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Showing posts with the label yogurt

A Healthy Honeyed Breakfast

My favourite type of yoghurt is natural and unflavoured. I grew up on it as an accompaniment to curry and rice. Sometimes my parents would make a simple raita by adding chopped or slice cucumber or tomato.  When the family first moved to Ireland it was difficult to get plain yoghurt but there was always plenty of strawberry yoghurt. Strange.  I stopped buying and eating commercial fruit yoghurts when I realised how much sugar was in them.  I tried an unfamiliar Irish brand, not noticing until I opened up the tub that it was almost fluid. It tasted as I might have expected but I would have preferred it a little more set. All was not lost. Browsing through my Collins Beekeeper's Bible for first time in months, I came across a recipe for honey and red berry smoothie. The spouse keeps a supply of frozen fruit in the freezer. I put in my breakfast order.  The introduction to the recipe suggests that smoothies are a clever way of getting fruit into children. That's...

Chicken and Yogurt Soup with Chili and Lemon

Salma's Chicken and Yogurt Soup with Chili and Lemon Yes, it's been a while since I last wrote a blog entry but I have been making soup. We had a lovely October bank holiday weekend here in Dublin. The two offspring were away at different events, so the spouse and I relaxed and had plenty of time to cook. I made this soup using Salma Hage's recipe from The Lebanese Kitchen . Ingredients: leek (sliced), garlic (crushed), a bay leaf (picked from the garden), chicken stock (home-made and thawed out), chicken breasts (cut into strips), cornflour, yogurt, canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed), chili flakes, lemon juice, chopped coriander, and a pinch of paprika. I sweated the leek in butter and olive oil, before adding the garlic and bay leaf. In went the chicken stock and then the chicken strips, which were then left to simmer. I took out the chicken strips (difficult to separate out the leek slices) and then tried to thicken the soup with a little cornflour paste. This...

Cucumber and Walnut Soup

Cucumber and Walnut Soup  Looking east from the northside quays  on the first glorious  day of  2012 Yesterday was that one glorious Irish summer day and it was by chance that my decision to make a chilled soup fell on that day. The recipe for cucumber and walnut soup is by Celia Brooks Brown . Aside from the obvious ingredients, it calls for Greek or thick and creamy yogurt, a clove of garlic, walnuts, mint leaves and lemon juice. It was perfect for the day as I had marched the younger offspring from O'Connell St, down Sean McDermott St to North Strand Rd, then along Ossory Road, around the East Wall area and along the quays in the hot sunshine. So when we arrived home, I was glad there was no cooking involved. All I had to do was peel, dice, stir, pound and chop. Then everything was left in the fridge to chill. Cucumber chopped and ready to be souped up We had the soup for dinner. It doesn't sound like a substantial meal but the younger offspring and ...

Whipped Yogurt Soup with Sauteed Courgette

Whipped Yogurt Soup with Sauteed Courgette Two days ago I was a little disappointed with Roopa Gulati . Today her reputation is being rehabilitated. I had a day off work and was in the mood for making soup. I've had my eye on this yogurt soup recipe for a while. And now that I have tamarind pulp and curry leaves, I was good to go. The other ingredients include dried red chillies, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, gram flour, turmeric, Greek yogurt, coriander leaves, onion, courgette and a green chilli. So I lined up my spices, diced the onion and courgette, and finely chopped the green chilli. Then it was time to start cooking. When the oil was hot I threw in the chillies and mustard seed. Next in were the fenugreek, cumin and curry leaves. I remembered reading somewhere that curry leaves will spit when thrown into hot oil: I was not disappointed by the miniature firework display in my wok. Next in was some gram flour followed by turmeric. The next stage was tricky because I did...