, receipes etc.about gluten free food. There is also translator for non serbian natives. Hope we can share receipes and experience!