…the book!
with one of the twelve lovely sketches in the book by our friend Hope James–and…
Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis, tagged cookbook, Delicious Dishes for Diabetics on July 14, 2011| 15 Comments »
…the book!
with one of the twelve lovely sketches in the book by our friend Hope James–and…
Posted in Diabetes, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis, tagged cookbook, Delicious Dishes for Diabetics on July 11, 2011| 22 Comments »
…though not so lazy for our neighbouring farmer, Pierre.
I watch him from the bench in the tomato patch, performing an elegant tractor ballet routine in the shorn field opposite as he collects and neatly stacks the rectangular hay bales.
First the “chug, chug, chug,” of a tractor as he arrives on stage, pulling an empty trailer behind.
He drives off in the “work-a-day” car he’s left overnight in the half-finished field.
Five minutes later (a long wait for the audience!) he’s back with a second tractor, fitted with a fork lift.
The ballet commences.
Forward approach with the fork lift tractor and spear the bale–forward again to the next.
Carefully lower the speared bale on top and back off–forward again lowering the fork, spear the second bale, lift the two and turn towards the tractor with the trailer, lower the two speared bales and retreat.
Turn and repeat until the trailer is full.
Change tractors and drive off slowly with the spoils on board and the sun still shining with the prospect of well fed cows in the barn this winter.
The “audience” leaves with a couple of ripe tomatoes in the empty breakfast bowl.
The tractor with the fork lift is left wondering what it did wrong as it stands alone “on stage”.
Act two for the watcher–checking out the leftovers in the fridge for a lazy Monday lunch.
Plenty to choose from and two ripe tomatoes….
Act three—lazy Monday siesta!
STOP PRESS!
LATE CHANGE OF SCRIPT!
Posted in Food, Recipes, tagged Delicious Dishes for Diabetics, Nigel Slater, no potato fishcakes, salmon fishcakes, yogurt sauce on April 8, 2011| 2 Comments »
…which is published on August 4th in the UK and in November in the USA, comes this recipe adapted from one of my favourite British cooks, Nigel Slater.
Salmon Fishcakes with dill and grainy mustard
I have always loved fishcakes. Must be the comfort food factor kicking in–but they usually contain 50 per cent potato, not ideal for those like me with type 2 diabetes. This recipe solves the problem by leaving the potato out! The dill and the grain mustard make the fishcakes special. They sometimes serve as a tasty starter, but today with our friend Mitch–who is working here to fix the drainage system at the back of the house–we’ll have them as a light lunch as it’s hot.
If you keep them small and cook them quickly, they’ll be crisp and brown on the outside and still succulent inside.
Yogurt sauce
2 x 125 ml pots low-fat yogurt
1 tsp grain mustard
good pinch of chopped dill (from the main bunch)
salt
The Fishcakes
400 g/1 lb salmon fillet – skinless and checked for bones
white of an egg
1 tbsp chickpea flour – of course, plain flour works as well
1 tsp grain mustard
juice of ½ lemon
bunch of dill – chopped fine
salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1. Mix all the yogurt sauce ingredients and refrigerate until you
are ready to eat.
2. Cut up the salmon fillets in roughly equal-size pieces. Put
these in a mixer and pulse three or four times. Avoid working
them too much and producing slush at the end. You could
just cut them up in small pieces if this suits better.
3. Put the salmon in a bowl. Turn in the egg white and the flour,
and then the mustard, lemon juice, and the dill. Season with
salt and pepper.
4. It’s a good idea to taste the mix for seasoning at this point –
the dill and the salt should come through.
5. Refrigerate if not using immediately.
6. Heat the oil in a frying pan and using a dessertspoon scoop
out a dollop and make a ball. Put this in the pan and flatten
it gently.
Cook on a medium-high flame, crisping and
browning the outside while making sure the interior cooks
through.
7. Serve with a fennel salad and the mustardy yogurt
dipping sauce on the side.