It has only taken me two years to (almost) finish my 2015 bucket
list.
I am working on finishing them before the end of 2016 and starting a
new list in 2017!
1. Gluten Free Pretzels or Pretzel rolls
I made the rolls one night in August using a recipe
from Nicole Hunn at Gluten-Free on a Shoestring. http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/pretzel-rolls/.
They were delicious! We had some leftover pulled pork and meatballs in the
fridge so everyone made their own pretzel roll subs for dinner. The next
morning we made egg and cheese sandwiches, which would have been even better
with some grilled veggies.
2. Poached Salmon (Still needs to be completed)
3. Gluten free Puff Pastry
4. Gluten Free Beef Wellington
I used the GF puff pastry to make Beef Wellington.
It wasn’t pretty but tasted amazing! I made a mixture of mushrooms and chicken
livers sautéed with fresh thyme, salt, pepper and a little beef stock and
spread that on the pastry, when cooled. I used a top sirloin roast because that
is what I had in the freezer. I based my
cooking times on the recipe for Beef Wellington in The Good Housekeeping
Cookbook from 1973. I did rush it and the meat was warm, so the puff pastry
fell off of the roast, but the pastry was buttery and crispy while the meat
with juicy and tender. Perfect! I will
definitely make it again.
5. Coq au Vin
I made this way back in early 2015 on Superbowl
Sunday. Not exactly traditional Superbowl food, but delicious! Julia Child’s
recipe of course, from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I skipped the cognac though since I didn’t
have any and wasn’t sure if it was gluten free and used King Arthur’s
gluten-free all-purpose flour as a thickener. Traditional recipes like this,
can easily be made gluten-free. I was so happy with how this came out! It disappeared before I remembered to take a picture!
I made a feast for myself on Mother’s Day, with
Karina’s help. I seared the duck breast (saved the fat) and served with lamb
chops, a smoked mozzarella risotto and roasted asparagus. It was a real
decadent meal! I used the leftover duck fat to make shoestring potato fries the
next day! What a treat!
I made these for my birthday dinner 2016. It was a
simplified version using the tomatillo salsa recipe below. I heated up the
sauce, added some tortilla chips, shredded cooked chicken, and topped with
sunny side up eggs (cooked in another pan), then sprinkled with feta and fresh
cilantro. It was so good. The kids even ate it!
8. Develop my own
of GF flours to make an all purpose flour
I haven’t done this yet for a couple of reasons. I
am not a great technical cook. I don’t follow recipes exactly. I don’t always
measure precisely. I cook from feeling.
So I have taken help from the amazing GF flours already out there. I
like to use Cup4Cup and King Arthur’s GF blend.
9. Gluten free pasta from scratch
I have made GF pasta from scratch a couple of times,
once without a pasta machine and once with the pasta machine. I still need to
do some more testing. Both times, no matter how thinly rolled, it still came
out gummy. This is where a good flour blend would help to find a way to take
out the gumminess. Anyone have any suggestions?
10. Gluten free gnocchi from scratch
I have made gnocchi several times and it has always
come out delicious! I use mostly ricotta and then sweet potato, Yukon golds or
leftover mashed potatoes with a little GF all purpose flour. I will write the
recipe down soon, I promise! I usually serve my gnocchi with a pesto or light
cream sauce.
11. Gluten free bread from scratch that is good enough
for anyone to eat
There are two cookbook authors I go to when I want
to bake something GF. Nicole Hunn from Gluten Free on a Shoestring which you
have heard me talk about a lot lately because of her amazing new cookbook coming out and the other is Roben Ryberg (You Won’t Believe It’s
Gluten-Free!). I have been making Roben’s
Everyday Loaf (corn-based) a lot recently. It is a good sandwich bread. More often, I have been making King Arthur’s
GF bread mix, but that is expensive as is the GF bread my kids like, either
Wegman’s or Trader Joe’s.
12. Gluten free pizza dough that is good enough for
anyone to eat.
I haven’t even attempted this yet, but hope to soon.
Fridays are our pizza night, so by the time Friday rolls around I’m usually
exhausted, so we have frozen pizza (Freschetta’s GF Cheese) or I use the
Against the Grain crust to make my grilled pizza recipe below. You can also bake it in the oven at 425 for 12-15 minutes.
Grilled Pizza (feeds
our family of 5 with leftovers)
Ingredients
2 frozen pizza crusts (I like to use Against the Grain)
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 6-ounce can Hunts Tomato Sauce
1 16-ounce block of mozzarella cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper
Toppings, optional and only limited by your
imagination! Ham and pineapple, sausage, peppers and onions, fresh ricotta,
olives, spinach and feta or leftover hamburger
Directions
Heat grill to about 400 degrees. Brush olive oil on one side of each pizza crust. Put
that side down on the grill. Brush the other side of the pizza crust with the oil
and close the lid for 2 minutes. Using spatulas (I have found 2 work best), flip the
pizza crusts and turn the burners down to low or move crusts to a cooler part
of the grill. Close lid for 2 minutes. Top the crusts with sauce, 3-4 Tablespoons per
crust. (You will not need all 6 ounces, so reserve the rest for pasta the next
day.) Sprinkle about 8 ounces of cheese on each pizza and
add any toppings you are using. Close lid and cook until cheese is melted, 5 to 10
minutes, depending on your grill. Using 2 spatulas remove each pizza and put on
serving platter, cutting board or pizza stone and sprinkle with salt and
pepper.
For the remainder of 2016 I will try to finish this
list by making Poached Salmon, maybe testing flour mixtures to make my own all
purpose flour and make a gf pizza dough that is good enough for anyone to eat. I predict the Salmon will happen and the other two…well,
maybe next year. What is on your
cooking bucket list?
Labels: cooking bucket list, duck, fresh pasta, gluten free, gluten free on a shoestring, grilling, pizza