Take it away Tanya:
It was great to have our very own Vicki Gainsberg lead a cooking class for our May meeting! She is a Registered Dietician, who specializes in Celiac Disease and Food Allergies. The meeting/cooking class was held on May 10th at Whole Foods Lincoln Park on North Avenue (see link above). Whole Foods is very supportive of the Celiac community!
It was a treat to have Vicki show us how to make such easy and delicious recipes. She also answered questions that we had about cooking and talked about various flours.
Asian stores have great fine rice flours, which are great for baking sweet treats.
Vicki introduced us to a new grain called Quinoa. Besides myself and my roommate, no one else had ever tried it. It is an easy grain to incorporate into your meals and it has great nutritional value. Its cooks up a lot like rice. Vicki showed us how to prepare a Southwestern Quinoa Salad. Chop up some peppers and other veggies, mix up a sauce, and add it all to the cooked quinoa and you have a real winner!
Zesty Southwestern Quinoa Salad
1 cup Quinoa
2 cups Water
2 cups Frozen Corn
1-2 Jalapeno’s, chopped
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 can Black Beans, drained
1 Red Pepper, chopped
1 Orange or Yellow Pepper, chopped
¼ cup Cilantro, chopped
3 Limes, divided
4 tsp Cumin, ground (divided)
¼ cup Olive Oil
2 tsp honey, divided
4 oz Pepper Jack Cheese, cubed
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cook quinoa according to package directions, using 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water. Quinoa will cook for about 15 minutes. Place cooked quinoa in a large bowl.
Saute chopped jalapeno’s in 1 tsp olive oil. Add frozen corn and sauté until cooked through. Add 1 tsp cumin, juice of 1 lime and 1 tsp honey. Add salt and pepper. Saute a few more minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Add to quinoa, along with beans, peppers, and cheese.
Dressing
Combine juice of 2 limes, olive oil, 2 tsp cumin and 1 tsp honey, whisk well. Add to quinoa mixture. Add in cilantro and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature.
She also demonstrated how to make Meatballs with turkey and chicken meat. I don't know if it could be much easier than what she showed us. Mix up a few ingredients for the sauce and then mix the meat together and simmer in the sauce for about 45 minutes and you have tender, tasty and relatively healthy meatballs!
Not Too Sweet and Sour Turkey Meatballs
1 can Tomato Sauce (10-12oz)
1/3 cup Ketchup
¼ cup Brown Sugar
¼ cup Lemon Juice (about 2 lemons)
1 Bay Leaf
4-5 Whole Cloves
Combine above ingredients and place in saucepan on medium heat. Reduce heat to simmer.
Mix together:
1 lb Ground Turkey ( ½ lb breast meat and ½ lb dark meat)
1 egg
¼-1/3 cup GF Bread Crumbs
¼ cup water
Shape into balls and gently place in warm sauce. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Shake pot or stir meatballs around occasionally to prevent from sticking.
Remove bay leaf and cloves.
Serve with sauce.
We sampled both of the creations. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed these easy recipes.
In addition to these two things, we also sampled New Grist Beer. Beer people seemed to really like it, and non-beer people seemed to enjoy a little as well. It is better than your standard beers and the best part is that celiacs can drink it! Nice to know it exists.
After that, we sampled Chocolate Chip Biscotti dipped in dark and white chocolate. Vicki had prepared ahead of time, because our hour meetings go by a little too fast to fit everything in. She gave us the recipe and talked about making them. She claimed that they are very easy to make.
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Biscotti
1 ½ stick Butter, softened
1 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 cup Rice Flour
1 cup Cornstarch
1 cup Tapioca Flour
1 Tbsp Potato Flour (not potato starch)
¾ tsp Xanthan Gum
Pinch Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 ½ cup chocolate chips
Nuts, optional
In a medium-size bowl mix rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca, potato flour, xanthan gum, salt, and baking powder.
Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar, add in eggs slowly. Add vanilla.
Slowly add in flour mixture. Mix well. Add in chocolate chips.
Onto ungreased parchment lined cookie sheet, spoon into 2 equal oval-shaped loaves.
Use full length of cookie sheet and leave about 2-3 inches between loaves for spreading while baking.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. When cool slice into 1 inch slices. Turn slices on their side and rebake for about 10 minutes. Let cool.
We may have to have another cooking class. Everyone enjoyed. It is nice to have a few taste-tested recipes on hand. Thanks for everyone for coming!!!
Our special thanks to Vickie for a wonderful and informative, not to mention very tasty, class. We hope to have her come again!
