Healthy Broccoli and Leek soup.

December is a month that is doomed for our waist line. I have been trying to figure out how to eat healthy, in anticipation of the week starting 22^nd to the 27^th. My in-laws are visiting and I will be cooking for 12 people!!! My husband’s mom and gran are awesome cooks and am certain I will only cook for the first day. Then, they will throw down some serious delicious goodness. (I will post pictures). So, in preparation for all this, I have been making soups at least 3 times a week and I thought I would share my favourite so far.

This can also feature as a starter for your Christmas meal or as a dinner meal, after a heavy Christmas lunch or brunch.

Serves 2.

INGREDIENTS.

• 1 Broccoli
• 1 Leek
• 3 Garlic cloves
• Salt to taste
• Half tsp Pepper
• Paprika
• 2 tbspVegetable oil
• 1 Chicken cube (not needed if you have chicken stock.)

METHOD.

• In a pot, boil water with one chicken cube inside (Royco usually has some flavoursome cubes). This will be our chicken stock.
• In a pan, add 2 table spoons of vegetable oil, add the garlic and fry.
• Add Chopped leeks into the pan until translucent.

• Add the broccoli. Cover for about 5 minutes so that they steam.
• Add salt, pepper and a ¾ table spoon of paprika. Stir.
• Slowly, add the chicken stock a little at a time. Let it get absorbed before adding more.   

chicken stock added.

• Add the contents into a food processor/blender and smoothing into a soup.
• Taste to check on seasoning and here you can add more salt if desired.
• If you like your soup more runny, you can add some of the chicken stock and blend.
• Serve and enjoy.

I added chicken stock after this, because i like mine smoother and viscous.

I hope that helps your waist line this festive season.

Yours,

Madame Lacour.

Oven Baked Chicken Wings Marinated in a Sweet & Spicey Sauce.

December is here!!! For me, it is a reminder that i am getting old for i turn a year older on the 20th! For this month, i have no plan of what foods i will be preparing so i will post according to my 'feelings'. Which usually, is how i make my food. So today we prepare chicken wings, which will be accompanied by baked sweet potatoes, broccoli and mushrooms. If you have been following me, you will realise they are my go to, veggies. This meal is healthy, all baked no frying, low carbs (only in the sweet potatoes). This time i also experimented with apples. I usually don't like apple pie, or anything with cooked apples, but i had one and thought of experimenting with it. I loved the outcome, it absorbed juices from other ingredients, and still retained its suppleness.

This meal could serve 2 to 3 people depending with their appetites. We had left overs and ate them the next day for lunch.

INGREDIENTS.

• 10 Chicken Wings
• 3 Table spoons of Olive oil. ( For an extra Asian Kick you substitute some of the olive oil with some sesame oil.)
• 3 Table spoon of Soy sauce. 
• 2 Tea spoons of Honey
• 1 Courgette
• 6 To 8 Mushrooms
• 1 Sweet Potato About 15cm Long
• 1 Apple
• 1 Carrot 
• 1 Celery Stick
• Broccoli (Palm Size)
• Half tea spoon of Salt
• Half tea spoon of Black Pepper
• Royco
• 1 Table spoon of Rosemary Leaves 
• 1.5 Table spoon Chicken Masala
• 1 Tea spoon of Tomato Paste
• 2garlic Cloves

METHOD.

• Pre heat oven at 200°C.
• Separate the chicken wings at the joints to create two parts. Check this Video on how to separate them. Basically , its cutting of the wing tip, then separating the wing from the small drum(et)stick.

• In a large bowl, add Three table spoons of olive oil, 2tea spoons of honey followed by three tea spoons of soy sauce. Stir with a spoon or a whisk for about 30 seconds.
• Add a  chicken masala,  tomato paste,  black pepper and half a tea spoon of salt. (Little because of the salt content in soy sauce). Stir.
• Crush 2 garlic cloves and add into the mixture.

honey, olive oil, black pepper and salt.

royco water, rosemary, tomato paste

• Dice the carrot and celery stick into very small pieces. Add into the mixture.
  Now, whisk the contents in the bowl until smooth. Try and make sure the oil doesn't separate from the other ingredients.
• In a glass, take a tea spoon of royco powder, add 5 tea spoons of water into the glass, stir. Then add the glass contents into large bowl with all the other ingredients.
• Now, whisk the contents in the bowl until smooth. Try and make sure the oil doesn't separate from the other ingredients.

•  By hand add in the chicken wings into the bowl. Keep churning the mixture by hand, turning the chicken around the bowl so that all the pieces are covered by the marinade. Leave aside. If you have time, you could let it rest for about 45min, and turning the mixture every 20 minutes.

• Preparing the veggies: Wash all the veggies. Peel the sweet potatoes and then slice it into round pieces.

• Cut, the courgette longitudinally, into four pieces.
• Slice the mushrooms into half.
• Rinse the broccoli and cut into big chinks.
• Arrange all the vegetables on your baking tray.
• Sprinkle salt, pepper, olive oil on , cover them with foil, and put them in the already pre heated oven. Cook for 30 minutes. (This gives time for  the chicken to marinate.)

• After the vegetables have been in for half an hour to 45min, remove the backing tray and then add the chicken wings on top of them. The chicken wings excess juices will drip on the veggies giving them extra flavour. 
  
  
• Cook for 40 minutes.

• Check on the chicken wings, if cooked, serve and enjoy.
• When the chicken is in the oven, do not cover. This makes it have a nice crisp and glaze on the skin.
• NB: Depending on the type of sweet potatoes, cocking times for them may vary.

Yours,

Madame Lacour.

Smoked Salmon Tagliatelle.

Hi fellow foodies!!

First, I apologise for missing a post last week. The bad news is I was unwell and did not really do any cooking. The good news is, Monsieur Lacour made me meals, and took pictures to help with the blogging. Still with this month’s theme, cancer fighting foods, we focus on oily fish today. Fish oil provides omega 3 which is a powerful anti-inflammatory for our body. The oily fish for this post is Salmon. We bought Irish smoked salmon and prepared it in 3 meals over the course of last week. My favourite was tagliatelle pasta au salmon. By now you have noticed we eat a lot of pasta, but with our schedules, it makes for an easy meal. This here is a savoury creamy pasta that will leave your mouth watering. Here goes.

    SERVES 2

    INGREDIENTS.

1. 8 tagliatelle nests
2. 150 grams of smoked salmon
3. Half an onion
4. 2 garlic cloves
5. 2 celery sticks
6. 1 Carrot
7. 6 mushrooms
8. 2 table spoons of cream cheese
9. Parsley
10. Salt, pepper and grated nutmeg to taste.

METHOD.

1. Put a pot of water to boil and add a tea spoon of salt.
2. While the water boils, prep the vegetables. Dice the onions, garlic, carrots and celery. 
3. When the water is boiling, drop in the tagliatelle for about 9-12 minutes. (Follow packet instructions, fresh tagliatelle would cook for a shorter time.)

1. 4. In a pan, fry the onion and garlic. When the onions are translucent and garlic golden, add the celery and carrots. Cover for 3-4 minutes.

  5. Rinse the mushrooms and then slice them. (Remember, to wash mushrooms at the last minute. They tend to absorb water and this will make them over cook. ) Add them thereafter.

  6.  Add some salt and pepper and grate some nutmeg over the pan. Stir. Then add two table spoons of creme cheese.

      7.  Slice the salmon into strips.

Two table spoons of creme cheese.

salt, pepper and nutmeg.

  8.  By now the pasta should be ready. Drain it and put it aside.

  9.  Add the salmon and stir it in for 1minute then add the cooked tagliatelle.

  10.  Stir the pasta, and coat it with the creamy salmon sauce for about one minute.
 Switch off the cooker and its ready to serve.

11. Garnish with parsley, serve and enjoy.

Yours,
Monsieur et Madame Lacour.

Fresh Fusili Salad.

  November is prostate cancer awareness month and while monsieur Lacour is growing his beard as a sign of solidarity for those affected by the disease, I have taken it upon myself to try and create meals that incorporate cancer fighting foods. For this week, I chose to use broccoli in most of my meals. I made a pork curry with broccoli steamed in rice. (I will post a picture of this at the end of today’s meal presentation.) The second meal I made was a pasta dish, a pasta salad that incorporated broccoli and tomatoes, which is also another cancer fighting food. I made a mustard and anchovy dressing for the salad since cold pasta doesn’t taste like much.

       INGREDIENTS

1.       3 Handfuls of fusilli pasta.

2.       Salt.

3.       1 cup of broccoli.

4.       2 tomatoes.

5.       10cm long cucumber.

6.    50 grams of mature cheddar cheese.

7.       2 table spoon of mustard.

8.       1 tea spoon of anchovy paste. 

9.       2 table spoons of olive oil.

10.    1 small garlic clove- ground.

11.  Half tea spoon of mixed herbs.

METHOD.

1. In a big pot, bring water to a boil, then add tea spoon of salt followed by fusilli pasta. Cook for 15minutes.

2. While the pasta is cooking, prep the other vegetables; dice the tomatoes, cheese and slice the cucumber.

3. Rinse the broccoli, and once the pasta at the 10 minute mark, add in the broccoli to cook for the next 5 minutes.

4. For the dressing, Combine the mustard, anchovy paste, crushed garlic clove mixed herbs and olive oil . Whisk until there is a consistency and the olive oil cannot be seen. Put aside. (If you don’t have anchovy paste, you can add an extra half a  teaspoon of salt, in its place.)

5. Drain the cooked pasta and broccoli. After, take a pot fill with ice cold water, and leave for 5 minutes.

6.In a large bowl, mix the All the ingredients together, and then a pinch of salt and the dressing. Continue mixing until all the ingredients are covered with the dressing.

7. Serve and enjoy.

Yours,

Madame Lacour.

PS. The meal I promised incorporating broccoli, as seen below, is a Sweet and spicy pork curry with steamed rice. DELICIOUS!!

Poulet rôti et sa jardinière de petits pois et champignons au chorizo.

This is a simple meal, don’t let the French name fool you. It’s a roast chicken with peas, mushrooms and chorizo fry.  The inspiration for this meal was, the sight of a little piece of chorizo in my fridge. It was about 3cmby 2 cm in dimension. What could I possibly do with it?

INGREDIENTS.   

• Chorizo 50grams.
• 6 closed cup mushrooms.
• Half a diced onion.
• 2 garlic cloves.
• 2 handfuls of peas.
• Celery stick.
• 2 chicken thighs.
• Black pepper and salt.
• Half a tea spoon of oregano.
• Tea spoon of olive oil or vegetable oil.

METHOD. 

1. In a heated pan, pour in a tea spoon of olive oil, then add the diced onions. When onions, are translucent, add chopped garlic.
2. In a separate heated pan, pour a tea spoon of olive oil, then using a kitchen paper towel, rub it all around the pan surface. This is because, chicken skin is fatty, and will produce its own oil. 
3. Lightly salt the chicken and add black pepper, then place them, skin side on the pan, on high heat. About 9/12.

4. Dice the chorizo and add it into the pan with onions. Stir.

5. Cut the mushrooms into slices and then add them into the mixture. stir and try and coat the mushrooms into the chorizo sauce. The Colour should be orange.

6. Add a pinch of salt. Chorizo is cured meat and thus has a high content of salt, so a pinch of salt should be just fine.

7.Stir in the oregano followed by the chopped celeray stick then  cover for two minutes.
 Finally follow with the frozen peas. They take the shortest cooking time, since they simply need to thaw in the pan.

8. Check on the chicken, and turn it.

9.The meal should be ready in 5 minutes.

10.Serve and enjoy.

One more bite....

 Yours,

Madame Lacour.