Pistachio Stuffed Dates. Moroccan Gluten-free Petits Fours

When I was a child, many years ago, I was very lucky, on a holiday to the Southern most tip of Spain to visit North Africa. For a child crossing the Straits of Gibraltar with dolphins leaping around the prow seemingly spurring us onwards, it was and for all I know, still is, a magical journey to a beautiful land. There were camels in the gardens of our hotel and my sister and I got to take a short ride on a very gentle female, accompanied by her baby complete with cartoon eyelashes. I remember the sights, sounds and smells of the markets and the statuesque Berber people. As a child I noticed little of the cuisine but there is one scented memory which, like Marcel Proust's lime soaked cake crumbs, calls me back there in an instant; the smell of mint tea. This recipe for stuffed dates is normally accompanied with the same fragrant and typically Moroccan drink.

I've chosen the variety Deglet Noor to use in this recipe, which with its elegant tapered shape and soft translucent honey colour, well deserves its name; 'finger of light'.

Dates are thought to be one of the oldest cultivated crops and interestingly enough for this gluten-free recipe, are often referred to as 'the Bread of the Desert'.

A FOREWORD ON ROSEWATER

I make my own rose water as I have a whole garden full of old variety rose bushes including those damask roses traditionally used to make rose water and for culinary use. If you do not have access to organic roses but want to use rose water I'm including here a couple of links, from the two major and traditional rose growing countries: Morocco and Bulgaria. Both rose waters are designated as food-grade but only one carries USDA official organic certification. If you want to know how to make your own then check out the link at the end of this article, where I show how to make and use it medicinally.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 18 Stuffed Deglet Dates you will need to double the mix for large dates)

18 dates
50g - 1¾oz of butter
½ teaspoon of rose water
75g - 2½oz of chopped pistachio nuts
60g - 2oz of powdered sugar
extra chopped pistachios for decoration

It was only when I was making up the stuffing that I noticed the pistachios I'd purchased, the only ones on offer in my local organic store, were salted. Here, in France, pistachios are mostly eaten as an accompaniment to an apéritif. We both tasted the mixture and pronounced it delectable, rather similar to caramel au beurre salé but with more flavours and textures from the hint of rose to the crunchy pistachios. However, the original recipe would be made with unsalted pistachios but when I checked several other recipes...they added salt!.

METHOD

With a sharp knife make an incision in the dates large enough to remove the pit.

Open the date wider using the thumbs.

Melt the butter, remove from the heat and then add the rose water and the chopped pistachios. Add the sugar and mix well.

Use a potato masher or end of a rolling pin (I used the latter) to obtain a smoother 'dough'.

Divide the mixture into 18 and using a teaspoon, stuff the dates.

Place them in a cool place.

After a couple of hours press the dates more firmly together to make sure the filling is safely in place. Sprinkle with a few chopped pistachios and serve immediately.

I have to say that this was the first time I'd made these, as normally I stuff dates with home-made marzipan. This recipe was absolutely delicious and I'm glad I only made six because Andy reckoned that once he'd started eating them, it had been hard to stop! He also admitted he could have eaten all of them!

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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ROSE WATER TO MAKE:

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©  Sue Cross 2017 
 

Radish Sail Boats Laden with Ricotta - Gluten-free Beach Party

Contrary perhaps to perceived wisdom, that picnics are a warm weather event, that is unless you are thinking of hot coffee and sandwiches consumed in the car looking out on a troubled sea, there is nothing quite like a Winter picnic on the beach. Whilst others here in France are snoozing and sleeping off the previous night's feasting, on Christmas Day Andy and I have been known to walk down the 2 kilometres to the beach lugging a basket full of goodies. To this end I decided to make these tasty 'sail boats' as part of my gluten-free challenge and being light and juicy they are just the thing to eat on the hoof for a brisk walk along the shore.

Although I've seen photographs of stuffed round radish, I only had to look at these perfectly named variety 'Flamboyant' to think 'boat'. They are easy to eat despite looks, just pull out the stick, eat the sails and cockpit and then the boat and cargo, or vice versa. Unlike my previous offering this recipe is, quick, simple and easy to make and they use minimal ingredients and I hope you'll agree, for maximum impact. I served them at home on a mirror and also added a mother ship, leader of the fleet, in avocado, she carried more cargo and needed a spoon!

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

10 long radish
10 teaspoons of ricotta
5 black olives
10 cherry/cocktail tomatoes
2 large leaves of Batavia or similar frilly leaved lettuce
20 cocktail sticks

METHOD

Cut each radish in half longways and remove a thin section of the  'hull' so she'll sit well on the water/mirror.

Load each of the decks with half a teaspoon of ricotta.

Cut sails from the lettuce leaves. Choose pieces with one edge cut near to the rib or in its general vicinity and where the leaf is crisper and will easily run up the mast.

Cut the olives into quarters and the tomatoes into halves.

Thread the sails onto the sticks. Add the black olive and tomato cockpit and leave enough stick to spear the hull.

Go to the beach and launch!

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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Sausage and Mash a British Tradition on a Stick. Hot Gluten-free Appetiser

The Industrial Revolution changed more things than manufacturing practices and output, vast numbers of country people, who had lived on varied home-raised seasonal foods were now crammed into city slums and living on mainly a wheat-based diet. In England, the Repeal of the Corn Laws had opened the gates to a flood of cheap, slave-produced wheat from the British colonies.  Most of the new poor had no access to cooking facilities and a whole host of Pie Shops and Taverns  set up in business to cater for the ever growing workforce. There were, as many culinary historians have grimly noted, excellent opportunities for hiding dubious ingredients within a pastry case and under a piquant sauce! 

The sausage was one of the first convenience foods ever produced, it was introduced into Britain by the Romans. One of the Tavern dishes which was not pastry-based and is still a favourite pub meal today, is sausage aka bangers and mash, often served with onion gravy. Like so many traditional recipes it carries its own flavour of nostalgia within it. Every ex-cottage dweller would remember the taste of home-bred pork, for before the Enclosure Acts even the Landless Poor had been able to keep a pig on common land.  For the Irish immigrant workers too, this dish would have harked back to their home diet, which had been based around the potato.

Pig keeping is one of the oldest forms of farming and the earliest pigs were part wild and fed themselves on foraged foods (sometimes with a little help, as above). In the 9th century, King Alfred's reign saw the introduction of pascua porcōrrum, or denbǽra, feeding rights, which became payable at the end of the fattening season, in pigs. So much was this 'rental' a part of rural life that the practice became synonymous with the month of November, as seen above in the calendar page for that month in the Queen Mary Psalter c 1310 (British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts).

Here I'm offering an appetiser version of sausage and mash. We live in a longère (longhouse), which at sometime in the 19th Century was used as a Post House and where travellers changed horses and stopped for refreshment on their way to the Channel Ports. In one part of the house there is a fireplace that could accommodate a whole ox but I'm sure, given that people have been raising pigs here in the traditional way for centuries, I'm pleasing the old ghosts with the savour of sausage and mash.

 

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 425°F

INGREDIENTS

(makes 18)

For the Mash:

6 Small Potatoes
Melted Butter
Salt and Freshly Milled Pepper

For the Sticks:

3 Pure Meat Chipolata Sausages or 18 Cocktail Sausages.
1 Medium Red Onion
1 teaspoon Sesame Seeds
2 dessertspoons of Maple Syrup

METHOD

For the Mash:

Peel and then boil the potatoes until firm but cooked well enough so that a fork will pierce them easily. Mash with a hand masher, thus avoiding any chance of the mash becoming 'gluey'. Add salt and pepper and a little butter.

Form the mash into round balls small enough to sit neatly in the palm of the hand.

Place in a buttered baking tin and cook on the top shelf of the oven until the potato has formed a skin but not browned (around 10 to 15 minutes). This will give them the appearance of mash rather than roast potatoes!

 

 

For the Sticks:

Cut the onion into small wedges, spoon a little melted butter over them, place on on a buttered baking tray and roast for 10 to 15 minutes.

Grill or fry the chipolatas until golden brown.

Dry fry the sesame seeds until they begin to crackle and/or you can smell them cooking (around 3 minutes). Allow to cool.

Mix them into the  maple syrup to form the glaze.

Keep everything hot in the warming draw until all the ingredients for the sticks are cooked.

Cut each chipolata into six pieces, thread a piece of onion, a piece of sausage and finally a ball of mash onto the stick. Spoon the glaze onto the sausage. Place the sticks in the oven for a few minutes and then serve immediately.

Despite the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic 'A Fine Romance', these appetisers are actually really tasty cold, particularly if the glaze is spooned over the whole stick. However, they are really good when hot.

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 

Baked Organic Quail Egg in a Nest. Hot Gluten-free Appetiser

In case you were wondering where I find organic quail eggs, I raise my own. In 2000 we moved permanently from a city to a farmhouse in France. I knew Andy's life would be miserable unless we came up with a cure for his hay fever. I'd been reading up on the use of quail in ancient Eastern medicine and I decided that it was well worth a trial. At that time, except for some work done around the 1960s by a Dr Truffier, no one had discovered why quail eggs cured so many respiratory and allergic conditions. That didn't bother me one jot and ironically we cured not only Andy's hay fever but also his eczema. If you want to read about the therapeutic use of quail eggs and how we raise our quail, then you can find detailed information in the links below.

This is a dish (in larger version) we used to eat regularly at home on the farm when I was a child. It is simple and nutritious, was fun for us kids to make and used the ingredients we always had to hand: eggs and potatoes.

Below: 'Hands off these are Mine!' Cecily, one of our Golden Manchurian Coturnix) protecting the nest.

 

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 425°F

INGREDIENTS

Makes 18 to 20 nests

4 Medium to Large Potatoes. Preferably 'floury' varieties that are suitable for mashing.
Quail Eggs
Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste.

METHOD

Peel and then boil the potatoes until firm but cooked well enough so that  a fork will pierce them easily. Mash with a hand masher, thus avoiding any chance of the mash becoming 'gluey'. Add salt and pepper and a little butter.

Form the mash into small round balls.

Make a depression in the centre of the ball with the thumb and work the potato into a nest shape.

With a fork, lift up sections of mash to create a 'twiggy' appearance.

Place the nests on a buttered baking sheet...

...and cook until lightly golden (around 10 to 15 minutes).

Crack a quail egg into each nest add a dot of butter to the white and return to the oven cook for a further 10 minutes or until the eggs have set and have a white glazed appearance.

The nests without the eggs can be made in advance and frozen.

I also made a more rustic version, which is quicker to produce but obviously doesn't have the uniformity of the above and is not as easy to freeze!

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!


All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017 

Devils on Horseback Gluten-free Organic Hot Savoury Appetisers on Sticks

Devils on Horseback, a variation on the popular Victorian savoury Angels on Horseback, was itself a variation on the paradoxically named French dish Huitres à la Diable. The savoury course was the last dish served in a formal 19th century dinner and made use of ingredients such as grilled cheese, bacon or salt fish. These were considered as an excellent choice to 'seal' the stomach at the end of the meal. The number of courses in present day British dinner parties may have dwindled to four but most  guests would still expect to end the meal with cheese and biscuits. As someone who has cooked, hosted and eaten an eight course Victorian dinner, I can attest that they do work, as long as you have convivial company, a lengthy period for dining and you don't consume too much of any course! As we live on one of France's major oyster producing coasts, I am hoping to include the older version as well in this recipe challenge but in the meantime let's make Devils on Horseback.

 

A Foreword on Borrowed Cooking Terms

Anything with the word devil, devilled or the phrase à la diable in cookery actually just means split, put on a spit or stick and grilled. In my copy of Larousse Gastronomique, Huitres à la Diable is indeed rather boringly translated as 'Grilled Oysters'. This is somewhat redolent of the Mediaeval Church's parclose screens and doom paintings, where Hell was portrayed as demons cooking on a gridiron. Left the Fallen Angels from Le Breviari d'Amor by the Franciscan Friar and Poet Matfre Ermengaud. The more interestingly tangy side of the dish was sauce à la diable which accompanied the grilled meat, the main ingredients of which were, tomato, vinegar, shallots,  Worcester sauce and cayenne pepper.

Chevalet is a term now meaning support or easel, in the original meaning it was a three legged stool upon which a farrier rested the horse's foot whilst trimming the hoof, think also 'sawhorse' in English. In culinary terms, as with canapé (French for sofa), it referred to a savoury which sat on or was supported by a small piece of toast, pastry or similar. En chevalet also referenced the trimming of the bread and its additional covering with a wafer thin slice of ham or fat bacon to support the grilled meat and keep it in shape. Both the bacon-wrapped prunes and oysters are sometimes served on a bed of toast but the 'Angels' are more often presented in the half-shell.

Above is a suggested dinner menu from Mrs Beeton's 'entirely new', revised and expanded edition of her Book of Household Management, published in 1880. This is the first time the recipe appeared. It is not in my very scruffy edition of 1861!  My favourite cookbooks are those written prior to the turn of the last century.  They actually make very good reads as the writers are commentators on society, social history and contribute interesting anecdotes on the raising and growing of the foodstuffs.

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C. Cook for approximately 10 minutes.

INGREDIENTS 

20 small thin slices of Prosciutto di Parma, ham or bacon
20 dried Prunes
20 cocktail sticks/picks

Butter for greasing the cooking pan

METHOD

Soak the prunes in water. I just brought some water to the boil took it off the heat and then popped them in, they plumped up within a few minutes and then I removed the stones.

Soak the wooden picks in water. This is to prevent them from charring in the oven.

Take each slice of ham and using the back of a knife, run it along each piece in order to stretch it. This prevents it shrinking when cooked.

Wrap each prune in a slice of ham and fasten it with a pre-soaked cocktail stick.

Place on a buttered tray and place in oven for 10 minutes or until ham/bacon is crisp.

Serve hot - but the are good cold too!

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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RETURN TO MAIN CONTENTS PAGE 

RETURN TO 100 GLUTEN-FREE PARTY RECIPES CONTENTS 

©  Sue Cross 2017