Places we like in Dublin

Definitely Food Co-op at No 12 Newmarket. Keywords: people, food, shopping, small, local, organic...Friendliness in the air. We like to go there on Saturdays for shopping and lunch. Usually there is a lot of other parents bringing their kids. Max loves to play chase with them :-) People seem to know each other very well. In the "Freedom Cafe" the veterans and apprentices of the sustainable lifestyle sip their fair-trade coffee and chat lazily. It's so relaxing and optimistic. That's why I'm a little bit addicted to this place :-)



What gluten free products can be found in there? Apart from vegetables and fruits, there is always a vendor of gluten free baking - nice Austrian man selling also grain's mills. However, for Max's lunch we prefer to bring our own flask of home-made warm soup, the fear of contamination is strong...
Anyway, for today's recipe I have something essential in my mind, like friends and good food, all in one place. One word - gomasio. Do you know it? No, not yet?



It's one of the principal condiments in macrobiotic cooking (which I'm still learning). It is also called a sesame salt.
All you need is sesame seeds (unhulled if possible) and sea salt, also a suribachi (a japanese mortar) or a mortar and pestle.
The proportion of salt to sesame seeds depends on age and level of physical activity. For extremely active adults 1 part salt to 8-10 parts sesame seeds and for small children 1 part salt to 16-20 parts sesame seeds is OK.
How to do it? According to my Polish teacher of macrobiotics:
- wash seeds carefully using a very fine mesh strainer (in Ireland I always buy organic sesame seeds which are clean so I don't wash them);
- soak 8 hours with a little bit of salt;
- wash and roast (when wet) using a frying pan (medium heat); dry seeds burn easily, be careful because it's easy to overroast them (in this case they are bitter and not good);
- roast the salt (it releases moisture from the salt and helps to make fluffy gomasio);
- place the roasted salt in a suribachi and grind until it becomes a powder;
- add the hot (grind easier) roasted sesame seeds to the roasted sea salt in suribachi;
- grinding should be slow in a circular motion until each seed is half crushed and coated with salt; if you grind gently , gomasio would be sweeter.



It keeps fresh for 10 days if it is in a fridge (in a glass jar). Avoid making too much at a time, better to have fresh every week.
Sometimes we eat it very quickly. We probably need calcium (sesame seeds contain more calcium than cow's milk!).
And slow, careful grinding is a good meditation, isn't it?
And the strong nutty smell during grinding!
And the simple and pure form of suribachi!
All my senses are delighted :) I'm fulfilled.

Mum

Layer cake strikes back

A few days ago we invited our neighbours for a coffee and cake. The cake recipe was almost identical to the original one, save one layer of sponge was prepared using the rice flour. It came, well - more spongy than the one made from corn flour and its colour was identical to "normal" wheat-based sponge. In the future I'll stick to the rice flour, except tortillas of course ;)

(Dad)

Inspiring... must read!

Reading this book took me some time. With Max, who doesn't have even a 15 min nap during the day, it wasn't easy. Of course he wanted to read it too!
Thanks a million (as the Irish folks say) Shauna! I found your absolutely fantastic website just by chance, googling for: "gluten free kid Ireland". It was the last step before starting our blog, you just encouraged us! I'm so happy about having your book and the possibility of reading about your exciting life (not to mention the recipies).
My childhood in Poland (seventies) was completely different. My mother cooked the majority of meals from scratch. I had a warm soup every day, always the seasonal vegetables and fruits. I used to spend my summer holidays on my grandmother's farm, being in a deep contact with nature.
Then came the eighties, which meant the martial law and economic crisis in Poland. Empty shops, people queueing for everything, but I was lucky having the family in the countryside. They always had fresh milk, eggs, poultry, potatoes etc. You can't imagine how creative people were at that time, whether in cooking or thrifting.
With the nineties and the economic progress, there began the consumption in the Western style. Supermarkets slowly pushed out the small shops and even our mothers became their loyal customers (how sad).On the other hand the farmers markets are still popular and it is getting easier to buy organic products every year.

Back to the book with that wonderful energetic cover. It's about a passion for life and also an amazing real love story, I haven't read about for a long time. Shauna, you are like a delicious strawberry-rhubarb muffin in the middle of summer :-) :-) Thanks a million once more!
And below the recipe for muffins, unfortunatelly this year without strawberries (because of Max's allergy test results*).
We don't have much experience in the gluten free baking (frankly speaking almost in any baking). Up to now Max's diet consisted mostly of the cooked meals.
The first GF muffins were a challenge for me. I found this recipe (thank you Christan) which we tested succesfully several times, playing with ingredients and proportions.




Rhubarb muffins (makes 12):

Dry ingredients:

• 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 1 cup brown rice flour
• 1/2 cup corn flour or millet flour (you can ground millet flakes in a coffee grinder)
• 1/4 cup potato flour
• 1/4 cup ground flax seed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Wet ingredients:

• 2 free range eggs
• 3/4 cup coconut milk or any other which you could use in your diet or just cold water
• you can add desiccated coconut which was left after making the milk
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• some vanilla (I use a stick)

Rhubarb chopped into cubes.

First blend wet ingredients well, then mix slowly with dry ones and add chopped rhubarb.
These muffins don't grow as much as the "normal" ones so you can fill the muffins tins about 3/4 full.
As you probably noticed there is no xanthan gum or other modifiers!

Play with this recipe and enjoy the results!

*) This winter Max was tested and that's why we know that strawberries, peaches and birch pollen are allergens for him. He should avoid them.

Mom