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Chicken soup

On July 5, 2011 in chicken, comfort food, dairy-free, dinner, egg-free, gluten-free, healthy recipes, recipes, wheat-free, winter warmers

There’s two types of eaters in this world – those who live to eat and those who eat to live. No prizes for guessing which camp I fall into. What type of eater are you? Is your relationship with food based on passion or necessity?

Sometimes I wish I was one of those people who regard food as fuel and regularly forget to eat. It would save me from having to constantly think about food. It would probably save my waistline too. But on the downside, it would mean the death of this blog. A food blog written by a food hater? Forget it.

A surefire sign of a food lover is a healthy preoccupation with comfort food. In other words, eating when you’re not hungry. Comfort eaters are masters of the art of eating for the sake of it. They’ll find any excuse to put food in their mouths. The most frequently cited reasons being boredom, sickness, procrastination, heartache, depression, joy and tiredness.

Ice-cream, biscuits and chocolate are popular forms of sweet comfort food. Hot chips, pizza, burgers, bangers and mash, anything involving carbs are highly sought after in the savoury department. A common misconception with comfort food is that it has to be unhealthy. This is not the case. Take chicken soup, for example. It’s one of the best comfort foods around and happens to be very good for you. Some even go as far as saying it cures sickness.

In the interests of curbing my reliance on unhealthy comfort foods, I decided to soothe my soul with a big pot of homemade chicken soup. I made the whole thing from scratch, including the broth. This isn’t a mid-week meal as you need to leave the soup in the fridge overnight so you can skim the solidified fat off the surface the next day. It’s really worth the effort. I’ve never tasted soup this delicious.

chicken soup

Classic chicken soup adapted from Taste

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 x 1.4kg (size 14) chicken (make sure it’s free-range)
2 large brown onions, finely chopped
2 cups loosely packed fresh continental parsley leaves
4 garlic cloves, crushed
60 mls (1/4 cup) fresh lemon juice
2 tbs soy sauce
5 celery sticks, cut into l cm pieces
5 medium carrots, cut into l cm pieces
2 medium tomatoes, halved
salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1.5L (6 cups) water

Method:

Rinse the inside of the chicken. Remove the tail and neck, and as much skin as possible from the chicken.
Combine the onions, parsley, garlic, lemon juice and soy sauce in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 5-8 minutes or until the onions are soft. Add the chicken, celery, carrots and tomatoes and season with pepper. Add the water and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 1 hour or until the chicken is tender and comes away from the bones easily.
Remove from heat, cool for 10 minutes and place the soup in the fridge to chill overnight. (This allows the fat to rise to the surface and set.)
Next day, remove the soup from the fridge and use a large metal spoon to remove the layer of solidified fat from the surface.
Remove the chicken from the soup and place in a large bowl. Use your fingers to remove the meat from the bones and shred into pieces.
Discard the bones. Return the chicken meat to the soup.
Bring the soup to the boil over medium heat and simmer until the chicken and vegetables are heated through. Remove the soup from the heat and skim a piece of paper towel over the surface to absorb any excess fat.
Season with salt and ladle the soup into deep soup bowls. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

 

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Marion’s Kitchen red chicken curry

On June 22, 2011 in celiac, chicken, chilli, curry, dairy-free, egg-free, food, gluten-free, spicy, wheat-free

Do you have a fallback recipe? One that you go back to time and time again like the ex-boyfriend you just can’t shake? One you can cook on auto-pilot and whip up with your eyes shut? I have a love-hate relationship with my fallback recipes – cooking them fills me with equal measures of comfort and guilt. “I should be more creative. I should try something new,” I say to myself as I whip them up for the 100th time.

I’ve had a few fallback recipes in my time – chicken stir-fry, chilli con carne, spag bol, Thai red or green chicken curry. Truth be told, Thai red curry is the most frequent offender. I’ve been cooking it for years in various guises. It usually makes an appearance mid-week when all inspiration is lost and I just don’t feel like bringing out the big culinary guns.

You can imagine my delight at being sent trial packs of Marion’s Kitchen Thai curry kits to review. Remember Marion Grasby from Masterchef season two? She was the amazing cook who looked likely to win the show before she was ousted in a shock elimination.  I remember being positively gutted at the time.

Since leaving Masterchef, Marion has developed her own food range. Aptly named Marion’s Kitchen, the range covers five popular Thai dishes all nicely packaged in colourful boxes with step-by-step instructions. Think of it as Thai for beginners. It’s hard to stuff this up… even if you try!

For Thai lovers like me, it’s a great mid-week meal option if you feel too virtuous to order takeaway but don’t feel like cooking up a storm. On my maiden voyage into Marion’s Kitchen I cooked one of my fallback recipes – Thai red chicken curry. All I needed to add was 400g chicken (I added more like 600g) and 1 cup of vegies. Marion kindly supplies the rest, so all up it costs around $20 for a meal for four people.

Marion's Kitchen red chicken curry

Marions Kitchen » Marion’s Kitchen BBQ Chook Red Curry

The ingredients list is refreshingly devoid of additives, and I love the inclusion of a dried spices pack to add some extra punch to the curry. Marion suggests crushing the dried chillies if you want extra heat.

Step one: heat oil over medium heat and fry the curry paste for a couple of minutes until it starts to smell beautiful. This allows the fresh ingredients in the paste to release their flavour and aroma.

Step two: pour in the coconut milk and 1 cup of water. You can tell the quality of a coconut milk simply by looking at it. If it’s rich and creamy like this one, you know it’s good. There’s one step missing on the instructions at this point. You need to bring the coconut milk and water to a gentle simmer before the next step.

Step three: this is my favourite step. Add the fragrant dried herbs and fish sauce. The herbs come in a sachet and contain dried basil, dried kaffir lime leaves and dried chilli. For more spice, Marion recommends chopping up the dried chillies before you add them. For less spice, don’t use any dried chillies and add an extra 1/2 cup water. Wait for the curry to start simmering again.

Step four: add the drained bamboo shoots and raw meat. Marion recommends adding the vegies at this point, but I holded off adding mine until the chicken was mostly cooked as I didn’t want them to overcook. The timing depends on the type of vegies you’re cooking. Pumpkin and eggplant will take longer than green beans and zucchini, for example. Then, simmer until the curry is cooked and serve with rice.

So, what’s the verdict? The red chicken curry gets my thumbs up. It’s full of flavour and rich in colour and makes for a great mid-week meal.

Also available in the Marion’s Kitchen range are Thai green curry, Thai basil and chilli stir-fry, Thai fish cakes and Thai satay sticks. Available from IGA, Woolworths, Foodland, Franklins, Drakes, Kemmenys and other retailers. RRP $6.99.

 

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Cinnamon quinoa

On June 9, 2011 in breakfast, brunch, celiac, dairy-free, egg-free, food sensitivities, gluten-free, healthy recipes, wheat-free

Are you a morning person or a night owl? Most mornings, I struggle to peel myself away from the covers. My energy tends to increase as the day goes on, reaching a nice crescendo by nighttime when my creativity hits its peak. I’ve always been quietly jealous of “morning people”. Just how do they bounce out of bed of a morning all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? I read on body+ soul there’s a genetic predisposition and an innate tendency to be either a night person or a morning person. So maybe I can blame my genes for my slothenly morning state.

breakfast quinoa

Cinnamon quinoa

I’d probably be nocturnal if weren’t for the prospect of breakfast. Indeed, breakfast is usually the first thing that pops into my head when I rouse from a deep sleep. If it weren’t for a hot cup of tea accompanied by a piping hot bowl of porridge with blueberries, I’m not sure if I’d ever get out of bed. As much as I don’t understand “morning people”, I also scratch my head at people who forgo brekky. Just how do they do it? And more importantly, don’t they realise they’re missing out on the most important meal of the day?

I think Piglet summed it up nicely when he said to Winnie the Pooh: ”When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today,” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I have a new breakfast creation to share with you. It’s a porridge-like recipe using a newfound ingredient of mine – quinoa (pronounced “keen-wa”). Rest assured, it’s easier to cook than it is to pronounce. For those of you who won’t turn up your nose to a bowl of porridge, you’re bound to like this recipe. I’m still on the hunt for a grocer that sells quinoa that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, so I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

Cinnamon quinoa

Adapted from Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine (as seen on 101 Cookbooks)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup soy milk (or regular milk if you’re not sensitive to dairy)
1 cup water
1 cup organic quinoa, (rinse quinoa in water)
2 cups blackberries or blueberries (I use frozen)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted*
4 teaspoons organic agave nectar or honey

Method:

Combine milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. Stir in blackberries and cinnamon; transfer to four bowls and top with pecans. Drizzle 1 teaspoon agave nectar or honey over each serving.

*While the quinoa cooks, roast the pecans in a dry fry pan over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

If you’re nuts about quinoa, be sure to check out these quinoa salads recipes. And for more brekky recipes, take a look at cashew coconut pudding and gluten-free pancakes.

So, tell me, are you a morning person or a night owl?


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Wheat-free soda bread

On June 3, 2011 in allergy-free, Baking, bread, breakfast, brunch, celiac, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, healthy recipes, wheat-free

The one thing I’ve missed the most since going wheat-free is pizza and red wine bread. Admittedly, I’ve missed the convenience of bread as much as the taste and smell of it. No toast for breakfast; no sandwiches for lunch; no bread to dip into my soup; no popping down to the bakery on my bicycle wearing a striped top and a red beret and grabbing a baguette. Needless to say, it has been a tough gig and I’d really prefer not to live without bread.

Bread and I were reunited on the weekend. No, I didn’t buckle at the wafts of hot bread lingering from Brasserie Bread. My in-house baker (Paul) worked out how to make wheat-free soda bread. I’m talking no wheat and no yeast. And yes, it’s delicious. Maybe after months of going without bread I have forgotten how it’s meant to taste, but if you ask me, this wheat and yeast-free stuff is amazing. And what’s even better is it’s easy to make. Paul whips it up in less than 15 mins (plus about 40 mins cooking time).

So, what is soda bread? It’s a quick bread that uses baking soda instead of yeast. It usually contains buttermilk, but in the interests of being dairy-free, Paul used soy milk instead.

Wheat-free soda bread

Wheat-free soda bread

Paul’s wheat-free soda bread

Dry ingredients:

1 cup millet flour
1.5 cup gluten free or rice flour
1/2 cup potato starch or tapioca
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons xanthan gum

Wet ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of rice or soy milk.
2 tablespoons light olive oil or canola oil

Or for a seedy loaf:

5 tablespoons of mixed seeds (4 to be mixed with the dry ingredients and one for the topping)

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C.  Flour a baking tray.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Mix in 4 tablespoons of the seeds if creating the seedy loaf.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.  Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients; gently mixing as you go, I use a spatula to do this.

If you need a little more milk to moisten the dough, add a tablespoon at a time and stir in.

When the dough is evenly moist, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface.  Kneed gently for one minute to mix in the extra ingredients.

Move the dough to the prepared tray; and using moist or rice-floured palms, flatten and shape the dough into a rounded loaf. Sprinkle with a very light dusting of rice or gluten free flour, or if you are creating the seedy loaf brush the loaf with milk and sprinkle with the seeds.

Using a dry sharp knife, slice a cross into the dough.

Place the tray into the centre of the preheated oven. Bake for about 40-45 minutes, until the loaf is crusty and sounds hollow when thumped on the base.

Either cool on a wire rack if you like a crusty loaf or wrapped in cloth if you prefer a softer loaf.

If you like this soda bread recipe, you might also like Paul’s hot cross buns recipe.

So, tell me, could you live without bread or would that be a life not worth living?

 


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Cashew coconut pudding

On May 1, 2011 in breakfast, brunch, celiac, dairy-free, dessert, egg-free, food sensitivities, gluten-free, healthy recipes, raw food, recipes, wheat-free

Did you eat one too many chocolate bunnies over Easter? Personally, I was doing really well at abstaining from chocolate until Easter Monday rocked around and I was given a box of Lindt balls. David Copperfield would have been impressed at how I made the Lindt balls disappear, almost like magic. One minute they were there, the next, they were gone!

If you’re anything like me and ridden with guilt from your Easter binge, may I suggest a healthy breakfast recipe that will help salvage some of the damage? While ‘cashew coconut pudding’ may sound anything but healthy, it is actually full of goodness. In fact, it’s one of those raw food recipes that I came across in Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen.

Cashew coconut pudding

Cashew coconut pudding

Cashew coconut pudding
Adapted from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen
Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups cashews (preferably soaked overnight in water)
11/2 cups water
1/4 cup pitted dates
1/2 cup shredded dried coconut or fresh coconut

Method:

Drain the cashews and blend them with water until smooth. Add the dates and coconut and blend until smooth.

Serve in glasses topped with blueberries, sliced banana and shredded coconut. Will keep in the fridge for up to three to four days.

If you like the sound of raw food, here’s a delicious cacao pudding recipe that you might enjoy.

 

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