The Autumn Half-term break is over. The girls and I had a lovely week crafting, pumpkin carving and most importantly baking the Christmas cake, but now they are safely back at school and I can get onto the computer and type without interruption.
Here's a reminder of the ingredients:
510g Currants
225g Raisins
225g Sultanas
120g Dried ('ready to eat') Prunes
120g Glace Cherries
20g of Candied peel OR 60g of Peel and 60g of Crystallised Stem Ginger
Zest of 1 Lemon
280g Gluten free flour (I use 140g of Dove farm Plain White Gluten Free and 140g of Doves Farm Rice flour)
half a level teaspoon of Xanthan gum (unless you are using a flour blend that already contains it)
half a level teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, mixed spice and ground ginger
A pinch of salt
280g of dark soft brown sugar
6 fresh eggs (large)
265g Pure Salted Butter (Don't use 'spreadable butter')
1 tablespoon of Black Treacle
3 tablespoons of Brandy plus more later
3 tablespoons of Cointreau plus more later!
I'm going to break this recipe into two halves, making this cake is going to take a couple of hours plus four and a half hours to cook and you may not be lucky enough to get it all done in one go. Stage 1 can be done the day before and sealed in freezer bags before you get on with Stage 2 the next day.
Stage 1 - It's all in the preparation.
Let's start with the raisins, sultana, currants and prunes. Get a clean washing up bowl and half fill it with cold water, put the dried fruit in and gently give it a swoosh about, this will help to remove the oils used in it's preparation and give you a chance to pick out any less than perfect specimens, in particular look out for stalks that have been left on. If your fruit is particularly oily you may need to strain off the water and repeat the process. I have been known to do the first rinse with the tiniest spot of washing up liquid if the fruit have been very oily or in the days when all the fruit had palm oil on it (it was either that or no cake). When you are happy that you've removed as much oil as possible tip the bowl into a colander in the sink and dry by gently pouring out over a clean tea towel and patting dry or alternatively stick it in the salad spinner.
Now the cake tin. Having selected your tin (9inch round or 8 inch square) you need to cover the outside in a double layer of brown paper. With a square tin put an extra layer on the corners to reduce the risk of burning. My round tin has a double layer base so I don't bother covering that, if yours doesn't you've got some tricky wrapping to do! I secure the paper with the string but you could use staples to hold it together, just be careful later on. Experience has also taught me that if you are careful not to get any mixture on the paper later on then you can use the brown paper case for a couple of years! You also need to make a 'lid' of brown paper to go on later, so turn the tin over and draw around it then cut it out.
It's a little known fact that gluten-free baking likes to stick like glory to the tin, I ALWAYS line the tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper that I've completely smeared in butter/margarine. All this extra padding will help your cake not to get burnt edges. I also cover the brown paper lid in greaseproof so that if it touches the mixture that doesn't stick either. However DON'T grease until baking day - you don't want it going rancid over night.
You are now going to need a large bowl however if you are doing stage one and two on the same day save your very largest bowl for the next bit assuming you don't have two exactly the same size! Use the smaller of your large bowls first, placing into it your washed fruit chopping the prunes into quarters as you go. Chop the cherries and add them, add the lemon zest too and your peel (or mixed peel and stem ginger).
Onto the fruit sift your flour, salt, the spices and half a teaspoon of
xanthum gum if your flour does not contain it. Gently mix until all the
fruit is evenly covered.
If you need to stop here then bag up the fruit into freezer bags and put your cake tin somewhere where the kids wont take the paper to draw on!
Stage 2 - Ready, steady, bake!
Heat your oven to gas mark 1 or 140 C and grease the paper in the tin.
Take your very largest bowl (mine is original Cornish ware inherited from my husband's Granny - I know you are jealous!!) and cream the butter and and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.
In a jug whisk together the eggs and the treacle (top tip on treacle, warm the spoon, wipe the smallest amount of oil across the inside and outside of spoon end and move quick!) then add this mixture slowly to the creamed mixture whisking all the way.
It is traditional at this point to let the kids lick the whisks, two very important points you should note, 1) eject them from the mixer first! 2) this mixture contains raw egg which isn't great for vulnerable people, especially small children or the elderly (I selflessly take the risk for them and lick them myself!!)
Now carefully fold in all the flour and fruit mixture then add one and a half tablespoons of brandy and one and a half tablespoons of Cointreau and stir gently. (My tablespoons here tend to be a bit 'whoops, that was a bit over', it all adds to the individual flavour!) The rest of the alcohol will be used after baking and is not intended to be consumed by the cook just yet!
Pour the mixture carefully into your well prepared tin and place in the middle of a preheated oven at gas mark 2 for a VERY long time.
Now settle down with the kids and watch them lick the mixing bowl and spatulas clean!
After about 2 1/2 hours pop that lid over the top and if you're doing a square cake rotate the tin every half hour from here on. Keep baking until a skewer comes out clean which is ABOUT 4.5 hours however at such low temperatures this timing is VERY flexible and if you have a fan oven you may have to reduce this to 3.5 hours. (If you have the chance turn the fan off and throw an ice cube onto the floor of the oven every time you check the cake to keep the humidity up).
Once your cake has cooled spike the top over with a skewer and evenly pour on another one and a half tablespoons of Brandy and one and a half tablespoons of Cointreau. After this has soaked in remove the cake from the tin, peal off the greaseproof, wrap in a layer of clingfilm and place into an airtight tin or box.
You should 'feed' the cake at least once more with the same amounts of brandy and Cointreau before you ice it. But for now put your feet up and relax, you've earned it!
My daughters and I are getting ready to make the Christmas Cake next week. It is a bit of a mammoth task and frankly it would be much easier to do on my own but I really feel that in our family, or at least the sort family that my husband and I want to build, doing things together as a family is what Christmas is all about. And making the food together is as much "Inclusive Cooking" as eating it together is.
I have such happy memories of being able to help my own mum make our family cake. The smells, the arm aching mixing and the taste of licking the bowl afterwards evoke such strong and happy memories. Obviously I've had to adapt the recipe over the years as we discovered my allergy to nuts and my husband's gluten intolerance, so what I'm sharing with you is not my Mum's family recipe, it's my family recipe. Tried and tested and frankly bloomin' brilliant!
Who is it suitable for?
There are no nuts and no gluten, there is dairy and it does have egg, you could go with an 'egg replacement' powder mix if this is your allergy but this year I will trial a vegan version for you and let you know how I get on. My cake also contains plenty of alcohol (Napoleon brandy and Cointreau, which are both vegan), you could try and make it without but it will be dry, it wont have the same rich flavour and I'm not sure how well it would keep so maybe only make it a week in advance. Sadly if you have a citrus allergy your cake is going to lack some of
the essential flavours, however if you are only mildly allergic it might
be worth investigating whether or not you can tolerate Cointreau, in
which case skip the peel (add a little extra crystallised ginger
instead) decrease the brandy and increase the Cointreau.
This cake contains LOTS of calories and is not suitable for a reducing diet!
I'm splitting the ingredients and method into two different blog posts (and the vegan one, if it works out into a third post) because I know some of you are waiting to get started and this will give you a chance to source your ingredients.
The alcohol
As I explained I use brandy and Cointreau. For me these spirits embody some of the strongest scents of Christmas and I will be using them a lot in other posts before the big day so if you can possibly splash out on both bottles then I promise to help you make good use of them (I'll even volunteer to finish the bottles off for you myself!!) If cost is an issue get one or two Cointreau miniature bottles and a half bottle of brandy. (Oh, OK you can have Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau if you want but it wont have my happy holiday memories attached to it!)
Cointreau is
distilled after adding the orange flavour so it is possible that if you do have a mild citrus allergy then the
chemicals which trigger the sensitivity may be destroyed in the process
but you will have to work this one out VERY carefully, certainly don't
try if you have anaphylaxis.
The eggs and dairy
The freshest eggs work best in this so if you can, buy them only the day before you plan to make the cake. Your heart will be happier and so will the chickens if you buy organic free-range ones. You will also need 250g of salted butter. Do not use spreadable butter (even if you are not allergic to it like me), it's got too many other oils and water in for this recipe. The method I use is easier if the butter and the eggs are at room temperature when you need to use them. It would be possible to switch the eggs for an egg-replacement powder if you needed to avoid them.
The Sugars
You will need 280g of dark soft brown sugar. Please consider getting Fair Trade sugar as the growers themselves get more money helping them to have a better Christmas too.
You will also need 1 tablespoon of black treacle.
The Spices
Always buy the freshest, highest quality spices you can afford for the best aroma. You will need half a level teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, mixed spice and ginger. A little crystallised ginger is optional. I know salt isn't a spice but you will need a pinch and I've no other category to put it in!
The flour
I've tried various gluten free flours, maize flour was too course, potato flour too bitter, rice flour on it's own is a little gritty and it needs the 'grip' of the proprietary blends so I compromise with 140g of Dove farm Plain White Gluten Free and 140g of Doves Farm Rice flour, both of which have the advantage of being organic. (If you want to make this recipe with a plain white wheat flour you should note that gluten free flour does not absorb fat well so I've reduced the amount of butter, to get the same texture with wheat you will need an extra 40g of butter.) Half a level teaspoon of xanthan gum also helps but is not essential.
The Fruit
The zest of 1 lemon, make sure it's has an untreated skin, even the organic ones can have some wax smeared on the outside to make them look shiny and taste awful.
Glace cherries, much glace fruit has wheat in it so you have to be careful. I've chosen Crazy Jacks organic glace because they promise there's no wheat and they're organic. You will need 120g.
Candied peel, again Crazy jacks because they use cane sugar. 120g of peel OR 60g of peel and 60g of crystallised stem ginger. I prefer it with the ginger but my little girls find it a bit strong so I've use all peel for the past couple of years.
120g of dried ('ready to eat') prunes, again I like Crazy Jacks but my
regular supplier isn't stocking them so I've had to turn to the
supermarket own brand.
Currants 510g, raisins 225g and sultanas 225g, by now it wont surprise you that I like Crazy Jacks ones, they are organic but most importantly for me they are not coated in palm oil.
(RANT WARNING!!)
Dried fruit like this has been a right pain for me over many years, so much dried fruit is covered in a horrid sticky layer of palm oil just so it looks nice and shiny and pours easily out of the bag. I can't risk eating anything containing dried vine fruits that has been prepared outside of my home, not cake, not cookies not mince pies, not even muesli because the fruits are nearly always covered in palm oil. If I sound sore about it that's because I am and it's not just for me and the similarly afflicted it's because most if it isn't sustainably sourced, it's made by destroying large areas of jungle that also happens to be orangutans homes. If we want these beautiful primates to survive we need to cut our dependency on this oil. Now pass me a cold flannel and we'll move on.
The currents, raisins and sultanas will all still have some oil on them, (even if it is organic sunflower oil) I find I get much better result if I rinse all three in cool water a couple of times just before I use them. (Top tip to dry them, pop them in the salad spinner, but do it gently!)
Just one more word about all this lovely fruit so I can say a big thank you. Last year I had real problems getting Crazy Jack stuff particularly the currents, my local health food shop were brilliant at trying to get the stuff for me and helped me try to find an alternative. After a long Internet search I found a different brand stocked by place in Brighton. I'd like to thank the staff at both places for the help they gave me last year so that my family cake was ready in time. So here's to Elf Foods and Healthy Supplies.
And finally...
Now you just need to find yourself a very big bowl, an electric whisk, a 9inch round or an 8inch square cake tin, some greaseproof paper, some brown paper and some string, some clingfilm, some baking foil, a large board to mount the cake on and a whole heap of icing!
Part 2 - Getting Sticky!
Here's a family favourite to go on top of our gluten free pasta.
Who can eat it?
Vegetarians and gluten intolerant. It also comes in an egg free version.
Who can't eat it?
Vegans, coeliacs, the dairy intolerant (it might just work with a creamy milk substitute but I suspect it would separate) and those sensitive to the onion family. As there is no specific diet for those with colitis and Crohns or intolerance of yeasts you are going to have to ask these people if it's OK with them, for some it will be, for others it wont and it may depend on how well they are managing at the time.
Ingredients
1 red onion finely sliced
2 tablespoons of oil
either 500g of brown mushrooms or 250g of brown mushrooms and 300g of Quorn pieces
2 table spoons of brandy
2 teaspoons of smoked paprika
1 clove of very finely chopped garlic
1 cup of stock
3 heaped table spoons of creme fraiche
Lots of finely chopped parsley
Chop the mushrooms into sixth or quarters.
Heat the oil in a wok or skillet and gently fry the onion until it starts to loose it's colour (about 2minutes).
Add the mushrooms and continue frying for one minute then add the brandy. I've tried this without brandy or with other spirits, it kind of works with sherry but trust me that it needs brandy or if you can spare it, cognac. Continue to saute the mushrooms and onion for another 6 to 8 minutes.
If you are using Quorn add it now, stir and then add the smoked paprika. Stir the mixture until evenly coated with the paprika then add the garlic and the stock.
Keep the mixture simmering until the fluid has reduced by half (about 10 minutes) then quickly add the creme fraiche (I use half-fat creme in a vain attempt to keep the calories down, but be careful some half fat stuff is thicken with 'cornflour' which may in fact come not from corn but from wheat!)
Bring the whole lot back up to a simmer then serve over your perfectly prepared gluten-free pasta. Give each dish a good sized garnish of parsley.
Quorn contains egg which isn't suitable for all, that why I've given you two versions, just in case. I've said at the beginning that we have it with pasta but I'm sure it would work well with rice, potatoes, millet or quinoa.
My youngest daughter swears she hates mushrooms and thinks that this dish is full of meat, I realise that it's a little deceitful but the rest of us love this dish so we haven't put her right yet, I think plenty of other meat eaters might also make the same mistake!
Anyway, now I've put back on any calories I might have shaken off with that walk earlier it's time to settle down with my other passion, crochet. Night night. xx
I have always been a big pasta fan so when we discovered that my darling husband couldn't eat wheat anymore I was worried how we'd do with out it.
I've tried vegetable substitutes, the uncurled skins of leeks make a really nice lasagna and courgette cut into fine ribbons tastes fine to me and is great for you if you are on a diet but to be honest my family didn't really take to it. (Actually that's an understatement, I think DH called courgette 'devils food' and the kids called it green worms).
Enter 'gluten-free pasta'. It looks like pasta and it tastes like pasta and as long as all you want out of pasta is sheets for lasagna or piped shapes to pour sauce on it is brilliant. Generally regular dried pasta is made just from Durum Wheat Semolina - do not be confused, that is just one ingredient however it is worth noting that the three parts to the name can be used on their own and some manufacturers of processed foods will use the durum or the semolina part to disguise the fact that their product is full of wheat.
Gluten-free pasta is usually made from rice flour and/or maize flour possibly with the addition of an emulsifier.
You can get gluten free pasta in a variety of shapes but the ones on supermarket shelves are usually either large sheets for lasagna or cannelloni, pene (quills) or fusilli (twists), you can even get tri-coloured, however 'fresh' gluten free pasta, egg g-f pasta and stuffed g-f pasta are a very rare find indeed. If you are desperate for fresh, or stuffed you might want to try making your own, search Google if you like or head straight to http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-fresh-pasta/ and scroll down a long way to find her recipe and technique.
Who is it suitable for?
Most people! It's vegetarian and vegan, has no egg (usually) and the ingredients of corn and rice are usually thought of as low allergy foods so it is tollerated by most people. Gluten
free pasta is slightly less calorific than 'regular' (white) dried
pasta but more calorific than wholewheat pasta and generally has less
sugar and fat than either regular or wholewheat pasta. I wouldn't
recommend changing to gluten-free pasta just to lose weight, lets face
it 355kcal per 100g is still pretty calorific, if you have to keep the calories down head straight for the ribboned vegetables. If the g-f pasta has
extra ingredients that might boost the fibre content (for example
psyllium husk) then you should check this is OK before serving anyone
with Crohn's or colitus to check it's not too much for them.
Gluten-free pasta is much more expensive than regular pasta, basically as well as making a tidy profit the companies are trying to claw back the investment they made in research to develop the product (trust me, only a few years back not only was it hard to find this product but it also had a tendency to either fall completely apart or go like leather). It is a great 'inclusive food' as almost everyone can eat it (even if some might have to keep the portion size small) and when it's cooked well most people can't tell the difference anyway. However it doesn't cook quite the same as your regular pasta...
Top tips for cooking gluten free pasta.
- Get a very BIG pan at least one size bigger than you might have used for the same amount of 'regular' pasta.
- Boil as much water in it as you safely can.
- Add your dried gluten-free pasta. Start your stop watch! (Each type of pasta has it's own cooking time, use it as a guide setting your stop-watch to 1minute less).
- Quickly add a little oil and watch it like a hawk.
Do NOT add any salt, salt latches on to the outside of the g-f pasta forming an almost in penetrable barrier to the water stopping the inside going soft and instead turning your pasta into edible leather.
- The moment it starts to boil turn the heat down to maintain a very gentle boil. If you're not cooking on gas you may need to lift the pan off the heat for a moment. Failure to prevent boiling over will result in a glue-like substance spreading quickly across you cooker top and setting like, well like glue really.
- A quarter of the way through your cooking time give it a gentle but thorough stir to stop it sticking together.
- Keep watching it, keep it boiling gently but never let it boil over...
- As soon as your timer goes off test a piece by biting it. It should be slightly 'al dente', do not let your pasta go soft or over cook, g-f pasta is very unforgiving and will just fall to pieces. If it's not ready keep the boil going and check every 30 seconds.
- If you just HAVE to have salty pasta add your salt now and gently stir.
- Drain. As I said g-f pasta is rather unforgiving and does not have the structural integrity of it glutenous brother so if you can drain it in the pan (our pans have deep lids with holes in the sides to allow for this) without tipping it into a colander then so much the better. (Don't bother with rinsing, unless you just want to gently pour freshly boiled water through the colander or sieve.)
- Serve!
Would you like a sauce to go with it?
Believe it or not I've already given you one simple sauce - Simple Lentil Soup! Just reduce the amount of stock from 450ml down to about 75ml and hey presto, Simple Lentil Pasta Sauce! If tomatoes will cause a problem one solution is to grate a few carrots and add some carrot juice or other (tomato free) vegetable juice and use these instead of tinned tomatoes.
Want another one?
Really, really simple pasta sauce.
1 finely chopped onion
A small splodge of oil
1 can of chopped tomatoes
A pinch of dried oregano (cilantro)
Gently fry your onion in the oil (I've said this before but do buy fresh onion and cut your own to reduce the amounts of sulphates you might be sensitive to.)
Add your can of chopped tomatoes and dried oregano and continue to gently simmer for about 10 minutes. (Again to reduce other contaminants as well as stomach irritating sulphates try an organic sulphate free brand like Suma.)
It's really easy to add veg and other flavourings to this sauce, add them to the onions and continue frying until they start to turn soft then add your tomatoes and oregano. A splash of sherry before the toms will make a nice sweet sauce, a splash of red wine will add to the richness (but do keep an eye out for those pesky sulphates and if serving vegans or vegetarians check it is suitable for them too). If you want to add garlic chop it really fine and add it with the tomatoes to preserve the health benefits which frying will remove.
So why is pasta the food of champions? Because my good friend and 'oh-my-god!'-parent to my girls eats it when carb-loading before a big cycle race and to quote my eldest daughter,
"Aunty Ca-waul always wins doesn't she Mummy?!"
Yes she does (nearly). Aunty C hasn't yet developed a gluten intolerance but if she did she wouldn't be out of place, lots of athletes are finding that by cutting gluten out of their diet they actually perform better. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray are both now reported to be following gluten free diets, the Garmin-Transitions pro-cycling team apparently did the Tour de France on a gluten free diet and a number of gold medal winning Olympians including American swimmer Dana Vollmer were also gluten free. Maybe my girls will be medal winning gymnasts or swimmers too one day? And if they are then I know a gluten free diet wont be a change or a challenge for them.
Off now for a healthy 'championship' walk around the block! xx
"Excuse me but someone told me you used to be vegan. Can you tell me what to put in vegan sandwiches because I've got some coming to tea"
This has not happened to me just once you understand, somehow the word got out and now I have people that I never talked to before stopping me in the school play-ground to ask me this. Strangely the vegan in question is very often the same lady and she used to run the most brilliant fast-food veggie restaurants that I have ever been to. No pressure then.
What do you need to know about the vegan diet?
Veganism is a way of living entirely on the products of plants (and for many that extends beyond food and drink). So meat, fish, shell fish, dairy (from any animal), eggs and honey are all out of the picture. Once upon a time it also excluded refined sugar because the act of refining used to involve the burning of animal bones but these days it's not usually the case however many vegans have adopted veganism as a positive health choice and may not want to eat lots of sugar anyway. Vegans never eat Quorn because it contains egg.
Other ingredients often hidden in store bought food that are not vegan include: lactose, whey, ghee, Vitamin D3 (and if it just says Vitamin D assume it is D3), shellac (E904), gelatine, L-Cysteine (E920), casein, butterfat or milk, Beeswax (E901) and beware anything that says 'omega 3 enriched' as this may be fish oil.
Vegans do not need 'feeding up' or special vitamins, it is perfectly possible to live a healthy lifestyle even as a small child provided the diet is well constructed. It is true that iron and vitamin B12 can be low on a vegan diet but this is easily remedied with iron cooking pots and plenty of yeast extract or fortified plant milk.
So what will you have in your sandwiches?
Lets start with the bread.
Most bread is suitable for vegans but it's worth looking at the ingredients to check that there is no milk, butter, lactose or egg added to it. Of course 'normal' bread is off the menu if you are not eating wheat or gluten and here is where it get's complicated.
Gluten free bread has come a long way in the last 20 years, hell it's come a long way in the last 2 years! It is no longer the stuff that was so 'doinky' it bared more resemblance to a large bathroom sponge than a loaf of bread (and if doinky is not a real word then it should be). No, gluten free bread is so bread-like these days that it could pretty much pass for 'normal' bread but this has come at a price. First it is often highly calorific, high in fat and frequently high in sugar and salt too. But more noticabley for the vegans amongst us it now contains egg as well as dairy. If your bread also has to be nut free you should be OK but if it has to
be yeast free you may as well give up and make your own or opt not to
have sandwiches and switch to something else all together. Check your bread very carefully, you may not find what you are after on a supermarket shelf and be prepared that you may either have to buy a mix to make, buy crackers or buy the original 'doinky' type of g-f bread.
The yellow stuff
I love plain butter (that spreadable stuff nearly always has palm oil in which will make me very poorly) and that is fine for a vegetarian but clearly butter is not an option for vegans. You can get pure sunflower or soya 'margarine' but to be honest even the ones you might think will be pure often have coconut or palm in. Frankly if this is not something you are going to eat frequently yourself save some money and skip the spread, a tastey moist filling will more than make up for it.
Stuck in the middle
Easy-peasy fillings
- Jam.
- Yeast extract (beware the celery often added to this if you are allergic).
- Peanut butter and jelly - I know, I know, peanuts are a big no-no for those with allergies but if no-one around your table has this allergy then this is a classic, just check the ingredients on the jar first.
- Any salad - lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc.
From the shops
- Hummus (do check ingredients).
- Miso spread.
- Vegan pate - often available from your local friendly healthfood shop.
- Soya cheese and pickles.
Easy and home made
- Grated carrot and apple.
- Grated carrot with raisins and sunflower seeds.
- Mashed banana - add a tiny drip of lemon juice to stop it going brown.
- Mashed avocado - sometimes nice to add a little vegan salad dressing or add some mashed pear.
- Mashed roasted pumpkin or squash
- Minced dates, raisins or prunes added to some finely chopped sunflower seeds.
- Nut butter or seed butter - now easily available on the high street, I love ones made with sunflower seeds.
For the more adventurous
- Home made hummus.
- Mashed beans - it is possible to do this with almost any bean but I've always liked draining a can of baked beans of juice and blitzing them in a coffee grinder. Add a little salad dressing to other beans to make them more moist.
- Scrambled tofu - chop a little onion and garlic, fry gently, add a little yeast extract then add your crumbled tofu and fry until it goes brown.
- Aubergine pate - rub an aubergine with oil and wrap in greaseproof paper, bake at gm4/180C for about 30 minutes, scape out the pulp and mash well, add 1/2 a grated onion (you may want to do all this in a food processor), a pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt and the juice of half a lemon. This also tastes nice with added 'curry flavour' try adding some fresh green chilli (minced) 1 clove of crushed garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of crushed cumin seeds.
All of these will work as well for an open sandwich on a cracker as they will on bread.
There's more?
Of course there is much more to 'tea' than just sandwiches! I'm hoping you wont need help selecting a soft drink (avoid drinks sweetened with honey) but if you want something a little stronger gin, vodka, Scotch, whiskey and brandy are (unless flavoured) always vegan. If it's beer you are after I suggest you check CAMRA's excellent list www.camra.org.uk/veganbeers and for wines check www.veggiewines.co.uk/wine.htm . If you are wondering what it is in alcohol that makes it non-vegan I can tell you it's the stuff they use to make it go clear, its usually isinglass, an extract from the swim bladder of the sturgeon fish.
For desert just go with fruit or soya deserts from your local supermarket but you might want to try some cake....I'm working on that for the next post!
For more information on veganism the vegan society is a great place to start www.vegansociety.com/
I love this dish, it's my regular 'go to' dish when I have any vegans or coeliacs coming. It's delicious, and very easy to cook. Furthermore it's quite quick make and only uses one pan both of which are a bonus when you have guests you want to spend time with.
Who can eat it?
A lot of people! It's friendly to vegans, vegetarians, diabetics and coeliacs, it contains no egg, nuts or gluten (if you are careful with your stock). Rice is a universal low allergy food and it's rare (but not impossible!) to find anyone who is allergic to it however do be careful with the tomatoes as people can be allergic to those (though often not when skinned and cooked) and leeks are an allium so have to be avoided by anyone sensitive to onion. If there is an allergy to celery be careful on your choice of stock. Finally those who need a low fibre diet may find it a little hard to handle, swapping to white rice may help (if in doubt, ask!)
Pans at the ready!
For about 4 portions you will need:
350g of leeks
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 medium tomatoes
225g 'easy cook' brown rice
500ml of gluten free vegetable stock or water
Trim the leeks taking off the base and the tough leaves at the top. Slit them length ways down the middle and give them a good wash then slice width ways into sections about 1cm across. (Or trim them, slice them then wash them, it's up to you!)
Heat the olive oil in the pan (I like to use my wok) and add the leeks. Cook gently (we don't want any burning!) for about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add the rice and fry for another minute while stirring. I use 'easy cook brown rice' because it means that the final stage only needs 20 minutes, 'regular' brown rice tends to take about 45minutes to cook and will require more stock, about 600mls instead of 500mls.
Next add the tomatoes. Ideally you will have skinned and quartered these but frankly I have better things to do with my time so I either quarter and stick them in as they are OR I use 2 beefsteak tomatoes, cut each in half and starting with the flat side, grate them into the mixture. If you are careful the flesh will all come away and you will be left holding the skin of the tomato (and if you are really lucky you wont have taken off your skin either!)
Now add the stock. It's better to go for vegan stock if you can then you know that there wont be any hidden milk or egg products for either the vegans or coeliacs or anyone else allergic to that stuff. (Watch out for gluten and that sneaky veg celery which could be in either of these options and if that is a problem you may have to make the stock from first principles.) If you can't get any then plain water will work OK but you may want to add extra salt and pepper at the end.
Now bring the pan to a simmer, stick a lid on it and leave until the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked.
Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Ringing the changes
If
you have romantic memories of a bright yellow paella from a restaurant
or even from a holiday in Spain (it's considered to be a traditional
Spanish dish) then you might be interested to know that this is often achieved by adding a good portion of artificial colouring - not something I'd like to suggest you serve to someone with a sensitive tummy or a small child! However if you really like that bright yellow look then swap the stock for boiling water and soak a pinch or two of saffron strands in it for a couple of minutes before adding it too the pan. Alternatively add half a teaspoon of turmeric when you add the rice. To be honest I don't think either add much to the taste or do very much for the colour of the leeks and not everyone can tolerate them either and that's why I've always left them out of the main recipe.
Sometimes I like to substitute the rice in the dish for Quinoa. Quinoa is a seed not a grain and is also low allergy but unlike rice it is a 'complete' food meaning that it contains all the essential amino acids and can pretty much be considered to be a protein. It also has a lower glycemic index than rice which makes it more suitable for diabetics and it's lower in calories though proportionally it does contain more fat than rice. If you want to do this keep the amount of quinoa the same as the rice (100g) but before you add it to the pan measure it's volume in a jug then adjust your stock to twice the volume of the quinoa.
If it wont cause a problem for anyone at the table I like to add a splash of pale sherry at the end of frying the leeks. (I'll add sherry to any dish but it's not strictly vegan and others may just prefer you leave it out).
I do like this dish when it has added mushroom or butterbeans in. Just add roughly chopped mushroom at the same time as the leeks. For the beans add drained canned beans with the tomato.
You can increase the creaminess and the protein in this dish by stirring in tahini.
Garnish -
Apparently it tastes nice with a garnish of flaked almonds, I wouldn't know being allergic to them, I use sunflower seeds instead.
Watercress or a little parsley looks lovely and tastes nice.
My littlest girl likes it with a sliced boiled egg on top but obviously that's not suitable for everyone.
I like a good strong vegetarian cheddar grated over the top (though clearly that's not vegan or coeliac friendly)
Believe it or not 'long life' ready grated 'parmesan' is available in the supermarkets and it doesn't actually contain any animal products (hate to think what it does contain though!)
And finally why not try a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of chilli flakes?
So there you go, one nice quick and easy recipe for the weekend! xx
In the dim and distant past the British relied upon one simple meal - meat, potatoes and two veg. It is a remarkably sound principle even today, even for a vegetarian.
It's especially good when you are Inclusive Cooking because you have to start with some very basic ingredients so there is much less chance for an untoward ingredient to slip in under the radar!
Let's start with the meat!
Or not. Let's face it, I'm a veggie, I hope that anyone who comes to my house is going to understand that any dish I cook is simply not going to have meat in, but I know there will be people reading this who are confirmed meat eaters and so is everyone at their table and I don't want to leave you out. (Whisper it, but there have even been occasions where I have served meat and two veg with (brace yourself) MEAT (and a vegetarian alternative) and that's the sort of adaptability this meal gives you.)
So what do I know about meat? Not a lot but I know a man who does - my local butcher. Butchers can be a helpful bunch, tell them your needs and he or she can normally sort you out a cut of meat that will fit your requirements, not only that they will tell you how to cook it too. (Do take a pencil and paper and keep a note so you don't have to call them back!)
If you don't have a lovely local butcher then I guess you will head for the supermarket but beware of the pre-packaged meats, I'm not saying never buy them I'm just saying beware of the added ingredients ESPECIALLY on the pre-cooked meats. They might have butter or oil in there to improve the look or the taste (?) or they might have flour to stop the pieces sticking together. Read the ingredients carefully and assume nothing!
Veg with your vegetables?
So what if you don't want to have meat, what are the alternatives? The best way to avoid an allergic reaction is not to buy pre-prepared foods but home cook instead, so here's my suggestion of a few simple homemade alternatives to meat:
- Omelette (if egg is allowed) and if you are adding more veg is infinitely variable. If egg is not allowed a passable vegan omelette can be, here's an example http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/09/vegan-omelette-for-one.html
- Large
flat mushrooms coated in a little oil and oven baked are lovely.
Sprinkle over a little chopped parsley when they are done.
- Bean purees are easy to make using canned beans and a food processor.
- Grilled polenta with added spices can be lovely.
- Grilled
halumi cheese is also nice unless you are vegan or have an allergy to
dairy; it also works great on the BBQ if brushed with a little oil (but
keep it away from the meat!)
- Lentils in various forms are easy
(boil red split lentils in the same way as you did for the soup in the
previous post, I'll share my recipe for lentil loaf soon.)
- Life is too short to stuff a tomato and stuffed peppers I find dull but there are plenty of recipes for this on the Internet.
There is soooooooo much you can easily do, so the above should not be considered an exhaustive list just the tip of the iceberg!
If you want to buy something pre-prepared then look for a meat substitute, something that is meant to look, even taste like meat while not being meat. In the UK Quorn is a brilliant example of this. Quorn have carefully reproduced the taste (ish) and texture (also 'ish') of most mainstream meat, a walk down your supermarket frozen or refrigerated isles should confirm this. To be honest despite my initial misgivings I like Quorn and I use it a lot but many of the products have gluten traces in (barley malt extract appears to be in all the 'brown' products) and it is not vegan because it contains egg. Also Quorn themselves suggest that you should not be giving their product to children under 2, they don't say why but I suspect it just doesn't contain enough essential fatty acids for their growing bodies.
If Quorn is not an option for you have a look along the rest of the frozen isle, there just might be something there you can use (chances are it will also be labelled 'organic'). Vegetable cutlets, burgers and sausages are all options. Try a trip to your local 'Health-food' store; they usually have banks of freezers containing various vegetarian and vegan delights which are easy to cook. (If this is not something you buy often it may be worth talking to the staff to see if they can recommend anything.)
If you are buying something pre-prepared read the label carefully, really carefully. My biggest pitfalls are 'vegetable oil' which can mean anything and 'vegetable fat' which is almost always palm and a big problem for me. Also in the UK cornflour doesn't have to be made from corn, it is often made from wheat, oats also contain gluten so need avoiding too. Milk products too can be easily hidden away (usually as lactose). If you are not sure leave them alone and go for the home-cooked option.
Potatoes
Boiled, steamed, baked, roasted, fried or chipped. They are all options. Sometimes you will need to remove the skins (some oral allergy people do react to them, plus those who need high energy, low fibre meals) other times you can leave them on (I prefer the flavour). But do buy fresh, keep them in the dark and either wash or peel well.
Alternatives for potato if you want to keep the carbohydrates up include plain rice, pasta or baked sweet-potato and if you'd rather reduce the carbs try well mashed cauliflower (I'm not kidding, it's a great alternative to 'regular' mash) or turnip and celeriac mash.
And the vegetables?
("Oh they'll have the same as me" - No one under 30 is going to get that)
While there are some notable exceptions (for example celery) most veg once peeled and cooked will be suitable for most people. Carrots, parsnips, swede (Swedish turnip), peas, cabbage, beetroot, turnip, celeriac even pumpkin or butternut squash should all be considered. I use sweetcorn and broccoli a lot but these can cause problems for a few food sensitive people, as can some green beans. If it's for a guest ask them which vegetables they use at home and try to stick to ones close to those.
I like to steam my vegetables on the hob. It uses less energy so I've been told, plus it has the handy advantage of producing a reasonable vegetable stock as a by-product. (When you've turned off the heat and removed the veg add some salt, pepper, a bay leaf and if possible some roughly chopped celery to infuse their flavour while the liquid cools.) But you could boil (though that might lose some nutrition) or microwave, just make sure it all gets piping hot.
If you are serving toddlers, big sticks of vegetables can work well (I
love watching it ooze between their fingers when they give it a good
squeeze). On the other hand if you (or someone at your table) has
Crohn's Disease, Colitis or just needs to be able to get to the
calories more easily you might want to consider turning the veg into
mash or puree. Even better roast the veg then puree it! (Yummy)
Gravy
This meal can be served without gravy but for many people it's a must. There are lots of vegan/vegetarian gravy mixes out there, there are even some that are low salt and gluten free and most of them are, in my opinion hopeless. Some are not just bad they are unbelievably AWFUL. If you don't think so stick a link in the comments below to one you can trust. The only one I am prepared to give a link to here is Free & Easy, which is easy to make, easy to get (all the big supermarkets say they stock it) and has a good flavour.
If you want to make some yourself then take two heaped teaspoons of cornstarch (not regular cornflour which in the UK usually contains wheat) add a small amount of water and mix to a thin paste. Add your gluten free vegetable stock (I use Knorr) and a heat until it thickens. If it really has to be brown add some vegan Worcestershire sauce. (The links are just to help you indentify products you can use they are not 'endorsed' or sponsored.)
Conclusions
What I like about this meal is the flexibility it provides, even with the most allergic. By sticking to fresh veg that you have cooked yourself and a very simple meat or alternative you will be able to find a single meal that suits EVERYBODY without having to give different people different dishes. It's just so 'inclusive'.
And what I LOVE about this meal is that if you are prepared to try lots of different vegetables prepared in plenty of different ways you can have it every day for a year and never have exactly the same meal twice.
I hope you like it as much as me. xx
