Spicey Twicey cooked chicken

This is twice cooked chicken and it is to die for!

8-10 chicken drumsticks cooked in the slow cooker for the day. You don’t need to add any water, just season well with salt and some pepper, I have used herbamare.

When done take the chicken out and take all the meat off and shred with your fingers. Put all the juice at the bottom of your slow cooker in a cup, you will be using this. Keep the bones to make bone broth. I have a stash of bones in the freezer with other chicken bones and vege scraps, make when you have lots!

Spice mix 

Blend up until fine 1 tbsp turmeric, 1 tbsp of ginger, 2 cloves of garlic. No need to take the skin off the turmeric and ginger. Skin the garlic though. Plus 1 tsp ground coriander seeds, ½ tsp ground cumin seeds and 1 tsp smoked paprika.

 In a large pan heat a really good splash of the oil of your choice, at least 2 tbsp. Put in your spice mix and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add in your shredded chicken, stir in to coat the chicken, then add the leftover juice you set aside. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated.

There you have twice cooked chicken to use for salads, on top of some rice with yoghurt sauce, burritos, pizzas etc….

I have made a kick ass salad with it using fried haloumi, cos  lettuce, shredded cabbage, grated carrot, diced capsicum and cucumber, fermented broccoli and homemade red cabbage sauerkraut.

Slow cooked honey mustard chicken

1.2 kg chicken lovely legs,

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 heaped tbsp wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp honey

1 ½ cups pure cream

4 carrots in big chunks

Salt

Chuck it all in the slow cooker on low. This took my slow cooker 6 hours. I then took the chicken and

carrot out put in an ovenproof dish and kept in the oven at 100c to keep warm. Into the slow cooker went 1 ½ cups rice and an extra 200ml water. Put on high for an hour. To make this quicker just pour your liquid (you need about 3 cups of liquid) and rice in a pot with some salt and simmer for 10 minutes or until your rice is cooked.

Vanilla and passionfruit yoghurt pannacotta

Ways to use my great lakes gelatine is always good

Pannacotta is just a fancy name for a creamy jelly, but creamy jelly doesnt sound as posh..lol!

Pannacotta actually comes from the Italian language meaning" cooked cream"

Originally it was made using eggwhite and you would have cooked it "bain marie" style but the version of using gelatine is pretty popular too, and it is very easy to make.

This you can make in many different ways, as long as you have 750ml liquid you can do almond milk/coconut cream, or jelly using fruit purees/juice, any ratio of cream/milk/yoghurt, you can leave the yoghurt out if you wanted. You can use mango, berries instead of passionfruit or you can leave out completely.

This is how I make it

Ingredients

250ml pure cream

250ml whole milk

2 tbsp honey or maple

2 tsp vanilla paste- you can add more if you want

4 passion fruit, strained, you just have the juice, I don’t like the pips- you could leave them in though.

Method

Put all this in a measuring jug and then add enough natural yoghurt to make the amount up to 750 ml. Take out half a cup of this mix and put in a small pot and sprinkle over 1 ½ tbsp. of gelatine. Leave for a couple of minutes until firm, and then heat gently while whisking, when its liquid again and smooth add to your cream mix, whisk well and then pour into 6 x 125ml dariole moulds. You can just pour it all in a bowl or container if you wanted to make a big one. Put in the fridge to set. Serve with coulis if desired.

Too easy!

 

Egg free chocolate cake

This is gluten/egg/dairy free, can be nut and grain free dependant on what flour/milk you use.

You can use butter or coconut oil in place of the olive oil if you want. Don’t use extra virgin oil the taste will be too strong and will ruin your cake. You can use coconut, oat, almond or rice milk depending on your intolerance

Ingredients

2 cups of gluten free flour- whatever blend you use

1 ¼ cups water

¼ cup of cacao powder

½ cup of panella or rapadura sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

100ml light olive oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Method

Preheat oven to 180 c

Line a 20 x 20cm cake tin with baking paper

Mix all ingredients together and pour into you tin. Bake for 20 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. When cold ice and cut into squares. You can leave the icing if you prefer

Icing

In a small glass bowl over a pot of simmering water add 125g dark chocolate of your choice, (whichever one you tolerate) ¼ cup of the milk of your choice and 2 tbsp light olive oil. Melt together and then whisk. 

Apricot anzac squares

Makes 16 squares

Would be great warmed up for breakfast with some yoghurt and berries, or in a lunch box.

Variations swap the apricots for dried berries/sultanas, sprinkle with chocolate chips

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of desiccated coconut

1 ½ cups of rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup approx(140g) of dried turkish apricots, finely diced

100g butter or coconut oil

¼ cup of honey

Method

Preheat oven to 180c

Line a 20 x 20cm cake tin with baking paper

Melt butter and honey together. Add butter mix to all the other ingredients and mix until well combined. Press firmly into your tin and bake for 12-15 minutes, should be golden brown on top. When cool cut into squares, Store in an airtight container.

Artichoke, chorizo and goats cheese quiche

Ingredients

150g gluten free flour

75g cold diced butter, small dice

1 egg

½ tsp salt

Iced water

You can use spices in the pastry, I have used 3 tsp smoked paprika

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C.

You need to grease a 24cm base measurement fluted tart tin with removable base.

In a food processor pulse your flour, butter, salt (spices if using) until you have chunky breadcrumb look, don’t do it too fine you want to see some chunks of butter. Add your egg and pulse a couple of times. Then add 1 tsp iced water at a time until you can squish the dough together. Put the dough on a piece of baking paper. Roll out a little then fold in half and roll out a little again, then fold in half and roll a little again, then roll out to a circle in-between 2 pieces of baking paper, use a little flour if it is too sticky.. Peel the top paper off and then flip the pastry over into your tin, then peel off the paper. Take the excess off and use to fill in any gaps.

You can then put in your fillings, I have used 1 bunch of spinach, stalks removed, blanched, excess water squeezed out and chopped. Place on the bottom followed by 1 red onion and chorizo/bacon, diced and then fried up. Then I used a 280g jar of thoroughly drained artichoke hearts, quartered. Then I have dotted 75g goats cheese-brie/camembert/feta would be great too, then 1 sliced tomato. For the quiche mix I whisked 3 eggs with 100ml milk, pour over, then cracked 3 eggs on top, pierced the yolk. Use more eggs if you need to, enough to fill the tin. Bake for 25 minutes or until set.

After cooking

Before cooking

Serve up with a big salad!

Coconut flour blueberry muffins

Gluten/grain/nut and can be dairy free

In a large bowl add everything below and whisk together. Add then stir in 1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries. Line/grease well 10-12 x125ml muffin holes with muffin cases/oil Spoon in the muffin mix bake at 180c for 20 minutes.

Ingredients

½ cup coconut flour

1 tsp gf baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup of coconut sugar or rapadura

2 tsp vanilla paste

4 eggs

1/2 cup of milk or milk alternative

100g melted butter or coconut oil

Spelt sourdough

Gotta say it sounded pretty scary to make at first, sounded complicated and at first i was gunna flag it. So I keep looking around and tried t find the simplest way to do it, I mean, gee, some versions you needed juice, the tears of a virgin angels, pulling, pushing, folding and prove in the northwest point of an ancient burial ground and only make on the full moon! Thats what put me off...

So anyway this is the way I came up with this to make it as easy and as least complicated as possible, I ended up finding it very easy, you just have to get the timing right. Next bake I will try a 14 hours prove, so I will form the dough at 6pm, leave until 10am and then bake.

You can play around with the amount to accommodate the loaf tin you use. I used 200g starter, 400g flour, 10g salt and about 200ml approx of warm water, mix with your hands until it come together and just knead 1-2 minutes until smooth, its pretty quick. The starter is whole spelt flour and the flour I make the dough with is white spelt flour.

You then put in your loaf tin, slash the top of the loaf. Sprinkle flour on top once its in the tin and cover and leave for 12-18 hours

(until nearly doubled) depending on how warm your place is. This process can be some trial and error, you will probably get a different loaf every time...lol.

Before proving

after 12 hours proving

I have baked at 230c for 20 minutes and then turned down to 180 for another 10-15 minutes. If you are not sure if its cooked you can always slice the end off, i do, then eat the hot crust with plenty of butter, chuck it back in if it still looks a little wet.

Starting the sourdough:

Whisk ¼ cup of flour and ¼ of a cup of water in a small bowl. Pour this into a jar, and let it sit for twelve hours.

Twelve hours later, whisk in ¼ cup of flour with ¼ of a cup water and continue this every 12 hours for 7-14 days until your starter is bubbling. As you feed your starter, take care to whisk in the flour and water thoroughly into the established starter aerating the starter will help to yield the best and most reliable results.

To accommodate for expansion of the sourdough when it’s fed, make sure that your jar is only half full after each feeding. If you’ve made too much sourdough starter for the capacity of your jar, pour some off and use it in sourdough biscuits, sourdough pancakes or sourdough crackers

12 day starter, should have lots of bubbles

Maintaining the sourdough: After 1-2 weeks, your sourdough should be sturdy enough to withstand storage. If you bake infrequently (that is: if you bake less than once a week), you can store your sourdough in the refrigerator, bring it to room temperature and feed it well about twelve hours before you plan to make a loaf.

If you bake more frequently every day or a few times a week you can store your sourdough at room temperature and feed it.

Special considerations: If a brown liquid appears floating on top of your sourdough starter, simply pour it off. Sourdough bakers call this liquid hooch, and it is harmless; however, it often signifies that you’ve fed your starter too much water in relation to flour or have let your 

starter go too long between feedings. Sourdough starters are relatively resilient, and bounce back quickly once you resume proper care of them

.

Chocolate cheese cake muffins

They look like innocent chocolate muffins but inside is a maple and vanilla cheesecake filling...mmmm grain and gluten free

Makes 12 approx

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
1/3 cup of coconut sugar or similar
4 eggs, room temp
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp gf baking powder
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
½ cup of coconut flour
¼ cup of cacao powder
½ cup of milk

Cheese cake filling
200g full fat cream cheese softened
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
2 tbsp maple syrup

Method
Preheat oven to 180 c
Line 12 (125ml ) muffin hole tray with paper cases

For the muffins

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add vanilla and 1 egg at a time beating in between each addition of egg. Then add your baking soda, baking powder, cacao powder, flour and milk, beat well set aside while you prepare the cheesecake filling.

For the cheesecake filling
Beat everything together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.

Ok to put this together put about a dessertspoonful of the muffin mix and then a spoon of the cheesecake mix on top, and then another spoon of muffin mix on top. Continue with this you should get 12. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Profiteroles

Ingredients

250ml water
80g butter
150g gluten free flour, sifted
3 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked

Method
Place the water and butter in a saucepan. Bring just to the boil. Remove from heat and use a wooden spoon to beat in flour until combined.

Cook, stirring, over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball and comes away from side of pan. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool. There should be no steam coming off, you can beat while it cools if you want.

Gradually add egg, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition, until the dough is thick and glossy.

Preheat oven to 190°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Place heaped dessertspoonful’s of dough, about 3cm apart, on trays. You could pipe it.

Use wet hands to pat down any peaks of dough. Sprinkle trays with water to create steam. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden

Turn off oven. Use a knife to pierce the base of each profiterole. Place profiteroles in oven for 20 minutes to dry out. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. When cool pipe in whipped cream, about 300ml should be enough, you can add a little maple or honey and vanilla- which I did but you don’t have to. Dip into chocolate sauce.

The sauce I make is 1 ½ tbsp cacao powder, 3 tsp maple syrup, 30g butter, melted, 1 tbsp water, and mix well.

If you don’t have a piping bag you can slice in half and spoon the cream in and then put the lid on and spoon the choc sauce over. If your sauce starts to firm up just heat slightly to make it runny again.

Carrot and banana cake with a lemon, vanilla and honey cheesecake frosting

gluten/grain free- the cake can be dairy free, the icing below is not dairy free

Ingredients

4 eggs- room temperature

125g butter- for dairy free use coconut oil or light olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

¼ cup of honey- you could use maple or rice malt syrup

2 carrots, grated

2 ripe bananas, mashed/blended

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup of coconut flour- if you do have any use 1 ½ -2 cups of gf flour and minus 1 egg. Should be a really thick batter that you need to spoon into a tin.

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 170c fan-forced or 180c normal

Grease/line with baking paper a 20 x 20cm cake tin or loaf tin

In a large bowl cream butter and honey until light and fluffy, add in 1 egg at time, whisking between each one- don’t worry if it looks curdled, will still work the same.

If using coconut oil or olive oil- Whisk eggs until light and fluffy and then add in your oil and honey and continue per the recipe.

Add your vanilla, baking soda and baking powder, cinnamon, carrot, banana and coconut flour (or gf if using)Mix well and then spoon into your tin and even the top out.

Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You can do as muffins/mini muffins- just adjust your time. Mini muffins will take 8-10 minutes and bigger ones will take 12-15 minutes, keep an eye on them.

When cold you can ice with an optional icing- or use your own dairy free icing.

Lemon, vanilla and honey cheesecake frosting

250g full fat cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp butter, softened

1 ½ tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla paste or extract

2 tbsp honey

Beat together until light and fluffy.

Chocolate almond loaf

Ingredients

1 cup of nut pulp –this is what is left after squeezing out the liquid when you make nut milk, I have used almond here.

 2 eggs

¼ cup of cacao powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp honey or maple or similar

125g butter, melted

Method

Beat everything together then put in a loaf tin and bake at 180 c for 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Serve with cream/ice cream as a dessert or have with some butter.

Mussaman curry paste

Ingredients

1 teaspoon shrimp paste, you could use a few anchovies

2 teaspoons ground coriander- you can use coriander seeds if you have them- toast first

2 teaspoons ground cumin- you can use cumin seeds if you have them- toast first

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 brown onion, rough chop

3 garlic cloves

1 stem lemon grass, trimmed, white part chopped

3cm piece galangal or ginger, peeled

red chilllis- opt if you like some heat!

Method

Wrap shrimp paste in foil. Heat in a frying pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until roasted.

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Add a little water or oil if needed.

To make the curry, fry off your paste and then put in your meat- I have used beef on the bone, about 1kg, brown and then put into a slow cooker. Add to the slow cooker 2 potatoes, 3cm dice (Keep it pretty big as they break down) and 1/3 of a cup of peanuts, 2 bay leaves, 5 cardamon pods, crushed and a 400ml can of coconut milk/cream.

You can leave out the nuts and potatoes if you wanted or use sweet potato or other nuts such as cashews, there are no rules when you are the cook! Put on low for the day.

Chocolate chip muesli bars

Makes 12 bars-

You can leave out the oats and use ½ coconut and ½ nuts and seeds

Ingredients

1 cup of oats

1 cup shredded coconut

1 cup mixed nuts and seeds

2 tbsp each of honey and coconut oil, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Method

Preheat oven to 180C

In a large bowl place your oats. Briefly blitz your coconut, nuts and seeds until fairly fine, add to your oats, and then add your melted coconut oil, honey and vanilla. Add your egg and mix well. Press into a lined 20x20cm cake tin and then sprinkle over ¼ or so of choc chips, press them down and then bake for 12 minutes. Take out and leave for 10 minutes and then lift out and cut into bars or squares. Keep in an airtight container on the bench.

Pumpkin crunch

Dairy, nut, gluten, grain egg free

Ingredients

120g pumpkin seeds
80g sunflower seeds
30g shredded coconut
20g sesame seeds
10g chia seeds
Pinch of salt
40g honey, you can also use rice malt or maple

Method


Briefly blitz, you still want it chunky


Place in a lined 20cm x 20cm cake tin. Push down to compact it a bit. Bake at 150 c for 40-60 mins or until slightly browned and firm. Chop into smaller pieces once cool. Keep in an airtight container.

 

Sour Cream

Put 300ml pure cream in a 300g glass jar such as an old coconut oil jar. Add 1 ½ tbsp of natural active yoghurt. Put the lid on and shake. Put in an easy yo maker and fill with very hot water. Change the water every 8 hours and let it ferment for 24 hours. Taste every so often until it is the flavour that you like, you can let it go over 24 hours if you wanted more sourness. You can do this in a dehydrator, thermi or I have seen people do this in the oven just using the oven light on. Have also seen this with a heat pack and wrapped in a blanket and put in an esky. Heat the heatpack every few hours. The colder the temp is the longer this will take. You can of course use an electric yoghurt maker. The easy yo you can buy at the supermarket for $20. This should turn out really thick just like store brought sour cream!

If you want to make yoghurt the instructions are the same but you use whole milk. I like to make ½ milk and ½ cream for a richer yoghurt. Still use 1 ½ tbsp. of starter yoghurt to 1 cup approx. of milk/cream.

Lamb, zucchini and feta rissoles

Serves 6

Ingredients

500g lamb mine

2 zucchinis, grated, squeeze out excess juice

150g greek feta or other crumbly feta, 1 cm dice

Method

Knead the mince until it is sticky, this is what binds the mince together. Then add your zucchini and feta, mix through and season well with salt and pepper. Form into 6 rissoles and fry off in a large pan for 3- 4 minutes each side or until your liking. Sere up with extra veg or salad..

Chicken Tikka

Chicken tikka- done in the slow cooker, full of indian spice, if you have tried my butter chicken recipe you will like this too!

You can use as a marinade for your chicken and bbq or roast or use as I have done as a curry. Why not make your taste buds dance
Thank you, come again!

I served this with millet. Millet is gluten free and is technically a seed. Millet is a good source of the minerals copper, phosphorus, manganese, and magnesium. Millet is thought to have originated in North Africa, specifically in Ethiopia, where it has been consumed since prehistoric times. There is even mention of millet in the Bible as an ingredient for unleavened bread. Millet is still an extremely important food staple in many Africa countries.




Tikka masala paste

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

Thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons garam masala

½ teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons tomato purée

Small bunch of fresh coriander

1 tablespoon desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons ground almonds

Optional 1-2 red chillies

Spices for toasting: These are dry fried in a small pan for about a minute until fragrant

1 teaspoon cumin seeds / 1 teaspoon coriander seeds

Method

Blitz up until a smooth paste forms.


This can be used as a marinade enough for about 1 kg of meat such as chicken. I have used this as a curry and added 600g chicken thigh, 1 diced onion, 700ml of tomato passata and added a chunky dice of 1 large eggplant and 2 parsnips. You can use any veg you want such as sweet potato, zucchini, capsicum etc…put in your slow cooker for the day. I did have cream to use so I added that too, but you dont have to!

Chocolate chip muffins

Ingredients

1 cup almond pulp- this is what is leftover when you make almond milk

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp honey

100g melted butter

½ cup of chocolate chips- you could also use blueberries

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 c

 Grease your mini muffin tin really well or use paper/silicone liners.

Mix everything in a bowl and put into your mini muffin tin and bake for 15 minutes or until firm in the middle. If you use the bigger holes you will need to adjust the time, about 18-20 minutes. Makes 16 mini muffins. Store in an airtight container.

Orange blossom, cinnamon and honey poached pears with an almond and coconut custard.

Use 1 egg per 100 ml liquid- if you want to make 500ml use 5 eggs.

Almond and coconut custard

Ingredients
3 eggs
200ml almond milk
100ml coconut cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp of honey or maple etc or to taste

Method
In a medium pot heat your almond milk, coconut cream and vanilla. In a small bowl whisk your eggs, when the milk mix is hot (do not let it boil) pour slowly into your egg mix and whisk as you go, then pour back into your pot. Add your desired sweetener. Over a low heat keep stirring until it coats the back of a spoon, this does not take long. DO NOT LET IT GET TOO HOT! it will curdle. Then pour into your bowl through a strainer. Cool it a quick as you can to prevent it from continuing to cook. If you are not dairy free it's nice to put some cubes of butter in and whisk it in while its still hot.

Poached pears in orange blossom, cinnamon and honey
Ingredients
6 pears, peeled and quartered
1 tbsp orange blossom water- you can get this at the supermarket or deli's. You can leave it out if you dont have it.
¼ cup of honey
1 cinnamon stick, snap in half. Use both halves


Method

Place everything in a pot and put in just enough water to cover the pears. Simmer for about 15 minutes, the pears should be tender, test to see if a knife goes in easily. Take out and pour it all in a container. Keep in the fridge. With the leftover liquid you can use to poach more pears, just drink it, freeze in ice cubes and use for juices and smoothies etc… dont throw it away!

Anzac biscuits

Makes 25

Ingredients

125g butter

2 tbsp maple//honey

½ tsp baking soda

2 tbsp boiling water

1 ¼ cup spelt flour

1 cup oats

1 cup desiccated coconut

½ cup of coconut sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 160 c fan-forced or 175 c normal

In a large bowl put your flour, oats, coconut and coconut sugar

Melt butter and syrup together. In a small bowl add your baking soda and boiling water. Mix and then add to your melted butter mix. Add to your dry ingredients and mix well. Form into balls and place on your lined baking tray, flatten with your fingers. Keep at least 2 cm between them as they do spread! Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Keep in an airtight container.

For an optional extra you can make this chocolate filling.

The chocolate filling is 100g dark chocolate, melted, then add 1/4 cup of cream or coconut cream 1 tbsp at a time, mix between each tbsp until combined. Then put a tsp of chocolate on each biscuit and sandwich together.

Legume ragout with saffron and rosemary

Have this by itself or as I have done with poached eggs and feta cheese

The term comes from the French ragoûter, meaning: "to revive the taste".

The basic method of preparation involves slow cooking over a low heat.

Serve 4-6

Ingredients

2 carrots, diced

2-3 stalks celery, diced

1 red or green capsicum, diced

1 large brown onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 stems rosemary

A pinch of saffron

2 x 400g can of rinsed and drained legumes, chickpeas, butter beans, cannellini bean, kidney beans etc…

2 cups of vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup tomato passata

Method

Put everything in a slow cooker and put on low for the day.

You can serve with extra veg and poached eggs, feta cheese, chopped chilli