Tag: gluten free

Gluten Free Porridge Cookies

I made these gluten free porridge cookies (and the recipe) one day as I had enough of seeing left over porridge go to the compost bin.

Now, if you are coeliac, you may need to be careful, this recipe contains oats, which has a protein that can trigger an immune reaction (but not always).

GF porridge cookies

Ingredients:
  • 1 egg
  • 230 g of porridge with sultanas.  If you need to cook the porridge, use 1 volume of oats for 2 volumes or water or a mix of water and milk (I prefer a mix).
  • 100 g of white sugar
  • 100 g of butter
  • 1 tsp of raising powder
  • 230 g of brown rice flour
Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
  2. Melt the butter and mix it with the leftover porridge to loosen a bit the mass.
  3. Add the sugar and the egg.  Mix well.
  4. Then mix in the rice flour and raising powder.
  5. Place little mounts, about the size of a tablespoon on a lined baking sheet.  Bake until light brown.
  6. Cool down on a wire rack.

Note: the dough is quite wet and sticky but not runny, it keeps its form when spooned on the tray. If your porridge is quite runny, you will need to increase the flour a little.

GF porridge cookies GF porridge cookies

Gluten free hazelnut & chocolate friand

A gluten free hazelnut chocolate friand? A friand? To hard? Not at all! This one (at least) is super easy, believe me.  And even better mega delicious. This recipe is derived from a recipe by Donna Hay.

It has both chocolate (chopped) and cocoa, as a result it is really indulgent on the chocolate.

Tip: if you don’t have GF flour at home, use brown rice flour or if you are not coeliac or gluten intolerant, use plain flour. 

Tip: if you don’t have friands moulds, ou can use a small muffin tray.

Makes 12 friands

Ingredients
  • dry ingredients:
    • 1 cup hazelnut meal
    • 1 2/3 cup of icing sugar
    • half a cup GF flour
    • half a cup cocoa
    • 1/2 tsp baking powder
    • 200 g dark cooking chocolate chopped
  • wet ingredients:
    • 5 eggwhites
    • 140 butter

and 2 tablespoons of chopped hazelnut.

Method:
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
  2. In a bowl place all the dry ingredients together, mix.
  3. Add the wet ingredients i.e. the butter, eggwhites. Mix to combine.
  4. Butter and flour a print mould (except if using silicone ones).
  5. Fill each print with one large spoon of the mix
  6. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Cool in the pan until about cold.

Enjoy!

friand choco hazelnut

friand choco hazelnut

Avocado Chocolate Mousse

The avocado chocolate mousse is often loved from vegan people or adept of the raw diet.  Most of the recipes use raw cacao powder.  This is where it gets confusing for the majority of us.  See below for definitions.

A few definitions

In English language the words cacao and cocoa refer to two different products.  Just reminding you here that in most Latin languages, the translation for “cocoa” is “cacao”!

Here are the adopted definitions (not by me, by all):

English WordFrench wordDefinitionDefinition (francais)
CacaoCacao cru Powder made from the bean of the cacao pod. The beans have not been roasted. Cacao cru ou «non torréfié», la poudre resulte du broyage des feves de cacao (pas de fermentation, et torrefaction).
CocoaCacaoPowder resulting from grinding cacao beans which have been roasted. Light brown colour. In Australia, this is the most used form of cocoa powder. In France and possibly some parts of Canada, dutch cocoa is mostly used. Poudre de cacao naturel ayant subi les procedes de fermentation et torrefaction. De couleur brun pâle. Ce cacao est plus acide et amère que la poudre de cacao alcalinisé. Son goût est par contre plus fruité. C'est la forme principalement utilise en recettes dans les pays anglophones.
Dutch cocoa (e.g. VanHouten, Blooker, Fry's)Cacao hollandais ou cacao alcalinisecocoa beans that have been washed with a potassium carbonate solution, to alkalise the pH and to neutralise their acidity. The powder is dark brown in colour.Poudre de cacao naturel qui a subi une alcalinisation. Le cacao est moins acide et sa couleur plus foncee. En France, c'est le cacao le plus utilise dans les recettes.

Got it?

Ingredients:

  • 2 large ripe avocados
  • 1/2 cup of maple syrup
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup of raw cacao

Note:  if you prefer using a good quality chocolate, you will need close to 200 g, melted.  You will end up with a higher volume of mousse. Note that couverture chocolate will harden, better stick to the 70% Nestle supermarket version. In that case, remove the maple syrup. 

Method:

Place everything in the food processor and blend on high speed until processed and smooth.  If you think the mousse is too thick, add a little water at the time.

avo choc mousse

Place in individual ramequins and refrigerate until use.

Note: this mousse can also be used to fill raw chocolate mousse tarts

 

Mousses chocolat a l avocat
Raw chocolate mousses, left one using a dark cooking chocolate, right one using cocoa powder (the one using raw cacao is not pictured here, it is similar to the right one, maybe a bit lighter in colour).

 

 

 

 

 

Galettes or crepes au sarasin

Galettes or crepes au sarasin are made from buckwheat. Buckwheat has no gluten, this dish is a great way for gluten intolerant and coeliac people to enjoy a crepe party!

Ingredients

  • 500 g buckwheat flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tbsp of salt
  • 50 g butter (the butter will allow the dough not to stick during cooking, if not using, you will have to use some when cooking)
  • about 800 mL water

Method

  1. Place the buckwheat flour and salt in a bowl, make a “well” (a hole in the middle)
  2. Add 1/3 to half of the water and mix with a whisk.  Then add the rest of the water and mix.  Add the eggs and mix until the preparation is smooth.  Add the butter if using.
  3. Mix the ingredient, you will have a thick but very fluid batter.  Allow to rest for a couple hours at least.
  4. To cook, heat up a large nonstick pan (the lower the sides, the better), pour a ladle of the preparation in the pan (you may need to adjust the amount as it depends on the size of your pan). Handle the pan to cover the bottom of the fry-pan.  Cook until the galette is fully dry on top.  At this stage you can choose to turn the galette over and fill it or stack it on a pile and prepare several more for use later when you will place them on they uncooked side.
  5. When cooking the filling, place it in the middle of the galette the filling ingredients are added and the four “corners” of the crepes pulled and folded towards the middle to contain the filling (you end up with a square shape galette).

Need more info for the batter? Look here.

Fillings

The basic filling is a full egg, ham and cheese, but there are many variations.  Combinations of the following ingredients make a great galette:

  • eggs
  • tasty cheddar / gruyere type of cheese
  • ham
  • Mushrooms (often sliced and precooked)
  • Bacon dices or “lardons” as known in France, precooked
  • Cream
  • sliced cooked potatoes

You can also use blue cheese (I personally love it in savoury galettes), green asparagus, smoke salmon, salmon, tomatoes,…the list is endless!

 

Photo from L'Atelier des Chefs
Photo from L’Atelier des Chefs

 

Chocolate Mousse

A real chocolate mousse is light and airy.  The chocolate mousse is made only from eggs and good quality cooking chocolate.  There is no sugar, no cream! Chocolate mousses for cakes are different and would include whipped cream.  You will find this recipe with small variations on pretty much every French chef website.

Make it at least 4 hours before serving as it needs to set in the fridge.  You can make it the day before if you want.  You can put the mousse in individual ramequins or serve it as one dish to share.

For 8 people.  Preparation- 10 minutes. Resting – 4 hours minimum.

Ingredients

  • 200 g dark cooking chocolate (I like to use 70% but it may be a bit strong for children, use as a minimum a 50%+ chocolate)
  • 6 large eggs separated
  • 10 cl milk (preferred) or water

Method

  1. Melt the chocolate with the method of your choice.  For non-couverture chocolate, I would typically break the tablet in chunks in a bowl, add the milk or water and microwave for 2 minutes on 50 or 70% power depending on the strength of your microwave.  It is important that the chocolate does not burn.  Once melted, mix until silky smooth.  If using couverture chocolate you will want to melt it in a bain Marie (once melted add the milk) and ensure your eggs are at room temperature.  The role of the milk is to make it easier to mix in the egg whites.
  2. Add one egg yolk at the time and mix well.
  3. Beat the egg whites to snow quite firm and insert them by folding them into the chocolate slowly.
  4. Transfer to a bowl or individual ramequins, cover with cell wrap and place in the fridge.  The mousse will settle in the fridge.
  5. Remove from the fridge 20-30 min before serving (in summer 10 min is enough), serve with a madeleine or other plain biscuit.

 

Bonne mousse au chocolat

Flourless raspberry, almond and chocolate cake

The recipe for this flourless raspberry, almond and chocolate cake was created out of a test I did one night some eight years ago.  I had completely forgotten about it, until I visited the Orange Grove market a year ago where the same cakes in individual portions are sold.

When I first made this cake, we lived in Bondi Beach.  I remember because it became the favourite after diner snack of a Swedish flatmate at the time, when she left, she specifically asked for the recipe (which I gave her).

Now, more important for some of you, this cake has no flour! If you run out of almond meal as happens to me from time to time, you can swap for hazelnut meal, I tried, it works!

Ingredients:

Makes a 20 cm ring cake.

  • 40 g butter
  • 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 100 g dark cooking chocolate
  • 1/2 cup of buttermilk
  • 2 eggs
  • 50 g of caster sugar
  • 75 g of almond meal
  • 1 cup of frozen raspberries

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C, line the bottom of a 20 cm diameter (or close to 20 cm) circular tin.
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter together.
  3. Add one after the other one, mixing well in between: the sugar, cocoa powder, and buttermilk.
  4. Now, add the egg yolks one at the time keeping the eggwhites in a separate bowl.
  5. Add the almond meal.
  6. Beat the egg white to snow and gently fold in.
  7. Pour the batter in the tin and spread delicately the raspberries on top.
  8. Bake until the centre is settled (no longer wobbly).For the baking the key is to cook slowly to prevent burning.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool down completely before removing the cake from the tin.
  10. Ice with icing sugar.

raspberry chocolate buttermilk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making your own pâté is pretty simple

Making your own chicken liver pate is simple!

If you like pâté, you may want to make your own.  In Australia, finding good pâté is quite a mission, and when you find it, the cost is quite high. Making your own pâté is actually quite simple.  All you need apart from the ingredients is a food processor and a fry pan!  You will find chicken livers at any butcher’s.  It is worth going to a good butcher, chicken livers are cheap and at a good butcher you can be sure they will be very fresh and big. I also add pork mince to my pate to soften the taste. The rest of the ingredients can be sourced from any supermarket and you probably already have them at home .

The recipe I am giving here is the one for the pâté I make again and again, it is the chicken liver pâté.  I make it for picnics, for parties and for no special reasons.  I make a batch and freeze it, it keep really well in the freezer for two months, when you need it, just allow to thaw in the fridge for a day before use.

Last time I made it, the butcher only had duck livers left, the taste was different, delicious too! (it is always a good indicator when there are no left overs).

Chicken liver pate
Chicken liver pate

Other pâtés I sometimes make

I make other types of pates too, not as often, they are definitely for larger crowds than my little family circle and I do not have endless storage space either.  Mum used to make “country terrines” by batches of 20 or more jars, cook them in a steriliser and keep them in the cellar. We would have them for lunch as entrees or for picnics during summer.

Pork Rillettes

making your own pâté
Pork rillettes, a Rick Stein recipe

Rillettes are a type of pate, typically french.  Most people (and even my butcher) don’t know about them down here.  Pok rillettes are pork belly and pork shoulder cooked in stock for a long time and  mixed with pork fat.  The recipe I used is from Rick Stein and was published in Delicious magazine. Rillettes are also often found made with duck.

Ham Hock Terrines

Another nice onein the pate family are ham hock terrines.  Ham hock terrines contains blocks of meat and are essentially ham hocks that have been cooked for a long time in a stock and put together as a terrine with a binder.  There are different ways to combine the meat, I tried the following two terrines, unfortunately I did not take any photos:

  • Ham hock terrine with jellified cooking stock.  This is another recipe from the Delicious magazine. You can find it online.
  • Ham hock terrine with mustard.  This is an early Masterchef recipe.

Personally I prefer the second one,  one friend loved the first one and she was so over the moon with it, I ended up giving the whole left overs to her, she loved it!

Chicken liver pate

This chicken liver pate needs to be made at least ½ day before use, it keeps quite well for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Many recipes have only chicken livers in them, I like to add some pork mince as it softens a bit the taste of the chicken livers. You could also use chicken mince.  The weight ratio in pork/chicken mince is between 1/5  to 1/4 of the paté.

This method requires cooking each ingredient one by one, then blending them together, there is no lengthy cooking as you may find for some other patés and terrines.

You need to choose before making the paté which flavour you will give your paté, if any.  I may add good quality Port (Porto) or a drop of whiskey.  My favourite is adding different types of peppers (green, black and red).

If you only have a small food processor, I suggest using half the size of this recipe.

You will find livers at the butcher, ask the butcher, livers are often kept at the back.

The recipe below makes 5-6 jars of paté (150-160 g each + butter topping).

Ingredients:

  • 500 g of chicken livers
  • 250 g of pork/chicken mince maximum, 150 g minimum
  • 1 medium onion
  • About 200 g of butter
  • 1/2 glass of water
  • Salt
  • Pepper, black as a minimum ground and whole.  I also use red pepper bays on top. The pepper paté has whole (not grounded) green pepper (35g – that would depend where your source the pepper from) and one generous tablespoon of black peppercorn inside.
  • Optional – A bit of port, fortified wine, whiskey or strong alcohol (not required if opting for strong  pepper option)
  • A few leaves of parsley or red pepper for the topping

Method:

1/. Prepare the livers by removing all the small nerves or skins, make sure to keep the livers whole as much as possible.

2/. Cut the onion in small cubes or small slices, melt 50 g of butter in the fry pan and cook gently the onion until melted down, transfer to the food processor.

3/. Cook the mince in the frypan until well cooked, season to taste (salt and ground black pepper), then transfer into the food processor.

3/. In the frypan, add another 80-100 g of butter, when the butter is melted, add the livers, season (salt and black pepper) to your taste. Be careful with the salt, it will appear saltier when cooled down. Cook the livers until just pink in the middle (cut one open to check).  You will need to turn the livers half way (a couple of minutes) and remove earlier the smaller pieces from the frypan. There should be no more blood but it should not be overcooked. Once cooked, transfer to the food processor, including all the butter of the frypan. Add the whole pepper to the blender is using making the pepper version.

4/. Whizz the food processor until you reach a very fine structure, add the alcohol at this stage if using. Add half of the water at his stage.  If the paste is thick and does not mix well, you can add a bit more of the water or a drop more alcohol (do not add too much though) or add some melted butter, one teaspoon at the time.  This is also the time where you can adjust your seasoning before a last short whizz (so they are not fully broken down).

5/. Transfer the chicken liver pate to containers (plastic boxes or ceramics bowls).  With a spatula or the back of a spoon, ensure the mix is spread evenly and flat at the top.  Melt the remaining butter and cover each surface with it.  This will prevent oxidation.  Add the red pepper or parsley leaves (for decoration).

The chicken liver pate will keep in the fridge for two weeks.

Enjoy!

Pudding aux Marrons (chestnut pudding)

This “pudding aux marrons” or chestnut pudding is a personal recipe. It is a delicious delicate and light dessert. It combines the earthy flavour of the chestnut with the moistness of a steamed pudding.  It is also gluten free.

The photo above is a variation from this recipe. This recipe requires baking in a closed pudding bowl in bain-marie whereas on the photo the pudding was cooked in a half bain-marie  with the tin opened to the top.  Our au-pair did not know what a pudding tin looked like and adapted to the situation, she did a great job at managing a very good desert.  I will change the photo when I make the pudding next.

You can make you own chestnut puree, it does take a bit of time thought but at least you can control the sweetness of it or you can find cans of chestnut puree in deli shops.  This recipe is based on a chestnut puree unsweetened with chestnuts cooked in milk (as opposed to water). If you are using canned chestnut puree, adapt the sugar quantity.

The cooking time is quite long (about 1 hour).

Serves 8.

Ingredients
  • 250 g of chestnut puree cooked in milk and unsweetened
  • 6 eggs
  • 180 g of caster sugar
  • 125 g of almond meal
  • 60 g of butter
  • vanilla extract
Method
  1. Pre-heat the oven at 160°C
  2. Add to the chestnut puree, the egg yolks one at the time, preserving the white in a clean bowl.
  3. Add to the mix, the vanilla, sugar and almonds
  4. Add the softened butter (it works as well if melted)
  5. Beat the egg to snow to firm peaks
  6. Gently fold the egg white into the mix.
  7. Butter the pudding tin well.  Pour the mix in it. Close the tin.  If you do not have a lid, you can use a couple layers of aluminium foil and some string to make a lid.
  8. Cook for close to an hour.  The first time you make this pudding, you may want to check the cake around 50 minutes cooking time with a thin skewer.  Try to do so quickly not to loose too much heat. the pudding should be (if not cooked) very close to it, and will not collapse. The skewer should come out from the cake dry (no uncooked cake sticking to it). Replace in the oven if necessary.

Serve with creme anglaise or strawberry coulis.

Wild rice, feta, roasted pumpkin salad

This wild rice, feta, roasted pumpkin salad is a killer! It is for a light meal.  The dressing is based on tahini and lemon.

Ingredients:

Serves 4

  • 1 cup of wild rice
  • 1/2 block of feta
  • 1/2 butternut pumpkin
  • 1 tablespoon of tahini
  • 1 teaspoon of honey
  • 1/2 lemon juice (up to the 1 full lemon juice if not very juicy)
  • Olive oil
  • 2 spring onions
  • 6 figs cut in quarters
Method:
  1. Preheat oven to 200°C.  Peel the pumpkin and cut into 1-2 cm length and wide cubes. Place in a roasting dish, add olive oil and salt.  Put into the oven and roast until tender.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool down.
  2. In the meanwhile, bring to the boil a pan of salted water. When it is boiling, add the rice, reduce the heat to allow for a small boil.  Wild rice will take about 20 minutes to cook and remain slightly firm.
  3. Prepare the dressing: in a small bowl, place the tahini, lemon juice and honey together, add 2 tablespoon of olive oil, 3 tablespoon of water (to make it thinner),   a touch of salt (not too much, the pumpkin, rice and feta are already bringing some salt). Mix well. Add a bit more water if very tick.  This dressing is not so thin.
  4. In a large salad bowl, place the pumpkin, the feta broken in small pieces, the rice and the spring onions.  Mix slightly being careful not to break the pumpkin and feta. Add the figs.
  5. Depending on who will be at the table you may pour the dressing on the salad or leave it for each to do so.

 

Raspberry jam

Who does not love raspberry jam?  When I grew up, we would have to pick the raspberries, here I save myself that trouble and head to the frozen section at the shop.  Some shops or food suppliers will have them at a better price than the main supermarkets.

Jam traditionally call for 1/2 fruit  to 1/2 sugar weight in their composition. I prefer mine not so sweet.  Also note that this recipe does not use any jam settler, if you want to use those, I would suggest the “sugar jam” which is sugar and settler all in one.  In that case do not use lemon juice, apparently it cancel the effect of the settler.

Did you notice my jam label? I have now been using it for 7-8 years!

Ingredients:
  • 1 kg frozen berries
  • 700 g of white sugar
  • the juice of 2 lemons
Material:
  • Jam jars previously cleaned, then sterilised in boiling water (I do that while my jam is cooking) and let to cool down face down on a clean towel
  • a large ended funnel and a ladle
  • A large cooking pot
Method:
  1. Put the raspberries, lemon juice and sugar in the cooking pot on the stove. Stir roughly.  I like using a large wooden spoon to do that.
  2. When the fruits are boiling reduce a bit.  In the meanwhile place a small plate in the freezer and prepare your jars.
  3. The jam is ready to put in pots when a few drops of jam placed on your cold plate (yep, the one you put in the freezer) and allowed to cool down for up to a minute does not run when held at an angle.
  4. Using the ladle and the large ended funnel fill the pots one by one quite close to the top  and immediately put on the lids.  The jam will settle, it may take overnight.
  5. When the pots are cold, clean them if there is a bit of jam on the outside and label them.

Tip: be very careful not to burn yourself with the jam, hot jam burns and it is painful!

Tip: runny jam? Cook it again!