Thursday, December 30, 2010

A New Year's Eve cake

I have just finished making a flourless chocolate hazelnut cake to take to Kate and Phil's New Year's Eve dinner tonight.


The recipe comes from Jody Vassallo's Wheat and Gluten Free Health for Life series of cookbooks. I've made it quite a few times and it always seems to please especially when served with strawberries and ice cream (gluten-free of course- try Sara Lee's French Vanilla). The hazelnut meal makes it a bit different from your standard flourless chocolate cake. Here is the recipe:

Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients: 250g dark cooking chocolate, chopped. 2 tablespoons milk, 120g hazelnut meal, 125g caster sugar, 6 eggs, separated.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a 20cm spring form tin with baking paper.

2. Put the chocolate and milk into a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Do not let the base of the bowl touch the water. Stir over medium heat until the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Put the chocolate mixture, hazelnut meal, sugar and egg yolks into a bowl and mix to combine.

4. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and spoon into the prepared tin. Bake for 45 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes. Serve with fresh berries. Serves 8.

Have a gorgeous gluten-free New Year and best wishes for 2011.

Friday, December 10, 2010

GF Thai at Mosman's Bangkok Betty

It's great to find Thai restaurants that offer more than one or two gluten-free options. One place that does is Bangkok Betty at Mosman on Sydney's lower north shore. My friend Fi and I dined at the restaurant  last Thursday night. 


Bangkok Betty offers about 15 gluten-free entrees and mains which like all its dishes have interesting names. Some of the options were Mosman massaman, serious succotash, pineapple duck, tummy-yummy spicy soup, soothing soul soup and rice paper rolls.

We chose fish cakes for entree, followed by snow pea paradise with prawns and the sweet Betty curry which is a panang-style curry with chicken. Bangkok Betty offers four curries which are all gluten-free. As well as the Sweet Betty one, you can choose from a red hot Betty curry, a green with envy and a Thai Jungle Curry called Boot Camp Betty.


At the end of the meal there was not a morsel left on our plates. The only downside of Bangkok Betty was that they don't serve coffee. This would usually be fine but on our walk up Military Road at about 9pm on a Thursday all the cafes were closed. In the end though, we had a nice stroll and were able to check out the windows of some of the very nice shops along the way.

Bangkok Betty is at 161 Middle Head Road near the Buena Vista Hotel, Mosman. For bookings phone 9960 6880.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

'All things yum' in Forster


Last week when we had a few days on the mid-NSW north coast we stumbled upon a lovely cafe called All Things Yum in Forster. Very cutely decorated in pastel colours, All Things Yum is run by Joanie Nardi and Amy Baker. In fact, the Saturday morning we stopped by for a coffee and cake it was the first day of opening.


Joanie's brother is coeliac so she is very up on gluten-free food and there's lots on offer at All Things Yum. Most of the savoury options Joanie and Amy make but some of the cakes and biscuits come from Sweetness The Patisserie in Epping in Sydney.


Some of the gluten-free options on the menu were egg and bacon tart and mini baked ricotta. I had a lime and ginger shortbread cream with my latte but I could also have chosen the dark chocolate shortbread, a Florentine, chocolate cookie or some of the Sweet Mallow gluten-free marshmallows, which are also made by Sweetness at Epping.

More of a shopfront or booth than a cafe, All Things Yum has a number of tables and chairs with umbrellas on the footpath where patrons can sit and enjoy the delicious food. Joanie and Amy also cater for vegans. All Things Yum is located at 6/58 Wharf Street Forster. Email address is: allthingsyum@live.com.au