Gluten free corn flatbread

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

I try to follow a reasonably strict 4-day rotation diet to avoid developing any more food intolerances than I already have. The trickiest thing about this, I find, is having a versatile carbohydrate I can use every day, such as corn, rice, pulses, buckwheat. I try to rotate food families, but when it comes to grains it's tricky so I count corn and rice as different families.

This makes eating typical gluten-free breads difficult as they tend to combine lots of different flours, whereas I need a simple one-flour bread. Rice cakes and corn cakes are good for this.

So I've created this pure corn flatbread which works remarkably well, at least when eaten warm.

Gluten free corn flatbread recipe

100g gluten free cornflour
40ml olive oil
150ml - 200ml water
Salt

In a bowl, make a well in the middle of the flour and add the oil. Mix into the flour to form a paste. Bit by bit add the water, stirring into the paste each time. Eventually, you will end up with a batter that is about the same thickness as double cream. Basically you want it to hold together when it hits the pan, not run everywhere.

Brush a non-stick pan with oil (you only need a super-thin coating), heat until very hot, then pour in about a third of the batter. You should get a thick pancake. Cook until lightly browned then flip and brown the other side. And you're done.

Being cornflour, there isn't a terrific amount of taste, but you could add chopped herbs, cinnamon or other stuff to the flatbread mix depending on what you're planning to eat with it. For me, it's a perfect gluten free solution to the rotation diet problem, and it makes pretty good eating too :)

Alternative colcannon recipe

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free

Making colcannon without potatoes might be heresy to the Irish, but I can't eat the darn things, so here's a different take on colcannon, using butter beans instead.

My alternative colcannon recipe

400g can butter beans
Stock to boil the beans in (a gluten free vegetable stock like Kallo is fine)
2 tsp mustard powder
1 tbsp spirit vinegar
(Or substitute the 2 ingredients above with 2 tsps gluten free Dijon mustard.)
3 tbsps olive oil
150g onion, finely sliced
150g cabbage, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
Small handful fresh parsely, chopped
30ml water
2oz grated cheddar cheese (if you're not dairy-free like me, you lucky git ;) )
75g dry-cure bacon

Just cover the beans with the stock and just cover. Boil then simmer for 10 minutes or until the stock has reduced to about 30ml. Mash the beans with the stock with a potato masher then mix in the mustard/vinegar.

Fry the bacon until browned, then soften the onion in the same pan over a low heat, add the cabbage and garlic and mix well. Add the water, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes until the cabbage is soft, stirring occasionally. Mix with the mashed beans.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the mixture, flatten it down and cook over a medium heat to brown the bottom. Then sprinkle the cheese over the top and grill.

So good as a weekend gluten free breakfast, or any other time for that matter!

Gluten free beefburger recipe 2

This recipe is:

• Gluten free
• Dairy free
• Egg free
• Yeast free

I've already posted one gluten free burger recipe

Here's a more standard one I've been refining over the last few months. I've got it to the stage where it makes pretty good beefburgers every time, well pretty much ;)

Gluten free beefburger recipe

500g minced beef
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh ground salt
Juice 1/2 lemon
1 tsp of dried marjoram, basil or other herb of your preference
Optional handful of gluten free breadcrumbs, or our special patented gluten free glue ;)

Put it all in a big bowl. Now for the fun bit. Get your hands in the mixture and squeeze it through your fingers. It mixes perfectly and helps the mix stay in shape when you make it into burgers.

It's best to test fry a little to see how your flavour is. The only thing with beefburgers is you really need to add quite a lot of salt, it just isn't the same without.

So there you have it - my secret gluten free beefburger recipe for all the world to steal.