Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts

24.7.13

Vegetarian Curry |素菜咖哩

終於有機會嘗試煮咖哩,原因有幾:
1. 我喜歡用香料做菜 (除了中國莞茜)
2. 瓶子咖哩都很油膩,或者辣度不對味
3. 爸爸很喜歡咖哩,但因為高膽固醇所以要戒口,餐廳的傳統咖哩都是一片油浮在表面所以爸爸也怕了。
4. 前一天出糧,出了紅豆角,青豆角和秋葵(Okra),就想起久遺了、美妙的“鋸”哩!

我的糧水


咖哩的好朋友:
- 米 (細長的印度米,賣飛佛;中東小米;中國小米 ;中國絲苗米;珍珠米...另外我也推介耐嚼的南美產物QUINOA)
有一次無意中看到COUSCOUS翻譯作“古斯古斯麵”,我以為那是品牌的名字...

- 麵包,因為它像海綿般吸了很多咖哩汁,跟小時候用餐包飲湯同一道理。
(PITA BREAD,TORTILLA...一片片的夾袋連餡料亦能包著吃,很方便!)


- 餅乾/米餅 (RYE BISCUIT,GARDEN SASAME CRACKER,RICE CAKE...)

香港是文化種族大熔爐,有少數族裔聚居的地方都不難找到賣材料雜貨的商店。(讓我做一點點資料搜集再分享)昨天去了灣仔活道的印度小店買香料,價格便宜,老闆還把咖哩葉送了給我 TVT 如果想方便省事一點可以再citysuper買齊所有香料,它的香料櫃很齊全,連Black Cardamom也有! 價格比一般在壟斷超市賣的更便宜,大概HKD20就買到一瓶50g的。我的Turmeric粉也是在citysuper買。

我把BBC Food Matt Tebbutt食譜改了點點,
- 以Greek yogurt代替Crème fraîche
- 加了番茄和紫蘿蔔

材料:
2 湯匙    橄欖油
2 茶匙    黃芥菜籽 (我用了黑的)
茶匙    小茴香籽
1/2 茶匙 黃薑粉
2 隻        紅辣椒 切碎
2 隻        乾辣椒, 用水泡10-20分鐘至軟身,瀝乾,切碎
25片       咖哩葉
1 隻        大洋蔥 切粒 (CHUNK)
3 隻        番茄  切粒
2 條        紫蘿蔔  切片
8 條        秋葵  切粒
100g       酸奶 (Greek Yogurt)
220ml     蔬菜湯 (Vegetable Stock/ Chicken Stock)
鹽 和 黑胡椒




顧著拍下過程忘了收火降溫,Greek Yogurt的奶蛋白分離了...下次就談Greek Yogurt吧!

爸爸試味後認為咖哩味不夠而且有點辣,但是好吃的(爸的修養好...),於是我這偵探性格驅使我尋找原因好讓我下一次成功。原因就是我沒有加咖哩粉;咖哩粉含有十多種香料而我只用了5種,咖哩葉有味道但不夠濃,而且一風乾就沒有用了,因為氣味會隨著濕度溜走,保鮮的話要放進冰箱。下一次爸爸說要加入雞肉,祝我好運!

*開始炒FENNEL SEEDS和MUSTARD SEENS時要小心,它們會想爆米花一樣,而且不要大口吸氣,那氣體是催淚彈!

正在努力畫print-friendly的食譜,請耐心等候 :)


8.7.13

Bake-fast Breakfast : Banana Bread

My uncle has always loved banana bread, in fact he was the one who made me had my first bite of banana bread in my life. I was very little and was not into food at all and I looked like a malnutrition girl.

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I always go there to look for new recipes or do my "Apple Search". I have not been keeping a good record of my apple experiments but I will make it happen.

To make this banana bread, you only need around 20 minutes preparation time, including doing the measurements. I find the preparation time on a lot of recipe books, especially pastry books, is extremely misleading. I did the math in my head, and from my experience, you usually just double the "Preparation Time" and it will be more or less the same. Don't feel bad, and never think you are the slowest one or it "should not" take that long. It is normal ;-)

I adjust the recipe every time, intentionally and unintentionally.

Here I listed the ingredients in order so you do not mix the powder and liquid, and no need to clean everything before doing another measurement. I always measure powder first, followed by liquid.

You can see that for some items I follow the US unit and the others I use Metric, because powder is easier to be measured with spoons and cups; for butter and solid ingredients (e.g. chocolate blocks!), just get a bowl and weigh them, super quick.

Banana Bread

Preheat the oven to 150 degree Celsius when you start mixing the powder mix in step 3.

Take a (table)spoonful of brown sugar and a (tea)spoonful of cinnamon and/or mixed spices into a small bowl, mix them.

Grease four 7 x 3 inch loaf pans; dust lightly with cinnamon sugar.
*Note: I always pour some hot water into the loaf pan before I grease it, a) to heat up the pan, b) clean it. When you put the piece of cold butter on it it will melt immediately, how cool!

Ingredients:

1-1/2 Tspn Baking Soda
1/4    Tspn Salt
2-1/4 Cups All-purpose Flour / Plain Flour

1-1/2 Eggs
3 Ripe bananas, mashed (I tried both very ripe bananas and just ripe ones, the former one makes the batter slightly stickier but does not affect the taste.)
One bucket of DairyFarm Sour Cream (The amount was JUST RIGHT!)
1 Tspn Vanilla Extract
1-2 Tspn Cinnamon and/or 1-2 Tspn Mixed Spices (I use way more than I said here just because I like the taste of the spices.)

60g Walnuts (If you want you can chop them into smaller pieces but I prefer big blocks, because you are going to cut the bread into pieces anyways so why bother? :P)
*Nuts play an important role in baking energy cakes/bread, excellent source of protein. Read more from my previous post*

1-1/2 Cups Brown Sugar
85g   Butter / Shortening

How to do it:
1. Mix the powder together and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until the texture becomes fluffy. By that time you should not see any yellowish butter standing out.
3. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon and/or mixed spices.
*TIME TO PREHEAT THE OVEN*
4. Mix in 1.; stir in nuts. Pour the batter into greased pans and put them into the oven.
5. Bake for around 45 minutes, check it regularly after baking for 30 minutes. Because every oven is slightly different when it comes to releasing heat and regulating the circulation, you have to monitor on your own. When you see a cracked surface and starting to turn golden brown, it is time to take it out.

I used 3 different baking containers - Ceramic baking plate, bread loaf pan and silicon cupcake molds

The crack on the surface of bread/cake is a sign of success, not for all the cakes but for this bread.

Cooling on the steam rack

The cinnamon sugar gives a semi-glossy surface

Banana Flower Bombs!!

Super easy and perfect for breakfast, do not eat it every day because it has quite a lot of sugar in it, but it is indeed a perfect start for a day or a little treat in the afternoon as an energy boost working in the office. Enjoy!

24.4.13

Oh little brains..

Snack of the day - WALNUTS!
Great source of: Omega 3s, Fiber, Protein, Antioxidants, Magnesium & Phosphorus.
Energy: 185 calories in 1 oz. (Oh don't mind that, I bet you cannot JUST eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner right?)

A Little Twist:
Just toss them on a baking plate and place it inside a small oven for 5 minutes and enhance the taste.
If you have a sweet tooth, put some honey on; if you like it salty just sprinkle a little on top :)

I always find Chinese culture very very interesting and I love it, not all but I still respect the country's culture. In the eating culture, we have a saying that "any living thing with its back facing the sky is edible", it's like an all-you-can-eat statement. I was joking with my sister when we were younger, what about the old people with a crooked spine or those with a hunchback? Are the Chinese going to eat them? Oh dear...anyways, another interesting fact is that we believe food that looks similar to body parts, or eating the same body parts can improve or is good for the particular body part's condition. For example, if your tendons/legs are not doing well, you have to eat the ox's tendons or chicken feet, etc; my friend's grandma makes pig brain's soup for my friend whenever she needs to take her exam; we eat ox's heart or pig lungs for our hearts and of course, our lungs...but I have never heard of eating the intestine is indeed good for your intestines, I guess it is just a popular stinky snack!

Walnuts were not originated from China. Some believe these little brains were originated from the area around Germany where they call them wallnuss/welche nuss, some argue that they are from Anglo-Saxon word wealh hnutu meaning foreign or alien nuts.

This is how the fruits look like. Its fun to find out how the fruits of nuts look like and I couldn't help but wonder if they taste good or even better!

Source: http://forestry.sfasu.edu/faculty/jstovall/dendro//images/tree_photos/juglnigr/juglnigr_fruit1.jpg
There are unlimited things you can do with this nut, it can easily be found in any supermarket/market. It goes well with a lot of dishes and as snack itself! I will include them in the recipe after the next one.