June 30, 2007

My first comment is from the lovely author of three-eggs-plus-one. Thankyou! It made my morning! Her blog is right from the start of her allergy diagnosis you should check hers out too and help her through the first hurdles of being gluten free.

Saturyda mornings are a sleep in. I wait impatiently all week for it. That glorious feeling of turning off the alarm and going back to sleep. When I finally wake up though, I usually late for something and need to dash.

Solution?

Grilled cheese and tomato on rice cake.
Sound crazy? Where's the toast? Bah! Gluten free bread isn't all that great in general anyway, and not the great for you. The rice cakes are different to bread (well duh) and it's not the same. But that's good! The toasted rice cake smells like popcorn and is a tasty crunchy vessel for fresh tomato and a slice of your favourite cheese. Any topping you like can go on, just watch the goopiness factor.

The rice cakes need to be carefully watched to avoid overcooking which leads to charcoal and possibly fire (I'm not kidding). One blogger suggested using the toaster with a finger ready of the eject button. No thankyou! I like my toaster and don't want a groggy me setting parts of it on fire every Saturday. My grill is key to this (though I think Americans call it a broiler? I've never known if that's true....)

I'm off to eat and play in the glorious Saturday air, cupcakes, but try this simplest of all recipes. And relish the lack of gluten hangover afterwards!

June 29, 2007

Two exciting things

Excitement number one is me getting up the gumption to take this blog to more than just me. I just commented on Gluten Free Girl's blog thanking her for all her inspiration and linking this blog. Me. Author of a badly written blog that doesn't even have pictures yet! Scared! But, the only way to be a writer is to write, hence I am writing. Practise makes perfect, right?

Excitement number two was, of course, food. Wonderful gourmet food of the modern 'the chef is making a statement' style. Vue de monde is a French restaurant in Melbourne that is "Inspired by the days best available produce, menus are tailored to each table creating a tasting style experience."

It is not cheap:
"5 course for $150 (inclusive of some premium ingredients), $15 per course for each additional course."
But it was fantastic.

We saw no menu, the uber efficient/fantastic wait staff sat us down at our table and asked if anyone had any food issues besides my gluten intolerance, which had been mentioned when we booked. Then they started to bring us food......

The Menu (from what I scribbled down at the time)
An amuse bouche of aloe vera and green tea broth with mushroom foam

Truffle risotto garnished with shaved truffle

A terrine with 5 layers - carrot, foie gras, ham, rabbit, pistaccio, served with fresh pistaccios

King fish fillet served with carrot and cardamon foam on baba ganoush garnished with a crisp aubergine slice with coconut husk char for seasoning

Palate cleanser - Peach juice served with dry ice

Slow cooked caramelised belly pork layered with crackling and pork cracker in pan juices with wilted turnip leaves

Lamb done three ways - sirloin, sweet bread, and belly, served with a dark sherry reduction which was painted on the plate and split peas

Palate cleanser - a frozen kiwi fruit lollipop covered in peppermint jelly

Amuse bouche - served in a 6 pack egg carton served in pullet egg shells - pistacio custard, white chocolate and orange mousse, prune and armagnac eggnog

Dessert:
Grand Marnier souffle with apricot sorbet and vanilla creme anglaise with apricot sauce and citrus powder
A chocolate cake(?) made from almond meal and rice flour filled with spiced chocolate ganache served with milk sorbet

amuse bouche - petit fours
almond macaroons
Meringue with a pipette of passionfruit and mango sauce which is squirted into the mouth while eating
Banana icecream ball covered with dark chocolate
chocolate coffee cup
Apple in caramel sauce with foam garnish

Others in my party had matched wines to each course as well. I had a sample of each, but only a sip or two. *sigh* bliss

While I feel a bad person for eating obese goose liver (foie gras) and eating things from depressed chicken egg shells (pullet eggs), it was completely tremendous. We rolled out of the restaurant four hours later stuffed to the gills and then some. But despite this we are still contemplating the twelve course menu they also offer - the gastronomes menu.

Though I may have to be vegan for a couple of days to work off my bad food karma!

Not only was the food a celebration of flavours and the like, it was also served warmth and good cheer and not once was I left out of anything as a gluten intolerant. The only dish in the menu above that was different for me was the first amuse bouche. The others had some sort of lobster bisque served in sea anenomes. They had gluten free bread for me, which they even toasted! I had my own pat of butter (which was so good. Why is it that I forget how wonderful butter can be?) to prevent cross contamination.
How can people say the GF is restrictive when five people can enjoy together such a feast? Though I don't suppose that truffles being gluten free will occur to many as they are darned expensive. But, we are not relegated to rice cakes and water for the rest of our lives.

Tonight is a double feature at the Astor cinema, which is a beautiful building, still with original balcony level, and actually has double features! Which I think is lacking in the modern cinema experience. The Philosopher and I shall eat at Grill'd again and I shall try a new burger out. This is not deprivation - this is living!

Vue de Monde, Collins St, Melbourne
The Astor Cinema, Windsor, Melbourne. Cult movies, double features, completely awesome.

June 28, 2007

Pizza to go

When I lived in Richmond every fortnight I had a tradition. Since my housemate had guests over that were allergic to our cat I'd lock the cat in my bedroom, order a pizza, select a DVD and snuggle up with cat and pizza to watch something. It was great. And I would always go to the same pizza place - Crust. Their pesto pizza was truly awesome. It was all about the crust in my opinion. Sure, their toppings were gourmet and tasty, but without their fantastic base, the toppings weren't being done justice.

While eating gluten I was delighted to see that they had a new store (they're a very small chain) in my area. Immediately we organised people to come and eat pizza with us. First disapointment - no more pesto pizza :( Second disapointment? the crust, while still very good, was not as awesome as I recalled. BUT I did see a very exciting note in very small print at the bottom of their menu - GLUTEN FREE ON REQUEST.

Last night I ordered home delivered gluten free food. Gluten Free Pizza. I waited impatiently at the door, I had the couch and the tv show all ready, I pounced on the delivery guy demanding to make sure my pizzas were gluten free. The Philosopher and I sat down, took a deep breath and opened the box. Vague disapointment ensued. Where was the crust? It looked messy and just not that great. But, pizza often gets a little tossed around on its way so we still dove in happily.
Pizza 1 - Italian meatball
Pizza 2 - prosciutto, roasted capsicum and baked feta

Conclusion = they make their gluten free crusts from bean flour. They taste... okay. If I was stuck with people and they wanted pizza I could tolerate it, especially if the topping was strong, like the feta, and I got extra of that to drown out the crust taste a bit. The meatball taste was lost amongst the bean. The prosciutto one fared a little better because of the strong feta flavours, but I would have happily doubled the amount of feta.

Decision? Get The Philosophers father, now he's sold his pizza restaurant (woe!) to take his truly awesome pizza base to the masses! While it's not exactly the same as commercial western style pizza, it's closer to what i recall pizza being like in Italy. A little more crunch, a little thinner.

June 26, 2007

Why am I here?

Today I was leafing through the blogs I regularly check. I happened to chance upon a link to a delectable chocolate cake recipe by Chocolate and Zucchini. What's a foodie to do but look at her recipe list? And get horribly scared and wonder why she's in here in the first place!

This is one wimpy cupcake you see before you here today. A blogger with no digital camera, few recipes, nothing in french, just sitting here killing time at her boring job.

I am force, forced I say, to go and console myself with some GF snacks. Snack of choice today? Chicknuts. Chick nuts are roasted chickpeas and I adore the spicy tomato seasoned ones. I have attempted to make them on my own, but have ended up with burnt rather than roasted each time. Chicknuts are found in supermarkets and health food stores and are high in iron and protein and damn munchable!

June 25, 2007

Not quite a cupcake

Thank god alcohol is gluten free. And chocolate. And cheese. One cannot survive a party without these things.

The morning after though is harder. No longer can I go on a late night McDonald's run for a cheeseburger and fries. No longer can I go back to bed with a cup of tea and vegemite toast (GF bread has been temporarily banned by The Boy as not nutritious enough). What's a cupcake to do?
Make chocolate polenta pudding for breakfast!
This is very darn tasty. Letting it sit is crucial, otherwise it's soupy and not good. Left on its own to cool and goop up it becomes very tasty. Highly recommend sweetening with either honey or maple syrup. Soy milk is definately substitutable here, and any milk is preferred over making it with water.

Another emergency morning-after snack? Healtheries Rice Wheels! For some reason my supermarket only ever has the cheese flavour but I've never felt deprived. This product is helping me let go of that fake cheese flavouring on corn chips. Find them in the health food section with marketing towards kids lunch box snacks.

June 22, 2007

Gluten free eating out

Last night was dinner and movie night and the gluten free options were many. Hurrah!

The Philosopher and I ended up at Grill'd on Chapel St, which we'd heard rave reviews of. I called beforehand and made sure they were gluten free (minus bun of course) and double checked that when I went in. They had a list readily available so they could definately tell me what was what. Their meat patty? gluten free! Their fries? Gluten free! And guess what? This place is totally fantastically awesome. If you love burgers you'll love this place. The Philosopher also had no bun with his and actually thought that having a bun would detract from the flavour of the burger by muting it all. The chips had a wonderful herb sprinkle (GF!!) and were perfectly cooked.
Best of all? Not a single strange look for asking if things were gluten free and having a bunless burger was equally acceptable. Perhaps we have no-carb diets to think for that though.

Then it was to the Pancake Parlour to meet everyone. The Pancake Parlour are great for people with allergies, though you wouldn't expect it. You can get any of their pancakes made with buckwheat flour (GF!) instead and even also made with soy milk if you can't do dairy. Their meals are alright. Their organic vanilla icecream is orgasmic, just remember to ask for no waffle garnish.
The one question I always must ask there? How can you have something called a Swiss Mountain Malt without malt? Wouldn't that just be a Swiss Mountain? The item description does clearly state that it is available with or without the malt.

Village Cinemas. I never thought I'd be recommending a candy bar for GF! But lining up for a drink, there it was! Big as life and brightly lit.... a sign for 100% gluten free! Village now has Snakatas (made of corn, though they do contain MSG) which are labelled as gluten free and GF muesli bars. Huzzah!

Going out has never been so easy.

June 20, 2007

What am I going to do? Two of my favourite bloggers are leaving the internet for awhile to do things in the real world? Gluten Free Goddess and Something In Season I shall miss you and eagerly await any random posts you write. I hope you come back!

Gluten Free Goddess, your mexican recipes made the Philosopher be reinspired and made the crappy GF tortillas delectable. Everyone should try her sour cream chicken enchiladas.

Something In Season, you gave me insight into a wider world. You bolstered my opinion that baking GF does not need 1001 flours. You gave me ginger cake that reinspired me to bake, looking beyond the GF baking mixes.

I never commented in their blogs. They probably don't know I write this blog. But I Miss You Cupcake misses them and the work hours are suddenly much more lonely.

In food related news, I cooked for my mother last night. Poor mum, she broke her ankle, so I drove the two hours home to make her and my sister dinner and play with her cute little dog.

Dinner: pan fried chicken breast with creamy mustard mushroom sauce
Pan fry chicken. In a seperate pan add 3-4 sliced mushrooms and cook gently. Add garlic to taste (~1 clove). Pour in cream, I used ~3/4 of a small container, so maybe 3/4 of a cup. Spoon in some mustard. Generally I use wholegrain but this time I used dijon, 1-2 tsp or to taste. heat through.
Take cooked chicken off heat and serve with sauce on top with a green salad and you're done!

Variation: Generally I make this recipe with some white wine as well, but I'm not allowed that while detoxing my body, curses.

If you have a La Porchetta in your area, I used to order something vagely similar (in that it was a creamy/mustard sauce) called Chicken New York. It was a staple of my diet when I handily lived next door to a La Porchetta. The sauce went marvellously with fries. Alas, that store stopped making it. But maybe somewhere they do again.

June 19, 2007

Last night we made food. In our kitchen! We did dishes, we cleaned benches, we cooked, we ate. *bliss* This was not happening in the gluten months. Cooking and cleaning were anaethema. They were not spoken of.
But last night?
Baked eggplant with pan fried chicken breast and homemade tomato sauce

Chicken:
Slice each breast into strips longways, or not, whatever you like. Then pan fry in a drizzle of olive oil. We had a breast each, but ended up with leftovers.

Eggplant:
Slice some steaks lengthways, we cut three from a big eggplant and had 1 leftover. Place in baking dish. Place a piece of chicken on top of that. Then add:

Sauce:
1 can diced tomatos
garlic to taste
1 onion, finely chopped
pinch of dried thyme
mushrooms

Cook onions until translucent, add mushrooms, cook until you think they're done. Add garlic and tomatos and herbs. Simmer until it's all nice and goopy. Pour/spoon over eggplant and chicken.

Top with grated cheese and bake until the eggplant is cooked.

Serving suggestion:
I was having salty cravings last night and topped the eggplant/chicken/sauce/cheese stack with a slice of prosciutto. Yeah baby.

Variation thoughts:
Perhaps spreading the eggplant with some ricotta. But if you do that, why not just go the whole hog and make an eggplant lasagne? hmm....


How can people be sad about being gluten free with meals like this?

June 18, 2007

Finnegan Begin Again

Today is the day! The new day! The beginning (again) of a new era! Very excited. Today is the first gluten free day. Again.

Today is also my first day of the South Beach diet's two week "phase 1" detox. Why am I doing this? To get rid of my need for sugary gluteny wonderfulness. This part of the South Beach Diet was designed to get rid of cravings for all those empty calories in things like white bread, so I thought I'd make it work for me. And despite the wonder of my friends about what I shall eat, there are many options. I can have meat, veges and dairy. That's really it. I can have artificial sweetener but I'm going to try not as it's not good stuff.

The menu for today? I started with scrambled eggs with some tasty cheese. There was also going to be sauteed mushrooms in balsamic vinegar but it was early, so I had a carrot while driving instead. My hot water with lemon was thrown away when I found out how much coffee taste had remained in the travel mug. Watered down lemon flavoured coffee is not all that great.
Lunch was made by my lovely boy, a taco salad. No corn chips sadly, but a bowl of homemade chilli topped with fresh salad? I cannot wait.

Yesterday was also special because we went to the market. The Prahran Market is full of goodies to try and eat and while I will pout now that I can't have some of the fabulous looking homemade pastas and Italian breads, there is so much there! cranberry nougat was awesome but beaten in the end by the mocha nougat. Garlic dip, a zillion types of pesto. Even a bakery that does rice flour bread so my friends and I can have the big breakfast at the market together. Nothing is as decadent as going out for a big breakfast at the market, listening to the jazz band, watching all the people.

The Essential Ingrediant. Another traditional stop in our market wanderings, this place makes me drool. I love buying kitchen things and this place has the expensive, ultimate ones. That's all I shall say or I may convince myself I really do need a KitchenAid mixer, blender and coffee maker, as well as new cutlery and a flan dish. *sigh*

The Philosopher's Lazy Chilli:
Beef mince
Burrito seasoning
Onion
Garlic
Balsamic Vinegar
can of mixed beans

cook, mix, eat is pretty much the method here. We often add a touch more cumin that is in the seasoning. And, of course, pick your packet seasoning with care as many contain evil-gluten, or make your own!
Uses: many! Makes an awesome toasted sandwich with a bit of cheese. With rice a warm hearty dinner. Wrapped in a tortilla, inside a taco. Or what Philosopher's do when in the midst of serious thinking - microwave and eat out of the container.

June 13, 2007

GF Gourmet

The lovely boy works from home most days. He's doing a phd in Logic/Philosophy and apparently the wunderkid of the university for the subject. I cannot tell you what he does, only that he loves it and seems to be good at it. My brain screams and runs away when he tries to explain. I guess I need the three plus years of training in the subject to start getting the phd.

Anyway, to the point, he works from home. Which is great, as I travel for an hour each way to work five days a week and am usually too tired and aggravated by public transport at the end of it to think about dinner properly. I confess that over the last two gluten months when asked what I want for dinner 9 times out of 10 I answered toast. So having a boy who likes to cook and is good at is absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend picking one up next chance you get.

Tonights menu was just emailled to me. Prosciutto wrapped chicken breast stuffed with feta served with a white wine reduction and home made potato wedges. Needless to say I am the envy of my workplace. While being gluten free.

This is the problem with labelling yourself/others as "gluten free." I can still eat! I can still have coffee, chocolate, coke, tofu, cheese, tacos, and a thousand other tasty tasty options. The fault is not with the gluten free people, it's with our culture of prepackaged, instant food. Why does Lipton Ice Tea contain gluten? Have people ever read the labels on what they're eating? Certain brands of bacon bits are suitable for vegetarians. Certain types of 'oreo' style cookies are vegan friendly. 2 minute noodles contain meat, even the non-meat flavoured ones. Then think about the preservatives, the flavour enhancers and all the rest of the chemicals....

The thing that most disturbed me about becoming gluten free? It wasn't that I couldn't eat certain foods (though every so often I pout a bit), it was the random things I craved. I could smell cheese flavouring on corn chips at 50 paces it seemed. I never realised how much I loved the stuff - I rarely ate it. But obviously something in the chemical mix appealed to me. But what? It's not cheese, it's not the salt, it's not the MSG. It disturbs me that I am addicted to a food I cannot even name. How many of the foods that we eat these days don't actually taste like the foods they are meant to be? Do burger rings taste like burgers? Tomatoes taste remarkably different to tomato sauce, tomato paste, etc. WTF?

June 12, 2007

The end comes

I finally did it. I called the blood testing people and sorted out going there. This week. Come Monday I'll be detoxing and hopefully getting rid of the headache/sinusache that has plagued me for a week. I cannot wait.

Part of the cannot wait feeling came from two eatings on the weekend. One was a leisurely, decadent second breakfast before my pottery class. Friends had gotten together to buy a birthday present and we'd found ourselves in Oakleigh, near the station, the land of Jewish bakeries. But, being a Saturday, none were open. So we went to a very generic little cafe (which I can't remember the name of) and had underdone pancakes which were adequate and rather nice coffee. But what really grabbed me was their VEGETARIAN gluten free section of the breakfast menu and the choice of THREE types of luscious looking gluten free cakes in the glass case. *bounce* True, it is a little out of my way but for an actual choice in food? It's not THAT far out of my way.

The second thing? Was homemade and not actually gluten free but could be if we used dahl or rice flour as the recipe suggests. My lovely boy made me roti, Vietnamese style. Vietnamese roti apparently have coconut in them, so the dough was flour, dessicated coconut, water and a bit of oil for cooking. That's it. Into my scanpan frypan on hothothot and these were fabulous. Reminiscent of galettes, the savoury French crepe, but thicker and more substantial even without curry on top, I have two bits for have with my lunch today.

Looking at recipes for my return to GF cooking, I am scared at the number of flours people regularly use. Sure, they're all bloggers and very into their foodz, but a recipe with FOUR different kinds of flour? SomethingInSeason posted sometime ago a recipe for a ginger cake that he had altered from his original post. The alteration? He removed all the flours except for brown rice flour. I then made muffins (still being tweaked, recipe to come) from this recipe. Could anyone tell that I'd only used brown rice flour? No. I think that I shall be avoiding potato starch, bean flour, and the many other flours. I live aroudn the corner from a tiny little Indian grocery. They have rice flour, chickpea flour and *fingers crossed* hopefully dahl flour too. That should do me, surely.

June 6, 2007

With only one week to go of eating gluten, I thought I would be sad about losing so many foods, but all I'm thinking about is how I can make things myself to be gluten free. Asian Coconut cake? It's only flour, coconut, sugar and oil according to the pack, so surely rice flour could fix that. I would stop eating gluten now if I could despite the ease of eating I've had lately. It's almost because of that ease that I can't wait to go back to gluten free. Eating is so simple that I give it no thought. I'm perfectly happy eating toast every meal rather than experimenting and making an effort for the sake of nutrition.

In a week I say goodbye to processed foods, almost completely. For the first two weeks back off the gluten I shall even be saying goodbye to sugar, something that I have become to need with the same urgency as a cocaine addict over the last two months. I wonder if any other gluten intolerants have this problem?

I am looking forward now. Looking forward to becoming healthy again. Looking forward to being excited about food again. Looking forward to everything that has become grey and dull because of gluten.

Todays menu: mac and cheese.
Easily made into gluten-free by using gluten free pasta, this recipe I vaguely made up last night and it needs a touch more work. Probably a stronger flavoured cheese too!

1 - 1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
40g butter
1 1/2 tablespoons flour (or thickener of choice)
Grated cheese (I used about a cup of low fat colby. Low fat does not melt very well and colby got lost in this so I had a vagely cheesey goo. Still tasty, but not exciting at all).

Cook some pasta in a pot. Drain.
Melt butter in a small pot. Add the flour and stir til pale and foaming. Take off the heat and slowly add the milk, stirring after each addition. Return to heat and stir continuously until it boils and thickens. Take off the heat again, cool slightly and add the egg. Add cheese, mix.

I decided on baked mac and cheese, so I put the pasta in a baby lasagne dish and poured on the sauce, sprinkled with more cheese and some breadcrumbs and baked from about 15-20min.

Recommendations? next time I'd put maybe some parmesan or feta in as well to give it a boost.

June 4, 2007

In the beginning....

Today marks the final week countdown of my gluten eating challenge. Before these past two months I hadn't eaten gluten in nearly 6 months, as soon as a natropath suggested I had an allergy after weeks of restriction diet testing. I saw my doctor (eventually) and asked him about getting tested. He basically told me there's not much point, as the only result will be to not eat gluten which I'm doing anyway and feeling better. He saw no point in making me feel bad to formally get tested, but I had to know. I had to know if the first doctor I saw was right, and that sleeping so much was normal. That I was just unlucky and had a run of sinus infections, had colds all the time and was almost bipolar in my moodiness.

7 weeks into the 8 weeks of eating gluten. How do I feel? Much better than I thought I would, which scares me. I thought I'd be having many more 'stomach upsets' to put it politely. Nope. Nothing really. My boy tells me I am much moodier though. And our sex life has become nonexistant. Which apparently can be linked.
I'm also finding myself unable to think of foods beyond high sugar, high carbohydrates. I'll eat other foods if I'm given them but given the option I'll eat toast, rolls, pies, donuts, churros, chinese steamed buns over everything else.

One of the articles on this site here mentions that if you are depressed due to a food allergy, you are likely to continue to eat that food. Basically so you feel less depressed because you're that much more depressed.

Conclusion? As much as I've enjoyed not having to worry about gluten. Being able to go to Chinatown and eat without having to try and explain gluten to people who don't speak english. I've enjoyed churros with chocolate dipping sauce (though I'm pretty sure I'll be happy with the espresso glass of chocolate once I'm off the gluten again) and bread rolls. But in the end none of this stuff tastes as good as I thought it would. The only reason currently to keep eating gluten is social. My boy is happy for me to be gluten free and have a gluten free house. My mother is a nurse and very supportive when I'm there. The boy's father owns a pizza restaurant (sadly 2 hours drive away) and he makes a fantastic pizza with rice flour that I must get the recipe for.

In the end there are too many things I'm missing out on right now because of gluten. Donuts with sprinkles and peking duck with pancakes are great but I'd rather be in the moment enough to enjoy them.