Tag Archives: Gluten Free

Breakfast Provencal Egg Bake

30 Oct

Multicultural Inspiration from…

France

I must admit, I’m not a particularly huge fan of French cuisine – I’ve never really eaten much of it in all honesty, so I guess I might like it… but I found this recipe idea online in the hunt for some new breakfast ideas and thought I’d give it a try! Provencal foods are very Mediterranean, coming from the Provence region of France, which is adjacent to Italy, using fresh, rich ingredients like olive oil, garlic and herbs. This recipe is by no means the actual, traditional recipe, but my own improvised, healthier version! It’s one of my favourite breakfasts when I have a bit of extra time in the morning; it’s filling, comforting, surprisingly health, and a little bit fancy! You’ll need:

  • 75g eggplant, diced
  • 75g red capsicum, diced
  • 75g mushroom, diced
  • 75g tomatoes, diced
  • 30g brown onion, diced
  • 150g tinned crushed tomatoes
  • 50g baby spinach leaves, roughly torn
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • olive oil spray
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 50g cheese – ricotta, fetta, tasty, what ever you feel like!

Pre-heat the oven first to 180°C. Heat a large, non-stick fry pan over high heat and spray with the olive oil, and add the eggplant, capsicum, mushroom, tomato and onion, seasoning with herbs of your choice (I like to use basil and a tiny bit of rosemary), and a bit of salt and pepper. Cook it up for a few minutes, until the veggies soften and brown a little.

Add the spinach in next and mix it through until it’s wilted.

Next, add in the crushed tomatoes and a squeeze of lemon juice, simmer for a few minutes until the liquid reduces a little.

Transfer it all into an oven dish…

… and use a spoon to dig out two little holes…

… and crack the eggs into the holes!

Into the oven for around 20 minutes, or until the egg whites are just set, and here’s what you’ll get:

I topped mine with ricotta cheese at the end, but if you feel like going with tasty or fetta or something like that, pop the cheese on top half way through cooking time so it can melt in.

It’s a really, really yummy breakfast, that will serve 1 hungry person, and it’s actually surprisingly low calorie – around 300 calories for the lot! Great on a cold morning, when you feel like something a bit more substantial for breaky than cereal… or like something a bit fancier and French!

How about you guys; what’s your favourite breaky to whip up when you feel like something a little more special than cereal?!

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Flour Cookies

24 Oct

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

 

So, it’s been spoken about before, but I absolutely looooooove coconut. It brings me back to my holidays in Fiji. When I was younger, and had the metabolism of a speed train, my favourite snack was a cereal bowl full of shredded coconut and chocolate chips. No joke. So when I discovered I could by coconut flour, I jumped straight onto that wagon and ordered myself a kilo. And, naturally, the first thing that came to mind was coconut chocolate chip cookies. Because it’s the best combination ever.

I took some inspiration from the basics of Jamie Oliver’s Coconut Flour Cookie recipe, and, as always, put my own spin on it to make this small batch of cookies (double it for a bigger appetite!)…

  • 50g caster sugar
  • 50g granulated white sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 85g softened butter
  • 100g coconut flour
  • 40g milk cooking chocolate, roughly chopped

 

First up, preheat your oven to 190°C, and line a cookie tray with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl, place both sugars, the eggs, vanilla and butter…

… and beat well with an electric hand beater, until it looks a little like this…

Sift in the coconut flour, mix well to combine, and let the mixture sit for a few minutes while you chop up the chocolate.

Add in the chocolate chunks, mix it all together, and get ready to bake some cookies!

Now, you can make your cookies as big or small as you want – I decided to make this into little bite-sized pieces of deliciousness, so I used a tablespoon to scoop out chunks of cookie mixture and rounded them into balls.

Line em up, flatten em out a little, and pop em in the oven!

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes, let them cool for a few minutes, and then, just go nuts!!

They came out almost perfectly; soft and chewy, with the most amazing coconut flavour, although, they were a tiny little bit dry for my liking – more butter next time I think!

I also wouldn’t mind giving these little bad boys a try again with a bit of shredded coconut as well… and maybe another version with crushed toasted macadamias and white chocolate. Delicious!

Over to you, lovely readers – any favourite combinations like my coconut and chocolate fixation?!

 

 

Casa Farro

16 Sep

 Multicultural Cuisine of…

Italy


 
Casa Farro
161 Nicholson St,
Carlton
(03) 9437 2112
Given that my family is Italian, it’s never particularly easy to find a really, truly good pizza restaurant. I find a lot of them come out way too greasy and oily, or with poor quality toppings. So, when mum gave me a call and told me about this great pizza place that she really liked, I knew it must be pretty good. With that, off to family lunch we went!
We strolled on it on a sunny Sunday, meeting up with mum, dad, my sister and her boyfriend. We’re immediately met with a cluttered front room, with various wines and random little knick knacks lining the walls and counter.  As we wait for our table, behind us reveals a little collection of wooden bread boards – cute!
While everyone else takes a seat and begins studying the menu, mum shows me around the restaurant, stopping to point out the mirror room (aptly named)…
… and the nice, big, fiery oven. Some darn good smells coming from here, let me tell you!
Anyway, enough sightseeing thanks mum, get me to the table and menu!
Our old wooden table is by the window, bathed in sunlight, and surrounded by… old wooden rolling pins, old ladles, and empty bottles. Yup. Actually, I kinda like them!
But, onto the food… we studied the menu, all 6 of us, and finally agreed on a few appetisers to share. First up were the sea salt and rosemary wedges with aioli.

Thick cut rosemary & sea salt wedges with aioli, $8.50

Unfortunately, they weren’t as crisp and golden as I was hoping – they were soft wedges. But, they were delicious, helped along by the generous amount of rosemary and sea salt. And the aioli… wowww!

The wedges were followed out by my family’s personal favourite; the polenta and pecorino chips, accompanied by more aioli (yes!!!) and romesco sauce.

Polenta and pecorino chips with romesco sauce and aioli, $11.50

Towered up Jenga-style and dusted with sea salt, these looked veryyy impressive coming out.

And after taking a bite into these golden little treasures, let me tell you – they did not disappoint! They were perfectly soft, like clouds, on the inside, housed in a beautiful, deep fried, crispy shell. They were beyond words – not sure why we only ordered one serve between 6 though… won’t make that mistake again!

Onto the pizzas… unfortunately, Casa Farro lost big marks for keeping us waiting… for around an hour… when we were just about the only customers in there. Disappointing. But, the epic wait aside, the service was friendly and helpful, and the pizzas (when they finally did arrive) were delicious. Having them made with spelt flour did make a big difference, I thought. The bases were light, crisp, and really very simple – they let the toppings take the stage and make the big impact, with the base being merely the edible service platter. And the toppings were magnificent, so I was glad the base wasn’t so strong as to take away from them! Here’s what we ordered…

Caprese (Basil, marinated tomato, bocconcini, olive oil, sea salt, sticky balsamic), $15.00

The sticky balsamic with the sweet bocconcini was so different, but worked perfectly! Highly recommend!

Zucca (Whipped ricotta, roasted pumpkin, walnut basil pesto, rocket) with prosciutto, $16.50

 This was my pizza – bloody delicious! Although there was wayyy too much rocket and not enough ricotta for my liking! But I think the prosciutto was a good last minute addition – added a bit of saltiness to a fairly sweet pizza.

Salsicce (Napoli, bocconcini, spicy pork sausages, roast peppers, spring onion, shaved parmesan), $17.50

This was (naturally) Sous-Jeff’s choice – it had the magic word “spicy,” as well as Italian sausages, which he loves. Tasted great, by all accounts!

Melanzane (Napoli, fior di latte, grilled eggplant, roasted zucchini, olive tapenade, red onions, oregano, sea salt), $16.50

Got a piece of this one, luckily dad was feeling generous! Again, delicious (broken record, I know)!

Paesan (Napoli, mozzarella, basil, hot salami, bocconcini, chilli), $15.50

And lastly, chosen by the sibling’s BF, another hot, spicy plate. Wasn’t game enough to try this, but he seemed to enjoy it!

All in all, the food really was very impressive. You could tell that the pizza toppings were all fresh, quality ingredients, which is always important to me. I was also surprised at the fact that their entire menu was available gluten free as well – for those who are gluten intolerant and still want a good old pizza, you really must get yourself here! Just cross your fingers that the wait isn’t so long!


Would rate it 7 out of 10.

Casa Farro on Urbanspoon

Cornbread

31 Jul

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

 

Ever since starting out on this gluten free thing a few weeks ago, I’ve been constantly looking for ways to keep getting variety into my diet. I haven’t been much of a bread eater for a while now, but every now and then, I just want nothing more than a nice, warm slice of bread with a bit of butter… mmm…

I discovered corn bread not long ago in a local health store. It was just a packet bread mix type thing, and it was simple enough to put together, and it was absolutely delicious. It was quite sweet – Sous-Jeff likened it more to cake than to bread, and he was right (I guess that’s why I liked it so much!). So I decided to try my hand at my own version of corn bread!

I took my inspiration from the ever reliable Australian Good Taste magazine’s June Cook The Issue Issue, with my own changes (of course!). Instead of following the recipe’s cheese and chive method, I decided to make my own gluten free, sweeter version of the bread. Here’s what I used to make this delicious loaf:

  • 400g tin of corn kernels
  • 400g polenta
  • 115g gluten free self-raising flour
  • 3 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 600ml buttermilk
  • 150g butter, melted
  • 3 eggs, lightly whisked

First up, preheat the oven to 180°C, and line a 18 x 18cm square cake tin (or similar sized loaf tin) with baking paper. Then, put a bit of paper towel on a plate, drain the corn kernels and pour them onto the paper towel to drain further.

Instead of using the corn kernels whole as per the recipe, I decided to throw mine into my food processor and mush them up a little first!

Into a bowl with the flour…

… and the polenta, sugar and salt.

Next in goes the processed corn kernels, buttermilk, butter and eggs, stirring until well combined.


Then, just pour the mixture into the tin and spread it evenly, smoothing it over the top.

Into the oven for around 40 -45 minutes, until it looks like this..

I let my big, square, bread loaf sit in it’s tin to cool for a while before taking it out, and I know I should have let it cool a little more before slicing it open and trying a piece, but I couldn’t help myself!

The result? Soft, crumbly, delicate, delicious cornbread.

It wasn’t quite as sweet as the packet mix I’d made, and it had a far stronger corn flavour (given that I’d used a whole tin of corn kernels!), but it was really, really yummy! It had a very different flavour to any other bread I’d ever tasted – a bit sweet, but definitely savoury with the corn.

It literally fell apart in my fingers as I picked up a pieced to try, and crumbled away under my knife as I spread some butter onto it. Delicious, and completely gluten free! Sous-Jeff took one look at the bread, and dashed to the fridge to fetch a spoon full of his chilli jam. Apparently it was incredible; I value my taste buds, and therefore did not try any.

It actually kept surprisingly well for 4 days or so as well – surprising that it actually lasted that long! I would like to try the cheese and chives version next time now that I’ve mastered a basic, neutral version of the bread!

Over to you – what’s your favourite bread?!

Lemon, Spinach and Ricotta Risotto

23 Jul

Multicultural Influence of…

Italy



So, this gluten free thing actually really isn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. I must admit, after watching my sister stick to a gluten free diet for the past few years and listening to her complain about how crap the bread and pasta and other gluten free food is, I was more than a little concerned. But once I realised I could still eat rice, I was a lot more relieved. Take proper, good old fashioned pasta away from an Italian girl, and you have a problem. Take risotto too, and it’s just a disaster.

I’ve been eating a bit of rice pasta, which is actually no where near as horrible as I was led to believe – as long as you don’t over cook it, it’s actually quite nice! As for the risotto, I’m glad to report nothing’s changed there, I can still cook that as normal! But I felt like being a bit adventurous after stumbling upon a post from Honest Cooking – a lemon risotto with mint and ricotta. I decided to try it without the mint, and with a bit of spinach, and a side of roast veggies. Here’s how we went…

Some diced mushrooms, eggplants and zucchinis on an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkled with some basil and salt, into a moderate oven until they start to brown (about 20 minutes).

For the risotto itself, I used:

  • 1 cup of arborio rice
  • 50g butter
  • half a diced onion
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese
  • juice from 1 large lemon
  • 3 handfuls of baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped

First, melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat

Add in the onions and cook until they begin to become see through.

Add the rice in and stir to coat with the butter and onion mixture.

Add the wine to the pan, stirring for a few minutes until the liquid begins to become absorbed, then add in a cup of the chicken stock. Add more stock as needed, stirring gently and occasionally until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked through.

Once the rice is cooked through, add in the spinach and stir until wilted.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in the cheeses, stirring to combine.

Next, add in the lemon juice and stir to combine, and season with some salt and pepper.

Out of the oven with the veggies, and onto the plate with it all!

Perfectly creamy, thanks to the ricotta, with a little bit, thanks to the lemon. I really loved the texture the spinach provided, and think next time for yet another texture I’ll add in some toasted pine nuts.

It was a perfectly warm and comforting winter meal – and best of all, gluten free, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything! Delicious :)

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