Lamb and Carrot Pilau – Midweek Supper

I’m sure I’ve done something similar here before but I wanted to share this simple supper that I made last week.  It’s full of flavour, economical and easy to pimp up with some extra sides and sauces.

Serves 2/3

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 200g white basmati rice
• 125g lamb mince
• 2 carrots, sliced into batons
• A tablespoon of oil
• A heaped teaspoon of cumin seeds
• a heaped teaspoon of medium curry powder
• Half a veggie stock pot
• 400ml of boiling water
• Salt

Method:

Soften the onions until translucent then put to one side.   Fry lamb mince in heavy bottomed pot until browned and crispy, add softened onions, spices and fry for a minute.  Then add rice and carrots and stir well so that the rice is coated in the oil.   Add the water stock  and cover with lid.  Cook for about 14 min, turn the heat off and let it stand for five minutes.  Open the pot and you should be engulfed in a steamy, lightly spiced cloud, mmmm, fluff gently and season to taste.  Serve on its own, with yoghurt, chilli sauce, chutney or as part of a feast.

What are you having for dinner tonight?

 

Falafel – Gluten Free

Had you been wondering if I did any cooking anymore? Well I have to admit, I’ve been a bit slack, I do still cook, I just been sticking to staples and not really bothering to take pictures and remember recipes.  But here we have a simple little falafel recipe, perfect for summer days as part of a mezze or stuffed in a pitta.

So for the recipe…

Ingredients (makes 10 small falafel):

• 1 400g tin of chickpeas
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tablespoons of gram or gluten free flour
• 1 heaped teaspoon of ground coriander
• 1 heaped teaspoon of ground cumin
• a handful of mint
• salt
• oil for frying

Method:

First soften the onions and garlic, I do this in a microwave because I find it easy but gently frying in a pan has the same results, you just want them soft and translucent.

Then add all the ingredients bar the flour to a food processor.  Blitz, you may need to scrape down any stray chickpeas or you might want to keep it chunky.  Then depending on the wetness of the mixture I add two to three tablespoons of flour, now my plan was to have chickpea flour (gram/besan) but  mine was out of date so I substituted gf plain flour, if you’re not coeliac then plain regular flour would work too.   You want a thick but not too wet mixture that you can easily manipulate, see picture for clarity there, it’s awful hard to describe!

Once you’ve got the right consistency, scoop out walnut size blobs if you want to emulate mine, but frankly any old size will work, you could make big fat burgers or round footballs or cut them into star shapes should you desire but flat patties was what I was after.

Then chill the patties for a while (time constraints permitting, I’m sure they would be fine fried straight away should you need to).

Shallow fry for about 3/4 minutes each side on a medium heat.  Then serve hot stuffed into a pitta with chilli sauce and yoghurt.

You can freeze these and heat up in the oven at a later date should you need to, I made too many for me and my little dinner guest so I’ve stashed the remainder away for a mid-week dinner.

Ok, so that was the first recipe for a while.  It felt good, what do you think?

 

Tomato and Chorizo Rice

Oh Hi!

Me? Well I was getting a bit sick of this poor lonesome blog giving me guilt trips so after spending most of my recent spare time watching YouTube constantly (oh my Sprinkle of Glitter
you are truly addictive!) I decided to just jump in and do a vlog, eek, please be gentle, here it is…

I’m attempting to post this from my iPad so not sure how to embed the video from here, I’ll have a tinker on the pooter later.

Anyways, please comment on the video, like (if you like it), and subscribe to my channel and then I’ll have some idea whether you hate it or not.

Be nice x

Tin Tins Chinese Restaurant AKA I FOUND GLUTEN FREE CHINESE!!!

So it’s been very quiet here lately, I’ve had big changes afoot, moving house, city and job is a stressful business and since settling back in my beloved Brummy home town I’ve quite appreciated the lack of blogging pressures. But I couldn’t resist this one because I’ve finally found a Chinese restaurant that for one responded to my email asking about gluten free options and two, were so lovely and accommodating when I attended said restaurant that I just had to give them a little shout out.

I’ve got no photos of the food or restaurant (bad, bad food blogger I know), I was so busy shovelling the food down my gullet that the thought did not even enter my delirious food obsessed brain. What I can say they is that they are very helpful there and we managed with the help from the awesome Brian, the manager (? I’m not sure but he should be because he’s ace) to eat a delicious birthday feast of steamed seabass with ginger and spring onion (gluten containing sauce on the side for my lucky non coeliac family,) Kung po king prawns, duck with plum sauce (the best in my humble opinion) and chicken with cashew nuts. It was great to finally eat in a Chinese restaurant again and the service was outstanding. So if you happen to be in need of gluten free Chinese food in Birmingham and want to give it a try I totally recommend the wonderful Tin Tins in Brindley Place.

So anyways I might dip my toe a little further back into the blogging water shortly with perhaps some of the pics of food I’ve encountered this summer so watch this space and please comment below.

See you soon lovely readers, I hope to be back again soon life permitting!

Oven Baked Chilli Fries

This is a quick and simple recipe I knocked up for lunch, the chilli powder actually combines chilli (duh), cumin, oregano and garlic and gives these fries a spicy, moreish flavour which makes them almost impossible to resist, I thought I was knocking up enough for two but ended up eating  the lot.

Ingredients:

• However many potatoes you want
• Chilli powder, I went for a mild one but a hot one would certainly pack a punch
• Olive oil
• Salt

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 200 and get out a big tray.  Slice your potatoes (skin on) in to fat match sticks, well you could do wedges, super fine fries or whatever but i think fat match sticks worked well for a good crisp chip.  Chuck the tatties in large roasting tray then slug on a tablespoon or so of oil, mix with your hands then sprinkle liberally with chilli powder and salt then mix some more.

Shove in the oven for about 25 min until hot and crispy then serve with sour cream and sweet chilli.  Oh yeah.

 

 

Chocolate Tofu Pudding

I’ve been developing a bit of a dessert habit of late, oh who am I kidding I’ve been developing it most of my life. A liking of the sweet stuff, sadly, does no good so I’ve been looking at ways of getting my fix without the heavy laden of calories. This was a pudding I was keen to try out. Tofu is full of good stuff – bloody amazing huh?! Anyways recipe time, you can have this little wonder pus whipped up and ready to serve in minutes or leave it in the fridge to set further ready for your guests oh yeah think of this as upmarket vegan angel delight.

Ingredients:

300g pack of silken and firm tofu
1 dessert spoonful of agave syrup
50g dark chocolate (vegan chocolate if needed)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Method:

Drain the tofu and whizz in a blender. Melt the chocolate, then combine with liquid tofu, syrup and vanilla extract and whiz some more. Serve in little dishes with a bit of grated chocolate on top or spooned from the blender into your gob. Delish.

My Instagram Feast

This is a little selection of what I was eating and drinking on holiday in Camber and on my return. A more recent feast should follow shortly. Please comment if you’d like to know more…

Seasons in Tenterden

I just had to quickly tell you about this ace little cafe I found whilst on holiday in Kent and Sussex this week. We took a drive to the very lovely Tenterden to pick up some bits and bobs and grab some lunch and stumbled upon Seasons. This very lovely family run cafe provides an excellent range of gluten free goodies, not only were there plenty of typical gluten free items ie soup and jackets but they also prepare made to order sandwiches and toasties. I had a deliciously simple ham and cheese toastie made with local farmhouse cheddar and yummy thick cut ham.

They also displayed a fair old range of big fat gluten free cakes but I didn’t partake this time however we’ve got a couple of days left and they also do breakfast – the thought if being able to order a gluten free bacon sarnie IN AN ACTUAL CAFE is almost to much for me to comprehend!!! Anyways thought I’d share this little gem with you as it’s not often you find somewhere out I the sticks that caters so well for coeliacs.

Gluten Free Nectarine and Raspberry Clafoutis

Well hello there, I’ve been a bit busy recently and as a result some changes are afoot, I’ll be moving sticks shortly and returning to my spiritual homeland, well not really, I’ve been offered a job in Solihull so I’ve got the summer to pack up, sell up and get my self settled back in the Midlands.  Anyone who has any tips on nice areas near Solihull please get in touch, I’m currently looking at Moseley, Kings Heath and Shirley but am open to suggestions.

Anyway consequently blogging hasn’t been my first priority of late however I have managed to do a little something over here at LiveGlutenFree, so check it out… 🙂

New Starbucks Gluten Free Cheddar Cheese and Pickle Sandwich

Starbucks new gluten free sandwich option brimming with cheddary goodness!

Now I’m not entirely fond of this brand of coffee shop, I don’t rate their coffee that much (sorry!) but the one thing that this multinational coffee gang do well is gluten free nibbles.  I’m often impressed by the range of sweet treats I can buy there AND they have been doing gluten free sandwiches for a long time now. And this, folks, impresses me.  I mean sandwiches, gluten free ones, on the high street, it’s not a lot to some but it means a great deal to me.  Now they were doing a chicken and pesto thingy me jig filling which I sampled in a motorway service station last year but I was a tad disappointed by the lack of filling and ended up leaving all the crusts behind.  However this new sandwich, well, it is jam packed with cheesey goodness and pickle AND salad, and I was rather impressed.  Good things sometimes do happen, even to us sad coeliacs! So my friends there is more choice out there, go forth and try it, then tootle back and tell me what you think…