Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #4
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #5
Going wheat-free is counter-intuitive for me - I bake wheat-based bread most days and it's a rare day indeed when I don't consume something made from wheat so today has been a departure from the norm - no bad thing perhaps.
Today's wheat-free menu plan was as follows:
Breakfast
tea with unsweetened soya milk
apple juice
porridge made with oats, milk and water and drizzled with maple syrup
homemade Greek-style yoghurt
half a mango and a clementine
black tea
Christopher's macaroons - my brother-in-law's recipe which I pass on below.
cottage pie made with minced beef, onions, carrots, celery, tinned chopped tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, homemade vegetable stock* and topped with mashed potato dotted with butter
Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #6
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #7
And then I remembered something. During WW2 when the UK's tea supply was under threat from the U-boat attacks on shipping convoys, Winston Churchill was so concerned about the threat to the national beverage that was (and still is) so universally depended upon in this country, that, in addition to buying up all the global tea supply he could, he commissioned plans to be drawn up for establishing tea plantations in Britain and it turns out that certain areas of the UK have a climate that is not dissimilar to that of Darjeeling where so much tea is grown. These plans were only shelved because the tea bush, Camellia sinensis, takes a good six years to reach harvestable maturity.
Half a century down the line however, the baton was picked up by some enterprising horticulturalists and down in Tregothnan, in south-west Cornwall, I discover, a viable and thriving tea plantation exists today. Hallelujah! Having discovered this life-saving fact, I hastened to visit their website. Much of the tea they produce for sale is mixed with imported Indian tea to make a balanced and affordable, if still expensive, blend. My heart sank again - a blend of homegrown and imported tea was no good to me for this project. And then scrolling a bit further down, I spied the Holy Grail - a small, elegant tin of single estate, pure English tea! Eye-wateringly expensive but pure, home-produced, unimported English tea! Reader, I bought some!
Moving on, but equipped with salt and my all-important tea, today's meals looked like this:
Breakfastblack Tregothnan tea
Lunch
black Tregothnan tea
Supper
Yes, that speckling you can see in the pic is black pepper - I added it on auto-pilot without thinking! By the time I realised what I'd done, the pie was in the oven! |
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #8
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #9
Today's Challenge: Fast from... oils and fats.
Quite a tough ask, this one. I don't generally eat a lot of high-fat foods or use a lot of fat in my cooking (though I do use quite a bit in my baking) but not to eat, or use, any at all is a bit more challenging. I haven't been able to eliminate absolutely all fat today - there's a little in the milk in my breakfast porridge, in the sourdough crackers, the aubergine and walnut butter and in my homemade yoghurt but I've done my best within reason.
Today's menu plan:
Breakfastblack tea
citrus fruit salad
eating up low-fat leftovers - sourdough crackers, aubergine and walnut butter, fruit, yoghurt
Tea
black tea
Supper
fat-free tomato and sweet potato soup* as per Day #4.
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #10
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #11
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #12
Advent 2022- Fast Tracking #13
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #14
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #15
This Goan-style prawn curry is something I make a lot. It's based on a spice mix of toasted cumin and coriander seeds blitzed with some black peppercorns in a spice grinder, mixed with some ground turmeric and hot and sweet paprikas. The spice mix is added to a pan of chopped onions, plenty of grated fresh ginger and some chopped assorted fresh red chillies cooking in a little olive oil. I add some salt, a tin (or sometimes two) of coconut milk and a little water and let the whole mixture bubble away for some time on the hob until thick. I tend to use defrosted, frozen, raw prawns which I add at the last minute and cook just until they have turned opaque and pink. A squeeze of fresh lime juice is nice at the end and some fresh parsley on the top. Today's curry was quite hot. I always tend to have a heavy hand with fresh ginger - I love the stuff! and I slightly lost count of the number of Scotch bonnet chillies I'd added! But it was perfect for the end of a freezing cold December day.
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #16
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #17
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #18
Advent 2022- Fast Tracking #19
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #20
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #21
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #22
tea with unsweetened soya milk
Lunch
cheese, date and apple chutney, sourdough crackers, fruit
Tea
black tea
Supper
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #23
I usually cook the vegetables for tomato sauce in olive oil first before adding tinned Italian chopped tomatoes and a bit of water before cooking in the pressure cooker for 12 minutes. The sauce sometimes needs reducing, once the pressure has dropped and I then just blitz it with a stick blender for a smoothish pasta or pizza sauce. For this, olive oil was out so I cooked the vegetables first in some British salted butter.
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #24
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #25
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #26
Advent 2022 - Fast Tracking #27