Although the Crohn’s diagnosis came as a relief more than anything else, the timing wasn’t brilliant. The day after I got the diagnosis, I was on a train to Paris for badly needed and overdue holiday. We had a lovely time despite the state of my health (and did surprisingly more than I thought we would) and the weather was brilliant the whole time. We rented a claustrophobic little studio self-catering flat in the Bastille neighbourhood, which was a God-sent, because I don’t know what I would have done if we had to eat out the whole time. The street we were on was filled with lively restaurants, bars and creperies. There were two bakeries at the end of the road which kept us in baguettes all week. The supermarket was also at the end of the road, where the smell of Camembert hit you every time you walked in.
In short, I learned a new definition of hell that week - Not being able to eat in Paris.
Of course, the next problem with this happening in December is Christmas, that time of year full of merriment and most importantly, food. And I’m on a restricted diet that even I don’t really understand. Bloody hell.
I had already ordered a turkey joint from my butcher (I never bother with a whole bird anymore, I’m not feeding enough people to make it worth it), so I went to pick it up on the 23rd. I was having one of those nasty Predisolone induced emotional days and after waiting ages in the queue looking at all kinds of things that I either know or don’t know if I can eat, nearly cried when my friendly butcher asked me if I was getting anything else to go with the turkey. I told him that I would need to come back after the Christmas rush to have a conversation about food (which I’m going to do). I then went to a friend’s to drop off her kids’ Christmas gifts, and promptly burst into tears. Happy fucking Christmas. Fortunately, as a fellow cook and foodie who is also living with chronic health issues, she totally understood this extensional holiday crisis. I decided freeze that turkey joint until I’m up to dealing with it.
One thing that I have been experimenting with over the past two weeks is minced turkey. I figured that it’s super lean and already kind of half ground up, so should be a safe enough bet to get some protein into me. I’ve already established that it goes well in bolognese and makes a decent meatloaf. I had a better day on Christmas Eve, and decided to see if I could use it for some kind of a modified tourtiere for Christmas Eve dinner.
Tourtiere is a French Canadian tradition for Christmas Eve, usually made with ground pork, but also sometimes a mix of pork and venison, or other game such as rabbit or pheasant. In some ways it was a risky gamble, as it is traditionally done in shortcrust pastry, which has loads of fat, which I’m having trouble absorbing. I had a small amount of shortcrust pastry in the freezer leftover from Thanksgiving (I’ve imported a few Canadian traditions to England with me), but not enough for a whole pie, so I figured that only having pastry on the top would cut the fat and make it “safer”.
Usually it’s made with loads of onions and other veg, but I left them out (you have no idea how much it pains me not to use onions!)
Adapting my ex's mother’s tourtiere recipe, this is what I did -
400g of mince turkey breast
About a 1tsp of onion granules
1\2 tsp of salt
1\4 tsp pepper
1\4 tsp cloves
1\2 cup water
1\3 -1\4 cup of breadcrumbs
I used a bit of olive oil and cooked everything in a skillet but the breadcrumbs until the meat was no longer red, then mixed in the breadcrumbs. I dumped it into a casserole dish and covered it with the pastry. My boyfriend decided it needed festive decorations, so broke out my cookie cutters. I cooked it at 180C for about 40 minutes.
I steamed thehell out of some carrots to go with it.
Verdict - It tasted okay, but it was really really dry. I forget just how lean turkey breast actually is, there's just no fat in it. Usually the breadcrumbs are used to soak up the juice in the pan and kind of hold things together. There was nothing to hold together. Next time round, I’ll probably use about 3/4 - 1 cup of water to give it more liquid. And definitely more onion granules, at least 2 tsp if not a whole tbsp (I really could cry about not being allowed onions!).
More importantly though, it generally went down okay and didn’t upset my stomach, so I’ll put this receipe on the “yes” list with the above adjustments.
One Christmas meal down, one to go!
In short, I learned a new definition of hell that week - Not being able to eat in Paris.
Of course, the next problem with this happening in December is Christmas, that time of year full of merriment and most importantly, food. And I’m on a restricted diet that even I don’t really understand. Bloody hell.
I had already ordered a turkey joint from my butcher (I never bother with a whole bird anymore, I’m not feeding enough people to make it worth it), so I went to pick it up on the 23rd. I was having one of those nasty Predisolone induced emotional days and after waiting ages in the queue looking at all kinds of things that I either know or don’t know if I can eat, nearly cried when my friendly butcher asked me if I was getting anything else to go with the turkey. I told him that I would need to come back after the Christmas rush to have a conversation about food (which I’m going to do). I then went to a friend’s to drop off her kids’ Christmas gifts, and promptly burst into tears. Happy fucking Christmas. Fortunately, as a fellow cook and foodie who is also living with chronic health issues, she totally understood this extensional holiday crisis. I decided freeze that turkey joint until I’m up to dealing with it.
One thing that I have been experimenting with over the past two weeks is minced turkey. I figured that it’s super lean and already kind of half ground up, so should be a safe enough bet to get some protein into me. I’ve already established that it goes well in bolognese and makes a decent meatloaf. I had a better day on Christmas Eve, and decided to see if I could use it for some kind of a modified tourtiere for Christmas Eve dinner.
Tourtiere is a French Canadian tradition for Christmas Eve, usually made with ground pork, but also sometimes a mix of pork and venison, or other game such as rabbit or pheasant. In some ways it was a risky gamble, as it is traditionally done in shortcrust pastry, which has loads of fat, which I’m having trouble absorbing. I had a small amount of shortcrust pastry in the freezer leftover from Thanksgiving (I’ve imported a few Canadian traditions to England with me), but not enough for a whole pie, so I figured that only having pastry on the top would cut the fat and make it “safer”.
Usually it’s made with loads of onions and other veg, but I left them out (you have no idea how much it pains me not to use onions!)
Adapting my ex's mother’s tourtiere recipe, this is what I did -
400g of mince turkey breast
About a 1tsp of onion granules
1\2 tsp of salt
1\4 tsp pepper
1\4 tsp cloves
1\2 cup water
1\3 -1\4 cup of breadcrumbs
I used a bit of olive oil and cooked everything in a skillet but the breadcrumbs until the meat was no longer red, then mixed in the breadcrumbs. I dumped it into a casserole dish and covered it with the pastry. My boyfriend decided it needed festive decorations, so broke out my cookie cutters. I cooked it at 180C for about 40 minutes.
I steamed the
Verdict - It tasted okay, but it was really really dry. I forget just how lean turkey breast actually is, there's just no fat in it. Usually the breadcrumbs are used to soak up the juice in the pan and kind of hold things together. There was nothing to hold together. Next time round, I’ll probably use about 3/4 - 1 cup of water to give it more liquid. And definitely more onion granules, at least 2 tsp if not a whole tbsp (I really could cry about not being allowed onions!).
More importantly though, it generally went down okay and didn’t upset my stomach, so I’ll put this receipe on the “yes” list with the above adjustments.
One Christmas meal down, one to go!
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