A Yucca recipe

Dealing with allergies to rice, corn, soy and gluten at the same time makes finding side dishes tricky. What's left -- potatoes? I've recently found that yucca -- a root commonly used in other cultures -- is a good substitute for potatoes to rotate into your menu. Here's a good recipe to start with.

"French fry pancakes"

These really are just a version of potato pancakes, using yucca. My kids, of course, love fries, so I called them french fry pancakes. They're a hit. Here's my recipe:

• 2.5 lbs yucca, either frozen or fresh.
• 1 small onion
• cooking oil
• pam original cooking spray
• thyme, basil, cilantro or parsley
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup homemade broth -- I use low-fat chicken

If using frozen yucca, thaw them. I put mine in a pot, cover with water, a little sea salt and a little lemon juice. If fresh, peel and quarter.

Boil the yucca with lemon juice for roughly 45 minutes, depending on how big the chunks are. Strain, let cook slightly. Remove the tannish core stem that will become visible after cooking.

Put yucca into food processor and mash it down. Then, in mixing bowl, add yucca, your choice of spice (I use 1 tsp thyme), sea salt and broth, mix well.

Put 1 tbsp cooking oil in pan and heat to medium high temp. Wet hands before handling the yucca mix. Scoop a dollar-sized amount of yucca mix and shape into a pancake. Cook a few minutes each side until golden brown.

This recipe is very adaptable. You can cut the oil and just cook with Pam Original, for example, to cut down on fat. You may use your choice of herb. And, you may use your choice of broth.

In addition, you can use this mix to make yucca pancakes, yucca balls, yucca logs, or even a yucca dough by mixing in some flour. I haven't tried that yet, but I plan to. And, if you can make a yucca dough, then you could make yucca noodles or yucca gnocchi, just like you would with potato.

By the way, I found yucca -- both fresh and in 5 lb frozen bags -- at a local Asian grocery that also carried some South American foods. So, look either in South American or Asian groceries for this. Cost was $1/lb.

A simple bread

One of the first problems I faced when switching my kids to a non-gluten diet was making some type of bread. I had no clue what flours to use, how to mix them or how to bake them. Which recipe was right? After all, there's so many types of flour. And then, what recipe would my kids actually eat? Well, here's two recipes that are good to start.

The first is a simple roll recipe that you can use to make dinner rolls, snacks, and even buns.

• 1/2 cup chickpea flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup potato or arrowroot starch
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg or 3 tsp egg replacer powder
• 2 tsp xanthan gum (may sub guar gum)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients together. Addliquids. Beat until combined, but don't over-mix. It will be a stickydough. I wet my hands with water and scoop up a golf-ball sized chunkof dough and roughly mold it into a ball, then place it on anungreased cookie sheet or muffin tin. They puff up, so don't placetoo close. Bake for 20 minutes. They freeze well, too. I usually makea double batch and freeze half.Also, you can try to make buns from this, using a form or foil paper.Or, in the muffin tins, you can flatten the tops using the wet end ofa small cup to give them a more uniform shape.

The second is not my recipe, it comes from the GFCFrecipes board. Here it is:

CELIAC LIGHT BREAD by Tom Van Deman August 20, 2003

• 1 1/8 cup Chickpea flour also called Garbanzo bean flour (I grind my own)
• 1 cup cornstarch (I use Cream corn starch) NOTE: could use arrowroot, potato, etc.
• 1 cup + 1 Tbs. tapioca flour
• 3 1/2 tsp. xanthum gum
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 Tbs. brown sugar (Make sure that there are no lumps)
• 1/4 tsp. creme of tartar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten or egg replacer
• 1 1/8 cup warm water (uncomfortable to touch but not boiling)
• 3 Tbs. vegetable oil (I use peanut oil or canola oil)
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or substitute)

Bread Machine Method WARNING: Adding more liquids or flours or reducing same could cause the bread to not cook thoroughly on the inside or to be too heavy. Also I am at almost 6000 feet altitude in Denver area which might cause your bread to be slightly different than mine. First try it as is and then experiment if necessary. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl except for the yeast. Mix dry ingredients thoroughly with wire whisk. Mix together the lightly beaten eggs, warm water, and oil in a separate bowl and thoroughly mix with wire whisk. Pour the liquid ingredients into your bread machine bowl (I use my Zoj). Immediately spoon in your dry mixed ingredients on top of the wet ingredients to make a mound in the center but covering all of the wet ingredients. With a spoon or spatula make a small depression in top of your dry ingredients (must be dry for the yeast) and immediately spoon in your yeast. Place your bread machine pan in the machine correctly and turn the machine to regular wheat bread cycle and turn on machine. (This dough will need two kneadings in order to get its content to proper consistency.) Do not add any more liquids or flour. The dough will form a sticky ball. With a spatula scrape down the sides of machine bowl to make sure all of the dry ingredients get into the dough ball. On the rise cycle use your spatula that is wet to smooth the top of the loaf, if desired. Bake the bread using the medium crust setting. When finished turn the loaf out onto your wire rack and allow bread to cool or you can slice it while hot (Do not squeeze the loaf too tightly while holding it to slice while hot.) Slice the bread thin with a serrated bread knife or electric knife and enjoy. Oven Method Turn your oven to 375 degrees. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl or your mixer bowl including the yeast. Mix thoroughly on medium or low setting. Mix together the lightly beaten eggs, warm water, and oil in a separate bowl and whip with wire whisk until all ingredients are mixed. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with your mixer on medium speed (Use paddle or dough hook). When sticky ball forms scrape sides to get all of the flours and ingredients mixed together and continue to mix for about 1 minute more. Scrape into a 9 x 5-inch lightly greased loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap, set in non drafty warm place and let rise until at least double size (approximately 45 to 60 minutes). Remove plastic wrap and pace pan in preheated oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with a spoon. Turn the loaf out onto your wire rack and allow loaf to cool or you can slice it while hot (Do not squeeze the loaf too tightly while holding it to slice when hot.)

Coconut flour

That's right -- coconut flour! I'd never heard of it or seen it until today. An entry on the GFCFrecipes board submitted the following recipe she made for her son. I thought I'd repost it here because of its uniqueness. I plan to try it soon.

"After 6 month of trying to do a bread for my son with no success, he is on Gluten, soy, corn, yeast, beans, dairy, nuts (only walnuts are ok), grain free diet, I was able to find a very simple coconut bread recipe. Here's the recipe:

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, melted (I used 1/3 cup olive
  oil)
• 2 tablespoons honey (I didn't put any, in my mind bread
  shouldn't be sweet)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I put a little bit more)
• 3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Blend together everything, pour into greased 9x5x3 inch
or smaller loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, remove from pan and
cool on rack. I actually made small balls (like meatballs) and baked for 20
minutes instead, they came out like buns."

Anyone interested in trying coconut flour can find it at Bob's Red Mill or Wilderness Family Naturals' website.

A brothy solution

Have you ever checked the ingredients of your everyday broths -- chicken, beef, vegetable? I've seen all sorts of things that I know aren't natural, and even items like MSG! And for us cooking for allergy sufferers, you're sure to find dairy, gluten, soy, corn, etc. So, the best answer is simple. Make it yourself. Once a month, I make chicken broth once a month, using a crockpot, a fryer chicken and a few veggies -- carrots, onion, celery, parsley, salt. Set on low and come back 6-8 hours later. I strain this, then chill overnight. Skim fat away the next day and freeze in ice cube trays.

Eggless recipes

How do you cook without eggs? As long as you can tolerate potato, this is the answer. Ener-G makes an egg replacer powder that can be used in most recipes. It's not a sub for fried eggs or scrambled eggs. It's to be used as a sub in recipes, like cakes, cookies, etc. All you do is mix a little powder with water, stir and add. I've used it and it works well. And, one box goes a long way. I buy this at a local food co-op, but I imagine it's also available at Whole Foods, etc. You can also order it online at Ener-G's website.

Fufu 4 u

Here's another experiment that I'll be trying in March. Fufu flour is a specialty flour made either from cassava or plantains. The box shown at the left is made by Tropiway and contains cassava and elephant's ear plant tubers. This may seem strange to you and me but it's standard in Africa and parts of South America. You can find it at an Asian or Latin American grocery. I paid $3.45 for the box. Fufu really is like a dumpling and served with a meal. It's also very simple to make. So, I plan to try variations. Like, could it become the base for a pancake mix? What about rolls? Could I use it to make a gravy mix? What about a bisquick-type mixture? Lots of possibilities. I'll update on my successes and failures.

French fry lawsuits

Thought I'd update the McDonald's fries issue, since I think this is just going to grow.

Anger sizzles over seasoning used in McDonald's fries

By Lylah M. Alphonse,
Globe Staff February 22, 2006

Kathleen Fischbach's 6-year-old son, Andy,
has autism as well as celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by
gluten, the protein found in wheat and many other grains. He is also sensitive
to casein, a dairy protein. On his strict gluten- and casein-free diet, known as
GFCF, anything with wheat or dairy in it -- bread, pasta, cheese, almost all
fast food -- is off limits. But McDonald's french fries were a ''safe"
treat.
Not any more.
As news broke last week that the fast-food giant has
been using wheat and dairy ingredients to flavor its fries for years, people in
the celiac and autistic communities were up in arms. As of Friday, at least
three lawsuits had been filed against McDonald's. For those with celiac disease,
even a trace of gluten can lead to severe intestinal damage; for many autistic
children, gluten and casein cause hyperactive behavior and a host of
gastrointestinal problems.
''Parents of children on the GFCF diet drive
themselves nuts checking and rechecking every ingredient in every item they
buy," says Nicole GuBrath of Colorado Springs, Colo., whose 5-year-old son has
been on the diet for about three years. ''I am furious that McDonald's was able
to lie for so long and poison our children with known allergens when we work so
hard to keep them away."
Lynne Monnett, who grew up in the Boston area, lives
with her husband and six children in Central Florida. All of them suffer from
celiac disease, and they used to stop at McDonald's for french fries. ''My
children have various food allergies in addition to celiac, and they've been
increasing instead of decreasing," she says. ''McDonald's fries were one item
they were always allowed to have, that we thought was safe.
''My life and my
childrens' lives were unnecessarily toyed with," Monnett says. ''And I'm pretty
upset about it."
McDonald's acknowledged on Feb. 13 that a seasoning agent
containing beef, wheat, and dairy ingredients -- previously listed as ''natural
flavor" -- is added to the oil at the factory where the potatoes are precooked
by the supplier. McDonald's director of global nutrition Cathy Kapica told the
Associated Press that the supplier removes all wheat and dairy proteins from the
flavoring. ''Technically, there are no allergens in there," she said.
The
disclosure was in response to new rules by the Food and Drug Administration for
the packaged foods industry, including one that requires that the presence of
common allergens -- including milk, eggs, wheat, fish, and peanuts -- be
reported. Because it is a restaurant, McDonald's does not have to comply with
the new regulations but is doing so voluntarily.
''We knew there were always
wheat and dairy derivatives in there, but they were not the protein component,"
Kapica said. Those who have eaten the french fries in the past without an
adverse reaction should be able to continue to do so, she said.
Nonetheless,
McDonald's early this month removed the fries from its list of gluten-free
offerings.
Fischbach, who lives in Minneapolis, says she caught wind of the
change the day after the Super Bowl -- which was also the day after she had
taken her son to McDonald's. She contacted the company, based in Oak Brook,
Ill., to see if the rumors were true. ''I called three times," she says, ''I
spoke with three different people and got three different answers."
On
Friday, Debra Moffatt of Lombard, Ill., who has celiac disease, filed a lawsuit
in Cook County Circuit Court accusing McDonald's of misleading the public. The
lawsuit seeks class-action status. McDonald's Corp. senior vice president Jack
Daly said in a statement that the company has not yet reviewed the case, but is
testing its french fries for gluten through a food allergy research program at
the University of Nebraska.
Also on Friday, Mark and Theresa Chimiak of
Juptier, Fla., sued McDonald's, claiming that their 5-year-old daughter has a
gluten intolerance. Nadia Sugich of Los Angeles filed a suit on Wednesday since
she is a vegan and would not have eaten the french fries if she had known they
contained dairy products.
In 2001, several lawsuits were filed after
McDonald's confirmed that it had used beef tallow to season its fries since the
early 1990s, even though McDonald's told consumers the fries were vegetarian.
Others would consider joining class-action suits. ''I think the thing that makes
me the most angry is that they promoted the fries as gluten free," says GuBrath,
whose 4-year-old son has been on a GFCF diet for years. ''I would like to see
[McDonald's] give a substantial donation to autism and celiac causes."
Lylah
M. Alphonse can be reached at alphonse@globe.com.