Love and curiosity (or gluten-free)

Recipes: Braised chicken with roasted tomatoes, Avocado salad con balsamica

I love pasta. I love bread. And I cook with flour all the time - thickening sauces, making crusts for quiches and biscuits to eat with soup. So when my boyfriend Wayne announced he was going gluten-free, I kind of went into a spin. Was it really necessary? Was I going to have to cook one meal for him and a different one for me? Every day? Wow, that sounded like it was going to be hard.

It's true that, as a good cook and a person who loves and knows about food, you should be able to adjust your menu to the needs of the people you're cooking for. For instance, when a friend who eats a vegan diet is a guest in your home, a good cook can whip up a delicious meal that everyone will be able to eat and enjoy. It's different when the person you cook for every day makes a significant change like this. It's a good thing when love and curiosity prevail, as it did this time!

Of course I went first to the internet, and then to my cooking books, to educate myself. What exactly does gluten-free mean? And why is it necessary? What can you cook with, and what can't you use anymore? Here's what I learned, in case you're ever faced with the same challenge, or are considering it for your own diet.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is found in wheat and wheat products, and in rye and barley. Semolina, which is used to make most pastas, is a wheat product. Most breads contain wheat - the gluten in wheat is actually what makes bread doughs rise, in conjunction with yeast. All-purpose flour is made of wheat, as is whole-wheat (obviously) flour and rye flour. Couscous is wheat.

On the other hand, rice contains no gluten. Cornstarch, a common thickener in Asian food, contains no gluten. Neither do potatoes, nor do other popular grains like quinoa and cornmeal.

For those unlucky enough to have a severe intolerance to gluten, or who actually have celiac disease, any food item that might have been contaminated with minute amounts of wheat during processing can also cause trouble. But most people don't fall into that extreme category.

Some people have a moderate, or even mild, interolerance to gluten. That means they feel better when they're not eating gluten, but they don't have to worry about a complete separation from any proximity to it.

What happens if you don't stop eating gluten?

Symptoms of gluten intolerance are intestinal problems, fatigue, and inflammation. A gluten-intolerant person's immune system reacts to the gluten and causes an inflammatory attack on the small intestine, with the result that nutrients from food are no longer absorbed properly, and the functioning of the whole intestinal system in removing waste from the body is impaired. It's painful, and it leaves you nutritionally depleted. It's not a good situation.

What can and can't you cook?

I overheard an amusing conversation in Trader Joe's recently. A customer asked the clerk whether the yogurt she had chosen was gluten-free. The clerk didn't know, so they were both reading the label. Do you think yogurt has wheat, rye, or barley in it? No, of course not.  Foods that don't contain wheat, rye, or barley are automatically gluten-free. Meats, for instance, are gluten-free. So are fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. If you are buying prepared foods, then you'll have to read the label. Flour is often used as a thickener, and that has gluten. It's much better to prepare your own foods, rather than buying already prepared foods - then you know what's in them. This is true, whether or not you need to watch for gluten.

Enough about this for now. Let's cook! We'll make a fabulous gluten-free dinner, and you'll see it's much the same as we always cook. I just haven't chosen foods that involve gluten this time. Next week, I'll talk more about where you can substitute other things for wheat products, and how you can still eat pasta. Yay!!

Braised Chicken with Roasted Tomatoes

• 2 or 3 chicken thighs, or two whole legs (thigh and drumstick attached)
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 quart bag frozen roasted tomatoes (this is if you roasted your own tomatoes with garlic and fresh herbs last summer when fresh tomatoes were plentiful) or one 15-oz can fire roasted chopped tomatoes including the juice, plus 2 cloves garlic, chopped, and 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (like sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio)

Pat the chicken pieces dry and salt and pepper them.

Heat the oil in a frying pan large enough to hold all the pieces, and add the onions. Saute until the onions are opaque, then push them to the edges and add the chicken, seasoned skin side down. Brown for 5 minutes.

Turn the chicken and add the roasted tomatoes (or the canned tomatoes plus garlic and oregano). Brown the chicken on the second side and then turn the pieces over a few times to mix the tomatoes and onion around.

Add the wine and let the alcohol cook off (2 minutes). Turn the heat down to low and cover the pan. Cook covered for 40 minutes if thighs and 45 minutes if using the whole leg. Turn the pieces over now and then while they're cookin, and if the juices cook off, add a few tablespoons of water.

Serve in wide soup bowls with juices spooned over the chicken and the salad on the side.

Avocado Salad Con Balsamica

Wash two small handfuls of mixed lettuce and tear it into pieces. It's nice if you use some red lettuce or raddicchio along with the green, and perhaps a leaf or two of arugula (rocket) for taste.

Make a small vinaigrette with 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Stir or whisk until well mixed, then toss the lettuce with it. Arrange the lettuce around the edges of two small plates.

Cut a ripe avocado in half and discard the seed. Put one avocado half in the middle of each lettuce wreath, and fill the center of the avocado half partway with balsamic vinegar. Serve with a spoon and a salad fork.