Month: May 2015

Breakfast egg muffins

Breakfast egg muffins

by Food By Jill ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 
It’s all about trying to make breakfast food more appealing than just the basics. I always wonder why a restaurant can’t jazz up their eggs, instead of the normal fried, poached or scrambled variety, then the menu would be ever so appealing! 

There’s are a take on a muffin, but some could also say a quiche, other might even say a frittata, but what will absolutely blow your mind is that there is nothing in here that isn’t healthy for you…ok, maybe the cheese, but it’s really minimal. 

Breakfast egg muffins

  • Difficulty: so easy
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Ingredients 

18 eggs, cracked, blended and strained 

Grated mozzarella or Parmesan (only for tops) 

Chopped fresh herb selection (the more the merrier) 

Fillings: 

You can used any vegetable you please, they should be chopped and fry them all off before hand. 

I used baby potatoes, sundried tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, garlic and fresh herbs. 

Method 

Preheat oven to 180C 

Fry off your vegetables with loads of garlic, fresh herbs, and season well. 

If you are using potatoes, steamed them until just soft, before adding them to the frying pan. 

Prepare your muffin tins with a good spray of nonstick 

Now spoon your vegetable mix into the prepared tins, filled each one up about half way. Then slowly pour your egg mix to the brim of each muffin cup. Top with grated cheese and more fresh herbs. 

Pop into the oven and watch the magic happen! They puff up beautifully and go golden brown on the surface. 

These babies bake for about half an hour, depending on your oven speed. To check, insert a skewer stick, it needs to come out clean. 

Serve with a fry up, or on its own with a fresh tomato ragout and loads of rocket. 

❤️🍴

Quick brown rice sushi bowl

Quick brown rice sushi bowl

by Food By Jill ♥ 0 Leave a Comment


I love sushi and sushi salads, and although it’s generally healthy for you, most places cover and coat everything in sweet chili sauce (high in sugar) or that amazing tasting (but not good for you) Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie). 
So this quick and easy thrown together recipe is the perfect “at home” sushi eating option. Serve it with grilled fish, or sashimi, toss in some prawns or flaked chicken if you want, the list of options and ideas are endless because this base is such a good and tasty salad!

Brown Rice Sushi Bowl

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

1 cup of brown rice (cooked to the packets instructions and kept warm)

Salad

1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes

1 carrot, peeled and cut into cubes

1 cup of cooked edamame beans*

1 tspn each of white and black sesame seeds

4 kale leaves, stalks removed and cut into bite size pieces

A good handful of coriander and mint, chopped

2 TBSP of olive oil

Pink Himalayan salt, only if needed for seasoning

Dressing for rice 

100ml of Rice wine vinegar

2 TBSP of sugar

Dressing for salad 

Juice of 1 lime

2 tablespoons of tamari or regular soy sauce

Method

Add all the salad ingredients into a bowl and mix

In a small pot, add the two ingredients for the rice, bring to the boil and make sure the sugar is dissolved. Mix this into your warm rice. The warmth helps absorb the mixture.

Leave to cool.

In the salad bowl, pour over your lime juice and tamari, and mix well, scrunching up the kale, check for seasoning. You might need to add a pinch of salt!

Now mix the rice and the salad base together and VIOLA! Done!

Serve as you please! Even on its own!

❤️🍴

*edamame can be found in any good grocery store or Chinese specialty shops,  but if you can’t seem to track them down, you can add peas, or chopped up fine beans. If you can only find the edamame pods, cook them as per instructions and just removed the little gems from the inside!

A modern way 

A modern way 

by Food By Jill ♥ 2 Comments

Without being consciously aware of it, my blog seems to have a lot of vegetarian recipes!! 

I cook a lot of vegetarian dishes, because, as mentioned before, MY vegetarian is my boss, and yes, I call her MY vegetarian. As a chef, it’s almost a preprogrammed notion to “hate” vegetarians, or anyone that needs to alter our menus, but I’ve come to love cooking and experimenting with vegetarian food. 

We demand so much when it comes to our food, and everyday the demand seems to get bigger. Free range, organic, farm fresh, healthy, local, cheap and good for the planet! Gone are the days of overindulgence, we hardly use cream or cheese, and processed products are a thing of the past. We are trying to be a bit more aware of what we put into our system, and maintain a low carbon footprint. The importance of starting at the home base is also something that I continuously preach to people. Cook, cook and cook. Yes, I know, time, life, work, gym….but just take the time to cook. 

In steps Anna Jones. 

www.instagram.com/we_are_food

Her cookbook “A modern way to eat” has over 200 recipes – all based on vegetarianism. It’s a modern day take on all things amazing. She incorporates fresh, seasonal produce, into SUPER quick and inexpensive recipes. She’s worked for Jamie Oliver and has extensive experience as a chef, she now works as a stylist and food writer for newspapers, magazines, chefs, and a host of food companies. 

“A simply brilliant book – modern, clever, beautiful, and full of delicious recipes” 
Jamie Oliver 

Her book, breaks it down and takes your back to the “root” of everything, it’s cleverly laid out and reads beautifully, with loads of tips and special hacks, and list upon list of varieties of her favorites.  

In South Africa, we might not have all the ingredients that are readily available in London, but a lot of what she uses can be found in good health stores and also at fruit and vegetable suppliers.

“These recipes not only work, they are mind-blowingly delicious. So if you need more from your food, meals that are good for you, tasty, beautiful, and unapologetically meat-free, Anna’s recipes are affirming win win win!” 
Tom Herbert 

It is really an amazing book, not just for vegetarians, but for any one trying to maintain a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. Also, it gives you loads of ideas for sides and interesting alternatives to what you might already be serving! 

  
❤️🍴

Pictured : Full of green fritters (made as a frittata), Charred corn, scrunched kale and sweet potato salad with a cashew, coriander and lime dressing. 


Watercress, leek and potato Soup. 

Watercress, leek and potato Soup. 

by Food By Jill ♥ 1 Comment


Mmmmmmmmmmm….it’s winter! This must be one of my favorite flavor combinations as far as soup goes! It’s creamy, filling and so tasty. The watercress also gives it a peppery tang. 

It’s a one pot wonder and in under an hour, you have a really tasty dish!

Watercress, leek and potato soup

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy peasy
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Ingredients 

50g of butter

100g of watercress

800g of washed and cut leeks

6 medium potatoes (about 1kg) peeled and cut into discs

2L of good quality vegetable stock
Salt and pepper

Method

In a pot, add the butter and leave to melt, wait until it starts to foam, add your leeks and watercress. Sauté slightly.

Now add your potatoes and give it a big stir. Allow it to sauté and keep stirring it to avoid it sticking to the base of the pot.

Add your stock and bring it up to the boil.

I then turn it down to a simmer, and in about 30 minutes your potatoes will be soft enough to blend the entire mix.

Add to a blender in batches and blend until smooth. I season with pink Himalayan salt and fresh black pepper.

A little tip to keep soups interesting is adding a pesto drizzle instead of cream when you serve it.

I made a quick sundried tomato and pea pesto to serve with this soup.

The base for pesto is always the same

  • Olive oil 
  • Parmesan 
  • Pine nuts (or blanched almonds) 
  • Garlic
  • A herb of choice, and 
  • Seasoning 

I find that you don’t need to use herbs, as pulses, like peas and edamame work really well in place of them. Sundried tomatoes take on an almost “meaty” texture, so it tricks your mind into thinking that the soup might be meat based!

Bon appetite ❤️🍴

Love to eat, eat to love. 

Love to eat, eat to love. 

by Food By Jill ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

 
I have an unapologetic attitude when it comes to my love of food. Not just making it, or following a recipe, but eating it.  

When people tell me “I forgot to eat” or “I was so busy” or the worst, when they pitch up for a dinner party, but go ape shit on all the snacks, because “I’ve just been so busy” …… hold up : does your stomach not talk to you? Do you not hear it growling and saying “feed me!!!!!” ????? 

I don’t have time for people that can’t find the time to eat, or who don’t find the time to cook a meal, be it for yourself or for a loved one. 

“Everywhere, no matter what your nationality, food is your emotional truth”  
Nigella Lawson 

Maybe it’s because I’m a chef, I can never get tired of cooking, and when someone is hungry, I’m all over that, “what do you want?” “what can I feed you??”  

My best memories of cooking food, are ones when I’ve done impromptu dishes for my brother and sister. Toasted sandwiches at 3am, and not just any toasted sandwiches, it’s fried egg, bacon, mature cheddar, tomatoes, onions, whole grain mustard….I was sleeping, he woke me up…he was hungry. Midnight rolls, which lead to a picnic on the bed, trying not to make a mess, because we should be sleeping! Nutella pancakes with fresh strawberries, late night nachos, or even crumpets with fresh cream and chocolate sauce.

I’ve cooked and made things from scratch or just reused last nights left overs and made something magical, not because I’m bragging, but because I was feeding someone or a group of people that I love. 

I laughed at a friend the other night who said that he had all the motivation to come home and make an amazing dinner for himself, he then landed up heating peas in the microwave and eating that : his justification “as long as the food is warm”, I couldn’t stop laughing at him, and was so shocked that he was ok with that. I suppose it’s all about saving time and in today’s work environment, we are lucky to come home with energy to talk, yet alone cook. 

“Food is the energy of the world, food drives everything” 
Barb Stuckey 

Freezer meals, ready made situations or take aways, lack flavor and everything that’s good about food, so I can understand if you are not wanting to “slave over a stove” …. but just take the time and cook, start from the begginging, use fresh produce and ingredients, and make something yummy for that special person or people! 

“Eating is one of those things that’s a human requirement, but it’s the one thing you have control over” 
Noah Fecks 

Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Patch

by Food By Jill ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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There comes a time, when the recipes or food of your “growing up years”, bring back such amazing memories and mouth watering conversations that you find yourself falling in love with the simplest of ingredients. 

Take pumpkin fritters for example. These were a Sunday staple. After lunch my grandmother would bring out the already made mix and start frying them, laced with cinnamon and nutmeg, covered with a generous dusting of cinnamon sugar, they never really made it out onto the table, as we all clamored around her and ate them as they came out of the frying pan. Albeit, shallow fried in oil and clinging with calories, who cared? They were yummy, soft, delicious, warm, mouthfuls of simple, sticky, amazingness.

So, being a chef, I’ve loved my grandmothers fritters, for many years, and have taken the concept of her recipe, and adapted it to make my own. Mine are deep fried and are more of a doughnut texture, but taste just as amazing. I think it also just goes with what you prefer. The shallow fried variety that most of us grew up on or going with a different take on the fritter and seeing which one your like best.

Pumpkin Bites

  • Servings: makes about 20-30 bites
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

2 cups of pumpkin (boiled and “dried” in a hot pan)

2 cups of flour

4 tsps of baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup of milk

Pinch of salt

1 tsp each of cinnamon, ground all spice, nutmeg

A bowl of cinnamon sugar (about 400g)

Method

Place all ingredients into a food processor and process on high until combined. You might need to scrap down the sides, and then mix again.


You end up with a sticky batter, that is ready for deep frying. Get your oil to 180C and start adding spoonfuls of the mix to the heated oil. They fry really quickly and will pop to the surface of the oil, you will need to bob them slightly to turn them so that they get golden on all sides.

Take them out of the oil and drain on paper towel.

Now generously coat them in cinnamon sugar and serve them immediately!

If you are preparing them to serve at a later stage, don’t cover in sugar, you can heat them in a preheated oven (180C) for 10 minutes and them coat them in the sugar.

 


Best served as a dessert by themselves or as a side to roast chicken or turkey!

❤️🍴

The Winter blues

The Winter blues

by Food By Jill ♥ 2 Comments

 

I’m a summer baby, on every level. Although it’s a catch 22, because I don’t like getting hot! Ok. So let me figure this out, I like the sun, the smell of sunscreen, the salty taste of the ocean on my lips, and the sand between my toes…but I’d prefer to be laying on a sun lounger next to a sparkling swimming pool, with a cocktail in hand. 

With that being said, I love the late nights, the vibe that summer evokes in a city, the reckless abandon of hair and makeup, because nothing beats a summer glow, meeting new people, and summer seems to be the only season where I can go to sleep way past witching hour, but wake up just as the sun starts peeking it’s rays through my window, as to not miss out on the day ahead. 

I love lazy breakfasts and long lunches, sitting and eating, sipping on cold bubbly or crisp white wine, under a tree or on a blanket. I love the summer evenings that turn into a quick braai on the deck and then everything eaten with your hands, that takes finger licking good to a new dimension. 

So come winter, I feel like I need to hibernate like the bears do, so that I don’t have to be faced with the cold, the rain, the dark, the everything that this miserable season brings. I also do understand, that like most things, other people might love winter, but I’m not about that life. 

I am all about the food though. Roasts and stews, soups and loads of warm earthy vegetables. Fire places, huge blankets and hot chocolate. Snuggling and cuddling. Those all work for me! 

So as winter approaches for us in the Southern Hemisphere, my blog will be filled with comfort food recipes and tricks. Those that make you feel like you shouldn’t be eating the dish, but it’s so good and warm and satisfying that you just think “oh what the hell!” and make you think that winter is not so bad after all! 

❤️🍴

Spinach Wraps 

Spinach Wraps 

by Food By Jill ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t love a good wrap. Either filled, or toasted for a dip, or even topped with cheese in the oven? 

I’ve tried so many of these recipes, and this is by far the best one. I found others to have to much spinach, some didn’t have enough flour, others were really tacky and didn’t seem to actually want to hold their shapes….get what I mean. Annnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyway!!!!!!

This recipe takes some time, but it’s worth it, the wraps are light, so nutritious and so yummy!

Spinach Wraps

  • Servings: 8 wraps
  • Difficulty: Relatively easy
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Ingredients 

2 cups of gluten free flour

1 cup of whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 heaped teaspoon of salt

1 cup of blached baby spinach (that you have ringed out competely in a clean dish cloth, to get rid of all the excess water)

5 TBSP of coconut oil

2/3 cup of water

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and spinach on a food processor. Pulse thoroughly to finely chop the spinach.

Add your coconut oil, and pulse the mixture until it’s resembles bread crumbs. With the processor running, add the water in a slow stream, until it starts to combine.
I picked up that you don’t need more water, the dough is stunningly moist, and if you take some into your hand, you will notice that it forms a ball easily.


Transfer onto a floured surface and knead for about 2 minutes.

Divide into eight equal pieces.


Cut and then shape into balls.

Cover with a clean dishcloth and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Heat your pan.

Working with one ball at a time, while keeping the others covered, roll them out into circles, about 30 centimeters in diameter,


Carefully transfer the rolled wrap to your heated skillet, and cook each side for about 10-20 seconds, do not over cook as the wraps will then become stiff.

Immediately transfer the cooked wraps to a plate and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Repeat with the remaining dough balls. Lowering the heat as to prevent burning.

Just stack each cooked wrap onto the previous one. This will help keep them soft.

You can store them in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, but they generally won’t last that long.

The best is to have all your ingredients toll them ready and serve as they come out of the skillet, let everyone fill their own wraps as the like. It becomes a fun filled dinner or lunch!

❤️🍴


Sweet potato pasta

Sweet potato pasta

by Food By Jill ♥ 1 Comment


There’s a million different ways to make something taste good. Ok, maybe not an exact million…but there are many ways to add sparkle to a dish to make it yummy. 

Sweet potato is in a league of it’s own and currently I seem to be using it in almost everything. The other day I made gnocchi, and please let me tell you that it is the most AMAZING gnocchi that I have EVER eaten, sweet potato fries, baked in the oven are a must, also added to chickpeas and lentils to make an amazing vegetarian “burger” or just added to a pot of curry.

This concept of using it as a mock pasta, has obviously been around for some time, I did some research and went onto a few sites to gain ideas, and there are many recipes and many variations.

I kept the sauce simple, and didn’t feel the need to make it heavy or “meaty” , so it remains healthy, light and soooooooo yummy!!!!!  

Sweet Potato Pasta

  • Servings: 2-4
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Ingredients 

2 large sweet potatoes : about 800g (orange flesh variety)

A julienne cutter or spiralizer

Any sauce you might like : I used fresh tomatoes, capers, some chili, baby spinach and garlic. I tossed that all together in a pan with the cooked pasta.

A pot of water

Olive oil

Salt

Garnish : grated Parmesan, fresh herbs, micro leaves.

Method

Top and tail the sweet potato and then julienne slice or spiralize the vegetable.

Add salt and olive oil to the water and bring to the boil.

Carefully add sweet potato in handful batches to the water, and cook until al dente.


Transfer each batch to a bowl of ice cold water and set aside until you are ready to reheat and serve.

When you have figured out your sauce, drain the sweet potato and toss in a hot pan covering with your yummy sauce.

It’s that simple and easy!

❤️🍴