19/10/2009 by D.

If you are on a diet… look away now!

1 onion
1 tsp olive oil
3 fat cloves of garlic
2 mugs risotto rice
1 pint chicken or veg stock
1 cup white wine (or a cup of 1/2 lemon juice topped up with water)
4 medium courgettes
2 tbsp salted butter
1 cup grated parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Put the stock (from cube is fine) in a pan and leave to simmer.  Finely chop the onion and crush the garlic.  Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onion and garlic.  Stir gently, for a minute, then add the rice and stir to coat it in the oil and heat up.  Add the wine and stir until almost evaporated.  Add a ladle of stock.  Stir until almost evaporated.  Repeat.  When half the stock is gone, taste the rice.  It should be almost halfway cooked.  It is important to undercook, rather than overcook it, as you will get a lot of liquid from the courgettes.

Add the courgettes and stir well for a minute.  At this point, I usually put the lid on, turn down the heat and leave it alone for about 5 mins, to get the heat through the courgettes.  Stir again and keep stirring until the courgette liquid is absorbed.  Try the rice, it should just have a small amount of bite.  If it is still too hard, add more stock, then stir etc until you have a good texture.  Stir in the butter and cheese.  Taste and season.

I serve this with a peppery Hackney salad.  You can put that flower on top of the risotto as a garnish!  Otherwise rocket is perfect with it.  Offer more parmesan, and some toasted sunflower seeds in separate bowls.  And don’t forget the rest of that bottle of white…

Posted in Hackney salad, Parmesan, Rocket, Risotto, Courgette, Rice, Sunflower seeds, Garlic, Toddler, Weaning, Recipe, Onion, Vegetarian, Organic Box | Print | No Comments »

14/10/2009 by D.

fruit: bag red grapes, pears, bananas, cox apples, avocado
veg: bunch watercress, courgettes, delicata squash, bulb garlic, onions, carrots, parsnip, nicola potatoes, spinach

The bags are definitely getting more wintry, but there is still a little left of summer to eke out of them!  Immediately springing to mind are a simple courgette risotto, a watercress and apple soup and some spinach and potato pancakes.  As a final nod to the last tomatoes I’m planning a gloriously easy but utterly delicious, tomato and avocado pasta.  A staple of my backpacking days as its a one pot camp stove dish.  Once you’ve cooked your spaghetti and have poured it into a sieve (yes, I did take both a sieve and a garlic press camping with me), you pour a little oil into the hot pan over the fire, add crushed garlic and finely chopped tomatoes and avocado.  Stir for 5 mins then put spaghetti back into the pan to coat and mix well.  Season with some salt and black pepper.  Eat with toasted sunflower seeds and parmesan.  Oooh, I can see mission beach now and those funny little crabs with one big, multicoloured pincer…

Posted in Tomato, Avocado, Garlic, Sunflower seeds, Pasta, Vegetarian, Weaning, Toddler, Recipe, Organic Box | Print | No Comments »

13/10/2009 by D.

The season of colds is upon us, so I decided to go and do a bit of research about why the lemon is so good for fighting colds.

It is a natural remedy for a number of reasons. The juice of 1 lemon apparently contains 80% of the RDA of Vitamin C. Vitamin C boosts the immune system, creating more white blood cells to fight infection and cutting short the life span of the virus. Lemon juice also decreases the toxicity of the virus in the body, which in turn reduces the symptoms and shortens the duration of the cold.  You can use a fork to get more juice out of your lemon if you don’t have a squeezer at work.

The honey doesn’t only sweeten…it soothes the throat and can also reduce the length of your cold, though researchers are still not completely sure why…

If you have your honey and lemon with an iron rich snack like dried apricots, oats, or cashews, you will further boost your chances of fighting colds as you’ll increase the iron absorbtion and therefore boost your immunity further.  So don’t break out the lemsip, visit your local shop!

Do try not to drink it followed by a tea or coffee which reduces vitamin C uptake…

Posted in Cold, Honey, Lemon, Tip, Organic Box | Print | 1 Comment »

08/10/2009 by D.

tbsp olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 fresh chilli peppers
300g minced beef
8 ripe tomatoes
8 mushrooms
1 yellow or red pepper
1 mug beef stock (from cube)
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tin kidney beans, drained
2 tbsp dark soy
1 tbsp ketchup or 2 tsp sugar
1 pack nachos
2 cups grated cheddar

Chop onion, mince garlic.  Chop mushrooms, tomatoes and pepper into cubes.  Chop the chilli peppers (put one chopped chilli aside for serving with the nachos).  Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and stir for a minute or two, then add the mince and make sure it separates and mixes with the onion.

When meat is brown, add the stock, cumin, chilli, veg and beans.  Leave to simmer, stirring occasionally until you can see orange bubbles on top and the tomatoes start to come apart.  Add the soy and stir, then taste.  If the tomatoes are really sweet, you won’t need the ketchup/sugar.  Generally you will, so add it now.  Leave to cook for another 10 minutes or so.  Then stir and taste again, season as necessary.

When you are ready to serve, heat the grill.  Spread the nachos out on a baking tray and sprinkle them with the leftover chilli pepper, then the grated cheese.  Grill until the chips start to brown and the cheese melts (really quick, about 2 mins so don’t wander off!).  Serve in bowls, with the nachos in the middle of the table.  It is nice to have some bowls of thick yoghurt or sour cream with it too (and salsa and guacamole if you are really going to town).  A bonfire night treat come early.

Posted in Mushroom, Pepper, Mexican, Tomato, Beef, Recipe, Chilli, Toddler | Print | 1 Comment »