… or "Adventures in going dairy free"
OK, so those of you know me well know something about me. Something shameful. Something there should probably be an intervention for … my addiction to butter. The tale unfolds from here ...
I'm not sure where the addiction came from. I was certainly brought up eating excellent food (thanks Mum) with a strong French influence, possibly from my mothers love of Keith Floyd. That love of French cooking has stayed with me and when I started teaching myself to cook it was the French chefs and French inspired chefs that led the way … particularly James Martin. I liked his straight forward approach to things and he showed me other paths to follow to find out more. From there it bloomed. It honestly got to the point where if there were less than three packs of butter in the fridge it was a state of emergency. Call 999 and ask for the Dairy Service.
This is combined with a love of cheese that borders on the ridiculous. After a loooong abstinence from the stuff do to being told I was allergic (I am not) I rediscovered it in my late 20s. My tastes had changed though, no longer mild cheddar, gouda or edam … no, now the bluer, softer, more unusual the better.
So this was me. French food cooking, butter blooded, cheese freak. Which I guess has you wondering about the subject of this drivel. Well this is where my health comes in.
I have something wrong with my breathing, my chest will go very, very tight. I become unable to breathe properly. I become extremely tired. It can vary from annoying to extremely uncomfortable. (I know, woe is me etc … it's clearly not life threatening but its not great.) A lot of trips to GPs and hospitals yielded nothing, except thankfully ruling out anything nasty. Allergy tests threw up nothing, nor echos, x-rays, scans of all shapes and sizes. This has continued for around 7 years and I've just had to live with it.
I came up with the idea of making my diet as clean as possible, a last gasp as it were attempt to find a solution. So I went vegan. Don't worry, I'm not going to preach … I will be caveating this heavily later on.
Not going to lie, it was a hell of a lifestyle change. I have more or less had to re-teach myself to cook. Coconut oil doesn't behave quite like butter. Vegan cheese is an abomination. Mostly, I utterly refuse to eat vegan "meat" products. I'm giving the stuff up, replacing it with Fakon is not going to keep me on this path. So no, I went full veg only from the get go. Luckily a lot of foods I love already embrace this … Indian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish … all these foods have a multitude of things to go for that exclude all meat and dairy.
Did it work? Yeah, in the main it absolutely did. The number of attacks I had dropped radically from 3 or 4 a week to maybe 2 in 6 months. That for me is a big win. Lately, it has returned a bit more strongly but I am, for now, putting this down to stress. I'm sticking with it.
Oh yeah, caveats. Looks, I cannot claim any moral reasoning behind this and accordingly I am not going to preach in your general direction … or any other. I love going to very nice restaurants and I am not going to limit myself on menu of a restaurant I've gone to specifically to try the specialties of a chef I admire, or skip an interesting taster menu. I would be a hypocrite to do so. No, I will continue this regime at home and as often as possible when I'm out with that exemption.
I would say this though, its worth trying a few meat and dairy free dishes now and then. They are very, very tasty. And you can get a lot for a very low expenditure. Buy better meat less often, you'll enjoy it more and maybe be a little healthier for it.
Or don't … up to you.
I do really miss fish mind you … so this probably isn't going to last much longer :)
Anyway … to finish, here's a pasta recipe I've come to use as a real staple. I love it, its quick and simple and delicious. I would love to credit the source but I have no idea where it came from and my internet history is not helping find it. If I find out, I will update this at a later date. Here we go:
Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce
Serves plenty
5 or 6 plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Handful fresh flat leaf parsley
Handful freah mint
Handful fresh basil
Tbsp drained capers
2 cloves garlic (or to taste)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
Pinch of sugar
Handful of walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
Olive oil
Salt and pepperPasta of choice … I like linguine
Salt a pan of water, bring to the boil and cook the pasta.
Place everything else except the oil and seasoning into a food processor and pulse until smooth.
On a slow speed run the food processor while drizzling in the oil until you reach a nice sause/loose pesto kind of thing.
Taste, and salt and pepper until happy.
Drain the pasta, stir in the sauce and serve.
Easy eh? Enjoy!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S.
I know this is the first post in a long time. It won't be the last this time. I've made an agreement with a friend of mine that we will post at least once a fortnight on our respective blogs. This was serves mostly as a catch up. I will attempt to something more interesting/exciting for the next one.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
P.P.S.
I'm still angry about that Bake Off result.
