The Simple Things Taste So Good

I just love training with my client Julie. She’s a determined lady, who works hard in every session and even with her ‘advancing years’ (her term not mine!) she can bench press a weight most young beans would be proud of and hold plank for longer than most yoga or pilates regulars.  She is also a fantastic cook and we often share recipes and creations.

Julie will of course add her unique twist to anything I share.  Last week we both cooked Teresa Cutters adorable Banana Bread.  So tasty it’s feels more naughty than nice, Julie added ginger and flaked almonds to the recipe and took it to a whole new level of mouth watering yumminess!

Her culinary gift to me this week was her rice cooker recipes.  So easy and simple it’s just something I had to pass on to everyone!  In fact it’s not so much as a recipe as standing in front of the fridge and going ‘some of that, a little bit of this, a touch of that’.  Just what I love, no scales or worrying about amounts, just throw in what you fancy and go.

Now, I know these recipes have been around for a while, but I confess to being a total luddite when it came to this new revelation.  I feel like I’ve been living under a rock and a whole new realm of culinary ease has been opened for me.   I love love love spending hours cooking up a storm, but this is brilliant if you are short of time.

So, post training last night, I came home pulled the rice cooker out, added a cup of brown rice, 2 cups of water, 1 veggie stock cube, 1/2 a diced onion, popped on the lid, switched it on, and promptly went in the shower.  15 minutes later with me all shiney and clean, I added 1 sliced large mushroom , half a sliced courgette , a handful of chopped green beans, a handful of fresh chopped basil, recovered and ignored it for another 15 minutes.

The aroma that permeated the kitchen was wonderful and I could smell it from the bathroom while I blow dried my hair.

15 mins later I stirred in a handful of grated pecorino and some fresh spinach and served it up with a little crumbled sheep feta cheese and black pepper.

Et voila!  Dinner was served, I had a ready made lunch for the following day, and I’d done little more than chop a few veggies and spend a whole lot of me time!

Julie also suggests: chopping in some fresh ginger, coriander, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves or any of using the green Thai curry paste.

You can also vary the dish by making it a Moroccan style flavouring it with cinnamon and cardamom.

So dust off your rice cooker and use it for something less boring than just plain old rice!

(if you don’t have a rice cooker you can use a pan on low heat on the stove, prefect!)


13 December 2011

By Sarah Anne

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