gailqb

food, recipes, product reviews, eating out etc. hi :) this site links to my food blog, but see also my main blog at gailqb.wordpress.com for tales from life as an ecologist

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Onion mush

Onion mush is Nigella Lawson’s name for caramelised onions.  Being lazy, I tried her recipe which involves watching over the onions for hours on the stove and thought I couldn’t be bothered with all that.  Obvious candidate for the slow cooker! (more…)

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Mince pies optimised

The average mince pie is quite a sugary experience.  Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be like that.  I’ve discovered that dried fruit is sweet enough by itself, especially when combined with almond pastry that seems to have its own milky-sweet flavour.  I actually prefer these to the regular ones now.  Here’s the recipe:

For the mincemeat: 4oz chopped apple 2oz suet 9oz mixed vine fruit 1/2 tsp…

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Mulled wine

Nobody ever talks about mulled wine on the vegan, paleo or low-carb blogs.  Missing out massively, in my opinion.  This is an essential winter drink for the dark days of December when it ought to be snowing romantically but is instead blowing a gale with horizontal rain.  And not just for indoor use, either – a flask of mulled wine is a warming accompaniment to any winter walk (unless you’re…

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Vegan/paleo egg nog

JUST DON’T !

We all know that home made egg nog with full fat milk and free range egg is really tasty, but honestly, I’ve tried everything, it is just NOT POSSIBLE to make a vegan/paleo egg nog that is remotely like the original.  Save yourself the trouble, and don’t bother.

OK, that’s all I have to say on the matter.

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Moroccan lamb with roast squash, lentils, salad, hazelnuts, orange dressing

Moroccan lamb with roast squash, lentils, salad, hazelnuts, orange dressing

I don’t really know what to call this recipe as it’s a combination of multiple different recipes I’ve experimented with over the years.  I do know that it’s tasty, and adaptable to all sorts of ways of eating, so is particularly suitable for serving when friends come over.  Vegetarian ?  no problem, leave out the lamb.  Vegan ? no problem, you still have lentils, squash and salad.  Slow carb or…

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Tropisk aroma: the best cake in the world

Tropisk aroma: the best cake in the world

I don’t really mind swapping pasta for courgette ribbons, or mashed potato for celeriac, but life without cake would be a sad thing indeed.  If you’re going to eat carbohydrates, you might as well make it worth it.  Herewith the best cake in the world.  Yes, it’s white and sugary, so, no, eating this for breakfast isn’t a good idea.  But neither is deprivation.  When it’s my birthday I feel cake…

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Pesto paleo

I can’t eat store-bought pesto since I started making this.  It is so different, I just can’t go back.  I make my pesto without cheese – I started doing it like that because of my husband’s migraines (mature cheese seems to be a trigger for him), and now I actually prefer it, it has a cleaner taste somehow.  Pesto with cheese in just tastes wrong to me.  And store-bought pesto just tastes stale…

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Rambling along #hadrianswall in the May sunshine 

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How to convince an aniseed-hater to eat fennel

How to convince an aniseed-hater to eat fennel

Hide it amongst other veg and put meat on top of it.

Yup.  That simple… This recipe comes from Home at 7, Dinner at 8 and involves guinea fowl, which makes a nice change from chicken if it happens to be on special offer.  It works just as well with chicken so don’t stress if your butcher doesn’t stock exotica.  I met some free-range guinea fowl on a farm once.  If you imagine a cross between a…

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When you absolutely must stack your food on the plate...

When you absolutely must stack your food on the plate…

… you should stack mushroom, mozzarella, pesto and tomato for the ultimate indulgence.  There aren’t any photos of this meal – it tastes so good and I’m so keen to eat it it’s usually ages later that I think, oh, I needed a photo of that for the blog.  Oh well.  Taking photos of your food is tacky anyway.  I could show you a photo of the aftermath in the kitchen but all that that would tell you…

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I like #HDR for very hi-contrast scenes. Sometimes un-processed is nice too!

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Golden chicken stew

This is based on another recipe from How to Eat.  Yes, I am a Nigellaphile, I make no pretence.

I used to make her golden root vegetable couscous pretty much exactly as specified when I was vegetarian and doing Slimming World*, as it was all ‘Free Food’ if I left out the olive oil and pine nuts.  Now that I am free of diets, I make it a bit differently.

I have added chicken thighs and sometimes…

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Sistema salad to go tub

Sistema salad to go tub

So, being a salad-dodger, I thought I should get one of these.  I like cooked veggies but have always struggled for enthusiasm with raw foods and as I have a thing for tupperware what better way to encourage me to eat salad than to buy a specially designed tupperware ?!

Here it is:

Unassuming, no ?  It’s quite clever, actually – when you take the lid off you see that it is divided into several…

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Sistema microwave plate/steamer

I have a real weakness for food tubs.  That and shiny clean new empty notebooks and diaries (these, I think, represent hope for change, but I dunno about the food tubs.  Greed ?!).  This means I have food tubs in all shapes and sizes and can always be lured by another one despite the lack of space in the cupboard.

Imagine my delight when I discovered a whole new category of food tubs whilst…

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Crispy duck with paleo-ish hoisin sauce and lettuce wraps

Crispy duck with paleo-ish hoisin sauce and lettuce wraps

We all know the standard format here – crispy five-spiced duck with sugary hoisin sauce, cucumber and spring onion in a thin white wheat flour pancake.  So, what if you don’t particularly want to eat white flour or sauces with buckets of sugar in ?  You make your own hoisin and use lettuce wraps instead, that’s what.  Yes, I am serious.  I make my own hoisin sauce.  Is it authentic ? Not really. …

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Posh fruit salads

If you’re having people over to eat, but want to serve something light and healthy for pudding, a fruit salad is always a good move.  But how do you actually make it nice ?  We’ve all had really grotty fruit salads when we’re out (Premier Inn, I’m looking at you), and I assume that all right thinking people have already been exposed to tinned fruit salad and know never to go there again.

Here are…

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Landscapes in between the early spring hail showers near #LlynBrianne & in the #BreconBeacons