Gluten Free Christmas Part 2: Breadcrumbing

 A life-affirming Zoom call last week helped to give all participants some advice on life and how to live it. It also gave me some inspiration to try a bread sauce recipe, a sauce that one of the participants will not eat their Christmas Dinner without.

The fog had closed in again. It was like the toxic, clingy, misty, web in the recently re-discovered nineteen sixties Doctor Who noir classic "The Web of Fear". The fog gave the impression that touching it would result in something nasty. It was certainly not a day to travel very far and so I cheered myself up by cooking an early Christmas Dinner which featured my friend's Bread Sauce recipe.

The night before, following our Zoom call, I had a downloading spree and obtained the Bonus EP Tracks for the Queen albums that were re-issued in 2011. It was a good opportunity to do this before Amazon ban the use of many types of credit cards, including mine, on 19 January. 

At any time of year the music of Queen gives inspiration to smash it at parties or in sporting events, while in winter time it takes on the extra dimension of showing how the band members were able to feed of each others' stress in tough times to make something special. That's a lesson we can all learn from if we have the winter and the Christmas Blues so as we can turn potential hard times into something good. 

Suitably inspired by collections of rarities including "I Go Crazy" from the re-issue "The Works" and kick-ass live versions of some of the songs from the re-issue of 1982's criminally underrated "Hot Space", I tackled the bread sauce as part of a special Festive Sunday Dinner.

The ingredients for this Bread Sauce are as follows:

One Chicken Oxo Cube- crushed heavily. 

One Hundred and Twenty Grams of Gluten Free Breadcrumbs. 

Two Tablespoons of Boiling Water.

One Onion, diced and lightly fried for around ten minutes. 

A pinch of Nutmeg.

A pinch of All Spice. 

Two Sprigs of Fresh Thyme.

A teaspoon of White Pepper. 

A pinch of Garlic Salt. 

Point One Litres of Oat Milk. 

The way to make this sauce is to mix the crushed Chicken Oxo, Boiling Water and Breadcrumbs together into a paste in a measuring jug.  

After that's done add the Onions, All Spice, Nutmeg, Thyme, Garlic Salt and White Pepper and stir these in. 

Then add the mixture to a sauce pan and stir on a low heat while gradually adding the milk. When the milk is stirred in serve. With my meal I served it with Pigs in Blankets and Chicken Breasts marioneted in homegrown herbs from my local farm shop together with steamed carrot and frozen peas as well as some cabbage that was still growing in my garden. 

The sauce added a new dimension to my early Christmas Dinner as it is savoury with a touch of sweetness and in that way encapsulates in one recipe what the taste of a traditional Christmas Dinner is really like. I can well see why my friend insists on having this with all her Christmas Dinners. 

Gluten Free Christmas Part One: The Pies Have It

 Often associated with the festive period, Mince Pies have been a staple sweet dish for some time in midwinter. Today's blog recipe gives a modern twist on these type of pies that does not include gluten.

The fog had rolled round the park and even the next village, with its Comptonesque Council Estate, could not be seen. There was a sense of claustrophobia and already it seemed a little dark in the house even though it was just 2pm. In the lounge and the conservatory, coats and shoes not belonging to me rested in their usual places, just as they had done for a couple of years. They were seemingly half complete without their owner. Looking at them made me think the house was like one where one of the occupants had just passed away before Christmas and the survivor had not been able to bring themselves to move the items away. 

Against this backdrop it was easy to feel like I was on a journey dark places, and yet I had much to be happy about. I had somewhere to go for Christmas, lots of friends to meet with via video link or outdoors with the Dogg and my team and I had achieved much, against the odds, at work during 2021. 

Whatever happened next, it was time to get into the Christmas Spirit. Remembering that consuming more than one meal containing gluten in a week makes my mind do strange things, I resolved to make some Gluten Free Mince Pies. 

On the player was something upbeat in the shape of Meatloaf's 1993 comeback "Bat out of Hell Part 2: Back Into Hell". The video for opening "I Would Do anything for love (But I won't do that)" seems to feature someone hurriedly driving a car to a deserted house where once someone well-loved lurked. 

So to the recipe which goes like this:

200 grams of Gluten Free Plain Flour.

125 grams of Unsalted Butter. 

A jar of Mincemeat. I used some non-gluten free Mincemeat strongly flavoured with Port. 

A tablespoon of tap water. 

The first job was to cut the Butter into small cubes and add it to the mixing bowl. Then came the Plain Flour. I rubbed these ingredients in until I saw that they had formed golden breadcrumbs. 

After that I stirred them together using a butter knife and dropping in a tablespoon of tap water to help bind the mixture together. 

The thing with Gluten Free Pastry is that it is often moister than normal pastry and harder to roll out because it sticks to the rolling pin. The best approach is to knead it flat using some spare flour to grip and then chill the rolled out pastry in the fridge for half an hour. After that it is easier to use it. 

I followed this approach and after chilling the pastry I cut circles out of the pastry and placed them in greased bun tins and added the Mincemeat. I then covered them more pastry to form small pies. 

The mince pies were then placed in the oven and cooked on gas mark 4 for 20 minutes. 

So what was the difference between these mince pies and ones with gluten in? Well the pastry had a lighter taste and with the use of more butter there was a more golden colour to the pastry. They were certainly an interesting diversion this Christmas and one worth taking. 

Dim Sum We

We recently visited a restaurant in Nottingham called Man's which serves traditional Chinese Food. It mixed the bizarre, battered crunch of chicken feet with heaps of real noodles, fried turnip squares and the famous Dim Sum. It was a trip that inspired me during a weekend of downtime in October to make some Dim Sum of my own. Here's how it's done.

The night before I had experienced cultural delights with my fellow cricket team mates at the local curry house for our end of season night out. I realised it was time to step out of my traditional weekend cooking dishes of the last couple of weeks to make the Dim Sum.

The ingredients used were:

For the pastry:

• 200 grams of Gluten Free Rice Flour.
• 8 tablespoons of cold water. 

For the filling:

• 200 grams of cooked prawns. 
• 200 grams of Bamboo pieces.
• One home grown Cayenne Pepper sliced thinly. 

For the dip:

• Three tablespoons of Soy Sauce.
• Three tablespoons of Sesame Oil.
• Three tablespoons of Rice Vinegar. 

On quite heavy rotation was the Smiths compilation "Louder than Bombs" . It's a collection that gathers together a number of singles, b-sides and other outtakes into one very listenable and surprisingly hummable package. The best Smiths compilation by far.

So to the method, it goes like this:

1. Slice the Cayenee Pepper, Prawns and Bamboo thinly and fry them lightly in Sunflower Oil for ten minutes.

2. Make the dough by gradually stirring the Rice Flour and water together until the mixture is soft enough to knead together without it breaking up. 

3. When the dough is soft, pliable but not too sticky, roll it out onto the worktop until it forms a wide and flat circle. 

4. Cut the dough into pieces and wrap it round clumps of the Prawn Mixture to create dumplings the size of golf balls.

5. Mix the Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil and Rice Vinegar together in a small serving bowl.

6. Steam the dumplings for five minutes prior to serving.

For the authentic dining experience this Dim Sum dish is best sampled by using chopsticks to dip the dumplings into the bitterly savoury dip while the pastry makes the meal surprisingly filling. 

Parkin' the Gluten

 Individuals' allergy to gluten is something that has come to the forefront of the art of meal preparation in recent years. Supermarkets worldwide are festooned with gluten free products as this medical condition has become more well-known. Today's article covers a recipe for a gluten free take on a traditional winter recipe.

Bonfire Night can often feel like a night of new starts spiritually as well as culturally and personally. On one hand the dark spooks of Halloween have been purged by the bright lights of bonfires and fireworks and on the other hand it traditionally has been a time for new beginnings. On bonfire night 1966, Patrick Troughton took over as the titular character in Dr Who. It was the first time the lead actor had changed in the show's history. This was one of the chief reasons why the show, love it or hate it, has had such longevity. 

Just before bonfire night in 2014, I commenced work at a job in the city nearest to me that allowed me to grow up personally and professionally. This year's bonfire night also marked the arrival of a new talent in my work team, and the glimpse of a bright new future, as well as the reaffirmation of a longstanding personal partnership. 

The best food to mark this time is Parkin and with the taste that makes it feel as if it has been extracted from the embers of every bonfire since 1606, it is ideal comfort food at this time of year. 

When making this gluten free version of it I had an old stager on the player in the form of Phil Collins' 1996 effort "Dance Into the Light". He is a man who, despite selling hundreds of millions of records, is much maligned. In the 1980s and early 90s he was ubiquitous, perhaps proving the saying familiarity breeds contempt. For my generation, thanks to castigation from such varied quarters as South Park, Noel Gallagher and the hipster indie kids at the local music bar, he was an irredeemable purveyor of bland Dad Rock. 

Time changes things. As we mature we give less of a toss about coolness and more about whether we like the music or not. Listening to his records now, which happily sit alongside Milles Davis, Mercury Rev, Suede, Joy Division and PIL to name but a few in my collection, one is struck by the boundless energy and catchiness of a lot of the material and so it stands the test of time. 

"Dance into the Light" was his first post Genesis album and is chock full of bongo bouncing world music, strong ballads and general brightness. In the 1980s and early 1990s that was fine. In a post Oasis, Suede and Blur world however, it was passé. Still it is an album worth owning to brighten a winter night. 

So to the ingredients of this recipe which are as follows:

200 grams of Unsalted Butter. 

4 tablespoons of Skimmed Milk. 

1 Large Egg Beaten thoroughly. 

285 grams of Treacle. 

85 grams of Demerara Sugar.

100 grams of Gluten Free Oats

4 tablespoons of Ground Ginger. 

250 grams of Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour. 

The way to make this one goes like this:

1. Melt the Butter in a saucepan. Then add the Sugar and stir that into the Butter. Then add the Treacle and stir it into the mixture. When thoroughly stirred in, turn off the heat and leave to one side. 

2. Take the Flour, Oats, Ginger and mix together in a dry bowl. 

3. Add the melted Butter, Sugar and Treacle to the mixture in the bowl and stir in. 

4. Add the Beaten Egg and mix it in well. 

5. Add the Milk and stir in. 

This should leave a thick, sweet paste that can then be placed into a greased baking tin. I recommend using a greased Pyrex dish, more normally used for a Shepherds' Pie or Lasagne, which was a trick I learned from an old work crush who used to make the most exquisite chocolate brownies during my Fat Elvis Years. 

The next step is to cook the mixture in the oven on Gas Mark 3, aka 160c, for around an hour. At the end of that you should have a mixture which is solid but moist, that a skewer comes out clean from when poked into it. The mixture can be cut into pieces and used for to five days, during that time it becomes more flavoursome and its smoky yet sweet taste is enhanced. 

Commander Quesadilla

The other dish I tried at the Pedlar Market was Quesadillas that were stuffed with Avocado and Wensleydale Cheese. As part of my recent cooking spree to create new recipes I made some Quesadillas of my own. Here's how. 

The sound of more Genesis in the form of their flawlessly played 1973 offering "Live" permeated the air as I began the preparation process. The first step was to make the Tortilla Wrapping and I took 150 grams of Gluten Free Self Raising Flour and placed them in a bowl. After that I gradually stirred in two tablespoons of cold water and two of Olive Oil. 

Depending upon the type of flour you use, plain flour is just as good, you may have to add more or less water or Olive Oil than I've mentioned above. The trick is to get a flexible dough that can be rolled out without sticking to the rolling pin. 

When though dough was pliable enough, I kneaded it and then dusted it with a little more flour before rolling it out into a fairly thin, flat circle. Next I cut the circle into equal pieces and fried each piece for one minute on each side in Sunflower Oil. 

After the pieces had cooled a little, I stuffed them with fried Tomatoes, fresh Basil and some Charcoal Cheese pieces I'd acquired from Stretton Hall Farm Shop | Facebook 

The challenge with using Gluten Free Flour is to make dough or pastry that's springy and pliable. The dough here was fairly flexible but gave the food the appearance of Paninis but the taste was in every way that of a Quesadilla. 

Arancini Aromatics

The other week I donned my dark black trousers, cardboard collar shirt, dress shoes, scarf and smart black jacket. In other words it was the look of the middle-aged rock star,

think Mike Rutherford of Genesis on their recent tour and you get the feel of the outfit. Through the rain I travelled and rendezvoused at the Pedlar Market with two people I first met 27 years ago. We marked time by sampling an exotic range of food as the Autumn rain thudded down onto the roof of our executive table. 

Top of the taste list that I sampled comprised of some Quesdillas, of which more on another post, and some Arancini Balls. The last time I had anything remotely similar to this was when I had Mini Kievs as a young Kidd. The ones I sampled at the Market contained Risotto Rice, a few Chicken pieces and golden butter and herb sauce. They were an inspiration for today's blog post.

After the intensity of the week and some intriguing ways getting presented to forward my career that were chucked at me, there was a kind of stillness on the sunny Saturday. While I was waiting on the rain to clear, and my tag team partner to appear, I decided to experiment with the cooking by making some Arancini Balls of my own.

Keeping in line with the Genesis theme I banged onto the player perhaps their most controversial work, 1974's "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway". It was a record that saw the departure of longtime lead singer Peter Gabriel following the supporting tour. There is a feeling throughout the album of the band simultaneously reaching a creative peak as they're about to fall apart. The story that is meant to be told on the album makes no sense, but the music and lyrics have a power and beauty that make this essential listening. 

The first job was to get the ingredients together to make this dish and they are as follows:

For the filling: 

One White Onion, chopped finely after first being topped, tailed and peeled. 

One finely sliced Garlic Clove. 

Three Hundred Grams of Risotto Rice.

One fresh Cayenne Pepper from my garden that was de-seeded and sliced thinly. 

0.1 litres of Red Wine or Port Wine.

One litre of Chicken Stock.

One hundred and thirty grams of Riocah Flavoured Cheddar which I obtained from the ever growing and ever wonderful Stretton Hall Farm Shop | Facebook

For the coating:

Three Beaten Eggs

100 grams of Gluten Free Self-Raising Flour 

100 grams of Gluten Free Breadcrumbs 

The method goes like this:

1. Fry in Sunflower Oil in a deep frying pan or Le Cresceut dish the White Onion. Fry on a medium heat for around fifteen minutes until they are translucent. 

2. Add the Garlic Clove and Cayenne Pepper and fry for another five minutes while stirring.

3. Add the Risotto Rice and stir in for one minute.

4. Add the Red Wine or Port Wine and simmer until the Rice is absorbed by the Wine. 

5. Add the Chicken Stock and simmer vigorously for around twenty-five minutes until the Risotto Rice has absorbed all the stock and the Rice is soft. 

6. Add the Riocah Cheddar and mix in until it has been absorbed by the rest of the mixture. 

7. Leave the mixture to cool. Once cooled shape the mixture into balls a little larger than golf balls.  Put a piece of cheese, I used Arran Cheddar into the middle of each of the balls. 

8. Put the eggs, self-raising flour and breadcrumbs into three separate bowls. 

9. Put each ball into the eggs, then the self-raising flour and then the breadcrumbs so that they are totally covered by the mixture.

10. Fry in a lot of Olive Oil turning frequently for about five to ten minutes. 

The richness of the Red Wine and Riocah Cheese together with the melted Arran Cheddar gave the Arancini a luxuriant taste and the breadcrumb coating, the author's first attempt at making this type of coating, was of a crunchy golden consistency. Thank you to Pedlar and to my friends in inspiring me to make this dish. 

Aubergine d'Genius

It was the week after the cricket season had ended. It had been another memorable one for me with a finish comfortably inside the club's top twenty bowlers in terms of wickets taken and my bowling average and a finish inside the top five for my bowling strike rate. In some ways that first weekend after the end of the cricket season can feel like a bereavement, as with it comes the feeling that shorter days and hostile weather are on their way. In turn with that comes a new way of living until cricket training picks up again in the New Year. 

That's one way of looking at the end of the season. Another way of looking at it is that you can use the weekend to look back at all the memories you've made on the cricket field, and beyond, over the summer just gone. With the arrival from the courier of two Rugby games to play on my PS3 during upcoming the dark nights, a game of snooker at a nearby club and some heavy rain on the Sunday morning, I could quite easily have taken the former view upon the weekend. 

However I took a short walk with the Dogg into my conservatory and then the back garden. The Pumpkins glowed like a dimly lit streetlight in the morning fog, while the Peas and Runner Beans dangled daintily from their host plants. In one corner of the conservatory the Aubergines we had cultivated since the frosts of January had swelled into deep purple and noir vegetables that were ripe for the picking. The Bell Peppers were scrunched and twisted in quirky ways while the Cayenne Peppers were sharply pointed like colourful fangs.

It was looking around the conservatory and garden at the plentiful supplies of fresh vegetables that we had worked hard to prepare over the year that gave me perspective and understanding. It was a realisation that for all the adventures on and off the cricket field over the summer, sometimes it is good to stop and appreciate all that you've achieved and bask on that to make more memories during the Autumn and Winter. 

A way of appreciating the vegetables we had nurtured was for me to take something special for us both to eat and something to share with you all to help inspire you readers in your own cooking recipes over the coming months. I made an Aubergine and Sausage Casserole using the following ingredients:

Four Aubergines, diced and cubed sourced from those grown in my conservatory. 

Two Red Bell Peppers, diced and sliced thinly from the crop grown in my conservatory. 

One Green Bell Pepper, diced and sliced thinly from the crop grown in my conservatory. 

One Cayenne Pepper, diced and sliced thinly from the crop grown in my conservatory.

Five fresh Basil Leaves from my back garden.

Six fresh Marjoram Leaves from my back garden. 

Three Heads of Fresh Parsley from my back garden.

Eight Tomato and Pork Sausages- sourced mine locally from the ever wonderful Stretton Hall Farm Shop. Check out their page at: Stretton Hall Farm Shop | Facebook 

Six Tomatoes cut into small cubes.

Two diced cloves of Garlic.

A tin of Chick Peas.

A White Onion, peeled, topped, tailed and diced. 

Half a pint of Beef Stock. 

A teaspoon of Chilli Powder. 

As I began work on preparing the dish, I slipped onto the player Morcheeba's 1996 offering "Who can you trust?". The album is another one in a long line of memorable British Trip-Hop albums from the 1990s and every bit as good as Massive Attack's "Blue Lines", "Dummy" by Portishead or "Maxinquaye" by Tricky. 

The method goes like this:

1. Shallow Fry the Sausages on a medium heat for around five minutes until they are slightly browned. Then leave to one side. 

2. In a Le Cresceut sweat the Aubergine, , Garlic, Peppers and Onions for around ten minutes or until the Onions are translucent, whichever is the sooner. 

3. Add the Tomatoes and stew for another ten minutes. 

4. Add the Basil, Chilli Power, Marjoram and Parsley plus the Chickpeas and stir these in. 

5. Add the Sausages and stir in with around three quarters of the Beef Stock.

6. Cook in the oven on Gas Mark 3, or 275 degrees Fahrenheit or 170 degrees Celsius, for ninety minutes. 

7. After ninety minutes remove the Le Cresceut from the oven, stir the contents and add the remainder of the Beef Stock. Return to the oven and cook for a further thirty minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and serve.  

From a health fitness point of view the Sausages provided plenty of iron, while the Chick Peas had lots of nutrients and fibre and the Aubergine contained lots of minerals and potassium. From a taste point of view the herbs added much flavour and the homegrown vegetables were much sweeter and tastier than their quasi-manufactured supermarket counterparts would have been.