Gluten free mozzarella sticks May 18, 2008

Mozzarella sticks are one of those things I forgot that I loved so much. In college they were the ultimate treat to get from the dining hall.

I have come up with a suitable wheat-free & gluten-free version, and it’s quite easy. It takes a bit of patience when you have to roll the string cheese around in the egg, due to it not being very porous, but it’s worth it.

Being an INFJ, I don’t use measurements… just eyeball it.

Gluten Free Mozzarella Sticks

brown rice flour

Italian seasoning

mozzarella string cheese

patience

an egg or two

canola oil

organic ketchup (high fructose corn syrup free) or tomato sauce for dipping

In a plate, mix flour and seasonings together.

In another plate, beat the egg(s).

Unwrap your string cheese and coat in egg, then coat in the flour mixture. Place each back in the egg and in the flour again, to coat twice. They just don’t pick up enough flour the first time.

Freeze the mozzarella sticks for at least a half an hour.

When you’re ready to fry them, heat some canola oil in a frying pan on medium high. Fry both sides for only 45 seconds – 1 minute.

Be sure to only leave them in the pan for 2 minutes, or you will have a cheese explosion on your hands. You’ll find yourself with a nice pan full of fried cheese, which is tasty in it’s own way, but not really what we’re going for here. I did this the first time I made this recipe, I think partially because I didn’t freeze them, and partially because I left them too long. I forgot that back in college when I worked in the school cafeteria, when you left someone’s mozz sticks for too long, all the cheese pops out and you serve up a lovely crispy mozzarella stick crust with no cheese inside. You quickly learn not to leave in there for too long, because otherwise you find yourself with a grouchy college student on your hands.

Serve with ketchup or tomato sauce and enjoy!

My favorite thing in the world: pizza! May 18, 2008

I love pizza.  I really like having someone else cook one and put it in a box for me, but that can’t happen anymore. I came across someone talking about a restuarant that sells spelt pizza, but it’s nowhere near me, which is very, very sad. So, I just have to make my own (what’s new?).

Spelt is the easiest grain to substitute for wheat, in my experience. It has a similar amount of gluten so it acts pretty much just like wheat, and tastes quite similar as well. If you want to know more about spelt, buy a package of spelt cereal, pretzels, or flour, and it will tell you more. They all have little background stories, unlike wheat (just another great benefit of spelt, a history lesson!), such as my bag of Newman’s Own spelt pretzels tells us that it’s been eaten for over 9,000 years.

I’m currently waiting for my dough to rise. Here’s my foolproof spelt pizza recipe.

Spelt Pizza

3-4 cups spelt flour

1 package active dry yeast

1/3 cup warm water (it can be pretty warm without killing the yeast)

1 cup warm water

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

Dissolve yeast in the 1/3 cup warm water. Add the rest of the water, half of the flour, olive oil, and salt. Mix that up and gradually add flour until it forms a ball and you can knead it. Knead for about 10 minutes (or until the dough is really mixed and/or you’re really bored). Let it rise until it doubles in size, preferably in a warm area. It should take about an hour to rise, or at least 2 if it’s the winter and you are like me and don’t like high heating bills.

Once the dough has risen, punch it down, knead it a tiny bit more, then seperate into 2 or 3 pieces. Each ball will feed 2 people; if you split it into thirds those people might want a side dish with their pizza as well. Freeze what you don’t use in individual baggies. To defrost, leave it in the fridge while you’re at work so you can come home to a delicious and super easy dinner.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough and prick with a fork all over, so air bubbles won’t form, unless, of course, you are one of those people that loves to pop air bubbles on pizzas. Top the pizza however you like. I like fresh mozzarella-tomato-basil and onion-spinach-artichoke.

Cook until the cheese is browned. If you don’t have cheese to gauge it by, I’d say about 10 minutes.