I recently gave into new cookbook temptation and bought my second Nigella Lawson cookbook, Nigella Express – this recipe is from this book.

Ingredients:

2 sea bass, approx 900g each, gutted and prepared (I couldn’t find sea bass so got some snapper instead)

4 spring onions

6 tablespoons of Sake – Note: Sake is a Japanese liquor made by fermenting rice – most traditional sake is gluten free however there are different varieties that may use barley or other grains, so double check before you use.

2 tablespoons of soy sauce (make sure it’s a gluten free soy sauce)

1 teaspoon grated ginger

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Lay each fish on a large piece of foil, and bring up the sides ready to make a parcel.

Slice the spring onions in half lengthways and place 4 pieces into the cavity of each fish.

Into each parcel, sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sake, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and about 1/2 teaspoon of the grated ginger.

Wrap the parcels loosely but seal them firmly, and cook on a baking sheet in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Open the cooked fish parcels, peel away the skin from the top of each fish and fillet the top layer of fish.

Turn the fish over, and repeat the same process again, and then spoon over any juices from the parcel onto the fish and serve with wilted greens.

To make the wilted greens just sautee your choice of chopped vegetables in a wok for a few minutes with some oil.

I decided to keep the fish whole to eat, although I did have to cover up the head, don’t like that eye looking at me! I also threw some potatoes in the oven to have on the side of this dish.

I was really excited about how this fish would taste, but I ended up being a bit disappointed – the flavour was not intense as I was expecting. It still tasted nice though, and was really easy to do.

So I was interested to see how this would turn out. I was actually pretty impressed with the outcome.

The bread is pretty easy to make – add yeast, water and a bit of oil, go through a few processes of kneading, resting, rising, then bake for 25 minutes.

When it was done it smelled amazing, was nice and dense, and tasted pretty good for gluten free bread.

Now, to announce the first Gluten Shmooten giveaway!

I have a packet of Simply Wize French Stick mix to give to a lucky reader.

All you have to do to enter the comp is leave a comment below with “What filling would you put in your home made French stick?”

You can enter as many times as you like, but make sure you leave a comment before the end of July!

Click here to visit the website, click here to download the menu

Recipe ideas range from the healthy, like Naturally gluten free snacks…

…to the very very good (aka very bad but hey we only live once) like Peanut butter chocolate cakes…

Make sure you check out this blog for some cooking inspiration!

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Peel and finely slice 800g of potatoes. Peel, halve and finely slice 400g of medium onions and 3 cloves of garlic. Pick the leaves from a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley and finely chop. Pour a couple of lugs of olive oil into a large, hot pan with the onions, garlic and parsley. Slowly fry for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft and lightly golden. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube in 850ml of boiling water. In a large baking dish place a layer of potatoes, a sprinkling of salt and pepper, and a layer of onions. Continue, repeating until you’ve used up everything, but try to finish with a layer of potatoes on top. Rub some foil with olive oil, place it, oil-side down, over the dish and seal tight. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, then remove the foil, push the potatoes down and return to the oven for 20-40 minutes until golden and crisp.

This was a really easy recipe to make and makes for an interesting twist on the normal baked potatoes when you want a bit of variety. I loved the onion flavour and the crispiness of the potato. This dish is good the next day as leftovers too!

I used one of my favourite dessert books, Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2

Ingredients

220g fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup caster sugar

Base:

85g shortbread biscuits
1/2 cup almond meal
45g butter, melted

Filling:

600g cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the base I used Freedom Food’s gluten free Crunchy Coconut cookies – they are pretty crumbly to eat as biscuits but work really well for a cake base.

Process the blueberries in a food processor and press through a sieve (you should have 1/2 cup of puree). Place the puree and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is disolved. Rapidly simmer for 8 minutes or until thick. Set aside to cool.

To make the base, process the biscuits in a food processor until crushed. Add the almond meal and butter and process until combined. Grease a 22cm springform tin and line the base with non stick baking paper. Press the crumb mixture over the base and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees. To make the filling, process the cream cheese in a food processor until smooth. Add the sour cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla and process until combined and smooth. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the base. Drizzle the blueberry mixture over and swirl lightly with a butter knife.

Bake for 1 hour or until set. Refrigerate and serve cold.

My tip: keep an eye on the blueberry when it’s simmering – I let mine simmer for too long and it ended up too thick, so the swirling process at the end didn’t work and all the blueberry just dropped down to the bottom of the cake. Still tasted nice in the end, just doesn’t look as pretty as the picture in the cookbook!

I actually had this for dinner not breakfast – I often have omlettes for dinner when I need to whip up something and don’t have a lot of ingredients. My most common ‘dire straights’ omlette dinner when I am scraping what is left in the fridge and pantry before having to go to the supermarket is eggs with canned tuna, whatever fresh veggies I have (usually zuccini and mushrooms), a dash of paprika, salt, pepper – throw everything into a fry pan and voila you have dinner in 5 minutes.

Nigella’s omlette recipe was a bit more structured than my usual ‘throw bits together’ omlette.

Ingredients:

225g baby new potatoes, halved
4 eggs
75g chopped caramelised or flame roasted peppers from a jar
3 spring onions finely sliced
75g grated Manchego or Cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon butter
drop of oil
salt and pepper to taste

Turn on the grill and let it heat up while you start off the omlette.

Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 15 minutes, until cooked through, then drain.

Whisk the eggs in a bowl, add the peppers, spring onions and cheese, and season with salt and pepper, then add the cooked, drained potatoes.

Heat the butter and oil in a small, heavy-based frying pan, and, when hot, pour in the omlette mix and cook gently for 5 minutes.

By this time, the bottom of the omlette should be set and, rather than turn it, simply sit the pan under the grill for a few minutes to set the top.

Turn the omlette upside down onto a plate to let cool. Don’t worry if it feels a little wibbly-wobbly in the middle, as it will carry on cooking as it cools.

Once cool, slice into 4 large or 8 smaller wedges.

I made a smaller version with not as many potatoes and eggs so it spread out a bit on the pan and didn’t quite end up looking like the picture, but it tasted great anyway and was very quick and easy to make.

Have you tried any of the below places? What did you think? Leave a comment, and if you’re interested in submitting a guest review just email me at info@glutenshmooten.com.au

Contemporary:
The Firehouse, Ringwood
Website: http://www.thefirehouse.net.au

This place looks really interesting

Italian:
Fifteen, CBD
Website: http://www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

I’ve been to Fifteen years ago and loved loved loved it. I really want to go back and this time pay more attention so I can write up a post on it

Mezzo Bar & Grill, CBD
Website: http://www.mezzobar.com.au

Never tried Mezzo but it looks beautiful

Mexican:
Mamasita, CBD
Website: http://www.mamasita.com.au

This has been on my list for a while now but I get scared off because they don’t take bookings for under 8 people! I’m waiting for the hype to die down a bit before heading out to this one

Asian:
Penang Affair, Fitzroy
Love this place – check out my review here

Jade Village, Mitcham
Heard of this place but I’m unlikely to ever be around this side of town

Gedera, Caulfield
17 Derby Rd
I know of this place but didn’t realise they do GF – they do Sri Lankan food – yum!

French:
Le Triskel, CBD
32 Hardware Lane

A French creperie I will have to try! Love crepes!

Pizza:
Pizza Piazza, Windsor
One of the gluten free institutions in Melbourne – check out my review here

Pizza Farro, Thornbury
Website: http://www.pizzafarro.com.au
Haven’t tried this place yet but have heard great things

Mr Wolf, St Kilda
Website: http://www.mrwolf.com.au
Heard good things about this one too

Cafes:
Sacs, Northcote
Another gluten free institution but haven’t been here yet

Fox in the Box, Brighton
Website: http://www.foxinthebox.com.au

Looks like a cute place

Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder
Website: http://www.rhcl.com.au

I’ve been here years ago – nice little casual cafe to do breakfast, brunch or lunch

Cafe Eden, Canterbury
Website: http://www.cafeeden.com.au

Not tried this place yet, looks like a nice casual cafe

Olmecs, Richmond

Liked this place – check out my review here

How top restaurants have honed their menus

Abla’s: Caters for the gluten-intolerant on request.

Bacash: Includes gluten-free dishes on menu and functions.

Bistro Guillaume: Can modify every dish.

Botanical: Trains staff to advise patrons.

Canvas: Uses symbols to identify dishes that are gluten-free.

Cecconi’s Cantina: Plans menu; stocks gluten-free bread.

David’s: Will make stir-fries without gluten.

Esposito: Modifies dishes to dietary needs.

Gingerboy: Designs menu with gluten and lactose intolerances in mind.

Grossi Florentino: Makes its own gluten-free pasta, offers gluten-free rolls.

Jacques Reymond: Menu largely free of gluten, caters to special needs.

The Italian: Offers bought-in, gluten-free pasta dish on request.

Longrain: Waiters carry lists of dishes without gluten.

MoVida: Separate menu for gluten and dairy-intolerant.

The Press Club: Separate dietary training and tasting for staff.

I haven’t had the pleasure of trying any of the above restaurants except for MoVida (which was beautiful) – I think I need to celebrate more “special” occasions and try a few of these restaurants!

“Orecchiette Primavera – Ear shaped pasta with Spiga dried tomato, red peppers, broccolini, baby spinach and pine nuts” – yum sounds great! Result was actually penne, not “ear shaped pasta” (maybe they only had GF penne) and hardly any of the veggies mentioned. It was also a really small serve of pasta, a bit tight when you’re charging $20 for packet pasta.

Overall Spiga was nice, but over-priced for what you get. For more details you can check out their website.

2 Menzies Alley, Melbourne – enter via 360 Elizabeth St

Thank you to Sarah for this guest review on Gourmet Kids, Malvern, who host kids cooking parties.

When our Coeliac daughter announced she wanted a “cooking party” for her 8th birthday, my smile froze. At home was not an option, and my experience of party providers catering for Coeliac kids has been mixed, let alone actually cooking with them. When I contacted “Gourmet Kids” in Malvern, I was delighted with the reception I got. The staff quickly understood that I wanted the whole party to be gluten free, not just a GF alternative to be provided for my daughter. It is the one party of the year when she doesn’t have to eat something different to everyone else! The service that I received there was absolutely wonderful. I would have been happy enough for the kids to cook something simple like GF honey joys, but the staff thought that was too easy for 8 year olds and were very keen to explore alternatives. They trialled 2 or 3 recipes before they were happy with one that was good enough and tasty enough to fit the bill. They also sourced Patties GF vegetable rolls for the kids party fare, and a GF ice cream cake. The kids had a wonderful time with GF flour flying thick and fast while they baked their cookies, which were moist and genuinely delicious. The party food was a great hit too.

We were more than happy to pay a modest surcharge that covered their increased costs of GF ingredients and party food and my daughter had a wonderful party.

Gourmet Kids is open every day for baking parties, and weekdays for cooking lessons.

For more details check out their website.