Pulled Pork Sandwiches

In the late 1980's, I went on a trip to Tennesse in my pre-diagnosis of celiac.  While there my favorite thing besides the wonderfully hospitable people, their slow way of life, and the beautiful surroundings, was their pulled pork sandwiches.  Oh my gosh they were to die for delicious! 

Traveling around Memphis, Shilo and Lake Pickwick there were tons of little roadside dinners with barbeque. You could literally smell it just about anywhere you drove. Their pulled pork sandwiches were boiled to make the meat tender and then slow roasted or smoked for what seemed like days. But the aroma came wafting about and would draw you in.

The pulled pork sandwiches were stacked

high with pulled pork and there was always

a huge side of cole slaw. While there I was

instructed to place the cloe slaw on the

pulled pork. It sounded weird, but tasted

incredible. There was just enough sweet-

ness and crunch to balance out the spciey,

smokey pork.

Unfortunately, these delectable masterpieces were also loaded with gluten.  I had longed for those sandwiches for many years, and finally decided that no task was to great, nor any recipe.  So I went to my on-line resources to research recipes that sounded plausible for me to attempt.  I found hundreds, but settled on two different versions.  Either way the results are similar.  Since it was too cold and rainy we opted not to try the b.b.q. recipe; that will have to wait for summer.

Being that I am not one to leave a recipe well enough alone, I added lots of onions and garlic, a little oregano, and bay leaves to the crock pot, while the meat was simmering. 

When I drained off all of the liquid, I added more garlic, onions, and Bone Sucking Sauce (which is gluten-free), and put it in a pan to raost in the oven for hours.  It sure brought back memories of Tennesse.  The aroma was amazing!  I had to fight my daughter and husband off so that they wouldn't sneak the pulled pork before it was time.  The crock pot recipe came from About Southern Food and the recipe for the oven roasted one came from Tyler's Ultimate on the Food Network.  You deicde which one is your favorite recipe.  I served mine with cole slaw on Udi's whole grain bread as we have yet to find any decent gluten-free buns. This is the perfect recipe to make for a crowd.  If you serve this for your Super Bowl Party it will surely be an instant hit!!  All of the products used in this recipe were purchased by me and are our personal favorites.

Crockpot Pulled Pork



Delicious pork shoulder, cooked with barbecue sauce and onion, then shredded.


Ingredients:


pork shoulder roast, about 4 pounds
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups water
1 bottle (16 ounces) barbecue sauce, or 2 cups homemade sauce
1 cup chopped onion

Preparation:

Place half of the thinly sliced onions in bottom of slow cooker; add pork and water, along with remaining onion slices. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 to 10 hours or 4 to 5 hours on HIGH heat setting. Drain liquid from slow cooker; chop the meat coarsely and discard excess fat. Put the pork back in the slow cooker. Add barbecue sauce and chopped onion. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours longer. Stir occasionally. Serve with warm split buns and coleslaw.


Serves 8 to 10.

Oven Roasted Pulled Pork Sandwiches
 
Ingredients



Dry Rub:
3 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard

3 tablespoons coarse salt
1 (5 to 7 pound) pork roast, preferably shoulder or Boston butt

Cider Vinegar Barbecue Sauce:
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 cup yellow or brown mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
12 hamburger buns

Directions


Mix the paprika, garlic power, brown sugar, dry mustard, and salt together in a small bowl. Rub the spice blend all over the pork and marinate for as long as you have time for, as little as 1 hour or up to overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.


Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.


Put the pork in a roasting pan and bake for about 6 hours. Basically, roast the pork until it's falling apart and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 170 degrees F.


To make the barbecue sauce: combine the vinegar, mustard, ketchup, brown sugar, garlic, salt, cayenne, and black pepper in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer gently, stirring, for 10 minutes until the sugar dissolves.


Remove the pork roast from the oven and transfer to a large platter. Allow the meat to rest for about 10 minutes. While still warm, take 2 forks and "pull" the meat to form shreds. Using 2 forks, shred the pork by steadying the meat with 1 fork and pulling it away with the other. Put the shredded pork in a bowl. Pour 1/2 of the sauce on the shredded pork and mix well to coat.


To serve, spoon the pulled pork mixture onto the bottom 1/2 of the hamburger bun, and top with the spicy slaw. Serve with pickle spears and the remaining sauce on the side.

Gluten-free lemon bars

Recipe and photos by Autumn.

My mother got this recipe from one of her favorite websites The Joy Of Baking and then translated it into gluten-free.  There isn't alot of flour in this recipe so it is pretty easy.

If you love lemon then this is the perfect recipe.  Our neigbors down the street have a lemon tree in their front yard and every day that we drove by it, my mom would say that she wanted to rescue the lemons and make some sweet and savory dishes with them.  And if nothing else she was just going to zest and squeeze them, and put them in the freezer for dishes down the road.  So my dad and I finally went over and asked the neighbors if we could have some.  It was so funny because they said they had picked a bunch and made lemonade with them but had no clue what else they could do with the lemons.  Everyone in our house, minus my dad, love lemons and tart things.  This recipe is actually a fine balance between buttery, sweet, and tart.  The zest is the best part of the lemons.  

CRUST:


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

1 cup all purpose flour - Featherlight flour (see recipe below)

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/8 teaspoon salt

FILLING:


1 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (approximately two large lemons)

1 tablespoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

2 tablespoons all purpose flour-Featherlight flour

TOPPING:

Confectioner's (powdered or icing) sugar

Lemon Zest - The yellow outer rind of the lemon that contains the fruit's flavor and perfume.

These smelled so delicious and so we cut them way too early. If you wait until they are completely cooled they will have a better cut line to them.  Either way they are yummy!

TIP: Always remove the zest first before halving and squeezing the lemon. Use a fine strainer to remove the seeds from the juice.

Risotto

I began making risotto as an additon to our repetoire of side dishes to accompany b.b.q.'d, or roasted meats.  It was something that was naturally gluten-free and does not cost a whole lot, and can serve a good amount of people.  Once your prep work is completed the risotto only takes about 20 to 30 minutes to make.  You do need to baby it a bit, but the results are so worth it. 
I love the creamy texture of risotto, and how it can be a stand alone meal or at the very least an impressive side dish.  To make this a main course you can add more vegetables and meat.

Basic Risotto

Serves 4 as a main course or 6 as a side dish

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion , peeled and diced
6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced
2 cups Arborio rice
4 to 6 cups chicken broth, heated
1/2 cup dry white wine
sea salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon parsley, minced

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese , or grated Asiago, plus extra for passing

1. Heat oil in a large skillet, 10 to 12 inches in diameter. Add onions and garlic; sauté, stirring occastionally, until they soften, 3 to 5 minutes.

2. Stir in rice and 1 teaspoon salt or to taste.  Deglaze the pan with the wine.  Add 1 1/2 cups of the broth and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until pan bottom is dry when rice is pulled back with spoon, 8 to 10 minutes.

3.  Then add 1/2 cup of the broth at a time, stirring constantly until each addition is absorbed; cook until rice is creamy but still somewhat firm in center 10 to 12 minutes longer.

4. Stir in cheese and mix in parsley.  Serve on a wide platter or individual plates with additional cheese passed separately.

Pollo guisado sin gluten estilo puertoriqueno

Pollo guisado sin gluten is really just a gluten-free stewed chicken.  This is a Puerto Rican mainstay that is often served as a side dish and not a main course.  The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it is naturally gluten-free.  When teaching my gluten-free cooking classes this is a concept that I try to instill in my students, that cooking from scratch is very often glute-free.  It is not rocket scence and the dishes can have basic ingredients, be simple to make, taste great and still be gluten-free.  Most folks have the misconception that gluten-free food has to be lack luster and that is just not true.  You should never have to suffer color, texture, variety or flavor just becasue your food is gluten-free.  The only real qualifications for a dish to be gluten-free is that it does not contain wheat, rye barley and sometimes oats.  So think outside of the box and be creative.   

This is a recipe that my mother would fix throughout my life.  Just the aroma of this dish made me feel so warm and fuzzy all over.  I remember smelling this dish and thinking all is well with the world right now.  My mother loved to cook and it was such a labor of love that she would prepare for her husband, children, and grandchildren.  I love chicken and this is one of my favorite ways to fix it in the winter.  It is a very hardy, delicous and nuritious meal.  Be sure to serve it nice and warm over rice. 

I have seen this recipe with white wine instead of the chicken broth or 1/2 and 1/2, or just water instead of the broth.  Any way you prepare it, it is bound to please.  It's not quite a Coq au vin, but it is just as delicious, just from a different culture.

3 lbs. chicken pieces, seasoned with adobo

3 tsps. adobo (minced garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, olive oil)

1 cup sofrito (see recipe below)
1 cup tomato sauce

2 cups chicken broth, or water

4 potatoes, diced

4 carrots, chopped

4 celery ribs, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Sofrito

1/4  bunch cilantro, chopped

1 head of garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper

*4 - 6 ajíes dulces (Optional.  If in Puerto Rico easier to find)
1 tbsp. capers

1/4 cup green olives stuffed with pimento
1 teaspoon.oregano, crushed

1 teaspoon salt

1/2  teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

If you would like to prepare a bunch of sofrito and reserve it for dishes down the road, one way is to - peel, wash, seed, chop, and mince what you need and just dump it all in the in a bowl and mix well. Freeze in ice-cube trays, then dump in a double freezer bag.  I have seen this recipe where they just put all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor, but my family likes the whole olives and capers.

Season the chicken ahead of time (at least 1 hour) and refrigerate until needed.

In a medium sized sauce pan heat olive oil, add chicken and cook until it is brown on both sides. Remove from oil and drain. In the same pan add the sofrito and cook for 3 minutes or so. Add the chicken and the rest of the ingredients, season to taste, cover and cook over medium heat for 35 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are fork tender.  Add the celery about 5 minutes before serving.  Serve over rice.

Gluten free black bottom cupcakes

I have been making this recipe since the 1980's.  My two older children Daniel and Caitlyn, now in their 20's were 1 and 5 years old.  At the time we participated in a playgroup at the La Sierra Park in Arden Park, Sacramento, California.  At our playgroups after our children had played for some time we would eat lunch together.  Often we would share what food we had brought and have a sort of potluck.  of course this pre-celiac days for our family.  Not one to shy away from asking for recipes, I acquired this recipe from one of the mom's, who I believe was Jenny.  Our playgroup disbanded as soon as all of our oldest child started Kindergarten.  With everyone off to different schools and different schedules it just seemed right at the time.  How amazing is that, that I still have this recipe and can still create it even though we are gluten-free?!  It's funny to me how many recipes I have acquired over the years, and have fortunately been able translate them into gluten-free recipes.  I appreciate all of the recipes that I have gotten and will continue to look for more.

I made this recipe this weekend for my 12 year old daughter, Autumn who was going on a trip to Bodega Bay.  She doesn't like brownies all that much so I wanted to make something with just enough chocolate in it.  This recipe was right on the money.  Autumn's friend, Lydia also has celiac, and so I made this treat for them to share and enjoy.  Even the non-celiac's that went on this trip loved the cupcakes.  Autumn reported that they could not tell that they were even gluten-free.  As always make sure to keep all of your dry ingredients seperate from your wet ingredients until you are completely ready to combine them.  otherwise your xanthan gum tends to gum up and the recipe will cease up.

INGREDIENTS


• 1 1/2 cups Amy's cake flour (see recipe below)

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

• 1 cup water

• 1 tablespoon vinegar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

• 1 egg

• 1/3 cup white sugar

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two 12 cup muffin pans with paper liners. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together 1 cup sugar, oil and water until blended. Stir in the vinegar and vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture until incorporated. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups 1/3 full with chocolate batter, then top with a heaping tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Bake cupcakes in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until done.

*Note:  I make double of the chocolate mixture to be able to incorporate all of the cream cheese mixture.

Amy’s Gluten-Free Cake Flour


For 3 cups:

1 cup rice flour

1 cup cornstarch or arrowroot

2/3 cup potato starch

1/3 cup tapioca starch

1 tablespoon potato flour


For 9 cups:

3 cups rice flour

3 cups cornstarch or arrowroot

2 cups potato starch

1 cup tapioca starch

3 tablespoons potato flour

*If you would like to purchase baking flour pre-mixed, Authentic Foods sells Bette Hagman’s Featherlight Rice Flour Mix, but it’s not as good as Amy’s. The differences are slight but enough to make the difference in the smooth texture of your cake.



Don’t forget ½ tsp xanthun gum per cup of flour used.

It’s Cloudy with a chance of soup

It is officially soup weather! In Sacramento, when autumn hits, a signal is sent to my family’s brains that it is time to have more quiet, calm and hot meals together. Winter usually is just an extension of that, but this year of all year’s winter has hit us hard. When I say hard, I mean it has been cold (below 60 degrees), wet, overcast and kind of dreary. Since it is freezing (under 40 degrees) in most parts of the United States, a nice hot soup really hits the spot. usually by January my family are craving soups, but now it is the time to turn up the repetoire a notch. 

To us there is nothing more comforting and nourishing than homemade soup. For many folks soup is just something they pour out of a can and they usually only have it when they are under the weather. Canned soup for my family has never been an option. Something about that tinny taste, and the pallor and lack of texture of the vegetables that make it so easy  for us to not even consider. From an early age my mother taught us that homemade soup was the best thing next to antibiotics. She was convinced that a nice bowl of soup could revive even those near death; a quick pick you up, through and through, right down to your soul.   To this day, when I get sick I crave a nice bowl of homemade soup.

Soups do not need to take long  to make and they do not have to be expensive. Fresh and organic ingredients are a good start. If you are in a crunch for time, then you can cheat a little by buying store bought organic broths to help.  Then all you need to do is add the fresh vegetables and meat if you so desire and wulah, you have soup.  Start with a few basics such as fresh onions, garlic, celery, carrots and potatoes.  Fresh herbs are a wonderful bonus to your soups, especially if they are vegan, because they add so much flavor.  What you need to know is that there is no right way to make soup.  Remember to be creative and I think you will find that when you begin making your own homemade broths and soups how cost effective it can be, how much better the flavor is, and how much better it is for you.  Don't forget the additional bonus, that making soups from scratch puts you in control of the ingredients that go into it, and soups are naturally gluten-free!

Corn Chowder
(Recipe courtesy of my NEW hardback Fanny Farmer Cookbook I received for Christmas!)
You can use frozen or canned corn for this recipe but fresh summer corn tastes the best. Cut the kernels from the ears of corn and then freeze them until you are ready to make this chowder. I used a mixture of white corn and yellow corn.

This recipe has been adjusted a bit to a former recipe that I vaguely remeber from when I was in high school.  While in high school I worked at a natural foods ice cream, sandwich and sald shop called Vicky Maries.  We were required to make this soup from scratch once per week.  Up until that point, I had never had corn chowder.  I love corn and this was the perfect marriage for a thick and hearty soup.  While this version is made with cream, you can use rice, soy, or nut milk.  Although, this recipe has meat in it, it is not necessary to make it with meat.  You can just start out with your arromatics and a good quality olive oil.  Also the carrots and the potatoes are just added for color, texture, and as a natural thickening agent.  Other corn chowder recipes I looked up used flour and butter in the beginning as a thickening agent.  So as you can see the possiblities are endless. 

4 slices of bacon, pancetta, or ham
1 onion, finely chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 thin carrots, finely chopped
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups of liquid (water, chicken broth, or vegetable stock)
2 cups corn kernels
3 cups of cream
sea salt and fresh ground peper to taste

Cook the the bacon slowly in a deep pan until the fat has melted and the pieces are brown and crisp.  Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat, and add the onion, carrots, celery and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the potatoes and liquid, cover and cook until the potatoes are just tender.  Add the corn, and cream and cook for 5 minutes more.  Before serving add the salt and pepper to taste.

Cream of Carrot Soup or Potage de Crécy
(Recipe courtesy of Easy French Food)
• 2 tablespoons butter


• 1 onion, peeled and chopped finely

• 1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled if needed and sliced thinly

• 1 large potato, peeled and sliced thinly

• 1 clove garlic, crushed

• 4 cups chicken stock

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

• 1/4 cup whipping cream

• salt to taste

• chives, chopped

In a large sturdy soup pot (or Dutch oven), melt the butter on medium heat. Cook the onions, carrots, potato, and garlic in the butter for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chicken stock and pepper and bring the soup to a boil. Turn the heat down so that the soup is just barely bubbling. Cover the pot and cook the soup for 30 minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat and allow it to cool enough so you can comfortably puree it, using either a food processor or blender. Work in small batches and watch out for hot splashing soup! Once it is pureed return the soup to a pot. You can also puree this soup using a stainless steel food mill for a very smooth soup.

When you are done pureeing all the soup, stir in the whipping cream and season to taste with salt and additional pepper. You can further season this soup with such things as powdered dry ginger, cumin, and curry. All of these flavors go very nicely with carrots. I also like a pinch of cayenne.
Heat the soup to serve. Serve in bowls and garnish with chopped chives.

Makes about 6 - 1 cup servings.




 



For more ideas on soups:

Homemade chicken and vegetable soup

Homemade tomato soup

Vegan cream of celery soup

Vegan cashew cream for soups

Cream of carrot soup