Millet Pudding Video

This week I've been revisiting Market to Mouth posts I wrote in February last year. But today, I'm sharing a video demonstration of a recipe I posted on facebook last week.

My facebook friend Jonathan liked the sound of the millet pudding so he subsequently made it for his two little kids, and he videoed cooking the pudding, while the kids waited in anticipation.

Now, the kids enjoy "monkey brains" or cooked oatmeal for breakfast so millet, with its comparatively earthy flavor, had the potential to be a flavor-stretch for the Machen kiddies.

I wish I could say confidently that the proof was in the pudding, however as you will note, their reactions were mixed; though I am hanging onto Phoenix's generous assessment: "It makes your body wiggle."

Wiggling-Good Millet Pudding
1) On med-to-low heat, cook one cup of dry millet in 3 cups of water for about 15 mins. Turn heat off and let millet steam cook for about another 15 mins.
2) Into a bowl, add one cup of the cooked millet.
3) Add a quarter-to-half a teaspoon (depending on how spicy you like your food) of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, or just one or a mix of two of these spices.
4) Now add an egg and about half a cup of milk, cream or half and half. Mix ingredients well with a fork.
5) Pour batter into a baking dish greased with butt and dob the top with extra bits of butter.
6) Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 15-30 mins or until the pudding is slightly brown on top and set.

To Serve: Spoon into breakfast bowls and top with either fresh fruit like banana or seasonal berries or stewed fruit like apple or pear. And if you wish, sprinkle with toasted almonds or walnuts or raw sunflower seeds; for additional sweetness you might like a little honey, agave or maple syrup over the lot.

This breakfast dish recalls the posts I wrote last month on cooking whole grains for breakfast. So if you'd like to experiment further check out the following:

1. Nutmeg, Spinach and Millet
2. Millet with Buttered Apples
3. Polenta Cake with Yogurt

More Colorful Winter Vegetables

Yesterday I wrote that green vegetables are nutritional power-houses, particularly dark leafy greens like kale, collard and dandelion greens, chard, mustard and beet greens.

Calorie for calorie, they're a highly concentrated source of nutrition, rich in phytonutrients, vitamin K, minerals and even Omega-3's.

Yet for some, the slightly bitter, sometimes tough leafy greens are about as appetizing as old shoe.

I had a comment from a reader yesterday who said, "I've never had success making kale taste good, which is key when it comes to feeding it to your kids."

Children tend to be highly sensitive to the bitter flavor so it is challenging to get them to eat dark greens.

I remember sitting at the dinner table refusing to eat spinach, my mother hovering in the background threatening me with "You'll sit there till you eat it." So I sat there for hours.

What she didn't realize is that mixing bitter with slightly sweet makes the bitter flavor far more appetizing.

For instance, in the pic above, I've sauteed in olive oil a rasher of turkey bacon with a medley of winter vegetables:

• brown onion and a clove of garlic
  
• peeled and chopped butternut pumpkin
  
• sliced red cabbage -- all slightly sweet veggies
  
• and topped the dish with pieces of leafy kale.

The bitterness of the kale is not the stand-out flavor in this braised dish. The soft, smooth, sweet pumpkin dominates, and for kids this combo of texture and flavor is far more palatable.

So if you inner kid still cringes at the thought of a side of bitter greens, try combining greens with sweet, colorful, winter veggies.

Another tip for cooking kale into palatable bliss came from a friend on facebook: Judi grows her own green, red, white Russian and lacinto kale.

Her favorite way to prepare her kale is to saute a combination of leaves with caramelized onions (this link goes to my recipe for caramelized shallots but you can apply it to brown or white onions).

The natural sweetness of the onion, plus caramelizing it in brown sugar and butter, offsets the bitterness of the kale creating a sumptuous and rich veggie side.

Celery is a slightly bitter green most often thought of as a summer-salad item. Yet it's fabulous cooked since the process of heating it both breaks down the sinewy fibers and lessens the bitter flavor.

It's also a great alkaline vegetable as are the vegetables discussed above. If you have a predisposition to acidity, integrating more alkaline foods into your diet is a must for your health.

Braised Celery with Eggplant


1) Wash and chop up several sticks of organic celery.
2) Peel and chop a brown onion and a clove of garlic.
3) Chop an eggplant into bite-size pieces.
4) And either chop an organic red bell pepper or wash a handful of cherry tomatoes.
5) In a skillet saute the eggplant in olive oil over high until it browns slightly. Turn heat down and toss in all remaining ingredients, except tomatoes (if you're including them).
6) Add a chopped dried or fresh herb such as basil, sage, thyme or oregano.
7) Put lid on skillet and gently stew on low for about 10 mins; at the last minute, toss in cherry tomatoes.

To Serve: Season to taste, drizzle with a grated dry cheese like Romano or Parmesan. You might enjoy this medley of veggies over a bowl of shell or spiral pasta topped with a couple of the meat balls I posted last month.

Eat Colorful Winter Vegetables

I noticed as I went back over the last few posts that color was lacking in the food pictures -- bar green.

Green is good, in fact eating green in the form of spinach, kale, chard, celery and broccoli is fantastic because these vegetables are nutritional powerhouses.

Yet sitting down to a meal dominated by green is not always appetizing. Though, I have to say the spinach saag I blogged about yesterday and last week is yum by virtue of all the spices, onion, garlic, and milk or cream added.

Despite that I think spinach and kale can be appetizing, I had a conversation with a friend who is determined to include kale in her diet and as she talked about her good intentions, the look on her face said "yuk."

It's with that in mind that I thought today and tomorrow, I'd offer tips for preparing colorful vegetable dishes. Easy-to-cook and tasty sides that make use of in-season veggies, like winter kale, that are abundant and therefore priced well.

When grocery shopping, 80% of your food should come from the edge of the store, for example, whole, unprocessed food like fresh produce, protein items, some dairy and bulk items like grains, nuts and seeds.

And then the greatest volume of your groceries should be fresh produce -- both for health and economy.

According to a USDA study, in 2007 a family of four on average spent about $189 on groceries a week. Yet, according to that study a family who chose a healthier meal plan consisting of inexpensive protein items, whole grains and fresh produce was actually able to reduce its grocery bills by about $20 a week.

Braised Veggie Medley (top pic)
1) To a skillet add about a tablespoon of light oil, eg. olive or canola. Heat on med to high.
2) Add a smashed clove of garlic and if you have it, some peeled and chopped fresh ginger.
3) Now toss in half a peeled and sliced Spanish onion, a red or yellow organic bell pepper, a couple sticks of celery, and some broccoli florets (check my list for produce best bought organic).
4) To the skillet add a selection of winter greens, and gently saute. Add a little water and quickly place the lid on the skillet, allowing the greens to steam cook for a few mins.
5) Optional: If you want to enrich your braised veggies, you could pour a little cream into the skillet at the last minute, and with the heat on high, let the cream and veggie juices gently boil and thicken before serving. Salt and pepper to taste.

Note: I tend to buy Whole Foods braising greens. The mix consists of 2 types of kale, radicchio, chard, collard greens, beet greens and mustard greens. I like this combination because it's colorful (see top pic), I'm buying the small succulent leaves only (the woody stalks have been removed), and I can buy it in bulk so I pick and pay for only what I want.

Additionally, the braising greens are right next to the bulk spinach and arugula and they're all the same price so often I add spinach and arugula to my bag of braising greens for an even tastier mix.

To Serve: Eat braised veggie medley for lunch or dinner over a grain or pasta topped with toasted seeds or nuts or sprinkled with feta or grated Parmesan. Or serve as a side with your favorite protein item.

Roasted Winter Root Veggies

1) Onto a baking tray add a selection of washed and chopped root vegetables such as fingerling potatoes, carrots, beetroot, acorn squash, butternut pumpkin, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes, onion and garlic.

2) No need to peel the potatoes, squash, pumpkin, celeriac, sunchokes or the garlic.
3) Drizzle olive oil over veggies; use your hands to coat the veggies well with oil.
4) Put baking tray in a 350-degree oven for about 45 mins to 1 hour. Check progress at the 30-min mark, turning veggies so they brown evenly.
5) A few minutes before they're done, toss fresh rosemary over veggies and roast just a little longer so rosemary turns slightly crispy.

To Serve: Turn veggies onto a platter and top with your choice of ground salt. I have a sesame seed and sea salt mix that I love to use on vegetable dishes. You might like to serve veggies with crusty bread or crackers, if so, remove the skin from the garlic and spread the garlic, which is like a paste when it has been roasted, onto the bread or cracker, and top with a soft white cheese, like goat or feta.

Chai and Spicy Rock Cakes

I'm finishing this week's series of posts on cooking with Indian spices with a stove-top recipe for spicy chai tea.

Last fall, I wrote about brewing your own aromatic teas with herbs from the garden and spices from the cupboard and chai was one of the teas I featured.

Today's chai recipe is a variation on the one posted in September, though it comes from the same source, my friend Cindy, who is very talented and adept cooking with Indian spices.

Yesterday, I talked about improvising and experimenting with all the recipes posted this week since that's the beauty of using spices; you can add and subtract this and that creating just the flavor you desire.

Chai is a spicy, milky tea which is usually sweetened; however it doesn't need to be spicy, milky or sweet. Experiment with the following recipe and create a tea to your liking.

Chai Tea
1. In a saucepan bring 6 cups of water to the boil.
2. Add 1/2 cinnamon stick (2nd bowl from the back in pic above).
3. 6 to 10 whole cloves (2nd bowl from the front in pic above).
4. 10 to 15 smashed cardamom pods, including seeds (bowl at the very back in pic above).
5. About a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger (bowl at the very front in pic above).
6. About the same of fennel seeds, plus a few black peppercorns and if you have them, a few allspice berries (not seen in pic above).


Method
1. Simmer ingredients on low for about 10 mins.
2. Add 5 cups milk (you could use dairy or nut or grain milks) and simmer on low.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of black Assam tea or Darjeeling or both -- vary amounts depending on how strong you like it. Or instead of black tea, you could use your choice of green tea or Rooibos aka red bush tea.
4. Turn heat off and allow tea to infuse with milk and spices.
5. Add your choice of sweetener to-taste such as honey, maple syrup, agave, cane sugar, maple sugar, date sugar etc.
6. Strain chai into cups. The above recipe makes about 8-10 cups.

Chai is a delicious ending to an Indian meal along lines of the meal featured this week. To accompany your home-brew chai, you might like to make spicy rock cakes.

As with the chai experiment with adding the spices of your choice to create just the cookie-flavor you want.

Spicy Rock Cakes
1) Into a mixing bowl add one cup of your choice of flour. I used brown rice flour.
2) Add a pinch of salt, one teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a pinch of ground cloves.
Note: You could add ground cardamom, ginger, fennel, allspice instead of the spices listed above -- experiment.
3) Take a stick or 4 ounces of butter and rub it into the flour and spices until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
4) Add half a cup of raisins, half a cup of chopped dates and half a cup of chopped walnuts. (Optional: Add 1/4 cup of sugar or orange marmalade.)
5) Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in an egg which has beaten with 2-3 tablespoons of milk (dairy, nut or grain).
6) Mix all ingredients with a fork, adding more milk if the mix is dry or more flour if the mix is too wet.
7) Drop spoonfuls onto a greased tray and bake for about 15 -20 mins in 350-degree oven.

Buying and Storing Spices
Keep in mind when buying Indian spices that you can pick and pay for as little as a teaspoon or as much as a pound if you buy spices in the bulk aisle at say Whole Foods or your favorite organic grocer.

You want to select spices sourced from wholesalers who've sourced their spices from reputable growers. Growers who've avoided using herbicides and pesticides since these will alter the spice plant's properties and thereby the flavor and medicinal attributes of spices.

Once home, spices are best stored in glass where they will last up to 2 years, though ground spices are best used within the year.

Spinach Saag and Papadams

This week, I'm blogging about the basics of Indian spices and cooking.

The recipes, plus tips and tricks I'm sharing, I learned while assisting my yoga-therapist friend, Cindy, conduct an in-home class on Indian cooking 101.

I read on one of the handouts Cindy gave her students that curry powder came into being as an easy way to approximate the flavors of Indian curried dishes.

During the class, it became apparent that one of the advantages to familiarizing yourself with Indian spices is that instead of using generic curry powders or paste, you can improvise with individual spices and create uniquely flavored curries.

As with the food of any culture, there are standard recipes for creating certain dishes, like the saag recipe I'll share today.

However, once you have the basics of a recipe down, and once you feel comfortable with the flavors and properties of Indian spices, you can add or subtract particular spices to infuse a dish with just the flavor you desire.

Cindy included in her handouts a standard recipe for Indian creamed spinach or saag, yet as she prepared the saag, taste-testing as she went, she improvised, tossing in extra spices including a bit of this, a bit of that, till she determined the flavor and the consistency of the spinach was just right.

Certainly this is a style of cooking I prefer since it fosters recipe-independence by engaging our inner culinary expert, reminding us that our taste buds are our best guide when it comes to food and cooking.

All the recipes this week are very simple, so you might like to try experimenting with the spices and ingredients as you make these delicious Indian dishes.

Creamed Spinach -- Saag
2 pounds of fresh spinach (this feeds about 10).
1 chopped white or brown onion.
2 tablespoons oil, it could be a combination of olive and sesame oils or olive oil and ghee or just ghee -- experiment.
Mustard and cardamom seeds, cumin, fennel, and freshly grated ginger.
Milk or cream or a combination of both, or a combination of a vegetable or chicken stock followed by cream or milk -- experiment.
Optional: One can chopped tomatoes.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method
1) In a large saucepan, heat oil and saute onions and spices on low to med heat.
2) Add spinach in batches, stirring well so that it wilts or cooks down.
3) Once all the spinach has been added to the pot, you can help it cook down by adding some stock, or water if you don't have stock.
4) When the spinach has reduced, add the milk or cream or a combination of both, enough to soak the spinach, though you don't want to drown it (see pic above).
5) Gently cook with the lid off the pot for about 10 mins or so.
6) You can serve the saag chunky or you can put it through the food processor and puree it (as in the top pic.)

We had fried papadams or Indian lentil chips with the dishes made during the class (pic to left).

Light, crispy, plain or spicy, you can purchase the dried chips online or at an Indian grocer.

Chances are if you've eaten at an Indian restaurant, you've had papadams.

Usually they're served as a starter with dipping sides such as yogurt cucumbers, mint sauce, chutney, and a spicy tamarind sauce.

Fried Papadams
1) Heat about an inch of light oil like canola or olive in a skillet or fry pan.
2) Once the oil is smoking, add pieces or whole papadams to oil.
3) The chips will begin to crinkle and then puff up.
4) Once they're lightly browned, remove chips with tongs, placing them on a plate lined with paper hand towel to soak up any excess oil.

To Serve: As you can see in the picture above the papadams, we had side bowls of Dahl, and plates filled with heaping spoons of the Spiced Tumeric Potatoes, boiled basmati rice and Saag.

During the meal, we sipped on glasses of coconut water mixed with plain water. It was slightly sweet (it's very sweet if not diluted with plain water) and coco-nutty but also cooling so it offset the spiciness of the meal beautifully.

After dinner we had cups of Cindy's fabulous homemade chai the recipe for which, I'll post tomorrow.

Spicy Turmeric Potatoes

Yesterday I mentioned that turmeric is the base of almost every curry.

And today the Indian dish I'm highlighting from the cooking class I assisted with last week features turmeric -- the beautiful golden yellow spice in the picture to the left.

In the Indian Ayurveda tradition, turmeric has many healing properties. For example, it's as an anti-inflammatory and blood-purifier. (Yesterday's post offers a more complete list.)

According to Cindy, who taught the cooking class, turmeric as a medicinal spice mirrors the properties of the Chinese medicinal herb coptis.

However, I've not heard of Chinese herbs like coptis being used to color and flavor foods in the way turmeric is used in say, spicy turmeric potatoes!

That's the beauty of Indian spices: their color and flavor beautifies and enhances food, while their organic properties act as natural healing agents.

Spicy Turmeric Potatoes
4 potatoes such as russet or Yukon gold
3 white sweet potatoes (not yams)
1/4 cup light olive oil and 1/4 cup sesame oil
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 - 1 teaspoon turmeric
half a bunch or more of chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1) Peel and boil potatoes in water with a little salt until tender, about 20 mins.
2) Drain and return potatoes to the pot and mash with oils (adding more oil than listed for a smoother mash).
3) Add smashed and chopped garlic cloves, turmeric, salt and pepper.
4) Stir ingredients together well before folding in chopped cilantro.

The interesting variation with this dish is mashing the potatoes with oils rather than butter and milk or cream as is traditional in the west.

Light oil like olive or canola enriches the potatoes without the heaviness of butter and milk. Sesame oil is dense and more flavorful than olive or canola, but despite this, it's not in any way overpowering.

Adding raw garlic really gives the potatoes oomph, and the addition of the fresh, slightly spicy cilantro adds to that oomph.

The turmeric is barely detectable as a flavor, yet the color is obvious since it turns the potatoes a delicate golden color.

The above recipe makes enough for 10 people so if you're feeding less, adjust the ingredient list accordingly.

Tomorrow I'll be featuring Cindy's version of Saag, spicy Indian creamed spinach, plus tips on frying up papadams. The next day, I'll post Cindy's specialty: spicy homemade chai, followed by tips on buying and storing Indian spices.

Indian Dahl

My Indian cooking extends to using a blob of Pataks, Taste of India Curry Paste, to spice up meat and vegetarian dishes.

I feel a bit daunted when confronted by the vast array of individual spices used in traditional Indian cooking, hence my preference for a ready-made curry paste.

So when I asked a friend if I could assist her while she conducted an Indian cooking class from her home, it was out of curiosity and a desire to learn more about the spices I tend to avoid.

Cindy, who is a yoga therapist, hosted an Indian couple for several months some time back and subsequently traveled to India and stayed with them.

Aisha, Cindy's hostess in Mumbai, helped refine her already advanced skill cooking with Indian spices, so I knew that I'd learn something if I assisted in the kitchen as she passed on her knowledge to the women attending the class.

What I already do know is that the spectacular colors of India, as seen in the beautiful saris the women wear, are reflected in their cooking spices.

In Cindy's class, the spices above, plus some, were used in various combinations according to the Ayurveda practice of including in each meal all six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent.

Here are a few other things I discovered about the spices used in Dahl, the Indian dish I'm featuring today:

• Turmeric (the yellow spice above) is the base of almost every curry. It's a warming spice, contributing bitter, pungent, and astringent tastes. It's also a natural blood-purifier and anti-inflammatory. It detoxifies the liver, fights allergies, boosts the immune system and stimulates digestion. Used in tiny quantities it colors boiled white rice, potatoes and lentils. It combines well with cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper and cinnamon.
• Cumin Seeds (the light green seed behind the turmeric), are pungent, slightly bitter and warming. An excellent digestive, they combine well with fennel and coriander (and then its action is cooling), turmeric, ginger and cinnamon.
  
• Black Mustard Seeds (in the forefront of the photo above) are pungent and warming, oily and sharp. They relieve muscular pain and warm the digestive system.
• Fresh Grated Ginger (not seen in pic above) is is pungent and warming and it is used so widely in Ayurveda medicine that it's considered a medicine chest unto itself!
• Fresh Cilantro (not seen in pic above) is cooling and used fresh as a garnish -- as it is in Mexican cooking.

Indian Dahl
1) 1 cup yellow split Moong (or Mung) Dhal -- this is the easiest to digest of all the legumesSesame or light olive oil or ghee (clarified butter)
2) 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (Optional: same of coriander seeds)
3) 1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds
4) 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
5) 1/2 teaspoon grated or chopped ginger
6) Optional: paprika or your choice of chili
7) Fresh chopped cilantro for garnish

Method

• Rinse and soak split dahl in water for 30 minutes
• In a large pot (or pressure cooker) heat oil. Add spices, stirring over med. until seeds pop
• Add dahl and 6 cups of water, bring to boil and let simmer 45 mins on stove top or bring pressure and rock 5 minutes and then let sit until pressure falls. You want the dahl to cook to a butter-soft consistency.

To Serve: Spoon into a bowl and top with fresh chopped cilantro, perhaps a spoon of boiled rice and a side of freshly-cooked papadams.

I'll post some cooking tips for papadams this week, along with several other dishes to serve alongside the dahl.

Note: Adding a cup of (uncooked) basmati rice, perhaps some carrot and sweet potato turns dahl into kitcheree, a high-protein, easy-to-digest soul food -- the Indian equivalent of chicken soup.

According to Cindy, doulas in India feed kitcheree to new mothers. Made with spring vegetables it's also the sole food eaten as part of the Ayurvedic spring-detox program known as Panchakarma.

Minimal-Meat Meals

If like me you made the French Lentil and Ham Hock stew earlier this week, you may have leftovers.

I had ample leftovers.

And so today, I'm finishing up my posts on Reducing, Refining and Replacing your meat consumption by offering several ideas using lentil stew as the basis for minimal-meat meals.

The challenge with leftovers is to create a new meal that doesn't look and taste exactly like the original meal, after all variety is more interesting to our taste buds.

As you can see from the pictures, one of the things I did was use winter greens to add color to my leftover stew.

The first picture above is a plate lined with a layer of stew which I'd heated until much of the liquid had evaporated causing the stew to thicken.

I topped the layer of thickened stew with greens that I'd sauteed with slices of apple in a dob of butter, finishing the dish with a handful of toasted walnuts.

It was a delicious combination since the greens added color and texture, the apples complimented the smoked ham, and the walnuts paired well with the nuttiness of the lentils.

In the next picture, you'll see I added greens, sliced spring onion, several mustard-flavored meatballs and cherry tomatoes to a bowl of the leftover stew thereby creating a hearty, soup-like mixture of flavor, texture and color.

To make the meat balls, I used half a pound of organic, grass-fed ground beef, adding a heaped tablespoon of grain mustard before forming the meat into 8 small balls.

I cooked them on med-to-high in a skillet, turning the heat down as they browned, serving them as a side with salsa and a sprinkling of grated Parmesan.

Once the meat balls were stirred into the bowl of soupy French lentils, ham, and greens, the salsa and cheese blended into the mix adding more flavor and richness.

The raw cherry tomatoes were a fun addition; the brightness of their red skins against the dark greens and brown lentils and beef looks luscious.

And biting down on cold and juicy mini tomatoes in combination with rich and hot lentils and mustard-flavored meatballs is quite something.

From the original French Lentil and Ham Hock stew, I was able to create a number of different meals by adding vegetables, nuts and minimal meat.

Yet these were nourishing, winter-appropriate meals that were not dependent on meat as the feature to make them fulfilling.

I started the week by saying that it is easy to reduce the amount of animal protein we eat by replacing it with other high-quality vegetarian options. I hope you agree that the meal ideas posted here today and this week are great examples of that.

Next week, I'll be writing up several recipes and notes from an in-home Indian cooking class I participated in last night. Stay tuned!

Lamb in Red Wine with Tomatoes

This week, I've been extolling the virtues of Reducing, Refining and Replacing your meat consumption.

Yesterday I briefly elaborated on "why," suggesting we'd implement the Three R's for health, budgetary and ethical reasons.

If you're looking for additional reasons to consider, here are 10 more!

Once you've made the decision to try and reduce your animal protein intake (while also considering the other two R's), the first challenge is to change your purchasing habits and buy meat that is hormone and antibiotic-free, and humanely farmed.

You might start by reading labels on packaged meat, ask your meat-counter clerk questions about the meat you're purchasing, and or research online what brands of meat are the highest welfare, and humanely raised.

You might even consider pooling resources with several others and purchasing a cow, pig or lamb from a local farmer who's about to slaughter livestock. If you cow/pig/lamb-share, it's a cost-effective way to stock your freezer with locally, and hopefully humanely-grown, meat.

You'll probably need an extra freezer to do this, since if you divide a butchered cow by say 4 couples, you may end up taking home as much as a 100 pounds of meat. Chances are if you are able to purchase meat directly from a local farmer, you can buy wholesale cuts, rather than enormous quantities.

During my teen years, my parents invested in a second freezer and did a lamb, and then a beef share. We ate red meat at least 6 nights a week! (These days, I eat red meat maybe once every fortnight.)

Australia and New Zealand are known for delicious lamb and that reputation is warranted -- it really is delicious. Today's recipe is based on one that my mother made with stewing lamb from our lamb share.

When you stew or casserole meat it's the surest way to eat smaller portions since you're more likely to serve a spoonful atop a vegetable, grain or as in today's post polenta (pic above).

Lamb in Red Wine with Tomatoes
1) Allowing about 3 ounces of lamb per person, brown stewing meat in an olive-oil lined stove-top casserole pot with a couple cloves of peeled and chopped garlic.
2) Open a good-quality can of tomatoes and pour into skillet with lamb, and over the lot pour enough red wine to almost cover the meat. No need to dash out and buy a bottle of red wine, just use wine from an open bottle that's been sitting around.
3) If you have any fresh rosemary, toss in a few sprigs. Transfer pot to the oven and bake at 350 for about one and half hours.
4) Taste test and season to your liking. If lamb is tender great, if it's still a bit chewy it may need more time in the oven. Add more wine (or water if you're out of wine) if it's looking dry, and cook a little longer.

To Serve: This stew is fabulous over garlic mashed potatoes, or rice with a side of crisp green beans. I chose to serve it the last time I made it with polenta (one cup simmered for 30 mins with 4 cups water then poured into a baking dish) topped with red pepper, black olives and tomato concasse (pic above), and on the side, a plain, green salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.

French Lentil and Ham Hock Stew

Yesterday in my post about meaty matters, I made reference to the Three R's.

Reduce, refine, and replace the amount of meat you eat.

We'd apply the Three R's for health, budgetary and ethical reasons.

One way to reduce our meat consumption is to prepare meals so that meat is not the feature but instead a side or a flavor enhancer.

If you've cooked with smoked ham hock you'll know that it's a great flavor enhancer in soups, stews and casseroles.

Refining your meat consumption involves choosing humanely farmed meat. And refining your pork (or ham hock) consumption, means choosing pork that has been:

• raised without antibiotics and hormones
• fed a vegetarian diet, perhaps even an organic vegetarian diet
• raised according to the Animal Welfare Institutes Pig Husbandry Standards
• born and raised on local farms and processed at USDA inspected facilities

Now that's a lot to keep in mind when choosing pork, but with minimal online research I found that Niman Ranch adheres to the above protocols in their farming practices and as a result produces All-Natural pork, beef, lamb and poultry.

Look out for their brand or using the above protocol, research the brands available in your grocery store before purchasing protein items. Choosing what the Humane Society calls Higher Welfare animal products is a great start to refining your consumption of animal protein.

Replacing the amount of meat we consume is as easy as preparing meals along lines of yesterday and today's recipe. Make meat less a feature and more a topping or a side by adhering to the less-is-better rule of 3 ounces or less of animal protein once or twice a day.

When preparing something like the following lentil and ham hock stew chances are you'll consume less than 3 ounces of pork in one sitting. The ham hock I used was about 8 ounces and several ounces of that was bone.

With the addition of one cup of lentils, vegetables, and 4 cups of water the resulting volume was about 10 cups or at least 8 bowls of stew which means in each bowl there was probably less than an ounce of ham.

Despite how little ham is actually in each serving, this is a thick and filling stew because lentils are an excellent meat protein replacement.

Low in fat, and high in digestible fiber and protein they're a great healthful option for a weekly meal plan that isn't meat focused.

French Lentil and Ham Hock Stew
1) I chose French lentils for this dish because they have a nuttier flavor than regular lentils. I used one cup.
2) Pour the cup of lentils into a large pot; add your choice of chopped vegetables, i.e. an onion, clove of garlic, carrots, celery, sweet or regular potato, 2 bay leaves (optional) and 4 cups of water.
3) Add the ham hock whole and simmer the lot on low for about 4 hours.
4) Allow to cool before removing the ham hock and trimming the meat from the bone and the fat from the meat. Put the meat back into the pot and taste test, adding salt and pepper to your liking.

To Serve: Pour an ample cup of stew into a bowl and serve with a side salad of greens, say arugula, with something like sliced avocado and perhaps a chunk of crusty bread.

I elected to add arugula to my bowl of hot stew, stirring it through until the arugula wilted. The following day I did something similar with a large handful of winter greens, consisting of spinach, arugula, kale, curly kale, and chard.

I sauteed the greens slightly and then poured half a cup of lentil and ham hock stew into the skillet, gently heating the lot. I served it in a bowl topped with half an avocado which I'd mashed together with a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of walnut oil, and then I sprinkled halved, toasted walnuts over the lot (pic at top).

Marinated Top Sirloin Steak

Not long into the New Year I finished reading Julie Powell's follow up to Julie & Julia.

Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession is quite a shocking departure from the romanticism of her first book and its movie adaptation.

Her second book graphically details her cleaving or breaking down carcasses in her role as an apprentice butcher.

The act of cleaving beef, pork and lamb into parts and pieces with many a cutting blow is also a metaphor for the disintegration of her marriage, which she also dissects on the page in great detail.

It's a difficult read, the break down of her marriage juxtaposed against the pages and pages she takes to graphically describe her experience butchering.

I must admit, I scanned some of the more bloody details about cleaving a carcass. And then I wondered if that made me a hypocrite. After all, I love to eat meat, in moderation, but I'm grossed out reading too much information on how a beast is cleaved and merchandised for sale at the meat counter.

I do care to know where and how the animal I'm eating was raised, what it was feed and whether it was humanely farmed and butchered.

I'm increasingly concerned about these facts as more information comes to light about the meat industry including inhumane farming practices, GMO corn feed, and the antibiotics and hormones given farmed animals.

As a result, I do my best to make sure the meat I'm buying and eating is free of hormones and antibiotics. Ideally, I would also like to know from where that meat originated, i.e. what cattle ranch, and then the farming practices of that rancher.

Really, is it too much to ask that the cuts of meat one is purchasing for consumption were once part of a whole, naturally feed and happy cow or pig or lamb -- right up until the moment it died humanely?

Growing up in rural Australia, we knew where our beef, lamb, chicken came from. We bought from the local butcher who bought from the local farmers and every day we saw the animals we eventually ate grazing about the luscious green pastures surrounding our small town.

When I lived and cooked in France, I noticed it was similar, in as much as you could go into a butcher and see a drawn map of where the meat had been farmed, and have a discussion with the butcher about the meat, the farm on which it had been raised, the farming practices etc. etc.

I encourage you to ask more questions about the meat you're consuming. And if you're still wondering "why bother" watch Food Inc the documentary and or read what the Humane Society is doing to reduce the suffering of animals raised for human consumption.

One of the ideas the Humane Society is promoting, apropos meat consumption, is the Three R's: reduce, replace, refine.

It is easy to reduce the amount of animal protein we consume by simply replacing it with other high quality vegetarian protein options (last week I blogged about grain protein). And we can refine our diet by choosing flesh protein that is higher welfare or cage free.

This week, I'm going to post a number of main-meal ideas making use of smaller or reduced portions of organic, antibiotic and hormone-free meat protein. Increasingly this is the way I eat for health, budget, and ethical reasons.

For instance, at any one meal I don't eat more than 3 ounces of flesh protein and then not more than twice a day.

Marinated Top Sirloin Steak
1) Allowing 3 ounces of beef per person, slice sirloin steak into thin strips.
2) Toss sliced pieces into a bowl with some olive oil, Braggs or Tamari or Soy Sauce, a crushed and chopped clove of garlic and a piece of peeled and chopped raw ginger.
3) Allow beef strips to marinade for a few hours. Ideally, you'd prepare the beef the night before or the morning of the day you're going to cook it.
4) Because sirloin is a good quality piece of beef and because for this dish it's been sliced thinly, it will need minimal cooking.

My method: Heat a skillet lined with a little olive oil; once oil is smoking, toss in the pieces of beef and sear on one side for a min or two. You may not even need to turn beef over.

To Serve: Serving options are numerous. You'll notice in the picture above that I served my seared slices over a bowl of wilted winter greens which included chard, spinach, kale and radicchio. I also sprinkled the garlic and ginger from the pan over the lot.

On the side I had a bowl of millet (leftover from the breakfast millet I prepared last week) which I'd heated by adding it to the hot skillet after I'd removed the beef. Pouring in a glug of stock (or you could use water, red or white wine), I stirred the millet till the millet absorbed the liquid.

You could serve beef strips over garlic mashed potato (regular or sweet potato) with a side of greens, or over oiled pasta topped with a good quality bottled tomato sauce or you could serve it with rice and a side of stir-fry vegetables.

Nutmeg Spinach & Millet Breakfast

So far this week I've featured oatmeal, polenta, millet, and quinoa as healthful, budget-wise breakfast grains.

At approximately one dollar a pound the savings on whole grains bought in bulk, compared to boxed and prepared cereals, is about 2 to 4 dollars a pound.

And without the sweeteners, sodium, preservatives etc., making your own breakfast from scratch with whole grains is one of the healthiest and smartest things you can to do start your day.

Yesterday, I made reference to millet's high-protein content, ditto quinoa and buckwheat. These 3 grains, plus amaranth, have more protein per 100 g than soy and each has all the essential amino acids.

The health and budget benefits are obvious, I'm guessing it's the convenience of use that may have some readers resisting swapping out prepared granola for whole grains.

Bar oatmeal, the aforementioned grains require about 30-plus minutes of cooking so I advised in Tuesday's post cooking a batch of your choice of grain ahead of time and storing it in the fridge for re-heating and consumption the following morning.

I cooked half a cup of millet earlier this week and this morning I ate the last of it, so half a cup or about a quarter of a pound of millet (approximately 25 cents worth), has been the basis of three breakfasts.

And rather than add primarily sweet (dried fruits, honey, marmalade) and or nut and seed toppings, today I decided on savory additions.

As you can see in the pic above and to the left, my breakfast mix consisted of cooked millet, baby spinach leaves, raisins, a dash of nutmeg and some butter for cooking.

Firstly I tossed the butter into my skillet, followed by the cooked millet, nutmeg, then the raisins and the spinach. I stirred the lot with a fork over medium heat until the spinach had wilted slightly -- about 5 mins.

Nutmeg is delicious with spinach. It's sweet, nutty and aromatic flavor compliments the mildly bitter flavor of spinach.

Consider swapping spinach out for kale, chard or beet greens, picking the youngest, most delicate leaves so as to avoid chewing through fibrous greens at breakfast.

If I were to add a nut to this dish, it would be pine nuts since their buttery texture and flavor adds richness, but pine nuts are spendy so I just used butter.

Try swapping out millet for quinoa or polenta or brown rice; the combination of spinach, raisins, nutmeg, butter or pine nuts with any of these grains would work well.

Having mentioned buckwheat as another breakfast grain option, rather than re-print the recipe for buckwheat granola here, I'm going to suggest you follow the link to the post I made back in June. One of my readers volunteered her recipe for that post.

Amy's gluten-free granola calls for buckwheat groats, seeds, nut butter and coconut oil. According to the number of visits that post has received, it's one of the more popular recipes on this blog so do check it out.

Breakfast Millet with Buttered Apple

Breakfast really is an important meal of the day and it's all too easy to discount it by eating something on the run or skipping it altogether.

Having said that often I don't feel like eating as soon as I get out of bed and so I don't, instead, I'll jump-start my system by drinking a class of warm water mixed with the juice of half a lemon or lime.

Warm lemon water stimulates the digestive system; it's a great liver tonic and it alkalizes the blood which means the health benefits of this beverage are enormous.

And I really do find that lemon water wakes up my digestion so that I feel ready to eat something before I leave the house.

Like most people, some mornings I'm hungrier than others. Regardless, I do try and eat a nutrient-rich breakfast consisting of a combination of protein, grains, fruit, good oils and minimal saturated fat -- I just adjust the portion size depending on my appetite.

Coming up with interesting and healthy combos of the above is challenging, hence my featuring whole grain cereals with-a-difference this week; I'm hoping to encourage readers to do away with boxed cereals and instead try their hand at creating healthy, budget breakfasts from scratch.

Today's grain is millet: An alkaline, gluten-free, vitamin B-rich grain, millet is considered a high-quality protein (half a cup contains 5 g of protein).

And as with oatmeal and polenta (featured yesterday), it's about a dollar a pound, if you buy it in bulk.

So I'm not scrambling in the morning cooking it, I like to prepare the millet ahead of time ...

Millet & Buttered Apple Breakfast
1) The night before, add one cup of millet to 3 cups of water, bring to the boil, cover, and turn heat to low, cooking for about 15 mins.
Note: Plain cooked millet is an acquired taste so you might like to add your favorite spices and dried fruits to the pot (see yesterday's post for ideas). Turn heat off; let it stand for another 15 mins and then decant it into a container and store in the fridge.
2) The following morning, scoop a portion either into a bowl for heating in the microwave or into a pot for heating on the stove. Either way, add a little water for heating.
3) Meanwhile slice half an apple into pieces and saute in a pan with some butter and if you wish, some brown sugar. Brown the apple on low heat.
4) Top the hot millet with sunflower and pumpkin seeds, the browned apple, and some nuts of your choice, I used pistachio nuts (pic above); finish with honey, maple syrup or agave.

It's the toppings added to the cooked millet that enhances both the flavor of this grain and the overall nutrient value of the meal.

The seeds and nuts contain the kind of "good oils" I refer to above, the buttered apple a small fruit portion, and in combination the resulting breakfast is rich in protein and fiber, low in saturated fat, but high in essential fatty acids.

If you were to add yogurt or kefir, obviously the protein and calcium quotient would increase. Also, kefir contains probiotics -- an important addition to any breakfast should your digestion need to be replenished with healthy bacteria.

Back in May last year, I featured quinoa as a versatile, gluten-free, high protein grain -- one that can also be cooked ahead and served for breakfast. You might like to review the recipe I posted and the toppings I added. Those toppings could easily be served with millet and the millet toppings listed above would go well with quinoa.

Healthy Budget Breakfasts

Just for fun, something different, I bought a boxed cereal last week.

I had a coupon which made the granola around $4 a box or $4 for 12 ounces of toasted oats jazzed up with little chocolate chunks and sweeteners.

The granola is pleasant, but not fabulously delicious or for that matter, highly nutritious (it contains 4 different sweeteners).

I certainly won't buy it again; it's unnecessarily spendy for something I can easily make myself for much less.

One pound or 16 ounces of organic, bulk oats is about .99 cents and when you buy dry goods in bulk there's no box to throw in the trash.


If I then toss those oats in melted butter and honey or soft brown sugar or agave, toasting them in the oven on a baking tray -- allowing the oats to cool before tossing in little chunks of dark chocolate --I've essentially made the same granola for about one-third of the price of the boxed variety.

Oats are terrifically versatile and a cereal grain we're all familiar with. Periodically though, I get bored with oatmeal despite cooking it with seeds, dried fruits, marmalade, and topping it with stewed fruit, coconut or coconut milk -- anything I can find to make it interesting.

When that happens, I turn to other cereals for a much needed change. Polenta is an alternative. Like oatmeal, it's around a dollar or less a pound when purchased in bulk. It's also quite bland and therefore polenta lends itself to being transformed with the addition of other flavors.

Most commonly served as a savory dish nowadays, it was originally served as gruel porridge. Generally I cook one cup of polenta in about 3 - 4 cups water, the more water added, the more porridge- and the less gruel-like the consistency.

To enrich the polenta, you could boil it in a combination of water, milk, half and half, or nut, coconut or hemp milks.

Add spices like fresh grated or powdered ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, and dried fruits such as raisins, currents, cranberries, figs, pear, and perhaps the zest from a lemon or lime or orange.

Boil the polenta for about 30 minutes. Eat it straight-away as porridge topped with nuts, yogurt, sour cream or stewed fruit or pour the cooked polenta into a bowl and let it set, as in the picture to the left. Keep the bowl of polenta in the fridge for later use.

For breakfast, serve chunks hot or cold with stewed fruits (as in the top pic), seeds like sunflower and pumpkin, and or slivered almonds browned in a little butter. Drizzle with honey, agave, maple syrup or soft brown sugar.

I had a breakfast like this a couple days running and then on the third day, I cut a chunk of the cold polenta and tossed it into a hot skillet with a piece of sliced turkey bacon, stirring the lot about with a fork to break up the polenta, and creating a space in the center of the skillet, I cracked an egg and let it cook.

For a savory, low fat and phytonutrient-rich breakfast, you could substitute the bacon and egg with tofu or tempeh, and add a green like chard, spinach or kale to your polenta mix.

This week, I'll feature economical and nutritious cereal and grain breakfasts-with-a-difference. Check back tomorrow for ideas on preparing millet and quinoa.

Savory Egg Roulade

The day before Christmas I posted a recipe for chocolate roulade.

A sweet dessert, roulade can also be savory, as long as you leave out the sweet ingredients.

Because I'm featuring light, post-holiday meals this week, with eggs at the center of those meals, I thought I'd share a savory version of roulade.

Light and fluffy like the souffle omelet I featured on Monday, an egg roulade is simply the yolks (pic left) and whites beaten separately (to aerate them), and then folded together.

Once folded, the egg mixture is baked on a oiled and floured oblong tray, just as we did with the chocolate roulade (pic below).

As the baked roulade cools, prepare a filling of your choice. We filled the chocolate roulade with whipped cream. Tasty fillings for a savory roulade might be one of the following:

• Cream cheese beaten with pieces of baked or tinned or smoked salmon.
• Mashed or chopped avocado moistened with olive oil and lemon juice and mixed with watercress.
  
• Tuna, egg or potato salad bound with mayonnaise.
• Ricotta cheese mixed with wilted spinach and pieces of crispy bacon.

You get the idea -- any combination of savory mixtures that you can spread over the roulade before rolling it. Keep in mind that your filling shouldn't be too hot or too liquid-y otherwise it'll cause the egg roulade to disintegrate.

Savory Egg Roulade
1) Separate 6 large eggs -- yolks in one bowl and whites in another.
2) Beat yolks until they're light and fluffy (pic above) with salt and pepper. If you have herbs growing on your winter windowsill you might like to add sage or thyme or oregano.
3) With clean and dry beaters, beat the whites until they're stiff.
4) Turn the whites into the beaten yolks and fold the two together either with a whisk or a spatula.
5) Refer to the chocolate roulade steps 12-22 for baking and rolling tips and tricks.
6) Before you roll your roulade, spread it (pic to left) with one of the savory fillings above or a mix you've created.
7) Lift the savory roulade onto a platter and decorate with sprigs of a fresh herb of your choosing.

To Serve: Because roulades look so spectacular, present it on the platter and cut it into 1 inch pieces at the dining table. Spoon slices onto plates and serve with any number of sides.

On Monday I suggested several winter vegetable sides and then last night, I made for the second night in a row a delicious combination of colorful winter vegetables (pic below).

Substantial and tasty, you might like to try a hearty side like this with your light, savory egg roulade.

Wilted Purple Cabbage with Pumpkin
1) Toss a chunk of peeled and chopped ginger and the same of garlic into a lightly oiled skillet; saute on low.
2) Chop up a chunk of purple cabbage, pumpkin or acorn squash; add to skillet and stir about on low heat.
Note: I added some turkey bacon, but that's optional.
3) Pour in half a cup of stock and put the lid on the skillet, cooking the veggies till the pumpkin is soft.
4) At the last minute, I tossed in two chopped spring onions; you could also add chopped kale or spinach for color and additional nutrients.