Which Is The Best UK University For Students With Coeliac Disease?
When I went to Liverpool University in the 1960s, I hadn’t been diagnosed with coeliac disease, but this article from the BBC web site about students with nut allergies got me thinking.
In my travels around the country, I find cities and towns vary with their knowledge of the disease. For instance, London, Brighton, Cambridge and Liverpool are easy cities for a coeliac and others like Ipswich, Blackpool and Middlesbrough are difficult.
I think drinking could be the biggest problem, as it is only in a few places you can drink a pint of something gluten-free, like real cider. At least these days, there is a wide availability of microwaveable meals from the major supermarkets that are gluten free and there are now reliable Indian restaurants, who cook with gram flour everywhere. And you can usually find a Pizza Express. Who’d have thought that good gluten-free pizza would be available nearly everywhere, a few years ago?
I think in the 1960s, being a coeliac, would have been a real problem at university and I probably would have taken an easy option to stay in London with my aunt. I couldn’t have lived with my parents in Felixstowe, as there was no University in the county.
So my life as a coeliac would have been totally different. I certainly wouldn’t have met my wife and would have missed out on forty very happy years.
A Wet Night In Islington
I needed supper last night and although I had food in the fridge, I went to Pizza Express at the Angel.
The great advantage is that the bus stop is right outside the restaurant.
So although, the rain was amazing, I didn’t get too wet.
The gluten-free pizza was good too!
The Munch Museum
After the National Gallery, I took the metro to get to the Munch Museum to see the other half of the Munch 150 exhibition. It runs to October the 13th, so you’ve about four weeks.
I was also able to get some excellent Swedish meatballs at the museum.
Munchies At The Munch Museum
Were they Munchies?
Chorizo Hash
This is a recipe based closely on Lindsey Bareham’s recipe of the same name, but for one person. i.e. me!
I started by assembling the ingredients.
Chorizo Hash – Ingredients
Note the small 200 g pack of Waitrose potatoes and the 120g double pack of chorizo.
I chopped the potatoes and then boiled them for five minutes, before draining them.
The onion was then softened in about a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat, ater which the potatoes and the chorizo was added and heated until the potatoes and sausage were nicely crusty.
Chorizo Hash – Cooking The Onion, Potatoes And Sausage
The mixture was then turned out on a plate, the tomatoes were then added and everything was topped with a fried egg and some herbs. Lindsey used chopped parsley, but I just sprinkled marjoram on the top.
Chorizo Hash
I enjoyed it and will cook it again.
Is This The World’s Fastest Pasta Meal?
Last night, I did the Lindsey Bareham pasta meal, which I described here.
I really do think, that if you cook it as fast as you can, it might be one of the world’s fastest pasta meals.
I started by boiling a saucepan of salted water. I used my 2.8 litre saucepan with a lid that has a built in strainer. I also put a plate in the oven to get warm.
When it was boiling hard, I threw in a tumbler of Carluccio’s gluten-free pasta, which cooks in eight minutes. After five minutes, I threw half a cup of peas, which can be frozen or fresh. Obviously, for more people you add more pasta and peas.
Whilst the pasta and peas was cooking, I’d taken half a pack of Waitrose pulled ham hock and taken out the bits with any fat and gristle, of which this time there wasn’t much. I also chppped a couple of tablespoons of chives. Note if you don’t like ham, it works equally well with smoked salmon.
When the peas tasted cooked, I just strained the mixture and that was the cooking done. With my saucepan, I just left the pasta and peas in the saucepan and then used it as a mixing bowl.
i added the ham, a good slug of Rachel’s Greek yoghurt with honey, the juice from one half of a lime, the chives and a teaspoon of marjoram to the mixture and gave it a good mix with some salt and pepper.
I then just turned it out onto the plate.
As you can see, it takes the time it takes to boil the water plus how long the pasta takes to cook and the time it takes to mix everything at the end.
I challenge anybody to properly cook a real pasta meal quicker!
Not Much Washing Up!
It doesn’t even require much washing up, as the picture shows.
Is Gluten-Free Beer Illegal In Italy?
I have puzzled for some time, why there is no Italian gluten-free beer, as if Germany with their strict brewing regulations can have one, surely can most countries.
So I searched Google using “birra senza glutine” and found this Italian site. It says this about a beer called Beautiful Elena.
Beautiful Elena : Italian craft beer derived from rice. By law in Italy can not be called beer, because this name is reserved only to beverages that contain barley or barley malt, then find it on the shelves labeled “rice drink alcohol.”
So it looks like many of the gluten-free beers we have couldn’t be brewed in Italy. But they can sell other countries’ products.
A Very Different Gluten-Free Beer
Most beers these days are light in colour, but this Dark G-Free from St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk is very much like an old-fashioned brown ale.
A Very Different Gluten-Free Beer
It was rather nice and very different to all other gluten-free beers I’ve tasted.
Until further notice, I shall make sure, I’ve always got a few of these in my cupboard.
I bought mine from Beers of Europe.
A Gluten-Free Lunch In Shanklin
I needed some lunch and was walking back to the station, when I saw Micky’s Munch Box.
As you can see I sat in the sun and ate a toasted cheese and bacon sandwich in gluten-free bread.
With the long lasting qualities of some gluten-free breads like Genius, I think we’ll see more of this type of cafe catering for those like me, who need to be gluten-free.
Tuna, Red Onion And White Bean Salad
I’m not a great lover of salads, as I suppose most have masses of rabbit food, but I will have occasional had a nicoise in somewhere like Carluccio’s or Pizza Express or bought one in a supermarket.
On the side in my kitchen was a pack of red onions and a couple of weeks ago, I searched for something I might make and found this recipe on the BBC web site.
I made it tonight.
The ingredients were very simple and this makes two portions.
2 tbsp of olive oil. I used Carluccio’s lemon oil, that I use a lot on fish.
1 tsp of mustard. I used Tiptree. Not Dijon, but East Anglian
A splash of lemon juice.
1 x 200g can tuna, drained and flaked into chunks.
400g tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained.
Half of red onion, finely sliced.
50g rocket
This is all the ingredients, after combining the oil, mustard and lemon juice in my Little Chopper.
The Ingredients
Note the Estrella Damm Daura, which is the only gluten-free beer I have at the moment.
As I said, I started by comibining the oil, mustard and lemon juice, which was then tossed with the tuna, beans and onion, and seasoned.
Finally, I tossed in the rocket and served one portion.
My Very Quick Supper
The other will be my lunch tomorrow.
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.
The Anonymous Widower 