Tag: Goddess

Gluten Free Goddess Recipes: Irish Cottage Pie by Gordon Ramsay

Gluten free cottage pie and shepherds pie recipe with mashed potato topping

Old School Comfort

Here’s a classic recipe I conjured up a few years ago, living in the wilds of Northern New Mexico. I had been craving comfort food- to be specific- a rustic shepherd’s pie. Because mashed potatoes. (And who doesn’t occasionally crave a smashed spud crust, right?).

So here is my recipe from the GFG Archives- with a true-blue love story to boot.

Karina
xox

It’s been a warm and breezy week here by the Chama River north of Santa Fe. The promise of Spring is tugging at our sluggish winter bodies, cracking and stiff and a tad thicker than one would care to admit. We are itchy to walk- just as the junipers are shedding pollen in curtains of dirty yellow. We walked and sneezed and rubbed gritty eyes. The coyotes are laughing on the rim of the mesa. I listen and note they are closer than usual, emboldened by our wintery hibernation. The land belongs to them now. We’re simply tourists. As it should be, I murmur.

Meeting your soul mate (did I just write the words soul mate?) after mid-life will humble you. An autumn meeting of kindred spirits inspires a sharp thirst for more time. More juice. Looking ahead- down the road of your life- can be alarming. It’s shorter and rutted and slightly curving downhill, not so far and away anymore. Carpe diem as the wise ones say.

And though (in theory) we should all embrace each day as if it might, indeed, be our last, this effort gains a deeper poignancy at 54. My knuckles are so bumpy with arthritis now I can no longer wear my wedding ring. I twisted it off with pain and dish soap. I didn’t want to have it sawed off. Just the thought of the saw buzz made me shiver with separation anxiety.

When I was lying on the gurney outside the operating room, awaiting hip surgery- after ten hours in the ER playing our Movie Game with said soul mate (to play the game you start with A and take turns naming a movie title until you run out of A’s; then you move on to the B’s) the pony-tailed anesthesiologist told me to remove my wedding ring.

I can’t, I said. It won’t come off, don’t worry.

It’s hospital policy, she explained. To remove jewelry before surgery.

You’ll need a saw, I said. She smiled. I’ll get some surgical tape- we’ll tape it, she whispered.

I tilted my face toward my husband. He stood there, stoic and brave, betrayed by a gleam of wetness obscuring his usual clear and steady blue gaze. We both knew the risks of breaking a hip, and undergoing emergency hip surgery. The odds aren’t kind. But my age was in my favor. I was twenty years younger than the average woman who falls and breaks a hip. You’re a spring chicken, the surgeon had said.

I love you, I told my husband. Tell the boys I love them. I felt the nurse tape my wedding ring. Ready? she asked.

Yup. Carpe diem, I answered.

***

Shepherd's/Cottage Pie - Gluten-free Comfort Food

Karina’s Irish Cottage Pie | Shepherd’s Pie Recipe

Recipe posted March 2009.

Traditional comfort food for those of you still shoveling snow- or battling juniper pollen. Well, traditional with a few tweaks. We used organic grass fed buffalo. And no dairy at all- no butter or milk. You can use the more traditional ground beef in this recipe, if you prefer. It would be tasty with ground turkey, too. Or even keep it vegan with kidney beans or tofu. It’s all good. Spring is almost here. Really. It is.

Ingredients:

For the topping:

6 small to medium red potatoes, peeled and diced

Sea salt and ground pepper, to taste

A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, to taste

For the filling:

1 pound organic grass fed ground meat or free-range ground turkey

2 large leeks, cleaned, sliced

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 medium carrots, trimmed, sliced

1 cup baby peas- frozen, thawed, is fine

1 14-oz can Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes, with juice

1/2 cup red wine

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon raw sugar

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Sea salt and ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Place the potatoes in a pot of fresh salted water and bring to a boil. Cook until under fork tender.

Saute the ground meat or turkey in a large hot skillet till lightly browned; pour off the fat if there is any; return the skillet to the stove. Add a dash of olive oil. Toss in the leeks and garlic; stir and cook until the leeks are soft.

Add in the carrots; stir and cook for a couple of minutes till tender-crisp. Add in the baby peas and tomatoes. Stir in the red wine, balsamic vinegar, sugar, herbs and cinnamon. Season to taste with sea salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Back to the potatoes:

Drain the potatoes. Season with sea salt, ground pepper. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and stir to soften the edges a bit.

Layer the filling in a casserole or baking dish.

Top with the potatoes.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven until bubbling and hot- about 25 to 30 minutes.

Serves 4.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

Gluten Free Goddess Recipes: Gluten-Free Coconut Layer Cake by Gordon Ramsay

Gluten free coconut layer cake from Karina

Let Us Eat Cake.

Earlier this spring- before the Coronavirus knocked us all sideways- my husband’s birthday marked another spin around the wheel of time. And yes, I baked a cake. And as I stirred the batter and scooped it into cake pans, I thought about the other cakes I have baked for him. The chocolate cake in our first year of marriage. Children beneath our roof. Blue balloons and candles. The newness of each others’ dreams. The shine of our ideas. The belief in what was possible.

We’ve shared twenty-five birthdays now. And the single constant through these twenty-five years is change. Change has woven its intricate design deep inside our marriage, our thirteen different living spaces in seven different states, our evolving work as artists and writers, our sons’ own changing lives.

There isn’t a piece of our life together that has not been burnished by change.

I asked my husband what he felt about this birthday, if anything. He said at first he didn’t feel anything about it. That is was just another day. Another number. But later he turned to me and said he’d been thinking about his early years. The stuff he assumed was important. The choices he made. Or rather, didn’t make. The times he stuck with things out of a sense of duty. Or a bone bred stoicism, believing in the virtue of sticking it out. Trying to make the unworkable work.

Looking back, he said, I don’t understand it. When people say they wouldn’t change a thing? I’d change ten thousand things, he said.

And that’s why I love you, I told him.

And it got me thinking. Would I change ten thousand things? Or would I choose the devil I know?

The thing is this. The devil I know?

It’s change.

So let’s eat cake.

Delicate and moist coconut cake with creamy vegan frosting

Karina’s Gluten-Free Coconut Layer Cake

Recipe posted March 2011 by Karina Allrich.

This moist and tender layer cake makes a lovely birthday cake. I baked it the morning of my husband’s birthday, and covered it until serving (at room temperature). The next morning we had a slice for breakfast- and it was even better. Perfect texture. I would suggest wrapping and freezing for serving beyond twenty-four to thirty-six hours, however.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
1 1/2 cups potato starch (not potato flour)
1/2 cup organic coconut flour
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 free-range organic eggs, beaten, or egg replacer
1/2 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
1 14-oz can organic light coconut milk
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two 9-inch cake pans with a circle of parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flours and dry ingredients.

Add in the eggs, oil, coconut milk, lime juice and vanilla. Beat until smooth. It should resemble a slightly thick and sticky cake batter.

Scoop the cake batter into the two prepared cake pans and spread evenly. Use wet hands, if necessary, to smooth out the tops.

Bake in the center of the oven, side by side for 33 minutes, or so, until firm and springy. A cake tester inserted into the center should emerge clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Make the frosting.

Gluten free dairy free coconut layer cake

Coconut Frosting

With any frosting, start with a small amount of liquid and beat well- add more liquid a smidge at a time- and beat again before you decide it needs more. Frosting will thin quickly- if you’re not careful.

Ingredients:

1 cup dairy-free butter, butter, or organic palm shortening
1 teaspoon pure coconut or vanilla extract
1 pound powdered sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk, a little at a time

Option:

Flaked sweetened coconut for topping

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter/shortening and extract till combined. Add in the powdered sugar and less than half the coconut milk, and beat till smooth. Slowly add the remaining coconut milk, as you need it, a little at a time, beating after each addition, until you achieve a smooth and creamy consistency.

Frost the Cake:

When the cakes are cool, gently remove one from the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Trim off the domed top if you like, using a long serrated knife, to keep the cake layer even. Brush off any crumbs.

Center the first layer top side down on a cake plate. Frost the layer with roughly 3/4 cup of icing. Remove the second cake layer from the pan and peel off the parchment. Trim the dome top, if you like (brush off any crumbs). Place the layer on top of the frosted layer.

Scoop about a cup of frosting onto the top of the cake and spread it evenly to the edges. Begin adding frosting to the sides of the cake, spreading it evenly over the sides. Clean off the frosting spatula under warm water and dry it off.

Smooth the sides by turning the plate as you hold the spatula firmly in place. Clean off the spatula with warm water again, dry it, and smooth out the top.

Sprinkle with grated, sweetened coconut, if desired.

Allow the frosting to set, or chill briefly, before covering and storing the cake.

Yield: 1 9-inch layer cake

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

A slice of gluten-free coconut layer cake

Recipe Notes:

Using coconut milk is a classic choice for making a coconut layer cake. And inherently dairy-free. I used the richer coconut milk in a can- though it was the “lite” version. If you use full fat coconut milk, you might need to keep an eye on baking time- it may need a smidge longer to bake through the center.

If you’d rather try another milk- experiment and let us know how it worked. I imagine any good tasting nut milk, rice milk, or moo-cow dairy milk would be fine.

If you’d rather use butter or vegan stick margarine, either one will work. Just make sure it tastes buttery, not grassy.

For substitutions, please see my guide to baking with substitutions here.

Gluten-Free Goddess Recipes: Gluten-Free English Muffins Recipe by Gordon Ramsay

Lovely gluten free English muffins with nooks and crannies

Tea Worthy English Muffins

After four valiant attempts we finally have a gluten-free English muffin we can toast with pride. An English muffin worthy of Sunday jam. Worthy of artisan organic peanut butter. A slather of mashed avocado. Or cream cheese and chives. And yes. Breakfast in bed.

These warm and golden delectables are too crispy-tender good to munch running to the bus stop or strapped in your car, cataloguing the priority of your daily tasks.

These muffins deserve a proper plate.

A mug of frothy chai.

Your Sunday morning playlist.

I’m not sure why a simple English muffin is so tricky to recreate gluten-free (and in this case, also vegan- no milk and eggs to help the stubborn gluten-free flours fluff and rise). I thought it would be a snap. So I perused Alton Brown’s recipes for inspiration. Using Alton’s basic template the first batch turned out very dense, with no rise and no crunchy edges- though the dough looked promising (pictured above, rising). Dense was not a quality I wanted in my muffin. So I tried again, this time using my own original Gluten-Free Bread recipe as a template (I’m loving the combo of sorghum, potato starch and millet as a flour base for yeasted breads these days). The result was better- but still not quite there.

After a third attempt I realised that the issue might be moisture. I was creating a dough that resembled wheat dough, and I could shape it a bit and pat it into the English muffin rings, but the result was heavy and more resembled a gluten-free hockey puck.

The fourth try was the charm (sometimes perseverance pays off). I added more warm water to the dough (than seemed wise), until it was more of a thick cake batter than a stretchy playful dough.

And sweet bi-locating John from Cincinnatti! It worked.

Karina
xox

Karina’s Gluten-Free English Muffin Recipe

Recipe originally posted April 2009 by Karina Allrich.

Those of you using dairy and eggs, this GFCF recipe would translate into a more traditional recipe using milk and organic free-range eggs. You might start with one beaten egg, and slightly less milk to start out- especially if you like a dense and chewy English muffin (eggs will make them lighter and fluffier). The dough is akin to a thick, sticky cake batter.

First:

Turn your oven on for minute to warm it, then turn it off. Grease 8 English muffin rings and place them on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle a little cornmeal inside the rings if you like.

Ingredients:

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup potato starch (not potato flour) or tapioca starch

1/2 cup organic millet flour

Whisk together the flours, xanthan gum and sea salt.

Mix the warm water and milk; add the sugar and the yeast; stir. Set aside until the yeast begins to get poofy.

Add the proofed yeast to the dry ingredients. Add the oil, honey and egg.

Mix thoroughly. It should be more like a thick muffin batter than a bread dough. A wee bit sticky. If you need to thin a little, add a tablespoon of warm water and mix.

Allow the dough to rest for a few minutes.

Note: You can also create this dough in your bread machine. Use the mix/dough cycle. Let it rest a bit in the machine; then spoon it into the muffin rings for rising.

Spoon the dough into the eight English muffin rings. Using wet fingers press and smooth out the tops of the dough.

English muffin rings and dough, rising.

Next:

Place the baking sheet into the warm oven and allow the dough to rise. Check after 15 minutes. The dough needs to double in height.

Bake in the center of a 350ºF oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, until firm and slightly golden (gluten-free dough doesn’t brown very much; go by touch to see if they’re done).

Remove and cool on a wire rack.

Fork split in half, and toast for maximum crispy edged tender goodness.

Makes 8 English muffins.

Tip:

Wrap leftover muffins in foil, bag, and freeze for the freshest muffin experience.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com