Why I do this and Giving Back

Sometimes, when I get out of work late, traffic is creeping along, nothing is made for dinner and I know that I am overdue for a blog post; I want to blow it off - hey who will notice if I skip one? And then I got a little note and picture that changed everything…

Michael has allergies to egg and nuts (he has outgrown his allergies to wheat and milk), and was one of the recipients of the extra gift bags on Valentine’s day. His message and picture just melted my heart and helped me refocus on what Lisa Cooks Allergen Free is all about and that is helping families learn to deal with their food allergies. I have so enjoyed sharing products, restaurants, recipes and experiences with you and look forward to helping you find just the right cake mix or recipe for your favorite dish. Please share with me what you like, what you want to see more of, and of course I love a challenge when it comes modifying family favorites…

In the spirit of giving back I want to announce that for the rest of the 2010 Safe & Sound Dinners, you can donate $5 of the ticket price toward your favorite food allergy/celiac charity, so not only do you get a great allergen free meal, a killer gift bag filled with allergen free swag and new friends to share your favorite products and experiences with, you get to help toward education, research and outreach to the allergen community. Once your order is placed, you will be contacted via email to see if you want a portion of your full ticket price to go to the charity of your choice listed below.

- Food Allergy Initiative
- Food Allergy and Anaphlaxis Network
- University of Chicago Celiac Disease Center
- Illinois Food Allergy Education Association
- Mothers of Children Having Allergies
- Parents of Children Having Allergies

Thanks for joining me in my adventures cooking, shopping and dining allergen free.

Coloring Easter Eggs Using Natural Dyes and Egg Free Options

Yesterday, I had a compliance test to take for my job downtown, I love the hustle and bustle of the Loop. As I was walking to the bus stop to get home again, I came across the Chicago Downtown Farmstand on 66 E. Randolph, where the focus is on local with hundreds of products made within 250 miles of Chicago. They have lunchtime programs on Wednesday and Fridays featuring cooking demonstrations using seasonal ingredients. Since being diagnosed with allergies, I have seen lots of talk about the way our food is processed and handled having a hand in the number of people afflicted, so I try to buy local and organic when I can and spread the word on great organizations like the Chicago Downtown Farmstand.

Even though it was a Thursday, they had a special demonstration in honor of Easter - natural dyes for easter eggs. I apologize to those of you with egg allergies, but don’t worry, I will give some egg free options as well.

Chef Melissa Graham ran the demonstration runs the blog Little Locavores and non-for-profit group Purple Asparagus. Little Locavores is a blog that focuses on eating fresh foods grown locally, with an emphasis on farmer’s markets. Purple Asparagus works to be a resource for the community for food-related activities, education and fun for families.

Melissa had some interesting natural dyes that had beautiful results, please share with us any natural options you have tried.

Yellow onion skins - lovely beige shade
Red onion skins - purplish
Blanched spinach - green (this needs to sit for a while to get a good green)
Boiled beets - red
Leftover coffee - brown
Tomato powder mixed w/vinegar - orange
Red wine - purplish color with a sparkly sheen – My favorite!

For those of you that can’t eat egg try these fun options:
- Get the plastic eggs and fill them with your favorite treats or money and use a glue gun to add gems and sparkles to the outside of the egg.
- Go to Michael’s and get the Styrofoam eggs and some fabric scraps, gems and sparkles, use glue guns to create your egg masterpiece.
- Pick another object besides an egg, like little toy bunnies or chicks and make a new family tradition, or make a game where you find a bunch of items in an Easter treasure hunt in your neighborhood.
- Have everyone start at the same place in the house, everyone has a color string assigned to them, they have to follow their string thru the house, at the end of the string is their basket full of safe goodies. It is so fun to see everyone unwinding their string.

Happy Easter and Passover!

Baking and Cooking with Jule’s Gluten Free Flour

I am so thankful there are pioneers in the baking field that have experimented with combinations of flours to come up with a blend that is most similar to “wheat/gluten filled flour”. One of the mixes I just love is Jule’s Gluten Free Flour.

I first ran into Jules at the Thrive Food Allergy show at McCormick Place. Her flair and dedication to making delicious baked goods sans gluten is evident in the recipes she sends out when you sign up for her mailing list. Not only do you get recipes for foods you thought were off limits with your dietary restrictions, she also sends out notifications for great discounts on her products and FREE E-cookbooks you can download filled with additional allergen free recipes. Thought you had to give up pierogies or linzertorte, not true with Jules!

Jules is not one to compromise, a celiac patient herself, Jules Shepard was tired of bland-tasting, gritty alternatives to her favorite foods. So she set out to develop a truly all-purpose gluten-free flour she could use to replace the wheat/gluten filled flours found in her existing recipes. This mix has taken Jules over 2 years to develop!

Jule’s Flour is made of: Expandex® Modified Tapioca Starch, Potato Starch, Corn Starch, Corn Flour, White Rice Flour and Xanthan Gum. Jule’s all purpose flour and mixes are manufactured in an allergy- and gluten-free facility, and are also certified kosher. What’s extra nice is you don’t have to worry about adding Xantham Gum to recipes, it’s already included!

Today I will be sharing Jule’s Matzo for the upcoming Passover holiday. Also be sure to check out my list of recipes perfect for Easter. Enjoy!

Matzo
Serves 4



1 cup Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
½ cup almond flour
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 450°F (425°F convection)
Whisk together Jules Gluten Free All Purpose flour and almond flour then add in the liquid slowly while stirring with a fork or pastry cutter.
If the dough is too dry, add additional water by the ½ teaspoon in order to get dough wet enough to form a ball, but not be sticky.
Form a ball with the dough and pat out onto a clean surface or pastry mat dusted with Jules Gluten Free All Purpose flour.
Pat with your fingers to flatten the dough and roll to the thickness of a saltine cracker.
Prick cracker with a fork and sprinkle with additional Kosher salt if desired.
Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly browned on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Classic French Sauces – Chicken Veloute

Sauces are liquids that add flavor, richness and appeal to foods, they are usually thickened using a starch or other thickening agent like a roux. There are 4 main French sauces: White, Brown, Red and Butter.

Today we are going to discuss the White sauces. Under each category of sauces there are leading sauces that are basic sauces used to make a final sauce. The leading sauces of the White sauce family include:

Veloute – This is a sauce made with a roux base and stock, Veloute is usually made with either chicken, veal or fish stock, but you can also make Veloute vegetarian by using vegetable stock.
Chicken Veloute
Veal Veloute
Fish Veloute

Bechamel – this leading sauce is used as a base for many cheese, cream and seafood sauces

Leading sauces are then used to make a secondary leading sauce or small or final sauces. It’s amazing to think of how much effort goes into a sauce that seems to be such a small component of your meal, but think about it, have you ever had a meal that the sauce just finished perfectly? Like many European dishes, many steps are taken to make a sauce with the utmost care and love. Each step more important than the last to develop the final flavor.

Today we are going to make Cream of Mushroom Soup using a chicken veloute (use vegetable stock to make vegetarian).

Cream of Mushroom Soup



3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons allergen free flour, I used Meister’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour
4 cups chicken stock, heated to a simmer (use vegetable stock if you want vegetarian)

1 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup onion, diced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
Kosher salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
¼ cup white wine

Make Veloute Sauce
Take sauce pan and heat over medium heat.
Add olive oil and allergen free flour, whisk for 2 minutes. You don’t want mixture to brown, you want it light in color, this is called a blond roux.
Slowly begin to add heated chicken stock and simmer until *nappe. Set aside.

Take a saute pan and heat over medium heat.

Add oil and and heat another minute.
Add onions to pan and cook slowly until soft and translucent, set aside.
Next, add mushrooms in small batches, season with kosher salt and pepper to taste and brown. If you put too many mushrooms in at once, you will steam them instead of sautéing.
As you finish one batch of mushrooms, remove and add another until all are complete.
Once all mushrooms are cooked, add mushrooms and onions back to the pan and add white wine to deglaze pan, cook until dry.
Add mushrooms and onions to veloute and simmer for 20 minutes.
Place mixture in blender and blend until smooth.

Nappe – when you dip the spoon into your sauce and put your finger thru it. If the trail your finger makes thru the sauce holds it’s shape, you are there.

Perennial - Casual Elegance in Lincoln Park – Our Next Safe & Sound Dinner…

It was cold and the snow was blistering all around on the streets of Chicago, but one step into Perennial and you feel like you are in the middle of summer, only looking at winter’s last attempts at holding her grip on the city thru the large floor to ceiling windows that surround the entire restaurant. The décor is bright and minimalistic with vibrant colors, whimsically contrasting patterns and varying wood accents, making you feel like you are at a summer cottage, but with a flair and style that is all Lincoln Park.

Mark and I went early on Saturday night to beat the crowd, a great tip for allergenistas - if you go early in the evening before the big rush, the kitchen has more time to dedicate to your special needs and I have also found they go out of their way to make you something special, when they have the extra time.

The staff was very knowledgeable on what dishes I could safely have (just a reminder, dairy and wheat/gluten are off my list) and recommended several alternatives and also knew which dishes the kitchen could easily modify.

We started with glazed chicken lollipops with a soy reduction, orange, cashews and asian slaw. This dish was a nice balance of sweet and sour with the soy reduction and tart slaw. What I really enjoy about Perennial is it’s dishes are combinations of sophisticated flavors combined with playful presentation.

I ordered the Roasted Duck Breast with savory cabbage, duck confit and dried cherry sauce (we had to omit the foie gras pithivier as it contained some dairy). I really enjoyed this dish, the duck was cooked perfectly, juicy and succulent. The cabbage was braised and it’s simplicity in preparation paired nicely with the dried cherry sauce that had hints of both tart and sweet to offset the richness of the duck.

Mark had the Pork Lover’s Obsession – a grilled loin, braised belly, trotter ragout, cauliflower swiss chard, winter fruits with potato puree. I had to pass on the potato puree but the pork dishes were wonderful. The braised belly just melted in your mouth. We ordered the roasted Brussels sprouts as our side, these were a hit, smoky and rich in flavor and taste.

I can’t say enough about the amazing dinner we had at Perennial that is why I am proud to announce our next Safe & Sound Dinner at Perennial on Tuesday, May 4th. This dinner will be FREE of the Big Bad 8 Allergens and Gluten. I can’t wait to see the amazing menu Chef Ryan Poli develops for our special group of allergenistas.