New gluten free restaurant review site

I've just had an email from Kate who has started the new gluten free (and other food allergen) restaurant review site LeaveItOut.

This is really good news in my opinion, as the other competitor in this space is woeful. GlutenFreeOnTheGo.com was started by CoeliacUK and then handed over to someone else to run.

GFOTG is difficult to navigate (nigh on impossible on a mobile device, which is when you most need it), there's no space for user reviews (which as a coeliac is what you really want to hear anyway) and the inclusion criteria seem something like "Yeah, we can do gluten free, no worries".

So I for one am really happy to see LeaveItOut appear on the scene and I'll be watching it closely. If you know of good gluten free restaurants near you, why not hop on over, do a review and help them get the ball rolling?

(Quick plug: Don't forget your free gluten free restaurant cards - they're always handy to ensure the kitchen really understand the gravity of the coeliac situation).

How to test if your 'gluten free' food is really gluten free

MD of gluten test company reveals high levels of gluten in 'gluten free' products

I don't know about you, but there have been many times where I know I've been glutened, but I can't work out where it came from. And if it happens repeatedly, it can drive you nuts! (actually, it was nuts once, where flour had been used as a flow agent, but I digress).

The other day I was chatting to the MD of a company who makes the gluten home test kit I use to see if I could offer the test for sale through my site. They make gluten testers for industry and had tested a range of off-the-shelf gluten free items.

Except that a lot of these items turned out not to be gluten free at all. This ties in with my own experience - I have tested 'gluten free' food on several occasions only to find it contained over the new allowed level of gluten (20ppm).

Happily, I can now tell you that you can get the gluten test kits through my site at the link below. There's a way to order test kits in the US there too. Happy testing!

You can buy gluten home test kits here

Gluten free haggis

My gluten free haggis hunt is over!

Oh how I wailed when I was diagnosed coeliac - no more haggis! I have to admit, I love haggis. I would eat it every week if I could. And now maybe I can!

Because, just in time for Burns' night, I've found and ordered gluten free haggis from Findlays of Portobello.

I'll let you know what it tastes like when I get it, but I thought I'd better let you know in time for Burns' night, so you can get some ordered too!

Here you go: Gluten free haggis

Related: Gluten free black pudding

Truly gluten free fish and chips

Gluten free fish and chips from the Real Food Cafe, Tyndrum, Scotland

If you're anything like me, any time you hear a chip shop offering 'gluten free fish and chips', your ears prick up. Then, if you're anything like me, you start to think "Hmmm... do they really know what they're doing? I mean, there's batter everywhere... do they even know about cross-contamination in fryers... and what about in the warming cabinets... ok, maybe I won't bother..."

Now this a pretty niche post, because unless you travel between Glasgow and and Fort William or Oban, you're just going to have to sit and drool at your computer and imagine what could have been. Fish and chips by post just doesn't work I'm afraid.

But if you are one of the chosen few, then you're in for a delicious surprise.

Because the gluten free fish and chips from the Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum really are gluten free. I know this because I have eaten them dozens of times. And not only that, they are truly world class fish and chips - regardless of the gluten factor.

The fish is done in an excellent crispy batter - I'm not sure what they use now - I do know that they changed the original one as this gave a better result. It's cooked in a dedicated gluten free fryer so you do have to wait 5 minutes longer than usual for it to heat up. I can live with that.

Their chips are all gluten free anyway as they cook only chips in the chip fryer. I've been told that by other fish and chip shops only to find out later that 'nothing else' meant 'not much else just the odd battered item'.

Oh, and to cap it all, they've started doing a gluten free brownie now too. Home baked.

I've been going to the Real Food Cafe for years and have only finally got round to writing this review because I'm passing through Tyndrum this afternoon, and I'll be stopping by. Again. In wonder if I can get a job in Glasgow so I have to commute. It's only 2 1/2 hours drive.

Review of gluten free ready meals

I'd seen the 'Look What We Found' range of gluten free ready meals on the supermarket shelf for several months. As usual, I'd checked the ingredient list and had been impressed at the simplicity, and impressed that they didn't need a fridge. A handy stand-by to keep in the car glove box I reckoned. (Note: Not all Look What We found ready meals are gluten free so do check the packet.)

So when I got an email offering me a sample of the range to review on the blog I was more than happy to oblige.

I admit we didn't go and camp in a field to test them out. In fact, we took the chance to avoid cooking for a couple of school nights and put bowls of them on the table for us and the kids to chow on. I've still done it with the approach that 'it's the end of the day I need a decent meal' in mind.

So here's what we found...

Cumbrian Lamb Hotpot

• Nice big chunks, looks like 'real food'
• Not really enough food for a proper meal
  
• 18% fat and 8.9% protein, bulked out with potato. 276 total calories.
  
• When heating it in a pan, there was not quite enough sauce to heat through so rinsed packet out with water
• Slightly strange 'milky' flavour although dairy free, tasted fatty but not actually fatty. Odd.
  

Overall: Least favourite - 2 out of 5

Gloucestershire Old Spot Pork Meatballs with Butter Beans in a rich Tomato Sauce

• Seemed like a better size of meal than the hotpot
• 396 calories - that's more like it, although at the end of a day's hiking, you'd still need two plus some extra carbs (at least I would)
• The smallest girl (2) said "More", which was upsetting because I wanted more too
• Butter beans were perfect, as if you'd cooked them from dried yourself - better than tinned
  

Overall: Great. 5 out of 5. For packet food, this was quite astonishingly good.

Fellside Beef Chilli Con Carne

• Great flavour, deep and rich, slightly spicy
• 306 calories
• Popular with both adults and kids, although the kids needed a drink to cope with the spice

Overall: Very good. 4.5 out of 5. Just because nothing can touch those meatballs!

Fragrant Thai Chicken Curry

• I'm used to making fresh thai at home, and fresh herbs and spices are a tough act to follow. That said, this was a pretty decent attempt.
• Nicely spicy, but contained rice. Why put in rice when you don't put it in the chilli for example?
• Calories: 237. Not enough.
  

Overall: 3.5 out of 5. Decent flavour but more chicken instead of rice please.

Country Cured Ham in English Pea Soup

• Earthy flavour, not as hammy as expected
• 138 calories
  
• Good rustic soup
  

Overall: 4 out of 5.

Free Range Chicken Soup with Fresh Lemon Thyme

• Tasty, warming, homely soup
• The kids loved it
• 195 calories
• Would be good as a quick base for a chicken pasta dish

Overall: 4 out of 5. Nothing spectacular, but good, solid chicken soup.

Beef and Basil Meatballs

• Another great meatball meal!
• 408 calories (oh yeah! :-) At 42% beef, this is more my kind of gluten free ready meal!
  
• Great flavour - I could eat this all day

Overall: 4.5 out of 5. Just edged out by the pork meatballs.

It's a little odd that some of these ready meals have tried to be a complete meal by including a starch, and then others are clearly meant to be served with an accompanying carb. Obviously the meat-only packets are the best value, and although you can't really do a hotpot without potatoes, but you can do a Thai curry without rice. Not sure what the thinking was there.

But niggles aside, these guys have done an amazing job. The Look What We Found gluten free ready meals are real food. They're seasoned well - no over-salty flavour simulation required here and are totally free of preservatives. Apart from the lamb hotpot, I'd happily eat any of them again. And I can be a fussy git.

For the gluten free traveller, these are a godsend. Heated in the motorway service area's baby food microwave, you've got a meal far superior to those your travelling companions are glowering at over their empty wallets.