Two for Tuesday: GF Cheese Rolls; Snow Peapods

Both of these recipes come to me via Christopher Robin, who knows my google-fu skills are weak. I have no where she originally found them.

Sweet Tiff from co-op was kind enough to bring me a bag of tapioca starch (same thing as tapioca flour). That saves me from hunting it down at the grocery store!

GF Cheese Rolls....better known as

 Brazilian Cheese Bread

                                                                      ...who knew?

Simple and gluten-free Brazilian cheese bread, or Pão de Queijo, made with tapioca flour, milk, eggs, olive oil, and cheese.

The recipe as presented is fairly basic. Feel free to dress it up a bit with herbs or spices of your choice.
•    Prep time: 5 minutes
•    Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
•    1 egg*
•    1/3 cup olive oil
•    2/3 cup milk
•    Scant 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) tapioca flour
•    1/2 cup (packed, about 66 grams) grated cheese, your preference, though we got the best results from Mexican farmer's cheese - queso fresco
•    1 teaspoon of salt (or more to taste)
Special equipment recommended:
•    One or two mini muffin tins. Mini muffin tins are about half the size of a regular muffin pan. The muffin openings are about 1-inch deep, and 1 3/4 inch wide at the top.
*It helps when baking with eggs to start with eggs at room temperature. If you don't plan ahead (that would be me, usually) you can put the egg in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes to gently take off the chill of the fridge.

Method

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a mini-muffin tin. Put all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender so that everything gets blended well. At this point you can store the batter in the refrigerator for up to a week.

2 Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until all puffy and just lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes.

Eat while warm or save to reheat later.

Note that Brazilian cheese bread is very chewy, a lot like Japanese mochi.

Yield: Enough batter for 16 mini muffin sized cheese breads.

******

Mushrooms and Snow Pea Pods

When making this for my family on Thanksgiving, I think I will have to omit the mushrooms. I do want my children to at least try it! I'll half all the spices and broths and such to reflect the reduced volume. But what I'm posting here is the original recipe, with its original amounts.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz mushrooms, button, fresh
• 6 oz pea pods, fresh or frozen
• ½ t sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 t sherry
• 2 T chicken broth
• 2 T cooking oil

Directions: 

1. Stir fry oil and pea pods for one minute.  Add mushrooms and stir fry additional minute.
2. Add salt, sherry, and sugar, stir fry one minute.
3. Add broth, stir fry one minute.
4. Serve immediately.