Quick Fries and Relaxed Greens

So yeah, you need a quick something to make and get in your belly? How about some oven fries and a salad? Glad you're on the same page, so let's keep it from being boring!

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Can a Broiler Replicate a Gas Oven?

Another day, another experiment; hello StackExchange so...

My oven has been broken about a month, and I am getting a new one delivered Saturday. But in the wake of a failed pilot on the bottom, I was curious about whether the broiler could replicate the baking conditions of standard use. I set up my pizza stone as a heat shield/sink, and ran the broiler for about thirty minutes. By the end of that time it had reached a pretty stable 350'F.

For the purposes of generic casseroles, or roasting vegetables, would the heat produced by the broiler via the pizza stone work the same as the lower heating element? Would I need to include some water to evaporate or anything else to make adjustments?

Do you guys have any idea on how to pull the two together? Head over to SE to let everyone know. If I get any good answers I will update. 

Gluten-Free Baking, rounding the corners

Switching from one set of tools, techniques, and ingredients to another can be a sharp endeavor. Going from gleefully glutenous to conscientious Celiac can be painful and wrought with personal ailment. Just switching for the sake of the challenge and change can carry with it frustration due to using the wrong hydration levels, temperatures, or gums.

Do you know of any really good resources that have a strategy for nailing the nom in Gluten-Free cooking? I tried to answer the question as best I could, but the question asker is looking for more strategy, concept, and detail. Have you seen anything like that? I have made many types of dough and would appreciate some more information, and anon has a question up that is ripe for the answering.

Here's what I had to offer:

The reason behind "Gluten-Free" as a buzzword? Humans can be allergic to gluten strands. Unless you are using a recipe that is having low gluten or high gluten content related problems (too soft or hard due to gluten bonds), the only reason to reduce gluten is to accommodate someone's food allergy. In which case you need to eliminate gluten altogether.

Many people who have severe reactions simply will not eat food unless they know it was prepared correctly. In a very American twist, I have met some of those people who are not allergic to Gluten, have no sensitivity to it, and treat "going Gluten-Free" as if it were something other than a dietary restriction; more like a lifestyle or weight diet than one that keeps your body from attacking itself.

• I can't offer more actual advice for someone with a gluten-allergy related disorder like Celiac's that go work with a physician and get instruction from a real dietician.
• For a straightforward approach to learning to bake with gluten-free ingredients, Google has plenty of resources for you to use, like this primur.
• For an explanation of typical ingredients, their uses, pros and cons, Living Without has a well-rounded article
• Additional ingredients, techniques, and strategies for serving and preparing are covered in the cookbook Gluten-Free Quick and Easy by Carol Fenster, PhD, who develops products for Bob's Red Mill
• You would be best served with any further requests for detail on specific ingredients asking about them in particular rather than holding out hope for a vague guide to all Gluten-free ingredients.
  • This is because items like xantham gum, agar and so forth are only Gluten-Free by coincidence, and you will be crowding out other helpful resources (i.e. if you look for tapioca starch uses, but in a Gluten Free article, you may easily crowd out the myriad vegan resources that reference it's use)

Like any restriction, best practices are input control-based: (1) referencing what contains wheat or gluten and (2) making sure you don't buy any by reading the ingredients. In addition to actual gluten-specific sensitivities, the Candida diet requires that adherents avoid grains due to immune reactions to gluten (this is semi-dubious in that this is applied above and beyond the scope of defined allergy). In terms of any guide to gluten-free'ing your foods, it isn't that complicated. Basically you need to develop a back-catalog of substitutions. There is less concept, more trivia.

• The degree of elasticity in bread is determined by its gluten content. In many problem-solving questions you will see offered that vital wheat gluten or other 'hard flours' can be added to doughs needing more gluten, or that 'soft flours' with low gluten can be added where a dough is coming out too chewy.

  • In replacing gluten-containing ingredients, there are many substitute flours like Amaranth, Brown Rice, and Garbanzo flours that contain no gluten whatsoever.
  • To substitute APF, Grape Seed Flour is one, a combination of rice flour, tapioca flour, and corn/potato starch can also be made to replicate APF.

• How to substitute; Each of the different flours has a different taste (garbanzo flour is nutty, corn flour tastes like corn) and texture (vital wheat gluten can replicate chicken flesh when cooked as seitan; or consider the difference to the tooth between white, whole wheat, and semolina flours). For gluten containing flours, each also has varying levels of gluten.

  • Assess the taste and texture characteristics of the flour you will be substituting, match them to one with the gluten-content flour you will be using (there are plenty of Google results for any flour). Don't be afraid to make a mix to get what you want.
  • Some flours will require more flour / less hydration to achieve the appropriate dough characteristics. You can research this, but time and trial are eventually going to be your guide so that you can tell by touch and look whether or not it is accurately mixed.

• In dealing with Gluten in flour; for the purposes of food sensitivity, you can't diminish the gluten content by any technique. If it's there, then it's not going to be viewed by most people on a GF diet, and certainly much less anyone with Celiac's, as palatable. Here are some trouble-shooting points to consider with respect to navigating gluten;

  • Kneading creates the network of gluten strands, this helps the bread stand up on its own (exploratorium has video on this). Also, salt and yeast fermentation help to develop strand development.
  • The purpose of giving your dough a rest after kneading is to allow the strands of gluten (the bonds mentioned earlier, these strands are what hold the dough together) to return to their relaxed shape. If you are experiencing snap back (esp. problematic when shaping a dough for a pizza shell) either the dough needs a rest, the gluten content is too high, or you could use a dough relaxer.
  • Shorter fermenting, higher hydration, high fat (fat inhibits gluten formation), and lower-gluten content make for less elastic doughs. They will break apart rather than stretch. If this is problematic, introduce a flour that has a higher gluten content to the mix.
  • A good example of a dough that should not have a high gluten-strand formation would be pie crust. To inhibit gluten formation, and get a rocking crust, you should use small amounts of water, not knead very much, ice all of your ingredients somewhat, and use shortening; these things all inhibit gluten formation and give you that drift away crumb texture. Additionally, crumbly biscuits using unscalded milk are benefit from an enzyme that inhibits gluten formation (incidentally, scalding the milk inhibits the inhibitor)

 I am no expert on bread, dough, or gluten-free, so any help you can offer would be appreciated. If you have more to add, or to contradict me (honestly, I want to get my info straight), either comment below or head to StackExchange to pitch in.

and then the one person stacking meaningless objects in an arbitrarily selected pattern says to the other

Updated on 9:00AM by mfg

Just a little update.

Haven't had a chance to compile a full post on Huffman's Chili cookoff, but I will say it was fun and a great opportunity for some face to face with the people I was sharing the food with.

It reminded me of the best part of BaconCamp; the part where we stood by our respective dishes and served it to everyone and had a chance to explain what went into it.

As for pie-making, I got the little book last night and have been going through it trying to decide which one to make first. I am a devotee of mousses so that may color my choice, along with the fact I wasn't quite able to nail mine with the Oreo Pumpkin experiment. I have received some subsequent advice and cleared up some loose ends about vegan thickening agents, so I am looking forward to whenever my next attempt occurs. For the landslide already documented, check out the gallery of pics.

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This is #96: So I have got Apron #97 and Apr0n #98 lined up

The next two weekends I think will be awesome.

Apr0n #97 will be about the Upper Arlington Huffman's Chili Cookoff and Walking Taco and Autumn Festival. I have already begun preparations for more pumpkin chili because I love it. Still trying to find some form of omnivorous abomination. My guess is something involving a really rich, nutty briskett, molasses, crisp jalapenos, and mad amounts of soft sweet onion. Maybe some pork stock a la Youngstown Brown.

Apr0n #98 I am hoping to be about baking. I would like to do a bake-a-thon. There's is a special piece to the puzzle that I am hoping slides in there to kick the October 15-16 weekend into gear. It rhymes with Is a can dram, os kowitz, and ends with vegan pies. There will possibly be a pre-cursor though that bumps #98 to #99 that involves Atheists, Adherents, and Agnostics and a bunch of cookies or something.

What with the uptick in baking I might say I am marginally becoming more concerned with calories and fat and so on. Marginally, because I am continuing to ride and have gotten back into walking at lunch. Despite that, no-bake cookies were my morning pick-me-up this past week. Probably not the best breakfast, but they did have oats in them.

Anyway, looking forward to the next two weekends, and should have some good posts.

Quiche is easy

Not only that, but making good quiche isn't all that difficult either. Granted, I followed the formula, but still its like an hour in between five or ten minutes prep then fork to face. It's cold out so lets get one of these guys in your belly all quick like.

All you need is 4 eggs, 10 oz frozen spinach - thawed, 1 cup milk, 1 stick butter, 8 ounces cheese (more is better), fun spices, and a pie crust (I used a prepared frozen whole wheat one from the commie market). [Improvisational ingredients omitted]

here's the quick and dirty:

• preheat oven to 375'f
• melt a stick of butter with some minced garlic cloves, saute until fragrant
• add some chili paste and onion powder and stir until dissolved
• add ten ounce block of thawed, frozen spinach; saute some more making sure it gets all that spice soaked up, then add 4 ounces shredded cheese
• whisk up four eggs and one cup milk
• (if you're messy like me, you may want the crust to be on a cookie sheet to catch spills)
• sprinkle some cheese on bottom of whole wheat crust
• using a slotted spoon, add spinach to crust
• whisk egg mixture gradually onto spinach, waiting for it absorb
• sprinkle chopped cayenne, salt, and pepper on top, finish with a little more cheese
• bake fifteen minutes, dab off any excess grease on top
• bake another forty minutes
• pull, let rest ten minutes

Tonight I will be taking a stab at making some kind of vegan silken tofu-pudding chocolate-pumpkin pie in an oreo crust. Sounds rad, riiiiyyyeeeght? Here's the outline:

1. Crumble oreos and toss with earthbalance, coat bottom/sides of springform; chill 1 hour to set
2. Combine 1 cup pumpkin puree and 1/2 block silken and pour on crust
3. Combine 1 cup melted chocolate and 1/2 block silken and pour on top
4. Whip up some bitchin' vanilla silken tofu frosting, snowy peak it on top
5. It will look like this:

 my springform pan is not that thick, and the pie will likely much wider and not be that tall

Update on 10:37AM by mfg

Since I only have 7 or so Apr0n posts until 100 I may be doubling up, like with this one to maximize noise to signal. I think this is a win-win for everyone. If you're wondering, I am currently going crazy over silken tofu and am trying to find all of its lesser immediately documented culinary uses.

Baking. It's on.

I suppose I have dilly dallied enough. I made no-bakes and vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting in the past two nights and I think I need to get legitimate in my interest. Get seriously for reals... if you will.

I am currently hooked on sweets and before I develop diabetes (runs in the family dontchaknow), I'm going to try to harness my enthusiasm for baking and ride that Windhorse in a different direction.While I may be unable to avoid flour, and a steadily increasing natural gas bill, I can do my best to limit my sugar intake and use other materials.

Starting with beer!

Yes, I may be 171 days in the hole with not drinking, but I can at least cook with the devil's juice now and then. I have limited my use of it but have been loosening a bit. I started with an amazing tequila flavored vegan cupcake; ah the joys of cooking with beer. I've chronicled the reasons before; and successfully.

So in order to limit my sugar intake, I decided to make pizza tonight, using good ol' Genny Cream Ale to make the pizza dough crust (no money, no yeast, it was Paul's and I guess he didn't want to take it home to age in his cellar). And it worked!

I made the dough and then added my new, top secret vegan "chile" sauce; I mean suffice it to say [vegan mornay]+[pureed, oven-roasted eggplant and tomatoes]. Its  like a creamy baba ghanoush topped with black beans and nutritional yeast.

Definitely not the best dough I have ever tasted, but it was mine and that made it great. I think the recipe had the dry to liquid numbers off as I probably added an additional 1-1 1/2 cups flour, or more, to the 3 1/2 already called for. In turn this threw off the bapking powder/salt ratio, so the dough was too compressed, over kneaded, and. The combo of toppings was amazing, I think I just need to cook it at a higher temperature.

Now time for some of the delicious cake I made last night, and some more James Bond.