Neptune's Larder

So the new year is upon us and most likely resolutions of healthier eating and detoxification!

But what about the New Year's parties? Canapés? Well don't worry because I have discovered a range of delicious and sophisticated organic Spanish seaweed based foods from CressUk, that can be whipped up in minutes and taste amazing!

Seaweed may not be everyone's idea for the basis of a meal but believe me, its ever increasing popularity makes it the perfect food for parties and it is low in fat so you can eat twice as much! (joke).

Seaweed is a fantastic source of protein, fibre, iron, iodine, calcium and a source of vitamins such as vitamin A. Seaweed contains substances called phycocolloids, which help intestinal motility and decrease appetite. Perfect then for canapés!

These canapes are incredibly easy to make but look impressive and taste even better with a cold glass of champagne:

Seaweed Tartar Blinis:

Pack of blinis
Seaweed tartar
Salmon roe

Place the blinis on a baking sheet and warm in the oven on 150 degrees for 7-10 minutes
Remove from oven and carefully place a teaspoon of the tartar in the centre of the blini. Then add a small amount of roe on top of the tartar (I bought mine from the fantastic Moxon's fishmongers, located on Lordship Lane, East Dulwich, and branches also in South Kensington and Clapham South). Serve immediately with champagne! (Essential).


One of my favourite dishes from the impeccable C's (formerly Cipriani's) restaurant is the squid ink tagliolini which also can be found in the Harry's Bar recipe book. I have used this dish as my inspiration as it is simply divine. I used the nori pasta as I think the dark colours and flavours all complement each other.



Squid cooked in Squid Ink
675g cleaned squid
100ml olive oil
1 large celery rib, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
4 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
400ml dry white wine
125g finely chopped fresh herbs (basil, parsely, oregano and thyme)
salt and pepper
3 sachets of squid ink (approximately 12g worth of ink)


For the squid (adapted from The Harry’s Bar Cookbook): Cut the cleaned squid into small pieces, roughly 2/3 cm each. Set aside. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery, onion, and garlic, and cook until soft and golden but not browned. Add the tomatoes and cook for about 3 minutes. Turn the heat to high and add the squid. Stir the squid, cooking it evenly for a few minutes. Then add the wine and herbs and bring the liquid to the boil. Turn down the heat. Add the ink from the sachets, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook over low heat, partially covered, until the squid is soft and tender. This should take about 90 minutes. Stir occasionally.

When this is complete, toss in the cooked pasta and mix well. Then assemble on a plate (do this by twizzling the pasta with a fork, it looks presentable this way!).

For a lighter, less formal yet equally as delicious meal, I created an alternative pasta dish using the wakame variety. I roasted fennel and added caper berries to give it a fresher, zingy flavour. The scallop add a different texture but don't detract from or overpower the taste of the seaweed pasta.

Scallop Seaweed Pasta
Wakame pasta

One fennel bulb,

Scallops

Caper berries

Artichoke hearts, sliced

Lemon juice

Olive oil

Furimake Japanese seasoning

season with salt and pepper




Method:
Thinly slice the fennel bulb and spread on a warm baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, season, and place in the oven on 180degrees for about 15-20 minutes. To crisp them up a little grill for 5 minutes. Slice the artichoke hearts and put to one side. Cook the pasta and toss in olive oil so it doesn't stick together. While the pasta is cooking, heat a thick slice of butter in a frying pan and add the scallops. Cook for 5 minutes, turning constantly. Do not over cook them or they will be like rubber!

When everything is cooked, assemble in a warmed dish, drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, caper berries and season.

Serve on warm plates. Sounds obvious but you'd be amazed how many people put warm food onto stone cold plates and wonder why it goes cold so quickly!

Try these simple yet stunning recipes. I have made them for my human guinea pigs who were sceptical at first but pleasantly surprised by how delicious they all were!

Happy New Year!!

Eat well. Xx

Links: www.cressuk.com
          www.moxonsfreshfish.com
          http://www.cipriani.com/locations/london.php
       

Super natural delights...

I love Halloween. Not only is it a fun excuse to hop on my broomstick and wreak havoc, it hails the start of winter feasts and celebrations.

Squashes outside SMBS

Big Daddy!

Winter stews and soups are the ultimate comfort foods. They are like a cosy blanket when you come in from the cold and wet. Easy, quick and cheap to make, they also keep well and can be frozen for another time. Nutritious, nourishing and nurturing. A bowl of good, home made soup cannot be beaten.

(This monster pumpkin and gourds are on display outside SMBS health foods in East Dulwich. The pumpkin will be cut up on Tuesday 2nd Nov and given away. Hope they have a chainsaw!)


So, when I received a sugar pumpkin in my Riverford organic veg box this morning I had one thing on my mind.....SOUP! I must admit, I have been giving this recipe a lot of though! Everyone who makes pumpkin soup tends to follow a generic formula . The soup I created came to me when I was trying to sleep. Obsessed? Me...?!

 My pumpkin soup is a marriage of complementary flavours, with a kick! A caribbean twist, you could say!

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin soup  (serves 4-6)





I am using pumpkin flesh instead of human, hopefully the zombies won't notice...


Sugar pumpkin refers to the edible kind rather than the "Jack-o'-lantern" type













Ingredients:


1 small/medium sugar pumpkin
3 medium carrots
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
stick celery
2 medium potatoes
1/2 litre vegetable stock
coconut oil
1 inch piece ginger finely chopped
1/2 can coconut milk
juice 1/2 an orange
juice of 1 lime
1 tspn chilli flakes
1/2 tspn paprika
Cracked black pepper

Toasted pumpkin seeds and rye bread for croutons (to serve)

Start by cutting the pumpkin into 8ths and rub with coconut oil then paprika. Put on baking tray in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes until soft and roasty looking. Meanwhile chop all the veg ang heat 2 table spoons coconut oil in a large pan. Throw in the veg and ginger cover with the lid and sweat (the veg not you) shaking the pan occasionally so the veg doesn't stick. After 10 minutes add the stock.

When done, remove the pumpkin and let it cool before peeling off the skin and adding to the pan. Switch off oven and put pumpkin seeds on baking tray in oven. Keep an eye on them as they only take a few minutes to toast.

Simmer soup for 20 minutes and then blitz in a food processor or with a convenient hand held blender. Then add the coconut milk and orange and lime juice. Continue to simmer. Add as much pepper as desired and a sprinkle of chilli flakes and 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Simmer.

To make croutons, cut piece rye bread into squares and fry in a pan with coconut oil.

Moist & sumptuous!

Bewitching Orange and Almond Cake: 

This cake is amazing! It's gluten free and not too sweet. It is sweetened with organic jaggery, an unprocessed sugar rich in B vitamins and mineral salts. These nutrients are essential for its digestion and metabolism when ingested. White sugar is nutritionally void and leaches nutrients from the body. I found lovely, rustic looking brown bags of jaggery at Authentic Roots in Croyden. A really fantastic and delightful independent health food shop run by knowledgeable and friendly staff. Ghandi was an advocate of jaggery. And if it's good enough for Ghandi.....This is a low sugar cake, I deducted 100g from the original recipe. The protein from the eggs and the fibre from the whole orange will help the sugar to be released more slowly into the blood stream. However, if you need a lower glycaemic load, you can use Xylitol or coconut sugar which have a very low glycaemic impact.

You can leave out the baking powder and bicarb if dietary requirements dictate. Just expect it to need less cooking time.

 This cake is SO easy to make and will seriously impress with its rich flavour and moist texture. You literally whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor, and bake. Result!

I have to credit Queen Nigella for this recipe. It is from the wonderful "A Fair Feast" cook book. I have tweaked it somewhat by using jaggery instead of caster sugar and added some lovely spices to complement the orange and chocolate notes. Sorry, Nigella, but I think you'll find I improved it.

2 medium sized organic oranges
6 organic, fair trade eggs
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200g ground almonds
150g jaggery
50g fair trade cocoa
2 teaspoons mixed spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger
Crème fraiche for serving

Pre heat oven to 180 degrees/ gas mark 4 and grease and line a 20cm or similar spring form tin

Boil the oranges  for an hour or until soft, cut in half and remove pips then blitz them in a food processor.  add all the other ingredients and whizz! Pour into cake tin and bake for about an hour. Check after 45 mins. A skewer should come out clean after insertion.

Serve with a blob of sour cream/crème fraiche

Eat the lot.

Only kidding. You'll be sick.

http://www.authenticroots.co.uk/

I'm going to try and sleep now. Although, I'll probably be thinking up my next culinary adventure.

Eat well. Xx

Happy Halloween!!

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts...

Coconuts are big news. I've not been this excited over them since winning three in one go on a coconut shy when I was a nipper.


 These nutritional power houses have sustained people in the tropics for centuries and have served as a resource for food, shelter, furniture, fuel, tools and cosmetics.


 Coconut water has recently become very fashionable. Those of us in the know however, were drinking it long before Madonna and Rihanna "discovered" its amazing isotonic properties.


Infact, during WWII when blood supplies were non existent, doctors used  the water from inside young coconuts as a blood plasma substitute:


"It (coconut juice) is also considered a close substitute for blood plasma since it is sterile, cool, easily absorbed by the body and does not destroy red blood cells. To quote Morton Satin, Chief of Food and Agricultural Organisation's Agricultural Industries and Post Harvest Management Service: "It is a natural isotonic beverage with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It is the fluid of life, so to speak." - India's National Newspaper, 24th November, 2003. 


My favourite coconut water is Cocofina (www.cocofina.com). It is delicious and has a chocolatey after taste!


Due to its isotonic properties it is an ideal sports recovery drink. It is naturally high in electrolytes such as potassium, calcium and magnesium. Great after a sweaty Bikram yoga session!


Moving on now to the oil of the coconut. This is the good stuff. It is made up of MCT's (medium chain triglycerides) this is fat which is easy to digest and quickly metabolised by the body and doesn't affect blood cholesterol levels. This means the calories from MCTs are used immediately for fuel and not stored as fat. It gets better...research shows that MCTs enhance thermogenesis (fat burning). Extensive research has shown that coconut oil can increase thyroid activity and therefore increases metabolism. All these examples make coconut oil the perfect sports/fitness companion. Brilliant for energy when whizzed up in a smoothie or protein shake.

Amazeballs!!

Energy Balls: (You can get creative with these bad boys! Chuck in acai powder, cacao nibs or powder, bee pollen, whatever you fancy!)


Basic recipe:
3 table spoons coconut oil,
4 teaspoons almond butter (whole nut),
2 teaspoons spirulina,
2 scoops hemp protein powder
2 tablespoons pre soaked gogi berries (organic as the conventional are smothered in nasty pesticides!) or about 6 roughly chopped re-hydrated dates,
chopped almonds or dessicated coconut for rolling.


Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mash it together with your fingers. You need to melt the coconut oil with the heat of your hands. When it is all mixed together put the mixture in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to firm up. Cover a plate with cling film. Press the mixture into rough balls, be careful not to warm them up too much and roll in either chopped almonds or dessicated coconut. Place on the cling film covered plate. Return your balls to the fridge to harden up ; )


Coconut oil is stable at high temperature (up to 350 degrees) and doesn't turn into a trans fat, making it an ideal fat for cooking/frying.


Coconut oil is perfect for stir fries, Thai curries and try mixing a lump of it in with cooked rice for an exotic but subtle flavour!


The health benefits of coconut oil are extensive. Coconuts contain natural antibiotic compounds and have been found to be protective against disease causing microbes, including bacteria, funguses, viruses and yeasts.  Lauric acid, the main component of coconut oil is the most protective component against viruses and most bacteria, followed by the other fatty acids; capric, caprylic and mysristic acid. Caprilic acid is particularly useful in the treatment of candidiasis and other fungal infections.


It can also be used safely as a moisturiser for hair, skin, nails and even as a lubricant.


My favourite brands of coconut oil are: Viridian, Nutiva, Tiana, Higher Nature and Barleans.


They all taste great and are the best quality ones I have tried. They are all virgin, cold pressed and are hexane/solvent free. There is no funky after taste with these either. See below for links to websites.


I have also recently discovered a brand called Vitaquell, which is also organic and cold pressed. It is available at my lovely local health shop, Health Matters in East Dulwich (www.Dulwichhealthmatters.com) at £3.65 for 200g it is ideal for those on a budget. It is in a glass jar, which like the Viridian coconut oil, is often preferred.

Coconut milk is a great alternative to dairy. It doesn't curdle in tea or coffee and has a relatively neutral flavour. I like to mix my protein shakes with it. Try Kara: www.karadairyfree.com


Last but not least, I want to tell you about coconut nectar. Commonly known as coconut sugar, is the ideal sugar substitute and can be used as you would the white stuff, in baking, beverages and any other aspects of your life you wish to sweeten! It is low on the glycaemic index (around 35) which is lower than honey (55), and cane sugar (68). It won't spike your blood glucose levels and is therefore a good choice for hypoglycaemics and diabetics.


Because coconut nectar is unrefined, it retains its vitamins and mineral salts, potassium, zinc, and iron, and vitamins B1, B2, B6 and C. All essential for its digestion and metabolism.


I shall be posting a report I made after researching refined sucrose (table sugar) and its effects on health at a later date. Just be warned: it's evil.


Suppliers:


www.viridian-nutrition.com
www.highernature.co.uk
www.cressuk.com/brand/nutiva
www.tiana-coconut.com
www.barleans.com
www.vitaquell.de/international/english/




Further reading:


travelman1971.hubpages.com/hub/100-Uses-of-Coconut
www.coconut.com/museum/uses.html


And just for fun...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wg_L0wGTyA


I'm off to eat some fruity rye toast smothered in coconut oil and a smidgen of marmalade. Heaven!


Eat well! Xx

It started with a Romanesco

So, my first EVER blog. What better subject than food?


I shall commence by telling you what I made for dinner. I used mainly the contents of my Riverford organic box that is delivered to my door every Thursday morning by a rather charming man.


I have been making a dip recently that I have discovered goes with pretty much everything. Even cardboard. Or soil, depending on your level of hunger.


Pea and Mint dip:
3 hand fulls of frozen or fresh peas,
glug olive oil,
2 garlic cloves,
2 generous tea spoons dry horseraddish
juice 1/2 lime and squeeze of lemon,
2 table spoons of sour cream or similar.
Sprig mint,
Blitz in food processor.


Works well with crudites, pitta or flat bread, oat cakes...you get the idea.


I love winter. Like the fashion, the vegetables areso much more substantial and interesting. I love all the root vegetables and squashes, gourds and brassicas that are all so warming and comforting in soups and stews. One of my favourite vegetables is the Romanesco. Broccoli will always be the King of Brassicas, but the Romanesco, with its beautiful, bright green turrets, which are a prime example of phyllotaxis-the fractal patterning that appears in nature, is truly beautiful! This sweet, nutty, crunchy delight is a rich source of antioxidants, vitamins C and K and fibre. Just don't boil it to death, please. If you do I will HUNT YOU DOWN AND THRASH YOU!!


So, anyway, I lightly stir fried mine in olive oil, with finely sliced garlic, red onion, leek, and mushrooms. I then tossed in some yummy spelt tagliatelle and watercress and squeezed some lemon juice over it with a final splash of olive oil. It was bloody lovely.


I am happy to tell you I have some left over for my lunch tomorrow.


More delightful insights and recipes to come.


Eat well!


XX