Ginger

[colormist]

I was happily making a recipe from William Sonoma's Simple Dinner cookbook. I highly recommend it for HFIers. I've found quite a few recipes that only needed to be slightly adjusted for our diet. It also can be easily adjusted to fit my husband's need for Celiac's disease.

It was some odd Indian/Chinese chicken/rice dish and was coming along rather nicely. I had to buy some ginger for the recipe and I didn't want to use something from a spice jar. I couldn't find ginger root in the grocery, so I picked up the jarred variety. I've used the same brand of jarred garlic and it worked fine.

I had just added the ginger to the dish and was stirring when I smelled something odd. Then I remembered that the ginger in Japanese dishes was really sweet. I decided to check the level of sugars in the ginger jar (as I wondered if ginger root had fructose in it (it doesn't)) and the ingredients list was really much longer than I was anticipating two or three ingredients. There were at least ten ingredients--one of which glared at me (I didn't even read the rest): HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

I've never been so sad in my life. I ended up just eating rice and butter while my husband happily enjoyed the meal. At least it didn't go to total waste.

I guess this just goes to reiterate: Check the label!

[charlie]

Oh that sucks, at least your hubby enjoyed it, its called Passive Eating!

[flutterby]

This sounds really bad but I got really excited when I read that your husband has Celiac disease. I have Celiac, Matthew (who is 3) has HFI and my daughter and husband can eat anything. I am so encouraged about that cookbook! Perhaps that will help make dinners a little easier around here.

[colormist]

The only really big deal is swapping out gluten-free pasta for regular pasta and making sure to do proper swaps with certain veggies/wines/etc. Or just skip those ingredients entirely. It'll still taste fine.

I think I realized too late that one recipe required a half-cup of tomato sauce. I made a last second substitution with chicken broth, but I should have went with 1/3 cup of peanut butter instead. (It was an Indian dish and didn't taste really good without the tomato sauce).

I've actually been meaning to post the modified recipes here. Maybe this'll give me some motivation.

[flutterby]

I'm going to order it today.

[mazian]

what a great idea to use peanut paste in a meat dish. I hadn't thought of it. I am happy to hear that ginger is OK. What site did you get the info on the fructose amounts in food?

[colormist]

It's here:
www.nutritiondata.com

The link is also available in the links section of this forum (if you can't find this thread again).

[luckyacorn]

I'm interested in getting the cookbook, but I didn't see the word "Simple" in any of the book titles on the Williams-Sonoma website. Is it an older cookbook?

[colormist]

It must be an out-of-date version. I only recently bought it at TJ Maxx, so I'm a bit bummed that it isn't even online anywhere for sale.

EDIT: I lied. www.amazon.com/Williams-Sonoma-Food-Made-Fast-Suppers/dp/0848731867/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254149222&sr=8-1

Simple Suppers, not Simple Dinners.

[luckyacorn]

I think I'm going to order it. Thanks!!! :.)