Gluten-Free Food,Kiwi Style

PAVLOVA ROULADE

8 egg whites

2 cups caster sugar

1 T maize cornflour

1 T white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 T extra maize cornflour

Cream & Strawberry Filling: 300ml cream, 750g strawberries.

Lemon Curd Filling: 300ml cream, ½ cup lemon curd

Preheat oven to 160oC. Grease 26 x 38cm swiss roll tin, line with baking paper, overhanging. Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric beater until soft peaks form.  Add sugar a very little at a time, beating in. Beat until firm peaks form.  Sift cornflour over mixture, then add vanilla and vinegar very gently and fold through.

Spread mixture into the tin and cook 20 minutes or until just firm.  Cool for 5 minutes, meanwhile place a clean teatowell on the bench top with baking paper on top.  Sift extra cornflour over the baking paper.  After 5 minutes cooling invert the pan so the pavlova turns out on top of the baking paper.  Remove the lining and cool. Score a line 2cm (1 finger width) from the long edge of the pavlova.

Whip cream with electric beater until soft peaks form then spread cream in a line along the long edge of the pavlova closest to you, For the strawberry filling slice one third of the strawberries and spread on top of cream, for the lemon curd filling fold the curd into the thickened cream then spread evenly over the whole pavlova.  Use the teatowell and baking paper to roll the pavlova to you firmly, lifting the paper and rolling until it looks like a log.  Carefully lift onto a serving plate with the join at the bottom.  Dust with icing sugar, slice and decorate with mint leaves or strawberries.

Other variations:

• Spice it Up: Add 1T cinnamon or 1 T ground ginger
• Yoghurt and peaches filling
• Chocolate Roulade: Add 1 T cocoa and reduce the cornflour by 1 T
• Chocolate Roulade Filling: Use a blackberry jam and cream filling
• Chocolate Roulade Filling 2: Jam, yoghurt and pitted cherries

THICK LEMON CURD– Makes 3 cups

200g butter

1 cup caster sugar

grated rind and juice of 3 lemons

4 eggs

Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.  Using a whisk add the caster sugar, lemon rind and juice, and the eggs, whisking well to combine.  Whisk continuously as it thickens and comes to the boil.  Remove from the heat just as its about to boil vigorously, cool  When cold, cover and store in the fridge where it will thicken.

Variation: add ½ cup passionfruit pulp or squashed raspberries  during the cold stage

CRYSTALLISED MINT LEAVES

1 egg white, beaten lightly

10 small apple mint sprigs

2 T caster sugar

Spread a little egg white over the surface of each leaf.  Dip into caster sugar then place on baking paper until dry.

Summer holidays have been a refreshing break after the hectic last term! I have had several phone calls requesting books resulting from people walking into a book store wanting my book- which is extremely exciting. I haven’t done too much creating gluten-free or altering standard recipes recently as I’ve been sticking to basic fresh meals and limited baked treats. However, I’ll keep you posted. Enjoy the rest of summer and remember to try out some of the summer recipes posted last year, Trace

This bread is so fantastically quick and easy and tastes scrumptious!

BEER BREAD

3 cups GF bread & pastry flour

3 tsp baking powder

3 tsp guar gum

1 tsp salt

400ml  GF beer (Scotts comes in 330ml so open two and drink the rest!)

½ cup grated cheese

Preheat oven to 190oC. Grease large 20 x 10 cm non-stick loaf tin.   Mix flour, baking powder, guar gum, salt and beer in a large bowl until well combined.  Scrape into tin and sprinkle the top with grated cheese. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and hollow when tapped from underneath. Tip out and cool on cooling rack before slicing. Eat within a day or toast the next.

Here are a few more berry recipes which are fantastic at this time of year.  I have heaps of strawberries in my garden at the moment which we are demolishing rather quickly but these recipes also use frozen berries which are plentiful all year round.

RED FRUIT SALAD

Cut out half a watermelon.  Scoop small watermelon balls from watermelon flesh. Hull strawberries. Fill the cut-out watermelon half with the watermelon balls and strawberries.

TROPICAL ICE-BLOCKS

250g strawberries, hulled, cut into bite size

250g can diced pineapple

4 kiwifruit, peeled and sliced

750ml orange juice

Mix altogether and put into ice-block moulds, freeze.

STRAWBERRY FROZEN YOGHURT ICE-BLOCKS

Puree 1 cup of hulled strawberries in a blender until gritty. Mix in 500g of plain natural yoghurt.  Pour into plastic ice block moulds and freeze.

RASPBERRY ICE-CREAM

2 litres GF vanilla ice-cream, softened

2 ½ cups frozen raspberries

½ cup frozen blueberries

1 cup chocolate, roughly chopped

½ cup nuts, roughly chopped

Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and blend well.  Scrape into a 23cm round silicon cake tin and cover with gladwrap or plastic cover.  Refrigerate overnight at least. Slice to serve – serves many!

Variations: add liqueur,  GF marshmallows, pureed berries

RASPBERRY ICECREAM LAYERS

2 litres vanilla ice-cream, softened

600g fresh raspberries

Line a standard loaf tin with baking paper leaving an overhang over the tin edges or alternatively use a silicon loaf tin.  Layer half the icecream, then half the fruit, repeat.  Place in the freezer for 3-4 hours or until firm. Slice to serve – serves 6-8

POWER OF RED SMOOTHIE

90g fresh strawberries, hulled

1 banana, sliced

60g raspberries

450ml milk

1 scoop GF vanilla icecream

Blend all the fruit.  Add the milk and icecream, blend again.

STRAWBERRY ENERGISER

1 banana

1 cup fresh strawberries

½ cup milk

½ cup GF strawberry yoghurt

½ cup ice

Combine in a blender and blend until smooth.

REFRESHING STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE

½ cup frozen strawberries

¼ cup frozen sliced banana

½ cup milk

½ cup plain or GF strawberry yoghurt

Combine frozen fruit in a blender then add milk and yoghurt.  Blend again

2 weeks ago with a committee meeting being held at my place and my oven out of order using the microwave became a necessity.  Thankgoodness I remembered that I had a quick basic microwave brownie recipe that I could convert to gluten-free and upgrade a little.  This is it:

QUICK GLUTEN-FREE MICROWAVE BROWNIE

100g semi-soft butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sugar

75g chocolate drops, roughly chopped

100g dried cranberries

1 cup GF baking flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp guar gum

5 T cocoa

icing sugar to dust

In a medium microwave-safe bowl melt the butter on high for about 40 seconds or until melted.  Stir in the eggs, sugar and vanilla, mix well. Add cranberries and chocolate.  Stir in the flour, baking powder, guar gum  and cocoa. Spread the mixture into a glass baking dish lined with baking paper.  Microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and cutting.

Most of us have heard the message that vegetables are extremely important in our diet and we should have half a plate full at dinner time.  Here are some variations that I have tried recently:

Coleslaw with sliced green cabbage and red cabbage, and chopped parsley

Lettuce salad with lettuce greens, sprouted beans, tomato, chopped herbs etc

At least 3 different vegies steamed until just tender or stir-fried

• diced red onion

• broccoli florets, and chopped stem or cauliflower florets
• sliced carrot
• sliced zucchini
• cubed button mushrooms
• sliced beans
• chopped bokchoy or cabbage
• diced pepper
• frozen peas or beans
• frozen stir-fried vegies

Add a wee sprinkling of these to steamed vegies:

• slithered almonds
• pinenuts
• cashews
• chopped walnuts
• sesame seeds
• sliced spring onions
• grated edam or parmesan cheese

Add to stirfried vegies:

• coating of whole-grain mustard, pesto with olive oil, or dukkah after frying
• quick marinade of tsp of crushed or sliced garlic, crushed ginger, sprinkling of tamari soy sauce
• marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, crushed or sliced garlic, grated ginger root, tamari soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce. Serve with sliced spring onions or sesame seeds

Below are two winter veggie recipes that I enjoy:

Curried Vegies

Steam vegies until just tender or lightly defrost frozen vegie mix. Simmer together enough light evaporated milk, drop of coconut essence and red curry paste together, thicken with maize cornflour and add vegies.  Heat through in the pot or the oven.

Tomato Vegies

Serve with grilled chicken, add chunks of chicken or with pasta for lunch

In a sprayed heated pan cook 6 sliced garlic and 1 diced onion.  Add 2 sliced carrot and steam for a minute. Add half a broccoli head of florets and stem sliced, 2 sliced zucchini, and handful of frozen peas, steam with lid on.  Stir through a 500ml 5 Brothers tomato sauce until hot

The last few weeks I have taken to adding protein into my breakfast meals so here are my fave quick and easy recipes:

Quick Panfried Omelett

Spray a small non-stick frypan with baking spray and preheat to high. Beat 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg with a fork.  Cut a few heads of Italian flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped. Pour into hot pan when oil is clear. When omelett is white around the edge and bubbled white in the middle then flip over and cook on the other side.  Serve on toast.

Quick Panfried Scrambled Eggs: As above except instead of setting omelett in the pan, stir it around with a fishslice.

Weekend Omelet

Beat with a fork 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg, dash of milk.  Cut strips of kumara and microwave for 1 minute. Add this to egg mixture.  Slice 1 small carrot and 2 florets of broccoli. Add to egg mixture.  Spray a small frying pan with baking spray and heat until clear.  Preheat grill to 180oC.   Pour mixture into pan and cook base, then place in oven and cook the top.

Variations:

• Replace kumara with potato, pumpkin, yam, frozen corn kernels or serve on toast.
• Replace other vegies with zucchini; silverbeet or spinach; frozen stir-fry vegies, peas or beans.
• Replace vegies with small tin tuna or salmon and some frozen corn kernels. Serve on toast.

Microwave Omelette

Beat with a fork in a small bowl: 2 egg whites, 1 whole egg. Microwave for 2 ½ minutes.  Remove and mash with a fork.  Serve on 2 slices of GF toast.

Variations:

• Scrambled Eggs: Mash with a fork after cooking
• Add 1-2 slices of bacon, cooked between a folded paper towel for 2 minutes in the microwave. Slice and stir-through.
• Add a little canned salmon or tuna, chopped chives or parsley

2 Poached Eggs on GF Toast

2 hard boiled eggs with GF toast soliders

Gluten-free dough is much softer than their standard counter-part.  Always follow the recipe.  Flour the hard surface well – I usually use maize cornflour.  Flour your hands well, and as required through out the kneading or preparing.  Add extra cornflour to the dough as required to stop it sticking to the surface and to form a firm enough dough for use.  

I clean down my floured surface with the scraper on the back of my pot scrub before wiping down.

With a plentiful supply of autumn feijoas there are many recipes to make…

GLUTEN-FREE FEIJOA MUFFINS with citrus glaze

Makes about 14

3 cups GF baking flour

2 tsp GF baking powder

2 tsp guar gum

½ cup caster sugar

3 eggs

¼ cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 ½ cups of feijoa flesh (about 12-13 medium feijoa)

1 cup milk

Citrus Glaze:

2 T caster sugar

2 T orange, lime or lemon juice

finely grated rind of half an orange, or one lemon or lime

Preheat oven to 180oC.  Lightly grease muffin tins.  Sift flour, baking powder, and guar gum into a large bowl.  Stir though sugar, then make a well in the centre.  Add eggs, oil, milk, feijoa and vanilla essence, beat well.  Spoon into muffin tins until ¾ full.  Fanbake for about 15 minutes or until cooked.  Simmer glaze ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved.  Brush over warm muffins. Once cooled, then remove to a cooling rack.

I recently purchased a slow cooker for the first time and this was one of my first meals and it gets the thumbs up. 

GLUTEN-FREE LAMB SHANKS – SLOW COOKER STYLE

Serves 4

4 small lamb shanks, trimmed of excess fat

3 small onions, peeled, sliced

x2 400g tins GF whole peeled tomatoes, roughly chopped

290g tin GF tomato puree

2 T GF tamari soy sauce

2 T GF plum sauce

2 T brown sugar

½ cup brown lentils

½ cup red wine

Lightly spray slow cooker.  Arrange onion rings on the bottom, then place lamb shanks over top.  Add tomato puree, lentils, whole peeled tomatoes, soy sauce, plum sauce, brown sugar and red wine.  Heat on high for 30 minutes then reduce to low for a further 7-9 hours.  Serve with a pumpkin and potato mash.