butter chicken

Serves 4

We have nicknamed this dish butter chicken in our household as the consistency of the sauce reminds us of it. It is by no means a traditional butter chicken dish as we can't eat nuts and don't eat dairy in our house - just a little disclaimer so you don't have different expectations of this dish, haha.

Poppy cooks...

1. Cook
   2 cups of basmati rice and set aside.
   
   
2. Saute
   onion, diced in
   coconut oil.
   
   
3. Add
   4 garlic cloves, minced and
   2 teaspoons ginger, grated.
   
   
4. Add
   2 teaspoons garam masala,
   2 teaspoons ground cumin and
   1 teaspoon ground turmeric, stirring until fragrant.
   
   
5. Add
   400ml coconut cream and
   8 tablespoons tomato paste and bring to the boil.
   
   
6. Add
   500g chicken tenderloins, diced until cooked, stirring occasionally.
   
   
7. Add
   broccoli, cut into florets and
   1 cup corn kernels.
   
   
8. Add
   1 teaspoon cornflour and incorporate.
   
   
9. Season with
   2 teaspoons celtic sea salt and cracked black pepper.

As a summer version, omit the broccoli and corn but make a side salad of shredded cabbage, mango, cucumber and coriander. If you have young kids or toddlers, you can also omit the celtic sea salt and it still tastes amazing!

kedgeree

Serves 6

Poppy cooks...

1. Soak
   1 cup puy lentils for at least an hour, then drain.
   
   
2. In a saucepan, boil
   4 eggs with
   2 fillets salmon in a steamer insert above. Once the salmon is cooked through, flake; and once the eggs are cooked, cut into quarters; then set all aside.
   
   
3. Saute
   2 onions, sliced to your desired level of caramelisation, then set aside.
   
   
4. Melt
   2 tablespoons coconut oil in a large pan, then add
   1.5 cups basmati rice, lentils,
   2 bay leaves,
   4 garlic cloves, minced,
   knob of ginger, grated,
   sprinkle of chilli powder to your liking,
   1 teaspoon ground turmeric,
   2 teaspoons ground cumin,
   2 teaspoons ground coriander and stir until fragrant.
   
   
5. Add
   3 cups filtered water and bring to the boil then reduce heat to low and cover, cooking until the rice and lentils are done.
   
   
6. Stir through
   bag spinach, then add fish, eggs, onions and
   bunch parsley, chopped.
   
   
7. Serve with a
   wedge of lemon.

spelt + apple rusks

Makes 12

Poppy bakes...

1. Roughly chop
   3 granny smith apples on speed 7.
   
   
2. Add
   30g coconut oil and cook for 20 minutes / Varoma / speed 2.
   
   
3. Puree for 1 minute / speed 9, but slowly turn dial up to 9.
   
   
4. Weigh the apple puree (you will need to scoop it out into a bowl, tare the scales and then return puree to the mixing bowl to weigh) and then add an equal weight of
   spelt flour (usually around 200g), then mix on speed 5 until it forms a single lump in the mixing bowl.
   
   
5. Kneed for 1 minute using dough mode.
   
   
6. Remove dough and roll out into roughly 1cm thickness and cut into desired shapes.
   
   
7. Bake in a 140ºC oven for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

flourless chocolate cake

Poppy bakes...

My best critic is my husband; so the fact he likes this cake makes it a winner! It is a variation of the popular Thermomix Magic Bean Cake, but if you don't have a Thermomix, you can do the exact same process with a blender and mixer or food processor. I love how it contains red kidney beans as a flour replacement, but you can't taste them. You can make this cake vegan too by using a flax egg or egg replacer.

Serves 10


CAKE

1. Preheat oven to 180º and line a cake tin.
   
   
2. Puree
   400g red kidney beans or butter beans, drained and rinsed,
   1 tablespoon water,
   1 egg and
   1 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth on speed 7; then set aside.
   
   
3. Without washing the mixing bowl, beat
   125g butter and
   140g coconut sugar for 30 seconds on speed 5.
   
   
4. Add
   4 eggs and beat for 20 seconds on speed 4.
   
   
5. Add bean mixture back in and combine for 5 seconds on speed 4.
   
   
6. Add
   65g cacao powder,
   1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder,
   1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and
   1/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt and blend for 10 seconds on speed 4.
   
   
7. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
   
   
8. Allow the cake to cool, then remove from tin. You can simply decorate it with
   raspberries and
   desiccated coconut; and/or serve with a generous dollop of
   coconut ice cream.

JAM

To take this cake to the next level, you can add some raspberry jam to cut through the dark chocolate taste.

1. To make the jam filling, in a small sauce pan heat
   1/2 lemon, juiced,
   1 tablespoon coconut sugar and
   2 teaspoon rice malt syrup.
   
   
2. Once the coconut sugar has dissolved, add
   1 cup raspberries,
   1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and
   2 tablespoon white chia seeds; gently mashing the raspberries with a fork.
   
   
3. Remove from the heat and cool in the fridge until the chia seeds have absorbed most of the liquid to form a jam.
   
   
4. Slice cooled cake in half and spread the jam between the two layers.
   

CHOCOLATE ICING

This is the best healthy chocolate icing! I don't have any pictures yet but I will be making this for my daughter's next birthday cake, so I'll share some pictures soon.

1. Pour
   150g dark chocolate buttons into a stainless steel mixing bowl over a boiling pot of water and slowly stir with a whisk until melted.
   
   
2. Add
   1 cup coconut cream and slowly whisk together until combined.
   
   
3. Cool in the fridge until the right consistency to spread onto the cooled cake.

CHOCOLATE SHELL 

This is another icing option which creates a thinner and harder layer of chocolate around the cake which I use when I make this cake in my Wilton 5 Layer Cake Tin Set.

1. Melt
   150g dark chocolate and
   3 tablespoons coconut oil in a double boiler, refrigerate for about 20 minutes just before it sets then whisk until fluffy. Pipe or spread over cake - voila!

In this picture I have spread the raspberry jam between the 5 layers and encased the cake in the chocolate shell and topped with freeze dried raspberries.

ITALIAN MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

For icing that you want to be able to colour, that isn't sickly sweet...

1. Prepare your Thermomix bowl with the butterfly whisk attachment and add
   4 large egg whites then place in the fridge. You can do this up to a day before to produce a stiff meringue.
   
   
2. If you keep your butter in the fridge, take it out now to bring to room temperature. You will need
   300g unsalted butter cut into chunks.
   
   
3. Make sugar syrup by bringing
   120g water and
   200g caster sugar to the boil on high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the syrup is boiling/bubbling at 118ºC.
   
   
4. Whilst the sugar syrup is coming to the boil take the Thermomix bowl out of the fridge and add
   1 teaspoon cream of tartar and
   2 tablespoons caster sugar.
   
   
5. As soon as the sugar syrup is ready, set Thermomix to 20mins/37ºC/speed 3 and after a few seconds, start very slowly drizzling the sugar syrup in.
   
   
6. Bring the bowl to room temperature by placing in the fridge for 1/2-1 hour.
   
   
7. On speed 3, slowly add the chunks of butter until completely smooth. If it is too runny, cool down further in the fridge.
   
   
8. You can add your colour to the Thermomix bowl or colour smaller batches in separate mixing bowls. Use a spatula to put buttercream in a piping bag and place in the fridge for 10 minutes before piping onto cake.

paleo macaroni and cheese

Serves 4

For a non-paleo version that the kids will love, substitute the cauliflower (so, substitute the whole of step 1) for some brown rice pasta.

Poppy cooks…

1. Saute
   1.5 cauliflower, cut into florets in
   2 tablespoons nuttelex,
   1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt and
   1/4 cup filtered hot water until cauliflower is cooked and lightly caramelised, then set aside and keep warm.
   
   
2. Saute
   2 tablespoons nuttelex,
   3 squash, diced,
   carrot, diced,
   onion, diced,
   3 garlic cloves, minced,
   3/4 teaspoon ground mustard and
   1 teaspoon celtic sea salt.
   
   
3. Add
   165ml tin coconut cream and simmer until the coconut cream is slightly reduced.
   
   
4. Place in a blender and puree until smooth.
   
   
5. Add an
   egg yolk and blend well.
   
   
6. Return sauce to the pan, then add a
   bag of spinach and stir through until spinach is slightly wilted.
   
   
7. Add
   cracked black pepper to taste.
   
   
8. Serve cauliflower florets topped with sauce.

chocolate + avocado mousse cake

Serves 12

Poppy bakes…

1. Line a cake tin with baking paper.
   
   
2. Mix together
   1 cup gluten free self raising flour,
   3 tablespoons cacao powder and
   1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt.
   
   
3. Beat in
   2 eggs,
   4 tablespoons coconut oil,
   6 tablespoons maple syrup,
   3 tablespoons rice milk and
   teaspoon vanilla extract.
   
   
4. Pour into cake tin and bake at 185ºC for 25 minutes, then allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge to chill.
   
   
5. Blend
   2 avocados,
   4 tablespoons cacao powder,
   1.5 tablespoons coconut cream,
   6 tablespoons coconut oil,
   4 tablespoons maple syrup and
   tablespoon vanilla extract.
   
   
6. Pour mousse on top of cold cake and set in the fridge.

trout + goat cheese pasta

Serves 2

Poppy cooks…

1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and prepare a steamer by lining with wet baking paper and then placing a
   coral trout fillet on top of the baking paper (salmon can also be used as well).
   
2. Once the water comes to the boil, add
   125g buckwheat pasta and place the steamer insert on top with fish.
   
3. Once fish is cooked and flakes apart, remove and flake the fillet then set aside.
   
4. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and rinse with warm water.
   
5. Return pasta to the saucepan and add
   2 egg yolks,
   1/4 lemon, zest and juice,
   pinch of celtic sea salt and cracked black pepper.
   
   
6. Saute
   2 handfuls baby spinach.
   
7. Gently stir through spinach, flaked trout,
   2 tablespoons chives, chopped,
   2 teaspoons salted baby capers, rinsed and
   2 tablespoons olive oil into pasta.
   
8. Garnish with
   60g goat cheese, crumbled.