Hasta be Pasta!

Some times, usually when time or ingredients are limited, it just hasta be pasta for tea!  Sous chef J is a keen eater of pasta shapes and we find the Doves Farm gluten free organic pasta is one of our store cupboard staples.

As you'd expect, a store cupboard meal is pretty low on ingredients and sous chef J is well able to assemble them in record time.  The ingredients below feed three hungry people or four if a hearty green side salad is added...

Having gathered all the required ingredients, we chopped the onion and sweated it off in a little sunflower oil before adding the tin of chopped tomatoes to make the tomato sauce.  This was then brought to the boil and left to simmer, with the pan lid on, whilst we cooked the pasta shapes.

After about 10 minutes, we added the blocks of frozen spinach (this is something we don't always add, it can also be fresh spinach or even rocket leaves) and thoroughly mixed through.  It was then left to cook whilst we drained the pasta (having cooked it according to the instructions on the packet).

Once the pasta was drained, we melted a knob of butter in the pasta pan, added back the pasta and combined it with the tomato sauce before serving up with a topping of grated cheese (in this case sous chef J used mature cheddar).  Yummy, store cupboard food that is quick and easy to prepare. 

Couple of points to note:

• Our non-GF pals are happy to eat this pasta and don't realise it's Gluten Free.  

• We have tried saving this and having it as a cold lunchtime dish but, disappointingly, we have to confess it doesn't work very well as the pasta seems very rubbery once it's cooled.  Sous chef J point blank refuses to eat it cold now so make sure you finish off what you've cooked whilst it's fresh.

Cheese Dough Balls

Having enjoyed using Isabel's Pizza Base mixes, we decided to give their Dough Balls packet a try out.

 

Sous Chef J started by checking that the packet mix contained the amount it said it did!  Next he gathered the other ingredients - egg, water, oil and grated cheese.

He then added the ingredients to the mix and combined them by hand.  A food processor can be used but, as this is part of the therapy we carry out, we try to be as "hands on" as possible.   

Once the mixture had come together as a nice dough, small lumps were broken off and formed into individual balls.  These were placed on a non-stick baking sheet and baked in a preheated fan oven at 180ºC for 20-25 minutes.

The doughballs can be frozen, uncooked, and this is what we did with half of the mix.  For once, we even remembered to put the cooking instructions on the freezer bag!

Once the rolls were cooked, we cooled them on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Sous chef J decided to turn his dough balls into cheese and tomato rolls... and very tasty they were too. Another naturally Gluten Free lunchtime option thanks to @Bels_Doughballs.

Special Coffee and Walnut Cake (Gluten Free)

We got this recipe off the internet a while ago but the site it was on no longer exists, sadly.... no idea where the resources on there have gone but, luckily I scrawled the ingredients out for sous chef J to use when he's preparing to bake.  The method is just what we do (as ever!)

To make a 8 inch /20cm round cake, you will need

115g gluten free flour (we use Dove's Farm plain)

50g maize flour or cornflour

1 heaped teaspoon gluten free baking powder (again, we use Dove's Farm)

60g walnuts, ground (we use a Braun hand blender for this)

225g butter or margarine, at room temperature

225g unrefined caster sugar
4 large eggs

15ml/1 tablespoon instant coffee, mixed with a small amount of boiling water

small handful of walnuts (we roughly chop these)

For the icing, we use 125g butter at room temperature, 250g icing sugar and a dessert spoon (10ml) instant coffee mixed with a little boiling water.

The oven was preheated to 170ºC (fan oven) and the cake tin was lined with a baking parchment liner (we get the ones from Lakeland)... these are easier for sous chef J to use but you could also grease and line the tin with greaseproof paper if that's what you have to hand.

First sous chef J sifted together all the dry ingredients... he did this at least twice (more if we can spare the time!)  This is important as it makes sure all the baking powder is well distributed and makes the cooked cake have a better texture.

Next, the butter and sugar were creamed together.

Then the eggs were cracked into a bowl and lightly beaten before being added to the creamed mix a small amount at a time... the mix often starts to split so we just add a little of the dry ingredients in to stop this.

After this, we added the flour mix and folded it all in well.  Then the diluted coffee was added and mixed in.

Finally the roughly chopped walnut pieces were added and mixed through.





The mix was then placed in the lined baking tin and baked for 30-35 minutes (although it is less if you make cupcakes).  The important thing is to use a knife to test the cake - only remove it from the oven when the knife blade comes out clean.  The cake was then left to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Whilst the cake was cooling, we prepared the icing.  The butter was beaten (using a hand mixer) to soften, the icing sugar and coffee mix were then added slowly. This was then mixed well until it was completely incorporated and the buttercream was soft and had an even colour.

The icing was then spread on the cake.... and a slice can be seen at the top of this page.

This cake is one we make for special occasions - it freezes well, adapts to being made into a loaf or cupcakes easily (these are decorated using Kuhn Rikon icing bottles and a star nozzle.)