The other day I made a garlic soup following, more or less this recipe from The Splendid Table. I went the potato route with it and it turned out pretty good, though pureeing soup is one of my all time least favorite kitchen tasks. If I make it again I’ll add more garlic than the recipe suggests because it was actually quite mild and I won’t make the same mistake of letting people try the soup without the croutons, because the croutons are by far the best part of the whole meal. First of all, the recipe calls for drizzling warm butter on the finished soup before serving but that seemed over the top so I ignored that suggestion. Then you add the croutons which changes the soup from a porridge consistency (that wasn’t well received in my house) with a more soup with crunch taste~ much better! Plus the way the recipe calls for making the croutons is far easier than I had ever seen. In the past I’ve always made them by coating cut up stale bread in oil, then stirring in herbs and salt and pepper, then sticking them in the oven with occassional stirring. This recipe just says to cut up the bread, any bread, into crouton size chunks, put some olive oil in a pan and cook them up on the stove for a couple of minutes. So easy and so good! I used fresh gluten free bread~ Maninis to be exact which is sliced nice and thick, and added only Mediterranean salts while they sizzled in the olive oil . It took five minutes tops and the soup will never be the same. I also used stale sourdough bread (not gluten free) for my husband’s croutons and he loved them. In fact he ate the croutons like a main dish and ignored the bowl of soup they were supposed to support. That’s what I get for serving it plain the first time. I have a feeling I’ll be adding these croutons to a lot more soups and salads now.
Category: food allergy blogs
More on Ancient Wheat
So I’ve been hearing about this ancient wheat possibly being digestible for us gluten challenged people and have found one company that is making pastas from one of the strands, and selling the flour. It is called Einkorn wheat and the company I have stumbled upon is Jovial. I have liked their gluten free pastas for a while now, and really enjoy their blog and recipes but up until now I have kind of ignored the whole ‘ancient wheat’ thing thinking it wasn’t for gluten intolerant people. Now I’m starting to hear mumblings that perhaps it is. Obviously, a celiac needs to take extra precaution, but for all those people who don’t eat wheat just because it makes them feel awful in one way or another, this just might be a way to enjoy it again. I don’t know~ I haven’t tried it yet myself. Funny how I used to eat wheat nonstop and now I’m stalling about trying this new development of an ancient grain, but I really don’t like feeling sick. (Shocking, I know.) And really I’d like some more evidence before eating it and possibly feeling sick and causing damage to myself. But, if anything is going to lure me in it will be the possibility of a hearty European style loaf of bread to eat. I could eat alternative grains for pasta, pastries, crackers, and just about anything else quite happily for the rest of my life, but a good old fashioned hunk of crusty bread just can’t be made without wheat. Or at least it doesn’t taste nearly as good, in my humble opinion. Of course, that also means I need to learn how to make a good old fashioned European crusty loaf myself, and apparently Einkorn is tricky to work with (which is exactly why it has gone out of fashion while the higher yield, higher gluten wheats have flourished.) As soon as I drum of the nerve to tackle the baking, and the eating, it’ll be documented here first.
Spring Sickness
Finally, my voice is back, mostly anyway, and I only woke up once last night coughing uncontrollably. Of course I’m still sleeping in a sitting up position in order to get any sleep at all~ it seems like every time I get sick it is worse and worse. Then again my family and I don’t get sick too often so I should consider myself lucky I guess. But now my youngest is starting to cough and next week he is supposed to do a fun lego camp with his brother…I hope he can go! I tried to fight my cold/virus/whatever with Emergen-C and freshly made veggie juice with a lot of ginger, but ended up taking thera-flu at night to get any sleep at all. I gave my youngest a homeopathic remedy today called Similasan that actually worked for the first couple of hours, but not the full 4 it is supposed too. Better than nothing though, except it tastes bad so I have to give him 2 jelly beans afterwards (he’s a tough negotiator.) On a gluten-free note, we went to PCC today and I got a ready-made gluten free sandwich from the deli which is just such a rare treat! Thank goodness for all the vocal gluten intolerants out there. It makes me wonder if other food allergies have such a strong circle of support. I’m going to have to browse the blog-o-sphere to see how many lactose intolerant or peanut allergy blogs and websites there are. I have a feeling the gluten free ones are more abundant. Wonder why…?
Gluten Free biscuits
Saturday I made gluten free biscuits from the Flying Apron Cookbook replacing the berries with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon. As much as I love the berries, we were running low on them and my son has been drinking smoothies in the mornings lately so I saved them for him. Mothers are always sacrificing! But the cinnamon is delicious actually, so it was a good experiment. I’ve been daydreaming of what goodies I am going to make my gluten intolerant friends for Christmas. It is so nice to know other gluten intolerant people with whom to share food! It can be so lonely when you are the one and only at a meal, party, or any other gathering where food and drinks are served. Since I have never really liked meat, I was always the odd one at meals as a child, so honestly by now I should be used to it, but it still bums me out. In fact, Thanksgiving has long been my least favorite holiday, considering I’ve never liked any of that kind of Turkey-ish food, and for last few years I’ve known I can’t eat the bread-ish food (unless I make it). This year I am determined to make it a festive inclusive meal, and since we are hosting that should be relatively easy. I’m putting together the menu this week and I’ll post what I come up with. Really there are such great ideas floating around I’m sure I’ll have more than enough ideas to keep me busy!
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