audreydeane's posterous

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18th May 2011

Do you make gluten free claims about any of your products?
If you are selling or producing food that makes a 'gluten free' claim? If so, read on as the labelling rules are changing from January 1st 2012, which may affect how you produce, sell or label your products with a gluten claim.

From this date, only two claims will be allowed :

'very low gluten' - gluten levels below 100ppm (parts per million) as served to the customer.

'gluten free' - gluten levels below 20ppm (parts per million) as served to the customer.
These claims will have to be substantiated by product testing at a laboratory. Cross-contamination from gluten containing ingredients and products on your premises will also need to be reviewed using HACCP principles to ensure that procedures are in place and are adequate to maintain these low levels. If you cannot substantiate these claims or cannot ensure that your procedures and practices protect these gluten levels, you will NOT be able to make a gluten claim. If you have taken all reasonable steps to reduce cross-contamination through a HACCP exercise, you will be able to say that the product has been 'made with gluten-free ingredients' and the customer will then make a choice whether to eat the product.

How can FOODMATTERS help you to prepare for these changes?
We can help you decide whether or not your products are likely to comply with the new rules, before you carry out expensive product testing.

We can assist you with a review of your HACCP system and the procedures and practices to ensure that all reasonable steps have been taken to reduce cross-contamination.

We can advise on testing and the interpretation of the results.

We can advise on product recipe adaptations to reduce gluten levels.

We can advise what claims and labelling can be put on products to ensure that you comply with the rules.
If you have any questions about how this could affect your business, do contact me for clarification at audreydeane@food-matters.co.uk

Further info;

links to FSA website;

http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/allergyintol/label/gluten/

Guide for caterers;

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/gluten0511.pdf

Frequently asked questions;

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/glutenfaqs.pdf
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7th March 2011

Ikea Rye Bread mix and home-made butter

On Saturday, we decided to brave Ikea to purchase some photo frames. We found the right frames, plus a few extra items along the way and were about to head home.

I decided to have a quick look in the food hall to see what interesting things they had. In amongst the meatballs and lingonberry sauce, I found some Reindeer meat slices, numerous jars of marinated herring and an unusual cider flavoured with cloudberry juice. I rather liked the look of the Gravadlax so bought a pack for lunch, along with some sweet, dill sauce. I was about the check out when Ii spotted a carton of rye bread. It was a rye bread mix ; add 600ml warm water, shake, pour into the loaf tin, leave for 30 mins and then bake for 1hour. I love rye bread so the opportunity to make my own was too hard to pass up.

It was so easy, I did overfill the loaf tin a bit so there was rye bread mix spilling out , but I put it on a baking tray and popped it in the oven.

I was very pleased with the result and would definitely recommend it. It was dense but moist and very tasty, and went beautifully with our home-made butter that we had made the afternoon before The gravadlax and dill sauce made for a fab open sandwich lunch Scandinavian style.
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This is the other half of the loaf
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3rd March 2011

The soup that keeps on giving.....

There are some recipes that you come back to again and again, your signature dish, your family favourite, the quick, rustling up something dish.
Recently, I discovered that my spicy tomato and lentil soup had suddenly turned into a chameleon, every day turning into something different.
It's a soup recipe first and foremost, but then add some butter beans and chorizo, it becomes a spanish stew. The lentils continue to absorb the
liquid so on day two, the soup becomes very thick, so with a little bit of fried off bacon, it becomes a tasty jacket potato filling or a pasta sauce.
Now I'm thinking adding a mix of beans and some fresh basil to go down the Tuscan Bean Stew route. Today's lunch went down the Moroccan route
with the last ladle full of soup mixed with half a tub of cous cous salad and a few finely chopped apricots, warm pitta - delicious.
Its great to have recipes up your sleeve that can take on different guises depending on what you've got in your fridge or what culinary mood you are in.
1 small onion - finely diced
1 garlic clove - crushed
1 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp. chilli powder (adjust according to how spicy you like it)
1 tsp. Smoked Paprika (optional, but it does add a lovely depth of flavour)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 vegetable stock cube
1 pt boiling water
100g red lentils
good pinch of salt
- Heat the oil, gently soften the onion and garlic for a few mins, add the spices and cook for 30 secs or so.
- Add the chopped tomato and the stock cube, boiling water. Bring to a simmer.
- Add the lentils, stir well, bring to a simmer and leave lid on for 15 - 20 mins. Add the salt to taste, at the end as
adding salt too early can toughen the lentils and then they take longer to cook!
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1st February 2011

The Badge of Honour is very pink!

Oh how proud am I to have received this lovely badge. All in the name of recipe testing for Vanessa Kimbell and her new cookbook 'PREPPED'
http://http://writingacookerybook.blogspot.com
It's been great fun so far and I'm sure there is more to come........
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27th January 2011

Tom's Deli for Lunch @tomaikens

In town for a meeting, thought I'd swing by Somerset house to have a look at Tom's Deli and pick up a bite to eat.
Somerset house is bang on Embankment overlooking the river and this is where the very quiet back entrance is. Its all sign-posted but you are taken on a bit on a route in a lift etc. to get there. The front entrance is far more direct, and slightly busier.
First impressions, very small, probably about the size of your dining room at home and the eating area, the same. Food presented in a very low-key way in baskets and on wooden boards with chalk pen labels on everything, it all looked very fresh indeed. Very reasonable priced - £4.25 for a very fresh smoked salmon and avocado bagel, £1 - £2 for a cake/muffin, definitely similar to Pret prices.
My disappointment was, that using the word Deli in the title gives the impressions that it is a deli? So, I was expecting nice cheeses, oils, fresh grissini to take home, olives or meat, chorizos or the best of British produce etc, you get my drift. I really though it was a bit of a lost opportunity to up-sell those that had come in for lunch either at Tom's Kitchen or at the Deli - you could of course buy Tom Aiken books..........This sounds quite negative, don't get me wrong, the food quality was excellent, the freshest bagel I've ever eaten, melt in the mouth salmon with a zing of wasabi with the creamy avocado.
It is off the beaten track, you certainly have to know where you are going and you need to hope its not too busy when you get there because there's not much room. But it is worth it for a nice quiet lunch spot with excellent food.
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27th January 2011

Caraway Crackers are a runaway success

Caraway, that fragrant little seed that you don't see very often. I remember it in a rye and caraway bread that we developed for the Tesco In-store bakeries and have always liked it but you don't see many recipes with it in.

BUT, not in Prepped' where it pops up in a muffin recipe, a soup recipe and a pork dish. Although, I have noticed that this is not entirely surprising as many of the recipes in 'Prepped', do use fragrant herbs and spices. This really give the dishes a lift in a non-overpowing way.

These crackers were beautifully easy and looked great - "just like something you'd pay a fortune for in M&S". So long as you realise that the dough needs resting for an hour, they were incredibly quick and simple to make and cook in no time (although managed to overbake the 2nd batch as I left them for 8 and not 6 minutes - grrrrrr). The combination of the paprika and garam masala really gives the crackers depth of flavour and everyone agreed that they were great with the hoummus we had just opened. We then started to talk about other flavour combinations that could work and everyone got very enthused and imaginative!

I wasn't quick enough off the mark to take a photo, cos they all got eaten - note to self; Don't put all the goodies out for everyone to eat, keep some back......

A caraway runaway success...........
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17th January 2011

Fresh Cream Victoria Sponge

I had a plea from from a friend last week, her oven wasn't working and wouldn't be able to bake anything for our afternoon tea date (5 mums, lots of hungry children). So, I offered to bake something.........

Then I thought, I'll contact Vanessa to see whether there were any baking recipes that need testing for 'Prepped'?

Waiting with anticipation to see what wondrous recipe would be winging its way to me.........it arrived - Victoria Sponge. Not ground-breaking, earth-shatteringly different but a good old traditional fresh cream Victoria Sponge. But surely there must be a twist? Vanessa wouldn't just dream up a standard Vicky sponge would she? Well of course not, so the twist was cardamom sugar, just like an infused vanilla sugar but with cardamom instead. This normally takes 3 -4 weeks to infuse, which of course I didn't have so Vanessa advised me that a 1/4 teaspoon of ground cardamom would be fine.

The recipe was easy to follow, all in the kitchenaid with a minimum of washing up - perfect. A few tweaks with quantities, 400 ml of double cream is way too much, 250ml was just fine. I filled up the tins (having greased and lined them) and popped them in the oven.

The friend was delighted with my offering and the other guests were very keen to have a 'slither' (well it is January!) of the still warm cream and strawberry jam filled sponge. When I asked them whether they could taste anything unusual about the flavour of the sponge, no-one could pin-point it, although they could taste something, very nice of course.

"Cardamom" I said

"Cardamom?" They said

"Yes, ground cardamom in the sponge mix"

"Well, I wouldn't have expected that, its really nice, not overpowering but very nice"

A great success, I'll certainly be making that one again and won't be afraid to add the cardamom, and when 'Prepped' is published, I shall be making some cardamom sugar for sure.

Thanks Vanessa,
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28th October 2010

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate.......

Vanessa has sent me a very tempting set of recipes that are basically a heavenly chocolate fest! I was struck by the incredibly small list of ingredients required to make this fabulous array of chocolatey delights. I have put 4 bars of dark chocolate on the shopping list plus cream and eggs and I think I am going to go for it.

One problem though, cooking chocolate desserts at half-term with kids around. This did not seem a good idea especially when they had already enjoyed the chocolate shortbread earlier in the week. I knew I wasn't going to get away with it. So, I have ring-fenced the bars of chocolate and decided that I will do this next week when the children are at a safe distance back at school. Then I can concentrate on doing this properly, without little fingers diving in every second, and the chorus of "can I lick the bowl" echoing around the kitchen. They can enjoy the fruits of my labour when they return and all will be calm.......
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21st October 2010

Recipe testing here I come

Entering the world of recipe testing - again.

About three years ago when my first recipe book came into being, my co-author and I had to test over 100 recipes to make sure that they worked, tasted good and met our criteria on some key nutrients. It was a step learning curve; taking no-short cuts, writing everything down and getting people to taste it and be honest with feedback (more difficult than you think). But it was worth it, because hand on heart, we can say that we had tested and tasted every one of our recipes and we had confidence in them.

That is why when Vanessa Kimbell asked for assistance in this area, I was a willing and able volunteer. Having spoken with Vanessa, it was clear that the passion for her recipes and how useful they could be for every time-poor foodie out there would go a long way in the success of her new book due out in May 2011.

So, bring on the recipes and be I'll testing them and blogging on how its all going over the next few months.

for more info about Vanessa and her book project visit www.prepped.co.uk

E audreydeane@food-matters.co.uk

W food-matters.co.uk

W omega3cookbook.co.uk
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