Samphire tempura with fish and spicy sauce

Spotted some samphire in the supermarket so bought some on a whim.  Looked at a few recipes, and was tempted by some aspects of this recipe.  It is based around crab and has a many step recipe, but I took a few key aspects from it to make a quick and easy supper.

I made a chili sauce by frying two fat cloves of garlic with some chopped chili and chopped rosemary, stirred in a heaped teaspoon of caramelised onion marmalade I had been given for a present, the zest and juice of a left over quarter of a lemon,  half a teaspoon of ketchup and some water.  I cooked this just to bring all the flavours together and blitzed it smooth.

Tempura samphire
700g samphire, rinsed
50g rice flour
cold water

Mix the rice flour and cold water together together to make a slurry - the recipe says the consistency of double cream.  I just made it thick enough that it lightly coated the samphire.

I used a small heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan to cook these in rather than getting my deep fryer out for such a small quantity of food.  I put about 1cm of vegetable oil in the pan and heated until a blob of batter dropped in fizzed and cooked quickly but didn't burn.

Put a few pieces of samphire into the batter, then lift each one out and place carefully in the hot oil.  Tongs make this task easy. I found they worked best when each strand was put in separately - it cooked quicker, looked nicer and made a more crunchy cooked product.  Take the samphire out of the oil when the batter begins to go golden.  Place on kitchen paper to drain.  Repeat until all the samphire is cooked.  I recommend wearing a long sleeved garment to protect your arms as the oil will spit when you put the wet samphire in.

I served this with fish (salmon and haddock depending on preference) which only took 3 minutes in the microwave each from frozen, baked potato, sliced tomato and the chili sauce.

Quick and easy gf breakfast pancakes

Trying out a new flour mix that doesn't contain any tapioca or cornmeal.  Every morning we have pancakes as we find them more sustaining than any breakfast cereal, and they became our standard breakfast when we were travelling in the campervan.

This batch of flour was made with 150g urid lentil flour, 75g buckwheat flour, 75g brown rice flour.

Pancake Ingredients
100 g flour
3/4 tsp of baking powder (very fluffy pancakes, could reduce this)
2 eggs
100 ml rice milk

Method
Mix all ingredients together.  Whisk thoroughly to remove lumps.

Cook in a non-stick pan on a medium heat.  I use a spray oil once every few pancakes to make sure nothing sticks but it isn't essential.

Pour batter into the pan to make a pancake smaller than the pan.  This makes it easier to turn them.  You have the right temperature when the top of the pancake has set into bubbles and the bottom is golden brown.  If you have the temperature too high the bottom will burn before the top has set.  This doesn't matter much - you will just have a messier pancake and it won't have those little channels for the syrup or whatever topping you are using to run into the pancake.  These pancakes are a bit like crumpets - if you made the batter thicker you could make a crumpet style pancake.

These pancakes keep well - you can eat them immediately or use them throughout the day.  They are very good as a snack with curry paste and lettuce, or if you eat cheese as a mini pizza with melted cheese on top.

They can also be frozen.

Chocolate chip cookies - new flour mix

I am trying a new flour mix - not using tapioca or cornmeal.  This mix is urid lentil flour, buckwheat and brown rice.  The true test of its versatility will be if I can make good pastry, but to start with I have made pancakes (as we have these for breakfast every day) and cookies for a writing group my husband goes to.

I have started trying out recipes without tapioca as my step-daughter seems to be unable to tolerate tapioca (she isn't gf).  I know some people can't tolerate corn either, and many gf goods have both of these in.  So, here is an attempt to make a flour with ingredients I can grind at home if I want to, which increases my chances of getting a gf flour as often flours are milled in factories which handle wheat.

This recipe is made with a flour made from 150g urid, 75g buckwheat and 75g brown rice flour.  It produces quite a sticky batter so washing up takes a bit more effort.  It is best to rinse with cold water before the batter has had a chance to set.

Chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
100g flour plus
1/2 tsp baking powder (whisk together)

100g sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
60g butter (room temp - I softened in a low microwave)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

100g chocolate chips (I used Callebaut Belgian 70.4% dark choc chips)

Method
Set oven to 175C


Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth and light.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until evenly mixed.  Stir in flour and baking powder mix.   The batter will be quite thick, too thick to drop off the spoon but too gooey to roll.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Place on baking sheets - I use silicon sheets or baking parchment to make sure nothing sticks.

I made small cookies with about a heaped teaspoon of mixture.  Leave some room for the cookies to spread as they cook.

This mixture made 26 cookies about 2.5 inches/6cm across when cooked.

Cook until just brown at the edges and golden on the top.

These cookies are light and crisp on the outside and soft and slightly chewy in the centre.  Tapioca in the mix would have given a chewy texture.  They held together very well, with no hint of powderiness.  I need to keep some for a few days to see if the rice in the mix produces a gritty texture as they age.

The contrast of the sweet cookie with the bitter chocolate chips makes a very interesting cookie.  If you want something for kids go for a sweeter chocolate chip.

Excellent cookies, easy to make, easy to eat.

Another gf wedding cake - a chocolate cupcake tower in Sweden

Ages ago I said to my sister-in-law that I would make her daughters' wedding cakes if they wanted.  Well, that remark was remembered, and as a result I am flying to Sweden in July to make a purple and silver chocolate cupcake tower for my niece, who has coeliac disease and also wheat intolerant.  I suppose I should have realised that this wouldn't be an English affair, as at the time the family lived in Mongolia.

It sounded simple.  I have never been to Sweden but often wanted to take a trip around Scandinavia.  First choice would be to have my husband drive the campervan there for the wedding so that I could stay safely, bake the cakes, have an adventure around the wedding.  Unfortunately, though retired,  he is working and can't take the month off that I would like.  So, could I drive the van myself?  No, not on a trip of that length.  There used to be a ferry to Sweden - it still shows up on a google search, but it no longer runs.  A ferry to Denmark, drive, ferry, drive, or via the Eurotunnel and a lot of driving.  I didn't manage to get used to driving the van in the UK last November as planned due to the house suddenly getting a buyer, and only drove the Smart car in France, so don't think a three to four thousand mile trip on the 'wrong' side of the road makes sense as a first solo journey.

Rent a flat in the town and fly there.  That made sense.  I found a cheap flat a few minutes walk from the station on the internet, but after 'booking' it got a note saying it wasn't available.  All other self catering options were wooden cabins were thirty km away from the town - great for a boating/sauna holiday but not so good for getting cakes make and delivered. I looked into hiring a cabin at the Boras campsite, but they have very little catering equipment and are surprisingly expensive.  Renting a campervan on arrival at the airport would also cost a lot and the van would be likely to have an invisible layer of gluten on all surfaces.

One of the hotels in the town said they took special efforts to meet extra needs and even mentioned gluten.  I booked with them even though they were the most expensive hotel in town.  If I get glutened I can't do anything, so being cautious makes sense.  In the meantime offers of the church ovens and the future mother-in-law's means that the baking can happen.

I almost booked the whole thing on the internet, but then thought that maybe, as I wanted something a bit unusual, I should try a travel agent.  The Co-op in Worcester couldn't even find Sweden in their system.  However, I did eventually get a flight with better timings than the one I had found on the internet - arriving at midday in a strange place is much better that last thing at night when you still have to travel 30km.  I booked the hotel separately - more expensive, but at least it is done.

The travel agent rang the airline to check that it would be ok for me to take flour and baking kit in my luggage.  It hadn't occurred to me to check, so that was a useful thing to have done.  I have to get all the baking kit in my 23kg of luggage allowance.  I need to take all the fancy stuff like cupcake cases, sparkles and other decorations, I would prefer to take the baking trays as baking gf really needs properly clean tins which have not been used for wheat flour.  They, however, are heavy, especially if you take enough to allow 150 cupcakes to be make without it being a whole day activity.  I also want to take my giant tiered cake-stand.  It is plastic and folds down, but even so it is quite large and heavy.

And the flour?  Well, Shipton Mill still haven't brought out the flour mix so I will need to grind, mix and package the flour here before I go.  I have been experimenting with my usual chocolate cake recipe, and making it premixed - just add eggs, oil and water, stir, put in cases and bake.  I tried out a batch on my embroidery chums.  They were complementary on the cakes, but the three that took a batch of the mix to bake for themselves haven't reported back yet.  I wanted feedback on how robust the mix was with different ovens as I have no idea what kind of ovens I will end up using.  If the cake is easy to make and the instructions clear it gives another level of safety if I do get sick - then pretty well anyone will be able to make the cakes even with very little supervision.

As to what I shall wear?  I think I will take my baking clothes, but don't reckon there will be room for a posh frock.  As long as the cake looks great I suppose I only have to look clean and tidy - must remember not to go to the ceremony with chocolate batter and icing all over myself.

gf bread without tapioca - first tests

I started testing bread recipes using a flour mix that has no tapioca in.  For a long time I have used a standard flour mix with urid lentils, tapioca and cornmeal that gives very good results.  However, my step-daughter seems to be unable to tolerate the tapioca, and I know that some people do find this flour difficult.

What with my travels, catching up on normal life and then wrenching my foot badly my planned experiments took a back seat.  However, I tried a plain loaf and a fruited loaf the other day using one third each of the urid lentil flour, brown rice flour (which I just bought from the supermarket so do not know what kind of rice) and yellow cornmeal.  To 600g of this mix I added 1.5 tsp yeast, a tbsp of agave syrup and sufficient water to make a batter ( I think about 800ml).  I also included 30g of potato protein, which helps gf breads not slump, but this is not yet available to domestic consumers.  In the past I found that provided I kept breads below 5cm/2inches and didn't let them rise above the tin they were fine without this.

I poured the batter into the tins, left them to rise in a warm moist oven, and when they nearly reached the top of the tin put the oven on.  The loaves were baked for 50 minutes at 175C, the little rolls baked in muffin tins were baked for 25 minutes.  Remember that this includes the time taken for the oven to get hot.  I find that it is better to leave a gf loaf for longer than you think necessary rather than have an inadequately cooked middle, so if you don't feel sure the bread is done take it out of the tin and put back in the oven for a few more minutes.

The plain loaf did slump a little but does not have a layer of gluey dough.  It is ok to eat plain - just a bit more crumbly than my usual loaf.  I made good croutons with some diced bread, a squirt of oil and some garlic, baked until crisp.  Any left over bread can be turned into breadcrumbs and kept into the freezer until you want to crisply coat something.  Two days later it is still easy to slice without crumbling.

The second loaf and the buns were made from the same batter but with added ingredients.  As this was a first test, and my foot still wouldn't bear my weight, the recipe was an informal and unrecorded handful of this and that.  I added more sugar, some vanilla, a bit of cocoa, about a cupful of chopped dried apricots I had cooked with water to go with breakfast pancakes, some dried blueberries and cranberries.  I also added a tablespoon of oil.  This mixture made a smooth loaf with good  holding qualities.  Two days later it still slices well and is moist without being cloying.  It is sufficiently good that I will work up a proper recipe.

The basic loaf needs a bit more work, but it is promising.  I found that tapioca gave a smooth chewiness to baked goods, whereas rice tended to give a gritty texture.   I always disliked Doves Farm flour for anything other than pancakes and choux pastry because things fell apart and had a lousy rough texture, and thought it was due to the rice.

I am hoping to create a bread mix as tasty and well-behaved as my usual lazy seedy bread. I think next time I will add buckwheat for the additional flavour a well as seeds.

GF Seedy rolls in the campervan

I’ve been driving around France and Italy for the last month, so have been cooking in the campervan.  I made up some bread mix before I left, made with urid, tapioca and conrmeal flours, Solanic potato protein (which stops risen yeasted gluten free breads slumping), lightly crushed buckwheat, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, a smidgeon of cocoa powder and some yeast.  I mix with water to a slurry, put into bread tins, sprinkle extra seeds on top, leave to to rise, then bake from cold in my campervan oven.  I have no idea what temperature it is; I just cook the bread until it is toasty brown and has come away from the side of the pan a little.

The last blog on this topic showed my high altitude bread, cooked in Bourg St Maurice when we were skiing.  This is my low altitude seedy rolls; camped by the sea near Sete, on the Mediterranean.

The bread is light, crisp on the outside, and full of flavour.  It also has no added fat or salt.

Frankie & Bennies - an update on gluten free eating

I noticed that several people had read my blog from 2010 about eating gf at Frankie & Bennie's, where I said it was dull but safe.  However, since then I ate at one of their stores again.

This time the waiter said they were used to dealing with food intolerances.  I said I was very sensitive and they would need to take extra care - dishes straight from the dishwasher, not touching my food if they had touched bread etc.  I asked for a spiced chicken dish with salad.

The food came.  The chicken was not spiced - I presume they decided the spice mix had gluten or they weren't sure.  I didn't get an explanation or comment.

I don't remember much about the meal.  What I do remember is that I was ill for several days afterwards, a particular nuisance as I was starting a trip to France and Italy in the campervan.

So,  self-perceived knowledge about food sensitive may have increased but the capacity to handle food safely does not seem to be adequate.  Based on this experience I would be very loathe to eat at one of these restaurants again.