CookingwithEmma

I am daring you all to try this dip!!

This recipe was sent to me today from one of the websites I subscribe to based around Raw food and the health benefits.

Are you daring enough to try it !!

Super Chocolate Guacamole

• 4 avocados (soft/ ripe, seeded and peeled)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (lime juice is also great)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed• tomato, finely chopped
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• dash cayenne pepper
• dash sea salt and or nama shoyu
• little bit of agave nectar/ yacon root syrup
• 2 dashes of diced cilantro
• 2 tbsp of Raw Cacao Powder (raw chocolate)

1. Using a fork, mash the avocado with lemon juice and garlic
2. Stir in remaining ingredients to blend Enjoy as a spread/dip on your favorite sandwich bread/ cracker/ veggie!

Enjoy as a spread/dip on your favorite sandwich bread/ cracker/ veggie!

Let me know how you get on...

Thanks

Emma

So why is it called Quiche Lorraine?

I have always wondered who this lovely Lorraine was and why such a widely and much loved dish was named after her? So, you guessed it, I searched the web!

It appears that there was no such lady but in fact it is a derivative of the french word for quiche and a German dialect !! I was hoping for something much more romantic than that but hey maybe we can make one up...drop me your ideas and I will publish them on the blog

So here is the official version:

In French cuisine, a quiche (IPA: [ki:ʃ]) is a baked dish that is made primarily of eggs and milk or cream in a pastry crust. Other ingredients such as cooked chopped meat, vegetables, or cheese are often added to the egg mixture before the quiche is baked.

Quiche Lorraine is perhaps the most common variety. In addition to the eggs and cream, it includes bacon or lardons. Cheese is not an ingredient of the original Lorraine recipe, as Julia Child informed Americans: "The classic quiche Lorraine contains heavy cream, eggs and bacon, no cheese."^[1]

The word quiche is derived from the Lorraine Franconian dialect of the German language historically spoken in much of the region, where German Kuchen, "cake", was altered first to "küche". Typical Allemanic changes unrounded the ü and shifted the palatal "ch" to the spirant "sh", resulting in "kische", which in standard French orthography became spelled quiche^[2].

This weekend I decided to try a healthy version of the magnificent Quiche Lorraine and I am pleased to say that it worked. I decided to work from Delia's and James Martin's versions from the BBC website. As to my surprise, none of the books in my kitchen apart from Delia's had a good recipe. Even Good Housekeeping let me down. I did look at Hugh's and Nigel Slater's recipe's online but they were full of really fattening ingredients that I am sure tasted divine but weren't on my " yes, you can eat that list"

I replaced the plain flour with rye flour and toasted soya flour which you can get in most supermarkets or organic farm shops. So half of each to make up the the full amount and instead of double cream I used Greek yoghurt. For the filling, I used some onion, bacon, fresh rocket and cheese then salt and pepper for seasoning. Voila it worked!!

The thought of cooking pastry after 20 or so years was quite daunting but I got stuck in. Not having any baking beans worried me but then I remembered watching a programme once that said to use 2p coins. In for a penny, in for a pound!! So, Tom raided the money jar and we gave it a go...success, it worked. Baking beans in Lakeland would have cost me £3.24 but I ended up only using 48p's worth of 2p's so a great saving I thought !!

The whole trial took an hour and a half and we had such a laugh that I am aiming to get it off pat and down to 45 mins over the next two weeks. So, yes, we will be eating a lot of quiche over the coming weeks, just as well we like it. I am not sure we will be so keen when it comes to recipes with brussel sprouts!!

I will of course post my recipe over the next 2 weeks but have a go in the meantime and let me know how you get on...

Thanks so much for all the feedback on the Mayo Blog...I seem to have captured an audience on the supremacy of Hellman's !!

Emma   

I found this link via a lovely new contact I met this morning at a network meeting. She had The Nutriheal Foundation as a link on her affiliate page, so I followed the link and came across this great MP3 download...wow she is brilliant and you can bet that I will be contacting Alison to help me with infomation for this site.

Please have a listen and let me know what you think by either a comment on the blog or via my email which is emma@matchsticks.biz

http://www.nutrihealfoundation.com/mp3/course_4.mp3

Have a great week

Emma

Recipes, yummy and easy!

Cooking with EMMA

Recipes

Cooking with Yoghurt, well, actually, it’s not cooking but it’s part of the process and at the end you get to taste a superior dressing in my opinion to any shop- bought jar of dressing or mayonnaise…

Emma’s yoghurt salad dressing

Ingredients

I small tub of yoghurt – any plain bio-live or Greek yoghurt will do (150 grams)

1 large teaspoon of whole grain mustard

1 table spoon of good olive oil

The juice of half a lemon- without the pips

Salt and pepper to taste- freshly ground sea salt and black pepper

(As an option and dependent on individual taste you can add a small crushed clove of garlic and a small amount of the grated rind of the lemon)

Yummy and easy so let me show you how!

Dig out a nice bowl to serve the dressing in, we eat with our eyes and this is the time to find that lovely bowl you got as a gift and stuck at the back of the cupboard. About the size of a cereal bowl should do it, now grab a small whisk or fork and a couple spoons. Remember to taste this as you go along as that’s the fun part and you can add more if you need a bigger flavour.

Add all the ingredients one by one to the bowl and whisk as you go. Now you can do this minutes before you are about to eat or cover the bowl with foil or film and pop in the fridge until you need it. This will last about 2 days but will need a good stir before you serve it.

So that’s it! Yummy and easy and made in minutes

Enjoy

Emma

Teapot Lil

Picture the scene, "Radio alarm comes on and the cats make a dash for the bed as they know that now they can make as much noise as they like, as Sarah Kennedy is doing just that from the radio. In fact, some mornings she and the cats have the same tone. Sorry Sarah, but you can be as annoying as my 2 hungry cats!! Tom gets a short, sharp dig in the ribs from me and consistent purring, pawing and a sandpaper like lick from Sammy, the ginger princess, as a subtle hint that it's time to get up and make us all our early morning cuppa. Obviously, the cats are after something more substantial than a cuppa but you get my drift.

After my second cuppa, which is brought to me in bed, I finally get the energy up to tackle the stairs so that I can pop the kettle on for my third cup which kicks me finally into touch. It's usually my 5th cup that gets carried to the office along with a bottle of water to keep me hydrated through the empty tea cup moments. I know by now you must be thinking, my god, does she ever get any work done or does she have an office in her kitchen. Alas, I don't and actually the exercise I get going back and forward from the office to the kitchen saves me going on a run every day!!

So by 5pm or so I have probably consummed between 10-15 cups of tea, half a bottle of water, maybe a coffee thrown in for a bit of variety just to dazzle the taste buds. It is the king of drinks in my life and even beats Champagne.

In March this year, I was introduced to a new homeopath by the name of Philip Weeks, (as Karen had moved her practice back to Boston) by my great friend Liz. She said that Philip was great and could really help me continue with Karen's good work and so I made my appointment and got going. Philip sent me some forms to fill out and a food diary that needed to be completed 7 days before I saw him. Oh my God, a food diary, what an earth did he want that for? I thought to myself, I had better be good this week or he will give me a proper telling off. So, off we went to Tesco's and piled the trolley full of salads, chicken and fruit in the hope that we could last the 7 days and once my visit was over I could return back to tasty food heaven.

We drove to Hereford to see Philip and I took my notes into my meeting quietly thinking to myself, "I am quite proud that there is only one take away on there this week" and then he gives me that look, you know, the one that your teacher gave you as you handed in your homework sheepishly because it looked like you had wrapped your sandwiches in it. Oh god I thought, what now, and he said "... Emma do you really drink that much tea?" Yes I said, in a proud to be British sort of way, I do, but I only take one sugar these days and sometimes it's not even sugar it's canderel !! ha I thought, don't start giving me sweet tooth lectures as you will see if you read my notes that I don't eat chocalate or sweets so I am really rather healthy!! He was still giving me that look... "Emma he said, have you any idea what this much caffeine is doing to your nervous system and your adrennals? I don't know how you get up in the morning with this much caffeine in your system?". I won't bore you with what followed but it wasn't good and I was most definitely now on the "Naughty List" of his patients. No more caffeine for me, what!!, no more caffeine for me, are you kidding? unfortuntely he wasn't and I was banned from that day on.

For more info on caffeine please read this http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/CompoundWebSites/1998/Caffeine/effects.htm

Move over English breakfast and welcome South African Rooisbosh tea...with lemon. Bet you didn't see that coming, I bet you thought I would opt for the caffeine free tea brands by Tetley etc but no, I can't because infact it contains small amounts of caffeine!!

 

What's even more incredible is that I love my new tea and on the odd day, I am in fact, the first out of bed and down to the kitchen to pop the kettle on and feed my ever so hungry cats. Obviosuly, I don't do it every day as I don't want to steal Tom's thunder as he is so much better at it than me...and of course, I tell him every day what a lovely treat it is but he doesn't drink tea so I can't return the favour.

It's not to everybody's tastes but after a while it's a good alternative and it's ever so good for you.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting my healthy alternative recipes and all those lovely recipes that you have been emailing me. Thanks again for all the support I have recieved to date and watch this space for more tales from my journey into "Cooking with Emma". I hope to progress my new eating habits and explain the health benefits I have achieved to a larger audience...

Thanks again and have a great week!!

What do you mean I can't eat mayonnaise

I don't know about you, but there are somethings in life that just go perfectly together;  strawberries and cream, salt and pepper, roast beef and horseradish, a rainy afternoon and a good film; well I think you get my drift. For me it was MAYONNAISE!! I blame my Father for this, as for the majority of my childhood he lived in Holland. Right up the street from his apartment was a kiosk, not dissimilar to the equivalent of a British ice cream van, that sold chips amongst other things. Once you ordered the chips you didn't get asked, "you want salt and vinegar with that love?" but they simply went to a machine (just like the Mr Whippy ice cream machine) that squirted mayonnaise all over the top of your deliciously hot and freshly made punnet of chips. Within 30 seconds I was hooked and from that moment on it became my weakness and mayonnaise took a permanent place in my fridge.

I can eat it with anything except a roast but it makes a great substitute for butter, ketchup, mustard and anything else you may like to use as a relish. In fact, add all of the above to it and you have an even meaner dressing to slap on the food you love. My absolute favorite dish is Egg and Chips with a good dollop of mayo and if I feel like pushing the boat out then the lime pickle may join it too on the side of my plate providing there's room.

One of my dreams has been to learn how to make it properly and in February, whilst attending the Rick Stein cookery school courtesy of Father Christmas (actually it was more likely to be my Husband but hey) I got the chance to give it a go. Oh my god, it was horrid and no matter how much I tried to make it when I got home it still tasted the same. I have had tips from people about which oil to use and to add more mustard powder but still it tasted foul. I was so disappointed but I soon began to realise that I was probably a dedicated Hellman's fan and that wasn't about to change. I have tried all sorts of different brands but I always seem to come back to the good old blue and yellow glass jar and of course it's full fat.

To my complete surprise and horror in March 2008 I was advised that I had a very bad case of Candida that had built up over the years and in essence had made me completely yeast intolerant!! I was advised to change all of my dietary and eating habits and to follow religiously a book for 30 days called "Cooking Without" by Barbara Cousins. At this point, I had no idea what yeast was in, apart from bread but none the less I wanted to get well and continue the good work I had started with Karen the previous year.(Karen had decided to focus all of her work back on her Boston Clinic so I had to find myself a new Homeopath and I will tell you all about him in my next blog)

I got back, ordered the book and decided to take the plunge after my 2 week holiday to South Africa. I couldn't imagine a holiday without bread, beer or a cold glass of wine and I was determined not to do this alone so I had to convince my husband to join me.

On April 5th 2008 I began, or should I say, we began, cooking without. This subject will also be covered over a series of blogs but yes, you guessed it I was now about to have a mayonnaise free life! AAaggggghhhhh what! Well it's got mustard, vinegar and sometimes white wine it and that was on my big no no list. What on earth was I going to do?

My saviour was....Yoghurt! yes boring old plain yoghurt but actually worse than that it had to be Bio Live yoghurt or if I couldn't get that it had to be goats milk yoghurt which I shuddered at the thought of. Now, most of you probably love a good yoghurt, full of fresh fruit and yummy honey but I wasn't a big fan to be honest and even Greek yoghurt hadn't previously got the taste buds dancing on my tongue so how was this plain stuff going liven my digestive tract and now a very hungry mood.

In fact I have to confess, it was Tom, my husband, that created the first winning recipe and over the last few months we have of course played with a few. Now I can gently introduce certain food stuffs back into my daily routine and we are having more fun with our little concoctions and trialling them on everybody.

Over the next few weeks, my aim is to let you all have a few of my "taste bud winning recipes" as it has really helped me get over the Hellman's gig. Actually, I would love your feedback on any dressing ideas that you have in your reportoire.This will really help me get great ideas for the recipe challenge that I will be putting together when "Cooking with Emma" launches it's online recipe book, dedicated to cooking healthy meals in minutes for you and your family without blowing the budget.

In the meantime, please think of me every time you slap a big spoonful of that delicious, really naughty but heavenly dressing on your plate as I am not quite allowed it yet but hopefully after September 17th I might be allowed...fingers crossed

Have a great week

Emma   

Yes I have officilally gone green

What's this then? a new blog? yep, you are right I am about to launch another passion of mine and that's cooking and food! I love food, I love cooking, I love entertaining and throwing dinner parties. For some of you out there this blog will come as no surprise and you are probably wondering why it has taken me so long! I guess it's all about time and confidence.

For about the last 20 years I have been developing culinary skills and since we moved to the country I have become a bit of an organic gardener and now relish the thought of cooking something I have just pulled from the ground.

When I was a little girl my Grandfather ran an allotment and had a fantastic but very small garden and I spent hours watching and helping him (well if you call foraging for worms helping) so I guess I was just naturally drawn to doing something green one day. I have memories of arriving at their house on a Sunday to see my Grandfather digging and planting and my Nan busy with pastry for a meat pie or cleaning vegetables in the sink that had been soaked in a bowl of salt water to kill the caterpillars and slugs. We would all be given duties to do that would either require laying the table, peeling the spuds or if you were really lucky then rolling out pastry and trying the cake mix. My sister always seem to get that plum job and I think still enjoys it to this day.

Whichever house I have lived in over the last 20 years I have always grown some form of vegetable on a window sill or balcony. When we moved to Bath I thought all my dreams had come true as we acquired with our 19th century cottage a very sizable plot and I say plot rather than garden as it looked more like a field when we moved in.

Over the last few years we have worked hard and enjoyed every moment of the blood, sweat and tears we have poured into our labour of love and produced, according to many friends, family and passers by, a beautiful garden. The garden is just under half an acre and we have designed it to accommodate parties, BBQ's, lazy Sunday afternoons reading the paper, it's child and animal friendly and of course vegetable plots or should I say in the correct language "raised beds"  so that I, "the keen gardener" can indulge my Percy Thrower tips passed on to me by my Grandfather and use the gardening books people have bought me over the years.

Having spent the last 23 years working in the corporate arena (I know you can't believe that I have been working that long) and without many hobbies to my name I found myself trying all sorts of new ways to escape joining a gym and believe me I have joined a few with little success or enjoyment. By hobbies, I mean the physical ones and I am told that they are excellent for stress but for me they just created more stress as being competitive I wanted to be the best from day one. I do believe in "no pain, no gain" but for me it was all pain so I moved very quickly from one fad to another and one by one they all seem to die a death after about 8 weeks. My stress levels were not coming down and eventually the stress took it's toll and I ended 2 stone heavier and much grumpier that I ever wanted to admit.

I am not a fan of traditional medicine or diets even though the Atkins diet did seem to work in shedding a few pounds I found myself with bad breath and desperate for fruit and veg. My doctors have always put my health concerns and complaints down to being hormonal and/or thyroid issues but yet when they did put me through hell sticking needles in me and taking vats of blood for testing they found nothing!! I do respect the years they spent studying to become doctors but I found myself looking for alternative ways of getting the answers. Dr Atkins didn't motivate me much with his culinary recommendations either which was not fuelling my passion to cook delicious meals that would have my guests gesticulating umms and ahhs after every mouthful.

So when are we going to talk about cooking then? it's coming, just be patient a little while as I am trying to build a picture here!!

About 2 years ago I was introduced to a homeopath well actually she is a natropath called Karen Clickner and after 30 minutes in the room with her she knew more about my symptoms than any doctor or Harley Street surgeon had ever known. She didn't draw any blood or get me to visit another specialist, she simply performed Kinesiology on me (I am not going to go into any details about this as you can just Google her or research the subject on the web) asked me a few questions and with huge relief put me out of my misery by telling me that with a few herbs and tonics I could within 6 months feel a million times better than I do or did. She did mention that my intolerances were caffeine and alcohol and that I could only drink such things before 2pm during the day. That's not easy when you spend most of your life interviewing people and lunch time drinking had always ended up in disaster for me.

I worked with Karen on ideas around food and how my eating habits needed to change as that meant starting with breakfast and then I had to eat every 2-3 hours. My heart sank as I could feel the pounds piling on as we spoke but actually she convinced me that the opposite would happen as my body would stop thinking that I was starving it and storing all the food and would start to use the food as fuel! wowee!! it was a bit mind blowing at first and my brain started to focus on all the food I would need to buy but also with all the travelling I did up and down the motorways to London that maybe I should invest in a mini fridge for the car or even go the whole hog and buy a camper van complete with stove!!

This is really how my journey into food started but the journey doesn't end here so for now I want to get cracking and talk about "cookingwithEmma" as that is really what this blog is all about. From my personal experiences, it is my passion and intention to show how you can cook healthy meals in minutes for you and your friends and family without blowing the budget.

I will be publishing a series of tried and tested recipes over the coming months and this web blog will become an interactive tool and my new website which is being developed as we speak will be launched in the Autumn. For now though please do drop me any comments and let me know if you have any culinary questions regarding cooking healthy meals in minutes.

I look forward to cooking with you all soon and thanks for reading this very new blog

www.cookingwithEmma.com coming very soon!!