Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
~Henry David Thoreau
And I have so much goodness in my life with the investment that is made in our relationship, not everyone is so lucky! Ours is one that is true, honest, loving, trusting and faithful - what more could one asked for! Happy Valentine's Day my dearest Medvidku!! ♥
We LOVE LOVE LOVE curry, and the best thing about curry (other than the taste of course) is that it is naturally gluten free!!!
We haven't made curry at home for a few weeks and every time we do, we (ok, I) forget to write down what we did. :) This time, we made sure to write it down as well as take pictures of what we did.
We found some quite affordable nice Argentinian beef at the local supermarket (German beef is usually quite tough, as they raise their cows for milk, not meat), so we bought the only large piece they had left.
When we make curry at home, we normally do not make the rice or bread. I have tried to make gluten free naan bread before, but never with any success. And with Guy being a diabetic, he doesn't need the extra bread anyway - so we just make the curry and onion bhaji, and leave out the rice.
We love cooking together and since he is not working in Munich during the week at the moment, weekends are always so busy, but this weekend, we made the time to prepare a nice meal together - we really have fun doing this. :-)
For the Curry you will need(and please do adjust for your taste, we do)
2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon mixed color peppercorns
4-5 dried red chills (I more or less per hotness you desire)
1. The first step is to prepare your curry paste. We use ONLY seeds, never powders (except for the Tumeric). Measure your seeds and place the following into a dry skillet to roast - coriander, cumin, peppercorns, chilies and fenugreek. Roast until you can smell the wonderful flavors coming out, but be careful not to burn the seeds. Then allow to cool (this is important, as if you put them in the grinder while they are still warm, there is too much moisture). Then grind the seeds in a grinder (we have a separate coffee grinder that we use only for curry spices :), and add this ground spice mix to a small food processor. Add the turmeric powder, garlic, ginger, olive oil and lemon juice and mix in the food processor to form a paste. You can add more oil if it is too dry. When it is a nice paste, you are finished with your amazing curry paste (which you can make at any time and use anytime). Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoon of ghee butter (this IS milk Free - so it is worth it to buy a nice jar of Ghee (or even make it yourself if you time)) in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the beef. Cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Add spice paste. Cook for 1 minute. Return beef to saucepan. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, or until meat is coated with paste. Add tomato paste and stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Cook for 1 hour, or until beef is tender.
4. Remove lid. Cook, uncovered, for a ca 15 minutes, or until sauce has reduced and thickened slightly.
3-5 dried red chilies (more or less per your desired hotness)
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons ghee butter
1 bunch or fresh parsley or coriander (I prefer coriander, but sometimes it is not available)
2 really large white onions (or 3-5 or so small/medium ones)
8-10 tablespoons Gram (chickpea) flour (the amount will depend on how much of the other ingredients you have used)
2-3 tablespoons water
Directions:
1. Prepare the paste - using the same process as above - roast seeds, grind then and make a paste in food processor, adding the olive oil.
2. Slice onions and mix with the chopped parsley (or coriander).
3. Our secret to great Bhaji is to sautee the onions (most recipes do not call for this). You will need to do this until the onions are nice and soft. About halfway through this process, add the paste to the onions.
4. When onions are nice and soft - remove from stove and let cool or place in the fridge to cool down.
5. Add Gram (chickpea) flour and water and mix thoroughly. You do not want a really sticky consistency, but you also do not want a completely "battered" consistency. Once again, put the mixture in the fridge when it is finished. It is easier to form and work with it when it is a bit cooler.
6. Heat some oil (we use the same oil over and over) and then fry the onion bhaji.
I made muffins for a friend for her birthday - she wanted something other than cupcakes- so she had the idea of something with bananas and we ended up with this idea. I did only this batch (no test batch) and they turned out AWESOME!!
The recipe itself I adapted from The Gluten Free Goddess' Blog. I change a few of the amounts (especially in the xanthan gum as I normally leave it out completely unless doing bread - and muffins are more of a bread than cake, so left it in, but cut it way way back) and used what was available in Germany as well as a slight temperature change.
Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line muffin pan with paper liners
1 cup Ripe Bananas - mashed
1/4 cup Mazola Oil
1 cup Light Brown Sugar (American style brown sugar, not UK or EU, although the others would work, just slightly different texture)
2 teaspoons GF Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
120 grams Millet Flour
96 grams Potato Starch
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup Walnuts - Chopped (for the muffin mix)
1/2 cup Walnuts - left in halves (for decoration on top)
Mix the bananas, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs in your stand mixer until well blended.
In a separate bowl, shift together the remaining dry ingredients (except for the ½ cup of walnuts that are still halves). Once sifted together well, add to the mixture in your stand mixer and mix for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
Fill the muffin liners 2/3 full and place 1 or 2 of the halves of walnuts on top.
Bake for 20 minutes (+/- depending on your oven).
Remove and let cool in muffin pan for 10 minutes and then place on wire rack to completely cool.
So, I had these football paper cup liners that my mom brought me last time she was here visiting from the states, and well, in Germany, there is only 1 day a year to use them :) So, I made some cupcakes to take the the pub tonight for the game. In Munich, kick-off is at 00:30 - just after midnight! So, I decided to make the cupcakes espresso to keep us awake. And what better way to top them but with some Amaretto Butter Cream. I then decorated half of them as the yard markers and the other half - half Green Bay colors and half Pittsburgh colors!
1 cup Soy Milk (I did use soy here, even though I've an allergy-I was out of rice milk & the cupcakes were for my friends, not me :)
Espresso Instant Powder - to equal 6 cups of espresso (I used individual packets, so used 6)
1/3 cup Mazola oil
3/4 cup Moscovado Sugar
2 teaspoons GF Vanilla Extract
1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract
Mix above in stand mixer on speed 2 until well blended. Then add
1/4 cup Tapioca Starch
2 tablespoons Flaxseed (ground/flour)
Mix for 1-2 minute on speed 2-3 or until it is thoroughly mixed.
Then sift together in a bowl the following ingredients
1/3 cup Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup White Rice Flour
1/2 cup Quinoa Flour
1/4 cup Millet or Sorghum flour (I find the books recipe to work MUCH better with some added flour, and a different type too)
1 teaspoon GF Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Add this sifted ingredient to the mixture. This is where I differ from the book. It states "don't worry about over-mixing..." I strongly disagree with this. The LESS you mix, the better the gluten free cakes raise!!! Over-mixing will ruin what ever is left in the mixture that allows it to raise. So, only mix for a minute or 2 on low speed (2) until well mixed!!!!
Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 21 min. Cool 10 min before removing from the pan and placing on wire rack to completely cool.
For the Frosting:
55 grams Crisco
55 grams Gluten and Milk Free Margarine
Mix these for about 30 seconds to a minute on speed 2 of your stand mixer
Then add
375 grams powdered sugar
Mix for 2 minutes or so (If it is too dry, add a bit of the Amaretto, but just a bit, you want to mix this well before adding the rest of the liquid).
Now add the rest of the liquid
1/8 cup Amaretto (more or less to get the consistency you want)
Mix in stand mixer for 5-7 minutes or so - this will make it nice and fluffy and light and will not taste so sweet :)
For the grass, I used Wilton tip 233 and Wilton Kelly Green gel coloring. For the yellow, I used Wilton Golden Yellow. I used green sugar glitter and black sugar glitter to top the yellow with to make the different team colors.
Have fun!
EDIT:
Here is a pic from my mobile. I dont have a flash, so it did not turn out too great, but you get the idea :) They were a hit!
These were made for the book club (one of the members is gluten, milk and egg intolerant). I have made cupcakes without the eggs several times before, but they always sank in the middle (I used my standard chocolate cupcake recipe and substituted flaxseed/water mixture for the egg). This time I had such a great success with the recipe that I altered from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World, that I used it again for this batch. You can find the recipe in the post with the Super Bowl cupcakes
To make them look like a cappuccino, I used the same frosting as in the Super Bowl cupcakes, only not adding coloring of course, as well as a bit more Amaretto and then topping with cocoa powder and a chocolate covered espresso bean.
I know have been lacking in post lately, I will catch up eventually, but here is a pic of my birthday cupcakes - 40 in total ;-)
BTW, the bowl and the trivet were souvenirs bought at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul specifically for these cupcakes :)
And here are the back up cupcakes :)
And a pic from the party - most turned out not in focus, so this is the best one I had!
OK, so finally time to catch up with some blogging. So, I turned 40 a week ago - it was hard, very hard - let me tell you! I am not ready for this age at all, but am finally coming to grips with it :)
I saw a picture of what I thought was the perfect cupcake about 6 months ago. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it (it was one of those little ads on the sidebar on facebook). It was a chocolate cupcakes in a brown paper liner and frosted with the most gorgeous turquoise color (one of my favorite colors!!!). I was determined to make these for my 40th. Problem is, in Germany, it is extremely difficult (and expensive when you do find a way) to get proper cupcakes decorating stuff - the Germans just do not decorate at all like we do! So, I had a friend bring me over the proper Wilton food gel colors that I need and another one bring over the brown liners - so it was a joint effort for these cupcakes. Then I needed something to take a picture of them on that made them super special to me. For my 40th, my lovely Guy and I went to Istanbul for 5 days - it was AMAZING!!! And on my birthday itself, we walked for hours in the Grand Bazaar and we found the perfect items for my cupcakes. A lovely turquoise/black trivet and bowl.
I also wanted to have a 2nd type of cupcake as well for my party (we celebrated here with friends the following Sat after my birthday) as I wanted to have 40 cupcakes. So, I made the same recipe - but used some other quite cool cupcake liners that a friend sent me and a cocoa butter cream for those. All the pics are above.
Here is the recipe I used, which is my basic one I have used for the last few batches, but a few changes. One major change is I can no longer use soy milk (have intolerance to that now too :(
Chocolate cupcakes
Makes 16 cupcakes
Ingredients:
20 g Quinoa Flour
40 g Millet or Sorghum Flour
40 g Amaranth Flour
20 g Rice Flour
15 g Tapioca Flour
2 tsp GF Baking Powder65 g Dutch Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp salt
40 g Milk Free Margarine softened
150 g Muscovado Sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp GF Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Sheep’s Plain Yogurt
1/2 cup Rice Milk
Directions
Preheat oven to 180°C
Line cupcake pan with liners
Mix all dry ingredients and sift together several times.
Mix all wet ingredients until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth and thoroughly mixed.
Bake at 180°C for 20min. Allow to cool 10 min in pan and then remove and place on wire rack to completely cool before frosting.
I used the same wilton butter cream frosting I always use, with Wilton food coloring gels. A mixture of Sky Blue and Lemon Yellow (adjusting back and forth until I got the perfect Turquoise)
I have been on a little "no net" holiday as I just turned 40 and it was not so easy crossing this border in life. We had a wonderful little holiday in Istanbul and some down time here in Munich. But, I am back and starting baking tonight. I have a huge batch of birthday cupcakes to make for my party on Saturday and some super bowl cupcakes for Sunday. Will be a busy baker.
Will update and post more this weekend, early next week,
