gluten, wheat & dairy free: Cook book review

Since discovering the cream puff recipe in this book, I decided that I had to tell people about it! Now that I've worked my way through enough recipes that I feel like I've got a handle on exactly what kind of book it is, I have, after some fairly elementary research, come to understand that "gluten, wheat & dairy free: Over 70 delicious and nutritious recipes" by Love Food division of Parragon Books is no longer in print. Bugger. It is available for sale through numerous online sites, as a second hand book, and if you do happen to come across one in a bargain book section of your local book shop, it is worth a look.



I will say right off that, with a few notable exceptions, this is a very basic and, in some ways, bland recipe book. I think that out of the 7 recipes we purposely tried, 2 of them we will for sure do again as is, 4 of them we would modify before making again and the last one was actually just used as a guide, because by then we'd realized that the spices and flavours of the recipes as given are more mild than what we like.

The cream puffs and the chickpea fritters were the ones that we would repeat no questions asked. They were divine!! The best is that they allow for interpretations, like turning the cream puffs into eclairs and mixing up the fritters as a dinner thing or even adding to them with other spices or flavours (I'm thinking that some ham cooked Into the fritters would be lovely!) From there, though, well.... It's not that anything was bad, it's just that, well, they didn't taste like much. We made the Chicken Tacos (pg. 66) for dinner one night and while the corn meal on the outside of the chicken pieces added a nice crunch, we would definitely add cumin and/or corriander to it as well as adding some garlic to the grilled veggies and skipping their version of avocado cream and sticking with a more traditional guacamole. Also, sour "cream" and salsa were a must! The bonus on this one was that is was only 20 minutes from prep to table, so this is a good weeknight option.

 

 

 

The next meal we tried was the Seafood Tart (p.88) with the Strawberry Roll (p.138) for dessert. After reading the instructions for the crust, I didn't even try to follow. There was NO way you could have rolled that out, so I simply pressed it into the pan and did a blind bake (where you bake the crust with nothing but something to weight it down before you fill and bake the filling). I'll be using a different crust recipe should I ever make this again. The filling was tasty, but again pretty bland. Some tarragon, dill or fennel would have worked so well with seafood, and I will deinitely add some sould I do this again. This would be lovely in the summer as it's quite light, so I was glad we had some roasted potatoes and a tomato and tarragon salad to go with it.

 

The strawberry roll was yummy, very reminiscent of a short cake (though that might be because I refused to fill the roll with sweetened cream cheese and used a dairy free whipped cream instead) however there is again no way that this worked the way the book said it should have. I don't know if I overcooked it, though I went with the least amount of time, or if they just used some really good photoshopping, but while their's was white, mine was yellow, and it was more like a meringue than a sponge cake. We have decided to modify that to make the lady fingers for a tiramisu, but more on that later!

 

The last recipe was, as mentioned, used only as a guide. It was a peanut butter shrimp and noodle dish that, with the addition of some curry paste and more veggies and garlic, was really good. For dessert, we had their coconut panacota (think coconut jello!) with spiced pinapple, that with the addition of some rum will make a wonderful deconstructed Pina Colada! Perfect for summer barbeques! 

So there you have it. A couple of good recipes with a whole bunch more that need some fixing, but nothing horrible, so for someone who enjoys simple flavours or is looking for easy (I don't think Any of the recipes are more than a page long, and in a large type font to boot), this isn't a bad book. If you don't want to have to fart around adjusting things, well, at least it isn't in print any more I guess. Still, the cream puffs recipe makes this book worth it No Questions Asked!!!



Allergy-free Cookbook by Alice Sherwood

I am so going to be dating myself with this, but about 8 or so years ago I started working on a degree in the field of naturopathy, specifically nutrition and herbology. I did my first year, and while working on my second year, the long term relationship I was in ended. Rather emphatically, and I didn't end up finishing. My interest in the subject hasn't abated any, just circumstances and my focus has shifted a little. In truth, the woman who was my herbology instructor impressed me so much that I used to say that I wanted to be her when I grew up! Her name was Jennifer, and she was the kind of teacher who firmly believed that the best way to learn something was to go out and do it, and get yourself dirty while you're at it! Have fun might not have been her official motto, but she certainly seemed to enjoy her everyday life, and I think of her fondly, and miss her too (as a grandmother, though a young one, the last I saw her she as about to go back to school herself to become a registered homeopath; I hope she succeeded!)

I don't remember which class it was specifically or even what material we were covering at the time, but the subject of gluten came up (she and her husband were also farmers; I often wondered when she slept) and how everything changed after WWII. All those hungry soldiers came home, and no one wanted a repeat of the Depression era hunger, so hello genetic tinkering. I remember mentally ticking off all the boxes as she described the symptoms that come with not being able to properly digest gluten: bloating, mental fuzziness, cramping, swelling of joints, being hungry.... Fill in the blanks with anything I missed. By the end of class, I decided to do an experiment and cut out all guten for 2 weeks, just to see. My partner at the time was not really happy about this, but consoled himself with it being only 2 weeks. The people I worked with couldn't believe that I would even try to do something so restrictive or required so much work. By the third day, I couldn't believe how amazing I felt! I truly remember pausing when I realized how simply awake I was in the middle of the afternoon, with a tonne of energy, and just happy. Seriously content just being where and who I was. By the end of the 2 weeks, however, the experiment was pretty much abandoned. My former partner was Eastern European and firmly believed that you should serve bread as a side to sandwiches, and the options available for substitutes (at that time) weren't many and were a little prohibitive cost wise. Plus, I overcooked a batch of rice-pasta and that was it; back to a regular diet we went.

Fast forward about 5 years and I was happily single and trying to remember everything I could about the experiment as I was about to start living it 24/7. I was very glad to be able to have such a positive memory to hold on to, as it became obvious quickly that I still needed a reference source of some kind. Any time I feel out of my depths, the first thing I do is find a book, and since for this, the best kind of book would involve recipes, I got right on it!

The very first book I ever got myself was Allergy-Free Cookbook: no eggs, no dairy, no nuts, no gluten byAlice Sherwood. I spent a very happy afternoon at a Chapters one day and went through a whole pile of books before settling on this one. I will admit that I was influenced by the photography as I am a sucker for pretty pictures, but in a cook book, I think that's kind of important actually!

The opening section of the book is very informative, which factored into my decision to choose this one. Without needing to be able to translate medicalese, she goes into the differences between an intollerance and a allergy; she covers what the differences in reactions are for the more common food culprits (nuts, eggs, dairy and gluten); how to read ingredients labels (Note: Ms. Sherwood is British, so some of the words are not often used in daily North American speak, but you don't need to understand Cockney rhyme either) and what to watch out for, and quite a bit of other very useful information, especially for someone who has just been dumped into the world of food restrictions. She also has each recipe marked to indicate which allergen it does not contain, with the recipe modified to excude other allergens in the margens, making it very easy to figure out how to prepare each dish for your personal needs.

I have played with a lot of the recipes in this book, and there are a few that have become my Go To for when I want certain things (Foccacia p. 173, Osso Bucco p.118 and Noodles in hot ginger broth p.142 for example), but for me, this books best recipes really are in the savoury department. They go together quickly without being overly complicated or requiring ingredients that are difficult to find. They also present really nicely, which makes me think that they probably didn't need to do too much to the pictures to make them print ready; they get bonus points for that! I actually have to be careful with the book when I take it off the shelf as it's stuffed with little bits of paper holding the pages of the recipes I still have to try.

This is, however, not my go to book for baking and sweets. It might not be fair of me, but this is where the recipe for the infamous "chocolate brick-and-mortar" cake came from, and it was my first attempt, but the sweets and treats really aren't my favourites. I should probably go back, now that I've found flour mixes and other baking supplies that I know I can count on to try some of her cakes again, but I haven't yet. I will say that I Do very much enjoy the carrot cake recipe, as that was one of my first successes, and it came out exactly right!

Having said that, I would buy this again, or gift it to someone just starting out with food restrictions (with some recomendations based on experience). I would also suggest this to someone who has people in their life with restrictions that they would like to be able to cook for and also just wanted a good cookbook!

Roots: a book review

I am a very easy person to buy for. Any one who has known me for more that 20 minutes has it figured out that getting me books is almost guaranteed to make me happy. If it's a cook book, even better, especially if it has lots of pretty pictures!

One of the things about being Canadian is that you are probably quite familiar with root vegetables. The thing is, you could say that about just about anyones nationality; it would seem that almost every culture has some sort of root vegetable, be it a taproot or a tuberous root, a rhizome, corm or stem tuber, at the base of its indigenous cuisine. Now, don't get me wrong, potatoes are great, but sometimes it would be nice to shake things up a little. This would where "Roots: The Definitive Compendium with more than 225 Recipes" by Diane Morgan ( DianeMorganCooks.com ) can come in handy.

Firstly, it is a beautiful book to have. A wonderful reference guide that gives you a bit of history, scientific classifications, varieties, preparation and how to use, yield references, basic nutritional info as well as availability and storage tips. The contents are located at the front of the book in alphabetical order of which ever 'root' is being featured, and while some roots have more recipes available, you get a range of options for each. Plus, so far, all of the recipes turn out looking like the picture provided!

Some of the 'roots' I am well familiar with, carrots, beets, radishes, etc; some of them I have heard of though not used personally like lotus root and yuca, and some of them I've never heard of (crosne, also called Japanese artichoke and a member of the mint family, looks disturbingly like larvae of some kind and I have set All my friends to looking for it for me!), giving you a lot of options. You can stick with things you are familiar with, or totally introduce something new!

I'm also really enjoying some of the modifications she's suggested; recipes I am familiar with, but using a different 'root' for it. Instead of carrot cake, why not a parsnip cake? Leave off the potato fries and give yuca fries a try - NOTE: these have become my favourite!!! Potato fries are boring in comparison, and I suggest seasoning them with a little ground cumin and sea salt... Heaven!

Okay, so the three recipes that we picked to test out used Rutabaga, Celery Root and Jerusalem Artichoke, and all three of them have made it to our "do that again" list. We made the Rutabaga Hash with Onions and Crisp Bacon (pg. 273) for a quick dinner one night, and while we only used one jalapeno and added a red pepper, we followed her suggestion of adding a poached egg to the top of it. I think it took us about 30 minutes to get it on the table, and the rutabaga gave a nice sweet contrast to the jalapeno (though next time we will use 2). The celery root got turned into Celery Root Remoulade (pg. 95) and considering that my husband hates celery, this was good stuff and I think he ate most of it. You will need to use a sour cream alternative to keep it dairy free, and I probably would have cried if I didn't have a mandolin to slice the celery root with (you want match stick sized slices for the remoulade since the root isn't cooked), but the work was worth it in terms of taste.

The third recipe, Jerusalem Artichoke and Artichoke Heart Linguini (pg. 166), is of course the only one I have pictures of. Sorry... Crunchy jerusalem artichoke with tender pasta and artichoke hearts; a little bit of spice in red peper flakes and garlic balanced out with fresh mint; some lemon juice and a little olive oil and it made for a dinner that was familar but new at the same time. Bonus points if you need to feed a vegan friend and wanted something that could be done up a little fancy (though I think the next time we do this if we don't toss some bacon in it, there will be some spicy Italian GF sausage). This goes together really qickly, so I was very glad that I had sliced and chopped everything before starting, but being able to put a nice meal on the table quickly is not something I am going to complain about!

It also only requires a pot to cook the pasta in and a large fry pan where you will toss everything together before serving.

This is definitely a book that I am very glad to have, and am looking forward to trying out some of the other 'roots' and recipes in it. Now if I could only find some crosnes....

Rating: 4 out of 5 simply because it is not a book I would give to beginner cooks who still think Kraft Dinner is food, but there are a number of people on my gift lists that I can cross off for the rest of this year!