Category: Gluten free

Hui Wei: Restaurant review

Hui Wei, 221 Glossop Road, Sheffield S10 2GW

Hubby and I took our two boys (aged 4 and newly 6) and my mother in law to Hui Wei, which is the only Chinese I’ve come across in Sheffield that advertises gluten free food. Anglicised Chinese food really isn’t the kind of food I like to eat frequently, but it is the sort of thing I’d be secretly rather miffed about being off the menu now I’m coeliac. And it was the birthday boy’s choice in any case.

Hui Wei did really well right from the start because they have a separate gluten free menu. Psychologically, I like this, because it’s more about telling you what you can have than what you can’t, as in so many other places. And it’s infinitely better than sit there decoding the regular menu with a ringbinder full of laminated allergen sheets. There was quite a lot of choice, and many of the usual Cantonese suspects are on it.

To start, we all had chicken and sweetcorn soup. I was reminded we now live in Yorkshire, as the portions were huge! The kids loved it (once it cooled down – it’s always molten, isn’t it?) Unfortunately, I had to sit and watch everybody eat prawn crackers, which of course, aren’t on the GF menu, but it was my kiddo’s birthday, after all.

(While I’m on starters, one we had from the GF menu another time, but that I’d thoroughly recommend, was the lettuce wraps – the filling is deliciously moreish, and because the wraps are made from lettuce, they don’t fill you up too much.)

For mains, we had chicken sweet and sour (well, you have to, don’t you?), king prawns with cashews, scallops with broccoli, and some egg fried rice. It was all lovely, and plenty for 3 grown ups and two tiddlers.

The service was friendly and reasonably prompt. The boys enjoyed watching the starry lights in the ceiling change colour in between courses, and they loved sitting in a private C-shaped booth.

The kids had some lovely Movenpick icecream for dessert, but I didn’t find out if that was GF, as I was too full to eat anything else! A lovely birthday meal. 🙂

No photo – silly me – so the pic on my main page is off their website.

November 19, 2014
Courgette spaghetti (pasta schmasta)

Having been a pasta snob, I’m yet to find a gluten free version I find acceptable, so this is a great, and very healthy, substitute. And guess what – it doesn’t all stick together in the pan like GF pasta does. It’s also quick to cook and it’s a one pot dish. What’s not to love?

This has been an autumnal favourite for hubby and I, and I’ve finally got round to taking a snap of it. We usually manage to grow a fair few courgettes in the garden (novice veg grower, starting with the easy stuff) and this makes great use of them.

I have a julienne peeler that makes light work of creating courgette spaghetti (I’ve heard it called courgetti but that grates on me!) or you can use a mandolin and a knife for more of a linguine shape.

So, to make this, slice an onion and while it is softening in olive oil, julienne four small courgettes. Add a little veg stock to the softened onions (1/4 pint-ish) and when it’s reduced a bit, the courgettes can go in. Once they’ve wilted, add in some chopped smoked salmon, double cream, dill and lots of black pepper. Thicken with cornflour & water if necessary. Serve with a generous helping of Parmesan, and preferably a large glass of white – or in my case, fizzy water seeing as it’s only Tuesday.

November 5, 2014
The christening of a languishing pie dish

Hubby and I put in a joint effort to create a rather tasty, autumnal game pie last week. It was a big moment for me as I got to use, for the first time, a beautiful pie dish I got for Christmas last year. I was diagnosed coeliac in February, and as said pie dish had been languishing in the cupboard still in its box, it wasn’t far off being ebayed. (Is that a verb?) But we always did love the comfort of eating a good pie, so although my preference is to go gluten free naturally most of the time, I have succumbed to experimenting with some pastry.

For the filling, we used venison, rabbit and pigeon, each cooked separately, along with shallots and carrots. We made a gravy using the meat juices and some home made chicken stock, with a (very) generous glass full of port and plenty of the celebrated Sheffield ingredient, Henderson’s Relish, locally known as Hendo’s. (It’s vegetarian and gluten free as well as being local and delicious – what’s not to love?)

This is the first time I’ve made gluten free pastry but I have to say it was a roaring success, thanks to this incredibly simple recipe from Doves Farm. It was easy to make and rolled out nicely between two pieces of cling film. A top tip for gluten free pastry is that you don’t need cold hands, apparently.

The pie needed only enough time in the oven to cook the pastry, so we didn’t have to wait long to tuck in.

And the pie dish lives on. And I have accepted that while it’s not naturally gluten free food, it’s wholesome and home made, which has to be equally good. Chicken & leek next….

October 24, 2014
Roarrr!

I’m not normally one to post my birthday cake efforts on the web but I really wanted to share this recipe, as it’s not really written as being gluten free. It’s a classic Delia recipe for a flour-less chocolate cake. It’s light as a feather and deliciously squidgy. I’ve made it for grown ups and kids and it’s never failed. As with the best gluten free recipes, in my opinion, it’s not made out of substitute ingredients.

Normally I make a grown up version with Delia’s dark chocolate filling, but for my now 4 year old, I adapted the recipe slightly and added a rice crispy volcano, swamp, dinosaurs etc. Same cake ingredients but with chocolate frosting instead of the 70% Green & Black’s. It went down a treat with the revellers.

Recipe can be found here: www.deliaonline.com
You need to use gluten free cocoa and chocolate, but I’m sure that goes without saying…

God bless Delia.

September 28, 2014
A French revelation – les galletes sont sans gluten!

So, I’m just back from a two week camping holiday in the Vendee. Food-wise, it was a tragic shame to miss out on the French bread and patisserie but the holiday was saved by two wonderful surprises.

The first was at a creperie in Bretignolles-sur-Mer called Mille Sabords. My two boys were keen on the idea of a crepe for lunch, so we sat down at a sunny outdoor table and ordered them some food. As a preface to getting the patron to allow my mum and I to discreetly eat our own picnic at the cafe table, we asked if they happened to serve any gluten free food, knowing full well that the answer would be no. But to our shock and delight, the patron responded that all their galettes (as opposed to the sweeter, pancake-like crepes) are gluten free, as they are made with ble noir or sarrasin (which later transpired to be buckwheat flour). She was completely familiar with gluten free dining and 10 minutes later I found myself unexpectedly tucking into a delicious French galette with coquilles de saint Jacques (scallops) et crevettes (prawns). And it tasted all the better for being completely out of the blue. I wish I’d taken a picture of it, but in the excitement, I forgot to.

And the lovely lady even gave me a bag of sarrasin flour to take away with me, explaining that you can mix it with just water and a bit of salt to make a simple galette. So we had not only a stress-free eating out option (creperies were very easy to find) but we also had a nice, cheap breakfast alternative. It’s fair to say, I definitely need to fine-tune the recipe and technique before I share it. Watch this space…

The second surprise was that we were also able to tuck into les moules whilst out and about, as many of the recipes for mussels are naturally gluten free: moules mariniere or moules a la creme – without the bread or the frites, of course. We even bought a moules pan and cooked our own at the campsite, with just onions, herbs, vin blanc and cream. Delicious!

Bonnes vacances!

September 2, 2014
Coeliac versus the Cheerio addict

I’m still relatively new to the wheat free world, and prior to being diagnosed (BC – before coeliac ) I ate a lot of wheat. My whole family did – bread or cereal for breakfast, often sandwiches for lunch and pasta or noodles were a staple in the evenings when I need to make something quick.

AD (after diagnosis) I took the approach of going wheat free naturally in general, so I’ve not been buying many GF products, only occasionally. So for the rest of the household, the full range of wheaty products has still been available. But overall, I think they should be eating less wheat. I don’t want to force a GF diet on them, as it would make school, nursery, playdates and parties difficult, but I am considering making some changes in the house – not all of them will be easy though.

There are some easy changes to make, like swapping pasta for rice pasta – the kids are none the wiser – but I’m struggling with a few things:

My boys LOVE cereal – especially Weetabix, raisin wheats, Cheerios, Shreddies, muesli… They have cereal most mornings and my 3 year old hardly ever goes a day without Cheerios, even if it’s just a few as a snack. I would definitely get protests, possibly meltdowns, if I stopped buying their favourites!

I have been looking into the GF cereal options, even if only to provide a bit of variety, but unfortunately, most of the GF cereals they would like are really high in sugar – higher than the wheaty alternatives. So I’m not sure there’s much benefit to swapping.

I like to cook from scratch where I can but evenings are busy, and I’ve always had a stock of decent fish fingers, fish cakes or similar things in the freezer, which are perfect for the boys’ tea. Should I abandon those? The GF alternatives are bound to be more expensive. Perhaps I need to find some new quick tea options – answers on a postcard…

We are a family who loves bread, and BC I regularly made my own bread with my breadmaker (may it rest in peace). I’m devastated that I’m not allowed to eat proper bread anymore, but whilst I was just avoiding it I had been buying normal bread / bagels / crumpets for the boys. However, I’m getting fed up with having to be so careful about crumbs and cross-contamination, so I think I’m going to have to go GF on the whole family’s bread too. I’ve tried a few loaves and rolls out and luckily, so far so good with the boys. Maybe I’ll get round to making some at some point…

I’d love to hear what other people are doing at home to cope with being gluten free whilst trying to keep the troops happy….

July 3, 2014
Becoming gluten free

So I won’t bore you with the full diagnosis story – suffice to say it involved multiple trips to the Royal Hallamshire and a couple of rather nasty gastroscopies.

(more…)

June 26, 2014