The Lilac Kitchen

Daring cooks go Molecular !

2009-07-14T22:51:00.007+01:00

Until this months challenge I had never heard of molecular cuisine (sort of the science of cooking) but I am now fascinated by it, the science geek in me wants to know more plus gluten free baking has a healthy dose of chemistry to learn if you want to get your head round mixing your own flour mixes. Over the winter when there is less growing of vegs going on, and indeed less weeds to keep in check, I may well check out some of the forums on the subject.

Anyway on to the challenge. Sketchy, from Sketchy's Kitchen set us a challenge to recreate a dish from Grant Achatz, found in the Alinea cookbook - page 230. This dish looks very obscure and strange to start with and before this the only chef I'd really come across doing such things was Heston Blumenthal who has recently done a couple of wonderful and very mad programs on british TV.

The dish is basically fish pouched in butter served on beans and slices of banana. Sounds pretty basic so far doesn't it ! However then you add multiple powders, dried and ground up ingredients, things that would normally be put in a sauce to go with the fish. Many people were very thrown by this part but taking a deep breath I looked at it and realised that while there was a bunch of prep none of it was hard in and of itself. As it happened I had just started experimenting with drying and indeed grinding things to powder just a few days earlier and had just done some lemon peal which turned out to be one fo the ingredients.

In the end I did 5 powders and used four of them. We were given various ways to do the drying. A dehydrator - something I'd love to own but don't. Microwave - quick but less good flavour wise on the couple I tried or the oven on a very low heat which is what I opted for on most for mine. They they were crushed in a mortar and pestle and sieved though a fine sieve.

The powders I did were

Parsley -(bottom left) Oven was slightly better than microwave but fundamentally both taste like dried grass which is pretty much the same as shop bought dried parsley

Oregano - quite bitter tasting and I didn't use it in the end, again oven better than microwave.

Lemon peel - (bottom right) just plain peel dried, the recipe called for candied peel but I had already done the plain so that is what I used. Smelt divine and tasted like sherbet.

Red Onion - (top right) Fantastic flavour, lovely pink colour. I very tempted to do more for flavouring things

Capers - (top left) Ones in vinegar, washed and dried. Another very flavoursome one.

To make up the dish the powders were piled on the plate and then swirled. The green beans were cooked in a Beurre Monte, which is basically butter emulsified with water first. The fish was also cooked the same way. The recipe stated skate but I used Pouting which is a nice and fairly cheap white fish.

Some slices of banana were placed on the plate then green beans and finally fish. It was topped with ground dried banana flakes.

So what was it like?? Funny dry powders? Actually it was amazing. Not at all dry, partly due to the butter things were cooked in. The powders exploded flavour, well part from the parsley but even that added colour. All together the flavours worked fabulously and it got a very good reception from Tom, once he got over the fish bone he is jinked to find however hard I try!!

I really recommend trying this it is worth the faff of making the powders and they in themselves are an interesting experiment.

Weekly menu 6th to 10th July 2009

2009-07-06T14:07:00.004+01:00

I missed last week and i can't even remember why! This week's gluten free menu swap is being hosted by Gluten Free Goodness and she has picked garlic for the ingredient of the week. Fine by me we use it every week in fact pretty much everyday. In fact I have just been given some fresh garlic and some garlic flower heads or rather bulblet clusters which you can see in the photo above. One of my neighbouring plot-holders showed me round his plot and get me a bunch of things to try including the garlic. He said it was Greek garlic and differed from normal garlic because it had these flower heads. Having looked things up a bit i think it is a form of hardnecked garlic because a) it has a hard stem and b) they have flower-heads that the more common softneck ones don't but soft neck store better which means I have to eat these ones... oh the hardship :) Next year I plan to grow a variety of types of garlic..

He also gave me globe artichokes which I love and some very fine potatoes. We also have had some great early potatoes so this week is probably rather full of them.

Monday - Globe artichokes with butter or possibly some other sauce.. i suppose I might have to make something else as not everyone likes them as much as me!

Tuesday - new potato salad with omelet for me and left over sausage rolls and cooked sausages for gluten eaters. (lady Christl potatoes)

Wednesday - oven roasted chops with diced, roasted potatoes with garlic. ( Red Duke of York Potatoes)

Thursday - Some sort of veggy quiche as I want to try a new pastry recipe.

Friday - Fish of some sort depends on what is available and the vegs we get.

Baking - Probably some muffins, maybe some gooseberry curd tarts as I quite fancy that idea.

From the allotment -
Potatoes
salad greens
last few blackcurrants
white currants
josha berries
possibly a few raspberries
possibly the first few courgettes by the end of the week.

Daring Bakers do Bakewell Tart

2009-06-27T00:59:00.007+01:00

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England. so said the beginning of the post on the forum.

It was very nice to have a British recipe this time, we do puddings very well here if I do say so myself and by pudding I mean deserts in general. OK we don't do dainty pastries as well as the French but if you are looking for a good solid pudding to really round out a meal particularly in winter we have a wonderful range and a good few that work well at an afternoon tea too.

The Bakewell tart has three parts the pastry case, a jam layer and frangipane which is a sort of almond sponge. Traditionally the jam layer is strawberry or raspberry sometimes mixed with apricot but we were encouraged to make our own jam and while I like the jams mentioned above I had a craving for a curd. I planned to make lemon curd until I opened a recipe book and saw gooseberry curd and I happened to have exactly the right amount of gooseberries left from our recent fruit picking.

Obviously the pastry needed making gluten free and the frangipane recipe had a little flour in it too. However I remembered that there was a bakewell tart in Phil Vickery's Seriously Good Gluten-Free cooking so I decided to use his recipes.

The pasty is really very nice, rather short as it is made from corn flour and rice flour, though I had to replace half the corn flour with tapioca starch when i realised I didn't have a spare bag of cornflour as I thought ! He used lime juice as the liquid which worked very well and gave the pastry a nice kick. I ended up pressing the pastry into place as rolling it kept falling apart but my kitchen as pretty hot at the time which never helps pastry. It worked however even if it was a little rustic that way.

Part baked pastry with curd ready to spread out.

For the frangipane the only real difference ingredient wise between the official recipe and Phil's for frangipane was that his had one less egg and no flour so I used that ingredient mix.

Obviously by using gooseberry curd I did lose the visual bit where you see the jam layer when you cut the tart but it tasted fantastic and the hint of lime in the pastry with the curd and sweet almond topping worked very wel indeed.

Check out the host's blogs and Daring Baker blogroll to see other versions as well as full write ups of the original recipes.

Recipes

Pastry
100g rice flour
100g cornflour (corn starch) I used 50g corn flour, 50g tapioca starch
80g butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
juice of one small lime
finely grated zest of an orange

Preheat oven to 180 C/ 350 F/ gas 4

pur the flours and sugar in a mixer, mix well, add butter and blitz till resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the lime juice and zest and bring together. Forms a soft, some what crumbly dough. Either roll out quickly or press into a 24cm pie dish about 3cm deep. ine with greastproof paper and add baking beans. Bake for 15mins till lightly coloured.

Gooseberry curd (from Preserving self-sufficiency by Carol Wilson)
makes about 1kg (2lb 3oz)

450g (1lb) green gooseberries
2 Tbsp water
110g (4oz) unsalted butter
225g (8oz) caster sugar
3 large eggs

put gooseberries and water in a heavy based saucepan with the water as is (no need to top and tail). simmer gently till very soft, around 15 mins.

Remove from heat and push the mix through a sieve, reserve the puree for in a bit.

Put butter and sugar into a bowl and place over a pan of simmering, not boiling, water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Once the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved add the gooseberry puree.

Beat the eggs lightly and add to the bowl, stir. Cook over the simmering water until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 20-30 mins.

Pour ino warmed steralised jars, cover with waxed disks and leave till cold before sealing lids tightly.

Frangipane

25g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, melted
125g (4.5oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds

oven 190 C

Put eggs and sugar in a mixer and beat till very stiff (about 15 mins on high). Pour in melted butter and mix carefully. Next fold in the ground almonds. Spread 6 tbsp of curd onto the pastry base and spoon the mixture on top. Bake for 20-25 mins or until the sponge is cooked and the pastry light brown. Cool and serve.

Muffin formula recipe

2009-06-24T00:08:00.008+01:00

Sundried Tomato and feta cheese

I have been making muffins quite a bit mostly because I've developed a formula that seems to work be they savoury or sweet. They rise well and have a great texture. I've done cheese and marmite ones, chocolate ones, various different fruits, ham and cheese and several others.

Strawberry and Apple

The formula is based on several different recipes, some gluten free, some not. One of the things I did was combine things so I had a one bowl recipe, too many use three or four bowls and frankly we have limited space for dirty washing up and I don't want piles of unnecessary washing up. plus the simpler it is the more likely I am to do it regularly

Photo got hijacked this WAS a strawberry muffin. !!

Muffin formula

1/4 cup of liquid fat (olive oil, veg oil, melted butter)
2 eggs
1/4 liquid ( I mostly use yogurt or double cream but I have used fruit juice and that worked to)
1 cup flour mix
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (for savoury)
1- 1 1/2 cups of flavouring that includes sugar for sweet versions.

Ingredients for a cheese and tomato version minus the flour.

Pick a flour mix to suit your muffin flavour, make sure there is some bulking flour and some starch but most mixes seem to work. I've used Dove Farm plain flour mix, mixed my own rice based flour, used half Dove Farm, half gram flour for cheese ones and so on.

Pre heat the oven to 200 C and line a muffin tin with cake cases.

Prep your flavouring first up to 1 1/2 cups worth, ie grate cheese, chop fruit etc. If making sweet ones I use at most 1/3 cup of sugar and many sweet fruits we find work without sugar which is great for kiddy lunchboxes.

Beat the eggs and oil together than add the liquid and mix well.

Sieve in the flour mix and baking powder, plus salt if using, into the egg mix and fold in well.

Add flavours including sugar for sweet ones and mix well.

Spoon into cases, I use 9 for large muffins, 12 for cupcake size.

Cook at 200 C for 20mins for muffins and 15 for cupcakes.
ENJOY!!

Weekly Menu 22nd to 26th June 2009

2009-06-21T17:55:00.008+01:00

Our blackcurrants last week, now they are pretty much all black.

This week I am hosting again and have chosen Blackcurrants as my ingredient. I adore blackcurrants, along with redcurrants, white currants and indeed the newest version we are growing josha berries which are a black currant and gooseberry hybrid.

The blackcurrant is grown a lot in the UK, apparently it was encouraged in world war two as it is extremely high in vitamin C. A lot is hyped about super foods here particularly fruits like blueberries and goji berries and many people seem to completely miss the blackcurrant which is just as good as either of those, as is the blackberry which our hedges will be thick with later in the year.

We have many sweets and pubbing that are blackcurrant flavoured though most of UK crop goes into one single product Ribena, which is a cordial. Blackcurrants are mostly used in puddings ie deserts but they can be used as a tart and strongly flavoured accompaniment to a savoury dish. Some people say they are too tart to eat raw but I would dispute that as would my 15 month old who i have been having to keep away from our small crop at the allotment. That should be ready to pick this week and I am hoping the pick your own farm with have them ready by next weekend along with raspberries (they had a few early ones last week).

If you have never tried them do look out for some or if you like liqueurs there is a fantastic french one called crème de cassis which is well worth trying.

My menu

Monday - Cauliflower cheese and a fresh salad from the allotment.

Tuesday - Rhubarb and carrot soup as I failed to make it last week.

Wednesday - Turkey stirfry, followed by blackcurrant fool as they should be ready by now.

Thursday - Moussaka

Friday - If the farm has some ripe ones by then or I have a few left from the allotment I want to do lamb or pork chops with a blackcurrant sauce.

The gluten free menu swap is currently hosted by Gluten Free Goodness, do pop over there and see who is next and even offer to host a week it's really easy. If you have a menu for me to mention either leave a comment here or email me at esther dot reeves at gmail dot com.

Wendy at Celiacs in the House has a 16th birthday party to cater and is doing an interesting sounding salad that was banned from the party for an adult event later in the week. Her kids sound pretty good though on what they will eat compared to many their age.

Heather at Celiac Family is having a kids choice week, sounds like her kids have some fantastic favourite meals. I'm very tempted to try her pork chops with black beans some time, I expect like her kids mine will not eat the beans but they do like chops..

Kim over at Gluten Free is Life has a lovely menu this week and it sounds like they had a great Father's day meal too.

Ginger at Fresh Ginger has a hectic sounding week and it is her first week of getting vegs from a CSA. If it is anything like our veg box I'm sure she will enjoy having a bunch of things to try. I love having things I wouldn't normally try.

Angela over at Angela's kitchen sounds like she has a packed week with all the sports and kids events she has on her schedule. She has some red currants growing in her yard which I love nearly as much as the black ones.

Menu plan 15th to 19th June 2009

2009-06-15T10:13:00.006+01:00

This week the gluten free menu swap is posted by Gluten Free Goodness and she has picked raspberries as the ingredient of the week. I LOVE raspberries but they arn't quite in yet here so we will have to wait a week or two more but we have already pencilled in going back to the pick your own farm when they are ripe and hopefully the blackcurrants will be in as well. Some of you may have spotted I said go back, that is because we spent a lovely Sunday afternoon picking strawberries, gooseberries and rhubarb at the farm. The raspberries and blackcurrents were just starting to colour so it will not be long for those now and indeed the few we have on the allotment are getting close as well.

As you can see from the picture our smallest enjoyed himself very much as did his older brother, though the picture doens't really do justice to the amount of juice he managed to get down himself!. The older one has really proved to me that getting kids involved with where food comes from really does work as he was very keen to pick rubarb but would have turned his nose up at it if I just got it from the shop.
We have also harvested our first potatoes from the allotment which were wonderful though a week or two more and I think we would have several more of edible size. These ones are Red Duke of York and were fatastic just simply boiled. In fact Noddles insisted on having the pink potatoes from the allotment for his tea and Tom said he liked them better than the ones we got from our organic veg box.

Menu

Monday - lamb chops and salad followed by rhubarb and strawberry crumble.

Tuesday - Rhubarb and carrot soup (recipe here) because it sounds to interesting not to

Wednesday - Have extra five year old coming to tea so something like pizza.

Thursday - Quail, not sure how I'm cooking them but they are in the freezer and need eating

Friday - Fish in batter with summer vegs.

Baking - Strawberry muffins, dried strawberries, bread rolls or savory muffins. Possibly Rhubarb, cinnamon and brown sugar muffins too or rhubarb and custard cake.

Daring chinese Dumplings

2009-06-15T00:58:00.005+01:00

I was extremely happy when I checked the hosting list and found out Jen from use real butter would be hosting this month. Jen is one of those bloggers I am in awe of, not only is her food to die for but her photograph skills are fantastic and her positive attitude has seen her through some very rough times but she still manages to post inspiring posts we can all learn something from.

I was even happier when I found out she had picked Chinese dumpings or pot stickers as the challenge recipe as I have been considering doing them since I saw a post she did about them ages ago but had never got round to it.. I have made a fantastic soup she posted several time though.

She even found a gluten free version for us though it used wheat starch in it which some were not convinced about. It always seems strange to me to use something that is that close to gluten as it was once part of the same grain but several companies making gluten free items over here use it so I am willing to believe it is gluten free. That said i don't have any and I DO have far too many other flours, so I have tried a different mix of flours to make my wrappers.

Filling Ingredients

I ended up making wrappers with a mix of tapioca and corn starches with brown rice flour. This is the recipe Jen suggested and in the main I followed it but I used 1/2 a cup each of Tapioca starch, cornflour(corn starch) and brown rice flour. The wrappers behaved fairly well and I really like the idea of putting between two bits of baking parchment and pressing flat with a pan it is SO much easier than rolling. They did taste a little stodgy when steamed but not unreasonably so and certainly I liked them well enough to think about trying again with a different flour combination probably a bit less tapioca (the original recipe was only 1/4 cup of that) and possibly more bulker type flour. I used a very English combination of bacon, onions and eggs for the filling but it still went very well with Jen's dipping sauce..

I also did some pot-sticker versions with strawberry inside for which the dough worked much better and I could certainly serve them again without getting complaints!.

To see other versions visit the Daring Kitchen.

recipes

Wrapper Dough (based on this recipe)

1/2 cup each of cornflour(corn starch for americans), tapioca starch and brown rice flour.
1/2 tsp salt
cup of boiling water
1 tsp oil

Mix the flours and salt together in a bowl and then add the oil and boiling water, stir together with a wooden spoon or other none heat retaining utensil (guess how I know that metal is a bad idea!). Once the dough has come together turn out onto a floured surface and kneed till it is smooth, soft but not sticky. I needed to add a bit more cornflour to stop it being sticky and I kept the knife and my fingers coated in corn flour while working with the dough.

Divide into 3, roll into 8 inch rolls and then cut into 6. You can keep them covered with plastic wrap so they don't dry out if you like.

Take a large piece of baking parchment or greaseproof paper, fold over and put one of the pieces between the sheets not too close to the fold. Press down on this with a pan.. you should get one circular wrapper.. You are aiming for 4 inches plus but be careful as to thin and you can't seal them without it breaking.
Then you need to spoon some filling into the middle, keep it small. Then fold over the rest to make a package. You are best off refering to other other recipe for this or indeed other Daring cook blogs as I didn't take any photos of this part and was very rough and ready in how I did it.

Once you have parcels either arrange on some cabbage or lettuce in a steamer and steam for about 6-7 mins or heat some oil in a pan, arrange them in a single layer in the pan, cook on each side till a bit brown (about 3 mins) then add 1/2 cup of water and cover, cook for 3 more mins on low then take off the lid and cook till the water is gone and the wrappers are browned.

Jen's dipping sauce:

2 parts soy sauce
1 part vinegar (red wine or black)
a few drops of sesame oil
chili garlic paste (optional)
minced ginger (optional)
minced garlic (optional)
minced green onion (optional)
sugar (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly (I mix by clean hand). Cover and refrigerate until ready to use (up to a day, but preferably within an hour or two).

I added the garlic and ginger from the optional bits and really liked it though I think I was a little heavy handed on the sesame for some of those in my house, next time I will make sure it is a drop or two!

Home grown salad

2009-06-09T14:01:00.003+01:00

Sorry I've not been posting much. Nothing serious just busy.

However I had to post to show you my lunch ..
My very first bowl of totally home grown salad!

Two types of lettuce, rocket, beetroot thinnings and various colours of radish. May not sound much but although we have plenty of plants apart from a few berries as yet we haven't really started harvesting anything much and the weather here has gone from very sunny to very rainy so a nice summer salad reminds me it has been sunny and hopefully will be again and the rain is good for the plants !

I'm off shortly to help at the after school cooking club Noodles goes to. Last week, which was the first one, we made fruit kababs, which they very much enjoyed making and eating.

Doughnuts - Mrs Beeton style

2009-05-29T14:12:00.005+01:00

So there I was flicking through Mrs B looking for basic biscuit recipes to make the small ones something for a picnic tea and I come across the batter section. Having been playing with various batter recipes recently I thought I'd have a look and got to her Indian Fritter recipes, which are basically jam filled doughnuts and sounded pretty simple! So I'm sure you know where this is headed..

Doughnuts or Indian Fritters based on a Mrs Beeton recipe.

3oz basic gluten free flour mix, I used Dove Farm.
pinch of salt
boiling water
3 eggs (she used 2 eggs and 2 yolks)
jam or jelly
deep fat fried oil (and pan)

Sieve the flour into a bowl and add the salt. Then stir in enough boiling water to make a stiff paste, she says a good 1/2 gill, I just added it till it was stiff but reasonably lump free. Leave to cool for a short while.

Beat the eggs in a bit at a time until smooth.

Make sure the fat is up to heat, I ended up having it quite high as it seemed to need it, she says when it is just beginning to haze as she didn't have temperature based deep fat friers!

Now comes the difficult bit she says take a half filled tablespoon, add a tsp of jam in the middle then cover with more mix to fill the spoon and then drop into the fat. I found it pretty impossible to stop the jam leaking out and deepfried burnt jam is very unpleasant! So after a couple of goes I made unfilled ones and they were great. The two below are the jam filled ones.

Cook till golden brown then drain well and roll in sugar.

They are really nice and did taste just like doughnuts, the batter itself has no sugar so you can easily decide how much you want when you cover them.

Don't do much more than a tablespoon at a time as they puff up a fair bit and I found any bigger ones were slightly under cooked in the middle.

Weekly Menu 25th to 29th May

2009-05-25T21:45:00.004+01:00

Apple and strawberry Muffin.

This week is half term for school and today was a bank holiday in England. The menu will be very fluid this week as the kids are home and we haven't firmed up exactly what we will do each day. Also I will be doing most of the cooking with the boys in tow and no other adults in the house so it is likely to be simple.

The gluten free menu plan is hosted this week by Angela's Kitchen and her chosen ingredient is avocado. i do like avocado but we don't often have them as they aren't exactly cheap.. I like them in salad and as a dip mostly.

We have been making muffins a fair bit recently and they have been going down very well. We started with corn and bacon ones, then my five year old requested apple and strawberry, made with very little sugar which worked well. I also made sun dried tomato and feta ones for the adults.Sun-dried tomato and Feta

I have a question. Years ago a muffin to me was a flat round bread like thing you cut in half and toast. Then we started getting American muffins which were like huge buns (cupcakes) normally chocolate or blueberry. However recently I've found lots of recipes for savoury ones.. so what defines a muffin and makes it different to a cupcake?

On to the menu.

Monday - went out swimming and had lunch at Nandos, very good chicken and chips so just nibbles of tea. Oh and Nandos sell fabulous pure fruit juice lollies !

four other days.

1) Gammon, pineapple, mange-tout peas, mash or chips.

2) pasta and sauce

3) Silly salad (a silly salad is one that has fruit in it not just vegs according to my five year old !)

4) scones or muffins and soup or omelets.

Yorkshire puds

2009-05-19T14:50:00.001+01:00

One of the things i've been trying to replicate without a huge amount of success is Yorkshire pudding, something that i have mentioned on the gluten free Yahoo group a few times so when Better Batter posted a recipe it was passed on to me as something to try.

Of course I did try it, that night in fact !

You can see the results above. I think next time I will lave them a minute or two more as they were still a bit soggy in the middle but I have NEVER got a Yorkshire to rise like that before. They are very good and miles better than anything else I managed to come up with.

Now I live in the UK so I can't get the Better Batter mix so I used a faux version I'd been give which is below. If I did live where it is sold I'd be seriously considering adding it to my shopping list on this recipe alone. I'd certainly be very interested to try their mix to see what the differences are.

The faux Better Batter flour blend:
4 cups Tapioca Starch
2 cups Potato Starch
1 cup potato flour (which as far as I can see is mashed potato powder)
1/4 cup xanthan gum

The mix is quite a funny texture, when they say it's like a whipped topping they arn't kidding, it was almost like marshmallow. see the picture below.Noddles thought they should have a hole in the middle like normal ones and after the first bite he said the middle tasted of potato, which i didn't really notice, but he though they were "YUMMMMY" which i agreed with.

Weekly menu 18th to 22nd May 2009

2009-05-18T19:11:00.007+01:00

Sea from Book of Yum is hosting the gluten free menu swap this week and picked zucchini as her ingredient.. we call them courgettes and I often cook with them though I don't have any currently but I do have some plants coming on well which will be planted out soon and with any luck with have lots of courgettes later this summer !

This weeks menu

Monday -beef stir fry including new season sugar snap peas and asparagus!

Tuesday - Gammon, chips and eggs because sometimes you just want comfort food.

Wednesday - something veggy based, depending on what i have left before getting the new box on thursday

Thursday - chicken breast with sun-dried tomato stuffing served with rice and greens.

Friday fish and chips as we ended up having sausage and yorkshire puds a post to come later) on Friday last week so the fish is still in the freezer.

Baking - plan to try the scones from my new book and possibly the bakewell tart or millionares shortbread.

Next Monday is a bank Holiday here in the UK (one of two in May) so I'm not sure if I will get round to posting on time. The rest of the week is half term so if I do post it will be easy, quick and kid friendly recipes !

Book Review - Seriously Good Gluten Free Cooking

2009-05-16T00:10:00.001+01:00

Seriously Good Gluten Free Cooking by Phil Vickery.
ISBN 978 1 85626 828 8

This is a new book by Phil Vickery in association with Coeliac UK. Most people in the UK will probably know Phil Vickery as he is one of our many TV chefs, probably most well known on day time TV but he has done programs on British Puddings and is generally a well known and talented chef.

I rarely buy Gluten Free cooking books, the way I see it most of them are mainly re-doing recipes I probably have elsewhere as they are most general everyday recipe type books, quite understandably as most people want everyday cooking. However with the exception of baking I can normally do any adjustments myself so why buy another book that is mostly naturally gluten free recipes as I don't struggle with those sort of dishes?

With that said why did i buy this one? Mostly because it was by a good BRITISH chef and backed by Coeliac UK. Most of the books out there are American or very basic and some of the commonly used flours etc in America are not found here easily. Also Phil Vickery is known for his love of British food and I was interested to see a proper British gluten free cookbook.

So what did I think? Well this is not a book to buy if you want specifically to learn to cook with gluten free flours and replace all those banned foods. He does do some baked products including some British classics like Bakewell tart but they are not the focus of the book. If however you are looking for a book that celebrates all the wonderful food we CAN eat this would be a great one to get. The recipes in the book are a very eclectic mix inspired by many regions of the world and in that it feels very British and there are plenty traditionally British dishes in there as well. The book is very strong on fresh ingredients and uses lots of herbs, fruit and veg, there are many really tasty sounding dishes mostly naturally gluten free, it is a really uplifting book in many ways. He does use frozen and packaged things as well where they are easier and still safe so it is quite a practical book for normal people, which is not always true of chefy books.

This is a book I would have happily bought even if it wasn't Gluten Free as there are plenty of recipes that had me thinking "Oh must try that" and in some ways that is great as it makes being gluten free feel less 'odd'. From the way the introduction is written I get the impression that is what he was after and it's a good thing. It doens't make you feel that cooking gluten free is difficult or that you will need lots of new and difficult to find ingredients and for most people I think that will be very helpful. This is a book I'd happily suggest to someone new to eating gluten free which isn't true of all gluten free cook books.

From a personal view point I would have liked a little more in the way of adaptions of gluten based recipes, I suppose I did slightly hope he'd cracked yorkshire puds and when he says in the blurb for the one bread in the book that he could write a whole book on the subject of gluten free bread my reaction was "yes please!!" Though to be fair he does do scones, various cakes and pancakes etc so the the book is not without such things and indeed probably has as many as a normal cooking book that is covering everything from breakfast to puds..

The picture at the top is of one of his breakfast dishes I did my boys for tea a couple of nights ago, salt and pepper eggs on rice waffles. The waffle mix was very good and easy to make though fairly bland on their own.. Good as a base for other things though which is the point and I had one topped with garlic soft cheese and it was very good that way. I will certainly be trying some more recipes soon. His onions rings I'm definitely trying soon and some of the salads, juices etc will be on the list for later in the year when I have the main ingredients fresh on the allotment.

In summery, really attractive, and interesting book that just happens to be gluten free !

First Daring Cooks Challenge ! - Ricotta Gnocchi

2009-05-14T00:30:00.000+01:00

For those that don't know Daring Bakers now has a sister.. Daring Cooks for all those out there who prefer none baking recipes. The posting date for Daring cooks is halfway between the Baking ones to give those of us doing both more chance to manage it without going mad !

As this is the first month there could be only one set of hosts the two who started the whole thing in the first place Lis and Ivonne from La mia Cucina and cream puffs in Venice.

For our first challenge they chose Ricotta Gnocchi!

As they said" a recipe from the stunning cookbook by Judy Rodgers, named after her restaurant, The Zuni Café Cookbook."

I like this challenge, for a start with the exception of the dusting flour it's naturally gluten free, secondly I have been meaning to try Gnocchi for ages, you see I never even heard of the potato sort before I went gluten free and all the pre-made ones have wheat flour in them so I've never had gnocchi at all but had been wanting to have a go at them for a good while now and I'd never even heard of ricotta gnocchi till we were presented with the recipe !

This was one challenge I got on with and completed within days of it being posted, before I did the Baking challenge I've already posted in fact but I have had to hang on till now to tell you all about it which was a struggle as it is a great Gluten Free dish !

I even made the ricotta myself from scratch partly so I could show my five year old what curds and whey are, he remembered the nursery rhyme without probing too and asked if that was what Miss Tuffet was eating ! He thought it was fascinating but refused to actually try the cheese. I though it was very tasty though. I got the instructions from the Daring Baker forum posted by Libby and they were very simple. I used organic milk and it was very creamy and tasty, more so than most shop bought I've tried..

Home made ricotta

5 cups milk
2 tbs lemon juice

Boil milk till foamy. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice. Let sit for 5 minutes. Strain through cheesecloth and press for several hours to remove water. Yield: 1 cup cheese.

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As for the gnoochi, the recipe as we were given it is below.

The mix was very soft but I did not find shaping the dumplings difficult though I disagree that putting them in the fridge helped firm them up I just found that it made them more sticky. The amount from this recipe made enough for three of us for two meals so one cup of cheese would be enough for one meal for us. It did however allow me to try freezing the dumplings and I am pleased to tell you that worked very well, though they needed another liberal coating of flour to be move able and to stop them sticking to the plate they defrosted on.

We had the gnoochi for two meals, once with a simple tomato, onion and bacon sauce and once on a bed of spinach with green beans and a vegetable rice dish as an accompaniment. Both were very good and others have fried them and even done sweet versions.

Pop over to the Daring Kitchen to see other versions, as this is the first month I am not sure if there is a blog roll as such yet but I am sure they will be posting something up, or you could join and start doing the challanges yourself. I know I've learnt a lot on the last couple of years doing the Daring Bakers and had a huge amount of fun and lots of great food !.

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Zuni Ricotta Gnocchi

Source: From The Zuni Café Cookbook.

Yield: Makes 40 to 48 gnocchi (serves 4 to 6)

Prep time: Step 1 will take 24 hours. Steps 2 through 4 will take approximately 1 hour.

Tips:

- If you can find it, use fresh ricotta. As Judy Rodgers advises in her recipe, there is no substitute for fresh ricotta. It may be a bit more expensive, but it's worth it.
- Do not skip the draining step. Even if the fresh ricotta doesn't look very wet, it is. Draining the ricotta will help your gnocchi tremendously.
- When shaping your gnocchi, resist the urge to over handle them. It's okay if they look a bit wrinkled or if they're not perfectly smooth.
- If you're not freezing the gnocchi for later, cook them as soon as you can. If you let them sit around too long they may become a bit sticky.
- For the variations to the challenge recipe, please see the end of the recipe.

Equipment required:

- Sieve
- Cheesecloth or paper towels
- Large mixing bowl
- Rubber spatula
- Tablespoon
- Baking dish or baking sheet
- Wax or parchment paper
- Small pot
- Large skillet
- Large pan or pot (very wide in diameter and at least 2 inches deep)

Videos that might help:

- Judy Rodgers Gnocchi Demo
- Making fresh ricotta demo
- Making ricotta gnocchi

For the gnocchi:

1 pound (454 grams/16 ounces) fresh ricotta (2 cups)
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce) unsalted butter
2 or 3 fresh sage leaves, or a few pinches of freshly grated nutmeg, or a few pinches of chopped lemon zest (all optional)
½ ounce Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated (about ¼ cup very lightly packed)
about ¼ teaspoon salt (a little more if using kosher salt)
all-purpose flour for forming the gnocchi (I used Dove Farm Gluten Free Plain flour)

Step 1 (the day before you make the gnocchi): Preparing the ricotta.

If the ricotta is too wet, your gnocchi will not form properly. In her cookbook, Judy Rodgers recommends checking the ricotta’s wetness. To test the ricotta, take a teaspoon or so and place it on a paper towel. If you notice a very large ring of dampness forming around the ricotta after a minute or so, then the ricotta is too wet. To remove some of the moisture, line a sieve with cheesecloth or paper towels and place the ricotta in the sieve. Cover it and let it drain for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can wrap the ricotta carefully in cheesecloth (2 layers) and suspend it in your refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours with a bowl underneath to catch the water that’s released. Either way, it’s recommended that you do this step the day before you plan on making the gnocchi.

Step 2 (the day you plan on eating the gnocchi): Making the gnocchi dough.

To make great gnocchi, the ricotta has to be fairly smooth. Place the drained ricotta in a large bowl and mash it as best as you can with a rubber spatula or a large spoon (it’s best to use a utensil with some flexibility here). As you mash the ricotta, if you noticed that you can still see curds, then press the ricotta through a strainer to smooth it out as much as possible.

Add the lightly beaten eggs to the mashed ricotta.

Melt the tablespoon of butter. As it melts, add in the sage if you’re using it. If not, just melt the butter and add it to the ricotta mixture.

Add in any flavouring that you’re using (i.e., nutmeg, lemon zest, etc.). If you’re not using any particular flavouring, that’s fine.

Add the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the salt.

Beat all the ingredients together very well. You should end up with a soft and fluffy batter with no streaks (everything should be mixed in very well).

Step 3: Forming the gnocchi.

Fill a small pot with water and bring to a boil. When it boils, salt the water generously and keep it at a simmer. You will use this water to test the first gnocchi that you make to ensure that it holds together and that your gnocchi batter isn’t too damp.

In a large, shallow baking dish or on a sheet pan, make a bed of all-purpose flour that’s ½ an inch deep.

With a spatula, scrape the ricotta mixture away from the sides of the bowl and form a large mass in the centre of your bowl.

Using a tablespoon, scoop up about 2 to 3 teaspoons of batter and then holding the spoon at an angle, use your finger tip to gently push the ball of dough from the spoon into the bed of flour.

At this point you can either shake the dish or pan gently to ensure that the flour covers the gnocchi or use your fingers to very gently dust the gnocchi with flour. Gently pick up the gnocchi and cradle it in your hand rolling it to form it in an oval as best as you can, at no point should you squeeze it. What you’re looking for is an oval lump of sorts that’s dusted in flour and plump.

Gently place your gnocchi in the simmering water. It will sink and then bob to the top. From the time that it bobs to the surface, you want to cook the gnocchi until it’s just firm. This could take 3 to 5 minutes.

If your gnocchi begins to fall apart, this means that the ricotta cheese was probably still too wet. You can remedy this by beating a teaspoon of egg white into your gnocchi batter. If your gnocchi batter was fluffy but the sample comes out heavy, add a teaspoon of beaten egg to the batter and beat that in. Test a second gnocchi to ensure success.

Form the rest of your gnocchi. You can put 4 to 6 gnocchi in the bed of flour at a time. But don’t overcrowd your bed of flour or you may damage your gnocchi as you coat them.

Have a sheet pan ready to rest the formed gnocchi on. Line the sheet pan with wax or parchment paper and dust it with flour.

You can cook the gnocchi right away, however, Judy Rodgers recommends storing them in the refrigerator for an hour prior to cooking to allow them to firm up.

Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi.

Have a large skillet ready to go. Place the butter and water for the sauce in the skillet and set aside.

In the largest pan or pot that you have (make sure it’s wide), bring at least 2 quarts of water to a boil (you can use as much as 3 quarts of water if your pot permits). You need a wide pot or pan so that your gnocchi won’t bump into each other and damage each other.

Once the water is boiling, salt it generously.

Drop the gnocchi into the water one by one. Once they float to the top, cook them for 3 to 5 minutes (as in the case with the test gnocchi).

When the gnocchi float to the top, you can start your sauce while you wait for them to finish cooking.

Place the skillet over medium heat and melt the butter. Swirl it gently a few times as it melts. As soon as it melts and is incorporated with the water, turn off the heat. Your gnocchi should be cooked by now.

With a slotted spoon, remove the gnocchi from the boiling water and gently drop into the butter sauce. Carefully roll in the sauce until coated. Serve immediately.

Variations: For the gnocchi, you can flavour them however you wish. If you want to experiment by adding something to your gnocchi (i.e., caramelized onion, sundried tomato), feel free to do so. However, be forewarned, ricotta gnocchi are delicate and may not take well to elaborate additions. For the sauce, this is your chance to go nuts. Enjoy yourselves. Surprise us!!!

Freezing the gnocchi: If you don’t want to cook your gnocchi right away or if you don’t want to cook all of them, you can make them and freeze them. Once they are formed and resting on the flour-dusted, lined tray, place them uncovered in the freezer. Leave them for several hours to freeze. Once frozen, place them in a plastic bag. Remove the air and seal the bag. Return to the freezer. To cook frozen gnocchi, remove them from the bag and place individually on a plate or on a tray. Place in the refrigerator to thaw completely. Cook as directed for fresh gnocchi.

Weekly Menu 11th to 15th May 2009

2009-05-10T23:16:00.007+01:00

This week I'm hosting the gluten free menu swap and have chosen potatoes as my ingredient. We love potatoes and for the firs year ever we are growing them on our allotment. This is really the first year we are growing vegs in general though I did grow some years ago.. never potatoes however. The picture above is our first earlies growing on well and indeed some of them are close to flowering already. Our later potatoes some weeks behind these but in all we do have quite a few potatoes and indeed a good few varieties, around 20 I think!

So what can I say about potatoes? Good question. I think we all know them pretty well and I expect most of us eat them regularly. I think one of the things I have learnt over the last couple of years is that actually one potato doesn't do everything. Some are good for mash, others better for chips and still others work well cooked whole and used in salads. Know your varieties and ask your green grocer what the potatoes they are selling are and I don't mean are they red or white !! This year we have planted many varieties and they all differ.. there are early ones, salad ones, red ones, white ones, blue ones!, multicoloured ones, round ones, long thin knobbly one and so on.

So tell me how will you eat your potatoes this week? Either email me on esther dot reeves at gmail dot com or leave a comment here.

Menu

Monday - shepherd's pie.. lamb mince topped with mashed potato.

Tuesday - Bubble and squeak with an egg on top. Left over mashed potato and cabbage cooked together.

Wednesday - chicken casserole with rice.

Thursday - Salad plate, including roasted vegs and probably some sort of protein but need to go shopping first.

Friday - Fish and chips.

Other menus

Wendy at Celiacs in the house muses about the potato famine and family history she has been researching. She has a wonderfully varied menu to go with it.

Sea at Book of Yum - As always a lovely sounding menu and she has linked to a bunch of interesting sounding potato recipes, I'm particularly tempted by spinach shepherds pie as nearly all the ingredients are favourites of mine and it may well sneak in as an extra dish one day this week as not everyone love spinach as much as me.

Elizabeth at Modern Gal has another great sounding menu and several bean recipes. We are constantly trying to up the amount of pulses we eat so I may well be checking some of those out.

Angela from Angela's Kitchen is cooking up a whole host of things this week and has so much rhubarb that she is planning a variety of ways to use it up I'm really jealous. I love rhubarb ! She adds dandy lion leaves to her potato salad, I keep meaning to try them and that sounds a mild way to do it.

Heather from Celiac Family is cooking a lovely family friendly menu that I'd happily have here. She is trying her hand at making GF pizza so good luck it is well worth finding a version that works for you as pizza is one of those things so many people miss when they go gluten free.

Weekly menu 5th to 9th May 2009

2009-05-05T12:28:00.003+01:00

Opps late again !! It was a bank holiday here yesterday so no school, work etc.. threw my sense of what day it was right out.

Photo is the apple blossom on one of our apple trees, actually from a week ago as it has now mostly dropped.

We went to a family party on Sunday that was really nice though I got a headache, not anyone's fault my normal glasses are broken and I'm wearing my next best pair which are a slightly old prescription, everything looks clear but I keep dropping things and getting headaches so a trip to get my eyes checked and see if the other glasses can be fixed is needed. Food however was not a problem as they got a local Indian restaurant to cater and all the dishes apart from the bread were gluten free which was fantastic.. I also met someone who is new to being diagnosed Celiac so we had one of those chats where you conpare notes as it were :)

Anyway to the menu.

Monday we had pizza. Mine had asparagus, bacon and mushroom.. asparagus worked really well !

Tuesday - pork chops with asparagus and green beans.

Wednesday - some form of bubble and squeak.. ie greens and potatoes bound together in cakes of some form. Lots of greens to eat up.

Thursday - home made fish in batter, possibly with a chinese slant, depends on what vegs are left.

Friday - sausage casserole

Other cooking. - I want to try and make some pickled cauliflower as we have a back log of cauliflowers and i love pickles so any favoured recipes gladly accepted!

Late posted Daring Cheesecake

2009-04-29T19:44:00.006+01:00

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I even finished the recipe days before the posting date and then couldn't post as I had no internet access, it just went off Saturday afternoon and even two hours on the phone to my provider got me nowhere.. in fact I am only back on now because I have changed providers!

Well better late than never I suppose, I hate being without internet.. going on holiday is different but losing it when you don't expect it just throws everything out. Yes I know I shouldn't depend on it but I keep so much information on my gmail account or|I check blogs and on line recipe sites rather than printing out lots of paper that when it goes down I suddenly find i don't have the information I needed to hand. It also brought home to me I might be wise to get a few more friends phone numbers not just their emails :)

Anyway on to the challenge recipe. This gave me the chance to make Graham crackers for the first time.. gluten free of course. I could have used a different base but I've been meaning to try making them for ages. I'm told that they are the same as what we call digestives.I used Cake and Commerce's recipe which worked very well you can find it here.
The only changes I made was to sub chestnut flour for the sweet brown rice flour and brown rice flour instead of Rice Bran Flour. We really liked the biscuits though to me they tasted a little too toffee like and were a bit to brittle rather than crumbly to be digestives.. I think if I try them again I might use a little less brown flours and possibly a lighter sugar as I think that is what gave the toffee flavour. All that said they made a fantastic base for the cheese cake and for that, rather than dunking in tea, I'd probably make them just like this lot again.So on to the cheesecake itself everything else is gluten free so I followed the recipe directly apart from the fact that I added crystallised ginger in the base. You can find the recipe just as we were given it for the challenge at the bottom of this post. Abbey is a good friend of Jenny and a well known cheesecake expert. She certainly makes a good cheesecake recipe as this one is really nice. This is the first time I think I've ever had a cooked cheesecake that rivaled the ones my aunt used to make for family get-togethers and that is praise indeed.

The topping I added is a simple rhubarb purée. I LOVE rhubarb and we got some in our organic veg box just as I was making the cheesecake so it was an obvious choice and went well with the creamy cheesecake top and the dark and gingery base.

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Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Arrrg

2009-04-29T12:56:00.003+01:00

I managed to do the Daring baker challenge with days to spare this time and what happens my internet goes down Saturday and has been down until now.. in fact until I got re-connected by a different provider. As the posting date was Monday I missed it !! I will post when Treestrump allows so bare with me !

I love Wagamama

2009-04-22T11:45:00.002+01:00

We went to Wagamama in Birmingham for our 'adopted' son/ little brother's birthday as is becoming a tradition and I just had to say how much I like them.

On their website they list which dishes can be made gluten free and indeed do the same for a whole host of other allergens. Once you get to the restaurant you tell them you want the gluten free menu and they bring a book that lists all the allergens, dishes you can have and what had to be removed to make it safe.. then you order say number 26 no seasoning and you get a gluten free version. I do wish more places would do that. Apart from the occasional replacement of wheat noodles with rice ones they don't do any additions to dishes so some of them end up pretty plain but there are still a better selection than most places and if you have more than one allergy you can just cross check several lists.

The second reason I love them is that they bring the kids dishes FIRST as standard. You have no idea how many brownie points they score for that one, it seems standard in this country to bring the kids dishes last which is insane as they want their food colder than adults (and it has to start hot or it isn't cooked!) and they don't find waiting easy when hungry particularly if others have food plus you need to cut it up for them if they are small which means your food goes cold. We are so fed up with this we have started putting in complaints at anywhere that does it and Wagamama's is one of the few we haven't had to !!

Weekly menu 20-25 th April 2009

2009-04-20T10:28:00.005+01:00

I know, I know I've been bad about such things. However we have been eating OK just a bit on the fly and then the internet went down for two days... I was so not amused and even less amused about the lack fo access to anyone who could actually tell me what was wrong. Used to be if I was put through to technical support they knew what they were talking about and if they weren't personally fixing it they knew who was.. now the company has been bought by others all I could get to was a call centre on the other side of the world who had no access to any real information.. I am moving companies !!

This week is the second and last of the Easter holidays so I have both kids at home so will be keeping things fairly simple..

Asparagus Thin is hosting the gluten free swap this week and has picked rhubarb. This is one of my favourite 'fruits' and I have a plant growing in the allotment ( and planted a second this weekend) but as yet there isn't enough to pick as it is still settling in. I may however use it as an excuse to buy some if I see it in the greengrocers. My favourite way to have it is stewed with some sugar and strawberries added towards the end. Heaven !!

Monday - Cauliflower cheese, we have far to many cauliflowers to eat up!

Tuesday - Out all day at an amusement park/ zoo and going to wagamamas in the evening.. they list on their website what dishes can be gluten free and this time I will take my own soy sauce.

Wednesday - Pasta with tomato and bacon sauce or lasagne if I have time to make fresh pasta.

Thursday - Either fish pie or home made fish and chips.

Friday - vegetable and chickpea curry, probably heavy on the cauliflower again.

Wot no buns?

2009-04-08T00:24:00.004+01:00

Ok you probably need to be a certain age to get that title and I didn't pose him he just did it himself !

Anyway on to the buns or muffins or cakes whatever you would like to call them. I was pointed to this recipe for fruit and veg muffins on 5dollardinners.com by a post on the gluten free recipe group and we have made them twice now with different fruit each time.

The recipe is very simple and easy to make and is based on a cup of pureed fruit and/or veg. We did peach and pear the first time and this batch are mango and banana. I can see them becoming a regular thing any time we have fruit that needs eating up as have a couple of family members who are a bit picky about fruit being unblemised and so perfectly good fruit can sit about for ages and not get eaten unless it's by me!

Do try them they are very good little cakes, not to sweet and nice and light texture wise. Plus a great way to sneak some fruit and veg towards their five a day into people's diets !

Daring Lasagne

2009-03-27T22:31:00.008Z

This month's Daring Baker challenge was quite unexpected but something I am very glad they picked as it made me finally try making pasta. So what does pasta have to do with baking? Well it's a dough isn't it when you think about it it's the same thing really as making pastry.

So what exactly is the challenge this month?
The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

The basic design is thin layers of pasta, layered with béchamel and ragu sauces, of course I can't use the normal pasta and béchamel sauce but they had thought of that and supplied gluten free recipes which was utterly fantastic of them!

With great regret I didn't use their ragu sauce as I couldn't get half the types of meat in it but do go and check out one of the hosts blogs to see the original recipe as it sounds fantastic. Instead I made my own sauce which I have added to the recipes at the end of this post.

So what was making fresh gluten free pasta like? Surprisingly unpainful and the end result was well worth it. Considering how time consuming lasagne is anyway making the pasta from scratch as well isn't really that much more time and while we were warned it would be much more brittle than normal pasta I still managed quite easily to make sheets big enough to cover the whole of my pan. The corn base made a very tasty pasta and I have plenty left to try other ways.

I also learnt a new way of making béchamel as I've always made a rouge. In future I will be using this method and certianly suggesting it to himself to use.

Lasagne

#1 Gluten Free Egg PastaThe choice of the first flour is personal. Mary suggested corn flour because the subtle taste blended well with the dish. However, this is a matter of personal taste – please feel free to substitute a different flour for the corn flour but don't subsititute a starch.

150 gr corn flour or masa in North America - yellow with a slightly gritty feel (250 mL, 1 cup) NOT a starch
100 gr corn starch* (3/4 cup, 187.5 mL)
100 gr tapioca flour* (225 mL, 9/10 cup or a little over 7 volume ounces)
150 gr of potato starch* (250 mL, 1 cup)
100 gr of glutinous rice flour* (200 mL, ¾ cup) (I didn't have this so subbed half and half corn starch and tapioca starch.)
10 gr of Xanthan powder (1.5 tsp, 7.5 mL)
10 gr of salt (1 tsp, 5 mL)

6 extra large eggs (60 gr each or 2.5 oz in weight, 1 fluid oz in volume)
3/8 cup of water (95 mL)
50 mL of extra virgin olive oil (1/5 cup)
Note: If you add cooked chopped spinach to this recipe, you may have to reduce the water. The recipe was not tested (yet) with the addition of spinach.

*fine white powder that squeaks when rubbed between fingers

Plastic wrap or parchment paper for your work surface
Aluminium foil to cover the lasagne

Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

Whisk together 3 eggs, the water and/or spinach, and the oil. Pour into the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix with a sturdy wooden spoon, gradually drawing more of the flour mix into the wet ingredients. Add each egg as needed. The dough will be crumbly at the beginning but will gradually come together as you add the eggs. You will need to use your hands to squeeze and mix the dough.

The dough will be firm and stick together when ready. It will not have the elasticity of gluten dough therefore it will crack when kneaded and pushed. Form it into a smooth ball, oil it lightly, and cover securely with plastic wrap. Let it rest for an hour.

Put a sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface. This is very important as the dough will not hold together very well when lifted. Have flour ready for dusting (corn flour etc) and dust the surface lightly. Cut a piece of dough about the size of really large egg – it doesn’t matter the size but start small for the first one to gauge how much space you need. Keep the remaining dough covered so it does not dry.

Roll the dough into a ball and flatten into a disc with your hands. Put it on your work surface and flatten with your hands. Use a rolling pin and gently push the dough down and out ward from the centre. You may have to place one hand on the plastic wrap as you push the dough down and away. Gluten free dough does not stretch like wheat dough therefore it needs gentle flattening and pushing. If it breaks, pat it back together. If it is too dry, dab a little water with your finger.

The gluten free dough will be thicker than wheat dough and you will barely be able to see your hand through the dough. Once it is flattened, cut into strips or squares that will fit your pan.

Set the dough aside on the plastic sheet. There is no need to dry the dough. But if you do dry the dough, it will not be able to hang because it will break. Stack the rolled out dough with plastic sheets in between.

Stack the sheets when dry and wrap securely. Store in the fridge until ready to use. Freezing will make the dough crumbly and difficult to work with – so freeze only as a last resort!

This dough does not need to be precooked before being assembled into the lasagne.

#2 Gluten Free Béchamel - White Sauce2 & 2/3 cup milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter or Extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons corn starch (fine white and squeaky) – another starch can be substituted
Salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg

Mix the corn starch with ½ cup of cold milk. Heat the rest of the milk in a small sauce pan until steaming but do not boil. Add the milk/cornstarch mixture to the steaming milk. Stirring constantly, raise the heat and heat the mixture until thick. Once it is thick, remove it from the heat and add the butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Have the béchamel warm or at room temperature ready to assemble the lasagne. Whisk the sauce occasionally if it becomes stiff or thick.

#3 Ragu - meat sauce

beef mince
bacon
a shallot
several cloves of garlic
passanda (tomato purée)
salt and pepper

I didn't remember to measure amounts and anyway it's really as you like it. Chop the shallot and garlic finely. Cut up the bacon into small bits then fry it off. Add the shallot and mince. then when browned add garlic. Let it cook a little then add the tomato and cook slowly till thick. Season to taste.

Assembling the Gluten Free Lasagne

The assembly is the same as the regular lasagne with the addition of water. Gluten free lasagne noodles need a little more moisture for the lasagne, so you will be adding a little bit of water to the lasagne.

Before assembly, pour plain water into the pan, enough to form a thin film of water over the bottom. A 9 x 13 inch or 25 x 33 cm pan required almost ½ cup (125 mL) of water.

Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese (I used cheddar). Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Once the lasagne is assembled, pour a tablespoon or 15 mL of water into each corner of the dish. Cover the lasagne tightly with aluminium foil. Be careful not to touch the top of the lasagne with the foil.

Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

This lasagne was baked in a glass baking dish. Adjustments in time and temperature may be needed if your dish is metal!

Sorry I've not been about

2009-03-27T12:50:00.003Z

Week before last I went down with a bad stomach bug which rather knocked on the head any wish to talk about food! I'm fine now but very busy.. I know I've promised pictures of the kitchen but I am vain enough to want it to look it's best so watch this space and I'll try and blitz it soon.
However while you are waiting here is the inside of the fridge. Don't know about you but i love seeing what others buy :)

In other news I recently tried the tortilla from Delightfully Gluten Free and they are really easy and delish. They will certainly be a regular here in future.

Finally Daring Bakers has a lovely new home The Daring Kitchen and a new sister challenge Daring Cooks so if you aren't into baking you can join that instead. The challenge day is halfway through the month so if you want to join both they are spaced out. I shall be very interested to see what recipes get picked and I'm hoping less of them will need converting to be gluten free too !

Weekly Menu 2nd to 7th March 2009

2009-03-02T22:13:00.002Z

Well I've finally finished clearing the main freezer so now I need to defrost it.. probably a job for tomorrow.

This week the Gluten Free Menu swap is hosted by Gluten free Goodness and she picked chickpeas for the ingredient of the week. As luck would have it I had them for lunch. I treated myself to a lunch at the museum cafe and had a plate full of salads, five different ones in fact the last one on offer was pasta based so no good for me. Very nice lunch indeed !

1) Chickpeas, peas, green beans, tiny bits of broccoli all in a light but chilli based dressing.
2) Mixed rices with dried fruit and nuts.
3) Aubergine slices fired in a wonderful slightly sweet spice mix that I really want to try and recreate. As it happens Cheryl mentions a spiced chickpea recipe which sounds like a good starting point for the spices as I definitely spotted cumin seeds and I think cinnamon.
4) lightly cooked fennel with garlic and fresh orange slices with some sort of light dressing possibly balsamic based.
5) Chicory, tomato, mushrooms and cress again dressed in a light dressing.

so on to the menu.

Monday - Baked potato with various toppings.

Tuesday - A cream based pasta sauce (with pasta) as I have cream that needs using as I failed to make icecream.

Wednesday - Barbecue spare ribs, with broccoli and cauliflower cheese.

Thursday - veggy curry, with chickpeas.

Friday - home made battered fish.

I might have another go at hummus this week as well possibly the beetroot one I tried a while back as it was very nice.

Daring Bakers - chocolate Cake

2009-03-01T19:09:00.005Z

February's challenge was automatically gluten free because it was a flour free chocolate cake. The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I must admit however I failed partly. I don't have an ice-cream maker and have been clearing the main freezer to defrost it so I never managed the ice cream.

I did manage the chocolate cake and I must say our hosts are right when they say the cake will taste just like the chocolate you use for it. I used a mix of milk and dark chocolate but if it did it again I'd use just milk or perhaps the honey milk chocolate from Hotel Chocolat which is fantastic though I'm not sure they do it in slabs current or if it was just in the tasting box.

The recipe has three ingredients and at one point you have three bowls !
I slightly over cooked the cake so the edge was a little burnt but it was hard to see as the cake is so dark. As soon as the cake came out fo the oven I topped it with chocolate buttons which worked quite well as the heat stuck them to the cake. I also got to use our new silicon cake tin for the first time which was very good.

---------------------------
Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.