Great British Classics: Chicken Tikka Masala

For those of you who don’t know it, the number one meal in the UK is not Fish & Chips; is not Beef roast and Yorkshire puddings; is not steak and ale pie. No, the number one meal, courtesy of all the Indian take away places more common than McDonalds, is Chicken Tikka Masala. Oddly, Tikka Masala was invented in Britain and isn’t even Indian really.

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From Wikipedia: “The origins of chicken tikka masala are hotly disputed. A widely reported explanation of the origins of the dish is that it was conceived in a Bangladeshi restaurant in Glasgow in the late 1960s, when a customer, who found the traditional chicken tikka too dry, asked for some gravy. The chef supposedly improvised a sauce from tomato soup, yogurt and spices. This claim has not been incontrovertibly proven, and there are other accounts and hypotheses of its origins. Although it has all the ingredients of an Urban legend, this is generally accepted as an attempt to create a pseudo-Indian dish that would initially have appealed to the British palate, but nowadays it is served in almost every "Indian" restaurant in the world, even in India.”

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Not finding good Indian food in Tucson, Susan ate her fill when she was in London. I thought, therefore, that I should attempt the Tikka Masala when I was visiting her. Khushi, back in London, supplied me with her versions of the very best spices, and then I used a recipe (shock! Horror!) off the weightwatchers site to replace the high fat coconut milk and cream usually present in the Tikka Masala. But I adapted of course – how can they possibly call for simply a half teaspoon of paprika – I used closer to a full tablespoon. Spice weenies watch out.

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The chicken was marinated in yoghurt, cumin, ground coriander, a dash of hot sauce (it called for chopped jalapeno and I had none), garlic and fresh squeezed lime juice. Best to let it marinate for a day, but I only had 1 hour. I then skewered it and grilled in on the grill. Even by itself, the sample I had to ‘check if it was done’, was mighty tasty.

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The sauce began with two teaspoons of olive oil, cumin and ‘tandoori masala spice’ from Khushi – which was deep red and more sweet than hot I thought, so I used quite a bit. (Note to self, bug Khushi for more of that!) Then you add a can of fat free evaporated milk, a can of chopped tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes. To that you add the grilled chicken and then throw in some chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) and serve over rice.

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Weightwatchers points: 7 per serving (pictured above) according to the website.

Picnic by the Side of the Road

We had a long, hot drive ahead of us today from Flagstaff (elevation 7000 ft) to Tucson (elevation 2500 feet). Leaving 80 degree weather (26 C) and quickly finding ourselves in 108 territory (42 C), we knew that we wouldn’t exactly be very hungry, but we packed a nice lunch to stop along the way and enjoy.

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Somewhere south of Sedona but north of Phoenix there was a rest area called Sunset Point. Family members will find the irony of our yearly destination to Sunset Point in the Adirondacks. It was hot, but we found some shade, and really it was an amazing view.

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For lunch, we had cold carrot and coriander soup, some fresh cherries, and yes I may have sneaked in a hot dog roll peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I am in America afterall!

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For the soup, it was my usual base of onion and garlic and chicken stock. Then I added a bag of normal carrots, peeled and chopped. I added a bit of orange juice as I blended this, and then added chopped coriander (cilantro) at the end. We ate it hot on Sunday night and had these leftovers cold on Monday.

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Most disappointing as I was working out the weight watchers points with WW-nazi Susan, was the learning that onions are 1 point per cup. How odd that green beans are zero points with their substantial bulk, and onion, which I thought had no nutritional value, have 1 point. This, I decided, needed some researching.

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It appears that 160 grams of onion (about a cup chopped) is 60 or so calories. This is 5% of daily allowance of carbohydrate and basically all sugar. However the onion is delivering 20% of your USRDA of Vitamin C – move over orange, there’s a new kid in town. Can you imagine what the vitamin C content of carrot, orange and onion soup is then? Onions also give us B6, manganese, folate, potassium and fiber. Really we should be sneaking onions in everywhere we can. If only the fried up, beer battered rings were just a bit better for you…

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Weightwatchers points for lunch: 9 as follows – 2 for the soup, 1 for the cherries and 6 for the hot dog roll peanut butter and apricot jelly ‘sandwich’.

Sockeye Salmon

For tonight’s version of my weekly salmon fix, I went out on a limb and bought some fresh sockeye salmon. Normally my salmon is Scottish salmon – a local source in the UK that is probably the best in the world. I’ll miss that when we move someday. I’ve tried the frozen Scottish salmon fillets and because I really like mine on the near-sushi side of rare, the frozen fillets just don’t work. So I treat the fresh Scottish days like a dying man – eat it now before it’s gone.

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In fact, that’s exactly what Andy said about the documentary End of the Line. We can’t find anywhere showing it, so we haven’t seen it, but if you’ve read any news lately you probably know that End of the Line has had the same effect on the fishing business and the general public, retail grocery chains and chefs that Inconvenient Truth had. It’s about the over fishing of waters and how our children are unlikely to have any fresh fish left because of the way our fishing industry, and the consumers that force the costs down, are behaving. Anyways, it’s the 80’s ‘I don’t eat fois gras’ or ‘I don’t eat veal’ circles and god forbid you order a sea bass at a business dinner. (I did last week, and it was sustainably farmed, and very yummy thank you very much). Andy, always one to stir the pot, says his strategy is to eat his now before it goes.

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But, back to the sockeye. I had told Andy we’d be eating it and he replied about the name “It sounds like a Tex Avery cartoon character who has disagreements with Bugs Bunny”. I thought I better try a more trusted source. I was surprised to learn that it’s essentially Pacific salmon to my Atlantic salmon of Scottish salmon variety. Though that actually made sense because I said it looked more like the wild Alaskan salmon they often sell at Waitrose. And you all have no doubt seen documentaries of bears catching salmon in the rivers in Alaska. I so wish I could just jump in and get all the free sushi I want!

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I was also surprised because I always thought those river fish in places like Michigan and Wisconsin were the sockeye salmon. Well, it turns out they are. While Pacific in nature, landlocked versions live in most of the states west of the Mississippi, and even into New York. Man, those fish got a little lost along the way, eh?

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One last fact about the sockeye – when they swim up river to spawn they turn red with green heads and grow racing stripes along their sides. Man, don’t you wish humans had some signals like that? Or well, maybe, I think I’ve seen the red and green and stripy thing on south London public transportation, nevermind.

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How did it taste you ask? To be honest, a lot more ‘fishy’ than the Scottish. I did the same honey-orange-chipotle marinade and pan fried the fillets in butter. The skin didn’t crisp as the fish was overall much less fatty than the Scottish. The texture was similar with bands of fish that delicate slide away. Sadly the fillets I bought had bones, so that was a new experience to have to deal with. I’d cook them again, but they don’t replace my beloved Scottish.

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We served them with asparagus made on the barbecue grill and broccolini done Italian style with olive oil and garlic. You boil the broccolini first and then sauté them with garlic and a teensy bit of olive oil. It was Susan’s first experience with the broccolini and although not enjoying broccoli, she gave it a thumbs up. I’m sure, given it’s deep green colour, that it must be packed with good for you stuff.

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Weightwatchers points: 8 as follows – 6 for the salmon fillet, 1 for the butter and ½ each for the honey and olive oil.

4th of July Barbecue

It’s fourth of July so it’s time for great American dinners with hot dogs, hamburgers and corn on the cob.

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Standing in for the hot dogs is Mr Smoked Bratwurst. Ahhhhh so many calories and fat smushed into such a small space. And in a potato dough hotdog roll with all the yumminess of white refined flour you’d think I’d be in too much of a coma to even be able to type this up.

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Playing next to the meat is corn on the cob, brushed with olive oil and chipotle, and grilled. And finally, nothing is more American than long green beans. We threw in some salad too, though minus the goat cheese as mr Smoked Bratwurst didn’t allow for much wiggle room.

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We finished this all off with my super low points margaritas – just tequila, lime, ice and a fresco tonight.

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I’d write more, but we’re off to see the fireworks.

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Weightwatchers points: 17 as follows: 8 for the bratwurst, 3 for the bun, 3 for the salad dressing & topping, 1 for the corn on the cob and another each for the olive oil and butter.

Grilled pork with corn and tomato salsa and sweet potato fry up

In the waitrose monthly free magazine, an extended brochure of their various ranges, there was a lovely spread on summer picnics. I saw the pork with corn and tomato salsa and was inspired. Of course I did my own thing, but credit is still due to them for the idea.

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I brushed the corn with olive oil and barbecue spice marinade, and grilled until nicely charred. I took the leftover marinade and chopped up some red onion, sweet potato and a little chorizo and then fried that in a big pan like you would with breakfast hashbrowns. I then marinated the pork with the same marinade plus a little honey and grilled those up.

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Some of the corn we ate as it was, grilled on the cob. And some of the corn got chopped up with tomatoes, cilantro (coriander), and red onion for a little salsa.

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We actually had a starter of tenderstem broccoli with the leftover beurre blanc from last night but didn’t show that here. With me going out of town tomorrow and Andy on an all-pizza-and-croissant diet I figured I better use up all of our remaining veg before I leave.

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Imagine 5 veg servings in this meal alone: tomato, onion, broccoli, sweet potato and corn.

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Weightwatchers points: 16 as follows: 5 for the pork, 6 for the generous amounts of olive oil used, 1 each for the sweet potatoes and corn, and 3 for the chorizo.

Last night's dinner tonight

Cod with a citrus beurre blanc

Last night we ended up effectively going to bed without dinner. I blame the heat wave in London. Given that everything was prepped last night for our cod dinner, this evening’s cooking was a breeze. And without the starchy butternut soup, I added some lovely first of the season corn on the cob.

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After a great success with a meaty sauce on last week’s cod, I decided to try something more delicate. Given how low in points a piece of cod is, I could splurge and do a beurre blanc. I’ve been told that when you are learning French sauces they start you on beurre blanc (white butter) first. It’s supposed to be a simple sauce – wine and shallots, then drain off the shallots and slowly whip in the butter until it thickens. No cream, no flour, no corn starch. Mine didn’t thicken, but it tasted lovely, and I went the extra mile and added this lovely lemon peel powder I have so technically it was a citrus beurre blanc.

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For the cod, I flipped the raw fillets in some flour, pan seared the outside and shoved in the oven for ten minutes.

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Finally some green beans and salad made up the rest of the plate.

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This was a lovely, slow to eat, fulfilling dinner: Perfect for a warm summer evening. We’ll be eating a lot of cod.

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Weightwatchers Points: 13 as follows: 3 for the fish, 5 for the beurre blanc, 4 for the salad toppings, 1 for the corn

Off to bed without dinner

Butternut soup starter, and as it turns out, no main meal

Andy and I spent the day emailing each other about how hungry we were. My lunch was catered as I was in a meeting and while I stayed away from the thai noodles and springrolls, I did have a second helping of the sea bass. So maybe I was just fished out after a fish starter and fish main at a business dinner the night before. We had planned to cook Cod this evening after the success a couple of weeks ago. But feeling hungry, Andy and I both agreed that some starchy soup would be good to take the edge off.

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I whipped up a batch of soup base – yellow onion, garlic and chicken stock. Then poured in a bag of pre-chopped butternut and brought that to a boil until soft. I threw all that in a blender and added a bit of cream, some maple syrup and chilli powder.

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As we were starving, we each went for a big bowl.

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After the starter, I was feeling very full so we agreed to put off dinner for an hour or two. I had all the ingredients prepped, salad dressing made, salad washed, etc. Two and a half hours later, well passed 9 in the evening, we agreed that there was no need for dinner.

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How 2 people can be so starving and then skip dinner altogether, I do not know.

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Weightwatchers points: 5 points for effectively 2 helpings of soup

Pork with summer cherries and sweet potato fries

Tonight I've given Andy a turn to write the daily blog.
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So, today it’s my turn to write, as I’m doing some of the cooking. We’re starting with pork tenderloin – or, as Asda calls it, pork fillet. Asda is the UK branch of Walmart, so I think we can all work on the assumption that tenderloin has too many syllables for the executives, and they need to dumb it down.

It’s a fantastic cut of meat – long, cylindrical, fairly low fat (as pork goes), easy and quick to cook.

Today I’m pan/pot roasting it. Made a crust of ground almond, rock salt and chipotle, and stuck it to the fillet with a brush of beer. Frankly, it didn’t stick brilliantly; but enough stuck. Although it might be better to go with an egg wash.
Then I fried it with a little butter to crisp up the coating and to sear the outside, and then stuck it in the oven to roast for a quarter of an hour.

Leaving it to rest out of the pan, I deglazed the pan with some cheap and crappy red wine, and some cherries that I’ve whizzed up in a blender to make a cherry juice, and some pepper, chilli and a little cinnamon. A spicy, lovely and sweet reduced sauce that works well with the spicy pork.

Meanwhile, Beth’s cooking some sweet potato fries, with more of that BBQ3000 magic, and a splash of olive oil, roasting them. And sautéing some spinach for tonight's green.

Weightwatchers points: 13 points as follows: 6 for the pork and sauce, 6 for the sweet potato fries, and 1 for the butter on the spinach

Soup and Salad a la Leftovers

Staring into the fridge I found the tupperware container of the carrot and parsnip mash staring back at me along with the 3rd steak we grilled last night, and, on the counter, the bag of mini pitas from last night’s pita chips.

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So for a nice filling Saturday lunch I decided to do a little leftover alchemy.

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For the soup, I started with my normal base of garlic and onions in a little butter and then added chicken stock when the onions were nice and soft. I dumped in the carrot and parsnip mash and let them all come back to a nice simmer. I took that off the heat, threw it in the blender for a whiz and then brought it back onto the stove. I finished it off with a big dose of chili powder, some more maple syrup and a bit of cream.

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For the salad, I used the 2 open containers of salad – one a mix of leaves that we just didn’t finish earlier in the week and one a bag of wild rocket I bought for our sandwiches except neither of us ate very many sandwiches this week for lunch. It feels so good not to waste food! I did my usual French walnut oil Dijon dressing and then topped the salad with slices of the steak, goat cheese, granny smith apple and almonds.

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Finally I prepped the pitas exactly as I did last night – they were THAT good.

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We dipped the pitas in the soup and used them as bases of little sandwiches from the salad.

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What a filling lunch. And way (weigh?) more points than usual for lunch but we had them to spare today after a simple breakfast of low fat yogurt and fresh berries and cherries.

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Weightwatchers points: 16 points as follows: 2 for the leftover steak, 3.5 for the soup, 6.5 for the pita chips, and 4 for the salad dressing/toppings.

Grilled steak and aubergine garlic goo

When we went on our first boat trip to Turkey a few years ago, we were delighted by a Turkish dish I believe is technically called Sarimsakli. The chefs made it nearly every day with a different vegetable inclusion – sometimes just watercress, sometimes julienned carrots, sometimes, cucumber, and my favorite, grilled aubergine (eggplant, brinjals depending on what English you speak). We would eat large quantities of it and soak up any that was left with old crusty bread. We kept asking the chef what is was but our ability to learn Turkish was limited. I can just about say thank you. So we called it garlic goo and that stuck pretty well. What was so weird is that *everybody* loved this – even picky eaters Greg and Mark.

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When I got back home I tried to whip up a batch and was shocked to see how much garlic you needed to get the same taste. We’re talking 4-5 cloves of garlic to a half cup of yogurt. Ouch, no vampires here I say!

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So for this I used frozen slices of pre-grilled aubergines. I used to sauté the aubergines myself but that makes you use a lot of olive oil, and when I found these perfect, no oil, grilled aubergines I figured that was a nice cheat indeed. Not so ironically there was a label on the pack saying “Delia’s Cheats”. Delia is one smart woman. I added this to full fat Greek style plain yogurt. I looked it up online and even though it’s full fat it’s not actually that bad for you. And I suppose the goodness of yogurt trumps the badness of dairy fat in this case.

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For a nice crispy thing to spread the goo on, I sliced up pitas, brushed on a light coating of olive oil and then sprinkled on Penzey’s oddly named “Barbecue 3000” spice blend. I broiled these in a super hot oven and found that they were a great substitute for French fries. Seriously.

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Not to be completely overshadowed by the goo, our protein tonight is steak. Marinated in olive oil and more of that Barbecue 3000. It was great on it’s own, but I tended to dip even the steak in the garlic goo and was not disappointed.

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And finally, we have a side salad of maiche with tomatoes and goat cheese. The dressing was the usual walnut oil Dijon with, you guessed it, a special guest star showing of the Barbecue 3000 to tie it all together.

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Before you get too excited I do have to admit that the serving, as shown was well over my usual dinner allowance at a hefty 18.5 points. For my friends on 22 points, I apologise, but that was a large steak and lots of crisps, so you know where to cut.

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Weightwatchers points: 18.5 points as follows: 7 for the steak, 3.5 for the olive oil, 3 for the pita, 2 for the yogurt, and 3 for salad dressing and goat cheese.

Wasabi salmon, wasabi mash

Given that I have to fulfill my salmon craving the challenge for me will be to write up something new and different every time I serve it. Tonight we decided to use some of the Penzey’s wasabi powder we purchased when we were in Minnesota for Ms Rodas’s wedding. A couple of months ago Andy bumped his big behind into the spice shelves and we had wasabi explosion. He broke the lid of the container so its been wrapped in cellophane and ziplocked up.

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I read once that the practice of putting wasabi on sushi originated from an antiseptic need – to kill the bacteria and such that attracted itself to the raw fish. I assume (read hope) that the sushi I indulge upon does not need the wasabi – but what the hell is sushi but a good excuse to eat a bunch of salty magnificent soy with no-spice-weenies-allowed-here wasabi?

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Another interesting fact about wasabi – get this, courtesy of Wikipedia: “Inhaling or sniffing wasabi vapor has an effect like smelling salts, and this property has been exploited by researchers attempting to create a smoke alarm for the deaf. One deaf subject participating in a test of the prototype awoke within 10 seconds of wasabi vapor being sprayed into his sleeping chamber.” Now that’s a rude awakening!

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Tonight the salmon is marinated in sesame oil, fresh ginger, wasabi and soy sauce. I used three teaspoons of wasabi powder in to about 2 tablespoons of liquid from the oil and soy sauce, and that was NOT enough wasabi in turns out…but if you use paste, be careful as I think that could be stronger.

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The mash potato was done with maris piper potatoes, a bit of butter and fat free milk and then it’s own generous helping of fresh ginger and a couple of teaspoons of wasabi powder – again, subtle, so we could add more powder.

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And finally a simple salad of baby greens and baby plum tomatoes with a dressing of sesame oil, Katy O’s asian pear and vanilla jam, lime juice and a dash of cream to make it stick on the lettuce.

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Weightwatchers points: 13 as follows: 7 for the salmon, 2 each for the butter/cream, the potato and the sesame oil

Chicken and roast asparagus gnocchi bake

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Off the diet I make this gnocchi bake with fried breaded chicken breasts (done in a cornflake batter, yum) with tomatoes, beans and lots of cream and cheese. With thoughts of that running around my brain, I decided to attempt a version which is healthier and bulked out with veggies.
There is a lot of preparation to this one – but I did it all in under 30 minutes, so it doesn’t have to take eons. There are a lot of dishes to wash, but that’s generally Andy’s job when I cook.

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First, boil the gnocchi and then drain and rinse with cold water to keep them from getting mushy. At the same time, dice up the chicken and sauté until nicely browned but still tender. Also at the same time, roast the asparagus under your broiler with some olive oil and salt. Chop up some tomatoes and throw in last night’s leftover green beans in a large bowl and then add the gnocchi, chicken and roast asparagus.

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The sauce is simply chicken broth from a bullion cube, white wine, and a bit of corn starch to thicken. Add the sauce to the big bowl and shake. Pour out the pasta, chicken, veg and sauce into a glass baking dish.

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Finally I topped this with a mixture of shredded mozzarella cheese, bread crumbs and those yummy crispy French onions. Bake in a medium hot oven for another half hour while you clean up all the preparation dishes.

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Prognosis? I miss the cream for sure – this one was sharper than I would have liked. Maybe use a simple tomato sauce instead of the chicken broth/white wine , and add a little sweetener/hot sauce.

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Weightwatchers points: 12 as follows: 2 for the chicken, 5 for the gnocchi, 2 for the sauce, 3 for the cheesy onion topping

Unconventional roast (cod) dinner

I’ve been meaning to branch out for weeks beyond my usual salmon and tuna purchases in the fish aisle. Back home in the states I am equally comfortable with snapper, seabass and tilapia, but upon my few trials of cooking up the usual suspects here in the UK – cod, haddock, halibut – I was very unhappy with the results. Now that I have a blog to write, and a desire to try and cook something different every day, I am boldly attempting to cook with cod.

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It’s not that I am unfamiliar with this fish – I often order it, albeit usually fried up and with chips – and we often get it as one course of many in a tasting menu. It’s just that this is a fish that has to be cooked perfectly. Raw cod does not sushi make, and overcooked cod is just hideously dry. What you want is that perfect texture of flaky, juicy white fish. And so that’s why I went for the ‘roast’ option this evening. All the reading I did (and by ‘all’ I mean the 2 minutes I went online) suggests a hot oven and then something like 5-8 minutes of roasting.

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And since we’re ‘roasting’ we might as well go for a roast beef metaphor. I coated mine with flour and salt and then placed this in a small drop of butter in a frying pan one minute a side. I then brushed on a marinade of Worchester sauce, gravy browning sauce (essentially water and sugar), balsamic and olive oil for a meaty taste on this delicate fish. I tucked that in the hot oven for more like 8-10 minutes. It was juicy and savory and wonderful.

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What goes with roast beef? Hmmm let me think…what country is best known for their ‘roasts’…ah, I know, England. So tonight we’re teaming up the cod with carrot & parsnip mash, green beans and Yorkshire Puddings. Sure, I’ve taken out the meat grease and the potatoes and yes, well, the gravy, but essentially we have all the yumminess of a traditional English roast dinner.

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Carrot and parsnip mash is made by boiling the carrots and parsnips, adding a bit of butter and seasoning and using an electric mixer to whip up.

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The Yorkshire Puddings essentially follow this recipe on epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Herbed-Yorkshire-Puddings-105964 . You can follow that or make deletions – especially with regard to the eggs and whole-fat milk used. I went with 1 full egg and the rest egg whites only and low fat milk. You can also substitute in any herbs and go for dry versus fresh. Mine were made with fresh basil, plus some dried oregano, tarragon and thyme. Please do not eliminate all the olive oil in the muffin tins – maybe 1/4 teaspoon each is all that's needed-- nor try to take a short cut of heating the oil first before putting in the batter, as both of those steps are what are needed to get the Yorkshire puddings to puff up so nicely. I use a mini tartlet pan but you can use a full size muffin pan as well. Regardless of pan, they will fall on you as they cool, but they will still taste divine. (yes, Craig & Kevin, even without any gravy.)

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Weightwatchers points: 13 as follows: 4 for the cod, 3 for the carrot& parsnip mash (essentially from butter), 1 for the beans (also butter), 5 (generously) for 6 of the mini Yorkshire puddings

Baked Mexican(ish) Goodness

I don’t know exactly when I invented this recipe, but I had a hankering for tex mex cuisine and couldn’t decide on doing burritos, fajitas or enchiladas. Fundamentally they all have the same underlying ingredients (Wendy, don’t kill me) so I created something that was a hybrid all-of-the-above. It’s great for dinner parties as you can do all the massive pre-work ahead and then assemble and set aside or even in the fridge and then just pop it in the oven when you’re ready to serve. I think when I served it to Ashley and Marike and they asked me what it was called we branded it “Baked Mexican Goodness” and it stuck.

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To make you need to prep 4 ingredients: cooked rice, a mock enchilada sauce, salsa and some sort of meat. The rice is easy, so I won’t say anything there. For the mock enchilada sauce I cook up some chicken stock and then add some corn flour to thicken and some cheese and chili powder. Try to make about 1.5-2 cups worth of sauce, (500 mls for the metric readers). For the salsa, you could use store bought but I whipped up a simple batch of tomato and coriander (cilantro) with hot pepper sauce. And tonight’s meat is chicken – pan fried, a little on the under done side since it will cook more in the oven later and you don’t want it dry.

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Then, you put all that on the counter. In a glass baking dish you spread 2/3 of the enchilada sauce to cover the bottom of the dish. For the rolls, take out a tortilla, add a dollop of rice, chicken and salsa and then roll up and place on the enchilada sauce in the baking tray. Repeat until you run out of tortillas. Then spread with the remaining enchilada sauce, a sprinkle of grated cheese and whatever is left of your salsa.

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Throw that in the oven and when the tortillas are crisp and the cheese on top is bubbly you have dinner. It makes great leftovers too. Plate it with a bit of salad and you have one delightful dinner of Goodness.

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Weightwatchers points: assumes you eat 2 rolls worth: 13 points – 3 for the chicken, 4 for the tortillas, 2 for the rice, 4 for the sauce/cheese.

Sesame soy ginger duck with sweet potato butternut mash

A few months ago Waitrose was running a special on duck legs so I had some in the freezer shouting out to me as I sought inspiration for our Saturday evening dinner. Normally we’d be cooking these up confit style – boiled in duck or geese fat. Tonight we forced ourselves to think creatively about how best to cook these with a more healthy approach.

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I did a quick look-up to see how many points the duck leg was going to account for on its own – a whopping 16 or so if I left the skin on and only 4 with the skin off. I compromised by cooking it skin on but then only nibbling on the crispy bits that were worth the expense.

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So a modified cooking method for the duck is as follows: brown the skin for 5 minutes by placing it in a hot frying pan with a knob of butter. Then put it in the oven with a coating of asian inspired flavor – sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and honey. About 25 minutes.

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The sweet potato and butternut is flavored with ginger and a bit of maple syrup to sweeten the mash.

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And finally for a bit of green I served a rocket (arugula) salad with a simple dressing of lemon juice and olive oil (5 to 1 ratio), a drizzle of balsamic and a bit of parmesan over all that.

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Weightwatchers points: 13 with a glass of wine and discipline about the duck skin: 6 points for the duck, 3 for the mash, 2 for the salad, 2 for the wine.

Berry salad and wholegrain french toast - breakfast

I woke up this morning and needed a big kick of carb – nothing like French toast to satisfy that kind of craving and we had half a loaf of bread sitting around waiting to grow mold over the weekend in any case. Coincidence? I think not.

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To take some of the heft out of my ordinary French toast (which would be practically deep fried in butter), I instead whipped up and egg mixture of egg whites only and threw in some fat free milk, lots of cinnamon, vanilla and even a little clove and chilli pepper.

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I put a teeny weeny bit of butter in the pan and cooked the bread up – 3 fantastically carb happy slices for each of us.

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And then I topped it off with leftover fruit salad from the week. Anyone who’s shared an office with me recently has had to see me chomping away on this fruit salad every day – it has a base of diced apple and nectarines, and then is finished off with strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.

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A drizzle of pure maple syrup finishes it all off.

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Weightwatchers points: about 8 – 4 for the bread, 1 for the egg and milk, 1 for the butter, 1 for the syrup and 1 for the fruit.

Grilled steak ciabatta with garlic butter and crispy onions

This one is shocking to get in with only 13 points. It’s not the healthiest of meals, but this one is a real sensory pleasure.

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We got the idea from our recent trip to the Algarve in Portugal, you know the place – the vacationland region of southern Portugal made famous by the disappearance of little Madeline McCann. Anyhow, let’s just say that the Algarve should not be known by their food. The best meal we had was the can of Pringles and box of brownies we brought over from the UK. As a matter of fact, we often pass this restaurant on Trinity Road called “The Algarve” and wonder what could possibly be on the menu that is keeping them in business.

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One thing on every menu at the golf courses along the Algarve coast was a Portuguese steak sandwich – and most came on garlic-buttered ciabatta with crispy fried onions. We thought there would be no way to recreate this within the scope of a weightwatchers point counting day, but we were pleasantly surprised. Quite frankly, even with the garlic butter, there aren’t a lot of bad ingredients and it’s not like we’re breading and deep frying the thing. Although I hope you’re thinking what I’m thinking: a deep fried and breaded steak and onion ring sandwich….yum.

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So we marinate our steak in some olive oil and adobo spice, grilling it about a minute a side. We slice that up and put aside. We cut the ciabatta down the middle and whip up some garlic butter (1T butter to 1 clove garlic) and apply to the bread with a brush. I buy paint brushes from the homeware shop and make sure to keep them in the kitchen and not mixed up with the paint. Applying with a brush means you don’t over do it but do get enough coverage. Sprays are not ideal. I toast this under the broiler with the buttered inside sides up until nicely golden brown. Then I take them out of the oven, apply some lettuce, tomato, the steak and the crispy onions and put it all back in the oven. Adding cheese and getting it all nice and melty also adds to the experience.

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Along with our sandwich we serve just a bit of salad and gazpacho tonight. The sandwich is so filling you’d be hard pressed to eat much more.

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Weightwatchers points: 13 as follows: 4 for the bread, 4 for the steak, 2 for the onions, 2 for the butter, and 1 for the trace oil in the gazpacho or salad dressing.

Triple green veg and chicken pasta

The three green ingredients in this fairly straightforward pasta dish are asparagus, tenderstem broccoli and rocket (aka arugula). On a whim, after last night’s chantenay carrots, I decided to type in www.tenderstem.co.uk, and I kid you not, it exists. Go check it out yourself. Susan, sadly there’s no ‘sun, sea and chantenay’ tagline immediately obvious, but I suspect you’ll find enough to chuckle about.

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First of all Tenderstem is a registered trademark, so technically we should be giving them the respect their marketing budget has bought and typing it Tenderstem®. How this isn’t the same vegetable as Broccoli Rabe (aka Rapini, Broccoletti, etc) , which we Italians have been eating for years, I do not know. But it always surprises me how many things have completely different English names from one mother-tongue-country to the next. Don’t get me started on eggplant-aubergine-brinjal.

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I’m thinking the asparagus in tonight’s meal is feeling left out, not having an a.k.a of its own. I guess because it’s such an old vegetable the name just took. There is an asparagus recipe in Apicius’s recipe book (the oldest cookbook on record from the 3rd century AD). But now this is all sounding a little academic and you don’t really need to know that much about the roots (ha, pun intended) of some green vegetable’s name.

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Oh, but i can't stop now, so here’s what Wikipedia has to say about asparagus:

“The English word "asparagus" derives from classical Latin, but the plant was once known in English as sperage, from the Medieval Latin sparagus. This term itself derives from the Greek aspharagos or asparagos, and the Greek term originates from the Persian asparag, meaning "sprout" or "shoot". Asparagus was also corrupted in some places to "sparrow grass"; indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary quotes John Walker as having written in 1791 that "Sparrow-grass is so general that asparagus has an air of stiffness and pedantry". In Gloucestershire and Worcestershire it is also known simply as "grass". Another known colloquial variation of the term, most common in parts of Texas, is "aspar grass" or "asper grass". In the Midwest United States and Appalachia, "spar grass" is a common colloquialism. Asparagus is commonly known in fruit retail circles as "Sparrows Guts", etymologically distinct from the old term "sparrow grass", thus showing convergent language evolution.”

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Ahh those crazy kids in those fruit retail circles. What ever will they think of next? Enough about that, hopefully our hero the asparagus will feel better for not having a registered trademark or a proper a.k.a name.

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So tonight I sautéed some chicken, blanched the tenderstem and the asparagus and tossed it all in a little creamy white wine sauce with some cooked fusilli. I topped all of that with some fresh wild rocket, freshly shaved parmesan and a sprinkle of toasted pine nuts.

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Weightwatchers points: 13 as follows: 4 for the pasta, 3 for the chicken, 0 for the veg, 2 for the pine nuts, 1 for the parmesan and 3 for various sauce elements.

Grilled pork chops and 3 colour veggies

Most of us have heard that we’re supposed to be eating 5-a-day portions of fruit and veg. And most of us have heard that we’re supposed to eat ‘all the colours’ of fruit and veg to get the biggest spectrum of the vitamins and nutrients. Let’s face it, most of it is green. Nothing against green – in fact tomorrow you’re in for an all green line up, but it’s hard sometimes to think of orange and yellow and purple.

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So we start tonight with a tea cup full of gazpacho. You’ll be horrified to learn that I didn’t whip up a batch from scratch but rather poured it out of a 1 liter container from Costco. But rest assured, this stuff is good – and I did add a dollop of crème fraiche and smidgen of hot sauce to help pretty it up. Frankly I’m amazed at the quality – I bought it on a whim. Pasteurized long life gazpacho in a milk-like cardboard pouring container – you *know* I had to try me some of that. It’s got olive oil in the list of otherwise completely veggie ingredients (tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and garlic) but only a smidge so if you need a treat and you open up the fridge looking for something sinful like bacon and cheese, you can pour yourself a cup of this and hope that the moment passes.

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Second up, and playing for the “Orange” team, are the chantenay carrots. These little itty bitty carrots are all the rage these days. And a quick peak on http://www.chantenay.co.uk/ tells me they’ve poured a pretty marketing penny into their promotion. Who knew you could have so much information about a niche varietal of carrot. Anyhow, tonight I tossed mine in olive oil, maple syrup, chipotle and smoked sea salt and roasted them in a hot oven.

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And last we follow up with French beans (snore, yawn) for the green. Nothing fancy, they were left over from the salmon dinner. I blanch mine, trying to keep them in boiling water as little as possible so they stay green and don’t go grey.

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And the pork chop with its oh so tempting crackling which sadly will have to go in the wastebin, was prepped in olive oil, honey, chipotle , salt and pepper and grilled about 4 minutes a side on the gas-weber.

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Weightwatchers points: 13 as follows: 6 for the pork chop, 1 for the carrots, 1 for the beans, 5 for the olive oil, crème fraiche and syrup in the prep.

Chicken mole with honey lime chipotle salad

When Susan came out a few months ago we asked her to bring us the strangest food items she could find to fire up our culinary imaginations. Among the treasures was what looked like a child’s chocolate milk juice box: Dona Maria Mole sauce. Now, I’d always though that mole sauce was ‘mexican chocolate sauce’, but for ideas on how best to serve it, I did a little research and had a ‘duh’ moment when I learned that “Mole” simply means ‘sauce’ or ‘concoction’ itself; Think guaca- mole for instance, no chocolate. However this particular version is the chocolate variety, with Mexican cocoa being about the tenth ingredient I think.

I sautéed up some chicken breast with a bit of salt and chipotle, and then topped it with a light drizzle of the mole and some roasted red peppers. I served that over a saffron-ated white rice.

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As none of the veggies in the house seemed appropriate (chatenay carrots, asparagus and tenderstem broccoli), I simply served it with a plain salad. But to keep a bit with my Mexican theme I mixed up a dressing of lime juice, honey and chipotle. And I topped that with some diced tomato and a few broken up lime dorito chips. (Man oh brother man could I have gone wild on the chips – I do love the chips!)

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Weightwatchers points: 13 points in total. Shockingly Dona Maria Mole was in the index of points for 4 points, 3 points for the chicken, 2 points for the chips, and 4 points for the rice.

Ginger sesame salmon and eclectic Austrian wine

Andy and I took advantage of Hotel du Vin’s credit crunch ‘stay for a tenner’ special last night at their property in Cheltenham on the edge of the Cotswolds. You spend 75 pounds in the bistro and get the room (on Sunday nights only) for ten pounds. Not too shabby.
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I first stayed in a Hotel du Vin with Susan and was excited to show Andy that his fellow countrymen could open a hotel that didn’t have floral wallpaper and duvet sets. The folks at Hotel du Vin have purchased up some lovely Grade I listed buildings, like the old Sugar Mill in Bristol, and created a chic wine themed hotel and French bistro. You wander the corridors looking at the room names “Vergelegen”, “Coldstream Hills”, “Marques Caceras” and tick off which you’ve tried and what remains.

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When we got to our room on Sunday night, the Villa Maria, we were across from Willi Opitz, and my Austrian wine loving partner actually asked if we could change rooms so saddened was he not to be able to stay there. He was relieved when at dinner he found a “Pinot Cuvee” by the winemaker on the reasonable end of the great wine list (from 10 to 650 pounds a bottle).

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But what makes Willi eclectic is that this wine we drank was a special limited edition honoring the Mercedes McLaren team, called Silver Lake. Reading up on Willi I found he also named a range ‘Mr President’ in honour of Bill Clinton.
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The pinot cuvee was good, but there it sat in the ‘white’ section of the menu with no mention of sweetness. It should have been in the dessert wine (pudding wine as they say here) section, and better still the 12 year old sommelier should have given us a little warning before we ordered. But we took it home and it was fine with tonight’s spicy salmon.

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So there on the plate tonight we have salmon, prepped with sesame oil, fresh crushed ginger, honey and some hot sauce pan seared rare along with French beans and almond accents (last bag!). Accompanying that is a heap of salad – Waitrose’s new ‘strong’ Mustard Mix which I didn’t find very strong – in fact it seems like a pretty mild mix of spinach, red leaf, and mustard greens -- smothered in my usual walnut oil Dijon and garlic dressing with a bit of goat cheese, a few croutons and more almond accents.
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WeightWatchers points: about 15 – 9 for the salmon, 3 for the salad, 1 for the beans, 2 for the wine.

Andy's cheeseless pizza spectacular

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Andy makes good pizza. That’s all you really need to know. It can be 7:30 already and he can whip up yeasty pizza dough, wait for it to rise, roll it out, and we’re still eating by about only 9pm. I think that’s rather fast.

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As prepared in last night’s post, we blanched 10 plum tomatoes, removed the skins and seeds, and let them sit all day with the vines seeping flavor in.

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Normally Andy’s cheeseless spectacular is tomato and olive but we were out of olives. Actually, I lie, we had some calamata olives in the fridge but they looked dodgy. Not so dodgy that say Beth Howe wouldn’t have eaten them but way too dodgy for us. After spending the day powerwashing 20 years of green slimey moldy moss off the breezeway panels in our garden, let’s just say the olives were bringing back some bad memories.

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So instead I raided the pantry and found some caramelized sweet peppers. Perfect. A little on the red and red side, but hey, those peppers get us to another 1 of the 5-a-day for today. A little fresh basil at the end helped balance the colour palette. Some hot sauce and a little salt and we were in business.

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I asked Andy to make enough dough for me to make up a designer cheeseless pizza myself. I heard lots of muttering under his breath as I fried up some bacon and then sautéed an enormous bag of spinach. I never let that get to me; he always ends up enjoying my creations. To push his buttons more, I started to lay out the spinach in horizontal stripes on the dough. Then I took out some walnuts and spread those along as well. So in the end my stripey pizza was sautéed spinach, tomatoes, bacon and walnuts.

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Weightwatchers points: believe it or not about 10 points for a meal of a half of each of the pizzas. Amazing when you hold off on the cheese and are in control of the ingredients and oil used – and that’s with bacon and walnuts!

Spruced up freezer pizza and salad

Andy is out drinking beers tonight (oh, sorry, that’s ‘doing his Best Man duties helping the groom find a wedding suit…yeah right), so I decided to give in to the little voice calling my name in the freezer. You know the one – it’s the prosciutto and salami frozen pizza that would be 800 calories if eaten entirely. And let’s not kid ourselves, we can polish that off in one go and still have room left over for the ice cream. That’s why we’re friends.

Anyhow, I decided that I could get more of my 5 a day if I stole the plum tomato idea from Andy. He saw Heston Blumenthal of Fat Duck fame do a preparation of tomatoes that ensures the viney flavor comes through. You blanch them in boiling water, peel the skins and then chop them up but leave them to sit with the vines in the bowl. That nice viney flavor thus comes through even though you have nice smooth skinless chunks of tomato. A little olive oil and salt help that mixture come to life.

My salad is the usual – lamb’s lettuce, goat cheese, almond accents. I love those almond accents. You can’t get them in the UK. When Susan came out in March it was one of our weird requests. She brought the entire range, something like 8 bags. We have one left before we need an emergency stock up trip to the US. Yes friends, my luggage when I enter the UK would have me well questioned by the authorities.

WeightWatchers Points: 8 for the pizza (half of the whole thing); 3-4 for the salad depending on how much goat cheese and almonds you put on

Lemon & garlic lamb with asparagus 'fries' and citrus kick couscous

For a little bit of red meat inspiration we’re grilling up some lamb this evening. I purchased these lean leg steaks at Waitrose. I used to always buy the lamb chops I became so accustomed to while braiing (barbecuing ) in South Africa, but they are really too fatty to be part of the dieting days menu. Plus lamb chops can be a little like potato chips – they are so little and bite size that before you know it you’ve eaten 4 (or 10, if you’re Kevin).

Tonight I used my basic marinade – a whole lemon, a splash of olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic, malden sea salt and cracked pepper. I marinated them in the morning so it was good and soaked in. If I have fresh rosemary around that would go in too, but I didn’t. I know, I know, that makes me sad, too.

The asparagus ‘fries’ are something I’ve been making for years. I think I stole the idea from David Levy’s wife at a barbecue outside of Boston years ago. But I’ve been cooking them so long that I’m sure I’ve deviated by now. Everyone loves these, even people who don’t like asparagus.

This is the exact right time to be eating asparagus – I never understood why it was such an early spring crop, but it is, so it sort of marks the opening of the summer fresh veggie season. I look for thinner spears for the fries. I then coat them in olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and finally finely shred parmesan over the whole lot. I throw all this under the broiler (Andy tells me this is called the grill in the UK) – i.e. the top element of the oven on super hot. And when they are good and crisp I turn them over. Kind of like toasting pecans you go from not-at-all-ready to burned-beyond-recognition very fast, so keep a watchful eye. You were warned.

Should we take a moment and discuss the, umm, aftereffects of the asparagus as a warning to those of you who don’t eat it on a regular basis? I strongly advise bringing a nice smelling candle into the bathroom with you as your pee smells very strange. Some people say they aren’t affected. But there was this scientific study that proved that actually the chemical reaction happens to everyone but only half the population can smell the difference. I picture those poor poor research subjects who had to take part in this pee smelling study. I hope they were paid well.

To finish off the meal, and please my carb loving other half, I made a batch of Ainsley Harriot’s Citrus Kick couscous. It isn’t the best, but it’s passable and easy, plus I’m trying to work our way through years of accumulated pantry staples that have gotten lost in the back of the shelves. I bet you all have stuff like that in your cupboards – why don’t you join me and get one out of the stock yourselves? We’ll call it the ‘Global Pantry Raid’ day.

WeightWatchers points: Lamb 9 points (for 180 grams, but you can see this is a large serving which could be cut down), Asparagus 1.5 per serving (cheese and oil), couscous 3 (more if you add a pat of butter and/or sprinkle of pine nuts to jazz it up)

Pear and apple random cereal crumble

Objective: make a nice dessert, get 2 more of my ‘5 a day’ and use up some pears that are starting to over ripen.

I noticed that we had more pears left from the week than we could use before we go away this weekend, so I thought about making a nice dessert. I love crumbles and would normally not hesitate to make a generous topping of brown sugar, oats and butter for the top and then smother the whole thing in fresh cream or ice cream when it was all gooey and cooked. But it’s instincts like that which have led me to end up in dieting hell. So I needed to try and be a bit smarter about this.

I consulted Andy’s food bible recently, the Joy of Cooking. We aren’t very much ‘recipe’ people but when faced with a strange vegetable or a forgotten technique it really does help. I had bought some rhubarb and forgot what the cleaning/prep should be when I last consulted the book. Anyhow, I had a peak at crumbles and got a laugh at this passage:

“We love the names Americans have given their homey fruit-and-dough desserts over the years – pandowdy, cobbler, crisp, brown betty, crunch, slump, grunt, buckle. “ (p. 894)

What strikes me is that I always thought the Joy of Cooking was an American cookbook – I mean they use things like cups and tablespoons and cook in Fahrenheit. But suddenly they’re being all hoity toity and condescending. I mean, if, and I still doubt this very much, the authors are british, they have a lot of nerve mocking American desserts when theirs have names like “spotted dick” and have ingredients like rice and bread instead of good old fashioned chocolate and butter.

Anyhow, for my healthy and yummy pear and apple crumble I sliced up the fruit (3 each of pears and apples), coated them in a bit of splenda, cinnamon and corn flour and tipped them into a glass baking dish. I then opened up the pantry and took out a bunch of cereals and mixed it all up for a Cup worth of random cereal mixture – there was special K, shredded wheat, rice krispies and some muesli. I added some honey and about 2 tablespoons of melted butter and mixed it all up.

Baked in the oven til the crust was brown. About 4 servings.

WeightWatchers points: about 3 points per serving

My (bi) weekly salmon fix

Main: Sweet and spicy salmon with classic maiche salad

(maiche is a french salad leave called Lamb's Lettuce in some places)

I love salmon. I need to eat it twice a week or i go a little nutty. Ironically i cannot stand smoked salmon. So i get my fix in sushi and pan frying sustainably farmed salmon fillets at least twice a week.

I like my salmon a bit sweet and a bit spicy, charred black on the outside and raw but warm in the middle. After cooking it a couple hundred of times i have it down to a science. I wish i knew how to cook more fish well. Salmon is easy. When i order it in a restaurant i get upset if it's not perfect - so forgiving is this fish to cook, there is no excuse for that dry cottony textured stuff you so often get. Trust me, it's pretty hard to mess up salmon. But do try to inspect the fish before you buy. Bad input is always bad result.

Tonight's salmon was marinated in the asian pear and vanilla jam that Katy Oldham made last year with some crushed ginger, chipotle, a splash of olive oil and some malden sea salt. I throw a little butter in a frying pan and let it sizzle.

For the salad i mixed up my take on a classic french dressing - walnut oil, dijon mustard, a dash of balsamic, a smidgen of agave syrup and half a clove of garlic. i whip that up with a fork and smother the lettuce only with the dressing for perfect coverage. I topped tonight's salad with chopped tomato, leftover peanuts from last night's orange chicken and broccoli , goat cheese and shallot and pecorino croutons.

Weightwatchers point values: 7.5 for the salmon, 3.5 for the salad dressing and toppings.

Costco Mange Tout

Starter: Mange tout soup with mint and creme fraiche

(Translation for the americans - sugar snap pea soup with mint and sour cream)

Andy and I went to costco a few weeks ago and accidentally purchased more mange tout that one could possibly use. We brainstormed about how we could serve them. And other than 'steamed and buttered' or 'basic stir fry' we were at a loss.

A quick search of the internet didn't seem to help with the brainstorm exercise. Though i did learn that mange tout is a relatively new vegetable as these things go. And it's french for 'the whole lot' because they had to train people that they could eat the whole thing, the peas and the pod it came in. Mange tout is close to sugar snap peas, though it seems to me that the peas are smaller than the sugar snaps i remember eating off the plants of my mom's garden when i was a kid.

Anyhow, with something like 4 cups of mange tout leftover and about to go bad i said to myself: "they're just peas, right, so i can make pea soup." And i had some fresh mint, so what the hell. I made a basic soup base - sauteing onions and garlic in a bit of butter, adding some chicken broth (i use knorr cubes when i'm out of penzeys) and then adding chopped mange tout. I put all of that in the blender and added the mint leaves before giving it a whirrrrrrrrrrr. I added salt and pepper and some agave syrup to sweeten it a bit. And i threw in some creme fraiche to mellow it out.

Andy read recently that blended soups are very good for those on a diet. Apparently something about the suspension of food in water means it stays in the stomach longer. So you feel full longer. I'm sure the scientists out there will be pondering this. All i know is blended soups make it easier to eat your vegetables, are quick to reheat when you come home starving and allow you to take a pause halfway through your meal. I prep the main course while the soup is (re)heating and then we eat soup, and then we start cooking the rest of dinner in a much less frenzied panic with a little something in the stomach.

Weightwatchers point values: per 3 ladle full serving: 2 points