Peking Duck Pancakes

When you prepare Peking Duck, apart from cucumbers, spring onions and Hoisin sauce, you also need special pancakes to serve the dish. If you don’t have time, you can buy them in a Chinese food shop. But if you don’t have such a shop nearby, you can make the Peking Duck Pancakes at home. They are pretty easy to prepare, you will only need some time as they are made from a dough and require rolling. The good thing is they can be rolled and fried in pairs (see the instructions below) so the process can be speeded up.

INGREDIENTS (for approx. 24 pieces):

225g flour plus extra for dusting,

5 tbsp boiling water,

6 tbsp cold water,

sesame oil.

METHOD:

1. Put the flour into a big bowl, make a well in the center, pour the boiling water and mix it with the flour.
2. Gradually add the cold water and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until everything is well combined.
3. Work the dough (with your hands) for approx. 5 minutes, then cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest for 20 min.
4. Dust a surface with a bit of flour and roll the dough into a long “sausage”, cut it into 20-24 pieces and roll each piece into a flattened ball.
5. Pour a bit of sesame oil into a saucer.
6. Dip one flattened side of the ball in the sesame oil, repeat with a second ball and put together the oiled sides of 2 balls.
7. On a lightly floured surface roll the merged 2 balls into a 12cm in diameter pancake.
8. Fry it on a small non-stick frying pan on both sides for a very short time (they shouldn’t even start getting brown spots).
9. Repeat with the rest of the balls.
10. When pancakes are cool enough to handle, separate each one into 2 thin pancakes (you will see on the edge where both are merged and gently pull them apart starting from that point).
11. Keep them covered in the fridge till needed or they can be prepared earlier and frozen.

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Strawberry milkshake is surely a classic in its group although probably everyone prepares it slightly differently: some add cream, some - ice cream; some use very ripe bananas, some - frozen bananas. For a very long time I prepared it as either a treat/snack or - sometimes - as an accompaniment to breakfast.

This time I wanted it to be a wholesome breakfast and that is why I added chia seeds to my more-or-less usual ingredients. Why was chia supposed to make the difference? You may remember from one of my previous posts that chia seeds are not only nutritious but also an excellent source of dietary fiber. Additionally, these seeds are weight-loss friendly because:

• due to a pretty high (for a plant food) content of proteins - approx. 16%, they reduce appetite and
• since chia can absorb up to 10-12 times its weight in water, it becomes gel-like, expanding in your stomach making you feel fuller so you want to eat less calories.

That way when you have this milkshake in the morning you can be sure that not only you have a delicious and nutritious start to your day but also you will not feel hungry for a few hours. And did I mention it takes only a few minutes to make it?

Chia Seeds and Strawberry Milkshake[vegan]

Ingredients

• 200g fresh or frozen strawberries
• 2 bananas
• 200ml rice milk (or any other type of milk)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds

Takes 3 min, serves 2.

Instructions

1. Process everything in a blender for 40-60 seconds.

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Healthy Avocado Brownies [gluten free]

Who doesn’t love brownies? For sure I don’t belong to this group of people because I love them like almost everything else that contains chocolate. I especially adore brownies that my daughters have baked for the last few years. Their brownies are moist, chocolaty and rich. They are unfortunately also full of calories and fat as there is butter and plenty of sugar in them… So whenever I have those brownies, my guilt grows proportionately to the number of pieces I eat.

That’s why when I came across a brownie recipe that uses avocado instead of butter, I quickly had to test it out. To be honest I wasn’t ecstatic about the final outcome: I used chocolate with a very high percentage of cocoa solids and the cake was on the edge of being bitter. As I really liked the concept of healthier brownies, I didn’t want to give up and adjusted the recipe to make it sweeter without adding any more sugar. So I used a different type of chocolate and added lots of nuts as well as cranberries. That strategy worked really well: the result of my second attempt was most delicious.

INGREDIENTS (for 16 pieces):

100g dark chocolate (no more than 65% cocoa),

2 medium, ripe avocados, peeled and roughly mashed,

150g sugar,

2 tsp vanilla extract,

2 eggs,

40g cocoa powder,

45g almond flour or ground almonds,

40g dried cranberries,

100g mixed nuts (cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts), roughly chopped,

METHOD:

1. Preheat an oven to 175 Celsius degrees (or 150 for fan ovens).
2. Line a small (e.g. 14cm x 24cm) baking tray with a parchment paper.
3. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water.
4. Put to a food processor the avocados, sugar and vanilla extract; process them till smooth.
5. Stir in the melted chocolate then add the eggs and process again till everything is combined.
6. Add the cocoa powder and almond flour, mix well until combined.
7. Stir in the dried cranberries and nuts; transfer to the baking tray and smooth the top.
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Based on a Half Baked Harvest's recipe  

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Delicious Fruity Porridge

Porridge is very healthy – how many times did we hear that when we were children, or how many times have we told this to our children ourselves? But do we really know why it is so healthy? Since I wasn’t sure myself, I decided to do a little research on oats myself.

Right at the beginning I have found out that by eating a bowl of porridge every day, people with high cholesterol can decrease its level by 8-23%, and as a result also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Additionally, oats contain fiber called beta-glucan that boosts the immune system’s response to bacterial infection which means that immune cells react faster and are more able to fight out many bacteria.

Eating oats (and other whole grains) from one hand lowers the risk of getting type 2 diabetes disease but from the other – it helps to keep changes of the blood sugar level under control for people who already suffer from this illness. It also decreases the risk of childhood asthma.

And finally (although I am sure not lastly) whole grain fiber helps in protecting woman against breast cancer: premenopausal woman whose daily intake of this type of fiber amounts to at least 13g, lower the risk of breast cancer by 41%.

Now, with all this newly garnered information I know that when I have my own porridge in the morning, I not only have a delicious breakfast but I also invest in my health at so many different levels :).

INGREDIENTS (for 1 portion):

4 tbsp rolled oat flakes (porridge oats),

0.25 cup water,

0.25 cup milk,

To serve: raspberries, blueberries, pumpkin seeds, walnut pieces, raisins, honey.

METHOD:

1. Pour the water and flakes into a small pan, stir and bring to boil; add the milk and after everything boils again cook stirring for 5-8 minutes.
2. Pour the porridge to a bowl and sprinkle with the berries, seeds, nuts and honey.

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Filo Pastries with Potato, Spinach and Feta Filling [vegetarian]

Autumn has finally arrived again. The days are shorter, the nights are colder and leaves on trees slowly start turning golden and brown. Luckily the weather is still pretty good so how about taking an advantage of it and enjoying maybe the last picnic of the year?

My suggestion for an autumn picnic dish is a loose variation on Greek Spanakopita recipe: I have made individual pastries (as they are easier to eat when you don’t necessarily have plates with you) and their filling includes potatoes (thanks to them the filling stays together). But what if the weather doesn’t permit to enjoy these pastries on an outing? Then they are still a great idea for a buffet or a healthy snack that can be taken to school or work.

INGREDIENTS (for approx. 20 pastries):

500g potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes,

2 tbsp olive oil,

2 garlic cloves, thinly chopped,

300g washed spinach (if you are using frozen spinach then thaw it at first and squeeze out the excess of water),

3 tbsp milk,

200g feta cheese, crumbled into very small pieces,

5 filo pastry sheets,

salt and pepper,

olive oil for greasing the sheets.

METHOD:

1. Boil the potatoes in salty water till soft.
2. In a big frying pan warm the olive oil; add the spinach and fry until water evaporates, add the garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes more.
3. Drain the potatoes, mash them with milk using the potato masher until smooth and add the feta cheese, mix well.
4. Cut the fried spinach and add it to the potato and feta mixture, stir well and season.
5. Preheat an oven to 220 Celsius degrees (200 fan oven).
6. Take one sheet of filo pastry, brush it with olive oil (if you want to use less olive oil, use your hands instead of a brush) and cut along the longer side. The sheets I used were 35cm x 45cm so from one sheet I had 4 strips approx. 8.5x45cm.
7. In a corner of one strip of filo pastry put 1 tbsp of the filling and flip it over so you have a triangle of the pastry on top. Press the filling to spread it and carry on turning the triangle till you have used the whole strip (see the photos below). Place it on a baking tray covered with baking paper and brush with a bit of olive oil.
8. Repeat with the rest of pastries. The pastries can be prepared a day in advance and kept in a fridge on a baking tray covered with cling film.
9. Put the baking try with the pastries to the hot oven, bake for 8-10 minutes. 

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Egg Pancake with Cottage Cheese and Fruit [gluten free]

Breakfast is the most important meal of a day. Unfortunately many of us either forget about it, or simply think they don’t have enough time in the morning to prepare something healthy, tasty and nutritious. But in truth this is only an excuse because proper breakfast can be prepared in minutes. And the below recipe is just one example of such a breakfast recipe.

The base of the recipe is something between a pancake and an omelette, I call it Egg Pancake as it is made only with an egg and a drop of milk, but it is very thin just like pancakes are. It is topped with cottage cheese (for extra proteins) and berries (for vitamins). Because there is no flour added to this pancake, people with gluten intolerance can eat it, too. Making this dish takes a few minutes only but you end up with a delicious and super healthy breakfast that will give you lots of energy to start your day very well.

INGREDIENTS (for 1 portion):

1 egg,

1 tbsp milk,

a drop of olive oil,

3 tbsp cottage cheese,

0.5 tsp honey,

pinch of cinnamon,

raspberries, blueberries, mint leaves,

extra honey for serving.

METHOD:

1. In a cup beat quickly with a fork the egg and milk.
2. Mix the cottage cheese with the honey and cinnamon.
3. Put a drop of olive oil on an 18cm-diameter non-stick frying pan (you can use a smaller one but it shouldn’t be bigger as the pancake will be very thin and difficult to handle) and smear it all over the frying pan with a paper towel.
4. Heat the frying pan and pour the beaten egg.
5. Fry the pancake till it sets, gently flip it over the other side with a spatula. To prevent the pancake from breaking, pry the edge of the pancake with the spatula at first.
6. Place the pancake on a plate, cover half of it with the cottage cheese, put the fruit and mint leaves on top and cover with the other half of the pancake.
7. Serve with extra honey on top.

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