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A Gluten Free Christmas

13 Dec

This will be my second gluten free Christmas, and it can be a difficult time for us coeliacs.  There seem to be mince pies and Christmas Cake everywhere you look, and you’re constantly having to say no to treats that are on offer.  In addition to this there are those awkward Christmas meals, with very few (if any) gluten free options to try and navigate.  I’ve looked on in horror over the past few weeks at some of the poor Christmas meal offerings that have been tweeted about.  Carly Talbot’s #FruitIsNotAPudding hash tag has been particularly prevalent!

CadburysTreeChoc

But Christmas doesn’t have to be a bad time, and there are plenty of options out there for us gluten free folk.  Last year for my first gluten free Christmas Marks & Spencer turned out to be the big hero for me.  For Christmas dinner the turkey was stuffed with gluten free sausage meat, there were stuffing balls, pigs in blankets and a pot of delicious pre-made gravy.  All gluten free and all from M&S.

This year I’ve managed to find a local gluten free sausage meat at Plymouth Greengrocer, and they are also stocking a range of Christmas Cake and mince pies.  If you are Plymouth based, it’s well worth a trip out to stock up for Christmas.  You can of course grab all your Christmas fruit and veg while you are there too.  Annoyingly for me I don’t like mince pies or fruit cake, but I have ordered a Chocolate Yule Log from Annie’s Larder, and I’m really looking forward to tucking in to this one!

I am also a big fan of the Mrs Crimble’s Stuffing Mix if you want an alternative to the M&S version.  For an alternative gravy I usually use the Antony Worrall Thompson gravy, though I’ve heard a few people say they find this too salty.  Personally I like it.  Cadbury’s have been my advent calendar and tree chocolate of choice this year and last, though shock horror I’ve got no advent calendar this year.  That’s the first time ever, I must be getting old!  There’s also a great list of suitable Christmas products from Coeliac UK which will give you some further tips.

Good news is that Quality Street and Cadbury’s Roses are both gluten free.  I am not a fan of giving Christmas cards to work colleagues, and for the last few years I’ve taken in a tin of Quality Street instead.  My colleagues seem to enjoy this more than a card, I help save some trees and there are always some gluten free treats on hand.  Everyone is a winner!  Lucky for me I’ve managed to convince my work colleagues that a curry is a good choice for a Christmas meal this year, so hopefully no awkward choices for me.  My pudding may well be a fruit, well cider is made from apples anyway.  On the subject of cider I’m trying to track down some Rekorderlig winter cider, I managed to try some in London and it’s lovely.

Some of my blogging friends have been busy at work providing their gluten free tips, so I will leave you with some pointers to  more great info from them.  If you have tips of your own please leave a comment!

Have a Gluten Free Christmas (Part One) – Wuthering Bites
Have a Gluten Free Christmas (Part two) – Wuthering Bites
My gluten free Christmas – Gluten free cake lover
Bread to Bread: Mince Pies – gluten free b
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! – Coeliac.me.uk
Festive post #1 – gluten free mince pies – Gluten Free Blogger
 
Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Traditional Puddings from Tavistock

11 Dec

UPDATE 22/09/2014: Sad to report that Traditional Puddings has now ceased trading. Thanks to Tina for all her hard work and great puddings over the last couple of years, these puddings will be sorely missed. Another reminder that we really need to support our small local businesses else we will lose them.

Hi folks and apologies for the lack of posts on Gluten Free by the Sea in the last few weeks.  It’s been a very busy time for me personally, busy at work after the company I work for was sold and some disasters around the house to name but a few things.  A day off from work today has given me a chance to catch up on some blogging (after a second exploding radiator/flood in seven days this morning!).

I recently received an email from Tina Hurford who runs a small company called Traditional Puddings.  They are based out of Tavistock Pannier Market and offer a range of hand made luxury puddings.  Whilst the core range of products contains gluten, Tradtional Puddings make gluten free puddings to order.  Tina has a coeliac mother and daughter so an experienced gluten free baker, well versed in dealing with cross contamination.

Tina very kindly offered to send me one of her puddings to sample, and let me choose from the options on her website.  There is an amazing sounding list of flavours to choose from: Ultimate Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce, Vanilla Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce, Chocolate Pudding with Chocolate Sauce, Zingy Lemon Pudding, Sticky Stem Ginger with Ginger Sauce, Coffee and Walnut Pudding With Dark Chocolate Sauce or Almond Pudding With Cherry Brandy Sauce.

TraditionalPuddings

I choose the Vanilla Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce and was really excited to try it.  When it arrived the package contained two very ample puddings, and a generous serving of butterscotch sauce.  I removed the lid and popped the foil tray in the oven for 10 minutes as per the instructions.  It came out of the oven smelling delicious and I have to say I was really impressed.  The sponge pudding was extremely light, I could really taste the vanilla and the butterscotch sauce was really tasty.  The puddings are big enough that the package states serves 2-4, but if someone wanted to pinch half of one of mine they’d have to fight me for it!

To be honest, this kind of pudding is right up my street.  A warm pudding in a toffee or butterscotch sauce would definitely be something I would have chosen in my pre-coeliac days.  In gluten free terms I’ve not really come across anything like this before, bar a couple of (bad) supermarket offerings.  Currently the packaging is labelled “no gluten containing ingredients”, but Tina is currently going through testing so she can start officially labelling the products gluten free (UPDATE: Testing successful and gluten free status has been granted).  She hopes to expand to other stockists when this is confirmed, and I hope a Plymouth based one can be found.  In the mean time, if you get chance to pick up a pudding at Tavistock Pannier Market I can highly recommend it, and Tina will do local deliveries within a reasonable distance too.  You can contact Tina at traditionalpuddings@hotmail.co.uk for more info.

Puddings cost £4.25 for two, but taking into account the size and quality I would say it’s definitely worth that cost as a treat.  It’s good to see another local producer doing good things in the gluten free world.

Update: 22/02/2012: Good news for those of you gluten free and living in Plymouth, Traditional Puddings are now stocked by Plymouth Greengrocer.  I tried the lemon pudding last week and it was delicious too, looking forward to working my way through the rest of the flavours now they are more readily available to me!

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Domino’s Gluten Free Pizza Review

19 Nov

Well after a delay to the previously stated 5th November launch, the 19th came and it was time to try the Domino’s gluten free pizza base.  Back in my gluten eating days pre-coeliac I was always a Domino’s man when it came to pizza, so I’ve been really looking forward to this one.  Of course the first concern for coeliacs is the cross contamination risk, and it is great that Domino’s have put so much information online with regards their cross contamination controls.  You can read full details here.  They have been working for years with Coeliac UK on this, and from reading the controls that are in place it seems like they are doing everything right.

In the interests of full disclosure I must mention that Domino’s contacted me last week and sent me the press release for their gluten free launch.  They also sent me a voucher to try a gluten free pizza for free, though I was planning on buying one anyway.  The gluten free bases are available to order in-store, online and over the phone.  Their mobile app is still in the process of being updated.  I decided to phone in my order so I could quiz the branch with regards cross contamination.  I had already read the on-line information and the person I spoke to was able to rattle off all of those things when I spoke to them, a good start.  If you look at the menu on the website all items containing gluten are clearly marked with a “G”.

Firstly the downside.  The gluten free base is only available to order as a small 9.5 inch base.  This was actually enough for me, but it would have been nice to have the choice of a medium at least.  However as the bases are coming in sealed packs I can appreciate storage could be an issue if they were larger.  Secondly, only two of the sides were gluten free.  Spicy pork bites and coleslaw.  My branch didn’t serve coleslaw and even though it did have the spicy pork bites these were not listed on the website (UPDATE: Domino’s have contacted me this morning to say they’ve rectified this) .  I did order the pork bites to try and wasn’t particularly impressed, and wouldn’t order them again.  It would be good if Domino’s could work on the sides, at least ensuring all branches stock these two items.  Maybe something like potato wedges which are also on the menu could be re-worked to be gluten free.

Now for the upside, the pizza was amazing!  I absolutely loved the base.  It was light and tasty and a perfect vessel for the topping.  As with Pizza Hut, those who like a thin and crispy base may be disappointed.  I thought it was perfect and was a lot like the Domino’s base I remember from the dim and distant past.  I went for the Texas BBQ pizza, and what a great choice I made.  Tangy BBQ sauce topped with smoky bacon, succulent roast chicken, onions and green peppers.  Having a BBQ sauce rather than a tomato sauce base worked exceptionally well and I loved every mouth full.  After my previous poor topping choice at Prezzo this was a great result.  As for the price £12.99 for a small pizza is a lot of money, but there are always offers around for money off or buy one get one free, and we only ever really used to get takeaway pizza when there were offers on pre-diagnosis.

I’d also recently been sent a sample of a gluten free Lager from Celia, a gluten free Czech lager just launching in the UK.  I took the opportunity to wash the pizza down with an ice cold lager, which was also delicious.  I have to say sitting on my sofa, watching TV with a cold lager in one hand and a slice of takeaway pizza in the other I felt almost normal.  Thank you Domino’s and Celia for that!

So the big question is, where does Domino’s rank in the pizza stakes?  If you’ve already read my Pizza Hut and Prezzo reviews you’ll know I had Pizza Hut ahead.  Well now there is a new leader, for me Domino’s have come out on top.  Really enjoyed the pizza and will definitely be buying again, and being the only one that deliver is a big plus point too.  My branch asked if they could call me for feedback which they duly did.  They were kind enough to offer me two for one or a free side on my next order, to say thanks too.  A great experience over all.  I have however heard from one person elsewhere in the country who had a gluten base mistakenly delivered, so as always be vigilant when ordering.  I am happy to report that three hours on I have had no reaction (UPDATE: Still feeling fine next day so all good).

Which pizza do you prefer in the great gluten free pizza debate?  Please comment below and let me know.

UPDATE 02/02/13: According to the Coeliac UK eXG February email Domino’s have put in place some extra precautions to ensure to ensure the safety of gluten free customers:

– GF pizza’s will no longer be sliced to make them easily identifiable (also cuts out risk from a contaminated cutter)
– Different sized screens to be used to cook gluten free pizzas to make them more easily identifiable in the ovens
– Gluten free notification will appear on confirmation emails and at point of ordering on-line
– A link to the gluten free pizza’s will be visible from the on-line ordering homepage

 

These changes will be enforced by mid-February, and the pizza I ordered today arrived un-sliced.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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