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Posts Tagged ‘cumin’

Sprightly spiced roast chicken on a summer night

Posted in Diabetes, Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on July 29, 2012| 16 Comments »

Our friend Julie put me onto this recipe–which originated from Jocelyn Dimbleby.

slices of peeled sweet potato roasted with the chicken for its last half hour in the oven.

The marinade has the spices turmeric and cumin whose anti-inflammatory and antioxident qualities are a plus for diabetics.

The smell wafts through the kitchen and whets the appetite.

Marinade the bird for a few hours in the fridge and roast it for an hour and a quarter.

for the marinade

Juice of a large lemon

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves of garlic–crushed

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons cumin powder

1 free range/organic chicken (weighing about 1.4k/3lb)

For the sauce

glass of white wine

  • Mix the marinade ingredients in a small bowl.
  • Put the chicken in a large bowl and pour/brush/smooth over the marinade.
  • Turn the bird in the marinade.
  • Leave for a few hours–covered–in the fridge.

not pretty but effective!

Heat the oven to 180C/350F

  • Sprinkle some salt over the bird.
  • Place it, breast down, in a large roasting pan.
  • Pour any marinade remaining in the bowl over the chicken.
  • Add a further tablespoon of olive oil.
  • Place in the middle of the oven.
  • Roast for 3/4 of an hour–basting it from time to time with the juices.
  • Turn the bird over for the remaining half hour.
  • Let the chicken rest while you make a sauce from the juices.

  • Tip the pan and spoon out all but a tablespoon of the fat.
  • Add a glass of white wine and stir–dissolving the “bits” into a sauce over a low heat.
  • A garlicky yogurt sauce goes well with it.

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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.

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Yogurt sauce with cumin, garlic and olive oil

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , on February 17, 2012| 27 Comments »

Two friends came round for supper last night and I tried out a spicy chicken dish.

It didn’t pass muster with Meredith and our friends were polite but didn’t exactly rave!

I shall try again with it because it’s simple and quick–which of course could be the reason it was disappointing!

I served a yogurt sauce with it, which is I think is useful and tasty.

I noticed Meredith tucking into it this lunchtime with the fennel salad..!

Yogurt sauce for 4

2 x 125ml pots of organic yogurt

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 garlic clove–pulped in half a teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 a teaspoon salt

  • Whisk the yogurt smooth–(if you want to make it a bit thicker let it drain through a sieve into a bowl for half an hour or so).
  • Pulp the garlic in the salt in a pestle and mortar.
  • Add the cumin and mix it in thoroughly.
  • Fold in the olive oil.
  • Add this mix to the yogurt and whisk well in.
  • Refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

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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).

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Garam masala–what exactly is it?

Posted in Food, tagged , , , , , , on October 29, 2011| 10 Comments »

Garam masala is an ingredient in the dal recipe I posted a few days ago (see Gentle Lentils) and was new to some people.

Garam means hot and masala means a spice mix.

The “hot” is not a spicy hot but rather a heat that warms the body (in principle).

I’ve learnt about this subtle and delicate flavouring mix from Kris Dhillon whose cookbook, The Curry Secret, is from the same imprint as Delicious Dishes for Diabetics–i.e. Right Way).

He writes:

“…the theory comes from the Hindu concept of medicine and diet called tridosha, which teaches that some foods have a warming effect on the body while others have a cooling effect. Spices such as cardomans, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg are garam constituents of this aromatic mixture.”

Garam masala is usually added towards the end of the cooking process; it can also be sprinkled over cooked food to enhance the flavour.

It is a mixture of spices that has infinite variations. You can buy it (just as you buy curry powder) or you can make your own. This version is from the wonderful Indian actress and food writer Madhur Jaffrey, author of  Indian Cookery.

1 tablespoon cardoman seeds

2″/5 cm stick of cinnamon

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon whole cloves

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1/2 a small nutmeg–grated

Whizz the mix to a fine powder in a spice or coffee grinder.

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Spicy aubergines

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Poldark, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on September 23, 2011| 3 Comments »

We had these last night with quinoa, plain green beans, and garlicky yogurt sauce.

It’s adapted from a recipe by Rick Stein–known as the uncrowned king of Cornwall.

When we were filming Poldark in Cornwall 35 years ago, eating out in the county was very different from what we experienced last weekend and Rick Stein has a lot to do with it.  His fish restaurants in Padstow have set a benchmark. Things have improved!

We tried to reserve a table at one of Rick’s places a couple of weeks before our trip but they were all booked–sad for us but “Hooray” for Cornwall!

for 2+

500gms/1lb aubergines–cut up into smallish pieces (quicker to sauté), lightly salted and left in a sieve or colander for an hour to drain off their liquid, then dried ready for the pan. (This seems tedious to do but they absorb less oil this way.)

4 tablespoons olive oil

1” square piece of fresh ginger--chopped fine

3 garlic cloves–pulped with half a teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of water

2 tablespoons whole fennel seeds

1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds

1 tablespoon whole coriander seeds–crushed

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

500gms/1lb tomatoes–chopped with their juice (or use tinned)

3 more tablespoons of water

  • whizz the ginger and garlic in a tablespoon of water to form a loose paste.
  • heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauté pan that you can cover.
  • when hot, add a single layer of  the dry aubergine pieces.
  • turn them in the oil and sauté on all sides until nicely browned–a pair of cooking tongs comes in handy here–then set aside. (It’s worth taking your time to make sure the aubergine is cooked through.)
  • continue the process until all the aubergine pieces are cooked, adding more oil as needed.
  • let the pan cool a little before heating two tablespoons of oil and adding the fennel and cumin seeds.
  • let them colour for a few seconds before adding the ginger and garlic paste.
  • cook this gently for a minute or two before adding the coriander, turmeric and chili powder.
  • cook this gently for a minute before adding the tomatoes and the extra water.
  • turn the lovely looking mix over and cook on a low heat for ten minutes to form a sauce.
  • add the aubergine pieces turning everything over thoroughly before covering the pan and cooking for a further 5 to 10 minutes.
  • test the doneness of the aubergines, cooking them a little more if necessary, adding a little more water if  needed.
  • check the seasoning and sprinkle some chopped mint, fresh coriander, or parsley over the dish before serving.

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