definatalie.com » cooking

Tonight on Disaster Chef… [insert flame visual]

Natalie — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:28:35 +0000

I have been craving roasted cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinegar reduction for the last week and tonight was the first night in a long time that I’ve had enough energy to cook. So I decided to righteously address my craving and because it was such a momentous occasion I took photos. Seriously, when you find five spoons down the back of the couch of your well-being even small things you can do for yourself are worth documenting! As well as the fatigue and pain I’ve been experiencing in the past few months, my coordination has been quite shocking and amongst various mishaps I’ve smashed two full bottles and dropped 2kg of sugar in the floor in the noble pursuit of feeding myself and others. I like to call myself Disaster Chef.

We get a vegetable box delivered every two weeks from Home Fresh Organics and this week it was full of beetroot. pumpkin and garlic, as well as a punnet of delicious cherry tomatoes! I decided to roast all the vegetables as well as the tomatoes and pair them with couscous and my longtime lover, a balsamic vinegar reduction. I could just drizzle it on anything and lick it off. (Except maybe not Nick’s sneakers.)

A photo of my hand splotched with beetroot juice.

Beetroot is one of my favourite vegetables because it’s just so FUN. I love getting beetroot stained fingers.

A photo of half roasted pumpkin and beetroot pieces in a baking tray with fresh cherry tomatoes and garlic added ready for roasting.

I roasted the beetroot and pumpkin pieces for 20 minutes at 200˚C then threw in the cherry tomatoes and garlic for the last 15 minutes.

A photo of a saucepan on the stove (inside is balsamic vinegar).

I sat down while the vegies were roasting (cutting up pumpkin is exhausting for me!) and Nick took care of the couscous and balsamic vinegar reduction. Thanks Nick <3

A photo of the roasted stuff just out of the oven.

YUM YUM ROASTED EVERYTHING!

A photo of dinner: roast beetroot, pumpkin, garlic and cherry tomatoes on couscous served with balsamic vinegar reduction and many basil leaves.

I hardly think this is a Masterchef quality dish, but it’s good enough for dinner. I always laugh when serving up food now that “plopping food on a dish” has been replaced with “plating up”.

Disclaimer: I am not a photographer or a chef, just a sick person who is very proud of herself for helping make dinner.

And it was fricking amazing.

Thanks Nigella, food is pretty awesome!

Natalie — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:33:34 +0000

When you talk about hard issues, like body image and being fat and feminism, it’s nice to have a refuge. Somewhere to recoop lost Sanity Points. A little place where you don’t have to justify why you have the right to take up space, or field the same old tired questions. Nigella Lawson is one of my happy people who makes a happy place where I can revel in foodie delights and appreciate good food without the guilt that usually accompanies cooking shows.

As a Type 1 Diabetic, I can tell you a few things about food guilt. A serve of carbohydrate ought to be as big as one’s balled up fist, low hypoglycemic foods better serve one’s blood sugars and fizzy, sugary drinks are to be avoided. One should eat small meals every couple of hours and manage one’s blood sugar levels by finger prick tests and the administration of insulin, by another needle. One must also be prepared to be asked, “Should you be eating that?” when one is eating regular meals, and especially when one is suffering a hypoclycemic attack (when one needs carbohydrates to recover!) When T1D guilts start playing with the food guilt at large in the world, one’s brain gets quite muddled. For a long time I saw food as fuel only, and didn’t cook much because the whole concept of “food” overwhelmed me.

I’ve only really started cooking in the last couple of years, and it’s been because of my involvement in the fat acceptance movement. A lot of people might nod and think, “Ah yes, because Teh Obese People want to raise the green flag on food! They just want to eat without sanction!” however it’s a little more complex than that. And a little less scare-mongering too. I wasn’t surprised to read that poorer people were more likely to be obese, because genetics aside, it’s HARD to nourish yourself when you’re time and/or cash poor and especially if you’re confused as to what is actually nourishing. And when brands like Biggest Loser (the Australian TV series) and Domino’s join up, it’s a thoroughly brain melting combination.

Not being in charge of my meals really destroyed any kind of confidence I had in nourishing myself. I ate what other people suggested, and didn’t listen to what my body wanted. This year I figured out, after having my consciousness raised by the concept of intuitive eating, that my body doesn’t digest meat in an especially comfortable way, so I became vegetarian. In the last few months the bloating and bowel pain I’d suffered most of my life largely disappeared, and only reappeared when I ate a small portion of meat (yes, to test myself – very scientific!)

As a result of my brand spanking new vegetarian requirement, I started cooking a hell of a lot more, and discovered that I LOVED it. All of a sudden you could find me mixing my own spices, creating new dishes and making noodles from scratch. It’s honestly been like a series of revelations for me – I feel a slowly growing sense of confidence as I become more connected to myself and so much more nourished. I mustn’t avoid the topic of digestion here because it’s been so core to my altered outlook on food, and sorry if you’re sensitive to such matters, but since removing a food group that was causing me such distress (while supplementing my iron and protein of course!) I’ve found I’m poopin’ more regularly with no pain! Yep, I went there – but I’m all for normalising completely NORMAL body functions, naturally.

So, back to Nigella Lawson who I last saw devouring a cupcake dipped in raspberry sauce in the chiaroscuro light of a refrigerator. Thank you for serving your foodie talk with dollops of care and compassion while never failing to address the psychological aspects of eating. I find Nigella’s attitude refreshing, and much more ideal than the confused mess and mayhem of ideas towards food in the real world. Food really isn’t an enemy when I watch her show.

Super tangy lemon pudding

Natalie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:18:23 +0000

I was craving something with a citrus tang last night so I cobbled together a recipe for a microwavable lemon self-saucing pudding.

Ingredients
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 small lemons, rind finely grated (you can substitute any citrus on hand, really)
60g butter, melted, at room temperature (I used olive oil spread)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 egg (replace with apple sauce to veganise)

Sauce
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (again, substitute this for any citrus on hand)
1/2 cup boiling water

Instructions
You’ll need a microwave-safe bowl with at least a 6 cup capacity. I use the big bowl from my Tupperware red stack cooker set.

Combine flour, sugar and rind in the bowl. Whisk together butter, juice and egg in another small bowl then stir into the flour mixture until well combined. Flatten the surface with the back of a spoon.

To make the sauce place sugar, juice and boiling water into a microwave-safe jug and stir to dissolve the sugar. If the sugar hasn’t dissolved, put jug in microwave for short bursts and stir until sugar dissolves. Pour sauce over the back of a large spoon to evenly cover pudding.

Put pudding in the microwave and cook, uncovered, on 50% power for 8 to 9 minutes or until a skewer inserted around edges comes out clean but centre is still a little sticky. Cover tightly with foil. Stand for 5 minutes or until centre is no longer sticky.

Serve with ice-cream, yoghurt or eat it plain and enjoy the tarty bitterness!

(You’ll notice that the bowl I served it in is also Tupperware, I am such a Tupper-tragic!)

Sweet potato and lentil patties

Natalie — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:50:18 +0000

Today I was in the mood for a bit of a burger but lately I’ve gone off animal meat, so I put the feelers out on the lazyweb (i.e: Twitter!) for a vege patty recipe. Viv supplied me with this sweet potato (or kumara) and lentil patty recipe, and it was so incredible that I have to share it with everyone!

Sweet potato and lentil patties with sour cream dressing

Ingredients
Patties:
800g sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
2 tablespoons oil plus extra to fry
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped.
2 cloves garlic, crushed.
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
400g can brown lentils, rinsed.
1/4 cup plain flower
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups packet dried breadcrumbs

Dressing:
250g low fat sour cream
1 clove garlic (crushed)
2 tablespoons chopped coriander.

Method
Preheat oven to 200/180 (FF) place sweet potato on large baking tray and drizzle with one tablespoon oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes or until golden.

Meanwhile, heat one tablespoon oil in a large frying pan over moderately high heat. Add onion cook and stir for 5 minutes until soft. Add garlic and cinnamon; cook and stir for 2 minutes until fragrant.

Transfer mixture into a heat proof bowl. Add lentils and sweet potato. Mash coarsely and season with salt and pepper. Cool. Shape into 8 patties. Place on large plate, cover with cling wrap and cool for 30 minutes in fridge.

Place flour on a plate. Coat patties in flour, shake off excess. Dip in egg then coat evenly in breadcrumbs.

Pour extra oil in frying pan 3cm deep. Heat over moderate heat (oil is ready when a cube of bread crisps without absorbing oil) Shallow fry in batches for 2-3 minutes each side or until golden brown, serve with dressing (combine ingredients in small bowl).

Notes
I used a pinch of cayenne pepper when mashing the lentils and sweet potato because I am in love with it, and only used a third of the amount of oil when frying the patties. I’m not a fan of fresh coriander, but I had some seeds so I put them in my Flavour Shaker and shook until they were pulverised! I served the patties on fresh bread rolls with some lettuce leaves, tomato and the sour cream dressing – and my burger craving was well satiated!

Enjoy!

Totes houseproud

Natalie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:02:13 +0000

The weekend means mystery flowers from the market! The sign in the bucket said “Lizzies $5 or 3 for $10″, so I bought three for a very plump looking arrangement. I did a bit of a google for Lizzy/ Lizzie flowers but the image search results turned up some flowers that didn’t look like these at all. Apparently Lizzies are part of the Impatiens family, and there are quite a variety of flower heads within the genus so they could well be Lizzies… who knows?! Do you?

Here’s a closer shot so you can have a look at the buds and flowers.

The other week I was introduced to the wonder of kumatoes: small and round tomatos with a brown or striped skin. They taste crisp and sweet, perfect in salads if you want something crunchy and fresh in summer!

I love colourful foods, they make life so much nicer.

These muffins look better than they taste unfortunately. I didn’t have any buttermilk and I forgot to whisk the egg. ALWAYS WHISK THE EGG! It makes things much fluffier.

And now… I must do laundry. Fancy’s on weekend :P

Delicious savoury muffins!

Natalie — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:44:34 +0000

I wanted to bake some savoury muffins for my husband to take to work and for general snacking noms, because I think I have just about hit my strawberry limit (Queensland seems to be having some kind of strawberry explosion at the moment). This recipe is super flexible: you can swap veges in and out and probably even reduce the amount of butter too. The amount of muffins it yields is totally dependent on your muffin/ cupcake tray and how much you fill each hole up, but I got 18 last night!

Click to go to the flickr page – hit “All Sizes” to get the original sized jpg to print out.

Lemme tell ya something about muffins, toots. They’re delicious. They’re delicious and I won’t hear a word against them!
/film noir

Enjoy!

What a tart! or, How food and I are mending the rift

Natalie — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:42:00 +0000

I’ve never been very big on cooking, and since being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes I developed a strained relationship with food. It’s a bit of a chore, really. Gorging on a delicious treat needs to be calculated against the amount of insulin or exercise I will need to do in order to bring my blood sugar down to an acceptable level. A low blood sugar means I have to force feed myself even when I’m not hungry. I guess it’s because of this strange and forced friendship with food that I never really got into cooking… which doesn’t really make sense but it’s something I’ve just realised in the last 6 months or so.

When I first started learning about Health at Every Size principles I realised that my relationship with food would have to change. In order to eat intuitively I’d have to actually drop my food defences and think about the things my body wanted me to eat. A part of my self motivated “food counseling” has been taking photos of the things that I make. I’m also a big fat perfectionist, so I find myself making really fiddly things instead of just slopping stuff on a plate. Maybe I should work on that too :P

I started by making cupcakes, because everyone was making them and I wanted to join in. They’re fun and it’s easy to do pretty and creative things with them, but I think I’ve almost exhausted the humble cupcake. It was by making cupcakes that I discovered the joy of sharing food – something I have never really experienced until I started baking. Some people assume that I make these cupcakes just for myself, but they don’t see how I share them with my friends and family whenever I go visit!

In the next few months I want to learn more and more recipes, and take photos along the way of all my results. I find that when I take a photo of something I can properly document it and pat myself on the back! It might sound like a very simple sort of thing to most people, but I really struggle with food sometimes and I’ve found that cherishing my meal has helped me so much. Maybe a similar approach can help other people who feel similarly… but at the very least you can make pretty things to eat, share and reflect on!