Holiday's over

Right.

I do realise that it's been absolutely ages since I posted anything here, but in my defense, I've had a busy time.

Chances are you know the story - wedding planning, wedding, tons of family here for a holiday, mission to SA for a holiday, turned 30, good friend turned 30 & another turned 26. Sheesh! Absolute awesomeness. But Sheesh!

Best photo of the madness was taken by the immensely talented Carlin Perros - pity she wasn't the official wedding photographer.

Wifey is no longer my fiance. :)

Life is slowly getting back to normal. We're both just getting over a bout of much deserved exhaustion. Today the kids are sleeping, the weather has turned island perfect, we're off to the beach once the kids wake up.

I confess that I had to question whether I cared to carry on with this blog. But as the exhaustion subsides, we finally sat down yesterday and planned the week's meal, and the idea of cooking and writing about cooking became interesting again.

So the blog (and my life in the kitchen), are going to focus on two areas for the near future.

First is that summer is coming (actually I think it just arrived), and we've been abusing our bodies for long enough that we're both really keen for quite a health kick. The starting point is to cut back on red meat and carbohydrates. That means adding lots of fish and vegetable-full meals to the weeks eating. Summer's back, so salads are starting to sound appealing. And meat is expensive, so lots of veggies is nice for the budget as well. I'd also like to look into the nutritional content of what we're eating - maybe analyze a few meals, and try to balance that with what we should be eating. Exercise is supposed to be part of this, and so we're taking up golf and going to the beach a whole lot.

Second is that, because we're pretty party'd out, we're going to be entertaining at home from now on. No massive parties where everyone we know is invited - instead we're going to get small groups of people round for dinner. First, baby club has started (really its a drinking club with a baby problem), where the mommies spend the afternoon with the kids, and then the daddies come round to someone's house after work for drinks and dinner - seems like there'll be 4 couples for each dinner, but that it will rotate who's house its at. Second, we've got to learn to speak French this year, so my sneaky plan is to get a friend of ours around for supper once a week or so, and he'll teach us while we're around the dinner table. He's busy teaching himself about the intricacies of fine wine, so I reckon it'll be a good combination of good food, good wine, and good company. Third, we've been wanting to get the wicked grouping of Brown Dog, Carlin & Pastey around for supper for quite a while. It's one thing spending time socializing at parties, but you get to spend much better quality time with people when they're around the dinner table. Ok, so we're not really slowing down on the partying I admit.

Understanding Benedict

In many places around the world it was Mother's Day a little while ago. Wifey and I had gone jolling the night before, and so the kids were away at Granny's house for the night (and, happily, for the following morning as well). So, being the fantastic husband that I am, I bought a bunch of roses and tried to make Eggs Benedict for my good lady for breakfast.

Now, Eggs Benedict has a reputation for being kind of snooty breakfast food, as well requiring a particularly experienced chef to not muck it up. The basic recipe is that you lightly toast an english muffin, layer some bacon on that, then a poached egg, then top with Hollondaise sauce. Aside from toasting the muffin, the rest of those steps are pretty tricky to pull off with Jamie Oliver flair and apparent ease.

Oh, and I had a hangover, so I forgot to take any photos, you're just going to have to trust me that it actually did look quite like this recipe, that I found at Country Living, City Style.

I wasn't actually going to describe the recipe in this post. The point of today's lesson is more about understanding how to balance a few simple flavours into a great meal.

You see, Hollondaise is pretty simple to prepare, but what is complicated is getting the ratio of ingredients to taste right. It consists of a few egg yolks, some salt, some lemon juice, and a fair amount of boiling butter. Oh, and some hot sauce of your liking.  The trick is that the boiling butter cooks the egg yolks slightly, and creates a super creamy texture and rich flavour. Then the sweetness of the butter / egg mixture is balanced with a some tangy lemon juice, and the whole lot is made a little more flavourfull with some salt and chilli sauce.

My attempt was completely edible, although I think  it was too tangy, and not chilli enough. I will try again sometime and promise to take photos then.

I'm babbling. Just remember to think about the balance of flavours when you're making this, and judge your quantities very carefully.

On a different note, clearly my cooking once again moved on to a completely new level of awesomeness with my newfound ability to poach eggs.

Warm Bean and Chorizo Salad

Quick post tonight because I'm still massively hung-over from last night. The hangover really called for something like a hearty lamb stew, but its a public holiday here today (election day), so there was no chance of heading off to the Super U to find some ingredients.

Instead what we had in the house were the ingredients for a bean and chorizo salad. This recipe has actually become quite a staple in our house, we probably eat in once every 2 weeks or so, and I always have to search for the recipe (which can be found here at mediterrasian.com).

It tastes nice.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 onion, halved and sliced.
1/4 cup chorizo sausage, thinly sliced.
A punnet of green beans (haricots verts), topped, tailed and halved
1 tin of butter (cannelini) beans
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 pinch of sugar
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (which I actually forgot today)

Method
Fry onion for 5 minutes.
Add chorizo and fry for another few minutes, till it smells great and is staining the onions red.
Add green and white beans, and the water, put lid on and let cook for 5 minutes (the water steams the beans, so don't lift the lid to stir it because all the heat will escape).

While the steaming is underway, mix together 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, and sugar in a small bowl.

Decant salad into a serving bowl; drizzle dressing over; sprinkle some parsley over.

This recipe doesn't actually make that much. Serve with a crusty roll and this recipe is enough to serve 2 for dinner; if you want to serve it as a salad at a braai then the recipe should be at least doubled.

Breakfast BLT Salad

The problem with weekend breakfasts is they tend to be ridiculously soaked in oil (think full english fried everything), or as sugary as possible (pancakes with sugar, honey, and maple syrup). Then a little while back I came across a salad that can be eaten for breakfast. It doesn't feel like health food, but also it doesn't feel like a heart-attack on a plate.

Also, it tastes great. (and the recipe comes from here at http://www.taste.com.au/)

 

Ingredients

250g cherry tomatoes

2tbs olive oil

1 garlic bulb

3 rashers of bacon (about 175g)

1/2 cup whole-egg mayonaise (if I wasn't feeling lazy this morning, this would be the perfect time to test out some homemade mayonaise)

2 tbs lemon juice

6 cups wild rocket

1 avo, thinly sliced

1 bunch chives, coursely chopped.

Method

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C

Cherry tomatoes on tray; drizzle with oil; season with S&P

Roast for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven, set aside to cool.

Wrap garlic in foil, and roast for 20 min until soft. Set asid to cool. Cut in half and squeeze out pulp.

Fry bacon. (Surely you can do this without further instruction.)

Place garlic, mayo, lemon juice in food processor, and process until smooth. (Curse Wifey for leaving the blender dirty from last nights soup (recipe to follow)). Season to taste.

Combine tomatoes, bacon, rocket, and avo in a serving bowl.

Sprinkle over some chives.

Drizzle over some dressing.

Awesomeness.

Nutrition 101

I seem to write this article over and over again, without ever getting to the end of it, or never complete enough to finally press the publish button. So this is my next attempt.

This blog is all about healthy eating – eating for sustained energy throughout the afternoon / cooking with nutrient-full ingredients / cooking without chemical additives.

The concept behind Low GI food fits into my (personal) diet paradigm quite nicely – I couldn’t really care less about losing weight (although that’s Wifey’s focus), what I want is to be energetic throughout my day; to have my mind alert and responsive; to get regular exercise with the goal of slowly becoming stronger, fitter and more active. Low GI foods = slow release of sugars = sustained energy. I have a feeling it relates exclusively to carb’s and sugars (fats and proteins (I guess)). I should add calcium and omega-3 for brain performance. Omit simple carbs and sugars (for example SUGAR, you dimwit). Eat complex carbs – wholewheat bread; oats and cereals for brekkie; ummm, and stuff.

Wifey wants to lose weight. Really this is exclusively related to eating fewer calories than you’re burning. Simple as that. (I truly apologize if my attitude to weight-loss is to brush it off as unimportant, it’s just because I have one of those bodies that doesn’t change shape no matter what I abuse it with, except that I’m kind of a skinny runt these days.) So for Vix it’s a case of increasing the amount (and intensity) of exercise she gets, and eating foods that make her feel full and give her the energy she needs without adding too many calories. She also needs as many anti-oxidant and vitamin-type foods, because she gets sick way too often.

Back to me for a little bit – I need to be dramatically improving my exercise habits as well. I’d like to focus on muscle building a fair bit (in order to get bigger). I want Vix to focus on muscle-building a bit so that her muscles get stronger and burn more calories when at rest. Both of us could do with regular time on the exercise bike – I know that this isn’t actually supposed to help that much, but it’s a simple start to get us into the habit of exercising. Exercise (especially the muscle building kind) needs protein to build the muscle tissue with – protein is to come from lean meat, low-fat dairy, and eggs. Please note that all of the above are also sauces of nasty saturated fat, which is to be avoided, so really, you’re screwed. Actually you’re not screwed – fat is pretty easy to remove from a solid piece of meat, and while it clearly adds flavour (think fillet versus entrecote), that flavour can be added with rubs, marinades and other sources.

So then, the plan...

Breakfast is supposed to be packed with slow carbs, a bit of protein, and a variety of fruits and veggies. Simple method – oats with milk, nuts and fruit (fresh or dried) sprinkled over the top. Complicated or dumb methods – (1) whole-grain bread roll with poached egg and coleslaw; (2) BLT salad as tried before (with avo); (3) actually that’s all I can think of right now.

Snack food is to be fruit (fibre, nutrients, and stuff); nuts (good fat, protein, and stuff); and stuff (stuff).

Lunch - I dunno, this is why I never finish writing this article.

OK, the disclaimer is that lunch and dinner (and sometimes breakfast), are things which require a healthy dose of variation, and that’s what this website is all about. I’ll write again when I’ve got a decent lunch and dinner recipe. I’m going to start by checking out mediterrasian.com again, which I haven’t done for a while.