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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Looking For Space John Denver

A hundred years ago, when I was young, this song reassured me that I wasn't the only lost soul in the world.

When I heard that John Denver had been killed in a plane crash I cried.
It is 14 years ago today, and I still cry.


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Braised Oxtail in Ginger and Mirin

1.5kg oxtail
1/2 cup fresh ginger - cut into matchstick lengths
1/2 gluten-free Tamari (or light soy sauce)
1/4 cup sake
1/4 cup mirin
1 cup gluten-free beef stock (I use the Massel brand)

Fry the oxtail in a little oil to brown.
Transfer the meat to a slow cooker.
Fry the ginger until fragrant.
Add the ginger to the slow cooker along with the soy, sake, mirin and stock.
Cook until the oxtail is meltingly tender - how long this takes will depend on if you use the High or Low setting on your slow cooker. Check it every now and then - you want there to be plenty of sauce, so you may need to add more stock.
 You can cook this dish very, very gently in a covered casserole - you will need to use about 3 cups of stock. Don't try to cook the oxtail quickly - they just get tough and that's not nice.

Miami Spice Chicken

Miami Spice Chicken

Chicken breasts
gluten-free flour - to dust
Oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp diced chilli
1/4 cup coconut cream
3 tbsp coriander - chopped
coriander leaves and orange zest - to serve

Lightly coat Chicken pieces in flour.
Heat oil in a heavy frying pan, add chicken pieces and saute until golden.
Add the orange juice and chilli and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook about 5 minutes, until almost cooked.
Pour coconut cream into the pan and add the chopped coriander, simmer about a minute.
Remove the chicken and boil the sauce for a minute until the sauce is reduced slightly.
Spoon sauce over the chicken
Sprinkle with extra coriander and grated orange zest.

Braised beef - Greek Style

Braised Beef - Greek Style

350g pickling onions or large shallots - peeled
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 kg beef  - cheeks or brisket - cut into 5cm pieces
20ml red wine vinegar
150ml red wine
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp finely grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp finely ground cloves
1/2 tsp finely ground cumin
1 bay leaf
3 cloves garlic - peeled and sliced
1 tbsp tomato paste
400g tinned tomatoes in their own juice - chopped
800ml water - to cover
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 130c
Put onions into a roasting tray with 1 tbsp oil and roast for 20 - 25 minutes until golden, but not cooked through.
Put a heavy-based casserole on a medium heat, add 1 tbsp oil and when hot, add beef - in batches and sear to brown all sides.
Add red wine vinegar and red wine to casserole and bring to the boil to burn the alcohol off.
Add cinnamon, cloves, nutmegs, cumin, bay leaf, garlic, tomato paste and tomatoes to casserole and stir to combine.
Add water, to just cover - sugar and salt and pepper.
Bring back to the boil, cover the mixture with baking paper, then put the lid on the casserole.
Put casserole into the pre-heated oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove from the oven, stir and add the part-cooke onions.
Return the casserole to the oven and cook a further 1 to 1 1/2 hours or till the meat is very tender.
Season to taste.
Serves 4

Thursday, June 2, 2011

First things first...

Blogger is not letting me make comments to anyone else who is on blogger. I'm grumpy about that. I don't want to lose touch with anyone and I know what a thrill it is when I get a comment, and I'm assuming it's the same for you?? And, I have OPINIONS - and no-one at home listens to me... so you are important! :-)
Sleeping Horse has offered to loan me her son (his techy expertise ladies! - control those grubby minds!) - he is to help me shift everything to Wordpress... cos I sure as heck can't do it myself - what do you think? - is it a good idea??

Diet up-date.... sigh

No weight loss ... no gain either, so I guess it's not all bad...
I still feel very much better overall - this is in spite of being glutened at dinner in Wellington over the weekend. I'm still not fully recovered from that, but if you discount the explosive gut issues (tmi? - lol) I feel great. No brain fog, no mid-afternoon fatigue, I'm sleeping really well... and the food is great!
I'm not going to lie - I do wish I had lost some weight and I guess it would be easy to say this isn't working, let's try something else... but I've done everything else, and that didn't work either. At least this way I don't feel deprived and cranky - and feeling good is not to be sneezed at!

And while we're talking about diet food - have you seen this?
Available at a supermarket near you! Inside are two little pottles of guacamole - avocado in perfect condition in your fridge any time you want it! - and it's gluten free too! Yay! (I use far too many exclamation points - if you could see me in person, you would know that I wave my hands when I talk... if you tied my hands behind my back I would be unable to speak )

Enough about me and my diet. Happy Birthday to Her Majesty and thank you ma'am for the holiday, which we will spend tidying the garden and cleaning leaves out of the guttering... and packing our bags for Rarotonga (www.royaletakitumu.com)