Friday already! The days have really run away from me this week.
An exciting weekend coming up for us; we’re off down to London to indulge in some Michelin starred pub grub, some very interesting vegetarian food and some near-the-knuckle humour courtesy of Mr Frankie Boyle. Hopefully photos and details will follow – although probably not so many of Frankie since this is, nominally, a food blog. If he makes any food or diet related jokes I’ll try and note them down. Unless he is rude about fatties in which case I’ll throw Minstrels at him.
We’ve been doing some improvising foodwise this week – it’s the end of the month and we didn’t want to burden the credit card with a big food shop. But nevertheless, we’ve done pretty well with the spoils of the freezer. Last Friday we found that an entire head of garlic, roasted slowly at a medium heat and then crushed into a paste will give a fantastically sweet, mellow garlicky-ness to mashed potatoes which then makes a fabulous side dish for pan fried fillet steak or slow roasted, crispy skinned pork belly. The soft roasted garlic cloves are also gorgeous squeezed from their skins and squished into crusty bread – no butter required.
If you fancy a curry this weekend, I would recommend popping over to the Good Food channel website and trying this Kashmiri lamb with fennel seeds by Anjum Anand. I find her terribly smug to watch, but this dish was absolutely gorgeous – and with low fat yoghurt and skimmed milk adding creaminess to the sauce, it works out as pretty low in points. D’s only criticism was the portion size – he says he could have eaten double what I gave him (and actually, I secretly agree).
Oh, and in a fit of domestic goddessdom I made these Nigella chocolate banana muffins, which at 4 points a pop are less than a Starbucks skinny effort, and very moist and tasty. Next time, I’d be tempted to stir a handful of chocolate chips through the mixture for a bit of extra interest and take the points hit.
Have a lovely weekend!
Friday, 29 October 2010
Friday, 22 October 2010
Recipe corner - Roasted tomato and ricotta risotto
This is the second risotto recipe I’ve put up in the last few weeks. I suppose at least I’m consistent – or dull, depending on your point of view. But I have to say, it’s the second risotto I’ve made in the last few weeks which has made me want to lick the plate clean while managing to be reasonably virtuous WWwise.
I wish I could claim the credit for this combination of ingredients but I can’t. I first came across it in this blog entry here, which in turn was based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. Hey, I plugged it into the WW recipe builder though! Thanks so much to Victoria for her original post, this looks set to become one of my new favourite dinners.
Ingredients
For the roasted tomatoes:
As many tomatoes as you wish – I used half a punnet of cherry and two large plum tomatoes but probably would have added more if they’d been available
½ tbsp olive oil
Tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt, pepper
Generous tsp dried oregano
For the risotto:
½ tbsp olive oil
Red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Generous pinch of crushed dried chillies
120g risotto rice
100ml white wine
500ml veg or chicken stock
125g ricotta cheese
15g finely grated Parmesan
Serves 2, 8 points per person, 11 pro points per person
Preheat the oven to a low temperature – about 150. Then chop the tomatoes until they are all roughly the same size. I halved the smaller cherry tomatoes and used that as a guide when chopping the larger ones.
Now toss the tomatoes in the oil, vinegar, oregano and plenty of seasoning and roast in the oven for an hour, by which time they should have a lovely rich smell and look fairly dehydrated. You can do this in advance. Divide the tomatoes up – you want roughly two thirds stirred through the risotto and the other third to sprinkle on top.
Time for the risotto. Start by warming the oil and sweating off the onion with the chilli flakes, and then add the garlic and cook until it loses that “raw” smell (being careful not to burn it).
Stir the risotto rice in so it is completely coated in the oil and then add the wine and reduce down almost to nothing. At this stage it is time to start adding the stock, a ladelful at a time. Each time you add some stock add a few of the roasted tomatoes as well (remembering that you’ve set about a third of them aside for garnish). Stir well each time. Continue until the stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender.
Add the ricotta cheese and three quarters of the Parmesan, cover and leave to sit for a couple of minutes.
The risotto that you’re left with will have quite a soupy texture so you may want to cook it out a bit more – but I’d leave it if I were you. Garnish with the remaining tomatoes and Parmesan.
I wish I could claim the credit for this combination of ingredients but I can’t. I first came across it in this blog entry here, which in turn was based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. Hey, I plugged it into the WW recipe builder though! Thanks so much to Victoria for her original post, this looks set to become one of my new favourite dinners.
Ingredients
For the roasted tomatoes:
As many tomatoes as you wish – I used half a punnet of cherry and two large plum tomatoes but probably would have added more if they’d been available
½ tbsp olive oil
Tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt, pepper
Generous tsp dried oregano
For the risotto:
½ tbsp olive oil
Red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Generous pinch of crushed dried chillies
120g risotto rice
100ml white wine
500ml veg or chicken stock
125g ricotta cheese
15g finely grated Parmesan
Serves 2, 8 points per person, 11 pro points per person
Preheat the oven to a low temperature – about 150. Then chop the tomatoes until they are all roughly the same size. I halved the smaller cherry tomatoes and used that as a guide when chopping the larger ones.
Now toss the tomatoes in the oil, vinegar, oregano and plenty of seasoning and roast in the oven for an hour, by which time they should have a lovely rich smell and look fairly dehydrated. You can do this in advance. Divide the tomatoes up – you want roughly two thirds stirred through the risotto and the other third to sprinkle on top.
Time for the risotto. Start by warming the oil and sweating off the onion with the chilli flakes, and then add the garlic and cook until it loses that “raw” smell (being careful not to burn it).
Stir the risotto rice in so it is completely coated in the oil and then add the wine and reduce down almost to nothing. At this stage it is time to start adding the stock, a ladelful at a time. Each time you add some stock add a few of the roasted tomatoes as well (remembering that you’ve set about a third of them aside for garnish). Stir well each time. Continue until the stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender.
Add the ricotta cheese and three quarters of the Parmesan, cover and leave to sit for a couple of minutes.
The risotto that you’re left with will have quite a soupy texture so you may want to cook it out a bit more – but I’d leave it if I were you. Garnish with the remaining tomatoes and Parmesan.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
How the Cook Crumbles
When you were a child how many times do you think you said “When I grow up I’m going to….”
I know for a fact that I intended to eat Coco Pops for breakfast every day, avoid semolina and have proper puddings midweek. My mother was perfectly capable of making fabulous puddings, but she had somehow got hold of the crazy idea that puddings were for High Days and Holidays only. If we wanted sweet after tea during the week, our choice was restricted to yoghurt or fruit. It’s probably one of the reasons I developed a secret biscuit habit.
Anyway, now I am all grown up and I can have puddings any time I like. The problem is that I am a grown up who is endeavouring to fight against her stubborn flab and puddings (other than yoghurt and fruit) can seldom be slotted into the day after an evening meal. And so I tend not to bother with puddings except when I go out.
It was this article that prompted the craving for crumble. A proper autumn fruit crumble with the slightly tart fruit bubbling up through a sweet, oaty topping and a judicious amount of cream. The problem? How to slot a proper sized portion of crumble into my daily points. The solution? Have pudding instead of tea! And so it was that last night, instead of the Moroccan style chicken with olives and sweet potato mash that had been tentatively planned, I baked an apple and blackberry crumble (6 points a portion) and topped it off with a dollop of WW crème fraiche (0.5 points). Not only did it exactly hit the spot but actually, I found it sufficiently filling that I didn’t go to bed hungry which I always assume I will if I don’t eat a “proper” meal. I think D also approved – well, we’re having the rest of the crumble for tea tonight.
In other news, if you’re looking for something to distract you from work, check out the link at the bottom of the page to “The Foodie Blogroll”. It may seem slightly contrary for a dieter to take such a lascivious interest in food blogs, but I am endlessly fascinated by what other people eat – and often find them a source of great inspiration when it comes to planning my own daily meals.
I know for a fact that I intended to eat Coco Pops for breakfast every day, avoid semolina and have proper puddings midweek. My mother was perfectly capable of making fabulous puddings, but she had somehow got hold of the crazy idea that puddings were for High Days and Holidays only. If we wanted sweet after tea during the week, our choice was restricted to yoghurt or fruit. It’s probably one of the reasons I developed a secret biscuit habit.
Anyway, now I am all grown up and I can have puddings any time I like. The problem is that I am a grown up who is endeavouring to fight against her stubborn flab and puddings (other than yoghurt and fruit) can seldom be slotted into the day after an evening meal. And so I tend not to bother with puddings except when I go out.
It was this article that prompted the craving for crumble. A proper autumn fruit crumble with the slightly tart fruit bubbling up through a sweet, oaty topping and a judicious amount of cream. The problem? How to slot a proper sized portion of crumble into my daily points. The solution? Have pudding instead of tea! And so it was that last night, instead of the Moroccan style chicken with olives and sweet potato mash that had been tentatively planned, I baked an apple and blackberry crumble (6 points a portion) and topped it off with a dollop of WW crème fraiche (0.5 points). Not only did it exactly hit the spot but actually, I found it sufficiently filling that I didn’t go to bed hungry which I always assume I will if I don’t eat a “proper” meal. I think D also approved – well, we’re having the rest of the crumble for tea tonight.
In other news, if you’re looking for something to distract you from work, check out the link at the bottom of the page to “The Foodie Blogroll”. It may seem slightly contrary for a dieter to take such a lascivious interest in food blogs, but I am endlessly fascinated by what other people eat – and often find them a source of great inspiration when it comes to planning my own daily meals.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Recipe corner - Mussels steamed with cider and bacon
Right, I think it is high time for another recipe. And after recent posts on the subject, you would be forgiven for the thinking this has turned into the WW Mussel Eater blog. But (and I apologise for sounding so evangelical on the subject) mussels are a) fabulously tasty, b) not at all expensive and c) low low low in points. Oh, and d) it generally takes me so long to get through a bowl that I am not bothered by the thought of any side dishes (although crusty bread to mop up the juices is always good).
I think some people are a wee bit scared when it comes to cooking seafood. Let's face it, the mussels and oysters of this world are not going to be winning any beauty contests any time soon, and they can look a wee bit daunting when compared with a chicken breast that comes straight from the supermarket all nicely trimmed and wrapped in plastic. But, fear not! A little bit of preparation time and mussels are actually one of the speediest things ever to cook - faster than the very fastest of fast food.
So, prior to embarking on the recipe below - and I do urge you to try it, it's the British answer to a traditional moules mariniere and if anything, even nicer, what do you have to do to get the mussels ready for the pot? Give them a quick scrub, and you'll notice a bit of stringy type stuff protruding from the shell - take a good hold and yank it off - I find this quite therapeutic. This is what is known as "de-bearding". If the mussels are wide open prior to cooking and looking generally a bit sad they could well be dead and if so, need discarding. If in doubt though chuck it into the pot. The surefire way to tell if it is dead is if it is closed when it comes out. As long as you avoid those, you should be fine.
This recipe is taken from the "Best of British" booklet that was tucked inside of the BBC Good Food magazine, Oct 2010. The points are calculated based on the nutritional info provided.
Ingredients
small knob of butter
140g smoked bacon - I found this to be 4 decent sized rashers
2 shallots, finely sliced
small bunch of thyme, leaves stripped
1.5kg small mussels, scrubbed and bearded
150ml of cider
2 tbsp double cream
Serves 2, 6.5 points per portion
Heat the butter in a large pan and then fry the bacon until it starts to crisp. Throw in the shallots and the thyme and cook briefly until softened.
Turn up the heat and then tip in the mussels and pour over the cider. Cover the pan, give it a good shake, and then leave the mussels to steam for 5-7 minutes shaking occasionally until all the mussels have opened - remember at this point to discard any that are still closed.
Use a slotted spoon to scoop the mussels into bowls and then place the pan back on the heat. Bring the juices to the boil, stir in the cream and pour the sauces over the mussels.
Enjoy!
I think some people are a wee bit scared when it comes to cooking seafood. Let's face it, the mussels and oysters of this world are not going to be winning any beauty contests any time soon, and they can look a wee bit daunting when compared with a chicken breast that comes straight from the supermarket all nicely trimmed and wrapped in plastic. But, fear not! A little bit of preparation time and mussels are actually one of the speediest things ever to cook - faster than the very fastest of fast food.
So, prior to embarking on the recipe below - and I do urge you to try it, it's the British answer to a traditional moules mariniere and if anything, even nicer, what do you have to do to get the mussels ready for the pot? Give them a quick scrub, and you'll notice a bit of stringy type stuff protruding from the shell - take a good hold and yank it off - I find this quite therapeutic. This is what is known as "de-bearding". If the mussels are wide open prior to cooking and looking generally a bit sad they could well be dead and if so, need discarding. If in doubt though chuck it into the pot. The surefire way to tell if it is dead is if it is closed when it comes out. As long as you avoid those, you should be fine.
This recipe is taken from the "Best of British" booklet that was tucked inside of the BBC Good Food magazine, Oct 2010. The points are calculated based on the nutritional info provided.
Ingredients
small knob of butter
140g smoked bacon - I found this to be 4 decent sized rashers
2 shallots, finely sliced
small bunch of thyme, leaves stripped
1.5kg small mussels, scrubbed and bearded
150ml of cider
2 tbsp double cream
Serves 2, 6.5 points per portion
Heat the butter in a large pan and then fry the bacon until it starts to crisp. Throw in the shallots and the thyme and cook briefly until softened.
Turn up the heat and then tip in the mussels and pour over the cider. Cover the pan, give it a good shake, and then leave the mussels to steam for 5-7 minutes shaking occasionally until all the mussels have opened - remember at this point to discard any that are still closed.
Use a slotted spoon to scoop the mussels into bowls and then place the pan back on the heat. Bring the juices to the boil, stir in the cream and pour the sauces over the mussels.
Enjoy!
Collecting Thoughts
This morning at work we learned that a colleague, who actually sat just across the room from me, had died unexpectedly. He was admitted to hospital on Thursday night and passed away over the weekend.
I didn’t really know the man except to nod hello to, so there is no real sense of loss for me. But when something like that happens – someone is there one day and gone the next, it does make you…pause.
I mean, when I think about the reasons that I want to lose weight what immediately springs to mind? I want to look nice on my wedding day. I want my skinny jeans to fit properly again. I want D to be proud of his wife. I don’t want to feel self conscious eating in public. It’s all about the aesthetics. But shouldn’t the health side be equally important? I want to eat a diet that is going to give me the nutrients I need to make me as healthy as I can be. I don’t want to put my heart and other organs under strain. I want to be fit. I want to live for a long time in the best of health.
Apologies for the slightly morbid start to the week – I just wanted to get this down while it was on my mind. Normal programming will resume shortly.
I didn’t really know the man except to nod hello to, so there is no real sense of loss for me. But when something like that happens – someone is there one day and gone the next, it does make you…pause.
I mean, when I think about the reasons that I want to lose weight what immediately springs to mind? I want to look nice on my wedding day. I want my skinny jeans to fit properly again. I want D to be proud of his wife. I don’t want to feel self conscious eating in public. It’s all about the aesthetics. But shouldn’t the health side be equally important? I want to eat a diet that is going to give me the nutrients I need to make me as healthy as I can be. I don’t want to put my heart and other organs under strain. I want to be fit. I want to live for a long time in the best of health.
Apologies for the slightly morbid start to the week – I just wanted to get this down while it was on my mind. Normal programming will resume shortly.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Recipe corner – Use-Yer-Mussels Spaghetti
Having burbled on about mussels in my last post, here (just for you, Peridot!) is my “recipe” for seafood spaghetti. I use inverted commas because it was more of a chucking together of various ingredients – the outcome, however, was extremely yummy. You could easily adapt this method to any kind of seafood – we happened to have some mussel meat in the freezer that needed using up and just supplemented it with a few prawns. If you were cooking the mussels from scratch, I’d be tempted to use the mussel cooking liquor to loosen the final sauce rather than the pasta water.
Oh, and 75g of spaghetti is a pretty generous portion – you could easily reduce it and thus the points (but I’m greedy!)
Ingredients
3 garlic cloves
3 anchovy fillets
Pinch chilli flakes
Coarse salt
2 tbsp olive oil
200g cherry tomatoes cut into quarters
150g spaghetti
50g mussels (meat only)
50g king prawns
Serves 2, 7 points per per portion
Put the garlic in a pestle and mortar with a decent pinch of salt and squish well. Add the anchovy fillets, patted dry (I used fillets packed in salt, so rinsed them off first, if you use the ones in oil you obviously won’t need to do this) and the chilli flakes – as much or as little as you like, and continue to work into a coarse paste.
Meanwhile, put the spaghetti on to cook in a pan of well salted water.
In a large pan gently heat up the olive oil. Tip in the coarse paste and cook – keep the heat low because you don’t want to burn your garlic. The anchovies will start to “melt” into the oil.
Now bung in the cherry tomatoes and, using the back of a spoon, lightly crush into the oil. Add the prawns and mussel meat and cook gently until the prawns turn pink.
Once the spaghetti is cooked (8-10 mins) drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Add the spaghetti to the pan and toss well in the tomatoes and oil, using the reserved water to loosen slightly (you’ll probably need a couple of tablespoons). Check the seasoning – you probably won’t want any salt what with all those anchovies, but you might find at this stage a bit more chilli would be just the thing – and serve.
Oh, and 75g of spaghetti is a pretty generous portion – you could easily reduce it and thus the points (but I’m greedy!)
Ingredients
3 garlic cloves
3 anchovy fillets
Pinch chilli flakes
Coarse salt
2 tbsp olive oil
200g cherry tomatoes cut into quarters
150g spaghetti
50g mussels (meat only)
50g king prawns
Serves 2, 7 points per per portion
Put the garlic in a pestle and mortar with a decent pinch of salt and squish well. Add the anchovy fillets, patted dry (I used fillets packed in salt, so rinsed them off first, if you use the ones in oil you obviously won’t need to do this) and the chilli flakes – as much or as little as you like, and continue to work into a coarse paste.
Meanwhile, put the spaghetti on to cook in a pan of well salted water.
In a large pan gently heat up the olive oil. Tip in the coarse paste and cook – keep the heat low because you don’t want to burn your garlic. The anchovies will start to “melt” into the oil.
Now bung in the cherry tomatoes and, using the back of a spoon, lightly crush into the oil. Add the prawns and mussel meat and cook gently until the prawns turn pink.
Once the spaghetti is cooked (8-10 mins) drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Add the spaghetti to the pan and toss well in the tomatoes and oil, using the reserved water to loosen slightly (you’ll probably need a couple of tablespoons). Check the seasoning – you probably won’t want any salt what with all those anchovies, but you might find at this stage a bit more chilli would be just the thing – and serve.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
And the scales say....
....2lbs off! Hurrah!
Getting back to a meeting appears to have done the trick - for the first time in a long time, I planned out a week’s worth of meals and (more or less) stuck to that plan. And the advantages to this are twofold – money saved as well as weight lost. I think I’ve done the pound/pound pun before and it wasn’t funny then so I won’t attempt to revisit it now.
D and I have eaten mussels three times during this past week – a thrown together seafood spaghetti on Thursday, steamed with cider and bacon on Sunday and turned into a rich, saffrony soup on Monday. It might be turning into a bit of an obsession, but it’s a pretty healthy one, the points in mussels are ridiculously low. And it’s a good time of year to buy them – the ones we have had from our local fish place were fantastically plump and sweet.
It’s hard to pick a meal highlight from the week, but I reckon the butternut squash and sage risotto comes pretty close. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to cook it again.
In other news, I tried out the new Shape chocolate desserts this week as well (you may have seen the advert where two attractive young women attempt to brain an equally attractive young man with a falling flowerpot while eating pudding). Verdict: nice, but probably not two points nice.
All in all, this was a pretty good week – as I said in my last post I wasn’t 100% on programme because of a day out, but other than that one blip, my tracker reads perfectly. So why is it that right up until yesterday evening I had this niggling voice that telling me to throw it in and go…pig out? Last night, I was late at the office and the temptation to go and wait for my lift in the pub and to wash down a large bag of crisps with a couple of pints of cider was immense. And I knew that once that line had been crossed it was a stone's throw away from trying to talk D into takeaway when we got home – even though we had the night’s supper, a delicious soup, already cooked. The devil on my shoulder was telling me – you haven’t done enough. If you can’t be 100% perfect then why bother at all? All or nothing thinking - madness. I resisted, only just, but still...and I got my reward today. The pleasure of seeing a decent loss that you have genuinely worked for can't be underestimated.
Oh, and thank you soooo much for wishing me luck after yesterday's post. The thought of coming on here today and admitting a gain to you lovely people was one of the things that kept that little shoulder devil firmly squished.
Here's to another good week!
Getting back to a meeting appears to have done the trick - for the first time in a long time, I planned out a week’s worth of meals and (more or less) stuck to that plan. And the advantages to this are twofold – money saved as well as weight lost. I think I’ve done the pound/pound pun before and it wasn’t funny then so I won’t attempt to revisit it now.
D and I have eaten mussels three times during this past week – a thrown together seafood spaghetti on Thursday, steamed with cider and bacon on Sunday and turned into a rich, saffrony soup on Monday. It might be turning into a bit of an obsession, but it’s a pretty healthy one, the points in mussels are ridiculously low. And it’s a good time of year to buy them – the ones we have had from our local fish place were fantastically plump and sweet.
It’s hard to pick a meal highlight from the week, but I reckon the butternut squash and sage risotto comes pretty close. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to cook it again.
In other news, I tried out the new Shape chocolate desserts this week as well (you may have seen the advert where two attractive young women attempt to brain an equally attractive young man with a falling flowerpot while eating pudding). Verdict: nice, but probably not two points nice.
All in all, this was a pretty good week – as I said in my last post I wasn’t 100% on programme because of a day out, but other than that one blip, my tracker reads perfectly. So why is it that right up until yesterday evening I had this niggling voice that telling me to throw it in and go…pig out? Last night, I was late at the office and the temptation to go and wait for my lift in the pub and to wash down a large bag of crisps with a couple of pints of cider was immense. And I knew that once that line had been crossed it was a stone's throw away from trying to talk D into takeaway when we got home – even though we had the night’s supper, a delicious soup, already cooked. The devil on my shoulder was telling me – you haven’t done enough. If you can’t be 100% perfect then why bother at all? All or nothing thinking - madness. I resisted, only just, but still...and I got my reward today. The pleasure of seeing a decent loss that you have genuinely worked for can't be underestimated.
Oh, and thank you soooo much for wishing me luck after yesterday's post. The thought of coming on here today and admitting a gain to you lovely people was one of the things that kept that little shoulder devil firmly squished.
Here's to another good week!
Monday, 11 October 2010
Weekend round up
So, the million dollar question this bright Monday morning is does:
6 days of stellar pointing +
4 3 gym trips –
1 boozy Friday at the races which started with a glass of fizz at half twelve and ended with rather a lot of Pringles about ten hours later =
A good result at the scales?
Regardless of whether the scales are kind to me tomorrow morning or not, I am pleased with myself this week. It was always my intention to enjoy my day out, the test for me was would I allow it to throw me off for the rest of the weekend. It didn’t - which is progress of sorts. While I made the girls bacon sandwiches on Saturday morning, I restricted myself to tea and toast and was able to come in on points even with a massive portion of delicious homemade prawn curry for tea (which put paid to any residual hangover – I always find a good blast of chilli helps a fuzzy head).
I also (and this is a major achievement for me) eschewed any more alcohol on Saturday and Sunday night. I like nothing more than a civilised glass of wine or six while relaxing in front of weekend television but I decided I had had my fun for the week and stuck to soft drinks. With the result that I actually had a much more productive Sunday than usual! A lesson to be learned there, perhaps.
Hopefully the scales will smile on me tomorrow. Or, at the very least, not burst out into howls of evil laughter.
6 days of stellar pointing +
1 boozy Friday at the races which started with a glass of fizz at half twelve and ended with rather a lot of Pringles about ten hours later =
A good result at the scales?
Regardless of whether the scales are kind to me tomorrow morning or not, I am pleased with myself this week. It was always my intention to enjoy my day out, the test for me was would I allow it to throw me off for the rest of the weekend. It didn’t - which is progress of sorts. While I made the girls bacon sandwiches on Saturday morning, I restricted myself to tea and toast and was able to come in on points even with a massive portion of delicious homemade prawn curry for tea (which put paid to any residual hangover – I always find a good blast of chilli helps a fuzzy head).
I also (and this is a major achievement for me) eschewed any more alcohol on Saturday and Sunday night. I like nothing more than a civilised glass of wine or six while relaxing in front of weekend television but I decided I had had my fun for the week and stuck to soft drinks. With the result that I actually had a much more productive Sunday than usual! A lesson to be learned there, perhaps.
Hopefully the scales will smile on me tomorrow. Or, at the very least, not burst out into howls of evil laughter.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Recipe corner - roasted squash risotto
D claims to have not been much into cooking before we met. He had three dishes in his repertoire with which to woo the ladies: bangers and mash with onion gravy, prawn curry (origin unknown) and mushroom risotto. Any more than these three dinners and you’d have to go back to the beginning and rotate through again. I sometimes wonder if this was some kind of girlfriend test: love me, be prepared to eat the same three meals for the rest of your life.
Six years after coming under my influence he is shaping up to be a pretty wonderful cook. And although his natural allegiance is to the school of “if in doubt add more butter / cream / oil / all of the above” he is very good about taking account of my points allowance and curtailing the saturated fat content.
The meal we had for tea was a case in point: it has some butter, oil and Parmesan cheese in it but not so much that it makes too large a dent in your daily allowance but enough that it is rich and luxurious and utterly gorgeous. This is his recipe which he has kindly allowed me to share as long as I give him all the credit – which I am happy to do as long as he promises to cook it for me again soon!
Ingredients
Half a large butternut squash, cut into wedges and deseeded
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Tbsp olive oil
8 sage leaves, shredded
2 tsps butter
Large onion, chopped
120g risotto rice
50ml white wine (optional - 1 pro point per person in total)
500ml chicken stock
40g extra low fat soft cheese
40g freshly grated Parmesan
20g pumpkin seeds (optional - 2 pro points per person in total)
Serves 2, 8.5 points per person, 14 pro points per person
Preheat the oven to 200C
In a large ovenproof tray toss the squash in the olive oil, garlic and half the sage leaves. Season well and then roast for 30-45 mins until soft and golden. Once the squash has cooled slightly, scrape the flesh away from the skin into a bowl and lightly mash – keep it reasonably chunky to provide some texture in the risotto.
Now heat the butter in a pan and soften the onion.
Add the rice and stir well to coat in the butter, then add the splash of wine (if using) and allow to bubble off.
Tip in the rest of the sage and season lightly – bear in mind that your stock may be quite salty so be careful. Now add the warm stock a ladleful at a time, giving a good stir at each addition, until the rice is soft but with a touch of bite in the middle of the grain – we found this took about 15 minutes. You may not need all of the stock.
Remove the risotto from the heat and stir through the mashed squash, two thirds of the grated Parmesan and the soft cheese. Cover and allow it to sit for a couple of minutes - this will make it even thicker and creamier so you may want to add a touch more stock before serving to thin it out a little.
Serve sprinkled with the remaining Parmesan and the pumpkin seeds.
Note: this was very rich and would probably feed three people with less enthusiastic appetites, especially if you had a nice, peppery side salad. I also have a feeling that some bacon lardons, chucked in at the beginning, would be lovely in this – but obviously this would up the points.
Six years after coming under my influence he is shaping up to be a pretty wonderful cook. And although his natural allegiance is to the school of “if in doubt add more butter / cream / oil / all of the above” he is very good about taking account of my points allowance and curtailing the saturated fat content.
The meal we had for tea was a case in point: it has some butter, oil and Parmesan cheese in it but not so much that it makes too large a dent in your daily allowance but enough that it is rich and luxurious and utterly gorgeous. This is his recipe which he has kindly allowed me to share as long as I give him all the credit – which I am happy to do as long as he promises to cook it for me again soon!
Ingredients
Half a large butternut squash, cut into wedges and deseeded
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Tbsp olive oil
8 sage leaves, shredded
2 tsps butter
Large onion, chopped
120g risotto rice
50ml white wine (optional - 1 pro point per person in total)
500ml chicken stock
40g extra low fat soft cheese
40g freshly grated Parmesan
20g pumpkin seeds (optional - 2 pro points per person in total)
Serves 2, 8.5 points per person, 14 pro points per person
Preheat the oven to 200C
In a large ovenproof tray toss the squash in the olive oil, garlic and half the sage leaves. Season well and then roast for 30-45 mins until soft and golden. Once the squash has cooled slightly, scrape the flesh away from the skin into a bowl and lightly mash – keep it reasonably chunky to provide some texture in the risotto.
Now heat the butter in a pan and soften the onion.
Add the rice and stir well to coat in the butter, then add the splash of wine (if using) and allow to bubble off.
Tip in the rest of the sage and season lightly – bear in mind that your stock may be quite salty so be careful. Now add the warm stock a ladleful at a time, giving a good stir at each addition, until the rice is soft but with a touch of bite in the middle of the grain – we found this took about 15 minutes. You may not need all of the stock.
Remove the risotto from the heat and stir through the mashed squash, two thirds of the grated Parmesan and the soft cheese. Cover and allow it to sit for a couple of minutes - this will make it even thicker and creamier so you may want to add a touch more stock before serving to thin it out a little.
Serve sprinkled with the remaining Parmesan and the pumpkin seeds.
Note: this was very rich and would probably feed three people with less enthusiastic appetites, especially if you had a nice, peppery side salad. I also have a feeling that some bacon lardons, chucked in at the beginning, would be lovely in this – but obviously this would up the points.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Weighing In
So my first day back as a fully paid-up, meeting attending, tracking-like-a-demon, Weight Watcher wasn’t stellar. But for the opposite reason you may think.
Firstly, the meeting itself. Some fantastic little old ladies who sat up at the front, cackling throughout and coming up with the kind of lines I would expect to hear from an Alan Bennett Talking Head. Loved it, and bless the Leader for attempting (in vain) to keep them reigned in. The scales were less fantastic – I always find meeting scales to be a little bit meaner than my home set (obviously the fact that I can’t strip nude in the middle of a church hall may have something to do with that) but the number…well, it just is, isn’t it? No point crying over it.
That’s not to say that I didn’t have a knot of anxiety in my stomach all morning – the kind that presses against your diaphragm and makes you feel utterly sick. So, aside from a few cups of coffee (milk = 0.5) I hadn’t consumed anything before the twelve o clock weigh in. Lunch was a 6” turkey and ham on wheat with all the salad fixin’s and a good dollop of light mayo from Subway (=5) plus a bag of Baked crisps (=1.5) and dinner was an absolutely gorgeous dish of salmon (=4.5) with fennel remoulade (=0.5)* and wild rice (=3). Which put me on a total of 15 points – way under the lowest WW recommend I go. Add into the mix 4 bonus points earned at the gym (yay!) and I had created quite an impressive deficit.
Now WW lore tells us that to go way under your points is as foolish as going way over. And the legend of “Starvation mode” is pretty compelling – and an excellent way to justify a weekend blow-out once in a while (“I was shocking my body out of starvation mode! Honest, guv!”) But as a Leader of mine once said to the class, “You never see fat anorexics.” Which may not be the most sensitive way of putting it, but I kind of see her point. Anyway, I am not going to stress mightily about starting the week off with a few too many points in the bank. A trip to York races on Friday, where the wine will no doubt be flowing, should sort that out.
*Not wishing to take credit for someone else’s creation, you can check the original recipe out here – obviously tweaked for WW purposes chez Seren.
Firstly, the meeting itself. Some fantastic little old ladies who sat up at the front, cackling throughout and coming up with the kind of lines I would expect to hear from an Alan Bennett Talking Head. Loved it, and bless the Leader for attempting (in vain) to keep them reigned in. The scales were less fantastic – I always find meeting scales to be a little bit meaner than my home set (obviously the fact that I can’t strip nude in the middle of a church hall may have something to do with that) but the number…well, it just is, isn’t it? No point crying over it.
That’s not to say that I didn’t have a knot of anxiety in my stomach all morning – the kind that presses against your diaphragm and makes you feel utterly sick. So, aside from a few cups of coffee (milk = 0.5) I hadn’t consumed anything before the twelve o clock weigh in. Lunch was a 6” turkey and ham on wheat with all the salad fixin’s and a good dollop of light mayo from Subway (=5) plus a bag of Baked crisps (=1.5) and dinner was an absolutely gorgeous dish of salmon (=4.5) with fennel remoulade (=0.5)* and wild rice (=3). Which put me on a total of 15 points – way under the lowest WW recommend I go. Add into the mix 4 bonus points earned at the gym (yay!) and I had created quite an impressive deficit.
Now WW lore tells us that to go way under your points is as foolish as going way over. And the legend of “Starvation mode” is pretty compelling – and an excellent way to justify a weekend blow-out once in a while (“I was shocking my body out of starvation mode! Honest, guv!”) But as a Leader of mine once said to the class, “You never see fat anorexics.” Which may not be the most sensitive way of putting it, but I kind of see her point. Anyway, I am not going to stress mightily about starting the week off with a few too many points in the bank. A trip to York races on Friday, where the wine will no doubt be flowing, should sort that out.
*Not wishing to take credit for someone else’s creation, you can check the original recipe out here – obviously tweaked for WW purposes chez Seren.
Friday, 1 October 2010
A few last holiday shots...
So, the deed is done and on Tuesday morning I will be taking my Monthly Pass and stepping on the Scales of Doom, to quote Peridot. I suppose I should really come up with my own moniker for them! I'm going to attempt not to turn this weekend into one, long Last Supper - although since we're out for dinner at our favourite restaurant tonight there will be some indulgence going on.
In the meantime, I just wanted to share a few last food memories from our recent trip to Scotland.
Firstly, we have these fabulous little beauties - can you guess what they are?
Give up? Haggis nuggets! Yes, apparently the Scots will eat haggis absolutely any which way. Here they have been breaded, deep fried and served with a whisky cream sauce. We also saw a haggis pizza in the local shop. And when I say saw, I mean spotted in the freezer, purchased and ate it one lunchtime - how could I resist? I have discovered that I really, really like haggis. No great surprise, I'm a massive fan of black pudding as well. This year I will definitely be cooking a traditional Burns' Night supper - although I have a sneaking suspicion that haggis is not the most WW friendly meat stuff in the world.
And next we have...
Yep, more mussels. But these are particularly special because they were foraged, by D, from the seashore just outside the front door of our caravan. He set off with a carrier bag and a determined expression, and returned an hour later with this bag of beauties. We cleaned and de-bearded them and then just steamed them in a little white wine and finished the sauce off with a splash of cream and some garlic. They were undoubtedly the freshest mussels that I have ever eaten and they tasted incredible.
So there you have it. The holiday is well and truly over now, but to be honest, I'm almost looking forward to getting back in the swing of meetings and re-committing 100% to the plan (feel free to refer me back to this in a week when I'm complaining of hunger). Hope everybody has a fabulous weekend!
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Going backwards to go forwards
When I first started writing on this blog I was attending a weekly Weight Watcher meeting. Soon afterwards, I stopped. I knew the plan so well that I never felt I got anything much out of the meetings – and I decided that paying someone to weigh me every week was just not a good use of resources, so, I switched back to being an online user.
And promptly stopped losing weight.
And then gained some.
Well, more than some. A stone, actually. Which in six months is really…not good.
It’s all very well to want to save a bit of money, and no doubt it would all have turned out fine if I was capable of being honest with myself. But, as it turns out, when it comes to food I can’t be. Honest, that is. I’m very good at kidding myself, I’ve had twenty nine years of practice.
So, I’m tucking my tail between my legs, hanging my head in shame and going back to meetings. If I have to pay £20 a month then so be it – it’s money well spent if it means I’m going to be sticking to the plan and losing weight. Obviously the little bit of ritual humiliation that is climbing on weighing scales in public is the kick up the arse I need.
And making the decision has had an immediately positive effect – last night D and I did a freezer inventory and put together a meal plan for next week which is the most organised we’ve been for a while.
And promptly stopped losing weight.
And then gained some.
Well, more than some. A stone, actually. Which in six months is really…not good.
It’s all very well to want to save a bit of money, and no doubt it would all have turned out fine if I was capable of being honest with myself. But, as it turns out, when it comes to food I can’t be. Honest, that is. I’m very good at kidding myself, I’ve had twenty nine years of practice.
So, I’m tucking my tail between my legs, hanging my head in shame and going back to meetings. If I have to pay £20 a month then so be it – it’s money well spent if it means I’m going to be sticking to the plan and losing weight. Obviously the little bit of ritual humiliation that is climbing on weighing scales in public is the kick up the arse I need.
And making the decision has had an immediately positive effect – last night D and I did a freezer inventory and put together a meal plan for next week which is the most organised we’ve been for a while.
Friday, 24 September 2010
Fish and Trips
It’s a good job we didn’t travel the 340 miles from York to Tobermory for the sole purpose of sampling the local seafood speciality. We had booked a half past seven table at Café Fish but still arrived too late; now Yorkshire is nowhere near as urbane as London but even there half past seven would be regarded as a relatively early table, and yet they had already sold out of not only the squat lobsters that D had been intent on trying, but also langoustines and scallops as well. Obviously the good people of Mull a) are very fond of crustaceans and b) dine at six. Part of the problem might be the lack of pubs. Tobermory is the biggest town on Mull and, aside from two rather scary looking hotel bars, there was only one pub, which doubled up as a pizza restaurant. The media may claim that the Scots are a nation of drinkers, but based on this evidence I would have to dispute that. No deep fried Mars bars to be seen either. Not that I would ever want to eat a deep fried Mars bar, I’m 99% sure. Anyway, the dearth of places to have a pre dinner tipple (or ten) may be what forces the residents to eat so early.
You can’t be too hard on a place which is obviously reliant on an unpredictable third party – in this case, the Sea, to make good their menu. Nothing is frozen at Café Fish, apart from their fishermen, as the waitresses’ T-shirts told us, so what hadn’t been fished that day wasn’t there to eat. And D was slightly consoled when he discovered that one of the main courses was a peat smoked haddock fillet stuffed with squat lobsters, so we did get to have a little taste (my verdict – pretty much the same as a langoustine, but kudos to any seafood that incorporates the word “squat” into its name.)
We never expected our trip to Scotland to be a foodie holiday, so this dinner was to be the only vaguely upmarket meal. And it was very good, relying on the quality of the produce rather than any fancy techniques to produce tasty, hearty food. D’s starter of mussels (he was obviously intent on eating shellfish one way or the other) was absolutely excellent – the mussels themselves fat and sweet.
He also proclaimed the haddock main course to be very good, albeit rich. I thoroughly enjoyed my fish pie, particularly the sharp local Mull Cheddar that crusted the top, but it would have been even better if the scallops promised on the menu had been available for the filling.
We were too full for dessert, although we agreed that had something traditionally Scottish like Cranachan been on the menu we would have stretched a point (and our stomachs). As it was, the choice was rather uninspiring.
The story does not end there however, because, in a last ditch attempt to try some squat lobster, we returned the next day for lunch. Unfortunately, the fishing boat had not yet come in so we were once again thwarted. D consoled himself with another, even larger, bowl of mussels and I had the fish soup of the day. Which turned out to be shellfish bisque and, can I just say, a bowl of absolute deliciousness from start to finish. It was deep and sweet and rich, with a hint of tarragon – not a herb I usually like, but here it was perfect. It was so good that I’ve been scouring the net for bisque recipes since I got back and I intend to attempt to recreate it someday very soon, and am only sorry that I won't be able to go back and do comparison taste tests. Should you ever find yourself on the Isle of Mull be sure to pop in - and if they happen to have any squat lobsters then I'd appreciate it if you could stick one in the mail for us.
Café Fish
The Pier, Torbermory
Isle of Mull, Argyl
PA75 6NU
Tel. 01688 301253
You can’t be too hard on a place which is obviously reliant on an unpredictable third party – in this case, the Sea, to make good their menu. Nothing is frozen at Café Fish, apart from their fishermen, as the waitresses’ T-shirts told us, so what hadn’t been fished that day wasn’t there to eat. And D was slightly consoled when he discovered that one of the main courses was a peat smoked haddock fillet stuffed with squat lobsters, so we did get to have a little taste (my verdict – pretty much the same as a langoustine, but kudos to any seafood that incorporates the word “squat” into its name.)
We never expected our trip to Scotland to be a foodie holiday, so this dinner was to be the only vaguely upmarket meal. And it was very good, relying on the quality of the produce rather than any fancy techniques to produce tasty, hearty food. D’s starter of mussels (he was obviously intent on eating shellfish one way or the other) was absolutely excellent – the mussels themselves fat and sweet.
 |
| Mussels in white wine sauce |
 |
| Peat smoked haddock stuffed with squat lobsters and baked in cream |
 |
| Fish pie |
We were too full for dessert, although we agreed that had something traditionally Scottish like Cranachan been on the menu we would have stretched a point (and our stomachs). As it was, the choice was rather uninspiring.
 |
| Shellfish bisque |
Café Fish
The Pier, Torbermory
Isle of Mull, Argyl
PA75 6NU
Tel. 01688 301253
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Mull: Notes from a small island
The Isle of Mull will forever be notable to me as being the first place that I camped as an adult. And also, given the uncomfortable, damp night I spent, possibly the last. I just really don’t see the point of tents when man has evolved to such an extent that we can build, you know, houses. With foundations. And double glazing. And central heating.
Picture the scene: it is Saturday morning, eight thirty. Rain. Wind. Me – grumpy, tired (having slept a total of about two hours all night), thirsty, cold, getting wetter by the minute. D – grappling with an oversized tent and a grumpy girlfriend. Smug couple in the tent next door cooking sausages on the camp stove, which smell is making my grump even worse. Sharp words may have been exchanged. Eventually, the tent was packed up and bundled into the car. We headed down the road for Tobermory, the largest town on the island, fantasising about a cosy café, a pot of tea and something warming for breakfast.
Well, turns out that no such place exists in Tobermory at nine o clock on a Saturday morning. In silence we tramped the length of the high street – which, in all fairness, isn’t long. I think I may actually have been near to tears at this point and started asking, in fishwifey tones, what exactly the fun part of the whole camping experience was.
And then we noticed a local deli which was a) open, and b) selling takeaway hot drinks. And, oh glory, when we got inside they were also offering bacon rolls. We took our breakfast back to the car and ate in there. The rain continued to, well, rain, the windows steamed up around us and, I swear, that cup of tea and bacon roll may well have been one of the most delicious meals I have ever consumed.
The thing is, once you’ve had a weight problem and got on the “diet” treadmill, some of the joy can get sucked out of eating. I’ve tried so hard to maintain my love of food – it’s a mission statement that’s right up there in my explanatory blog blurb at the top of the page – but the truth is, sometimes the process of meal planning and counting points and playing tit for tat with food swaps just is not fun. I love eating out, and I never try to “count” a meal in a special restaurant, but I can’t deny that I sometimes get guilt pangs before, during and/or after. Sitting in that steamed up car, eating that simple bacon sandwich, for a brief period I did not wonder: “How many points in this?” or question whether it was “good” or “bad”, “naughty” or “nice”. I just had a moment of pure sensory pleasure – the sheer relief at being warm and dry and not shrouded in canvas, as well as the taste of the salty bacon and the scrunch of the crusty roll all washed down with hot, strong tea.
And later I thought back and wondered whether sometimes I need to consciously try and get back to the basics of what food is, away from points, away from a reward system, away from good and bad, but just basically – sustenance and nourishment. That bacon sandwich made me feel nourished physically and emotionally. It was exactly what I needed at that time and in that place.
I don’t quite know what I plan to do with this bacon-related ephiphany yet, but I just wanted to record it for posterity. Also, I want it well and truly noted that I DO NOT like camping.
Picture the scene: it is Saturday morning, eight thirty. Rain. Wind. Me – grumpy, tired (having slept a total of about two hours all night), thirsty, cold, getting wetter by the minute. D – grappling with an oversized tent and a grumpy girlfriend. Smug couple in the tent next door cooking sausages on the camp stove, which smell is making my grump even worse. Sharp words may have been exchanged. Eventually, the tent was packed up and bundled into the car. We headed down the road for Tobermory, the largest town on the island, fantasising about a cosy café, a pot of tea and something warming for breakfast.
Well, turns out that no such place exists in Tobermory at nine o clock on a Saturday morning. In silence we tramped the length of the high street – which, in all fairness, isn’t long. I think I may actually have been near to tears at this point and started asking, in fishwifey tones, what exactly the fun part of the whole camping experience was.
And then we noticed a local deli which was a) open, and b) selling takeaway hot drinks. And, oh glory, when we got inside they were also offering bacon rolls. We took our breakfast back to the car and ate in there. The rain continued to, well, rain, the windows steamed up around us and, I swear, that cup of tea and bacon roll may well have been one of the most delicious meals I have ever consumed.
The thing is, once you’ve had a weight problem and got on the “diet” treadmill, some of the joy can get sucked out of eating. I’ve tried so hard to maintain my love of food – it’s a mission statement that’s right up there in my explanatory blog blurb at the top of the page – but the truth is, sometimes the process of meal planning and counting points and playing tit for tat with food swaps just is not fun. I love eating out, and I never try to “count” a meal in a special restaurant, but I can’t deny that I sometimes get guilt pangs before, during and/or after. Sitting in that steamed up car, eating that simple bacon sandwich, for a brief period I did not wonder: “How many points in this?” or question whether it was “good” or “bad”, “naughty” or “nice”. I just had a moment of pure sensory pleasure – the sheer relief at being warm and dry and not shrouded in canvas, as well as the taste of the salty bacon and the scrunch of the crusty roll all washed down with hot, strong tea.
And later I thought back and wondered whether sometimes I need to consciously try and get back to the basics of what food is, away from points, away from a reward system, away from good and bad, but just basically – sustenance and nourishment. That bacon sandwich made me feel nourished physically and emotionally. It was exactly what I needed at that time and in that place.
I don’t quite know what I plan to do with this bacon-related ephiphany yet, but I just wanted to record it for posterity. Also, I want it well and truly noted that I DO NOT like camping.
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
And back to reality...
Why are holidays always so short?
Back from a lovely week in Scotland - and a weekend of hiding at home in my pyjamas pretending the outside world didn't exist. Sadly back at work now - but also back to my beloved blog. Seriously, I am surprised at how often I thought about it while away, with ideas for posts popping into my head at all sorts of random moments.
So, once I've caught up with all you lovely people, and uploaded some photos, I will be back!
Back from a lovely week in Scotland - and a weekend of hiding at home in my pyjamas pretending the outside world didn't exist. Sadly back at work now - but also back to my beloved blog. Seriously, I am surprised at how often I thought about it while away, with ideas for posts popping into my head at all sorts of random moments.
So, once I've caught up with all you lovely people, and uploaded some photos, I will be back!
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Adventures in pizza making
Oh, pizza. How I love it, in all its forms. From the thick, gooey, doughy hunks that make the perfect post-pub takeaway (Domino’s I’m looking at you – and yes, I’ll probably be in touch soon) to the actual “proper” stuff that they eat in Italy, with a crisp crust stretched thin and an elegantly restrained amount of topping.
I’m a regular patron of the Pizza Express chain and I generally order the same thing – the Soho, which is essentially a margherita topped with rocket, Parmesan shavings and a drizzle of olive oil, and at 13 WW points it is workable as a dinner with a little bit of austerity earlier in the day. Pizza Express has recently challenged its diners to come up with a new pizza topping – and while I don’t think I’ll ever be able to improve on my beloved Soho, the prospect of a £5000 prize AND a place on the Pizza Express menu was enough to make me pause for thought.
I wanted to do something that had a recognisable culinary link to Italy and traditional Italian cooking. And, for some reason, my thoughts turned towards a pasta dish that D cooked about a year ago which consisted of ravioli filled with a roasted butternut squash puree, subtly flavoured with amaretti biscuits, and then tossed in a sage butter. Apparently this is a dish most famously found in the Cremona region of Italy, and is traditionally called tortelli di zucca.
I liked the idea of squash roasted with sage on top of a pizza. I thought that adding amaretti biscuits might be a step too weird alongside all the other flavours that I would need, but liked the idea of a bit of crunchy texture, so added a sprinkle of toasted flaked almonds just before serving. I was a bit concerned that the sweet squash would fight with a sweet tomato base, so made this a pizza bianchi, flavouring ricotta with roasted garlic, a touch of lemon zest and a hint of Parmesan cheese before spreading it on the pizza base (shop bought, much to my chagrin – I must try and make my own dough at some point) and topping it with the roasted squash, some roasted red onion (to add another savoury note) and, of course, mozzarella.
Voila!
It looks a bit of a mess but I'm still rather proud - it tasted yummy, although was quite rich. I didn't actually calculate the points but I'm guessing it wouldn't be too terrible if you used half fat mozzarella (which I've found melts just as well as the normal stuff) and didn't roast the squash and onion with much oil.
D had a go too and his was far prettier than mine:
Behold the pizza puttanesca - also based on a classic pasta dish. The sauce was absolutely delicious - baby plum tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies and a touch of chilli all whizzed together and then topped with mozzarella (of course) and more anchovies and olives. We decided it was a bit of a marmite pizza - if you love those strong, salty flavours then likely you would love this, but if not it would be a bit much.
Whether or not we win the £5000, it was fun to do and I must say I am rather inspired to do some more creating - although I've promised myself that I will actually make my own dough next time!
I’m a regular patron of the Pizza Express chain and I generally order the same thing – the Soho, which is essentially a margherita topped with rocket, Parmesan shavings and a drizzle of olive oil, and at 13 WW points it is workable as a dinner with a little bit of austerity earlier in the day. Pizza Express has recently challenged its diners to come up with a new pizza topping – and while I don’t think I’ll ever be able to improve on my beloved Soho, the prospect of a £5000 prize AND a place on the Pizza Express menu was enough to make me pause for thought.
I wanted to do something that had a recognisable culinary link to Italy and traditional Italian cooking. And, for some reason, my thoughts turned towards a pasta dish that D cooked about a year ago which consisted of ravioli filled with a roasted butternut squash puree, subtly flavoured with amaretti biscuits, and then tossed in a sage butter. Apparently this is a dish most famously found in the Cremona region of Italy, and is traditionally called tortelli di zucca.
I liked the idea of squash roasted with sage on top of a pizza. I thought that adding amaretti biscuits might be a step too weird alongside all the other flavours that I would need, but liked the idea of a bit of crunchy texture, so added a sprinkle of toasted flaked almonds just before serving. I was a bit concerned that the sweet squash would fight with a sweet tomato base, so made this a pizza bianchi, flavouring ricotta with roasted garlic, a touch of lemon zest and a hint of Parmesan cheese before spreading it on the pizza base (shop bought, much to my chagrin – I must try and make my own dough at some point) and topping it with the roasted squash, some roasted red onion (to add another savoury note) and, of course, mozzarella.
Voila!
D had a go too and his was far prettier than mine:
Behold the pizza puttanesca - also based on a classic pasta dish. The sauce was absolutely delicious - baby plum tomatoes, olives, capers, anchovies and a touch of chilli all whizzed together and then topped with mozzarella (of course) and more anchovies and olives. We decided it was a bit of a marmite pizza - if you love those strong, salty flavours then likely you would love this, but if not it would be a bit much.
Whether or not we win the £5000, it was fun to do and I must say I am rather inspired to do some more creating - although I've promised myself that I will actually make my own dough next time!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
This Time Next Week…
…Where will you be?
I only ask, because I won’t be around – I’ll be in sunny (or otherwise!) Scotland on holidays and I’m getting a little bit over excited.
It’s the first holiday we’ve taken this year – unless you count the two weeks of cat sitting up the road - and it’s a little bit different to the type of trip we generally take. We’re both a little obsessed with food (as you may have noticed) and we have a keen interest in art and culture (although you wouldn’t have guessed it from the pile of Heat magazines that I keep hidden under the bed!) so we tend to opt for city breaks. This autumn we’re eschewing that and are getting back to nature! No Michelin star dinners or posh hotels with complementary towelling robes for us – nope, we going to spend one night in a tent on an island and six in a static caravan by the beach.
I think a week of fresh air, walking and relaxing will be exactly what we need – we’ve both been a bit tired and jaded lately and I think some of that ennui has probably come through in this blog – it’s certainly the reason why my WWing has been so hit and miss. Freshness, simplicity and plenty of exercise (we’ll be taking walking boots and cagoules and hitting the trails regardless of the weather) will hopefully give my 30 for 30 challenge a good boost – even if it just manages to get me into a slightly more self nurturing state of mind.
Of course, it’s not all going to be beans on toast – check out the gorgeous looking Café Fish on the island of Mull where we’ll be dining on Friday night. The area of Scotland we’re sojourning in is famous for its fresh seafood, so we are hoping to persuade a friendly local fisherman to sell us something fresh on the boat to cook in a fire pit. And, naturally, there will be the odd wee dram of whisky!
I only ask, because I won’t be around – I’ll be in sunny (or otherwise!) Scotland on holidays and I’m getting a little bit over excited.
It’s the first holiday we’ve taken this year – unless you count the two weeks of cat sitting up the road - and it’s a little bit different to the type of trip we generally take. We’re both a little obsessed with food (as you may have noticed) and we have a keen interest in art and culture (although you wouldn’t have guessed it from the pile of Heat magazines that I keep hidden under the bed!) so we tend to opt for city breaks. This autumn we’re eschewing that and are getting back to nature! No Michelin star dinners or posh hotels with complementary towelling robes for us – nope, we going to spend one night in a tent on an island and six in a static caravan by the beach.
I think a week of fresh air, walking and relaxing will be exactly what we need – we’ve both been a bit tired and jaded lately and I think some of that ennui has probably come through in this blog – it’s certainly the reason why my WWing has been so hit and miss. Freshness, simplicity and plenty of exercise (we’ll be taking walking boots and cagoules and hitting the trails regardless of the weather) will hopefully give my 30 for 30 challenge a good boost – even if it just manages to get me into a slightly more self nurturing state of mind.
Of course, it’s not all going to be beans on toast – check out the gorgeous looking Café Fish on the island of Mull where we’ll be dining on Friday night. The area of Scotland we’re sojourning in is famous for its fresh seafood, so we are hoping to persuade a friendly local fisherman to sell us something fresh on the boat to cook in a fire pit. And, naturally, there will be the odd wee dram of whisky!
Monday, 6 September 2010
Diet Demons - 1, Foodie – 0
Fortunately, the bright shiny ticker I have installed at the bottom of this blog (for my 30 for 30 challenge) doesn’t move backwards. So, according to that I am still in a neutral position – no loss, no gain. The scales tell a different story. It turns out, that if you spend a long weekend doing nothing more strenuous than sitting in a hot tub while drinking far many bottles of wine with your closest female friends, you’re not going to lose weight. Especially when you compound this drinking with the post-drinking eating (McDonalds breakfast – I’m looking at you).
But, onwards! There’s still plenty of time to make inroads into the excess flabulousness between now and (shhh!) the big-birthday-that-I’m-trying-not-to-think-about.
But, onwards! There’s still plenty of time to make inroads into the excess flabulousness between now and (shhh!) the big-birthday-that-I’m-trying-not-to-think-about.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
“New Year” Resolutions
The 1st September always seems to represent a second New Year for me. I suppose it is a throwback from school and college days. Anyway, although I’ve written before about the futility of attaching too much importance to start dates, nevertheless, I would be lying if I didn’t say I had a little frisson of…something this morning. The feeling of a page being turned.
So, I’m going to take this opportunity to set out an actual weight loss goal. I started this blog because I love writing and I love food and I love writing about food and I wanted an outlet for that. But it’s becoming more and more apparent that this could also be a wonderful weight loss tool if used properly – an added level of accountability.
In sixteen weeks, Christmas will be nearly upon us – and also my 30th birthday (a milestone I’m doing my best to forget). In sixteen weeks I would like to have lost 30 pounds. Yep, I’m starting a 30 for 30 campaign. I don’t propose to give myself any particular reward for reaching this goal, nor will there be a punishment for not reaching it, but it is a target to work towards.
I have all the tools I need to do this. I know the Weight Watchers plan inside out and back to front. I enjoy cooking (I need to remind myself of this sometimes; I genuinely enjoy it but I do find it easy to get sucked into a routine of takeaways and convenience food if I’m tired and low) and I have access to potentially thousands of recipes through the internet, magazines and cookery books. I am a member of a good gym with a pool and plenty of exercise classes. Yes, I have social commitments to look forward to, but there is no reason that a night out or a weekend away should mean total derailment. I have a blog where I can come to record success or to vent as needs be, and where I can keep a record of the kind of delicious food that I am able to eat and still see the scales drop. What reason is there to fail?
So happy “New Year” to all, and I hope all of us achieve some of our targets in the months ahead.
Edited to add: in a fit on enthusiasm I've created a 30 for 30 challenge ticker which is down at the bottom of the blog page. Now all I have to do is make that pretty butterfly move!
So, I’m going to take this opportunity to set out an actual weight loss goal. I started this blog because I love writing and I love food and I love writing about food and I wanted an outlet for that. But it’s becoming more and more apparent that this could also be a wonderful weight loss tool if used properly – an added level of accountability.
In sixteen weeks, Christmas will be nearly upon us – and also my 30th birthday (a milestone I’m doing my best to forget). In sixteen weeks I would like to have lost 30 pounds. Yep, I’m starting a 30 for 30 campaign. I don’t propose to give myself any particular reward for reaching this goal, nor will there be a punishment for not reaching it, but it is a target to work towards.
I have all the tools I need to do this. I know the Weight Watchers plan inside out and back to front. I enjoy cooking (I need to remind myself of this sometimes; I genuinely enjoy it but I do find it easy to get sucked into a routine of takeaways and convenience food if I’m tired and low) and I have access to potentially thousands of recipes through the internet, magazines and cookery books. I am a member of a good gym with a pool and plenty of exercise classes. Yes, I have social commitments to look forward to, but there is no reason that a night out or a weekend away should mean total derailment. I have a blog where I can come to record success or to vent as needs be, and where I can keep a record of the kind of delicious food that I am able to eat and still see the scales drop. What reason is there to fail?
So happy “New Year” to all, and I hope all of us achieve some of our targets in the months ahead.
Edited to add: in a fit on enthusiasm I've created a 30 for 30 challenge ticker which is down at the bottom of the blog page. Now all I have to do is make that pretty butterfly move!
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Recipe corner – Aubergine and red lentil curry
I haven’t added a recipe in a while, probably because my cooking has been somewhat desultory. But I’ve resolved to turn over a new leaf. Last night, I came home and whipped up not only a batch of the above curry but also of chilli con carne in about an hour. Very Nigella Express.
So this particular recipe is taken, more or less completely, from the Delicious magazine website. I cook it quite a lot because – well, I like it. It is great for a midweek supper and I tend to take the remaining portions for lunch over the following days – curry always tends to improve in flavour with a bit of sitting time and it’s nice and filling with maybe a pitta bread on the side for dunking.
In general, I am a big fan of pounding up spices to make my own paste if I’m making curry, but in this case you’ll notice that it comes out of a jar – a minor cheat but it does make this incredibly quick to do. Last night I had points to spare, so had not only this and a 60g portion of basmati rice (3 points) but also half a naan bread (3.5 points).
Ingredients
1 large aubergine, finely diced
1 green pepper, diced
Tsp (or more if you’re into a bit of heat) chilli powder
Tbsp vegetable oil
Onion, chopped
Tsp black mustard seeds
150g red lentils
2 tbsp curry paste (use your favourite. Or make your own if you’re feeling it)
450ml vegetable stock
Serves 4, 2.5 points per person
Preheat over to 190. Toss the aubergine and the pepper in the oil and the chilli powder, season well and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes until soft and beginning to brown.
Meanwhile, soften the onion in the pan for about five minutes before adding the mustard seeds. Wait for the seeds to start popping before stirring through the curry paste and the lentils.
Pour over the stock, and simmer for 15-20 mins, or until the lentils are soft.
Stir through the roasted vegetables prior to serving. You could also add fresh coriander at this point should you so wish.
So this particular recipe is taken, more or less completely, from the Delicious magazine website. I cook it quite a lot because – well, I like it. It is great for a midweek supper and I tend to take the remaining portions for lunch over the following days – curry always tends to improve in flavour with a bit of sitting time and it’s nice and filling with maybe a pitta bread on the side for dunking.
In general, I am a big fan of pounding up spices to make my own paste if I’m making curry, but in this case you’ll notice that it comes out of a jar – a minor cheat but it does make this incredibly quick to do. Last night I had points to spare, so had not only this and a 60g portion of basmati rice (3 points) but also half a naan bread (3.5 points).
Ingredients
1 large aubergine, finely diced
1 green pepper, diced
Tsp (or more if you’re into a bit of heat) chilli powder
Tbsp vegetable oil
Onion, chopped
Tsp black mustard seeds
150g red lentils
2 tbsp curry paste (use your favourite. Or make your own if you’re feeling it)
450ml vegetable stock
Serves 4, 2.5 points per person
Preheat over to 190. Toss the aubergine and the pepper in the oil and the chilli powder, season well and put in the oven for 20-25 minutes until soft and beginning to brown.
Meanwhile, soften the onion in the pan for about five minutes before adding the mustard seeds. Wait for the seeds to start popping before stirring through the curry paste and the lentils.
Pour over the stock, and simmer for 15-20 mins, or until the lentils are soft.
Stir through the roasted vegetables prior to serving. You could also add fresh coriander at this point should you so wish.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
A little bit of midweek luxury
Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs has been my go-to birthday breakfast for years. As a young girl, I thought it was the absolute height of sophistication. Obviously nowadays a dish can't be called sophisticated unless it is strewn with dust or covered in foam. But the combination of tastes and textures - oh, it may not be cutting edge but it is still one of my absolute favourite food marriages.
In general I have found that I (and perhaps this is true of dieters in general) count among my favourite foods some pretty non WW friendly stuff. Cheese - yep, that's a no no unless you are one of those weirdos who can actually eat cheese in fingernail sized portions. Butter - spread so thick that you leave teeth marks in it naturally. Real mayonnaise, ghee laden curries...OK, I'll stop now. It's quite rare that a genuine favourite can be served up unless it has been tweaked and skinnified and made just a little bit less unctuous - after all, it is often the fat content that is responsible for that silky mouth feel.Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs is not one of these dishes. In days gone by, I'd add a knob of butter to the pan before throwing in the eggs but I've found a similar creaminess can be achieved by stirring through a spoonful of extra light soft cheese at the end. And because the salmon itself is naturally rich and oily I don't think the dish is any the less.
It's moved from being the exclusive preserve of breakfasts to being a favourite, quick and easy midweek supper nowadays and I have to say, I always look forward to it. Tonight, two large double yoker eggs and a generous (60g) portion of smoked salmon finished in the pan with a tablespoon of Philly piled on top of a slice of wholemeal toast came in at a very reasonable 7.5 points. I feel satiated but I also feel like I've had a real naughty treat, and there are points left in the bank! A very good end to the day.
Monday, 23 August 2010
Feelin’ (not so) Groovy*
*With apologies to Simon and Garfunkle.
The last couple of weeks have been slightly odd. We’ve been cat sitting for my parents, who live twenty miles down the road from us and while it has not been an actual holiday, I’ve sort of fallen into holiday mode which has made my general diet somewhat skewiff. Plus, we’ve been a lot further away from the gym and so our visits have been sporadic.
Oh, I had so many grand plans. I was going to take full advantage of the garden and the barbecue (we live in a two bed roomed flat, so outdoor space is a novelty) and eat a wholesome diet of grilled meat or fish and salad. You know, the kind of meals that celebrities insist they live on. When we couldn’t get to the gym I was going to shuttle run across the lawn, or maybe buy a cheap skipping rope. But grand plans don’t come together unless littler plans are in place – meal plans and cooking plans. The sort of organisation that I deliberately avoided. Yes, I’ve had good days here and there, but more by luck than judgement.
Anyway, we’re back home this evening and one of my first priorities is going to be putting together a proper meal plan for the week. I also intend to huff and puff my way through a Body Combat class. I need to reintroduce the concept of routine to my eating and my tracking and my exercise.
The day did not get off to the best of starts routine wise – I left the house without any breakfast or lunch packed; but instead of using this as an excuse to go entirely off piste I’ve had a grande skinny latte for breakfast from Starbucks (2 points) which ok, is not the most filling choice, but should keep me going for a few hours, and then it is off to Subway at lunchtime for my lucky 5 point sub.
The last couple of weeks have been slightly odd. We’ve been cat sitting for my parents, who live twenty miles down the road from us and while it has not been an actual holiday, I’ve sort of fallen into holiday mode which has made my general diet somewhat skewiff. Plus, we’ve been a lot further away from the gym and so our visits have been sporadic.
Oh, I had so many grand plans. I was going to take full advantage of the garden and the barbecue (we live in a two bed roomed flat, so outdoor space is a novelty) and eat a wholesome diet of grilled meat or fish and salad. You know, the kind of meals that celebrities insist they live on. When we couldn’t get to the gym I was going to shuttle run across the lawn, or maybe buy a cheap skipping rope. But grand plans don’t come together unless littler plans are in place – meal plans and cooking plans. The sort of organisation that I deliberately avoided. Yes, I’ve had good days here and there, but more by luck than judgement.
Anyway, we’re back home this evening and one of my first priorities is going to be putting together a proper meal plan for the week. I also intend to huff and puff my way through a Body Combat class. I need to reintroduce the concept of routine to my eating and my tracking and my exercise.
The day did not get off to the best of starts routine wise – I left the house without any breakfast or lunch packed; but instead of using this as an excuse to go entirely off piste I’ve had a grande skinny latte for breakfast from Starbucks (2 points) which ok, is not the most filling choice, but should keep me going for a few hours, and then it is off to Subway at lunchtime for my lucky 5 point sub.
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Seven things about me
Ooooh, I’m SO excited today to have been nominated to tell all my tens of thousands of readers (optimistic, moi??) seven things about me. Thanks, Linz!!
I thought this would be quite hard to do initially, but once I started I couldn’t stop, so you nearly ended up with seventy things about me, all of which were slightly more dull than the last. Turns out, I love blathering about myself as much as I love blathering about food. So, with no further ado:
1. I was born and bred an Essex girl. I moved to Yorkshire nearly ten years ago, but have been reliably informed that you don’t get to claim residency until you’re third generation, so I guess that means I’ll be staying an Essex girl. However, I can’t really do an Essex accent – unless very drunk, when the odd twang slips out. If I attempt to do an Essex accent, I sound a bit like Dick Van Dyck in Mary Poppins. I think there might be some serious repression going on there.
2. I have, at various points in my life, wanted to be a pilot, a neurosurgeon and a barrister – so I’m not quite sure how I managed to end up a civil servant. However, I am willing to bet that the fields of aviation, medicine and law are heaving a huge collective sigh of relief as we speak; I’m probably far too absent minded to do any of those things well.
3. I’ve always wanted to write. One of my most treasured possessions when I was younger was an old fashioned typewriter in a bright blue case that my grandfather gave me. I used to write school stories, a la Malory Towers and the Chalet School. I never got past Chapter One. The day I hit Chapter Two will be the day I know I have a keeper.
4. I read English Literature at university, because I realised that it would mean sitting around (one of my favourite things) and reading (one of my other favourite things) for three whole years. Obviously, not being a vocational degree it did not prepare me for any sort of actual career. However, it did leave me with an enduring ability to waffle about nothing at length and sound vaguely intelligent. The faux-posh accent (see point 1) probably helps with this as well.
5. I have spent more hundreds of pounds than I can bear to think about over the last few years on eating out at the type of restaurants where things are served in shot glasses or on pieces of driftwood and it has given me a tremendous amount of pleasure (although the resulting credit card bills have been committed to the shredder without being opened). I have eaten at two of the top three restaurants in the world according to these people (who are supposed to know about such things) and the memories of those meals make me break out in a huge smile even years later.
6. I am getting married next year, even though I am fairly sure that I am not grown up enough to be a wife. But I’m not supposed to talk about the wedding until T – 365 days (so expect a big ole wedding post on 17th September!)
7. I name things. Inanimate things. I never realised that this was weird and assumed everybody did it, but apparently not. The car, of course, has a name – he’s called Ethel, short for Ethelred (as in the Unready). Don’t think that’s too far out? OK, my engagement ring is called Jasmine (well, actually, just the stone, because obviously to name a setting would be weird). My Ipod is called George. My computer is Lizzie Bennett. I once spent a lot of quality time with a scanner named Howard. The communal tea tray in our office is called Colin – and I could go on. Unfortunately, naming things means that I get overly emotionally attached to them. When the stone fell out of my engagement ring earlier this year, I literally cried for a whole day – and that was before I found out that the insurance company weren’t going to pay for it to be replaced. In the end, I had to invent a story for myself in which Jasmine went on a seaside holiday before coming home to York.
And there you have it. Now, I would love to pass this on but being a relatively newbie in the blogging world I don’t think I know of fifteen other blogs to pass this on to who have not already been honoured. Therefore, if anyone who stumbles across this wishes to post seven interesting (or, as per above, quite dull) facts about themselves, please feel free! I’m terrible nosy.
I thought this would be quite hard to do initially, but once I started I couldn’t stop, so you nearly ended up with seventy things about me, all of which were slightly more dull than the last. Turns out, I love blathering about myself as much as I love blathering about food. So, with no further ado:
1. I was born and bred an Essex girl. I moved to Yorkshire nearly ten years ago, but have been reliably informed that you don’t get to claim residency until you’re third generation, so I guess that means I’ll be staying an Essex girl. However, I can’t really do an Essex accent – unless very drunk, when the odd twang slips out. If I attempt to do an Essex accent, I sound a bit like Dick Van Dyck in Mary Poppins. I think there might be some serious repression going on there.
2. I have, at various points in my life, wanted to be a pilot, a neurosurgeon and a barrister – so I’m not quite sure how I managed to end up a civil servant. However, I am willing to bet that the fields of aviation, medicine and law are heaving a huge collective sigh of relief as we speak; I’m probably far too absent minded to do any of those things well.
3. I’ve always wanted to write. One of my most treasured possessions when I was younger was an old fashioned typewriter in a bright blue case that my grandfather gave me. I used to write school stories, a la Malory Towers and the Chalet School. I never got past Chapter One. The day I hit Chapter Two will be the day I know I have a keeper.
4. I read English Literature at university, because I realised that it would mean sitting around (one of my favourite things) and reading (one of my other favourite things) for three whole years. Obviously, not being a vocational degree it did not prepare me for any sort of actual career. However, it did leave me with an enduring ability to waffle about nothing at length and sound vaguely intelligent. The faux-posh accent (see point 1) probably helps with this as well.
5. I have spent more hundreds of pounds than I can bear to think about over the last few years on eating out at the type of restaurants where things are served in shot glasses or on pieces of driftwood and it has given me a tremendous amount of pleasure (although the resulting credit card bills have been committed to the shredder without being opened). I have eaten at two of the top three restaurants in the world according to these people (who are supposed to know about such things) and the memories of those meals make me break out in a huge smile even years later.
6. I am getting married next year, even though I am fairly sure that I am not grown up enough to be a wife. But I’m not supposed to talk about the wedding until T – 365 days (so expect a big ole wedding post on 17th September!)
7. I name things. Inanimate things. I never realised that this was weird and assumed everybody did it, but apparently not. The car, of course, has a name – he’s called Ethel, short for Ethelred (as in the Unready). Don’t think that’s too far out? OK, my engagement ring is called Jasmine (well, actually, just the stone, because obviously to name a setting would be weird). My Ipod is called George. My computer is Lizzie Bennett. I once spent a lot of quality time with a scanner named Howard. The communal tea tray in our office is called Colin – and I could go on. Unfortunately, naming things means that I get overly emotionally attached to them. When the stone fell out of my engagement ring earlier this year, I literally cried for a whole day – and that was before I found out that the insurance company weren’t going to pay for it to be replaced. In the end, I had to invent a story for myself in which Jasmine went on a seaside holiday before coming home to York.
And there you have it. Now, I would love to pass this on but being a relatively newbie in the blogging world I don’t think I know of fifteen other blogs to pass this on to who have not already been honoured. Therefore, if anyone who stumbles across this wishes to post seven interesting (or, as per above, quite dull) facts about themselves, please feel free! I’m terrible nosy.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Twix Travesty
I'm all for companies trying to make "lighter" versions of things.
But this is just wrong. A travesty along similar lines to the Mars Delight or the Kinder Bueno. The only acceptable chocolate / wafer combination is the KitKat in my opinion (which is the only one that counts on my blog).
As for the confectionery versus biscuit debate...I used to work for the sweetie company that makes KitKats and they classified the 4 finger as a chocolate bar and the 2 finger as a biscuit. So there.
But this is just wrong. A travesty along similar lines to the Mars Delight or the Kinder Bueno. The only acceptable chocolate / wafer combination is the KitKat in my opinion (which is the only one that counts on my blog).
As for the confectionery versus biscuit debate...I used to work for the sweetie company that makes KitKats and they classified the 4 finger as a chocolate bar and the 2 finger as a biscuit. So there.
Monday, 16 August 2010
Fusion or Confusion?
I’m just going to come out and say it. I love Masterchef.
I mean, I’m not known for my discerning taste in television – just ask poor D who has just spent the whole weekend trying to get away from an Australia’s Next Top Model marathon. And when it comes to food programmes I’ll watch pretty much anything and will often have the Good Food channel on just as background noise (absorbing recipes and techniques by osmosis perhaps).
But Masterchef – that is must see TV. Seriously. I draw the line at the Junior version – precocious children scare me. But standard, Professional and Celebrity – fantastic! It’s comedy gold! If they have such a thing as the gurning world championships, John Torode and Greg Wallace should enter, they’d be absolutely sure to win. The expressions that those two have come up with while wandering between the contestants – who would have thought that the human face was capable of such contortions? And, almost as amusing, some of the food combinations that the entrants come up with, particularly in the early stage invention test. I think my favourite from this current series was Christine Hamilton’s Thai mussels with…blue cheese.
Anyway, during the last series of Masterchef Proper (i.e. the contestants are not “famous” or professional chefs) John Torode coined the phrase that I’ve used as my title to express his uncertainty at a particularly odd amalgamation; someone attempting to marry, for example, sweet and sour sauce with bangers and mash. Now, whenever we see an unlikely combination of ingredients in a recipe or on a menu, we chorus (in a cod Australian accent, of course) “Is it fusion? Or confusion?” Yes, I know…but it makes us laugh.
I was a little bit surprised then, to see in the latest issue of Good Food magazine John Torode has supplied a recipe for a spicy butternut squash…curry, for want of a better word, to be served with spaghetti. He called it fusion – so you can guess what is coming. I cooked it for supper one night last week, with the intention of writing a very amusing blog piece about how it was confused rather than, um, fused. Trouble is, it actually tasted pretty nice - I thought the pasta worked well with the heat of the sauce. So, no amusing confusion jokes for me. It wasn't perfect by any means - both of us found the addition of lime pickle made it a little sour, so that needs to be balanced out, and I’ve got a few ideas that will pimp it up a little bit – I’m convinced that the addition of some fat prawns would work well with the squash – and then I’m going to post it here so you too can bellow quotes by rubber featured Australian chefs at your food. Or not.
I mean, I’m not known for my discerning taste in television – just ask poor D who has just spent the whole weekend trying to get away from an Australia’s Next Top Model marathon. And when it comes to food programmes I’ll watch pretty much anything and will often have the Good Food channel on just as background noise (absorbing recipes and techniques by osmosis perhaps).But Masterchef – that is must see TV. Seriously. I draw the line at the Junior version – precocious children scare me. But standard, Professional and Celebrity – fantastic! It’s comedy gold! If they have such a thing as the gurning world championships, John Torode and Greg Wallace should enter, they’d be absolutely sure to win. The expressions that those two have come up with while wandering between the contestants – who would have thought that the human face was capable of such contortions? And, almost as amusing, some of the food combinations that the entrants come up with, particularly in the early stage invention test. I think my favourite from this current series was Christine Hamilton’s Thai mussels with…blue cheese.
Anyway, during the last series of Masterchef Proper (i.e. the contestants are not “famous” or professional chefs) John Torode coined the phrase that I’ve used as my title to express his uncertainty at a particularly odd amalgamation; someone attempting to marry, for example, sweet and sour sauce with bangers and mash. Now, whenever we see an unlikely combination of ingredients in a recipe or on a menu, we chorus (in a cod Australian accent, of course) “Is it fusion? Or confusion?” Yes, I know…but it makes us laugh.
I was a little bit surprised then, to see in the latest issue of Good Food magazine John Torode has supplied a recipe for a spicy butternut squash…curry, for want of a better word, to be served with spaghetti. He called it fusion – so you can guess what is coming. I cooked it for supper one night last week, with the intention of writing a very amusing blog piece about how it was confused rather than, um, fused. Trouble is, it actually tasted pretty nice - I thought the pasta worked well with the heat of the sauce. So, no amusing confusion jokes for me. It wasn't perfect by any means - both of us found the addition of lime pickle made it a little sour, so that needs to be balanced out, and I’ve got a few ideas that will pimp it up a little bit – I’m convinced that the addition of some fat prawns would work well with the squash – and then I’m going to post it here so you too can bellow quotes by rubber featured Australian chefs at your food. Or not.
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