spinach and cheese rolls with gf puff pastry take 2

You may remember me mentioning a little disaster I had in the kitchen the other day when trying to make my own gluten free puff pastry.

Yesterday, being an overcast-threatening-to-rain day I felt the pull of a warm and cozy kitchen and some baking. 

Anything to avoid cleaning up my sewing room!

 Inspired by the Great Australian Bake-Off on Tuesday night I decided to bake Anne's easy orange cake, substituting in GF flour, turning them into cupcakes and icing them with a little chocolate ganache- they were delicious, 

if a little rough, I should have smoothed the tops before baking!

Then I thought I would try the Spinach and Cheese Rolls again, 

I went looking on pinterest and found this recipe for gluten free puff pastry.

When I made my Chicken and Mushroom Pie the other day I used my usual short crust pastry on the bottom and then in a moment of inspiration I rolled the top half and put chunks of butter through folded and rerolled several times. 

It worked reasonably well and came out puffyish (is that a word?), so thought I would make it again doing the same thing for the spinach and cheese roll recipe I came across in a magazine, that I was keen to try.

Of course deciding to change the recipe half way through led to its ruin.

 

So here we are at take two.

I followed the recipe and think the pastry turned out well inspite of the butter coming through towards the end of my folding and rolling.

Now making the filling was not so simple because somewhere between Saturday and today the recipe page has gone walkabout!

Inspite of an extensive search including the bins it didn't turn up, so I had to wing some of the measurements, trusting my very short memory - but it seemed to work out OK.

The kids absolutely loved them and have requested I make them again. 

 

With plenty of silverbeet in the garden it shouldn't be a problem!

This is a red stemmed silverbeet or kale as it is sometimes known, something else has has a little nibble, 

but a thorough wash and all is good!

Ingredients: 

1 quantity of gluten free puff pastry (see link above) I made the first part in my food processor - no getting sore fingers rubbing in for this girl! 

If you are not GF use frozen puff pastry (from memory 2 sheets) 

or you can buy a GF frozen puff pastry ($9 for 3 sheets, it is exie and not that puffy!)

Filling:

1 bunch of silverbeet

1/2 bunch spinach (I used a handful of baby spinach leaves)

2/3 cup ricotta cheese

1/3 cup fetta crumbled

1/3 cup cheddar grated (this is my addition)

2 eggs + one extra for pastry glaze

1 tablespoon of fresh dill chopped

1 tablespoon chives chopped (I used parsley as my chives have been overpicked)

salt and pepper to taste

Parmesan for top of rolls

Method: 

Make pastry and set aside.

Chop silverbeet (including stems) and spinach finely and place in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and press all excess water out, cool.

Mix all other ingredients (except extra egg and Parmesan) in bowl.

Halve pastry and roll out, cut into a 25cm x 15cm rectangle approx.

Spread about a quarter of the mixture down the middle of the long side. 

Brush along one edge with beaten reserved egg, roll up like a sausage roll.

Cut into 2, 4 or 6 depending on how big you wish to serve them (I did 4)

Place on tray (I used foil here because I was out of baking paper) brush top with egg and grate Parmesan cheese over the top as pictured.

Repeat with remaining pastry and mixture - I ended up with 18.

Bake in a 200-220C oven for 20 minutes.

Serve warm or cold- enjoy!!!!

These would be great for morning tea, lunch or party fare.

I often get asked what gluten free flour I use, I used to always use Orgran GF self raising or plain flour and even bought 10kg boxes through our local wholesaler, but I have found now that the Macro brand (Woolworth's health food brand) works out cheaper, even cheaper than the bulk price for the Orgran, though the size of packets is a little small when you use a lot- I just buy about 5 or 6 packets of each every month.
I never usually have a problem with it and most recipes work well by just substituting normal flour for GF, but sometimes you may find you need to add a little extra liquid to cakes.

busy mum taco chilli chicken

 I shared with you a couple of weeks back how on Monday's we have fish as it is a day I can go and grab some fresh fish at a local fish mongers and then make a quick dinner once I get home.

Fridays is my other day to cook during the week

The other three days the older three boys cook depending on afternoon commitments - this changes every term, each term we look at who is where-when and then work out the best possible schedule.

This term B1 does Tuesdays, B2 Wednesdays and B3 Thursdays.

We try to have a vegetarian meal one night, a mince meal one night, a chicken meal and of course a fish meal.

Coming back to Fridays.

I have chosen Fridays to be a crockpot night during terms 2 and 3 because the two big boys are either refereeing or playing soccer on Friday night and I like them to be able to eat before they leave at around 5pm.

As I am still at B4's soccer training it needs to be something that they can just dish out, 

then the rest of us can eat when we are ready.

Last night B2 and VCH left early to get to a town about 40 minutes away for B2's game so they actually ate when they got home about 8pm.

The crockpot is perfect for this and saves them buying a meat pie or sausage roll at the canteen. 

I tried a new recipe on Friday night that I thought I would share with you.

 It was a winner!

I found this on Pinterest and have Australianised it.

 Taco Chilli Chicken- in the crockpot

1 onion

1 x 420g can kidney beans

500mls tomato passata

300g frozen corn kernels

2 cans of diced tomatoes (I used 1 large 800g tin)

1 packet of taco seasoning- or you could make your own

1T cumin

1t chilli flakes

pinch cayenne pepper- depending how spicy you like it feel free to add some more

1kg chicken thighs

chopped fresh chilli (optional)

fresh coriander chopped

Combine first 9 ingredients in a slow cooker and then place chicken on top and cover. 

Cook for 10 hours on low or 6 on high (I actually think this was too much and next time plan on cooking it on auto which is 2 hours high and then turns to low for 4 hours).

Half an hour before serving remove chicken and shred (a handy hint I saw on a blog was to put it into your Kitchen Aid with mixing attachment and turn on low- B2 did this for me since I was at soccer training and this worked really well).

Return chicken to slow cooker and mix through.

 

We served it in bowls with some corn chips on the side, fresh guacamole, sour cream and a sprinkle of coriander. 

You could also sprinkle some cheese over the top and add a fresh salad. 

Alternately serve in taco shells with salad.

To make guacamole: mash an avocado, add finely chopped red onion, tomato, coriander and a squeeze of lime or lemon. 

 Serves 10- with 8 of us we had enough left over to make a layered mexican dip and serve it with corn chips for lunch the next day.

I put a tub of softened mashed cream cheese on the bottom put the rest of the chilli chicken - that I had warmed on top added some sour cream and grated cheese and popped it into the oven for 10-15 minutes, then I topped this with guacamole- delicious!

T = tablespoon

t = teaspoon

C = cup

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homemade sausage rolls

B4 requested homemade sausage rolls for lunch on his birthday.

These are really yummy and use ordinary mince not sausage mince.

I used kangaroo as that's what we buy these days, but any mince would be fine.

I actually started to write out this recipe when B2 came into the room and said, "Haven't you done that before?", sure enough when I looked I found I had done a post on it last year here. 

So if you want to make these delicious sausage rolls look them up.

Note to self check before posting if you have already shared the recipes. 

I found after posting my apple pie recipe that I had done it last year as well! OOPS!

homemade sausage rolls

What goes better with homemade tomato sauce than homemade sausage rolls! We had these for lunch the other day, they are also great for a party. This recipe comes from a cooking magazine. I have doubled the recipe for my family and made some other adjustments from the original. If you want less just halve the recipe.

Sausage Rolls

Ingredients:

4 slices wholemeal bread
1 medium carrot, grated
1 medium zucchini, grated
1kg mince
1 onion finely chopped
1/4 C tomato chutney (you could use sauce or tomato relish - for a spicy mix add chilli sauce instead)
6 sheets frozen puff pastry partially thawed
2 T milk

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220 C. Line two large trays with baking paper
2. Place bread in bowl and cover with warm water, stand for 5 minutes and then drain. Squeeze bread to remove excess moisture.
3. Place grated carrot and zucchini (you may want to squeeze excess moisture from these), bread, mince, onion and chutney into a bowl and mix to combine.
4. Cut pastry sheets in half. Shape a handful of mince into a long sausage along the edge of a piece of pastry. Brush opposite side with milk, and roll up to encase filling. Cut into size you want (I usually do 4 or 6). Place with the seam side down on tray. Repeat with remaining mixture.
5. Brush tops of sausage rolls with milk and place into the oven. Bake for 20- 25 minutes until puffed and golden. Cool on tray for 5 minutes before serving with tomato sauce.