Tastes & Tales of LA – The Flights

I’m back from my holiday to LA to stay with my friend J. I had a wonderful time and loved exploring the area and discovering some fantastic restaurants and foodie places. It was sunny and warm everyday and the streets were lined with palm trees – bliss. I return to find cold winds and even snow yesterday – brrrr. I thought I’d do a little write up of some of my experiences. First up, the flights!

As I had previously mentioned, when booking my flight with British Airways, I was told I could not request a coeliac and vegetarian friendly meal. I had to chose one or the other. I opted for coeliac as this was a medical condition and the person I spoke to on the phone said the air stewardess should be able to help with some extra food on the flight itself.

London Heathrow to LA

First up was lunch. As predicted my main meal was chicken and rice which was accompanied by a fruit salad, some mixed salad leaves and a GF bread roll. I explained to the stewardess that I was also vegetarian and so couldn’t eat the main part of the meal and had been told to ask if she had anything else I could supplement it with. She suggested the vegan option, which was pasta. I explained that I couldn’t eat this either at the pasta was wheat based. She went to talk to someone and came back saying she didn’t know what she could offer me. I asked if it was possible to have some cheese, so that I could turn my bread roll into a sandwich. She came back with a lovely selection of little bits of cheeses, including brie, camembert, cheddar and red Leicester along with an additional plate of salad, which I was delighted about and made for a very tasty meal. I think this must have been pinched from first class. She did also try to give me some normal bread to eat with it, which I again had to explain I couldn’t eat. It was nice to be given a pot of fresh fruit for my dessert, although I was a little envious of the yoghurt and carrot cake my fellow diners were given.

About 8 hours later they brought round the second meal consisting of boxes of sandwiches. I never even saw my box, as the stewardess came to see me and said she had opened my GF box and found out the sandwiches were fish. She apologised and said would I like to try the vegan sandwiches if they had any leftover. I yet again had to explain I wouldn’t be able to eat these as they would have been made on wheat/gluten bread. She apologised again and left. That was it. I was not provided or offered anything else in place of this meal and so went hungry, while everyone around me tucked into sandwiches and cake. This means that after my 12 hours on the plane I had been given one meal of GF bread roll, some cheese and salad. I was also not impressed with the obvious lack of simple knowledge as to what a gluten free diet involves, as I was offered wheat/gluten accompaniments three times during the flight. Some basic allergy awareness training is needed!

Flight back from LA to London Heathrow

Coming back I had a night flight. We were served dinner at around 10pm. As before, my main dish was chicken with…some unknown grey gloop at one end and a laughable half a single floret of broccoli. Now I have a degree in nutrition and a portion of fruit and veg is meant to be around 80g. I really don’t think this half a tiny piece of broccoli qualifies, it’s mainly stalk and I’m not really sure why they bothered to put it on the dish. The accompanying grey gloopy stuff still mystifies me. It was the consistency of custard, with a gloopy texture of poorly made instant mashed potato and yet bizarrely enough had a few grains of white rice floating around in it – at least I hope they were rice! I even tasted a tiny bit to try and determine what it was, and apart from tasting like salt, I still have no idea what it was supposed to be. 10pm is a little late for me to eat dinner and so I didn’t even attempt to try and ask for anything else and instead concentrated on the rest of the meal accompaniments. I was actually really impressed with these. I had a little GF bread roll, a bag of dried fruit and oh joy… a little slice of Madeira cake! The bread looked a little solid, but was actually really good. It was quite sweet, but had a lovely soft stretchy texture, almost like a milk roll. The ingredients list was stuck to the back which I was pleased about as without these I may have even believed it wasn’t gluten free. Apparently it was made in Brooklyn NY. The cake bar was also made by the same people and apart from being a little gooey, had a lovely vanilla flavour. It was so nice to be given some cake too.

After a restless night trying to sleep, we were provided with a breakfast box a few hours before landing. After missing out on my main meal the night before, I was quite hungry and eager to see what would be provided. My fellow passengers were given their ‘breakfast boxes’ which contained a big fruit muffin, a little cookie, a box of raisins, a yoghurt drink, a polo mint and then the complimentary fruit juice and coffee. What would I get...?

I was given my own special box and opened it to find…some grapefruit segments. Yep, that’s it. They get cake, cookies, dried fruit, yoghurt, mints and I get…grapefruit segments. I sat there feeling cheated. Grapefruit, just grapefruit...really!?! Now don’t get me wrong, I like grapefruit and it was nice to be given some fresh fruit but does someone somewhere really believe that a few grapefruit segments constitutes a filling breakfast and one that is a fair and suitable substitute to the regular breakfast box???

Oh wait, yes I was also given a tiny pot of reconstituted orange juice, but as everyone including myself then got given fresh juice along with coffee too I get the distinct impression this was put here in a desperate attempt to fill up the big empty space in the rest of the box, rather than being something to enhance my meal. Why couldn’t I of had some yoghurt, GF bread, dried fruit, rice cakes, jam, another little cake… anything extra than just grapefruit! I didn’t even get the mint! Needless to say I was not impressed and went hungry again. Grrrr.

I can kind of forgive British Airways the problems with my main meals and first flight sandwiches for not being vegetarian, as they had no prior knowledge that I required this due to the annoying fact you can’t specify other dietary needs if you are coeliac. However, the breakfast I was provided with compared to my fellow passengers was inexcusable and quite frankly I’m going to write and complain. I also feel the staff should be made more aware of basic allergies, so as not to keep offering coeliac customers pasta and normal bread as substitutes for their meals.

I found this cartoon that someone has made about the variety of gluten free meals on flights and it made me laugh so much I cried. Seems I’m not the only one less than impressed. Thankfully the rest of my meals while in LA were wonderful. I’ll post more about them soon.

Butternut Squash & Red Lentil Soup

Winter certainly seems to be closing in. It’s not been overly cold, but the days have been dark, damp and dreamy. Filled with three endless days of mist and drizzle that seems to seep into your clothes and skin making you feel cold and miserable. On waking up to yet another day of swirling mist I decided there was only one thing for it – a nice big bowl of steaming hot soup!

Ahh soup. Is there anything more warming and satisfying on a cold dreary day than a bowl/mug/ladle/bucket full of piping hot soup?! It seems to warm you up from the inside out, from the tips of your fingers down to your very soul. Ideally it must be thick soup too, rich and satisfying, not those horrible watery packet mixes. But a soup packed full of winter veg and goodness.

One of my favourite soups is red lentil soup. It’s thick and creamy with a bit of texture and bite from the lentils. Lentils, being rich in protein and fibre also help transform the soup into a filling meal that keeps the winter chills away.

I had a hunt through my fridge and basically comprised the soup from whatever I had to hand or that needed using up. That’s one of the perks of soup, it can transform even the most tired or gnarled shaped vegetables into something delicious. This time the main flavour component of my soup was a whole baby butternut squash. I simply scooped out the seeds and membrane from the middle and diced it up, leaving the skin on. As it all gets blitzed into a puree you can’t detect the skin so it’s not worth the hassle. Plus, there’s a lot of extra goodness hidden in those skins, the same applies to the parsnip, although I would recommend peeling the papery skin off the garlic.

The vegetable base is cooked and pureed first, before the lentils are added and cooked in the soup for a further few minutes. This means they add texture while being suspended in a creamy velvety smooth soup. The soup base looks a little thin when puréed, but once the lentils are added, they swell up, absorbing some of the liquid and releasing their starch, creating one glorious thick and satisfying soup.

Creamy, comforting and warming to the soul. There’s nothing better on a day like today.

Butternut Squash & Red Lentil Soup

Ingredients

1 onion

4 spring onions

1 parsnip, skin left on

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small butternut squash, 600-700g whole

2 sticks celery

3 sprigs fresh thyme

3 pints vegetable stock, hot

150g red lentils

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground pepper

Method

Chop the onion, spring onion, parsnip, celery and butternut squash into a chunky dice. You can leave the skin on the parsnip and butternut squash, although remove the seeds and membrane from the centre of the squash.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan pan, add the veg and the thyme and stir together. Place the lid on the saucepan and allow the veg to cook over a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the edges of the veg is starting to take on a little colour.

Roughly chop the garlic, add to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Pour over the vegetable stock, stirring right to the bottom to ensure you get up any stuck on bits. Replace the lid and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes until all the veg is soft and tender.

Remove from the heat and puree the soup in a liquidizer until smooth. It should be quite runny/thin at this stage.

Return the soup to the pan and add the salt and pepper to taste. Pour in the red lentils, turn the heat to low and bring the mixture to a gentle bubble. Stir constantly for the first few minutes to prevent the lentils from sinking to the bottom of the pan and sticking.

Half cover the pan with the lid and allow to bubble gently for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are cooked. Stir every 5 minutes to prevent the lentils from clumping together. The soup will thicken up considerably as the lentils cook and swell.

Once the lentils are tender, remove from the heat and serve steaming hot.

Serves 6

Tomato Ricotta Tart

This is a variation on the yummy spinach and ricotta tart I made a few months back. At the time, I cut it into slices and froze it, which made a great standby lunch or dinner. I went to retrieve a slice recently and found it was all gone. I’d enjoyed it so much that I decided to bake another one, only adapting it slightly to incorporate some of my other favourite flavours.

I’ve always enjoyed making my own pastry but it used to hold a slight fear that it would shrink on baking. However, since having to go gluten free, this is no longer a problem. As there is no gluten in gluten free flour (how surprising) to overwork, this means no fear of shrinkage when baked. Gluten free pastry is very easy to work with and actually benefits from a gentle kneading like you would a bread dough. The resulting pastry is silky smooth and results in a crisp pastry that is light in both colour and texture and one I actually prefer to the old regular pastry.

Anyway, back to the tart. I think of ricotta as a very Italian cheese, with green, white and red being the colours of the Italian flag. As I went down a green spinach route last time, I decided to go red by incorporating tomatoes, which resulted in a beautifully blushing red coloured tart.

Ricotta is very light, soft and milky which results in a wonderfully light and fresh tasting tart. I used tinned tomatoes and a generous spoonful of sun dried tomato paste (not to be confused with tomato puree) for a bright bold tomato flavour. I also added some mushrooms which I lightly fried with garlic and thyme along with a few asparagus spears that I had left over the previous nights dinner.

Once baked all the flavours tasted wonderfully together, tomato, garlic, mushroom, thyme, asparagus, balsamic vinegar and the softly set ricotta held in a crisp pastry crust. Delicious. You could use whatever filling you liked for the tart. It’s a sort of lighter version of a quiche.

After making the tart I had a little leftover pastry and so make a few jam and berry tarts, which bought back fond memories of my childhood, when I used to help my mother and grandmother make apple pies. Making jam tarts with the scraps of leftover pastry were always a treat.

Tomato Ricotta Tart
Gluten Free Pastry
225g gluten free flour mix (I used 100g white rice flour, 80g potato flour, 50g white teff flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum
110g butter
1 egg
1 tbsp cold water

Tomato Ricotta Filling
4 spring onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 chestnut mushrooms
8 asparagus spears
100g (½ small tin) chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste (not tomato puree)
250g ricotta cheese
2 eggs
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Method - Pastry

Have an 8inch/20cm tart tin ready.
Mix all the flours and the xanthan gum together in a bowl to combine.
Make sure you butter is soft, if not blast it in the microwave for a few seconds. Add to a seperate mixing bowl along with half the flour mixture, the egg and water. Beat with a spoon or spatula to form a paste. (Yes I know this goes against all traditional pastry making!) Add the rest of the flour and bring the mixture together to form a dough, switching to your hands at the end. Knead the dough gently for 1 minute to ensure everything is well combined.
Roll out the pastry between two large sheets of clingfilm to the size and shape of your tart tin, plus an extra 1-2 inches for the sides.
Peel off the top sheet of clingfilm, and use the base sheet to help you flip the pastry into the tin and press it down gently. Trim off the excess. Patch up any cracks with the off-cuts of pastry.
Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Tomato Ricotta Filling

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Slice the mushrooms, heat the oil in a frying pan, and gently fry the mushrooms until beginning to brown. Crush the garlic and add it to the mushrooms along with the spring onions and the leaves from the fresh thyme. Cook until the mushrooms are golden brown. Slice the asparagus in half and add to the pan at the last minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar to the pan and allow to bubble away until any excess liquid has evaporated and you have quite a thick intense tomato mixture left. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Remove from the heat and stir through the ricotta cheese. Lightly beat the eggs and beat them in too.
Spread the filling into the chilled pastry case and bake for 30 minutes until set, slightly puffed and the pastry is lightly golden brown.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and serving.
Tastes great warm or cold the next day when it goes more quiche-like. Also freezes well in slices.
Makes 1 x 8inch/20cm tart

Pea Pod & Mint Soup. Plus a visit from the Fairy Hobmother!

The humble pea is one of my favourite vegetables. There is just something irresistible about its vibrant green colour and sweet flavour. I love how each tiny pea is encased in its own outer jacket, each one a mini vegetable in its own right. A bag of frozen peas is one of my staple freezer ingredients. There is nothing wrong with frozen peas, if fact in most cases they are actually tastier and more nutritious this way than fresh, as peas very quickly loose all sweetness and nutritional quality from the minute they are picked. Frozen peas are usually picked and frozen within 4 hours, meaning you get them almost as fresh as can be. Packets of so called ‘fresh peas’ in supermarkets have probably been sitting around for at least 4-5 days, meaning those once sweet peas will be hard cardboard bullets by the time you eat them.

However, if you can get your hands on some fresh peas, home grown, picked and eaten within a few hours, they are sublime! I am fortunate enough to know someone who has a farm growing veg and last weekend she was selling bags of freshly picked peas – still in their pods – at a farmers market. I snapped a bag up instantly and sat their happily devouring the peas like sweeties. Gently popping open the pods and scooping up the delicate row of peas inside. So sweet and tender.

After munching all the peas I was left with quite a pile of empty pea pods. I hate throwing anything away and so tried eating one – not really a good idea – very tough and stringy and it didn’t beak down no matter how long I chewed. Despite its unappetising texture, it contained a wonderful pea flavour and so I decided to try and turn them into soup.

Lightly cooked with simply an onion, a potato and some pea loving mint my soupy broth mixture was ready in a matter of minutes. After blitzing I sieved the soup which removed all the tough fibres from the pea pods and resulted in a rich velvety soup with a thick creamy texture.

The taste was amazing. Pure essence of pea and so fresh and summery. The mint wasn’t overpowering and gave just a slight lingering aftertaste which complemented the pea. I loved its beautiful pea green colour and pure pea aroma.

Amazing to thick I got such a pea packed soup for practically nothing as the main ingredients are water and empty pods which I’d normally discard. So remember, after munching those fresh peas – don’t throw the pods away, make pea pod soup!

Pea Pod & Mint Soup

Ingredients
500g empty pea pods – eat the peas first!
1¾ pints hot water
1 large onion
1 large or 2 small potatoes
15 leaves of fresh mint
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method
Peel and roughly chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, stir and then place the lid on to allow the onion to sweat and soften gently.
Meanwhile, dice the potato (no need to peel) and roughly chop the garlic.
Once the onion has started to soften, add the potato and garlic and cook for 2-3 minutes more.
Boil the kettle and measure out the water. Add the mint leaves and pea pods (no need to chop) to the pan and stir briefly.
Pour over the water, add some freshly ground salt and pepper and bring the mixture to the boil. Then reduce to a simmer, place the lid on with just a small gap to allow some steam to escape and allow to bubble for 15-20 minutes.
Check that the potatoes are cooked by sticking the tip of a sharp knife into them. If they are then remove the pan from the heat, if not then allow to cook for 3-4 minutes longer.
Once ready, blitz the soup in a liquidiser until restively smooth. Best to do this in batches. Strain the soup through a fine sieve into a large clean bowl or pan. Use the back of a spoon to help work the soup through the sieve, leaving behind all the stringy pith from the pea pods.
You should end up with a bright green and velvety smooth soup.
Taste and add more seasoning if required.
Serves 3-4

After leaving a comment on Cherrapeno’s blog stating my dream kitchen gadget (an automatic ice cream maker – the kind you don’t need to pre-freeze) I was lucky enough to be visited by the Fairy Hobmother, in the form of Ian from Appliances Online

Unfortunately he wasn’t able to give me the ice cream maker (unsurprisingly considering they cost £200+) but I was gifted a £25 Amazon gift card to put towards my ice cream fund – yay!

To be in with a chance of a visit from the Fairy Hobmother yourself, simply leave a comment on this post, stating your dream kitchen gadget, before June 5th and who knows he may be visiting you too!

Spinach & Ricotta Tart GF

Spinach and ricotta is a classic combination, but one that I’m only recently beginning to appreciate. I remember being given spinach and ricotta tortellini when I was little and not liking the spinach’s slightly grassy taste. More often than not it was watery, causing the cheese to split into horrible lumps or else was stringy and fiberous. It put me off for quite a while! However, I have since discovered that spinach and ricotta can also be a fantastic pairing and am now using it with gusto.

I first tasted this tart during a gluten free cookery demo a few weeks back and it tasted so good that I was determined to make it myself. At the demo they used a packed pastry mix, but never one to reply on packets, I scanned the ingredients list and then concocted my own using similar flours I had at home. The demo also taught me some new tips about how to approach gluten free baking that go against all ‘traditional’ baking techniques. You want to treat pastry as if it was bread dough – use soft butter, make a batter to start and then knead it until it becomes smooth. As there is no gluten to overwork there is no fear of it becoming tough or shrinking when baked. For bread dough you want to treat it like a cake mix – it should be very wet and poured into a loaf tin before proving and baking. If it’s too thick, it won’t rise and the bread will be dense. Interesting stuff!

Anyway, back to the tart. The pastry worked like a charm and resulted in a light, crisp pastry that I think I even preferred to when I used to eat standard party. It was lighter and less greasy. The filling came together easily and all the frying onion, garlic and balsamic made the kitchen smell wonderful. Ricotta is quite a bland cheese, and in a tart such as this it adds more of a texture than a flavour. However, its lightness results in a puffy, almost soufflé like textured filling that allows other flavours to shine.

A little red onion and sun dried tomato adds sweetness and bite to the tart, while the spinach makes it fabulously green and slightly earthy. It’s delicious warm, straight out the oven but I also enjoyed it cold the next day, when it turned a little more quiche-like. As a bonus it also freezes well, meaning you can stash slices of it away for when you’re short of time or lacking inspiration to cook.

If you’re not on a GF diet, I’m sure the filling would be equally delicious is a standard pastry case.

Spinach & Ricotta Tart GF
(Recipe adapted from Glutafin)

Gluten Free Pastry
225g gluten free flour mix (I used 100g white rice flour, 50g potato flour, 50g tapioca starch, 25g buckwheat flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum
110g butter
1 egg
1 tbsp cold water

Spinach & Ricotta Filling
1 small red onion, very finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
150g frozen or fresh chopped spinach
250g ricotta cheese
2 eggs
75g sun blush/dried tomatoes in oil
3 sprigs fresh basil
Salt and pepper

Method - Pastry
Have an 8inch/20cm tart tin ready.
Mix all the flours and the xanthan gum together in a bowl to combine.
Make sure you butter is soft, if not blast it in the microwave for a few seconds. Add to a mixing bowl along with half the flour mixture, the egg and water. Beat with a spoon or spatula to form a paste. (Yes I know this goes against all traditional pastry making!) Add the rest of the flour and bring the mixture together to form a dough, switching to your hands at the en. Knead the dough gently for 1 minute to ensure everything is well combined.
Lightly dust a work surface with GF flour and roll out the pastry to the size and shape of your tart tin, plus an extra 1-2 inches for the sides.
Use your rolling pin to help you transfer the pastry into the tin and press it down gently. Trim off the excess. Patch up any cracks with the off-cuts of pastry.
Place in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Spinach & Ricotta Filling
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Finely dice the red onion, heat the oil in a frying pan, and gently fry the onion until beginning to soften. Crush the garlic and add it to the onion and cook for 3 minutes more.
Either chop your fresh spinach or defrosted and drain your frozen spinach. Add the spinach to the pan along with the balsamic vinegar and a generous amount of salt and pepper.
Cook over a fairly high heat until very little moisture remains. Remove from the heat and stir through the ricotta cheese. Lightly beat the eggs and beat them in too.
Chop the tomatoes and basil into small chunks and fold into the filling.
Spread the filling into the chilled pastry case and bake for 25-30 minutes until set, slightly puffed and the pastry is lightly golden brown.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Tastes great warm or cold the next day when it goes more quiche-like. Also freezes well in slices.
Makes 1 x 8inch/20cm tart

Spicy Sweetcorn Pancakes

It’s pancake day tomorrow, and I’m eagerly looking forward to devouring a fair few. I love pancakes. Pancakes themselves come in all shapes, sizes and types. Thick and fluffy American style pancakes or thin and delicate French crepes. I grew up eating the thinner French style pancakes, always with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of sugar. Recently I’ve been favouring more of the fluffier kind. I love how you can flavour them so completely, chocolate chips, blueberries, cinnamon, nuts, toffee, coconut, the list is almost endless.

Whenever anyone mentions pancakes, my first reaction is to think of something sweet. However today, as I was planning tomorrows pancakes and sorting through the fridge, I discovered half a can of sweetcorn and decided to head down the savoury pancake route for lunch.

These sweetcorn pancakes are thick, fluffy and densely studded with sweetcorn. They are made using a mix of gram flour (chickpea) and brown rice flour which gives them a very savoury flavour which is a nice contrast to the sweet little kernels of corn. I added a little red onion and cayenne pepper to the batter which lends some colour and textural contrast as well as some tongue tingling bite to keep things interesting.

They are so quick and easy to put together and taste delicious when served with some spicy tomato salsa and a blob of sour cream whos cool creaminess helps keep the heat in check. They were absolutely scrummy and I’m already plotting other savoury combinations – pea, mint & feta or tomato, olive & basil anyone?

How will you be eating yours – thin or thick and sweet or savoury?

Spicy Sweetcorn Pancakes

Ingredients
30g gram/chickpea flour
20g brown rice flour
½ small red onion
½ tin (80-100g) sweetcorn
¼ tsp ground chillies/cayenne pepper
½ tsp gluten free baking powder
1 egg
1-2 tbsp milk
Salt and pepper

To serve
Sour cream
Spicy tomato salsa
Salad

Method
Peel and finely dice the red onion. Sieve the flours into a small bowl and add the onion, drained sweetcorn, cayenne and baking powder. (You must sieve the gram flour or else it sticks together in clumps).
Lightly beat the egg and then stir through the sweetcorn mixture to form a thick paste.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of milk to slacken the mixture until it becomes spoonable, but remains fairly thick.
Season with salt and pepper.
Heat a little oil in a frying pan until hot, then add tablespoonfuls of the sweetcorn batter. Allow to cool over a gentle heat for 1 minute before flipping over to cook the other side.
Remove to a plate, covered with a sheet of kitchen roll, while you cook the remaining batter.
Makes 6-8 sweetcorn pancakes.
Serve with sour cream, spicy tomato salsa and some salad.

Cauliflower Cheese (GF)

Broccoli is always one of the staple vegetables in my house, but lately I have found myself shifting to cauliflower for a bit of a change. Although they look relatively similar they taste quite different. Cauliflower is more milky and subtle in taste, and I’ve even enjoyed tearing off a floret, dipping it in houmous and eating it raw, whereas broccoli requires at least a little blanching. At the weekend I was rummaging in the fridge looking for lunch inspiration and spotted a cauliflower – cauliflower cheese it was going to be!

I’m a strange one when it comes to cheese with my veg. I love strong cheeses but not so much with veg. I still like to be able to taste the flavour of the vegetables as well as the cheese, so I decided that if I was going to make cauliflower cheese, each mouthful was going to have to have more depth to it than just ‘oh tastes like cheese.’

To add more depth of flavour I made a béchamel sauce with milk that I first infused with onion, bay leaves and nutmeg. After making the sauce I also whisked in some Dijon mustard, which helped tone down the bite of the mature cheese. These simple steps add a wonderful aromatic richness to the dish and result in a multilayered flavoured sauce.

I used potato flour to thicken the sauce to make it gluten free – you will need a little less compared to wheat flours as its thick gloopy stuff! It was then simply a matter of pouring the thick creamy sauce over the raw florets of cauliflower, topping with a sprinkle of extra cheese and baking until golden brown. You can make one large one or smaller individual portions. Simple, satisfying and above all delicious.

Cauliflower Cheese (GF)

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower

1½ pints milk

1 small onion

2 bay leaves

Pinch freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper

1½ tsp French Dijon mustard (check it's gluten free)

2 tbsp potato flour

50g butter

100g cheddar cheese

Method

Pour the milk into a saucepan. Cut the onion in half and remove the skin. Add to the milk along with the bay leaves and nutmeg. Heat gently and allow to come to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Melt the butter in a large saucepan before stirring in the potato flour to form a thick paste. Remove the onion and bay leaves from the milk (eat the onion it’s delicious!) and slowly add the milk to the butter-flour paste, a ladleful at a time, whisking constantly over the heat.

Keep whisking until the sauce thickens into a creamy pourable béchamel sauce, then remove from the heat. Whisk in the mustard and season with salt and pepper.

Grate the cheese and add most of it to the béchamel sauce, reserving a handful to sprinkle on top.

Cut the cauliflower into florets and arrange in either one large or 4 individual ovenproof dishes. Pour over the cheese sauce and scatter over the reserved handful of grated cheese.

Bake in the oven for 25minutes for individual dishes or 35-40 minutes for a larger one. It should be bubbling and lightly golden brown on top.

Serves 2-4 depending on if it’s a main meal or side dish.

Note: Don’t throw away the onion you used to flavour the milk. It will have poached into lovely sweet soft milky layers. Serve it with the cauliflower cheese or add it to a sandwich.

Sweet Potato Cornbread (GF)

I’ve tried cornbreads in the past, but never been a particularly big fan of them. I have found them to be a bit gritty, dry and crumbly unless submerged in soups or stews. However, my opinions of cornbread changed when I saw, made and tasted this recipe. It’s based on a recipe I saw on Karina’s blog - Gluten Free Goddess. This blog has become my new go-to blog for any gluten free recipe inspiration I require. All her food looks amazing and the minute I saw this cornbread I instantly thought ‘I have to make this.’

This cornbread is a sort of cross between a cake and a bread. It’s both sweet and savoury and uses a combination of mashed sweet potato, brown sugar and spices to add extra depth and flavour. It’s made using half fine cornmeal and half buckwheat flour, whose nutty sweet flavour complemented the other ingredients beautifully.

Sweet potato may sound like an odd ingredient to use in bread, but it adds a wonderful sweetness and autumnal orange colour. It also ensures the cornbread stays beautifully moist, soft and springy – no more dry crumbly cornbread here! I was also impressed how light it was, not dense or heavy in the slightest.

I adored the flavour of this bread. I reduced the sugar content quite substantially as I intended using it in a savoury dish, meaning the natural sweetness from the sweet potato was the underlying flavour which complemented the spices with delicious result. As it was not too sweet, I found it went well with both sweet and savoury dishes from breakfast to dinner. It’s definitely going to become a regular on baking list. Gluten free or not, I encourage you all to give it a go.

P.S. Happy New Year to you all! Hope it’s a good one.

Sweet Potato Cornbread (GF)
(Recipe adapted from Gluten Free Goddess blog)

Ingredients
3 eggs
100ml vegetable oil
175g mashed sweet potato (250g raw)
55g light soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
120g fine cornmeal
120g buckwheat flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Method
Start by making the sweet potato puree. Cut a large sweet potato into quarters, leaving the skin on. Place into a glass bowl and cover the base with 2cm of water. Cover the top in clingfilm and microwave for 7-8 minutes until soft.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before scooping out the softened flesh using a spoon. Mash with a fork until fairly smooth, but a few lumpy bits are fine. Weigh out 175g and set aside.
Grease an 8inch/20cm deep springform pan and line the base with greaseproof paper.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until frothy, then slowly drizzle in the oil, still whisking. Add the sweet potato puree, sugar, vanilla, salt and spices and whisk well to combine.
Scatter the cornmeal, buckwheat flour, baking powder and soda over the surface and fold in gently using a spatula, turning the bowl as you go.
Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 40-45 minutes until springy and firm to the touch.
Allow the cornbread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before releasing and leaving to cool to room temperature or just warm before serving.
Makes 1 20cm/8inch cornbread

Tastes great on its own when freshly baked but also works well with both sweet and savoury dishes as it’s not too sweet. I’ve used it to accompany soups, bean stews or as stuffing as well as serving it for breakfast with yogurt and stewed fruit or warmed with Nutella. The sweet potato, sugar and spices complement each other beautifully.

I used some of this cornbread in a fruity stuffed acorn roasted squash that I had for my Christmas lunch. It’s another recipe inspired by Karina from the Gluten Free Goddess blog. I used a mix of fresh cranberries, apple, red onion and sage which I sautéed off first before combining it with the sweet potato cornbread crumbs to stuff inside an acorn squash. The squash was roasted for an hour first before adding the stuffing and roasted again for a further20minutes. Delicious! (Photo of the squash before the final roasting)