Salad, like jewels

Perfect for eating your colours on a hot evening or as a virtuous lunch. Goes well with steak, hard boiled eggs, or barbecued meats.

Ingredients

1 large raw beetroot, peeled and grated
1 cup finely shredded red cabbage
4 medium carrots, grated
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 T cider vinegar
1/2 tsp sambal oelek
Juice 1 1/2 limes
1/2 cup grated cheese
3 T extra virgin olive oil, or to taste
2 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Mix together the beetroot, cabbage, carrot, pepper, vinegar, sambal oelek, and lime.
2. Add the cheese and oils, mix again.
3. Stand for ten to thirty minutes at room temperature. Serve.

Makes about 6 servings, depending on what else is on the table. Will keep up to five days in fridge, but taste and texture are better within two days.

Return of the peanut butter downfall: 3 ingredient ten minute fudge

Concrete fudge.
Looks like concrete.
Pretty sure it doesn't taste like.
But must admit have no basis for comparison.

Following on from my earlier peanut butter downfall, here is the easiest cooked fudge I've seen for ages. This is much, much too good. Sorry.

This recipe is really almost a kind of halva rather than a traditional fudge. Substitute tahini for the peanut butter to make a very respectable version of the Middle Eastern candy.

If you share my fascination with grey and black food, try it with ground black sesame seeds to make Concrete Fudge.

Peanut butter fudge

2 cups brown sugar (or white, but the extra caramel notes are terrific)
1/2 cup milk
1 cup peanut butter

Boil milk and sugar together for 2 1/2 minutes. Quickly stir in peanut butter til smooth and pour into greased pan or baking sheet.

Halvaesque

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup tahini

Boil water and sugar together for 2 1/2 minutes. Quickly stir in tahini til smooth and pour into greased pan or baking sheet.

Optionally, stir in one or more of these after the tahini when it's nearly smooth:

• chopped pistachios
• lemon peel
• 1 tsp rosewater

Concrete Fudge

2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
Sesame.

For the sesame, use either but not both of these:

• 1 cup ground black sesame seeds* and 2 T sesame oil (preferably not toasted)
• 1/2 cup ground black sesame seeds and 1/2 cup tahini

Boil water and sugar together for 2 1/2 minutes. Quickly stir in sesame til smooth and pour into greased pan or baking sheet.

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*Looking for ground black sesame seeds? Try a Chinese grocery/supermarket in the drinks section near tea, hot soy drinks, etc.

Traveller's Uncereal

For those of us who can't or won't do oats and other grains at breakfast, here are a few recipes for things you can put in a jar, chuck in the suitcase or picnic basket, and mix with yoghurt, juice, or water to make a quick, high-protein breakfast.

Each recipe makes 1/2 cup, about 2 or 3 servings. Obviously these are suggestions and can be almost endlessly substituted. I usually do better with chia than LSA, and don't like much sweetening, some people can't have nuts or pieces of seeds or don't like coconut, and some will enjoy it with honey or their diet allows dried fruit ... You can ring the changes freely on this concept. Make it your way! Here are a few ideas to get started with.

Method 

Either layer the ingredients in a 1/2 cup jar, or mix in a bowl and transfer to a container. Store cool (ish) and dry (very). (Sometimes I'll add one of those little dessicant packets from some other food package if I know it's going to be hard to keep it dry - e.g. almost anywhere in NZ.)

Peanut coconut cheer

To serve, dig out a couple of tablespoons (if you've layered it, make sure you dig through all the layers!) Mix with yoghurt or a little water or juice or milk or whatever and let stand a few minutes. Optionally, add fresh fruit. Eat.

Peanut coconut cheer

• 3 T peanut powder
• 3 T dessicated coconut or coconut threads
• 4 T chia seed

Cinnamon or chocolate almond cheer

• 4 T LSA or ground almonds
• 2 T dry toasted almonds, chopped or slivered. Or sunflower seeds
• Cinnamon (pinch or two should do it) or cocoa powder (say 1/2tsp) to taste 
• Stevia powder to taste

Seedy morning

• 2 T chia seeds
• 2 T black sesame seeds (black looks better, if you have to, use unhulled white/brown)
• 1 T sunflower seeds
• 1 T coconut threads or flakes
• 1 T pumpkin seeds

Get the most juice from a lime

Limes are different from lemons, and if you cut them straight through the middle into quarters, they are hard to juice by hand, e.g. for a cocktail or a guacamole. (Pretty slices and segments are another story. This is just for juicing.)

This is how I do it. It's kind of like rough cutting an apple into pieces around the core. I'm not a huge fan of food porn step by step photos, but this is much easier to show than to tell, so I put 3 photos below.

Full credit for this should go to something I once read on the internet. If that was yours, then a) I bow down before you and b) please let me know so I can credit you. 

Cut a lime to get the most juice

What I'm calling the 'core' is the bit between the stem and the blossom end, runs vertically down through the fruit, and is full of connective tissue and fibre.

1. Cut a slice straight through the lime but to one side of the core. Put this slice aside and continue. 
2. Take the bigger 'half' and put it cut side up. Again, cut straight down to one side of the core. You have two pieces plus the one you already set aside.
3. Take the bigger of the two pieces and yet again cut straight down to one side of the core. 

You should have 4 pieces

• 1 flat slice (from step 1)
• 2 matching-but-opposite sort of wedges
• 1 thick segment with the core

Now juice away!

step 1 

step 2

step 3

Peanut butter downfall cookies/biscuits: 3 ingredients of doom

These are cookies in the US, biscuits in NZ ...

Take two fairly healthy ingredients and with the simple addition of the White Death, make an unholy trinity of ridiculous, iniquitous deliciousness. If you find an easier recipe, for goodness sake don't tell me, I have enough trouble with these.

I think I got this recipe from my sister, else from somewhere on teh interwebs.
Do use proper peanut butter - hydrogenated vegetable oil should not be listed anywhere on the ingredients.

Flatten with a fork ... or as The Teen did, with your fingers (?!)

Easiest Ever Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup sugar

1. Mix all together in a bowl
2. Drop by spoonfuls onto a lined or greased pan. (Optionally, flatten with a fork etc)
3. Bake at 350 F/ 180C until firm - this depends on how big and thick they are, say 8 - 18 minutes? 

Try hard to let them cool before you eat them. Try hard to leave some for others. Good luck with that.

Turkey and avocado soup

A recipe by me. Serves 3 or 4 for lunch. Really easy, especially if made with leftovers.
I made this as a travelling lunch -  home made stock boiled down to a concentrate and made up to volume with water, and the cubed turkey and guacamole kept carefully cold. This is a hot soup.

Soup

1 cup leftover cubed turkey (or chicken, I guess)
1 litre chicken stock (or turkey, I guess)
1 cup of rough guacamole

Bring the stock to the boil. Add the turkey and bring back to the boil. Add the guacamole and heat til piping hot. Serve at once.

Rough guacamole

2 -3 cloves garlic
spring onion
fresh chile to taste
1/2 cup coriander leaf (cilantro), chopped but not too fine
2 limes
2 avocados
1 t salt

Chop the garlic finely, the spring onion in very thin rings, the chile very finely. Put the coriander on top of these and squeeze over half a lime. Halve and peel the avocados and put on top of the rest. Sprinkle the salt over. With a fork, roughly mash all together until the big lumps are gone. Squeeze over the rest of the lime juice and mix again. Serve.

Two salads

Pahranagat lake NV

Oh hi again.

Two salads, to be eaten at a picnic table overlooking a lake or under pines. These will travel well and keep well but must be kept cold.

Red ranch salad

1 large beetroot (or thereabouts)
2 medium purple sweet potatoes

For the dressing
2T of ranch seasoning
about a cup of sour cream (proper sour cream. Aim for the shortest ingredient list.)

1. Cook beetroot and purple sweet potato until tender. (Boil or microwave or bake. Beetroot is good baked.)
2. While the veges cook, make the dressing by mixing the ingredients together
3. While still warm, peel veges and cut into pieces. Mix with the dressing. If needed, thin with milk or water. 
4. Chill. Stir a few times as the veges cool so their colour bleeds into the dressing, turning it a fabulous fuchsia shade.
5. Once cold, correct the seasoning - it will likely need a little salt. 

Ranch seasoning 

Mixed the following dried herbs and spices to taste - I use about half as much dill and twice as much chives as the rest. Stores well if it gets the chance. (cool, dry, airtight unless you're lucky enough to live in the desert)
dried chopped chives
chopped dill leaf
garlic powder
onion flakes
parsley flakes
(optional, I add it later) salt

Raw Kale and Parsley Salad

Yeah I know, it sounds so healthy. But it's so delicious. The lemon juice 'cooks' it a little.

handful of kale
1/4 as much parsley as kale
juice of at least one lemon
cooked white beans about 1/2 cup (I used these beautiful tepary beans)
quarter each of a red and a yellow pepper
olive oil (don't stint!)
salt to taste

The greens 

Remove the stems from the kale
Slice the kale leaves into thin strips width-wise (chiffonade style, about 1/4 inch thick)
Chop the parsley about the same size as the kale.
Mix them together
Squeeze the lemon juice over the greens and mix thoroughly to coat. Add a little salt and mix again. you want to really rub the lemon juice in.
leave to stand in a bowl or on a board at room temperature while you do the peppers

The peppers

Two ways, pick one:
Slice super thin like a chef, by splitting it with the knife held almost parallel to the chopping board, and cut into little wisps
OR
Slice about 1/4 inch thick and quickly sauté til limp.

The mix

Mix the beans, greens and peppers together. Dress with extra virgin olive oil and mix again. Cover and chill.