Beetroot Brownies made with Beetroot Jam

Beetroot Brownie

the beetroot brownie ingredients

agave syrup

Last year I started making beetroot jam since I am obsessed with beetroot and probably eat it at least once a day. I did not want the beetroot jam to be overly sweet since the beetroot itself has so much natural sweetness. Last year I had also made a beetroot and black carrot cake that was so moist I immediately started plotting a beetroot preserve that I could have at the ready to add to cakes and brownies for added moisture. For this brownie recipe I endeavored to not add sugar but use only the Smy Goodness Beetroot Jam and a bit of agave syrup. If you do not have any beetroot jam to hand you can peel and boil 2 medium beetroot, allow to cool and grate into 4 tbsp of agave syrup. It was an experiment that I am pleased was successful. The resulting brownies were moist, rich, dense, not too sweet, with a perfect shiny brownie crust and had an additional texture pop of beetroot that will have me coming back to this recipe in the near future.

Beetroot Brownie Ingredients

• 275g Smy Goodness Beetroot Jam (*If you do not have any beetroot jam to hand you can peel and boil 2 medium beetroot, allow to cool and grate into 4 tbsp of agave syrup. If you do not have agave syrup you can use 100g of caster sugar)
• 200g organic plain flour
• 200g organic butter
• 3 eggs
• 50g organic cocoa powder
• 30g walnuts roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp agave syrup (*use 1 Tbsp caster sugar if you do not have agave syrup)
• 1 tsp organic vanilla bean extract
• pinch fine sea salt

Beetroot Brownie Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/200°C fan assisted.
2. Prepare a 20cm x 20cm square tin with baking paper.
3. Cream the butter and the beetroot jam (*If you do not have any beetroot jam to hand you can peel and boil 2 medium beetroot, allow to cool and grate into 4 tbsp of agave syrup. If you do not have agave syrup you can use 100g of caster sugar).
4. Add the eggs to the mixture and blend thoroughly.
5. Add the cocoa to the mixture and blend thoroughly.
6. Add 1 Tbsp agave syrup to the mixture and blend thoroughly (*use 1 Tbsp caster sugar if you do not have agave syrup).
7. Add the walnuts to the mixture and blend thoroughly.
8. Spread the mixture evenly into the tin lined with baking paper.
9. Place in the middle of the oven for 30-35 minutes. Do not allow the top to burn. Test the middle of the brownies with a toothpick, if it comes out clean it is ready.
10. Use the baking paper to remove the brownies from the tin and allow to cool on a cooling rack. Slice into desired sized brownies and enjoy.

creaming the beetroot jam and butter

adding the eggs to the mixture

adding the organic cocoa to the mixture

adding the agave syrup to the mixture

brownies about to go in the oven

baked brownies

Burger & Veggie Burgers - Wk 6 - Healthy Eating Fast FoodTakeaway Alternatives

ingredients for the burgers and sweet potato chips

A burger and chips may be the poster child of the fast food world. Everyone loves burgers and chips in some fashion at one time or another. With McDonald's being so prevalent all over the world burgers and chips have buried themselves into our subconscious so that when we may need something cheap and/or quick and/or naughty they will pop into our minds as an option and/or craving. Burgers range in quality and price and variety and we may be tricked into thinking that a veggie burger is always a healthier option than a meat burger however just like their meaty cousins, veggie burgers range in quality and cost as well.

For this session we handmade our own veggie burgers and meat burgers and opted for a healthier sweet potato chip. What is great about making your own burgers is that you know exactly what is going in to them and you can adapt the recipe to suit your own tastes and preferences. The veggie burgers are made with butter beans but any pulse can be added. Both burgers can be made in advance and frozen which comes in handy for those times when you may not know what to cook or lack inspiration. When freezing the veggie bean burgers you want to freeze them before the flour, egg and breadcrumb stage and save that stage for after they are defrosted. I was guilty of whining to my mother when she made homemade burgers that, "They don't taste the same." I was right but they didn't taste the same because they tasted better and by getting everyone involved in preparing the salad, helping to shape the burgers, offering different toppings and seeing who can build the best burger - a homemade burgers and chips night can be a fun evening for family and friends.

creating the butter bean burgers

butter bean burgers

Butter Bean Burger Ingredients:
400g can butter beans (*or any pulse) - drained, rinsed and shells removed
30g fresh mozzarella chopped (*or substitute a cheese of your choice)
30g parmesan grated (*or substitute a cheese of your choice)
4 tbsp coconut oil (* or substitute olive oil)
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chili powder
handful of chopped parsley
3 tbsp plain flour
1 egg beaten
75g fresh white breadcrumbs
fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

* use a cheese of your choice or substitute 60 grams of left over mashed potato

Butter Bean Burger Instructions

1. Use a fork to mash up the beans in a bowl and set aside.
2. Gently heat the coconut oil in a pan and add the onion and garlic. Cook over a low heat for 4-6 mins, until softened.
3. Add the onion and garlic mixture into the butter beans and stir.
4. Add the cheeses, sesame seeds, cumin, coriander, chili and parsley. Shape the mixture into burgers of your desired size, cover and chili for 20 mins.
5. Set up three plates; one for the flour, one for the beaten egg and one for the breadcrumbs.
6. Roll each burger in the flour, then the egg and then the breadcrumbs - making sure the burger is coated all over at each stage.
7. Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of coconut oil to medium in a non-stick frying pan and add burgers. Cook for 5-7 minutes on each side until golden brown.
8. Place on a piece of kitchen paper to remove excess oil and serve on their own or with pita bread, rolls or salad.

shaping the beef burgers

beef burgers and sweet potato chips

Beef Burger Ingredients
500g pack extra-lean beef mince
100g fine breadcrumbs
1 onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp mixed dried herbs
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

Beef Burger Instructions

1. Add all the ingredients in a large bowl and thoroughly mix.
2. With clean hands shape the mixture into burgers of your desired size and thickness. Place in a single layer on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 15 minutes.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp of coconut oil on a non-stick frying pan and cook for 4-8 minutes on each side until cooked as desired.
4. Place on a piece of kitchen paper to rest and remove excess oil and serve on their own or with pita bread, rolls or salad.

sweet potato chips

blackened sweet potato chips

Blackened Sweet Potato Chips Ingredients*
4 medium sweet potatoes, cut into chips size and width of a pinkie finger
1 Tbsp coconut oil
pinch smoked paprika
pinch chilli flakes
pinch ground cumin
pinch ground coriander
pinch onion salt
pinch garlic salt
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch black pepper
pinch oregano
pinch thyme
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
* omit or add ingredients as desired or available

Blackened Sweet Potato Chips Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C if it's fan assisted.
2. Cut sweet potatoes into chips roughly the size and width of a pinkie finger.
3. Add all the dry ingredients and the coconut oil into a bowl and mix together thoroughly.
4. Add the sweet potato chips to the bowl and mix thoroughly so that the oil and seasoning are dispersed all over the chips.
5. Place onto two baking trays so that the chips are in a single layer.
6. Place into a preheated oven and cook for half an hour, turning at the midway point and making sure that they do not burn.

our feast of beef burgers, butter bean burgers and blackened sweet potato chips with tomato salad

Beetroot Bunches

This little Beetroot Bunches pattern was made from photographs that I took of the cross section of a beetroot and of them in bunches...much like the title suggest. Beetroot are one of my favourite go to veg for juicing, roasting, in salads and in deserts. I love to hear the groans when I tell students that we will be making beetroot brownies; listening to the protestations of how much they are hated and eventually listening to the surprised exclamations of surprise that they are actually enjoying them in brownie form. They really do increase the moistness of cakes and brownies whilst providing healthy sugars. You can see my Beetroot Brownie recipe and post for more details.

Turkish Food - Wk 5 - Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Options

ingredients for the Turkish feast

For week 5 of the Healthy Eating Fast Food Alternatives course we prepared a Turkish feast at Sebright Children's Centre. Each time I run this course the fifth week's menu is chosen by the students. Turkish food is very healthy and very varied but like any food eaten at restaurants it can be full of extra calories and fat. A special thanks is due to Selma who is Turkish and works at Sebright and another very kind Turkish woman who attended the course with her daughters. Together they helped us tweak the recipes and gave us lots of tips. Selma noted that Turkish food often involves a lot of preparation and different stages so we chose these recipes that can be prepared in advance, are cost effective and served with healthy sauces and sides. Selma and Itidal and all the staff at Sebright have been so helpful to myself and the families on the course and they make working at Sebright such a pleasure and I am very thankful for their hard work and support.

For our feast we prepared falafel, lamb kofte, hummous, vegetable cous cous, salad and a homemade mint dressing served with pita bread for 8 adults and 5 children for £15 in two hours.

resting uncooked falafel

cooked falafel

Falafel Recipe

400g can chickpea, rinsed and drained
Half a red onion, finely chopped
garlic clove, chopped
handful of fresh parsley
handful of fresh coriander
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin  
1 tsp ground coriander
1⁄2 tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp canola oil or coconut oil
toasted pitta bread
lettuce, tomato and various accompaniments as desired

Falafel Instructions

1. Rinse the chickpeas and soak them in water and lightly rub the chickpeas with your finger and thumb to remove the shell surrounding each chickpea and then discard shells.
2. Blend all the ingredients until they are a smooth consistency. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the mixture to rest for 20-45 minutes, if not longer.
3. Heat up your oil to medium hot but be careful to not burn the oil.
4. Shape the mixture into golf sized ball shapes and gently flatten a bit using wet hands so that the mixture does not stick to your hands. Place the balls ready to fry on a plate.
5. Fry the falafel balls until they go a deep brown in colour, turn carefully and cook the other side. When they are ready remove and place on a sheet of kitchen towel for a few moments to soap up any excess oil.
6. Serve in pita bread or on their own with tomato, lettuce, hummus and other dips and gerkhins, pickled cabbage or other accompaniments.

uncooked kofte

grilled kofte

Lamb Kofte Recipe

Ingredients
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp chopped mint
500g lean lamb mince
1 small red onion finely chopped
1/4 green pepper, cored, deseeded and finely chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Lamb Kofte Instructions

1. Mix together the garlic and mint in a bowl, add the lamb and stir well. Cover and leave to marinate in a cool place or the fridge for 10 minutes.
2. Shape the mixture into 5 cm long sausage shapes or 3 cm wide round disc shapes and leave to rest covered in a cool place or fridge for 10 minutes.
3. Preheat the grill to a hot setting.
4. Place the shaped lamb kofte in a single layer on a baking tray and place on the top shelf and cook for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes turn each kofte and cook for another 10 minutes being sure to not burn. Alternatively you can grill the kofte as well for 4-5 minutes on each side until cooked through.
5. Serve with mint dressing, cous cous, salad, hummous,e tc.

homemade humous

Hummous Recipe

Ingredients

Two tins (425 grams) chickpeas
Fresh lemon juice, about 1 large lemon
60ml tahini
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for serving
1 garlic clove, pressed or finely minced
2 to 3 tablespoons water
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, depending on taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Dash of ground paprika for serving if desired
A sprig of fresh coriander for serving if desired

Hummous Instructions

1. Open the tin of chickpeas, drain the liquid and then rinse well with water. Soak the chickpeas in some water and using your fingers and thumb to lightly rub the chickpeas which will release the shells from the chickpea. When all the shells are removed strain the water and keep the chickpeas to the side for the moment.
2. In a separate bowl or blender add tahini, lemon juice and the olive oil to a bowl or blender and mix until thoroughly combined. Make sure to scrape the sides down into the mixture and blend/mix again.
3. Add the garlic, cumin and salt to the mixture and blend for one minute. Make sure to scrape the sides down into the mixture and blend until thoroughly combined.
4. Add the chickpeas in stages to the mixture and blend until combined. Keep blending until the humous is thick and smooth.
5. Taste the humous and add any more ingredients until it is of a desired taste and consistency. If the mixture is still not a smooth enough consistency you can add another tablespoon of olive oil or water and then blend again for 1 minute.
6. Place the humous into a decorative serving bowl or plate and then garnish with a tablespoon of olive oil, sprinkle with paprika and garnish with a sprig of coriander.

Homemade hummous will last for one week in an airtight container in the fridge.

You can add all sorts of things to hummous to jazz it up, for example roasted garlic, roasted red peppers, chillies and more. You can also use any sort of pulses such as butter beans to make a slightly different type of dip.

If you like a very smooth consistency of hummous you can remove the shells before adding it to the mixture.

For an even more inexpensive hummous you can use dried chickpeas which are cheaper. For this you should soak the chickpeas in water overnight and then cook gently for an hour the next day until soft.

tasty side salad

vegetable cous cous

Vegetable Cous Cous Recipe

Ingredients
500g cous cous
500g organic vegetable stock or one free of MSG or additives
100g tomato diced small
half a red pepper diced small
half a green pepper diced small
half a yellow pepper diced small
handful of fresh parsley
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly cracked pepper

Vegetable Cous Cous Instructions

1. Place the couscous in a heatproof bowl, pour 500ml/18fl oz of vegetable stock over the couscous. Leave to stand until the liquid has been absorbed. Season with salt and pepper and fluff the couscous with a fork. Set aside until all the liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 minutes.
2. Add all the remaining ingredient and stir until combined. Any diced vegetables can be added to make a tasty cous cous salad.
3. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with some larger slices of vegetables like peppers or tomatoes and serve.

Basic Mint Dressing
Ingredients
one bunch of mint
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
4 tbsp boiling water
4 tbsp cider vinegar
1 level tbsp sugar or agave syrup

Basic Mint Dressing Instructions

1. Separate the stems from the mint leaves and discard the stems.
2. Gently rub the salt into the mint leaves sprinkle and chop into roughly .5-1 cm pieces.
3. Add the leaves to a heatproof bowl then stir in the sugar or agave syrup.
4. Top the mint with the freshly boiled water while stirring thoroughly and then leave to cool.
5. Once the mixture is cool, stir in the cider vinegar.
6. Add more water or vinegar and adjust seasoning to suit your taste.

The dressing can be added to vegetables, salads, meat and fish.

sitting down to enjoy our meal

Homemade Spelt Pasta, Proper Ragu and Podcasts

imperia lusso pasta maker

I found this Imperia Lusso pasta maker in a charity shop for £6 and immediately bought it. I have made pasta before with a pasta machine I bought fifteen years ago but I ended up using it only for work with polymer clay so when I saw this Imperia I was excited to get back into the pasta making game.

I am addicted to podcasts and one of my favourite EVER podcasts is Ronna and Beverly, two outspoken fiftysomethings from Boston, who can be seen regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA, dispense their unique brand of relationship advice while interviewing/interrogating celebrity guests. This podcast is hilarious and I particularly love lots of their little reference and phrases as I spent a large chunk of my life in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They are also huge anglophiles and even had a series on Sky and perform in London lots and I only hope they come back here soon. They are always great company and were especially so during the making of my ragu and pasta.

prepping the dough

the dough at rest

I love spelt flour for bread making and pasta as well. The photo above shows two eggs which Imperia suggests adding to 250g of flour but I opted to add a third egg to help bind the spelt flour which I believe was the right decision. I broke the eggs into the middle of a flour bowl and used a fork to blend and mix the flour into the middle until it was blended and then gave it a light kneading, covered it and left it to rest for an hour.

pasta rolled out into sheets

from pasta sheets to tagliatelle

I removed a golf ball sized of dough from the rested dough and then divided the rest into three separate balls. I took the golf ball sized ball and flattened it roughly and passed it through the pasta maker several times to remove any bits of dried dough from within. This was after giving the machine a very thorough cleaning with kitchen towel and olive oil. With each of the three balls I roughly flattened it into a rectangular shape, dusted it with a little bit of flour and started with the widest setting and sent it through. I repeated these steps and decreased the width on the machine stopping at the second to thinnest setting. I then let the long sheets as seen above left to rest for 15 minutes and then I sprinkled them with flour and passed them through the tagilatelle setting and let them dry for about an hour.

I brought a big pan of very salted water to the boil and cooked the tagliatelle for 3 minutes. After checking that it was ready I drained and added 3 large serving spoons of my homemade ragu (ragu post coming soon) and mixed this into the pasta. Then I plated up the pasta and added 2 serving spoons of ragu on top of the pasta and drizzled with olive oil and grated with parmagiano. The texture and taste of the pasta combined with the proper ragu made me pledge after the first bite to put the pasta machine to use wherever and whenever possible. Sure it was a bit more effort but it was well worth it.

Pizza - Week 3 - Healthy Eating Fast/Food/Takeaway Alternatives

pizza ingredients

For week three of our Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Alternatives we made pizza at Sebright Children's Centre. The pizza session is always a favourite because everyone loves pizza. Each family made their own batch of dough which resulted in dough for two pizzas 20cm in diameter to decorate with different toppings of their choice. Lots of families took their second batch of dough home to share with their families.

making and shaping pizza dough

Dough Ingredients
300g plain flour
250ml water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon baking yeast
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp cornmeal (if desired)
several basil leaves or dried oregano (if desired)

Dough Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 200C.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Slowly stir in the water and olive oil. The dough should form a nice ball with all the ingredients mixed thoroughly and to not be too sticky or dry. If the dough is too sticky sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over the dough and mix in until the dough and add a teaspoon of water to the dough if it is too dry.
4. Cover the dough and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.
5. Uncover the ball of dough and place onto a sheet of, lightly floured surface, lightly rub a rolling pin with flour and starting in the middle of the ball roll the dough, turn and flip the dough until it is in the desired shape be it circle, square of even heart shaped.
6. You want your dough to be roughly 3 cm thick on the bottom for a thin crust or 5 cm thick for a thicker crust. Do not roll it so thin that you can not lift the dough onto your baking sheet. When it is the desired shape transfer it to the baking sheet and you can sprinkle a teaspoon of cornmeal onto your baking tray before you place the dough on the tray for a bit of added texture to the crust.
7. Slightly roll and turn up the edges to form the pizza edges.
8. Add any ingredients that you may enjoy. (see below)
9. Place in the pre-heated oven and cook for twenty minutes checking to make sure that it is cooked to your preference.
10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

Pizza Ingredients
Base - You can use passata as your tomato base or fresh tomatoes or even a bit of minced garlic and olive oil to create a non tomato based pizza or "white pizza".
Cheese - You can use any cheese of your choice including shredded mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, parmesan, gorgonzola, feta, etc
Toppings - You can put absolutely anything you would like on your pizza which is the great part of making your own. Ham, mushrooms, peppers, salami, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke, pineapple, etc.

perfect pizza

pac-man pizza

square shaped pizza

heart shaped pizza

Curries - Wk 3 - Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Alternatives

For the third week of our six-week Healthy Eating Fast Food/Takeaway Alternatives course we made a vegetarian curry and a mango chutney. Each week we always have a vegetarian option but this week we opted to go all vegetarian. A combination of an overly large pan, an electric stove and baby tomatoes left this recipe rather dry and we were glad for our mango chutney that we had made but I have tweaked the recipe a bit or if you prefer a dryer curry you can omit the vegetable stock. I recommend getting the mango chutney made first and put to the side or do all the prep of the ingredients for both the vegetable curry and mango chutney and make then side by side. The vegetable curry can easily have meat, seafood or tofu added to it

ingredients for vegetarian curry

Indian remains one of the most popular takeaway meals in the UK and in London we are spoilt with amazing Indian takeaway and restaurant options at all price points. Whilst working on Brick Lane I could not muster up the self control to not walk the twenty paces from where I worked to Ambala where I would eat three samosas a day as a late afternoon snack. I never even considered how many calories or grams of fat were in each samosa and when I researched this I was really surprised to see that I had been adding almost 500 extra calories and 25 grams of fat each day. I'm still unable to be near an Ambala and not get samosas but now I have it as a treat and limit myself to one meat and one veg samosa instead of my minimum three. Here are some more average amount of calories and grams of fat (respectively) in Indian takeaways:

Chicken Biryani - 1000 cal, 43 grams of fat
Chicken Korma - 860 cal, 50 grams of fat
Lamb Rogan Josh - 650 cal, 37 grams of fat
Vegetable Jalfrezi - 460 cal, 30 grams of fat
Garlic naan the whole naan - 760 cal, 25 grams of fat
Onion bhaji - 2 bahjis - 450 cal, 25 grams of fat
Poppadoms - 2 poppadom - 70 cal, 5 grams of fat
Meat or veg samosa - 1 samosa - 145 cal, 8 grams of fat

Indian Takeaway tips:
Many dishes are loaded with oil, ghee and fat and with pilau rice, starters and side dishes, Indian takeouts can quickly end up meeting and going beyond your daily recommended allowances and not is a healthy way at all.

Avoid the creamier based reamy curries like masala and korma which are higher in calories and fat. Tomato based curries like jalfrezi, rogan or madras are a better choice, or opt for dry dishes like biryanis. Some ways to make substitutions and save on calories include choosing plain boiled rather than pilau, chappati rather than naan, choosing veggie curries and opting out or reducing the number of fried starters such as samosas and bhajis.

1. Vegetable Curry Recipe

INGREDIENTS
500 g vegetables i.e.-cauliflower, green beans, carrots, aubergine
200 g potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm squares
6 tomatoes, chopped finely or a tin of tomatoes
2 onions - thinly sliced into crescents
300 ml vegetable stock
4 tbsp coconut oil, canola oil or alternative oil
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped or minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger root, peeled - finely chopped or minced
1 tsp cumin seeds - if you do not have cumin seeds you can use ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika
2 pinches of sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper - or more if desired personal taste
Fresh coriander - washed handful, roughly chopped
Fresh lemon juice from half a lemon - strained to remove seeds

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare the vegetable stock by either warming homemade vegetable stock or use a high quality powdered stock that is free from additives or MSG.
2. Toast the cumin seeds in a pan under medium heat while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes making sure that the seeds do not burn. Grind the toasted cumin seeds and add all the readily ground spices into a small bowl ready to add later on in the recipe.
3. Warm the oil in a large pan at medium heat and add the onions and cook slowly until transparent. Do not let them brown or dry out, add a spoonful of the vegetable stock should the onions start to dry out or brown.
4. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for one minute, stirring all the while. Reduce the heat or add a spoonful of the stock should the garlic and ginger and start to brown, do let them burn.
5. With the pan at medium heat, stir the ground spices into the onions, garlic and ginger and keep stirring until they are thoroughly mixed in, about three minutes.
6. Now add the tomatoes and stock and keep stirring until everything is mixed together well, about 5 minutes.
7. Add the vegetables and stir to mix throughout, cover and cook on low to mediumheat for 30 minutes or until vegetables potatoes are thoroughly cooked to desired texture. Stir in fresh lemon juice and fresh coriander, stir and serve with brown rice.

Quick Mango Chutney Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1 mango chopped into small irregular pieces
1/4 onion finely chopped or minced
1/2 - 1 chili - depending on personal taste - de-seeded and finely chopped
150 ml cider vinegar
100g sugar
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine the sugar and cider vinegar in a pan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Add the mango pieces to the mixture and stir.
3. Add the spices and salt and increase heat stirring all the while.
4. Once the mixture has been boiling for 3-5 minutes, reduce the heat to low, stir occasionally to avoid burning and allow the chutney to thicken which should take 15 -30 minutes.
5. Once the chutney is at the desired thickness remove it from the stove and place in a glass container.
6. This is a quick chutney recipe that is meant to be served while fresh alongside a curry and eaten right away or kept for a few days wrapped up and kept in a fridge.

Blackened Chicken (Just Say No to the Chicken Shops) - Week 2 - Healthy Eating Alternatives to Fast Food/Takeaways

I am working with families to discuss the fat, sugar and salt content in fast food and takeaway meals and we are preparing much tastier and healthier options. I am working with a diverse group of families and they share a lot of tips and techniques around the pressures of providing healthy meals with busy lifestyles, fussy eaters, adding new meals to their family cookbooks and stretching food budgets. This is our second week of a six-week course.

This week we focus on what i believe is the the worst culprit of the fast food takeaway options, the chicken shops. In London, and elsewhere, you cannot walk too far without sensing some evidence of the chicken shops; the horrible smell due to cheap chicken and overused cheap oil, the discarded boxes and bones or the shops strategically placed so close to schools. It's not just teenagers eating at these shops and it is big business, the fried chicken market is worth £15-£20 billion pounds a year and they are interested in profit, not quality or nutrition. I struggled to even find statistics on what is in these takeaway items but an average chicken shop meal contains 60% of your RDA of calories, 45% of your RDA saturated fats and 85% of your RDA of salt. I gathered a lot of information from Nominet Trust and Shift (formerly We Are What We Do and it was in an article by Shift that sums up the ethos of this six-week course:

“As Fiona Godlee, editor in chief of the British Medical Journal states, “Rather than restricting takeaway food we should seek to transform it, by making healthy food as visible, tasty, and cheap as unhealthy food.” We’re looking forward to contributing to that ambition. ”

This weeks recipe is one I picked up in New Orleans for blackened chicken, a cajun style way of seasoning and preparing that can also be applied to fish, shellfish, pork, beef and vegetables. We also prepared blackened vegetables as in each course we offer vegetarian options and we also made a large salad to be served with our blackened chicken and blackened vegetables.

Our ingredients for our salad and blackened vegetables

We preheated our oven to 200 C° and then we prepared our chicken and vegetables separately and took extra special care with utensils, surface and cleaning as we do in every class. We made two batches in separate bowls of the blackened seasoning one for the chicken and to that we added 1 TBSP of flour and one for the vegetables which we did not add 1 TBSP of flour.

Blackened Seasoning recipe:

• 1 TSP paprika (smoked paprika if you have it)
• 1 TSP thyme
• 1 TSP oregano
• 1/2 TSP chilli flakes
• 1/2 TSP onion salt
• 1 TSP cayenne pepper
• 1 TSP freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 TBSP Flour* add this only to the mix for the chicken, not for the vegetables

We tossed 700g of chicken sliced into 2-3 cm wide strips in the bowl with the blackened seasoning mix with the flour, covered with cling film and put in the fridge. In the second bowl of the seasoning without the flour we tossed our vegetables which included brocolli, peppers and carrots and stirred them until the mix was evenly on the veg. Them we sprayed a non stick baking tray with a few sprays of our coconut oil cooking spray and added a few more sprays on top of the veg and put them in the oven on the uppermost tray. We cooked them for 30 minutes but set a timer for 15 minutes so that we could check them and turn the veg so that they were cooked nice and evenly without burning.

With our veg in the oven we made our salad and decided as a group to leave it undressed as we had so much flavour in our chicken and veg we wanted the salad to act as a palate cleanser and to enjoy the taste of the salad ingredients, in this case we had gem lettuce, carrots, cucumber, peppers and tomato.

Then we heated our pans until they were at medium hot to high heat and put 3 sprays of our coconut oil spray and then placed our chicken in the pan which should be so hot that the chicken immediately starts to sizzle. Make sure you let the chicken have enough space to cook and depending on the thickness of your strips cook them for 4-6 minutes on each side so that each piece is thoroughly cooked and a nice dark brown colour all over. Leave the strips to rest for a few minutes and remove the blackened veg and serve together with your pre-prepared salad.

Pan searing our blackened chicken strips

This was our lovely feast which was thoroughly enjoyed by all and everyone commented that the seasoning wasn't spicy but very flavourful and enhanced the chicken and vegetables. This recipe works wonderfully with salmon and can be adapted to a salmon pasta or blackened prawns in a stir fry with some vegetables. You can even make the seasoning and rub it into a whole chicken and have left overs for salads or curries and turn your stock into a soup. Next week we will be preparing a Vegetable Daag curry with homemade mango chutney.

Mexican Food - Wk 1 - Healthy Eating Alternatives to Fast Food/Takeaways

Last year I started teaching a lot of healthy eating courses across London which have proved very popular as we can't avoid the internal or external pressure of eating and providing healthy meals for ourselves and our families and friends. This particular course is six-weeks long and focuses on working with families to provide them with healthy alternatives to fast food and takeaway options. This course takes place at the Sebright Children's Centre in Hackney, London that offers all sorts of amazing courses, creche, advice and support for families and young children.

In the UK we spend over £30 billion on convenience food each year with the average person consuming over 84 fast food meals and 64 ready meals throughout the year. We have all probably eaten a take away or fast food meal due to reasons of convenience, cost, time constraints, peer pressure, environment or cravings. As with everything, takeaways and fast food meals eaten in moderation or as part of a healthy diet and lifestyle are not detrimental to our health but over-reliance on these types of food can be due to their high fat, sugar and salt content. This course intends to educate and promote healthy eating by providing healthy food and healthy recipes that are tasty, nutritionally rewarding, easy to prepare and financially comparable or cheaper than their fast food alternative.

Week one covered Mexican food and as far as fast food and takeaways go Mexican food can be one of the healthier options if care is taken to avoid over-sized portions and care is taken with additional toppings such as sour cream guacamole. I lived in America for a long time and Mexican food has long been popular there and as with anything you can find options within a wide range of price points and levels of quality ingredients.

As we were having so much fun, this is the only evidence that I have from this first week of a six-week long course I am teaching on Healthy Eating Alternatives to Fast Food/Takeaways.  We made beef tacos and vegetarian black bean tacos with hard corn shells and soft flour shells with a homemade salsa and homemade guacamole. We omitted the sour cream and served with a bit of shredded cheese and lettuce.

For today's session we used Jamie Oliver's recipe for beef tacos as a basis and just substituted black beans for the ground beef for our vegetarian tacos. We made ground beef tacos, black bean tacos, our own guacamole, our own salsa and served these with some shredded lettuce, tomato and cheese.

This week was an excellent first session and we had some parent and children preparing and trying avocado for the first time and everyone agreed that Mexican is a great option to prepare at home. We also noted that it is so easy to create your own guacamole and salsa and so much better than the ready-made options that are on offer in the shops. I also shared with the group that you don't need to buy specialist salsas or "Mexican" ingredients available in the shops. For example there was a tin of "Mexican black beans" that was basically black beans in water with a jazzy logo for £1.45 and I was able to get a box of organic black beans in water for £0.75. Personally my own type of fast food would be a burrito or tacos as they are filling and you can customise them according to your own tastes but they are indeed that much better prepared at home and with a bit of practice and experimentation which is the whole point of the course.

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• A pinch of paprika
• 1½ tsp cumin
• 500g minced beef or a 400g tin of black beans*
• 250ml beef stock
• 12 corn or flour taco shells
Grated cheese, lettuce and tomato to serve

*For the vegetarian black bean taco option, use all the ingredients above except beef and substitute beans for ground beef and vegetarian stock for the beef stock.

Salsa
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• Juice of ½ lime
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped

Guacamole
• 2 avocados
• Juice of ½ lime
• 2 tbsp chopped tomatoes

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
2. Soften the onion and peppers in the olive oil in a large pan over a low heat. Add the garlic, paprika and cumin and cook for 1–2 minutes.
3. Add the beef and stir until it has browned. Pour in the stock, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.
4. Meanwhile for the salsa, get the kids to mix the tomatoes with the lime juice, spring onion and coriander, then season carefully to taste.
5. For the guacamole, have the kids mash the avocados with a fork. They can then squeeze in the lime juice, add the tomatoes, season, and gently mix it all up.
6. Spread the taco shells out on a baking tray and place in the oven for 3–4 minutes until crisp. Get the kids to fill the shells with the meat, salsa and guacamole or lay everything out and let everyone help themselves.

Meringue-apés

winter berry meringue--apés

mincemeat meringue-apés

Here are some little bite-size meringue-apés that I made. The top set are filled with a one-off compote of redcurrant, pomegranate and cranberries in a quince sauce while the bottom set are filled with Smy Goodness mincemeat. I love making meringues as a desert because they are delicious and best prepared the night before which means more time to focus on further cooking, drinking, hosting or all of the above. I had also made a set filled with lemon curd but they disappeared before I could photograph them. There will always be more meringue-apés, full size meringues and over-sized meringues as I have so many different delicious preserves to fill them with.

I recommend and use Delia Smith's recipe of 110g caster sugar and the egg whites of 2 large eggs. For these meringue-apés I used the whites of 6 organic large eggs and 330g caster sugar which yielded 40 meringues roughly 6cm in diameter. They were two-bite meringue-apés and obviously would have resulted in lots more bite-size meringue-apés. Preheat the oven to 150°C and prepare a baking tray lined with baking paper. Using a glass bowl you whisk the egg whites on a lower speed and increase the speed until the egg whites create stiff peaks. Then add in a heaped tablespoon of the caster sugar into the egg whites and whisk until combined and then repeat with another tablespoon until they are all gone and the mix has gone glossy with strong peaks and if your bowl is turned over the mixture stays put. I used an ice cream scoop to place evenly sized balls of the meringue-apés mix onto the baking paper and then used a teaspoon to make little depressions into the balls. For smaller sized meringue-apés a melon baller is perfect for even sized balls and then a knife can make a little hole in the mixture. Give up the ghost of getting them to all look identical, part of the charm is in their uniqueness and individuality with different peaks. Pop the meringue-apés in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature of your oven to 150°C and leave them in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn the oven off and leave them inside until the oven completely cools down. I tend to make my meringues in the evening and then leave them overnight to completely cool down. Just be careful to not forget them and then preheat the oven for something else the following day. You can store your meringues in an airtight tin for roughly a week or even freeze them but I do prefer to have made them a day earlier than I plan on eating them.

Meringue-apés are tasty, glamorous and a crowd-pleaser as they are fat-free, gluten free and you can mix and match what they're filled with to please the varied taste buds of your guests.