Great digestive biscuit recipe No. 2

Nothing too taxing about this: digestive, cheese, butter, Marmite. A good cheese can make anything taste good. I'm convinced that if you put decent cheese on top of a plate of sawdust it will taste good. Not that digestive biscuits need anything added to them to make them taste better - they're pretty good tasting all by themselves. But there's something about cheese and Marmite and butter and a crumbly thick digestive that just works really well. The first time I tasted this combination was after a night out with my friend Caroline (I have her to thank for introducing me to eating digestives this way). And I was surprised that something with such basic ingredients could taste so good. But that's usually the way it is.

The only problem with eating biscuits this way is that you have double the guilt - treble the guilt if you add butter, which I always do. And because this is so quick and easy to prepare you could quite happly work your way through the biscuit tin as well as a packet of cheese. You'd be OK with the Marmite, though, because as everyone knows, that never runs out...

Quick and easy fried bread

One of the excuses people use for living on precooked convenience foods is that it takes too long to make a decent meal from scratch. Utter tosh. Granted, if you want to eat burgers and fries, then yes, it will take quite a bit of time to make that meal from scratch. But what’s the point of making burgers and fries when you can get them anywhere and everywhere. Surely one of the good things about making a meal from scratch is that it’s not food you’re going to see on every restaurant menu (including the fast-food ones).

When I lived in the UK, I rarely made Indian dishes because there are so many excellent Indian restaurants on almost every high street in the south east of the country – in a lot of other places in the country too. The food’s excellent and it’s reasonably priced. However, that’s not the case here in Edmonton. While there are Indian restaurants, they’re not that accessible for me (at least not without having to drive miles).

I sometimes try my hand at the odd curry but having tasted such good Indian food, it’s always just an OK dish. I find that it’s much easier to whip up a cracking pasta dish. And now we really are talking quick cooking! Jamie Oliver has a recipe in one of his cookbooks that uses no more than half a dozen ingredients and it’s excellent. I’m always amazed that something with so few ingredients in it can taste so good. It’s spaghetti, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, chilli, anchovies, and lemon. However, what really makes this dish so good, I suspect, is the pangritata that’s placed on top of the spaghetti after cooking. Pangritata is poor person’s parmesan cheese – what the pheasants in Italy used to use instead of parmesan. It’s basically fried bread so probably not that good for you, but at least it’s cooked in olive oil and not lard! In Jamie’s chilli spaghetti recipe, you cook breadcrumbs – and these have to be course breadcrumbs, it won’t work with fine ones – in olive oil with sliced garlic and thyme. Once they turn crispy and golden, drain on absorbent kitchen paper all ready for when the pasta’s finished.

To make the pasta dish, cook the spaghetti. While it’s cooking, soften a chopped garlic clove in three or four tablespoons of olive oil. Add the anchovies to the pan. Once they start to melt, crumble in a dried chilli or sprinkle in some chilli flakes, and squeeze in the juice of a lemon. Once the pasta’s cooked, add the chilli mix and give it a good stir so that all the pasta’s coated. Divide between two bowls and then sprinkle on the pangritata. It takes no longer than around 15 minutes to prepare – including all preparation. I would happily eat this every day if I could only convince myself that fried bread was good for my health!

Spicy squash soup - a simple one that is

Another first for me living here in Canada was cooking with squash. I never tried it before back home, but I was so tempted by all the interesting looking squash in the supermarket that I had to give it a go. Admittedly, this recipe isn’t that adventurous but I am just beginning remember; and at least I can claim this recipe as my own (and if it exists elsewhere then that’s pure coincidence – on my part at least!). However, I now know why I don’t bother devising my own recipes: I can never remember all the ingredients I used (never mind how much I used!). And even when it comes to no more than five ingredients (see below), I still struggle – must be an age thing.

Spicy Squash Soup

Vegetable oil
1 butternut squash – skinned, gutted, and chopped into manageable chunks
1 large onion – skinned and chopped
1 garlic clove – crushed (I may be getting this ingredient mixed up with another recipe but I don’t think it would hurt to add it to this soup)
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin (don’t worry – these spices were both used and the measurements are exact!)
Half a litre of vegetable stock (or enough to cover the squash)

In a large saucepan, gently fry the onion (and garlic if using) in the oil until soft and shiny. Add the cubed squash and the spices and stir until everything’s coated. Add the vegetable stock and gently simmer everything for around 20 minutes until the squash is soft. Place in a blender and blend until smooth.

You know it makes sense

When I was growing up, I used to dimiss a lot of what my dad said because he was old; and because he didn't wear high-waisted flared trousers and wedge shoes. The people who knew stuff were the ones who looked like I wanted to look. Now that I'm middle-aged, I've come to realise that my dad did actually talk a lot of sense. One of the things he used to tell me was that it was important to eat breakfast, which is something I do every day now - and have done for quite a number of years. I don't understand people who don't wake up hungry. One of the best things about getting out of bed (or should that be the only best thing about getting out of bed?!) is breakfast.

My breakfast is home-made muesli. It's a fairly basic concoction comprising oats, nuts, seeds, and raisins. I usually throw on top some fresh berries (blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries), and then pour cold semi-skimmed milk (or 1 percent milk which is the closest equivalent here in Canada) over. It's absolutely delicious. It's the best thing I eat all day, any day. It's easy to prepare (I pre-mix all the ingredients - first chopping up the nuts, which are usually almonds - and then just spoon this from the storage container into my breakfast bowl), easy to eat, and you can just rinse the spoon and bowl out with water afterwards. Simple.

The reason breakfast is so important is that it provides the body with fuel to start the day and keep it going until lunchtime. People who don't eat breakfast usually find themselves hungry around mid-morning and then have to eat whatever they can get their hands on, which usually isn't breakfast cereal, but calorie-dense foods such as pastries or potato chips or chocolate bars. And it's this practice that usually mystifies some people as to why they're not losing weight - or gaining it. While it's true that they're just substituting a mid-morning snack for breakfast, it's what that substitution is that usually causes the problems.

Although when it comes to what to eat for breakfast, perhaps those breakfast-skippers are better off with a bag of chips than they are with most commerically produced cereals. Because unless you're eating a cereal that's a simple wholegrain, e.g. puffed wheat (not Sugar Puffs!), chances are you're not eating a particularly healthy breakfast. Look at the ingredients listed on most boxes of cereal and you'll see added sugar and salt. Most people may think they've grown out of having two tablespoons of sugar sprinkled on their Weetabix but they could very well still be eating the same in the guise of something else!

The good thing about oats is that they fill you up and release energy slowly into the body so they keep you going for longer. They can also help with your mood as it's claimed that alkaloid gramine, one of the components of oats, has mild sedative properties. You can eat them with cold milk, or make porridge with warm milk (or water). Oats also contain fibre which helps to keep bad cholesterol levels low; fibre also helps to keep you regular so another good reason to include them in your diet.

Now why didn't any of those cool looking people I wanted to be when I was growing up tell me this...?

Up where we belong

There has recently been some debate in the local paper here in Edmonton about cycling on the sidewalk (or what I call the pavement). Some cyclists prefer to ride on the sidewalk as they see riding on the road as too dangerous. In most cases, from what I can see, these are usually the big boys who look as hard a nails, but evidently that’s all swagger. You see them sitting as far back as they can on the saddles of their customized bikes nonchalantly weaving in and out of the pedestrians along Whyte Avenue. Now Whyte Avenue is probably one of the busiest sidewalks in Edmonton. It’s stupid to cycle along this sidewalk, mainly because, due to the numbers of people walking along it, it would take you ages to actually get anywhere!

I don’t generally have a problem with cycling on the sidewalk – I have to admit to doing it myself at times. However, this is usually when I want to travel the wrong way down a one-way street, or after I’ve crossed a road at the most convenient place to do so and I’m travelling against the flow of traffic. In both instances, we’re talking about riding on the sidewalk for no more than about 50 metres or so - and doing so very slowly. (Although here in Edmonton you see so few people out walking along the residential roads, at any time, that causing injury to someone by riding on the sidewalk is something that I imagine happens very rarely, if ever.)

During the debate as to whether cyclists should be “allowed” to ride on the sidewalk, one of the members of the provincial parliament said something to the effect that cyclists should ride on the sidewalk and that it’s safer for them to do so. Now this I have to disagree with. Rarely is it safer to cycle on the sidewalk than the road. One of the reasons being that the majority of motorists aren’t expecting to see a cyclist on the sidewalk so won’t be looking out for one. This means that if a car is pulling out of an alleyway (of which there are a lot here), there’s a good chance that if you’re cycling along the sidewalk the two of you will collide. For starters, as a cyclist, you will be travelling faster than a pedestrian will be walking. The motorist will be thinking that he can travel at a speed that will enable him to stop in time if he sees someone walking; however, this speed may not enable him to stop in time if you’re approaching on your bike. That’s just one of the dangers for cyclists riding on the sidewalk.

Cyclists are safest when they’re predictable and we are most predictable when we’re riding on the road: this is, after all, where we belong. Which brings me to an important point about this issue: anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a road user should use their vehicle in the manner for which it was intended. If we all take to the sidewalks, then we lose credibility as cyclists – and as road users. I don't know about North America, but in the UK it’s taken years for cycling to be accepted as a credible mode of transport and not just something people do because they can’t afford to drive. If cyclists move from the roads to the sidewalks then we risk going back to the situation where cycling is again viewed as a substitute mode of transport, not a preferred one.

Stick to the roads whenever you can. Ride assertively and predictably. And try not to feel intimidated by motorists. Remember that we have every right to be on the roads. It’s where we belong.

Great digestive biscuit recipe No. 1

This is the easiest dessert in the whole wide world. Just three ingredients and no instructions - the photo shows how it's made. I use a nice thick Greek yogurt, although if you really wanted to go for it, you could use cream. The biscuits are digestives (McVitie's to be precise), because they’re not too sweet and are relatively sturdy.

As soon as you bite into this it will fall apart – so a plate’s fairly useful. Don’t bother with any cutlery though; fingers are all you need.

Bean and gone

I have a great recipe for broad (fava) beans (or rather Rose Elliot does), which is why I decided to grow them this summer. When buying seeds I’m always tempted by the packets with those little veggie cartoons on the front: if kids can grow them, surely I can! I had moderate success with the broad beans. The beans I picked were of a decent size, color, and shape, and tasted good; however, some pods were soft and misshapen and their beans weren’t good. I’m not too sure if the beans were blighted by a disease or if I just didn’t give them enough room in which to grow (I have a modest sized veg patch in my back garden). I also think they may have suffered from a lack of water when I was away for a week or so.

Anyway, they take a good photo!

Rose Elliot's Penne with Minto Pesto, Peans, and Beans (or a variation thereon):

Boil up a pan of penne. While the pasta is boiling, finely chop some mint leaves, crush a garlic clove and stir these into some olive oil. When the pasta is almost ready, add peas and broad beans. Once the pasta’s cooked, drain it (taking care not to lose any of the small peas during the process!), then stir in the mint pesto and season. Serve with parmesan cheese.

Note: If the broad beans are particularly tough, you may need to boil them first, remove their skins, and then add them to the pasta once it's cooked. Frozen peas and beans work just as well, and if you can’t get broad beans, use lima beans.