Gluten Free Archives - Retro Food For Modern Times

18
Jun
2023

June 2003 – Gluten-Free

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Cocktail, Gluten Free, Noodles, Prawns, Sorbet

Hello, retro food lovers! Today we are taking a trip back to June 2003 for a gluten-free meal brought to us by Donna Hay Magazine, issue #x. Was gluten-free a thing back then? I know obviously people with Coeliacs and other conditions would have needed to be gluten-free but I am not sure it was as popular as it is now. However, before we see whether or not we could prepare a decent meal from a magazine in 2003, let’s see what was making headlines!

Europe launched it’s first mission to Mars

J.K Rowling released book 5 in the Harry Potter series, Happy Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.

Glastonbury was headlined by Radiohead, Moby and R.E.M

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl premiered at Disneyland

So, a pretty good month for pop culture! And space exploration. But was it as good a month if you had gluten free guests arriving and all you had for inspiration was the latest edition of Donna Hay Magazine?

The Menu – June 2003

Grapefruit Bianco

This was refreshing and quite savoury. I used a bit less sugar than the recipe and I loved the combination of the slight bitterness from the grapefruit and the herby/citrussy Cinzano. This really helped to set the tone for the rest of the meal!

Grapefruit Bianco Recipé:

Sugar Cane Prawns

I loved these! I didn’t use the rice paper as per the recipe but added some lettuce leaves to use as wraps. Any leftover sticks are great the following day in a baguette with some more lettuce, some herbs, chilli and pickles, banh mi style!

Sugar Cane Prawns Recipe

Pad Thai

Who knew this take-out favourite was so easy to make at home? This was so tasty it had the fussiest eater in the world commenting on how good the tofu was!

Pad Thai Recipé:

Grown Up Spider

Just to explain for my non-Australian readers. We are not about to eat arachnids. We call a mix of soft drink and ice cream a spider. This one mixes sorbet and Moscato into an adults-only version which was a lovely refreshing end to this meal. I used mango sorbet in my Spider and it worked really well.

Grown-Up Spider Recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Crispy Skin Chicken

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!

There were a few contenders for my Nigella moment in this magazine. There were some macarons…but hold fire as we will be making them next week. If they work out! Then there was a four-cheese toasted sandwich which sounded divine. Cheese is my love language after all! But a sandwich seemed a little contrary to the gluten-freeness of this post. So, I went with this Crispy Skin Chicken because just looking at it makes my mouth water!

I didn’t make the crispy skin chicken because:

1) I couldn’t find spatchcocks

2) Deep frying is such a faff and,

3) I very doubt I could make something that looked that good!

I think the June 2003 Donna Hay Magazine gave me some fabulous inspiration for my gluten-free meal! And it made someone enjoy tofu!!! 10/10 for this one!

Have a great week!

11
Jun
2018

The Crown Princess Victoria’s Birthday Cake

categories: Birthday Cake, Cake, Gluten Free, Meringue

Can you believe I’ve been doing this for 6 years? Who knew this was going to last longer than most proper jobs, many romantic relationships and a large percentage of prison sentences!

This is a belated celebration though because I’m having a horrendous month. First I hurt my back and was out of action for a couple of weeks. And now I have an awful cold.

But better late than never! And if we were going to wait for anything? This might be the one!

This is the Crown Princess Victoria’s birthday cake!

Time sure flies when you decide to follow your own brand of weirdness!

But let’s talk about this cake. Because it’s not quite cake as we know it. I also need to confess that I have no idea where this recipe came from. I copied it out of a book but totally forgot to note the book from whence it came. So, if anyone knows, please drop me a line so I can attribute it properly!

It’s also gluten-free for those of you who care about those sorts of things!

First up you need to start with two layers of nutty biscuit base. The original recipe said walnut but I had almond meal in the house so rather than grinding walnuts into meal, I took the lazy girl’s option and used what I had. (In my defence I also had a bad back at the time. 😉 ).

And haters look out, I also thought it would work better with an almond base seeing as I was going to decorate it with marzipan. It was going to be a double almond delight!

Next up a meringue!

Then meringue was sandwiched with whipped cream between the two almond discs. This is where it got a little crazy because the meringue was round on the top and the discs were not. So the sandwiching was a little rough…

The the “cake” was “iced” with more whipped cream and decorated with fresh raspberries and some marzipan roses!

This looked so pretty and was absolutely delicious. The crisp biscuit, the crunchy outside of the meringue and the marshmallowy inside made for a lovely blend of textures. The raspberries added a cake much-needed tang into the overall sweetness of the cake and whipped cream just makes anything a party!

Here’s the recipe:

Print

The Crown Princess Victoria’s Birthday Cake

Print Recipe

A different and delicious “cake” to celebrate any occasion.

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

For The Biscuit Layers

1 1/4 cups almond meal
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 egg whites

For The Meringue Layer

2 egg whites
1/2 cup caster sugar

To Decorate

1 1/2 cups whipped cream
250g fresh raspberries
Fondant or marzipan roses

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

For the Bicuit Layers

Mix together the almond meal, icing sugar and the unbeaten egg whites.Spread out into 2 x 20cm rounds on baking paper on baking trays.
Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes until firm to touch.
Turn out onto wire racks and carefully peel off the paper.
Cool.

For The Meringue

Beat the 2 eggs whites until stiff.
Add the sugar gradually, beating all the time until glossy and thick.
Spread out to a 20cm round on baking paper on a baking tray.
Bake in a slow oven until dry and crisp – around 45-50 minutes.
Cool and carefully remove paper.

To Decorate

Sandwich the meringue between the two biscuit layers with whipped cream.
Cover the top and sides with whipped cream.
Decorate with raspberries and fondant or marzipan roses.

You can find an article on how to make proper marzipan roses here. Or you can muddle through and hope for the best like I did with mine!

And of course, I couldn’t let the moment go by without reference to this!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

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19
Feb
2015

Locket’s Savoury & Pimped Up Locket’s Savoury (GF)

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, Blue Cheese, Bread, Cookbook Guru, Gluten Free, Pears, Watercress

One of the best things about 2014 was connecting with other cooks and bloggers and cooking from the same books. I love doing it in person at the Tasty Reads bookclub but it was also so much fun doing the Joan Crawford inspired dinner for Jenny’s book launch.

So, I was super excited to find this blog:

https://thecookbookguru.wordpress.com/what-is-the-cookbook-guru/

Which is pretty much all cook-a-longs. They choose a new book every two months and anyone can cook from the book and post on their own site. Then, Leah shares what everyone posts on The Cookbook Guru. What a great idea!!!

The book for January and February is Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book. First published in 1978, this has become a classic. And very auspicious that I get to start with a book full of retro recipes.

I was even more excited that there were a whole heap of artichoke recipes because the local continental deli had been having a sale and I bought about a ton of artichokes because they were something insane like 50 cents a can.

Then I read Jane’s advice on

How to choose canned artichokes.

“Don’t”

Huh….Jane apparently doesn’t mince words. I like her already. But anyway I hightailed it out of artichokes and landed at the very other end of the book at watercress and found this lovely recipe for a very fancy grilled cheese called Locket’s Savoury.

I did have a little giggle when I read the name of this dish. Back in the day, we used to have a footballer by the name of Lockett nicknamed Plugger because….I have no idea why and have sufficient lack of interest in football to be arsed to Google it. Anyway, some time before the Grand Final one year (the equiv of the Super Bowl or the FA Cup Final), Plugger hurt his groin. And I swear for an inordinately long amount of time, it seemed like if you picked up a newspaper, turned on the radio or the tv, all you heard about, all people seemed to care about was Plugger’s Groin. Strangers would approach you on the street and say “So, do you think it will be good for the Granny?”

“What?”

“Plugger’s groin.”

Not since David Beckham made those underwear ads has an entire nation been so obsessed by the state of a football player’s nether regions. And yes, by the way…we do nickname our Super Bowl/FA Cup etc The Granny. As in a little old lady. That’s Australia for you.

So, all that was Lockett’s Unsavoury, let’s turn to the matter at hand – Locket’s Savoury

So simple. So delicious, and just 4 ingredients.

Bread

The original recipe called for white bread. I used this beautiful seeded ciabatta. Jane’s recipe called for the crusts to be cut off. I left mine on because I love the taste of the toasted seeds!

Watercress

One of my favourite greens. I love the peppery taste of it!

Pears

Are probably my least favourite fruit. Will this recipe redeem them in my mind?

Locket's Savoury - Pear — Locket’s Savoury – Pear

Stilton.

Mmmmmm…blue cheese. Happy days….

Stilton is apparently the king of cheeses. Who knew cheese had a royalty. Who’s the queen? And more importantly who is the red headed reprobate prince flashing it’s arse and donning a swastika for high jinks?

I’m betting it’s goats cheese.

This was awesome. It actually made me like pears. And that’s saying something!
There’s a few more totally awesome watercress recipes in this same book and I have a ton of it left so you may get a few more o’ these before the month is through. There is definitely one more I have to do.

Here is Jane Grigson’s recipe:

This was really good. Super tasty, super easy and I wouldn’t change a thing in Jane’s recipe.

Or would I?

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed very unfair that my gluten-free friends missed out on this delight.

So without further ado, meet the pimped up, gluten-free Locket’s Savoury

Basically, scrap the bread, use a slice of pear as the base. Add your watercress and Stilton. Throw in some chopped walnuts. Once done, sprinkle with some chives.

In some ways this was almost better. Those pears got all caramelised and…dare I say it, delicious!!!

I’m so looking forward to doing the Cookbook Guru Cook-a-longs. And you know what would be even better? If you all did it too…

If you did want to, you already know the book for the rest of Feb. March and April is The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert. My local library has a copy of this. Yours probably does too. I also got the Jane Grigson book from the library.

But PS..The Locket’s Savoury is the gift that keeps on giving. Those little bits of blue cheese that slide off as you grill the cheese and go kind of crunchy. So good to eat later!!!

Have a fabulous week!

And I would love to know your royal family of cheese!!!

[yumprint-recipe id=’24’]

Blood oranges with fennel, watercress, olives and burrata recipe
Watercress and a Lady 1/21/15
20 Shades of Green
4 juice recipes for clearer skin

21
Oct
2013

Daring Kitchen Challenge – Indian Dosas

categories: Chickpeas, Daring Kitchen, Gluten Free, India, Vegan

One of the reasons I began this blog was to challenge myself to make new and different things – and so not only improve my skills but also my repertoire of dishes. Whilst this has been somewhat successful, the format I’ve chosen generally allows me to pick items that:

a) I am confident I can cook well,

b) Will look good in photos, and

c) I want to eat (mostly…I still shudder at the thought of that awful asparagus mousse)

So, what happens if you want to challenge yourself but take these safety nets away? Well, in my instance, you join the Daring Kitchen. Generally, each month members of this website are challenged to cook and blog about a recipe chosen by one of the members.

The only thing in my first month, which was October, in a “celebration” of past Daring Cooks and Daring Bakers challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we’d like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

And it was a real dilemma. For most people the choice may have been Cooks or Bakers, sweet or savoury. Not me, I’m way too shallow for that. My big quandary was:

Do I cook something I’m pretty sure I can pull off? Something that will look good in the pictures, and by default make me look awesome?

Or, do I stick to the spirit of the challenge and choose something that is going to test my skills and maybe fall flat on my face but learn something in the process?

The choice was therefore narrowed down to Gyozas or Croissants. I’ve made dumplings before, home much harder can gyoza be right? Croissants? Une toute autre histoire!!!

I was heading right down Gyzoa alley (shallow remember?) when I mentioned the challenge to a friend at work and we started looking through the past challenges. She chose the recipe for the Indian Dosas from September 2009. These are both gluten-free and vegan which is great because honestly, my range in both of those areas is limited. So, thanks Nadya, good choice!

First step was to make the pancakes:

These were not the super thin crispy dosas I have eaten in restaurants, mine turned out more the texture of crepes but they were still pretty tasty. And the difference in texture was probably more me that an inherent flaw in the recipe!

Then the chickpea filling…look at the amazing colours of the ingredients.. they are like a little rainbow of health and deliciousness!!!

This was also really tasty! So, so good…

Finally, there was a coconut curry sauce and some condiments to go with it.

Dosas with Coconut Sauce and Condiments 2 — Dosas with Coconut Sauce and Condiments

This was a great first challenge for me as this was probably something I would never had made otherwise. If you want the recipe…and you know you do….click below:

Daring Kitchen Indian Dosas (2023 update – link no longer works. Here is another recipe for Dosa)

I really liked the filling, and if I was too lazy to make the actual dosas or the sauce again (which I probably am), the filling would be super in some warm pita bread with some of the condiments and some yoghurt dip over the top. Hmm..that probably ruins both the vegan and gluten-free aspect of the dish but hey, I’m neither a vegan or a coeliac. It would stay vegetarian..and pretty damn delicious!

OMG, now I want that so much…I have some of the leftover mixture in my freezer…shame I’m already in my pyjamas, or I would be down at the supermarket right now snapping up flatbread and tzatziki like a mad woman…

I ‘m really looking forward to the next month’s challenge which is…it’s a secret…you’ll have to wait about a month to find out!

In the meantime, enjoy this great vintage Indian print…which I think has the Goddess of Food and the Kitchen, Annapurna,in the background…

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Category: Gluten Free

The Menu – June 2003

Grapefruit Bianco

Grapefruit Bianco Recipé:

Sugar Cane Prawns

Sugar Cane Prawns Recipe

Pad Thai

Pad Thai Recipé:

Grown Up Spider

Grown-Up Spider Recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Crispy Skin Chicken

The Crown Princess Victoria’s Birthday Cake

Ingredients

For The Biscuit Layers

For The Meringue Layer

To Decorate

Instructions

For the Bicuit Layers

For The Meringue

To Decorate

How to choose canned artichokes.

Bread

Watercress

Pears

Stilton.

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