Mango & red grapes nectar

 

Ingredients for 1L drink:

 

·         2 mangoes - about 600g
·         300g seedless red grapes
·         1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
·         Vanilla - from a pod, about a pinch (optional)

Method:

Wash the grapes and liquidised with 200ml water. Pass through sieve to separate the juice from the unwanted excess. This juice will help to break up the heaviness of the mango nectar later.

 

Now peel the mango and remove the flesh from the stone. Put the mango pieces in the blender with sugar and a tiny amount of vanilla. 

Mango is a very dense fruit that won’t liquidise well unless helped with a lighter liquid. This is where the red grapes juice helps.

So, add the grapes juice to the mango and liquidise until very smooth. Taste and adjust sugar. When it is ready, place in the fridge for an hour at least before serving as suggested with a fruits skewer.

Nectars are very dense juices, but if they are too dense to your liking, juice add water to break it up.

Enjoy.

Cherry tomatoes

I was walking minding my own business then I ended up at the fruit and veg’s market…

Saw a beautiful bowl of mixed coloured cherry tomatoes… I couldn’t resist though I had yet no idea about what I was going to do with them.

Since I had already planned my week’s food, the tomatoes could be spoilt by the time I got round to doing something with them so, I just seasoned and roasted them to make a conserve.

The roasted tomatoes will later be used as accompaniment for some stir fry dishes, salads or sandwiches.

Ingredients:

·         1kg tomatoes

·         100g white onion quartered

·         50g garlic cut

·         1 teaspoon black pepper

·         1 tea spoon oregano

·         1 scallion

·         3 Maggi cubes crushed

·         100ml olive oil

 Mix all in the oven tray and place in the oven at 200C for 1hour 30 minutes…

Don’t forget to check from time to time to avoid it burning. No need to add water as the tomatoes will produce the necessary liquid during the roasting.

Bon appetit!

Once it is done, leave to cool down, then, spoon into a jar and use as needed. This will keep in the fridge for 3 weeks. Enjoy!

Roasted and ready for the jar

Griddled tofu and Samphire stir fry

Quick Lunch for 2

 

The ingredients

Ingredients:

·         200g pressed tofu

·         ½ yellow, red, & green sweet peppers

·         1 small onion

·         half a red  scotch bonnet (chilli)

·         2 garlic cloves

·         4 sundried tomatoes slices in oil

·         Salt & black pepper

·         90g samphire

·         100g aubergine

·         4 tablespoons of oil from the sundried tomato jar

·         1 Maggi cube crushed

The marinade

Prep:

The marinade for the tofu: 3 tablespoons of flavoured oil, 1 tablespoon water, pressed garlic, very finely cut sundried tomatoes (slightly mashed), very finely cut scotch bonnet. Mix well, add the crushed stock cube, salt & black pepper. Set aside.

Cut the tofu in 2 to reduce the thickness, then cut again from corner to corner. You should obtain 8 pieces. Dip the pieces in the marinade and set aside for about 10 minutes.

Cut the aubergine in the same size (1cm thick) as the tofu, quarter the half peppers and onion, lie them on a plate and throw on it the rest of marinade. Leave to the side.

Now remove the samphire from the package and rinse.

Method:

You will need a griddle pan and a frying pan.

Heat the griddle pan and line up the slices of tofu and aubergine on it. Fry each side until brown and cooked through for 1 minute and half. The aubergine might need 30s more on each side than the tofu.

All lined up in the griddle pan

In a very hot frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the flavoured oil. Throw in the multi-coloured peppers, and onions with salt and pepper. Stir fry for 3 minutes. By this time the contents of the pan should be slightly soft and brown, but crunchy. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Now add the samphire and continuously stir from side to side and top to bottom to bring the heat to the surface.

The samphire softens very quickly. So, 1 minute or one minute and half should suffice while the peppers and onions should remain crunchy.

the rest in the frying pan



 Plate up and serve as suggested.

This is a very light lunch with a little kick to it. With the peppers still crunchy, their sweetness still comes through. Nothing else is needed but, if you must, potato wedges will do.

Bon appetit!

 

Tuck in! Griddled tofu and Samphire stir fry

 

Beetroots & coriander soup

Serves 3

 Ingredients:

·         4 small precooked beetroots

·         1 big red sweet pepper

·         A big hand full of fresh coriander

·         1 small red onion

·         1 tea spoon wholegrain mustard

·         Salt

·         Mustard oil

Method:

Peel the outer layer of the beetroots, rinse and roughly chop. Do the same for the onion, cut the sweet pepper and the coriander. Rinse all and place in a deep pan with 1L water or stock. I did mine just with water and salt to keep it simple.

Add 2 tablespoons of mustard oil and 1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard. Cover and place on the hob to simmer for 20 minutes. This will allow the vegetables to soften. If your pot is too small and spitting out. Leave it ajar…

To gauge that the soup is ready, taste the hardest to cook vegetable in the pot. Here it would have been the beet if they were not precooked. So, I tasted the onion quarters and sweet pepper.

Adjust the seasoning, take the pot away from the hob and using a hand blender. Liquidise the soup to your liking. Serve

I like my soup with bits in it and others prefer theirs smooth.

Serve with croutons or… potato wedges on a skewer.

Enjoy. x

 

Fried Tofu salad

Fried Tofu salad

Serves 2 as mains or 4 as a starter 

• 70g wild rocket - washed
• 150g beansprouts – blanched & drained
• 200g tofu - fried in caramelised sugar
• 2 fresh tomatoes - Cut and de-seeded
• 1 Teaspoon of Sesame seeds

For the vinaigrette

• 3 tablespoons mustard oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 generous pinch of ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon of caster sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• ½ small red chilli - very finely chopped
• Garlic granules

Prep:

The tofu is sold as a block that will need to be cut and fried. Use the DragonFly pressed tofu as they are much tastier and absorb flavours.

Just cut as in the picture. Dust with salt and ground ginger. In a hot pan, add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil with 1 teaspoon of sugar. Leave the sugar to brown slightly. Then add the tofu stick and swirl to allow the sugar to coat the sticks. Allow 1 minute for each side to crisp before turning them from side to side.

Once that is done, set aside and prepare the other components of the salad.

The vinaigrette. In a small jar with a lid, add: mustard oil, soy sauce, ground ginger, caster sugar, salt, garlic granules, and chilli. Shake well to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Now into a large bowl, add: rocket, sprouts, tomatoes and toss. Add the tofu sticks, sesames seeds drizzle the vinaigrette, serve as suggested & enjoy!

 

No comment!

 

Homemade strawberry jam

 

For a jar of 400 - 500g jam, use:

• 350g fresh strawberries
• 350g sugar
• 350ml water
• 35g fresh ginger

Method:

Peel, chop and blend the ginger in 50ml of water. Sieve thru a tissue paper to remove all the remains of the roots and collate just the pure essence.

Do not throw away that waste as it could be dried and used for tea or even as seasoning.

Now remove the green bit of the individual strawberries, cut them in half and rinse.

 

From this...

In a deep sauce pan, place the strawberries, sugar, water and ginger essence. Stew at medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Don’t forget to stir from time to time until the mix starts to become slightly sticky on the spatula.
 

To this... this was my test

I like my jam with bits in it. If is not the case for you, try to mash to strawberries as you stir them.

To make sure that your jam is ready, just make some drops on a clean plate and if the jam drops (like water drops) stand, that means your jam is ready and that a lot of the water has evaporated.

 
If the drops are runny during the test, leave the pot on heat and keep stirring until you get the right consistency.



To yummmmm! no unknown ingredients.

Once you have mastered the strawberry jam, you can make any type of jam. Don’t be afraid, just go for it. I have spiced mine with a bit of ginger as I love ginger. If you like spiced desserts, try and make your jams with you preferred spice. How about chillies? That could work?!

Just have fun and do let me know what you think.

Bon appetite!

Beignets de maïs & bananes servi avec des haricots verts aux amandes

Beignets de maïs & bananes servi avec des haricots verts aux amandes mean

Corn & Banana dumplings served with Green beans cooked in almond milk

 Serves 5

 

Ingredients for the beans

Ingredients for the beans:

• 400g frozen green beans
• 100g raw almond flakes
• 1 onion
• 1 red scotch bonnet (optional)
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 stock cubes
• Salt
• Sesame oil.

Read the whole recipe before starting.

the almond cream sticks to the sides

Prep: Cover the almonds with cold water and leave aside for 1 hour in order to rehydrate them. Once rehydrated, pass through the food processor to blend very finely with about 200 ml water. Set aside.

Take the sliced beans out of the freezer and leave them to unfreeze, then rinse and put on a colander to remove the extra water. Set aside.

Dice onion, Butternut scotch and garlic set aside.

Method: Pour in the liquidised almonds in a pan, add onion garlic and the stock cubes. Add 3 tablespoons of sesame oil (this will add more nutty-ness to the dish). Stir and leave to simmer for 5 minutes. We want some of the water to evaporate and leaving behind a creamy texture. The onion will have lost its crunch by then and the cream should stick to the sides of the pan.

Now add the green beans and chilli, mix well continuously for 3-5 minutes until the beans soften to your liking. It is done.

Note: if you intend to reheat, just switch the heat after adding the beans.

 

Now onto the dumplings

 

Ingredients for the dumplings:

• 2 over-ripped bananas (about 300g)
• 300g fine corn flour
• 200 self-rising flour
• 20g sugar (I don’t like sweet stuff much)
• A pinch of salt
• 200ml water

Banana & Corn batter

Method: In a bowl, crush the bananas with the corn flour… Because the corn flour is so grainy, it is ideal to use it to mash the bananas.

Once that is done, add water, salt and sugar. Mix well to melt the sugar especially, then add the flour. Mix until you obtain and homogenous wet batter. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes to allow the corn flour to soften.

Heat about 500ml of vegetable oil in a deep pan. The oil has to be really hot and to test it, drop a small amount of the batter in it. If the dough rises up to the surface immediately, your oil is ready.

Yum... Golden and well formed

Using a table spoon and a bowl with cold water. Scoop the batter and drop into the hot oil. In order for the batter not to stick to the spoon, deep the spoon quickly into the cold water and scoop again… so forth and so on.

Given how hot the oil is, it should take about 1 minute and half for the dough to cook through. Make sure to turn them so all sides will be golden.

Just like when frying chips, remove the dumplings from the oil and place on a tissue paper to remove the extra oil.

The dumplings cannot really be reheated unlike the beans above and they are best served hot if for dinner as served below. The left over can be used for breakfast too.

Tuck in! Serving suggestion

I love these dumplings and do them often. I forgot half way to take pictures, but you’ve got the idea.

Hope you like it.

Send me your comments. x

:-)

 

3 flours vegan pancakes

Eat my shorts Picasso!

Today is Shrove Tuesday, which is the Tuesday before lent start. In some part of the world, this day is also known as Mardi Gras or Crepes day… in most houses here in the UK, people will be making pancakes with all sorts of topping.

Unfortunately for me I am currently on sick leave and cannot go out to buy extras for my pancake.  I just had to make do with what I found in the house… and this is what I found.

The brownest on is the wheatbran

For the pancakes:

·         50g Natural wheat brand

·         50g Fine corn flour

·         50g self-rising flour

·         4 Apples (sugar replacement)

·         150ml Soya milk

·         150ml fizzy water (great for the bubbles)

·         Rice Bran oil

Fruit Salad:

·         1 Sharon fruit

·         1 Pear

·         5 Dates

·         1 Orange (for the juice)

·         1 Pomegranate

 

Directions:

Fruits salad

Start by preparing the fruits salad.

Peel and cut the Sharon fruit, pear, ½ orange, pomegranate and combine in a bowl.

Chop the date and set aside as the will be added just before serving (a wet date does not taste good).

The other half orange will be drizzled over the dish before serving as the juice will keep it all wet and moist.

Making the pancakes.

Batter

Peel, cut the apple and blend with the milk to obtain a smoothie-like mix.

In blender or food processor, combine the wheat bran, corn flour and the smoothie. Whizz to obtain a very smooth batter. I should mention here that wheat brand looks a bit like really tiny flakes that do not tend to break down on the contact of a liquid.  Putting all the flours through the food processor will help the flakes to become a bit more flour like and help perfectly combine it with the corn and self-rising flour.

Fresh pancakes

Once all that is done, pour the batter into a bowl and fold in the fizzy water with a small pinch of salt. The pancake mix is ready.

Note: this batter will not behave like a plain flour mix. It take a lot of oil and will take long and a gentler touch to manipulate. You won’t for example be able to flip it over. So take your time with it while frying.

Got this after my half marathon

So, in a hot pan 3 table spoons of Rice Bran oil and measure up about 2 table spoons worth of batter for each pancake. Don’t do too many at the time as you may lose track of time and burn the pancake.

Fry each side for 1 minute to 1.30 minutes on medium to low heat to allow the batter to cook through. Again, because it isn’t made of flour, it take slightly longer to cook. I had few mishaps while doing it and learning as I went.

With the measurements above, you should obtain 9 to 10 small pancakes.

Serve warm with the fruit salad washed with orange juice.

Serving suggestion

If you’ve got sugar, you could cook the fruits in caramelised sugar and serve with the juice from the cooked fruits!

This is just perfect for digestion with all that fibre!

Enjoy!

Creamy Spinach & garlic roast potatoes

It is as tasty as it looks

Dinner for 2

 

Ingredients:

• 

  Ingredients

  150ml Alpro cream
• 1 medium carrot
• 200g bag of spinach
• 2 white shallots
• 6 small potatoes
• 50g soya mince
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 Brazil nuts
• 1 spring onion
• Salt & Pepper
• Groundnut oil.

Prep:

All chopped and ready to go!

Rehydrate the mincemeat in boiling water for 10 minutes, then sieve and set aside.

Wash the spinach and set aside.
Parboil the potatoes in salty water and halve them.
Peel and chop the carrot, garlic, shallots & spring onion. Keep them separated and leave aside.
Grate the Brazil nuts.

Method:

Preheat the oven at 180C.

Boiled and seasoned potatoes

In an oven dish, place the halved precooked potatoes with 1 chopped garlic and spring onion, a pinch of salt and 1 table spoon of groundnut oil. Toss to mix well. Place the potatoes face down in the dish then, using the potatoes masher press the potatoes down to mash them a bit. Place in the oven for about 10-15 until they start crisp.

In the meantime, in a hot pan with 2 table spoons of groundnut oil, fry the shallots until brown, add the mincemeat with salt, pepper 

Roasted potatoes

& garlic.  Stir until the mince starts to crisp. Now add the chopped carrot. Hope fully the latter has been chopped thinly enough not to take too long to soften. In this case, it took about 2 minutes. As all that starts to brown it adds flavour to the dish.

Now add the grated Brazil nut and the cream. Leave to simmer for about 3-5 minutes then, stir in the spinach, adjust the seasoning and leave to soften for about 2 minutes.

All this shouldn’t take more that 10-12 minutes and the potatoes should be ready by then. Serve.

Serving suggestion

This dish is the worst nightmare of a person with nuts allergies make sure none of them is around.

Enjoy!

See you next week!