January 2008           

This Month:                                                                                         

Seasonal Recipe - Superfoods Chicken Salad

Cooking Classes - New Year Classes

Eating Etc - Predictions for 2008

Spice of the Month - Akudjura (Bush Tomato)

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful festive season and are getting a good start to 2008.  I always feel slightly jet-lagged after all the Christmas eating when the time of day is irrelevant to what you eat.. sifting through the tray of chocolates at breakfast time, snacking on cold ham in the middle of the night and never saying no to a glass of champagne.  Whether you go for a full blown detox or just a bit of extra care, January is great time for some healthy eating.  The biggest misconception about eating healthy food is that it's boring.  Think of big crunchy salads, hearty soups and flavoursome herbs to get you going.

January is also host to Burns Night (25th Jan) and Australia Day (26th Jan), which makes it a fun feasting time in our Scottish/Australian household.  If haggis isn't your thing, try the Australian bush tomato risotto recipe this month.

Seasonal Recipe

Superfoods Chicken Salad

This is a wonderful salad packed with nutrition.  I love serving this with a fiery Asian chilli sauce and wrapping leftovers in rice paper for lunch.

2 x chicken breasts

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 x star anise

1 litre light chicken stock, cooled

salad

100g mung beans, soaked overnight, cooked and drained

100g quinoa, cooked and drained

100g baby button mushrooms, finely sliced

100g snow peas, sliced on diagonal

½ cup dried black fungus, soaked in boiling water, drained and chopped (optional)

1 x avocado, diced

2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

4 x spring onions, sliced

1 tbsp pickled red ginger, drained

salt and pepper

dressing

180ml lemon juice

140ml extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

Place chicken in a saucepan with soy sauce, spices and chicken stock over a medium heat.  Leave to come to the boil (10-15 minutes), uncovered, then turn down to very low for a further 10 minutes.  Remove chicken from cooking liquid and when cool enough to handle, shred into bite sized pieces using your hands or a couple of forks.

Combine all salad ingredients into a large bowl, then add chicken.  Whisk dressing ingredients together and pour through salad and season with salt and pepper.

Serves 4-6

Cooking Classes

There are still places left for the Mexican cooking class on the 22nd January, so if you would like to learn more about the authentic and wonderful flavours of Mexico, book now.

Give restaurants a miss and show someone you really care by cooking for them. In the Valentines cooking class, you will learn how to create a romantic dinner for two, with tips for preparation and styling.

Check out the calendar for all the classes in January and February.

And remember, if you are interested in private tuition, I can tailor classes specifically for you to cover any area of skill or cuisine you want to concentrate on.  Have a look at the essentials classes I offer – you can choose one or more to create your own program. 

Eating Etc:  2008

The new year brings with it talk of what we might expect to see trend-wise with food.  Here are a few things I think will be big in 2008

MEXICAN - The rise of true Mexican food continues this year, which I'm so thrilled about.  It has been such an abused cuisine over the years with little acknowledgement of it's complexity, sophistication and variety of chillies.  I think that Mexican will gain the popularity that we've seen with Thai food.  It's time to walk past the Old El Paso products in the supermarket and start cooking real Mexican food at home.

SPICE UP - While spices are used commonly in a variety of applications by some of us on a daily basis, spices are making their way into a variety of non-traditional commercial products such as vodka, yoghurts and chocolate. 

PROVENANCE - 2007 saw people caring more than ever about where their food comes from, and with climate issues at the forefront of many people's thoughts, food sourcing will continue to be an important issue.  Finding a balance between the overwhelming privilege of access to food from around the world, and buying responsibly will be an important factor in 2008.  If you live in Australia, please boycott bottled Italian water.. it's ridiculous!

SUPERFOODS - Being healthy is big business, and as well as vitamin enriched products, we will continue to see products with goji berries, acai berries and pomegranates increase.  And how could you not get excited about something called the 'yumberry', (myrica rubra) a subtropical fruit from China high in antioxidents?

Spice of the Month: Akudjura (Bush Tomato)