We eat, we learn
Last week, we had guests. Nate's family was here for a visit and I get the district feeling that they don't much like our food. When in town, they always want to eat out and I've never been big on eating out. I know what I like and Nate cooks the food I like, often times better then what I am served when out. But after finally being diagnosed with celiac disease a couple of weeks ago, I have only eaten out once and so I was pulling hard for staying in.
But over the four nights they were here, I lost that battle twice and so last weekend, I had sushi and my first gluten poisoning since going gluten free. My mistake was that I didn't speak to the chef and server about food sensitivities. I'm on a strict gluten free and dairy free diet for the next couple of months and I assumed sushi and sashimi would always be safe. I opted for chirashi (scattered sashimi over rice) and realized too late that there was a layer of thinly sliced, marinated mushrooms between the sashimi and rice. I wrongly assumed it was fish and ate some of the mushrooms and has already eaten some of the possibly contaminated fish before I realized my mistake.
So now, I know what gluten poisoning feels like; that is takes VERY little gluten to make me miserable for days, and that I always have to talk to my server and the chef.
Knowing that despite my bad experience with the sushi, the in-laws were again pushing very hard to go out to eat, I decided to start calling small restaurants that we've enjoyed in the past to see if it was even possible to accommodate my dietary restrictions. The first place I tried was El Mestizo, because I remembered that they served corn tortillas with the meals and thought their kitchen might be wheat free, since they cook traditional Mexican cuisine. When I called to ask about the wheat flour content of the meals on their menus, I was immediately passed on to the chef. He spoke with me at length about what items they use wheat flour in, which was nearly 100%, but stated that there was no reason they couldn't be prepared without. So we chatted for a bit and he told me that he would clean the kitchen and have the staff prepare tortillas with only corn flour and keep a pan cleaned, just let the server know when I arrive.
Well, I was amazed by the meal. I had pibil, which is a slow roasted pork, with rice and corn tortillas and not only did it taste amazing, but I suffered no ill consequences. Now I don't know that our company enjoyed their dinners, but at least now I have found a place to eat out safely. I plan to call ahead anytime I am faced with eating out in the future. And hooray for eating out safely and not being served food that tastes of saw dust.
As I'm still grieving for the lack of cake in my life, I spent some of this weekend prepping for learning to bake gluten free goodies. I am using Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America as my guide and yesterday, I made up the 5 flour mixes to keep in my refrigerator, meaning I also cleaned out the refrigerator. And this morning, I baked my first loaf of gluten-free bread.
I tried the egg bread which is a yeast bread that uses a high protein flour mix (soy, tapoica, whey, and rice) and lots of egg yolks. The bread dough, is a batter of the consistancy of pancake batter, that was easy to mix together and after an hour rise time, it baked for 55 min. The result is beautiful. It looks like bread and tastes like brioche. The only changes I'd make is to cook for a whole hour instead of 55 min.
Baking without gluten is very different. The science is completely different and setting up the kitchen seemed more like lab work than baking. The breads don't rise much, but I'm shocked at just how thick this loaf became. It lost volume upon cooling, but is still light and airy.
Now I just have to decide what to make with all these left over egg whites.
But over the four nights they were here, I lost that battle twice and so last weekend, I had sushi and my first gluten poisoning since going gluten free. My mistake was that I didn't speak to the chef and server about food sensitivities. I'm on a strict gluten free and dairy free diet for the next couple of months and I assumed sushi and sashimi would always be safe. I opted for chirashi (scattered sashimi over rice) and realized too late that there was a layer of thinly sliced, marinated mushrooms between the sashimi and rice. I wrongly assumed it was fish and ate some of the mushrooms and has already eaten some of the possibly contaminated fish before I realized my mistake.
So now, I know what gluten poisoning feels like; that is takes VERY little gluten to make me miserable for days, and that I always have to talk to my server and the chef.
Knowing that despite my bad experience with the sushi, the in-laws were again pushing very hard to go out to eat, I decided to start calling small restaurants that we've enjoyed in the past to see if it was even possible to accommodate my dietary restrictions. The first place I tried was El Mestizo, because I remembered that they served corn tortillas with the meals and thought their kitchen might be wheat free, since they cook traditional Mexican cuisine. When I called to ask about the wheat flour content of the meals on their menus, I was immediately passed on to the chef. He spoke with me at length about what items they use wheat flour in, which was nearly 100%, but stated that there was no reason they couldn't be prepared without. So we chatted for a bit and he told me that he would clean the kitchen and have the staff prepare tortillas with only corn flour and keep a pan cleaned, just let the server know when I arrive.
Well, I was amazed by the meal. I had pibil, which is a slow roasted pork, with rice and corn tortillas and not only did it taste amazing, but I suffered no ill consequences. Now I don't know that our company enjoyed their dinners, but at least now I have found a place to eat out safely. I plan to call ahead anytime I am faced with eating out in the future. And hooray for eating out safely and not being served food that tastes of saw dust.
As I'm still grieving for the lack of cake in my life, I spent some of this weekend prepping for learning to bake gluten free goodies. I am using Gluten-Free Baking with The Culinary Institute of America as my guide and yesterday, I made up the 5 flour mixes to keep in my refrigerator, meaning I also cleaned out the refrigerator. And this morning, I baked my first loaf of gluten-free bread.
I tried the egg bread which is a yeast bread that uses a high protein flour mix (soy, tapoica, whey, and rice) and lots of egg yolks. The bread dough, is a batter of the consistancy of pancake batter, that was easy to mix together and after an hour rise time, it baked for 55 min. The result is beautiful. It looks like bread and tastes like brioche. The only changes I'd make is to cook for a whole hour instead of 55 min.
Baking without gluten is very different. The science is completely different and setting up the kitchen seemed more like lab work than baking. The breads don't rise much, but I'm shocked at just how thick this loaf became. It lost volume upon cooling, but is still light and airy.
Now I just have to decide what to make with all these left over egg whites.