A family affair (From Living Northeast)

A family affair

12:50pm Monday 25th January 2010 in

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Healthy food doesn’t have to be boring, as the mother and daughter team behind a Durham city centre cafe have proved.

Jenny Laue tucks in.

TAKE a trip to Durham city and you will inevitably come across Café Continental on Elvet Bridge. The establishment, which has been an institution in the city for generations, has recently seen people from all over the North travelling to the city especially to try out what’s on offer.

In part it’s thanks to a bigger venue and new management, but also to a fabulous and wide-ranging menu that caters for people with special dietary requirements.

I have come to speak to café owner Eleanor Smith about how it all started, how she first conceived the idea of offering a special menu and her plans for the future.

But before I ask for her at the café, I simply have to try one of her gluten-free dishes.

On what turns out to be a fine, sunny afternoon in Durham, I find myself seated upstairs by a window overlooking busy shoppers, Elvet Bridge and the river. A perfect seat for a spot of people-watching.

My waitress is very young, very pretty and very friendly. Within minutes I am served with my blackboard choice of rosemary and courgette risotto, gluten-free, of course. It’s filling, delicate in flavour and manages to be fluffy and creamy all at the same time.

Eleanor tells me that it’s the risotto, the home-made moussaka and the beef goulash people always come back for, although she changes the café menu on a regular basis.

Although she only took over the ownership of Café Continental a year ago, Eleanor’s association with the business is long-standing. When it was still in Silver Street, she used to work for the previous owner while she was at university, studying marketing.

“Then I found out that it was up for sale and at the time I was looking for a change,” she remembers. “I bought it as a going concern with the help of my boyfriend, and my mum and dad.”

In fact, it’s her mother, Ruth, who is behind all the wonderful creations on the menu. Mother and daughter agreed that to find a firmfoothold among the Durham dining scene they would have to be unique and came up with their gluten-free and dairy-free dishes. With Ruth’s natural flair in the kitchen and Eleanor’s head for trends, they’ve made a roaring success of it.

Although the café still offers what made it famous in the first place, there are to-die-for desserts in all shapes and sizes, like coffee and walnut cakes, cheesecakes and hot puddings.

Gluten-Free Chick Pea Curry

(serves 4)

Served with salad, naan bread and mint raita. This dish is also dairy-free served without raita.

Ingredients

3 medium onions – chopped

3 clove of garlic – crushed

1 tablespoon of fresh ginger – grated

3 tins of chick peas (approx 1200g)

3 tins of chopped tomatoes

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoon lemon juice

3 heaped tsp ground coriander

3 heaped tsp ground cumin

3 heaped tsp garam masala

3 heaped tsp chilli flakes

Salt and pepper

METHOD

Fry onions, garlic and ginger in the olive oil until onions soften. Then add the dry spices and stir for one minute. Add the chick peas, tomatoes and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to simmer and leave for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mint Raita

6in piece of cucumber

small pot of Greek yoghurt

bunch of mint leaves – chopped finely salt and pepper

METHOD

Grate the cucumber, then squeeze out all of the juice. Put the cucumber, Greek yoghurt and finely chopped mint into a bowl and stir well. Season.