A poisoned chalice?

I have had quite a few discussions in the last few weeks with various people about gluten free products in mainstream establishments and the apparent acceptance of requiring a gluten free meal when I go out to eat. Initially I’m in total agreement. I was diagnosed as a coeliac nearly twenty years ago and have seen massive changes in the quality and availability of gluten free food. However, has this meant that eating out and buying food on the run has become easier? Sadly, the definitive answer is ‘not really’.

As I write this, I’m sitting in a car park waiting for my son to finish a music workshop having raced from London to Cheltenham. I’m quite a few miles from home and have been for two days due to a friend’s party, which is taking place back in London. So, the situation is quite unique, but very telling in terms of the acceptance of my diet.

Firstly, I had to check with the hotel in London where we stayed that the breakfast I had paid for included a gluten free option. I had a bizarre conversation with a member of staff at the hotel, where she was able to tell me what items were wheat free on the menu, but not gluten free. I did get a tad pious and informed her that since December 2014, she was legally obliged to know which of the 14 allergens were in the food they were serving and that gluten was one of them! So with a proverbial flea in her ear, she finally found out the information and then said that special gluten free bread would be purchased for me.

Herein lies the first of the difficulties. I applaud totally the opening up of the gluten free market – in fact for the last ten years I have made my income from exactly that, however, there is such a raft of mixed information on gluten free. I can’t tolerate oats or wheat starch in any form at all. The other factor is that some supermarket bread upsets my tummy – not sure why, but they don’t agree with me. So what do I do? Do I present all these various dietary caveats every time I want to stay somewhere or eat out? I know that they would have either sent someone to the supermarket to buy a loaf; or ordered a long life loaf from their preferred foodservice supplier. Would I have the courage to say “Oh and by the way, please don’t pick up blah blahs bread and please make sure you don’t buy something with oats in and also can you please make sure it’s wheat free.” Now I’m beginning to sound like the client from Hell. I don’t actually know the answer to that rhetorical question, but being the “Please don’t fuss” sort of person, I don’t say anything and hope for the best!

I don’t think that I’m particularly unique in ‘no oats or wheat’ either, so when did the use of wheat and oats in gluten free food become so widespread that it’s made things very complicated for people like me. It’s the same when one eats out. Do you say I’m gluten free, but can you make sure blah blah blah. It just sort of further compounds the impression that we are faddy eaters…..and this is really where this blog is going in a roundabout sort of way

The second issue I am facing is that today I had no way of preparing my lunch, so what do I eat on the go….as it happens Cheltenham has four major supermarkets that I found after embarking on a mission to find a Costa where I can sit and drink my daily rocket fuel. I’ve been into each one to check out what’s on offer. I ignored all the ‘fresh’ bread - (the fresh bit is the basis for a whole dissertation – let alone a blog!). I am so spoilt making bread of my own, that I cannot physically bring myself to eat the stuff in supermarkets. They’re not so bad toasted, but I can’t get past the ‘pappiness’ (a new made up adjective!) and the lack of bite and chew in the bread. So I opted for crackers in Asda with cheese, then found a Waitrose, so bought falafels and tzatziki as well. Do you think ‘normal’ people struggle like this or am I just way too fussy?

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I’m so glad that I can pick up something – it may not be completely to my taste, but it’s a lot easier than it was five years ago, let alone twenty. However, this in itself leads to so many more problems. The first is that in order to make money the offering has to be a ‘catch all’ – hence the wheat/oat issue. The second is that like all products in supermarkets the free from range has to earn its keep and due to the low stock turnover, the products have to last at least seven to ten days. Herein lies my confusion with the term ‘fresh’ bread. If my bread was left out in ambient conditions for more than four days, it wouldn’t be very edible. Providing it was cool enough, it may not be mouldy, but it certainly would need toasting to eat it. So what fresh product lasts that long?

The other problem I have faced is eating out. I often read on various message boards how fantastic Nandos is for gluten free. Over fifteen years ago I was distinctly put off the chain by being served coffee with a very dirty spoon and that has led to my reluctance to try the food. However, we decided to bite the bullet and try it on Saturday evening. I checked with the server at the counter in a thick book what could be gluten free – as much as I appreciate the thoroughness of this method, I do find it very frustrating to have to go through pages and pages of allergens – why the menu options can’t be collated like other restaurants I do not know.

Anyway, it turns out that all the chicken, the chips and the rice are all gluten free. Doing a whoop whoop, I went ahead and ordered two platters of chicken – one spicy for me and my husband and one plain in case it was too spicy for the kids. As there was an approximate wait of 45 minutes, I also ordered a starter of garlic bread for the kids to keep them going. The garlic bread arrived and was consumed greedily whilst I gulped my wine.

When the platter came (to be fair in about thirty minutes, which was fine) it came with two pieces of garlic bread plonked on top of the spicy chicken platter, thus contaminating the chicken and fries. I called the waiter over and explained that a) we’d already had our garlic bread, and b) I had informed the server that I was a coeliac and that I required the meal to be gluten free and it now obviously wasn’t. The waiter called over the manager and he offered to re-cook my meal for me. Apparently what had happened was that the server had duly taken note of my gluten free meal, but he just failed to inform the kitchen.

So here’s my problem with the whole opening up of the gluten free market…..there’s still too much room for error. What I don’t understand about the whole thing is that if it were a vegetarian meal, then the whole process would be vegetarian from start to finish. So, for example, if I ordered some vegetable risotto (labelled as such), I would not expect to find chunks of ham in it, or a slab of steak on top, because the person who took my order had failed to tell the kitchen that I was a vegetarian. Being gluten free is the same principle…..if you say an item on the menu is gluten free, then it should always be so – no digression at all. It is gluten free from taking the order to serving it. That would save so much hassle, discussions and fundamentally adds to an establishment’s customer service credentials.

Sadly, I can’t imagine going back. Eating out for me is supposed to be enjoyable and yet it almost always seems to be a hassle? The big question is why is it always so hard? If you decide to serve a dish and you purport it to be something, then surely the easiest way to ensure it is, is to have procedures in place that don’t vary and ALL your staff know what those procedures are. Not wishing to harp back to the vegetarian example, but no-one (I hope!!!) would dream of serving a veggie meal with a side order of meat.....

Allergic to shellfish?

I decided not to rely on the tardiness of our Tae Kwon-Do club's Instructor to organise the Christmas do this year as we ended up in a 'last minute' venue last year.  I therefore took it upon myself to sort out the event.  As it happens it's quite late to arrange Christmas Dos in October - who knew?!

The consensus of opinion was to go to a national restaurant chain with an Italian theme locally and then onto various watering holes.  They can fit 25 of us in at the beginning of December with a set menu.  Ideal.  I provisionally booked.  It wasn't until later that I thought about myself and what I could eat, so then looked up the menu on line.

I don't know why this particular chain thinks this is a good idea - I thought we were really making progress in providing relevant information - but in order to find out which menu items are suitable for coeliacs, I had to send an email (in the 21st century?) to a "Guest Relations" person, requesting the allergen information.  Now I'm sorry, but that is about 40 steps backwards from where we were two years' ago.  What if I wanted to eat then and there with a hungry child?  How ridiculous is that?

However, what makes me more mad......and sad really.....is the set menu choice, and I quote.......

"I can confirm the following dishes from our Christmas Set Menu which are gluten and wheat free are the King Prawn starter without Ciabatta Bread and the King Prawn Risotto."

Inspiring? Not very.  As it happens I am mildly allergic to shellfish.....I come up in an attractive red blotchy rash, but in small amounts I can eat them.  Even without this, I'm not sure I would fancy king prawns for a starter (without the bread - I eat carbs too you know!) and then king prawns for main.  This has to be the 'epic fail' Christmas Menu of the year.

To be fair to the company, I can eat off the Classic Menu, which means that I don't receive the Christmas Set Menu discount, but that's not really the point.  In what chef's kitchen, did they decide that the only set menu items that would be gluten free would be king prawn starter and a king prawn main? Even if one of the dishes were without prawns, that would be a little more adventurous.

The upshot of this is that it further convinces me the need for the KISS Campaign.  We need to inspire companies to cater for us.  It's not that hard to do and it makes eating out so much more pleasurable and less stressful.  Despite that I know I will have a good time out - but as usual, will probably eat before I go.......just in case......


This week's recipe is "Winter spiced fruit with a hot meringue topping".   For further information about our KISS Campaign, this recipe and others, please see www.glutenfreetraining.co.uk

Winter spiced fruit with a meringue topping

Droppa & Droppa’s KISS campaign – Keep It Simple & Safe

As Christmas draws closer, so the festivities begin.  This is, however, generally a coeliac’s worst nightmare.  I‘ve been to many a Christmas do in my working life and it’s fair to say that, at the majority of places I have been poorly catered for.  In fact it may shock a lot of people to know that I’m not the only coeliac who eats before they go out to eat…..just in case there is nothing for me when I get there. 

As a manufacturer of food, I totally understand how difficult it is to cater for special diets when you have to serve over 200 covers at once.  Fear not, I have a cunning plan.  I have produced some gluten, wheat and dairy free alternative recipes for caterers.  All the dishes are ‘naturally’ gluten free and use regular kitchen ingredients, so there is no reason why these dishes (or similar ones) shouldn’t be on the menu for all diners.  They are not intended to be followed to the letter – more inspirational than anything else.

So, my campaign is going out to as many caterers as possible.  Wouldn’t it be amazing to eat from a menu, where some of the items are gluten free anyway.  The kitchen doesn’t have to prepare anything special for you, you won’t feel like a social pariah and be made to feel different, but you can eat out safely.

Please let as many people know about the KISS Campaign as you can and then hopefully we’ll really start to make a difference.  The first recipe – two ways with rostis is already up on www.glutenfreetraining.co.uk//Pages/Recipes.html.

If you have any recipes that you feel would work in any kitchen, feel free to email them to me and I will test them out and post them on my website.  I’m after recipes that use normal kitchen ingredients, no fancy flours that are costly and hard to source.  We really want kitchens to buy into this, not make their lives more difficult and this can only be achieved by making it as easy as possible.

Christmas kisses to one and all.

Still getting it wrong......

We were out in town after school with our daughter the other day and decided to treat her to a meal at one of her favourite restaurants.  She’s eleven years old and, if she had her way, her diet would consist entirely of junk food and ice cream.  Anyway, she decided she wanted to eat at a well-known pizza chain (more for the availability of said ice cream and a variety of toppings!)  Groaning internally we agreed…..

Now don’t get me wrong, I, like others, welcome the fact that these big chains now provide gluten free pizzas so that I can feel ‘normal’ when eating out, but I just don’t like eating that kind of factory made, processed food and I particularly don’t like it for my children.  Unfortunately, my previous arguments of “mummy can’t eat there, so let’s go to X restaurant instead, don’t stand up anymore!”  I should have known better than to offer her the decision making responsibility, but hey ho…… So, off we toddled.

Having eaten in this establishment a couple of times in the last few months, I know that some of the toppings aren’t gluten free – or rather should I say were “made in a factory blah blah blah.”  So, when our waiter came over, I asked him to check the toppings that are gluten free.  “All of them” he said with confidence.  “Can you please check,” I said as I’m sure not all of them are….”

He duly went off to the Manager and came back brimming with even more confidence and said “I’ve just checked with my Manager and definitely all of the toppings are gluten free.”  This is when it gets awkward.  I know that’s not quite true, yet I don’t want to appear as if I’m being difficult, but I know he’s wrong.  At this point he tells me he’s only just started, which is absolutely fine - we all have to start at some point!  So what do I do?……husband to the rescue….!  It’s so much easier to be more assertive when it’s for someone else.  “Please can you check your ‘book’ as I know you have a full ingredients list with allergens?”

So off goes the new guy again and I turn around to see him and the manager discussing the matter at length.  Again he comes back and confirms that all toppings are gluten free.  The Manager still has the ‘book’ in his hand, so being very brave I get up and say “I’m really not being difficult, but it is very important as I don’t want to be ill.”  And I check the ‘book’ with him.  Lo and behold there is a contamination risk associated with the ham topping.  I point that out to the Manager and waiter and explain that the risk is too high and I would prefer not to have something with ham on (shame as I was going to order a Hawaiian pizza!)

As it happens, I had a Cajun chicken.  Sadly, I still had a dodgy tummy when I got home and two days later I was still feeling a little icky.  I get very tired, short tempered and experience an overall feeling of lethargy when I’ve been exposed to gluten.  Now therein lies the dilemma - deprive child from stuffing her face with pizza and ice cream for my sake; or just put up with it and make it my mission to try to train these establishments, so that they do not keep making the same basic mistakes……resolutely, I choose the latter.

New and temporary staff will always come and go, but the rules and regulations that surround the delivery of allergen information - is here to stay.  Appropriate training materials and systems are essential to keep your staff up to speed, keep the business compliant and above all your customers happy.

Apple 'Brumble'

As part of our gluten free training for caterers, we intend to provide some simple recipes that even the busiest of kitchens can produce, using ingredients that are to hand in most kitchens.

Please watch the video below and follow the recipe. 

Crumbles are extremely cost effective in two ways.  Firstly, this particular recipe allows you to make use of any stale bread in your larder (thus reducing waste); and secondly, seasonal fruits are cheap, in plentiful supply and should be at their best.  As with the Yorkshire Puddings (see an earlier Blog) the following recipe is very easy to make and all the ingredients can be easily sourced.

A crumble is best served hot.  Why not finish it with a generous helping of custard; a healthy dollop of cream; or a scoop or two of ice cream - there are dairy free alternatives available from most supermarkets.

The topping is quite sweet, so it doesn’t harm to use slightly tart / sharp fruits to give an excellent contrast to the dish.

The picture above shows an oval-shaped oven-proof dish measuring 11” x 7” and is enough to feed approximately four to six people.

GLUTEN FREE, WHEAT FREE & DAIRY FREE

Eight eating apples (or four cooking and four eating) or any seasonal fruit

125g golden granulated sugar

125g dairy free spread

125g golden syrup

250g fresh gluten & wheat free breadcrumbs

50g of nuts of your own choosing (35g ground and 15g larger chunks for added texture)

BE SURE TO CHECK – Nuts are inherently gluten free.  Processing can result in cross contamination, so check any labelling carefully to ensure there is no gluten present.

Butter can be substituted for the dairy free spread where appropriate.

                                                                                                                                           

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves / makes: 4-6 portions

1.  Peel and core the apples.  Dice half the quantity of apples (or all of the cooking apples) and gently heat them in a saucepan with a little water.  Cook them until they are soft.  Dice the remaining eating apples into larger chunks and set aside in a bowl of water.

2.  Place the sugar, dairy free spread and golden syrup into a separate saucepan and once again heat slowly until all the contents have dissolved/melted.

3.  Once melted, stir into your breadcrumbs and nuts mixing thoroughly.

4.  Grease your oven-proof dish.  Drain your diced (non-cooked apples) and put them into the dish followed by the cooked apples.  Then pour the topping over and smooth down until you have an even covering.

5.  Place the dish in the middle of the oven for approximately 30 – 40 minutes.  Cook until golden brown.  Serve hot.

Saw it ...... nailed it!

Last week was my little girl's birthday.  As is the want of an eleven year old, she wanted a special cake, however she actually doesn't like cake (who doesn't like cake?  Must be from her father's side!), but she wants a party tea with a few friends and a pinata. Now call me a grumpy old woman, but over the last twelve years of having kids I have been to many a party with a pinata.  Sugar fueled hooligans bash the life out of a pink and purple donkey stuffed with more sugar.  Inevitably someone has been hit accidentally with the stick and moreover the thing never breaks, so dads step in and bash the life out of this poor thing causing all the sweets to scatter everywhere and children then push and shove each other out of the way to grab what they can. Utter carnage!

So in the interest of public safety, I decide against the pinata, but remembered the front cover of an Asda magazine recently.......hey presto all problems solved.

The inspirational picture on the front of the magazine can be seen here: http://issuu.com/asdamagazine/docs/asda_july_2014compressed.  The cake consists of coloured layers of sponge with a hole cut out of the centre and filled with sweets.  What a cool idea. 

So I toddled off to the shops to get some food colouring.  Got home after popping to Morrison's, as I had to pick up other stuff from there, only to read the back of the colouring to find that theirs "may contain gluten, wheat, shellfish, dairy etc".  Why?

Anyway, so I went to Asda (completely in the other direction) and picked up their natural food colouring.  I decided on orange, red and blue.  There wasn't any yellow, but I figured normal sponge would do.

The big day comes when I decide to make this cake.  I made up a double normal sponge mix and quartered it.  I then added orange to one quarter - not a bad orange colour (although I used more colouring than the recipe recommended).  I then mixed up the blue.  We now have a grey insipid looking sponge.  In the vain hope that it will cook up with more vibrance, I put it in the oven anyway.  The red looked more purple than red and I once again decided the colour may take more when cooked.  The big risk was that if I added even more colouring it would not only change the consistency of the cake, but also taste foul.

So, after cooking and cooling, we now have one plain layer, one orange, one grey and one grey/purple.  Not quite the look I was going for.  I cut the middle out of two of the layers, smothered butter cream over the layers so that they would stick together and filled with lots of sweets.  I topped it with the plain layer and then iced it with butter cream (I never professed to be a cake decorator!) and stuck loads of sprinkles, wafer flowers and gummy bears on the outside.

Although it wasn't quite the look I was aiming for, she was still absolutely bowled over by it and her mates thought it was the coolest thing ever...............not sure the parents thanked me for the sugar rush though!

The 'rise' of bread mixes

Pardon the pun but I just couldn't resist!

As you can imagine as a manufacturer we buy in our flours, nuts, seeds etc. from a couple of wholesalers.  I had to suppress a wry smile the other day when our sales representative from one of these companies was a bit put out that we didn't attend a 'gluten free' day at his premises.  The purpose of the day was to sell gluten free bread mixes to bakeries - the fact that we are specifically a gluten free bakery must have missed him.  He didn't quite get the point that we make everything from scratch and that we don't use mixes, but never mind.

Anyway that got me thinking about what follow-up is there re: these gluten free mixes?  If a wholesaler is marketing these mixes to 'normal' bakeries with a view to producing gluten free products, where's the education in making these products in a gluten free environment?  Do the bakeries concerned even know that they can't call the fruits of their labour gluten free without sending the products off to be tested for levels of gluten; or at least batch testing internally? 

I can only imagine the amount of flour that is flying around in a non-gluten free bakery.  We have traces of gluten free flour that cover every work surface literally minutes after cleaning as the flour is suspended in the air for long periods, especially really light flours like tapioca starch.  What must a 'normal' bakery be like?  And what about the bread tins that despite industrial cleaning still contain crumbs from years of use cooking bread products.

This is where the responsibility side has to kick in.  I hope that the company that produces these mixes provides at least basic gluten free training so that as many measures are in place to limit the contamination risk and that the purchasers of these loaves are made fully aware of the environment that they are produced in.

All in all I'm a little bit anxious about it.  Even if the bakeries used the correct terminology and stated that the bread was made with "no gluten containing ingredients", I personally would steer well clear, but I am extremely sensitive.  I really hope that those bakeries that buy the mixes are doing so with the best intentions and not jumping on the gluten free bandwagon.....