Curry Laksa (gluten free)

This is one of my all time favourite dishes and I have recently discovered how to make an amazing one. Marusa and I have played around with it a bit and this is what we have come up with.

Serves: 4 (2 Davids)

Ingredients:

• 12 prawns (raw and shell on is essential)
• Silken tofu
• 1 can of coconut milk
• Fish sauce (a good glug)
• 1 tbl spoon of palm sugar
• Rice noodles
• Chicken Breast

For the paste:

• 4 dry kashmiri chillis (soaked in hot water for half an hour)
• 2 stalks of chopped lemon grass (beaten with a pestle to release flavour)
• a finger of ginger
• a couple of large cloves of garlic
• 2 tsps of curry powder (we mix our own using cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli powder)
• a couple of shallots
• 2 tsp of shrimp paste (easily findable in a chinese supermarket)

Garnish:

• bean sprouts
• fresh lime juice
• (you can experiment here, once we added raw cucumber for crunch and texture)

The first job is the stock. Peel the prawns (keeping the shells!) and clean out the intestinal tract. Now fry the prawn shells in a little vegetable oil for a minute then add about 1 litre of water and simmer gently for half an hour to produce a stock.

While the stock is simmering, make the curry paste by blending the paste ingredients (use a food processor, stick blender or pestle&mortar). When that is done cut the tofu into small pieces and fry in vegetable oil until a nice golden brown on each side.

Now get rid of the prawn shells so you get a nice stock. Fry the paste in a little vegetable oil for a minute or two and add the stock. Now add the chicken breast, cut it into nice thin bite size strips. At the same time cook your rice noodles in separate boiling water for a few minutes (until soft). Simmer until the chicken is almost cooked, literally 5-10 minutes.

Now add the prawns, the coconut milk and the palm sugar and cook for a few minutes so that the prawns are just cooked, then squeeze plenty of lime juice and add the fish sauce – add a bit, then add more if you feel it needs it, don’t skip this step it is vital.

You will find that the fish sauce and lime juice add an amazing lift to the flavor. To serve put the tofu, noodles and bean sprouts in the bottom of your soup bowl and ladle the yummy soup on top. Some crispy onion and or garlic is a nice treat to sprinkle on top. And if you’re feeling adventurous, a spoon of sambal (chilly paste, easily available in any Chinese supermarket) is highly recommended, it will take the dish to another level! Enjoy!

Gluten-free Vegeterian Falafel Scotch Eggs

In the last two years I have been discovering just how much English food is under-rated. One of the ‘hidden gems’ are surely Scotch Eggs.

Being over 32 degrees in Ljubljana ever since we’ve been back from Norway and England, the heat is really getting to me. Of course the only solution is a picnic in the wild! Apparently there is no picnic without Scotch Eggs, but since David is gluten intolerant (not celiac, be careful with the recipe if allergic) and my sister is not a big pork meat lover I had to make some tweaks.

I found this recipe on the BBC GoodFood web site (which I love to use) but  it calles for the use of flour and breadcrumbs. I used the all-purpose gluten free flour and because I couldnt find GF breadcrumbs I just used finely crushed GF crackers (onion flavoured went very well in the falafel mix).

You need:

9 eggs → don’t boil all 9 as I did 🙂 one egg is for the falafel mix
a bit of olive oil → a couple of spoons to fry the onions
2 large onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
a 400g can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans if you are American)
fresh coriander → I didn’t use it because it’s not trivial to get here
150g GF breadcrumbs → the recipe said 200g but this is plenty
5 tbsp GF flour → I use the all purpose mix
oil for frying

Hard boil 8 eggs (will try and make it Heston style liquid centre someday but not really good for a picnic) and peel when cold. I suggest undercooking rather then overcooking the eggs because they cook a bit more later when you fry them.

Fry the onions and garlic in a pan until really soft and golden. Why are cooking instructions always so funny? Onions never turn golden but they get brown. And then if you keep waiting they turn black. Do not let them turn black. I suggest doing it on a low heat because if you overheat garlic it burns and gets very bitter and horribly unpleasant. Add the spices and fry a bit longer. Again, do it on a low heat, burned spices are no treat (bitter).

Using a food processor or a stick blender (immersion blender) whizz into a paste. Then add chickpeas (and coriander leaves) and pulse until its finely chopped but not pasty. You want some texture, noone likes baby food.

Stir in the GF breadcrumbs, GF flour and the last egg (beaten) and season generously. I find it best to beat the egg in a bowl and add salt and pepper to the egg before mixing it into the falafel mix. I think the seasonings incorporate with the mix better this way. If you like it spicy add chilli powder. I know it’s messy but my suggestion is go in there with your hands and mix it all up. Its actually great fun 🙂

Divide the mixture into 8 and wrap the cooked eggs. The mixture is quite sticky but brushing your hands with a bit of oil helps. I think the best way to wrap the egg is to flatten the mixture in your hand (like a big thin burger), put the egg in the middle and close up on the top. Make sure the egg is evenly covered then roll it between your hands to form a nice ball.

We fried them like that but I guess it’s even better if you roll them in a mixture of GF breadcrumbs and sesame seeds before frying. Or get creative and crush some GF corn flakes to make it extra super crunchy.

Fry the eggs in a deep pan (or a deep fryer) for about 2 minutes until crispy and looks cooked.

Scotch Eggs go great with a cold spicy yogurt sauce (just mix greek yogurt, sour cream, a squeeze of lemon juice and a bit of chilly powder).

Stuffed (gluten-free) Adriatic Squid

Marusa and I went to the Ljubljana fish market today (I will post pictures of the market on one of it’s busier days in order to do it justice) and some beautiful Adriatic squid caught my eye.

Prešeren Square, Ljubljana.

Ljubljana market.

Spanish style stuffing felt like a good plan so here are the ingredients I went for:

1 small onion
6 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
1 lemon
(gluten-free) Kulen sausage (similar to Chorizo)
1 cup of long grain rice
olive oil
chicken stock
tinned tomatoes
paprika
extra hot chilli powder
salt and black pepper
(saffron would work great I am sure but I cannot find it in Ljubljana)

Fresh squid.

Cleaned and ready for stuffing.

First I cleaned the squid thoroughly, removing the tough membrane and set the body of the squid aside to dry off.

Then into a hot pan a glug of olive oil and the onion, red pepper and sausage. I wanted to release the oils and the spices from the sausage. I added paprika, for some extra flavour and chilli powder as we both love heat. When the onions and peppers were soft I added the garlic, being careful not to burn it. Then a little extra oil and half a tin of chopped tomatoes. A good stir and the rice next making sure it was well coated in the mixture.

Frying the onions, red pepper, sausage, paprika and garlic.

Rice, tomatoes and squid tentacles added.

Stuffing almost cooked.

Then I added the chicken stock and some salt and pepper and cooked it for about 15 minutes, until the rice was done.

Separately I fried the finely diced tentacles and wings (I don’t like waiste!) and tossed them in. A good squeeze of lemon juice and with help from Marusa we carefully stuffed the squid, tightly but not too much filling as the squid rates to shrink when it cooks.

We used cocktail sticks to seal the end of the squid, then coloured it in some olive oil flavoured with paprika and cooked it at 200 degrees for 10 minutes in the oven adding extra lemon juice and a little water towards the end to create a natural sauce.

Stuffed squid, ready to cook.

Browning on the stove.

Very easy and the result was delicious. We served it with a simple tomato and basil salad. Yum!

Beautiful end product.

From another angle.

Dober tek!

Gluten Free Banana Bread

For many years I suffered with regular migraines and digestion problems. About 6 months ago I stopped eating gluten and my problems dissapeared immediately. Mostly not eating gluten doesn’t bother me but there are a few things which I have to find substitutes for – Gluten free beer is excellent and easy to find, Corn pasta isn’t the same but it’s ok, the big problem is bread.

Generally gluten free bread is dry but there are some decent ones I have found, sadly non of the good ones are available in Slovenia.

Today Marusa made a delicious gluten free banana bread, which is so moist and yummy that it’s hard to believe.

Marusa:
Banana bread is one of the easiest things to bake and it’s a great breakfast option. I used a simple recipe that I found online and just uses gluten-free flour mix. I can’t really be bothered with converting recipes from cups to grams so I decided to just wing it 🙂 And banana bread doesn’t really need exact measurinig (wherever says “cup” I just used my coffee mug)

Ingredients
• 4 really ripe bananas, mashed (potato masher is fine)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (I actually used apple baby food)
• 1 1/5 cups gluten free flour mix (I use the mix because it already contains a bit of  xantam gum and don’t need to add it)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• about 40g of soft butter (it’s a “skinny” recipe, regular banana bread is an absolute bomb, thats what the apple sauce is there for)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar (I used even less and it was more than enough)
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• optional: chopped walnuts (I used a handful of pecans and might add some dried cranberries next time).

Combine the flour baking soda and salt. In a bigger bowl whisk sugar and butter untill fluffy (I never understood this part but when you’ve been whisking for a while and you’re contemplating what fluffy sugar looks like, it’s probably there) then add egg whites, mashed bananas and apple sauce. When all that’s combined add flour bit by bit (don’t put it in all at once, its a pain mixing it) and nuts (and any other dry ingredients you fancy using). Bake in a loaf tin until baked (another useless piece of instruction in recipes) – about 50′ on 175.

Dober tek!