An Evening of Vegan Treats With Jackie Kearney

Last night I got to stuff my face with the most delightful vegan street food treats at Jackie Kearney’s book launch.

For those who haven’t heard of Jackie, she was one of the Masterchef finalists in 2011 and is a committed vegetarian.

Her latest book is called My Vegan Travels.  Jackie has travelled a lot in South East Asia and picked up a ton of great ideas for cooking vegetarian and vegan food.  Her previous book Vegan Street Food was along a similar theme, but her new book is focussed on super simple, comfort food recipes.

I got to munch my way through: shitake mushroom croquettes, bombay veg sandwiches, beetroot and watercress samosas and artichoke torta.  All rather lovely.  But the icing on the cake for me as a greedy sugar fiend, were the chai doughnuts with raspberry jam and soft pecan cookie ice-cream sandwiches (with a vegan malted coconut and blueberry ice-cream). Scrumptious.

The book looks absolutely superb, so if you want to buy an original Christmas gift for a cooking enthusiast, My Vegan Travels is a great shout.

All the photos were taken by the talented Paul Wolfgang Webster.

Shitake mushroom croquettes

Bombay veg sandwiches

Beetroot and watercress samosas

Having Your Cake And Eating It!

As you may have gathered from reading my blog posts this year, I have a very sweet tooth that interferes with my desire to eat healthily. I have been very open about my ice-cream addiction and my attempts to curb my evening treat.

So a big theme for me this year has been finding a healthier alternative for dessert.  And ‘healthy’ cakes have become a thing for me.

When I say healthy, I think it’s more accurate to say it contains a few more wholesome ingredients than the original. The recipes are still loaded with sugar and fat.   And whether that’s in the form of maple syrup and coconut oil, too much of it still isn’t good for you.

But I do take great comfort in knowing that when I’m eating a healthier version of a cake, it might be doing me a little bit of good at the same time.

My favourite cookbook for these treats at the moment is Love, Bake, Nourish  It was a birthday present back in May, and for the last two months I’ve cooked the sh*t out of it!

Unfortunately I was too lazy to take photos of all of my efforts, but let me tell you about my greedy cakey couple of months.

For starters I really enjoyed the following:

• Courgette and apple
• Maple pecan
• Orange, almond & pistachio
• Coconut
• Chocolate beetroot

And pretty much unanimously, they’ve all been AWESOME.

And the four pictured below are my absolute faves:

• Banana and cinnamon
• Chocolate and chestnut
• Spiced scented carrot cake with a crumble topping
• Nutmeg love

Amber Rose the author tends to use spelt flour instead of refined flour, which is much more nutritious, she also uses honey, maple syrup or brown sugar instead of refined sugar.  And the use of a lot of nuts, veg and fruit in her cakes bumps up the goodness levels.

I tell you what though, those ingredients may make the recipes healthier, but actually they seem to elevate the flavours.  I’ve been really impressed with complex, interesting taste of the cakes.  All of them were rich and indulgent and really satisfying.  Most were quite pudding like in that they were quite dense and moist, and I was all over that.

I can’t wait to crack on and cook everything in the book. Next on my list is the  passion fruit and lime syrup cake.  Mmm.

Banana and cinnamon cake

Chocolate and chestnut cake

Spiced scented carrot cake with a crumble topping

Nutmeg love cake

Cooking The Books: Jamie Magazine

I bought a copy of Jamie Magazine a few weeks ago and I’ve literally been hooked ever since. It’s a bright, contemporary, inspiring magazine.  Whilst I subscribe to Delicious and really enjoy it, I way prefer this. Delicious actually feels quite old fashioned and stuffy in comparison. I’ve never cooked a single recipe from Delicious magazine, but I opened Jamie Magazine and I wanted to cook everything.  And we nearly did!  I think it helped that it was a ‘feel-good food’ issue – definitely my cup of tea – delicious food that I don’t need to feel guilty about.  I was particularly enamoured with a section on healthy baking and ended up cooking three cakes.

Here are my opinions on the all eight dishes we attempted:

The Favourites

1. Mushroom and lentil pappardelle bolognese.  I cooked it for Jamie and my friend Michelle and they adored it.  And if I do say so myself it was a real cracker.  Sweet, rich and complex, you definitely didn’t miss the meat.
2. Creamy lentil bowl with garlic mushrooms.  I’d just got back from a hilly hike in the Peak District and Jamie (my boyfriend not Jamie Oliver!) prepared this for me.  It was the perfect wholesome friday night treat, with the bacon adding a bit of indulgence and extra flavour.
3. Squash and greens lasagne made with leftover veg from our fridge.  We didn’t use squash or greens! We just adapted this recipe to use up all the old veg in our fridge.  We roasted the veg as was required of the squash and followed the recipe exactly apart from that.  It was fabulous! Much tastier and more interestingly seasoned than a standard lasagne. And the toasty breadcrumbs on top provided a lovely bit of crunch.
4. Apricot and root veg cake with honey and yoghurt frosting.  This was a revelation! Made with parsnips, beetroot and carrot, maple syrup, spelt flour and rapeseed oil.  This made me so happy to have this cake in the fridge.  Although it didn’t last long.  It was a very interesting sweet earthy flavour and the yoghurt frosting really was ‘the icing on the cake’ he he.
5. Banoffee pecan muffins with coconut clouds and date caramel sauce.  Another very imaginative cake.  It was very faffy to make and I got a bit annoyed with all the different stages.  But it was well worth the effort.  There was no sugar in these muffins at all – all the sugar came from dates and bananas.  The date caramel sauce and the whipped up coconut cream made the experience extra indulgent and fun.

Mushroom and lentil pappardelle bolognese

Creamy lentil bowl with garlic mushrooms

Squash and greens lasagne made with leftover veg from our fridge

Apricot and root veg cake with honey and yoghurt frosting

Banoffee pecan muffins with coconut clouds and date caramel sauce

The Also Very Goods

1. Beef shin ragu and polenta.  This was a handy one for us to cook as we had some spare beef shin in the freezer.  The only problem was that I didn’t register that this recipe was in the pressure cooker feature! We don’t have a pressure cooker, however we improvised with our slow cooker, and it was a lovely rich, flavourful dinner.
2. Indian chicken lentil traybake.  We mucked this up a bit.  Somehow we ended up with a tray bake drowning in watery sauce – so we stuck it on the hob and boiled as much of the water away as possible and threw in some extra spices and seasoning and all was good.
3. Rye pudding-loaf-cake with hazelnut crumble – made with about 20g of brown sugar and all the rest of the sweetness came from apples, apple puree and sultanas.  A really delightful cake with a lot of depth of flavour and a bit of added excitement from the crumbly topping.  Rye flour was used instead of white flour, whilst it’s not gluten free, it’s much more nutritious.

Beef shin ragu and polenta

Indian chicken lentil traybake

Rye pudding-loaf-cake with hazelnut crumble

I think the simplest way of demonstrating how much I enjoyed Jamie Magazine, is to tell you that I’ve subscribed to the magazine and I’ve bought the Clean Cakes Book written by Henrietta Inman, the lady who developed all the lovely healthy cake recipes. Jamie Magazine hits the spot for me.

Cooking The Books: The Foodie Teen by Alessandra Peters

I bloody loved The Foodie Teen cookbook.  Apologies Alessandra, but I didn’t anticipate a teenager coming up with such brilliant recipes.   And they were all super healthy too.

The dishes weren’t just good, they were inventive and challenging. The cakes in particular (all made from non refined sugar) were exotic and had incredible depth of flavour.  I would 100% cook from this book again.  Although I have two very small complaints: 1) a lot of the dinner recipes don’t have carbs which you do need to feel full and 2) there are too many cake recipes in the book, and despite my obsession with cakes, I craved more dinner options. But overall, my goodness, what fabulous, flavourful recipes.

Here’s my rating on the recipes:

Favourites

1. Spiced chocolate chilli with coriander spiked avocado.  This was so rich and delicious.  I might even go so far as to say it’s the best chilli I’ve eaten in my life.  We ate it on a friday night and I enjoyed it so much I couldn’t wait to eat the leftovers for lunch the next day.
2. Pineapple carrot cake with passion fruit coconut frosting. This was an indulgent piece of tropical heaven.  The coconut passion fruit topping was sweet and creamy and the cake was so moist.
3. Crunchy nut banana loaf.  The pecan nut and coconut oil crumble on top of this banana bread made it a real treat.
4. Mexican burgers with all the toppings and raw beetroot-carrot slaw.  I’m not sure how Alessandra did this, but the burgers were juicy and the slaw, salsa and guacomale were so fresh, the combination absolutely hit the spot.
5. Sweet potato vegetable pad thai with lime tahini and ginger dressing.  I was sceptical about whether this would work until I shoved a mouthful in my mouth.   The peanut dressing coating the vegetables was gorgeous.

Spiced chocolate chilli with coriander spiked avocado

Carrot and pineapple cake with coconut and passion fruit frosting

Crunchy nut banana loaf

Mexican burgers with all the toppings and raw beetroot-carrot slaw

Sweet potato vegetable pad thai with lime tahini and ginger dressing

The Also Very Goods

1. Spicy red thai curry soup with prawns.  Exactly what it says on the tin, an excellent red thai curry soup, full of flavour and kick.
2. Pea and pepper beef curry.  This was made with thai curry paste and was a fresh tasty curry.
3. Blueberry and almond crumble slices.  Crunchy, crumbly and juicy with tart blueberries, they didn’t last very long in our house.
4. Egyptian dukkah crusted chicken fillets wth cauliflower taboulleh.  The dukkah crust was a winner, providing a lot of spice and flavour to the chicken and the pomengrates in the taboulleh complimented the chicken beautifully.

Red thai curry soup with prawns

Pea and pepper beef curry

Blueberry and almond crumble slice

Egyptian dukkah crusted chicken fillets wth cauliflower taboulleh

As I said at the beginning, I bloody love this book.  It’s bursting with imagination, colour and flavour and it’s all incrediby healthy.  I always love a cookbook that will take me on a culinary adventure yet not leave me worrying about my arteries or my waistline.  Well done Alessandra, I could just about cook at basic bolagnaise at your age, so hats off to you for being so clever!

Cooking The Books: Ottolenghi ‘Plenty’

Ottolenghi’s Plenty has been an absolute pleasure to review.  This man makes you fall in love with vegetables. He serves them in unexpected and delightful ways. Cooking from Plenty made me very happy. And at no point did I feel that there was anything missing due to lack of meat or fish.

So here’s my run through of the eight recipes we tried out, starting with the favourites.

Favourites

1. Aubergine and lemon risotto. Ottolenghi may cook with vegetables but that doesn’t mean his dishes are low calorie.  This dish had a lot of butter in, but it tasted so good. Incredibly rich and creamy as you scoop out the goo of a charred aubergine to mix in with the risotto rice.
2. Courgette and hazelnut salad.  Admittedly we deviated from the vegetable theme here and ate it with roast chicken, but hey we would have been hungry without a bit of protein.  Griddled courgettes combined with roasted hazelnuts, parmesan, basil leaves tastes superb.
3. Tomato, semolina and coriander soup.  So semolina is a rather fascinating addition to this dish.  It thickened the soup and even provided it with a few accidental potatoey like dumplings. Tasty.
4. Mee goreng.  Apparently this is a really famous Malaysian dish, but I’d never had it before.  I am now an official fan.  Stir fried tofu, pak choi, french beans, noodles and a chilli and soy sauce. Salty and interesting.
5. Crunchy parpadelle.  A lovely creamy pasta dish made with double cream, sprouting brocolli, mushrooms and an exciting topping of crunchy panko breadcrumbs and lemon zest.  I really loved this one!

Aubergine and lemon risotto

Courgette and hazelnut salad

Tomato, semolina and coriander soup

Mee goreng

Crunchy pappardelle

Also very goods

1. Mixed beans with many spices.  Jamie chose this and I thought it sounded a bit boring.  I was wrong.  Beans can be very delicious in the right spicy sauce.  So tasty that I had two enormous plates full of the stuff.
2. Butterbeans friend with feta, sorrel and sumac.  Jamie wasn’t such a fan of this dish, but I love butter beans and feta and dill so I was happy as larry!  It was lovely and creamy and comforting with the dill and feta adding a bit of intrigue.
3. Soba noodles with aubergine and mango.  An unusual  and enjoyable dish.  The mango gave it an interesting sweet and sour flavour.

Mixed beans with many spices

Butterbeans friend with feta, sorrel and sumac

Soba noodles with aubergine and mango

I loved cooking from Plenty.  Ottenlenghi is a creative genius – the dishes are so colourful and imaginative – they really lit up our evening meals. Although sometimes there’s a lot of butter and cream in his recipes, I think they cancel themselves out because all the vegetables and other ingredients are so healthy. I will definitely be returning to this book for more vegetable worship.

Cooking the Books: Rachel Khoo’s ‘The Little Paris Kitchen’

On my return from France, because I was so fired up about French food I was desperate to review a French cookery book.  But, alas none of my 80 cookbooks are French.  Luckily my friend Katy came to the rescue with Rachel Khoo’s ‘The Little Paris Kitchen’.

I hadn’t personally been a fan of the tv programme – I found Rachel a bit smug with her glamourous outfits and her adorable Paris life and her perfect food.  Or more accurately I was probably jealous. However I am now eating humble pie.  Rachel Khoo – I apologise for misjudging you – I’m converted – your food is ace.

I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re on a diet – there’s a lot of cream and cheese, although I did try and select the marginally more healthy options.  But I must confess I did like cooking with naughty ingredients.  It made a refreshing change from my comfort zone of reviewing healthy cookbooks.

The dishes were so good I’ve even had to invent new categories for grading the dishes we tested.  Firstly we’ve got the ‘Off The Scale’ category, followed by ‘Excellent’, finishing with ‘Really Good’.

I’ll talk you through them:

Off The Scale

1. Cauliflower bake with hazelnut crunch.  Cauliflower cheese is a comfort food dish, but this is a glammed up version.  The crunchy breadcrumbs and hazelnuts on top were a lovely addition.  I regret that I over steamed the cauliflower.  Next time I will aspire to crunchier cauliflower.
2. Bouillabaisse or fish stew.  This was our new year’s eve dinner.  I loved the exotic blend of herbs and spices – star anise, orange zest, fennel seeds, thyme and saffron threads – I’ve never eaten seafood with that kind of citrussy base before.  We tried to make the ‘rouille’ to go with it – a saffrony homemade mayonnaise.   Two attempts but no success  – I think more thorough guidance  from Khoo would have been useful, but the stew was still exceptional without it.
3. Chocolate lava cakes with salted caramel filling.  It was a triumphant moment at our table when Jamie and I tucked into these beauties.  Hot molten chocolate with salted caramel in the middle. A definite moment of pudding heaven for me.

Cauliflower bake with hazelnut crunch crust

Bouillabase (sadly without the rouille)

Chocolate lava cake with salted caramel filling

Excellent

1. Smoky fish pie.  A good way to use up the leftovers from the christmas cheeseboard and random old veg in our fridge.  This was made with smoked haddock, bechamel sauce and veg of  your choice.  It was a lovely warming wintery dish.
2. Puy lentil salad with goat’s cheese, beetroot and a dill vinaigrette.  The perfect post christmas health kick dinner with the dill sauce adding a nice fresh, tart note.
3. Chicken and mushrooms in a white wine sauce.  Chicken and mushrooms with cream and wine is always a winner and the aniseedy tarragon on top really made it for me.

Smoky fish pie

Puy lentil salad with goat’s cheese, beetroot and a dill vinaigrette

Chicken and mushroom in white wine sauce

Really Good

1. Mushroom terrine.  Basically a mushroom quiche without a pastry.  Simple and tasty.
2. Carrot salad and celeriac and apple salad.  I too often forget how good salads can taste with a bit of love and imagination.  We were particularly taken with the celeriac and apple salad – the mustard and white wine vinegar giving it some pep.

Mushroom terrine

Carrot salad and celeriac and apple salad

I was rather sorry when we cooked the final recipe from ‘The Little Paris Kitchen’.  It had been a lot of fun – I had enjoyed the feeling of extending my french holiday by continuing to learn about French cooking and eating French food.  I also did really like the excuse to cook with fattening ingredients – the French know what they are doing with cream and butter.  Thanks Rachel, your cookbook is colourful, inspiring and you make it easy for readers to get impressive results.

 

Cooking The Books: Dale Pinnock’s ‘The Medicinal Chef’

I’m a sucker for a good healthy cookbook, but the recipes need to be delicious too.  On first impressions the title Medicinal Chef is a bit off-putting – it sounds rather clinical and dull, but in fact it really delivered.  The recipes were not only incredibly fresh and tasty, but they were quick and easy to knock together.

Here are the favourites:

1. Prawn and salmon skewers and citrus quinoa salad – this was such a hit for us.  I thought it looked a bit plain in the cookery book, but it was far from it.  The quinoa was mixed with parsley and the juice and zest of a lime and really lit up the meal.
2. No cheese chocolate cheesecake – made with avocados, a nut base and honey instead of sugar.  It was not particularly sweet, but once you got your head around that you could enjoy the subtle earthy flavours of the cake and feel smug for being so healthy.
3. Immune-boosting king prawn curry – as good as any curry we ate in Goa.
4. Sweet potato and spinach curry – a really delicate curry – and I loved the toasted almonds on top.
5. Grilled mackerel with sauted fennel and leek – the photo of this below does not convey how good this dish was.  Fresh, fragrant – you felt virtuous while you were eating it but thoroughly satisfied by the excellent flavours.

Prawn and salmon skewers with citrus quinoa salad

No cheese chocolate cheesecake

Immune-boosting king prawn curry

Sweet potato and spinach curry

Grilled mackerel with sauted fennel and leek

And as we liked absolutely everything we cooked, here are the also very goods:

1. Vegetable crumble with cheesy oat topping – a great way of using up all the leftover veg in our fridge.  I thought the oaty cheese crumble mix on the top was genius.  Especially the oaty twist.
2. Thai green vegetable curry – our motivation again was to get rid of old veg and what a delicious way to do it.
3. Mackerel marinated with beetroot and horseradish – I choose not to put a photo up as it looked revolting. It did however taste very nice – the horseradish with the beetroot was a great blend and I love the taste of mackerel.  And did you know mackerel is super cheap?

Vegetable crumble with cheesy oat topping

Thai green vegetable curry

Dale Pinnock’s Medicinal Chef may not be as sexy and on trend as Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food, but is the same premise.  Delicious, easy to make healthy food.  I marginally prefer Jamie Oliver’s book – perhaps it is because the photography is so good and the dishes jump out at you from the page.  But Dale’s recipes are quicker to make and require only a few ingredients – so I’d big Dale up for convenience.  I’d thoroughly recommend giving Medicinal Chef a go – I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s helped keep my waistline in check in the lead up to Christmas!

Cooking the Books: Anjum Anand’s ‘Indian Vegetarian Feast’

Having just returned from our holiday in Goa, it was inevitable that we were going to choose an Indian cookery book!  And Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feast felt like a good opportunity to try and keep things light and healthy.

Favourites

1. Chickpea burgers with Indian purple coleslaw.  The creamy, lemony sour coleslaw did it for me!
2. Cannellini bean, spring greens and quinoa pilaf. An unexpected favourite.  I thought it might taste bland and worthy but I was very wrong.  Garlicky, lemony, salt, cuminy and somehow earthy and meaty.
3. Spice-crusted halloumi with fig and pistachio chutney.  Jamie’s verdict was ‘that chutney’s summit else’ which I think is quite an endorsement.

Chickpea burgers with Indian purple coleslaw

Cannellini bean, spring greens and quinoa pilaf

Spiced crusted halloumi with fig and pistachio chutney

Also Very Goods

1. Rogan Mushrooms and wild basmati rice and spinach raita – I particularly liked the raita.
2. Smoky spiced aubergines – the aubergines gave this curry a nice meaty feel.
3. Lemony vegetable and spinach hotpot –  just a good fresh, wholesome, warming curry.
4. Squash, butter bean and mushroom curry – the double cream gave this dish an indulgent feel.
5. Elegant vegetable biriyani – I really loved the crispy fried sweet potato slices onion sprinkled on top.

Rogan mushrooms and wild basmati rice

Smoky spiced aubergines

Lemony spinach and vegetable hotpot

Squash, butter bean and mushroom curry

We loved cooking from Anjum’s Indian Vegetarian Feast – I was a bit daunted by the long lists of ingredients for each dish, but actually most of them were very commonplace and nearly all of the spices were in our cupboards already.  The recipes themselves were extremely straightforward and Jamie and myself were surprised at how much we enjoyed being vegetarians for eight days.  The dishes were not only delicious, but each curry was so different from the last, so kept our interest. And I loved that everything was fresh and healthy – I did feel very virtuous throughout.  I’d really recommend buying this book and giving it a whirl.

Cooking The Books: Felicity Cloake’s ‘Perfect Too’

Guardian food writer Felicity Cloake has written a lovely cookbook called ‘Perfect Too’ which is a compilation of her weekly Guardian feature/recipe where she seeks to the make the perfect XXXX – this could be a croque monsieur, a jam doughnut, gingerbread.  Generally some kind of classic or well known dish.

My main obstacle with navigating this book was Felicity’s tendency towards red meat, heavy carbs and puddings.  I wasn’t sure how I’d survive the eight dishes we planned to test without my waistline and energy levels suffering.

However I managed to do a reasonable job of finding the most healthy numbers in the book including – dal, spaghetti vongole and nut roast.

I’ll talk you through my favourites and my ‘also goods’, as there were no failures here – everything turned out well, although there were four clear triumphs for me:

Favourites

1. Macaroni cheese.  Definitely at the top of my list. I’m not a massive fan of mac n’ cheese, but nutmeg in the sauce and a crunchy breadcrumb and parmesan topping breathed new life into this dish.  Sweet, creamy comfort food.
2. Spaghetti alla vongole.  Easy peasy to make – ready in just ten mins (apart from soaking the clams for two hours to get the dirt off them).  A superb dish – salty, lemony and it tasted of the seaside.  It felt sophisticated and looked rather rustic and beautiful.
3. Nut roast.  Another unexpected hit.  I choose this more for nutrition reasons than from real interest in the dish. But it was quite spectacular. The sage, chestnuts and parsnips gave it a lovely earthy flavour and the stilton was a lovely tangy creamy twist.
4. Potato salad.  I didn’t realise potato salad could taste this good. Felicity’s version included capers, anchovies, fresh chives, mint and parsley, dijon and wholegrain mustard, spring onions and lashings of mayonnaise. Creamy herby, salty heaven!

Macaroni cheese

Spaghetti alla vongole

Nut Roast

Potato salad

The Also Goods

1. Aubergine parmigiana. This nearly fell into ‘favourites’ as it was gorgeous.  It didn’t make it because it wasn’t as much of a revelation as the top four dishes.  It was smoky, meaty (yet vegetarian), moist and delicious. The inclusion of two balls of mozzarella gave the dish a lovely creaminess and chewiness. Warning: pretty laborious to make and involved boiling a lot of aubergines!
2. Meatballs. Made from pork and mince beef molded together with onions, fennel seeds and breadcrumbs soaked in milk.  Felicity used the pork to make them more juicy, fatty and flavoursome – and it paid off – they were much more interesting than normal meatballs and the fennel seeds were a tasty, fragrant flavour addition.
3. Dal.  A very virtuous dinner – this must have had hardly any calories in it and was full of healthy lentils.  It was tasty but I think eating it with a couple of curries would have been the ideal way to eat it – it was a bit uninspiring just by itself.
4. Cullen skink.  A creamy smoked haddock and potato soup.  A hearty, tasty and again healthy dinner.

Whilst Felicity’s recipes were a bit stodgy for me and this might not end up being my go to cook book, I ate some great meals.  And there is something magical about the way Felicity takes classic recipes – be it macaroni cheese, meatballs or parmigiana, amalgamates the best techniques from a variety of chefs and makes them REALLY REALLY  well.  Sometimes it involved a bit of extra faff and effort, but it was worth it for the excellent outcomes.

Cooking the Books: Diana Henry’s ‘A Change of Appetite’

I found Diana Henry’s ‘A Change of Appetite’ knocking around at a friend’s house and had a little nosy.  I was quickly transfixed as the theme of the book is Diana’s own personal quest to discover beautiful inspiring food that is coincidentally healthy too. I liked her writing style – it was honest, funny and elegant.  Diana wrote it at a time when she herself had been told by her doctor to lose weight and lower her blood pressure so she’s not preachy at all.  Her writing remains inquisitive and passionate throughout – she just wants to educate herself as to how to eat incredible food that is good for her, and she is generous and charming in sharing her journey.

So I bought myself a copy and this book is an absolute cracker! The dishes are inspired by many cuisines, but the Middle East, Far East and Scandanavia feature regularly. Every dish felt like a food education in delicate flavours and quite different to anything I’ve ever eaten before.

But as per usual, reluctantly I will have to divide the meals into ‘favourites’ and ‘extremely goods’, so here goes:

Favourites

1. Pilaf of mixed grains, sweet potato and fennel with avocado ‘cream’.  A sophisticated, subtle and uplifting dish.  You really don’t miss having meat with this dish, there’s so much going on.
2. Shawarma chicken with warm chickpea puree and sumac onions.  This was an indulgent and exotic plate of food and the chickpea puree was the star player – beautifully rich, nutty and flavourful.
3. Burmese chilli fish with hot and sour salad. The fish was excellent and spicy, but the salad just blew our minds – the sweet and sour was so fresh and just right.  I loved the way Diana has taken very common English ingredients (savoy cabbage, radishes and cod) and created a Burmese dish!

Pilaf of mixed grains, sweet potato and fennel with avocado ‘cream’

Shawarma chicken with warm chickpea puree and sumac onions

Burmese chilli fish with hot and sour salad

The Also Extremely Goods

1. Smoked haddock with Indian scented lentils. Inspired by kedgeree but made healthier by using lentils – a creamy, spicy, hearty and wonderfully warming dish for a chilly autumnal evening.
2. Mackerel with hazelnut picada.  Basically a croutony, hazelnutty, orangey topping on fried mackerel.  Yum!
3. Skewered chicken, with lime, chilli and mint salad.  Gorgeously fresh and zesty with Thai flavours.
4. Chicken and squash with soy and star anise. A lovely Asian style dish, I loved the sweetness of the star anise and the orange zest.  It was a warming, comforting dish and the chicken was super tender.  Shame we managed to under cook the squash which was rather hard!
5. Scandi salmon burgers with dill and tomato sauce.  A fresh and tangy dinner – the delicious yoghurt, dill and tomato sauce enhanced the flavours of the salmon burger.

Smoked haddock and Indian scented lentils

Mackerel with hazelnut picada, scandi salmon burgers with dill and tomato sauce, chicken and squash with soy and star anise, skewered chicken, with lime, chilli and mint salad

I recently reviewed Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Super Food which I raved about, but Diana Henry’s ‘A Change of Appetite’ took healthy eating to another level for me. The food I experienced during this book was exotic, intriguing, surprising and incredibly delicious.  I felt I learnt a lot about different flavour combinations from this book – particularly the joy and subtlety of sweet and sour. I found the recipes a little intimidating on initial browsing – they sounded very grown up and sophisticated and a little out of reach.  But once you actually looked at the ingredients properly and read the recipes, they were very straight-forward.  Do buy this book and cook from it – it will make you happy and accidentally healthy.

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