My Long Lost Love

Being a celiac there are, obviously, things you miss. Some things you can live without, but others create a longing whenever you see them. There are two things for me: beer and HP sauce. I grew up with HP sauce (my Dad’s English side dominates) and I probably grew to love it because it covered up the taste of the meat I was forced to eat. There are stories that are both traumatic and hilarious that come from those experiences – To this day I cannot even smell roast beef without feeling ill and my dad and step mom thought I had finally come around until they took my plate away and saw all the chewed up bits under the edge of my plate (yes, gross, but funny).

I always had a bottle in my fridge at university (for my Veggie Sheppard’s Pie) and sometimes for my scrambled eggs – Yes, I know ‘So English!’. One of the cooks at a restaurant I worked at just couldn’t understand why I had steak sauce when I was a vegetarian. He couldn’t understand that I just liked HP Sauce and liked to put it on stuff that wasn’t meat (A word of caution for veggies: HP does contain anchovies). He never tired of asking me. Sadly it was the gluten-issue that made me give up my beloved HP Sauce as it contained malt vinegar. I was heart-broken. I had to start putting ketchup on my breakfast potatoes; ahhk that overly sweet bright red stuff. It just wasn’t the same!

My luck changed this spring when I learned that HP in Canada is gluten-free. I couldn’t believe it! How wonderful! So in making a Shepard’s pie this weekend I was able to eat it with HP sauce. I was in absolute heaven.