Silly fries

Here's a neat treat. It's easy. The kids will love it. And, it's a starch that isn't potato or rice.

Find a nearby (or online) ethnic grocery that sells Fufu -- usually at an Asian or African grocery. It costs up to $3.50 for a box. Fufu is cassava flour and is a staple in some countries, much like our American mashed potatoes. Check out my earlier post on Fufu to catch up.

Anyway, make some Fufu. Follow the box directions for one recipe, usually 1 cup water, 1/2 cup Fufu and add some sea salt into the water.

When this is done, if it's too mashy, like mashed potatoes, add some more Fufu to make it thicker and more like a dough. During this process, you can add some favorite herb if you like -- such as thyme, 1 tbsp oil, and 1 tsp baking powder. Mix by hand or spoon until a firm but flexible lump of dough.

Heat some oil in a fry pan. When hot, pull off pieces of the Fufu dough and mold either into flat circles or rub between your hands to make long ropes. Fry on both sides until golden brown.

The circles turn out like fried pancakes and the ropes like fries -- just irregular shaped. I call them silly fries.

Enjoy.

Sensative skin?

Nope -- that's not food. It's soap, shampoo and conditioner. And, I don't mind a free ad for the small company -- Gluten-Free Savonnerie -- that makes this stuff. It's gluten-free. No soy, casein, peanuts, tree nuts, fragrance, and colorants. They're made in a dedicated gluten-free facility and tested.

One of the owners has celiac disease.

Anyway, I use the shampoo and conditioner on my girls, whose skin easily breaks out, and no problems. And, it works. Clean hair.

Order their products online (http://gfsoap.com) or via Miss Robens.

Eggless noodles

This is exciting, for me. These are noodles without egg, rice, corn, margarine or butter. And, they taste great! All store noodles either have rice or corn in them -- neither of which my kids can have right now. So, here's how:

Ingredients:
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/4 cup potato starch
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 egg sub (Ener-G egg replacer: 1 tbsp powder, 2 tbsp water)
2 tsp canola oil
10-15 tsp water

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Important to get clumps out.

Mix egg and let sit 1 minute. Add oil. Then add to the flour mix.

Add water tsp at a time until dough is firm enough to roll without crumbling. It still will appear on the dry side. Let sit for 30 minutes under wax paper.

Lightly flour a board or table, roll dough out (you can do 2 pieces) as thin as possible. Let rest and dry, turning once, until dough feels like soft leather.

Trim uneven edges (I save trimmings to cook into other recipes).

You can cut this any way you want. I use a long flat knife to cut very thin slices about 4-6" long.

You can let these dry even more, freeze, or boil. I boil in salted water with 1-2 tsp canola oil.

After 8-10 minutes (depending on thickness), I drain, lightly salt and add seasoning, like Thyme. Or mix with a red sauce. I'll soon be posting a tomato-less spaghetti sauce that I promise is great.

Now, I won't try to fool you. These will not look like store noodles and that was a problem with my kids at first. It's been many months since they last had a noodle and this time, they polished off the plate. They had forgotten what store noodles looked like. Big hit!