Squeaky Cheese & Peas Curry

This is an amazingly simple little curry, using traditional indian cheese called paneer (available in the vegetarian chilled section of Coop) You get the frying pan nice and hot before browning the cheese on all sides before throwing into the curry to soak up the spices.

Ingredients

1 onion

half a chilli

2 cloves of garlic

Thumb-sized knob of ginger

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ hot chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground coriander

1tsp ground cumin

½ pt veg stock

1 x tinned tomatoes

125ml red lentils

½ pint veg stock

1 tblsp white wine vinegar

Pinch of sugar

A handful of frozen peas

1 packet paneer cheese
Fresh coriander (Optional but well worth it!)

Finely chop 1 onion, half a chilli, 2 cloves of garlic and a thumb-sized knob of ginger and fry for 5 minutes. Add spices and cookout for a further two minutes. Add tinned tomatoes, white wine vinegar and sugar. Add stock and lentils and cook for 25 minutes. Cut paneer into 2cm cubes and fry in a hot pan until golden on all sides. Add to curry and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve with basmati rice, a soft tortilla and a good glob of mango chutney on the side (both available in Coop) A handful of fresh coriander on serving really bumps this amazing dish up another notch ;)

Super healthy, easy - and yummy - lunch for hungry chops

It is a never-ending challenge to come up with healthy, nutritional meals for picky eaters, especially for energy packed lunches that aren’t too siesta inducing when the kiddies have to return to school in the afternoon.

To be honest, I had run out of ideas. And as a last resort I handed over Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Veg Everyday cook book to my daughters (aged 7 and 9) and challenged them to pick one thing out to try the following week. The reason I chose this particular book is that there is a large photograph of each dish, and lots of child friendly type easy to cook dishes inside.

This actually worked really well – they soon picked a dish each that they liked the look of. And today I cooked my eldest daughter’s choice – Steamed Veg with a hint of Garlic – she liked it because it looks ‘really green’ in the picture. And boy did it go down amazingly well! I cobbled together a steamer from a colander in a large pan with aluminium foil covering any holes poking out over the top of the pan.

Steamed veg is the business. Veg is incredibly flavoursome cooked this way and of course you are getting a mixture of fab nutrients to boot. I’m also fast coming round to the idea that everything tastes great smothered in garlic butter – I mean, what’s not to like! And what a success it was. The whole family cleared the entire dish off – from daddy to my youngest!  It was yum.

This is a dish I wish I’d discovered when my children were at the finger food stage – it is perfect for tots and little fingers.

Recipe:

• 400-500g green veg (I used green beans, broccoli, cauliflower and a generous helping of frozen peas)
• 25g butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 fat garlic clove, crushed
• salt & pepper

Prepare the veg and steam over boiling water until just done (tender but still a little crunchy) While the veg is cooking, heat the butter and oil in a saucepan over a low heat. Once melted, add the garlic. Cook very gently for a couple of minutes, letting the butter fizz slightly but taking care that the garlic doesn’t colour. Remove from the heat. Toss the steamed veg in the garlicky butter and season. En guete!

Salad days are here again

Hurrah, sunny spring days have returned so it is time to wade into salad territory. Whenever we eat salad you can almost see the thought bubbles drifting above our heads which say 'nice, but it would be better with a good slice of meat on top.' So I am always looking out for salads full of flavour and a bit more welly.

And the latest which we sat down to last night is super yummy. It's a recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Every Day book. It suits Gray and I very much with it's middle-eastern tahini dressing (we have both spent a great deal of time in the Middle East) Frying the courgettes is time consuming and a bit of a hassle but I assure you it's worth it :)

The Tahini Dressing

• ½ garlic clove, crushed with a little coarse sea salt
• 2 tbsp tahini (stir the jar well first)
• Finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
• Juice of ½ orange
• ½ teaspoon clear honey
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

The salad

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 medium courgettes sliced into 3mm [very thin] rounds
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• About 125g French green beans, trimmed
• 4 good handfuls of salad leaves
• 12-18 oven dried tomatoes or semi-dried tomatoes (optional)
• A handful of mint, finely shredded (optional

The recipe

Make the dressing by mixing crushed garlic in a small bowl with the tahini, lemon zest and juice, honey and a grind of black pepper. The dressing may go grainy but you can thin it down by whisking in a little water, 1 tbsp at a time until you get a creamy, trickling consistency. Finally, gently stir in olive oil. Taste and add more seasoning if needed.

For the salad, bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the French beans, for 1-3 minutes. Drain, then dunk in cold water to refresh. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a fairly high heat and cook the courgette slices in batches, tossing them occasionally until tender and browned on both sides. Transfer to a bowl lined with kitchen towel to soak up any residue oil. When all courgettes are cooked, season generously with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and chilli and toss together well. Pat green beans dry and toss with the courgettes.

To assemble the salad, spread salad leaves in a large shallow serving bowl and scatter over the dressed courgettes and beans, tomatoes and shredded mint. Trickle the tahini dressing generously over the whole lot and serve. En guete!

Easy Carrot Soup

Had a lovely run this morning and thought I should keep the healthy momentum going and knocked up a carrot soup for lunch. This is a BBC Food recipe and has become our staple lunch with a bit of freshly baked bread (I often cheat and get those half -baked rolls) As well as providing a bit of a work out as you grate the carrots, it really is so simple to make – wham, 15 minutes later you have great, slightly spicy soup. One word of caution, don’t throw in any purple coloured heritage style carrots as I once did – the colour will turn from a lovely vibrant orange to an unappetising dark brown!

Here is the recipe:

1. Fry 1½ tsp cumin seeds and ¼ tsp chilli flakes in a dry pan until they emit a wonderful aroma – about 4/5 minutes.
2. Add 2tbsp of olive oil to the spices and cook out a little.
3. Peel and grate 650g carrots and add to the pan with 125g washed red lentils, 1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock and 125ml milk.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes and blend to a smooth consistency.

En guete!

How I got my daughter to eat beetroot

I love beetroot. I especially love eating it pretty nude apart from a smidgen of feta cheese crumbled over the top (left)

Unfortunately my children don’t like beetroot. They used to. They used to gobble it down just like they used to gobble everything else from between their beautifully pudgy little fingers when they started eating. But between then and now they’ve got a whole lot fussier about what they eat (she says through gritted teeth)

So I’m reduced to using various strategies to get them to eat things like beetroot. My first strategy, recommended by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to tell them it makes their wee pink, failed miserably. All my eldest daughter said was ‘Eeeew’ (although I’m with Hugh here – how cool is that?!)

But thankfully Hugh (I'm just a big fan, don't worry, there are no affiliated links here) has come up with the goods in his latest ‘Love Your Leftovers’ book (a surprise Christmas present) with his vegetable peel crisps. As I was cooking some spicy potato chips for the girls last night, I threw in a handful of beetroot, carrot and potato peelings (beetroot always seems to come with its skin on here in Switzerland) mixed in with a slug of olive oil and a good grinding of salt and pepper. And 15 minutes later my eldest daughter was eating beetroot skin crisps (despite the potential for pink wee) Big result for mummy day J

Zurich Street Food Festival rocks

So we went along to Zurich Street Food Festival and had a ball - and lots of lovely food. My very favourite was a taco with a hit at Primo Tacos - look out for the blue cat. The guy makes the tacos fresh on the spot, putting in the main filling and you get to add your own toppings from a lovely little row along the front of the counter which includes a coriander plant!

We had some lovely nibbles of amazing meat on the first aisle and the Spanish stall in the middle was very popular with my 8-year-old as one of the very kind ladies was encouraging Poppy to try all sorts. After a two year food 'drought' Poppy has become very adventurous with food recently so I wanted to embrace that with this trip to the food festival. And she loved it. My only grumble would be that there wasn't enough tasters. So we unfortunately spent a fortune on giving her different tasters of our own.

But the buzz was there. With everyone really enjoying themselves. And then there was the absolute cream topping on the trifle that was the food fest - an amazing outdoor badi and its grounds to enjoy for free!! Complete with children's pool with a slide, a little playground and and even a cocktail bar! If you are feeling flash, the Wodka Cooler was incredible (vodka, lemon juice and ginger ale) but it's pricy at CHF 16.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves early on but when the sun came out it soon filled up.

And the best way to get there - the No.6 tram to the Zoo which passes Zurich HB - alight at the Zoo tram stop and its a 15 minute walk from there (where you ogle at the world's press camping like vultures outside the gate of the FIFA HQ in light of its recent scandal)

If you haven't yet been to Zurich Street Food Festival - go tomorrow (11am-7pm) - you will not regret it - even if it's just for a relax at the pool free of charge, inhaling the gorgeous aroma of glorious street food from around the world.

Nibbles galore at Zurich Street Food Festival

Get set for Zurich Street Food Festival throughout the weekend, which luckily coincides with ZVV's free day of transport on Sunday!

The 3^rd Zurich Street Food Festival takes place at the Dolder Ice Rink from today until Sunday (29^th - 31^st May)

More than 100 food stalls will be featuring delicacies from all over the world for visitors to try. All vendors are housed in creative food trucks and market booths.

Take note - there is no parking – so you will have to make your way by public transport, bike or foot (don't you just love the Swiss and their green ways?) And getting there by public transport is of course pretty easy from Zurich central:

• Take the Dolderbahn from Römerhof
• Take the No. 6 or No. 30 bus to the zoo
• Take Tram No. 5 to Kirche Fluntern
• Take bus No. 751 to Dreiwiesen

Zurich Street Food Festival takes place from 5-11pm today (Friday) 11am-11pm tomorrow (Saturday) and 11am until 7pm on Sunday.

En guete!

www.streetfoodfest.ch