Tag Archives: food

Gluten free quarter pounder in Oslo!

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I have had so many amazing experiences over the last 6 weeks that I want to write about but beyond the craziness of #dblog week, I simply haven’t had time to sit down and sift through everything. So I’m going to start with a quick post on something I never thought I would write about.

I’m currently in Oslo, Norway, to attend some meetings for work. I have my trusty Gluten Free Card app that explains celiac and the can’t-haves and can-haves of a gluten free diet in every language. I also know that most people in Norway speak close to perfect english and nordic countries in general are pretty aware of celiac disease and have a good offer of GF foods.

So I’ll admit that I didn’t do a whole lot of research about where I could eat before jumping on the plane. After arriving and finding my AirBnB apartment for the next two nights, I went off to wander around downtown. Eventually I found my way into a Starbucks to take advantage of some free wifi.

A few quick google searches came up with an all gluten free bakery that has closed its doors for good, and a couple of other places that were either already closed for the evening or a little too far out of my way to get to. Several websites also stated that it is fairly easy to eat gluten free in most restaurants – they get it.

But then I happened on a McDonald’s link. What was this doing on a page about GF eating? Well, as it turns out, all over McDonald’s Norway have gluten free buns for their burgers. The last time I had a meal chez MacDo (the french slang that I have gotten used to hearing) was almost 7 years ago and it was because there was no other possible choice. I was limited to salad and fries.

My CD diagnosis was 17 years ago and I think the last burger I had from McDonald’s was likely about 20 years ago. So even though I’ve never been a fan of this type of food, I decided to give it a go – just because I could. QuarterPounderwm The taste was exactly as I remembered it from 20ish years ago (which is a bit strange given the amount of time that has passed and that it was on a different continent), although I suspect the GF bun is actually better bread than the “normal” one. There. I’ve eaten it. Now I’m good to go for no more McD’s for another 20 years! And on my way back to my little apartment, I stopped by a supermarket to see what they have in their GF section. So I picked up these. It’s all super carb heavy, but I always like to bring a few things back that I can’t find at home… GFfindsinOslowm Travelling with celiac disease can sometimes be a bit nerve-wracking but on the flip side, it’s fun to make some new finds.

#dblogweek 2015 – Foods on Friday

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Ok, now I’m officially really behind on #dblogweek. I have skipped the Changes prompt altogether, though I would like to come back to it. I am now just a day late on the “Foods on Friday” topic.

I actually had the intention of sharing my entire gastronomic day and taking pictures of everything I ate yesterday. However, if I ever have the occasion to show you my food logs on the mySugr app, you’ll see I’m not very good at remembering to take a pic before I dig in.

So I’ll share with you the culinary adventure I had today. We have a new organic and local farmers’ market just up our street each week. It’s quite small so farmers only bring what you have ordered in advance. This was our first week ordering and we opted for a “family vegetable basket”, not knowing exactly what would be in it but willing to give it a try. The box we brought home had a few kilos of potatoes, a big bunch of white carrots, some rhubarb, 2 gorgeous heads of lettuce and a huge amount of blette. “Blette?”, you ask. Well I had to look it up to know that it was silverbeet or chard in English. I’ve eaten it here in France at friend’s houses, but I had never cooked it myself.

WholeBletteswm

Anyway, my objective of the day was to prepare this silverbeet in a way that my children (who have never tasted it), might not completely reject it. I decided to add it to a quiche, in a similar way I sometimes do with spinach. Here is the (mostly) photographed recipe:

about 1kg (2.2 lbs) of silverbeet
1 onion
5 eggs
a couple of heaping spoonfuls of crème fraiche
a bit of milk
Some cubed or sliced ham or lardons
some grated cheese (Use whatever cheese you like. I used emmenthal but would have preferred to use conté, just didn’t have any in the house.)
grated parmesan to top it offCutBletteswm

Cut the stems off the silverbeet.

Wash both stems and leaves.

Slice the stems and steam them for about 5 minutes (I did this with about an inch of water in the bottom of the pot). Add the leaves and steam about 2 min more.ChoppedBletteswm

Drain the the silverbeets. Chop the onion and sauté in a large frying pan in some olive oil. Add the drained blettes and sauté as desired.

Roll out the pastry. I am fortunate to be able to buy gluten free frozen puff pastry dough, and grabbed one out of the freezer this morning to let it thaw gently in the fridge all day. Another way I sometimes make a gluten free quiche “crust” is just to use leftover brown basmati rice to cover the bottom of the quiche pan. That said, a lower carb version of this could be made with no crust at all. (Just be sure to butter the bottom of the pan!).

Hamwm

Have your favourite 4 year old cut up the ham. 🙂

Scatter the ham and grated cheese on the bottom of the pastry. In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream and milk.

Pour egg mixture over ham and cheese.QuicheBeforeCookingwm

Top with grated parmesan and bake for about 25 min at 210°C (400F).

Get your favourite 6 year old to set the table (with a little help from her dad to pour the wine).

DinnersReadywm

Enjoy with the whole family.

BletteQuichewm