dinner at our favourite restaurant - flavours of india in gungahlin.

He insisted on ordering the vindaloo described as 'very very hot' lol

---- Sent from my 3 mobile

It's ALL gluten free at Deeks in Dickson ACT :)

I've just been tweeting with a young girl in the US who was bemoaning the fact she has to drive 40 minutes to get a gluten free meal, and has to order most of her food online (mail order shopping is much more a part of life in the US than in Australia though). It has made me feel very grateful for what is available in Canberra and in Australia!! but I thought that any gluten free visitors, especially those from overseas, might like to read about where we buy all our gluten free supplies and food.

Gluten Free Supplies:

• Aldi (we buy these things). I shop here probably once a fortnight.
  
• Coles and Woolies - they tend to have different stock so I do shop at both, though Woolies more often as they are more local. I can use my Coeliac Society discount card at Coles though. They both have a selection of gluten free products in the health food section & frozen section, as well as a lot of products that just happen to be gluten free. I get Rora's bread (Country Life) when i haven't baked any, Diego's corn tortillas (Coles) and San Remo pasta from there. I usually shop in one or the other at least once a fortnight or more.
  
• Occasionally I shop at IGA (national chain) or Supabarn (a local chain) - both of them have quite a good choice of GF products that the larger chains doesn't stock, and IGA actually marks the GF products on the shelf.
• I manage to find a lot of GF products in the discount stores such as GoLo, the Reject Shop or the $2 shop. This is the easiest place to buy lollies of all kinds in my experience. I can also often buy GF snacks such as Rice Rounds, Mamee Snacks and Rice Wheels for less than in the supermarkets.
• Toys R Us is another good place to buy lollies and marshmallows
• I get most of my health food store ingredients such as GF flour in bulk and nuts in bulk from the health food store at the Belconnen Markets (Natural Living) or the Organic Store (As Nature Intended)
  
• Indian ingredients and products I can find elsewhere - such as jowar or sorghum flour i get from Bharat International Shop in belconnen. (it's a great place to eat too!)
• All of the places above are within 10-15 minutes of home. If i want to go a bit further afield and see what different products I can find I have occasionally been to Mountain Creek Wholefoods
• I can also get some GF supplies at our fruit & vegie shop Choku Bai Jo (which we don't get to as often now that neither of us work in the area :()
• Other shops that we don't use include Brumby's Bakery (am lol at them having a GF FAQ with no answer) and Deeks Bakery (though my saviour when Rora was first diagnosed)
  

So far I haven't had to buy anything online, though if I could buy in bulk and save by ordering from somewhere great online I'd love to!!

Muffin Break in Campbelltown NSW

As for eating out, we are very lucky here in Canberra, there are lots of places we can eat out. For a morning or afternoon tea the choice might not huge but most cafes in Canberra will have GF options such as a cookie (most likely) or a cake. Cafes that we know will always have something include:

• Gloria Jeans almost always has 1-2 cookies (Chocolate Mud & White Chocolate Macadamia) and now has the Jaffa Cake too - well they've had that cake for a while but we didn't know! We do have to be careful now though as some stores have started putting marshmallows in teh babycinos - though the one time rora ate one by accident she wasn't sick so we suspect they're gluten free (but so far our local store hasn't had the packaging available to double check). also while our local store gets you to put your chocolate / sprinkles etc on yourself, some stores do it for you so we sometimes get caught that way...
  
• Michels Patisserie usually has a pre-packaged orange cake, though rora is not so keen...
• Muffin Break always has gluten free sweet and savoury muffins and usually another product as well. We don't go to MB often at home as they will only accept cash and are quite pricey, but it's great to know they are around if we are travelling.
  
• If we are in the Dickson area we know we can always go to Deeks or to My Rainbow Dreams for a yummy vegetarian meal
  
• Ricardos at Jamison strangely has only a couple of options for morning / afternoon tea, but its entire menu for breakfast / lunch is available gluten free!!! (that's about 30+ options, which i plan to post on here one day)
• The Coffee Club is a bit unreliable because sometimes they will have a cookie or two, but other times they will have nothing, only "low gluten" things

OK, I've just about had enough now and I'm not even half way through, i think this will be part one lol...

babycino & cookie at Gloria Jeans

Master So Kitchen website (it takes a while to upload unfortunately)

a few weeks, on our way to the library, we noticed that the Chinese restaurant in Holt was advertising gluten free. we hadn't eaten Chinese since Rora's diagnosis, so we went down and got a copy of the menu to have a look at and discovered they had heaps of gluten free options!!

today we were one (fussy) child down so decided to go there to try it for lunch. when we walked in we discovered that they also do yumcha, and that there were also some gluten free options in that too!

so we decided to have a combination of regular and yum cha style gluten free dishes, with the help of the lovely lady who was there (an owner?).

Pork Ribs with Garlic

the end result was that we were very impressed and will definitely be back! we enjoyed the food - some of the dishes seemed a bit bland at first, but then as you ate more the true subtle flavour came out and was delicious! the service was good, though the young male waiters (who said they were only new) were a bit unsure of the whole gluten free thing but the lady who helped us mostly was very helpful and seemed to know a lot about the gluten free side of it. the prices were quite reasonable too.

here is what they can do gluten free (you need to specify GF), with stars next to what we tried:

Yum Cha Menu:
Seafood Dumpling
Har Gau (Prawn Dumpling)
Mixed Veggie Dumpling
Scallop & Snow Pea Dumpling
King Prawn Fun Gao
Prawn & Crab Meat Wrap
Pork Ribs with Garlic *
Plain Cheong Fun
Beef Cheong Fun
King Prawns Cheong Fun
BBQ Pork Cheong Fun
Salt & Pepper Calamari *
Desserts:
Chilled Coconut Pudding
Chilled Mango Pudding *
Sticky Rice Pudding * (girls LOVED this one!)

Salt & Pepper Calamari

Regular Menu:
Entree:
Steamed Har Gau
Sang Choy Bow
Soup:
Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup
Crab Meat & Sweet Corn Soup
Combination Short or Long Egg Noodle Soup
Specialities:
Fried Squid with Hot Rock Salt
Peking Shredded Chilli Beef
Lamb with Lemongrass & Fresh Chilli
King Prawns with Hot Rock Salt
Thai Specialities:
Thai Red or Green Curry with Mixed Veggies
Thai Red or Green Curry with Beef or Chicken
Thai Red or Green Curry with King Prawns or Seafood
Cashew Nut Dishes:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet with CN
Combination with CN
Meat Lovers with CN
King Prawns with CN
Curry Sauce Dishes:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet with Curry Sauce
Sliced Lamb Fillet with Curry Sauce
Combination with Curry Sauce
Seafood with Curry Sauce
Scallops with Curry Sauce
Ginger & Shallot Dishes:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet
Sliced Lamb Fillet
Seafood with Curry Sauce
Scallops with Curry Sauce
King Prawns
Sweet & Sour Dishes:
Boneless Battered Chicken
King Prawn Fritters
Seasonal Vegetables:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet
Meat Lovers
King Prawns
Seafood
Omelettes:
Vegetable
BBQ Pork or Chicken
Combination
King Prawn
Chow Mein:
Beef or Chicken * or BBQ Pork Chow Mein
Combination
King Prawn
Seafood
Vegetarian Delights:
Red Cooked Bean Curd
Bean Curd with Hot Rock Salt
Stir-fried Mixed Seasonal Vegetables
Lightly fried Chinese Broccoli with Ginger
Lightly fried Vegetables with Nuts
Law Hon Jai
Rice:
boiled rice
Fried Rice
Vegetable Fried Rice
Master So Special Fried Rice

Sticky Rice Pudding

PS: you know it must be ok when it is so busy on a Saturday lunch and more than half full of chinese people ;)

we just found out the jaffa cake is gluten free - that makes 3 choices now - yay!

---- Sent from my 3 mobile

This afternoon the rain finally stopped. After a walk i did some weeding and then picked a large bunch of basil for geoff to make thermomix pesto (the recipe in the EDC but with just basil, no spinach). It was delicious! I'm loving eating the produce from our garden! Sooo yum, as well as satisfying to have done it myself :)

Yum! this was wayyyyyy nicer than i expected! will definitely make this again!

original recipe for Pumpkin Turkey Chilli

1 chicken breast, half frozen and cut into 1-2" cubes
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 onion, quartered
15g olive oil
1/2 green capsicum, cut into small dice *
1/2 red or yellow capsicum, , cut into small dice *
1 tin diced tomatoes
either around 400g tomato puree or 1 tin of water
1 tin drained kidney beans (around 400g)
4-500g diced pumpkin **
2 tspn ground cumin or cumin seeds
few sprinkles cayenne pepper
2 heaped tspns chicken stock concentrate

coriander to serve
grated tasty cheese to serve
sour cream to serve

place chicken in the thermomix and turn to closed lid. mince chicken using turbo button. when desired texture is reached place chicken in bowl and set aside (don't worry about cleaning out the bowl)

place garlic in bowl and chop speed 6 until it stops hitting the sides (around 5 secs). scrape down and place onion and oil in. cook for 2 minutes 100'c speed 5

add capsicum and cook for another 3 minutes 100'c reverse speed soft

add chicken and cook for 4 minutes varoma reverse speed soft

add in tomatoes and puree / water, beans, pumpkin, spices and stock concentrate. cook for 20 minutes 100' reverse speed 1

serve topped with coriander / cheese and cream as desired. we also had ours with steamed basmati rice and gluten free foccacia


* you could chop them in the thermomix, but i prefer the shape and texture of hand chopped capsicum
** i chopped the pumpkin to about 1-1.5cm dice. most of it cooked down, but some were left in chunks which was perfect :)

As promised, a thermomix conversion of this recipe. excuse my photos, our camera was dropped and broken today :( this amount makes a double batch (only half shown in teh picture)

180g millet flour, or millet ground for 1 minute speed 8
75g sorghum flour *
70g corn (maize) flour
60g tapioca starch
80g potato starch
2 tspns xanthan gum
1 tspn salt
10g sugar, agave syrup or other sweetener
15-20g yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water (aagh forgot to weigh it, am thinking it would be around 420g?)
15g olive oil
fresh or dried rosemary and / or chopped garlic
sea salt
extra olive oil

heat oven to approx 200'c

place all ingredients (except rosemary, garlic, sea salt & extra oil) in the thermomix and mix for 30 seconds on speed 5, then 1 minute on knead setting

place in a greased container or a lined tray. cover with baking paper ** and press out to desired shape and size. sprinkle with herbs / garlic, and drizzle with extra olive oil. bake around 25 mins until brown.



* i bought my sorghum flour at the indian store, otherwise known as jowar flour

** use baking paper, not greaseproof paper, which will stick to the dough and begin to disintegrate :(

updating by email from my phone :)

GRILLED CORNBREAD WITH EGGS AND TOMATO SALSA

1 cup corn kernels (about 1 large cob)
6 Eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups plain flour sifted
3 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt plus extra
1 cup fine polenta
1 cup milk
4 tbspn butter melted
1/4 red onion finely chopped
2 small ripe tomatoes chopped
2 tbspn olive oil plus extra
cayenne pepper
2 tbspn coriander coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 180C. Cook corn in lightly salted boiling water for five minutes. Drain and cool.

Beat 2 eggs and sugar in a medium bowl until light and pale. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, half teaspoon salt, polenta and corn, then add to egg mixture and stir well. Add milk and butter and stir. Spoon mixture into a greased paper lined loaf pan (8cm x 23 cm) and bake for 45-50 mins or until firm and golden. Cool in pan for 10 mins then turn on to a wire rack.

For salsa, combine onion tomatoes, 2 tabs olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper to taste and coriander and stir to combine. Fry remaining 4 eggs in extra oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat until cooked as desired.

To serve slice cornbread and toast under grill until golden. Spread with butter, if desired, and serve with eggs and salsa.

Serves 4


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/good-living/

i will try it GF and converted to TMX and repost :)

My mum just told me about this company, they make regular and GF cookies up at Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. They sound yummy! I am thinking we might take Rora to Monkey Mania in the next few weeks to test them (they have $5 entry on weekdays this month ;))

They are available across most of Australia, though in limited outlets.

Snowy Mountains Cookies

from Marcella Hazan's "The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking", I made this for dinner last night - it was VERY good and sooooooooo easy!

Basically I took a rolled veal roast, cut deep slashes into it and filled each with a peeled garlic clove (i halved some of the bigger ones and used about 6-7 in total for a fairly small roast - probably about 5-600g).

heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and fry roast on all sides to brown.

add white wine - around a cup - and stir, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

i didn't have fresh rosemary so just used a small amount of dried, around 1-1.5 tspns, also put a bit of salt and pepper on.

put the lid on and keep it on, taking off only to turn the veal a few times. if the wine evaporates add a bit more, and / or some boiling water.

when the veal is cooked (took around an hour or just over i think) and tender, remove it and leave the lid off and let the juices simmer into a nice glaze / gravy.

we had ours with smashed potatoes roasted pumpkin, and steamed broccolini and corn on the cob - YUM!

Isn't it fun! I even finally changed the pizza pic to use this cake! hehe

inspired by isi's zebra cake I decided to make a 3 colour one. I was too lazy to use her recipe so i just used the marble cake recipe from the EDC, with extra milk. to one third of the mix i added a little cochineal and some strawberry essence. the cake is very mild tasting though, and nice with less sugar.

the kids are still out (10 pin bowling with Geoff & my SIL) but I can't wait to see their faces! dessert tonight i believe!

I think I might make this cake for Rora's birthday, instead of cupcakes!

Tonight : Pan Roasted veal with garlic, herbs and white wine, smashed potatoes, corn on the cob and broccolini
Monday : leftover Mustard Chicken with cauliflower pakoras (curry in a hurry) & leftover veg curries

Pumpkin & porcini risotto
Burgers & chips
Red Kidney Bean Curry with cornbread
baked zucchini with a tomatoey sauce - pasta for the baked zucchini haters lol (our neighbour gave us a large zucchini from his garden!)
spicy asian chicken with rice and stir fried veg

lettuce
tomatoes
beetroot
onions
eggplant
asian greens
shallots

fruit

I might post some pics of my kitchen later (when I've cleaned it up lol) but if you like to look into other people's lives (one of the reasons i love to blogsurf) have a look at these - Rhonda at down to earth is featuring readers' kitchens, it's fascinating to see into kitchens from all around the world.
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Kitchen%20Sink


posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

First of all we love Aldi for their fantastic prices, then we love it because of their cool specials, then we love the fact they've gotten rid of the worst colours (or are in the process of doing so, and as a result have woolies and coles following their lead)

We started shopping at Aldi when they first came to Canberra, which must be 8-9 or so years ago I think. We didn't shop there a lot back then as it was a 45 minute drive to get there, but when we got our first store on this side of town we started shopping there a lot more often.

Now we do most of our shopping at Aldi. Going gluten free threw a spanner in the works! We couldn't buy GF at Aldi!!!! (not to mention the fact that suddenly I had to shop at 8 different shops, when i LOATHE shopping! lol). so I'm excited everytime I discover something new at Aldi that is gluten free, and it does seem like everytime I go in I find something new....

disclaimer: products can change at any time (especially at Aldi!) so PLEASE check labels before purchasing as gluten free, even if it's on the list below!

Here are some of the products we have found which are either marked as gluten free, or gluten free by ingredient, and containing no 'may contain' warning:

• Marshmallows
• "Ropes" (like very long skinny snakes)
• plain rice crackers
• rice cakes / thins
• mini meringues (haven't seen these in a while but they were in vanilla and chocolate flavours)
• organic pasta sauce
• organic corn chips - including cheese flavour
• Hoisin sauce
• sweet chilli sauce
• Lil chocettes (mini chocolate bars)
• Kinder surprise (3 pack)
• ham
• american frankfurts
• cocktail frankfurts
• salami
• custard - individual serves
• some of their frozen chips, fries and now wedges (yay)
• fresh rice noodles
• shortcut bacon
• Sesame Snaps
• tomato sauce / ketchup
• grated cheese
• icecream
  
• iceblocks and icecreams
• cornflour is now 100% maize!
• taco kits (i think, haven't bought one for a while)
• rice cream (tinned, i think, again, haven't bought this in a long time)
• cream cheese, including the herb one
• cheese rockets (cheese sticks, these are non refridgerated though)
• organic salsa
• baked beans (** we have just discovered that the Corale brand ones are marked as possibly containing gluten :( still to check the usual Pantry Value brand ones)
  
• and of course most of the usual GF things such as milk, plain meat (not the processed or marinated ones), rice, tinned vegies etc etc
• Aldi also have occasional special GF products in store
  

you can check products and their prices here. of course there are no doubt many more, but these are the ones we buy sometimes.

there are some things we used to buy - such as the plain corn chips (not organic) that are now marked with 'may contain traces of' :(


posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

just converting before making, will return to update later...

ETA : oh my goodness, this was soooooo delicious!!!! loved it!!!!!!!!!! it would make enough for approx 6 people. photo tomorrow

1 onion, peeled & quartered
40g oil
2 tspns brown mustard seeds
2-3 cloves garlic
1 cinnamon stick
2 cloves
1 star anise
dried chilli
1 tspn turmeric
2 tspns ground coriander
2 tabs mild curry powder
750g chicken, cut into 2-3" dice
up to 150g water
6 tabs plain yoghurt (optional)
salt and pepper (or 2-3 tspn stock concentrate)
fresh coriander to garnish

chop onion 5 secs speed 5
add oil, fry 100' 5-6 mins speed 1
add spices and grind speed 6 for 5-10 seconds, scrape down and repeat
fry 100' speed 1 3 minutes
add chicken, fry varoma reverse speed soft 8 min
add water & season
cook 15 mins 100' reverse speed soft
stir through yoghurt, serve with rice and coriander



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

for when the kids want a caramel milkshake for afternoon tea and you have no caramel topping or cream...

approximate amounts only ;) to make 3-4 milkshakes

around 4-5 tabs brown sugar
around 1-1 1/2 tabs butter
squeeze (around 1 tspn) golden syrup

place in thermomix and cook for 5 mins 90' speed 2

add a splash of milk and cook a further 4 mins 90' speed 2

it should look smooth and creamy and smell like caramel (funnily enough lol)

then put in your milk and icecream if desired. i was making 4 cups so i put in 3 cups of milk (not cup measures but the actually cup size we were using IYKWIM). my kids like a dollop of icecream in the cup not mixed into the shake, so i just whizzed up the milk and caramel for 2 minutes speed 8. pour over the icecream and serve.

PS: it occurred to me after how much sugar there is in this! it would be interesting to see how it compares to commercial stuff.... still, my kids don't get that much sugar i don't think...



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

well, it's Miss Rora's turn for a party and when I asked her, she thinks she'd like to have her whole preschool class at the park (rather than just a few at home. one of the mums did this for Ryan's class at the start of the year and it was lovely being able to meet all the other mums that way, otherwise I would not be doing the big party!)

so I need ideas for EASY - and gluten free - party food suitable for the park. here are my ideas...

• teacups (like here but GF of course)
• popcorn
• plain chips
• fairy bread - maybe cut into shapes (GF & regular) *
  
• cup cakes topped with tinkerbell pics like this
• pink drink of some sort (weak cordial?)
• watermelon & strawberries

sound ok? any suggestions?

* I've just had the idea of making a recipe i saw in mum's New Idea magazine. I was sure I'd posted it here but can't find it. it was pikelets with a ganache and sprinkles on top. i could do a white chocolate / pink colouring ganache (or would the colouring ruin the ganache?)

(the pic above is thanks to twilly on eb :))



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com