Elegant Little Kitchen

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Spanish Tortilla with Roasted Grape Tomatoes

Photo: A basic Spanish tortilla is usually made with eggs, potato and onion. Here is a version of that traditional dish that I made yesterday for my husband’s main meal.  Four eggs, one pan-fried, diced potato; shredded Parmesan cheese, bits of brie and small, whole tomatoes were used to make this individual serving.

Beaten eggs are added to a diced, sautéed potato in a cast-iron pan; cheese and roasted small tomatoes are added, then after cooking for one or two minutes to firm-up the bottom, the whole pan goes under a broiler until the eggs are puffed and lightly browned on top.

Below: Grape-sized tomatoes are roasted in an oiled cast-iron pan, first on the stove and then for a few minutes in the oven under a broiling-flame. This process allows tomatoes to become concentrated in flavour, while making them easier to eat when incorporated into an egg dish. ~ Copyright 2018 ©M-J de Mesterton

Elegant Basket of Tea Towels

Christmas Present Idea: a Silver-Plated, Large Basket for the Kitchen Counter or Hanging on a Cook’s Cart~Perfect for Tea Towels, Fruit, or Casual Flower-Arrangements

Elegant, Re-Purposed Olive Oil Bottles

 

Large address labels and felt pens were used by M-J to make the contents of these elegant olive oil bottles easily identifiable. The original labels (as on the new bottle at left) of two empty containers were soaked-off in a sink half-full of very hot water.  This trio of full bottles sits on the counter, ready for use on salads, cooking (a few drops of olive oil may be all you need to fry an egg) , drinking (add a teaspoon of cider vinegar to your water-glass in the morning and/or evening for enhanced health) and spot-cleaning (wipe-down windows, appliances and counters with a few drops of white vinegar). These particular vessels came with optional spouts, which make dispensing small amounts of liquid quick and easy. ©M-J de Mesterton 2018

Re-Using Commercial Bottles Elegantly

A red pepper bottle from which the label has easily been soaked-off is pretty enough to leave on the table with your favourite salt-shaker. To me, the ubiquitous bar-code on labels is an awful thing to see, therefore, in spite of this particular spice bottle label being tasteful and attractive, the entire thing had to go.A large, beautiful green glass olive oil bottle is now living a new life as a cider vinegar dispenser, for which I made a label with white paper tape, coloured art-pens, and clear packaging tape (these high-quality olive oil bottles come with stoppers strapped to their necks that one can install for ease-of-use, instead of the original bottle-caps). This is a great way to have your “oil & vinegar” at hand.

©M-J de Mesterton, November 2018

It’s “Bouquet”!

As Mrs Bucket would say: “It’s Bouquet!” HAPPY HALLOWE’EN, or ALL SAINTS’ DAY

Informal Bouquet

Oven-Mitt Converted into Potholders

 

Make a Miniature Salt Shaker

Re-purposing another commercial container: a tiny jam jar was converted into a casual mini-salt shaker and filled with Himalayan salt. It’s handy for a TV tray, or to keep nearby when eating popcorn, should it be sorely lacking in sodium, and a walk to the kitchen would interrupt your movie-viewing. Here are the tools I used: a sharp-pointed pair of scissors and a meat mallet. I was too lazy to visit the garage for a nail. Instead, I covered the scissors’ nice old handles with a silicone pot-holder so the mallet wouldn’t damage them. This worked fine. There are three small holes–I started small and then tested them for proper flow-rate. ©M-J de Mesterton 2018

On  the left is a larger home-made salt-shaker, strictly for use in cookery; after this photo it will live in the pantry. ©M-J de Mesterton 2018

 

Freestyle Eggs with Purple Onion and Serrano Peppers

I’m calling these two  eggs “freestyle” because they were lightly fried to so-called “over-easy” level, but very uncooperative when I attempted to flip them with my spatula. The eggs are accompanied on this plate by purple (“red”) onions sautéed  in butter with serrano chile peppers, and  a bit of labneh (strained yoghurt) which is sprinkled with cayenne pepper. Adding a freestyle shake of Himalayan salt, I consider it a low-carb, highly-nutritious breakfast. ©M-J de Mesterton

Eggs are Rich in Nutrients

Red or Purple Onions are Beneficial to General Health

Red or Purple Onions and Hot Chile Peppers are Good for the Heart

SERRANO PEPPERS

• Vitamins: Serrano peppers are a good source of vitamin A. You can get almost 20 percent of your daily recommended vitamin A intake from a 100 g serving. The vitamin A that you get from serrano peppers helps with the synthesis of red blood cells along with helping to support your immune system. Vitamin C is also important for the function of your immune system and 100 g of serranos provides about 74 percent of your daily vitamin C requirement. Vitamin B6 is another important vitamin that helps your body to produce neurotransmitters as well as to ensure that it metabolizes fat and protein properly.

• Minerals: A 100 g serving of serrano peppers provides 4 percent of your daily iron and 5 percent of your daily magnesium. Iron is important for making the red blood cells in your body that transport oxygen. Magnesium is important for neural function, muscle contraction and for the coagulation of blood among many other processes.

• Dietary fiber: Serrano peppers contain 3.7 g of dietary fiber per 100 g serving. Dietary fiber has health benefits that include controlling both blood sugar and cholesterol. Fiber binds with low-density lipoprotein thus preventing its absorption by your body; similarly, it slows your body’s absorption of sugar and this helps with the control of blood sugar levels.

Capsaicin

Capsaicin is the compound responsible for the heat in hot peppers. It has numerous health benefits despite having no nutrients. While serranos are far from being the hottest peppers, they still offer an abundance of heat. The Scoville rating for these peppers is in the range between 10,000 and 23,000, which makes them up to 10 times hotter than a jalapeño (comparing the mildest jalapeño to the hottest serrano). The higher the Scoville rating, the hotter the pepper and the greater the concentration of capsaicin.

You can use serrano peppers to treat and prevent health conditions like:

• Heart disease: Capsaicin’s cholesterol-lowering benefits allow serrano peppers to be beneficial for heart health. Chile peppers also prevent the contraction of arteries, which restricts the flow of blood to the heart.

• Intestinal issues: Research has shown that capsaicin can help with the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. There is also evidence that it can help to kill the H. pylori bacteria that is a factor in stomach ulcers.

• Cancer: It’s believed capsaicin has the ability to treat cancer. Studies have shown that it is effective for fighting prostate and breast cancers in that it stops the spread of cancer and induces apoptosis in cancer cells, which means that it causes them to self-destruct.

• CAYENNE PEPPER IS HIGH IN CAPSAICIN

• 

  Cayenne and other Dried Chile Peppers Help Prevent Colds and Flu, Build Tissue, and Prevent Heart Attacks

  

  Capsaicin-Rich Cayenne Peppers are a Heart-Tonic and Anti-Inflammatory Fruit

  

  M-J’s Cayenne Pepper Plant with Red, Ripe Fruit

Nutritious, Versatile Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds are great freshly-ground and used as a salad-topper. Here is a salad topped with both ground raw pumpkin seeds, Cheddar cheese and walnuts.

 “Pepitas”, as they are called in Spanish, are delicious when toasted in a pan with a teaspoon of coconut oil and about a half-teaspoon of salt per cup. Stirred frequently with a wooden spoon, my pumpkin seeds were ready after ten minutes in a medium-hot cast-iron pan. Another method is soaking the seeds overnight in water, lemon juice and salt, draining and toasting them in a moderate oven.

Pumpkin seeds are a rich source of zinc, iron, magnesium, omega-3s, are low in carbs, and three tablespoons of them contain eight grams of protein. Pumpkin seeds have properties that are used in an efficacious treatment for parasites. Storing ground pumpkin seeds in the refrigerator in a jar will preserve their freshness.

From George Mateljan’s venerable website, “World’s Healthiest Foods”, here is the first paragraph of, and a link to, his article about Pumpkin Seeds:

Antioxidant Support

While antioxidant nutrients are found in most WHFoods, it’s the diversity of antioxidants in pumpkin seeds that makes them unique in their antioxidant support. Pumpkin seeds contain conventional antioxidant vitamins like vitamin E. However, not only do they contain vitamin E, but they contain it in a wide variety of forms. Alpha-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, delta-tocopherol, alpha-tocomonoenol and gamma-tocomonoenol are all forms of vitamin E found in pumpkin seeds. These last two forms have only recently been discovered, and they are a topic of special interest in vitamin E research, since their bioavailability might be greater than some of the other vitamin E forms. Pumpkin seeds also contain conventional mineral antioxidants like zinc and manganese. Phenolic antioxidants are found in pumpkin seeds in a wide variety of forms, including the phenolic acids hydroxybenzoic, caffeic, coumaric, ferulic, sinapic, protocatechuic, vanillic, and syringic acid. Antioxidant phytonutrients like lignans are also found in pumpkin seeds, including the lignans pinoresinol, medioresinol, and lariciresinol.

Interestingly, this diverse mixture of antioxidants in pumpkin seeds may provide them with antioxidant-related properties that are not widely found in food. For example, the pro-oxidant enzyme lipoxygenase (LOX) is known to be inhibited by pumpkin seed extracts, but not due to the presence of any single family of antioxidant nutrients (for example, the phenolic acids described earlier). Instead, the unique diversity of antioxidants in pumpkin seeds is most likely responsible for this effect.

Potica, the Slovenian Walnut Roll

A Delightfully Aromatic Breakfast: Central European Walnut Roll (potica or povitica in Slovenia and Croatia) and Columbian Coffee

The Nutritional Benefits of Walnuts

 

Simple Greek Salad

Romaine lettuce, crumbled feta cheese, tiny tomatoes and vinaigrette combine to make a simple Greek salad. Other ingredients, if I had them in the house, would have been sliced cucumbers, chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves) and Kalamata olives.

M-J’s Nutritious Luncheon Pancakes Made with Magical Mung Beans

M-J’s High-Protein Mung Bean Pancakes, Filled with Strained Yoghurt (“Labneh”)

My husband Jacques likens this dish to blini with caviar and sour cream. To some, that’s quite an endorsement (I’ve resisted caviar all my life, with every fiber of my being).

I call mung beans “magical” because they are full of life, often sprouting while being boiled.

M-J’s HIGH-PROTEIN MUNG BEAN PANCAKES

To my pot of cooked mung beans (one cup dry beans, three cups water) I add chia seeds (while beans are still hot, to make them soft), yogurt whey*, whole oat flour (I grind my own), ground flax, hemp protein powder, a couple of raw eggs, and a little self-rising flour. I keep the batter pretty thin, adding more liquid whey or water when required. Ingredients are pictured below, but I don’t use measurements. ~M-J

Read Dr. Axe’s information on the Mung Bean Nutritional Powerhouse.

I save liquid whey from the yogurt-straining process, and mix a little nonfat dry milk with it in a blender-bottle. I refrigerate the stuff to use in smoothies or pancake batter~M-J

M-J’s High-Protein Pancakes: You Can See the Mung Beans in the Batter

Make yogurt whey* to use as liquid for pancake batter by straining your yogurt to make it thicker. Pour the liquid (whey) that has been removed from your yogurt into a jar for use in smoothies and pancake batter. Then use the resultant “Greek yogurt” to spread onto the pancakes. After spreading this on my mung bean pancakes, I roll them to create a delicious, health-promoting luncheon dish.

*See my jar of whey in the following picture:

I use Karoun Plain Yogurt from California to make “Greek yogurt”, or labneh, and yogurt cheese. It is truly all-natural and makes all other American yogurt brands look weak. ©M-J de Mesterton 2018

M-J’s Original Recipe High-Protein Pancakes are Cooked in Bulk, Cooled, Stacked and Separated with Pieces of Waxed Paper, then Frozen for Easy Meal Preparation

M-J’s Original Recipe High-Protein Mung Bean Pancakes are Easy to Reheat, Fill and Roll

M-J’s Elegant Pantry Update, August 2018

Groups of identical or similar containers make this busy cook’s pantry/kitchen cupboard look less cluttered.~©M-J de Mesterton

Strained Yoghurt

Straining your own yoghurt makes a delightful Mediterranean or Middle Eastern spread for bread or pita. Put a round coffee-filter into a bowl-sized strainer or sieve, empty a container of plain whole-milk or full-fat yoghurt into it, cover with another round coffee-filter, and place over a bowl that allows some space between the bottom of the strainer and the base of the bowl, so that when your yoghurt is draining, it will not soak itself. Keep the assembly covered with plastic or Saran-type wrap, because fruit-flies love this stuff. I initiate this process before going to bed at night; in the morning I have wonderful, thick spread for my preferred bread or pita, and this yogurt-cheese is also excellent with a fried egg. 
©M-J de Mesterton
See The Elegant Cook Bread Page for M-J’s Pita Recipe

M-J’s Yoghurt-Straining System: a White Plastic Bucket with Tight-Fitting Lid, a Sieve from an Oxo Salad-Spinner, Two Zip-Ties, and a Paper Towel

After You Have Strained Your Plain Yogurt, Save the Whey in a Jar for Adding to Health-Promoting Smoothies

Straining the Whey out of Yogurt for about 24 Hours Produces a Spreadable Yogurt-Cheese~~LEFT: Labneh or Strained Greek Yogurt RIGHT: Yogurt-Cheese

Straining your own yoghurt (labneh) makes a delightful Mediterranean or Middle Eastern spread for bread or pita. Laden with labneh, sprinkled with zaatar Middle Eastern spice mixture and drizzled with olive oil, this pita bread is about to be reassembled for a magnificent taste-treat.

©Copyright M-J de Mesterton, August 25 2018

Elegant Tofu and Vegetable Dish

Marinated and Sautéed Tofu is Accompanied by Lightly Cooked Haricots Verts and Celery

In George Mateljan’s Long-Standing, Much Respected “The World’s Healthiest Foods”, Here Is an Informative Article on the Benefits and Nutritional Qualities of Tofu

 

High-Protein and Vitamin C: Low-Cost Tofu with Shishito Peppers

Fifteen ounces (15 oz., just short of one pound) of tofu contain 350 calories, 40 grams of protein, and 10 grams of carbohydrates. Vitamin-C-rich mild peppers also contain Vitamin A and fiber.

Tasty Tofu with Mild Green Shishito Peppers

As a nutritious austerity dish, there are scads of ways to prepare tofu. Three ounces of firm tofu, with only seventy calories, contain eight grams of protein and two grams of carbohydrate. This morning, I sautéed in coconut oil some cubed tofu that I had marinated in soy sauce, cider vinegar and miso, then added some roasted Japanese shishito peppers. I then sprinkled the dish with black-and-white sesame seeds.

NUTRITION FACTS on Shishito Peppers, from Trader Joe’s:  Serving size about 7 peppers (45g) | Amount per serving: Calories 15
Total Fat 0g (0% DV), Saturated Fat 0g (0% DV), Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 0mg (0% DV), Sodium 0mg (0% DV), Total Carbohydrate 3g (1% DV), Dietary Fiber 2g (8% DV), Total Sugars 2g, Protein 1g, Vitamin A (8% DV), Calcium 0mg (% DV), Iron (2% DV), Vitamin C (35% DV).
The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

NUTRITIONAL FACTS about TOFU, at World’s Healthiest Foods

Sautéed Tofu with Shishito Peppers and Sesame Seeds