My Grandmother's Rice Milk recipe.

A glass of rice milk

Rice milk is so easily available now in most grocery stores and has been hailed as a vegan replacement to milk. It is a godsend for many dairy allergy sufferers too, provided rice is acceptable to you. Here's a little secret about rice milk. It has been a part of the poor man's diet, in Asia for centuries as a  frugal source of nutrition and not as a vegan alternative to dairy milk! Even to this day, the poor of India drink the water that rice has been boiled in as they consider it strengthening. It helps to stretch out their consumption of rice as well. It is also the poor mans' electrolyte! Yup, you read that right! Especially for babies. Babies are too small to be given commercial electrolytes and I fed my babies when they were ill, with home made rice milk as it is safer option. It's just some rice boiled in water till very soft with a little salt added to it. Sipping home made rice milk, when you are suffering from stomach flu, helps replace important nutrients in the body and prevents dehydration. I do this for my family when anyone of them is ill, throwing up and purging. Some commercial brands of rice milk add fats to give more body and mouth-feel to their rice milk as well as vitamins. Well and good, but I like my rice milk the old fashioned way - how my grandmother taught me to make it.  

My Grandmother's recipe for Rice Milk

1/2 cup long grain rice, brown or white
3 to 4 cups filtered water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method: Put rice in a dry pan. Lightly toast it over a low flame for a couple of minutes till its lightly brown. Pour in the water and cook till the rice and water has mushed up completely. Add salt. You may have to add more water if the water level runs low before rice is porridgy. Cool and sieve through a mesh sieve. Can be processed in a food processor as well. You now have your rice milk! Store in the fridge. Does not have a long shelf life as its preservative free so it has to be consumed fairly quickly.  

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. 

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.