cantuccini - gluten free

I'm cooking a batch of cantuccini to give as presents, with port. I couldn't decide on a pudding wine, so fell back on port. My memory of dipping these hard biscuits in alcohol is a fond, and slightly bleary one. I've made them wheat free, using Dove's Farm plain gluten free flour. I hope they turn out really hard. There is no fat in this recipe, apart from what is in the nuts.

Tasters trying this recipe part way through are mmm mmm-ing like mad. Cutting the biscuits half way through, I can see that the dough is much more crumbly than its wheat-packed compadre. The smell is great. I’m cooking the sliced dough at a slightly lower temperature. Pics follow

Here's a reminder of the recipe

Cantuccini

RECIPE

Ingredients:

325g (12oz) plain gluten free flour

300g (11oz) caster sugar

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

200g (12oz) whole unpeeled almonds

125g ground almonds

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Around 1 coffee cup/1/2 small glass alcohol amaretto or brandy

Method:

Set your oven to Gas Mark 4 (180°C/350°F).

Prepare two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Roughly crush about a third of the almonds or chop them a bit

Mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and almonds.

Whisk the eggs and vanilla together and stir them into the dry ingredients, working it into a stiff dough (I use a fork). Add the alcohol bit by bit, by the end if it’s not all sticking together add a few drops of water.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and divide into two.

Roll each half into a sausage and divide again into two, so you have four pieces. I do this because it fits on my baking tray, and makes slightly smaller biscotti.

Put the sausage shaped dough on the lined trays and flatten a little – they will spread a bit, so keep them well spaced.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the logs are well risen and have almost doubled in size.

Leave the oven on.

Cut into slices about 1cm thick. Some people say they should be smaller, but I can’t cut them that small. Don’t worry about leaving space between the slices.

Put the sliced dough back and cook for around 20 minutes more, until they are lightly toasted. Let them cool before storing (or eating).

Makes lots and lots.

 

Gluten free Christmas

I'm making a new stuffing this year, gluten free for simplicity in the family catering. I've got chicken, pork, beef and bacon, sitting and waiting for me to crack on. I'm intending to make extra as sausages for another meal. Gluten-free toad in the hole perhaps.

I will also make some parsley and sage stuffing, also gluten free. I'm not doing bread sauce, because the potential heart attack on a plate, that is the Christmas meal, doesn't need any help. More later...

Duck for a month

I've just divvied up a duck. It was a lovely day, and I thought I'd try a little amateur butchery on the kitchen table.

I fell upon a video online, with a French lady preparing a duck, taking the flesh off the carcass in one piece, calling it 'removing the duck's overcoat'. I had a go, and the confit has been started - the meat is sitting in salt as I type.

One medium duck should serve well, two good size magrets to eat this week, served with prune sauce. The two wings, legs and aiguillettes,will be confit, cooked and preserved in fat, so they'll be eaten in the new year, with salad. The carcass is being made into stock, which will be part of our gravy on Christmas day. The geziers, liver and heart will also be part of the gravy and stuffing. Not bad for £7.50. Oh, plus the fat and salt, call it £12. The fat will make roasties more tasty as well.

cantucchini

Sorry to give this away, to anyone who knows me, and might be on the receiving end, but gifts are going to be in part edible this year. Cantucchini, spicy biscuits and chocolate fridge cake. In terms of easy, the fridge cake wins, the spicy biscuits are always popular and are quite simple, and the cantucchini are excellent, especially dipped in coffee or alcohol. Yum.

celeri remoulade

When I lived in Paris I used to treat myself to celeri remoulade from the traiteur every now and then. Once I'd got a job. It was long ago and far away, and I never thought to look for it in the supermarket, but it's never the same. It is one of my fantasy foods, and for a long time I've tried to make it, and failed. I think I thought it was all more mysterious than it is. I've finally done it.

Celeriac is an unattractive veg, usually about the same size as a large swede, or rutabaga as they call it in the US. It's very knobbly and a bit slimy when you peel it, in general it's rather weird. When you buy it avoid one with any soft bits if possible. If you find any, just cut them out.

What does it taste like? The flavour is particular, it is sweet, slightly rooty, with a little touch of aniseed. The texture in remoulade is firm, a bit like a part cooked carrot, because the veg is blanched and then steeped in the dressing. So you have to make it in advance.

I've seen recipes which add capers or gherkins into the sauce. Go ahead if you like that kind of thing. The remoulade that I like is a very mustardy maionnaise. I make it with a whole celeriac, which is enough for a week or a party of people as a starter. So I'm giving the recipe for a quarter of a large celeriac - make the rest into soup (recipe to follow).

1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 heaped tbsp maionnaise
1/4 celeriac (peeled)
pepper and salt

• Cut the peeled celeriac into strips/matchsticks no more than 2mm across, or grate it. You could use a peeler to make shavings. (I cut it with a knife, it's a kind of meditation) 
• Pour freshly boiling water over the prepped celeriac and let sit for a moment then drain thoroughly - this softens it a little but not too much
• Prepare your maionnaise mixture to taste
• Mix together the celeriac, finely chopped onion and mustardy mayo taste and adjust seasoning, adding a squeeze of lemon juice if it seems too rich.
• If you have the patience let the mixture sit for a while for the flavours to soak in.

Eat as part of a mixed salad. Goes particularly well with sliced cooked beetroot and cucumber. You could prep it as part of a hors d'oeuvre with champignons a la Grecque.

Lately I've been mixing my maio with 0% fat Greek yoghurt, which is also very nice. 

Champignons a la grecque

Making mixed starters (or assorted horses dovers^(sic) as they are known at ours)  for a family gathering I returned to an old favourite, champignons a la grecque,  a quickly made cooked mushroom salad. Although I think of this dish as something for the summer, it works very well in the winter, the dressing is lightly acid and softly spicy, and the mushrooms have a fleshy firmness, and stay surprisingly pale. Best of all this recipe is wonderfully simple. It's taken from Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking, almost verbatim. Having made a swift stab at trying to find a similar recipe in Greek recipes (in translation, of course), and came up with nothing. So, I'll keep looking, out of curiosity. In the meantime it's a lovely little recipe for a tasty little dish.

It's very nice on its own with a piece of toast, or with some hummous, or as part of a mixed hors d'oeuvres. At this time of year it's a nice and light little something to go with roast meat, hot or cold. 

Cooking notes

Resist the temptation to add more liquid, it really isn’t necessary, even though it looks like there isn't much there.
You can substitute two tinned tomatoes or two large spoonfuls of chopped tomatoes for the fresh ones. It may make extra liquid, but it will reduce down.

On the same basis, it’s worth using a nice olive oil, but not necessarily the best, as it'll lose its body once it's boiled to reduce it.

RECIPE

Large bowl of small mushrooms, around 180g (or large ones cut in quarters)

juice of half a lemon

tsp of coriander seeds

1 tsp of peppercorns, cracked

Large pinch of salt

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp water

2 peeled and chopped tomatoes

·        Shake off/rub clean the mushrooms

·        Put the mushrooms into a bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice and shake gently, and set aside

·        Put all the other ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil, simmer for a couple of minutes

·        Add the mushrooms and any juice in the bottom of the bowl

·        Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for five minutes

·        Take out the mushrooms and set aside back in bowl

·        Boil the liquid, uncovered until it’s  reduced by half, then pour it over the cooked mushrooms, stirring gently to mix

If you like you can sprinkle a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley over the mushrooms, or a mixture of parsley and fresh coriander. It adds a little something, and looks pretty.

That’s it.

My mixed starters included mushrooms a la grecque, celery remoulade, sliced cooked beetroot and sliced cucumbers, roast veg, green salad. For meat lovers I included some mixed salami.

Celery soup

I heard recently that some people have a particular sense of smell that makes celery repellent to them. I’m not sure it’s true, even though I am one of those people to whom the joy of a raw stick of celery remains a mystery. I don’t like it, neither the taste, nor the vigorously stringy nature of it. Maybe my chewing skills are inadequate.  In my mouth it resembles a mouthful of dental floss, without the minty freshness. Now, cooked celery, that’s another matter. I like it braised, and I love it in soup. If you don’t cook it too long it lends a lovely green to this soup. I puree the soup, putting the fibre to good use, but I also like it with the liquid clear and the celery and other veg sitting in it. In that state I like to grate cheese over it. But I digress, this is a recipe for the smooth pureed version, which I like to enrich with a blob of cream and lots of black pepper or pungent ailloli. You choose.

Cream of celery soup

• 1 Large head of celery
• 2 Onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• Small handful of parsley
• 1 large potato
• Olive oil or butter

·        -  Peel wash and chop all the veg, as appropriate – aim for everything to be chopped to about the same size, to make sure it all cooks at the same pace

·         - In  a heavy based pan melt a knob of butter (or use olive oil) over medium heat

·         - Gently fry the onion, celery and garlic, until the onion is translucent

·        -  Add about two pints, a scant litre of stock, along with the chopped potato

·        -  Simmer gently for around twenty minutes, until everything is cooked, then add the parsley

·        -  Puree, taste and season

- Serve with a spoonful of cream or aioli

This is enough for six hungry people, or eight not so greedy.

Peace sauce

I've been checking out the blog statistics, and am so thrilled that people are looking at recipes for food I love. In particular I notice that lots of people are looking the the gunpowder sauce recipe. It's a wonderful ingredient that can make stir fries taste fab, giving a real tang. I just hope that the people checking the page are actually looking for a sauce recipe. If not, perhaps it might give a little pause for peace. Here's hoping.

Tarator

I've been experimenting with tarator, an alternative to maionnaise, made with nuts, oil and garlic. Recipes and pix to follow.

It's very nice with the veggie turnovers.

Little tasty turnovers

Inspired by a visit to an Afghan restaurant, these little turnovers are deliciously fresh. If I say so myself. I'm not a great fan of fiddly cooking, still, I reserve the right to say this isn't fiddly. It just involves lots of chopping. And a bit of boiling. And rolling out pastry (shop bought in my case). OK, it's fiddly, and the pay-off makes it worth it. Little parcels of loveliness. I served these up with a tarator, a bit lumpy, because it was my first time making it. Tarator is a nut sauce, a bit like maionnaise (apart from my first attempt). The combination is perfect for vegetarians, vegans and anyone with tastebuds. If you are wheat intolerant the whole thing would work with rice pastry. 

Oh, what's in it? Leeks, carrots, potato, coriander, teeny bit of dill, pepper and salt. The shop bought pastry is made just with oil. 

RECIPE

Two large leeks (or a bunch of spring onions)

Two potatoes (cooked in their skins, peeled when cool enough)

Generous handful of finely chopped coriander (cilantro to some) including stems

Pinch of dill

One large carrot, cooked

Ground black pepper

Salt

Tablespoonful of oil

½ block of ready-made puff pastry

Set the oven to Gas Mark 7/425F/220C

• Cut the leeks (or spring onions) into fine slices
• Cook gently over low heat in the oil – careful not to burn, you don’t want that caramel taste
• Peel the cooked potatoes and cut into very small cubes, chop up the carrots in the same way
• Take the softened leeks off the heat, season with pepper and salt and stir through all the other ingredients

You can make this mixture the day before if you want to

Roll the pastry out very thin, keeping the rectangular shape

Cut into nine square of approximately equal size

Put two heaped teaspoons of the mixture in each, moisten the edges of the pastry, fold over, and crimp together with a fork

Snick a little hole into the top of the turnover (pasty)

Brush with egg if you like, to give golden colour

Cook in oven for 20 minutes or until golden.