Monthly Archives: December 2012

chocolate financiers

i had to scramble to put together something sweet for cocktails later. chocolate financiers seemed like a perfect dessert with raspberries, whipped cream and a nice chilled cava. the best thing is that financiers are mostly gluten free, anyway. they require only about a tablespoon of flour for structure, i used Cup4Cup but sweet rice flour or most any rice flour based blend will work and the batter is very forgiving, so long as you chill it thoroughly before baking. the french call this “le choc thermique”.

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in gluten free baking, it allows the flours to fully absorb the liquid and gives a nicer less grainy texture. i’m afraid that, i’m going to eat all the financiers before my guests arrive.

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boeuf bourguignon

i was trying to figure out how to clean out the freezer before the end of the year. i came a cross a ton of frozen quart bags of chili, sauces, beans, soups and meatballs and a bunch of expensive meat.

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the biggest find was a couple of pounds of tenderloin tips, perfect i thought for topping rice bowls but that wasn’t going to free up any meaningful amount of space. an irresistible sale on mushrooms, left me with a fridge full and a need to use those up, as well. a scan of the kitchen and i spied a forgotten open bottle of pinot noir, with just a glassful missing. the universe was screaming at me, boeuf bourguignon, it’s fate, seize the day!

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julia child’s boeuf bourguignon was one of the first “fancy dishes” that i’d ever cooked for my family as a kid. later, someone pointed out to me Continue reading →

Gratin de Pommes de Terre a la Savoyarde

something simple, yet special for a chilly winter’s night. an acquaintance mentioned a particular style of wine from the savoie region of france causing me to have a vivid flashback of julia child making potatoes savoyarde. it’s probably one of the most simple dishes in the world to make, because it’s really just cheese and potatoes.

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Ginty’s Traditional Shortbread made Gluten Free

A while back my friend Brenda, who lives in the wilds of Canada (not really – she lives in a big city there), shared her family recipe for traditional shortbread with me. Not long after that I went gluten free and never got a chance to try out the recipe. Lately, having had great success with Cup4Cup, I asked Brenda if she would be kind enough to share the recipe again, so I could finally give it a try. She obliged and boy, am I grateful – honestly, this is one of the best shortbreads that I’ve ever tasted, and I ate a lot of shortbread when I was studying at University, in Scotland.

I asked Brenda, who does a fair amount of gluten free baking for friends, if she would share the recipe again – to encourage her, I sent her a bag of Cup4Cup to try (she says I’m like a pusher – the “first bag is free”!) – and I also asked her for a little background on the recipe. Continue reading →

red velvet redux

some kind folks have asked for the red velvet recipe and the truth is, at the time of the earlier post, i wasn’t totally happy with the end result, so i didn’t put up the recipe. my earlier attempt didn’t contain buttermilk and while it was good, i thought it could be much better. today, i set about to “make it work” (tim gunn is my idol).  IMG_0567 a few things to know about red velvet, it usually has buttermilk, Continue reading →