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I think that – looking through my blog and the failures I’ve had sofar with yeasty recipes – that it is pretty clear that I have some work to do in that area. When Anuradha of Bakerstreet contacted me to ask if I was willing to post something in her bread series I had to laugh a little. Out of fear mostly but also because she must have guessed that I wanted to get better at it!

I love An’s blog and her muffin series is second to none. If you want any tips on how to make perfect muffins be sure to check out her blog plus it has some other great recipes as well.

The perfect opportunity it seemed to work some more on my yeast issues. Well, what can I say; it was not entirely successful, mostly due to really bad planning on my part plus the fact that I can be too impatient when it comes to lengthy processes that require me to wait for hours for something to rise (or not to rise)

The recipe was graciously given to me by the fabulous Esmee from Es Factory. A Dutch blogger who is definitely much better in making bread then me. The brioche was delicious but read all about the (mis) adventures of the brioche on Bakerstreet!

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Indian flavored chickpea curry

Every once in a while I get my hands on a book that is just sooo full of fabulous recipes that I keep cooking from it. Under the Walnut Tree is just one such book. Written by mother and daughter, Anna and Fanny Bergenström, it focuses on fresh seasonal produce and is partially Scandinavian inspired and partially very international. Fanny, daughter of Anna and photographer Nisse Peterson, took all the photos of the book herself, a lot of them under their old walnut tree, which is what inspired the title of the book. Anna herself was the foodwriter for the leading daily newspaper in Sweden, the Dagens Nyheter and knows a thing or two about creating good and reliable recipes.

Combine the forces of these two ladies and you’re left with a beautiful book. A book that has made me, in a little over a week, make more then 6 recipes out of the book already and I have little post-its marking the pages where I definitely want to cook another recipe. In no particular order I have made this delicious Chickpea Kerala style, I have made lemoncurd, chicken salad from Laos, the lemony chickpea salad I shared with you before, lemoncream and coconut lime prawns (and the prawns are so good, that we’re eating them two days in a row now. Can’t resist!). Every single one of the recipes I made was absolutely delicious. Sure I changed a few things in the one I am sharing with you today, just because I didn’t have certain ingredients on hand, but in essence I followed the recipes.

What I also love about the book, is that it is divided across the different ingredients. Ingredients that Anna and Fanny love and use a lot, so it is easy to find out what is in season and just go to that particular chapter. Each chapter starts with an explanation on the ingredients or ingredient group and goes on to list a variety of recipes. And ultimately it is the recipes that did it for me. Try it out, I am sure you’re gonna love it!

Under the Walnut Tree is published by Hardie Grant Books

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Hardie Grant on Facebook

Chickpeas Kerala-style

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Serves	2-3
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	20 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Main Dish
From book	Under the walnut tree

Ingredients

• 400 gr chickpeas (from a tin)
• 1 red chili
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons curry madras paste
• 300ml coconut milk
• 100g spinach
• 12 cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1 lime (juiced )
• pinch seasalt
• coriander leaves (to serve)
• 1 ginger (about 3 cm piece)

Directions

Deseed and chop the chili. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Peel, gently bruise and chop the garlic. Do not use a garlic press or the taste will be too acrid. Also peel and grate the ginger.

Put the chickpeas in a colander and rinse well, leave to drain.

Gently saute the chili, onion, garlic and ginger in the oil. Add the curry paste and the coconut milk. Stir to combine and add the chickpeas in. Taste and if too spicy, add a bit more of the coconut milk. Bring the stew to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.

Fold in the (roughly chopped) spinach leaves and tomatoes. Simmer for just a few minutes more, and then season with lime juice and a touch of salt. Sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve with basmati rice.

Related Posts:

• Punjabi chicken curry
• Spicy bean soup with cuminpoori’s – Living leaner
• Griddled courgette carpaccio with chickpea salsa
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• Puy lentil, cherry tomato and halloumi salad

Sometimes you come across a blog that instantly captures your attention and Sonia’s blog The Healthy Foodie is just one such blog. I love her recipes and her witty way of writing around those recipes and I think her photos are amazing too as you will see below! You’ll have to come and take a look for yourself as it’s one of the blogs I always go to first whenever I have time to browse through my backlog of things to read online! I was thrilled when she agreed to write a little something for Beetroot and Halloumi Junglefrog Cooking and below you can read all about it! And can I just say that I’m very flattered about all the words she wrote about me! Blushing behind the computer now!

Giving it over to Sonia now!

When I heard that Simone, who happens to be one of my most favorite bloggers and photographer extraordinaire, not only had decided to take a little walk down the healthy path, but had also decided to start blogging about her experience, I was ecstatic.

After spending all this time drooling over pretty much every single picture that she’s ever posted, I was finally gonna get to actually give her recipes a try! Big yay!

Now can  you imagine my excitement when she asked me if I would consider writing a little piece to be featured on this new baby of hers? I just couldn’t believe it! Me? Making an appearance on one of Simone’s sites? No way!

I have to admit that I am extremely humbled to have my photography being featured in such close proximity to hers. You see, Simone would be one of the foodographers that I look up to the most:  her pictures are always so amazing, so mouth watering, so perfect in every possible way. For me to be posting my work here, where her work resides, is an unbelievably humbling experience.

I thank you very much, Simone, for letting me expose my “beginner level art” in your top notch professional gallery.

Whoa, but wait a minute. How very rude of me. Here I am, jabbering away, while most of you don’t have the slightest idea who I am…

Well, my name is Sonia, I’m a 38 year old French Canadian from Québec (Canada), single mother of 2 fully grown kids, who’s recently turned her life around and decided to embrace embrace a healthier approach to living.

Now, if someone had told me, not even 5 years ago, that I would be sitting here today writing these very words, I’d have probably called them crazy.

The thing is, back then, my life was nothing like what it is today.

• You see, I used to smoke… A LOT!
• And drink… way too much!
• Food? OH YEAH! I did lots of that too, of course. And my choices in that field were not always the greatest, really…
• As for exercise… Well, that word was not even part of my dictionary!

I eventually had enough of all this and decided that things had to change.

Of course, I quit smoking, quit drinking and eventually, over time, started eating better and exercising. I became totally enthralled by this healthier lifestyle, and to help me stay on track while perhaps inspiring others to follow in my tracks, I eventually created a blog: The Healthy Foodie.

There, I share on a regular basis, thoughts and recipes that I find sit well with my perception of what healthy living can be.

 

For health, I think, is a very personal concept, really.

In fact, I believe that there are probably as many descriptions of the word as there are people using it. What I consider healthy might be totally unhealthy, to you, and what is healthy to you might be total junk to your neighbour…

Where do I stand?

I personally tend to adhere more to the principles of “clean eating”. This, to me, is a form of health that is totally unrestrictive and super fun and easy to follow.

Quite simply, it implies eating food that is as close as possible to what nature intended. Choose whole, natural foods and try to avoid everything that’s highly processed or refined.

Just remember… Food does not grow in a box! Reach for fresh produce, lean cuts of meat and whole, unrefined grains.

Also, try and include a form of lean protein, complex carbs and healthy fat in every one of your meals. Oh, and be careful not to drink your calories! Opt for water or herbal tea instead of sugar laden fruit juices or sodas!

Last but not least, being healthy implies that you stay active! Keeping your body moving is the best way to rev up your metabolism and get those calories working for you, instead of against you!

I guess, in the end, healthy is what you make it.

And to me, salads such as this one just SCREAM healthy.

Orange fennel salad

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Recipe type: salad

Author: Sonia, the healthy foodie

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb (shaved paper thin)
• A few sprig fennel leaves
• 2 navel oranges (supremed)
• 1 bosc pear (sliced)
• 45g walnuts (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

1. Cut the oranges into supremes, working over a bowl, in order not lose any of the juice. When you’ve got all your supremes done, make sure to squeeze all the juice out of the “membrane” that is left behind.
2. In a medium to large mixing bowl, add all your ingredients, including orange juice.
3. Give everything a quick toss and transfer to divide between 2 serving dishes.
4. Garnish with fennel leaves, if desired.

2.2.6

 

Want more healthy recipe ideas? Head on over to The Healthy Foodie

And here is a sample of a few recipes you can expect to find…

1.    Creamy Avocado Pasta
2. Heavenly Healthy Matcha Green Tea Cake
3. Almond Joy Chocolate Spread
4. Chicken Goat Cheese Pizza
5. Lean mean Green Pea and Cucumber Salad
6. Crispy baked Chicken Tenders
7. Home made spelt pasta and Healthy Fettucine Alfredo
8. Ratatouille Pizza
9. Pear, Blackberry and Blue Cheese salad

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Aperture 5.6 left and 13 on the right

Whenever I give a workshop, it turns out that aperture and in general lighting is one of the most confusing things about photography. It doesn’t help that all those numbers mean virtually nothing to someone who is just starting out and is trying to get to grips with his or her camera. So when Aparna from my Diverse Kitchen started a series with exercises in foodphotography I figured it would be a great thing to join in and explain a few things here. You can find Aparna’s post here and her explanation on how to join in too.

I get many emails asking me for information on how to take photos, which camera to buy, which lenses to get and general tips on improving food photography. You can already find some of the articles here on the foodphotography page but the exercise of today is to take two photos of the same subject from the same angle with the only variation being the aperture.

I shoot a lot of my photos in aperture priority. It’s easy, I don’t have to worry too much if the light changes and I still have full control over the DOF. (Depth of Field) Now what is the aperture you may ask… It is essentially the hole in your lens that let’s the light in. I always give the James Bond intro as an example as the ring he stand in is what it looks like, more or less.

100mm macro on 5.6 and f11.0 respectively

But apart from the fact that it controls the light coming in, it also controls (for a part) the depth of field in your photo. And depth of field is the area in your photo that appears sharp to the human eye. The smaller the number of your aperture (i.e. F2.8) the smaller the depth of field in your photo, but the bigger the opening in your lens. The bigger the aperture number (i.e. F22.0) the bigger the depth of field in your photo, but the smaller the opening in your lens. In the image above the mint tea you can clearly see the difference between the first and the second shot. This is a dramatic difference as I shot the first on F5.6 and the other on F32.0, which is really an aperture I never use.

50mm macro on F2.5 (left) and F5.6 (right)

Now the exercise that Aparna has us do is to shoot two photos on a 50mm lens. In the image above I used my 50mm macro which has as a widest aperture 2.5 so that’s what I used for the first shot and I used 5.6 for the second one. As you can see the difference between the two shots is not so dramatic as the difference in the first two photos, but that is partially due to the type of lens used and the fact that the difference between aperture 1 and aperture 2 was not that big. For the first two comparison photos I used my 100mm 2.8 lens which I use for 90% of my foodphotos.

I love a photo with shallow depth of field, but there can be too little of it, so play around with your camera and your lens and see what the result is. Every camera and every lens has a slightly different outcome. Also be aware that if you close the opening in your lens (so your aperture number becomes higher but the opening becomes much smaller) your shutterspeed will rapidly go down. Using a tripod is then essential!

Now hop on over to Aparna’s blog and check out the tips she is giving and the exercises that the others have done there too!

The recipe for the lemoncurd will follow shortly!

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• Quick update