July + Stew = Dumplings

Lately I've given up on my slowcooker after some very average results, and gone back to the faithful cast iron cassarole dish. What a relief! My stews are tasty again, and I can put them on in the afternoon, I mean honestly, who has time in the morning anyway?

Yesterday's beef stew was bubbling happily when my Dad dropped by to say hello. I took the opportunity of child distraction to try out some cornmeal dumplings. What an inspiration, they were delish and much enjoied by the test team.

Following on from this success I rebooted the stew tonight and tried the dumplings again, buckwheat this time.

Dumplings

1 c cornmeal or buckwheat
1/2c GF baking mix
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
bt of ground black pepper
25g DF spread
1/2c rice milk
I also added some chopped parsley to my buckwheat ones which was nice. Other herbs to compliment the dish would be good, such as rosemary with a lamb stew?

First cook your stew, it needs to be ready, and you make the dumplings just ahead of serving time.

Measure spread, flours and baking powder. Rub it together, I use a wooden spoon then just get in there with my fingers to get it all done. Should look a bit like breadcrumbs when this is done. Throw in salt & pepper to taste, mix it up, then add the rice milk. At first it won't seem like enough milk but just keep stirring, it will come togeher into a nice ball of dough. Ofcourse you can ad a litle more if this isn't happening after lots of stirring, but use a bit of elbow grease first.

Take spoonfuls of the dough and drop ontop of your hot stew. The buckwheat allowed me to roll the dough into little balls, but the cornmeal would not hold together enough for that, I just plopped them in and poked any really sticky out bits with my finger.

Put the stew back in the oven without a lid for 10-15mins until the dumplings are cooked. No doubt this would work on the stove top also, you might need to experiment with lid on/lid off.

On balance I'd say the cornmeal ones were better, slightly crumbly but in a yummy sort of way. Buckwheat turned out a bit more dense and brittle. I think it would be worth trying them again with cornflour instead of baking mix, but don't get me wrong, they were still yummy yum.

Corn Muffins

I've dreamed about southern USA skillet cornbread, but never come across a recipe which screamed BAKE ME! I don't have a skillet for a start...

This weekend we had a roast chook, and I threw the bones and sundries into a pot and made some chicken and vege soup. Included some home grown celery - very proud of that!

Anyway to get to the point, to make this into a meal for dinner, it needed a bit of suport in the carbohydrate department. I started by adding a tin of cannelini beans to the soup, but my genius moment was corn muffins.


1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose gluten free baking mix
1/3 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup rice milk

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Grease muffin pan or use those floppy silicone ones like me.
In a large bowl, mix everything together, and stir gently until just combined. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into a muffin comes out clean.

The key with muffins is to work fast, and mix only as much as you have to - not a single mix more! If you see the odd bit of unmixed flour, just stir this little area a bit until it is wet, and go with it. It will turn out ok I promise!

Next time I would use a little less sugar, and maybe a pinch of cayenne pepper. Josh said he loved them, they tasted just how he remembered corn bread.

Instead of muesli

Dr. Bircher would turn in his grave if I called this muesli, but seeing as how oats are out of bounds, I had to come up with something edible.



I have a big plastic container and I just get out all my ingredients and start layering it up. The carbohydrate base is GF cornflakes, or riceflakes (which are just the same thing made out of rice). I also like to put in puffed quinoa or amaranth, and buckwheat groats. Ideally the buckwheat would be toasted but who has time for that?

I also add layers of flaxseed, coconut, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sometimes chopped almonds.

Fruit wise cranberries are yummy and sultanas are good, neither need chopping up. Dried apricots and pawpaw are good but require some labour with a sharp knife.

Give it all a good shake.

So, this isn't a recipe as such, more trying to pass on some inspiration. Just chuck stuff in until it looks yummy. Next morning you eat some and this creates space in the container to alter the proportions, or add something else you just thought of.