Tag Archives: recipe
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Heatwave Remedy?

zoku with choc topping (1 of 1)

It’s official, we are having a heat wave, 6 days and counting – with temperatures over 38′C (over 100′ F), there is good reason to have air conditioning or to find a hobbit hole and dwell!

My recent kitchen gadget purchase, a Zoku - ice cream maker, has come in handy and I love the way that it takes around 8 minutes to create an ice treat (once you have prepared your mix).

I am also enamoured with new-found ability to create a hard-core chocolate shell for the paddle pop – so now my dairy allergic son gets to enjoy the experience of having a chocolate coated ice cream – he is very happy with that!

I turned to the fabulous Vegan Ice Cream Paradise blog for her chocolate ice cream recipe – it is a winner!  I used my much-loved Valhrona Cocoa – just remember to reduce the amount as it is stronger in taste and complexity.  And I omitted the raspberries, but please feel free to add them back in!  Another tip, with all ice cream making, make sure you place your ice cream maker into the freezer 24-36 hours before you plan to use it, and always make sure your ingredients are chilled before placing into any type of ice cream machine.

You will see in the recipe that it calls for soy creamer, I can’t find this in the store so it is pretty easy to make my own, just check my strawberry ice cream recipe on how to do it.

For the hard chocolate shell, I just use a double boiler and melt some dairy free chocolate with a teaspoon or so of coconut oil – let it cool and then using the Zoku chocolate station, place the frozen paddle pop in, and ta da, chocolate coated ice cream.  It sets instantly so you could eat or place it in the Zoku storage station for eating, later.

And just in case you think I am in love with the Zoku range, well yes I am and I am not even paid to say that!

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January 10, 2013 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , Ice Cream, Recipes

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A special Trifle

trifle complete 2 (1 of 1)

trifle complete (1 of 1)

I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in my small part of the planet Trifle is a dessert that is synonymous with Christmas.  My Mother in Law makes a killer trifle.  If you don’t know what’s in a trifle, please let me enlighten you on our version; in a large glass bowl you place a base of sherry soaked jelly roll (sponge cake rolled upon itself with a jam interior), a layer of jelly (jello) with seasonal fruit,  a layer of custard and to top it off,  a fluffy light blanket of cream.  So with every scoop, you need to excavate vertically, carefully, so you obtain a little bit of all of the layers, and it looks like a riot of colour on your plate, very Christmas!

After a large Christmas Eve dinner, I crave trifle, not the plum pudding and brandy butter – although that is also very good.  But as you can imagine here in Western Australia, Christmas Eve temperature is forecasted to be 35′C or 95F - so I crave cold comfort food to cool me down.

Now my little 5 1/2 year old is allergic to almost everything in a trifle except for the jam, jelly and fruit.  Loving a cooking challenge, I set my self the task of creating an allergy free version of my much-loved trifle, safe for him to eat.  I have to thank many a blogger for helping me to accomplish this, so with each step I have acknowledged gratefully these wonderful cooks and chefs for giving me the inspiration and the recipes to make something special for our little guy.

Bobby’s Trifle – Dairy and Egg Free

Jelly Roll

This sponge cake is based on a Fluffy White Cupcake recipe from Shmooed Food; I have used this recipe many a time and it is a wonderful base for birthday cakes and is delicious and moist.  I made this cake in a flat baking tray, I was careful to only half fill it.  When the cake was cooked I used the baking paper to gently roll it – alas it did crack and didn’t do a smooth roll, I quickly wrapped it in cling film in its rolled position and put in the fridge.  For the trifle I just cut a slice and placed it in the bottom of the glass and placed a teaspoon or two of orange juice (to replace the sherry).

sponge cake (1 of 1)

sponge cake with jam (1 of 1)

sponge cake rolled (1 of 1)

Chocolate Custard

The traditional trifle has a vanilla custard, last time I made this it was not such a big hit with my son, who prefers all things chocolate.  So to guarantee a winning combination I made a chocolate custard.  I found a great recipe here by Veggieful.  After making the custard and before putting it in the fridge my boy had a taste, and of course he wanted to eat the rest of the bowl!

Jelly (jello)

jelly and cake (1 of 1)

The easiest part of the dish besides the fresh fruit, I used Aeroplane Jelly -  Raspberry flavour.

Fruit

fruit (1 of 1)fruit in glass (1 of 1)

I used strawberries, blueberries and seedless grapes.

Topping

Typically trifle is gently entombed with fresh cream.  I was contemplating using a whipped coconut cream but thought about the heaviness of this for a little 51/2 year old stomach, so elected to do a shaved white chocolate – thank you Sweet William for making dairy free chocolate!

My son has witnessed the assembly of his trifle and now there is a countdown to eating this dessert as well as Santa’s delivery - “how many more minutes Mum”?!

A special thank you to all the people who inspire me – my son, my husband and my family, bloggers, readers, commentators, likers, face book friends, blog readers, thank you!  I hope you and your family have a safe and happy festive season, Charmaine x

And for my allergy friends – here’s to dreaming and wishing for an allergy free Xmas…..one day soon xxx

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December 24, 2012 3 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , Recipes, Xmas Treats

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Cheesy Bread Rolls ~ Vegan Style

 

I couldn’t  help but think of PSY when I wrote this title, my son does a lively rendition of ‘Gangnam Style’; he was shown the moves in his Cultural Studies class at School (!).  Watching a 5-year-old ‘bust a move’ is very entertaining!

So back to the bread rolls – Vegan (not Gangnam) Style.  If you have been following my blog you will know that my son is severely allergic to dairy (and quite a few other things) so I need to source new recipes and flavour sensations as a necessity.  Recently he told me he didn’t like the commercial crackers we buy for him – they are by ESKAL and they are called ‘Deli Crackers – Original’, they are safe for him to eat and quite tasty; shame really, as finding something commercially prepared and safe for him to eat is a bonus as my cooking schedule is pretty full!

I did a google search and found this great blog with a recipe for Cheesy Bread Rolls.  The cheese substitution is Savoury/Nutritional Yeast, I have never used this before, so it is a first for me.

Of course I changed the recipe slightly, because it is hard-wired in my DNA (sometimes my changes to recipes work, sometimes they don’t!), happy to tell you that this recipe worked.  The bread was light and tasty, subtle but very moorish (all 8 bread rolls gone!).

Cheesy Bread Rolls – Vegan Style

  • 1 tablespoon instant dry yeast + 1 tablespoon sugar in 1/2 cup warm water
  • 1/2 small white onion, finely diced + 1 tablespoon minced garlic, sautéed in 1 tablespoon of garlic until translucent
  • 1  cup of whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup of besan or chickpea flour
  • 4 tablespoons savoury/nutritional yeast
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the active yeast, sugar and 1/2 cup water until the yeast dissolves and set aside.  Gently saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent and leave to cool.  Mix the dry ingredients together, add the wet ingredients, you can use a fork or your hand, until combined into a dough ball.  Roll sausage shape pieces of dough and place on a well-greased baking tray.  Gently brush the tops of the dough-loaves with olive oil and leave for 30 minutes to prove/rise – place in a warm area covered in cling film.  Bake in a moderately hot oven at about 200′C for 1o minutes.

The bread rolls come out golden, thanks to the chick pea flour and nutritional yeast, and are delicious.  My son didn’t like them at first and later decided he did, unfortunately there was only one left…looks like I will be making them again.

Do you have any vegan cracker recipes? I did set out to make crackers but as you can see I got side-tracked!  Would love to hear from you!

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November 16, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , , , allergies, Recipes, The Vegans

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The Rub

My son was finishing school early and all of his friends (and parents) were descending on a local park with some take away lunch.  Most parents were heading to the local roast chicken take-away, for chicken and chips.  Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of buying take out for my son, it is just too risky, he is severely allergic to dairy and egg.  So to ensure he wasn’t missing out on the fun, I made roast chicken and chips with whole wheat wraps.

Here’s the rub, I thought I’d try an organic chicken for a change, so I went to the butcher and requested one, and he said “that will be $27!”  Yowza!

The high cost of a chemical and hormone free bird!  So I was already committed and purchased the organic bird and took it home.  In the interim I did some grocery shopping and couldn’t help but notice that a free range chicken  (double the size ~ as it is hormone fed) is only $6 on special, ouch.

I decided to do a rub for this special bird and mixed the following marinade:

  • 2 teaspoons of cummin
  • 2 teaspoons of turmeric
  • 2 teaspoons of paprika
  • 3 garlic cloves smashed and chopped finely
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons of salt

After mixing the marinade, wash the chicken and dry off extra moisture with a kitchen paper towel, gently massage the mix into the chicken skin, wrap the chicken with cling film and place in fridge at least 12 hours before roasting.

The next day I took the chicken out of the fridge for at least one hour (to bring it to room temperature) before roasting it.  All that was left to do was to cut a lemon in half and place one half into the cavity and roast in a fan forced oven at 180′, for about 90 minutes, turning over after the first 30 minutes.

The chicken turned out beautifully and was really flavourful, my son loved it!

To get the maximum value out of my precious little bird, I made stock from the carcass (you can see my recipe for chicken stock here).

Would I buy an organic chicken again?  Definitely, but clearly there is a price to pay for eating food, the way it was meant to be.

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July 9, 2012 0 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , Recipes

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Birthday Cake 2

Another dairy and egg free, birthday cake (or muffin recipe) to add to your mix!  I would love to share your recipes so please send them in via the comments section or my email address which is charmaine@intrepidallergymum.com

To ensure success, please test this recipe out prior to the big event.  My recipes are now memorised, so what you see below is a moving feast; I change the recipe from time to time: adding less sugar, using wholemeal flour, replacing banana with apple (cooked and mashed) .  You can substitute the ingredients as you require it is a pretty robust recipe.

One thing I would point out is that you do need the soda bicarbonate and vinegar; they react together and create the lift necessary for the cake.

This cake is very easy to make just add the wet ingredients to the dry, put it in the cake tin and pop into the oven!  Please remember my ‘Tips for Safe Cooking’.

Chocolate Cake/Muffin Recipe

1 3/4 cups of flour (best if this is sifted through – no drama if you don’t have the time)

1/3 cup Valrhona or dutch pressed cocoa powder (this is a very strong cocoa powder which guarantees a very intense chocolate experience)

1 cup of sugar ( tend to reduce this because of the icing but try the full amount for taste and wind it back)

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 mashed banana

1 teaspoon of white vinegar / apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup of soy milk

1/2 cup of warm water

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Combine the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients and and mix through, the mixture should look runny – add more water if you need.    Place in a lined cake tin, if you want to make the cake pictured above, just double your mixture.

Bake for 180′ for around 40 -45 minutes in a fan forced oven.

Once the cake is cooled wrap or place in an air tight container and put in fridge before icing.

Icing

3 tbsp of non dairy butter

1/3 cup of Valrhona or dutch pressed cocoa powder (wind this up or down to suit your taste)

1 cup of sieved icing sugar Icing sugar

2 tbsp of soy

1 tbsp of water (as required)

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January 26, 2012 4 Comments Short URL , , , , , , , , , , Birthday Cake, Recipes

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