Cooking with Neocate - Quiche revisited...

I've posted about our efforts with Quiche before both here and here. I've used two pie crust pastry recipes over the years, but we are now gluten free so I stick to the Juvela Harvest White mix recipe on the back of the boxes. It works well for us - BUT it isn't egg free.

Eggs serve to enrich a dough because of their fats. So anything with a certain amount of fat would work like condensed milk or extra butter or oil. However, keep in mind that though eggs are liquid when you add them to a recipe they change into a solid when they are heated. So if you are adding an ingredient such as milk or oil that does not solidify on heating, you must remember to add a little more flour to your recipe to act as a binder.

The other reason egg is used in pastry is to make it more malleable, you can use milk or water to replace egg but your pastry will not be as delicate as milk and water release the starch out of the flour and make it stretchy. So it will be perfectly edible but not as delicate.

It IS a dilemma, but given that THIS post is about quiche - or EGG PIE as we have to call it in this house - and given that quiche needs egg I'm going to gloss over this. Sorry. However, I do feel this a bit lame, and have tried backing an eggless quiche once. The Vegg can be used to make the filling and an eggless crust IS possible, just not as easy to work with. There is a list of egg substitutes here.

I would LOVE to see some of your egg free success stories, (especially the savoury ones) and will test and feature any I'm sent on the Recipe Resource.

Now for the Neocate part....

Pea and Lentil Fritters/Cakes

To serve 4-6

Ingredients

175g/6oz easy cook peas (e.g. Whitworth)
125g/4oz Red Split lentils
10ml/2tsp Mixed dried herbs
25g/1oz butter equivalent (we used PURE sunflower)
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 green pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 large garlic clove, skinned and chopped or crushed
1 egg, beaten
1.25ml / 1/4tsp cayenne pepper
30ml/2 tsp plain flour - we used Dove's Farm Plain Flour
salt and pepper

Method

1. Place peas, lentils, enough water to cover and herbs into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer, partially cover and stir occasionally for 30-35 mins until dried peas and lentils are tender but peas are still whole. Drain off excess liquid.

2. Melt the margarine in a large frying pan. Add the onion, pepper, celery and garlic and cook gently for about 10 minutes until soft and almost transparent.

3. Turn the peas and lentils and the vegetable mixture into a large mixing bowl, allow to cool slightly before adding the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly.

4. Divide the mixture into 10-12 pieces and form each into a "cake" on a lightly floured board.

5. Fry gently for about 10 minutes each side or until golden and crisp outside. Drain on absorbent paper and serve with safe tomato sauce.

Mum made these today for the twins! Would also be delicious cold on a picnic or in a packed lunch.

Lunch Boxes

I am loving the new containers currently available in the shops, especially the Sistema range. It's becoming much easier to make interesting lunches for the kids.

Tomorrow A has cold sliced free from sausages (The "Good Big Sausages" from Waitrose) with his favourite tomato sauce in a mini sauce bottle from Lakeland, and some crudités in his partitioned box by Sistema from The Range.

K has crudités and houmous in a little screw top dip pot (also by Sistema, from Lakeland, pack of four) in her partitioned box.

I will send sandwiches with marmite (only filling A will touch) in the new Free From sliced white bread from Tesco ( best I've found so far) but I also send buttered (well, "Pure" sunflowered) fruit bread (see a couple of posts down) for K and muffins, cakes etc to give variety. Add in a packet of Pom Bears, Plain Hula Hoops or the new Tyrrels individual bags of plain lightly salted crisps and a fruit pouch I'm definitely increasing our repertoire ;)

I have bought insulated food pots and children's thermos flasks (easy open) for winter too. Hoping to have more success persuading them to try soup or pasta lunches. Might be a tough battle, they are creatures of habit!!

These are also very useful for children's lunches:-

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16194/2-Biscuit-Holders-For-One

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/3756/Biscuits-for-One

Simple Potato Cakes

I can't take the credit for this recipe, or even for finding it, but it is definitely one worth sharing!

All instructions and excellent step by step photos  are on a sit called "The Pink Whisk"

A friend said the following:-

"We've made these using pure sunflower spread and rice flour. They are really yummy, Finley adores them. We've frozen them individually, defrosted over night and then put in the microwave for 20 seconds just before eating and they are nice and soft. I did try to defrost in the microwave and they burnt to smithereens!"