One of the things I love most about this time of year is Strawberry Shortcake. Of course my mom made the best strawberry shortcake. She used biscuits and filled with them crushed berries and whipped cream, or ice cream, depending on what she had ready to hand. You can find that recipe here. Its not low fat or low sugar, but it is high on deliciousness!
As a diabetic, I am always looking for ways to lighten things up and hopefully still
keep them delicious. I got a book from Gooseberry Patch a number of
months back called Comfort Food, Lightened Up. It's filled with 330
recipes of your favourite foods, made healthier and lighter.
We grow our own strawberries and they are coming fast and furious at the moment. It is a race to see who will get to them first, us, or the birds . . . or the slugs. Meh! Everyone's got to eat I guess!
When I saw this recipe for a lightened up version for Strawberry Shortcake, I really wanted to try it out. It didn't use the biscuits my mother always used, but it did include a delicious low fat and sugar sponge. It sounded quite promising!
I had some sour milk in the refrigerator left from when we were on our holiday and so I used that instead of regular milk, adapting the recipe to do so. The cake worked out beautifully and is light and moist . . . not very sweet, but you can't have it all.
If I could choose to do anything differently it would be to crush the berries lightly instead of just slicing them. I think crushed berries would be even nicer.
No, it did not compare to my mothers . . . not in the least, but it was still very good. And I won't complain about that!
So, if you are looking for a cake that you can have and eat too, then this might be the one. The cake on its own would be lovely split and filled with whipped cream and lemon curd . . . just saying. It's a great basic cake.
I am sitting here imagining it split and filled with all sorts . . . crushed raspberries, peaches . . . rhubarb compote! Mmmm . . .
*Lighter Strawberry Shortcake*
Makes 12 servings
Hull and slice the berries.
Do I miss the old version . . . my mum's . . . yes, I probably always will, but its nice to know that there is a lighter lower fat version I could indulge in every now and then. I suppose you could also use a sweetener in this that measures like for like the same as sugar in the place of the sugar and that would work too. This did satisfy a craving of sorts . . . sigh . . . Bon Appetit!
Its been lovely and warm this week. Time to crack open the BBQ and do whatever you can to keep the kitchen cooler. We love these Grilled Sweet Potato Packets in the Summer. Not only can you cook them on the BBQ, but they are also quite, quite delicious and simple to do.
A drizzle of melted butter and Worcestershire sauce, some parsley, salt and black pepper. You could also add some garlic if you wanted to . . .
The foil then gets closed up around the mixture and the packets placed onto a heated outdoor grill (or into a heated oven if you wish) and grilled for about 20 minutes . . .
Until the potatoes and onions are sweet and tender . . . so good . . .
The packets are opened and then sprinkled with some cheese and chopped toasted pecans and briefly returned to the grill to melt . . .
Voila!! You have a scrumptious side dish that everyone will love. This goes wonderfully with grilled chicken or fish.
Instructions are given for one serving, but this means that you can increase to feed as many people as you want to feed. You can also make up the packets ahead of time and bring them with you to the camp ground or picnic spot. Let's face it, these are delicious no matter what is on the menu or where you choose to cook and eat them.
*Grilled Sweet Potato Pouches*
Serves 1
1 tsp dried parsley flakes
salt and black pepper to taste
4 or 5 pecans toasted
2 TBS grated cheese
Heat
the outdoor grill. Place the potato and onion in the middle of the
square of buttered foil. Sprinkle the onion on top. Whisk together the
melted butter, sorcestershire sauce, parsley flakes and salt and black
pepper to taste. Drizzle over top of the potato and onions. Fold the
foil up around the potatoes, sealing them in completely. What I do is
make a fold down the centre and then crimp the ends. Place on the hot
grill for 20 to 25 minutes until tender. Open the top of the foil.
Sprinkle with the cheese and pecans. Grill for about 5 minutes longer
to melt the cheese and lightly toast. Serve hot.
Nothing could be simpler, easier or tastier with the added bonus being that there is NO washing up! I can really go for that on a hot summer's day! Bon Appetit!
In the summer months when we want something that little bit heartier for our dinner, the slow cooker becomes my best friend. If I don't want to be heating up the kitchen, the slow cooker is the way to go! I have three slow cookers. One in a large size for making dishes large enough to feed over 4 people, and two smaller ones which are perfectly sized for two people, a round one and an oval one, because a small round one doesn't always cut the mustard when it comes to slow cooking. A small oval one is perfect for small roasts, hams, etc.
Slow cooking lends itself perfectly to creating delicious dishes like this Lamb Tagine I am showing you here today. A Tagine is traditionally a Moroccan dish. I love the flavours of Moroccan food.
Moroccan cuisine is a delicious mix of Arabic, Andalusian, Mediterranean and Berber cuisine with a dash of European and Subsaharian influence thrown in for good measure. Think what we traditionally see as warm baking spices . . . cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg and cloves . . . with some heat through in from cayenne and black pepper . . . and lemon. They love to use preserved lemons . . . leafy things like coriander . . . rose petals. And this is by no means a complete list, but merely a hint of the deliciousness involved.
They also love using tomatoes, dried apricots, dates, prunes . . . I love savoury dishes with dried fruit involved, and this one is just wonderful using both apricots and prunes . . . and zest of oranges . . .
The sauce is fragrant and delicious . . . sweet and savoury at the same time, with a tiny bit of heat, but not overpoweringly so . . .
The sauce/gravy is thickened with ground almonds or what you might know in American as almond meal, which lends a slight nuttiness into the mix . . . and then there is the sweetness of that oh so tender lamb . . .
Lamb was not something I had ever eaten a lot of before I moved over here to the UK. My only experience with it had been my mother cooking lamb chops once for us when I was a teenager. They smelled like burning wool when she was cooking them, and none of us would eat them. The thought of eating burning wool was not very appealing.
I can only think now that they were not very good lamb chops . . . because I have never had lamb over here that smelled like burning wool, or tasted like it for that matter. I truly love the taste . . . young tender lamb has a delicate almost sweet taste. Older lamb can taste a bit gamey, but its not bad either.
*Lamb Tagine*
Serves 2
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground sweet paprika
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp runny clear honey
I hope you will take advantage of your slow cooker this summer and make this delicious Moroccan stew! I think you will love it! Bon Appetit, or as they say in Morocco, بالصحة و العافية! Now that's what I would call a tongue twister, lol Serving it with peas and rice is so, so . . . well, English. In Morocco you would probably have it with couscous!
Oh, I do so love fresh berry season, don't you? We grow our own Strawberries, Blueberries and Raspberries, and the Strawberries are coming fast and furious at the moment! Oh, there is nothing more delicious on earth than a freshly picked strawberry with the warmth of the sun still burnishing its sweet flesh!
This is a beautiful way of using them during berry season. Its a simple recipe which I adapted for use from the cookbook entitled Supper For a Song, by Tamasin Day-Lewis. I love her recipes. They are always well written and they always turn out. I know she is largely unknown in North America, but she is a great cook and writer.
You are probably more familiar with her brother, Daniel Day-Lewis. Ah-ha! See, I knew. Anyways, this recipe is a real gem. It is perhaps a bit faffy in a way in that you make a sabayon sauce to cover the berries with before glazing them under the grill.
A Sabayon is not difficult to make, just time consuming. You do have to stand whipping it over simmering water for quite a time, but its so delicious when done. I had to bring in the extension cord from the shed that Todd uses to plug our mower into because I don't have an outlet near my stove that I can plug into.
Not a problem. Eggs yolks, sugar and lemon juice get whipped in the top of a double boiler until they are creamy, thick and rich, and then you continue to whip them until the mixture cools, upon which you fold in very softly whipped double cream. Take care not to over-whip the cream or it won't fold together properly. Softly, softly is the best. You can do this the night before if you want, and refrigerate it until you want to grill the berries. This makes it a great last minute dessert for entertaining.
A mix of berries is macerated in some sugar and liqueur and then popped into a gratin dish, napped with the sabayon and then gilded beneath the grill/broiler until golden.
This does not take very long . . . only a minute or so. If you do it for any longer you risk the mixture separating . . .
Just long enough to burnish the cream mixture, but not long enough to cook the berries, maintaining the shape and integrity of their deliciousness.
Altogether this is quite, quite lovely and so very delicious. Mmmm . . . I could eat that sabayon on its own by the spoonful!
*A Gratin of Summer Berries*
Serves 4
Put all of the berries into a large bowl. Gently stir in the sugar and the liqueur. Leave on the countertop to macerate for about 25 minutes, gently turning after 15 minutes.
To make the sabayon, put the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in the top of a double boiler and set over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the double boiler isn't touching the water. (Alternately you can use a large heat proof bowl that will fit over top of your saucepan of simmering water without falling in.) Using an electric whisk, whisk on medium high speed until th mixture has doubled in volume and thickened so that the mixture leaves a trail over top when you lift the beaters out of the pan. Remove to the countertop and place onto a kitchen towel to keep the pan from moving about. Continue to whisk with the electric whisk until the mixture is completely cold.
Using clean beaters, whisk the cream just to the point where it forms very soft folds. You want it slack, and not beaten stiff. It won't fold into the other mixture properly if you over beat it. Gently fold the cream into the cold cooked mixture. At this point you can continue on to finish the recipe or put it in a covered dish in the refrigerator overnight. (If you are doing it overnight, then don't macerate the berries until about half an hour or so before you want to make the dessert.)
I really hope that you will take the opportunity to make this with your summer berries this year. I think you will really enjoy it! Bon Appetit!
I love chicken wings and I know I am not alone in this. They are always the first thing to disappear on buffet tables, and I know that at the Chinese All You Can Eat Buffet back home, they are really hard to get your hands on. People just inhale them!
Chicken wings are a relatively inexpensive cut of chicken to buy. You can usually but big packs of them for not a lot in comparison to other cuts. Mind you they are mostly bone, but that's okay. The meat on them is succulent and delicious.
I used to buy lots of large packs of chicken wings when my children were growing up. It was one way of feeding my hungry lot for not a lot of dosh! I used to just season them all over and bake them long and slow and they were delectable.
This recipe here today is a simple one, and so tasty. It makes a great starter for those summer get togethers with your friends and family. The chicken has a lovely zippy flavour that goes wonderfully with that creamy blue cheese dressing.
You do need to start them the wings marinating the night before you make them to impregnate them with the most flavour that you can. They are spicy but not overly so. I would say they are just right.
I am not a fan of food that bites back. Your food should never be so hot or spicy that you can't tastte what you are actually eating.
These are just right. You get a nice amount of heat and spice without it being over the top. Of course if you want yours even hotter, you can add more spice if you like.
*Spicy Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dressing*
A starter for 4
Put the chicken into a large zip lock bag. Combine the
marinade ingredients and pour over the chicken in the bag. Zip the bag
closed and squelch the chicken around in the bag to coat. Place on a
plate and leave in the refrigerator to marinate overnight, giving them a
squelch around every now and then.
Whick all of the ingredients together for the dressing. Be judicious with the salt as the cheese is salty. Taste and adjust as required. Place into a covered dish and chill until needed.
When you are ready to cook, bring the chicken to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 140*C/300*F/ gas mark 1. LIne a large baking tray with a double layer of foil. Tip the wings out onto the tray in a single layer and poru over the marinade. Cook for 2 hours, turning them every now and again to make sure they don't stick and dry out.
Serve heaped on a platter with the bowl of dressing so everyone can help themselves.
You can also use minced a minced fresh red chili pepper if you want, just discard the ribs and seeds, prior to mincing (and wear gloves!), or you can use crushed chili pepper flakes. All work well. Bon Appetit!
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