A Gluten Free Luau
As soon as I saw this Easy Hawaiian Luau Menu in Sunset Magazine I wanted to make it, all the dishes looked delicious and would give me a bit of a challenge. If I recall correctly, that was back before I went gluten free and figured out the other food intolerances I have. But, years and several intolerances later we've finally thrown a luau and made all of the delicious items on the menu.
I adapted or chose specialized ingredients for each dish to make the entire menu gluten free and to substitute for any cows milk. So here's the story of how we did it...
Char Siu-glazed Pork and Pineapple Buns
Substituted or Specialized Ingredients
Singing Dog Gluten Free Vanilla Extract for Hawaiian Vanilla Extract
Gluten Free Hoisin Sauce for Hoisin Sauce
Coconut Aminos for Soy Sauce
Homemade Gluten Free Hawaiian Sweet Rolls for Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
Papaya and Avocado Salad with Hawaiian Vanilla Vinaigrette
Substituted or Specialized Ingredients
Rice Vinegar for Champagne Vinegar
Caramelized Maui Onion Dip
Substituted or Specialized Ingredients
Plain Sheep's Milk Yogurt for Sour Cream and Buttermilk
Changes to the Preperation
Instead of using sour cream and buttermilk, we used 12 ounces of the sheep's milk yogurt.
Coconut Lime Shrimp Skewers
Specialized or Substituted Ingredients
Cooked shrimp for uncooked shrimp
Chocolate Mango Parfaits (originally Liliko'i Parfaits)
Substituted or Specialized Ingredients
Fresh Mango Puree for Passion Fruit Puree (which was impossible to find in North Seattle)
1 can Coconut Milk for Whipping Cream
Gluten Free Brownies for Brownies
1 bag Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and 3 tbsp Coconut Milk for Chocolate Sauce
Changes to the Preparation
Instead of the whipping cream, we chilled 1 can of full fat coconut milk in the fridge for about 5 hours. We followed these instructions to substitute for the whipping cream.
To make the chocolate sauce, I just melted the bag of chocolate chips with the coconut milk in a small saucepan on low heat.
We also made Horchata, which was not part of the Sunset menu. We used this recipe. Next time we will use half or less than half the amount of sugar.