Tonight's Dinner

One of the things you will find in a gluten free lifestyle is you have to be creative. Not everything you cook or bake will turn out perfect, some will be inedible. But sometimes you can turn what could be a disaster into something delicious. Tonight was one of these times.

My plan for dinner was steak and something. Thanks to my sister-in-law re introducing me to quinoa, I have actually started to like quinoa. So when thinking about dinner and my options to go with steak I pulled the quinoa out of the cupboard. Last week I found a very simple recipe for cooking fluffy quinoa that was very tasty with a pork chop. When I tried the same recipe today, it did not work the same. The quinoa ended up overcooked and mushy. Once the steak was resting and I looked at the quinoa in the pot it reminded me of mashed potatoes. So being creative I thought I would turn them into a mashed potato substitute. I added a Tbsp of butter and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and stirred it in, kind of mashing the quinoa as I did.

They ended up tasting wonderful. Lighter than potatoes, but had the same satisfying texture and mouth feel. Went wonderfully with the perfectly rare steak.

Some times when cooking you have to be creative and turn a mistake into something better. Under cooked brownies can be cut up and frozen for ice cream sundaes, overcooked bread can be made into croutons. Just look at the possibilities and make lemonade out of lemons.

Gluten Free Chocolate Turnovers

My sister came home with McDonalds one day for lunch and one of the things she had purchased was their new chocolate cherry pie. It looked really good and she asked me if I wanted to try it. I told her no, not only because it was not gluten free, but I didn't want to know how good it was and get hooked on it if it was fantastic and I could never eat it again. There are so many other non gluten free things that I already crave and cannot have, I did not want to add another to the list. But it got me thinking that I could make one myself. This lead me on a quest to make the perfect chocolate pastry. I used a pastry recipe that a friend had given me once, that I have since tweaked, and tweaked it further. It took a couple tries to perfect the recipe, the first one was really bad, but the end result was a flaky pastry with a gooey filling.

Elizabeth's Gluten Free Chocolate Turnovers

Chocolate Pastry:
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/8 cup white rice flour
1/8 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
Pinch salt
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
1/4 cup very cold butter, cut into small pieces
4 Tbsp ice water
Coarse raw sugar for sprinkling on top
All purpose gluten free flour mix for dusting

Sift rice flours, cocoa, salt and xanthan gum together, press out cocoa lumps. Add honey and vanilla, stir. Cut in butter until butter resembles small pea sized bits. Add water, 1 Tbsp at a time and stir until just combined. Shape into a disk, wrap disk in plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours. Once out of fridge place on well floured surface. Cut disk into four pieces. Working with one piece at a time, coat outside in flour and roll into a 1/4" thick rectangle. Fold the rectangle onto itself in thirds like a pamphlet (ie fold ends over onto middle). Coat with flour if necessary and roll out again into a 1/4" thick oval. Brush egg wash around perimeter of pastry, spoon 2 heaped Tbsp of filling onto left side of pastry, keeping at least 1/2 - 1 inch away from edge. Fold top over filling, careful not to squish filling out. Crimp edges with fork to seal pastry, trim extra pastry to make a clean edge. Brush top and sides with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse raw sugar. Cut slits in top to allow steam to vent and pastry will not poof up and make a large hole in the middle. Bake on parchment lined sheet at 400F for 25-30 minutes.

You can use any canned pie filling you wish. The first time I made them I used jam with a little cornstarch to thicken, but I found this made a very flat, soggy turnover. So I made my own pie filling with the jam. See below for recipe.

Filling:

1 cup diced strawberries

2 Tbsp your choice of jam, I used ED Smith Raspberry, Cherry, Key Lime Jam.

1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice

Cook first 3 ingredients in microwave for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add lemon juice and stir until combined. If filling becomes to thick, add another Tbsp of jam. Cool before using in turnovers.

These turnovers are fabulous hot out of the oven, but let them sit for at least 15 minutes or the filling will be extremely hot. After a day or so the pastry starts to get a little soggy, but the turnover still tastes great.