Birthday orange cake

Going to a friend's birthday meal tonight. I said I'd make dessert (as they're usually the hardest part of a meal to make gluten-free). I'm taking along this simple orange cake with some greek yoghurt with honey and raspberry coulis (frozen raspberries defrosted, blitzed with caster sugar to taste and then sieved). Happy birthday Cath!

You will need:

- 2 medium-sized (or 3 small) oranges (I used organic blood oranges from Riverford)
- 300g ground almonds
- 3 eggs
- 250g caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

1. Scrub then boil the oranges (whole) in a pan of water until they are completely soft - change the water two or three times during boiling to get rid of the bitterness from the skin. When cool (the boiling can be done the day before), chop the oranges and check them carefully to remove the pips then blitz them to a smooth paste in a food processor or blender.

2. Butter a cake tin with a removable bottom and 'flour' the sides with ground almonds. Use a circle of baking paper in the base and butter that too.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 160C.

4. Whisk the eggs and sugar together until foamy and light. Mix the baking powder with the almonds and add this to the egg mixture - folding in gently.

5. Finally, carefully fold in the orange paste and then pour the mixture into the baking tin. Bake until a skewer/knife comes out clean from the middle (mine took an hour and five minutes). Cover with tin foil if it starts to brown too much.

Lunch party

Dad's coming over for lunch today. Here's what we're having ...

• roasted peppers (see Starters page)
• lemon, rosemary & garlic chicken (see Mains) with mashed potato and braised cabbage with bacon bits
• lemon cheesecake with summer fruits (see Cakes and puds)
  

Carrot cake

Like the banana cake (see Cakes and puds page), this is a sort-of healthy cake in that some of the fat is replaced with fibre - in this case, carrots.

You will need:

• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150g butter or margarine
• 200g gf flour (I used Doves Farm plain flour and added 1.5 tsp baking powder)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1-2 tsps ground mixed spice
• 200g carrots
• 170g raisins or sultanas (I also added some dried cranberries left over from Christmas)

1. Heat the oven to 170C.
2. Butter and flour a cake tin (I used a round one with a removable bottom)
3. Grate the carrots into a large mixing bowl. Add the sultanas.
4. In a food mixer, cream the sugar and butter until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and blitz briefly.
5. Sieve in the flour, mixed spice and bicarb a little at a time and blitz briefly.
6. Pour the flour mixture into the carrot mixture and fold until well combined.
7. Pour into the cake tin and bake until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 40 minutes at 150C in a fan oven.

I made a not so healthy or low fat(!) butter cream topping for mine using the juice of an orange, 100g of butter, 100g icing sugar and 100g unrefined caster sugar. Cream the butter with a hand mixer until smooth, sieve in the sugars a little at a time and mix well. Add the orange juice and then chill until the cake is cool enough to ice. (It went a bit runny but tasted good!)

Cottage pie

An economical Sunday lunch! A cottage pie used to be made from left-overs but it's usually made from scratch these days. I use a quarter pork mince to three quarters beef mince - I just find it tastier. We had our first Riverford organic vegbox delivery this week for 3.5 years - it was delicious! I really appreciate the reasonably-local (Devon) seasonal veg delivered to our door and that's what I used in the pie. To make it even more economical I used the slow cooker for both parts of the pie. We recently got a gadget from the electricity company that shows how much we're using - it's scarily high when the oven's on! I'm shopping for a slow cooker on Amazon right now ... if only I hadn't car-booted ours years ago!

You will need:

• mince
• a chopped onion
• a clove of garlic (chopped)
  
• optional: root veg (a parsnip and a carrot or two adds flavour and vits)
• potatoes (mashed)
  
• worcester sauce (check it's gluten free - I use Life's)
• a thickener such as arrowroot (see Thickeners page)
  

1. Put the mince, onion, garlic and root veg into the pressure cooker. Add enough water to make a paste. Cook on low for 10-15 minutes.
2. When cooked, season the mix with worcester sauce, salt and pepper to taste and thicken it with arrowroot or cornflour (dissolved first in a little water).
3. Pour the mix into a casserole dish, top with the mashed potato (and I like some grated cheese on top) and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes.
4. Serve with a green vegetable - we're having broccoli.
   

Pork baked in cider

Happy new year! Tonight we're having a slow-cooked winter casserole that's really tasty. It also works well with sausages or pork chops. Great served with mashed potato and a green vegetable.

You will need:

• 500g pork (shoulder, chops or fat sausages)
• 2 large apples - peeled, cored & quartered
  
• 1 large onion - sliced
  
• 2 cloves garlic - chopped
  
• 6 juniper berries - crushed
• 2 pinches of dried or fresh sage
  
• cider (or apple juice or stock)
• arrowroot or cornflour to thicken (see Thickeners page)
  

1. Lightly fry the pork or sausages in a little vegetable oil to seal the outsides. Put them in a large casserole dish with a lid.
2. Add the sliced onion to the pan and fry until beginning to soften, add the garlic and fry for a minute longer. Add these and the apples to the casserole.
3. Sprinkle over the crushed juniper berries, sage and some salt and pepper.
4. Pour in the cider until about halfway up the casserole contents.
5. Bake in the oven (or simmer on the hob if using a pan) as slowly as possible - until the meat is completely tender.
   
6. Thicken with a dessertspoon of arrowroot or cornflour dissolved in a little water. Return to the oven until ready to serve.
   

Fruit crumble

Crumbles are ideal for gluten-free puddings as gluten-free flours are naturally crumbly!

You will need:

• fresh or frozen fruit (quantity depends on how much the fruit 'falls' during cooking and the size of your dish)
• 175g Doves Farm gluten-free plain flour **
  
• 90g butter
• 75g caster sugar (preferably unrefined)

1. Sieve the flour into a food processor or mixer.
2. Chop the butter into small pieces and add to the flour.
3. Blitz until the mixture begins to look like breadcrumbs.
4. Add the sugar and blitz again.
5. Peel and chop the fruit into a pie or casserole dish. If the fruit is sour (or you have a sweet tooth) sprinkle with caster sugar.
6. Pile on the crumble mixture so the fruit is completely covered - no gaps.
7. Bake in the oven at 180-190C until fruit is cooked and the top is golden - it can take 50 minutes to an hour.
8. Serve hot or cold with ice cream, yoghurt or creme fraiche ...
   

** quantities can be varied - as long as you use half as much butter as flour and slightly less sugar than butter, it'll crumble.

Tip: Use more fruit than you think ... when it's cooked, a crumble is always flatter than you think it's going to be.

Variations:

• swap half the flour for ground almonds
• sprinkle the top with sliced almonds and/or brown sugar
• fruit ideas: apple & sultana, peach, apple & strawberry, rhubarb & root ginger ... what's your favourite?
  

Tasty roast chicken

Aldi are offering free-range chickens for £4.99 at the moment. I like to buy whole chickens because I usually make them last for 3 meals and then I use the stock in a risotto (see recipe on Main course page).

I add flavour to the chicken with lemon, garlic and rosemary. I lift the skin over the breast (from the open end) and insert slivers of garlic and sprigs of rosemary. I put a couple of cloves of garlic inside the chicken, squeeze a lemon over the skin and put the used lemon halves inside, along with a few sprigs of rosemary. I use an oval Pyrex casserole dish with a lid (handed down from my Mum!), add some water to the bottom (to make a good amount of stock) and roast it slowly until the meat is ready to fall off the bone.

The first meal is usually a roast dinner with a leg each and plenty of veg. The next day we have cold sliced breast with salad and steamed or fried potatoes. The third meal can be a curry or pasta sauce made with all the bits of meat from underneath, on the wings, etc.