Convert a Recipe to Gluten-Free- Singapore Gluten Free Food Places - Recipesupermart

Convert a Recipe to Gluten-Free- Singapore Gluten Free Food Places

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Imagine if you were told you had to give up bread. And pasta. And cookies! Here’s a statistic for you. Roughly three million people in the U.S. have to do just that. The reason? Celiac disease. Celiac is an autoimmune disorder that is triggered by eating gluten, the sticky elastic protein in wheat, rye, barley, and spelt that makes pizza dough stretchy and bagels pleasantly chewy. The cure is a gluten-free diet.

 A gluten-free diet is a diet that excludes the protein gluten. Gluten is found in grains such as wheat, barley, rye and triticale (a cross between wheat and rye).

A gluten-free diet is used to treat celiac disease. Gluten causes inflammation in the small intestines of people with celiac disease. Eating a gluten-free diet helps people with celiac disease control their signs and symptoms and prevent complications.
Initially, following a gluten-free diet may be frustrating. But with time, patience and creativity, you’ll find there are many foods that you already eat that are gluten-free and you will find substitutes for gluten-containing foods that you can enjoy.

Diet details


Switching to a gluten-free diet is a big change and, like anything new, it takes some getting used to. You may initially feel deprived by the diet’s restrictions. However, try to stay positive and focus on all the foods you can eat. You may also be pleasantly surprised to realize how many gluten-free products, such as bread and pasta, are now available. Many speciality grocery stores sell gluten-free foods. If you can’t find them in your area, check with a celiac support group or go online.

If you’re just starting with a gluten-free diet, it’s a good idea to consult a dietician who can answer your questions and offer advice about how to avoid gluten while still eating a healthy, balanced diet.

Allowed foods


Many healthy and delicious foods are naturally gluten-free:

Beans, seeds, nuts in their natural, unprocessed form
Fresh eggs
Fresh meats, fish and poultry (not breaded, batter-coated or marinated)
Fruits and vegetables
Most dairy products
It’s important to make sure that they are not processed or mixed with gluten-containing grains, additives or preservatives. Many grains and starches can be part of a gluten-free diet:

Amaranth,Arrowroot,Buckwheat.Corn and cornmeal,Flax,Gluten-free flours (rice, soy, corn, potato, bean),Hominy (corn),Millet,Quinoa,Rice,Sorghum,Soy,Tapioca,Teff
Always avoid
Avoid all food and drinks containing:

Barley (malt, malt flavoring and malt vinegar are usually made from barley),Rye,Triticale (a cross between wheat and rye),Wheat

Avoiding wheat can be challenging because wheat products go by numerous names. Consider the many types of wheat flour on supermarket shelves — bromated, enriched, phosphated, plain and self-rising. Here are other wheat products to avoid:

Bulgur,Durum flour,Farina,Graham flour,Kamut,Semolina,Spelt,Avoid unless labelled ‘gluten-free’
In general, avoid the following foods unless they’re labelled as gluten-free or made with corn, rice, soy or other gluten-free grain:

Beer,Breads,Cakes and pies,Candies,Cereals,Cookies and crackers,Croutons,French fries,Gravies,Imitation meat or seafood,Matzo,Pastas,Processed luncheon meats,Salad dressings
Sauces, including soy sauce,Seasoned rice mixes,Seasoned snack foods, such as potato and tortilla chips,Self-basting poultry,Soups and soup bases,Vegetables in sauce,Certain grains, such as oats, can be contaminated with wheat during growing and processing stages of production. For this reason, doctors and dieticians generally recommend avoiding oats unless they are specifically labelled gluten-free.

You should also be alert for other products that you eat or that could come in contact with your mouth that may contain gluten. These include:

Food additives, such as malt flavouring, modified food starch and others,Medications and vitamins that use gluten as a binding agent.
Increasing numbers of grocery stores and supermarkets are trying to make gluten-free shopping easier by stocking special products for celiac customers. (If yours does not, tell the managers — and have your friends tell them — that it would be a good idea.) Many supermarkets in North America and elsewhere publish lists of their gluten-free product online. In addition, gluten-free foods can be ordered from a variety of mail order suppliers.

Shopping List of Gluten-Free Food

PRODUCE
All fresh fruit, All fresh vegetables, Fresh herbs and spices

FATS AND OILS
Vegetable, canola and olive oils, Shortenings, Mayonnaise, Salad dressings

FROZEN FOODS
Plain frozen fruits and vegetables, Ice creams, sherbets, ices, Gluten-free frozen waffles

REFRIGERATOR SECTION
Milk, half-and-half, cream, whipping cream, Aged cheeses, Butter, Margarine, Yogurts, Cottage cheese, Sour cream, Cream cheese, Eggs,Tofu, Jello, Rice pudding, Tapioca pudding, 100% fruit juices

PACKAGES, CANS, JARS
Plain canned fruits and vegetables, Applesauce, Cranberry sauce, Canned beans and lentils, Spaghetti sauces, Canned fish (e.g., tuna, salmon, sardines), Organic packaged soups, Gluten-free pastas, Corn tortillas

SNACKS
Rice cakes, rice crackers, Soy crisps, Popcorn, Cheese puffs, Potato and corn chips, Jello, Candies, Chocolates, Dried fruits

MEAT AND FISH
All fresh beef and poultry, All fish and shellfish, Hot dogs and luncheon meats (For anything prepackaged or prewrapped, check labels for additives)

GRAINS, SEEDS, AND STARCHES
Quinoa, Rice, Buckwheat, Chickpeas, Flax, Sunflower seeds, Cornstarch, Potato starch

CONDIMENTS
Vinegars (but not malt vinegar), Mustard, Ketchup, Horseradish, Jams and jellies, Honey, Maple syrup, Relish, pickles, olives

BREAKFAST FOODS
Cream of Rice cereal, Puffed rice, puffed corn, Gluten-free cereals, Gluten-free frozen waffles

BAKING SUPPLIES
Sugar, Salt and pepper, Herbs and spices, Evaporated or condensed milk, Corn meal, Tapioca, Baking soda, Baking powder, Gluten-free flours, Baking chocolate, Cocoa

BEVERAGES
Coffee and Tea (but check the gluten-free status of flavored coffees and teas), Soft drinks, Fruit juice

NUTS AND BEANS
Dried beans and peas, Plain nuts, Peanut butter, Almond butter, Cashew butter

Play dough

Today, a lot of people have an intolerance for gluten. If you are one of those people, then you know how hard it can be to find something to eat! Yes, we can always eat fruits and veggies… but let’s be honest, we want cake!

Nowadays, there’s a lot of gluten-free mixes out there, but they aren’t cheap. Sometimes they are double or even triple the price of normal baking mixes! But it’s not the end… we are here to help! And with a cheaper solution than boxed mixes.


Introducing: The Gluten-Free Conversion Chart

You can make all of the things that you love: bread, cookies, cakes, etc. All that you have to do is replace the wheat flour in your recipe with the following ingredients: rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch and xantham gum.

Follow the chart above to figure out how much of each of the above ingredients are needed for your recipe. Remember the best gluten-free cookie recipe? We made those using this chart!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Things You Should Know:

-If the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, use 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
-If the recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking powder, use 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.
-If the recipe calls for 1 egg, use 2 eggs and decrease liquid in the recipe by 2 tablespoons.
-If the recipe calls for 2 eggs, use 3 eggs and decrease the liquid in the recipe by 2 tablespoons.
(Decrease the liquid called for in the recipe by 2 tablespoons per egg added)

Helpful Hints:

-Gluten-free baking is not as complicated as it seems. You can make your own flour mix by combining the rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch and sifting it together well. Don’t add the xantham gum to this mix. Once you have done that, add this combination as if it is wheat flour. If your recipe calls for 3 cups of wheat flour, add 3 cups of your gluten-free combination. Then add the appropriate amount of xantham gum. (see the chart above). Store the gluten-free mix just like you do flour.
-Gluten-free baked goods do not last as long as goods baked with wheat flour. If you are not going to use up everything you just baked within the next day or two, the best way to keep it fresh is to freeze it. Most baked goods freeze well.

To adapt a recipe to be gluten-free,

Learning to cook gluten-free is a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. Armed with accurate information and a hefty dash of patience, scratch cooks can adapt most recipes to gluten-free. Here are a few beginner’s tips to get you started.

There’s a little science and math involved, then you play with flavours, you follow your instincts — and then you eat.

When you bake gluten-free, you can do two things.

1) You can make up your own recipe from scratch, based on the ratios of fats to flours to liquids to eggs. (This pancake recipe came from ratios and playing with flavours.)

2) Or, you can find a recipe you love that uses gluten flours and make it your own.

Let’s talk about how to make a recipe your own.

Find a Great Recipe,how to convert any recipe to Gluten Free

The first choice is the most important one: find a good recipe.

This one might be tough — in the age of the internet, the first recipe that pops up from your search might not be a good one. It might be that the team that put it online did whatever necessary to make sure it shows up first in your search. Ever made a recipe online and blamed yourself when it turned out horribly? Don’t. It might have been poorly written.

A good recipe is written well; it has to be more than just a series of ingredients and steps. You should be able to hear the recipe writer’s voice in there, as though he or she is standing beside you, guiding you, standing back when you’re doing fine but offering suggestions when something might feel confusing. If I read a recipe that tells me to bake the cookies for 15 minutes, but doesn’t offer suggestions about the texture of the cookie or what it might look like to when it’s done? I don’t make it.

Of course, you might want to make your grandmother’s chicken pot pie or your uncle’s famous snicker doodles instead of turning to a cookbook. If it’s written in shorthand, this is a great chance to have a family gathering and watch your grandmother make that pie with gluten. Write down everything you didn’t know. Then go home and make it your own.

Choose your recipe well and you’re halfway there.

140 grams
I have written here before about the fact that many baked goods are equally good with gluten and without. It’s really about getting the ratios right. Use too much of any flour and you’re going to create an overly dense banana bread.

So let’s turn to the math.

If you weigh out 1 cup of all-purpose flour, you will get…well, it will be different for every cup. Most recipe writers prefer you measure out a cup this way: aerate your flour by whisking it well, then spoon it into the measuring cup, and then carefully scrape off any excess flour with a knife. Or, if you bake anything like I used to bake, you probably just stuck that measuring cup into the bag of flour and scooped some out. The problem is that’s a lot more flour than the recipe intended.

A few years ago, when I started to bake by weight, I asked on Twitter for people to weigh out a cup of bleached white all-purpose flour, since that’s the flour most baked goods use. The responses flooded in and they were all different — I had answers from 4.2 ounces to 5.8. It all depends on how you measure your flour.

But if you weigh your flours — the way pastry chefs do — every time you weigh out flour you will have the same amount. 140 grams will always equal 140 grams. And it turns out that most recipe use 140 grams as a standard weight for 1 cup of white all-purpose flour. You might see 125 grams sometimes. Or 130. Find the one that works for you. But in our house, we use 140.

So how do you convert a recipe from gluten flour to gluten-free? For every 1 cup of all-purpose flour you use in a recipe, use 140 grams of your favorite gluten-free flour blend. (Here is our all-purpose flour mix.)

Most of the time, that’s all you have to do. (Except with breads and pizza doughs — but that’s another story. Today, we’re talking about the baked goods most home cooks are making, like cookies, quick breads, and pies.)

Play with Flavors
If you want to convert a recipe, simply, you’re mostly done now. You need the right amount of flour and you keep everything else in the recipe the same. But I can only rarely stop there. I like to play with flours and their different flavors when I’m converting a recipe. Most times, it makes the recipe better. Here are a few that are tried and true — there’s more to baking than math, of course.

• If you’re making cornbread, throw in some corn flour with your gluten-free all-purpose flour.
• Making oatmeal cookies? Try some oat flour in the combination of flours.
• Chocolate cake or brownies? Teff flour will intensify the taste of the chocolate.

Trust Your Instincts
Once you convert the all-purpose flour to 140 grams of your flavourful gluten-free flours, then you play a little more. Does the dough feel a little dry? Try a splash of milk. Is it crumbling? Try an egg white or a whole egg. Is it missing some flavour? Try a pinch of salt. Or a little more cinnamon. And don’t forget to take note of the changes for the next time you bake it. Make that recipe yours.

It’s not good enough for a recipe to be gluten-free. It has to be good.

Go on, you can do it.

 

Here’s a Gluten,Guilt Free Recipe

Almond-Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries

Makes about 18 cookies

These recipes are crowd-tested and come from the best home cooks I know.

160 grams almond flour
20 grams coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
180 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 grams (1 cup) brown sugar
150 grams (1/2 cup) white sugar (we prefer the taste of the unbleached sugar)
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250 grams (2 1/2 cups) certified gluten-free oats
250 grams dried cherries (make sure they’re gluten-free)

Method:

Preparing to bake: Heat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combining the dry ingredients: Whisk together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a large bowl. Set aside.

Creaming the butter and sugars: Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. (You can do this by hand as well.) Using the paddle attachment, whip the butter on the lowest setting of the stand mixer until it is fluffy. Add the brown and white sugars and mix until they are thoroughly combined with the butter. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer running again, add the eggs and vanilla extract.

Finishing the dough: With the mixer running at the lowest setting, add the dry ingredients. When the flours have disappeared into the dough, add the oats and dried cherries. The dough should form a ball around the paddle of the mixer. Take off the paddle attachment and scrape the dough off it and into the bowl.  Baking the cookies: Grab a ball of dough and weigh it. You want a 60-gram ball. If you have too much dough, take some off. If you have too little, add some. After weighing a couple of balls of dough, your instincts will kick in and you won’t need to weigh them any longer. Line up 6 balls of dough in 2 evenly spaced rows on the baking sheet. Refrigerate the rest of the dough while you are baking.  Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. At that point, flatten the balls of dough a bit with the back of a spatula. Turn the baking sheet halfway in the oven. Bake the cookies until the edges are crisping, the top is browning and the centre of the cookie is still a bit soft, about another 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven.  Allow them to cool for 10 minutes on the sheet try then move them to a cooling rack. Bake the remaining cookies the same way.

 

 

Gluten Free eating in Singapore:

Singapore hasn’t caught  up as yet on the Gluten Free Bandwagon but here are a couple of choices for the hard to find places.

Sushi – It’s naturally gluten free and Singapore has lots of it! Nowhere as yet has gluten free soy sauce so be prepared to take you own or go without.

South Indian food – Little India has a bunch of South Indian eateries where you can find naturally gluten free options like dosas and uttapams. Some places do both North and South Indian food and some focus on one. Choose a completely South Indian place to reduce the risk of cross contamination; there isn’t much wheat used in South Indian cooking. TIP: Double check that your dosa/uttapam is not made in the same area/pan as any wheat breads. Also double check that it’s simply rice flour and/or chick pea flour and there is not wheat flour involved.

Hawker Centers are a fun place to hang out and people watch. They offer a few naturally gluten free options, especially if you get creative! Some of the things I got at Hawker Centers are rice or coconut rice, edamame, avocado, chilli sauce, crushed garlic, fruit and fruit juice. Many vendors have rice noodles and plain chicken too so use your own judgement on cross contamination.

Hainanese Chicken Rice is a great local dish which you can find all over Singapore. You’ll notice that vendors of this dish have chickens hanging up to show which options they offer, steamed (light coloured) and roasted (dark coloured due to the soy sauce!). The roasted version is marinated in soy sauce so choose a place that only does the steamed option and double check no soy sauce has been anywhere near it.

Nasi Lemak, also everywhere, should be naturally gluten free as it’s just coconut rice with boiled egg and spicy sauce. There are variations on this depending on where you get it so make sure nothing fried has been added and there is no soy sauce. Delicious!

Another possibility is Bak Kut Teh, a peppery pork rib soup served with rice. It’s sometimes served with dough fritters so ensure that yours isn’t!

Laksa is thick rice noodles in a rich spicy coconut broth and should be gluten free. Note that sometimes the rice noodles come from a factory that makes other noodles and the food vendors would not know this information so be cautious.

Marina Bay is a fun place to walk or run and it offers pretty views of the city. Vendors in this area sell fresh sweetcorn in a cup which you can get plain or served with butter and salt. A great gluten free snack!

Fresh fruit is available everywhere and you will more than likely find some fun fruits that are new to you. If you aren’t already familiar with durian and mangosteens definitely give them a try! You’ll find lots of opportunities to refresh yourself with delicious fresh coconut too!

A few chain restaurants in Singapore offer a gluten free menu including Chilis, Outback Steakhouse and Brussel Sprouts. I would be wary of cross contamination but use your own judgement.
Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar in Holland Village does gluten free pizza as does Pizza Capers.
The Soup Spoon is a chain in Singapore with a few locations and they offer gluten free soup!

Nandos which I know from the UK has a few restaurants in Singapore. They do gluten free options in the UK but there is no mention of gluten free options in the Singapore restaurants. Ask questions and stay away from their sauces are they are not gluten free.

A few others restaurants which claim to offer gluten free options but which are definitely not safe for celiacs (sorry!) are Real Food on Clarke Quay , Rabbit Carrot Gun, Cedele’s, House.

Fair Price, Cold Storage and I Setan are supermarkets which can be found throughout Singapore and offer some selection of gluten free products. The products are mainly from the US, UK or Australia.

If you are spending a longer time in Singapore and have a place to cook or you need a gluten free snack fix, Brown Rice Paradise shop in Tanglin Mall does a great variety of gluten free products. They carry almost anything you could want from cereal to bread to crackers to gluten free bars. The selection is fantastic but expensive as most of the products are from the US or Europe.

 

 

Here is a list of restaurants that serve Gluten Free food in Singapore.

 

  • Balanced Living

Bukit Timah
779 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 269758
6762 8029

  • The Living Cafe

3.5 star rating
$$ Live/Raw Food
Bukit Timah
779 Bukit Timah Road
Singapore 269758

  • Komala Vilas

5.0 star rating
$ Indian, Vegetarian
Little India
76-78 Serangoon Rd
Singapore 217981
6293 6980

  • PODI The Food Orchard

3.0 star rating
$$$ American
Orchard
Paragon, 290 Orchard Road
Singapore 238859
6887 5303

  • Real Food

3.5 star rating
$$ Greengrocers, Vegetarian
Clarke Quay
6 Eu Tong Seng Street
Singapore 059817
6224 4492

  • Charlie & Co Burgers

4.0 star rating
Burgers
Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
Singapore 238801

  • Onaka

4.0 star rating
$$ Wine Bars
Alexandra, Pasir Panjang
460 Alexandra Road
Singapore 119963

  • Mos Burger Tiong Bahru Plaza

3.0 star rating
$$ Japanese, Fast Food & Takeaways, Burgers
Tiong Bahru
Tiong Bahru Plaza 302 Tiong Bahru Road
Singapore 168732
6276 8221

  • Onaka

4.5 star rating
Salad
Dover
44 Rochester Park
Singapore 139248
6778 0246

 

 

 

 

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