Saturday 4 February 2012

Recipe: Grilled Salmon with Braised Borlotti Beans

Mr R. and I made this last night and it kinda rocked. We got some fresh borlotti beans (a rarity in Australia) and I googled my go-to man in italian cooking - Stefano Manfredi - and away we went! The original recipe is for skate - but given my local fishmonger didn't know what cuttlefish was, I wasn't going to even try and source it.
It is completely gluten and lactose free, and something I'm sure my dietician won't get angry at me for eating :P
This recipe can be found in the original here


Grilled Salmon with Braised Borlotti Beans

  • 4 salmon portions, small & skinless
  • 2 cups fresh borlotti beans, shelled (or 2 x 400g tins)
  • 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 4 eschalots, finely diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 250 g roma tomatoes, diced
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
  • 4 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • Lemon wedges, to serve
  1. If using fresh borlotti beans, place in pot with plenty of cold water. Bring to boil, cover with lid and lower heat to simmer 25-30 minutes until tender. Allow to cool in liquid.
  2. In a pan, heat 4 tbsp of olive oil. Lightly fry eschalots and garlic until soft. Add chopped tomatoes, thyme and oregano. Add 2-3 pinches of salt, mix well and simmer gently for 15 minutes. 
  3. If using canned borlotti beans, drain and wash well. Otherwise, drain cooked beans. Add to simmering tomato mix. Mix well. Add parsley and simmer for 10 minutes. Check for salt. Add freshly ground pepper. 
  4. Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil on a barbecue plate or large pan When hot, grill salmon for a few minutes each side, depending on thickness. Serve with braised borlotti beans and lemon wedges.

Friday 3 February 2012

Recipe: Watermelon Salad with Olives, Feta and Cucumber

This recipe was given to me by my dietician Susie Burrell who prefers low carb low maintenance types of cooking. I had it for lunch yesterday (along with tuna and corn thins) and it was great. The dressing doesn't look like much but you don't need extra because of the moisture in the olives and watermelon.
I gave this to Mr R. last night and he even said he could take this to work for lunch - that can't be right I think I'll have to get my hearing checked.
For the lactose freebies - you can get lactose free feta - I got an organic one from Whole Foods but also saw it in Coles.

Serves 4
- 4 cups watermelon, diced
- 12 black olives, pitted
- 100 g feta, crumbled or chopped
- 1 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 Lebanese cucumbers, sliced
Dressing
- 2 tsp red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1. Toss all ingredients
2. Eat

:)

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Recipe: Chargrilled Cuttlefish Salad with Beans, Tomato and Pesto

Sometimes Delicious Magazine publishes recipes that are easy to prepare, with ingredients that are easy to find, and not expensive. This is one - and Superman made it!
It was chosen for tonight's dinner as it is low carb and of course gluten and lactose friendly. I'm getting weighed in later in the week by my dietician Susie and I gotsta be svelte!
We used calamari - our local fishmonger looked at Superman blankly when he asked for cuttlefish. We also used Roma tomatoes that we roasted - fresh from one of my customer's farm : D
To learn how to clean squid, google it or look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fdPl777Ji0&feature=related

Recipe: Grilled Cuttlefish with Beans, Tomato and Pesto
Serves 4

  • 400 g cuttlefish tubes, cleaned
  • 1/4 cup (60 mL) EVOO
  • 200 g green beans, trimmed
  • 400 g can cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
  • 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
  • 250 g cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 2 tbs lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup (65 g) good quality basil pesto
  • small basil leaves to serve
  1. Cut cuttlefish tubes along one side and open out
  2. Using sharp knife, lightly score the inside surface in fine criss-cross pattern
  3. Place cuttlefish in a bowl; season and drizzle with 1 tbs of oil
  4. Blanch green beans in boiling, salted water for 2 mins or until tender, then drain and refresh
  5. Place in a bowl with the cannellini beans, onion and cherry tomatoes and then season
  6. Char-grill the cuttlefish for 1 min either side until lightly charred and just cooked through
  7. Halve, then place in a bowl and toss with pesto
  8. To serve, arrange the bean salad on plates then top with cuttlefish and basil leaves

Monday 30 January 2012

Recipe: Nigella's Quick Chilli

This Chilli con Carne recipe rocks! I have made this so many times the page in the Nigella Express is badly stained. Nigella suggests serving this with coriander, sour cream and grated cheese. I serve it also with roasted tortilla chips.
NB: If you are making this as/for a gluten freester, the things you need to check the gf status of are the chorizo, pasta sauce and sweet chilli sauce.
http://ironchefshellie.com/2011/05/07/quick-chilli/
Oh, and believe Nigella when she says use a heavy based pan/pot, I winged it last time and ended up scrubbing the pot for about half an hour :S
This photo is from the blogger Iron Chef Shellie :)


Quick Chilli

  • 150 g chorizo sausage (not the salami sort), halved lengthways and cut into 5mm half moons
  • 500 g beef, minced
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • ½ tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3 cardamon pods, bruised
  • 1 x 500g jar good quality tomato and chunky vegetable pasta sauce
  • 1 x 390 g can mixed beans
  • 60 mL sweet chilli sauce
  • ¼ - ½ tsp chilli flakes
  1. Put the sliced chorizo into a hot, heavy based pan and cook over a medium heat until the sausage crisps and gives up its orange-red oil
  2. Add the mince and cook for ~ 5 mins, breaking it up with a wooden spoon to help it brown
  3. Stir in the spices and then add the tomato-vegetable pasta sauce, beans, chilli sauce and flakes.
  4. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes
  5. Eat with rice or just as it is - I add sour cream, coriander, grated cheese and tortilla chips.

 This is what the cake ended up looking like.. thanks Carly :D

Thursday 26 January 2012

Practising cake decorations for Saturday..my friend is going to announce something to our uni gang...shh don't tell them
Add caption


Recipe: Cocoa Sponge Cakes

This is a recipe I am going to try out soon, and I'll let you know how it goes.. it's from Rowie Dillon's Indulge which is an awesome gluten free cookbook. I like the look of this recipe because it doesn't just substitute gf flour for normal - which normally gives average results.

Cocoa Sponge Cakes


1 1/2 cups quinoa flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder (gf)
1 tsp baking powder (gf)
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup coffee, chilled
2 tsps vanilla extract (gf)
2 tsp white vinegar

Icing
125g dairy free margarine
1 1/4 cups icing sugar (gf)
1/2 tbs cocoa powder (gf)
  1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases
  2. Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl
  3. Combine the oil, coffee and vanilla in a separate bowl, then add to the dry ingredients and stir well. add the vinegar and quickly stir to combine. Pour immediately into the paper cases
  4. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until skewer inserted into middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin and turn out onto a wire rack for icing
  5. To make the icing, beat the margarine and sugar in a small bowl with beater until well combined. add the cocoa powder and beat until well combined and the icing is smooth and thick. Using a palette knife (or metal spatula), spread the icing generously over the cakes

Sunday 8 January 2012

Recipe: Nigella's Party Popcorn

The recent popcorn recipe that I posted I have grown frustrated with because despite the flavours being good, they never evenly disperse in the popcorn. Nigella to the Rescue! This recipe can be found on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmR9h5F6cQc

http://drizzleanddip.com/2010/05/24/nigellas-party-popcorn
Party Popcorn

2 tbs olive oil
200g popcorn kernels
4 tbs butter
2 tsp cinnamon, ground
2 tsp cumin, ground
2 tsp sweet paprika
4 tsp salt, ground
4 tsp sugar

  1. Heat oil in pan
  2. Add popcorn to pan and immediately put a lid on. When popcorn begins to pop, shake pan.
  3. When popping slows, take popcorn off heat and place aside.
  4. While popcorn is popping, melt butter in a second pan, and add all spices to butter.
  5. Before popcorn has cooled, pour butter mixture into pan and mix well.



Recipe: Teresa Cutter's Prawn Cocktail

This recipe was created by Teresa Cutter (www.teresacutter.com.au) who is an organic, gluten free chef from Avalon on the Northern Beaches. I discovered her via my wonderful dietician Susie Burrell (http://www.susieburrell.com.au) .
I have made this a handful of times now, always when Superman is at work; there is no way he would eat it, what with it having coriander and mint in it. It is just awesome, so light, healthy and delicious. I make it as a salad, increasing the volume of lettuce and cucumber. I also grill corn to go in it to increase the carbohydrate and make it a meal.
This can be found in the original here: http://www.teresacutter.com/2011/11/my-prawn-cocktail/

Teresa Cutter's Prawn Cocktail
Serves 4

Ingredients:


400 g prawns, cooked and peeled
1 Lebanese cucumber sliced
125 g  (1/2  punnet ) cherry tomatoes, halved
1 avocado,  diced
2 tablespoons, mint chopped
2 tablespoons, coriander or Thai basil, chopped
2 spring onions, sliced
juice from 2 limes
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
baby lettuce leaves


- mix together prawns, cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, mint, coriander, lettuce and spring onions in a bowl
- whisk together lime juice, honey, gish sauce, garlic, ginger in a separate bowl
- mix contents of both bowls together. serve in bowls :)


Recipe: Gluten-free Jaffa Cake


We all our have foodie strengths.

PhoodiePharmacist is always my first port of call when I need a restaurant recommendation. Or to know which brand of chocolate is gluten-free. I will always insist that Mr R pick out cheeses for a platter, and I would (and do) travel great distances for his Eggs Benedict.  And I’m sure if I ever need to order the world’s most boring pizza, I can call Superman.

And I don’t think my esteemed compadres would argue with my declaration that I am something of a baking diva. In short, I love to bake. I love the smell of something baking wafting through the house, I love taking baked treats to work to share with my colleagues and I love nibbling on a piece of home-baked cake – the secret ingredient is love, surely? In times of great stress, some people turn to meditation or yoga. I switch on the oven and drag out a favourite recipe.

This recipe is a new favourite because it has such a spectacular result for so little effort. It’s a luscious, rich chocolate cake with a delicious hit of orange. It’s an old Nigella Lawson recipe and receives bonus points because it is gluten and lactose free (because, according to Mr R, that makes it healthy). If you’re a baking diva like me, this is definitely one to try.

Gluten-free jaffa cake

Ingredients
2 small thin-skinned oranges (about 400g total weight)
6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200 g almond meal
250 g caster sugar
50 g cocoa

 Directions
Put the whole orange/oranges in a saucepan with some cold water. Bring to the boil, cooking for 1 ½ hours or until skin is soft.
Drain and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and butter and line a 20cm springform tin.
Cut the cooled oranges in half and remove any big pips. Cut each orange into about eight pieces. Put the pieces in the food processor and pulp.
Add the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, almonds, sugar, cocoa and eggs to the food processor and process until you have a cohesive batter. Pour into the prepared cake tin.
Bake the cake for 50mins – check after 45 but it could need as much as an hour. It varies from oven to oven.
Leave the cake to get cool for half an hour, then turn out onto a cooling rack
If you don’t have any lactose-free requirements, top with a dark chocolate ganache and serve with double cream (it’s worth the extra calories).

Clementine xx