Peer pressure!

Isn't it funny how over the years peer pressure changes?

Smoking, for example. I always joked that I didn't start smoking due to peer pressure, it was because my Mum smoked AND worked for a tobacco company. But seriously, if it was deemed extremely uncool like it is now, I don't think I ever would have started at all. So my New Years Resolution is to quit. I have just smoked my last cigarette. As a back up plan, I have the name and number of a hypnotherapist in case I fall off the wagon.

Another thing that's changed is New Year's Eve. Unless I have been pregnant (and gone to bed early sulking and muttering angrily at the neighbours all partying on) I have managed to get myself a little bit too happy. Even the year I volunteered to work at Flemington Races on New Years Day. But before kids, you can manage little sleep and downing 30 litres of water to make it through the day and manage to skip a hangover.

This New Years Eve was different. I spent it at a friend's house, having a barbeque, with all the kids in tow. There were my hosts, and their three kids, and another couple, who also had three kids. And my need to sit down and chat to adults and relax and actually have someone else do the cooking for once, completely outweighed my need to get drunk!

Not only that, these amazing friends made it a gluten free event so I could relax without stressing about myself or Bridie geting ill!

And my last point on peer pressure is this. Jeanette has started blogging!
Jeanette was always willing to share recipes and would frequently PM me or write me notes on facebook but now she has a blog!!!! It is here - http://umeboshipink.blogspot.com/ and I have already baked and eaten a slice of her pumpkin bread (mine had garlic, chopped spinach and cummin and is pictured above) and it's awesome.
So she's worth stalking if you need vegan, gluten and dairy free recipes!

Chocolate chicken. Seriously.

I have been wanting to try this dish forever. It's been so long since I first heard about it, I can't even remember where I heard about it.l And today I took the plunge.

Chocolate Chicken.
2 chicken breasts
1 tablespoon of cocoa
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
0.5 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 180C. Blend all ingredients until a runny but thick sauce is formed. Place chicken in an ovenproof dish and paint with the chocolate sauce. Bake for about an hour.

We had them sliced on top of home made mini tortillas with roasted capsicum strips. I am SO glad I tried this. It was utterly awesome. The kids were intrigued that I could dare serve up chocolate chicken!!! But ate it nonetheless. It will definitely make it's way into my work-in-progress menu plan as a summer dish as I can see it working really well with salad.

I've been an absolutely lazy blogger of late. I have excuses though!!! I have had several orders through my store which I have been churning out as quickly as I possibly can, as well as finally getting some sewing for my kids done, a little Xmas shopping and organising Torin's 7th birthday which is this coming Saturday. So once I stop running about like a headless chicken, I will try and be a better blogger.

The Better Batter.

We're pretty lucky to have a Gluten Free Fish & Chip shop here in Ballarat. It means that from time to time I can have night off from cooking!
Another store I have been pleased to find is Abunda - a dedicated gluten free mini supermarket.

So last week I went into Abunda and got some rice noodles. I'd been checking the supermarkets and couldn't find any, and I had been hankering for a stir fry instead of fried rice!

Stir fry is simple here - snow peas, capsicum, water chestnuts, yellow beans - tossed in the wok with sea salt and ginger and rice noodles.

But we will be moving one day, and there mightn't be a fish and chip shop that does gluten free so I thought I'd use tonight to try out a gluten free batter recipe as well. I've never made batter before really, other than the once time I cooked oysters in tempura batter from my Jamie Oliver cookbook. I think I even used packet mix tempura batter for the last chicken nuggets I fried *blush*. This batter is simple and light, and I can see it working for all sorts of things, chicken, fish, vegies, the lot!

Gluten Free Batter for Deep Frying
1/4 cup cornflour
1/2 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
3/4 cold water

Whisk together until the batter streams in a ribbon off the fork or whisk. It needs to be runny, but not too runny. Coat fry-able item in batter and toss into hot oil. Remove when golden brown.

Happy Thanksgiving and TGIF!

Apologies - I know I'm a day late, but we don't celebrate it here. But happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the US. Anyone manage to catch the rickroll in the Macy's Parade?
:D


Well it's Friday again. I've been a lazy blogger because I've been sewing! More Christmas outfits for some friends. So tonight was an easy meal.

Spiral Pasta with spinach, pine nuts and bacon
1 packet of pasta, cooked according to directions
2 rashes or bacon
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 handfuls spinach leaves
Olive oil

Gently toast pine nuts, toss in garlic and bacon. When bacon is tender, stir through spinach leaves. Drain pasta and stir through, drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately. Easy!

The shortcut to Ratatouille!

We went fruit and veg shopping this morning. And I went a little overboard. Rather than decide in advance, we went in without a list and bought everything we thought looked fantastic. I'm still not so great at menu planning. Don't get me wrong. I am a planner. But menu planning seems to get undone by life's little hiccups so it hasn't happened for us yet.

But when looking at the pile of delicious vegies sitting on the kitchen bench I was inspired to try something I kept meaning to try... which also happened to be a summer vegetable dish. Ratatouille!

So this is my spin on Ratatouille with a little bit of a time saver involved ;)

Roast Vegetable Ratatoille

1 medium sweet potato, cubed
1 medium eggplant, cubed
1 ear of corn, with kernels cut off
2 medium zucchini, cubed
7 cloves of garlic, whole
7 spears of asparagus, trimmed
olive oil (about 2 tablespoons)
cayenne pepper (about a teaspoon)
and the shortcut ingredient - a jar of salsa. I used Maloa House Lecsó (Hungarian Salsa)

Preheat oven to 230 C. Place vegetables and garlic (excluding asparagus) into an casserole dish. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Toss. Lay asparagus spears on top and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and spoon salsa over the vegetables. Combine gently with a spoon. Pop back into oven for 15 minutes. Serve on a bed of brown rice.

This turned out fantastic and with plenty of leftovers to make omelettes for breakfast or quesadillas for lunch!

Real Men Don't Eat Quiche.

Or do they???

In fact, I've never met a man who doesn't but then I've never really been around men that read books!

But call it what you will - quiche, tart or flan - the fact remains they taste great!

Ours was simple. We had success again with Maggie Beer's GF Pastry recipe and the filling was simple, and as follows:

• 250 grams shaved ham, torn up
• 5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 6 eggs, whisked
• 1/4 cup rice milk
• 1/4 cup grated cheese
  

Basically, after lining the pie dish with the pastry, I assembled the quiche in that order. Baked for 30 minutes at 220C and there it is.

I'm having trouble with the GF blogs I follow. Most of them are based in the US or Canada so they're cooking gorgeous autumn and winter dishes and I have to remember Spring is almost over and Summer is on it's way. Although it's easy to forget when it's chilly and raining like today. But quiche is great in that it can be eaten cold with salad. So I'm back on track.

Ice Ice Baby - a Summer Treat

And with a new season on it's way in, our gluten-free, dairy-free journey has taken another step. Different foods on the menu, mean more items to be closely examined in the supermarket.
So Good soy ice cream is safe if it's Vanilla. But not if it's chocolate. Nestle Icy Poles are safe (and now marked gluten free on the package) but I've never really forgiven them for that bad thing they did.

So before investing in an ice cream maker and doing it all myself, I thought I'd give sorbet a go by hand first.
When I spotted Kiwi Fruit on special, it was all the inspiration I needed. But having never made sorbet before, I had a lot of research and reading to do.

My first port of call was my friend Skipper. She had loads of wonderful recipes on hand but hers contained egg. As Baby E hasn't had egg yet, I kept looking. And I stumbled across a familiar place - the blog of Pig in the Kitchen, another Mum with an allergy child! And even better, a starting point on how to make sorbet!
I particularly liked how her recipes were more rustic (so many recipes demand you force the fruit through a strainer).

Kiwi Fruit Sorbet.
250 grams white sugar
600 mls water
9 kiwi fruit, [peeled and roughly chopped
0.25 teaspoons xantham gum
1 teaspoon citric acid

In a medium saucepan, dissolve the sugar in the water. When dissolved, throw in the fruit and remove from the heat. Allow to cool. Pour into a blender. Add citric acid and xantham gum. Blitz until smooth. Pour into a metal tin (I used a cake tin) and freeze for an hour. Remove from freezer and beat with a handmixer. Put into freezer containers and re-freeze.