Gluten-free and Egg-free Pannacotta

I’ve had this recipe for ages and keep promising to post it for a couple of people so here it is! If you don’t want to use gelatine, you could try a vegetarian substitute called Agar Agar. I haven’t used it myself but I’ve seen it used on some TV shows.

Ingredients

40 ml hot water

2 teaspoons gelatine

250 ml cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

80 g caster sugar

500 g Greek natural yogurt

Method

1. Sprinkle gelatine over the hot water in a teacup and allow to soften.

2. Place the cream, vanilla and sugar in a large saucepan and heat just enough until the sugar is dissolved.

3. Stir the gelatine mixture and make sure there are no lumps. Pour the mixture into the cream mixture in the saucepan and mix well.

4. Add the yogurt and mix well. I should use a whisk but I do tend to get out my hand held mixers and use these. It makes a few bubbles but at least I know it is well mixed.

5. Pour into 6 lightly greased dariole molds. There may be a little left over to put into a container. Tap the molds to make the air bubbles come to the surface.

6. Refrigerate overnight until set.

7. Turn out the molds onto a plate. If they don’t want to come out easily, put the bottom of the mold into a container of boiling water for a few seconds and try again.

Gluten-free and Egg-free Rissotto Muffins

A few days ago I promised on Facebook that I would post the recipe for these. It can be hard working out what to make for lunch when on a gluten-free diet, so I’m going to start posting my lunch ideas here. In Australia, you can get a rissotto cake packet mix from Melinda’s Gluten Free Goodies and I can assure you they taste very yummy, but I find them hard to get at our local shops. A while ago I tried a few different recipes for rissotto muffins and came up with this recipe. You can add in whatever you wish. I haven’t weighed the ingredients in grams here, as precise amounts do not matter so much with savoury cooking. It really doesn’t matter if you are using a US or metric cup here. The picture (above) was taken a while ago before I got silicon muffin trays, so they look a little crumbly.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon each of butter and olive oil

about 2 or 3 chopped shallots (spring onions) – in Queensland the long thin green onions are called shallots

1.5 cups arborio rice

3 cups vegetable or chicken stock (make sure it is gluten-free)

1 cup grated, mozarella or other cheese you prefer

0.5 cups fruit chutney

120 ml water + 3 teaspoons of Orgran No Egg (or EnerG or use 3 eggs if you can eat them) – other egg substitutes such as flaxseed meal, psyllium husks or chia seeds would probably work fine here

Anything else you like: cooked corn kernels, chopped, cooked bacon or leftover meat, chopped capsicum (red pepper)

Method

1. In a large saucepan melt the butter together with the oil. Add chopped shallot and cook for a few minutes.

2. Add the rice and stir to coat the rice with the butter/oil.

3. Add the cold stock and bring to the boil. Stir thoroughly. Place the lid on the saucepan. If using an electric stove, turn off the heat and allow to stand on the plate as it cools for 20 minutes. If using gas, turn the gas down to very low for 20 minutes.

4. Stir the mixture then add the chutney, egg replacer/eggs, cheese and any extras you prefer.

5. Place into a pie plate or muffin trays and cook at 160 C fan-forced (180 C/350 F conventional) oven until nicely browned. The muffins usually take about 30 minutes. I cook mine in silicon muffin trays and they pop out very well after being allowed to cool in the pan for a few minutes.

The recipe is suitable for freezing. I microwave mine to eat them warm. You could try putting them in the fridge and eating them cold. They would probably taste okay that way. I’d probably wrap them in a lettuce leaf to take on a picnic and add some salad.

Gluten-free, Egg-free, Dairy-free Banana Cake

We’ve just come out of a heat wave where we are with the temperature last Saturday reaching almost 43 C in our town a little south of Brisbane. Phew! Thankfully, today was much cooler so, for the first time I got to use my new Christmas present. After making do with a Sunbeam Mixmaster for all these years I finally took the plunge and got a more professional type mixer. It is a Bosco and I put it through its paces this morning with this banana cake. Both the mixer and the cake worked out great so here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

340 g gluten-free self raising flour

0.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

pinch salt

200 g caster sugar (you could probably get away with using less if you prefer)

Approx  375 g mashed banana (I used 4 small bananas – 3 large would probably be fine)

115 g dairy-free margarine (Nuttelex) or you can use butter or other margarine  if not dairy-free

80 ml water + 2 teaspoons of Orgran No Egg powder (or use EnerG or 2 eggs if you can have them)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. This cake is really easy. Just put everything into the mixing bowl and mix with the beaters until well mixed.

2. I cooked mine in mini-loaf tins and cooked them at 160 C fan-forced (180 C/350 F conventional) oven for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. This amount made 5 mini-loaves.