food and beverage

Ingredients
Butter (or margarine) - 1 tbsp
Bananas - 2 large, slightly under-ripe
Dessicated coconut - 1 tbsp
Soft light brown sugar - 2 tbsp
Lime juice - 2 tbsp

Method
1) Dry-fry the coconut in a frying pan until lightly browned, and reserve.
2) Heat the butter in the frying pan and fry the bananas for 1-2 minutes on each side, or until they are lightly golden in colour.
3) Sprinkle the sugar onto the bananas, add the lime juice and cook for another 3 minutes.
4) Arrange the bananas on a plate and sprinkle the coconut over the top. (Serves 2)

The red colour group (see the 7 colours of health) contains no vegetables and only five fruits. However, it is probably one of the easiest groups to eat every day as it contains what is often a staple food in cooking: the tomato. Also in the red group are watermelons, pink grapefruits, red papayas and guava.

Each of these fruits contain the powerful antioxidant lycopene. Lycopene has been considered a potential agent for the prevention of some types of cancers, particularly prostate cancer. It is more available from cooked tomato products and juices than raw tomatoes and over 80% of lycopene in the American diet comes from just four products: tomato soup, pasta sauce, tomato ketchup and tomato juice. Lycopene is now also available as a dietary supplement.

I bought a book entitled "What color is your diet?" several months ago and though I've yet to read it from cover to cover have dipped into it countless times and read and reread a few of the key sections. The book, written by the director of the UCLA center for human nutrition, contains lots of useful information on the properties of foods and how they impact the body. It explains the major differences in diets across the world and how these influence the incidence of cancer, heart disease and other health problems.

The book suggests that to stay healthy and reduce the risk of cancer etc we should eat not 5, but at least 7 portions of fruit and veg each day. It presents 7 colour categories and provides a list of fruit and veg that fall into each category. Each colour is important for a different reason and the book recommends that we eat at least one item of each colour every day.

At present I do not eat the 7 colours or even 7 portions of fruit and veg each day, but I do consider this to be my goal. Even ignoring the possible health benefits it will make for a varied and interesting diet and encourage me to grow some more unusual fruit and vegetables in the garden and on our land when we get some.

I shall blog the 7 colours, why each is good for you and a list of foods of each colour over the next couple of weeks. I shall also state in brackets how many colours each recipe I post contains.

Imam bayildi (also known as Imam bayouldi) is a lovely vegetarian Turkish dish. It is both sweet and healthy, which pleases Ian as he has a very sweet tooth.

Ingredients
Aubergine - 2
Olive oil - 6 tbsp
Garlic - 3 cloves
Onions - 2, chopped
Canned chopped tomatoes - 2 400g cans
Red peppers - 2, deseeded and chopped
Celery stick - 1, sliced
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Sultanas - 1 tbsp
Flat-leaf parsley - 1 tbsp

Method
1) Cut each aubergine in half lengthways. Scoop out the flesh, leaving 1 cm of flesh around the inside of each shell. Chope the flesh. Sprinkle the flesh and shells with salt and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
2) Heat half the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 3 minutes, or until slightly softened.
3) Rinse the aubergine and drain well, then add the flesh to the saucepan with the tomatoes. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Add the red peppers, celery, raisins, sultanas and chopped parsley to the saucepan and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
4) Preheat the oven to 180°C / Gas Mark 4. Put the aubergine shells in an ovenproof dish. Spoon the tomato mixture into the shells. Drizzle with the remaining oil. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Serve hot or cold with rice or quinoa. (Serves 4)

Enjoy cooking and learn how to prepare wonderful Sumac chicken & hummus wraps sandwich.

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 x 170g chicken breast fillets
1 1/2 tbs sumac (see note)
2 tbs olive oil
8 mountain bread wraps
200g mixed salad leaves
4 tomatoes, sliced
2 large avocados, sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves
2/3 cup (160g) low-fat hummus

Method
1. Halve the chicken breasts through the center to make 8 thin fillets. Place in a bowl with sumac and oil. Season with salt and pepper and rub well into the chicken.

2. Heat a chargrill pan on medium-high heat. Cook the chicken, in batches, for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through and charred. Cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes.

3. Place the bread on a flat surface. Arrange the salad leaves, tomato, avocado and coriander in the centre of each. Dollop hummus over, then cut chicken into thin slices and place on top. Wrap to enclose, then serve immediately.

Notes & tips
Sumac is a lemony, Middle Eastern spice from supermarkets and delis.

Source
delicious. - June 2008, Page 132
Recipe by Louise Pickford

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As a "foodie"  (I really don't like that word!),  I am always on the search for new recipes.  Outside my collection of cookbooks, and fellow bloggers, as well as sites such as Epicurious (which I use several times a week) and Food Network, there are numerous places, both usual and unusual I have been looking for and finding great recipes that I'd like to share.

I am not sure how I found the site, but I subscribe to My Recipes.com, and they send me a new recipe everyday and so far, every one I have made has turned out great. It is a great site to explore, but I actually love getting the daily email recipe- it has often helped me break that "whadda you want for dinner" deadlock that happens in my house. And the price is right - you can sign up for free!

Looking into other people's family recipes isn't something you usually get to do, but I am fortunate that a coworker had a very fastidious cousin who wrote on recipe cards every recipe she ever tried.  When she passed away, this collection passed its way through her family, where relatives took the recipes they remembered most fondly out of the collection.  Since my friend knew I loved cooking, once family was done she gave the cards to me to peruse, and I am making my way through them . I have to admit I am taking my time browsing through them.  First of all, it is quite an experience to think of the time she devoted to writing these recipes down by hand and the effort put into developing a collection that she could share with her friends and relatives. In the today of copy and paste, and computerized recipe boxes, there is something really special about this and I actually want to savor this experience, since it is unlikely that I will have many such opportunities again.


Recently a Fresh Market opened across from Jefferson Lab (now there's a triple threat- one stop across from your work with a Costco, a World Market and a new Fresh Market!!), and while I do not buy my regular groceries there  I do shop their specials and to look for unique items I can't find anywhere else (it is Newport News, by the way!)  After trying a few of their prepared foods (including a very good shrimp and grits cake) it occurred to me to check their website to see if they had recipes there, and what a treasure trove! From appetizers to desserts, there are some amazing recipes just waiting to be tried and some have already found themselves into my menu planning.  Whether you are lucky enough to have a Fresh Market near you, you can enjoy the recipes and other great tips on their website, and they even offer shopping online!

Writing this post made me curious.  What places do you go to search for a good recipe or inspiration?  How many of you still have an old-fashioned recipe box or binder where you keep recipe favorites? Sharing of recipes is a great way to share your heritage, your ethnicity, your unique tastes, and your love... of food and friends!

I bought a book on soups from Otter Nurseries last year and on the whole have been disappointed. It's my own fault for not flicking through more before I bought it as I hadn't realised that most of the recipes were for meat or fish soups, neither of which I find particularly appealing.

However, there are a couple of wonderful vegetable/fruit soups. The tomato and chilli soup is divine and I shall blog the recipe another time. Yesterday I made the butternut squash and roasted garlic soup... very easy to make and I was very pleased to find that you don't have to peel the squash before you cook it. I find butternut squash quite annoying to peel, but scooping out the flesh once it has been cooked is easy. The only disadvantage was my fingers getting very messy when squeezing the roasted garlic out of the cloves into the soup, but it was definitely worth the mess.



Ingredients
Butternut squash - 1 large halved and seeded
Onion - 2 chopped
Garlic - 2 whole bulbs, outer skin removed
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Ground coriander - 1 tsp
Vegetable stock - 2 pints
Salt and ground black pepper

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 220°C / Gas 7. Place the garlic bulbs on a piece of foil and pour over 1 tbsp of olive oil. Fold the foil around the garlic bulbs to enclose them completely. Place the foil on a baking tray with the butternut squash and brush the squash with 1 tbsp of olive oil.
2) Roast the squash and garlic for 25 minutes then reduce the temperature to 190°C / Gas 5 and cook for a further 20-25 minutes (until the squash is tender).
3) Heat the remaining oil in a large, heavy-based pan and cook the onions and ground coriander gently for about 10 minutes.
4) Squeeze the garlic out of its skin into the onions and scoop the squash out of its skin, adding it to the pan. Add the stock, a pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
5) Cool slightly and then process in a blender or food processor.
6) Reheat the soup and season to taste.