Feb 4, 2015 | Anna's Best Recipes, Main courses
This is gorgeous and super fast. I love this on a weekday when I come in late, hungry and don’t feel like spending more than 15 minutes cooking dinner. It works beautifully for small fillets/darnes of chicken, hake, salmon, or cod and I have used it for lamb chops too. Yum! Make up more then you need and store in an airtight jar somewhere dark, so it keeps its precious volatile oils and flavours.
For two:
1/2 tsp chilli powder (or a whole teaspoon if you use very mild chilli)
1 tsp Himalayan or Atlantic Sea Salt
½ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbs each of:
Coarsely ground black pepper
Dried basil
Dried oregano
Ground coriander
2 x small (100g) chicken fillets, 130g-150g darnes/fillets of salmon/white fish or 4 lamb centre loin chops
For cooking:
Juice of 1/2 freshly squeezed lemon (or a little olive oil if you don’t have lemon)
- Mix everything well and store in an airtight jar away from light and heat until ready to use.
- When you want to cook the meat or fish, pour some of the spice blend onto a plate. Rub with a little lemon juice on your meat/fish. Dip/roll the meat or fish in the spice mix until totally coated on all sides.
- Cook in the oven on an oaked baking sheet or under the grill.
Oven: 1/2 an hour at 180C for small chicken fillets, 15 minutes for fish fillets
Grill: Around 7 minutes each side for chicken or around 3-4 minutes each side for fillets or darnes of salmon, hake or cod.Serve with:
2-3 cups steamed broccoli, green beans, runner beans or peas per person, dressed with a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil or a knob of coconut oil.
A large mixed salad of green leaves, sliced red onion, cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumber or courgettes, dressed with one of my salad dressings from this blog.
Why this is good for you:
Herbs and spices are a fantastic way to get even more taste and vitality into your day. They are antioxidant, anti inflammatory, heal the digestive system (chillies can help heal ulcers!) and keep you younger longer by holding back the ageing process. Many help alleviate skin conditions by supporting your liver function. Black pepper contains piperine, a substance that increases your ability to absorb vitamins and minerals in the meal. Herbs and spices contain tens or hundreds of times more antioxidants than fruit and vegetables, weight for weight. Vegetables (and small amounts of fruit) are still a powerhouse for wellness but don’t forget the herbs and spices.
Jan 9, 2015 | Anna's Best Recipes, Sides, starters, soups & snacks
This is a delicious bright green soup and contains protein from the peas. It is a meal in itself and just the thing for a wintery Irish January day while you recover from the festive season splurge. It takes about 20 minutes to make and it freezes well. Dried herbs won’t really cut it in this soup, it just won’t taste great. I got the original recipe from Rose Elliot’s “Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking” but adapted it to use better-for-you oils and fats.
For 4:
15g butter or ghee (clarified butter, suitable for those with dairy intolerance), or if you don’t have either of these, 1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
900g frozen peas (petits pois are the nicest)
1½ litre vegetable stock (make by boiling up chopped carrots, onions, cabbage or other green veg stalks, a leek and a bouquet garni) or use Kallo veg stock cubes/Marigold bouillon
A generous handful of fresh thyme sprigs
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tbs chopped fresh mint
To serve: extra virgin olive oil or natural yoghurt
1. Melt the butter in a large sauce pan and add the onion, sweat on a low heat, covered, until soft and translucent.
2. Wash your thyme, then find an elastic band or a piece of string and tie it in a bunch, this saves you spending ages fishing out stray twigs from the soup later. Set aside.
3. Add the peas to the saucepan and cook for 2-3 mins, stirring often. Pour in the stock/water, add the thyme, bring to the boil then cover and simmer for a few mins until the peas are done.
4. Find the bunch of thyme sprigs and roughly (with a spoon) separate the leaves (which you want) from the twigs (which you don’t). Leave the leaves in the soup and throw away the twigs.
5. Add the chopped fresh mint and process till smooth.
Serve with:
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (about a teaspoon) or a blob of natural yoghurt on the top. For dairy-free diets, avoid yoghurt.
Variations:
If you want to increase the variety of vegetables in this soup you can add 1 large leek at the same time as the onion.
Why this is good for you:
Peas are a great source of vegetable protein so this is a good sustaining soup and a perfectly balanced meal even on its own. The protein and the fats will keep you full for ages. Like all intensely green vegetables, peas are also rich in magnesium. You need magnesium for stress management, sleep, detox and even weight loss. This soup avoids harmful refined oils (most cooking oils). Refined oils are found in shop confectionery, biscuits and cakes, processed foods and all cooking oils except cold-pressed or extra virgin oils. Heating virgin cold pressed nuts/seed oils makes them harmful. Olive oil can be gently heated, and virgin coconut oil/ghee/butter are safe for cooking at higher temperatures. Marigold, Vecon or Kallo are better quality stock cubes than most. Thyme has powerful antioxidant anti-inflammatory properties which slow ageing and tune up the health of your digestive system. Mint helps calm and soothe your whole digestive system.
Jan 3, 2015 | Anna's Best Recipes, Main courses
We had this for dinner last night – what a lovely change after all the festive overindulgence….
This recipe is great with fillets of lemon sole or monkfish. You could also use cod or hake though these do have a tendancy to break up more easily (so don’t stir during cooking or they will go to mush). Thai Curry paste from Western companies like Sharwoods is less hot then that from Asian shops so choose whatever you prefer. This recipe is also good made with shelled king prawns which can be cooked from frozen (but don’t cook for more than a few minutes or they will become tough!).
For two:
2 medium white fish fillets (about 130-150g each), skinned and cut into bite sized cubes
1 large onion, roughly chopped or a bunch of spring onions, cut in 2cm lengths
200g frozen peas (for alternative, using courgettes, see below)
2 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
2-3 teaspoons Thai green curry paste (or yellow/red if you don’t have green)
1 small tin coconut milk (165ml tin from Asian shops/good supermarkets)
Juice of 1 small lime (or use the juice of half a lemon)
2-3 heaped tablespoons chopped fresh coriander if you have it
Optional: 1 dsp of Thai fish sauce
1. In a wide bottomed saucepan or frying pan on a medium heat mix the coconut milk, curry paste, and fish sauce if using, and stir until smooth
2. Add the onion and cook, covered, till softened (about 8-10 mins for white onions, about 3 minutes for spring onions).
3. Add the garlic, peas (breaking the lumps up), courgette if using, and fish to the mix in the pan and stir well to coat everything in sauce. If the mixture looks a little less saucy then you would like or looks like drying out, add a tablespoon of water (the fish will give off liquid during the cooking too).
4. Cover with a lid or a plate simmer for about 5 minutes until the fish is opaque.
5. Squeeze over the lime (or lemon) juice, and sprinkle on the coriander.
Serve with:
Low carb or SC Diet: https://annacollins.ie/cauliflower-rice/
OR
Grains (not suitable for SC Diet):
Brown basmati or long-grain rice cooked with ½ teaspoon of turmeric to give a beautiful golden colour.
100% buckwheat noodles (Health stores/Asian shops)
Variation:
We ran out of peas the other night and used a couple of large courgettes instead. Sliced into 1cm disks and added 5 mins after the onions, they are delicious too.
Ketogenic diet option:
Avoid using the peas and instead use courgettes, and don’t use rice or noodles instead. As a cheat, you could use “zero” or “slim” noodles from Asian shops or health stores, which are made from konjac. Konjac helps feed good bacteria in your gut, which can aid weight loss. Konjac is not absorbed or digested by your body, so they effectively have zero calories!!
Why this is good for you:
Herbs, spices (in curry paste) and garlic give a huge boost to your health, helping detoxification, reducing inflammation and delaying ageing (great news for any of us over 30!). If you want beautiful, clear skin and a healthy digestive system, cooking daily with herbs, garlic and spices is a winner. All green vegetables are rich in magnesium, which also helps us to relax, sleep well and feel upbeat. Coconut milk is high in good fats called medium chain triglycerides which are great for energy, being burned off by your body instead of being stored in fat cells. Coconut also contains lauric acid and caprylic acid, both of which help prevent excessive yeasts and “bad” bacteria in your gut. Coriander helps bind (and safely remove) toxins in your digestive system, especially mercury which you ingest (every time you eat) if you have old-fashioned silver-coloured dental fillings. Cooking at low temperatures like this (100C or less), instead of frying or roasting, keeps more nutrients in your food too.
Dec 17, 2014 | Anna's Best Recipes, Cakes, biscuits & bars, Desserts & drinks
I got this idea for a crumble topping from Domini Kemp and adapted it to be less tooth-achingly sweet and gluten & dairy-free. I love this decadent topping because it means you don’t have the time-consuming fiddly task of sticking pastry tops onto your mince pies (a real pain if you are making a large batch). You can make this topping in advance and store in the fridge in an airtight jar for a week or two.
This also makes a gorgeous topping for any sort of fruit crumble if you mix it 60:40 with gluten-free oatflakes.
To top 16 mince pies
Pinch of Ceylon cinnamon
25g virgin coconut oil (or butter, if you want dairy)
12g xylitol
25g brown rice flour
25g ground almonds
25g flaked almonds
1. If you have a food processor but the ingredients except the flaked almonds in a food processor and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Empty into another bowl and stir in the almonds.
If you don’t have a food processor, rub the ingredients together (except for the flaked almonds) by hand then stir in the flaked almonds.
2. Divide between 16 mince pies and bake at 180C fan/195C until brown. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes.
Why these are better for you:
Because these pies don’t contain refined sugar (if you use my mincemeat recipe) they don’t immediately start to drain your body of nutrients like magnesium (for mood) or selenium (needed for fat-burning thyroid hormones). The nuts, although cooked (and therefore no longer containing much in the way of healthy oils!) do contain protein, which helps prevent the dips and peaks in blood sugar that can make you feel tired or narky. Coconut oil is not damaged by baking so its still healthy in the finished product. The medium chain triglycerides in coconut oil are useful for energy levels as they are used directly by your body instead of being stored as fat in your cells. Virgin coconut oil rules!! Ceylon cinnamon (but not normal cassia cinnamon sold as “cinnamon”) helps your body regulate blood sugar. This helps reduce the risk of peaks and troughs in energy, brain function and mood throughout the day. It also helps reduce likelihood of developing diabetes.
Nov 30, 2014 | Anna's Best Recipes, Desserts & drinks
We drank this out of a flask today after a winter woodland walk when we were all frozen. I concocted it a few years ago so drivers and other non-drinkers got something interesting to drink at our mulled wine and mince pie night. It has the tanginess and colour of mulled wine and all the lovely spiceyness of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. If you like you can make this a day or two ahead of time and cool covered with a lid so the lovely aromas don’t disappear…
For 4 big glasses:
3 good quality hibiscus tea bags (try to buy from health stores because they taste better). If the teabags have other flavours such as lemon, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, star anise in as well that’s fine) (see below for alternatives to teabags)
750ml boiling water
3 long strips of orange peel (use a potato peeler to do this) from 1 orange
Juice of 1 orange (take the strips of peel off first as its harder to do after juicing)
12 whole cloves
10cm cinnamon stick
A good grating of whole nutmeg (or a large pinch of ground nutmeg but this makes the drink look more cloudy)
2 tbs xylitol (from health stores), or to taste
For more info on unusual ingredients, see my larder & shopping section
1. Boil the kettle, then in a saucepan pour 750 ml boiling water over the 3 teabags. Add the orange peel, whole cloves, cinnamon stick, nutmeg and xylitol.
2. Leave to infuse on a very low heat, covered with a lid or plate, for around 15 minutes. Meanwhile, juice the orange, strain it and discard the “bits”.
3. When all the flavours have infused well in to the liquid, fish out the teabags and add the juice of the orange. Adjust the sweetness, adding more xylitol if it’s not sweet enough already.
4. When you are ready to drink it, heat through and pour into glasses.
Variations:
- Try adding extra zestiness by adding fresh ginger tea. Infuse a heaped teaspoon of finely grated fresh ginger in half a cup (around 125ml) of boiling water, then strain the liquid into your mulled non-wine. Or simply thinly slice 3cm of fresh ginger root into the saucepan before you add the 750ml boiling water.
- You could use Biona unsweetened cranberry juice (I suggest around 100ml) instead of hibiscus teabags. The cranberry also gives the tart flavour you need for the mulled non-wine. Biona brand is in health stores and Dublin Food Co Op.
- Instead of whole cinnamon and cloves you could use ground but remember this will make the drink cloudy.
Why this is better for you:
Because this recipe uses xylitol instead of sugar, and hibiscus instead of wine, its a really low GI (or low sugar) drink. This means it doesn’t rob your body of nutrients like sugar or sugary alcaholic drinks (eg wine) do. Spices (ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and more) are a powerhouse for your wellbeing because they are anti-microbial, acting like natural antibiotics without the downside of antibiotics. Spices help you resist getting colds, flu and skin infections (e.g. acne), so they are a brilliant thing to eat or drink every day.
