Surviving the holiday gluten free
by Frann Leach

Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, or whatever your winter festival of choice (and I refuse to bow to the PC freaks that have decided to play safe and call it Winterval or even Frostval), it's quite likely that your traditional foods for this time of year contain quite a lot of gluten. Which is a shame, because unless you or your host makes a special effort on your behalf, it's also likely that quite a bit will be off-limits.

You may decide to let the whole gluten free thing go hang and just go with the flow and prepare to pay for it afterwards, but this really isn't the best idea. On the other hand, you might decide to just stick to maybe some meat, roast potatoes and vegetables, forego the pudding and mince pies, and play safe. Even this isn't a great idea, as if the turkey or other meat was stuffed with the standard bread-based stuffing, you will be getting gluten in anything that's been close enough. And if the potatoes and possibly parsnips as well were cooked under the meat, they will also be contaminated.

So what's a girl or guy to do? OK, I understand it's a little late this year. I'm writing this on Christmas Eve, sorry about that, but there are steps you can take for next year at least. (Please note, due to circumstances, I haven't been able to test any of the recipes referred to myself)

The safest route is to cook for yourself. Sure, it means you are the one that has to cope with a huge family all with different tastes and requirements (at least that's the way in my family), but at least you have control over what's in the stuffing, and all that. But what to cook?

So far as the main course is concerned, the main problem is the stuffing, plus any little extras which you may serve along with the meat (apart from vegetables) - such as little sausages, for example. Gluten free stuffing is one of those things you rarely use any other time of year, but to be sure to end up with something edible, it's worth trying out a few recipes beforehand. I haven't tried it, and my kitchen has been out of action for so long I am getting sick of microwaved potatoes and salad, I can tell you, but this recipe from gluten free girl looks worth a try.

In our family, we always have two stuffings, one at each end. At the breast end, we generally have a sausagemeat and turkey liver stuffing (which also gets tucked under the skin of the breast to keep the meat moist). It's not hard to find a pure pork sausagemeat to make this with, though you might need to get a butcher to fine grind it for you specially (as many sausage meats contain bread). Get the liver that comes with the turkey and chop it as finely as you can, then knead it into the sausage meat until it's well mixed. You can also add chopped onions if you don't have a son as picky as mine!

To release the skin of the breast, you need to keep the skin moist as the turkey thaws (if you bought it frozen). Then on the morning of the feast, make sure you have clean hands and very short nails. Take off your rings, if any. Lift the skin at the front of the breast and gently ease a finger between it and the breast until there's a space big enough to get all your fingers in, and continue doing this, very gently so as not to pierce the skin, until the skin over the whole of the breast is loose. Then stuff with some of the sausage meat mixture and shape it to look as normal as possible. Put the rest of the stuffing in the cavity underneath the breast.

When you're working out the cooking time for the turkey, don't forget to add in the weight of the stuffings.

Christmas pudding is an acquired taste, and many people just don't like it. But it's traditional, and sometimes you just have to grit your teeth and eat it, just because it's Christmas (or maybe you do secretly like it, but just don't like to admit it!). It's a great excuse for plenty of cream to mask the taste, is all I can say. There are quite a number of gluten free Christmas puddings on the market, and again, if you must have it at your feast, it's best to try these out ahead of time, especially given that many gluten free processed foods are so dire. Alternatively, you could try this recipe, which looks edible, though rather anemic-looking.

Christmas cake is another of those things many people don't like at all - whereas I love the stuff. There are plenty of recipes online for Christmas cake, and as there's really very little flour in it, substituting gluten free flour for the standard stuff isn't a problem. So if you have a recipe that's been handed down from mother to daughter over generations, you can still use it, just swap gluten free flour for the regular flour in the recipe.

In closing, I would just like to say, have a great holiday, and I hope this article has been helpful - or at the very least interesting!