Good-for-you Creamy Curry

You know those gorgeous indian curries from up north - the ones you're not supposed to eat because they are full of all the bad stuff - cream, butter, ghee, ground nuts and coconut cream - dishes like Butter Chicken and that super creamy Korma. By God, they're good. But ohhh, so BAD!

This is a healthy take. It's still incredibly decadent, creamy and rich, but has a fraction of the naughtiness you'd expect. The secret is all in making a puree from vegetables that are naturally creamy, sweet and nutty in flavour.

Ingredients

• 4 medium-sized chicken breasts (about 750g), each cut into about 6 pieces
• 500g pumpkin, medium dice
• 2 small onions, diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 10 curry leaves
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds (bruised)
• 1-2 tsp good curry powder (depending on strength)
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 small tub low fat yoghurt (approx 170g)
• olive oil
• 1 cup frozen green peas (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

Flourless lime and coconut cake

This is officially the best cake in the world (according to me). Wheat free, grain free, dairy free, low in fat (but not in sugar - hey, you can't have it all), moist, finely textured, exotic, pretty, keeps well and is incredibly easy to make. AND it tastes like lemon meringue pie.


Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3 Tahitian limes, zested and juiced (about 100ml liquid)
• 1 cup caster sugar

• 1 ¼ cup ground almonds
 (200g)
• 1 cup finely desiccated coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• pinch salt

for the syrup

• ¼ cup grated jaggery (or raw sugar)
• ¼ cup water
• zest of one lime

Coleslaw with an asian twist

Coleslaw used to be one of my favourite salads. Childhood days in my Mum's late 1970s kitchen, when Margaret Fulton ruled (she still does occasionally), and when a "salad" was always lettuce, tomato and cucumber with french dressing. There were only two other variations - Potato salad (with bacon chips from a jar) and the aforementioned, sweet and dripping with store bought "coleslaw" dressing. My mum used to add nutmeg and somehow this translated it into a dessert rather than a vegetable. But one day, I tried the coleslaw from a take-out restaurant, and this soggy mess with raw onions and bland flavour destroyed it for me. I will never eat coleslaw again.

But, I will take some of the ingredients, and give it my own twist. I'll eat this kind, and so does everyone else - it's a party favourite. It even has a crunch honouring my mum's bacon chips on potato salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups grated carrot (or fine julienne is better if you can be bothered)
• 2 cups finely sliced red cabbage (also called purple cabbage or blue kraut)
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1/2 cup mint leaves
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp teriyaki sauce
• 3 tbsp white Japanese sweet sauce (*see note on sauces)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 cup aloo bhujia for topping **
  

Mocha meringue torte with hazelnut crumble

This one came to be because it was a friend's birthday. Not just any friend, but another food blogger. Not just any food blogger, but a food blogger who has been to Paris to study Cordon Bleu cookery (Francine's blog is here). I stupidly suggested I'd make a cake, and then realised I wouldn't be able to whip up one of my standards. Oh no. This would require ingenuity. Something that looked and tasted seriously adult, yet essentially remained cake-like. Something I couldn't muck up, yet something that looked like it required effort. Voila. The base is adapted from a chocolate meringue cake with coffee cream found almost anywhere, but the crumble is something I thought it needed just to take it over the edge.

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 3 tbsp good quality cocoa (not just drinking chocolate powder)
• 1 1/2 tbsp corn flour
• 1/3 cup peeled hazelnuts
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 4 digestive biscuits (e.g Wheatens - substitute with oat bran/amaretti or other GF biscuit for gluten free)
• 200ml whipping cream
• 100ml custard (see note)
• 1 super sweet ristretto, cooled (really strong shot of coffee with lots of sugar and very little liquid)

Roasted Vegetable Salad

This is such a vibrant salad. Considering it is so hot here, even over Christmas, not everyone wants a bowl of hot roasted vegetables. It’s easy to prepare before-hand and features plenty of local and seasonal ingredients. It’s wonderful with turkey, but also makes a great accompaniment to grilled seafood.

Ingredients:

• 500g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
• 1 bunch of radishes
• 5 small beetroots, quartered
• 250g roca (arugula)
• 1 tbsp warm water
• 1 big pinch of saffron
• 1 tsp honey
• coarse salt to taste
• ¼ cup flaked almonds
• 2 tbsp labneh
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• squeeze of lemon
• 1 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• herbs for garnish (za’atar or coriander)

Gluten Free, Dairy Free cupcakes – as easy as 1, 2, 3

It’s amazing where your best recipes come from. This was my son’s maths homework. His male, non-cooking teacher sent home a recipe that was to be used to practice multiplication. He sent home the ingredients for 6 cupcakes, and asked students to make him 12 or 18 at a time. With my kids being on a gluten free diet, I substituted the self raising flour mix by Doves Farm. I also substituted the caster sugar for some coconut sugar I had just picked up from the organic shop (less processed = better for the soul). The recipe was already dairy free.

It’s one of the only cake batters I’ve made that does not contain milk or at least a liquid substitute, and I was convinced it was going to be rock hard – not so. Eggs are mighty little ingredients. Recipe below makes 6 cupcakes – but can easily be multiplied, as my son can vouch for.

Granny's Tuna Curry

Ok - so this is not very gourmet. I've discussed Gran's cooking here. Saying that however, this is one of the favourite dishes in this house, particularly with the kids. Even Mary has been known to say she likes this one, although she might just be showing respect to elders, because this resembles no curry that Mary has ever cooked. It also breaks the rule for all those old wives out there who believe that consuming fish and milk can cause vitiligo (but this is totally unproven). This recipe was designed to include entirely canned and frozen ingredients. Bonus. Yep, super gourmet...

Ingredients:

• 350g tinned tuna in brine (two medium tins) - drained
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1 cup tinned baby carrots (drained)
• 2 tbsp oil (canola)
• 1 tbsp butter (I use ghee)
• 2 tsp mild curry powder (Gran recommends Clive of India brand)
• 2 tbsp flour (yes, you can use gluten free)
• 1 cup milk (I use CF diet milk, but rice milk also works)
• salt to taste

Sarah's Summer Pudding

Summer Pudding. It's one of those things I wish I could like, but I just loathe the delivery. Yucky sliced white bread soaked in sloppy juice. The concept is great - oodles of magenta sugary bombs wrapped in a secret parcel, but I just keep on coming back to the bread, which would probably taste much better with a slice of plastic cheese on it. The name "Summer Pudding" should conjure feelings of sweetness and light, and yet it's been hijacked by a lump of soggy purple bread. So - here's MY summer pudding. So much better.

Ingredients:

• stale cake - enough to cover the bottom of your bowl
• mixed berries - twice the volume of your cake - make sure at least 1/3 is tinned in juice.
• white chocolate (about 100 - 150g)
• whipping cream (same volume as cake)

Kiddies Corn Fritters

These have always a staple in our family. I think they started off as a breakfast item, but now they are one of the most frequently requested dinner veggies, and I always save some for the lunchbox the next day.

Considering we have switched to being gluten and dairy free, they've seen a little adjustment. I now use a gluten flour mix (Doves Farm self raising) and I replace cow's milk with camel milk (easy to buy here in Dubai, low in bad casein, and a creamier replica than soy or rice milk). The recipe tastes just as good either way.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 x 340g tin of sweet corn (12 Oz)
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• pinch salt
• pinch smoked paprika

Pomegranate and Quinoa salad

I've just discovered that you can cook quinoa in a rice cooker. This means no more sticky-together or crunchy bits, no more burned quinoa stuck to the bottom of the pan, and no more constant checking. Just plop in 2 cups of quinoa to 4 cups of water, turn it on and go away.

As a result, I'm finally cooking more quinoa.

Quinoa has a very woody flavour, and it needs something with it to temper the strength of this, particularly if you are trying to get kids to eat it. I've tried it warm and curried (here), which I thought was pretty good, but it got the definite thumbs down from the kids. This time, I served it cold, and to balance the raw and dusty flavour, added pomegranate seeds for sweetness and mint for freshness. And pine nuts, just because I like them.

Gluten free, casein free cupcakes that don't have the texture of rocks

Gluten free and dairy free cooking is getting easier. It's pretty common now to find plenty of options even at basic stores. A recent trip to France showed me that even in the world of baguettes and Brie, a country Leclerc sells gluten free flour and soy cream as standard.

But the problem is that these substitutes are not perfect - you just won't get the same result as if you had used standard flour or butter. I'm getting better at making up for this though, and here are a couple of tips for cake making:

1.
Use ghee instead of oil or margarine. Ghee is usually casein and lactose free because all the milk solids are taken off in the process, basically leaving some gorgeous tasting fat. Don't tell yourself it's good for you, but as long as you're not spooning it onto your breakfast cereal, it's not really that bad in moderation. Vegetable ghee is another alternative, but as it is hydrogenated to give it the correct texture and appearance, it's probably best avoided (nasty trans fats). If you are highly allergic to dairy, you should probably stick to Nuttelex or canola oil - sorry about that.

Provincial Lavender and Honey Cake

Below is a honey and lavender bundt I prepared for my children. They are dairy and gluten intolerant, so I have made accordingly – it would possibly taste better with softened butter to replace the oil, cows' milk, and a light country wheat flour to replace my gluten free mix. It's a recipe following my post on cooking with lavender, and its multitude of culinary uses.

Don't you love a little Provincial inspiration?

Ingredients 

• 4 cups (Schar Patisserie) gluten free flour 
• 8 tsp gluten free baking powder 
• ¾ cup rice milk 
• ¾ cup canola (rapeseed) oil 
• 1 tsp salt 
• ½ tsp vanilla 
• 1 cup honey 
• 3 eggs 
• 2 tsp lavender buds (or 3-4 full flowers) 

Cherry Frangipane

A trip to a provincial market is always inspiring, but the recent one I took to Tarascon, in the Bouche du Rhone departement was an eyeful of the grandest degree. I came home with a bundle of goodies, not the least, but the cheapest, being a half kilo of deep purple ripe cherries for the grand total of 1.41Euros. It was hard to look at them and not think of Frangipane. The recipe below sounds a little fiddly, but it's not really - its just a matter of getting the ingredients laid out.

Ingredients:

• 300ml and 100ml almond flour (meal)
• 1 1/2 cups gluten free flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 120g and 80g butter softened and chopped (or use dairy free margarine)
• 100ml plus 2 tbsp sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 300g cherries, halved and destoned
• 2 tbsp cassis jelly and a dash of champagne (optional)

Gluten free, Dairy Free Oreos

Did you know that standard Oreos are dairy free? That means the basic recipe is very easy to adjust to also make it gluten free. My kids discovered Oreos during a minor lapse of dietry judgement on holidays, and to stop the tears at the emd of the trip, I promised I would research it. 

I've adapted a recipe from bakingbites.com, and apart from a tiny tweak in the liquid ratio, it works well. I also added a pinch of salt. Because everything tastes better with salt... 

(Measurements are American - a cup = 200ml and a tablespoon = 15ml)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups gluten free flour (I used Schar Dolci)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup real cocoa
• 1/4 cup cornstarch (make sure it's gluten free!)
• 1/2 cup vegetarian shortening or margarine
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt 

Dairy-free Carbonara

Did you know that traditional carbonara recipes often don't contain cream? It's amazing, isn't it, that you can get a creamy sauce without using cream. Think about mayonnaise. It also doesn't contain cream (if you make it yourself - who knows what they put in the jar). Egg yolks are amazing little things - they have so many properties, and when you whip them up with olive oil, they go all creamy. 

Unfortunately, carbonara has always contained cheese. So to make up for lack of the flavour this adds, I've added a little extra salt, a touch of paprika and some crushed garlic.

Ingredients:

• 500g Pasta (I used gluten free macaroni)
• 400g bacon, trimmed and chopped (I used a smoked pork fillet)
• 3 egg yolks*
• 1 whole egg
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• salt and paprika to taste
• chopped chives or parsley for garnish 

Let them eat cake - gluten free eggy bread

The greatest things missed by kids when attempting a gluten free and casein free diet are bread and cheese. I'll get to cheese in another post, but today I'm tackling the daily staple. 

There are ways of making gluten free bread. I have tried tackling it myself, and I have sampled just about every bread mix on the shelf (by the way - I think Springhill Farm is the best one, followed after a large gap by Red Mill and Schär).  It is very possible to make a gluten free bread that tastes good, warm out of the oven with a drizzle of olive oil and some pink salt. But that's the end of it. As soon as it cools down, it the texture rests somewhere between a bag of breadcrumbs and corragated cardboard. The only rescue from this time on is toasting. So how do I put sandwiches in the kids' lunchboxes and send them off to school to eat it four hours later?

I let them eat cake.

I drew my inspiration from old fashioned soda bread. I've made this with some success with gluten free flour. I added in another trick I have learned - separate the eggs and beat the whites into soft peaks to add later - this helps the dense gluten free mix to gain a little air. I also added some extra yolk, because: 1 - I had some left from making meringues the night before, and 2 - because I thought it might add a little glue or chew to the mix, as gluten free flour is notoriously crumbly. Apart from that, I simply adjusted my own banana cake mix. Success!

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

How do you make a cream of pumpkin soup without cream?

Easy – tofu. Not all dairy can be replaced with soy, but if you are living a dairy-free lifestyle like my family is, you will find there are some things that go together. Espresso coffee and soy milk? Not so good. But Pumpkin and silken tofu? Perfect. Most silken tofu actually has less flavor than soy milk, and its dense texture is perfect for blending – none of those miso soup style soy whirlpools. If you hadn’t been warned this was dairy free, you would swear it was full of cream.

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin* – about 500 - 750g, peeled and chopped
• 1 large onion – chopped
• 200g diced bacon
• 2 cloves garlic – crushed
• slurp of olive oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 bouquet garnis pouch (or a teaspoon of mixed dried herbs like thyme and sage and bay leaf)
• 1 vegetable bouillon and 1.5L of water (or 1.5L of stock)
• 1 packet silken tofu (about 400g)
• salt and white pepper to taste

Coconut and Jaggery cake

In my constant search for less processed foods, I recently discovered jaggery. Over here in Dubai, it is fortunately very easy to find, and is cheap - ranging from less than the equivalent of $1 per 500g packet up to about $10, depending on quality.

Like sugar, jaggery usually comes from sugar cane (it also comes from sago, coconut and date palms), but it is a softer, crumbly substance made from the unprocessed and unrefined cane juice (simply boiled until it becomes a paste), then poured into moulds to set. It does not undergo any bleaching or refining of any kind, and so retains its natural colour, fiber, mineral salts and flavour. It is known to release energy slower than processed sugar, making it better for people with blood sugar issues. 

But the price, process and the health benefits are not the only reason I love it. It tastes amazing. The mineral salts can be detected, and the molasses tint gives it a flavour almost like salted caramel. It is just so much more complex than sugar. It melts easily, can be cut off in shards for nibbling, and can be crushed in a blender.

Orange jellies

We're going on a time warp here - back to a time when I used to dream about these in the weeks of lead-up to my birthday party. My mum was fairly anti white-bread, definitely anti-sugar and not much of a baker, but she used to make these sunshine smiles with plain old oranges and a packet of tartrazine-fueled jello. As far as a kid's concerned, that's probably better than my all-natural, no colour, no preservative, low sugar version below. But, this is almost as easy, and healthy enough to pop in a school lunchbox for kids who otherwise refuse to eat fruit. And it's really all about that orange-peel grin in the aftermath anyway...

Ingredients:

• 6 oranges
• 10g packet gelatin
• 2 tbsp raw sugar
• water (about 200ml, depending on oranges)

Chicken and camel milk tagine

 I have a new tagine. It's a fancy one - Staub. It cost way too much, but it's the first tagine I've had that does the full job - it works on the stovetop, and in the oven. Until now, I've used a 45 year old enamel pot that came to me through my mother in law, and I will still use that lovely pot, but the added bonus with a tagine like this is that it looks damn good on a table.

I'm still inspired by my trip to Jordan, and after cooking mansaf the other day, I thought of my tagine, and chicken. Chicken is so tender and juicy when poached in milk. Jamie Oliver has a great recipe that I had made when my family still included regular dairy in the diet. But now I use camel milk due to its better casein profile. It also has a richer flavour, a light tang and an incredible creaminess despite its low fat content. Camel milk is readily available here in Dubai - for those who can't find it, substitute with buttermilk rather than regular milk, otherwise it will be a little bland, as I use fillets in this recipe rather than a whole chicken.