Steeliac

Tag: Gluten free picnic

  • Nue delicatessen

    Nue delicatessen

    We’ve been very excited about the opening of this fully gluten free deli in Sheffield by the owners of Akentannos. Last weekend we had the chance to check it out, and bought a few bits for a picnic in Endcliffe Park whilst we were on a family walk.

    It was such a lovely feeling to walk in there knowing we could eat everything we could see, and not worrying about cross contamination. The counters were crammed with cooked meats and cheeses, pizzas, arancini balls, as well as various sweet treats – doughnuts, biscuits, croissants and three cakes in a separate display unit.

    Delicatessen counter containing meats, and cheeses
    Delicatessen counter containing arancini, pizzas and salads, all gluten free
    glass cloche containing gluten free sandwiches

    There are a few tables to eat in, but it was quite busy (excellent!) and we were on our walk, so we decided to take away. We ordered a couple of nduja arancini balls, and a mix of deli items in a takeout tray (aubergine, mushrooms, pork balls and courgettes). We had to try a jam doughnut and Steelymcsteel picked an empire biscuit as a second sweet treat.

    Gluten free arancini ball on a paper bag
    deli 'salad' containing pork balls, broccoli and roasted vegetables
    half a gluten free arancini ball
    A gluten free doughnut on a paper bag
    A gluten free jam doughnut broken in halves on a paper bag
    hands holding a gluten free empire biscuit

    I can’t say it was cheap, but I will say it was reasonable value, considering what I know of the cost of gluten free ingredients and challenges in cooking them. We loved the arancini – they were a really generous size and had a crunchy coating, with just the right level of nduja spice. The deli ‘salad’ was brilliant with delicately fragrant pork balls, marinaded vegetables and apparently the mushrooms were the best ever – very flavoursome. No complaints about the doughnut, which had a great texture and lots of tangy jam. The biscuit was an excellent shortbread, with plenty of icing.

    We really enjoyed these treats and are looking forward to our next visit. I hope it stays this busy!

    Nue, 276 Sharrow Vale Road, Sheffield S11 8ZH

  • M&S picnic

    M&S picnic

    Wednesday was the evening of our annual village “Play on the green”*, which we have established a nice tradition of taking a picnic to, and trying hard not to put off the actors with our munching and opening bottles of fizz.

    Last year, a cork flew onto the stage and clipped the lead actor (only a tiny bit), who was very sporting about it and threw it back at us with a smirk at the end of the play. We were mortified but it was very funny indeed. This year, we were very careful about opening the bottles, and luckily no actors were harmed during the performance despite us getting a bit of a prosecco shower from the third bottle**.

    My lovely friend furnished us with this very fine picnic from M&S along with a few home made dishes (the hummous and the lentils), all of which was entirely gluten free. (How lucky am I to have friends like that?)

    The M&S bits included prosciutto, spicy prawns, regular prawns, cheese wrapped in ham, mozzarella balls in pesto, olives, mixed dips, sweetcorn dip, rosemary and apricot toasts, vegetable crisps, salted tortilla crisps and spicy tortilla crisps.  All very nice.

    One thing I’d not tried before was the rosemary and apricot toasts. These are thin slices of crispy toast, packed with seeds, rosemary and dried apricot pieces. They looked really fun and we all agreed they were tasty, but didn’t quite go with the rest of the food. They have a really interesting texture because they’re crispy and crunchy but you get a bit of a chew from the apricot.

    We thought they would probably go brilliantly with pate, or even a bit of cream cheese as a light lunch. I’d definitely get them again.

    For pudding we had strawberries with the most outrageously decadent pink champagne and strawberry cream to dip them in. We had the same at last year’s play, and I haven’t had it since, so we were all very excited to see this turn up on the table.

    It’s worth a trip to M&S just for the cream! I might have to find a reason to drive down Ecclesall Road very soon…

    *The play was The Scarlet Pimpernel, performed by the wonderful group of players from The Company, based at the University of Sheffield’s drama studio.

    **Well, honestly it was the fourth, but that just makes us sound unruly when in fact we are very civilised and highly sophisticated.