March 15, 2015 / emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Coconut Chicken Salad

Well, the weather is finely starting to feel as Autumn in Sydney should, with cooler mornings and evenings finally upon us. I am starting to put the ‘throws’ back on the lounges and will need to get the blankets out of the cupboards and on the beds soon. In terms of food, my mind is starting to think of warming soups, slow cooked dishes and puddings, which I am looking forward to sharing with you over the coming months.

So, this is probably one of the last salad style recipes I will share for a while. I really wanted to share it as the whole family ate it just last week (even Mr 3!) and LOVED IT.

There are 2 main steps – poaching the chicken breasts in coconut milk and cutting up salad ingredients. Pretty easy right?

If you are new to POACHING as a cooking technique, it’s a great one to learn as it’s such an easy and healthy way to cook chicken, or fish. This recipe uses coconut milk as the liquid, but you can poach chicken in plain water or stock, brought to the boil with some basic flavourings added like lemon slices, chilli, peppercorns, herbs or spices. Generally, you bring the liquid to the boil, add your chicken, boil for a few minutes and then take off the heat and let the chicken stand in the liquid with a lid on while it continues to cook. A normal sized chicken breast will take approximately 10 minutes to cook this way, but it can vary depending on the volume of liquid and size of the pan and piece of chicken. Poached chicken breasts will last in the fridge for around 2 days and can be sliced and shredded and used in almost anything!

The following recipe was inspired by a recipe I read in cookbook “Good Food” by Anneka Manning, once the Food Editor of Australian Good Taste magazine.

Coconut Chicken Salad

Serves 5 (3 of us did go back for small amounts of seconds!)

Ingredients

2 single chicken breasts

1 cup coconut milk

1 lemongrass stalk, pale section only, bruised with the back of a knife (place the blade of a knife horizontally on top of the stalk and press down with the palm of your hand) and roughly chopped.

Note – Lemongrass is commonly used in asian cooking to flavour a dish with a lemon lime flavour. If you can’t find one to buy in your local green grocer or super market, using a vegetable peeler, throw a few pieces of lemon rind in the pan instead.

1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes

1/2 Chinese cabbage, outer leave and core removed and roughly shredded

1 cucumber, peeled and sliced

1/2 red capsicum, thinly sliced

1 carrot, skin removed and peeled into long ribbons using a vegetable peeler

1/2 bunch of fresh coriander finely chopped

a handful of toasted cashews

juice of 2 limes

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

Method

Place the chicken, coconut milk, lemongrass or lemon peel and dried chilli flakes into a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes, turn the chicken over and simmer for another 3 or so minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Pour the contents of the saucepan, chicken included, into a heat-resistant bowl and set aside to cool while you cut up the salad ingredients.

Place the shredded cabbage, cucumber, carrot and capsicum into a large serving bowl. Combine lime juice and fish sauce and pour over the chopped salad.

Remove the chicken breasts from the liquid and slice thinly. Place the chicken on top of the salad, sprinkle with coriander and cashews.

Place the large bowl and serving spoons in the middle of the table and let everyone serve themselves.

Note – this salad would be beautiful with a handful of bean sprouts tossed through it, but my kids won’t eat them, so I left them out.

March 12, 2015March 15, 2015 / emma@cookfasteatslow.com Leave a comment

Banana Bread – two ways

Bananas have some great qualities – they are high in Potassium, which helps regulate normal blood pressure, Magnesium for our muscles, Fibre, Vitamin C and Vitamin B6, which help to make red blood cells and antibodies to help us fight infections. Any of the B vitamins are known as ‘water soluble’ which means we don’t store them in our bodies and so we must keep replenishing them from our diet each day. Bananas are also a source of carbohydrates. If you are trying to manage Diabetes, you do have to take into consideration the impact they may have on your blood sugar levels.

Each time a banana goes bad in the fruit bowl or I find one a little squished and uneaten in a lunch box, it’s thrown in the freezer.

Once there is a small stash and I am craving my freezer space back, Banana Bread is made. It’s perfect straight out of the oven for afternoon tea or sliced, wrapped and frozen for school lunch boxes.

The following recipes are two of my favourites. Truth be told, I have many more (Sticky Date & Banana, Banana & Choc Chip etc), but I thought I would start with these two. They are quite different, but loved nonetheless.

The Banana & Raspberry Bread can be made by anyone. It’s a ‘throw it all in the bowl and stir’ batter and it never fails. Apart from being Dairy free, it’s full of all the normal things that make Banana Bread look and taste good – fat and sugar.

The Banana & Coconut Bread, from one of my favourite Chef’s, Teresa Cutter (aka The Healthy Chef), is Gluten free, Dairy Free, Grain Free and Refined sugar free. The addition of Coconut flour adds great soluble fibre and the Chia Seeds keep the loaf moist and add Omega 3’s, which are needed by the brain to function properly.

I am making more and more of this type for our every day eating and saving the Banana & Raspberry Bread for those special days.

Banana & Raspberry Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed banana (approx 3 large size bananas)
1/2 cup rice bran oil
1/3 cup water
1 cup raspberries (if using frozen, don’t defrost first and make sure they are from Australia or Europe!)

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius (150 fan forced)

Combine everything, except the raspberries, in a bowl and mix till combined and smooth. Gently stir in raspberries.

Pour into a well greased and lined loaf tin and bake for approx 1 hour. If it starts to brown quickly, cover it in foil and continue cooking. Cool in tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Banana & Coconut Bread

Recipe from Teressa Cutter, thehealthychef.com

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

400gm over ripe bananas, (approx 4 medium size bananas)

6 eggs

4 fresh pitted dates

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

60ml of coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

1/2 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup chia seeds

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius (150 fan forced)

Combine bananas, eggs, dates, vanilla, oil, cinnamon and baking powder in a food processor and blend till smooth.

Add the coconut flour and chia seeds, mix through and then sit for 15 minutes to allow the chia seeds and coconut flour to expand.

Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin and bake for 50-55 minutes. (You can decorate the top of the loaf with flaked coconut if you like at this stage). Cover with foil if browning too quickly.

Cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.

This loaf is best stored in the fridge and slightly heated or toasted before serving (I love to top it with ricotta and honey) It freezes well too.

March 8, 2015March 15, 2015 / emma@cookfasteatslow.com Leave a comment

Greek Salad and Homemade Herb Bread

My boys love sausages. I don’t. But if I really want to make them happy, I make sure they appear on the menu every few weeks at least.

To fancy up our sausage dinner recently, I made this Greek Salad and Homemade Herb bread. Two great side dishes that would work perfectly alongside almost any piece of meat, fish or leftover roast. If I come across some beautiful steak on sale, I will throw it in the freezer and serve it to my husband and I instead of sausages. Coming soon will be my 4 top tips for cooking a great steak!

Greek Salad

Serves approx 5

Ingredients

2 handfuls of baby spinach

1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large cucumber, cut into chunks

125gm of Greek Feta, cut into cubes (Greek Feta is hard and works best in this salad. Danish Feta is soft and will fall apart into the salad when mixed)

1/4 cup pitted Kalamata Olives, cut in half

a few sprigs of parsley, finely chopped

Balsamic vinegar to drizzle over the top

Method

Combine everything, except vinegar and parsley, in a bowl and mix to combine. Sprinkle with parsley and drizzle with Balsamic vinegar.

Homemade Herb Bread

You won’t want to buy a pre-made herb bread again after realising how easy and yummy this is. The smell of it cooking in the oven alone is worth it!

Ingredients

1 sourdough loaf or baguette

a few handfuls of chopped mixed herbs like rosemary, oregano, parsley and thyme.

2 or 3 garlic cloves, crushed (this is dependant on how garlicy you want it!)

2-3 tablespoons of softened butter (or olive oil if you prefer)

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Using a bread knife, cut thick slices into the loaf, without cutting right through to the bottom.

Mix the crushed garlic into the softened butter and using a small knife or pastry brush, spread a small amount on each slice of bread. If there is any left, brush a little butter over the top of the loaf.

Grab small handfuls of herbs and stuff them into each slit and then scatter the rest over the top of the loaf.

Wrap the loaf in foil and bake in the oven for approx 20 mins.

March 6, 2015March 15, 2015 / emma@cookfasteatslow.com 4 Comments

My favourite Pizza Dough

We love Pizza Night in our house. It is often at the end of the week and is the meal where we abandon place mats, cutlery and table etiquette and instead head to the lounge with paper towel for serviettes, and a good Family Movie, Top Gear episode, Sporting Event or Monster Trucks, (did I mention Sporting Event?) on the TV.

Anyway, back to the pizza. It will usually be one of the following scenarios;

1. It’s been one of THOSE weeks. We are left barely standing and the only energy we can muster is to order, eat and throw away the box.

2. The week wasn’t quite as bad as the above, but busy nonetheless and I have just enough time to pop to the shops, grab some pre-made bases, and basic toppings and head home to assemble.

3. I make up the following dough recipe and we enjoy the whole process of making our own pizzas from scratch. The funny thing is it requires very little effort and takes about 6 minutes to make. The longest time required is letting the dough rise, about 45 minutes. But you can be prepping the toppings or relaxing on the lounge while that happens!

If you have never tried making your own dough, I urge you to. It is oh so simple and I’ve never met a kid who doesn’t like rolling out their very own pizza creation.

We all like different toppings in our house. We have a meat loving child, a basic margarita loving child and other family members who love olives, salami, prosciutto, artichokes, fresh herbs, roasted veggies etc..

As a general rule, I use pizza night as an opportunity to use up leftovers from the week. If I find 1/2 a zucchini, some mushrooms, a bit of ham or leftover chicken, a handful of spinach leaves, a squishy tomato etc.. it all gets put on the pizza! Maybe not the same one, but it has become a useful way of cleaning out the fridge at the end of the week.

The recipe below is made in a food processor. If you don’t own a food processor, here is a link to a basic pizza dough of Jamie Oliver’s that shows step by step instructions on how to mix and knead it by hand. Click here for Jamie’s Basic Pizza Dough

Ingredients

1 x 7g sachet of instant dried yeast (usually found in the isle with the baking products like flour etc. One brand looks like this:

1 teaspoon sugar

1 1/4 cups warm tap water

3 1/3 cups of plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3 teaspoons olive oil

Method

Place the yeast and sugar in a bowl and add warm water. Mix and then let stand until foamy, about 4 minutes.

If your food processor has a dough blade, put that in and then add flour, salt and 2 teaspoons olive oil to the food processor.

With the machine running on dough speed, pour the liquid through the feed tube. Keep processing as the dough absorbs all of the liquid. Keep processing as a dough ball forms, that means, the dough will start to pull away from the side of the food processor. Once it has done this, process for 30 more seconds, this will knead the dough.

Grab a large bowl, add 1 teaspoon olive oil to the bowl and grease around the sides of the bowl. Place the dough ball in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes.

This is what it will look like to begin with….

After 45 minutes or so, your dough will look like this…

Place the dough onto a floured surface and punch down. Divide into however many portions you desire, although this recipe make about 3 medium size pizzas, which we find enough for a family of 5.

Roll into whatever shape you like, but it is especially nice quite thin, and place on baking paper lined trays. We have had many interesting shapes over the years, most are almost always not perfectly round!

(Side Note – To get an extra crunch to the texture of the crust, you can lightly dust the baking paper with semolina before you place the pizza on it.)

Add your base, i.e. Jamie Oliver’s 7 vegetable sauce or a store bought tomato passatta. Top with your favourite toppings and a mix of cheese’s like mozzarella, parmesan and cheddar work perfectly as a pizza cheese blend. (I often buy large bags of a pizza cheese blend and keep them in the freezer).

Bake in a very hot oven, about 220-240 degrees celsius for about 9-11 minutes.

March 1, 2015March 15, 2015 / emma@cookfasteatslow.com 2 Comments

Jamie Oliver’s 7 Vegetable Sauce

I first read this recipe in a Delicious magazine about 9 years ago. With a toddler at the time, we were going through the ‘101 ways to get vegetables’ into him phase.

This sauce has been a winner over the years and I use it as a base for homemade pizzas (post to come later in the week), in bolognese or lasagna and basically anytime a tomato based sauce is needed.

I would call this a ‘make ahead meal’. It takes a little chopping and about 30 minutes cooking on the stove. It’s perfect to make on the weekend and freeze in containers ready for whenever you need it.

The quantity below makes about 4 litres – which is enough for about 3-4 separate meals. I made a lasagna out of it and have enough left in the freezer for a few pizza nights and probably 2 other dinners at some point. It’s quite thick, but can be thinned out by just adding water.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 spanish onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 leek, white part only, washed and partly chopped

2 celery stalks, washed and roughly chopped

1 large zucchini, washed and roughly chopped

1 red capsicum, washed, de-seeded and roughly chopped

1/2 small butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed and grated

2 x 800gm cans of crushed tomatoes

Flavourings to taste like salt and pepper, dried herbs or a few splashes of balsamic vinegar.

Method

Heat a good splash of olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Add onion, leek, celery, zucchini and capsicum. Cook, covered for 10 minutes or until softened. You may need to lower the heat at this stage and give it a stir occasionally.

Add the pumpkin and cook, uncovered for another 5 minutes or until soft.

Add the canned tomatoes, season at this stage with dried herbs like basil or oregano, salt and pepper and a few splashes of balsamic vinegar. Stir thoroughly and bring to the boil.

Simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes, uncovered, stirring occasionally.

Using a stick blender (or a food processor, which you may have to do in batches) blend until smooth. Add some water if it’s too thick for you.

Cool slightly before pouring into snap lock bags or containers suitable for freezing and freeze until needed.