Rice flour and Coconut Pancake with Roasted Bananas

    There is a gluten free recipe that I came across while researching facts on rice flour. It is a traditional Vietnamese recipe known as Banh xeo. In Vietnam it is used to wrap mince meat or stir fried vegetable and dipped in nuoc nam. I modified it, a tiny bit, to make a gluten free dessert for the restaurant.

It goes like this :

• 430g Rice flour.
• Pinch Turmeric.
• 20g Dessicated coconut.
• 60g Icing sugar.
• 1 tea spoon Baking powder.
• 500g Coconut milk.
• 3 Bananas.
• 50g Brown sugar.

First toast the dessicated coconut and let it cool down for a while. Then in bowl mix well all the dry ingredients, excepted the brown sugar, then whisk in the coconut milk. Allow to rest for and hour.

Cook a small amount of the batter on non-stick pan placed over a medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Meanwhile cut the bananas in pieces a couple of inches thick, roll them in the brown sugar and roast them for 6 minutes in a very hot oven.

Serve a couple of warm pancakes alongside 5 pieces of bananas and top it up with a spoon of sweet whipped cream.

The batter can be kept for 3 days in the fridge.

“Never eat more than you can lift”

Miss Piggy

Buckwheat muffin with pesto and toasted pine nuts

    There is a quite interesting gluten free recipe that I was used to serve with an accompaniment of parma ham and a poached egg. Take the parma ham away and you get a nice vegetarian dish too.

For this recipe you will need :

• 200g Buckwheat flour.
• 15g Baking powder.
• 1 tea spoon Baking soda.
• 1 large spoon Pesto.
• 20g Pine kernel.
• Pinch of salt and pepper.
• 125g Greek yogurt.
• 1 large spoon of Double cream.
• 80g Butter.
• 2 Eggs.
• 125g Milk.

First toast the pine nuts and cool them down. Then mix, well, all the dry ingredients and add the eggs and the pesto, whisk energetically for a couple of minutes. Finally mix in the yogurt, cream, melted butter and milk. Leave to rest for 1/2 hour.

“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.”

Orson Welles

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Fill some small (individual size) well greased mould up to 2/3 of its height and bake them for roughly 20 to 30 minutes. 

Quinoa tortilla

    There is a simple recipe that is suitable for gluten intolerant people, vegetarians and vegans. They can be used as a substitute wrapper for burritos or fajitas.

You will need :

• 375g Quinoa flour.
• 50g  Quinoa seeds.
• 15g Rock sea salt.
• 187.5g Luke-warm water.

First of all wash or roast the quinoa seeds (follow the indications described in my post on quinoa flour). Mix all the dry ingredients and add the water progressively. Gather the dough into a ball and knead until it is no longer sticky. Leave to rest for at least 1 hour.

Roll down some of the dough a disc of 4 inches of diameter and 3 to 4 mm thick. Cook them on a thick pan heated on a medium fire for 30 seconds on each side. 

                                                                                                                       

“Thou shouldst eat to live, not live to eat”

Socrates

Tempura batter

    Tempura refers to Japanese deep fried, batter-deeped seafood or vegetables. The word tempura or tenpura, in Japanese, come from a Latin expression “ad tempura cuaresmae” which means in time of lent. In fact, batter-coated deep frying was introduced to the Japanese by Catholic Portuguese missionaries during the 16th Century. 

Nowadays, a wide variety of ingredients are used in tempura, from seafood to vegetables, fish, tofu and fruits even buckwheat noddles, ice-creams and bananas.

It is also an interesting, type of batter for people with intolerance to the gliadin protein as the rice flour used in the batter is gluten free.

    There is a recipe for tempura batter :

• 0.400g Rice flour.
• 1 Egg yolk.
• 0.100g Iced water.

It is very simple, as traditionally a good tempura batter must have lumps, you don’t have to worry about  them. Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a whisk. Be careful though, you may not need all the water as the right thickness is like the one of creme fraiche or yoghurt. Allow to rest for 1 hour.

It is easy to use, pre-heat your frier to 140 degres celsius, coat the dry ingredients in the batter and deep fry them, 2 or 3 at the time, for 3 to 4 minutes.

“Talk doesn’t cook rice”

Chinese proveb

“Avalig” the sweet little apple.

  

      About 15 years ago my catering college decided to enter a competition about running a business in your college. I decided then to enter the team that was created around that project. A couple of hours after our first briefing I had to attend an English lesson. I quickly got bored listening to my English teacher talking to us about irregular verbs and wandered away thinking about what would become Avalig which means ‘little apple’ in Breton.

The whole idea was to incorporate all the local produces into one dish. They were apples, cider, apple brandy and buckwheat. It came to this.

For 10 people you will need :

Batter

• 200g Buckwheat flour.
• 50g Sugar.
• 1 tea spoon Baking powder.
• 3 Eggs.
• 1/2 pint of Cider.

Filling

• 10 large cooking Apples.
• 325g Sugar.
• 10cl of apple Brandy or Calvados.
• A pinch of Cinnamon.
• 50g butter.

Salted butter caramel sauce

• 100g Sugar.
• 1 Lemon Juice.
• 10cl Double Cream.
• 60g Salted Butter.

Let’s start with the batter. Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl, add the eggs and whisk energetically for 5 minutes. Finally mix in the cider. Cook straight away putting a small amount of batter on medium heated non-stick pan. For about 5 minutes on each side. Count two pancakes per person.

For the filling peel and core all the apples. Keep them in some water and a bit of lemon juice. Then trim them into their width into discs about 1 inch thick. Keep the trimmings. Put this discs of apple on a baking tray and roast them for 5 minutes in a hot oven.

In the meantime put all the trimings into a pot and cook them with the sugar, the apple brandy the butter and the cinnamon until a dry but moist compote.

The caramel sauce is made by heating the sugar with the lemon juice until a golden brown caramel. Then away from the heat whisk in the cream and the butter. keep warm.

Finally place a pancake on a plate, put the roasted apple on top of it. Fill the gap in the center of the apple with the compote. Place a second pancake on the top it and pour some caramel on it.

Heat warm preferably. It is also suitable for coeliacs.

  A little bit of kitchen science before letting you enjoying this dessert. Earlier I told you to cook the batter straight away. Why? Because here the result we want is some light, moist, tender, thick pancakes.

If you have consulted my post on buckwheat as a substitute for gluten intolerant people (category allergies and food intolerance), I discuss then about its poor level of mucilage. Buckwheat is also gluten free.

First of all, the role mucilage is to retain moisture. In this recipe it’s only the starch present in the buckwheat flour helped with some proteins in the egg yolk that will take this role. But only for a short time because the starch/egg protein matrix unfolded during the whisking of the mix, will ultimately take its original folded structure squeezing the moisture out if the mix stay raw for some time.

Secondly there is no gluten in this type of flour. Therefore our batter will lack of elasticity and plasticity. Gluten is made from two protein gliadin and glutenin. Their particular bond allow a dough or a thick batter to incorporate CO2 or air bubbles (from yeast, beer or cider), change shape under the pressure of its expansion when heated, but also resist this same pressure allowing the mix to expand. The starch will, then, stabilise the bubble wall when it drys out under the action of the heat. 

Unfortunately here the mix incorporates CO2 from the cider ,with the help of the baking powder, only through the combination of the egg proteins and the starch matrix described previously. But again only for a short period. This is why we need to cook the batter quickly to dry out this fragile matrix and therefore trap this bubbles and the moisture within its shape.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe and its unusual combination of flavours.

“Avalou poazh, Piv en do c’hoach”

Breton proverb

“Kig Ha Farz” or meat and dough

  There is very traditional recipe from a quite small region of Brittany called “Bas Leon” which is situated to the North-Est of the western tip of Brittany. Kig ha farz means meat and dough. It is a peasant dish based on a buckwheat dough cooked in a linen bag, vegetables and low cuts of meat.

There no real written recipes for Kig ha farz as the Breton language was mainly transmitted through word of mouth. I will give you here a recipe that I got from a local farmer’s wife few years back.

This would serve about 10 people :

Meats

• 6 pig Shanks.

• 600g pig Belly.

• 800g Oxtail.

• 600g beef Shoulder.

• 2 or 3 lamb Shanks.

Vegetables

• 2 large Leeks.
• 8 Carrots.
• 3 large Onions.
• 1 green Cabbage.
• 6 medium white Turnips.
• 8 Potatoes.
• 3 cloves of Garlic.
• 1 Bay leaf.
• 10 Peppercorns.

Dough

• 500g Buckwheat flour.
• 30g Salt.
• 20g Sugar.
• 50g melted Butter.
• 50g melted Lard.
• 1/2 pint Milk.
• 250g Creme Fraiche or sour cream.
• 2 Eggs.

In large pot place all the vegetables peeled and washed with all the meats. Then cover with water and bring to the boil.

In a large bowl place the flour, sugar and salt. Mix in the eggs then fold the lard, butter and creme fraiche. Finish by adding the milk to bring the mix to a thick Consistancy ( you may not need all the milk).

  Pour the dough mix in a linen bag (see picture on the left) and close tightly with a peace of sting. Place it in the pot with the rest of the ingredients. Cook slowly for 4 hours.

  When the dough and meat is cook take the bag out and leave to rest for 10 minutes. Then place it on a clean surface and roll it form side to side while apllying some pressure. Then open it.

  Traditionally the bouillon obtained is served as a first course. Then the vegetables, the meats and the dough as a main-course.

This is a bit of work but it is an all in one dish. It is suitable for coeliacs as buckwheat flour is gluten free.

Enjoy!

“The way you cut your meat reflects the the way live”

Confucius

“La galette bretonne” Buckwheat panecakes

 If I was asked what is my favourite dish in the whole World I think it would be this one, La galette bretonne. There is a multitude of recipes for buckwheat pancakes in Brittany probably as many as there are of inhabitants. This one comes from my Grand-mother who got it from her mother and so on for generations. Note that it is the base for the pancake itself, I leave the choice of fillings to your imagination. For about 12 pancakes you need :

•   500g Buckwheat flour.
•   100g melted Butter.
•   2 whole Eggs.
•   1/4L Milk.
•   3/4l warm Water.
•   pinch of Salt.

In a large bowl, place the flour and the salt, add the eggs and mix well for 10 minutes. Then add the milk and the warm water, finish by adding the melted butter. Allow to rest for at least 1 hour at room temperature.

 Take a large non-stick pan and spread some of the mix. Cook the pancake on a medium heat for 6min then using a paletknife carefully flip it over and cook it for a further 6 minutes. 

 You can choose all sorts of ingredients to fill your panecakes, eggs, cheese, mushrooms, smoked salmon and cream cheese, ham you name it.

Buckwheat pancakes are suitable for coeliac gastronomes. As I described it in my blog on gluten intolerance and buckwheat flour, this type of flour is gluten free.

I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

“Ne voket bras lod pep hini, Heman zo vel urgrampouezhenn etre nav c’hi”

Breton proverb

Mackerel marinated in white wine.

There is a simple traditional recipe from the local fishermen from my homeland Brittany in France. These would suit 4 people for a starter.

1. 8 Fillets of very fresh mackerel

2. 1 Onion.

3. 2 Cloves of garlic.

4. 1 Large carrot.

5. 2 Shallots.

6. 10 Black peppercorns.

7. 3 Cloves.

8. 10 Grain of coriander.

9. 1 small Bunch of thyme.

10. 2 Bay leaves.

11. 1/2 Lit dry white wine.

12. 10 cl White wine vinegar.

13. 10 cl Lemon juice.

Slice finely the onion, carrot, shallots and the garlic. Place the fillets of mackerel in plastic type container. Add on the sliced vegetables as well as the thyme, bay leaf, coriander and peppercorns. Pour in the wine, lemon juice and the vinegar. Close the container and place in the fridge for 24 hours. The mackerels will keep well in the marinade in the fridge for three days after that it will get mushy.

You can serve it with a nice salad or potato salad. The fishermen would just put it on a thick slice of buttered bread. So would I!

Enjoy!

 

“Ni thuigeann an sach an seang”

Irish proverb