Socca bread (Farinata)

Reading through the fabulous "Free From Food for Family and Friends" by Pippa Kendrick, I came across "Socca bread", made from only gram (chickpea) flour, olive oil and water. This was a fabulous discovery, since chickpeas are one of the few protein rich foods my daughter can currently have!

I did some research on the internet, since the roasted vegetable version Pippa has wouldn't have been possible for us, and discovered it is really, really versatile! In France it is known as Socca bread, in Italy it is called Farinata.

You make it exceedingly thin, like pancakes - there is a great recipe here.

Alternatively, you can bake it deeper to make a more filling bread, which is what we decided to do.

Ingredients

• 150g Gram Flour
• 3 tbsp Olive Oil
• 250ml water
• Pinch of salt

Method

• Sift the gram flour into a mixing bowl. (Gram flour tends to settle and get lumpy.)
• Whisk in the olive oil and water until completely smooth
• Apparently the batter should ideally sit for at least 1-2 hours before cooking.
• Pour into a flan dish for a thick bread
• Bake at 180C for apprize 30 minutes until cooked.
• Cut into wedges and serve!

Tip: This is so versatile, you can add roasted vegetables, olives, caramelised onions, bake it thin like a pizza or thick like a bread. It can be pitta bread texture or soft wedges. You choose!


UPDATE

Today I tried a thinner version of the batter, with just a little more water, and it made a lovely pancake. When the batter started to cook I added roasted courgettes, carrots and puy lentils to half and flipped it over. Apparently it was delicious!

Fish Pie - Gluten free, dairy free, soya free, wheat free, nut free, corn free

Apologies for only sporadic posting at present, life seems to well and truly have taken over! I've still been cooking daily, anyone catering for children with allergies knows only too well that there are not many short cuts. My christmas present this year was a slow cooker, which I must say has been hugely liberating. It means I can spend food preparation time whilst the children are (usually!) at school, and the meal cooks with little intervention from me. Once the children are home I can devote my time to them, rather than the evening meal.

My main aim this year (a resolution if you like!) is to continue to build on the growing independence the twins are gaining. This is quite a slow process - new readers can read my musings on why children with allergies lack a degree of independence here,  and to that effect I am aiming to broaden their meal repertoire, if not their safe food list!

Fish pie has long been a big favourite of my two oldest children, the twins each enjoy a few ingredients each - and both are hugely suspicious of sauces and combined meals. We've been slowly working on them tasting and eating a white sauce and after initial success as a warm "dip" I decided to attempt a fish pie.

My aim was not for either to eat a plateful, or even enjoy all of it - but to taste some, and pick out a few pieces they felt they could eat. This is an approach called a "bravery ladder", which I will write more about next week.

So, here it is - our fish pie. Obviously if your child is allergic to fish, this is a complete no-no!! The eggs are entirely optional though, so tolerating rice, potato and a few vegetables is all that is required on top of the fish.

White sauce ingredients

• 300ml rice milk
• 100ml rice cream (I use Isola)
• 1 bay leaf 
• 50g "Pure" Olive or Sunflower
• 50g plain flour - either corn flour or rice flour

Method

• Melt the margarine a little in the microwave
• Combine with the flour (I use a hand held whisk) and gradually add the cream. 
• Whisk/stir whilst adding the milk
• pop in the bay leaf and gradually cook in the microwave until thickened.

Fish Pie Method

• Peel and boil approx 4 -5 large potatoes
• Poached the fish in the microwave with a little rice milk and a sprinkling of pepper, then flake it. 
• I have an egg cooker and hard boiled three eggs, cooled peeled and chopped them.
• Quickly stir fry the spring onions whilst the fish and eggs are cooling a little
• Make the white sauce (above) and mix with at the fish, eggs, onions, sweetcorn and peas.
• Place at the bottom of a large dish
• Once cooked, mash the potatoes, add white pepper to taste and use "Pure" Olive or similar to mash
• Cover the fish mixture with mashed potato, starting with the edge first to avoid the contents getting pushed over the edge.

This will keep in the fridge once cooled until you wish to cook and serve. Alternatively cook in a moderately hot 180C oven (170C fan) for half an hour - or an hour if straight from the fridge.

Lemon and Blueberry Muffins

Here at The Recipe Resource we like our muffins, and blueberry ones in particular. I am constantly tweaking the recipes I use, trying to find that authentic muffin flavour whilst excluding as main of the main allergens as possible. These do have eggs in, but you could swap them for egg replacer since the banana provides additional raising agent. 

Gluten free, wheat free, dairy free, soya free, corn free, nut free, could be egg free

Ingredients

• 275g / 10 oz safe flour (I used Dove's Farm SR blended gluten free flour)
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder  (omit if you used self raising flour)
• 125g / 4oz Caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 275mls/ 9fl oz safe milk substitute - I used rice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 75g / 3oz melted and cooled vegetable spread (I used Pure Sunflower)
• 150g / 5oz fresh blueberries

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400F /Gas Mark 6
• Sift flour, baking powder (if needed) and stir in sugar
• In a second bowl beat the eggs (or prepare replacer), milk substitute and vanilla essence. 
• Mash a banana with a fork and add to the wet mixture
• Add lemon juice (not before or eggs will curdle)
• Make a well in the dry bowl and pour in the wet ingredients. (Or mix it all in your mixer)
• Combine well and stir blueberries in with a fork to prevent breaking them.
• Spoon into muffin trays (makes 12) and bake for 20 minutes or until golden and firm.

Best eaten warm on the day of baking -  doubt these will last long here, they are very nice!

3 Ingredient Pineapple Cake

I couldn't believe it when someone share this recipe on the Facebook Recipe Resource wall. I mean, we've tested and adapted a couple of brilliant and really simple cake recipes, but this one tops the lot!! For those unfortunate enough to be allergic to pineapple, stewed brambly apples would work pretty well and I plan to test that soon.

This took a minute to whizz up, 50 minutes to bake and much less for the troops to demolish. There is NONE left. Can't be bad, eh?

Ingredients

• 2 cups your choice of self raising flour - I used Dove's Farm
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 440g (large) can of crushed pineapple - or blend a can of sliced pineapple like I did.

Method

• Blend the pineapple chunks or slices if required. KEEP all the juice, do NOT drain it off
• Combine all three ingredients well and transfer to a alb loaf tin
• Bake at 180C (170C in a fan oven) for 50 minutes.

That's IT. 

I doubt it would keep well, but to be honest there wasn't much need here!! One of the best egg free cakes I've come across.

Easter Biscuits

It's the Easter holidays - and it's blowing a gail, with the odd hailstorm thrown in for good measure. All my children want to do when at home is make things, so today we made our favourite shortbread biscuits and decorated them for Easter!

That was my first attempt... then the twins decided to have a go, and the bunnies multiplied, as bunnies are apt to do!

Happy Easter! And if your little ones want to know more about Easter, its traditions and get some art and craft ideas, pop over to see Dorothy of more fun!

http://dorothywhiskers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/easter-crafts.html

A "Frozen" free from Birthday Cake

A friend of a friend has been really poorly, and her children have food allergies so usually she bakes their cakes herself. So when my friend asked if I could help making a #freefrom cake, of course I said YES!

I decided to use the Chocolate cake recipe here since I'm not an expert at baking egg free, and I knew this was easy and pretty fool proof!

I made two cakes, layered with this Betty Crocker chocolate fudge buttercream mix which does say "may contain traces of milk" which was ok for us. You can make your own with safe margarine and icing sugar though. (You could also use jam in between the cakes.)

The little girl has a nut allergy so nothing I used could say "may contain traces" of nuts. This was a real eye opener for me, as well as many cake decorations containing wheat, the "may contain" is a real issue for nut allergy sufferers, even the fondant icing from many stores said that! I made my own fondant with fondant icing sugar in the end and coloured it with safe colouring. Lastly I had great fun making little Olaf!

I'm really pleased with the result!

Free-From Chocolate Brownie Cake

Having held you all in suspense on our Facebook page since announcing an EGG FREE cake recipe was on the way...... here it is!!

I can't take much credit for this though, it really is a creation of my daughter's, who at 9 was rather cheesed off that she wasn't able to eat the gluten free brownies her older brother enjoys frequently and decided to do something about it!

We are really lucky and are allowed some egg here, which makes life much easier. But many are not able to eat egg so we are officially making an effort to include more egg free recipes.

I had read about eggless "crazy" cakes before, and we had a basic recipe for guidance. The were created during the "Great Depression" in 1930s America, when eggs and butter were hard to find and expensive.

Ingredients

(Adapted from an official "crazy cake recipe")

Dry ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups of flour (we used Juvela Harvest White but any blended flour would do)
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder (We used Bournville for that brownie taste)
• 1 cup sugar (we used caster, the recipe said granulated but that tasted gritty)
• 1 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients

• 1 tsp white vinegar (I only had wine vinegar as it's gluten free)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 5 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 cup water

Method

This is really *so* easy, I was not involved at all, my 9 year old made this by herself.)

• Grease an 8" deep sandwich or square tin
• Measure out the dry ingredients in order
• Mix lightly and make three wells in them 
• Put the wet ingredients one in each well, the oil in the largest - like a face!  (2)
• Pour the water over the entire lot in the tin (3)
• Mix well! (4)
• Bake at 170C / 350F for 35 minutes, the middle should be slightly squidgey to avoid the outside getting too dry (that was the problem with our first effort) and once cooled it can be decorated if desired. 

When warm, it tastes just like chocolate brownies..... yum!!

Mushroom and Butter Bean Risotto

This was a last minute, "Help we've got home late, what AM I going to cook!!" recipe. It had to suit everyone here so it's Dairy free, Wheat free, Gluten free, Vegan, Nut free, Soya free and was really quick and easy to make.

We make risottos all the time, great for using up odds and ends. I had the forethought to grab a bowl and photograph it so I could share!

Ingredients

• 1-2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 onion if you have it
• garlic - either pre-chopped (Waitrose do this in a jar!) or a clove, crushed.
• 350g Arborio Rice if you have it (I didn't, it is long grain in this but Arborio or Carnaroli would be much "creamier".
• 1 litre stock 
• 3 large field mushrooms, chopped
• 2 leeks, chopped and par boiled
• 1 tin of butter beans
• 1/2 carton of rice cream or Oatly cream (if tolerated but not suitable for coeliacs)
• small amount of fennel (don't know why, it took my fancy!)
• salt and pepper 

Serves 4,  I was cooking for 5 but two were smaller eaters so you could adjust this accordingly.

Method

• Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for 5 mins. 
• Add the chopped mushrooms and rice fry for a further 2-3 minutes.
• Pour in the stock and cook, stirring regularly, for 15 mins or so.
• Meanwhile cook the leeks, when starting to soften add these in too.
• Add in the beans and the rice cream, keep stirring!
• Add the salt and pepper, parsley or fennel, and more water if necessary.
• After another 5 mins with all combined should be cooked through with little excess fluid.

Serve with salad, a garnish or other veg, or just as it is! This is so easy and quick to make, you could easily add or subtract different veg you would like, we often do peas and bacon.

This post is entered for the Betta Living Vegetarian Recipe competition. 

As a variation, and if you wanted a meaty option you could try this - with veg and bacon instead.

Banana Oaties

I have had this recipe sitting around for MONTHS and have finally got round to making it! It's so quick and simple, the cookies can be frozen (if they are not eaten straight away!) and its a flexible recipe with room for changing to suit your tastes/needs.

There are few ingredients, and it is dairy free, soya free, wheat free, gluten free, egg free - most major allergens free AND sugar free. It's vegan, MEWS safe, you name it, so I can see it becoming one of our staples.

Unfortunately it contains nuts, but I imagine rice protein might work instead? Or polenta?

There are only TWO left to take a photo of, the rest disappeared when my back was turned....

Ingredients

• 3 RIPE mashed bananas
• 1/3 cup of apple sauce (I used 1 banana and apple Cow and Gate infant fruit pot)
• 2 cups gluten free oats 
• 1/4 cup almond milk (or your choice of substitute)
• 1/2cup raisins (or substitute for your favourite dried fruit or nuts if safe)
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 1tsp cinnamon

Recently I treated myself to a set of measuring cups to facilitate easy conversion for cooking with Australian cup measurements. They are particularly useful for the Tiana coconut recipes too.

Mine are from TKMaxx which is a surprisingly good source of baking equipment!

Method

• Easy - mash the bananas
• Combine everything well (I use my Kenwood mixer for this)
• Spoon onto a baking sheet
• Bake at 180C/350F for 15 minutes!

Tip:- Best kept in the fridge for a couple of days, or the freezer if uneaten in that time. They are not hard biscuits but very soft - delicious warmed for a few seconds in the microwave.

Enjoy! 

Fruit Tea Loaf/Cake

I saw this recipe in the Waitrose magazine today and wondered if I could make it work for us. I could and it did!

Dairy free, Soya free, Egg free (with variation) Wheat free, Gluten Free, Corn Free, Nut free

Ingredients

• 1 teabag
• 200ml just boiled water
• 1 unwaxed lemon (didn't have any, didn't bother)
• 375g mixed dried fruit of your choice
• 2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 1 ripe banana
• organ egg replacer equiv. to 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp free from milk (optional, only if mixture not a soft "dropping" consistency)
• 150g Doves Farm self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

This is adapted - the original recipe was double quantity but replacing 4 eggs is tough, even with a banana for help! So I figured if I kept in the whole banana and additional baking powder, only replaced 2 eggs (I'm doing this for all you lovely people as we can eat eggs you know ;)  ) it might just work. It did! However I think freezing after tomorrow is wise, it's going to go hard quickly.

Method

• Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/GasMark3
• Pour boiling water into a large bowl with the tea bag and leave for 5 mins. Squeeze and discard bag.
• Weigh dried fruit (I used a complete mixture) and add this and the mixed spice to the tea. Either microwave or simmer on the hob until almost all the tea has been absorbed.
• Leave to cool for approx 40mins. Meanwhile line an 8" square tin with baking paper.
• In a blender or food processor, whizz up the egg replacer mixture and banana to make a puree. Add in the flour and baking powder. You could do this in a mixer (Kenwood/KitchenAid) but it works best in something faster.
• Pour the egg/banana/flour mixture into the fruit and mix it all together.
• Transfer to tin and bake for 30 minutes. 
• Turn the cake out, peel off the baking parchment before it cools and leave to cool properly - or at least so it's not going to burn your fingers!!

Kids verdict - "Delicious!" But definitely one best served warm/fresh. it did go quite dry unfortunately.

Free From Mayonnaise

This mayonnaise recipe is dairy, egg, gluten and nut free. Many thanks Michelle from our Facebook group for sharing :)

Ingredients

• 2tbsp potato flour
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 4 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp dijon mustard (gluten and wheat free)
• 120ml olive oil
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 1tsp white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
•  salt and white pepper

Method 

• Mix the potato flour, gum and water in a food processor until it is white and peaking.
• Then beat in the mustard, measure the oil in a jug and with the machine running trickle the oil in a thin gradual stream. I found it was really runny at first but it does thicken.
• When you have added about 3/4 of the oil add the lemon juice and vinegar and then add the last of the oil in a faster stream.
• Taste and add more salt if needed.

 It will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge in a air tight container.  I had to have a few trials with it at first, but really simple to make.

Chocolate Salted Caramels

These are from Emma on our Facebook group!

Free from all major allergens.

Ingredients:-

• 1 bar of Dark Chocolate plus "Moo Free" chocolate melted together
• Teaspoon of coconut cream
• for the "caramel":-
• 50g Vitalite
• 75g sugar
• few drops of vanilla essence
• 3 tbsp coconut cream

Method:-

• Melt all the chocolate with a tbsp of coconut cream and used a paintbrush to paint the sides of the mould you are using, leave to set in the fridge.
• To make the "salted caramel"centre  melt the Vitalite or similar, sugar and vanilla essence.
• Then add 3tbsp coconut cream, simmer for about 10 mins.
• Add to the chocolate lined moulds when it's a cooled a little and spoon more chocolate on the top. To set quickly pop in the freezer, then allow to warm to room temperature before eating!

Turkey Burgers

Turkey is a meat well tolerated by many. This recipe is a few food recipe, and turkey works well in burgers as it sticks together nicely without binding agents like egg.

Ingredients

• Minced Turkey 
• Chopped onion 
• Seasoning 
• Chopped fresh parsley if desired. 
• Rice flour 
• Any safe Oil 

Method

• Fry chopped onion in a little safe oil. 
• Take off heat when soft and mix with mince. 
• Season mince and add chopped parsley. 
• Make into patties and roll in rice flour. 
• Shallow fry for 3 or 4 minutes in a frying pan with safe oil. 

These are great warm, freeze well and are a hit cold in the lunch box. They are also nice with sweet corn added before frying.

Gingerbread family

Serves - 12 

Free from- Milk/dairy, wheat, gluten, egg, soya, nut, peanut 

Ingredients

• 350g (12oz) Dove's Farm gluten free blended plain flour 
• 2 rounded teaspoons ground ginger 
• 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder (check ingredients)
• 100g (3½ oz) milk/soya free margarine 
• 175g (6 oz) soft light brown sugar 
• 60ml (2 fl oz) milk alternative (rice or oat milk)
• 4 tablespoons golden syrup 
• currants & glace cherries to decorate 

Method

• Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas mark 5 
• Sift the flour, ginger, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into a bowl. 
• Dice the margarine and rub into the flour mixture. 
• Add the sugar. 
• Stir in the golden syrup and alternative milk, adding the latter a tablespoon at a 
• time. Mix until a dough ball is formed. The dough should be soft but not sticky. 
• Knead the dough to a smooth consistency on a floured surface, then roll out to a 
• thickness of ½ cm. 
• Use a cutter to cut a gingerbread family, or other shapes if you prefer. 
• Decorate with currants & glace cherries. 
• Grease and flour a baking tray, or use non-stick baking parchment. Place the 
• gingerbread people on the tray and bake in the middle of the oven for 10 
• minutes. 
• Once cooked remove from the oven and leave on the tray for 5 minutes before 
• transferring to a wire rack. Serve when cool. 

Cooks tip - For those who can tolerate eggs, omit the baking powder and add an egg alongside the syrup. 

Serving suggestions - Make other shapes such as hearts and stars and decorate them with icing sugar for Valentines, Christmas and other special occasions