The Times Gets Serious About Free From Foods
The Times today has a piece about the growing market for foods free from various allergens. They state that the market grew eleven percent last year to £340 million.
In the piece, they have a box describing the success of Genius bread. This says that one of the investors in the company was Bill Gammell, a former Scottish rugby union player and founder of Cairn Energy. They also state that he is a coeliac. We need more to say they are coeliacs and also for newspapers to avoid the dreaded D-word.
Does Jam Count As One Of Your Five-A-Day?
Apparently, according to this article in the Daily Mail, one in five Scots do!
but then I admit, that I do like Dundee lamb chops. But then they are gluten-free!
Gluten Free Bread In Carluccio’s
On Friday night after the film, I had a quick supper in Carluccio’s in Islington, where the manager informed me that they now had gluten-free bread.
As I was in a hurry and only having a salad, I didn’t partake.
But this morning, I went back for breakfast on my way to football at Ipswich and had an eggs florentine with gluten-free bread.
Carluccio’s Gluten-Free Eggs Florentine
It was so much better, than one without, as the bread was ideal for soaking up the yolk of the egg.
The bread incidentally is Yes You Can, who would appear to be an Australian company, who don’t have a UK web-site. My only problem, could be that the bread is manufactured in Norwich.
Are we starting to see a tipping point, where no professional cafe or restaurant doesn’t offer gluten-free bread? After all, I found that this was very much the case in my visit to Stockholm a couple of months ago.
I did hear that new menus are being printed in Carluccio’s, but certainly Islington has jumped in to offering the new bread. I’ll try a couple of others in the next week or so.
Ten Reasons I Don’t Like Eastfield
I went to Waitrose in Eastfield this evening, to get some bits and pieces for my supper.
1. The Waitrose there is not for me, as some of the staples I like, like Genius bread never seem to be in stock. I also found out tonight, that it doesn’t have all the small packs of microwaveable vegetables I use.
2. The Marks and Spencer isn’t a patch on the ones in Oxford Street or Finsbury Pavement for food. It doesn’t even stock gluten-free sandwiches, which is rare in a their larger stores.
3. Clothes at Marks and Spencer are probably the normal standard, but unless you get in early in the season, small sizes can be difficult to find.
4. Although, I don’t use it often these days, the Starbucks at Eastfield doesn’t use proper china cups.
5. I went into John Lewis today and it really is a bit small and inferior when compared to the flagship store in Oxford Street.
6. Waitrose and John Lewis are a long way from the main Stratford station.
7. With the exception of Marks and Spencer, I’ve bought no clothing in any of the shops there, as they seem to be almost exclusively aimed at women. The few shops that sell men’s clothes are ones I wouldn’t visit.
8. The only restaurant that I know serves gluten-free food is Jamie’s Italian. Why can’t it have a Carluccio’s like Westfield?
9. As I’m very much a guerilla shopper, who comes, buys what he wants and retreats immediately, the centre is usually too crowded for my liking.
10. In some ways my major gripe is that, if say you want to go anywhere from the main Stratford station, you have to walk through the shopping centre. I always go shopping, when I want to, not when I end up in a shopping centre by accident.
You may think that this has all been very negative.
But I do like the toilets, the only Lakeland near me and the large numbers of cash points.
The Cafe In The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
The cafe in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is all new.
It is run by a company called Unity Kitchen, who have this as their mission statement.
We have a strong social and environmental purpose; we create jobs for people with disabilities, make good food affordable for local people, and run our business sustainably.
They did have a gluten-free cake from a company called Sponge.
The cafe was busy, but it probably needs a few more days to get its systems working better.
Gluten Free Biscuits For All The Family
That’s what it says on the packet of these Prewett’s chocolate bourbons, I bought this afternoon in Sainsbury’s.
Gluten Free Biscuits For All The Family
They are a bit more luxurious and chocolatey than the ones I remember from my days before going gluten-free.
But I doubt they would be for all the family, as someone would snaffle most of them!
What’s Wrong with This New Genius Bread?
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve got the new formula Genius bread from the littleWaitrose at Highbury Corner.
What’s Wrong with This New Genius Bread?
It never seems to go off and last night, I had two slices with Benecol to go with my supper. It’s even still soft this morning, although I did toast it.
But the sell-by date was the 27th of July.
Bread shouldn’t last that long! But it does!
The only real problem I have is that the Waitrose I use most at the Angel, only sells their own-brand rubbish!
A List Of Gluten-Free Recipes
A few days ago I published a list of Lindsey Bareham’s gluten-free recipes.
Here’s a list of the others on this site.
Baked Salmon With Parmesan And Parsley Crust
A Simple Ham And Vegetable Soup
Tuna, Red Onion And White Bean Salad
The Only Four Fishcake Recipes You’ll Ever Need
My First Tomato And Onion Salad
Fish Pie With Swede And Potato Topping
Grilled Pork With Asparagus And Shiitake Mushrooms
Poached Smoked Haddock With Poached Eggs
Cooking Gluten-Free Pasta For One
A New Take On An Old Favourite
Lamb Leg Steaks With Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
Pork Chops With Cyder Apple Sauce
Pan Fried Fish With Lemon Hollandaise Sauce
Roasted Duck Fillets with Marmalade and Chilli Glaze
Tuna Steak With Tomatoes and Mushrooms
Gluten-Free Pasta with Broccoli, Feta and Puttanesca
Grilled Pepper and Sausage Penne
Rahmschnitzel (Veal Escalopes With Cream)
Dundee (or Essex) Marmalade Lamb Chops
Sausage And Red Wine Casserole
Note that a few point to The Times web site, so you might need a subscription for them.
Vegan And Vegetarian Food, But No Gluten Free
The food was worse than at the Olympics.
Vegan And Vegetarian Food, But No Gluten Free
There was nothing that was gluten-free, like the excellent Indian food, I got last year and all I bought was water.
Just like Wembley!
But then I’d made sure, I’d had a good meal at lunchtime.
Lindsey Bareham Does A Delia
Delia Smith over the years has become famous for something called the Delia Effect.
Items to have benefitted from the “Delia Effect” include the Kenwood mini-chopper, Martelli pasta and Aunt Bessie’s mashed potato.
I actually have one of the Kenwood mini-Choppers, as I’ve never been good with knives. I have a scar on one of my fingers, where I sliced my finger open with a craft knive at about the age of ten.
Lindsey’s effect is less dramatic, but it started with this recipe for pulled ham hock and pea pasta with herbs.
This is the ingredients for four people.
350g fusilli, penne or other short pasta
200g frozen petits pois
180g pulled ham hock or thick-sliced ham
150g Greek yoghurt with honey
2 limes
2 tbsp finely sliced chives
1 tbsp shredded marjoram or basil
She says this about the pulled ham hock.
Whenever I see pulled ham hock on sale – it’s sold in an eye-catching red 180g double pack – I pile it into my shopping basket. It’s such a useful standby; perfect for quickie pasta suppers like this one, but ideal, too, for sandwiches and gratins. These chunky pieces of well-flavoured ham get mixed with my other favourite standby; frozen petits pois.
And that caused the Bareham Effect! My local Waitrose is at the Angel in Islington and this is their pulled ham hock. But it was totally sold out and hasn’t been seen since the recipe was printed. But I suppose it is Islington!
I cooked the recipe for the first time on Wednesday and it was so good, I cooked it again last night. As I live alone and generally only cook for one, I have modified the recipe to match my skills and needs.
I started by getting a tumbler of Carluccio’s gluten-free pasta, half a mug of frozen peas and shredding some ham.
Pasta, Peas And Ham
The ham was actually one 180g bubble of Waitrose’s honey roast ham. I just tore it into smaller pieces. I had put a saucepan on to boil.
A Saucepan With A Built-In Strainer
Note the lid with the built-in strainer. I find this very easy-to-use with my gammy left hand.
When it was really boiling hard, I added the pasta, which needs eight minutes to cook. After five minutes, I added the peas. Incidentally, I washed the cup in the boiling water, to make sure no peas were stuck inside.
After the pasta and the peas were cooked, I drained them and then added the ham, half-a-tub of Rachel’s Greek yoghurt with honey, the juice of half a lime, the chopped chives and the herbs and stirred it all together.
Ham And Pea Pasta
One of the amazing things about this dish is the aroma, as you combine everything together. The taste is very good too, as otherwise why would I cook it twice.
Incidentally, the first time, I didn’t have any limes handy, as one doesn’t, so I used some lemon juice. So I only needed to buy the ham and the yoghurt.
The next time I make it, I probably use some of my normal yoghurt and the honey, that I generally have for breakfast.
It’s definitely, a recipe that fits my staple foods, so even the shopping is minimal.
I suppose though that automatic computer stocking in supermarkets being what it is, Waitrose at the Angel will be piled high with pulled ham hock in the next week!
The Anonymous Widower 