January is a new beginning, so I’ve made some other resolutions as well. You know, the usual ones—lose weight (about 4kg), exercise more (3–4 times a week for 20–30 minutes), eat healthier (smaller portions, healthier choices)…

My general approach to these resolutions is “everything in moderation”. Words to live by and, for me, much easier to stick to than some crazy fasting diet or detox.

One part of “lose weight, eat healthier” means me starting fresh in 2014 by giving up alcohol for the entire month of January (five days in and feeling good!). I did it last year and was surprised at how amazing I felt after a couple of weeks. One or two glasses of wine slows me down the next day so it’s good for me to give my body a break, particularly after all the rich foods and excessiveness of the holiday season. Once February comes my resolution is changes to allow a couple of drinks on weekends but none during the week. Again, that’s something that I did last year and it really helped how mentally sharp I was during the working week.

In terms of eating healthier I’m taking a good hard look at my portion sizes and leaving more space on my plate when I serve up food. I know I’ve been eating too much, especially at night and this affects how well I sleep. Lack of sleep in turn makes me feel sluggish in the morning and more likely to make bad food choices during the day.

I’m also trying to eat lighter in general, meaning more salads and not many heavy things like potato, pasta, pastry and creamy/buttery things. Some of my meals since New Years’ and on the menu for this week are:

• lamb and haloumi skewers with a variation on a Greek salad—lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum; no olives or feta
• slow-roasted chicken with Ottolenghi: The Cookbook’s chargrilled cauliflower with tomato, dill and capers
• BBQ steak with artichoke and herb salad (an old favourite found in the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Book 2
  )
• smoked salmon with lemon and garlic chive cream cheese (just a smidge!) on a slice of rye plus a simple salad—lettuce, tomato, radish, cucumber and carrot
• seared lamb with quinoa tabouli
• grilled sweet corn salad with black beans and almonds
• thai turkey salad
• Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals tuna, coconut rice and jiggy jiggy vegetables
• and another Jamie Oliver dish—Keralan veggie curry

I’ve also know that I don’t eat enough fruit. Sometimes I just forget about it for days at a time, I’ll admit I’m not a massive fan of fruit, much preferring to eat vegetables instead. So I’ve committed myself to 1–2 serves a day, which is the recommended daily intake.

What are your food resolutions for 2014?

It is constantly surprising how many things contain wheat, barley or rye. There are obvious things that you cut out straight away—bread, pasta, beer, cakes and pastries—unless they’re specifically marked “gluten free”. But there are a host of less obvious things as well, turning you into an expert in reading food contents labels. Things to check carefully on a gluten-free diet include:

• chocolate and lollies
• cereals
• biscuits and crackers
• French fries—these can be coated with flour before deep frying
• gravy mixtures
• processed meats and sausages
• salad dressings
• sauces, including soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, Hoisin sauce
• seasoning mixes, including rice and noodle flavourings
• seasoned snack foods, such as potato and corn chips
• soups and stocks
• spreads, such as Vegemite, peanut butter, Anchovette paste
• yoghurts—some of the flavoured ones are thickened with gluten.

To anyone attempting a gluten-free diet, making the change seems daunting—“what am I going to eat?” being the primary concern. Our diets are often so loaded with breads and cereals that you can’t have any more, it can be a real challenge to find alternatives. There are plenty of delicious things that you can eat, it’s just about making sure you eat enough to fill you up.

Gluten-free fillers

Our favourite gluten-free fillers are:

• chickpeas, lentils, beans (kidney, cannellini, butter, fava, black)
• quinoa, buckwheat, polenta
• seeds, nuts
• corn, rice, potatoes
• eggs
• plus a host of other fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and fish.

Gluten-free substitutes

If you’re really struggling to fill up, here are some of the things that we’ve substituted into our meals to make them gluten free.

Tasty gluten-free meals

Gluten free doesn’t mean flavour free! We make some delicious gluten-free meals. Once you learn what you can and can’t eat it makes it much easier to adapt your recipes to suit. Check out some of our regular dishes:

Soups

• Zucchini, potato and feta soup
• Dhal
• Chestnut soup
• Pumpkin soup

Salads

• Witlof, apple and walnut salad
• Quinoa tabouli
• Asparagus and pea salad
• Orange and fennel salad
• Coleslaw
• Caramelised pear & fennel salad with gorgonzola

Mains

• Herbed rissoles
• Coconut chicken curry with banana chutney
• Pasta with cauliflower, peas, mint and quinoa
• Coconut, chicken and banana curry
• Thyme and lemon lamb with zucchini and chickpea
• Lamb and haloumi skewers
• Beef tacos
• Fish with charred Mediterranean vegetables
• Tuna with bean salad

With the continual rain we’ve been having lately (so over it!), there’s been an explosion in our little vegetable patch. The vegetables have shot up and we’ve been very happily harvesting the leaves for salads and cooking. But this rapid growth of our plants has brought a new challenge—aphids. No doubt attracted by all the tender new leaves, aphids have had a population explosion within our little garden. They’re even on the habanero chillies! These nasty little sap-suckers destroy new growth so we’ve declared biological warfare…

We’re trying to be organic and given that these plants are for us to eat—not the aphids, as they seem to think—we’ve had to read up on how to get rid of the aphids without using harsh chemicals.

Method 1: Companion planting

Coriander is supposed to repel aphids. Aside from wanting to use it in our cooking, its aphid-repellent properties were part of the reason we chose to grow it alongside the others. Our four planter boxes had quite deliberately been stocked with a mix of the beetroot, silverbeet, lettuce and coriander, rather than having each pot with only one type of plant in it.

Three of the four pots included coriander and the aphid assault started in the pot without coriander. So it’s fair to say that there may be some merit to coriander repelling aphids, however they have spread to the other pots and now are even on the new coriander leaves…annoying little critters.

Method 2: Lady beetles

I don’t know about your area but it’s not often we see lady beetles in gardens around here these days. And lady beetles are the natural predators of aphids. But with no flowers on the balcony, and no more space and pots to plant with flowers that would attract them, it seemed this option was not available to us.

Method 3: Soap spray

The organic gardening community swears by using soap spray to control aphids. So we gave it a go…

Mix together 1 droplet of environmentally-friendly dishwashing liquid, 1 tsp vegetable oil and 1 cup water and spray on the plants affected by aphids.

It does work but the process needs to be repeated every few days on an ongoing basis to ensure that you wipe out all stages of the aphid population. Unfortunately, part way through this process I noticed too late some lady beetle larvae on the chilli bushes, but the soap spray also gets rid of them.

Not sure how the lady beetle larvae turned up in our little garden and definitely wanting to encourage them, soap spray was no longer an option. We decided to leave spraying anything for a week and keep an eye on the plants for the appearance of more lady beetle larvae.

Method 4: Garlic spray

More reading uncovered the suggestion of using a garlic-infused water spray to control aphids. All the while wondering how this might affect lady beetles, we decided to try it.

Finely grate 1 or 2 cloves of garlic into a cup of water. Allow to infuse for 30 minutes or so. Strain into a spray bottle and then spray the affected plants.

So far so good. We’ve used this application three times and the aphids don’t like it. The lady beetle larvae that have reappeared seem undeterred, contentedly munching on aphids. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised. Most dishes taste better with a hint of garlic, don’t they?!

What we’re really keen to find out is how the lady beetles know to appear. How do they know when a particular spot has an infestation of aphids? Their arrival seemed so random but they turned up right when we needed them. And while they haven’t obliterated the enemy yet, we know they’re not far off it.

There are so many mouthwatering recipes in Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals it’s hard to choose, but eventually I settled on an Asian style beef and noodle salad (page 68).

Challenge #2 Seared Asian Beef, Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing

All of the recipes in this book start with the instruction “ingredients out” and this recipe also suggested boiling the kettle and setting a frypan on high heat.

Ingredients: cashews, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, rice noodles, romaine lettuce, carrot, cucumber, radishes, coriander, spring onions, cress, alfalfa sprouts, steak, Chinese five spice, pickled ginger, limes, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, olive oil, red chilli

So I set about weighing ingredients and getting various tools ready to go. This took 10 minutes and 44 seconds. Slightly longer than the first challenge but not by much.

Start cooking

First is toasting the nuts and seeds until golden then setting aside. Next pouring boiling water over the noodles to heat them through; then rubbing the steak with Chinese five spice, salt and pepper, and cooking in the pan until done to your liking (medium-rare for me). All very straightforward.

Next was the ginger dressing, really just mixing the pickled ginger, lime juice, fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and chopped chilli together. Not difficult.

Now on to assembling the salad—separating lettuce leaves, grating carrot, chopping radishes, cucumber and spring onion (by hand, not with the food processor like most of these recipes call for), grabbing the coriander leaves, cress and alfalfa, then arranging them on a platter or board—there’s nothing complicated here. All the while flipping your steak and, when cooked, resting it.

Finally, draining the rice noodles and scattering them over the salad, slicing the beef and placing the slices on top, then scattering the platter with the nuts and seeds.

It all sounds like the simplest thing in the world, and it is, but it still took me 22 minutes and 20 seconds to complete it. Although I have to admit, I wasn’t trying too hard because after last time I’d decided I preferred my own cooking pace.

That brings the total cooking time up to 33 minutes and 4 seconds. OK, so not 15 minutes but I still think that’s really quick to produce a delicious healthy dinner.

My thoughts

Positive: This dish had fantastic Asian elements—sweetness, saltiness, heat, fabulous crisp vegetables, amazing crunch from the toasted nuts and seeds, soft noodles, and tender juicy meat. I loved the combination. There were lots of beautiful textures and every mouthful was just a little bit different, depending on what ingredients had ended up on the fork.

Negative: Who am I kidding—brilliant dish! Just took a little longer to prepare than I expected.

Next time?

I will certainly make Jamie’s Seared Asian Beef, Best Noodle Salad & Ginger Dressing again but will start by cooking the steak, and allowing it plenty of time to rest. The nuts and seeds can easily be toasted in another pan—extra washing up but not a big deal.

The types of comfort foods we eat are different for everyone. For me, I associate things that are loaded with calories—some sweet, some savoury—with comfort and feeling better. I know I’m not alone in that. I mean, realistically, has anyone ever come home from a bad day at work and said, “I’ve had such a bad day, I really need some salad to cheer me up”? No, it’s things like chocolate, ice cream, or potato chips that we crave…

So what are the key qualities of comfort food? As I see it:

• nostalgia—some of my favourite comfort foods, the ones more like a meal than a snack, are the dishes that take me back to nana’s kitchen or special family dinners. For me, that’s things like roast lamb with mint sauce or pumpkin soup
• a treat—if something in my life isn’t going quite to plan I like to give myself a little boost with a sweet treat. Chocolate caramel slice anyone?
• pleasurable to eat—the sheer enjoyment of eating something decadent and delicious, even if it may not quite fit in with the healthy eating plan. I make a very simple dish that I class as comfort food—it’s the creamy sauce of garlic chicken majestic. I just love it!

Looking back over some of my previous posts it seems I have quite a few comfort foods. In addition to the ones I’ve already mentioned, take a look at:

• ‘stralian beef curry. Who doesn’t love a good curry?
• scrambled eggs. Best…brekkie…ever!
• herbed rissoles served with creamy mashed potato. Two comfort foods on the one plate—heaven!
• savoury beef roll. It’s like a giant sausage roll…need I say more?

Hmmm, nothing healthy in that list. I would love to hear from you if salad really is your comfort food. And if so, what’s the salad recipe? It’s gotta have bread or potato or creamy mayonnaise, right?!

Until a couple of years ago, I’d never made bircher muesli. I had this idea in my head that it was complicated. Then I stumbled upon a great recipe for bircher muesli and refined it to suit my own tastes. It takes about five minutes to prepare, but then has to be left for a while to allow the oats to soak up the fruit juice and yoghurt. I like to leave my bircher muesli overnight so the flavours really infuse and the oats become really soft.

If you love a healthy breakfast that will keep you going all the way until lunch, bircher muesli is definitely worth trying. This recipe makes enough for two serves.

Ingredients

1 apple (your choice of variety depending on your tastes), cored and grated
1 cup rolled oats (or quinoa flakes for a gluten-free alternative)
½ cup Greek style yoghurt
½ cup pure apple juice or milk
1–2 tbs sultanas
A pinch of ground cinnamon, to taste
2 tbs pepitas
¼ cup whole blanched almonds
¼ cup walnuts

Method

Combine the grated apple, oats (or quinoa flakes), yoghurt, apple juice or milk, and cinnamon in a bowl. Cover with cling film and leave for at least an hour but preferably overnight.

When ready to eat, add the pepitas, almonds and walnuts, and stir through. Serve immediately.

Note: you can replace the apple juice with pineapple or orange juice. Instead of sultanas you could try dried apricots, currants or cranberries. The pepitas and nuts can be substituted with your choice of seeds and nuts—your aiming for a bit of crunch. Also consider adding toasted shredded coconut.

Home-grown basil

For me, there’s nothing more rewarding than using home-grown herbs. It pleases the wannabe hobby farmer lurking within. So what is it that’s attractive about growing my own herbs? Well, I like that I’m saving the $2-plus per bunch for cut herbs from the greengrocer (which don’t last long) and only using what I need, so there’s less waste. But mostly what’s appealing is the simple pleasure that I’ve created a green space on an inner city balcony, I’m reaping the rewards of my garden, and enjoying the superb fragrance, taste and freshness of eating herbs that were living just moments ago.

The first of the birdseye chillies starting to ripen.

Jim and I have been fortunate enough to have a successful balcony herb garden for several years now. How we’ve managed this, I’m not sure because it doesn’t take a lot of input from us—regular watering and occasionally applying extra nutrients, checking for pests, pruning if needed (although that’s usually covered just by cutting what’s needed for cooking). I would say easily less than 30 minutes a week spent tending to it.

On our productive little patch (a 3m² balcony garden that only gets the morning sun) we grow three types of chillies—birdseye, habanero and Apache chief (Jim is a chilli freak)—basil, mint, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, sage, lemon thyme, thyme, oregano, garlic chives and rosemary.

Even after all this time, I still find it satisfying each time I go and collect what I need for a recipe. Jim can attest that I frequently comment on the wonderful taste and smell of our fresh pickings. It amazes me that we can do this in such a small space and get so much out of it. It’s very rare that we have to buy fresh herbs to supplement our in-house supply, and this was always my goal with the balcony garden.

The new balcony garden potted with beetroot, silver beet, lettuce, coriander, rosemary and bay.

Now I’ve decided to turn my hands to the larger space on the back balcony we use for entertaining. Gone are the pots of colourful petunias, snapdragons and alyssums now past their best, replaced with beetroot, silverbeet, lettuce, coriander and another rosemary plant. I’m hoping that the different varieties of multi-coloured beetroot and silverbeet will brighten up the space as much as the flowers did.

I had started this process a few months ago, swapping out a sad looking palm for a bay tree to see how it would handle the very hot and drying conditions of a balcony that gets the harsh afternoon sun. The experiment went well—it has doubled in size in that time despite my stealing its leaves for cooking.

I’m sure that the rosemary will love its spot but not sure how the softer foliage of the others will go. Stay tuned! And any advice is gratefully accepted…

I’ve been watching Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals on TV and was given the accompanying recipe book for Christmas. Always on the lookout for great recipes to add to my work-day dinner repertoire, this book is full of my kind of food and I thought it best to get stuck in and give it a go this week. And why not put a time limit on myself for once. Could I actually cook a meal in 15 minutes? Challenge accepted.

I’m notoriously slow at preparing food, partly because I like to clean up as I go and partly because of a previous kitchen mishap (picture a tough-skinned Queensland Blue pumpkin, a blunt knife and a self-stabbing—the pumpkin won that day).

I’ve read quite a few reviews of the book and blogs of people challenging themselves in the same way. Not too many seem to have managed it so my expectations for success in the 15-minute timeframe were not high.

Challenge #1 Golden scallops, sun-blush mash & greens

The golden scallops, sun-blush mash & greens recipe (page 144) appealed to me as a good starting point—all the flavours I love and maybe, just maybe, achievable in the timeframe because there’s not a lot of ingredients or chopping to worry about.

Ingredients: scallops, bacon, sage, potatoes, cheddar cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, milk, broccoli, asparagus, frozen peas, lemon juice, olive oil

Ready, set…

I should start by quoting the instructions in the book to get ready for cooking “ingredients out • kettle boiled • large shallow lidded casserole pan, high heat • medium pan, high heat • food processor (bowl blade) • large frying pan, medium heat”.

Rightly or wrongly, I took “ingredients out” to mean weighing out quantities, and some vegetable peeling and trimming. It took me 10 minutes and 27 seconds to get prepared (yes, I was keen to really test myself time-wise).

Now to the cooking. GO.

The idea was to get the potatoes on the heat first, as they would take the longest to cook. Jamie’s idea of 1cm slices going into a hot pan and covering them with already boiling water was a good one—the potatoes took a lot less time than normal to cook. Although I can envisage a few kitchen mishaps with boiling water going into the hot pan. It bubbles, hisses and spurts a lot!

Next was cooking the greens. Boiling water for 3 minutes—a no brainer really. Jamie says to toss with lemon juice and olive as soon as they have been drained. I personally think they need to be refreshed in cold water first, but I guess that would take up a bit more time and it’s something I can do next time.

Continuing on with the sun-blush part of the mash, the cheese and sun-dried tomatoes go into the food processor to blitz in readiness for when the potatoes are cooked—easy.

Next, slicing bacon and scoring scallops ready for the pan. Jamie says to cook the scallops first. For me, scallops are so quick to cook I think the bacon (I used proscuitto instead) should hit the pan first because it takes longer to melt the fat. Then the scallops and sage leaves could be added so they cook in the bacon fat. Another personal choice…

While that’s happening the cooked potatoes are drained and go into the food processor to create the mash.

Then plate up. It all comes together quite well. My cooking time: 16 minutes, 6 seconds. So not far too off the 15-minute timeframe.

Total time: 26 minutes, 33 seconds. Probably the fastest dinner I’ve ever prepared and cooked. Definitely the messiest state I’ve cooked in, physically and mentally.

My thoughts

Positive: I like the concept of Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals and the resulting dish was delicious! Sun-dried tomatoes, bacon, sage, scallops—these work so well together. Salty, meaty, sweet—brilliant! The mash, despite the rich flavours of sun-dried tomato and tasty cheddar, was surprisingly light and had a gorgeous creamy texture. It’s made me completely rethink the way I make mash.

Negative: I felt really rushed and disorganised, even though I had read the recipe several times and had everything out, weighed and ready to go. I know it’s not meant to be a race but I’m sure many people would struggle to get this done in 30–40 minutes, let alone 15! Oh, and perhaps I am guilty of gluttony but the dish needs more scallops (4 each is simply not enough of these tasty critters).

Next time?

I will most certainly make this dish again…but for me cooking should be an enjoyable experience, so I’ll do it while sipping a glass of wine and without the mad rush. I don’t really mind if this means it takes me longer.

Eating tapas at Ole Restaurant can be as light or as filling as you want, with a long list of tapas and more substantial plates (raciones). The atmosphere is casual, relaxed dining and the staff are very friendly and helpful with the menu, not to mention the food being delicious. Here’s what we had:

• chickpea fritters with hot sauce (bolitas de garbanzo)
• crispy spiced potatoes (patatas bravas)
• beef cheeks braised in pedro ximenez, green pea and radish salad (mejillas de carne)
• tomato, rocket, walnut and manchego (ensalada de tomate y manchego)
• Spanish cold set custard with warm toffee and blood orange (crema catalana)

The beef cheeks were the stand out dish of our selection—the meat was soft, melt-in-the-mouth and oh so rich, and the pea and radish salad was a good fresh palate cleanser so you could keep going back for more of that dark, decadent goodness. The crunchy patatas bravas were also brilliant for soaking up the pedro ximenez sauce leftover on the plate. Yes, it was that good! They weren’t lying about the hot sauce for the chickpea fritters (thankfully there’s sangria) but everything we ordered was delightful.

Will we be going back? Yes, definitely. We simply have to try the Spanish classic—paella—and there were three types on the menu. There were also many more appealing tapas and raciones to sample so at the very least we’ll have to make a second trip.

Fruit mince parcels are a wonderful Christmas treat, and not quite as sweet as fruit mince pies. You could make your own fruit mince (well in advance of Christmas Eve to allow the fruit to soak in rum), or you could keep it simple like I do and buy a good fruit mince (I use Robertson’s Traditional Fruit Mince).

What’s beautiful about fruit mince parcels is they are made with filo pastry rather than sweetened shortcrust pastry, so they are really crunchy when you bite into them. The buttery filo is the perfect foil for the rich sweetness of fruit mince.

Ingredients

410g jar of Robertson’s fruit mince
375g filo pastry
3 tbs melted butter

Method

To make the fruit mince parcels, pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Lay out on the kitchen bench (or large cutting board) one sheet of filo pastry and brush it with melted butter, lay another sheet straight on top and butter it. Repeat until you have six buttered sheets of filo pastry. Note: Allow your filo pastry to completely defrost before using it. It should be a room temperature before you try to spread it out otherwise the pastry will crack.

Cut the pastry into approximately 12cm x 12cm squares (adjust the size of the squares depending on the size of your pastry sheets; I end up with six squares from each of mine). In the centre of each pastry square place 1 tbs of fruit mince. Gather up the sides of the filo pastry and pinch in together just above the fruit mince so that it is enclosed in the pastry. The filo pastry above the fruit mince should resemble the gathered cellophane around the top of a chocolate truffle.

Butter the outside of the fruit mince parcel and place on a lined baking tray. Repeat until you’ve used all the fruit mince. The quantities should make between 15 and 20 fruit mince parcels.

Place the tray of fruit mince parcels in the oven and allow to cook until golden brown, approximately 10 minutes. Once golden, remove from the oven and allow to cool—the fruit mince will be bubbling furiously while baking. These should be served warm with a dollop of double cream.

If you wanted give fruit mince parcels as little festive gifts in the lead up to Christmas, allow them to cool completely and tie thin green and red ribbons around the gathered section of pastry.