Sweet Potato & Chickpea Brown Rice Baked Risotto

I was tempted to add 'Moroccan' to the title however it was already long enough and I don't really know a lot about Moroccan flavours but I think it might be close.  Regardless, it is and easy tasty one pot dish full of veggie goodness.

Ingredients

• Brown rice (medium grain works better than long or basmati)
• Sweet potato
• Chickpeas (tinned or re-hydrated)
• Celery (or onions if preferred)
• Greens (I use zucchini or beans or both)
• Stock (I usually uses Massel 7's chicken flavoured)
• Garlic
• Paprika (I usually used a lot of paprika including some smoked)
• Cumin
• Rosemary
• Coriander seeds
• Turmeric

Method

1.  Pre-heat the oven 180 degrees C
2.  Fry up the celery in a stove and oven safe pot with some oil
3. Add rice and garlic and continue frying for about 1-2 minutes
4. Add crumbled stock cubes, chopped sweet potato and pre-boiled water
• The quantity of water can be hard to judge but about twice as much as you have rice
5. Add herbs and spices
6. Bring to boil, put on the lid and place in the oven
7. After 20 minutes add chickpeas and greens.  Add water if required
8. Cook for a further 20 minutes in the oven
9. Serve on a bed of baby spinach and top with balsamic vinegar

Options and variations

• Add/substitute pumpkin to/for sweet potato
• Use beef flavoured stock for something different
• Add a tin of tomatoes and lessen the water a little

Vegan Chinese Soup

I've been trying to eat more vegetarian and vegan food for a few reasons; health, sustainability and cost. Plus it's a challenge to create something new and I'd just bought some black fungus. The problem I have is that I often struggle to feel full if I don't have any meat. I assume this is because of a lack of protein so I attempted to put together something filling, healthy and of course tasty! This is my first attempt and I'm making it up as I go along so I'm open to suggestions and this post is subject to improvement.

Recipe: Vegan Chinese Soup
Special Needs Categories: vegan with GF & FF options
Special Needs Translated: no meat or animal products

Ingredients:

• Onions (obviously avoid for fructose free - celery substitute)
• Firm tofu (check ingredients, particularly if flavoured)
• Dried shittake mushrooms
• Black Fungus
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrot
• Zucchini (some fructose intolerant people avoid this)
• Stock (obviously choose fit for purpose, 7's for FF GF & vegan)
• Soy sauce (pick a GF one if needed)
• Chinese five spice (check ingredients)
• rice wine
• ginger
• garlic
• chilli
• sesame oil
• noodles (again choose fit for purpose, check particularly for wheat, milk or egg content)
• fried onions & kecap manis (sweet soy) for seasoning (if you can eat them, GF & FF warning)

Method

Start by re-hydrating and marinating. Put black fungus and shittake's into separate bowls and cover with boiling water (not the black fungus expands a lot), they need to soak for 20-30 min.

For the marinade combine; soy sauce, ginger, tamarind paste, rice wine, Chinese 5 spice, few drops of sesame oil, some olive oil, chilli in a bowl with a little water to fill it out. Add a little crushed stock cube if you need more flavour. Cut the tofu into bite sized pieces and put in a bowl to marinade. I only marinaded for about 30 min which didn't impart a lot of flavour but I had also intended to fry the tofu before starting the soup till I decided I couldn't be bothered, will see if it adds more flavour next time.

Next fry up the onion (or celery) in a wok or saucepan, when it softens a little then add garlic. Fry a little longer and add stock.

Next slice the black fungus and add them, the shittake's and a little of their water to the wok/saucepan. I like to cook these a little longer than the rest of the of the veggies.

After a few minutes add your veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, zucchini) and the tofu (make sure you save the marinade).

Now all the main ingredients are in it's time to work on the flavour. First added some of the tofu marinade to get things started as it has most of the flavours you want. Then adjust with; rice wine (sharpness & tang), soy sauce (salt & flavour boost), Chinese 5 spice (complex spices), ginger (sharpness & base spice), chilli (heat & flavour), stock cubes (overall flavour), garlic (flavour boost). Then cook till veggies are ready.

While all this is going on prepare your noodles in another saucepan. Cook them for the amount to time recommended on the packet then drain and add them to your serving bowl. When the soup is ready you pour it over the time. Season with fried onions and kecap manis if like them.

Further thoughts:

• Maybe fry the tofu with the onion to see if it helps hold the flavour and add texture.

Gluten free chocolate self-saucing pudding

Everyone loves a good chocolate pudding, but those that know me know I'm don't do a lot of 'sweet' cooking.  Thankfully I can follow a recipe so here's a yummy recipe for a gluten free chocolate self-saucing pudding.

This pudding is gluten free, fructose friendly and (obviously) vegetarian, plus, if the milk and butter were swapped out for soy milk and Nuttelex then it would be vegan too (though I've never tried).  Anyway it's really easy, most of the ingredients can be found in the pantry (and fridge), and it's really really tasty.  Enjoy!

Tasty Baked Zucchini's (Gluten Free)

I don't really like zucchini's, and I know a few ppl in the same boat so I thought I'd attempt a recipe that makes them taste good.  So, here's a gluten free, fructose free, vegetarian recipe (with vegan variations) that's cheap, quick, easy to prepare and even I think is really yummy.

Recipe: Baked Zucchini
Special Needs Categories: gluten free, fructose free, vegetarian (vegan variation possible)
Special Needs Translated: no gluten, no onion, no meat (no cheese for vegan)

A non-fructose friendly version before
the cheese was added.

Ingredients:

• zucchini's (biggish ones, room enough to stuff & be a meal but if too big they don't taste good)
• celery
• corn (take off the cob)
• grated sweet potato
• tomato
• garlic
• herbs of your choice (I think I had basil & oregano)
• salt & pepper
• grated cheese

Method:
Split your zucchini's in half, length-ways and scoop out the seeds to create a hollow down the middle.  Take some of these insides and fry them off with the chopped celery, corn, sweet potato, tomato, garlic, herbes and salt & pepper.  Once the veggies have started to soften place the cut zucchini's onto a baking try and spoon the mixture into hollow.  Cover the tray with foil and cook in the oven for ~30 min at 180 deg C.
Once the zucchini's have softened remove the foil, cover with grated cheese (or not for vegan version), place back in the oven and increase the temperature for ~220 deg C for 5 min till the cheese is melted and starting to brown.
Serve on a bed of steamed rice, polenta, potatos (or couscous for non GF version).

Filling variations:

• Onion instead of celery (not fructose free)
• Parmesan cheese stirred through the filling mixture
• Top the zucchini with prosciutto (not vegetarian)
• anything else you want to throw in the filling!

The end product, YUM!  (Again, this is the non-fructose friendly version)

Notes: Often I struggle to get baking trays properly clean (particularly muffin tins), often there's a bit of a residue left behind.  While I think it's just an oil residue, when I'm cooking for someone who is is very gluten sensitive/allergic I'll line the tray with tin foil just to be safe.

Stir-fry sauce

One of the big problems with gluten free asian cooking is that almost all sauces have wheat based soy sauce and/or onion powder for those fructose free. I have found a gluten free oyster sauce, but that doesn't work if you are vegetarian or allergic to seafood, there are also vegetarian 'oyster' sauces, but I haven't found a gluten free version. So anyway, I've come up with a bit of a stir-fry sauce the I reckon tastes pretty good, it's only had a few iterations so I will continue to play with it a little.

Dish: Stir-Fry sauce
Special need categories: Gluten free, fructose free, vegetarian, shellfish allergy
Special needs translated: no gluten, no onion, no animal products, no shellfish

Ingredients:

• gluten free soy sauce
• little olive oil
• brown sugar (this is a substitute for palm sugar which looks to be high in fructose)
• corn flour (check it is gluten free, i.e. made from corn/maize)
• garlic (contain fructose but usually safe in small quantities)
• ginger
• chili
• tamarind paste (I don't think this is a high fructose fruit)
• chinese five spice (check the packet, some spices contain gluten or onion)
• rice vinegar, just a little
• a little water to make it less rich and go a bit further

Method

Basically it is just a matter of combining everything in a bowl and tasting it to see what you think. I use the brown sugar because I can't use ketchup manis like I normally would and the corn flour is a thickening agent. The tamarind paste is just a fruit paste that give a bit of a 'tang' to the dish, the vinegar does a little of the same. Chinese five spice is a great spice for just about any asian dish, the actual mix of spices varies but typically it is something like fennel, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, cassia, ginger and/or peppercorns. The rest is about as expected I would think. You could also add some onion powder to fill out the flavour a little if it didn't have to be fructose free.

I usually mix this up in a bowl before I start cooking, make it easier to get the flavours right (I used to put my individual ingredients straight ontop of the stir-frys before). When I'm cooking with unflavoured tofu I marinade it in the sauce for a while and just tip it all in together.

Otherwise I think that's about it, mix, match, add/subtract ingredients and flavours till you find something that works. Asian cooking has lots of gluten free options however it often means you have to go back to base ingredients because in many cases, you can't use pre-prepared sauce. Have fun with it!

Interesting links and info

This post is basically an information dump, earlier in the week my sister emailed me a whole list of info on special dietary needs she put together for a catering course, plus I've been doing some searching of my own and getting some good info from comments.

Allergies:
Allergy reference cards
Helpful reference cards that have lists of ingredients that contain major allergens: peanut, egg, milk, soy, crustacean, etc.

Gluten free / Coeliac Disease:
Gluten free diet information
Catering for those with coeliac disease
General information on Coeliac Disease and gluten free diet with the second link have a catering focus, both from Sue Shepherd's web site.

Fructose malabsorption:
Fructose Malabsorption Summary Fact Sheet by Sue Shepherd, Accredited Practising Dietitian. She also has some samples from her recipe books on her web site: here and here.

Vegetarian and Vegan:
http://www.theppk.com/ - Post Punk Kitchen, a public access vegan cooking show with lots of recipes.
http://www.vnv.org.au/- The Vegetarian Network Victoria with a vegetarian & vegan food products list.


Stores/food sources:
Absolutely Gluten Free - is located in Werribee, Victoria (also offer delivery) and stock a wide range of Gluten free products. I actually found them when searching for a particular fructose free stock (Massel 7’s stock ). Note: have not actually visited or contacted them yet.
Choices bakery - is a dedicated gluten free bakery in Sydney and sell both fresh and frozen products and delivers to some areas in NSW, VIC, ACT, QLD. Note: have not tried this guys either, the recommendation came from a friend that works there.
Spring Hill - is a company that makes a range of boutique slices and have a gluten free range, they also make my girlfriends favourite gluten free bread mix.
Silly Yaks - is a gluten free bakery and cafe located in Northote, Victoria and make a range of GF foods. Note: haven't been to this store either but hear many good things (and have some pizza bases to try).
Melbourne food services - a catering company that socks a gluten free range (though not listed on web site), discussed here.

So thank you to my sister Fiona for her info and to everyone else who has made suggestions, please feel free to add comments, the more info we can put together the better.

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!