Tasty, healthy recipes!

[gruntygiggles]

Hiya guys and gals. As some of you will know, I love to cook and experiment and have been concentrating on asian foods this last week.
I've always loved Spring rolls, but hate ordering them because when you buy them, they are always too oily and lots of take aways and restaurants use MSG.

Anyway, Below is a recipe that I made for a spring roll filling that I've adapted ( as I had loads leftover in the fridge) and I've just tried it and it's gorgeous. It's what Stretchie is having for dinner tonight, so he can let you know later what it's like.

1 packet bean sprouts
3 grated carrots
1-2 cloves chopped garlic (1 is mild, 2 is for garlic lovers)
1-2 square inches of fresh ginger sliced into really thin strips.
2 chicken breasts diced finely and fried off quickly

Put all the above ingredients in a bowl and add:-

2 tbsp Oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark or rich soy sauce
1 tsp sugar (whatever you have but soft light brown is best)
juice of half a lemon

Mix this all together and set aside. Heat a good few inches of vegetable oil in a wok or deep frying pan on almost top temperature.

In a seperate bowl, add plain flour (a cup full), a pinch of salt, tsp sugar, a good grinding of black pepper and a tsp baking powder. Whisk water (sparkling if you have it) into the flour mixture and keep adding water until you have a heavy batter that slowly drops off the whisk when you lift it out. It should not run off, but it shouldn't stay in the whisk either.

When the oil is smoking a little, add the filling mixture to the batter until you have enough that the batter coats it all well, but is not too loose.

Use a dessert spoon and get a spoonful of the mixture and drop it in a ball into the oil. Do about 4-5 of these at a time, keep them moving and turning and when they're a nice golden brown, take them out and sit them on kitchen paper to drain.

I serve things like this with a chilli dipping sauce (making my own tonight) and a soy and spring onion dipping sauce.

If any of you try this, let me know what you think and if you want any more recipes. From scratch, this takes about 20 mins. If you already have the filling in the fridge, it literally takes 5 mins for the oil to heat while you make the batter and mix it in.

Really crispy and light, really tasty and not in the slightest bit greasy or oily depsite being deep fried. I actually don;t understand how they can be like that after I've now done my own spring rolls and this recipe.

I think I'll call them, Cheryl's Crispy Asian Balls.........runs and hides!!!

[carty]

They sound really nice but not all that healthy to be honest! Healthy version just stir fry (dry fry or fry light) the filling and serve with some brown rice :)

[gruntygiggles]

They sound really nice but not all that healthy to be honest! Healthy version just stir fry (dry fry or fry light) the filling and serve with some brown rice :)

Depends what kind of healthy you want. If the reason you find them not to be healthy is the batter and deep frying, the batter is a very little coating and the deep frying is not in itself an unhealthy way to cook food if you do it properly.

Asian countries have some of the lowest rates of heart disease, obesity and food related health problems in the world.......despite most of the cooking methods involving deep frying and the use of fats.

I know how to make things fat free and completely healthy, having the filling just cold as a salad is lovely and Stretchie and have done that a few times now, but these are lovely and not at all greasy or oily.

I guess I fall into the category of, I like healthy food, but I'm not anal about it......it's all about moderation.

Sorry......to clarify so it doesn't sound like I'm attacking you for pointing out what you did.........I lost over 3 and a half stone a few years back. Every time I tried doing it by eating steamed fish, brown rice, wholewheat pasta etc, I failed miserably because I craved normal food. Not only did I fail miserably, but I was miserable too.

For this meal tonight, I have some Pak Choi and jasmine rice and we'll have these balls with a little bit of pork and bean sprout stir fry on the side. Trust me, none of it is greasy or horrible....Stretchie normally won't eat stir frys because he doesn't like the oil, but he loves mine. I probably use less than a teaspoon of oil for enough to feed 4.

[Old Git]

Sounded good to me, try this one if u like pasta, quick & sooo easy


Boiling pan of water, add pasta, spagetti or tagiatelli, to be ready in 10 mins
onion, finely chopped - fry gently until golden brown with a little crushed garlic & push to one side of the pan.
Fine cut / chop 3 or 4 rashers your fav bacon & fry for about 1 min.
Add around 1/4 cup cream + 1/4 cup milk, stir all together.
turn up the heat a bit until it is gentle bubble, add cheese of your liking to taste, plus salt & pepper.
Now beat 3 eggs in a bowl.

Pasta is cooked, drain & put back into hot pan, pour over cheese,bacon & cream mix, quick stir, another quick beat of the eggs, pour over pasta mixture & mix round & round in the hot pasta.

Eggs get cooked by the heat in the pasta & pan, combine with the cheese sause & hey presto dinner is served.

Did this last night for the two lads, they ate the lot, think I got one fork full!
Is back on the menu for friday before beers by popular request.
Give it a try.:smt036

[gruntygiggles]

Sounded good to me, try this one if u like pasta, quick & sooo easy


Boiling pan of water, add pasta, spagetti or tagiatelli, to be ready in 10 mins
onion, finely chopped - fry gently until golden brown with a little crushed garlic & push to one side of the pan.
Fine cut / chop 3 or 4 rashers your fav bacon & fry for about 1 min.
Add around 1/4 cup cream + 1/4 cup milk, stir all together.
turn up the heat a bit until it is gentle bubble, add cheese of your liking to taste, plus salt & pepper.
Now beat 3 eggs in a bowl.

Pasta is cooked, drain & put back into hot pan, pour over cheese,bacon & cream mix, quick stir, another quick beat of the eggs, pour over pasta mixture & mix round & round in the hot pasta.

Eggs get cooked by the heat in the pasta & pan, combine with the cheese sause & hey presto dinner is served.

Did this last night for the two lads, they ate the lot, think I got one fork full!
Is back on the menu for friday before beers by popular request.
Give it a try.:smt036

That sounds great, I do a carbonara that is similar, but for that, I leave out the onion, just finely slice garlic, a couple of chopped bacon medalions (less fat) and when the pasta is done, I throw the pasta in the pan with the just cooked bacon, add the garlic now so it doesn't go bitter, take it off the heat, season well and then pour on two well whisked eggs, moving them around in the pasta (off the heat) adding a little of the pasta cooking water (this makes it creamy). Finally a little grated parmesan as it's better than a lot of grated cheddar and hey presto!

It's actually a classic carbonara as cream is not used in carbonara traditionally as the egg and pasta water create the creaminess.

Sounds like you make a mean bowl of pasta though and I bet your mates will be back for more!

[Sally]

I live on chippers, alcohol and Burger king.
Thats an honest comment.. :)

[Old Git]

Mates!!!!!..... well I hope so, two sons, 19 & nearly 18 both from birth only ever fed home cooked food, so er.... you could say not small, no.2 son is all but 6' tall.

Another quick one, for desert, quick cheesecake.
Make bicuit base as usual, digestives, melted butter into small ramikins.
Take couple of tubs of Quark, really low fat, bit like cottage cheese but it ai'nt.
Mix quark with some icing sugar, lemon juice & lemon rind (unwaxed).
Wack mix into ramikins, into freezer for while to get part set/cold then enjoy.

Not proper cheesecake but a quick & low fat desert. About 20 mins to make, then just however long you leave it to set ( or not as in our case usually).;)

[Old Git]

Now you've got me going.

The best ever easy homeade icecream.

1 tin carnation evaporated milk(sweetened type)
1 large tub double cream

small qty of strawberries.

cut-up to 1/4s & gently heat the strawbs in some sugar, should make there own juice, give them a little press to get them going put on one side to cool.

Whip the cream until thick (but not into butter)
Whip the carnation milk until thick
mix together, mix in the strawbs & put into freezer.

Wait overnight, bring out about 1/2 hour before you want to serve, cause it will be like a rock otherwise, & serve.
Better than anything else youve tasted.:smt083

[shonadoll]

I live on chippers, alcohol and Burger king.
Thats an honest comment.. :)

But you are a young thing, and will get away with that! I just look at a chip and gain weight!

[Stu]

:(

Stretchie, you're a lucky man :smt088

[gruntygiggles]

Mates!!!!!..... well I hope so, two sons, 19 & nearly 18 both from birth only ever fed home cooked food, so er.... you could say not small, no.2 son is all but 6' tall.

Another quick one, for desert, quick cheesecake.
Make bicuit base as usual, digestives, melted butter into small ramikins.
Take couple of tubs of Quark, really low fat, bit like cottage cheese but it ai'nt.
Mix quark with some icing sugar, lemon juice & lemon rind (unwaxed).
Wack mix into ramikins, into freezer for while to get part set/cold then enjoy.

Not proper cheesecake but a quick & low fat desert. About 20 mins to make, then just however long you leave it to set ( or not as in our case usually).;)

Yep, my cheats cheesecake is very similar!! Sorry, when I was typing I thought you'd said mates not lads!!! Glad they enjoyed it!

[timwilky]

Rather than your batter mixture, I would be inclined to wrap filling in filo pastry, egg wash it and a quick hot shallow fry

[gruntygiggles]

Rather than your batter mixture, I would be inclined to wrap filling in filo pastry, egg wash it and a quick hot shallow fry

Did that a few days ago...used wonton wrappers and they were gorgeous. This was just a recipe to use up the leftover filling.

Edit: and using wonton wrappers, just a little cornflour and water mixed up and a dap put on the closing corner acts like a glue to keep it together and no need for mesy egg wash!

[carty]

GG, as I say, they sound really nice; and I'll certainly give them a try, it just wouldn't have been first on my list of 'healthy' recipes :)

Deep frying anything, whilst not necessarily being as bad for you as it sounds, is never the healthiest way of cooking something, it's a compromise to get the 'tasty' part of the meal in if you can't bear all your food steamed (I couldn't) :)

Re: the Asian food habits you mention, the reason they have (although it's changing) low rates of obesity, heart disease etc is because typically they hardly eat any meat, hardly drink alcohol and their puddings generally consist of rice rather than sticky toffee pudding ;) they also drink relatively little alcohol and hardly eat processed food. They still have a family member stay at home cooking fresh food all day. All this is changing with our terrible Western influences though.

Anyway, the recipe looks very nice and I'll post up some of my healthy favourites wheni get round to it :)

[gruntygiggles]

GG, as I say, they sound really nice; and I'll certainly give them a try, it just wouldn't have been first on my list of 'healthy' recipes :)

Deep frying anything, whilst not necessarily being as bad for you as it sounds, is never the healthiest way of cooking something, it's a compromise to get the 'tasty' part of the meal in if you can't bear all your food steamed (I couldn't) :)

Re: the Asian food habits you mention, the reason they have (although it's changing) low rates of obesity, heart disease etc is because typically they hardly eat any meat, hardly drink alcohol and their puddings generally consist of rice rather than sticky toffee pudding ;) they also drink relatively little alcohol and hardly eat processed food. They still have a family member stay at home cooking fresh food all day. All this is changing with our terrible Western influences though.

Anyway, the recipe looks very nice and I'll post up some of my healthy favourites wheni get round to it :)


Yeah I know. If I want to be healthy I tend to do broths with fresh ginger, nam pla, steamed chicken and noodles and things like that.