Nettles - Another Cordial Experiment.

With the drought, the taste of the water here is getting worse and worse. I know I need to drink water, but even after boiling it and cooling it, it tastes kind of sulphuric. Blerk!

So rather than buying bottled water or buying cordials to disguise the taste of the water, I've resorted to using what I have on hand to make cordials. I went through a weird phase of trying to use herbs to heal myself of what later turned out to be coeliacs symptoms. So at last the shelf full of dried herbs in my pantry can be put to use, because frankly as teas they were scary.

So today I thought I'd try and concoct some Nettle Leaf Cordial.
I put the following into a medium saucepan:
2 cups water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup dried nettle leaves

I brought to the boil. I simmered for 15 minutes. Strained through muslin into a bowl. Stirred in one tea spoon of tartaric acid.
Allow to cool. Bottled and refrigerated! Tasted quite refreshing in a very green kind of way.

The Coeliac Journey begins.

Yesterday I finally had an answer to all my health problems.

I tested positive for DQB1*02 and DQA1*05 in a genetic test for coeliac disease. The strange thing is I suspected Bridie had a problem (which she certainly may have and we start allergy testing and so on for her next week) but ended up solving a LOT of my own issues by removing gluten from the family diet.

Just as we did the elimination diet as a family (a number of times) for Torin, we all went gluten free for Bridie and we all felt better for it. So I have had to re-learn to shop, cook and eat. But I am enjoying it.

I’ve always pretty much cooked from scratch. So now it’s down to removing gluten from my recipes. We’re currently still Dairy Free as well (and have been for over 12 months) but hopefully in time we can reintroduce that down the track. I miss cheese!!!

Today was rather productive. Bridie and I sat down and looked through a cookbook for babies and toddlers to see what I could tweak (I actually had Edan in mind). She spotted teddy bears made from croquettes and insisted it had to be made for dinner. Our recipe for Teddy Bear Croquettes was super easy:

• 4 cups cooled mashed potato.
• 1 cup cooled cooked chicken.
• 1 cup frozen peas and corn.
• 1 teaspoon sage
• 1 teaspoon rosemary
• Polenta to crumb

Mixed all ingredients together except polenta. Shape into balls and rolled in polenta to coat. Shallow fried for a couple of minutes each side. Serve with steamed carrots as per picture.

The cooked chicken we used was a whole size 14 chicken, covered in water. Brought to boil and then simmered for 90 minutes. It literally falls apart on the plate which saves a lot of time. And we still have quite a bit left over for stir-fries, sandwiches and the like. We keep the liquid too - as chicken stock for soups. If we could grind the bones to make our bread it’d be zero wastage, but alas we’re not giants. And a good, home-made gluten free bread still alludes me at this stage.

While all the chicken cooking was going on, I had popped 3 pears and 4 small granny smith apples in the slow-cooker with 2 cups of water. Later they were pureed for baby food and I had a sudden thought - why waste the liquid??? So I made this up:

Apple and Pear Cordial

• 2 cups left over fruit stewing water
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon citric acid
• 1 teaspoon tartaric acid

Simmer to dissolve sugar, add citric and tartaric acids, bring to boil then quickly remove from heat. Allow to cool, bottle and refrigerate.