Healthy, Hearty, Winter Warmers

Hi everyone and welcome to the blog. This week’s blog is all to do with healthy, hearty, winter warmers. With any luck all of your new years’ resolutions haven’t been lost yet. Hopefully you can continue to keep the resolution for a slimmer you with this week’s recipes, nonetheless just because you’re counting the calories and fat content doesn’t mean that you can’t have something warm and hearty on a cold winter’s night. I’ve also included something naughty to tickle your fancy. The features recipes this week are Bacon and Sweetcorn Chowder, Italian Stew with Borlotti Beans and Sausage and Tinker’s Tea. The herb of the week is Fennel.

My first recipe is Bacon and Sweetcorn Chowder, recipe courtesy of Slimmer Dinners, published by Olive Magazine January 2011.

This recipe serves 2, takes 5mins to prepare and can take approx. 15mins to cook.

3 x Rashers of Streaky Bacon – chopped (or lardons)
Oil
1 x Small Onion – finely chopped
1 x Large Potato – peeled and cut into small cubes
350ml x Organic Chicken or Vegetable Stock
400ml x Milk
200g x Sweetcorn (frozen or tinned (drained))
Chives, snipped to make 2 tbps

Fry the bacon in a little oil in a pan – as soon as it starts to colour, add the onion and potato and cook until the onion starts to soften. Add the stock and milk and bring to a simmer. Cook for 5mins or until the potato is tender, then add the sweetcorn and heat. Season and stir in the chives.


My next recipe is Italian Stew with Borlotti Beans and Sausage, recipe courtesy of Slimmer Dinners, published by Olive Magazine January 2011.

This recipe serves 2, takes 5mins to prepare and can take 25mins to cook.

2 x Italian-Style Sausages – skins removed
Oil
1 x Onion – roughly chopped
1 x Garlic Clove – chopped
1/2 tsp x Fennel Seeds
A Pinch of Chilli Flakes
1 x 400g tin of Cherry Tomatoes
300ml x Organic Vegetable Stock or water
1 x 400g tin of Borlotti Beans – drained and rinsed
100g x Green Beans – trimmed and cut in half

Roll the sausagemeat into little balls. Heat a non-stick frying pan sprayed or brushed with oil and brown the meatballs until golden and any oil is released. Remove the sausage and add the onion, garlic and fennel seeds to the pan, along with chilli flakes and some seasoning. Cook for 5mins and then add the cherry tomatoes with 300ml of water or stock. Bring to a simmer and add the Borlotti beans and meatballs. Cook for 10mins then add the green beans. Cook for 5mins more until the beans are tender, then serve.


Herb of the week - Fennel (foeniculum-vulgare)
This tall, hardy, graceful perennial, indigenous to the Mediterranean and now naturalized in many parts of the world, is one of the oldest cultivated plants. The Romans enjoyed fennel shoots as a vegetable; the Chinese and Indians valued fennel as a condiment and digestive aid. The herb should not be confused with the bulbous sweet or Florence fennel.
In Spring fennel gives a fresh, lively note to salads and sauces. Later in the season a garnish of flowers or a sprinkling of pollen gives an anise fragrance to cold soups, chowders, and grilled fish. Fennel is an excellent foil for oily fish. The Sicilians use it liberally in their pasta with sardines. In Province whole red mullet, bass, and bream are baked or grilled on a bed of fresh or dried fennel stalks, which imparts a delicate flavour. Pollen gives a more heady flavour to fish, seafood, grilled vegetables, pork chops, and Italian breads. Fennel seed can be added to pickles, soups, and breads; try combining ground fennel and Nigella seeds to flavour bread, as is done in Iraq. In Greece leaves or seeds are combined with feta cheese and olives to make a well flavoured bread. Fennel seeds flavour sauerkraut in Alsace and Germany, and Italians use them with roast pork and in finocchiona, the renowned salami of Florence.

Fennel seed is one of the constituents of five spice powder, the principal Chinese spice blend used mostly with meat and poultry. Bengal in northeast India also has a five spice blend, panch phoron, with fennel as an ingredient; the mixture is used with vegetables, beans, and lentils. Elsewhere in the Indian subcontinent fennel appears in garam masala, in spiced gravies for vegetable or lamb, and in some sweet dishes. Indians also chew fennel after a meal as a breath freshener and digestive aid.
Other uses for fennel are that the seed and leaves can be used in facial steams and in baths for deep cleansing. A facial pack of fennel tea and honey is good for wrinkles. A yellow dye can also be extracted.

Medicinally it can be used as a digestion aid (to prevent heartburn or constipation) by making fennel tea, by putting a teaspoon of fennel seeds in a tea cup, add boiling water, cover for 5mins then strain. A teaspoon of this cooled tea is good for babies with colic. Steep a compress in the tea and place on the eyelid, to ease inflammation or watery eye, or let the solution cool and bather the naked eye. WARNING Taken in large doses, the essence can cause convulsions and disturb the nervous system.


My last recipe for this week is more of a cocktail than a dish, something to warm the cockles on a winter’s night. Tinker’s Tea, recipe by Ray Foley, courtesy of Ultimate Bartender’s Guide. Published by Sourcebooks Inc.

This recipe makes 1, takes minutes to prepare.

45ml x Bailey’s Irish Cream
170ml x Hot Tea

Make yourself a cup of tea as you normally would, but instead of adding milk add 45ml of Baileys Irish Cream and stir until thoroughly mixed, and enjoy.

Finally, it is with great sadness and regret that I must inform you that last week's Pooky's Playbox Blog will be her last. Pooky has decided to hang up her blog writing gloves and to head off to pastures' new. Thank you to all of you who have viewed the recipes printed there. Cooking up a storm will continue to grow from strength to strength.

If you have enjoyed my blog, or have tried out the recipes I have included and wish to comment, please feel free to comment using the comment button or by visiting my guestbook, all comments and suggestions will be gratefully received.
Hope you enjoy!!..... ChefGarfy =D

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