Makes 6-8 servings. 

Serve this hearty German potato salad to Dad for Father’s Day (and add even more bacon if you want to make him happy). I like this version, but your taste for sugar and vinegar could be different to mine, so experiment. I like the crunch of raw celery, or you can also try adding raw apple just before serving for a similar crunch. I use a grain mustard and fresh herbs for visual appearance. Growing up, I always had homemade potato salad (didn’t we all). It had cooked, warm potatoes with fresh oil and vinaigrette poured over them so that the warm potatoes soaked up the dressing quicker. No mayo. One of my retired students insisted that it had to be served hot the way his mother did, but I make it both ways.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. (about 4 large) red potatoes, nasty bits cut off, peel left on for color and fiber, quartered lengthwise and cut into ½” slices (Smaller pieces cook more quickly and absorb more vinaigrette.)
• 6 slices center cut gf bacon (I use Jones or Oscar Meyer, but cut into small slices.  Remember to only buy bacon labeled gluten-free, as bacon comes under USDA and doesn’t have to follow FDA labeling guidelines.)
• 1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 Tbsp. (30 ml.) oil, if needed
• 2 stalks/ribs of celery, washed, quartered lengthwise and cut into thin slices
• 3 Tbsp. (45 ml.) sugar
• ¼ cup (60 ml.) water
• ⅓ cup (80 ml.) real apple cider vinegar (Some vinegars are distilled from ethanol, but they are definitely not apple cider or wine vinegar. You can also tell what is real by the difference in price.)
• 2 Tbsp. (30 ml.) gluten-free grainy Dijon
• ½ tsp. (3 ml.) salt
• Pepper to taste
• Leaves from celery, finely chopped
• ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
• Green of 4 green/spring onions, finely scissored

Directions:

1. Cook potatoes in chicken stock until tender. This is far quicker with small slices, rather than chunks, so watch the pot. You don’t want them disintegrating into mashed potatoes.
2. While potatoes are cooking, start cooking bacon over gentle heat in 4 cup (1 liter) pan, so it gives up its fat. Add onions (and some olive oil if necessary) and cook over gentle heat until onions are tender and starting to brown without bacon or onions burning.
3. Add vinegar, water, sugar, salt, pepper and mustard. Stir well, bring to a boil and then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Fumes from vinegar do take your breath away.
4. Drain potatoes and put into an 8 cup (2 liter) bowl. Pour over dressing while both are still hot.
5. Gently stir in celery and fresh herbs.
6. If serving now, cover and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes, so flavors blend. If serving tomorrow, refrigerate overnight, then allow to come to room temp (or zap in microwave) to warm.

This recipe was inspired by a menu item, to which I adapted my regular gluten-free Belgian waffle recipe. I was always taught to use a flavor combination from a magazine, cookbook or television show and adapt one of your recipes that you know works. These waffles are great to cook for Mother’s Day or anytime. They also reheat well in the toaster.

Many appliances are labeled as Belgian Waffle makers, but only make the thinner regular waffles. These tend to cook unevenly and burn in places, and they don’t cook the waffle to the perfect light crispiness of my old waffle maker. If you have the right machine, you will be very happy. I did buy a Krups four waffle iron, but it is only on/off, so you can’t adjust temperature and have to watch the cooking time.

Makes 6×4” gluten-free Belgian waffles

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs OR 1 large egg and ¼ cup (2 fl. oz., 60 ml.) egg substitute.  Check that the egg substitute is gluten-free, because eggs come under USDA and don’t have to follow FDA allergen guidelines. Also make sure to buy plain egg substitute, as many have onion and other spices and flavorings that taste horrible in waffles.
• ½ cup (4 fl. oz., 120 ml.) milk. I used almond milk as a milk substitute.
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml.)  gluten-free baking powder
• ¼ tsp. (2 ml.) xanthan gum
• ¾ cup (3 oz., 84g.) my gluten-free mix (at bottom of recipe) or about ⅔ cup King Arthur Flour/Authentic Foods rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch blend. This is a stronger flour so that you use less of it.
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml.) poppy seeds
• 2 Tbsp. (30 ml.) chopped almonds or other nut, chopped not ground. You want the texture, but not huge pieces.
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. (5 ml.) gluten-free vanilla extract. Or try rum extract, orange extract or zest.
• ¼ cup (60 ml., 2 fl. oz.) oil. I use olive oil. Please do not use canola oil.
• 2 Tbsp. sugar

Directions:

1. Turn waffle iron on to heat.
2. Beat egg and egg substitute with electric mixer until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. It fluffs up more with the egg substitute than with 2 eggs.
3. Beat in remaining ingredients until blended and leave to sit for 2-3 minutes until baking powder and xanthan gum have thickened mix a bit.  Don’t stir down the batter, leave it fluffy.
4. Lightly spray both plates of waffle machine with gluten-free food spray. Depending on waffle machine, pour ¼ to ⅔ cup of batter onto center of base of hot waffle iron. Depending on waffle machine, after first waffle you might need to increase or decrease amount of batter, or help batter to spread to cover the base plate. If batter oozes out of the machine, decrease amount.  If you don’t have complete circle/square of waffle, increase the amount. You can see in the photo that mine aren’t perfect squares, and I think they look pretty.  You will also need to watch the temperature and timings for first waffles until you know how long your machine needs to cook the waffle. Mine needs about 3 minutes per waffle. These waffles are light and crispy, but unpleasant if they are dark brown.
5. Repeat with rest of batter.  I find I need to spray both plates of waffle iron for each waffle or they stick. Don’t spray heavily, as waffle doesn’t cook as crispy.
6. To serve, top waffles with my homemade lemon curd mixed 50/50 with whipped cream or top with fresh cubes of strawberry, mango, pineapple or whatever fruit is ripe and sweet.

My gluten-free flour mix:

• ½ cup potato starch
• ¼ cup tapioca starch
• 2 Tbsp. gluten-free millet flour
• 2 Tbsp. gluten-free sorghum flour

Makes 8  3-4” pancakes

When I attended the New England Trade Food Show in Boston in March, BelGioioso was there with cheese samples and recipes, including one for ricotta pancakes. I can buy their burrata cheese in my local market, but they had samples of their new burrata with truffles. It is so good, and since my husband doesn’t like burrata, I got to indulge on my own. My local market doesn’t carry BelGioioso ricotta, so I used Galbani ricotta in this recipe. Galbani is a very thick, sliceable ricotta cheese that is very creamy.  A wetter ricotta really should be drained first, or you can use less milk to make up for extra liquid. The BelGioioso ricotta pancake recipe added ricotta to a pancake batter, either from scratch or from a mix, but used less ricotta than my recipe. These are very plain pancakes, so I added orange zest, 2 Tbsp. mini semisweet chocolate chips, fresh blueberries and lemon zest.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup (4 oz., 112 g.) whole milk ricotta
• ½ cup (120 ml, 4 fl. oz.) milk
• ¾ cup Pamela’s Artisan Flour OR ⅔ cup King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour
• ¼ tsp. xanthan gum (only needed for King Arthur flour; not needed for Pamela’s flour, which includes xanthan gum)
• 1 egg
• Pinch of salt
• 2½  tsp. (12 ml) gluten-free baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. (15 ml) oil or melted butter, coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp. (30ml) sugar

Directions:

1. Mix ricotta and egg together until smooth.
2. Stir in flour, baking powder, xanthan gum (if needed), salt and sugar.
3. Slowly add milk and oil until smooth.
4. Add zest, fruit and chocolate. Batter will thicken due to xanthan gum and baking powder.  Do not stir and deflate batter.
5. Heat skillet over medium heat, lightly grease skillet and scoop pancake batter with a 3 tablespoon scoop. I gently evened batter out to circle from scoop shape.  It will spread, so don’t over crowd skillet with raw batter.
6. Cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes.  Pancake will appear drier on outside edge and won’t really show bubbles like regular pancakes.  Pancake must set enough to flip, otherwise batter splatters as you try to flip. Don’t cook on higher heat, as they will burn.
7. Flip and continue to cook for about 2 minutes until pancakes feel firmer to touch and no wet batter shows on edges.
8. Repeat with more batter.
9. Serve hot with bacon, sausage, fruit, and one of the orange sauces in my Orange Ricotta Cake recipe. Or try serving with my berry sauce below.

Berry Sauce

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup (2 oz., 56 g.) sugar
• ¼ (60 ml, 2 fl. oz.) water
• 1 lb. (500 g.) bag of frozen berry medley (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries)
• 2-4 Tbsp. (30-60 ml) of liqueur, optional

Directions:

1. Dissolve sugar in water.
2. Add berries, bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes or until berries are thawing and collapsing down.  Remove from heat.

Makes 4 servings

These are the European pancakes known as crèpes, blinis, blintzes etc., which are extremely thin.  There is also an Italian pancake known as manicotti which is similar. They are not the same as the American fluffy pancakes.  Pancakes in England are traditionally made on Shrove Tuesday, (also known as Pancake Day), the day before Ash Wednesday in Lent to use up the dairy ingredients.  Children love them served with sugar and fresh lemon juice and poor Mother hates it, because she could spend hours making pancakes one at a time for the children who can’t get enough of them.  There are races shown on T.V. where people run a race carrying a pancake in its frying pan without dropping it and the best can throw the pancake in the air and catch it again on the frying pan.

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp. (45 ml) butter melted and cooled or olive oil
• 1/3 cup (2 oz.) rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch blend (King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour, Annalise Roberts, Authentic Foods, etc.)
• 1/4 tsp. gluten-free baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup (120 ml, 4 fl. oz.) milk

Lasagna Style Filling Ingredients:

• Just do the ricotta, cheese mixture that you would use for homemade lasagna. Homemade cashew nut ricotta tastes good as well.
• 1 lb. (500 g) ricotta (Recently, I have been buying Galbani whole milk ricotta that tastes really rich and creamy. Calories are 100 calories for 1/4 cup, which was the same as other whole milk ricotta in my grocery store.  Skimmed was 90 calories per 1/4 cup.)
• 1 cup (4 oz.) pizza cheese blend
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped fresh basil, parsley, green of green onion, as much as you like or none
• Either add onion, 1 red bell pepper, 1 small zucchini or summer squash, few mushrooms, chopped and cooked together OR chop one cooked chicken breast halve and 1 roasted red pepper and add to ricotta  mix.

Directions:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, make a hole in the middle of the flour and break the eggs into it.
2. Add a Tbsp. of milk and slowly stir in the flour, while continuing to add the milk.
3. Add the cooled, melted butter or oil before you finish adding the milk.  Whisk until smooth and frothy. Or just use an electric mixer, immersion blender or food processor to blend everything together at once.
4. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
5. Generously grease a 10 x 15 (25 cm x 38 cm) jelly roll pan. Do not use any pan that is not completely level as the batter will flow to one side.  A glass lasagna style pan is fine. Put the empty pan in the oven for 5 minutes to get hot. If your pan is not reliably non-stick, then line pan with foil, pressed into sides and corners.  Parchment paper tends to lift.
6. Stir batter than pour in the batter (batter will sizzle as it hits hot pan) and cook on the top shelf for 8-10 minutes until risen and golden. It will look uneven and lumpy but golden colored on risen pieces, pale on flat pancake.  Remove from oven and turn out onto a flat surface, chopping board etc.  Leave until cool enough to touch.
7. Fill under side of pancake with lasagna style filling above, or chicken in thick sauce, cooked mixed vegetables or a meat sauce and spread out evenly to cover pancake almost to the edge.
8. Roll up so it is short and fat and place pancake on original jelly roll pan.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes until sizzling.  Serve with salad, marinara or other sauce, or gluten-free garlic bread. It cuts cleanly when cold and reheats well.

Alternative:

• Make a summer version with herb and cream cheese layer and sliced tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, roasted bell pepper etc., and serve cold.

Makes 12 cupcakes

I normally make my Tiramisu in an 8×8 pan, with coffee and Kahlua syrup, and more Kahlua in the mascarpone layer.  In a murder mystery book I was reading, they mentioned tiramisu cupcakes and I thought why not. Then I decided to make them with Irish Cream liqueur for St. Patrick’s, tinted green, but not containing mint or pistachio.  Why does everyone think green means mint or pistachio? Mine were green for an “everything green” party, and they were devoured.  People didn’t care they were gluten-free.

Watch me make this recipe Cook’s Corner on New Hampshire’s ABC WMUR.

A Note about Liquor in this Recipe

Note that if you Google “Is Bailey’s gluten-free, they tell you to ask your doctor.”  Carolan’s brand says they are gluten-free. Your decision.

Irish Cream is not very strong so it has only a mild, but delicious flavor.  The same quantity of Kahlua or Rum packs a punch.

If you use a different gluten-free flour blend, then you will need to weigh the flour, since cup measurements vary per gluten-free flour blend. King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour is strong, so would be less cup measure, and regular Pamela’s is a soft blend and might need more.

Ingredients:

• 1 x recipe for ladyfingers:
• 2 large eggs, separated
• ¼ cup, ¾ oz., 25 g powdered/icing/confectioners’ sugar
• ¼ cup, 2 oz., 60g, granulated (white) sugar (Use superfine if you have it, or grind granulated a bit finer in food processor.  The recipes will work with ordinary granulated sugar.)
• Scant ½ cup, 1 + ½ oz., 45 g, Oonagh’s Gluten-Free Flour Blend (below) or cornstarch (corn flour in the UK) (I use ½ cup less 1 Tbsp.) OR ¼ cup of King Arthur Gluten-Free Flour is 1 + ½ oz.
• ½ tsp. (3 ml) gluten-free vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• ½ tsp. (3 ml) gluten-free baking powder
• No xanthan gum needed

Syrup:

• ¾ cup (180 ml, 6 fl. oz.) very strong coffee or 1 Tbsp. (15 ml) instant coffee to ¾ cup hot water
• 2 Tbsp. (30 ml) sugar or to taste
• ¼ cup (60 ml) Irish cream liqueur
• Mix together until sugar dissolves

Topping:

• ½ lb. (250) mascarpone cheese (Don’t substitute regular cream cheese, it just doesn’t taste the same)
• 1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream
• 2 Tbsp. (30 ml) powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp. (30 ml) Irish cream liqueur

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. In a totally grease-free bowl, whisk egg whites until they are stiff.  Add half of the granulated sugar and whisk until stiff again. Fold in remaining half of granulated sugar.
3. In separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt until thick and creamy and lighter colored, about 4 minutes. The color will not be the normal vibrant yellow to start due to browning color caused by vanilla extract.  If you have vanilla sugar, you could use that instead.
4. Gently fold egg yolk mix into egg white mix, taking care not to deflate.  Use a large stainless steel spoon and fold in figure eight motion. Do not over mix since you will be adding flour mix.
5. Mix together flour and baking powder and sift (preferably, but not always possible, with some gluten-free flour mixes) onto egg mix and gently fold in, scrape down sides gently with spatula and reach to bottom of bowl with spatula so everything is mixed in, but still keeping fluffiness. This is not a time to beat vigorously.
6. Line a 12 cup muffin/cupcake pan with paper liners. Evenly divide batter among paper cases, reaching about 2/3 full.
7. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes. They won’t rise a lot, don’t really dome and will be a light golden color. It doesn’t matter if you overcook them slightly since you will be pouring coffee syrup onto them.
8. Remove from oven. Pour about 1 + ½ tablespoons of Irish cream syrup onto each cupcake.  There is very little space between top of cupcake and edge of paper liner, so dribble syrup.
9. Once cupcakes are cold.  Whip cream, powdered sugar and Irish cream until nearly stiff. Then add Mascarpone cream and whip together until stiff enough to pipe. Pipe on top of cupcakes and dust with cocoa. Green food coloring optional.
10. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Oonagh’s Gluten-Free Flour Blend

• I use this for one cup of gluten-free mix.
• ½ cup potato starch (Squeaky like cornstarch, not potato flour which is basically dried potatoes ground to flour)
• ¼ cup tapioca starch
• 2 Tbsp. gluten-free millet flour: Bob’s Red Mill
• 2 Tbsp. gluten-free sorghum flour: Bob’s Red Mill.