What a palaver!

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I have a friend who is gluten-intolerant. This means that a bit of advance planning is required if I want to invite her round for something to eat. I recently came across a recipe for a gluten-free cake in ‘Good Housekeeping’ magazine, and thought I would give it a try. Their recipes are usually pretty good and the ingredients didn’t seem too esoteric, as they sometimes can be in gluten-free cooking. The key requirements were rice flour, polenta and oats, so since I was in the supermarket anyway I thought I would look for those so I could give it a try. Well what a hassle that was! First I looked in the home baking section; I found all kinds of wheat flour from the extra-fine type to the pasta-making sort, malted grains, spelt, even coconut flour… everything except rice flour. Then I tried the section where they have gluten-free foods and finally found the rice flour there. So far so good. Next was polenta… couldn’t find that either. None in the gluten-free section. None in the baking section. The shelves with bulghur wheat, cous cous etc. finally yielded a small pack, but that said it wasn’t suitable for gluten-intolerant consumers. Finally the section of ‘exotic’ foods did have several varieties of cornmeal; the pack of fine cornmeal extolled its virtues as being high in protein and gluten free – but then in the allergy information on the back it said it could be contaminated with gluten, mustard, celery, nuts and a whole host of other allergens. I finally bought that anyway and decided to hope for the best, the quantity needed was very small and I know I have made polenta cake for her before which she really enjoyed and didn’t seem to experience any adverse effects from. Last on the list was gluten-free oats. I looked in the cereal section; the porridge oats we usually buy didn’t say anything about whether or not they might contain gluten, so I had to assume the worst. All the other types either didn’t mention it, or said they were prepared in a facility that also handled wheat. Finally back to the gluten-free section again where after much searching I finally found some gluten-free oats at twice the normal price. What a palaver. And then after all that I found my friend is on holiday until next week! I’ll have to tell you the outcome another day. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.