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)

Thai Chicken Risotto - First Draft (GF, TMX)

this was soooooo yummy! bit too spicy though and definitely too much to go in the thermomix properly (oops lol) i will list what i used in it but please keep in mind that quantities need to be lowered...

1-2cm ginger, peeled
1-4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 onion, peeled & quartered
1 carrot, peeled & cut into 1" pieces
50-90g thai curry paste of any kind *
40g oil
370g arborio rice **
100g apple juice optional ***
1 tin coconut milk
make up to 1000g liquid with water ****
2 chicken stock cubes or stock concentrate
1 heaped tspn brown sugar (optional if using juice)
1 small chicken breast, cut into 1.5cm cubes
vegies (not sure on weight, i used 1 red capsicum, 1 tin baby corn, around 1/3 cup baby peas, & 5 small shallots / spring onions)

put garlic & ginger in bowl & chop on speed 6 for 2-5 seconds
add onion and chop on speed 5 for 5 seconds, add carrot and chop on speed 4-5 for a few seconds
add oil and curry paste and cook for 3 minutes on 100'c speed 1
add rice & juice if using and cook for 3 minutes on 100'c reverse speed 1
add coconut milk, liquid to make liquid up to 1000g, stock cube and sugar and cook for 10 minutes on 100'c reverse speed soft
add chicken and cook for 5 minutes on 100'c reverse speed soft
add vegies and cook for a further 5-7 minutes on 100'c reverse speed soft

place in thermoserver for 5-10 minutes and serve

* i used 15g of a thai green and then the rest was a mussamun curry paste. we use the aldi ones which are GF (check labels)
** this was too much rice, will reduce this amount to closer to 300g next time
*** I didn't have any :(
**** this will need to reduce with reduced rice, but you want a total of 1000g (or your reduced total) including your juice and coconut milk

Menu Plan

little bit late this week because i wasn't very inspired, plus i didn't feel up to stopping at choku bai jo after work yesterday, especially with it pouring cold rain and none of us dressed for it :(

tonight - a thai soup with tofu and bottom of the fridge end of week vegies lol inspired by the crockpot lady :)

pizzeria pot pie with vegies of some sort on the side
frittata - sweet potato, spinach and nuts of some kind (trying to get those iron levels up for rora!)
curried sausages (will get g to make this one and give more feedback on my recipe lol)
spice crusted pork fillet with salad and quinoa - finally going to try the quinoa lol oh, i've lost the pork recipe i wanted to use :( i think it was a fennel crusted pork fillet - if anyone recognises this can they please share?! otherwise i will have to invent lol
spag bol from the freezer ;)

Thai Chicken Balls

from Kristen in one of those recipe swap things that never seem to work LOL

This recipe is great for making with kids as they can do lots of stirring then spoon it into the muffin tins for you. These are very strongly flavoured so a little goes a long way - serve with plenty of rice and salad.

Thai chicken balls

Serving size: Serves 4

Cooking time: Less than 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

500g chicken mince

¼ cup (60ml) oyster sauce

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon self-raising flour

1 tablespoon fish sauce

½ cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves

2/3 cup (160ml) coconut milk

soy sauce and sliced chillies or sweet chilli sauce, for serving

METHOD

Preheat the oven to moderately hot (200°C/180°C fan-forced). Grease two 12-hole mini muffin pans (1 tablespoon/20ml capacity).

Combine chicken mince, oyster sauce, garlic, flour, fish sauce, coriander and coconut milk in a large bowl. Place rounded tablespoons of mixture into prepared pans. Bake in a moderately hot oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.

Turn out and serve hot with combined soy sauce and chilli or sweet chilli sauce.

Suitable to freeze.

Not suitable to microwave.

Grilled Lime Chicken with Thai Salad

well.... at work we have 2 booksellers who have boxes of books you can buy. i'm always always tempted by the recipe books despite the fact i have a million (over 60 since i cleared out / sold off some) and rarely use them lol

but before i planned my menu for the week i had had a look through one of them and found 2 recipes i wanted to make - the morroccan pork one and the lime chicken one. but when i went back to refresh my memory today .... the books had changed!!!!!

so i had to do a quick google for the lime chicken one (the moroccan one should be easy enough) but even so i feel like i've missed some vital ingredients. we'll see what it tastes like...


CHICKEN

Chicken breasts, as many as you need (i used 2 and split them through into 4 thin pieces but will need to slice them up to make them go far enough - generally i would need at least 3 for my carnivores but i don't have 3!!)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 small lime, wash, cut the ends off, cut some slices (not too thin or they burn on the grill!) and cut the rest into pieces to be chopped / smashed up
coriander (or other asian herb)
optional - chilli, chopped, some oil perhaps, some grated ginger
i would probably also use a touch of brown sugar and just enough fish sauce to make it a little bit liquid
note: you definitely need a little sugar and fish sauce in this, and half a small lime is more than enough for 4 breasts - our 2 were a bit sour, the little carnivores rejected them!


you need to either finely chop or smash in mortar and pestle or chop in thermomix (about 10 seconds or less on speed 6-7) until everything is in small pieces and well mixed. apply to chicken.

marinate the chicken for about half an hour (not too much longer or the lime makes the chicken go a bit funny)

grill and serve as it is, or slice up and toss through the salad

SALAD

greens of whatever kind you have / are in the mood for - ours are a coral lettuce and rocket, shredded
cucumber, julienned
carrot, julienned or grated
1/2 small red onion, finely sliced
1/2 red capsicum, finely sliced into strips
herbs including mint, coriander and basil, shredded
other vegies you might enjoy include bean sprouts
OH DAMN i meant to grill some pumpkin to have in it too!!! lol
note: salad was delicious, make sure you serve some dressing over the rice (rice was perfect with this). roasted peanuts would be fantastic in this too!

mix all salad ingredients well, top with dressing and toss to mix, serve with chicken and rice or rice noodles as desired

DRESSING
1-2 tspns brown sugar
maybe 3 tbs fish sauce
around 3 tabs white vinegar
splash of sesame oil (1/2 - 1 tpsn?)
you could also put into this more finely chopped garlic and chilli

ok, off to dish up and test....