Denmark

We had the pleasure of travelling to Denmark for ‘D’ – not literally of course, but our lovely friends made us a three course Danish meal. We had SMØRREBRØD, that’s open sandwiches to you and me. We had fish, ham, cheeses, pates and all manor of exciting toppings. Us being us obviously stuffed ourselves on the first course and then struggled with the second!

Main was Frikadeller (meatballs), Kopenhavn Kartofler (Copenhagen potatoes – my favourite), Danske Stil Porrer (Danish style Leeks), Braiseret RØdkål (braised red cabbage) and Hvidkaal Med Kommen (Cabbage with caraway seeds). I wasn’t that fond of the cabbage as it had a lot of cream in, but the red cabbage and potatoes were lovely.

Pudding was a rice pudding (RisengrØd), but instead of being made with pudding rice and served hot, it was made with long grain rice and served cold. Jackie served it with cherries in brandy which complemented it beautifully.

All in all another great feed! It’s soon our turn to do ‘E’………..I’m planning the menu already!

Alphabetical world food tour

It’s been quite a while since I last posted……..Christmas now seems like an eon ago.  Now that the daffs are out, the bad weather has faded into the dim and distant past!

Since then, in the interests of world relations (actually – it’s more of an excuse to try new food) we have embarked on an ‘alphabetical around the world food tour’.  It all started when friends of ours decided to celebrate the World Cup last year with the food of the country England were pitted against.  We had burgers and fries for the American game; for Slovenia we cheated a bit and had Hungarian food (helps when my husband’s parents are Hungarian!); and for Algeria we ate a twist on Moroccan lamb.  Unfortunately I can’t remember what we ate in Stage 2 and then we got knocked out…………..so that ended that!  Although we did have paella for the final followed by a Dutch pudding of Malva (a bit like a sponge pudding) and a Dutch apple and berry pie.

So, we were talking to our friends at Christmas time and decided to do something like that again, but with a theme.  We came up with an alphabetical world tour.  At the beginning of the month we have to pick a country and cook typical fayre from that country.  It's a secret which country we have decided upon until we arrive for dinner.

We kicked off the proceedings with an Afghan meal.  I found a terrific website for Afghan recipes http://www.afghancooking.net/afghan-cooking-unveiled/afghan-cooking-recipes--all/   

We ate:

Mini afghan kebabs with coriander & mint chutney

Bolani – Afghan potato & spring onion turnover

Sabzi – Afghan spinach

Lawang – tumeric braised chicken in yoghurt

Challaw – Cardamom rice

Falooda – Afghan Sundae

Cardamom almond brittle

Awb e dundawn– Rosewater & cardamom cookies

Kilche Birinjee – Afghan butter cookies

Everything was obviously made gluten free.  For the Bolani I made wraps with the following recipe:

2 cups (240ml) cold water
1.5 cups (approx 190g) gram flour
1 cup (approx 130g) tapioca flour

Pinch of salt and pepper.

I have to say these were my favourite.  The Falooda was probably my least favourite and the cookies didn’t work very well gluten free at all.

It was our friends’ turn for B and we travelled to Barbados (well actually we walked about 200 yards around the corner, but one can dream!)  We arrived to be handed rum punch (phew – it’s a hard job!).  Starter was Bajan shrimp & fish skewers with a mango & chilli dip;  followed by jerk chicken, rice and peas.  Then dessert was baked bananas and pineapple with Barbadian cream.  Absolutely delish.

It was our turn for “C” two weeks ago.  We deliberated over Cuba, Cyprus and China but in the end decided on Chile.  There is a wealth of Chilean recipes, but I was taken aback to discover that a lot of the food (particularly the desserts) have a German influence and therefore are pastry based.  This is not such an issue except when you are making all the meal gluten free!!  I decided to try and make Sopaipillas - a flat circular deep fried 'bread' made of pumpkin and flour – so I experimented on my poor long suffering husband and sister in law.  They weren’t that good without the gluten!  The menu we settled on was as follows:

Pisco Sour – a bit like a Margeurita (very very yummy!)

Tortilla chips

Hacienda onion salad

Chilean salsa

Pebre (again a salsa)

Estillo Sarita (avocado shrimp ceviche)

Pollo Arvejado (Galician chicken)

Porotos Granados (Chilean bean stew)

Chilean rice

Torta de Hojas – which is a layer cake made with pastry and filled with caramel, walnuts and brandy.  This did not work GF – the pastry recipe did nothing to complement the rest of the ingredients. It would probably work fantastically with a puff pastry recipe (one for another day!)

Empanadas – these are like a cross between a jam tart and a jam doughnut and were absolutely gorgeous.  The recipe I used was http://www.ehow.com/how_4509867_fruit-jam-empanadas.html

So off to “D” next – but I don’t have to cook this one.  The question is, what am I going to do for “E” – answers on a postcard please!

Christmas gift box

We have just put together a gluten, wheat and dairy free Christmas Gift Box.  Inside a beautiful silver coloured box are two individual Christmas puddings, one 4.5 inch square Christmas cake, 12 mince pies and six chocolate truffles.

Moroccan lamb pizza

What a success!!!  Went down really nicely with the salsa and a cold Estrella Damm gluten free beer.  What to have for pud now????  There just happens to be a stray Christmas pudding in the fridge - left over from a batch I cooked earlier this week......it would be rude not to try it - quality control and all that.

Pizza topping

After a baking filled week you'd think I would have had enough by Friday.  However, I have decided to make a moroccan style pizza for dinner tomorrow night.  I'm going to take my cumin and walnut flatbread and going to top it with spiced lamb mince and ???????? .........not sure yet!............watch this space and hope for inspiration during tomorrow!  Just had an idea - I wonder what Halloumi would be like instead of mozarella?  Hmmm............!  It'll be really nice served with a salsa of tomato, red onion, cucumber, fresh coriander and lime juice.  Getting excited already!

It's national curry week!

It would have been rude not to celebrate National Curry Week with food!  Soooo............look what I made (and ate!) earlier! 

Vegetable samosa

Lamb samosa
Feeling very fat (but satiated!) now.   Very yummy!

At last!

I have been nagged for ages by Mr Droppa to set up a blog and now finally I have done it!  I'll endeavour to astound readers with a stunning repertoire of my exciting life and work but a little about us to start.............Droppa & Droppa Specialist Foods has been manufacturing gluten, wheat and dairy free baked goods for over five years now.  We supply caterers, retailers, the hospitality industry and direct to the public a varied range of outstanding gluten free food.   I don't just say this light heartedly.  We are a very small business and maintain rigorous high standards to provide our customers with food that they enjoy eating.  Being on a restricted diet is one thing............but we don't feel that the quality and taste of the food should suffer because of it.