I was recently asked about potato starch substitutes for those with potato starch allergies on the Sobeys Chef Q & A site. Here's some interesting facts from our head dietician, Cheryl, at Sobeys Atlantic.

Cheryl writes:

The book I would recommend is a book for those who have celiac disease. It lists many starches that can be used and details substitution amounts that would be useful for Su. The book is called Gluten Free Diet: A Comprehensive Resource Guide by Shelley Case.

Substitutions for 1/2 tbsp potato starch are:

Last week I was able to put on a much requested Lunch and Learn at the office where we get together, cook, eat and talk about a food topic for 60 minutes over the lunch hour. Well, word got out that I was cooking with Chocolate and it spread quickly. The first class filled up with 20 people in less than 4 minutes, so I decided to put on a second chocolate class that week, and it filled up in less than 4 minutes, as well!

The twins (Jack and Ella) keep me on my toes all day long! Coming up with new activities for us to do isn’t always easy, but they both love being in the kitchen with Chef Dad, so we’ve been doing quite a bit of baking lately since it is too cold to go outside (-28 with the wind chill).

A question that comes up quite often in the test kitchen is common ingredient measurement conversions. How do I measure 45 g if I don’t have a scale to measure ingredients in a recipe that calls for grams? Most of us in North America are used to tablespoons and cups, but growing up in Australia my mum used a scale for a lot of recipes because they were in weight, not volume.

So, you get a recipe or cookbook from a friend abroad. They have tasted the most amazing duck recipe and luck has it they got the recipe and have sent it to you. But wait, the recipe is in grams?

Life seems really busy theses days. The weeks fly by and the weekends don’t seem to last long enough, but Jana and I always make the most of the time we have together with the kids. There was a bit of a thaw in Atlantic Canada over the past week, most of the snow in my neck of the woods had melted, and the temperatures were abnormally mild, perfect for getting outside!