Apple and Ginger Soda Bread (rice and buckwheat flour) (gf)

I was inspired to make this loaf after reading Jack Munroe's blog 'A girl called Jack'. I'm sure you have already checked her blog out, but in case you haven't she creates simple and delicious dishes cheaply. I would definitely recommend her blog! As I'm on my Gluten Free week I changed up her recipe by using rice flour, buckwheat flour and corn flour as a substitute for plain flour. I also used apples instead of rhubarb as we still have our own apples left over from the autumn, and rhubarb ain't season right now (although I can't wait to use it when it is!).

Ingredients

200 ml of milk
Juice of half a lemon
140g of brown rice flour
140g of buckwheat flour      
20g of corn flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c or gas mark 4.
2. First your going to curdle your milk! So add the lemon juice to the milk and mix.
3. Add your flours to the bowl and make a well in the centre and add your milk.
4. Mix through until your mixture forms into a ball (don't over mix, however tempting!).
5.Put the ball onto a floured baking tin or tray and slice a cross over the dough (Jack said in her recipe that the cross is to let the fairies out, which I love!).
6. Put in the oven and cook for 40min or whenever you bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

A Red Cabbage and Pumpkin seed Salad (gf)

I made a Mexican inspired oven baked bean stew today and served it with polenta and this salad. I wanted something that was fresh and tangy but also had lots of texture to go with my earthly, chili tomato baked stew and silky polenta. So I made this exciting dish which complemented the meal but also held its own, unlike many sad salads that are dumped on the table as a second thought!

The fresh crispness of the vegetables, tanginess of the vinegar and lemon juice topped with the crunch of seeds complements the whole meal by adding that texture and freshness that the other dishes needed to shine!!

As usual I haven't been specific on the amount and ratio as your preferences may be different to mine!

RECIPE

Red cabbage
Yellow Pepper
Celery
Red onion
Gherkin
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
A little sprinkle of mustard seeds and Flax seeds

Dressing
Squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil

METHOD

1) Finally slice the pepper and celery and slice the red cabbage in thin slices but still thick enough to give a crunch and place in a bowl.
2) Then finally slice the amount of red onion you want and place it in a different bowl with a little red wine vinegar to remove the raw taste, and leave for a minute or so then squeeze a little of the vinegar out of the onion and add to the salad bowl.
3) Chop the amount of gherkin you want into small pieces and add to the bowl.
4) In a pan (any one will do!) toast all the seeds until slightly browned and turn off the heat.
5) 10 minutes before you serve the salad add the lemon juice and olive oil (amount to your taste) and toss the salad in it.
6) Just before you serve the salad sprinkle the toasted seeds on the top (doing this immediately before you serve, means that the seeds with be crunchy and not soft, giving that extra satisfying crunch!)

Soya Flour Scones (gf)

Paprika, Sundried Tomatoes, Carrot and Pumpkin seed Scones

Savoury Scone

Raisin and honey Scone

I woke up this morning to the smell of freshly baked scones and I  nearly cracked! This is my Gluten-free week, and my sister makes 12 golden beauties that I'm unable to eat... So I set to making my own gf 'scones' from soya flour.

Soya flour was the only gf flour that I had in the house so I didn't have much choice in what I could choose. So I tried my best and followed my baking instincts!

Soya flour has a distinctive flavour, but being half Japanese I've grown up eating it in a number of different dishes, so I like it but I think it is one of those flavours that some people like and others don't.

I made a batch of savoury scones and a batch of sweet scones and I have to say that the sweet ones tasted a lot better! Soya flour has a element of sweetness and therefore lends itself better to sweet ingredients (honey and raisins) than savoury ingredients (paprika, dried tomatoes, carrot and pumpkin seeds).

These scones aren't exactly the same as a regular gluten free scone, but are moist on the inside and crisp on the outside and are more similar to a scone than any other bake I can think of!

The savoury scone mixture before adding milk

 METHOD
Raisin and Honey Soya Scones

I added 1 cup of soya flour and 1/4 cup of corn flour to a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and then added my ingredients. So for the sweet ones I added what I found I my cupboard. Today I used a couple of tbs of honey and a hand full of raisins. I then combined it with enough milk to make it into a soft dough and then put it on tray and patted it down into a rectangle and sliced into squares.
I then baked it for 20 min in a preheated oven of gas mark 5. Simple, but the result was rather delicious for a first try!

Lemon Polenta Cake (gf)

I tasted this cake a few months ago at a friends house and have wanted to make it ever since!

It is wonderfully easy to make and produces a great result! As you can see from the picture it is a wonderful golden yellow colour when baked and has a delicious texture due to the polenta. When mixing the thick batter I was worried that the end product would be very dense as I've never baked with polenta. But surprisingly the cake was very moist and light, I then topped it with a tangy lemon syrup, which was truly delicious! I based my recipe on Nigella's, but as usual I adapted it to my own taste and too the amount of eggs the hens had laid for us that day!

Here is the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

CAKE

a little butter and oil for greasing
100 grams soft unsalted butter
90   grams caster sugar                                                                                         
100 grams ground almonds                                                                                         
100 grams fine polenta                                                           
1 teaspoon of baking powder                                                                                       
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon (save juice for syrup)


SYRUP

juice of 1 lemon   
3 tbs of honey                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

METHOD - if you are new to baking then check out Nigella's detailed method

1) Preheat the oven to 180c or gas mark 4.
2) Grease parchment paper with a little oil and butter and place in tin (8.5inch/22cm).
3) In one bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale.
4) In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients and add the zest of the lemon.
5) Add half of the dry mixture to the butter/sugar mix and add 1 egg and mix.
6) Once mixed through add the other egg and the rest of the dry mixture and mix!
7) Add mixture into the tin and place in the oven for 30 min.
8) While the cake is baking make the syrup: heat honey and lemon in a pan until softly boiling and turn off heat.
9) Take the cake out once firm and when it springs back to the touch.
10) Gently pour the syrup on the cake evenly and leave for 10min (if you can wait that long!) to cool a little.
11) EAT!

Salad, Cheats Lentil Falafel and Hummus (gluten-free)

For an easy lunch I would usually grab a piece of bread and then make a quick salad. However as this is my gluten-free week I needed to make something equally as filling and satisfying to eat! After finding lentils in the cupboard I boiled them until soft, then fried with garlic, ginger and seasoning. Usually I would shape the lentils into patties but as this was a quick lunch I just fried it all together and it was equally as good (although not as visually appetising!).

While the lentils were boiling I prepared the salad. Recently I have been using a lemon dressing on everything as it gives a fresh and zingy taste that reminds me of summer in these cold misty January days.

I grated a rather large carrot onto a plate and added finely sliced celery and pickled red onion (soaked in red wine vinegar for a minute) and then added a squeeze of lemon and a little olive oil.

I assembled it all on a plate with hummus and beetroot.

This was my first lunch being gluten free, and I noticed that having bread on hand, is a huge convenience. I've also started craving crunchy things like crackers and toast. So I think I will make some gf bread tomorrow!

Gluten Free?

I've decided to try a gluten-free week! There has been much research on the effect of gluten on the body and it's blamed by some to be the cause of arthritis, asthma and many more illnesses and diseases. Although there are two sides too this argument I definitely think that lessening my gluten intake would be no bad thing.

One of the reasons I have never tried gluten free baking and cooking is that using wheat flour seems so much easier to use: there is no problem with the rise of a loaf  or the density of a cake, so it seems simpler to use 'ordinary flour' that will guarantee me great results.

I've also noticed that the price of gluten free products and flours are a lot more expensive to gluten products. So this unfortunately is another reason for sticking with gluten products.

Although a week is a very short time to test the impact of 'being' gluten free, I believe that it will give me an idea of how much I rely on gluten and whether it has an effect on my health.

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