Time and energy were in short supply this evening, but fortunately, broccoli was not..
Recipe - broccoli, spring onion and ginger stir fry
Preparation here is everything, because once this stir-fry starts, you don't have time to get anything ready!
In the pan
- 1 tbsp olive oil. If you have sesame oil, do a tsp sesame and 1.5 tsp sunflower oil. Sesame oil on its own is too pungent.
- 3 thin rounds of ginger, cut into small strips (about 1 loose tsp full).
- half a clove of garlic, sliced thinly.
Vegetables
- 1 small head of broccoli. Wash the stem and slice it thinly (into 2-3mm slices). Cut the florets with long stems - I like mine to be at least 2 inches long, but only about 1cm across.
- Spring onions - greens sliced into 1.5 inch sections, dense greens and whites sliced into thin rounds (mabe 1/8 inch).
To wilt the veg
- 1/3 cup chicken stock (I used Knorr gel stock).
Sauce
- 1/3 thumb-sized piece of ginger, skinned and finely grated.
- 1 large garlic clove, finely grated, mixed with the ginger.
- 1.5 tsp runny honey
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
Carbs
- egg noodles. Straight-to-wok if you want them cooked in, or boil separately if you're like me and like to sit the stir-fry on top of the noodles.
Garnish
- I lacked sesame seeds, but suspect that these, toasted in a pixi-pan beforehand and scattered over the top would have been delicious.
Cooking:
Boil the water for the noodles.
Heat the oil, garlic slices and ginger pieces in a pan. Stir them occasionally. When they start to sizzle, add the broccoli stem rounds and the smaller bits of spring onion. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Don't let the garlic burn.
Add in the rest of the broccoli and then the chicken stock - don't do it all at once, and be mindful that it may spit, so do it with caution.
Noodles go in.
Cook a couple of minutes, flipping occasionally with a spatula until the broccoli is vibrant green.
Add the sauce. Cook until mostly absorbed.
Drain the noodles, allow to steam for a moment, then plate.
Serve stir-fry onto noodles.
If you have them, sprinkle over a few toasted sesame seeds.
Enjoy with a light, crisp fruit juice (cranberry, apple or a still lemonade), a lemon/ginger cordial, or, if you're drinking alcohol, a glass of vino verde or pinot grigio, or a light, zingy beer. I don't drink beer, so I can't make an honest recommendation here.
No photos of this one - couldn't get one without dreadful glare from halogen lights and in the end, gave up and ate it. Sorry! I'll post pics of the next one!
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Saturday, 26 April 2014
Summer's coming - bring on the Padróns!
Summer is coming. I wanted to use an exclamation mark here, but then realised I've been too caught up with delayed-onset Game of Thrones fever to miss out on the tenuous link. I'm only part way through the first book, so it'll be interesting to see whether I find myself inspired to do GoT themed food later on.
This is not Game of Thrones inspired. This is quick, simple Spanish fare, and if you haven't tried it yet, you have to. Go out and buy some Pimientos de Padrón (Padrón peppers) as soon as you can!
I do as my family does - these go with pre-dinner drinks if I have them, or are a cheeky afternoon snack instead of a packet of crisps. I tend to eat 4 at a time, only because the dimensions of my pixi pan limit me considerably. I love my pixi pan - it's a frying pan whose circumference is a little larger than the palm of my hand.
Here's what you do:
1. Heat oil in a little pan.
2. Pierce your Padróns once on each side with a sharp knife (no picture of this as I only figured it out during a later cooking escapade where one puffed up and exploded. Not fun or safe).
3. Put the Padróns in the hot oil carefully.
4. Allow the skins to blister and turn brown. Keep turning the peppers.
5. Once the peppers are well browned and soft to the touch, place onto a plate sprinkle with coarse-grained sea salt (I absolutely love sea salt, so I used quite a lot here -- you don't need nearly so much as is evidenced by the final picture in which most of the salt crystals are exactly where they were).
6. Allow to sit on the cool plate for a moment or two so that they're not mouth-ruiningly hot, then eat whole, seeds and all (leave the stem, though).
For beer-drinkers out there, this favourite Spanish bar snack goes well with a cold one. If you're more like me, a glass of crisp white wine or Prosecco is good, or if you're like the other side of my personality, a nice, zingy apple juice with a wedge of lime would work well, too. Make sure to add lots of ice.
Enjoy, and bring on the sunshine!
This is not Game of Thrones inspired. This is quick, simple Spanish fare, and if you haven't tried it yet, you have to. Go out and buy some Pimientos de Padrón (Padrón peppers) as soon as you can!
I do as my family does - these go with pre-dinner drinks if I have them, or are a cheeky afternoon snack instead of a packet of crisps. I tend to eat 4 at a time, only because the dimensions of my pixi pan limit me considerably. I love my pixi pan - it's a frying pan whose circumference is a little larger than the palm of my hand.
Here's what you do:
1. Heat oil in a little pan.
3. Put the Padróns in the hot oil carefully.
4. Allow the skins to blister and turn brown. Keep turning the peppers.
5. Once the peppers are well browned and soft to the touch, place onto a plate sprinkle with coarse-grained sea salt (I absolutely love sea salt, so I used quite a lot here -- you don't need nearly so much as is evidenced by the final picture in which most of the salt crystals are exactly where they were).
6. Allow to sit on the cool plate for a moment or two so that they're not mouth-ruiningly hot, then eat whole, seeds and all (leave the stem, though).
For beer-drinkers out there, this favourite Spanish bar snack goes well with a cold one. If you're more like me, a glass of crisp white wine or Prosecco is good, or if you're like the other side of my personality, a nice, zingy apple juice with a wedge of lime would work well, too. Make sure to add lots of ice.
Enjoy, and bring on the sunshine!
Catch-your-breath fruit salad - a zingy summer salad with a twist
I love fruit - I always have done. I've got some quirks about what I eat - I prefer peaches crunchy and bananas on the green side; pears need to be crisp, more starchy than juicy. This recipe, though, showcases some of my absolute favourite fruits to eat at their very best. I adore sour flavours, so this is on the sour side, but really light after a rich meal (egg and asparagus preceded this).
I've called it Catch-your-breath fruit salad because the zing really makes you stop and explore the flavours involved. I don't think that it's overpowering, but I do think that you need to get the balance of zinginess to sweetness right.
Here are the ingredients I used - please note that the photo doesn't show quantities:
For the salad:
3/4 of a large honeydew melon (ripe, peeled and cubed into 2-3cm chunks).
3-4 ripe red/purple plums.
1/2 punnet of ripe blueberries (shell out extra for those with big flavour - bland blueberries are very much all mouth and no trousers. Don't buy them.)
A whole pomegranate, seeds lovingly removed into a dish or if you're lazy, over the salad as you make it.
(NOTE: Pomegranate juice stains badly. Please don't wear pale clothes or do near surfaces that can't be wiped clean -- if you're doing on a white worksurface, make sure you've got a decent sized cutting board to avoid alarming red stains. Also consider your company - I am glad I was alone when I made this - I had hands like Lady Macbeth by the end of it!)
For the dressing:
The juice of a lime.
15 large mint leaves, shredded.
A tablespoon of honey (more/less to taste).
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated finely on a microplane if you've got one.
Putting it together:
Cut the melon up, then the plums. Get the pomegranate seeds on as quickly as you can, as I suspect that the acidity does something to prevent discolouration. I also love the way that a pomegranate bleeds all over the white flesh of the melon. Tip over the blueberries (do taste them beforehand to make sure they're adding to it flavour-wise). Then shred the mint, sprinkle on top and toss the lot together.
Now make the dressing. Grate the ginger, juice the lime and beat them together. Taste a tiny bit now to get a feel for how much honey you'll want to add. Get the honey in a bit at a time. I like a squeezy bottle here as it's less faff than doing it spoonful by spoonful. For an extra lime hit, add the zest (no pith!). For the daredevils amongst you, I reckon a finely sliced red chilli would be brilliant here. I shall try that next time.
Add a small drizzle (about a teaspoonful) to a shallow dish of salad and stir through. Add more if you need it. It doesn't take much - too much and you won't taste the melon.
Result: A fresh, light, zingy salad with a mint, lime and ginger hit, but sweetness from the lemon. Sour, crunchy pomegranate jewels and sweet, bursting blueberries set up a textural counterpoint while the plum adds a juicier, chewier sensation and the mild bitterness of the skin works beautifully with all the flavours. Get your spoon in and enjoy.
Picture taken after I'd realised that I hadn't yet shown the dressing. I honestly only used a teaspoonful for this helping, and it was plenty. It's not a great picture, but by this point I was no longer focused on getting a decent shot - I just wanted the next mouthful.
Hope you enjoy it!
I've called it Catch-your-breath fruit salad because the zing really makes you stop and explore the flavours involved. I don't think that it's overpowering, but I do think that you need to get the balance of zinginess to sweetness right.
Here are the ingredients I used - please note that the photo doesn't show quantities:
For the salad:
3/4 of a large honeydew melon (ripe, peeled and cubed into 2-3cm chunks).
3-4 ripe red/purple plums.
1/2 punnet of ripe blueberries (shell out extra for those with big flavour - bland blueberries are very much all mouth and no trousers. Don't buy them.)
A whole pomegranate, seeds lovingly removed into a dish or if you're lazy, over the salad as you make it.
(NOTE: Pomegranate juice stains badly. Please don't wear pale clothes or do near surfaces that can't be wiped clean -- if you're doing on a white worksurface, make sure you've got a decent sized cutting board to avoid alarming red stains. Also consider your company - I am glad I was alone when I made this - I had hands like Lady Macbeth by the end of it!)
For the dressing:
The juice of a lime.
15 large mint leaves, shredded.
A tablespoon of honey (more/less to taste).
Half a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated finely on a microplane if you've got one.
Putting it together:
Cut the melon up, then the plums. Get the pomegranate seeds on as quickly as you can, as I suspect that the acidity does something to prevent discolouration. I also love the way that a pomegranate bleeds all over the white flesh of the melon. Tip over the blueberries (do taste them beforehand to make sure they're adding to it flavour-wise). Then shred the mint, sprinkle on top and toss the lot together.
Now make the dressing. Grate the ginger, juice the lime and beat them together. Taste a tiny bit now to get a feel for how much honey you'll want to add. Get the honey in a bit at a time. I like a squeezy bottle here as it's less faff than doing it spoonful by spoonful. For an extra lime hit, add the zest (no pith!). For the daredevils amongst you, I reckon a finely sliced red chilli would be brilliant here. I shall try that next time.
Add a small drizzle (about a teaspoonful) to a shallow dish of salad and stir through. Add more if you need it. It doesn't take much - too much and you won't taste the melon.
Result: A fresh, light, zingy salad with a mint, lime and ginger hit, but sweetness from the lemon. Sour, crunchy pomegranate jewels and sweet, bursting blueberries set up a textural counterpoint while the plum adds a juicier, chewier sensation and the mild bitterness of the skin works beautifully with all the flavours. Get your spoon in and enjoy.
Pretty colours and lovely flavours - if you don't like ginger and lime, the salad works well like this (above).
Hope you enjoy it!
A most excellent veggie dinner
Tonight, I had one of my favourite vegetarian dinners. It isn't vegan, as egg plays a major part, but it's light, relatively cheap and extremely nutritious.
I had: a soft boiled (free range) egg, asparagus and kale chips (excuse the rubbish picture -- I was extremely hungry, so the fact that I managed to snap this at all shows, in my opinion, a serious act of willpower).
The soft-boiled egg was a large egg and fresh today. I boiled it for about 4 and a half minutes. It probably could have taken another 15 seconds - the white was just a bit watery near the yolk. The asparagus was on the old side - I got it cheap as it was pretty clearly on its last legs, so it had quite a pungent flavour - not as sweet or delicate as the English asparagus coming in at the moment. Had I been feeling a) meaty and b) profligate, I might have bought myself some thin streaky bacon or even pancetta, and frizzled up three strips to have on the side. Instead, I ground some sea salt and black pepper onto the yolk. SO GOOD!
The kale chips were on the side to add a much-needed crunchy dimension - I wouldn't have needed them if I'd had the bacon. As usual, I rubbed torn up, de-ribbed kale pieces with olive oil, sprinkled on some coarse sea salt and baked in a 175oC oven for about 10 minutes until the kale was shiny and crisp, with the edges just turning brown.
Hints for making kale chips:
- Wash your kale first, but dry it really, really well. Use a salad spinner if you have one, and pat with a clean teatowl. The less extra water there is, the faster your kale will crisp and the less risk there'll be of overdoing it and burning it.
- Cut the ribs out, or tear them out like I do. They don't go crisp, instead going stringy, floppy and gross. If you don't want to waste them, suspect they'd either work well cut into small chunks and used early in a stir fry. Alternatively, use in soup.
- If you suspect your oven might run hot, turn it down and cook it for longer. What you're really doing here is dehydrating the kale.
- If you've a sweet tooth or particularly enjoy crispy seaweed with a Chinese takeaway, add a little fine brown sugar when you add the salt. Yum.
Next up: Catch-your-breath fruit salad -- my new favourite!
I had: a soft boiled (free range) egg, asparagus and kale chips (excuse the rubbish picture -- I was extremely hungry, so the fact that I managed to snap this at all shows, in my opinion, a serious act of willpower).
The soft-boiled egg was a large egg and fresh today. I boiled it for about 4 and a half minutes. It probably could have taken another 15 seconds - the white was just a bit watery near the yolk. The asparagus was on the old side - I got it cheap as it was pretty clearly on its last legs, so it had quite a pungent flavour - not as sweet or delicate as the English asparagus coming in at the moment. Had I been feeling a) meaty and b) profligate, I might have bought myself some thin streaky bacon or even pancetta, and frizzled up three strips to have on the side. Instead, I ground some sea salt and black pepper onto the yolk. SO GOOD!
The kale chips were on the side to add a much-needed crunchy dimension - I wouldn't have needed them if I'd had the bacon. As usual, I rubbed torn up, de-ribbed kale pieces with olive oil, sprinkled on some coarse sea salt and baked in a 175oC oven for about 10 minutes until the kale was shiny and crisp, with the edges just turning brown.
Hints for making kale chips:
- Wash your kale first, but dry it really, really well. Use a salad spinner if you have one, and pat with a clean teatowl. The less extra water there is, the faster your kale will crisp and the less risk there'll be of overdoing it and burning it.
- Cut the ribs out, or tear them out like I do. They don't go crisp, instead going stringy, floppy and gross. If you don't want to waste them, suspect they'd either work well cut into small chunks and used early in a stir fry. Alternatively, use in soup.
- If you suspect your oven might run hot, turn it down and cook it for longer. What you're really doing here is dehydrating the kale.
- If you've a sweet tooth or particularly enjoy crispy seaweed with a Chinese takeaway, add a little fine brown sugar when you add the salt. Yum.
Next up: Catch-your-breath fruit salad -- my new favourite!
Friday, 18 April 2014
Ultra-simplicity
This week is a week of serious austerity. In the run-up to Easter, when I know I'm going to be spending a little more on buying a couple of treats for loved ones, I'm cutting back hard. That means emptying my fridge and freezer down to nothing, and cracking open the store cupboard basics. I'm mindful of getting vitamins and minerals, but fortunately new job at a greengrocer's means I get to nibble on damaged fruit on and off throughout the day.
Today I have definitely OD'd on lactose - I'm lactose intolerant, but I had milk and cheese in the fridge that wanted using up, and a small tub of tomato and onion pasta sauce leftover from the night before.
Breakfast was super-simple porridge: 1/2 cup of porridge oats, 1/2 cup of milk (I use semi skimmed), 1 cup of water. Cook together stirring constantly until thick and bubbling. Decant into a bowl, allow it to cool slightly so a bit of a skin forms (yum) during which time you can be soaking the pan and the wooden spoon. Sprinkle liberally with demerara sugar (you'll use under a dessert spoon to cover the top of a bowl with a smallish circumference that is relatively deep). Fabulous. Ready, laid out, eaten and washed up in under 15 minutes. Got me through 7 hours of shop work.
Lunch (at 3:15pm) was leftover spaghetti, tomato and onion sauce and a little grated cheddar. Tastes of home and reassurance.
Dinner was a second pasta meal. That makes 3 pasta meals in the last 4 - that's probably a bit much. I'll have to eat extra fruit and vegetables tomorrow to make up for it. Pasta was served with a very simple cheese sauce. A chunk of butter was cooked until sizzling and just browning at the edges, then a heaped dessert spoon of flour was mixed into it to make a roux. I thinned the roux with milk to make a white sauce, shoved in about a teaspoon of fiery English mustard and ground an eye-watering quantity of black pepper on top. This was mixed in, after which, finely grated cheddar cheese was added. If I'd have had any, I'd have served this with kale chips on the side, or maybe some bacon pieces scattered over the top. As it stands, these things were not available, so I had a bland-looking meal that was made nose-twitchingly good with the addition of mustard and pepper. Next time, cayenne will probably join the party.
Snacks today: 4 pimientos de padron, cooked hard in olive oil, pierced before they exploded and served up with seasalt. Happened to have these knocking around - I received a handful of slightly sad looking ones as a bonus from work, and these were the last of them. My favourite treat at the moment. I also ate a rather indifferent satsuma that was on its last legs, a couple of leftover dried dates and a few raw carrots. I am about to treat myself to a rather small plum. You'll notice, possibly, that there is no chocolate. I've had to cut right back on chocolate as it was a serious food expenditure for me. I was also quite seriously addicted to it - if it's there, I can't say no. Dates are a reasonable substitute. I'm trying desperately to remind myself to enjoy it on Easter day rather than just plant my face into it and consume...
I don't like being short on cash, but I'm reminded often that it could be a lot worse. Living quietly like this is a great way to get myself into training for continuing to make sound financial and ethical decisions about food. My message to myself today is that I've cut my food wastage to almost nothing, and I need to keep going. I need to compromise on quantity, not quality - buy things because I know exactly what I'm going to do with them and when, and ask myself whether I can honestly say that the animals I have to thank for the meat and eggs on my plate (when I eat them, which is rarely) had a decent quality of life.
Camera currently AWOL -- once it has been recovered, I shall start posting awkward and badly framed photos of food. Promise. :)
Today I have definitely OD'd on lactose - I'm lactose intolerant, but I had milk and cheese in the fridge that wanted using up, and a small tub of tomato and onion pasta sauce leftover from the night before.
Breakfast was super-simple porridge: 1/2 cup of porridge oats, 1/2 cup of milk (I use semi skimmed), 1 cup of water. Cook together stirring constantly until thick and bubbling. Decant into a bowl, allow it to cool slightly so a bit of a skin forms (yum) during which time you can be soaking the pan and the wooden spoon. Sprinkle liberally with demerara sugar (you'll use under a dessert spoon to cover the top of a bowl with a smallish circumference that is relatively deep). Fabulous. Ready, laid out, eaten and washed up in under 15 minutes. Got me through 7 hours of shop work.
Lunch (at 3:15pm) was leftover spaghetti, tomato and onion sauce and a little grated cheddar. Tastes of home and reassurance.
Dinner was a second pasta meal. That makes 3 pasta meals in the last 4 - that's probably a bit much. I'll have to eat extra fruit and vegetables tomorrow to make up for it. Pasta was served with a very simple cheese sauce. A chunk of butter was cooked until sizzling and just browning at the edges, then a heaped dessert spoon of flour was mixed into it to make a roux. I thinned the roux with milk to make a white sauce, shoved in about a teaspoon of fiery English mustard and ground an eye-watering quantity of black pepper on top. This was mixed in, after which, finely grated cheddar cheese was added. If I'd have had any, I'd have served this with kale chips on the side, or maybe some bacon pieces scattered over the top. As it stands, these things were not available, so I had a bland-looking meal that was made nose-twitchingly good with the addition of mustard and pepper. Next time, cayenne will probably join the party.
Snacks today: 4 pimientos de padron, cooked hard in olive oil, pierced before they exploded and served up with seasalt. Happened to have these knocking around - I received a handful of slightly sad looking ones as a bonus from work, and these were the last of them. My favourite treat at the moment. I also ate a rather indifferent satsuma that was on its last legs, a couple of leftover dried dates and a few raw carrots. I am about to treat myself to a rather small plum. You'll notice, possibly, that there is no chocolate. I've had to cut right back on chocolate as it was a serious food expenditure for me. I was also quite seriously addicted to it - if it's there, I can't say no. Dates are a reasonable substitute. I'm trying desperately to remind myself to enjoy it on Easter day rather than just plant my face into it and consume...
I don't like being short on cash, but I'm reminded often that it could be a lot worse. Living quietly like this is a great way to get myself into training for continuing to make sound financial and ethical decisions about food. My message to myself today is that I've cut my food wastage to almost nothing, and I need to keep going. I need to compromise on quantity, not quality - buy things because I know exactly what I'm going to do with them and when, and ask myself whether I can honestly say that the animals I have to thank for the meat and eggs on my plate (when I eat them, which is rarely) had a decent quality of life.
Camera currently AWOL -- once it has been recovered, I shall start posting awkward and badly framed photos of food. Promise. :)
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