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 30, 2007
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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