Caponata (For weight watchers)

This is a Sicilian dish that can be eaten hot as a side dish or stirred through cooked pasta or cold as antipasto. Of course (being Italian) it traditionally would be made with lashings of olive oil… but I'm trying to loose weight… so I have devised a way to do without and it still tastes great if you really cant do without the oil for an extra point a spray from an oil mister at the end of the process would mean you could still taste it… any way enjoy

Ingredients: serves 4…

1 Vegetable stock cube

1 onion (finely chopped)

2 celery stalks (finely chopped)

I garlic clove (crushed)

2 medium aubergines (diced into 1 cm cubes)

Large tin chopped tomatoes

A tablespoon of tom puree

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 tsp soft brown sugar 

30 g sultanas 

2 tablespoons baby capers

30 g stoned green olives (sliced) 

Seasoning to taste

Method

1.     Pour about half and inch of water into the bottom of a saucepan and crumble the stock cube into it

2.     Bring to the boil and add onions, celery and garlic cover with a lid and sweat until soft

3.     Add the aubergines and continue to cook until they are soft but not soggy

4.     Add the tomatoes and the juice from the can simmer gently for a few minutes to thicken the sauce

5.     Add the vinegar, sugar, sultanas, olives and capers

6.     Cook for about ten minutes

7.     Serve hot either as a side dish or stirred through cooked pasta or cool completely and serve with antipasto 

Roasted Garlic

Whole Roasted Heads of Garlic

This way of cooking garlic is totally delicious do not be deceived by its simplicity the resulting paste is luscious, rich and sumptuous.

When making jacket potatoes I often serve roasted garlic and onions as a couple of side dishes and it’s so easy: - just stick a few heads of garlic and a few small raw onions in the oven about 35-40 minutes before the potatoes are cooked.

You can also mash the roasted garlic cloves with a fork and use in any dish calling for garlic.

Garlic puree is delicious spread over warm French bread (the ultimate garlic bread) or mixed in to cooked pasta with olive oil, fresh basil and Parmesan.

Method

1.               Preheat the oven to 400°F

2.              Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact.

3.              Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic 

4.             Place the garlic heads on a baking tray

5.              Drizzle a couple tsp of olive oil over each head, season with salt and pepper

6.              Bake at 400°F for 35-40 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed

7.              Once the garlic has cooled enough to handle… get involved…  squeeze the individual cloves with your fingers either strait into your mouth or on to your plate

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

8 oz sun dried tomato in oil and a good splosh of the tomato oil

2 cloves garlic

30 or so basil leaves

1 or 2 chili pepper/s (optional and to taste)

Method

Pop the lot in the blender and wiz

'bloomin' marvelous sauce keeps for ages in a jar in the fridge and very versatile.. it's excellent with pasta, just dilute with a little of the pasta cooking water and add some parmesan cheese.. I spread it as a base on homemade pizza, use on crostini with a slice of cheese and lightly toasted or just spread on bread.. go for it

Lemon Ginger Syrup

This is a wonderful remedy for winter blues it warms the cockles of your heart! It is also an effective defence against the symptoms of colds and chills.

Take a tablespoonful (or more to taste) of the syrup in a tumbler full of hot water and add a slice of lemon and enjoy.

You will need

Sterilised bottles for storage

Ingredients

113 grams/4oz whole ginger

1 litre/2pints water

2 lemons

A tablespoon of citric acid (available from chemists or Asian stores) 

A Quantity of sugar

Method

1.      Bruise the ginger and place in a saucepan with the water and the thinly pared rind of the lemon

2.     Bring to the boil and simmer with a lid on for ¾ of an hour

3.     Strain and measure and for every pint of liquid add 450 gm (1 lb) of sugar and the juice of a lemon

4.    Return the lot to the pan and re-boil for ten minutes

5.     Bottle, label and seal for storage.

Delicious Dandelions

So what can we do with dandelions then? Well The young leaves are eaten as salad. Some find the older leaves too bitter... there is however, a good way of reducing the bitterness in the leaves... keep them out of the light by covering them with flowerpots. The roots may be grated or chopped and again eaten in salad or they may be roasted and used to make coffee. Dandelion flowers are fermented to make a pleasing country wine.

Italian style dandelion salad (for one for lunch)

You will need

A mixing bowl and a serving bowl

Ingredients

For the salad

A large handful young dandelion leaves

 ¼ cup chopped spring onion

 ¼ cup pine nuts,

¼ cup walnuts

2 sliced radishes

Dressing

Squeeze of lemon juice

1 tablespoon good olive oil

Also

A generous sprinkling of shaved Parmesan and a few croutons  

Method

1.      Place all salad ingredients in mixing bowl

2.     Wiz up the dressing pour over salad and toss

3.     Arrange in serving bowl with Parmesan shavings and croutons 

Passata... easy but time consuming..

You will need 

A quantity of tomatoes we used about 5 kg

A large pan

A small flame

A good deal of patience

1. Chop your tomatoes and place in a large pan

2. Cover pan and place over a small flame after a couple of hours it will look like this

After a couple of hours

3. keep bubbling away and after about eight hours it will look like this

After about eight hours 

4. Now pass through a sieve.. I blended mine first it makes it easier but is not essential

Blended tomatoes 

Sieve to remove skin and pips

5. Gently simmer resulting mush until required consistency

Finished Passata

6. Pack into freezer bags and store for use in winter months

Crudatrerra Link

Hey guys here is a link to my raw food blog... http://crudaterra.blogspot.com/ and my holistic dimension web site http://www.holisticdimension.co.uk/welcome.htmlhttp://www.holisticdimension.co.uk/welcome.html
Enjoy