One Week in Sarah's Kitchen: Friday

Last day in the office of the week. I always forget how long these exercises are! As I travel most weeks for work it was lovely to sleep in my own bed every night for a week but 12-14 hours in the office each day in a high stress situation has taken it's toll. I'm very glad it's the weekend!

Food and Drinks:

Breakfast: first thing I had lemon, ginger and hot water. Followed a little later by Protein Pancakes. However unlike the recipe I had them plain with a little cinnamon sprinkled on top.




Morning snack: a healthy Eton Mess. Made my mixing 0% Total Greek Yoghurt with raspberries, blueberries, chopped dates, grated apple and vanilla. I normally top with a few flaked almonds or mixed seeds but I forgot. Yum!

Lunch: tomato and lentil soup


Afternoon snack: roasted nuts and a pear

Dinner: As I was home at a reasonable time I wanted to cook something but as I was feeling pretty tired it needed to be quick I went with this recipe. It is basically a tomato sauce with eggs cracked on top and allowed to cook. I added onion and plenty of spinach to the tomato sauce to increase the vegetables and served it with a green salad.




For pudding I followed this with a healthy version of chocolate mousse and I don't mean those awful low fat and low calorie pots you buy which I full of sweeteners and very little nutritional value.

Water: 1.5 litres
Other drinks: 2 mugs of decaf tea with skimmed milk
Organised for tomorrow: my gym kit

Exercise and Walking

Walking: 15 mins
Exercise: Rest day - I had wanted to do a weights session but after a long week I was too tired.

Relaxation and Sleep

Relaxation: turned off my phone all evening for Quiet Night Friday. I try and do this every Friday to have a break from everything. I then listened to some music whilst cooking and chose a nice classical album. I then had a bath soaking in Epsom salts. I then read a chapter of my book in bed. Both still listening to music.
Meditation: 10 mins
Bed time: 9pm
Estimated hours of sleep: 8.5 hours

Before bed I always eat a few walnuts and take a magnesium supplement. I also sleep with a black out blind and sleep mask and use a pulse aromatherapy oil made of relaxing oils.

Tomato and lentil soup

As you can see from the soup recipes on my blog I eat soup quite often. ,out weeks I'll make a couple of different soups at the beginning of the week to last me for lunches or light dinners.

This week I made a tomato and lentil soup.

I always start by sautéing the vegetables in a little oil before adding the liquid and lentils. You could jump this step to reduce the fat but I think it improves the flavour and is good fat so worth it for me.

I also add a little Parmesan which again could be omitted but as its a hard strong cheese you don't need much.





Tasty!

Here is the recipe

Check out How to Make Tomato and Lentil Soup #Healthyeating by Sarah's Kitchen Diary on Snapguide.

Chicken Broth

This is a great tasty and healthy lunch or light dinner.

If you don't have these veg add what you do. I like broad beans and a handful of kale.





Start by making a sofritto by gently sautéing finely chopped onion, carrot and celery. Add crushed garlic, chicken stock, black pepper and beans and cook for 30-45 mins. Once everything is soft add leftover roast chicken, parsley and a splash of white wine vinegar. Check for seasoning and serve.

Here is my guide.
Check out How to Make Chicken Broth #Healthyeating by Sarah's Kitchen Diary on Snapguide.

Christchurch Food Festival

I have been meaning to write up this post for a while, but life has got in the way. A couple of weeks ago my mum and I went to the Christchurch food festival in Dorest. It's a well established festival and has a food market and various events. On the Saturday there were various demo's and we attended two. The first was Paul Potts from local restaurant Splinters and the second was the lovely James Martin.

Paul Potts made the following recipes:

Seabass fillet on tomato and red onion tarte tatin

Pan fry 5 cherry tomatoes, halved, season, add basil oil and chopped red onion and put into a 4 inch flan dish. You can arrange the tomatoes to all face the same way if you like. Top with a circle of puff pastry and bake in a hot oven for about 15 mins until golden.

Take a fillet of sea bass and at the wide end cut out a 'V' shape. This should remove any stray bones. Sear the fish in a hot pan, skin side down. Once brown and crispy turn over and top with a knob of butter.

Turn out the tart, top with the sea bass and drizzle with basil oil and a little balsamic vinegar and garnish with pea shoots.

Tuna Warm Salad Nicoise with Basil Oil

Boil 6 asparagus spears for a couple of minutes. Add a handful of sugar snaps to warm through. You want them to still retain their crunch. Whilst they are cooking fry 3 cooked new potatoes, cut in half, a few cherry tomatoes (roasted if desired) and a few olives.

Make a dressing of 3 parts oil, one part white wine vinegar, wholegrain mustard, chopped parsley, chives and seasoning.

Season a tuna steak, sear in a little oil. Only cook for a few minutes on each side as it is best served pink. Add a knob of butter to the top and put to one side to rest.

Serve the vegetables, dressed with the vinegarette and topped with seared tuna and pea shoots.

Scallop and Bacon Salad with Toasted Pine Nuts

Remove the roe from the scallops and the little muscle. Add a little oil to a hot pan and fry the scallops and some strips of bacon.

Julienne (finely shred) a carrot, courgette and half a leek. Add the fried strips of bacon, salad leaves, vinegarette and seasoning and toss. Top with the scallops and a drizzle of basil oil.

Scallops with Curried Parsnip and Apple Puree

Prepare the scallops as above.

Fry some cooked parsnips and apple together, add a little curry powder and seasoning and stock and blend to a smooth puree.

Serve by placing each scallop on a spoonful of puree.

James Martin made the following recipes:

Pea and Watercress Soup

Sweat one crushed clove of garlic and 1 finely shredded shallot in a some butter.

Bring some chicken or vegetable stock to the boil and add a glass of white wine. Add, a bunch of parsley, the garlic and shallot, a bag of watercress (holding back a few sprigs for garnish). frozen peas and seasoning. Blend.

Boil and egg in water for 5.5 minutes. Peel the egg carefully. Dip in flour, then beaten egg and then breadcrumbes and deep fry until golden.

Blanch some asparagus and then warm through in a little butter.

Serve the soup, topped with the asparagus and the egg with the top cut off, a sprig of water cress and a piece of crispy bacon.

Lamb Salad

Blanch some asparagus and put in iced water.

Remove the sinew from a loin of lamb and quicklysear in a pan in rapeseed oil. The pop it into a hot oven for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour over some sweet chilli sauce and put to one side to rest.

Make a pickle from some chopped radishes, the blanched asparagus, chopped cucumber, shallots, turnip (sliced on a mandolin), lime zest and then pour over a dressing made by putting white wine vinegar, a big pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt and the juice of a lime in a hot pan.

Serve by placing the pickle on a plate. Topped with slices of the lamb, a few sprigs of watercress and a few mint leaves. Drizzle with rapeseed oil.

Summer Pudding

Take a dariole mould or a tea cup and line with cling film. Cut the crusts off some cheap white bread and cut circles for the bottom of the mould and strips for the side.

Blend some fresh strawberries with some frozen berries, icing sugar and a little water and sieve to make a sauce, dip the bread in the sauce and line the mould. Mix more fresh strawberries with frozen berries and basil and squash into the mould, add a spoonful of clotted cream to the mould and top with a rough of bread dipped in the sauce. Release from the mould and drizzle over the rest of the sauce. Top with fresh berries, a clotted cream quenelle, a basil leaf, a dusting of icing sugar and some sugar work. You can make a sugar swirl by wrapping cooled sugar syrup around a steel (for a smaller one) or a rolling pin (for a larger one).

Vegetable Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai green curry, especially a recipe I learnt when I was in Thailand (I really must write a post on it next time I make it) and at this time of year I eat soup for lunch most days. I had a small amount of coconut milk in the fridge so decided to combine the two and make a slightly more soupy vegetable curry.

I started by dicing the vegetables to a size easy to eat with a spoon, far smaller than I would for a true curry. I then heated the coconut milk with the water, added the green curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, sugar and soy followed by the veg and cooked until the veg were all fairly soft but still holding their shape. I finished by squeezing in lime juice and some sliced red chilli. You could also top with fresh coriander if you had some. I also normally add some torn kaffir leaves but forgot!

Here it is cooking in the pan


Recipe

Makes two generous bowls of soup and is easily doubled/halved etc. You can also substitute the veg for whatever you have in the fridge that you think would be tasty

1/2 tin coconut milk
2-3 tablespoons of green Thai curry paste to taste
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar (or natural sweetener)
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fresh ginger grated
1 courgette
1 red pepper
1 large carrot
2 onions
1/2 red chilli
Juice of 1/2 lime
3-4 torn kaffir leaves (if you remember!)
A bunch of torn coriander (if desired)


Dice all of the veg

Heat the coconut milk with the curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, ginger and sugar.

Add the veg and cook until it is soft but still holds its shape. Approx 20-30 mins

Add the lime and kaffir leaves. Serve topped with slices of red chilli and corriander

Spiced Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup

At this time of year I mainly eat soup for lunch so like to try different ones. Here are some more recipes
Today's recipe is a lightly spiced but still very tasty squash soup. It could also be made with pumpkin or other squash.








Ingredients
1.5 litres of chicken stock (use vegetable if you need the dish to be vegetarian)
200g dried red lentils
1-2 tsp crushes sumac
6 garlic cloves
1 small, diced carrot
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tap paprika

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the peeled, deseeded and cubes squash, garlic and carrot in a large roasting tray in a single layer (use two trays if you need to) drizzle with olive oil, spices and season and bake for about an hour or until the veg is soft and caramelised. Put the veg in a clean pan along with the stock and roughly blend so there is still some texture. Add the lentils and cook for about 20 mins until they are soft. Ladle into bowls and serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of sumac.

Autumnal Soups

I intended on posting this last night in order to keep up with my aim of writing a post everyday for a week but unfortunately ran out of time.

I always love soups, especially for lunch, but as the weather starts to turn autumnal soups come into their own. Warming and filling they are decidedly satisfying.

I made three batches of soup which I have optioned up and put in the freezer to take out for lunches either at work or home.

As most of my previous posts I'm afraid I haven't got a 'proper' recipe'. I have a tendency when cooking to cook by tasting as I go and experimenting with flavours I know complement each other, borrowing from memories of recipes I may have followed at some point in the past.

The first soup I made was a Spiced Pumpkin Soup with Mint Yoghurt. I started by peeling and roasting a pumpkin with 2 onions and 3 cloves of garlic (I know this sounds a lot but once roasted it takes on a lovely sweet and mellow flavour). I then added this to a large pan with some homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer, some ground chilli, cumin, corrinader, turmeric and garam masala (which I had dry fried for a few seconds first) and seasoned it well. I left it simmering for about 30 mins and the. cooled slightly before blending it until smooth. Taste to check the seasoning and add more if needed.

It's great served with a generous blob of mint yoghurt (I use Greek yoghurt mixed with chopped mint and seasoning).






A couple if years ago I went on a wonderful cooking course in a farmhouse in the hills just north of Rome, Italy http://www.cookitaly.it/recipes.htm

Twice daily the cook came down from the village to teach us to cook and this soup is one of the recipes I've made many times since. The original had a small potato in it added at the beginning and some risotto rice added about 15 mins before the end so feel free to revert to the original. The result is a very thick, filling soup so could even be eaten as a light dinner.

You start by frying a diced carrot, onion, celery tops and a clove of garlic in a pan. Once slightly browned and softened add a cup of dried green lentils, about 5 diced cherry tomatoes, seasoning and about a litre of stock. Simmer for about 45 mins, checking if more liquid is needed every so often. It should be thick by the end but you don't want it to dry out or burn on the bottom of the pan. About 5 mins before the end add another 5 diced cherry tomatoes and a handful of chopped parsley. Check the seasoning and serve.






The final soup I made was a Chicken, Vegetable and Barley soup. I love barley anyway and think it's a wonderful grain but in something like this simple soup it comes into it's own.

I started by sautéing finely diced carrot, onion and celery as a base (the same idea as an Italian sofritto) I then added a crushed garlic clove, a cup of barley, seasoning a handful of shredded roast chicken (don't worry you really don't need a lot) and about a litre of brown chicken stock (this is made by taking the carcass from a roast chicken and putting it back in the own until the bones and any remaining chicken are quite brown. The carcass is then boiled in plenty of water for an hour or so to make a very tasty stock. You can also add veg to the stock pot but on this occasion I didn't). Cook this for about 45 mins until the barley is soft. Check every so often that there is enough liquid and add more water if necessary. About 5 mins before the end add a handful of chopped parsley.

Sorry for the less than pretty serving bowl but this was ready to go into the freezer when I thought to take a photo!