Gluten Free Cherry Clafoutis - Recipe of the Week

I am still eating my way through my preserved cherries. Two years after a mammoth cherry picking and preserving session I have two litre kilner jars of hand stoned Kentish cherries in syrup and one litre of cherry brandy. So with my super cool pal Sophie and her hubby coming for dinner I decided to make a cherry clafoutis. 


The french batter pudding has been something of a fascination for years, and I assumed that it was a no go gluten free pudding, but I was wrong. I recently came across two recipes for clafoutis that were naturally gluten free and with plump cherries waiting to be used I had the perfect excuse and recipe.


I ended up using a recipe from The Cranks Bible as it was the most straightforward and included a scant 50g of Coeliac friendly potato flour. Make sure you have an oven proof dish big enough for all the liquid (something I failed to do), but thankfully it turned out perfectly, just cooked enough and browned on the surface.


Cherry Clafoutis
Ingredients
A knob of butter to grease the dish
500g stoned cherries (preserved or fresh)
50g potato flour
A pinch of sea salt
60g golden caster sugar
4 organic eggs beaten
300ml whole milk
300ml double cream
2 organic egg yolks 


Method
Preheat the oven to 180degrees
Butter a shallow baking dish, sprinkle with a tablespoon of the sugar and put the cherries in the dish
Make the batter in a large bowl. Sift the flour and mix with the salt, sugar and gradually beat in the whole eggs. Mix in the milk and cream followed by the egg yolks to make a smooth batter the consistency of single cream.
Pour the batter over the cherries and bake for 40minutes until the batter is risen and golden on the surface.
Serve warm.  

Recipe of the week - gluten free florentines

I love Florentines. The simplicity of their fruit and nuttiness with or without a chocolate bottom, but the shop ones are rarely gluten free for the miniscule amount of wheat flour they contain. Their implied simplicity led me to quickly throw a batch together one afternoon in anticipation of a visit from my mother. Impending guests are now used as an excuse to bake otherwise I bake too much and eat too much cake.

On this occasion I had already made a tropical lime, mango, passion fruit and coconut cake making embracing the lack of English fruits and ripe tropical ones (shipped and not air freighted I have you know which I actually find improves their flavour) in my fruit box. A clipped magazine recipe from I don’t know where, the Florentine recipe looked straightforward and allowed me to bake at the same temperature.

A simple recipe of weighing, melting and mixing I saw little room for error, but my gung-ho approach to gluten free cooking soon changed that. Looking back the mistake came at measuring. I try and limit my collection of kitchen paraphernalia but sometimes this hampers my cooking making a de-cluttered kitchen irrelevant. My huge measuring jug being a case in point since 90ml of cream in this recipe represents just a dribble on its base. This in turn created a thinner toffee base and meant that my piles of nuts, fruits and seeds soon resembled a pool of caramelised Florentine tray bake.

Tasty nonetheless, and not one to waste anything, the Florentine tray bake was broken into bite size shards and still accompanied the intended coffees on my mother’s arrival. Just in shards. So this week’s recipe of the week comes with a reminder to measure your ingredients properly, and embrace those cooking mistakes... it’s the only way to learn.

Florentines (makes about 12)

Ingredients

25g butter

90ml cream

60g golden caster sugar

75g flaked almonds

75g crystallised ginger

25g sultanas

5g gluten free flour

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C and line 2 large baking sheets with non stick parchment paper

Heat the butter, cream and sugar in a small saucepan on a low heat and bring to the boil so that the sugar dissolves.

Remove the pan from the heat and mix in the remaining ingredients gently but thoroughly.

Place 12 tablespoons onto the baking sheet spacing them about 3” apart to allow for them spreading

Bake for 8-10mintues or until golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes and slide them onto cooling rack.

Please note - I only wish my florentines looked as good as the ones in the image above... but this pic is courtesy of Fudges Bakery.. but I don't think they are gluten free. Try baking your own!

What to do with random root vegetables and Recipe of the Week

I have subscribed to a veg box scheme since moving to London nearly eight years ago. I studied the organic movement at university, so supporting local and regional growers and producers who farm without the use of pesticides and in line with the natural world makes complete sense to me. However my motivation to joining Riverford’s Organic Box Scheme we not completely rooted in organic agriculture.

As an eternal student of food, one of my favourite pastimes is discovering new foods, cuisines and ways to cook. However fitting food shopping around a stressful graduate job and long commute I often arrived home from the supermarket (before my conversion to local farmers markets) with exactly the same fruit and veg as the week before, regardless of the seasons. As a result, my meals were the same and even I was bored of them and looked for inspiration that would force me to cook differently.

Collecting my cardboard box of goodies from its secret hiding place after work, I was always very excited to see what the seasons presented me. This challenged me not only to actually use my cookery books (a regular resolution?) but to think in line with the seasons and channel my creativity into quick, evening meals.

The other challenge I discovered after weeks of veg deliveries, and one that veg box pioneers are always conscious of was, and even eight years on remains for me, is waste.  I hate to throw curled vegetables away even if it is onto the compost and consciously try to manage my box ordering according to what is in our fridge. However at this time of year after the initial excitement over ugly celeriac roots, bright green cabbages and muddy carrots has passed, I am once again looking for inspiration.

At the end of the week, there is often a collection of slightly muddy and a little tired root vegetables, so this recipe week is perfect to help out with random roots. I mix it up depending on the ones that I have, and have not yet found an unsuccessful combination.

Do you have any inspiration for root vegetables? Do you use a veg box scheme? Do you enjoy it?

Random Root Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp ground cumin (or cumin seeds pounded)

1 tsp ground ginger

450g carrots chopped into chunks

150g parsnips peeled and chopped into chunks

200g celeriac peeled and chopped into chunks

1 apple peeled, cored and cut into chunks

1 litre of veg stock

Yoghurt or sour cream to serve

Method

Heat the oil and fry the spices for a minute then add the root vegetables and fry for 5 minutes to release their flavours.

Pour the stock into the saucepan and bring to the boil, then simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Blend the soup either in the blender or with a stick whizzer to the consistency of your choice (I like this pretty thick and this way it uses more veggies!)

Season and serve with a dollop of sour cream or yoghurt.