Baked goods, seasonal fruits and a new gluten free cookbook are all In My Kitchen this month.
Finally, the weather has started to cool. In theory, this means I could turn my oven on again without fear of heating the entire kitchen. Unfortunately, the cooler weather has coincided with a broken switch in said oven, and I am now waiting for a new part to come from over East. As postage from the East inexplicably takes forever, I don’t think my oven will be back in commission any time soon.
I did manage to bake these gluten free Anzac Biscuits from My Darling Lemon Thyme before the oven died. They are full of brown rice flour and quinoa flakes, which will hopefully stave off any whinging from The Princess about the lack of food in the house for a little while. If you happen to have any good no-bake recipes I would love to hear about them.
Our summer vegetable garden is winding down, but dad’s fruit trees are still in full swing. He kindly shared a few of his precious mangoes and plums with us last week. I wonder what it will take to convince him to share some more plums as I wouldn’t mind making jam.
There was gluten free pasta, coconut flour, souk spice mix and white strawberry tea in my Goodness Me Box last month. There were actually other snacks included but The Princess ate them all before I could take any pictures. I have never baked with coconut flour, so I am going to experiment once the oven is back in commission. I am aware that it can make baked goods quite dense so it is a good thing I have time to do some research. The souk spice reminds me a little of Ras el Hanout, possibly my favourite spice mix. I see tagine in my future.
As I can’t eat honey (thanks to a very serious allergy) I am always on the look out for alternative liquid sweeteners to use in its place. I’ve been reading a bit about date syrup in my new book (below) so was delighted to recently find some.
Only one new book this month, an anniversary present from Mr Grumpy. He had seen me eyeing off the new River Cottage Gluten Free, so I was thrilled to receive it. We are not a gluten free household, but I do love playing with gluten free flours and am always looking for new ideas to use them. The book has comprehensive sections on gluten free breads, pastry and baking, which are the most difficult areas to translate to a gluten free diet. If you are on a gluten free diet I would highly recommend this book.
That’s about it for my kitchen this month. Don’t forget to head over Maureen’s at the Orgasmic Chef to see what is happening in other kitchens around the world.
Nancy | Plus Ate Six
I gave up on coconut flour to be honest and stuck to almond meal – everything was so dry and tasteless! I’m sure you’ll have more success than me though. Your Dad’s fruit looks amazing – what a wonderful haul.
tania
Well that is not at all encouraging Nancy 🙂 I had read you could easily interchange almond meal with coconut flour. So I will approach it with more caution then. I might start small.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
I tried coconut flour and I’m convinced it needs to be combined with something else. The date syrup sounds really interesting because I love dates.
Those ANZAC biscuits look amazing!
tania
I’m beginning to get that impression Maureen. I think I will start with small amounts and see how it goes. I used the date syrup in a no-bake slice yesterday and it worked really well. It’s not too sweet, and combined perfectly with the tahini in the slice.
mae
Date syrup was called date honey in the Bible. When the Bible refers to a land of milk & honey, that’s what it means — they didn’t use bees’ honey much if at all. So I’ve been meaning to try date syrup (or date honey) too. Good luck with the oven repair!
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
tania
That’s really cool! Thanks for that Mae. The date syrup is really good. I am looking forward to using it a bit more (once the oven is fixed 🙂 ).
Napoli Restaurant Alert
Date syrup sounds yum!!
tania
It is really good. Not too sweet. I am looking forward to using it a bit more.
Maree
Date syrup, where has that been hiding Love the sound of that!
tania
I know, right 🙂 I had never heard of it either until I read the River Cottage book.
Glenda
Hi Tania. Date syrup sounds nice but those mangoes look absolutely fabulous.
tania
The mangoes were good Glenda. Apparently dad is drowning in them so I am expecting more soon. What a lovely problem to have.
Mark
Hate using coconut flour am sure it has a place and in my kitchen its in the open packets top shelf
The one where I can’t throw it away but never use it
It’s a whole different style of use and I am too slap dash to learn it
But a great savoury pike let is to soak red lentils in water for a couple of hours
Place in blender with enough water to cover by about 1cm add what ever spices you want I often cheat and add a few tsp of ready made curry paste
Blend to a batter then add a tsp of gf baking powder
Now you have the choice to deep fry spoon full / shallow fry or dry fry with just a spritz of oil
The more oil the crispier the product and more of a fritter the less oil the softer and more of a pike let
You can also add other Veges to batter and make pakora style nibbles
tania
I’m not hearing good things about coconut flour Mark 😀 I will be interested to try it (eventually). I love the sound of the savoury pikelet. I’ve read a few similar recipes of late so I am going to give this a go. I have decided to embrace the lack of oven and use it as a period of experimentation rather than fall back on what I know.
Vicki @ Boiled Eggs & Soldiers
I do use coconut flour in some things but you need to double sometimes triple the eggs you would normally use, it absorbs liquid really quickly so you can’t leave it for too long either. The date syrup sounds interesting and your seasonal food haul.
tania
Thanks for that advice Vicki. I will keep that in mind.
sherry MacKay
i have never heard of date syrup before. sounds intriguing. i do love maple syrup or agave as alternatives to sugar. i made plum sauce recently which was tasty. hope your oven is fixed soon.
tania
I’m loving the date syrup sherry. It is not too sweet, which I was worried about. I’m hoping to make plum sauce this year. Just need to get on to it. What do you use your plum sauce for?
sherry MacKay
hubby puts it on sandwiches. we use it for stir fries, etc. nice on sausages in a bun -which always makes me think of Terry Pratchett who wrote the Discworld novels. one of the characters is Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler who uses every part of the animal including the squeal in his sausages:=)
tania
Thanks for that Sherry. You’ve reminded me I need to get on and make some.