Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Weight loss, Vegetables, What's in season, Salads and Soups
- Broad beans: Look at this salad on Stonesoup. What a wondrous mix of flavours and textures. While broad beans might be a bit fiddly they’re absolutely worth the effort. Plus they’re , here in Australia.
- Quick couscous soup: I love the quick-ness of this recipe from 101 Cookbooks. It’s a couscous soup with broccoli, sundried tomatoes and goats’ cheese.
- Grocery prices: In the Guardian Alex Renton investigates who wins when there’s a rise in grocery prices. It’s a murky, complex trail.
- Weight loss: Working on the idea that by making small changes to your eating habits you can lose weight, Blogher has a guide to shaving 400 calories per day.
- Foods to eat during Autumn: While we’re heading into summer, in the northern hemisphere it’s autumn. Sophie from Mostly Eating has put together an autumn eating guide. What’s in season, a printout fridge guide and some simple food suggestions – a great resource.
- Ratatouille: If you’re wondering how to eat more vegetables, why not start with this ratatouille bake with feta cheese. It’s from Cook Sister and looks amazing.
Photograph by Koizumi.
How making stock helps me to eat well
Posted by kathryn in Main courses
Today I have another guest post – from the lovely Wendy of A Wee Bit of Cooking. I asked Wendy to tell us about one strategy that helps her eat well. And this was her answer.
Tuesday nights kill me. The days are always the busiest; the evenings are often filled with meetings, parents’ nights and/or marking and, to make matters worse, the weekend is never anywhere in sight. Arriving home on a dark and cold Tuesday night it would be very tempting to call for a pizza or pop into the chippie but I rarely do, for I know that within 20 minutes I can whip up an enormous, steaming bowl of Asian soup to chase the Tuesday blues away.
Silky noodles, delicate vegetables, fragrant broths – there is nothing that I don’t adore about these soups. I love how pretty they are. I love how restorative they feel. And, despite being very filling, I love how light they are.
But the thing about Asian soups is that store-bought stock cubes and powders simply aren’t good enough. Home-made stock is essential and, though run-of-the-mill chicken or vegetable stocks can be used as a base, for a deeper, more aromatic essence garlic and ginger infused broths are by far the best.
Luckily, Chinese chicken and vegetable stocks are simple to make and freeze well. The bottom drawer of my freezer is always loaded with 500ml bags of both kinds enabling me to quickly and easily prepare a nourishing bowl of egg drop or tom yum or chicken noodle soup to invigorate me on one of those sluggish Tuesday evenings.
How I make stock
Both recipes are adapted from Kylie Kwong.
1. Chinese Chicken Stock
Makes approximately 2 litres of stock – but you’ll need to use a 5 litre stock pot.
- Carcass of one chicken (leftover roast?) or 500g chicken wings or thighs
- Bunch of spring onions, chopped roughly
- 10cm piece of ginger, sliced thickly
- Bulb of garlic, separated into cloves and bashed with a rolling pin
- 1 onion, quartered
- 10 peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon salt
Add all the ingredients to a stock pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 2 hours.
Strain and leave to cool completely. Remove fat from the surface of liquid and discard. Makes approximately two litres.
2. Chinese Vegetable Stock
Use a 5 litre stock pot.
- 6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 onions, quartered
- 5 sticks of celery, chopped roughly
- Bunch of spring onions, chopped roughly
- 10cm piece of ginger, sliced thickly
- Bulb of garlic, cloves separated and bashed with rolling pin
- Handful of fresh coriander, leaves and stalks
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 peppercorns
Prepare in the same way as the above chicken stock.
Easy ways to use your stock
Both of these stocks can be used as the base for:
What are your simple recipes for using home-made stock?
Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking is a teacher living in the Highlands of Scotland. She loves cooking food, growing food, finding food and eating food. She also has the cutest dog in the northern hemisphere.
All photographs by Wendy.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling, A Balanced Diet, Vegetables, Salads and Main courses
- How to cook: Mark Bittman hands his Bitten over to his producer, who wants to learn to cook. Her first effort is pumpkin soup. Not everything goes to plan, but she makes a soup that’s “tasty and satisfying”.
- Credit crunch lunch: Shocked to realise the real cost of school lunches, Charlotte from The Great Big Vegetable Challenge has made some butternut pumpkin tarts for packed lunches – and they’re only 40p a serve.
- Chickpea salad: Lovely meal from The Wednesday Chef – a chickpea salad with olives, radishes, herbs and poached eggs.
- What Monica eats: I’m fascinated by what other people eat, so of course I’m going to follow Monica at Smarter Fitter Blog’s online food diary. Day one is here.
- Cauliflower pasta: Lovely dish from Foodalogue: a simple pasta meal with plenty of vegetables: cauliflower oreganata pasta. I came across this via Tinned Tomatoes.
- Eating by nutrient and number: Now I’ve found Joanna Blythman writes online, I can’t get enough of her straight-talking advice. She’s the author of one of my favourite books. In the Guardian she discusses nutritional scoring systems. By reducing food down to nutrients and numbers you end up with recommendations where popcorn is healthier than eggs and fizzy drinks look good. The article is here.
Photograph by Jen Maiser.
Three ways with chicken
Posted by kathryn in Main courses
The latest issue of Life etc magazine is out, complete with my regular Ten Minute Kitchen recipe column.
In this edition the feature ingredient is chicken and the three recipes are:
- Chicken, tomato and olive tart
- Oat and sesame crumbed chicken
- Chicken noodle soup
The three recipes can be downloaded from the Life etc website. Simply click on the link half way down the right-hand sidebar.
What would you like me to blog about?
Posted by kathryn in Blogging
I’ve been struggling with my blogging mojo for the last two weeks.
I’ve thought about posts. I’ve half written posts. I’ve sat at the computer trying to force the words out. I’ve cleaned the house and done my accounts to avoid writing posts. And apart from one recipe nothing decent has come out of me.
I’ve tried. I have at least three half-written posts and several post ideas, but nothing is quite finished. Nothing is quite ripe and ready for publishing.
So I thought I’d ask you – my wise and friendly readers. What do you want me to write about?
Of the half written posts, ideas and suggestions are the following:
- I am half way through a post titled Five quick ways to increase your vegetable intake today – which is self-explanatory. Update: I’ve posted this story and it’s here.
- I’ve been buying lots of books recently: cookery books, books on sustainability and the socio-economics of eating. So I have started some book reviews.
- I’ve been thinking about a series of posts on barley. It’s a beautiful ingredient, useful in both summer and winter. It would be similar to my tahini series.
- I’ve been making a lot of puddings and biscuits recently. Trying out healthier versions of standard recipes. Testing and tweaking. So maybe some posts on making the sweet stuff better for you?
- Clients have been asking me a few in-depth nutrition questions recently:: what is a free radical? How do antioxidants work? What does it mean when a fat is saturated?
- The $7 dinner challenge has also made me wonder if I should be blogging more budget recipes.
Do any of these subjects appeal? What would you like me to write about?
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Food Labelling, Sustainablity, Snacking and Salads
- Home squeezed oranges: When your orange juice carton claims it’s home squeezed you have to think twice. Interesting article on how food manufacturers are trying to tap into the locavore movement.
- Asparagus salad: Oh my. Just look at the salad on Stonesoup – asparagus, mozzarella, capers, buckets of herbs. I can’t think of many more heavenly ideas.
- Falafels: For weeks now I’ve been craving good falafels. Moist, full of herbs and with a crunchy outside coating. Thank you, oh thank you Helen for posting your oven baked version. I shall be making them this weekend.
- US Food Policy: This week Michael Pollan publised an open letter to the new US President. It’s all about food policy and how to make US agriculture more sustainable.
- What consumers buy: From Mark Bittman’s blog a comparison of US consumer expenditure on soft drinks and candy vs fresh produce. I haven’t checked the figures, but can this really be true?
- Eating on US$25 a week: After this week’s $7 dinner challenge it’s interesting to read about Cheap Healthy Good’s attempts to compile a weekly menu with only US$25. Showing just how difficult it can be to make healthy, interesting food on a budget.
Photograph by Pieter Musterd.
The US$7 Dinner Challenge
Posted by kathryn in Blogging, Salads, Pudding and Main courses
Bananas, custard and asparagus are not the most obvious elements on which to base a meal.
And when I started thinking about Sarah Cucina Bella’s $7 dinner challenge they were far from my mind.
Originally I was planning a red lentil dal with yoghurt and rice. Good bargain fodder. Until I saw asparagus for a dollar and realised bananas were the cheapest fruit in the supermarket.
Which is when my plan changed.
Instead my meal is a barley, fetta and asparagus salad followed by a healthier take on bananas and custard.
The salad is based on a wheat berry version in Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking. While the bananas and custard are based on a recipe I’ve used before in David Scott’s Penniless Vegetarian.
Converting US dollars to Australian money meant I had a budget of A$10. In the rules of the challenge, this money has to make a two-course dinner for four people. My main course and dessert come in at $9.92, just under budget. I’ve put the details of costs and where I shopped below.
Barley, fetta and asparagus salad
Serves 4
- 180g pearl barley
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 onions, cut in half & sliced into half-moons
- 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed & cut into 1cm slices
- 2 carrots, grated
- ¼ bunch fresh coriander
- 50g fetta cheese
- 20g pumpkin seeds
Dressing:
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
Cook the barley: Rinse the barley well, as it tends to be dusty. Place in a saucepan with 2½ cups of water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and gently simmer for about 35 minutes.
Sauté the vegetables: When the barley is half way through cooking put a small saucepan over a medium-low heat. Once warm add the olive oil and onions. Cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent them from sticking. The onions should be soft and slightly browned. Add the asparagus. Cook for a further 3 minutes, until the asparagus is softened but still crunchy.
Finish the salad: Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Drain any excess water from the barley. When the vegetables are cooked add to the barley, with the carrots, coriander, fetta and pumpkin seeds. Pour over the dressing and toss to combine. Serve this while still warm.
Banana custard puddings
I made these puddings in small ramekin dishes. You could also make one larger pudding, in an oven-proof bowl. While I had the idea of custard in my head, the final version is not very custard-like. But it is delicious.
Serves 4
- 3 ripe bananas, peeled
- 250g (250ml) natural yoghurt
- 2 free range eggs
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Prepare the puddings Cut the bananas into chunky pieces. Whisk together the yoghurt, eggs, sugar and spice. Add the banana and mix together. Spoon this batter into four ramekin dishes.
Cook the puddings: Stand the ramekins in a roasting tray. Pour water into the tray, until it comes half way up the side of the dishes. Place in the oven and cook for 35 – 40 minutes, until the custard is cooked and golden brown on top.
The shopping
I bought ingredients from the Woolworths in Balmain on Monday 13 October. I’ve prorated the costs where I didn’t use the whole packet.
- 180g pearl barley $0.87
- 2 tablespoons olive oil $0.26
- 2 onions $0.76
- 1 bunch asparagus $1.00
- 2 carrots $0.51
- ¼ bunch fresh coriander $0.49
- 50g fetta cheese $0.61
- 20g pumpkin seeds $0.42
- ½ lemon $0.51
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano $0.11
- 3 ripe bananas $1.74
- 250g natural yoghurt $1.30
- 2 free range eggs $1.01
- 1 tablespoon sugar $0.04
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice $0.28
- Total: $9.92
What would you make for under A$10?
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket, Weight loss, Salads and Main courses
- The US$7 Dinner Challenge: Sarah’s Cucina Bella has set a challenge: making a two-course dinner for four people for US$7. That’s not a lot of money, about $10 Australian. I’m taking part – are you up to the challenge?
- A selection of salads: I’m new to Food Blogga, but particularly love her salad selection. There are side salads, meal salads, dishes suitable for winter, as well as lighter salads for the summer months. The Food Blogga salad collection can be found here.
- What is fat?: Great round-up on current thinking about fat and obesity: Think fat just hangs around and does nothing? It doesn’t.
- Using up leftovers: One of the recipe collections on the BBC’s GoodFood website centres around using leftovers. Whether it’s a roast dinner, rice, stale bread, vegetables – you can find a way to use it up here.
- Food portions: I’ve been thinking about buying Amanda Clark’s book Portion Perfection for clinic, but in the meantime I’ve found she has a blog. And there’s a summary of the calories in different drinks and how they’ve changed over the years.
- More beetroot: I’ve also just found a whole section of beetroot recipes on the NY Times website, including this glorious looking Mediterranean beetroot and yoghurt salad.
Kookaburra photograph by Iansand. Just because.
How do you find a good nutritionist?
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Lisa thought I might have some advice on how to find a good nutritionist!
While it’s not something I often look for, I do have some opinions and thoughts on this.
1. Make sure your nutritionist is registered
In Australia, once you’re qualified, if you want to practice as a a nutritionist you have to join a professional association. Registration is also necessary for getting insurance – vital for practising these days.
As I’m from the naturopathic school I’m registered with ATMS. Dieticians are registered with the Dieticians Association of Australia. And I suspect the same is true in many other countries.
If your practictioner is registered with a professional body it’s your guarantee they are qualified, have a basic level of competence and are more likely to conduct themselves ethically. I would strongly recommend against seeing an un-registered practitioner.
2. Consult widely
About 80 percent of my clients are referred to me by existing patients and other practitioners. Knowing someone who has already come to see me means they can have confidence in my abilities and a knowledge of how I work.
This is a great way of finding a good practitioner Talk to friends and family members and find out if they’ve seen a nutritionist. If none of your immediate circle know a nutritionist, then check with your local health food shop. They very quickly get an idea of who’s good and who to avoid in the local area.
3. Ask your prospective practitioner questions
Having a good rapport with your nutritionist is important to the success of your health changes. If you trust, like and respect them you’re more likely to follow through on their suggestions. If they have an understanding of you and your lifestyle, they are more likely to make recommendations which suit you.
Before making an appointment call or email the practitioner. Ask them how much they charge and what the ongoing costs will be? Whether they have any areas of speciality? What training they’ve had? How much time is involved? Can they describe how they work? How often do they prescribe supplements? How flexibile are their programmes?.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t be shy.
4. Don’t commit to a long term programme before you’re sure
With most practitioners you are able to have a one-off initial consulation, without committing to a long-term programme. The first consult is time to get to know your practitioner and discuss options.
Be wary of any practitioner who asks you to lock you into a programme before your initial consultation.
5. During consultations be clear about what you want
I spend a lot of time during consultations talking to clients about what they want. From me, from the process and for their health. How much time do they have to concentrate on their health? What are their cooking skills? What’s the extent of their food knowledge? How long do they think treatment is going to take? How are they expecting to feel in one week or two months? What are their goals? What’s their budget?
I work in a highly collaborative way. I negotiate with clients, check on what they can and can’t do, ask for their input.
Therefore the clearer you can be about what you want the better. Prior to your appointment spend some time jotting down notes. Think about how you’re feeling now and how you want to feel. What troubles are you experiencing and what help do you need.
I find this time and focus pays dividends.
What about you – any other thoughts on how to choose a practitioner?
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
An old remedy: lemon juice in water
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
The next question in Q & A Thursday is about lemon juice in the morning.
What do you think of half a squeezed lemon in hot/boiling water in the morning? I have been doing this as opposed to my morning coffee.
This is an old naturopathic remedy. Most detoxes include it and a lot of practitioners recommend this combination to aid liver and digestion.
While I don’t promote detoxes, I do have clients who swear by it and I sporadically recommend this remedy to people.
However there’s no concrete evidence for this action. If it does help the liver and digestion, the impact will be small.
But I still like the idea of starting the day with a drink. A cup of lemon juice and water, or some herbal tea. A small morning ritual that provides some hydration. But more importantly a moments pause before launching into the day.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
Do you crave ice?
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
The next question in Q & A Thursday is from a reader who asks:
Someone once told me that people who are anaemic crave ice. I can’t find any information about this, but it worries me because my 12 year old daughter LOVES ice.
Pica is the name of the health issue where people crave and chew substances which are either not normally classified as food, or are not usually eaten in large quantitites. As well as ice, pica cravings can include clay, cornstarch, paper, soil, chalk, soap and coal.
What causes pica?
Our knowledge of what causes pica is a bit sketchy. There is some evidence it may be caused by nutritional deficiencies and ice pica has been linked to low iron. However none of this evidence is conclusive.
What to do if you think you have pica?
For pica to be diagnosed the cravings must have lasted more than one month. It is not a short-term, one-off condition.
Plus if you simply like chewing ice, that is not pica. Pica is a craving. Which is a more intense desire or need, than a simple enjoyment.
If you think you may have pica it’s really important to see your GP. To get a proper diagnosis and work out why this is happening.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
What are salicylates?
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Next on Q & A Thursday a reader asks:
What are salicylate levels? And why are people concerned about these levels in fruit? I have come across several websites noting that the salicylate levels in pears drop to zero if you peel the skin off. I always thought that we should try to eat the skin of fruit and vegetables because that is where all the vitamins are, but should I be peeling my fruit instead?
Chemicals occurring in food
All foods contain chemicals. While we tend to think of chemicals as being bad things to be avoided, natural chemicals are present in everything we eat. Vitamins, carbohydrates and proteins are chemicals. Your food smells and tastes the way it does, because of chemicals.
What are salicylates?
Salicylates are one of these naturally occurring chemicals. They’re water soluble and particularly common in plants, where they act as hormones assisting in growth, photosynthesis and respiration.
Where are they found?
Salicylates are found in many common and normally healthy fruits and vegetables. Asparagus, beetroot, pumpkin, snow peas, apples, rhubarb and bananas all contain salicylates.
Their levels tend to be high in un-ripe fruit and reduce with ripening. They are also sometimes concentrated in the peel. Which is why unpeeled, unripe pears have more salicylates than the peeled, ripe fruit.
They’re also found in herbs, spices, nuts, honey, yeast extract, tea, coffee, jams, some flavourings, beer and wine.
Why are they a problem?
While they are natural substances, some people are intolerant to salicylates and eating foods containing these natural chemicals affects their health. As with all intolerances the best way of improving health is for the intolerant individual to avoid foods containing salicylates.
This type of intolerance is uncommon and most people are free to eat salicylate containing foods without problem – including pears with their skin.
More information
- If you think you may have a salicylate intolerance it’s important to see your doctor and be correctly diagnosed. Do not simply cut these foods out of your diet and hope to get better – as this can cause nutritional deficiencies.
- For more information take a look at the factsheets and information published by Royal Prince Alfred Hospital’s Allergy Unit.
- If you have a salicylate intolerance then I would strongly recommend their Friendly Foods recipe book.
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
Pear photograph by Anrushti.
How to cook vegetables to get the most nutrients
Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Q & A Thursday
First up in October’s Q & A Thursday is a question from Andrea:
I’ve often heard that you should steam vegetables, rather than boil them, to gain more nutrients out of them. However, I am not sure why this is so. Is this because (a) nutrients are water soluble, so when you boil them and drain off the water, you are pouring the nutrients away? Or (b) boiling vegetables actually destroys the nutrients somehow?
Vegetables contain a number of different nutrients. Vitamins, minerals, fibre, antioxidants, as well as carbohydrates and even tiny amounts of protein. While we can get carbohyrates, protein and fibre from other foods, we rely on vegetables to provide many of the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants we need for good health.
Most healthy eating guidelines include recommendations on how vegetables should be cooked. To keep your vegies as jam-packed with nutrients as possible, some cooking methods are better than others.
Some nutrients are water soluble
Vitamins are split into two main groups. Some of them like Vitamin C and the B group, are water soluble. While others, like A, E and D are fat soluble. If you boil vegetables, then some of these water soluble nutrients leach out into the cooking water and when you drain the vegies these nutrients are lost down the sink.
If you’re cooking vegetables in a soup or stew, some of these nutrients will be retained – as you’re not draining away the juices.
Some nutrients are fragile
Some of the water soluble nutrients, like vitamin C, are also quite fragile. When exposed to heat they start to degrade.
Which means extensive cooking at high temperatures is also a problem for these water soluble nutrients.
Of course it’s not that simple
If you’ve just read the above, it sounds like we should all be eating raw vegetables. However, while some nutrients are lost during cooking, others actually become more available and useful. This is true of the lycopene in tomatoes, the iron in spinach and a number of others.
The top 5 guidelines on how to eat vegetables
- The number one priority is to eat vegetables, no matter how they are prepared. Without daily serves of vegetables your diet is deficient.
- Eat a variety of vegetables. They all contain different vitamins and antioxidants. By eating a variety you are ensuring your diet is the best it can be.
- Prepare you vegetables in a variety of different ways. To get the most out of your vegies eat them both raw and cooked.
- Try not to over-cook vegetables. Lightly steam, stir fry or micro-wave the majority of vegetables you eat. This reduces the nutrient loss.
- Cook and eat vegetables with a small amount of oil, as this helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins and antioxidants.
What’s your favourite way of eating vegetables?
What is Q & A Thursday?
This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a monthly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
What's in season in Sydney: October
Posted by kathryn in What's in season
Following some thought I’ve decided to make the regular what’s in season list NSW specific.
I’m moving more and more towards eating primarily local foods and the vastness of this country means sticking to Australian grown produce is not quite enough. Food and produce from the west coast and far north travel thousands of miles getting to Sydney.
Which isn’t quite “local” food really. So from now on each month I’m going to concentrate on what’s being grown and harvested in this state.
While I will make every effort to produce an accurate list, this information is not easily available. I suspect there will be errors and omissions along the way. So please let me know if you have more information or spot a mistake.
For Australian readers from other states – I’d love to know the differences between you and NSW.
Fruit:
- Apples: Fujis and Sundowners from Batlow and Orange still available
- Avocadoes: NSW avocadoes are available – mostly Hass
- Bananas: from Northern NSW
- Blueberries: Coffs Harbour fruit available
- Grapefruit: ruby grapefruit are particularly delicious at the moment
- Lemons
- Mandarins
- Mulberries
- Oranges: navels
- Strawberries: while the NSW strawberry season is just starting most of the cheap punnets in the shops are from Qld and WA. Local strawberries are available from farmers’ markets.
Vegetables
- Artichokes (globe)
- Asian greens
- Beetroot
- Broad beans
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Herbs
- Leeks
- Lettuce
- Peas
- Potatoes: chat
- Rhubarb
- Silverbeet
- Snowpeas
- Spinach
- Wild rocket
The monthly what’s in season guide is compiled from a number of sources, including: the Harris Farm Market and Fratelli Fresh market updates; Lettuce Deliver’s weekly shopping guide; the Sydney Markets seasonal guide; updates in Donna Hay and Delicious magazines; a range of books; as well as my own observations of what’s currently available and good value. I sometimes continue to make updates during the month, as fruit and veg availability changes.
Sweet pea photograph by Helen Mary.
Q & A Thursday & Jamie Oliver
Posted by kathryn in Q & A Thursday
Q & A Thursday
This is a Q & A Thursday week. For those new to Limes and Lycopene, Q & A Thursday is a monthly burst of blogging where you get to dictate the subject matter.
Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.
If you have a question you’d like answered send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.
Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food
In last Friday’s Quicklinks post I referred to a review of Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food programme. I didn’t realise at the time, but it’s on TV this evening, here in Australia.
Sounds like an interesting programme.
Quicklinks
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet, Pudding and Main courses
- On becoming an omnivore: This has nothing to do with health, nutrition or even being sensible really. But I just love Jeffrey Steingarten’s writing. Here he talks about becoming an omnivore.
- Mediterranean-style quinoa: Each week I say to myself I’m not going to link to 101 Cookbooks again. And then Heidi posts another superlative recipe and I just have to let you know. This one is culturally confused quinoa dish – with pesto, roasted cherry tomatoes, pine nuts and tofu.
- Vanilla & rose firni: I’ve never eaten one of these before, but it’s sounding like a rosewater and vanilla infused “custard”. Made with rice flour. With pistachios on top. Anyway it’s from Quick Indian Cooking so it must be good.
- What is health? Essay from Dr Abigail Zuger in the NY Times about health: “It is as fragile and elusive as a soap bubble, as protean as a Lava lamp. It is as hard to define as love or happiness, and even harder to trap and keep.” Loved it.
- Asparagus: Two ways with asparagus from UK chef Yotam Ottolenghi. Simple, astounding dishes.
- Claudia Roden: Claudia Roden is my second favourite cookery book writer. Her recipes are glorious. Not always easy, but clearly and succinctly explained. If you do what Claudia says, the dish will work. I’ve just found a collection of recipes from her book Arabesque on the BBC website.
- Fish in a bag: Another beautiful recipe from Crunchy Green Things, this time it’s for fish wrapped in foil with cherry tomatoes and a big handful of spinach. At least one serve of vegetables before you even get to the side salad.
- Food, class and social inequality: In a review of the latest Jamie Oliver programme Felicity Lawrence explores the difficulties of food and social inequality. While the current emphasis in food and diet advice is on choice for some people it’s not that easy. An excellent review of the complexities of food, nutrition and diet in the modern world. Britain on a plate.
Photograph by Anna H-G.
The pantry challenge: what you cooked
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and Main courses
I’ve been thinking recently about one of the difficult parts of keeping on the dietary straight and narrow. Planning and shopping. They’re an integral part of eating well, but for most of us there are days and weeks when thinking ahead and getting to the supermarket just doesn’t happen.
At these times it’s easy to fall back on fast food and take away.
The challenge
So a few weeks ago I set a challenge. Was it possible to make dinner from a list of 15 basic, long life ingredients? Adding a further degree of difficulty, the dishes also needed to be interesting, easy and healthy.
The ingredients were limited to common, easily purchased foodstuffs:
- Olive oil
- Tinned tomatoes
- Tinned legumes or beans
- Soy sauce
- Frozen vegetables
- Flour
- Pasta
- Tinned fish
- Eggs
- Bread
- Vinegar
- Fresh onions
- One spice or spice mix
- One dried herb or herb mix
Given 15 ingredients what would you cook?
This isn’t the easiest of challenges. However a handful of you lovely readers have come through with the goods, and proved me right.
Below are seven fantastic dinners. That’s a week’s worth of meals, which can all be made using only the ingredients listed above.
Seven different and wonderfully tasty looking meals.
Kate from the well named blog Healthy, Tasty, Green & Cheap adapted one of her quick cooking chickpea dishes to suit the challenge.
Frozen spinach, onion, chickpeas, olive oil and cumin are all it takes to make dinner. And Kate’s meal is ready in under ten minutes.
Serve this by itself, or with some boiled rice.
Healthy, Tasty, Green & Cheap’s chickpeas with cumin and spinach.
Despite wanting to bump up the ingredients list with lemon, Hippolyra from Fuss Free Flavours managed the challenge with flying colours.
Her dish is a baked risotto using tinned mackerel and chickpeas, topped off with a bright and vibrant pea “mash”.
Fuss Free Flavours baked tomato, mackerel & chickpea risotto with pea puree.
The aim of the challenge was to make an easy dinner. However Cassie from Veggie Meal Plans took it one step further.
Her salad gets tastier the longer it sits. Plus it travels well.
So from a few minutes in the kitchen, you have dinner and a salad to take to work the next day. All from a tin of mixed beans, some frozen green beans and five other pantry ingredients.
Veggie Meal Plans’ mixed bean salad with bread.
While she was initially flummoxed by the challenge Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking ignored her fresh herb and vegetable garden for one evening. Instead she put together pasta with chickpeas and tomato.
Wendy was first introduced to this dish by an Austrian-Italian friend, and spices it up with chilli flakes and dried oregano.
A Wee Bit of Cooking’s pasta e ceci.
In the midst of moving Lucy from Nourish Me is in the mood for cleaning out her pantry.
And she puts together a filling and nutritious paella using brown rice, tomatoes, peas and a splash of smoked paprika.
While it’s unusual to use brown rice in a paella, Lucy follows Mark Bittman’s advice and par-boils the rice.
After a little bit of stove-top cooking, it’s then finished off in the oven.
Nourish Me’s tomato and brown rice paella.
Cindy from Where’s the Beef put together a Moroccan inspired spicy chickpea dish.
She chooses to slow cook the onions for “maximum soft sweetness” and then adds spinach and chickpeas. The dish is spiced up with Ras el hanout and served with bread.
Where’s the Beef cooks Moroccan spiced chickpeas.
This was my entry in the Pantry Challenge.
It’s a variation of a dish I make regularly in all different guises.
This time tomatoes, spinach and peas are boosted up with some rice and then flavoured with Moroccan spices.
The dish is finished by cracking eggs on the top and gently poaching them in the spicy tomato mixture. It’s filling and nutritionally well balanced.
Limes & Lycopene’s tomato, spinach & egg tagine.
Add 15 ingredients to your pantry
So add these 15 items to your shopping list. Put them in your pantry and freezer. Then next time you’re busy and have forgotten the shopping – you can still make a wonderful dinner.
For those of you who weren’t able to take part in this round of the Pantry Challenge, I’m going to repeat the challenge in November.
And thank you to all the entrants – your dishes are marvellous
Spinach photograph by Mary Mactavish.
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31 October, 2008