I always find weekdays hectic. Being a single parent often means juggling a crying baby (or worse - breastfeeding while cooking!), listening to the schoolboy read and watching the toddler being a princess/dancer. On a good day, I get dinner made while the two little ones are sleeping. If I sense a bad day, I pull the slow-cooker out of the cupboard and work with what I have.
Today my head was possibly going to explode. The school boy had an upset tummy so he was home all day. Which meant the three kids were all out of routine. Recipe for disaster in this house.
So to balance our universe I went for my recipe for nirvana - slow cooker dahl.
I actually use a recipe a friend of mine told me about with a few adjustments. But her method needs more TLC than I have to spare. So after throwing it in the slow-cooker a few times with success, that's just how I do it now.
Ingredients: 500g red lentils, washed and picked over 10 curry leaves 2 teaspoons ground sea salt 1 tsp turmeric 6 cups hot water 1 large onion, diced 1 large (810 gram) tin crushed tomatoes 2 carrots, diced 2 tsp garam masala 2 tbs lime juice
Method: Whack everything except garam masala and lime juice in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. When ready to serve, stir in lime juice and garam masala.
Tonight we just had this with crusty slabs of toasted GF bread. We usually have this with rice and pappadams. Enjoy :)
After still being unable to cook Tempeh without making it taste nasty, I went back to basics for tonight's dinner. This particular version of my meatloaf is very different to my standard version. I wanted it healthy - high protein and low in fat. And really...who's ever seen a fat kangaroo?
Ingredients: 500 grams Kangaroo mince 300 gram block of tempeh 1 egg 1 large onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1/2 cup polenta (the crumb-y kind) 1/4 cup sesame seeds *optional* 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
Glaze: 1/4 cup cushed tomatoes 1/4 cup brown sugar
Chips: Block of solid polenta cut into wedges.
Method: Preheat oven to 180C. Combine meatloaf ingredients in a large bowl. Squish until mixed thouroughly. Brush oil around a cake tin (I use the type with the hole in the centre). Press meat mixture into cake tin. Brush oil across a baking tray. Place cake tin upside down on oven tray. Pop into oven.
After 15 minutes, remove from oven. Gently lift off cake tin (the loaf should now hold it's shape). Stir glaze ingredients together and pour over. Place back in oven and bake for a further 45 minutes.
Brush oil over griddle-pan. Heat pan and gently place solid polenta wedges on to heat and crisp.
These are one of the things I always wanted to try and I am so glad I did!
I bought a packet of Vietnamese rice paper rounds. Followed the directions on the packet. Filled them with cooked rice noodles, shaved ham or chicken from deli (I was pressed for time), julienned carrots and splodges of avocado with a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
They were awesome. Next time I will remember to have GF Soy or some other dipping sauce on hand though.
I am looking forward to trying a few different fillings and possibly adding them to Torin's lunchbox.
Torin had a wonderful day out with my Aunt today. And we're both quite shocked with something amazing he did. She took him to a play centre. There was one of those machines you put a dollar in and the try and pick up a toy with the claw. I've never let him play them before truly believing they were rigged. But my aunty let him have just one turn.
Not only did he win a toy, he actually won the toy he wanted! He is now the very proud owner of a Yoshi toy. I told you he was obsessed with Super Mario Brothers & friends.
I had one of those evening where I was looking forward to making a recipe I had spotted on the internet (it was in fact Karina's Eggs Diablo on Polenta). But Torin was having a really cranky day and he was on the computer. I had a mere 45 minutes to get dinner on the table! What ever was I to do???!!!
I grabbed my "Destitute Gourmet" cookbook and flicked through looking for a polenta recipe. No luck. Then I spotted a quick and easy pizza recipe. The recipe was written for normal ingredients but I decided to have a go!
Pizza Base Recipe
2 cups Orgran SR Flour 0.5 teaspoons ground sea salt 3 generous tablespoons oil (the recipe called for two. Bridie knocked me and I poured in too much so I am estimating three) half a cup of lukewarm water.
Pre-heat oven to 180C. Mix together too a smooth dough. Spread out on a pizza tray. Top with crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, onion, garlic, chopped mushrooms. Replace cheese with 0.5 cups of polenta soaked in 0.5 cups warm water. (I read this on someone's blog. Please leave a comment if it is you or you know who it is sop I can give due credit). Bake for 25 minutes. Dinner is served!
My current mission is to reduce the amount of meat we eat and increase vegetable intake. After shopping at a gorgeous Fruit and Veg place and finding a whopping great cabbage was only $2.79 I studied the cook books I have to see what could be made gluten free.
Stuffed Cabbage Leaves. 500 grams minced veal one cup cooked white rice one egg one medium onion, chopped finely 8 large cabbage leaves 2 cups stock 2 cups crushed tomatoes Preheat oven to 180C. Mix veal, egg, onion and rice as if you were making hamburgers. Add salt and pepper if you wish. Blanche the cabbage leaves for two minutes to soften. When soft, put one eighth of the mixture into the centre of the leaf and wrap into a tight parcel. Place the parcels in a baking dish. Pour in two cups of stock. Over the top pour two cups crushed tomatoes. Pop into oven and cook for an hour. Voila! Cool little package of healthiness with no dairy nor gluten in sight!
With the drought, the taste of the water here is getting worse and worse. I know I need to drink water, but even after boiling it and cooling it, it tastes kind of sulphuric. Blerk!
So rather than buying bottled water or buying cordials to disguise the taste of the water, I've resorted to using what I have on hand to make cordials. I went through a weird phase of trying to use herbs to heal myself of what later turned out to be coeliacs symptoms. So at last the shelf full of dried herbs in my pantry can be put to use, because frankly as teas they were scary.
So today I thought I'd try and concoct some Nettle Leaf Cordial. I put the following into a medium saucepan: 2 cups water 1 cup white sugar 1 cup dried nettle leaves
I brought to the boil. I simmered for 15 minutes. Strained through muslin into a bowl. Stirred in one tea spoon of tartaric acid. Allow to cool. Bottled and refrigerated! Tasted quite refreshing in a very green kind of way.
I'm really getting into this baking thing and had plucked up the courage to give gluten free crumpets a whirl. It hadn't actually occurred to me to make them, except I spotted the recipe in a cookbook in the waiting room at the paediatrician. So I quickly read it and thought I had remembered correctly, but evidently hadn't. So why am I about to write down the recipe and method? Because it didn't go to waste, and after a little more research I discovered I hadn't gone totally wrong. I also live in hope that another gluten free blogger will spot this and leave a comment so I can know where I went wrong.
Ingredients:Stage 1. 3 cups gluten free all purpose flour (I used Orgran's) 1 tablespoon of sugar 1 teaspoon of salt 1 sachet (7g) of dry yeast 1.75 cups low fat soy milk
Stage 2. 80 mLs tepid water 0.5 teaspoons baking soda
Method: Stage 1. Mix flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add soy milk. I used a hand-mixer and mixed on low for about 5 minutes until a thick dough was formed. (Was the hand-mixer my mistake?). Leave for half an hour to allow the dough to rise.
Stage 2. Mix baking soda into water and mix into dough to form a batter. (Again I used the hand-mixer...I'm starting to think I should have whisked it by hand).
Set aside while you get everything ready for cooking. Preheat non-stick pan, and lubricate egg rings to help your batter stay nicely formed. TIP! - Pour a little oil into a small ramekin, and roll the egg ring through the oil! This is where I realised something was wrong. I am sure the recipe I glanced over in the paed's waiting room said to pour the batter into the egg rings. Mine wasn't runny enough. It certainly wasn't being poured in. In fact, I pretty much plopped or dolloped the batter into the egg rings. And then I waited patiently for the bubbles to form. I was armed with a knitting needle (it's ok, it was clean. I still can't knit!) waiting to pop the bubbles to create the "holes" in my crumpets. And they never came. *sob*
I was pressed for time at this stage with two hungry children sitting at the table waiting for their lunch. So I flipped the buggers of things over and bolted to the freezer for some berries. I raced back to the kitchen and ransacked the pantry and pulled out a jar of golden syrup. I finished cooking the unholy crumpets, flipped them onto plates, topped them with berries and drizzled with golden syrup. Voila! Lunch was served.
So then it was time to work out what I did wrong. And then I discovered a blog by KitchenMage which talked about all the ins and outs of crumpets and after reading that I went on to find more information at Cakebaker.co.uk.
Neither of these sites are gluten free. And from their recipes it's hard to tell where I went wrong.
Anyway, all I can say is Thank the Gods it's Friday. It's been an interesting week. I've had really bad back pain until this morning when I got to my chiropractor. It's starting to get difficult having Torin at school for only 3 days a week. With the constant rain, it's hard to keep the kids out of each others' faces and entertained. We need the rain, and I am grateful for it, don't get me wrong.
TGIF&GF Trivia.
Did you know: * Bundaberg Rum, which is made in sunny Queensland, Australia is gluten free? * The Bundaberg Rum emblem - a polar bear - was to represent the rum would ward of the chills?! * Bundaberg Rum is made from molasses?
Solo mother to Torin aged 6, Bridie aged 2 and Edan aged 8 months.
Torin has autism and I have coeliac disease. We are all on a low allergy diet and are gluten and casein free.
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