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This crumbly yet satisfyingly dense dessert combines all the almond flavours of a frangipane with the texture of a polenta cake and the richness of an olive oil cake, while fresh orange flavours add a lovely citrus zing.

This recipe is part of our online gift guide and e-zine Hint Magazine. You can get your free PDF copy here or, for the full experience, flick through it here:Hint Magazine 2024

Christina doesn’t like cake made of cake. Cheesecake is fine. Carrot cake just about makes the grade. But things like sponge are anathema to her.

So it’s understandable that I was apprehensive with this one. But the polenta, almond meal and olive oil made enough of a difference that she devoured this ‘cake’ without a sign of side eye.

But the good thing about it is that it’s not too cakey. And it’s not too sugary either. The freshness from the orange and lemon, and the richness from olive oil, eggs and spices turns up the indulgent dial too.

Sweetness comes almost exclusively from the three dousings of orange and maple syrup, which you add at different stages at different reductions.

A scoop of orange cream on the side sharpens the dish and adds depth at the same time.

This cake is indeed gluten free. We have more gluten-free recipes here.

Polenta and olive oil citrus syrup cake

Here’s what you need:

Cake
– 3 large eggs
– 1 cup (approx 210g) extra virgin olive oil
– 50g caster sugar
– 2tsp vanilla extract
– Zest of one orange
– 2 cups (approx. 175g) almond meal
– 50g polenta
– 2tsp baking powder
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Citrus and maple syrup
– 2 cups fresh pulp-free orange juice (about 4 oranges’ worth)
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– 100ml (approx 1/3 cup) pure maple syrup
– 2 whole star anise
– 1 cinnamon stick
– 15-20g butter (added later)

Orange cream on the side
– 1 cup Greek yoghurt
– 1tbsp thickened cream
– 1tbsp golden syrup
– Zest of 1/2 orange

Here’s what you do:

1. Preheat the oven 160°C fan-forced.

Cake:

2. Lightly beat the 3 eggs into a large bowl until the white and yolk are combined, then mix in the olive oil, the 50g sugar, the vanilla extract and the zest from 1 orange until well combined.

3. Add the 2 cups almond meal, 50g polenta, 2tsp baking powder and cinnamon to the bowl and mix to form a smooth batter.

4. Pour batter into a greased scallop-edged flan tin and bake for 30mins or until cooked through. You can also use a deeper dish like a bread tin, though you’ll need to cook it for longer — around 45mins. Either way, a toothpick or wooden skewer should come out clean.

Syrup:

5. To make the syrup, combine all the ingredients in a pan and gently simmer for 5mins or until the mixture has reduced slightly and the spices have become aromatic. At this stage, the syrup will be quite runny.

6. Using a skewer or toothpick, poke several discreet ‘soak holes’ in the cake, then spoon enough syrup to moisten the surface of the cake and pool slightly. Then return syrup to the heat, remove the spices and cook down for a further 5mins. Spoon more over the cake to glaze.

7. Return the remaining syrup to the heat again, add the 15-20g butter and cook down until the syrup thickens. Add this to each slice of cake when you’re ready to serve.

Cream:

8. Finally, combine the yoghurt, cream and orange zest* well in a bowl. Return it to the fridge, covered, until you’re ready to serve. The longer you leave it, the more the orange zest will permeate.

You can chill the cake if you wish or serve it warm or room temperature. Serve with a scoop of orange cream and a drizzle of maple and citrus syrup.

You can also serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream if you like.

*The zest will add texture (read: ‘a bit lumpy’). If you don’t want this, pass the yoghurt-cream mixture through a sieve for smoother consistency.

The post Olive Oil Citrus Syrup Cake Recipe – and yes, it’s gluten-free appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

I’ve lived in Australia for a long time now, but every so often I feel the pangs of homesickness. But the things I miss from the UK – apart from my people – are usually food based.

A good Indian curry is often hard to come by in Australia – or it’s at least different to the food I grew up with in the UK. So to calm this particular call to my heart, I cook up a feast at home.

Here are some of the other curries I’ve shared in the past that often land on the dinner table when the mood takes me.

Saag tarka dhal recipe

Perennial, popular and ubiquitous in all Indian households, tarka dhal comes in many forms. Everyone seems to have their own version.

This is my interpretation, and although it probably doesn’t follow traditional methods, it still tastes amazing. I hope no curry purists find my recipe too heretic!

To make this dish vegan, take out the butter (or ghee) and replace with coconut oil.

With my tarka dhal I also made chana masala – you can find the recipe here. 

Here’s what you need:

– 1tsp coriander seeds
– 2tsp cumin seeds
– 6-10 mushrooms – sliced
– 1/4 cup oil
– 2tsp butter + 1tsp for garnish
– 2tsp curry powder (Keen’s)
– 2tsp garam masala
– 2 bay leaves
– 1 onion – diced
– 2 garlic cloves – finely chopped
– 1 tin lentils
– 3-4 drops of liquid smoke (I love Culley’s applewood)
– 2 handfuls of fresh spinach – you can use frozen spinach at a push
– Salt and pepper to taste

Here’s what you do:

1. Toast coriander seeds and half the cumin seeds in a hot pan until aromatic, tip into a mortar and allow to cool. Grind up with the pestle and set aside.

2. Dry fry mushrooms until liquid has leeched out and set aside.

3. Add oil and butter to pan (or you can use ghee), add ground coriander and cumin, whole cumin seeds, garam masala, curry powder and bay leaves. Fry into a paste until the cumin seeds start to pop and sizzle.

4. Add onion and garlic and cook until onions have absorbed the curry colour. Add the mushrooms, lentils (drained and rinsed) and the liquid smoke. Stir until well combined.

5. Add the spinach and put a lid on the pot. Cook on medium-to-low for about 5 minutes until the leaves have wilted a little. Stir the pot to combine the spinach, then cover again and cook on low.

6. When the spinach has cooked down and combined well, serve immediately or leave in the pot, covered, until dinner time and reheat for a few minutes before serving.

7. When you’re ready, garnish with a nob of butter and either allow to melt or bring to the table and melt with a blow torch for a bit of culinary theatre. This also brings a little more smokiness to the dish.

In fact, it’s the smokiness of this dish that I love the most. Traditional methods impart smoke with a piece of smouldering charcoal in a foil tray set in the pan.

I don’t trust myself not to burn the kitchen down or set off all the smoke alarms, so a dash of liquid smoke or a touch of smoky paprika will do the trick.

You notice I also use tinned lentils here. This is purely for speed and ease. I’m sure using dried lentils gives a whole different dimension to the dish, but when you’ve got a hungry Christina clawing at your back, let’s see which option you go for then!

Let me know what your favourite curry is or if you’ve ever tried cooking tarka dhal. Would love to hear about it.

The post How to make saag tarka dhal – comfort curry at its best appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

When I was a boy, my mum used to make me the most delicious sticky date puddings imaginable. But then pretty much everything she makes tasted good. You know how it is with Mum’s food.

So when I first tried these cookies, I was a little skeptical. Would they be much of a contest to childhood memories? Or would they snap me right back to the good old days?

I have no idea why I doubted them. After all, these cookies came from the expert oven of Sammie from the Annoyed Thyroid. In fact it was her idea for me to try making them gluten free. These cookies are amazing. They’re so good, they made my childhood seem like something out of a Dickens novel.

“Please sir, can I can some more?”

That’s pretty much what Mrs Romance was saying to me after her first cookie!

Here’s the recipe – and the good news is it’s super easy. Bad news: these are not a kind of health food after all.

And by the way, if you have a Thermamix, Sammie’s original post here has alternative cooking instructions for you.

Dangerous gluten-free sticky date cookies

Makes about 18 biccies

Here’s what you need

• 140g dried dates
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp soda bicarb
• 255g plain gluten-free flour
• 165g caster sugar
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• Icing sugar to dust over as decoration
• 1 bottle of wine – red, white or rosé (optional)

Here’s what you do

1. Pour yourself a glass of wine.
2. Place the dates, syrup and water in a small pan and heat until boiling.
3. Pour into the food processor, add the bicarb, which will froth up, and stand for about 5 minutes.
4. Process until the mixture is almost smooth and allow it to cool.
5. Have another glass while you wait!
6. Add the gluten-free flour (best if you sift it), butter (chop it up a bit first), the caster sugar and the egg into the mix and blitz it up until it all comes together.

NB: I had to change the blade to the softer plastic one instead of the metal one at this point. Careful if you have to do this; you’re 2 glasses in don’t forget!

7. Turn out the mixture into a bowl, cover it and pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (160°C for fan-forced) and cover a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper while you wait.
9. If you’re ready, why not pour out another glass?
10. Scoop out large teaspoon sized blobs of the mix, roll them into balls in your hands and space them about 3cm apart on the trays. Slightly squash the balls (ouch) with the back of a spoon.
11. Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes until they’re golden brown. Allow them to cool on the trays.
12. Dust in icing sugar and – while they’re still warm – eat about 10!
13. Don’t drive anywhere for about 3 hours if you’ve followed all steps to the letter.

The crunchiness on the outside only seems to last a few hours and then the whole biscuit becomes a bit softer. I haven’t tried it, but I think putting the tray back in the oven for 5 minutes might re-invigorate them. Or ruin everything. I don’t know.

And as Sammie’s recipe explains, if you want to store your gluten-free sticky date cookies, they’ll stay good in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

If you like these cookies, check out our gluten-free macadamia shortbread biscuits or Mrs Romance’s amazing gluten-free peanut butter choc chip cookies! 

These gluten-free sticky date cookies are a perfect treat – Mrs Romance has already put her Valentine’s Day order in. And Easter. And her Christmas in July order. And her birthday, my birthday, New Year’s Eve… I think she likes them.

They almost have a kind of cinnamon taste from the dates, so they’ll be perfect for Christmas too. Just be careful. As I said, these are not a health food!

Is there a particular dish you wish was a type of health food that’s not? Tell us in the comments section below!

Images by Mr Romance.

The post How to make dangerous gluten-free sticky date cookies appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

If you like sweets, you’re probably a huge fan of Easter. It’s the time of year when you can eat as much chocolate as possible with complete impunity.

It’s also a good opportunity to try your hand at making something new (and sweet) in the kitchen!

This year, rather than going for something egg-shaped or bunny-themed, we thought we’d try something different.

It’s around this time of year that macadamia nuts are being harvested in Australia, so we thought an Easter macadamia recipe would be quite appropriate.

Gluten free macadamia shortbread cookies

Here’s what you need

• ½ cup raw macadamia nuts – roughly chopped
• 150g unsalted butter – softened and chopped
• 75g icing sugar
• 150g plain white flour – we found gluten free flour works really well
• 75g corn flour
• 1 tsp crystal sea salt – Maldon salt is the best
• A few drops of vanilla extract – optional

Here’s what you do:

1. Into a large bowl, sift the icing sugar over the butter.
2. Mash and combine the sugar and butter with a wooden spoon.
3. Combine the flours and sift them over the sugared butter bit by bit, mixing as you go.
4. When the cookie dough has started to form, add the vanilla extract and mix thoroughly then add the salt. Try to keep the crystals whole as it adds a nice texture.
5. On a lightly floured surface, gently kneed the macadamias into the dough.
6. Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of baking paper until it’s about 1cm thick – or thicker if you want deeper cookies!
7. Cut out the cookies and place on a lined baking tray.
8. Sprinkle a small pinch of salt crystals on the top of each cookie and gently tap them into the surface to secure.
9. Bake at 160°C for about 10-15 minutes or until the cookies start to brown slightly.
10. Leave the cookies to cool a bit on the tray – they’ll break up if you try to move them too soon.
11. Transfer to a cooling rack and avoid eye contact. They will read your mind and take possession of your soul.

I’ve discovered that this recipe can be successfully scaled up so that you can use a whole 250g block of butter! I mean, no one likes having that useless 100g chunk of butter taking up space in their fridge, do they?

Quantities become:

• ¾ cup macadamias
• 250g butter
• 125g icing sugar
• 250g flour
• 125g corn flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 – 1½ tsp salt

The best thing about these cookies is that you can make them relevant to any celebration by swapping out the nut. Pecans for Thanksgiving, walnuts for Christmas, cashews for summer… though of course, macadamias work the best!

I’ve got a feeling that adding a few chocolate chips to this recipe would work a treat too. In fact I think I might go and test that theory out right now!

If you want more macadamia recipes, check out our party nut ideas here or our macadamia dukkha recipe here, or head over the Australian Macadamia Society’s website.

Do you have a favourite macadamia recipe? What will you be making this Easter? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance using an OM-D E-M5 mark II Olympus camera.

The post Easter recipe – gluten free macadamia shortbread cookies appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

We love making our own party and movie snacks (when we have time), so these flavoured roasted macadamia nuts are perfect. They’re really quick and easy to do. And knowing exactly what’s going in them means they’re better for you than shop-bought.

And the fact that macadamia nuts are Australian natives makes it even better.

Lots of people think macadamias are from Hawaii, which is one of the world’s largest producers. But they’re actually native to northern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland.

If you want more information about how Australian the macadamia nut is, check out the AMS (Australian Macadamia Society) website. The society has been supporting this key horticultural industry for over 40 years.

But let’s talk about eating!

Mixing up your own seasoned macadamias and roasting them is so easy. We tried 2 different recipes to start off with but once you get the timings and quantities right, you can really explore different flavours.

How to roast your own seasoned macadamia snacks

Here’s what you need

Smokin’ chilli macadamias

?  2 cups raw macadamia nuts
?  2 teaspoons macadamia oil
?  1 teaspoon smoky paprika
?  1 teaspoon chilli flakes
?  ½ teaspoon chilli powder
?  Sea salt – Maldon salt flakes work really well

Fennel, sesame and oregano macadamias

?  2 cups raw macadamia nuts
?  2 teaspoons macadamia oil
?  1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
?  1 teaspoon of sesame seeds
?  1 teaspoon of dried oregano
?  ½ – 1 teaspoon Maldon sea salt

Here’s what you do

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until the macadamias are well coated.
2. Spread out on in a single layer on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
3. Bake for 10 minutes or until browning slightly at 160oC.
4. Leave to cool slightly before serving.

–  We recommend not eating them straight from the oven for 2 reasons: 1. They come out weirdly chewy and only go crunchy after a few minutes. 2. They’ll be bloody hot!

–  You can also roast your macadamias on your barbecue – just put down a layer of aluminium foil first, then the greaseproof paper.

–  We’ve also experimented with lots of other flavours – another of our favourites has more chilli and a few drops of sriracha sauce in the mix!

But macadamias have many many more uses than just roasting them. We’ve made macadamia dukkha before, which was simple and delicious and went with this amazing lamb recipe, and we’re keen to have a go at some macadamia shortbread and macadamia popcorn. Yum!

And for a sweet treat, you’ve got to check out our macadamia shortbread cookie recipe – our next door neighbours Jack and Denese love these things so much, we use them as leverage if we need a favour!

There are hundreds more recipes on the AMS website. And if you want more on what to do with Australian bush foods, here’s our post on 11 Aussie bush tucker foods you must try and where to find them.

So if you’re wondering what snacks to put out for your next party, or if you’re looking for something delicious to nibble on while you snuggle down for a movie, make sure you’ve got a stash of raw macadamias in your fridge. They keep for ages in an airtight container.

What spice mix would you roast your macadamias in? Have you got a favourite macadamia recipe? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance using an Olympus OM-D E-M5 mark II camera.

The post Eat this – the best Aussie snack recipe appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t like chocolate? Anyone that you’re still talking to I mean? No, me neither.

That’s why I think a bit of choccie is the perfect way to say I love you to your significant other. You can also get them to share it with you… which is very romantic!

5 chocolate tips for Valentine’s Day

1. Mrs Romance’s magical chocolate mousse

Mrs Romance has an affinity with chocolate mousse. I don’t know how it happened or when exactly, but suddenly she was churning out the best chocolate mousse I’ve ever eaten.

Of course, I didn’t tell her this immediately. Instead I’d nod, compliment her then suggest more practice was needed. No, I’m not just a pretty face.

Mrs R’s mousse recipe is so good, so decadent, that it’s easily my favourite dessert – romantic or otherwise.

2. Super Easy Gluten-Free Nutella cheesecake

Much like the mousse, this chocolate cheesecake is another instant masterpiece Mrs Romance cooks up from time to time. The rich Nutella filling and the delicious nutty, biscuity base make this a very indulgent dessert.

It’s also gluten free (which makes it healthy, right?) so this is a good one for Valentine’s if your partner has a gluten sensitivity.

Mrs Romance promises me this is a deceptively cake to make, which is exactly what you want for a Valentine’s Day meal.

3. Wholefood Simply – mix & make chocolate pudding

For a cleaner-eating option, we love the easy mix & make chocolate pudding our friend Bianca from WholefoodSimply.com has shared on her site.

This pudding only has 6 ingredients in it – all unprocessed, real foods – and has a gooey centre. I like the sound of that!

I can’t imagine many people being unhappy if they were presented with this over Valentine’s!

4. Not Quite Nigella – beer bacon chocolate cake

Lorraine from NotQuiteNigella.com always gets me feeling hungry with her recipes. And this one certainly appeals.

Her beer bacon chocolate cake is a stroke of man-cake genius.

5. Pana Chocolate – guilt-free chocolate

Of course, if you’re not interested in spending time in the kitchen this Valentine’s Day, there’s always the option of having someone else do it for you.

Pana Chocolate make the most indulgent delicious range of raw vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, organic handmade chocolates we’ve ever eaten.

They also have special Valentine’s Day gift sets available, perfect for a romantic surprise. Their special ‘I Love You’ and ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ boxed gift packs are very cute, as are the Strawberry Hearts.

Pop into their Sydney or Melbourne stores, or buy online. These guys ship to nationally plus to the UK and EU.

Something from the bar?

If you’re looking for something with a bit of kick within its chocolaty depths, check out our Toblerone Cocktail recipe here. It’s to die for!

Mrs Romance and I have talked a fair bit about what to do on Valentine’s Day – as you’d expect of a site called Mr & Mrs Romance! Here’s what we’ve said in the past:

• Last-minute Valentine’s Day ideas.
• How to create a romantic surprise for your partner.
• 7 alternative date ideas for Valentine’s Day.
• My version of Valentine’s Day.

What are your plans for this Valentine’s Day? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance and courtesy of NotQuiteNigella.com and WholefoodSimply.com.

The post Say it with chocolate – 5 choc tips for Valentine’s Day appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

One of my favourite parts of a meal is the pre-dinner nibble plate. You know, the cheese, the chips, the dips. Sometimes I go a little over the top and have no room for the meal.

I’ve learnt over time to control my pig-out urges a little, but it’s hard. My hand has a mind of its own and shoots out unbidden to grab another fistful of cut meat or to hack off another chunk of brie. I have to be very careful.

The only time I have no way of controlling myself is if there’s dukkah at the table. A bit of bread, dip it in oil, dip that in the dukkah…. Swoon!

Dukkah – or dukka, or duqqa, or even dakka – is from Egypt originally. It’s a delicious mix of herbs, nuts, seeds and spices combined into a kind of crumb consistency. The simplest of dukkah is just mint, salt and pepper pounded up into this mix.

Our recipe – of course – is more elaborate with an Australian twist. Did you know macadamia nuts are, in fact, Australian?!

Gluten-free macadamia dukkah

Here’s what you need:

• ½ cup raw macadamia nuts from Australian Macadamias
• ¼ cup raw sesame seeds
• ¼ cup raw pine nuts
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 2tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tps sea salt – Maldon sea salt is the best

Here’s what you do:

1. Toast the macadamia nuts and pine nuts in a pan until the pine nuts start to brown very slightly (about 2 mins). Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Toast the sesame, coriander, cumin and caraway seeds in the pan until the sesame seeds start to brown and the others start to become fragrant (about 1-2 mins).
3. Briefly chop the nuts in a food processor until the macadamias are about half the size of a whole pine nut. Don’t over chop – you don’t want nut dust!
4. Grind the toasted seeds in a pestle and mortar (or mortar and pestle!) until the coriander seeds are all broken up and well and truly crushed.
5. Mix everything together including the salt and pepper.

• Remember this is hawker-style rustic street food; it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Keep the dukkah in an airtight container. I made ours as part of another recipe and made way too much. It lasted perfectly well for months until we’d used it all up.

Serve your dukkah with bread and oil, or add it to other dishes for a bit of Middle-Eastern flavour.

For a completely gluten-free experience, dukkah goes really well sprinkled on top of humus or beetroot dips and served with veggie sticks for dipping. Adding it to sweet curries works well too.

The recipe I originally made this dukkah for was for this slow-cooked lamb and quinoa salad. I used the dukkah for a crust on the lamb! SO GOOD!

What do you serve before the main meal at dinner parties? Do you have a nibble vice that you just can’t resist? Tell us your secrets in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance.

The post Easy entertaining – gluten-free macadamia dukkah recipe appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

Our last 5 Foodie Finds featured all things sweet. And while it did get our pulses racing, that could well have been simply a sugar rush!

This time round we’re all about more savoury comestibles. Things that make me want to face-smash my plate and just trough out.

From gluten-free bread and guilt-free eggs to the best room service and bush tucker dishes we’ve ever had, here are our 5 Foodie Finds.

Rock Chic Eggs

The chickens at Archerfield Farm live a real rockstar life. Not only is their coop called the Hen Penthouse, they get full range of the 80-acre property. Even better, the founder is none other than INXS manager Chris Murphy!

The Murphy family have worked hard over the years to farm organically and ethically, and this is their latest effort. The idea of being able to buy eggs with a guarantee of being from farm to home within 48 hours is very welcome.

These eggs are available from specialist stores in Sydney – find the closest one to you here.

The Protein Bread Co.

What you get with most gluten-free bread:

Gross taste, crumbly and impossibly to eat, doesn’t toast, horrible texture, unabsorbent, insipid, leaves you feeling a bit hungry.

What you get with Protein Bread:

None of that stuff. In fact, I feel fuller from this bread than when I eat regular bread. That’s because there’s so much protein in it – 16.4g per serve in fact.

It’s also got some good ol’ super foods in there like chia seeds in it and it’s incredibly low in carbohydrates with only 2.4g per serve.

The only downside is that it’s a bit pricey. I was a bit surprised how much Mrs R paid for her loaf, but it does freeze extremely well so you can make it last.

Thank you to Nikki from Styling You for putting us onto this excellent product.

QT Gold Coast room service

We’ve been to a conference in the QT Gold Coast Hotel in Queensland these past few days. Although the catering at the conference was ok – as is their bar Stingray, there’s nothing quite like escaping the crowds, picking up the phone in your room and bunkering down till the food comes to you.

Mrs Romance ordered the fish tacos and I couldn’t resist the temptations of the slow roast pork burger, which is essentially a pork belly burger, and tasty fries. We also felt duty-bound to order a bowl of special fries, which were covered in jalapeño and liquid cheese.

I’d like to add that, in a moment of gluttony, a few days later I ordered another burger – this time the buttermilk chicken burger – and I was once again astonished at how tasty it was.

Bush tucker at Kingfisher Bay Resort

We’ve been on a few bush tucker tours in Australia. They’ve always promised to show us food that the Australian aborigines have lived on for millennia and that, if we knew where to look, we’d be able to survive in the Outback.

This lesson in Kingfisher Bay Resort’s Seabelle Restaurant on Fraser Island, Queensland does much more than teach you about what people can live on. It’s a gastronomic exploration.

We tried all sorts of things from crocodile and emu to pepperberry and finger limes. Each of them had its own distinct flavour and all of them are utilised in the restaurant’s menu, which is excellent and worth a trip to Fraser Island for on its own.

Viet pho at PHD Marrickville

A few years ago, Mrs Romance and I tried Vietnamese pho (pronounced a bit like ‘fur’) for the first time. Thinking we’d be extravagant, we ordered the slightly more expensive ‘special’ option. There was nothing special about it… unless the word ‘special’ in Vietnamese means ‘offal and miscellaneous carcass.

So we ignored pho for a long time. Which was silly. It’s a delicious dish… just don’t go for the special!

A week ago, we went to dinner with friends of our Paul and Ewelina from ReFoil. They took us to PHD in Marrickville, where they said the best pho is outside Cabramatta.

I was feeling hungry [greedy] and went for the large [swimming pool] size beef pho. It was a lot of food but I tell you what, I finished that big beautiful bastard! It was excellent. Others in our group had the free range chicken pho. The chicken looked a bit troublesome as the chook was on the bone, but it was good nonetheless.

Have you ever eaten a truly free-range egg that had just been laid? What do you order at Vietnamese restaurants? What do you usually order from the room service menu? Tell us all about your foodie finds in the comments!

Images courtesy of Protein Bread, Archerfield Farm, and by Mr & Mrs Romance.

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Ever since Mrs Romance found out she was gluten intolerant, we’ve been looking around for gluten-free options for her. I find it amazing – and such a relief – that there are so many alternatives out there now that are actually edible (apart from the bread – someone needs to sort that out).

A day after we’d made our first slow-cooked roast lamb and quinoa salad, we discovered that we’d made way too much quinoa. I started looking around for things I could do with all this extra cooked quinoa and found this excellent recipe on MaNouvelleMode.com for granola.

Still, this recipe uses oats, which do contain gluten. It was then that my brain did its thing. I started wondering if I could replace the oats with these quinoa flakes I’d discovered recently.

The answer: indeed I could!

Even better than that, the recipe makes a granola that’s really bloody tasty too!

Home-made gluten-free quinoa chia granola

Serves 25 – takes about 50mins

Here’s what you need:

• 4 ½ cups quinoa flakes
• 2 cups cooked quinoa
• 2 cups unsweetened desiccated coconut
• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup pecans
• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• ½ cup pepita seeds
• ¼ cup chia seeds
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ to 1 tsp salt
• ¾ cup honey
• ¾ cup apple sauce (unsweetened if you can find it)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Here’s what you do

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160°C (325°F).
2. In one big bowl combine all the dry ingredients.
3. In another bowl combine the wet ingredients – the honey, apple sauce and vanilla – and mix it up well.
4. Gradually mix the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients until everything is well-combined.
5. Spread the mix out thinly over baking trays lined with paper. Make sure the granola is no more than 1cm deep on the tray.
6. Bake the granola for about 35 minutes – checking after the first 15-20 minutes.
7. Stir the mix regularly and keep a close eye on the granola the closer it gets to time.

**35-40 minutes should be long enough – 45 minutes if you prefer a darker granola.**

You don’t have to add this exact mix – try walnuts instead of pecans or brazils instead of almonds. You don’t need to include chia seeds either – they’re a superfood but not essential to this mix. You can even add dried fruit to the mix if you want.

Quinoa (pronounced ‘keen-wah’)

Quinoa is an ancient grain that’s packed full of good stuff like magnesium, iron, fibre and protein, so it’s pretty good for you. To cook it, stir the quinoa into a pot of boiling water – about a 1:2 quinoa-water ratio.

We usually dissolve a stock cube in the water first too. You know it’s done when little rings around each grain start to detach themselves.

You can now find quinoa flakes pretty easily in the health food or dietary requirements section of your supermarket (if not, ask them to stock it). I use them a lot for an extra dimension when I’m crumbing things!

When it’s all cooked and cooled, all you have to do is slice up some strawberries or whatever fruit you fancy, add a dash of milk or yoghurt to your bowl and away you go!

What’s in your favourite breakfast bowl? Do you have a preferred granola blend? What do you use chia seeds for? Tell us in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance.

The post Home-Made Gluten-Free Granola Recipe with Quinoa and Chia Seeds appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.

When we first thought of this post, Mrs Romance and I were working towards the elegant alliteration of ‘5 Foodie Finds’. But then we discovered two more we just couldn’t leave out… I hope you understand!

Some of these little nuggets of food excellence we found at the Sydney Good Food and Wine Show this year. Others we’ve just happened upon or people have told us about. But they’re all game-changers in the kitchen and in our home bar.

1. Ambra Limoncello

Mrs Romance loves limoncello… I mean LOVES it! It’s made from Australian fruit but is based on a traditional recipe from the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy. This stuff’s great just on ice or over ice cream or with champagne – or even in tonic water!

Ambre does a couple of other spirits; our other favourite is the Ambre Chocolatino. It’s a smooth chocolaty liqueur with a hint of orange!

2. Beak & Sons sausages

Australian-owned and family-run since the 1900s, the sausages burgers and meatballs are all gluten-free and delicious to boot. Try the chorizo sausages – they’re amazing!

beakandsons.com.au

3. Currong Comestibles – Shrubs & Chutneys

One of the most impressive uses of native Australian fruits and herbs comes in the form of these amazing natural products. The shrubs are – as creator and owner, Denyse McDonald, says – ‘cordial syrups for grownups’. They’re much more than that, and we’re working on some excellent non-alcoholic mock-tails for this Dry July.

The shrubs and chutneys develop the much underused flavours of the riberry and the rainforest lime, both native Australian fruits. Currong Comestibles are 100% natural, with minimal ingredients. They’re also incredibly tasty!

currong.com.au

4. Pic’s Peanut Butter

This is one of the tastiest peanut butters we’ve tasted. It’s the perfect collaboration between Australia and New Zealand: the Kingaroy peanuts are grown here in Aus then shipped to Nelson, NZ to be roasted and ground up and made into this crunchy jar of genius. It’s a delicious product with some classic New Zealand undersell humour on the packaging!

“Really good,” it promises. “Well worth eating.” And the website mirrors the slogan: www.reallygood.co.nz. You can almost hear Murray from Flight of the Conchords saying it!

reallygood.co.nz

5. The Spice Tailor

You probably know how much we love curry by now. Well, these Spice Tailor packages are brilliant, simple and super authentic. Each one comes in three sections: the dry spices, the curry paste and the finishing sauce.

You fry off the dry spices then add your meat or veggies. Add the curry paste to coat the ingredients in the pan. Finally, you pour in the finishing sauce! This just seems so much more like cooking a proper curry than a lot of those all-in-one jars you get in shops. Plus the packaging’s cute, with little secrets to customising your curry too.

thespicetailor.com

6. Nõshu gluten-free doughnuts

We couldn’t believe it when we tried these little beauties at the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show. Nõshu (working on the ‘all love, no sugar’ selling point) is the brainchild of the lovely Rachel, while hunting for a healthier snack for her family. Her folks have a history of type 2 diabetes, so coming up with something like sugar-free doughnuts was a moment of genius.

Instead of being wheat-based, these little fellows are made from things like coconut flour and pumpkin! They taste just as good (if not better) than regular doughnuts, but they’re gluten-free, nut-free and sugar-free, so they have an incredibly low GI too.

Watch this space for Nõshu Anzac biccies and chocolate brownies in the near future!

noshu.com.au

7. Barilla pasta and a couple of cooking tricks

While we were at the Sydney Good Food & Wine Show, we had a cooking lesson with Barilla’s executive chef Luca Ciano. He shared a couple of tricks to making the perfect pasta sauce:

Chop root veggies and onion into small cubes, fry them up. Then add about 1/2 a cup of the salted water that you’ll cook the pasta in to the pan. This creates a stock. When you cook the pasta, under-cook it by about a minute then scoop it out into the stock pan. Never rinse your pasta.

We added a couple of tablespoons of Barilla sauce then stirred it in, still on the heat, then grated a bit of smoked ricotta over the top. We were really surprised with the result, I must say. I thought ready-to-use pasta sauce was a thing of my past… but maybe not!

We’ve been told that Barilla will also be releasing a new line of gluten-free pasta later this year!

barilla.com

Do you have any food wonders you’d like to share? What do you think of these foodie finds? Tell all in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance and courtesy of Barilla, and Beak & Sons.

The post 7 Awesome Foodie Finds appeared first on Mr and Mrs Romance.