'Go Ahead Honey its Gluten Free!' May Event - Breakfast

Most mornings I stumble into the kitchen with my hair at right angles to my face, grunting in a manner vaguely reminiscent of a neanderthal and throw together a banana smoothie. It might have a drop of rose water or some vanilla, a few cardamom seeds, a teaspoon of hazelbutter or a splash of pineapple juice in there, but mostly its just smooth, easy, unchallenging. I sip it gratefully as I piece together Fin's lunch and herd his book bag, crash helmet, socks, shoes, pants and jacket towards him, hoping they will find their way onto his person before 8.30 ticks round again.

Some mornings though, I wake with a feeling to bake, or make pancakes, to poach an egg or two and toss some mushrooms in a pan. Or I might just spy a pear at the very point of ripeness, juice saturating the flesh, waiting to run down my chin and snake round my wrists.

Of all meals, I think breakfast is the most personal, the meal that comforts our foggy heads, brings our dream selves back into our bodies and sends us out the door ready to face the day. So my challenge this month is to create and post about a breakfast dish you love. It could be a simple smoothie or it could be waffles with piles of berries, whipped cream and syrup. Hey it could even be miso soup! I want to see the variety of breakfasts out there and the many ways you find to make them interesting and delicious.

I'd love to hear about your mornings too. Why not let us know a little more about yourself and why you eat those things for breakfast? Maybe you'd like to tell us about your perfect weekend breakfast, when there is time to cook up a feast and linger over the papers. Maybe there's a history to your breakfast, a recipe passed down to you, a childhood memory of eating that food and all the thoughts and feelings it evokes. Be creative!

All you need to do to enter the event is this:

1 Choose a breakfast food and make it gluten free (it might be inherently gluten free)

2 Post about it on your blog in the most delicious way you know how, by May 21.

3 Include a link to this post in your post and make it obvious what the event is.

4 email me the permalink to your post and a jpeg image for the round up.

Then just swing by at the end of May for the round up and enjoy reading about everyone elses breakfasts.

I look forward to hearing all about it!

x x x

Hazel butter Cookies with Cocoa butter Truffle

I made this recipe up for the birthday party of one of Fin's stuffed toys. We usually only celebrate the genuine, approved by the makers of beany babies, birthday of Piggy; November 13th, like it says on his/her (piggy has gender confusion) birth certificate. However, whilst Fin was having a duvet day on Friday, he came over all sentimental about his soft toys and wanted to give a little something back. Mooching about the house enjoying the ticklish feeling of not having anything particluar to do, not being ill and hours until supper time came round, he decided that today was doggy's birthday and invited all the animals to tea. Sensing a request for edible treats was on the way, I suggested making cookies as they were quick, but Fin was already foraging happily in a cupboard for tiny tea things and simply grunted, 'ok' as he marched out with an armful of espresso cups.

I've been reading excitedly about peanut butter cookies that are made simply of nut butter and honey and wanted to try something similar with hazelnuts. But hazel butter is really quite runny, so I knew I needed some ground nuts in there too. I mixed up what I thought seemed like a reasonable mixture, with no idea of what the outcome might be and popped the tray in the oven hoping something resembling cookies might emerge a little while later.

In less time than it took for Fin to spread a blanket, seat all his soft toys so that they wouldn't bicker and arrange the tea things; the cookies were done. In fact, I have to be honest here - they were a touch overdone. It's easy to burn honey, so cook these slightly cooler if you know your oven comes up hot and keep an eye on them for the last five minutes. They want to be golden brown, not nut brown! They should be sable, crisp at the edges and slightly chewy in the middle. Serve them as they are with a cup of something, or go to town and sandwich them with butter cream. Mine are sandwiched with a cocoa butter truffle, that I can only give approximate measures for I'm afraid as I was tinkering again (I really am a bit of a tinker) - but it was delicious, creamy as vanilla ice cream, smooth to the bite and melting on the tongue, a wonderful counterpoint to the crisp sable nut biscuit.


 
Click here to view contest details


This recipe is my contribution to Peanut Butter Boy's Great Peanut Butter Exhibition. If you want to stay true to peanut butter boy's mission, then make these cookies with peanut butter and any ground nut (cashew makes a delicious flour) and fill them with a salty, vanilla, peanut butter, butter cream.

Hazel butter Cookies (SCD) makes 12-14 cookies, 6-7 if sandwiched



4oz whole hazelnuts

2 heaped dessert spoons hazel butter

2 dessert spoons runny honey

1 tsp bourbon vanilla extract

Pre-heat the oven to 160C and roast the hazelnuts on a large tray until the brown husks have cracked and the nuts are starting to take a little colour. Leave the oven on until the cookies go in. Grease a large cookie sheet.

Tip the nuts into a clean tea towel, gather it up and rub the nuts inside the cloth until most of the skins are loose. Tip everything back onto the tray and go out side with the tray and the cloth. Shake the cloth to remove all the skins and blow gently on the nuts in the tray until all the brown husk has blown away in the wind - if you wear contacts close your eyes while you do this. Alternatively, use blanched hazels.

Grind the nuts in a food processor until really fine and pour into a mixing bowl. Add honey, hazelbutter and vanilla and mix to form a soft sticky paste.

Scoop large teaspoons of the mixture and roll them lightly in your hand to form a ball shape. Press two fingers on top of the ball to flatten it and make a shape on top of the cookie, or flatten with a fork to get the impression of the tines.

Bake for 12-15 mins until golden brown and firm. They will firm up on cooling though, so don't over cook. Leave to cool on the tray for five minutes and then gently transfer to a rack to cool.

Cocoa butter Truffle Filling

Melt a heaped dessertspoon of cocoa butter in a bain marie. Off the heat, stir in a teaspoon of honey, another of hazel butter (or peanut butter) and a few drops of vanilla extract. Stir in a dessertspoon of ice cold water and whisk until smooth again. Whisk in a dessertspoon of soft salted butter and keep whisking until pale, light and fluffy. Use immediately to sandwich the cookies, or the mixture will set.

Listen

This weekend we piled into our car bound for Devon, arms loaded with bionicles, bananas, boxes of pens, Lego, wellie boots, night-time sleepy crystals and piggy. As the road fell away behind us we passed the time with a game of I spy and spent rather a long while stuck on something beginning with 'nuh', which turned out to be 'knee', starting with 'kuh' - yeah, try explaining that one to a strong willed six year old.

We were visiting Gran, newly ensconced in Ilfracombe's finest residential home and coming to terms with what that move meant in the context of her long and well spent life. We bundled into her little attic room, all smiles and youth, bringing in the fresh air and Fin's exotically colourful drawings to scatter about for when we were no longer there. Gran put on a brave face for us and told us how kind all the nurses were. On our way out we followed her into the dining room where tea was being served. A sea of kind, pale faces followed us like sunflowers as we wandered about, weak gnarled anenomie fingers beckoning Fin as he passed them with a flick of his tail and a thousand watt smile. Gran was easily the hottest old lady in there and soon enough an elderly gentleman (who informed us he was 91 tomorrow) was dancing attendance as fast as his walking frame would allow. 'Alfred opens my marmalade for me', confided Gran, offering up her useless hands with a roll of the eyes. Fin was pronounced a very intelligent looking chap and we left Gran sitting next to Alfred, who looked as though his birthday had arrived a day early.

The next day we went back on our own for some quiet time with Gran. When we got to her room she was sitting in a chair under the window, weak afternoon sun falling on her white hair, clutching a tissue. She suddenly looked as frail as a bird, folds of a cardigan that once fit her hanging over the edge of the chair. As I sat back from our kiss hello she burst into tears and told me she was feeling much worse, frightened and in pain, she didn't know why or what it meant? Was this the beginning of the end? So I gathered up her ravaged hand and stroked the tissue paper skin while I reassured her that in my professional opinion this was not the beginning of the end. I explained what was happening and that her doctors were testing to find out how they could best help. Nick sat in an armchair and silently gave his support; this stuff doesn't come easy to him. After all, what can you say to make the approach of the inevitable any less scary? You can't - it is scary. All we can do is hold your hand Gran and tell you we'll be here when you need us.

So I asked her to tell me about her time as a nurse on the hospital train during the second world war, that ran from Southampton docks to Slough on endless trips back and forth - bringing the wounded soldiers to safety. She told us about being chosen to fly through the night with a suitcase of clothes; first a bus journey and then a dash through a mysterious hole in the hedge to the waiting train champing at the bit to puff into the night on important business. Not even her mother was allowed in on that secret. Once on the train that was where they lived, sleeping three deep in stretcher bunks and cooking all their meals onboard as they rattled to and from the docks.

As she talked, her gnarled hands flew about like moths, remembering how it felt to be that daring, how exciting it was to be young and free and doing something that really mattered. Remembering how they used to pin up their black stockings overnight to dry, only to wake and find that the soldiers had filled them with stones. Except when the soldiers were Italian prisoners of war, when they woke to find their stockings filled with flowers instead.

She remembered sitting on the train home on VE day about to be reunited with her husband who had been in the RAF, stationed in North Africa. About to see her husband after four and a half years apart and wondering if he would still love her. He did still love her. How could he not?

She talked on as the light turned gold and then pink and Nick drank it all in from his armchair across the room. And then it was late and we just had to go, no time for any more stories. We left her back in the dining room celebrating Alfred’s ninety-first year with some cake. Outside Nick turned to me and thanked me for being so good with his Gran. It was a lovely compliment but I shrugged it off a little because I didn't feel I'd done anything except listen. I didn't really do anything except be with Gran and remember that she is more than an old lady with a body that doesn't do what she wants it to anymore. I hope somebody will take the time to sit and listen to me when I grow old, and help me remember the journey.

'Go Ahead Honey its Gluten Free!" - April - Finger Food

This post is my submission for the gluten free food event, 'Go Ahead Honey its Gluten Free!', hosted this month by the inimitable Sheltie Girl of Gluten a Go Go. Her theme for the month is finger food and I felt rather excited, when she told me because it felt so open and inclusive - we can all eat with our fingers right?

Now some ungenerous folks might be tempted to mention that most food is finger food to me. See, I like to feel my food, lick my fingers - I like little morsels that you can pick up and pop in without too much fuss. This is partially the result of being raised by someone who only eats with a fork. I really don't bother too much with a knife myself as a result and prefer to return my fork to its comfortable place in my right hand after cutting only the toughest foods up. Sounds slightly backward? Actually, I would say I have developed a kind of skill that renders it just, well, me-ish (yes I know that's not a word - look I didn't go to school ok?). Yes, I do sometimes feel uncomfortable at fancy dinners with rows of cutlery that disappear in to the horizon. But I usually let that go pretty quick and just get on with being me.

One time, in my previous life as a children's wear designer, I was sat at the huge communal lunch table, surrounded by skinny girls making short work of their single rice cake smeared with marmite. I of course was eating something home made and wholesome, with a fork. The director who had condescended to sit and eat with us turned to me after a while and remarked on how fashionable my single utensil approach to eating was. She went on to remark on the fact that in some of the more agonisingly hip restaurants you were only offered a fork and a frosty smile and left to get on with it as best you could. I simply smiled knowingly as though my knifeless-ness was entirely due to having my finger so directly on the pulse.

Unfortunately, I got pregnant soon after that and she found me drooling unconscious over my desk during the first exhausting trimester and my brief sojourn at the top was over.

Finley is also a huge fan of finger foods, and the licking of plates - which we do when Nick is not here (sorry Nick). Yes, Fin is so achingly hip that he is testing the limits of our capacity to eat food unaided by utensil in a selfless attempt to bring us new heights to aspire to in the modish world of cutlery.

This is not a fancy recipe, and indeed it came originally from the inspiring and just gosh darn huge hearted, Carol of Simply Gluten Free. What I love about it, is that I can get up in the morning, whack a few crepes in a pan, stick whatever we have in the fridge inside them and Fin has lunch. Because, let me tell you, finding a lunch item that is free from any of the traditional grain rich staples we usually turn to, is no mean feat. And of course, these are eaten with the fingers - any attempt to use cutlery will leave you with an unrolled mess on your hands.

The crepes are simple. I do them mostly just like Carol.

Egg Crepes

1 large organic egg
1 tbs water
1 pinch sea salt

Whisk it all together and pour in a very thin layer into a heated smallish, oiled, crepe pan. Mine is 8in. It's best to do the pouring from one side of the pan as you tilt it, swirl the egg round and dribble in a little more to fill any holes. When it starts to look golden brown around the edges (a minute tops), peel one up and either just flip with your fingers, or a spatula and cook for another 30 seconds.

I large egg makes three small crepes if you are careful.

The only alteration I make to the original recipe is that sometimes I stir in a table spoon or so of finely ground nuts and another teaspoon of water. My favourite is hazelnut - it's really nice with avocado or tuna and some rocket. You could use any nut flour you like though - I've even used coconut flour to eat with banana slices and hot honey sauce. Still makes about 3 pancakes although you can stretch it to four.

For fillings, well use your imagination. Anything you would put in a tortilla flour wrap, or a pancake roll would work here. The key is to keep the quantity small, so you don't break the more fragile egg crepe as you roll it. Then just roll it up however you like.

Here are some of our favourites,


Prawns, carrot shreds and homemade pesto.

Tuna mayonnaise, cucumber shreds and gem lettuce.

Egg mayonnaise, cherry tomatoes and gem lettuce.

Roast chicken, avocado and rocket with mayo.

Banana and nut butter or honey and sometimes homemade yogurt.

Mini meatballs with homemade pesto and gem lettuce......

Really, the sky is the limit - I guess the hazelnut ones would be pretty amazing smeared with chocolate spread too, but we're not treading that path just now and the other stuff tastes so full of life that it's hard to regret anything really.

If you'd like to take part in this event, post your submission on your own blog before the 25th April, send a link and photo to Sheltie Girl by following this link to Gluten a Go Go and check out her site for the round up at the end of the month. Anyone who would like to host a month let me know.

Monsieur et Madam Le Peto (Or; how I found out I was not ready for seeds yet)

Joni Mitchell once wrote:

I heard it in the wind last night
It sounded like applause
Did you get a round resounding for you
Way up here?

So beautiful, the sound of the wind; pushing the trees this way and that, whistling past tightly shut windows and doors and reminding us that inside, all is cosy and calm.

Cosy and calm.

Except that last night readers, the wind was inside our house and all was not calm. Anyone of a delicate and lady-like constitution please move on now. Come back tomorrow when the waters have settled, for I am about to reveal that I am not a lady, and lord am I grateful that I'm married.

It goes like this you see; I was idly browsing and came across a post on Granola Bars on Gluten Free For Good. I instantly felt an irrepressible urge to eat something sweet and chewy and rushed into the kitchen to make an SCD approximation of said bars. Melissa, if you're reading, these bars only take the merest whiff of your recipe as I just read it and then did my own thing.

Soon the honey was bubbling on the stove and I was merrily grinding up seeds, chucking in handfuls of chewy coconut shreds and drizzling in precious bourbon vanilla. The mixture was so delicious I almost ate it right there and then. But somehow it found its way into the freezer to chill and firm up before I could cut it into slices and enjoy it properly.

The first slice was great. My teeth sank into the cold, nutty, fudgy bar and encountered enjoyable pieces of juicy, chewy coconut on the way. The major flavour was honey and hazelnut, with a vanilla back note and that rounded creaminess you get from banana and sunflower seeds. Although I tried not to, I managed to return to the freezer twice more that afternoon before finally engaging a little will power and shutting the door for good.

Now you might think to yourself, three little granola bars? What harm could they possibly do? Well let me enlighten you my light hearted friends. They caused my intestines to throw a party in my honour. The sort of party with lots of shouting, party poppers and drunkenness. I read somewhere that a deranged bowel (great description no?) can generate up to 50 times more gas than a healthy one. A healthy bowel generates up to 50ml a day - do the math. Je m'appelle Madame Le Peto.

Now, to make matters worse, Nick had enthusiastically consumed a couple of these bars too on his return home from work. Nick fervently denies having any type of food intolerance, (except potatoes, and oh yes, white bread not so good, and well if we're naming things, how about beans, lentils, cabbage and leeks - and don't get me started on artichokes) but he does lean a little on the windy side and so these bars seemed to have a similar effect on him.

As we sat companionably on the sofa together that evening we were accompanied by our own little brass band. First a high note, then a low one, like bagpuss's magical mouse organ we chirruped and cheeped the night away. Only, I actually find wind quite funny (I know, how childish!), so every time I let one fly I would turn to Nick with a sheepish grin and laugh behind my hand like a girl - making my apologies seem rather disingenuous. Soon even Nick was keeping pace with me though and all bets were off as we peeped and parped the night merrily away.

So I give you this recipe as a sort of digestive challenge. Are you man enough for these delicious, but possibly hazardous creations? I do intend to try them again with slightly less roughage and no seeds. I'll let you know how we get on.....

Grain Free Granola Bars (makes about 12 small fingers)

2oz sunflower seeds
3oz unsweetened coconut shreds (sulphur free)
1oz unsweetened dessicated coconut(sulphur free)
2oz ground almonds
80ml (1/3 cup) runny honey
80ml (1/3 cup ) sunflower seed butter (or other nut butter)
1 medium sized ripe banana
1 heaped dessert spoon hazelnut butter (or any nut butter)
tsp bourbon vanilla extract

Oil a small tray (about 12"x 6") and preheat the oven to 160C.

Grind up sunflower seeds and spread them out on a large flat cookie sheet (not the oiled tray) with both types of coconut. Toast in the oven for 5-10 minutes until the shreds are a light golden brown and set aside for a moment.

mash your banana and stir into it both nut butters, vanilla and ground almonds to make a paste.

Heat the honey gently in a small pan with a tablespoon of water until it reaches boiling point. Turn down to simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until it reaches soft ball stage. To test for soft ball stage, have ready a glass of ice cold water and let a drop of the boiling mixture fall into the water. A moment later, pinch up the drop in the glass to see if it feels like soft toffee that you can then roll into a ball. Too soft? just simmer another minute and test again. Don't turn the honey up high to get it to cook faster - you'll burn it.

When it's ready, take it off the heat, tip the toasted coconut mix into the bowl of mashed banana mix and then pour the hot honey all over it and mix like mad. You have to work fast because as soon as the honey hits the cold ingredients it will start to harden. Turn the mushy mixture into your oiled tray, smooth with a fork and place in the freezer to set. Cut when cold and keep in the freezer or fridge.

These bars don't hold up well out of the fridge - so eat them cold.

Don't say I didn't warn you though. Have the charcoal pants standing at the ready.

An Award and a MeMe, this is turning out to be some Saturday!

Katie of Apple and Spice nominated me to receive an E for excellence award this morning. There is a logo to display and everything, but my computer said the file was corrupted and so I thought I had better wait to show it off. I puffed out my chest a little though and felt mighty appreciated and glad to be part of such a warm and inclusive bunch of bloggers. Thanks Katie - you kinda made my morning.

She also tagged me for a Meme and I was all ready to groan and look the other way when I realised that this meme is different. It involves some thought, some percolating of one's tendency to ramble and expostulate at length. It only involves 6 words, chosen in the manner of a top sommellier after sampling hundreds of possibilities, for their perfection, their depth and breadth, for the ripples they leave in the pond after the stone has been cast. Those of you who (to quote the Big Lebowski's Dude), 'are not into that whole brevity thing', will not enjoy this meme. But for those of you who ponder over a haiku or love the words 'cellar door' or have to stop and catch your breath when something is stated with a surgeon's acuracy - this one's for you.

When I thought about it some more I got even more excited because this meme has a touch of homeopathy in it. I'll explain, because that may seem odd to anyone except a fellow prescriber. In a homeopathic consultation the aim is to see the pattern that runs through someone's life, through the choices they make, the way they sit, how they express themselves, the diseases they succomb to. All these seemingly disparate events and qualities can be distilled into a theme or a phrase that describes the essence of what that person is about at that time, in that moment. It gives a clue as to what knocked them off balance. It might be, 'I will not hurt others or be hurt by them', the essence of Nat-mur (salt) it may be something as simple as a shock which got trapped somehow and led that person to react to everyday situations as though they were a replay of the original shock, that phrase is simply, 'I am in shock'.

Sounds simple doesn't it? But the skill is in tuning out all all the white noise that distracts from the central theme humming away in the background. The beauty and magic of homeopathy is that when you do manage to whittle away to that essence and give the remedy, what it reflects is a dynamic mirror of a snap shot they are stuck in. And then all that happens is movement and release. Sure it can be painful and surprising, but mostly it's just a relief.

All I have to do is pick 6 words that sum me up, communicate my essence to the reader and resonate like a singing bowl with that note which describes me and lingers in the air suggesting the whole spectrum, rise and fall and fade of a sound that is entirely me. Then I need to nominate 6 other folks to do the same, letting them know I nominated them and asking them to link back to this post and then nominate their own 6, and on it goes....

So here they are, my 6 pregnant words, I look forward to reading yours.

Unconventional
Resourceful
Irreverent
Colourful
Trustworthy
Comforting

I nominate:
Gluten a Go Go
Nutty Meat Fruit
Peanut Butter Boy
Gluten Free For Good
Gluten Free Day
White On Rice Couple

OMG! PB and Coconut Muffins for Breakfast!

Yes folks, I'm so excited I've come over all acronymous or acronymic, or rather a couple of acronyms sprang to mind and mouth - and that's a couple more than I'd normally use, being a fan of sensual descriptions and respect for the fullness of our beautiful language. But when I peeked in the oven and saw the height on these flourless, grainless, PNB rich babies I just thought OMG! I drew them out of the oven like a brain surgeon, half expecting that as the warmed air left them they would collapse like souffles. I returned to them several times over the next ten minutes, each time perceiving that they were still holding that lovely risen shape and thinking 'hee hee!' and then 'ho ho!' and then 'ha!' as I peeled off a wrapper and found that the interior was moist, firm and bread like.

I guess I should make these an homage to the effervescent Peanut Butter Boy as they get most of their flavour and a big hand on the texture front, from our humble and yet versatile friend Peanut Butter. I think they would be great split or even sliced into two dinky round sandwiches and smeared with some great fruity jam (or Jelly), but I just sliced off a nice piece of butter and drizzled a tiny bit of honey over and enjoyed the time honoured partnership of PB and honey (at least it's time honoured for all hippy kids, that and Tahini and honey).

These are really very breadlike, not sweet really, so they benefit from something extra to be added to them. The texture is great and I think it would bake into a small loaf for slicing - the muffins certainly slice beautifully. Please let me know if anyone tries this. For any Americans, dessertspoons are the ones you use to eat pudding with.

PB and Coconut Breakfast Muffins

4oz Coconut flour (or ground dessicated coconut)
4oz Ground almonds
4oz Soft salted butter
2 Dessertspoons runny honey
4 Heaped dessertspoons smooth unsalted peanut butter
4 Large organic eggs
1/2 tsp Agar flakes (leave out if you follow SCD)
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp Cream of tartar (1 1/2 tsp vinegar for SCD)
Good squeeze of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 170C and fill a muffin tray with 8 cases. Fill the spare holes with water.

In a blender beat together butter, Peanut butter and honey until light and creamy. Separate eggs and add the yolks one at a time, beating between each addition. Blend in the coconut and almond meal in three lots, adding bicarb with the last lot.

In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites with agar flakes and cream of tartar (or leave out agar and use vinegar for SCD legal muffins) until stiff peaks form.

Scrape the butter mix into the bowl with your egg whites and squeeze in the lemon juice. Fold until no whites are visible and fill muffin cases.

Bake for 20-25 mins until well risen, golden brown and firm to the touch.

Fast Food

I never think to photograph what I eat for lunch or supper and often the last minute skirmish leaves me unable to do anything but sit down and eat. Finley has a habit of breaking off any crust to check it's ok, rendering anything that started with finesse rather more of a crumpled shirt. When I am at home alone for lunch I tend to wander into the kitchen at intervals to peel a few carrots, eat a teaspoon of nut butter or boil an egg.

I happened to look out of the kitchen window the other day as I was standing with a bag of leaves shoving handfuls of rocket and spinach into my mouth and ruminating. A woman was staring in at me slack jawed, her toddler straining at her hand, as though she had caught me with a pint of vodka and tonic for breakfast (of course I would only have vodka and sparkling water for breakfast, tonic is reprehensible). I gave her a cheery wave with a few large leaves still struggling to complete the journey into my mouth and she moved on hastily, not sure if she had just seen a human/sheep cross breed.

I thought to myself that it was probably time to take stock of my solo eating habits and stop grazing quite so much. So I'm going to try and make time for lunch and photograph it when it looks good and tastes great. Today's offering is courgette frittata and takes about 10 minutes from start to finish.

I give you rough guidelines because this kind of cooking is for improvisation and personalisation. This feeds one for lunch or two for a starter with some extra leaves.

2 medium organic eggs
1 medium courgette
2 pieces of artichoke heart in oil
big handful of dark green leaves
salted capers or capers in cider vinegar
pepper

put the grill on high and set a small heavy based frying pan over a medium heat.

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk well with a fork.

Shave long strips off the courgette with a vegetable peeler until you get to the seeds. Save the last part of the courgette for stock - it has no place here. Chop the artichoke hearts and leaves roughly and add all the veg to the eggs in the bowl. Toss in a few capers and grind in some pepper. Mix a little.

Oil the pan or throw in a knob of butter and then scrape in the egg mixture. Cook for a couple of minutes to seal the bottom and then place the pan under the grill to fluff up and brown a little. The frittata is cooked after a few minutes when it has puffed, become tinged with gold and doesn't ooze raw egg when you tilt the pan a little.

Invert onto a plate and slice into quarters - great with mayonnaise.

Creamy Cardamom Scented Cocoabutter Morsels

Somewhere about the second week of this new verdant culinary life I am now leading, a box arrived in the post. Shuffling to the door in my turquoise sequinned slippers, fuchsia tights and well-worn apron, I accepted the parcel with a look of puzzlement that made the delivery chap laugh. Or maybe he was laughing at my get-up? Hmm?

See the last few weeks have felt like a couple of months compressed down like liquid nitrogen; some days have emerged frosty and swirling, extending into long dream like patches of mist, whilst others stay compressed, slipping through my fingers in a stream of barely conscious moments until bedtime arrives and I lay my head gratefully down again.

I ordered this box before eschewing grains and it had taken a few weeks to reach me. What with all the clearing out of the old and bringing in of the new, I had completely forgotten the order. I had intended the contents as a sort of birthday present to myself, and now I felt forlorn, my torn party hat and disappointing party bag a stark reminder that I was a long way from celebrating. I knew that the joys contained in this box were entirely unavailable to the new grain free me and considered putting the whole thing in a cupboard unopened, in case I wept freely over the contents once opened. But like Pandora, or a moth, or countless masochistic souls who have gone before, I fetched a knife and broke the tape.

The box contained a pouch of pure cacao liquor (forbidden) the base for all hand made raw chocolates, a bag of raw unroasted cocoa powder (forbidden), pale and interesting looking, a bag of unroasted sweet carob powder (forbid...yes, you know the rest) a bar of supercharged luxury raw chocolate and a 500g tub of pure raw cacao butter. Now I would be lying if I said that not a tear sprang to my eye and not a wince of regret was felt at the arrival of so much forbidden fruit - ordered by me! But in the midst of my self pity, I realised that cacao butter was not forbidden and pretty soon a little spring of excitement bubbled up as I packed away the offending items for a much, much later date and put a bowl over a pan of steaming water to melt some cocoa butter.


These little cardamom morsels are the result of my tinkerings. They have an eastern quality, faintly redolent of halva and those Indian milk sweets that are a little fudgy and perfumed. The texture is a little like chocolate, but slightly softer, due to the high quantity of almond meal added. I'd like to try again with some finely ground cashews, as they grind to a very fine light powder. I guess they are what they are, not aiming to replicate white chocolate in anyway, but satisfying that urge for something sweetly creamy that melts in the mouth, without ever involving either cream or sugar. Try varying the flavours, use agave instead of honey if you're not on my particular diet where only monosaccharides can be consumed.

Milky Bar Kid - step aside, there's a new sheriff in town.....

Cardamom Cocoabutter Squares

You can make this in a small square box and mark into squares when it is half set, use an old chocolate box tray (like me) or purchase beautiful molds for making individual shapes. Measurements are a little approximate I'm afraid as I was just tinkering.

1 Lump of cocoa butter about the size of 2 pocket matchboxes

3-4 tsp runny honey

6tbs finely ground almonds (or cashews)

1-2 green cardamoms, seeds ground to a powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Zest of 1 clementine (2 if they are tiny or hard to zest - or use orange)

1 tsp bourbon vanilla extract

2 tsp almond butter or cashew butter

Chop the cocoa butter into small chunks and melt gently in a bain marie (bowl over boiling water). Don't let the water boil away under the cocoa butter, just bring to the boil uncovered and then take off the heat and place the bowl over the hot water. That way you won't scorch the fat, or introduce any steam.

When the butter has melted, take the bowl of the pan and place in a sink filled with about an inch of cold water, so that it just comes a little way up the side of the bowl. Stir in all the other ingredients, but go easy on the cardamom if you don't like it strong and taste to see if the mixture is sweet enough for you or you want to add more of anything.

Beat (by hand or preferably with an electric hand whisk) until the mixture looks a little more opaque and starts to thicken slightly - only a few minutes. Then spoon into your mold and put into the fridge or freezer. Unmold when they have set and keep in an airtight box on some waxed paper or greaseproof. I kept mine in the freezer as you get the most snap that way, but they were just as delicious on a long car journey at car temperature.

Go Ahead Honey! It's Gluten Free - The next event....

The delightful, warm hearted and frankly inspirational Natalie - aka, Sheltie Girl of Gluten A Go Go is our host for April's 'Go Ahead Honey! It's Gluten Free' event. Anyone who would like to take part, head straight to her blog for an explanation of the theme and dates.

I look forward to seeing you there - not going to let a little thing like being grain free hold me back.

Blessings x x x

Aah Cake!

Well folks I guess you've been waiting for me to announce the winner of my flour giveaway. The winner is Esther of the Lilac Kitchen and I shall be packaging it all up with a celebratory feeling as I know it goes to a good home. As much as I enjoyed collecting and learning about those flours, they don't feed me and I feel so much better without them. Bon voyage mes belles farines! Everyone else who commented and put their names up for the draw, thanks for joining in and saying a little something, flour supply links are on my side bar under 'mind and body'.

And so to my emergence from the chrysalis of my resistance to the lack of grains in my life, to dry my gorgeous wings in the sun whilst contemplating my next journey with food. There have been so many discoveries, noodles made from courgette, thinly sliced cold meat wrapped around a fistful of leaves and dipped in some thick creamy mayonnaise, soups and slow, slow stews, salads and as much fruit as I want! But of course I have been itching to bake and tinker with the ingredients left to me, ripe bananas, dates, honey, nuts, coconut, squash, courgette, carrots, eggs, butter, cocoa butter...... What's not to love?

What I wanted to bake more than anything was some cakes. Something toothsome and mouthfilling; a sweet and comforting morsel to munch, a soft cakey bite to counterpoint the mountains of crudites I crunched my way through these last few weeks. So I got in the kitchen and tinkered and each batch was lighter and more cake like than the last. I have a few grain free cake variations to share with you so far, but the first is my most recent and possibly most delicious. Just don't tell Nick it's made with dates ok?

These cakes are surprisingly light, but they also have a satisfying density to them. The crumb is moist and tender with a very slightly chewy crust - much prized by Finley - and they have a deep rounded caramel vanilla flavour that can only be described a moreish. The creamed coconut is not essential I guess, but it adds to the rounded flavour and prevents the cakes being too buttery. Try them, because you would never guess they were grain free. I call them Oasis cakes because they emerged from the oven like a wonderful mirage of fluff and comfort in the cakeless desert of my new super healthy diet.

Oasis Date Cakes (makes 12 little buns)

4oz loose dried dates (unsweetened)
100ml water
1/2 tsp agar flakes (or gelatin)
2oz soft butter
20z creamed coconut (block coconut)
50z ground almonds
2 large free range eggs
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp bourbon vanilla extract (or pure alcohol vanilla extract)

Preheat the oven to 180C and fill a bun tray with fairy cake cases. Put a tray of water in the bottom of the oven to create a nice steamy atmosphere.

Chop the dates roughly, put in a little saucepan with the water and agar flakes and cook gently over a medium heat until soft - but not so long that they dry out. It should take about 3 minutes. Set aside to cool.

In a blender beat together butter and creamed coconut (if you're doing it by hand just grate the creamed coconut). Separate the eggs and beat yolks into the butter mixture.

Sprinkle cream of tartar over your egg whites and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Back to the butter mix. Beat in the cooled date puree and then just pulse in bicarb, vanilla and ground almonds until smooth - but don't over beat. Spoon this mixture carefully into the egg whites and fold gently until combined.

Spoon evenly into cake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch. Cool on a wire rack and scoff one as soon as they are cool enough, then sit down and eat one meditatively with a cup of something life giving, whilst drinking in the joy of being here in this moment, pain free and unlimited, overjoyed to have baked something so delicious.

x x x