Cool Auntie Jen's Bread & Butter Pudding

My auntie was determined to give me a dessert that wasn't sorbet or fruit salad so she bravely tried a gluten & dairy free bread & butter pudding even though she doesn't avoid either. A big success and even the 'normals' scoffed it down.


1/2 pint rice milk
Grated rind of half a lemon
2oz caster sugar
3 eggs
6 slices of gluten free bread (genius) buttered with pure spread
2 oz raisins
Grated nutmeg


Preheat the oven to 180c.

• Grease a baking dish then butter the bread and cut it in half diagonally
• Arrange a layer of bread over the base and sprinkle half the raisins over
• Do another layer of bread (corners up for crispy bits) and the rest of the raisins
• Mix together the milk, caster sugar and lemon
• Whisk the eggs and then mix in the milk mixture
• Pour over the bread, squidging down a bit, sprinkle over the nutmeg and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes

My cool Auntie served this with baked plums and custard (made with rice milk).

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Bunny & Beets

A one tray roast which would work just as well with chicken pieces. Serves 4.

500g New Potatoes, cut up if big

250g Beetroot, cut into wedges (this takes the longest time to cook so cut it small!) or use pre cooked ones

250g Chantenay Carrots or Large Carrots cut up

1 onion, rougly sliced

3 cloves of garlic, smashed (you don't need to peel it)

Thyme

Glass of White Wine

Olive Oil

1 Rabbit, sectioned or 4 Chicken Legs

Preheat the oven to 200c

1. In a large roasting tin mix together the vegetables with the olive oil
2. Pour in the wine and season with salt, pepper and the thyme
3. Season the rabbit or chicken and tuck in around the vegetables
4. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 20 minutes
5. Remove the foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes until everything is cooked through

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Violet Velvet Cake

This comes out a brilliant lurid aubergine type colour and will be my halloween cake of choice this year! If you don't tell them most people won't guess the secret ingredient is beetroot! As well as giving it a slightly odd colour it make the cake moist and also gives it added health benefits! Beetroot is a superfood and this is a tasty (and easy) way to add some to your diet!

50g Cocoa Powder

180g Doves Farm Gluten Free Plain Flour

1.5 tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

250g Caster Sugar

300g Cooked Fresh Beetroot (you can do this yourself or M&S handily do a pack this size.

3 Eggs

200ml Corn Oil

1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

Preheat the oven to 180c and 'butter' and flour, use a liner etc a cake tin.

1. Sift & mix together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
2. In a food processor blitz the beetroot until it is a fine puree then add the eggs one at a time, then the corn oil and vanilla, blitzing all the while until well mixed and smooth.
3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the beetroot mixture, folding in from the sides with a rubber spatula.
4. Pour into the cake tin an bake for 40 mins. It won't rise much and will prob crack a bit so dopn't worry! Do the usual skewer test in the middle. Allow to cool in the tim for a bit before putting onto a wire rack.    

REMEMBER - BEETROOT STAINS! KEEP IT AWAY FROM ANYTHING YOU LOVE, DON'T WEAR A WHITE TOP AND DON'T GET BARE FINGER NAILS IN IT (unless you are going for a goth look).

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Shopping: szechuan noodle kit

Sainsburys stock this - along with other retailers I am sure - and it makes a quick and healthy dinner. Included in the pack are ome brown rice noodles and a decent size packet of szechuan sauce, just add veg, chicke, pravns ... whatever takes your fancy! This time I did prawns and a packet of stir fry veg from M&S (I had too hook out the snow peas but there weren't many) and it was quick and tasty. Quite spicy - but I like that!  

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M&S Curry Sauce

I had this yesterday, after getting home from a day on the train. It was easy (the main deciding factor) with a flavoursome but not hot curry vibe. There are more flavours in the range and some of them are BBD compliant. I had chicken but I imagine it would be fab with prawns.

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Whoopie Pies

The recipe for these will follow shortly, but they are going down a storm at work! They are traditionally made with vegetable shortning rather than butter so were dairy free to start with just the gluten side to work on. There are a number of gluten free recipes online but they are too complicated or contain hard to get flours. Just waiting on a delivery of marshmallow fluff (major ingredient of the filling) and another batch should perfect things!

Apparently Amish mums would put these in their kids lunch boxes and the kids would cry 'whoopie' when they found them, hence the name! The use of fluff in the filling (rather than egg whites) makes them New England rather than Amish Whoopie Pies apparently!

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One Pot Rabbit

I killed Thumper! Well bought him and cooked him anyway! Rabbit is a nice alternative to chicken (you can swap them in recipes, so if you can't get rabbit use chicken - but equally try using rabbit in your favourit chicken recipes) it's nice & lean and nice & cheap - I pay £3 ish for a whole one in the market which does 3-4 portions. An easy recipe which is a good summer sunday alternative to a full on roast - the left overs are good too. Serves 3-4.

1 rabbit (or small-medium free range chicken), jointed

1 aubergine, cut into chunks

1 red pepper, cut into chunks

10 small new potatoes

8 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

1 red onion, cut into wedges

1 large courgette, cut into chunks

Good pinch of thyme

1 lemon, cut into 8

100ml dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 200c

1. 
   
   Put the rabbit & vegetables in a roasting dish in a ingle layer.
2. 
   
   Pour over some olive oil and then mix everything with your hands until everything is shiny.
3. 
   
   Sprinkle over the thyme, some salt and pepper and add the lemon wedges before mixing again.
4. 
   
   Sprinkle over 50ml of the wine and roast for 45 minutes , hecking occasionally and adding more wine if it is drying out.
5. 
   
   Serve with a greem salad and some bread to mop up the juices.

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