We both haven’t surfed for a while, as neither of us have an inclination for the hoods, 6mm wetsuits and ice-cream headaches that are part-and-parcel with surfing in the UK.  So surfing back in the tropics was a joy.  We thought we’d sit out our first day there and just sit on the beach watching the waves but within minutes we’d grabbed boards and were out enjoying it.  Nice fun waves.  Every day we were out until we got too hungry, too tired or it got too dark.  Usually the only other people were Mike and one or two of the staff that would surf during their work breaks.

One of the nicest, most relaxing holidays I’ve ever had. Thanks Mon, my awesome wife for making it happen.  And thanks Kapuluan Vista Resort for the awesome company, food and accommodation.

When we were too tired to surf anymore we took two side trips to see the local scenery. The first was a walk to visit some nearby waterfalls. The second was for fruit wine tasting at the nearby village of Adams. The journey to Adams was an adventure in itself; the tropical typhoon Mina that had ripped through Luzon just a few days earlier had also ripped up the only road to Adams. It was a matter of traversing motorbikes over landslides, rockfalls and along narrow wire bridges until reaching the small isolated village almost two hours later.

My brother and sister-in-law Dan and Kat let us stay at their Mayumi Resort in Batangas, where we were the only guests and were spoiled rotten with the good weather and delicious food. No diving for us, we just lounged about, snorkeled and drank cocktails. Meals at Mayumi are amazingly simple and tasty; pork and barbeque chicken, garlic rice, steamed eggplant and okra. The next day the goodness continued with grilled tilapia, pork belly and one of my favourites, ensaladang talong with red egg.

At night we drank whisky and screwdrivers and played card games, 1,2,3 Pass, Pusoy Dos and Speed.

The morning after getting back to Manila we took a trip up to Baguio with the whole family.  We stayed at Manor and ate at Billy King’s “Le Chef” restaurant.  Our wedding reception was at Billy’s old restaurant in Manila and so we got to enjoy our second wedding anniversary (and Monica’s birthday) with his food again. They made us an amazing cake and we even had a band of mariachis play for us.

We didn’t do a lot of touristy stuff in town, as it was the eve of tropical typhoon Mina hitting the Philippines.  We had lunch at Cafe by the Ruins where I again helped myself to tortang talong and kesong puti.  It does seem that all we do on holidays is eat. For dinner we hit the golf club where we had the place to ourselves as no-one else was (stupid?) enough to be out with the start of a typhoon hitting. The table was filled with grilled prawns with eggplant and green mango salsa, steak and chips and large roasted cloves of garlic, steamed kang-kong, seafood tamales, bagoong fried rice. Don’t know how we managed to also finish a dessert of sapin-sapin, turon and cassava cake.

The morning of the typhoon we woke up to howling winds and rivers of water everywhere and knew there was no way we would be able to head home, so re-booked our rooms and settled in for the day.  A local rubbish tip broke its walls spilling a wave of garbage down the hill and killed ten people.

This recipe is taken from the Blackbird Bakery Gluten-Free by Karen Morgan. Lots of great recipes in it but most are based around sorghum flour. At first we were at a bit of a loss on where to find sorghum flour in the UK, it’s not very common here. But with a bit of research we found that it was common in Indian food stores and labeled as Ashapura Juwar.

These muffins are great tasting, even after being stored for several days. We usually heat them up under the grill and melt a bit of butter on them.

You will need:

• ¼ cup sorghum flour
• ¼ cup almond meal
• ½ cup cornstarch
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons guar gum
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup whole milk
• 1½ cups low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup raisins
• ¼ cup minced fresh chives

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Lightly grease a muffin tray with butter or use paper liners.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the butter and continue to mix until blended, about 2 minutes. An electric mixer would be ideal for this but we managed just fine with a wooden spoon.

3. Add the eggs and the vanilla and continue to mix until light and fluffy. Add the milk and mix quickly until smooth. Fold in the cottage cheese, followed by the raisins and chives.

4. Fill each muffin tray cup about ¾ full with the batter. Place in the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.

5. Remove from the oven and transfer the muffins to a wire rack to cool slightly.

Enjoy!

I found a wealth of information on the internet for various recipes. To start with I wanted a recipe that would be least likely to fail and result in me dumping five gallons of disgusting muck down the drain. Being a beginner to the world of home-brewing I also didn’t want to go through the process of malting my own gluten-free grains for my first recipe. That experiment will come further down the line.

So I stumbled upon Damian Keefe’s recipe for “Four Star” gluten-free strong ale on the British home-brew forum jimsbeerkit.co.uk.  I purchased the strange combination of ingredients and also needed to make a few substitutions to the original recipe. I will outline my experience here, I am only a beginner and this is my first home-brew so I probably have incorrect techniques and terminologies but hopefully this will inspire someone else with Coeliac disease to be confident enough to embrace the DIY ethic and give home-brewing a try. I made some modifications to the original recipe and I will list them here. I recommend you read the original recipe. I’m pretty damn pleased with the result of this first home-brew and am already looking forward to planning my next attempt.

I purchased the brewing kit from Johnson Home Wine Supplies in Worthing who also went to the trouble of doing some internet research for me while I was in the store to see if they could get any gluten free grains. Very nice of them. That kind of service makes a big change from the sort I used to get at a part home-brew, part bicycle repair store in Brighton that has recently closed. I walked away from Johnson’s with the following kit, which set me back just under £50:

• 25L (5 gallon) brew bucket with an air lock on the lid.
• Thermometer – the plastic sort that sticks to the side of the brew bucket.
• Hydrometer – very important – used to calculate your alcohol content and to know when your brew is ready to bottle.
• Trial Jar – basically a skinny plastic measuring jar that makes using the hydrometer easier.
• Siphon – needed later for when you start bottling.
• Belt heater – a heater strip that wraps around the brew bucket to optimise the brewing temperature.
• Big cooking pot – I bought the largest, cheapest cooking pot I could find, this saves a lot of time as otherwise I would have had to prepare the wort in several stages.

I also picked up the following:

• Northern Brewer hops – adds the beer flavour.
• Irish moss – used to clear the beer after bottling, I used it but not sure how much it helped.
• Yeast nutrient.
• Dried ale yeast pack.
• Isomerised Hop Extract – I assumed this was to give a stronger hops flavour and may not have been needed.
• (Maltodextrin) – Although this was in the ingredient list I didn’t end up purchasing it as I could not be sure it was gluten-free. So instead I added extra Date syrup (almost 1/2 litre).

From the supermarket and searching various health food stores I also got the rest of the ingredients:

• 30 Redbush tea bags – a South African Rooibos tea.
• 10 Liquorice tea bags
• 0.2 kg Muscavado dark sugar
• 4 dessert spoons of Lyles Black Treacle
• 2 teapoons Yeast extract – the recipe called for Bovril beef, a stock flavour. According to it’s ingredients it wasn’t gluten-free so I substituted a yeast extract (similar to Vegimite or Marmite) from the local health food store. Some people say that Marmite in the UK may be OK for Coeliacs but it doesn’t confirm this on the ingredients so to be sure I substituted something I knew was naturally gluten-free.
• 2 teaspoons Chocolate essence – I couldn’t find this anywhere. I considered adding a shot of espresso instead but eventually chose to leave it out completely.
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 6 dessert spoons of Tamari Soy Sauce
• 2 litres of Prune juice
• 1/2 litre Date Syrup (I added extra to replace the maltodextrin)
• 0.8 kg Golden granulated sugar (I never realised how much sugar is used to make beer!)

And so the home brewing begins:

1. I cleaned and sterilised all my equipment with a product from the pharmacy that’s also used to clean baby food utensils. What I read on the internet about sterilisation, bleaches and iodines got me quite paranoid about not having my equipment clean enough and ruining my brew. But it seems to have worked fine without going through hospital-grade cleaning products that some people were recommending.

2. Filled my brewing bucket with 5 litres of cold tap water.

3. Brought 7.5 litres of water to the boil in a big pot and then turned off the heat. To this I added 7 liquorice and 24 Redbush teabags and stirred continuously. After 3 minutes I removed the teabags and added the tea liquid to my brewing bucket.

4. I then added the following ingredients to the brewing bucket, making sure I stirred vigorously to get as much air as I could into the wort:

• Vanilla extract: 2 teaspoons
• Prune juice: 2 litres
• Date syrup: 0.5 litres plus some extra to replace the maltodextrin
• Granulated sugar: 0.8kg
• Isomerised hop extract: 5 teaspoons
• Yeast nutrient: as per packet instructions
• Tamari soy sauce: 6 dessert spoons

5. I boiled another 3 litres of water in the big pot and turned off the heat. This time I added 10 teabags and allowed them to steep for 10 minutes while stirring continuously. I removed the teabags and put the pot back onto the heat to simmer gently. To this I added:

• Dark Muscavado sugar: 0.2kg
• Lyles black treacle: 4 dessert spoons
• Yeast extract (or Marmite): 2 teaspoons
• Northern brewer hops: 25 grams
• Irish moss: 0.5 teaspoons

This simmered for 15 minutes and then was added to the brewing bucket.

6. I topped up the brewing bucket with cold tap water to get it up to the 22L (5 gallon) mark. Before I put the lid on I measured the specific gravity of the wort using the hydrometer. My starting (original) gravity was 1.035. I left this overnight until the mixture had cooled down to 21 degrees Celcius.

7. Once cooled to 21C, I sprinkled dried yeast on the surface. Leave it for half an hour before stirring it into the wort. From now on it was recommended not to introduce any more air into the wort, so no vigorous stirring or shaking.

8. With the lid back on the brewing bucket, sit back, relax and wait for about 7 to 10 days. I found that after 4 days the bubbling through the air lock had pretty much stopped. After another paranoid search on the internet I realised it wasn’t something to worry about. The yeast was still working its magic, just a little more slowly by now. During this time the hops will rise to the surface of the wort and then fall back to the bottom again. At the end of this period, I measured the specific gravity of the wort again. My final gravity was 1.001 which calculates to an alcohol content of about 4.5%.

9. Sterilise all your bottles and bottle caps. I dried mine in a slow oven making sure that the oven was cold before adding the bottles.

10. At this point I needed to add gelatin (to clear the brew) and priming sugar (to make sure the bottled beer has fizz) to each bottle. I could see how much hassle this was so instead dissolved 2/3 cup caster sugar into 2 cups of just boiled water. Once dissolved I stirred in 1 sachet of gelatine (about 10 to 12 grams) until dissolved. Mine didn’t dissolve completely so I carefully heated it again over a pan of boiling water. I poured this mixture into a secondary bucket.

11. From the main brewing bucket I siphoned the liquid into the secondary bucket, ensuring that the gelatin/sugar mixture was well mixed. Be careful not to put too much air into the mixture and try to be careful not to lift too much sediment out of the brewing bucket.

12. Fill the beer bottles out of the secondary bucket (next time I will leave the liquid in the secondary bucket overnight to clear as I got too much sediment in the bottles).

13. Leave the bottles somewhere warmish for a week to make sure the priming sugar is fermented. After that, leave at least another week, preferably a month, before enjoying!

With my few modifications to the original recipe I still wound up with a wonderful tasting beer, similar to a stout. It took me a day or two to get over the idea in my mind that it had things like soy sauce and yeast extract in it. I will definitely be trying this recipe again – it’s easy enough to not screw up and very drinkable!

This one takes quite a bit of time to prepare so best if you start early and have someone to help too. You can save some time by using store-bought pesto instead of making your own, but be sure to get a good quality one. We’ve found that the pesto can make a huge difference to the flavour of this dish. Pesto should basically be basil, olive oil, pine nuts and parmesan cheese. If your store-bought bottle of pesto has much more than that it’s probably topped up with flavour enhancers, additives and preservatives. A good quality pesto shouldn’t need to have all that extra crap. Same with your Balsamic vinegar. There’s no need for caramel colourings and flavours in Balsamic vinegar. Invest in a good quality vinegar and you will be impressed.

Regardless it will always be a hit with everyone, but if you’ve made it a few times you will notice how a good quality tasty pesto really improves things.

To make this dish Coeliac friendly all you need to do is buy gluten-free lasagne sheets. We buy corn-based ones that don’t need pre-cooking. The other thing is to be sure that the cornflour used to thicken the Bechamel sauce is also gluten-free. The rest of the dish is naturally gluten free.

What’s involved is making a tomato sauce, grilling the eggplants and capsicums, making (or buying) the pesto and adding a white Bechamel sauce.

Here’s what you will need:

• Olive oil
• 3 large eggplants (aubergines) cut into slices about 1cm thick
• 3 large capsicums (red peppers), cut into quarters and seeds removed
• Tomato sauce (see separate instructions on ingredients and how to prepare)
• 1 packet instant lasagne sheets (gluten-free)
• 1 cup coarsely grated mozzarella cheese
• Pesto (see separate instructions)
• ¾ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
• White (Bechamel) sauce (see separate instructions)

Roasting the veggies:

1. First off start preparing your roasted vegetables. Take the eggplant slices and brush both sides with oil. Roast under a hot grill until both sides are brown.

2. Place the capsicums under the hot grill with the skin side up until the skin blackens and blisters. Place the hot capsicums into a sealed plastic bag for about 5 minutes.  The steam in the bag should help to get the skin off. After about 5 minutes, peel off the skin and cut the capsicum into thick strips.

Preparing the tomato sauce (version 1 – roasted tomatoes):

You can make the sauce in several different ways depending on how much time you have. If we have plenty of time, we will roast the tomatoes in the oven first.

• 6 large tomatoes, halved
  
• 6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• Balsamic vinegar
• Brown sugar
• Knob of butter

Cut the tomatoes in half and lay flesh-side up in a oiled baking dish. Drizzle a little Balsamic vinegar and a dash of brown sugar on each of the tomatoes and a few bits of garlic on each. Roast in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes to an hour.

Remove the tomatoes from the baking dish and place aside. In the baking dish add a knob of butter to the leftover juices. With the baking dish over a medium heat add the onion and cook until lightly browned. Return the tomatoes to the baking tray and mix well. Add sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

Preparing the tomato sauce (version 2 – tinned tomatoes):

• 2 tins of whole tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• 6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• Balsamic vinegar
• Brown sugar

Lightly fry the garlic for a few seconds in a dash of olive oil before adding the onions and stirring until lightly browned. Add the tinned tomatoes, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a dash of brown sugar and some tomato paste to thicken. Simmer for at least twenty minutes, occasionally stirring until slightly thickened. Add sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.

Pesto

If you want to prepare your own pesto you will need a blender or food processor and the following:

• 1½ cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves, stems removed
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
• ¾ cup olive oil
• 50g parmesan cheese, coarsely grated

Blend the basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts with a little of the olive oil until a puree. Continue to blend while adding the remainder of the oil. Stir in cheese just before serving or using.

White (Bechamel) sauce:

• 5 teaspoons cornflour
• 300mL milk
• knob of butter
• ½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Blend the cornflour with 75mL of the milk. Heat the remainder of the milk and the butter in a saucepan until just boiling. Pour the hot milk over the cornflour mixture and then return to the saucepan. Bring to the boil again stirring continuously for a minute or two until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.

Putting the whole lot together:

1. Oil a large rectangular baking dish and preheat the oven to moderate.

2. Layer the following in the dish:

• A third of the tomato sauce,
• a third of the lasagne sheets,
• another third of the tomato sauce,
• half of the eggplant,
• half of the mozzarella,
• third of the lasagne sheets,
• remaining tomato sauce,
• all of the capsicum,
• the remaining mozzarella,
• the remaining lasagne sheets
• the remaining eggplants.

Spread the pesto on top of the top layer of eggplants and cover in the white Bechamel sauce. Cover and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Uncover the lasagne, sprinkle parmesan on top and bake for a further 30 minutes until browned.

Remove from oven and leave to sit for 5 minutes uncovered.

Enjoy !

My wife picked this one up a few weeks ago and it was an instant hit straight away. Though to be honest, anything my wife makes is incredible, she’s an awesome cook and knows what flavours work to compliment different foods.

So here it is, naturally gluten-free of course.

Vegetarian Chili

You’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 chopped yellow onion
• 1 chopped red capsicum
• 1 chopped green capsicum
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (or as much as you want, we’re big on garlic)
• 2-3 serrano/chili peppers, stemmed, seeded and minced depending on taste
• 1 chopped medium zucchini, diced
• 2 cups fresh/frozen corn kernels
• About 5 large portabello mushrooms, cubed
  
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 4 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 3 cups cooked black beans, or canned beans, rinsed and drained (we would have used black beans if we found some but in this case we used kidney beans)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves

Garnish

• Sour cream or plain yogurt
• Diced avocado
• Chopped green onions
• Essence creole seasoning (see below)

Essence Creole Seasoning

Combine the following together thoroughly:

• 2½ tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot over a medium-high heat. Add the onions, capsicums, garlic and serrano peppers and cook, stirring until soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the zucchini, corn and mushrooms and cook, stirring until soft and the vegetables give off their liquid and start to brown around the edges, about 6 minutes.

Add the chili powder, cumin, salt and cayenne and cook for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and stir well. Add the beans, tomato sauce and vegetable stock, stir well and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, occasionally stirring, for about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in cilantro. Adjust seasoning to taste.

To serve, place ¼ cup of brown rice in the bottom of each bowl and ladle the chili into the bowls. As an alternative to rice, we have had this with corn chips and grated cheddar cheese. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream/yogurt and a spoonful of avocado. Sprinkle with the essence and green onions.

Enjoy !