It's nearly jolly holly time!

Well we're winding up for our summer holiday in our house this week so it's a bit hectic right now. I have had time to get into the kitchen though and I have two new recipes to share with you all.
 The first came out of boredom.
 I'll be honest I'm so rushed off my feet I can barely bring myself to cook a full meal when I get home from work. Ordinarily this would mean turning to my trusty slow cooker and living on one pot meals but it's a little on the warm side weather wise for that sort of thing. So we've developed what my Mum would term the " kill it and cook it yourself" approach. In other words it's every man for himself, so my kids are living on beans on toast, bless 'em. I wish I could do the same!
 Anyway, using what I had left in the fridge and freezer I came up with this little ditty:
Saffron Noodles
Serves 1
Ingredients

• 1 portion of rice noodles ( dried or the straight to wok kind)
• 100g (approximately a large handful) of prawns or diced chicken.
• 100g of frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 tsp saffron strands
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 tbsps of goats/cow's milk butter
• 1 tbsp of rice flour.

1. If using dried rice noodles put them into boiling water to soak.
2. Peel and crush garlic and add to a medium pan with the prawns/chicken, vegetables and butter. Fry on a medium heat, stirring frequently.
3. Once the prawns/chicken and vegetables are heated through add the rice flour to the pan one spoon at a time, stirring vigorously. This is to make a butter sauce.
4. Finally add the saffron strands and turn the heat low. Allow to bubble for 2 minutes until the sauce turns yellow, then add in the noodles and mix well until they're coated with the sauce .
 Enjoy!

My next adventure was making dairy free ice cream. I did a little research first of all and found that most recipes are egg custard based ( Gack!). Not good when you can't eat eggs, so I pressed a little further and found several that were based on coconut milk.
I found one particular recipe that works quite well but there were a few kinks in it.
Firstly, it contained gelatine and I'll be honest there's absolutely no need to add it to the mix at all so I'll be leaving that one out next time around. The second was, being an American recipe, the coconut milk in this country is a little different so the result although good wasn't as fantastic as I'd hoped. Anyway here's the basic recipe, it does make a nice creamy dessert although the ice crystals tend to be a little big, so maybe this would be good in an ice cream maker.
Coconut vanilla ice cream
Serves 8
 Ingredients

• 3 cans of thick coconut milk ( keep one in the cupboard and put two in the fridge over night)
• 150g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Using the can of coconut milk from the cupboard, add it to the sugar in medium sized saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently until it has thickened and reduced. Set this aside until it is completely cold.
2. Empty the two cans of milk from the fridge into a large bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until it is light and creamy and then place in the fridge for an hour.

3. Once the condensed coconut milk is cold and the creamy mixture has been refrigerated combine the two and add the vanilla. Mix once more with the electric whisk and then pour into freezable containers.
4. Freeze for 3 hours and then mix thoroughly to break up the ice crystals before returning to the freezer for another 3 hours.
5. Serve with fruit or on it's own. If it is difficult to scoop leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to soften.
 I hope that'll keep you going for a week. Next week I'll be looking at eating abroad when you're on holiday and how to avoid your "banned" foods.

Vibrant veg!

I've been messing about with vegetarian recipes this week. Don't get me wrong, I love a good steak or sausage casserole, but sometimes I just want something light.
Late last week I picked up some aubergines while on my shopping travels, with no real idea about how I was going to use them. My first thought was ratatouille but that seemed a little obvious. I wanted something different!
 Searching through my cook books I came across a copy of Barbara Cousins Cooking Without.


I'd be lost without this book. When I've began changing my diet this was my go to book. It's full of simple recipes that you can make and adapt to suit your own requirements and tastes.
One of these recipes made good use of my aubergines!
Here it is:

Stuffed Aubergines
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 2 large aubergines
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 5ml/1 tsp olive oil
• 4 medium tomatoes
• 12 black olives ( you can use green if you prefer)
• 5ml/ 1 tsp tomato puree
• 3ml/1/2 tsp dried majoram
• 3ml/1/2 dried oregano
• 10ml/1 dsp fresh chopped parsley
• 10 ml/1 dsp fresh chopped coriander
• black pepper
• 55 g/2/oz cup of cooked rice
• 55g/2 oz ground almonds ( you can omit these and just add a little more rice if you are allergic to nuts)
• olive oil for drizzling on the surface
• optional: goats cheese or feta if you can tolerate dairy.

1. Cut the aubergines in half and scoop out the flesh leaving 2cm/1/2 inch around the edge next to the skin. Dice the flesh finely and place in a large bowl.

2. Finely dice the onion and press the garlic clove. Sweat the onion and garlic in 5ml/1 tsp of olive oil until they soften and brown. Add these to the diced aubergine flesh in the bowl.

3. Skin the tomatoes and dice the flesh. Quarter the olives. Add to the bowl along with the remaining ingredients (and cheese if using) and mix.

4. Place the aubergine shells on a baking tray or gratin dish.

5. Pile the stuffing into the shells, pressing down firmly.

6. Drizzle the surface with olive oil, cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees F/ 200 degrees C/ Gas Mark 6 for 1 hour or until the aubergines are quite soft.

These freeze quite well and make an excellent starter or light lunch.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I served mine with new potatoes and salad and I also took some to work for lunch. Yummy!

Next week my adventure will take me on a dairy free ice cream journey, wish me luck!

The bakers return!

Well, it's been a good old while since I last posted. Life can kind of get in the way sometimes!
Well in the 3 years since my last post I've developed several nasty intolerances and an allergy to corn of all things. This had made things particularly tough.
 Nearly everything on our shelves contains corn in some form, even certain types of mouthwash.
 
The problem of course, is that the UK is not as up to speed as other countries when it comes to labelling and it took me a solid week of feeling like death before I realised my new mouthwash was the problem. I mean, Come on! It's mouth wash, why on earth does it need corn oil?
Any hoo, that aside, now I know my problem I can be even more vigilant. The trouble is some of my most favourite treats relied on corn flour so you can imagine how that's shoved a spanner in my culinary works.

Still, I've tried various other thickeners for my gravies and custards with varying results.
 To help anyone else like me, who does enjoy a custard or two, here's my top 3 thickening alternatives:
1. Potato flour/starch.
Although it screams savoury, potato flour is just about the best thing I tried so far. You do need quite a bit of it though and it's not terribly cheap.
2. Arrow root powder.
Good thickening quality but it does tend to make everything seem a little bit like goo rather than sauce.
3. Rice flour.
Nice and cheap if a little grainy. It does have a tendency to suck up all of the liquid in any dish though.
So there you have it. I feel great now that I know exactly what was causing my horrible health problems but now I'm on a new improved mission to develop recipes to allow me to enjoy my food.