Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Frittata

Golden and scrumptious frittata!

This week has brought me back into the kitchen.  It was time to re-don my apron, pull some ingredients together and make something delicious. The result? An extraordinary frittata.  It turned out so well, that the whole thing was gone within 30 minutes of it coming out of the oven! I've never received so many compliments, the highlight being that I could sell my frittata in a restaurant. Woop! It was my first time making caramelized onions, which isn't as daunting as I had thought, but does require a little extra time to make.

So here it is, to share with whoever comes across it.  I hope it is as delicious to you as it was for my family.

Caramelized onion and Mushroom Frittata

2 medium onions, sliced or chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

8-10 (or more) mushrooms, washed

8-10 sundried tomatoes 

salt and pepper, to taste

8 eggs

1/4 - 1/2 cup aged cheddar, grated or cubed

Preheat oven to 375F.

Heat oil in a pan over medium-medium high heat.  Add in onions.  Make sure onions are all coated with the olive oil. Once onions are coated, spread them evenly over the bottom of the pan to let cook, stirring occasionally. After about 10 minutes of cooking, sprinkle on a little salt, and continue to let cook. (You may also add a pinch of sugar to help with the caramelization process, this is optional).  A good trick I learnt was to add a little water to the onions to help keep them moist.  Your onions will want to cook for about 30 minutes or more. Depending on how sweet/caramelized you want your onions will depend on how long you cook them for. As the onions proceed into caramelization, they will begin to stick to the pan, requiring you to scrape the pan more often. What you are looking for a rich brown colour in the onions. 

Once the onions have caramelized to your liking, add in the mushrooms. Stir occasionally. After about 5 minutes, the mushrooms should begin to soften and cook. At this time add in the sundried tomatoes. Cook until warm. Remove from heat.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 8 eggs. Add in the cheese. Add in the onion mixture.  Pour into a greased pie plate or pan. I used and 8x8 which I found to be a good size for this mixture. Place in oven for 30 minutes, or until top is golden and centre is solid.

Now comes the best part. Serve hot and enjoy!

Gluten Free Pizza Dough....Take 3

Attempt number three came that much closer into the success realm of gluten free pizza doughs.  I am on the scent and it won't be much longer until I crack the code.
What's that secret ingredient that binds it all together?

I am eager to continue to rise to the challenge, as already milestones have been made from the first recipe.  This time around, the dough was cooked, not translucent in appearance, did not have the potential to chip any teeth and tasted like pizza. Though attempt number two did have improvements, the dough was so rock hard especially in the crust, that teeth were one the verge of endangerment. Luckily, no casualties, but extremely close.

For round three, I dove into research.
Hmmmm. Scratch that statement.
For round three, I tried a new recipe variation. This time around the dough actually cooked, and was airy much like your typical dough. Though still very different.  Downsides: dough did not rise, has no elasticity, and required oiled hands for kneading.  Regardless, the product that came out of the oven, in fact tasted like pizza. That is an achievement in itself. For this round of dough, I shared it with my gracious hosts for the week here in Calgary.  Before I thought to take a picture, the pizza was eaten. A good sign if nothing else!

The recipe is as follows:

1 Tbsp yeast
1 1/3 C just beyond lukewarm water (or warm milk)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/3 C rice flour
2/3 C corn starch (or tapioca flour)
2 tsp guar gum
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 C cornmeal (gf) (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
(If using milk, warm in a saucepan until just above room temperature)
In a bowl, add warm water (or milk), yeast and sugar.  Set aside and let yeast do its thing...it'll start bubbling into a beautiful froth of sorts.

In another bowl combine all dried ingredients. Stir thoroughly.

Once the yeast has had time to ferment and bubble, add in vinegar and olive oil.  Stir. Then add to the flour. Mix together, making sure all is combined well. Mixture will start looking like dough.  Add a little oil to the dough, and some onto your hands (this dough is sticky!). Begin to gather into a ball.  You can knead it a little.

(I tried to let it rise, and perhaps I did not give it enough time, or the temperature was not right for rising conditions. Regardless, nothing really happened. Next attempt I will test out a longer rise and see what comes of it.)

Because the nature of gluten free dough does not have much elasticity, stretching the dough onto a pizza pan is not going to happen.  Instead, I put the dough in the centre of a greased pan and began patting it outwards. You could also try rolling it. Once all laid out, I stuck it in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, dress it in all your favourite pizza toppings and return to cook for about 10-15 minutes or until crust was looking golden on the outsides.

Reflection: all in all, I'm really impressed with how this version turned out. The cider added a nice flavour.  Upon future attempts, I would like to test out milk instead of water, and tapioca flour instead of corn starch to see if there are any remarkable differences. What would happen if I added an egg?

Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Bread

More playing around in the kitchen.  Recently, I've been on a big zucchini kick. Then again...I'm always on a zucchini kick! It's such a versatile and yummy vegetable. But I have been wanting to make zucchini bread for a while, and today, I got into the kitchen and let the love pour out. Now I have two lovely loaves to enjoy this coming weekend.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

(a la healthy and gluten free variety)

2 cups rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour (or corn starch)

3 tsp guar gum

1tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup cocoa powder

3 eggs

1/2 cup oil (or butter, melted)

1/3 (or 1/2) cup honey

1 cup applesauce

1 cup yogurt

3 tsp vanilla

2 cups zucchini, grated

handful of walnuts and raisins (optional)

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour two bread pans (8 x 4).  In a medium bowl, mix together thoroughly all dried ingredients, set aside. In a separate bowl, add all wet ingredients, making sure to stir in each one before adding the next. Add the dried ingredients, one cup at a time to the wet mix. Stir in thoroughly.  You can add more applesauce to the mix, if looking dry.  Add to the greased pans and you are ready to bake! Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a fork (or other tester) comes out clean.  Let cool for about 20 minutes, then remove from pan, and continue to cool on a rack. Or go ahead, cut yourself a piece. Enjoy!

The Art and Science of Gluten Free

Since mid-January, I have been leading a gluten free life.
This was not something diagnosed by the doctors, nor was a doctor visited.  However, after experiencing quite a few newly developed health problems and unpleasant symptoms, I thought I would see if altering my diet would make any improvements. As sugar, wheat, nuts, and dairy are the four major categories of allergies, I decided to focus on one of these groups. As I am not too big into nuts, that one was easily ruled out.  The remaining three were all a toss up, and I decided, that whether than to sacrifice my love of cheese, and my sweet tooth, I would take a break from the wheat family. I had recently quit a job working at a bread bakery, and had my full fill of bread in 2010, so I decided that it wouldn't be too much of a challenge.
Initially, the experiment was supposed to last about 2 weeks, and then I would reassess the situation.  After the two weeks, I had found that my symptoms had started to improve.  So, I have stuck with it. In all honesty, there are so many resources now, at least here in Bozeman, it has been a fairly easy transition. Especially as I cook all my own food. though step out for a night on the town or travel across country and the options become limited or non-existant. It reminds me of the early years of growing up vegetarian, before vegetarian diets were trendy.
I don't know if it was in fact the wheat that was the culprit of what was going on, but I figured if I was feeling better without it, why not keep going?  I'm planning on reintroducing wheat back into my diet again soon, to see if the problems being to show again, but for now, I am having fun exploring the new world of baking and cooking gluten free!
My job at the Nova Cafe, oddly enough, only makes gluten free baked goods.  One of the only places in Bozeman to do so. It's pretty rad.  When the opportunity presented itself that they were looking for another baker to fill in, I pounced on the chance like a leopard after its prey. And so I began my formally informal training as to how to convert recipes and bake gluten free delights. Though the flour combination may be different, I have found it to be relatively straightforward, at least with basic pastries. I have yet to venture into the world of more complex recipes.  All in due time.  In my own kitchen, where I can limit how much sugar goes into what I make, I have begun to play!
Already, I have made two successful batches of muffins.  The first, though great when they came out of the oven, dried out after a day, which had to do with liquid combinations. But the second, chocolate-banana muffins...divine.  The recipe will soon follow, once I am able to remember what I did...
Now, I am onto perfecting the art of making a good gluten free pizza dough. Pizza is by far one of my top food choices, and perhaps has been the most difficult to ignore. Sure there's the ole 'corn-tortilla-pizza' but sometimes you just want your crust to have substance. So today's first attempt is Tapioca flour dough.
Of course, one little unknown fact about me, is that though I love reading,  I don't always love to read directions.  Instead, I err on the side of just taking the plunge. Well, let me tell you what I have learnt about Tapioca flour. It a) absorbs liquids very quickly b) can clump and become something similar to cement c) is probably extremely redundant to mix it with corn starch as they function pretty much the same. This and more was all learnt in less than five minutes. Phew!
For next time, I'm going to take the time to research the flours I'm using before using them.  Remedy for cement-like dough? Over-watering the brick until it looked like a gooey mass. But did I give up then? Nay. I plowed on through, took my gooey mass and patted it down onto the pizza pan. It kind of looked like it would shape up....it was holding. I was optimistic and also a firm believer that you can pretty much cook anything even if it is doomed.  Decisions were made to then pop it into the oven to start the cooking process. Something told me this dough was going to need a lot of cooking time. Ten minutes later, I pull it out....actual time it had to do any cooking....zilch. At this point, I was too excited about the final results, namely eating pizza to cook it any longer. Lesson no. 2: Take time while cooking, as it is going to alter results of a fine meal into one of questionable means. DON'T RUSH, do it right! Where's the craftsmanship?  If you are following the dots here, you will begin to see that my expectations of attempt number 1 on the pizza making front is taking a significant dive.  At this point if it come out resembling a pizza, then my time would be worthwhile.
I successfully cooked the top of the pizza, it actually looks pretty amazing. Now, time to cut into it, and taste the sweet wabi-sabi of a pizza. First cut. Dough appears relatively undercooked. But then I think about tapioca. It's translucent, maybe then it was a good sign?  I take a slice, pop the pizza back in the oven and begin to test the results. Definitely undercooked, but...there is promise. Round two of cooking, top growing darker, insides, just as gooey and undercooked, if not more so. Is this even possible? I'm not sure how I can go about getting the inside cooked this time around, but I shall eat it anyway. It's edible.
In short, this first go around, though not unsuccessful, wasn't exactly what I would call a success. There is hope, yes indeed, and I come out feeling a little wiser on the matter.


Learning curve:
1. Tapioca flour does not need to be mixed with cornstarch. This is just redundant.
2. Do not just treat the recipe like it is wheat. Slow down, don't rush the process, even if hunger and excitement are the backbone of the operation. Learn to tame those impatient beasts.
3. Pre-cooking the dough for longer than 10 minutes, in all likelihood, will fare well. Trust me...
4. Read and research flours before jumping in. GF flours do not run cheap, and really, why waste good food, when one could take a few extra moments and learn some potentially vital information.  Otherwise, start getting used to experimenting with fate and eating undercooked pizza.


Things to do differently next time:
1. Mix rice flour with the tapioca flour....this combination feeling is the winning ticket.
2. Measure out all dried goods in a separate bowl FIRST then add them to the wet ingredients and mix.
3. 3" of toppings is maybe a bit over the top....this may also have something to do with the dough not cooking...

Basic Gluten Free Pizza Dough

2 cups rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour (or corn starch)

3 tsp guar gum

1tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp honey

1(1/4oz) package yeast

1 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350F, grease and flour pizza pan. In a large bowl, add yeast, honey, oil and warm water.  Give a gentle stir and set aside for yeast to do its thing.  In a separate bowl, mix together flours, guar gum, and salt.  Mix together, ensuring that all the dried ingredients are thoroughly combined.  Once it looks like the yeast has had time to bubble up, begin adding in the dried ingredients to the wet, one cup at a time, making sure that there are no clumps of four left about. (this is where it gets tricky until round two of pizza dough).  If the mixture is looking dry, begin adding more water, until it is looking more like dough. Add the water slowly, rather than in a panicked manner, as then you will over water it. Oil your hands, as the dough is pretty sticky, and begin patting it out onto a greased pan (unlike traditional doughs, until further experiments reveal differently, you don't need to knead). Par-bake dough for 10-15 minutes, keeping an eye on its progress from time to time. When it looks partially cooked, bring it out, and dress it up in all your fine pizza fixings, then return to oven.  Bake for another 20 minutes, or until toppings have met your expectations.  Slice 'er up because it's ready for eatin'!

***This recipe is only an outline at the moment. I will continue to experiment until I have figured out the proper methods and perfect results. Once the code has been cracked, I will be sure to update the recipe to share. For now, use at your own risk!