Meat Talk - Salmon

Lets start the ball rolling with talk about some more yummy foods before I go into more recipes. Just to get things started here again properly after my mind break down of not having a functioning oven!

If you are like me who has had to turn to this life style not having known much about it at all, not having grown up having to eat this way or some other reason that you had to start eating gluten free then most likely in the beginning you also had a 'down spell' as well. What do I mean by that?? Simple, I want all the things I can not have any more... worse though is that I know for a fact that if I even slightly ingest something with gluten, I will have some nasty and very unwanted effects from it.

You know, I've started to learn to live with this but not with the thoughts of 'oh I just can't have that any more so I won't and I won't think about it again' but now with the mind set of 'I want that, I know I want it, I know it being made the normal way I can't eat it so now how do I make it and make it so I can eat it?!' mind set.

I have yet to find a task that if I really want it that I can't hit head on and in full force. But that takes me back to why I choose to talk about salmon... it's simple, it's fresh, it's 100% gluten free if you buy fresh (no deep freeze, no pre-herbed/processed or what not. If you choose to buy frozen or seasoned READ THE LABEL! There are hidden things in processed foods even as simple as being processed in a place that makes other wheat/gluten items!). Today's photos show that I even have a piece from a fresh fish monger that he has prepared with white pepper corns and parsley.

There are so many countless ways to prepare salmon in the form of dishes that you can make, ways to seasons it, ways to cook it. It's an untamed piece of meat that is just waiting for your creative juices to flow! What about a lightly fried piece with just a light sprinkling of fresh (or dry) dill added just at the end? How about cutting it into fine chunks, flash fried to cook it and add a crunchy texture so that you can add it to a gluten free pasta dish with cheese sauce? What about thinly sliced (paper thin mind you, ask your fish monger about this) pieces marinated in a citrous mixture and placed on top of gluten free toast or crackers spread with cream cheese? Key thing here is that citrous (lemon, lime, grapefruit ect) will cook the salmon! Ever bought a piece of fish that is still fresh that day but pre-wrapped like you would buy say beef or such from the local grocery store and it have a lemon piece resting again the fish? Remember pulling that lemon piece away to see that the fish under has changed colour? Yep, you guessed it, the lemon piece has started to cook that part of the fish.

Ok so I'm getting all over the place. Simply put, salmon is healthy, again full of the Omega 3 fatty acids that we are all told we should have more of and there are just so many ways to prepare it. This is also a fish that if prepared properly, the skin (as long as it has been scaled) can be eaten and should be as it also contains a number of good for you things!

A tip for all that like to pan fry... use a pan fit to what you are making. Don't use a pan overly small for your item/s but also don't use a pan that is overly big for it either. The reason for this you ask? Simple, the more area you have to heat in your pan, the more the heat will spread out and not centre on cooking the meat that is in the pan. Same thing for too small of a pan, your meat will either not sit against the bottom so it doesn't cook properly all over or it'll stick to the sides where you don't want it cooking either. You wouldn't put a pan that is too big on a small burner or a large pan on a burner too small would you? The same goes for the meat that you add to your pan. Make sure there is enough room to let the meat rest completely on the pan bottom. If you are frying more then one piece at a time, make sure you don't over crowd the pan because then some pieces will cook/brown quicker then others and they will stick. Just a tip, you'll find that it works well. Another small tip on preparing meat... if you are preparing a meat where you will want to de-glaze the pan afterwards (in cases where you want to make gravy lets say) use a pan that does not have a non-stick coating. You will want to 'scratch' at the bottom of the pan in order to get all the wonderful meat pieces and flavours off of it and no matter what you go scratching with, you'll end up marking your best non-stick pan so go for a good ol' favoured, old fashioned steel pan with no coating. They can also handle a much higher temp and deal with de-glazing better too.

The best way to prepare a piece of salmon... that is really up to the person I think but here is what I do. The piece I have shown in this entry has skin. When you cook it with skin, you want to start cooking it skin side down, this one is never up for discussion if you are looking to present this as a beautiful piece of art to the mind and taste buds. If no skin then it doesn't matter which side you start on.

Simply pre-heat a pan to a medium-high heat, use only a VERY small amount of olive oil in the pan as the salmon will release it's own fats/oils almost as soon as it hits the pan and drop the salmon (skin side down if you are using the skin) carefully into the pan as it will start to spit. LEAVE IT ALONE for at least 3 minutes. Do not turn it, do not move it, do not flip it, do not 'peek' under it or anything... simply leave it to be for 3minutes. The reason for this is if you start to wonder and mess with it, the more chance you have that it'll either stick to the pan or not cook evenly across the skin for that golden finish you want. Once you see the salmon start to change colour about 1/3 to 1/2 the way up, this is the time that you want to flip it. Again, leave it alone. I can't stress how much you should just leave your meat alone and either use a timer or your normal gut feeling on when to turn it. Meat loses a lot and you can cause a lot of un-wanted damage to it if you start to do more then 'wonder' about it.

Remember salmon if fresh from a well known fish monger can be and is eaten raw... so you don't want to over cook this meat. It's like pre-paring fresh tuna. You want seer the outside while leaving the middle hot, moist and even a bit more pink then the outside.

Go on now... go find your local trusted fish monger and ask him/her for a wonderful fresh piece of fresh salmon. Come back to me and tell me what you've done with it! I would LOVE to have some suggestions or ideas on what to do with it! I'll get to posting some of my own recipes but for now, I just wanted to share a wonderful piece of meat that is at least a bi-weekly if not weekly meal in this house.

Meat Talk - Fresh Tuna

If you like fish, then there is no reason that you wouldn't just LUV tuna... FRESH tuna that is! Ok yes, I too use the ready-to-use/cooked canned version but they are so over dry, tasteless, colourless, bland and just over all nothing compared to the fresh stuff. If your going to make a pasta salad slathered with mayo or looking to make a quick and cheap tuna melt, then reach for the canned version but if you are looking to have a wonderful fried piece of fish or are taking the time to experiment with over all good quality foods then fresh tuna is the way to go.

I've personally have tried both the very deep red coloured tuna and then the very pink tuna. I find that there is a very big difference between the two. The deeper the colour the more tender and moist it seems to be. Although the pink coloured tuna is not bad and more so it's still 100x's better then the canned stuff, if you can get a very deep red coloured piece at not too bad of a price... GET IT!

I don't think I ever ate fresh tuna until I moved here to Belgium. It seems in the USA that canned tuna is what every kid grows up on from it being made into mayo based sandwich spreads to pasta salads to even tuna casserole... this is what I even grew up on. Even what I consider 'poor man's tuna casserole' which was simply a cheap store brand box of powdered cheese mac & cheese with a can (or 2) of tuna and some peas added to it. Man oh man, if I knew then what I knew NOW.... there would never be another tuna casserole in the house again. That is except of course for a very plush variation that I create with hmmm fresh home-made macaroni pasta (with my new pasta maker of course!) made into home-made mac and cheese with fresh cheddar or gruyere cheese in the sauce, some fresh broccoli, perhaps a bit of sour cream or cream cheese in the mixture to make it even more creamy and then baked right into the dish, still raw, fresh chunks of deep red tuna... just so that they will still be moist and full of flavour then the dish is done baking. Yes I'm already processing and preparing for a new tuna dish as I write this!

Back to the real thing. If you say to yourself 'I just don't like tuna' then also think to yourself 'have I ever eaten a piece of properly pre-pared fresh tuna or has it always been canned or poorly cooked?'. I'll make a bet that at least half or more of you have answered 'no' to the last question haven't you? I know I did when my husband asked me as we stood one day in front of a fresh fish shop looking at these dark red gems in the display case. He asked me 'what about some tuna'? I remember quickly responded that I had that so much when growing up that I just wanted something different. Mind you this is when I first moved here almost 10 years ago! I'm so glad he opened my mind to some foods because I think only he would know what I was truly missing if he had let me pass up the chance.

Tuna when pre-pared properly which should be medium to rare like you would a steak (still pink to red through the centre) just melts in your mouth. It's so flavourful and moist. It's so full of the most important fat to our bodies as well... the all vital Omega 3 fatty acids!

Here is just a very simple yet wonderful photo my husband took as I started to prepare our steaks one night. I try to make the seasoning process go smoother by spicing either the frying pan or a plate for one side of the meat and then while it rests on top of the first layer of seasoning, I then use fresh cleaned hands (so as to not always touch meat and then my spices... always nice, neat and clean since I use grinders a lot) I season the other side. This time I did it on a plate and hubby thought even just that was worth exploring more settings on the camera with.... so I let him... and he produced a wonderful piece of photography art. Just a suggestion though, season your meat outside the frying pan on this one because you really do want a very hot pan when you first place your fish in it and if you heat you pan with the seasoning and oil already in the pan, it'll simply burn before it even gets to the fish.

Now on to how to prepare a properly cooked piece of fresh tuna. First when you select tuna, it's all about how you like stuff. As said before, I prefer the deepest darkest piece I can find and I usually ask for a steak any where from 1/2 inch to a full inch thick. The thicker it is, the easier it is to get it cooked properly. Just like a beef steak, except fish cooks 10x's faster.

Pre-heat a frying pay to a medium high heat. Figure our your method for seasoning the piece of tuna (to each their own I say, for me I hate to get raw meat stuff on my shakers or grinders so I try to practice the 'wash you hands after touching raw meat and before touching any thing else' rule) but trust me on this, from a lady who hardly ever cooks with adding excess salt to any thing she cooks, baking items included, that tuna comes out best when lightly seasoned with a light dusting of sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

Pour a very small amount of olive oil into your pre-heated pan. You only need enough to ensure that the fish doesn't stick. For the best results, make sure you use a non-stick pan, if not using one simply apply a bit more olive oil. Also with almost anything you fry, ensure you fit your pan to the meat you are cooking. You shouldn't over crowd your pan but you also shouldn't have tons of space left over either as this just causes uneven cooking to happen.

Then place your steak (or steaks) in the pan. You should hear them sizzle the moment they start to touch the hot pan. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PAN UNATTENDED! This is a VITAL rule of cooking proper fresh tuna. The moment one turns their back, the fish will get over cooked. I've done this many many time as I'm use to having a couple of minutes to finish up say the side dish or the veggies. No, don't walk away, just stay there by the pan. Be ready with something to flip the tuna with because as soon as you see it change light grey about 1/3rd of the way up, your ready to turn it already. If you have a high enough heat, you will have already produced a nice light brown colouring on the side you just cooked. This is great!

Once flipped, rinse and repeat the action but instead of flipping again when the grey colours are just about touching each other, transfer to your serving plate. That's it, you just cooked the perfect piece of fresh tuna. Yes tuna should be eaten as good as still red in the middle! Tuna if bought fresh from a proper monger who sells sashimi quality fish is even eaten 100% raw. Just make sure you buy from a good quality monger... most will advertise if they sell sashimi quality or not, just keep your eyes peeled and if you don't find it written some where, simply ask!

(perfect)

Almost any thing goes well beside a tuna steak btw. It's a hearty piece of meat that will even stand up to the 'meat and potatoes' style dinner but just in the same is tender and divine enough to come down to earth with a few stalks of asparagus and some rice. The combos are numberless and that is not even to mention all the wonderful recipes you could make! I'll get to posting some over the course of this blog's life I'm sure but for now, go get a wonderful piece of fresh tuna and see if you can perfect your cooking technique of this wonderfully good for you fresh fish.

 (slightly over cooked but still yummy)

Cooking Tip - Making Roux

Making this could not be any more simple but will make the difference between having a slightly thick and lumpy sauce/soup/stew or having a velvety smooth thickness to it. Sometimes you can make this right in the pan you are making your recipe but sometimes it's best to make it in a separate pan and add it to later down the road. It really depends on the recipe in question. Such as I've made a soup that required whole veggies to boil in the broth but then needed to be thickened after being pureed but then had made a wonderful cheese sauce that just needs to be thickened right away and then have cheese added after.

What ever reason that you need a roux, it's really 5mins work. Be it from 2tbs to 1 cup, it all takes the same time. I've given both the amounts below for a large soup pot full or for just a couple of cups of liquid.

Ingredients

5quarts/litres liquid
 ♥ 1/2 cup butter (1stick)

 ♥ 1 cup flour flour

2-4 cups (1litre) liquid
 ♥ 2tbs butter
 ♥ 2tbs GF flour

Directions
In a small sauce pan, slowly melt butter on a low to medium heat, don't let it boil or melt too quickly as it will burn and you don't want that to happen.

Once butter is completely melted, pour in all of the flour and whisk quickly. Combine it and leave it on the heat but keep whisking and moving the mixture around to ensure that it doesn't burn. Cook while whisking 1-2 minutes. You want to cook the raw flour taste out of the mixture. As you do this you will find the mixture will 'loosen' up a bit and become a bit more liquid then when you first started, this is the stage where you officially have a roux. Remove from heat completely.

You can leave this mixture sitting for a bit but I wouldn't leave it more then an hour and no it doesn't really last over night or so in the fridge. In fact if you have soup/sauce left over the next day even, you'll find it will need liquid added to it because it will become much thicker once cooled.

Pre-made/Processed Gluten Free Foods

What a week. The weather has been terrible, it feels like it's the beginning of fall instead of the middle of summer, it mentioned yesterday (and today) that it was suppose to be 'party cloudy' and a 20% chance of rain. OMG I haven't seen so much rain in the last 2 days then I have seen in the last 2 months I think! To top it all off my mother-in-law ended up either fainting or indeed falling (I suspect fainted and found herself on the floor) last night sometime just around midnight so she went to the hospital by way of emergency just past midnight and this time without being able to fight because it was a '911' style call. She had called my brother-in-law (he has the spare key) telling him she had fallen and couldn't get up, we found that she had taken at least 2 if not 3 days worth of her medications within 24hrs or so of time. She's 80+ and the last few months has been really going down hill... not remembering to eat right, not being able to remember how/when to take her meds, how to clean/able to clean (herself, her apartment, taking care of her cat ect). Either she's had another stroke (had one already) or she is getting more and more and quickly into the dementia stage.

I sit here this afternoon writing this, wondering what the next stage will bring. Will she be allowed to come home at all with the down hill spiral that has been happening the last couple of months and if she will what will happen then? Now we at least have the standing that she fell/fainted and that she took too many days worth of meds together to hold our case better that she needs help. I think in the last month or 2, if, she's even lost about 20pounds. Not that it's a bad thing since she was a bit over weight any how but now she is again looking very lost, scared and just.... I dunno... not good. I wish her my best, she is part of the family I have chosen out here but in the same I hope for her sake and the sake of her kitty that someone listens to this and forces some help on her. I think tomorrow I shall go to the local cat shop and get a new litter box, litter, food and toys and take her kitty in with me and my 2 other ones. I know it'll be a big big thing but with the way she is no longer able to take care of herself, I think it's only for the best. A kitty is still another life and he needs to be loved and watched over also.

BUT! This is not a 'family' blog... above brings me to the posting today. I know in the few posts already I mention about how I try to stay away from the pre-processed foods as much as I can but there are still times when it's needed due to even say lack of time or even just sure want for something fast and easy. I still have my favourites and I still have processed stuff such as lunch meats, bread, chips and what not.

Keeping in mind that I live in a country that is very limited on it's supplies in the gluten free department being that until the very last couple of months were only able to be found at speciality shops like bio stores or stores that specialize to diet needs. Only recently did one of the major chains of grocery stores start making their 'own' brand of gluten free stuff but I have to admit, it's shit... it's dry and to me flavourless.

Why do you ask does the start of my post bring me to this, because one knows that in this busy world that stuff happens and sometimes soooo much that there just isn't time to sit down to plan meals much less be able to find the time to cook them or even just to find a quick snack.

I have my favourites too! I'm very fond of chips, almost any chip will do as long as it's not really spicy or any where near being sweet. I expect it to be salty and crisp not hot and soggy. My favourite still stands that I have and always will LOVE Doritos but sadly they have started to make a recipe out here that even included wheat flour in their ingredient list. So now my next best is flavoured Lays.

A while ago, my sweetness of a husband, took my to one of these stores that specialize in diet needs, gluten free being one of them. I was in heaven. I bought over 100euro (130USD) of 'new' items, new to me and well most of them new at least. From cookies to pasta to pre-made meal in a dish to even frozen small cheese pizzas! I was in a gluten free lover's heaven. From that experience I have come away with knowledge though more then any thing else. Pre-made 'meals' gluten free are 2 things...

1) They are NOT worth the COST of the product! For a 'stick in the microwave' dish with some pasta & sauce cost me over 5euro ($7USD) and I think wouldn't fill even a kid much less an adult.

2) They do not have nearly the flavour or spices that you would get if you made your own at home.

It would have taken me less time to get a bag of dry pasta out of my cupboard (usually on stock), cooked it up and add a jar of what ever sauce I wanted, a bit of cheese (can't have a good pasta without cheese!) and micro'd it again to ensure it was hot from the jar of sauce added to it then it would have taken me to go to this store, found the item/s I wanted, paid for it, got home and then only got to removing it from it's packaging and microwaving it. Oh and not to mention if I had done it myself, I would of had like 4x's more food for the cost seeing as a bag of 250grams dry gluten free rice based pasta is less then 4euro ($5USD) and less then 1euro ($1.50USD) for a jar of some sort of sauce, even adding some cheese it's still cheaper.

This is why I try to stay away from pre-processed foods to be honest. Is it nice to just grab something off the shelf and micro it, sure. Is it nice to know there is something just able to had and not worry about when how or what ect, oh yea. Is it worth the cost or effort to find these items to start with, oooo heck no.

I also do know there are some items that are so good that they are worth the cost at least but it's not in the 'meal' aspect. They are in the snack and dessert departments (just like me to get into sweets and salts). I have my favourite little snack cakes that are small things, 2 layers of cake with chocolate frosting/cream in the middle and then coated in a thin layer of chocolate as well. They are not just cake though but it also has a slight splash of some sort of liquor as well. Of course, my beloved chips will always be a part of my life but I need to limit them which I've been really bad on lately but then come a few healthier snacks such as pure corn balls that are just that, corn and salt. And then kick it up a notch for some nutrition benefits and we have something I think has become a new love with exception of the cost which is at 6euro ($8USD) a bag and that is a cranberry maple kind of cereal. But it's well more like a chunky granola and has lots of great seeds/nuts/fruit in it.

I still say after this experience that you should still test things out because in the end it's going to be what YOU like, what YOU prefer and what YOU find worth the costs over the quickness/taste and what not. If you don't try something, you'll never experience life and what it all offers. Just remember to learn from every thing you do and try... just like I did with this shopping trip.

Read, Read and Read!

There are quite a few things to learn while on The Gluten Free Experience trip so I hope I'll be able to bring some enlightening information or news throughout my postings.

Some people really do not realize how hard it is exactly to live a gluten free life style. It really is not about just reducing the gluten you get in your diet, it's about getting rid of it completely. When you are required to go down this path it's because your body is not able to process the gluten protein that some grains carry such as wheat, barley, rye and spelt (there are more so read up and learn about them).

That brings the reason for my topic of this post. READ, READ and READ! I can't stress this one factor more clearly. Even when buying 'fresh' meat products, READ THE INGREDIENTS. Gluten is hidden in so many products in so many different forms for so many different reasons that you have to make time to read labels! My biggest tip, if it doesn't have an ingreditent list or doesn't clearly state '100%' of what ever it is, simply don't buy it. There is more than enough of a selection that you can just skip 1 or 2 products and choose something else.

Even if you have read the same label 40x's, read it again even a week later because not only is gluten hidden in so many things but it's also likely to creep back up in some form when a company changes factories or even when they change their recipe even slightly. I've had this happen so many times in the years I have lost track of exactly how much.

 ♥ Doritos Chips (exception 'all natural' style). These at one point was something I could eat... in the beginning. Then they changed their recipe (I still check the ingredient list every few months though because these are one of my favorite chips) and it started to include 'aromas with wheat' and again a year or so later they changed the recipe again and now fully include wheat as an addition to the ingredients.

 ♥ Processed Lunch Meats. ANYTHING processed, be especially careful of the label. Lunch meats are something we that eat meat, eat often if not daily. These are probably the worst item when it comes to labels. Even if it's something as plain as chicken breast because they add things to it to 'bulk' it up... again comes to the 'keep the price low while making it seem that they are selling you more' reasoning. Also these are the worst when it comes to 'made in a factory of' warnings. The reason for this is because typically if they offer a 'plain' flavor, they also offer seasoned ones and those tend to have wheat added in some form and thus cross contamination happens and the factory warning shows up.

 ♥ Sausages. Aaaaa who doesn't love a good ol' brat worst or chicken sausage on the grill?? BE CAREFUL! Almost any pre-made sausage is again bulked! Added to it can be so many things that are gluten based it's not funny! Breading (yes actual bread), flour, bread crumbs, wheat dextrose and so many more. Your safest bet to get these yummy summer grillin' treats is either buy a sausage grinder and learn how to make them yourself or have the luck I do with a number of fresh butchers that will make a 100% meat filled sausage for you (or will offer to make them with products you bring in that are gluten free if it really needs something to stabilize it like say meat loaf).

♥ Sauces. You thought sausages are bad? Sauces (powder or liquid form) are most likely just as bad if not worse. In my thoughts, worse to be quite honest. Why? Because even something as simple as every day mayo, which if real should only have eggs and oil), can carry some form of gluten even just in the way they try to thicken it. Powder forms are worse then liquid style ones though because they add gluten style products to it in order to make it thick when you start to cook it according to their directions. Not all sauces have gluten in them and some are even marked that they are especially good for a gluten free diet (I suggest checking out Heinz because at least in the country I live, they actually have the sauces marked if they are gluten free). Your chances to find a sauce that doesn't have gluten in them lay in the ones that are 'clear'... sauce as sweet & sour sauces or other vinegar based sauces. More chances that it WILL have gluten if it's a mayo based sauce and even more if it's a powder form of sauce.

 ♥ Sandwich salad spreads. These go along the lines of being difficult because most of them are again mayo based or worse, they make the traditional 'fake' style crab salad and that stuff is made with wheat to give the bulk factor again and thus most salads carry a 'made in a factory of' warning even if there is no gluten in it.

Above are just some of the things I've run into over the years. I'm sure there is more and as time goes I'll post about them. But it still comes down to READ, READ and READ! Even if you've 'been buying it forever', unless it is a specially made gluten free product, read the label time and time again! They change so often and there are so many hidden dangers. I know it takes time and sometimes you don't have it, that is what makes this diet so hard to follow sometimes. MAKE TIME. If you are going to go shopping, don't make it a quick trips, make it a 'I've got a spare hour' trip. It'll save a lot of hassle in the end. And it does get easier as time goes on to eat and live this way in every aspect you can image... I promise this.