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

MORE APPETISERS WITH EGGS & FISH

Smoked Salmon Roulade,  Fromage de Brebis & Oven-dried Tomatoes

The fifth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. I made two versions, the first using  local organic goats' cheese was really tasty and rolled well into a classic roulade but ...read more

Fresh Figs, Smoked Salmon Wraps.

The twenty-second recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. For a Winter party there is nothing more refreshing than a reminder of Summer; sun-kissed figs...read more

Baked Organic Quail Egg in a Nest.

The twelfth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. A variant of a dish we used to eat regularly at home on the farm when I was a child. ..read more

 

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©  Sue Cross 2017 

 

Heart-shaped potato canapés with spicy tomato and anchovies. Open Mazagrans à la provençale

The  Mazagran I'm presenting here is one with a difference, for when I looked at making an à la provençale version, I thought it would be so pretty that I felt it would be a shame to cover it up with potato. This comes from the South East as the name suggests and normally includes aubergine, green beans and potato but for my version I'm using the provençale base, which is a thick tomato fondue. I'm also presenting it in the form of a pissaladière, a typically Southern French pizza-style street food, which I first tasted in the monégasque tomato version in the market of Monte-Carlo, many, many years ago.

To make these I decided on the medium heart-shaped biscuit cutter from my newly purchased set.

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 425°F

INGREDIENTS

(makes 16)

For the 'Pastry':

4 small to medium potatoes
A knob of butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Rice flour for dusting

For the Spicy Tomato Fondue:

4 medium  tomatoes - chopped
1 small red onion - chopped
1 small red (sweet) pepper  - chopped

2 chopped chillies - I used French varieties; 1 mild fresh Piment de Bresse and one small hot dried d'Espelette Pepper* (including some of the seeds)

1 clove of garlic - finely chopped
butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper

* Piment d'Espelette is from the Basque country, which spans the borders of France and Spain and its cookery is hot, colourful and powerful. There is a link to one of its most famous dishes at the end of this article.

à la pissaladière

8 halved black olives
4 salted anchovies (rinsed in water)
herbes de Provence

METHOD

For the 'Pastry':

Boil the potatoes whole and in their skins 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 potato becoming 'gluey'. Add salt and pepper and the butter. Set aside to cool.

For the Spicy Tomato Fondue:

I made more than I needed because I was going to use it as a base for other dishes. When using chillies I find it better to make sauces in larger quantities because otherwise the flavour can get overpowering. This fondue freezes very well.

Sauté the onions, chillies, pepper and garlic in butter in a heavy bottomed pan until they begin to soften. Add the tomatoes, season and then cook, stirring occasionally until the liquid is reduced and you have a thick tomato sauce. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. At this point I mash it up with a potato masher just to make it smoother and easier to spoon onto the potato.

ASSEMBLING THE MAZAGRANS

Dust your pastry board and rolling pin with rice flour. Work with a handful of pastry at a time, it's easier that way. Roll it out and add more rice flour if the potato begins to stick to either the board or pin. Using a cutter of your choice, I liked the medium heart for this, cut out the 'pastry' shapes. When you have cut the first one and with the cutter still in place move it slightly from left to right. If it slides easily and the potato moves with it then the rice flour is doing its work. I was so happy to find this solution, as I tried first with potato flour and it was nowhere near as successful!

Place the shapes onto a buttered tray and once you have filled the tray put it in the oven for 5 minutes, after which the potato should feel slightly firm to the touch.

Place one teaspoonful of tomato fondue on each heart.

Split the anchovies and remove the backbone and fin (unless of course they are already filleted). Cut each fillet in half.

Place a piece of anchovy and half a black olive on each half and sprinkle with herbes de Provence or a similar favourite herb mix.

Cook in oven on the top shelf for a further 10 minutes but check after 5 minutes to make sure they are not cooking too quickly, if they are, move the tray down to the next level.

Serve warm.

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

RELATED ARTICLES

Individual Potato Pies à la Clamart. Gluten-free

The eighteenth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. I've been making these for years, unaware that they had an official French culinary name...read more

Piperade The Taste of the Sun from South West France GLUTEN-FREE

In the dish of piperade, there is more of the Flamenco than the Java more of Miró than Monet. Piperade breaks the rules of classic cookery...read more

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©  Sue Cross 2017

Individual Potato Pies à la Clamart. Mazagran with petits pois and raw cream. Gluten-free

I've been making these in the larger version for years, neither aware that they had an official French culinary name nor that they were traditional gluten-free hors d'oeuvres! I tend to read cookery books, as I would novels and in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, Larousse Gastronomique and Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, the recipes are but a fraction of the whole. The rest is history, husbandry, anecdotes and personal experience, all of which goes to make a 'damn good read'. Food and the way we prepare and consume it is part of our heritage, every dish tells us something about who we were and who we are today.

Most people may know the term Mazagran from the fashion of drinking ice cold, often ice-drip coffee from a distinctive glass or earthernware cup. It's actually quite an old fashion, as it dates back to the siege of Mazagran in 1840, when a group of French soldiers, as legend has it, were obliged to drink cold coffee with water rather than their usual hot coffee with brandy. This however, does not explain how in Larousse Gastronomique, the term also refers to an oven-baked potato pastry pie, 'filled with a salpicon...or similar preparation'. There are Algerian Maakouda or fried potato cakes, which are sometimes baked but not filled. Thus, Mazagran could be a regional version or perhaps people used the distinctive Mazagran cup to cut out the potato pastry... whatever the explanation, they are delicious! However, if any one knows the exact reason for this name, I would be very interested.

PETITS POIS FASHION & MANIA

When we think of Catherine de Medici it may not be cookery that first springs to mind. With her marriage to Henry II in 1533 and as part of her dowry, she brought with her from the Florentine court a whole host of chefs, cooks, gardeners, and viticulturalists, who would change the cuisine of France and establish it as one of the greatest in the World. Many French dishes today were founded on Catherine's dowry in the way of new seed varieties and the manner of harvesting and preparing vegetables. One example was Cassoulet, the chief ingredient being the famous Tarbais bean and another was the fashion for petits pois. Until the arrival of Catherine, peas had been grown only in the varieties suitable for harvesting and drying for Winter use. Famously due to their protein content and ease of storage, the armies of France marched not just on their stomachs but more specifically on peas. The Florentine Court consumed peas fresh and also consumed them young. 

Old habits die hard however, and it was not until the late 1600s, when a French nobleman returned from Genoa  with fresh peas and presented them to Louis XIV,  that they became incredibly fashionable. The craze for eating them when immature, of course meant that they were so small that the price rose to accommodate the need for early harvesting and thus diminished yields. High prices only fuelled 'the fashion and madness for petits pois', as Madame de Maintenon, the King's mistress and later his second wife, wrote in a letter to cardinal Cardinal de Noailles in May, 1696:

'Petis pois continue to be a fascinating  topic. The  expectation of eating them, the pleasure of eating them and the anticipation of eating more of them are three subjects which our princes have been discussing for three days.'

To have them as fresh as possible for the noble tables of Paris, areas in its vicinity were dedicated to the culture of petits pois. For their extensive market gardens comprising pea fields, towns such as Saint-Germain and Clamart had recipes named after them which incorporated this new fashion for eating little immature peas. This is one of the easiest of the mazagran fillings but it is nonetheless very tasty. So let's make mazagrans à la Clamart.

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 220°C or 425°F

INGREDIENTS

(makes 16)

For the 'Pastry':

4 medium to large potatoes
A knob of butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
White rice flour for dusting

For the Filling:

16 heaped teaspoonfuls of cooked petits pois
1 tablespoon of fresh raw cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper

METHOD

For the 'Pastry':

Boil the potatoes whole and in their skins until firm but cooked well enough so that  a fork will pierce them easily. Peel and then mash with a hand masher, thus avoiding any chance of the potato becoming 'gluey'. Add salt and pepper and the butter. Set aside to cool.

For the Filling:

Mash the peas and cream together to obtain a smoothish paste - I preferred to still have some texture to my petits pois as this makes a good contrast to that of the potato pastry. 

ASSEMBLING THE MAZAGRANS

Mazagrans were traditionally cut out with round fluted cutters and in fact for the first ones I made I used these. However, I recently bought a set of four different shaped biscuit cutters in three different sizes because, firstly I thought they would look more interesting on a buffet table and secondly it was a lot easier for me to keep track of what filling was in which!

Dust your pastry board and rolling pin with rice flour. Work with a handful of pastry at a time, it's easier that way. Roll it out and add more rice flour if the potato begins to stick to either the board or pin. Using a cutter of your choice, I liked the medium heart for this, cut out the 'pastry' shapes. When you have cut the first one and with the cutter still in place move it slightly from left to right. If it slides easily and the potato moves with it then the rice flour is doing its work. I was so happy to find this solution, as I tried first with potato flour and it was nowhere near as successful!

Place the shapes onto a buttered tray.

Cut the lids so you will be ready to assemble them immediately you have positioned the filling. Prick the lids with a fork to allow for any excess moisture to escape.

Place one teaspoonful of the pea and cream mixture on each heart leaving a border to allow for a good seal with the potato lid. Make sure to press around the edges of the heart gently but firmly.

Cook for 10 to 15 minutes on the top shelf of the oven, but check after 5 minutes to make sure they not cooking too quickly. If they are, then move the tray down to the next level.

Serve warm.

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

RELATED ARTICLES

Potato heart-shaped canapés à la provençale. 

The nineteenth recipe in my 100 Gluten-free Party Food Challenge. This Mazagran  is one with a difference, for when I looked at making an à la provençale version..read more
 

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©  Sue Cross 2017
Thanks to the Pinterest Boards of i.pinimg.com for The Marriage of Catherine de Medici and Invaluable.com for the Dali Mazagran service

Baked Black Figs Ratafia Hot Gluten-free Dessert Appetiser

Juicy and delicious, served hot or cold, here I'm using a medium size fresh black fig, the variety is Col de Dame Noir. The fig is named for the fashionable high lace collars, in this case black (but there is a white and grey version too), which were being when this fig was first raised. There is a baby fig variety called Ronde de Bordeaux and if you choose these you can obviously make twice as many appetisers from the same amount of topping. I created this simple recipe a few years back in late Summer, when a friend turned up with a huge bag full of black figs from his garden. We ate many of them fresh but when the remainder became very ripe, we found they were even more delicious with the addition of another contrasting but complimentary flavour. Cut in half and topped with ratafia mixture they are easy to handle as a finger food and you can serve them just as they are or add a paper case.

...or you can serve when just warm and top with a little cream and an almond.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 20

10 figs (halved)

20 whole almonds or 10 if you want just to use halves! They actually look well on the plate as a mixture.

Cream (optional)
Paper cake cases (optional)

For the ratafia mix:

2oz (60g) Blanched Almonds
2oz raw cane sugar (60g) (rapadura)
¼ teaspoon of rose water
1 egg white

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 190°C or 375°F

METHOD

Pound the almonds with the rosewater. (Or you can buy ready-to-use powdered almonds aka almond meal).

Stir in the sugar.

Whisk the egg white until stiff and add it slowly to the almonds and sugar.

Keep folding in the egg white until you are sure it is  thoroughly mixed.


Place the figs on a lightly buttered dish.

Using a teaspoon, cooled in ice-cold water, drop a little amount of mixture onto the centre of each fig. Make it heaped towards the middle and away from the edges as this will allow room for expansion during cooking. At this point add the almonds to those you are intending to serve hot.

Place in oven on the middle shelf and cook for around 10-20 minutes or until the ratafia feels slightly firm to the touch. Check them at 5, 10 and 15 minutes to see how they are progressing! It will depend on how juicy the figs are as to how quickly they will cook.

Serve hot fresh from the oven, as they are or in a paper case.

As mentioned above, I also like to serve them cold with a little raw cream and an almond.

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 

Kartoffelpuffer With Fresh Fig and Prosciutto Di Parma Salad - Hot Appetiser/Canapé Gluten-free

German potato pancakes aka kartoffelpuffer unlike the English version, which are traditionally made from mashed potatoes and then baked, are made from grated potatoes and often onions and then shallow fried. In Northern and Western Germany the potato pancake is like the wheat flour crêpe in Britanny and Basse-Normandie, the ultimate in street food and is sold in markets, fairs and holiday destinations for immediate consumption. However, unlike the crêpe, which is purely for sweet toppings, with its counterpart the buckwheat galette used for the savoury, kartoffelpuffer are used for both. The popular and traditional German dessert version would be served with apple sauce, cinnamon and sugar. As a base for a gluten-free dish therefore kartoffelpuffer are extremely versatile.

INGREDIENTS

As a general guide and for 20 small Kartoffelpuffer:

Two large potatoes
Two small onions
One small beaten egg
The figs are from our garden.

The Parma I buy as the end of the ham - the bit that no one can cut into a decent slice, so I get it at a knock down price! Bacon or ham of any sort would be just as good when matched with a fig and the vinaigrette below.

Green salad leaves, here I'm using young beetroot leaves from the garden.

The salad is dressed with a honey vinaigrette made with raw apple cider vinegar and olive oil and with just a hint of whole-grain mustard.

METHOD

Peel and grate the potatoes and onions with a coarse grater.

Using a large sieve held at an angle, over a bowl, squeeze handfuls of the grated vegetables to express the juice. The angle allows you to keep the potato mix draining, whilst squeezing further handfuls. Many people use a glass cloth or tea towel to do this but personally I find it makes for less clearing up to do it this way!

Once you have finished, allow the liquid in the bowl to stand until you see the thick creamy starch separating from it and sinking to the bottom of the bowl.

Pour the clear liquid from the starch. Discard the liquid and add the grated vegetables to the starch in the bowl.

Season with salt and pepper and incorporate the egg and grated vegetable. Meanwhile heat a large frying pan with butter or an oil suitable for frying, just a thin layer.

When the oil is hot enough so it sizzles when you add a test piece of potato, spoon in a tablespoon of the mix and flatten down with the back of the spoon. I like the pancakes very thin, that way they become very crisp and complement the salad really well.

After approximately 4 minutes of cooking, when they are golden brown, flip the pancakes over to cook on the other side.

Top pancakes with salad leaves, fig and ham and vinaigrette. They are usually served straight from the pan but actually we like them 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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©  Sue Cross 2017 

Mini Scottish Oat Cakes with Roquefort Salad - Gluten-free

As the recipe for the oatcake was handed down through families, it is difficult to know its exact origins. However, like the ancient Mongolians, who used their shields to cook their food, documents show that in the 14th century the Chieftain and his clan used theirs to bake oatcakes. It is even believed that the Romans, whilst in the country, to misquote Saint Ambrose; 'did as the Scotch did' and survived on oatcakes! As for Dr Johnson in his famous dictionary of the English Language, published 1755, under the entry for the grain he wrote: 'Oats n.s. [aten, Saxon.] A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.'

To which the writer Walter Scott returned:
'Did you ever hear of Lord Elibank's reply when Johnson's famous definition of oats was first pointed out to him? 

"The food of men in Scotland and horses in England," repeated Lord Elibank; "very true, and where will you find such men and such horses?"'¹

FOREWORD on Gluten-free Oats

Oats do not contain gluten, however it is best not to buy them, if you are gluten intolerant, unless they are labelled as certified gluten-free. In countries where oats are not a traditional crop, fields can be contaminated by stray plants when other cereal crops are grown in close proximity. Here in France, for example, where there were no dedicated oat-growing areas, we used to find it impossible to buy certified organic gluten-free oats. However, due to the ever increasing popularity of gluten-free foods and international cuisine, we are now seeing certified oats on the shelves. It is also worth noting that post harvest, certified gluten-free oats are processed in dedicated mills where they can not be contaminated with other grains. This is why people often get confused about why all oats are not labelled as suitable for those allergic to gluten.

OAT CAKES

INGREDIENTS

(makes 30 small oatcakes)

225g - 8oz rolled, pinhead or steel cut gluten-free oats

1 generous pinch salt 1 tablespoon butter or butter and palm oil, dripping, bacon fat or lard

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

8 tablespoons (120ml) of hot water (steel cut oats may require a little more water)

Extra oats for sprinkling

TEMPERATURE & TIMES

Preheat the oven to 390°F or 200°C. Cook for approximately 20-30 minutes.

METHOD

Oats in recipes and porridge are traditionally mixed with a wooden spurtle in Scotland. One day we will get around to turning one on the lathe but until then we use a wooden spoon handle!

Chop up oats using a coffee grinder or similar for a few seconds so as to retain the texture of the oats without making a flour.

Mix the dry ingredients and add the melted fat by pouring into the centre of the mixture.

Using a wooden spoon handle stir well whilst incorporating enough water to make a stiff dough.

Powder your hands, bowl or board with chopped oats or oat flour and knead the dough, working quickly.

Using plenty of chopped oats on your board and pin, roll out into a thin round, traditionally these are cut into wedges but for finger food we cut them into small biscuits.

Place on a buttered baking tray put in the pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes.

If you decide to make them in the traditional way, cook on a medium heated griddle or frying pan for approximately 3 minutes. When they are cooked the edges will begin to curl and turn golden brown.

 

ROQUEFORT SALAD

Traditionally oatcakes are eaten with butter, honey, game, smoked salmon, soup and cheese. I am matching them with a Roquefort salad, a simple yet satisfying accompaniment made from:

-  a slice of pear

- a smidgen of raw butter and a bed of  nasturtium leaf (to prevent sogginess) 

-  arugula/rocket flowers

-  a crumble of Roquefort (or your 'local' blue cheese)

-  walnuts in season

The salad is dressed with a simple vinaigrette made of one part apple cider vinegar to three parts olive oil.

Oatcakes will keep well in an airtight tin  so can be prepared in advance. We usually crisp them up in a warm oven for around 5 minutes.

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 

¹ Letter from Sir Walter Scott to Mr Croker March 14th 1829, The Croker Papers Vol ii p. 35