What is Taste of the Past?

Taste of the Past is where I share my love of traditional cookery. Recipes from the days before TV dinners and microwaves right down the ages to the earliest cook books that I can get my hands on. I hope you enjoy my experiments as much as I do. Please share your own ideas, efforts and feedback in the comments.

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Cauliflower Rice

Hello,
This week I am having a try at low carb food.  (anyone who saw me eating cake lat night was imagining things :-)).  It isn't easy to reduce the amount of carbs in your life, or at least it certainly isn't cheap.

First of all, by carbs I mean the easily digested stuff that basically turns into sugar the nanosecond it hits your system.  White bread, white rice, white pasta, instant style oats, the highly processed stuff.  The carbohydrate in whole grains, seeds and nuts is all fine as the stuff you get in vegetables and most fruit.

That said there is a hierarchy of veg and fruit as well, some contains more sugar than others but at the moment, as I sit here craving a  slice of toast and marmalade like my life depends upon it I am not going to get hung up about the relative health levels of vegetables.  All veg is good, compared to a chip butty, it is all virtuous and brilliant, let us not split hairs.

Today's recipe is cauliflower rice with "stuff".  I had tried cauliflower rice before and had been unimpressed by the soggy yuckiness of it all.  This recipe is a mix of several I have found plus some of my own tweaking.  I promise lots of flavour and not a soggy spoon of veg in sight.


Ingredients

1 large cauliflower
1 - 2 (or even 3 onions)
some vegetables - I used a handful of green beans and a couple of carrots cut quite small.
1 tablespoon olive oil
spices to taste

I used Ras Al Hanout from Tesco which was lovely.  I think it would work really well with just about of your favourite flavours.

Method

Cut the cauliflower up into quite small chunks and use a food processor to turn them into "rice."
Spread on a baking sheet with plenty of space, a deep edge would be good.
Chop and fry the onion.
Depending on your spice you might want to add it now.  Most spices taste better cooked.  The ras-al-hanout was better sprinkled over at the end.
Add the other veg, cover the pan and gently saute.
Turn on oven to 180.
When veg are nearly cooked add htem to the cauliflower.  Stir well with a fork to get the rice nicely coated in the oil and spices.
Bake in the oven, uncovered for 15 minutes.  Check after ten, you might will probably want to stir it around so it cooks evenly.

I sprinkled the spice on when it came out of the oven.
Enjoy

Monday 16 January 2017

Coconut and Cherry Chewy Bites


These little treats are chewy, sweet and easy to make.  They are also made without flour so are gluten free.



Ingredients

2 eggs, well beaten
4 oz desiccated coconut
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz glace cherries, chopped small

Method

Chop the cherries, beat the eggs and mix all 4 ingredients together.
Oil a baking sheet
Use two large teaspoons to make neat dollops of mixture on the tray.  This mix is wet and sticky but does hold its shape well when baked.
Bake at 180 degrees C of 15 minutes.
Allow to cool slightly before moving onto a cooling rack.  This gives them time to firm up a little, if moved while hot they are more likely to break.