Steeliac

Category: Gluten free

  • Brazil nut carbonara

    Brazil nut carbonara

    IMG_2468I have a new obsession – nut creams. I’d never really heard of nut creams until I saw a demo of a Vitamix blender at the weekend. Rather impressive it was, yet extremely pricey for a blender, albeit one that can make silky smooth cream from just nuts and water.

    The cream demonstrated by the Vitamix guy was cashew cream, which I came home and tried to reproduce in my mini chopper. It took a lot of whizzing, but I was able to make it almost smooth, and with the addition of some agave and strawberries, I created a rather lovely and pretty much guilt-free ice cream. Picture to follow.

    Today’s quest has been to transform brazil nuts into a creamy carbonara sauce. It was incredibly simple but again, took an awful lot of whizzing in my mini blender to get it anywhere near smooth. I blended about 100g brazil nuts with maybe 3/4 cup of water (but I added a bit more later as it wasn’t quite loose enough). The texture was improved by whizzing in a nice ripe avocado. I stirred the resulting cream into 3 pieces of bacon I’d fried off, some left over chicken, both chopped pretty small, and a handful of frozen peas. Voila!

    I stirred mine into some zoodles (aka courgette spaghetti) and the boys had theirs with some ordinary pasta, with plenty of parmesan and a bit of black pepper.

    We even got to eat it in the garden because the weather was so nice. Bring on spring!

  • Brocco on the Park: Restaurant review

    Brocco on the Park: Restaurant review

    IMG_2444Hubby and I decided to make the most of a child-free couple of days during half term, and booked a meal at Brocco on the Park, a restaurant & hotel at Hunter’s Bar. We’d been looking forward to it for ages, and having browsed their rather slick website, I knew they catered for coeliacs, so we had high expectations.

    The place has been spectacularly renovated and looks amazing on the outside and the inside.

    The decor inside was very stylish – white walls with parquet flooring and a theme of birds throughout the decor – we hoped the same attention to detail would be paid to the food.

    The service was friendly, and the menu was very clear about what was and wasn’t gluten free. There were a few imaginative courses on offer on the menu, as well as a specials board. I opted for a smoked chicken, chorizo and quinoa salad to start, which, when it eventually arrived, was lovely. Hubby had a smoked haddock and leek puff pastry parcel, which was so big, it looked a bit like a pasty! Well, we are in Yorkshire, home of the massive portion.

    For mains, I had lemon chicken with mixed bean cassoulet and toasted almonds (pictured), Double chicken, I know – bit of a mistake really, but I really fancied the bean cassoulet rather than any the main courses, as I never cook it myself. As this was only a light bite, I also ordered a cauliflower, broccoli and parmesan bake, with seed topping. (Two starters = one main, right?) We had to wait quite a long time again before our main courses arrived – it seems like the kitchen is a bit over-run. The chicken wasn’t particularly lemony, but I thought the bean cassoulet was really delicious. Unfortunately, the broccoli and cauli bake had a very watery sauce, but the waiter was apologetic about it and took it off the bill. (New sous-chef apparently.) Hubby had the rib-eye steak, and it was cooked just as he asked – he was quite happy.

    We shared a burnt custard with home made gluten free short bread for pudding. That was really very nice, and seemed to have a delicate flavour of passion fruit.

    So the food was reasonable, but just didn’t deliver quite as highly as we expected. It was really nice, but we were expecting it to be high-end and it did miss the mark there. I worry they’ve spent more time and money on the appearance of the place.

    We were surprised when the waiter asked us if we had any last orders for the bar at 9pm! He explained that unfortunately, this is because the residents objected to a later bar licence during the planning permission stage and it seems they have to earn it. They are only able to take restaurant bookings up to 7.30 because of this, which is bonkers and unsustainable. And I think the rush of having all the customers arrive at a similar time probably explains why the kitchen is so busy. I really hope they are able to sort a proper licence out fairly soon, because without it, I don’t see how Brocco will survive.

    I really wanted to be able to rave about this place. I hope we get to go back and sit on their terrace in the summer, and maybe they’ll have things a bit more sorted by then.

  • Breakfast frittata

    Breakfast frittata

    IMG_2365Quite often I end up eating cereal for breakfast during the week, as it’s quick. But when I have time, I prefer to have something different, for variety and to avoid over-doing it with cereals and grains.

    I made a very simple breakfast frittata with some leftovers:

    1 large egg
    a slice of ham, chopped into pieces
    a bit of grated cheddar
    some leftover leeks that had been softened in oil and butter

    I beat the eggs slightly and then mixed everything together. I then tipped it into a small frying pan with a bit of butter. No stirring – just cooked on the hob until it was almost cooked through, and a blast under the grill to finish it off and make it rise up a bit.

    Unfortunately for me, the kids spotted it, so I didn’t get to eat all of it!

  • Pasta schmasta 2 – Aubergine lasagne

    Pasta schmasta 2 – Aubergine lasagne

    IMG_2362I really wish I could have made this look a bit prettier! But it tasted divine and it’s lighter and healthier than traditional lasagne.

    Today was just an assembly job as I already had the bolognese sauce in the freezer. Everybody has a bolognese recipe so I don’t think I need to reproduce mine in full (I will if anybody wants), but I will share an approximation:

    Fry some lardons in a large pan in a little ground nut oil (I find it works better than olive oil) until they go a bit crispy. Remove from the pan and brown onions and garlic in olive oil. Add minced beef and cook until there are no raw bits left. I tend to break it up as much as possible, so the mince is nice and small.

    Put the lardons back in and add a tablespoon or so of corn flour to soak up the juices. Then add red wine, chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, a generous pinch of veg stock powder, oregano and a large dash of Hendo’s. Then bring it all to the boil and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally. The most important thing is to let all this cook down s-l-o-w-l-y for at least 2 hours with a lid on – that is what makes bolognese taste amazing. You just can’t rush it.

    After about an hour you can add the grated carrot and / or courgette, which just sneaks in a bit of veg to the sauce. I have been known to add in a bit of tomato ketchup or even (in my past, God forbid) a pinch of sugar for sweetness alongside some seasoning.

    To assemble the lasagne, I sliced an aubergine lengthways, coated it with olive oil and seasoned with S&P, then cooked the slices, several at a time, in my griddle pan. (We love food with lines on it!) Once cool, I assembled the lasagne in a small oven proof dish starting with a thin layer of bolognese, then a single layer of aubergine, then bolognese, aubergine and so on. I think I had about 4 layers of each, ending in aubergine, then I grated lots of parmesan cheese on top. You could make a bechemel sauce but it was a Tuesday evening so I didn’t have much time, and it was plenty moist enough as it was.

    It probably took about 20 mins at 180C to make it hot and bubbly with the cheese starting to go nice and brown, but this was only a small dish. We had baby spinach with it but you could serve it with garlic bread to mop up.

  • Lokanta embracing allergen laws – thank you!

    Lokanta is a lovely Turkish mezze restaurant in Broomhill, Sheffield.

    I’ve seen on their website that Lokanta have introduced their first entirely gluten free menu, having found that much of their food naturally lends itself to being gluten free. This is their new early bird menu, and they’re planning to add a gluten free symbol to their main menu in spring, too. They’re even looking into making gluten free bread.

    This is a great example of a restaurant making a positive change in response to the new allergen laws and is great to see. Well done, Lokanta. I look forward to visiting soon… 🙂

  • Banana pancakes

    Banana pancakes

    IMG_0088Breakfast in the week is always such a rush, so we like to make something a bit more special at the weekends. Home made Scotch pancakes with maple syrup & bacon were a big favourite but off the menu now for me, due to the flour, the sugar and the syrup – triple whammy!

    It’s taken a while to find a suitable replacement but these are the clear winner. They are much quicker to cook than the ‘traditional’ ones and contain no refined sugar, but the bananas make them just sweet enough. They’re very light and fluffy, and a surprisingly healthy breakfast if you don’t slather them with jam or syrup!

    Ingredients:
    2 bananas
    4 eggs
    2 heaped tbsp gluten free flour
    generous sprinkling of cinnamon
    generous pinch of baking powder (GF)

    Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork until most of the lumps are gone. (I’ve made these with incredibly ripe and a-bit-ripe bananas and both seem to turn out ok, but the riper the bananas, the sweeter the pancakes). Break the eggs into the bowl and mix in well. You can stop here and get cooking, but I like to stir in the last three ingredients for texture, flavour and fluffiness respectively.

    I usually get two small frying pans on the go on a lowish heat so I can cook two pancakes at a time. I make a mixture of oil and melted butter to cook them in, and just spread a small amount on each pan with a pastry brush. Pour in a serving spoon’s worth of batter and flip them when you can see the edges are starting to cook. You have to do this confidently, as the top will still be quite wet at this point. They don’t need long on the other side.

    I tend to pile them up on a plate in a very low oven until they’re all done so we can all sit down and enjoy them together. I think I got 13 out of this morning’s mixture, which fed the four of us with a couple of slices of bacon. I added a dribble of agave nectar to mine, just for old times’ sake…

  • Food superhero: Broccoli soup

    Food superhero: Broccoli soup

    IMG_2234I really want to share this recipe because it’s become a staple in my house. It’s great on so many levels: it’s quick and simple to make, super healthy because of all the green veg, the kids love it, and it’s a great way of using up broccoli stalks which would otherwise go in the bin.

    I tend to use what’s in the fridge so I can’t be too specific with the measurements, but here are the basics:

    Ingredients:

    About a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil
    1 large onion
    1 leftover broccoli stalk (florets used in something else) and one full head of broccoli
    vegetable stock (gluten free, of course)

    optional extras: spinach, frozen peas, cream, loads of black pepper, parmesan, ham, prawns…

    Method:

    Roughly chop the onion and soften in the oil and butter in a large pan.

    Remove and chop the florets from the full head of broccoli. Chop the dry bit off the bottom of the broccoli stalks then slice them into quarters, lengthways and chop into approximately 2cm pieces. Add these to the pan and fry for a few minutes.

    Add hot vegetable stock to just under the top of the broccoli, and simmer with a lid on until the broccoli is cooked. This is about 7-10 mins depending on the size of the broccoli. Don’t overcook it as the broccoli will lose its vibrant colour.

    When the broccoli is cooked through, blitz into smooth soup with a hand blender in the pan. That’s it! I don’t usually add salt as there’s generally enough in the stock.

    There are some variations you can do. If I have any in the fridge, I add a generous splash of cream to make it a bit more indulgent.

    Spinach can be added immediately before blending, and will give the soup a silky texture. It’s good to add spinach if you only have broccoli stalks and no florets, because it adds some more colour.

    You can add frozen peas a few minutes before the broccoli is cooked, then whizz them into the soup. Or for the kids, I sometimes add them frozen to the finished soup, to cool it down.

    Their favourite is when I put in peas and prawns and we call it Octonauts’ soup – they’re easily pleased!

    Tonight we had it with peas and spinach, and lots of parmesan and black pepper, with a gluten free bagel from Udis. And I’ll be taking the leftovers to work tomorrow.

  • Eten, Sheffield: Restaurant review

    Eten, Sheffield: Restaurant review

    Looking at my recent posts, we seem to have eaten out a lot recently! Last weekend I finally made it to Eten Cafe in Sheffield, a cafe/bistro I’ve been intending to get to for some time.

    We had some visitors for the weekend so hubby, the kids and I took them on the train into Sheffield and walked them up from the station through the city centre. This never fails to impress, as people who haven’t been to Sheffield before don’t really know what to expect and it makes me proud of the city to show them the fountains and the winter gardens with the big silver spheres outside. I really like that there was somebody playing a piano in the train station too.

    IMG_2220So we arrived at Eten and good job we’d booked a table, as the place was heaving. It took a little while to get served, but we didn’t mind as it was so busy. We sat at a big table for 6 in an alcove with plenty of space, and some interesting art for sale on the walls.

    There’s a variety of hot and cold food on offer: cooked breakfasts, sandwiches, salads, focaccia melts and some main courses. My two boys had a croque monsieur and mushrooms on toast – both very hearty portions that my kids put in a great effort to demolish, and hubby had the eggs benedict, which he enjoyed. One of our friends had the veggie curry – also lovely.

    We liked that the food and drinks are served on mis-matched vintage crockery – you don’t often get a china cup for your tea these days!

    There’s plenty on the menu here for coeliacs, although you do have to check when you order, as its not clear from the menu exactly what’s available. One of the chefs at Eten is coeliac so you can be pretty sure they know what’s what when it comes to gluten free food. I was very pleased to be able to order a pulled pork butty with home made barbeque sauce, coleslaw and chips – exactly the sort of thing I can’t normally have, so it was doubly enjoyable. It’s pretty rare to be able to eat the chips in a cafe, so I savoured those!

    Well done, Eten! And in the words of the Terminator, I’ll be back…

  • Fischers at Baslow Hall: Restaurant review

    Fischers at Baslow Hall: Restaurant review

    Hubby took my parents and I to Fischers at Baslow Hall for a posh lunch for my birthday last week. We had planned it a while back, having been to the same restaurant once before I was diagnosed. We used to really enjoy eating out and trying the swanky tasting menus and with the coeliac diagnosis, we figured this would be off the cards, but having become more confident recently, we thought we’d give it a try. On the phone we explained that my mother and I are coeliac and Fischers assured us that they could cater gluten free and that as everything was home cooked, most of the dishes could be adapted. So far so good.

    Fischers has had a Michelin star since 1994, so we expected the food to be top notch and we weren’t disappointed with the menu. We opted for the 8 course tasting menu, which is £60 per person, (or £100 per person if you have wine with every course, which we didn’t).

    The food was fabulous, as you would expect, both to look at and to eat. I love the many different flavours and textures that you encounter in this sort of dining, and trying food you wouldn’t normally order. We started with a smoked haddock and whiskey chowder, which came in a wonderful glazed antique looking metal goblet. Happily, they had made us some very good gluten free bread with pumpkin seeds on. We tried slow poached egg with salt beef and a cheddar foam, and there were a couple of fish courses: IMG_2175brill with champagne and oyster sauce, and bream with radicchio risotto. The main was duck with Yorkshire rhubarb.

    We were all blown away by the final course, which was a 3d tree trunk with actual branches, crafted from chocolate, with mint and lime. It looked and tasted exquisite. I would love to show you a picture, but I know it’s not the done thing to take loads of photos in these sorts of restaurants, and I wouldn’t want to spoil things for other diners by showing a photo of every course.

    The only picture I’m using (because it wouldn’t be a great review without any pictures!) is of the very pretty palate cleanser, yoghurt with pineapple and pink peppercorn meringues, which was refreshing and zingy.

    So, it all sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Well it was pretty darned good until one of the courses (hay baked quail) arrived with a sprinkling of what looked like puffed rice or barley. Luckily, I noticed this before I started eating this course and asked the maitre d’ what it was. He explained that it was barley, which is ok for me as it does not contain gluten!! When I assured him that it did, he went on to explain that the website they use as a resource said that barley did not contain gluten and therefore would be safe to eat!

    I was quite shocked about this, particularly in a Michelin starred restaurant. Of course, with me being uncomfortable about eating it, the maitre d’ was quite happy to take our plates away and replace them with freshly prepared plates of food without the barley. But what if I hadn’t noticed it? It wouldn’t have been a great end to my birthday, put it that way!

    Thankfully, the rest of the meal was fine, and I have since been in touch with the owner by email and directed them to Coeliac UK for better information on gluten free cooking. Fischers were suitably apologetic and assured me that they would be more diligent in future. But it just goes to show that you can’t take for granted that people know how to cook gluten free food, even at this level of cooking.

    Watch out people. There are plenty of misinformed chefs out there.

  • Things that would only happen to a coeliac #3

    During half term my kids were on a football camp for three days, which involved packed lunches. As most gluten free bread is rubbish for sandwiches I treated them to a pack of 6 soft white rolls. To save time I decided to make all the sandwiches at once then freeze them, for streamlined lunchbox packing through the week. I mustn’t have made normal sandwiches in about a year, because the pantomime that ensued during the prep was ridiculous:

    I had a separate station for the butter and to prep the sandwich fillings away from the bread. Definitely no double dipping in the butter, so I must have used several knives to spread. I had to wash my hands when I went back to slice more cheese because I hadn’t done enough! Trying to get the sandwiches wrapped in cling film for the freezer without getting any flour on the outside of the cling film (to avoid cross contamination in my freezer) was quite a game – I had to enlist hubby to help with that part so only one of us touched the bread while the other only touched the cling film. We got it done but it must have taken twice as long!

    Maybe they can have gluten free rolls next time…