Gluten Free Baking & Living Christmas Issue

Gluten Free Baking & Living

Issue 6

Christmas Issue

Our gluten free flour blends:

Be part of our crowdfunding journey

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r u o t r o p p Su ng i d n u F d w o r C w you o h t u o Find help can

We’re raising funds through crowdfunding to bring our amazing gluten free flour blends to life.

When we started baking gluten free, we struggled to find gluten free flour that produced a good bake. So we made our own! Over the last few months, we’ve been working incredibly hard to create three incredible gluten free flour blends, and get them ready to market.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a way of raising funds by asking people you know for a small amount of money, instead of asking a bank or investor for a lot of money in exchange for part of your business. By backing a crowdfunding campaign, you help a business to raise the investment they need for a project or to grow, and get something in return – in our case, our incredible gluten free flour and other great perks, depending on how much you want to contribute.

What makes our flour so good? * It’s more nutritious than the gluten free flours currently on the market, and has better quality ingredients, containing valuable nutrients * It’s a much better substitute for wheat flour in traditional recipes * It contains tapioca flour, rice flour, potato flour, whole corn flour and sorghum flour – perfectly balanced to give incredible bakes We need your support We live and breathe all things gluten Why are we crowdfunding? free baking - but we need your supWe’re raising money through crowd- port to help bring our campaign to funding so we can develop a range life. Even a small contribution will of gluten free flours that are better make a huge difference, and please, than what’s out there. We’re reachshare our campaign on Facebook , ing out to the people we know to Twitter, and with your friends and help us raise the money we need family. to make this dream a reality. In exVisit our campaign page and get change for your contribution, we’ve involved. got some great products available – https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-gluyou can choose from recipe books ten-free-flour-company-flour-blends#/ and downloads, courses, nutrition consultations, and of course, our gluten free flour too.

Visit Page

Crowdfunding

5 Stone the Crohn’s

Contents

be part of the journey

8 -13 Gluten Free Christmas

Recipes in this Issue

See about our great new gluten free flours and learn how you can help.

Gluten Free Recipes 9

Roast Turkey

10 Red Cabbage 10 Roast Potatoes 13 Gravy 11 Bread Sauce 13 Christmas Pudding 23 Cheese Straws 25 Christmas Cake 24 Eccles Cakes 29 Beef Stew

30 Frittata Style Omelette

by Richard Hopper

Dinner - The complete guide to a gluten free Christmas.

18 6 Legged Livestock -

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What’s in your gluten free food?

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose find out about this and many of the other additives.

by Kim McGowan

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Courses for the New Year Find out more about courses that can help you improve your gluten free baking skills.

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Insects as a source of protein we should be learning to eat?

19 From Church Hall to

Cathedral of Gluten Free - the gluten free expo in Rimini.

26 Beyond the Gluten Free

Diet 28 Gluten Free Weight

Management

New Year, New you!

32 So Confusing! fat or sugar?

30 Hot Smoked Salmon

Salad

31 Prawn Stir Fry 34 Chocolate Orange

Cookies

For more info on Gluten Free Baking and Living courses & recipes, register at http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/register/ Note for American Readers:

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More delicious gluten free recipes for your collection

Guest Recipe from Free From Fusion

by Hannah Olding

I know that most of your baking recipes use cups as a measure. I have found that this is not accurate enough for gluten free baking where precision is important. So I have not included cups or even ounces. I recommend that you buy some digital scales or a really accurate balance scale and weigh in grams. This will ensure the best results possible.

The flours that I use may not all be available in the USA, but Bob’s Red Mill is a really good company with a lot of gluten free products that will substitute.

Published by GFBL(UK) Ltd - Registered office 28 Grange, Avenue, Harrogate. HG1 2AG

Abbreviations: tsp = teaspoon / dsp = dessert spoon / tblsp = tablespoon / g = gram / ml = millilitres

Advertising, commercial or legal queries contact Ian Thackeray ian@glutenfreebaking.co.uk 01423 567744

Publisher - Ian Thackeray - ian@glutenfreebaking.co.uk Editor- Nancy Scott - nancy@glutenfreebaking.co.uk Recipes and nutrition - Deborah Thackeray - deborah@glutenfreebaking.co.uk Design - Carolynne Coulson - carolynne@sweetstudio.co.uk Photography - Joe Doddsworth - http://www.joedodsworth.co.uk/ Contributors: Kim McGowan, Domen Krik, Nancy Scott, Richard Hopper

Gluten Free Baking & Living is fully protected by Copyright, nothing may be printed or copied without permission.

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Introduction

Welcome to the 6th edition of our occasional magazine about the world of gluten free and GFBL in particular.

2015 has been marked by major food recalls by the supermarkets and their manufacturers after repeated gluten cross contamination problems in their factories. We said at the time “If you want to stay safe make it yourself”. But gluten free has to be good enough for everyone to want eat it, the launch of our plain gluten free flour is a big step towards that goal.

The plain gluten free flour is available now at www.bigbarn.co.uk. We have a crowd funding campaign running between Nov 6th and Dec 15th to raise the funds for the next stage of development. https://www.indiegogo. com/projects/the-gluten-free-flourcompany-flour-blends#/ 4

Deborah has written a piece about what you can do to improve your health beyond the gluten free diet, another excellent piece of advice from the world of Nutrition. She recently attended a conference on Functional Medicine with headline speaker Chris Kresser.

Thackeray tribe. It was this Christmas menu that prompted one of our daughters to say “you should teach this” setting in motion the baking courses and now the flour range and book.

The book is a 36 page colour step by step illustrated guide based on our ‘The Basics – Gluten Free Course’ We teach Functional medicine is the concept that you our specialist techniques for creatyou have to look at the consequences ing great GF bread, scones, pastry and of your treatment on other systems in cupcakes. The book will contain all the the body. So for example, whatever you adaptations you need for most of the do to make your gut better will have major food intolerances and dietary rea profound impact on the rest of your quirements. So all you need to know to body. The corollary is of course whatbe a great baker – dairy free, egg free, ever you don’t do to look after your nut free, vegetarian and vegan. Regisgut will have a profound effect, but this ter here http://eepurl.com/bG5L9r if time a potentially damaging one. you would like to buy a copy when it is published at the end of November.

We have lots of yummy Christmas Great stocking filler @£7.50 inc p&p. based recipes, all gluten free. These are tried and tested on the extended

Stone the Crohn’s Perspectives on a GF Diet

by Richard Hopper

I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease nine years ago. After being hospitalised for a month, I suffered with regular flare ups and remained on medication for some years after.

Luckily the flare ups became less common over the years but I still remained bloated an extremely gassy. I would have to run to the toilet after meals and generally felt uncomfortable. My energy levels were decreased, I was constantly tired, my joints ached and my skin was bad. I was constantly receiving comments such as “you look tired” or “are you alright, you look pasty?!”

After doing some research, it became apparent that although not medically proven, a gluten and wheat free diet could be beneficial to my condition. I half-heartedly thought “how hard could this be??” Little did I realise that nearly everything I ate had gluten in. I would go to the gluten free aisle in the supermarket but it was so bland, boring and expensive. I would make a sandwich for work and when I’d go to eat it, most of it would end up on my desk before I could get it to my mouth! I just couldn’t get motivated and slipped back into bad habits.

It was only when my partner, after seeing me suffering, suggested that we make the change together to gluten and wheat free for one month to see if we noticed the benefits. It soon became apparent that this had to be a lifestyle change and we needed to take it seriously. At the same time it had to be fun, exciting and interesting. We were given some gluten free recipe books for Christmas. We soon discovered that it’s not just about the gluten free aisle in the supermarket, most gluten free cooking involves fresh, good quality ingredients.

The biggest turning point came when my partner booked us on a gluten free baking course ran by Deborah and Ian from Gluten Free Baking and Living. I was a little apprehensive but this turned out to be one of the best things that I had done. We learnt the basics to gluten free baking and they made it really interesting. We baked a variety of things over the day such as scones, quiches, cakes and bread. Although it was fun, it was also very informative. Deborah gave us the facts whilst Ian could give a personal perspective as he is a coeliac. We also met some really nice

people with similar dietary requirements and I realised that this could be an interest rather than a chore.

I have been gluten and wheat free for several months, my bloating has decreased, my energy levels have increased, my skin looks better and I don’t need to eat near a toilet. Through the people I have met at this course, it has opened me up to the gluten free community who I am now in regular contact with. I visit gluten free fairs and try out cafes and restaurants with gluten free options. I have found myself becoming a critic through twitter and am considering blogging about my health and its relationship with a gluten free diet.

Not long ago, the only sound in the kitchen would have been the noise of the microwave but thanks to this new discovery, cooking is a joy and I am feeling the benefits of a new healthier lifestyle.

I will be tweeting about the ups and downs of living with Crohns and the effects of food and lifestyle choices, Rick@StoneTheCrohns

What’s in your gluten free food?

by Kim McGowan

You would think that after diagnosis and adapting to a GF life, things would get simpler? Familiar with brands that are safe to eat, you’ve found restaurants that you trust and you no longer find yourself with furrowed brow in the supermarket for hours scrutinizing packaging.

But maybe you should keep looking at those gf labels a little longer? Maybe you should continue asking those detailed questions about our food?

Relieved to be able to eat what looks like normal food, I believe we need to look a little closer at what our gluten free alternatives contain.

How many ingredients are there in your loaf of simple brown bread? What is xanthan gum? What does Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose do? Is calcium proprionate a nutritional ingredient?

More than a decade in the commercial food industry spanning ready meal factories, flavour houses, farmers markets and food websites, I have learnt first hand that we need to question more about the food we eat. Making low fat mayonnaise for a client one day, I barely put anything except white powders and a bit of water into the bowl. Horrified, this and many more experiences

have led me to eat organic, seasonal, home made food. Until I was diagnosed with Coeliac disease and I came to rely on mass produced gluten free alternatives.

Investigative food journalist Joanna Blythman recently tackled this very subject in her Sunday Times slot. This was the first time a high profile

journalist as has questioned the ingredients in gluten free products. I personally welcome the difficult questions. It makes us think about food and it’s impact on ourselves, and the environment.

Why should gluten free food be any different?

Surely having a digestive condition means we should look after our gut health even more carefully?

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Xanthan Gum Harold McGee, in his bible on the science of food, describes this widely used gum to be ‘secreted by bacterium and purified on industrial scale fermenters (which) provides a modest gluten-like elasticity”. Purely functional, it is routinely added to breads, pastry and cakes to help replace the structure that gluten gives such products.

Technically, they are hydrocolloids. They mix with water and swell binding the dough together to makes it perform like bread, holding the structure around the air holes as it bakes. However, after years of experimenting, GF pioneer Shauna Aherne, the Gluten Free Girl has decided to cut out gums from her diet stating; “I feel better. That’s enough for me”. This has in turn has lead her to discover that gluten free bread is better without the gums. As she says in one blog post; “Here’s my favourite discovery: gluten-free bread without the gums? It has the texture of bread.

Gluten-free bread made with flaxseed or chia seed or a combination of the two looks and feels more like bread than anything I have eaten in almost six years.”

Debate is growing on social media amongst normal and free from bakers about its use, source and historical purpose – it is used to thicken drilling mud in the oil industry – and some claim their health suffers when too much is consumed. Is this why the industry market leader, Genius’ most recent formulation no longer contains xanthan gum, using Psyllium husk instead?

But what is Psyllium husk? Something else to be avoided? Often prescribed as a digestive cleanser, this natural seed from the Indian plantago plant is great at binding with water and is perfect to replace the gluten structure. Literally ground down seeds its increasingly being used with much success. But is xanthan gum that bad? Amounts in gluten free bread are minimal, only a teaspoon in my homemade gluten free loaf. What is the cumulative effect of eating it, when it appears in so many free from products? People are only just starting to wonder, and experiment with alternatives.

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose / Hypromellose / E464 Commercially made from cellulose found in wood and plant cells, semi synthetic E464 can trap air bubbles formed to help the bread rise whilst also adding dietary fibre. Largely used as a stabiliser to prevent staling, help with structure and aid water absorption, it is banned from use in organic baking. Whilst there are no known adverse affects, in large volumes can it cause bloating and gastro issues.

Calcium Propionate A common preservative, specifically in bread it is used as a mould inhibitor. Used across all bread, including gluten free loaves, it is the reason a mass produced loaf never goes stale. According to

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Allergy UK “Some reports link propionate with migraine headaches. The Bakers’s Union in the UK has banned it’s use in its pure form because it provokes skin rashes in bakery workers.”

All mainstream, commercial GF bakeries use them as a necessary prevention against mould in large scale bakeries, a by product of mass produced foods. The reason such additives are allowed is their prevention of wide spread toxicity and spoilage of food.

foods have come in terms of quality, variety, ingredients used and nutrition. However there is much to be done to improve the contents of our free from foods. I have observed even a brand new company launching gluten free products laced with preservatives, flavourings, gums and other additives such as Disodium Diphosphate, that is totally alien. So keep looking at those labels, and questioning what it is you are eating, even if its not gluten. Or even better, make your own!

Studying labels and examining much of the massproduced GF foods, I personally decided to take the Michael Pollan approach - “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” I make much of my own replacement products, using tried and tested recipes from GF Baking experts.

It must be acknowledged how far gluten free

Kim McGowan Founder of Gluten Free Gathering Twitter @mcgowankim @gfgathering Kim@glutenfreegathering.co.uk Website: glutenfreegathering.wordpress.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/GFGatheringUK

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Gluten Free Christmas Dinner

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Like many people, I find myself a bit uncomfortable with the commercialisation of Christmas and the pressure to buy, buy, buy. I personally get very little pleasure shopping for things that people don’t really need. I do get huge pleasure from bringing family and friends together and making a wonderful celebratory meal for everyone.

When planning Christmas Dinner, no matter how many times you have done it (I reckon my count is about 30), it’s worth having a sit down with a drink and a favourite recipe book a good while beforehand and having a bit of a think about the meal you want to create.

So out came my trusty Prue Leith and a glass of Greens Golden Ale and a very enjoyable hour or so making a few notes and reminders about quantities and timings. It’s also an opportunity to reflect on your own Christmas experiences.

I was an Army brat, following my Dad round the far flung posts of what remained of the Empire. Christmas in Malaya, Singapore in the 60’s was characterised by tinsel, fake trees, cards from home with snowy scenes all very at odds with the tropical temperatures and beach holidays for the festive season. It made me very suspicious of the whole thing.

The 70’s in Hong Kong as a teenager growing up were equally surreal. One set of my parent’s friends had an old colonial house in the New Territories, it was built with fireplaces for the occasional winter cold snap. Christmas time was invariably warm and sunny. They would turn the air conditioning up to full to make it cold enough to light the fire!! Bonkers but huge fun.

set of family traditions. In our blended much-extended one, gift giving is delayed until after Church whether you go or not. At about 11.30 there are presents, fizz and more people arriving.

Blinis and smoked salmon start appearing about 12.30, and dinner between 2-3pm.

Gluten Free Christmas Dinner We’ve been serving a completely gluten free Christmas dinner for a few years now. I am the coeliac along with my second eldest daughter and several other family members are really sensitive to gluten. It is far simpler to make the meal safe for everyone, especially as I am cooking it. There is no risk of cross contamination, and me anxiously shouting across the table “No don’t eat that!”. If you follow these recipes nobody will know the difference anyway.

So, the food that we cook: We sometimes have a Ballantine (or bird stuffed within a bird) as it serves many easily with choices – turkey, goose or duck, but this year will probably go for a turkey. A free range one from our local butcher would be my first choice. There’s always a choice of stuffings, roast potatoes, lots of vegetables and gluten free gravy.

Then we serve a home-made gluten free Christmas pudding which we have adapted from the Eliza Acton recipe from 1845, usually with cream or brandy butter.

Ian Thackeray

We all have our distinctive memories, but you evolve your own

The turkey

We haven’t given a recipe for cooking the turkey as there are many good ones out there (and it should be gluten free anyway). Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson both have good methods. We usually refer to Prue Leith for the timings, which will depend on the size of the bird. We stuff it, though, with the gluten free recipe below. The one thing that Ian does, which you don’t usually find in a recipe, is that he places the bird on a trivet or wire rack in the roasting tin, so that it does not sit directly in the base of the tin.You can then pour a little water into the base of the tin, which helps collect the juices from the meat without them burning.

Gluten Free Stuffing

Ingredients: 15g butter 1 sm onion, finely chopped 100g gluten free sausagemeat, squeezed out of a packet of sausages 30g cooked chestnuts, finely chopped (vacuum packed are easiest) 50g gluten free white bread, whizzed in a food processor to make crumbs 1 eating apple, grated 1 tsp chopped fresh sage 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 1 egg Salt and pepper Method: Melt the butter in a saucepan and soften the onion for a few minutes until translucent.

Mix the sausagemeat, chestnuts, breadcrumbs, apple and herbs together. Add the cooked onion and butter to this mixture. Add the egg and season well.

Beat well together.

This will freeze.

For a vegetarian/pork free version, use 100g breadcrumbs and 50g chestnuts plus 1 tblsp hot water or stock.

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Roast Potatoes Serves 8-10 people Ingredients: 2.5kg Rooster potatoes 120g goose fat or cold-pressed rapeseed oil Sea salt like Maldon Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/ Gas Mark 6.

Method: Peel the potatoes and then cut them into evenly sized pieces, each one about ¼ of a potato. Place them in a large saucepan of water and bring it to the boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 10 minutes.

When the potatoes are starting to be fluffy on the outside, they are ready. You should be able to push a skewer through firmly.

Drain them and put them in the saucepan and give them a bit of a shake to roughen the edges. Now pour the goose fat or oil into the saucepan, along with a good seasoning of salt and make sure all the potatoes are coated.

Tip the potatoes into the roasting tin. Stir them around to get them completely coated in fat/oil.

Place the roasting tin into the hot oven and roast the potatoes until they are golden brown, about 45 minutes to one hour.

Serve immediately.

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Red Cabbage

Serves 8-10 people Ingredients: 1 small red cabbage 1 red onion, chopped 30g butter 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced 1 dsp light soft brown sugar 1 dsp red wine vinegar ¼ tsp ground cloves ¼ tsp ground nutmeg Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Method: Chop the cabbage finely, discarding any tough centre stalks.

Rinse well and drain.

Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan and gently soften the onion in it until it is slightly translucent.

Add the cabbage (still wet), followed by the apples, sugar, vinegar, cloves and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover with a lid and cook for 2 hours, stirring every 10-15 minutes. Add more water if it looks like it is drying out.

It should be soft and much reduced. Taste and add more seasoning and a little more sugar if necessary.

This can be made the day before and reheated on Christmas day.

Gravy Serves 8-10 people Ingredients: The packet of giblets from the inside of the turkey 1 onion, chopped 1 carrot, sliced 1 stick celery, sliced 1 bay leaf 10 black peppercorns 1 litre cold water 1 dsp GFBL Gluten Free Plain Flour blend 25g butter Method: First, make the stock. You can do this the day before. Take the contents of the pack of giblets (removing the liver) and place it in a large saucepan with the onion, carrot and celery. Add the bay leaf, the black peppercorns and cover with the cold water.

Bring to a simmer, when a scum starts to form on the surface.

Skim this off with a large metal spoon and discard. Keep simmering gently (do not allow to boil vigorously) for approximately 2 hours until the quantity of liquid has reduced by half. Strain the liquid through a sieve and put to one side in a jug. This is the stock. Throw away the vegetable and giblet mixture.

While the turkey is cooking, check that it still has some water and juices in the bottom of the tin. Keep topping up this water to make sure that it doesn’t burn dry. Once the turkey is

cooked and out of the oven, pour the juices into the stock that you have already made. While the turkey is resting, more juice will come out of it that can be added to the stock/gravy. Sieve the stock/meat juice mixture again into another jug.You should have about 750ml of liquid. If you haven’t, you can add some of the water from the vegetable cooking.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the gluten free flour. Stir vigorously with a small whisk for approximately 2 minutes. Now, slowly add the stock/meat juice mixture, stirring well with each addition to stop it going lumpy. Tip: if it does end up a bit lumpy, you can rescue it by putting it through the sieve again. Carry on adding all the stock until you have a gravy. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes to ensure that the flour is cooked.

Keep warm until you are ready to serve.

Bread Sauce Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients: 1 loaf gluten free white bread (I use homemade), preferably slightly stale 1/2 litre full fat milk 1 small onion, halved 1 bay leaf 6 cloves 1 blade mace 20g butter Salt for seasoning

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Method: Press the cloves into the 2 halves of the onion. Place them in a saucepan with the bay leaf, cloves and mace and pour the milk over. Bring the milk just up to the boil and then remove from the heat. Put to one side to infuse for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, cut the crusts off the bread. Slice the loaf and cut each slice into quarters. If it is not already slightly stale, place it on a baking tray in the oven for about 5 minutes, then remove.

Pulse it in a food processor or blender until you have breadcrumbs.

When the milk has infused, strain it into a jug and discard the onion etc. Place the milk back in the pan on a low heat. Add the breadcrumbs and cook gently for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Season to taste with salt. Just before serving, add the butter to the saucepan and allow to melt in.

Serve.

Gluten Free Christmas Pudding (With credit to Eliza Acton)

Ingredients: 150g raisins 150g currants 50g chopped mixed peel 130ml brandy 60g GFBL Gluten Free White Plain Flour Blend

60g gluten free white breadcrumbs 100g gluten free suet 80g light brown sugar 1 tsp mixed spice 1 orange, zested 3 eggs 130g grated eating apple 50g black treacle Baking parchment, foil, string and clingfilm Preheat oven to 150째C/Gas Mark 2. Line a 2lb pudding basin with baking parchment.

Serves 6-8 Method: Weigh out all the dried fruit into a bowl. In a pan, warm the brandy slightly and.pour it on the fruit.

In another bowl, weigh out the flour and breadcrumbs. Add the suet, the brown sugar, the mixed spice, the orange zest and the treacle.

Beat the eggs in a small bowl and add to the flour and suet mixture. Now add the dried fruit and brandy and the grated apple.

Pour the mixture into the pudding basin. Cover with a piece of baking parchment. Make a lid for the basin from foil with a pleat in the centre. Tie on with string, making a handle.

Place in a large pan of hot water on top of a saucer or trivet.

Steam for 4 hours.

When it is completely cold, wrap in fresh baking parchment and clingfilm.. Store in a cool place for up to 3 months.

http://www.glutenfreebaking.co.uk/gluten-free-baking-courses/course-dates-and-venues/

Click Here

to get more details

on our Gluten free baking courses and how to get them

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Go to Courses for the New Year

e r e H Clickore details

e e r f n e t u l G r n ou

to get m

o

s e s r u o c g n i k ba ow to get them and h

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Go to Courses for the New Year The Go to Courses go from strength to strength. They are the bedrock of everything else that we do. There are currently 3 courses running, Gluten Free –the Basics, Bread, and Pastry in 3 locations – Harrogate, London and Claremont Farm, on the Wirral. And the prices are the same as last year.

Click Here

to get more details

on our Gluten free baking courses and how to get them

In London, we either teach at a school in West London or a venue in East London .

In Harrogate, we use a catering unit and on the Wirral, a small cookery school next to Claremont Farm Shop.

I feel very strongly that everything that we teach should involve hands on participation – in other words you get to make everything yourself, rather than me just demonstrating.You measure out accurately, and see how the textures of gluten free baked goods should look and feel before cooking.

All the recipes are well tried and tested and you take home lots of things that you have made yourself, ready to impress friends and family.

During November, course delegates have said: “Thank you both so much for an amazing day. I learnt so much. I hope to come back for a pastry course. I sent a photo of all our work to hubby, he has a dry sense of humour, so his comment was “all looks pretty amazing, could have bread for breakfast, tart for lunch, scones for afternoon tea and big buns at bedtime!!!”. CL “Just a line to say the we both thoroughly enjoyed last Saturday, it was both fulfilling and educational and we have recommended it to all the people we met and tasted our produce over the long weekend.” AS

“Sorry for not emailing sooner - too busy making more cake!! It was a great day on Saturday - I really enjoyed it! I learned lots that I can apply to the baking I already do and have lots of new ideas to try as well. I will look forward to doing another course with you in the future - probably the bread one next...” EH

Dates coming up: January 2016 Saturday 16th Sunday 17th Saturday 30th

London London Harrogate

Gluten Free Basics Bread Bread

£120 £120 £100

Claremont Farm, Wirral Claremont Farm, Wirral London London

Gluten Free Basics Bread Bread Pastry

£100 £100 £120 £120

Harrogate London London

Gluten Free Basics £100 Gluten Free Basics £120 Bread £120

London London Harrogate

Gluten Free Basics £120 Bread £120 Bread £100

February 2016 Saturday 6th Sunday 7th Saturday 27th Sunday 28th

March 2016 Saturday 5th Saturday 12th Sunday 13th

April 2016 Saturday 16th Sunday 17th Saturday 23rd

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What’s in a gluten free flour?

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Most of the blends of gluten free flour available in the UK both for retail and trade are mainly mixes of starch from rice, potato, tapioca and corn with no whole grain flours at all.

A starch is a flour with everything removed, it is one step away from a sugar and has little nutritional value except calories. The example at the end showing the vitamins and minerals of cornflour and corn starch shows exactly what is removed to create a starch. A trip to Italy confirmed a growing sense that there is a considerable difference in the quality of flours, particularly the main ingredient, rice flour.

Some of the other less than wholesome things you will find in mass produced baked goods and some of the flour blends are – lots of sugar, a whole range of emulsifiers, stabilisers, anti-oxidants, xanthan gum and cellulose in various forms. See Kim McGowan’s article for what’s wrong with additives like xanthan gum and cellulose in gluten free products. We were very disappointed by sugary additive heavy GF products for sale in the supermarkets, so we started baking at home and never looked back!

One of the reasons that we have created our own flour blends is that buying the individual flours is expensive and confusing. Where one or maybe two wheat flours were enough, there are now more than ten gluten free ones that you can choose from and they all behave differently. Hence our blend of plain flour which is great for all sorts of home baking.

Our flour blends are made from whole grain flours and contain no additives at all in any form. The additions in our recipes include guar gum, vitamin C, a teaspoon of baking fix, salt to taste, olive oil and in the bread recipes, a little sugar, 1.5% of the total, to start the yeast fermenting.

We started our experiments by adding flours like gram, sorghum, teff and whole corn flour to the established brands. Along the way, we discovered that gram (chickpea) flour is heavy, but full of flavour with good nutritional properties. It needs blending with lighter flours. Sorghum (jowar) flour has a wheat like texture and good nutritional properties, but is good as part of a blend. Teff flour is made from an Ethiopian grain and best resembles wholemeal flour. It contains very good quality protein and improves the nutritional content with iron and calcium. And whole corn has betacarotenes and really good levels of vitamins and minerals.

We achieved dramatic improvements to our home baking. The flour blends rapidly evolved and improved under the rigors of use over 40 baking courses. The blend we have manufactured and have for sale is very well tested. So

our flour is not a packet full of mixed starches - it is a blend of tapioca, rice, maize, sorghum and potato flours. All, but the tapioca, are grown in Europe and it is manufactured here in the UK. It has a very delicate pale yellow colour that enhances your baking. It is pleasant to taste in the raw state, not bitter at all. The flour is very fine grained, there is no grittiness when you rub it between your fingers. It has a smooth silky feel.

It really is - ‘The best gluten free flour - making gluten free good enough for everyone to eat!’

Our plain flour blend is for sale now. Our wholegrain bread flour with teff and our stoneground Italian flour will be on sale early in 2016. We are running a crowdfunding cam-

paign to raise money to bring these to market LINK.You can buy the plain flour direct from ian@glutenfreebaking.co.uk or www.bigbarn. co.uk.

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6 legged livestock By the year 2050, the global population is expected to eclipse the 9 billion mark. As a consequence, worldwide demand for food and feed is predicted to increase by as much as 70%, placing added pressure on already scarce agricultural resources (http://www.fao. org/wsfs/forum2050/wsfs-forum/en/). In particular, there will be a continued increase in global meat demand as developing countries undergo shifts in dietary habits that are associated with rapid urbanisation and economic growth. The rearing of livestock for meat already places a considerable strain on global land and water use and at present much of the protein produced for food comes from non-sustainable and environmentally damaging sources (Bartley et al, 2009).

There are many problems that could be solved by using insects as a source of protein.

The only thing standing in the way seems to be our prejudice towards eating things that crawl. Entomophagy, the eating of insects, is an eating habit that western consumers forgot about a long time ago.

Currently, the most common sources of pro-

tein are meat and milk. The problem is that production of one kilogram of those protein sources requires between 7 and 10 kilograms of fodder. When using insects as a source of protein, only 2 kilograms of fodder are needed in order to produce 1 kg of insects (which are more protein-rich too). Farming insects is also more efficient when it comes to water consumption, as it requires 90% less water than farming livestock. CO2 release is also very low when farming insects and no methane is released at all.

I first heard about all this a year ago, at a lecture at the Veterinary Faculty of Ljubljana.

I saw insects as an opportunity to contribute something meaningful to the planet. I bought a few mealworms and started studying their lifecycle. I was impressed by their fast reproduction and decided to set up a small prototype mealworm farm in my cellar.

My vision is to create a system that will provide people with high-quality food without any impact on the environment. I think it is possible to farm insects in large breeding

by Domen Kric

systems similar to those used for vertically growing plants, powered by solar energy, using only rain water for production needs.

I believe we can make a difference and the establishment of our own company is just a small step to our goal. ZoicTeam (http://www. zoicbar.com/story) is working hard to make something happen in this field. It won’t be fast nor easy. People often do not understand or do not see the bigger picture in our work, but that won’t stop us from believing in the idea.

We thought a lot about what product would be the perfect ice-breaker to reintroduce the people around us to entomophagy. What we came up with is a simple and delicious protein bar that we think is the right first step towards changing people’s minds about eating insects. I know it will take time but I believe that with innovative food products we can achieve mass development of insect based agriculture and create a brighter future for everyone.

Deep-fried giant water bugs (Lethocerus indicus) are often seen at local markets of Thailand.

image courtesy of Wikimedia commons By User:Takoradee (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

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From Church Hall to Cathedral of Gluten Free Visits to the Allergy and Free From Show in Liverpool and The Gluten Free Expo in Rimini.

There was lots at both shows that was fascinating and interesting, but our focus was on what was new or coming soon to eat gluten free. So apologies to the many excellent food sellers at both shows - they are all listed separately for you to browse online.

We arrived at the Fiera in Rimini for The Gluten Free Expo with considerable anticipation and excitement. Press accreditation was quickly sorted and we launched ourselves into this Cathedral of gluten free.

It quickly became apparent that there were considerable differences in the scale and scope of the two shows we were attending this Autumn.

The Allergy and Free From Show in Liverpool had great numbers attending, over 9000 people, but like all gluten free food fairs in the UK, large or small, the space and voice of Free From is dominated by brands from large corporations and the supermarkets, with their free from ranges. There was little that was new or innovative - just more and more sugar and additive heavy, nutritionally deficient copies of wheat based products. Honourable exceptions in the food sector were Koko the coconut milk importers and Venice Bakery.

Expo Rimini was very much a trade show, similar numbers attending but with a much higher proportion of trade buyers doing deals and placing orders.

In contrast, the voice of the Expo was dominated by manufacturers who took great pride in the fact that they grow their own and in turn manufacture, market and sell their produce, taking great care to maximise nutritional benefits and keep sugar and additives to an absolute minimum. It was a revelation and so encouraging to see rice, corn and now sorghum and quinoa grown in Italy being transformed into gluten free breads, pastas and packet mixes to create a real ‘Gourmet Gluten Free’. There was innovation around every corner and gluten free beer for sale in the bar!!

Pizza

Top of both shows was PizzaMi by executive chef Roberto Galati. Roberto has genuinely created a thin crispy pizza. It holds its shape, has a rolled crust at the edge and doesn’t flop down flaccid and greasy like a tired drunk.

This was like finding the holy grail! We spent quite a while talking to Roberto through his wife, Josie, translating for us. Roberto was naturally a little bit coy about the ingredients but explained he created his doughs by starting with a ‘poolish’ then a further 24 hours of fermentation. Included in his mix is a sparkling clean seawater form Spain and locally sourced rice flour and other starches. They plan to have the dough in production for food service in the Spring 2015, with a part-cooked base in a container for the domestic market soon after.

rice farmers who had realised early on that to make a living, they needed to add value to their own produce. Fast forward to 21st century Italy - they have introduced quinoa successfully and sell a range of 15 minute risottos and various quinoa based mixes for burgers and salads.

We will be staying in close touch with Roberto and Josie, so watch this space for announcements of when the holy grail of pizza will be arriving in the UK.

Risotto and Quinoa

In no particular order, next up is Stoppato 1887. My experience of packet mixes is generally they are disappointing, OK for a quick fix but generally synthetic tasting and again enough additives to start a chemist shop.

Sabrina Stoppato talked us proudly through the company history, starting as traditional 19

Bread and Cake

I was very sceptical about the packet risotto mix, I have made it in the traditional way for twenty something years and really didn’t believe her. Sabrina told us to pick a risotto mix, I chose the squid ink, and come back in 15 minutes.

Mulino Marello - another manufacturer of packet mixes, this time for bread, cake and pasta as well as individual flours. We actually got chatting to Gian-Maria Carlo, their PR director in our hotel at breakfast on our first morning. The conversation at breakfast had quickly got technical about flour and nutritional values, levels of protein then his bombshell - they had just brought certified gluten free sorghum into production.

Oh dear heaven, rich creamy risotto in 15 minutes, it was utterly delicious and enough for two people in each pack. Typically it retails for €1.80 in Italy.

Browsing her stand we noticed a packet of risotto rice marked ‘Reserva’. Sabrina explained this was a rice that had been kept in its husk for an additional 18 months enhancing its nutritional content dramatically with increased levels of B vitamins and calcium. This really intrigued Deborah from her nutritionist perspective - any way of naturally being able to increase these important nutrients in the coeliac and gluten free community is important.

Watch this space for when it’s going to be on sale in the UK.

This is hugely important as sorghum is a fantastic part of a blend for gluten free baking - it is high in protein and antioxidants. Up until now the main problem has been that it is virtually impossible to get guaranteed gf in the UK, other then at huge expense from the USA. With the recent reports of glyphosates appearing in US organic produce because of GMO contamination, it becomes doubly important to find European grown crops that can be certified gluten free and clean from the depredations of GMO. We have some of the mixes being shipped home so we can test them.

Pasta

Pasta, pasta everywhere some of it was disgusting, some brilliant. What stood out head shoulders above the rest in taste, consistency, texture and ease of use from food service to a quick lunch at home was Riso di Pasta. This was pasta made from rice and nothing else, so no corn, soya, binders, or additives. Just rice.

Actually more then just rice. Their very weary looking International Sales Director, Gianluca explained their unique proposition was that they parboiled the rice before husking it.

Again this increases its nutritional levels significantly, before turning it into a range of pastas.

Deborah’s nutritional ears pricked up to find another manufacturer seeking out ways of retaining a product’s natural nutritional values, whilst producing a highly processed food.

The pasta was delicious. As yet not for sale in the UK to Gianluca’s obvious frustration.

It’s widely available across Europe, North and South America. I am guessing it’s a price issue, it’s expensive compared to normal pastas and UK is viewed as a place where price is everything with taste and quality a very poor second.

Salami, hams and cured meats

Obviously all naturally gluten free anyway but this brand, Coccia Sesto, uses traditional salt, herbs and drying. There are no phosphates and nitrates, the mainstay of the industrial meat processing industry and is far removed from the pre-sliced packets of industrial slime typical of our supermarket deli counters.

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We bought several extremely tasty morsels

to keep us going in our out-of-season hotel and went back for some more on Monday.

Simonetta, the owner, explained about the family business her grandfather started and how she and her sisters now ran the enterprise, creating the most delicious piggyness you can imagine. Coccia Sesto has its own online operation which we will be exploring how to link to our website to make ordering simpler.

Some honourable mentions - several frozen food manufacturers with tasty coteletto (chicken nugget style) products of lamb, chicken, pork and beef, coated in either gf breadcrumbs or a coarse polenta. Ideal for quick after school teas. There was a great rice based beer, and 4 or 5 panettone. We have brought one of the best home, so watch out for the panettone bread and butter pudding blog shortly.

I am conscious that we have featured products not available in the UK but the article is about what’s new and hopefully coming to us.

If you know or are involved in food sales or distribution and would like an introduction to the manufacturers mentioned in this article please do get in touch with me, Ian Thackeray on ian@glutenfreebaking.co.uk

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Delicious Recipes for you and your whole family to enjoy

Delightfully decadent and deliciously gluten free!

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Cheese Straws

These easy gluten free cheese straws are a favourite when ever we go to any of the Coeliac UK food fairs. They are based on my shortcrust pastry recipe with added cheese. Many people tell me that they really struggle to make good gluten free shortcrust pastry (that and decent bread are the main attractions of the introductory baking course). While you can buy gluten free shortcrust pastry, it is worth learning how to make your own. The texture is very different to pastry with gluten.

If you can’t get to a course near you, you can follow my step by step instructions in the At Home course.

Cheese straws recipe Ingredients:

300g gluten free shortcrust pastry 150g mature cheddar cheese Gluten free plain flour for rolliing

Method: Flour the worksurface with gf plain flour.

Roll the pastry out to about 5mm thick.

Grate the cheese and spread it in a layer over half the dough. Now fold the other half over and roll it out again. Roll it out again and fold it once more. If it starts to crack, sprinkle a little more water over it.

Take approx half the cheesy pastry, flour the worksurface once more, then gently roll it out until it is about 3-4mm thick. Cut into long strips.

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment or a silicone liner and place the cheese straws on it.

Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.

Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Nutritional Information for one serving: Preheat oven to 200°C, 400°F, gas mark 211 calories 13g fat 6 6g protein

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Serves about 10 people 23

Gluten Free Eccles Cakes I first had an Eccles Cake that tasted this good at the Wilderness Festival in 2012 at the St John Bread and Wine Banquet. They were served cold, with Lancashire cheese.

Sadly, it wasn’t gluten free, so Ian couldn’t have it. This year, I made it my mission to make one that Ian could eat. I teach how to make your own puff pastry on the Pastry Course, but it now is possible to buy it from Genius.

30g unsalted butter 65g soft dark-brown sugar 140g currants ½ tsp ground allspice ½ tsp ground nutmeg

You can see me making the Eccles cakes at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=h2wlaE4RBAA

Preheat oven to 200°C, 400°F or gas mark 6

Gluten Free Eccles Cakes Ingredients:

400g gluten free puff pastry Filling: 24

Glaze: 2 egg whites, beaten with a fork 30g caster sugar

Makes 6

Method:

Melt the butter and sugar for the filling, add to the dry ingredients, mix well, and leave to cool.

Roll out the pastry 5-6 mm thick and cut 6 x 12cm circles. Spoon some filling into the centre, and pull up the sides to cover the filling. Damp the edges and seal it together with your fingers, then turn it over and slash the top three times (for the Trinity, apparently). Brush egg white over the top, then dip the top into the sugar.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes in a preheated hot oven, but don’t let them burn.

Nutritional Information for one Eccles cake: 394 calories 18g fat 3g protein 17g sugar

Christmas Cake

Gluten Free Christmas Cake Ingredients:

300g sultanas 150g raisins 60g currants 50g dried cherries 50g chopped mixed peel 100ml brandy 125g unsalted butter 125g light soft brown sugar ½ orange, zested ½ lemon zested 2 eggs 1 tblsp apricot jam 1tblsp black treacle 200g GFBL Gluten Free White Plain Flour Blend 1 ½ tsp xanthan gum 50g ground almonds ½ tsp cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp almond essence Pinch of salt Juice ½ orange Preheat oven to 150°C/Gas Mark 2. Line a spring form 18cm (7”) cake tin greased and lined with baking parchment.

Method:

Weigh out all the dried fruit into a bowl.

In a pan, warm the brandy slightly and. pour it on the fruit. Swish it around and leave to soak for at least one hour. If you have time, leave it to soak overnight.

In another bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add the apricot jam.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the ground almonds, xanthan gum, salt and the spices.

Add spoonfuls of flour mixture to the creamed mixture, along with spoonfuls of dried fruit, beating well after each addition.

Add the almond essence and the orange juice. The mixture should be at stiff dropping consistency. If not, add a little water until it is.

Pour the mixture into the tin, gently smoothing the surface. Cover lightly with another piece of baking parchment.

Bake in oven for approx 2 hours, until a skewer comes out clean.

Pour 1 more tablespoon of brandy onto the cake. Now wrap the cake in its tin in foil until it is cool to keep it moist. When it is completely cold, remove from the tins and rewrap in clean baking parchment and foil.

Store in an airtight tin for at least 3 weeks before covering with marzipan and icing.

Nutritional Information for one serving without marzipan or icing: 248 calories 8g fat 3g protein 31g sugar 25

Beyond the gluten-free diet

What else is important in getting well when you have coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity?

by Deborah Thackeray

Registered Nutritional Therapist BSc, mBANT

The great news about coeliac disease is that we know what causes it – gluten! In fact, it is the only autoimmune condition where the cause is fully understood. But how and why it happens to some people and not others has not really been clear. Recent research is shedding more and more light on to the how’s and whys of coeliac disease and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). This is leading to a better understanding of the effect of gluten and why sensitivity to it seems to be on the rise.

Doctors used to believe that the gut was a solid tube and that nothing but the very smallest molecules could get through it. They believed that ‘leaky gut’ or intestinal permeability was fiction. Thanks to the pioneering research of Dr Alessio Fasano in the USA, it was discovered that leaky gut is not a myth! There is a protein, zonulin, which regulates the tight junctions in the gut wall. Too much zonulin and the gut becomes permeable. In people with a genetic susceptibility to coeliac disease, gluten itself probably increases the amount of zonulin produced2. Gluten molecules can then get through the gut wall into the bloodstream where they may trigger an autoimmune reaction. Gluten may also cross the blood/brain barrier. This may account for some of the ‘foggy mind’ symptoms often associated with both coeliac disease and NCGS5.

You can probably only develop coeliac disease if you carry the genetic markers for it, but some other trigger must be involved in starting the disease process. More people are being diagnosed and research has shown that this is a genuine rise, not just better diagnosis4. There is a growing consensus amongst researchers that changes to the gut flora may explain the rise in numbers of sufferers3.

The microbiome that you have living in your intestines can make quite a difference to your health, both in positive and negative ways. It may also explain why some people in families that are susceptible develop coeliac disease while their siblings don’t.

We all have an immense number of bacteria living inside us, more cells than the rest of our body altogether. The majority of them are in the large intestine. There are hundreds of different species, both beneficial and patho26

genic. We always have both inside us. It’s just a question of which predominate. Having more beneficial than pathogenic ones has positive benefits for our health. Amongst the many roles of the gut flora is the production of lactase enzymes to help digestion of dairy. Bacteria can also influence the activity of genes so our tolerance to gluten may be lost if the microflora alters. Bacteria can also influence obesity – the wrong sort of bacteria can lead to weight gain6!

Changes to the microbiome can happen because of stress, a bacterial or viral infection and taking antibiotics. What you eat can influence them – a diet rich in refined carbohydrates may cause less beneficial types of bacteria to predominate.

Research from Finland has shown that children living in remote areas of Russia are 5 times less likely to develop coeliac disease than their Finnish counterparts. So what was protecting them? The Russian children had more and a much wider range of gut bacteria, including some things that we would think of as harmful such as helicobacter pylori, the bacterium that can cause stomach ulcers3.

So how does this affect you? I believe that the reason that some people with coeliac disease and NCGS still don’t feel fully well even on a gluten-free diet is because their gut bacteria

remains unbalanced. The gut flora has so many roles in human health from improving carbohydrate digestion to absorption of B vitamins, from lactose digestion to better immunity.

Often, the microflora of coeliacs on a glutenfree diet remains different to the general population1. Improving the balance of the gut microbiome both for coeliacs and those with NCGS has the potential to repair the gut barrier and restore immune tolerance. It won’t enable you to eat gluten again, but it could help you feel better than you currently do.

So, what can you do to improve your own gut microflora? There are a few things that you can try. Probiotic capsules, which contain freeze dried live beneficial bacteria, are now widely available. Naturally fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi and kefir contain many different strains of beneficial bacteria and are easy to make at home. Changing your diet may also help. A diet that is high in refined carbs and sugar results encourages more of the pathogenic types, so reduce your intake of carbohydrates and sugar to promote a healthier gut flora.

Research about coeliac disease and gluten sensitivity is leading to a better understanding of how it happens and why. The researchers are often looking for treatments and for prevention in susceptible individuals, but the information that they discover can help

improve the way that people who are already diagnosed manage their condition.

Disclaimer: This article is in no way intended as a substitute for professional medical advice and no responsibility will be accepted for failure to consult the appropriate medical practitioner. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet, medicines or taking supplements.

References:

1) De Palma, G., Nadal, I., Collado, M. C., & Sanz,Y. (2009). Effects of a gluten-free diet on gut microbiota and immune function in healthy adult human subjects.

British Journal of Nutrition, 102(08), 1154-1160.

2)Drago, S. Et al. (2006). Gliadin, zonulin and gut permeability: Effects on celiac and non-celiac intestinal mucosa and intestinal cell lines. Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology, 41(4), 408-419.

3) Kondrashova, A. Et al. (2008). Lower economic status and inferior hygienic environment may protect against celiac disease. Annals of medicine, 40(3), 223-231.

4) Rubio–Tapia, A. et al. (2009). Increased prevalence and mortality in undiagnosed celiac disease. Gastroenterology, 137(1), 88-93.

5) Sapone, A. et al. (2012). Spectrum of gluten-related disorders: consensus on new nomenclature and classification. BMC medicine, 10(1), 13.

6) Shen, J., Obin, M. S., & Zhao, L. (2013). The gut microbiota, obesity and insulin resistance. Molecular aspects of medicine, 34(1), 39-58.

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Gluten Free Weight Management

harmful (such as trans fats), fat is esDeborah, GFBL’s resident nutritionsential for human health. Reducing fat ist, sees lots of people in her practice intake to nearly nothing is not healthy where their weight has crept on over and also may stall weight loss in the the years and, despite repeated diets, end as the body goes into a ‘starvation remains resolutely in place. My own mode’. The balance of the gut microexperience with coeliac disease is that I flora can also affect weight gain. Even lost a lot of weight before diagnosis but if you are not coeliac or gluten sensithat it’s gradually crept back on to an tive, staying gluten free is useful. Gluten uncomfortable level over the last two contains lectins which are plant chemiyears. So we decided to look at some cals than can induce leptin resistance. of the underlying issues that influence Leptin is one of our hormones that weight gain in general and what specifi- tells us when we are full and gluten can cally was relevant to the coeliac and interfere with that. wider gluten free community.

We feel that intermittent fasting is a After diagnosis, it can just be such a good way to combat this. This means relief to eat without painful symptoms, that you don’t have to put your life that there can be a slight tendency to on hold while you ‘diet’, and there are eat more than you really need. And if considerable health benefits that may the Free From aisle is now where you include reduced inflammation and LDL do most of your shopping, you may cholesterol, higher levels of cell turnbe eating a lot more sugar than you over and repair, a higher metabolic rate used to. Sugar and other empty carand better appetite and blood sugar bohydrates are now being correctly control. targeted as the main culprit behind the obesity crisis. While some fats can be The following recipes are our own 28

family favorites for fasting days and we used them very effectively earlier this year.

Do contact deborah@redapplenutrition for any more information about supported gluten free weight loss.

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Beef Stew

Bring to the boil and season with salt and pepper.

Now put the stew into the oven for approx

Serves 2 Ingredients: 100g onion 40 cals 100g carrots 50 cals 300g mushrooms 100 cals 2 cloves garlic 5 cals 1 tsp flour, preferably gluten free 20 cals 1 Kallo stock cube, beef or vegetable 40 cals 400g stewing steak 500 cals 2 tsp olive oil 80 cals 250ml water Salt and pepper to season 250g leeks 75 cals 200g potatoes 180 cals Total 1090 calories Preheat oven to 130°C, 270°F, gas mark 2 Method: There are many different recipes for stews, but this one is a really ‘get it in the pan quick’ one, although it does take a couple of hours to cook in the oven.

Slice the onions and carrots and chop the mushrooms into half (or quarters if they are very big). Thinly slice the garlic clove. Put the 2 tsp olive oil into a pan that can go both on top of the cooker and into the oven. Heat it on top of the cooker, then add all the onion,

garlic, carrots and mushrooms. Cook until they start to soften.

Place the stock cube in a jug with 250ml boiling water and stir until it dissolves to make stock.

Add the stewing steak to the pan with the softened vegetables. Sprinkle the flour over it and stir it in. Pour the stock into the pan.

2 hours. After 1 hour, check the liquid levels.

If it is getting dry, add a little more, if it is too runny, leave the lid off the dish until the liquid reduces a bit.

In the last half hour of cooking, boil the potatoes, then steam the leeks 10 minutes before serving.

Get in touch, we would love to hear from you If you have a question or comment or even better a great recipe to share with us, please drop us a line. contact@glutenfreebaking.co.uk You can also connect with us on: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+, just click on the icons to visit our pages.

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Frittata Style Omelette Serves 1 Ingredients: 1 small onion (approx 50g) 20 cals 1 clove garlic (optional) 4 cals ½ red chilli finely chopped (optional) 9 cals 50g green beans 15 cals 100g mushrooms, sliced 30 cals 50g courgette diced 15 cals 2 eggs, beaten lightly 140 cals 1 tsp olive oil 40 cals 50g smoked dry cured bacon 150 cals Salt and pepper to season Side salad: 100g cherry tomatoes 20 cals Large handful watercress 5 cals Basil leaves 1 tsp olive oil 40 cals Total 488 calories, leaving room for something else like yoghurt or fruit Method: Chop the onion finely and thinly slice the garlic clove and chop the chill (if using). Chop the green beans into pieces approx 2cm long, slice the mushrooms and dice the courgette into pieces of approx 1cm. Beat the eggs

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lightly in a small bowl and season well with salt and pepper. Chop the bacon into pieces.

Heat the tsp of olive oil in a medium frying pan and fry the bacon pieces for a couple of minutes. Now add the onions and fry gently for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced garlic.

Continue cooking gently until the onions are soft and the bacon has some colour.

Now add the beans, mushrooms and courgettes to the pan and fry for a couple of minutes.

Preheat the grill to high. Now add the eggs to the pan and continue cooking until the bottom is just beginning to brown.

Place the pan (careful not to melt the handle) under the grill until the remaining egg is cooked.

Serve immediately with a tomato and watercress salad, dressed with the remaining tsp olive oil.

Hot Smoked Salmon Salad Serves 2 This would work well as a packed lunch

Ingredients: 150g courgette 30 cals 100g green beans 50 cals 150g cherry tomatoes 30 cals 1 small red onion 40 cals 60g fennel 20 cals 250g hot smoked salmon fillets 550 cals 1 tblsp olive oil 120 cals 1 tblsp chopped fresh herbs Salt and pepper to season Total 840 cals This leaves room for a pudding such as a yoghurt (not fat free) or some fruit and a square of dark chocolate!

Method: Slice the courgette lengthways to create ribbons. Chop the green beans into 2cm lengths and halve the tomatoes. Finely slice the red onion and place in a small bowl of cold water.

Grate the fennel.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and drop the courgettes in for about a minute.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the courgettes from the pan into a colander and run them under cold water to stop them cooking. Bring the pan of water back to the boil and blanch the beans for about 2 minutes. Drain and

again refresh them with cold water. Drain the red onion.

Flake the hot smoked salmon and combine with the courgette, beans, tomatoes, red onion and fennel. Dress with the olive oil, add the herbs and season to taste.

Prawn Stir Fry Serves 2 Ingredients: 250g cooked, shelled prawns 400 cals 70g rice noodles 250 cals 100g onion 40 cals 2 cloves garlic 8 cals 100g broccoli 30 cals 100g pepper 30 cals 70g courgette 20 cals 60g fennel 20 cals 1 tblsp chilli dipping sauce 50 cals 1 tblsp coconut oil 120 cals Salt, pepper and tamari gluten free soy sauce to season

ing water onto them to soak (timing varies according to the thickness - check the packet).

Melt the coconut oil in the wok and add the onion, peppers and fennel. Toss in the oil for a minute, then add the garlic and broccoli for another 30 seconds. Stir briefly to turn the vegetables, but don’t keep stirring.

Drain the rice noodles.

Add the prawns to the wok, followed by the drained noodles. Stir in the chilli sauce. Allow to heat through quickly.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and tamari.

Serve immediately.

Total 968 cals This leaves room for a square of dark chocolate!

Method: Prepare all the vegetables - peel and slice the onion and garlic thinly, cut the broccoli into small florets and the pepper into long strips.

Slice the courgette lengthways and cut into thick matchsticks. Slice the fennel thinly.

Boil the kettle, place the rice noodles into a large bowl and pour boil31

So Confusing

Pause for a moment, what is the most important thing you do every day?

What you eat and drink is what keeps you alive, your most basic priority.

Without life you can’t take the children to school, make love, build an empire, talk to your mum, invent the replacement for the internet or solve world poverty.

The food we eat and what we drink is the fuel that keeps our engine running. Whether that’s smoothly and efficiently or wheezing and coughing to an early scrapyard that’s where you have choice.

So let’s have a look at those choices: Fat is bad for you now it’s good for you. Well yes and no. There are some modern fats, created by the food industry and their chums in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries that are most definitely not good for you.

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Calories – they are all the same eat less of

them lose weight. Well yes and no. If that were the case why is it so difficult to lose weight and stay that way?

Cholesterol – There is good and bad. Well yes and no. The concept that cholesterol from meat, eggs, butter etc will block up your arteries with fatty deposits is complete and utter rubbish. Doctors and scientists have been saying so for decades. But why spoil a good marketing slogan with the truth.

Problem is our media, politicians and industry have tried to reduce a very complex interaction of carbohydrates, proteins and fats containing a vast array of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, salts, and trace metals into easy sound bites and marketing slogans. How we react to what we eat and drink is complex body chemistry and probably slightly different for every individual.

Deborah, the registered nutritionist here at GFBL, sees lots of people in her practice where their weight has crept on over the

by Ian Thackeray

years and despite repeated diets remains resolutely in place. My own experience with coeliac is that I lost a lot of weight before diagnosis, but that it’s gradually crept back on to an uncomfortable level over the last two years.

Here is a guide through the myths and legends of keeping yourself healthy through what you eat and the options to consider for anyone who wants to lose weight, reduce some the inches then stay that way.

Going back to our media, politicians and industry, what they have consistently told us particularly here in the UK and in the USA is ‘follow a low fat diet, high in carbohydrates and you will be healthy, lose weight and life will be wonderful’.

So why do we have a crisis in obesity, diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, heart disease, coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity and a whole range of other auto immune disorders. Has it not occurred to our lords and masters there

might be something wrong with what they are telling us to eat. There are enough voices, some of which are their own doctors and scientists, pointing to the error of their ways.

Do they listen? No, they sack the scientists and doctors who bring them the bad news and ignore the stark truths of their actions and inactions So where did this idea that low fat was good for you come from? It all started in the States but the rest of the World largely followed the new orthodoxy, particularly the UK and Australia.

Well, first you gather all the data from 22 countries and only pick the data from the 7 countries that fits your theory. The theory eventually ends up in front of the McGovern Senate Committee Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs in the mid 70’s.

Then you interview lots of eminent scientists of the day that all explain that theory is rubbish.You ignore them anyway and proceed to produce ‘Dietary Goals For The United States’ in 1977.

An almighty row ensues between the various competing interests the meat and dairy industry rightly very hacked off at being portrayed as the villain of the piece. In the furore of confusion created by the lobbyists of the vested interests, the problem with the rise in sugar consumption, the real villain here, gets ignored and lost, and a diet that has supported humanity for thousands of years is chucked in the bin in favor of mass produced processed food full of added sugar and modern transfats.

mentioned earlier.

Anybody that bothers to look at the body chemistry will very quickly understand that cholesterol, far from being the lurking menace in every pack of butter, egg and pint of full fat milk, is actually a key component and building block of nearly every cell in our body. Without cholesterol we would not exist.

Cholesterol has a key role in repairing damage done by inflammation. Now heart disease is a product of inflammation and oxidation so yes, you will see raised levels of cholesterol it’s fighting the inflammation. So what do our government along with the pharmaceutical industry and medicine do? Ignore the problems caused by inflammation and shoot the messenger ‘cholesterol’.

Yes, there is a bad element to cholesterol.

Cholesterol is split into two types, HDL ‘good cholesterol’ and LDL ‘bad cholesterol’. Except LDL isn’t all bad either, it too is has two types - A and B. A is a large fluffy cell that is part of the repair process and gets swept away. B is a small hard cell that penetrates the walls of artery creating the plaques that restrict the flow. Guess what creates these hard little cells, sugar!

I accept that I have simplified this hugely and it’s still quite complicated to get over. A lot harder to get over then a marketing slogan saying ‘cholesterol is bad for you. If you want the full technical explanation of what happens watch Robert Lustig’s films which are available on YouTube.

Our view, which is shared by many of our nutritionist colleagues, doctors and scientists around the World, is that our diet should be 50% vegetables with fruit as an occasional treat, the balance to be protein and carbohydrates. There should be a generous proportion of fat in there, from meat fat, dairy and good vegetable sources such as avocados and olive oil.

We don’t say ‘never have sugar ever’, it’s just that it should be a very occasional treat, rather than several times a day. And if you make your own cakes from our recipes, there will be less sugar in them than if you buy from the ‘free from’ shelves.

Whilst our body chemistry is complex and very clever, our diets can actually be quite simple. Stop eating processed food and cereals for breakfast (they are full of sugar). Buy whole food from the the meat, fish, dairy, vegetable and fruit aisles in your supermarkets or better still, local shops and markets, and cook it yourself.

Finally, whilst this article is a bit of a personal rant, every claim and comment I have made can be supported by excellent, well regarded science and research. Please do drop me a line at ian@gluten¬freebaking.co.uk if you want the references.

Have a great full fat Christmas and a happy, prosperous and low sugar New Year.

Despite the statement in the forward to the report ‘Dietary Goals for the United States’ “Without Government and industry commitment to good nutrition the American people will continue to eat themselves to poor health” That’s just what the American people have continued to do. “Eat themselves to poor health”.

What is happening in the USA is happening here too.

In the UK, 3.2 million people have diabetes, up from 1.4 million in 1996. It is estimated to rise to 5 million by 2025. 2.7 million people have heart disease and obesity is rising too. In 1993, 13% of men and 16% of women were obese. Now, 24% of women and 26% of men are obese. Clearly, government health advice hasn’t worked.

Let’s have a look at that demon cholesterol I 33

Guest Recipe from Free From Fusion

by Hannah Olding www.freefromfusion.com

I started Free From Fusion earlier this year as a place to share all my gluten free and dairy free recipes and as a place to tell people about any new gluten free food findings or restaurants I have discovered. I have a number of friends who have been recently diagnosed with a gluten intolerance or as a coeliac so it is great to be able to point them to my blog. I have had 6 years of getting used to my gluten intolerance and 2 years for my lactose intolerance so have quite a lot of experience finding the best ways to cope so it makes total sense to share what I have learnt over this time and to be able to help anyone else with this is amazing.

Being diagnosed as gluten intolerant or coeliac is really daunting and feels like a massively huge undertaking and I wanted to be able to show that you can still eat so many amazing foods and cook some fantastic meals which are often more simple to prepare than you may first think. I really enjoy cooking and love baking so finding gluten and dairy free alternatives for some of my favourite meals is a bit like a science experiment, it’s so rewarding when it goes right!

These chocolate orange cookies are one of my favourite recipes on the blog and they are perfect for Christmas time!

Chocolate orange is a definitely a flavour I associate with Christmas as Terry’s chocolate oranges make a regular appearance in most families stockings. With Christmas around the corner these cookies are great to have ready for when guests pop by, or to put on the mantelpiece for Santa.

Taking just 10 minutes to prepare and 12 minutes to bake, you can make a batch up in a catering emergency or if you are just craving something sweet. Luckily you will have most of these ingredients in your cupboard already.

In this recipe we used dark chocolate chips for naturally dairy free chocolate chunks but you could also swap these for dairy free milk or white chocolate chips, which you can find in Tesco’s or online.

These cookies have a delicious crunch on the outside with a lovely soft centre and are packed full of chocolate and flavour.

Be sure to check out www.freefromfusion. com over the next few weeks as many of the recipes and reviews posted on Monday and Fridays will be Christmas inspired to help you all have a wonderful free from Christmas.

Chocolate Orange Cookies

34

Ingredients: • 150g dairy free butter • 80g light brown sugar • 80g granulated sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract • 1 large egg • 225g GFBL gluten free plain flour • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda • 1/4 teaspoon salt • Zest of 1 and a half oranges • 200g dairy free dark chocolate chips Method: 1. Pre-heat oven to 190C. 2. Use a handheld whisk to cream the butter and sugars together in a large bowl.

3. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg until smooth.

4. Sieve the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture and mix with a wooden spoon, being sure to scrape the edges.You should end up with a thick mixture that looks

a bit like hummus.

5. Mix in the orange zest and chocolate chips thoroughly.

6. Line two or three baking trays with baking parchment and put a large tablespoon of mixture onto the parchment per cookie. (This mixture makes about 16 large cookies.) Make sure to leave plenty of space between the mounds of mixture as they will spread.

7. Pop in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown round the outside and soft on the inside.

8. Leave to set on the tray for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to fully cool.

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