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| Recipe of the week... ... Dukkah-Rolled Middle Eastern Eggs |
Ingredients: 10g fresh dill, 2 tablespoons harissa paste,
150g Greek-style yoghurt, 130g freekeh, 4 free range eggs, 1 garlic clove, 1
teaspoon nigella seeds, 125g cherry tomatoes, 30g hazelnuts, 1 teaspoon cumin
seeds, olive oil, sugar, salt & pepper
Time taken: 40 minutes max
Serves: 2 super filing, super healthy, super tasty portions
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Hi readers,
Happy Monday! And I mean that in all seriousness – with a
straight face – I hope you’re all enjoying a happy Monday so far. What do you
reckon? How’s it going?? Are you kick-starting the week? Off to a tremendous
start?
I do hope you are, readers. Start as you wish to go on, and
all that jazz. Mine’s a funny start to the week as I’m back to work after a
week off! It’s funny to set the old alarm and get back into commuting and
packing my lunch. But good to see colleagues and throw myself back into working
and being purposeful.
And I’ve brought baking in for everyone! Banana buns to
start the week on a high for my lovely colleagues in the office, to widespread
praise. J On
a foody note – continuing my current blog theme of thinking about our food
habits – my latest realm of wondering and pondering has taken a turn towards
our emotions. This past week off work, readers, I’ve been thinking about how it
is that emotions can get in the way of rational eating.
Emotions – these crazy, unpredictable tides of feeling that
set us apart from robots – can definitely affect the ways we eat. They switch
things up! Have you ever thought about this, readers? Emotions are one of the
factors that stop us from eating robotically, in set patterns. But they can
also mess things up sometimes, too, and lead us to eat irrationally in ways we
wouldn’t necessarily choose.
What is emotional eating? In the re:wellbeing program I’ve
been working through, “Emotional eating
is defined as ‘eating a large quantity of food in response to internal cues
that aren’t physical hunger’. Emotional eating and overeating doesn't have to be
a bad thing. It’s totally okay to eat for enjoyment, to make
yourself happy and to overeat on occasions (e.g. eating cake at a birthday
party even though you have already filled up at the buffet). It’s okay if
you’re choosing mindfully what and how much you are going to eat.”
Which – I’d
say – makes good sense! As long as you have your thinking cap on and it’s you
that calls the shots, then it’s great to let your emotions guide the food
choices you make. If you’re feeling drunk in love and some god of a bloke is
trying to feed you strawberries dipped in champagne – eat. those. strawberries.
If you’re
nervous ahead of an exam or an interview or a presentation, and don’t feel like
eating, then you don’t need to force food down. If that same bloke is trying to
ghost you, like those strawberry times never happened, and you’re feeling like
murder – you could cut him up and eat every tiny piece of him if that’s what
you choose to do. Jus sayin.
On the flip hand,
according to re:wellbeing, “The link
between food and our emotions becomes a problem when we try to self-medicate
with food all of the time, in large quantities and when we haven’t dealt with
the emotions, issues and situations that are underlying our cravings to eat. If we don’t know how to recognise and
accept/respond to our feelings then we can believe that we are powerless to
change. In most cases emotional eating isn’t about wanting to eat the
food, it’s about how it makes you feel and what it allows you to escape from.”
Which, I get. When you’re eating as a distraction from
something you don’t want to really think about right now. Or to cheer you up a
little because something’s happened to get you down. As an antidote to a
problem you’re not sure how to fix otherwise… can you relate this at one time
or another, readers?
And maybe
this pattern of reactionary eating when something bad comes along, that then
becomes something you feel bad about in itself, thus triggering more eating in
response? You can see how easy it would be to get stuck in a rut with this. And
how hard it would be to fix if you lose track of what it was in the first place
that started everything, which is maybe a negative feeling you still haven’t
found a solution to all this time later. Following me?
In the words of re:wellbeing, “Often emotional eating happens in the form of binge eating, where you
feel that you are out of control and are unable to stop eating even though
you’re not hungry. You are likely to eat faster than normal and may hardly even
taste the food – you’re just desperate to eat more and more. Emotional eating
is frequently done in 'secret' or when you eat alone. After eating you may feel
happy and satisfied, but it’s more likely that you may feel guilt or other
negative emotions.”
And this is no good! If once in a blue moon you have a
Bridget Jones moment where you take to bed with an expensive box of chocolates
and a cheap bottle of wine – this sounds as though it’s entirely justified. I
salute you. Whoever it is – your boss, your ex, your ex-best friend, your
personal trainer – they were mean to you and you’re better than them.
In other cases – say you can clearly remember the last time
this happened. It wasn’t that long ago, it was only last week or not long
before, and really what was that about? Was it necessary? Why was it that
happened? Are you standing defiant right now – having drunk dialled them into
next year – or are you maybe a little let down with yourself? Unsure whether it
was okay. Guilty that you got away with it and worried about a repeat.
That’s when, I’d say, your emotions and the foods you eat
have formed unhappy company. They’ve grown a little too close? You’re not sure
whether you’re calling the shots anymore. Whether the brakes are still working
or it would seem you’re skidding off-track. But that’s not YOU. It’s just a bad
patch with food you’re in. LOOK AT YOU – you’re not a bedridden whale-sized
human quite yet. Things aren’t that bad.
Say you’re been eating emotionally – it’s totally within
your power to cut it out. Rise above it and start afresh and be as wonderful as
you like. Begin acting like the funky, cool human everyone knows you are – why
not book some time in with your friends to remind you how brilliant life is?
Chin up and kick start things again! I believe we all have it within us to be
strong, healthy, happy humans.
And – on that high note – I have some food for you, readers,
to enjoy in wonderful company, with laughs all round. My recipe of the week,
readers, is the third I’ve taken on – with great success – from recipe and
ingredient home delivery company, Gousto. Feast your eyes on this recipe for Dukkah-Rolled Middle Eastern Eggs, in
just 15 simple steps…
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Recipe:
Dukkah-Rolled Middle Eastern Eggs
1.
Get your game face on. Hair back, drink poured,
ingredients out on the counter. Set some upbeat music playing, to carry you
through. Boil the kettle and heat the oven to 220C.
2.
Rinse the freekeh in a sieve under cold water,
then add it to a pan with a lid, along with 500ml boiled water. Boil over a
high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and leave cooking for 20 minutes.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: Wondering what freekeh is? Fear not – I googled it. Freekeh is young green
wheat that has been toasted and cracked. It's a healthy whole grain food, like
bulgur wheat. Although freekeh’s been around for centuries, its recent
resurgence has been traced back to an Oprah segment featuring freekeh in 2010.
Freekeh, along with quinoa, is part of the "ancient grain" food trend
storming our supermarkets in recent years. Freekeh has a very high fibre
content and makes an excellent source of protein for vegetarian and vegans. Who
knew??
3.
Then, pop your hazelnuts on a small baking tray
and put the tray in the oven for 5 minutes.
4.
Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the garlic, and
set the kettle boiling again.
5.
Once your hazelnuts have slightly darkened, remove
them from the oven and turn this off. Set aside for now.
6.
Carefully add the eggs to a pan of boiling water
with a large pinch of salt, and leave to boil over a high heat for 7 minutes.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: I learned from this recipe that the salt prevents the eggs from cracking!
I’m always learning something new.
7.
While your eggs boil, combine half of the
chopped garlic with the Greek-style yoghurt. Add a drizzle of olive oil, and a
pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside for now – this is your garlic
yoghurt.
8.
Once the eggs are ready, drain the water from
their pan and re-fill with cold water. Leave then to cool in this cold-water
pan.
9.
Don’t forget about your freekeh! After about 20
minutes, once it’s cooked through, drain and then return the freekeh to the
pan.
10. Chop
your dill finely, including the stalks, and stir most of it through the freekeh
(save the rest for garnish). Season generously with salt and pepper. Set aside
for now.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: I then popped the pan full of freekeh in my still-warm (but switched off)
oven, to keep warm.
11. Next,
add the toasted hazelnuts and cumin seeds to a food processor and blitz into a
rubble (if you lack a food processor – try whizzing about in a smoothie maker
or grinding using a pestle & mortar!). Season generously with salt and
pepper and stir in the nigella seeds – this is your dukkah.
12. Peel
your eggs carefully. Then – this is the fun part – roll the peeled eggs in the
dukkah mix until fully coated. Isn’t it amazing how everything sticks to the
eggs! Set aside for now. Keep hold of any leftover dukkah.
ChefBeHere Top
Tip: Your eggs can join the freekeh in the oven, if you like, to keep warm.
13. Final
thing to do – chop your cherry tomatoes in half. Wipe out the egg pan and
return to a medium heat with a splash of cooking oil (or a knob of butter for
extra richness).
14. Once
hot, add the tomatoes, the remaining chopped garlic, the harissa paste, and a
pinch of salt and sugar. Cook for 5 minutes or so, until the tomatoes have
softened.
15. Time
for assembly… spoon your freekeh evenly between two bowls, add the garlic
yoghurt, and then the harissa tomatoes.
Halve your eggs and add to the dish, then garnish with the remaining
chopped dill and sprinkle over any leftover dukkah. You’ve done it – now time
to tuck in!
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| To an exciting eggy, grainy tea! |
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In the words of
Gousto…
“These eggs are cooked somewhere between soft and hard boiled, giving
them a solid shape with a yielding middle. We’ve served them rolled in a
hazelnut ‘dukkah’ – a traditional Egyptian spice blend seasoning made with
toasted nuts. Finished with a cool garlic yoghurt and harissa braised cherry
tomatoes. Egg-stra special stuff!”
What do you think, readers? It’s a bit of a funny recipe, isn’t
it. You’re going to need a big supermarket for a few of the ingredients
involved, which aren’t likely to be stocked in your local corner shop (I’m thinking
harissa paste, freekeh, nigella seeds), but if you’re planning a trip to a big supermarket
– then no problemo!
I had never heard of freekeh, before trying this recipe, but
liked it a lot! As grains go, it reminded me most of bulgar wheat I’d say.
Tasted fine! Nothing markedly different from grains I’ve eaten before, and
quite tasty here in this recipe paired with the eggs, and a cool yoghurty dollop,
and the slightly spicy tomato addition.
There’s a lot going on in this dish, readers, and it may
look like there are a lot of steps to the recipe. But none of them are
difficult! It’s easy to throw together, really. And an interesting plateful of
food to serve up – you’ll impress if you serve to friends. And tasty, too! I
thought this was a filling and great-tasting tea. Unusual and pleasantly
surprising.
What do you reckon, readers? Looking at the photos – might
you give this a go? Is this the kind of food you fancy?? Lemme know! If you
give this recipe a whirl, please share how you get on in the kitchen.
Nightmare? Success? And what do you think of the food – do you like it??
Generally – shout out with your thoughts on freekeh, readers, and any
suggestions for other recipe ideas involving this mystery grain.
Wishing you ALL a brill week ahead. The best one yet…
Freekeh safely,
Hayley
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An informative footer
I’d like to note, the above is part of a series of posts that I’m
currently having fun writing, while undertaking a fresh start with food. Food
bloggers can’t admit they got bored with food, you say? Well, I beg to differ!
In August 2017, I made two wonderful decisions; I signed up for Gousto – a food
delivery company who send recipes and ingredients in the post – and I began a
health & wellness program to transform my food habits, with Rachel of
re:Wellbeing. In this blog post, and others like it, I share one of the
wonderful recipe that I’m taking on, and an idea that I’m exploring as part of
this fresh start.
If you would like to find out more about Gousto, please visit https://www.gousto.co.uk/
(I have a sneaky discount code! If you’re new to Gousto, then click
HERE for 50% off your first 2 boxes and I’ll get a discount too for referring
you… so errrrybody wins)
And, if you would like to learn more about re:Wellbeing, then visit https://www.rewellbeing.com/
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