Seasonal food in January

UK edition

Keeping up with the seasons can be time consuming, but it really is great for the environment and the best way to enjoy the most delicious (and cheapest) produce all year round.

This downloadable PNG is perfect as a quick guide, just print it out and pin it on your wall.

Follow the link to download https://rapidshare.com/files/832682521/produceinjan.png

January is a good season for root vegetables and greens with much of our exotic fruit being imported from the Tropics.

Stars of January

Veg

Beetroot, Brussels Sprouts, Celeriac, Chicory, Endive, Jerusalem Artichoke, Kale, Leeks, Potatoes, Shallots

Fruit

Bananas, Clementines, Kiwi, Lemons, Mango, Oranges, Passion fruit, Pineapple, Pomegranate, Satsumas, Tangerines

Good in January

Veg

Brocolli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chives, Curly parsley, Mushrooms, Onions, Parsnips, Sprouting Broccoli, Swede

Fruit

Blood oranges, Cranberries, Limes, Pears

Hearty Carrot and coriander soup with creme fraiche

Healthy hearty carrot and coriander soup to help you stick to your new years resolutions.

Feel free to add any leftover veg you have around. This soup can be eaten as a main meal with some crusty buttery bread on the side.

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced
500g carrots, sliced
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 litre of stock, 2 stock cubes (chicken or vegetable)

To serve
Seasoning
Fresh chopped coriander
1 tablespoons creme fraiche
Crusty buttered bread

Process or finely slice your onion and carrots and put 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a deep pan. Heat on medium and put your vegetables in the pan, stir with a wooden spoon and turn the heat down to very low. Half cover your pan with a lid and allow the vegetables to sweat for about 15 minutes, checking frequently.

Add one teaspoon of ground cumin and one teaspoon of ground coriander to your vegetables and mix well. Turn the heat up to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, whilst boiling a kettle.

Make about a litre of stock with 2 stock cubes, chicken or vegetable is probably best. Bring to the boil and turn down to a low simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes until all vegetables are soft.

Turn off heat and add a handful of fresh coriander. Allow to cool and blend up.

Heat back up and pour into bowls. Add 1-2 tablespoons of creme fraiche to each bowl and swirl into the soup. Season and butter some crusty bread. Enjoy.

Adapted from page 53 in the March 2011 edition of Delicious Magazine.

Green tea

Although not for everyone, Green tea has become a firm favourite now for many in the west.

It is an acquired taste but I find the reason for many people’s dislike is actually in incorrectly brewing it like normal English tea. If brewed properly with a quality asian tea, it becomes both light and refreshing.

When I can, I try to get to my local japanese store to buy my sencha. It is quite unlike anything you can usually buy in a supermarket, with a much more delicate fresh flavour. In fact, I disliked green tea until I tasted a cup of mild sencha.

A big trick is to not use boiling water for making this tea. Doing this encourages that horrid bitter flavour to come through and will completely ruin your tea. Allow the kettle to rest for a few moments after boiling and then brew your tea for about 2 minutes.

One of the greatest benefits to this tea is its apparent ability to speed up your metabolism and help with carbohydrate digestion. I find it wakes me up more then coffee, and fills me with energy. My appetite is greatly diminished and it can also cause me to start sweating, so the proof is in the pudding for me.

Another warning, do not drink this in the evening unless you plan on staying awake. Unlike many things that claim to encourage weight loss, I have found green tea to actually work.

Quick meatballs and spaghetti with cheats tomato sauce

Who doesn't like meatballs and spaghetti? Tasty and cheap, you can get the whole family involved in hand mashing and rolling up these together.

This is an incredibly simple dish that takes about half an hour to prepare with minimum fuss and clean up.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Meatballs 
500g minced beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 egg
40g (1/4 cup) grated parmesan
4 plain crackers crushed, or about 40g breadcrumbs
1 tsp dijon mustard
Handful of chopped parsley

Tomato sauce 
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 tins of chopped or plum tomatoes
1 and 1/2 tablespoon caster sugar
A small handful of chopped basil or parsley (or both, yum) 

Spaghetti to serve


For a much more time intensive but delicious sauce, try out this recipe for a real tomato sauce. It takes a day to prepare, but is incomparable with a bog standard tomato sauce and lifts the whole dish up.

Directions 

For the meatballs

Preheat oven to 180C.

If you have a food processor, use it to chop up your onion and tip into a large bowl. Then blitz up in your crackers as finely as possible (or just use breadcrumbs.)

If not, dice up a medium onion finely. Put your crackers into a plastic sandwich bag and crush up well with a rolling pin. Put it all together in a large bowl.

To your crackers and onions, add 500g of minced beef, one egg and a handful of chopped fresh parsley.

Grate 40g of parmesan and add to the bowl with one teaspoon of mustard. I used dijon, but I know English mustard would be just as tasty. Get your hands right in there and mash it all up well.

Lightly oil a baking tray. Roll up into golf ball size balls and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes, checking regularly to make sure they are not burning.

For the sauce 


Finely slice or chop two cloves of garlic and fill a deep pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Turn the heat to medium until the oil is nice an hot. Open the tins of tomatoes. Put your garlic into the hot pan and cook for less then a minute. Watch it and put your tomatoes in as soon as the garlic starts to turn very lightly golden. Watch out, garlic burns quickly!

Throw in 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of caster sugar, mix and slowly bring to the boil.

Turn down heat to a low low simmer and cook the sauce until the meatballs are done, stirring the sauce regularly and turning down if needed.

When your meatballs are nearly done, add some spaghetti to a pan of boiling water for about 12 minutes, drain and rinse with boiled water and plate up into bowls.

Add a handful of chopped parsley or basil to your tomato sauce and stir in well. Season to taste.

Pour a little tomato sauce over each portion of spaghetti and place about 5-6 meatballs on top of each.