Limes & Lycopene

Quicklinks

2010-02-04T21:27:15Z

Wonderful stuffed capsicums: I made this recipe twice last week, both times for picnics. It’s Ganga from A Life (Time) of Cooking’s adaptation of a Nigel Slater recipe for capsicums stuffed with tomatoes. It’s good. I mean really, really, really good.
Becoming a Selectarian: Great piece from the Redefining Diets blog on avoiding those calls from the kitchen cupboard of chocolate/chips/biscuits saying “eat me”.
Noodles with walnuts: A gorgeous looking recipe from Ottolenghi for Udon Noodles with Miso and Walnuts. To me it’s a slighty unusual combination, but I’m intrigued and it looks delish.
Should you sear a steak? Piece from The Guardian on whether searing a steak locks in the juices.
Cabbage on toast: It may not sound like the most glamorous of meals, but I reckon this recipe for cabbage and bitter leaves on garlic toast is great. A combination of greens gently cooked in red wine and then served on garlic-rubbed toast. What’s not to like?
Drinking alcohol: The Times has a good Q & A on alcohol – Two glasses a night? What’s the problem? It covers the nitty gritty about safe drinking levels and whether there’s anything you can do to offset your alcohol intake.
Mindful eating: This article is one of the best pieces I’ve read on mindful eating. It’s from Brigham & Women’s Hospital in the US and covers the basics, along with a great exercise to get you started.
Simple breakfast: Have to say I’m quite enamoured of this breakfast idea from Fuss Free Flavours. It’s a banana and peanut butter breakfast wrap. Particularly like the addition of pepitas.

Renovating your recipes to reduce the fat

2010-02-02T02:22:19Z

There’s a piece in this week’s GI News on ways to reduce the fat in your meals. It’s written by dietician Kaye Foster-Powell, who says:

Fat provides more calories per gram (9 cals or 37 kJ) than protein or carbs (4 cals per gram each), which is why fat is a good place to start when giving your recipes a healthy makeover. It’s not just the quantity you have to think about, it’s the quality – the type of fat can make a big difference to your health and waistline.

The tips are based around three themes:

Replacing high fat and saturate-ridden ingredients with others which are lower in total fat and / or include better fats
Reducing the overall amount of fat you use in meals
Cutting out some ingredients entirely from what you are making

There are some useful ideas in each section.

What do I do?

I regularly substitute ricotta and natural yoghurt for cream. Blended together they have a similar texture to thickened cream and this mixture has a fifth of the saturated fat and less than half the kilojoules of normal cream. Plus I like the slight tang you get from the yoghurt.
I do like using a bit of olive oil when sauteing onions and garlic, but I’ve found that most of the time, a mere tablespoon is enough. And I measure this, because it’s easy to be heavy-handed.
If something is topped with cheese I use less. I agree with the suggestion in the article that usually half the amount of cheese will do. Mix this with some rolled oats and dried herbs and you’ll still have a lovely, tasty and crunchy topping on your food.
When roasting vegetables in the oven, I don’t just drizzle the oil over. Instead I put the vegetables in a bowl, measure out the olive oil and pour this over. I then toss the vegetables, to make sure they’re coated in the oil. Doing this does create an extra bit of washing up, but it means you use a lot less oil.
I love a bit of butter every now and then, but it’s a treat rather than an every day food. I’m much more likely to use a scraping of ricotta, tahini, hummous or avocado on bread.
I’ve been experimenting with not using butter when cooking with filo. A bit of soft-flavoured olive oil, some water and honey works well. If you have the Spring edition of An Honest Kitchen you’ll see this mixture in use in the Fruit and Pistachio Stacks.

I’m not obsessive about any of this, but I do think it’s worthwhile adjusting and tweaking what you are doing to make your every day food better.

How do you reduce the fat in your meals?

An Honest Kitchen: Buy the Spring & Summer Edition

2010-01-25T23:21:21Z

Lucy and I are very, very happy to announce the release of the Spring and Summer editions of our eMagazine An Honest Kitchen.

Between the two volumes there are over thirty recipes, covering soups, main courses and desserts.

New to these issues, we’ve included a key in the table of contents, showing which recipes are vegetarian or can be adapted to be vegetarian. Plus there are cooking notes, storage tips and countless other food suggestions.

What’s in the Spring & Summer Issues?

The Spring edition concentrates on what we call Lazy Cooking. Making cooking easier and simpler, by freeing yourself up in the kitchen. Recipes include a Lentil, Parsley and Goat Cheese Salad, Chilli Chicken Skewers, a surprising and healthier potato salad, plus Berry and Ricotta Tiramisu. If you want to take a look we have a free extract available for download. Click here.

In the Summer issue we focus on hot weather food. There are barbecue recipes, suggestions for the hottest day of the year and ways of using up leftovers, to minimise the cooking. Recipes like Fish Cakes with Ginger and Coriander, Spiced Lamb Cutlets with Tomatoes and Eggplant, Baked Ricotta with Tomatoes and some very adult ice blocks. To try before you buy, we also have a Summer extract available for free download. Click here.

And of course, both are illustrated with Lucy’s wonderful photographs.

Buy the combined Spring & Summer editions

For a limited time, the Spring and Summer editions are available together, for one price: A$24.95
You can purchase the eMagazine through Paypal. Once your order has been confirmed you will be sent an email containing a link to your download of An Honest Kitchen.
As individual copies of the magazine cost A$19.95 each, buying the bumper Spring/Summer edition means you save A$14.95.
The combined edition of Spring/Summer An Honest Kitchen will only be available until the end of February.

For more information on who should buy An Honest Kitchen, how we put together each issue, and the ethos behind the eMagazine click here.

An Honest Kitchen – real food that’s good for you

Quicklinks

2010-01-21T22:43:21Z

More soups: I’ve spotted some more cracking soups this week. First up Jess from Sweet Amandine has posted a Roasted carrot with fennel recipe. While I’m not a huge fan of carrots I reckon I’d love this soup.
Sauerkraut in a soup? This morning I also read The Wednesday Chef’s recipe for Leek soup with peas and sauerkraut. To me this sounds like a strange combination, but I’ve learnt to trust Luisa’s tastes. After all she’s behind my favourite broccoli recipe and the amazing caramelised corn.
Losing a pound: A very practical, realistic and helpful post from Sophie on how to lose a pound (ie about half a kilo). She goes through the numbers and suggests relatively easy food swaps you can make to get the necessary energy deficit.
Genetic causes of obesity: More no-nonsense writing from Marion Nestle, this time into how many people are obese because of their genes. Despite the headlines and research, it’s not many.
Cucumber salad: At the moment on this side of the world, the idea of eating soup makes me wilt. So I love the look of Lili’s cucumber salad over at Pikelet and Pie. Toasted sesame seeds, garlic, and a sesame oil and vinegar dressing. Delicious.
Blueberry . . . omelette? An intriguing idea from Bron Marshall. It’s a sweet-ish omelette with blueberries and cinnamon. I’ve never thought to make a non-savoury omelette, so I’ll be trying this out soon.

Menu For Hope Winners and a Competition

2010-01-20T22:43:44Z

I’m interrupting all the ingredients talk to update you on Menu for Hope and a competition.

Menu For Hope

The sixth annual Menu for Hope raffle involved 200 bloggers, 204 prizes and over the two week period, we raised $78,898 for the UN World Food Program. Thank you so much to everyone who bought raffle tickets and made donations.

The winners of the An Honest Kitchen subscriptions are Catherine Morey-Nase and Katrina Davidson. Congratulations to both of you, and if you’d like to send me an email then we can organise your prizes.

Dietgirl’s 9th Birthday Extravaganza

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know I’m a fan of The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl. Shauna is celebrating her 9th Blogging Birthday with a week long prize giveaway. And this includes three copies of An Honest Kitchen.

All you have to do is leave a comment on Shauna’s blog post before 3 February. And check out the other prizes over the week.

Coming up on Limes & Lycopene

Tomorrow I’ll have the usual Friday Quicklinks post up, with some of the recipes and resources I’ve found this week. Then . . . next week we’re releasing the Spring / Summer edition of An Honest Kitchen. It’s a cracking double, bumper edition with over 30 recipes, articles and of course Lucy’s glorious photographs.

I’ll continue on with the series on my favourite and most used ingredients after that.

Photographs by Lucy

How to get more vegetables into your meals (1)

2010-01-19T01:00:00Z

Last week I wrote about one category of ingredients I use on a regular basis – the Flavour Boosters. This week, to continue my series on the ingredients I use most often I’ll be blogging about Easy Vegetables.

I spend a lot of time talking to people about vegetables in general. It’s one of my most frequent, and also most favourite, topics. Getting people to consume those daily five serves is a big part of my work.

A frequent complaint is the length of time vegies take to prepare: all that washing, peeling and chopping is just too much for many. For me a day without vegetables is inconceivable, but I also know what it’s like to finish work, get home and want dinner right now. No fussing involved.

And this is when I fall-back on my four favourite Easy Vegetables

spinach
fresh herbs
tinned legumes
tinned tomatoes.

Each of these is quick and easy to prepare – well, the way I prepare them anyway. Plus they are reasonably simple to incorporate into whatever you’re cooking.

Today I’m going to concentrate on spinach and fresh herbs. While later in the week I’ll cover the tinned vegetables,

Spinach and fresh herbs

I love green vegetables. They’re versatile. You can eat them both raw or cooked and they match up with a multitude of different dishes. They’re also immensely good for you, reasonably cheap and here in Australia you can buy some sort of fresh greenery all year round.

They might seem like fussy vegetables to prepare, especially if you’re picking off leaves and finely chopping. But that’s not how I use them. Instead I take a much more relaxed and cavalier approach, using them in big chunks and big handfuls.

It’s easy to forget that fresh herbs are also vegetables. But like spinach and other greens, they are packed full of good nutrition and can be counted towards your daily vegetable intake. They’re a vegetable which also gives lots of flavour and freshness to whatever you are cooking.

How I prepare spinach and fresh herbs

When I go grocery shopping I’ll usually buy at least one bunch of spinach and some kind of fresh herb. Plus at the moment I have amaranth, basil and parsley in my garden.
The main negative with spinach and fresh herbs is they don’t last very long, even when kept in the fridge. I hate wastage, plus I love greens, so I use them in large amounts. For most mid-week cooking I would ignore recipe instructions which dictate tablespoons or a “few sprigs” of greens, and instead I use them in one-third to one-half bunch quantities. Sometimes more.
I’m not adverse to a bit of stalk cropping up in my dinner, so I don’t get too fussy about picking off leaves and so on. With spinach I just take the clump I’m using, twist and break the bunch at the base of the leaves, and then plunge these into a big bowl of water.
With the softer herbs like parsley, coriander, mint and basil I just remove the biggest bits of stalk and again wash.
Both spinach and fresh herbs do need to be washed well, and it’s worthwhile doing this in a couple of changes of water.
Rather than chopping, I’ll often just rip up the biggest leaves and add the spinach like that – particulary as it wilts down so much when cooked.

How I use spinach and fresh herbs

When I look at recipes they often don’t contain enough vegetables for me. To counter-act this, I can either serve the dish with some steamed veg or a salad on the side, or alternatively add some extra vegies during the cooking. Spinach is an excellent choice for the latter strategy, as it wilts down so much, doesn’t take up a lot of space in the final dish and therefore doesn’t really change the cooking method.
Spinach and fresh herbs can be eaten both raw and cooked.
If I’m cooking anything with a tomato-based sauce and / or legumes I’ll consider putting in some spinach and fresh herbs.
I also quite often add spinach at the very end of cooking, so it only slightly wilts in the heat of the dish.
I add large handfuls of fresh herbs to salads, as another salad green.
I always have spinach in the freezer – which is a great end of week back-up vegetable. For example in the Chickpeas with Tomato and Spinach dish I made last week.
If I’m after a side dish, I’ll often make a version of mixed seasonal greens just using spinach and fresh herbs.
Spinach is also a vegetable I regularly add to frittatas.

How do you use spinach and fresh herbs?

Photograph by marymactavish.

Quicklinks

2010-01-15T00:31:20Z

Before I get into this Friday’s Quicklinks – a couple of notices for the Sydney-based readers. I am running some new seminars and programmes through my clinic in Gladesville.

Seminars and programmes

Over the next couple of months I will be running three separate seminars:

How to cook vegetabes so they taste great – Saturday 6 February 3.00pm – 4.30pm
The GI (glycemic index) – Saturday 20 February 3.00pm – 4.30pm
Food labels: traps and tricks – Saturday 6 March 3.00pm – 4.30pm
The cost for each is $20 or book into all three and get a 10% discount
For more details click here

I’m also running a four-week group programme called Eat Well, Feel Great – again there’s more information on the Balance2health website.

To make a booking for any of these then send me an email.

Now onto what I’ve been reading:

New year’s resolutions: I really like the approach to new year health resolutions in this article by Leslie Beck. Don’t take an all-or-nothing approach to food and exercise, instead concentrate on more gradual and modest changes.
Pumpkin soup: I can’t get Ganga’s Pumpkin soup with red peppers out of my head. It’s one of the most gorgeously coloured soups I’ve ever seen and I’m imagining it would taste delicious.
Weight gain: Marion Nestle writes on How many extra calories cause weight gain. While recent research also suggests most of this weight gain happens over Christmas.
Noodle soup: Another soup recipe, but this one for Soba noodles in broth with spinach and shiitakes. It’s a Japanese inspired soup flavoured with seaweed, sake and mirin.
Attitudes to eating: This piece from Weighty Matters was written pre-Christmas, with the festive season and holidays in mind. But it’s still really worth looking at. What’s your attitude to social eating? Are you a wrist-slapper or a write-offer?

Flavour Boosters - part 2

2010-01-14T04:21:40Z

The other Flavour Booster I’m going to talk about this week is shoyu. If you have a copy of the winter An Honest Kitchen you will spot a few different uses of shoyu. And if you’ve looked back through the recipes on this blog, again you’ll see shoyu cropping up all over the place.

Shoyu is my not-so-secret ingredient. It’s something I use often, and in a wide variety of dishes. My use of shoyu is not limited to Japanese, Chinese or even Asian cooking in general. Instead it’s something I find myself adding to recipes with influences from all around the globe.

I love shoyu because of the way it rounds out the flavours in food. A tablespoon or so of shoyu, added towards the end of cooking, will provide a depth, richness and complexity to the final meal, that was never there in the first place. It covers a multitude of cooking sins.

And plain old, cheap soy sauce just won’t do. Shoyu is definitely more expensive, but it has a much, much, much smoother flavour – and this is what you’re after.

How I use shoyu as a Flavour Booster

Shoyu is something I add very close to the end of cooking. Often I haven’t actually planned to use shoyu in the meal, instead it’s when I taste the dish, prior to serving, that I make the decision to use shoyu. If the food tastes a bit empty, or rough, as if all the flavours are competing with each other, that’s when I’ll add shoyu.

Shoyu goes really well with legumes, many tomato based dishes, soups, casseroles, stews – anything with juices or a kind of gravy. I first discovered the shoyu trick when cooking hearty lentil soups for an organic cafe and this is still one of my favourite uses.

Because shoyu has a strong flavour, it doesn’t match more delicate dishes and flavours, and you should use it carefully. I tend to start with a couple of teaspoons, stir these through and then re-taste.

Having said that, one of my favourite uses of shoyu is in salad dressings, particularly when matched with tahini.

Try adding some shoyu next time you make a soup

Flavour Boosters - part 1

2010-01-13T05:00:00Z

Among the ingredients I find immensely useful in the kitchen are a group I’ve named the Flavour Boosters. These ingredients add huge amounts of taste, richness and / or complexity to a dish. And they do this without requiring complicated or long-winded cooking.

They make cooking easier, because you can count on them to make your dinner interesting and tasty. Mid week, when I want good food fast, I rely heavily on these ingredients. They add heaps of flavour, without having to use loads of other ingredients and slow cooking techniques.

Moreover I’ve come to know these ingredients really well. I know what they taste like, I know how the interact with other foods, I know what happens to them when they’re cooked. Having a deep knowledge of a few Flavour Boosting ingredients means I can add them to meals, without needing a recipe. So at the end of the week, when there’s only a few odds and ends in the fridge, these ingredients come into their own. I can use them to make a disparate group of foods, into a healthy and delicious dinner.

Two of my favourite Flavour Boosters are preserved lemons and spice mixes.

1. Preserved lemons

I’m relatively new to using preserved lemons. Over the past year they have rapidly become one of my favourite ingredients and something I use several times a week. I am in danger of being obsessed with them as I love their fabulous intense flavour. Preserved lemons manage to be both lemon-y and salt-y, while also being rich and complex.

They’re not cheap to buy, however you don’t need to use a lot, so one jar will last you a while. I bought my first jar, but have since started making my own. This is cheap, as the ingredients are lemons and salt and pretty easy. It just takes a little time. I follow Lucy’s instructions. You don’t need to use a lot, as they have a strong flavour, so one jar will last you a while.

How I use preserved lemons:

Part of the reason I find preserved lemons so useful is they can be added both during the cooking and also at the end. They can also be used both cooked and un-cooked. So they’re a flexible ingredient.

Preserved lemons can be used with meat or vegetarian meals. They go really well with lamb and chicken. Whilst also being fabulous with legumes like lentils and chickpeas. Preserved lemons also match up with plenty of vegetables, including eggplant, potatoes, salad greens, tomatoes (and tomato based sauces), spinach . . . and the list goes on.

While I sometimes plan to use preserved lemons, I also often end up adding them to a meal at the end of the cooking. If the food I’ve made is a bit bland, or lacking in flavour complexity, I’ll stir through some mashed preserved lemon and dinner is instantly different.

I add preserved lemon to salads, to pep up they’re flavour. I’ll either drop a few slices into the salad itself, or mash some preserved lemon into the dressing.

I mash preserved lemons in with chickpeas to make a sort-of instant hummous. They’re also really, really good with lentils. For a quick meal I chop up whatever herbs and leafy vegetables I have in the fridge; add in an avocado and a tin of lentils. Then I mix some preserved lemon with olive oil and pour that over. This is delicious served by itself or on a slice of toast.

If you do buy a jar, make sure you top the jar up with olive oil, as per Lucy’s recommendation.

2. Spice mixes

I also love spices. They are amazing ingredients which come from plants and although they’re used in tiny amounts are able to impart complex, rich and interesting flavours. Spices make boring food interesting. They can also make two dishes which might seem the same, taste entirely different.

For easy cooking though, spice mixes are even better than individual spices. A few teaspoons of a good spice mix will give your meal stacks of flavour, with minimal effort. My favourite blends are definitely those with a Middle Eastern or North African influence: Chermoula, Ras el hanout, harissa and so on.

The beauty of using a spice mix is it’s one ingredient. You don’t need to fiddle around with individual packets of spice, instead just a few teaspoons from one mix gives you a whole lot of richness and flavour. At the moment in my cupboards I have Chermoula, Ras el hanout, Jerk seasoning mix, a Tunisian spice mix and several jars of my home made blend. I rotate through these, depending on my mood.

How I use spice mixes:

Spices tend to work best when added during cooking. Adding spices towards the beginning of the cooking process and using a bit of oil and heat, allows them to impart their full delicious flavour.

Spice blends work really well with both meat and vegetarian meals.

I use spice blends in soups, casseroles, stews and other ‘wet’ dishes. In this case I would add the spices when I’ve finished sauteeing the onions / garlic / vegetables, just before adding in wet ingredients like tinned tomatoes or stock.

Spice mixes can also be sprinkled over:

mixed vegetables which are going to be roasted in the oven
pieces of tofu before being stir-fried or grilled
eggplant and zucchini slices which are going to be cooked on the barbecue
lamb chops and steaks which can then be grilled, barbecued or pan-fried

Chickpeas with tomatoes and spinach (serves 2)

This recipe uses both preserved lemons and a North African spice mix. It’s a filling and delicious meal that doesn’t require any chopping. Instead, all the ingredients come from packets and cans and yet it’s still a healthy and complete meal.

This is a vegan version of a recipe from the Winter edition of An Honest Kitchen.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons Chermoula, Ras el hanout or this Moroccan spice blend
¼ of a preserved lemon (about 1 tablespoon), finely chopped
1 × 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 × 400g tin of chickpeas
½ packet frozen spinach (defrosted)
1 tablespoon of pine nuts

Wholegrain bread or rice to serve

Heat the oil in a large, high-sided frying pan or a wide based saucepan (with a lid) over a high heat. When it’s hot add the spice mix and preserved lemon directly to the pan and fry in the oil for no more than 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes, chickpeas and frozen spinach – be careful as the oil may spit as you add the tomato.

Stir together, turn the heat down very slightly and place the lid on the pan. You want the dish to simmer vigorously – but not boil – so the tomatoes are reduced quickly, leaving a thick, rich and spicy sauce. Cook for 6 – 7 minutes, stirring frequently.

Scatter the pine nuts over the top and serve.

Cooking Notes:

This dish can be made in advance and keeps well overnight in the fridge (in fact the flavours get even better). It can also be frozen and sometimes I make up double the quantity, so I can re-stock the freezer.

You could make this with fresh spinach, instead of frozen, or add in some fresh coriander and olives.

If you don’t have preserved lemons, add the zest of ½ lemon with the tomatoes & the juice of ½ lemon at the end.

What are your favourite Flavour Boosters?

My favourite ingredients

2010-01-12T01:00:00Z

A very happy new year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the year ahead.

Over the last week I’ve been working on the Summer edition of An Honest Kitchen. The vast majority of recipe work was completed well before Christmas and now I’m down to the notes and details. Working out which recipes can be kept, either in the fridge or freezer. Can another recipe be made with goats’ milk yoghurt, instead of cows’ milk? Are the method instructions as simple as they can be? I’ve also been testing vegetarian alternatives to some of the meat and fish recipes.

My other major task has been compiling the glossary. While doing this it struck me how frequently I use some ingredients. In each issue of An Honest Kitchen we try to present a range of meals, to suit different tastes. We also focus on the fruit and vegetables which are in season. However, there are still a handful of ingredients which appear in every issue.

This doesn’t mean the food all looks and tastes the same. Instead these are ingredients I find immensely useful. They do more in a dish than you’d expect from one single foodstuff. They make the cooking easier, by cutting out extra chopping time or complex cookery.

These useful ingredients fall into three main categories:

1. Flavour boosters

These ingredients provide instant flavour to a meal. A few teaspoons or tablespoons are enough to give you a dinner which tastes really, really good. Full of rich and complex flavour, without any long-winded or tricky cooking being necessary. Which makes it easier and quicker to cook something delicious.

2. Easy vegetables

One of the common reasons people give for not eating the basic five serves of vegetables a day, is all the chopping and prep work they require. I’ve found there are a handful of vegetables which can be quickly and easily added to many dishes. They require minimal preparation and minimal cooking – an excellent way to boost your daily intake of vegetables.

3. Nutrition boosters

There are also a number of ingredients I use regularly because they boost the nutritional goodness of the meal I’m cooking. They are simple and easy to use, requiring no prep work. However they are nutritionally dense – adding antioxidants, fibre, minerals and vitamins to my food. Therefore if dinner is looking nutritionally empty I’ll add one or more of these, to boost it up.

I’ll be writing about all these ingredients over the next few weeks. This week I’m concentrating on my three favourite Flavour Boosters. I’ll talk about why I like them, how I use them and I’ll be including recipes.

Limes & Lycopene

Quicklinks

Renovating your recipes to reduce the fat

What do I do?

How do you reduce the fat in your meals?

An Honest Kitchen: Buy the Spring & Summer Edition

What’s in the Spring & Summer Issues?

Buy the combined Spring & Summer editions

An Honest Kitchen – real food that’s good for you

Quicklinks

Menu For Hope Winners and a Competition

Menu For Hope

Dietgirl’s 9th Birthday Extravaganza

Coming up on Limes & Lycopene

How to get more vegetables into your meals (1)

Spinach and fresh herbs

How I prepare spinach and fresh herbs

How I use spinach and fresh herbs

How do you use spinach and fresh herbs?

Quicklinks

Seminars and programmes

Now onto what I’ve been reading:

Flavour Boosters - part 2

How I use shoyu as a Flavour Booster

Try adding some shoyu next time you make a soup

Flavour Boosters - part 1

1. Preserved lemons

2. Spice mixes

Chickpeas with tomatoes and spinach (serves 2)

What are your favourite Flavour Boosters?

My favourite ingredients

1. Flavour boosters

2. Easy vegetables

3. Nutrition boosters

Which ingredients do you use most frequently?