It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for May, 2020

Raw Coconut Lemon Blueberry Balls

I have often seen raw food balls in the cafes that I frequent and they are quite expensive, often costing around $4 each.

balls

I am currently on a muscle strengthening plan and I have to eat protein every 3 hours throughout the day. Not wanting to eat huge amounts of meat every day, I decided to have a go at making these balls to give me a protein hit and to stave off mid morning and mid-afternoon hunger pangs. They are incredibly easy to make, very quick and they taste really good.
I also added some cacao powder to mine which I had in the cupboard, but it’s optional. You can also add things like chia and oats if you like, or try different nut varieties.

Ingedients:
30g Cacao powder (optional)
One and a half cups of cashews
Half a cup of shredded or desiccated coconut (plus extra for rolling)
Half a cup of dried blueberries (I found these in Coles with the home baking goods, but I am sure you can use fresh blueberries too)
Three quarters of a cup of fresh dates, chopped
1 lemon, you need the zest and at least half the juice
Half a teaspoon of vanilla essence
Stevia sweetener or raw brown sugar (optional)
A generous pinch of sea salt

Method:
In a food processor, whizz up the cashews, coconut and blueberries. Pour them into a bowl.
Put the dates and cacao in the food processor and whizz them up. Add them to the bowl.
Add half the lemon zest, half of the lemon juice and the salt and vanilla. Mix well and taste the mixture. Add more lemon juice if necessary. If you need it to be sweeter you can also add some Stevia sweetener or a teaspoon of brown sugar.
Using a spatula, mix the ingredients together until they bind into a dough.
Place some desiccated coconut and the rest of the lemon zest in a separate bowl – mix them well.
Now make small balls with the mixture (approx the diameter of a 50p or 50c piece, but it doesn’t matter if they are bigger or smaller). Roll the balls in the coconut/lemon mixture to coat them and store them in an airtight container.
This made about 14 balls but the exact quantity depends on the size.

Category:

Recipe, Vegan/Vegetarian

Tagged with:

Awesome Fried Chicken

I don’t have junk food very often, and when I do I am always a bit disappointed. It really is quite easy to make at home and tastes much better, and you know what goes into it – there are no nasty chemicals or preservatives. I have always wondered what the secret herbs and spices are in KFC, and I set about attempting to make the best home-made fried chicken.
This is the recipe that I came up with and it was really really good – I would have liked a bit of chilli, so I have added chilli as an optional ingredient. You can use either whole pieces of chicken leg, thighs, wings or breast, or you can make nugget sized pieces. If you want to minimise the frying time, you can always poach the chicken in advance (poach it in a nice flavoursome stock), and then you just need to fry it until the batter is nicely brown.

awesome fried chicken

This is enough batter to coat nuggets from 2 large chicken breasts – will serve 3 or 4 as a main course:

Half a cup of chickpea flour
1 cup of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
1 teaspoon of onion salt
1 teaspoon of powdered onion flakes
Half to 1 teaspoon of chilli or curry powder (optional – for the heat lovers)
1 1/2 tablespoons of caster sugar
Half a teaspoon of ground pepper
Half a teaspoon of smoky paprika
Half a teaspoon of cumin
Half a teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of oregano
1 teaspoon of sage
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of ginger powder or grated fresh ginger
With the herbs you can use fresh or concentrate if you don’t have dried.

Method:
1. Mix all of the above ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Add 200mls of water (you can use cold soda water if you want a lighter batter). Mix well. The batter will be quite thick and gloopy – this is good as it will stick nicely to the chicken. It should be a thick dropping consistency so if you lift your spoon up it will slowly slide off the spoon. If it doesn’t slide at all, add a little more water.
3. Chop your chicken (raw or pre-poached) into the desired portion sizes.
4. Coat with batter.
5. Fry in approx 1-2 inches of hot oil – time depends on the size of the pieces. My nuggets took about 4-5 minutes. Turn frequently so that they cook evenly.

Serve with anything you like – I like the following options:

  • salad
  • corn
  • peas
  • home made potato wedges
  • fresh mayonnaise
  • tomato sauce
  • chilli sauce
  • chilli mayo

See my recipe for super quick mayo here

Category:

Recipe

Tagged with:

Super quick fresh mayonnaise

All you need is a stick blender and you can make mayonnaise in seconds. It is so ridiculously easy that you will probably never buy mayo again because this method is simple – you can make it fresh every time.

mayo

You need the tall plastic beaker that comes with your stick blender, and the important thing to remember is to put the oil in last so that it covers the other ingredients.

Place the following in the plastic beaker:
1 egg (without the shell)
a generous pinch of salt
a twist of pepper
1-2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon of either lemon juice or white wine vinegar (this is your acidic ingredient)
200ml of light oil (vegetable oil or light extra virgin olive oil)

Now use a stick blender to blend the ingredients – in approx 20 seconds you will have mayonnaise. Adjust the seasonings – you can add more of any of the ingredients if required.
If it seems too thin add more oil – this may seem like a strange thing to do but a touch more oil will thicken the mayo.

You can also add other seasonings – herbs, garlic, spring onions, wasabi, capers, horseradish, mint, paprika, garam masala are a few suggestions.

You can make a nice version of Tartare sauce by adding capers and a finely chopped gherkin to the mayo.

Category:

Recipe, Vegan/Vegetarian

Tagged with:

Apricot Sesame Balls

apricot sesame balls

 

These power packed balls are really soft and succulent, you can vary the ingredients to suit your taste, but mine are laced with warm Christmassy spices that are a nice contrast to the sweet apricots. This recipe makes approximately 10 ‘mouthful sized’ balls.
 
Ingredients (all approximate – adjust them to suit your own taste):
70g Dried apricots whole or shredded
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
Half a teaspoon of ground cardamom
Sesame seeds for coating (approx 15g)
1 cup of muesli of your choice – blitzed to make it finer in a food processor – not quite powder, but no big lumps

Method:
In a small saucepan simmer the apricots with a quarter of a cup of water and the
cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom until the apricots have softened (about 12-15 mins), add a little more water if they look dry.
Cool the apricot mixture to room temp, then stir it into the muesli to make a soft paste.
Roll the paste into balls and roll them in sesame seeds. If the paste is a little dry add some more water, if it is a bit too moist, add some more muesli or some ground nuts.
Simple ! Enjoy.

Category:

Recipe, Vegan/Vegetarian

Tagged with:

VBW Pasta

vbw pasta

We recently stayed in a holiday apartment in Spain, and it can be quite a mission to make tasty home cooked food without buying hundreds of condiments from the local supermarket.
This is a simple pasta that we made without cooking oil, and it was enough to serve four people. It also took just 4 ingredients from the local supermarket: a jar of mixed antipasti (eggplant, capsicum and onion), a jar of napoletana sauce, some sliced hot chorizo, and some pasta.

First we started to cook the pasta in boiling salted water. Then we cooked the chorizo on a low heat to render some of the fat. We chopped the antipasti and added it, then poured in the napoletana sauce. Once the pasta was cooked, we drained it and added it to our hotchpotch of sauce and mixed well. It was really tasty and didn’t cost the earth.

Category:

Recipe

Tagged with:

Fish Bowl, Campoamor, Spain

In Campoamor, just down from the Hotel Montepiedra is a restaurant with a sea view called Fish Bowl. It’s a favourite with VBW attendees and we visited twice during our stay.
It’s pretty essential to book, but on our first visit the staff accommodated us at a table by the bar for tapas.

fb 1

We chose the duck and truffle croquettes to start, a sublime combination of shredded duck, fried in breadcrumbs, with a creamy foie gras dip.

fb 2

Next came the tuna tartare with wasabi ice cream and a Vietnamese dressing. This was really tasty and great quality.

fb 3

Our third dish was a beef salad with chilli, cashew nuts, sesame and red pepper – a half serve was plenty for us, and again this was a really tasty dish – we were already talking about a return visit.

fb 4

The next dish to arrive was scallops with a seasonal garnish of mango and chilli. I didn’t expect the scallop meat to be chopped, but it was fresh and delicious and served with a cleansing citrus sorbet.

fb 5

Our last dish was slow cooked beef cheek with truffle potatoes and Guinness jus – yet again a delicious dish prepared with care.

fb 6

When we came back a few days later, I chose from the fixed price menu and my partner chose a la carte.
I had pulled pork tacos to start, which were tasty, but I would have liked some salad in them.

fb 7

My partner chose the half serve of duck salad. Like the beef salad we had on the previous occasion, this was nicely prepared and very tasty.

fb 8

For my main I chose the beef fillet with dauphinoise potato and pumpkin mash. This was beautifully cooked, and I really enjoyed the meal.

fb 9

My partner chose the crab and prawn risotto, which had a nice amount of crab and prawn but could have been a little softer. It was all nicely seasoned.

fb 10

For dessert we chose the Bakewell tart with rhubarb ice cream – another great dish.

fb 11

Fish Bowl is definitely one of the finer restaurants in Campoamor and well worth a visit.

fb 12

Visit Date – September 2019

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

El Pony, Campoamor, Spain

El Pony is an elegant and good quality fish restaurant in Campoamor. The menu is quite varied and you get much more food than you would expect.

el p 1

We weren’t feeling particularly ravenous so decided to just share a salad and have a main each. We perused the menu over a glass of chardonnay.

el p 2

Although we chose our salad to go with the main course, it came as a starter with the bread which was ok. It was ensalada de canonigos which consisted of lamb’s lettuce, cherry tomatoes, parmesan, apple and candied nuts.

el p 3

The bread was fresh, warm and plentiful, served with a tomato dressing and aioli.

My partner chose sea bass for his main which was really fresh and tasty, served simply with potatoes and garlic.

el p 6

I chose the baked hake with green sauce, which came with prawns and clams and potatoes.

el p 7

It was a quiet sophisticated atmosphere, easy to talk to each other. The staff were friendly, and there were several groups of friends and families enjoying their evening meals. A lovely place, reasonably priced with quality food.

Visit Date – September 2019

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Delpuerto Bar and Tapas, Mil Palmeras, Spain

If you are at Vocal Booth Weekender, staying at the Palmera Apartments, you will most likely take the short walk up the hill to the supermarket at some point. Next door the the supermarket is a large bar and tapas cafe called Delpuerto.
We stopped off for a quick lunchtime bite and were pleasantly surprised to find lots of options on the menu. Bread is a given – fresh and local, served in a basket.

delpuerto 1

We picked three dishes from the tapas menu. First to arrive was the prawn salad. This wasn’t quite as expected, mainly crabstick with just a few fresh prawns, but it was tasty nonetheless and really nice with the bread.

delpuerto 2

I love potatoes and had a real hankering for some patatas bravas. Again they weren’t quite what I had in mind, but they were really tasty with a lovely spicy dressing.

delpuerto 3

Our third dish was bbq chicken wings, which were the star of the show – crispy, delicious with a great sauce. I would order them again without hesitation.

delpuerto 4

Delpuerto is well worth a visit – relaxed, friendly and a good selection of dishes.

Visit Date – September 2019

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Tuck Shop Cafe

Tuck Shop Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

I finally tried the Tuck Shop Cafe for brunch last week. I have heard a lot about this place and decided to see what the buzz was about.
When we got there, we had to wait in line for a table, but the waitresses were lovely and found us somewhere to sit within 15 minutes.
The menu has something for everybody, including breakfast dishes, pancakes, nasi goreng, cheese kransky, meatballs, and salmon. Every dish was described beautifully and I wanted to try them all. There is also a chalkboard with daily specials, and I chose a date, banana, honey and cinnamon smoothie from the specials board.

tuck shop 1

My partner had coffee – which was Toby’s estate. This was nice coffee, but not the best in Perth.

tuck shop 2

For my meal I chose the chorizo with paprika potatoes, peppers, spanish onions and crispy pork belly with fried egg. This was absolutely delicious – and very filling.

tuck shop 3

My partner chose the beans with ham hock, parmesan toast and fried egg. There were some home made onion rings on top. This dish was extremely tasty.

tuck shop 4

The cafe also has a nice range of cakes. We chose a brownie and a strawberry lamington for afternoon tea at home. They were very nice.
I will definitely return to the Tuck Shop Cafe – I am keen to try the other offerings on the menu. Based on the brunch that I had last week, I can see what the hype is about. The Tuck Shop is one of Perth’s best cafes.

Last Visit Date – January 2017

Click here to find out more

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

Pearth Organic Kitchen, West Leederville

Pearth Organic Kitchen Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Pearth is a vegetarian/vegan cafe on Cambridge Street with a clean airy interior. We stopped by today for some takeout and were pleasantly surprised to see so many good options in the cabinet.

pok 1

Salads, wraps, savoury tarts, curries and bowls, it was difficult to choose, but in the end I went for a savoury pancake Okonomiyaki with king oyster mushrooms and cabbage. It was really good but could have done with a little more seasoning.

pok 4

My partner chose the vegan burrito which was huge, containing rice, beans, avocado, spinach and chipotle spice. It wasn’t too heavy on the spice and again could have been seasoned a bit more.

 

pok 3

We also checked out the cake cabinets

pok 2

We chose a date, walnut and garam masala muffin, which was tasty but quite dense – not the thing to choose if you want a light cake, but it was really good.

pok 5

We also chose a vegan snickers slice which was sweet and gooey and just like Snickers.

pok 6

The food at Pearth is definitely made with love and looks amazing. It is a little on the expensive side, but also good quality, they just need to pay a bit more attention to seasoning and it will be Pearthfect.

Visit Date – May 2020

Click here to find out more

Category:

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

Tagged with: