Swiss Steak

Winter has settled in here in New Zealand.  This meal is one of my favourites on a cold night.  It is a slow cooker recipe, but there are a few extra steps involved.  It may seem like a bit more of an effort, but it is worth it!  My children aren't usually steak fans, but they really enjoy this meal.  The meat is so tender, it just falls apart.  Another reason I like this meal is because it does not use tomatoes.  My son can't eat nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, capsicum, etc.), so this meal is awesome because we can all eat the same thing!  I can put it on first thing in the morning and all I have to do is cook the vegetables when it is time to eat.  My husband had his gravy over mashed cauliflower, I had mashed potato, and the children had mashed pumpkin.  YUM!!!

The original recipe can be found here.  The recipe below is my adaptation to make it gluten free and diary free.

Slow Cooker Swiss Steak
Ingredients:
Oil for frying
200 grams Mushrooms, sliced thin (use more or less depending on what you have)
Salt and Pepper
500 grams Blade steak (Topside works well, too.  Rump steak gets too dry in my opinion.)
1 onion, chopped
Couple sprigs fresh time (or 1 teaspoon dried herbs)
1 cup stock (chicken or beef work fine)
1/4 cup cold water
2 Tablespoons cornflour
1/2 cup coconut cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
1. Heat some oil in a large frying pan.  Fry mushrooms for about 5 minutes.  Put mushrooms in bottom of slow cooker.
2. Add a bit more oil to pan.  Season each steak with salt and pepper.  Sear steaks for a few minutes on each side.  Just until you get a bit of colour (1-2 minutes).  Place steaks on top of mushrooms in slow cooker.
3.  Add a bit more oil to the frying pan.  Add onion and saute for about 5 minutes.  Add herbs and stock.  Bring stock to the boil.  In a measuring cup, mix the cold water and cornflour.  When the stock has come to the boil, whisk in the water and cornflour mixture.  Stir until thickened.  This should only take about a minute.  Add some salt and pepper to season.  Pour gravy mixture over the top of the steaks in your slow cooker.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-4 hours.
4.  About 20 minutes before you are ready to eat, take the steaks out of the slow cooker.  Cover to keep warm.  Stir the coconut cream into the gravy mixture in the slow cooker.  Turn the slow cooker onto high and leave the lid off.  Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.   

Quiche

Today's recipe is a quick and easy self-crusting quiche.  We enjoy this for lunch on its own.  You could add a salad and serve it for your evening tea or steam some other vegetables to go along side it.  What I love about this recipe is that it is easy to customize to your families likes.   Today, for instance, I didn't have any broccoli, "No worries," I thought,  "I'll just use frozen peas."  Nope, didn't have any of those either.  I've used chopped spinach in this before and it was quite tasty, too.  If you can tolerate dairy, add a handful of shredded cheese.  If you like mushrooms, add some.  If you prefer bacon to ham, go for it!  If you only want vegetables, feel free.  If you are going to use spinach, don't bother cooking it first.  Just chop it and throw it in raw.  If using frozen peas, I would suggest running them under cold water first to partly thaw them so they don't stick together in a big clump.

The basic recipe is just that, pretty basic.  If you prefer a bit more flavour you could add some chopped herbs.   The possibilities are endless!  Enjoy!

Quiche
Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 cup milk (we use coconut milk)
1/4 cup rice flour (white or brown, it doesn't really matter)
1/4 cup corn flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped ham
1 cup lightly steamed broccoli, chopped

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Whisk eggs and milk together.
3. Add flours, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk until smooth.
4. Stir in ham and broccoli.  Pour into greased pie plate.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes (until golden on top and set in the middle).

Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza?  Before going Gluten Free, we made pizza nearly every Friday night.  Then I became pregnant and couldn't stand the smell of homemade pizza (weird, huh?).  So that tradition stopped for about 9 months.  It wasn't long before we started it up again.  When my daughter had to stop eating gluten and dairy, we stopped until I found a suitable pizza base recipe.  While it's not like the traditional gluten variety, we have come to enjoy it.  We haven't gone back to our pizza every Friday night tradition, but we do enjoy it on occasion. 

Because of all the food issues around here, I end up making one round pizza and then making another batch of dough and making 4 or 5 smaller bases for the little ones.  Our daughter has all the toppings we have minus the cheese.  Our son can't have nightshades, so we usually just give him one of the small bases to eat and then I set aside some of the cooked sausage for him to eat and cook him some other veges to go along with it.  This works for now as he is only 2, but as he gets older we'll probably have to figure something else out for him.  I'm told hummus is a nice alternative to the tomato based sauce.  Have you ever tried it?

Gluten Free Pizza Base

(*This makes enough dough for 1 round base)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

1 Tablespoon yeast

2/3 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons tapioca starch

2 teaspoons guar gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Method:

1.  Dissolve sugar in water.  Sprinkle yeast over the top of the water and leave to proof for 5 minutes. 

2.  Add remaining ingredients and mix for 3 minutes.  (I use a hand mixer and use the dough attachments for it.  I've found the dough a bit too thick for the regular beaters.)

3.  Using a spatula, scrap dough out onto a pizza pan lined with baking paper (trust me, use the baking paper).  Using your hands and some more tapioca starch pat the crust out onto the pizza pan.

4.  Let rise in a warm place for 20-30 minutes.

5.  Bake for 8 minutes at 210 degrees C.

6.  Top with your favourite sauce and toppings and bake again for 12-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Now, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to pizza sauce.  I don't like most of the store bought varieties that are available here.  My uncle (well, I think my aunt did most of the work) used to make a lot pizza sauce and share it with my family.  He passed on his recipe and I've tweaked it a bit to suit us. 

Pizza Sauce

(*Yields about 2 cups of sauce)

Ingredients:

1 400 gram tin of whole tomatoes in juice

Water

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 + 1/4 teaspoons dried mixed herbs (or Italian herbs)

1 + 1/2 Tablespoons dried oregano

3 Tablespoons oil

Method:

1. Pour tomatoes into blender.  Fill tin with water and pour into blender.  Add the remaining ingredients and blend together.

2. Pour into saucepan and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and allow to simmer for up to 2 hours.  Stir occasionally to make sure it's not burning on the bottom.  It will reduce down quite a lot.

Now comes the really yummy part, putting your toppings on.  For this pizza I used pork sausage, mushrooms, capsicums, and a mix of mild cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.  I like to saute the capsicums and mushrooms for just a few minutes before adding them to the pizza base.

Several years ago I was given this recipe for sausage seasoning from another family that was here in New Zealand.  It is our go-to for American-style sausage.

Sausage Seasoning

Ingredients:

3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I only use about 1/3 teaspoon for a more mild version)

3 Tablespoons salt

1/2 Tablespoon ground black pepper

1/2 Tablespoon dried sage

Method:

Mix all together and store in an air tight container.  Shake well before each use.  Use 1 Tablespoon of spice mix per kilogram of minced pork.

Satay Chicken

I had never had this dish before moving to New Zealand.  When we moved here I was introduced to Thai food.  I'm not sure if this is authentic, but we have a Thai restaurant that we love and satay chicken is one of our favourite dishes from there.  This is not exactly like they serve at the restaurant, but we really enjoy it.  My daughter calls it "Peanut Butter Chicken."  My husband, who doesn't even like peanut butter, is a huge fan of this dish.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

I had planned on taking pictures of this dish when I made it this week, but we had company over for tea that night and I ran out of time to take pictures before it all got eaten.  One batch of this is enough for our family of 2 adults and 2 children, plus leftovers for lunch the next day.

Satay Chicken (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Chicken)
400 grams (or about that amount) boneless/skinless chicken breast cut into bite-sized pieces
1 Tablespoon oil
500 grams frozen stir-fry veges* (See note below)
1 batch satay sauce (recipe below)

Heat oil in wok (a frying pan works too) over medium-high heat.  Stir-fry chicken in oil.  Add frozen vegetables and stir-fry for 7 minutes.  Pour over satay sauce and bring to the boil.  Stir often.  Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thickened-about 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally to keep it from scorching on the bottom.  Also, keep an eye on it because it can get thick really quick.  Serve over rice of choice.  We really like short grain rice, but jasmine rice is nice too.

Satay Sauce
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground corriander
3 Tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
1 - 2 Tablespoons coconut sugar (you can use brown sugar)
1 - 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 - 2 Tablespoons soy sauce 
1/8 teaspoon ground chili powder** (if you like it spicy, feel free to add more)
1 to 1 1/2 cups coconut cream

Mix all together in blender.  Start with the smallest amount of each ingredient and add more to get a balance of sweet, sour, and salty.

*You can just use fresh veges, but if you are using broccoli and/or cauliflower I would steam them for a short time first unless you like them quite crunchy.  If using carrots, make sure to cut them into thin strips or steam them a bit first.

**Chili powder here is incredibly spicier than the kind you buy in the States.  I found this out the hard way.  :)

Schnitzel von Crumb

Tonight's tea was crumbed schnitzel with mashed potatoes, roast carrots, and roast broccoli.  My 5 year old daughter came in and asked what was for tea.  After I told her, she replied, "Yum! Schnitzel von Crumb!"  A few minutes later my husband asked the same question, I gave him the same answer, and he replied just like my daughter did!  So, Schnitzel von Crumb it is!

Schnitzel is a very thin cut of beef.  This is a really simple dish that tastes delicious!

To start with you need breadcrumbs.  I simply toasted some of my homemade bread . . .

Broke the bread into small pieces and put it in the blender . . . 

Then blended until I had fine crumbs.

I then mixed in some dried mixed herbs and salt.

Next, break an egg into a bowl and whisk with a little milk (I used coconut cream)

You are going to dip the meat into the egg mixture and then into the breadcrumbs.

It should look like this when you're finished dipping all the pieces.

To cook, heat the oven to 230 degrees C.  Put some coconut oil (or butter) into a glass baking dish and put in the oven to melt.  Once the coconut oil is melted place your crumbed meat in the dish and put in the preheated oven. Bake for 5 minutes.  Flip the meat over and bake for 4 minutes more.  Because the meat is so thin it cooks very quickly.  You don't want it to turn to leather!  Serve with your favourite vegetables.  To make dairy free mashed potatoes I use coconut oil instead of butter and coconut cream instead of milk.  Because we weren't having gravy, I seasoned the potatoes with dried mixed herbs, garlic powder, and salt.  Even my daughter who doesn't like mashed potatoes will eat them like this.  Enjoy!