Well some Friday baking days are corkers and others are just plain average. And it stands to reason that if last Friday was a corker then its unlikely that this one would be one too. So maybe even before I started I was destined for AVERAGE. Unfortunate but true. This Friday co-incided with Friday Mummy Club and as our dear host, Lyn, is bravely undergoing the elimination diet, I decided to try my hand at some old tried and trusted recipes that are low chemical. I know how hard this diet is as I was on it about four years ago to work out if food chemicals and intolerances had any role in my health problems. Alas after 6 months or more of hard grind no real answer was found other than that I tended to react to everything in large doses. Maybe I'm just a little bit irritable? Anyway enough about me... this is about food!
So in keeping with the theme I headed to my bible for the elimination diet "Friendly Food - Food for life cookbook" put out by the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit. From it I chose a sweet treat and a salad that featured heavily in my diet during this time. First cab of the rank was the gluten free pear muffin closely followed by the pear and bean salad. See pears, when they are ripe, peeled and cored are the only allowed fruit at the beginning of the diet so they feature heavily in this book. Unfortunately when I went to bake the muffins I had bought plain instead of self-raising gluten free flour and silly me made the mistake of putting too much baking soda in when adding the raising agents. So although they looked good and had a good texture they tasted crap. Sorry Lyn. This is such a shame as I know this recipe is a winner as I've taken them to a few meetings and they got devoured quite readily. So to atone for my silly mistake I re-baked them on Wednesday morning for a treat during the conference that Lyn and I were attending. Phew this time they came out well and greatly received as a gluten free alternative to fruit! Healthy but not that exciting compared to the splendid array of other tasty treats on offer.
Gluten Free Pear Muffins (Friendly Food by The Royal Alfred Allergy Unit)
makes 12
2c (300g) Gluten free self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4c (140g) brown sugar
160ml rice drink (or milk or soy milk)
80ml canola oil
2 eggs
2 ripe pears, peeled cored and mashed
1. Preheat oven 180C and line 12 hole muffin tray.
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a large bowl, whisk in brown sugar.
3. In a separate measuring jug mix oil, rice drink, egg then add mashed pear.
4. Add wet mix into dry mix and mix gently with a metal spoon. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin tin and bake for 18-20 mins
Now these muffins are rather moist so they don't really last that well and are best eaten in the first day or two. Having said that it is a recipe that can easily be halved so that you're not left with 12 muffins to eat by yourself in one or two days. Mind you've if you've got friends and family to share them with I'm sure that will get eaten.
Now the next recipe that I made was the Pear and Bean salad from the same book. Unfortunately I forgot to write the recipe down from the book before I loaned it to Lyn. Anyway I will have a stab at it as I can remember the ingredients and rough quantities but I can update the quantities when I get access to the book. Also I reckon salads aren't really that precise! One other word before I give you the recipe. The elimination diet is very particular about many things like how things are cooked, preserved and how they are packaged. For those on the diet you'll know what I mean and you'll remember that tinned pears are a bit of a staple if you can't eat other fruits. Tinned pears need to be in sugar syrup not natural juice as the latter means they are cooked up with bits of peel, stem and pips which will increase the food chemicals. Unfortunately in the fruit canning industry a decision was made to no longer make tinned pears in sugar syrup which I'm sure has been a bug bear for those people out there with food chemical intolerances. I was outraged when I couldn't buy them. Sometimes you really just don't have the time to poach pears when you just don't have a ripe pear. Anyway I still really wanted to make this salad so I bought pears peeled and cored them and poached them in sugar and water. Alternative if you do have ripe pears you can use them instead. Or if you're not worried about food chemicals and intolerances feel free to use tinned pears in natural juice, its probably healthier.
Pear and bean salad (roughly from Friendly Food)
1/2c mung beans
200-400g of beans (use your favorites red kidney, soya, chick peas)
2 shallots chopped
50g green beans cooked and sliced
2-3 tinned pears quartered
2Tbsp poppy seeds
chives
dressing
1 clove of garlic crushed
1tsp of citric acid
canola oil
water
salt to taste
1. Mix all salad ingredients except the poppy seeds in a bowl. Be gentle with the pears
2. In a measuring jug whisk dressing, and pour over salad. The longer the salad sites the flavours enhance so it can be refrigerated overnight before eating. Add poppy seeds just before serving.
Now it wouldn't Friday Mummy club with out a loaf of bread and this time I added a 1/2c of LSA to the usual bread mix, which turned out nicely. Thanks Lyn for the suggestion of using LSA (linseed, sesame and almond) meal. I also decided to make another cold lunch dish - zucchini slice although I thought I'd add a for extra vegetables like carrots, mushrooms and shallots and exclude the bacon as we had a few vegetarians coming along too. Now this dish is gluten free but not low chemical.
Zucchini and carrot slice (adapted from Irresistibles for the Irritable by Sue Shepherd)
2 large zucchinis grated
1 large carrot grated
4 large flat mushrooms
2 shallots chopped
1/2c rice flour
1/4 cornflour
200g cubed fetta (or 150g tasty cheese)
8 eggs, lightly beaten
2Tbsp canola oil
salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 170C. Grease a shallow baking tray approx 16x26cm)
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl then press into prepared baking tray.
3. Bake for 20 - 25mins or until firm and golden. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Can be served warm or cooled.
Anyway I must say the salad and the slice were definitely edible but just as well one of the other mothers had cooked a really lovely Orange Almond cake for dessert so they weren't subjected to the very salted muffins! And as always lunch was a good excuse to catch up with friends and their little ones. And how quickly the little ones are growing up!
Now before I sign off for this week, I thought I better mention how my sewing endeavours are going, especially as they are a weight maintenance program for an avid baker! The rest of the weekend was devoted to exercise and sewing. I did a few laps on Saturday morning in prep for the Whitehaven Beach ocean swim and celebrated the advent of spring with the annual Spring Cycle from North Sydney to Homebush Bay on Sunday. A good balance for the indulgence of Friday's lunch. As for my sewing I'd decided to have a go at making my own made to measure pattern for an a-line summer skirt with guidance from a sewing book. I must say on reflection that my sewing efforts were on par with my cooking efforts, average. Mind you I did get some feedback from a colleague at work that attempting to make your own pattern is a little ambitious, especially for such a green horn as myself so its not that surprising that I made a few mistakes in my skirt. I didn't quite get the pattern right as I tended to measure a bit too generously and misunderstand directions, especially when trying to attach the waistband. However having said that I do now have a skirt, made from cool fabric I picked up from the op shop, that is light and suitable for a FAT day! I wore it to work yesterday and everyone loved the fabric :)
Right that's about it for this week, not a corker of a week, but an average week. Not to mention a bit late too, but sometimes life gets in the way!
Baked Friday 15th October 2010
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