Drink Your Greens!

Thanks to a friend, I discovered green smoothies and have sort of become addicted to them. I find it much easier to take my vegies and fruits in blended form rather than to chew them in as they are. Not only that, they also taste great!

No one needs a recipe for this I guess. You just blend fresh green vegetables with a mixture of fruits. Something like this ...

A green smoothie with a touch of pink

If you wonder what the pink is, it's red dragonfruit smoothie!

Apple Upside-Down Cake

Tea time!

Some weekends are lovely enough just to be comfy at home, especially when there's cake  for tea.

I modified the original recipe a little, by adding Cointreau and poppy seeds in the cake. Here's the recipe:
 

Ingredients

3 apples , cored and sliced
150g butter , softened
25g light brown muscovado sugar
125g golden caster sugar
2 eggs , beaten
125g self-raising flour
2 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
a dash Cointreau

1.       Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Put the apples in a large, non-stick frying pan with 25g butter , muscovado sugar,  1 tsp cinnamon and Cointreau. Cook over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes, until just tender and caramelised, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat.

2.       Butter and line a 20cm round, deep cake tin. Arrange the apples in the base, reserving the syrupy pan juices. Beat the remaining butter and sugar together until fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Fold in gently until combined, then spoon the mixture on top of the apples. Level the surface and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until springy to the touch.

3.       Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out on to a serving plate.

Growing Your Own Food

Fenugreek Sprouts



My sprouts left to develop greens on my balcony

I've read about growing sprouts at home. It seemed easy enough to do. So I tried it at home and the results were good. For breastfeeding mothers who take fenugreek tea as a galactagogue, this is a nice and different way to consume fenugreek.

The steps are simple: soak, rinse, drain and keep in a dark place. Basically just rinse about twice a day and you’ll get nice sprouts in about a week. I find that the jam jar is convenient to use. Just attach 2 pieces of gauze to the opening with a rubber band. To ensure having a dark place for the jar, I just covered it with old newspaper.

After 6 days I put the jar out in a bright place for a day to develop some chorophyll. Then it’s all good to eat!

Up close: you can see the little green leaves

Fenugreek Sprouts and Anchovies Salad

This isn’t a real recipe, I just sort of made it up:

Fenugreek sprouts and anchovies salad

Fenugreek sprouts, washed and drained

Handful of dried anchovies (ikan bilis)

1 tomato

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of ½ lemon (or less)

1 tsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp honey

Salt and pepper to taste

1.    Fry the anchovies in oil until brown and crisp

2.    Cut the tomatoes into cubes or wedges

3.    Mix together the lemon juice, honey, olive oil and poppy seed. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4.    Toss everything together.