Dirty Dishes

The dirty dishes seem to be taking over my life. What you can see here is all of my counter space - really, that's all the countertop in my small Hong Kong kitchen. And it's all covered in dirty dishes.

Toast: A Story of a Boy's Hunger by Nigel Slater

What I like about Nigel Slater's memoir, Toast, is the way each anecdote from Slater's childhood is titled with a food. Slater's mother was a great home cook who provided flapjacks, pancakes, apple crumble, rice pudding, a Sunday roast, mashed potato, and so on. Slater was close to his mother, less so to his father and much older brothers, who had left home when he was young. He refused to eat eggs and loved sweets.

Weekend Links #29

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--A review of an article from The New England Journal of Medicine about seven myths of weight loss (from Weighty Matters). Number one myth: "Small sustained changes in energy intake or expenditure will produce large, long-term weight changes." Big changes are needed to turn your health around.
--On the other hand, here's an article about how recognising and celebrating small food wins can lead you to bigger ones (from Mark's Daily Apple).
--A blogger talks about oil pulling as a technique for oral health and overall health (from Kitchen Stewardship).

Riced Cauliflower

This recipe is affectionately known as "cauli rice" in my house. It's a rice substitute that I eat all the time, most recently with beef chilli and chicken curry.

Cauli rice is very mild and neutral tasting - just like rice. It is just finely chopped cauliflower, pan-fried in butter until translucent or a little charred. It's a very simple backdrop to a spicier main dish.

2013 Health Goals: Quarter One Check-Up

I'm using a little red diary to track my health goals this year. I've been food journalling and recording my exercise. Each day I use checkmarks to see if I've been successful with four goals:

• exercise each day
• eat no sugar
• eat no wheat
• eat no grains

Now that the first three months (one quarter!) of the year are past, I thought I should check and see how I am doing with each of these goals.

Exercise every day.
December was a bad month for exercise as I had a knee injury - as a result my marathon plans for January were scuppered. Then I had foot surgery on 9 February, and for two weeks after that I couldn't walk, let alone exercise. I had a pretty large scar that was healing and I only exercised two times (in quarter 1) since then. I went for my first run since then on 7 April and I am looking forward to a lot more exercise in the quarter ahead. Maybe I shall make my marathon debut in the summer.
Success rate: 19% (17 out of 90 days)
Success rate until 8 February: 38% (15 out of 39)

Luxury Dark Chocolate Cheesecake (grain-free, low sugar)

Anthony and I just returned from ten days visiting in the UK. While we were there we celebrated his dad's and his dad's girlfriend's birthdays - they are on the same day!

Anthony's dad is a diabetic. I made this cheesecake to be something he could enjoy. It is supremely creamy, heavy, dark, and chocolatey. The whole 9" (23 cm) cheesecake has only 3 teaspoons of sugar, which is from the bar of 85% dark chocolate.

Spice: A History of Temptation by Jack Turner

Spice: A History of Temptation by Jack Turner is an overview of the role spices have played in history. I have learned from this book that spices were a big driver in the European exploration of the New World and Asia. The book focuses mostly on the spices native to Asia: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace, ginger, and pepper. These grew only in Asia, and in the case of nutmeg and mace, on only the five tiny, volcanic islands of the Moluccas.

"Green Things" Pesto

While I am cooking, I set aside all the little green scraps. I keep them in the fridge until I have collected a large handful or two. Then I make "green things" pesto to use up the delicious green leftovers.

Apple and Cinnamon Mini Cake

Of course I collect the "MoneyBack" points that my local grocery store offers, since I visit the shop every day or two. Do you collect points? But what do you do with all those points? Well, I was just ridiculously excited when I saw that MoneyBack was doing a Le Creuset promotion. I redeemed all the points I had for two small stoneware bowls and two mini casserole dishes. I didn't really need any new kitchen items, but they were just so beautiful!

Pumpkin Custard

This delicious gluten-free and grain-free dessert is so simple. It's basically a healthy, whole food pumpkin pie without a crust. It's a one-bowl procedure to whisk together the ingredients and then the custard bakes away quietly for almost an hour. It emerges from the oven with wafts of cinnamon and warm pumpkin. It's great alone or topped with coconut cream or a sprinkle of spices.