Showing posts with label gluten-free. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gluten-free. Show all posts

Friday 20 March 2015

Millet-Polenta and Pan-Fried Leeks, Spinach & Peas

And I am back again already ;-) As I told you there are quite a few things I've made in the past two weeks that I'd like to share with you!

Today's post is about what I made today though, as I was surprised how well my "I-want-some-dinner-and-I-want-it-fast" experiment turned out.
I had been at the library until 7.30, working for five hours straight on an assignment without falling asleep - I am really surprised by that =P
So in fact my dinner was not that inventive, since half of the recipe was what I made yesterday (you don't have to make it twice in a row ;-) ) and the other half were the vegetables I had left. But it was very good! As was yesterday's, but I totally missed out on taking some photographs of that.

Today what I made was a millet-based polenta-like something with a green vegetable-assortment pan.


Polenta is usually made from coarsely ground corn and, in the Italian version, seasoned with parmesan cheese. Besides, some of the hot water, which the cornmeal usually is stirred into, can be replaced by stock or milk so that the dish has a richer flavour. Then, the mixture can be more or less creamy depending on how much liquid is used. It can be pan-fried or baked as well.
There is also an African version, called Sadza. Sadza is the made up of water, salt and corn only.


My version here is made of coarsely ground millet, since I didn't have any corn semolina and since my grain mill cannot grind corn anyway. Corn is about the hardest grain, which is why a very strong mill is needed if you want to grind corn.
I've found, though, that the flavour doesn't differ that much and the color is nearly the same too!


Before I've tried using cornflour, which is usually used for thickening liquids. The result was...well. Not quite what I had been thinking of and the colour I found to be a bit weird too.
So I do not recommend that.


In any case what I made with the millet was delicious, regardless of how any original version is supposed to be.


Total time for making both: About 30 minutes.

Millet-Polenta


per person
75 g millet
200 - 230 g water
about 1/4 tsp salz
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1/2 tbsp butter


  • Using a blender, coffee grinder or grain mill coarsely grind the millet so that it has the texture of semolina. When it turns out to be a flour this is not a problem. The recipe will still work - only the texture is a bit nicer when the mixture is a bit more grainy.
  • In a small pot bring the water with the salt to a boil. While whisking with a whisk or a fork slowly add the millet semolina to the water and keep stirring. Holding the lid over the pot bring the mixture back to a boil. The bubbles that surface when the mixture starts boiling might shoot at you, that's why I recommend the lid. When the mixture is boiling immediately reduce the heat to the lowest setting and put on the lid. After about two minutes turn off the heat and whisk the mixture again. Put the lid back on and let stand for about 10 minutes so that the millet can absorb more water and soften.
  • Season with salt and nutritional yeast, whisking with the fork again. If the mixture is not creamy, add a bit more hot water (preferably from a kettle). Add the butter and stir until incorporated.
  • Spread out the polenta on a plate and top with your desired topping.

  • Alternatively, wet a cutting board. Pour out the polenta on the board and flatten to a disk with wet hands (be careful, it will still be hot) or a spoon so that it has the same thickness in all places. Heat a pan with some butter over medium heat and fry the polenta disk in it until browned.
  • To turn over, place a plate on the pan and turn around. Then add more butter to the empty pan and let the disk slide back into the pan to fry the second side.


Green Leek-Spinach-Pea-Assortment Pan

for 1 person as a side
1 leek
70-100 g spinach (fresh or frozen)
1/3 cup peas (frozen)
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
250 ml vegetable stock
salt
pepper
curry powder
dried herbs (mixture of sage, thyme, majoram, basil)
lemon juice
lemon peel


  • Cut the leek in 0.5 cm rings. Finely chop the garlic.
  • Heat the olive oil in a pan for which you have a lid (or a plate that fits on it) over medium heat. Add the leeks. Fry over medium heat for 5-10 minutes*, stirring often so that the leeks brown slowly and slightly. Then add the spinach and some of the stock to the pan. Cover and let bubble over low heat until the spinach is defrosted or wilted. Add peas and garlic. Add more stock. Let simmer, covered, for a few more minutes.
  • Season to your liking (with the spices suggested) and add more stock if the vegetables are too dry and burning.
  • Serve over polenta.

* At that point I started preparing the ingredients for the polenta and went on making it whenever the vegetables didn't need any attention.


I apologise for the photos not looking calendar or cookbook-like ;-)

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Apfelmus

Hi there!
In case you were wondering where I've been over the last weeks - the "evil flu" got to me at the beginning of last week. So I was in bed for two days with a horrible headache and had several versions of colds for the rest of the week. I hope this doesn't sound familiar to you!!!

So I haven't been doing much.

Well, this is not true. Since I've been at home at lot, I've taken lots of photographs of what I've made. Only I've succumbed to sleep in the evening instead of writing. I hope you're forgiving me ;-)

So, to get back on track: Right now I've got a Schneckennudel dough rising next to the heating and . . .  *insert-the-sound-of-some-drums-here* . . . an apple filling waiting for tomorrow morning in the fridge.




I know I told my friends I'd make an original German nut filling the next time, but I was so tempted by the apples today. I'm sorry! The nut filling is still to come!

The apple filling is an Apfelmus or apple puree, just like you would use it for pancakes, Schupfnudeln or Kartoffelpuffer. Am I confusing you there?

"Apfelmus" is the German word for apple puree. "Apfel" means "apple" and "Mus" means "puree".

I don't know what you'd have apple puree with here in England, but where I come from it is common to have with the above mentioned dishes.
Pancakes I'm sure you all know one way or another.
Schupfnudeln are longish shaped potato dumplings which have pointed ends. They are cooked and then usually pan-fried and served with honey-braised Sauerkraut or with Apfelmus.
Kartoffelpuffer are, as Wikipedia tells me, called potato pancakes in English. Maybe you could compare them to hash browns. I have to admit that I've never liked them, but maybe I haven't found the right recipe yet.

In any case apple puree is versatile and you can use it, like I am planning to, as a filling or simply as jam or to have with anything you fancy!



Apfelmus

inspired by Ella Woodward's Apple Puree from her new book (Woodward, E. (2015). Deliciously Ella: Awesome ingredients, incredible food that you and your body will love. Hodder & Stoughton, p.19)

for 1 small jar / 1 Schneckennudel filling
2 apples
1/4 tsp cinnamon
water


  • Core the apples and roughly cut them up. Place the pieces in a small pot and add a bit of water, so that the bottom of the pot is covered.
  • Bring to a boil and cook the apples uncovered for 30-40 minutes. Add more water as necessary. In the end there shouldn't be a "soup" left, but the apples should not have burnt.
  • Having added the cinnamon, pour the apples into a blender or use a stick blender. Blend until very smooth.
Keep in the fridge.

You can adjust the seasoning to your liking. Vanilla or cardamom might be interesting options! If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!


Saturday 21 February 2015

Pan-Baked Spiced Millet-Balls

As Sunday is coming, I thought this might be nice for you to read on Sunday or maybe even to make!

Well, no ... in fact I didn't plan this. I just made it the second time this week. The first try was not quite what I wanted, but I think I've now found a good way to make these. And tomorrow it just happens to be Sunday and I was looking for a nice introduction to this post.



The recipe Millet Cakes with Carrot and Spinach by Love & Lemons, which I read earlier this week, was my inspiration for these. I have changed a few bits and pieces to my taste, though.
The key to these is to get them nice and crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside. But I have to say that the mixture itself tastes pretty good too. I just couldn't resist while forming the balls...

Maybe, you'd like to do these as a starter or have them as a side, but you could also do a lot of them and just eat them on their own. Or make a lot and save some for lunch the next day...
Which was my plan, but in fact my housemate and I ate all of them ;-)

I can imagine that either a tahini-based sauce - like hummus - or something based on sour cream would go well with these. They are not hard to make and something quite different.



Time: I forgot to precisely watch the time, but I think in total it took me about 45-50 minutes to make these.

for 16 tabletennis-sized balls
(1 as a main or 2 as a side)
100 g millet
1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 onion
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
1 carrot
90 g spinach (fresh or thawed)
1 heaped tbsp flaxseed
1 tbsp cashews
about 1/4 cup water
salt
pepper
1-2 tsp curry (depending on the curry)
mint leaves (fresh & chopped or dried and crumbled)
butter

  • Put millet in a pot, along with 1 cup of water and ¼ tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and let simmer with the lid half on for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat off as soon as the water has been absorbed and let stand covered until you have prepared everything else.
  • Chop the onion and separately chop the garlic. Grate the carrot and chop the spinach into large pieces.
  • Heat the olive oil over low heat in a pan. Add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes. In the meantime place flaxseeds and cashews in a blender and blend finely. Add the ¼ cup of water and blend again. Then add carrot and spinach to the pan and continue frying for another 5 minutes until the vegetables have wilted.
  • Add some salt, pepper, the garlic, the mint and the curry and fry for another 3 minutes.
  • Put flaxseed-cashew milk in a bowl. Add millet and the spinach-mixture. With a spoon mix everything very well.
  • Take out a large plate. For the millet mixture into little balls (I'd say about the size of table tennis balls). Place all balls on a plate. Over low heat. heat a little bit of butter in a frying pan (you can use the same one as before) and place the balls in the butter. Over medium heat fry the balls from one side. Don't turn them, since you want them to get brown. Be patient. When they turn brown, turn them over, using two spoons. Also add a bit more butter in little pieces at different places into the pan. Fry the balls until the other side is also brown. The balls might stick a bit to the pan, but if you use a spoon you should be able to "lift" them off the pan so they stay relatively whole. If they don't do that completely, don't worry, the crusts will still taste good!
  • Turn off the heat, place balls on a plate and serve them in whatever way you like.



You could replace spinach and carrots by other vegetables and adjust spices to your taste!



I hope that you enjoy these or thinking about them! :-)

Friday 13 February 2015

All-About-The-Sauce-Potato-Casserole

Over the past week I've collected some photographs of what I've made, but it's kind of hard to decide what to post next for you. Right now there was the choice between....hmm...should I tell you? No, I won't so it will still be a surprise in case I decide to write about the other things as well ;-)

Today you're seeing something that is a really great winter dish that doesn't require any fancy summer-ish ingredients.


This is it!

In this case it is a potato-broccoli casserole, but in fact it's all about the sauce. Over time my Mum and I have had several versions of this dish with potatoes plus several varying vegetables. Without the sauce, though the dish wouldn't be as good as it is. I had this with my housemate during the week and the thing she said to me was that the sauce was really nice (was this a British understatement for "great"? - I'd hope so), so this must be the key factor.


vegetables
350 gpotatoes
250 gbroccoli
sauce
1onion
20 gbutter
about 4 tbsp = 35 gmillet flour (you can make that in any blender from millet grains)
125 gcashew milk (grind 15 g cashew nuts and blend again with 110 g water)
250 gvegetable stock
salt
pepper
1/4 tsppaprika powder (sweet if possible)
nutmeg

  1. First of all, cut the potatoes (unpeeled) into halves if they're big or leave them whole if they are small. Make sure that all pieces are relatively evenly sized. Cut the broccoli roughly in smaller florets. You can use the stems as well. You don't need to make them as small as you want to eat them though, it's less fiddly if you do that after steaming,
  2. Place all vegetables in a steaming basker or a metal sieve and steam over boiling water for about 15 minutes or until as soft as you like it. In the meantime prepare the sauce.
  3. Prepare cashew milk, vegetable stock and millet flour.
  4. Finely chop the onion. Gently heat butter in a small pot and fry the onion in the butter. When fried, add vegetable stock and cashew milk. Bring to a boil. With a fork whisk in millet flour. Over low heat cook for a bit and keep stirring. The mixture should thicken up and get creamy after a short while. If it doesn't add some more flour. Season with spices to your liking.
  5. When potatoes and broccoli are tender, cut potatoes in slices and the broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Grease a small casserole dish with butter and first put in potato slices and then the broccoli pieces on top. Evenly distribute the sauce on top.
  6. Bake at 250 °C (or as hot as your oven goes) for about 20 minutes until the top is slightly browned.

Instead of millet flour you could also use regular flour, but millet flour makes the sauce have a nicer looking yellow colour.

You could vary this by for example adding some fried mushroom (this adds a dirty pan, though) or by  cooking potato slices and zucchini in a bit of vegetable stock. I recommend you try it as written and then you'll be able to make up your mind as to what vegetables go well with the sauce until maybe I've made the other varieties of the dish as well ;-)

Ah, by the way I've added a print button to the blog! When you open a specific post (not the home-site, but by clicking on the title of the post) you can now find it under the post and can optimise each page to the way you'd like to print it! In case you ever want to print something which I sincerely hope :-)


Monday 2 February 2015

Hearty Buckwheat Gnocchi

Hi to everyone!
After a long time of my housemate not giving up on trying to persuade me to actually start a cooking blog I've finally done it and actually (technically, that's it) managed to write my first blogpost which even includes a table. That's stunning for me ;-) I hope you can see it all alright! Please excuse any mistakes or anything that look out of place...

My first recipe for you is one including buckwheat.
Buckwheat, huh? Have I confused you there?

In case you have not heard of that: buckwheat is actually a seed and not a grain and is gluten-free even though the name suggests otherwise. It has a quite hearty flavour and is good for any main courses, but maybe, from my point of view, not so much for sweets and desserts. You can cook the grains and eat them in salads and lots of other dishes, make porridge, or - as here -  grind them into a flour. Buckwheat flour is, I guess, available also from health food stores just as buckwheat itself. As the grain is rather soft grinding it should be possible with most blenders, though.

If you've gone through all this and now finally have gotten hold of some buckwheat this is a recipe that requires relatively few ingredients.
I have to admit that I needed some motivation before I started making this today, as I still had frozen potato soup and ...well, but, no, the thought of buckwheat gnocchi definitely was more appealing.


Buckwheat Gnocchi - here with Tomato Sauce with Fresh Rocket



for1person
125 gbuckwheat or buckwheat flour
+ some for dusting
1/4 tspsalt
nearly boiling water




When preparing your meal start with the dough for the gnocchi, as it benefits from resting for a short while, which it can perfectly do while you get started on the sauce you want to have with your gnocchi.

For the gnocchi themselves you only need three ingredients.
The rest is up to you, as these are very versatile. So if you'd like to brown them in a bit of butter, make some tomato sauce, have some leftover pesto or anything else you think would go with them you can take it from there.

For the gnocchi:
  • Grind the buckwheat in a blender or measure out your buckwheat flour. Mix with salt in a bowl. Heat up some water so that it is close to boiling. This is important, as otherwise the buckwheat won't absorb the moisture as nicely.
For the next step it's actually easiest to use any appliance than can mix dough, as the dough gets quite sticky and is hard to stir. If you fancy some exercise though or have someone there who is happy to help you ;-) use a heat-resistant bowl and a heavy-duty spoon that doesn't bend (like a wooden spoon or metal spoon, but not plastic).

  • Now, very slowly, add splash for splash of hot water and keep stirring. Do this until all flour is just incorporated and forms a soft dough. Then do not (!) add any more water, as otherwise you will end up with a sticky mess. Keep stirring for a bit longer, so you can be sure that the dough is all smooth. The amount of water you need can vary from day to day as it depends on circumstances like the humidity of the air. (I forgot to take a photo at that point, sorry for that!)
  • Using a spoon place the dough in a bowl, smooth the surface, so that the dough doesn't dry more than necessary and cover with a lid, a plate or foil wrap. Leave this to rest for 20 - 30 mins.
  • In the meantime bring some water for boiling the gnocchi to a boil.
  • Prepared Gnocchi
  • Take a large cutting board, a non-stick baking mat or a plastic placemat and, through a sieve, dust lightly with additional buckwheat flour or normal flour (if you don't mind it not being gluten-free). For the amount mentioned above I recommend dividing the dough in two sets for forming the gnocchi. Take dough out of the bowl and place on the dusted surface. Dust with more flour. On the flour-covered board roll each portion into a rope of about 1.5 cm in diameter. Then take a glass with water and a knife, wet the knife often (after every few cuts) and cut the ropes into 1.5 cm wide pieces. Make sure that all pieces get placed on flour-covered patches so that they don't stick to the surface. Also make sure that you use a knife suitable to your surface so you don't damage e.g. your baking mat.

  • When you've completed this make sure your sauce is ready, put salt in your boiling cooking water (about 1 tsp per litre) and gently (best with your hands, but beware from splashing water) drop the gnocchi in the boiling water (I recommend doing this in two batches). Make sure the water actually returns to a boil. When the gnocchi rise to the surface they are done. Fish them out of the pot using a slotted spoon.
  • Technically they are done now!
What I usually do is that I place all cooked gnocchi directly in the pot with the sauce which I then, having added all gnocchi, let simmer for a minute so that the gnocchi can immerse in the flavour of the sauce.

As mentioned the gnocchi go really well with tomato sauce.
Today, there was rocket in my tomato sauce, but feel free to add anything you like, such as parmesan or, if frying the gnocchi in butter, maybe some caramelised onions.


Let me know how this worked out for you if you tried it please! =)