Easiest tomato salad anyone?

We've had a lovely summer and as a result of that our Sungold tomatoes are at their peak right now.  I grow these every year as they always ripen even when the summer is bad, it just takes longer.   I wanted a nice, easy salad to showcase the tomatoes this year and have come up with this, really simple letting the flavours flood out.

Ingredients

1 little gem or sweet gem lettuce
A good handful of home grown cherry tomatoes
2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Method

Slice the little gem lettuce crossways into strips, wash it and drain in kitchen paper.  Add to a bowl and add the balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and mix together.  Add the tomatoes on top and serve, delicious!

Low fat salad dressing?

Since being on the diet I have been experimenting on creating a low fat salad dressing.  One of my favourites is to use just balsamic vinegar, both "red" and white and they are a great quick standby to keep in the cupboard, but for something a little more special I've developed a Lemon and Ginger dressing that I think tastes lovely and gives salad a really fresh, clean taste.  Give it a go, it's really easy to make, do let me know what you think!

Ingredients
Juice of 1 lemon
2cm fresh ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Start by grating the ginger finely into a bowl.  Grate the pith off the lemon and add this to the ginger.  Now squeeze the lemon and pass the juice through a sieve to get rid of pips and any other large debris.  Add a small teaspoon of oil - This recipe uses Extra Virgin Olive oil but Sesame oil works just as well for Eastern salads.  Now add a small amount of salt and pepper to taste - go easy as you don't need very much!  Whisk it with a micro whisk or a fork and drizzle it on your salad.  It will keep to for a couple of weeks in the fridge if you cover it with cling film.

Not the end of the diet...

I've come to the end of my slimming world prescription, but I'm going to pay to continue with it. 

I'm surprised at this myself looking back at my initial post, but once I started chatting to the others and getting to know them they're a friendly bunch who all support each other which is excellent.

However, the main reason I'm staying is that it works, I've been doing it for around 12 weeks now and have lost 1st 11lbs as of last week, that's just over 2lbs a week, just about the ideal weight loss.  I also feel so much better for it so it's worth carrying on.

The other things that really works is that the diet is easy to do, no special drinks or ingredients, no weighing of food, indeed, the only part of it that's really hard is trying to limit the bread intake - you don't realize just how much bred we all eat until you have to limit it to once slice a day!

Having said that, today's lunch was delicious, I bought a dressed crab from the market and had half of that with some lettuce and heritage cherry tomatoes dressed with a little balsamic vinegar.  It beats the hell out of any shop bought sandwich!

So, still a long way to go, but I'm determined to carry on :)  Let me know if you want any recipe ideas...

Just over a week into the diet

Well, I was a little dubious about the diet, but it definitely works and is actually really well thought out.  My first week I lost 8/5 pounds which is pretty amazing.

The principle of the diet is to have lost of "free" food, which are relatively calorie poor.  You can have as much as you like and it fills you up, so you end up losing weight.  It's very surprising when it includes lean meat, eggs, potatoes and pasta - yes, you heard that right!  It works, so I'm happy to accept that and will carry on with it.

As to cooking I've been cooking all sorts of things but just cutting down on fats and oils in particular, but also some carbs - anything with sugar and most breads.  It's actually pretty easy to reduce the bad ingredients and up the good ones, so we are eating really well.

That's it for now, but I'm impressed and will be sticking to it all :)

3 steps to heaven?

Maybe not, but anyone who has signed up for Slimming World will know all about the three steps.  I decided some time ago that I was going to lose weight and have been battling with my bulk for many years. Part of the problem at least is my total lack of will power and this will be the major stumbling block to me losing weight but I'm now determined to succeed this year, helped by a prescription from the doctor for 12 weeks of slimming world membership.

So, my first session was today.  I went with a great deal of trepidation and this was made worse by going into the hall to be met by lots of people and a lot of noise, so much that even with my hearing aid in I was having difficulty hearing anything clearly,  The presenter (or leader) was very good, very welcoming and had lots of useful information to pass on, but I came away thinking going round the room and sharing how much you've lost this week while everyone claps isn't my sort of thing at all.

So, will it work?  Time will tell, but the message that comes from the group is really encouraging, there's no calorie counting and you only need to weigh foods that are in the second or third groups while you can eat as much from the first group as you like.  As the "eat as much as you want" list is very comprehensive there is a lot of food that doesn't need to be weighed.  Result!

You can have anything but you need to weight them and limit them.  That's OK, it all makes sense and seems to have a basis on healthy eating and is used in many other diets but without a great deal of hassle.  I'm very surprised That I've come away feeling good about the road ahead.  As i say, time will tell if my self control is up to this, but if it leads to losing weight, no only will I feel good but be healthier and still be able to eat all the nice food I want without putting on weight.  Very promising and I'll definitely have a large portion of that, thank you.

Watch this space!

Rhubarb and gnger tart with rhubarb and ginger sorbet

It was going to be gooseberry as they're supposed to be in season, but they weren't in the shops I use.  The rhubarb looked good though and rhubarb and ginger works well so...

Ingredients

• 500g of rhubarb, sliced
• 250ml of ginger beer
• 100g of caster sugar
• 100g of liquid glucose
• 3g ice cream stabiliser (optional)
• 1 pack short crust pastry (or make your own)
• 100g of gooseberries
• 30g of caster sugar
• 225ml of double cream
• 12g of root ginger
• 105g of caster sugar
• 5 eggs

Method
Make the sorbet by placing the rhubarb in a saucepan with the ginger beer, sugar and glucose. Bring to the boil and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Blend the mixture in a blender until smooth, then pass through a fine sieve and allow to cool.  Add the ice cream stabiliser if using being careful to make sure it mixes well with no lumps.  Churn the sorbet mixture in an ice cream maker. When it is ready, transfer the sorbet to a freezer proof container and freeze until ready to serve

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Unroll the pastry and line a 20cm tart tin.  Cover with greaseproof paper and add baking beans, then blind bake for 10-12 minutes until the pastry starts to brown, then leave to cool

To make the gooseberry custard tart mix, first place the rhubarb on a baking tray, sprinkle over 30g of the sugar and cook in the oven for 20 minutes until just tender.

To make the custard, combine the double cream and sliced ginger in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Separate the yolk from 1 of the 5 remaining eggs and whisk the eggs and the remaining sugar until light and fluffy, then pour the hot cream over the eggs and whisk again.

Carefully pour the custard tart mixture into the pre-cooked tart case. Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is firm in the centre and the top is golden brown.  Top each tart with the baked rhubarb and serve with a quenelle of the sorbet.

Wild Boar ragu with pappardelle

So, I got a slow cooker for Christmas and also bought some wild boar.  As wild boar has to be cooked long and slow to get the flavour and make sure it's not too tough, it should be a marriage made in heaven, yes?  Indeed, it turned out to be exactly that!  You can of course cook it in the oven or on the hob in the same way, but here is my slow cooker version.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 small carrots, peeled and diced

3 sticks celery, peeled and diced

1 large onion, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 bay leaf

A few springs of thyme

2 large tomatoes, diced

500g wild boar, diced

175ml red wine

500ml chicken stock

400g chopped Italian tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Dried Pappardelle pasta to taste 

Method
First, make the soffritto by heating the oil in a medium frying pan and then adding the carrots, celery, onions and garlic in that order.  I tend to prep the veg while cooking as the carrots ad celery require more time to cook than the onions and garlic, so cooking the carrots while peeling and dicing the celery etc. works out perfectly.

Once the soffritto is cooking, add the diced wild boar and brown on a high heat.  Add the red wine, then reduce to half the volume.  Add the Chicken stock and reduce to 2/3 volume, still on a high heat.  Finally add the tomatoes, bay leaf and thyme and season to taste.  Put this in the slow cooker and cook for 5 hours on a low heat, skimming every 2 hours to remove the fat that comes to the surface.

Prepare the pappardelle as per the instructions (you can make your own pasta, but I find the dried tastes just a good!), then serve a couple of spoons of the ragu over the top of the pasta.  If you wish you can add cheese, but as this is a rich dish I prefer it in small quantities without adornment.  Whatever is left over can be frozen for a quick supper.

I hope you enjoy it :)