Late night snack

Blue cheese and figs go really well together - so though this is butter some crackers and layer cheese and stuff on top - I have included it in this blog as it is tasty, tasty, tasty.

Fabulous cheese, as ever, from The Crumbly Cheese, Todmorden Indoor Market.








Crackers
Butter
Cheddar
Tomato
Cucumber
Basil
Blue cheese
Figs

Gluten free crackers - onion and poppy seed

Tried a new combination of flavours for the gluten free savoury crackers ... and they were declared "absolutely, bloody, brilliant ... "  ... they were very, very good! Today we had gnomes, frogs, chicks, cats and crocodiles.

So, ...

Gluten free SR flour
Mustard powder
Butter / margarine
garlic
poppy seeds
dried fried onions
cold water

GF mixtures are gluten free ... dah dah! .. stating of the obvious!  This means that they are not elastic in the same way that wheat flours are - so think of this as a very "short" pastry.

So,  rub in the flour and fat as you normally would.  Add flavourings (bash hell out of the dried, fried onions in a pestle and mortar so that the tiny pieces can be distributed into the dough).  Mix gently, add water to bind.  Put the dough into plastic bags in the fridge to chill.

Turn oven to 180C.

Roll dough out between 2 sheets of floured baking parchment (it helps the mixture stick together and not split and crack).  Run a pallet knife gently under the pastry, lifting it from the paper.  Cut out shapes with a cutter, and transfer to a baking paper lined baking tray - I lifted them out of the mixture within the cutter squeezing the shape very gently together, rather than cutting out multiple shapes and then picking them out of the sheet. The lifting of the raw pastry means that you can move the fragile crackers - if you don't loosen them first you will not get them out of the shapes!

Bake for about 12 minutes - turning the tray around after about 8 minutes to get an even(ish) bake.

Cool on a rack (if you can wait) and then scoff!

Gluten free "cheese" crackers with fennel ... and some gnomes

 For a while now I have been thinking of trying some GF biscuits - but savoury ones, because we're not a very sweet household.  Today I had a chance to try some.  The first batch was over cooked - but later ones came out better.  Today I made gnomes, cacti and guitars - but you can make whatever you fancy.

My decorated effort was a gnome - with sundried tomato hat and jacket, olive taponade wellies, olive eyes and cashew cheese beard.  Cashew cheese recipe - more or less this - http://chocolateandzucchini.com/recipes/dips-spreads/raw-cashew-cheese-recipe/ from Chocolate and Zucchini.

The biscuits I made up myself ... )all ingerdients are "ish"

120g gluten free plain flour
75g polenta
salt and pepper
80g cold margarine (olive oil spread)
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp crushed garlic
cold water

Rub fat into dry ingredients, herbs and spices.
When it looks like breadcrumbs, add enough cold water, and stir/kneed to bring it together.

When it is pastry-like - roll out between 2 pieces of floured greaseproof paper - cut out - lay onto greaseproof paper lined baking trays, pierce with a fork, and bake in pre-heated oven (about 10-12 minutes)

Crab and crackers

Normally, if I were to think of crab it's with one of those "take 3 pheasant and a dozen quails eggs" moments where you can feel the £s flying out of your pocket.  BUT, thanks to the wonder of "use by" dates found BARGAIN dressed crab, and so couldn't resist.  Victim was thrilled as she loves crab, but doesn't get it often.  So mixed dressed crab with assorted chopped salady bits (spring onion, cucumber, avocado, cherry tomatoes, parsley - would have added radish if we had any) - add chopped chili (our homegrown) and squeeze of lemon juice.  Good grind of black pepper and a spinkling of sea salt, and serve on crackers.  LOVELY!