Category Archives: Recipes and gluten free food reviews.

Buckwheat Pancake Mix

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on June 13, 2012 None comments

If you tried to exist on pre-packaged gluten free food, your food bill would be stratospheric and your health compromised. There are a few particularly good ones though and this is one of them:

Orgran has been around forever and have an international distribution. These buckwheat pancakes are super dense and will keep your appetite at bay for hours. Expect to feel sated, not full. The mixture is very thick – I use almost double the liquid they suggest so they’re more crepe-like and can be rolled up.

Buckwheat pancakes can, of course, be made from scratch with buckwheat flour – if you’re really keen you can make buckwheat flour from buckwheat, I’m going to try that one weekend…

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how coeliacs are often deficient in magnesium – magnesium is linked with bone health, digestion & mental health – have a look at Glutenfree Works here if you need any encouragement to up your dose.

Buckwheat is a rich source, so are pumpkin seeds, almonds, spinach and chocolate (the good stuff with lots of cocoa, not mamby pamby milk chocolate).

Buckwheat pancakes are one of the easiest to make a meal of – eat them!

 


Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on June 11, 2012 None comments

As a child, I imagined life as a grown up and cast myself as a round, blond short curly haired mother who pretty much just baked. Ah those heady pre-body image conditioning, pre-feminist understanding, pre-blond-turning-to-brown and pre-gluten-free days.

Still. Post-children, I was excited about baking with them and here they are and they love to bake! But the parameters are different. After my coeliac diagnosis I made a cavalier attempt to bake that Australian staple, anzac cookies – they crumbled to death. Then hugely ambitiously, I tried to make pasta with my juicer (which is amazing and does do this), but the stiff gluten free recipe had the machine labouring to the point of smoking – literally. Deeply traumatised, I was too scared to turn it on for a year but hooray, it still works.

So although my savoury stove-top cooking hasn’t changed much – a packet of gluten free pasta here, a different choice of stock there, I haven’t ventured into the oven so much.

I bought this wonderful book pre-gf, and was then excited to see that almost everything is gluten free. Author Harry Eastwood ‘didn’t want those with wheat intolerances to miss out on the fun’ bless her. Beyond that, Harry Eastwood has integrated ‘secret ingredients’ into her recipes – vegetables. Seriously; sponge cakes with 200g of grated potato, pistachio chocolate cake with 300g of grated courgette (that’s zucchini in Australian) and this show-stopper of a Red Velvet Cake with a bunch of almond meal and hazelnuts and 200g of grated beetroot – there’s a stack of nutrients in there!

It’s a beautiful book with sumptuous styling and gorgeous, poetic photography. Harry gives all the cakes characters and personalities (This cake is the food equivalent of watching your mother put her lipstick on for a night out).

This cake was made with the help of three children (jamming the nuts on the side was their favourite part), the Red Velvet Cake page in the book is now suitably splattered with beetroot bits.

If you’re looking for a book to give a newly diagnosed coeliac, skip the ‘gluten free cookbooks’ (I never use them), and get this little gem.

 


Breakfast in the Bush

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on April 21, 2012 None comments

Lucky me, a day and a night in the Victorian bush to visit a dear friend who I’ve known for two decades. Amidst the outpouring of our life musings and philosophies (tracking what we love, what we have learnt, what has changed and what hasn’t), she assembled the most extraordinary food. My gorgeous friend, who is also gluten free, is living in an old post masters cottage and many of the ingredients she cooked with were freshly plucked from the garden.

These quinces were captured from their native habitat just minutes before the above shot was taken.

They were poached with cinnamon sticks on a quirky old stove and laid on quinoa porridge.

Lucious figs from pre-historic looking grand dames of trees were placed alongside chunks of Margaret River yoghurt, swirls of melting wildflower honey and a sprig of star anise.

This breakfast set the scene for an Autumn morning of superb conversation and spectacular scenery. We were graced with swarms of butterflies, an insistent sun and days later, I still have scratches on my legs from attempting to photograph a wild emu.

True happiness. 


 

Macro Gluten Free Pizza Base Mix

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on April 20, 2012 None comments

More and more chains are offering gluten free pizza – nationwide franchise ‘Crust’ are one of the best and even Pizza Hut (with heavy disclaimers) can do a gluten free base these days. They’re always going to be less healthy than pizza you make yourself though. A packet mix is an acceptable middle-ground for a simple gluten free dinner that’s quick to make and won’t have you waking up thirsty like take-away pizzas.

Here’s what you need:

That’s 60ml vegetable oil in the cup and 100ml of water in the jug, 2 eggs + the mix.

I got the packet from our local supermarket for around $3.50. The instructions say that it makes enough for two pizzas but I think that’s a stretch – if I make it as thin as I can, it’s one and a half – just enough for my family of two adults and 2 girls who don’t eat a lot. Supplement with another packet or a gluten-full version if you’re a hungrier, dietry-split mob.

It all goes in the one bowl and apparently is mixed better with correct ‘dough attachments’. Whizz for a couple of minutes, then oil your hands and roll it into a ball – no extra flour required.


Oiling the pan is an important step. I do this with my all-time favourite kitchen utensil…. the silicon pastry brush.

Especially good for coeliacs, the silicon brush goes in the dishwasher and is much less likely to hide gluten than traditional hairy versions. It’s also heat resistant so great for oiling hot fry pans to make pancakes.

I’ve had complaints before when the dough was too thick – stretch it out as thin as you can, it’s not the main feature, just a vehicle for the artistry and flavours of the toppings.

Tonight we went for a simple, child-friendly pizza with tomato paste, ham, pineapple, mozzarella cheese and a few sneaky herbs (basil and oregano) from the balcony…. I’m pretty sure they went unnoticed.

This meal got many compliments from my two trickiest customers, the eldest of which once told me in a very kind and well-meaning tone ‘Mum, if you were on Masterchef, you’d be out for this’. Yikes!
 


 

Melinda’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie

Posted by Glutenfreewheeler on April 5, 2012 None comments

The night before I went gluten free, my partner and I splurged on cake in a fancy patisserie. I knew that I would miss cake the most – fabulous, life-enhancing cake. I was stoic about my new gluten free diet, but sad that cake might not feature so luminously. The waiter was almost in tears when he heard that it was my last night as a non-discriminate cake eater.

Our local cafe sold gluten free brownies but they were a bit dry and rubbish, so I was excited when I found this packet mix – and when I realised how fudgily rich and moist they were, I knew I was going to be ok with this gluten free malark. I have one rule. I will only make them if I’ve got company – otherwise I would single-handedly down an entire tray in a morning.

Make these brownies by gathering two eggs, your gluten free butter (I recently upgraded to my own gluten free butter dish, what do you think?), and Melinda’s distinctively pink Chocolate Fudge Brownie packet mix which you can pick up at Woolworths or Coles.

We crack the eggs into the same big bowl where all the mixture will end up because we’re a bit lazy and don’t want to wash too many things.

Stirring the eggs is a great job for little people.

The only part that requires any skill is melting the butter and chocolate. We don’t have a microwave so it’s the old pyrex bowl in a saucepan of water trick.

Mix everything together in the big bowl and bung it in the oven. I use a silicon tray as it’s perfect size for these little treasures. Spatulas and bowls are licked clean while the brownies are cooking – just 20 minutes will have them at their fudgiest.

We started making these at 8am and they were in my daughter’s lunch box when I dropped her to school at nine – a special gluten free treat appreciated by all.

Tea?

http://melindasgfg.com/