Smoked Mackerel Pate Ingredients

• 250g fresh smoked mackerel
• 1 lemon
• 25g Dairy Free Spread

In food processor blitz 250g mackerel with juice of 3/4 lemon and some fresh milled black pepper, meanwhile melt 25g of Pure add to the food processor and blitz mixture til smooth. Taste and add more lemon juice & pepper if needed.

Transfer to a bowl and leave in fridge for a few hours, I did overnight, so that it chills and firms up.

Spread your Smoked Mackerel Pate on a corn thin for taste sensation!

It’s is also amazingly healthy and Fussy Foodie friendly.

Rick Stein’s Hainanese Chicken Rice (Khao Man Gai) – Recipe adapted from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey

Rick Stein says: “This chicken rice, like babi guling, the slow-roasted pig from Bali, is a dish I would cross continents for. It appears in various forms all over the Far East, especially Malaysia and Singapore. There are people who wouldn’t let a day go by without a plate of chicken rice, and I can perfectly understand why. It’s the moistness of the chicken that gets to you”

Ingredients for Hainanese Chicken Rice:

• 1 x 1.5kg free-range chicken
• Freshly ground white pepper
• 25g peeled ginger, thickly sliced
• 15g garlic cloves
• 6 spring onions, trimmed
• Ginger and chilli dipping sauce (see recipe below)
• ½ cucumber, peeled, halved lengthways and sliced
• Handful of roughly chopped fresh coriander

For the rice:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 350g Thai jasmine rice, rinsed
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 pandan leaf, tied into a knot (optional) ( I use a couple of kaffir lime leaf’s as easier to find)

For the chilli sauce (Fussy Foodie style):

• A teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper
• Half a lime juiced
• Small glove of garlic (crushed)
• 1/2 tsp of grated fresh ginger
• Squeeze of Agave Nectar

This is my sugar and wheat free version of the chili sauce:

In a small bowl mix all the ingredients and taste for seasoning you may need to adjust with more lime or salt, for your taste.

Steamed Chicken Rick Stein Style Preparation:

1. Remove any fat from the cavity of the chicken and set aside. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and white pepper. Lightly bruise the ginger, garlic and 4 of the spring onions with a rolling pin and push inside the cavity. Set aside for 1 hour (I am not a big planner, so tend to just get the chicken in the pan at this stage).
2. Bring 4–5 litre of water (enough to cover the chicken) to the boil in a large, deep pan in which the chicken will fit snugly. If the pan is too large, the amount of water needed to cover the bird will produce a watery stock. Immerse the chicken in the water, bring almost back to the boil and leave to simmer very gently for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat (yes turn it off), cover and leave for 30 minutes, then remove the chicken, cover and set it aside. Skim the fat from the stock and boil until reduced to 1.2 litres.


Chicken Ready for Steaming

3. For the rice, heat the vegetable oil in a medium-sized pan over a medium heat. Add the reserved chicken fat and leave for 2–3 minutes until melted. Remove from the heat, and lift out and discard any bits. You should be left with about 3 tablespoons fat. (This bit is not for me). Add the rice and stir-fry for a couple of minutes to coat the grains. Add 600ml of the hot chicken stock and bring back to the boil. Add the sesame oil and half teaspoon salt. Stir once, add the pandan leaf if using, cover, lower the heat and leave to cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to sit, still covered, for 10 more minutes, while you remove the chicken from the bones and cut it up into small pieces. Halve the remaining spring onions and thinly shred them lengthways.
4. Divide the ginger and chilli sauce between dipping bowls.
5. Spoon some of the cooked rice onto each plate, top with the cooked chicken and garnish with the cucumber. Reheat the remaining chicken stock and season to taste. Ladle into small soup bowls and sprinkle in the coriander and the shredded spring onion. Place a plate of chicken rice, a wedge of lime ( I love lime my little addition), dipping sauce and a bowl of soup in front of each person, and tuck in.

Steamed Chicken Rick Stein Style is my favorite recipe so far from Rick Stein Far Eastern Odyssey – give it a try love to know what you think.

What you need: Fish of your choice (I had a mixed bag of salmon, haddock and smoked haddock – diced), Gluten free breadcrumbs, gram flour, coriander (or other favourite spice/herb), vegetable oil, a lemon and salt & pepper.

The main challenge was to make a mixture that would stick the breadcrumbs to the fish.

• In a small bowl I mixed a tablespoon of gram flour with a a pinch of coriander, salt and pepper. Then added a squeeze of lemon and a drop of water to get a slightly thick liquid.
• Coat your pieces of fish in the mixture and leave to one side.
• In a large wok heat enough oil to allow a 1 inch covering on the pan (kind of semi deep frying)
• Add a few tablespoons of the breadcrumbs to  plate
• Roll the coated fish one piece at a time in the breadcrumbs to coat them
• When the oil is ready fry the breaded fish gently a few pieces at a time in the pan, turning and browning on both sides.
• Once ready remove the fish from the pan and drain on kitchen paper.
• That’s it the fish is ready to serve.

I enjoyed my Gluten Free Breaded Fish, with peas, mash potato and a big squeeze of lemon. They went down a treat with me and my partner Phil loved them.

Things you need: Gammon, Agave Nectar, fresh ginger and cloves.

• Soak the gammon either over night in water or added to a saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to the bowl then remove gammon from the pan.
• In a baking tray place two very large pieces of foil and arrange one lengthways and the other widthways, put the gammon in the centre of the foil and fold to seal (leaving room around the gammon  for air to circulate).
• Bake the gammon in a preheated oven – 20 minutes per pound (450 g) – that is 4 hours for a 12 lb (5.4 kg) piece or 4 hours 40 minutes for a 14 lb (6.3 kg) piece.
• 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the gammon and increase the heat to gas mark 7, 425ºF (220ºC).
• Sounds odd but now peel off all the skin from around the gammon, leaving the layer of fat below in tact.
• Score the fat making a diamond pattern. Stud a clove into the centre of each diamond shape.
• Smother with my special dressing, in a small bowl mix some finely chopped fresh ginger with a large squeeze of Agave Nectar. This alternative glaze will give the gammon a fantastic golden colour and a lovely sweet/spicy taste.

Return the gammon to the tin and bake for a further 30 minutes or until it is a glazed. Leave to rest before serving.

I served my baked glazed gammon warm with potatoes and leeks/courgettes in a dairy FREE white sauce (top tip if using soya milk loosen and flavour the white sauce with a big squeeze of lemon and season to taste). If you are looking for a change to the normal Sunday roast give this recipe a try – it might not be exactly what my mum made but its taste just as good.

Banana Free From Muffins (6 muffins):

• 8oz Gluten free flour – I used 4oz Rice Flour, 4oz Gram Flour
• 2 1/2 tsps Gluten free baking powder
• 1 large bannana
• 2 tbsps Ground Almonds
• 1 tbsps Agave Nectar (2 big squeezes)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum
• 1/2 pint Rice Milk ( I used Vanilla Rice Milk)
• 3 tbsps Water

Free From Muffins Recipe:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (Gas mark 6). Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Stir in the ground almonds, xanthum gum and Agave Nectar.

Measure out the rice milk and add at once to the flour mixture and stir to combine thoroughly. (I mixed mine in a food processor for speed)

Pour the free from muffin mixture into special silicone muffin cases or greased muffin / fairy cake tins then bake in the over for 15 – 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave the muffins for a few minutes to cool, then pop them out of the tin or cases.

These free from muffins are wheat, dairy, sugar, egg and soya free and they prove that with a bit of know how about the products available to people with food intolerances, we too can eat foods that we love and enjoy.

PS. I love my “Lakeland Silicone Cupcake Moulds” a must have for Fussy Foodies as free from backing does have a tendancy to stick.

Try them warm with an afternoon hot lemon to brighten up a winters day. We would love to hear you Free From Muffin ideas – I an thinking next time I might try a carrot version.

Dairy free broccoli soup with goats cheese

Broccoli Soup with Goats Cheese Ingredients:
Serves 4

• 50g/2oz Dairy Free Spread (I use Pure it seems to be being good for cooking)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 900g/2lb broccoli, chopped (seperate the florets and stalks)
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 litre/1 3/4 yeast free vegetable or chicken stock (I use boullion stocks)
• 600ml/1 pint of soya milk (you could also use rice milk)
• 100g/4oz medium soft goats cheese chopped

1. Melt the dairy free spread in a saucepan and add the onions, brocolli stalks and and nutmeg, fry for 5 minutes until soft.
2. Add the brocolli florets, stock and milk then cover and simmer gently under the brocolli stalks are soft.
3. Using hand blender or stand alone blender puree the soup.
4. Add seasoning to the soup to taste.
5. Ladle the soup into the required number of dishes, just before serving crumble some goats chees into each bowl and hey presto your Broccoli Soup with Goats Cheese is ready to serve.

If you wanted to make this soup for freezing don’t add the goats cheese until you reheat the soup and serve.

Just a note for anyone thinking if this recipe is dairy free why does it have goats cheese, goats cheese has a different fat makeup to cows cheese or milk, somepeople that are intolerant to cows dairy find they can have goats dairy products, it is usually lactose that people react to, this is not contained in goats milk.

Enjoy your Broccoli Soup with Goats Cheese!!!

For a decent sized jar full of my sugar free cranberry sauce add the following ingredients to a small non-stick pan:

• about 100g cranberries
• a large handful of  chopped dried fruits (I used apricots, prunes and figs)
• the juice of an orange
• a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg
• a couple of teaspoons of cider vinegar
• agave nectar

Simmer all the ingredients until they become mushy and most of the cranberries breakdown (this only takes about ten minutes). Towards the end of the cooking add a squeeze of agave nectar to taste and pop the mixture into a sterilised jar to cool.

That’s it my tasty sugar free cranberry sauce done!

I love the combo of ginger and apple so was excited to see how the ice cream would work out. As with the raw ice creams I have made so far the main base is nuts (cashew nuts)

Other ice cream links: Booja Booja Ice Cream | Home made vegan ice cream | Vanilla Booja Booja

For the basis of the ice cream you need a ratio of 1:1 nuts and water, and the key to the ice cream is how the nuts are processed.

Raw ice cream recipe

In a blender place a large mug of cashew nuts (about 200g), then pulse initially to break up the nuts. After a few pulses put the blender on constant for a few minutes. The nuts slowly break down so that they end up in tiny pieces so that when pressed with your finger they are almost paste like. This is when they are ready, if you are not sure then blender for longer as more pulsing will ensure the ice cream is not bitty.

This is the point when you can flavor the ice cream. So for apple and ginger ice cream I juiced three apples and an inch of ginger in my Lequip Juicer, taste the juice and add more apple of ginger as needed, I like mine with a ginger kick.

In a jug add a mug of filtered water  (same volume of water as nuts) and the ginger/apple mix. Whilst blending the nuts slowly slowly add the flavoured water to the mixture – the slower the better. After a about a third of the water the mixture will change to almost cream like, and then become more watery as the rest of the water is added. Once 1/2 the water is added give the mixture a stir with a spatula to make sure everything is combined and then carry on blending and adding the water until all the liquid is added.

Once the nuts and water are blended you can add two big squeezes of Agave Nectar and a tsp cinnamon (for extra spice) then blended to combine. At this stage taste to check for sweetness and flavouring  as one point to bear in mind is once the mixture freezes the tastes are weaker so over flavour slightly at this stage, else the mixture can end up tasting just of cashew nut.

Once the mixture is ready, place in a bowl and in the freezer for 10 mins. This puts it at a good temperature before you add it to your ice cream maker. After 10 mins remove from the freezer and place in your ice cream maker mine takes 30 to 40 mins, the ice cream will be a Mr whippy style. I like to have a sampling at this stage and then add the ice cream to a few small tupperware containers (each being the size for one large portion), this way you can easily get them out of the freezer as individual portions to slightly defrost (say 10 mins) before eating and they are less likely to go icey.

That’s it my apple and ginger raw ice cream recipe – love to know what you think! Sorry no photo but my camera is on the blink.

Gluten Free Flat Bread Ingredients:

• 300g gram flour
• 300g gluten and wheat free bread flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 heaped tsps gluten free baking powder
• Herbs / spices for seasoning – we used 1 tsp fennel seeds. Alternatives: 1 tsp dried herbs or even cinnamon
• 6 tbsps olive oil
• Warm water

Flat Breads Recipe:

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and herbs / spices in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and approx. 150ml warm water. Use a fork to bring the ingredients together. Add a splash of water if the mixture feels too dry. Once the ingredients start to combine, wet your hands and use them to bring the dough together into a ball.

Dust your hands and a clean flat surface with flour.Knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. Using gluten free flour, you may find the dough will need extra water to prevent it from crumbling, if so, gradually add splashes of water until you achieve a smooth elastic dough, stick at it, it will get there!  Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and leave to relax.

When you’re ready to cook your flat breads, divide the dough into equal sized balls, dust your hands with flour and squeeze each ball between your palms to flatten them. Pat and slap the dough from one palm to another, turning and twisting the dough about in a circular movement until each flat bread is approximately 1cm thick (mine seem to end up thinner than this which still works).

Heat a dry frying pan on a medium high heat and cook the flat breads in batches for a few minutes on each side, turning regularly to prevent them from burning. They will begin to puff up and turn a golden colour when they are ready. Serve warm.

If you make a batch keep some aside to cool then pop in the freezer, easy to pop in the toast to warm up again.

Some examples of how I have used my Gluten Free Flat Bread so far: spread with some Sugar Free Fruit Spread, use with a curry a bit like a naan, with special Sugar Free Baked Beans or simply just spread with some dairy free spread and enjoy!

Jamie Oliver Inspired Roast Lamb Ingredients: (serves 6)

Lamb Marinade:

• 1 medium leg of lamb on the bone (approx. 2 kg)
• 8 juniper berries / handful of fresh cranberries (I used cranberries as I already had them in my fridge)
• 8 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
• Bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Salsa:

• 3 fresh red chillis
• 2 green peppers
• Small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
• 2 spring onions, trimmed
• 3 ripe plum tomatoes / 8 ripe pomodorino tomatoes
• Salt & pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Swig of white wine vinegar
• 1 heaped tsp sumac (optional, we couldn’t get hold of any so left this out and it still tasted good)

Jamie Oliver Inspired Roast Lamb Recipe:

In a food processor blitz the berries, spring onions, garlic and mint leaves with a good pinch of salt & pepper and a glug of olive oil to make a paste.

Lay the lamb on a board and pierce around the leg with a small knife, then use your finger to make the holes bigger.

Now rub the marinade all over the lamb and work it into the holes.

Wrap the lamb in clingfilm and leave in the fridge to marinate for at least 2 hours, overnight if possible.

Take the lamb out of the oven and leave it to stand to come to room temperature. Preheat your over to its top temperature. Put the lamb on a roasting tray, season all over with salt then put in the over. Turn the temperature down to 200 degrees / gas mark 6 and roast for about 1 hour for a 2kg leg, about 1.5 hours for a 3kg leg. When the meat comes away from the bone, take it out of the oven, tip any juices into the roasting tin, cover the lamb with foil and leave to rest for 15 – 20 minutes.

Meanwhile make your salsa. Prick your chillies and put them and the peppers over a flame on the hob or into a hot dry griddle pan, turning them until black and blistered all over. Place them in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and allow them to steam for 10 minutes. Peel away the skins, then chop the flesh on a board with the mint leaves, spring onions, tomatoes and a pinch of salt. When it is the texture you are happy with, place in a bowl with a swig of extra virgin olive oil and add the white wine vinegar and sumac (if you are using it). Taste and season to your liking.

Side Dishes

To accompany the lamb and salsa, Jamie Oliver recommonds making a side dish of beans and flatbreads. We used both of his suggestions, create our own fussy foodie friendly versions. These dishes were a great accompaniment to the meal, here are the recipes:

Bean Side Dish

Bean Side Dish Ingredients: (serves 3)

• Tin of haricot beans
• 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
• Salt & black pepper
• Lamb juices from roasting tin
• Hot water

Bean Side Dish Recipe:

After removing the lamb and tipping out the juices, place the roasting tin on the hob on a medium heat. Pour in a splash of hot water and mix with the lamb juices. Stir slowly and let it heat through. Add the beans and chopped tomatoes and stir together. Add hot water to achieve the consistency you desire, taste and season accordingly.

Flatbread

Flatbread Ingredients:

• 300g gram flour
• 300g gluten and wheat free bread flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 heaped tsps gluten free baking powder
• Herbs / spices for seasoning – we used 1 tsp fennel seeds. Alternatives: 1 tsp dried herbs, sumac
• 6 tbsps olive oil
• Warm water

Flatbreads Recipe:

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and herbs / spices in a bowl. Pour in the olive oil and approx. 150ml warm water. Use a fork to bring the ingredients together. Add a splash of water if the mixture feels too dry. Once the ingredients start to combine, wet your hands and use them to bring the dough together into a ball.

Dust your hands and a clean flat surface with flour.Knead the dough with your hands until it is smooth and elastic. Using gluten free flour, you may find the dough will need extra water to prevent it from crumbling, if so, gradually add splashes of water until you achieve a smooth elastic dough, stick at it, it will get there!  Place the dough back in the bowl, cover and leave to relax.

When you’re ready to cook your flatbreads, divide the dough into equal sized balls, dust your hands with flour and squeeze each ball between your palms to flatten them. Pat and slap the dough from one palm to another, turning and twisting the dough about in a circular movement until each flatbread is approximately 1cm thick.

Heat a dry frying pan on a medium high heat and cook the flatbreads in batches for a few minutes on each side, turning regularly to prevent them from burning. They will begin to puff up and turn a golden colour when they are ready. Serve warm.

(Note – these flatbreads can be reheated or once cooled, can be frozen for another time).

And there you have it, a full on feast….

A BIG thank you goes out to Jamie Oliver for sharing his recipes and so allowing us to make Jamie Oliver Inspired Roast Lamb. We highly recommend it. Let us know what you think!