Dr. Rosemary Gets It Right
Dr. Rosemary Leonard complained about giving cheap chocolate bars with newspapers on BBC Breakfast today.
The process annoys me, especially as the bars are always gluten-rich. In fact, I no longer use W H Smith because of their practices, unless I don’t have a choice and then I just leave the vouchers on the counter.
Exquisite Liver
I was in Carluccio’s in Upper Street yesterday and had the most exquisite liver with onion jam and polenta. It is a special this week and I’ll be going back to get another dose of B12.
The Gluten-Free Desert That is Ipswich
I support Ipswich Town and have a season ticket at Portman Road, as I’ve probably stated before.
My biggest problem at home matches is eating properly. Today, I shall as usual catch the 13:00 train from Liverpool Street. As too I have a lot to do this morning before I leave, I shall not have time to get to the shops to buy any gluten-free bread to make myself some sandwiches. So I will probably go into Spitalfields by Liverpool Street station to either Leon or Carluccio’s to have lunch before I travel.
I do find Carluccio’s gluten-free full Italian breakfast with a coffee and juice particularly good value at £9.75 and they are usually very prompt with serving it. I’ll probably go to Leon‘s today, after trying it a few days ago.
You might ask, why I don’t travel to Ipswich on an earlier train and have lunch there!
I could go to Pizza Express and have a salad Nicoise, but the last time I tried this they were full. Or I could go to Loch Fyne, but that is quite a walk from both the football ground and the town centre. When I was stuck in Cambridge a few weeks ago, I went to their small Waitrose in the Grafton Centre and bought a four bean salad, some bananas and a couple of EatNakd bars to tide me over. But there is no town centre Waitrose in Ipswich.
On the other hand if I wanted greasy burgers, chips, gassy lager or other rubbish, I have plenty of choice.
I should also leave Ipswich Town out of this, as their restaurants can do gluten-free food. And when I had it once it was good.
Beef and Bean Casserole
I don’t have many cookery books as with the Internet and the ability to search for a recipe for what you have available, but I do have one;One-pot Cooking (“Australian Women’s Weekly”)
The great advantage is that all the recipes are cooked in one pot and hence there is less washing up.
Many of the recipes are gluten-free too. This one might not be to everyone’s taste, as it contains a lot of red meat. But then I generally only eat beef about one a month and it’s usually good lean steak.
Yesterday, I was looking for something to cook for supper with my son and his friend and when I got the book it fell open at this recipe for beef and bean casserole.
The ingredients are as follows and are enough for more.
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 Kg of braising steak, cut into 2 cm. pieces. I was lazy and got Armed, the butcher, in the Waitrose at Upper Street to do this for me.
- 2 medium brown onions (300 g.) chopped finely. Again I was lazy and used the ready chopped ones from Waitrose.
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
- ¼ cup (70 g.) tomato paste
- a large tin (400 g) of chopped tomatoes
- 500 ml beef stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 medium potatoes (400 g), chopped coarsely
- a large tin (400 g) of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- ¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander
- ¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
The method was as follows.
- Heat oil in aarge saucepan and then cook the beef in batches until browned. My big saucepan allowed it to be done in one and after browning I put the meat aside on a plate.
- Add onion and garlic to pan, cook, stirring, until onion softens.
- Add spices, cook, stirring until fragrant. Add paste; cook, stirring for one minute.
- Return beef to pan with undrained tomatoes, stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then simmer covered for one hour.
- Add potato to the pan and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the potato is tender.
- Remove the bay leaves.
- Add beans to pan and stir until heated through.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped coriander and parsley.
My guests both liked it, although some of the potatoes could have done with a bit more cooking. Next time, I’ll think I’ll par-boil them first.
A Restaurant Called Bad Taste
Over the years, after eating in many restaurants that just didn’t cut or even in some cases, have the mustard, C and I used to muse about the ideal restaurant.
As we both had a Brooksian sense of humour and were a great fan of his films, there is a lot of scope for an establishment, which is a complete send up of some of the pompous places you find in cities like London. And not just London! One of the funniest meals we ever had was at a two-Michelin star restaurant called La Bonne Auberge in Antibes. The story is here.
Any restaurant must have good food and because I’m a coeliac, it would also be gluten-free as well. This could actually be an advantage as some odd creations, like Dundee Lamb Chops are gluten-free. As is spam! In fact, to create a menu that is probably gluten, lactose and nut free with good vegetarian options would not be too difficult.
The waiting staff would be the easy part, as any large city has large numbers of wannabee actors and others who want to make their name in show-business. How they would dress would be a matter of personal taste, but head waiters like that dreadful tenor in the insurance ads would not be out of place, especially, if his suit was artistically soup and sauce stained.
The possibilities are endless.
But like Mel Brooks has shown, you have to be very professional to get something that is truly awful.
Incidentally, I’ve searched the Internet and can’t find a restaurant with the name of Bad Taste.
Leon Restaurants
I had lunch in the Leon restaurant in Spitalfields today.
I had a mackerel and beetroot salad with a home-made lemonade.
The restaurant is definitely worth a return visit.
Getting In On The Olympics
Today, I took the train to West Ham and then walked to the Olympic Park from the other side. I saw this restaurant.
Olympic Fish Bar, West Ham
Notice that they are in Pond Road.
I wonder how many Olympic restaurants and other businesses, there are going to be?
Let’s Ban Mother’s Day
Signs like this really get my goat.
Mother's Day Promotion
After all, I haven’t got a mother and C, the mother of my sons died three years ago.
And I bet the free meal on offer doesn’t have a gluten-free option.
How about a widows day?
A Fast Ferry Home
It may have been run by a company called Fast Ferries, but it still took four hours to get me from Tinos to Rafina on the Greek mainland.
A Fast Ferry
I hadn’t eaten any food since a very good moussaka on the Sunday at lunch time and as I left early for the ferry, I didn’t get any breakfast. At least a supermarket was open on Tinos, at which I was able to purchase a couple of bananas. Where would coeliacs be without them?
On the ferry it was just coffee and chocolate and there weren’t even any Greek salads.
It didn’t get any better at the airport either, as there wasn’t anything in the cafes which didn’t have a large slug of gluten. No Greek salads and not even any of those sesame snacks you usually find in Greece.
So I had a choice of either getting the midday easyJet flight or retreating to Athens and getting a flight on the next day.
I chose the flight, as it appeared there were quite a few seats and as it turned out, two of us had three seats for the journey to Gatwick.
So the flight was good value because of the extra room.
I was also back home in good time.
The Anonymous Widower 