Tag: Healthy Eating

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Recipes Sides

Feta & Black Olive Quinoa Salad

Now it’s summer, I’ve been eating more and more salad bowls for lunch, so reckoned it was about time to feature one here on A Different Kitchen.

This one throws together some of my favourite tastes, including feta, black olive and rocket leaves, in a tahini dressing. The quinoa boosts the protein intake and fills you up without being heavy on the carbs. Good as a lunch bowl, but also suitable to serve as a side alongside a mains.

Servings

Enough here for a couple of servings.

Timings

12 – 15 mins. That’s how long it takes to boil and cool the quinoa, during which time you can be getting ready the rest of the salad and the dressing.

You Will Need:

  • 70g quinoa
  • about 70g feta cheese, cut into cubes
  • about 12 – 15 pitted black olives from a jar, cut in half
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 5 – 6 slices of cucumber, diced
  • 1 scallion, cut into rings
  • a handful of rocket leaves

Check out this link for my tahini dressing.

Method

  1. Place the quinoa in a saucepan with boiling water. Reduce and simmer for 12 – 15 mins.
  2. While the quinoa is cooking, prep the other ingredients and place in a bowl. Make up the tahini dressing.
  3. Drain the quinoa when cooked, and cool in a sieve under cold running water. Shake dry and add to the salad ingredients, stirring in to mix. Coat with the dressing and serve.

Customise It!

I used a packet mix of black, white and red quinoa just because it helps the dish look more interesting, but plain quinoa will work just as well. Feel free to sprinkle a few sesame seeds over the bowl before eating.

Here’s a track that’s been popping up recently on the playlists Spotify auto-generates for me, based on my other listening – clever that, especially when the track turns out to be one I find I like. Here’s Moby with Bodyrock.

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Desserts Recipes

Gooseberry & Redcurrant Compote

They could be described as the forgotten fruits, so rarely do we see gooseberries and redcurrants on the shelves of our local supermarkets and market stalls.

However, this tasty compote cooked up by my wife, Lesley, serves as a timely reminder that both fruits have everything going for them: delicious, nutritious and packed with Vitamin C.

In this guest post, I will let Lesley explain….

When I was little, we had green gooseberry bushes in our garden. I didn’t like picking them as a child, as they had thorns! I also thought they looked like green marbles. However, I loved having them cooked up for tea along with custard. My job was to cut the little shrivelled flower off the fruit with scissors. 

This year, they ripened at the same time as redcurrants at the local community farm I belong to. I brought them home and washed them, as you can see from the main photo at the top of this post.

It seemed natural to cook them up together, so I made the compote shown in my photo below. It is a beautiful rich, red colour, so summery and light. I had made elderflower cordial a few weeks ago so used that as a sweetener, meaning I didn’t need to add in any extra sugar. This helps in appreciating the natural, slightly tart taste of the fruit.

Servings

This will give 4 adult servings.

Timings

15 mins to make.

You Will Need:

  • 200g redcurrants
  • 100g gooseberries
  • 2 tablespoons elderflower cordial

Method

  1. Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat it up until the fruit is soft, and the  juice reduces to make a jammy compote. This takes about 10 mins. Alternatively, you can cook it in a microwave on full power until the fruit is soft. 
  2. Leave to cool, then transfer to the fridge to chill.

Once chilled, I served the compote with yoghurt. It looks amazing when swirled in with a spoon (see below), but you can also have it with ice cream or custard.

As a guest poster on A Different Kitchen, I get to choose the latest track for Kevin’s Spotify Playlist. I have gone for a light and fun track to go with my summery compote. This is Chic with disco hit, Le Freak.

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Breakfast Recipes

Summer Fruit & Nut Acai Bowl

I’m home from my trip to France, to find that a spell of warm sunny weather may have finally arrived in the UK.

Reminded of the climate we enjoyed on our trip to Australia in the spring, I decided it was time to bring out the Acai powder I brought back in my suitcase, to make an Aussie-style smoothie bowl. Here it is, shown in my photo above, glinting in the British breakfast time summer sun.

We found Acai Bowls to be a popular choice in cafes and takeaway joints wherever we went in Australia. The Acai is usually served with combinations of cereal, fresh fruit and nuts (check out my earlier post on the crazy, yet delicious, peanut butter-infused option I enjoyed in Melbourne).

Acai (pronounced ah – sa – ee) is a dark purple berry grown in Brazil. It is rich in antioxidants, fibre and healthy fats, and believed to support heart health and cognitive function, while being low in sugar and calories. It tastes great, with a flavour reminiscent of dark chocolate, berries and red wine. It is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

The berries do not travel well, so outside of Brazil they are sold in pulp form or as powder. I bought a pack of powder from Coles Supermarket in Melbourne, where it was available on the shelf, in several varieties. I have seen it in specialist health food shops here in the UK, but it is nowhere near as mainstream as it is Down Under.

For my Acai Bowl, I blended a tablespoon of Acai powder with two bananas and 3 tablespoons of Greek natural yoghurt. After a minute or so in the blitzer, it forms a thick purple cream that can then be poured on to cereal and topped with fresh fruit. This made enough for 2 Acai Bowls.

I poured it on to muesli and added some fresh strawberry that is grown locally. Just like Cristiano Ronaldo, the blueberries and kiwi are from Portugal. The crowning touch is some toasted brazil nuts, with a sprinkling of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

It is the time of year to relax outside in the sun listening to good music on my ear buds. This week I’ve been revisiting an old playlist featuring The White Stripes, having forgotten how good they sound. Here they are with The Hardest Button to Button.

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Blog Mains

Au Marché

One of the great joys of being a foodie on holiday in France is making a visit to the local market, or ‘marché’. So, while here in the Dordogne Valley, we set out for the local town of Bergerac on market day. Some of the fresh produce we bought inspired our evening meal back at the farmhouse. More of that in a moment.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny morning as we arrived. The market was already well under way, this array of soft fruit was glinting in the sun, and business was brisk.

The market isn’t just about stocking up with provisions for the week, however – there’s a real sense of market day being an opportunity for local people and traders to meet and catch up. In between happily chatting with customers, this chap sold us a bag of his healthy crop of radishes. Simply washed, topped and tailed, they made a light, peppery and crunchy snack alongside cold beers.

A long queue of discerning French shoppers waiting patiently to buy their food is usually a reliable sign of a good market stall. So it was with this charcuterie stand, where beef carpaccio was the ready prepared Plat du Jour. The charcuterie included local merguez sausages, which are long and thin with the texture of chorizo, and which went well later on our barbecue.

All the fruit and veg was seasonal, fresh and presented attractively. The range of tomatoes was something else, and they all looked luscious in the mid-morning sunshine.

Garlic is a staple in French cooking, and I treated myself to one of these wonderful looking purple bulbs to take home. Presentation-wise, I liked the juxtaposition of vivid colours alongside these wedges of butternut squash.

And so to that evening meal. I hadn’t come across white asparagus before, being more used to the green variety we have in the shops in the UK. It is popular in central Europe however, so I decided to try some.

It is essentially the same plant, but is grown underground, which stops it turning green. It has a slightly more intense taste, and requires a little more prep by peeling from the end of the spear tip to the base of the stalk. Like all asparagus, the woody bit at the base needs trimming off also.

I steamed the spears for 20 mins, then wrapped them in local prosciutto, and warmed them on a plate in the oven for 10 mins. They were then served with a knob of melting butter, a squeeze of fresh lemon and a few twists of black pepper.

The dish was enjoyed by our group, with a glass of chilled Bergerac Blanc on our terrace in the evening sun.

Voilà!

Time for some more French-inspired rock. This is The Stranglers with Goodbye Toulouse.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Sticky Sesame Roast Veg

This dish serves chunky roast veg on a bed of brown rice, coated in a thick sweet, sour and spicy sauce. The finishing touch is a fresh crunchy topping of chopped scallions (spring onions) and sesame seeds.

Servings

An adult meal for 2.

Timings

25 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • 1 aubergine
  • 1 courgette
  • 1 red or yellow pepper
  • 100g brown rice
  • 2tbsp each of Worcester sauce, fish sauce, cider vinegar, honey and olive oil
  • 1 tbsp oil for frying
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 red chilli
  • 2 – 3cm piece of root ginger
  • 500g carton of tomato passata
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • sesame seeds to sprinkle

Method

  1. Cut the aubergine, courgette and pepper into large chunks and roast on a metal dish in the oven for 25 mins at 180C.
  2. While the veg is roasting, tip the brown rice into a saucepan of boiling water. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 25 mins.
  3. Combine the Worcester sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, honey and oil in a screw top jar. Shake to mix.
  4. Crush the garlic and put in a saucepan with some oil over a medium heat. Finely chop the chilli and ginger and add in. Let cook for a few mins, then pour in the sauce from the screw top jar. Add in the passata and give it a good stir. Leave to simmer – it will slowly reduce to give a thick, sticky sauce.
  5. When the rice is cooked, drain it and spread out to form a bed on each of two plates. Place the roast veg on top, and then pour over the sauce. Top with pieces of chopped scallion and a sprinkling of sesame seeds (see photo).

Customise it!

Lots of scope here. My choice of veg reflects what’s in season in the shops at the moment, but you can swap in any other veg that roasts well, such as sweet potato, butternut squash or parsnip. For the sauce, keep the vinegar and honey, which give it a sweet and sour base, but wine vinegar will be fine. Soy sauce can replace the Worcester or fish sauce if that’s what you happen to have in the cupboard.

This week I’ve been to a party at my Bowling Club, where everyone nominated a track for a jukebox-style playlist. The tracks were then played on shuffle, while everyone ate and drank. It was a fun evening in good company, with some great choices of music. Here’s the track I nominated: The Clash with London Calling.

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Mains Recipes

Firestarter Rice with Chicken

Ever find yourself with a spice jar left over from a previous dish, that you’re unsure how to use up? This happened to me recently, with half a jar of shop-bought cajun seasoning lurking towards the rear of the spice rack in the ADK kitchen. I decided it was high time it was put to good use.

In this dish I’ve combined it with some leftover roast chicken, chicken stock, veg and brown rice to make a tasty bowl of sticky, fiery deliciousness. You can see from my photo above that I’ve garnished it with chopped red chilli and scallions, and a slice of fresh lemon.

Some like it hot, they say, and I purposely gave this dish a good dose of cajun kick. Mind you, I also had some sour cream on hand which, when stirred in, acted like a fire extinguisher in the mouth. If that degree of heat is not for you, however, just tone down the amount of cajun seasoning in the recipe, and omit the fresh chilli garnish.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

35 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp cajun seasoning
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 1 sweet potato, cut into 1cm cubes
  • 200g brown rice
  • 750ml chicken stock
  • some boiling water
  • leftover meat from the wings and legs of 1 roast chicken
  • 1 red chilli, chopped
  • 2 scallions, chopped
  • 1 slice of fresh lemon
  • sour cream to stir in (optional)

Method

  1. Combine the garlic, onion and cajun seasoning in the oil, in a wok over a medium heat.
  2. After a minute or so, stir in the red pepper and sweet potato.
  3. After another few minutes, turn down the heat and stir in the rice. Add in the stock and bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer.
  4. Flake in the leftover chicken and let the dish simmer for around 20 mins. Test a grain of rice to see if it is cooked. If it needs more time, top up with the boiling water, until the rice is cooked and the liquid is absorbed, leaving it with a sticky coating.
  5. Spoon into bowls and top with the chilli, scallion and lemon garnish. Serve with some sour cream to douse the flames, if required!

Customise it!

The jar of cajun seasoning I used is a convenient, ready made mix of chilli powder, cayenne pepper, allspice, black pepper, coriander, ginger, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and cardamom. However, if you wish to make your own mix from these core spices then that should be fine.

If you wish to speed it up a little then use white long grain or basmati rice instead of brown.

Here’s a legendary track that kind of sums up my first few mouthfuls of this dish, as I reached for the nice, cooling sour cream to stir in: The Prodigy with Firestarter.

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Mains Recipes

Asparagus Risotto

Yay – it’s the time of year when fresh asparagus appears in our shops. I came across the beautiful bundles of spears shown below in a shop on a vineyard this week, while visiting the New Forest.

They were grown just over the Solent on the Isle of Wight, so very few food miles have been travelled in getting them to my plate!

Asparagus has a unique and delicate taste, and is quick and easy to prepare and cook. Nutrition-wise, it has a lot to say for itself, packing high levels of Vitamins A and C, potassium, iron and calcium.

I decided to make it the main feature of this dish, supported by a mild tasting vegetable risotto. You can see the finished article in my main photo at the top of the post.

Servings

A meal for 2.

Timings

15 – 20 mins to prepare and cook.

You Will Need

  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 1 red pepper, chopped
  • 6 – 7 small chestnut mushrooms, chopped
  • 100g risotto rice
  • 500ml chicken or veg stock
  • 8 fresh asparagus spears
  • 2 – 3 scallions (spring onions) chopped
  • some blue cheese to crumble in

Method

  1. Heat some oil in a saucepan and fry the onion, pepper and mushrooms for a few minutes.
  2. Add the rice and turn the heat down while you stir it in. Then pour in the stock and bring to the boil.
  3. Wash the asparagus, and trim/discard about 1cm from the end of each spear. Place the spears in a steamer basket on top of the saucepan. Reduce the temperature to a simmer and let the risotto cook, and the asparagus steam, for about 10 mins.
  4. Remove the steamer basket and set to one side to stay warm.
  5. Turn up the heat under the saucepan if necessary to reduce the risotto to the right consistency – there should be minimal liquid left and the grains should be a little sticky with the coating.
  6. Stir in the chopped scallions and crumble in the pieces of blue cheese. Stir to combine so that the cheese is just melting in the residual heat.
  7. Spoon the risotto into two bowls and top each with 4 spears. Serve.

Customise it!

Feel free to add in any other fresh veg you have to hand – chopped celery, carrot, peas or green beans will all go well. I didn’t use garlic as I didn’t want to risk drowning out the delicate flavour of the asparagus. Avoid chilli or any strong spices, though some gentle fresh garden herbs torn in should be fine.

Spring is definitely in the air now, and daytime radio is starting to brim with those classic tracks I love to hear in the good weather, played driving along with the windows down, of course.

Lauren Laverne played this one on 6 Music this week, while I was out in the car, and it had my fingers tapping on the steering wheel. I especially like the dreamy guitar track, once famously sampled by Ice Cube. I still prefer the original however. Here it is to share: The Isley Brothers with Footsteps in the Dark, Parts 1 & 2.

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Recipes Sides

Spicy Rhubarb Relish

Over to my wife, Lesley, for a guest post on a tasty, spicy relish made from a batch of the lovely rhubarb that is in season this early in Spring…..

At the community farm I belong to, April, May and even into early June is called the Hungry Gap for good reason. All our winter crops have been harvested, our spring crops are seedlings, and there are precious few fresh fruits and vegetables.

Step up rhubarb. Field rhubarb is plentiful in April and May and I take my share of approx 500g home each week. As ever, a glut like this can be bottled and so I have invested in a book to help me, published by the Dorset-based River Cottage team, headed up by TV chef, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. 

This is one of the recipes, creating a Spicy Rhubarb Relish. It’s easy to do, making 4 jars worth of relish in one regular-sized saucepan. We have enjoyed a dollop on salads, over hot dog sausages and in sandwiches. It’s sweet and spicy, and next time I will experiment with a wider variety of spices in the muslin spice bag.

Servings

Makes 4 x 340g jars.

Timings

Takes about 40 mins to make.

You Will Need

  • 500g granulated sugar
  • 100ml water
  • 1kg rhubarb (untrimmed weight)
  • 100ml cider vinegar
  • 125g raisins

For the spice bag:

  • a piece of muslin about 20cm square
  • a piece of string about 30cm in length
  • 4cm chunk of root ginger bruised with rolling pin
  • 2 cinnamon sticks snapped up
  • 6 or so cloves

Method

  1. Place the spices in the centre of the muslin. Gather the muslin up to create a parcel with the spices inside, and tie it with the string.
  2. Dissolve the sugar in 100ml of water and bring to the boil, with the muslin bag submerged to infuse the spicy mix into the syrup.  
  3. Turn off the heat and leave for 20 mins or so. Take the bag out and discard.
  4. Trim and chunk the rhubarb, add into the syrup with the vinegar and raisins. Bring back to the boil and let the rhubarb soften. Most of the chunks will break down into a soft spoonable relish. 
  5. Pour into pre-sterilised jars. Leave to cool down and store in the fridge. 

The relish is very versatile. You can enjoy it in a number of ways – alongside cheese, ham or cold meats, or as a dollop spooned into a bowl with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, rice or grains, and other salad ingredients.

As a guest author on A Different Kitchen, I get to select the next track for the ADK Playlist. My choice is one of the many great songs we enjoyed hearing recently at the Northern Soul Orchestrated show in London. This is Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons with The Night.

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Blog Mains

Asian Fusion

Today I’m featuring some dishes from our visit to Light Years Asian Bar and Diner in Noosa, Queensland. We were a party of four, and we chose a variety of plates to share. I always enjoy doing this at a restaurant that has an interesting menu, as it means each member of the group can savour and experience so many more new tastes.

The menu at Light Years (and before anyone asks – no, it has nothing to do with Buzz of the same name 🙂 ) is what I would call Asian Fusion, bringing together the sights and tastes from culinary traditions in India, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, China and Japan in new and innovative ways.

We began with some steamed dumplings, brought to the table in a bamboo steamer basket and served with a type of hoisin dipping sauce. Here is one, up close. The filling is wild truffled mushrooms, with black vinegar, sesame and chilli.

Next up is Firecracker Chicken. The menu describes this as Mee Goreng spiced fried chicken, with hot firecracker sauce and Thai basil leaves. I don’t exactly know the make-up of that firecracker sauce, but it certainly brought some heat to the table (and our mouths).

This dish is Cumin Spiced Fried Cauliflower, with creamy coconut, dill and mint. The menu is somewhat coy about this dish, merely saying it comes with “strange flavour sauce” and “crunchy things”. Hmm, not giving away any culinary secrets there, guys!

My overall fave dish was Miso Caramel Eggplant, shown in my main photo at the top of the post. This consisted of chunks of roasted aubergine coated in a sticky sauce, topped with spliced snake beans, coriander and sesame.

As with other trips to restaurants on our travels around Australia, this has given me some more ideas to try out when I get home. I will definitely be having a go at the chunks of roasted aubergine in that sticky miso “caramel” sauce.

Time to hear from another great Aussie band. This is Deadstar with Deeper Water.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Leek & Aubergine Bake

It was the aubergines that caught my eye this week at the local farm shop. The shiny purple skin was irresistible, and it made me realise that I hadn’t cooked with one for some time. I put one in my basket, along with a fresh leek, and this winter casserole dish began to come together.

My favourite way to cook aubergine is in slices on the ridges of a griddle pan. I like seeing the enormously satisfying tiger stripes forming, as I flip them over to cook on the other side. It’s kind of a reminder that spring is soon around the corner, and the barbecuing season is not that far away.

The striped aubergine is then mixed in with cooked, softened leek, tomato passata and cannellini beans to make a tasty filling base. It is all topped off with a crust of wholemeal breadcrumbs, chopped toasted nuts and grated blue stilton cheese.

Servings

4 adult portions.

Timings

15mins to cook and combine, then 20 mins in the oven at 180C, and a final 5 mins under the grill.

You Will Need

  • 1 aubergine
  • oil
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 leek
  • 400g can of cannellini beans
  • 500g carton of tomato passata
  • a few twists of black pepper
  • 100g wholemeal breadcrumbs
  • 60g toasted mixed nuts
  • 60g grated stilton cheese

Method

  1. Switch on the oven to warm up to 180C.
  2. Oil a ridged griddle pan and bring it to a moderate heat. Lay slices of aubergine in the pan for 3 – 4 mins, then turn them over. Use your judgment about heat and timing so that you get the nice tiger stripe effect on both sides. Remove to a warm plate.
  3. While the aubergine is frying, crush the garlic clove into a saucepan with some oil, over a moderate heat. Add in the leek, chopped into slices. Stir every so often for 5 – 6 mins until the leek has softened. Pour in the passata and drained cannellini beans, with a few twists of black pepper, and stir. Reduce to a simmer.
  4. Blitz the bread and nuts in a food processor with blade fitted. Tip into a bowl and add the grated cheese. Stir so that the cheese is evenly distributed.
  5. When the oven is up to temperature, transfer the aubergine to a shallow casserole dish. Tip in the leek, bean and tomato mix and gently coat the aubergine slices by turning them over a few times in the dish.
  6. Sprinkle over the breadcrumb, nut and stilton topping and spread it out so that it reaches all four sides. Drizzle some oil over and place in the oven for 20 mins.
  7. For the last 5 mins of cooking, place under a grill so that the topping crisps up.

Customise It!

Lots of opportunity here. Throw in whatever fresh herbs you may have to hand, and mix in a handful of seeds to the topping. Butter beans are a good substitute for the cannellini beans. For a vegan version, omit the stilton cheese or use a suitable vegan cheese, grated.

On the way back from the farm shop, this track came on the car stereo. I love it when a great track that I haven’t heard in a while comes on the radio. Needless to say, I turned the volume up and drummed along with my fingers on the steering wheel. Now we can all enjoy it here! This is Swing Out Sister with Breakout.