Key Lime Pie

I have wanted to taste and try out a recipe for Key Lime Pie since I heard of its existence!  It just sounded like something that I would enjoy. I love cooking with lime and I really enjoy the freshness and colour of it. I found this recipe in the Garden and Home Magazine and decided to give it a bash yesterday.  The lime juice and zest added a really great refreshing touch. I had made steak and chips with a mushroom sauce for lunch so it followed on well from such a heavy meal because it was so zesty fresh! I served it with ice cream and raspberries so the colours on the plate were beautiful. It was a hit!

For the base:

150g tennis biscuits

150g ginger biscuits

150g butter – melted

For the filling

8 limes, finely grated zest and juice

375ml fresh cream

1 tin condense milk

3 egg yolks

To serve:

Fresh lime zest

Icing sugar

Raspberries

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

• To make the base, put the biscuits into a food processor and crush the biscuits. When they are crushed, add the melted butter and mix until combined.
• Press the mixture into the base and up the sides of a tart or flan case. Chill the tart shell until required.
• Preheat the oven to 150 C
• To make the filling, place all of the filling ingredients in a bowl and whisk until combined.
• Pour the filling into the tart shell and bake for 30 – 40 minutes until just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
• Dust with icing sugar and serve topped with fresh lime zest, raspberries and vanilla ice cream.

Photo and recipe from the Garden and Home Mag

Lamb Kofte, Pitta and Greek Salad

I think that I shared the same point of view with many other people who have tried to lose weight before with various diets. And that is that healthy, low fat food has no taste, no pizzaz, offers zero challenge or excitement to an adventurous cook who’s looking to up their skills and learn more about food and flavour.  This presented me with a real dilemma in that I felt as though I had to choose between my love of cooking, food and my health.

Something had to give right? WRONG.

I really applaud Jamie Oliver and his intense mission that he has undertaken to introduce healthy eating habits and has not just highlighted a problem, but has offered a solution in his recipes that are FULL of amazing flavour, are quick and easy to make but remain interesting, fresh and different!   I don’t have to choose between interesting great tasting food and my health, I can now cook amazing food that is good for me but that also feeds my cooking and food passion. It’s just about making the right choices, cutting the wrong things out and focussing on flavour combinations and making good, healthy food WORK well by combining it with the right stuff! Something that Jamie does very well and is teaching me how to do which has proven to be a very valuable lifestyle lesson!

I made this from his 15 Minute Meals recipe book last night and have fallen in love with it! The honey and pistachio coating is just gorgeous. The honey adds a subtle sweetness that lamb loves and the pistachios add interesting colour as well as a beautiful texture.  I also really enjoyed the grated red onion and cucumber mixture that he puts on the greek salad. It worked so well and I am not usually a fan of onion in salad, but this was fantastic!

This meal works so well for entertaining as you can just pop platters on a table and people can go nuts! I will definitely do this one again! ENJOY! 🙂

Kofte

400g lean lamb mince

1 tsp garam masala

Olive oil

25g shelled pistachios

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

1 tbsp runny honey

Couscous

½ bunch fresh mint

1 fresh red chilli

½ mug (150g) of couscous

Salad

½ an iceberg lettuce

½ a red onion

½ a cucumber

5 ripe cherry tomatoes

4 black olives (stone in)

4 heaped tbsp fat-free yoghurt

2 lemons

40g feta cheese

To serve:

4 Pita breads

• In a large bowl, mix the mince with salt, pepper and the garam masala.
• Divide into 8, then with wet hands shape into little fat fingers.
• Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, turning until dark golden all over.
• Tear off most of the top leafy half of the mint and blitz in the processor with a pinch of salt and pepper and the chilli until fine. Remove the blade, stir in ½ mug of couscous and 1 mug of boiling water, put the lid on and leave to sit in the processor.
• Cut the lettuce into wedges and arrange on a nice board or platter.
• Peel and coarsely grate the onion and cucumber into a bowl, season well with salt, then squeeze out any excess salty liquid and sprinkle over the lettuce.
• Chop and add the tomatoes, then squash, destone and dot over the olives.
• Mix the yoghurt in a bowl with the juice of 1 lemon, season to taste , then drizzle over the lettuce and crumble over the feta.
• Bash the pistachios in a pestle and mortar.
• Drain away the fat from the lamb, then toss with the bashed nuts, thyme leaves and honey and turn the heat off.
• Pop the pitas in the microwave (800W)  for 45 seconds to warm through, then cut in half and add to the board with the kofte.
• Fluff up the cous cous, scatter the remaining mint leaves over everything and serve with lemon wedges.

Serves 4

Recipe and photo by Jamie Oliver

Chicken Dim Sum with Coconut Buns, Cucumber Pickle and Hoi Sin Sauce

 

I recently received the Jamie Oliver 15 minute meals book as a gift. What a gift!! I am loving the quick and more importantly healthy recipes that are in it and they are all just packed with my kinds of flavour! I will be trying and testing and blogging the good ones for you. I tried this one last night. I was a bit worried about steaming buns and steaming chicken (!!) as I had never done that before but it was so exciting to see how it all just worked!

I used portobellini  mushrooms as I couldn’t get to the right shop to get the mixed mushrooms, but they worked beautifully. I laid it all out in the steamer and in the small bowls (see the definition of Dim Sum below) and my family tucked in! We loved it J

You do need one of these bamboo steamers though – it’s essential!

 

For the Coconut Buns

1 x 400g tin of coconut milk

2 coconut milk tins (500g) of self raising flour, plus extra for dusting

 

For the Chicken, pickle & garnishes

2 x 200g skinless chicken breasts

140g mixed mushrooms

3 tbsp hoi sin sauce, plus extra to serve

2 limes

200g tenderstem broccoli

1 cucumber

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp rice or white wine vinegar

½ a bunch of fresh coriander

3 Tbsp sesame seeds

Pickled ginger

1 – 2 fresh red chilies

 

• Pour the coconut milk into a food processor with 2 heaped tins worth of self-raising flour and a good pinch of salt, whiz to a dough, then tip on to a flour dusted work surface. Roll the dough into a sausage shape, cut into 8 even sized pieces, then place each one into a double-layered muffin case, and squeeze those into one layer of the steamer. Pour 5 cm of boiling water into a large wok or on top of a medium saucepan. Put the basket of buns on top with the lid on and leave to steam hard.
• Cut the chicken into 1cm strips and toss in a bowl with the roughly torn mushrooms, hoi sin sauce, juice of ½ lime and a pinch of salt. Mix with your hands.
• Tip the chicken and mushroom mixture into the second steamer basket along with the trimmed broccoli and pop underneath the tray of buns for 5 minutes until cooked through.
• Peel the cucumber into ribbons (I used a vegetable peeler), toss into a bowl with the soy sauce, vinegar and a few torn coriander leaves, then with clean hands squeeze and scrunch everything together to make a pickle.
• Toast the sesame seeds in the frying pan on a low heat until golden, then tip into a little bowl, cut the remaining 1 ½ limes into wedges, and serve with the pickled ginger and extra hoi sin sauce in little bowls.
• Serve the buns and chicken in the steamer trays, scattering everything with the remaining coriander leaver and finely sliced chilli.

 

Serves 4

Recipe and Photo from Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals

 

What does DIM SUM mean??

Dim sum refers to a style of Cantonese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim sum is also well known for the unique way it is served in some restaurants, whereby fully cooked and ready-to-serve dim sum dishes are carted around the restaurant for customers to choose their orders while seated at their tables.

Eating dim sum at a restaurant is usually known in Cantonese as going to “drink tea” as tea is typically served with dim sum.