Food allergen and intolerance fact sheet

If you are ever cooking for someone with a food allergy then this fact sheet this is worth reading.  It's aimed at food businesses but is written in plain english and includes examples for things to watch out for and even has a section on cross-contamination.

Allergen and intolerance - Fact sheet for food businesses

This is just one of the documents put out by the Victorian Department of Health, there is heaps of other information under the Food section of their web site.

Yummy quick GF quiche

So I'm sitting at work on Thursday morning wondering what savoury, GF, low fructose dish I could take to a picnic that night when I have 1 hour to prepare it. My brain eventually got onto pasty (coz I had some in the freezer) and then I eventually thought of quiche, that's a picnic food! So I did a few quick web searches and got a feel for the general method/cook time and wend shopping for the remaining ingredients. On arriving home I went into a mad rush trying to prepare the quiche (having never made one before) and a loaf of gf bread in 65 min and this is what I came up with, even if it took me 75 min . . .

Dish: Yummy quick quiche
Special need categories: Gluten free, low fructose
Special needs translated: Gluten free, no onion

Ingredients:

• gluten free pastry (I had a rough cut puff pastry)
• eggs 4-5
• milk 1-2 cups
• bacon (check it's gluten free)
• celery
• mushrooms
• tomato
• grated tasty cheese
• frozen spinach
• parsley
• oregano
• garlic
• salt & pepper

Method:

Start by pre-heating the oven to around 190 deg C. Then lightly oil your baking dish and lay the pasty inside. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for about 10 min.

While the crust is being pre-bake, cut up your solid ingredients and fry the bacon, celery and mushroom a pan, add the defrosted spinach, parsley and tomato to the pan right at the end to combine and heat through a little.

Whisk the eggs and mile together in a bowl and add the salt and pepper and oregano (this could have been added to the fry pan instead).

Next to assemble. Empty the pan into the baked crust, sprinkle some cheese over the top and then simply pure the egg mixture on top into the crust. I found I didn't quite have enough so whisked another egg (5th) with some soy milk (was all I had) to top it up.

Now I started baking without foil over the top and added it later but the other way around is probably a better idea. So, cover with foil and place in the oven. Bake for approx. 25 min, then remove foil and continue for another 10-20 min.

Now remember these are best guesses (as all my cooking is), I was fiddling with the temperature and time to try and speed things up a little and then left it covered in the heavy dish while in transit to try and continue the cooking a little more. Anyway, in the end, there was a small section very slightly under done but it was more than edible and tasted fantastic. It's also worth nothing that I ended up with a fairly deep quiche (fried up too many yummy fillings) and this would have affected the cooking time too.

Anyway in the end I headed out the door 10 min late with a quiche and a fresh baked loaf of GF bread, not a bad effort I think. Stay tuned for a quick review of the bread mix I used too!

Introduction

Welcome to my food blog!

What's this all about?
Well I'm basically just a guy who likes food, can cook a little and particularly likes cooking for friends. Somehow I have ended up doing rather a lot of cooking for people who have special dietary needs such as being wheat free, gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, fructose free (or low fructose). This site is all about sharing what I've learned, recipes, handy hits, useful substitutions and things to watch out for. I don't claim to be an expert but I think I do ok.

As a secondary focus I'm also hoping to look into the sustainability of our eating habits, I don't know much about this yet but I do think it is important and look forward to sharing what I learn.

What qualifications do I have?
None, well no formal qualification in cooking anyway. My experience comes from being brought up in the kitchen with a mother that loved to cook, having a sister that did a degree in nutrition and now does allergy research, friends that have special dietary needs and a general interest in these sort of things. Take for example my small group (bible study group), we currently have someone who needs a fructose free meal as well as a vegetarian and I love the challenge of coming up with something that is tasty, interesting, healthy and easy to cook for a group of 10 people. Add to this the fact I was once on a wheat free diet and have a girlfriend who is a coeliac, I've had a bit of practice.

What do you mean my sustainable eating?
Basically I want there to be resources for everyone in the world, now and in the future and from what I've heard, our current eating practices in the developed world can't really continue as they have been if this is to be a reality. I'll be looking at things like the quantity of meat that we eat and the distance that food has to travel to get to our plates.

How often will you post?
Truth be told, I have no idea. Whenever I have an idea and get the chance. The fact is it may not be often but I do hope that this will be an ever growing resource that I hope you will be able to help me with so let me know if you have any ideas!