Picture this. You’re a food blogger. You love to eat and you love to cook (in no particular order). You constantly think about cooking, eating and food blogging. One day, you go to the doctor and he says, “Your blood tests show you are sensitive to dairy, eggs, grains and shellfish. Stop eating them for at least three months.”
Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
This is what happened to me at the end of last year. I think I experienced the five stages of grief within five minutes flat – shock, denial, anger, sadness and a deep sense of loss for all the buttermilk and ricotta pancakes that I would no longer be able to wolf down on a Sunday morning.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long for the silver lining of this dark cloud to emerge. A new focus for my blog was born – recipes for people with food sensitivities. Now there’s a niche in the market but is there a market in the niche? Well, we’ll soon find out. Whatever the case, from now on Food Crush will be posting recipes that are free of wheat, dairy, eggs and shellfish. Think vegan minus the grains, with some meat thrown in for good measure. Before you throw your hands in the air and say, “How boring!”, stay with me while I show you how yummy food-sensitivity recipes can be!
I’ve been on this good health crusade for two months now (yes, I did it over Christmas). All things considered, it’s going pretty well, apart from breakfast which is no longer worth getting out of bed for. Try going to a cafe for breakfast and ordering something that doesn’t contain grains, eggs or dairy. Not possible!
To shake up the daily grind of corn flakes with soy milk and sliced banana, I recently whipped up a kedgeree. “A what?” I hear you say. Kedgeree is a Scottish dish made with smoked fish, rice, eggs (I left these out), tomatoes and spices. Not exactly what westerners like me have developed a palate for first thing in the morning, but who said we can’t have spicy food for breakfast?
I first cooked Jamie Oliver’s kedgeree recipe when I was living in Edinburgh about 10 years ago. I used smoked haddock over there, but since we can’t get it here in Australia, I used trout instead (you could also try smoked cod). Other adjustments include replacing the butter ghee with a good glug of olive oil and giving the yoghurt dressing a miss. Jamie’s recipe calls for basmati rice, but I recommend using brown rice to create extra nuttiness and texture. It’s also a handy way to use up left over boiled rice. I served it with lots of cracked pepper and fresh coriander, and a nice cuppa tea. As Jamie Oliver would say, “it’s pucker”.
If you like Jamie Oliver, you might also enjoy his chilli con carne recipe.
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