Caitríona Redmond: How to sneak veg into the classic chicken pilaf
Pic: iStock
It all started so innocently. I ate a ham sandwich with strong yellow mustard in it, an ingredient I never used at home anyway.
After one bite, I noticed blisters forming on my tongue, so I immediately stopped eating.
My mouth was raw, and that evening, I had what I can only describe as a gastric bug. At least, so I thought.
A few weeks later, I had a salad with a very popular tomato relish on the side. It happened again.
My husband remarked that it was a nearly identical episode to what happened when I had the ham sandwich.
While in the throes of stomach trouble, I realised I should check the ingredients list; go figure, there was mustard in bold.
I discussed it with my doctor, who advised me not to eat mustard again, and I’ve been dicing with the darn seed ever since.
At the moment, a stomach upset and mouth ulcers are the worst that I can expect from my food intolerance or allergy, but that’s not to say that it won’t get more severe with time.
When you live with less, excluding certain foods can make sticking to a budget difficult. You probably already know that mustard is a key ingredient in mayonnaise, and in particular, jars and squeezy bottles that I would have previously bought.
The most popular brand of mayonnaise doesn’t actually have mustard in it, but it’s also one of the most expensive on the market. Let’s say I now use mayonnaise sparingly.
Mustard makes the list of 14 allergens that have to be declared by food businesses (read more on this below).
That makes it easy for me to go shopping and exclude this one ingredient from my diet. I’m lucky; it’s not as pervasive as gluten in food, for example.
I understand entirely why coeliacs struggle with finding food they like that is free from cross-contamination and is safe to eat.
Living on a gluten-free diet comes with an added cost, and it’s one that many people may not be aware of.
While you can claim tax back on certain foods every year, the price of gluten-free bread or ingredients can be as much as three times as bread made with wheat flour.
On the positive side, for anybody with an allergy or intolerance, it’s far easier to exclude certain ingredients from your diet if you cook from scratch at home. That’s where living on a budget comes in handy.
I already make most of what we eat using base ingredients such as fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and dairy.
These essentials are naturally free of my problem ingredient. I know exactly what I have used in a recipe, where it has come from, and often the farm where the food has been produced.
I can easily trace any food reactions back to what I have eaten because I know what ingredients I have used.
Cooking from scratch not only saves me money every week, but it also protects me!
The EU has a list of 14 allergens that it requires producers and businesses to mark on their ingredients list and menus.
These could be described as the most common ingredients that can affect people. These effects can range from feeling mildly ill to a medical emergency.
At some point in our lives, we will come across people in our community who have an allergy—knowing what to look out for when shopping or dining can make a huge difference.
Items such as eggs, fish, peanuts, and milk are easy to determine if you pick up a food packaging. They’ll be marked in bold on the ingredients list.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule. Gluten-containing food won’t say ‘gluten’ on the ingredients list, but the type of cereal will be marked in bold instead.
For example, ‘wheat’ will be marked bold rather than ‘gluten’. Nuts will be marked in bold by the type of nut, such as ‘almonds’ or ‘walnuts’. The same goes for molluscs, including mussels and crustaceans, such as crabs or prawns.
Hunting for allergen-free food can make buying ingredients expensive and certainly makes for longer shopping trips as you try to squint at the ingredients list. I research in advance and bring my smartphone with me to check and/or translate the lists on the go.
If you’re interested in finding out more, my go-to resource is the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, aka the FSAI.
Pilaf is a great way to sneak hidden vegetables into your family’s diet with mild curry spices. I love cooking this kind of food that’s easy on the stomach, wallet, and senses. Servings Preparation Time Cooking Time Total Time Course Ingredients 1 tbsp sunflower oil 1 medium onion, finely chopped 1 clove of garlic, crushed 1 vegetable stock cube 2 ttbsp mild curry powder 200g basmati rice 3 chicken fillets, chopped into bite sized pieces 3 medium carrots, peeled 1 decent-sized courgette (about equivalent in size to the 3 carrots combined) Method Preheat a fan oven to 170°C. Take a large saucepan and place it on medium heat. Pour in the oil and add the chopped onion. Stir a little so that it begins to soften. While the onion is softening in the large saucepan, take the box grater and grate the carrots and courgette to the same grade. I use the chunkiest setting on my grater. Once the onion has softened a little (this will take about 5 minutes or so), add the crushed garlic and stir around for 1 minute. Crumble in the stock cube and add the curry powder to the large saucepan. Stir the contents of the large saucepan so that the spices begin to heat. Pour in the basmati rice and allow it to toast slightly in the spices. Add the chicken pieces and coat in the rice and spice mixture. Next, stir in the grated vegetables. These are very wet, so it will make for a mushy mixture. Decant the entire mixture into a large, heavy, deep dish roasting pan. Mine is 28cm long and 16cm wide. Set the pan on a middle rack in the preheated oven. Boil a kettle of water and carefully pour water into the roasting pan so that the pan is full up to about 5cm from the brim. Close the oven and cook the pilaf for 45–60 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the vegetables are tender. You will see the liquids dissipate as they are soaked up by the rice, and you should be left with a light and fluffy mixture of rice, vegetables, and chicken. Season as you like. This recipe is low in salt, but feel free to add more if you feel it needs it. I like to serve it with a wedge of fresh lemon and chopped coriander. You may like a leafy salad or even a jug of curry sauce.Chicken & Hidden Vegetables Pilaf
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