Gluten Free Chinese Dumplings

We love Yum Cha.









Except that in our house we call it Yummy Cha actually.


But it can be so hard to find some lovely little dumplings that suit gluten free eating. I'm very lucky to have a great little place nearby that caters for me so very well. We go every couple of weeks and any problems I've had I put down to lack-of-vigilance on my part, not to any slackness from our favourite restaurant. The staff know our dishes and in case of problems I have little cards with 'No Wheat' written in Chinese that I keep in my wallet.

Eating out is always a tricky issue with food InTolerances, and I understand how many of my friends prefer not to roll the dice with nasty symptoms, but I say Buyer Beware and as always, you eat at your own risk. I choose in this case to risk it!

For those of you, Dear Readers, who are more sensitive or more sensible than I am, I recently found a great recipe for gluten free dumpling wrappers in a magazine page ad for Kikkoman Soy Sauce.

Did you know that Kikkoman now make a really nice gluten free soy sauce too? Made with soybeans, rice, salt and water, it tastes just like the 'real' thing too!

The dumpling recipe is actually for gyozas, but I turned mine into little dumplings and rice rolls instead. I found the best results with steaming, boiling the little lovelies mushed them up too much. The result of steaming is a lovely slippery texture, just like the stuffed rice rolls at yum cha, yummy!

Gluten free Dumplings

300gr cooked peeled Taro
1 Tb Salt
3 tsp gluten free Baking Powder
1kg pkt Glutinous Rice Flour
2 tb oil
500ml Water

I steamed my Taro to avoid it becoming soggy and gluggy. Then let it cool.

Process taro with the salt and baking powder

With the motor running, add the oil, a little water and a little flour. Continue like this until it's all used and the mixture forms a dough.

Turn out and knead for a few minutes until nice and smooth. Rest for about half an hour.

While it's resting, make a yummy filling for your dumplings:

300gr Pork Mince
300gr Chicken Mince
1/2 cup finelychopped Water Chestnuts
1/2 cup finely chopped Silverbeet from my garden
1/4 cup finely chopped chives
Big Tablespoon minced Garlic
Big tablespoon minced Ginger
1 Tbsp gluten free Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
2 tsp Chinese Cooking Wine
1 finely chopped Hot Chilli

Combine all the ingredients for the filling, and mix around thoroughly. The best way is with your hands, it keeps the texture much better this way. Squish, squish, squish!

Ready To Roll:

Roll out the dumpling dough nice and thin, about 2mm thick, on some baking paper. Dust with a bit more rice flour if needed. Then cut to the desired size with a scone or cookie cutter.

Place a small spoonful of meat filling on one half of the round, leaving a bit of a clear border, then wet the inside edge slightly with a wet finger and fold in half. Pinch the edges firmly.

Place on some more baking paper while you make enough little dumplings to fill your steamer.

Place your dumplings in a lined steamer basket over vigorously boiling water, and steam until just cooked through. My steamer took about 10 minutes, but it was a bit bigger than the pot so wasn't as efficient. The outside should be opaque and nice and firm, but with a bit of spring to it.

Serve your little lovelies with Kikkoman Dipping Sauce for a bit more yumminess

Dipping Sauce

1/3 cup Kikkoman gluten free soy sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 finely chopped small chilli
Splash of water to dilute saltiness to taste

Mix all ingredients together and allow to sit while cooking the dumplings so flavour develops

As you can see Dear Readers, my arms gave out about halfway through making dumplings, so I turned them into lovely steamed rice rolls. I loved them just as much this way, and actually thought they looked prettier with the filling showing just a little at the ends. It's up to you, present them as you will, just be happy in the yummiest of gluten free yum cha around!

So Dear Readers, which way do you think looks the nicest, and do you enjoy Yum Cha too?








.

Just Dinner

Being a chef can have its disadvantages.








People have certain expectations.

They exclaim 'your family must eat well' and to my husband 'you're on a good wicket then' while pointing at his tummy.

But really, you can't always be on. Its not souffles and sunshine all the time.

I thought I'd give you, my Dear Readers, an insight into one of our family meals- just a dinner. Last Sunday nights supper actually.
I wanted something quick and easy, tasty, and that would incorporate a heap of our garden veggies before they take over the yard.

This is it. Chicken Veggie Pasta Stuff. Sound good?

Welcome to my world.

Chicken thigh fillets- cut into chunks
Small amount smokey bacon- from the freezer
Leek- rescued from the bottom of the crisper
Mushrooms- reduced to clear and marked down
Zucchini- so many zucchini!
Cherry tomatoes- veggie patch
Spinach- from the freezer
Garlic- always on hand
Slurp of white wine- cause thats what I was drinking
Splash of red wine vinegar- from the pantry
Dribble of lactose free cream- UHT pantry pack
Basil- veggie patch


Gently sweat down the leek and bacon to render out some of the smokey fat.

Throw in the chicken and seal it off.

Add in all the veggies, all at once to make life easier. Squish the tomatoes as you stir to help make some sauce.

Now slurp in the garlic, wine and vinegar and give a good mix around.

Simmer just until the chicken is cooked through, then take off the heat and dribble in enough cream to the pan juices to make a sauce. Toss in the basil leaves.

Serve over pasta. San Remo is my favourite, it tastes good and retains some bite to it when cooked, but like most gluten free pastas doesn't stay in one piece if you want it the next day.

So Dear Readers, that's an ordinary dinner at this chefs house. What did you have for dinner today?

.

Dukkah Crusted Lamb Cutlets with Fig and Goat Chese Salad

Some lovely finds at the market this week.

Soft ash goats cheese, tiny lamb cutlets, and beautiful fresh ripe figs. Yumm.... Obviously they needed to be combined together.

This seems like a lot of steps for one dish Dear Readers, but really they don't take long at all.
The dukkah can be made days in advance, and the cutlets can be coated a day ahead as well if you like. The salad is 5 minutes work, tops. So there's no excuses for missing out on a lovely meal even if you're in a hurry, with just these few ingredients in the fridge.



Dukkah

3/4 cup Hazelnuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon sumac
Good pinch of salt flakes

Toast the hazlenuts in a dry pan over medium heat, until starting to change colour.

Add in the rest of the ingredients, and toast until the seeds are a lovely golden colour and the spices are releasing their aromatic oils. Make sure you keep stirring or shaking the pan so they don't burn. Pull out a few hazlenuts to keep as a final garnish.

Let them cool a bit, then pulse them in a food processor until they are roughly- but fairly finely chopped.
That's it, dukkah's done and dusted.

Pat your little cutlets dry with kitchen towel, then dip all over in a lovely olive oil- I used a beautiful smoked olive oil for a bit of extra va-voom!

Let the excess drip off, then dip the cutlet into the dukkah. Make sure it gets into all the nooks and crannies. This coating is not only delicious, but will help protect the meat from over cooking and drying out in the pan.

Pop the coated cutlets into a preheated pan on medium heat. There's no need to oil the pan, as you don't want to burn the dukkah or fry it too hard in oil. The oil you dipped the meat in will be fine.

Little cutlets like this don't require much cooking at all, they should be served nice pink and juicy, so watch them carefully.
If you had quite a lot of meat to cook off, it would be easier to sear them well, then put them all on an oven tray to finish cooking. That way they are all ready and hot at the same time for plating up.

Now, while all the lamb is cooking, it's time to make the salad.

Rip open a packet of pre-washed rocket leaves and scatter them artistically about your serving dish or plate.

Cut some perfectly ripe figs in half so that the luscious pink insides are showing, and pop them about too.

Slice or crumble on your goats cheese for the gorgeous creamy tang it brings to the party, scatter over the reserved hazlenuts, and voila!

Looks like something from a magazine doesn't it?

Now a bit of dressing is lovely to help the greens go down, but I like to serve mine separately, or srizzle it on after you've served your guests. My dressing consists of some scrummy Pukara Estate Fig Balsamic Vinegar whisked with a bit more of the olive oil. It tastes fantastic, but the dark colour stains the food.  Please serve it separately, you'll thank me.

So my Dearest Readers, so you like fresh figs, and how do you like to serve them when they're in season?

.

Magic Mushrooms

In our house, the BBQ remains firmly the domain of my husband. He uses it for chunks of meat, slabs of meat, roast meats.... and the occasional token veggie.

Its not that he hates veggies, well, not all of them. Its just that they take up prime grill space and are so fiddly to deal with, a slab of meat just needs to be turned once after all, and isn't likely to roll off the grill.

When I was first asked by The Australian Mushroom Growers Association to write a post for their Summer Mushroom Campaign, http://www.summermushrooms.com.au/ I did some research into these fungilicious little creatures and why we should all be eating more of them.

Mushrooms are little power houses of goodness. Did you know that they are full of antioxidants and are the only non-animal source of vitamin D? They are low in sodium and kilojoules and are fat free too, add to that impressive list the umami characteristics, low cost, and the year round availability and I certainly think we're onto a winner.


With daylight savings extending our evenings, and BBQs still very much on the go for easy after work dinners, it was a logical step to come up with a way to combine the lot.



I wanted to find a way to make mushrooms on the BBQ easy- easy to manage, easy to turn, and easy to eat too. So my mind drifted in the direction of things on sticks...and Rosemary Mushroom Kebabs were born. Perfect solution! Mushrooms mustered into manageable measures, no mucking about! Turn the whole lot at once, just a couple of times, and line them up next to the sausages, not even a hardened carnivore could complain about that.

My only concern was that this was a bit too simple.

Then I thought about it..... I wanted to show how great and easy mushrooms are, you don't need to muck about with fancy-pantsy ingredients to do that. This is just an easy recipe with a few easy ingredients that make a lovely meal.

Sometimes that's all you need.



I like the earthy herbs with mushrooms, they seem to bring out the deeper bass notes and all that umami goodness. Rosemary is in so many home gardens, or at least every corner supermarket, and garlic is an indispensable kitchen companion so in they went to the mix. Yumm... I was really surprised at just how much of the flavour was sucked up into the flesh of the mushrooms. Actually the first time I made these I left them in the fridge overnight before cooking and the taste was amazing, definitely something to do again!

Rosemary Mushroom Kebabs for the BBQ

Mushrooms- 4 or 5 per kebab
Rosemary- nice long pieces
Garlic- as much as you like
Oil- for drizzling

Gather your rosemary sprigs, cut them into pieces that will fit about 4 or 5 mushrooms comfortably.
Strip the leaves off, just leaving a few on top to look pretty, then chop them finely.

Cut the ends of the rosemary sprigs sharply on a diagonal to make them nice and pointy

Trim the ends of the mushrooms if you like, just for looks and uniformity. (I always keep the trimmings to use in sauces, risotto, or other recipes)

Thread the mushrooms onto the sticks of rosemary- don't they look pretty!

Pop them into a dish, toss in a few crushed garlic cloves,sprinkle with the cut rosemary leaves, then drizzle with oil. Use straight away, or leave them for a while to let the flavours infuse.

Fire up your BBQ, toss on slabs of meat if you like, then place on your beautiful mushroom kebabs.

Turn just once or twice to cook evenly, isn't it easy turning a whole stick at once?

Serve your kebabs deliciously hot from the grill, either on their own or next to your slabs of meat.

Lovely.

Simple it may be, but a real winner.

Check out this site for some more great ways with mushrooms:

http://www.mymushrooms.com.au/


So my Dear Readers, do you like to BBQ, and how do you like to serve your mushrooms?












.