Dairy-free Cauliflower Pizza Base - tested

 I made the Dairy-free cauliflower pizza base last night. mine is green because i put parsley and basil in it lol

 I didn't mind it and would definitely have it again. however there is no way I'd sneak this past any of my family. I think perhaps the dairy version with cheese would be more successful for sneaking ;)

I did learn that making one big base is not a good idea, as the edges were nice and crispy, but the middle was thick and soggy. I will make small individual "pieces" instead.

I also steamed my cauliflower in the tmx basket (lined with baking paper) and i suspect that was an error as it made it much wetter than it should have been.

For more info and links on thermomix, gluten free, eating out in canberra come over and like the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/glutenfreecanberra

Kiama gluten free report

we are home from our holiday in Kiama (unfortunately!) I'm glad to say that Kiama redeemed itself as i hated it last time i went there for a winter holiday as a pre-teen LOL

I'm so glad i did my gluten free research before we went, it really does make it easier to have a list of places to try!

so where did we go and how was it?

Hanoi on Manning
10 Manning Street
http://www.hanoionmanning.com.au/

we got takaway from Hanoi on Manning one night and it was very yum! even their spring rolls were gluten free (made with rice paper) so i'm guessing they have a coeliac in the family. would definitely recommend them - especially their beef salad.

Domino's Pizza
40 Terralong Street

we also grabbed a couple of pizzas for the kids one night. dominos is dominos, not world class but did the job without making her sick ;)

Cafe Parkview
82 Terralong Street


we went to cafe parkview ummmm 3 times i think LOL rora decided it was her fave and kept insisting we return. we had mixed service and food from so-so to great. i would recommend it though, mainly because our experience at short black was worse lol

Short Black Coffee cafe
88 Terralong St

we had brunch on our final day here and regretted it. the coffee was pretty good, the food was OK-ish, though i watched the chef toasting the gluten bread on the same grillplate used to cook all the bacon, fried eggs, tomatoes etc. i assume the gluten free bread was toasted on it also though that didn't occur to me til after we'd left so we spent the whole trip home waiting to see if rora would be sick or not :( luckily she'd selected poached eggs so they were safe :)
our meals took 40 minutes to arrive (we were STARVING by this time) and as we sat right across from the coffee machine and owner, we had an hour of listening to her berate her young staff. it seemed they were new and needed some guidance but a full hour of it was quite offputting.

other places we tried which were not on the list included:

Harbourview Thai Restaurant 
48 Terralong Street Kiama NSW 2533‎
https://plus.google.com/100200849563187798217/about?gl=au&hl=en

we had takeaway from here one night (we don't usually buy so much food when we camp but we had food storage issues lol). it was nice though not as nice as we get from our faves in canberra.

My Chocolate Shoppe
Shop 13, 106 Terralong Street, Kiama
http://www.mychocolateshoppe.com.au/

we didn't actually eat here but we did buy handmade chocolates for my mum (to say thank you for looking after our menagerie) and they were all gluten free :)
they do have a full gluten free menu which i have just found and am now wishing we'd gone there to try it!

Photo of Cafe Parkview, by Emelia (8)

Primo Mondo Cafe, Campbelltown

Last week we headed off to visit my in laws in Campbelltown, and my mother in law wanted to take us all out for dinner. Geoff googled for gluten free places to eat out and came up with Peppers, a steak house which didn't look or sound particularly child friendly (plus it was very expensive). I remembered having seen a pizza place and did some googling of my own and found it.

Primo Mondo
R6, Centric, Park Central, 4 Hyde Parade, Campbelltown Orders/Bookings - Tel: 4626 2457

Reviews I read (but I can't be bothered to find where they were now lol) said the food was ok but the service was slow and that was definitely our experience (though i think it was more due to only one chef in the kitchen than the service itself). After a slow start we didn't get there til between 7 & 730pm and we didn't get our food til closer to 9pm - we usually eat dinner at 6/6:30ish so you can imagine how hungry the kids were!

Unfortunately the only gluten free food they had was the pizza (they said they'd run out of pasta so obviously they usually do have that) so we couldn't even order an entree to fill them up temporarily.

When the pizza arrived Rora enjoyed it very much and ate half a pizza on her own!!!!!!!!!!!! She had ham and cheese on it.

We were going to get some gelati to take home and they did have gluten free varieties but explained all the gelati was made on the same machine so contamination was possible, so we didn't worry.

as for the food, it was OK. Geoff and I shared a BBQ Carne pizza and a gnocchi with pesto. The pizza was pretty good but I wasn't happy that the pesto was creamy, ugh. I thought the food was fairly average, especially for the price (though, to be fair, all the restaurants in that area were much the same price. I'm assuming Sydney prices must be higher than Canberra prices). Certainly the quality was much the same, if not slightly below that of our fave Zeffirelli

However if you are in the Campbelltown area and are looking for a GF option give it a try for sure.

and if you know of any other places in the area worth trying - for a coeliac child who doesn't eat salads etc - please let me know!

Little Chef Cafe - Gluten Free Pizza in Belconnen

One of my friends whose mum is a coeliac had told me about a store in the Oatley Court area of Belconnen but I really wasn't sure where it was. I had to go to the nearby lighting shop a few weeks ago, with the girls, and bribed the girls with pizza if they were well behaved in the lighting shop (nightmare place to take children lol) AND if we could find it!!

Anyway, we did find it and discovered that it was a lovely place to have found! (thanks Sal ;))

Little Chef is in Nettlefold St, opposite the lighting place and the hairdresser. Their online menu doesn't feature any gluten free options, but their (hard copy) takeaway menu does. However, it is ONLY pizzas which are gluten free.

They are ahve an idea about what is and isn't GF, and very happy to check ingredients for you if you ask.

The pizza was reasonable, different to Zeffirelli, and perhaps not quite as nice (to my tastes) but certainly yummy, reasonably priced - GF is $3 extra i think, so just under $20 - and it's nice to have more options, both in places to go and in toppings. we had a chicken pizza as they roast / BBQ their own chickens and do them gluten free - yay!! you can also pick your crust size, which you can't do at Zeffs.

We ate in and it was quite nice, they get a lot of the workers from around that area, but you can also pick up and take home too. oh, they also deliver though it was a $5 charge to our suburb.

I definitely recommend giving them a try :D




posted by Karen on http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/

Pizza Crust (GF, TMX)

Last night I made my first gluten free pizza dough from scratch (up til now i had been using the Laucke Meals & Grains bread mix which I always keep in the pantry to make a quick loaf of bread or pizza base). This time i used one of Bette Hagman's recipes - Yeast-Rising Thick Pizza Crust from her Everyday Gluten-Free Cooking book. I changed it slightly and converted it for the thermomix of course ;) it gives a texture very much like the tupperware one i posted a while ago (a bit solid and doughy) but was nice enough. I will make up a batch of the dry ingredients and have them ready to go in the pantry...

i forgot the xanthan gum and had a totally runny dough and wasn't sure how i was supposed to 'spread' the dough out with my hands! then i remembered the gum and voila, it came together in a dough ball like magic!!!!

Hope you enjoy the photos, they were taken for me by Ryan (hence the lower perspective) as my hands were all covered in oil and dough lol



260g brown rice flour
200g tapioca flour
45g dry milk powder
3 1/2 tspns xanthan gum
2 tspns pizza seasoning (optional)
10g white chia seeds

2 tablespoons dry yeast granules (oops, i think i only added 2 tspns)
330g water
1 tab sugar (ooops i forgot this altogether!)
30g olive oil
4 egg whites, at room temperature (i accidentally had one yolk slip in lol)

place all dry ingredients except yeast into the thermomix bowl. mix on reverse speed 4 for 10-20 seconds or until all ingredients are well mixed. place in a bowl, or keep this dry portion in an air tight container for quicker making if you like! or move on...

put water in thermomix bowl and heat on 50' reverse speed soft until it reaches 50' (took 2.5 mins for mine). add yeast, sugar, oil and egg whites through the lid and turn speed up to 4 for 5 seconds.

remove lid and add dry ingredients. mix on Reverse speed 4 for 20 seconds. scrape down sides and mix on reverse speed 4 for a further 10 seconds.

Place half dough on each of 2 baking trays lined with baking paper or a baking sheet. oil your hands well and start to flatten dough out to desired shape and thickness. I had to add a second lot of oil to my hands and found it worked best to smooth with the palm in a slight rocking motion.

let rise for 10 minutes then bake in a 200'c oven for 5-7 minutes. remove and top with desired toppings. bake for a further 20 or so minutes.

this made 2 large pizzas.



as you can see the kids have garlic and parmesan and won't eat anything else on their pizza, while we had a supreme type. you can also see that i need to try this one again to see if actually adding all the ingredients in the right amounts makes a difference lol

Super easy pizza dough

this one is NOT gluten free!! i promised to share this with some online friends so here you are! originally from tupperware, it's not the best pizza dough in the world (doesn't compare to the thermomix one ;)) but it's quick and easy, would be perfect for making pan pizzas while camping actually!

1 3/4 cups self raising flour
pinch of salt
60g cheddar cheese grated
7g sachet dried yeast
1/2 cup olive oil
2/3 cup boiling water
cracked black pepper
good pinch dried oregano

preheat oven to 220'c. line a baking tray or pizza tray with baking paper

place ingredients in a large bowl with a seal. seal and shake in a circular motion until mixture forms a ball and thumps in the bowl (kids are good for this lol)

remove dough and press out into the tray

cover lightly with plastic wrap and sit aside in a warm place for 10-15 mins until risen slightly.

prepare topping f choice and top bases.

bake 20-25 mins

Day 2 - No-Meat Week

no pics tonight as i wasn't in the mood (plus i skipped lunch and was very hungry)

we had pizza, was very good.

kids had garlic and parmesan pizza (that is the only pizza they will eat)

we had pizza with bbq & sweet chilli sauces, roast pumpkin, onion, feta, sundried tomatoes and cashews.

bases were the thermomix recipe and i made an extra (sometimes we need more than one batch, but not tonight) which i have put in the freezer so it will be ready to go for another time.

i'm not sure this blog is a good idea...

it's making me realise how much time in teh kitchen i spend and i'm thinking it's too much LOL

anyway, today we went out for a picnic by the lake with friends. we all took stuff to share, so i made vegie chilli (one of my friends is vegetarian) and rice to take. just did it on the stove top as the timing wasn't really right for the slow cooker. at the last minute i had thermomix make a batch of anzac biccies to take too.

we had the best day! it was such a lovely day (anzac day holiday) to spend out in the open air with friends.

both food offerings went down very well with everyone.

as a side note the new insulated serving dishes from tupperware are brilliant at keeping stuff hot just about forever! i have one and i just wish i could have afforded another 1-2 before i quit.

tonight's dinner was nuggets and chips for the kids (LOL) and homemade pizza for us (they just won't eat it so no point in making it for them). and there was twice enough dough than we needed (still pretty full from lunch lol) so we made another 2 pizzas and put them in the freezer - yay! dinner all ready for one night!

oh and sorry aobut posting the cauli soup recipe again, i'm too vague lol

a little bit of hi-5 lol

pizza with salami and zucchini and-a lots-a mozzarella....

pizza pizza pizza it's-a lots-a fun to eat!

well, it's more fun to make (my kids LOVE making pizza but won't eat the damn stuff!)