Robin Ellis's Blog, page 20
February 26, 2015
“No-potato” Fishcakes–Mark III!
Fishcakes!
There’s a recipe in both my cookbooks–and they are the most visited on the blog.
I am not alone in loving them!
They were always a favorite with me–but were off the menu after my diagnosis because they usually share the space with an equal mount of mashed potatoes (sometimes more, one suspects, in restaurants!). Potatoes have a very high glycemic index rating–mashed especially.
So when I spotted the alternative versions, I was delighted.
One recipe mixes the salmon with smoked haddock; another adds fresh dill.
These secondary ingredients are not always easy to find—so here is a third version with the perennially available smoked salmon.
My local supermarket sells 200gm/8oz packets of smoked salmon off-cuts—-perfect for this and less expensive than traditional slices.
LUNCH–with a green salad!
for 2
200 gms/8oz skinless salmon fillet
200gms/8oz smoked salmon
1 shallot–chopped small
white of an egg
1 tbsp chickpea flour–or any whole flour
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp parsley–chopped
salt and pepper
Cut up the fresh salmon and the smoked salmon into pieces as illustrated above–roughly bite-size.
Pulse them briefly in a food mixer–they should not be mushy.
Empty them into a bowl.
Carefully turn in the rest of the ingredients.
Taste for seasoning–delicious exercise!
Scoop out the mixture and form your patties (I use a tablespoon.) Don’t “overwork” the mixture.
If you have time, cover and refrigerate for half an hour or so–it helps firm up the fishcakes.
Heat the oil to HOT in a frying pan. Very important that the fishcakes cook in hot oil.
Slide them carefully into the pan and flatten them a little with a fish slice/spatula to hasten the cooking.
After a couple of minutes flip them over and cook briefly the other side.
When you see the milky liquid appearing from inside the fishcakes, they are READY.
Lift them gently out of the pan and arrange them on a serving plate with sliced lemon.
Delicious served with a little yogurt sauce:
1 pot yogurt
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
pinch of salt
Whisk the yogurt smooth and stir in the mustard and salt.
Whisk again.
Filed under: Diabetes, Food, Recipes Tagged: no potato fishcakes, salmon, smoked salmon
February 24, 2015
Extra Cooking Workshops
There are a few places left on this extra cooking workshop in the first week in June (4th-8th) and in the extra autumn workshop at the end of September. The focus is hands-ons cooking of Mediterranean cuisine–with the accent on healthy recipes.
This June weekend will be the sixth I’ve run chez Dominique and Philippe, the warm and welcoming owners who run the beautiful La Terrasse in Lautrec.
We start with tea–well I’m a Brit!–in the garden on Thursday afternoon and finish with a celebratory Sunday lunch.
We eat outside in the garden as much as possible!
In between we top and tail, chop and slice, chew the fat and generally hang out together round the large central table of the working kitchen of the gite which Dominique and Philippe designed specifically for cooking courses.
We are blessed to have Simone Sarti (pictured below) with us who keeps everything ship shape and the wheels turning.
Friday morning, we walk to the little market held in the main square of Lautrec and buy the makings for lunch, then go back and prepare it together.
Friday evening we give ourselves a break and dine chez Valerie—a fine cook—in the converted barn where she and her partner, Bernard, have created a delightful table d’hôte.
They have a sociable “Long John Silver” parrot in residence who is in love with Meredith and hangs on her every word.
Saturday morning shop at the open air market in Castres, our nearest town, buying our fresh food for lunch.
Before the final dinner, Phillippe offers his expert take on local French wines in his extraordinary cave deep under the house.
Each attendee–Bravehearts to me!–has their cooking station with a chopping board, cook’s knife and an apron!
It’s a hands on workshop–we are all in it together
The aim is to have fun, make friends and eat well.
The setting for all this is Lautrec—a medieval bastide (hilltop) village in the Tarn, proud of its designation as Un des plus beaux villages de France. It’s famous for its pink garlic–l’ail rose–and hosts a Garlic Festival the first Friday in August every year, attracting 10,000 visitors! On a clear day you can see the Pyrenees from the hilltop.
So far into the melting pot have jumped Bravehearts from the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, Australia and Majorca.
The pictures tell the story–it’s the people who’ve made it work.
Come be a Braveheart!!
Filed under: other sides to this life Tagged: cooking class, cooking workshop, culinary school, diabetes, France, healthy cooking, heart healthy cooking, Mediterranean cooking, Poldark
February 21, 2015
Lamb tagine with dried apricots
This simple North African lamb stew, spotted years ago in Frances Bissell’s The Pleasures of Cookery (great title), is a handy winter dish for company—but I haven’t made it for a while.
Six French friends are coming to lunch tomorrow so I’m preparing it today. That way the taste should deepen while the panic levels lighten in the morning.
I once cooked this and was puzzled by the reduced volume–much less than usual. Then I spotted the bowl of beans hiding in full view on the counter–I’d forgotten to put them in!
All the ingredients, save the meat, looking eager to get started.
for 8
1 boned lamb shoulder (about 2k/4lb meat)–cut up into bite size (1″ish) pieces
3 tbs olive oil
4 garlic cloves–peeled & chopped
3 onions–sliced
1 1/2 tsp each whole cumin seeds
1 1/2 whole coriander seeds
24 dried apricots*–halved (the yellow ones show up prettier than the untreated variety I normally like)
1 1/2 pints stock–I use organic vegetable cubes
2 large tins (cans) of flageolet beans (little green ones)–drained
salt and pepper
A bunch of fresh coriander (or parsley)–chopped
Heat the oven at 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3.
Seal the meat in the hot olive oil, using a large frying pan–(you will probably have to do this in batches).
When nicely browned, remove it to the ovenproof casserole from which you will serve it.
Gently fry the onions and garlic in the fat and oil left in the pan, without browning them.
Fold in the whole spices and let them cook a little.
Add almost all the stock and let it reduce a bit.
Add the apricots.
Season this mixture well, with salt and pepper and pour it into the casserole.
Add a handful of coarsely chopped parsley or coriander.
In a separate pan heat the drained beans with the remaining stock.
When hot, add the beans with the stock to the casserole and turn everything over carefully.
Bring it all to a simmer on the top of the stove, then cover and place the casserole on a low shelf in the oven.
Cook for about 2 hours, checking after an hour to see if it needs topping up with stock—being careful not to lose the intensity of the sauce.
Serve over bulgar wheat–or if you prefer, cous cous or basmati brown rice.
Remembered the beans this time!
* Dried apricots are especially suitable for anyone, like me, watching blood sugar levels. http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/apricots-blood-sugar-9889.html
Filed under: other sides to this life Tagged: dried apricots, lamb tagine
February 16, 2015
Guinea fowl with anchovies and capers–a dish fit for Roman legionnaires….
Guinea fowl stepping out in her high heels and lipstick.
Guinea Fowl (UK), Cornish Game Hen (US), Pintade (Fr).
Introduced to Britain by the Romans (apparently).
This is odd because I once saw a flock of these nervy birds, moving as one in a tightly packed phalanx (safety in numbers) that reminded me of the testedo–the Roman military formation.
As they approached a target, a platoon of legionnaires would use their shields to protect themselves top and sides, moving as one. The images relieved the tedium and frustration of Latin lessons at school!
“Left a bit, lads! Close-up, close-up! Not so fast at the front! Steady boys, steady!”
The testedo of guinea fowl–perhaps equally unsure of their fate–made a heck of a panicky row.
The combination here of anchovies melted into a classic sauce of olive oil, lemon juice and capers works well with the gamier taste of the guinea fowl. It makes a nice change from chicken.
This recipe comes from Jenny Baker’s excellent Simple French Cuisine cook book.
1 guinea fowl–cut up into quarters
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion–chopped
4 anchovy fillets–chopped into a mash
1 glass white wine
1 tbsp capers
juice of a lemon
salt and pepper
Heat the oil until hot in a pan large enough to cook the entire bird. Then add the guinea fowl pieces and brown, turning occasionally.
Take them out of the pan and set them aside.
Soften the onion in the same pan–turning often.
Mix in the anchovies–giving them time to melt into the oil-coated onions.
Add the wine and bring the mixture up to a gentle bubble.
Add the guinea fowl pieces, the capers and the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Bring back to a bubble (Meredith thinks I should say that a bubble is more than a simmer but less than a boil!), turn down the heat and cover the pan.
Cook for about 30 minutes until the meat pieces run clear when pierced–being careful not to over cook them.
(Guinea fowl can be dry.)
Served with brussels sprouts and brown basmati rice.
Right lads–it’s shields down–time out–and off to the canteen for a tasty dish of numididae*!
*Latin for guinea fowl
Filed under: Food, other sides to this life, Recipes
February 11, 2015
Three words I always hope to hear in February…
This week marks the end of the testing season–feet, heart, liver, kidneys, prostate, skin–you name it!
On Monday it was the annual love fest with Dr Nguyen Ngoc Luong, my opthamologist.
A man of few words, Dr Luong sits on a swivel chair with an alarming revolving table to his right.
At the push of a button this table goes in to action, swinging round to position a new chin rest at eye level between me and the good Doctor. This happens three times in the course of the test.
Then comes the checking of my long sight.
Reading off the numbers or letters projected on the wall opposite, as Dr Luong slips different lenses in and out of the “pince-nez” he fastens onto my nose.
I feel like a schoolboy keen to answer teacher’s questions correctly.
Now it’s time for the most intimate moment of the session.
We both shift nervously on our chairs preparing to stare into one another’s eyes for a few breathless moments.
My freshly shaved chin juts towards his as he points a penetrating light at my pupils–shining it into every corner of my cornea and beyond.
Breaking the spell, he leans back and utters three precious words. To my relief–a few days short of Valentine’s Day–not “I Love You” but…
“Pas de diabétes!”
I uncross my fingers–and feel foolish again for indulging in the Superstition Game.
Another year CLEAR!
Filed under: Diabetes, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis Tagged: diabetes, eye test, valentine's day
February 9, 2015
A little of what you fancy may do you no harm…
Meredith shows me a Breugel 16th century winter scene reminiscent of the world outside our windows at the moment–except for the skating.
It leads her into thinking of other artists’ depiction of winter.
“Who was that painter we liked at the Metropolitan after we saw that Matisse exhibit a few years back? Industrial landscapes and the boxers. Remember?”
“B-B-B-Be…”
I use my hands to mime the thing that fans a fire into life.
“Be-Be-Bel-Bello-BELLOWS!”
“George Bellows–brilliant realist painter–died too young–42, he was. Painted winter–town and country.”
“Wow!” says Meredith. “Nothing wrong with your memory!”
Next day this article appeared in the newspaper–explaining why…!
Apparently the antioxidant, resveratrol, found in the skin of red grapes, some berries and peanuts, has a positive effect on the hippocampus–the part of the brain vital to memory, learning and mood.
Cheers! Santé! Good health! Chin chin! Salud! Prost!
Now what did I say was for supper…?!
Filed under: Diabetes, Food, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis Tagged: breugel, george bellows, red wine benefits 
February 7, 2015
Fennel, tomatoes and white beans–a veggie casserole for a cold night.
A touch of heat in a consoling casserole for a cold night.
Inspired by a recipe in the River Café Pocket Vegetable Book.
(Speak it softly but you could have a couple of sausages on the side–we did tonight!*)
I love
beans and especially white beans and I have a penchant for fennel, cooked or raw.
Garlic is a staple here–Lautrec’s pink garlic is grown under our feet–so to speak.
Adding tomatoes coalesces everything into a delicious dish.
for 2
1 tbs olive oil
2 fennel bulbs–outer bruised parts removed and cut in thickish vertical slices
3 garlic cloves–peeled and sliced
2 small dried chilis–chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds–pounded in a mortar
8oz tinned (canned) tomatoes–drained and chopped
8oz white beans tinned (canned)–drained
salt and pepper
juice of a lemon
1 tbs olive oil (a second!)
In a shallow pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil.
Add the fennel and cook for a couple of minutes, turning the fennel over in the oil.
Add the garlic, fennel seeds and chili and cook on for five minutes.
Add the tomatoes and mix them well in.
Add a tablespoon of water and mix again.
Check after five minutes to see if you need another tablespoon of water–I did.
Cover the pan and cook for fifteen minutes or until the fennel is tender.
Mix in the beans and season with salt and pepper.
Re-cover and cook for another ten minutes.
Add the lemon juice and the tablespoon of olive oil.
*The sausages–sshh!
Heat the oven to 190C (375 F)
Put the sausages in an oven pan with a splash of olive oil and sprigs of rosemary.
Cook for thirty minutes–shaking the pan occasionally.
Add a broken up bulb of garlic unpeeled.
Cook on for twenty minutes or longer to turn the sausages nicely brown.
Serve with Dijon mustard.
Filed under: Food, other sides to this life, Recipes
February 5, 2015
Braised endive/chicory with eggs and pancetta
Endive/chicory are not just good for salads–they are delicious slow braised with a couple of additions if you like…
This was lunch and made a pretty picture.
It was also light and a bit exotic.
This time of year there’s a local grower of these white torpedoes selling only them in Castres market on Saturdays.
I chose fat ones for the long slow cooking that reduces them nicely into a super-soft state.
A poached egg (or two) on top and a couple of small discs of pancetta, crisped in the still hot oven, meld with the little sauce of lemon and olive oil.
for 2
3/4 fat endives–bruised outer leaves removed and the bitter root end skewered out.
3 tbsp olive oil
juice of a lemon
4 eggs
4 thin slices pancetta
salt and pepper
Heat the oven to 170C
Heat the oil in an ovenproof pan with a lid.
Lay in the endive and season well with a teaspoon of salt and several twists of the pepper mill.
Turn the endive [confusingly it’s called chicory in the UK] in the oil and seasoning.
Let them color and caramalise a little.
Pour over the lemon juice and cover.
Place in the middle of the oven and cook for two hours.
Check after an hour that all is well and turn them–taking care to keep them in one piece.
After about two hours take them out of the oven and let them rest, covered with foil.
Turn up the oven temperature to 200C and crisp up the pancetta pieces–about ten minutes.
Poach the eggs in simmering hot water to which you have added a splash of red/white vinegar.
The vinegar, in principal, will encourage the whites of the eggs to act in a more orderly fashion–doesn’t always work!
Arrange the endive on two plates and…
when you judge the eggs are done as you like them lift them out with a slotted spoon and place them decoratively on the endives.
Finish the plate off with the pancetta.
“DING!”– said the chief taster!
Filed under: Food, Recipes Tagged: endive/chicory
February 3, 2015
SNOW!
White out in the Tarn!
Back…
and…
…front!
“Bird Sanctuary”
No “al fresco” dining today!
“Snow?–seen it before; no big deal” Queen mum cat; Pippa not impressed. The other three–“What IS THAT!?”
Our friend Valerie took her young son, Guilhaume, to school this morning before the snow started to fall.
“What are we going to do this afternoon? How can we fetch him home?” she asked her partner, Bernard, soon after she got home. “By tractor,” he replied, “the ancient one in the shed.”
Imagine four-year-old Guilhaume’s delight when Dad turns up at school on the tractor!
“You’ll have to take all the other kids home too,” we added. “We’ll have to start calling you, Saint Bernard,” joked Valérie.
No change in my walking programme…
…”Captain Intrepid…or silly old fool!”
Filed under: other sides to this life Tagged: snow, st bernard
February 2, 2015
Walking…
I used to think walking was pedestrian!
I ran or jogged, or bicycled–walking took so long.
But then we moved here to rural France, where it’s a bit hilly. As I was getting older, I started walking.
Six times a week–usually for about 40 minutes–usually the same route, which never felt the same two days running (so to speak)!
Then one day I OVERDID it–and my left knee “went”.
I stopped for a while and tried the exercise bike– but it wasn’t the same.
Gradually my knee healed and I started walking again, but less–three or four times a week.
I settled into a routine of roughly 40 minutes every other day.
Three times 40 equals 120--so some weeks I was 30 minutes shy of the 150 minutes recommended aerobic exercise per week.
Recently I changed my routine again: Now I walk every day but for less time–a little over 20 minutes.
So that ring ups the magic 150.
And I feel good on it. “Ah, that’s done!”
Exercising each day–but not TOO long–lifts my spirits without becoming a burden.
One is less likely to throw in the towel.
(Also I’m thinking of my knees.)
I’m in good company…
If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish.
~Charles Dickens
The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise and of all the exercises, walking is the best.
~Thomas Jefferson
I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.
~Abraham Lincoln
To find new things, take the path you took yesterday.
~John Burroughs (American naturalist)
Thoughts come clearly while one walks.
~Thomas Mann
The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.
~Jacqueline Schiff (poet)
Filed under: Diabetes, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis Tagged: exercise, Walking
