Cybele Pascal Allergen-Free Cuisine

Best of “The Martha Stewart Show”

Check out the amazing honor my Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook received this week!  See excerpt below:

From MarthaStewart.com:

“The Martha Stewart Show” Bookshelf

Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook

As an avid reader and cook, Martha often invites influential authors and chefs to appear on “The Martha Stewart Show.” Here are some of their must-read books, along with a few by Martha herself.

Cybele Pascal’s “Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook” is packed with sweet and savory recipes that leave out ingredients responsible for most allergies. Cybele is an expert on allergen-free ingredient substitutions, and she blogs about allergy-friendly cooking for Whole Living Daily.

Buy the Book: “Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook”

Read more at Marthastewart.com: Must-Have Product Picks from “The Martha Stewart Show”

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GLUTEN-FREE FLOUR TORTILLAS

If you’re looking for a great vegan Gluten-Free flour tortilla recipe, that doesn’t crack, with great wholesome flavor, then look no further! These also freeze really well, so make up a big batch, freeze the extra, and defrost on demand with 20 seconds in the microwave.

MAKES 4 8-INCH TORTILLAS

These whole grain Gluten-Free Flour Tortillas are nutritious, versatile, low fat, and fun to make.  Many of my readers were looking for an alternative to brown rice tortillas, which tend to crack and split.  Well, here you are, these are made with millet and sweet sorghum instead!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Gluten-Free Bread Flour Mix (recipe follows)
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum*
• ¾ teaspoon double-acting baking powder**
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
• ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons rice milk
• 2 teaspoons canola oil

♥♥♥

1. Measure out flour mix by spooning flour into a dry measuring cup, then leveling it off with a straightedge, or the back of a knife. (Do not scoop the flour directly with the measuring cup or you’ll wind up with too much flour for the recipe). Combine flour mix with xanthan gum, baking powder, and salt, whisking well.

2. Heat rice milk until warm (not hot).  Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients, pour in rice milk and canola oil, and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. The dough will be sticky.

3. Turn out dough onto a board or work surface, lightly floured with some Gluten-Free Bread Flour Mix.  Sprinkle a little more flour mix onto dough and onto your hands.

4. Knead the dough about 30 seconds, until smooth, and no longer sticky, then mold into a ball. Place ball into bowl, and cover bowl with a damp kitchen towel. Let rest 20 minutes. Remove dough from bowl, and cut into four pieces.  Roll into four balls.

5. Transfer balls to a dry plate, cover with damp towel and let rest another 10 minutes. Working with one ball at a time, sprinkle a little more flour mix on the work surface.  Using the palm of your hand, press ball into a disk about 4-inches in diameter.

6.  Sprinkle a little more flour mix on dough, flip and roll out into about a 9-inch circle with a floured rolling pin.  I usually like the heavy old-fashioned rolling pins, but for this recipe I prefer the lighter French dowels.

7.  Using an offset spatula, loosen dough from board all the way around, flip, and give it one more roll over. Don’t worry that it’s not a perfect circle. We’re about to fix that.  Place an 8-inch bowl over the tortilla, and trim the edges.

8. Remove bowl, and use the offset spatula to separate the tortilla from the board.

9. Transfer tortilla to a plate and cover with the damp towel while you roll out the rest. Repeat steps to roll out the remaining three, remembering to add more flour mix to your work surface and rolling pin.

10. Heat a 10-inch cast iron skillet over high heat until starting to smoke. You want that puppy really hot.

11.  Add a tortilla, cook 30 seconds, flip with a spatula and cook 30 seconds more until there are a few brown spots on surface. Do not overcook, or the tortillas will become brittle. Transfer to a plate, and keep covered with a dry cloth while you finish cooking the rest.  Eat warm or at room temperature.  To store any that don’t get eaten right away, wait until cool, then seal in a zip lock freezer bag, and place in freezer

*You may use guar gum in place of xanthan gum if you are concerned about corn derivatives.

**Hain Featheweight Baking Powder is corn-free, and can be used in place of double-acting baking powder. See here for more information.

Gluten-Free Flour Tortillas Copyright © 2010 by Cybele Pascal

GLUTEN-FREE BREAD FLOUR MIX

MAKES 6 CUPS

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups millet flour
• 1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
• 2 cups tapioca starch
• 1 cup potato starch

1. Measure out flour by spooning flour into a dry measuring cup, then leveling it off with a straightedge, or the back of a knife. (Do not scoop the flour directly with the measuring cup or you’ll wind up with too much flour). Combine all ingredients in a gallon-size Ziploc bag. Shake until well blended. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.

“Gluten-Free Bread Flour Mix” recipe reprinted with permission from The Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook: How to Bake Without Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, and Sesame. Copyright © 2009 by Cybele Pascal, Celestial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA.

(Please note that all my recipes are completely free of all top allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish, and gluten), so as many people as possible can enjoy them.  Additionally, all the ingredients are available at Whole Foods, and online at Amazon.com. If you have trouble finding something, let me know and I’ll help you find it.)

SAFETY NOTE:  Because each person’s food sensitivity and reaction is unique, ranging from mild intolerance to life-threatening and severe food allergies, it is up to the consumer to monitor ingredients and manufacturing conditions.  If manufacturing conditions, potential cross contact between foods, and ingredient derivatives pose a risk for you, please re-read all food labels and call the manufacturer to confirm potential allergen concerns BEFORE consumption. Ingredients and manufacturing practices can change overnight and without warning.

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Allergen-Free Lemon Rosemary Chicken with Green Olives

Allergy-Friendly, Gluten-Free

Serves 4-6

I’ve been on a chicken kick, as you can probably tell from my last two recipe posts.  This one is easy as pie to throw together, and is a real summer crowd pleaser.  My boys love it with Jasmine rice.  If you don’t have green olives, Kalamata are equally yummy!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs boneless chicken breast
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 Tablespoon finely minced fresh rosemary
• 1 large lemon, cut into wedges
• 15 green olives (Spanish olives are nice for this)
• 2-3 Tablespoons dry white wine
• salt and pepper

♥♥♥

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Drizzle bottom of large Dutch oven or heavy baking dish with 2 Tablespoons of the olive oil. Place chicken breasts in pan, being sure not to overcrowd.  Sprinkle tops of chicken with garlic and rosemary.  Turn them, so they are coated on all sides.
3. Surround chicken with lemon wedges. Toss in olives.  Drizzle top with remaining 2 Tablespoons olive oil, white wine, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Place on center rack of oven, and bake 40-50 minutes, basting with pan juices once halfway through, until lightly golden on top, and cooked through (cooking duration depends on thickness of the chicken breasts). If you wish to brown up the chicken a bit more, baste again with pan juices, and run it under the broiler on high for 2-3 minutes.
5. Serve warm with rice, or potatoes, and a nice green salad.  This is also great at room temperature, for lunch day two!

Allergen-Free Lemon Rosemary Chicken with Green Olives © 2010 by Cybele Pascal

(Please note that all my recipes are completely free of all top allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish, and gluten), so as many people as possible can enjoy them. Additionally, all the ingredients are available at Whole Foods, and online at Amazon.com. If you have trouble finding something, let me know and I’ll help you find it.)

SAFETY NOTE: Because each person’s food sensitivity and reaction is unique, ranging from mild intolerance to life-threatening and severe food allergies, it is up to the consumer to monitor ingredients and manufacturing conditions. If manufacturing conditions, potential cross contact between foods, and ingredient derivatives pose a risk for you, please re-read all food labels and call the manufacturer to confirm potential allergen concerns before consumption. Ingredients and manufacturing practices can change overnight and without warning.

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Natural Antihistamines Send Hay Fever Packing

Sneezing, sniffling, swollen, itchy-eyes got you down this month?  If so, you’re far from alone.  Mid-august marks the beginning of ragweed season, which lasts through October, and causes a whopping 36 million Americans to suffer the symptoms of “hay fever”, or allergic rhinitis.

Technically, this site is devoted to food allergy sufferers, but with seasonal allergies (not to mention mold!) in full swing, we’ve got a total of 50 million people suffering some kind of torment, four of them in my very own household. So instead of writing about foods to avoid this week, I’ve focussed on  foods to include in your diet that can help reduce allergies. Food allergy sufferers, take note: I have not forsaken you!  As seasonal allergies are said to exacerbate existing food allergies, this information should be helpful to you as well.

Both my sons are in hyper-allergic mode this summer, both to foods and to pollen.  Consequently, there’s been a lot of unnatural drugging going on — of the Claritin, Alavert, Benadryl type.  I’m not alone in this.  Americans spend billions of dollars annually on antihistamines to treat symptoms of allergies. The problem with these over-the-counter antihistamines — aside from their obvious side effects of drowsiness, cloudy thinking, dry mouth, and for some, accelerated heart rate —  is that they don’t stop the problem from happening in the first place, they just mask the symptoms for several hours.   But I need more than just a few hours reprieve, and as a desperate parent, sick of doping my children, I have turned for help to a natural alternative:  foods that fight allergies. What a novel concept.  EATING YOUR ANTIHISTAMINES.

So what are these super-foods?  Well, lucky for you, most of them are available in abundance at your local green market or grocer.   For a change, East meets West on this topic, with both traditional western medicine and alternative health practitioners  agreeing that nature’s top edible antihistamines are found in foods containing Vitamin C, and Quercetin (a powerful flavonoid, sometimes called bioflavonoid). Additionally, there is much evidence that eating foods rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids reduces allergic symptoms.

1. Vitamin C

Vitamin C is one of nature’s great wonders.  In addition to being a natural antihistamine,  this water soluble vitamin has a multitude of other functions in the body. From being a powerful antioxidant fighting free radicals, to its role in the synthesis of collagen, it’s the vitamin we truly can’t live without.    Foods rich in Vitamin C  should be eaten as soon as possible when fresh, as they lose their strength after being exposed to air,  or being processed, boiled, or stored for long periods of time.  Good food sources of Vitamin C are guavas, blackcurrants, red bell peppers, kale, parsley, green sweet peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, mustard greens, mango, watercress, cauliflower, red cabbage, strawberries, papayas, green and white cabbage, spinach, citrus fruits, elderberries, calf liver, turnips, peaches, asparagus, cantaloupe, cayenne pepper, green onions, new lima beans, black-eyed peas, green peas, radishes, raspberries, yellow summer squash, sweet potatoes, loganberries, tomatoes, new potatoes, lettuce, bananas, kiwi, honeydew, pineapple, cranberry juice, vegetable juice, tomato juice, rutabaga, and kohlrabi.  That’s a whole lot of options to keep you eating your C!

2. Flavonoids

Flavonoids, such as Quercetin are a group of plant pigments that are largely responsible for the colors of many fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Quercetin is a natural antihistamine that helps stabilize mast cells to prevent both the manufacture and release of histamine, as well as other allergic  and inflammatory compounds.   Good sources of Quercetin are citrus fruits, onions, garlic, apples, parsley, tea, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, legumes, berries, and wine (no bummer there!).

3. Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Omega-3 Fatty Acids are thought to reduce allergic reactions through their anti-inflammatory properties. Omega-3 Fatty Acids are found in such foods as cold-water fish (think salmon), and walnuts, but since this is a blog devoted to food allergy sufferers, I prefer to recommend you get your Omega-3s from less allergenic sources, such as hemp seeds, flax seed oil, canola oil, and grass-fed meat.

Many articles advise you to start loading up on your natural antihistamines six weeks prior to peak allergy season, but since many of us don’t know exactly what pollen or mold spores we’re allergic to, I advise trying to eat as much of these foods as possible, all year round.   Eating a diet rich in natural antihistamines can help prevent the allergic reactions from happening in the first place, thus reducing the need for the drugs, and making us all a little healthier and happier, not to mention less congested!

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Gift Certificate Winner chosen!  Please see results below.  Thanks!

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Pots & Pans, oh my!

It’s been awhile since I did a giveaway, and you all deserve FREE STUFF!  Luckily, I was contacted by CSN stores to do one on here, and they are offering pretty cool FREE stuff. CSN stores have so many lovely things from cookware to dining room furniture to bedding. It was pretty hard to choose what to giveaway because there were so many great options! So I decided to let the winner choose their goodies themselves. One lucky reader will win a $40 gift certificate good at any of their stores.  They have 200+ online stores that sell just about anything you could want or need.

For example, you could buy a pot or pan from their site www.allpotracks.com. The following items are all less than $40!

or

or

or

or!

Just leave me a comment about your favorite pot or pan, why you love it, or any other interesting trivia about pots and pans, like why you might desperately need a new pot, pan, or pot rack, and you’ll be entered in the giveaway. And if you blog about the giveaway, I’ll enter your name twice!  For this giveaway, I’ll put all the names in a pot, stir it up, shake it a few times, and pull out the winner.

To Enter:

Be a subscriber (1)

Leave me a comment telling me something about pots or pans (2)

Mention this giveaway on your blog, let me know about it, and you’ll be entered twice (3)

Remember to comment for your entries!

This giveaway closes August 11 at noon.

Note: There may be shipping charges or international fees in the case of Canadian addresses. Please note this when choosing a product if shipping to Canada.

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Allergen-free, Gluten-Free Pasta with Roast Cherry Tomatoes, Grilled Chicken, and Nut-Free Pesto

Summer is the season for tomatoes and basil!  But with pesto usually off-limits for people with food allergies — it traditionally contains tree nuts and dairy — I set about creating an allergen-free version of the original.  The sweet and tangy roast cherry tomatoes are the perfect compliment to the earthy flavor of the basil, and the smokiness of the grilled chicken.  As an added bonus, I’ve used hemp seeds in place of the traditional pine nuts or walnuts, boosting protein and omega 3 essential fatty acids.   Upon tasting this recipe, my son Monte asked, “Can I have this for lunch tomorrow too?”  There is no greater compliment.

Ingredients

Pesto:

• 1/3 cup shelled hemp seeds (Manitoba Harvest hemp seeds are allergen-free)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 cup tightly packed fresh basil
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup gluten-free bread-crumbs (I like Hol-Grain for this recipe, they’re very fine and made from rice)

Roasted Tomatoes:

• 1 lb. cherry tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• salt and fresh ground pepper

Grilled Chicken:

• 1 lb. chicken breast (if you’re short on time, buy it pre-grilled)
• extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
• salt and fresh ground pepper

• 1 lb. rice or corn-quinoa penne or spirals or shells
• 6-8 large basil leaves to garnish

♥♥♥

Place hemp seeds in food processor and grind to a fine meal. Add garlic and puree. Add basil, and blend till finely chopped. Pour in extra virgin olive oil, a little at a time, till pesto is nice and smooth.  Add salt and gluten-free bread crumbs.  Combine thoroughly and set aside. (This can be made in advance. Makes 1 heaping cup.)

Preheat oven to 425°F. Cover a baking tray with aluminum foil,  scatter tomatoes on it, drizzle with 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss till all the tomatoes are coated.

Roast until tomatoes collapse in on themselves, about 30 minutes (it will be less if the tomatoes are really tiny).

Put water on to boil, and cook pasta according to instructions on packet.

Pound the chicken breast between two sheets of parchment paper with a meat mallet  till it is 1/2-inch thick. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and grill over high heat about 3 minutes per side.  Dice into 1-inch peices.

Drain pasta and toss with olive oil to coat in a large pasta bowl.  Add the pesto and chicken. Toss. Add the roasted tomatoes and gently toss one more time. Scatter 6-8 basil leaves over top. MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Allergen-Free, Gluten-Free Pasta with Roast Cherry Tomatoes, Grilled Chicken, and Nut-Free Pesto © 2010 by Cybele Pascal

(Please note that all my recipes are completely free of all top allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish, and gluten), so as many people as possible can enjoy them. Additionally, all the ingredients are available at Whole Foods, and online at Amazon.com. If you have trouble finding something, let me know and I’ll help you find it.)

SAFETY NOTE: Because each person’s food sensitivity and reaction is unique, ranging from mild intolerance to life-threatening and severe food allergies, it is up to the consumer to monitor ingredients and manufacturing conditions. If manufacturing conditions, potential cross contact between foods, and ingredient derivatives pose a risk for you, please re-read all food labels and call the manufacturer to confirm potential allergen concerns before consumption. Ingredients and manufacturing practices can change overnight and without warning.

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Pasta, the staff of life. They say it’s bread, but I don’t think so.  Does bread come in over 350 shapes, colors and sizes? Does bread have never-ending sauce options? Can you eat bread alone every single night?  Maybe, but I bet you’d rather eat pasta.

Unless you’re allergic to it, of course. In fact, if you’re one of the more than 12 million Americans with Food Allergies, you’re probably avoiding one or more of the following foods; wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, or  sesame. Given that pasta dishes are generally comprised of wheat/gluten, dairy, and eggs, and sometimes tree nuts, or fish and shellfish, eating pasta may seem like an impossibility. Not so! By switching to gluten-free noodles and using a little ingenuity with sauces, pasta will be the centerpiece of your summer table.

Finding a good wheat-free, gluten-free pasta takes a bit of patience. As an experiment, I set about testing all that I could get my hands on.  Luckily, the industry has come a long way in meeting public demand for gluten-free pasta. Only a couple of years ago, there were very few options, and most gluten-free pastas would disintegrate into a mushy gloopy mess. Al Dente was unheard of, never mind twirling a long strand of spaghetti around a fork.

Not true anymore.  While you still have to avoid a few brands that have not moved beyond a product that cooks into some sort of gruel, the following are some GREAT brands of pasta.

As far as I’m concerned, Tinkyada is the gold standard of rice spaghetti.  It has a firm texture, and lovely taste.  It is made with whole grains (brown rice, and rice bran), in a factory that produces only rice pasta, eliminating the risk of cross-contamination with other grains.  Tinkyada is available at most health food stores and many regular grocery stores.  Pastariso also has excellent texture , but I detected a faintly bitter aftertaste.  Pastariso makes potato pastas as well, and is also produced in a dedicated gluten-free facility.  Lundberg, the grandaddy of rice pastas has a great flavor — be sure to check out their short pastas (spirals, penne).

I was less enthusiastic about  Mrs. Leepers, an Italian brand of rice pasta. To avoid the noodles turning to mush, I had to cook them for less time than instructed.  However, they do make multi-colored vegetable spirals, which is appealing to kids.   Trader Joe’s brown rice pasta was weird, to say the least.  Though I cooked it to the maximum suggested time, it seemed completely underdone. I drained it anyway, because the instructions warn against overcooking,  and after a few minutes, the texture improved.  The next day, however, the leftovers were as hard as a rock, and completely inedible.

After my rice pasta adventures, I moved on to other gluten-free pastas, containing corn, or quinoa. DeBoles corn pasta, the most accessible gluten-free pasta at supermarkets and grocery stores, had good flavor but the noodles didn’t hold their shape, with the spaghetti/linguine looking more like shredded egg noodles. My favorite gluten-free pasta is Quinoa Corporation’s Ancient Harvest Quinoa Linguine. A blend of corn flour and quinoa flour, it has the best texture, a lovely pale yellow hue, and never got the slightly slimy coating that can accompany rice pasta.  Even better, quinoa is an ancient grain with complete protein, (read:super-nutritious).

With pastas out of the way, I moved on to creating the sauce. For inspiration, I looked to the Italians, who know to rely on basics for flavor — ingredients like onions, garlic, fresh tomatoes, rich chicken or vegetable stock, white wine, fresh herbs, olives, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes,  sausage, prosciutto, or bacon (try nitrite free).  Just a few of these flavorful ingredients combined gave me a great sauce, and you can do the same at home.  During these summer months, look to your local greenmarket for fresh veggies, like zuchinni, yellow squash, fresh peas, and leeks, which add both color and texture to your dish. And remember to skip the cheese! While we have become so used to adding parmesan to our pasta, many sauces don’t require any cheese, and in fact are better without it.

Up next post:  Allergen-Free, Gluten-Free Pasta with Roast Cherry Tomatoes, Grilled Chicken, and Nut-Free Pesto

What’s your favorite pasta shape? Mine is linguine….

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Allergen-Free Thai Noodle Salad with Chicken

(Gluten-Free, Allergen-Free)

Yield: 4 servings

Thai food is usually loaded with common allergens, from the fish sauce (full of fish and shellfish), to soy sauce, to the chopped peanuts that provide the finishing touches.  Unwilling to give up this flavorful fresh cuisine, I came up with an allergen-free summer noodle salad, great for picnics, or dinner on a hot steamy night, that will satisfy your Thai food craving!

It keeps well in the fridge, so make up a batch of this light and herbacious dish on a Sunday, pack it in tupperware, and you’ve got lunches for a few days too.

Yield: 4 servings

• 3 oz. rice noodles
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1/4 English cucumber, quartered and sliced lengthwise
• 1/2 red or yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 1/2 cups cubed chicken breast (steam 1/2 lb. chicken breast for 15 minutes, cool and cube)
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. chopped scallions
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. chopped basil (Thai basil if you can find it)
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. chopped mint
• 2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. light agave nectar
• 1 1/2 tsp. mirin (optional)
• 1 tsp. Asian chili paste
• 1 Tbsp. canola oil

♥♥♥

1. Boil noodles according to instructions on package. Place cabbage in a colander and drain noodles over cabbage. Rinse with cold water. Drain.
2. Toss cabbage and noodles in a large bowl with carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, chicken, scallions, basil, and mint.
3. In a separate bowl, combine lime juice, rice vinegar, agave nectar, mirin, chili paste, and canola oil. Whisk. Pour over noodles and toss. Serve room temperature or chilled.

Allergen-Free Thai Noodle Salad with Chicken © 2009 by Cybele Pascal

(Please note that all my recipes are completely free of all top allergens (wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish, and gluten), so as many people as possible can enjoy them. Additionally, all the ingredients are available at Whole Foods, and online at Amazon.com. If you have trouble finding something, let me know and I’ll help you find it.)

SAFETY NOTE: Because each person’s food sensitivity and reaction is unique, ranging from mild intolerance to life-threatening and severe food allergies, it is up to the consumer to monitor ingredients and manufacturing conditions. If manufacturing conditions, potential cross contact between foods, and ingredient derivatives pose a risk for you, please re-read all food labels and call the manufacturer to confirm potential allergen concerns before consumption. Ingredients and manufacturing practices can change overnight and without warning.

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I am allergic to shellfish.  This is somewhat tragic, as I come from Wellfleet, MA, home of the world famous Wellfleet Oyster.  That’s right, I’m originally a “Wellfleetian”.

When I was a kid, I could eat shellfish, but at some point, in my 20s, I became allergic to most types of shellfish. I first discovered this while out to dinner with my then-boyfriend, now-husband, Adam, at an Italian restaurant in the East Village in NY.  I ordered a spicy seafood/shellfish soup, and promptly broke out in total body hives.

I am also allergic to several types of fish. I am allergic to Halibut, Trout, and to a lesser extent, Salmon.  That I know of.  I say “that I know of”, because you never know when you might have developed a new allergy when you are a food allergic individual.  Always proceed with caution. What I do know, however, is that so far, I can still eat Cod, Haddock, Flounder, Tuna, Bluefish, Mahi Mahi, Anchovies, and Sardines.

And this is where I say, “DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME, FOLKS!”  If you have shellfish or fish allergies, don’t go trying this recipe willy-nilly without guidance from your allergist.  I know, through a lot of trial and error, that there are certain fish that I don’t have a reaction to. For whatever reason, I’m allergic to the trout/salmon family’s protein, but not the protein in cod and haddock, etc.  I know this from many years of very careful experimentation, always with an epi-pen nearby.

I really hate to exclude anyone in the Food Allergy Community with one of my recipes, so forgive me, fish allergic people.  This following recipe is not for you. And I never do this.  I have a mandate to write recipes that exclude ALL THE TOP FOOD ALLERGENS responsible for 90% of food allergies.  This one just slipped through the cracks, for once. But I have a reason… let me tell you why….

I am sitting here on Cape Cod, and I am reading the news.  The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has now made it to Texas.  It is forecast to travel up the entire east coast of the US as a kind of plume, whipping through the Atlantic Ocean.  And killing our fish.  The fishing community, here on Cape Cod, (and everywhere else, I’m sure) are literally overwhelmed with sadness and fear.  We don’t know if we’ll still have fish in our waters next summer.  And so, people are eating as much locally sourced, still-healthy seafood as possible.  To go out in style, so to speak. And I, who usually forgo it, am also giving it a last hurrah.  I hope they’re wrong in their projections about where that oil plume will travel, but if they’re not, I don’t ever want to think that I missed the last summer that we still had lovely safe Cod, on Cape Cod.

GLUTEN-FREE, DAIRY-FREE, SOY-FREE FISH CHOWDER

This recipe is really an Ode to the lovely fish of Cape Cod.  May they continue to swim in good health!  Makes 8 Servings

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced fine
• 3 large stalks celery, with leaves, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• big pinch of dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• 2 bay leaves
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 large Yukon Gold potato, skin on, diced into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 ear of fresh corn
• 8 peppercorns
• 8 cups fish stock (Kitchen Basics “Seafood Stock” is Shellfish-Free and Gluten-Free; see their allergen-statement)
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 2-3 cups leftover cooked Cod Fish, and/or Haddock, and/or Flounder, flaked or cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1/2 cup coconut milk, or rice milk (or heavy cream, if you can eat dairy)
• pinch of saffron
• gluten-free toast spears (optional)

♥♥♥

1. Heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat. Add diced onions and garlic, and cook, stirring often, about 3 minutes, until onions have softened a bit. Add celery and carrots, cooking a few minutes more, until starting to soften.  Add thyme, parsley, bay leaves, cayenne, and cook stirring until aromatic, about 2 minutes.
2. Increase heat to medium-high heat, and add white wine.  Cook stirring, about 3 minutes, until reduced slightly. Add cubed potato, stirring to combine. Cut corn kernels off of cobs and add to pot.  Add peppercorns.  Cover all with fish stock, add salt, and few grindings of fresh pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Crumble in the saffron. Cook at a simmer, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes, until potato is softened. Add bell pepper, and fish, stirring gently to combine.  Simmer about 15 minutes, until bell pepper is tender.  Taste broth, and adjust salt,  pepper, and cayenne pepper, to taste.
3. Add coconut milk (or rice milk, or heavy cream), and heat through until piping hot, without letting it boil.  Ladle into bowls, and garnish with a couple of gluten-free toast spears, if you like. This soup is even more delicious day two, so don’t fret the leftovers!

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free Fish Chowder © 2010 by Cybele Pascal

For a great dessert to follow this recipe, Check out my new recipe for GLUTEN-FREE VEGAN BLUEBERRY BREAD PUDDING

SAFETY NOTE: Because each person’s food sensitivity and reaction is unique, ranging from mild intolerance to life-threatening and severe food allergies, it is up to the consumer to monitor ingredients and manufacturing conditions. If manufacturing conditions, potential cross contact between foods, and ingredient derivatives pose a risk for you, please re-read all food labels and call the manufacturer to confirm potential allergen concerns before consumption. Ingredients and manufacturing practices can change overnight and without warning.

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