RECIPE Grand Slam Welshcakes!

I'm not normally a sports fan, but I do enjoy watching a good game of rugby, especially when Wales are winning! To celebrate Wales winning the Grand Slam, here's my recipe for gluten free and egg free welshcakes. (Almost) just like Nanny used to make. Tidy.

Ingredients

200g Flour (I used Dove's Farm Plain Flour blend)

75g Caster sugar

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp baking powder

50g butter, 50g lard (or 100g butter for the squeamish) warmed to room temperature.

50g currants

1 egg or egg substitute (I used Orgran's No Egg)

Splash of milk (I used soya milk)

Method

Combine all of the dry ingredients. Rub in the butter/lard until you get the consistency of breadcrumbs. Add the 'egg' and combine with the mixture. Add a splash of milk and stir into the mixture to form a dough (hands are best). The dough must be wet enough to form a ball and still slightly sticky, but not so wet that it sticks on your hands.

If you have the patience, roll out the dough onto a floured surface, and use a cookie cutter to cut out 8-12 cakes.

I find that gluten free dough/pastry is a pain to roll out, so I tend to form patties with my hands instead.

Place directly into a very lightly buttered or oiled hot pan (I used a non-stick frying pan but traditionally you would use a bakestone. A solid bottom is best.)

Cook for a good 3 minutes on both sides until the centres are no longer doughy.

Serve with butter and tea!

Gluten Free Breakfast

Please excuse my photos this week. I had no battery in my camera so I've been using my phone (which is almost an antique). Not my best work but as long as you get the gist, that's the main thing :)

This post is about breakfast. The subject came up on Twitter. Howard the Celeriac (@celeriacs) posted one of his excellent cartoons on the subject of 'The Full English'. Check it out here.

I replied that I missed having breakfast cooked for me in a cafe, preferably a greasy spoon, with a hangover, a few mates, and a huge, heavy mug full of super strong tea.

I must admit, I'm rubbish at breakfast. Since I went egg free too, I really struggle to find anything that I can eat (or that I can stomach paying for i.e. super expensive GF cereals.)

The image above shows what I had to eat yesterday. On the weekend, when I have time to cook breakfast, I like hash browns, sausages or bacon, tomatoes or beans and a blob of tomato or bbq sauce with a little blob of chilli sauce mixed in.

My fave weekend breakfast sausages are the ones pictures above, which are Bratwurst from Aldi or the Co-operative British Pork Sausages (gluten free).

The hash browns are by McCains, also recently made gluten free.

I couldn't eat it every morning, but on the weekends, (especially ones where I can sit in the garden) a cooked breakfast is a real treat.

Tyrrell's New Crinkly Veg Crisps

I'm a big fan of Tyrrell's crisps. They're made without gluten in my husband's home town (right between where I live now and where I grew up). The veg crisps are delicious and feel all at once healthy and a little bit naughty.

I was sent some of the new crinkly veg crisps to try. They combine carrots, parsnips and beetroots with rosemary and wild garlic. And I have to say, they are just divine. More crunchy than the standard veg crisps, and the flavouring is perfect. Not too garlicky or rosemary-ry, just right.

Not sure what else to say apart from - Buy them and eat them because they are delicious and crisps are what makes life worth living and they must be (mustn't they?) one of your 5 a day (at least.)

www.tyrrellscrisps.co.uk

RECIPE Gluten Free Gumbo

Despite visiting New Orleans nearly 3 years ago, it was only very recently that I attempted to make my own 'proper' gumbo. Gumbo requires a roux, and we all know what that means.

However, I just substituted plain flour for gluten free plain flour from Dove's Farm and it was surprisingly straightforward.

Start with half a block of butter, melt it down gently in a pan. Then gradually add the flour, stirring continuously until you have a smooth mixture, of a double cream consistency. Keep on a very low heat and stir. Then stir, and stir some more. Keep going for around half an hour. Gradually you will notice that the flour starts to darken. After half an hour, your roux will be a pleasant beige. You can stop there, or keep going until you have a chocolate coloured roux which is supposed to give a better flavour.

That is the base to your gumbo.

You will find a lot of gumbo recipes online and most of them require random American ingredients. You can make it as easy or as complicated as you like but try to stick to the essential base ingredients and make it your own. The ingredients in bold are known as the 'Holy Trinity' and form the base of many Southern dishes.

Green pepper

Celery

Onion

Garlic

Cajun seasoning

Bay leaf

Chicken, sausage, prawns, rabbit, crayfish, catfish, oysters, ham, okra or a combination of!

Cook long and slow and serve with white rice.

Here is one of the more basic recipes I could find on realcajuncooking.com

Gumbo is a great winter warmer and I hope you'll give it a try.

RECIPE Vindaloo La La!

In an ideal world, every night would be curry night.

I've gotten pretty good at rustling up a curry and now have a few favourites that I can pull out of the bag using up whatever's in the fridge.

But every now and then, you fancy hunks of chicken or lamb in a really fiesty, sweat inducing sauce.

That's where the Hairy Bikers come in.

Their recipe for Vindaloo is just the best.

I can't improve on perfection, so here it is. (However, do check spices for added gluten.)

When they did this on TV, they served it with a splash of plain yoghurt.

If you're dairy free as well, try the Alpro Plain (I found mine in Sainsburys).

It's a little sweet but against the heat of the curry, works brilliantly.

Gluten Free Meatball Sub!

The day after making gluten free hotdogs with Dietary Specials White Baguettes, I decided to resurrect subway/po'boy Friday. This started because me and my husband always fancy something a bit naughty to eat on a Friday evening and we came up with the idea of re-creating the Po'Boys we had in New Orleans. Then things got slightly out of hand as the fillings became more and more extreme!

I used my remaining baguette and the following ingredients to create a really delicious meal.

For the Meatballs

Sprinkle salt over your mince and mix in thoroughly. Then make ball shapes from the mice.

Fry in a little olive oil until brown and cooked through.

For the Tomato Sauce

In a saucepan, fry half an onion with garlic (I used 4 cloves but it was slightly too much for me).

Add a tin of tomatoes and a teaspoon each of a selection of herbs (I used dried Thyme, Oregano and Tarragon, but fresh herbs would be great too.)

Add a couple of bay leaves and 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder.

Season with salt and black pepper.

Cook the sauce for around 20 minutes so that the sauce reduces down and the flavours get to work.

Blend the sauce until smooth.

Put your baguette in the oven. (I put mine in for 10 minutes rather than 6 and was left with a surprisingly crunchy and delicious baguette that really took me back to the old days!)

Add the blended sauce back to the saucepan, then add the cooked meatballs and heat through.

Serve the baguette with salad and the meatballs and sauce.

I could seriously eat this every day!

Gluten Free Hot Dog!

There's something about hot dogs that's just a bit wrong. I think it's because we all remember 'street dogs', those hot dogs from street vendors that seem like a really good idea on the long walk home from the club.

But forget all that and remember the hot dogs your mum used to make on sunny, bank holidays.

That's the kind of thing I wanted to re-create.

My hot dog consisted of the following very simple ingredients:

1 Dietary Specials White Baguette cut in half and then 'refreshed' in the oven for 6 minutes. I found these in Morrisons. You get 2 baguettes in the pack, so that's 4 hot dogs! Excellent value.

Bratwurst in a jar from Aldi. Labelled 'Gluten Free'. Heated in a pan and a little oil for about 5 minutes. (Aldi by the way, is excellent for gluten free food.)

Ketchup

Mustard

Vitalite Spread (Dairy Free)

Onions. Sliced into rounds and fried in a little oil until brown and soft.

And there you have it, a little taste of nostalgia :)