Monthly Archives: July 2012

Cheesy Quinoa Cakes

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I can’t even remember how I stumbled across this recipe but I am so glad I did! Lots of people seem scared of cooking quinoa, and I totally understand – but once you give it a shot, you’ll see it’s super easy. I think it’s easier than rice to be honest as I haven’t messed it up yet.

I use Waitrose’s quinoa with bulgar wheat – to be honest it doesn’t really make much of a difference as they are both the same kind of consistency. You can use normal quinoa for this too. You can buy quinoa everywhere now – Asda, Waitrose and everywhere in between.

Cheesy Quinoa Cakes 

Makes 8

Cheesy quinoa cakes with kewpie

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked quinoa
2/3 cup grated mature cheddar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten

Firstly, to make 2 cups of quinoa, I cooked 120g of Waitrose’s quinoa and bulgar wheat mix. Rinse the quinoa first, then add to 1 litre of cold water, and gently boil for about 12 minutes. The quinoa almost uncurls when its cooked so it’s easy to tell when it’s ready (it will be in spiral shapes).

Rinse the quinoa under cold water and strain well. You don’t want to cook the raw egg when you add it. Add in the ingredients above and mix together really well. Then pan fry – I do mine until they are golden on each side, probably 3-4 minutes each side.

They are really lovely with mayonnaise - (my preference is Kewpie!)

Enjoy

Banana Leaf, Glasgow City Centre, Glasgow

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We recently went to dinner at Banana Leaf on the basis of Michelle at ananyah.com’s post - there’s nothing I love more than reading an exciting review for a restaurant that makes you go there the very next day (literally!).

There was some confusion in our twitter banter – there is more than one restaurant in Glasgow called Banana Leaf. This is the Cambridge Street one which is Chinese/Malaysian.

I was pretty excited to see what it was like as it seems to be gaining cult status similar to Asia Style. The restaurant itself is very casual so don’t go expecting fine dining. The menu is absolutely huge, and I was glad I did some reading of other reviews (such as Alfred’s from alfredfoodography) so I had narrowed down my options before I got there.

Beef satay skewers with satay sauce £4.90, and roti canai served with curry sauce £2.70

We spent a fair while looking at the menu and deliberating just how much food to order. I was keen to order everything – hence our dilemma. Finally we settled on the above two as starters and they were both finger-licking delicious.

Stir fried kai lan vegetable with slices beef £8.00, stir fried king prawn with ginger juice and Chinese cooking wine £11.90, coconut rice £2.00

We decided to get 2.5 mains (to share the kai lan with beef) – just the right amount of food for us two (we are big eaters after all!). I loved the prawns as they were large and juicy. The flavour of the ginger and cooking wine was just right. The coconut rice seemed really indulgent and rich – but in a good way. I’m guessing it’s made with coconut milk or cream which set my spidey senses off (can they go off in a good way?). I really loved the kai lan vegetable – I would have been happy to have this without beef actually as I like the veg just on its own.  Graeme’s pork was delicious – that really sweet flavouring you get from honey glazed barbeque which is way too sweet for me to eat a whole dish, but nice for sample.  The accompanying noodles were great as well, not stuck together like you get with some takeaway noodles, and tasty without overpowering the rest of the meal.

Dinner at Banana Leaf was quick, efficient, friendly and delicious. I would definitely pop back for a casual dinner before going to a gig (we were off to see Bloc Party at the Garage – their first gig in 4 years – so all up an amazing night!).

Have you been to Banana Leaf, and if so, what other dishes would you recommend?

Banana Leaf on Urbanspoon

Two short cookbook reviews – Clean and Lean by James Duigan & Gwyneth Paltrow’s Notes from My Kitchen Table

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One thing I really love is our local library, East Renfrewshire. My husband and I both love reading, and I have a habit of adding books to my Amazon wishlist, then transferring them into library reservations. I particularly love doing this for cookbooks as it is such a good way to preview it before committing to buy. We already have so many cookbooks that I really try to stop from buying them on impulse (there isn’t room in the cupboard for any more either!).

Recently I borrowed two books: Clean & Lean by James Duigan (after seeing it in Waitrose) and Gwyneth’s Notes from My Kitchen Table.

So, what is Clean & Lean? I have omitted the reference in the title to it being a “diet” as I think that is an awful and negative word – I instead think of it as a way of eating. Not dissimilar to previous posts we’ve done (see October Unprocessed and New ways of eating in 2012), it is basically cutting out C.R.A.P. (caffine, refined sugar, alcohol, processed foods). It’s really easy to learn the “rules” or guidelines and pretty easy to work out what you should and shouldn’t eat. If you can avoid the supermarket aisles when you do your shopping and just stick to fresh meat, seafood, vegetables and fruit, that’s pretty much eat.  My biggest problem is breakfast – and this book has introduced my to my saviour, Clean & Lean Oat Pancakes.

Clean and Lean Oat Pancakes with berries

Clean & Lean Oat Pancakes

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

100g rolled oats
200g fat-free cottage cheese
4 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon

Simply put all the above in a blender, whizz, then cook as you would normal pancakes.

Now I have read a lot about fat-free, low fat food over the last few months so I happily substitute full fat cottage cheese in the recipe. They are so easy to make and I have never had a failure either. I have them with berries (I buy a large bag of frozen mixed berries and simply microwave a large handful for 1 minute while I’m cooking). This to me is the perfect breakfast as it’s filling, easy and super tasty. I sometimes squeeze over some honey – maybe less than a tsp though.

Now, onto Gwyneth. I was so surprised by her book – it is actually really brilliant! Because of her well-publicised dietary habits, I expected it to be a bit odd and left-field. Instead it is filled with delicious recipes and ideas. She doesn’t eat red meat so that isn’t catered for, but there are really good breakfast and dinner ideas. I would never have purchased this book but for the fact I borrowed it on a whim, so thanks to my local library for having such an amazing supply of books!

Do you borrow cookbooks from the library? If so, which ones have you discovered?