Mailbag: Glutinous rice

I love receiving mail from my readers! One of my readers sent me the following message:

I figure you probably already know, but I did read somewhere that Japanese "Glutenous" rice is actually low in gluten or free of it... you may want to double check, but its supposedly unlike other rice in that way.

I thought this was a great opportunity to talk about rice in general, and glutinous rice in more detail.

"Glutinous rice," otherwise known as "sweet rice," is a special type of rice that sticks together when it's cooked. (Unlike, say, long grain instance rice in which there's pretty much no hope of it sticking together). Like other types of rice, it doesn't actually contain gluten, but it's called "glutinous" because well, it acts a lot like gluten does. It's sticky and binding, which makes it great for things like sushi (when you really want the rice to stick together in a ball and not fall apart when it touches soy sauce).

In the same, glutinous spirit, sweet rice flour is often used to hold things together. The sweet rice flour that I buy has a consistency very similar to corn starch. I'll keep a bag of sweet rice flour on hand, for the following uses:

• Gluten free roux
• Add a tablespoon or two when your dough has too much moisture
• I've heard it's good in cakes and pie crusts, but I haven't tried this so far.
  

You can pick up sweet rice flour locally at the Green Grocer, and I'd imagine many of the other natural food stores in the area, or Asian supermarkets.

What do you use glutinous rice/sweet rice flour for?

PS -- If you want to send me a message, please feel free to comment on my blog, or look up Kat's GF Kitchen on Facebook, or follow katsgfkitchen on Twitter! :)

Starfish Gluten Free Frozen Fish - Review

I look through the Price Chopper ad every week before I go grocery shopping, and last week (the 2/7 ad) there was a large section about a new product: Starfish brand gluten free fish. They carry three types of breaded frozen fish: Cod, Haddock and Halibut. (There is a difference in price -- last week Price Chopper had an AdvantEDGE sale on these fish: Cod was $3.99, Haddock was $4.99, and Halibut was $7.99). Well, not only are my husband and I always interested in trying new products, but convenience foods are a must in our household. On the nights I have class, my husband's either on his own or we're throwing something together with five minutes to spare -- and trust me, the limited gluten free fast food options we do have tend to get old pretty quickly.

So anyway, we picked up two boxes of the Starfish fish - we decided to try the Cod and the Haddock (figuring that if we liked them, we'd try the Halibut at a later time, just based on the expense). This evening we tried the first box, the Cod. And I have to say, it was pretty darn good! When I bought the boxes I was assuming the fillets would be larger -- kind of like what you'd see on a fish sandwich -- but they were a little smaller than that. (I suppose they'd make good sliders, if you want a frame of reference). I baked them -- alongside, we whipped up some tartar sauce to go with the fish and had fries and peas.

The batter was really good -- crunchy, but not overdone, and definitely not soggy. You definitely needed tartar sauce with it for flavor, but they're more satisfying than Ian's fish sticks (which have been our only option for quite some time). I'm looking forward to trying the Haddock next time, and when I go back to Price Chopper I'll definitely be picking up more of their fish and trying the Halibut as well!

Let's just hope that the Starfish fish sticks around and doesn't suffer the same fate as Bell & Evans gluten free chicken (which we still dearly miss).

B&G Foods Gluten Free list!

My husband and I were at Price Chopper this afternoon picking up food for this weekend and the rest of this week. We haven't done tacos in a while and figured that would be good to do tonight... I picked up some 93% lean ground beef, iceberg lettuce, cheese, black olives, and went to the international aisle to pick up some taco shells and seasoning. In the past, we've usually bought Old El Paso taco shells -- since they're owned by General Mills and I know their labelling practices. Unfortunately, it's been our experience that sometimes they're not that great. I don't know if it's the brand, the stores we buy them in or what, but they're usually a little on the stale side.

Today, we decided to do something a little different. I looked at the Mission corn tortillas, but my husband was in the mood for hard-shell tacos. I picked up a box of Ortega yellow corn taco shells and was pleasantly surprised to see a "Gluten free" label in the bottom right corner of the box. (Plus the box had an attached coupon for $1 off 2 Ortega products - sweet!) I picked them up and we were very happy with the shells. They were crunchy, tasty, and overall better than the shells we've bought in the past.

That got me thinking though -- what other products might be gluten free? Ortega is owned by B&G foods, who now provide an online gluten free list. You can access B&G's list of gluten free products here.

We already use several of these products -- like B&M beans and Grandma's molasses -- which have been labelled gluten free for some time. Still, this is great information to have and I'm glad to see more companies providing this information!

Now if only Price Chopper had gotten back to me when I'd asked if their dip was gluten free! :)

Review: Enjoy Life Crunchy Flax and Rice Cereals

My husband and I are always on the lookout for new gluten free products. When Enjoy Life contacted me and asked me if I would like to try and review two of their new cereals, I figured why not? The two cereals in question are Perky's Crunchy Flax and Perky's Crunchy Rice cereal.

According to their promotional e-mail:

Crunchy Flax is 100% natural, sweetened with fruit juice and honey, has 50g of whole grain, 425 mg of Omega-3's and 6g of fiber per serving. It's not only a delicious, but nutritious start to your day!

Crunchy Rice is 100% natural, sweetened with fruit juice and honey and is low fat and low sodium. Enjoy with milk or yogurt (including your favorite non-dairy alternatives), or throw in your trail mix for an extra crunch.

Well, I'll be honest. Before trying either of these cereals, I liked the fact that they were naturally sweetened and have completely pronounceable ingredients.

The Crunchy Flax cereal contains: Whole sorghum flour, ground flax seed, honey, raisin juice concentrate, and salt. A 3/4 cup serving boasts 200 calories, 3g fat, and 6g fiber. (3 WW points, not including milk or other additives).

The Crunchy Rice cereal contains: Rice flour, rice bran, raisin juice concentrate, honey, and salt. A 3/4 cup serving contains 210 calories, 1g fat, and 2g fiber. (4 WW points, not including milk or other additives).

(Weight Watchers Points calculated from the online calculator located here).

Overall, not a bad start to the day, right?

I'll admit that I was hoping more for a puffed-rice type cereal similar to Rice Krispies, and when I saw the package I was afraid the texture would be too much like Grape Nuts. It wasn't though -- the texture wasn't bad at all. However, our household usually eats more sugared cereals so the subtle honey flavoring tasted extremely plain to us by itself. If you intend to eat a bowl of this cereal for breakfast, skim milk and a lot of fruit are an absolute must. (Still doesn't make it too unhealthy, at least).

They're also decent when mixed into (flavored!) yogurt, and add a bit more substance. (When I eat yogurt by itself for breakfast I tend to be hungry by 10 AM -- I think this is where the higher-fiber Flax cereal comes in handy).

Overall, while the Flax is definitely better for you, the rice was the one I preferred. It was slightly sweeter tasting and the Flax leaves a slight aftertaste when eaten dry (which is how I first tried it). I probably wouldn't buy the Flax again, but I might buy the Rice to mix with fruit and yogurt for a quick breakfast.

BJ's Gift Card Winner

Only two entries in the BJ's contest -- so my scientific selection process involved my husband flipping a coin, with the first entrant heads and the second entrant tails.

And the winner is... tails. Congrats, Luv to Save. I'll e-mail you shortly for your contact information.

Delmonico's Italian Steakhouse

This evening my husband and I went to Delmonico's Italian Steakhouse with my in-laws for a birthday dinner. We've lived in the Albany area for years but neither of us had ever eaten there before. We didn't quite know what to expect, but figured that there'd at least be steak or something along those lines on the menu that we could eat.

When we sat down, my mother in law informed the waitress that there were two gluten free diners (herself and my husband) at the table. The waitress sent someone (a manager or owner) over who said that while they didn't have a printable gluten free menu he would be happy to answer any questions we might have. We called him back for additional clarification after we started looking at the menu, and we were pleasantly shocked.

My husband and mother in law started their meal with a house salad and gluten free balsamic vinaigrette dressing. My husband then had a veal parmigiana (instead of bread crumbs they use an egg wash with cornstarch) with gluten free penne pasta, while my mother in law ordered one of the specials of the evening, a filet and alfredo dish over gluten free penne pasta.

Let me just say this -- my husband was beyond excited to order veal parmigiana -- since I won't make it, he thought he might never have it again in a restaurant. The portion sizes at Delmonico's are extremely generous (I have two to three lunches from my leftovers sitting in the fridge right now) but he ate the entire meal which included three pieces of veal and a huge plate of gluten free penne and sauce.

I tried a piece of the gluten free pasta and it was absolutely amazing -- I couldn't tell the difference between their pasta and "regular" pasta, and we wondered if they make it themselves.

The one disappointment: they really didn't have any gluten free desserts on the list, but after finishing his meal my husband didn't have room for dessert.

Anyway -- we were delighted with our experience, thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and will definitely be returning!

BJ's Wholesale Club -- and contest!

First of all now that I'm back from the craziness of the holidays, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and are starting 2010 with a great start!

Now, on to the topic of this blog. Before the holidays, MyBlogSpark, General Mills and BJ's offered me a trial membership to BJ's as well as a $25 gift card. My husband and I aren't currently members of BJ's and given our New Years Resolution to save money on groceries this seemed like something interesting to check out. So, we agreed to sign up for the Spark and check out the club.

Overall, there can be some very good deals there for the smart shopper. However, you have to be careful with bulk stores, because it's easy to get sucked in thinking that a large quanity means it's a good deal, or that you're definitely going to use all of something. And, of course the fact that if you're set in the products you use, you might not want to compromise and buy something similar just because it's a good deal -- if you don't like it you have to use an awful lot of it before it's gone! Also, considering that we're constrained by shopping gluten free, I was interested to see what we could find.

Now -- many of the things at BJ's would be a lot better for us if we owned a house or a large freezer. Unfortunately our apartment doesn't have a whole lot of storage space, so we can't really stock up on six month's worth of toilet paper or tissues. At least, unless we wanted to let them do double duty as furniture! So, alas, we stayed away from most household items -- we did find very good deals on Clorox Wipes (I use them for everything) and laundry detergent. I'll give a shoutout to Woollite Dark since that's what I ended up picking up, at a much better deal than at Walmart.

Next, off to the food aisles. They didn't carry any of the pet supplies that we use (we buy Wellness canned dog food), but there were some interesting finds that were gluten free. Staples like rice, pasta sauce (they had Classico multipacks that are labelled gluten free), and salsa, etc. were all decent deals. There were also items that weren't necessarily good deals, like family size packages of corn chips for about the same price as when they go on sale at Price Chopper. Since it's after New Years and we're trying to be good we did give the candy aisle a wide berth, but normally we'd have found quite a bit there we'd like. ;-)

Overall -- even for a gluten free household a BJ's membership can be worthwhile, provided you have ample storage space for bulk items and keep an eye out for what's a good deal and what might not necessarily be good.

Now -- onto the good stuff. Since everyone is trying to save money after the holidays, I'm pleased to announce that MyBlogSpark, BJ's and General Mills are offering a $25 BJ's gift card to one of my readers. If you're interested here is how to enter:

• Receive one entry by leaving a comment on this blog entry before Saturday, January 16th. And entrants -- grad school is starting up, and I just don't have time to track you down. If you're serious about entering leave me some way to contact you -- an e-mail address preferably, or a link to an ACTIVE blog. It can be obfuscated but if I have no idea who made a comment and have no way to contact you, I won't count it.
  
• Winner will be picked at random and announced on this blog.
  

Good luck!