Saturday, September 27, 2008

Recipe: Gluten Free, Macrobiotic & Organic Wraps

Being diagnosed with Celiac Sprue (and various food allergies) was a pretty huge blow to my cooking skills- which were heavily cajun and super de duper delicious. To say I went into a food funk for the last 7 years is an understatement... and I seek outside inspiration, but rarely click with most recipes. My dream is to have a personal chef who comes up with cool new ways for me to work with a limited diet, keeping me out of the food allergy duldrums. Then along came my friend Evan, the master of food manipulation! With a list of the foods I could actually eat he tinkered away to come up with 3 solid recipes and totally succeeded- I feel like I've lost my food allergy virginity now because this first recipe I am sharing with ya'll is soooo yum yum I could have died. Thank gawd for Evan being a sauce genuis, here's the recipe in his words (in bold print)!
Basics : vinegar > salt > rice syrup > olive oil > pot of boiling water
Ingredients : whole lettuce or steamed/cooled cabbage leaves > radish (daikon if possible) > carrot > scallion > red onion > parsley > bean sprouts > rice noodles > protein (fish/tofu/tempeh) > whole lemon or lime ...
1.Pick whole leaves from lettuce or cabbage and wash. If cabbage, lightly steam to soften and then cool.
2.Shred to finger length pieces and place in ice water bath for 2 minutes. Then keep cold till using.
Carrot > Red Onion > Radish
Any crunchy veg can be used for this part.
Salad
Puree ¼ whole red onion + small handful of parsley + 1 radish + teaspoon vinegar + juice from ½ lemon or lime + pinch of salt + pinch of rice syrup
Dress shredded veg + bean sprouts and marinate for 5-15 minutes before serving (leave at room temp)
Protein
Fish
i. The end result is finger sized pieces of fish. You can do any variety of cooking like broiling/pan cooking/frying
ii. If you have a large piece of fish, steam and then cut into fingers.
Tofu
i. Cut into 1” wide and 2” long pieces.
ii. Cook by frying/pan cooking/baking/broiling
Tempeh
i. However you like it, so long as it’s in large enough pieces.
Noodles
Cook rice noodles according to package and immediately immerse in ice water for 5-10 seconds to stop cooking.
Remove from ice water and lay on a damp paper towel.

As you can see there are alot of variations, which is great when catering to food allergies - Evan gives choices of proteins and veggies and doesn't put exact measurements because it is something each person will have to make to taste.
These goodies in the pic above are the ingredients for the marinating sauce which was so yummy, that when I first smelled it in the blender my nose tingled and I felt like I couldn't stop grinning. Mmmmmm.
Assembly:
1. Lay out lettuce/cabbage leaf and place ingredients in lower 1/3, just below the halfway point.
2.Wrap bottom over filling and roll halfway up.
3.Fold in sides, tuck and wrap to the top
4.EAT
When I got to the end, I couldn't figure out whether I was supposed to put the wraps on top the noodles or put noodles in the wraps... I ended up with them on top (maybe cause I got lazy though!) Plus, I think I don't actually know the official way to wrap- I was tucking corners into an abyss of cabbage...then they'd slowly poke back out. Could this be related to the same affliction my mom told me I had with folding clothes? :)
How rockin' does this organic dish look though!?! Thanks Evan (of the Nerditry blog) for coming up with something so awesome, and where DO the noodles go?

4 comments:

  1. Have you thought about a Vitamix brand blender? They're real pricey but they can liquify just about anything. That might give you some added versatility to prepare a limited number of foods in novel ways. For example, you can make seeds and nuts into butter, paste, or sauces.

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  2. Hey Lou !!!

    Actually I have VitaMix Blender that luckily was gifted to me a few years ago (cause they are way too expensive) - and I used it to make this recipe! I love my VitaMix - the really hard part about my diet is it has to be gluten free, and everything is dusted with wheat, like from detergants to nuts and dried fruits.
    It can be insidious! Bleh.

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  3. Wow, what a great friend! Those looked good, even despite your folding deficiency (which I also share). I'm a sucker for food in any kind of little package format--dumplings, wontons, rolls, etc.

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  4. hey colleen!
    I too am a sucker for folded up little foods... i wonder if i can make gluten free dumplings somehow? Gawd, that would be sooooo goooood.

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