Gluten Free Coconut Pie

Slice of Coconut Pie - J.Stahl

Yesterday I had a hankering for coconut pie. I decided ahead of time that I would like to test a new pie crust instead of the usual crust that I use, which was tried and true by a member of a forum I am on.

I've been hearing some great things about Elana's gluten free blog, and she's from my last city of residence in the US and in my old Celiac Support Group. Since we're transitioning over to GAPS and Paleo recipes, I figured I may as well find out if my taste buds will acclimate or not.

I don't know why I did not think to get the camera for each stage, but it probably had something to do with the boys playing around and being loud in general, and that really messes with my thinking process when I'm refereeing from the kitchen. For that, I am truly sorry.  Elana did not post how her crust looks in the process either, and this is something that I personally really benefit from when I'm learning new recipes.

The pie crust is made from the Paleo Pie Crust recipe found at Elana's Pantry. This is a relatively easy recipe in that you only need to toss everything into a food processor and it really comes together on it's own.  If I could have changed anything about this recipe, I believe I would have used my Kaiser Springform Pan instead of my IKEA Pie pan. For two reasons really - one, the pie crust only covers the bottom of the pie, and secondly, I like a nice thick coconut pie!

The Paleo Pie Crust is easy to spread if you use a spatula with a bit of pressure all the way around your pie (or spring form as the case may be!) pan. Just remember that when you cut your pie, do not use a sharp knife or you'll scratch it.  Another option is to use baking paper and you can easily lift the pie out once it's cooled, and place it onto a plate.

Since my pie recipe did ask for an unbaked pie shell, I did not pre-bake the pie crust.  I used Paula Deen's French Coconut Pie recipe and simply did not use any flour. Since our coconut does not come pre-sweetened, I added a bit more sugar to the recipe. It's not as sweet as Paula's, but I think that may be a good thing.

If you are dairy free, you can use non-dairy coconut based butter in this recipe without any hitches, and if you like, canned coconut milk is also really delicious with this recipe. I didn't do that this time since I hadn't any in our pantry. It's about time to replenish our stock.

I have not tried such a recipe egg-free, so I'm not sure if it would turn out or not if you use an egg replacement.Your best bet may be unflavored silken tofu, but I'm really not certain if it will create the same texture or not.

Do be sure to cool this as much as possible outside of your refrigerator before placing it inside to have for your dessert - if you can. Mine was so tempting that about thirty minutes after it was in the fridge, I hauled it out and cut myself a slice.  It definitely wasn't as sweet as traditional coconut pie, but it was good.

Here's wishing you a happy Sabbath!

Jennifer

What I've been reading about these past two weeks

As I'm sure you all know by now, there's been a great scandal here in the EU about horse meat appearing in foods that have specified they are 100% beef, 100% lamb or a mix of 50-50 Lamb/Beef. Including some halal foods. And depending on the sect of Islam that one is in, halal can vary as to whether horse is halal or not.
Sufficed to say, I've been watching in horror as we cannot afford kosher meat or the trip to get any, and we cannot go meat free due to our dietary needs and my celiac being so bad.  So far, none of the foods we eat have been affected, praise G-d, but it is still quite frustrating nonetheless.

While testing all of their meat products, Iceland found out that some of their meat pies are vegetarian... not 100% beef. (cue maniacal giggling from me)

... his team did not find any horse meat ... one brand of locally produced beef pie ...contained no meat at all.

... "It was labeled as beef pie, so it should be beef pie."
Yahoo News

Four new products tested positive for horse in the UK. Taco Bell and another fast food chain have been affected.

"The affected products are Birds Eye's Traditional Spaghetti Bolognese and Beef Lasagne - which the company took off shelves last week as a precaution; Brakes' Spicy Beef Skewer; Taco Bell's Ground Beef."

"Horsemeat was first discovered in January in frozen burgers on sale in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and since then traces have been discovered in processed beef products and prepared meals across the EU.
A first wave of tests ...in the UK found horsemeat in some products sold by Aldi, Co-op, Findus, Rangeland and Tesco.
Subsequent rounds of testing revealed ...some products sold by Asda, Sodexo - which supplies food to schools, care homes and the armed forces - and the Whitbread Group.
Last week Ikea withdrew a batch of frozen meatballs from sale..."
BBC News UK

Then I found this gem from Deutsche Welle:

"Food labs usually only check meat for what they suspect might be in it - a lot could pass unnoticed. Now, German researchers have come up with a single test for meat products to identify as many as 50 different animals."

"The greatest advantage of the new technology is that everything can be traced. The disadvantage: the smallest amount of contamination can be a problem."
Deutsche Welle

Then, breaking news goes out to tell us about an organic egg scandal here in Germany. Lots of farms are not doing their hens as free range or even feeding them organic, and the oversight committees only go and check in on these farms one or two times a year. That explains why sometimes my eggs were looking very anemic and not organic free range. This is so upsetting, as we are paying upwards of 2-2,50€ per package of 10 eggs. No, they do not come in a dozen here in Germany. Don't ask me why, I don't know. I guess that never caught on.

Here is the IFOAM press release. It really does not give a lot more news than what they're releasing here so far. Basically the low down is that everything is done by paper, and the FSA comes in 1 or 2 times a year to look in on the farm. They may or may not inspect closer.

"Chickens and their eggs can only be described as free-range if each animal has access to at least four square metres of space, while the description organic, or "bio" in German, requires further specific conditions."
The Local.de

"About 150 farms in Lower Saxony and 50 more in other German states are now under scrutiny."
http://www.dw.de/egg-fraud-scandal-hits-already-food-conscious-germany/a-16625982

"Joyce Moewius of the German Association of the Organic Food Industry (BÖLW) says she believes the problem has been that farms have kept too many chickens, rather than that eggs have been declared retrospectively as coming from the wrong kind of farm."
"In addition to the EU organic seal, several associations, such as Bioland, Demeter or Naturland, offer their own standards, which are above those of the EU."
Deutsche Welle

"The German state of Lower Saxony appears to be the centre of the alleged scam but Roland Herrmann, an investigating prosecutor, said that scale of the operation was "nationwide," and that anybody found guilty faces up to six months behind bars."
The Telegraph UK

"In 2012, the number of chickens kept as free-range increased by 8.9 percent and as organic -- out in the open -- by 8.7 percent. The number of chickens kept in battery farms however declined by 4.2 percent."
The Global Post UK

"Two years ago, a European Union-wide health alert was sparked when German officials said animal feed tainted with dioxin had been fed to hens and pigs, contaminating eggs, poultry meat and pork at affected farms."
BBC News UK

I'm thinking this is where the FSA has to make good on claims of oversight... rather than coming down to a farm once a year, they need to go multiple times a year, and the physical paperwork that is filled out on the farm needs to go in computers on the same day.  But, that might make too much sense for those with purely bureaucratical minds.

On top of all of this, we get news filtered through The Local.de that there are issues with milk here in Germany having carcinogens in them.

"Hundreds of farms in Lower Saxony have been banned from selling milk in the latest food scandal to hit Germany, after authorities discovered thousands of cows had been given carcinogenic animal feed."

" The source was traced back to 10,000 tonnes of a Serbian shipment of contaminated maize which found its way into animal feed delivered to 3,560 farms in Lower Saxony, including 938 dairy farms, the state's Agriculture Ministry said on Friday."
The Local.de

I never found anything on Der Spiegel or Deutsche Welle, and it never was specified if this is an organic or conventional set of farms, and whether our milk has been effected and I need to move back to the organic non-homogenized variety I was previously getting before making so much milk kefir.  (I almost need my own cow to be honest!)

In the UK, there's been an outbreak of the Schmallenberg virus again. It affects cattle of all sorts, so I expect to see that come this summer and fall, our prices for lamb and beef has gone up, as well as woolen items.

"Cases of Schmallenberg have now been reported in all the counties of England and Wales, and in Northern Ireland.
Scottish farmers are on alert for the disease, which is carried by midges.
Some farms have suffered heavy losses of newborn lambs during the winter lambing season.
The latest figures from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency show the virus has been detected on 1,531 farms, in cattle, sheep, alpacas and goats."
BBC News UK

In other news, Belgian opinion on the Seralini study differs from that of the ESFA, A GMO Poll (US) Finds Huge Majority Say Foods Should Be Labeled, Nigella Lawson will be doing a live video chat (Google Hangout), NBC is casting for "Food Fighters", a reality tv series.  Hawaii and Vermont made historic GMO Labelling progress, and Sygenta was charged for covering up cattle death due to GMO feed. There was an interesting news article that states: "Buying Local and Organic? You're Still Eating Plastic Chemicals" - wow... not sure how to process that one actually...

Someone had posted a link to the EWG's 2011 Meat Eater's Guide, which looks quite interesting. It seems we're doing OK with our levels of beef consumption, fish consumption and how little we eat lamb. Some of it doesn't apply since we're mostly grain free.

Doctor Mercola has a great article on the benefits of Coconut Oil, which reminded me to go and buy two more containers of organic coconut oil yesterday. So, thank you Dr Mercola for reminding me I was out of it before I started another batch of bone broth!!

And I found this hilarious (in a laugh so I don't cry kind of way) image posted to the Take Back Food community on Google+. What is so sad is, this is the truth for the US market.

Just in time for St Paddy's I saw this recipe for Paleo Spinach Tortillas posted to a community on Google Plus. They are gluten, dairy, corn and egg free. Thank G-d I finally found a tortilla press!!

Then someone posted a link to sushi made with quinoa. I had never thought to do that, but that would be great if you are on a paleo diet.

Today, I found this gem listed as free for kindle:

Also, I found a wonderful new idea for swift smoothie making and in addition to all of this, I've been working to get my own Pinterest feed up, begin tweeting again, I'm taking a Psychology course and all of my books are here finally, as well as helping out in a couple Google Plus Communities. I'm also trying to learn how to more effectively post recipes once I have my own to share on the blog. For now, I'll just keep to sharing recipe pairings from the blogs I've got mentioned in my blog list and from the cookbooks that I mentioned in a previous post.
 

What have you all been reading about this week?
  

Some ideas for GAPS compliant Breakfast and Lunch

I've been thinking long and hard about posting, and this was meant to go up yesterday, but time got away from me. I ended up being almost late to Yoga while preparing another post, and then was too tired to try and get it together yesterday afternoon.  So, here we are today, after a long day of appointments and shopping - and I'm posting about yesterday's breakfast and lunch.

 

For breakfast, yesterday and today,  I had some fruit salad. It is complaint for the Full Gaps Diet only if you leave out the Maraschino Cherries.  I wasn't about to do that in the middle of making it yesterday, but I will in future. For now, My fruit salad has the  sugar-soaked cherries.

The salad consists of 2 red apples, 1 green apple, 4 kiwi, a few grapes and 2 bananas. When it is in season, I will typically add strawberries and pears. There were no fresh organic pears the last time I went shopping for fruit.

The kids had their bento boxes made up, and the only thing NOT compliant was their buttered bread.  Otherwise, they had a GAPS compliant cream cheese cake (I fermented the cream that goes in it and used honey instead of sugar), meat, fruit salad and a rainbow colored egg (bought like that from the store).

I got the recipe here, and did not make the biscuit bottom, and used honey instead of sugar. When you substitute honey, use half the amount called for. 

 I just love that when you purchase boiled eggs here in Germany, that they are dyed so you can tell them apart from your other store-bought eggs. Could you imagine if you couldn't what a headache that would be??

For lunch, I had a Thai Curry Salad. It has roasted duck on top, and nuts - so only complaint for the FULL GAPS diet.  The only thing you have to change in the recipe is to use honey instead of sugar when making the sauce. Also, ours has lettuce and bamboo shoots. I do not put onions and  peppers in, as my gut does not handle either of those raw.

 This is an absolutely lovely dish, and usually I will eat two or three of these a week if I have one in the fridge.



I wish there was more to update, but our dinner was not very GAPS Compliant (baby steps!!) and I've not been home (or eating much!) today.  When I did eat, I had breakfast - and here it is after 4pm and I had some frozen GF Pizza, because that was just way easier than spending two hours doing prep with a dirty kitchen while putting away purchases etc.