Turmeric, Garlic & Ginger Yoghurt Prawn Spaghetti. Gluten Free

Smashing ingredients in a mortar and pestle, releasing their intense smells and flavour is one of my favourite kitchen experiences. My beautiful Thai friend Peta brought this into my life when my oldest was just a tiny little thing. It is so different to just chopping or mincing them up.
It is like passion added to the flavours; with this very earthy and intimate hands on experience with your food and its ingredients.

Unlocking the flavours in an earthy, beautiful way

If you don't yet have a mortar and pestle I highly recommend you get one, or at least put it on your Christmas wish list! You can pick them anywhere from $12 through to $200 + and tiny to large so there is one for every budget and kitchen out there!

In this recipe it brings excitement to the kitchen right away as everyone comes wondering what the great smell is! Plus using fresh organic turmeric has so many amazing health benefits as the curcumin in it is one of the most powerful natural anti-inflammatories out there.
Of huge benefit to anyone with inflammation of any kind like arthritis, uveitis, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, Ankylosing Spondylitis and general back and joint pain in the body it is also said to help prevent Alzheimer's as scientists believe it breaks down plaque in the brain and areas where they eat a lot of turmeric like India have the lowest rates of Alzheimer's in the world.
And the best bit is, you don't have to eat crazy amounts of it, they say even one meal a weel with fresh turmeric in it is beneficial!

Now if you are one of my Sunshine Coast readers I can tell you if you don't grow your own you can buy fresh turmeric from Erbackers, Jeffers Market and often at weekend markets.
Also look out for it where you live at Asian or Indian deli's and grocer stores, wholefood markets, health food shops, fresh fruit and vegetable shops, sometimes even the big supermarkets will have it.

The powerful benefits of the turmeric combined with the garlic and ginger too makes this is a fantastic dish which is why I was excited to team these ingredients with the new Barilla gluten free pasta range when they sent me out a gorgeous parcel to try. as gluten can be inflammatory for many people this gluten free spaghetti (that truly was not gluggy like some out there can be) is a perfect partnering and the result is just lovely.

This recipe is simple, fragrant and delicious.

It is also easy to make vegetarian, one of my kids ate it that way. I simply made a smaller batch in a separate pan with extra veggies and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

 

Turmeric, Garlic & Ginger Yoghurt Prawn Spaghetti

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 kilo green prawns
  (I was given a big batch of super fresh, local ones from my neighbour as he is a fisherman- I know right?! Cool neighbour!) Try to find Australian ones if you can and don't be afraid to ask about them and where they are from and if the place supports ethical fishing practises.
• Fresh Turmeric. I used a piece about 2 cm long and 1/2 a cm wide. Wash, peel.
• Fresh Ginger. If applicable look for local! Washed, peeled.
• 6-7 cloves of Australian garlic. (Or at least a non bleached kind)
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced longways.
• 2 zucchini's peeled and sliced longways.
• 1 large red capsicum. sliced in long strips.
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon cardamom (or use freshly ground)
• 1/2 a kilo of natural yoghurt. I like to use Jalna or Maleny Dairies brands
• 1 & 1/2 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 bunch fresh coriander
• Pink Himalayan salt to taste (optional) 
• olive oil

 

Method

• Prepare your prawns. I also devein mine and left about 1/3 with their tails on for decorative effect.
• In a mortar and pestle smash your turmeric, ginger and garlic until it is pulp like. Take the time to slow down and enjoy this process. Make it a moment in the kitchen. Be present. Enjoy the smell sensations and you hands on with your gorgeous ingredients. If you drink, this is a lovely time to sip a nice glass of wine.
• Cook the Barilla gluten free spaghetti according to packet instructions. I served mine el dente.
•  
• In a deep pan gently fry the onion in some olive oil on a medium low heat until wilted.
• Add in the turmeric smash, stirring well for a minute or so.
• Toss in the carrots, zucchini and capsicum, stir through for another 2 - 3 minutes.
• Add prawns, yoghurt and cardamom and cook for around 4 minutes or until prawns are cooked.
• Squeeze over lemon right at the end and season with a little salt if desired.
• 
• Arrange spaghetti on plates.

• Top with a layer of spinach and coriander leaves.
• Pour over some of the prawn mixture and drizzle with extra sauce from the pan.
• Top with a little fresh coriander.
• Serve and enjoy!

Notes

• The gluten free spaghetti used here is available from woolworths.
• This works just as beautiful vegetarian, increase the veggies and leave the prawns out. 
• For those who do not like coriander this works perfectly without it as well, though I would recommend some fresh parsley in its place.

Toddler Tips

• I leave a few strands of spaghetti long for fun but also chop a fair bit into easier eating sizes.
  My kids did not find this too spicy at all, but you could always serve kids portions with a dollop of a lovely creamy natural yoghurt on top as well.

 

Recipe, styling and photography (c) Rebeccamugridge2014
Follow my beautiful food with Bek pictures on Instagram

***Note: I was gifted a gluten free hamper by Barilla.

Sticky Date and Ginger Pudding

I seem to be having some serious GINGER love going on lately!

Fresh, crystallized, dried, preserves, powdered - juices, teas, baking, cooking, its all good...

But something that really sais Winter desserts to me is a great sticky date pudding with sauce and this one here is one you will love, it also features beautiful Buderim Ginger baby stem ginger pieces.

Ginger and Date Sticky Pudding with Ginger Cream Sauce

This beautiful rich dessert is really enhanced by the use of the Buderim Ginger Stem Ginger in syrup pieces, giving this sticking date pudding a lovely zing of flavour. Great for entertaining, or a warming winter dessert.

Ingredients

·         1 jar Buderim Ginger baby stem ginger in syrup

·         1 cup dates

·         2 cups plain flour

·         1 cup Maleny Dairies cream

·         1 teaspoon

·         ¼ cup golden syrup

·         1 teaspoon powdered ginger

·         1 teaspoon bi carbonate of soda

·         1 teaspoon cinnamon

·         1 cup dark brown sugar (see notes for alternatives to sugar and golden syrup)

·         1 teaspoon dark brown sugar extra

·         1 cup butter

·         2 freerange RawGanix eggs

·         1 cup boiling water

·         Oven safe pudding basin

Method

•          Pre heat oven to 180’c.
•          Grease and optionally line with baking paper the pudding basin.
•          Place the dates and bi carb into a heat proof bowl.
•          Pour over the cup of boiling water, stir well (it will go foamy).
•          Melt the cup of sugar and butter together over a low heat carefully, stirring. Remove from heat.
•          Whisk the two eggs in a large bowl
•          Add in the sugar mixture, jar of stem ginger and date mixture.
•          Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon together and fold into the mixture.
•          Mix together.
•          Pour into prepared pudding basin.
•          Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until pudding is cooked through.
•            While the pudding is coking make the ginger cream sauce.
•             Place the cream, golden syrup and teaspoon of ginger in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer, stirring for 1 minute.
•      Serve the pudding warm with warm ginger cream sauce.

Notes

• This is a perfect dessert for chilly winter days.
• The ginger adds a fresh twist to a time old favourite.
• The Buderim baby stem ginger has a great, gentle flavour adding some zing without being overpowering.
• The ginger pieces can be added as is or chopped up for a finer texture.
• For a healthier twist use dark coconut sugar (usually bought in a hard log) in place of the dark brown sugar, maple syrup or dark agave in place of golden syrup and spelt flour in place of ordinary flour, just tweak as needed.

Toddler Tips

• Make it fun by making them their own little mini puddings.
• Chop the ginger pieces smaller.
• If the ginger is a bit strong make them their own miniature one and use 1/3 the amount of ginger or leave out.

You can get the recipe card for this delicious recipe and everything you need to make it from the Maleny Supa IGA, this recipe is one of the 42 recipes I have created for the Maleny IGA's Local Product Local Recipe - recipe cards giving you inspiration and ideas for shopping and eating local!

Happy Cooking!

Rebecca XX

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Kids in the Kitchen making Ginger Bread Men

Gingerbread Men!

To me the smell of gingerbread men cooking takes me back to my childhood and it is something I now love to do with my own kids too.

I love  GINGER and enjoy the smell of it in the kitchen so much. This is such a fun Kids in the Kitchen recipe, perfect for an indoor activity like on a rainy day or as a cooking learning activity, letting them measure and follow the recipe list, mix and time the cooking. You would be surprised at how much can be learnt during cooking and it is wrapped up in this fun thing to do together with delicious results!

These can be made treat like or healthy, it really is up to you and things like what you want to decorate them with.

Big fan of GINGER? 

Check out our family visit to the amazing Buderim Ginger Factory

And my GLUTEN FREE moorish, macadamia and ginger biscuits

Ingredients

• 125gms of butter, (soft)
• 1 free range egg separated
• 1/2 cup of fine organic brown sugar
• 2 &1/2 cups of organic plain flour ( can use whole meal but makes them a different consistency )
• 1 teaspoon bi carbonate of soda
• 3 teaspoons of fine ground ginger
• tiny pinch cinnamon
• tiny pinch nutmeg ( a little goes a long way! )
• 1/2 cup of golden syrup
• icing mixture
• Gingerbread people shape cutters
• Piping bag

Method:

• Pre heat oven to approximately 160`c fan forced
• Line flat baking trays with sheets of baking paper
• Mix butter, egg yolk, sugar together really well
• Add in the golden syrup and flour, ginger, bi carb, nutmeg, cinnamon and mix together into a soft dough, kneading well until its pliable and has changed in colour.
• Put covered in the fridge for 10 minutes to ‘rest’
• Roll out with a rolling pin on a well floured flat bench, if it’s too sticky you may need to add a little flour to the mixture.
• Cut out shapes and arrange on baking trays
• Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until just browned and remove and gently place on cooling racks.
• Once completely cooled mix some egg white with some icing mixture until it is a thick consistency. Separate and add some food colouring to different amounts if desired.
• Decorate the gingerbread people with the firm icing.
• Allow a couple of minutes to set.

Notes:

• Add smiles, buttons and decorations by attaching choc chips, sultanas, cranberries, smarties, dried apple, dried apricot, carob nibs, organic cacao nibs, stevia chocolate chopped, dairy free chocolate chips, mini m&m’s, sprinkles etc with the icing - whatever you personally would like to use.
• You can make these using hard coconut sugar in place of golden syrup if desired (comes in a log) which you finely grate and I would dissolve in hot water which is a healthy alternative that still gives a caramel like flavour, it is not as sweet so you will need to taste test the mixture and also adjust liquids to get the right consistency, alternatively you could use dark, raw agave or even honey but the flavour will be different.
• Be very careful not to leave them in the oven too long as they will become hard. Remember biscuits continue cooking after they come out of the oven. If your not sure you can always try cooking one or two first before baking the whole batch to get the timing right as all ovens are a little different but 10 minutes is usually just right.
• Be creative with cutters and shapes. You can make people, houses, dogs and cats, shapes, numbers, stars. Great fun to make with kids.

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca xx

Recipes by Rebecca
This recipe and photograph is copyright to Rebecca Mugridge (c)2011 

If you want to use or share this or any of Rebecca's recipes - contact her for written permission first or share using the share features from this blog post to avoid copyright violation and to respect the author work and creative rights - thank you!

Beautiful Buderim Ginger

Recently we had a family fun day out at Buderim Ginger !

I was invited out there to taste test two new cordials they are producing.

I can't tell you much about them yet other than they were beautiful and I would highly recommend watching that space! Especially if you are a foodie like me and maybe also if you are a healthy food loving foodie too...

I really like their well established Buderim Ginger Refresher Cordial, have you tried it?
It really stays true to the natural flavours and real, quality ingredients.
You can can tell from the first sip that it comes from actual ginger and is not synthetic.
I was very intrigued to learn they were developing new lines in this area and my taste buds were very excited to be invited out there to taste test and I discovered they were both impressive and most of all were really interestingly different from each other and also the refresher.
They had developed them to be similar enough to compliment each other and yet strong with their own flavour edge.

I liked them both very much but one in particular I really liked and literally can't wait for it's release!

My inner foodie was on fire with ideas.
I really like Buderim Ginger products, not just as a Sunshine Coast producer but because the flavours are real, fresh and invigorating.

I have used Buderim Ginger refresher in recipes like this carved watermelon fruit salad perfect for parties, hot Summer days, a healthy dessert, taking to school instead of muffins for your child's birthday or just for fun!
I also used it in this Mango, Macadamia Trifle,
Which will really impress your dinner guests and is fantastic for Christmas time when mangoes are in season. It can also easily be made dairy free if you have allergies - see recipes notes.
When we revealed the trifle at the Maleny IGA taste testing event before Christmas last year everyone did a big Oooh when they got to the ginger refresher flavoured cake layer, it just added this zing of taste sensation.

It is one of those products that are so versatile they can be used in many different ways and equally enjoyed as is.

Another great product they have is their Naked Ginger which I use in these Moorish Macadamia Biscuits ( GLUTEN FREE)

I love how ginger has so many great health benefits too.
I slice it up fresh into my teapot for a herbal tea and I use it in all my juices like my pink and orange juice pictured here.
 I even have a large pot of ginger growing at my home!
Ginger is the star of my delicious and extremely popular
Moist Carrot & Ginger Cake with Citrus flavoured frosting

A cake that is perfect for entertaining and birthdays. A fresh twist on a beloved classic!

This was my first visit to Buderim Ginger, even though I do live on the Sunshine Coast and I already can't wait to go again. I was very surprised at the extent of the place and how much there was to see, do and taste. It was also extremely kid friendly which gives any place top marks in my book.
Oh and the shopping there!

I have always had a real thing for ornamental ginger plants too and have been fortunate to own and grow them over the last few years so I loved seeing these here too!

The whole place is very open and user friendly, the first foyer you walk through is a visual feast of goodies and products.
The food court is really well set up (and had great coffee - and I like my coffee!) and the grounds are really easy to follow around and all edged with beautiful gardens.
The ornamental ginger plants are breathtaking (also a big favourite of mine) and you can even buy plants there too. To my (horticulturalist) delight many species were labelled so my 7 year took great delight in discovering their names, giving the day an educational slant as well.

My kids absolutely adored the train ride, OK I'll admit it, I loved it too!
Haha, maybe even more than they did!
It was so much fun, ducks even came up alongside
the train as we passed to be fed, just  like being in a live Disney movie, the girls were captivated.

As you drive around you hear about the history and you see all the old tools, and of course a great view of the gardens.

Did I mention I loved their gardens? :)

But for the kids I think one of the greatets highlights are the giant life size gingerbread men!

Yes. We had a ball.

It was absolutely pouring with rain that day (hence my very wet hair do!) so I can honestly say it is also a really great place to take the family sunshine or rain.
Which is great for such a fun tourist attraction.

They also have a boat ride and kids can make their own ginger bread men!

A definite must visit when on the Sunshine Coast.

Below are some snapshots I took of our visit.
Thanks for reading and if you get a chance I would definitely recommend heading out there and having a look, but allow plenty of time to look around and experience it as there is lots to see and do.
You can buy the beautiful Buderim Ginger Refresher and other products by them like their Naked Ginger that I used in the Gluten Free Moorish Macadamia Biscuits and collect the recipe cards from the Maleny IGA and you can find out more about the Buderim Ginger Factory HERE and LIKE them on Facebook

 Rebecca Mugridge x

(c)RebeccaMugridge2013
NOTE: I was not paid in any way for this review of Buderim Ginger. I was invited there to taste test some of their new lines and while there given free entry and a family train ride. The opinions here are my own. 

Moist Carrot and Ginger cake with Orange Icing

My Ginger and Carrot Cake with Orange Icing!

When your having desserts, treats why not have one that has some goodness in it and still tastes amazing! PLUS your house will smell AMAZING when you bake this one! Served with the DELICIOUS Ginger Maleny Gourmet Yoghurt

Ingredients

• 1 cup dark coconut sugar or organic brown sugar
• ¾ cup oil
• 3 free range eggs
• 2 cups organic self raising flour (or spelt flour with added extra baking powder)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 &1/2 cups finely grated carrot
• ¼ cup finely grated freshginger
• 1 & ½ packets of Philadelphia cream cheese (375g), softened
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup icing sugar (or try Natvia stevia icing sugar!! We love this in our house)
• Rind of 1 orange, 1 teaspoon kept separate
• A great yoghurt to serve

Method

• Preheat oven to 180`c.
• Grease and line 2 round cake tins with baking paper.
• In a bowl add the brown sugar and oil, beat together.
• Add the eggs one at a time, beat in.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder.
• Mix in the carrot and ginger, stir well to combine.
• Pour mixture into cake tins.
• Bake until firm, approximately 1 hour.
• Remove cake from oven, leave a few minutes before turning onto wire racks to cool.
• In a bowl place the cream cheese, lemon juice, icing sugar and orange rind.
• Beat together.
• Put one layer of a completely cool cake on the serving dish, spread with a layer of the cream cheese.
• Top with the second cake.
• Cover with remaining cream cheese mixture.
• Sprinkle separate teaspoon of orange rind and decorate with walnuts.
• Serve each slice with a dollop of the Maleny Gourmet Ginger Yogurt.

Notes

• For real ginger lovers you could increase the ginger in this recipe for more bite.
• Powdered ginger can be used but is much stronger in flavour so you would only use a fraction of the amount.

Toddler Tips

• Serve a small piece with some vanilla ice-cream or yogurt.
• If ginger is not popular remove a small amount of cake mixture after the carrots but before the ginger and make them their own miniature ginger free version or with just a slight hint of ginger.

This recipe is from my professional portfolio and was a featured recipe in the Maleny Supa IGA local product local recipe - recipe card series I created for them, with over 52 recipes featuring local products.

Recipe & Food Image Photography ©RebeccaMugridge2012