oven roasted chick peas

This is a recipe that I forget where it came from. I think it happened after I "discovered" kale chips last year and decided to try to oven roast/fry nearly everything. These chick peas have become the single-most popular (and requested) party snack I make.

The recipe is really easy to modify or adapt to your particular tastes - I often omit the cayenne if I am bringing it to a group of unknown human mouths who might not love the warm kick. You really can't go wrong unless you put dried herbs in - those babies will burn and make your delicious fried orbs taste horrible - trust me. 

If you are going to make a big batch, it is worth it to buy dried chick peas and soak and boil them yourself. It  takes more time, but is so much cheaper. (if you do this, you will need to add more salt) That said, canned chick peas aren't that expensive and you are the boss of you, so do what feels right. 

oven roasted chick peas

2 cans of chick peas, drained and washed well

1/4 cup olive oil 

1/4 tsp smoked cinnamon

cayenne (you can substitute something more mild like aleppo, but hold off and add it half way through cooking)

sea salt (you are going to use this 2x)

1/2 tsp ground celery seed

1 tsp toasted onion powder or garlic powder -both if you are awesome

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin 

Pre-heat oven to 400F

1. Drain those chick peas really well

2. Spread them out on to a sheet pan or a baking dish - you don't want them doubled up

3. Generously coat the chick peas in olive oil - you should see extra puddling 

4. Sprinkle on the spices and salt. You will be tempted to roll the chick peas around to coat them DON'T. It will cause most of the deliciousness to fall off into the oil. 

5. Place the peas in the oven for 35-45 minutes - you are going to want to flip them at least 2x

6. Done = the chick peas shrinking to half their size, and darkening without burning. If you see some of them start to flake off their outer shell and crisp, you are there. 

So now you have a choice - take them out of the oven when they are crispy on the outside and a little soft in the middle, or keep on cooking for another ~10 minutes to get them to be more like the texture of spicy Indian snack mix. I prefer them the first way, but the second is also great

7. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan. 

8. If you manage to not devour them immediately, store in an air-tight container. If you make them a few days ahead of time, they will get a little soggy. You can pop them back in the oven, or a toaster oven, for a few minutes on 400 until you hear them start to sizzle, remove, cool, and serve. 

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ce ce ce celia - a gluten free beer

I tried Celia beer a little over a year ago and really didn't like it. Maybe it was an off-batch, maybe I have grown and my tastes have changed... it doesn't much matter because it is great. It is hands-down the best gluten-free beer I have tasted.

It is actually the only gluten-free beer I have come across that actually has pronounced hops. That's right folks, this isn't a weird cloying-ly sweet beer, and it is also devoid of that strong sour finish that most sorghum-based gf beers suffer from. The texture is also the closest I have come to "real beer". For those who have read all of my beer reviews, one of my largest complaints is lack of adequate carbonation. This beer has it!

This beer is solid enough that it is the first I have served to gluten-mouths at a party... and people enjoyed and went back for seconds. The use of orange peel is genius, and while it is a little heavy for everyday, it clearly stood up to my Indian food left overs. (This is probably a horrible pairing; spicy curries go great with sweet wines and light beers, but I like to call dinnertime the time to randomly pick things out of the fridge like taste-bud roulette.)

Three cheers for a local beer company doing it right!

Daly Dogs - worth the drive

I couldn't believe it was true. Fried dough. Real, gluten free fried dough. Those words are like a unicorn, a mythical beast not to be found, only to be spoken of with yearning. Hold on friends, gluten free fried dough can be yours and it shall be delicious.

Daly Dogs, in Haverhill, MA does it and does it right.

I didn't expect to order a sandwich, but the Ruben was awesome. Overstuffed and messy, on buttered toasted bread - it was nearly perfect. The pizza is Sicilian style with a surprisingly sweet sauce - if I got it again I would cover it in chili flakes to help balance it out. The fried dough is really why I showed up. The texture isn't an exact replica of the gluteny kind, but there is a fantastic crunch and softer interior. The generous amount of cinnamon and sugar help to bring me back to summers on Hampton Beach.

The menu is about half gluten-free, half gluten-filled but the staff is really knowledgeable. The family that owns the restaurant also runs a small detached gluten-free store. They also have ice cream... which I foolishly did not leave enough room for. Who is up for a second trip road trip?

satay you stay - very best Thai food

I was always fond of Thai cuisine. Sweet, spicy, sweet, tangy, what's there not to love? Since 2007 I have really ramped up my appreciation and consumption. I think I have unintentionally sought it out almost everywhere I have traveled.

Bloomington, Indiana - Esan Thai (best northnern Thai I have ever had)
Chicago, Illinois - Pho's Hot & Spicy Thai Cuisine (best green papaya salad I have ever had)
London, UK - Manorom Too Thai Restaurant (really knowledgeable staff that double checked everything)
Cambridge, MA - Pepper Sky (always a slam dunk, eat in or take out)
Smile Thai closed in Cambridge, which broke my heart. They actually brewed their own gluten-free soy sauce.
Boston, MA - Chili Duck

See what I am saying? And there are just my greatest hits.

It takes a lot for a place to nudge on my list. It takes even more for me to be surprised. Well Krua Thai blew my expectations out of the water. It is a tiny spot that would be easy to miss because there is a giant service bridge overshadowing this small 10 table restaurant. Photos of food don the walls, but don't let you think there is anything cliched about this find. Dishes are made to order, and before I could even snap pictures half of our meal was devoured. We expected greasy, overcooked pad thai, but could not be more wrong. The server was incredibly well versed in the entire menu and understood allergens and double checked ingredients. I don't have anything bad to say - nothing. The food was fresh, interesting, well prepared. I am not even a fan of eggplant and truly could not stop eating the basil eggplant special we ordered. The satay was truly the best I have ever had... and I sure do enjoy me some meat on a stick.

I didn't realize how much I liked this place until I was plotting how or why I needed to be back near Buzzards Bay just to get a chance to eat here again. 

2011 the best of

Happy Holidays!

This has been a weird year.
5 jobs and 3 moves latter, I am still not sure how to think about 2011. There are few things I can be more certain of than knowing I have the best friends. They truly are! Do you have someone in your life you can call or text with urgent chocolate questions? Know a pal who will drop everything and help you move, again? Is anyone on speed dial who can find the episode of Dr. Who that you are missing and just "have to see"? This is what I am talking about! Oh and did I mention that several have reserved special "gluten-free" space in their kitchens so that I will not only feel welcome but safe to eat and cook in their homes?! I am telling you, I am super lucky.

So without further ado, a year in review...

I had an amazing time branching out from blogging to teaching coffee & chocolate classes at Qualia Coffee in D.C.

No Gluten Required business cards came into existence.

I got to test recipes for an amazing new book: Caseus Fromagerie Bistro Cookbook: Every Cheese Has a Story, created by a friend and fellow BU Gastronomy student, Jason Sobosinski. Why yes, he is the man you have seen on the Cooking Channel.

I still get excited when someone emails me or comments on a post. I like using this space as a way to force me to write down what I am cooking, and I often refer to it when I am in the kitchen. But I truly feel that both my writing and my cooking get better when there are people to eat and read with me. This year, people have emailed and commented more than ever! So thanks readers for listening, tasting, and chatting along with me.
When I was first diagnosed, it was great to not feel alone. Now, its something more special.

NGR has always been a little rant-filled, but this year things got revved up a bit:
Sex and the celiac
Thomas Keller's C4C
Occupy NGR
NYT...

Superlatives were not allowed in my high school yearbook - and yes, I know because I worked on it. So to make up for lost time, here are mine for gluten free products for 2011:

Favorite snack food - Oven-fried chick peas (recipe forthcoming)

Second favorite snack - crackers

Favorite alcoholic beverage - Clos Normand Cider

Best new packaged food - Trader Joe's Gluten Free Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I haven't written about these because I just just recently discovered them. They are truly fantastic. A group of us were eating them and someone uttered, "finally someone harnessed the crunchiness of rice flour and used it for something its good at". These are truly the best packaged gluten free cookies I have eaten. They remind me a lot of my memory of Tate's cookies. Very crispy and buttery. They rule. (Why they have a medieval-style etching of bakers on the package is beyond me. Just trust me to look past this, judge little, and eat liberally.)

Favorite kitchen experiment - Homemade Tonic Water
From running around Chinatown with phonetic translations of cinchonia bark, to impromptu filtering systems, this was hands down the most delicious idea.

Second favorite kitchen experiment - rugelach

Third favorite kitchen experiment - injera

A safe and happy New Year's celebration to all!

New favorite hard cider - Clos Normand

This is my hands-down new favorite beverage. (That's right, its trumping all other gluten-free alcoholic beverages!)

Clos Normand Brut is now at the tippity-top of my favorites list.

It is everything I want an alcoholic cider to taste like. Dry, dry as a bone. If you have peeped my thoughts on gf beer, you know that my biggest complaint is that they are too sweet. They taste more like wine than beer, and often the carbonation is small and not really at full capacity.

It smells a bit smoky and of apple juice, not like floral apple orchards. The taste is much milder, mellow, and almost light. There is no hint of smoke in the flavor and the finish is very clean.

Zatar Popcorn

Popcorn might be my second favorite snack. Nothing will ever take over the #1 slot held by potato chips, but fluffy, crunchy and salty popped corn sometimes tries to usurp the throne. Caramel corn has its place, but I prefer the savory to the sweet. Lately, I have been trying to add different spices to the mix. Smoked paprika is strong, but good, herbs are ok, but usually fall off. Zatar has been my hands-down favorite. The mix of the finely ground spices plus sumac and toasted sesame seeds works amazingly well as a popcorn topper. [WARNING - many zatar spice blends contain roasted wheat as an ingredient. Please read carefully!]

Zatar Popcorn
hot air or stove pop your popcorn
toss with 2+ tablespoons of melted butter or margarine
(you really need to coat it well)
sprinkle on the salt and zatar spice, you can be as generous as you like here, but the trick is to add about 1/4-1/2 tsp and toss, then add a little more and toss again.

ENJOY!

Inspiration

I have been posting a lot of news items as of late, and while they are fun in their own sort of way, I realized that one of my favorite times of day is when I scroll through my RSS feed of food blogs for updates. My favorite are the posts riddled with food porn that makes me want to run home and try out a recipe, ok tinker with said recipe and see how it turns out.

Food blogs (non-discriminating against the gluten kind)

La Tartine Gourmande - this straddles the line because many of her recipes are gluten free, she even has a gluten free section! She has also been one of the rare few who has been able to not turn her amazing food blog into a mommy blog post delivery.

Smitten Kitchen - its just great all around, really approachable

Simple Recipes - the name says it all, they just happen to do it with great photography as well

The Pioneer Woman - there is a reason so many people like her! She breaks down the recipes into small steps and photographs each one of them, it rules.

David Lebovitz - yes, the man knows his ice cream, but his posts are also fun and sometimes savory

Bitten - I cannot hate him forever for not including Indian Pudding in his big book

$5 Dinners - for a while, one of her kids had to eat gluten free, so there are a ton of cheap recipe ideas

Nose To Tail At Home - Game, offal, weird cuts and using the whole beast cooking

Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook - yeah, it rules

This is Why I am Always Broke - great for cheap eats in Boston

Boston Locavores - new blog devoted to keeping it local in the 617

The Food Money - for Boston-based food stuff

Cake Wrecks - I did a very small stint as a professional cake decorator, this brings me endless joy

Gluten free blogs

Book of Yum - reviews and recipes

Celiac Chicks - its turned into a NYC guide to restuarants and events that are gluten-free, but their older posts have some great recipes too

Elana's Pantry - this woman loves almonds, so I think we could be friends for life

Gluten A Go Go - uses the most interesting combinations of flours I have seen

Gluten Free Food Reviews - mostly packaged items

Gluten Free Gobsmacked - recipes and product reviews

Gluten Free Mommy - not too fussy, but often interesting combinations

Gluten-Free Fun - the best source for gluten-free items in the news, events and happenings

Gluten-Free Girl - did not love the book, do like the blog, though its dairy heavy

Glutenus Minimus After Dark - this is the woman behind the amazing gluten free pizza dough at Zing Pizza and the amazing cookies at the Porter Square Book Cafe

Hey, That Tastes Good! - I still want to make the sauerkraut latkes!

Gluten Free Goddess - tons of veg and vegan recipes

A Life of Sugar and Spice - new to me, but a great sense of honesty and playfulness

The Essential Gluten Free Blog - this is run by Triumph, the dining card people, great for news and packaging information

What other awesome blogs am I missing? (Consider it your birthday present to me.)

Food Should Taste Good Olive chips

Food Should Taste Good Olive chips are really really good. I cannot get enough of these. At first I thought they were a little weird, but no, they are amazingly delicious.

Danielle Crispy Rolls

These are my new favorite snack. Light, crispy and not-too-sweet, Danielle's Crispy Rolls remind me of Pepperidge Farm Pirouettes, but even better. They are made with tapioca and coconut milk, though they don't taste coconutty.

I could eat them on a plane, on a train. I would not eat them with a fox, but I sure could eat a whole box!

Wheat Free Tamari

Discovering that soy sauce contains wheat was a big surprise. I am not going to lie, I was bummed out about kissing most Chinese and Japanese foods goodbye. I was elated to discover wheat-free tamari!

Tamari is a Japanese fermented soy sauce. Most traditional tamaris do contain wheat, so read the labels carefully. San-J Wheat Free Tamari is my favorite. It has a round flavor, softer and sweeter than soy sauce. Its less salty, but since its naturally fermented, there is also a complexity to its flavor. It has become a pantry staple, right alongside fish sauce, siracha and toasted sesame oil - items that can sometimes be found in the grocery store, but are worth the adventure out to an Asian market to find.

(I love this stuff so much that I bring a small bottle of it with me when I go out for sushi.)

Gluten Free Favorites

I have been emailing this list out to a lot of people lately, so I thought I would post it. Here is a bunch of my favorite gluten free substitute products that really helped get me over the initial diagnosis hump.

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Brown Mix - a little greasy, but tastes like the real thing and is cheaper that most box mixes

Namaste Spice Cake Mix - (I love the carrot cake adaptation, I throw in carrots, coconut, pecans, golden raisins, dried cherries - I made it into cupcakes for my birthday!)
This company does all allergy-free stuff.

EnjoyLife Snickerdoodles (I don't like their other cookies, but these are great) allergy-free, vegan and taste good!

Pamela's Cookies - some are dairy free, which is awesome (Ginger almond are my favorite)

Gluten Free Pantry mixes are good - their Angel Food Cake was good enough I served it with berries and people ate it like the real thing two weeks ago

Tinkyada Rice Pasta - best texture (DON'T serve cold)

Erewhon Cereal - They have 3 that are gluten free, two rice ones and one corn flake. The one with freeze dried berries is my favorite - pretty close to the old rice krispies

Gorilla Munch - corn cereal, similar to Kixx but crunchier

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Granola - the cranberry maple nut is really really good

Trader Joe's Gluten Free Waffles - the banana are really good and hold up well to toasting

Jennies Coconut Macaroons - hard to stop eating these once the yellow can is open

Sunshine Burgers - gluten/dairy/vegan veggie burgers (in the freezer section)

Bell & Evan's Gluten Free Chicken Strips - corn-based, expensive, but a good in-a-pinch-dinner (better with bbq or hot sauce)

Gluteno Pizza - way better than Amy's which has the texture of soggy styrofoam (any frozen gf pizza needs extra cheese/sauce)

San-J Wheat Free Tamari - less salty and a little sweeter in flavor than traditional soy sauce, this stuff rules

Julian's Gluten Free Rolls - contain soy, but are dairy free (dried and crumbled makes amazing panko-like crumbs!)

Whole Foods Gluten Free Sandwich Bread - favorite bread w/dairy

Food for Life's Gluten Free Millet bread - favorite dairy-free bread