Chapati

Righto its been a while, but I've found a recipe so good I am blogging it before I've even got up from the table.  I went to my local Indian Foodmarket today, and while checking out I happened to mention to the lady that I need to cook Gluten Free.  She gave me this awesome and simple recipe:

Gluten Free Buckwheat Chapatis

1 cup Buckwheat Flour
1 tablespoon rice flour
good pinch of salt

Place in a bowl, then add a little boiling water, mix with a spoon adding just a wee bit of water at a time until you have something a bit like breadcrumbs that sticks together if you push it.  Careful now as its hot, using your hand start to bring it together into a ball of dough.  If you've added too much water it will be sticky, add a bit more buckwheat flour to bring it back to a kneadable dough.

Either knead it in the bowl, or turn it out onto a floured board.  I have a silicone baking sheet that I use for this.  Knead for 3-4 mins.  Set aside in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest at least 20 mins.

Once rested divide the dough into 8 pieces and roll into balls.  Roll out each one to about 3mm thick, or as thin as you can go and still pick them up easily.  Use extra flour to dust the board and rolling pin, or you can try doing it between two sheets of plastic wrap.  Good luck with that by the way.

Dry fry each one in a frying pan, turning frequently and squash them flat with a spatula when they puff up.

Now the exciting part, to be a chapati it needs to go briefly on an open flame.  If you have a gas stove you can pop each one directly onto the burner flip it over before it burns.  I don't have a gas stove (sadly) so I tried the bbq, this didn't work, the grill is too far from the flame.  A wok burner would be ideal.  My solution was to get out the camping stove, and this worked a treat.  Entertained the kids too.

Sorry no photos I was too hungry.  Promise I'll add some next time I make them.

10min Lemon Honey

Everyone has lemon trees full of fruit this time of year, time to make some lemon honey, the only way to make toast worth while :-)

This recipe super easy - no double boiler, you make it in the microwave!

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 1/2C Sugar
100g dairy free spread
grated rind and juice of 3 lemons

Method
Put the eggs and sugar in a large microwave proof bowl. Whisk until well combined. Add the spread, lemon juice and rind.

Microwave on high for 1 minute, whisk it quickly and repeat until the mixture is smooth, thick and creamy. 8 to 10 minutes total cooking.
Pour into hot sterile jars and screw the lids on tight.

Once cold, store in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks, (Hangon, is that a Tui ad? Like there is going to be any left after 2 to 3 days!)

Try not to eat it straight out of the jar, goes great on toast, icecream, muffins or scones for afternoon tea...

Rhubarb and Date Cake

Well you've all been asking for it, so here you go :-)



Rhubarb and Date Cake

170g GF baking mix
1 tsp baking powder
1/2c canola oil
100g sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg
250g Rhubarb (raw, you don't need to precook it at all!)
120g dates
about 4 tablespoons rice milk

Preheat oven to 170c and prepare a 20cm cake tin

Clean rhubarb and cut into 1 inch pieces. Cut up dates into rough pieces.

In a large bowl, sift flour, add oil, sugar, vanilla essence and egg, mix together with a wooden spoon to make a dryish crumbly dough. Add in the dates and rhubarb and stir in, it will appear as if there is not enough batter but don’t worry. Add the rice milk as needed to loosen the batter.



Turn into the cake tin and press in massaging it a bit with a rubber spatula to spread the batter about and flatten it.




Bake for at least 35mins, take care that it is cooked in the middle, press with your finger and check that it springs back. Cool in the tin for 10mins, then on a wire rack.

Freezes well (so my expert cake testers tell me)

Annette's Lemon Drizzle Chickpea Cake

This one is super quick and easy, I use the little whizzer that clicks into my stick blender.

Lemon Drizzle Chickpea Cake



410g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed

3 eggs

1 lemon

170g caster sugar

1 - 2 tbspns clear honey



Put the chickpeas in a food processor and blitz until they make a paste. Add the eggs, sugar, zest of the lemon and juice of half the lemon and blitz until it makes a batter.

Pour into a well-greased and lined 2lb loaf tin, and cook in a medium oven, 160C, for around 45 mins. Remove from the oven and drizzle over the honey.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then pour over the juice of the other half of the lemon. Leave to cool completely before removing, carefully, from the tin.

This cake has the texture of Madeira cake, and really doesn't taste of chickpeas. You can also make it with orange and with lime. It will keep for up to a week, but does not freeze well.

Chocolate and Pecan Cookies

Measure the baking powder carefully, but be generous with the vanilla! Be sure to cream the fat and sugar well, if you don't they will spread out like pancakes in the oven and be ruined.

110g non-dairy substitute
1/4c sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp vanilla essence
1c GF flour
1tsp baking powder
1/4c chopped pecans
1/4c chopped chocolate (whittaker's dark ghana is GF and DF)

Preheat oven to 160deg, line a baking tray with paper.

Cream the fat and sugar, add golden syrup, vanilla, baking mix and baking powder then fold in the nuts and chocolate chips. Roll into balls and place on trays. Press lightly with a fork to flatten and bake for 15mins until golden. Cool on a rack.

Espresso Amorettis

A bit like macaroons, but with coffee :-)

3 tab short espresso
3 eggs
3c almond meal
1c sugar

Preheat oven to 160deg, line a baking tray with paper. Make the espresso and allow to cool. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Combine egg whites, almond meal and sugar with the coffee. Dollop table spoons of the mixture onto the tray. Bake for 20mins or until just beginning to brown.

I will try and think of something else to use up the egg yolks.

Following on from corn muffins

Just made them again, 1st time in ages. Added cayenne pepper this time, little bit of an aftertaste which is nice.

Great photo in my remodeled kitchen:

Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons

3 egg whites
1 1/4 c caster sugar
1/2 tsp. coconut essence
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
2 tbsp cornflour, sifted
3 c desiccated coconut

Line 2 baking trays with paper, preheat oven to 160c
In small dry bowl, beat egg whites until firm peaks form
Add sugar gradually, beating constantly until thick and glossy and all sugar is dissolved.
Add the essence and rind, beat until just combined.

Transfer to large bowl, add cornflour and coconut. Using metal spoon, stir until just combined.

Drop spoonfuls of mixture onto the trays about 3cm apart. bake in oven until golden, transfer to wire rack to cool.

Variations:
- sprinkle with coconut before baking
- once cooked drizzle with melted chocolate.

I'm pretty sure I've never had coconut essence so must have made these without it, didn't seem to matter at all!

Bobotie - a way to make mince interesting!

No doubt there are a million different recipes for babotie, but this one comes from the South African side of the family so I like to think its authentic (though I really have no idea!)

I use my cast iron casserole which can go both on the stove and in the oven.

 

Oil to fry
1 Onion, diced
500g lowfat mince
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1 1/2 teaspoon medium curry powder
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons chutney
1 cooking apple, grated
25 grams chopped almonds
2 or 3 tablespoons apricot jam, mixed with a little lemon juice
1 - 1 1/2 banana, sliced
1 or 2 eggs
A dash rice milk
3 lemon leaves
Oil

Fry the onions in oil. Add tumeric, curry powder and mince. Fry until browned

Add lemonpeel and juice, apple, chutney and salt and pepper. Cook for a bit. Add almonds.

Put mixture into an ovenproof dish. Top with jam mixture and sliced banana.

Stir up the egg in a cup and pour over. The original recipe says with a bit of milk, its not really necessary but I find a dash of rice milk does make it go a bit further. Let it soak for a bit. Roll lemon leaves and stick into the Bobotie.

Bake at 180 c for about 30 minutes until set and browned.

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.