INGREDIENTS VEGETABLES 2 cups roughly chopped fennel bulb 1 cup roughly chopped green pepper 1 cup roughly chopped red pepper 2 tsp freshly minced garlic salt to taste 1/4 tsp black pepper
CHICKEN SAUSAGE 100 gms ground chicken salt to taste 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 tsp freshly chopped basil 1 tsp dijon mustard 1 tsp freshly chopped sage 2 tsp fennel seed ground fine
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
In a large bowl, stir together fennel, peppers, garlic, salt and pepper. Add mixture to a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast for 10-20 min until vegetables are crisp-tender.
While the vegetables are cooking, heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add chicken, cooking for approx. 5 to 6 min, breaking it up into crumbles as it cooks. Stir in basil, Dijon mustard and sage. Remove from heat.
Add sausage to the roasted vegetables in a large serving dish. Serve immediately.
In an ovenproof Dutch oven over medium heat, brown roast in coconut oil on all sides; drain.
In a small bowl, combine the hot water and bouillon; add the ketchup, onion, Worcestershire sauce, caraway, salt and pepper. Pour over roast. Add bay leaves.
Cover and bake at 325° for 3 hours or until tender. Remove roast to serving platter; keep warm.
In a small bowl, combine flour and cold water until smooth. Stir into pan juices; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened, adding water to thin if necessary. Discard bay leaves. Serve with cooked potatoes and carrots if desired.
This shows just how under-rated Garam Masala is as a marinade, and illustrates beautifully the wonderful flavour of black cumin – make sure you use the true jeera kala, not nigella seeds. It’s an easy meal to put together at the end of a busy day, and if you don’t have any ground almond to provide a little thickening, just mix the garam masala with a little plain flour when you coat the chicken.
Ingredients Serves: 3
4 boned chicken thighs, trimmed no skin
1/4 teaspoon medium chilli flakes
1 teaspoon black cumin seeds
2 spring onions sliced
1 garlic clove crushed, or a pinch of garlic powder
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon ground almonds
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
1 teaspoon fenugreek leaves
Directions
Pat garam masala onto all sides of the chicken and marinate 30 minutes.
Heat pan, dry roast black cumin seeds and chilli flakes for 1 minute.
Add oil, spring onions, garlic and chicken, and brown chicken on both sides over high heat.
Remove chicken to a plate, reduce heat and add tomato, yoghurt, salt, almonds and fenugreek leaves. Simmer, stirring, for 4-5 minutes.
Return chicken and any juices to pan and simmer until cooked through.
Serve with rice.
Additional Tips
Whenever we cook this lovely Indian-inspired dish, we find it so tasty that we wish we’d made more. The recipe can easily be doubled so that we have left-overs!
Angelica may be familiar as the acid-green crystallised or candied strips used as a decoration on cakes and desserts, but angelica itself is a herb. It is known as ‘herb of the angels’ (hence the name) because it was believed to have medicinal properties. It’s a member of the parsley family, a tall plant with a long firm stem and bright green leaves. Candied angelica is made by boiling the stems in sugar syrup. If you can find the fresh herb (almost impossible) the stems can be cooked with rhubarb or apple for pies or crumbles. They’re also used in jams and preserves, and the leaves go well with fish or in salads.
Ingredients
700gms stevia (granulated)
900g cooked angelica stems
425ml water
Rind and juice of a lemon
Method
Choose young tender stems from two-year-old plants. Remove all leaves then cut into lengths that will fit your pan. Fill the pan with water, bring to the boil, add the stems, return to the boil, then lower to simmer. Cook until the stems are tender, approx 25-45 mins depending on the thickness of the stems.
Strain. Refill the pan with fresh cold water and leave the stems to soak overnight (12 hours). Strain and throw the water away.
You may find that if you have used mature stems that they need to be peeled. If that is the case do so now. Then weigh the stems. For every 900g of angelica stems you will need 700g of stevia granulated sweetner
Cut the cooked stems into bite-size pieces, add them to a large saucepan. I use a preserving pan which is a very worth while investment especially if you are often making chutneys, jams and jellies.
Add the water and the stevia. Over a very low heat, stir constantly until the stevia is dissolved, then add the lemon juice and rind. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.
To tell when setting point has been reached either use a thermometer the setting point being 200°F/110°C or put a little jam on a chilled saucer, as it cools the jam should begin to set. It will wrinkle slightly when you draw your finger across it.
Cool slightly before pouring into warm, sterilised jars, cover and seal immediately.
There are so many reasons to use chamomile in cooking, you may never steep a dusty bag in hot water again. Forget tea — buy it in fresh bunches or dried in bulk. It’s neither hard to find nor expensive, and the fun you can have with this little yellow flower encompasses cocktails, dessert and even savory dishes. Fresh chamomile, also spelled camomile, even serves as a sharp-looking table decoration, so acquire some of these daisy-like plants and use them in every way possible.
WHERE IT’S FROM
As with most plants, there are numerous types of chamomile out there, from a wild version known as pineapple weed to scent-free field chamomile to the Moroccan variety found growing in the salty soil by the Mediterranean Sea. The most common of these flowers is the basic German type, followed closely by the Roman or English variety, which are the ones grown in North America and Europe. No matter which you decide to work with, they all hail from the family Asteraceae, and all impart a slight apple flavor and a floral quality that has helped the plant find its way into diets throughout history — it’s been harvested as a food and herb for thousands of years.
Before chamomile became a culinary staple and a famous tea, it was used mainly for medicinal reasons. Chamomile tea is traditionally drunk at night as a natural anxiolytic, which helps with anxiety and calms the mind and body. Chamomile also has anti-carcinogen properties and has been known to help with inflammation and to ease an upset stomach. The healing properties of chamomile were so prized in ancient Egypt that the plant was dedicated to the sun and worshipped. You can also find evidence of chamomile’s medicinal uses in the Lacnunga, an Anglo-Saxon manuscript dating back to at least the first millennium. In it, the flower is referred to as the one of the “nine sacred herbs.”
WHEN IT’S IN SEASON
You can find this plant growing all over the world. Typically it blooms twice, once in the spring and once in the summer, and soon after each blossoming the plant is harvested. Some regions pick the flowers as they come, like in Egypt, where they harvest every seven to ten days with a special rake. It’s this hands-on practice that makes Egyptian chamomile prized above others. Other regions might only cull the blossoms two or three times in a growth cycle.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
You can buy chamomile dried or fresh, though unless it’s the right season you won’t find just-picked flowers. When buying dried, make sure you are getting whole flowers, not just fine-grained plant dust. It’s fine if they’re a little crumbly, but you should see button-like buds and a mixture of green and yellow leaves and petals.
HOW TO STORE IT
Store dried chamomile like any herb, in an airtight container out of direct sunlight. If you have a fresh plant, you can put the ends in a cup of water just as you would any cut flowers.
HOW TO PREPARE IT
It may surprise you just how many things you can do with chamomile. For example, at Juni in Manhattan, pastry chef Mina Pizzaro infuses the flower into ice cream, highlighted with yuzu and ginger. “The flavor lends a natural gentle sweetness and pleasant floral notes to the dessert,” she says, adding that the spiciness of ginger and acidity of yuzu help to strike a perfect balance.
Chamomile works in non-dessert applications as well, as chef Craig Richards has done in Atlanta at St. Cecilia. His pièce de résistance: scallop crudo with chamomile-celery oil. “We decided to use chamomile because it’s a unique ingredient you don’t see very often in savory cooking,” he says. “It brings another element of acidity and herbal flavor that plays very well with raw fish, especially the natural sweetness of the raw scallop.” Richards has developed a technique for extracting the plant’s flavor as well. “We blend it for an extended period of time so that it heats up in the blender and releases its essential oil.” He also suggests making a dried chamomile and salt rub for fish and throwing some fresh blossoms in a spring salad.
I’ve been getting a lot of requests for fish recipes recently, and so today I thought I would revisit this extra-simple, extra-fast dinner that delivers huge flavor in a foolproof package. Fish cooks so fast — this dish is so convenient for those last-minute meals.
1 kg Tilapia
1/3 cup Cilantro, leaves
1 Cilantro
3 Garlic cloves
1 1-inch piece Ginger, fresh
1 Jalapeno pepper
1 Scallions
1 tbsp low sodium Soy sauc
1 Himalayan salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tsp low sodium Sesame oil
1/4 cup Light White wine
1 packet of Cauliflower Rice
Put your fish into your backing pan, mix ingredients, pour over and bake until done.
4-8 bags of black tea or 4-8 teaspoons of loose leaf black tea
1 gallon of water
1 cup organic cane sugar
2 SCOBYs (you can take one and split it or cut it – they’re layered almost like a bunch of pancakes)
1-2 cups starter tea from previous batch
Instructions:
If you bought your SCOBY, follow the instructions given to you to start your homemade kombucha.
Bring to boil a gallon of water. I just pour 2 half gallon mason jars’ worth of water into my stock pot so I don’t have to bother with actually measuring anything.
Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add tea and remove from heat to cool. Too hot of tea will kill your SCOBY. My mom puts her pot out in the snow sometimes to cool off quicker. If you’re concerned about caffeine you can steep your tea for 30-60 seconds in a cup of hot water before putting in with your sugar water.
Take your starter tea and swirl it around your half gallon mason jars and let it settle in the bottom. The starter tea is acidic and will help your new tea become acidic enough so mold does not grow on your SCOBY. It will act as sort of an all-natural disinfectant.
When tea has cooled enough, pour it into your mason jars with your starter tea. I usually will wait several hours until I can hold my finger in my tea brew.
Place your SCOBY on top of tea and securely cover with thin cloth or paper towel. Your SCOBY will float all over the place as it ferments. The fermentation process is aerobic and needs the air to do its duty. Don’t use anything like cheesecloth because those pesky fruit flies will be able to get into your brew.
Place mason jars in a corner of your kitchen without direct sunlight and let it ferment for several days. The hotter your house is the faster it will ferment.
Start tasting your kombucha on the 4th day to see if it has reached the right balance of sweet and tart. I let my kombucha ferment for about 5 days in the summer and about 7 in the winter. The longer you let it ferment, the less sugar your kombucha will have but it will turn and taste progressively more like vinegar. Ain’t nobody want to drink that.
After your kombucha has reached the right balance of sweetness, start making another batch of tea (steps 1-3), take your SCOBY out and put it on a plate, strain your kombucha while pouring it into another mason jar. Keep about 2 cups for your starter tea! Put the lid on the finished kombucha and put it in the fridge.
Using your new starter tea, repeat steps 4-9.
Flavoring your homemade kombucha (aka second ferment) which is optional:
After your first ferment (when your kombucha is the right taste), take your SCOBY out and put it on a plate. Then add your flavoring!
For flavoring you can add fruit juice, fresh fruit, frozen fruit, dried fruit, spices, herbs, and whatever else you can think of. This is the time to experiment!
Cover jars with a lid and put it back in the corner of your kitchen for another couple of days. Covering your jars produces carbonation because the carbon dioxide (made from the yeast eating the sugar) can’t escape. Don’t let it go too long with covered jars in case of exploding glass. We leave ours for about 4 days.
Tah dah! You have finished your first successful batch of homemade kombucha! You’re now officially a hippie.
A SCOBY is a syntrophic mixed culture of yeast and bacteria used in production of several traditional foods and beverages
100g chicken – cut into chunks •black pepper •orange – cut in 1/4s •2-3 cloves minced garlic •1 T fresh ginger root (about 1/2″-1″ long piece, peeled & minced) •1/2 t basil •juice of half lemon
Directions
1. Preheat pan over MED heat. 2. Sprinkle chicken with pepper. 3. Add chicken to pan and stir fry until brown on all sides, about 5-10 mins. 4. Add garlic and cook for 1 min. 5. Squeeze juice of orange quarters over chicken. 6. Peel & separate orange into sections. Add orange sections, ginger, lemon juice, and basil. Stir well. 7. Cover and simmer for about 20-30 mins
