Have you finished your Christmas cake yet? That block of stilton? Last bottle of wine?
I sure have. It's a new year, and time for a new start. I myself plan to take a month or two off of drinking - to cleanse the palette (and so I can get really drunk in March!)
January can be a depressing month, and I say that despite the fact that my birthday was only yesterday! The rich foods of Christmas are gone, and there's not quite as much fresh produce to choose from. But here are a few highlights, which I'll mull over as the month progresses:
Jerusalem artichokes
You probably know this already, but these little things are neither from Jerusalem nor artichokes. Why must we eat this lying veg, you ask? Well, it's a great root veg - really nutty and very tasty. It sometimes has a bit of a side effect - one generally associated with beans, swede and other "hearty" vegetables...
Check back for good recipes with jerusalem artichokes - like roasted Jerusalem artichokes with mushrooms, JA puree, and JA soup.
Scallops
They aren't cheap, but they are certainly lovely. They make a fantastic "treat" meal - for a birthday, Valentine's Day, or even a Tuesday. They taste sweetly of the sea and pair well with meats such as bacon or black pudding.
Some of my favourite scallops recipes include baked scallops topped with shredded sweet potato and courgette, scallops with bacon and peas, and even just scallops pan-fried simply with some fresh veg.
Kale
Kale belongs in the cabbage family - but don't let that turn you off. Cabbage is fab! It's healthy, tasty (provided you don't overcook it), and a great meal-filler.
I like kale steamed lightly on its own, but it also works well with strong flavours like chilli and garlic. Put it in soups, stews and curries, or serve alongside a roast chicken (like I'm doing tomorrow).
Pears
Enjoy them - they're the last of the winter fruits before we reach the often-dire months of March and April. While my husband doesn't really like them, I think good Comice pear goes a long way. I don't really like Conference pears though, I will admit.
Either on their own, poached in red wine, or in a fruit salad, pears are a great snack or dessert. And the gorgeousness of pear tart cannot be forgotten.
Celeriac
A knobbly root veg, celeriac is oft-forgotten amongst the rush for more popular root veg just as potatoes, parsnips and carrots. But this January, I'm bringing back the celeriac.
It tastes great mashed, in a soup, or in a bake with other root vegetables. AND it's cheap - which makes it a winner in my book these days.
Leeks
Although leeks are really just posh onions, I like them. They have a different texture to the average onion and add a bit of much-needed green to a winter meal.
Pair leeks classically with potatoes in a soup, or cream them to compliment a roast chicken. Sauteed, they're marvellous, as are they steamed. You can beat a leek.
Celery
I've saved the best for last. I love celery. I eat it most days - I crave the crunch. But it's extremely versatile - and while many people say it has no taste I beg to differ.
So this month let's break out of the crudite mould and use celery more creatively in soups, stir-frys and salads. Go on, you'll like it!!!
Showing posts with label curly kale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curly kale. Show all posts
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Sunday, 13 January 2008
salmon, for a change
Although I love smoked salmon, I'm not a huge fan of the normal fillets. Despite them being considered as one of the best components of a healthy diet, I think they are slightly boring. It is somehow too dense of a fish for my taste.
But for something different, we decided to give them a try. We chose lightly-smoked fillets and baked them for about 25 minutes.
Side dishes? Something soft and simple - mashed potatoes (about 200 g for me) and steamed curly kale with garlic. And for a zingy sauce - horseradish and pepper creme fraiche. It was under 450 calories but VERY filling. I couldn't even finish it all!
But for something different, we decided to give them a try. We chose lightly-smoked fillets and baked them for about 25 minutes.
Side dishes? Something soft and simple - mashed potatoes (about 200 g for me) and steamed curly kale with garlic. And for a zingy sauce - horseradish and pepper creme fraiche. It was under 450 calories but VERY filling. I couldn't even finish it all!
Monday, 7 January 2008
compare and contrast
Have a look at Sunday’s dinner: roast chicken, steamed kale, swede and chive mash, and boiled turnips. But have a look at portions (mine versus my husband’s).
My plate is healthy, with a focus on portion control. It's under 400 calories. His is stuffed to the brim. But he can handle it.
This is key to establishing a house with healthy eating, when one person is watching calories and the other isn’t. Fill your refrigerators and your plates with healthy food, but let those who don’t need to watch their size eat a bit more. Then everyone’s happy!
My plate is healthy, with a focus on portion control. It's under 400 calories. His is stuffed to the brim. But he can handle it.
This is key to establishing a house with healthy eating, when one person is watching calories and the other isn’t. Fill your refrigerators and your plates with healthy food, but let those who don’t need to watch their size eat a bit more. Then everyone’s happy!
Monday, 15 October 2007
autumn roast chicken that will last for at least four meals
I admit, I may be harping on and on about the season, but for good reason. Nothing feels – or tastes – better than cooking seasonally. There must be some synapses in the brain which fire when seasonal produce hits the tongue or when the eye spies the colours of the season.
Sunday evening’s menu, on the face of it, may seem uninspired: roast chicken with vegetables. But seasonal cooking takes a seemingly ordinary dinner and completely enlivens it. Roast chicken with vegetables becomes apple-stuffed roast chicken with butternut squash and kale. I also added a few spices – some dried thyme and a bit of ground ginger.
The chopped Bramley apple serves as a humidifier from within the chicken’s cavity, keeping the breast meat ever so moist. The butternut squash, once chopped and loaded into the pan with the chicken along with a few red onions, soaks up some of the lovely juices from the bird without becoming completely drenched. And the kale – needing only four minutes in the steamer – provides a fresh, textured, and importantly, green, counterpart to the chicken and squash.
As for the chicken, although £7.50 may seem like quite a lot for a 2 kg free-range corn-fed chicken, remember that there will be enough breast meat for another meal (either another round of this meal – or, as I’m doing, putting the shredded breast meat into an Italian chicken salad). Furthermore, there’s enough dark meat for some excellent chicken and cucumber sandwiches to take to lunch, and the carcass will boil up wonderfully with all the odds and ends of your veggie basket (i.e. the hearts of celery, carrot peelings, the dark green part of leeks, the skin of onions…)
Luckily, you don’t have to take my word for it – try it for yourself. There are ten weeks of autumn left, before my mind converts to winter and I begin espousing the credentials of pears, cabbage and swede. (And you know I’ll do it.)
Apple-stuffed roast chicken with butternut squash and kale
(serves 2-4, with leftover chicken for another night’s dinner, lunchmeat for sandwiches, and a rather beautiful stock for a carrot soup I’m making later this week)
2 kg free-range chicken
1 large Bramley apple, cored and chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, scooped, and chopped
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 bag of curly leaf kale
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Spray olive oil
Dried thyme (or fresh, if you have it)
Ground ginger
Preheat the oven to 200 C. Prepare the chicken by rinsing out the chicken and coating the inside with salt and pepper. Place in a foil-lined roasting tin. If using fresh thyme, stick the herbs between the skin and the breast meat and season. Spray a few squirts of olive oil.
Surround the chicken with the chopped butternut squash and a few slices of onion. Sprinkle with a bit of thyme and ginger. Roast for 2 hours – 30 minutes plus 45 minutes for each kilogram – checking on the chicken every 20 minutes or so. Use a basting brush to redistribute the juices over the chicken.
Once the chicken is done (meaning the juices run clear), remove it from the oven and transfer to a carving plate. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes before carving. Move the butternut squash and onion to another dish and pat with a paper towel to remove excess fat.
Place the kale in a steamer over medium-high heat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Steam for about five minutes.
Carve the chicken, and serve the desired cuts with a bit of the apple from the inside of the chicken, a helping of butternut squash and onion and a healthy serving of kale.
Sunday evening’s menu, on the face of it, may seem uninspired: roast chicken with vegetables. But seasonal cooking takes a seemingly ordinary dinner and completely enlivens it. Roast chicken with vegetables becomes apple-stuffed roast chicken with butternut squash and kale. I also added a few spices – some dried thyme and a bit of ground ginger.
The chopped Bramley apple serves as a humidifier from within the chicken’s cavity, keeping the breast meat ever so moist. The butternut squash, once chopped and loaded into the pan with the chicken along with a few red onions, soaks up some of the lovely juices from the bird without becoming completely drenched. And the kale – needing only four minutes in the steamer – provides a fresh, textured, and importantly, green, counterpart to the chicken and squash.
As for the chicken, although £7.50 may seem like quite a lot for a 2 kg free-range corn-fed chicken, remember that there will be enough breast meat for another meal (either another round of this meal – or, as I’m doing, putting the shredded breast meat into an Italian chicken salad). Furthermore, there’s enough dark meat for some excellent chicken and cucumber sandwiches to take to lunch, and the carcass will boil up wonderfully with all the odds and ends of your veggie basket (i.e. the hearts of celery, carrot peelings, the dark green part of leeks, the skin of onions…)
Luckily, you don’t have to take my word for it – try it for yourself. There are ten weeks of autumn left, before my mind converts to winter and I begin espousing the credentials of pears, cabbage and swede. (And you know I’ll do it.)
Apple-stuffed roast chicken with butternut squash and kale
(serves 2-4, with leftover chicken for another night’s dinner, lunchmeat for sandwiches, and a rather beautiful stock for a carrot soup I’m making later this week)
2 kg free-range chicken
1 large Bramley apple, cored and chopped
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, scooped, and chopped
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 bag of curly leaf kale
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Spray olive oil
Dried thyme (or fresh, if you have it)
Ground ginger
Preheat the oven to 200 C. Prepare the chicken by rinsing out the chicken and coating the inside with salt and pepper. Place in a foil-lined roasting tin. If using fresh thyme, stick the herbs between the skin and the breast meat and season. Spray a few squirts of olive oil.
Surround the chicken with the chopped butternut squash and a few slices of onion. Sprinkle with a bit of thyme and ginger. Roast for 2 hours – 30 minutes plus 45 minutes for each kilogram – checking on the chicken every 20 minutes or so. Use a basting brush to redistribute the juices over the chicken.
Once the chicken is done (meaning the juices run clear), remove it from the oven and transfer to a carving plate. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes before carving. Move the butternut squash and onion to another dish and pat with a paper towel to remove excess fat.
Place the kale in a steamer over medium-high heat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Steam for about five minutes.
Carve the chicken, and serve the desired cuts with a bit of the apple from the inside of the chicken, a helping of butternut squash and onion and a healthy serving of kale.
Monday, 27 August 2007
sea bass - a bank holiday treat
Saturday in Frinton-on-sea was so lovely that upon waking Sunday morning, we decided to head out again, this time to Kent. We hopped along the north coast of Kent, first stopping in Whitstable, known for its fishing industry. The oysters were flowing and tourists were certainly very happy. We stopped in the fish market on the pier, which was purveying its finest local sea bass and skate. I really wanted to get some sea bass but the knowledge that it would have to sit for at least four hours in the car put me off considerably.
Next stop - Whitstable's next-door neighbor Herne Bay, then off to Reculver, a small village known for its Roman fort and country park. Last, a stop in Westgate-on-sea to dip our feet in the water and look for crabs. No luck.
Upon returning to London, I popped out quickly for some sea bass, which we roasted with spring onions, lime juice and a splash of white wines, and served with baby carrots farmed from Pete's fathers garden and steamed curly kale. The flavours were so fresh and went really well with the French Malbec. We ate on the balcony, soaking in the last few minutes of Sunday sunshine.
Sea bass is an excellent fish with white creamy flesh. It's not particularly low in calories, though, and the serving sizes were quite large - two fish, gutted and headed, were about 600 grams. Each fish would set you back over 600 calories, according to the label. It's not exactly a fish you'd just split in half to serve, though. I saved half of the fish for lunch today with a fresh green salad finished off with a peach. The lime undertones in the sea bass were still there, only just.
Next stop - Whitstable's next-door neighbor Herne Bay, then off to Reculver, a small village known for its Roman fort and country park. Last, a stop in Westgate-on-sea to dip our feet in the water and look for crabs. No luck.
Upon returning to London, I popped out quickly for some sea bass, which we roasted with spring onions, lime juice and a splash of white wines, and served with baby carrots farmed from Pete's fathers garden and steamed curly kale. The flavours were so fresh and went really well with the French Malbec. We ate on the balcony, soaking in the last few minutes of Sunday sunshine.
Sea bass is an excellent fish with white creamy flesh. It's not particularly low in calories, though, and the serving sizes were quite large - two fish, gutted and headed, were about 600 grams. Each fish would set you back over 600 calories, according to the label. It's not exactly a fish you'd just split in half to serve, though. I saved half of the fish for lunch today with a fresh green salad finished off with a peach. The lime undertones in the sea bass were still there, only just.
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