Dear Truffler: Cooking for allergies

A friend of my son's who comes to tea regularly is allergic to everything we usually eat. He can't have eggs, wheat, dairy or peanuts. Rice is all right, but pasta, pizzas, mashed potato, pancake batter – the sorts of things I cook – are off limits. Can you help?
Sandra Lucas, Hemel Hempstead

Don't give up on rice; try risottos and kedgeree. And what about rice noodles – the ones without egg – instead of pasta? Use other grains and pulses. Kidney beans, for instance, in a chilli con (or without) carne. Lentils, with a casserole, lamb with haricot beans. Quinoa is a good alternative grain (it's actually related to spinach). If your guest can tolerate corn try polenta, either as an accompaniment to grilled meat or vegetables, or spread out, cut into slabs and fried in olive oil. You can even make it into a sort of pizza base.

Of the various, often dreary, cookery books for restricted diets, the most recent, Allergy-free Food by Tanya Wright, published by Hamlyn in association with Allergy UK (£12.99), is the best-looking. Not many recipes but what there are look simple and appetising, and there's a well laid-out introduction to what is and isn't allowed. For the same price The Gluten, Wheat & Dairy Free Cookbook by Antoinette Savill, published by Thorsons, is also attractive, but the recipes are fancier, and a vast number of them are puddingy. Also published by Thorsons, Cooking Without by Barbara Cousins (£9.99) is a practical round-up of recipes that doesn't go to elaborate lengths to fake the things that aren't allowed.

You can e-mail me at truffler@independent.co.uk or write to Dear Truffler, The Independent, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS.