Australia Day Picnic: Gluten Free Recipes

What can I say about Australia Day...I love food, I love friends and I love (more than most things) putting the two together! Well, that's not really what Australia Day is all about now is it? Well, I actually think it is about Australia Day as Australia Day, which is a national public holiday on January 26th, is all about getting together with family and friends and chillin out. In Perth that's generally done by relaxing along the foreshore of the Swan River where we show out patriotism by the sheer number of young and old kids running after footballs, soccer balls and beach balls, where barbeques sizzle (ahhhh the smell of charred snags - that's Aussie slang for sausages by the way) and most likely (and unfortunately) one too many beers being cracked open amongst friends and then  - BOOM! - the fireworks light up the sky.



Yep, Australia Day is celebrated with food, friends, drinks, sunshine, bin cricket (where the bin is the stumps) alot of really naff plastic Australia Day hats and more than a few Aussie flags worn cape-style along with picnics or bring a plate barbeques be it the beach, the foreshore or a friends place that's got a vantage point of the fireworks, heck even a 15minute walk to a good spot makes that friends house trump your other friends! Yes, we're fickle about how far we've gotta walk to see those pretty lights at night, after all, we've spent all day getting our butts kicked at cricket and eating and drinking, it's kind of like Christmas Day all over again, but generally with all your friends rather than your extended family!


So, in the spirit of sharing food amongst friends, I set about making a few little bits n pieces that I might take for a gluten free Australia Day picnic; store bought gluten free dips and gluten free crackers are easy to bring, along with some skewers of tasty cheese and olives are a good way to start off then bring out some warm Aussie meat pot-pies (my take on the mini party pie) and salmon patties which I'd serve along with a big green garden salad or Greek salad (we're a country of many cultures after all!) with some spicy sweet chilli sauce. Dessert is as simple as a stack of ice creams from the local kiosk (check the labels if you're gluten free) some freshly cut watermelon or maybe indulge in some soft pillows of chocolate and coconut, known to Australians as lamingtons (yes, I've finally made them and yes, they're gluten free baby - so tasty, I'm still eating them now) and my take on the Australian favourite: Cadbury's Cherry Ripe.If you have some glass jars to carry extra bits and bobs like napkins or salt and pepper sachets, put them to use afterwards as your wine glasses!

These recipes are also being shared as an Australia Day special over on Stuffed Pepper. If you haven't checked out Stuffed Pepper you should, if a fabulous gluten free resource with contributors from all over the world and from some of my favourite (gluten free) blogers!


Meat Potato Pies
Makes about 12

12 medium sized round potatoes
1/2 brown onion, finely diced
1clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 piece of celery, diced
4button mushrooms, diced
400g lean beef or lamb mince
2tsp gluten free cornflour
1/4tsp nutmeg
1/4tsp cinnamon
1/2cup gluten free vegetable or beef stock
good pinch of ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180degrees celcius. Wash potatoes and place in a baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and cover tray tightly with foil. Place in oven and cook until cooked through, mine took about an hour and ten minutes.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking make the meat filling. Heat a large frypan with oil and brown the onion over medium heat. Add the garlic, carrot celery and mushrooms and cook until slightly softened. Add in the mince and smoosh it up with a wooden spoon or some such so that there's no big chunks. You want the mince to brown off a little, so you may want to reduce the temperature a little. Cook for 15minutes until cooked through and vegetables are soft.

Sprinkle over the cornflour, nutmeg and cinnamon, stir in and pour over the stock. Reduce temperature to low and cook for 10minutes or until sauce is thickened. Season with pepper to taste. Set aside.

Once potatoes are cooked remove from trays and carefully cut the top off of each potato (about 1cm). Scoop out the flesh of the potato and set aside. Leave a 5mm thickness of flesh near the skin otherwise the potatoes won't have any stability. Stuff the potatoes with the mince meat, return the lids and reheat in the oven for 10minutes or so.

These can easily be made a day ahead and reheated and kept in alfoil for the picnic.

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Mini Salmon Cakes
Makes about 25bites

1 1/2 cup potato flesh from the scooped potatoes above, or leftover mashed potato
400g tin salmon (or tuna), drain and check all bones are removed
1/4 brown onion, grated, or a half bunch of chives, finely chopped
half small bunch parsley, chopped (about a tablespoon)
1cup gluten free breadcrumbs
1tsp salt
pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Roll and press into small flattish balls, mine were about an 3cm round. Note, they don't roll too well as there's no binding ingredient, if you have trouble add a beaten egg in which case you may need to add more gluten free breadcrumbs. 

Heat a non-stick fry pan and drizzle with a little oil. Pan fry the mini salmon cakes in 2 batches, turning after a few minutes. They cook best with little oil as they crispen up well this way. They are delicate, once again due to the lack of egg.

Serve hot or cold. Very very tasty with some gluten free sweet chilli sauce.
























Gluten Free Lamingtons
Makes about 25bite sized lamingtons

Gluten Free Sponge 
3eggs
75g castor sugar
85g gluten free cornflour (I used half cornflour, half amaranth)
1/2tsp gluten free baking powder

Preheat oven to 180degrees celcius and line a lamington tray with baking paper, be sure to come high up the sides.

Sift together the flours and baking powder 3times, set aside.

Whisk eggs for about7-10minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly add the sugar a dessertspoon at a time. You want the sugar to be completely incorporated before adding the next spoonful (a bit like a pavlova). When all the sugar is dissolved and the eggs are lovely and fluffy and creamy sift over the flours and gently fold in with a metal spoon.

Pour sponge mixture into prepared tin and bake for approximately 20-25minutes until lightly golden, it will bounce back if you press it lightly (I should have taken mine out at the 22minute mark, so be sure to watch your oven after 20minutes). Allow to cool in tray, then turn over onto a cooling rack and gently remove baking paper.

Lamingtons are traditionally made with day old sponge as it's easier to handle and as it's dried out a little is soaks up the chocolate icing better, however, if you want them today then keep reading :)

Lamington icing
240g (about 2cups) gluten free icing sugar
60g (1/2cup) cocoa powder
15g (about 2tsp) butter
1/2-3/4cup milk
2-3cups dessicated coconut

Sift together the gluten free icing sugar and cocoa into a medium bowl. Pop the butter on top and slowly whisk in the 1/2cup milk. You want a thick dripping kind of consistency here, not too runny. Add a little more milk if the mixture is too thick.

I make my lamingtons by placing the icing over some recently boiled water like I would to melt chocolate, this keeps the icing warm and runny making it easier to coat the sponge.  I then have another bowl with half the coconut (half as it gets 'dirty' from the wet chocolate, so I top it up with new 'clean' coconut) in that I put the chocolate coated sponge into and roll around, then using a fork wiggle it around to get rid of excess coconut and place onto a cooling rack to 'dry' and drip!! It's a messy but fun process!


Lamingtons are good for a day or two, after this they tend to dry out a little too much, so are best served with a cuppa. Enjoy!

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Gluten Free Scallywag Cherry Bars
inspired by Cadbury's Cherry Ripe makes about a dozen 3cm bite sized bars

100g red glace cherries
1/2cup dessicated coconut
1tblspn condensed milk
1/3cup shredded coconut
150g dark chocolate (yes I used Cadbury's Old Gold!)

In a food processor (I have a mini one that works perfectly for this) buzz the first three ingredients to combine. Pour out into a small/medium bowl and add the shredded coconut, stir to combine.

Press oversized teaspoons of mixture onto your palm and use fingers (slightly wet fingers work well here) to form into small bitesized bars. Place onto alfoil or baking paper and continue with remaining mixture. Refrigerate for an hour.

Melt and if you can, I'd recommend tempering the chocolate, as this keeps the lovely gloss on the chocolate once the bars are covered, as opposed to going white and spotty as overheated chocolate can. You can find a good how to for tempering chocolate here, which is what I used.

Dip cherry bars into melted chocolate and scoop up with a fork, wiggle it a little to remove excess chocolate and return to the baking paper or alfoil to cool and dry. If the temperature is hot I'd recommend keeping these in the fridge or esky.

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So, from me to you - Happy Australia Day to All! I hope you have a fabulous barbeque or picnic and enjoy your lamingtons and other inspired gluten free treats. Remember if you're out in the sun to slip, slop slap and remember lots of water (regardless of if you're drinking a few beers or not!). Enjoy your Australia Day, regardless of how close you are to those fireworks and I'll be back soon, possibly with something all loved up for Valentines Day.....

Engagement Roast Lamb

My life has changed a lot in the last 5+ years. I'm moved from Melbourne to my hometown of Perth where I began work with an amazing team of architect and interior designers and met a man there. A lovely man who I fell in love with. Hard. It's the first time I'd ever fallen in love and boy was I scared. Scared I'd lose him, scared he'd find someone better, scared that I'd do something wrong. However, I was wrong, as he's a steadfast man. A man of few words when it comes to love and life, yet, when he does say those words, boy do you know that he means it.

He picked me up the day that I was diagnosed Coeliac. The day that I stood by his emerald green ute and cried that I'd never eat liquorice or lamingtons again. That Redback beer would never again pass my lips on hot summer days and that charred sausages in soft buns would never be eaten again. Yet again I was proved wrong. I've had all of those things since being diagnosed 4years this past December, although Redback beer isn't one of them I have found reasonable gluten free beers around and I've fallen in love with a crisp dry apple cider on those hot summer days.

We moved in together the following June, as living with our friends was driving them nuts. In fact I'm quite sure my friend I was living with at the time was ready to well, throw up ever time we were there we were so sickeningly head over heels and enjoying the honeymoon stage of our relationship with alot of good food, friends and wine. We haven't looked back since moving in together and buying brand new toaster just for me. He helped me through my dizzy spells that would take over the first 12months after my diagnoses, and always made sure if we were eating out or at friends that there was something for me to eat. I need not have been so worried, as subconsiously I'd met and fallen for the most lovely guy. Someone who not only looked after me when I was ill, but even now ensure I've got something gluten free on the menu. He runs to the shops when I need ingredients, cooks delicious meals and does the dishes and laundry.

Earlier this year after his and my Dad's birthdays in late March we moved here, to Melbourne. It had taken a little convincing, my man had never lived anywhere else but Perth so moving interstate, away from family and lifelong friends was two years worth of convincing (read: nagging) on my part! However, we did make the decision together to finally move so exactly 9months ago today we moved to my little apartment that I bought over five years ago. We arrived with no kitchen and it took a few weeks to get out of the habit of doing the dishes in the bath and of cooking dinner on our camping stove after the kitchen was completed. It's done now and I will show you some pretty pictures of it someday soon, as I've only got these photos and it's no much nicer now!

We are thoroughly enjoying living in Melbourne and of course visiting some of the hidden bars in the city as well as new restaurants is one of the highlights for us as we both enjoy a tipple and some good food. Some favourites visited so far are Coda, Cumulus Inc (for my birthday - oh the lamb - I've no words!), Cookie and as I love a good late breakfast on the weekends, we've loved visiting Hardware Lane, Friends of Mine (pop up the road to Burnley and grad some of the delicious gluten free bread thay stock, Janes Bread from Three Ducks), Spoonful & Coin Laundry for a delicious brunch. There are so many places to visit in Melbourne and I'm often found on the Broadsheet on my mobile finding somewhere to pop into for drinks or a bite to eat around town on the go.

Of course, when we're home we're enjoying some homecooked meals, my man does some delicious dishes - everything from a kick arse lemon lime bitters to slowed cooked ragu, pesto pasta, lamb shanks, with the creamiest of mashed potato (my beloved grandad would have been happy with his mash!) he also whips up his Mum's delicious banana bread in no time aong with stuffed, baked chicken breasts and as he cooked just over a month ago a yummy mustard crusted lamb rack.

He actually made these mustard crusted lamb racks at the end of November as a last minute savoury dish for the Gluten Free Scallywag Christmas Magazine, however due to the accompanying story I thought they deserved a post all to themselves...It was a balmy Wednesday night and I arrived home after work with the smell of lamb and potatoes in the oven. We opened a bottle of red, you know, 'for the photos' (hehehe) and we enjoyed the meal together. After we cleared up our plates I popped back onto the couch to relax and watch some crappy tv. My man was kneeling down and  rustling around in front of the tv and I said: what are you doing? Have you got a present for me? He never does, but alas, this time I was wrong! His answer was something along the lines of: Well, kinda. At which point he shuffled over on both knees and asked me to marry him! I looked at him. At the gorgeous hand drawn engagement ring , complete with a space for my finger to go through that he'd presented me with the words 'will you marry me' written on the bottom. What? Was all I managed to get out as I looked past him at the tv, back to him, the 'ring' down at my comfy pants I was wearing and back up at him. At this stage he got as far as saying: So is that a.... Yes! Yes! Yes! I said and flung my arms around him, tears flowing. Completely blown out of the water, shocked surprised and so overjoyed that the man I'd fallen for had chosen me. That loved up little 'us' were going to be spending the rest of our lives together. I couldn't stop crying, laughing and hugging him, or looking at the gorgeous hand drawn ring in awe.




So, as this year, comes to a close, I am so thankful for the little moments in life that can make our lives that little bit happier. Whether it be to go and get that dreaded test. To add an extra cup of chocolate chips to the banana cake (do it I say!). Say goodbye (for now) to friends and family and move interstate or overseas. Go that extra mile on your morning walk and see the butterflies flutter through the morning light. However, this year, most of all though, I'm thankful for the man that chose to spend the rest of his life with me.

I can't wait to enjoy all those firsts that come as a couple in love such as ourselves. We, whom moved in together and never really left the sickly kiss-at-any-moment, hold hands down the street, snuggle on the couch and write notes to each other when we go away, honeymoon stage of our relationship behind. I hope never to. I will tell you I love you every day for the rest of our lives together.

I love you.

Engagement Roast Lamb
Serves 2

1x 6-8 piece lamb rack
whole seeded mustard
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1/2 cup fresh or 2-3 tsp dried herbs - we used rosemary, sage and parsley to season
salt & pepper to season

steamed veg to serve

Preheat your oven to 180degrees celcius. Coat the fatty side of your lamb racked with the crushed garlic, mustard and herbs. Season with a little salt and a fair whack of pepper.

Place on a lightly oiled baking dish and roast with potatoes for approximately 50minutes or until lamb is cooked to your liking.

Cover with foil and rest for 5minutes whilst your steam the veggies. Carve (taste test a piece whilst doing so) and serve with the cooking juices.

Optional: Beard for Movember & proposing to your partner. 

The Gluten Free Scallywag Christmas Magazine!

After many, many dishes, trips to the shops for more butter, taste testing, mini photo shoots, emails and more than a few late nights, I'm thrilled to present to you The Gluten Free Scallywag Christmas Magazine. It's filled with recipes for the festive season; cheese platter nibbles, roast Christmas lunches, vegetarian dinners and sweet sweet desserts (as well as a gorgeous DIY to light up your home) Did I mention they're all gluten free too?! Sorry, I thought it was obvious...!

Simply click on the above image to read. 
A huge thank you to my contributors Jenna, Gretchen & Rhi, thank you so much for your efforts and willingness to to be a part of this project. Also, a shoutout to Rohan, who I believe owes be a jar of some damn fine chutney?!! Thank you all for your supportive emails and time, YAY this baby is live *chinks champange glasses*

You can take a sneak a peak at the inside below... or just click the above (small) cover to expand and read the entire Gluten Free Scallywag Christmas Magazine - gosh, I love that word - magazine, magazine, magazine!