Recipe stolen and modified from taste.com.au. I used Edmond’s plain gluten-free flour for this recipe and substituted honey for the golden syrup as I had none on hand. I also reduced the cooking time as I know my oven runs quite hot.
They came out chewy and delicious and the whole house smells of honey and butter. Yum.
Ingredients
- 125gm butter cubed at room temperature
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ½ cup gluten-free plain flour
- Brown sugar to sprinkle
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Cream together the butter and caster sugar using a hand mixer until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Mix together the tablespoon of honey and the tablespoon of milk in a mug and microwave for thirty seconds to heat the mixture. Add the teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to the milk and honey mixture and stir through. The mixture will thicken and foam slightly.
Add the mixture to the creamed butter and sugar and stir through. Then add the 1 ½ cups of plain flour and ‘slice’ the flour in with a spatula. When it is as combined as you can get with a spatula start mixing it with your hands to form a smooth dough.
Pinch off approximately 2tsp of mixture and roll into a ball. Line the balls up on a greased or lined biscuit tray. Press them down with a fork and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Let them rest for 10 minutes before baking to help them rise. Bake in the oven for 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on the tray for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Makes approximately 24 biscuits.
For Pat
This is my favourite sauce to make for steak. Be careful when reducing it - you want a very thick sauce but the further you reduce it, the higher the likelihood the sauce will break (separate).
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 cup sliced mushrooms
- 2 rashers bacon, sliced into pieces
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup to 1 cup cream
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
- salt & pepper to taste
Cook your well-seasoned steak to your taste. Once the steak is resting, add the bacon to the pan and saute until just starting to crispen. Deglaze the pan with a cup of good quality red wine and reduce the liquid to about 1/3. Then add the sliced mushrooms and saute in a good heaping tablespoon of butter until soft. Add about half a cup of cream and bring to a simmer, stirring. Taste, and add more wine or more cream if required. Once the cream is very reduced stir through ¼ of a cup of excellent parmesan and serve the sauce over the steak with a little extra parmesan to garnish and freshly ground pepper.
One day I will post something that is not a recipe, but that day is not today. These guys are naturally gluten free with corn tortillas and very simple to prepare.
- 4 small size corn tortillas
- 1 - 1 ½ cups shredded iceberg lettuce
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- ~ 200g fresh white fish, cut into chunks
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- juice of 2 mexican limes, or one lime and one lemon.
- heaping tablespoon american mayonnaise
- a splash (1 tsp?) agave nectar
Prepare the salad and make the mayo first as the fish cooks fast. To make the mayo, mix well the juice of one Mexican lime or one lime and the agave into the heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise.
Heat the olive oil over a moderate heat until the pan sizzles when a drop of water is dropped on to it. Add the fish chunks, juice of one Mexican lime or half a lemon and spices and gently stir to combine. Cook, turning the fish chunks, for approximately 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. On cutting a chunk in half the fish should be completely opaque and flake easily.
Heat the tortillas according to your usual method. Lay lettuce and diced tomato in the centre and add roughly ¼ of the fish in the pan to the bed of salads. Drizzle with roughly ¼ of the lime agave mayo. Roll, and affix with a toothpick. Repeat with the other three corn tortillas.
Serves 2.
I was going to post this for Rachel earlier but then it seems the Tumblr app for iPad doesn’t allow you to add more than one photograph to a post so I needed to wait until my Mac was working again. I may have installed a beta version of MacOS on my primary computer. Maybe.
This kumara, shrimp and black bean filling is one I use for both tacos and enchiladas. For tacos, wrap in heated tortillas or spoon into hard taco shells and top with cheese, hot sauce and coriander.
Basic Enchilada Sauce
- 3 tablespoons cornflour
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 can tomato puree or passatta
Enchilada Filling
- 1 medium kumara, diced
- 1 can black beans
- 200gm frozen shrimp or prawns
- olive / vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon paprika
To Assemble
- 8 corn tortillas
- 1 cup grated cheese
To make the sauce:
Heat the vegetable oil over a medium low heat in a saucepan. Whisk in the cornflour, chilli powder and cumin and cook until fragrant. Add the can of tomato puree or passata. Simmer over a low heat while the filling cooks. If the sauce reduces too far, thin it with a little chicken stock or water.
To make the filling:
Defrost the shrimp or prawns in a hot frypan. Cook, stirring, until most of the liquid is evaporated. Then add the kumara and spices and a splash of olive or vegetable oil. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until kumara is soft through - approximately 15 minutes. Drain and rinse the can of black beans and add to the pan. Once the beans are warmed through the filling is ready to serve.
To make the enchiladas:
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Take a 4 - 5L baking dish - ‘six servings of lasagne’ sized - and splash a little enchilada sauce in the bottom. Warm your tortillas according to their directions - most can be microwaved for minute in the packet, with the packet open.
Take a tortilla. Spoon approximately two tablespoons of kumara filling in the enchilada and wrap. Place against the edge of the baking dish keeping the seam to the bottom. Follow with the other tortillas until you run out of space. Once finished, liberally pour the enchilada sauce over the enchiladas. Try to completely cover the tortillas. Top with a generous quantity of grated cheese and place in the 180 degree oven for approximately 20 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and cheese is melted.
Serves 4.
For Rachy.
This recipe is a basic creamy tomato pasta base. There are lots of possible combinations here but grating a zucchini into everything pasta related is pretty much my personal style. Shown here served on some artisanal fresh gluten-free egg pasta.
- ½ cup to a cup of frozen prawns
- 1 large zucchini, grated
- 1 thinly sliced capsicum
- 1 tin of chopped tomato
- 1 lemon
- Splash of white wine
- a tablespoon of butter
- a generous couple of tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
- ~ 150ml cream
- salt and pepper to taste
Heat a large frying pan to a moderate heat and add the frozen prawns. Stir fry until they defrost. Pour off the liquid from the pan and return to the heat.
Add the juice of half a lemon, a splash of white wine, and the tablespoon of butter. Also add the capsicum and zucchini. Cook, stirring, for around five minutes or until capsicum starts to soften.
Add the tin of chopped tomato and bring to a simmer. Add half the parmesan and roughly 150ml cream and a pinch of salt. Stir, simmering, for roughly ten minutes until the sauce has reduced and will coat the back of a spoon.
Serve tossed through freshly cooked pasta and garnish with the remaining parmesan and pepper.
I like to make my own stocks, to ensure I know exactly what’s in them. It’s also a great way to get as much use as possible out of a chicken - we paid $11 for a heavily discounted free range organic chicken and managed to get over 10 meals out of it. To me, not wasting meat and selecting higher welfare meat is one of the ways I can be a bit more respectful of the animals I eat.
You can put pretty much any vegetables into stock - the following is a guideline. I tend to avoid brassicas like cabbage and broccoli as the gasses they release are not exactly conducive to a nice aromatic stock. I focus on using up all the wilting and brown vegetables and all those unused halves in the back of the fridge.
Stock
- One chicken carcass, stripped of meat
- One onion, halved
- Two carrots, halved
- 2 ribs celery, broken up
- A few bay leaves
- Any fresh herbs that you might have
- Generous pinch of salt
Place the chicken carcass, vegetables, herbs, and salt in a large heavy stockpot. Fill with enough cold water to cover. Place the pot on the stove and crank the heat up to max.
Boil for roughly an hour or until the liquid has reduced by at least half and is a rich golden colour. Strain the stock into a bowl and discard the vegetables and carcass.
Soup
- Chicken stock
- 1 cup chicken meat, shredded
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 -2 carrots sliced
- 1 potato diced
- 1 large rib celery sliced
- 1 onion sliced
- 2-3 cm square ginger grated
- One lemon, cut in half
- A splash of soy sauce
- 1/8th cup aborio rice
Clean the stock pot and return to the stove - this time at a medium-low heat. Heat the olive oil and then add the onion and sweat, stirring, until translucent.
Add all other ingredients and simmer on low until the vegetables are soft. Fish the lemon out - all the flavour should be in the soup now without needing to zest for bloody ages. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serves 4 - 6.
For Rachy.
This is less of a recipe and more of a love letter to hot sauce and cheese. These are my favourite quick quesadillas to make. Onion lovers can add half a thinly sliced red onion to the vegetables.
- 2 large 10" tortillas
- 1 capsicum
- 1 zucchini
- ¼ cup frozen corn
- 3 - 4 tablespoons hot sauce of choice
- You know queso means cheese, right?
- One tablespoon olive oil
Slice the zucchini into thin rounds and the capsicum into thin strips. Cook over a moderate-high heat until soft and starting to blacken at the edges. Add the corn until warm through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Take a large tortilla and place in the pan. Arrange half the vegetable mixture on half the tortilla, leaving room to fold it over. Top with hot sauce to taste and a generous handful of grated cheese. Fold the tortilla over and give it a little squash with the spatula. Toast in the pan on each side approximately 2 - 3 minutes or until golden brown. Repeat with the second tortilla and remaining vegetables.
Serve with green salad and remember to take a photograph before you eat it all next time. Serves 2.
More naturally gluten-free goodness and vegan too. Especially for Dave2 since he loves lentils so very much. This soup freezes well.
I am not a fan of onions but for onion lovers, sweat a sliced onion in vegetable oil and the spices and add them to the soup together.
- 1 cup red lentils
- 2 cans chopped tomato
- 1 litre vegetable stock or water
- generous handful green beans, sliced
- two carrots, sliced
- 1 heaping tsp cumin
- 1 heaping tsp paprika
- 1 heaping tsp turmeric
- hot chilli powder to taste
- salt to taste
- lemon juice to taste
Combine red lentils, tinned tomato, water or stock and spices in your slow cooker. Cook on low for up to 8 hours. Roughly an hour before serving throw in the chopped vegetables.
Salt to taste and drizzle with lemon juice to serve.
Yep that’s it.
Serves 6.
This one comes under ‘Gluten Free is Not Necessarily Healthy’.
For Aunty Jill
I first tried scotch eggs quite recently when I tried to make them for the scotsman in the house. He gave them his seal of approval so this time I made note of quantities so I could write the recipe up.
Obviously breadcrumbs are not gluten free. I substituted a packet of gluten-free breadcrumbs from the supermarket because I am a bad foodie. I have used a mix of minced pork and sausage meat because I find all sausage meat is too fatty and all minced pork too dry.
- 4 large eggs, hard boiled and peeled
- 1 raw egg, whisked in a bowl
- 250gm minced pork
- 2 large sausages, skins removed, or ~ 160gm sausage meat
- 1 - 2 cups breadcrumbs
- 250 ml vegetable oil
Mix together minced pork and and sausages with clean hands until well combined. Divide mixture into quarters and form each quarter into a ball. Flatten a ball out, place a hard boiled egg in the middle, and gently shape the meat mixture around the egg until evenly coated.
Dredge the coated egg in the beaten egg and then roll in breadcrumbs. Gently pat more breadcrumbs on to the egg until it is completely coated and no meat shows through. Set aside on a plate, and repeat with the other three eggs.
Heat a cup of vegetable oil over a medium-low heat in a large, thick bottom frypan or saucier with high sides. Test temperature by dropping in a pinch of breadcrumbs. When the breadcrumbs sizzle and turn brown on being dropped into the oil, carefully place in coated eggs. Be careful not to heat the oil up too much - you want the eggs to sizzle, not spray oil everywhere.
Cook for 20 - 30 minutes, turning every few minutes to brown all sides. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels before serving.
Serves four, or one scotsman.
Lentils are a fantastic gluten-free food. They are a great source of protein, iron, vitamin B and fibre. They’re delicious and really versatile. Be careful to check the labels when purchasing them - many lentils are grown as a rotational crop in wheat fields and contaminated at the source, and many others are contaminated while sorting in the factory. New Zealand and Australian brands should mention on the label if the lentils could contain gluten.
These balsamic lentils can be used either as a vegetable side or as the main event. They are also great on toast with an egg for breakfast.
- 1 cup green lentils, rinsed
- 1 large carrot, finely diced
- 1 large rib of celery, finely diced
- half a small onion, finely diced
- 6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
- pinch of salt & pepper to taste
Add lentils and diced vegetables to a saucepan. Cover generously with water, add a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 20 minutes or until lentils are cooked but not yet mushy.
Drain lentils and dress with balsamic, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with freshly grated parmesan. Shown here with chicken and tarragon sausages and a scattering of rocket.
Serves 4
