Day: March 5, 2014

Cheats Cucumber and Mint Raita

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Greek Yogurt

Cucumber, cut into small cubes
Mint Sauce

  • For this recipe you need to make your own judgments about quantity.  Just mix the ingredients together, tasting as you go, until it tastes perfect.  Don’t worry if you make too much, it keeps in the fridge for a couple of days.  It goes well with all spicy food.
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Spicy Stuffed Peppers- Serves 6

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I have boxes of recipes that I have torn out of magazines over the years, probably enough to wallpaper my entire house and more!  This dish is inspired by one of those recipes.  It is by Vicky Bhogal, but I’m not sure which magazine it originates from.

It makes a very easy and economical supper. 

6 Yellow, orange or red peppers
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
75ml sunflower oil
1 tsp. cumin seeds
2 onions, chopped finely
1 ½ tsp. chilli flakes
1 tsp. grated rot ginger
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
Handful fresh coriander, chopped

  • Gluten free naan bread and cucumber raita to serve.
  • Preheat oven 200C, fan180C or gas 6.
  • Boil the potatoes until soft (around 10 minutes), then drain.
  • Heat the oil in a large pan with the cumin seeds, 
  • When they are sizzling, add onions and fry gently until soft
  • Add chilli flakes, ginger, salt, garam masala, lemon zest and potatoes. Mix well.
  • Turn off the heat and mash roughly in the pan.
  • Add the coriander and mash again. Set aside.
  • Slice a small slither from the bottom of each pepper so that it will stand up right in a baking tray.
  • Cut the tops off the peppers and gently scoop out the membrane and seeds.  To get any stubborn seeds out, tap the peppers on the palm of your hand, cut side down.
  • Do not discard the stalks.
  • Stuff the peppers with the potato mixture, using your fingers to press in as much as possible. 
  • When they are full, pop the tops back on, so that they look like a whole pepper again.
  • Stand them upright in a baking tray or dish and drizzle with oil.
  • Bake for 40 minutes.

Serve with gluten free naan bread and cucumber and mint raita.

American Style Pancakes

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Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday and while everyone else was enjoying pancakes, I thought I would only be able to spectate, as I hadn’t found a good gluten free substitute. I came across this recipe for gluten free American Pancakes just in the nick of time.  I also don’t have a frying pan at the moment so had to improvise with a cast iron flat casserole, which meant that there was more washing up than usual, but it really was worth the effort! I served the pancakes with Vanilla Ice Cream and fruit, oh, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious!

The recipe serves 5, but that all depends on how much you can trust yourself not to eat the whole lot!

125g gluten free plain flour
1 tsp. gluten free baking powder
1/2tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. caster sugar
150ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)
2 medium eggs
15g melted butter
Vegetable oil for frying
Toppings of your choice

  • Mix the flour, baking powder, xanthan gum salt and sugar in a large bowl and mix well to combine.
  •  In a jug, beat together the eggs and milk.
  • Add to the dry ingredients, followed by the butter.
  • Beat until smooth and lump free, until it has a dropping consistency
  •  Heat a few drops of oil in a non-stick frying pan.
  • Using a dessertspoon, drop 3 rounds of batter into the pan (if your pan isn’t large enough do 2 rounds), so they spread to about 9cm in diameter. Reduce the heat.
  • After 2 minutes turn the pancake over with a spatula and cook the other side until golden brown and puffed up to about 1cm thick.
  • Layer the pancakes in greaseproof paper and wrap in a tea towel to keep warm. Make more pancakes until all the mixture is used up.
  • Top with whatever ingredients take your fancy.