Help me with new wheat- and yeast-restricted diet, pretty please?

[Ondine]

I have been advised recently by the doctor that I need to severely curtail the amount of wheat in my diet, as well as yeast-based products. This is due to recently discovered food intolerances. It's not anywhere near life-threatening, but does significantly affect quality of life (bloating, skin conditions, etc).

To that end, I was wondering if anyone could help give me suggestions as to what I can have as staples. Obviously my breadmaker is going to be chugging away for the housemates now, not me. And there is only so much in the way of rice, noodles and rice/bean starch-based noodles I can stand. I have never been much of a candidate for the Atkins diet.

On a related note, I would like to ask rather sheepishly as to exactly how to cook polenta. I have done websearches and have gotten lots of different answers and just wound up terribly confused. How do I end up with those wonderful firm golden cakes, or that luscious pile of cheesy mush... I have a bottle of white truffle oil, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Many grateful thanks in advance.

[EJRothman]

I think your best bet is to go to a natural foods store and see what's out there. There are all sorts of flours and pastas that are wheat-free. Some, of course, taste better than others, but it's possible to find a good balance. Spelt pasta is delicious - I prefer it to wheat pasta - and you can also find many wheat-free bread machine recipes online that will utilize non-wheat flours such as spelt, rice, oat, soy, etc.

Best of luck.

[guajolote]

To that end, I was wondering if anyone could help give me suggestions as to what I can have as staples.

Tortillas

On a related note, I would like to ask rather sheepishly as to exactly how to cook polenta.  I have done websearches and have gotten lots of different answers and just wound up terribly confused.  How do I end up with those wonderful firm golden cakes, or  that luscious pile of cheesy mush...  I have a bottle of white truffle oil, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Buy the best corn meal you can find. Add some to a liquid of your choice (water, milk, stock). Some people start with cold liquid, some with hot. Stir like hell for about 30 minutes. Right at the end throw in some butter (or truffle oil) and cheese. If you want the firm cakes poor it into a greased pan and refrigerate. Cut into whatever shape you want (I've made heart shaped polenta using a cookie cutter). Or you can spoon it onto a plate and eat it right away.

[Alex]

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, in The Splendid Table, has the easiest recipe for polenta I've seen -- no major stirring, and just as good as the stirred variety. She recommends a cornmeal/water ratio of 1:3. I've found that that produces a very thick mush; 1:4 works better for me. Maybe it depends on the cornmeal.

Use 1 cup cornmeal, 4 cups boiling water, and ½ teaspoon salt. Get a double boiler situation set up. Put the salt and water in the top part of the boiler. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Cook, covered, for about 1½ hours, stirring a few times. (She recommends a rubber spatula to take care of the stickies.)

To serve by itself as the luscious mush, stir in unsalted butter, grated parm-reg or dry jack cheese, and/or truffle oil and eat tout suite. It's heaven with fresh corn kernels added for the last five minutes or so of cooking. I love it as a base for ratatouille (Cook's Illustrated recipe) and goat cheese, whether mushy or fried.

By far the best polenta I've ever made was with cornmeal from Zingerman's.

[maggiethecat]

Buy the best corn meal you can find. Add some to a liquid of your choice (water, milk, stock). Some people start with cold liquid, some with hot. Stir like hell for about 30 minutes. Right at the end throw in some butter (or truffle oil) and cheese. If you want the firm cakes poor it into a greased pan and refrigerate. Cut into whatever shape you want (I've made heart shaped polenta using a cookie cutter). Or you can spoon it onto a plate and eat it right away.

What guajolote said. This is the method favored by my born-in-Lucca grandmother-in-law.

However: Should you not have thirty minutes stirring time available, I recommend Barbara Kafka's method from her "Microwave Gourmet," a book I push regularly.

Nuke water, cornmeal and ssalt in a two quart souffle for 6 minutes. Stir. Cover loosely with paper towel and return to the jukebox for another 6 minutes. Add butter, white truffle oil, Gorgonzola, what have you, stir,and let rest for three minutes. I'm not sure I could tell the difference from Nonna's in a blind tasting.

As well as the cookie-cutter idea: As a two person household with GF concerns, a regular recipe for polenta is too much to consume at a sitting. I roll in into a log shape on a piece of plastic wrap, wrap tighly and refridgerate. Just cut off oval slices as needed, and sautee until crispy.

[Dave the Cook]

I'm pretty sure Russ Parsons won't mind this being repeated here, since he claims to have borrowed it from Paula Wolfert for his book How to Read a French Fry. She in turn claims to have lifted it from a package of corn meal. I think it beats even Maggie's method for ease of prep:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1 C cornmeal

1 quart water

1 T butter

1 t salt

Dump everything in the water and give it a stir. Thorough combination is neither possble nor necessary.

Put it in the oven, uncovered, for 45 to 50 minutes. Give it another good stir and return to the oven for ten more minutes.

Remove from oven and stir in accoutrements.

This makes a fluffy polenta that is perfect as a sauce mop, but really too fragile for later grilling. If you want to do the grilling thing, use 1-1/4 cups of cornmeal, and stir about 20 minutes through cooking.

You can double it (extend the first cooking to a little over an hour and the second to 15 minutes), but no further -- it'll take forever.

[Ondine]

Thank you, everyone. You've been a great help. I can see many polenta-filled vistas opening up ahead of me... And EJRothman, thanks for the tipe. I will definitely try to seek out that spelt pasta.

Cheers to all of you!

[sandra]

Once you get the hang of the cold/shaped polenta, try it for breakfast - slice off a few pieces, or cut a few pieces, heat butter in a fry pan and put in the pieces until crispy - then eat it with plenty of maple syrup all over it - yum

[sabg]

Thank you, everyone. You've been a great help.  I can see many polenta-filled vistas opening up ahead of me...   And EJRothman,  thanks for the tipe. I will definitely try to seek out that spelt pasta. 

Cheers to all of you!

i am pretty much wheat free myself and i love rice noodles and mung bean noodles. you can get some great thai recipes from the package and their websites.

good luck, i have to walk pizza shops every day with my 7 yr old.

[Alex]

Good luck with your new food quests.

One request: If you see that t-shirt again, could you beg, borrow, or steal it and send it to me?