A Healthy start to the day

 A HEALTHY BREAKFAST

First, to reinforce my post about not buying potatoes that have a green skin. This was on Yahoo UK this morning.

Potatoes


Potatoes may look innocent enough, but did you know they actually come from the same family as poisonous plant the deadly nightshade? Although they are not quite as dangerous as this family member, potatoes do pose certain risks to our health due to them containing toxic compounds known as glycoalkaloids, the most worrying of which is solanine which affects the nervous and digestive systems causing headaches, weakness, confusion, diarrhoea and vomiting amongst other things.



Poisoning from potatoes occurs very rarely but fans of the popular vegetable should take measures to protect themselves by avoiding potatoes with sprouts - which tend to have a higher concentration of glycoalkaloids - and those which have turned green. Although the green colour of the potatoes is harmless in itself, it does indicate that the potatoes have been exposed to light, which can also encourage solanine levels to rise over the safe level for consumption.

Like I said before, I see quite a lot of potatoes with a green skin in the supermarkets here in Las Vegas.

Now for my version of a healthy start to the day. The experts do say having a good breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

If you get up early and have plenty of time in the day these should suit you fine. Or just have one of these.

Number one a cup of tea made in a pot not just a tea bag in a mug. You get a much better flavour from tea if the leaves or bags can swirl around in the pot.

A bowl of porridge, (oatmeal to our American cousins) I use “Bob’s Red Mill” extra thick whole grain rolled oats, www.bobsredmill.com.

 In the UK I would have used “Scots porridge oats” or “Jordans”.

I cook my porridge in the microwave. Once you get the hang of the timings for your microwave it is much simpler and saves you time.

You need a big microwave safe bowl. I have a 2.5 L (2.5 qrt USA) pyrex bowl. This size is a must for using your microwave. I use it for boiling potatoes and rice.

Take 1 measure of the oats to 2 and a little bit more (depends on how thick you want the porridge or for how long you will cook the porridge) of water.

A small amount of salt to your taste.

 You can use milk or milk and water. But beware using milk, it boils over if you don’t keep an eye on it and we don’t want to have to do that.

Depending on how much I’m making I first boil the porridge on the highest setting for 5 or 6 minutes. You’ll have to watch the porridge boiling until you get the hang of your microwave timings and power. It makes a real mess if you let it boil over.

After the first boiling stir the porridge well and put back in the microwave on a low setting, not letting it boil. You can cook it like this for as long as you need to. Have your shower, shave or any other ablutions.

Serve with cold milk and sugar or honey.

Now is the time to take the dog out or go for your morning walk.

Just like the three bears.

Feeling hungry after your walk or did you go to the gym.

Poached egg with smoked salmon on an English muffin.

Ingredients, well that’s easy. Eggs, smoked salmon and English muffins or whole meal bread.

Boil a kettle of water.

Warm the salmon in your small grill oven you are using to warm the plates. Warm an extra plate to use to drain the water off of the poached eggs.
You can put the cooked egg onto an old slice of bread. This drain off the cooking water. We don't want to make our muffin soggy.

When the water is boiled pour into you wok or frying pan with a little vinegar. You really can fry or poach eggs in a wok, especially in the round bottom type. Leaves your egg cooked perfectly round.

Bring back to boil, but not boiling too fiercely or it will break up the egg.

Put the muffins in for toasting.

When the water is boiling gently break the egg into the boiling water. Leave it to settle and the white to cook. When firm enough, using a spoon, spoon the boiling water over the egg yolk. Poach for as long as you need the egg to cook soft and runny or firm.

Put the warmed salmon onto a buttered muffin and the poached egg on top.

You could scramble the eggs or have a smoked salmon omelette.

I trust you remembered to make your coffee.

I hope you enjoyed your breakfast.

I’ll cover the scrambled egg and omelette another time

Let's think Healthy

The New Year is now 11 days old. How are the resolutions holding out? I suppose all the usual resolutions have been made. Stop smoking, lose weight, do more exercise, be a nicer person. Well I suppose someone besides Scrooge will make that one. Wonder if there any original resolutions left. Anyone thought of a new one.

I feel the word revolution would be more apt. That’s what I need, personnel revolution.

To help anyone and myself who need a “Personnel Revolution” I’ll be posting some healthy recipes I have used in the past.

I’ll even add a few fitness tips. I’m actually quite knowledgeable about fitness. It’s more do as I say not as I do though. I used to be an obsessive runner. I do mean obsessive. One training aim was to run 100 miles (120kms) a week. That was tough, eat, drink, run and sleep.

Here’s my first healthy filling recipe. This is meant to be a vegetarian dish but on occasions I would add chicken or prawns or even both.

If I add prawns I would either cook them in their shells.  Or take out of the shells and make a prawn stock by boiling the shells for about 5 minutes.

This works well for any dish you are making with prawns and need a stock.

CASHEW NUT PAELLA.

Ingredients.

2 tablespoons of oil, type of your choice, Olive oil probably best.

1 onion peeled and finely chopped

1 or 2 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped finely.

4oz (110g) long-grain brown rice. 

Of course you could get proper paella rice but Brown rice is probably better for you.

3oz (75g) cashew nut pieces. If you only have whole nuts wrap them in a cloth and bash’m with your rolling pin or saucepan. You can leave them whole.

½ to 1 tsp paprika, depends how spicy you like it.

10 or so fesh basil leaves, or

A tsp of dried basil

A red or green pepper, or both, de-seeded and cut into strips.

4-6 sticks of celery. Cut length ways then sliced into pieces.

1 pint boiling water, you may need to add a little more.

Glass or two of white wine, one to drink.

14oz tin of diced tomatoes (in juice)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

You can add other vegetables of your choice, such as tomatoes, leeks, courgettes, mushrooms or what ever takes your fancy.

For a garnish you can have black and green olives, slices of hard boiled egg, lemon wedges.

The Method

Heat the oil in your wok or large frying pan and fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes, till the garlic starts to brown and the onions start to become translucent. Add the rice along with the cashew nuts, paprika and dried basil and cook for a few minutes, turning the mixture over well so that the rice and nuts are slightly roasted. Add the celery and peppers and any other choice of vegetables. Mix in well.

Be careful how you time putting in other vegetables, some need less or more time to cook. It’s not a dish you want over cooked vegetables. Nothing worse than soggy broccoli.

Pour in the boiling water bring to the boil cook for a few minutes to absorb a little into the rice. Add the tomatoes and the wine simmered uncovered for 35-40 minutes.

If you used fresh basil, stir it in now.

Season to taste going easy on the salt.

The liquid level may need checking towards the end of the cooking, but most of the liquid should cooked away leaving a moist mixture with a rich tomatoey colour.

Serve and garnish to your liking. Happy eating.

You can serve with a green salad and fresh crusty bread.

I’m a real carnivore when it comes to eating but this dish will satisfy most dedicated carnivores

I was asked about using bacon fat

I was asked by a lady who has been reading this blog if it would be okay to use the fat left over from cooking bacon in a stir fry.

There's no reason why you can't use your bacon fat, for that matter fat that comes from roasting chicken, pork, beef or lamb.

I remember years ago my Mum used to pour all the fat (dripping as we called it) into the same bowl and use it for everyday frying. Now they would say that is bad for your health. My Mum will be 89 this year and smokes around 10 cigarettes a day. So it can't be that unhealthy.

                                   My Mum at 88

For us poor people bread'n dripping was a luxury. 

Oliver Twist would have asked for more.

Saying that I do keep any fat that comes from cooking separate from each other. Like the big chickens you get here in the USA, you get a lot of fat from them you could use for frying potatoes.

If I'm going to make a chicken curry, either Thai or Indian. I would get a whole chicken and cut the breast and legs from the carcass myself. I would boil up the carcass to make my own stock. I would cut off most of the chicken fat and put that into boil away as well. When it is cooled I would usually make two pots of chicken stock, these I would put in the freezer for later use. There would be quite a healthy layer of fat on the top.

The fat from roasting beef is great for your roast potatoes.

The same with the fat from lamb, though you do not get that much from lamb.

Pork fat I'd cook on the pork and eat with the meat, too tasty not to eat it.

Back to bacon fat. Unfortunately here in America, unless you find a store that sells English bacon, you only get the fatty, what we call streaky bacon. When you fry or grill this you get a lot of fat from the bacon. You can save this fat for frying something, like potatoes, especially for breakfast potato. 

You could have something really wicked, a fried slice of white bread, delicious with your breakfast. But don't tell your heart specialist I told you.

I also save the bacon from when I grill (broil). I do this buy having a piece of kitchen foil in the bottom of the grill tray to catch the fat from the bacon on the grill rack.

The foil also helps to keep your grill clean.

I'm not sure about using the bacon fat for a stir fry, though I do use it when cooking a fried rice from left overs but that is the fat from bacon going into the fried rice.

For a stir fry I use canola oil and sesame oil for extra flavour.

A really good Chinese cook website is www.chinghehuang.com Her videos are brilliant. If you read about her you'll see someone who made herself a millionaire from cooking. With no formal cooking teaching.