Friday 15 September 2017

Cookery calendar challenge


The Hairy Dieters: Fast Food - Paperback - 9780297609315 - Hairy Bikers

During August I bought 'another' new cookery book, The Hairy Dieters Fast Food. I've chosen 2 books for the Cookery calendar Challenge, you can find more on the link at the end.
I'd watched the Hairy Dieters series of cookery programmes and I was pleased to see they'd released a new book. This book promises to help you have a meal on the table within 30 minutes. One that is healthy and lower in calories and hopefully won't be clogging up your arteries or tipping the cholesterol balance.

The book seems to be carrying on in the same vein as their previous books where they lesson the refined sugar carbohydrates and try and look for replacements. For example in this book, they bake bread tartlets with sliced bread instead of high fat pastry and in a previous book they cut leeks open length wise and used the layers instead of pasta sheets in a lasagne. For this healthy reason alone, I would recommend them.  

Each recipe has a short intro that is informative, offering advice and serving suggestions. They provide suitability for freezing, vegetarian and the important calorie count which is after all a huge reason for buying the book.

Si and Dave write in their unique style that feels like they are there with you. You can be sure they've tried and tested each recipe and if they say it's good, it is. Following their testimonials at the beginning of the book, they reveal their new challenge, which is to have 'fast' recipes for the table before you reach for the snacks.

There is a section in the book for slow cooking and making use of the pressure cooker. The slow cooking just means, the preparation required will take up to 30 minutes. I'm tempted by some of the pressure cooked recipes as I love using my pressure cooker. I find stews and casseroles always taste full of flavour cooked in there and have been very disappointed with my slow cooker. My second recipe I've chosen requires the pressure cooker, though you could simmer it for an hour.


The first recipe - 'Stove-Top Granola' is from the 'Breakfast and Brunch' section. I was looking for an oat cereal recipe as most shop cereals contain one or more of these - barley, soya, dried stoned fruits, nuts and coconut. As I can't eat any of these, I was pleased to see a few recipes that are suitable. I will be re-testing the nuts soon and hope these will be ok to eat.

The recipe itself is simple enough, melting the butter and maple syrup with some oil and then stirring in the oats and salt in a pan to coat evenly, this is done in 20 second bursts for 5 minutes. They should give off a nutty aroma and look slightly golden.


At this point you can add your chosen dried fruit, seeds and nuts if wanted. Then tip onto a tray to cool and crisp before serving with milk or yoghurt. It'll store in an airtight container, this amount for one will last a few days. I used sultanas and sunflowers and I also added some fresh fruits to my bowl one morning.

There was a nice buttery taste with this cereal but I was a bit disappointed. When I think of granola, I imagine crisp, hard pieces or nutty oats but this quickly absorbed the milk and became the usual soggy oat based museli breakfast. I did wonder if baking it in the oven rather than a non-stick frying pan would've crisped the oats up a bit.

I would definitely make it again, but would use less butter, as the taste was overpowering after a while, with the milk.


The second recipe I've chosen is 'Pressure Cooked Tomato Sauce' from the 'Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick, Slow' section. We were wanting to use up some tomatoes from the greenhouse and this was perfect. You do need a glass of white wine for this recipe, not to drink whilst it cooks, but to add to the pan as it steams away merrily. The recipe calls for 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, so you could of course make this all year.


You start by lightly frying a chopped onion to brown the edges, meanwhile continue chopping the other ingredients and then adding the garlic. 



All the other ingredients can then be added but don't be tempted to add more water as it won't need it. My assistant was busy chopping for me whilst I stirred and tidied things away.


Here it is in the pressure cooker before the lid went on for steaming. It is very bright, bold and with the red onion, quite something to see.


The recipe says to cool quickly and reduce the sauce on the hob stirring with the lid off. I served some (not reduced yet) in a ramekin dish alongside our jacket potato as dinner had already been planned but we wanted to try it. The sauce was delicious, sweet, fruity and flavoursome.


As it was not yet reduced it was more liquid than it should have been but I ended up tipping it on my plate and it complemented the dinner nicely.

I shall be making this again, they suggest freezing it, eating it with pasta, meatloaf or burgers. I've made tomato sauces before and they have never tasted this good. I've added marrow or other squashes and basically ended up with a very watery tasteless liquid. I wouldn't really like to call them a sauce. This one is delicious and looks and smells good too. There was no complaints from the family which is always good when they like what you've provided.

Next month I'm going to choose 2 recipes to cook from Jamie Oliver's 'Ministry of Food' cookbook. I know not everyone is keen on him or his style of presenting his ideas but I've watched this particular series on TV and bought the book. The whole point of the cookery calendar challenge was to get reacquainted with our long forgotten cook books, this book certainly fills the brief.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my 2 chosen recipes, I certainly loved making them and hope to make more in the future.
Cx

 

14 comments:

  1. I think the idea of going back to cookbooks is awesome. I used to think nobody used cookbooks anymore with technology and the internet being the way to go, but my daughter works at a local charity shop and told me once that cookbooks are always a good seller. Some people still appreciate them and use them which is nice to see.
    xx Beca

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know I'm not the only one that likes to sit and read through a good well presented cookbook. It's very enjoyable reading a bit about the author and their ideas behind the book. It's good to see people enjoying their cookery books again with Penny's challenge. Cx

      Delete
  2. Hi Cathy, thank you so much for joining me this month, I was very interested to read your post. I recently bought the H Biker's 'veggie' cook book, but still haven't cooked anything from it. I really like Si and Dave, they are very sincere, and as you say, they do genuinely develop their own recipes (I have a sneaking suspicion that many 'celebrity' cookbooks are developed by a back room squad with the Celeb putting their name to it, but not the H Bikers). The tomato sauce alone sounds quite delicious, so simple but so good. Shame the granola was a wee bit soggy, but as you say, perhaps a different cooking method would solve that. Lovely to have you along for the Cookery Calendar Challenge, hope you join me again next month x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes will try to get organised to do another book challenge. Thanks for visiting, it's been a good idea of yours. Cx

      Delete
  3. I am a great fan of the Hairy Bikers, although do not own any of their books using the internet to research recipes. Love the look and indeed sound of the tomato sauce, a great addition for many meals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Hairy Bikers are just brilliant. I think the Hairy Dieters series and any book by Delia Smith are my favourites. Thanks for visiting. Cx

      Delete
  4. I've been considering buying one of the the Hairy Dieters cookbooks. I think they themselves are a good advert for it as they lost quite a bit of weight between them and they've managed to keep it off too, just a case of adapting a recipe so it's not quite so fattening. I like the idea of using leek instead of pasta in a lasagne though I doubt Mick would be quite so keen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes some of their ideas for swapping carbs sound a bit strange, I suppose you could always try half and half. So half lasagne pasta sheets and half leek sheets. For the pastry idea, swapping regular pastry ingredients eg half fat to flour weight, it does sounds weird to swap for a pizza dough pkt mix.
      One thing we've tried to do is cut down on carbs, so with our meal we'll try and have less than we'd usually have. The teens need the carbs to fill up on, we don't. Years ago I always used to cook rice or pasta at 2 oz per person. I then noticed the pkts said 3 - 4 oz per person. At some point we started eating more, so I guess we need to be careful. If I don't burn it off, don't eat it may be worth remembering. Cx

      Delete
  5. Yum! I have one Hairy cookbook and I've yet to try one of the recipes, but I hear they are excellent! I'm glad you're a cat lady, too! Thank you for visiting my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Do try one of their recipes, you'll not regret it. Cx

    ReplyDelete
  7. I haven't used my pressure cooker in years, must dust it and check the seal and pressure valve. Tomato sauce is always a winner! I think the secret to a great crunchy granola is LOTS of maple sirup/golden sirup and plenty of butter, combined with baking in the oven. I don't think a great granola is ever truly healthy :-) but it sure tastes good. I am not a great fan of the hairy bikers, I can't really say why, just not 'my thing'. Your next cookery book is a winner, I have to admit it even though I can't stand Jamie Oliver on the telly. We use it for a few really good basics, it is a good books for kids to learn to cook, too. Have fun xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for the tip Christina, I'll give it another go. I absolutely love my pressure cooker, any stew with dumplings tastes divine cooked that way. Steak and kidney with mushrooms and a suet top pastry (based on a Delia Smith recipe), beef in beer, chicken casseroles and homemade stock and soups are superb. I've just never had any success with slow cookers.
      I remember when the Hairy Bikers started out on TV, I'm sure they cooked buffalo and possibly kangaroo out on the road. I love the way they are out on their bikes and have everything to get cooking. I know it's for the camera of course, but they proclaim to have been doing that anyway.
      Jamie Oliver - I've only watched the Ministry of Food series. I think I'll remain a Delia Smith fan, though she's not on TV anymore, some of her video demonstrations are on her teaching website. Cx https://www.deliaonline.com/learn-to-cook

      Delete
  8. Ooooh,Great Blog.Love Si and Dave,a Big Fan of their cooking.I am watching Jamie's New Series I think it's Jamie's Quick and Easy Meals,with just 5 ingredients.Look forward to your next post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for your lovely comments Lee. I'll have to take a look on catch up as I've been missing them x

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...