Gluten Free Bisquick Taco Pie

Betty Crocker releasing gluten free Bisquick has been a wonderful thing, but you still need to figure out how to use it for the quick meals that you used Bisquick for before you learned you had to go gluten free.

Taco Pie was a wonderful left over meal that we uncovered over 20 years ago.  It was called “Impossible Taco Pie” and was one of those bake-off type of recipes.  And yes, I pretty much run this recipe from memory and appearance.

You can use up your left-over taco meat (from taco night) and add some green chilies, or tomatoes and chilies, onions, seasonings to make it your own.

The important thing is the ratios.  It took me a couple tries to get this right.

The background:  Gluten free Bisquick is rice flour based.  Really finely ground too.  And rice flour does not get wet.  It does not absorb water, so you have to watch the amount of liquid you add.  That is the key.

Here is the basics of Impossible Taco Pie (gluten free style):

• Browned meat – seasoned with taco seasoning.  Generally left over from making tacos.  About 1/2 pound.
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup gluten free bisquick
• 1/2 cup milk
• shredded cheese to your liking.(about 1 cup to mix in and 1/2 cup to sprinkle on the top)
• green chilies or ‘tomatoes and chilies’ – I like the fire roasted ones.
• onion – this is definitely to taste

Begin with a 9-inch pie plate (we use glass), and give it a dose of non-stick (you can spray, butter, or oil)

Turn on the oven.  350 degrees F.

In a bowl mix the eggs and milk together.  Then mix in the Bisquick.  This should be more runny than pancake batter. You don’t want this thick or else it will end up dominating the taste. You want the taste of everything except the Bisquick to dominate.

In a different bowl (yes, a multi- mixing bowl recipe) mix the browned taco meat and the vegetables.  Then mix in the cheese.  Mix until everything is evenly distributed.

Evenly spread the meat, vegetables, and cheese into the pie plate.

MIx-up and pour over the wet ingredients (rice flour settles out, mix it before you pour it).  The wet should not come to the top of the dry ingredients.

Place it in the oven.  It will take about 30 minutes to 45 minutes to bake.  This is a judgment call.  The middle should dome up and test it like a cake to determine if it is done.

Once done, top it with some extra shredded cheese and turn the broiler on.  Once the cheese is browned to your liking, consider it done.

Let it cool. Cut. Enjoy.

Oh, yes.  Add the taco sauce of your choice.  Sour cream too (good, live culture stuff).

That is it.  It takes about 15 minutes to mix together and about 30 minutes to bake.

I’m a believer

Ok – so a soon as you write something, you’re taking the chance of having to ‘eat your words’ so to speak.

I was seriously craving a plate of spaghetti bolognaise last week. Not a shred of spaghetti in the house (‘course not – we don’t have gluten stuff in the house).

Well - ‘cept for the cave-in to the kids, the rice-based spaghetti. Craving, meet wall.

So – I crafted a truly nummy red sauce, added some browned Italian sausage, cooked up that rice-based spaghetti.

I was wrong. I admit it. I had said “I have to be honest – rice-based pastas are just NOT the same as regular pasta.” (Tortillas)

I’m gonna blame the fact that when we first started trying to get good gluten free stuff, we inevitably tried some really crappy stuff. Yea – that has to be it. Because, frankly, the spaghetti was fantastic, just the right mouth feel, just the right flavor.

The brand, you ask? Lundberg. Lundberg Brown Rice Spaghetti, to be exact!

Very yummy, very satisfying. I highly recommend. The kids did too – the sucked it up. Amazingly, this stuff even reheats well too – a trait we’ve found hard to to come by in gluten free pastas (they tend to get tough).

And we even did a traditional baked pasta dish by parboiling a bit of the Lundberg Brown Rice Penne, and then mixing with ricotta, left over sauce, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, and some milk. YUM – cooked up perfectly (it was a pasta heavy week last week).

What? You want that sauce recipe? Well, it’s not really a recipe, but here ya go:

Kim’s red sauce

• 2 Tbs good olive oil
• 1 Tbs garlic (fresh preferred, but can use the pre-minced stuff)
• 1 Can (15 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 1 Can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 Can (15 oz) fire-roasted diced tomatoes (can substitute another can of crushed tomatoes, but I highly recommend using the fire roasted varieties)
• 1 Cup good red wine (never cook with what you won’t drink)
• 1 Tsp basil (or more to taste)
• 1 Tsp oregano (more or less to taste)
• 1 Tsp thyme (or more to taste)
• 1/2 Tsp black pepper
• 1 Tsp salt

In a heavy bottom pot, simmer the garlic in the olive oil until just translucent. Do not burn the garlic. Add the tomatoes, carefully (or you’ll end up with oil burns), and then add the rest of the ingredients, including the wine, and stir to blend. Cook over low heat partially covered for at least 1 hour. The sauce should just simmer, not boil. Stir frequently, and taste periodically. Adjust seasonings as needed to your taste.

Enjoy over your favorite pasta, or any other red-sauce friendly dish.

Enjoy!

Easter morn…

Happy Easter out there to those that celebrate it.

About 3 years ago, we started a holiday tradition of having a special breakfast. It’s a wonderful dish, but takes some planning ahead, and takes a bit to cook. That special breakfast item is something we call French Toast casserole.

The tradition pre-dates the gluten issues we’ve been dealing with for the past ~10 months.

So the first holiday post-diagnosis/discovery, (Thanksgiving), we went without (still very much learning the ropes). The result was much sadness in the household, as Thanksgiving and Christmas are eggnog holidays, allowing the production of the much desired Eggnog French Toast casserole.

So we set out to find a gluten free cinnamon or cinnamon-raisin bread with which to make the Eggnog French Toast casserole for Christmas. We tried numerous breads and bread recipes.

We found a great GF cinnamon-raisin mix from Bob’s Red Mill – and it did a great job playing the part in the casserole.

But – there are days you really don’t want to have to bake a loaf of bread just to make a breakfast item.

Whole Foods to the rescue – they have a Whole Food Bakery GF Cinnamon Raisin bread in the freezer section (or in the GF freezer section, if your local Whole Foods has a separate GF section). Tastes wonderful, and did a fantastic job this morning in the recipe.

Notes for the below recipe:

• You can substitute the milk for either 1/2 and 1/2 (rich) or eggnog (in season, yummy but very rich).
• This must sit overnight in the fridge – the original, gluten-containing recipe (if I remember correctly) had a shortcut to make and go same day, but GF bread absorbs a bit more slowly – so the overnight soak is a must here.
• This takes a bit to cook – between 40 min and 1 hour. Great for when you have something to do before you eat breakfast, or for a brunch dish.
• The leftovers freeze and reheat great – use a vacuum saver, or wrap with plastic wrap and then wrap again in foil and label. To reheat, use a microwave on medium for ~2 min, checking every min.

GF French Toast Casserole (~ 12 servings)

• 1 Loaf GF cinnamon or cinnamon-raisin bread
• 10 Eggs, beaten with the next ingredient
• 1 Cup milk (or 1/2 and 1/2, or eggnog)
• Optional: 1 Tsp cinnamon
• Optional: Insides of 1 vanilla bean
• Non-stick spray

1. Cut the loaf into ~ 1 inch squares. Spray a 7x11 inch baking dish with the non-stick spray, and put the cubes into the dish.
2. Combine the beaten eggs with the milk, and either of the optional ingredients.
3. Pour over the bread cubes.
4. Push the bread cubes down into the egg/milk mixture.
5. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
6. Just before going to bed, push the cubes again into the egg/milk mixture.
7. In the morning, heat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Bake casserole for 40 minutes to 1 hour, until the eggs are set (the casserole will puff a bit like a soufflé).
9. Slice into smallish servings – this is a filling dish!

Enjoy!

Oddball ingredients?

Well – strange title, I know.

I dare you to walk up to a grocery store clerk and ask for Expandex. Go ahead, I’ll wait whist they finish either looking at you like you’ve lost your mind, laughing their asses off, or refer you to the local undergarments outlet store.

And some of the other ingredients will provoke strange mental images: Mesquite flour? Charcoal flavored, right? 

You need to realize – and come to accept – that GF cooking, or to be much more specific, GF baking, will require the use of ingredients that you may never have heard of, let alone considered using (or considered using in the quantities you will now).

For illustration purposes, let’s take a look back at the second post of this blog (School lunches and sandwiches). If you’ve gotten a chance to look at the ingredients on that box of bread mix, look again. And if you’ve not had a chance to look, go do it now. I’ll wait.

Yep, that’s right – the first ingredient is ‘maize starch’ – another way to say corn starch. You’ll be surprised just how much ‘starch’ you’ll use to get the baked good you want.

It’s ok – the starches do an excellent job subbing for the structure normally served by wheat flour.

And that Expandex thing? It’s modified tapioca starch, and useful to getting the nice snap you expect out of things like crackers. Mesquite flour is made from the dried seeds of the mesquite tree. Cinnamon-smelling and tastes a bit like it as well. Here’s the source I used to obtain it.

Both ingredients were introduced into our family baking repertoire by the 1000 Gluten Free Recipes book.

The whole point of this article is to say – it looks overwhelming, all the new ingredients and terms and measurements and quantities. But – remember when you first learned to cook. Yea – it seemed kind of the same then, didn’t it? So it’s not insurmountable.

So – in thanks for reading so far, another recipe!

This is a recipe for hush puppies (YUM) that I obtained from a magazine somewhere. A non-GF magazine. The original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of regular flour, for which I substituted a 1/2 cup off Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour (I should add here that you can find a lot of the ingredients you may be looking for at Bob’s Red Mill store).

I also substituted the onion for shallots.

The kids DEVOURED them.

Hush Puppies (makes ~ 20)

• 1 1/2 Cups yellow cornmeal (GF, of course)
• 1/2 Cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
• 3 Tbs Sugar
• 2 Tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 Tsp salt
• 3/4 Cup creamed corn
• 1/3 Cup milk
• 1 Large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 Small shallot, finely diced
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• A deep-fat or candy thermometer

1. Mix all ingredients, except the oil (and except for the thermometer, duh), in a large bowl until combined.
2. Fill a large pot with enough oil to be 2 inches deep. Heat the oil carefully over medium high heat until the thermometer reads 350 degrees.
3. Work in 3 or 4 batches (depending on size of your pan) – drop soup spoons full of the batter carefully into the hot oil. Fry, turning occasionally, until yummy golden brown.
4. Using a slotted spoon, remove from oil and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to cool/drain.

Enjoy warm, and make sure you don’t leave them unattended – they may disappear!

Enjoy!

Goin’ GF, part deux

So when last I wrote, I started describing the experience of figuring out the GF lay of the land, so to speak. And our first ever GF shopping trip.

After that slightly depressing and disturbing shopping trip, we went home and regrouped. There had to be a way to do this GF thing without:

• Breaking the bank
• Forcing a 10 year old to eat gross things
• Ending up with a 10 year old in constant pain

Not to mention the rest of the family – the whole house went GF, so that we didn’t have to worry about contamination, or weak moments.

Low and behold, hubby found the GF bible – 1000 Gluten Free Recipes. We literally POURED over this cookbook. In one sitting, I read the entire preface section that described various essentials of GF eating:

• What is Celiac, how it’s diagnosed
• What is gluten
• What foods typically contain gluten
• Hidden gluten
• Ingredients for GF cooking
• How to measure those ingredients

You see – as a mom, you want to provide for your kids. You want to give them good food, stuff that doesn’t make them sick. And I needed to figure this out.

It became an obsession, almost.

I made a shopping list of every single ingredient we needed. There were a lot.

So off we went, looking for these exotic ingredients. Rice flour, brown rice flour, corn meal, corn flour, sorghum flour, fava flour, etc… there were quite the variety of flours, with an enormous variety of starches – corn starch, potato starch, tapioca starch, Expandex (which, I discovered, is modified tapioca starch).

And there we stood, back at Whole Foods, in the middle of the baking aisle, loading the easy-to-find items into our carts.

Then the more difficult stuff needed to get checked off – Expandex? Couldn’t find it. We also needed to find things like gravy, GF soups, etc…

We flagged someone down, and they helped us find almost the rest of the items on our lists. (more about Expandex and other exotic flours in another post)

Some great finds in our wanderings: GF elbow macaroni in the bulk aisle, along with a GF fruit and cereal bar.

Both were a major convenience food score – I make a mean homemade mac’n’cheese. We also found the Annie’s instant GF mac’n’cheese. YAY!

At that time, we were still experimenting with breads, tho, for daily sandwich lunches. Finding all the flours greatly increased our abilities, because we had the GF bible (mentioned above). We also have tried package mixes – Pamela’s, Bob’s Red Mill – but the best tasting we’ve found is that Orgran mix (mentioned in my first post).

(Well, then there’s Udi’s – but not a mix, a frozen item, and hard to find and small of loaf. But more on that in another post).

Shortly after our Great Flour Expedition (henceforth to be called the GFE), we went back to the Whole Foods store to find something else, and were stunned to see all the GF items coalesced into a single, easy to locate area at the front of the store. They even had special coolers and freezers in the same area for the GF items. I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful to a grocer before. No more searching for hours for items we needed.

So by now, you’re probably thinking: Wait a sec. Isn’t this a food blog?

Yea – three posts in and not a single recipe.

Ok – so I don’t really make my own recipes up (well, I do, but never document them. Sometime that is gonna cause me pain).

So – the below recipe is a new family favorite. Found in an issue of Delight GF Magazine (delightgfmagazine.com), you’ll probably want a few tweaks to make it fabulous.

Sweet Potato Latkes

• 2 Russet potatoes, peeled and grated
• 2 Sweet potatoes, peeled and grated
• 1 Yellow onion, peeled and grated
• 4 Eggs
• 1 Cup potato starch
• 2 Tbs ground cinnamon
• 2 Tbs sugar
• 1 Tbs garlic powder
• 2 Tbs salt
• Oil for frying
• Sour cream or applesauce for garnish

1. Grate the potatoes, sweet potatoes and onion, and strain for 10 minutes, then place into a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, then pour them and the other ingredients (except the oil) on the potato onion mix.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Form patties with the potato mixture, and fry on each side for 4 minutes, or until a crust forms.

This recipe is good – but a couple of gotchas.

• Make sure to drain – make it 15 min, if you can.
• Don’t mix and then leave the mixture for a while. You’ll end up with sweet potato onion soup.
• If the oil isn’t hot enough, the latke’s will absorb oil whilst cooking. This is not yummy.

Enjoy eating!