Over the weekend, I was flipping through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1 wondering what recipe I might attempt when I checked out volume 2. The second volume is where Julia Child explains bread and pastry making. The first volume skips the whole bread thing, which is good for me, since I can’t eat bread like most people. However, bread and pastries that are gluten-free yet taste like they are made with flour are the holy grail of gluten-free cooking. Anyone who eats gluten-free wants that perfect roll, cake or flaky pastry on occasion–well, probably most of the time, since we can’t have them. I actually avoid walking past a bakery. The smell is too tempting.

As I’m reading, I realize that a marble pastry board is a must-have, so I do some careful research online. The prices can be outrageous for this seemly mundane item, afterall, we often walk on marble floors. Further research led me to shops that sell marble, glass and various other materials for beautiful walls and floors. There you can pick out your favorite color and size. The squares are thinner than the expensive marble boards that are sold through kitchen supply stores, but they are lighter. I learned that an inch thick piece of marble weighs around 100 lbs. My half-inch 18×18 version weighs around 15 pounds. Heavy enough, but still moveable. You may wonder if a marble slab is really necessary. I would never have thought so, until I lived here in California where the popular countertops are topographical white tiles with some sort of quarter inch thick black stuff between them. There is no way I’m rolling out dough on such a rough surface. There’s no way that I would get a smooth pie crust or rolled out cookie. The counter doesn’t clean very well, and the only reason I can pick up food off the counter and eat it now is because I have a steam cleaner. The tiles get rather gross, and no amount of cleaner or scrubbing gets them clean like steam.

On my excursion on Monday, I got a nice marble square for around $12 with tax. I saved $115 dollars compared to the marble pastry board offered at Williams-Sonoma. I even saved $5 plus shipping over the cheapest marble I found online.

Even Spencer can’t resist the marble board or the camera. I will have to clean it well before I use it.

The velouté sauce made with cornstarch was satisfactory, but I wanted to try the sauce with a gluten-free flour mix from Deby’s. The flour mix contains rice flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, salt and xanthan gum. The last time I made a quick sauce without adjusting the canned chicken broth as Julia states. This time I had adjusted the canned chicken broth according to her recipe–well close. I find it hard to measure carrots and celery in tablespoons. I added them by weight. The sauce has the perfect thickness. I didn’t need to boil it longer to get the thickness the cookbook said I would get. The sauce thickens before boiling and continues to thicken just a bit more where it coats a spoon and doesn’t drip. It’s also more flavorful because of the more flavorful broth. After a few tests, I recommend thickening sauces with a gluten free flour mix rather than cornstarch or arrowroot. So now I have more yummy sauce that has the correct consistency for the addition of eggs or cream.

I have used Deby’s flour mixes successfully before in cookies–the dough is edible! It also works in cakes but makes them heavy. I think the gluten-free cake flour probably works best for cakes, but I haven’t tried it yet.

This cooking project has required reading and re-reading the same sections. My curiosity about chicken led me on an Internet search to find trussing needles and string. Apparently whole chickens should be tied to cook better. Surprisingly, trussing needles aren’t readily available. I did finally find a source for various implements and rather cheaply. My roasted chickens tend to fall apart–the legs and wings fall off. Tying them together will prevent that. This cooking project requires a few items that even I don’t have in my kitchen. I could use a few more pans–specialized pans. My reading has had me pouring over Williams Sonoma and coveting a Le Creuset pot. They are beautifully brightly enameled and expensive–a must have for browning followed by slow cooking.

I expect to have needles, twine and cheese cloth in a week, which will give me time to create a plan before going to the grocery store. So far every time I have looked at a recipe, I realize that I need to go to the store–AGAIN.

Yes, you can make roux with corn starch. Perhaps you already knew this. It’s simple… just replace the corn starch equally for flour. I had no idea how it would taste. I have no comparison because I never made roux before to start a sauce. It came out too thin, but Julia has a save. I just had to cook it longer. It’s wonderful, and it uses much less cornstarch than I usually do for gravy. The creamy, buttery after taste of this sauce is divine. I remember having something like when I used to eat out (before the no gluten diet). It must be good because Spencer, the Cheetoh cat, went after it. He knocked my new Julia Child’s cookbook to the floor trying to get to the stove. He never checks out gravies.

I have two cups of white sauce (sauce velouté–translation:  velvet sauce) made with chicken stock. I left it unflavored. Who knew that salt and pepper should be added after heating? I didn’t. I added it last, but I always cooked my sauces further. With this simple sauce, I can add whatever spices I want when I want. The sauce refrigerates and freezes well, so it’s the one thing I will probably use all for myself. If the cats are lucky, maybe they will have a taste of this smooth sauce.

I actually have a sense of accomplishment after making this sauce. I have tons of cookbooks. I own more kitchen utensils than anyone I know. I have a heavy duty stand mixer and a food processor with an entire choice of disks to make anything. I even own a set of All-Clad cookware. I’m all set and have been for years, but every time I looked at those other books and read about sauces or anything else, it seemed too difficult. Julia makes it easy.

This actually coincides perfectly with my recent return to the French language. I have been working on relearning French for the past couple of weeks.

I didn’t know that butter in Europe is different from American butter until I began reading Julia Child’s cookbook. This morning I went to the grocery store to pick up fresh butter, eggs and cream–the basics for French cooking. My eggs and butter are less than fresh–well, old, really. I didn’t have any cream in the house. I also picked up some fresh, full-fat cheese. All this came to just under $30. I just bought groceries, and I am planning a trip to Costco on Monday. The most wonderful part of the trip was that I found unsalted European style butter at my nearby grocery store. The store is on the street behind my house. It’s an easy walk on most days. European butter, which I have never tasted, has 10 more calories per tablespoon than American butter. All I had was unsalted sweet butter, which works well, but may not give the preferred taste to the sauces, although I’m sure it’s fine for baking. So why the quick trip to the store? I need to test my sauce to see if eggs and cream can be folded in using cornstarch-based sauce. Flour is supposed to help the eggs go into the sauce. So I wonder if my sauce will work just as well.

Eating for most people is easy. They don’t have to think about it. I do. I have several food allergies, so I think constantly about what is in my food. I have resorted to a very simplistic diet. That’s not bad, but it is limiting. I avoid eating out. When you see the list of things that I can’t have, you will see why. And then there is the long list of things I don’t like to eat…

Here’s what I can’t eat:

gluten (that means no wheat, barley, rye or spelt)

soy

peanuts

mushrooms

What I don’t eat (don’t like or doesn’t agree with my system):

pork

shellfish

broccoli

cauliflower

garlic (must keep it to minimum)

Just these things alone eliminate lots of yummy ethnic foods. I also watch what I eat as far as calories go. I never used to when I ate bread, but I had digestive issues that kept me skinny and often had me passed out in pain on the bathroom floor. So here I am after watching Julie and Julia wondering if those delicious French recipes can be modified for my diet. I have never undertaken changing recipes. It is just too much trouble. I like to know that the recipe is going to work out. I like the tried and tested. Gluten free flours are so expensive and hard to find that I just don’t bake often. So back to Julia Childs… I love French food. I miss baguettes. So I’m out to see if I can modify the recipes for my dietary needs. I am unlikely to attempt every recipe, but in the process I hope to learn some new techniques in cooking. With all the butter, I will have to find a way to exercise more or taste the recipes and feed other people.