Chickpea Flat Bread

I have a little flat bread obsession at the moment. It all started with me digging out this recipe from the back of my recipe folder a couple weeks ago. I don't even know where the original recipe came from but I've done some tweaking along the way. This recipe is a hit in our house, particularly the garlic variation. If you really dislike the taste of chickpeas, this may not be for you but we really do love it! I took soooo many photos when I was whipping these little morsels of deliciousness up, so I apologise in advance for the crazy number of photos.

I started with sifting the chickpea flour. It often has a whole lot of lumps in it, so I use the back of a spoon to break those up. 

I add in the water and whisk, whisk, whisk until there are no lumps left.

Then I add in the oil and whisk some more!

Now is the creative part. I add any fancy-pants flavourings I want to add. The favourite in our house is salt, pepper and fresh garlic. 

I mix that all up gently, no whisking this time. Then I cover it with a tea towel and let it sit on the bench for a minimum of 30 minutes. Sometimes I make it up in the morning to use that night. The longer it's left, the lighter and fluffier the end result. 

Ta-Da! This is what the mixture looks like after sitting on the bench for 4 hours. There is a bubbly layer on the top that I just whisk right back into the main mix. 

I heat up a skillet/frypan (whatever you call yours). I prefer not to use non-stick pans but for this I find non-stick saves me the headache of having to avoid sticking in my stainless steel pans. Every recipe I have ever seen says to use oil but I actually cook mine in a dry pan! Whichever you choose is up to you.

At this point I turn around and see the Miss M had poured a whole lot of mixture on the floor and is dipping her fingers in and eating it! So instead of making 6 flat bread we only ended up with 5. 

When the bubbles forming on the top of the flat-bread start to pop it's time to flip it. I cook until browned and then transfer it into the oven set on the lowest temperature possible to keep them warm. Alternatively, you can pile on a plate and cover with a tea towel.  Then keep on following that process of cooking each one until you have about 6 yummy chickpea flat bread (or in my case 5!). We served ours with lamb meatballs and salad.

Ingredients

2 cups toasted chickpea flour (besan)
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons oil (we used olive oil)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Sift flour into bowl. Add water and whisk until smooth.
2. Add oil, salt and pepper. Whisk. 
3. Cover with a tea towel and set aside for anywhere between 30 minutes and 12 hours. The longer you leave it the fluffier your flat bread will be.
4. Heat small frying pan/skillet on a medium high heat**. Once hot, pour in enough batter for one flat bread.
5. Cook until the top is no longer runny, flip and then cook for another 1 - 2 minutes.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with remaining batter, Serve.

Variations

• Add 2 - 3 cloves or garlic at step 2 for a garlic version.

• After cooking use it like a pizza base! Lightly top with tomato sauce (or another safe sauce) and your regular pizza toppings.

** You can use a little oil in the pan. I have found coconut, grape seed or avocado oils work best. Olive oil made the flat bread stick to the pan. 

Happy Cooking!
Jasmine

Brown Rice Pudding

Rice pudding is my favourite winter dessert, however Tim has never been a fan. Since adding more things to our list of foods we have to avoid, it was something we didn't even consider making. Then one night when I was feeling a bit down, Tim whipped one up using just 4 ingredients! Say what?! Much healthier than the original recipe, and tasty too. Since then I've done some tweaking and found a balance I like and some variations. If brown rice is not your thing, you can substitute for white rice but you will need to adjust cooking time to suit. 

I like to soak my brown rice in water for 12-24 hours before cooking, changing the water part way through. This step is not essential, you can just rinse it really well before you start to cook with it. If you do soak it, your rice will absorb liquid a little better but it's not going to ruin your dish if you don't soak your rice. In fact, I didn't even add that step into the actual recipe. 

After soaking or rinsing the rice, I put it in a medium saucepan with the milk/milk substitute. I give it a quick stir to evenly distribute the rice. Then I bring it to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer covered for about 30 minutes. I know you are not meant to peek at rice as it cooks but as I use milk/milk substitute instead of water, I don't want it to scorch so I do stir it a couple times while it cooks. The length of time varies depending on the rice you use. Even different brands of brown rice have different cooking times and white rice takes significantly less time to cook. I have had some brand take up to an hour to cook and others only 25 minutes. You will know it's ready when almost all the liquid has been absorbed.



Once the rice is cooked, I remove it from the heat, add whichever sweetener we are using (pure maple syrup is most popular in our house), some extra milk if it's a little too dry and some vanilla powder. At this point I return it to the heat for just a minute or two and then it's all done.... unless you want to jazz it up a bit with one of our variations or make your own!

Ingredients

2 cups brown rice (soaked and/or rinsed)

4 cups safe milk (rice, coconut, almond, dairy etc.) plus extra 2 tablespoons (optional)

1/2 cup pure maple syrup, honey or brown rice syrup.

1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method

1. Place rice and milk in a medium saucepan. Mix to distribute rice evenly. Place over a high heat and bring to the boil.

2. Reduce heat and cover. Stirring infrequently, simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until almost all liquid has been absorbed. (cooking may take much longer depending on the variety of rice used)

3. Remove from heat, add sweetener and vanilla bean powder. If dry, add a little extra milk.
4. Return to heat for 1 - 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Serve.

Variations

• Blueberry: Add blueberries at step 3. This works best with honey as the sweetener.

• Coconut and Lime: Using coconut milk option, add 2 teaspoons of lime zest at step 3. Top with toasted coconut and a little lime zest. 

• Cinnamon and Honey: Using honey as the sweetener, replace vanilla with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Drizzle with honey or sprinkle with cinnamon to serve. 

• Chocolate Rice Pudding: Before beginning add 2-3 tablespoons of cacao powder to a 1/3 of a cup of milk, whisk well. Combine with rice and remaining milk. Follow directions as normal. You may wish to add a little more sweetener to counteract the bitterness of the cacao. 

So what do you think? If you give it a go make sure to let me know how it turns out! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

Happy Cooking!
Jasmine x

Lime and Coconut Meatballs

Hello again! It's been a crazy, emotional week here and today it was nice to get out of the house and have a BBQ picnic lunch. Tomorrow is our fresh food shopping day so I was running seriously low on meat, fruit and vegetables. I did have some grass fed beef mince and a heap of organic limes though (organic limes were $2 a bag at the farmer's market last week, you are probably starting to realise now that I can't pass up a good bargain).

I decided to try something I usually do with chicken or turkey mince but with beef. It's super easy and something the kids love to help with. I started by whisking chia and coconut milk together with a fork and setting it aside for 10 minutes. While the chia was doing it's thing I got started on combining all the other ingredients together. I chucked the beef mince in and then moved onto zesting the lime. The lime I used today was not very green but my goodness it smelt divine! 

After zesting the lime, I mixed in shredded coconut, coconut flour, salt and pepper. Then I went back to see if my chia has finished doing it's thing and it had thickened up nicely. I whisked it with a fork quickly and then added that to the mince mix. Next came the part I hate, mixing it all together with my hands and then rolling them. A little tip I picked up from watching Jamie Oliver a few years ago is to lightly wet your hands before you start rolling meatballs so they don't stick. I do that all the time now and have no problems with the meat sticking.

As we were taking the meatballs along to be cooked on a BBQ, I packed them up with some baking paper to stop them from sticking. I then threw the only veggies and fruit I had in the house into a container to take as sides. You see all those cherry tomatoes there? Somehow Miss M managed to eat all of them! Whoops! She is a little obsessed with tomatoes at the moment. She is the only one in our house who can eat tomatoes on a regular basis yet we still go though over a kilo week!

When we got the park my wonderful friend Dawn cooked up the meatballs and some yummy chicken while her and I chatted with some other mums, or ran around after Miss M, who is still a little young to understand that when Mummy says not to run into the car-park it's for her own safety, not because I'm a big meanie! When they were ready, they were almost all gobbled up and Miss E finished off what was left later in the afternoon. So now onto the recipe...

Ingredients

500g mince meat (we used grass fed beef today but you can try chicken, turkey, etc.)
1 tablespoon ground chia seeds

1/4 cup organic lite coconut milk

Zest of 1 lime

1 tablespoon shredded coconut

1 tablespoon coconut flour

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for frying (we used coconut oil)

Method

1. Combine chia and coconut milk and whisk with a fork. Set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine mince, lime zest, shredded coconut, coconut flour, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Lightly mix.
3. Add chia mix, combine well with your hands.
4. Roll into balls and fry in oil until cooked through. Serve,

Variations

• Turn them into patties and make burgers, or lettuce wraps with safe cheese, salads and sauce. 

• Add some dried chilli flakes for a little kick.

• Serve with some lime mayo (If eggs are a safe food). You can use the juice of the lime you use for the zest to make your own.

So there we go! Make sure you let me know what you think here or on Facebook. I look forward to hearing how you all go. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.

Happy Cooking!
Jasmine x

Grandma Betty's Spanish Beef

Today is a hard day for me. It marks 8 years since my Grandma passed away. She was a very important part of my life and the person who inspired my love for cooking. I have many fond memories of being in the kitchen with her or around her dinner table with my family. One dish she always made for special occasions was called Spanish Beef. I have no idea where the name came from because there is nothing remotely Spanish about it. It was definitely a childhood favourite. I would request it every birthday until I stopped eating red meat.

I really wanted to share the joy this dish brought me with my family. Even though I am unable to eat it because of some kidney issues, I have I decided today was the perfect day to recreate this dish but with healthier and allergy friendly ingredients. The original recipe used a tin of tomato soup as the sauce and had a small packet of Smith's chips sprinkled on top! Obviously it needed some tweaking.

I started out by sending my Mum a text message to double check what exactly Grandma put in her Spanish Beef. It turned out I had forgotten about mustard powder (Thanks Mum!). Then I went on a hunt through my cupboards to see what I could find to replicate the dish and then got started on chucking it all together. Unfortunately this dish is tomato heavy, so not fructose or salicylate friendly, which means that because of some of Miss E's intolerances it will be a sometimes dish in our house.

When I was ready to get cooking, I started by chopping my carrot and onion with the help of my lovely kitchen assistant, Miss M. My Grandma added celery in her dish but we didn't have any so I just skipped that. I then fried the carrot, onion and garlic off in a little olive oil. Once they were just starting to brown, I added in 500g of organic beef mince and fried it off until browned. We choose to use organic vegetables and meat but if this is not in your budget or not something important to you, non-organic will work just as well.

 

Once the mince was browned I added tomato paste, mustard powder, parsley and basil. (I use an organic tomato paste, with no added salt or nasties.) I let them cook for a few moments before I added a tin of organic diced tomatoes, some water, salt and pepper. I then let it simmer for 10 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally. 

While that was going, I moved onto slicing the potatoes. (How awesome is the bag my potatoes come in? It makes me excited every fortnight!) It would have been much smarter to slice them before I started cooking the other ingredients so I wasn't having to go between slicing and stirring. It would also have been really wise to use a finger guard when using a mandoline. You should definitely do that if using a mandoline to get your potato nice and thin. I wish I could say I followed my own advice but I sliced my thumb open on the very sharp blade. Seriously, use the finger guard! I had to ditch that lot of potato and start again since my poor thumb bled all over the first lot. 

Halfway through slicing the second potato, my mince mix was done so I moved that into an oven dish that was once my Grandams and finished off slicing the potatoes. I arranged the thinly sliced potato evenly over the dish once it was sliced and then brushed with melted beef dripping. Don't be scared off by this please! It's a very good dairy free alternative for those creamy, delicious potatoes on top of a casserole. You can also use butter (if dairy is a safe food) or oil if dripping is really not your thing. If you want to give dripping a try, you can find it near the butter in most supermarkets or even make your own. 

By this point it was almost ready to go in the oven. I just sprinkled with some fine sea salt and cracked black pepper, and popped it in the oven. While it was cooking away, I made myself a cup of tea in my Grandma's tea cup and pulled out her old Scrabble set. My Grandma and I would often play Scrabble and drink tea together while we had goodies baking in the oven. 

When I thought it was ready, I had a look and I was so happy with the result! Creamy potato with crispy edges. It smelt divine. Unfortunately because of my health issues, I couldn't give it a try but the evidence below shows how popular it was with Tim and the girls! I think next time I will make a double batch and send some as leftovers in Miss E's lunch box the following day. 

So today was a day tinged with sadness but I like to think that Grandma Betty was looking down and smiling while she watched me recreate her dish, that she saw the look of joy on my girls faces when they tasted this treat. I hope I did her dish justice while making it suitable to my families dietary restrictions. 

Ingredients 

1 tablespoon of oil (we used olive oil)

2 carrots, diced

1 onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, crushed

500g beef mince

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons mustard powder

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/2 tablespoon dried basil

1 400g tin of organic diced tomatoes
Pinch of sea salt and black pepper

1/2 cup water

1 - 2 potatoes, washed, pealed and finely sliced

2 tablespoons beef dripping melted (can substitute with butter or oil)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 200C
2. In a large frying pan over a medium/high heat, fry off carrots, onion and garlic in oil until lightly browned.

3. Add beef mince and cook until browned

4. Stir in tomato paste, mustard powder, parsley and basil. Let cook for a few moments and then add tinned tomatoes, water, salt and pepper.
5. Turn heat down and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until most of the water has evaporated.

6. Transfer into an oven safe dish. Set aside.

7. Cover mince mixture evenly with potatoes and brush with melded beef dripping. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
8. Bake in oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft and browned. 

9. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Variations

• Add celery, mushrooms, peas or zucchini.
• Add 1/2 cup of safe cheese just before placing mixture into oven safe dish.
• Top with sweet potato instead of white potato or even try a combination. 

So what do you think? If you give it a go make sure you let me know.

Happy Cooking!
Jasmine x