Vegetarian Chilli Cornbread Casserole

Today in our Food Science lab we cooked an amazing vegetarian chilli cornbread casserole to demonstrate the qualities of cereals and starches and I just wanted to share :-)  These students are our future dietitians, nutritionists and home economics teachers.  As well as this lovely dish, we prepared a million different types of starch pastes and tested their various viscosities and characteristics- they're not quite so yummy to eat though......

Here's the recipe for your cooking pleasure:

Vegetarian Chilli Cornbread Casserole

NB. Preheat oven to 220°C

The chilli

Ingredients (serves 4)

80ml (1/3 cup) olive oil

1 large onion, peeled, finely chopped

1 small red chilli, seeded, chopped

1/2 red capsicum, chopped

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp dried thyme

2-3 garlic cloves, crushed

420g can mixed beans, drained, rinsed

420g can lentils, drained, rinsed

425g can diced tomatoes

1 tbsn tomato paste

Method

1.      Place 2tbsn of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, fresh chilli & capsicum & cook until softened. Add the chilli flakes, cinnamon, cumin & thyme & cook for a further minute.

2.      Reduce heat to low & add the garlic, beans, lentils, tomatoes, tomato paste & remaining oil.

3.      Cover & simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lid & cook for a further 5 minutes or until thickened.

Source: delicious. - March 2003, p.85; Recipe by Valli Little

The cornbread

Ingredients

2 Tbs (¼ stick) butter

½ cup corn meal

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 egg

 ½ cup milk

½ cup flour (use gluten free flour)

Method

1.     Melt, then cool butter.

2.     Whisk butter, egg, & milk together.

3.     Combine corn meal, flour, & salt, then add baking powder & baking soda.

4.     Stir in liquid mixture (butter, egg & milk).

5.     Set aside & go back to chilli recipe above.

The Casserole

Ingredients     chilli mix  & cornbread mix

Method

1.     Spray a 23 x 30cm baking pan with cooking spray.

2.     Put entire chilli recipe in baking pan & smooth surface.

3.     Spoon cornbread mixture over chilli mixture & smooth with a large spoon.

4.     Bake about 20min, or until cornbread pulls away from the sides of the pan.

Serve in bowls, making sure every large spoonful has both textures.

Custard, Oh Custard

I am, unabashedly, a custard enthusiast.  So today I want to share with you three very different custards, all delicious, and all surefire winners if you have to produce something sweet and amazing for your family, friends or colleagues.

The three recipes I have chosen are ..... (drumroll)......

• Impossible Pie
• Portugese Custard Tarts, and
• Ginger Milk Custard (in chinese: 'gurng-jup-zhong-lai' which translates to Ginger Hits Milk)

The Impossible Pie is an old family favourite, which I had my students make in our kitchen lab for the High Protein High Energy diets workshop recently.  It is called impossible because you end up with a lovely pie which has a distinct crust, filling and pastry, even though the method is a 'mix everything up in one bowl and pour into the pie dish' type.

Impossible Pie

Portugese Custard Tarts: My group of close dietitian friends have alphabet dinners every month or so with the theme being the cuisine from a country which starts with the letter ..A, B, C etc  There are 4 couples so we rotate around each others houses and bring either starters, dessert or drinks, and whoever is hosting does the mains.  We started almost 4 years ago with an Australian themed party (meat pies, roast lamb, cask wine, beer, and pavlova if I remember correctly).  Last night the theme was Portugal.  Yes, we're only up to P but there have been 4 babies born to the group in that time!!!  Anyway, I was on desserts, so I produced these lovely little tarts.  They should have been a bit browner had my oven been behaving!!  They still tasted great though!

Portugese Custard Tarts

Ginger Milk Custard: I did this divine custard when we had our China themed dinner party (the letter C, a long, long time ago!)  Served cold, the initial sensation is cool, silky, delicate and sweet and then the intense heat from the ginger hits your lips, tongue and mouth and follows the custard all the way down your throat.  It's amazing.  There's also a Ginger Milk Pudding which doesn't have any egg, it just curdles itself because of the proteases in the ginger juice (recipes for this version are available easily on the web).

(sorry no photo as it was too long ago but just imagine the

most pure white delicate looking custard in a dainty bowl)

RECIPES

Impossible Pie

1 dessertspoon butter or margarine

4 eggs

1/2 cup plain flour

2 cups milk

1 cup coconut

1 cup castor sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Blend all ingredients.

Beat with eggbeater/ mix master for one minute.
Pour into ungreased pie plate.
Bake at 180C for one hour.

Portugese Custard Tarts
(with thanks to Not Quite Nigella for the recipe (which I then changed a bit...): www.notquitenigella.com

6 egg yolks

230g castor sugar

2 tablespoons of cornflour

800mL reduced fat milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 sheets of frozen puff pastry

Custard: put the egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and milk in a pan and whisk together until all the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.  Bring this to the boil slowly, stirring constantly, until it thickens nicely.  Put it aside, cover the surface in glad wrap (so it doesn't form a skin while it cools) and allow to cool a bit.

Pastry: lay the two sheets on top of one another and roll them up so that you end up with a 'telescope' shaped pastry roll.  Get a sharp knife and cut the roll in to 18 rounds.  On a floured board, roll out each of the rounds until they are about 10 cm in diameter.  Put one round each into a greased regular sized muffin tin.  They will look a little mangled: this adds to the appeal!

Assembly: Spoon the custard equally into the pastry lined muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes in a 200 degree oven (unlike mine which insisted on only getting to 150, despite encouragement otherwise, and increased cooking time to about 40 minutes).  When they're done, they'll be attractively browned on top of the custard and the pastry edges.

Allow to cool, serve and gobble them up (mindfully!!)

(makes 18 tarts)

Ginger Milk Custard
2 tablespoons of ginger juice
2 egg whites
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons of white castor sugar

Freeze a big knob of fresh ginger for a day or two.  Grate the ginger while frozen, squeeze the pulp and collect the ginger juice.  Try not to let any bits and pieces get into the juice; put it through a fine strainer or clean chux if you need to. In a small pot, heat milk and sugar, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and remove from heat when milk begins to simmer, just about to boil.  Whisk the egg whites and ginger juice together and then pour in the hot milk, whisking quickly.  Transfer this mixture quickly into 6 ramekins or small bowls and steam for 5 minutes.  Leave to cool to room temperature, then put in the fridge to chill.  Be very careful with them once they're done because they are very delicate and will break up and curdle if handled roughly.

Have a great week!!

Fiona xx


 

What the heck is 'keen-wa'!?!?! Well, it's Quinoa for starters :-)

Despite being around in Australia for ages now, quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is still pretty unfamiliar to most Aussies.  I was introduced to it more than 15 years ago when I was training to be a naturopath.  Yes, a naturopath, but don't panic, I realised the error of my ways a couple of years in to the course when I managed to get a high distinction in iridology.... by correspondence (:-O) so I woke up and smelled the delicious aroma of evidence based practice, and went back to uni for another 4 years to learn about diet, disease and health properly.  Anyway, I digress....

Quinoa is the seed from a grassy sort of plant from South America.  It is high in fibre, gluten free and has an awesome protein profile, providing just about the full compliment of amino acids necessary for the body to make it's own proteins.  Plus it has a decent amount of carbohydrate too.  Also, it tastes pretty good - nutty is the broadest description of its taste (funny how unfamiliar foods are usually described as either 'nutty'or 'like chicken'!!) but when it's in recipes it smells pretty similar to tahini (ground sesame seeds).  It has quite a mild taste really- it will take on whatever flavours you prepare it with.  And its super easy to use - you cook it and use it just like rice!

Some of the ways that quinoa can be used are:

• with stir fries
• as a sweet porridge with honey and fruit
• in pilafs and risottos (instead of rice)
• instead of cous cous
• in cakes and cookies
• in casseroles and soups to absorb some of the liquid and make them more well-rounded meals
• mixed through salads cold to add more nutrition and energy to a work-lunch salad

I sense that you're still a little anxious about trying something new...... so here's a step by step guide... and then a yummy recipe I devised last night, with inspiration from this months Better Homes and Gardens magazine's chocolate special (theirs had way too many steps for my liking).

Okay, firstly, this is what half a cup of quinoa looks like raw.... and cooked (I think they look a bit like little planet Saturns, with the visible germ being the asteroid belt)

Rinse it well first.  Quinoa naturally is covered in saponins which are toxic to bugs and can be an irritant to humans.  These are removed during processing but some residual may be left behind and may give you a stomach ache if its not rinsed off.

The ratio of quinoa to cooking fluid is 1:2, just like rice and you can use stock or herbs or milk or fruit or anything in the cooking fluid, it will just absorb the fluid and the flavours.  It usually takes 10 minutes on a gentle simmer to cook through, but keep cooking if you can still see white in the centre of the seed - it should be transleucent.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Ingredients

Method

2/3 cup white quinoa 1 2/3 cups water 100g dark chocolate 80g margarine or butter 1/3 cup milk 4 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 cup almond meal 1 cup castor sugar 1 cup self-raising flour 1 ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Rinse quinoa gently and wash away excess husks.  Bring quinoa and water to the boil and simmer, covered for 10 minutes or until centres completely transleucent.  Take off the heat and add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted.  As mixture cools, add vanilla essence and milk.  Once mixture is cool enough, put into a food processor and blend with eggs until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.  Pour mixture into large greased ring tin and cook at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool and serve with ice cream.   YUM!!

This cake was super delicious, but it is definitely a sometimes food!

Have a great weekend!!

Fiona xx

The oft persecuted Gluten....

This weeks kitchen workshop focussed on relatively common food protein allergies and intolerances - gluten, egg, nuts and cows milk.  One of the most common and frustrating things that I encounter is people blaming their dodgy bowels or weight problems on poor little gluten.  Now, for people with coeliac disease, gluten really is a problem- they have a true systemic immunological response to dietary exposure to gluten which is suggested by a blood test (coeliac screen) and confirmed by an intestinal biopsy taken during an endoscopy procedure.  People with medically confirmed coeliac disease must stick to a strictly gluten free diet for life as the gluten proteins (present in wheat, barley, rye and oats) cause damage to their intestines, which can lead to poor absorption of nutrients and ultimately to osteoporosis and some forms of cancer.  If you suspect that your guts don't work that well, have a family member with coeliac disease, have trouble keeping weight on, have frequent diarrhoea or have been told that you have anaemia -please talk to your GP so that they can organise the blood test for you.  If the blood test is positive, you go and have the endoscopy and biopsy done so that you know for sure that lifelong gluten restriction is warranted.

This gluten free recipe is one of my favourites and it got polished off very quickly in the kitchen lab this week!  Chicken or beef strips could be added to the mushroom mix to make it a more well-rounded meal.

Polenta with parsley and mushrooms

Ingredients

Method

5 cups of water 1 cup of polenta ½ teaspoon of salt 1 tablespoon of butter/margarine Olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 3 cloves of garlic, minced 500g chopped mushrooms ¾ cup chopped parsley Grated parmesan and cracked pepper to serve

Bring water to the boil and add polenta, stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the polenta starts to thicken enough to come away from the sides of the saucepan.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. While polenta is cooking, fry the mushrooms, garlic and onion with butter/margarine and olive oil.  Turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes.  Add parsley to the mushroom mixture and season with pepper.  Stir.  Place mushroom sauce on top of polenta with grated parmesan on top.  Serve immediately.

For those who feel urgh when they eat wheat products, particularly if they suffer with stomach cramps and bloating associated with flatulence - the culprit is not gluten, it is a type of fibre present in wheat, barley and rye known as fructans.  Fructans are chains of fructose molecules (yes, the same fructose that is in fruit) that are joined together by bonds that our small intestines don't have any enzymes to break down.  So what happens is that those fructan chains arrive in the large intestine (which is a lovely, big, bucket of fermentation) and the bacteria in there break those bonds and gobble up the fructose molecules, producing both gas AND lots more bacteria.  In people who have sensitive bowels (this is called visceral hypersensitivity) this manifests as bloating, gas and sometimes diarrhoea.  The more bran, the more gas.  We are able to absorb some of the fructose in fruit but if you have a lot of fruit all at once (like a fruit salad, dried fruit or fresh fruit juice) this will have a similar effect.  If you feel this way, choose oats, rice, polenta and quinoa over wheat products when you can, and try to limit foods which have wheat as a charactarising ingredient (eg bread, pasta, cous cous) to one meal a day.  If wheat is ingredient number five or more on an ingredients list, it is likely to not cause too much of a problem. 

Part of a dietitians core business is to try to ensure that peoples dietary intakes are as broad as possible within any legitimate dietary restrictions.  If you don't have coeliac disease then don't drive yourself crazy or into a malnourished state (it is more difficult to get exposure to some vitamins and minerals on a gluten free diet) by restricting gluten unnecesarily.  Now that I've had my little rant.... here are some lovely gluten free choc chip cookies :-)

Choc Chip Cookies
(picture has our gluten free ones at the front and wheat containing but egg free ones at the back)

Ingredients	Method
2 cups commercial gluten free self-raising flour mix (Orgran/White Wings) 120g margarine/butter ½ cup castor sugar ½ cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons of vanilla 2 eggs (or use No Egg egg substitute) 1 bag Cadburys small milk choc chips	Cream the margarine/butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and eggs and beat until smooth.  Using a wooden spoon or spatula fold in the flour and choc chips until mixture is just combined and choc chips are evenly spread throughout.  Using two teaspoons, spoon small balls of mixture onto a large baking paper lined tray.  Bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees C.

I hope you have an awesome weekend,

Fiona xx

Carbs, Carbs, Carbs!!

Carbohydrates are an essential part of our diets. They are the preferred fuel for your body's cells and the only fuel accepted by brain tissue.  Plus, the foods that carbohydrates occur in provide essential vitamins, minerals and other substances that can be difficult to find in other sources. It's no wonder that you feel so woeful on a low carbohydrate diet.  The term carbohydrate incorporates sugars and starches as they are all broken down to simple sugars (glucose, fructose, galactose) by the intestine before they are absorbed into your bloodstream to become 'blood sugar'.  For people with Diabetes, who need to be careful that their blood sugar levels do not become too high or too low, dietitians and endocrinologists encourage the use of serves of foods that contain a known, consistent amount of carbohydrate; called carbohydrate exchanges.  Each carbohydrate exchange contains about 15g of carbohydrate - this is about a tablespoon of sugar if you need a visual image.  Most people with Diabetes can consume 2-3 carbohydrate exchanges at meal times and 0-2 at midmeals (morning and afternoon tea, and supper), depending on whether they are on medication and what their blood sugar patterns are like.

Here are a couple of treats from the carbohydrates workshop: 

Low carbohydrate pancakes (so you can have a little icecream too :-D)

Ingredients	Method
2 eggs 1/2 cup cottage cheese 1 Tbsp oil 1/2 cup porridge oats 1/8 tsp salt 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 tablespoon brown sugar	Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until well mixed, less than 10 seconds. Grease and preheat a frypan. Drop batter by 1/8 cupfuls onto hot surface. Turn pancakes when bubbles appear on surface and cook an additional minute, until lightly golden.

From (www.naturalhealthdoc.net/health-questions-health-information-low_glycemic_recipes.htm#pancakes)

This whole recipe contains 55 grams of carbohydrates and makes about 10 little pancakes - that's 5.5 grams of carbohydrate each, or about 3 pancakes for one carbohydrate exchange.  Normal piklets have about 9 grams of carbohydrate each.  Now for the savouries..... Beef and Vegetable Pie (this is super delicious!)

Beef and Vegetable Pie 

Ingredients

Method

250g very lean mince cooking spray ½  cup each onion diced, carrot grated, zucchini grated ½  cup frozen peas ½  cup frozen corn kernels 1 teaspoons salt-reduced vegetable stock powder (Massel®) 1 cups hot water ½  tablespoon tomato sauce ½  teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 ½  tablespoons (Gravox®) Lite Supreme 60 mL water pepper to taste 5 sheets filo pastry

Preheat oven 200 C fan forced. To make filling: Brown mince in non-stick fry pan that has been coated with cooking spray. Drain and set aside. In the same saucepan spray again then sauté onion for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Add carrots, zucchini, peas and corn to pot, cook a further 2 minutes, stirring well. Blend stock powder in hot water, add to pot, bring to boil, simmer covered for 5 minutes. Stir in tomato and Worcestershire sauce. Mix gravy powder with ¼ cup water, stir quickly in top to avoid lumps. Add mince, stir well. Pepper to taste. Leave to cool. To assemble pie: Coat a rectangular casserole dish with cooking spray. Fold out filo pastry sheets, cut each sheet in three strips (8 for base, 7 for top). Layer the casserole dish with 8 cut sheets of pastry, spraying with cooking spray between each sheet. Spoon mince mixture on top of layered pastry. With remaining sheets, repeat layering process, crinkle edges together, spray with cooking spray. Cut a small slit in top of pastry. Cook 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately as pastry will soften when left. To crisp again either place back in oven or under grill.

From : (http://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/Living-with-Diabetes/Eating-Well/Recipes/Beef-and-vegetable-pie1/)

If you want to work out the nutrition information for one of your own recipes, visit the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand website and use the Nutrition Panel Calculator.  Here's the link: http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/npc/

Nutrition information about commercial foods can be found on their nutrition information panel, or by searching a commercial food database (make sure it's Australian since the composition of commercial foods can differ by country) like Calorie King: http://www.calorieking.com.au/foods/

Have a fantastic week!

Fiona xx

High fibre, low fibre and low fermentable carbohydrate diets workshop

Todays recipes demonstrate the practical aspect of how dietitians can manipulate the fibre content and type in foods to bring about changes in gastrointestinal function.  The sorts of changes that we can make to bowel patterns using diet include: firming up loose bowel motions, softening hard bowel motions, reducing flatulence, reducing bowel bloating and pain and making bowel motions more regular.  For people who have had surgery to 're-plumb' their gastrointestinal system (for example if they were in a car accident or had cancer and had to have all or some of their stomach, intestines or bowel removed) manipulating the fibre type and content can be quite important to reduce the chances of a blockage occurring (called an obstruction) and to reduce any ongoing pain or discomfort they may experience.

First up is LOW fibre: Panfried chicken tenderloins in white sauce with strained soup.  The parsley is for decoration only.  The sauce has been infused with peppercorns and the flavours of vegetables.  It would usually be served with a variety of peeled, cooked low fibre vegetables.

RECIPE:  Panfried  chicken tenderloins with white sauce and vegetables

Ingredients

Method

250g chicken tenderloins ½  tblsp Olive oil 300 ml milk 1 onion 1 stalk celery 1 carrot 6 peppercorns 1 bay leaf 30 g butter 30g plain flour S and P Potato, carrot and cauliflower to serve

Peel the potatoes and carrots.  Cut into chunks and boil with cauliflower until tender.  Pan fry chicken in olive until golden brown and cooked through. Infuse milk with flavour by heating milk with onion, celery, carrot and spices slowly until boiling point is reached. Remove from the stove and cover for 30 mins. Melt butter in a heavy pan, stir in flour and cook for 1 minute over med heat. Add milk and heat, stirring constantly until boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

And now for HIGH fibre: Bircher muesli with berries

RECIPE:  Bircher Muesli

Ingredients	Method
2c rolled oats ½ c wheat germ 300ml pear juice 2 pears, skin left on and grated 200g natural low fat yoghurt 1 tblsp honey 4 tblsp toasted almonds Fresh fruit, optional	Soak the oats and rye in the pear juice overnight. Mix in yoghurt, grated pears and honey. Serve on its own or with fresh fruit.

And finally, a recipe that is LOW in FERMENTABLE CARBOHYDRATES (also referred to as FODMAPs), that is, a recipe that produces minimal gas in your bowel - great for people with the sort of IBS that is charactarised by excessive flatulance.  If you're gassy, it may be because you're eating too much wheat bran, onion, garlic, apples, pears, too much milk (lactose) or chewing too much sugar free gum (sorbitol and zylitol).   

RECIPE:   Stuffed Eggplant

Ingredients

Method

1 eggplant 1 c cooked white rice Olive oil 50g fetta, crumbled 25g chopped cashews ½ tsp paprika ½ tsp cumin 1 tblsp chopped parsley Salt and pepper Crushed corn flakes to top

Preheat oven to 220°C. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise within 5mm of the skin to make a border. Slash the centres 3 times diagonally to enable the heat to penetrate evenly. Transfer to the baking dish, season with salt and drizzle with oil. Bake for 20 minutes or until tender. Remove from the oven and, when cool scoop out the flesh, leaving a 5mm border. Chop the flesh roughly. Heat oil, fry spices gently for 1 minute and add other ingredients, including eggplant flesh, mix together, cook and then pile into the eggplant shells. Sprinkle with crushed cornflakes and bake in the oven for 30 mins or until tops are golden and crisp.

If you are troubled with gas, pain, bloating, diarrhoea or constipation, please see a dietitian who specialises in gastrointestinal troubles.  Of course, any of our dietitians at NutritionSense Dietitians would be pleased to help. Call Fiona on 0413 248 123 or see http://www.nutritionsense.com.au/ for details.   

Have a fantastic week,

Fiona xx