Kale with Lime + Baharat Wedges ~

January 27th, 2012

I realize this neither looks nor sounds like something you’d aspire to make. But maybe it looks like something you actually would make? I debated posting this because really, it’s pretty basic. Which is exactly what some evenings call for and it also illustrates what I eat on nights when I need to magic up another dinner from a near empty fridge. This happens a lot around here because we shop as we go, trying to make sure we use everything up whilst it’s as fresh as possible and don’t waste a thing.

So. Sweet potatoes and kale. Half an onion and some last cloves of garlic. A lime. Then, some baharat for seasoning. I love baharat because when cooked, the paprika mellows and gives way to the sweeter spices in the mix. In case you’re not familiar with this middle eastern mix or want to mix up your own, the ingredients are as follows:

Baharat
2 tbsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

(via the epic centre)

Once you have that spice mix put together, the rest of the meal is a breeze. I was still in an Amos Lee mood, so I put the Last Days at the Lodge album on nice and loud and got to work in the kitchen. I started by baking my boyfriend some of his favorite cornbread. I used this recipe, except I had to go a little ad-hoc on it, making the buttermilk with whole organic milk + lime juice and I also omitted the sugar.  He said the cornbread went down really, really well with the kale.

Garlic & Lime Kale with Baharat Sweet Potato Wedges

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 large bag of chopped kale (I used enough to fill a medium saucepan right up to the top)

Half a red onion, diced small

2 cloves of garlic, sliced as fine as you can (Goodfellas thin, as Andrew Carmellini would say)

4T water

Juice of 1 lime

2 or 3 sweet potatoes, depending on size and hunger level, chopped into wedges. I leave the skin on, just scrub them well!

1T (roughly) baharat (enough to dust each sweet potato wedge)

Butter to grease the baking pan

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease it with the butter.

Put the sweet potato wedges on the baking sheet and dust with the baharat. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until soft.

Meanwhile, put the kale, onion, garlic and water in a saucepan. Put the lid on and heat over medium heat on the stove top. The water will steam everything. Just shake the pan every now and then and take it off the heat as soon as the kale is bright emerald green, this will be about 8 minutes but just keep an eye on it. Drain off any excess liquid then squeeze the lime juice over the kale, toss and then plate. Serve with the baked sweet potato wedges and some southern style cornbread, if that’s your style!

 

 

 

 

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Grapefruit & Basil Ensalada Verde

January 25th, 2012

Eating healthily is the quickest way to put a meal together, no joke. There’s no hammering of meat, time intensive stirring of gooey risotto and you can be more creative as there’s less scope to go too far wrong!

Take this one such salad. I love playing with the concept of green salad, just finding everything green I have in the refrigerator and making it work. I know some people will be thinking they’d want more variety of color, but there’s something about the coolness of green that I find appealing.

The dressing on this is also pretty light as it’s mostly just grapefruit juice, which then seeps into the veggies infusing them with a little of it’s tang. The peppery basil is cut fine and scattered throughout to season each mouthful and the asparagus is gently grilled to lend smokiness. I also find that using mixed greens in these kinds of salads is the best approach. Romaine has it’s place, but a mix of watercress, arugula (rocket) and baby spinach leaves really kicks the flavor up a bit more.

This is a 30 minute meal from start to finish. I put on my playlist of favorite Amos Lee songs* and marinated myself in his words and the unseasonably mild winter’s evening. Creating dinner is such a meditative time for me. Let’s face it, it’s going to take the same time to make something no matter how you approach it, so you may as well enjoy it, right?

Grapefruit & Basil Infused Green Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

About 75g of mixed green leaves per plate (or however much you fancy) – I used arugula, baby spinach and watercress

Zest of half a pink grapefruit

Juice of half a pink grapefruit

3 sprigs of fresh basil leaves – about 3T when chopped in a fine chiffonade

1T of extra virgin olive oil

1t of grade 2 pure maple syrup (or sweetener of your choice, I just like the woody note that maple imparts)

1 bunch of fresh asparagus – the plump rather than the fine, woody ends chopped off

1 medium zucchini (courgette) chopped into 2″ long sticks (I cut mine into thirds, then halved each piece and chopped each piece into thirds again)

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets and the stalk cut into coins

1 large handful of fine green beans

Method

Preheat the over to 200C/400F.

Add the olive oil & maple syrup to a glass jar, then zest the grapefruit over the top. Halve the grapefruit, and add the juice of one half and reserve the other half for another use. Add the chopped basil, then place the lid on the jar and shake well to combine.

Lightly oil a baking sheet, then place the beans, broccoli and zucchini on it – spreading it out as much as you can to encourage roasting rather than steaming. Bake for 20 minutes.

Lightly oil a grill pan and bring to a medium heat on the stove. Grill the asparagus for about 8 minutes, turning mid-way to encourage even cooking.

Plate the greens and lightly drizzle with some of the dressing. Add the other veggies and drizzle with the rest of the dressing.

*Favorite Amos songs include:

Seen it All Before

Baby I Want You

The Wind

Night Train

Arms of a Woman

Dignified Woman

My favorite whole album of his is Last Days at the Lodge. It is just gorgeous. Dare you not to be able to relax to that one!

 

 

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Spiced Celeriac & Carrot Soup ~

January 19th, 2012

I’m not hugely passionate about hot soups and so when I do make them, they need to be bold in flavor to keep my palate interested enough to finish the whole bowl. I made this one the day my boyfriend came home with a migraine and so I had all the time in the world to patter around the kitchen and experiment a little. I put Melody Gardot Live* on and got chopping, stirring and blending in time to the music. In the time that it took to simmer the vegetables I did a little people watching across from our balcony, breathed in the cool “fresh” winter’s air here in London, watching the street lights twinkling in the reflection of the growing puddles in the gutter. This made for one happy Emily. After a few hours my boyfriend awoke for his serving and this went down a treat for him with some buttered toast to the side.

Spiced Celeriac (Celery Root) & Carrot Soup

Serves 2 hungry people (or 2, with enough left over for one of you to take to work the next day for lunch)

Ingredients

1 celery root, chopped into cubes

4 carrots, peeled and chopped into even sized coins

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

2 tsp Sambal Oelek (chilli paste)

2 sprigs worth of oregano leaves; plus enough to use as a garnish

Pinch of salt, to taste

Chipotle sauce (we use Tabasco brand)

Method

Put the first three ingredients in a saucepan and pour in enough water to cover. Heat and simmer until vegetables are all soft. Add the seasonings and the oregano leaves and pour it all in to your blender (or use an immersion blender, whatever you have), leave to slightly cool for a few minutes or so and then carefully blend until smooth. Reheat gently, adding more water to create the consistency you enjoy, then pour into bowls. Shake chipotle chilli sauce on top and garnish with the remaining fresh oregano.

* There is no official live album, this is just the iTunes sessions plus the bonus disc of the deluxe version of My One & Only Thrill which I absolutely adore. It’s the kind of music I find myself listening to at midnight when writing away or sitting staring into space (literally, since we’re high enough to see right out over the top of the houses that run along the road adjacent to our balcony).

The photo below is from a late summer sunset, taken from our balcony.

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Anything Ensalada ~

January 18th, 2012

I get asked a lot about what I actually eat on a day by day basis, so by taking a quick photo of what I’ve made and posting it here, I can point my friends in this direction so they can see for themselves – especially those who live abroad who can’t very easily drop by at feeding time!  It can be much easier to get an idea of how someone is going about doing something via photos rather than a quick chat on the phone or over a drink one evening. I’m guessing most people over think what they need to do to clean their diets up and then it can seem really insurmountable. Of course there are many ways to go about being healthy, and my way is just what works for me.

On some nights, there is also nothing better – in my mind – than taking a few short minutes to just put the exact foods you feel like in one bowl, sit cross legged on the couch (as always!) and to just enjoy it. It happens quite a lot that I literally just open the fridge and put a bit of this or a bit of that in a bowl. There’s nothing complicated about it at all. Nada. It’s just how I eat. No meal plan or book to follow, just my nose.There’s something beautiful about eating what you want, when you want it. It feels intuitive and carefree to me – in a world where those values are not always cultivated.

So here’s one example of an Emily Dinner Bowl:

Test avocado for ripeness.

Open fridge.

Put mixed leaves in my bowl.

Wash and chop a few springs worth of fresh oregano leaves and add those.

Add a few chargrilled artichoke halves.

Wash some cherry tomatoes and halve them. Add those.

Halve the avocado and place on top of the leaves.

Squeeze fresh lemon juice over everything.

Drip hot pepper sauce over the avocado.

C’est tout!

 

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Sweet Potato Bowl of Goodness ~

January 18th, 2012

Coming back from a long run (by my standards!), I wanted to just have a hot shower and then get some goodness in my tummy. I cubed and put the sweet potatoes in the oven, hopped in the shower, then came back to finish up. There’s not actually all that much to this dish, it’s just consists of a great mix of flavor and an array of textures – which is pretty much all you want out of a quick fix dinner, right?

So put on a little Lykke Li (Get Some, Paris Blue…), get chopping and you’ll have this in a bowl to eat cross legged on the couch in no time.

Sweet Potato Bowl of Goodness

Serves 2; But! Full disclosure: my boyfriend – who ran with me – added a few slices of toast to his serving

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes or the equivalent, cubed in to inch squares

Small pat of butter, for oiling the baking sheet

1 Little Gem Lettuce (Romaine would do the same trick), sliced into ribbons as thick or as thin as you fancy

A few handfuls of shredded red cabbage

1 red bell pepper (capscicum), chopped

1 large clove of garlic, finely minced

1 sprig of rosemary, stalk discarded, leaves finely chopped

2 small pinches of ground cloves

1 lemon, zest and juice

1T Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Spread the butter on a baking tray, then spread the sweet potato cubes on it, and place in the oven to dry bake. I left mine in for 45 minutes so they come out very soft and puffy. Keep an eye on them though, and just bring them out when they’re browning. Or just do a taste/texture test.

Meanwhile, divide the lettuce between two plates, put some cabbage on both plates, then sprinkle with the garlic, rosemary and the ground cloves. Zest the lemon over the top of the two plates, then squeeze half the lemon juice over one and the other half over the other. Top with the chopped bell pepper. Leave this to sit as is until the sweet potatoes are ready.

When you pull the sweet potatoes out of the oven, pile them into the middle of each bowl and drizzle a little oil over the whole dish.

 

 

 

 

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