Sunday, October 25, 2009

BY THE WAY...

This is the copyright notice for my blog. I wrote, with the exceptions of the poems and other clearly marked articles, all the blogs. I do check on CopyScape and similar web sites to ascertain if and how someone is using my manuscripts.

That is all I have to write about this matter. I now return you to your continued reading.

TWH

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A WARM ADDITION





























TWH NOTE: This is a recipe I originally posted in a Facebook group, Cooking Is EasyI enjoy Yorkshire pudding but I have special dietary needs so I found an online recipe at Cookstr and created an altered recipe. I baked this gluten-free, dairy-free and vegetarian Yorkshire pudding for Christmas.It is a tasty dish but you have to be wary of the possible poisons.


Ingredients

50g/2oz rice flour
50g/2oz tapioca flour
pinch of salt
2 eggs, preferably free-range (free-range eggs have more Vitamin D)
300ml/½ pint milk (substitute almond milk or coconut milk for non-dairy diets)
10g/½oz butter or fake butter, melted
canola oil for greasing tins

You will also need a deep bun tin. I use one that is star-shaped.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 230C/450F/Gas 8.

2. Sift the rice flour and tapioca flour into a large bowl. Add the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and drop the eggs in the center. Use a small whisk or wooden spoon to continuously stir the mixture. Add half the milk in a steady stream to the mixture while you are stirring. Whisk in the remainder of the milk and the cool melted butter. Allow to stand for one hour.

3. Grease a hot deep bun tin with canola oil and fill up to half to two thirds with the batter. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from the tins and serve warm.


Now the fun stuff begins. I used almond milk or coconut milk because it has nearly the same texture and body as regular milk. I was careful to use milk made from sweet almonds because bitter almonds have prussic acid that can be refined into cyanide.


The next potential toxin is tapioca flour. Tapioca comes from the cassava (or manioc) plant. The plant contains prussic acid (thus cyanide) unless the toxin is pounded and cooked out of the plant. A paralytic neurological disease called konzo or mantakassa can result from eating raw cassava for many weeks. Fortunately, the tapioca purchased at the store has been highly processed to remove this threat.

How did the pudding turn out? I couldn't get a good rise out of the mixture probably because the mixture lacked gluten to give the pudding structure. It rose a bit and then collapsed. The taste was sweet from the almonds and my family devoured the lot. Everyone survived and had rave reviews for the dish. I will definitely make this again.

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