Category: food

Secrets of perfect Couscous

There is a trick to getting perfect couscous, not porridge, which happens if you are not careful, or sawdust, which is also no fun to eat. Getting it right it’s part of the three bears philosophy, not to much, not too little, but just enough.

There are always instructions on the packet, usually this involves using way too much liquid, so be sparing. I find the ratio option works best for me.
Two to one, no more, no less.

So if you measure in cups it’s one cup to half a cup or 200ml. to 100ml.
hot water to couscous.
and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to smooth it out helps enormously to make a tasty meal, plus salt to taste of course.

Here’s how you do it. Boil the water, turn it off, pour in the couscous, leave it a few seconds and then start fluffing it up with a fork, add a little olive oil as you go, let if fluff it will grow quite a bit. Never add more water. Trust the process.

To turn it into this lovely meal, pictured above.

finely chop a 5cm chunk of courgette into 5mm cubes.
finely chop a handful of parsley
Chop a spring onion into slim rings, also using all the green
chop half a paprika into 5mm cubes

Finely chop a chilli, leaving out the pith and seeds for a milder flavour. I prefer cayenne chillies myself. Leave out the chilli if you don’t like the heat.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

This can be eaten as a salad, or the staple with any meal, served just warm or cold.

There are many variations, try different vegetables, whichever you prefer, do not be afraid to experiment.

Enjoy another great vegan dish!

 

Glorious food shopping

groceries

I love shopping.
Specially shopping for food.

Today I ran around happily in three different supermarkets and the greengrocers looking at all the delicious wares on display.

Scouring the shelves for exotic fruit and heirloom vegetables, I also find unusual grains and nuts. For a moment I thought the supermarket was all out of tofu! That would have been a disaster!

I feel like a hunter gatherer, foraging for all that is good and healthy, fresh and interesting. Recipes shunt through my head in quick succession as I pick up prickly pears and orange blossom honey. Minneola oranges are carefully bagged up. I find beetroot so fresh the green stalks are still crisp and leafy, such freshness I simply could not resist. Passionfruit and limes fall into my basket along with little gem lettuces to turn over on the BBQ. Glorious aubergines, a rich, dark purple, are absolutely at their best now and so versatile.

I sort carefully through the Spanish garlic and fill a bag with shallots. My mouth starts to water. I can hear it frying gently in the pan.

I leave the supermarket clutching my swag closely to me. Smug at the huge haul and sporting a wide grin on my face. I know I have gone a bit mad, I have so much I can barely lift it all. I make a quick getaway to the next shop.

Saving the best for last I head for the greengrocers, it is my favourite shop. Here I spy out fresh coconut and black grapes. Thai basil, fresh ginger, turmeric, lemon grass, and a pineapple. The smoothies are going to be so delicious I just know I’ll make one the minute I get home.

Happy shopping everyone.

Sweet chilli sauce

This is a hot little number is mitigated by it’s delicious sweetness. A simple quick recipe to spice up any meal. Goes especially well with rice dishes.

Sweet chilli sauce.

2 green jalapenos
2 red jalapenos
6 red cherry tomatoes
4 tsp sugar (I said it was sweet)
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp ponzu
salt to taste

Technique

Remove the inner pith and seeds from all the chillies and chop very finely.
Chop the cherry tomatoes almost as finely as the chillies.
Mix together in a bowl with all the other ingredients.
Add salt to taste.

This should be quite liquid and if left to stand for a hour or so, the heat of the chillies leeches into the sauce creating a delicious sweet spiciness.

The diet game



Most of us have been on a diet at one time or another

I think I must consistently be on an overeating diet. I eat just what I like when I like. I do try to do meal planning because I have to shop for the food. However I never stick to it. I open the fridge every day and see what is there, from this point I choose what I feel like preparing today.

It’s always too much.

So the trick would be to create smaller meals, dish up smaller portions, use smaller plates. This, however only leads me to go back to the kitchen later and find something else to eat.

I appear to have no control over my appetite, I wonder if anybody has any control, at all, really.

I avoid the scales, and wear stretch jeans and long flowing tops to hide the bulging stomach. I hide my body, I am scared of wearing a bikini, and I hate that.
Yet I still overeat, nothing I read or decide or do changes the amount I eat, as if my body and all its organs are ganging up on me. Is this true? Am I really not in control? Is anyone at all in control?

We all should know by now that diets don’t work, fad diets, crash diets, calorie controlled diets, low carb diets, keto diets, vegan diets, even the no-diet diet, I could go on and on, and on.
It’s a trap, it’s a game, we cannot win, we cannot break even, but we can get out of the game.

I enjoy food too much to stop eating it, all of it, as much as I can manage to stuff down me as it’s all delicious. I am a good cook, my husband is a good cook, the restaurants we go to have excellent cooks, in fact they are such good cooks they are called chefs.

How to get out of the diet game? I believe it lies on the plane of enjoyment and going for the healthy options, which are always more delicious than any kind of junk food. Remember you are what you eat, so I’m made mostly but not only of vegetables, which sounds pretty cool. We can enjoy our food and not overeat if we stick to a few simple actions and decisions. All of which are hard to make as we are all creatures of habit.

I didn’t say it was easy, changing habits never is.

Change by doing all of the above, and above all savour every morsel, taste every mouthful, eat slowly letting the taste buds do the work they were meant to do. Restrain yourself from gorging no matter how delicious, change the habitual way you eat, where, when, how and what.

You’ll be lucky! It’s a game, but can you win? Is it an unchangeable  way of life? I can’t sustain this diet game, can you?

Vegan mayonnaise

recipe

I’ve mentioned it often enough. My vegan mayonnaise recipe. So here it is. I eat this almost every day. It keeps well in a closed jar or pot in the fridge and there are many variations. Mayonnaise is a good basic recipe which can be changed and tweaked for different flavours. Add garlic and it becomes aioli, add herbs for freshness, add spices for curry flavour or a chilli hit. The choice is yours. Change the kind of oil you use or the kind of sweetner, the vinegar or citrus. Use orange instead of lemon, or use lime, or white balsamic vinegar. The variations are endless.

Dare to experiment, you will soon find the one that works for you.

There are two ways you can mix this. The newer one is to throw it all together with the oil on top and stick blend it in one go. This does not work so well for me. I use the slow method.

First add all the ingredients, except the oil. I give this a blend first to get a soft frothy little mixture.

Then using a stick blender I slowly add the oil and mix it all carefully so it does not split. Do not rush.

Aquafaba. I use the water from a tin of chickpeas, but it can be the water from any kind of tinned beans. Or if you boil up your own beans after soaking them overnight you can try cooling and using that aquafaba. After much experimentation I have found that tinned chickpea water works best for me.

The original recipe calls for a 1/2 tsp vinegar white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. I use all lemon juice

Vegetable oil, Avocado oil, peanut oil sunflower oil. I have found that sunflower oil works best for me. I never use rapeseed oil.

Mustard, here you can use any kind of mustard you like, Dijon is my favourite.

The original recipe calls for maple syrup but any kind of sweetner will work, honey or even crystal stevia. I now use a powder or icing sugar.

1 cup sunflower oil.
1/4 cup chickpea aquafaba
1/4 tsp fine table salt
1 and 1/2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp icing sugar

technique.
Mix all the ingredients except the oil and give it a light whisk till it lightly foams.
Slowly drizzle in the oil mixing well all the time to create a soft thick mass.
Put the mixture in a pot or jar with a tightly closing lid and keep in the fridge.

Good luck, Mayonnaise can be tricky!

Lazy Sundays

Out on the water, the yacht, white on blue, crystal clear water in all directions.

The wind rustling my hair and the sails bold as the boat silently cuts the water to our favourite lagoon.

It’s time to open the picnic basket and the cooler. What did we throw into it early this morning with sleepy eyes and a dormant brain before rushing off to the lakes.

Bread, fresh from the bakers, the mad dash to the shop on the way to buy warm baked rolls just out of the oven. Fresh fruit and a knife, tomatoes, cucumber and mayonnaise, lots of green stuff. It looks like I just emptied out the vegetable drawer in the fridge and threw everything in there. Now, when hunger strikes it’s time to make up something to eat, now we find out what we forgot. Now we realise we don’t really want to be this healthy and would prefer to eat something vaguely unhealthy but there is no choice.

I slice juicy melon, the scent hitting us in the heat of the day as we throw out the anchor. I fill the rolls with salad things, they have gone slightly chewy. We are in a silent bubble, the distant sounds of revellers on the beach, children jumping into the water, chugging engines seem unreal, snaches of music and the soft lap of water on the keel create a dreamy haze.

No wasps here.

We ravenously tear at chunks of bread with our teeth, slices of cucumber and tomato spill onto our hands dripping onto the deck. Did we forget napkins and tissues again? This feast washed down with bottles of icy water from the cooler. A delicate pink wine, fresh and cool or a cold beer. I can feel an afternoon headache coming on but I don’t care. The sun beats down and turns the water into a million diamonds. It’s all simple, quiet, delicious.

We ruffle the water with our sticky hands then settle down to some serious sunbathing for the rest of the afternoon saving the punnet of strawberries for later.

This is the life.

Out to lunch

One of the greatest pleasures we have is eating out.

One of the few things we can only do here while on earth in the physical is eat. No angels harps or hellfire here, here we have food.

So, of course we have turned food into an artform, or at least some of us have, the chefs. I wish I was one of them, except for the hours they keep.

Dishes of fresh tomatoes with burrata and basil, searingly hot peppers tossed in a wok with prawns and garlic. The delicacy of a peach fresh from the tree, gently marinated and served with vanilla ice cream, warm and juicy, sweet and succulent.

Lunch out.
It must be my favourite occupation to sit at a little table outside somewhere, town or city, village or countryside and watch the world go by. I can think of nothing more deeply satisfying or relaxing.

We pick a likely looking table at a fairly busy restaurant. The instant waiter helps us efficiently order drinks and menus appear in our hands.

Today I put my book and pen away for lunch and just absorb. The waiter materialises to serve me a chilled wine. I know next to nothing about wines so I have let him choose whatever he thinks is best. Thankfully I am not disappointed. Crisp and fresh as the sparking fountains in the square.

The gentle hubbub of the lunchtime crowd around me comes into focus. I even slide my travel guide surreptitiously off the table and into my bag. Olives, nuts and bread with dab of butter arrive as we peruse the menu. As usual we cannot decide, salads, soups, sandwiches, fried fish or stuffed courgette flowers?

I love Europe, specially France I believe they invented lunch. An hour of two to while away between morning and afternoon. Time to savour a glass of good wine, to eat a new dish, to make pointless conversation.

It is a glorious moment to enjoy all the good things about the art of food, the glint of cutlery, white napkins, a charming waiter. And somewhere behind all this the hellish madness of a kitchen run by an enraged chef which we thankfully have nothing to do with at all.

We smile at each other across our little table, knowing we have picked a good one this time.

Beetroot salad

For this recipe I used two beetroots, raw, a pink and a yellow, this gives a pleasing pastel nuance to the finished dish. Dark beetroot can also be used. It is a refreshing light salad or side dish. Also shown is the original recipe which has since evolved into the recipe I am offering you today.

ingredients.

2 beetroots
Japanese vinegar
Mirin
Salt
Cinnamon, ground
Juice of 1/2 an orange
Zest of one orange
quarters of 1/2 an orange
Mustard seed
Fennel seed

Wrap the beetroot in paper and foil and cook in the oven for 1/2 to 1 hour depending on size at 180°c.
Allow to cool and then peel.
Slice into 5mm. slices so the coloured rings show.

Put a layer of slices in a bowl and add one tbsp. of vinegar and 1 tbsp of Mirin. a sprinkling of ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. mustard seed, 1/4 tsp fennel seed and a sprinkling of salt. Plus the zest of half the orange.

layer again and repeat.

squeeze 1/2 the orange an add the juice to the beetroot mixing gently.
Cut the other half of the orange up into pieces making sure to keep the segments whole but without skin or pith.
Mix gently into the salad and leave in the fridge for 1/2 an hour to cool and marinade.

serve and enjoy

Red cabbage salad

Red Cabbage salad Recipe

1/4 red cabbage
4 large radishes
1 Spring onion
Juice of half a lemon
grated lemon zest. (1/2 a lemon)
1 tbsp Mirin
Celtic sea salt to taste
3 tbsp Hellmann’s vegan mayonnaise. (or homemade vegan mayonnaise)

Technique.

Cut the stalk out of the red cabbage and remove any bruised outer leaves.
Finely slice the cabbage, into approximately 1-2 mm strips, the fineness of the chopping, or slicing makes the difference here.
Place in a bowl and massage firmly to bring out the colour and soften the texture.
Add the salt. (be sparing with the salt)
Grate in the lemon zest – be careful to avoid the pith as the zest is so much more fragrant.
Squeeze 1/2 the lemon and add the juice to the cabbage, mixing well.
Top and tail the radishes and slice to 1mm thickness, slice as finely as you can leaving the radish in nice wafer-thin translucent rounds, mix with the cabbage. Use a mandolin if you can’t do this well with a knife.
Finely slice the spring onion making sure to use the white and green parts, 2mm thickness is fine enough for the spring onions.
Add a tablespoon of mirin.
Add three tablespoons of mayonnaise.
Mix thoroughly and leave to chill for an hour, then mix again to stir the juices through.
It is ready to serve.

This will produce a juicy, cool and fragrant cabbage salad with a generous dressing which is refreshing and satisfying.

P.S. It is always possible to change the chopping techniques, but this will change the whole texture of the dish. It is always possible to change some of the ingredients, ordinary table salt if you have no celtic sea salt. Normal mayonaise if you do not have vegan or Hellman’s. Instead of Mirin, a small spoon of sugar – but remember that changing the ingredients changes the entire flavour of the dish.

Try it, let me know how it went, I look forward to your comments.

Recipes to go

 

Time to get it together to show you some recipes.

I have terrible trouble writing them down and then I have terrible trouble finding the scrap of paper I wrote them down on when I want to try it again.

Most recipes are in my head.
Or, I invent them as I go along, using whatever it is I have access to.
I am completely useless at menu planning for the week or the month as I use what I can find.
Be it fresh from the market, already in the fridge, or frozen a while ago.
(And did I stick a date on it before it went into the freezer?)
Probably not, but I am getting better at that, so it’s good that it does all make sense in my head.

Getting the recipes and techniques onto paper, or in this case screen, is a different kettle of fish.
Specially if you are planning to write about cabbage.

So here they are, the lovely photos of food including the cabbage salad.
You will find the recipe on the recipes page.

It’s super easy and involves no cooking whatsoever, just some knife skills.

It was served with roast potatoes cooked ‘en papillote’ slightly cooled and sliced.
Slices of avocado with fresh squeezed lemon juice, celtic sea salt, multi pepper and whole Sichuan peppercorns.
With s sampling of carrots roast in the oven with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, celtic sea salt and after allowing them to cool slightly, fresh chopped parsley.

A delicious refreshing summer dinner dish.

Hope you enjoy.