Massel 7’s no longer fructose friendly

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Update (25/3/2014): Chicken stock onion and garlic free
I'm pretty sure this happened over a year ago but I thought I should still report it here.  The chicken stock is specifically lists 'Contains not onion or garlic'.  
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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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I recently heard that Massel now puts onion in their "7's" stock.  Beware!  The onion (and garlic) is clearly listed in the ingredients but the rest of the packaging is the same so be sure to check.
As far as I know this was the only fructose friendly stock you could buy, not only that but it was also gluten free, vegan, cheap and tasted good.  For me it was the perfect stock to use when cooking for a variety of different dietary needs.  I have no idea why they changed it but there are a lot of people that would like it changed back.  If you are one of them then please contact Massel and let them know you liked it the way it was, without the onion.
Also if you know where to find some of the old formula for sale somewhere then let us know in the comments!

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.

Food Photography

I may have mentioned or you may have noticed a distinct lack of food photos on this blog.  While it would be nice to have some more there's actually a whole lot of irony in this little fact as I am actually a photographer and last year had several commercial food photography jobs!  If you want a look at some of my shots here's a link to the post on my photography blog: Commercial food photography.

Now all that being said, there are some pretty good reasons I don't take more photos but *fingers crossed* I can bring you some more photos soon!

Gluten Free Sausages in Tomato Sauce

This is a really easy and tasty variation on the standard meat and veg meal meal made from whatever was in the fridge and cupboard at the time.  The only problem is I cooked this at least a month ago, so what was it I actually did...

Recipe: Sausages in tomato sauce
Special Needs Categories: gluten free, fructose free
Special Needs Translated: no gluten, no onion

Ingredients:

• sausages, go for some nice ones (make sure they are gluten free and don't have onion)
• celery
• garlic
• tomato puree (make sure it is just tomato as many have onion and some have gluten)
• favorite herbs, think Italian, oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme
• broccoli/beans/corn/carrot (whatever veg you have & like)
• tomato paste if you like it to be rich (check for gluten)

Method:
Start with a fry pan that will be able to fit all the sausages and sauce you are making, it helps if it has a lid.  If it it much bigger than the sausages then you'll need a lot of sauce to cover them, if it's too small then obviously it won't fit.
Simply fry of the sausages and as they are almost cooked, add the chopped celery and garlic.  Fry this off while the sausages finish cooking then add enough tomato puree to cover the sausages.  Add your herbs and any veggies and cook on a slow simmer for 10-20 min or until the veggies are cooked.  Serve with mashed potatoes or some toasted bread, gluten free of course.

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!

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.

Fructose Friendly Gado-gado

This one is always popular, healthy and works well for large groups since everything is cooked separately and combined at the end.  Having the sauce over the top of steamed potatos and a salad was shown to me by a Tasmanian friend's dutch mother who lived in Indonesia for many years, she didn't give up her sauce secrets but I reckon this one is pretty good!

Recipe: Fructose Friendly Gado-gado (peanut sauce)
Special Needs Categories: gluten free, fructose free, (vegan variation possible)
Special Needs Translated: no gluten, no onion, (no fish or egg)

Sauce ingredients:

• peanut butter (I like crunchy) (check if gluten free)
• gluten free soy sauce
• chili
• garlic
• fish sauce (don't use for vegetarian/vegan)
• chinese five spice (Check if gluten free)
• coriander (dried)
• water

Method:
Really simple, combine all ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat.  I usually microwave the peanut butter to soften it a little and help get it out of the jar, then heat it a little on it's own before adding other ingredients.  When you add the water it usually doesn't look like it will mix in but just keep stirring.  Add the water till you get your desired consistency.  Make sure there's plenty of flavour in there as this is what really makes the dish.  (If I wasn't making this fructose friendly I'd have onion in the sauce too, semi-fine chopped and fried a little before you add the other ingredients.)

now the rest of the dish...

Ingredients:

• steamed rice
• steamed potato (& sweet potato if you like)
• chinese cabbage
• cucumber
• bean sprouts
• snow peas
• other assorted salad ingredients
• hard boiled egg (not for vegan dish)
• fresh coriander

 simply combine on a plate (rice then potato then salad with eggs on the side) and pour over the gado-gado sauce!  You can make a salad with the fresh ingredients or just allow people to pick and choose.