SUGAR AND GLUTEN FREE SUMMER DELIGHTS

Sugar and Gluten Free Summer Delights

          Now that summer has officially arrived, I’m delighted to anticipate all those wonderful summer fruit deserts. They provide so much pleasure with color, fresh light taste and flavors that simply can’t be easily duplicated at other times of the year.

            The rhubarb in my garden has done exceptionally well this year and we have had several rhubarb and dried cherry pies as well as a variety of compotes. I was recently planning to contribute one of those pies for desert at a friend’s house, only to find out that a couple of the other invited guests were diabetic and could not eat sugar or had celiac problems and hence could not eat wheat products or anything else with gluten.

            Fortunately cooking challenges can be fun.  For years at our house we have made it a point not to serve anything on the table that is not gluten free, when our younger son visits, since he was diagnosed with celiac disease. So, he still gets to eat Maine blueberry pie made with a gluten free lower crust made from a commercial mix and my own recipe for a crumble topping.  Somehow gluten free top crusts on pies just do not look very appealing in my kitchen.

But now I had another problem, the filling and topping both needed to be sugar free as well! Children will sometimes munch on a raw unsweetened rhubarb stalk, but the thought alone makes my mouth pucker. Fortunately there are a number of sugar substitutes available. Simple near equal volume substitution of sugar with Splenda, makes an easy adaptation to sugar free cooking. My desert that would finally be acceptable for this occasion also had to omit my usual dried cherries, since they come sweetened with sugar. However, the final recipe was found to be very tasty by everyone at the dinner.

            Rhubarb, fresh cherry and apple crumble.

First toss washed rhubarb, cut in ½ to ¾ inch pieces with: 1 cup pitted and halved fresh cherries, 1 peeled and cored apple cut in small pieces and 1 cup Splenda mixed with 1 Tblsp. cornstarch. Pour in a buttered 8 x 8 baking dish or deep pie dish.

Crumble topping: ¾ cups brown rice flour stirred with ¼ cup Splenda, ½ tsp. ground ginger, ½ tsp. lemon rind and 1/3 tsp. nutmeg. Using a pastry cutter or two kinves, cut in the flour mix 6 Tblsp. cold butter to produce small crumbs. Stir this together with 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans and  spread on top of the fruit mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream.

This recipe totally avoids any lower crust, but at the same time is extremely adaptable to all kinds of variations with fruit for the filling or nuts in the topping. Easy variations to plan for later in the summer could include other fruits and berries, only adapting the amount of cornstarch to counteract the juiciness of the fruit.

Blueberry crumble: 4 cups washed blueberries, 2 Tblsp. lemon juice, grated zest of lemon, 1 cup Splenda with 2 ½ Tblsp. cornstarch.

Strawberry, Raspberry or Blackberry crumble: Same as blueberry crumble

Peach or nectarine crumble: 4-5 cups slice peaches or nectarines, 2 Tblsp. lemon juice, orange zest (optional) ½ cup slivered almonds, 1 cup Splenda with 2 Tblsp. cornstarch.

Happy sugar and gluten free summer baking!

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

DOWNSIZE MARKETING

Downsize Marketing

            Downsizing is a word that has crept into our vocabularies with quite unpredictable applications. We downsize our budgets on retirement, we downsize our houses when the children are grown, New Yorkers are told to downsize their supersize drinks and we are told for our health to downsize the portions of our meals, to keep the obesity epidemic in check.

            And then there is some downsizing, which comes as a surprise. Surprise birthday parties or presents are a lot of fun, but not all surprises come in such pleasant packages. My Memorial Day food contributions to a picnic at a friend’s house was going to include a blueberry pie from berries still in our freezer and a potato salad. For the occasion I had bought a bag of baby red potatoes rather than use regular large peeled potatoes, since the red color always makes the salad look more festive.

            The usual small bag of baby potatoes was sufficient to make a salad for 8-10 people. So, I was unpleasantly surprised when I poured out the small potatoes for washing and suddenly noticed the less than usual amount. Yes, downsize marketing had struck again! The previous 2 pound bag had shrunk to a 1 ½ pound size. Same price!

            This of course goes with the recent shrinking of 5 pound bags of sugar and flour to 4 pound bags, crackers from 8 ounces to 6 ounces and it is unlikely that a pound can of vegetables or beans still exists. Normal cans are now in the 14.25 to 15.5 ounce range. So, if you find that doing strength training by repetitive lifts of a pound can in each hand has become easier, do not attribute it to your training regimen. Your weights have been downsized.

            Fortunately I had other large potatoes on hand to supplement the amounts on Memorial Day morning, so nobody at the picnic had to forgo potato salad.

                                    Festive Potato Salad

            Scrub 2 pounds baby potatoes, leave small ones whole or cut regular size potatoes in quarters and boil in salted water 13-15 minutes until barely tender. Drain and cut in large bite size pieces while still warm. While the potatoes are boiling mix together the dressing: ½ cup mayonnaise, 2 Tblsp. white vinegar, 2 tsp. Dijon mustard, ¼ cup chopped cornichons (or dill pickles), ¼ cup finely chopped onion, ¼ tsp. Tabasco, salt to taste. Pour dressing over potatoes while still warm and mix thoroughly. Then fold in: 1 chopped celery stalk, 2 chopped scallions, 2 Tbls. chopped parsley and ½ cup diced red pepper. Mix thoroughly and chill before serving.

            In really hot summer, when I am concerned about creamy dressings sitting in the warm sunshine and becoming an incubator for bacteria, oil and vinegar based dressings are less susceptible to contamination. Here is my favorite bacon flavored cold potato salad.

                                    Bacon and Onion Potato Salad

            Crisp fry 4-6 slices of bacon and drain on paper towels. Cook 1 cup of peas in salted water 4 minutes and drain. Cook and cut potatoes as above. While potatoes cook, mix for dressing: 3 Tblsp. white wine vinegar, 1 Tblsp. Dijon mustard, ½ tsp. sugar, salt and pepper to taste and 3 Tblsp. peanut or vegetable oil. In a large bowl with the potatoes add, ¼ cup finely chopped onion, 3 Tblsp. finely chopped parsley, 2 sliced scallions, ½ cup diced red pepper (optional) and toss with the dressing. Then fold in the peas and half of the crumbled bacon. Garnish with rest of the crumbled bacon, a cherry tomato or radish and a sprig of parsley. Chill in refrigerator before serving.

            Lately the focus on the health hazards of the so called obesity epidemic has focused on the food industry, exhorting it for more healthy alternatives. Downsizing potential servings of basic foods by downsizing packaging, may be one of the marketing answers to this problem or just another ploy to cut economies of home cooking.

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)