Easy Colourful Roast Vegetable Medley

This is probably the most straight forward healthiest dish I'll post. Well..maybe.. we will see!?

One of my main focuses with food is to have a diverse and wide variety diet. And when I say 'diet' I'm not talking about losing weight or restricting calories. I'm talking about the food we eat daily.

The reason behind this is to be able to get as many essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals as possible from the food I eat every day.

I find vegetables are the easiest visual example and 'guide' for showing they have a variety of nutritional benefits. To sum it all up, I'm trying to say EAT YOUR COLOURS! 

You may be familiar with the saying "Eat your greens", but don't forget your whites, oranges, reds, yellows etc..

Roasting vegetables is definitely one of my 'go to' dishes in the winter. There are plenty of seasonal vegetables at this time of year that are great for roasting, and with the cold weather approaching it is the ultimate comfort way of cooking.
I don't like to add too much to this recipe as the flavours of the vegetables are good on their own.

Easy Colourful Roast Vegetable Medley

Pre heat oven to 200 C

Ingredients

3-4 garlic cloves - peeled
1 large or 2 small Orange Kumera - Sweet potato
2-3 onions
1 capsicum - I used green
3-4 potatoes
2-3  carrots
2 T oil - I use coconut oil
Salt and pepper

I garnished mine with Italian flat leaf parsley

Method

Roughly chop all vegetables into the same size for even cooking times.
Place in a roasting dish and drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper.
Roast for 30-45 minutes

Serve as a side dish or as a complete meal

Enjoy!

Peanut and Sesame Soba Noodles

Noodles, Noodles, Noodles!

I hardly ever eat noodles. But I wanted to try something different for dinner.
The good thing about this recipe is you can just add any vegetable you like to it. I chose soba noodles because they are quick to cook and I was in a hurry and hungry!
Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour and are more of a grey colour compared to spaghetti noodles we are used to.
To be honest, the first time I tried to make this, it failed...I added too much peanut butter and it was just a cluggy chunky mess!...But I have changed the recipe so it works for you :)

 Peanut and Sesame Soba Noodles

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 T oil (I use coconut)
1 onion - thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic - crushed
1 capsicum - thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small carrots cut into julienne (long thin strips)
270 g Soba noodles
1 T sesame oil
sesame seeds to garnish

Sauce
1 T Sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
2 T Sweet chilli sauce
75 g crunchy peanut butter

Method

Mix all sauce Ingredients together.

In a fry pan, saute onion, garlic and capsicum in oil.

Prepare noodles according to packet instructions.
(I boiled a saucepan of water then added the soba noodles to the boiling water for 3 minutes.) Drain and refresh with water and mix through 1 T sesame seed oil to prevent from sticking.

Add carrots to the onion mixture and stir.
Add sauce and noodles and mix together.

Garnish with sesame seeds
Serve immediately

Enjoy!

Vegan Chickpea and Tomato Curry

Chickpeas are a great option for vegetarians or vegans who are looking for a good source of protein. The many health benefits of chickpeas make it a great option to add to a meal. I personally don't think chickpeas taste great on their own, as they don't have a lot of flavour. But the good news is there are lots of options and ways of incorporating chickpeas into your diet without them tasting too bland!

This recipe is packed full of nutrition. Don't be put off by the lengthy amount of ingredients. It only looks long because of the spices that are used! ;) Once you start making it, it is really easy. You only need one pot!

Vegan Chickpea and Tomato Curry Recipe

Serves approx 4

Ingredients
1 T coconut oil
1 onion sliced
2 cloves crushed garlic
Approx 3 cm of ginger
1 t ground cumin
2 t ground coriander
1 t tumeric
1 pinch chilli powder

4 (large) or 6 (small) tomatoes roughly chopped (you could use 1 can of tomatoes)
1/2 cup red lentils
3/4 cup coconut cream
1 can of chickpeas (drained)
1/2 head of chopped broccoli
a good handful of spinach

Salt and pepper to season
sesame seeds to garnish

Method

Sweat, garlic, onion, ginger and spices in oil in a large pot until onion is slightly softened.

Add chopped tomatoes and slightly simmer for 10 minutes to let the tomatoes thin out.

Add lentils, coconut cream and broccoli. Continue to simmer until broccoli is tender.

Add drained chickpeas and spinach. Cook out for 5mins

Season with salt and pepper. Served garnished with sesame seeds. Can be served with rice if you wish :)

Enjoy! 

Brit :)

Honeyed Glazed Pumpkin

Hey Everyone! 

I love trying out new recipes with different vegetables to try mix things up a bit.

It can actually be so easy to enhance flavours of vegetables to make them not only taste amazing but so you can still get all the important nutrients from them.

It's well into spring here now (not that the weather is showing us that at the moment!) but we still had a couple of pumpkins to use up. 

I love pumpkin because it is so versatile. It can be sweet or savoury. Baked, roasted, boiled or steamed. You can eat it in pieces or it can make a really yummy puree. 

This recipe is inspired from a recipe I found in the My petite kitchen cookbook. She is a blogger from NZ who comes up with the most amazing nutritious, wholefood recipes! My copy of the book has post it notes in nearly every page for recipes that I want to try! Check out her blog here 

Honey Glazed Pumpkin

( Serves 3-4 side dishes )

Ingredients

1/4 pumpkin

1T Runny honey

Small handful of chopped coriander and Italian Parsley 

1/4 cup Chopped Olives( I wanted to use black olives but we only had stuffed green olives but they still tasted great!)

1T coconut oil melted

Salt and pepper

Method

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius 

Carefully slice the skin off the pumpkin. Using a sharp knife and a chopping board that is not wobbling around ( place a wet cloth underneath your board to help ).

Cut pumpkin into thin slices, roughly 10 - 5 mm thick.

Place pumpkin into a roasting dish.

Drizzle honey and coconut oil onto pumpkin.

 Season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until pumpkin is cooked right through.

Place into a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped herbs and olives.

Serve while still warm.

Even my cat was trying to get in on this!

Enjoy!

Brit xo

Easy Vegan Couscous

This is a simple Couscous recipe with great summer flavours.
When I'm cooking during the week I like to keep meals easy and simple.
This Couscous recipe can be used as a side dish to a meal or can be a meal itself.

Couscous is usually quite inexpensive. This recipe is friendly for anyone on a budget or looking to feed a crowd.
If you're lucky enough to have any leftovers, store it in the fridge and have for lunches the next day!

Ingredients

2 cups Couscous

2 cups boiling water

1 onion finely diced

1/2 large red capsicum finely diced

handful coriander leaves finely diced

1 T coconut oil

1 gherkin finely diced (optional)

Salt and Pepper

Method

Place the couscous into a bowl that has a sealed lid. (you can also use a saucepan).

Pour the boiling water on the couscous.

Immediately cover with the lid and leave aside to cook.

While your couscous is cooking, heat coconut oil in a small pan. Add onion and capsicum

Gently saute until onion is cooked.

Check the couscous after 4-5 mins

The couscous should be a soft texture when you bite it. But not soggy.

Once cooked, add the onion mixture, coriander and gherkin.

Lightly fluff up with a fork so it is not lumpy and all stuck together.

It's important to flavour and season your couscous as it lacks flavour on its own.

Here you can add Salt and pepper and season to your own taste.

Try this recipe next time you're stuck for ideas :)

Have a great day!

Brit x

Pan fried Blue cod with lemon and capers

I have been meaning to have some fish for dinner for a while now. When I cook fish I like to keep things simple. Fish is subtle and delicate. I added lemon and capers to mine to bring out and enhance the flavours of the blue cod.

This recipe is super easy but will impress all your guests!

Serves 4

What you will need4 fillets white fish (I used blue cod)
25g organic butter
20g capers
1 lemon sliced
1/2 cup flour

What to do

Lightly coat the fish fillets in the flour and dust off any excess.
Heat butter in a pan on a med-high heat.

Gently place fillets in pan once it is heated.
Cook the fish until golden on the first side. Add the lemon slices and capers into the pan with the fish
 You don't want to over cook the fish, I wouldn't recommend cooking on the first side for longer than 2 minutes.

 Carefully turn the fish over and continue cooking. This side should only take a minute. You want the fish to be slightly under cooked once you take it off the heat, as it will continue cooking for a short time.
This will keep the fillet perfectly moist and will melt in your mouth

Rest fillets on a paper towl to drain excess butter.

Serve immediately.
 Serve on a cold winters day with hot roasted vegetables
or on a hot summers day with fresh garden salad

Enjoy!


Brit xo

Raw broccoli and salmon salad with Avocado dressing

This recipe was written in the NZ Herald back in April this year. If you are looking for a meal idea that is healthy and tastes great, you've found a winner! This recipe caters for everyone! Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free, Clean eaters! If you are vegetarian or vegan you can easily take out the salmon :)

This recipe is so easy and can be achieved in 3 steps!

You will Need:

1 Head of broccoli broken in to florets

1 red capsicum, roughly chopped

Handful fresh herbs of your choice (I used coriander, Italian parsley and Vietnamese mint)

200 g salmon (smoked if you wish, I prefer mine not to be smoked)

1 cup black pitted olives

1/2 cup seeds (toasted if you wish, I use pumpkin seeds and sunflower )

Dressing:

1 avocado

Juice of a lemon

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup water

2 cloves garlic*

sea salt

pepper

* Note that the 2 cloves of garlic is quite strong, change this to 1 clove if you don't want it too garlic-y :)

What to do:

Dressing:
1. Blend up all ingredients together until smooth.

Salad:
2. In a food processor, Pulse the broccoli, capsicum and herbs until a rice like consistency.

3. Transfer to a large bowl and toss in dressing, salmon, olives and seeds!

Enjoy!

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do! Let me know what you think!

Brit xx

Healthy Dinner Idea

Medallions of Beef Sirloin served with sesame seed coasted cauliflower, bok choy, baby carrots and a simple sauce.

I love this dish because of the great colours. It has wonderful textures and the sauce complements the beef.

This recipe is not restricting at all. I know what it is like to find a recipe and only have half the ingredients in the kitchen! Feel free to swap ingredients for ones you have. For example, Cauliflower for broccoli, Bok choy for spinach, carrots for beans. Sesame seeds for bread crumbs. Even the sauce you can change the chicken stock to a beef stock.
Have fun getting creative and playing around with your ideas :)

Serves 4

You will need:
8 cauliflower florets
600-800g beef sirloin
50g flour
1 egg
1T Turmeric ground
1/2 cup sesame seeds
12 leaves of bok choy
12 baby carrots
2 T butter
2 T oil
Radish cress for garnish

Simple Sauce
1/2 medium onion
300ml chicken stock
150ml soy sauce
100g crushed tomato
50g sugar
1/2 root ginger
1 clove garlic
90 ml sesame oil

What to do:
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Blanch cauliflower in boiling water until just semi cooked, drain and cool.Combine Turmeric and sesame seeds Coat cauliflower in flower then egg wash coat in sesame seed mix.

To make the sauce, add all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, blend then pass.

Beef:
place oil in (oven proof- I like cast iron pans)  hot pan then pan fry your beef sirloin until it has a good colour on all sides.
Place in oven for 10 minutes or until medium rare.
Allow to rest for 5 minutes once cooked

Vegetables:
Place baby carrots in a saucepan. Just cover with water and add butter. Boil and simmer until cooked.
Add Bok choy and allow it to wilt.
You can either deep fry your cauliflower, or pan fry in oil until golden

Plate up with bok choy on the bottom, pour the sauce on, cauliflower, beef cut into 2 slices per plate, Carrot and garnish with cress.

Enjoy!

Brit xx

Easy Dinner Idea! Cumin-Crusted Turbot With Roast Vegetables.

Whenever I have fish at home I will most likely crumb it. I find it quick and easy and I always know it will taste good! I would usually use the classic method of flour, egg wash and bread crumbs.
This method doesn't involve the egg or the crumbs therefore making it quicker! Not only that, but it tastes great! 

This recipe uses a flat fish called a turbot but you can use any fish that is suitable for you at the time.
This recipe has a rose' wine "vinaigrette" that is made during the cooking process in the pan which saves time.

Recipe serves 4 main meals
Ingredients
4-8 fillets Turbot (depending if you want 1 or 2 per portion
3 T cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
3 T olive oil
1 cup rose' wine or red wine
1 shallot - chopped finely
2 T chopped fresh chervil
2 T chopped fresh chives
2 cups wild watercress
1 T butter
salt and pepper
100g each of potato, beetroot, Carrot and parsnip (or any vegetable you want to roast)
peeled and chopped into chunks

Cooking
Toss roast vegetables in a roasting dish with 1 T oil. Roast in oven at 180 degrees for 30-40 mins or until cooked and golden.

Turbot - Sprinkle both sides with cumin and salt and pepper. ( If you want you can sprinkle some flour over this)
Fry the turbot in a hot pan with 1 T oil for 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove from pan. Place the shallots in the pan and slightly caramelise. Then deglaze the pan with the rose' and simmer for 5 minutes or until reduced to 1/2 cup. Quickly whisk in the olive oil and stir in chives and chervil and season with salt and pepper.
Remove from pan.
Add butter and watercress and wilter quickly. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve Turbot on the roast vegetables and watercress, drizzle on the glaze.

Enjoy!

Brit xx

Salt and Pepper Squid with an asian salad

For me, salt and pepper squid is always a 'go to' meal on a menu that I know will always have good seasoning and flavours. I quite often see it on menus in the entrees section so it is always good if you don't want to have that "  I've eaten too much - bloated feeling" not good!  Why do we order so much food and feel like you have to eat it all since you paid your good hard working money for it? Even if that means your gonna suffer afterwards. About 90% of the restaurants where I live have main meals that are way way over sized and honestly just shouldn't be able to fit in one persons stomach. Apparently our stomachs are roughly the size of our fists, but can actually stretch about 10 times larger than this! I dunno about you but the thought of my stomach expanding that much freaks me out a little!

What do you think?

Back the Squid!

This recipe has so many great flavours in it that complement each other perfectly!
From the spices in the salt and pepper mix to the chilli in the dressing!
This recipe is also gluten free as it uses rice flour.

The recipe is open to changes and is not strict at all! If you don't have ingredients- don't worry :)

Just swap and change thing around -Get creative! The dressing is quite hot so you can take out the amount of chillies if you wish :)

Recipe

Salt and pepper mix:

2 t Szechwan Pepper

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

2 t coriander seeds

2 t dried red chilli powder

100 g sea salt flakes

300 g rice flour

Asian Salad

1 cucumber, peeled into ribbons

1 red pepper (capsicum) deseeded and sliced

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

1 spring onion

1/2 cup fresh coriander

1/2 cup fresh mint sprigs

1/4 cup fresh Vietnamese mint

1 cup mung beans

Nahm Jim Dressing

4 birds eye chillies

4 cloved garlic, peeled

4 coriander roots

75 ml lime juice

3 1/2 T fish sauce

Squid

12 squid tubes

oil for frying

sweet chilli sauce, Asian plum sauce or aioli for serving.

What to do

 Salt and pepper mix-  put all ingredients except rice flour into a frying pan and fry gently for about 5 minutes or until fragrant.

 Then grind this with a pestle and mortar. Place in a bowl and add rice flour.

Salad - mix together all salad ingredients in a bowl.

Dressing -  Grind chillies, garlic, and coriander root in a pestle and mortar into a paste.

Then mix with lime juice and fish sauce in a bowl.

Toss through the salad.

Squid -  Clean tubes and remove membrane (if not already done)

Score the squid with a knife (not cutting it right through)

Then roughly chop into desired size. Or into rings if you prefer.

Dust with salt and pepper mix.

Deep fry in fryer or in a wok in oil.

Fry until golden. 

Serve with your chosen sauce.

Enjoy!

Let me know what you think! 

Brit xx

Poultry Lesson 4

This lesson we made


-confit of duck 

-Chicken ballontine with a kumera rosti 

-ostrich and asian salad





Confit of duck
A slow cooking method poached in duck fat
This was served with peppered havarti gnocchi, fennel and orange salad and a white wine and bay leaf foam.

I love the colours of this dish, I think it is gorgeous to look at. 

I had never eaten confit of duck before. Now I know why I commonly see it on restaurant menus!
This slow method of cooking makes the meat so tender and we finished the cooking off in the oven out of the duck fat to crisp it up.

Black rice-crusted Ostrich with watermelon salad

Chicken Ballontine with veal, chicken and herb farce. Kumera rosti garnished with oyster mushrooms, carrot and courgette ribbons with a chasseur sauce.

Sensational Soups!

After a good 4 week break from my chef course, it's time to get started again.

Following my level 3 course that I started in February, I am now onto level 4.

The first lesson was breads but today I'm sharing my first soup lesson.

We made:
Oxtail consommé
Crab Bisque
Borscht
Seafood Chowder

Oxtail consommé
A consomme is a clear soup. To make the soup clear and 'grease free' there is a strict process throughout the making of the soup. You must constantly skim the 'skum' off the stock when you are reducing it down with the oxtail bones. This is so the stock is as clear as possible when you serve it. 
The 2nd process for getting the clear soup made is to make a raft from mince. For this we mixed egg whites with mince and finely chopped vegetables and placed them in our strained oxtail soup. Bring this to the boil and simmer once the raft of mince has risen. It is important at this stage not to stir it and break up the mince raft. Then you must carefully strain out the liquid soup from under the mince.
I love making this soup as it is a very cleaver way of getting a clear soup. It also brings out the perfectionist side of me to get the clearest soup possible!!




Crab Bisque
This soup has ALOT of flavour. and as a big seafood fan, I LOVED this soup. Unfortunately there were no crabs available in the area at the time so we used whole prawns and crab meat. We broke up the prawns with there shell still on and all. I'm guessing this is what gives the soup a great flavour! Luckily the shells are all strained out at the end :) so no crispy shells in your soup..!

Borscht 
To my understanding Borscht is a popular soup around Eastern Europe. There are lots of different versions of this soup that all slightly differ from the other. The main ingredient in this soup is the beetroot which gives it a vibrant bright red. Our version used spanish onions and red wine. We garnished this soup with sour cream, soft boiled egg wedges, and chives.
I had never made this soup before but I found it interesting but definitely an enjoyable soup! Very healthy too :) Its great to get colours in the diet!



Seafood ChowderYum!
Like I mentioned above, I'm a big seafood fan. So I loved this chowder. We put shrimps, blue cod, salmon, mussels,  clams, cockles and smoked blue cod into our chowder.It is very easy to make and I highly recommend it to all seafood lovers out there!

Meat Lesson #2

Hey Everyone!

For my 2nd meat lesson we made:

-Roast Shoulder of lamb
-Navarin of Lamb - (made from leftover shoulder meat)
-Chicken Ballotine

This is the chicken Ballotine. We had to take out the chicken leg bone ourselves which was a great thing to be taught! This will be a handy skill for the future

Roast Lamb - This is from the lamb shoulder.

To make this roast we took apart the shoulder from scratch. This was completely new to me so I had no idea what I was doing! Lucky I had people to help and show me how to do it! I can't wait to do this again since I am more confident at it now. We stuffed it with a herbed breadcrumb stuffing - yummy.

Bones out

 Ready to roll

All tied up to roast.

Let me know if you have any questions about this lesson.
Hope everyone has had a great week!
Brit :)

Fresh Homemade Pasta

Fresh Homemade chicken pasta

Pasta Dough - 2-3 servings

1 egg - whisked
10ml oil
1/4 t salt
100g flour

mix ingredents together in a bowl with your hand.

roll out onto a floured bench and knead.
Note that this mixture may be a little dry, if it is just add a drop of water :)
roll into a ball

Wrap in glad wrap and leave to rest for 30mins

Roll out with a rolling pin on floured bench until about 1/2 cm thick.

pass through pasta machine.
starting at the thickest setting then work your way to the thinnest setting

Cut in half so it is easier to put through the fettuccine machine

Hang up on a long wooden spoon

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water

The pasta should double in size once cooked

I cooked my pasta with 

garlic

onion

chicken

courgette

cracked pepper

Freshly picked organic cherry tomatos
and freshly picked basil
(these tomatos were picked at my grandparents yesterday :) so delicious and juicy!)

Brit :)

What I ate for Dinner!

Stir Fry Beans with Chili

Get your greens with this yummy meal!

I love green vegetables because they are full of essential vitamins.

Personally, I love to have chili in my diet when I'm sick or it has cold weather because I feel like they warm me up as they have a big kick on the palate. :)

If you would like the recipe, feel free to leave a comment :)