basics

Instant Pot whole butternut squash

Posted by annauk1 on January 29, 2023

Posted in: basics, Family recipes, First attempts, Instant Pot Recipes. Tagged: easy, instant pot, squash. Leave a comment

I’m so impressed with this idea to cook a whole butternut squash in the instant pot.

If you’re like me, it feels like such a palaver hacking away at that tough skin.

How much easier to place the unpeeled squash, whole, into the bottom of the pot, with a little water and cook until tender.

Today I was after a purée, but I can see how easy it would also be to cook for less time and get slices or cubes of perfectly cooked tender squash.

The recipe was from this blog:

https://sandhyahariharan.co.uk/how-to-cook-butternut-squash/

Thank you for what I’m sure will be my go to way for cooking butternut squash from now on.

Fasolia (Beans) Isia-Isia

Posted by annauk1 on November 16, 2019

Posted in: basics, Cypriot recipes, Family recipes, Fasting recipes (Nistisima), healthy recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Pulses, Vegan, Vegetarian. 4 Comments

Yesterday began the Orthodox Nativity Fast for Christmas. It lasts for 40 days and between now and then we will be ‘vegan plus fish’. Apart from Wednesdays and Fridays when we will be ‘vegan plus seafood’ (prawns, scallops etc)

During the run up to Christmas it becomes stricter and we drop fish completely too and oil on Christmas Eve.

Faith aside, it’s beneficial I feel to eat more plant-based meals, so my thinking cap is constantly on for ‘what shall we eat today’.

And here it is:

Fasolia Isia-isia (which loosely translated means beans straight-straight or even more loosely translated- neck and neck!)

This is because any vegetables are added to the pan to boil with the beans as opposed to being sautéed beforehand like Fasolia Yiahni. Isia-Isia.

I guess now is the time to admit that I don’t eat this dish. I can be a bit funny with beans and pulses, not loving them, but trying to get through a bowlful because I know they’re good for me.

My husband however, loves them and they really couldn’t be easier to make.

I start by soaking 250g dried cannelini beans in water overnight.

If you are using an Instant Pot, put them in, having drained them, cover them with 3 cups of fresh water and set the IP to pressure cook for 10 minutes. Once time is up allow to pressure release naturally.

Roughly chop a couple of carrots and 3 stalks of celery into small bite-size pieces and add to the pot.

Set for a further 5 minutes.

Once you have allowed another natural pressure release, you should have perfectly cooked beans and veggies.

If you don’t have an instant pot, boil the beans until almost tender but not quite. Add the chopped veg and keep simmering until the carrots, celery and beans are cooked.

Drain and serve with freshly chopped parsley, tomatoes and raw onions and lots of olive oil.

Oh and pickled green chillies the absolute best! And maybe some tuna with chopped onion mixed in with it. Absolutely delicious ❤️

Let me know if you try this recipe 😀
Oh and apologies for the phone shadow on the pic, in my defence, I didn’t take it! 😂😂

Steel Cut Oat Vanilla Porridge

Posted by annauk1 on May 7, 2014

Posted in: basics, Breakfast, healthy recipes, Oats, Whole-grain Mornings. Tagged: oats, wholegrain. 5 Comments

It’s official. I have fallen off the low-carb wagon and not even a week in 😦
I went through two days of miserable ‘induction flu’, feeling light-headed, achy bones and decidedly annoyed with myself that I’d allowed myself to get to a stage where I needed a fast fix and then when it’s going ok, and I’m used to the carb restriction and feel more human, I want porridge!!

Why is it so hard to gain control when I have only put 3-5lbs on?! Why do those few pounds need to be a stone’s worth before I actually get off my ever-plumping fat ass and do something about it?
It’s so difficult isn’t it, deciding what constitutes ‘healthy’ and what does not.
I know for a fact it’s not low-fat.
But I also know that I’m just incapable of sticking to low-carb for a sustained length of time…..

I can see, of course, that a diet consisting of refined flour and sugar is not the way forward and simply moves you further away from your healthy goal. But then, what is life without cake?
Sad, I’d say, heartbreakingly sad.

‘All things in moderation’ seems to be my ‘moving forward’ motto.
Have your cake and eat it, occasionally.
And your butter and full fat yoghurt too.

Life is too short to live it in denial.
It makes me cranky and hideous to live with. 😉

And now we get to the matter of grains…..
wholegrains, while some would say ‘fatten us up’ and contribute to ‘wheat bellies’ also contain valuable minerals, fibre and in the case of oats, beta glucan, which helps to lower cholesterol levels.

All things in moderation remember.

So, I had a brand new packet of steel cut oats to try! And try I must!
Those who know me, also know that I’m getting very adventurous with my oat-eating. A previous porridge hater, Megan Gordon’s ‘Very Best Oatmeal’ literally changed my life and made me LOVE porridge.
You must try it if you haven’t yet. Toasting the oatmeal is the trick, it’s just beautiful.

After seeing a recipe for steel-cut oats in Megan’s book – Wholegrain Mornings, I began the search. Do you think I could get it anywhere? Could I heck as like. I went to supermarkets, health food stores, nowhere to be found.
What could I do but order from Amazon.
I love Amazon!

Steel cut oats are oat groats which have not been processed in any way, but simply ‘chopped’ into little pieces.
Rolled oats are oat groats which have been flattened too.

I came up with this recipe by combining Megan’s recipe, with the recipe on the back of the oat packet.

Steel Cut Oat Vanilla Porridge
Serves 3-4.

1 tbsp butter
1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups boiling water
1 cup warm milk (whatever type you like- I used semi-skimmed)
1 tsp vanilla sugar
Pinch of salt
Honey, maple syrup or other sweetener of choice.

1. Melt the butter in a pot, add the oats and toast over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. The oats will become beautifully fragrant and golden brown.

2. Add the boiling water, warm milk, salt and vanilla sugar to the toasted oats, turn heat to low, partially cover pan with a lid and cook, stirring often but not constantly, for 25 minutes.
Stirring too vigorously will cause the oats to break down more and become gluey.

3. Turn off the heat and leave for 5-10 minutes, during this time they will continue to thicken up.

4. Serve with a big blob of the best honey in the whole wide world (if you like!)

The world just seems put to rights after a bowl of this. Toothsome, chewy, delicious….
Low-carb? What low-carb? 😉

The Very Best Oatmeal Recipe Ever.

Posted by annauk1 on February 15, 2014

Posted in: basics, Breakfast, easy, Oats, Whole-grain Mornings. Tagged: oatmeal, oats. 17 Comments

Huge claim?
It’s so true I can’t begin to tell you….well, on second thoughts, perhaps I can try.

These are the things this recipe IS NOT:

Gloopy
Gluey
Lumpy
Tasteless
Like wallpaper paste.

These are the things this recipe IS:

Toasty
Nutty
Toothsome
Divine
Delicious.

It has actually changed my mind completely about porridge. In fact, it can hardly be called that because the oats keep their toasted, fragrant shape. They don’t become an homogenous, lumpy mess. Not at all.
As the author says ‘They resemble a pot of nicely steamed grains more than they do an actual porridge’.

And, major bonus points, it takes hardly any time at all to prepare and the leftovers can be stored for up to five days in the fridge.
A whole work week of breakfasts.

This ground-breaking, life altering (it’s true!) recipe, comes from this wonderful book:

Whole-Grain Mornings by Megan Gordon

Which Sarah in Australia was rejoicing about.

Sarah, if you read this, the price of the book was worth it, many times over for this recipe alone! 🙂

Ok, so the oats have been toasted in butter, doused in cream and topped with brown sugar….I know, I know….but all natural, beautiful ingredients in moderation.
I’m sure you could leave the cream and sugar off, but do you really want to? 😉

And Hell! They sure start the day off on the right foot! 😉

The Very Best Oatmeal
Adapted from ‘Whole-Grain Mornings’ by Megan Gordon.
Serves 3.

1tbsp unsalted butter (I only keep salted at home, so I used that)
1 cup (100g) rolled oats
1/4 cup (60ml) milk
3/4 cup & 1tbsp (195ml) water
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Double (heavy) cream for serving
Brown sugar for serving.

This is the way I did it:
1. Toast the oats until golden and nuttily fragrant for 5-7 minutes in the butter, over a medium heat (Mine took the full 7 minutes in my new ceramic pan, remind me to show it to you another time :))

2. Heat the milk and water together, until they boil, add to the toasted oats along with the salt and cinnamon.

3. Gently stir, ONLY ONCE OR TWICE so the oats are incorporated into the liquid. This is really important so that they don’t start becoming gooey and gloopy.

4. Cover the pot and turn OFF the heat!
Allow to sit on the burner for 7 minutes. Don’t peep and don’t stir. 😉

*important note: I have an electric hob which holds heat for a long time. I don’t know what kind of hob the author has, so I was kind of nervous to leave it on the hob in case it burnt! So I kept taking it off the burner, putting it back and so forth. I think next time I’ll be brave and leave it on the burner!*

After 7 minutes uncover and check. If the oats are a little wet let them stand another couple of minutes.

Mine were perfect. Really, really perfect.

Serve with cream and brown sugar, or your favourite toppings.

Do get this book, if like me, you’d like to increase your intake of whole grains at breakfast time, but run out of ideas. It’s really fab, so many great recipes! You need it.

Marks out of ten? A big, fat 10!

Would I make it again? I can’t imagine my life without it!

Would I do anything differently? No!

Basics: Foolproof Rice

Posted by annauk1 on February 12, 2014

Posted in: basics, easy, rice. Leave a comment

If the reason for me having this food blog is to enable my sons and daughters and their sons and daughters to have a family collection of recipes to refer back to, then we really must have a basic recipe for cooking rice well.

I know it’s not glamorous, or fun, but there really is an art to cooking rice well. I mean, who likes gluey, gummy, gloopy rice? It’s all about individual grains, perfectly cooked.

And while we’re talking rice, my children, just one word for you to remember.

Basmati. My favourite rice.

Basmati is a beautifully fragrant long grain rice, primarily from South Asia. Luckily we can get it almost anywhere. 😉

I’ve recently taken to cooking rice in the microwave, experimenting each time with the amount of water needed. I now know that the perfect ratio for my 850 watt microwave, is 1 cup of rice, to 1 1/4 cups of water.

Therefore if you are cooking rice for 4, you will need 2 cups of rice and 2 1/2 cups of water. I know this doesn’t sound like enough water, but for some reason, the water doesn’t evaporate as much as if you are cooking rice on the hob.

So, wash the rice well! I’m saying this because I remember Yiayia saying that Basmati rice should be washed 7 times.
Yes, seven times.
Don’t worry too much though, you know me, I have lazy days and I’m assuming you will too.
Just place the rice in a large sieve if you prefer, place it under running water and keep swishing the rice about with your fingers until the water runs clear.

Place the rice in a large bowl, add the water and a pinch of salt and cover with a plate.
Cook on full power for 12 minutes.
When the 12 minutes are up, don’t move the rice, don’t peep, or open the microwave door. Just leave it alone for at least the next 10 minutes.
This is what produces the perfect rice, time to rest. Trust me. 😉

And there you go, you should now have perfectly cooked rice.

Of course, you may not want to cook rice in the microwave, or even own a microwave, so here is my adapted version of the way Indian cooking legend Madhur Jaffrey cooks her rice:

Plain Basmati Rice (serves 6)

Basmati rice measured to the 15fl oz (425ml) level in a measuring jug
1pint (570ml) water
3/4 tsp salt
10g butter.

Put the rice in a bowl and wash well.
Pour 2 pints fresh water over the rice and let it soak for half an hour.
Drain thoroughly.
Combine the rice, salt and water in a heavy bottomed pan, bring to a boil, cover with the lid, turn heat to very, very low and cook for 20 minutes.
Lift the lid, quickly mix lightly with a fork, cover again and cook for a further 5-10 minutes until tender.
Take off the heat and leave undisturbed for 10 minutes.

Again, you should now have perfectly cooked rice.

Oh, by the way, sons and daughters of mine – avgolemoni soup is better made with plain long grain rice. Not Basmati. This is the only exception. Trust me.

Basics: Foolproof Yorkshire Puddings

Posted by annauk1 on February 11, 2014

Posted in: basics, easy, Family recipes. Tagged: bake, puddings, roast. 12 Comments

One of those recipes that you just ‘do’.
Unless you don’t and then you need a recipe.

Here it is:

Foolproof Yorkshire Puddings
Makes about 8-10 individual Yorkies.

Preheat oven to 220 deg. C (fan oven)

1 cup of eggs (usually 4 or so)
1 cup of milk
1 cup of plain flour.
Pinch of salt.

Whisk the eggs, milk and salt together. Slowly add the flour, continuing to whisk.
Leave the batter to rest for 30 minutes or so, just to let the ingredients relax and get to know each other 😉
Pour a few teaspoons or so of oil in the bottom of each muffin tin, so that the bottom of each tin is covered, place in the oven for 5-10 minutes until the oil is smoking hot.

*smoking hot it must be! Otherwise you won’t get an impressive rise!*

Fill each tin half full (you will find this easier to do if you use a jug filled with the batter)
Cook for 15-20 minutes, until beautifully risen and dark golden brown.

*Do Not open the oven door or they will deflate. Not the look we are after!*

Enjoy with your roast dinner. Or fill with ice cream and golden syrup a’la Nigella 😉

(note: this photo was taken when I made the Yorkshire Puds in a tray (Nigella’s recipe though) as opposed to individual ones, I’m just using it as an example of the ice-cream and golden syrup trick)

N.B; I just made these again and didn’t let the batter rest. No discernible difference. The choice is yours my friends.

Ps the top photograph, while they are made from this recipe, are older photographs which I have saved in my favourites. The photographs I took last night just didn’t cut it. No good light in the Winter after 4 I’m afraid.