Dornish Eggs

Illness of varying degrees has been plaguing me this month. I am now on the mend though (I hope) and seriously craving protein.

I've been re-reading A Song of Ice and Fire this month, partly because I love it and partly as I haven't had the energy to read something new. I really needed a series that was essentially an old friend this month.

So when I was reading before lunch today and came across Tyrion eating 'Dornish eggs' described as a "dish of onions, cheese, and chopped eggs cooked with fiery peppers," I thought mmnn yum! So I did my own version adding a bit of kale, some olives and scrambling rather than chopping the eggs.

Dornish Eggs:

serves 2

Ingredients:

4 medium free range eggs, beaten

1/2 an onion, chopped

1 green chili (add it to your taste, I made mine about medium spicy, but the book suggests they are rather spicy as Sansa burns her mouth)

1 red pointed pepper sliced

small handful grated mild cheddar

10 pimento stuffed olives chopped in half

handful of kale

1 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Method:

1. Season the beaten eggs to taste with the salt and pepper and put to the side.
2. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion, chili and pepper.
3. Cook over a medium heat until onion becomes translucent.
4. Start to heat the beaten eggs in a small pan over a medium heat stirring periodically to scramble.
5. Add the olives and the kale to the frying pan (I like mine to still have quite a lot of bite, if you prefer yours softer then add earlier and cook longer)
6. As the eggs are starting to take form add the cheese and mix well.
7. Once the eggs are done add them to the frying pan and mix well.

Its great served with a dash of sweet chili sauce, some ham and salad, plus its delightfully quick and tasty.

Obviously all creative rights of A Song of Ice and Fire and its characters belong to George R.R. Martin

A crispy delight

I really wanted a a crisp like pudding, and I had some mangoes and pears that didn't look like they'd make it through the night, plus some gluten free biscuits I bought that had crumbled to nothing in the bag before I got the chance to go near them. Which turned into this: The combination turned out to be great, and it had a wonderful colour to it.



The combination turned out to be great, and it had a wonderful colour to it. Sorry the photo's not great hungry people got to it before I could take the photo. The recipe was very simple.

Ingredients:

A punnet of blueberries

2 mangoes

2 pears

1 packet of GF cherry and almond biscuits (any kind of biscuits you fancy will do)

A handful or so of GF rolled oats 2 tbsp brown sugar 2 tbsp golden syrup

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C Put the blueberries into the dish, put the rest of the fruit sliced on top, (I like to layer it by fruit cos its pretty). If you're using very sweet overripe fruit like I was only sprinkle about 1 tbsp of brown sugar otherwise add more to taste. Crumble the biscuits and mix with the oats and pour on top of the fruit. Top with the rest of the brown sugar. Bake for 20 mins, then drizzle the golden syrup on top, bake for a further 15-20 mins until golden brown. It's great served with natural yoghurt. A nice variation i might do next time would be to add flax and pumpkin seeds to the crisp.

Comfort Food of the Cheese Laden Variety

If there’s one thing I still feel like I miss out on its Pizza. Often my friends and I visit each other’s houses lounge around , eat, watch movies and the like. While I’ve gotten used to watching people eating biscuits, cake and all things gluten-tastic sometimes it really feels like I’m the odd one out, and that I’m missing out. It was hard at first but it helped when I came to realise that a lot of my homemade food actually tastes better than the junk they’re eating.

Pizza is the big exception - even though I know I’d feel greasy and disgusting as well as incredibly ill afterwards I still stare longingly as other people happily much through big cheesy pizza. I especially miss going out to a good Italian restaurant.

So the search for a good gluten free pizza began. I’ve experimented with lots of different pizza bases, both homemade and commercial and this is the first one that I’d happily recommend. Thankfully it’s also the easiest and quickest I’ve made.

Gluten Free Pizza Base:

Serves four

Ingredients:

300g gluten free flour mix of choice*

25g dried milk

225ml warm (not hot!) water

15g dried active yeast

1 ½ tsp gluten free baking powder

3 tsp xanthan gum

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1 large egg

Method:

1. Dissolve the sugar in about 150ml of the warm water in a measuring jug, then stir in the yeast. Put the jug in a warm place to allow the yeast to activate. The yeast should look frothy after about 5 minutes.

2. Mix the dry ingredients and sift into a large mixing bowl.

3. Whisk together the oil and egg and stir into the dry ingredients.

4. When the yeast is ready add the rest of the warm water then slowly add the liquid to the egg/flour mixture. Keep mixing until you achieve a smooth dough. The dough should be slightly sticky to the touch to ensure it doesn’t dry out while cooking.

5. Coat your hands in flour to handle the dough. Divide into four equal parts. On a piece on baking parchment on a baking tray either squish out the dough with the palm of your hand till its about 6-8” (depending on how thick you like your pizza) or roll out with a floured rolling pin. Repeat with the rest of the dough and cover with a clean tea towel or some kitchen roll. Put the dough in a warm place to rise for 15 minutes. (Alternatively you can make two big ones.)

6. Preheat your oven to gas mark 6/200C/400F ( I recommend using this time to make a pizza sauce and to chop up your toppings)

7. After the rising time bake the bases for 8 mins in the preheated oven. After baking either remove and top with pizza sauce or toppings of choice or allow to cool and freeze well wrapped for later use.

8. After adding the toppings put bake in the oven until the cheese is golden and bubbling, the bases should be crisp around the edges – around 15 mins.

9. ENJOY!

* I recommend Dove Farm Bread mix or their plain flour mix. Otherwise a blend of rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch is recommended.

Basic Pizza Sauce:

Ingredients:

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

½ medium onion diced finely

2 cloves garlic –crushed

Handful fresh chopped basil or 2 tsp dried mixed herbs

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 tsp salt

Splash of olive oil

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onions and fry until soft, then add the garlic and fry for a further minute.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes, puree, salt and herbs and heat until simmering

3. Heat gently for about 10-15 minutes then process in a food processor or with a hand blender until smooth.

4. Slather it on your pizza base and put on your toppings.

Variation: diced olives are a nice addition to make this pizza sauce more exciting.

Beginnings

The first post of a new blog is always a difficult thing and this post has proven to be even more so. Its a difficult thing to combine two such different topics, but we're going to give it a go.

Here's an introduction to the food side of things, this blog was originally conceived to be a place to collect and share my recipes. About a year ago I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease. This means if I ingest any gluten (found in rye, barley and wheat) I have an immune response damaging the villi in the small intestine causing absorption problems.

Gluten is in a ridiculous amount of processed foods, which means if I want to eat I have to make it entirely from scratch from fresh produce. The upshot of this is that I've never felt better. While I enjoyed cooking before I'm now so much more adventurous with what I cook, and my abilities in the kitchen have much improved.

However this hasn't been the case for everyone who has been diagnosed with this disease. I know many people that have felt lost after being diagnosed and don't really know what to eat, and so this idea was born. This blog is to facilitate my recipes helping people adjust to living without gluten and learn to love all the food available to them.

My aim with the food I make is to make food that is exciting and delicious in itself, not food thats pretty good for gluten free.

Butternut Squash Soup
serves 4

ingredients:
1 medium butternut squash
handful of fresh coriander
175ml double cream
1 tbsp olive oil
pinch of chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

method:
1. Peel and dice the squash into cubes, scooping out and discarding the seeds.
2. Boil the squash in hot water for around 10 to 15 minutes until soft.
3. Drain the squash but retain the water and out aside.
4. Blend the squash in a food processor with a bit of the retained water until smooth.
5. Add the coriander, oil, cream and chili powder and pulse until throughly mixed.
6. Continue to add small amounts of the water until the soup reaches a smooth consistency while remaining thick.
7. Serve with some fresh coriander and enjoy.

A variation I like to do to this recipe is to roast the squash for 35 mins in olive oil at 200C/400F/Gas 6, and substitute the water for vegetable stock. It gives it a richer taste and colour, and makes a nice change.