Monthly Archives: May 2016

04May / 2016

How do you like your eggs in the morning?

Poached eggs and asparagus

I can’t take much of the credit for this because my boyfriend cooked the eggs using the tips from a TV programme he saw and I cooked the asparagus!  However, I decided to use lemon juice and not vinegar and it actually worked!  I thought, I should really write this down or else I’m going to forget how to do it next time.

The other thing to note is that if you use an electric oven then it’s very difficult to keep a steady temperature, my hobs go up to 6 and we had to hover between 3 and 4 to keep the bubbles going but avoiding a rolling boil.

The other thing to note is that your eggs should be as fresh as possible.  The less fresh they are, the more runny the egg white is and less likely it is to keep together rather than spread out all over the pan.  You can test fresh eggs by making sure they sink to the bottom of a glass of water, or just use ones you’ve bought recently.  If you’re fortunate to get them straight from the hen, all the better!

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Serves 2

1 lemon

2 eggs

14 sticks of asparagus

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and Pepper

  1.  Juice the lemon and boil the kettle.
  2. Heat one hob to a medium heat and place on there a medium saucepan with the boiled water in it.
  3. Heat another hob to a medium -high heat and put on a griddle pan.  Drizzle over the olive oil.
  4. Simmer the water so that there are bubbles are the bottom but surface is pretty much flat.  Keep it at that state by altering the hob dial as you go.
  5. Put one egg, still in its shell, in the water and roll it around with a spoon for 10 seconds.  Put to one side on a plate and do the same with the other egg.
  6. Add the asparagus to the griddle pan at this point, cook for 3-4 minutes turning halfway through.
  7. Meanwhile, add the lemon juice to the water and stir gently.
  8. Then crack the eggs into the water one at a time and simmer gently for 3 minutes.
  9. Bring together any stray egg white with a metal spoon.
  10. Arrange the asparagus onto plates.
  11. When the time is up, place the eggs on top of the asparagus and season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

 

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04May / 2016

Yoghurt, nut, seed and berry bircher

Yoghurt, nut, seed and berry bircher

I was getting a bit fed up of apple porridge every day so I decided to make a bircher.  Also the weather is getting warmer and we are getting into berry season.  Make sure that you make the yoghurt mixture the night before you want to eat it.  The mixture will soak up the millet and soften the seeds.

The yoghurt mixture seems a little sloppy at first but when you refrigerate it overnight, it thickens up.  I did start by using only yoghurt but not only was this expensive, it also had a bit of a cement like consistency – not good!  This is perfect as it has 2 tablespoons of yoghurt which is exactly the amount my nutritionist advised that I eat on a daily basis.  Providing it was natural, full fat, live yoghurt of course!  RNI of calcium is 700mg and this has about 110g of calcium in it which is a good start!

I don’t actually measure out 120ml of water, I have a 1/3 cup measure (79ml) which I use for the millet and add a full and about a half measure of water using the same container.

You can use a jar but I use tupperware for convenience.  It also means you can grab your breakfast and run out of the door and eat it at work or after a workout.

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Serves 1

1/3 cup of millet

120ml of water (or 1/3 cup + half of the 1/3 cup)

2 tbsp full fat live yoghurt

2 tsp each of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and golden linseed

10 pistachio nuts, shelled

A handful of fresh berries e.g. about 3 sliced strawberries, 5 raspberries, 12 blueberries.

  1.  Mix the millet, water, yoghurt, nuts and seeds together and place into a container and put into the fridge overnight.
  2. In the morning, add the fresh berries and serve.
  3. Delicious!

 

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04May / 2016

Thai Crab Cakes and Papaya Salad

Thai Crab Cakes and Papaya Salad

I was a little worried that the crab cakes would come out floppy but once cooled they were the perfect consistency.  If you want to eat straight away it might be worth making the crab cakes in advance ready to go in the oven and then leaving them out for half an hour to dry out a little.

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Makes 5 lunches

Crab Cakes

75g celeriac

6 lime leaves

zest of 1 1/2 limes

1 stick of lemon grass

3 spring onions

7cm ginger root

2 small/1 big clove of garlic

2 small/1 big chilli

3 170g (120g drained) cans of white crab meat

3 tbsp millet or oats

1 tbsp olive oil

Salad

2 handfuls of bean sprouts

1 – 2 red peppers

1/2 chinese cabbage or any crunchy lettuce

1 papaya

1 bulb of fennel

3 tbsp cashew nuts

1 large handful of coriander leaves

Dressing

1 1/2 limes (use the zested ones as we just need the juice)

3 tbsp coconut milk

  1. Preheat the oven to 170C.
  2. Boil the kettle and heat up a hob.
  3. Remove the tough outer skin of the celeriac and cube into 1cm pieces.
  4. Add to a medium saucepan with boiling water and bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes until soft.
  5. Meanwhile, top and tail and peel the other crab cake ingredients as necessary, except for the millet and the crab. Roughly chop and blitz in a food processor and leave it in there.
  6. Drain the crab and flake into a large bowl.
  7. When the celeriac is done, drain well, pat dry with kitchen roll and add to the food processor and blitz once again.  Add the contents of the food processor to the bowl with the millet to soak up some of the moisture.  Mix well.
  8. Oil a couple of baking trays.  Using your hands shape the crab cake mixture into little patties about 4cm in diameter.  Arrange on the baking trays.
  9. Cook for 25 minutes turning halfway through.  ( You might want to wash up the bowl at this point unless you have more than one!)
  10. To make the salad, simply chop out the core of the pepper and discard.  Cut into 5mm strips and cut each strip in half.
  11. Shred the cabbage.
  12. Cut off the core of the fennel, cut in half lengthways so the pieces aren’t too big and shred using a mandolin.
  13. Remove the skin and the seeds from the papaya and chop into bite sized chunks.
  14. Finely chop the coriander.
  15. Add all the salad ingredients including the bean sprouts and cashews to a large bowl.
  16. Mix the coconut milk and juice of the limes together and use that to dress the salad.
  17. Arrange into bowls/tupperware and top with the crab cakes when you are ready to serve.

 

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04May / 2016

Refried Beans, Coconut Green Rice, Grilled Peppers and Avocado

Refried Beans, Coconut Green Rice, Grilled Peppers and Avocado

I decided to cook this to use up some ingredients I had in the fridge but it turned out rather tasty so I will write it down and definitely cook it again!  The refried beans I have cooked many times and go well with tacos if you want to skip the meat as well.  I don’t add any spices to the beans as I just enjoy the sweetness from the onion to flavour them but you could use spices such as cumin, coriander, smoked paprika if you wanted an extra kick to the recipe.  The good thing about having things like limes, coriander, coconut milk and peppers in the house is that you can go either way – Thai or Mexican!  As you might have guessed – two of my favourite cuisines!

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Serves 1

Rice:

60g brown rice

75g spinach

a handful of fresh coriander

1 tbsp coconut milk

Refried Beans:

1 onion

3 tsp of olive oil

1 clove of garlic

1 can of kidney beans

100ml vegetable stock

salt and pepper

Sides:

1/2 each of two different coloured peppers

1/2 avocado

1/2 lime

salt and pepper

fresh coriander to garnish

  1.  Boil the kettle and heat up 2 hobs, preheat the grill to medium high.
  2. Put the rice into plenty of boiling water, bring up to the boil and then simmer for 25 minutes
  3. In the meantime, prepare everything else.
  4. Blitz the coriander and spinach in a food processor until fine
  5. Heat 2 tsp oil in a small saucepan and then turn down to low (3).
  6. Dice the onion and add to the saucepan to slowly cook through for 10 minutes until translucent.  Any time the pan gets too hot or there is no oil left, pour in a splash of water from the kettle until it has evaporated or been absorbed.  We want the onions soft and sweet not crunchy.
  7. Meanwhile cut 2 sides off each pepper, discard any internal flesh and cut each side into 2.  Line a grill pan with foil and put under the grill skin side up.  This should take about 10 – 15 minutes to brown.  You can either brown the skin or char it black and remove it at the end.
  8. Remove the skin and slice the avocado half.  Dress with the juice from half the lime, salt and pepper.
  9. Crush in the garlic into the pan of onions and stir fry for 1 minute.
  10. Drain and rinse the beans in a colander and add to the pan with the stock.  Turn up high and cook for about 5 minutes until nearly all of the stock has evaporated or been absorbed.
  11. Add a pinch of salt and pepper  and mash in the pan.  Then add the last teaspoon of oil and a splash of water if it looks too dry and refry the beans on a medium heat.
  12. Drain the rice when ready and return it to the pan.  Stir in the spinach and coriander mixture and the coconut milk.  Return to the hob to heat through for a minute.
  13. Arrange all on a plate and serve.

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01May / 2016

Thai Steamed Sea Bass with Sesame Noodles, Garlic Pak Choi and Beetroot

Thai Steamed Sea Bass with Sesame Noodles, Garlic Pak Choi and Beetroot

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My mum is on a Slimming World diet which doesn’t allow oil unless you count it as a syn.  So I decided to create something that she could cook.  This recipe does include oil but you can omit it as it’s not used in the cooking process or you could swap the noodles for cauliflower rice if necessary.  To make cauliflower rice, simply blitz up raw cauliflower in a food processor until fine, put in a bowl covered in cling film with a small slit in the top and microwave for 2 minutes.  I definitely cook this for her next time she comes around as she loves fish, loves Thai food and it’s really tasty!  I bought my thai ingredients from an oriental wholesaler, they were very cheap.  I have about 100 lime leaves in my freezer now!

Serves 2

Paste:

6cm ginger root

1 garlic clove

Juice of 2 limes

4 lime leaves

2 tbsp water

1 birds eye chilli

1 stick of lemon grass

2 large handfuls of fresh coriander

Fish

2 sea bass filleted or 4 sea bass fillets

Salt and Pepper

Vegetables

2 fresh raw beetroot

2 pak choi

1 clove of garlic

Noodles

2 nests of wholewheat noodles

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sesame seeds

Unsweetened desiccated coconut to serve (optional)

  1. Preheat the oven to 200C.
  2. Peel the ginger and lemongrass and blend it together with the other paste ingredients in the food processor.
  3. Get 2 1 metre pieces of kitchen foil to make your 2 packets for your fish, 1 per person.  Divide the 2 portions of fish between the 2 pieces of foil and place them in the middle with space either side to seal.  First, lay the fish skin side up and season with salt and pepper.  Then turn them over and spread on the paste on each of the fillets.
  4. For each packet, bring the two ends together and scrunch so that there is some space above the fish to make steam.  Then seal the sides.
  5. Place in the oven on a baking tray for 15 minutes, then open each packet up and bake for a further 5 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, make the vegetables and noodles.
  7. Boil the kettle
  8. Meanwhile, chop off the root and tops from the beetroot, scrub any mud and remove any gnarly bits with a knife.  Using a mandolin on its biggest setting (about 2mm) cut the beetroot into slices.  Put in a small saucepan with the boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes.
  9. Put a large dry non stick frying pan on a medium heat.Slice the pak choi lengthways into 5mm thick slices.  Add to the pan and wait for it to sizzle.  Add about 5mm of water from the kettle to the bottom of the pan.  Crush in a clove of  garlic.  If all the water evaporates, add more, don’t let it go dry until near the end.  Cook for 3-4 minutes each side.
  10. Add boiling water from the kettle to a medium saucepan and simmer the noodles for 5 minutes with a pinch of salt.
  11. Once cooked, drain and return to the pan, stir in the sesame oil and sesame seeds.
  12. Plate up and sprinkle on the coconut if using.

 

 

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