Braised Short Ribs and gluten free product tastings

I love braised short ribs; they are sometimes the "birthday dinner" my mom makes for me when I get to chose whatever I want to eat. At first thought, meat simmering in a crock pot for hours is obviously gluten free. Examining the recipe though, the meat it dredged in flour. I altered the recipe somewhat based on what I had in the kitchen, and used a gluten free pre-packaged flour.

1/4 cup Better Batter pre-packed flour
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
t teaspoon chili powder
2 lbs short ribs

1/2 red pepper, diced
1 tablespoon garlic puree
1 small can tomato paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 small can mushrooms
2 cups beef broth

1 teaspoon italian seasoning blend
1 bay leaf
3 cups water

Combine flour, a few pinches of salt, pepper, and chili powder. Pat short ribs dry and dredge in flour mixture.
Brown half the ribs in hot oil over medium-high heat. Remove ribs, reserve drippings. Brown second half of the ribs. Remove and place on paper towels.

Add a few more pinches of salt, red pepper, onion powder, mushrooms, lemon juice, beef broth, and tomato paste. I combined these in a bowl and then put into the pan I used to brown the ribs.

Bring to a simmer. Put short ribs into a crock pot. When the liquid begins to simmer, add to crock pot. Add water, italian seasoning blend, and bay leaf. Cover and leave for 4 hours.

Two Hours of Cooking

After 4 hours, I added a can of whole new potatoes.

To serve it, I put some of the liquid into a pan, added some corn starch (no roux for those eating gluten free is a conundrum for me; I love using roux for my sauces), and reduced it as it simmered. I poured this over the meat and potatoes, or meat and rice.

The final result was quite delicious. We couldn't even tell it was gluten free. In fact, we ate with one of our roommates and didn't mention the gluten free flour, and he said nothing about it tasting differently than it should. So this is a recipe we both would recommend if you want a gluten free meal. It requires very minimal special gluten free ingredients, keeping the cost down. We bought our short ribs from a local butcher, keeping the price even lower, so the meal really was not a major expense, but was very delicious. We served the meal over rice, also a cheap gluten free option. However, adding more potatoes would have made the meal a stand-alone dish. It is also very convenient to make, requiring a little bit of time up from preparing for it for the long haul in the crock pot. A fix-it-and-forget-it meal.


Product Tastings

Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal
I love oatmeal, but many oatmeals you cannot eat if you are worried about contamination of gluten, because it is processed on the same machinery that processes wheat. You can find some more information at http://www.glutenfreeoats.com//. I tried Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal (http://www.bobsredmill.com/gf-might-tasty-hot-cereal.html). I like maple and brown sugar oatmeal, so I added some raw sugar, the kind I have is a moist sugar, and cooked that into the mixture, otherwise cooking according to the directions on the package (just adding to boiling water and simmering for 10 minutes). I found it to be delicious. Brooke added dried currants to hers. She loved it.

Ener G Brown Rice Loaf
We finished our loaf of Brown Rice Bread (http://www.ener-g.com/gluten-free/breads/sliced-breads/brown-rice-loaf.html) today. I thought it was fair to use the complete loaf before writing a review. Overall, I would not particularly recommend this bread. It is dry, very crumbly, and does a weird thing where it makes my teeth squeak when I chew it. The flavor is good, the texture is not so much. Brooke discovered that if you toast it, it is much better. This is indeed true, the bread is less crumbly, and a better overall texture. Brooke could not eat the crusts at all. Our next loaf is another Ener G loaf, but this time we will be trying the White Rice Loaf. When we have really experienced it, we will let you know.