Gluten Free Piroshki

Piroshki with mushroom and rice filling

What are piroshki?  They are a baked pastry  that have a variety of fillings from jam (sweet version) to cabbage (savory version).  In Russian cuisine, they are a traditional accompaniment to soup.  When I was studying Russian in St. Petersburg (many, many years ago when the city was still called Leningrad) I used to have piroshki for breakfast in the university dining hall.  They had sweet ones filled with jam (my favorites), egg and rice filled ones,  and the cabbage filled ones.  I alternated between the egg and rice and jam filled.   The little old ladies who worked in the dining hall in Leningrad tried to get me to take the cabbage filled piroshki, but I wasn't having any of that.  A few years later I discovered this mushroom and rice filling recipe in The Best of Bon Appetit, published in 1979.  The full pastry recipe is quite large and the book has three different filling recipes.  I have tried two of the three, the mushroom and rice, and the smoked salmon and kasha.  There is also a cabbage filling that I have not yet tried.  I seem to steer clear of cabbage-filled piroshki, but I bet they are good too, just not for breakfast! 

 I used to make piroshki as an appetizer at parties but haven't tried making them since going gluten free.  I figured if I could make pirogi gluten free than why not piroshki, right?  Right.  I cut the pastry recipe down to one third and substituted Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour for the flour, but left the recipe alone after that.  The dough is very short and a bit difficult to work with, but they still turned out great.  I made them all the day before my dinner party and reheated them in a convection/microwave oven at 350° for ten minutes before serving.  Here is the recipe:

Gluten Free Piroshki

(makes 20-24)

1 stick butter, room temperature

4 oz. cream cheese

2 T whipping cream

1 1/4 cups Jules GF All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp. salt

Mushroom and Rice Filling

2 T butter

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 large garlic clove, minced

1/4 lb mushrooms, finely chopped

salt and pepper

1/2 cup cooked rice

1 T chopped parsley

Cream the butter and cream cheese together in a large bowl using a stand mixer.  Beat in cream, then mix in flour and salt.  Form into a ball, place in a zip loc bag, flatten into a disc and seal.  Chill.

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat .  Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is soft but not brown.  Stir in mushrooms and add salt and pepper to taste.  Increase heat to high and cook until all moisture is absorbed. Remove from heat, add rice and parsley.

Preheat oven to 400°

Grease baking sheet or line with silpat.  Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8" thickness. Using a 3" round biscuit or cookie cutter, stamp out rounds.  Place 1 tsp of filling in the center of each round and brush edges with beaten egg.  Fold in half and pinch edges to close.  Place on baking sheet and make small slash with knife in each to allow steam to escape.  Brush again with egg.  Bake 15-18 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.  Serve warm.

—adapted from The Best of Bon Appetit, The Knapp Press, New York, 1979.  pp. 16-17.

Enjoy!

Karen, herself

Gluten Free Syrniki (Сырники) Russian Cheese Cakes

Just got back from a trip to Moscow where we had these wonderful little cheese cakes at the breakfast buffet at the Moscow Marriott Tverskaya.  I was doing a gluten challenge at the time, but have gone back to my gluten-free life since returning.  More about that later...

We loved the cheese cakes so much that I found a recipe online and made them this morning with Jules' All Purpose Gluten Free flour.  They tasted just like the ones we had in Moscow.  It's like having cheesecake for breakfast.  You serve them with powdered sugar and sour cream.  The cheese inside is slightly sweetened tvorog ( a soft cheese like Farmer's Cheese).  You can get the real thing at international markets.  The one I used was salt-free and unsweetened.  I added sugar to make the cakes.  Recipe follows.  The name Syrniki comes from the Russian word for cheese "Syr' (Сырь)".

Syrniki

500 g Tvorog or Farmer's Cheese
3 egg yolks or two whole eggs
4-5 Tablespoons sugar (to taste, I used 4 T and a pinch more)
1 tsp vanilla (original recipe called for 1 tsp vanilla sugar)
100 g flour ( I used an all-purpose gluten free flour)
mixture of Canola oil and butter (about a tsp of each for frying)
pinch of salt

Stir the cheese well with a fork or use a blender or stand mixer.  Add the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt and mix.  Sift the flour and add to the mixture and mix again.  WIth a spoon dipped in water, spoon out tablespoons of dough, roll them in flour and form into patties.  Heat oil and butter in a non-stick skillet and add syrniki when oil/butter starts to bubble.  Cook over medium heat until browned on both sides.  Remove and place on a platter.  Serve with powdered sugar and sour cream.

Enjoy!
Karen, herself

Gluten Free Toll House Cookie Trial

First off, I have to confess that I haven't blogged in awhile because I have either been too busy unpacking, working, or trying to stay away from gluten-free goodies.  The chaos of our move and downsizing had the effect of putting the weight back on I lost after my jaw surgery.  But over Memorial Weekend I had the worst chocolate craving and I happened to have a package of Nestlé's Chocolate Morsels in the pantry.  I decided to try making the Toll House Cookie recipe with Jules' GF flour.  After all, I have substituted her flour in all my other baked goods without a hitch.  Until now.  Gluten free disaster.  Well, not total disaster.  The taste was heavenly.  It was a disaster in every other sense.

First of all, they spread until there wasn't any definition between them, just a cookie sheet of massive, thin, crumbling, soft mess.  Maybe I put too much dough on the sheet per cookie.  Maybe we didn't wait long enough to try one (and had to peel them off the cookie sheet as they fell apart).  Maybe it was the silpat (so I tried some on an ungreased sheet like the directions said (big head slap here!).  No difference.  Bottom line is that after they completely cooled, they weren't too bad, except for the crumbling.  But I am still disappointed. Jules! I had so much faith in you.  What happened?

Anyone else had this experience?  I did some quick perusal of the topic on Google and found that other people bumped up the flour by a half cup in the recipe to get it right.  Maybe that's it.  Or maybe I should just go back to making the oatmeal-teff chocolate chip cookies that always turn out well.  They still made a great photo.  Love my Nikon D5000.

Karen, herself

Red Robin Serves Udi's Gluten-Free Bun

Hamburger on Udi's Whole Grain GF Bun

The hamburger chain Red Robin has been a favorite of mine for years.  They are one of the big chain restaurants that have a gluten-free menu.  It is not so much a special menu as a road map of how to eat there without consuming gluten.  They cook their fries in a dedicated fryer, so no cross-contamination.  Reason enough to give it a try.

Before going gluten-free I loved their salads with the crispy tortilla strips on top.  Since going gluten-free my go-to menu choice has been the lettuce wrapped burger.  It comes with a salad with balsamic dressing.  Lately, my "gluten anger" mood (being angry because I can't eat what I want) drove me to substitute seasoning-free fries instead of the salad.  Also, I can't really chew lettuce well right now since my jaw surgery, so giving in to the fries was more of a survival thing.  A girl's gotta eat some carbs, right?

Anyway, to my great surprise, the last time we were there the server asked if I wanted a gluten-free bun with my burger.  I was so shocked that I was speechless for a moment.  The funny thing is that I didn't really want the bun.  I have been trying to lose weight and with my jaws still unable to bite into a hamburger with bun, it was better to choose the lettuce wrap with fries.  But, I could not resist trying the bun and I always try to encourage stores and restaurants that make the effort to provide as normal an eating experience as possible for the gluten-free.  So I ordered the hamburger on the GF bun. I could have nixed the fries to keep my carb count down, but what fun is that?  I had to cut the burger with bun into small pieces to chew it, but it was good. It was darn good.  It was also somehow familiar.  When I got home I did some research online and discovered that it was an Udi's Whole Grain Gluten-Free Bun.  Needless to say, Red Robin is still one of my favorite lunch spots. And a big thanks to Udi's, while we're at it.

Karen, herself

Five Years Gluten Free

Brown Rice Pasta with Bolognese Sauce

Five years ago I jumped off a cliff and went gluten-free.  I was desperate.  I was headed to Detroit for six weeks with my parents (who both smoked) and I was in a panic that my migraines would be non-stop because of the second-hand smoke.  I was reacting to all sorts of things: perfume, smoke, all kinds of foods.  I had facial pain, neck pain, migraine, bloating, gas, constipation, iron-deficiency anemia and other slight problems with vitamin absorption.  I went to a naturapath, who tested me for food allergies (IgG and IgE combined).  The test results were not even back when I happened upon an issue of Living Without Magazine with an article on the cover on how gluten could affect the brain.  Leafing through the magazine, I found an ad suggesting that iron-deficiancy anemia and tooth enamel problems could be signs of celiac and it hit me that the naturapath might be right.  She thought it likely I was at least gluten intolerant, if not celiac.  I also found out what gluten really was and I understood why my attempts to eliminate wheat and dairy from my diet to stop the gas were not effective.  I went gluten-free the next day.  That was December 22, 2006.

Four months later I was tested for celiac, but the test was negative.  I had been gluten-free for four months.  I had a stool test done and that found enough gluten antibodies to suggest that I had a sensitivity to gluten.  I avoided gluten and about 30 other food items for two years.  Gradually, I brought back all but the gluten.  Now I mostly avoid milk too, but not all dairy.  I took a test for cow's milk allergy and it said I had a moderate allergy to it.  I seem to be ok with yogurt, cheese and butter, but not milk in large quantities and not whey protein powder at all.

Well, not all my problems were related to gluten, but I have remained gluten-free with only a few cheats over the years.  Since I do not know if I have celiac, once a year, I try a little gluten to see what happens.  The first few years, I got reactions within two hours.  Then it was 3-4 hours.  Then I tried some bread in France a year ago and got no reaction.  I am not sure what my level of sensitivity is, but since my iron levels came up slightly after a few years gluten free and my osteopenia was unchanged, I decided to stick with it.  I am no longer as sensitive to perfumes and smoke, although I prefer not to be around them (and what's up with all these people who douse themselves with perfume anyway? Don't they know it isn't PC anymore? That people have real issues with it?)   I have to admit that I never lost my anger and sorrow over the loss of regular bread and pastries and the frustration that I live with on almost a daily basis living in a gluten-laden world.  I am particularly angry with Starbucks (although I still go there all the time) for not providing good quality gluten free pastries and sandwiches.  These days, it is so easy to do that I get miffed with companies that can't be bothered.  Tully's, on the other hand,  I love  for providing WOW cookies right up at the cash registers.  Very classy, Tully's.

Last month I had double jaw surgery and had to endure a liquid diet for 10 days and then only semi-liquid since.  I only started chewing a week ago and it's not much, yet.  My experience as a cook and a gluten-free cook saved me.  I made 4 or 5 pots of soups and froze individual servings of them.  Then I taught my husband to make gluten-free high-protein smoothies for me and I survived it.  Thanksgiving was hell, but Christmas is going to make up for it.  I am making my usual Thanksgiving meal for Christmas, using Udi's Gluten-free bread in my stuffing and making my gravy from scratch with potato starch instead of flour (or using Jules' Gluten Free All Purpose Flour).  I am not sure I will be able to chew the turkey much, but the rest of the meal will be fit for a king...or queen.

Here's hoping you all enjoy your holidays...gluten-free.

Karen, herself

Preparing for a liquid diet

Borscht (beet soup) simmering on the stove

Next week is my big jaw surgery.  I am having both upper and lower jaws advanced to open up my airway and reposition my teeth so that my bite is optimal.  There are all kinds of technical terms for the procedures, but they are lumped into the category of orthognathic surgery.

Bottom line is that my normal soft diet (which is already driving me crazy) will be limited to a liquid diet for 10 days or so.  I will only be drinking my Thanksgiving dinner, so I think I am going nearly meatless this year.  I don't think pureed meat sounds very appetizing, so will be sticking with broths.  I have been making and storing soups and hot cereals thinned out with soy milk or almond milk so that I can easily heat them up for a meal.  My darling husband will also be making me high-protein smoothies, like the ones I have featured on this blog.  They all still have to be gluten free and pretty much free of cow's milk too, as it hasn't been sitting well with me lately.  Yogurt and butter and cheese seem to be ok though.  I made my usual butternut squash and apple soup for the holiday and my plan for dessert is to have hubby liquify some pumpkin pie filling.  Hopefully when it is all over and I can eat real food again, I will be done with the soft diet thing.  I surely hope so.  It has been far too long.

Borscht (loosely based on the Russian Tea Room recipe)
1 T olive oil
1 onion peeled and chopped
2 large carrots peeled and grated
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1/4 green cabbage, shredded
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
3 large beets, peeled and diced
1 T each sugar and red wine vinegar

Saute the onion in olive oil while you prepare the other vegetables.  Add them (except the beets) to the pot and season with salt and pepper.  Add the tomatoes and cook a bit, then add the broth and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat and simmer for 10-20 minutes while you peel the beets.  Add the beets, sugar and vinegar to the soup and simmer another 10-20 minutes until the beets are soft. (you can partially puree at this point with an immersion blender) Serve with sour cream.

I started a new blog to journal my way through the surgery and recovery.  If you're interested, it is www.herjawsurgery.blogspot.com

Karen, herself

Pear Plum Cobbler, Gluten-free

I have actually been trying to stay away from sweets of late, but I bought some Bosc pears and they ripened so fast that I was forced to cook them somehow.  I thought of making a pear cobbler inspired by an 80's cookbook I love but then realized that I didn't have enough pears.  I did have a couple really large red plums and I thought, “pear and plum would give me that tart/sweet taste” so I forged ahead.  Insanely great.  The tartness of the plums took the edge off the excessively sweet Bosc pears.  It was heaven on earth...and set my diet back big time.

The book is Lee Bailey's Country Weekends, Recipes for Good Food and Easy Living.  Not sure it is still in print, but it is a find if it is.  It is full of great down-home type recipes and gorgeous photography. I used Jules Gluten Free All-purpose Flour which has xanthan gum in it already.  If you are using your own mix, you will want to add xanthan gum.


Pear Plum Cobbler

2 Bosc pears, cored, peeled, and chopped into large pieces

2 large red plums, pitted and chopped into large pieces
1 tablespoon lemon juice
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp mace

Batter
1 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 375°.  Grease a 1 1/2 to 2 quart ovenproof dish and set aside.

Place fruit in large bowl and pour lemon juice over.  Add grated rind.  Mix spices and sugar and add to fruit. Mix with spoon.  Put in baking dish.

Mix batter: combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl and whisk together.  Beat egg yolks and milk together and mix with flour.  Add melted butter and then pour batter over fruit.  Bake for 30 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.  This can take longer than you think.  Turn down the heat if it starts to burn.

Serves 6

Cool and serve alone or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.  Careful, this is so good it can lead to overindulgence.

Karen, herself