Cooking and Recipes

[Farseer]

^ Ah, yes, there'd have been plenty of feathers, bones and also a beak! Though my husband remembers nothing of those. I swear this almost prompted me to walk away from our relationship at the time!

-mango chutney, which speaks for itself

I'd love to here your recipe for this! I have one for mango jam on here somewhere, I think.

Also, does anyone have any problems with gluten or dairy?

My daughter was diagnosed as a coeliac a few years back so our family is up with the whole gluten-free lifestyle AND the juggling that is required when others in the house can't stand to eat gluten-free foods. Thankfully there are lots of things out there that are naturally free of gluten and that everyone likes...not to mention that I have a tonne of recipe books. Living without 'real' bread is terrible though...there is just no substitute for it.

To tide you over, if you have chicken stock already, you can bring it to a boil, chop up some fresh carrots (on an angle so the pieces are big), get fresh spinach and whole fresh basil leaves and finely chopped scallions and maybe some grated fresh ginger, and stick everything in the broth. Then pour in a 14-16 ounce can of coconut milk. (I'm in America, that's what we get, but the actual amount doesn't matter too much as long as it's roughly in that general vicinity; for people in other parts of the world, the top of the can is about 10 cm in diameter and it's about twice as tall as that.) Cook it only for a few minutes so the carrots don't get too soft, stirring to make sure the coconut milk combines thoroughly with the broth.

I just had this for lunch, using coconut cream (had heaps of tins of that in my pantry but no coconut milk), roast chicken left-overs and some chopped up cabbage, as well as the rest of the ingredients mentioned. So simple and YUMMO as well, thanks NeverBeenWise!

[Nuytsia]

A quick egg story to share...my husband, while he was still 'boyfriend', had been out with his brother and friends at the pub and they'd all had quite a bit to drink. When they got home in the early hours of the morning, they decided that they were hungry so my now brother-in-law went down to the chook house and collected some duck eggs and fried them up for everyone to eat. The next day, my mother-in-law ventured out and asked what happened to the dozen or so duck eggs that were a week off hatching...

I shall tempt you all with the names and descriptions of some of the recipes, and provide them sometime later after you've had the chance to drool over your own computer screens!

Oooh I can't wait for these! Bring on the Greek cookies!!!!!!! MMMMM

Also, does anyone have any problems with gluten or dairy? Because both my mom and my brother do, so she has lots of recipes that are gluten- and dairy-free. Also lots of recipes that are vegetarian, vegan, and even raw that are pretty darn good.

Yay!
I just recently found out a am a coeliac!!! I used to joke about how it would be bad to have that because I love bread so much
I never seriously thought I would turn out to have it!
Anyway it's not THAT bad .......
I also love to eat a lot of vegetarian dishes so that'd get my vote too.

That soup recipe sounds really interesting, and I do make chicken stock fairly regularly so I must try it!

[NeverBeenWise]

So sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this! Life's been intervening.

Unfortunately I do not have the recipes for mango chutney or the kourabiedes on me, as I find myself with a dead laptop, no charger, and no choice but to use my dad's desktop. However, I do have a good gluten free flour recipe off the top of my head that's pretty easy and doesn't require very much hunting for special ingredients.

-1 cup brown rice flour
-1 cup white rice flour
-2/3 cup tapioca starch
-1/3 cup potato starch
-2 teaspoons xanthan/guar gum (my mom uses xanthan gum, but guar gum is apparently cheaper)

This is a decent 1-to-1 substitute for all-purpose wheat flour. If making cupcakes or other desserts use a little less xanthan/guar gum, as it makes the cooked cake part more gummy, which isn't very appealing. If you're in Australia and your cups and teaspoons aren't proportionally the same as in America, don't worry; the mixture isn't very picky, and I wrote in a little less xanthan gum than is generally suggested.

If you're just going gluten-free, the bionaturae brand of pasta and the umi's brand of bread are by far superior to anything else I've tried. If you can't find bionaturae or don't want to drop the money for it (it is admittedly a little expensive), or have some sort of allergy to potato or soy, try Tinkyada, which is also quite good and only made of brown rice and brown rice bran, and salt, and water.

If you get umi's or other gluten-free rolls, you can make an excellent garlic bread by cutting the roll in half (like you would to put in a hamburger), slathering the cut faces with a layer of butter or margarine about half a centimeter thick, and pressing (with a garlic press, please! ) half a clove on top of each buttered face, sticking them back together again, and wrapping them in aluminum foil, then putting them into a 325 degree F (which is around 160 degrees C) oven, then toasting for about fifteen minutes, then opening the aluminum foil and separating the roll buttered side up on top of the foil and toasting for another couple of minutes to crisp them up. It's really really good and quite simple!

Um. Lessee now. What else from the top of my head...? Oh, if you want to make gluten-free meatballs, you can use brown rice flour instead of wheat flour, or you can use fine gluten-free corn flake crumbs. Also, in my humble opinion, everybody should have gluten-free soy sauce, because it just tastes better than the regular stuff! So if you can find it, get it! It's wonderful if you want to make stir-fries or dumplings or sesame tofu, which is just a block of extra-firm tofu cut into centimeter-thick pieces, lightly coated in corn starch, and then rolled to cover completely in sesame seeds, then deep-fried for a couple of minutes in canola oil, then drizzled with a combination of a little sesame oil, a little soy sauce, and some finely chopped scallions. Try it! It's good!

The promised recipes are on their way!

[Farseer]

Here are a couple of pics of part of our camp-oven dinner which we ate this evening.

The first is of a leg of mutton with a bit of rosemary (we were going to throw in the vegetables as well but decided to cook them in Alfoil, directly in the coals, instead).

   

The second is of the roly-poly pudding, the recipe for which I previously posted here somewhere. Ah, I do assure you that it does taste better than it looks!

   

[redchild]

^ Looks good; sheep are tasty

The other day I threw together a kimchi fried rice burrito with cheese. A slapdash fusion concoction made mostly of leftovers. Most of the time I find myself just rummaging through leftovers and not really cooking

I tried making muffins out of some strawberries from a salad dressing. I was hoping the sourness would be a nice counterbalance to the sweet muffin. Though I have to say I failed quite miserably-- not enough sugar and it needed some baking soda along with baking powder for more rising action.

['thul]

Why cook the sheep? They're fairly edible raw. Wolves discovered that centuries ago...

(and according to Norwegian farmers, the couple of dozen wolves in Norway kill and eat hundreds of sheep every year...)

[Farseer]

it needed some baking soda along with baking powder for more rising action.

I use bicarb (baking soda) just about daily, cream of tartar every now and then, mostly for making playdough ( !), but I don't think I've ever had cause to use them both at the same time (as baking powder). Do you use self-raising flour as well as the bicarb, redchild, or just plain (all purpose) flour?

Your burrito sounds yummo!

@ 'thul - Norway may like to invest in a wolf fence, like our dingo fence. Of course, it may work if the wolves reside only on one side of it...which our dingoes do not.

Totally off-topic to the thread but flowing on from the post (!): Seriously though, I was watching a segment of a TV show a while back concerning the wolves in the northern US. Like many issues, it was extremely polarising and those involved were infused with much emotion. No matter what the good intentions of a mediator may be, it is difficult to find a middle ground when emotions run so high and opinions are so strong.

ps @ redchild - Bravo! My husband told me to replace 'mutton' with the word 'lamb' as he believed that nobody would know what mutton was. You busted his myth and made me look like a champion. A wifely point to Farseer!

[joost]

Why cook the sheep? They're fairly edible raw. Wolves discovered that centuries ago...

Beldin found out around the same time.

['thul]

*grin*

Good to see well-read answers... Those clues were well-placed.


Wolves are animals that travel far. Certain humans have "given" them territory to stick to, but failed to inform them. Besides, how would you wall in an area that is hundreds (if not thousands) of square kilometers and includes national boundaries?

[Nuytsia]

However, I do have a good gluten free flour recipe off the top of my head that's pretty easy and doesn't require very much hunting for special ingredients.
-1 cup brown rice flour
-1 cup white rice flour
-2/3 cup tapioca starch
-1/3 cup potato starch
-2 teaspoons xanthan/guar gum (my mom uses xanthan gum, but guar gum is apparently cheaper)

Thanks NBW, I think I can find all those things if I go to the right shops. I don't THINK I've seen guar gum for sale but I have definitely seen xanthan.

If you're just going gluten-free, the bionaturae brand of pasta and the umi's brand of bread are by far superior to anything else I've tried. If you can't find bionaturae or don't want to drop the money for it (it is admittedly a little expensive), or have some sort of allergy to potato or soy, try Tinkyada, which is also quite good and only made of brown rice and brown rice bran, and salt, and water.

Hmm I don't think we have any of those brands in Aus, or at least not in Tasmania. We do have SOME gluten free pasta and bread mixes so it's not too bad at all. We have GF soy sauce too.
It's fairly rare to find actual gluten free bread loaves here, and the other day I found some frozen ones at the supermarket and even fruit loaf! I was all excited about the fruit loaf, so I made some yummy fruit bread toast with butter when I got home and after a couple of bites I started feeling queasy and I though oh-oh no way they didn't put ALMONDS in it did they..... quick check of the ingredients - YUP! Sheesh!!!! I'm allergic to almonds so luckily I hadn't eaten much!
I've never come across fruit bread with almonds before! So they had to put it in the gluten free one! GRRRRRR.

Thanks for the other tips! The sesame coated tofu sounds excellent! Reminds me of something we used to have when I was a kid which was some sort of sesame coated prawn things.... no idea what exactly it was but I think it was some sort of take-away food and really yummy!