June 2003 – Gluten-Free

Hello, retro food lovers! Today we are taking a trip back to June 2003 for a gluten-free meal brought to us by Donna Hay Magazine, issue #x. Was gluten-free a thing back then? I know obviously people with Coeliacs and other conditions would have needed to be gluten-free but I am not sure it was as popular as it is now. However, before we see whether or not we could prepare a decent meal from a magazine in 2003, let’s see what was making headlines!

• Europe launched it’s first mission to Mars

• J.K Rowling released book 5 in the Harry Potter series, Happy Potter and the Order of The Phoenix.

• Glastonbury was headlined by Radiohead, Moby and R.E.M

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl premiered at Disneyland

So, a pretty good month for pop culture!  And space exploration.  But was it as good a month if you had gluten free guests arriving and all you had for inspiration was the latest edition of Donna Hay Magazine?

The Menu – June 2003

Grapefruit Bianco

This was refreshing and quite savoury.  I used a bit less sugar than the recipe and I loved the combination of the slight bitterness from the grapefruit and the herby/citrussy Cinzano.  This really helped to set the tone for the rest of the meal!

Grapefruit Bianco Recipé:

Sugar Cane Prawns

I loved these!  I didn’t use the rice paper as per the recipe but added some lettuce leaves to use as wraps.  Any leftover sticks are great the following day in a baguette with some more lettuce, some herbs, chilli and pickles, banh mi style!

Sugar Cane Prawns Recipe

Pad Thai

Who knew this take-out favourite was so easy to make at home?  This was so tasty it had the fussiest eater in the world commenting on how good the tofu was!

Pad Thai Recipé:

Grown Up Spider

Just to explain for my non-Australian readers.  We are not about to eat arachnids.  We call a mix of soft drink and ice cream a spider.  This one mixes sorbet and Moscato into an adults-only version which was a lovely refreshing end to this meal.   I used mango sorbet in my Spider and it worked really well. 

Grown-Up Spider Recipe:

My Nigella Moment  – Crispy Skin Chicken

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!

There were a few contenders for my Nigella moment in this magazine.  There were some macarons…but hold fire as we will be making them next week.  If they work out!  Then there was a four-cheese toasted sandwich which sounded divine.  Cheese is my love language after all!  But a sandwich seemed a little contrary to the gluten-freeness of this post.    So, I went with this Crispy Skin Chicken because just looking at it makes my mouth water!

I didn’t make the crispy skin chicken because:

1) I couldn’t find spatchcocks 

2) Deep frying is such a faff and,

3) I very doubt I could make something that looked that good!

I think the June 2003 Donna Hay Magazine gave me some fabulous inspiration for my gluten-free meal!  And it made someone enjoy tofu!!!  10/10 for this one! 

Have a great week!