Leek risotto

Today was a dismal day, so I wanted something comforting. I thought risotto would be ideal, but didn’t want to spend ages stirring it and getting it right – I just didn’t have the patience today. I remembered an alternative method posted by Kenji on SeriousEats, so looked it up and tried that out. And it worked! Risotto in less than 30 minutes!

I started by soaking some arborio (about 200g) in a pan in water (about 3/4l), while I sliced up 4 leeks. I then stirred the rice to loosen more of the starch, and then strained it and left it to lose the rest of the water. The pan went onto the heat with a bit of olive oil and the leeks. I kept the heat fairly high and kept stirring, until the leeks started caramelising. Then added in the drained rice, and toasted it for a bit.

All of this took about 12 minutes.

Added some chicken stock powder to the starchy water, and poured that into the rice. Stirred it around, and brought that the boil. I then lowered the heat, stuck a lid on it and let it be.

Grated 2 marrows, and stirred them into the risotto at the 5 minute mark.

Another 5 minutes later (so 10 in total), the risotto was almost done. Took the lid off and stirred it around for a bit, then squeezed some lemon in and added some mascarpone. I served it up and grated some parmesan over the top. I had also fried up some chillis for my portion, and sprinkled that over the risotto.

It came out really good, and with far less effort than previous risotto dishes.
TIME: 27 min
DISHES: 1x knife, 1x chopping board, 1x pan, 1x spatula, 1x jug, 1x spoon, 1x grater

Roasted banana milkshake

I love having banana milkshakes (made with actual bananas rather than syrup) when I go out. One of the places I went to had a roasted banana milkshake, which was fantastic. I had to recreate it!

Since the oven was on earlier, I cut up 2 bananas (half, and then halved lengthwise), and roasted them then left them in the oven until cool.

I blended the roasted bananas, added 2 cups of milk (I opted to use only low-fat milk instead of any ice cream, to follow my eating plan). I also added some oats to thicken it up (and cover the carbohydrate portion for breakfast). I did have some of it now and it is as great, even without ice cream. I expect it to be even better tomorrow morning once the oats give it some body.

Many ways with mince

Had a large amount of mince to use up, so I thought to make a few dishes with it to freeze and I’d be sorted for meals when I wasn’t sure of what to make.

I started by wilting some spinach in a pan. The spinach went into a bowl, and the mince and a bit of garlic went into the pot (in 2 batches) to cook and brown a bit.

I chopped up some cauliflower florets and marrows, and put that in the oven to crisp up a bit.

While that was on the go, I chopped up some onions. The mince went into a bowl, and the onions into the pot. I also chopped up some radish and chilli and added that (I would have added peppers and carrots if I had any). Once translucent, I added tomato paste and got some caramelisation on that, then added 2 cans of tomatoes. Added some milk, Worcestershire sauce, salt, ground coriander seeds and cumin, turmeric. The mince went back in, along with the other veg from the oven. I then left it cooking for a while and got on with other stuff.

When I deemed it to have cooked sufficiently, I headed back to the kitchen to put together the rest of the components. I whipped some low fat cottage cheese with milk until it was a nice almost-pourable consistency.

I mince some mushrooms and flash fried them until slightly browned, and added that to the mince mix. I sliced up some more mushrooms and browned those, and then made a white sauce (roux of butter and flour, and added milk and salt and thickened) and added the mushrooms back to that.

Got some foil pans out, and started putting the dishes together.

I soaked some cannelloni rolls, and stuffed it with the mince mix, and lay that in the pans. I covered that with the mushroom sauce, and grated a little mozzarella and Parmesan over the top.
Soaked some lasagne sheets, and started layering those – cottage cheese mix | lasagna sheet | mince mix | lasagna sheet | cottage cheese mix | spinach | lasagna sheet | mince mix | lasagna sheet | cottage cheese mix | grated cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan.
I’ll just pop these in the oven (from frozen) when I want to eat it, and heat until hot throughout.

I made 2 of each of these, and also portioned out some of the mince mixture for another 2 meals. That’s 6 future meals waiting in the freezer, and they will be delicious.

I used the last of the mince mixture to make sloppy joes.

While it did take a long time in total, the active time wasn’t too bad, and I have several meals to show for it. I’ll be giving half to a friend.
DISHES: 1x chopping board, 1x knife, 1x pot, 1x pan, 2x spautulas, 1x whisk, 2x bowls.
TIME: Didn’t keep track.

Tandoori cauliflower (and chicken)

I had read a post online about a head of tandoori cauliflower served as a vegetarian option, and it sounded intriguing, so I had to try it out. I bought florets as I wasn’t about to try devouring a whole head of cauliflower alone. I had marinated the cauliflower florets (and chicken) the previous night, in a mix of tandoori spices, yoghurt, garlic and ginger. Last night, I put it into the oven for about 20-30 minutes (did not time it) until cooked through.

It was quite nice, but I think I overdid the spices and quantity of marinade. I need to work on that, and wipe off the excess first. I will have to test it again before I serve it to others.

I do wonder what the inside will be like if making a head of cauliflower, though. I’m not really sure if the flavour will penetrate all the way through. So I may keep this one aside for another time.

The chicken was excellent, as always.

Market food

Cape Town has a lot of markets. I think there’s one on somewhere almost every day of the week, and several on the weekend. They are quite popular, and always full.

I was too tired to face cooking today and was passing by the Earth Fair Food Market in Tokai, so decided to stop in and pick up some paella from Gusto, one of the stalls. I didn’t take any pictures, but you can see what it looks like here and here.

I opted for the seafood pasta. It was mostly gone by the time I got there, but there was still enough to fill up a container for me. And what good stuff it is. I assume if you get there earlier, there’s a lot more liquid. But it was still delicious when I got it.

I cannot resist a stop at the ice cream cart on my way out. I never remember to get the name of it, which is a pity – I must get his details! Best ice cream around. I picked up a tub of his carrot, apple and ginger sorbet. I had a bit earlier, and I’m tempted to get the rest of the tub and a spoon right now. It’s sooooo good. I asked about his pistachio ice cream (another huge winner), and was promised a tub on Saturday.

Life’s too short. I’m going in for more of the sorbet.

Yellowtail with caramelised fennel and roasted cauliflower

I saw some baby fennel and decided I had to have it… but then was at a loss on what to make with it. A bit of Googling later, I had decided on the meal for the evening.

I first chopped up the cauliflower into little pieces, tossed that with a bit of ground coriander seeds and dried chilli flakes, and put it in the oven. I then sliced the bulbs of the fennel (thin slices), and kept the stalks aside.

I quickly seared the skin side of the fish in a pan, then put it over the fennel stalks – that went into the oven next to the cauliflower.

Added 2tsp olive oil to the pan, and added the sliced fennel in a thin layer (so it caramelises instead of steams), and just stirred it around every once in a while until nicely caramelised.

While that was all getting done, I marinated tomorrow’s meal, which I’m looking forward to!

It was all done at the same time, which is great. I served it lemon squeezed over everything and some greek yoghurt.

The vegetables were delicious. Both preparations I will definitely make again.

TIME: 25 min
DISHES: 1x knife, 1x board, 1x pan, 1x lifter

 

Roasted tomato soup, cheat’s version

It turned out to be a cold day today, and I had a sudden urge for soup. Which is strange, as I don’t even like soup. Nor did I have the patience to make it from scratch today. So I picked up a can of tomato soup, and adapted it.

I reduced the soup after adding ground cumin, ground coriander seeds, smoked paprika and chilli to it. I also added some of the pepper spread i had in the fridge. Let it all reduce until it was nice and thick and tasted great.

Served it with toasted sandwiches containing wilted spinach and mozzarella. A surprisingly good pairing.

TIME: About 25 min, mostly just waiting around for the soup to thicken adequately.
DISHES: 1x pot, 1x pan, 1x knife, 1x spatula

Chickpea & Parsley Sauté

I recently read something interesting about cooking parsley like spinach, so I wanted to try that out tonight.

Into the frying pan went a tsp of olive oil, added chopped spring onion and chopped celery. When translucent, added the parsley and crushed garlic. When it had wilted, added chickpeas (canned chickpeas, rinsed before adding) with some ground cumin, chilli flakes and squeezed some lemon over the lot. And just let it heat through.

I decided to have it in a wholewheat pita with some avocado. But the pita was overkill. Next time, I’ll have it as is with some yoghurt mixed with lemon juice.

TIME: About 20 minutes.
DISHES: 1x chopping board, 1x knife, 1x can opener, 1x frying pan, 1x spatula.

Shifting the goalposts

It’s been a while since I’ve managed to post anything. For several good (and not so good) reasons. My trip was extended for work, and when I came back, I went straight into another work trip. Last week was my first full week at home in a while and… I was incredibly lazy. But no more! I’m back and it’ll be full tilt from here on in!
A change that has been made is that I decided to address my eating issues (ie not doing it when I should) and have been to a dietician again (the last time was really helpful, but I got lazy this year and slipped back into old habits). And so it’s begun! I’m back on this 5 meal a day process (thankfully, 2 of those are tiny), and I need to start being better prepared. It also means that I have 2 things to aim for in preparing for dinner – cooking within the time limit, and making sure it suits the eating plan. I know myself well enough to see that the typical diet options will bore me and I will cheat, so I need to get very inventive with my meals. There’s no reason to sacrifice flavour when eating healthily! So I will be doing just that, and I will update this daily with the results.

I will also be trying to prepare my lunch for the next day within the allocated 30 minutes, so that’s another task added to the list. I know leftovers would be easier, but I struggle with leftovers. So adapting what I am making into a different dish for lunch the next day is more likely.

Challenge accepted!

Splitting the work

I have invited some friends over to dinner tomorrow night, so I decided to prepare some of the dishes tonight so I’m not overwhelmed tomorrow. I also have to clean tomorrow, which will be time-consuming.

I will take some photos tomorrow and update this post.

 

Chicken Lasagne

One of the friends attending is a fussy eater, and requested a chicken lasagne. Without tomato sauce. I’ve made beef lasagne and vegetarian lasagne before, but this was my first time making chicken lasagne. I also made a second smaller lasagne in a foil tin, to freeze and give to another friend. So this really made 2 dishes.

I like adding a ton of vegetables into my lasagne, as it really works better that way. I had wanted to use chicken, mushrooms and leeks for this one, but couldn’t find leeks anywhere. So I decided to go with chicken and mushroom 2 ways.

First up, I made the white button mushrooms. Sliced, then fried in a dash of olive oil with chopped garlic. until slightly browned. A bit later, I made a sauce for these mushrooms (a roux of butter and flour, some chicken stock, milk and a dash of cream), and mixed the mushrooms into that. So I had a good mushroom sauce.

Next up was the portobello mushrooms. I small diced some onions, and started frying that in a tablespoon of olive oil. When translucent, the sliced mushrooms went into that with some spices (salt, ground coriander seed, ground cumin, chilli flakes). Cooked until nicely browned.

I then cooked the chicken breast with a bit of garlic, and shredded the cooked chicken.

While the chicken was cooking, I made a parsley sauce. Started with a roux (flour and butter), added milk and a dash of cream, ground some salt and black pepper, and chopped up a handful of parsley to add in there.

I then started assembly. I had bought spinach lasagne sheets to use.

The layers were (| showing the lasagne sheet):
white parsley sauce | shredded chicken topped with the white parsley sauce | portabello mushrooms and crumbed feta | shredded chicken topped with white parsley sauce | mushrooms in cream sauce | white parsley sauce

I will top it with grated cheese and bake it tomorrow.

TIME: Way more than 30 minutes, but I don’t do simple when it comes to lasagne 🙂
DISHES: 1x chopping board, 1x knife, 2x pots ( 1 for the mushrooms and chicken, another for the sauces – I re-used), 1x whisk, 1x spatula, 2x bowls (holding mushrooms until assembly), 1x glass dish for the lasagne, grater (will use tomorrow)

Brownies

I also made brownies – as much to freeze as to serve 🙂

I went with a recipe that’s been successful the few times I’ve made it before.

TIME: I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t keeping track of the time. But I think that the active time is around 20 minutes. I did not stand over the stove while the butter and chocolate were melting, though. And this doesn’t include the baking time. Add in another 10 minutes for slicing, which should take you to 30 minutes.
DISHES: 1 bowl (I don’t count the pot as it was just water and I will re-use it), 1 whisk, 1 measuring cup, 1 tablespoon, baking pan, knife (to cut).

Ingredients:

• 8oz butter
• 3oz dark chocolate (I used Lindt 85% – I love dark chocolate)
• 1tsp instant coffee – optional
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 2 tsp vanilla essence (or you can use extract if preferred – in a baked dish, I find them to be interchangeable)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt (I had used salted butter, so went with a pinch of salt here)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder – optional

Method:

• I used a double-boiler method (pot on stove with hot water, and a bowl over that), but it can be made in the microwave. Melt the butter and chocolate, and whisk together.
• Add the sugar and coffee granules, and whisk together. Sugar won’t all dissolve into the mix.
• Have a taste at this point if you’d like, but resist eating it all :).
• Add mascarpone cheese and vanilla essence, and whisk until mascarpone is blended in.
• Have another taste at this point if you’d like, but resist eating it all :).
• Add the eggs and whisk.
• Add the flour and cocoa powder, and stir until incorporated.
• Turn into a 9×9 pan lined with baking paper, and bake at 180C for 35-45 minutes (best to check to see when it’s done).
• Leave to cool in pan. When cool, slice.
• You can top this with a chocolate ganache as well. I love these brownies straight from the freezer, so I don’t bother with that.
  It’s also great served with vanilla ice cream.