Restricted diets

Well, I will be entertaining guests at our country home on the weekend and one of our guests has multiple dietary issues.
So she has coeliac disease. Gluten free I can deal with. Further she is not supposed to have fructose, so no fruit, no sugar.
She can have beef but not lamb, chicken seems to be dependent on something or other. She can have egg yolk but not white (that to me is really weird). She may not have asparagus, mushrooms or string beans. She can however eat dairy.
Phew!!! This is a family generated dinner so I just get to do it.

So today in research mode I developed a potato gnocchi which worked really well.
I boiled the spuds, peeled them and riced them whilst still hot. Then mixed in some potato flour to work toward the right consistency. I got it to hold together but they turned out a bit gluggy so I added an egg yolk (I used maybe 500 g spuds)
and ended up with a very edible product. (Normally when making gnocchi with spuds and wheat flour I would never use egg)
Once cooked I tossed them with butter put them in a dish scattered cheese over and baked. Not bad.

Okay so I will roast a nice big beef steak (or grill it) and serve it on a bed of rocket (arugala) accompanied by the gnocchi.
I am still not sure what else might be an appropriate side. I am thinking to dress the sliced steak with my wasabi cream if she can do a little heat.

My imagination fails me with dessert so I will probably go with a cheese plate and lovely fresh summer fruits (for we normals).

Heaven knows what I shall offer her for breakfast on Sunday!

Any suggestions to help round out these meals would be most welcome.

Hi Barb, we have a good friend who has celiac so I've run into these issues a lot.
A good flourless chocolate cake (made with Splenda?) for dessert with some whipped cream? A vanilla bean pana cotta or rice pudding would also be nice. Your meal sounds delicious by the way. What a challenge, huh??

Egg yolk + milk = custard. There's got to be someplace good that can go. Chocolate mousse?

I have friends who as a couple have allergies to corn, soy, most nuts and seeds, egg whites and oregano. For breakfast I sometimes make an oatmeal creme brulee, basically a base of steel cut oats topped with the creme brulee. If you omitted the brown sugar topping, I think it would fit into her restrictions. Another option is Joe's Special, a scramble of eggs (could be just yolks), ground beef, and spinach. We make ours "Ukranian" with mushrooms mixed in and sour cream and scallions on top. The couple like both and request them regularly. I will post recipes if you'd like or need them.

[Jenise]

It must be perfect tomato weather down there right now so for a steak side dish, how about a platter of tomato slices dressed with a dressing of olive oil, vinegar, oregano and capers? Add slivers of red onion and let it all soak together for about 30 minutes before serving. I love the way the acidity of this side salad counters the richness of beef.

Hi Folks
Thanks for your suggestions.
I went with the beef and gnocchi and added a nice platter of great tomatoes, my guest brought some home grown veg so added one of their cucumbers, sliced and a nice shallot drizzled with EVoo.
To start I ended up making a beetroot dip, and a dip of well drained yoghurt with fresh herbs.
Served those with homemade buckwheat pancakes.
Cheese for afters.
It was a great success, phew.
And our guest with the food issues chose the leftover dips and pancakes as her breakfast treat this morning. Used it up and she was happy . win/win.
cheers

[Jenise]

Sounds great, Barb. The buckwheat pancakes were a real coup!

Hi Jenise
In so many ways those buckwheat pancakes worked.. They were just something I decided to try out at the last minute. I had bought some rice crackers and gluten free bread, carefully selected but turns out she had been so traumatised by illness that processed foods, even when containing only permitted ingredients, were too scary for her.
Goes to show how important it is for us to be able to cook foods from scratch. Also to be flexible. I think that what is reflected here in this forum is the importance of thinking about what we do with food, and enjoying the processes of creating good food for those we care about.