Tag Archives: gluten free diet

Tideford Organics Giveaway!

31 Jan

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I first came across Tideford Organics at the Allergy and Free From Show in 2013.  When eating so many sweet things at the show, I often find that it’s a savoury item that sticks in the memory, and Tideford’s minestrone soup was definitely one of my highlights.  The fact Tideford Organics are based in my home county of Devon meant I definitely needed to find out more about this company.  Tideford have been making their products since 1996, using only organic ingredients, and are produced in their kitchen in Totnes.

samplesAfter contacting Tideford to introduce myself and try to find a local supplier, I was lucky enough to be sent a great range of samples.  All of the Tideford products are gluten free with the exception of the porridges.  The rest of the range includes soups, sauces, pestos and puddings.  My sample box included a variety of soups, some salsa and some pesto.

stmauricenbreadAs luck would have it, the arrival of these soups coincided with St Maurice Bakery starting to bake fresh gluten free bread in their bakery in Plympton, Plymouth.  This made a fantastic partner to the soups and is now available to buy fresh every Saturday.  As for the soups themselves both my wife and I really enjoyed these.  They were packed with flavour and contained nice chunky vegetables.  My personal favourites were the minestrone and the farmhouse chicken, closely followed by the pea and mint which was Abby’s favourite.

beetrootminestrone

salsaThe salsa was tasty and went well with some beef tacos (and of course a side of Abby’s famous refried beans).  The pesto was our least favourite product.  We used it as a pasta sauce and I found it a little too oily, but it also tasted quite dry.  The flavour was good though and overall it was OK, just not something that was up there with the quality of the soups.  Abby was really not keen on this one, mainly as she found it too oily.  I’ve since spoken to Tideford about this and they’ve suggested the pesto needs stirring well before use, as it can separate due them not using any potato or corn starch to prevent this as other pestos do, preferring to keep more natural ingredients.

ricepudding

I was lucky enough to run into Tideford Organics at the Flavour Fest that took place in Plymouth during August.  It was a good chance to stock up on some more soup, and I also grabbed some of their rice pudding which I’d not tried before.  Rice pudding is one of those things that never sounds appealing, but every time I eat it I really enjoy it.  What I’d never tried before was flavoured rice pudding, and I have to say I really enjoyed the Tideford puddings.  I tried chocolate which was really nice, but my favourite was the butterscotch which was absolutely delicious and I would definitely buy again.

I have seen some of the soups and sauces available to buy in both Tesco and Waitrose, but please let me know if you know of any other Plymouth stockists.  The good news is that Gluten Free by the Sea has teamed up with Tideford Organics to bring you a chance to win some of these delicious goodies!  One lucky winner will win two 600g soups, two 300g soups, 2 sauces and two rice puddings.  All you have to do is visit the Gluten Free by the Sea Facebook page and enter via the Tideford Giveway app or by following this link: https://www.facebook.com/gfreebythesea/app_228910107186452 To enter you must either like the Tideford Organics Facebook page or follow them on Twitter, and confirm this via the app.

600g 300g and sauceSAD 600g Chowder_HiRes

The competition will run until midnight on 28th February and the lucky winner will be chosen at random by Rafflecopter which I am using to host the giveaway.  Your details will then by passed to Tideford Organics who will send the prize to the winner directly.  Please note this competition is open to UK residents only.  This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.  We hereby release Facebook of any liability.  Winner will be contacted by email after the giveaway ends.  Good luck!

UPDATE 01/03/2014: The competition has now closed. Congratulations to winner Emma Louise Hutchinson!

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Clare’s Gluten Free Cafe/Shop

20 Jan

Update 14/07: I’m very sad to bring you this announcement from Clare. Happy to report she will still be selling online, but her cafe is closing: “Hi, our shop will be closed until further notice. We are still taking orders via e-mail, telephone or website order form, for either collection (from our St. Budeaux address), or for local delivery (from £3.00). Any businesses who feel that providing homemade gluten free options in their outlet will benefit/increase their customer turnover, please feel free to e-mail/phone for more information. We will provide individually packaged gluten free items, so as to avoid any cross contamination risks. Apologies to all our customers and friends for any inconvenience.“

Earlier this year, as part of my work for the Coeliac UK Plymouth group, I’d heard from Clare Jones to say she was starting a gluten free catering company in Plymouth.  The thought of an exclusively gluten free company, run by a coeliac of 40 years and based in my home town was extremely exciting.   The list of proposed products included pies, pasties, sausage rolls, quiche, scotch eggs, various cakes and more.

During the coming months Clare launched a website and amongst the listed products were chocolate eclairs, doughnuts and many other amazing looking treats.  After drooling over more pictures of her food on her Facebook and Twitter accounts, I invited Clare to come and sell her products at the Coeliac UK Plymouth group pre-Christmas food and craft fair.  Thankfully she accepted and it was great to meet her and her family for the first time, not to mention sample her delicious chocolate Yule log!

clareSubsequently Clare and husband Jon exhibited at the Christmas ‘Free From’ Food Fair at Ivybridge Community Market that I helped to organise.  I am very grateful to Clare for coming along to support these events.  At Ivybridge I purchased some of her millionaires shortbread.  I used to love millionaires shortbread before my coeliac diagnosis, and I have to say this is the nicest gluten free one I have tried by some distance, and probably better than most of the gluten filled ones I’ve had too. The shortbread is great, the soft caramel delicious and all topped off with chocolate.

clares

So impressed was I with Clare’s products I decided to get in an order for Christmas.  I treated myself with a full version of that Yule log, a couple of steak pasties, some mini ring doughnuts, a couple of scotch eggs, a few more slices of millionaires shortbread and even a couple of chocolate eclairs!  A truly great selection of my favourites in gluten free form from one company, and based in Plymouth too.

eclairsFirst I tried the scotch eggs.  A whole egg, wrapped in sausage-meat and gluten free breadcrumbs.  This was well seasoned and extremely tasty, nice enough that I ate both in one sitting!  I was perhaps most excited by the eclairs, as I’d not eaten one in over three years.  The pastry was perhaps not quite what I remembered but they were delicious nonetheless.  Of course I also had to sample a pasty and again these were great.  The pastry was very good and the filling was made with steak as a good pasty should be.  There was plenty of veg too and again this was very well seasoned.  Clare advised to warm the doughnuts briefly in the microwave, and they were great too.

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All of the above products are available to order for delivery in the Plymouth area, but there is even better news for the gluten free folk in Plymouth.  Clare’s Gluten Free have now opened a cafe/shop in Bretonside, Plymouth.  The cafe is to my knowledge the only exclusively gluten free eatery in Plymouth, and I don’t think there can be that many in the UK.

2014-01-18 11.34.25Food is available to eat in or take away.  There is a great range of food available, including warm pasties, pies and sausage rolls in the warmer ready for a quick takeaway.  Jacket potatoes, quiche, freshly made sandwiches, toasties and pancakes are also included in the range, along with a soup of the day and a special of the day.  Saturday’s opening day special was lasagne, chips and a side salad for a very reasonable £4.80.  You can also grab a cream tea and of course choose from a range of sweet treats.   One of the things that really caught my eye was the cooked breakfast, which is currently only available at weekends.  A safe gluten free fry-up can be very hard to find, and I can see me being a regular visitor with my dad for this alone.  I went for this on Saturday and it was lovely.  You may be surprised to hear I bought another piece of millionaires shortbread to takeaway with me, along with some chocolate brownie for my wife.  I tried this too and it had great consistency.  For the full menu see here.

Opening times are: Tuesday to Friday 10am – 3.00pm and Saturdays 10.00am – 5.00pm, though these may be subject to change as things settle down.  This will be a very convenient lunch stop for visitors to the Hoe and Barbican, gluten free or otherwise.  You can find the shop at: 43 Bretonside, Plymouth, Devon, PL4 0BB.  You can also order products for collection at the shop, see website for further information: http://www.claresglutenfreecatering.co.uk/

cheese sconesbrownies_millionairesTreacle Tart

I am unbelievably lucky to have this only a 15 minute walk from home, and also a 15 minute walk from my office. I am very much looking forward to being able to enjoy a walk on The Hoe with a warm gluten free pasty during my lunch break!  For those requiring dairy free, they have soy milk for tea/coffee, dairy free spread for freshly made sandwiches/toast, dairy free custard, and several of the savoury items were naturally dairy free. They also had a diary free fruit flan as a dessert choice, and Clare says she is working on getting more dairy free options going forward.

Also look out for special event evenings at Clare’s.  Bookings are currently being taken for this Friday evening, 24th January for beer battered fish, chips and mushy peas, available from 7.00pm until 10.00pm.  This is for eat in at the Bretonside cafe only with booking required in advance, the price is £8.50 per person.  To book call 07511064351.

I hope you all stop in and check this place out, we are lucky to have this in Plymouth and I hope the business is a great success. For more photos of the cafe, please see this photoset on the Gluten Free by the Sea Facebook page.  I’d like to wish Clare every success with her new venture.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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Gluten Free Cupcakes from Cupcake Universe

12 Jan

I was recently contacted by a new Plymouth company called Cupcake Universe, who informed me they were now baking gluten free cupcakes.  A quick look at the company website revealed that Cupcake Universe also produced gluten containing cupcakes, so as always my coeliac scepticism kicked in and my first question was to ask about cross contamination.  Thankfully though, I received a detailed reply that gave me reassurance:

We take our gluten-free side very seriously. We purchase all our Doves Farm gluten-free flour from a supermarket chain, as we know they keep it separate from the other flours. We also only use the Dr Oetker gluten-free baking powder.
We do transport everything to our kitchen in separate bags and the gluten-free products are kept is separate storage cupboards, as are all our gluten-free baking utensils.
When we make our gluten-free cupcakes we start by sterilizing the kitchen and then bring in the products, the cupcakes are made and removed from the kitchen before we start on any of the other cupcakes we offer.
Unfortunately we don’t have the space to run two separate kitchens, so we take every care to eliminate contamination on our side, but of course have no control over what happens in the production chain before it arrives with us.

Paula Frost from Cupcake Universe was generous enough to offer me a box of cupcakes to sample.  I must admit I am very partial to a gluten free cupcake so I was only too happy to take them up on this offer.  It was nice to meet Paula for a quick chat when she delivered the cakes.  You can get free delivery in PL1, PL2, PL3, PL4, PL5, PL6 and some of PL7 if you order six or more cupcakes, which are available from only £6.50 via the cupcake section of their website.

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The selection included one red velvet, one cranberry and various combinations of chocolate and vanilla.  The sponge itself wasn’t super light, but I personally like that in a cupcake as I think it’s nice to have a bit of contrast when there is so much frosting.  I really liked all the flavours, though perhaps unsurprisingly, the red velvet with cream cheese frosting was my favourite.  Delicious.  The cakes were nicely presented in a presentation box as below.

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Paula and husband Justin have been in the hospitality industry for many years. Justin recently retired from being an executive chef in London and together they opened Cupcake Universe. Their focus is on “freshly made cupcakes with superior customer service, which is why we offer our free Plymouth delivery.  As you know we don’t use a courier company, offering a personalised service.”

Following the launch of the company Justin and Paula were constantly asked if they could provide a gluten free option.  Paula said “We know that there is a demand in the market, so we started experimenting; this is when the gluten-free side of our business came to light. With the years Justin spent as a chef, he is very knowledgeable on gluten-free and the importance of eliminating cross contamination.”

Further good news is that Cupcake Universe are about to launch some savoury gluten free products within their range.  “We are also in the process of perfecting our pies which will be available shortly. We were going to launch them last month, but want to perfect the gluten-free pastry before doing so. We are hoping that these will be available in the coming weeks.”

Cupcake Universe are scheduled to be at the St Budeaux Valentines Fair on 1st February, and are also often at the Sunday morning market at Plymouth Argyle when weather permits.  Keep an eye on their Facebook and Twitter pages for full information on where they will be.  For full contact details please visit the Cupcake Universe website.

Kevin, Gluten Free by the Sea

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