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.

Gluten Free pasty take 2

You may have read about the shenanigans of my first encounter with pastry, well armed with some bought gluten free pastry sheets from Melbourne Food Services, I eventually got around to having another try. So as before:

Dish: Gluten free pastry/pasty
Special need categories: gluten free, low fructose
Special needs translated: no gluten, no onion

Pastry:

• Frozen gluten free puff pastry sheets

Filling:

• Potato
• Celery
• Sweet potato
• Corn cut off the cob
• Carrot
• Mushrooms
• Beef rump steak
• Massel 7’s Chicken stock
• Garlic (crushed)
• Oregano
• Rosemary
• Salt & pepper
• Butter

Method

As a variation on last time I decided to mash my potato to hold everything together a bit more and once again I wanted to pre-cook ingredients to save time and to ensure it was cooked through because it was going to be a bigish pastry.

Preheat oven to 180-200 deg C. (depending on size and oven)

Start by dicing, cooking & mashing the potato. I simply microwaved it in a pyrex dish and mashed with a fork, didn't add anything to it like I would when serving as a side dish.

Next dice all other filling ingredients and pre-cook them, again I used the microwave. I started with just the sweet potato in and added in the things that would take less time to cook as I went. It doesn't matter if everything isn't fully cooked as we are still going to bake it.

Add all filling ingredients except the butter to a bowl and mix through. I added a little olive oil to help things combine better.

When trying to separate my semi-defrosted pasty sheets I had a few breaks, so rather than making a traditional pasty shape I went for an over-sized sausage roll which was super easy and worked well.

Lay the pastry sheet out on a greased baking tray and put the filling down 1/3 of it, leaving some space on the outside edge to join it up. I piled it reasonably high and pushed/shaped it all together a bit as the potato will hold it in place (and everything will shrink when cooked anyway), then put a few small dobs of butter on the top. I used a fork to roughen the pasty surfaces that would be joined together and then folded the rest of the pastry sheet over the top. Spreading some melted butter on the join surface they just get pushed together and then the whole "sausage roll" is brushed with melted butter and place in oven. I think our took about 30 min too cook but it will depend on the size and temperature, because the filling was precooked it should be ready when the pastry looks good.

While it would have gone well with a good chutney/sauce/relish, we were late for a movie so we chopped it in half, wrapped it up in foil and ate as we walked to the cinema :)

Massel 7’s fructose friendly stock

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Update (14/7/2011): Massel to redevelop a 7's Fructose Friendly Formula
I just got an email from Mark at Massel to say:

"We have had many emails from people such as yourself and have now 'heard the call'. To this end I am happy to report that our R&D department is now working on an onion free version to cater for the Fructose Malabsorbtion community."

This is great news! Thanks to everyone that contacted Massel to request the change, and thanks to Massel for their quick action!
In the meantime continue checking your packets as I suspect it will take some time for the new formula to hit the shelves and I'll keep you informed with updates as soon as I know.
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Update (12/7/2011): WARNING.  Massel 7's stock now has ONION in it! The onion (and garlic) is clearly listed in the ingredients but the rest of the packaging is the same so be sure to check.  You may get lucky and find some made with the old onion free formula.  To the best of my knowledge this was the only fructose friendly stock on the market so it might be worth sending an email to Massel to request they change it back.
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To all those who can't eat fructose and missing out on yummy risottos and soups, then Massel 7’s stock is for you! (Thanks to my sister who put me onto this)

I had assumed that this was a specialty item, possibly not even made any more after speaking to a friend who couldn't find, checking my supermarket, and not finding it on Massel's web site. That was till my sister left a comment that said "I found it in Coles Mitcham last week . . . " (or something like that).

So on my next supermarket trip to Coles on Glenferrie Rd (Hawthorn), guess what I found . . .

They seem to come in chicken and beef stock cubes with very little advertising or marketing buzz words on the packet. They are both gluten free and vegan according to the ingredients it does not specify where the 'natural flavours' actually come from. It does not indicate it is fructose free however, the Massel's normal stock cubes have almost identical ingredients BUT they individually list the 'dehydrated vegetables' they contain which includes onion.

• Massel 7's chicken stock: Marine salt,rice flour, vegetable oil, sugar, natural flavors, yeast extracts, vegetable protein extract(soy derived), disodium inosinate and guanylate, herb extract
• Massel Chicken stock: Marine salt, rice flour, hydrogenated vegetable oil, sugar, yeast extract, vegetable flavours, vegetable protein extract (wheat derived), dehydrated vegetables (onion, celery, parsley).

I did find them listed on the Allergy Block web site as; Gluten free, Egg free, Nut free, Dairy free, Low fat, Vegan, Vegetarian, Halal.

So to the best of my knowledge they are 'fructose friendly' but I'd be interested to find some more concrete evidence on this. Drop me a comment if you can help!

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!