Gluten free pannukakku - old fashioned milk pie

Ingredients 

Milk pie/porridge base

1 dl porridge rice (about 0.5 cup)
3 dl water (1.3 cup)
5 dl milk (2.1)

Pie base

2½ dl heavy whipping cream
½ dl almond flour (blanched)
3 eggs

3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cardamom seeds (minced)
½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Serve with 

Vanilla ice cream

berry jam (raspberry, strawberry or mixed berries) or you can go with fresh berries

Preparation steps

Step 1: prepare the porridge base. 

In a pot add the water and the well rinsed rice, and boil until the water evaporates and the porridge thickens, about 10 minutes. Add the milk, and boil for an additional 40 minutes, mixing occasionally.

Let the porridge cool.

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 200C, 400 F.

Lightly mix the eggs with the sugar, add the almond flour, vanilla extract, cardamom, salt, and the porridge base until the cooled porridge base.

Pour the mixture into a 10x16, at least 2 inch deep pan. (I add a sheet of parchment paper to make sure I don't have to scrape the pie out but rather it will lift easily.

Bake the mixture for 30 minutes, or until it feels jelly-ish to light shaking, and the top gets a lovey golden color. If the top browns too fast, throw a foil to the top to protect it from burning, and let it thcicken.

Let is cool, cut into squares, and serve as soon as it reaches room temperature with your favorite toppings.

Bon appétit!

Wild mushroom terrine

Where should I start? I stumbled upon another favorite!!
Maybe I shell start with the fact that Costco sells very nice and fresh mushrooms.. :D
I can't wait for the Chanterelle mushroom season and the big trays sold by Costco, but meanwhile I had to settle with something easier to find.
Hubby got home a tray of Portobello mushrooms and they had to be used.
I usually make either mushroom paprikas (stew Hungarian style) or just saute them filled with feta, but I felt I want something different.

A friend bought me a cookbook for last Xmas and I remembered that it had some pretty easy and as such tempting looking French recipes. So, I opened The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachle Khoo and found in no time the recipe above.
It is baking in the oven, so very curious what the end result will be..

Ingredients
1 pound, 0.5 kg preferably mixed, wild mushroom
4 eggs
1 cream fresh (sour cream) 200 g, 1 cup
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots finely chopped   
1/2 tsp or less salt
1 pinch nutmeg ( I used smoked paprika powder as I didn't have nutmeg)
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
5-6 tbsp butter or oil for frying

Prepare two small 8 ounce (05. liter)  loaf pans lined with parchment paper.
Slice the mushroom if needed to have equal sized pieces. I cut the Portobello mushrooms in 4.
Heat a pan with the butter, add the finely chopped garlic cloves and shallots, and when the shallots start to brown, add and sauté the mushrooms. I had to sauté them in two batches.
Fry each side for about 5 minutes, all together ~10 minutes.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350F.
Remove the mushrooms from the pan, place them on a plate covered whit kitchen paper to get rid of the excess oil.

Beat the eggs, add the sour cream (cream fresh), pinch of salt, nutmeg, and the chopped parsley.

Place the mushrooms in the pans and pour the egg-sour cream mixture in equal quantities to cover the mushrooms..
Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and let it cool down slightly. Best serves till warm, about at room temperature.

You can remove the loafs from the pan or slice them in the pan.
Bon appétit!

Cocktail biscuits

It was time to bake the spicy bunch of assorted biscuits that I'm planning to serve at New Year Eve, to soothe the hangover khhmm or something ;).
Spicy here really means spicy, if you prefer them milder (or want to serve it for children as well) reduce the amount of cayenne pepper and leave the black pepper out of the tomato pure.

Ingredients
375 g (3 cups) plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dry mustard
200 g - 225 g butter, (3/4 - 1 cup), depending what cheese you use, with Cheddar both work fine
125 g (1cup) grated Cheddar cheese
sour cream, 0-3 spoons, depends how many it takes for the dough to cling together
Optional: 1 egg yolk or 1 whole egg (beaten), for harder biscuits.

Makes the dough easier to work with, a bit harder the biscuits, though.. If you are baking with kids and want a less fragile dough add the whole egg.

Flavorings
1 tsp sesame seeds (white or black)
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tsp curry paste
2 tsp tomato pure (add pinch of minced black pepper or chilly of you like them spicy)

In a bowl mix flour, salt, cayenne and mustard, and rub in finely the butter.
Stir the cheese until clings together mixing with a fork, and kneed to form a soft dough. If it is too crumbly add sour cream
Cut the pastry into 4 pieces, each will get a different seasoning.

Add the sesame seeds to one part, poppy seeds to another, and make about 15 cm (6 in) rolls. Wrap them into plastic wrap not to dry, put them in the fridge.
Next roll the remaining 2 pieces of pastry into 20x15 cm rectangles. Spread on one piece the curry paste and the tomato puree on the other.
Roll up each from the short edge to form firm rolls (you can actually roll them whichever edge you want, I chose the short one because I like to have more layers in my roll).
You can use a clear plastic wrap to roll if you find it difficult to roll the dough on its own. Wrap them in plastic bag and chill all rolls until firm, about 1 hour in the fridge (20 min in freezer if you are in a hurry). You can even leave them overnight, so it helps you prepare for the party in advance.

Preheat oven to 180 C (360 F).
Cut each roll into thin slices and bake for 10-14 minutes on trays lined with baking parchment.
You can easily store them in airtight containers for 2 weeks.

I made another batch with Guyere cheese, which is much dryer than the Cheddar. If you are using other, not so sticky, cheese as well, add the egg yolk, it will make your life easier when rolling out, cutting, etc. And add a bit less butter, I felt that with the Guyere 200 butter would have worked better, the reason why I slightly adjusted the recipe.