As of 9th January this year I thought I'd give plant-based eating a go.
Whole food, limited salt, no added sugar, no added oil.
My cholesterol levels are high, which isn't great news; also, with diabetes and high blood pressure in the family, and having lost my Mum to a devastating stroke in 2014, it was time to start eating to get healthier.
So, I tried it for a week, to see how I felt at the end of it. That was over 9 weeks ago now, and I'm still going (plant)-strong. The biggest surprise was that various long-term aches and pains cleared up or improved significantly; I started sleeping a whole lot better and was able to reduce 2 of the long-term medications I was taking by 50% and 60% with no ill effects.
The Engine2 Seven-day Rescue Challenge group on Facebook has been a huge support and source of inspiration along the way. I've watched Forks Over Knives and a lot of the videos on nutritionfacts.org and going plant-based makes a lot of sense.
Today's challenge was to see if I could make a version of the warm Puy lentil and cranberry salad that I've been making for a while that was better compliant with E2 7DR guidelines.
I reduced the oil from 45 ml to 15 ml and the salt to 1/2 a level teaspoonful and it still tastes good. This time, I didn't put in the parsley (because I didn't have any) but the leaves from the celery went in instead.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
The Baked Beans Experiment
Yesterday I had baked beans on toast for lunch. I was struck by how overwhelmingly sweet they were. Reading the can label, I saw that there were 5.5g sugar in every 100g which is pretty dreadful - so a 210g portion contained about 12g sugar. Why would anyone add this amount of sugar to a savoury food?
Today, I thought I would have a go at making my own baked beans. With no added sugar.
340g dry beans, soaked overnight, then boiled until done (I used a mix of beans which contained chickpeas, haricot beans, flageolet beans and aduki beans)
160g chopped onion
200g diced carrot
130g diced celery
4 cloves garlic
1tbsp vegetable oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
500g passata
1 teasp ground cumin
1 teasp dried oregano
1 teasp salt
I softened the veg in the oil for about 10 mins, then added the chopped tomatoes, passata, salt, cumin and oregano and simmered, covered, for 30 mins.
Then I liquidised the sauce, poured it over the cooked beans and simmered for another 30 mins.
Verdict: a bit on the sloppy side - the sauce to bean ratio was rather too high - but it tasted good. I had a ladleful of the beans over a slice of toast in a soup bowl for lunch. I've since added a can of chickpeas to the remainder.
Today, I thought I would have a go at making my own baked beans. With no added sugar.
340g dry beans, soaked overnight, then boiled until done (I used a mix of beans which contained chickpeas, haricot beans, flageolet beans and aduki beans)
160g chopped onion
200g diced carrot
130g diced celery
4 cloves garlic
1tbsp vegetable oil
1 can chopped tomatoes
500g passata
1 teasp ground cumin
1 teasp dried oregano
1 teasp salt
I softened the veg in the oil for about 10 mins, then added the chopped tomatoes, passata, salt, cumin and oregano and simmered, covered, for 30 mins.
Then I liquidised the sauce, poured it over the cooked beans and simmered for another 30 mins.
Verdict: a bit on the sloppy side - the sauce to bean ratio was rather too high - but it tasted good. I had a ladleful of the beans over a slice of toast in a soup bowl for lunch. I've since added a can of chickpeas to the remainder.
Sunday, 26 May 2013
French Onion Soup
I'd been meaning to make this for a long time. On Saturday I stocked up with sufficient onions etc to construct some this Sunday for lunch, as well as having enough onions for the rest of the week. We do seem to get through a lot of onions in this household.
I did some research before starting to cook, which left me somewhat confused. To flour, or not to flour? Wine, or beer? How much sugar? And should it be white or brown? Delia Smith, or an untested recipe from the internet? And what had happened to the piece of French bread I had earmarked for the croutons? Turns out Younger Son had consumed that already, so it was good old English bread. But at least that meant that I felt less guilty about using cheddar rather than gruyere.
As usual, I ended up with a hybrid... but it tasted good.
800g onions, peeled and thinly sliced. This resulted in a lot of tears.
50g butter
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1/2 level teaspoon granulated sugar
One can of beer (I was too mean to use wine; Tesco Everyday Value Bitter was fine)
2 pints of beef stock (2 elderly Tesco beef stock cubes and one beef Oxo cube)
Salt and pepper
And, for the cheese croutons:
4 slices bread
160g grated cheddar
Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan, and cook the onions, garlic and sugar gently together for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Delia assured me that it would be browning nicely after 30 mins, and this browning would improve the colour and flavour of the soup. It wasn't even starting to look as if it was browning after 30 mins, so I turned up the heat for another 5 mins, stirring all the time. The onions reduced in volume somewhat, but stubbornly refused to brown.
I shrugged, poured the stock and beer in, brought it to the boil and simmered gently for a further hour and 15 minutes, then assembled the croutons, as follows:
Toast the bread; put it on a baking tray and cover with grated cheese. Try not to leave any bare bits. Pop the tray of cheesed-up bread under the grill for about 3 minutes until it is bubbling and starting to brown. While the cheese is grilling, put the soup into bowls. Float one "crouton" (or "cheese-on-toast", as we call it around these parts) in each bowl. (Yes, I know you're supposed to put the soup in bowls under the grill with floating croutons in it, but my soup bowls are wide and shallow with big rims and I don't think I could fit even 2 under at once.)
The family were somewhat bemused by the concept - "Cheese-on-toast? In onion soup?? but tucked in with gusto. I will definitely prepare this again, but next time I think I will slice the onions in a food processor as slicing them lovingly by hand was a rather tearful experience.
I did some research before starting to cook, which left me somewhat confused. To flour, or not to flour? Wine, or beer? How much sugar? And should it be white or brown? Delia Smith, or an untested recipe from the internet? And what had happened to the piece of French bread I had earmarked for the croutons? Turns out Younger Son had consumed that already, so it was good old English bread. But at least that meant that I felt less guilty about using cheddar rather than gruyere.
As usual, I ended up with a hybrid... but it tasted good.
800g onions, peeled and thinly sliced. This resulted in a lot of tears.
50g butter
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1/2 level teaspoon granulated sugar
One can of beer (I was too mean to use wine; Tesco Everyday Value Bitter was fine)
2 pints of beef stock (2 elderly Tesco beef stock cubes and one beef Oxo cube)
Salt and pepper
And, for the cheese croutons:
4 slices bread
160g grated cheddar
Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed pan, and cook the onions, garlic and sugar gently together for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Delia assured me that it would be browning nicely after 30 mins, and this browning would improve the colour and flavour of the soup. It wasn't even starting to look as if it was browning after 30 mins, so I turned up the heat for another 5 mins, stirring all the time. The onions reduced in volume somewhat, but stubbornly refused to brown.
I shrugged, poured the stock and beer in, brought it to the boil and simmered gently for a further hour and 15 minutes, then assembled the croutons, as follows:
Toast the bread; put it on a baking tray and cover with grated cheese. Try not to leave any bare bits. Pop the tray of cheesed-up bread under the grill for about 3 minutes until it is bubbling and starting to brown. While the cheese is grilling, put the soup into bowls. Float one "crouton" (or "cheese-on-toast", as we call it around these parts) in each bowl. (Yes, I know you're supposed to put the soup in bowls under the grill with floating croutons in it, but my soup bowls are wide and shallow with big rims and I don't think I could fit even 2 under at once.)
The family were somewhat bemused by the concept - "Cheese-on-toast? In onion soup?? but tucked in with gusto. I will definitely prepare this again, but next time I think I will slice the onions in a food processor as slicing them lovingly by hand was a rather tearful experience.
Sunday, 28 April 2013
Brown Betty
So, I had some leftover bread to use, and also some cooking apples were lurking shyly in the bottom of the fridge, and somewhere from the deep recesses of my memory came a recollection that making a Brown Betty might be a good way of combining the two. I'd never actually tried making one before, so spent a little while googling recipes before settling on my own take on it. But really - apples, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, breadcrumbs - what's not to like? Even if I did have rather worrying memories of Michael Crawford playing Frank Spencer, alternating with Ram Jam's Black Betty, playing on my internal jukebox as I made it.
I took:
225g sliced wholemeal bread (all the recipes I saw said white bread, but I had only wholemeal) and made it into crumbs in my food processor.
90g butter
100g brown sugar
1.5 level teaspoons ground cinnamon (it was supposed to be 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 0.5 teaspoons mixed spice, but my hand slipped when adding the cinnamon...)
and mixed these all together over a gentle heat.
(next time I do this I will melt the butter in the saucepan first, stir in the sugar and cinnamon and then the breadcrumbs; it will be a lot easier to mix)
Next, the apples:
4 smallish Bramley apples - about 650g before peeling - I peeled, cored and sliced them thinly, and put half of them in an even layer at the bottom of a Pyrex casserole dish.
1 dessertspoon of sugar sprinkled over these (son #2 grumbles if things are not sweet enough)
Then, I sprinkled on about 40% of the breadcrumb mixture.
Next, the rest of the sliced apples, then another dessertspoon of sugar, then the rest of the breadcrumb mix.
I finished off by sprinkling 2 heaped teaspoons of white granulated sugar over the top of it, which contrasted nicely with the brown breadcrumb mix.
Baked at 170 degC for about 45 minutes - until the apples were soft and the breadcrumbs had crisped up on the top. (If you use white breadcrumbs, they go brown, apparently. If you use brown breadcrumbs, they just stay brown and perhaps go a bit browner. Hard to tell.)
Absolutely delicious, with or without custard, hot or cold. The whole family approved of it, and I have been granted permission to make it again.
I took:
225g sliced wholemeal bread (all the recipes I saw said white bread, but I had only wholemeal) and made it into crumbs in my food processor.
90g butter
100g brown sugar
1.5 level teaspoons ground cinnamon (it was supposed to be 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 0.5 teaspoons mixed spice, but my hand slipped when adding the cinnamon...)
and mixed these all together over a gentle heat.
(next time I do this I will melt the butter in the saucepan first, stir in the sugar and cinnamon and then the breadcrumbs; it will be a lot easier to mix)
Next, the apples:
4 smallish Bramley apples - about 650g before peeling - I peeled, cored and sliced them thinly, and put half of them in an even layer at the bottom of a Pyrex casserole dish.
1 dessertspoon of sugar sprinkled over these (son #2 grumbles if things are not sweet enough)
Then, I sprinkled on about 40% of the breadcrumb mixture.
Next, the rest of the sliced apples, then another dessertspoon of sugar, then the rest of the breadcrumb mix.
I finished off by sprinkling 2 heaped teaspoons of white granulated sugar over the top of it, which contrasted nicely with the brown breadcrumb mix.
Baked at 170 degC for about 45 minutes - until the apples were soft and the breadcrumbs had crisped up on the top. (If you use white breadcrumbs, they go brown, apparently. If you use brown breadcrumbs, they just stay brown and perhaps go a bit browner. Hard to tell.)
Absolutely delicious, with or without custard, hot or cold. The whole family approved of it, and I have been granted permission to make it again.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
A productive afternoon...
It rained non-stop this afternoon, so I spent most of it in the kitchen. As well as cooking dinner (roast chicken, homemade stuffing, veg and gravy) and producing enough bolognese sauce for 4 meals, I decided to rustle up a batch of my Grandma's ginger biscuits, which brought back some great childhood memories.
Lunch at Grandma's was always good - and my brother and I always looked forward to the ceremonial after-lunch opening of the biscuit barrel, which typically contained two sorts of homemade biscuits: ginger biscuits and Canadian cookies. My brother, my grandfather and I were allowed one of each, each. Both were absolutely delicious; next time I bake I shall make the Canadian cookies.
170g golden syrup,
85g granulated sugar
110g butter (Grandma used to use margarine, but I thought I would try butter)
and set over a gentle heat to melt.
Weigh out 250g plain flour, and add 2-3 level tsp ground ginger, 1/4 level tsp salt, and 1 level tsp baking powder. Mix together well.
In a ramekin (or similar small bowl) mix together 1 tbsp milk and 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Once the contents of the pan have melted together, stir, then tip in the flour/ginger mixture and pour in the milk and bicarb mixture. Combine well with a wooden spoon.
Now you have two options - you can either chill the mixture, form it into a sausage shape, wrap it in cling film and keep it in the fridge, cutting slices off whenever you fancy baking some biscuits, or you can bake it straight away, which is what I did.
Line the base of a couple of baking trays with baking parchment (this makes it so much easier to detach the biscuits from the trays when they come out of the oven) and put 6 blobs of biscuit mixture, each the size of a large-ish marble (about a 2 to 2.5cm sphere), on each. You can either get bits of the biscuit mix out of the pan with your fingers, or else use two teaspoons to put the blobs on the tray.
Squish the blobs down so that they are about 5mm thick and roughly circular, then put in the oven (190degC). They will spread out a bit more, and puff up a bit, and go brown. When they are a lovely golden brown all over, take them out, let them sit on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up a bit, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. (Makes about 40).
Fend off hordes of ravening boys who are lured into the kitchen by the wonderful biscuit smell, then hide the biscuits (once cool) in a tin. They keep for at least a week, I am told, but I can't see them lasting that long.
Lunch at Grandma's was always good - and my brother and I always looked forward to the ceremonial after-lunch opening of the biscuit barrel, which typically contained two sorts of homemade biscuits: ginger biscuits and Canadian cookies. My brother, my grandfather and I were allowed one of each, each. Both were absolutely delicious; next time I bake I shall make the Canadian cookies.
Grandma's Ginger Biscuits
Take a saucepan, and put in it:170g golden syrup,
85g granulated sugar
110g butter (Grandma used to use margarine, but I thought I would try butter)
and set over a gentle heat to melt.
Weigh out 250g plain flour, and add 2-3 level tsp ground ginger, 1/4 level tsp salt, and 1 level tsp baking powder. Mix together well.
In a ramekin (or similar small bowl) mix together 1 tbsp milk and 1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda.
Once the contents of the pan have melted together, stir, then tip in the flour/ginger mixture and pour in the milk and bicarb mixture. Combine well with a wooden spoon.
Now you have two options - you can either chill the mixture, form it into a sausage shape, wrap it in cling film and keep it in the fridge, cutting slices off whenever you fancy baking some biscuits, or you can bake it straight away, which is what I did.
Line the base of a couple of baking trays with baking parchment (this makes it so much easier to detach the biscuits from the trays when they come out of the oven) and put 6 blobs of biscuit mixture, each the size of a large-ish marble (about a 2 to 2.5cm sphere), on each. You can either get bits of the biscuit mix out of the pan with your fingers, or else use two teaspoons to put the blobs on the tray.
Squish the blobs down so that they are about 5mm thick and roughly circular, then put in the oven (190degC). They will spread out a bit more, and puff up a bit, and go brown. When they are a lovely golden brown all over, take them out, let them sit on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up a bit, then carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. (Makes about 40).
Fend off hordes of ravening boys who are lured into the kitchen by the wonderful biscuit smell, then hide the biscuits (once cool) in a tin. They keep for at least a week, I am told, but I can't see them lasting that long.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
Back in one piece and getting ready for Christmas
After an operation this summer, which meant that the family had to take over cooking duties for a while as I was unable to, I have sadly been unable to update my blog at all since I returned to the kitchen a couple of months ago. I have been unable to sit down for prolonged periods with any degree of comfort and so recreational computing has been out, as I have had to devote my energies to necessary computing for work.
However, I have now reached the point where I can sit down for a while and type without wincing, so normal service should be resumed shortly. Hurrah!
I've made a Christmas cake which is sitting in a tin maturing at the moment. I have the family for Christmas - my husband and sons will be spending it with me this year rather than going and sliding down mountains as they have for the last two years (it's amazing what a threat to change the locks while they are away if they go away for Christmas for the third year in a row will achieve), and my parents are joining us, so there will be six of us. So what will we be eating?
Turkey, of course, along with chestnut, apple and sausagemeat stuffing, plus my great-grandmother's recipe for sage and onion stuffing, which is a thing of absolute joy. Sprouts by the bucketful, buttered carrots with basil, and mashed potato. (The mashed potato and sprouts will be cooked in enormous quantities so as to provide plenty of leftovers for the traditional Boxing Day bubble and squeak.) And, of course, Christmas pudding and white nutmeggy custard, with a generous splosh of rum poured over the pud before applying the custard. Although, having had Christmas pudding served with advocaat last year, rather than rum and custard, I am torn...
And, of course, mince pies will be prepared... quite possibly some scones too (pronounced to rhyme with "bones" and "cones" rather than "Johns") to serve with raspberry jam and clotted cream for Christmas Day tea... if I get myself organised, too, I can make some Christmas biscuits to my old schoolfriend Sabine's recipe, which are rather delicious. I can feel a plan coming on.
However, I have now reached the point where I can sit down for a while and type without wincing, so normal service should be resumed shortly. Hurrah!
I've made a Christmas cake which is sitting in a tin maturing at the moment. I have the family for Christmas - my husband and sons will be spending it with me this year rather than going and sliding down mountains as they have for the last two years (it's amazing what a threat to change the locks while they are away if they go away for Christmas for the third year in a row will achieve), and my parents are joining us, so there will be six of us. So what will we be eating?
Turkey, of course, along with chestnut, apple and sausagemeat stuffing, plus my great-grandmother's recipe for sage and onion stuffing, which is a thing of absolute joy. Sprouts by the bucketful, buttered carrots with basil, and mashed potato. (The mashed potato and sprouts will be cooked in enormous quantities so as to provide plenty of leftovers for the traditional Boxing Day bubble and squeak.) And, of course, Christmas pudding and white nutmeggy custard, with a generous splosh of rum poured over the pud before applying the custard. Although, having had Christmas pudding served with advocaat last year, rather than rum and custard, I am torn...
And, of course, mince pies will be prepared... quite possibly some scones too (pronounced to rhyme with "bones" and "cones" rather than "Johns") to serve with raspberry jam and clotted cream for Christmas Day tea... if I get myself organised, too, I can make some Christmas biscuits to my old schoolfriend Sabine's recipe, which are rather delicious. I can feel a plan coming on.
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Roast socks - delicious...
So, the older son has been in Paris this week, and he returned home clutching a whole Reblochon cheese, which the wrapper says is the cheese for Tartiflette.
This is something I've heard of but have never tried, so I did a bit of research on the interwebs and every recipe I found for it was different. There were the common threads of Reblochon, potatoes, onion and bacon, but otherwise just about every aspect of the recipe varied profoundly.
Garlic, or not garlic? (Duh - it's French, so it really ought to.)
Mushrooms?
Cream, or not? And if yes - single, double or creme fraiche? And how much? 6tbsp up to 300ml...
Boil old potatoes and then peel and slice them, or boil new potatoes in their skins and then slice them, or slice them and boil them? And do you fry the potatoes before putting them in the dish? Or not?
Butter the cooking dish, or not?
Lardons or regular bacon? Smoked or not?
White wine? If yes - do you pour a glass over the whole thing before it goes in the oven, or deglaze the pan with it? Or just drink it?
In the end I stopped reading the recipes, as it was all getting too confusing, added new potatoes and cream to the shopping list (I had bacon and onions in stock already) and then older son and I set to this evening to assemble it. We found some rather lovely Apache potatoes (left) in Tesco today so they were an obvious choice, and decided to make it in a large oval Pyrex dish (below).
This is what we did.
Take 1.2kg Apache potatoes, wash them, then slice (5mm slices) into a pan of cold water. Add salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 7 mins (according to one recipe, the potatoes should be "tender when pocked with a knife"). We gave them a quick pocking and determined that they were sufficiently done, so drained them and kept them warm.
While the potatoes are cooking, chop a pack of sliced smoked bacon into 1cm slices and fry gently in 15g butter and 15ml olive oil. (I used a 6-rasher pack of back bacon as I had one lurking in the fridge.) Put the oven on - 200degC.
Peel and slice 2 med/large onions and add to the frying pan. Peel and chop 3 cloves of garlic and add those to the pan as well. Cook gently until the onion and garlic are soft but not coloured. Add a bit of pepper and salt.
Put 15g butter into the dish and microwave it until it melts, then cover the inside of the dish with butter using a pastry brush.
Put half of the potatoes in the bottom of the dish in an even layer, then half of the onion and bacon mixture, then 75ml cream (we used a mixture of single and double). Repeat the layers, then unwrap the Reblochon cheese, and, cursing freely, attempt to cut it into two rounds. Give up on that idea, and cut it in half first into two semicircles, then attempt to cut each half into two thinner semicircles. (It's evil stuff, Reblochon - as the knife passes through it it has a magical self-healing property, so it sticks itself back together again. Son and I both tried with a semicircle, with varying degrees of success.)
Use the somewhat ragged semicircles, rind-side up, to thatch the top of the Tartiflette, then pour a glass of wine over the top (using a pastry brush to make sure the cheese rind is thoroughly wine-y).
Put in the oven, and listen to the howls of horror from younger son as the house fills with the delicious aroma of roasting socks. Once the top starts going crisp and brown, and it's bubbling vigorously, it's done.
Serve with a green salad.
This is something I've heard of but have never tried, so I did a bit of research on the interwebs and every recipe I found for it was different. There were the common threads of Reblochon, potatoes, onion and bacon, but otherwise just about every aspect of the recipe varied profoundly.
Garlic, or not garlic? (Duh - it's French, so it really ought to.)
Mushrooms?
Cream, or not? And if yes - single, double or creme fraiche? And how much? 6tbsp up to 300ml...
Boil old potatoes and then peel and slice them, or boil new potatoes in their skins and then slice them, or slice them and boil them? And do you fry the potatoes before putting them in the dish? Or not?
Butter the cooking dish, or not?
Lardons or regular bacon? Smoked or not?
White wine? If yes - do you pour a glass over the whole thing before it goes in the oven, or deglaze the pan with it? Or just drink it?
 |
| Apache potatoes |
 |
| Oval Pyrex dish |
This is what we did.
Take 1.2kg Apache potatoes, wash them, then slice (5mm slices) into a pan of cold water. Add salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 7 mins (according to one recipe, the potatoes should be "tender when pocked with a knife"). We gave them a quick pocking and determined that they were sufficiently done, so drained them and kept them warm.
While the potatoes are cooking, chop a pack of sliced smoked bacon into 1cm slices and fry gently in 15g butter and 15ml olive oil. (I used a 6-rasher pack of back bacon as I had one lurking in the fridge.) Put the oven on - 200degC.
Peel and slice 2 med/large onions and add to the frying pan. Peel and chop 3 cloves of garlic and add those to the pan as well. Cook gently until the onion and garlic are soft but not coloured. Add a bit of pepper and salt.
Put 15g butter into the dish and microwave it until it melts, then cover the inside of the dish with butter using a pastry brush.
Put half of the potatoes in the bottom of the dish in an even layer, then half of the onion and bacon mixture, then 75ml cream (we used a mixture of single and double). Repeat the layers, then unwrap the Reblochon cheese, and, cursing freely, attempt to cut it into two rounds. Give up on that idea, and cut it in half first into two semicircles, then attempt to cut each half into two thinner semicircles. (It's evil stuff, Reblochon - as the knife passes through it it has a magical self-healing property, so it sticks itself back together again. Son and I both tried with a semicircle, with varying degrees of success.)
Use the somewhat ragged semicircles, rind-side up, to thatch the top of the Tartiflette, then pour a glass of wine over the top (using a pastry brush to make sure the cheese rind is thoroughly wine-y).
Put in the oven, and listen to the howls of horror from younger son as the house fills with the delicious aroma of roasting socks. Once the top starts going crisp and brown, and it's bubbling vigorously, it's done.
Serve with a green salad.
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