Belgian Endive Barges with Cargoes of Red Gold Tunisian Salad. Gluten-free

There are so many descriptions in literature of famous cargoes, river barges and sail boats filled with gorgeous jewels and silks, gold and peacocks. Perhaps the most well known are Shakespeare's description of Cleopatra's meeting with Mark Antony on the Nile and the historic voyage of the Queen of Sheba or Saba to meet with King Solomon. Here I take my inspiration from both to create something that is fun and delicious for the festive buffet table.

I always like to use fruit in my salads but here is  a Tunisian salad that uses only fruit and furthermore, two that are refreshingly light and juicy and a great foil to the other more substantial fare I've already uploaded to the groaning board.

And here's a poem that fits the food in its first and second stanzas! John Masefield's Cargoes: 

'Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.'

 

A FOREWORD ON BELGIUM ENDIVES

There are two ways of growing these with the familiar one being to regrow or rather to force the chicons indoors. It is usual to place the tap roots, with the tops cut off, in a free-draining pot or similar (I use an old stainless steel washing machine drum) and cover with a dark cloth or tarpaulin. This produces pristine white/gold, or if I use radicchio, beautiful red and white striped Belgium endive. However, the other way is to cut off the tap roots and replant outdoors and cover with a layer of soil and then a tarpaulin. Many people don't like this idea as endive de terre or earth chicory, as they are known here, are often sold in their natural rather more grubby state to differentiate them from the other kind. This is a shame because actually they are much sweeter than the indoor kind and as they are smaller, eminently suitable for use in the above recipe!

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE BARGES

(makes 20)

20 Belgium endive leaves (2 - 3 chicons)
2 - 3 small oranges or mandarins

The seeds (and arils aka juicy outer seed casing) from 1 small pomegranate

10-15 pistachio nuts

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE

2 dessert spoons of olive oil
1 dessert spoon of balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon raw cane sugar (rapadura)
½ teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon paprika
Extra spice for decorative sprinkling

METHOD

Place the leaves on a plate or serving dish.

Slice the peeled citrus fruits finely and cut each slice into half.

Place two halves in each of the 'barges'.

Add the pomegranate and the finely chopped pistachios to the cargo (reserving some of the latter for later).

Mix the ingredients of the vinaigrette together. Put a little of each in the barges.

Sprinkle the remaining spice and nuts over the whole dish and serve immediately. Otherwise keep chilled but add the sprinkle of spices just before you bring the dish to the table.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

SOME MORE EXAMPLES OF OUR COLD SAVOURY APPETISERS

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The fifteenth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. Contrary to perceived wisdom, that picnics are a warm weather event, there is nothing...read more

Marinated Feta on Sticks - Gluten-free Cocktail Party

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Fresh Figs, Smoked Salmon Wraps. Gluten-free

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60's Cocktail Party Classic:  Cheese, Ham & Pineapple Sticks

The twentieth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. A 60's cocktail party classic, cheese and pineapple on a stick but this time with marinated cheese...read more

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©  Sue Cross 2017 

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes à la Bonne Femme. Gluten-free

Stuffed tomatoes are a standard classic French pre-takeaway takeaway and interestingly are slow rather than fast food. Every traiteur and charcuterie has them in season as a ready made dish to take home and heat up. Most butchers' shop in France make one daily ready-made hot dish and stuffed tomatoes à la bonne femme is again a seasonal favourite. I've always thought how interesting it is that many countries, France is just one, maintain this old tradition and link with the past, when people didn't necessarily have ovens or maybe wanted an oven-baked meal without going to a restaurant. I really loved, when I was in Portugal, seeing people, mainly the elderly coming to restaurants with their fish, bought straight off the boats and getting them, cooked on a restaurant's barbecue. What better way to get a good nutritious hot meal and a chat!

Here I'm using cherry tomatoes and these make great hot savouries in a bite sized edition!

Cherry tomatoes are very easy to grow in a small space in a container or hanging basket. If you have a greenhouse or a window sill you can keep them producing right up to the first frosts. Tomatoes are perennials, so with care you can keep the plants from year to year.

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 200°C or 400°F

INGREDIENTS

(makes 16)

16 cherry tomatoes

1 small red onion finely chopped

1 chipolata sausage or equivalent in sausagemeat

½ teaspoon herbes de Provence

Butter, coconut or your chosen oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

METHOD

Rinse and dry the tomatoes.

Slice off the top of each to make a lid and set these to one side.

Using a teaspoon, carefully remove the inside of each tomato.

Sauté the red onion until it begins to soften. Add the chopped interior of the tomato and let this simmer briskly until it loses most of its liquid. 

Split the skins of the sausage  and add the meat  to the pan and cook these until the sausagemeat has browned and the sauce has thickened.

Add the herbs and mix well.

Using a teaspoon stuff each tomato with the filling and place on a buttered tray.

Put a 'lid' onto each tomato.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cherry tomatoes are cooked.

Allow them to cool slightly if you are taking them straight to the table. Tomatoes hold their heat too well!

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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Prawn Kedgeree Stuffed Eggs. Gluten-free Hot Appetiser

Kedgeree makes a great breakfast or supper dish and to my mind with its beautiful rich colours would grace any buffet table. How to serve it was a problem because it is a substantial dish and all the individual baking cases I have seemed way too substantial as well. My best and I hope you'll agree the prettiest solution was to present it in the egg itself. This way it can be served straight from the oven, piping hot!

Kedgeree as khicṛī or khicaṛī is one of those great ancient Eastern egg and rice dishes reputed since the 14th century as a nourishing and easily digested invalid food. One school of thought believed that it was this very mild spiciness which first attracted its notice to the British in India. Legend has it that the Scots regiments sent to India adopted it over porridge  as a breakfast food and by which time it had acquired the addition of fish. There are many legends attached to it, one being that consuming fish in the morning was the most practical way to enjoy it in a hot climate. At a later date when the dish was imported into Britain it incorporated smoked fish and became a supper favourite. Another story holds that the British in India used the dish as a hangover cure after a night on the chhota pegs.

A FOREWORD ON ORGANIC PRAWNS 

Although we live by the sea and can easily get wild local shrimp, prawns are another matter. To get the quantity to make a dish here, we need to go out by boat to the beautiful Chausey Islands (below), something we have done in the past. The only other prawn I would ever eat would be an organically farmed one and these will be ready cooked. We eat them from the packet but if you are concerned, then you can always heat them up quickly by dropping them for a few minutes into boiling water.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

125g - 4oz Basmati or Thai rice cooked (see below)

100g - 3½oz of cooked prawns

10 hard boiled eggs

1 medium red onion, chopped
1 dessert spoon of turmeric
1 heaped dessert spoon of coconut oil or raw butter
Paprika for sprinkling.
Black pepper

Rice and the Steam Dragon

As for the rice, I cook it in a very ad hoc manner taught to me by a friend who was maniacal about the 'Steam Dragon'. Very simply I wash the rice several times in cold water, then cover it with two fingers depth of water. Put it on a high heat, reducing this when it starts to boil too furiously and never open the pan lid, except just to quickly check now and again for when the water has been absorbed - if you open the lid too wide you let out the Steam Dragon. It seems like many dishes, rice is better left alone. Once the water has been absorbed and the rice is very slightly al dente remove the pan lid to allow the remaining water to quickly evaporate, leaving the rice 'dry' and fluffy. If you still have water visible above the rice but the grains have already reached this stage, then pour off the excess water first. If you overcook rice it goes sticky, then it is called 'friendly rice', which I think shows just how forgiving cookery can be!

Cook the onions in butter until they are soft.

Melt the  coconut or butter and add the turmeric to it. Incorporate these gently into the rice to get an even colour. Add the onions.

Cut the eggs in half and hollow out the yolks. Crumble the latter and add to the rice, leaving a little yolk to sprinkle on the finished dish. Keep the rice mix on the top of the stove on a trivet, so that it keeps hot but does not burn.

Cut 10 of the prawns in half longways and chop the rest. Add the chopped prawns to the rice. Season with black pepper, which allows for better absorption of the curcumin in the turmeric - as it is not just fish that is good for the brain!. Taste and add salt if needed.


Form into balls and place inside the halved eggs. Place in the warming drawer until all are ready.

Add a halved prawn to the top (you can heat these first in boiling water if you wish but be aware they will become rubbery if you overcook).

Sprinkle with finely crumbled yolk. Dust with paprika and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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Baked Stuffed Apples with Dried Fruit & Nuts à la Chantilly - Gluten Free

Apples are one of the things we are never short of here in Normandie and as there are many interesting, ancient, festive dishes associated with them, I will be presenting a few for this series. We have an old traditional cider apple orchard and although we grafted some of the  trees with old eating apple varieties, others still have the same ancient small sharper flavoured fruits of yore. However, by leaving our cider apples on the trees, sometime around the end of September and through to the beginning of November these respectively become 'eaters'. Because they are often much smaller than dessert and cooking apples, cider varieties lend themselves very easily to individual appetiser dishes. Furthermore because they still retain a slightly acidic tang, they are eminently suitable to be stuffed with sweetmeats. If you are using dessert apples then alter the sugar accordingly. For an extra festive touch I like to add a dusting of mixed spice or similar.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

10 small apples

For the Stuffing:

I2 prunes
2 figs
4 apricots
10 almonds
20 raisins
20 cranberries
1 small lemon (zest and juice)

1 dessert spoon of rum or similar

1 dessert spoon of raw butter

1 dessert spoon of raw coconut oil

2 dessert spoons of raw cane sugar

For the Chantilly:

100ml or ¼ pint of raw cream

1½ - 2  dessert spoons of  raw cane sugar

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 190°C or 375°F

METHOD 

Chop the fruit and nuts. Add the sugar, lemon zest and juice and the spirit if you are using it. Set aside for a while to allow the flavours to develop and the fruit to absorb the liquid.

Wash and halve the apples horizontally. Remove the core and pips, turn the halves over and remove the stalk and calyx. Place in a heat-proof dish

Seal the gaps left by the removal of the two latter with a raisin.

Mix the coconut and butter into the stuffing and use a teaspoon to stuff the apple halves.

Pour in 3-4 tablespoons of cold water around the base of the apples. This will stop them drying out before they are cooked through, it will also mean they will part-steam and be juicier but still hold their shape.

Cover the dish with baking parchment and place in the middle of the oven for around 25 minutes.

Whisk the cream and sugar together for the Chantilly. Place the cooked apples on a festive plate and allow to cool slightly before topping each apple half with a teaspoonful of Chantilly and dust with icing sugar and (if liked) mixed, apple pie or similar spice.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017