The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook Review

Kayleigh here. This review may be going out on a limb, since it is not actually a gluten free cookbook.

Outraged at our betrayal? No, I know you are cooler than that. Since you waited around for our reasoning, I’ll give it to you- we were given this cookbook as a wedding gift, and nearly all of the recipes are gluten free without any ingredient substitutions. Because this is The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook, where most of the carbs come from potatoes, and the focus is on main dishes and different combinations of sides instead of all-in-one recipes that (more often than not) contain some form of bread. Largely, this cookbook is suited for fall and winter fare- hearty dishes that warm the cockles of your heart and stick to the sides well, so you’ll be running strong through the next meal. This has been a great pick-me-up in this Seattle springtime- just when I think the sun and summer is here to stay, the sky starts spitting and I get another week in the 50’s to look forward to.

Jason here. I have always loved cold rainy weather. Something I just really enjoy about setting in my nice cozy home, while I enjoy a nice hearty meal. Also did I mention I love potatoes? I love French fries, hash browns, tater tots, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and pretty much any other way you can prepare a potato. Now enough of my potatoes and cold weather loving intermission and back to Kayleigh.

Recently, we made a beautiful dinner out of Sea Trout with Cider & Cream Sauce, served with champ and peas on the side.  The results were absolutely beautiful- a dinner I would be proud to serve anyone! The rich, yet acidic sauce married the fresh fish perfectly, with the champ behaving as an excellently simple cleanser to refresh the taste buds. With fresh salmon in such abundance in the Pacific Northwest, this was such an amazing change of pace from the regular smoking or grilling preparation methods.

Touching on the sweeter side of things, the Honeyed Parsnips recipe makes a beautiful side to a roast, instead of the usual carrots and onions. Cooking them long and slow like this really draws out the natural sweetness, making it an easier sell for veggie-phobic eaters and younger children.  For the adults, finish off the meal with one of the after dinner drinks in the back of the book, like an Irish Coffee or Scailtin (heated milk with whiskey and spices).

If you have the luck of getting some decent warm weather (read: if it is now July), there are a few fantastic recipes for lighter fare, like Bacon, Beet & Spinach Salad with Cashel Blue Cheese. Served with some warm Irish Soda bread (recipe pulled from a gluten free cookbook, of course), you can actually make a complete meal out of this deliciously diverse salad.

Jason here again. I am not usually a fish person, but even I enjoyed the rich flavor the recipe brought to the salmon. Slowly but surely, red fish have been growing on me. For me they have a texture similar to chicken, but a little more juicy. When cooking, I have found them to be a lot less forgiving. It easy very easy over or undercook the Salmon. It’s a technique I’ve been enjoying improving as Kayleigh really loves fish.

The champ was very good. Champ if you don’t know is essentially mashed potatoes mixed with a crazy amount of green onion, and some butter. Next time I will add a little less green onion, as the flavor came off a little strong for me. 

One thing that was cool about cooking the Salmon was leeks. I’ve never seen them in a recipe before and it is always fun to try out new things. To start, leeks are super annoying to clean. I recommend looking up some tutorial videos online. Basically you have to peel open each layer and wash it free of the grime that gets stuck as it grows. The taste and texture remind me of a sweet onion. One thing we learned was that a single leek will last you a while, so definitely think of meals where it can be reused.

All in all, the cookbook is fun. It has a lot of unique recipes that I have never heard of before and really hits home for flavors. The various fish recipes are also great inspiration for what to cook for Kayleigh on special occasions.

Gluten, Wheat, & Dairy Free Cookbook Review

Kayleigh here. Continuing our foray into gluten free cookbooks, we were recently given the chance to borrow gluten, wheat, & dairy free, a cookbook compiled under the group name Love Food. As the name suggests, this cookbook covers everything from breakfast to dessert with an enormous variety of cuisines and flavor profiles to choose from. Being the adventurous foodies we are, nearly every recipe in this book sounded tempting just from the ingredient list, but the food photography really hit it home, displaying a mouthwatering close-up of each and every dish in the book. If you are not hungry when you start flipping through the pages, this will quickly change.

As opposed to many of the cookbooks we have reviewed here in the past, this one is unashamed to ask for ingredients like all-purpose gluten free flour and dairy-free cream cheese in its allergen-free pages. If you are like us and don’t really keep a bread or AP flour substitute on hand, just use a blend you have had success with in the past. But if you have found a tried and true store-bought mix, or are making one of the many flourless entrees in the book, then no substitutions are necessary!

Going for the most unusual entry of the cookbook, we made the Golden Pilaf. Hearty buckwheat makes for the bulk of it, but it is the orange juice-soaked onions, nutty pine nuts, and plumply sweet raisins that drive the flavor. We made a double batch of it on the weekend, and found it lost none of the delightful taste and texture as microwaved leftovers even a week later. Try serving it with a fried egg on top, and mix the liquid yolk into the dish- it adds an amazing richness!

Another dish we made with delicious success was the Shrimp Noodles- a wonderful coconut/peanut butter curry with bright bell peppers, crisp bok choy, and sweet shrimp standing in colorful contrast to the rich golden sauce. I love how this dish calls for rice noodles instead of plain white rice, since it just seems to compliment the noodle-like strips of vegetables much better.

Jason here. This cook book has a lot of cool recipes in it. As silly as it seems, I like cook books that are heavy on pictures. My own method of finding meals revolves less around thinking up a food type or item, and finding a recipe similar to it in a cook book, and more of flip through the pictures until something strikes my fancy. Like Kayleigh mentioned, every recipe in the book has a full page picture of the finished product. 

This leads me into my next compliment to this book. It is simply well presented. I’ve looked through other cookbooks which try to cram in as many recipes as possible, and read more like a newspaper. Gluten, Wheat, & Dairy Free however has a super crisp presentation. Every recipe is presented on the left page in a large easy to read font. This makes it great for quick glances when you’re in the middle of cooking. As I mentioned above, the right page is entirely taken up with a single close up picture of the finished product. It’s just very aesthetically pleasing to read cook book.

It’s a mixed bag for me that it is also a dairy free cook book. On one hand it is super handy to have around when we have a lactose and tolerant friend over. While it is not explicitly a vegan cookbook, the dairy free part lends itself to have a quite a few vegan recipes as well. On the other hand, I am not lactose intolerant, so milk substitutions often seem unnecessary. Either way, the recipes are delicious so I would say it a great edition to anyone’s cookbook collection.

The Golden Pilaf was particularly good. I don’t often find earthy, nutty recipes. The sweet raisins and pine nuts really worked together to just give it this unique earthy, yet fruity taste. The downside to this recipe is that we found out pine nuts are pretty expensive in our area. My favorite benefit to this meal, was how easy it is to whip a large batch, and then package it up for leftovers.

If you’re looking for a colorful cookbook, with a unique combination of dairy and gluten free I would say look no further. This book would make a great edition to any collection, but might not make the best starter recipe book, as it is not as packed full as other books. I sort of saw this as a benefit, but it’s worth mentioning.

Gluten Free Baking Classics Review

Kayleigh here, rounding off our series of cookbook reviews with some talk about Gluten Free Baking Classics, by Annalise G. Roberts. Focusing largely on quickbreads and desserts, this book is a fantastic addition to any gluten-free household due to its easy-to-follow instructions and helpful tips following many of the recipes. Roberts was even thoughtful enough to provide alternate toppings, fillings, and techniques for her more versatile dishes, to allow for even more personal creations in your kitchen!

From my first readthrough, I quickly ran out of post-its to bookmark interesting recipes. Should I try the Hazelnut cake or Chocolate Ricotta muffin recipe first? Or give the basic pie crust a shot? Really, the best part about her recipes is that almost all of them contain the same basic flour blend, which she details at the beginning of the cookbook. Since I did not need to special order anything exotic to start trying the recipes, I was able to jump right in- how exciting!

In the end, we tried her basic Buttermilk Biscuit recipe first. Crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with a rich buttery taste- a perfect clone of the standard box biscuit mix. In fact, they turned out so well, we baked them to go along with Christmas dinner! Not stopping there, we used the Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Doughnut recipe to try out some new Puff Pancake pans. As someone who grew up in the Northeast, I have been hankering for a good Dunkin Donuts run for a long time, and found these to be a near dead-ringer for the old-fashioned cake donuts. Boy, did they go perfectly with a hot cup of coffee!

Jason here. We were super happy to try out our new Puff Pancake pans. They worked out great, although it took us a little too long to add the fillings and flip the donut holes. Admittedly this caused them to have a slieght burnt taste on one side. Next time we will cook them a bit longer, but on less heat.

My favorite part was figuring out what all of the toppings, and filling we wanted. Kayleigh of course went with the peanut butter. I tried making a powdered sugar topping, and a cinnamon brown sugar topping. For my fillings we ran out of peanut butter, so I added some Nutella, and chocolate to another hole. When we took the donuts out, I fairly quickly rolled them in my toppings, but alas nothing stuck. We eventually opted to quickly spray some cooking spray and then reroll them. Even then the toppings barely took. We will have to figure out a better method for next time. Speaking of next time, I will definitely be trying chocolate donuts, with chocolate filling.

If you are still are not sold on this book, check out Robert's blog here. She updates fairly regularly with new recipes, mostly baking-centric, but with a fair share of delicious savory entrees mixed throughout. If you find yourself making two, three, or more recipes from there, then I would definitely recommend picking up one of her books!

The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread Cookbook Review

Kayleigh here. Seems like it's about time for another cookbook review: this time, The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, by Bette Hagman. If you are anything like us, then you have one tried and true bread recipe, and you find yourself using it over and over again, since you do not want to go through a string of failures again finding out a new recipe. Clearly, the writer of this cookbook was cut from a different cloth, since she has made the effort to test and compile hundreds of different recipes for all sorts of bread varieties, from hearty, distinctive Rye and Sourdough recipes to inspiring and rut-breaking Irish Soda Bread and Chocolate Cherry Loaves. If you have the hankering for the vast array of varieties a gluten eater has at their disposal, then boy is this a book for you!

Hagman starts you right off with a Q+A session, covering quite many common issues with gluten free baking, from bread machine quirks to water-to-flour ratios and how to combat differences in brand behaviors. And as if this was not useful enough, she follows it up with quite a comprehensive list of flours, covering how they taste, what they are best used in, and even what other flours pair well with them! No longer does the sea of GF flours seem so daunting, with this list as your guide!

Another interesting quirk to this cookbook is that nearly every recipe has multiple versions for different sized loaves. Built as a guide for the oven baker as well as the bread machine user, each yeast bread contains instructions for both, noting the differences in cook times and behaviors quite thoroughly. I think it is fabulous, since it opens me up to baking at a friend’s house that may not have the same fancy kitchen setup as we do. It also makes recipe swapping easier, for the same reason!
Out of all the recipes we've dog-eared in this cookbook, our favorite so far is the cinnamon swirl bread. We added a cup of raisins to the cinnamon ribbons in the loaf, and baked a beautiful, fragrant loaf of bread worthy of toasting, spreading with Nutella or butter, and enjoying in your pajamas on a cold winter morning. In fact, this is the first gluten-free bread we've been able successfully make french toast with, as most other attempts have yielded crumbly, wet piles of disappointment. Not this cinnamon bread- it held up to the battering, gained a lovely crust and moist interior, and stayed in one piece when taken from pan to plate- fabulous!

Jason here. This cinnamon bread was absolutely delicious. Kayleigh has been the one who has persevered and made bread after bread, trying to find recipes which are enjoyable. Each time I feel the bread gets slightly better. What started as dry, dense, and bland, as slowly become flavorful, light, and fluffy. I know for sure that the various bread making books which we have picked up, or had gifted to us, have done wonders. I for one really enjoy the desert breads like the cinnamon bread we made from Hagman’s book.

Unfortunately, we cannot link to a blog or website for the author, as she has since passed away, but she does have several more cookbooks available for purchase, covering everything from comfort foods and desserts to more healthy dishes and baking tips- all lovingly researched and written long before gluten-free lifestyles entered the public spotlight. We cannot speak for the other books yet, but we highly doubt you can go wrong with Hagman's creative culinary concoctions!

Gluten Free on a Shoestring Cookbook Review

Kayleigh here! We're going to be taking a bit of a break from recipes as we tackle a mounting pile of product reviews. Our relatives have been ridiculously supportive since Jason had to make the switch to gluten-free cuisine, and have been sending us everything from recipe emails and brand suggestions, to flour mixes, gluten free imitation brands, and even several cookbooks!  In fact, while we are on that topic, how about we start with Gluten Free on a Shoestring, by Nicole Hunn!

This book is amazing, not only for the delicious and diverse recipes, but also the extensive front section detailing how to plan, shop, and cook with money saving in mind- something that seemed impossible from when we first tossed the all-purpose white flour and ramen noodles! With tips like worthwhile flour blends and general price comparisons, she even goes into how to plan from week to week by 'piggy-backing' perishable ingredients to use up bulk purchases, saving you tons in the long run.

As far as the recipes go, Hunn has put together quite the variety! Of course, she tackles the breads, muffins, and pastries that are staples of gluten-free learning, but what makes this cookbook unique is her additions of foods that, while they SHOULD be safe, the pre-made purchases often have flour or some form of gluten as an additive to save money. Recipes for hoisin sauce, roasted red pepper hummus, and savory slow-cooked black beans are all present as simple solutions to your gluten free rut. And boy, these dishes don't disappoint!

Just last week, Jason and I gave a go at the tantalyzing Tomato Soup recipe, wishing to satisfy that yearning for a warm bowl of Campbells soup and a melty grilled cheese sandwich on a cold early winter's night. And boy, did this hit the spot! The taste was nearly identical to what we remembered, but even thicker and more satisfying because of the whole pureed potatoes, carrots, and roasted tomatoes. (And you know what? A darn sight healthier, too!)

Jason here. The tomato soup was absolutely delicious. It was very hearty, and had quite the bit of taste to it. It had a very good consistency, thick but not overly so.  I’m hard pressed to find many words to describe tomato soup. I will simply leave it, with we will be trying many more recipes by Nicole Hunn.

Blueberry Coffeecake Recipe

Kayleigh here. Being the season of fresh berries and deliciously cold drinks, Jason and I have a long standing tradition of buying up ridiculous amounts of strawberries the moment they go on sale each summer. Usually, they go into frosty daiquiris or warm, freshly baked muffins, but the pure pleasure their fresh taste brings is the same either way.

This post, though, is not about those strawberries. No, we have found new loves that injure the wallet even less than on-sale produce- the kind you pick yourself. For the past month, Jason and I have been seeing hundreds of ripe blackberry bushes lining the roads we take to work, where picking some to wash and eat is as simple as reaching your hand out from the sidewalk. On top of this, we were informed of a blueberry farm literally within walking distance of our apartment, where the berries are as tart and refreshing as they are cheap.

With these particular harvests, they have mostly disappeared into our mouths before ever seeing a recipe book. But we have been careful to save a handful for pancakes each weekend, served with our favorite real maple syrup. This weekend, however, I realized that I should get a little more creative about things, and remembered all the standard cookbooks on our shelf that hadn't seen the light of day since gluten became the enemy. Perhaps I could take one of the pages, and alter it without losing the original taste?

The concept this stems from is the Buttermilk Coffeecake recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. In addition to replacing the flours and halving the original amounts, we added fresh blueberries to the bottom, and a sparse coating of maple syrup, brown sugar, and walnuts to the top.


Ingredients:

½ cup Sorghum flour

¼ cup white rice flour

½ cup Tapioca Starch

1 ts Guar Gum

2/3 cups Brown Sugar

1/3 cup Butter

1 ts Baking Powder

¼ ts Baking Soda

½ ts Cinnamon

1 Egg

2/3 cups Buttermilk (or 2/3 cups Milk with 1 ts Cider Vinegar)

Pinch of Salt
 2/3 cup Blueberries
1/3 cup Walnuts (or pecans)
2-3 TB Brown Sugar
Maple Syrup (the cheaper, thick kind)


Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 8x8” baking pan, then set aside. In one bowl, combine flours, guar gum, brown sugar, and salt. Add butter in tiny pieces, mash in slightly (we found leaving small chunks of butter in the batter made a delicious texture when baked). Add baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon, stirring until combined.
2) In a second bowl, combine egg and buttermilk. Add this to the flour mixture, stirring just until barely combined.
3) Pour mixture into prepared pan, then place blueberries around, evenly spacing them as well as you can. Place this in the oven for 20 minutes.
4) At this point, check with the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out dry or nearly dry, then drizzle the entire top with maple syrup. Sprinkle brown sugar and walnuts on top of this, then shake the pan a bit to make sure it all adheres to the maple syrup. Place this back in the oven for 5 minutes, just to brown things a bit.
5) Remove from oven, then wait 15 minutes or so before cutting in. We found this made about 6 breakfast-sized pieces, or 9-12 if serving at a party.

The somewhat thin batter makes the blueberries sink into a layer at the bottom, which really looks rather lovely. There is JUST enough moistness to hold everything together without weighing it down, which is somewhat of a rarity in Gluten free cooking. If you're a fan of coffeecake, or are just looking for another idea to use up berries, give it a shot!

Jason here. These blueberry coffeecakes came out delicious. They were the perfect consistency, and taste. We had a lot of blue berries laying around so Kayleigh made sure to add a lot, which goes a long way in taste. I would say they were a little heavier then traditional coffeecakes I had in the paste, but honestly that went well with how many blue berries we added. As an added bonus, these made great on the go breakfast treats.