Two Pizzas are Better than One.

Whether you are using a gluten-free dough, or a dairy-free "cheese" pizza is a versatile dish. The oven is hot. You can cook two pizzas in about the same time as one pizza and people like different toppings on their pizzas. If you have been reading along, you know that sometimes I will cook a pizza with different toppings on different parts of the pizza based on individual preferences. That won't work if one of the toppings is an allergen.

Preheat oven to 450 or higher.

Pizza #1

Start with a thin dough on parchment paper lining a half sheet pan. Sprinkle dough with Penzey's Italian Herb Mix (Turkish oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, and cracked rosemary) and cover with a thin layer of tomato or marinara sauce. Mozzarella next and then some grated Irish Dubliner cheese.



Toppings for this pizza are browned ground pork with garlic, shallots and mushrooms sautéed in EVOO and seasoned with shallot salt.



Pizza #2

Start with a thin dough on parchment paper lining a half sheet pan. Sprinkle dough with Penzey's Italian Herb Mix (Turkish oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, and cracked rosemary) and cover with a thin layer of tomato or marinara sauce. Mozzarella next and then some grated Irish Dubliner cheese.



Toppings for this pizza are more mozzarella and more grated Irish Dubliner cheese.

Ten minutes or so in the hot oven and they are both done. Let them rest for a minute or so before cutting and it is dinner time.

E,P,S*,N,Se,F,Sh

Cheese contains dairy.

Dough contains wheat.


Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

* the linked dairy-free cheese contains soy. The pizzas cooked did not contain soy.

Always Read Labels. Really. Always.

A quick seafood lunch; this is a Legal Seafoods® Lobster Bisque from the grocery store served with Trader Joe's® Steamer Clams and Pita Bread. The Lobster Bisque had a metallic taste. STP is sodium tripolyphosphate and STP is often blamed for the metallic taste in seafoods. I do not see STP listed with the ingredients, but I do recognize the metallic taste sometimes present with seafood dishes that include cream. The metallic taste did not stop me from sopping up the bisque on the bottom of the bowl with my bread, but still...I would rather be raving about the flavor of the lobster. Come to think of it the metallic taste might BE the lobster. Lobster is best eaten very recently dispatched. Reheated lobster is just not the same. Reheated lobster does not taste quite right. Is the lobster gaining a metallic flavor as it ages?

This subject warrants further investigation. Are lobsters eating discarded thermometers? Discarded sardine cans at the bottom of the ocean?

Do you know what I mean about the metallic taste?

What do you think? email: chef@brookeok.com

The Steamer Clams in Garlic and Butter Sauce were a hit.

Trader Joe's has new foods all the time and they are all worth a try. Some don't make the cut, but some are remarkable. The Steamer Clams I will buy again. They are not a fresh seafood product. Frozen is frozen, right? But in about ten minutes, you have steamer clams in a butter and garlic sauce. Like the French Onion Soup, I might make a better French Onion Soup than the frozen version at Trader Joe's, but mine takes all day. Trader Joe's takes less than an hour, is delicious, and we don't have all day, do we?

Always read labels. Brooke noticed an area on this box where the manufacturer recommends trying the peanut butter version of these cookie-cakes. Sure enough, re-reading the label revealed that this product was made on equipment that also made products containing peanuts, tree nuts, etc. Good catch Brooke! If a product has a peanut or peanut butter version, be cautious and look for shared equipment warnings on the label. "In a facility" is not the same as "shared equipment." For most peanut allergic people, it does not matter if a grocer sells jarred peanuts next to everything else, but if your ice cream machine just made a batch with nuts, and the next batch is vanilla that is shared equipment with nuts.

Trader Joe's Steamer Clams with Legal Seafoods Lobster Bisque.

This seafood lunch exemplifies the allergen expectations for a heat and eat meal.

Legal Seafoods heat and eat Lobster Bisque contains all kinds of seafood and milk and wheat.

Trader Joe's Steamer Clams contain shellfish and milk.



E, P, N

Contains: Milk , Wheat, Soy, Sesame, Fish, Shellfish.

Also contains SPICES and/or FLAVORINGS.

People with specific allergies to specific allergens require specific labeling.

Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

Steaming is good.

Steaming is fast too.

Fast can be a good thing, but while we are on the subject, let's start with the warning: Steam burns. Steam burns fast. People who would never think of sticking an arm into boiling water will hold their arm over a steaming pot. These people have not spent enough time in the kitchen.

Go into a professional kitchen and ask the cooks to show you their burns. They will have burns. It goes with the job. Next ask them to show you their burns from steam. Unless you happen to catch a rookie in the kitchen, there will be no burns from steam. Last question for our illustrative cooking staff: Would you rather have your hand in boiling water for 10 seconds or in steam for 5 seconds?

Nutrition: As long as you keep your appendages out of the steam, the nutritional value of cooking with steam is significant. Boiled vegetables, for example, lose their nutritional, vitamin, anti-oxidant, etc., value by around 70% while steam veggies only lose around 12%.

Heat: It is August isn't it. It is hot and it is humid and thunderstorms have already put out my coals more than once. I do not want to heat up the oven and I do not want to microwave my dinner. I definitely do not want to microwave my dinner with the air conditioner running; as the circuit breakers start to hum and pop.

Recipe: Simple simple simple.

1 lb Chicken tenders
1/2 bell pepper (pick your favorite color), chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup carrots, julienned
6 mushrooms (crimini, morel or shitake, it's your budget) sliced.
1 mandarin orange, wedged
1 cup chicken stock
1 T cornstarch or 1 tsp Arrowroot mixed with 2 T water or chicken stock
1 T Ginger juice or 1 tsp fresh minced ginger

Directions:

Pull apart the chicken tenders. Using vinyl gloves pull the meat from the tendon. The tendon is not edible. A couple of inches of water in the bottom of an All-Clad Steamer will only take a few minutes to boil. Five or ten minutes of steam should bring the chicken to a safe 165 degrees. Add the carrots, peppers, mushrooms and steam for another five minutes or so. Conveniently, Trader Joe's frozen Jasmine Rice takes about four minutes to cook in the microwave. The Jasmine Rice is cooked with a microwave steaming method.

Bring Mandarin Orange with ginger or ginger juice to a boil in a saucepan with chicken stock and cornstarch or Arrowroot slurry until it thickens. Simmer until ready to serve.

Chef Hubert Kellers Applewood Smoked Cornish Game Hen

Here is a link to the .pdf of Chef Hubert Kellers original recipe.

If you substitute more olive oil for the butter in this recipe you could make it dairy-free.

This was delicious. The apple wood smoke adds a wonderful flavor to the bird and the whole house for that matter. This recipe might best be adapted for the grill.

The version pictured is served with sautéed mushrooms in a demi-glace with Jasmine rice.

While serving the whole hen has a novelty factor, practicality might best be served by breaking the bird down before serving to youngsters. There is meat on the legs, but the breast meat is the Cornish Game Hen.

Chef Keller's recipe has cooking times that were not even close to my cooking times. After 25 minutes of smoking time, my birds needed at least an hour in the oven at 375 to get to safely cooked temperatures. Make sure your poultry is cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F. Salmonella is not as potentially lethal as anaphylaxis but is just about as much fun.

E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Contains Milk


Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

Pickles are delicious and nutritious

These pickles start with some fresh Small Farm cucumbers, onions, and a hot pepper. Temperature control is up to you. Remember; some hot peppers are hot and some hot peppers are not. There is only one way to find out how hot the pepper you are using might be...two ways if you trust your sous chef.

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1 small hot pepper, diced, seeds removed
  
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon shallot salt (Penzey's)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon pickling spice (Penzey's)
  

Directions

Combine onion and hot pepper and cucumber slices in a clean spring-top jar or jars.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a non-reactive (not aluminum) saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 4 full minutes to infuse the spices.

Pour the hot pickling liquid over the onion and cucumber slices, completely filling the jar. Allow the pickles to cool to room temperature before topping off with any remaining pickling liquid. Refrigerate.

M, E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

The Ingredients of August

You probably will have to go to your local Megamart for your paper goods and Cheezy-poofs, but if you want ingredients like this purple bell pepper, you are going to have to go to your local small farm. These ingredients of August came from our local Small Farm.

It is not just a purple pepper; it's a work of art!

And how about these (Solanum lycopersicum) Striped German Tomatoes?

Heirloom tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, purple peppers, red onions.
Now that is one incredibly flavorful simple salad.

Add some corn on the cob and a grilled steak with some mushrooms and haricot vert (skinny green beans) sautéed in butter and garlic. If dairy is a problem, replace the butter with olive oil.

Not bad for a Wednesday.

Thank you for your emails. (chef@brookeok.com) Please tell us about your local small farm.

E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Contains Milk (Butter)

Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

Alerts by email

Reading labels is not always enough.

Sometimes, a product gets to market with undeclared ingredients.

Sign up on FAAN to be notified of Special Allergy Alerts.

FAAN Camp Survey

FAAN has a survey posted for parents of children attending summer camps.

Brooke and I have some stories about summer camps. Maybe you do too.

The survey might benefit from allowing for responder comments rather than limiting responses to yes, no and I do not know.

Consider question #25. Did your child have a food allergy reaction while at the camp this past summer?

Yes.
No.
I do not know.

"past summer" It's over, then? Yikes.

"I do not know." Double Yikes. Not judging, just double yikes.

It will only take a few minutes to respond, and if you really want to get involved, call FAAN. Visit FAAN website. Here is the survey:

FAAN Survey

Brooke and Julia and Blueberry Pie

There is a quaint little three screen theatre on Summer Street in Maynard. The ticket prices are good and you can get a small bag of popcorn and a soda for 6 bucks. The popcorn is not popped in peanut oil specifically to accommodate their customers with food allergies. There is plenty of free parking directly across the street.



This movie was terrific; a must see for fans of Julia. But of course fans of Julia already know that. Meryl Streep was amazing. I can't imagine anyone else (excluding Dan Aykroyd)doing the role justice. Some language earned the PG-13 rating...and you should know that the ample doses of politics and occasional doses of cuss words should be attributed to the real Julie Powell and not to Julia. There is a scene in the movie where Julie's character, played by Amy Adams, learns that Julia was not a fan of her blog. The movie doesn't tell us why. Could it have been the real Julie Powell's politics and foul mouth? It could have been. I met Julia Child and she was all class.

Julie Powell

This story about Julia by Laura Jacobs in Vanity Fair is a good read. There are several annoying pop-ups soliciting your input for a survey and offering trial subscriptions in the beginning of the read, but they stop and you should not be disturbed for the remaining 3 pages of the 4 page article which was worth clicking through the pop-ups to read.


After the movie, we had blueberry pie with papaya ice cream. Yum.



Papaya Ice Cream

1 pint heavy cream
1 pint half&half
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pureed papaya
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tsp water

Mix all ingredients except the papaya and cornstarch slurry in a saucepan and heat, stirring regularly, to 170 degrees. Mix in cornstarch slurry just before removing from heat. Mix in papaya when cooled and refrigerate overnight. Into your favorite ice cream maker the following day and allow to ripen at least for a little while in the freezer before serving.

E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Contains Milk

Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels


Here is a young Brooke who is a little bit nervous when meeting Julia.

Wholly Guacamole Batman!

Tacos are always better with a nice guac. Well we have finally found one you don't have to make. Wholly Guacamole is on the shelf (in the produce section) at the grocery store.

Delicious. The Classic version is made with Haas avocados, Jalapeño peppers, vinegar, onion, salt, and granulated garlic. Wholly Guacamole is gluten free and manufactured in a "100% Allergen-Free Facility." Bonus: No cilantro.

Allergen info below refers to the Wholly Guacamole TM only.

M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh


Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

Experimenting with substitutions: Sometimes they don't work.

Pizza night.

Last night was sliders and in anticipation of pizza night extra sliders went on the grill. Crumbled sliders make a great next-day pizza topping. Crumbled meatballs from the day before work well too.

Prep usually begins with parchment paper on a pizza peel. Tonight, there were a few inches of parchment paper on the roll. Not enough. There must be another roll of parchment paper around here. Maybe downstairs. Nope.

Managing food allergies is often a strategy of substitutions. Parchment paper, for example, is a substitute for corn meal. A big pinch of corn meal on the peel will allow the pizza to easily slide off onto the stone in the oven. A corn allergy will make the corn meal an issue and pizza dough will not slide off the peel without help.

So what do we use?

Substituting Quinoa almost worked.




After shaping the dough into a pizza, I applied the toppings as fast as I could. Tomato sauce, Italian herbs, Mozzarella, and in this case caramelized onions and mushrooms on one side, and hamburger and meatball on the other. Pepperoni on everything.

When I put the pizza dough on the quinoa I gave the peel a little shake. Everything moved. Good.

Once the pizza was topped, in the warm kitchen, a shake was not moving anything.



On parchment paper, the pizza build goes like this: paper, dough, tomato sauce, herbs, mozzarella, toppings. Toppings are the fun part.



This pizza is topped for meat lovers on one side with hamburger and meatballs. On the other side it is topped with sautéd mushrooms and caramelized onions. Pepperoni everywhere.



This experiment failed although dinner was still quite good.

I shook the peel after first laying out the dough and it looked like the quinoa was going to be a suitable substitute for corn meal. After adding the sauce and toppings, the dough was going nowhere. I ended up sliding some tinfoil under the pizza -it wasn't easy- and cooking it at 450 for 10-12 minutes.

Moral of the story: Do not run out of parchment paper.

Lollipop Pies

When I first saw this idea on Serious Eats, I did not need to see more than the photograph to know that this was something I wanted to cook. This is what they look like fresh out of the oven.

They are little pies on sticks. Brilliant!

Make a pie filling and roll out some pie dough. Instead of making a 9" pie, make a batch of pies with sticks in them. A 2" or 2 1/2" cutter should work well. Voila! Pie Lollipops! Popular is not a word adequate to describe how these have been received.
___

We are working on a wheat-free recipe. For now, these pies contain wheat, but are free of Milk, Eggs, Soy, Peanuts, Tree Nuts, Sesame and Seafood.

Jiffy Pie Crust INGREDIENTS: WHEAT FLOUR, ANIMAL SHORTENING (CONTAINS ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING: LARD. HYDRO-GENATED LARD & PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED LARD), contains less than 2% of each of the following: SALT, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, BAKING SODA, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID.
CONTAINS: WHEAT

Pie Filling: Blueberries, Raspberries, Sugar, Lemon Juice, Nutmeg.

M,E,P,N,Se,F,Sh



Key: M,E,W,P,S,N,Se,F,Sh

Milk-free, Egg-free, Wheat-free, Peanut-free, Soy-free, Nut-free, Sesame-free, Fish-free, Shellfish-free

Always Read Labels

Feeding our young...

click image to enlarge

Visiting Montreal?

click on logo for the Zero8 website and their food allergy pledge

There is a restaurant at 1735 Rue St-Denis named Zero8 that promises none of the 8 major allergens are on their menu. (They list fish and sea food as one item, and sesame is on their list.) It's a slightly different list in Canada, eh?

Please email dining@brookeok.com with your food allergy related restaurant experiences or recommendations.

Allergenicity of Foods

Eight foods account for the vast majority of allergic reactions: Milk, Egg, Soy, Peanut, Tree nuts, Wheat, Fish and Shell Fish. (Sesame will soon be added to this list.) These nine, by the way, are not listed in any particular order. They are listed in the order that I learned the list. Anecdotally, of the stories I have heard and the stories I can tell, Peanuts, Tree nuts, Shell Fish, Fish and Sesame have the majority of the stories of stories involving use of Epinephrine and a visit to the ER, in that order of foods. It is worth noting that I have heard and can tell stories involving Epinephrine and a trip to the ER with several allergens not listed amongst the top eight or nine. Maybe you can too? Please do. Your comments are welcomed.

So- if we know the foods most likely to cause an allergic reaction - do we know the foods least likely to cause an allergic reaction? Good question. Well, Dr. Joneja has worked for thirty years to answer that question and others in the area of biochemical and immunological reactions involved in food allergy and intolerance.

The chart above, commonly referred to as the Joneja Chart,provides a guide for the "Allergenicity of Foods." Full .pdf and accompanying text here.

For those of us looking for alternatives and substitutions, this is good information. It does not, by any means. offer any promises that because not many people with allergies to fruit react to Rhubarb, that you will not react to Rhubarb, but...we all have to eat, right? It is up to you how you play the odds.

Bon Chance and Bon Appétit!

Lunch at the Pru

One of the growing numbers of restaurants accommodating to diners with food allergies, Legal Sea Foods has the process down cold. We did not call ahead, but we still had an excellent lunch. (Calling ahead with food allergies issues is still recommended. The chef might have been able to prepare certain dishes differently if we had given them some notice.)

We informed our server of the allergies at the table and he obviously knew the routine. He made written notes and confirmed who at the table was allergic to what. When we gave him our orders, he told us he would check with the chef and let us know if everything was allergen-free. As it turned out, not everything we had ordered could be served without allergens, but our server was prepared with a long list of possible substitutions. One dish, a lobster roll, could be prepared without (egg) mayonnaise in order to meet our request. When our meals were served, our server served the diners without allergy issues, and one of the managers served the allergen-free dishes, naming the dish, and the allergens of concern. My wife said, “This is great. I can actually relax and enjoy the meal.”

Managers at Legal Sea Foods have been certified as ServSafe® Food Protection Managers, (ServSafe® training is required by the state) but Legal Sea Foods has clearly gone further than state requirements. The front-of-the-house staff demonstrated a practiced understanding of what to do, which staff-members had what duties during service, and what to suggest and what to announce when serving patrons with food allergies

Thank you to the staff at Legal Sea Foods at the Prudential Center for a wonderful lunch and thank you to Roger Berkowitz for running a tight ship.







While you are at the Prudential Center, you might want to consider taking a Duck Tour. Actually, you should consider it before you go to the Pru, and get your tickets in advance. "Sold Out" is a common condition at the Duck Tours and with good reason.


Here is our tour guide: Ray Beez, the Animal Control Officer. An hour touring the city of Boston with "Ray" is guaranteed to be entertaining, informative, fun, and puzzling to local canines. "What was THAT?"




Brooke and I took some pictures during the tour. Here is one where we start at the finish line for the Boston Marathon.









Brooke Captains the Duck Boat on the Charles River. Thank you Ray!







That’s us, reflected in the Hancock Building! Well done Boston Duck Tours! That was great fun!