The best lasagne ever

I have a confession to make. I love Jamie Oliver. There, I said it. For a woman who claims to only love darkhaired men, this is a bold thing to say. ;-)
It was love at first sight when i saw him on tv, in one of his first tv shows. I love how he talks about food and I love the simplicity of his recipes combined with the most fantastic products. I have almost all his cookbooks, I buy his magazine and I even have some of his cooking shows on dvd. And I even watch those. When my kids are asleep and hubs is away, I curl up on the sofa and I watch Jamie cook and talk about food. And I get inspired to cook. 

I love the passionate people in his shows too. Just as I love Jamie, I love Gennaro. Also because BBC GoodFood Magazine once published his Festive Lasagne and it's been an instant hit in my household ever since. The magazine looks dreadful, because it's been in my kitchen for nearly 5 years now, and i can't count the times I made this recipe. It's not neccesarily a glutenfree recipe, but it's very easy to make it glutenfree. All you need is some glutenfree lasagne sheets (I always use Schars lasagna sheets that you need to precook for 5 minutes) and some glutenfree basic flour and some glutenfree salami and prosciutto (read packages closely or ask your butcher, because not all is glutenfree unfortunately). 

I just want to share my glutenfree version of Gennaro Contaldo's recipe here, because it makes the perfect pasta for a dinner party with friends, or as a huge family lasagna. I always have some left over that I put in plastic containers in the freezer for my kids on busy workdays. They just love it. 

Truly the best lasagne ever!

Ingredients:

• 500 grams (1 lb 2 oz) of (glutenfree) lasagne sheets
• 200 grams (8 oz) of Parmesan grated
• 6 slices of prosciutto, roughly chopped (check if it's glutenfree)
• 12 slices of Napoli salami (check if it's glutenfree!)
• 200 grams (8 oz) ricotta
• 4 balls of mozzarella roughly chopped

For the tomato sauce

• 125 ml (4 fl oz) olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 4 x 400 grams (16 oz) cans of plum tomatoes ( I use the ones with already chopped up tomatoes by Heinz. They are always glutenfree)
• couple of handfuls of basil leaves, roughly torn

For the meatballs

• 250 grams (9 oz) minced beef
• 250 grams (9 oz) minced pork
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley
• 1 egg, beaten
• glutenfree basic flour for dusting 
• olive oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Make the tomato sauce. heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and cook until softened. Add the tomatoes and basil and season. Your pastasheets will take up less of the water of the sauce, so you will need to add some glutenfree flour of maize starch in your sauce to make sure your lasagna will not get soppy. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 25 minutes, then set aside.
2. Meanwhile make the meatballs. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Shape into small balls the size of cherries and dust lightly in glutenfree flour. I use basic rice flour for that. Heat a shallow layer of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the meatballs in the hot oil until golden. You'll need to do this in batches, drain the meatballs on kitchen paper and set aside. (BTW, my kids love these little meatballs so I sometimes make even more and fry them and freeze them. I can defrost en heat up & serve them with some potatoes and veggies another day ;-))
3. Now, if you are working with glutenfree pasta sheets you will need to precook the lasagna sheets, otherwise you will end up with horrid tough pasta in your otherwise wonderful pasta dish. So get a pan on stove and bring plenty of water to a boil. Precook the pasta in batches while layering your dish, so about 4 sheets per layer because they tend to stick together and you don't want that with all the sheets in one go. It will get very, very messy. So you boil the first 4 sheets while preheating the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit) and lining the ovenproof dish  with some tomato sauce. Line this with the first precooked lasagna sheets. Precook the sheets for the next layer and meanwhile add a layer of tomato sauce, sprinkle it with some parmesan, arrange a third of the prosciutto, salami and meatballs, a few knobs of ricotta and some mozzarella pieces. Your second set of lasagne sheets will be ready now, so you put those on top. You precook the next ones while you make another layer as mentioned above which you then top with the lasagne sheets. You finish with tomato sauce, meatballs and cheese. 
4. Cover it with foil and bake for about 30 minutes, remove the foil and cook for a further 5-10 minutes, until the cheese has melted over the top. 
5. Serve with a salad and a wonderful glass of red wine for the adults. 

Ps. This recipe is a bit of work, it will take you 30 minutes to prep and 30-40 minutes to cook at the least, so don't do this when you are in a hurry. If you have guests over, you can make it a day in advance and keep in it in the fridge. You will only have to cook it in the oven the next day, so you'll have time for your guests. 

Glutenfree pancakes or glutenfree Dutch mini-pancakes (poffertjes)

My kids love Poffertjes, a typical Dutch dish, best described as mini-pancakes.We serve it with syrup, or butter and sugar. We bake them in frying pans with little dents in them. I make these for dinner and then finish the left-over batter by baking pancakes. Dutch pancakes are more like French crepes, than American pancakes. They are the size of a crepe but thicker. Not as thick and fluffy as American pancakes though.

This recipe took me a while to figure out. There was a lot of trial and error involved, because not every attempt worked on pancakes and poffertjes. And I didn't want to use a pre-fab mix, I wanted to be able to make it with ingredients I always have available. I also need to mention I'm not a great pancake baker, I can't flip them (they'd end up all over the floor of my kitchen) so this recipe is pretty much foolproof.

Ingredients:

• 800 ml (27.05 fl oz) of milk
• 2 eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 230 grams (8.11 oz) of glutenfree all purpose flour
• 50 grams (1.75 oz) of buckwheat flour

Instructions:

1. Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix well till all is combined and there are no lumps.
2. Leave it to settle for 15 minutes, the flour will well, and the batter will get thicker. 
3. Mix again.

To make poffertjes:

1. Put a 'poffertjes'-pan on medium heat. 
2. Put a a tiny bit of butter (fluid butter works best) in each dent. 
3. Pour batter in each dent when butter is bubbling. Make sure you fill the dent till the top, not over. 
4. Bake them on one side till the top is dry, but not baked yet & turn over with a spoon. 
5. Serve each portion with butter and sugar or maple syrup.

To make pancakes:

• Put a frying pan on medium heat. 
• Put in a bit of butter, pour in a big spoon (I use a soupladle) and move the pan about so the batter can spread. 
• Bake till the top is dry, turn and bake golden.

Quinoa with tons of veggies, feta and herbcoated chicken

When I first started looking for glutenfree products 5 years ago, quinoa was one of the most listed things, yet I couldn't get my hands on it. And now, its everywhere, because it is a very healthy product, light, full of protein and iron.
But how to cook it was another thing. When I first bought it I cooked it like rice and served it just like that with stirfried chicken and veggies. My kids were horrified and rightly so. It was bland and well... It tasted like proper tastesless health food. You know... "eeeeewwww..."!

I found out that quinoa is very versatile though, but it works best if you use it instead of couscous, but leave the rest of the recipe intact. This recipe below is a Jamie Oliver recipe in which I exchanged the couscous for quinoa and left out the spicy stuff so my kids will eat it. I also added one step and popped it in the oven, where Jamie serves it just like that. But my kids aren't that good with partly uncooked veggies. My oldest says it's for rabbits, so.. yeah.. that's where the oven comes in. 

It's light, it's perfect for a summer supper and even my kids love it. They eat tons of veggies and the healthy quinoa, which is a total win in my book.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams (10.58 oz) of uncooked quinoa
• 2 red peppers
• 4 springonions chopped
• Half a bunch of fresh dille
• 200 grams (7.05 oz) of peas
• A handful (i use a full packet, my kid adores olives) of black olives without the kernel
• A packet of feta (about 200 grams/7.05 oz)
• Some olive oil
• 2 chickenbreasts of 200 grams (7.05 oz) each
• A teaspoon of  dried oregano 
• 1 teaspon of ground piment
• The zest of one lemon

(I toss in even more veggies, I added sundried tomatoes and left over broccoli today too, I love veggies and any excuse to feed my kids a bit more of those healthy buggers. ;-))

Instructions
Firstly: I use precooked quinoa, that you just have to cook for 3 minutes, but read the packet carefully, you may need to soak them first before cooking it per the instructions on the packet.

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade/400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Put the oregano, piment, salt, pepper, lemon zest and the chickenbreasts into a plastic bag and shake till the herbs are all over the chickenbreasts. Flatten them a bit by bashing them with a rolling pin and then fry them in a frying pan with some olive oil. 
3. Chop up the red peppers and the spring onions. I bake the spring onions with the chicken for a bit so they taste a bit more mild. Chop up the dille and put the veggies & the dille in a ovenproof bowl/dish. Add other veggies now too if you want to use more. Jamie adds some spicy peppers here too, but  don't want crying kids at the dinner table, so i leave them out. 
4. Quickly cook the frozen peas, a few minutes in boiling water will do. 
5. Add them to the veggies with the kernel free black olives. Sprinkle this with lemon juice and some olive oil. 
6. Mix in the boiled quinoa and add pepper and salt to taste. Top with feta and sliced chickenbreasts. Here is where Jamie serves it with homemade tzatziki, I choose to put the dish in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Greek moussaka made from scratch

I sometimes wonder why food producing companies make my life (and that of others suffering from allergies or intolerances) so incredibly difficult, especially on days when time seems scarce and you would like to produce an easy meal just like that. You know, when you can run through the supermarket grab anything box with a meal on it you fancy and get the extra ingredients to toss into a ready made sauce and so on and so forth. But you can't, because those ready to cook kinda meals are filled with those buggers of gluten. I can't count the times anymore that I sighed and said: Why for heaven's sake can't they use maize starch instead of wheat starch or flour???? 
But I know exactly why, because this glutenfreemomma once worked for a milling plant, and flour is much more inexpensive than any starch. Yes, I've worked for a company specialized in the products that make my kids sick. Stay close to the hazard and you learn so much!! Which products are made with flour for example, but also about the nutrients my kids miss because they can't eat normal bread etc. It was a great experience and I can also tell you, flour and wholemeal is not a unhealthy product, it only is if it makes you sick. So to those thinking glutenfree is healthier. It's not! I can't stress this enough. If you are not in some way sensitive, allergic or intolerant to gluten or wheat, don't do this diet! 

But I'm drifting off. Where was i? Oh right: actually, I should thank the food producing industry, because they force me to make many things from scratch, sparing me and my family from extra added sugars, preservatives and other stuff you basically don't need. I get to taste food the way it was meant to taste, even though I sometimes "cheat" by grabbing a tin of chopped tomatoes instead of the fresh ones. Hey, I'm only human and a busy, working mom and wife so I am allowed to cheat like that. Well, one day i got so frustrated by staring at those ready made meals, that I grabbed the packet of Greek Moussaka (which I loved, but didn't know how to make from scratch in a way that it tasted like actual Moussaka) and walked through the supermarket grabbing everything from the back listed and decided to buy it. At home I googled for a decent recipe and adapted that with the extra ingredients (mainly herbs, the secret is in the herbs!!!) I saw listed on the back of that "Moussaka ready in half an hour' box. Here's the recipe for it. The moral of this tale? You can make anything glutenfree if you want to invest time and effort! In this case, you invest the time, I've invested the effort for you! ;-)

Glutenfree, vegetarian (if you eat dairy & eggs) Greek Moussaka in the making Ingredients: 450 grams (1 lb) of minced meat (optional, I don't use the meat, my kids love it better without) 1-2 eggplant (I mostly use two as I love to make a big tray of moussaka and then freeze the left overs for an easy meal on a busy day). 450 grams (1 lb) of precooked sliced potatoes (you can also peel potatoes, cook them in salted water for about 10-15 minutes and let them cool before you slice them, they fully cook in the oven) 3  tins of 400 grams (14 oz) of chopped tomatoes (or an equal amount of fresh ones that you chop off, but i can't be bothered. ;-)) 0.5 a jar of sundried tomato tapenade a glove of garlic (two if you like the taste of the Mediterranean ;-)) pinch of salt pinch of pepper two teaspoons of oregano two teaspoons of tarragon one teaspoon of thyme two teaspoons of dried basil  (if you want to use fresh herbs, put in a bit more because the dried versions are often more powerful, but fresh herbs are even better!) 250 grams (9 oz) of thick greek yoghurt 2 eggs 100-200 grams (3.5 to 7 oz) of grated parmesan cheese  1 packet of feta cheese (about 7 oz?) Instructions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (400 degrees fahrenheit). Slice the eggplant and sprinkle them with a bit of salt. This will help release the excess water in the product. Leave for 10 minutes while you preheat a grillpan. Pat off the excess salt and water with some paper towel. Grill the slices in the grillpan until they have those beautiful black grill stripes. Set aside.  If you make the moussaka with minced meat, put this in the pan bake it while loosening it.  Add the tins of chopped tomatoes and press in the clove(s) of garlic. Add the sundried tomato tapenade and  add the spices. Taste. If you feel it needs a bit m³ore of something, just add it!  Mix the yoghurt with 1/4th of the grated parmesan and 1/4th of the feta (crumbled) and two eggs. Add some salt and pepper to finish it. Set aside.   Grease a pyrex oven tray/bowl. Put half of the tomatoe/minced meat sauce in it. Spread half of the potatoe slices on top of it. Crumble half of the feta that is left on it. Add half of the eggplant on top of it. Now repeat all the layers and finish with the yoghurt mix on top of the second layer of eggplant.  Put in the oven for about 35 minutes. Serve with a Greek salad.  Bon appetit!