Wheat-Free Gourmet

This article first appeared in the Left Hand Valley Courier as part of my Vicinity and Beyond series. This was the very first time I wrote about Mary Capone, who later wrote the The Gluten-Free Italian Cookbook and just recently launched the Bella Gluten-Free line of mixes.

Obviously, she has moved far beyond what was written in this article, but I thought it would be interesting to republish it, just as a look back at where she started.

Wheat-Free Is Taste-Tee!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a wheat-eater, maybe even a wheat-a-holic. So when I heard about the Wheat-Free Gourmet, of course I had to look into it. Who could be a more unbiased judge?

Wheat-Free Gourmet is Mary Capone’s brainchild, and what she calls a celebration of “life after wheat.” Like many people, Capone is intolerant of wheat and gluten, which limits her choices when it comes to many commercial goods.

Capone challenged that limitation, looking for alternatives for making baked goodies. What she came up with aren’t substitutes for “real” confections, but tasty treats that even wheat-eaters would enjoy. And rather than seeing her dietary restriction as a problem, she said that she preferred to “spin it and make it fun,” and thus began years of experimenting with desserts and doughs.

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Italian Braised Beef With Root Vegetables

When I saw that Michael Symon had a cookbook out, I was pretty excited. Although he’s an Iron Chef, to me he seemed like the kind of guy who would make homestyle dishes. When I saw the Italian braised beef recipe was his mother’s, I had to give it a try.

An ingredient in Symon’s beef recipe is his grandmother’s tomato sauce, but if you prefer, you can use your favorite tomato-based pasta sauce or even really good canned crushed tomatoes.

When I made this, though, I went all the way and used Symon’s sauce which simmers for 8 hours. It was definitely worth a try, and I ended up with enough sauce to freeze for later, after using what I needed for the beef.

When I made this recipe, I added more carrots and bought a large celery root. One carrot to three pounds of beef wasn’t quite enough vegetation for me.

Italian Braised Beef With Root Vegetables
Adapted from Michael Symon’s Live to Cook by Michael Symon

3-pound rump roast
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 small celery root, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup red wine
2 cups Yia Yia’s Sunday Sauce (or substitute)
2 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Season the meat liberally with salt and pepper. Season it as much as a day in advance, if you like. Take the meat out of the fridge 30 minutes before you cook.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven, until it is nearly smoking. Sear the meat well on all sides then remove it to make room for the vegetables. Brown the vegetables, then add the garlic and cook a minute or two longer.

Add the wine, scrape up any brown bits on the bottom, then add the tomato sauce, 1 cup of water, and the bay leaves. Return the beef to the pot, bring the liquid to a simmer, and taste for seasoning, adding salt if necessary.

Cover the pot and place it in the oven. Cook for 3 hours (or up to 5 hours at local altitude), basting the meat once in a while during cooking.

Discard the bay leaves before serving. The meat can be cut or shredded. Or, as I did since it needed to cook so much longer than planned, let it cool then refrigerate overnight and cut it the next day before reheating it in the sauce. Serve over noodles or polenta.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

As a kid, I hated strawberry ice cream. As an adult, I avoided it, when at all possible.

I hated the seeds and the gummy bits of berry and the artificial strawberry flavor.

When I started making my own ice cream, I decided to give strawberry another chance, and after I made my own, I changed my mind.

Strawberry ice cream is actually pretty darned good.

This recipe pushes the limits of the capacity of my KitchenAid stand mixer ice cream bowl, but it fit. It made two very full quarts of ice cream.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

1 pound fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups heavy cream

Clean and hull the strawberries and cut them in half. Put them into a bowl, sprinkle the sugar on top, and mix well. Set the bowl aside until the strawberries exude moisture and soften.

Blend the strawberries, with all the sugar,  in a blender, food processor, or with a stick blender until smooth.

Strain the berries through a fine-mesh sieve, into a clean bowl, stirring with a spoon or spatula to get the pulp and juice through the strainer. You should have little left in the strainer besides seeds.

Add the salt, vanilla and heavy cream to the berry mixture and stir well to combine. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to chill the mixture completely.

Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.