This week, we examine the rise of gluten-free diets and…

🍽️ Gluten: Bad?

🍽️ Poached Salmon with Fingerling Potatoes and Vegetables

🍽️ Upgrade your plate…with slow-braised leeks!

Healthy News Dose

Do You Really Need to Avoid Gluten?

The Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology published an article on the rise of gluten-free diets, looking at whether the broader population should avoid eating gluten for health reasons.

As with many questions involving diet choices, the results aren’t perfectly clear.

The study provided a Table outlining some potential harms and benefits associated with following a gluten-free diet among non-celiac disease patients, as seen below:

I wasn’t surprised to see that store-bought gluten-free foods could be fattier than the versions that contain gluten! Which is why I prefer to bake mine FRESH! how about you?

One thing is for sure: Gluten-free diets are becoming increasingly popular, as many people have found that it reduces symptoms of bloating and abdominal pain.

This is especially true for people with IBS too!

If you are interested in experimenting more with gluten-free recipes at home, and you love baking breads, check out our latest Gluten-Free Sourdough Hardback Cookbook!

This will take you through the process of making your own gluten-free sourdough bread at home, including a number of never-before-seen tips and baking tricks.

The Cooking Corner

Poached Salmon with Fingerling Potatoes and Vegetables!

In this heart-healthy recipe, fresh salmon is deep-poached in seasoned vegetable stock, and served with broccoli, potatoes, and braised leeks.

The leeks take a long time to make as a side dish, and can be omitted from the recipe. But they taste great. And the slow-braising approach is fun, if you have the time.

You don’t need many ingredients, and the fish comes out cooked exactly how you like it.  You control the rate at which the fish cooks based on the temperature of the poaching liquid.

If it’s not ready, just carefully place the fish fillets back in the poaching liquid and cook them a bit more!

The following recipe provides two servings, and can be easily scaled up or down.

Ingredients: 

• 2 leeks, white and light green sections only, cut into ¾-inch sections.

• ½ teaspoon Kosher salt

• 2 teaspoons olive oil

• 1 quart vegetable stock

• 2 cups water, or enough to just cover the salmon

• 1 Tablespoon Kosher salt, or more to taste

• 6 fingerling potatoes, washed and left whole

• ½ head of broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets

• 2 fresh fillets of salmon, roughly 4 oz each, skin and pin bones removed

Instructions: 

1. Lightly salt the leeks.

2. Add the olive oil to a small sauté pan, and add the leek sections.

3. Cook the leeks sections on medium heat until the ends are lightly golden-brown, and then cover them halfway up with vegetable stock (about ¾ cup or 180 mL of stock).

4. Cook the leeks for roughly 45 minutes, or until nearly all of the liquid has reduced.

5. Flip the leeks, and add another ¾ cup of stock.

6. Cook for another 45 minutes, until the liquid has reduced down to a thick sauce consistency.

7. Remove the leeks, and pour the reduced liquid over them.

8. *If you want to add butter for a non-vegan version, this will help to create a more emulsified, smoother sauce consistency. You can also whisk in some Dijon mustard or some olive oil—at the end of the day, a “separated” sauce here isn’t a failure—it still tastes great.

9. Set aside the braised leeks aside until you are ready to serve.

10. Add the remaining vegetable stock to a sauté pan that is large enough to accommodate your salmon fillets.

11. Add an additional two cups of water, along with the Kosher salt.

12. Taste the water to ensure it has enough salt, as the salt will be used to season the vegetables and fish.

13. Add the fingerling potatoes, and bring the mixture to a boil.

14. When the potatoes are completely tender in the middle, remove them from the cooking liquid.

15. Add the broccoli to the simmering liquid, and cook for roughly six to nine minutes.

16. Remove the broccoli from the liquid when it is just barely tender in the stalk sections, and set it aside.

17. Turn the heat off from the liquid, and add a small bit of cold water slowly, until the temperature of the poaching liquid is 170˚F (about 77˚C).

18. *Use a digital thermometer here!

19. Add the prepared salmon fillets, and let them cook in the hot cooking liquid until the flesh on the inside is just barely cooked through, or about five or six minutes.

20. If you need to cook your salmon for longer, just heat the liquid up until it hits 170˚F again, and add the salmon back to the liquid.

21. When your salmon is done cooking, serve with the cooked potatoes, broccoli, and slow-braised leeks.

22. You can easily add a cooked healthy grain like quinoa or brown rice here, if you want!

Bon apetite!

Pro-Bakers Don’t Want You to Know This!

Let's dispel a myth: crafting delicious gluten-free sourdough isn't a mystical secret...

It's a science, a method that becomes infinitely simpler with the right companion by your side...

This is why I'm thrilled to unveil something extraordinary.

Imagine bread so delightful, it could bring a tear to your eye.

Picture achieving this with ease and confidence...

All through the wisdom contained in our ​NEW & IMPROVED LIMITED EDITION hardback copy of our Best-Selling Cookbook!

Chef’s Word of the Day:

Have you heard of “glutenin” and “gliadin”?

As explained by the National Institute of Health: “Storage proteins in wheat are collectively referred to as gluten, but gluten is actually an aggregate formed from two major types of protein: gliadin and glutenin. The gluten in dough is created from these proteins by mixing wheat grain flour and water.”

We learn something new every day!

Upgrade your plate…

With Slow-Braised Vegetables!

The poached salmon recipe included in this newsletter explains the methodology for slow-braising leeks. 

This slow cooking technique can be applied to a number of other vegetables, such as onions, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, or even leafy greens like kale!

For vegetables like this, simply cook them in salted vegetable stock until they are tender and the liquid has fully reduced down into your desired sauce consistency.

I’ve included a close-up photo of the slow-braised leeks for an example of how you can use the reduced vegetable stock as a quick sauce to pour over your braised vegetable.

This works especially well for alliums like leeks and onions which caramelize over long cooking periods.  This caramelization infuses into the reduced vegetable stock, giving the sauce a rich, brown color and deep flavor, reminiscent of an onion-heavy demi-glace!

And that’s all I have for right now, folks!

As always, feel free to send me your thoughts on additional topics you wanted to see included in future newsletters.

Andy G

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