Some Of My Favourite Green Smoothies

I may be a morning person, therefore getting to work for 5.30am is no problem but I’m not good at eating breakfast that early. So in recent months I have turned to smoothies to get me through the morning till the tummy starts to rumbly. It’s become a bit of a daily ritual and I have been experimenting with seasonal produce lately. I try to use local and fresh as much as possible but have relented for bananas and pineapple which aren’t readily grown here.  I have listed below three smoothies I am enjoying at the moment. All quantities are for one serve, so increase as required. If your blender can’t handle adding ice you can always add it to the glass afterwards to chill the drink. We have a lot of stone fruit about so keep checking into my Facebook account where I post daily smoothies more often.

This is also my entry for Sweet New Zealand, not a cake or pudding but they are certainly sweet! The months event is being hosted by Alessandra. For those Kiwi bloggers who have not yet entered you still have a chance to do so by the 27th. There’s also a chance to win some Fresh As products!

Tropical Green 

1/4 pineapple (peeled), 1/4 wedge of lemon (I use the skin also), handful baby spinach or kale leaves, sprig of fresh mint leaves, 1 cup of coconut water (buy a brand without added sugar if you aren’t using fresh), a few cubes of ice optional.  For a thicker creamy smoothie add 1/4 fresh avocado flesh.

Whizz everything together in a blender.

The Royal Cucumber and Mint

3 inch piece of telegraph cucumber (for overseas visitors these are the softer skinned cucumbers), sprig of mint, 1/2 a sweet red apple, handful spinach, 1/4 avocado flesh, 1 cup of coconut water, 1/4 wedge of lemon, a few cubes of ice.

Whizz everything together in a blender.

Chocolate Doris

4 black Doris plums, 1 small banana, 1 Tbsp cacao powder, 1 Tbsp sunflower seeds, 1 cup of milk or almond milk. If you need it a little sweeter add some honey or blend two to three dates with it.

Whizz everything together in a blender.

The Smallest Chicken Egg & A Herby Omelet

This week one of our new chickens laid the smallest chicken egg I have ever seen, well we think it is one of the new chickens. Above is a comparison with one of their regular eggs. If it keeps on laying them that small I might be able to sell them as gourmet eggs to restaurants but it’s likely it is because it is her first egg. Does anyone know? All of our chickens are hulking great Orpingtons but we do have one little chicken who looks a bit like a Bantam but she hasn’t laid since we adopted her and we think she is rather old anyway. It’s nice that our chickens are now laying, having adopted older abandoned chickens we were beginning to think we had acquired new pets and the most expensive free range eggs around with two a week from five hens. Not that we minded, they are very entertaining to watch, very sociable and keep the weeds in the garden down. Below is Beryl, not the best pic of her but at least you can see how big she is and she isn’t even the largest of them.

 What better way to enjoy fresh eggs, a nice simple omelet with lots of herbs and some sheep feta. Use any herbs you prefer but lots of them, I used parsley and mint from the garden and coriander but basil would also be good. Then add your favourite cheese, I chose a sharp sheep feta.

Ingredients for one omelet

2 free range eggs

large handful of chopped mixed herbs

a handful of your favourite cheese (I used sheep feta)

Method

Whisk two eggs in a bowl and add the herbs. I did not add any salt since my feta would be adding enough salt but you go with your own preference.

Place a small cast iron or non stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a glug of oil. Let the pan get hot so it sizzles when you put the beaten eggs in, helps to prevent sticking.

Add the herby eggs and cook for a minute or until brown underneath.

Add the cheese and fold one half over.

Turn heat down to low and cook until the centre cooks through, although I like mine a little soft still.

Serve straight in the pan and enjoy!

Sweet Corn, Pea & Halloumi Herb Fritters

A nice easy brunch recipe that is quick to put together if you always have corn in the cupboard or peas in the freezer like we do. The key to this recipe is to use lots of herbs, so where I note a large handful I mean LARGE, not a few leaves. Think Jamie Oliver, wildly tearing heads of herbs off their stalks and using the lot, no point saving the rest for a rainy day, chances are they will wilt away in the fridge. Unless of course you have your own garden supply, mine has dwindled with our new resident hens who have got into my herb garden and made it into a dust bath. The fencing will go up this weekend to keep them out and new herbs will be planted. Speaking of our hens, when we adopted them one of the hens, Beryl, had a baby chick which we were excited about the prospect of more eggs once it grew up. Well the chick has become a teenage, it’s a bit like the ugly duckling story because our cute baby chick is starting to resemble a Pea Hen (hopefully not Peacock) and not a egg laying chicken! They say hens will adopt any eggs or chicks if they are broody and it appears that is what Beryl has done. Below is a picture of ‘Pea’ very timid and hiding under our deck.

Makes approx 16 small fritters
Ingredients
4 large free range eggs (or 5 small)
200g garden peas (frozen is fine)
400g tin of creamed corn
Large handful of fresh parsley, mint and coriander, finely chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
2 Tbsp plain flour
200g halloumi, diced small
Salt & Pepper to season
Vegetable oil for frying
Method
In a large bowl whisk together the eggs.
Add the frozen peas (they will defrost quickly), tinned corn, herbs & lemon zest to the whisked eggs.
Sift the flour over the vegetable & herb mix in the bowl and stir through until combined.
Add the diced Halloumi and stir through again. We add the halloumi last so it doesn’t break up.
Season with salt & pepper, the mixture should be fairly thick at this stage, if not add another tablespoon of flour..
In a large frying pan over a medium heat add  2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Spoon a tablespoon of mixture into the pan to make each fritter, add another three making sure fritters have enough space to flip them over.
Cook fritter for approximately 2 minutes until golden brown then flip over with a spatula.
Cook second side for the same length of time.
Remove fritters from the pan and place on a tray covered with kitchen roll to soak an excess fat.
Add a little more oil to the frying pan and cook more fritters, repeat process till all mixture is cooked.

Breakfast of Tomato Kasundi, Aubergine & Poached Eggs

We received a huge box of fruit and veg for Christmas from one of Hubby’s clients, most of which we managed to eat except for the tomatoes. The only reason we didn’t get through all the tomatoes was because I had been gifted extra tomatoes by a friend a few days early. Kasundi was the solution before the fruit went past it’s best. Kasundi is an Indian tomato relish/chutney which is fragrant and spicy but you can moderate the heat if you make your own. I prefer a spicy hot kasundi and can eat it with anything and as you can see I have no problem with spicy food for breakfast either, they say it kick starts the metabolism.

There are tons of tomato kasundi recipes on the internet, I’m not ‘reinventing the wheel’ here so I will just direct you to the one I used from Taste.com.au  with a few tweaks. Here they used tinned tomatoes whereas I used 6 large fresh beef tomatoes which would have been the equivalent of 800g tinned. I didn’t cook my tomatoes for the length of time stated in their recipe either, I only cooked it for 40 minutes. By this time most of the liquid had evaporated. Tinned have a lot more liquid hence needing a longer cooking time. I divided the kasundi between 3 x 200g sterilised jars. You can use it straight away or keep it for ages in the sealed jars. You can use kasundi as a relish on burgers, as a chutney with papadums and I think it would also go really well with grilled or BBQ fish.

So once you have your kasundi you can start creating new dishes…..

To make the breakfast dish, I cut a rather large aubergine/egg plant into 8 wedges lengthways. Added 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a large frying pan and fried the aubergine over a medium heat on both sides until brown. Approx 3 minutes a side. Then add 1/3 of the kasundi ( 1 jar) to the frying pan, lowered the heat and simmered for 15 minutes. Poach some eggs to go with it. This will serve 2-3 people as a main dish. Serve the poached eggs on top of the kasundi and add some fresh coriander. Enjoy the spicy kick for breakfast!