Steeliac

Tag: Gluten free cooking

  • Gluten free sausagefest

    Gluten free sausagefest

    Inspired by the (not GF) bangers and mash ‘your way’ menu option at a recent pub visit, we had a crack at our own, gluten free version when we had a house full of family the other week.

    There are tonnes of gluten free sausages available in the supermarkets these days, including many own brands. Sadly, I’ve rarely found gluten free sausages in the butchers, but there are still plenty to choose from.

    I’ve tried quite a few brands, and the Black Farmer sausages are always a favourite, but I can usually only get their plain pork ones. I was over the moon to find these Jolly Hog sausages with gluten free black pudding and apple. It’s not too difficult to come across GF black pudding, but in a sausage! The Porky Blacks were fab, and even a hit with people who aren’t into ‘neat’ (?) black pudding. Tonnes of flavour.

    So we cooked three kinds of sausage (baked in the oven). Alongside the Jolly Hog Porky Blacks, we had Jolly Hog with caramelised red onion, and plenty of Black Farmer pork and herb for the less adventurous.

    We cooked a big pan of regular mashed potato and another of carrot and sweet potato mash. Top tips for making mash for a crowd:

    1. I used an electric whisk to do the mashing – this gave a great texture.
    2. For the sweet potato and carrot mash, chop the carrots much smaller than the sweet potato as it takes longer to cook.
    3. Plenty of butter and cream in the potato mash, but just butter in the carrot and sweet potato.
    4. Don’t be shy with the seasoning.

    While the potatoes were boiling and the sausages were cooking, we made two sauces – onion gravy and cheese sauce.

    When there’s no meat juices to add, I make an onion gravy by caramelising finely sliced onions in oil and butter, with a touch of sugar. Stir in some flour to soak up the oil, then add beef stock, a generous glug of red wine and plenty of Hendo’s. Bubble away until the desired thickness is achieved.

    For the cheese sauce, I melt butter in a pan, then stir in some gluten free plain flour to soak it up. Add cold milk, whisking all the time, then plenty of grated cheese. Once the cheese is added, don’t let it boil, otherwise it will split.

    Feel free to ask in the comments if you’re interested in a more detailed recipe for any of this, but I’m not generally one for much measuring!

    We served the bangers on a big platter, the mash in two big dishes, and the sauces in two gravy jugs, and let people help themselves. It was grand.

  • Ugo Thrive fresh pasta

    Ugo Thrive fresh pasta

    There seems to be a lot of gluten free fresh pasta coming into the supermarkets at the moment. These Ugo Thrive filled pasta shapes are available from Sainsbury’s and Ocado. The first time I tried some filled GF tortellini I totally overcooked it, and it turned to mush, so I’ve not bought any for a while. However, the pumpkin and sage raviolini was enough to make me try again. We used to love pumpkin and sage ravioli as a quick weeknight tea, and I have really missed the flavour.

    One packet is enough for two, unless you’re super hungry! The kids had the spinach and ricotta tortellini with some tomato sauce and loved it. We shared the pumpkin and sage raviolini, just with plenty of extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and parmesan. Normally, I’d mix in a few green salad leaves too.

    The trick with these is to follow the instructions and cook them for no more than one minute, so they don’t fall apart. This was easy with the raviolini, but less so with the tortellini, as I usually cook the pasta, drain, then stir in the tomato sauce and heat it in the pan. To avoid collapse, I’d recommend cooking the pasta for only 30 seconds, and heating up the sauce separately first, so you don’t need to do too much stirring!

    Great when you need an instant meal!

     

  • Gluten free mince pies and Christmas ice cream

    Gluten free mince pies and Christmas ice cream

    It was great to meet the lovely Paulette Edwards at Radio Sheffield today, as well as Richard Setchell from the British Oak Ale House in Mosborough. We were talking about gluten free cooking at Christmas, and you can listen to the show here. It’s about 2 hours in, after Rod Stewart! I promised to share the recipe for my gluten free mince pies, so here it is:

    Gluten free mince pies with macaroon topping

    This year I’ve tried a new recipe for the pastry, which is much easier to work with than my previous one. It’s from Leiths, and uses xanthan gum to replace the gluten. You can find the pastry recipe here. I used all butter instead of half margarine and it worked fine. You do need to make sure you refrigerate the pastry as suggested. This is the first time I’ve been able to make pretty mince pies with scalloped edges because I didn’t have to wrestle with the pastry putting it in the tin!

    After refrigerating the pastry in the bun tray, I filled the pies with some nice shop-bought mince meat, and topped them with the macaroon mix, which is made as follows:

    2 egg whites
    100g ground almonds
    100g caster sugar
    1tsp cornflour
    2tsp water
    1/2 tsp vanilla essence
    Flaked almonds

    Lightly beat the egg whites. Fold in the caster sugar and ground almonds. Stir in the cornflour blended with water and vanilla essence. This is easy – just don’t over-whip the egg white! This mixture tops about 12 regular sized mince pies.

    Spoon the mixture on each of the mince pies instead of using a pastry top. Pop a few almond slices on each mince pie, and pop them in the oven at 190C for about 20 mins. They rise into beautiful little domes and go lovely and brown.

    Cool the pies on a wire rack. They freeze nicely and can be defrosted either at room temperature or in the oven.

    I have no idea of the origins of this recipe, but it’s become a firm family favourite.

    Another alternative to a pastry top is to cover the mince meat with a sprinkling of the flaked almonds. This worked out nicely when I had more pastry than topping, and it’s a tiny bit healthier – not that that’s the aim!

    Christmas ice cream

    This is one of our family favourites, that we’ve been enjoying for a long time before any of us were coeliac. I’m not so much into Christmas pudding so this is our usual Christmas dinner dessert.

    It doesn’t take very long to make, and you don’t need an ice cream maker (I’ve never allowed myself one!) You just have to remember to give it a good stir every couple of hours or so as it freezes. So don’t make it in the evening.

    I have no idea where to attribute this recipe – it’s one of those that was passed down on a scrap of paper!

    2oz sultanas
    2oz raisins
    2oz glacé cherries – chopped
    2tbsp Cointreau
    Zest & juice of 1 orange
    5 egg yolks
    5oz caster sugar
    1/2 pint each single & double cream
    6oz plain chocolate

    • Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour over Cointreau, orange juice & zest.
    • Put egg yolks and sugar in separate bowl & whisk well.
    • Heat single cream gently until almost boiling and pour over yolks. Stir well and return to pan. Heat until it thickens then remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until melted then leave to cool.
    • Whip double cream until thick and add to mixture with the fruits and liquid. Pour into a tub and freeze. Stir every couple of hours until frozen.
    • (Use the egg whites to make meringues or the macaroon topping for mince pies above!)
  • Adventures in broadcasting

    Adventures in broadcasting

    So, I had a fascinating Saturday morning, taking part in the Radio Sheffield breakfast show with Kat Cowan and guest chef, Lee Vintin (from the Chequers Inn), which was all about gluten free food. It was a frenzy of cooking activity for an hour, punctuated by discussion about all things coeliac in between the records and bulletins.

    You can listen on catch up for a few weeks here from 2h 6mins.

    I found the process as interesting as the discussion, observing the professionals busy at their work. I was fascinated watching Kat do her broadcast, having to listen to the producer over the headphones, briefing us and setting up the next section during records and jingles, and bursting into radio speak at just the right time to make what I imagine was a fairly seamless show.

    I was equally impressed with the amount of cooking I watched Lee cram into the hour alongside being interviewed. He cooked a crumble, buckwheat pancakes and three different types of Scotch egg! And all I did was stand by and chip in the odd opinion. And for anybody who listened, I must apologise for having to describe my body’s reaction to gluten live on the radio – and at breakfast time.

    I hope the show was useful to help people understand what it’s like to be coeliac and also give things to think about if you are cooking for somebody who needs to eat safe, gluten free food.

    So on to the cooking: First was the crumble. This was lovely and crunchy. The main tip Lee gave us for this recipe was to cook the crumble separately and add it at the end, so it keeps its crunch. It also means you can keep the leftovers ready for the next time.

    Crumble topping

    • 100g each rice flour and sugar
    • 50g each gf porridge oats and ground almonds
    • 100g butter
    • pinch cinnamon

    Rub the ingredients together or mix in a food processor, then bake at 170C for half an hour, turning regularly. You can use the mixture to top stewed fruit and custard or even just sprinkle on yoghurt.

    Lee also cooked us a breakfast buckwheat pancake.  Buckwheat is naturally gluten free but is frequently cross contaminated, so you would need to buy carefully.

    Buckwheat pancake batter

    • 50g buckwheat flour
    • 25g plain flour
    • 1 egg
    • 125ml milk.

    Mix well to make a batter then fry as a normal pancake. Ours was filled with cheese, ham and mushrooms whilst still on the heat, so it was all melty and lovely.

    Finally, and rather amazingly, Lee treated us to three different kinds of Scotch egg! These take a bit more preparation, but were absolutely delicious.

    Classic Scotch egg

    • Quails eggs
    • gluten free sausage meat
    • gluten free flour
    • egg wash made with egg and milk
    • breadcrumbs made from gluten free bread

    First, cook the eggs in boiling water for 2 minutes, then plunge into cold water to stop them from cooking, and peel the shells off. Wrap the egg in sausage meat, then coat in the flour, the egg wash and the breadcrumbs. Cook in a deep fat fryer at 180C for 5-8 minutes. Bear in mind you’d need to use a clean fryer and un-contaminated oil.

    Chicken and tarragon Scotch egg

    In this recipe, the sausage meat was replaced with roughly blended chicken thighs, mushroom, tarragon and seasoning. Instead of breadcrumbs, Lee used crushed gluten free oatcakes, which gave a different texture

    Kedgeree style Scotch egg

    This one was my absolute favourite. Instead of meat, Lee wrapped the eggs in a smoked haddock risotto, made slightly stickier than normal and with loads of parmesan. After the flour and egg wash, these were dipped in crushed poppadoms before frying, instead of breadcrumbs.