A Quick Fix Mix for Pancakes

We all live such very busy lives nowadays


I'm really very fussy about what I feed my family, and although I'll buy and grow as much real, fresh food as possible, I do tend to buy ready made snacks for work and school lunches

We all need a little cheat now and then, whether it's buying ready made or packet mix, and the cheatingest packet pre-mix of all are those shake and mix Pancake jugs.  littlej in particular is a fan of these, the lure of a quick treat for a weekend breakfast is hard to resist- especially if she can bribe me into buying the packet for her by offering me breakfast in bed on the occasional Saturday morning

These mixes can be pretty pricey when you think about the cost of the raw ingredients, so I wanted to try and make my own. I was so very happy with the results both with cost and flavour, that I just had to share it with you all and hope you can persuade someone into making you breakfast in bed too :)

Better than the ones in the shop!

Gluten Free Pancake Pre-mix

6 cups gf Plain Flour
2 cups dried Milk Powder (or leave out for dairy free)
1/2 cup White Sugar or Castor Sugar
1/3 cup gf Baking Powder
2 tsp Bicarb Soda
1 tsp Salt

Pop everything into a big bowl together

 Mix very, very thoroughly. You could sift it together if you really want to, but I just run a whisk through it until it's lovely, light and combined

Fill a nice big jar or container with the yummy mix. My jam funnel came in very handy for this- no spills at all  :)

Make sure you write the instructions/ratio down so there's no mistake,

Of course the next logical step is to use some of the mix to make, of course, Pancakes!

2 cups of Pre-mix (I like my pancakes nice and thick and fluffy. If you like yours thinner and more crepe like, use maybe just one cup instead)
1 cup of Water (or milk if you didn't use dried milk powder)
1 Egg

Chuck them all in together

Mix briefly. Now just a tip, all gluten free flour mixes are different combinations of flours and starches so they may vary in density once mixed with the water. Just thin it down until it's the perfect consistency for you

Pour about half a cup at a time into a pre-warmed buttered or oiled pan and wait until small bubbles appear on the surface and the top is slightly set

Flip your little beauty over, let it puff up and finish cooking through. When it's done it should bounce back slightly when you press on it lightly with your finger

Using the ratios given, you will get 6 fabulous, fluffy flapjacks, but of course that depends how big you make them :)

So simple, so quick and easy! I figure with a big jar of this in the pantry the odds of BigJ making me breakfast in bed on Valentines Day just went up a notch or two :)

What a perfect gift, or a great hint that a wonderful, yummy breakfast is only a minute away!

So Dear Readers, do you often have breakfast in bed and do you use a lot of pre-mixes or is it strictly 'from scratch' for you?

Appams For Breakfast

One of the things I really enjoy about travelling is trying out all the new foods- and I'm especially a big sucker for a good breakfast buffet!


When we were in Asia the choices were awesome, not just boring cereal and toast, but Japanese, Chinese, Malay, European and Indian foods were all on offer. Some places even had dedicated Gluten Free options, but I found a lot of dishes were also naturally gluten free if I asked the chefs and explained what that meant

One dish I came across for the first time and really enjoyed was Appam, a delicious type of pancake made from fermented rice flour and coconut milk- crispy on the outside and softly spongy on the inside, yummo!
They're cooked in a small wok style pan called an Appachatti which gives the appam a nice bowl shape. The batter is swirled around the hot pan clinging to sides, then any excess drips to the centre to make the softer middle. A lid is clapped on top, and the appam steams gently until done. They are usually served with an egg in the centre or with a sweet palm sugar filling.

An expert at work, the lovely chef at our resort who made delicious appam to order

Ok, so I just had to try and recreate these at home- even though I didn't have a nice smiling chef to make them to order for me. He did however, give me the basic recipe outline so I could experiment

APPAM
1 sachet (7gm) Dried Yeast
1 tsp Sugar
1 cup of tepid Water
2 cups Rice Flour
good pinch of Salt
1 cup or so of Coconut Milk

Toppings:
Eggs or
Palm Sugar
Coconut
Coconut Cream


Add the yeast and sugar to the cup of tepid water

Set it in a warm spot until it's risen, bubbly and alive!

Mix it into the rice flour, salt, and coconut milk. Cover it loosely and let it sit overnight to slightly ferment

Wakey, wakey! Time to start cooking !
Stir the batter thoroughly and thin it out with some more coconut milk or water if necessary. It should be the consistency of crepe batter- fairly thin

Ladle some into your hot pan and swirl it to evenly cover the edges. Don't worry if you don't have the right type of pan, you could use a wok if you like or even a frypan with a decent lip

Cover the pan, and let the appam steam set for just a minute or so

Done!

If you would like a savoury egg appam, crack an egg into the centre just before popping on the lid and let it steam set- delicious

Place a generous amount of fillings along the centre of your appam

Roll it up and......

Oh not quite as perfect as my professional Appam Chef's :(

His version:

But pretty darn good all the same!

My version:

I have to say that these are a really nice change from the usual type of gluten free pancake you probably make at home. There's a slight tang and yeastiness from the fermentation process and the crispy edges give a nice textural contrast to the dish. I would definitely make them again- especially the egg version- for a breakfast that's just a little bit different, and very definitely delicious!

So Dear Readers, what do you like for breakfast when you travel, and are you a fan of the Breakfast Buffet?

Ful Medames

When I go away, even for just a day, I tend to take a supply of food with me

Not because I'm fussy, not because I'm OCD, but because it's just easier to know that I'm not going to be stuck ill for hours by accidentally eating gluten. Muesli bars are a great stand by, and that's what I had in hand when I spent the night at my Bloggie Bestie Celia's house- just in case.
BUT, if any of you know anything about Celia, and her generosity of spirit, you would have know how silly and ridiculous that kind of thinking really is. Instead of dry, fairly tasteless muesli bars, I was served up a big, steamy bowl of the yummiest bean dish you could imagine, Ful Meadames.

http://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/04/20/little-moments-of-joy/

Apparently the national dish of Egypt, Ful or Fuul is delicious, filling and suitable for vegos and vegans as well as us InTolerants. Ful is the Egyptian word for Broad beans (sometimes known as Fava beans), and medames is a word meaning buried, which refers to the original cooking method of burying a sealed pot of water and beans in hot coals and simmering it away for hours and hours until tender. This would be prepared by the public bath attendants who could put it there each evening and have a nice hot breakfast waiting for the next morning.


After having this delicious breakfast at Celia, I was determined to make it here at home as Winter's chill and minus temperatures need a rib-sticking breakfast to keep up your strength up!

When I make a recipe, especially a classic or traditional cuisine, I really like to research it well first. I turn to my multitude of cookbooks, my tech books, and even Mr Google for ideas and inspiration. This time though I actually found very little variation in the basic bean recipe, just in the toppings, and the Internet search gleaned mostly mashed-up-tinned-bean recipes that didn't interest me at all.
I decided in the end to go with Food Safari's great recipe which had a combination of both broad beans and red lentils, but cook it my own way with a couple of little changes to suit my taste and time restraints.

Ful Medames
(start the day before if presoaking the beans)

2 cups dried Broad Beans
1 cup dried Red Lentils
1/3 cup EVOO
6 cloves Garlic
1 tablespoon ground Cumin



Rinse the beans and lentils really well until the water runs fairly clear

Soak the beans and lentils for a few hours, or overnight. Less if you cook it longer in the pressure cooker

Drain them well, then place the soaked beans into the pressure cooker with 6 cups of water, garlic cloves, cumin and 1/3 cup of good olive oil. Cook for an hour in a pressure cooker, then check to see if they are soft.
If you're cooking them on the stove top, you'll need to bring them to the boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5 to 8 hours- checking and stirring occasionally. A simmer mat is really good for this as you don't want the beans to catch

The broad beans should be lovely and tender by now, and the lentils should have disappeared all together into the murk. Don't worry that there seems to be a lot of liquid, trust me it will soak into the beans and you might even need to add more!

Ful can be served as is, roughly mashed with a potato masher and served as a stew-ish bowl, or blended up well with a stick blender into a thick type of dip as I did. Whatever style you prefer though, DON'T take out ANY of the liquid!

As you can see, this dish thickens up remarkably

Ful is often served spread thickly on a pita and packed with salad then rolled as a quick eat-as-you-go breakfast, or in a bowl as a stew with cooked tomatoes, onions and spices and even boiled eggs. The toppings I've decided to include for my feast include Tahini, Hummus, Garlic, Cumin, Sumac and Lemon juice

Spoon a good splodge into a bowl, I like to make a channel to hold in all the extra yummies

Season very generously with salt- remember that no salt has been added yet, and beans are quite bland on their own really. Crush on the garlic now too- I like the warm hum of a bit of raw garlic, but you can leave it off if you have an important breakfast meeting :)

Now add a great big spoon of tahini, a little scoop of hummus, a big sprinkle of cumin and sumac, a drizzle of very nice and grassy EEVO, and serve up with a wedge of lemon for squeezing and some GF flatbread for scooping- Yummo!

This has been a delicious breakfast or lunch for days, and I packed portions in baggies in the freezer for busy mornings as well. All in all it made about 12 very decent portions for a tiny price. Well worth it!
Brown foods are so hard to photograph well, but doesn't this look delicious with all the toppings swimming around bathing the beans with flavour? Yummo!

So my Dearest Readers, what do you enjoy for breakfast on a cold day, and have you tried Egyptian cuisine before?