May 2008

I made up this dessert one evening when we had just eaten a nice dinner and I got a craving for some dessert. Fruits are naturally sweet and naturally gluten-free so I tend to make a lot of fruit desserts because of that, and it doesn’t hurt that I have always liked baked fruit desserts. I’m not so into eating raw fruits, although I do occasionally turn into “the mango maniac” and eat mangoes all day long. I can’t help it, they just taste too good and sometimes I dream about fresh, ripe mangoes picked straight from a tree; maybe someday I’ll get to sink my teeth into a fresh mango fruit - that would be one dream fulfilled.

I didn’t use much of a sweetener in this since I don’t think this recipe requires it; I used a little bit of maple syrup, but regular sugar would be just as good, especially some muscovado sugar would suit very well. I used some raw yolks from organic eggs for the sauce since I can’t use something like maizena or arrowroot, but those would work well as a thickener. People who have problems with their immune system shouldn’t eat raw eggs and also children should stay away from raw eggs as far as I know.

The chili apple recipe is dairy-free if you use some oil instead of butter or some dairy-free margarine, do add a pinch of salt if you are using oil of any kind. The sauce is dairy-free in itself, but can be made egg-free as well by using arrowroot powder for example or you can always have it without any kind of thickener, it’s just as good, just not as thick.

Make the sauce in advance if possible, since it is much better with those hot apples when cold.

Rum and coconut sauce

serves 4

-1/2 cup or 1,2 dl, coconut cream or milk

-2 tbls rum

-1 tbls maple syrup, or some other sweetener

-a pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)

-1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla

-2 yolks

Start with separating the yolks and set them aside.

Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add the coconut milk/cream. Add two tablespoons of rum and cook while stirring constantly for 5 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 2 more minutes.

Take the saucepan of the heat and add the yolks, whisk them into the sauce. Place the sauce into a fridge to cool down.

Remember that it’s important to take the sauce of the heat before adding the yolks.

Chili apples

serves 4

- 4 apples, organic if possible so that you don’t have to peel them

-1 red long chili, minced and the seeds should be taken off, unless you want some really, really hot apples

-1 tbls grated ginger

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1-4 tbls maple syrup

-2 tbls butter, or oil or margarine

Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat. If you are using oil, just warm the oil in a saucepan.

Add the spices to it; chili, cinnamon and ginger. If you are using something else than salty butter add a pinch of salt.

Cook the spices while stirring them in the butter for a small while, 1 -2 minutes is enough.

Add the maple syrup.

Slice the apples and place them in a bowl.

Pour the hot and spicy butter on to the apples and make sure to coat all the apples with it.

You can either cook the apples on a frying pan until they are done; soft on the outside and still somewhat crisp on the inside.

Or you can take a baking tray, line it with some baking paper and place the apples on it. Bake at 400 F or 200 C, until they are done, this depends on the thickness of the apples, so keep an eye on them.

I was also thinking about making a recipe archive page; I think it would be easier to find recipes that way, especially if there would be categories like “gluten- and dairy-free”?

I have so far thought that I would make a dessert category, one for side dishes, one for main courses, one for baking, one for breakfast. I don’t know if I should have one category for egg-free, for dairy free etc? I try to mention in every recipe if you can adjust the recipe in some way, should I place those kind of recipes into the dairy- or egg-free category at all?

Also, I think that some recipes here are better than others; maybe I should also make a category about those recipes that are a bit better than others?

I will try to simplify the categories, although at the moment it seems that the list will be of a massive size.

I would of course appreciate any input on anyone’s part on how you would like to see the archive? Massive and detailed or simplified? Everything in their own categories or some categories merged together etc?

The whole idea should be that it would be easy for everyone to find something they are looking for; for example if someone is looking for a cake recipe not using dairy it should be easy to find from the recipe archive page.

Popularity: 8% [?]

My love affair with pasta started at an early age; I would eat it with almost everything, ketchup being the only exception. When I went gluten-free I tried my best at getting used to those kind of horrible corn and starch things trying to imitate pasta, then eventually I gave up, I just didn’t want anything to do with those gluten-free pastas that tasted so vile in my mouth.

Everything changed when I got a hold of some brown rice pasta; oh, I was so happy, it tasted good, really good and now I could eat it with my favorite sauces. Most of the sauces I like are tomato based, just those regular kind of sauces, but there are some sauces which I have all kinds of special feelings towards that don’t have any kind of tomatoes in them and this recipe, which just happens to be my all time favorite one, is one of those white wine based tomato-free kind of sauces.

This only takes approximately 10 minutes to make and the taste is really something else since the cold smoked salmon adds a lot of unique flavor. The ingredients are basic, the lox is the only thing that is a bit more special and this sauce is very, very easy to make.

Pasta sauce with cold smoked salmon

Serves 4

- 1 big yellow onion chopped

-200 grams cold smoked salmon chopped into pieces

-1/2 cup (1,2 dl) cream (I used almond cream once again)

-1/2 cup (1,2 dl) white wine

-1/4 cup (0,6 dl) chopped parsley

-1 tbls butter

-1 tbls olive oil

Heat a saucepan on medium heat and cook the onions until they turn soft, don’t brown them, then add the salmon, cook it until it turns light pink. Add the wine and let it reduce on medium heat and then add the cream. Let the sauce boil for 5 minutes and take it off the heat and add the chopped parsley. Serve with some pasta.

I like to chop everything up before I start cooking, I like to think that I’m saving time that way. There’s some parsley, lox, butter, onion and white wine in that picture. I’m not a big wine expert, but that Riesling there is one of my favorite white wines and I especially like it with this food.

Add 1 tbls butter and 1 tbls olive oil into the saucepan and cook the onion on medium heat until it is soft.

Add the cold smoked salmon, it will be of this colour at first.

It’s done when the colour turns to this.

Add the white wine, 1/2 cup.

Let it reduce and add the cream after it has reduced a bit. Let the sauce boil for something like five minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and add the chopped parsley.

Serve the sauce with some spaghetti for example, you can also add some grated parmesan if you want to.

Popularity: 11% [?]