Jun 15, 2015 | Dairy Free, Egg Free, Entrees, Nut Free
I made this for a Cultural Potluck; had to rep for the States and be GF! I have to say it was a hit!
My wife teases me that I’m from the South (of the United States). I have a ton of relatives in the Georgia, Florida and Alabama area as well as a bunch of friends scattered throughout. I was born in Florida and lived in the Atlanta area and throughout the South for about 15 years, However, I don’t hunt, fish or eat collard greens. The last time I drank Sweet Tea on an irregular basis was more than 16 years ago.
Despite all that, there is one dialect (if you will) of Southern cuisine that I love – Cajun/Creole food. If you want to know the difference between Cajun and Creole check out this link. For the purpose of my site, I guess I like Cajun food more. And a lot of that love of the food was the short time I lived close to New Orleans and Emeril Lagasse (more the latter than the former).
Now Cajun food was not a staple in my house as I was growing up. My folks liked “beans” as they called it. Think a big pot of kidney beans cooked all day with onions and then finished with corn bread – I hated it. Might be part of the reason to this day why I will avoid beans on a normal basis; the same can be said about ham. Sorry Mom! But when I was old enough and we were close enough to someplace that had a Popeye’s Chicken, I learned of the joys of almost-Cajun. Then I had actual Cajun food in New Orleans and I was hooked.
Enter one of the OG Food Network shows featuring Emeril. Bam! and I was intrigued enough to try to figure out how to make this Cajun staple! I still have a number of cookbooks from him and thanks to him, I learned the basis for what grew into my version. And finding regular ingredients for this recipe were much easier SOB (South of the Border). But here it goes …
Red Beans & Rice
1 lb. (450 g) dried red beans (kidney beans will work if you can’t find red beans)
2 large red onions
1 lb. (450 g) andouille (I had to use GF Garlic sausage as andouille is hard to find in Canada)
1 lb. (450 g) ham hock
2-2.5 quarts (2 l) chicken stock
1/4 cup (50 g) Cajun Seasoning
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp (15 ml) Olive oil
Rice (between 2-4 cups cooked)
- Rinse the beans and discard any pebbles or broken beans. Put enough cold water to cover the beans plus about two inches and let them soak overnight. Or bring them to a boil, cook for two minutes and then let them stand for an hour.
- Sauté your diced onions and sausage with olive oil and the spices. Put this mixture as well as the beans in a crockpot with about 1 quart of stock and 4 cups of water.
- I let the beans simmer over night and usually add another quart of stock in the morning. If you give them about 24 hours they should be good. If you can’t wait that long, simmer the beans uncovered for about two hours.
- Wash the rice in water. Put 2 cups of water for each cup of rice into a microwave container with the rice. Microwave on high for 10 minutes covered with cling wrap. Lift cover, stir rice and recover. Microwave on medium for 10 minutes. Let stand in the microwave for ten minutes. Take it out, uncover and set aside.
- When you think the beans are done, remove the ham hock, debone it and add the meat back to the pot. Take out the bay leaves and then blend the beans to give the beans a creamy texture.
- Pour over rice and enjoy.
Jun 10, 2015 | Desserts, Egg Free, Nut Free
I have a confession to make. When it comes to desserts, I usually forgo all others in favour of the flavour that has had me enthralled since I was a babe. In fact, that flavour is one of my four basic food groups – chocolate, cheese, chicken and chilies … cha, cha, cha!
But if anything can make me cha, cha, change my mind – it’s an apple crisp. In fact, if I can’t have chocolate, I gravitate towards anything with apple as a backup. Unfortunately, apple pie is currently out of my bailiwick – post CD, so the next best thing, or the better thing, is an apple crisp.
My mother loves apple crisps but never had a recipe. On the other hand, my mother-in-law has a good recipe that I tinkered with and made my own. That’s where some of the best stuff comes from – I should know, my wife came from her too! That said I don’t know who she got it from, so my mother-in-law is getting all the credit!
At any rate, this recipe is relatively simple. I like using Granny Smith apples, because I like the tartness. And using maple syrup gives you a bit more sweetness.
It can be glutenized if you must. But as my new motto is #GFNotTasteFree, why do you need to bow to others misconceptions? Make it so you can eat it and let everyone else figure out that it rocks!
Mama Jan’s Apple Crisp Redux
4 large Granny Smith apples
1/3 cup maple syrup
about a cup GF flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup GF certified oats
- In a saucepan, put your syrup, 2 tbsp flour, cinnamon and 2 tbsp butter to make a sauce. Start your oven pre-heating to 350 degrees.
- As the sauce cooks long enough to melt the butter and mix the ingredients, de-core and dice your apples into chunks with the peels still on.
- Pour the sauce over the apples in a 9″x9″ pan.
- Mix the brown sugar, 3/4 cups flour, the oats and the rest of the butter to make a crumble to put on top of your apple mix.
- Cook for about 25-30 minutes in a convection oven (about 35-40 in a non-convection) or until the crumble starts to brown and the sauce bubbles up to the top.
- Test a bit of the apple to ensure done-ness. If necessary cover it with aluminum foil to finish cooking it so that the crumble doesn’t burn.
Jun 1, 2015 | Egg Free, Nut Free, Side Dishes
A little Pepper Jack and you’re on your way!
Over the years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with grills in general. I’ve never had a real good one and have only had real good success with gas grills since you can very easily regulate the heat. So when I saw a recipe recently for foil pouch potatoes I was intrigued. But what intrigued me is that you can cook them typically in either the oven or the grill – who knew?!
Yep, you can crawl through the web and find tons and tons of foil potato pouches to be done and obviously those tons of people knew! So what makes this one different you say?
Well for starter’s it’s GF of course! And secondly it’s got that Spicy flavour explosion thing goin! So let’s not dally – here’s my version!
Foiled Again Potatoes
4-6 medium potatoes
1 red onion
1/2 cup (120 g) pre-cooked bacon bits
2 tbsp (30g) Lowry’s Seasoning Salt
2 tbsp (30 g) minced garlic
1-2 tbsp (15-30 g) red pepper flakes
1 tbsp (15 g) oregano
- Slice your potatoes into discs about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and then julienne your red onions.
- Create a pouch out of aluminum foil or cheat and use a aluminum foil roasting pan that you cover with foil.
- Cube your butter or scoop it into the foil in various places. Add all of your spices and bacon in – also spread out.
- Close your pouch or cover your pan. Your oven or grill should have been pre-heating by now to 375 degrees.
- Grilled or baked it should be around 45 minutes. But be cautious and check it at about 30 just in case!
- Once they are done cooking serve with some shredded Pepper Jack cheese and some diced green onions as well.
May 10, 2015 | Baking, Nut Free
As someone with Celiac’s Disease, you know it’s difficult to have good bread. Luckily, this simple recipe makes great bread for just a snack and is awesome for French Toast. This recipe is great whether using Glutenized flour or GF flour – as always check your GF flour to ensure you the recipe works well. In some cases, you will need xantham gum, but if like me you use a good mix it’s either already included or you won’t need it.
Banana Loaf
1 cup (225 g) white sugar
1/2 cup (125 g) margarine melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup (125 ml) milk
1 tsp (5 g) salt
1.5 cups (340 g) GF flour
3 mashed bananas
1 tsp (5 g) baking soda
- Mix everything in order while your oven pre-heats to 350 degrees.
This is a double batch.
- Bake in a greased pan for about an hour – if you’re using a convection oven, you need to watch the time or temp. Lower the temp 25 degrees or lower the time of cooking by 25 percent – one or the other and only if you are using a convection oven.
- Let it cool completely and enjoy!
If you’re like me and enjoy nuts, you can add about a half cup per recipe if you want.
Apr 26, 2015 | Entrees, Nut Free
Back in the day, I used to write a recipe column for a newspaper in North Dakota. At that time I was playing around with the idea for a Tex-Mex meatloaf that used salsa and Doritos for the wet and dry ingredients to add to the ground beef for bulk. Since that time, it’s gone through a couple iterations and other ideas have inspired this creation beyond just a simple Tex-Mex. Obviously AD, this had to be tweaked a bit more.
So it’s been enhanced with bacon and some killer barbecue sauce and stuffed with cheese! I love this version and it would make an awful tasty meatloaf sandwich – with GF bread of course!
Tex-Mex Meltdown Meatloaf
1/4 cup Tex-Mex Seasoning
1/2 lb. Pepper Jack Cheese (shred your own to be GF!)
1.5 lb. ground hamburger
1 cup crushed Doritos (I like Jalapeno & Cheddar)
2 large eggs
1 lb. bacon
1/2 cup to a cup of BBQ sauce of your choice
- Mix the all of the ingredients except for the bacon and the BBQ sauce while your oven preheats to 350 degrees.
- Layer your bacon in a loaf pan and then create your loaf inside the bacon so that you wrap it over the top. The best thing would be to create your loaf wrap it and then put the edges of the bacon on the bottom.
- Cook for about an hour – and remember this is for a convection oven. You would likely need about an hour and 15 before you added the BBQ sauce to the top and then cook it for another 10 minutes. The extra 10 is regardless of the convection or not!
- Enjoy!
Apr 26, 2015 | Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Sauces & Seasonings
I have never been a huge fan of smoky barbecue sauce or just straight up red BBQ sauce. So I developed a conglomeration that works in the interim … I may soon develop one from scratch but for now this one is GF and spicy, tangy, sweet and a lovely afterbite!
Bill’s BBQ Sauce
1 jar (298 g) Mr. Sauce Honey BBQ
2 tbsp (30 ml) Habanero Tabasco
1/2 cup (125 ml) spicy sweet mustard (a ground mustard is the best if possible)
1/2 cup (120 g) minced garlic
2 tsp (10 g) cilantro
Mix and enjoy!
