Gluten Free Recipes

I have a friend with Celiac’s and we cook for him and other friends rather often. I do my best to make things he can eat (actually, I try to make sure he can eat everything as it just seems rude to deprive him of somethign that’s on the table). Usually it isn’t a problem, but there are a couple of things that I’d like to make which I can’t just fix on my own, namely, cornbread and pizza crust.

I’ve looked online and flipped through a couple of gluten free cookbooks and the recipes either require fifteen different ingredients that I’m reasonably sure they don’t sell at my grocery store or the directions don’t seem right, like a corn bread recipe that cooks for over an hour or pizza crust that’s liquidy enough to spread with a spatula. So, if anyone out there as any suggestions, particularly things that you’ve tried, I’d be very greatful. Also, if there is one really good cookbook for gluten free cooking, I’d be interested, as he’s moving out on his own soon.

My mom has been on a gluten-free diet for years. She tried this cornbread recipe, and liked it a lot. It’s easy to make, and the ingredients are not too exotic. Soy flour and brown rice flour can usually be obtained at a health food store, and some large groceries even carry these items.

I can’t help with corn bread or pizza dough, but if you haven’t already tried it, I highly recommend kasha as an alternative to rice. It’s highly nutritious and gluten free, not to mention really yummy. It’s got kindof a nutty taste (in fact, it kindof smells like popcorn when it’s cooking).

I don’t follow the box directions, instead making a more interesting pilaf with it.

Ingredients
1 cup medium grain kasha
2 cups broth or stock
1 egg or equivalent egg substitute
1 medium onion, finely chopped (any color, your preference)
1 package sliced mushrooms (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Directions

Pour 2 cups broth into a microwave safe measuring cup
Preheat a large pan on the stove over medium heat (dry)
Lightly beat 1 egg in a bowl and add kasha, stirring to thoroughly coat the granules
Dump the moistened kasha into the hot pan, spread it out evenly, then stir continuously, breaking it up as it dries.
In the meantime heat the broth to boiling in the microwave
When the kasha is completely dry and loose in the pan, slowly pour in the hot liquid.
Add salt, stir and bring to a low boil
Reduce heat to low, cover and let steam for 7 to 10 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed.

While that’s cooking, coat the bottom of a pan with oil and heat
Add onion and cook until softened (bring it all the way to caramelized for an added zing, if desired)
If you’re using mushrooms, when the onions are just about to the desired softness, add the mushrooms and continue cooking until they reach the desired softness.

Toss the onion and mushroom mixture with the kasha in a large bowl and serve.

My google-fu is poor today. I had a bookmark I dredged up off an old disc for a site that had a rice based batter bread that came out quite well. It involved soaking the rice in water overnight then grinding the stuff in a blender into a batter and adding some other assorted pretty common ingredients. I would love to find the recipe again.

I manage a large collection of Celiac Disease info for my library (I’m a health librarian.) Wish I could mail you all of my info… Here’s my best-of-the-web for gluten-free recipes :

Gluten-Free Pantry – Recipes
http://www.glutenfree.com/recipes.htm

Savory Palate – Recipes
http://www.savorypalate.com/recipes.aspx

Celiac Sprue Association – Recipes
http://www.csaceliacs.org/recipes.php

Following the first link that Snowcarpet provided, I saw a recipe for cornbread stuffing, the first ingredient of which is Gluten-Free Pantry Yankee Cornbread Mix, so if you don’t object to using a mix instead of working from scratch, that seems to be a great solution for your desire to make cornbread. When searching to see if the manufacturer had their own website with other products, I happened across this site that not only offers a gluten-free cornbread mix, but a pizza dough mix, as well.

Person with DH checking in (gluten free diet required). This messageboard has been helpful in the past though I have not been there in some time.

Mrs.Greenback has become a veritable wizard (female: wizardess?) with my diet restrictions. She makes a pizza crust that most people can not tell the difference. The same goes for her cookies and cakes. Our bread maker has been a godsend as the rice bread you can buy is more like sand than food. I’ll talk to her this evening and see what I can get.

For snacks, a brand named Glutino has some pretty good pretzels, though they are expensive.

According to a friend of mine, Namaste makes good pizza crust.