spinach pulao with spicy scrambles

On a damp Saturday afternoon, I fancied something a bit different from the usual toast and ham and cheese lunches, so I thought I'd see what I could rustle up from the fridge and store-cupboard. Littl'Un still wanted the comfort and familiarity of toast, having just had her first 2 weeks of hot school dinners, but Big'Un jumped at the chance to eat rice. Just like her mother. GodPapa was torn between home made bread and rice, but plumped for the rice because apparently I "do good things with rice." Lol.

So I fried some frozen onion, some sliced garlic, some mustard & cumin seeds, little dried red chillies to taste, and a pinch of my garam masala in some butter, and then coated 2 cupsful of basmati rice in this, added a teaspoonful of Marigold, and then roughly 2 1/2 - 3 cups of water (I use the finger-joint method of measuring the water for absorption method rice cooking - the water should come up to the first joint of your finger if you touch the tip of your finger to the top of the rice gently.) As I turned the heat up, I chucked in 4 little blocks of frozen spinach, and clamped the lid on.

I brought it to the boil and then turned it pretty low, and left it simmering and puffing for 15 minutes. As with my comfort keema pulao, once the 15 mins timer went off, I switched off the heat, but left the pan alone for a further 5 minutes.

Once that timer was done, I then added a little salt.

During the 15 minutes, I washed up, and also made my spicy scrambles.
Now, I have a different method for scrambles that my ex-hub adores and is apparently not how anyone else makes them.

If I'm making bacon, then I make that first and then use the bacon grease to make the scrambled eggs, but otherwise I just melt a little dop of butter in a frying pan til it foams. I then crack the egg straight into the pan as though I were about to fry it sunny side up. Then I crack another in, and then I take a silicon spatula and I just stir it all about and mix it up.

At this point in this recipe, I ground on some sea salt, and sprinkled on some of my garam masala. I then mixed this all in evenly, switched off the heat and as I'd timed it well, I slid the scrambles onto the top of the well mixed pulao.

A very filling and satisfying meal.*

*Except that something about it (probably the egg) upset Baby's tummy via breastfeeding. :(

GBBO fix

Was watching the v exciting final of the Great British Bake Off, and realised I had once again made the mistake of forgetting to get some cake or pastry in to enjoy whilst watching. So I was delighted to find a pack of Bonne Maman Galettes in the cupboard.
I smeared them with lemon curd and then dolloped a little thickened organic double cream (the bits round the edges and lid of the pot) on top and enjoyed. V quick and hit the right spot with minimum effort.

Cave girl lamb chops

Sainsbury's had a 3 for £10 meat deal and I bought a rump steak, and big pack of beef mince and a pack of lamb chops to pay forward on a week when I wasn't actually using a lot of meat in my menu plan anyway, and had space in my freezer.
I find if I alternate like that, I spend less money, and I cook half the week from stocks in the fridge or freezer, and half the week with fresh ingredients - be they veg or fresh meat or non-veg alternatives to meat. Obviously we have staples meals too - daals, beans, pastas, rice meals, which need minimal fresh things added to pep them up.

So yesterday I decided to use the lamb chops to do something different for the girls, because the one pots and pastas and so on can get repetitive.

In the afternoon, I marinaded the chops in the juice of a lemon, a defrosted stick of minced garlic and some rosemary from the garden, plus salt and pepper.

Later I diced up 3 largeish squds and microwaved them for 5 minutes in my microwave "pressure cooker" while heating up my saute pan with some dripping. Yes dripping. Once the microwave beeped, I drained the dice and tipped them gingerly into the hot dripping, no, I didn't add ginger!
Spread them out and gave them a chance to sizzle before stirring them gently around to coat all over. I then seasoned the pan and lidded it and left it to cook on a slightly lower flame.

Now I lined my grill pan with foil and preheated it, then placed my lamb chops under the grill on a nice high flame, with the garlic and rosemary still on top.

Once the potatoes were done, about 10 mins, I could tip them into a bowl and then gently place the lamb chops onto the hot fat. This way the top and bottom of the chop get nice and crispy without the garlic burning and going bitter, or getting smeared away.

I also grabbed some tenderstem brocolli and steamed that, and these elements were a very well received supper!
The girls llike most of the meat chopped into pieces off the bone, mainly to help cool it down, but also cos Big'Un still has chewing issues. Littl'Un LOVES gnawing a bone, and this time, we managed to show Big'Un how to do this effectively and she really enjoyed herself!
Will definitely do this again, with MORE chops, as I had to stop Littl'Un from dispatching the last chop which was for Papa when he came in a few minutes later...

The sautes and tenderstem were equally well received, incidentally...

crunchy cauliflower salad

Last week Papa and I had an appointment with the consultant, and as it's the holidays, we had to take the kids with us. They were amazingly behaved despite the nearly 2 hour wait because some consultants were on holiday, and others were on call.
So by the time my 10am appointment was over, it was time for lunch, I hadn't had a snack, and we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Harvester.
We love the salad bar there, and never bother with a starter, and the kids are being really understanding about my inability to have puddings, so we knew we wouldn't have to spend a lot of money on the meal.
One thing I love about the salad bar is that they have seasonal and interesting veg or pasta salads as well as the usual single ingredients. This time they had a rather interesting finely sliced cauliflower creamy salad with peas and soya beans. I really enjoyed this, and as I'm missing fruit a lot, and don't really love cooked veg with a passion, I thought it might be something I could recreate.
So after the kids had been out to a Godmama's for afternoon tea, I whipped up my speedy comfort keema pulao, and while it cooked, I got out my Boerner "v" slicer, and sliced up 2 mini cauliflower into paper-thin tree sillhouette shapes. I then added half a small bag of edamame from Ocado (they do 3 for 2 on these small bags, and I usually get the soya beans/edamame, baby sweet corn and the snugar shap peas) and Littl'Un helped me add and mix salt, pepper, mayo and lemon juice. I considered adding some freshly podded peas, but it seemed a bit of a sacrilege...
She loved making it, and she loved eating it, having 3 helpings after her rice!
Result! Obviously, Big'Un was the other way round. Oh and incidentally, just to ring the changes, I made the comfort pulao with sweetcorn, not peas...

beautiful stripey Abel and Cole beetroot

paneer

well, Morrison's don't sell paneer, and someone had bought up all the stock in Asda, so I got a pint of organic whole milk, and I made paneer. I was surprised to remember how easy and quick it is, but I had forgotten how little is made from a pint.
I do love the whey tho, the liquid that is strained off the solid cheese curd, and recall a sort of barley water flavour from my childhood, and so there wasn't really any wastage.
The milk is brought to the boil and as it starts bubbling, a tablespoon of yoghurt or lemon juice is stirred in and then you watch the magic as the milk separates.
I then lined a small strainer with a clean baby muslin and poured the contents of the pan gently through. I caught the whey in a bowl, and bundled up and pressed the excess muslin against the curds.
Half an hour later I had a lovely soft crumbly block of fresh paneer.
This I put into my curry at the last minute, crumbled up.
The curry was a very simple potato, onion, turmeric, sweetcorn, cumin thing; dryish and fragrant. I served the dish with bought chapattis and some pickles and poppadoms.

some catching up and a sudden change in diet!

Well it's been a little while since I blogged! Tiredness & increasing loss of lapspace have meant I've been less inclined to use the laptop for very long at a time...

Also, meals have been simpler, less experimental, and much more based on time available than anything else.

Back in June, my sweet Mum treated me to a ticket to go and see the fantabulous Hardeep Singh Kohli at a local arts centre. It was an hilarious and inspiring evening, and I was extra delighted that he recognised me from Twitter, and joked that "the pressure's on, this woman can really* cook!" :)

I read his book in about 3 days, devouring the details and revelling in the familiar emotions he expresses in his quest, and felt very hungry while doing so!

A few days after the show, I attempted to recreate the meal he'd cooked during his show, especially his mum's amazing mint & apple chutney. If you want to know how to make it, pester him on Twitter til he tells you, tho I will see if he doesn't mind if I write the "recipe" up at some point... He's the friendliest and sweetest of blokes, and I feel he would be quite happy to share, and to be honest, it's a simple accompaniment that deserves to be shared round!

It was a complete hit with all the family, especially the hint to use star anise with the mince.

Another meal that was a huge hit was my mini toads in the hole. My adapted yorkshire pudn batter poured around little balls of good quality sausagemeat browned first in dripping in the holes of a muffin pan.

Another day I did a very successful meatloaf, Littl'Un had thirds... I served with with some potato wedges, brocolli, and a creamy Ikea style gravy. The best part was using a silicon loaf pan to cook the meatloaf in. SO easy to clean!

Then suddenly, about a month ago, everything changed. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and had to take the decision to utterly overhaul my diet.

My parents and brother are all diabetic (type 2) so I wasn't entirely surprised to be diagnosed, though I was annoyed that it was about 10 days after the test that a midwife casually mentioned the diagnosis to me. At least I have plenty of experience of the ideal diabetic diet, and my interest in nutrition was a great support, but it was yet another week before I was able to see a diabetic specialist midwife, and obtain a glucometer, and then ANOTHER 10 days before my diet and sugar levels were assessed and I was then put on Metformin.

The basic diabetic diet is not really at all hard, but there are slightly more restrictions in pregnancy as any and every sugar surge can affect the baby.

I basically avoid all added sugar completely, and eat limited amounts of fresh fruit spread evenly through the day. I avoid refined carbohydrates as they also break down into very simple sugars, and the carbs I do have are around a third of the meal. I'm careful to aim for low GI foods, and to have regular healthy snacks between meals.

I have lean proteins, lots of veg and salad, pasta, wholemeal breads, basmati or brown rice, nuts and lentils. I don't have to be as restrictive about fats as a non-pregnant type 2 diabetic, as the baby is laying down fat in these last few weeks.

The problem is that the kids adore their fruit, especially in the summer, and also a high fibre, low fat diet is utterly unsuitable for small kids, as the fibre will fill them up too much and could cause bowel issues. Kids need plenty of energy to grow and develop, and enough protein and carbs to get that energy. Then again refined white shop bought bread isn't really a "good" food for anyone!

In most cases I've been able to find meals that suit everyone, possibly my best recent meal was a home made pizza, where I made the dough for the base by hand, with half wholemeal and half white bread flours.

Littl'Un just loved the texture and nutty flavour both on the first day and cold the next day, and I suppose it helped that I chopped up the toppings and let the kids each make their own pizza.

Papa has also been trying his hand in the kitchen, and I've loved the Gill Holcombe books for those meals, as well as copies of easy cook magazine, for some simple, imaginative, cheap and confidence-boosting recipes for the novice cook.

My spaghetti "lentilese" was resurrected and went down well, and was very quick and easy, and of course cheap! And the supermarkets have been selling special offers for Ramadan, so red lentils and other Indian basics have been cheap and I've stocked up where I can!

I also bought a copy of Hungry, after browsing through a copy for far too long in Sainsbury's. I have used it a bit, but it's quite fruit heavy, so I shall hold off for a little longer. It's a fab read, and great fun though and I do recommend it very highly to anyone with kids, or without! Some really super ideas and recipes and 85% of the recipes incorporate a couple of your 5 a day fruit/veg.

However, the prize for the best recent meal has to go to Littl'Un (helped a little by Godpapa) who made falafel for supper yesterday, with a tzatziki sauce, and which was served with some gorgeous roasted heritage beetroots (which sadly sent my blood sugar levels a bit higher than usual!)

The recipe for the falafel was from a children's cook book which I've used for years, and would recommend wholeheartedly.

I must add, since cutting sugar out of my diet, I do feel FAR more healthy and energetic. I feel less bloated and less sluggish, and my skin has cleared up, and I find sweet things taste too sweet, and I don't really mind not having sweet food. I have a little sugar free drink from Sainsbury's most days, because they use sucralose, which is the only artificial sweetener I feel safe using, and even those, I'm not that bothered with. I do have a little fruit, and my previous late evening puddn hit is easily sated with a glass of milk and a few almonds. I made a couple of 2 person rice puddns, which uses 2 tbs sugar in the whole dish, which is pretty low, and using a little cinnamon meant I didn't feel any need to add jam, but Papa was able to if he wanted to.

I found sucralose jelly and sucralose instant custard, but they both taste WAY sweet to be honest.

I'm pretty sure I'll stick mostly to this new improved diet, even after baby is born, because it's so much better anyway, and because I'm a bit of a ticking time bomb in any case! And it's not hard, and I have quite honestly experienced so many health benefits anyway. I will be more than happy to give up "punctuating" my fingers to test my sugar levels 4 times a day though!

So watch this space!

*Hardeep used a different word than "really", but I don't publish words like that... :oP