Gluten Free Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Ok, not quite! Not even that close but it’s that time of year again when the shops are starting to get full of Christmas cards and decorations, soon we will be digging out our Christmas jumpers and Christmas songs will be on the radio. I thought I would do a post about how I survived Christmas gluten free. My family isn’t very religious, for me Christmas is about family, being with people you don’t see much at other times of the year, exchanging presents, having fun and eating and drinking together.

Last Christmas was particularly good for gluten free – we had gluten free beer on tap:

This was Hambletons GFA- my personal favourite of the gluten free beers available. It tasted just like normal beer but with a slightly sweet after taste. Really nice to be able to have beer! You used to be able to buy this in Tesco but I haven't seen it for a long time. You can get it delivered directly from the brewery, with free delivery, as I have recently discovered. 

For some reason, traditionally we always have lasagne on Christmas eve, this was made with gluten free lasagne and gluten free garlic bread:

I find gluten free lasagne works just the same as normal lasagne, and I made the garlic bread using a shop bought gf roll with garlic butter on it.

Made a loaf of bread for turkey sandwiches, this was the large white oven loaf:

 

Deliciously juicy turkey:

We made gf bread sauce as well, which I didn’t take a photo of, but we just followed the normal technique but used gluten free bread instead- it worked well. We also tried making it with milk and polenta, but this just ended up being polenta so you couldn’t really call it bread sauce. We make gluten free gravy using gluten free flour instead of normal flour, and it works just as well, sometimes it’s a bit thinner but it’s usually ok.

We also had gluten free Christmas pudding, I can’t remember where it was from - I think it was probably Waitrose. I soaked it in rum and set it on fire which was fun. It tasted good although I don’t really like rich fruity things that much:

There were all sorts of non-gluten free things knocking about (bread, bread sauce, biscuits etc.) but we just made sure to keep these separate. Had separate sections of the boxing day buffet for gluten free stuff so we didn’t get mixed up. I had plenty to eat and it was a very Merry Christmas indeed!

Gluten Free eating in Spain

Since my diagnosis I've been very anxious about going abroad and having to face the same issues of trying to explain what I can and cannot eat somewhere where I have only a very basic grasp of the language. I was overwhelmingly surprised by how easy it was for me to follow a gluten free diet in Spain, the main response being that of course they had heard about a gluten free diet and were able to cater for my needs, and a slight look of confusion in response to how worried I looked about this issue. I didn't come across anywhere I wasn't able to eat, so if you're planning a trip to Spain- don't worry, you'll get along just fine!

What you need to say:

Sin gluten= without gluten, both gluten and sin are pronounced exactly as they are in English. It really is that simple!

Useful resources:

List of gluten containing ingredients- I found this page from a Spain gluten free blog really useful because of the list of foods which contain gluten, which I printed and took around supermarkets when looking at ingredients lists. However, many products in Spain are labelled 'sin gluten' to make life even easier!

Directory of gluten free restaurants- This website was amazing, to begin with it looks like it lists only chains like McDonalds, but on closer inspection it has several independent restaurants on it too.

Gluten Free Passport- I didn't actually take this along with me this time, I made my own. When someone is not aware of the diet I find it is helpful also to have a list of foods you can eat, milk, eggs, corn, potatoes etc. because sometimes people assume you can't eat anything that people are sometimes allergic to, leading to a very bland meal! Having said this, I never actually found occasion to have to use the gluten free restaurant card that I had made myself, because everyone was so well informed. 

Food Highlights:

       Clockwise from top left- bread at Rhonda parador, amuse-bouche at Rhonda parador
              (gluten containing version on left, gluten free version on right), message on menu, part of bread
at Malaga parador

Parador, a well known chain of hotels has an agreement with the coeliac society of Spain to provide gluten free food, including bread. We visited two paradores on our trip, one in Rhonda and one in Malaga. It was comforting knowing that this was an option to fall back on when you had run out of time to wonder around looking for somewhere to eat. The food was decent and the portion sizes were huge! in the malaga parador I got two huge gluten free baguettes that had been warmed in the oven, and my starter was scrambled egg and asparagus which must have been made with at least 4 eggs! I made myself a sandwich for the plane which was very handy.

Top panel clockwise from top left: fried fish at Restaurant Marymar- Marbella, mini burgers at La Trilla, Marbella (LTM), bread rolls at LTM. Bottom panel clockwise from left,: assorted croquette at LTM, Beiker Pan Tostado from supermarket, Kid chops at La Bodeguita de enmedio, Casares

My two favourite restaurants were Marymar, and La Trilla both in Marbella. Marymar was owned by a chef with a coeliac daughter, and specialised in fried fish, I had mixed marinated fish which was fried in a gluten free batter. It was very good, unfortunately the restaurant seems to have closed since I went.

La Trilla was an amazing tapas restaurant, almost their entire menu was gluten free. We visited at lunch and were the only table in there, but it didn't matter. I had gluten free bread rolls which were really tasty, buttery, fluffy and shaped in lovely little swirls, with hidden treats in the middle like a hazelnut or an olive. The mini burgers were delicious, the one I had was tuna and sea lettuce and tasted really good. The mixed croquettes were a little disappointing, the ham one didn't taste of much and the cheese one was very strong blue cheese. However, there was one which was 'chicken soup' flavoured and this was magnificent, really gooey and tasted like chicken soup which I've always been a big fan of! I've included a picture of Pan Tostado, which is basically little squares of toasted bread, I've not come across these in the UK, but I haven't looked very hard. They were really nice along side a salad and stay fresh better than a loaf of bread.

The most anxious experience I had was at La Bodeguita de enmedio, Casares, because the waiter didn't speak any English at all, at this lovely little restaurant in the square in Casares. It was fine though because he understood what I was talking about, and I was able to eat kid (goat) chops followed by a flan caramel. 

Our nearest supermarket was Mercadona, and we also tried Lidl, both of which had plenty of products that were gluten free.
If you do a little research before you travel and know what to say you will get on fine and be able to eat some amazing gluten free food in Spain.

Gluten Free Baking: GFOASS- lean crusty white sandwich bread

I got the recipe book ‘Gluten Free on a Shoestring (GFOAS) Bakes Bread’ for Christmas, it’s written by Nicole Hunn, author of the blog by the same name. The recipes are vastly different from those I’ve tried before, which were mainly using a batter. It took me a LONG time to compile the ingredients and cost A LOT of money! I had purchased almost all the ingredients, including whey protein isolate which cost around £13 (enough to make ~2 loaves), when I realised that one of the ingredients, expandex modified tapioca starch, is not available in Europe! I really thought that was the end of the road for a time, until I read here (number 6) about the replacement, Ultratex, which cost about £23 including delivery! However, I have only used a miniscule amount so far. So I mixed up my gluten free flours in a large tub, and headed back to Glasgow ready to bake my first loaf. I’d decided on the loaf ‘Lean Crusty White Sandwich Bread’, because it said that it was going to change my life! Reading through the recipe I encountered another problem- one of the stages requires a bowl of dough to be left in the fridge for 12 hours-5 days. Which means that I had to carefully coordinate everything to when my flatmate and I had an almost empty fridge!

So first I had to make a starter, which was basically the flour mix, yeast, sugar and warm water whisked up. This is what it looked like:

I left it in a warm place for about 40 minutes and it grew into this:

I mixed the remaining dry ingredients:

And added the starter to them:

This is where I met my next problem which, ultimately, lead to my downfall. I was supposed to knead the dough in a stand mixer with a dough hook. I don’t have a stand mixer, so I had to improvise. The book suggested using a wooden spoon. I put the ingredients for the dough into a bowl and attempted to mix them with a wooden spoon. It really wasn’t possible; it was like trying to stir play dough- something that is basically solid. I opted instead for kneading by hand; the mixture was so sticky I didn’t dare put it onto my work surface. I air kneaded the dough, which basically involved pulling it apart with my hands and pushing it back together again. I did this for a full 10 minutes! I could feel it drying on my hands, like a clay facemask, but I persisted because I felt like kneading by hand for 10 minutes was roughly equivalent to kneading on medium speed in a machine for 5 minutes. Of course, the problem was my hands were hot, whilst a dough hook would be fairly cold. I wasn’t really sure what the dough should feel like at this point, so I carried on, and put it into an oiled bowl in the fridge for about 36 hours:

When I was ready to bake, I greased my baking ‘tin’:

This is what my dough looked like before I got going:

I added a bit more flour and turned it over on itself a few times, as per the instructions, and managed to shape the dough fairly successfully:

I then set it aside for rising:

I left it for about 2 ½ hours, it hadn’t quite risen to the top of the tin, but I didn’t want to leave it any longer because the recipe said only around 1 ½ hours:

I made the slash and it was ready for the oven:

To cook it I had to put it in the cold oven and then turn the oven on, which I was a bit worried about but it turned out ok. Here it is just after cooking:

This is the loaf out of its tin:

It certainly looked the part, and smelt good. However, it’s when I tried to cut the loaf that my heart sank. It was hard, really hard, to cut through. This is what it looked like inside:

It had a very dense crumb and was pretty dry. The texture was pretty bad if I’m honest, really dry and stale-like. The crust was pretty good, and the flavour was very good. It tasted just like bread! The flavour was quite sweet and yeasty, with a slightly acidic tanginess. This is what a single slice looks like:

Overall, I’m very disappointed. The book is called gluten free on a shoestring, meaning cheap, and this is far from it! It’s hard to estimate the real cost per loaf because I used different amounts of each flour, but it can’t have been far off £10! I get gluten free food on prescription, and living in Scotland there’s no prescription charge, so a loaf has to be really special for it to be worth forking out on time and time again. It just didn’t live up to my expectation of it, as a lean crusty white tasty loaf. Now I’m left with around enough mix to make one more loaf from this book, and I don’t know what to do with it! I don’t want to be disappointed again, I want to bake something that’s going to work!

Gluten free versions of food

I thought people might be interested if I made a post that showed some examples of when I, and another person I'm eating out with have ordered the exact same dish, but I have asked for the gluten free version of the food. I've taken pictures of a few examples which I will show side-by-side.

The butterfly and the pig gluten free burger

Gluten containing version

The difference here is pretty obvious, the gluten free version has a different bread to the gluten containing version. It also happens to have bacon, but that's fairly irrelevant. This was from the butterfly and the pig, a quirky restaurant which has recently opened a new restaurant in the west end of Glasgow.

Gluten free curry accompaniments, Las Iguanas, Deansgate Manchester

Gluten containing version

Ok, I admit these photos are pretty stupid. I forgot to take any once we'd actually put the curry onto the dish, as it was to the side in a pan over a tealight- whoops! The main difference here is the absence of a fried plantain (banana type thing) in the gluten free version. I think I also got extra rice as compensation. Las Iguanas is a chain of Brazilian restaurants, with a dedicated gluten free menu. I find the food really rich and tasty.

Gluten free eggs benedict, Tea Hive, Chorlton, Manchester 

Gluten Containing version

Eggs benedict is one of my all time favourite breakfasts when I'm out. Again, the difference here is the bread, which is gluten free toast rather than a breakfast muffin. The toast wouldn't be as absorbent as the muffin but this is compensated for by the fact the bread is usually bigger. Tea Hive is a cafe in the trendy Chorlton-cum-Hardy suburb of Manchester.

 Gluten free Ham Hock Terrine, The Harbour Inn, Bowmore, Islay, Scotland

Gluten containing version

This is a ham hock terrine with pickled quails egg, broad bean and shallot salad, rye crumbs, apple gel. The difference in the gluten free version is that the rye crumbs are missing, this can handily be seen in the bottom picture where the quail egg has rolled away and revealed the crumbs. The Harbour Inn is a great hotel and restaurant on the Hebridean Island of Islay, which I visited this summer. There were excellent views and great food.

Gluten Free Halibut, The Harbour Inn, Bowmore, Islay, Scotland

Gluten containing version

This is the main course from the same restaurant, which is halibut poached in olive oil, nettle spätzle, savoury granola, samphire, rocket pistou, vierge garnish. The crusty topping is missing from the gluten free version, which is presumably the savoury granola. It was very tasty.

 

Gluten free plain scone, Peak View Tearoom 

Gluten containing version

The scone was completely different to the gluten containing one, and it looked different too. It looked somewhat more authentic and fresh, or perhaps just less perfectly shaped than its gluten containing cousin. My mum tells me that the gluten free scone was a bit drier and more crumbley than her gluten one, but the taste is possibly better in the gluten free version. Peak View Tearoom is a nice cafe on the edge of the peak district, with an exciting gluten free menu.

Gluten free lobster thermidor, The Wensleydale Heifer, West Witton, North Yorkshire

Gluten containing version?

These dishes certainly looked very similar, however, one was announced as gluten free on arrival so you would assume there's a difference. The bottom image looks like it has a thicker skin on it, so maybe they've added some kind of cheese sauce that is missing from the gluten free version. Nevertheless, it was absolutely delicious. The Wensleydale Heifer is a restaurant with rooms in Yorkshire which specialises in seafood dishes.

And finally, since there's no place like home...

Gluten free garlic bread, home, Christmas Eve

Gluten containing version

This gluten free garlic bread was made using the gluten free kitchens' white rolls, it worked pretty well and tasted good. The gluten free kitchen is a dedicated gluten free bakery in Yorkshire, I'm planning to dedicate a post to them once I've sampled all the massive amounts of food I bought from them just before Christmas.

 I hope you found it interesting to see the differences between gluten free and gluten containing versions of things. Usually it's something obvious like bread or bread crumbs but sometimes it's something more unusual like the plantain.

Diagnosis of coeliac disease

Having written a lot of posts about restaurants, cooking and other experiences, I thought it was about time I shared my experience of becoming a coeliac- how I was diagnosed. My hope is that if anyone out there is wondering if they are a coeliac and not sure how the diagnosis procedure happens or where to start with the gluten free diet this will provide some useful information.

            I was formally diagnosed with coeliac disease inn June 2012, aged 19. Statistically, the average time to diagnose coeliac disease from onset of symptoms to formal diagnosis is a whopping 13 years. As I understand it, coeliac disease is not necessarily something you have from birth, but onset is caused by a variety of triggers in susceptible individuals. For example, strong antibiotics can trigger onset, which makes sense because they kill even the good bacteria in the gut, which leaves the body more vulnerable. I’ve also read that quitting smoking after smoking for several years can trigger onset, which is interesting, and probably not something you want to tell someone who’s trying to quit!

            For me, my main symptom of coeliac disease was nausea, which I experienced when I woke up or at other times through the day. Sometimes it would cause me to vomit. I also had some diarrhoea or constipation. Another thing that affected me often was general illness- I always had an infection of some kind, colds, chest infections, UTIs. I went to the doctors over Christmas time 2011, complaining of nausea. At the time I thought I might be lactose intolerant, because I eat a large amount of cheese. The doctor did a wide array of blood tests for all sorts of things, including coeliac disease. The test results take about 2 weeks to come back and I got letter saying they were positive just before I went back to uni.

            I now had the task of getting follow up advice back in Scotland. It’s people like me who are the victims of the confusion caused by Scotland having a separate NHS to England and Wales. In Glasgow I was able to persuade my surgery in England to fax the blood test results to my Glasgow GP. I was then referred to the gastroenterology endoscopy specialist. At this point my symptoms had more or less gone away, but I was still suffering from a long lasting chest infection.

            The second stage of diagnosis is a small intestine biopsy, which involves a tube with a small camera and other equipment being passed down the throat, through the stomach and into the first part of the small intestine. Or ‘swallowing the sword’ as my also coeliac Grandfather calls it. The reason this is done is to confirm the diagnosis of coeliac disease, as false positive blood results are possible and may indicate more rare conditions. Additionally, the biopsy is useful for revealing the levels of damage to the villi of the small intestine to help determine if any vitamin supplements are necessary. The procedure itself was not too bad really; you could choose whether or not to have sedation. I chose not to because it meant I didn’t need to be in hospital for as long. They spray a banana flavoured local anaesthetic into your mouth, which you’re told to swill with. I remember that it was banana flavoured because the nurse asked if I was allergic to banana (I’m allergic to several fruit and veg), and even if I was I’m pretty sure a banana had been nowhere near that spray! Then they pass the tube into your throat and you have to swallow it. They pump your stomach full of air so that they can see the stomach (it’s empty because you’ve not been allowed to eat) so you burp quite a lot. It sort of feels like you are being sick, but of course you’re not because you’re stomach is empty. Actually inside you can’t really feel all that much, and the whole procedure is over in 10-20 mins. Then they give you a piece of paper telling you not to eat for an hour and to go straight to A and E if you start vomiting blood (as if you wouldn’t anyway?!). I sat around for a few minutes until they were satisfied I wouldn’t pass out or anything and then I was free to go. Personally I get really grouchy if I skip a meal, so I started eating pretty much as soon as I left the hospital, and was probably eating a hearty lunch before my allocated hour was up. It didn’t do me any harm, and I’m not one for religiously following medical advice (of course I won’t drink when I’m on those antibiotics, but whisky doesn’t count- right?).

            No one told me how I would get the results, they only told me that I wouldn’t get it through the post, I wouldn’t get them over the phone and there was no way I could get them in person. What options does that leave? Semaphore?! Anyway it had been a long wait to hear anything, I rang my own GP and they’d heard nothing. At this point I was living back in England on the long summer break, which didn’t help with keeping up with what was going on. I’d more or less given up hope of ever knowing the results until I was living back in Glasgow. It must have been 6-8 weeks later when I got the results. It was a letter which said something short and to the point akin to ‘your recent biopsy confirms diagnosis of coeliac disease’. I cried. I’d almost managed to convince myself that I wasn’t coeliac; I was symptom free and healthy! I knew this would affect me for the rest of my life.

            I’ll tell you about how I came to terms with my diagnosis and slowly converted my life to be free from gluten in another post, because this one seems pretty long already!