09:55 am: The care and feeding of Deamons
As many of you may or may not know,
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deamondea has been forced onto a gluten-free diet, because she is celiac. Or possibly because our doctor is a sadist, but that's another story.
Not surprisingly, most people don't know what this involves.
What this means: Merely cutting down on gluten isn't good enough, as even a trace amount (ie, a breadcrumb!) can set off her stomach again. In fact, she's possibly more sensitive than before because she's been getting used to NOT being sick.
Gluten can be found in wheat, barley, rye and oats, or pretty much anything derived from them. Varieties of wheat like durum or spelt are still wheat... but Buckwheat is OK, because it's not related to wheat.
Unfortunately, this means that pretty much any processed food has one of these items in it, even things you wouldn't expect... either as flavouring or thickening.
Malt extract is also a no-no (from barley), putting things like Vegemite out of reach. Many frozen chips use malt extract for colouring.
Many mayonnaises contain wheat, as do most soy sauces and teriyaki sauces. Not all, but many do.
To add insult to injury, the damn stuff spreads like crazy during cooking, so things like roast chickens etc are also out, as they have wheat in the stuffing, and often malt extract in the seasoning. We've tried not eating the skin or stuffing, but this has turned out to be unsuccessful due to contamination during cooking.
Many salad dressings have wheat in there somewhere.
Exceptions: There are some things so highly processed that it doesn't matter where they are derived from. Maltodextrin and Glucose are ok no matter what their source.
What can she have?
Plain meat and veges are good. Gravy should be made with a non-gluten thickener, ie corn-flour. (Warning: not all corn-flours are made with corn! Check packet...)
Roast Chook provided there is no stuffing or funny stuff in the seasoning. And that's not cooked in the same pan as something that does.
Many sausages are gluten-free, and these are often better quality. Most rissoles aren't gluten free.
Gluten-free pastas are fairly easy to find these days. If you use a pre-made sauce, check ingredients carefully. Dolmio bologneses seem OK.
Home-cooked stirfry is a good choice (again, check sauces and thickeners first)
We've only found one manufacturer of stock cubes that promise to be gluten free (Massens)
We've also found a small number of Chinese restaurants that have gluten-free recipes, mainly Master So Kitchen in Kippax.
The Canberra Labor Club (in Belconnen) has gluten free options, and so does Zeferillis.
Dominos has started advertising gluten free bases, but our local one has so far failed to stock them.
Ali Babas now has gluten-free kebabs (this is exciting...)
White Wings make a good gluten-free flour.
Most hams and salamis are gluten-free, but cabanossi and twiggy sticks aren't.
Most cheeses are OK, although check the ingredients of the more highly processed ones.
Things not to bother with:
Gluten Free Bread: Most of these are horrible, don't bother buying them just for us. It's possible to make a nice damper from the aforementioned gluten-free flour, though.
Hopefully that helps!
Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_free
