I love cooking, I really do, though it has to be admitted that sometimes I get more than a little fed up of constantly re-hashing the same old recipes week in, week out, to feed my terrible two. We are not a family that eats a great deal of puddings, but I do like to occasionally whip up a special dessert for after Sunday lunch if inspiration should hit. Last week I decided to use up the blackberries that had been lurking in the bottom drawer of the freezer for a while and add them to that old family favourite, apple crumble.
I have to confess that I am so adept at making crumble these days that I no longer weigh and measure out the ingredients, but rather use my experienced eye to achieve the mixture I’m after. However, with a view to wanting to add this recipe to my blog, I took my time and painstakingly recorded each and every element of my recipe to share. A delicious apple and blackberry crumble served with lashings of custard, made using Bird’s Traditional Custard powder, which is amazingly gluten-, dairy-, egg- and soya-free when mixed with old faithful rice milk, was the perfect way to finish off our Sunday lunch.
During the week that followed, I took my standard crumble recipe and adapted it to create a delicious, if unusual savoury dish. Here and now I admit that I cooked this for just Mike and me, knowing full well that my chances of getting G and M to eat it were somewhat slim, BUT there is no reason why this couldn’t be served to food-allergy-suffering children as it was, for the most part, M-friendly.
This time I cooked mushrooms, onion, garlic, courgette, sweetcorn and tomatoes together and added a hefty sprinkle of madeira, thyme and creme fraiche* to make the base. I then mixed in some rice before covering the whole with my crumble mix. For this savoury dish, I made the crumble without any sugar and instead included chopped chestnuts and some more thyme to taste. As this meal didn’t need to be M-friendly, I also stirred in cubes of blue cheese, though this could easily be replaced with the wonderful Violife vegan cheese that I have recently discovered for M. I baked the final dish for around 25 minutes and served hot.
I was delighted with the end result, which could easily be adapted to include other veg or meats depending on your own tastes. My recipe was based on whatever was hiding in the corners of the salad bins at the bottom of the fridge and is a meal that I know I could convert for M and G’s tastes too. An easy dinner and one perfect for a cold winter’s night!
Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk
* you could easily replace the creme fraiche with coconut cream or any other grain-based cream if you need it to be dairy-free.
7 years to diagnosis 
Hi my good friend LW from your old work sent me your blog yesterday and I consumed the whole thing in a day completely glued to the screen. I have been through some similar experiences and your blog made me laugh, cry and also feel like I’m not the only one! I would like to offer the following which may or may not help you. Someone suggested it to me and I initially dismissed it but after a very low period we tried it and I have to say it’s saved me and my family from many more continued days/months/years of illness and unknown worry. We still have the odd bad day but that’s when a food has crept in by mistake which is normally the fault of a restaurant, but other than that we have managed to solve both my husband (which took years and years and a largely unnecessary, complicated and dangerous operation, and no consultants listening or believing our story) and then thankfully my son’s issues using this method after 3 years of consultants, hospitals and many tears. It’s the York Intolerance test. We went through all the hospital tests but were still having problems. The York intolerance test flagged up some unusual foods that we hadn’t identified which almost within a few days of removing resulted in some very happy boys and after years of unhappiness, emotional upset and stress totally changed our lives! I don’t work for them or have any link with them and I’ll warn you the consultants, GPs, Nurses all dismiss it entirely and it’s results but I have only the living proof of it solving the continual diarrhoea, cramps, emotional turbulence and upset and total embarrassment for all. Since removing the foods, both of them are now much healthier, the continual illness has left our house and I’m sure it’s down to this. http://www.yorktest.com/products/foodscan/
I’m not saying this will solve all your problems but it may help a little. I was advised to print the list of 113 foods and ensure a little bit of each is eaten in the week before the test just so it’s in your system. It’s a week of pain for a lot of gain (well that was our experience).
Good luck! You’ve done an amazing job dealing with all this and I understand the emotional toll it can take. Remember you are the best Mum and totally deserve a medal for all you have achieved through your persistence to find the answers and solve the issues. Stay strong in your own beliefs.
Thank you so much for your comment. LW had let me know she’d passed the blog onto you and I’m just so glad that it’s touched a chord with you – you’re definitely not on your own, there’s a hidden community of us out there if you can just tap into it.
Interesting Mike and I have been discussing doing some further allergy testing with both M and G as we feel that there may well be some food that we’re missing which is causing a lot of the problems. I will take a look at the York test and see where we go from them – a great tip, thank you so much. I used kinesiology a few years back to identify my own intolerance to potatoes and whilst this is very much an “alternative” therapy, it has certainly made life better for me.
Please keep reading and stay in touch – if there’s anything I can do, even just be an ear to listen, I’m more than happy to help 🙂
Hi there! Popping over from recipe of the week. I didn’t catch this post when you published it so I am glad that I found it now! This sounds lovely. My mum used to make a wicked savoury crumble and it was one of my favourite dishes. Will have to adapt for our allergies etc and have a go! Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi FFF! Loving the new look to your website. Glad you found the recipe eventually – I love savoury crumble and am determined to make it suit M and G next time – could become a new family favourite and so easy to do. Enjoy!
I love the idea of savoury crumble – sounds yum. Thanks so much for joining in with #recipeoftheweek. I’ve Pinned and Tweeted this post and there’s a fresh linky live now for this week. Hope you can join in! x