Gormandising on gorgeous gluten-free Anzacs

 

This morning I made a batch of gluten-free Anzac biscuits from a recipe a Twitter friend recommended from Taste. I prepared them while trying to spot my Uncle David on the Anzac Day March on TV.  I didn't end up picking him out but maybe that was because I was late turning on the TV or perhaps at 93-years-of age he had a break this year?

The recipe used a few different ingredients to the non-GF one Mum used to make but the smell of Anzacs baking in the oven was the same. Some of the substitute ingredients for the traditional rolled oats were dessicated coconut, almond meal, GF plain flour and my breakfast cereal of choice, Freedom Foods Rice Flakes. The mixture produced nearly 50 biscuits so Bruce and I had to stop ourselves from eating too many as we enjoyed them with a cup of coffee on the deck.

Click here for the Taste.com Gluten free, dairy free Anzac recipe.

Delicious and easy 'summer simmer fruits' for Christmas

Last Saturday night we had a whole crowd of people over. There were 12 adults, one teenager, six and eight-year-old boys and a three month old baby boy. We had lovely 'befores' courtesy of Kate and Chris followed by prawns and plenty of champagne. For the main course we served Christmas ham cooked in a marinade of orange zest, orange juice, cloves and Dijon mustard, roast pork with pears, Parmesan baked potatoes, Jamie Oliver's baked beetroot with balsalmic vinegar, marjoram and garlic and David Herbert's roasted asparagus with mozzarella salad. It was all very delicious if I don't say so myself.  But I think the dish that got the most rapturous response was the dessert, 'Summer Simmer Fruits'.

It was the first time we had cooked this recipe which I found in a Donna Hay magazine from Feb/March 2007.  While I shopped for the ingredients Bruce cut up the fruit and made the dish.
And what a hit it was. A beautiful mixture of mangoes, apricots and blackberries with a vanilla bean or two and some castor sugar. So simple, which is the key to all the best recipes.

I also made some meringues topped with chopped pistachio nuts.  The idea for the pistachio nuts came from a recipe in Country Style's Christmas 2012 collector's edition. I used the meringue recipe in Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion as it has served me well in the past and it was less complicated than the Country Style one. We served the summer simmer fruits and meringues with Bulla vanilla ice cream which is gluten free (GF). The other GF ice cream is Sara Lee's French Vanilla. To complete the festival of food, Kate made some delicious GF chocolate fudge brownies which we enjoyed with a cup of tea.  Here are the recipes:

Summer simmer fruits

2 mangoes, cut into wedges (skin on)
2 apricots, halved and stones removed
125g blackberries
1 thick piece of lemon peel
1 thick piece of orange peel
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
(These ingredients serves 4, so increase the quantities for more people)

Instructions: Heat a deep frying pan over low heat. Add the mangoes, apricots, blackberries, lemon peel, orange peel and vanilla. Sprinkle over the sugar and cover with a tight fitting lid. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is syrupy. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Sue's meringues (page 432 of Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion (2004 edition)

Ingredients
2 egg whites at room temperature
Half a cup of castor sugar
One quarter of a teaspoon of pure vanilla 
To reduce or increase the quantities allow 60g castor sugar to an egg white.
Note: I used 4 egg whites and produced nearly 40 meringues.

Instructions: Preheat oven to 150 degree Celsius and line a baking tray with baking paper. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, then add sugar, a little at a time, still beating. Beat in vanilla. Place small spoonfuls of meringue on baking tray and bake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off, leave door slightly ajar and allow meringues to cool completely in oven. Store in an airtight container lined with greaseproof paper. *If you would like to add pistachios to your meringues, chop up the nuts and sprinkle over the meringues before placing in oven.

Chocolate fudge brownies (gluten-free)

Photo from taste.com.au

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/17650/chocolate+fudge+brownies+wheat+and+gluten+free
Note from Kate: she added a big handful of macadamia nuts to this recipe.

Happy gluten-free Christmas.

Gluten-free grazing at four favourite Annandale cafes

Working in Annandale over the past year, I have been taste-testing a number of the suburb's cafes. In the process I have discovered the following four favourites that cater for coeliacs like me and those on a gluten-free (GF) diet. 

For those of you who don't know where Annandale is, it's between three and five kilometres from Sydney's CBD and is within the Leichhardt Municipality. It is the next-door suburb to Glebe to the east, Leichhardt to the west, Balmain to the north and Stanmore to the south. Infamous Kings Cross property developer Abe Saffron was born there, Cold Chisel guitarist Ian Moss is a resident, and American author Mark Twain visited the suburb. He stayed at the home of Sir Henry Parkes, the father of Federation, who died in Annandale on 27 April 1896. I have also spotted a few of The Chaser boys drinking coffee at The Little Marionette On The Dale cafe on the corner of Albion and Trafalgar streets.

 

Cafe on Johnston

At 63 Johnston Street, opposite the tall spire of the Hunter Baillie Church is Cafe on Johnston. A favourite with locals for more than 14 years, this friendly spot is particularly popular with St Brendan's Primary mothers and their under-5s, who stop in for a morning coffee after dropping their older kids at the nearby school

I came across this review of Cafe on Johnston on Eatability, which describes it well: "It's not your usual trendy cafe (so many of which seem to be popping up everywhere) but it's got good heart and is not intimidating to walk into!"

It also serves delicious food and owners' Lee and Rob have always been very helpful in catering for my GF needs. They stock a particularly delicious GF bread which I had the other day topped with pesto, eggplant, red pepper and artichokes. Other choices include smoked salmon, capers, cream cheese, Spanish onion or tomato chutney, roasted pumpkin, eggplant and spinach. They also offer a range of tasty salads with at least one usually GF, 'create your own omelettes', and hearty soups in winter.

Revolver Cafe

At 291 Annandale Street, around the corner from Annandale North Public School, is the very cool Revolver. Original owner Rod, who recently sold to Mark, opened the cafe in 2009 in one of the suburb's old corner shop buildings.  The circa 1893 building was originally intended to be a pub but when the upper class gentry who lived in North Annandale (and some may say have returned) objected it became a general store and residence. 

On the cafe's website original owner Rod explains where the name comes from. "I have a John Lennon signed copy of the Beatles Revolver album which I think was the pivotal point in their career, as was this cafe so pivotal in my career. I have also always had a thing for cogs and all things revolving like the inner workings of some fantastical machine so revolver just fitted."

Revolver is full of character with friendly, efficient service, great coffee and innovative food. The mother of former owner Rod makes all the cakes including GF orange syrup cake, lemon and lime friands and a moist, coconut-filled, delicious banana bread. Many of the breakfast options are GF and bread-based items like eggs Benedict or burgers can be substituted with GF bread.

Esther's Table

Away from Annandale's main retail area of Johnstone and Booth Streets is the delightful Esther's Table. On the corner of Annandale and Reserve Streets, it is named after Esther Abrahams, the convict wife of Major George Johnston.  A captain of one of the First Fleet ships, George Johnston met his Jewish milliner wife on the journey to Australia. They set up home in Annandale after he was granted 100 acres in the area. Johnston named the suburb after Annan, his birthplace in Scotland.

 

The cafe has had a number of owners over the years, and some of you may remember it as Hopscotch or Beth's Place. The corner 1902 grocery store building and outdoor area has a nice aspect and seems to be bathed in sunshine for a good part of the day.  In terms of GF options, owner Rose Saunders usually stocks GF banana bread and a number of other sweet treats to accompany a coffee. GF bread is mostly available, although the stocked brand is not as nice as the one at Cafe on Johnston. Esther's Table's breakfasts are particularly delicious and there are a number of GF options.

Clover Cafe

Another local favourite is Clover on the western side of Booth Street just down from the Annandale Post Office.  Clover stocks Naturis Organic Buckwheat loaf GF bread, which waitress Maddie said had received many positive comments from patrons. In the sweet stakes Clover offers lemon and poppy seed polenta cakes and GF brownies.

On the day I lunched there, I enjoyed the mint and lime poached chicken salad with a cucumber, coriander and sesame oil dressing. I have also tried the Clover Greek Salad which includes chunky cucumber, cherry tomatoes, Persian feta, fresh mind and parsley, rock salt-roasted beetroot with a punchy fattoush dressing. Another favourite is the grilled haloumi with watermelon, artichoke hearts, pesto, semi-dried tomatoes and salad greens. Clover has an app which can be downloaded for free at: www.app.cat/clovercafe

Next time: Annandale's coeliac-friendly restaurants

On the tapas trail in Moorish Spain

Eating out overseas is much easier when the local coeliac society lists gluten-free-(GF) friendly restaurants on their website like the Italians do. But if they don’t the next best thing is when restaurant staff have a good understanding of the gluten-free diet.

Fortunately this was what we experienced when travelling through the Andalucía region in southern Spain last year. In most of the restaurants we dined the staff knew what GF meant and could advise what was suitable on the menu.

Logging on to the Federation of Celiac Spain (FACE) was also useful although its listing of GF restaurants is limited to hotel and restaurant chains. At the same time it is a good source of information on supermarkets selling GF products and on explaining your GF requirements when eating out. It also provides links to coeliac organisations in other regions of Spain including Malaga, Granada, Cordoba and Seville.

One of the nicest meals I had during our time in southern Spain was at Citron in Malaga, our first stop before heading on to explore Moorish Andalucia. Here I was served warm GF bread topped with olive and anchovy paste followed by beef medallions perfectly cooked medium-rare with yellow and red capsicum, onion and cherry tomatoes and chips made in-house.

I also thought I was enjoying a GF beer, however on closer examination I found that the Estrella Damm Daura GF beer was actually not 100 per cent GF. Made from barley it contains a small amount of gluten so it is low-GF rather than GF-free. Consequently it was my last beer in Spain.

The staff at the Hotel Tryp where we were staying in Malaga were very helpful in finding a GF restaurant in the Costa de Sol city and recommended Citron. Tryp Hotels are a good option for coeliacs as they offer GF meals in their dining rooms.

Another hotel chain that is coeliac-friendly is the Parador group, but they are significantly more expensive than Tryp hotels. In Granada we traipsed up the hill to the Parador near the Alhambra so that I could dine gluten-free. While the dinner was nice, it was quite expensive and we would rather have eaten in a more traditional Granada restaurant with more atmosphere than this rather formal hotel dining room.

In Seville we stayed at a Tryp Hotel in the Macarena area and so started each day with a GF breakfast in the dining room.

In Granada and Cordoba, we visited the same cafe each morning where the staff were more than happy to heat up my GF croissant or bread roll bought at the local supermarket.  They would serve it with jam and butter, our daily fresh orange juice followed by a cafe con leche.

During our four days in these two fascinating cities we returned to the same cafe each day for our breakfast ritual and almost felt like locals. One tip I would suggest is when you see GF supplies at a supermarket stock up as you may not find them at your next destination.

In the Las Alpujarras (white villages) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains there was not quite the same knowledge of the GF diet but people were helpful in trying to understand what I couldn’t eat. Learning the Spanish words for wheat, barley, rye and oats and flour was useful, as was carrying the Spanish translation card explaining coeliac disease and the GF diet.

With tapas considered an Andalusian speciality I was keen to join in this culinary tradition. While I couldn’t eat everything on the tapas menus in restaurants and bars throughout Andalucía, there were usually at least four options I could choose from.

At Taberna Tofe in Granada we had too much tapas!  The food was nothing extraordinary at this traditional restaurant but the woman serving us was extremely helpful in ensuring my selections were GF including pork with shredded cabbage and paprika and a salad with lettuce, tuna, fetta, sultanas and apples.

We also enjoyed some delicious tapas at Casa Rubio Bar after exploring Cordoba’s colourful patios full of geraniums and other potted plants.

Grilled fish and salad at El Rincon de Carmen in Cordoba’s Jewish quarter was a nice way to finish the day after visiting the spectacular garden at Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos. Perhaps our best tapas was at Aljibe restaurant in Seville, which had interesting combinations to choose from.

After visiting Cordoba’s mosque-cathedral Mezquita, we dropped into the always busy Bar Santos for one of their famous tortilla de patatas. We ate the filling potato omelette on the steps of the Mezquita washed down with a freshly squeezed orange juice – one of the daily delights of travelling in this region.

And of course the sangria was GF so I could enjoy a glass or two at a bar opposite Granada's spectacular Alhambra and take in the historic and beautiful view. Muchas gracios Andalucia!

Senza glutine in Roma, Siena, Cortona and Firenze

Unlike France, there is a lot of awareness of coeliac disease and the need to be on a strict gluten-free diet in Italy. More often than not Italians know what you are talking about when you mention words like coeliac or gluten-free (GF) although it does help to say them in Italian - celiachia and senza glutine.

While the country isn't in a great financial situation at the moment, its performance in diagnosing and treating coeliac disease is much better. Italian children are screened for coeliac disease at around 6 years of age and the average time time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis for Italians of any age is usually only 2 to 3 weeks. As a result Italy is up there with Australia, Ireland and Finland as the top four countries for diagnosis of coeliac disease.

At the same time you can't presume that everyone in Italy will be aware of coeliac disease and understand what gluten-free means. So a coeliac's best friend in Italy is the restaurant guide on the Italian Coeliac Association (Associazione Italiana Celiachia) website.  To get to the guide, click on the menu item ''dieta senza glutine' and then click on 'Project Power Away'.  The information is organised by region so you just have to select Tuscany or Sicily or Veneto etc to find somewhere suitable to eat.

I would highly recommend taking an iPhone or device that allows you to look up GF places to eat as you go.  When we were in Italy in the middle of this year, we didn't bring a laptop or any sort of portable device with Internet access. This meant traipsing off to Internet cafes to find a GF restaurant  instead of being able to look one up on the go or as we were approaching a new destination.

At the same time you can be pleasantly surprised in Italy like the night we arrived in Castiglion Fiorentino, a small hill-top town about half an hour from Arezzo.  When I explained my senza glutine needs the waitress went to the kitchen and returned with a packet of GF pasta.

Another great resource is Maria Ann Roglieri's The Gluten-Free Guide to Italy which is available at www.gfguidetoitaly.com. Unfortunately I only discovered this book just before we set off for Italy so I didn't have it with me. It is packed full of GF eating-out options and is a handy back-up when you don't have Internet access.  Here are a few of the coeliac-friendly places we found in Rome, Florence, Cortona and Siena.

Osteria del Gallo, Roma

This is a cute little restaurant in one of those typical narrow Roman streets not far from Piazza Navona. While it was a bit windy the night we dined there we persevered in sitting outside as it was fun watching the passing traffic and taking in the atmosphere in Vicolo di Montevecchio.

Perhaps the most delicious part of this meal was the bruschetta served on toasted GF bread.  The traditional tomato and garlic bruschetta was nice but the eggplant and zucchini one was sensational.

For the main course I chose one of my favourite sauces - pesto with GF spaghetti.

There were plenty of GF choices for dessert including panna cotta and torta al cioccolato (gf chocolate torte).  Osteria del Gallo is at 27 Vicolo di Montevecchio, Roma.

I Quattro Amici and Il Portale Trattoria-Pizzeria, Firenze

In Florence we enjoyed a nice GF meal at I Quattro Amici which is close to the city's main Santa Maria Novella railway station  The staff were very knowledgeable and all the GF options were highlighted on the menu. My main course choice was the grilled sea bass with potatoes,olives and red pepper, followed by creme caramel for dessert.

The next night we dined at Il Portale Trattoria-Pizzeria.  Around the corner from I Quattro Amici, at 29 Via Luigi Alamanni, it turned out that this restaurant shared the same kitchen.  The entree servings of pasta were huge and easily served as a main meal. I enjoyed the spaghetti allárrabbiata with garlic, olive oil, red pepper and tomato.

Osteria Del Teatro, Cortona

On a day out in the hill-top town of Cortona with our friends at Villa Rossi Mattei in Arezzo, we came across Osteria Del Teatro.  As well as being a historic town, Cortona is known as the location of the movie Under the Tuscan Sun.

It's a delightful place and it was great to stumble upon a coeliac-friendly restaurant like Osteria Del Teatro.

For lunch I chose the GF gnocchi which was very nice but quite rich, washed down with a chilled white wine. The GF dessert option was oven-roasted pears with cinnamon, drizzled with chocolate. As you can see from the photo, the chocolate was more than a drizzle, which I endeavoured to work off climbing the steep cobble-stoned Cortona streets.

Il Ghibellino Osteria, Siena

On a day trip to Siena with our Villa friends we enjoyed a pleasant lunch at Il Ghigellino Osteria.

About a five-minute walk from the Piazzo del Campo and close to the Duomo, this is a quiet place to escape the tourists.  For lunch I had the leek risotto which fuelled me up for exploring Siena.

Villa Rossi Mattei, Arezzo

And during our week at Villa Rossi Mattei I was more than well-catered for by our host Liliana at our two group lunches and dinners with GF risotto, pasta, meats, salads and sweets.

Grazie Italia! Arrivederci.

High dining in the city of lights ... and love

There will be no gluten for you madame, said our waiter when we celebrated our wedding anniversary at Le Jules Verne restaurant at the Eiffel Tower.

Our waiter was prepared for my sans-gluten needs as booking online at the restaurant website allows you to indicate any special dietary needs.

Le Jules Verne was launched by restaurateur, entrepreneur and chef Alan Ducasse in 2007. It is named after the French writer of fantastic tales like '20,000 Leagues under the Sea', 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and 'Around the World in 80 Days'.

Just as Jules Verne invites the reader to go on extraordinary adventures in his books, Alain Ducasse welcomes diners to the magical place that is the Jules Verne, which he describes as a French experiment of our time - 125 metres above the ground.

With head chef Pascal Feraud, Ducasse wishes Le Jules Verne to be, "the most beautiful place in Paris to enjoy the pleasure of a contemporary and accessible kitchen."

Located on the Eiffel Tower's second observation platform, you can take a tour here with Patrick Jouin, the designer of the restaurant.

Seated one table back from the window looking north-west to La Defense and the Arc de Triomphe, we appropriately started our lunch with a glass of French champagne.  As we sipped on pink Bruno Pallaird bubbly, we were served an aperitif of duck liver pate with banana and mango.

As jazz and showtime tunes played in the background we tucked into our entree of simmered Helixbernn French snails with delicate "velvety" of lettuce.

For the main I chose the roasted sea bass with braised leeks and gold caviar - no less - accompanied by a chardonnay from Burgundy. Bruce had the spit milk-fed lamb with tiny artichokes and pearl jus (not gluten-free), washed down with a pinot noir, also from Burgundy.

The meals were delicious - very colourful and full of flavour and texture.  There was a sense of theatre to the serving with sauces dramatically poured over the plate at the table and cutlery faced down until it was time for the appropriate course.

As there was no gluten for madame, my dessert choices were limited to strawberries with sherbet.

While this was lovely, the gluten-eating monsieur Bruce fared much better. As well as his dessert of strawberry/rhubarb tart with thyme and lemon ice cream, accompanying his coffee was a bowl of passionfruit marshmallows and a plate of chocolate profiteroles and macaroons.

"Can I have any of that monsieur," I enquired hopefully to our 'no gluten for madame' waiter. "No madame," he said shaking his head.  I consoled myself with a dessert wine from Jurancon near Toulouse.

The experience was completed with a visit to the viewing platform without having to queue up with all the other tourists.

Le Jules Verne was a culinary experience to remember and a special way to celebrate our anniversary. Bon apetite.