Tag Archive for 'Cooking'

Page 3 of 10

New Gluten-Free Resource in Portland: Dessert Labs

We’ve featured pieces of news about Dessert Labs once or twice on Gluten Free Portland. I met with them last week and talked to them about their kitchen, gluten-free food, and what they’ve been up to lately.

Dessert Labs is Joe Kalal and Karen Goetsch. Joe is the chef, and Karen handles the business side of it. Joe found out that he had celiac while living in New York, and inspired by the horrible gluten-free food he found there, decided that he could do better. He enrolled in the French Culinary Institute in New York City to learn how to be a pastry chef. Since he couldn’t eat a lot of the wheat-based treats that they learned to cook there, he found that he had to concentrate on using his sense of smell instead. To gauge flakiness, crumb, or moistness in baked goods, he would break them open.

Joe and Karen are relatively new to Portland. They came here from New York City by way of the San Francisco Bay Area. They had meant to start Dessert Labs in the Bay Area, but visited Portland in the summer of 2010 and were delighted when everything just kind of magically fell in place. Within days, they fell in love with the city, found a place to live, and found a kitchen space to work out of.

In late spring of this year, they created a Kickstarter project that raised over $2500. If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a website that is a place for creative people to find funding for their own projects. In a nutshell, a person can come up with an idea for a project, describe it on Kickstarter, and then other people can fund the project (see here for more details on how Kickstarter works). The people who fund a project generally get something out of it. In this case, Dessert Labs funders got care packages and subscriptions of gluten-free goodies. Karen and Joe set their project goal at $1000 and it didn’t take long before they passed it. When the funding doubled, they knew that they were really on to something.

What they are doing now is providing gluten-free baked goods to local cafes and restaurants. As we mentioned before, they are supplying Food Front on NW Thurman with gluten-free pies for the holidays. They also take orders for gluten-free cookies, cupcakes, bread, cakes, and pies on their website or by phone. They also told me that they are interested in taking special orders for people who would like to get a particular baked good in gluten-free form, including people who may have family recipes that need to be converted. They are vegetarian/vegan friendly.

Fortunately, they had some gluten-free treats for me to sample when I stopped by.

What we have here are some shortbread cookies, some cupcakes, and a ball of flourless chocolate cake. These were all really good and none of them had the funny aftertaste that you sometimes get with gluten-free baked goods. The flourless chocolate cake was my favorite item. Sienna and I both thought their cupcakes were really impressive. We’re both dying to know how their pies are. We’ll let you know when we have more information!

Dessert Labs – thedessertlabs.typepad.com – 347-513-5461

Published on November 17, 2010 in News. 0 Comments Tags: Cookies, Cooking, Desserts, Grocery Stores, Information, NorthWest, Portland, Vegan, Vegetarian.

Product Review: Pao Bread

Pao Bread is a Brazilian cheese bread snack that is commonly sold by street vendors. Now, thanks to Portland entrepreneur Jewelie Schultz, you can get some gluten free and much closer to home. Pao bread, known as pao de queijo in Brazil, is normally made with tapioca starch, cheese, and eggs, so Schultz didn’t have to modify the recipe to make it gluten-free. She did have to discover the right kind of cheese combination to get an authentic flavor. The product is manufactured in a dedicated gluten-free facility here in Portland.

The bread comes pre-measured into balls, frozen, and ready to bake. They take about twenty minutes to bake and are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. We got our hands on some samples courtesy of the baker herself (see our disclosure policy) and tried them out. We also gave some to a few of our friends and taste-testers. Here’s what it looks like fresh out of the oven.

After a bite…

What these totally remind me of is a snack I used to make for myself when I would get home from high school. My friends and I would get home, go to the kitchen, wrap some cheddar cheese in a wheat tortilla, and microwave it. If you microwaved it correctly, the cheese would bubble and the tortilla would be delicious. They also taste kind of like goldfish crackers, but are much more of a texture sensation. Everybody we had try them, including ourselves, thought they were good. Schultz lived in Brazil as an exchange student, and did her best to come up with a recipe that tasted authentic.

Here’s a list of the ingredients: tapioca starch, eggs, safflower oil, cheddar cheese (cultured milk, salt, enzymes, annatto (color)), Parmesan cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes), milk, water, kosher salt. The ingredient list is pretty short, and there isn’t any leavener. I was going to say that they’re pretty allergen-free until I noticed that they’ve got egg and dairy. On the minus side, the number one ingredient is tapioca starch, which we’ve discussed before, and has almost no nutritional value. Thanks to the eggs and the cheese, though, this probably isn’t as bad as a lot of the gluten-free breads out there. And hey! – We’re talking about a snack here, anyway.

And as a snack, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with something like this. They’re quick, easy to make, and kind of fun. They’re locally made, which is cool. I always like supporting local small businesses. Paobread is available at the Portland and Lake Oswego Lamb’s Markets, the Eastmoreland Market, and the Alberta Co-Op, among other places. You can also get them at the Moreland and Montavilla Farmers Markets. See their website for more details on where to buy. Here’s their website for more information.

Published on September 15, 2010 in Product Review and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: Cheese, Cooking, Local, Review, Snacks.

News Bites: Portobello Opening and FAAN Walk

Portobello Grand Opening

Vegan and gluten-free friendly restaurant, Portobello Trattoria, has been closed for a month while moving and will be hosting an opening celebration at its new location this Wednesday. See our review of Portobello, here.

Hello Peoples! We will be opening up on June 9th in our new digs at 1125 SE Division Street. It’s right on the corner of 12th and Division, in the “Banana Building”…the one with the big Andy Warhol banana inspired mural (ya’ know…like on the Velvet Underground album…anyway…). So! Come on down for din-din or a cocktail/mocktail and have a nice time with us. We’re opening around 5ish.

FAAN Walk

Reader Kristal notified us about a walk to benefit the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). The Portland Oregon walk for food allergies will happen August 28th, so mark your calendars. The location will be at Kenilworth Park, SE 34th and Holgate Blvd. More information here. Says Kristal:

This is going to be a great day for everyone who is affected by food allergies… There will be a lot of fun stuff for the kids and lots of Sponsors with booths and freebies. I am also having a donation raffle of yummy food allergy sensitive treats!!

About FAAN (from their website):

Founded in 1991 by Anne Munoz Furlong, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is the world leader in information about food allergy, a potentially life-threatening medical condition that affects approximately 12 million Americans, or one out of every 25, and is rapidly increasing in prevalence.

FAAN continues to lay the groundwork for a brighter future for those with food allergies. We work throughout the year on initiatives that will improve the quality of life for those with food allergies. Our focus is to provide advocacy and education while advancing research on behalf of those affected by food allergies and anaphylaxis.

Gluten Free Class at Hipcooks

Hipcooks will be offering their gluten-free cooking class Saturday, July 11 from 1-4pm. Check their Portland class schedule for more details. (See our review of their cooking classes here and here.)

June GIG Meeting is this Saturday

Mike & Maria Smith of Bavaria Mills Gluten Free Bakery will be presenting at this month’s Portland Metro Gluten Intolerance Group meeting this Saturday, June 12th. The GIG meetings are currently held at Legacy Emanuel Hospital – 2801 N Gantenbein Ave., Portland, OR 97227, in Conference Room 1075. More information on the Portland GIG here.

Lots of Additions to Our Restaurant Lists

We have heard from a lot of readers and restaurant owners and have added a bunch of new entries to our gluten free restaurant list and gluten-free pizza list. So if you haven’t looked at them recently, you should take a gander. Also, with each restaurant on the list, there is a place to leave your own comments. We’ve had a great response with this, and hope that more people will leave comments with their experiences.

And note that it’s become much more easy for restaurants to submit their information with our handy restaurant submission form.

Whew that’s it. Hope everybody has a great week!

Published on June 7, 2010 in Classes, Events and Portland News. 0 Comments Tags: Allergies, Classes, Cooking, Events, Hipcooks, Information, Restaurant, Vegan.

Tag Archive for 'Cooking'

Page 3 of 10