Lemon Honey Chicken

While you wait on the edge of your seat for my review of To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (that you didn't even know you would be getting), here's a link to the Women in Science Fiction book club's discussion of Farthing (that you may remember from this post).  And also, this is what we had for dinner tonight:

Juice and zest of half a lemon

2 heaped t honey (or a good squeeze of liquid honey)

Pinch white pepper

1t dried thyme

1t rubbed rosemary

Pinch of turmeric

2 spring onions

1-2t unsalted butter

Put everything into a small pot on low heat to melt the honey and soften the spring onion.  Meanwhile, brown some chicken, then pour the warm sauce over the top, pop in the butter, and cover with a lid or a sheet of tin foil.

Serve on rice.

I've been told by my doctor that I have high blood pressure for my age, so I should cut out all salt until it's normal again.  This is bizarre to me as we don't add salt to our food or eat many obviously salty things.  We also steer away from processed food, instead making our own sauces (as you may notice from what I write about food on here).

However, apparently a good portion of your daily salt intake can come from bread, so I'm going to try making bread without salt tomorrow.  I've done a little research and it seems that the salt in bread is only for flavour, with one person saying that one would find that salt-free bread would taste like cardboard.  But apparently it is also a yeast inhibitor (unlike sugar, which is just as yummy to yeast as it is to us), meaning that a salt free bread may need less yeast.  Interesting right?

Other places one can find sneaky salt is in cereal (Mum looked in the supermarket today and couldn't find anything other than porridge that had no salt in it, but ew); dried fruit; tinned fruit, vegetables, and fish; and shop-bought baking.  As you can imagine, I've not had much other than fruit to eat today!  Wish me luck for the next week, I'm going to need it!

PS:  Sorry for the lack of photo, I'm only a wee while away from getting my camera.  I'd have it by now, but noone around here seems to know about the specials they publish in their mailers...  So be patient, I'll pop a photo in next time we make it!

Basic Dahl

While reading the feeds this morning, I came across this recipe for 'basic dahl' on SBS:

Heat the oil in a slow cooker over high heat.
Add the lentils, cumin, turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder, red chilli, onion, garlic and ginger, and cook, stirring, until the onion softens.
Add the coriander, stock and chopped vegetables, and cook over low heat for at least 1 hour (the longer the better).
Stir in the parsley just before serving.

 Yikes!  That's a lot more than a basic dahl, in my opinion.  Look at all of those spices!  This would be a delicious dahl, but I know an even simpler recipe (more a method) that was taught to me by a resident at my old hall of residence in Australia.  He is from Pakistan, so I deem this recipe to be authentic!

Soak lentils (red are good) for a few hours (this makes them cook faster) before rinsing and checking for chaff.

Heat a little oil in a saucepan, add a chopped onion and cook over a low heat until softened.  Add a cut tomato, seeds, skin and all.

Add the soaked rinsed lentils, enough water to cover it all, and some hot paprika (not smoked, not sweet).

Stir, and cook until lentils are tender.  Add more water if needed.

And that's it.  Five ingredients, including the cooking oil.  Now that's basic, and it's a really yummy introduction to the loveliness that is dahl.  Recently, I have moved on from this recipe to something a lot more like the SBS one, and tried different types of lentils, but that's only because I have started using paprika for Spanish and Moroccan food and like its flavour better in that context.  Let me know if you try it!

PS:  I know I promised a book review, but I'm still working on my gnome canvas (see here for the link).  We'll be back to regularly scheduled posting when he's done.  He's turned out to be high maintenance, all my own fault, and has acquired a stumpwork beard.  Yeah, who knew you could so that?

Cook Yourself Thin

I've been watching this show on and off this year.  The only reason for the 'off' is because of the stupid time and day it's on - not at prime time (like the repeats of the Simpsons and Fresh Prince and Friends... etc etc) and not during the week.  So I decided to go have a look at the website.  It has all sorts of yummy recipes, but more importantly, it has a lot of ideas for how to replace certain ingredients with other, healthier, calorie-reduced ingredients to make food that is yummier because you know it's better for you.  The first recipes I'm planning on trying are Red Velvet Cupcakes and Sweet and Sour Pork Chops.