Going Vegan / Macrobiotic......

WEll as I said - just before Christmas I ended up going into hospital. I was having incredible pain attacks. I had thought it was food poisoning and marvelled how it kept coming back after a lifetime if never getting food poisoning suddenly I was getting it every couple of weeks. Hmmm..... Anyway eventually whilst in Korea on Christmas Holiday it struck again 3 times in 10 days so I went into the ER and the next thing I knew I was on my way to a hospital in Seoul being whizzed to this hospital and that for CAT scans, Ultra sounds and ERCP procedures and talking to a surgeon about getting my gall bladder removed.

I spoke to my Mum who is big on dietary matters having healed her self of a liver related problem in the past and as the gallbladder is part of the liver's system I wanted to pick her brains. She sent me some information on detoxing your liver. The diet she suggested meant cutting out various food groups for a period of time and then re-introducing them group by group in small increments, allowing your liver to jump start itself and heal somewhat. The book my Mum recommended to help with this Detox is called "The Liver Detox Plan: The Revolutionary Way to Cleanse and Revive Your Body - By Xandria Williams



The Dr told me I also had the onset of pancreatitis brought on by the ERCP I had in Korean Hospital this complicated matters further and cut out more food types, so with a bit of research and moderation my new diet emerged for the time being at least.... Meat Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Nut and Seed Free and cutting out a number of vegetable families: No Brassicas, No Legumes (pulses), No Nightshades (potato/tomato/pepper family) and no raw vegetables so really hardly anything I could eat!!! But amazingly the diet seems to be working wonders no more pain, no more attacks and my pancreas seems to be functioning normally again now.

Time will tell how long I can keep it up!

Stained Glass Cookies

These were such good fun to make. We spend a whole day making different types of cookies and decorating them. Not for us to eat ourselves (we'd be the size of a house by now...) but to give as gifts and to decorate our home. It kept my 5 year old fully occupied and she really enjoyed the kneading of the dough, the rolling out, sifting flour, cutting out shapes, crushing the boiled sweets with a mallet (she liked that a little too much!) and all in all it was a great success. I'll be making these again next year!




Stained glass cookies

Ingredients
1 cup / 8oz sugar
2 sticks / 8oz butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups /12oz plain flour (all-purpose flour)
Assorted brightly coloured boiled sweets (hard candy)
An array of different shaped cookie cutters - some small enough to fit into the large ones leaving a good margin.

Directions

Preheat oven to 180c / 350 F.

Cream the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Mix in the flour. Mould the dough into a ball, then wrap in up wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Remove from the refrigerator and cut dough into 1/3. Roll out dough, 1 piece at a time to a 3/16-inch thickness. Then the fun part starts. Cut out some big cookie shapes then fit smaller shapes inside. You can be as creative as you like!! Well as creative as the array of cookie cutters you have will let you be.

Place the boiled sweets, separated by colour, into small plastic bags. Then smash them mercilessly with something mallet like. Then fill each hole you have made in each cookie with a colour of crushed sweets. we even got creative using different shades in the same cokie which worked pretty well. Don't be tempted to out too much in or it just spills over the edge and spoils the effect somewhat,

If you want to use them as decorations you can hang them from your tree or in a window. Don't forget to make a small hole in the top of each cookie with something like a chopstick so you will be able to thread a ribbon through when it is cooked.

Pop them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown, and the candy has melted.

I love Nigella's Feast Book!!

I was browsing through a second hand bookshop yesterday and found a copy of NIgella Lawson's book "Feast" it has the recipe for one my my husband's favourite cakes - Chocolate Guinness Cake - its completely unhealthy but completely decadent. I'll have to do some playing over christmas and see if I can come up with a healthier equivalent! Check it out the original in all it's splendor here on her website:

www.nigella.com

I think I might spend some time making this and some of my other christmas specialities - such as:

Brown Bread Ice-Cream laced with Whiskey,
Whiskey Mac Cake,
Stained Glass Cookies,
and of course Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings well as close as I can get to an English Christmas Dinner with the trimmings in Korea where I will be over the Christmas Break visiting hubby who is working out there at present. So I am imaging there will have to be some compromises.

And of course there is always exploring Korean Cuisine to do...... Yum!

Leftover Turkey and Vegetable Korma

I love curry!!! Being English its completely wired into my psyche. I adore curry and Naan Bread and most of all Mango Chutney!!! Over the years I have realised that all the cream in my favourite creamy curries is not really good for me so I have found other ways of thickening them. This curry is by no means authentic but it works for me and it is also a lazy curry to make as really all I do is bung things in the oven!

Leftover Turkey and Vegetable Korma (Serves 4)

1-2 tbls Korma Curry Paste (use a good quality one) alter to your taste preferences.
1/2 a small butternut squash peeled and diced.
1 large red onion - finely siced
2 large sweet potatoes - peeled and diced
2 cups of left over turkey meat - diced.
3 cloves garlic
1 tin of low fat coconut milk


Heat up your oven to 180c / 350f / GM 4 and heat a roasting dish in the oven.

While the oven is heating up finely slice the onion and crush the garlic - empty into the hot pan along with the korma paste and pop back into the oven - stir well first. After about 6 minutes remove the pan and add the vegetables stir through well and return tot he oven for about 20 minutes. Add the turkey meat and the coconut milk and return to the over for a further 10 minutes.

As you stir the butternut and sweet potato will begin to disintegrate into the sauce thickening as is goes. If you wanted a more traditional curry house sauce feel you could get your stick whizzer out and whizz the vegetables a bit before you add the meat. I do it this way as I can remove some of the vegetable sauce before adding the meat and after I have stirred in the coconut milk for vegetarian visitors so everyone can enjoy the same meal but to thier own needs. This korma is mild enough for kids and newcomers to curry - my little one adores it and scoffs down little suspecting how much veg in hidden within, Roasting the vegetables makes them really sweet and delicious and is perfect in a curry!

Serve with brown rice cooked with a little turmeric in the water, Naan Bread and my favourite Mango Chutney!!