Turn a few leaves and you’ll find rice and avocado and smoked ham.  Oh my!

Take it back here for the recipe (I simply substituted seasonal veggies and ham for chicken in this case)–> Rice Chicken Pizza Top Salad

Bon app!!

Rice is naturally gluten-free, and is, thus, a natural friend of us Bubble Children.  How come, then, so many of us are surprised when we have a simple rice that tastes surprisingly delicious?  It’s really easy, and can be a staple for many many dishes… and you don’t need packaged mixes.

To make a perfect rice that is dairy, gluten, soy, etc.-free and matches basically any plate, protein, or ethnicity of flavors, follow this!

1.  Measure out one part rice and one a half times water.  (Example: if you measure out 2 cups rice, measure out 3 cups water).  Thai, basmati, and other “Eastern” rices work best for this method.  (No risotto rice here!)

2. Bring your water to a boil.  Add about 1/8 tsp. sea salt for every 1/2 cup rice (you’ll add more later, don’t worry).  Add rice and a bay leaf.  Stir once.  Bring to a boil, cover with a fitted lid, reduce heat to low.  Let simmer for anywhere from 20-35 minutes, depending on your rice, until the water is just absorbed.

3. Remove heat, fluff once with a fork, and cover again.  Let sit 5 minutes.  Add 1/2 tbs. nice extra virgin olive oil for every 1/2 cup rice and another 1/8-1/4 tsp. sea salt, to start.  Stir, taste, and add more salt and olive oil if your palette is calling for more!

<–if you serve it with some fish cooked in olive oil and dill and sea salt, you might make some new friends.

As much as my native California Bay-Area-self has an appreciation for the “San Francisco treat” (Rice-a-Roni and other various pilaf variations), this rice is so perfectly past al dente and infused with just the right amount of flavor from the bay leaf and olive oil and sea salt that I will have to pass on the butter, box, or any other added flavorings.

So nice. Good rice.

EAT CHEESE:

1. Digest: Cheese that has been produced artisanally (i.e. not American cheese singles) through some method of aging through bacteria actually has digestive properties!  The “good bacteria” in cheese helps break down whatever you just put in your body post-meal.  This doesn’t mean eat one pound of aged cheddar to think you’ll make more room in your stomach, but a few very decent sized bites goes a long way with processing that meal.

2. Lactose-light: Through the aging process, cheese loses its lactose.  Have a lactose sensitivity?  Go for really aged cheese and feel light and satisfied.

3. Non-dairy: Those with sensitivities find typically that cow’s cheese is more difficult to digest than sheep’s and goat’s milk cheeses.  For something really fun, try buffalo milk cheese.

DON’T EAT CHEESE:

1. It’s not aged: Super soft cheeses like ricotta and mozzarella have not been aged as long, thus making them essentially an altered form of milk.  As yummy as they are, if your stomach bloats from dairy, these are the ones to avoid.

2. It’s not cheese: As mentioned above, as much as you may love those American cheese singles, they’re not really cheese.  Granted, nice aged cheese or fresh goat cheese may cost a touch more, but if you have a sensitivity, you wouldn’t want to eat too much of it anyways, so simply buy less!  Quality over quantity… always.

3. You have a dairy allergy: Intolerances, sensitivities, and allergies are related but not equal.  If you have a dairy allergy, meaning you have an immediate immune response to dairy, this whole aging bit will not change with that bite of cheese.  Also, some cheeses are aged using nuts, beer, or nut leaves, making those with gluten sensitivities and nut allergies a potential threat.  If it’s got a colored rind, ask how it was made.

4. It’s been cooked: If you’re looking for digestive properties, consider the fact that cooking something kills its bacteria… fortunately.  However, if you want that bacteria because you want to digest items after eating them, that 4-cheese pizza will not be the best bet.

5. It’s processed or filled with hormones: Your body doesn’t like that stuff.  Why make digesting something that would already be more difficult all the more challenging?

It was a beautiful occasion on the top of a mountain and we all finished off the evening at a French restaurant in Denver, Colorado with great food, wine, and cheers to the young couple.  The majority of the table ordered the duck, and everyone at the table who didn’t wished they did.

Duck is such a beautiful thing: it is tender, full of flavor, but not overwhelmingly heavy.  It has enough fat (that’s for sure) to cook itself in its own flavor, without any need to add oil or butter.  Thus, for those with soy, nut, and dairy sensitivities or allergies, you don’t need to ponder what butter or oil to cook the meat in, because you don’t even need it!

Here is the recipe from the Bubble Child cookbook for Crisped Duck Breast, as well as the Red Wine Reduction to serve with.  I prepared it in Paris right before I left to come home for the wedding (see right).  Yum nom nom. –>

Have it with a glass of Gigondas, and you’ll be smiling for days.

…which is why I was thrilled to do a guest post for them this month.

Hop on over to HappyCampersGF.com to check out the recipe and story for why this delicious French classic is not normally served gluten-free: Boeuf Bourgignon (yes, that one featured in that movie about Julia Child.)

If you don’t add all of the red wine to the meat, no one has to know..

For over 200 pages of recipes, anecdotes, photography, “About Allergies”, cooking tips, and gluten-, nut-, dairy-, soy-, corn-, and egg-free ingredients:

Flip through it at Amazon.com here: Bubble Child at Amazon

Get it direct through the publisher here: Bubble Child through CreateSpace

Enjoy!  And happy eating.

Consider “Bubble Child” the BLOG the rough draft for Bubble Child the COOKBOOK.

Satisfy your entire palette with over 200 pages of allergy-free recipes (the vast majority of which have never been published on this site) and photographs* for every meal of the day (“Meat My Bubble”, “Graindiose Bubbles”, “Baked Bubble”, “Petite Bubbles”, “Sugar Pop” and “Good Morning”).

You’ll also find “Bubble Basics” where you can find fun things like making your own flax seed milk from scratch, preparing bread, preserves, frosting, dressings, stock, several variations of peanut butter substitute, and even a perfected version of “Notella– nut- and lactose-free.

Every recipe is marked where it has potential lingering allergens with some symbols that magically appeared in this book (so much better than color-coding) to allow the most severe of Bubble Children to enjoy each and every plate served.  If your cooking technique is rockier than Sylvester Stallone, don’t worry!  There is a full “Ten Basics for Your Bubble Child Kitchen” in the front as well as a several-page cooking terms, technique, and ingredients “Glossary” in the back immediately following the “About Allergies” section by Joanna Pawlowska.

All recipes are nut- and gluten-free, with dairy-, soy-, corn-, egg-, and shellfish/fish-free modifications.  Every photo you see and every recipe written comes from my Bubble Child kitchen, where I have been actively experimenting with “taboo” recipes for this book since 2009, and uses real allergy-free ingredients.  (Meaning: you will see no glue subbing for milk in these photos, or any other hocus pocus!)

Hooray!!!

While you will be able to search for it and order it online at Amazon.com within days, it will be cheaper here on this site. …really, really soon.

It’s ready for you!!!

*Bubble Child got lucky with some noteworthy food photography from American Apparel photographer Carl Lindstrom and Inge Christopher photographer Lauren Jane Berger.  They were fun to feed (see Miss Berger at right).–>

I am so happy to be able to (finally!) share my Bubble Child kitchen with you and your food allergic loved ones with this bound-paper piece of my heart.

Pop the Bubble,

Viva la Child.

Mmmm.  Caramelized leeks in olive oil.  Do I need say more?

Traditionally, when you get leeks that have been julienned and brought down to a tender moist consistency, there is butter involved.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to the use of butter (see Clarified Butter post last week), but sometimes I just don’t feel like straight milk fat.  And my body doesn’t, either.

This side dish is ridiculously tasty, and supremely simple to make.  The hardest part is cutting the leeks.  It’s not hard.

Tender Leeks with Olive Oil and Shallot

3 tbs. olive oil, divided
1 shallot, diced
1 large leek
enough water to cover leeks while cooking
1/4 tsp. sea salt + more to taste as needed
pepper to taste

Preparation time: 3 minutes
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 3-4 as a small side, 2-3 as a larger side

1. Wash and dry your leek.  Cut into 3” rods, and then cut those in half length-wise, and then into vertical 1/2 cm strips.

2. Heat 1 tbs. oil in sauté pan over medium heat.  When warm, add shallots, and sweat out for 3 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges.  Add leeks, and add water just up to the height of the top of the leeks.

3. Top with remaining 2 tbs. olive oil and 1/4 tsp. sea salt.  Increase heat to medium high.  Cook until water has reduced down completely, and leeks are soft and tender.  Stir occasionally only as water is just about evaporated.

4. Once water has left the pan, remove from heat, and check for seasoning; add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with your favorite protein and a baked sweet potato or goat cheese toasts with chive for something divine.

Clarified butter is made from gently melting butter to separate the impurities, the clarified butter fat part, and the whey.  What happens is you melt the butter, the bad bits foam up at the top, you skim those off once it seems like they have all come up (about 5 minutes), and then you scoop out the clarified butter from the top of the solids you see at the bottom, which is the whey.

The result?  A pure butter ridden of impurities and whey, which many who avoid dairy avoid as well.

What’s more (and the most useful in culinary terms) is that clarified butter has a higher smoke point (see “Why Use High Heat Oil”), so it can reach higher temperatures when sautéing and cooking in the oven than regular butter.

A better butter for specific requirements, and so easy to make.  Melt.

Luck and cookies are always better as ladies.

Experimentation with these classic cookies made me very happy today: not only does rice flour work incredibly well as a substitute for wheat flour, but it actually tastes lighter, cleaner, and more delicate in these traditional treats.  They aren’t manfingers, after all.  High five, gluten free!

Gluten-Free Ladyfingers

4 eggs, separated into 4 whites and 4 yolks
1/2 cup + 2 tbs. sugar
1 cup flour
*
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 8-11 minutes
Yields many many ladyfingers (about 2 dozen)

*

1.  Pre-heat oven to 320 degrees Fahrenheit, line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and prepare either a pastry bag with a 1/2″ tip or get out a large zip-lock bag to improvise as your pastry bag.  Measure out ingredients and separate eggs into yolks and whites before you start whisking a thing!

2. Whisk your yolks until they are a bit frothy and mousse-like either by hand or in an electric mixer over medium speed.

3. Add 1/2 of the sugar and whisk vigorously until it is “blanched” or white and stiff enough to not move around easily when tilted.  (about 4-5 minutes by hand or 1-2 minutes over medium-high speed in a mixer.)  Set aside.

4. Whisk egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form.  (Same goes for electric mixer/by hand as above.)

5. Add the remaining 1/2 of the sugar and whisk vigorously until stiff peaks form, aka, the “bird beak” phase.  (get it?)

6. Immediately add about 1/3 cup egg whites into yolk mixture and whisk together.

7. Gently pour the egg yolk mixture over the beaten whites (you don’t want to flatten your whites or your yolks, or you’ll have flat ladyfingers!)

8. Very gently stir together the yolks and whites with a spatula, making sure not to push down on the mixture to maintain the air and bubbles in your meringues!

9. Lightly dust the mixture with all of the rice flour, and, once again, very cautiously incorporate the flour into the mixture with a spatula just until flour is combined and you no longer see any chunks of it.  (Do not overmix.)

10.  Scoop you mixture into either a pastry bag with a 1/2″ tip or a zip lock bag and cut a 1/2″ opening.  Pipe your ladyfingers to about 2 1/2″-3″.

11. Bake for about 8-11 minutes, depending on the power of your oven, or until tops have turned golden and the bottoms are also cooked and the middle is cooked through, meaning, no liquid.  Remove delicately from the paper after cooling for a few minutes.  (It’s so weird how two of the cookies magically disappeared before I could get to the camera.  So weird.)

If you want to get fancy making a layered dessert, or don’t want to use a pastry bag, you can pour the batter onto a large parchment-paper lined baking sheet and cut out circles using the top of a cup or a cookie cutter.  Fill the middle with whipped cream, ice cream, strawberry preserves, melted chocolate and butter (yum), or whatever you’re craving.  Basil and strawberry wouldn’t be sad to hear about, either.

Hi there!

Happy Mother’s Day.