Lemongrass - Basil Sherbet

I wish I was one of those women who lie, swathed in their own rose-water scented mists (they never really sweat) on a steamy day, barely upsetting the dew on their cool glasses of lemon soda as they sip, and weakly proclaim, ‘It’s too hot to eat, I have no appetite.’ As luck would have it, not I, nor any one I’m related to by blood or water, have been blessed with such a delicate constitution. You know that thing they say, ‘if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen’ – well, not for us.

Someone is always hungry and so must be fed. But mountains of prep, minutes of ‘bagaaring’ and slashes of spicy can be daunting if you’re the designated domestic dinner-lady. Through trial and error, we’ve found whether it is to entice the languid, heat-allergic to the table or nourish the big-eaters, foods that can be labeled ‘modern eating’ or urban, ‘continental’-inspired work well. The trick to surviving a summer in the kitchen is to limit the time spent with the fires burning, keep the food easy on the eye and on the tummy and of course, always have some lemony sodas at hand.

Lemongrass-Basil Sherbet 

Boil up 1.5 litres of water, 500 gms of sugar, a big handful of lemongrass (actually you really need a lot of lemongrass... even two big handfuls) and the juice and zest of 15/20 lemons. Depends on how tart they are and how juicy and how flavourful. I think this is one of those recipes that you just keep adding/adjusting as you go along. 

Simmer until the water has reduced by half. Now throw in about 100 gms of hand-crushed basil and turn the heat off after 5 minutes. Into the warm mixture, stir in the juice of the zested lemons and some crushed fresh mint. Let it cool naturally. Then strain and keep your concentrate in the fridge to add to plain soda, cold water or poured into crushed ice for a delicious, light insta-sorbet.

The Omelette that wanted to be Lunch

This is one of those ‘make do’ recipes that is fun, easy and a nice combination of naughty and nice ingredients. Though it started life as a luxury omelette stuffing, it’s great folded into left-over rice or freshly boiled pasta for a lunch-box. What I like best about this recipe is that you can tweak it to include whatever you have in the fridge.

Ingredients

Button mushrooms (about 2 per person, washed, chopped and fried)

Red pepper (or green or a de-seeded tomato – about 1 finely chopped teaspoon per person)

1 finely chopped garlic clove (or 2… not more)

Black olives (2/3 per person)

Cooked chicken sausage (or shredded roast chicken or bacon or vegan ‘chicken’ or salami – 1 tbsp chopped per person)

Herbs – 1/2 tsp per person – combinations of parsley, thyme, basil and oregano work best – dried herbs will also do or add some of that oregano based seasoning you saved from last night’s pizza delivery.

Salt to season

Optional ingredients for the lunch option:

Chopped zucchini sautéed, steamed corn niblets, steamed broccoli

Method:

For the omelette, combine all the ingredients and an egg or two per head (depending on how hungry the breakfasters are) and beat it briskly to aerate the mixture until a light foam of small bubbles forms on top. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick pan until it is quite hot but far from smoking. Ideally, when you pour in the omelette mix, on contact with the oil it should form a ‘layer’ at the bottom which is when you lower the flame to medium. When the edges of the omelette start fluffing up, give the pan a gentle shake to loosen the omelette. Patience.  If you’re too nervous about flipping the whole omelette at one go, you can fold over… or cut the omelettte in the pan with your spatula and flip one quarter or half over at ta time. Season with pepper and eat with freshly toasted multi-grain bread.

For the Lunch-box

This can’t be simpler.  In olive oil, sautee a clove of garlic, toss the rest of the ingredients in along with the herbs and then fold in yesterday’s left over rice or freshly boiled pasta.  

Land of the Rising Sun

Main Ingredients:

200 gms crunchy green veggies (either snow peas, French beans sliced diagonally, bok choi, anything that retains its snap even with a flash steaming)

2 orange carrots (sliver them with a peeler to get gorgeous orange ribbons)

4/5 cobs of baby corn or half a cup of corn niblets

½ cup of home-toasted peanuts

½ cup of chopped tofu (silken if you like, but check if you can get a locally made, more rustic version with a lot of bite to it)

Optional: Oyster mushrooms (re-hydrated), seaweed, sprouts, steamed edamame, steamed chicken quickly stir-fried in light soy sauce, ginger-garlic paste and a sprinkling of sugar.   

Transformer Ingredients:

Soy & sesame dressing – 2 tsp light soy sauce, 3 tablespoons tahini or ground sesame seeds, sesame oil to emulsify the dressing (less if using tahini). Optional: ½ tsp of wasabi

Red or white miso Paste – 1 tbsp. Chopped spring onion. Udon, soba or a handful of glass noodles (optional)  

A sachet of ‘Slim a Soup’

Method:

Boil corn until tender. Put raw green veggies into a bowl and pour the water you boiled your corn in over it. Let it stand for about 4 minutes until crisp but cooked through. Drain through a sieve.

Miso Soup: For a delicious breakfast endorsed by the power-mummy likes of Madonna, mix your miso paste into hot (but not boiling water), season with a little soy sauce and pour the miso soup over the combined main ingredients for a nutritious, umami-fragrant start to the day. (Ladies, it’s also very filling and slimming.)

Soy and Sesame Steamed Veg: Toss main ingredients in the soy and sesame dressing for breakfast. You can stir this into noodles and pack this as lunch.

‘Slim a Soup’ with benefits – easiest. Pack the main ingredients in one box and the sachet of soup. At lunch, ask for a big bowl and a mug of boiling water. Empty the dry contents of the packet of soup, then upturn your main ingredients over, slowly pour the hot water and stir gently for about 1 minute. Now try not to look self-righteous as you slowly enjoy your super-healthy, low-fat, high-power lunch.

Breakfasts that turn into Lunch

There is very little mummies (and an increasing tribe of cool kitchen-savvy daddies) dread more than waking up on a school day and wondering what to put in junior/juniorette’s lunch-box. Working girls and boys don’t usually think about lunch until 12:45 when the next cubicle passes you the same three worn out menus. Then you order in a less than balanced meal of same-old-same-old, suffer a hazy, post-lunch slump that usually results in a snacky (insert deep fried item of your region here) 4 o’clock guilt trip.  

Putting together a meal of dal, sabzi, roti and rice is eye-pokingly industrious for the early morning and it’s likely to turn into a congealed, overcooked-in-its-own-heat, slumpy mass by the time you take it out of the box at least 4.5 hours after it was packed. And everyone now knows that most of those old fashioned wonders, the thermos lunch boxes that ‘keep the food hot’ actually kill nutrition, keep temperatures ideal for bacteria to flourish and make food taste yucky.

But, with a little imagination and some prepping the night before you can toss up a healthy, colourful, crunchy fresh breakfast that will reinvent itself as a power-lunch with as little effort as a cup of hot water. Alternatively, you can take the same basic ingredients, use them one way for the kids and another way for you at the office. So here’re two of our favourite ‘Transformer’ breakfast-brunch-lunches that will leave you bright-eyed and bushy tailed well past everyone else’s 4 p.m. high glycaemic calorie-count-collapse.

Devilled Eggs With Salade Nicoise

Ingredients:

6 boiled eggs

100 gms canned tuna

½ cup of chopped black olives

½ onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 large de-seeded tomato chopped

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

juice of 2 lemons

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Anchovies (optional)

1 tsp capers (optional)

Bunch of fresh parsley

Large basil or rocket or butter lettuce leaves for garnish

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

Devilled eggs are a traditional Easter brunch staple. The word ‘devil’ usually referred to making something quite spicy with mustard or chili flakes or pepper and traditional devilled are made by mashing up the yolks with herbs like dill and garlic and mayonnaise and cream which is quite evil in itself. Nicoise salad features the boiled egg and here, we skip on the steamed French beans and potatoes (though you can still serve those on the side).

Cut each boiled egg in half, longitudinally with a non-serrated knife. Gently scoop out the yolks (Reserve the whites and the salad leaves) and combine them with the rest of the salad ingredients. Mix it all well and adjust seasoning. Capers are seasoning too. Now carefully place one or two small salad leaves in each egg-white-cup and then pile a teaspoon of salad on top. Fingers actually work with more precision here than cutlery. Serve on a bed of lettuce with steamed beans and potatoes and offer chili flakes or Tabasco sauce to give your devilled eggs some fire.

Dean and DeLuca’s Caramelized Walnut ‘Croutons’

Boil 200 gms of whole walnuts for 5 minutes. (Actually, boil more, they’re addictive even on their own.) Dry them properly. Mix ½ cup of icing sugar and several grinds of black pepper, don’t be shy, go on, more pepper! Coat the walnuts properly in the sugar/pepper mix. Now, drop them, about a handful at a time in hot but not smoking oil. Watch them like a hawk from batch 2 onwards, they brown, then burn at warp speed. Cool. Slap the hands that come to steal these crunchy, peppery, sweet things. 

Smoked Chicken Salad Somewhat Caesar Style

Salad Ingredients

1 smoked chicken (or a pre-roasted chicken) A mix of lettuces (iceberg, romaine, purple, curly endive – try and get at least 2 kinds. Remember, iceberg has the least personality though & rocket or arugula have the most!)

About 2 bunches of fresh basil

1 cup of pitted black olives

2 red peppers (flame roasted, peeled by hand, don’t wash! You lose flavour. Chop into squares about of about 2 cms)

Crunchy Walnut Croutons (Dean & DeLuca Style)

Dressing Ingredients:

Garlic  - 3 cloves

Big bunch of parsley

Mustard powder (or a good quality whole grain mustard preparation)

Juice of 2 lemons

Salt to taste

2/3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Once you’ve put all the dressing ingredients into a bottle and given it a good shake and combined your salad ingredients into a bowl, there’s not much to do except dress the salad, fold in your beautiful caramelized walnuts and toss it all together gently with your hands. Taste for salt and you’re good to go.

If you’re a star at carving chickens and you don’t have too many people coming to lunch, then there is the option of plating the salad in individual plates, the chicken sliced and interspersed with the colours and textures of the sweet spicy basil and rocket, sweet red peppers, pert black olives and crunchy walnuts.