Gluten Free Roasted Quarter Thighs with Beurre Blanc

I'd heard it said a million times before; "The good thing about having a basic knowledge of sauces is that you can whip one up at a moment's notice."

It's actually, true, though. This dish was one of those mid-week I'm too exhausted to cook anything proper but I want something comforting and fulfilling dishes.

It's rustic and hearty and finished with a velvety, sexy beurre blanc sauce. Thankfully, it's quick, simple and tasty and makes for superb leftovers. What more could you ask for?



groceries...

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For the roasted quarter thighs: 
2 skin-on quarter thighs
1 tbsp dried thyme + 1 pinch
1 tbsp dried sage
1 tbsp olive oil + a bit more if necessary
salt & white pepper

For the vegetable medley:
3 or 4 good-sized, good quality potatoes, cubed
2 or 3 large carrots, cubed
1 onion, diced (see tutorial)
1 tbsp butter

For the beurre blanc:
1 small shallot, diced
4 tbsp dry white wine
8 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
few drops lemon juice
salt


alright, let's cook:

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For the vegetable medley, prepare the vegetables as stated and place in a heavy-bottomed casserole dish.

For the roasted quarter thighs, heat a stainless steel pan and add the olive oil. Once the oil is heated, rub a little salt and a pinch of thyme onto the skin, pan fry the quarter thighs skin-side down for about 3 minutes or until the skin is golden brown. Pan fry the opposite side for a further 3 minutes and place on top of the vegetables skin side up.

Sprinkle the entire dish with the remaining thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Douse the dish with a bit more olive oil if it looks like it needs it. Roast on 200C/400F for 20 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are soft.

For the beurre blanc, place the shallot into the pan along with any bits and juices left over from cooking. Add the wine and simmer, allowing the liquid to reduce by two-thirds. Once the wine has reduced, decrease the heat to the lowest setting and whisk in the butter, one cube at a time. This forms the emulsion. After all of the butter has bee dissolved, season with salt and a few drops lemon juice. 

Gluten Free Open Faced Red Pepper Omelette

No two omelettes are alike, from the eggs to the ingredients used to fill them, there always seems to be something different with every omelette I make.

Whether I'm flipping and folding the eggs back on themselves to make a light and wispy French omelette, bulking it up with potatoes and fiery Chorizo a Espanol or ramming it full of goodies and folding it in half like some eggy breakfast calzone, it's always different.

It doesn't matter what type of omelette you make; nothing can beat a perfect, unscorched omelette and the secret to achieving this is to finish off the omelette under a grill (UK ovens) or under a broiler (US ovens).

This omelette was borne out of the need for a quick, Slimming World breakfast over the weekend. Slimming Worlders note, if you use the cheese as part of your A choices, this is syn free on Extra Easy!
groceries...

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For the omelette:
3 eggs
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 triangle Dairylea light soft cheese (or any soft cheese)
fresh chives, chopped
sea salt


alright, let's cook:

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For the omelette, scramble the eggs in a small bowl while a good metal-handed pan, greased with low-calorie cooking spray heats on medium on the stove.

While the pan heats, allow the grill/broiler to heat. Deseed and slice one medium sized bell pepper and a few sprigs of fresh chives. Set aside. Roughly tear one triangle of Dairylea light soft cheese and set aside as well.

Your pan should be nice and warm now, pour the eggs into the pan and reduce the heat. After about a minute and a half begin to tease the edges of the egg away from the pan. When the edges of the egg can easily separate from the pan, the omelette has set at the bottom and is ready for the onslaught of ingredients. Note, the top of the omelette will still be quite liquidy and you need to work quickly at this stage to prevent the omelette from burning on the bottom.

Switch off the heat, tumble in your ingredients: peppers, cheese then chives. Then place under the pre-warmed grill/broiler for one to two minutes to finish off cooking the top of the omelette. Keep an eye on it, as it won't take long to finish cooking.

Remove from the oven and, if you're using a good non-stick pan or a well-oiled stainless steel pan, the omelette should easily slide onto the plate with no trouble. Finish off with a sprinkle of sea salt.

Black Forest Gateau Two Ways

My husband's favorite dessert is black forest gateau. The only problem is that black forest gateau tends to only come in huge portions, namely an entire cake, and since (save for Cadbury Caramel Dairymilk) I am not a chocolate fan, it's a pretty daunting task trying to eat an entire cake on one's own. Not to mention it's not the most healthy dessert option.

With that the case, I'm always on the look out for black forest gateau things for him. That's how this entry was born. The idea for black forest gateau cupcakes came from passing a shelf of box cupcake kits and the brownie idea was borne from that. According to him, both of these are very close to an actual black forest gateau cake, but, he says, the brownies hold the trump card!

Portabello Risotto with Sage Dressing & Parmesan Crisp

This recipe has been updated and is available here: Gluten Free Portabello Risotto with Sage Oil and Parmesan Crisp

Gluten Free Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup

Last week, illness plagued my house. It started with me catching a cold from a friend and passing it onto the baby who, while lovingly showering his daddy with kisses peppered with sneezes, passed it on to my husband. We were all ill-- three pathetic peas in a pod.

I am a huge believer in medicating and when we were all maxed out on the Beechams and the Lemsip, there was only one solution: homemade chicken noodle soup. A few years ago, I remember reading an article discounting the benefits of chicken noodle soup on illness. The author and some doctor were theorizing that gulping down ladlefuls of warm and delicious chicken noodle soup did not alleviate illness. Well, certainly not if you're downing that from-a-can crap!

I theorize that they didn't consider homemade chicken noodle soup made with big chunks of vegetables, pasta so engorged with stock that it's nearly unraveling from its spiral, meaty chunks of boiled chicken and a hint of whiskey and wine. This chicken noodle soup is easy to make and tasty!

Gluten Free Naked Plum Tart with Drunken Strawberry Conserve

After making a plum sauce for roasted duck breast, I had some left over plums and wanted a way to use them up.

Plum tarts are simple, quick desserts that can be bunged together in 10 minutes and popped into the oven, at the tart of dinner, ready to be smothered in mounds of ice cream or whipped cream come dessert time.

This recipe is quick and easy; it uses up leftovers and it's tasty. Nothing in this was bought new; it was composed of a  collection of leftover ingredients just sitting in my fridge or freezer. That's midweek cooking at its best!

groceries...

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a handful of ripe plums, sliced into wedges
strawberry conserve with champagne or non-alcoholic strawberry jam
store bought gluten free puff pastry
egg
vanilla sugar (optional)
caster (superfine) sugar
vanilla ice cream or whipped cream to serve

alright, let's cook:

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For the tart, unroll your store bought puff pastry onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half or fours, depending on the size of the tarts you want. Spoon a portion of conserve or jam onto the center of the pastry. Arrange the plums to form a circle with one end resting against the conserve. Fold the excess pastry over the plums and squeeze the end to form sort of a rim. Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with vanilla sugar and caster sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the plums are soft but not disintegrating at 400F (200C). Serve warm topped with vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream.

Gluten Free Southern Fried Chicken with Fiery Sweet Potato Fries and Buttermilk Biscuits

After making that sweet potato puree, I had leftover sweet potatoes and wanted a way to use them up that wasn't in pie or casserole form. Inspired by a segment I'd seen on the Food Channel a few days earlier, I decided to make them into fiery sweet potato fries--and boy did they have a kick! 

Sweet potatoes always remind me of home and when I was planning this dish, I got a bit nostalgic for North Carolina and decided to take it in that direction. One thing that we always had a lot of growing up was fried chicken. And when you're in the south, where there's fried chicken, there's biscuits. Chicken and biscuits and sweet potato? Mmmm, it smelled like my momma's kitchen!

groceries...

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For the chicken

• chicken parts of your choosing
• 1/2 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
• cornstarch if you're in America; cornflour if you're in the UK
• salt & pepper
• garlic powder
• 1 egg
• enough vegetable oil for frying

For the biscuits

• 2 cups gluten free all-purpose (plain) flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
•  1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp sugar
• pinch salt
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk
• 1 egg
• splash of water

For the sweet potato fries

• 2 to 3 sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• blacked pepper
• 3 tbsp olive oil

alright, let's cook:

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For the fried chicken, warm the vegetable oil. While the oil warms, line a cookie sheet with a wire cooling rack. Whisk together the egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Set aside. In a large Ziploc bag, combine the flour with the cornstarch. Coat the chicken in the egg mixture before coating with the flour mixture. Once well coated, arrange on the wire rack and leave to set for 10 minutes before frying.

tip::make up the biscuits now and set aside, ready to go in the oven::

For the sweet potato fries, preheat your oven to  450 F (230 C). Chop the sweet potato into French fry batons. In a bowl large enough to fit the sweet potato, combine cayenne pepper, paprika, five spice, garlic powder, black pepper and salt. Add the sweet potato batons to the spice mixture and toss. Once well-coated, arrange on a greaseproof (wax) paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes, shaking the pan halfway through cooking.

For the biscuits, put the dry ingredients into a food processor with a metal blade attachment. Add the cold butter and pulse five or six times until the mix yields large crumbs. Add the buttermilk and pulse again until a dough i just about to form. Empty the contents onto a floured work surface and knead lightly. Cut into rounds using a pastry cutter or cookie cutter. Use up the remaining dough by gathering it up, rolling it out and cutting more rounds. Do as many times as needed. Beat an egg together with water in a small bowl. Place the rounds onto a cookie sheet, brush with the egg and bake for 10 minutes.

Mini Crispy Fish Tacos

As somewhat of a taco connoisseur, I was always a bit dubious about the idea of fish tacos. I mean fish is great on its own, tossed into pasta, or even whipped up into a pie English style, but in a taco? Nah, I always thought, just gimme the beef.

Tentatively, I approached the idea of a fish taco, willing to give it a try. After making a few adaptations to the recipe I saw of this, I came up with these little gems, both unusual and stunningly sophisticated in their presentation, if you ask me. Tacos are always regarded as cheap delicacies, this is one quick and simple way to jazz them up. You take your favorite firm white fish and dice it into bite-sized chunks. Dip in egg and dredge in flour before shallow frying and placing between tortilla discs. These little orbs of goodness are dressed up with a fresh and tangy pico de gallo. 

All right, let's cook:

For the pico de gallo, you'll want to be sure to make this well in advance so it has time to marinate. Dice the pepper and onions and add to a bowl. Scoop out the seeds of a cucumber, dice and add to the same bowl.

In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar and vinegar to a boil. Once boiling, remove from the heat and pour over the vegetables. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

For the fish, dip each piece into the egg then dredge in the flour before frying.  Be sure to season your flour. If you don't want to use any eggs, you can add some milk to your flour to make an easy batter.

Shallow fry the fish in batches until golden brown and cooked through. If you have lots of fish bites to fry, then deep fry them in batches to make the process quicker. Strain on a paper towel-lined plate.

For the tortilla discs, cut store-bought soft tortillas into smaller discs using a chef's ring or circuar cookie cutter. Assemble the tacos and sprinkle with extra cheese and chives for an extra kick.

Gluten Free Honeyed Tarragon Pork with Roasted Cabbage and Sweet Potato Puree

There I was, bobbing about on Pinterest (as you do) when I came across a pin for roasted cabbage. Right away my tastebuds perked up and I could instantly see how it would work, that lovely earthy cabbage flavor lightly charred and tender? Yes, please!

So, I had the veg, but what about the starch and the protein? I noticed that the photo of the roasted cabbage contained fennel seeds, another favorite of mine. I first encountered fennel seeds in sausages and love the subtly spicy and bitter kick they give foods. Naturally, I decided to go with pork because fennel + pork = nomgasm. 

The rest of the dish just seemed to fall into place after that, I'd decided to pan fry the pork with honey and tarragon, vamping up the earthyness of the dish and undercutting the bitterness of the fennel and the char that would be on the cabbage with playful honey. When it came to addressing the starch, I wanted something that I could use to compliment the honey in the dish. The obvious solution seemed sweet potato. Taking my inspiration from candied yams, I blitzed up a sweet potato puree laden with brown sugar, cream and cinnamon. 

The groceries you'll need are:

pork loin steaks

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp tarragon

one head green cabbage

one large sweet potato

butter

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

100 ml double cream

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

olive oil

1 tbsp fennel seed

For the pork, sear 1 to 2 minutes each side, using a hot pan. Coat with honey and tarragon and grill until preferred doneness. 

For the roasted cabbage, cut a cabbage head into rounds. Place onto a greased cookie sheet, moisten with olive oil, seasoning and fennel seeds. Roast for 30 minutes at 400F.

For the sweet potato puree, dice, boil and mash one large sweet potato. Season and add cinnamon, brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Transfer to blender and add double cream. Blend until desired consistency. Pass through a sieve or muslin to remove any stringy bits. 

Gluten Free Deep Fried Loaded Mash Potato

Why has it taken me so long to discover these?! I am a bona fide potato-holic. Spuds and I go way back. They've been my favorite food for as long as I can remember, yet, until recently it never occurred to me to deep fry them (other than chips --er, fries, of course)!

So I was flipping through my latest cookbook purchase when I came across the words fried mashed potato balls. There was no recipe for them, they were just mentioned in passing. I was immediately intrigued and set out to make these on my own. It seems most people make mash potato balls to use up leftover mash. Really? You people actually have mashed potatoes left over? I don't think I've ever sat down to an offering of mashed potatoes that I couldn't polish off. No potato dish--mashed, roasted, gratin, boiled--ever goes uneaten in my house!

Here's my take, freshly made deep fried mash potato. For heaven's sake, don't even consider making this with instant mash!

Deep Fried Loaded Mash Potato::Marabel potatoes, Applewood Smoked cheddar, dried chives, fresh sour cream, rock salt, pancetta, chives, seasoning, mustard powder, milk, butter, batter, gluten free breadcrumbs

The thing that makes this dish so special to me is its zingyness. You've got that salty pancetta blended with the lightly salted sour cream and the delicate crunch of breadcrumbs with warmed mash (dotted with chives) oozing forth.

Note: There are no exact quantities needed for this recipe. No exact ingredients either--everybody likes different things in their potatoes, so just go with what you know and what your family enjoys.

That said, here's how I made my deep fried loaded mash potato:

Add roughly diced Marabel potatoes* to a pot of boiling water.  Allow to boil for 15 to 20 minutes, strain and proceed to mash incorporating seasoning, milk, a little butter and drived chives. Note, lumpy mash yields better balls than mash that is too smooth.

Grate over any smoked cheddar cheese that you prefer, add a dash or two of mustard powder, give it a good stir and refrigerate until firm. 

Once the mash has firmed up a bit (shouldn't take long if the mash still has some lumps), shape into balls. This is the fun part--you can do millions of little balls using a melon baller, or hearty orbs using an ice cream scoop. Or, and I plan to do this one day, enormous grapefruit-sized balls. Whatever you fancy.

Once you have your balls formed, drop them in batter, then coat individually in breadcrumbs. I found the best way to crumb the battery balls is to pour some breadcrumbs into a bowl, drop a ball in and roll it around quite vigorously. This way, you kind of knock the shape back into the ball and don't end up with a crusty breadcrumb manicure.

Fry the balls until golden, this should only take a couple of minutes. Place the balls on a lined cookie sheet or plate to the let the excess oil drain off before garnishing with crispy pan-fried pancetta, fresh chives, salted sour cream (add some rock salt to store bought sour cream, it really makes a difference) and more of the smoked cheddar.

*Marabel potatoes are a European cultivated potato from Germany and The Netherlands with a sweet taste, creamy texture and yellow flesh. In America, they can be substituted with the Canadian Yukon Gold variety of potato.