Tuesday, June 30, 2015

A Tasty Treat in Just Minutes, & Only Four Ingredients :)

My sweet tooth dragged me to the kitchen after making my a couple of videos today, a welcome note for my website, plus a new EFT video.



First came the coconut, then I added cacao powder, figured I'd need something to sweeten - maple syrup from Yurai's parents- thank you very much - and cream, just because I can. ;)

You don't need a recipe, do you...? 

Ok, if you do, here's approximate measurements-

1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 Tsp (unsweetened) cacao powder
1Tbsp maple syrup 
1Tbsp cream 
(**add whatever else you fancy, cinnamon, cardamom, chia seeds, cacao nibs, oatmeal.....)

Mix everything together.

If mixture is too wet, add more coconut, otherwise more cream or maple syrup, depending on your tastebuds, and roll into balls or eat straight out of the bowl with a spoon.

How many portions? Enough.
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Play with your food! :D 

That's all, post done. 

Let me know if you try these, and don't forget to add a whole lotta love-- It'll negate the rest of the ingredients, if that's a worry for you (like it used to be for me). <3

Much peace and love. 



My very first chutney


With all the cherries we recieved from Yurai's parents, I'd been promising to make chutney. We cooked up all the cherries so they wouldn't go off, kept some in the fridge to be neatly rolled into crepes, made some cherry chocolate ice cream (which is so simple and really, there's no need for an ice cream maker), and the rest sit in the freezer, waiting to be turned into chutney.
Key word be 'waiting.' 



Alas, such is the way with this dear foodie, who has half a dozen projects on the go. No stress, I just roll with it. :)

With the cherries waiting, Yurai's folks made a surprise drop off over the weekend. This time tons of currants, red, white and a blueberry shade too-. 

Neither of us really love them, so Yurai pulled off the stems (not my favourite job-bless him- !!!), whilst I had my creative mind elsewhere for a few moments-revamping our 'Modern Alchemy for Emotional Freedom,' website.  Still working on the totally new one, which will compliment my own website, and eventually, Yurai's- like a small collection, but I'm not designing clothes, this time.
Once an artist, always an artist. ;)

I digress...Back to currants. Once he finished, into a pot they went, on low heat, cooking in their own time, while I carried on playing with our website. 

There was a beautiful crimson blob by the end, which I converted into an even more beautiful crimson blob, complete with rich flavors from the onions, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, coriander...not forgetting the compulsory brown sugar & vinegar. 

On an aside, less than a year ago, I wouldn't have made chutney because of the high sugar content, even though I loved it. "That just cannot be good for you...." Blah blah blah. 
Gone is that rule. Thank God (myself).
If I love it, and it's supposed to have sugar, then I will add the sugar and love it too 😉. 

Now then, I have to admit though, as with most of what I cook/create, this one is a very loose recipe. 

The ratios for sugar:vinegar are roughly the same (or 1 : 66, respectively). That was pretty much all I knew for certain, the rest I could and did swing, having reviewed a few different recipes for chutney, (linked below).

I love my first batch which contained roughly: 

3 cups of mixed (cooked) currants (juice removed) 

1.5 medium sized onion 

1 cup brown sugar 

2/3 cup (plain) vinegar 

(Approximately)

1 tsp salt
1tsp coriander seeds (whole) 
1/2 tsp cloves 
1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger (finely chopped) 
1 tsp mustard seeds 
1/4 tsp Chili flakes
(a lot of recipes call for raisins, I didn't have any, so skipped that part). 
--- 
Quite literally, you just throw everything into a pot at the same time, and cook on low heat for about 45mins to an hour, keeping a watchful eye towards the end, so as to not reduce too much, burning your lovely chutney.

If you do what I did, and already have cooked fruit, you don't need to cook the mixture for as long. Having cooked the berries, they'd released a lot of water, which in the process, turned into a ruby red syrup- I did add a little (to moisten the mixture), at the very beginning. Go with your gut. :)

**Instead of adding everything to the pot, as mentioned above, I left the currants till last, once the onions had softened. 

 AND, seriously, play with your food. I've given rough estimates above, always leaving room for your own tastebuds to make magic. OR pop along to anyone of these recipes, which I skimmed through:

From The Kitchn, Marisa Mcclellan's 'An Adaptable Chutney'
From The Kitchn, Nigel Slater's 'Dark and Sticky Fruit Chutney'
From BBC's Goodfood.com, Emma Lewis' 'How to make Chutney'
From Jamie Oliver.com, Claudia Medeiros' 'Cherry Chutney Recipe'

Serve as you wish, I had a few bites with the potato curry/masala I made a couple of days ago, but I can imagine this piece of art with a dozen other foods already. 

Jeeze, I love food, and creating. 🌞

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My Visual Mind:

A little picture story about a Potato Curry, paired with a mixed  Currant Chutney, my first ever, would you believe? :)

Picture 1- Quite simply, Potatoes, chutney & Coriander Shoots
Picture 2- Let's add some chill flakes
Picture 3- And currants as garnish
Picture 4- Currants atop the Potatoes, of course
Picture 5- Another view :)










Take some time for you and play. C'est tout :)
Much peace and love. <3

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Quick and Easy Bean Salad

This was wonderful as it was, though I can imagine all kinds of goodies coming from this concoction.

Quite simply, I stirred together, tamari and dijon mustard, with coconut oil, and tossed in spouted, then lightly boiled kidney beans, and topped with rucola.

I was hooked on this for days!



Once again, I thank you for coming along and visiting my food blog, and for your patience. I got then posts up today, and am happy with that. I'll get back here at my soonest convenience to get more details up.

Till then, please play with your food, try out new things, and share!! :) Drop me a line anytime, should you wish for a food chat. In any case, come along to my Instagram page, where you'll find tons more food, and other things I love :)


May you be blessed.
xxMunjeet 

Fancy Fries & Eggs, w/ Spring Onions, & Sprouts

Carrying on from the last post, with this lovely picture, the feature this time is not leeks, nor pasta, rather a breakfast for champs.

My favourite, fancy fries, with eggs made in a cookie cutter, leeks on the side, with rocket sprouts and plenty of dill.

As with the rest, recipes, or outline of what I did to come. Thanks for your patience!
xx






Pasta without the pasta- Leeks

For long, I've been substituting breads and pastas for veggies, coming up with not so usual combo's. Sure this has been done before, but as it's sooooooo easy, I have to share.
I picked up the pictured veggies, from a couple who comes in from Hungary and sells their produce just down the road, (literally on the sidewalk). I thought I might use everything together, but came up with this, and then the rest I used for the next post- fancy fries and eggs made in a cookie cutter, with other yummy fixings :). 




Leek 'pasta' with the usual fixings of olive oil, butter and garlic, a pinch of salt, and a few tomatoes, and fresh dill. 

A Birthday Cake of Epic Proportions: Chocolate chunk Cookie, Ice Cream Cake, with a Rich Ganache topping.

It was my husband's birthday last week, and as you know, he loves chocolate chunk cookies. Sooo, I got it in mind to make one for him, a big one, with ice cream on top, and ganache to finish it all off. 

The result? Another hit with the family :) 

For the uber health conscious, who won't take my word for it, that healthy is a state of mind, this one wasn't so bad. Besides the cookie layer, I made the banana chocolate ice cream and ganache, and it all had a huge dose of love. <3

Details to come!! :)










This is what he got on his actual birthday - a personalised
castle like cake for a man who knows his greatness-
"Kral Yurai," which translates to "King George" ;D 

We're swapping over to sweets for a few posts :) 

Without any guilt or shame, I'm here to tell you that both my husband and I, love cookies, especially my cookies, full of butter, sugar and most importantly, a whole lotta love. :) "Healthy," is a state of mind, so for me, these guys a thumbs up. 

His favourite happen to be chocolate chunk. In fact, what he requests are chocolate chunks with bits of cookie. 

I found many recipes for the best cookie ever, and played with a couple of them to come to these beauties. One more trial and I've got them down pat, and ready to offer you :). 

Chocolate chunk with bits of cookie. There's a block of chocolate in the centre of these babies, and each chunk was placed
on top by yours truly. The ultimate cookie, made with love <3

A Heap of Sprouts, Brown Rice, Alfalfa, & Masoor Lentils

In my sprouting frenzy, I did a whole lot of brown rice, which meant a lot of playing :)

This little meal was heaven in my mouth, and if you don't count the sprouting time, it took only minutes to make.

Ingredients are on Instagram, though I've got a few more things to get up before switching tracks, so again, bear with me please. Thank you!





A Heap of Sprouts- Brown Rice, Alfalfa, & Masoor, with avocado, tamari, coriander and more :)





































Sprouted Brown Rice 
















Sprouting - the Easiest thing ever, and so good for you on so many levels!

I love Sprouting-it's a beautiful thing to take a bunch of  seeds, legumes, or grains, water them and give them lots of love (yes, I talk to mine :D), and watch them grow! For me, it's as miraculous as our existence, hence the act of sprouting is rather a sacred thing for me.

Sacred or not, so very easy to do. All you really need is patience, as they do take time to grow, but not as much as you may think.

As usual, pics for now, details later. Head on over to Instagram to get more of a peek at all things I love. :)


Masoor lentils 
Artsy Fartsy Masoor Lentils :) 


Wheatberrries, which were just beginning to sprout, so I started the drying
process (very slowly in oven, to eventually make my own whole wheat flour.












































Brown rice sprouts which I used for sooooo many things!
Sprouted Rukola/Rocket 





A close up on Rukola
Another one of my favourite pictures, (and the very first thing I sprouted): Three little bean sprouts. Yurai said he saw lots of hearts when first seeing this
picture. I saw "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon." Don't ask ;) 

From little sprouts, to full blown plants, pictured alongside
chia and alfalfa sprouts.


Speaking of alfalfa, I am slightly biased towards these goodies than anything else, just slightly though :)  

The beautiful alfalfa spouts




Sprouted Chia Seeds 



A Close up on Chia 






A salad of onions and pease, with alfalfa sprouts and parsley
dijon mustard, yoghurt & pickles :) 
I made a lovely egg salad, and used the same them with the salad here, minus the eggs. I love to surprise my husband with weird but delicious.



















From Flatbreads to Spreads and Dips, Hummus please :D

It may well make sense now, why I need to do this in stages, I do get way ahead of myself, and then overwhelmed. In any case, here we are, spreads, dips, and oh boy, even naan and a spicy Balkan Cheese! To see more of my food, head on over to Instagram :) 

A reminder to you that there's only pictures here, I'll be back with the "how," of these delights. :**


White Bean Hummus with Sundried Tomatoes 






Sprouted White bean & Masoor Lentil Hummus 
My favourite addition to Hummus-
Roasted Red Peppers (or Peas).











Sprouted Red (Kidney) Bean Hummus
Sprouted White Bean Hummus
 Labneh
Spicy Balkan Cheese
& Naan
Sprouted & Curried Masoor Lentil Dip
(Not shown, but part of the feast, pictured
to the left). 



Naan in progress, for the very first
time. Notice the narrow oil container?
That would be my rolling pin :)












Balkan Cheese, lightly cooked with
Cumin seeds & Chili Flakes.
Topped with toasted black sesame seeds
and peas.











Red Bean Hummus rolled in steamed cabbage with
Alfalfa sprouts. All of the above came about when I missed
"Food Revolution Day," here in Bratislava.
I was having a little revolution at home....sorry! ;D

Taking a Digestive Biscuit and Turning it into a Flatbread (Hold the Chocolate!! :D )

What started out as this: 
The Original Digestive (Square because I didn't yet own a cookie cutter). 





Turned into these:

Flatbread (using sprouted wheat) based on Digestive Biscuit
(Served with a Red Bean &
Caramalised Onion Spread)







                                                             
Flatbread (using sprouted wheat),
based on Digestive Biscuit
(Served with Sprouted &
Curried Masoor
Lentil Dip) 


And eventually this piece of work :D
Using the same idea as the flatbread (based on the digestive),
I created this second flatbread, made from "Jeera/Cumin Rice
with Onions & Peas. Didn't last very long!! 
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Next up, Spreads and Dips (I went on a bit of a hummus spree after my healing water cleanse, 26 days without food :D ).  
Red Bean &
Caramalised Onion Spread


Thanks for showing up :**

Digestive Biscuits with a Twist :)

Folks, forgive me as I multitask numerous things. In order to get this blog going, I'm posting pictures for now, which I shall return to and give you "recipes," or a better idea on how to make what's shown, using what I use, my creativity and imagination. 

We're going to play with food guys, I'm going to teach you how! 

So bear with me, as I revamp my website, do lots of writing and everything in-between. I'll be back soon. (If you fancy, come along to Instagram, where you'll find tons of my food ideas, (and perhaps you can request the next recipe...Now there's an idea ;) ).

Much love and may you be blessed.
xxMunjeet  <3 :**
The Almighty Digestive.  :) 




...or butter and honey...? :) 
Cumin & Cardamum, anyone?