Chicken and Butternut squash risotto

Ingredients:

1 shallot

Half a butternut squash

250 grams of Chicken

200 grams of rissotto rice

600ml of vegetable stock

50ml of gin of white wine

40 grams of parmesan

1tbsp of olive oil

A knob of butter

Method

To begin with peel the butternut squash and cut into cubes and place on a baking tray with olive oil and thyme, put this in the oven for 10 minutes at 180c before adding the chicken on the same tray and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Put all of the stock into a saucepan and simmer.

Whilst waiting for the stock to simmer, dice the shallots and cook in a separate saucepan with the butter and olive oil.

Once the shallots are soft and translucent add a few sprigs of Thyme and add the rice, stirring so that all grains are coated with the butter and oil. Add the gin or white wine at this stage and wait until the liquid is absorbed.

Once the liquid has been absorbed add the stock ladel at a time until all the stock is absorbed by the rice.

Once you have done this take the butternut squash and chicken out of the oven and add to the risotto. At the same time add the parmesan and mix well.

Once this all done add a sprig of Thyme and season to taste ( you can add more parmesan if you would like)

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Rose Meringues

This is a recipe for any occasion whether you want a nice treat or a fancy dessert with friends.

Ingredients

4 large egg whites (at room temperature)

230g caster sugar

1.5 tsp of cornflour

1.5 tsp of white wine vinegar

1Tbsp of rose water

A small amount of red food paste

100g dark, milk or white chocolate

Method:

Firstly heat oven to 100oC, then line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.

Add the 4 large egg white to the mixing bowl (not plastic). Beat the egg whites on medium speed with and electric whisk until it resembles a fluffy cloud and stands up in stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted. Now turn the speed up on the whisk and start adding the caster sugar a dessert teaspoon at a time. When ready the mixture should be thick and glossy. This is the point where you add the vinegar, cornflour, rose water and food colouring mix for another 30 seconds.

Place mixture into a piping bag and pipe onto the baking parchment. Bake for 1 1/2 hours until the meringues sound crisp when tapped underneath.. Leave to cool on tray or cooling rack. Once the meringues are cool its time to melt the chocolate. Dip the meringues into the chocolates and leave to set.

Your meringues are ready to enjoy on there own or with some fresh fruit and cream.

Easy Ramen

This Ramen is great with leftovers from a roast which makes it an easy dish and great as there is no food waste.

Ingredients

2 Garlic cloves ( Grated)

1 Piece of Ginger (grated)

300ml of beef stock

2 Eggs

A bag of green beans

Any meat ( We had left over beef)

Rice Noodles

Sweet Chilli sauce

Chinese five spice

Coriander

Method:

To start with, we made the broth as this will take a while to infuse. In a pan you need to put the 300ml of beef stock, with the grated ginger and the grated garlic and a dash of sweet chilli, put this to simmer when you are creating the other components of the dish.

Whilst the broth is simmering put on the rice noodles for 8 minutes and stir once so they do not stick.

Whilst the broth and noodles are cooking, we put out left over beef and vegetables in a frying pan with the green beans. We then seasoned with Chinese five spice and oil and cooked until warm.

With two minutes left on your timer for the noodles heat up a pan and start frying the eggs.

Once the noodles are done rinse off and put at the bottom of your plate. Once you have done pour in the broth, and then stack your meet and leftover vegetables on top. After this put the eggs on top and scatter coriander on top.

^{Gluten free Bao Buns with Sticky Pork}

This was a great fakeaway to make for a Saturday evening. We had it with crispy seaweed and pickled vegetables. The recipe will feed upto 5-6 people.

Ingredients needed for Bao Bun Dough

To activate the yeast:

10g instant yeast

2 tsp of sugar

2 Tbsp warm water (not hot)

Dry ingredients for the dough:

176g corn floour

86g potato starch

90g glutinous rice flour

100g rice flour

2 tsp baking power

1/2 tsp salt

60g sugar

Wet ingredients for dough:

260ml warm water

60ml cooking oil

Ingredients for the sticky pork:

500g of Belly Pork

300 ml of apple juice

300ml of vegetable stock

1Tbsp of Chinese five spice

1Tbsp of Hoisin sauce

2Tbsp of soft brown sugar

2 garlic cloves

fresh ginger ( the amount is up to you)

1 stick of Lemongrass

2 Tbsp. of Tamari sauce

2 Tbsp. of sweet chilli

Method for the Bao Bun Dough

The first thing you will need to do is activate the yeast. You do this by putting the yeast, 2tsp of sugar and 2Tbsp of warm water in a bowl mix together and leave for 10 minutes. the yeast should have be foamy and bubbly.

Whilst you are waiting for the yeast to activate stir all the dry ingredients in a large bowl to mix them up. then add the water oil and yeast mix and stir to roughly mix. Then knead the dough in the bowl. The dough should moist and a bit wet but not sticky to your fingers. If the dough feels dry add a bit of liquid. The dough doesn’t have any elasticity it feel a bit like playdough. Once the dough is ready cover and put in a warm place. I put mine in the airing cupboard for over an hour.

When the dough has doubled in size it is ready to start shaping into the buns. Split the mixture into 20 equal size pieces. Roll one piece at a time into a small ball place on a piece of greaseproof paper flatten the dough, place a piece of grease proof paper over half of the dough and fold over to create the classic Bao bun shape. Leave the buns to rest for 20min. Place 4-5 buns in a steamer and steam for 8 minutes. The buns are ready.

Method for Sticky pork:

To begin with you put the pork in slices into the saucepan with the apple juice, stock, garlic, lemongrass and ginger for 45 minutes until the pork is cooked.

Once the pork is cooked leave to dry for an hour until cold. Whilst waiting you can make the sauce

Using the remaining liquid from boiling the pork sieve to remove any fat and then put in a smaller saucepan. Add the sugar, sweet chilli, hoisin sauce and tamari sauce and reduced until thick.

Once the sauce is thickened drizzle over the top of the cold pork and put the pork in the oven for 20 minutes on 180c

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Beef Ragu with Gluten free spaghetti

For a nice meal on a cold winters day, the Beef ragu is packed full of flavour and perfect served with gluten free spaghetti and a nice glass of red wine

Ingredients needed

500 grams of diced beef

1 medium onion finely diced

4 medium carrots diced

2 sticks of celery diced

1.5 tsp of garlic granules ( Or two gloves of garlic grated)

1.5tsp of dried basil

1.5tsp of dried oregano

1tsp of dried fennel

1 stock cube

1.5 Tbsp. of sugar

2 Tbsp. of tomato puree

1.5 Tbsp. of olive oil

125 ml of red wine

2 tins of chapped tomato

1/2 a pack of gluten free spaghetti

This made enough ragu for three separate meals for the both of us

Method

Heat up olive oil in a large saucepan all of the diced vegetables and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes with the lid on the saucepan.

Once the vegetables are softened add the beef, herbs, garlic, tomato puree, sugar and cook for a further 5 minutes searing the beef. Once this is mixed in add the red wine and simmer for a minute.

Once this has simmered add two tins of chopped tomatoes and add the stock cube and then leave on a low heat for an hour and half. Or until the beef falls apart or the sauce is thick and rich.

Whilst the ragu is cooking enjoy yourself with a nice glass of wine or cup of tea and then with 10 minutes to go cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of salted boiling water.

Once the pasta is cooked drain the pasta, drizzle with a small amount of olive oil and plate up and enjoy.

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Homemade pizza (With the help of Laura Strange’s blog My Gluten Free Guide – The essential gluten free guide to food, travel and life (mygfguide.com))

I have been looking everywhere for a great gluten free pizza dough recipe, when I stumbled across Laura Strange’s blog. It is the best pizza dough I have tried. It was very easy to make and very delicious to eat. I will list the ingredients for the dough below, but for full instructions please click the link above that will take you to Laura’s blog. I also make my own pizza sauce.

Ingredients needed

For the pizza dough:

1tsp caster sugar

160ml warm water8g dried active yeast (gluten free)

170g gluten free plain flour – plus extra for dusting

50g tapioca starch ( sometimes called tapioca flour)

1 tsp fine salt

1.5 tbsp olive oil

For the tomato pizza sauce:

500g carton of tomato passata

4 shallots (you can use a medium size onion if you wish)

A splash of red wine

2 tsp of garlic granules/ or 1 clove of fresh garlic

1 tsp of dried oregano

1 tsp of dried basil

2 tsp of sugar

Toppings:

For the topping use what ever you like for my pizza I had salami, Parma ham, olives and cheese.

Method for pizza sauce:

Chop the shallots into thin slices add, a splash of olive oil to the saucepan and add the shallots on a medium heat. Once the shallots are translucent add the sugar, herbs and garlic then mix for 1 minute. Add the passata and red wine and cook for about half an hour on a low heat until the sauce has reduce and thickened. Leave to cool.

Method for pizza dough:

For the pizza dough method please click on the link at the top in the title.

Once your dough has been made and is ready to use. Press your dough into your desired shape and thickness, leave to rest for 5 minutes then add your pizza sauce and rest of your topping and cook for 15 minutes.

We enjoyed our pizza’s watching a film on Saturday evening with a nice glass of red wine.

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