Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wp-ultimate-recipe domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/maryzahc/public_html/adultfoodallergies.com/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121 January 2013 – surviving the food allergy apocalypse (archive)
What do we most need for winter and cold and flu season?
Vodka.
Yup, vodka. The cheapest rotgut vodka you can buy, in the largest quantity you can buy, and you can deodorize your furniture, carpets, curtains, freshen up your air, and even sanitize your hands.
Non-Chemical Hand Sanitizer
Adapted from a few different online ideas.
1 part vodka
1 part aloe vera juice
20-40 drops of essential oils (tea tree, lavender, and rosemary recommended)
Mix in a small spray bottle. Shake before using. Spray 3-4 times on one hand, rub hands together until dry.
Now I have no clinical proof that this sanitizes your hands, but given that hand sanitizer gel is mostly alcohol, and vodka is alcohol, I’m going out on a limb and guessing this works. The aloe vera juice seems to help keep the alcohol from drying out my hands.
Air Freshener and Fabric Deodorizer
Most air fresheners trigger my allergies, leave me with a pounding headache, and I wouldn’t enjoy the smell even if it didn’t make me ill. But sometimes you need to freshen up the air. Or the couch.
This mix is easier than easy, and it really works. Given that you may be spraying this on fabric, don’t use orange-colored citrus essential oils — they can stain. Otherwise, play around and find your favorite mix.
Vodka
Essential oil, about 10 drops per ounce of vodka, adjusted for how strong you want the scent
Seriously, that’s all you need. This works to freshen up a couch or a stale room equally well. From what I read on the internet, this also works great on the non-washable uniforms worn for school bands, theatre costumes, and, in a pinch on dry clean fabrics (but I have NOT tested this last one — let me know if you do). It does work fine on a campfire-smoky jacket, though.
I also like to think that, given vodka’s magical (hopefully) sterilizing properties, that it might help clear the air.
Give it a try. Let us know how it works. Or, hey, if you’re a science geek, tell me how I can test my theories — or why vodka mysteriously removes odors from fabric. I know it works, but I don’t know why.
Okay, first things first. My good camera’s battery hit the skids half way through cooking this recipe, so I had to resort to my cell phone camera. Which means that some of these pictures are more terrible than they usually are. Now on to the subject at hand.
Alfredo sauce. Seriously, before the food allergy apocalypse, this was one of my very favorite things. When I was first diagnosed, I tried to make a soy based Alfredo sauce, and I took one bite, and dumped the rest of it down the sink. I may have also spit the bite I took in the sink. (Yes, I’m that classy.) You may remember that I have mentioned that I’m not a fan of soy milk. So when Mary Kate and I decided to do this blog, Alfredo sauce was one of the first things that I put on the infamous spreadsheet for us to find a solution to. I think I’m finally there. Even my husband, who can still eat dairy, says that this is amazingly close. This recipe will not help those of you with a nut allergy, as the base is made of cashews. Although the sauce itself is gluten free, I did use regular pasta, which is not. So if you want to make this recipe gluten free, just use gluten free pasta (MK suggests Schar pasta (I’ve only had the penne), Quinoa pasta (here, only had the macaroni), and Trader Joe’s corn pastas). This recipe will probably feed about 4-6 people depending on portion size.
Alfredo Sauce:
1 cup of raw cashews or cashew pieces (pieces are cheaper, buy those)
4 teaspoons of lemon juice (fresh is better but the bottled will work in a pinch)
1 teaspoon of roasted minced garlic (you can get it in a jar at the grocery store)
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon of nutritional yeast
dash of nutmeg
dash of paprika
dash of sage
1 1/2 cups of boiling water
1 tablespoon of Earth Balance Natural Buttery Spread Soy-free
2 teaspoons of cool water
2 teaspoons of corn starch
Chicken Primavera Ingredients:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast, sliced into strips
seasoned salt
black pepper
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2 cups of pasta (small shells, macaroni, etc.)
1 – 16 ounce bag of frozen mixed vegetables
enough water to cook the pasta
First, make the Alfredo sauce:
Put the tea kettle on to boil your 1 1/2 cups of water first. You will need your blender. Take your 1 cup of cashews and grind them into a fine powder. You can do this in the blender, but I like to grind them in a coffee grinder that I use specifically food and spices.
Finely Ground Cashews
It’s easier if you grind them in batches if you’re using the coffee grinder. Once they are finely ground, put the cashews in the blender. (If you’re grinding them up in the blender, put the cashews in blender and process them until they are finely ground before adding any other ingredients.) Add the lemon, garlic, salt, black pepper, nutritional yeast, nutmeg, paprika, sage, and the boiling water in the blender with the cashews. Put the cover on the blender and blend until smooth. Let it blend for a while, the smoother the better.
Once you think it’s blended enough, pour the mixture into a sauce pan, and put it on medium low. Add the Earth Balance and let it melt into the mixture, while you mix the cornstarch and 2 teaspoons of cool water together in a small container. Once the Earth Balance is melted, stir the mixture to incorporate the Earth Balance and then pour in the cornstarch mixture, while continually stirring (if you don’t stir continuously, you’ll have lumps). Put the sauce on the back burner on the lowest setting while you get everything else ready.
Alfredo Sauce
Now it’s time to cook the chicken. Slice the chicken breast into strips if you haven’t already done so, and season them with the seasoned salt and pepper (just sprinkle some over it). Put the canola oil in a skillet and turn the burner onto medium high. Put the chicken into the pan but don’t crowd the pieces.
Chicken properly spaced in frypan
Sear the chicken so you get a nice golden brown on the outside, and make sure your pieces get cooked without being overcooked. Easy for me to say right? I prefer to use dark meat, because it’s really hard to over cook dark meat, and because I like it better. But, since my husband likes the breast meat, and I got a wicked deal on some chicken breast, that’s what we’re using here. However, next time I’d probably use boneless chicken thighs. Anyway, the picture below shows what you’re trying to get for a nicely seared outside, as it’ll add flavor to the dish.
Properly Seared Chicken
Put the chicken aside once it is cooked.
Now we need to cook the pasta and vegetables. Using a large pan, put enough water in to cook 2 cups of pasta, and a couple of dashes of salt. Bring the water to a boil, and add the two cups of pasta to the water. When the pasta is almost ready but not quite tender enough to be considered done, pour the bag of frozen mixed vegetables into the pan with the pasta.
Pasta and Vegetables Cooking
Bring the water back to a boil and let it cook for two or three minutes after that. Once the vegetables are done, the pasta should also be ready. Drain the water.
Spoon some of the pasta and vegetables onto a plate, and place some chicken on top of the pasta and vegetables.
Chicken, Pasta and Vegetables on a plate
Then ladle some of the Alfredo sauce over your chicken, pasta and vegetables. And Voila! Yay Alfredo Sauce!!
Detailed cleaning, for those times before company is coming over — or your mother is visiting. Get out your old pillowcases or t-shirts. We’re cleaning screens and polishing your furniture.
Screens. If you have a TV from this century, it has some weird plastic-y screen, not a glass one. Which means, given that it’s a specialty material, and there are specialty cleaners. They sell for $9 or more a bottle, which is wicked expensive, and they are pretty much alcohol and water. So, maybe make your own? I find that this also works great on all the surfaces of my laptop. I’ve tried a variety of things, but nothing beats the Crunch Betty recipe I liked — equal parts distilled water and rubbing alcohol. That’s it. That’s all. It’s that easy. Mix it in a spray bottle, if you have one, but in a pinch, a jam jar works, too. Just shake it, wet your cloth, and wipe.
Wood. I use the following mix, again in a spray bottle if you have one, but a jam jar works in a pinch. This recipe makes 16 oz., so adjust according to the size of your container.
2 teaspoons olive oil
20 drops of lemon juice or lemon essential oil (I’ve only used juice in this, about 1/4 teaspoon)
1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
Distilled water, about 1 1/2 cups
Shake before using, spray on a cloth, and rub until dry. This actually works best if you remove heavy dust first — I use an electrostatic duster first, and then polish my wood furniture with this.
Oh, oatmeal, you’re not pretty, but you are oh so good.
Breakfast is, as people love to say, the most important meal of the day. It also takes place before I’m fully awake. Basically, I feel way more awesome each day if I eat breakfast. But if breakfast isn’t stupid easy — I’m talking pretty much fireproof — I put it off, start work, and wonder why I’m falling asleep cranky at 10 am.
So oatmeal is a great breakfast. But making it from scratch is more than I’m capable of in the mornings. And instant oatmeal is good in a pinch, but rather lacking overall. The solution is overnight oatmeal.
This is more of a concept than a recipe, but I’ll give you my favorite options and some other ideas.
Basic Overnight Oatmeal
Mix equal parts regular (not instant) oats and non-dairy milk in saucepan or spill-proof, microwave-safe travel container. Then add another 1-2 Tablespoons of non-dairy milk — more if you like thin oatmeal, less if you like it thick. Put in fridge overnight. In morning, heat up. Eat.
It may take you a little testing to figure out how much oatmeal you need for a good breakfast. For me, 1/3 cup oatmeal works pretty well, so long as I add some nuts and fruit. Here are a few of my favorite recipes:
Perfect Oatmeal
1/3 cup steel-cut oats
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 teaspoon good cinnamon*
1 teaspoon maple sugar or maple syrup
1 Tablespoon almond flour or ground almonds
2 Tablespoons dried cherries (you could chop these, but I leave them whole)
Mix all ingredients in a leak-proof container, throw in bag on the way out the door, and microwave at work. 2-3 minutes on high works for most microwaves. Perfect.
*A note on cinnamon — there are actually a ton of varieties of cinnamon. If you’ve never experimented with them, oatmeal is a PERFECT canvas. My personal favorite for this is China Tung Hing cinnamon.
Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal
1/2 cup oats, not instant
1 1/2 Tablespoons canned pumpkin
2 teaspoons rice protein powder or ground nuts
1 Tablespoon dried cranberries
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 Tablespoon mini allergen-free chocolate chips (optional)
1 teaspoon ground flax (optional)
1 teaspoon unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
To this one, I add a palmful of walnuts right before heating.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Oatmeal
Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Oatmeal
1/3 cup steel cut oatmeal
1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons golden raisins
2/3 cup rice milk
This one takes a little longer to cook in the morning, because of the steel-cut oats, but the texture is great.
The possibilities are endless, honestly. Let us know what you come up with.
This is a dishrag, with a Dalek knitted into it. You won’t use it to do laundry, but you might need to wash it eventually. Here’s how.
WASH CYCLE
And another thing, you can’t buy laundry soap without coconut in it either. (To get a list of coconut derivatives, go here, thanks to Becky at the Allergic to Coconut? blog.) Since I decided I wanted to try cutting out any coconut derivatives that touch my skin, laundry soap was a target too.
1 Kiss My Face Pure Olive Oil Soap – 8 oz bar, grated (I grated it in my food processor, dumped it out, put the blade in, put it back in the food processor and pulverized it some more. Doesn’t take as long to dissolve in the water this way. Make sure you clean your food processor really well afterwards.)
Grate Kiss My Face Soap. Place in container with borax and washing soda and mix thoroughly. Use 2 Tablespoons per load. A tablespoon of the laundry detergent
DRY CYCLE
For the dryer, dryer sheets are loaded with chemicals and waxes, and aren’t great for people with sensitive skin. Let’s assume coconut is a common base ingredient here like it is everywhere else. What can you do?
You can make your own felted wool dryer balls to use in place of fabric softener, or you can buy them or use the plastic ones. Amazon has both here.
Also magical? Balls of foil. Don’t you love a cheap fix? Or use vinegar. This, or a cup or so in the rinse cycle, if you’re good at paying attention, both do wonders for static.
Now, neither of us has tried soap nuts, and Denise isn’t sure if they are potentially cross-reactive with coconut/palm (anyone know?), but they’re another potential alternative out there. Anyone tried this?
Sorry. We can’t help you with folding. But Martha can:
I’ve been working on this recipe a while and this is another one of my fire breather recipes. This is really, really spicy chili. If you don’t want really, really spicy chili, I’ll make notes about how to turn it down a notch, and how to turn it down 10 notches (*see asterisk below ingredients), just in case you all don’t have stomachs lined with asbestos. Also, in case your stomach is lined with asbestos, I’ll give you notes about how to take it up to super octane, the way I make it when my husband and I are not sharing with others (**see double asterisks below ingredients, I will also note the Scoville units for each pepper so you can decide what to leave in and what to leave out if you wish). I like the cocoa powder in it because it gives the sauce a richer feel and color. Also, be aware that this recipe makes about 3 quarts of chili. It freezes incredibly well, so we freeze it in single serve containers and then just take one out and bring it to work to nuke for lunch. The pictures show me making a double batch, because it’s a bit more work than I like to do to make it, so I do it once and put the rest in our chest freezer until we want to eat it.
It’s Winter, Warm Yourself Up Chili
1 lb bags of small red beans (or kidney beans or any other bean of your choice. Mix it up!)
1 Tablespoon of Epazote (Mexican herb used in bean dishes to reduce gas, you can skip this if you don’t have any on hand. It doesn’t have much flavor, think dried parsley.)
1 whole dried red chipotle pepper – 15,000 Scoville units (omit or use a quarter teaspoon of ground chipotle instead if worried about spice)
1/2 of a dried Guajillo pepper -6,000 Scoville units (omit if worried about spice)
1/2 of a dried Ancho chili pepper – 3,000 Scoville units (omit or use a quarter teaspoon of ground ancho instead if worried about spice)
1 whole dried Cascabel chili pepper – 11,000 Scoville units (omit if worried about spice)
1 lb package of ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
2-3 stalks of celery, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon of canola oil
1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
1/2 of a green bell pepper, seeded and chopped – 0 Scoville units (the other half you can just throw in a freezer ziploc bag and put in the freezer to use for next time, I don’t even bother to chop it up first and peppers freeze beautifully whole)
1/2 of a red bell pepper, seeded and chopped – 0 Scoville units
1/4 of a Habanero pepper, seeded and diced into very, very small pieces – 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units (USE RUBBER GLOVES to chop and seed or you may be very, very sorry. Ask me how I know, and how long it took my hands to stop burning the time I was dumb enough not to wear gloves. Pop the rest in the freezer in a ziploc for next time. Also, omit entirely if you are worried about spice)
3 Tablespoons of chili powder (I used Penzey’s Hot Chili Powder, but you could use regular chili powder and knock it back to 2 Tablespoons)
1 1/2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt, or to taste.
*How to turn it down 10 notches – If you can’t eat anything with spice, omit all the peppers except for the red and green bell pepper, and the chili powder, and knock the chili powder back to 2 Tablespoons.
**How to turn it up to super octane – To your dried peppers, add the following: 1 whole dried Dundicut chili pepper -60,000 Scoville units; 1 whole dried Piquin chili pepper – 70,000 Scoville units; and 1 whole dried Sanaam chili pepper – 40,000 Scoville units; use the entire Guajillo and Ancho dried peppers instead of half, and use the whole Habanero. Add Sriracha sauce – 2200 Scoville units, to taste after cooking. Seriously, this is a really, really beyond hot chili, and is not for casual consumption.
Choose one of the two methods below to re-hydrate your beans.
Overnight soaking method: Sort through the beans, looking for rocks (yes, it’s happened), other things that are not beans, and any discolored beans and hulls, and remove them. Wash the beans in a colander, and put them in a stock pot (the one I use is an 8 quart size), with enough water to cover beans by 2 inches. Let soak overnight or at least 6 to 8 hours.
Beans after Overnight Soak Method
Quick soak method: Again, sort and wash the beans as described above. Put the beans in a stock pot (the one I use is an 8 quart size), with enough water to cover beans by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, then boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for an hour.
If you used the overnight soak, drain the beans out in a colander, and rinse them and the stock pot. Put the beans back in the stock pot, with enough water to cover and the epazote, and cook on medium low, mixing occasionally and adding water as needed, until the beans are tender and the skins split. If you used the quick soak method, make sure there’s enough water in the pot, add the epazote and cook on medium low, mixing occasionally and adding water as needed, until the beans are tender and the skins split.
Beans and Epazote at beginning of cooking process
While the beans are cooking you need to re-hydrate your dried peppers. Take the stems off, remove the seeds, and cut them into small pieces, putting them in a microwave safe container. I used kitchen shears to cut them into pieces. Add about a quarter cup of water to the container and nuke it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes to re-hydrate them a bit. Set them aside.
Dried Peppers before chopping and re-hydratingDried Peppers after re-hydrating
In a frypan, brown and drain your ground beef, drain off the fat and discard it, and set the ground beef aside.
Browned Ground Beef
In another frypan, or the same one if you moved your beef to another container, saute onions, celery and garlic in the canola oil until they are translucent.
Onions, Celery and Garlic after sauteing
Your beans will be ready when they look like this:
Properly Cooked Beans
Once the beans are ready, add the ground beef, and the onion, celery and garlic mixture to the pot, scraping down carefully. Then add your re-hydrated dried peppers, the diced tomatoes (do not drain), the Habanero, red and green bell peppers, the chili powder and the cocoa powder. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Simmer for about an hour and a half, stirring occasionally. When chili is cooked, taste and add salt as necessary.
Here, look at this pretty photo of Star Island’s research center, as my bathtub isn’t that exciting.
Why not start the cleaning series with the deep cleaning of scrubbing? This is a method more than a recipe, and works on bathtubs as well as kitchen and bathroom sinks.
Now if you do some searching online, you will find lots of recipes to make scrubs for this purpose. I’ve tried a few, but I’ve found my method to be just as effective, and more importantly, a little easier.
Sinks and Tubs
You need the following:
a cleaning cloth or sponge (I prefer terrycloth washrags)
baking soda
castille or other liquid soap, scented with essential oils if you like
water
a dirty sink or bathtub
Wet the bathtub. I do this by turning the shower on for a minute.
lightly sprinkled tub
Sprinkle the tub with baking soda. I have a large plastic container once used for a massive quantity of Italian Seasoning that I got from a recycling bin. It’s perfect for this.
baking soda sprinkler
Wet your cloth, and add a tablespoon or so of castille soap.
Scrub.
sink being scrubbed
Rinse.
It really is that easy. This make take a bit more rinsing than your commercial cleansers do, but any residue left on your sink or tub is non-toxic. If you have kids who use your bathtub or pets who like to lick the water out of the tub, you don’t need to worry.
Toilets
This method also works for toilets, just using your toilet brush instead of your cloth. Here, I do add a few drops of essential oil for freshening up, but it’s not necessary.
Alternately, sprinkle your toilet bowl with baking soda and add about a cup of white vinegar. Let it foam, then scrub with your toilet brush.
Now, I am aware that this cleaning method doesn’t likely have the germ and microbe killing powers of, say, bleach. But I don’t feel the need to fully disinfect the toilet — I don’t eat out of it — and cleaning it will get rid of most of the bacteria.
Drains
Now, since I have everything out anyway, I usually treat the drains at this time, too. This will not remove a clog in your drain, but it will keep things moving along in a reasonable manner.
For sinks, dump about 1/4 cup of baking soda down the drain. Then slowly pour a cup or so of white vinegar down after it. I usually don’t measure the vinegar — I just pour slowly until it stops foaming in a satisfying manner. Don’t use the sink/drain for 30 minutes or so, to let the vinegar/baking soda volcano do its work throughout. (To be honest, I don’t know if this is necessary or even useful, but it sounds like a good idea and I use it as an excuse to take a break from cleaning.)
For extra drain clog-monster banishing power, follow this with a pot or kettle full of boiling water.
For the skeptics, I do not have a garbage disposal, so bits of food do go directly down my kitchen drain. I do this treatment every 3 to 4 months. In 5 years, I have never needed a chemical drain cleaner on my kitchen sink, which is good, because have you read the warnings on those? They’re scary.
So this is a very simple and cheap way of cleaning that is also allergen-friendly and environmentally-friendly. Got any tips you’d like to share?
When Denise and I sat down to discuss things we needed to learn to make, things we could not longer eat “normal” versions of, one of the things that popped to the top of the list was what my college roommate called “bar food” — fried foods that tasted great and had little or no nutritional value. I can still have french fries, which are my favorite of the genre, but Denise missed mozzarella sticks (to the point that I had dreams about them – D).
As anyone who is vegan, allergic to milk, lactose-intolerant knows, cheese is one of the harder flavors to replicate without actual dairy products. Many have tried, but the majority of “non-dairy” cheeses on the market actually contain some dairy, and therefore aren’t suitable for anyone vegan or with allergies. There is nothing on the market that really would work for a fried cheese product.
But we do have the wonder of Joanne Stepaniak’s The Uncheese Cookbook, which has an amazing variety of cheesy flavors (including the basis for the nacho cheese used in the Happy Layers Nacho Dip). We figured that if we made the mozzarella recipe, made sure it was structurally sound enough to batter and fry, and then figured out a breading, we’d be set. Easy, right?
Not exactly. We had no problems with the cheez, though we made three or four recipes before determining which worked best, and tried several different “egg wash” and breading options, too, before determining which worked best. But even our less perfect attempts were edible, and we’ve shared these with regular omnivorous eaters, and while they wouldn’t mistake them for mozzarella sticks, they did enjoy them. This recipe was our first resounding success, and it’s kept us going for a while.
This is NOT an every day recipe! And frankly, given that it’s fried “cheez,” it really shouldn’t be anyway. There is preparation involved, and then deep frying, but they taste good at room temperature and could easily be re-warmed or kept warm in a low oven.
Before we get started, you will need the proper equipment. You decide how much you can fudge this stuff, but remember you’ll be playing with oil.
For making cheez:
2 qt. saucepan
whisk
silicone ice cube trays or molds with a capacity of about 1 Tablespoon each (cubes are approximately 1 inch square)
plastic wrap
freezer space so they can set
For the frying:
pot deep enough to accommodate about 3 inches of oil and the frying thermometer, a thick stainless steel or a enameled dutch oven would be best. You also want a pot that’s tall enough that the edge is 2 or more inches above the oil level. It’s safer and there’s less splatter all around. The pot we used was 5 inches tall and about 8 inches across. We do not recommend using anything with Teflon or nonstick coatings. Of course, if you have an actual deep fryer appliance, use that.
For recapturing the oil for re-use (with proper care, you can use this oil at least 6 times)
Mason jars
coffee filters
funnel
Ingredients, all in one list:
2 cups rice milk
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
7 Tablespoons oat flour (if you can’t get gluten free certified oat flour, grind gluten free certified rolled oats in a blender, food processor or coffee grinder until you have flour)
¼ cup tahini
¼ cup cornstarch
4 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer powder
1/2 cup warm rice milk
one loaf of white rice bread, turned into bread crumbs, or about 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs
a large jug of canola oil, for frying
marinara or tomato sauce for dipping (optional)
Miraculous Cheez Nuggets
There are two things you need to do in advance — make the cheez and make the bread crumbs. You could buy bread crumbs, but it may be easier to make your own and control the bread. For gluten-free bread crumbs, we suggest either Ener-G White Rice Bread or Food for Life White Rice Bread. In my opinion (MK), neither one is a fantastic sandwich bread, but the white rice breads do make excellent bread crumbs for frying.
For either one, lay the slices out on the oven rack and bake for about 2 hours at 200°F. Let cool completely, and then put through the food processor. You won’t use the whole loaf’s worth of crumbs, but why not keep the rest on hand? They keep well in a plastic bag or other sealed container.
Make cheez:
Place the following ingredients in the saucepan:
2 cups rice milk
½ cup nutritional yeast flakes
7 Tablespoons oat flour (if you can’t get gluten free certified oat flour, grind gluten free certified rolled oats in a blender, food processor or coffee grinder until you have flour)
¼ cup tahini
¼ cup cornstarch
4 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Whisk all ingredients together until well combined.
Cheez Ingredients mixed before heating
Cook over medium-low heat, whisking occasionally until mixture starts to thicken. Turn heat to low, whisk constantly until mixture starts to pull together and away from sides of pan.
Cheez after cooking
Spoon into silicone molds or ice cube trays, approximately 1 tablespoon per cube. Try your best to smooth out the tops.
Cheez in Silicone Ice Cube Trays
Cool in fridge. Then cover with plastic wrap and freeze the cheez over night. The cheez must be frozen to hold up to frying without becoming a really nasty mess. The last batch we made we had intended to fry the the next day but couldn’t, so the cheez was in the freezer for a week or so with no ill effect. To save time, you could keep some cheez made ahead of time in the freezer and then just bread and fry when you want some.
Frying Fun!
Fill the frying pot (described above) with about 3 inches of canola oil, and put your frying thermometer in place. Start heat over medium-low and aim for 360ºF.
Frying Set Up
While waiting for your oil to heat, you will bread your cheez. Make an “egg” mix by mixing the following:
2 Tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer powder
1/2 cup warm rice milk
Place egg mix in a deep enough container or bowl that you can dip the cheez nuggets in it and coat them easily. Place bread crumbs in a low flat container so that you can easily roll the nuggets to coat them in the bread crumbs.
Remove cheez nuggets from silicone molds. One at a time, dip nuggets in egg mix, then in bread crumbs. Place on a tray to until you are ready to fry them.
Coating Cheez in Bread CrumbsCheez Nugget Coated in Bread CrumbsTray of Breaded Cheez Nuggets
Fry them! Drop nuggets (gently!) in the hot oil and then cover the pot with the splatter screen.
Putting Cheez Nuggets into OilCheez Nuggets FryingUsing Splatter Screen
Our pot was about 8 inches in diameter, with 3 inches of oil, and we could fry 5 nuggets at a time. Each batch took approximately 5 minutes with the starting oil temperature at 360-370ºF. We were able to test the interior temperature (remember, these will still be frozen when you drop them in the oil) with the probe thermometer — anything over 70ºF is good (take a nugget out of the oil and test it on a plate. DO NOT TRY TO PROBE A NUGGET WHILE FRYING). You can also just cut one open and feel it.
Blurry Photo of using Probe Thermometer
If you put too many nuggets in the oil at once, you will drop the temperature too far down (don’t go below 330ºF), and you won’t get a golden brown outside with a warm cheezy center. If your oil drops more than 15 degrees, put fewer nuggets in the next time around. You can also adjust your stove temperature to try to keep the oil temperature consistent.
When the nuggets are done, lay them on the cookie sheet that you’ve prepared — cover the cookie sheet with paper towels and lay your cooling rack upside down on the paper towels. The fried nuggets will be kept up off the paper towels, and the towels will draw the oil down. These nuggets are NOT greasy if you’re doing all this right, and they are wonderful.
Taking out Cheeze Nuggets to Put on RackCheez Nuggets on Rack
Serve while still warm, with marinara if you so wish.
You can freeze any leftovers, but reheat them low and slow — 250ºF for about 30 minutes seems to work. We only tested reheating them once, though, so if you do it, let us know how it goes!
