Breakfast - Brown Rice Porridge

I've got a new breakfast on my menu. Best thing about it is it is cheap. Worst thing about it - it is time consuming to make....but i think it is worth it. It is brown rice porridge...take some brown rice and soak it..overnight is good, but at least for a couple of hours. Then I cook the brown rice in my microwave (rinse off the water it soaked in, cover with boiling water with about an inch over the top of the level of the rice and cook for 6 mins on high and then 12 mins on half power). Next I put the rice in a saucepan with a good slosh of my gluten free soy milk...roll on the days when I can have normal milk again (my aim is to re-introduce dairy in December - just in time for Christmas) and a dash of cinnamon and raisins and some small chunks of apple, and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. I then cook this until it is a nice porridge consistency. Sometimes adding more milk if needed. Then I just separate it into daily portions sizes and pop them in the fridge.....

I have been having this on my weekdays and having a bought cereal or gf pancakes/ waffles in the weekends.....we'll see how long it takes until I get sick of this!

Cornmeal Muffins

Something savoury for a change...



125 g dairy free margarine
1 c medium ground cornmeal
3/4 c milk
1 c gluten free flour
3 t gluten free baking powder mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 c sugar
1 egg, beaten

Put margarine, cornmeal and milk into a saucepan. Heat until marg has melted, stirring occasionally. Cool. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Stir in sugar. Add egg to dry ingredients, stir in marg mixture. Stir to just combine. Place in greased muffin tins. Bake at 190 for 15 - 20 mins.
Nice for a change....getting a bit sick of the old corn thins!!

Individual Apple and Ginger Upside Down Cakes

We've had a few visitors lately so I've been making a few more dessert things than normal. Some have been gluten free - some have not been. This was my latest little treat and it did work a treat. I made it gluten free, dairy free and by chance it also happens to be egg free as well.

I love doing things in little individual portions..makes them seem a little bit more special!

This recipe made 9 little cakes - in a standard size muffin tin.


Individual Apple and Ginger Upside down Cakes.

2 T brown sugar
1 Apple
2 c gluten free flour
2 t ground ginger
100 g dairy free margarine
1 c sugar
2 T golden syrup
1 t baking soda
3/4 c soy milk
1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. Grease your muffin tin. Sprinkle the muffin holes with the brown sugar. Arrange apple slices to cover the bottoms of the muffin holes. Sift flour and ginger together. Mix in the margarine, sugar, golden syrup. Gently warm the milk and dissolve in the baking soda and then mix this into the flour mix...the warmed milk will help to melt the margarine and with a gentle stirring this will make a smooth batter. Add the lemon juice. Pour mixture over the apple pieces in the muffin holes. bake for approx 15 - 20 mins. Cool and then carefully turn out of the tin.

Can be made a big cake if desired by doubling the recipe and using a 20cm cake tin, and baking for 60 mins.

Enjoy warm.

Microwave Butterscotch Self Saucing Pud

I trialled this gluten free/ dairy free for the first time the other night. We've had a week of ferocious weather - torrential rain, hail, thunder and lightning...so needed a good rib-sticker kind of pud to help 'batten down the hatches'. It worked quite well...a little too stodgy for my liking but I put this down to the flour mix I was using...nearing the last of my 'Horleys' mix which I am pleased about.

The recipe -
1 c self raising flour
50 g melted butter or df marg
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c gf soy milk

Add melted butter and milk to flour and sugar. Spread into a microwave ring pan. Stir sauce ingreds together until butter/ marg has melted (2 T golden syrup, 25 gm butter or df marg and 1 1/2 c boiling water). Pour over the mixture in the ring pan. Cook on high for 7 mins to start with, and then more if needed. I double the mix so needed to cook it for a further 4 mins.

The rest of the family had it with vanilla ice-cream.

Different Soy Milk...not all ok....

I have been gluten free since December, then I had to go Dairy free in February as well....I discovered the hard way that not all soy milk is gluten free. Unfortunately most cafes and restaurants use a soy milk that, although it 'stretches' well, has gluten in it. That's the Vitasoy Creamy, in the red box. However, the Vitasoy Lush Vanilla is ok and I now use that in my coffee and sometimes on cereal. I have another brand called Soyfresh for my drinks of tea and for general other use. For some reason I can't stand the So Good brand...must just be my crazy tastebuds.

So - much to my friends amusement...if I am going out and about and know there might be a coffee stop involved along the way, I now take my own little flask of milk along..then I too can 'do coffee' and be safe!

After a long lapse....

So. After not writing anything for ages I feel very convicted and am going to try to keep on keeping on. Its not that I haven't been baking and cooking...I have just been distracted by other things and uninspired to blog about my efforts. No longer!!

This week's gluten free, dairy free baking for me was chocolate brownie. Yum. I adapted an Annabelle Langbein recipe..it came out well.....
Any brownie recipe could be used you just need to substitute butter for dairy free margarine and use a gluten free flour mix (this time I used the Horley's flour mix...I prefer the Healtheries Simple one though). One other thing to consider...not all dark chocolate is gluten free. The Cadbury's Energy is not - is has added malt syrup to it. Whittakers is good...no gluten and no dairy in their dark choc.

Falafel Dinner

I don't like to use packet mixes. I just don't like ultra processed foods and food that isn't fresh. However I weakened at the supermarket today and thought I would try a gluten free falafel mix that would do for the whole family. It was ok. Not terrific. Not super yum. Not awful. Just ok.

The packet was pretty good value for money I thought...five dollars something...for a meal that wouldn't be having meat. I heated up some pita pockets for the rest of the family and put their falafels in the pita pockets with a mixed salad and a mayo and I just had mine on a salad.

The falafels were easy to make. Just add water, mix, chill and then mould into shapes. Then pan fry. Quick. Easy. Blah food. Tasty but more of a rib-sticker type of meal, than a gotta have that again!

Make Your Own Gluten Free Baking Powder

From the cookbook 'The New Zealand Food Allergy Cookbook', by Ros Campbell and Jill Macfarlane for Allergy New Zealand. Published by Hodder Moa, Auckland, 2007.

1 part baking soda
2 parts cream of tartar
1 part potato four, arrowroot or similar starch to prevent clumping.

I have just read that to make your baked goods rise better you need to mix the baking powder mix with water or other liquid in the recipe before adding it to the other ingredients. Perhaps if I had done that my sponge would have been better. Perhaps.

Sludgecake aka Spongecake Disaster

I should have stopped when I realised there were no strawberries to be bought today. Wham bam just like that the strawberry season has ended. No warning - no nothing. One day we could buy mega punnets of the little gems and then the next day nada. Apparently the warm evenings are to blame. I guess we can't have it all can we? So anyway. What is a sponge cake without strawberries? I should have stopped. But no, I was in a cake making mood and being adventurous so I went ahead with my sponge cake mission.
I've only tried making sponges a couple of times before, and both were not memorable. But a friend of mine had said she makes sponges for a coeliac friend of hers..so I thought i would give it a whirl. I used the Edmonds recipe and exchanged the cup of normal flour for a cup of Bakels Gluten Free flour mix. And I used the gluten free baking powder mix from the NZ Allergy cookbook (see below for details). I don't know whether the ingreds are to blame or my method for the lack of height to the cake, perhaps it was a mix of both...but the finished result was a low level gluggy cake, ew. If I actually liked sponge cake I would work on my method using normal flour and try to perfect my sponge making ability...but I don't think it is worth it. Give me mudcake anyday!
As my husband says, at least the cream is fresh and tasty! And I found one last strawberry for it in our garden.

I Scream.....

....you scream......we all scream....for ice-cream!

Ice cream is one of those dairy products that coeliacs have to read the label of...some ice creams have gluten in the flavourings...others have gluten as a thickener. The manufactured food database is a wonderful resource for people wanting to check products in regards to various allergies, not just gluten. Check it out to be sure of various products, it is available online at www.mfd.co.nz

In the meantime...here is my wicked recipe for ice cream that anyone can make at home, no special machines needed.

Take 300 mls cream and one tin of condensed milk. Whip the cream (no need for icing sugar or vanilla essence to be added) and then fold in the condensed milk. Add whatever flavours you like - choc, fruit, essences (some have gluten in them!).....anything at all, pour the mix into a plastic container and freeze. Enjoy!

Recent flavours I have played with - strawberry and mango, vanilla and choc chip - although beware the choc chips do tend to sink to the bottom!

Choco Caramel Slice

I was needing a sugar hit a few days ago and knew I was running out of gluten free flour (Bakels Baking Mix)....so I did some improvising. I took Donna Hay's choc caramel slice recipe and played with it. The base ended up being made with about half a cup of gf flour, coconut, brown sugar, margarine and some gf muesli to bulk up the base and make up for running out of flour. I have been using marg for baking since the price of butter skyrocketed..it works ok but is hard to measure...especially since two year old Luka threw my scales onto the floor! I would prefer butter but our budget wouldn't. Anyway, the base turned out really caramelly and tasty with the muesli bits giving it a great texture too. The caramel was a standard condensed milk, golden syrup and margarine combo and it was topped with a bit of dark choc melted with some oil to make it go further and make it easier to cut. Please note some dark chocs have a malt extract in them (Cadbury's Energy does for instance), so aren't on the ok list for coeliacs.
So now, hiding in the fridge, is my little indulgence....I have to eat out of sight of the rest of the family for fear of having to share it!

Sushi!!

Normally bought sushi is a no no for coeliacs as rice wine vinegar (which has gluten in it) is usually in the rice......but this can be exchanged very easily for white vinegar, making it ok for coeliacs. So I made sushi today, and incidentally it was the first time I had made it. I followed an Annabel Langbein recipe for the rice and filled them with strips of carrot, red pepper and cucumber, and avocado and salmon. I simply swapped the rice wine vinegar for white vinegar and it tasted just like store-bought. I didn't have a sushi mat, but used a damp teatowel to help in the rolling part. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the amount of rice I ended up with didn't go as far as I had planned...so now I know for next time to double the amount. The other thing to note for coeliacs is the dipping of the sushi - soy sauce is a no no - however tamari sauce which is pretty similar in taste is ok.
So my first forray into sushi making was a success......I'll be making it again......
If you have never made sushi - have a go. It was fun and tasted great. Plus it was cheaper to make than to buy it.