Oven-Roasted Garlic

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Roast Garlic

You can taste garlic in almost all Korean dishes. We love garlic, ginger and chillies. Yes, it leaves you a bad breath after eating them or even next day, but it’s a tasty addition to other dishes and has many medical properties.

  • Strong immune system: fight against chest infection, coughs and congestion. Great for colds and flu.
  • Cardiovascular system: helps to lower LDL (bad cholesterol) and regulate blood pressure
  • Anti-inflammatory benefits
  • Packed with vitamins and nutrients: Vitamin A, B, B2 and C, calcium, zinc and many others
  • Cancer prevention
  • Control of diabetes: regulates blood sugar
  • Anti-bacterial and anti-viral benefits
  • Weight control

I bought a bunch of garlic from the local veggie market a couple of days ago. I use a garlic clove or two when I’m cooking, but there was no way I can finish 10 heads of garlic before it goes bad. So I decided to make some garlic pickles and roasted garlic. Peeling off these little guys can be tricky. Let me tell you I feel like I can still smell them in my fingers. An easy way is open up the cloves and put them in a bowl. Place the same size bowl on top to create a dome. Then vigorously shake them. Clean the peeled garlic in cold water with a squeeze of lemon.

To make garlic pickles, I peeled off about 5 heads of garlic. Rinse off any dirt or skin. Boil vinegar, water, peppercorns, bay leaves and dried chilli in a pot. Add garlic cloves into the pickling liquid for a few minutes. Then transfer to the steralised jar. Cool down and put it in the fridge. It should be ready to eat in a week or so.

Then I made oven-roasted garlic with the remaining. Simply cut the top of the cloves with a sharp knife, Drizzle a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil and add a sprig of rosemary. Put it in the preheated oven (180) for about 40-50 minutes until the cloves are soft and tender. It smells amazing while cooking in the oven and tastes so beautiful and sweet. It just melts in your mouth. You can easily mash with a fork. Spread on the slice of bread, add to the potato mash, hummus and soup, or  eat just by itself.

Because I usually put my lunch in a bowl and eat (less dishes!), I don’t normally decorate my lunch plate unlike dinner that is more a shared affair. But looking at beautiful roasted garlic out of the oven, I had to make myself a pretty looking lunch today.  A semi-boiled egg on the quinoa nest, braised leeks and zucchini, and of course garlic on the side! Yum yum yum..

Posted in: Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes

Why I burnt my arm today

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We haven’t been to many picnics this summer. Too many hot days with strong sun makes me stay in the house more with air-conditioning on. Totally opposite to other people who enjoy the sun and swim at the beach. I get sunburn pretty easily. Even walking around with sleeveless top during the day does enough for me. I remember when we did a walking tour for a few hours in Sydney, no matter how much I tried to hide from the sun and stayed in the shade, I got sunburn on my shoulders and neck. Ah so painful when you have a shower and put the clothes on >.<

Zebra cakeMy dear friend who has two little boys always takes them to either a swimming pool or the beach on the weekend so that kids can play in the water. Daniel and I decided to join them to Mettam’s pool beach tomorrow morning. I was thinking of making some snacks for the boys (always hard to come up with something for kids since they are fussy eaters). I’ve seen some photos of Zebra Cake on the internet before. I thought it would be perfect for them cause it looks fun as well as tastes good. Zebra patterns might look a little daunting and hard to make, but trust me, they are not at all.

Ingredients
100g Self-raising flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
50g brown sugar
1 table-spoon of coconut oil
150g milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of cacao powder

Firstly beat eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale in colour. Add milk and coconut oil and continue beating. Then add sifted flour, baking powder, vanilla extract into the mixture. The batter should be soft and runny otherwise add more milk or flour to get the right consistency. Divide the mixture to two portions. Add cacao powder to one portion. Now a fun bit starts! Put two table spoons of batter into the centre of the baking pan, alternating vanilla batter and cacao batter on top of each other. The batter will spread itself to the edge of the pan and create nice rings. Bake in the preheated oven (180) for 40-50 minutes.

Chocolate Beet Cake

Then my second baking started to make something for my morning/afternoon snack. My choice is GF Chocolate Beet Cake! There is no technique required in this cake. Just mix all ingredients and bake in the oven. I already finished a slice with a cup of tea – delicious!

Ingredients
1 cup grated beetroot
4 eggs
1/2 cup of maple syrup
100g coconut flour
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon of ginger powder
a teaspoon of vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Back to the title… I was busy baking all the cakes this morning. About an hour of baking I was taking the cake out of the oven for a final check. Yes, I was wearing a mitten but somehow I managed to burn my arm. Ouch! Quickly had some cold water running on my arm and put a papaw cream on, but it looks like I’m going to get blisters and probably a nice oven scar. Oh well, it’s not the first time. I think I need a bigger oven?! 🙂

Posted in: Baking, My recipes, Snack

Ginger Pomegranate Mint Tea

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Ginger Pomegranate M

I am not a juice person. I find it totally wasteful stripping off all that good source of fibre away and drinking a simple form of sugar. So when I hear people on a juice diet or a liquid diet, I feel sorry for them and really want to tell them “just have a piece of fruit or a bowl of salads instead!!!”. Sorry I’m skeptical about it. Although I’m not a fan of juices, I crave for cool refreshing drinks in hot summer days. I do mix and experiment different ingredients to make summer beverages and this is by far one of the best. I think it would be nice having it warm in winter as well. Since I don’t measure things, you can adjust the strength of the tea and how sweet you want in your drink.

Ingredients
50 ml of ginger tonic (you can get it from local health shops. Alternatively, you can use a ginger beer or even freshly grated ginger)
a teaspoon of pomegranate molasses (add more if you want it sweet)
a cup of brewed and chilled green tea
mint leaves (when I buy a bag of mint leaves and don’t use them all for cooking, I blend it with water, lemon juice and rose water, and then freeze in an ice-cube tray. Easy to grab and use when needed)
a splash of rose water (optional, but I think a hint of rose water makes it more fragrant and yummy)
ice and fresh pomegranates for garnish

It is so simple right? It is so rehydrating and tastes heaps better than those sweet fruit juices x

Posted in: Drinks, My recipes

Post-Workout Meals

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My hubby does Taekwondo training (Korean martial arts) twice a week and plays squash once a week. I’m so proud of him learning new things like Taekwondo and getting promoted at every grading. He is in fact getting his brown belt today 🙂 Hopefully using those defensive skills to protect me one day haha. Well it is not ideal having a job that involves sitting on his bum all day for his health. I feel for him now because I spend more time in front of computer than ever before. My physio job used to be always on the go and never had a chance to sit down and rest. Such a difference! He is normally drenched in sweat after exercise and comes home hungry. Then I prepare his dinner/ post-workout meals for him.

What you eat after a workout is crucial no matter what time of the day you exercise. Proper PRE-workout snack helps to maximise your performance throughout and post-workout meals optimises muscle recovery. Having a balanced meal of carbs and protein 1-2 hours before training supplies energy during your workout and helps to reduce post workout cortisol (stress hormone) levels. Again meals that combine carbs and protein after your workout replenish energy stores and muscle recovery. Fat intake is also important for immunity such as avocados, olives, fatty fishes and healthy oils.

Chicken curry and sago

Tonight his dinner/ POST-workout meal is chicken curry and coconut-cinnamon sago for dessert. Good balance of protein, carbs and fat!

Chicken Curry
I browned chopped 200g chicken breast, 1 carrot, 1 celery stick, 1/4 zucchini, ginger and garlic in a wok. I then added curry powder, cumin, fennel, cinnamon and coconut milk. Braise in medium heat for 10-15 minutes until ingredients are cooked and sauce is reduced. I added black sesame seeds at the end for calcium.

Coconut-Cinnamon Sago
I soaked 100g medium sized tapioca pearls and a cup of coconut milk in a pot for about 30 minutes. Then poured 2-3 cups of water into the pot and bring it to boil. Reduce the heat right down and simmer for 10-15 minutes until tapioca pearls are cooked. Add a tea spoon of cinnamon powder and honey to taste. You need to keep stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes or more and serve it cold.

Posted in: Dinner, Lunch, My recipes

Gorgonzola and Honey Pizza

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Gorgonzola Pizza

If you’ve never put honey with blue cheese, you will get pleasantly surprised how wonderful it is. I tried this pizza when I was in Korea, one of the Italian restaurants. They put just two ingredients on top of paper-thin pizza, Gorgonzola cheese and pesto, and serve with honey in a dipping bowl. What you do is grab a slice of pizza and dip in honey. It’s a delectable sweet and salty dish. Easy to put together yet complex in flavour! This combination works really good served as a starter on crostini or salad with slices of pear or apple or figs. Yum!

Red Salad: Mix cumin, grated beetroot and carrot with coriander. Season with salt and pepper. Dress with  coconut vinegar, lemon juice and e.v.o.o.

Stuffed Green Capsicum: Cook minced beef in a pan with garlic, ginger, chilli and soy sauce. Clean the inside of the green capsicum and fill up with cooked beef. Put it in the preheated oven (180) for 20 minutes until capsicum is soft and tender.

Gorgonzola Pizza: Roll out the pizza dough nice and thin. Spread pesto at the bottom and arrange caramelised onion, slices of figs, Gorgonzola cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic chips and walnuts. Put it in the oven for about 15 minutes. Add a drizzle of honey just before serve.

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Posted in: Baking, Dinner, Lunch, My recipes