Monday, February 22, 2010

the art of French cooking

Did anyone other Melbourne or Sydney dwellers read, in the Good Weekend last Saturday, the article "My dinners with Julia" by Amanda Hooten? It's a hoot (no pun intended).

I can't imagine ever, in a million years, cooking complicated French food for 10 days (let alone all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking) - or even eating French food for 10 days, what with all that butter and my weak stomach - but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about this culinary feat.

The beauty of reading: living vicariously.

3 comments:

Jan said...

Sort of an off topic comment but still on ccooking. I'm a reader but am not sure whether I've ever commented here before.

Can you recommned a good source for gluten free recipes, please? DIL has just been tested and diagnosed and my granddaughter, Miss Seven, is almost certainly also affected. The doctor said to try her on gluten free diet along with her mum, and he would test later. Hey presto, two years of stomach cramps etc have disappeared but will return within 30 minutes of eating gluten.

When I said "a good source" I meant family friendly type thins as there is my son and another grandson and granddaughter to consider too.

Thanks for any suggestions. Jan

Jean said...

The top person for gluten-free cookbooks is Sue Shepherd - a dietician and chef who specialises in coeliac disease. She has three cookbooks, I think, including "Gluten-free cooking". She works out of Melbourne. Her website is http://www.coeliac.com.au/.

The other really good cookbook which you can pick up in the supermarket is "Gluten-free Allergy-free", the Women's Weekly one.

Those are the cookbooks we use all the time. They are good for family cooking.

Mostly we just adjust normal recipes: lots of rice, gluten free sauces, and gluten free pasta. You can use most recipes and replace the flour with gluten free flour (from the health food section of the supermarket). Cakes which use almond meal are good.

Happy cooking! :)

Jan said...

Thank you very much. I'll pass this on to my son and DIL. I think she may have bought the Women's Weekly book.

I appreciate it.