Cranachan

If you saw SBS last night it was "Eat well: Why most food labels are wrong about calories"

Did you see it?
Well...they had this cranachan on there, its a traditional scottish dessert. In modern times it is usually made from a mixture of whipped cream, whisky, honey and fresh raspberries, with toasted oatmeal soaked overnight in a little bit of whisky. Aye!

Well you may know my last name Farquharson is Scottish so my ears and eyes perked up when this was mentioned and I was like "omg I have to make that, it looks like all kinds of deliciousness right there! "

I made it tonight and had it for dessert, I thought it was too good not to share and you guys have to make it!
I also thought this would be a fabulous breakfast!
Anyhoo...this is what I came up with!
You could drop the oats and just use flaked almonds and flaked coconut or other nuts and seeds and follow the recipe the same, you could also not use cream and just use yoghurt:)

Cranachan
Serves 4
100g (1 cup) rolled oats
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp honey 

Melt the honey and butter in a pan on a low heat, add the oats and stir until the oats are golden brown and toasted, careful not to burn them, set aside to cool

150ml cream (whipping cream)
½ cup of greek yoghurt or other plain yoghurt
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract (or some whiskey)

Whip cream, vanilla (whiskey if using) and honey together until stiff, watch out it doesn’t turn to butter! Then fold in yoghurt until combined.

250g fruit- you could use pear, banana, passionfruit, kiwifruit etc….
I have used 125g raspberries and 125g strawberries, chop the strawberries up.
To assemble you can use whatever you choose, like a glass or dessert bowl. Put in some fruit in each glass, then oats, then cream, then repeat with fruit, then oats and cream on top. If you have any left have the top layer with some oats and fruit.

Macadamia and chocolate cream

Makes about a cup- dairy free

Ingredients

½ cup raw macadamia nuts
2 medjool dates
3 tsp-1 tbsp raw cacao powder depending on taste

Method

Soak the nuts and dates in hot water for half an hour. Drain the nuts and reserve the water. Blend in a food processor or similar with cacao and add about 100ml of the reserved water until really smooth and creamy. If you like it thinner to have as a sauce over icecream simply add some more water. Serve with berries or in a crepe or pancakes, or on top of your breakfast. You can leave out the cacao and add vanilla, lemon etc...

Leek, mushroom, carrot & kale in a creamy thyme sauce

Ingredients

 300g button mushrooms, sliced

1 leek, white part only, washed, 1 cm slices

4 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

1 bunch kale, washed and chopped up, you can take the stalk out if you want to

2 cups vege/chicken stock

¼ cup cream, you can omit if you want

1 tablespoon chopped thyme, you could dried thyme or a different herb (1-2 tsp)

3 teaspoons (approx.) corn/rice flour

Salt and pepper

Method

In a wok or really big pan, melt a little butter and add the leek, mushroom and carrot, stir-fry for 3-4 minutes. Add stock and thyme and simmer for 10 mins or until the veg is to your liking. Add cream, stir in then sprinkle over flour evenly over the veg and stir in, it will thicken, if you want it thicker sprinkle over a little more flour. Add kale and wilt down for 3 mins or so. Season with salt and pepper.

You can add sliced chicken/beef etc with the leeks or throw some prawns/fish in at the last 5 minutes of cooking.

 I like this dish- the leek has our sulphur group, the carrot has our beta-carotene, the kale is our green leafy group, full of folate, vitamin K, beta-carotene and the mushrooms have selenium, riboflavin and copper.

   Thyme contains many active principles that are found to have disease preventing and health promoting properties.

 Thyme herb contains thymol, one of the important essential oils, which scientifically has been found to have antiseptic, anti-fungal characteristics. The other volatile oils in thyme include carvacolo, borneoland geraniol.

  Thyme contains many flavonoid phenolic antioxidants like zea-xanthin, lutein, pigenin, naringenin, luteolin,and thymonin. Fresh thyme herb has one of the highest antioxidant levels among herbs, a total ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value of 27426-µmol TE/100 g.

  Thyme is packed with minerals and vitamins that are essential for optimum health. Its leaves are one of the richest sources of potassium, iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, and selenium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Manganese is used by the body as a co-factor for the antioxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron is required for red blood cell formation.

Chocolate Mousse

 Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, you could use white or milk
chocolate
4 eggs, room temperature, separated

300ml thickened cream or pure cream, it has to be whipping cream

Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl; melt in short bursts in the microwave, stirring every few seconds. Alternatively put in glass bowl over a pot of simmering water stirring until chocolate is melted- cool slightly then add egg yolks one at a time, (the yolks should not go in cold), beat well. If the mixture hardens put in microwave for a few seconds. In a large bowl whip cream till soft peaks form. Gently fold chocolate mixture into cream. In a clean bowl beat eggwhite until soft peaks form. Lightly fold half the eggwhites into the cream and chocolate mixture. Gently fold, and then add the other half of the eggwhite. Lightly fold until well combined. Spoon into individual dishes or 1 big bowl. Serve with some fresh berries.

Makes 6-8 serves

 

Chocolate crepes/pancakes with banana & cashew cream

Gluten-free

Serve 1-2

¼ cup of gluten-free flour

2 tsp raw cacao powder/cocoa powder

1 egg

1-2 tbsp milk or milk alternative

1 tsp approx. of your favourite sweetener

Method

In a medium bowl put the flour, cacao, sugar and egg, mix well. Add 1 tbsp milk for more of a pancake consistency. For more of a crepe consistancy use about 2 tbsp (mix should be quite runny.

On a medium heat in a large pan put in a little butter and swirl to coat the pan. Pour in your pancake mix and swirl to evenly coat the pan. If the mix is a thicker one it is harder to swirl. Cook for about one minute then turn over for another minute. You can make 2-4 smaller ones if you want to stack them.

Serve with maple syrup, cream, banana etc…

Serving suggestion roll up with banana and cashew cream

Cashew Cream

 Makes 1 cup

This can be used as a crepe filling or cake filling (using less liquid)

This makes a nice substitute for yoghurt to top your breakfast with.

To get that yoghurt tang use ½ tsp of lemon juice per tbsp. of cashew cream.

½ cup raw cashew nuts

2 cups of hot water

1 medjool date, pitted. You can leave out the date if you want to use it in a savory dish.

Method

Soak nuts for half an hour then drain, reserving ½ cup of the liquid. Process the nuts, liquid and date until very smooth and creamy. To use as a cake filling or similar you can use less liquid and maybe use another date. You could add some cacao if you want a chocolate hit!

Beef kebabs with a creamy green peppercorn and lemon sauce, squash & wilted kale

serves 4

500g beef scotch fillet or rump steak or similar, 2cm dice

1 bunch kale, washed, main stalk taken off and chopped

3-4 yellow squash (approx. 300g) these are the yellow UFO looking vegetable. Cut in half (from north to south not through the equator, if that makes sense) then slice thinly. You could use zucchini.

1 medium head broccoli 450g, then minus the stalk to yield about 300g

150ml pure cream

1 tbsp fresh green peppercorns- you can leave them whole if you want, I like to chop them a little. You can find them in the salt and pepper section at the supermarket. It comes in a small green tin or you can get fresh peppercorns at deli’s. If you can’t find them you can either leave it out or use your normal cracked black pepper corns.

Juice from 1 lemon, you can take the zest off and use for something else before you squeeze it.

4 kebab sticks

Salt and pepper





Method

Thread the beef onto your kebab sticks, check they fit in you pan, you can just chop the ends off if you need to.

Put your broccoli in the bottom rack of the steamer and kale on the top.

Season your beef well with salt and pepper. I like to use Szechuan pepper and salt (use 3 tsp pepper to 1 tsp of salt)

In a large pan heat a little of some oil of your choice. Cook the kebabs on a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, then put your steamer on your stove top (with water in the bottom) and put on high. Then add your sliced squash. Turn over and cook another 2-3 minutes or until the beef is cooked to your liking. When the beef and squash are done take them out and put them aside. Check your broccoli and kale. In the same pan you used from the beef (do not wash it!) Add your lemon and deglaze (scrap all the yumminess from the bottom) then add your cream and peppercorns. Simmer until you have the thickness of sauce you like.(will not take long) Check the seasoning of your sauce and add salt to taste. Place kale on the plates, top with the squash and then top with your beef kebab, place broccoli around the plate. Drizzle the creamy sauce over everything J