National Curry Week

This week is national curry week in the UK. Pretty much always that in this house! On the weekend I had some time to cook and did a light chicken curry with onions garlic ginger, mustard seed and a whole host of other spices. I served it with a dish of shredded mixed greens cooked with nigella seed and curry leaves, a grated cauliflower pilau steamed with whole spices and saffron, and fresh coriander and mint chutney. My version of this chutney is to take a good big handful fresh coriander (cilantro) about half the amount of fresh mint leaves, a hot green chilli deseeded and chopped, and a 1 cm piece peeled chopped fresh ginger, and puree in a food mill with a little water, adding some lemon or lime juice to taste. This will keep in the fridge for about two weeks and adds quite a bit of oomph to just about anything. To make a milder sauce, just stir it into some plain yogurt.

Another birthday

My CRON birthday, that is. Two years old today. When I started I never knew where it would lead me and never knew how long it would last. Whatever happens, whether or not I actually gain some years of life, I know that the experience has been massively positive. I have gained so much in health and appearance, and feel so much better about myself. I am lucky in having a supportive partner, who although he is not CRd will happily share CR friendly meals. It feels good and it feels right.

Brrrr!

I am reminded right now of the old pun, ‘winter draw(er)s on’. November in London is cold wet and gloomy with grey overcast skies. (Yes I am making sure to get my vitamin D) I have always, even before CRON felt the cold more than most and being cold makes me miserable and bad tempered. So I am cold-proofing myself this winter with some nice thermal silk underwear. Not glamorous, but it fits like a second skin under even the most fashionable clothes. I find the size aimed at a 12 year old child is a very good fit, and of course this makes the price very reasonable!

Curry

We Brits love curry, it's sort of a national favourite dish having overtaken fish and chips ages ago. It can be very oily but it doesn't have to be if you make it at home. Last night we had breast of chicken in a light curry sauce with a side dish of casseroled courgettes (zucchini) okra, and peppers flavoured with garlic, nigella seed and lovage seed, a chunky tomato and cucumber salad and a fresh chutney made from blending coriander (cilantro) mint ginger and lemon juice. As you see I have translated British terms into American! One of the useful things I learn from watching American cookery programmes on TV is the equvalent names of some ingredients. For example I was able to confirm recently what I suspected, that April's favourite napa cabbage is the same vegetable as my favourite Chinese cabbage. But I can always learn from the most unlikely sources, even cooks who provide the most calorific recipes can give me tips on attractive presentation or combinations of herbs and spices. I do like the programmes of Ellie Krieger - my husband calls her 'the low-fat contessa' - her recipes are not CR'd of course, but she emphasises healthy ingredients and careful portion control of high calorie foods, which is a huge improvement on many people's standard diet, and many of her methods are CR-friendly. I recently saw her do panini using portabella mushrooms in place of bread. Way to go!

Minty Fresh

Recently in a restaurant I saw Moroccan style mint tea on the menu. I checked if it was sweetened and was told it was not, so I ordered it. It arrived in an elegant Moroccan teapot stuffed with fresh mint leaves and one teabag. It was delicious! I have had mint tea made with dried mint lots of times before but this was a flavour revelation. I went out to the market and bought a bunch of fresh mint and have been drinking mint tea ever since. I find it works very well with green tea also. It is so zingy that it is amazingly safisfying. You need quite a bit of mint - a few leaves will not give the full effect. Now all I need is an elegant Moroccan teapot. Fresh mint isn't always available on the market so maybe I will establish my own mint garden - in a container of course as I know it can spread out of all control if not in a pot by itself!

Hi and Lo

The high vs. low protein debate has kicked off again, not that it ever really went away or is likely to for some time to come. Since people don’t fundamentally change it reminds me of the debate that went on between British doctors in the late 19^th century on the action of chloroform. English doctors said that chloroform affected the patient’s heart and it was essential to monitor the pulse. Scottish doctors said it didn’t affect the heart but the respiration and monitoring the pulse was a dangerous distraction that could kill the patient. The arguments became quite abusive! It was like a kind of warfare in which people sat at opposite ends of a field lobbing the occasional missile. ‘No man’s land’ was exactly that, they just didn’t meet in the middle. Many years passed and many people died under chloroform before the matter was finally resolved by the invention of modern monitoring equipment. Most of the protagonists were dead by then so at least no-one had the embarrassment of admitting he had been wrong (or the task of trying to prove he was still right.) Historically I know that it is not always the person who shouts loudest, or is best qualified, or the one who believes in something with an incandescent passion who is proven to be right. Only time can determine that. The famous Baron Lister was never going to agree with humble Dr Clover about how to deal with a choking patient, (he described Clover’s advice as ‘pernicious’), but time has awarded the palm to the quieter man. On the current debate, I have read the posts and the articles to which they refer, and have sufficient education to be able to follow quite a lot of what is being said. I can see that both sides are arguing from different kinds of studies and different sets of data but how much weight to give to the different studies and how to interpret them is beyond my capability. That is something I have to leave to the experts, and of course the experts disagree. The matter is so crucial that I would have thought that a conference on that subject alone might be the way to go, though attendees should beware of the shrapnel!

Oh and the chloroform thing? Both sides were right, it affects both the heart and the respiration depending on how it is used.

Another makeover

I got this recipe from a book of healthy slimmers recipes so it didn't need too much tweaking. Take 225g crisp cabbage, and 100g onion, finely chopped, and steam until tender. Add to 450g lean minced turkey, and season with thyme and sage for that really British taste! If you are worried that meatballs will fall apart, bind with eggwhite. Make about 20-22 small meatballs and put in a pan with 1 bay leaf, a tablespoon of tomato puree and some flavourful broth. Bring to a simmer and cook until done. The added cabbage and onion makes them really juicy and tender.