Steak and warm kale salad

I am less than a week away from my summer holiday in the sun. A multitude of maxi dresses have been eBayed and I'm hoping my huge sun hat will arrive in time. I need to nip by Boots for some sunscreen and some other summer necessities tomorrow, other than that I should be more or less good to go. Although I'm hoping all I will be needing is a toothbrush, a bathing suit and a few dresses.

I should start packing soon, as we leave on Monday. Incidentally we are having some of the Culinary Consultant's family over on Sunday for a BBQ (this was agreed on before the summer holiday had been booked, have to admit the timing is not optimal). And I need to make the whole BBQ menu dairy free... oh deary (or dairy, hehe) me, I have no idea how to make a dairy free pudding. Anything I can think of has milk or butter. Maybe Eton mess with coconut cream instead of whipped cream? Or a nice dark chocolate sponge cake with oil instead of butter? I shall have to turn to my dear friend Pinterest to figure this out. At least doing dairy free BBQ should be quite easy. No cheeseburgers though... And I am thinking of having a salad station where everyone can make their own salad, bowls of ingredients like lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, onions, sweetcorn, chorizo and whatnot. I just want to make it as easy as possible. And I'm happy the Culinary Consultant will be left to clean up the mess while I jet away to sunny Cape Verde. So expect an update on Cape Verdian food coming up!

Today's recipe is perfect for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. It takes less than 15 minutes to prepare if you multitask preparing the warm salad and cooking the steaks, and it will help you get rid of those last few leftover handfuls of spinach and kale. I always have a bit of kale left and never a good idea what to do with it.

Steak and warm kale salad (serves 2):
2 steaks of desired size
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
150 g mushrooms
2 big handfuls of kale
2 big handfuls of spinach
1 clove of garlic
salt, pepper

The howto:
Slice the onion and mushrooms. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, and cook the onions over medium heat until starting to soften. Increase the heat a bit and add the mushrooms. Let cook for a few minutes. Add the kale, and cook until starting to wilt. Add the spinach and finely choppped garlic. Toss well, season to taste and cook for another minute or so. 

Cook steaks to desired doneness. Let rest in foil wrap for a few minutes before serving with the warm salad.

The verdict:
This was something I just tossed together from the left overs in my fridge. I had a few traditional, "cold" salads over the weekend, and with the weather all overcast and chilly today I thought I rather have a warm salad instead. And it turned out rather nice even if I do say so myself. The kale was still a bit crunchy and the flavour of garlic came through really well. The Culinary Consultant, who is back from his weekend of debauchery also enjoyed it, although I served him some boiled potatoes with butter and mint to make it a bit more substantial. And I might just have had one or two of those potatoes when I tidied up after dinner. Leftover calories don't count! 

Getting back on track chicken

I've been having just a teeny tiny bit of a problem getting back on track with my nutrition plan after getting back from my holiday, and being sick, and being very undisciplined in general. I thought I really need to make something that is healthy but doesn't taste healthy. Something which packs such a punch of flavours that I don't think about all that unhealthy bad food I've been craving. I needed something that is healthy, high in protein, low in fat and full of flavour. Also, I happened to have some parsley and coriander which had been hanging around my fridge for just a bit too long, so I needed to use  them up asap. Looking around in my kitchen, I spied a huge garlic and my omnipresent piece of ginger root (fresh ginger root is one of those things I always keep in my kitchen). And my eyes landed on my mortar and pestle which I bought probably a year ago, with the aim of making all sorts of spice mixes and my own pesto. But as so many of my other impuse buys, the mortar has just been serving as a garlic bowl. The sad truth is, I haven't used it, not even once. So now I finally thought I would break it in.

Back on track chicken (serves 4):
4 boneless chicken thighs (or fillets, if you prefer)
1 clove of garlic
a piece of fresh ginger about half the size of your thumb (ok I know, we all have different sized thumbs, but you know... just wing it!)
a bunch of fresh coriander (I used about 1/2 of a 31 g pack)
a bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley (I used about 1/2 of a 31 g pack)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or other oil of choice)

The howto:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Place chicken in an oven proof dish. Roughly chop the garlic, ginger, coriander and parsley, and place in a mortar. Using a pestle, grind until the garlic and ginger has been thoroughly smooched together with the herbs to a nice paste, and add olive oil. Spread the paste on top of the chicken, and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until juicen from the chicken are clear. 

The verdict:

Not only did my improvised herb-y chicken taste really freshly of herbs and ginger, it also filled my kitchen with the most amazing aroma. Admittedly it's not the most beautiful dish I have ever cooked, but this is obviously your first time here if you were looking for pretty food. My food may not be pretty, but it is good. And this time, it's also healthy. This dish almost made me think spring might be silently creeping closer. Could it be?

Love at first sight

There is something I really want to share with you all. Because, between friends, you share these things. And it finally happened to me. I'm in love, there's no doubt about it. It took 32 years, but I finally experienced love at first sight. Well actually, when I'm thinking about it, I guess this has been a long time coming. It started on Pinterest. I had never heard of Crockpots before I started craving pulled pork. When I was browsing for recipes, I kept stumbling on this mysterious Crockpot thing. I had to look it up. Slow cooker. Yes, I had heard about them, seen them on the home shopping networks... And laughed at them. Warm food when you get home from work. How uncool, definitely something for middle aged spinsters, right? Ok, well, I guess I'm officially a middle aged spinster. But I don't care, yesterday I marched into John Lewis and got me one of those magic pots. And now that baby is purring away with a big hunk of meat inside... And the smell in my tiny little hole of an apartment has been tormenting me for hours. Definitely not a device for those wanting to lose weight. Because I've eaten everything I could get my hands on while sniffing the heavenly scents of onions, white wine, vinegar and meat. There is another hour left to go before my juicy and tender pulled pork is done bathing in it's hot bubbling jacuzzi, but I have to admit I have already sneaked a taste or two. And it sure is tender, it almost falls to pieces at the sight of a fork. I have pinned so many recipes to try out. I guess my diet will be slightly meat heavy the next few weeks months. Which should be better than chocolate heavy, which it has been for the last few weeks. And boy am I feeling it, I have gained so much fat I am having trouble moving around. I really have to go cold turkey on all goodies before I explode. Whoever says chocolate is not an addictive drug should be shot. 

To try to get my mind off goodies for a bit, let me just tell you about something else that has been occupying my thoughts lately. I went to BodyPump the other day, and it was not my usual instructor as I'm trying out another gym as I'm thinking about changing. Anyways, I have been doing Pump on and off for the last ten years or so, and even if I don't know all of the releases very well, I usually recognise the tracks when I hear them, at least I should know the music. However, this time we did a bicep track that I just couldn't place. And after class I really wanted to look it up, as I liked the song a lot. However, doing almost five minutes of bicep curls resulted in my brain blocking out every aspect of the song, all I could remember was the pain. So, I spent half a day going through old releases to find the track. It was kind of like that feeling when you have a song going on in your head, and you just can't get rid of it. Except this time I couldn't even remember which song it was! It was driving me crazy. Anyways, this is the song in case you were wondering. Been listening to it on repeat for half a day now. I think I have been musing about this previously, but it's so strange how some songs you would never think much of if you just heard them become absolutely spell-binding when you come across them when doing sports. I have a long list of my favourite Combat and Pump tracks which I use as my running playlist. There are a few tracks that always get me to pick up speed, no matter how tired I am, they just have that something that will keep you going. Such as this one, or this (my favourite Muay Thai ever, and my Combat instructor always delivers it with such amazing energy!!). And I really should go out for a run, haven't been since the one unlucky run I did during my holiday which ended up giving me a blister the size of a small continent on my right foot. I had blood smeared all over my foot, socks and absorbed into my running shoes. Goes without saying, those running shoes went to where running shoes go to die.

Well, talk about going off on a tangent. So back to the love of my life now. Porky loin, bubbling away for eight hours in white wine and vinegar. Actually, I would have loved to make traditional pulled pork, but all recipes I found had loads of sugar, both in the form of actual sugar as well as various barbecue sauces or soda and as I have ingested about ten years worth of sugar in the last few weeks, I came up with my own version of slow cooked pork.

My precious!!

First ever slow cooked pork loin (serves 5-6):
1.25 kg pork loin
salt, pepper, chilli flakes, dijon mustard
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup honey vinegar or cider vinegar (I used half and half)
1 tbsp agave syrup
three onions

The howto:
Rub the meat with salt, pepper, chilli and mustard. Place in crock pot, pour liquids and syrup on top, slice onions and place on top of pork. Cook on low for 8 hours. Remove pork, shred the meat. Not very hard to do as it almost fell apart by itself! Add the shredded meat back into the pot and mix with the juices and onions. Serve with baked sweet potatoes or in a sandwich with some mayo and mustard. Or like I did, in sweet peppers to keep it low carb. Which was pointless as I followed up the meal with chocolate. I'm hopeless, and I will repent. Some day. Maybe.

My big (c)hunk-o-meat

The verdict:
I realise me and the Crockpot are still in the honeymoon phase, so my review of this food might not be totally unbiased. But oh my how wonderful the pork turned out. Juicy and oh so tender. It's actually kind of funny that I have been craving pork for so long, as I actually don't even like pork in general. Well, apart from bacon. But bacon should be it's own food group anyways. I had a hard time stopping myself from snacking on the meat all through the evening, had to put most of it into the freezer. I have a feeling this is the start of something beautiful between me and my Crockpot. Talk about having inappropriate feelings towards inanimate objects. 

Reindeer surprise

Holiday!! Holi-holi-ho-ho-ho-ho-hooooliday!! It started over half an hour late, my last meeting at work just went on and on and on and on and on. My brain had already shut off fifteen minutes into the meeting, and as the meeting went on for another hour, I spent quite a long time essentially brain dead. It felt like a century. But then finally it came, that sweet moment of freedom. I wanted to scream "FREEEEEEDOM" and run down the corridor to the door. I did resist temptation. I think my colleagues find me weird enough as it is. 

I had the perfect start to the holiday: an hour of combat. Great class, as usual, great energy. I'm lucky to have such a great instructor. And I got to do my favourite muay thai. Oh my how I love the moments when you stand back, wait, and then get to yell "Hyper Hyper" and get going again. Awesome. The best track ever to get out any pent up negative feelings. Certainly helped me get rid of any residual aggression that I don't want to take along to my holiday. Now I'm totally de-aggressed, exhausted (did my usual 20 mile cycle ride in addition to the combat) and well fed (I made a tomato and bacon omelette and some banana ice cream). Next, I need to pack. Tomorrow I'm off to Finland for a week. Going to go to the summer house for a while, which is why this will be my last blog post for a while. And it's not because there wouldn't be cell phone coverage and I couldn't get online. But we don't have electricity (!). Hard to blog when you can't charge your iPad. Oh well, I will just have to make up for it when I get back home.

I really look forward to seeing my family and Finnish friends. Even better, one of my friends is getting married (which is my original reason of going to Finland). I'm thrilled that I finally get to wear my full length cream dress with red and pink flowers. It's a dress I had been eying out at Monsoon for ages, but of course it was too expensive. Then I stumbled upon it in the end of season sales, so I just had to buy it. It was the will of the shopping gods. But I haven't had an opportunity to wear it until now. I also get to wear my fascinator I bought for Ascot. Oh how I love dressing up a bit. Summer weddings are lovely.

Anyways, now that I have explained why I will disappear off the face of the blogosphere for a while, I'll leave you with one last recipe. And quel surprise, it's a brunch recipe. However, for once it's not from Pinterest (yes, I heard that sharp intake of breath there in the back row). It's actually from the deep dark recesses of my mind. I wanted to empty my freezer before my holiday, so this recipe was part of that effort. Last time I went home I brought some smoked reindeer with me. I still had one pack of it left in the freezer, so I wanted to create a nice brunch using the reindeer. I also had some leftover cheese in the freezer which I wanted to use up. So this just came together. And it gave me an opportunity to try my new pink silicon pie mould. I have big silicon pie pans, but I needed a mid size one for cooking for two. And this was so cute I just had to buy it. Worked picture perfect. And cooking breakfast in the oven gives you extra time to get back into bed and snooze for a while longer, which is always appreciated on a lazy Saturday morning.

Reindeer and eggs (serves 3-4):
100 g smoked reindeer meat (ok, if for some strange reason you are struggling to find reindeer, you could replace with any other smoked meat. If you use bacon, you need to cook it first)
5 eggs
1 shallot
125g grated cheese (I went for a mix of dutch edam and chilli cheddar as that was what I had in the freezer)

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Finely chop shallot and reindeer. In a bowl, use a fork to mix the eggs to make them fluffy, add onion and meat and the grated cheese. Pour into a pie pan and bake for 20ish minutes.

One serving (a quarter of the recipe) contains  231 kcal (15g fat, 1.4g carbs and  21g protein).

The verdict:
What is it about smoked meats and eggs that go so well together? And especially in the morning? The reindeer definitely adds things to this dish you wouldn't get with regular bacon, it does have a very distinct taste of game. Which goes brilliantly with the onion. This got the approval of my culinary consultant, who had never had reindeer before. So if you happen to be around any places where you could get reindeer, do pick up a pack or two, it's really good! Incidentally, tomorrow I'm off to the land of the reindeers, and incidentally my freezer is empty. Will bring home a few packs of reindeer and pop them in the freezer as I have a list of things I want to use it for. Including my mum's famous reindeer jelly. It's epic. Although I'm not sure if it will turn out the right way with UK cottage cheese, which is not nearly as good as Finnish cottage cheese. Maybe I should just use my home-made farmer's cheese instead. Now there is an idea! Stay tuned. The InvisiblePinkOne will be back in about a week and a half.

A classic without a twist

It's spring, and everyone and their friend are blogging about asparagus. And at least some bloggers have original ideas (I think this asparagus and mascarpone pasta sounds really delish), whereas I'm just going to do the boring old pancetta wrapped asparagus with poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce. Well, it might be old to many, but not to me. I have to admit, I have never made poached eggs, or Hollandaise sauce. Actually, I'm scared of all sauces, I tend to mess them up, so I tend to stay away. However, today I got inspired by the chefs in Great British Menu taking cooking to the limits of their skills, and decided to tackle the Hollandaise. I stole the recipe from my favourite food blog Voisilmäpeliä.


Asparagus and pancetta (serves 1 as a main or 2 as a starter):
250g asparagus 
5-6 slices of pancetta


Hollandaise:
2 egg yolks
1/4 lemon juice (I used juice from 1/2 a lemon)
50g butter
salt
cayenne pepper


Poached eggs:
2 eggs
vinegar


The howto:
Get the kettle going, you will need lots of boiling water, both for the water bath for the sauce and the poached eggs. Start by preparing the asparagus. I used thick asparagus, so I started by peeling it and boiling for a few minutes (but make sure only two or three minutes, so it doesn't go too soft). If you are using fine asparagus spears, you don't need to do this. Wrap the asparagus stalks in pancetta, if you are using fine asparagus, cut the slices of pancetta in half lengthwise. Bake in 175 degrees C for about 10-15 minutes.

All set to go for the Hollandaise. Water gently boiling, butter melted
and yolk and lemon juice in the plastic bowl ready to go on the water bath.

While the asparagus is baking, prepare the Hollandaise. Start by melting the butter. Next you need to make a water bath. I used a saucepan and a plastic bowl on top as I don't have a stainless steel bowl, which undoubtedly would look much more professional. The main thing is the water should only be gently bubbling, not boiling too hard, and the top bowl should not be touching the water. Add egg yolk and lemon juice in the bowl, whisk on top of the water bath until it starts to get a bit fluffy. Then start adding in the melted butter in teeny tiny drops all the while whisking. Hollandaise is an emulsion of egg yolk and butter, in the same way mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg yolk and oil. When all the butter is whisked in, the sauce should be light and fluffy. Take it off the water bath and season with salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Hollandaise about halfway through adding the butter.

The last thing to do is to poach the eggs. Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Add a splash of vinegar. If you add more vinegar it's easier to get the egg to poach nicely, but there will be a stronger taste of vinegar. When the water is gently boiling, pour the egg into the water. Use a spoon to collect the white around the yolk if the egg spreads around too much in the water. Don't worry if it looks a bit messy, when you get the egg out of the water, it will look nice on the plate nonetheless! Two and a half to three minutes should be perfect to get that wonderful runny yolk.


One serving (half of this recipe) contains 409 kcal (36g fat, 7.4g carbs, 15.5g protein).


The verdict:
There is a reason why this is a classic. The salty pancetta with the soft asparagus and the soft buttery flavour and texture of the Hollandaise go together perfectly. Asparagus can be tricky, as you certainly don't want to overdo it. Baking it in the pancetta protects it in the oven, and I think it turned out perfect, sweet and juicy but still a bit chewy.


I was surprised at how easy the Hollandaise was to make. I guess the secret is the same as with mayonnaise, just make sure to drop in the butter little at a time and keep on whisking vigorously. To be honest, I don't know how a perfect Hollandaise should taste, but I was very happy with mine. I guess I need to find a nice restaurant and have some so that I have a reference point. I used a bit more lemon juice than the original recipe, and I liked that there was a distinct lemon taste, but I would guess the original should be a bit less lemony and a bit more buttery. Also, the sauce turned out very smooth and soft with the little pinch of cayenne adding a little bit of a kick. Apart from slightly overpoaching my eggs, I think this turned out pretty nice and I will certainly be cooking it again. I'm happy I have overcome my fear of sauces, at least my fear of Hollandaise. It really isn't at all as hard as you would think, so I warmly recommend trying it. If I can do it, anyone can.

Mayo - it's an oily business but somebody's gotta do it

After reading the recipes on my blog, I'm sure it's hard to believe that I actually try to eat very healthily. It's just, in general my food during the working week is really boring, so there is not much to blog about (unfortunately I will do that when I have time though, just to prove my point). Incidentally most of my blog entries are from the weekends, when I give myself the freedom to go crazy and cook and bake all sorts of sinful treats and even including my arch enemies wheat, sugar and dairy. I'm sure that makes much more interesting reading than endless iterations of "prepare meat/fish and eat with spinach, cucumber, tomato and sweet pepper.


I've spent quite a bit of time online, doing research on the most healthy way to eat. Also, I have tried to lose quite a bit of weight during the last 6 months, so I needed to find ways to eat which were healthy and promoted weight loss. I know few things get people as passionate (and sometimes outright rude and agressive) as discussions on diet and what to eat. For me personally (and at some later stage I will throw in my thoughts about how I believe we are all unique and different in our response to our diets) a low carb diet has worked wonders. With "worked wonders" I mean that I lost over a third of my body weight in 5 months or so (and this is a good thing, there was plenty to lose).


One thing I have not been able to figure out despite loads of online research is fats. One person thinks virgin coconut oil is the only oil you should ever use for cooking, whereas others swear in the name of olive oil. As rapeseed is a very big business back home, we have been brainwashed from little kids to believe rapeseed oil is the most healthy option. Others still use nothing but butter believing all oils are the creations of the devil. Depending on the source, butter is either not bad at all for you, or really bad. The only thing most people (apart from the official health recommendations of government research institutes apparently) is that margarine is bad bad bad. So in the crossfire of all of this info, I have created my own philosophy for fats. First of all, I never use margarine. For baking, I use butter. For cooking, depending on what flavour I'm going for, I use either organic virgin coconut oil or rapeseed oil, these two should be the more thermostable fats. For salads, i use extra virgin rapeseed or extra virgin olive oil. Then I got some other oils, like macadamia nut and sesame seed that I sometimes use in cooking for their distinct flavours. So a mix and match, aiming to minimize the use of fats in general and heavily bias it towards the omega-6 and omega-3 rich oils. Whether this makes any sense or not I don't know, but that's how I roll. And last time I checked my blood lipid levels, they were all better than fine, but I'm keeping an eye on them regularly. 


So, now I'm finally getting to the actual recipe part. Mayonnaise is something we have learned is unhealthy and should be avoided. And yes, again in general I agree as the calorie content is huge. But sometimes you just get a craving for it. And of course the only place to get your mayo is to get the industrial, preprocessed, full of additives stuff that keeps good in the fridge for a year. Because we all know that making mayo is difficult, you have to have a magic touch to get it to emulsify (you know, when it gets all thick and gooey). That is what I have always believed and what most recipes will have you believe. WRONG!!! Making mayo couldn't be easier, I have made it several times, and it has turned out perfect every time. So please, please, please give it a try next time you need mayo for something. Yes, it's a bit of an extra hassle, and yes, you will be cleaning up oil splatter from your kitchen walls, but you know it wont have any extra additives, you can make it from free range eggs and the best quality oils. I have used both macadamia nut oil and extra virgin rapeseed oil, both turned out very good. The macadamia nut oil has a bit of a sweeter taste and requires a bit more salt, whereas the rapeseed oil has a nuttier taste. Next time I might try olive oil, although I'm suspecting the taste of the olive oil might be a bit too strong. I also recently bought some flavoured extra virgin rapeseed oils which I'm excited to try out at some point. And finally, thank you for reading so far if you have (I'll try to keep my ramblings shorter in the future) and here we go (this is where is stole the recipe from)...

Mayo
1 egg (free range organic of course)
a squeeze of lemon juice
a few crushed mustard seeds (although I use whole, they do get crushed in the process if you use a hand blender for mixing)
220-240 ml oil
salt and pepper for seasoning

The howto:
Mix egg, lemon juice and mustard seed in a blender or high jug (it is a bit messy, so I recommend you use a big bowl or jug). Get your blender going (I use a hand held blender as you can see in the pics) and start adding oil. Just remember that you should start by adding small amounts, maybe one or two tablespoons at a time, and you will do fine. I do this by measuring the oil in a glass or cup or whatever (something with a pouring nozzle might be good and reduce the mess quite a lot), and using the blender with one hand, keep it constantly going, and pour a small amount of oil at a time into the jug all while keeping the blender going. If you accidentally happen to splash a bit too much, don't worry, you haven't ruined your mayo. At some point, a bit before halfway through the oil, the mayo magically starts to emulsify. Then you think, maybe I shouldn't add more oil, because it becomes too runny, but just keep adding, by some chemical reaction magic the mayo will get thicker the more oil you add. Towards the end, you can add bigger amounts of oil at a time (a few tbsp or so is ok). When all oil is added, season with salt and pepper. 

The verdict:
Like I said before, I had always believed that making mayo requires superhero powers or magic skills. I'm glad I tried it, as this is obviously not true. The result of your efforts will be a really creamy and smooth mayo, and you can make any variation you like by adding flavourings. I want to try garlic mayo by adding a bit of garlic and partly using garlic flavoured oil, same for chilli, maybe add some vinegar and then I have a 'smoke' flavoured olive oil, which I'm very interested in trying. I guess it would make some sort of BBQ-y flavoured mayo. Maybe try one with herbs like parsley or chives, or maybe sundried tomatoes. I read somewhere that homemade mayo keeps in the fridge in a container for about a week, but I usually run out of it long before that, so I don't know.

Pay it forward

Maybe you remember the movie Pay it forward, starring Kevin Spacey, Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt. Spacey plays a social studies teacher who gives the pupils in his classa humble little project to change the world. Osment plays a boy who launches a good-will movement, with the idea that you should help three people with something really big without asking anything in return apart from them helping out three other people. The idea is of course, if everyone does a favour for three others, by the laws of exponential growth, soon the movement would affect a huge masses of people. 

So why am I going on about a sappy feel-good movie? Well, first of all, Kevin Spacey is really great in it. But to get to the point, I recently bought three of Jamie Olivers books: Jamie at Home, Jamie's Great Britain and Ministry of Food. I love them all (of course, it's Jamie, who wouldn't love his quirky, fun and unbelievably delicious recipes), but I particularly like the introduction to Ministry of Food. Jamie talks about how we are living in the middle of a horrible epidemic of bad health with the rise of obesity. The problem is that people perceive themselves to be too busy to cook proper, healthy food, and instead live on takeouts and preprocessed food which is lacking in nutrients and full of empty calories. His plan is similar to that in Pay it forward, and he calls it (very cleverly) pass it on. The idea is that you learn a few good recipes, such as those in Ministry of Food and then teach them to at least two people, again creating an exponentially growing tree of people teaching each other good recipes and basic cooking techniques.

I know it sounds idealistic and silly, but the truth seems to be that many people today really don't know how to cook. That is a harsh contrast to others, who are passionate about food, cooking it, planning it, sourcing the freshest and most ethically produced ingredients. And it is important to show those who aren't passionate about cooking at least how easy it can be. Cooking healthy and delicious food doesn't have to be hard or time consuming.

Of course you can now see where I'm going with this. I made something from Ministry of Food for dinner today, and I'm hoping someone else will enjoy the recipe, and they will in turn teach it (or at least pass on the link) to someone else. This recipe only takes a few minutes to cook (12 minutes according to Jamie's recipe) and can be done by anyone who can use a knife to cut an avocado and know how to heat a frying pan.

Jamie's Prawns and avocado with an old-school Marie Rose Sauce (serves 2):

1 or 2 ripe avocados

1 or 2 punnets of cress

plain flour

220 king prawns, peeled and ready to eat (I used raw prawns, that just adds a few minutes to the cooking time)

olive oil (I used coconut oil for frying the prawns as I think it gives such a lovely flavour that goes well with prawns)

2 cloves of garlic

1 heaped teaspoon of paprika

extra virgin olive oil

Marie Rose sauce:

4 tbsp mayonnaise (I made my own, and will post the recipe soon)

1 dessertspoon tomato ketchup

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp whisky

1 lemon

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

The howto:

To make the sauce, mix all the ingredients. Only use the juice from half of the lemon, then taste, season with salt and pepper and add more lemon juice if you think the sauce needs it. Otherwise cut the remaining half of the lemon into wedges for serving.

Halve the avocado, remove the stone and peel off skin. Place on plate together with cress and drizzle sauce over.

Put flour on a plate and toss prawns until they are coated with flour. Heat olive oil (or coconut oil) in a pan, bash and break up your garlic with your hand and add these to the pan (still with their peel on by the way) and immediately toss in the prawns. Season with salt, pepper and a good dash of paprika. Cook for a few minutes until crisp and golden (or until done if using raw prawns), divide onto plates and serve immediately with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.

Using my own mayo, I got a calorie count of about 600 kcal per serving (38g total fat, 15.4g carbs, 22.3g protein). Of course that will vary depending on what mayo you use and how much you drizzle olive oil onto your plate, as usual I suggest you do your own calorie calculations if you count your calories. 

The verdict:

As usual, Jamie has put together a pukka mix of flavours (yes, I know, very subtle, but when it comes to Jamie's food, I'm running out of adjectives...). When I made the sauce, I wasn't sure about it, I thought it had a bit too much Worcestershire sauce and was a bit too sharp, but mixed with the creaminess of the avocado and prawns, and the peppery cress, the flavours just came together perfectly. The whisky gives it a nice smoky and distinct flavour, I would never have thought of adding whisky to a sauce for prawns, but then again I'm no genius like Jamie. And the dish even looks perfect with the green of the avocado and cress against the red of the paprika on the prawns and the pinkish sauce. The only downside is that this is no light meal, with the avocado, olive oil and mayo it ends up having quite a bit of calories. Of course, the fats in the avocado and olive oil are good fats. I made my own mayo from extra virgin rapeseed oil (a longer rant about my love for rapeseed oil when I get around to posting the recipe for mayo) so that should be packed with those good omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids (and yes I know there are plenty of people out there with a negative attitude to rapeseed oil, but there are plenty of alternatives if you happen to be one of them).