Friday 30 August 2013

Gluten Free Cheese & Egg Sandwich Muffins (Lazy Version)

Yes, another cheese and bread related recipe. This one is adapted from my favourite and only french recipe book - Rachel Khoo's My Little Paris Kitchen, so this recipe is also known as Croque Madame Muffins (they are meant to look at ladies hats). Its important to experiment with your favourite ingredients in different forms. So yes, another cheese and bread recipe. But, it was a late supper and I wanted to something quick and easy to make, so I made a lazy version of the Croque Madame Muffins... Rachel's version has a lovely creamy cheese but I couldn't do 20 minutes of prep and then 15-20 minutes of baking. So here is my cut down version. 
Gluten Free Cheese & Egg Sandwich Muffins


Makes 2, easy to scale up or down. 

The Ingredients 
2 slices of gluten free bread
2 medium eggs
A small lump of cheese, finely grated.
Thinly sliced ham (optional)

The Method
Preheat oven at 180C.

Cut the crusts off the slices of bread.

Flatten the bread with a rolling pin. 

Lightly oil two holes of a muffin tin. 

Gently fold the bread into the muffin tin holes. 

If you have ham, add this now, if you want you can add some cheese as well. 

Crack an egg into each of bread muffin cases. 

On top of eggs sprinkle the grated cheese, make sure you have enough cover the top completely.

Pop in the oven and bake between 15-20 minutes. 

Serve immediately with some fresh salad. 
Croque Madame Muffins.

Friday 23 August 2013

Gluten free cheesy bread sticks

Great on their own or as a scoop for dips and I no longer have to miss another bready product that I gave up and their good for the rare occasion I make dinner for a large group as a starter. There easy to make, which is very important to me as I am lazy.

This recipe was adapted from Gluten Free Cookbook for Kids.

The Ingredient
250g gluten free plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
100g cheddar cheese grated
200ml creme fraiche
50ml natural yoghurt
150ml milk

The method 
Preheat the oven to 220c. Line a baking sheet with a greaseproof paper.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum.

Add the grated cheese and mix together.

Combine the creme fraiche, yoghurt and milk in a jug and whisk the mixture with a fork.

Make a well in the centre of the flour/cheese mixture and pour in the liquid.

Mix with a fork until you have a sticky dough (its meant to be this way).

Lightly flour a board (work surface) add the dough and gently make it into a round disc (of even thickness, about 1.5cm).

Cut into strips, and cut them in half.

Using a palette knife, gently place them on the baking tray.

Bake for about 10 minutes until lightly golden.

Best eaten straight out of the oven (but leave to cool for a few minutes). 

Friday 16 August 2013

Not just for winter soup

The 30C July has gone and the 20C is with us, as much as I loved the 30C heat after the eternal winter, 20C is a much more reasonable temperature for soup and I do love to eat soup. Here is another recipe adapted from my favourite French cookery book 'The LIttle Paris Kitchen'; Pistou soup, with summer vegetable, beans and pasta is hearty and fresh. 

Makes about 6-8 servings. 

The Ingredients 
The soup
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions diced 
4 cloves of crushed garlic
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 carrots diced 
 2 courgettes diced 
200g green beans diced 
400g tinned white beans (such as haricots) drained
2 litres boiling water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xylitol 
Some pepper
100g dried gluten free pasta
200g frozen peas
1 sprig of thyme

The sauce 
1 bunch of basil 
3 cloves of garlic
1 stalk of lemongrass roughly chopped
1/2 small red chilli 
5 tbsp sunflower oil

To make the sauce, pound all the ingredients together. 

To make the soup heat the olive oil, in a large saucepan. 

Add the onions and the garlic, cook gently on a medium heat. 

Add the thyme, tomato paste, carrots and courgettes, cook for 15-20 minutes. 

Add the green, white beans and the boiling water. 

Bring everything to a boil and add the pasta and peas. 

Cook for another 10 minutes, then remove the thyme. 

Add the salt, xylitol and pepper, cook for another minute. 

Serve with the pistou and enjoy!
 

Friday 9 August 2013

Chicken, french bean and almond salad...

...Not your average salad. Its tasty, healthy, quick, easy, and satisfying. With only three ingredients.

Its summer and that means lots of salad, which is of course good for you, but we don't want to get salad fatigue, so its good to mix it up.

It doesn't have to be done with chicken, ham or mackerel work well too.This recipe was taken from River Cottage Everyday.

The recipe serves 2.

The Ingredient
200g french beans (or green beans) trimmed
A large handful of blanched almonds
200g cold shredded cooked chicken

The dressing
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

The Method
Cook the french beans in a saucepan or boiling water for 3-5 minutes, until tender but not too soft.

Drain and rinse under cold water, pat dry.

Scatter the almonds in a dry frying pan and toast on a medium heat for a few minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until golden brown. Leave to cool.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients.

Put the beans, chicken and almonds in bowls and toss.

Drizzle over the dressing and toss again.

Tuck in!

Friday 2 August 2013

Vegan Banana Pudding With Cinnamon Biscuits

A lovely summer pudding, adapted from a recipe on healthy dessert blog Chocolate Covered Katie. I've adapted recipes from here before, with varying degrees of success, due to my impatience I would imagine. This recipe, however, went great first time round, being simple to make helped greatly!

For the banana pudding, its basically add the ingredients to the blender and whizz up. Done. The biscuits (better known as Graham Crackers in the States) didn't look promising at first, the dough was crumbly and dry, but out came chewy, tasty biscuits.

Its not a 'pretty' dessert, but most importantly it tastes good. It can be prettified by adding a little turmeric to the banana pudding as Kaite suggests. You could also drizzle chocolate on the biscuits, for extra prettification. I, however, am a rustic (lazy) baker and didn't bother with the prettification as I didn't have turmeric in the cupboard and I didn't want to melt chocolate on the stove on a hot summer's day. I guess it depends what your priorities are :-)

The Banana Pudding

Makes enough for two generous servings 

The Ingredients
80g ripe mashed banana
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp cashew butter or melted coconut oil
1 pack silk tofu (I used Blue Dragon Tufo Firm Silken Style (349g)
3-4 tbsp xylitol
optional: 1/8 tsp turmeric for a deeper-yellow hue

The method
Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth.

The Cinnamon Biscuits

Makes about 12 biscuits 


The Ingredients
1 cup plus 2 tbsp rice flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp plus 1/8 tsp salt
3 to 4 tbsp xylitol
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup melted coconut oil
2 tbsp water

The method
Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Combine dry ingredients.

Combine wet in a separate bowl.

Mix wet and dry together. 

Take small handfuls and shape into a rough biscuit circle on the baking tray, use a cookie cutter to make the edges neater if you want.

Repeat until all the mix is used.

Bake at 180C for 12-15 minutes.

Once removed from the oven allow to cool on a rack.

Once cool, store in an airtight container until its pudding time!

Banana pudding and cinnamon biscuits - the pale one.