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November 20, 2008

Crockpot Barbecued Pulled Pork

Lots of people love their crockpots. That hasn't been the case for me, but I'm trying to make friends with my crockpot again because it sure is nice to come home to a warm, cooked meal. I started working on this new friendship by buying a new crockpot. A few weeks ago I bought a SmartPot. It turns itself to warm after the cooking time that you set. I think that a major reason why I wasn't happy with my crockpot meals is that they cooked too long.

Yesterday's crockpot test was pulled pork. It's based on a recipe from Emeril Lagasse. First you rub the pork with a spice mixture, then cook it in the crockpot with a splash of cider vinegar. After the pork is cooked, you shred it and add a barbecue sauce. Simple. The original recipe called for boneless pork butt; I used a boneless 7-rib pork roast.

I didn't want to mess with it in the morning, so I mixed together the spice rub, coated the pork roast, wrapped it in plastic wrap and refrigerated it overnight.

In the morning, I poured a splash of cider vinegar into the crockpot, added the pork, and set the crockpot to cook on low for 8 hours.

When I got home about 9 hours later, the crockpot was on warm and the house smelled wonderful. I lifted the lid and I was a bit surprised by what I saw. The roast was sitting there all in one piece looking browned and sort of dry. It looked kind of like a little brick. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I saw. My first thought was "oh crap, I need to find something else for dinner". Rather than grabbing the camera to take a picture of the cooked pork, I grabbed a fork to see if it would shred. Well, the second that the fork touched the pork, it fell apart. That was a huge relief. I tasted it and it tasted flavorful and moist. Yay, I don't have to rethink my dinner plans!

The next step is to stir in barbecue sauce. I mixed the sauce the night before when I prepped the pork, so all I had to do was pour it into the crockpot and stir it up.

Not the prettiest meal, but it was tasty. I wasn't in the mood for a sandwich, so I had mine with a Cheddar-Green Onion Muffin and lima beans. When Tom got home, he had a sandwich. I wish I had thought to make some coleslaw to go with it.

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Posted November 20, 2008 2:32 PM in Crockpot, Gluten-Free, Recipes, Test Kitchen | Comments (1)

November 4, 2008

Living Without's Boule

Beautiful loaves of gluten-free and dairy-free bread grace the cover of the current issue of Living Without magazine. Bread like this cries out to be made.

Most of my gluten-free clients miss bread and are looking for breads that they can eat and that are tasty. Yesterday was the day to test out one of breads from this issue of Living Without.

I picked out the French baguette recipe because it is dairy-free and egg-free. Most of my gluten-free clients are also allergic to dairy and eggs. I don't have a baguette pan so I opted to make the boule version of the French baguette.

This bread uses Living Without's high-protein flour blend. This blend was developed for baked goods that require elasticity. It starts with a bean flour, either chickpea flour or soy flour. Since most of my gluten-free clients are allergic to soy, I used chickpea (garbanzo) flour. The next decision to make about the flour blend is potato starch, arrowroot starch, or cornstarch. Some of my gluten-free clients are allergic to corn and I didn't have arrowroot starch on hand, so I went with potato starch. The final decision is brown rice flour or white rice flour. Brown rice flour wins because I have some and it is slightly more nutritious than white rice flour. Toss in some tapioca starch and I'm good to go with the flour blend.

For the bread, first I sift the flour blend, xanthan gum, salt, and sugar into the bowl of the mixer. Then add the yeast and herbs. The recipe calls for dried herbs (rosemary or dill), but I decide to use fresh rosemary so I head out to the herb garden and snip a few sprigs.

Here's the sifted flour, yeast, and rosemary in the mixer bowl. Don't skip the step of sifting the flour. These flours tend to clump, especially the chickpea flour. I always sift it to remove the clumps. I don't have a sifter; I use a fine mesh strainer to sift flours.

Next, blend the olive oil and warm water into the dry ingredients and mix on high speed for 4 minutes. Rather than plain olive oil, I decided to use some rosemary-infused olive oil. Here's the dough after mixing.

The dough is transferred to the prepared pan. I used an 8-inch spring form pan. The instructions in the original recipe don't say so, but it is much easier to move the dough from the mixing bowl to the pan if you wet the spatula. I used sweet rice flour to dust the top of the dough. I picked sweet rice flour because it is very fine.

The dough rises for 30 minutes, or until doubled. Then the oven is preheated to 400F. Here's the dough ready to go in the oven. I'm very impatient. I let it rise for just 30 minutes. I considered using the proofing setting on my oven, but decided not to. In retrospect, I think I should have let the bread rise a little longer. I don't think it was quite doubled.

The bread bakes until it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom and it registers 200-220F on an instant-read thermometer. I've never used a thermometer to test bread for doneness. After 30 minutes, the bread didn't sound hollow, so I tested it with a thermometer. It was 185F. I put it back in the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Ten minutes later, it was 200F. I decided to cook it for 5 minutes longer (a total of 45 minutes) and it was 208F when it came out of the oven. After cooling for 10 minutes, I removed the collar from the springform pan.

As you can see, it's a pretty nice looking loaf of bread.

So now the torturous part starts. Cutting bread when it is very hot is not a good idea. So I let it sit for about 30 minutes to cool. I was dying to cut the loaf and see what it was like.

Finally, the bread is cool enough to cut. And to taste!

The bread smells great. The texture is springy. It's not as light and airy as the boule pictured on the magazine cover, but it tastes very good. I'm wondering if I should have mixed it longer or if I should have baked it longer. I'm 99% sure that I should have let it rise longer. I've experimented with a lot of gluten-free bread recipes, some good, some really bad. This one is probably one of the best that I've made.

I snacked on a still-warm slice. Then I toasted a small slice to see what it was like toasted. Quite good. I cut off a chunk and put it in the freezer so I can see what it is like after freezing. Then I wrapped the remaining half loaf of bread up to take to today's client so they can try it.

I didn't see my client today, but before I left I called her at work and told her about the bread experiment that I left for her. She was looking forward to trying it. I can't wait to hear her feedback.

I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this recipe. I think I need to buy a baguette pan.

Continue reading "Living Without's Boule " »

Posted November 4, 2008 9:00 PM in Gluten-Free, Recipes, Test Kitchen | Comments (1)

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