Fig-uring it out

Hurumph. Nearly two weeks of being extra good, no booze and lots of exercise and I've not lost a single pound. 


Wandering round Taj, I wondered what I could cook with my pork steak that I'd bought from the butchers earlier that could cheer me up (and not ruining my diet that I seem to be immune to). And then I saw them. Beautifully ripe figs just sat there shouting at me. So I bought two. 


I sliced an onion, browned it and added the insides of the figs I'd scooped out. Then I added some hot water, a teaspoon of honey and a splash of balsamic vinegar and reduced to a lovely fig sauce (you know what would make this sauce special? Alcohol. Port possibly). I served on top of my pork that I'd roasted in the oven on a low to medium heat for half hour and took a photo just for you. 


The figs produce a lovely, sweet but crunchy sauce. And the sauce goes perfectly with the savoury pork. I served on some crushed sauteed potatoes (Slimming World people - I used Fry Light for this) and with a token bit of broccoli. 


Here's hoping for a more successful slimming week next week. 

Master Halloween

I love Masterchef. And judging by how many Facebook statuses I see about it, so does the rest of the country. What better on an evening to cuddle up with the cat and watch the Masterchef contestants battle it out concocting amazing food? So in my quest to bring the Edible blog readers some wonderful things, I was stoked to be offered some recipes from Masterchef Champion 2010, Lisa Faulkner. 

Before you get your saucepans at the ready, I just wanted to touch on the Hotpoint Campiagn for Cooking Confidence – a campaign encouraging us all to become more adventurous in the kitchen. Lisa is leading it and check out Lisa’s confident approach to cooking, plus a whole range of tips and advice at www.hotpoint.co.uk/vitalingredient 

This first recipe couldn't be more fitting this week with Halloween at the weekend and lots of carved out pumpkins to use up. I do hope you're not throwing out the delicious insides! Plus the weather has been miserable this week and this recipe will be sure to warm your cockles. 

More recipes to come over the next few weeks. Thanks Lisa! 

Warming Pumpkin Soup

A seasonal favourite for all the family.

Serves 4.

Preparation time : 20 minutes, Cooking time: 8-10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Olive oil

½ teaspoon coarse ground coriander seeds

½ teaspoon coarse ground fennel  seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 Large red onion, finely diced

2 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled & finely diced

2 fresh red chilies, deseeded & finely diced

2 cloves of garlic, finely diced

2 lemon grass stalks with the ends crushed

2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice

1 kg fresh pumpkin, peeled and cut into approximately 2cm square pieces

600ml vegetable stock

400ml coconut milk

Salt – to season

Fresh coriander – chopped to garnish

Method:

1 Heat the olive oil in a large solid based pan.

2  Lightly fry the coriander and fennel seeds, and turmeric together for 2 minutes

3 Add the diced onion, ginger and garlic, and fry for a further 3-4 minutes

4 Add the stock, pumpkin, diced chilies and lemon grass, stir well, gentle bring to simmering point and cover.

5 When pumpkin is semi soft, add the coconut milk and simmer further until the pumpkin is totally soft.

6 Take out the lemongrass, add the lime juice, put in blender until smooth.

7 Serve with fresh coriander to garnish

Slimming World Frittata

'Dieting' and 'foodie' aren't two words that go together well, however after months of calorie counting to no avail I've found myself on the Slimming World plan after a few friends have successfully lost a few stone each on it.


The concept is simple enough - you have your 'free' foods: as many fruit and veg as you like, fish and meat too as well as potatoes and rice. You then have two lists - a and b. A is the dairy products that are limited and b is cereals and breads - you're allowed one carefully weighed item from each of these lists a day. Then there's your third list - a list of food that have a 'syn' value. The aim is to eat or drink between 5-15 of these syns each day and with wine weighing in at about 9 syns for a large glass, I'm a little concerned - especially as I was starting to become quite accustomed to a bottle of wine a night most weekdays. But no pain, no gain (well, the opposite of gain hopefully).


Looking at these lists, I was actually quite inspired. Considering I cook everything from fresh anyway, it didn't seem too much of a problem but then I thought more about it - no olive oil, very limited cheese and bread, even some stock ate into my syn allowance. Time to get inventive.


The first week was all about finding different ways to cook things - I've discovered Fry Light which is really rather genius and I've been using lots of spices rather than stock.


Running around being a photographer and editing Edible deems me a busy lady. I wanted to find something I could have for lunch that I can cook the evening before that I can eat on the go. I also had a load of eggs that came in my vegetable box and some veg I wasn't sure what to do with. Enter the humble frittata.


A frittata is so easy to make and you can chuck anything in them. I fried onions until browned and added sliced sweet potato and cabbage, I then added about a cm of boiled water and covered to let the vegetables soften (this is termed steam frying). Next I beat four eggs and added half to a smallish and deepish ceramic roaster. I then added the rest of the veg and covered with the rest of the egg, roughly mixing it all in and seasoning. Because the frittata will be lasting me two days, I doubled my allowance of feta (42g is my daily amount) and crumbled it on top, finishing off with some thinly sliced tomato. You can add anything to the mix - olives, Prosciutto, chorizo etc (just don't let me smell it if using chorizo, it's my favourite and is banned from my life - the horror).


After 25 mins in the oven on a medium heat, et voila, here it is straight from the oven. Frittatas are best eaten at room temperature so allow to cool before eating. And just so you know, I had it for lunch today - as my two year old niece would say 'mmmmmmm... delic-li-lus!'

Crawford Calling.

When I heard that Brighton was getting it’s very own food (foodie) magazine I thought 2 things instantly; 1. It’s about bloody time, and 2. I have to write for them. I met Emma through our shared interest in taking photographs, we got chatting about photos then food photography then just food! And so here I am, writing for Edible, popping up every now and again to chip in my two penneth’ worth. I am Danaliese Crawford, Pastry Chef, Food Photographer and I confess that I am obsessed by food.

“Food. Food. Food. Is that all you think about? ” berates a spotty John Gordon Sinclair in my hubbies favourite film from his teenagehood. I had always thought of my interest in food as just that, an interest, a hobby, something to do in my downtime. I had no inkling that it would completely alter the path my life would take. About three months ago, just after 5:30am, I realised that this was no ‘healthy interest’, I was obsessed. And how did I know this? Because I had awoke thinking about a dessert of my own invention, that I had invented in a mid-dream, half-sleep state. And from that dessert I went on to create a handful of others and all as the July sun was just dawning, the light creeping in through my blinds. Not one to do things by halves I dived headfirst into working in food, making it, taking photos of it, talking about it. But what I want to know is, Why are we so interested in food?

TV is peppered (if you’ll pardon the pun) with programmes about cooking. From daytime cooking competition programmes (one which has a regular chef with a highly suspect Italian accent, I think you’ll be able to figure out who I mean), to the ‘here’s how to cook’ programmes (although Delia pouring a jar of pasta sauce over pasta does not, I think, constitute what I would call cooking!) to a comedy programme about chefs which I daren’t watch (well, the BBC doesn’t have the best track record with comedy!) to Gordon Ramsey pitting curry houses against each other and doing some weird candid camera stuff to them whilst shouting and looking like some took a potato masher to his forehead. Cookbooks are regaining the popularity they had in the days of Fanny Cradock. Supper clubs are popping up everywhere. ‘Foodie’ will now get you 30 points in scrabble if you get it on a triple word score as it is now in the dictionary and, what’s more, it’s a term that a large percentage of us identify with, particularly us Brighton and Hove-ers. I had thought that in a time of excess and abundance a society will naturally make more fine the finer things in life. So, art, fashion, food will be celebrated and indulged, such as Damian Hirst’s hideous diamond skull. However, recent events (which I will not mention as we are so very, very tired of hearing about it) have disproved this theory.

It was only when I reminded myself of my love for giving people birthday presents and gifts that I stumbled on what I think is the reason why we, well, at least why I, am obsessed with cooking. Making a meal for someone is to give them your time, your thought, your care and all to give them nourishment and the comfort of a full and satisfied belly. So, as you would give a gift to a friend on their birthday we get the same selfless feeling of giving when we make food for others. It is a simple yet poignant act (all the best ones are). That I can do this whilst also being creative and making stuff look pretty (something which is as essential to me as breathing!) is the ultimate experience for me. And its something we can all have a go at. Ya got tastebuds? Yes? Well, go ahead, have a go. You can do it on a shoestring or splash yer cash, so money isn’t a factor. And it makes me proud, we are finally shedding the reputation of a nation with poor cuisine, although I suspect this was a rumour started by the French but to be fair we did pale in comparison to our neighbours for, well, a couple of centuries.

So, I call my fellow Brighton and Hove-ers to arms, garlic presses and blow torches at the ready!

Aloka-ka!

You'd be forgiven for never hearing of Aloka, you'd also be forgiven if you had heard of Aloka and thought it was just a yoga studio. Residing almost opposite Terre a Terre on East Street, Aloka is by rights a wellness centre offering yoga classes and a range of alternative therapies but also selling crystals and organic skincare ranges. It's also a cafe, I've had lunch there before and it was a weigh your food buffet type affair offering healthy, vegan food - perfect for many of the health enthusiasts that reside in Brighton. So when I was invited down to try a new menu for their upstairs restaurant I wondered if there was anything Aloka didn't do. Upon hearing the food was all raw, I headed down with a few doubts and a back up of carby type nibbles in my bag.


The decor at Aloka is bright and airy (though slightly bordering on clinical) with various uplifting colours dotted around. The chef at Aloka is clearly very passionate about what he does and speaks of his food in a way an artist would talk about their prize work - except also knowing where every material came from and what benefits it can have. The menu itself looked impressive in type but it couldn't have prepared me for the food that was to come - I can honestly say parts of the menu were some of the best food I've had in Brighton and certainly the most attractive. The chefs use a lot of nuts in their creations, using dehydrators to convert into beautifully creamy sauces and 'pastries'. A huge standout for me was the beetroot gazpachio - melt in the mouth creaminess with a real tangy after kick.


Everything Aloka does has your mood and well-being in mind, right down to the glass coloured water sticks in the complimentary filtered water jugs that apparently enhance your mood in different ways depending on what colour you have. Most surprising was how reasonable the food is at Aloka, taking into consideration the precision and passion put into it. I couldn't help but feel the restaurant should be it's own entity - it seems far too good to be tucked upstairs at what seems at first to be a yoga and alternative therapies centre.


Check out their website for more information on the food and special offers, I wholeheartedly recommend a visit, I promise it will blow any preconceptions you may have about raw food out the water.


I came out feeling comfortably satisfied, no need for those stashed nibbles then.

Slowly Does It

Autumn is well and truly kicking in and as we consider turning our heating on and digging out our winter duvets, we're also looking for hearty, warming food. I know I am anyway!


You can pick a slow cooker up pretty cheap these days - I got mine on offer for a tenner. Having one changed everything for me - I stick a load of things into it before I go off and get my day done and come home to beautifully tender food and a delicious smelling flat.


My favourite thing to put in the slow cooker is lamb - try it with dates, chickpeas, stock (I use bouillon for ease), onions and some Moroccan spices (cumin and coriander maybe). Beef is also amazing in the slow cooker, especially with ale. Make sure you brown meat first though. Try also chilli, Bolognese or chicken with mushrooms.


If you've got any favourite recipes please share them with us!