Stockholm glutenfri

... and I woke up and found myself in gluten-free heaven.

Yesterday I went to McDonalds and bought myself a cheese burger. A gluten-free cheese burger. Actually, it is possible to get a gluten-free bun for ever burger you like. But I went for a cheese burger. I've never thougth that a cheese burger can make me so happy.


I've heard that it is quite easy to get gluten-free food in Sweden. But trust me, you have to experience this yourself. I'm attending a conference in Stockholm this week and gluten-free life has never been easier. During the morning break there are gluten-free rolls waiting for me (the best gluten-free rolls I've ever had), every restaurant at the fair has gluten-free options and in the afternoon there are gluten-free muffins or cinnamon rolls available. Today three different menues were offered for lunch and I could eat ALL of them! They are even gluten-free appetizers available! The best thing though: You don't have to explain. It's always the same answer: Glutenfri? No problem. Just two minutes. I go and get you something.

Breakfast has never been easier. Can you see the bread, the muffin, the cookies and the cinnamon roll in the picture above? All gluten-free. I was actually meant to eat everything this morning (which I almost did because it was so good).

I haven't been to a supermarket yet. But I'm already excited to test all the gluten-free things that are available.

Spring Fever

Spring is finally here. After all these grey cold days we've had a clear blue sky and sunshine almost 7 days in a row. The thermometer even hit the 30 degree mark today. Okay, it was plain sunshine on our balcony but who cares? People have been waiting for this for too long, spending as much time as possible outside.

It's time for a smoothie.

I actually got addicted to smoothies during my time in Australia. It's just perfect on a warm summer's day. And when I close my eyes I can still feel the Australian sun shining on my face.



Blueberry-banana-smoothie

1 cup plain yoghurt (I use low-fat)
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup orange juice (Apple juice works beautifully. I just can't have it any more because of my sorbitol intolerance.)

If you use fresh berries add a couple of ice cubes. Put all ingredients in a blender and pulse for about one minute. Fill into glasses and enjoy immediately! Serves two.

Les Galettes

After reading Pimping My Crêpes from David Lebovitz' blog, I just had to make galettes. I've always been a fan of crêpes, sweet or savory, and learning that traditional galettes are just made out of buckwheat flour and are therefore gluten-free got me really excited!
I must admit though that right after going gluten-free I couldn't stand the taste of buckwheat flour. Fortunately, my taste has changed quite a bit and I've learned to love food that I really disliked before. But that's another story. Nowadays I love the nutty flavour of buckwheat and even my non-gluten-free boyfriend enjoyed these galettes.
You actually don't need a recipe. I prepared the batter according to the instructions the guys at Breizh Cafe gave David Lebovitz which you can read here. All you need is buckwheat flour, salt and water.
For frying heat a bit of olive oil (but not too much - you don't want to deep-fry the galettes) in a special frying pan for crêpe (I'm sure any other frying pan will do as well) and add about one laddle (depending of the size of your pan) of batter. Then smooth the batter with a rake evenly in a circle.


After about one to two minutes flip the galette over to fry the other side. Add now the filling for the galette. You can use about anything you would like to add to your galette. We used some feta, herbs, mozzarella cheese and some ham. Eggs would be great with galette, too.
You can also make a sweet version and use jam or chocolate. We actually saved our last galette for a sweet one with chocolate and it was so delicious!


When it's done flap the edges over to form a square. Eat immediately while preparing the next galette. Repeat until the batter is used up. Serves two. Enjoy!



Sorry for my long absence. I got addicted to this 3000 pieces puzzle and spent every spare minute finishing it...

Raclette

Happy new year everyone! I hope all of you had a nice holiday!

I spent Christmas with my family in my hometown Bielefeld. It was my first gluten-free Christmas and my Mum arranged a great Christmas dinner: Raclette!

Raclette is really perfect for celiacs. Everybody has his or her own pan and most of the ingredients are fresh and raw.

Traditionally, Raclette is a Swiss dish. The Raclette cheese is melted and scraped onto everyone’s plates. With the Raclette grill, you can melt a slice of cheese in your little pan and enjoy it on top of your arranged food.


Well, we do it a bit different though. We heat everything in our little pan with a slice of cheese on top and enjoy it. In addition, our Raclette grill has a hot plate where we fry meat, prawns and bacon.


There really is no limit to the ingredients. You’ll discover quickly what you like. The most important ingredient is however the cheese. If you can’t find Raclette, I’m sure any other meltable cheese will do (I’ve tried it with Gouda before and that worked well).

Some suggestions:

Raclette cheese (500g per 2-3 persons)
beef tenderloin, cut into bite-size pieces
pork tenderloin, cut into bite-size pieces
chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
dried dates wrapped in half a slice of bacon (Altough I can’t have the dried dates because of the high sorbitol content, I still enjoy the bacon.)
prawns
pre-boiled patatoes
capsicum, sliced
corn
mushrooms, sliced

If you like, you can serve some bread with the Raclette. But in my opinion, you really don’t need it! (The little white bowl with bread in the back of the picture is my gf bread).
Some people also have pickles with the Raclette.

In Germany, Raclette is actually pretty famous on New Years Eve. So we enjoyed Raclette again on New Years Eve. And we’ll probably do it a couple of times again this winter!

Raclette is a very social thing. Just get some friends over and get started!

The Lamington

I’ve been wanting to bake Lamingtons for quite some time now. I discovered Lamingtons during my time in Australia and have instantly fallen in love with them. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any Lamingtons anywhere else so far.

Last weekend the time had come. One of my dearest friends was celebrating her birthday and since we met in Australia I was looking for something Australian: The Lamington.

I have to warn you, though. It takes some time to prepare the Lamingtons. And your kitchen will be a mess afterwards. But I promise you it is worth it. You’ll forget everything after the first bite.

Lamingtons


For the batter:
1 cup of rice flour
½ cup of coconut flour
½ cup of tapioca starch
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of margarine
3/4 cup of white sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a 20 cm square baking tray. Mix together the rice flour, coconut flour, tapioca starch, salt and baking powder. In another bowl, beat the shortening until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and vanilla sugar and beat more. Add the eggs one after the other and beat well. While having your mixer on low speed add the flour mixture and milk alternately, in three additions, starting and finishing with the flour. Put the batter on the baking tray and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until a small wooden stick comes out clean when sticked into the centre of the batter. Let it cool for about 5 minutes before inverting the cake on a cooling rack. Once it has cooled cut it into cubes of about 5cm. Let the cubes cool thoroughly for at least 2 hours.

For the icing:
2 cups of icing sugar
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
3 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup of milk
1 cup of shredded coconut

For the icing melt the icing sugar, cocoa powder, shortening and milk in a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Now cover all cubes with the icing and roll them in the coconut right afterwards. I found rolling a cube gently in the cocoa icing and then in the coconut is the easiest way. Let the icing dry thoroughly. Makes about 30 Lamingtons. Enjoy.

Letting go

I’ve been thinking a lot about fruits lately. Especially about apples and apricots. And grapes.

Do you think it is easier to know that you’re doing something for the last time? To be able to experience that moment with all of your senses?
Or do you rather prefer not knowing? Just realising at one point that you won’t do it again.
I really don’t know.

I was not expecting not to be able to eat apples again. Nor apricots. Nor grapes. Well, at least at the moment. After some time I might try to have small amounts of those fruits again. But it is possible that I can’t have them at all.
And I’m wondering what comes next. So I’m enjoying every bite I take. You never know if it’s the last time.


Swede soup

This one is a family recipe. So if you feel lonely, make yourself some swede soup and your loved ones will be right there.

1 swede, peeled and cut into cubes
about the same amount of potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
1 onion, finely chopped
½ cup of bacon, chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2-3 cups of vegetable stock (depending on the size of your swede)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Put the olive oil, onion and bacon into a soup pot. Sauté until translucent. Add the swede and cover with vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and add the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes until you can easily slice through the potato and swede cubes. Mash thoroughly. Top with melted butter before serving. Serves two (depending on the size of your swede). Enjoy.

Spinach-feta-beef-tomato lasagne

Since I went gluten-free I’ve been exploring.

I’ve tasted food I’ve never even heard of before. I’ve been cooking food I’ve never cooked before.

Such as spinach. Of course I’ve eaten spinach before. I’ve even cooked spinach - frozen packaged creamed spinach that is. But I’ve never bought fresh spinach and prepared it.
I think it is totally amazing how spinach collapses when you cook it. And it is so simple to prepare.

Last weekend we had lasagne. We couldn’t decide on the ingredients though. I was in favour of spinach and feta; my boyfriend preferred minced meat and tomato sauce.
So we just combined them. It was delicious.


Spinach-feta-beef-tomato lasagne

For the pasta dough follow GlutenFree Sox Fan's recipe. This time I didn’t substitute any flour (as for the tortellini) and it turned out great!
Either use your pasta machine or just roll the dough really thin and cut it to the size of lasagne sheets.

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup milk
salt, nutmeg to taste

Slowly melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the corn starch and stir well. Add the stock and milk. Stir more. Season with salt and nutmeg. Let the sauce boil once and let it cool down a little.

For the lower layers:
250g minced beef
3 tablespoons tomato puree
salt, pepper to taste
1 teaspoon freshly minced thyme
1 teaspoon freshly minced basil
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the shallot and garlic until translucent. Add the minced meat and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato puree and herbs when the meat is thoroughly fried. Set aside.

For the upper layers:
150g fresh spinach, rinsed and dried
salt and pepper to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
200g feta
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a small pan and sauté onion and garlic until translucent. Add the spinach and let it fall. Stir occasionally. When the spinach has collapsed, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put one or two lasagne sheets in a casserole (depending on the size of your casserole). Add some of the meat-tomato mixture and top it with a bit of the sauce. Place another layer of lasagne sheets on top. Add the rest of the meat-tomato mixture and top it with some more sauce. Put another layer of lasagne sheet(s) on top. Now add a bit of spinach and crumble some feta onto the spinach. Add some more sauce and put another lasagne sheet on top. Thereon put the rest of the spinach, crumble some more feta onto the spinach and add some of the sauce. Put the last layer of lasagne sheet(s) on top. Finish with the rest of the sauce and the rest of the crumbled feta. Add some more shredded cheese if you like. Put the lasagne into the oven and let it bake for 30 minutes. Serves 2. Enjoy.