Maddie's Kitchen Supper Club

I was extremely lucky to be involved in the inaugural Maddie’s Kitchen supper club on Saturday night.

The food was suitable for those on gluten, dairy and egg free diets as well as for those on a vegan and paleo diet.

I was looking forward to trying some new things and getting inspiration for my own cooking at home. And most of all, being cooked for and not having to worry about double checking the food was 'free from.' The desserts looked superb - for once I wouldn't have to sigh at the dessert menu and forlornly hand it back to the waitress!

As the pictures above testify, the dishes were simple and refined, yet for anyone who has tried to cook in this way, incredibly complex and challenging. The cashew nut cheese, the cauliflower rice, the avocado and pistachio 'ice cream' - so many different tastes and sensations for the palette and so beautifully presented.

The conversation around the table centered on diagnosis, GP woes (I am not the only one, hoorah!), health benefits of a free from or paleo diet and why we reckon that our way of eating is best (less GM foods etc). It was great speaking to people who were so clued up on food and nutrition and it has made me look at a few things in a new light.

If you get the chance to go to one of Maddie's future events, we can highly recommend it (don't be afraid to take non fussy eaters, my husband also found it very interesting as someone who enjoys trying new foods.)

Find Maddie's Kitchen on Facebook, WordPress or Twitter

The next supper club dates are:

Saturday 13th July - Caribbean flavours

Saturday 14th September - Autumnal feast

Perhaps I'll see you there!

Prince's Traditional Fish and Chips, Bristol

The world is determined to make us all fat blobs. Even us fussy eaters are now besieged with calorific baubles to turn us from malnourished waifs to those people who can only leave their house via pallet truck.

I was about to start a rant about the unhealthy free from foods on offer. There is a definite niche for healthy free from foods, listen up supermarkets. We like pre-packed salads like everyone else!

That's what so ironic about people seeing this as a quick fix weight loss thing. Well yeah, if you can lose weight by eating pizza, cake and biscuits, laden with butter, sugar and eggs in the place of flour.

Oops still ranting.

So, I think I've figured it out. All this stuff is aimed at kids with celiac disease. Convenience foods for mums. Right?

I'm getting to my point, honest.

A fish and chip shop, just 5 minutes drive from my house sells a range of gluten free food!

Dammit, more unhealthy food, and my waistline is definitely suffering but I just can't help getting excited by things like this (despite myself).

Battered fish, sausage, fish fingers, scampi, pies, pastie and curry sauce - all GF!

They use the GF batter across the board and they even use GF vinegar as standard.

I tried the cod and chips and curry sauce. Very good and thoroughly enjoyed by my husband too.

You will find Prince's at: 721 Fishponds Rd  Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3UW

And on Facebook

Mochi Ice Desserts In Mah Belleh!

If you can't eat dairy and you are missing ice-cream like me, see if you can get hold of some of these little desserts from Thaliand.
I got mine in my local Chinese supermarket Wai Yee Hong (near to Ikea in Bristol) after the lovely lady running the Twitter account recommended them to me :)

They take a bit of getting used to! They've got a squishy outer shell made from glutinous rice, with the 'ice-cream' inside. I've got the coconut flavour and I'm truly addicted. I'll be going back to get the chocolate flavour very soon!

Allergy advice says: contains coconut (tree nut).

You can see more about this and other dairy free products at - www.buonogroup.com

RECIPE Turkey Escalopes with American Style Gravy

Lovely No Egg. Is there nothing it can’t do? Well, I’m not brave enough to try the meringue recipe on the back of the box but!...I have now successfully used it for making breadcrumbs stick to meat!

Here’s my very simple recipe for making turkey escalopes; great with veg and mash, in a bun or sliced up and served with salad. What a lovely lunch idea!

Prepare your dredging station. rice flour in one bowl, around 100g of No Egg mixed with water in a second bowl and fill another with breadcrumbs (I used around 1 slice of Yes! You Can bread per steak and blitzed in the blender along with some herbs and spices and seasoning.)

Take a raw turkey steak and place it between two sheets of cling film. Bash it with a meat tenderizer or rolling pin until it is around 1” thick all over.

Dredge the steaks in the rice flour and shake off the excess. Then dredge in the ‘egg’ and then quickly transfer to the breadcrumbs and coat thoroughly.

Place the steaks into 2-3” of hot oil (or a deep fat fryer). Maintain a moderate heat (sorry I can’t be more specific, we have an electric hob and we had it on number 6!) and cook each steak for around 3 minutes on each side until the steak has cooked all the way through.

To make a quick gravy, put around 100g of dairy free spread (I use Vitalite) in a saucepan and melt over a low heat. Slowly add in around 100g of sieved rice flour, stirring continuously.
Keep stirring until the flour starts to colour. Add half a pint of stock and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season to taste.

Something a bit different from the 'one pot specials' we normally make but sooo good!

Award Winning Beers

Just as the choice and availability of 'free from' food has transformed over the last 6 years, so has the industry's annual awards event, The Free From Food awards. The categories have increased and the number of entries for each categories has increased, but more importantly the quality of products entered has increased to the point where most judges' comments now say "I couldn't tell this was gluten free/dairy free etc".

I was lucky enough to attend the last two events, but had to miss out this year for a family wedding. I did however help judge one of the categories.
I chose the beer category because it would be gluten, dairy and egg free.
At the awards themselves I found the chattiest people around the beer table so I spent most of the evening there. It's not often that you get to try 10-15 different beers so this was a real treat.

In the past, I've not necessarily agreed with the judges choices in the beer category, so I really welcomed this chance to have a go at judging myself!
The judges were from all different backgrounds and I found it interesting to see what the brewers rated compared to the celiacs.
I really enjoyed a lemon beer for example but some dismissed it as 'not a beer at all'.

After much deliberation, a winner was decided and I was very happy with the decision to award Celia Premium Czech Lager with the best barley-based beer award.
I think you'll be seeing a lot of this beer around from now on. Come on restaurants, get buying!

See all of this year's winners here.

RECIPE Mocha Cupcakes

Gluten Free

Vegan

Recipe makes 12 cupcakes

I'm obsessed with the combination of coffee and cake at the moment. My coffee and walnut cake recipe is going to need some tweaking, so in the meantime, why not give this recipe a go? It's surprisingly simple.

Ingredients

For the cake

145g brown sugar

145 dairy free spread

125 gluten free flour

20g cocoa powder

25g dark chocolate, chopped (I use Aldi's 70%)

3 'No Egg' eggs

60ml strong coffee, cooled

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

For the buttercream

55g icing sugar

10g cocoa powder

35g dairy free spread

A splash of the coffee

Method

Cream together the spread and sugar.

Add the 'eggs' and mix in thoroughly.

Sieve in the flour, cocoa powder, xanthan gum and baking powder and mix in.

Add the chocolate.

Mix in 50ml of the coffee (make sure it is chilled or it will melt your chocolate!)

Spoon the mixture into cake cases and bake in a 180c oven for 15 minutes.

For the buttercream, cream together the spread, icing sugar and cocoa powder (sieve first). The mixture should be thick and quite hard to mix. Add a splash of coffee and mix. 

Once the cakes have cooked and then cooled completely, pipe or spread the buttercream onto the top. (I used a plastic syringe to get the effect in the photo!)

You could also make double the mixture and make a layer cake and put the buttercream between the two layers.

Gluten Free Chip Shop Curry

It's been a long time since I've spend a whole evening on one website. Remember the old days when websites were full of amazement and we had longer attention spans?

My sister gave me the link to Titli's Busy Kitchen as I was asking on Facebook about making restaurant style curry at home. I must have watched 20 videos on Titli's website in one sitting. The woman is a genius - but also totally tapped. The Alien pastiche in her calamari video is completely bonkers.

My sister is a big fan of Titli's Chinese curry sauce recipe. This got me thinking - how many people out there are missing curry sauce because they can't have gluten?

The answer to your cravings is just a click away! Titli shows here how you can make the sauce at home. Just substitute plain flour for gluten free flour!

http://titlisbusykitchen.com/archives/chinese-take-away-curry-sauce

You're welcome :D