Keller Family Blog

Well in my post about cornflakes I mentioned that I would make a post soon about what can be made with Cornflakes.  For starters we save the crumbs from the bottom of every bag of cornflakes in a container. They last a long time for our purposes. Why go buy GF crumbs when this is so economical? Here is the first recipe:

Oven Fried Chicken

1/2 cup cornflake crumbs
1-2 tsp of brown sugar
1 tsp of garlic
1 tsp of chilli powder
1/2 tsp of thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
8-12 chicken drumsticks

Preheat oven to 375F / 190F. Line some baking trays with aluminum foil and put a light coat of olive oil down on the foil.

Start by putting the dry ingredients without the drumsticks in a bowl and mix and crush with your hands. Place the 1/4 of olive oil in a bowl. Then wash and dry the chicken drumsticks with a towel. Holding the end of the drumstick place the drumstick in the oil bowl and roll around to coat with oil. Next roll the drumstick over the cornflake mixture. You likely will need to use your free hand to pick up the cornflake mixture to coat and press the cornflake mixture on the drumstick. Place the drumstick on the foil and repeat until all the drumsticks are used up. If you are lucky you will use up all of the cornflake mixture by your last drumstick. If you have extra then toss. If you don’t have enough well you get to wash your hands and mix up a little more.

Place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. Depending on your oven you may need to rotate the drumsticks about 30 minutes into the baking. Remove nice golden brown drumsticks and carry to the table to be rapidly consumed by your family.

Variations:
Change the spice mix to vary the taste:
Examples:
Use GF/Soy Free Chicken Salt
Use Celeryseed

Here are some photos of our latest backing of this recipe:

I have missed French Toast for the past 5 years. Finally I decided that with some extra regular bread I just needed to have some French Toast. Therefore I came up with the following after some trial and error and googling. In general if I can’t make something similar for Jaden I won’t have the original in front of him. Usually we eat whatever he eats except when it is quite cost prohibitive. Well this is one of them as the bread slices we use for this recipe cost in excess of $.50 each and are half the size of normal store bought bread. But really any bread that you can eat can be substituted in this recipe. Jaden LOVES it!

Eggless French Toast on a plate

Eggless French Toast in the pan

Eggless Allergen Free French Toast:

1 tsp of No Egg (or just cornstarch)
1/2 cup of prepared Darifree (or other non-Dairy Milk)
1/4 tsp of GF Vanilla Extract
4-8 pieces of acceptable bread. (Lately we have used Schär Pan Carré, which isn’t sold in the US and their products in US have Soy in them. The first time we used Sol Bread Pumpkin loaf.)

Place non-stick or oiled pan on stove and place on med-high heat. Wisk the first three ingredients in bowl large enough for the bread to fully be able to go into the bowl. Using a fork or your fingers place a slice of bread into the liquid and let sit for a few seconds, then flip over the bread and repeat. After making sure the pan is hot enough, by placing a drop of water or drip off the mixing wisk and hearing a pleasant sizzle, place the slice of bread on the pan. Repeat for the number of pieces of bread that the pan can hold without overlapping the bread. After about 2 minutes you should be able to flip the bread over to brown the other side. Remove when both sides are a pleasant golden brown color and place on plate. Top with favorite topping such as Real Maple Syrup, Margarine and sprinkled Powdered / Icing Sugar, Strawberry Syrup, or any suitable fruit topping.

Wow, I improved on our our http://kellerville.com/2010/10/22/pasta-with-cheese-like-sauce-carbonara-esque/ recipe. This is even better. Occasionally the original one would have a bit dry powdery texture. Here is the modified improved recipe.

Ingredients:

• 300g / 10-12oz Ham or Bacon pieces (pre-cooked for the most part)
• 500g /1lb Gluten Free Pasta (we have noted that twists work better than tubes for GF pasta)
• 2 Cups Prepared Darifree
• 2/3 Cup Savoury Yeast Flakes / Nutritional Yeast Flakes
• 1 Tbs Arrowroot Powder
• 1 tsp Xanthan gum
• 1/4 cup dairy free margarine (Nuttelex in Australia is the best)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 cups of cut frozen green beans or peas

First fill a pot with enough water (8 litres) to cook the pasta and turn it on high so that it will be ready when you are. Put the green beans or peas into a small pot / saucepan, cover with water and get ready to cook them. The vegetables will likely cook in the time it takes to cook the pasta so you just need to be ready to turn it on. Now for the sauce.

Combine the yeast flakes, xanthan gum, arrowroot powder and salt in a pan. Then add the darifree and turn on medium high. Using a wisk I was able to froth it a bit and then stirred until near boiling. As it looks like it is going to boil it should be thick enough. Reduce the heat add the margarine and stir it till margarine is all melted and integrated. Add pre-cooked meat, stir and set aside.

Add pasta to boiling water. Turn the veggies on to cook. Hopefully by now the water is ready for the pasta. If not then you get to wait until it is. If you are really good or you have a helper you could put the pasta in while stirring the sauce. Place the pasta in the water and cook for about 1 to 1.5 minutes less than the package calls for. When the veggies are done, drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, combine the sauce with meat and the veggies single pan and add the garlic. Place on a low heat to make sure it is heated throughout.

When you have cooked the pasta a little less than the package calls for, drain it and combine with the sauce. Carry to the table and Serve immediately. Basically the pasta will finish the final cooking in the time it takes you to get everyone sitting at the table and to say grace.

We hope your family loves it as much as our family did.

These Mini Apple Tarts were allergy friendly and loved by the whole family.

Ingredients:

• 1  1/4 cups Gluten Free Flour
• 1 Tbs Buckwheat Flour
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/3 cup + 2 Tbs Lard
• 4-5Tbs of Cold water. (Can vary based on Humidity.)
• Sugar for sprinkling
• 1 Cup Filling:
  • Cooked Apples with Sugar, Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste
    OR
  • Other fruit / pie filling

Mix flours, salt in large bowl. Cut in Lard until flour and lard form pea size balls. Then add 1 Tbs of water at a time and mix the dough by hand. Mix gently until dough sticks together to form a ball. Lightly flour surface of tea towel or baking paper. Place dough ball on the surface. Either flour a rolling pin or use another piece of baking paper on top and roll out dough to approximately 3mm (1/8 in) thick. Cut in dough in circles larger than muffin tin to form base of pastry. Fill with fruit filling. Place another dough circle on top and press sides. Prick top with a fork to allow steam to escape. Sprinkle the lid with granulated sugar.

Bake in a moderate oven. 180C/375F in our forced fan/ convection oven for 10 minutes. Then put under grill/broiler for 2 minutes or until bubbly with a slight browning. (Gluten Free flour without an egg doesn’t brown that well.)

Take out of the oven cool for 5 minutes in pan, twist to remove and finish cooling on a rack. Eat while warm.

Ok. An Allergy Friendly Cheese like sauce on Pasta. I whipped this up tonight inspired by a Cheese like sauce created from Savoury Yeast also known as Nutritional Yeast. Basically this is made from yeast but has no active yeast in it. This meal was very yummy and everyone enjoyed it too fast to take any pictures.  I’ll have to edit this post and add a picture next time we make it. This meal cost us just over $11 which is one of the cheapest meals that we have ever made here in Australia. Both cheap and tasty….Wow. I guess it could also be compared to Hamburger Helper.

Ingredients:

• 500g/1lb Mince /Ground Beef
• 500g /1lb Gluten Free Pasta
• 2 Cups Prepared Darifree or Water
• 1/2 Cup Savoury Yeast Flakes / Nutritional Yeast Flakes
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup Gluten Free Flour
• 1/4 cup dairy free margarine (Nuttelex in Australia is the best)
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 2 cups of cut frozen green beans or peas

First fill a pot with enough water (8 litres) to cook the pasta and turn it on high so that it will be ready when you are. While that is heating, brown the mince and then set it aside. Put the green beans or peas into a pot, cover with water and get ready to cook them. The vegetables will likely cook in the time it takes to cook the past so you just need to be ready to turn it on. Now for the sauce.

Combine the yeast flakes, flour and salt in a pan. Then add the darifree/water and turn on medium high. You will want to stir/wisk for most of the time on this one. Once it boils it should be thickened.  (For us it didn’t seem to thicken as fast as I thought it would so I added 1/3 more flour which is how I came to 2/3 cup flour.)  Once it boils, reduce the heat and still stir for 1 minute, then add the margarine. It took longer for this to thicken then it takes for the pasta to boil so I would suggest preparing and setting aside.

Turn the veggies on to cook. Hopefully by now the water is ready for the pasta. If not then you get to wait until it is. If you are really good or you have a helper you could put the pasta in while stirring the sauce. Place the pasta in the water and cook for about 1 to 1.5 minutes less than the package calls for. When the veggies are done, drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, combine the sauce, veggies and browned mince into a single pan and add the garlic. Place on a low heat to make sure it is heated throughout.

When you have cooked the pasta a little less than the package calls for, drain it and combine with the sauce. Carry to the table and Serve immediately. Basically the pasta will finish the final cooking in the time it takes you to get everyone sitting at the table and to say grace.

We hope your family loves it as much as our family did.

We made cornbread similar to how my wife grew up eating it in West Virginia. A good cast iron skillet bread with hearty crust. The other obstacle we faced was that the only type of cornmeal here in Australia we have found is Polenta which is a slightly grainier grade of Cornmeal and we have found NO Self-Rising Cornmeal.  However last nights pan turned out very well. So here is our Australia made USA Southern Cornbread Sans Dairy. Here is instructions/recipe. First you need a seasoned cast iron skillet.

We set our oven to it’s MAX temperature which is only 250C (482F) and let it preheat.

Mix up 1 1/2 cup Darifree Buttermilk and let set on table.

Place 1 heaping Tablespoon of Lard / Solidified Animal Fat in large Cast Iron Skillet (Frying Pan) and place in oven to heat.

While skillet is heating measure and mix the following:

2 cups of Polenta
2 1/2 (2.5) t Baking Powder
1/2 (.5) t Salt
1/2 (.5) cup Orgran Self-Rising All Purpose Flour (which primary ingredient is corn)

When the Skillet is sufficiently hot which takes about 10 minutes, using just a fork or wooden spoon to mix, pour in the Darifree Buttermilk until right consistency. If necessary add a little more Darifree to get right consistency. (This is really where Art comes in instead of science. It may take a couple of tries to get it right.)

IMMEDIATELY pour into the HOT cast iron skillet. You should hear a pleasant sizzle and see it bubbling/frying all around the sides. Place back into oven on lower rack and bake for 15 minutes until the outer edge looks a little browned, the top is dry and has a crack.

Then open the oven move the skillet to the top rack and change the oven to Grill / Broil (ie heat only from top element), leave the oven door cracked open and let it sit in there for 1 to 2 minutes until the top is browned a little more and pull out.  Then within another minute invert the pan over a large plate and the cornbread should fall out easily to the plate. Immediately and carefully cut the bread into pie shaped sections and place on table to eat.

Serving suggestions: Topped with Apple Butter, Eat with a bean Soup, Put Nuttelex or other Dairy Free Margarine on it, Crumble left overs the next moring and top with Darifree Milk like a breakfast porriage

When the skillet has cooled, just wipe it out and put it away. The Lard keeps it seasoned. My mother-in-law and my wife, keep 1 cast iron skillet for cornbread and NOTHING else is ever allowed to be made in it or face a stiff penalty.

This season in Australia as far as food is concerned seems to be all about Chocolate  with the occasional hot cross buns. The stores are loaded with lots and lots of Chocolate. And NONE of it is safe for Jaden. The only one that attempts to be Allergy Friendly has Soy in it. Anyway the girls went to Church yesterday and made Hot Cross Buns and Chocolate molds. Well we did the Jaden-safe Hot Cross Buns yesterday. Today I attempted to make some Jaden-safe Allergy Friendly “milk” Chocolate.  Unfortunately I don’t have a full recipe as I didn’t measure pretty much anything, but here is what I did.

I started out with an Artisse Dark Chocolate bar. I melted it in a double boiler (Pryex bowl over a sauce pan with water in it). I added about 3 Tablespoons of Prepared Darifree and at least 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar and another 1/2 tablespoon of Darifree powder and stirred with a small wisk. I had added a little Olive Oil but it needed something that would be solid at room temp in it like Cocoa Butter, Palm Oil, or Lard. We had the Lard in the house so I added it after the first pour turned out to be a failure.  We also dipped some gluten-free marshmallows in the chocolate to use it up. I did swipe a little Olive Oil on a paper towel and lightly swiped the oil in the mold before the successful pours. So the first pour needed more solid fat and some Olive Oil on the molds. The first pour is the “failure” pic below. Pour is a strong word, I actually spooned it in then tapped them on the counter. I would have made different shapes, but this was the only mold we had and we had borrowed it from someone else. I am considering wrapping the eggs in aluminium foil for presentation to Jaden so it looks more “normal”.

Successful Eggs

Failed to set well. Used spoon to remove which ruined the shape.

Hot Cross Buns cooling

Jaden and I baked Hot Cross Buns….We used Gluten-Free Flour and more or less followed the recipe at http://www.everydaywithallergies.com/2009/03/hot-cross-buns.html. We substituted 1/4 tsp Nutmeg for the 1 tsp Cinnamon. Best thing is that Jaden likes it.

Here is a little better variant on our Pancakes.

2/3 cup Buckwheat flour
2/3 cup Rice Flour
2/3 cup Besan (Chickpea) Flour
1/4 cup Potato Flour
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoon Applesauce or 2 Mashed Ripe Bananas
3 Tablespoons Canola Oil
2 Tablespoon Honey
2 Cup Darifree “Buttermilk” http://kellerville.com/2009/02/15/dairy-free-buttermilk/
0-1/4 Cup Water if too thick.

Put griddle / non-stick pan on burner and turn on Med to Med Hi. Mix dry ingredients with Wisk. Mix liquids: oil, applesauce/Banana, honey, Darifree “Buttermilk”. Pour liquid into the dry and mix thoroughly with wisk until everything is mixed well. The soda and baking powder will start working before done mixing. Pour by 1/3 to 1/4 cup on the griddle. (If the pancakes look too thick add a little more water to the batter in the bowl and mix.) Flip when edges are dry or start to lift off pan. (Adjust heat to get the golden color just right on subsequent pancakes.) Top with pure Maple Syrup or Nuttelex and powdered/icing/castor sugar and enjoy.

Variation / Substitutes / Possible Changes that have been tested.

• Sprinkle EnjoyLife Allergen Free Chocolate Chips into pancakes as soon as they have been poured onto the griddle.

We love this recipe from Taste of Home magazine.  Just substitute Gluten Free Self Rising Flour for the flour (we used Orgran) and prepared Darifree for the milk and it tastes great.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Chocolate-Cobbler