Saturday 16 December 2017

Luxury Mince Pies

I've had a few requests for this "recipe" - the inverted commas are because it's not entirely homemade, but the pastry was! I've experimented with numerous flours/mixes for pastry and it's always super crumbly, but this time I seem to be on to a winner.


For the pastry:-

I used the traditional; "half fat to flour" recipe, but the addition of coconut oil (to bind) and wet egg replacer necessitated a little additional flour. Apologies for the imperial measurements those who prefer metric but I have no time to convert at present! I might revisit this recipe and edit later...

9oz Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
4oz Stork block margarine (at room temperature) or other free from margarine
2 tbsp coconut oil, the white set kind at room temperature
Organ egg replacer for 1 egg

Be patient, this took a while to combine but made a pretty good dough. It was a little sticky and rolling is always tricky but you can rough cut and shape in the tins.

Mincemeat:-

Totally cheated on this one!!! Meridian make a delicious, free from mince pie filling so don't sweat the small stuff, this one's a winner. A teaspoon of filling in each pie case is sufficient.


Bake these open at 165C Fan /180C standard oven and leave to cool.

Once cool, I cut marzipan and fondant icing circles to make the tops, and sprayed with safe cake shimmer. You can make the marzipan or purchase it, unless you are avoiding nuts it's easy to buy both safe marzipan and fondant icing.

Enjoy! 

Tuesday 7 November 2017

Chickpea and courgettes fritters

This is a bit of a reworking of a previous recipe - to be honest this works with almost any veg combination although wet vegetables tend to make a sloppy mix that needs a lot of flour and they can end up quite dry. Sweetcorn is a favourite here, but this time I needed to use up some courgettes!


I baked two large potatoes in the microwave, peeled and roughly diced them once cool, part cooked the courgettes (so they were not too sloppy) and added them to a 400g can of drained chickpeas in my food processor. I added mixed herbs, salt and pepper to taste and whizzed them all together - but not so it was too smooth, just enough to combine.

Then roll large balls in gram flour and shallow fry as patties to look as above!

TIP: Don't worry if the mixture does end up a little sloppy, you can stiffen it up stirring in/mixing in some gram flour before making patties. 

Monday 6 November 2017

Hallowe'en Brownie Bites

A belated Hallwe'en post!



I made brownies from a fabulous new mix from Tesco last week and posted them on Instagram. Many asked for the recipe - but I'm afraid this was a cheat, I used the packet below from Tesco!

I'm now getting used to egg replacer, after 18 months and replaced the 2 eggs needed with Organ egg replacer. (Anyone else noticed they are selling two different types at present? One has a blue box the other yellow - and one needs two teaspoons and the other one? One is just twice as concentrated as otherwise it's the same......) I used a free from margarine and then poured the mixture into some hallowe'en cups to make "Brownie Bites"!

I must say the kids were really pleased, it was a lovely recipe!



Thursday 18 May 2017

NEAW17

This week has been the National Eosinophil Awareness Week. Largely USA driven, but in recent years following research and increased understanding into Eosinophilic Diseases there has been a strong supporting role from the UK EGID community, largely coordinated by FABED.



This year however, it's all been rather different. Supporting, treating and establishing good practice for an emergent disease is never easy. It takes individuals and teams taking a leap of faith in trying new strategies, putting their heads above the parapet and bidding for funds for research to support new theories. This last is a gargantuan task - as I've stated previously on this Blog, less that 1% of all research funding goes on gastrointestinal conditions. Absolutely NONE goes on paediatric gastrointestinal conditions. Although eosinophilic disorders do indeed affect adults (my father has EoE) adult treatments are less controversial.

In the UK, few medications are licensed for under 12s. Tertiary level consultants can, however prescribe the, - and many do, it's surprisingly common. But prescribing medication for an emergent disease in under 12s is VERY challenging, and should always be carefully monitored.

My Blog Stats bear out the fact that many come across the Recipe Resource looking for information on EGID - Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disease. I therefore feel in this week in particular I need to write something to give the little information those in the EGID community have to my readers.

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Homity Pies - introducing Voakes Free From

This is a recipe adapted from a childhood favourite. Many years ago, at the height of the 1970s a vegetarian restaurant called "Cranks" pended in London. In the 1980s I visited with my mother, and she bought their cookbook. One of our favourites was a small "Homity Pie" which was basically potato and veg in a pastry case topped with cheese. It's still my favourite kind of food, and I decided to reinvent it for my daughter.


I've had a few wonderful mail order recommendations recently which have made my free from cooking so much easier. The first is Voakes Free From . Their sausage rolls are amazing, my youngest son loves them, and his older brother is particularly partial to their pork pies. Although there is nothing ready made my daughter can eat their pastry has been little short of a revelation.

Voakes Free From - https://www.voakesfreefrom.co.uk

Those of you trying to make MEWS and Gluten Free pastry will have had limited success I suspect, but at LAST, here is a pastry ready made, freezes well AND ROLLS BEAUTIFULLY. What is even MORE amazing, it tastes delicious too. A real winner!

I should point out here - this is neither a sponsored post or one solicited by Voakes. They don't know me or that I am writing it. I firmly believe that anyone helping life easier for those of us catering for exclusion diets deserves a huge pat on the back. It's far too easy to make sugar-loaded biscuits and cakes but free from (and not containing soya - here's looking at you Sainsbury's!!!!) savoury food that is tasty and nourishing is hard to come by. I highly recommend them - excellent service too.

So I didn't make the pastry for this recipe. And I didn't make the cheese sauce either....

Vegusto is a company I have used before, but not for some time. Their cheese has nuts in so it isn't safe for all, and some have other ingredients in which don't suit everyone, but our issue was the strong taste which I - as a true cheese love, liked - but which my daughter hated. However, children grow up and I pretended it was a new product..... and she accepted the Moo Free Sauce quite readily!

Vegusto No-Moo Cheese Sauce
I was quite keen to persevere, since unlike the milder tasting Violife cheese, Vegusto No-Moo has protein in it.

So, on to the recipe. It's really, really simple.

Method

  • Roll out the pastry and using a large cutter and a deep muffin tin, cut the pastry cases out and place in the tin wells.
  • Par-boil potatoes, cool and roughly cut into largish chunks. 
  • Part cook vegetables of your choice.
  • Mix with some cheese sauce (important the veg isn't too well cooked or it collapses at this point)
  • Fill the cases with the cases with the mixture
  • Grate some free from cheese (I did use Violife here) on top
  • Back for approx 20 mins at 180C
Tip - these don't freeze but are delicious hot! 



Suggestion :- 
I rolled another portion of pastry, filled a large pie dish and froze it in the dish (freezer proof dish). I now have a ready made case to fill with apple/other fruit or to make a savoury pie.


I cannot tell you how exciting it is to be able to handle free from pastry which doesn't keep breaking!!

Sunday 26 February 2017

Update!


I've been quite overwhelmed with the kind messages of support after my decision yesterday to delete The Recipe Resource and say goodbye.

In many respects, I do feel that there are other blogs which offer more, certainly which are updated more often than mine is now! However as a bank of recipes for those struggling on limited diets I hope it is still useful.

So I have been persuaded to "undelete" it (is there such a word?!) and it will stay. Who knows, it might one day get a facelift but for now it's here as a resource for those of you navigating feeding children on restricted diets.



The reason I started the Recipe Resource was to help others - and for that reason I've resurrected it. I'm immensely grateful to all my readers for their ongoing support!

This cupcake is from the Organ Chocolate Cake mix, made as cupcakes today. I really rate the mix, the cake came out evenly cooked and springy.  A big success.


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