Low-carb January - 26 days in

Recipe of the week...
... Low-carb cluckin' curry
with cauliflower rice

Ingredients:

For the curry – 300g meat-free chicken-style pieces, a stalk of broccoli, 100g green beans, ½ an onion, ½ a red chili pepper, 1 small root of ginger, 1 tablespoon curry paste, 200ml coconut milk, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

For the cauliflower rice – 250g cauliflower, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

Serves: 2 big platefuls.

Time taken: Half an hour prep and then 20 mins to cook.

Hi readers,

How are you all today? It’s Fridayyyyyy! That’s right, as I write, it’s a bright Friday afternoon in January. We’re within two hours of the weekend and it CANNOT come quickly enough.

Tonight – exciting! – I’m going on an 80s night dressed as Madonna. Think: black dress, bold makeup, big jewellery, even bigger hair. So, once this post goes live on ChefBeHere, I’ll be turning the curlers on and finding out my funkiest eye shadows… bring on the 80s tunes!

How about you, readers? Do you have plans for your Friday night?? I hope there are tipples and tunes on the horizon – time to let your hair down!

As we edge towards the weekend, readers, I’m now 26 days into low-carb January with five more days to go. The end is in sight! I’m beginning to get a little excited – anticipating a major treat day on the 1^st Feb with pizza, cereal, bananas, peanut M&Ms, and all the orange juice I can drink. I may explode on the day but it’s going to be GOOD.

As well as anticipating the carbs in store next Thursday, I’m also looking forward to easing off with the rules around what I eat. Although I intend to keep going somewhat in February, with a lower-carb diet that I’ve held up until 2018, it’s going to be a relief to relax the rules and enjoy a more flexible, spontaneous way of eating.

Just last night – lying awake for around 3 hours from 4.30m, when my housemate’s Tinder date staggered into my room looking for the bathroom – I found myself unable to sleep and endlessly going over low-carb meal plans in my head. Thinking days in advance!

And, really, I’d like to go back to thinking about more interesting things. Like whether or not the guy was wearing any clothes or I’d briefly had a naked man in my room. I wonder that now. And I wonder how I possibly passed 3 hours planning 5 days’ worth of food… maybe I did fall asleep?

Anyway, regardless, I have a low-carb recipe to share with you, readers! This may be one of my last, as we’re nearing the end of January now, so I hope you’ll enjoy. This recipe is based on one from the Diet Doctor website (see here), for a low-carb chicken curry with cauliflower rice.

I decided to give this recipe a go as I’d never tried cauliflower rice before – shock, horror! – and was intrigued. Also, I really fancied something resembled a proper meal, rather than just serving up a selection of low-carb things on a plate. So, I adapted the ingredient quantities a little, and replaced the chicken with Quorn, and a new recipe was born!

Fancy giving it a go? Here’s the recipe in just ten simple steps…

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Recipe: Low-carb cluckin’ curry with cauliflower rice

Ingredients:

For the curry – 300g frozen meat-free chicken-style pieces, a stalk of broccoli, 100g green beans, ½ an onion, ½ a red chili pepper, 1 small root of ginger, 1 tablespoon curry paste, 200ml coconut milk, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

For the cauliflower rice – 250g cauliflower, a knob of butter, and salt and pepper

1.     Begin by getting all your ingredients out onto the side and pouring yourself a chilled drink. Stretch really tall, crack open a window, set some chilled music playing.

2.     Ready to go! To begin with, you need to do some veg prep. Chop the head of your broccoli into small florets (and save the stalk). Top and tail your green beans, then chop in half. Grate your cauliflower and the stalk of your broccoli.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Stick at it, readers. If – like me at the time of cooking – you’ve just done a body pump class and can barely feel your arms, I feel for you. Try using one arm to press the grater downwards into the chopping board, as the other arm grates, instead of your arms pushing towards each other. This helped me somewhat.

3.     Give your arms a rest now! Gently heat a knob of butter, in a wok or frying pan, then add your frozen chicken pieces and your broccoli.

4.     Leave these to heat through for 5 mins, stirring occasionally, while you – deseed and finely chop your half a chili, finely chop your half an onion, and grate then finely chop your small ginger root.

5.     Once your chicken pieces look as though they’ve thawed, add your green beans, chili, onion and ginger to the pan.

6.     Stir everything together and fry for 5 mins until your kitchen smells good and the onion in the pan is softening.

7.     Meanwhile, gently heat a knob of butter in a saucepan. Add your grated cauliflower and broccoli to the pan, and season to contents of both your frying pan and saucepan. Leave your cauliflower rice to fry for around 10 mins.

8.     Add your curry paste and coconut milk to the frying pan, stir everything together, and leave to simmer for around 10 mins. Both pans will need stirring occasionally.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Apply some common sense here – if you aren’t a fan of spicy foods just stick with a teaspoon of curry paste / or if you like your head blown off then go ahead and tip the whole jar in.

9.     Use your next ten minutes wisely. I’d set the table for dinner, find something good on the telly, and refresh your drink. Maybe heat dinner plates in the microwave, wipe round the kitchen, and make a start on your dishes.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Remember to keep an eye on your pans. Give them a stir every time you pass by – make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom or burning.

10.  Time to serve up your tea! Remove both pans from the heat, spoon cauliflower rice evenly between two dinner plates, and then ladle out the curry. By now your kitchen should smell fragrant and your food should be piping hot – tuck in!

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And that’s all there is to it, readers! What do you think? Would you give this recipe a try? I can promise you a colourful, flavoursome tea, with at least 3 of your 5-a-day in veg per serving. The recipe’s gluten-free and, if you switch the butter for vegetable oil and use Quorn vegan pieces, then it’s vegan too! Plus, you get a free workout grating all that cauliflower.

Am I selling it or am I selling it?? Honestly, readers, I enjoyed this recipe. I had fun in the kitchen and then tucked into a great tasting plateful of food. I was impressed with cauliflower rice – not the poor man’s substitute I’d been imagining! – and a tablespoon of curry paste is about as spicy as I can handle, so I did cry through my nose a little, but I wasn’t melting. Which is good.

Please let me know, readers, if you give this recipe a try – what do you think? Would you rate this, as curries go? How did you get on in the kitchen? Shout out with your feedback on the recipe – I’d love to hear!

And have a fantastic weekend, everyone.

Vogue safely,

Hayley

Congratulations & Curry

Chef’s Own Curry

 

Time taken: Half an hour

Ingredients: A carrot, a stick of celery, a handful of cherry tomatoes, some fresh basil leaves, a clove of garlic, a vegetable stock cube, oil, two tablespoons of curry paste and one of tomato puree. And a naan bread.

Hi readers,

Today you’re feeling… ? How does that sentence end? How are you really feeling? Think about it. Honestly, today I’m feeling doubtful. About everything. Life. I find that once you let one doubt in, they all hit you at once.

 

Should I spend more time working? Or less? Eat more? Or less? Sleep more? Or less? Talk more? Or less?? Should I have come to uni? What will I do after? Where is my life heading and where will I be in a year? Who will I be, what will I do, which city will I live in? Will it all be worth this?!

 

Me and many of my friends are going through a time of uncertainty. Worry. Stress. Pressure. Panic. Fear. Which, funnily enough not at ALL, is a subject I’m writing a 10,000-word dissertation on.

 

And some days it has you down. All of it does. There’s ALSO tons of really good things going on in my life too. But, you know, some days you let things get to you. Tomorrow will be better.

 

Things at home in Sheffield are very positive because my Brother Bear has been offered a wonderful opportunity! He’s going to start on a top notch, well paid, really competitive engineering apprenticeship in September!! It sounds like a REALLY solid scheme he’s earned himself a place on. Literally, everyone at home’s so proud of him. He went all the way to Nottingham for an interview, risked missing a Sheffield United game over it (!!!) and he aced it!

 

To me, my Brother Bear’s still about six year’s old with spiky hair, a Lightsaber and pockets full of Crazy Bones. And now he’s going to be a man with a van. What is life???

 

 

To celebrate his big news, everyone’s been out for a curry tonight at home. As is the tradition on such occasions. And so, following suit, I’ve made a curry here too! I’m joining them in spirit. And sending long distance high fives to my Bro!!

 

If you’ve occasion for a curry, he’s how to throw one together in ten easy steps…

1. Heat your oven to 200˚C.

2. Prep your ingredients! Chop your carrot and celery into small chunks. Cut your tomatoes in half. Very finely chop your garlic and then shred your basil leaves.

3. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add your garlic, carrot and celery.

4. Cook for a few minutes until your carrot is tender.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: Keep everything moving around the pan so that nothing has the time to burn!

5. Crumble your stock cube into the pan and add your curry paste, along with half a mug of water.

6. Stir it up! Then leave to simmer for ten minutes.

7. Meanwhile, flick either side of your naan bread with a little water and pop it into the oven to warm.

8. When the curry in your pan has thickened and doesn’t look watery, add your tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and basil leaves. Stir it up!

9. Flip your naan over in the oven so that its other side can warm.

ChefBeHere Top Tip: I would pop a plate in the oven with it to take the chill off the plate. You can't get in there though, no matter how chilly you are.

10. After a few minutes, take your plate out of the oven along with your naan bread. Cut the naan into quarters. Spoon your curry over the top and serve up!

Here’s my delicious curry from earlier tonight :)

 

It really isn’t a hard dish to make! You don’t need to travel to India or taken a course in spices. You don’t need to convert to Hinduism or seek approval in an ashram from a mystic guru, before you can have a try at one. Flippin’ eck. It’s just a curry. And, so I hear, this is actually a British dish the way we make it. It’s home grown. There’s no advanced culinary knowledge required. No exotic components. A curry is as simple to prepare, readers, as the plot of a Bollywood film.

 

Plus, you don’t need to make a vat of the stuff and then eat curry for the rest of 2015! A common misconception, that is. This recipe makes for ONE PORTION of very fiery, tomato-y curry. It’s extremely filling and tasty. Also, very healthy and nutritious. Without ANY expensive or hard-to-come-by ingredients. And you can switch up the ingredients all you like! Anything goes. Onion, mushroom, cauliflower, peas… loads of veg work in curry. You decide.

 

I enjoyed this tea far more than I expected to. So, I may not have been eating out at a restaurant at home with the Fam, that was true. And a shame. But this didn’t stop me from tucking into some decent grub, all the same. I don’t know if I’ve once before cooked curry without a jar of Lloyd Grossman’s to hand… until today. Now there’s no going back!

 

Readers, I urge you to make the move with me and give homemade curry a try. There’s nothing to stop you and nothing to lose! And you just might really like this. Don’t doubt it. And don’t doubt yourself.

Spice safely,

Hayley