Green Chilli Pickle

Ingredients:
250gm green chillies,
4-5 tbsp mustard seed powder,
5-tbsp lemon juice,
2-tbsp haldi powder,
2-tbsp oil,
Salt to taste. Method:
Step 1: Wash the green chillies and cut off the tops.
Step 1: Remove the stalks of the green chillies and cut in to long thin pieces.
Step 2: Heat the oil till smoking; add the mustard seed powder and haldi powder in it.
Step 3: Cool to room temperature and add lemon juice.
Step 4: Then add chopped green chillies and salt.
Step 6: Mix well so that the chillies get coated with the masalas.Step 7: Clean glass jars and place the green chillies in the jar.

Benefits:
· An excellent source of beta-carotene and vitamin C.
· May help relieve nasal congestion.
· May help prevent blood clots that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Drawbacks:
· Require careful handling during preparation to prevent irritation of the skin and eyes.
· May irritate hemorrhoids in susceptible people.

The following is a description of a selection of popular peppers from the mildest to the hottest from book of Reader’s Digest.

MILD TO MODERATELY HOT:
· Anaheim: These long, slender red or green chillies are among the most popular in North America.
· Ancho: These dark red, heart-shaped peppers are usually dried.
· Cherry: These small, round red chillies are often pickled.
· Poblano: Green chillies with a small, tapered shape; they are usually roasted, and may be stuffed or added to a variety of dishes.
HOT:
· Cascabel: These round red or green chillies are usually dried.
VERY HOT:
· Cayenne: These long red chillies are dried and often ground into a hot pepper spices.
· Habanero or Scotch Bonnet: Shaped like red, yellow, or orange lanterns, these are considered the hottest of cultivated chilles.
· Jalapeno: These tapered green or red chillies are sold fresh, canned, or pickled.
· Serrano: These small, bullet-shaped green or red chillies are often used in hot salsas.

Gluten-Free Smackdown

Our very own gluten-free blogger Jennifer (of Jennifer Ate) has written a mouthwatering wrap-up and review of the very first Gluten-Free Cooking Spree over at Epicurious.

The New York event was the first of several Iron Chef-style cook-off fundraising events planned and sponsored by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness. Hustle on over to the NFCA website to find out when and where the next fun and fabulous Cooking Spree will take place. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to snag a ticket (the New York event sold out!).

PS: And if you go, you just might win an original gluten-free apron designed and donated by yours truly. I'm donating two gluten-free themed aprons to each event.

Roasted Vegetables on Broiled Polenta

Roasted veggies on broiled polenta. Yep. Gluten-free delish.

I'm still shaking off the February blahs, so bear with me, intrepid g-free campers. Please accept this super easy recipe as a tiny gift. Make this celiac-friendly dish on a busy weeknight when you're cranky and tired or feeling lazy or simply and utterly couldn't be bothered to crack open a cookbook (never mind, actually shop for groceries) because all you really want to do is kick off your Rocket Dogs and sink down into your favorite viewing chair with a bowl of salted popcorn and a glass of Irish whiskey to watch A Scanner Darkly again- this time with the filmmakers commentary (not to mention the intuitive insight of Keanu and Jonathan Lethem). Dude. What more could a geek girl like me ask for?

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Dhokadi with festival of Holi

Holi Festival:
Friends, can you imagine a life without colors?

We celebrate Holi, just one day but colors remain in our life throught, and when it comes to children oh………..red, blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, pink and lots of other…………. Friends, the spring is in full swing and the festival of color is just around the corner. Holi, the word, signifies the act of burning.
The story goes like this that a few thousand years ago, there lived a demon king in India named Hiranyakashyap. The king had a son named Prahlad who was an ardent devotee of lord Vishnu.Father, Hiranyakashyap opposed his devotion to lord Vishnu. The father ultimately planned to kill his son. In this venture, he asked his sister Holika for help. She had a boon of immunity from fire, so the king planned that she shall sit on a pyre with Prahlad on her lap, hoping he would be burnt to ashes. But Prahlad’s prayer helped him in the fire and Holika burnt in the flames of fire. It is believed that the burning bonfire takes away all our evils.

Lord Krishna’s holi with colors is very well known. In ancient time people used traditional colors from the flower of ‘Palaash’. It is also known as the purest fire colored flower.

Drop this flower in water than water becomes great orange color. This is pure natural color and we play holi with this water. This color is good for skin.

Across the world whenever Indians or people of Indian origin celebrate Holi with great enthusiasm, the major intention of such festival is to bring people together and generate a feeling of brotherhood and harmony.Are you ready to play holi with this water..........

Dhokadi Recipe

Ingredients for Dhokadi:
1-cup buttermilk,
3- green chillies,
7-8 garlic pieces,
2-cup gram flour,
2-tbsp oil,
Salt to taste. Method to prepare the dhokadi:
Step 1: Make a paste of green chillies and garlic.

Step 2: Heat oil in pan and add paste into.
Step 3: Then add buttermilk in it. Heat it for 2-3 minutes.
Step 4: Then spread gram flour over the buttermilk on law hit of flame.
Step 5: Do not mix it but take some time as it is.
Step 6: When buttermilk is slightly thick and flour is cover with it then mix it and turn off the flame.
Step 7: Spread it in flat dish immediately.
Step 8: Then cut into small pieces with knife. Ingredient for curry:
1-cup buttermilk,
1-chopped onion,
2-green chillies,
5-6 garlic pieces,
1-tbsp chilli powder,
1-tbsp cumin seeds,
1-tbsp haldi powder,
2-tbsp oil,
Salt to taste.

Method to prepare the curry:
Step 1: Heat oil in pan and add cumin seeds, onion and garlic-green chilli paste.
Step 2: Then add buttermilk in low flame of heat. Heat it for 5-minutes.
Step 3: Then add salt, chilli powder and haldi powder and dhokadi in it. Heat for 5-minutes.
Step 4: Serve hot with partha or roti. This is very special village curry in Gujarat.

Gluten-Free Beer (and a pizza crust recipe)

After five years of living strictly gluten-free, I can honestly tell you, Dear Reader, there are very few things I still miss from my pre-celiac diagnosis. From melty chocolate brownies to delicious gluten-free bread, I've managed to recreate and reinvent many old favorites.

But there is an archetypal pairing I do, indeed, miss. It's a simple want. Nothing fancy. And it's not some precious, tiny cuisine perched on a plate with a few stingy drips of - insert latest food infusion fad - trying to pass as art. Nope.

It's pizza and beer. A slice with a cold one. That's what I want. That's what I miss.

Well, guess what? One half of my burning desire has been quenched and this humble gluten-free goddess couldn't be happier. I am pleased as proverbial punch to report on the new sorghum lager now available from Anheuser-Busch, called Redbridge - Babycakes, it is beer-tastic! I had my doubts, I'll admit (being part Irish, who can blame me?), but when I read about Redbridge beer over at the NFCA website, the photograph alone made my mouth water. Come to Mama! I had to find some. I looked everywhere, but no store in Santa Fe carried it. Bummer.

Imagine my delight - when visiting our son, Colin, in Los Angeles - I stumbled upon a six pack of Redbridge happily chilling away amongst dozens of off-limits brewskys in an LA Whole Foods. Dude. I was stoked.

Later that very night I rustled up some easy - but tasty! - nachos and cracked open my first beer in five years. It did not disappoint. It did not taste “gluten-free”. In fact, when Colin - who is not celiac, or gluten-free - knocked back his first sip, he declared, “This tastes just like beer. Just like the real thing.” And I, ever the U2 fan that I am in my part-Irish bones, answered, “Even better than the real thing”.

Over at my cool and chic gluten-free home girls' blog aka The Celiac Chicks, I learned the proper way to pour a Redbridge. Pour the beer into a glass so that it smacks the bottom of the glass. This releases carbonation and produces a perfect foamy head. I did this last night, and, indeed, it does! (Thanks, Kelly!)

Next? Now that the Santa Fe Whole Foods is finally carrying Redbridge in their beer section, I gotta create that perfect gluten-free pizza crust recipe to go with it. And now that I have the beer, Dear Reader, it’s cake.

Here is the recipe I'm going to try - sent in by Lydia. The good news is - it is egg and dairy free.

Lydia's Gluten-Free Pizza Dough

Karina, here is my recipe for GF pizza crust. If you're not crazy about xanthan gum, perhaps you could use guar gum, or one egg white instead. I think it tastes like the crusts of old I used to eat, and I've only had compliments from gluten-eaters.

In a measuring cup, proof:

1 cup warm water (following temp. directions on your yeast package)
1 package dry, active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar

Whisk together in a bowl and let it sit for 5-10 minutes as the yeast proofs and begins to foam.

In mixing bowl, combine:

2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon each: dried basil, oregano, rosemary, and crushed red pepper (optional)
1/2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1-2 teaspoon salt
1 scant teaspoon xanthan gum

Add the proofed yeast mixture. Stir to combine.

Add:

2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour*

Mix the dough by hand for 2-3 minutes. Let it rest as you oil a pan and sprinkle cornmeal on top of the pan (to prevent dough from sticking).

Drop the dough onto the pan and using wet or oiled hands, flatten and spread the dough evenly to the thickness you prefer. (This usually covers a 10x13-inch baking pan.)

Allow the dough to rest while you pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees F.

Pre-bake the pizza crust for 10 minutes.

Add sauce and toppings. Bake for an additional 10 minutes or so, until the crust is done and the toppings are heated through and bubbling.

*Lydia's Gluten-Free Flour Mix is:

3 parts white rice flour
3 parts brown rice flour
2 parts potato starch
1 part tapioca flour

She notes: If you use a pre-made gluten-free mix, I would recommend not using one with leavening (baking soda, baking powder).

Thank you, Lydia! This recipe will be (mucho) appreciated by our readers.

Strawberry Pie

Ingredients:
200gm strawberries,
2 orange slices,
4-tbsp sugar powder. Method:
Step 1: Wash the strawberries and cut off the tops.
Step 2: Take half of the strawberries and cut in to long pieces. Also take half part slices of orange and remove white cover and seeds and cut into small-sized pieces.
Step 3: Grind remaining half portion of strawberries and orange slices.
Step 4: Take a bowl and put orange pieces and add sugar powder.

Step 5: Then put strawberries pieces and add sugar powder.


Step 6: Than add strawberry and orange juice.
Step 7: Mix and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Step 8: Serve in chilled glass cups.


Benefits:
· An excellent source of vitamin C.
· Contain folate and potassium.
· Low in calories and high in fiber.
· Provide anticancer bioflavonoids.

Drawbacks:
· Provoke allergies in many people.
· Contain oxalic acid, which reduces mineral absorption and may aggravate kidney and bladder stones.

Sabudana vada

Ingredients:
1\2 cup sago,
1 cup boiled mash potatoes,
1\2 cup toss peanuts,
2 tbsp cumin seeds,
2 green chopped chillies,
Salt to taste.

Method:
Step 1: Soak sago in 1-cup water for 2 hours and dry for 15 minutes.
Step 2: Mix all ingredients with sago.
Step 3: Make a small ball and than slightly flatten it by Pam.

Step 4: Heat the oil in pan and fry until golden brown on medium flame.

Step 5: Serve hot with tomato source.