Nut free & Gluten-free Millet Burgers with Mushrooms

Nut free & Gluten free Millet Burgers with Mushrooms

The kids who are confirmed carnivores, voraciously so, won't eat anything green if they could help it. I have been trying all sorts of vege burger variations, hoping to hit on the magic number. I have tried bean burgers, rice-burgers, mashed potato burgers..nah-uh! No way. They poke, prod and leave a mess of disintegrated vege burger-effort on the plate. Then I tried this easy recipe with millet.

Princess Pumpkinseed gave it a high 5, while the Prince gave it a cautious thumbs up. Cautious because he is pathologically opposed to anything remotely related to a vegetable. He ate it, albeit with suspicion that Mommy was sneaking vegetables into his food again! I served it as patties with a tomato salad on the side and gluten free gravy. Hope you enjoy this humble offering of mine!


Nut free & Gluten-free Millet Burgers with Mushrooms

1 cup millet
2 cups canned tomato or vegetable juice

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms, any combination of types
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/4 cup finely diced red peppers
1/4 cup chopped parsely
1/4 cup chopped spring onions or finely diced onion
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil for sautéing

Method: Cook carrot and mushrooms in olive oil till soft. Then add the peppers. After a minute, add the millet followed by the juice. Stir an cover till cooked, about 7 to 10 minutes. All the liquid will be nearly absorbed completely. Then stir in the chopped herbs. Leave to cool slightly then using a 1/4 cup measure, form into burgers. Do this while the millet is still warm as it makes it easier to form into patties. Leave burgers o cool on a piece of baking paper. Put the burgers still on the baking paper onto the baking tray. Spray burgers lightly with cooking spray and grill till done.

Nut free Gluten-free Vegan Gravy
1 tablespoon rice flour
1 tablespoon vegan spread
1 cup vegetable broth or stock of your choice
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Method: Melt vegan spread and add rice flour and stir till its lightly brown. Add the stock stirring all the time, till gravy thickens. Adjust seasoning. Add chopped parsley.

More trials.....half a loaf is better?

Yet another Gluten-free Bread attempt 

Here's the next episode in my on going gluten-free bread-making saga...lots of hyphens there and more to come! I'm trying to make a (here it comes!) gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, yeast-free, corn-free  (no xantham gum), soy-free and gelatine-free bread using a gluten-free sour dough starter. Till now, my sour dough starters have been non-starters (sorry,couldn't resist). At last, in my latest attempt, the starter turned out the way I perceived it should. I was so excited! Then I got into the actual mixing and baking. For this loaf, I used a store bought gluten-free bread mix. It was a premix of rice, tapioca and potato flour with xantham gum added. I know I keep going on about xantham gum having corn in it but I figured I'll give the premix a go to see if I could actually make a reasonable tasting gluten-free bread. The bread flour with the sour dough starter mixed up fine. I kept it in my oven with just the light on to let the bread dough rise. Then when I carefully transferred the beautifully risen loaf to a heated pan, poof! My bubble burst......literally. The dough started sinking and I ended up where I started.......with a bookend! Back to the drawing board..........sigh. 

Is it really gluten-free?

Hi there! Be warned before you proceed any further with your reading. I'm about to embark on one of my pet peeves - the lack of allergy and content information in foods. The latest incident to trigger of my spiel on this happened yesterday. I was at local food fair, held at one of the malls close to home standing in a long and winding line to buy rice flour cakes, when I overheard a man asking the lady behind the counter if the tapioca pancakes she was cooking on the hotplate were wheat free. Despite the crowds, his question caught my attention as this is an area very close to my heart. We of the label/disclaimer-reading lot would totally understand this guy's query, right?  Not so the lady behind the counter. Her answer was a vague, "Just sugar, water and tapioca flour. Would you like to try one?" Well, the gentleman decided to bite the bullet and bought one. But this brings me to my pet peeve. The tapioca flour used to make the pancakes was probably not certified as being wheat-free. It probably IS wheat-free but without the guarantee of certification. See where I'm going with this? There is a huge grey area here which is a real nightmare zone for those of us dealing with with allergies and food intolerance on a daily basis though a minute by minute basis would be more accurate. We are living it.

Store-bought tapioca pancakes - are they gluten-free?

Much of the local food products in Singapore, while having the ingredients listed, do not carry allergy information.  The ingredients lists can be vague as well. A packet of tapioca flour from the local market, would list under ingredients just tapioca flour, which is fine. Cheap too. But there is no assurance or disclaimers that it contains just tapioca. For that, we have to head for over-priced specialist organic food shops. Even then, the range of products available is pretty limited. This leads to a great deal of frustration for most of us with allergies to contend with in our daily lives, especially when we call home, a real food paradise! Hopefully, this will change soon and we will have a better range of well-labelled food products with all the necessary information at lower prices available at local markets.....sounds like a dream.   

Easy Gluten-free Vegan Rice Pancakes

Decorating gluten-free brownies

I had the greatest pleasure in having Dr Melanie Phuah (nutritionist and GP), her 2 lovely, lovely, lovely kids(did I mention that they were lovely?) and their wonderful housekeeper, Mary over at the So Intricake! studio for a gluten-free, egg-free and dairy-free pow-wow. One of Dr Phuah's daughters suffers from a host of allergies including yeast, egg and dairy. So we made fudgy gluten-free vegan brownies together. The children enthusiastically, did the sifting and mixing and after the brownie was baked, they decorated the warm brownie with glace icing. While waiting for the brownies to be done, I made rice pancakes for everyone and served them with pure maple syrup and a vegan spread. Big hit! Served a vegan gluten-free cornbread as well, to balance out all the sweet flavors. Here's the recipe for the Gluten-free Vegan Rice Pancakes. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

Kids approve of rice pancakes!

Gluten-free Vegan Rice Pancakes


1 1/2 cups rice flour (brown or white)
1/2 cup soft cooked rice
1 tablespoon fine sugar
1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 1/2 cups rice milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoon applesauce
1 teaspoon sunflower oil

Method: Blend everything together in a food processor till smooth. Make each pancake using a 1/4 cup measure. Lightly oil a frying pan, keep it on medium heat and pour batter to form a circle (hopefully!). When bubbles start rising to the top, carefully flip pancake over and cook other side for about a minute. Slide onto plate, add favorite topping and tuck in!

Note: You may want to thin it down a wee bit with rice milk and try making crepes. Let me know if you do!

Gluten-free Egg-free Dairy-free Chocolate fudge Cupcakes

Gluten-free Egg-free Dairy-free Chocolate Cupcakes

After playing around with several recipes, I hit on this combination that works, at least, I think so! First of, let me tell you, that here in Singapore, it is very difficult to find ingredients which are properly labelled and certified as being free of this and that, namely egg, dairy, gluten and nuts. Make no mistake. You can get a whole range of stuff but just can't be sure if there are traces of any of the baddies in them. So I work with what I have available and whine about what's easily available to the rest of the world. The recipe had to be egg, dairy, gluten and nut free. I did not want to use xantham gum, because of my issues over its origins and I'm not crazy about the overwhelming taste many gluten-free flours have. So this is what I came up with. Cocoa and cinnamon do a great job in gluten-free recipes to add flavor and yummy aromas while masking the "graininess" of the millet and rice in the cupcakes. I used guar gum as the binder. The cupcakes did not crumble after baking so I think that works as a xantham gum substitute. Maybe, next time I'll try them without guar gum, add more applesauce and ........well, lets see where I go with this....I'll let you know. Current recipe, as is, follows. Let me know what you think.

Gluten free Egg free Dairy free Choc Fudge Cupcakes

Dry Ingredients: 1/2 cup rice flour 1/4 cup millet flour 3/4 cup light brown sugar 1/2 cup pure unsweetened cocoa 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon guar gum 1/2 teaspoon fine salt 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder  Wet ingredients: 1/4 cup extra-virgin coconut oil sunflower oil 1/4 cup rice milk  1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal mixed with 3 tablespoon hot water 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon unsweetened apple sauce

Frosting: 1/2 cup non-dairy spread 1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 tablespoon cocoa 1/4 cup melted gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate

Cupcake Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Mix wet ingredients into dry and beat with a whisk until well combined.
3. Half-fill cupcake cases.
4. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Check with a toothpick after 8 minutes.
6. Remove to a wire rack and cool.
7. Top with egg-free, dairy-free choc fudge topping.
8. Makes 6 to 8 cupcakes.

Frosting Method:

1. Beat all ingredients together till smooth.
2. Swirl on the top of cooled cupcakes.

The trials and tribulations.....gluten-free bread.

The Lemon

I've been sporadically trying to make gluten-free bread these past months, but success has been elusive. Worse, my resultant gluten-free bread has been disastrous. There are dozens of success stories on the internet (and they have the pictures to prove it) but mine have ranged from bread which can be used as book-ends or door-stops. If  thrown at someone, be forewarned, you might be charged with causing GBH! I'm sure you get the picture. Well, like all the success stories out there, I decided to post the picture of one of my recent attempts at gluten-free bread. Looks pretty good, right? Well, it was a lemon.....literally. I made a sour dough starter, prayed over it for about 3 days, used rice, urad (type of dhal)  and millet for the gluten-free flours and then had the "brilliant" idea to add a pinch of citric acid in the hope that it will improve the leavening effect.....sour-dough with citric acid? Bad idea. Really bad. Might give this a whirl again without the citric acid. Apart from that, the bread was actually quite soft (an improvement from my door-stop days) and the texture was not too gummy. I did not use any xantham gum as I'm still leery about the corn content in it. Maybe I will add some guar gum instead and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.