Graduation Afternoon Tea!

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Hello again! Its been a while…I’ve spent the last few months focusing on finishing university, writing my dissertation and enjoying the restaurants and bars York has to offer! (which consists of a surprising amount of gluten-free restaurants!). So I thought I would do a quick blog post to re-start my blog up now I have some more time on my hands and a better kitchen for baking and cooking in! So more recipes to come soon….

But thought I would write about the most amazing afternoon tea experience I have had. I travelled up to York for my friends graduation (two days before my own) and her lovely family had invited me out for afternoon tea, pre-graduation ceremony. Now for a coeliac the idea of afternoon tea is somewhat petrifying…sandwiches, cakes, scones and all sorts of gluten-filled little devils! However, I had the experience of a completely gluten-free afternoon tea…amazing, I know!

We visited the Cedar Court Hotel, which is just opposite the train station in York. The hotel itself is very grand, beautiful and luxurious so the perfect setting for a graduation celebration! My friend had phoned up in advance to explain that I couldn’t eat gluten and would need an alternative…so I though they may do me a gluten free sandwich and a cake or would bring me some antipasti or a salad or something….but oh how wrong I was!!

When we sat down for lunch the waitresses bought out an array of sandwiches for those lucky gluten eaters...smoked salmon and dill, egg, ham and mustard, chicken and cream cheese and dill…it all looked very lovely. I thought that there was no chance I would get anything like that…it’s such a faff for the kitchen to do an array of coeliac sandwiches and probably not worth the time or effort. But then the bought my plate out…which was to my shock, the exact same as the normal sandwiches! I had the exact same fillings, with different types of bread, all impeccably presented and they tasted delicious! So nice to the point I as sceptical whether they were even gluten free or not (do not fear, they were)!

Next came desert, I had seen the waitresses bring desert out for other tables of customers and they looked amazing…scones and clotted cream, chocolate puddings, mini lemon meringue pies and some fruit cake. Now no way did I expect to get the same as everyone else…I mean how often can they get gluten free requests? Surely they can’t get enough to make such a wide range of deserts for special people like myself? But OH NO once again, they smashed through my expectations and bought out gluten free scones, brownies, lemon meringue pies, victoria sponge and a trifle! Once again, they were to die for! They were so delicious it was untrue! I couldn’t believe my luck! Although I was beyond full when I was half way through pudding, I refused to leave even a little morsel left on my plate as so much effort had gone into creating the delicious food for me! And how often do you find a place like that!? I ate every single last bite and loved it! The only disappointment was that I hadn’t found this place sooner…although it would have probably increased my weight and decreased my disposable income!!

York has so many brilliant places to offer for coeliacs, and I have never been disappointed….but if you are ever in York and fancy a treat…call the Cedar Court Hotel in advance and get yourself an afternoon tea! I can assure you…you will not be disappointed!

Chickpea and Mushroom Burgers (Gluten Free…of course!)

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So I was looking in my new cookbooks for recipes for chickpea and mushroom burgers – I cook most nights with my veggie house mate, so I wanted to find something new to cook. All of the recipies included a MILLION ingredients, took ages to cook and were a bit of a faf….so I experimented….and they turned out to be delicious and a hit with all of my house mates! So they are definitely one to try! Even if you are a bit of a classic burger lover (like myself) these work out as a nice alternative if you are cooking for a vegetarian or just fancy something a little bit healthier!

The beauty of these are that they feel super bad for you, but they aren’t! They are absolutely fantastic for you. Chickpeas are a great source of fiber, protein and iron. Which is great for both vegetarians and coeliacs! It means that this recipe makes a whole load of burgers and they will fill you up and satisfy any craving for something unhealthy (even though they’re really not!). Chickpeas also lower cholesterol and are low in GI….all round a good one to get in your diet!

Another beautiful part of this recipe is that it is dirt-cheap. As a student I am always searching for delicious recipes but that are cheap at the same time. I use the cheapest tin of chickpeas, a normal pack of mushrooms and basic onions. All in all the whole recipe costs less than £2.20, and if you don’t eat like a king, or if you add some sweet potato wedges or a salad, this will easily feed 4 people.

Ingredients:

2 onions

4 cloves of garlic

1 packet of mushrooms (Just the average pack of button mushrooms from the supermarket will do fine!)

1 can of chickpeas

1 gluten-free brown bread roll

Spices of your choice (I used turmeric, mixed spice, salt, pepper and ground chilies)

4 tbsp gluten-free flour

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1.     Finely chop onions and garlic and fry with a little olive oil

2.     Whilst they are frying, finely chop a packet of mushrooms (if you are a fancy pants, a food processor will do this a lot quicker!)

3.     Add the mushrooms into the frying pan

4.     Drain the chickpeas and blend them until they are mashed up ….I didn’t fully pulverize them as its night to have a bit of a bite in the burger

5.     Add the chickpeas to the pan

6.     Use the blender to make breadcrumbs out of the bread roll

7.     Add to frying pan

8.     Add spices and sesame seed oil

9.     Once fried leave to cool slightly and put some flour on a plate

10. Make little patties out of the mixture and roll in gluten-free flour…WARNING this bit is messy, you can use spoons if you don’t want to get your hands messy.

11. Re-fry the patties in a little bit of olive oil, flipping onto the other side after about 2-4 minutes (depending on the heat and the frying pan itself!)

There you have it! Simple! There are a lot of instructions, but its all basic cooking…super easy and really yummy!

I hope you enjoy them!

P.S. A Students kitchen isn't too photogenic, hence the lack of beautiful photos!

Gluten is my Bitch

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I am having a bad gluten day today. A bad gluten day – for me – doesn’t mean I have eaten gluten and become horrifically ill. It is more a day of wallowing in self-pity – which I think is allowed occasionally seeing as all coeliacs can no longer enjoy cheep bread, a dunkin donut or eat out without experiencing some serious stress! Today it was spurred on by the fact that because I live in a gluten eating household so I use toaster bags to make my toast in the mornings. This morning they failed me. Instead of making toast I ended up with some soggy stale bread which I only ate because I had nothing else in the house that would have constituted a decent breakfast. It was stale soggy bread or nothing.  

Sometimes these bad gluten days just happen out of the blue – when you just want to be normal again and your sick of feeling like the odd one out and sick of being so careful all the time!

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! Something that has completely cheered me up today – the book by April Peveteaux – Gluten is my Bitch.

I have been reading this all week and it is truly brilliant. Although it has caused me some embarrassment – laughing to myself on the bus to work – and also reading a book with ‘BITCH’ in huge letters on the bus whilst surrounded by children on the way to school – the book is brilliant.

I recommend any coeliac going and buying it NOW! It is hysterical. It also makes you feel less alone – someone else is experiencing the EXACT same problems, and has found ways to help you over come them! What more could you want? Peveteaux describes her situation – the anger, the annoyance of it all and missing those delicious foods that you can not longer have. She also shows you that it is ok to be angry every now and again, it is going to happen!  However, she also offers a huge amount of advice and every time I pick up the book I learn something new! (And usually fine a mistake I have been making for the past year!). It is a book filled with advice, hysterical stories and recipes and has really made my day a great deal better.

The book is such an easy read, Peveteaux writes almost how someone would talk, causal, funny and yet informative. It is light hearted, yet attacks the real serious hurdles you come across being a coeliac. The book is excellently written, and so good that members of my family have sat down and read it all in a day!

So for any coeliacs in need of a pick me up – instead of reaching for the gluten-free chocolate bar or just sitting around for a day wallowing in self pity, pick up this book! It will really cheer you up – and make you laugh to yourself in public. 

You can buy Gluten is my Bitch at a really reasonable price on amazon...as its not one of those commonly stocked books in library (unfortunately!) 

Here is the link just in case any of you fancied looking! : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CPZNL6S/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00CPZNL6S&linkCode=as2&tag=thegincoe-21