GLUTEN-FREE HUNGARIAN SHORTBREAD

I posted on this delicious Hungarian Shortbread last summer but it was a glutenous version. Since then I have been reading a great blog, Hey, That Tastes Good, by the very brilliant Jill Elise! I can't say enough about her gluten free creations! She really knows what she is doing when it comes to creating gluten-free renditions of old time favorites! You must check her blog out at www.heythattastesgood.com/. I discovered her blog while doing some research for a trip to Budapest and landed on her blog. I was grateful for her advice on eating gluten-free in Budapest and when I came home I searched her sight for hungarian recipes and stumbled upon her recipe for Apricot Shortbread Bars. We share something in common, a love for apricot! I took the recipe and combined it with a recipe from Dorie Greenspan and recreated my favorite desert. You can use raspberry jam, or apricot for the filling. I have done both and they are equally delicious! To see the gluten version of this recipe check out the archives!

Thanks again to Jill Elise for this great creation!

3/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup rice flour

1/2 cup almond flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/ teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon zanthum gum

2 egg yolks

2 sticks butter, room temp

3/4 cup jam of your choice

If you use apricot jam consider adding a teaspoon of almond extract to the batter and 4 teaspoons of orange liquor or orange juice to the jam.

Sift dry ingredients together.

Cream butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolk and sugar and continue to cream another 4 minutes. With mixer on low, add the dry ingredients slowly until dough begins to come together, about a minute. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, bring it together with your hands and form two balls or logs. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for at least an hour, and up to three hours.  Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 10 inch springform pan with butter. Grate one of the balls/logs of dough, using the large holes of a box grater directly into the prepared pan, even out the dough and pat lightly. Spread the jam evenly over the dough, leaving a one inch boarder. Grate the remaining dough over the jam layer, spread out evenly and pat lightly. Bake until golden brown about 40 minutes or so. Cool completely before removing from the pan.

Pasta, pesto and peas

I am in the mood for spring and I have way too much pesto in the freezer. I have spent the past few days cooking quintessential spring food for my friends Paul and James who are the proud parents of newborn twins. While in the middle of making a gluten indulgent pasta salad I decided to make some gluten-free for myself. I would have preferred a spiral pasta to the macaroni shaped pasta I had on hand. This recipe is quite versatile, you can add grilled chicken, salmon or shrimp if you want. The directions below serves 12, but the recipe is very forgiving so scale back as you need!

1 1/2 pounds GF pasta (for a fun gluten version use a combination of fusilli and bow-tie!)

1/8 cup good olive oil

1 1/2 cups homemade pesto

1 10 ounce package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 1/4 cup good mayonnaise

1 1/2 cups frozen peas, defrosted

1/3 cup pignolis, toasted

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Cook the gluten free pasta according to the package directions. I also subtract a few minutes to insure the pasta does not get over cooked. GF pasta will fall apart and turn into a pile if you over cook it! If you use more than one kind of pasta, cook them separately. Drain the pasta and toss with olive oil. Cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, puree the pesto, spinach and lemon juice. Add the mayo and continue to process. 

Add the pesto mixture to the cooled pasta, then add the parmesan, peas, pignolis, salt and pepper. Mix well, season to taste and serve at room temp.

Tibetan Momo's

Rarely, if ever am I tempted to "cheat" on my gluten-free diet. It has taken me far to long to heal and recover from the nutritional problems related to untreated Celiac Disease! I have had three endoscopies in the past two and a half years, most recently the end of February. Finally, my villi are starting to perk up, finally my biopsies are starting to show some healing. I don't want to loose ground. I am hyper vigilant about my diet and I never feel sorry for myself. HOWEVER, these Tibetan Momo's, it was all I could do to keep a cheerful attitude as my partner and Tibetan dinner guests enjoyed them.

Our good friends, Pema and Tsamcho and Tsamcho's sister Pema came for dinner a few nights ago. Usually we have Indian food but we made homemade pizza instead. Tsamcho brought these delightful Tibetan delicacys she made from hand and her husband Pema steamed them up in a really great steamer. They are dumplings made with wheat flour and these were stuffed with ground beef, spinach and some onion. Tina ate a full plate of them before touching her pizza. I am not sure if I could recreate them with rice flour or not but I might try. I am hoping to get Tsamsho and Pema to teach me how to make them and see what I can do.

TENURE AND PROMOTION CELEBRATION

My partner, the love of my life is a college math professor. After graduating from MIT in three years she worked for a GLBT non profit for two years before starting a graduate PhD program in Mathematics at the University of MN. She had a temporary teaching position at Carleton College in MN for four years. Three years ago, she took a tenure position at St. Olaf, which by the way, has one of the best undergraduate programs in math in the country. St. Olaf is mostly recognized for it's world renowned music program, but they boast one of the best and largest math programs in the US. She works with the most amazing colleagues ever! This past academic year has been challenging in a number of ways, including her quick track tenure review. Today, the Dean of the College announced her promotion and tenure appointment, as well as the promotion of her colleague Jill, the first female to be promoted to Full Professor of Mathematics! We are celebrating! I made these mini cheesecakes  to send to her department today. While they took the better part of the day, they are worth all the effort. Slightly larger than a bite, people love them. They are festive and easily made gluten free. I used Trader Joe's gluten free ginger snaps for the crust, simply putting one whole snap on the bottom of a paper lined muffin tin (regular size muffin tin, although you could use the very tiny tins as well). For variety I  made both chocolate and vanilla batter. After baking I topped the vanilla cheese cakes with fresh berries mixed with jam. I topped the chocolate cheesecake with a sour cream topping and baked them a little longer before grating chocolate on top and garnishing with mini chocolate chips. Here are the recipes for both:

Mini Vanilla Cheesecake

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Ginger Snaps (Vanilla wafers, or Chocolate wafers also work for non GF)

16 ounces cream cheese

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fresh berries of your choice with matching jam, jelly or pie filling. I used fresh blueberries mixed with blueberry pie filling, fresh strawberries with strawberry jam and fresh raspberry with raspberry jam and some apricot jam without any fresh fruit. 

Preheat oven to 350, line muffin tins with paper liners. Place a ginger snap or wafer of your choice on the bottom of the lined tin. This recipe will yield about 12-16 depending on the size tin you use.

Combine cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until light and fluffy, several minutes. Fill muffin tins almost to the top. Bake for 20 minutes or so, until set. Cool.

Gently mix fresh fruit with jam and top with a generous tablespoon or so of each.

Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes

Trader Joe's gluten free ginger snaps, or wafer of your choice. I used the GF ginger snaps for myself and a chocolate wafer for the one's I sent to St. Olaf

16 ounces cream cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup cacao powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

grated chocolate (I used a bar of simisweet)

mini chocolate chips

Line muffin tins with paper liners, place a wafer in the bottom of each. This will make about 16 - 18. Blend all the ingredients in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, a few minutes. Spoon filling into the tins, almost to the top, but not quite! Bake for 20 minutes or until set in a preheated oven to 325. While baking mix the sour cream, sugar and vanilla together. Once the cheese cakes are set, remove from oven and top each with a generous tablespoon of topping, return to the oven and bake for another 10 -15 minutes, until the topping is set. Cool completely! Grate chocolate on top of each mini cheesecake using a microplane grater with a very fine grate. Top each with a teaspoon or so of mini chocolate chips, gently pushing the chips into the topping.

Highlights from Budapest

St. István's Bascilica

More market photos

My favorite Budapest site, the Great Synagogue!

My favorite gluten free desert, chestnut puree, although it usually had more whipped cream than chestnut.

Pastry at the famous Gerbeaud  pátisserie at Mihály Vörösmarty Square. I came here twice a day for coffee.

Cliff and Tina at another great dinner spot

The famous Budapest Opera House

Inside a typical Hungarian restaurant. This was spot we went to on our last evening with Cliff and enjoyed Gypsy music.

The castle by night

One of my favorite lunch haunts where I enjoyed great Gulyás stew two days in a row.

Tina and her colleague Cliff, who was the most wonderful and gracious host admire the statue "Anonymous", an unknown man. Students flock to the statue to rub the pencil prior to an exam for good luck.

Gluten Free in Budapest

We loved Budapest! And eating Gluten free was very easy. I carried around a card explaining Celiac Disease and the need for a strict gluten free diet in Hungarian. It was obvious that Europeans have a much better understanding of both the Celiac Disease and the diet. Every time I presented the card the restaurant staff nodded and said, "Yes, no problem".  And I enjoyed a number of ethnic dishes including gulyás, gulyás stew, chestnut puree and lots of pork. Pork must be the national meat in Budapest and unlike the lean white meat we get here, Hungarian pork is red and very fatty, which was delicious! We took a tour of several markets including the Central Market Hall with Carolyn Bánfalvi, a food and wine expert who wrote The Terroir Guide, Good Wine Budapest, my primary guide book to Budapest! Carolyn is an American, living in Hungary with her husband and two children. She arranged dinner reservations for us and took us on a day tour of the markets.

IT ISN'T ALWAYS ABOUT FOOD

In case you didn't know, the RNC has been here all week. The swarm of helicopters hovering over hour home began a week ago. I am a die heart Hillary fan and watched the DNC every evening last week. I was brought to tears several times during the week, especailly when Hillary spoke on Tuesday and then called for the acclimation of votes on Wednesday. I admire her ability to step up for her party and will aquiese to her request to vote for Obama. So, on the first day of the RNC, the day Gustov hit the Gulf coast, while the republicans were preoccupied with "getting it right this time", I attended my big American political protest. I agreed, the RNC had to call off most events for the day, after all it just would't look good, conducting business as usual if fellow American's found themselves on roof tops like they did during Katrina. As for myself, I wanted to participate in a peaceful protest. While it was peaceful for the most part, there were hundreds of self proclamed anarchists who ripped through the Capital Area and downtown St. Paul, causing all kinds of scary trouble. At one point I found myself nearly swept up in the middle of their distructive activities, and surrounded by riot police.