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Dear Listmates,

I received a lot of mail regarding the Salpicon recipe I posted a few days
ago [http://tinyurl.com/2vdggw (
http://home.comcast.net/~vhdolcourt/gfbaking/<http://home.comcast.net/%7Evhdolcourt/gfbaking/>)].
A number of people already make salpicon or tabbouleh, and many use
brown rice as the grain. Some people also use millet or amaranth. One person
suggested toasted buckwheat kasha as the starting point. This is a good
choice, but the result will have a stronger flavor, and the result will be
more of a pilaf. In addition, the kasha will turn to mush unless it is
saluted first. The trick with a number of these grains is to cook the starch
before boiling the grain in water. Quinoa is one of the exceptions, and no
special preparation is required. Arguably, quinoa is the easiest.

During the past few days my wife and I have made one small batch of salpicon
de avena and one much larger batch of salpicon de quinua, the later was
brought to a birthday party on Sunday. The batch with quinoa was cooked in
full-strength chicken broth. The idea was to give the quinoa grain some
additional flavor. There was also plenty of garlic in the form of chopped
raw garlic and roasted garlic mashed into the oil and lemon/lime juice
dressing that was made with Trader Joe's garlic flavored olive oil. If this
sounds like too much garlic, the attendees at the birthday barbecue
certainly didn't think so. The quinoa salad was well consumed. But then
again, so was everything else.

Based on all of the practice making salpicon, and a mis-fire with McCann's
quick-cooking oats, I've updated the information on my salpicon page
accessible from the internet. Don't even try to use McCann's quick oats. If
you are short of time and don't want complexity, stick to the quinoa.

I also received several inquiries about McCann's and whether or not it was
gluten-free. To those people I forwarded an article from Columbia University
Medical Center. Other people told me that (1) they couldn't eat oats at all,
or (2) that they were successful only with certain brands (Gift of Nature or
Laura's) but not conventional McCann's or Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Oats.
One person advised that we all should be extremely careful in reading Bob's
Red Mill packages as Bob's offers both gluten-free and conventional oats.

Thank you to all who shared ideas and experiences.

Vic-Sunnyvale, CA

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