Gluten free aduki and parsnip pie

It's time to clean my fridge and freezer so instead of going grocery shopping I am using up tag ends of foods. Today I found three slightly tired parsnips and a tub of aduki beans.  I had soaked and cooked a whole bag of beans a while ago and frozen them in tubs.  With a beautiful crisp and chilly day outside I thought a pie would be nice .  I used garlic, ginger and chilli in the vegetable mixture but also put half a teaspoon of madras curry paste in the pastry to give it a bit of zip.

These amounts serve three.  I made double the pastry needed and rolled and froze one portion (oh no, the freezer filling up again!).   You could make a double pastry pie rather than just a topping or halve the ingredients.

I served this with steamed savoy cabbage and pineapple cooked with cumin, chilli and soy.  Pineapple is another thing I usually have in my freezer.  When I buy a fresh pineapple I can't eat the whole thing in one go so freeze it in tubs.  In this dish it added a sweet/sour note which worked well with the spicy earthy flavour of the beans.  Pineapple can be chopped with a large knife while it is still frozen.

Ingredients
3 parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 cup cooked aduki beans (1.5 cups/one can)
1 tbsp chopped ginger
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp oil
1 tsp madras curry paste is wanted
1/4 tsp chilli

Fry parsnip and spices briefly then add water to cover and cook until beginning to soften.  Add beans and continue to cook, stirring regularly.  Once the beans are in the pot there is an increased tendency to catch and burn so I don't put them in at the beginning.  When cooked use a slotted spoon to fill your pie dish.  Keep the cooking liquor to make a gravy if you want.  I left some of the vegetables in the give a thick sauce and added a dash of soy to lift the flavour a little. Leave to cool while you make the pastry.

Pastry (use half quantities if you just want single layer of pastry on top and no leftovers)
100g flour (40% urid, 40% tapioca, 20% cornmeal)
50g butter
approx 1-2  tbsp of cold water
1/2 tsp curry paste

Rub butter into flour.  Rub in the curry paste (or stir in curry powder if you prefer)
Add water and mix until you get a soft dough.  Don't leave it too dry or it will crack when you roll it.  Form a ball and leave the pastry to rest at room temperature for the flours to absorb the water. If you put it in the fridge it will be too hard to roll.

Roll pastry, cut around pie dish shape (I have two the same which makes this easy) and place on top of the bean mixture.  Bake for 30 minutes at 180C until crisp and just browning around the edges.

Cabbage side dish
Shred savoy cabbage and cook in very little water with the lid on.  Add 1/4 tsp cumin seed, dash of soy (make sure gf), pinch chilli and some pineapple if wanted to the pan at the start of the cooking so that the flavour permeates the cabbage.

Make a gravy with the cooking liquor by mashing a few of the vegetables into the stock and adjust seasoning if wanted.

Excellent gf-friendly Christmas lunch at Holloways

My friends from the City & Guilds course I did a few years ago met for our December jolly at Holloways, an amazing store and cafe in the rolling hills in the Worcestershire, in a village called Suckley.  I had phoned the day before to check that they could feed me, and was impressed with the calm and informative way in which they said that they did have lots of food that was suitable for me.

Whilst it may seem strange, I had a surprisingly delicious curry while my friends ate turkey or nut roast dinner...not because that was the only thing that I could eat safely but because it was what I fancied.  I have actually got to the stage where I find it difficult to chose what to eat in restaurants because there was such a long period where all I was offered was bare salad- or even told there was nothing I could eat.  I didn't have a starter, but the other person who needed gf free food had a thick vegetable soup and gf rolls - they looked like DS ciabatta, which is almost the only packaged bread I buy for myself occasionally.

I had a desert as well, again a choice.  How difficult,  I chose meringue with mulled fruits minus the cream.  I also ordered coffee.  I wondered if they would fall down at this final hurdle- many restaurants seem unable to translate an order for a gf meal into a a coffee without a biscuit at the end of the meal.  The coffee came - with a mini meringue.  The waiter apologised that it was meringue overload; normally they would have given me a gf brownie, but as it had butter in and I had said no dairy (though it is not so big a problem for me) they had carried this through to the end.  I was very impressed.

I also found it quite surprising that I had no cross contamination symptoms, even from sitting with my friends eating flaky breads, stuffing and cakes.  I often find I feel ill just being near people eating glutened foods, so this is very impressive.

The general atmosphere was very pleasant, the staff attentive, inventive and willing to please.  It is a pity it isn't nearer - I'd make it a regular venue for lunch and coffee breaks.  They even had a blueberry gf cake - I spotted this as I paid my bill.  I gave the staff a 60% tip and sincere thanks.  It is a long time since I enjoyed a meal in a restaurant as much.

Aloo Gobi using Bhaji Man kit

When we spent six weeks travelling in our campervan around Italy, France and Spain we started yearning for curry.  There were plenty of interesting foods available, but the more exotic ones are based on the areas colonised by these countries and didn't include curry.  I could carry jars of curry paste - I like Patak's, but don't want to carry heavy and breakable jars if I don't have to.

I bought some curry kits when I bought my last batch of urid lentils for my flour.  They come as sachets of spices in a packet, and include all the recipe instructions and a shoppping list.  Normally I would look at these and think, what an expensive way to buy a few spices, and what a lot of air - big boxes, little sachets.  However, for travelling these might be perfect. The Bhaji Man packs come with a reasuring big label on the front saying gluten free.  One might assume that spices don't have any gluten in but it is good to know that the packaging and processing of these spices hasn't contaminated them.

I made the aloo gobi - potato and cauliflower curry.  The pack contained three sachets, which have to be added at different stages.  One spices in one sachet needed crushing, so I rolled the sealed bag with a tin can - there is usually something solid available that would work.

The curry took longer to make that the recipe said, but I usually find potatoes take a long time on the stove.  I served it with basmati rice, with a pinch of garam masala in the cooking water.

The curry was delicious.  It didn't taste like the aloo gobi we eat in restaurants, but it would certainly beat those curry cravings.  Not having to measure spices, not having to carry individual jars of everything I might need, make these little kits an excellent option.  I suspect I would repackage the sachets and the instructions into a smaller bag to save space/

Tikka cod with lentil curry and mixed rice

This tasty meal is high in protein and easy to make.  Frozen cod fillets coated in tikka paste and lentil and vegetable curry made with Korma paste make this a simple meal to make and full of flavour. Start cooking the curry before you cook the fish as curry is very flexible on how long it can be cooked but the fish needs to be eaten as soon as it is ready.

For two people:

Coat two frozen or fresh cod fillets with  about 1 tbsp of tikka paste. I used Pataks.  Cook according to the fish instructions.  My frozen fish needed thirty minutes in a 180C oven.  Fresh fish could be grilled for a charred finish.  I have given up trying to grill food as the smoke alarm in my new flat goes off everytime I use the grill and the whole block of flats gets alerted!

Curry
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup orange lentils
1 tbsp Korma curry paste
2 cups water, more as needed
1 tbsp tomato paste

1 large carrot, sliced
2 tbsp peas
1 tomato, cut into large chunks


Cook chopped onion in oil until soft.  Keep the heat low so that the onions don't brown unless you prefer the flavour of the browned onion.
Add the lentils and stir over medium heat until the lentils are coated in the oil.  Add the Korma paste and stir. Add the water, tomato paste and carrots. Stir and cook until lentils and carrots are soft.
Add more water if needed.
Three minutes before serving add the frozen peas and cook.
One minute before serving add the tomatoes.  They should just heat through but not fall apart.

Rice
Use whatever rice you like.  I used a mixed rice with French Red Camargue, Italian long grain and Canadian Wild Rice because that was all I had.  Plain rice would have been more appropriate to go with the complex flavours of the curry and fish.  If I had served the fish with steamed vegetables rather than the curry the mixed rice would have been excellent as the different flavours and textures would have been more noticeable.

Serve the fish with curry and rice.

chicken curry - two gf convenience meals

I wrenched my foot badly a couple of weeks ago and haven't been able to go grocery shopping.  I think we had got down to one lemon and some frozen peas.   I walked to the local garage which has a small Spar convenience store attached (only just made it home!) to test the progress of my foot.  They only had lettuce and tomatoes in the vegetable section, so I just bought eggs (essential for our morning pancakes) and two chicken curry meals.

One was frozen, by Birds Eye, and the other was in the chilled section, by Spar.  Both were gluten free, both contained milk.  I heated both for supper, and we set out to compare them.

The Birds Eye curry was very cheap, only £1.50.  The rice was yellow and firm, with little flavour.  The curry had the chicken peices added after the sauce was cooked.  The flavour was so uninspiring we ate enough to taste it but didn't finish the pack.

The Spar curry cost £3.50.  It was much better. The rice had whole spices visible, and was a better texture.  The curry had that seperated-out oil that I would expect in a curry I made myself.  The flavour was good, the texture and appearance more appetising, and the chicken seemed to have been cooked in the sauce.

I wouldn't normally buy this kind of food, but for a meal in a hurry the Spar curry was acceptable.  The Birds Eye one was really very poor.

Both of these are gluten free.  They both contain milk.  I am very lactose intolerant.  I didn't take any lactase with these and did have a little colic but nothing unmanageable.  I had no gluten reaction.

M&S 'North Indian Menu Meal to share' - gluten free

M&S curry meal

Having a Marks & Spencer store at service stations has transformed my travelling.  I know I can always get a safe, albeit cold, meal on the motorway if I can find a stop with one of their store.  Waitrose are much less good, and as for the others, I end up having a smoothie and a pack of plain crisps.  I have wondered about using the microwave service stations provide for heating baby food to heat up a ready meal but haven't done that yet.

I spotted a North Indian meal for two: Saffron Plain Rice, Vegetable Curry, Chicken Jalfrezi and Chicken Tikka Masala. I bought one of these and a bag of the mini poppadums for a quick meal at home.

The curries all tasted different, and the vegetables were crisp and easiliy distinguished. It certainly doesn't beat going to a reasonable Indian restaurant, but for under ten pounds and less than ten minutes preparation we had a satisfying meal for two.

These can be frozen.
 

Wetherspoon's gluten free menu

Pleased to report that no ill-effects from eating at Wetherspoons

I tried writing text and taking a photo in other apps on this phone. I found blogger and even got into the correct part, but don't seem to be able to import either text or photos. Posting this anyways as part of my learning and will amend when I get to my computer.

back home....

I am about to eat at a Wetherspoon's cafe in Worcester.  We read that they provided gluten free meals, and even listed everything clearly on their menu.  I am a little surprised their roasted veg isn't gf, but even more surprised that the only fruit crumble they serve is gf, and isn't more expensive than the other deserts.

They also give information about how to eat vegan, vegetarian and low fat meals.

I ordered the curry, saying I needed people to not even touch my plate if they had been touching bread.  Rather than the usual blank look the waiter said he would make a note.  I asked about the poppadoms (you get offered more as a substitute for the nan), saying last time I ate these in a restaurant it turned out they had wheat in, and I was ill for four days.  He went and checked, coming back swiftly to say the packet said gluten free.  I did wonder if they would fry them in general purpose oil but they were grilled.

The meal was fine, your standard neutered English curry but with enough spice to be clearly a curry rather than a stew.

Tolerant Taster had steak pie and chips and beer, which he said was very good.

The staff were courteous, the meal prompt, and two full meals with a drink and one desert was only about fifteen pounds.

The crumble had an odd chewy, granular structure.  It was a substantial dessert, but neither the texture nor the flavour were particularly enticing.

Tolerant Taster’s view:

Looks the part and crumble is certainly the right word in that the topping has no coherence at all.  It simple falls apart as your spoon hits it.  It crumbles to a sort of granular structure with a particle size between 2 & 8mm.  Some particles are harder, slightly chewy, suggesting that they got a bit more sugar that glued them together.  A little too sweet, so that there is little contrast between the apple underneath and the topping.

I now just have to wait and see if it is actually gluten free.  If is is it will make managing to feed myself when out in strange cities a lot easier. I would say full marks for making an effort.  The food reminded me of service station food from back in the days when I ate it…certainly a great improvement on having to go hungry or just eat the plain crisps.