GF Cinnamon Cookies

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Lunch15

I’m not really into sweet foods and never order cakes or cookies at the cafe. Having said that, I do have a morning/ afternoon slump when I don’t eat snacks. So I tend to make some muffins and bars and keep them in the freezer so that I can easily grab when I feel like one.

These cookies are gluten free and sugar free. I used…

4 eggs
75g coconut flour
one heap spoon of cinnamon powder
one teaspoon of ground nutmeg
one teaspoon of fennel seeds
one teaspoon of coconut oil
pinch of salt
pinch of chai tea ground
You can add honey or coconut sugar or maple syrup or whatever you have in your pantry for sweetness (optional)

I mixed all ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding a teaspoon of brewed chai tea a little at a time until I get a right consistency to make a cookie dough. Roll them up and bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven (180). It turned out to be perfect 10 lovely balls.

Cinnamon is one of my favourite spices. I sprinkle ground cinnamon pretty much everywhere both in savoury and sweets. I mix cinnamon, ginger and honey to make a nice warm tea. Definitely love using cinnamon when making home-made muffins and bars. For savoury use, it is also great in curries, sauté vegetables, tagines, braising meat and so on. You can create Moroccan/ Middle Eastern inspired dishes at home. Apparently you can use as a room spray as well, which I haven’t tried yet. Ah, we have a cool cinnamon drink in Korea, too. Boil water, cinnamon sticks, slices of ginger and brown sugar in a pot until all flavours come together for about 30 minutes. Cool it down and keep it in the fridge. It is so refreshing and hydrating when drunk cool.

Cinnamon has been used since Ancient Egypt as a medical source. Amazing health benefits of cinnamon include regulating blood sugar (thus good for diabetes), reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, fighting against fungal infection, boosting brain function, effective for menstrual pain and infertility and warming effect (good for a cold and flu). It is by far one of the super foods and I swear by it. I just had two of those balls with cinnamon tea for morning snack and it is hard to resist to go for another one. Delicious!

 

Posted in: Baking, Gluten Free, My recipes, Snack, Vegetarian

Caramelised Carrot & Butternut Pumpkin Salad with Sage

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Feeling like a sweet succulent salad? This carrot and pumpkin salad will satisfy you! My body is just calling for vegetables and salads this week probably due to an unhealthy (relatively) holiday last week. Today, I’m injecting beta-carotene into my body.

Yellow vegetables, like carrots and pumpkins, are so high in anti-oxidants, vitamins (especially carotenes and vit-A) and dietary fibre. On top of that, they are low in calories and fat. They do all the wonderful magics to your body – improving your vision, cancer prevention, anti-aging, healthy skin, cleansing, etc. You cannot ask more, can you?

Carrots are a great snack as well as side dishes. You can have it as raw with yummy hummus or soft cheese.  But when it’s cooked, beta-carotene can be absorbed to your body about five times more than when eaten raw. The reason being is a cooking process helps to dissolve a resistant cell wall of the carrots that locks in the beta-carotene. So you can maximise health benefits by cooking them. It is better to cook the whole carrots (e.g. boiling) before cutting or mashing them to preserve nutrients. Another way is like me, I chopped them up with butternut pumpkins and quickly cook in a frying pan with a teaspoon of coconut oil. You can add a drizzle of honey, balsamic vinegar, cumin seeds to enhance the flavour. Sage is one of the herbs that merry very well with carrots. I loved a smell of sage caramelising with carrots in a pan and also the colour – intense orange/ yellow plus beautiful caramelisation on the outside! Yummy lunch served so easy:)

Posted in: Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Kofoo in Sydney

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Lunch14

Our accommodation was only 5-10 minutes to China town when we stayed in Sydney. I think it might have been New Year’s day when we went to this Korean restaurant for brunch.  The reason why we were looking for Korean food was that we eat a rice cake and dumpling soup on New Year’s day in Korea. Since I cannot cook one myself in hotel, we headed out to China town to find a restaurant that does it for us.

We found a cool looking one called ‘Kofoo’, which is shortened form of ‘Korean food’. I loved a modern pub style interior and friendly staff. Sitting there looking at Korean posters and listening to Korean songs made me feel I was in Korea for a bit. Sydney is definitely more multicultural city and you see so many tourists from all over the world on the streets. So I felt like I was in different country.

By the time we got a table, it was almost 11am..11:30am.. Starving! Menu didn’t have a rice cake soup though other dishes sounded pretty good to us. We ended up ordering 4 dishes between two of us, thinking we were starving, first of all, and dishes would be small. We ordered dumplings for entree, bibimbap for me, soybean soup for Daniel and beef tartar to share. It turned out to be a lot more than we thought it would be, though we managed to finish all. It tasted more westernised Korean food than traditional as I expected. For business, yes – you need to make changes for the locals, though I have to admit it is quite disappointing to me every time I go to Korean restaurants here. Staff was pretty attentive and friendly overall. This restaurant apparently started in Brisbane as a little food stall, then opened up this restaurant in Sydney almost a year ago, and now expanding further to franchise business – good on them.

I read in the Western Australian news paper a couple of weeks ago what Matt Preston, a famous food critic in Australia, said that Korean food would get more attention in 2014. I cannot agree more. Being a healthy tasty cuisine among Asian foods, it offers a variety of fermented vegetable dishes, like Kimchi, using lots of chilli, garlic, ginger and all good stuff. If you struggle with Western diet due to too much gluten, oil, sugar, etc, definitely Korean food is a way to go. I really hope Korean cuisine shines more this year,which means there will be more improvements in the quality of food and service in restaurants as well. And I dream…I could be one of them:)

Posted in: Dining and Wining

The Punch Lane in Melbourne

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Lunch13

It was my birthday yesterday. Well it was my mother-in-law’s big 60th a day before, so it was kind of a continuation of that celebration I guess. We went out to this nice restaurant for dinner with in-laws last night. This restaurant is located at the end of China town in Melbourne. You can see a big sign of Wine Bar, Punch Lane on the street. Size of the dinning area was just right, not too big nor small. Antique furniture, wine bottles at the back of the wall, jazz music, very attentive waiter, good atmosphere. Food was good too. Freshly baked bread with e.v.o.o and sea salt to start with. I couldn’t have bread though everyone said it was really nice. For main, I had a barramundi and clams in ‘crazy water’. Daniel had a duck breast with pickled cumquats with green bean salads on the side. Fish was cooked perfectly melting in my mouth though sauce was a little salty for my taste. Green bean salad was crunchy and refreshing compliment very well with mains. Dessert was watermelon, meringue and rose sorbet with ‘happy birthday’ writing on the plate to cleanse the palate before we left. Sweet of my hubby, booking a nice restaurant and organising a birthday dessert for me. Big thanks to him! I enjoyed a nice food and company last night.

Seriously Melbourne is in my heart. I’ve visited probably about 6 times over the years. I never get sick of this city full of culture and fashion. I cannot explain exactly what it is, but there is something that makes me come back again and again. Well..I am very excited and looking forward to moving to Melbourne as soon as things get organised quick enough. People complain of unpredictable Melbourne weather. Well while we were staying for 3 days, yes we had a cold rainy morning, sunny afternoon, windy and cold evening. However, I reckon I can deal with a little crappy weather for all the other good things about Melbourne:) My heart is pounding already just thinking about living there!

Posted in: Dining and Wining

Braised Brisket with Blue Cheese Pear Salad

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I’ve just come back from my holiday with in-laws today. We went to Sydney and Melbourne to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 60th for a week. Walking around the city, shopping, cruise on NYE, catching up with Dan’s family, etc. A week has gone so fast and now back to 40 degree heat in Perth!! Yep..holiday is over though I’m glad to be back home since I struggled with food while traveling. I find it is hard to stay healthy when you have to eat out for a week although you try to make good choices such as salads and sushi. It is just not the same as I wouldn’t know all ingredients, seasoning, sauce, etc in there. Especially being gluten intolerant and sensitive to fatty foods, my stomach can go very wrong and take a long time to recover >.< I seriously need any kind of vegetables for a week! Craving for greens at the moment. Anyhow I’m all unpacked now and settling back in my home.

I braised a big beef brisket in wine and some spices for dinner about a week ago just before we went off to Sydney. I put the leftovers in the freezer so that I don’t have to think about what to cook or rush to make something when we come back. You just need to make some vegetables or salads to go with it. You can see here a succulent and huge piece of beef on his plate and slices of tofu on my plate further up, though we shared same salads. I love a combination of crunchy walnuts, sweet pears, bitter greens, salty blue cheese and sour balsamic reduction. It is by far one of my favorite salads. I used Gorgonzola cheese here, but any kind of blue cheese would work depending on how strong you want it to be. Ooh..makes me hungry:)

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, My recipes