Festive Preparations

I've never made any pretenses about my organisational skills. In fact I quite regularly go on about my extreme lack of them. So, I had a little heart attack when my co-contributors to "At the Failsafe Table" decided to have a Christmas edition this week. It's a truly great idea and I'm sure you would all like to be a bit prepared and maybe even have a trial run of what you would like to make. For me this week is last minute birthday party preparation for my daughter's 4th birthday - Christmas is not even on my radar until next week.

I have managed to fit something in this week though, so this year you get a Christmas recipe from me before Christmas instead of in March.

While I was deciding what to make I was thinking about all the different yummy foods that are usually eaten over the holidays and one of the things that came into my mind was those rolled pieces of pork that are stuffed with fruit and nuts and are sweet and moist with that naughty bit of crackling on the top. I have done a failsafe version of that. "How is that even possible?" you say. "Massive substitutions" I say; that and a bit of imagination.

Christmas Chicken Roll
Ingredients

• 2 large Chicken breast doubles
• failsafe oil

Stuffing

• 3 Tbsp ground raw cashews
• 1 pear, peeled, cored and diced smallish
• 2 shallots, finely sliced
• 1 Tbsp maple syrup
• 1/4 cup crumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• few sprigs parsley

Glaze

• 1 Tbsp Maple syrup
• 1 tsp whiskey (optional)
• 1 tsp failsafe oil
• 1/4 tsp salt

All tied up

Don't worry about being neat, just make sure it is tight.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and lightly oil a roasting tray.
2. Leave the cartilage that joins the breasts intact, but trim any other sinew or excess fat from the chicken.
3. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together in a bowl.
4. Lay out the breasts rough side up and spread one half of the first one with about a third of the stuffing. Lay the second piece so half of it covers the stuffing of the first. It's best if you do it with the thicker part covering the thinner of the first ("top and tailed") so it is not really thick at one end once it is rolled.
5. Spread all of the second breast double with the remaining stuffing and then roll carefully so the cross section is like two interlocking "C's". 
6. Tie it tightly with kitchen string and place into roasting dish.
7. Push any bits of stuffing that have fallen out back into the end of it.
8. Mix the glaze ingredients together and brush some over the chicken.
9. Bake for one and a half hours (or until cooked through - depends on the chicken size). Take it out at intervals and brush with more glaze.
10. When ready remove from oven and rest for 10 minutes, then remove string and slice.

Ready to be sliced

Variations

• Nut free - No problem, just leave them out and add a little more crumbs or substitute for chicknuts as they could add another bit of flavour.
• Salicylates - Apples would be nice instead of pears as would some herbs like sage or thyme.

Served with crispy herbed baked potatoes and steamed beans and cabbage  tossed with nuttelex, salt and sprinkled with crispy fried deli chicken.

We all enjoyed this, it really did remind me of the pork ones. Hubby said he would like to have more stuffing. It would be nice, but it would also make it trickier to roll.

The Spice of Life

Sometimes I just want to cook meals that I used to cook. Although there is nothing to stop me from cooking things just for the adults or getting a take away (and at times we do do either) I like to try to make things a bit different for the kids. My re-imaginings of some of these dishes are probably a mere shadow of their original form, but they add a bit of variety and variety is the spice of life and since we can't have real spice we may as well have a bit of variety.

I was looking at the bean shoots at the grocers the other day. These instantly bring two meals to mind - phô and pad thai. I've had a few attempts at the phô and haven't quite got it good enough to publish, but the pad thai I made the other night did the job for me.

Pad Thai
Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp failsafe oil
• 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 chicken breast fillets, cut into small cubes
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp Gin
• 2 Tbsp Golden syrup
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 Tbsp pear Ketchup
• 2 lightly beaten eggs
• 200g wide rice noodles, prepared to packet instructions
• 3 cups (about) Mung bean sprouts
• 2 shallots, finely sliced (include some of the green too)
• 2 Tbsp raw cashews, roughly chopped (you could lightly toast them if you tolerate it)
• Citric 'lemon' juice to taste 

Method

1. Heat oil in a large wok and fry the garlic until golden
2. Add the chicken and stir fry until partially cooked.
3. Combine the sugar, syrup, gin, ketchup and salt and add to wok.
4. Add the beaten eggs, let them set slightly, then stir to scramble.
5. Add the noodles and toss and stir them for about 2 mins.
6. Reserve about 1 cup of the sprouts and add the rest to the wok. Stir until the sprouts are barely cooked.
7. Serve into bowls and garnish with the remaining sprouts, shallots and cashews. Lightly sprinkle with the citric lemon to taste.

Variations-
Salicylates - Also garnish with chopped coriander and dried chilli.
Soy - Use cubed firm tofu instead of chicken.

The boy declared this dinner "Awesome!"

Not Quite Curry

So my son had a friend over today who is Indian. He was telling me about the food he normally eats and it got me craving curry. Hubby and I had real curry about a month ago when we went out for our anniversary, we go out so rarely that something so incredibly un-failsafe is a fitting choice. But I wanted curry tonight so I experimented with what I can use here and the results were surprisingly good. Actually, it was seriously delicious.

Clayton's Chicken Curry
Ingredients

• 1 large leek, split lengthways and sliced finely
• 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 2 Tbsp failsafe oil (or ghee if you can tolerate it)
• 600g chicken breast, diced
• 2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup rice milk
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• 1/4 cup gin (optional, you can just add more rice milk)
• 2 Tbsp ground raw cashews

Method

1. Heat rice milk and add saffron and let soak. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook leeks and garlic until soft and pale gold.
3. Add chicken and seal on all sides. Stir in salt
4. Add gin and rice milk with saffron, cover and gently simmer for about 20 mins or until chicken is cooked and tender.
5. Add ground cashew and cook for another few minutes.
6. Serve with steamed rice and flat bread.

Variations - Dairy - use cream instead of rice milk.
                    Salicylates - add a tsp of garam masala with the salt and a Tbsp of fresh coriander to garnish


This was so easy to make and everyone liked it, so I think this will be a regular feature at dinner time.

Bringing the Tagine Back

Once upon a time I had favourite types of food that I just loved to cook and that the whole family loved to eat. Just before we started the elimination diet, my absolute favourite was Moroccan. The rich sauces, fragrant spices, the sweet and savoury combinations did it for me. It was fun to make, there were so many things that I could do with it. I had, up until now, been far too apprehensive to try a failsafe equivalent, there was no way it could possibly measure up to the past efforts. Tonight I gave it a go and while it was nothing like the dishes that I used to make it was still good in its own way. It was flavoursome, it has the sweetness and the meatiness and it was rich and filling. Plus it gave me the opportunity to use my tagine which has mostly been gathering dust the last few years.
For those who are unfamiliar with it, the tagine is a Moroccan earthenware cooking vessel. It has a shallow dish for the food to sit in and a conical lid. These are traditionally cooked over hot coals, but can be used over a gas flame too. If you don't have one, never fear! A large frying pan with a lid or a lidded saucepan or a flameproof casserole dish would do the job quite well.

Chicken and Pear Tagine with Quinoa
Ingredients

• 700g (approx) Chicken breast fillets cut into large cubes.
• 1 medium leek, halved lengthways and sliced thinly.
• 5 cloves of garlic, crushed.
• Large pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1 Tbsp oil or ghee**
• 1/2 swede, grated
• 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
•  1-2 tsp salt
• 3 pears, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
• 2 tsp nuttelex
• 2 Tbsp rice malt syrup

• 1 cup quinoa, well rinsed (I used a mixture of white, red and black for colour)
• 2 cups water

Method

1. Heat oil or ghee in tagine base over medium to high heat. Cook leeks and garlic until soft.
2. Add chicken and seal all over.
3. Stir through the swede and mix in the saffron and water.
4. Turn heat down to very low, cover and simmer for 20 mins
5. While this is cooking bring water for quinoa to boil in a medium saucepan, add quinoa, cover and turn down to a bare simmer. It will take about 20mins to cook
6. Heat nuttelex in a frying pan and add pears. Stir and turn often so they don't burn. Cook for about 10mins then drizzle the rice malt syrup over them and cook for another few mins.
7. While the pears are cooking add the chickpeas to the tagine and add the salt to taste, cook for another 10mins.
8. Serve up, placing the pears and syrup over the chicken and the quinoa on the side.

My son mumbled "This is really good" through his first mouthful. So I'm taking it to mean this is a winning dinner here.

Variations- Gluten - Serve with couscous instead of quinoa
                    Salicylates- Add ras el hanout just before you add the chicken and sprinkle with chopped coriander for serving. You could also use honey instead of the rice malt.
                   ** The ghee - There has been a bit of talk amongst some failsafe groups lately as to whether ghee is ok for those who can't eat dairy as the lactose and proteins should no longer be in it. Some people say they tolerate it, some don't. Use your own judgement or treat it as a challenge, or if you are unsure just don't use it.

This tagine is not for cooking in, just for serving and display. The cooking ones are far less ornamental. So don't buy one like this if you want to cook in it.

Creamy Chicken Pasta

This is one of my easy meals. It's even easier if the chicken is already cut up in the freezer. It is very tasty and, even though the title suggests otherwise, contains no dairy. It did take me a little while to get this right as rice milk can make things sweet and no amount of salt seems to right that. The key ingredient in this dish is the whiskey. For quite a while I forgot about the failsafe alcohol and if I had no stock then food got even more bland. Failsafe mums will also like the little bit of hidden veg. It is hard to get enough vegetables into our kids and a meal like this is usually another meal devoid of a lot of nutrition. It's not a great deal of veg, but you still want it to taste like a creamy pasta sauce and not a stew.

Chicken Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

•  1 Tbsp failsafe oil
• 1 small leek diced finely (or left larger if you like it like that)
•  3 cloves garlic (crushed, diced or sliced)
• small piece of celery finely diced
• 500g chicken breast cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup of whiskey
• 3 Tbsp veg puree*
• 1 cup of rice milk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp cornflour (or other GF flour)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (optional)
• 1 Tbsp chopped parsley

Method

1.  Place a large frying pan over a medium heat and heat oil
2. Saute leeks, garlic and celery until translucent
3. Add chicken and brown all over
4. Add whiskey and bring to boil 
5. Add veg puree and rice milk. Simmer for about 10 mins or until chicken is cooked through.
6. Thicken sauce with flour, add salt and simmer for a couple of minutes.
7. Stir egg through sauce and immediately turn off heat. (The heat in the sauce will cook the egg without it turning into scrambled eggs) 
8. Stir through chopped parsley and serve over pasta.

* For veg puree, chop allowed veg and steam in microwave. Puree when cool and freeze in small containers or ice cube trays ready to be added to anything you can get away with. My puree contained 1 swede, 1 cup cabbage, 1 stick celery and half a choko. Pretty much just the veg that I had on hand.

Variations - Dairy -  Use a combination of milk and cream and add a nice big dollop of ricotta.
                 - Gluten - Use normal pasta.
                 - Eggs -  This is totally optional. It does add an extra bit of thickness and richness, but this dish is perfectly good without it.


If you have any leftovers, pop them into the freezer and they make a great pie filling with a bit more pureed veg added.

Ooh la la!

Or in english "I say, that is a lot of garlic!"

This is another french dish which I absolutely love and my son loves it too. There is so much garlic, but after being roasted it is all soft and sweet and just delicious. You can serve it with your favourite bread or with mash and veg to make a big meal out it. My son is currently challenging gluten, so I made an unbelievably good spelt baguette to go with it which I will post soon. It is a really simple meal to make and great for when you are having guests because you can just put it in the oven and not do anything else until it it is done.

Once again this recipe is adapted from a french cook book that I own.

Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

Ingredients

• 1 chicken, skinned, approx 1.6kg (if you want to serve 4 people)
• 2 celery stalks, including leaves
• 40 cloves of garlic, unpeeled (take off the thin papery skins, but leave on the inner thick one)
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 large leek, cut into about 4 chunks
• 1 1/2 cups of home made chicken stock (or water, but if you use water add another chunk of leek and celery)
• 4 springs parsley

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200℃
2. Put a chopped celery stalk, sprig of parsley and 6 garlic cloves into the chicken cavity. Tie the legs together. Brush with oil and season with salt.
3. Put 10 cloves of garlic in the bottom of a casserole dish, along with the rest of the parsley, a chopped celery stick and the leek.
4. Put the chicken in the dish. Add the remaining garlic around the chicken and pour over the stock (or water) and what is left of the oil.
5. Cover and bake for 1hour and 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the juices run clear.
6. Lift out the chicken and strain the liquid into a saucepan. Reserve all the garlic.
7. Boil the liquid for a few minutes to reduce it slightly
8. Cut the chicken into serving portions (good kitchen scissors make this job easy), pour over the juices and scatter with garlic. Serve with bread or veg (the garlic is particularly good spread over bread).

Variations
Amines - leave the skin on the chicken.
Salicylates - Add 4 sprigs of thyme, 2 of rosemary and a roughly chopped carrot to the pot.
You could also use chicken pieces instead of a whole chicken (for example if you only like breast or if you can't be bothered to cut up a whole one). Cooking time will come down to 45mins - 1hour depending on the size of the pieces.

Parlez-vous Français?

Failsafers are masters of adaptation and substitution. Some cuisines are really easy to adapt, some are not. For example, tomato based dishes are impossible and as much as you can add pear and salt and citric acid, as Ms Frillypants once said - A pear is not a tomato. It's just not. But french food is great for it. They do have some traditionally tomato based dishes, but a lot of them are based on stock or wine which is adaptable. I've had some really good successes just doing straight substitution of ingredients in recipes from a French cookbook I bought a few years back.

These are meals that you can serve up to non failsafe guests. No, really. Provincial french food is based on really basic ingredients and it tastes and looks awesome!

My in-laws came for lunch today. My son was going to baseball open day and they came to watch and hang around for the day. Baseball was supposed to finish at 12:30, so I assumed that I still had plenty of time when I went shopping at eleven o'clock. Baseball finished at 11:30 and so everyone was back home before me! My mad organisational skills meant we were in for a late lunch and even later dessert. Chicken crêpes and pear tart were on the belated menu

Basic Crêpe Recipe
250g plain gluten free flour
pinch of salt
1tsp sugar
2 eggs lightly beaten
410ml (1 2/3cup) milk of choice - I used rice milk
125ml (1/2cup) water
1tbsp melted nuttelex
Failsafe oil for frying.


Sift flour, sugar and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Mix the eggs milk and water together and pour slowly into the well.
Whisk until everything is incorporated and you have a reasonably smooth batter.
Stir in melted nuttelex.
Cover and stand for 20mins.

Heat a crêpe pan or medium sized non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Wipe or spray with a little oil.
Pour in enough batter to thinly coat the base of the pan (a soup ladle was pretty spot on for my pan). tipping it around to get it to the edges.
When the crêpe starts to lift away at the edges give it a gentle shake so it comes loose and turn and cook on the other side for a minute of two. They should be slightly golden.
Stack on a plate (you could put baking paper between them to make sure they don't stick - mine didn't stick together though) and cover with foil until they are all done.
They can be frozen with paper between them.

Crêpe Filling
failsafe oil or nuttelex
1 large leek - quartered and sliced
1/2 stick of celery finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
3 chicken breast fillets cut into smallish pieces
rice milk
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1tbsp chopped parsley
1tbsp chopped chives

Heat oil and sauté leeks, garlic and celery.
When soft, add chicken and stir until mostly cooked.
Add enough rice milk to just cover chicken mix and bring to the boil.
Simmer until the chicken is cooked through.
Mix cornflour with some cold water, add some of the hot sauce from the pan, then stir into chicken mixture.
Bring to the back to the boil and simmer for another couple of minutes until thickened.
Add salt and herbs.
Spoon down the centre of each crêpe and fold the sides over the mix.

This is enough to make and fill about 8 medium sized crêpes. You could serve them with a salad, I didn't have time and who ever eats the side salad on a crêpe?

Et voilà!

Some variations
Dairy - use normal milk and butter and add ricotta to the chicken sauce.
Amines - add some grated cheese inside and on top of the crêpe and serve with a generous dollop of sour cream (you may choose to do this for guests as it is done after cooking and can be done selectively).
Veg - most vegetables can be hidden in a white sauce as long as you don't go overboard.

We sat down to lunch at two o'clock and then I had to (wanted to) make this dessert, which was eaten at 4:30. It should have been later, but I couldn't wait to let the tart cool.

Pear Tart
Sweet pastry
340g gluten free plain flour
a small pinch of salt
150g nuttelex
90g icing sugar
2 eggs beaten

Preheat oven to 180℃
The easiest way to make pastry is in a food processor (otherwise there is rubbing and pecking and, if you're like me, flour everywhere).
Sift flour, salt and sugar into the bowl of a food processor add the nuttelex and pulse until the nuttelex is incorporated and you have something resembling bread crumbs.
Add the eggs with the motor running and process until a dough starts to form.
Tip out onto some cling wrap, knead into a ball, wrap and put in the fridge for about an hour.

Roll the pastry between sheets of baking paper and line a 23cm loose based tart tin, trimming the edges.
Line with baking paper and fill with baking weights or dried beans or rice.
Bake for 10 minutes, then remove beads and paper and bake for a further 4 minutes or until the pastry is just cooked, but still pale.

Crème Pâtissière
6 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
40g cornstarch
560ml (2 1/4 cups) milk of choice (I used rice milk)
1/2 vanilla pod (or vanilla essence)
15g nuttelex

Whisk together egg yolks and half of sugar until pale and creamy.
Sift in the cornflour and mix well.
Heat milk, remaining sugar and vanilla pod, bringing just to the boil. (If using vanilla essence, add at end of cooking.)
Strain hot milk over egg mixture, stirring continuously.
Pour back into clean saucepan and bring to boil while constantly stirring. Boil for two minutes (add essence now).
Stir in nuttelex and leave to cool.

Spoon crème pâtissière into pastry shell and top with 2 - 3 peeled and sliced pears.
Bake for 25 - 30mins or until pears are golden
Leave to cool completely (If you don't, the filling will be hot and sloppy and will ooze out everywhere)
Melt a few tablespoons of pear jam with a tablespoon of water, sieve out any lumps and brush over pears to make them glossy.

Fresh out of the oven and coated in jam

If I'd have waited another hour to cut it, it would have looked like this.

Variations
Dairy - use butter and milk
Salicylates - use sweet apples.

Bon apetit et au revoir!

The Main Meal and Cake

So there was some food that got devoured at the party and some that did not. The only thing that didn't really get eaten by the kids was dinner. Not because it wasn't good, but because they were having too much fun to sit down. No matter how appealing the red clothed tables were and the little boxes of food, there were games to be played and anything that couldn't be eaten while playing didn't get eaten.

The main meal was chicken nuggets and chips. The nuggets can be made in advance and kept in the freezer until you need them. I made a lot as I made sure that there was food for the grown ups to eat too. So I didn't spend a day crumbing chicken, a couple of times over the two weeks leading up to the party, I bought some chicken then cut, crumbed and froze it. Put it in an air tight container with baking paper in between layers so they are easy to separate.

Chicken Nuggets
Cut enough chicken in to strips or chunks
Toss in corn starch
Dip in egg lightly beaten with a few teaspoons of water (If you don't want to use egg, blend the cornflour with water and dip the chicken into that then the crumbs)
Coat in rice crumbs (I like Casalare white rice crumbs)
Freeze until needed.
Then bake at 180℃ for approx 20 mins or panfry on medium heat until golden and cooked through or deep fry at 180℃ for approx 5 mins (depending on thickness).
The frying methods make it nice and golden, the oven does not. It depends on how much you are trying to cook which method you can use.

If you can't find those crumbs use your usual ones, or if you like get some gluten free puffed rice and blitz it in a food processor or put it in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin. 

Chips
If you like you can chop up potatoes, stop them going black and then double fry them to yummy crispness... Or you can be like me and take the easy route with something and buy frozen ones. I used homebrand (Woolworths) crinkle cut chips. They are pretty good for a frozen chip and they are failsafe. The adults marveled over the crinkle cut which they had forgotten existed, it was like a flashback.
They can be cooked in the oven or a deep fryer.

Doesn't everyone deep fry in a tutu?

I did the nuggets in the oven and the chips in the deep fryer. I borrowed another fryer so that I could cook more at the one time. I had bought little cardboard take away boxes to put it in. I had grander plans of red and white striped hot dog trays, but I couldn't quite justify the expense on top of everything else.



The cake was devoured. Completely. Four dozen patty cakes, gone. Not bad for a gluten free, dairy free cake. The recipe is brilliant, I've since made it egg and soy free too and a friend used the recipe with normal flour and milk and still had great results. It's so very versatile and I found it on a great little blog.

This is my adaptation of it


Ingredients:

• 200g nuttelex
• 1 1/4 Cups caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 Cup golden syrup (you can make your own syrup, there is a recipe on the above link)
• 2 each eggs, at room temperature (or equivalent egg replacer)
• splash vanilla essence
• 2 Cups all-purpose flour (I used Orgran - it's convenient)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1 cup milk of choice, at room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 160℃ 
2. Place patty papers into tins (it makes approx 4 doz so you may need to do batches)
3. In the bowl of a mixer, cream nuttelex until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
4. Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5. Sift flour and baking powder.
6. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients.
7. Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Fill patties approximately 2/3 full.
8. Bake for about 12 mins or until golden and a skewer test comes up clean.

My frosting varies from the original because I wasn't sure that kids would care for caramelised butter frosting and I wasn't sure nuttelex would caramelise, then there is the cream. So I just made a basic butter cream with golden syrup added.

• 125g nuttelex
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• pinch of salt

1. Beat the nuttelex in a mixer a gradually add sifted icing sugar
2. add other ingredients while beating

It comes down to personal taste how heavy you like your icing or how much you want on your cakes, if you want to spread it or pipe it. I made mine reasonably thick and piped it. If you want it softer add more nuttelex or a dash of milk or water until you get the consistency you want. If you like mountains of it on cakes you might need to make more.

Delicious caramel cup cakes

Once I had the icing on them, I very lightly sprinkled them with natural sprinkles. This is totally optional and not at all necessary. The other thing I put on them, which really seemed to excite the kids, was mini pinwheels bought from the same packaging and party wholesaler that I bought a tonne of other stuff from.





Thus ends the party saga. There are sure to be more party related posts at a later date, but I'm going to try to post about some normal food next.