A Dickensian Tavern
As I passed through Clerkenwell, I walked up Britton Street to the north of the famous meat market and had a drink in the Jerusalem Tavern. The tavern is owned by St. Peter’s Brewery and serves their gluten-free ale.
If you’ve seen any period dramas, based on the stories of authors like Charles Dickens, you’ll recognise the style of the pub. But of course it doesn’t have footpads and low-life of the period and is probably a lot more hygienic.
So any coeliac who likes their beer and visits London, should put this unique drinking establishment on their list of places to visit.
Give Peas a Chance
And coeliacs too, it would appear, judging by the menu.
The Manager at Hummus Bros
I came across the Southampton Row branch of Hummus Bros as I walked towards Euston from Holborn.
Hummus Bros, Southampton Row
I had a good coffee for just 50p, as it was their price for after 2:00 pm and it is certainly somewhere, I’ll try again.
Cassoulet
Today was my housewarming party, so I cooked a gluten-free cassoulet in a big Le Creuset casserole.
I’ve always liked cassoulet and in the past, I’ve even eaten one cooked by a Michelin-starred chef. This was the second time I’d used this recipe which is based on one from Michele Barriemore-Johnson’s Everyday Wheat-Free and Gluten-Free Cookbook, which is really the only cookery book, I use these days. I’m not sure, if the book is still in print, as it was first published in 1998. The author, now runs a comprehensive free-from food site called foodsmatter.com.
The ingredients are as follows and the quantities serve from ten to twelve.
- 500 g dried haricot beans – one pack in Waitrose
- 8 rashers of streaky bacon – One pack in Waitrose
- 4 carrots, scrubbed and skiced – I actually chopped them into sticks about 5 centimetres long and then quartered-them lengthwise, as I found this easier with my gammy hand.
- 4 onions stuck with between about eight and ten cloves each – Surprisingly, I didn’t find this too difficult, but I did make a small cut in the onions with the point of a knife and the cloves were newly bought.
- 3 large onions roughly chopped – Effectively, I just peeled them and cut them into small chunks.
- 6 cloves garlic, halved – I find peeling garlic difficult, but this was easier than crushing them.
- 20 or so peppercorns and salt
- 50g butter
- 2 Bath Pig chorizo sausages with garlic and herbs. I was recommended by and purchased these from the de Beauvoir Deli. You have to dice it for the recipe.
- 1 Kg of lamb, trimmed of fat and cubed – The original recipe recommended leg or shoulder, but the butcher in Waitrose recommended using some neck cuts. Both these and the chorizo worked well.
- a tube of tomato puree.
- 500 g of chicken stock. I diluted it a bit with a small amount of water.
- 4 slices of gluten-free bread – I used Genius, as I had a loaf handy.
- 4 tbsp of whole grain mustard – Check it’s gluten-free.
The method is as follows.
- Soak the beans in cold water for a minimum of four hours. I did it overnight.
- Drain the beans and discard the water. This isn’t quite as easy as it should be, as the beans soak up a load of the water. In the end I used a saucepan with a strainer built into the lid to get rid of the excess water, but it might have been better to soak the beans in the saucepan in the first place.
- Line a big casserole with the bacon rashers.
- In a bowl mix together the beans, carrots, the onions stuck with cloves, half the garlic and the peppercorns and salt.
- Spoon the mixture into the pot with the bacon, just cover it with water and bake it with the lid on at 160 degrees for 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a heavy-based pan and brown the garlic sausage and the lamb. Stir in the chopped onion, the rest of the garlic, the tomato puree and the stock.
- Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Turn the mixture into the bean pot, stir all well together and return to the over for another 30 minutes. Taste and season as required.
- Spread the bread with mustard. Lay on top of the casserole, mustard side up and push them down, so that the bottom of each slice absorbs the juices. Return to the over for 20-25 minutes to heat and crisp the topping.
I served it with some green vegetables, but everybody just took lots of beans.
There was enough left over to make three small individual meals, which I froze.
Lindsay Bareham Does It Again!
This is another of Lindsay Bareham’s Dinner Tonight recipes, from The Times on Thursday, and again it’s gluten-free.
The ingredients are as follows and the quantities serve two.
- 2 pollack fillets
- half a lemon
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 200g green beans
- 150g frozen petits pois
- Best olive oil
The method is as follows.
- Heat the oven to 200C/Gas Mark 6.
- Place the fish in a small roasting pan, splash with 2 tbsp olive oil and squeeze the lemon juice over. Season with salt and pepper.
- Roast for 6-10 minutes depending of the thickness of the fillets.
- Whilst the fish roasts halve the beans.
- Drop them into a pan of vigorously boiling water. Add a generous seasoning of salt and boil for 1 minute.
- Add the peas and boil for a further 2 minutes or until the peas are tender and the beans still al dente. Drain.
- Return the beans to the pan with 1 tbsp of your best olive oil. Toss thoroughly then pile in the middle of two warmed dinner plates.
- Drape a fillet of fish over the top, add the juices and a swirl of your best olive oil.
- Serve immediately offering sea salt flakes and the pepper mill.
I do wonder if Lindsay realises that most of her recipes are gluten-free.
But what the heck I’ll keep looking for them and trying them.
The Problems of Evening Football at Ipswich
Evening football shouldn’t be a problem, but yesterday meant that I had to travel from Stratford in the rush hour and that means that a cheap day return wasn’t available unless I left before 4:30. In the end I got the 4:09 after taking the North London Line from Dalston Kingsland. The trouble was this got me to Ipswich at about five thirty for a match that starts at a quarter to eight.
Ipswich isn’t too good for eating gluten-free, the only place being Pizza Express and they were full, so in the end I resorted to plan B of eating a packed supper in the rain in the stands. I should say though, that I could have booked myself a gluten-free meal in the restaurant at Portman Road, but I didn’t want to pay the extra to sit away from my friends.
The salad I took was interesting in that it was a Four Bean and Buckwheat Salad from Waitrose.
Waitrose Four Bean and Buckwheat Salad
I ate it with some salami and an EatNakd bar. It was delicious and I don’t seem to have suffered any reaction. But then it didn’t list any allergens on the package. Why can’t they label it with None? Thanks go to the guy in Waitrose in the Barbican for checking the rather small print on the label.
I did make one mistake in that I forgot to take any cutlery, but thanks to Marks and Spencer in Ipswich for letting me have one of their free forks, without making a purchase.
We see a lot of bad service, so when I get good service it should be recognised.
Another Taste of Suffolk
I like my hummus and usually have it with some toasted Genius bread, that I cut into fingers. So today I bought a pot of hummus with butter bean, mint and lime from the de Beauvoir Deli for my lunch.
Purely Hummus
One reason I bought it, was it said that it was suitable for coeliacs on the packet and it was only when I got it home, that I found that it was made by a company called Purely Pesto from Saxmundham. And the last time I looked, that oddly named town was in Suffolk.
As to the hummus, it was very good.
The New Evolution Diet
This was being promoted in The Sunday Times yesterday.
It basically says eat a variety of foods, like vegetables, meat, fish and eggs, nuts and fruit and avoid foods like grains, dairy, starchy foods, some fruit and soy beans. It also advises taking exercise, most of which appears to be walking and simple arm and back exercises. But then Dogtor J has been saying things like this for health in people and their pets for years.
Looking at it in more detaill, it is very close to what a coeliac might eat, except that I probably eat too many potatoes and bananas for the diet’s liking.
So have we coeliacs been right all along in avoiding grains like wheat and barley?
My late wife, C, wasn’t a coeliac, but she followed a virtually gluten-free diet, as she didn’t want to cook separately for me. She also did plenty of exercise.
In the end it didn’t do her any good, as she died of a very rare squamous cell carcinoma of the heart, but only a few months before she died, I took this picture on the beach in the Aeolian Islands.
Nakd Bars
Good gluten-free snacks are hard to come by. But have the Welsh come up with something better than the ubiquitous banana?
Nakd Cocoa and Orange Bar
They certainly taste nice. My only worry is that they seem to be a bit addictive. They do say on the packet that the bars are “Gleefully made in Wales”
Is this another case of a food company being innovative to expand and get us out of the recession?
They are also following a trend of trying to make the packaging funny and very much worth reading. Humour is the greatest weapon in life and we don’t use it enough in marketing and business.
Perhaps the reason we got into the recession was have we ever had such a humourless bunch of politicians as Gordon Brown and NuLabor?
You May Get the Man Out of Suffolk, But You Can’t Get Suffolk Out of the Man
I wasn’t born in Suffolk, but according to my father I was conceived on the floor of the Ordnance Hotel in Felixstowe. But for the last forty years or so, I’ve always had strong associations with the county and of course I still support Ipswich Town.
But Suffolk gets under your skin and every time I go to the local de Beauvoir Deli, I’m reminded of my history, as they sell products from Pinney’s of Orford. C and I must have had upwards of fifty happy meals in their Oysterage in Orford. I think C would approve that I’ve just bought some of their smoked fish pate for my lunch, which I’ll eat with s0me Genius toast.
Smoked Fish Pate from Pinney's of Orford
Gluten-Free on Hope Street
Hope Street is the street that links Liverpool’s two cathedrals. It is also one of the best places to eat gluten-free I’ve found. I ended up eating in a restaurant called Host, but there were several places with gluten-free offerings. I probably made the wrong choice of meal, as I had a lamb shank in a curried sauce with root vegetables, as it was so difficult to cut up with my gammy left hand. But it was lovely!
Host on Hope Street
The Anonymous Widower 