Compiled by MARIE-CLAIRE DIGBY

A gluten-free treat

There has been an enthusiastic welcome for the BFree range of wheat- and gluten-free breads launched by Ronan McNamee, founder of Cuisine de France. McNamee worked on the recipes for nearly three years and enlisted the help of Prof Dr Elke K Arendt of UCD, an expert in the field of gluten-free cereal products. A colleague with coeliac disease says it’s the first gluten-free bread she has tasted that doesn’t have to be toasted to make it palatable, and rates it highly. Dietician Paula Mee will be at the BFree pop-up store, Duke Street, Dublin 2, next Saturday, January 14th (2-4pm) to answer questions about the bread. The range, which includes brown and white loaves and will feature bake-at-home demi baguettes and seeded buns from this month, is available from branches of Dunnes Stores.

Webwatch

weekinweekouttrishdeseine.tumblr.com

Paris-based cookbook author Trish Deseine has strong feelings about the elitism that surrounds much of what is written about the food we eat, and a passionate belief that we are all entitled to eat well. She acknowledges, too, that daily cooking can be a mundane activity, and therein lies the problem for many of us. A post on the excellent US website Food52 about new year’s resolutions – let’s make our own yoghurt/ice cream/filled pasta, and so on – prompted her to respond with her own, much more pragmatic approach: making small changes to our eating habits that will have lasting effects. This blog is where Deseine writes about feeding her family of four, shopping weekly in a wonderful Paris market. But she is never shy to admit to stocking up at Monoprix as well. This image is her own photograph of one of her weekly market shops.

Detox with Dorcas

A detox that encourages the consumption of chocolate might make the process less arduous, but there’s a catch. You won’t be snacking on a Kit Kat, or even nibbling on a square of Lindt’s darkest bar. No, it’s got to be raw chocolate – pure cacao nibs sweetened with agave syrup. It’s not as drastic as it sounds. Dorcas Barry, who runs healthy eating and detoxing classes, makes really delicious chocolates with these ingredients, and she’ll show you how at her next 30-day detox programme, which begins on Thursday, January 19th, at Select Stores in Dalkey, Co Dublin. The five-week programme includes a weekly evening class and cooking demonstration designed to show you how to eat more healthily without sacrificing taste, as well as a copy of Detox Yourself by Jane Scrivner, co-founder of the British School of Complementary Therapy, with whom Barry trained. See dorcasbarry.com. You could get a head start on your new regime by visiting the Dalkey Good Health Fair in the Co Dublin village’s Town Hall and Heritage Centre next Saturday and Sunday, January 14th-15th (11am-5pm).