Coconut Jam Tart

I have always adored coconut - the fresher the better!

Hubby has become remarkably good at calling upon his caveman instincts to crack open those peskily tough but oh-so-delish fresh coconut delights.

Fresh coconut was not always freely available in SA when I was little though, so my Mom used to rock the following recipe using dried desiccated coconut. This recipe assuaged my coconut gland on a regular basis growing up.

Out of the blue a few weeks ago, the memory of this tart jumped into my head. I found my Mom's recipe, de-glutenised it and let the smell of this tart baking conjure up lovely childhood memories.

And the taste? Let's just say, even sans gluten,
it still turns a girl's head!

Mommle, I love you AND all your scrummy baked goods. Thank you for rocking the gluten-free scones and carrot cake every so often now that wheat is so very behind me!

Epic Coconut Tart
(gluten-free)

Base Ingredients:

• 1 cup gluten-free flour (straight rice flour or a good gf cake flour)
• pinch of salt
• 113g butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 (125ml) cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp bicarb
  
• 1/2 tsp creme of tartar

Method:

1) Beat butter, sugar, salt.

2) Add in egg and beat lightly.

3) Mix in dry ingredients.

4) Flatten into a buttered baking dish.

Topping ingredients:

• St Dalfour sugar-free berry jam of your choice (I like the four fruits mix)
• 1/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup in original recipe for if you've got a major sweet tooth or 20!)
  
• 1 cup coconut, dessicated (I prefer using coconut flakes)
• 1 egg
  

Method:

1) Spread a thin layer of jam over the raw dough base.


2) Mix the sugar with one cup of coconut.

3) Beat the egg and then mix it into the sugar + coconut mix.

4) Spread it evenly over the jam/base.


5) Bake for 20 mins at 175 - 180 degrees Celsius till golden brown.

My Mamie's Biryani

My hubby and I love stopping by my parents' house on the weekends for some good, old-fashioned down-home cookin' and visiting :-)

My Mom knew Sim and I had been having a bit of a tough week, what with him being booked off with a nasty sinus infection and me being a bit stressed-out with work and whatnot, so she went all out with her very first, homemade chicken biryani - one of my all time fave comfort foods!

Her friend, Roslyn, was consulted for guidance on the general rules and ingredients of biryani-making. According to her: "You need to put lots of spice. The secret's in the spice" (thanks, Ros).

I must say, the finished product was absolutely brilliant (thanks, Mom). This was true soul-food (and sans any possible ingredients that I am intolerant to, guaranteeing nourishment to the cellular level!)

Sylvia's Chicken Biryani
(Serves 6 generously)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups long-grain white rice
  
• 2 cups brown lentils (dal)
  
• 8 chicken breasts (boneless)
  
• 8 potatoes (medium)
  
• 4 onions (small)
  
• garlic
• ginger
• masala (Mom used a gluten-free blend from The Cape Herb & Spice Company called "Cape Country Curry Blend" which contains: coriander seeds; turmeric; cumin seeds (jeera); ginger; fenugreek; yellow mustard seeds; chillies, sea salt, cinnamon; garlic; cloves; bay leaf, turmeric oil; curry leaf)
• rice spice (again, from the Cape Herb & Spice Co., a blend called "Malay Rice Spice" which contains: onion; sea salt; turmeric; coriander (dhania); garlic; fennel; chilli; cumin (jeera); mustard seeds; ginger; cinnamon)
• olive oil

Method:

Step 1:

• Cut the chicken breasts into chunks and rub with masala and salt. Set aside (in the fridge).

Step 2:

• Put the rice on to boil (follow packet instructions) with the rice spice and salt.
• In a seperate pot, put the brown lentils on to boil (follow packet instructions). Once they are cooked, add masala to taste.
• Peel and cut the potatoes. Boil in a third pot with salt till soft.

Step 3:

• Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in olive oil over low heat till translucent.
  
• Add the chicken and cook till done (my mom added some of the boiling water from the lentils and potatoes), adding salt/pepper/masala to taste.

Step 4:

• Assemble the biryani by layering rice - lentils - potatoes - chicken - rice (apparently boiled eggs are also an optional extra).
• Cover with tin foil and pop into the oven to steam (about 175 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes).
• Take out the oven and sprinkle with freshly chopped coriander (dhania) (if you can handle the taste, which I can't).

Mom served this delicious biryani with a simple side salad of lettuce and sprouted legumes/lentils.


Hubby and I got to take home the extra biryani, and recaptured the yum for dinner! :-)

I hope you all have a great week, filled with nourishing moments and good food.

HB Pencils and Nostalgia

My thanks to Miss M over at About Last Night for inspiring today's post...
I used to collect pencils when I was little. Everywhere I went, I collected decorated HB pencils. My parents continually bought me whole sets of stationary after a new Disney movie had come out just so that I could get the one or two pencils included with the themed ruler, eraser and pencil bag.

This particular collecting-mania stopped around the age of eleven (end of grade five/beginning of grade six), the fateful age where my dolls were packed away because I considered myself a 'big girl' now. So, too, the pencil collection met the same fate and was packed away into some dark recess of my childhood bedroom cupboard.

At around the age of twenty, I found my collection of around 80 or so pencils during a cleaning spree and decided to donate them to my Mom, who at the time was teaching life-skills classes at underprivileged schools where kids couldn't even afford a pencil. Out went the pencils without a second thought.

Eight years later, at the age of 28 and now a teacher myself, I often find myself bemusedly scrounging for an HB pencil to correct Biology drawings with in practical classes because I now only own one (and I often forget it at home!)

Reading Miss M's post, I thought back with nostalgia to my quirky pencil collection...the Tiggers and Poohs, the hedgehogs and horses, the Mickeys and Donalds and Pocahontases. I thought about how often over the years I had purged items from my past to various charities, only to think back about it with a twinge of regret; while at the same time knowing that in the moment, it was the best decision to get rid of the extraneous "stuff" in order to feel lighter.

I like to think those pencils went to good homes. That they were sharpened and chewed and dropped and broken and used down to little stubby stumps of lead, instead of just being kept in a childhood cupboard. But most of all, I like to think back to the fact that each one had a story attached from my childhood without the new owner even knowing it. And even though I may not have the pencils now that I need them, I do have the memories of how I came to own each one, and that's enough.

Oh, for the love of all things gf...

After years of finding myself in varying degrees of discomfort and pain after eating, I was finally diagnosed with Coeliac disease, which is a severe allergy to gluten (found in wheat, rye, barley, oats and their products).

At the time of diagnosis, the most exciting gluten-free flours one could lay your hands on here in South Africa were rice flour or sorghum flour (which tended towards creating muffins which could seriously injure someone).

These days, there are a choice range of gf flours from which to choose, the products of which taste akin to the best glutinous creations that can be offered up for comparison.

However, just like Sarah Michelle Gellar's character in the movie Simply Irresistable whose emotions were poured into her culinary creations, causing those who ate them to exhibit the same - I am of the opinion that a heaping helping of love helps to sweeten any baked good. Enter...my mom.

Now, mom is a baker of note. Every childhood birthday party offered up a new and exciting cakely creation. Upon hearing of my coeliac disease, she was saddened at not being able to bake up a storm for me to enjoy anymore. However, just as the range of gf flours grew, so did my mom's adventurous ways in the kitchen.

Enter...modified versions of the old favourites. Below is just such a recipe. Please bear in mind when baking with gf flours that the consistency often has to be adjusted according to feel (usually just a little more flour or a little more liquid). Use baking intuition, have fun and most of all...born-up-a-tree!

Gluten-free Yoghurt Cake

Rebaked recipe in July 2011 (this one works):

• 175ml yoghurt
• 175ml self-raising gluten-free flour (I used Nature's Choice, which isn't self-raising, and the cake still rose sufficiently...although it is a denser cake)
• 175ml castor or white sugar (not brown)
• 87ml sunflower oil
• 2 large eggs
• pinch of salt (I always leave this out)

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Place in a very, very well greased loaf tin (also dusted with flour), and then bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (sometimes it's best to decrease your oven temp by 5 degrees when trying a new recipe, as oven temps differ....so 175) for 40 to 45 minutes (or until just golden and a cake skewer inserted comes out clean).
   

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Ingredients (original 2009 recipe missing sugar...ignore):

• 175ml gluten-free flour (I use Nature's Choice, which is a mixture of gf flours);

• 175ml full-cream yoghurt (mixed fruit or strawberry is particularly yum);

• 1tsp xanthum gum;

• 1/2 tsp each of bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar;

• pinch of salt; and

• 1 egg.

Method:

1. Mix ingredients together (gently) in no particular order.
2. Pour into a greased loaf tin.
   
3. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Check out some cool blogs dedicated to gluten-free cooking:
http://gfsouthafrica.blogspot.com
http://milkforthemorningcake.blogspot.com
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com
http://glutenfreeday.com
http://www.thespunkycoconut.com