Category Archives: Recipes

Ingredients for the base                 Ingredients for Filling     

75g Rice Flour                                    397g tin Condensed Milk

100g Cornflour                                    150g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

125g Butter                                          150g Butter

55g Sugar

Oil or butter for greasing a 20cm tin.

For the Topping

250g of Chocolate broken into pieces.  Personally, I love Dark Chocolate and the contrast with the sweet caramel works a treat!  A mix of Milk and White chocolate also works well.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Centigrade or equivalent.  Grease and line a 20cm tin with baking parchment.  For the base, cream your sugar and butter together, either by hand or by using an electric mixer.  Add in the flour and blend together.  Press into the tin and prick with a fork then bake for fifteen minutes or until lightly golden.  It will still feel a bit soft to touch. 

While the base is cooking, prepare your caramel.  Place all the ingredients for the filling in a non-stick saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Be careful not to boil this and just try to get a gentle simmer going while continually stirring it.  It should just start to change colour and have a slightly firmer consistency.  This may take 15 minutes  but keep stirring.  Careful though, this mixture is really hot so if kids are making these or helping, make sure an adult supervises this stage.  Spread the caramel onto the cooled shortbread.

When the caramel has cooled, melt the chocolate for the topping.  I melt the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts of 20 seconds and checking each time, this is important as there is nothing worse than wasting all that gorgeous chocolate by nuking it in the microwave.  If you’re more comfortable melting it in a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, just make sure the base of the bowl isn’t touching the water. 

Spread the chocolate on top and leave them to set.  This is like a gluten free Twix bar.  I love these with a coffee, a real treat for adults and kids alike.  My kids love them even though they aren’t coeliac.  They also help with the cleaning up by licking the bowls, sure you have to as a kid!!  Once they are set, cut into approximately 16, or whatever suits you.  Enjoy.

This is a useful recipe as it’s very inclusive for coeliac kids, they don’t like to feel left out or that they have to eat special food.  I do my best to cook family meals that just happen to be gluten free.

For the Fish Fingers, you can use a fillet of white fish or even salmon.  I find Cod or hake work well.  I cut the fillet into similar size pieces of a regular fish finger.   From a 250g Fillet, I can get 4  good size fish fingers.  A fishmonger will skin and pin bone fish for you.

As I cook the fish in the oven, I serve them with home-made wedges.

I power boil some potato wedges(leaving skins on) until softened, drain, toss in olive oil and put onto a hot oven tray.  These normally take 45-55 minutes, depending on size.  Season to taste.

Ingredients:-

250g Fillet will serve 2 small kids or one adult.

Couple of generous tablespoons of gluten free flour, I use Doves white flour mix.

A beaten Egg

2-3 slices or of gluten free bread made into breadcrumbs or you can now buy gluten free crumbs.

I oven bake these as it’s healthier than deep frying.

Method:-

Heat your oven to 190 degrees Centigrade for  fan oven.  When the potatoes are in, prepare the fish

Cut your fillet into whatever size you want your fish fingers to be.  Cut the opposite way that your fish will flake, otherwise they will disintegrate when cooked.

Dip each finger into the flour, followed by egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs.  If doing a few you can bulk the egg out with some milk.

I put them onto non-stick tin foil and give them a spray from the fry light cooking oil, gives them a crunchy coating and helps cooking process.  They will cook in under 8-10 minutes, just keep an eye on them.  If you have them made early, pop them in the fridge as this helps the coating stick.

I serve the wedges and fish fingers with some steamed vegetables, or the kids favourites, beans!

Getting the kids involved in dipping the fish, often encourages them to eat them when cooked

Ingredients:-

Olive Oil

1 Chopped Onion

Garlic clove

2-3 Sticks of Celery

1 Red Pepper

2 Chicken Breasts

1 Chorizo

200g Prawns

2 teaspoons of smoked paprika (I use the authentic Spanish one from the tin)

2 Bay Leaves

600 ml of Double Strength Chicken Stock

2 teaspoons of Tomato Puree

160g Long Grain Rice

Spring Onions

I’ve tried this dish with risotto rice and basmati rice and long grain, easy cook long grain is the best.  The risotto rice goes too sticky and the basmati takes too long to cook and the additional cooking time dries out the chicken.

Pre-heat your oven to 180 Centigrade for a Fan Oven.  Heat the olive oil and add the chopped celery, onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft and starting to brown.  Add the Chicken, Paprika and bay Leaf, reduce the heat a little so the chicken can get sealed but without the paprika burning.  Once the chicken has changed colour, add the chorizo, tomato puree, rice and stock.  Stir and season, not too much salt as the chorizo and stock have salt.  Add pepper to taste, but make sure that you don’t overdo it if you are using the hot smoked paprika.  Once the mix starts bubbling, transfer your pot to the oven.  When the stock is almost absorbed (check after 15-18 mins), add the prawns and spring onions and cook for less than five minutes.  The rice should be cooked through and the stock absorbed, but not dry.

I serve this with a simple salad.