Quinoa - Sunday, 21st September 2014

I do like eating quinoa.  It adds a very good crunch to  my breakfast cereal bowl.  Seeds are good to eat and quinoa is gluten-free and naturally good for your calcium intake.  This is particularly good for me because I use Lact

ofree milk for all of my milk intake.  I don't really like their Lactofree cheese and have reduced my cheese intake quite drastically, just enjoying a little white Stilton with apricots, sometimes. and adding grated Parmesan cheese whenever applicable, to salads and other dishes.

The other day I made a pretty good hash of cooking my quinoa in boiling water and - drastically over-cooked it!  Just like years ago, I can still over-cook the seed with very little trouble.  So now my choice of cooking method is to dry-fry the seed in a small saute pan, over a fairly moderate heat and just until it is a light nut-brown colour.  When it's cooled, I tip the "toasted" seed into a small lidded pot and keep it handy with my sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, and golden linseeds.

I go to Tesco for my quinoa which they sell in packets of 300g for £2.15. making their price for lkg. £7.17.  This price compares well with Amazon's Organic quinoa, selling at £6.99 per lkg. bag, from Whole Foods Online Ltd. for there is a postage charge of £2.99 with this product.

I also investigated Merchant Gourmet's quinoa product, more expensive, to my way of thinking, at £16.65 for a 1kg packet containing 6 x 250g individual bags, with free postage, which is very good.

Then there is The British Quinoa Company Ltd. with a Face Book  Page.  They were recently featured on Country File, when they fed John Craven with their own Quinoa Chocolate Cake, the recipe for which now appears on their Page.  I don't know their sales method or price range and have asked for this information.  This is a Family farming business in Shropshire, with their crop of quinoa grown as a trial by son, Stephen Jones.  You may also follow them on Twitter, as I have just done!

The above info comes from my online research today and quoted details are given as correct now, at posting time.

There is plenty of information to be garnered online for suppliers, newspaper articles and cooks comments and helpful hints.  Tesco sell Quinoa, Waitrose sell their own range of quinoa products and Sainsbury's sell Merchant Gourmet products.

So far, I'm only buying the white quinoa but looking out for supplies of the red and black varieties.

 Daisy  

PS These are my new Banana Quinoa Flapjacks made today for a tea-time treat...!

      

Beefed-up Just-home-Supper, Cooking up a regular supper storm - Tuesday, 16th Sept. 2014

The finished dish and ready to eat

Out all day in today's glorious sunny weather and wondering what we're eating tonight.  I know there's veggies in the 'fridge but not sure about any meat.  OK so there's a few pieces of diced bacon and some spicy sausage and, probably, something in the freezer but, I need something to cook instantly!

So, after watering my vegetable garden, inspecting the runner beans and harvesting today's lovely red tomato crop - hmm. - think some of these must go into the pot for tonight!

On to collect a girlfriend's copy of The Mayor of Casterbridge, a must-read book club read, before popping into Aldi for 500g of beef mince, and then its home PDQ!

Into the kitchen, wok out and onto medium heat gas ring, and in goes the beef to cook by itself as I finely dice two onions and add them to my pan with a small splash of olive oil.  Leaving these to soften, I now chop up some vegs. - yellow pepper, courgette, aubergine, and a handful of  still-warm tomatoes, all of which go into my wok with the tomato pasta sauce, Tamari sauce, black pepper and salt, garlic purée, dried tarragon, a dash of sugar and a splash of boiling water, I photo-shoot the wok and its contents, before crashing onto the sofa.

Then, what shall we eat with the contents of my wok?  Mmm!  pasta at the weekend, potatoes last night, so it simply has to be rice!  And white rice too, as there's only a small amount of brown rice left in the cupboard.  Think - must add rice to my next shopping list....!

Pan of water onto the hob, add salt and leave to boil and think of the spinach sitting at the bottom of the 'fridge.  It's a bit past its best but still OK if stripped and washed, chopped and added to the wok's bubbling contents.  The spinach will melt very nicely into the  meat and vegetable mixture.

Back to the sofa.  Soon the water for the rice is boiling, in goes my rice and on goes the timer for ten minutes.  Stir the beef and veggies, spoon a taster into a ramekin dish,  and munch on this while waiting for the rice to cook.

Ping goes the timer, strain my rice and rinse with boiling water, then add a small amount of rice onto my medium-sized plate, for I'm conducting an experiment into eating less, by using a  plate smaller than the usual dinner-sized one!  Adding two ladles of wok-hot mix, I carry my plate of steaming food into the sitting-room and sit down to enjoy my supper!!!

So, it wasn't the  fastest cooked supper, or perhaps the next dinner-party dish, but it was definitely tasty, delicious and very more-ish for the end of a busy day.

So, here a new list for you - my  recipe for tonight's supper:

500g Beef mince from Aldi
2 onions finely chopped
1 courgette topped and tailed and diced
1 yellow pepper cut into thin slices
1 aubergine, skinned and finely sliced
Small quantity of my garden-warm tomatoes, halved
Some button mushrooms
Handful of spinach washed and squeezed out,  then cut into thin strips
Small quantity of tomato pasta sauce + splash of boiling water
Tamari sauce to taste (the gluten-free soy sauce)
Salt and black pepper
Garlic purée
Dried Tarragon
Dash of sugar

Cooked white rice

cooking up a regular storm of beef and vegetables for supper

Daisy