Santa's midnight Nigella snack

This year Santa is getting in a few more calories than last year. If Nigella can indulge in multiple midnight snacks, then so can Santa.
This year the bickies are bigger, we have certified reindeer carrots and the supersized mug is full to the brim with that dodgy milky powdered tea that someone thought I might want to drink. But no, you go ahead Santa, drink up. Or else the powdered tea will sit on the shelf again till next Christmas.
It is only Dec 21, but we are impatient and trying to help Santa spread out his workload a little bit. We are hoping this tempting offering might just tempt Santa to make his delivery a little earlier this year, to save mummy's sanity.

Sweet potato gnocchi

Ok, you got me - I eat from Pooh Bear plates ;) Tonight I had a craving for both gnocchi and sweet potatoes, so decided to try making gnocchi with sweet potatoes. I usually make potato gnocchi, tried pumpkin once but it didn't work. I think the issue is moisture, potatoes and sweet potatoes are quite dry and that makes for good gnocchi.

Making gnocchi is really quite simple. I simply peeled two large sweet potatoes and steamed them whole. I then used my potato ricer to turn them into mash. You can just use a masher if you prefer, or even a fork. After mashing leave the sweet potato to cool down to room temperature.
I added a sprinkle of Herbamare seasoning and then used one hand to knead as I very slowly added a small amount of GF flour. I sometimes use potato flour instead.
Just keep adding flour and kneading until you have a dough like consistency, but be careful not to add more flour if you think it's not coming together. Give it a few minutes of kneading and you will see that it will all come together.

When the dough is ready, sprinkle some flour onto a board and gradually break off sections of dough and roll them into thin snake shapes. Break off or cut small sections of the snakes of dough to make the gnocchi - as seen above.

Boil your water and add a good quantity of salt to the boiling water. Add your gnocchi and remove with a slotted spoon once it floats to the surface.

The gnocchi can then be served with any sauce you like. This time I put some macadamia oil and garlic, but a tomato based sauce would also work well. Two large sweet potatoes makes about 3 servings of gnocchi. Mmmm, now I want some more!

P.S The gnocchi that I put in the fridge and cooked up later turned out much better than the ones cooked right after making the dough

Gluten Free Vegan Cornbread Pizza

My picasa albums are full of photos of food that I've cooked and never gotten around to blogging. I've been pretty busy with uni etc, so even though I might find time to cook I don't usually have time to blog about it as well. So slowly, I will be adding to my blog with things I've been cooking over the past few months.

This pizza base is made from PAN precooked cornmeal. I bought my last pack online from USAfoods.com.au, but I do know that the greengrocer next to Coles in Burnside has it too. That is where I used to buy it. I know that some of you live pretty close to that area.

Basically to create the base, I use about 1 cup of warm previously boiled water a teaspoon of massel vege stock and a pinch of salt. I then use one hand to mix while I slowly add PAN cornmeal until I get to a dough like consistency. The dough should get to a point where it doesn't stick to your hand when rolled in a ball.

The next step is to roll and flatten your dough out as you would with pizza dough. Trickle with a little olive oil, top with thinly sliced vegetables or topping of your choice and pop in the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes at about 200c until the base is crisp.

Khmer Krom Caramelised Pineapple Tofu

Tonight I made this recipe from the KhmerKrom recipe website: http://www.khmerkromrecipes.com/recipes/recipe287.html It was incredibly easy and I made it completely in the slow cooker. Took me just a couple of minutes to prepare and then a couple of hours in the slow cooker. My picky five year old ate it happily, so it must be good ;)

Slow Cooked Vegan Gluten Free Lasagne

Several zucchini, I prefer Italian white zucchini - though today they weren't available.

Two large sweet potatoes

Herb salt (I like herbamare)

Quality oil of your choice

Two packs of Cheezely Mozzarella (vegan)

Parmazano (vegan parmasan)

Gluten free lasagne sheets

Vegan pesto sauce

Good quality tomato pasta sauce 1 large jar.

Serves - 4-6

Directions

Thinly slice sweet potatoes and zucchini lengthwise. Drizzle with olive oil and herb seasoning.

Grill in a hot grill until golden brown. Allow to cool for easier handling. Drizzle with pesto sauce.

In a slow cooker pot, alternate layers of lasagne sheets, the vegetables with pesto sauce, sprinkles of parmazano and cheezely.
On the top layer put pasta sauce with plenty of cheezely.

Put the slow cooker on low for about 4 hours.

Alternately, you can make a smaller amount of lasagne in a casserole dish in the oven.

Cook on 180 for about 45 minutes.


Freezes and reheats well, if there is any left ;)

Buon Appetito!

Just B Cos

This recipe is inspired by Gillian McKeith's Sleepy Lettuce Soup (You Are What You Eat recipe book). But of course, mine is brilliant.
This soup is meant to be eaten as a late night snack, as lettuce has calming, relaxing qualities. But Gillian's soup has white potatoes, garlic and onions and no sweet potatoes. The white potatoes will raise your blood sugar and the garlic and onions will keep you up all night with indigestion. Though I'm sad to skip the garlic, as I love it. Sweet potatoes just give the soup such a lovely flavour, which is wonderful.
Tonight is a freezing cold summer night in Melbourne and I enjoyed this soup while sobbing over a heartwrenching episode of Adoption Stories. It has made me sleepy and very warm. So I will be off to bed after blogging this.

So here is my version of lettuce soup:

1/4 of a large gold sweet potato, or 1 whole standard sweet potato
rice bran oil, or oil of your choice.
2-3 tbsp of millet meal
1 vege stock cube (I use the swiss ones in the health food section)
1 baby cos lettuce.

Directions:

Cut up the sweet potato and cook gently in some rice bran oil with the crushed up stock cube for 5 mins.
Add one cup of boiling water and 2-3 tbsp of millet meal, depending on how thick you want the soup. 3 tbsp is quite thick.
Turn heat down low and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add ripped up and well washed baby cos lettuce for about a minute or 2, until all wilted and soft.
Whizz up with your blender or handmixer and you're done.

A healthy late night snack! Serves 2.

P.S. I just discovered that if you make this with Macadamia oil instead of rice oil, and besan flour instead of millet then the soup will taste even more incredible :)