Back to Blogging – Courgetti

  It’s been soooooo long since I shared a post – I now have some good recipes saved up to share.

I thought I would start with something seasonal, healthy, light and tasty – Courgetti!

Elix bought us a spiralizer and it fast became our favourite toy! The below recipe is our favourite but Courgetti can also be paired with any pasta sauce or maybe the Tuna Meatballs that I have mentioned before.

Ingredients (for 2 servings)
2 large Courgettes
200g Cherry Tomatoes
1 clove Garlic crushed
6 Anchovy fillets – chopped
Chilli – either fresh or dried your choice!
Handful of Basil torn
Salt & Pepper
Olive Oil
Pinenuts – a handful toasted
Parmesan – grated

Start by spiralizing the courgettes into spaghetti shape and leave in a large bowl with. sprinkle of salt.
Fry the tomatoes whole in a pan with no oil, as they start to char slightly add the anchovies, garlic and chilli with a drizzle of olive oil. As the tomatoes start to soften mash them adding a few drops of water to help a sauce form.
Once a tasty, rich sauce has formed, add in the courgetti and heat through.
Serve with the basil, parmesan and pinenuts scattered on top for extra sweetness and texture.

My New Favourite Salad for Dinner

The title of this blog says it all – i have a new favourite salad that i have been cooking for myself at least once a week for a while now – its fresh, tasty, warming and packed with goodness.
Im going through a bit of a “phase” or “fad” presently trying to be more aware of what im eating and the nutritional benefits of ingredients that i use to improve my health and happiness. This salad ticks and few of those boxes so i thought id share.
The recipe was originally in Stylist magazine but iv made a few tasty tweaks.

(Serves 1)
Ingredients
Chicken Breast x1
Sweet Potato x1 peeled and cubed
Spinach leaves
Chilli flakes
Rosemary leaves chopped
1 clove garlic grated
Apple x1
Half a Fennel
Half an Avocado

Dressing
Olive Oil
Cider Vinegar
English Mustard

Start by pre-heating the oven to 200 degs, part boil the cubed sweet potato then pop into a roasting dish with a sprinkle of chilli flakes and a drizzle of olive oil.
I butterfly my chicken breast and marinate with olive oil, garlic and rosemary and leave to one side.
Assembly of the salad is very simple – spinach on the base with chopped avocado and thinly sliced fennel. Thinly slice the apple and marinate in the dressing ingredients – i tend to use half a teaspoon of mustard and equal quantities of the oil and vinegar but feel free to adapt depending on how much of a kick you like or how sharp you like the taste to be.
Cook the chicken on a griddle and slice into strips.
To serve, add the sweet potato onto the salad, apple on top of that and chicken on last and drizzle with any leftover dressing from the apples.

Now for the nutrition part….
Cider vinegar is good in dressings as not only is it tasty but acts as an antioxidant, has been known to kill bacteria, is low in calorie. Some studies have shown it can also help heart health and lower blood sugar.

Spinach – as popeye used to say this i good for big muscles and bones but it also is high in antioxidents and vitamin c which help against inflammation protecting against heart disease and the build up of unhealthy cholestrol.

Sweet Potatoes – superfood providing huge amounts of vitamin c benefiting skin health and the immune system aswell as balancing blood sugar levels. When researching about sweet potatoes I found out that the orange ones are good for combating heart rate and stress through high potassium levels, the purple ones support and protect the gut and the purple skin and yellow flesh potatoes are highest in antioxidents

Well  thats enough education for one day – my next blog is about all the tasty food I ate when on holiday in New York – in the run up to Christmas one cant be too healthy 😉

 

 

Bikini Diet has started – Tuna and Anchovy Greens for Dinner

My Summer holiday is in 23 days!!!
Now begins my healthy-kick, daily yoga sessions and thrice-weekly runs.
To kick off today’s dinner was from this month’s Good Food magazine. Seared tuna steak for a low-fat protein with purple sprouting broccoli and green beans dressed with an anchovy and caper dressing for taste.
I am also pleased to say the dish was gluten free (which seems to be trending at the moment!) and went down a treat with Elix, who announced afterwards she wanted to eat it again!
The dish was very quick and easy to cook and I will definitely be using the salad and dressing idea to accompany chicken, steak, salmon and fishcakes.

Serves 2
Ingredients
2 tbsp chopped chives
12 basil leaves
2 tbsp chopped mint
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp small capers
6 anchovies chopped
300g runner beans (i mixed this up half beans and half broccoli – i think broad beans, mange tout, sugar snaps would also work very well)
2 tuna steaks
small handful flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp toasted flaked almonds

Put the herbs, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and mustard into a food processor and blitz to a puree. Brush 2 tbsp of the dressing onto the tuna steaks and add the capers and anchovies to the remaining. Mix together to make the vegetable dressing.
Cook the beans (or whatever greens you decide to have) in boiling water for 5 minutes, these should still have a bit of crunch to them to provide a contrasting texture for the tuna and hold up against the punchy dressing.
Ensure the tuna is fully coated with the dressing and place on a hot griddle pan for 2-3 minutes each side or until cooked to your desire (Elix likes her tuna well done).
To plate up – pour the dressing over the greens ensuring each and every vegetable has a tasty dash of the fresh sauce. Top with the chargrilled tuna, scattering almonds on top.
Enjoy!

Simple Sunday Supper

All of my recent food magazines have highlighted that broad beans are in season at the moment. Tasty, healthy and they go with anything, I was keen to eat seasonally and cook a dish for my Sunday supper which included them. Broad beans are rich in fibre and vitamins B and C boosting the nervous system, skin health and the body’s ability to absorb iron. Oddly for me, the recipe which jumped out at me yesterday whilst enjoying a cup of tea and reading this month’s delicious magazine was Warm Fennel & Beans with Griddled Chicken and Tarragon Butter Dressing. This is an odd recipe choice for me……you all are aware that I dont really like chicken, and I must admit, tarragon is not my favourite herb. I often find the aniseed taste too overpowering and would always chose a softer, basil, marjoram or thyme as a herb to go with chicken. Needless to say, as my gluten-free health kick continues I decided to give this a try and I am so pleased that I did – chicken and broad beans are both high-value protein foods and very nutritious. Any salad with fennel makes me happy and the accompanying broad beans and green beans kept it fresh and crunchy, the tarragon dressing on the chicken – a classic french pairing, provided a sharp, buttery sauce for the dish, bringing together the charred, moist chicken and the salad nicely.

Serves 4
Ingredients
Olive Oil – i used rapeseed oil as this has less saturated fat than olive oil and is rich in omegas 3, 6 and 9 aswell as being rich in vitamin E (a good antioxidant)
4 Chicken Breasts
150g Green Beans
400g Shelled Broad Beans
70g Butter (to keep my dressing lighter i only used 35g)
Juice of 1 lemon
A bunch of fresh tarragon – finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 fennel bulb – very finely sliced

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
Rub the chicken breasts with some oil and season to taste. Pop on the griddle for 3-4 minutes until charred, turn and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from the pan, place in a roasting tray and put into the oven for 10-12 minutes.
Meanwhile boil the green beans and broad beans for 3-4 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.
Melt the butter in a pan, once melted, take off the heat and scatter in the tarragon, garlic, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. Mix well and leave to one side.
Toss the beans and fennel together and pour over half of the tarragon dressing.
Remove the chicken from the oven, this should be gently charred but still very moist.
Plate alongside the salad which should be bright, crunchy and glossy with the butter dressing and drizzle over the remaining tarragon dressing adding an extra sauciness to the chicken.

 

 

The Gluten Free and Aubergine Phase Continues

As i have mentioned I am currently going through an aubergine phase and for the past few weeks these dark, glossy, spongy bundles of joy have been a consistent member of my shopping trolley. I decided to try my hand at gluten free pasta and combine the two in a pasta alla norma (a well known SICILIAN? tomato, aubergine and ricotta pasta dish).
Whilst some people have reservations about gluten free pasta (i mean Elix!) after trying it a couple of times at a wonderful restaurant in Holborn called Amico Bio I am now a convert (i will blog about Amico Bio another time).
This recipe is delicious and light mixing sweet tomato and basil sauce with earthy aubergine, creamy ricotta and i like to add a sprinkle of dried chilli for some heat.

Serves 2.

1 Aubergine
1 tin plum tomatoes (tinned cherry tomatoes work very well for added sweetness)
1 clove garlic
Sprinkle dried chilli flakes
Sprinkle dried oregano
Drizzle white wine vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Handful of Basil leaves, stalks chopped
Ricotta
Spaghetti

Start by chopping the aubergine into slices and then quartering these for a perfect “mouthful”. Fry them in olive oil (in batches if necessary) sprinkling with the oregano as they begin to soften and brown.
Once all softened, add all the aubergine into the pan along with the chilli flakes and tinned tomatoes. Let this bubble for a second and add in the sliced garlic clove, a drizzle of white wine vinegar and basil stalks. Stir and leave to gently simmer for 10-15 minutes, seasoning if you please.
Meanwhile boil the pasta for 10 minutes. My first experience taught me that the gluten free pasta needs slightly longer than normal pasta and had a tendency to stick together a bit more so i ensured i stirred to separate in a larger saucepan to give the pasta room to cook properly.
When the sauce has reduced and the aubergine has taken on the sweet tomato sauce, mix together with drained pasta using excess cooking water to loosen if needed.
Stir through the basil leaves and a few chunks of ricotta. Once plated scatter over some more ricotta and if you love cheese as much as Elix does some extra parmesan grated on top!

Greedy Piglet goes Gluten Free

For the past few weeks I have been trying as best as I can to live a gluten free life! I bought a book by Jolene Hart called Eat Pretty – Nutrition for Beauty, Inside and Out and one lesson I learnt early in the book was how important nutrition is as a tool to ensure we can be our most radiant selves. Monitoring what we eat and drink really helps with energy levels, weight, clear skin, strong hair and nails and the feeling of well-being. I have been interested in nutrition and its benefits for a long time, much to the disgust of many of my friends who think much of it is silly, but I thought I would finally get round to trying it properly for myself to see what happened.

So – we all know that gluten, which is found in wheat, rye and barley and hence bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits etc can often cause bloatedness, grogginess, headaches and dry skin and I have to say, since really  cutting down on gluten wherever possible I have seen significant improvement in my general health, weight, energy and skin. I am lucky in that I can still pick and choose if i fancy something glutenous – pizza pilgrims, honest burger (although they do provide gluten free buns) and krispy kreme doughnuts and I have some friends who have coeliacs disease and unfortunately dont have the same choice so hopefully some of the gluten free recipes I will start to include in my blog will help!

After announcing my new gluten free way, Elix promptly bought me a gluten free baking book by Hannah Miles because she didnt want to go without cakes and treats! The first recipe I tried was a HUGE success – well, me and Elix loved it – flapjack pecan brownies. These sweet snacks are essentially flapjacks, topped with brownies so can be eaten as a mid-morning treat with tea, or a dessert after dinner.

Flapjack Base

125g Butter plus extra for greasing

100g caster sugar

100g desiccated coconut

100g pecans – chopped

Brownie Topping

125g Butter

200g Dark Chocolate

125g Caster Sugar

125g Soft Brown Sugar

3 eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

100g gluten free flour

 

Preheat oven to 190 degrees

 

Start with making the flapjack base – melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the sugar, pecans and coconut until everything is coated with the melted butter. Spoon the mixture into a 33cm x 23cm lined and greased square brownie tin and press down firmly and evenly.
Now for the brownie topping, melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water – once melted, set aside to cool slightly. Meanwhile whisk the sugars, eggs and vanilla together until light and doubled in volume. Now, slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture. Once combined, fold in the flour. I have used gluten free plain flour which worked fine but the recipe suggest using hazelnut flour (not something easily found in Sainsbury’s Tooting!). Pour the combined mixture into the tin on top of the flapjack and pop in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
When you take it from the oven it should have a light crust on top and a knife inserted into the middle will come out clean.
I think you will agree it looks delicious and Elix and I can verify it tastes the same!

Watch this space for more gluten free ideas!