food and beverage

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.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), is often described as a grain, but is actually a seed related to the spinach family. Quinoa is a complete protein because it contains all nine essential amino acids required by the body as building blocks for muscles. It has twice the protein of rice and is a good source of dietary fibre. Quinoa is easy to digest, contains no gluten and is higher in calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, and zinc than wheat, barley, or corn.

Quinoa can be found in all the UK major supermarket chains that we've tried, although only Tesco seem to repackage it under their own brand name. When cooked it is light, fluffy and slightly crunchy.

Because of the health benefits and more interesting consistency and flavour quinoa has now pretty much replaced rice in our house.

Vegetable chilli with quinoa:

Until leaving my job at the University I've always considered myself too busy to play around with cooking and if asked I would say that I "couldn't cook properly" whatever that means.

I guess I've had a difficult relationship with food so far. As a child I was the awkward one who wouldn't eat anything. As an adult that changed a little, but I think it's only in the last three or four years that I've realised that I'm not awkward - I just don't really like eating and hate preparing meat. If meat couldn't be bought in non-animal shapes in tins or cardboard boxes in the freezer section of the supermarket I would have turned vegetarian years ago.

As it is I'm not currently vegetarian, but I eat meat probably at most once every couple of weeks. I don't know if I will become fully vegetarian and if I do what time scale that will be on - we will just have to wait and see. I'm creating this blog as a journey on the way to being healthier and more inventive with food, and in addition to posting recipes will be writing my thoughts on food in general, particularly 'new foods' that I've only just tried or starting cooking.

Tasty and easy Arabian gulf main dish - Quails with Spicy Red Sauce and Cumin Rice.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 quails, washed and cut into halves lengthwise

2 tablespoons ghee
2 medium onions or 250 g, sliced
1 medium carrot or 150 g, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
3 cubes MAGGI® Chicken Bouillon
4½ cups water or 1125 ml
2½ cups basmati rice or 500 g

For the spicy red sauce:
2 medium tomatoes or 300 g, peeled and pureed
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 cube MAGGI® Chicken Bouillon
¼ teaspoon chili powder

Preparation

Heat oil in a large pan and fry quail pieces from both sides until they are golden brown in color from outside and cooked from inside (season quail with salt and black pepper before frying). Remove from oil and set aside.

Heat ghee in a pot and sauté onion slices until they become tender. Add carrot and cumin seeds and stir for seconds.

Add MAGGI® Chicken Bouillon cubes and water. Bring to boil with occasional stirring.

Add the rice and stir occasionally to boil again then cover and let it cook on low heat for 15-20 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Meanwhile, combine all sauce ingredients in a medium saucepan, stir to boil then simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes or until sauce is slightly thickens. Add the fried quail to the sauce and simmer for few minutes.

Place rice in a serving plate and the quails with the sauce on top.

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Try an easy recipe to prepare a spicy Saudi Lamb Stew - Gorsan dish.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 onions or 300 g, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ cup coriander leaves or 35 g, chopped
750 g lamb, cuts with bones
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 medium tomatoes or 300 g, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 cups water or 750 ml
2 cubes MAGGI® Mutton Bouillon
1 medium potato or 200 g, cut into large cubes
1 medium carrot or 150 g, cut into thick slices
200 g pumpkin, cut into medium size cubes
2 medium zucchini or 150 g, cut into thick slices
1 green bell pepper or 150 g, cut into thick slices

Preparation

Heat oil in a large pot, add and cook onions over medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic, coriander, lamb cuts. Season with spices and cook with occasional stirring for 4-5 minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, water and MAGGI® Mutton Bouillon . Bring to boil and simmer while covered on low heat for 1 hour or until the meat is almost tender.

Add potato cubes, carrot, pumpkin, zucchini and belle pepper, and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until vegetable are cooked.

Serve with Arabic bread or with cooked rice.

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Try one of the best Saudi main dishes Rice Boukhari with Meat, try this recipe to prepare Rice Boukhari.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons ghee
750 g lamb, pieces with bones
3 medium onions or 450 g, chopped
8 cups water or 2 liters
2 cubes MAGGI® Mutton Bouillon
¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
¾ teaspoon ground cardamom
3 medium tomatoes or 450 g, pureed
2½ cups rice or 500 g, washed and drained
2 medium carrots or 150 g, cut into thin strips and boiled
1 cup mixed fried nuts or 150 g

Preparation

Heat ghee in a large pot, add and brown the lamb meat pieces until golden brown. Add onions and stir from time to time until the they become golden brown.

Add water, MAGGI® Mutton Bouillon , all the spices and the tomato juice. Cover and cook over low heat for 1½ hours or until meat is cooked.

When the meat is cooked, add the rice to the meat stock, this should be around 4 cups or 1000ml of stock, cover and cook over low heat for 25 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Place the rice on a large serving dish, place the meat pieces over the rice, and add the cooked carrots over the meat and garnish with the fried nuts or with raisins and shredded carrots.

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Enjoy the oriental cuisine and try an easy recipe to make the Coconut Basbousa, wonderful Arabic dessert.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon tahina
½ cup ghee or 100 g, softened
1 tin NESTLÉ® Sweetened Condensed Milk or 397 g
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups semolina or 320 g
1 cup desiccated coconut or 100 g
1 cup water or 250 ml

For the syrup:
1½ cups sugar or 300 g
1 cup water or 250 ml
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon blossom water

Preparation

Grease a 28x24cm baking tin with the tahina.

Combine ghee, NESTLÉ® Sweetened Condensed Milk and baking powder and stir well. Add semolina, desiccated coconut and water and stir until well combined.

Pour and level mixture into the prepared baking tin. Bake in a 190°C preheated oven for 35 minutes or until the top becomes golden in color.

Remove from oven and pour all over the cooled syrup. Set aside to cool into a room temperature, cut into diamond shape and serve.

To prepare the syrup: Add sugar and water to a saucepan. Bring to boil and simmer for 6-8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and rosewater.

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