There has been a recent surge in gluten free products being readily available on supermarket shelves. I have been gluten intolerant for a number of years and when I was first diagnosed, it was difficult to find everyday products. At the time, a loaf of gluten free bread was the weight of 5 house bricks! Thank goodness there are many more gluten free choices and products to choose from and the quality of these products have improved dramatically. Today, gluten free meals and cakes etc. are readily available at many progressive cafés and restaurants.
I thought I would share a few of my favourite recipes for easy, quick gluten - free meals;
GLUTEN-FREE FAST BEEF STROGANOFF
(microwave)
Ingredients:
500g beef mince (lean/best beef)
1 packet gluten-free onion soup mix
3 cups gluten-free rice noodles
½ teaspoon ground ginger
3½ cups hot water
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 cup low fat cream
cornflour
Method:
Microwave mince on HIGH for 5 minutes. Add packet of soup, noodles, ginger, hot water. Cook 12 minutes. Add mushrooms and cream and thicken with cornflour. Microwave for another minute.
GLUTEN-FREE CROCKPOT PEA AND HAM SOUP
I love this soup, which Joanna has been making for years. It's so hearty it's virtually a meal in itself. It's great to come home to on a winter's day. Sometimes I take some to work and heat it in a microwave, with a couple of crumbled rice cakes used as 'croutons'.
Ingredients:
1 ham hock
1 packet of split peas, green or yellow
water
1 onion, chopped
1 onion whole
12 whole cloves
1 teaspoon marjoram
1 teaspoon fresh mint, chopped (optional)
Method:
Place hock in crockpot, add split peas, cover with water, add chopped onion. Stud a whole onion with cloves -- that makes it easy to remove cloves after cooking. Add spice and herbs.
Cook until the meat falls off the bone. You can cook gently all day if preferred. Discard bone, fat and onion with cloves. Chop meat and return it to the soup.
Serve with hot buttered toast (made with gluten-free bread from a health food shop if you don't have your own).
GLUTEN-FREE RICH, MOIST, SCRUMPTIOUS FRUIT CAKE
(Easy to make in a microwave)
Don’t wait until Xmas to enjoy the decadent taste of rich fruit cake! When I take a bite of this fruit laden, moist, cake, it conjurs up many wonderful memories for me including hot Xmas days shared with grandparents and relatives (many who are no longer with us). My grandmother was a champion cake maker and her fruit cake would just make me, well…. drool. I think her secret was the excessive use of rum that she would infuse into the cake every day for a week before Xmas Day. In those days, Nan would have slaved over a hot oven, today, fruit cake can be made quickly and easily in a microwave oven.
1 kg mixed fruit
125g (4oz) butter
4 eggs, beaten
1 dessertspoon Parisian essence (brown colouring, optional)
440g (14oz) unsweetened crushed pineapple
125g (4oz) almonds
1 teaspoon pre-gel starch
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup bought gluten-free flour OR ½ soya, ¼ rice and ¼ potato flour
1 tablespoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon mixed spice
1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur*
1 tablespoon Cointreau*
The above alcohol tastes much better than Nan’s old rum!
Method:
Cook the fruit and liqueurs on HIGH for five minutes in the microwave. Add the butter and spices. Tip this mixture into a large basin and stir in the rest of the ingredients.
Line the glass dish with baking paper, pour in the ingredients, cook on HIGH for 15 minutes, elevating the dish while cooking, for example by sitting it on a small upturned dish.
Test with a skewer. (When the skewer comes out clean, the cake is cooked.)
Allow the cake to cool before removing from the container. You can simply remove the baking paper and the put the cake back in the dish it was cooked in, put the lid on and store in the fridge.
I hope the taste of this fruit cake beings back wonderful memories for you too.
PS The cake seems to taste even better after a couple of days!
