Bits and Bobs

The most irritating thing for me about cooking or making home made body products is that the only way to learn is to use a good recipe book. When it comes to cooking, as I mentioned on the Wellness page, the Woman’s Weekly series are excellent cookbooks. However, many of the ingredients are not easily found. Many are furthermore quite costly as they need to be imported and are rather exotic. Add to this complication a husband that is allergic to sugar and a couple whose stomachs can't tolerate wheat or oats. For these reasons I took it on myself to find alternatives for many of the ingredients required.

All the recipes I add to this page contain no refined sugar and no wheat flour or oats. The ingredients are not too exotic and are easily available at either the Food Lover’s Market, Checkers or Woolworths (generally any grocery store).

five-spice chicken stir-fry with celery

This recipe I got from Spice it by Murdoch Books. It serves 4 (2 without rice)

Sauce

3 Tbs Maizena (cornstarch) or potato flour

3 tsp chicken spice, plus ½ tsp extra

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp ground cloves

125ml chicken stock

2 Tbs soy sauce

1 Tbs sherry

2 Tbs rice vinegar

2 tsp honey

½ tsp peanut oil

Meal

Peanut oil for frying

4 chicken breasts

4 spring onions, chopped

2 sticks celery, cut into 3cm pieces

1 long red chilli, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 teaspoons grated/finely chopped ginger

Jasmine rice to serve

• Combine Maizena and spices (chicken spice, fennel seeds and ground cloves) on a plate. Take 1 tsp of this mixture and put in a mug with a little stock to form a paste. Add the rest of the stock, soy sauce, sherry, rice vinegar, honey, peanut oil and the ½ tsp chicken spice.

• Cut the chicken breasts into strips and toss in the flour-spice mixture. Heat a wok or pan until very hot and add some oil. Stir-fry the chicken until just cooked. Remove to a plate.

• Add a little more oil. Stir-fry the spring onions, celery, chilli, garlic, and ginger for 2-3 minutes or until aromatic.

• Return the chicken and combined sauce to the wok. Stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened a little and the chicken is hot.

We eat a big salad and then serve the chicken stir-fry into a bowl and leave the rice. Enjoy!

Marinating a Boring Ol’ Beef Steak 

The problem with steak is you always need some sort of sauce to go with it. Look at the steaks on the menu at a restaurant: they mostly offer either pepper sauce or mushroom sauce or garlic sauce or some other sauce. But to make these at home are extra effort and extra time. A quick and easy way to make steak tasty, on an open fire or even in the pan, is to marinade it! And it is healthier! This recipe is adapted from Woman’s Weekly. 

Marinade for an average sized steak (250g) 

2 Tbs olive oil 

3 Tbs balsamic vinegar 

Ground black pepper to form a “crust” on the marinating meat 

3 cloves garlic crushed (optional) 

• Place the steak into a small dish with a lid (just big enough so that the steak can lie flat in the marinade). 

• Pour the olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the steak and turn it a couple of times to make sure it is covered with marinade. 

• Grind black pepper over it and turn once more. Grind black pepper onto the other side. Place the garlic on the steak.

• Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes or more. The meat will become dark and stained from the vinegar.  

• Then fry in a little oil or barbeque as desired!

 

 

 

What to do with a tub of sour cream

You get ready to make a delicious dessert with the tub of cream you bought last week but when you open it you find that it is turning sour. Your first reaction will be disappointment and irritation but don’t let your impulse angrily throw it in the bin. Change your approach and use the sour cream in a quiche!

Crustless biltong, spinach and mushroom quiche 

Ingredients

1 teaspoon of coconut oil/olive oil

1 medium onion

200g button mushrooms

1 packet of spinach

+- 1 cup biltong

2 eggs

½ cup of cream (I use reduced fat cream)

salt and pepper to taste

½ block of feta

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcuis. Cook the spinach in a little water on the stove. Chop. Slice the onion and button mushrooms and fry in a little oil. Whisk the eggs and add the cream. Add pepper and salt to taste. Place the spinach, mushrooms, onion and biltong in a bowl and mix well. Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased tart dish. Poor the egg mixture over the tart and place it in oven for 30 minutes. Drop pieces of roughly chopped feta on top of the tart and bake for a further 15 minutes. Delicious served with a salad.

PS Double up the recipe to use the full tub of cream if you have nothing else to use it for!