Rhubarb and Custard Eton Mess

Eton Mess is one of my favourite desserts. Its popularity on menus is often something of a saviour too, since coeliacs frequently struggle in the dessert department. One blogger has even started their own campaign comically titled 'fruit is not a pudding'. So often fruit, a miserly excuse for a dessert, is dished out to gluten free people up and down the country by those lacking the awareness or creativity to dish up a coeliac friendly pud. So back to Eton Mess, I love it, and like I said it's usually naturally gluten free.

This recipe is ridiculously simple, although the dedicated dessert king or queen can complicate it as much as they like by whisking up their own meringues or custard. The slightly tart rhubarb helps to offset the sweet components nicely. If you are gluten free, don't forget to double check any shop bought ingredients. Quantities are all fairly approximate as you can layer it up how you like it.

Ingredients (serves 6 - 8):

300ml double cream

500g ready to pour custard

6 meringue nests

800g rhubarb

Bar of white chocolate

A sprinkling of caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees, chop up your rhubarb into small, bite sized pieces and put in a single layer in a baking tray. Sprinkle over some sugar and place in the oven for 15 minutes. The rhubarb should be soft but not mushy, you want it to hold together. Set aside and leave to cool. Now whisk the double cream till thickened, then fold in 3/4 of your custard, to create a slightly marbled effect. Crumble up your meringue nests and coarsely grate the white chocolate. Now it's simply a case of assembling your mess and that's completely up to you! I started with a layer of rhubarb, followed by a layer of the cream and custard mix, a little more of the custard, crumbled meringue and then white chocolate. Just repeat until you reach the top. Best served in tall sundae glasses.

Rhubarb and Custard Eton Mess

Relish, Newton Flotman, Norfolk

Going out for Sunday lunch often promises so much, but invariably fails to live up to expectations. Pubs and restaurants up and down the country suddenly decide to turn out over cooked meat and mushy vegetables. Thankfully, Relish at Newton Flotman in Norfolk is not one of those places.

On a Sunday they do 2 courses for £16 or 3 for £20 and for the quality of the food, it's great value. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over whether to have a starter, dessert or both! In the end, the decision was made that you can always tag a dessert on the end but you can't really go back and have a starter - good logic! To start I had beautifully cooked pigeon, blushing and tender, served on a bed of lentils with celeriac purée. It was a well crafted dish that got the meal off to a great start. My dad had a mushroom and tarragon dish with a soft poached egg that also looked great.

Pigeon on a bed of lentils with celeriac purée and pea shoots

For main, I couldn't resist the haunch of deer with a port jus. When cooked well, venison is one of my favourite meats and this was cooked superbly, the meat tender and succulent. All the accompaniments were well cooked too, crisp and fluffy roast potatoes and vegetables cooked to retain their full flavour. It was a generous portion too, so much so that we decided we didn't quite have room for dessert - maybe the logic wasn't that great after all! There were no problems catering for my gluten free requirements either. Everything was cooked fresh so dishes could be easily adaptable. Inside, Relish has a modern feel while still retaining it's country feel and the service was spot on too. We'll definitely be going back, especially since they also do pizza Sundays and can do gluten free pizza. They also do an 'experience menu', which sounds rather tempting!

Sunday lunch - Haunch of deer with a port jus

The Belgian Monk, Norwich

I have been to Belgium. It was on a school trip in year 9. We stopped off at a motorway service station on our way to Germany. The closest I've come to sampling Belgian gastronomy in Belgium was spending a few francs on some juicy fruit chewing gum to last me the rest of the trip. So I can't really compare the Belgian Monk in Norwich to the real thing, what I can say though, is it certainly makes me want to go back and visit more than just the country's service stations.

If you like your mussels, then look no further than the Belgian Monk. They sell over quarter of a tonne every week and with over 30 different flavour combinations, you're spoilt for choice. We decided to sample a few different flavours between the two of us and went for the mussel selection option where you get to pick 3 starter portions of mussels. We supplemented this with another starter portion and shared the lot and we certainly had plenty. We went around the world with our flavours, from the 'A la Maharajah' with coriander and orange, to the 'Normandes', with a deliciously creamy apple and bacon sauce. The 'Amerika' were served with clams, crab meat and hot sauce for a spicy fishy kick and the 'Thai' with red chilli, coriander, lime and shitake mushrooms packed a punchy fresh taste. They were all beautifully cooked and full of flavour. I'd called ahead to enquire about what was gluten free and was informed all of the mussels were (although there's one with white beer so always double check) but the chips were off limits due to being cooked in the same fryer as other dishes containing gluten. It's times like this I'm occasionally glad I'm gluten free because we substituted the chips for the Limburg potatoes and Potato Tartiflette both of which were excellent. Heavy with thyme and a garlicky hum, the Limburg potatoes were soft and fluffy and the Tartiflette was delicious, oozing with cheese and bacon. With potatoes as delicious as these, who needs chips?

Mussel selection at the Belgian Monk

Limburg Potatoes

Potato Tartiflette

They serve a huge variety of Belgian beers to wash it down the traditional way but we shared a decent bottle of Sauvignon blanc. At £15 - £20 for the mussels and side it's not cheap but it's brilliantly done and for a little taste of Belgium close to home you really can't go wrong.

Jon Gay's 'pop up' at Zin Zeera

I'm not quite sure how, but Jon and I ended up following each other on twitter. Seeing the occasional status about what he was up to, I soon learnt he was serious about food. Jon recently set up his own cookery school which you can find out more about on his website. Seeing photos of some of the dishes he had created and his support for local Norfolk suppliers meant that when he tweeted about an upcoming pop up restaurant he was working on, I jumped at the chance to go.

This was my first 'pop up' experience and I was intrigued to hear it would be at an Indian restaurant called Zin Zeera on the outskirts of Norwich. It was mothers day and for the mother-in-law to be, it was a bit of a shock to be pulling up to an Indian restaurant for Sunday lunch. There was a look of relief on her face when we were handed Jon's menus and she realised we weren't here for a Korma. The menus were a nice touch, hand written with little quotes and nods to local suppliers. I even sampled my first Norfolk cordial of rhubarb, ginger and orange which was a refreshing change. Jon's staff were great too, friendly and helpful. Jon had assured me that my gluten free dietary requirements would be catered for and he came to the table to explain tweaks he could make to ensure I had a full range of options.

My starter of boneless chicken wings with textures of garlic and sesame was a great start to the meal. Deliciously slow roasted garlic melted in the mouth and the wings were succulent and full of flavour. It was a well presented dish which could only have been improved with crispier chicken skin. Others opted for the smoked mackerel pâté, a generous portion which seemed to go down really well.

Boneless chicken wings with textures of garlic and sesame

Mains arrived and were equally well received. My salmon and mussels were all well cooked and seasoned and served with a tasty arrangement of crushed new potatoes. The light white wine sauce tied the dish together well. One of the difficulties of a pop up, I'm sure must be using an unfamiliar kitchen and it was a testament to the chefs that everything was cooked extremely well. Jon was also relying on the Zin Zeera crockery which I think meant that the plating wasn't quite as refined as some dishes photographed so elegantly on his site. Nonetheless, both the butternut squash 'lasagne' and braised lamb enjoyed by others continued to deliver on flavour. The lamb provided by local butcher Tony Perkins received particular praise for it's deep, rich flavour and tender texture.

Pan fried salmon, new potatoes, mussels and white wine

Desserts were definitely a highlight. The most creative dish on the menu of peanut butter 'jammie dodger' went down extremely well and I had one of the best brownies I've eaten. It even earnt the use of the cliché 'melt in the mouth'. The brownie was naturally gluten free too, other chefs should definitely take note.

'Loads of chocolate' brownie, baileys ice cream

For a first pop up, there was some really good cooking on show. Jon and his staff did a great job at making us all feel welcome. Launching your own business certainly demonstrates ambition and I think with this under his belt, hopefully there'll be even more to come.

Gluten Free McDonalds here in the UK?

Well not quite... but you can certainly come pretty close! They're a guilty pleasure, it was very rare that I had a McDonalds even before becoming gluten free but just now and again I'd have that craving. Since becoming gluten free, I thought that surely McDonalds would be off limits?  Of course you can make excellent beef burgers yourself and we've even made gluten free wagyu beef burgers at home but there's a unique taste to a McDonalds Big Mac that you just can't recreate.

Actually though, it's not off limits. McDonalds have an extremely thorough allergen menu available online. As they break down the components of their burgers you can actually see which components contain gluten and which don't. For example, take the Big Mac, only the bread bun has gluten. Asking for a burger without a bread bun does earn you some funny looks but the branches I've visited have been more than happy to provide the rest of the burger! They make it from scratch and usually put it into a breakfast tray clearly labelled. All you have to do then, is add your own bread bun! The fries are also cooked in a separate fryer to anything containing gluten. You can also check the McFlurry flavours available online too, as some of these are gluten free. I obviously can't speak for the cross contamination procedures in place across every branch of McDonalds but I've never had any issues. If you're unsure though, it's probably best to ask.

One day coeliacs might have a full gluten free burger option in McDonalds, it's already available in country's such as Sweden, but for now, at least you can satisfy that occasional craving.

Big Mac created with a gluten free bread bun!