It’s dense and tasty, a nice thick slice makes a reasonably healthy morning/afternoon tea.
1/3 cup of coconut oil. Melted Zest of one small lemon 1/3 cup raw sugar (I used low GI) 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs (whisked) 1 cup full cream Greek yoghurt 1 1/2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour 1/4 cup coconut – I used coconut chips, but any kind will do
2 apples. Peeled. Cored. Sprinkle half a teaspoon of mixed spice and a teaspoon of honey and 3 tablespoons of water – cook in the microwave for 15 mins
Preheat oven to 160 degrees can forced
Line a loaf tin with baking paper. You could easily do this with mini or mega muffins
In a small bowl mix wet ingredients, set aside (except coconut oil)
In a large bowl mix dry ingredients and whisk well to make sure everything in incorporated
Fold through the wet ingredients, including the apple and all the liquid from cooking.
Heat coconut oil so that it’s melted, mix through quickly.
It makes a very thick batter because the oil starts to set.
Transfer to your tin and bake for approximately 45 mins. Mini muffins 14 mins or mega muffins 25 mins.
Turn the oven off and leave for 10 minutes with the oven door closed. Then remove from the oven and cool for an hour on a wire rack.
* optional dulce de leche (home made or store bought is fine)
Method:
Preheat a fan forced oven to 160 degrees celcius
Line a baking tray with baking paper
Add coconut flour, salt, sugar, coconut chips, and baking soda until mixture is combined. I use a whisk. It may seem a little loose at first but the dough will begin to thicken as the coconut flour soaks up the liquid when you add it
In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients – Stir together coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix through quickly
Use a tablespoon to every scoop the dough, roll into a ball using your palms, then flatten with your thumb on to the baking tray
*make a bit flatter if you’re going to sandwich two together with dulce de leche or thick if you’re just going to top single biscuits or leave unadorned
Cook for 13-15 mins until golden
Remove from the oven and cool for an hour before consuming
It’s been so cold here, I had a craving for a hearty beef stew. It took much longer to prepare than I had anticipated (I did a double batch) but it’s definitely worth it in the end.
600g chuck steak (you’ll need to trim off the thick fat and cut in to 1cm cubes – ending up with about 500-550g)
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1.5 teaspoons of garlic – freshly minced
6 purple French shallot onions – peeled, cut in to 1cm chunks
200g finely diced bacon
3 level tablespoons of plain flour
440ml can of Guinness
4 tablespoons tomato paste (salt reduced)
750ml stock – I used beef, but any good stock will do (salt reduced)
3 medium carrots – peeled, halved, cut into 1cm pieces
2 long outer stalks of celery – peeled, halved, cut into 1cm pieces
2 medium zucchini – peeled, halved, cut into 1cm pieces
Optional #1 250g baby potatoes – cut into 1cm chunks *exclude if making into pie
Optional #2 1 cup frozen peas
2 bay leaves
3 thyme sprigs
Freshly chopped parsley for garnish
Salt & Pepper to taste
Method:
Ok. This is the bit that takes the longest
In a large pan or the bottom of a large pot, heat the oil and fry off the meat until it caramelises. This can take up to 15 mins. The meat will release loads of water. Just be patient. Keep moving the meat about until the water evaporates and the meat is caramelised.
Remove from the pan/pot and set aside.
Caramelised chuck steak
When the pan is hot again, add the finely chopped bacon and fry until crispy. Then add the French shallots and cook for about 3 minutes, until they begin to soften.
Bacon and French shallots
Add the carrots, fry until they begin to soften. Then the celery. Cook for a few minutes more.
Adding the carrots and celery
Add the beef, then sprinkle the flour over the top, stirring thoroughly for a few minutes to cook the flour through for about 1 minute.
Sprinkle the flour over and cook through thoroughly
Add the Guinness. Cook for 2 mins.
Stir through the tomato paste, garlic, stock.
Add the baby potatoes. Omit this step if you are making this stew for a pie.
Add the bay leaves and thyme sprigs.
Bring to the boil, then turn down to low for 2 hours. Lid on.
After 2 hours, stir in the zucchini. Bring up to medium heat and cook for another 45-60 mins – until the zucchini is tender and the sauce has reduced and thickened.
If you are turning this in to a pie, add the peas 25 minutes before the end.
When you are happy with the consistency of the sauce, the meat is tender, the veggies are cooked through. Serve and enjoy.
Ready!
Eat on its own, with a generous garnish of freshly chopped parsley. – a good hunk of fresh buttered bread stick would be nice to dip and enjoy.
Serve on rice or mashed potato.
Use a pie machine to turn into pies – short crust on the bottom and puff on the top – frozen pastry works just fine!
Pot pie – fill a casserole dish or individual ramekins, top with puff pastry, brush with egg wash – bake until golden.
Make Beef and Guinness puff pastry triangles. Make sure the sauce is really thick. Leave a steam hole on the top. Egg wash and bake.
Sometimes GF cakes are disappointing. A friend put me on to the Woolworths Brand GF mix and it’s pretty good. Avoid the icing mix it comes with – it’s sickly sweet.
So – lets pimp these cupcakes!
Woolworth Gluten Free vanilla cake mix. If you’re going to make a round Victoria Sponge style – use two boxes, one for each half to sandwich together. DISCARD THE ICING MIXTURE!! Make nice icing from scratch. The icing mix is horribly sweet.
It’s really important that you follow the instructions on the box. If it says mix with electric beaters for 2 minutes. You’ve got to do the full two minutes. Trust me!
Preheat a fan forced oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
As per the instructions, I added 60g melted unsalted butter, 150ml full cream milk, 2 large eggs.
I then added the zest of half a large lemon.
Mix well.
I lined a muffin tin with patty pans and used a spring loaded ice cream scoop to ensure there was the same amount of batter for each cupcake.
At the last minute I grabbed some frozen blackberries from the freezer and pushed 2 or 3 into each cupcake.
**If I was using blueberries or raspberries, I would have folded them through at the very last minute so that they don’t melt and bleed through the mixture.
Bake until cooked through and golden – this was approx 18-20 mins for my oven.
While they were cooking, I whipped up a quick batch of cream cheese icing –
125g softened cream cheese at room temp
3/4 cup icing sugar
65ml cream
A tiny dot of vanilla bean paste
Mix well with an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.
When the cupcakes are cool, you can ice them. I put the icing in a zip lock bag. Squeeze into one corner of the bag. Snip the little tip off, and when you’re happy with the width, pipe away to your hearts content. I also added a few white chocolate drops to make the flowers pretty.
Of course, it didn’t go to plan. I accidentally added double the rice. Then had an unexpected phone call for two hours and when I came back it was no longer soup – it was practically risotto! Well, it would have been a no stir risotto if I’d used Arborio rice. So, you’ve got two options. Soup or no-stir-risotto. It’s up to you! I’ll gone too the directions for both.
SoupNo stir risotto. This is jasmine rice. Next time I’d use Arborio if I wanted no-stir-risotto.
Ingredients:
3 leeks. Halved. Rinsed. Finely chopped
2 large celery stalks. Finely chopped.
1 medium peeled carrot. Finely diced.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons butter
6 cups of stock. Fresh is better. Powdered is absolutely fine. (I used 500ml stock. 1L water and veggie stock powder) because that’s what was in the cupboard.
5-6 large chicken thighs. Skinless. (Approx 550g)
Soup – 3/4 cup jasmine rice
No-stir-risotto – 1 cup Arborio rice (and an extra cup of boiling water)
3/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley – stalks and all
1/4 cup finely chopped dill – stalks and all
Salt to taste – depends on the salt content of the stock
Pepper – I used a heaped tablespoon of Aleppo Pepper. It’s magical. But if you can’t source it, freshly ground black pepper will be fine. Just less magical!
1 lemon – zest and juice
Method:
Heat olive oil medium-high heat in a large pot.
Add leeks, celery, and carrot salt. Stir for about 5 mins until leek is soft and carrots are softening.
Add the butter and the garlic and stir for another 5 minutes.
Add stock, water, and chicken. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and cover, simmering for 30-45 minutes, until chicken is very tender and cooked through.
Remove chicken with tongs and set on a cutting board.
Soup: Add jasmine rice and return the heat to a low simmer, cover with lid, and cook for 20minutes, until rice is tender.
No-stir-risotto: add the Arborio rice and the extra cup of boiling water. Bring to the boil. Put the lid on. Turn off the heat completely and leave to sit for 30 minutes.
Roughly chop the chicken. Return the chicken and chopped herbs to the rice. Stir though. Add the Aleppo pepper, lemon zest and juice. Stir through thoroughly. Taste for seasoning, add salt if required.
