Monday, January 25, 2010

Better Than the Original

Just look at that! Fabulously light and fluffy with delicious flavor - you'd never guess that it's gluten free, but it is! For Christmas, I finally received a set of English muffin rings which allowed me to at long, long last try Bette Hagman's crumpet recipe from More from the Gluten Free Gourmet. The description describes the crumpet as worth the price of the book. And let me tell you, I'd pay a lot more than the list price ($20) for these little GF gems. I made just one little change to Bette's recipe, Bette promotes a GF flour mix with bean flour and, since I do not care for the taste of bean flour, I've used my own flour blend for this recipe: 1/2 cup sweet rice flour, 1/2 cup tapioca starch and 1/2 cup potato starch. These crumpets are wonderful warm with a little jam, used for a sandwich or, possibly my favorite use, the foundation for Eggs Benedict. Fun fact: did you know Eggs Benedict finds it's origins at the turn of the Century at Delmonico's in New York City. Mr. and Mrs. Benedict were regular customers and one day complained there was nothing new on the brunch menu. The chef whipped up a combination of buttered toast, poached eggs, ham and hollandaise sauce and the dish was born. At least according to Betty Crocker.


To create this scrumptious Eggs Benedict I used one crumpet sliced in half and toasted, topped with two slices of Canadian bacon, two poached eggs and a generous slathering of hollandaise. I also received Mastering the Art of French Cooking and tried Julia's recipe for hollandaise. My review: delicious, but too much work and too much butter for breakfast. I prefer Betty Crocker's version (I feel a little better about one stick of butter compared to Julia's two), you can find the recipe here. You'll have to purchase a copy of the Gluten Free Gourmet for the crumpets, Bette Hagman deserves every royalty she gets for those.

* In other news, I've begun my quest to master the art of gluten free French cooking with a couple naturally GF recipes, I'll post those soon!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me

Yesterday I turned the big 2-6.

Up until a few years ago there was this Italian Restaurant in Portland with delicious food and huge portions called the Village. It was a common birthday dinner destination. I would always order the veal parmigiana and would eat it for about a week. Since I'm gluten-free now and the restaurant has closed I haven't had veal parmigiana in a long, long time.

This birthday I decided to change all that. Since Joe and I plan to go out tonight to celebrate, but I still wanted something for my birthday. I've developed great GF recipes for both chicken and eggplant parmigiana and while I some conscience twangs about the treatment of veal cows, I decided to give myself a treat and an ethical pass. After all, it was my birthday. It was delicious. Perhaps not as good as I remember the Village being, but for something from my own kitchen - it was awesome and easy.


Veal Parmigiana
  • veal cutlets
  • Italian seasoned GF breadcrumbs
  • Tomato sauce (whatever you like and have on hand should work fine)
  • Shredded mozzarella cheese
  • Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
  • salt
  • pepper
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • Olive Oil
Once again, not really any measurements- I like to eyeball ingredient amounts when I'm cooking. Season the veal with salt and pepper. Dip each piece into the egg and then dredge with the breadcrumbs. Fry in olive oil for 1-2 minutes per side and stack the pieces in a small glass casserole, 2-3 pieces of veal per stack. If you like a lot of tomato sauce, put it between each piece. Or, if you're like me and think less is more, just put tomato sauce on top along with the cheeses. Bake for about ten minutes for medium rare. Serve with pasta.
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