Ham and Vegetable Gratin with Celeriac Mash

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 celeriac head (450g)

half an onion (I use 50g frozen)

1 leek (100g)

Your choice of filling vegetables - I used

   1 courgette, chopped into bite sized pieces (200g)

   80g kalettes, roughly chopped

   200g broccoli spears

30g butter

90g ham, shredded

20g panko breadcrumbs

20g reduced fat grated cheddar

black pepper, nutmeg, paprika

250ml milk (I use unsweetened almond milk)

8g arrowroot powder or kudzu

oil

Nutrition Info (per serving)

Calories: 301

Protein : 15g

Carbohydrate: 31g

Fat: 14g

Dietary Fibre: 6.5g

Method

1. Wash and roughly peel the celeriac.  Chop into large pieces and microwave in a covered container with a little water for 7 minutes.
2. Mash the cooked celeriac with the butter.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
4. Heat 1tsp oil in a frying pan to medium hot and fry the onion and leeks for about 10 minutes.
5. Microwave the kalettes, and courgette for 3 minutes in a covered container without water.
6. Microwave the broccoli spears for 2 minutes in a covered container with a little water.
7. Drain all the vegetables and put in an oven proof container.
8. Add the ham.
9. From the 250ml milk, measure out approximately 50ml into a small bowl.  Stir in the arrowroot/kudzu and mix well.
10. Heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan with a good sprinkling of paprika and nutmeg.  When the milk is hot, pour in the arrowroot/kudzu mix, stirring thoroughly.  The mixture will thicken. Add more seasoning to taste.
11. Mix the sauce into the vegetables and ham, cover with the celeriac mash, and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and cheese.  Finish with a good grating of black or rainbow pepper.
12. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes until golden brown.

Pan-Fried Salmon with a Rhubarb and Blackcurrant Sauce

Back in July when blackcurrants were in season, I froze a punnet.  Now the first forced rhubarb is coming into the shops, I thought a sauce of the two would give a nice tangy acidity against an oily fillet of salmon.






Ingredients (serves 1)
180g fillet salmon
150g red chard
1 tsp olive oil for frying
a few leaves of mint for garnish
For the sauce (makes 4 portions)
340g rhubarb
10g butter
160g blackcurrants
40g honey
handful of fresh mint

Nutrition Info (serves one, with one portion of sauce)
Calories: 539
Protein: 40g
Carbohydrate: 25g
Fat: 30g
Dietary Fibre: 5g

Method

• Chop the rhubarb into 5cm lengths.  Put the rhubarb, blackcurrants, butter and honey into a saucepan and cook down for about 10 minutes over a medium heat.  Add the mint, roughly torn and stir in.  Set aside with the lid on to keep warm.
• Pan-fry the salmon over a medium heat in the olive oil. Remove onto a plate.
• In the same oil, quickly pan-fry the chard for about two minutes.
• Serve the salmon on a bed of chard, topped with the rhubarb and blackcurrant sauce.  Garnish with mint.

Baked Pumpkin Gratin with Rosemary and Goats Cheese

Recipe from Waitrose here http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/b/baked_pumpkin_gratin_with_rosemary_and_goat_s_cheese.html.  I substituted a teaspoon of paprika rather than cumin seeds and garnished with dried chilli strands.  I used a soft goats cheese and crumbled that in rather than a hard cheese I could grate.  The last cooking time was nearer 20 minutes for me.  And wow, the sudden wafts of melted goats cheese in that last 10 minutes ;-d

Verdict?  A beautiful, very very tasty, creamy dish - I liked the squash and goats cheese and am a big fan of rosemary.  I'll no doubt cook a variation of this again.  But, for me, for the calorie count of this recipe, it just wasn't filling enough with a crisp green salad.  As butternut squash is already a starchy carbohydrate, then I wouldn't want to add crusty bread to bulk it out as suggested.  If you're having a starter or dessert as well, then with a crisp green salad it's fine (but key point even with a starter or dessert - the recipe serves 2, not 4, unless you eat it with baguette). 

Chard and Chickpea Stir-fry

Quick, healthy, flavoursome and colourful stir-fry!  Whilst it is very low in protein and fat, it's also very high in fibre and so is actually quite filling to balance a higher calorie meal in the day!





Ingredients
50g red chard
100g pak choi
25g carrot (about a 1/4)
10g ginger root
120g chickpeas (about 1/2 can)
1 tsp olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp runny honey
1 tsp soy sauce
tiny bit of garlic puree

Nutrition Info
Calories: 247
Protein: 8g
Carbohydrate: 40g
Fat: 6g
Fibre: 7.5g

Method

• Wash the chard and pak choi and use scissors to cut into smaller pieces.
• Peel the carrot into thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler.  Cut into bite size pieces with a knife.
• Peel and cut the ginger into small ribbons with a knife.
• Drain the chickpeas.
• Mix together the lime juice, honey, soy sauce and garlic puree.
• In a wok or frying pan, heat the olive oil over a medium-high heat.  Add all the ingredients and stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until piping hot, but the carrot should still be al dente.
• Serve immediately.

Fragrant Lime, Pea and Feta Rice Bowl

The tangy creaminess of the feta is balanced by the sweetness of the citrus herby peas, with crunch added by the pumpkin seeds.  The peas are just warmed through in the hot rice, so that they don't lose their vivid green colour.  A high fibre nutritionally balanced dish with around half the RDA for zinc and vitamin C, and around 1/3 the RDA for calcium, magnesium, iron and dietary fibre.  With a rice cooker, this was so quick and easy to make, and really tasty.  May well become a new favourite!

Ingredients (serves 1)
180g cooked Italian brown rice (1/2 cup dried)
50g frozen peas, thawed
15g pumpkin seeds
1/2 lime (zest and juice)
15g mix of herbs (lemongrass, coriander, ginger, garlic, chilli)
50g feta, roughly crumbled

Nutrition Info
Calories:500
Protein: 22g
Carbohydrate: 64g
Fat: 20g
Dietary Fibre: 10g

Method

• Cook the rice according to instructions.  Thaw the peas in a sieve under cold running water, and drain.  Meanwhile, prepare the mixture, so that it can be stirred in the hot rice just as it has finished cooking.
• Dry fry the pumpkin seeds for a couple of minutes until they smell nutty and start to pop.  Set aside.
• Put the zest and juice of half a lime and mixed herbs into a saucepan and quicklywarm for a couple of minutes, until the herbs absorb the juice.  Mix in the peas and feta cheese.  
• Stir into the rice with the pumpkin seeds.  
• Serve immediately.

Notes

• I use Sainsbury's Easy-Cook Italian Brown Rice as this is the closest I can find to brown sushi rice or sticky rice (at a reasonable price).
• Waitrose do a Thai frozen herb mix, which is what I use in this recipe.
• This is best eaten hot and immediately, as the peas continue cooking in the hot rice and quickly lose their colour.  However, although it doesn't look as visually appealing, it's also delicious cold.

Creamed Spinach

On cold, wet and windy days like this weekend, I love to go to the supermarket and then cook for the freezer.  Today, being just after Christmas, I bought 800g of sliced smoked salmon for about £9, a real bargain:-)  This I have packaged up in greaseproof paper slices and frozen.  Luckily I love smoked salmon...

Anyway, I was also in the mood for freezing some vegetable dishes, and so one of the things I made was this creamed spinach which freezes well.

Ingredients
500g spinach
75g shallot, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
150g half fat creme fraiche
1 rounded tsp ground nutmeg
good grinding of black pepper

Nutrition Info (for whole 500g spinach)  
Calories:495
Protein: 21g
Carbohydrate: 45g
Fat: 30g
Dietary Fibre: 11g

Method

• Wash the spinach.  Pour boiling water over to blanch, then strain in a sieve.  Press out as much water as possible.
• In a saucepan, saute the chopped onion in the oil over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes until golden.  Add the freshly ground pepper, ground nutmeg, and stir in the creme fraiche.
• Mix well with the spinach.
• To serve, heat through in a saucepan.
• Freeze in small portions, or flat freeze in cooking rings or silicone cupcases then store in freezer bags in the freezer.

Notes
You could also make this with cream, mascarpone or coconut milk instead of the creme fraiche.   If you don't want to freeze it, then yoghurt would also work well.  To freeze, you need a good proportion of fat (...in the recipe...).

Smoked Trout with Beetroot and Creamy Rocket

And so, I think, starts an obsession with cooking rings...!  This was so quick and simple, yet had a delicious clean flavour and looked effective.







Nutrition Info (excluding puree)
Calories: 304
Protein: 15g
Carbohydrate: 15g
Fat: 21g
Dietary Fibre: 2.5g

Ingredients (serves 1)
Beetroot puree for decoration (www.creamsupplies.co.uk)
Sprig of dill
1 cooked (85g) beetroot
handful (30g) of wild rocket (rucola/arugula)
1 heaped tsp (30g) horseradish sauce
2 heaped tsp (28g) sour cream
50g smoked trout flakes

Method

• Pipe the beetroot puree onto a plate.
• Position an oiled cooking ring onto the plate.  Make a first layer of sliced beetroot.
• Mix the rocket, horseradish sauce and sour cream and press down onto the beetroot layer.
• Top with the flaked smoked trout, garnish with dill, and serve.

Rosemary, Butternut Squash and Ham Stew

This is one of those 'what have I got in the kitchen?' stews, made on a day when you notice the first autumn tinges of red and gold in the trees, and you need to keep turning the heating on and off!





Nutrition Info (per serving)
Calories: 508
Protein: 21g
Carbohydrate: 68g
Fat: 17g
Dietary Fibre: 13g

Ingredients (makes 3 servings)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon chopped dried rosemary
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp garlic puree
1 butternut squash
1x 400g tin red kidney beans
1 x 400g tin chick peas
180g chopped cooked ham hock
2 dsp mirin
2 dsp reduced salt soy sauce

Method

• Peel the butternut squash and place whole in a microwavable dish.  Microwave for 5 minutes, cut in half, and microwave each half for a further 5 minutes.  Scoop out the seeds, and chop the squash into bite-sized pieces.
• In a large saucepan, add the oils and onion, fry over a medium-high heat until golden brown, add the garlic puree and rosemary, stir and take off the heat. Turn the heat down to medium.
• Quickly add water to about a cm depth and stir to stop the onion mixture sticking.  Add the kidney beans, chick peas, squash and ham hock and spoon over the mirin and soy sauce. Stir well.
• Put the lid on the saucepan, and continue to cook over a medium heat for another 20 minutes without stirring.  Take the lid off, stir well, and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated, and the whole flat smells of rosemary.
• Serve immediately whilst your mouth is still watering.

Squirrel tendencies

When I grow up, I'm going to be a squirrel I think...

I eat a lot of vegetables...  But even for me, when I buy vegetables, it tends to have to be two or three different kinds that I then have to eat for the rest of the week so that I eat them whilst they're fresh.  Or else they have to be thrown out.  The vegetables I eat most of are spinach and kale, I make a mean spinach smoothie with various added ingredients, and love using kale as a stir fry base.  The other day, packs of asparagus were on a 3 for 2 offer, so I automatically bought 3 packets, chopped them up and froze them. 

But I'm not so good at variety.  Since I've been in the UK, I kept looking at huge savoy cabbages and thinking that I didn't want to eat it every meal for a week.  (Food was sold in smaller portions in Japan).  I love cooking, but when I'm ravenously hungry, I'm inherently lazy and impatient.  So it dawned on me this morning that I should chop and freeze a lot of vegetables, so that they're just ready to throw in.

Today, shopping and two hours later, any squirrel would be proud of me.  I now have an entire freezer full of chopped vegetables - red onions, shallots, savoy cabbage, leeks, carrots, asparagus, broccoli, spring onions, mixed mushrooms.  On the fruit side - blueberries, blackcurrants and blackberries.  I really enjoyed preparing all that, and knowing it's going to make cooking even more fun, and probably cheaper in the long run!

Turkey, Ham, Mushrooms and Asparagus in a Creamy Sauce

This has become my favourite recipe of the week.  It's not my own, it's been adapted and simplified from this recipe http://www.lekue.es/en/Chicken-Roll.  This LeKue steamer is one of my top kitchen gadgets - it's right up there with the kettle, the rice cooker and the microwave.  Of course, you don't have to use the steamer, you could use a covered microwaveable bowl instead.

Ingredients (serves 1)
100g mixed frozen mushrooms
100g chopped asparagus
1 shallot (small sweet onion), chopped (about 40g)
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
85g turkey escalope, cut into bite-sized pieces
50g cooked ham, cut into bite-sized pieces
25g dairylea or other processed soft cheese

Nutrition Info (assuming you use a spoon to eat up the sauce...)
Calories: 330
Protein: 38g
Carbohydrate: 13g
Fat: 14g
Dietary Fibre: 4g

Method

• Put the mushrooms, shallot, and asparagus in the case and sprinkle olive oil and soy sauce on top.
• Add the raw turkey and the cooked ham and finally the dairylea cheese.
• Close the case, and microwave for 6 and a half minutes until the turkey is cooked.
• Serve immediately.

Sweet Chilli Marinated Tuna and Carrot salad

I guess this is a bit like a ceviche actually.  Last night I marinated some fresh cubes of raw tuna and pared carrot for tonight's salad...  The tuna certainly tasted lightly cooked but very tender, and the marinade had also tenderized the raw carrot.  Delicious!




Ingredients (serves 1)
70g fresh raw tuna steak
100g carrot (1 carrot)
30g salad mix of rocket, spinach and watercress (large handful)
juice and zest of 1 lime
1 tsp reduced salt soy sauce
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
a little cress for garnish

Nutrition Info
Calories: 187
Protein: 18.1g
Carbohydrate: 17.2g
Fat: 5.7g
Dietary Fibre: 4g

Method

• Cut the tuna steak into small cubes.  
• Using a vegetable peeler, pare off ribbons of carrot.  Put the carrot ribbons and pieces of tuna into a bowl.
• In a cup, mix the lime juice and zest, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and sesame oil.  Toss with the tuna and carrot until everything is well coated.  Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.
• When ready to serve, mix with the salad on a plate and garnish with a little cress.

Mango and Tuna Sashimi Crunchy Vegetable Salad with Sweet Sesame Dressing

 This is a very refreshing summer salad.  the mango has the same melt-in-the-mouth texture as the tuna, and the flavour is brought out by the dressing.  Although it's only 300 calories, I found it quite filling.

If making this outside of Japan, you need to check that the fish is very fresh i.e. caught the same day.  The large Sainsbury's in my town stocks fish that is caught the same day.

Sesame seeds are high in calcium.  A tablespoon of sesame seeds contains about 10% of the RDA for calcium.  However, because of the hard shell, they need to be broken down to make that calcium accessible to the body.  If you can find crushed sesame, so much the better.


Ingredients (per person)
50g very fresh tuna (outside Japan you need to check it's been caught that day - large Sainsbury's in the UK sometimes (often?) do this)
100g celery (2 sticks)
100g cucumber (this is about 1/4 of a British cucumber)
100g mango (1/2 mango)
strips of nori (dried seaweed)
1 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
15g ginger paste
15g horseradish sauce (or wasabi to taste)
1 tbsp (approx 10g) white sesame seeds (or better if you can get the crushed ones with more whole sesame seeds for garnish)

Nutrition Info
Calories: 300
Protein: 17.7g
Carbohydrate: 35g
Fat: 8.3g
Dietary Fibre: 6g

Method 

• Make the dressing.  Crush the sesame seeds as much as you can in a pestle and mortar.  You probably can't crush them entirely, but that's OK.  Grinding the seeds releases the flavour and also makes the calcium more accessible to the body.
• In a cup, mix the soy sauce, mirin, ginger paste, horseradish sauce and ground sesame seeds.  Put in the fridge.
• Now prepare the salad.  Slice the celery sticks.  Quarter the cucumber lengthways and chop into cubes.  Chop the mango into similar sized pieces to the vegetables.  Chop the raw tuna steak into 1cm cubes.  Put everything into a bowl and mix well with the dressing.
• You want to eat this salad cold, so if everything hasn't come out of the fridge, you should cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for an hour.  This would also be nice for marinading, for people less impatient than me!
• Spoon onto a plate or bowl, sprinkle with strips of nori, and enjoy!

Pollock with Orange, Fennel and Courgette

Ingredients (serves 1）
1 fillet of pollock (or other white fish)
2 tablespoons of orange juice
1 orange
1/2 bulb of fennel
1 courgette
freshly grated pepper


Method

• Peel and segment the orange.
• Thinly slice the fennel and arrange in a microwaveable dish (I use the Lekue steam case).
• Spoon over the orange juice.
• Thickly slice the courgette and arrange on top.  Grind pepper over,
• Cover and microwave for 3-4 minutes.
• Remove the courgette and arrange on a plate.
• Put the fish fillet onto the fennel and season with pepper.
• Cover and microwave for 3 minutes, add the orange segments and microwave for one more minute.
• Serve immediately.

Creamy Shiitake and Wasabi Soup

I don't often buy mushrooms, but I just fancied some mushroom soup today, and this creamy smoky soup with a very slight kick is what I came up with...





Nutrition Info (serves 1 as a light lunch)
Calories 253
Protein 11g
Carbohydrate 43g
Fat 5g
Dietary Fibre 7g

Ingredients
1 potato (about 150g)
100g shiitake mushrooms
100ml soy milk
50ml drinking yoghurt
1tsp wasabi from a tube
200ml water

Method

• Wash the potato and microwave in the oven for about 8 minutes until cooked.  Wash the mushrooms.
• In batches, blend the potato with the mushrooms, soy milk, drinking yoghurt and water.
• Gently heat the mushroom cream in a saucepan and mix in the wasabi.
• Serve hot with a grating of black pepper.

Pea, Potato and Ham Soup

Nutritional Info (per serving)
Calories 224
Protein 10g
Carbohydrate 43g
Fat 3g
Fibre 8g




Ingredients (serves 2)
300g potatoes
150g frozen peas
80g onion, roughly sliced
100ml soy milk
20g parma ham, chopped
salt

Method

• Steam the potatoes whole in their skins in the microwave for about 10 minutes. (I use the LeKue steam case.
• About 5 minutes into cooking time, add the sliced onion and frozen peas and finish steaming.
• Puree in batches in the blender.  Put into a saucepan and heat gently.  Add salt to taste.
• Pour into two bowls, and divide the ham over the two bowls.

Broccoli and Gorgonzola Potage

This is a creamy tasty satisfying soup! The recipe makes enough for two people for lunch.









Nutritional Information (per portion)
Calories 371
Protein: 18g
Carbohydrate: 56g
Fat: 10g
Dietary Fibre: 9g 


Ingredients (serves 2)

430g potatoes, unpeeled
220g broccoli
160g onion
150ml soy milk (or regular milk)
50g gorgonzola
salt and pepper to season

Method

• Roughly chop the broccoli - stalks, florets and leaves all OK.
• Roughly slice the onion.
• Steam all the vegetables.  I use my LeKue steamer for this in the microwave, steaming the potatoes whole in their skins for 10 minute, the broccoli for 5 minutes and the onion for 2mins 30 sec.
• Measure out together 150ml soy milk and 350ml water.
• In batches, blend the steamed vegetables and liquid together in a food processor, transferring each batch to a large saucepan.
• When all the soup has been blended, crumble in the gorgonzola and stir over a gentle heat until the cheese has melted.
• Season to taste.  I used a good grinding of salt and a black pepper mix that includes orange and lemon peel and garlic.
• Serve hot.

Chocolate Banana, Spinach and Kiwi Smoothie

Don't knock this one before you've tried it...!  Blend 2 green kiwi, 2 large handfuls of spinach, 1 banana and 1 tbsp cocoa powder with some mineral water.  Amazing!  I might add some blueberries next time.

Celery and Pear Smoothie

Blend 2 pears and 3 sticks celery together with mineral water and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Peach and Kinako Smoothie

The kinako (roasted soy bean flour) adds a nutty flavour as well as protein and B vitamins.

Ingredients (serves 1)
1 peach
1 tbsp kinako
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tbsp fresh mint


Method

• Put everything together in a blender with some ice cold mineral water and blend.
• Serve immediately or chill in the fridge.

Creamy Smoked Salmon and Potato Soup

This tasty and pretty soup is a delicate shade of pink, highlighted with wisps of fresh green dill. 







Ingredients (serves 4 as a starter)
1 onion, sliced
500g potatoes in their skins
70g smoked salmon
1 x 150g pack of silken tofu
1 tsp olive oil
fresh dill
freshly grated black pepper

Method

• Caramelize the onion in the olive oil until golden brown.
• Meanwhile cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 20 minutes.  Drain and cool under cold running water.
• Break up the potato in the saucepan, add the onions, smoked salmon, tofu and dill.
• In batches, blend all the ingredients together in a blender with water to the desired consistency.
• Reheat to serve.