"gluten-free" news and stories

Photo: Elana's Pantryl, Flickr.

Ruining the flavor of an entire dish with overpowering canned stocks is a preventable tragedy. Instead, save money (and the dish!) by making your own using little more than a leftover chicken carcass.

Flickr user Elana's Pantry created this standard Gluten-Free Roasted Chicken Stock recipe by roasting a few vegetables (onion, garlic and carrot) then adding them to a pot of water with the carcass and herbs (parsley, bay leaves, thyme and celery leaves) and simmering the concoction for a good hour. She then strained them into these mason jars for attractive storage. Feel free to adjust the herbs to taste when making your own, which will keep well in the refrigerator for extra flavorful sauces, soups and more. They're even flavorful enough to be sipped on their own.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

"Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery"

By Erin McKenna
Photographs by Tara Donne
Clarkson Potter -- 2009
Buy It at Amazon

Note: While testing the vanilla frosting recipe, we accidentally used soy flour instead of the the soy milk powder the recipe called for. The two are easily confused but not interchangeable, as our results demonstrated.

When Erin McKenna opened BabyCakes NYC in 2005, her gluten-free, vegan baked goods became a huge success, giving hope to the gluten-intolerant and converting legions of dairy-worshipping skeptics. Her new cookbook is both a how-to guide and winning, chatty account of McKenna's journey from junk food junkie to gluten-free goddess (she changed her Twinkie-loving ways in 2004, when she was diagnosed with wheat and dairy allergies). Pretty much everything in the baked good pantheon is here -- cupcakes, blueberry corn muffins, scones, cake and cobbler -- ensuring that while the gluten and dairy may be missing, absolutely nothing else is.

Takeaway Tips: McKenna writes in a clear, humorous and reassuring voice that makes you feel like you're baking in the company of, if not an old friend, then an endlessly understanding and forgiving teacher. She provides ingenious advice on making simple, natural food coloring (who knew that a pinch of turmeric made gorgeous yellow icing?), and her incredibly helpful ingredients glossary at the beginning of the book (from agave nectar to xantham gum) removes a lot of the considerable intimidation factor inherent in gluten-free, vegan baking.

See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

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I've been putting it off and I'm not sure why: Celiac Disease hits close to home. For as long as I can remember, my grandmother, a Celiac sufferer, has struggled to maintain a gluten-free diet. I've seen firsthand the hardship of trying to find wheat and gluten-free versions of foods that the rest of us take for granted.

So kudos to Anheuser-Busch for tackling this market by introducing Redbridge gluten-free beer in late 2006. Having the backing of one of the "big boys" means Redbridge is readily available by gluten-free standards. I even found it at a bar down the street from me (though admittedly I live in the oft progressive borough of Brooklyn).

So why the delay in reviewing this beer? Well, frankly, I feared of the flavor. To avoid wheat and barley, Redbridge is brewed with sorghum, which I think we can all agree, doesn't sound too enticing. And though I laud A-B for the offering, I was afraid this love-in would come to a quick end as soon as the beverage met my taste buds.

But for the second year in a row, Redbridge took gold at the Great American Beer Festival in the Gluten-Free Beer category. Granted, only 10 beers competed, but I still thought it time to do grandma proud and give it a try.

After the jump, read my review of the surprisingly satisfactory Redbridge gluten-free beer...

These days, more and more people are discovering that they are either gluten-intolerant or have Celiac Disease, which means that their bodies cannot handle even a tiny bit of gluten. There were tons of products at the Fancy Food Show that were designed to be totally gluten-free in an attempt to respond to the newly realized need. However, if you're more of a do-it-yourself kind of person and want to make your own gluten-free foods at home, then you should check out the growing category of gluten-free cookbooks.

One such cookbook is You Won't Believe it's Gluten-Free was written by Roben Ryberg (who also penned The Gluten-Free Kitchen) and is a hefty volume that spans every meal, as well as holiday and special event food (there's an entire section devoted to wedding cakes). The introduction dedicates space to tips and techniques as to how to keep your food gluten-free and avoid cross-contamination (if you're working in a kitchen that is shared with gluten eaters) as well as a primer on the different types of gluten-free flours available on the market.

I think that this is the type of book that could become a bible for those who are newly diagnosed with gluten issues. Ryberg includes five different recipes for pizza crust, a multitude of cake recipes and even a couple of variations on chicken nuggets, so that you can experiment until you find ones that tastes good to you. The feeling this book gives me, a casual user who has no gluten limitations, is that avoiding gluten is not a hardship and there are many ways to make all the foods you love so that you can eat happily.

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There are a plethora of flours out there; just about every grain from buckwheat to sorghum is available. The variety really helps those with gluten allergies have some of the same foods as those without allergies. A lot of people have their own mixes of gluten free flours that work for different recipes.

Well now there is a way for you to share your mix and check out some that others have created. The Gluten Free Cooking School is sponsoring a blog event called "Gluten Free Gusto: Mixing it Up". The objective is to write a post on your blog about your gluten free mix (and don't worry, those readers without a blog can also participate). You can send all the other required information to the event director.

The event runs until January 23, 2008. All the posts, or other entries, will be rounded up and posted on the Gluten Free Cooking School website. Also, all entrants will be entered into a drawing for a copy of Bette Hagman's The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread. This is a great opportunity for those interested in gluten free flours to share with the community, so mix it up!

[Via IsMyBlogBurning.com]

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