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29Jun

Paleo coconut macaroons

There’s a lot of changes in my life. We are leaving the city for the countryside, hoping for better quality of life. Moving houses is like a full time job and it leaves you with very little time. This has had a huge impact on our diet and we have been searching for recipes that include all the ingredients we have leftover on our fridge and cupboards. I was tempted by the abundance of asparagus in the market, made some hollandaise to accompany it and this left me with 3 egg whites in the fridge. Then whilst packing I came across a packet of dessicated coconut.  Obviously I thought macaroons. They are so quick and easy to make, plus they are a great quick fix for sweet cravings. Also a great way to use up egg whites Oh, and did I mention it’s paleo?!?! No refined sugar in these babies! Paleo coconut macaroons 3 egg whites, room temperature 70g coconut sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice Zest of 1/2 lemon 175g dessicated  1. Preheat the oven to 150C. Prepare a baking tray limed with greaseproof paper. 2. Beat the whites to stiff peaks. It’s important to use a bowl that’s throughly
2 mins read
687 Views
06Jun

Easy roasted tomato sauce

I recently heard a radio interview with Diana Henry, an irish food writer (you can listen to the interview here). Catching her interview on my way to work was one of those happy coincidences, and I actually wished my work commute was longer so that I could have listened to it all. She talked very frankly about how her love of food started with good irish food and how that love flourished when she lived in London and Paris. She was very frank and humble about constantly learning about new foods and trends as a food writer and I identified with so many of her views. Especially when she talked about the fetishisation of certain food, a word that I will be using very often from now on. A trend she says she doesn’t understand. And neither do I. Example in point: avocado on toast. Two years ago no one was doing it, now everyone is.  So I stay away from avocado. I was never big on it and I would feel like a huge hypocrite if I started jumping on the bandwagon. Food, just like fashion, should be about knowing what suits you rather than throwing all the trends
3 mins read
785 Views
24May

Blueberry muffins with lime streusel

When people ask if I have a hobby I answer “baking”. Sounds like a cop out but I really don’t have the want to put my time into much else. My husband is a diver, which is a genuine hobby in my eyes, and one that requires you to have genuinely expensive equipment. Sure, the type of diving equipment you buy can make a life or death difference, but I have argued with his diver friends that baking trumps diving when it comes to cost. Obviously they rolled on the floor laughing after I said that, but until you become a serious baker, you’ll never understand how expensive it is to trial new recipes. Sure you can eat the products of your hobby, but all the testing I have done recently makes my freezer look like a cake morgue. In this muffin recipe I like to lightly poke the blueberries, I find this is a nice trick so that your blueberries don’t sick to the bottom. This recipe developed from a cherry cheesecake muffin that ended up exploding in my oven (currently in the freezer). Don’t you agree baking can beat many other hobbies in the money stakes? Blueberry muffin
3 mins read
818 Views
17May

Vegetable stock paste

Day by day my cooking is moving further away from processed food or products that are mass produced. It is not the easiest thing to cook with those principles, and I definitely can’t see myself being completely self-sufficient or live the rest of my days hunting and gathering. But testing recipes that remove a pre-packed ingredient gives me hours of entertainment. Especially when the results work out well. So that is how this vegetable stock paste recipe was born. We get through a lot of vegetable stock in my house, mainly as a soup base – a staple in our weekly menu – but also because I use a lot of coconut milk in my cooking (we follow the paleo diet) and vegetable stock helps me tie in the sweetness of coconut milk in savoury dishes. In the past I have tried to buy the least chemically modified stock I can find in the shops. I used to buy an organic brand, with no added flavours, but when cooking with it I always had these intrusive thoughts that the flavor in my food was coming from a powder. Not to mention all the added salt! So the research began, and
3 mins read
876 Views
06May

Applesauce banana loaf [Dairy Free]

I am sitting here trying to describe how I have been feeling in these last few days. Tired is the first adjective that comes to mind. At first I thought the word was so salient in my mind because of how the physical side of my job had left me sore in my legs and arms, with 5 am starts thrown in the mix too.  The first course of action for me to counteract this was to dive into a diet of spirulina smoothies and sugar free snacks. The food has given me an energy boost, but on my days off I can’t shake off the wanna-be-in-bed-all-day feeling, so I had to think a little harder about what else I was be doing wrong. Thinking being the key word here, I was in my head too much. I have an emotional job, where you make decisions about people’s lives, and that is something that can be highly rewarding at times, but on the other hands it makes me over analyse every decision I make. It leads to a very judgemental cycle in my head and by the time i get home I am in this deep emotional pit, no one can rescue
3 mins read
898 Views
21Apr

Cold brewed coffee

It was October when I first moved to England, and one of my earliest memories was the changing colours of the leaves…and the shocking amount of tea people drink here.  The stereotype is real, it is the land of tea, dare I say more than India itself. The etiquette around tea is also something the British don’t joke about, it is close to a crime here to get up to make yourself a cup of tea and not ask whether anyone else in the room wants one. I think this strong tea culture froze the progress of coffee. Literally, freeze dried coffee is what you’ll get if you ask for one.  It looks like they left that for the continent to deal with. Growing up in Brazil there were no other alternatives but to have coffee in the morning and a little shot in the afternoon to keep you awake in the heat. I only drank tea when I was ill, and to this day I cannot get on board with the drink. I felt I had little choice but to give in to instant coffee and I couldn’t stomach it. But beggars can’t be choosers and grew to accept
3 mins read
888 Views