Article about FM in The Age

This Age Article is a nice introduction to the FODMAP diet and its role in reducing IBS symptoms.

Maple-Soy Chicken Wings and Vietnamese Salad

Maple-Soy Chicken Wings (serves 6)
24 chicken wings (you can do more - I make 4 large chicken wings per person)
1/2 cup of soy
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1 tbsp of grated ginger
1 tsp of chilli flakes
2 tbsp of chinese rice wine

1. Mix up all the above besides the rice wine and allow wings to marinate overnight. Stir a couple of times while marinating if you have a chance.
2. Pre-heat oven to 180C (lower if fan forced).
3. Spread wings in a single layers on some foil covered (this helps later with cleaning!) baking trays. Reserve the marinade.
4. Bake the wings for an hour. I find it helps to increase the temperature a bit for the last ten minutes or turn the fan forced oven on so that they crisp up.
5. While the wings are cooking put the marinade in a small saucepan. Add the chinese rice wine. Bring to the boil and put on a high simmer until reduced. Make sure it is boiling or simmering fast so that you kill any bacteria in it.
6. Serve the wings with the thickened marinade and hoy sin sauce (for those that aren't so keen on chilli).

Vietnamese Salad (serves 10)
2 carrots, julienned
2 cucumbers, julienned
1/2 wombok, hard centre removed and finely sliced
1 bunch coriander, roughly chopped
1 bunch chives, chopped
1 bunch mint, roughly chopped
300g vermicelli rice noodles - cooked according to instructions and chopped a little with scissors

Nuoc Cham (Minus the garlic) made using this recipe as a dressing

1. Toss together the salad ingredients and the Nuoc Cham.
2. Serve with maple-soy wings

Variations -
This salad would be good served with a hot roast chicken from the supermarket if you are in a hurry.
You could also serve it with deep fried tofu for a vegetarian alternative

Cream of Sweet Potato Soup

2 large sweet potatoes, diced
2 litres of stock (I used reconstituted massell chicken stock cubes)
1 carrot, diced
1 stick of celery, diced
1/4 cup of dry sherry
1 small tub of light cream
2 tablespoons of dried chives


1. Sautee the carrot and celery in a pan until soft and a little brown at the edges.
2. Deglaze the pan with sherry being sure to get all the brown bits up.
3. Add the stock and potatoes. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer.
4. Simmer uncovered until potatoes have begun to fall apart.
5. Add the cream and chives. Blend. Season to taste.

Pea and Bacon Soup

2 cups of split peas
2 litres of stock (I use reconstituted massel cubes)
2 potatoes
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
1/4 cup of dry sherry
2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons of dried chives

6 rashers of bacon, diced

1. Sautee the carrot and celery in a pan until soft and a little brown at the edges.
2. Deglaze the pan with sherry being sure to get all the brown bits up.
3. Add carrot and celery mix, stock, potatoes, lentils and bay leaves to a slow cooker. Cook on whichever setting you prefer until lentils are soft.
4. Remove the bay leaves. Add the chives. Blend.
5. Fry off bacon until crispy. Add to soup or, for vegetarian option, serve on the side.

Vegetarian Quesadillas

Serves 4

Salsa

1 can of crushed tomatoes

1 clove of garlic (leave out if sensitive but this sauce is HOT so there is very little garlic per serve)

1 tablespoon of ginger, grated

1 tablespoon of hot hot hot chilli sauce (I use this one which has a nice a smoky flavour)

2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

1/2bunch of coriander, chopped

2 tablespoons of dried chives

1 tsp of smoke flavour

Guacamole (people sensitive to polyols may wish to omit this)

2 avocados, mashed

1 lime, juiced

3 teaspoons of tobacco sauce

Quesadillas

10, corn tortillas (look for Woolworth's Brand or Diego's)

1 large capsicum, diced

1 can of corn, drained and rinsed

1/2 bunch of coriander, finely chopped

1 lime, juiced

1 bag of spinach

1 cup tasty cheese

1 cup mozzarella cheese

Salsa

1. Heat a little olive oil in a medium sized pot. Sautee the garlic and ginger. Add the tomatoes, vinegar, smoke flavour and hot sauce. Reduce. When thickened add the chives and coriander. Blend. Cool in the fridge.

Guacamole

2. Mix ingredients together. Season to taste

Quesadillas

3. Place corn, capsicum, coriander, spinach and cheese on one tortilla. Top with another like a sandwich.

4. Heat fry pan to hot. Place quesadilla in the pan. Weigh down with something (e.g. a another heavy based pan). When browned underneath, turn over with a spatula. Remove when cheese melted.

5. Serve with guacamole and salsa.

NOTE: If you are sensitive to the guacamole or the sauce you can just leave these out. I find that you use so little (about 1 tablespoon of guacamole and 2 teaspoons of salsa) over the whole meal that it's fine. 

VARIATION: Serve also with some greek yoghurt.

Cauliflower and Broccoli Pasta Bake

1 x 500g packet of gluten free penne

1 head of brocolli, roughly chopped

1 head of cauli flower, roughly chopped

6 anchovies

1 tsp of dried thyme

3 dried chillies, crumbled

1 can of crushed tomatoes

1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

salt

pepper

1 cup of parmesan cheese

1 tbsp of butter

1 tbsp of flour (Gluten free if sensitive)

500 mls of milk

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 200C 

2. Heat one pot of salted boiling water and a vegetable steamer to boiling.

3. Put vegetables in the vegie steamer. Remove when just soft through. Set aside to cool a little.

4. Put pasta in salted water. Cook until just before al dente (if you over cook it the pasta bake won't have any structure). Drain, set aside.

5. While the pasta and vegies are cooking make up a white sauce using half the cheese - melt butter, add flour, cook for one minute, slowly add milk while whisking. whisk until thickening, add cheese and nutmeg and whisk further. Season to taste. Set aside.

5. Chop up the vegetables into bite sized pieces. In a fry pan, fry up anchovies, thyme and chillies in a little olive oil. Add the vegetables. Coat with olive oil and spice mix. Fry until a little browned.

6. To construct pasta bake. Empty can of tomatos into a baking dish/casserol dish. Add the vinegar to taste. Add the pasta and veggies a little at a time so mixed. Cover with white sauce. Sprinkle with remaining parmesan.

7. Bake until brown on top.

8. Serve with salad

Variations - Add some pinenuts to last minute of frying veggies off. 

Spanakopita Pie

2 x 250g packets of frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed of water

1 bunch of dill, finely chopped

1/2 bunch of parsley, finely chopped

1 bunch of chives, finely chopped

500g of low fat ricotta

250 g of low fat feta, crumbled

1 tsp of nutmeg

1 tbsp of lemon zest

1 egg

1 tbsp of melted butter

1/2 packet of filo pastry* 

1. Pre heat oven to 180C

2. Mix together the spinach, herbs, cheese, nutmeg, lemon zest and egg. Season with salt and pepper. You should end up with a smooth creamy mix.

3. Brush baking tin or casserol dish with better. Line with two layers of filo leaving a little pastry overhanging around the edges. Brush with butter. 

4. Place spinach mix in the lined tin. Cover the top with two more layers of filo brushed with butter. Fold over the overhanding edges.

5. Bake in oven until golden brown on top (20-30 minutes).

* Filo pastry does contain wheat but because it a very thin pastry and you only use a small amount, each slice of pie includes relatively little wheat (as compared to regular pastry in a pie). I don't find this small amount of wheat to be a problem. People who are very sensitive to wheat could use gluten free puff pastry or they could add 2 extra eggs and do without the pastry altoether. This would make a spinach fritatta rather than a pie.