Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘coriander’

Sam Talbot’s Quinoa Recipe

Posted in Diabetes, Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2012| 13 Comments »

Sam Talbot is a well known American chef in his thirties, working now in Montauk, Long Island.

He has Type 1 Diabetes and has written a delightful cookbook illustrating the way he lives, eats and cooks with a nicely ironic title–The Sweet Life.

We vied for numero uno position in the pre-publication list in our category on Amazon.

Well, I say vied— I made it once, I think!

He raves about the increasingly popular South American grain, quinoa, saying he eats it at least three times a week.

In a post in March last year I wrote this about Quinoa:

This seed, one of the oldest known grains, is a useful alternative to rice, takes less time to cook and is very easily digestible.

It is grown high up in the Andes–and no one seems to agree on how to pronounce it!

It serves as a plain canvas on which you can paint what you like. 

Here you can learn more about the benefits of Quinoa–perhaps more than you want to know!

This is Sam Talbot’s recipe–slightly adapted; it’s delicious.

The amount of liquid required is double the volume of the quinoa–easy to remember!

1 cup quinoa

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 shallot–chopped small

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds–(he leaves the coriander and cumin seeds whole, which you’d think would be tiresome, but it works–giving a nice added crunchiness)

2 tablespoons of fresh ginger–chopped small

4 garlic cloves–pulped with some salt

zest and juice of a lemon

parsley–chopped

2 cups stock–I use organic vegetable stock cubes

  • Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the shallot and the spices (coriander, cumin, ginger, garlic) for about five minutes to soften them.
  • Add the quinoa to the pan and turn it over with the spice mix.
  • Add the stock,  the lemon  juice and zest and bring it up to a simmer.
  • Cover the pan and turn the heat down low.
  • Cook for about twenty minutes.
  • Check to see how it’s doing after 15 minutes and give it a stir.
  • The grain should absorb all the liquid by the end of cooking.
  • Sprinkle the parsley over and fork  it carefully into the  quinoa.

Read Full Post »

Spicy red lentils with cabbage and onion

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 13, 2012| 6 Comments »

Renown vegetarian cookbook writer, Rose Elliott found this in Julie Sahni’s Classic Indian Vegetarian Cookery and adapted it and I have tweaked it a bit.

It’s a quick excursion to the East.

There was a small cabbage in the fridge and some fenugreek seeds on the shelf in the larder, which I whizzed into powder in a converted coffee grinder!

The fenugreek is optional, but interesting… (as its name implies this herb is found in the mediterranean region and has healing qualities as well as culinary uses.)

Our friend Myriam called in this morning and said it was minus ten last night and would not get warmer until Wednesday, so a bowl of something gently spicy and soupy for lunch might be just the ticket.

for 4

250gms/8oz red lentils

2 1/4 pints/1300ml stock–I use organic vegetable stock cubes

1/3 teaspoon turmeric

375gms/12oz tinned tomatoes–chopped

  • Rinse the lentils thoroughly.
  • Put them in a saucepan with the stock and the turmeric and bring up to the boil.
  • Cook at a gentle simmer for 45 minutes.
  • Add the chopped tomatoes then set aside.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon fenugreek powder (optional)

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 onion–chopped

a small cabbage–outer leaves removed, quartered, cored and shredded

Juice of half a lemon

salt and pepper

Parsley or better still fresh coriander–chopped to sprinkle over

  • Heat the oil in a new pan.
  • Add the mustard seeds and cook them until they start to pop–a couple of minutes; they look brown in the photo but in fact stay black.
  • Mix in the curry powder and the fenugreek (if using) and let them  cook for a few seconds.
  • Add the onion and the cabbage and mix everything together well.
  • Cover the pan and cook  for 5 minutes.
  • Add the wilted cabbage mix to the lentils.
  • Bring the mixture up to the simmer.
  • Leave it to simmer gently for 20 minutes.
  • Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  • Stir in the lemon juice.
  • Sprinkle over the parsley or coriander when you serve.

Read Full Post »

Chickpea curry with leek and fennel

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2012| 8 Comments »

My copies of Rose Elliot’s vegetarian cookbooks, Not Just a Load of Lentils and The Bean Book, have been on my bookshelves for ages and are much thumbed!

First published in the 1970s, her recipes have withstood the test of time–and the ingredients often fit in with my adopted way of eating.

This is adapted from a recipe in The Bean Book. 

I made it in the morning and gently reheated it in the evening–giving the spices time to settle and meld. We had it for supper last night and it was worth the wait.

Meredith is wary of pulses because of their tendency to cause flatulence.

This time the positive outweighed the negative and she gave it the thumbs up–phew!

for 4

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

1 small onion–chopped

1 clove of garlic–peeled & chopped

1/2  teaspoon of powdered cumin

1/2 teaspoon of powdered coriander

1/2 teaspoon each of garam masala ( an earlier post), turmeric, ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon cayenne/chili powder

1 teaspoon fresh root ginger–peeled & chopped (optional)

1 large jar of cooked chickpeas–drained (the precise quantity is not critical!)

2 fennel bulbs–outer leaves removed, quartered and chopped

1 large leek–damaged outer parts removed, cut down to the base, washed and sliced

2 tablespoons of parsley or coriander–chopped

1 pint of vegetable stock (I use organic cubes diluted with boiling water.)

  • Heat the oil in a pan.
  • Gently fry the cumin seeds until they start to pop.
  • Add the onion and garlic and soften–about 3 minutes.

  • Add the spices and mix them in.

  • Add the chickpeas.
  • Add the leeks and fennel and mix.

  • Add the stock–start with half a pint and adjust as needed.
  • Bring the mixture up to boil, then cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.

  • Fold in a tablespoon of parsley or coriander.
  • Sprinkle the second  tablespoon of parsley or coriander over the dish when you serve it hot with…
  • Brown basmati rice and yogurt sauce (see the next post).

Read Full Post »

Roasted Cauliflower with coriander seeds, garlic and dry roasted sunflower seeds

Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged , , on February 17, 2011| 4 Comments »

I was looking for a new way to cook the seasonal cauliflower, patiently waiting its turn in the fridge. The much used cheesy white sauce, though tempting, is not so good for diabetics. It’s a lovely looking thing, the cauliflower, but is one of those “what on earth am I going to do with it this time” vegetables…!  A recipe in Delia Smith’s Winter Collection gave me the idea for this, which I tried last night. It was so good, we’ll have it again this evening with a salmon fillet.

I sprinkled some dry roasted sunflower seeds over the finished dish.

 

For 4 as a vegetable or 2 as a main course

 

1lb/450gm cauliflower–broken up into florets

1 generous tsp coriander seeds—pounded in a pestle and mortar

2 tblsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves—pulped with a small teaspoon of salt in a mortar and pestle

salt and pepper

Set the oven at 200C/400F/gas mark 6

1  Put the cauliflower florets in a large bowl.

2   Sprinkle over and mix in the crushed coriander seeds.

1.  Whisk the crushed garlic and olive oil together.

2.  Mix in this little sauce, coating the vegetables thoroughly.

3.  Spread the vegetables on a roasting tray in a single layer.

4.  Season with salt and pepper.

5.  Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes—checking for doneness after 20 minutes; the vegetables should be tender and charred a little.

6.  Dry roast the sunflower seeds in a pan on the hob and sprinkle them over the roasted vegetables.

Read Full Post »