Recipe: Herby Boulangere Potatoes

Potatoes from Avignon by miladus

Delicious and entirely Candida diet-friendly potato recipe shared by The Cottage Smallholder (providing you use yeast/sugar-free stock powder). Great as a side-dish, or on its own. Economical, frugal, simple and very comforting.

Recipe: Potato Mamoosa

Made this recipe for dinner tonight.  Sounds a little odd, but is really very tasty.  And, as far as I can tell, perfectly anti-Candida diet A-OK (you could always leave out the chilli).

Recipe: Carrot and Potato Rosti

Rude veg by Silversprite

A delicious, quick and easy recipe:

Carrot & Potato Rosti

Makes one large rosti, which will serve two as a side dish, or one as a main course.

3 medium carrots, washed and peeled

3 medium potatoes, washed and peeled

butter or olive oil spread

salt and pepper

grated goats cheese (optional)

Grate the carrots and potatoes. Place in a bowl. Season to taste and mix well with hands.

Heat a knob of butter/olive oil spread in a small non-stick frying pan. Squeeze excess water out of potato/carrot mixture with hands, or in a clean tea-towel.

When the butter/spread is nice and bubbly, add the carrot/potato mixture, pressing it into the pan. Cook on a moderate heat, turning every five mins or so (it helps to turn the rosti out onto a dinner plate, before sliding it back into the pan), until golden-brown and crispy on both sides (around twenty mins).

For an extra treat, add grated cheese to the top of the rosti and allow to melt in the pan.

New potatoes in a Japanese stylee

Photo by poluz

Just a quick post (mired in a case study at the moment - ugh) to let you all know how yum this recipe -courtesy of Maki - is.

N.B. Instead of butter I used Olivio, or Bertolli Spread, or whatever it's called now.

Tip: Kikkoman's soy sauce doesn't contain any added sugar. I buy it in big litre bottles from the Chinese supermarket and decant it into one of their pretty glass containers as and when needed. Works out much cheaper.

Recipe: Massaman Curry

At last! The first of those recipes I promised...

Adapted from Healthy Dairy-Free Eating, by Mini C and Tanya Carr (p. 99).

Massaman Curry

Serves 4

1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp Thai red curry paste (I used Geo Organics Red Curry Paste - which apart from a spot of white wine vinegar and orange juice is Candida diet-friendly)
310g firm tofu, cut into chunks
200ml coconut milk
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 onion, coarsely sliced
1 tbsp cashew nuts (I added extra!)
4 cardamon seeds
1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tbsps freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tbsps granulated xylitol
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 handful coriander leaves to garnish

Heat oil in a pan over a low heat. Add the curry paste and stir-fry or about 15 seconds - don't burn! Add the tofu chunks and stir-fry for 1 minute.

Stir in the coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes, add the potatoes, onion, cashews, cardamon and cinnamon.

Season with lemon juice, xylitol and soy sauce. Leave curry to simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Garnish with the coriander leaves and serve with boiled brown rice. Delicious!

Recipe: Luscious Leek & Potato Soup

My own recipe, this simple soup has no added fat (someone is trying to lose a few pounds so she can fit back into her skinny jeans!) and is suitable for vegans, as it has no added dairy.

Luscious Leek & Potato Soup

Makes 3-4 servings

5-6 medium potatoes
1 large leek
1 shallot or small onion
1 tbsp Marigold Vegan and Yeast-free stock powder
freshly ground black pepper
freshly ground nutmeg

Peel and chop the potatoes into two or three pieces. Place in a large saucepan and just cover them with cold water. Cover and bring to the boil. Simmer until the potatoes are starting to soften, and then add the leek, well rinsed and chopped and the stock powder. Stir, re-cover and simmer until potatoes are cooked. Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Remove the vegetables and about two ladles of the cooking liquid to a liquidiser. Blend until smooth and return to the saucepan and remaining cooking liquid. Stir well and heat gently. Add pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Serve with sourdough drop scones (recipe to follow soon!).

A tasty lunch idea

Last weekend I had lunch at a cafe in town. Perusing the menu to see what I could eat within the bounds of the anti-candida diet, I hit upon a jacket potato topped with cottage cheese and pineapple. I don't know if that's a peculiarly British combination; it sounds strange, but it works well. So, I recreated it this lunchtime. I added a sprinkle of paprika and freshly ground black pepper to make it a little more exciting.

Yum!

Recipe: Potato and Onion Fry

Well the name just about sums it up. I'd completely run out of food this evening, so had to cobble dinner together from the odd thing I had lying around. I came up with this. Add a tomato sauce and a drizzle of yoghurt (in place of soured cream) and you'd get a candida diet friendly Patatas Bravas.

Potato and Onion Fry

1 large potato
half a large onion
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
soft goats cheese
seasoning: freshly ground pepper, salt and paprika

Peel the potato, cut into quarters and boil until just tender. Meanwhile, grate the garlic and dice the onion. Fry in the olive oil until golden. Drain the potatoes and dice into pieces roughly an inch-cubed. Add to pan and fry gently until golden brown on all sides. Add a sprinkle of paprika and season to taste.

Serve with a couple of chunks of goats cheese just starting to melt on the top of the potatoes and boiled/steamed broccoli.

Prosciutto and how to use it

Errata: When I originally wrote this post I had a bit of a brain freeze and talked about pancetta when - of course - I meant prosciutto ham. Duh! Sorry...

When I first started out on the Candida Diet I was told that I couldn't have smoked or cured meat in any circumstances. The idea being that cured meat has been hanging around in an environment conducive to yeast and mould growth. I've always felt a bit ambivalent towards this prohibition. After all, how much meat these days in cured or smoked in a shed or up a chimney, with no environmental/hygiene controls whatsoever? And wouldn't heating/cooking kill off any organisms which had managed to colonise my rasher of bacon, or slice of smoked salmon?

Over the two years since, these restrictions have been relaxed slightly (not least because I have a different nutritional therapist now): I'm now allowed to eat cured or smoked meat occasionally - mainly because there is a school of thought which considers the chemical changes that occur during curing/smoking as potentially carcinogenic. Nevertheless, the other day - as a treat - I bought myself some prosciutto from Marks & Spencers no least! ;)

Good prosciutto or parma ham should be okay - it shouldn't contain anything but pork, salt and possibly a bit of water. The only thing I found was that it did taste incredibly salty, which I think is a result of me re-educating my taste buds since I went on the diet. Anyway, apart from in a sandwich (made with soda bread) I did come up with a few ideas on how to use the rest of the pack.

Potato farls* with prosciutto and goats cheese

A couple of potato farls or pancakes
Two slices of prosciutto
grated hard goats cheese

Slice each farl/pancake width-ways. Place the farls cut side up on a baking tray/grill pan and toast under a grill for a couple of minutes. Remove, and on top of each farl place half a slice of prosciutto and some grated cheese. Place back under the grill and cook until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.

Delicious! But packed full of calories. ;)

(Sort-of) Pasta Carbonara

Okay, this isn't anything like a real carbonara, but it's kind of the same idea.

Sufficient pasta shells/spaghetti for one person
2/3 slices of prosciutto
cornflour
goats milk/soya milk
olive oil spread
paprika
salt & pepper
Goats cheese
olive oil

Put a saucepan of water on to boil. Add a spot of olive oil to the pan to prevent the pasta from sticking together. When boiling, add the pasta, cover and simmer until al dente. Meanwhile make a white sauce (add a dessert spoonful of cornflour to a pan, with a knob of olive oil spread and a dash of milk - whisk until smooth and cook on a low heat, whisking all the time to prevent the sauce from burning/going lumpy. Gradually add more milk until the sauce is a good consistency). Take off the heat and add the grated cheese, a sprinkle of paprika and salt and pepper to taste (remember, the prosciutto and cheese will be quite salty, so you may not need to add much salt).

Drain the pasta and put back in the saucepan. Tear up the slices of prosciutto into strips and add to the pasta along with the cheese sauce. Give it a good stir and serve.

*I thought that I'd written about potato farls/pancakes/bread before in this blog, but it turns out I haven't, so here goes. Potato farls tend to be candida diet-friendly (with caution). Predominantly made from potato, they do include a small amount of plain wheatflour and occasionally (as is the case with Marks & Spencer's version), vinegar. As ever, it's important to check the ingredients list, and if there's anything you're not sure about, it's best to leave it on the shelf.

How to use up leftover salmon

I had a nearly successful attempt at using up a piece of cooked salmon this evening. I used Barbara Cousin's white sauce from her Potato and Leek Pie recipe (brown rice flour, goats milk, mustard powder, bay leaf, nutmeg, lemon zest), into which I added the flaked salmon, broccoli florets, wholewheat spaghetti and grated some hard goats cheese over the top. Not bad, but got a bit sick of the spaghetti after a few mouthfuls (not feeling on top form at the moment).

Incidentally I made Leek and Potato Pie (p. 157) the other day. Very good. The best sort of comfort food; creamy sauce and mashed potato. Yum!

Barbecues and the anti-candida diet

I should really start at the basics, but as the weather has been so fantastic recently ('though it looks like the heat wave has now broken) and as my housemates and I had a (slightly breezy and damp) barbecue last night, I thought I'd share a few recipes/ideas for anti-candida diet friendly barbecue food.

Red pepper and halloumi kebabs

I can't really take credit for these. A vegetarian friend of mine had a vision of some kind of cheesy/pepper/red onion combo, and this is what I came up with.

Makes approx. four kebabs

1 large red pepper
2 red onions
packet of halloumi cheese (made with ewes' milk and available from Sainsburys and Marks & Spencers, and probably elsewhere too)
chilli or basil infused olive oil
kebab sticks/skewers.

Cut all the pepper, onions and cheese into pieces and arrange on the sticks/skewers, alternating between pepper, onion and cheese (aim for about three cubes of cheese per kebab). Drizzle with the olive oil and grill until the cheese is starting to brown (halloumi is 'grill-able', it won't melt and make a cheesy mess all over your barbecue).

Pseudo-Greek salad

Again, kind of inspired by a creation of my vegetarian friend. Can be adapted according to taste/availability of ingredients/time and effort you're prepared to put in!

Makes a large bowl of salad, enough to feed at least six.

Go to the supermarket and buy:

bag of mixed salad leaves
bag of watercress
2 gem lettuces or a large cos lettuce
half a cucumber
baby spring onions (or normal ones, trimmed and sliced length-ways)
small jar of green olives (look for ones that aren't preserved in vinegar/citric acid - the Co-op own brand ones are okay)
packet of feta cheese (Marks & Spencers sell an 'all sheep' feta)

For the dressing:

garlic-infused olive oil
cider vinegar (or freshly squeezed lemon juice, if you're avoiding vinegar)
mixed herbs (fresh or dried)
salt and pepper

Take half a bag of mixed salad leaves and mix in a bowl with a good handful of watercress. Roughly chop the gem/cos lettuce(s) and add to the bowl, along with the cucumber (halved and sliced), the spring onions, the olives (drained) and the feta cheese (chopped into cubes).

Mix about three glugs of olive oil in a mug or jar with a capful of cider vinegar (or a good squeeze of lemon). Whisk until combined and add herbs, salt and pepper to taste.

Just before serving, pour dressing on salad and toss.

Non-mayonnaise potato salad

V simple and probably nicer than potato salad made with mayonnaise.

As many new potatoes as you think you'll need
handful of baby spring onions
bio/natural yoghurt
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes until al dente. Drain, halve (large ones) and allow to cool. Chop spring onions and add to potatoes. Stir in a couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt (enough to generously coat the potatoes without 'drowning' them). Add salt and pepper to taste.

Red pepper salsa

More like a chunky salad than one of those jars of dips you get to eat with tortilla chips. This recipe owes a lot of Delia.

To make enough for six (couple of good spoonfuls each):

one large red pepper
three-four large tomatoes
red onion
fresh mint
small red chilli
lemon juice
olive oil
salt and pepper

Blanch the tomatoes to remove the skins. When cool, remove the seeds and chop into small chunks. Mix in a bowl with the red pepper and onion (cut into equal sized chunks). Slice (as much as you can bear of) the chilli, chop a sprig of mint leaves and stir both into the tomato/pepper/onion mix. Add a splash of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and mix together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Options for meat-eaters

• Use of sprinkle of Schwartz' 'Season-All' and a splash of olive oil to enliven grilled chicken.
• Cook salmon pieces (seasoned with freshly ground pepper) en papilotte - shielded from the BBQ flames in an aluminum foil parcel.
• Make a marinade for king prawns by mincing or grating a clove of garlic and a piece of ginger and mixing with a splash of chilli-infused olive oil.

'Vegetarian' burgers and sausages: A word of caution

Many pre-prepared/processed vegetarian burgers and sausages, be they made from soya or Quorn, are unlikely to be suitable for people following the anti-candida diet. Apart from added sugar (could be masquerading as 'dextrose') and yeast extract, they're crammed full of additives and preservatives. Quorn is also a fungus-based product, and so should be avoided if you've been advised to steer well clear of mushrooms.

The next instalment will be about breakfasts. 'Til then...