A GUT REACTION

 Years ago, in Wellington I lived for a year in a household of vegetarians which, at the time, was a novel concept having been used to 'meat and two veg' eating for years. I leant to cook without meat which serves me well today. See: HERE

I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian and don't preach to others about the benefits of healthy eating ... but ..... a good friend of ours died a few years ago, at a young age, from bowel cancer. 
Bowel cancer is the second highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand but it is treatable and beatable if detected early enough. A diet that is low in fats and animal product is advised.

So where is this going?

On Robert's blog he finishes each post with a note of what he has cooked or is about to cook for dinner. 

There is a disturbing amount of meat, including fatty meat like lamb and pork mentioned

I looked back on a month's worth of posts (most recent back to a calendar month ago) and can report here his evening meal choices.

"Lamb roast."

"As I put my hand out to receive this very special Sacrament the lady gave me two hosts! I've never received two Jesus' before. My first thought was maybe I could spit one out and take it home to Sue. Then I remembered back to when I had the job of handing out the Eucharist, I recalled the priest eating any left over hosts. I swallowed both and sat back at my pew."

"Chicken, brussel (sic) sprouts and those mushroom things."

"Fish burgers with extra fish! (Sue had oysters and didn't want all of hers)."

"Rissoles, spuds and peas."

"Lamb roast for dinner."

"Hot dogs for dinner."

Roast dinner.

"Lamb roast dinner."

"Scotch eggs and veges."

"Fish and chips."

"Chicken and veges."

"Chicken and mushroom pasta"

"Chicken and veges." Bizarrely in a pst titled 'Animals Matter'

"Lamb chop and veges."

"Sushi and flied rice."

"Chicken rissoles and indian (sic) peas and cauliflower and spuds with gravy."


I did think that he consumed more pork (not a deliberate pun although the little critters might be tasty) but that must have been in previous month's posts.

The more observant reader will note that Robert includes 'veges' in most of the meals mentioned. It's worrying though that he doesn't define which vegetables he cooks and he might be like my sister who thinks adequate vegetables intake is chips and frozen peas.

I do take my hat off to him though in his choice of sushi which he made himself I believe. I don't know what 'flied' rice is though unless it suggests that he dropped the pan when cooking it.

Balance in our eating habits is the thing. For every meat based dish we consume we should give our guts a break and eat vegetable based or vegetarian dishes for at least the next two meals.

I'M GNOCCHI-DING - THIS IS GOOD

 I like gnocchi and often order it in restaurants. The restaurant in the new Hundertwasser Art Centre  does a particularly nice spinach and ricotta one with a mushroom, pinenuts and roasted artichoke cream sauce. Yummy.

Whenever I've bought pre-made gnocchi from the supermarket I've been disappointed. I've done this because I thought that making gnocchi from scratch was complicated. I was wrong.

I found this recipe on-line and gave it a go last night.

INGREDIENTS

500 g cottage or ricotta cheese ( I used ricotta)

2 cups plain flour + extra as needed

100 g parmesan, grated

6 eggs

Small handful each parsley and basil, chopped

2 tsp sea salt

Tomatoes for topping (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Mix the gnocchi ingredients together in a big bowl to form a soft, just-sticky dough. Don’t over mix. Turn out onto a well-floured surface.
Divide dough into six portions, then roll each into a 3cm-thick log. Cut into 2cm lengths, dusting the little pillows with flour as you go.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Cook gnocchi in batches, dropping handfuls of the little dumplings into the water and cooking for 4-5 minutes only (they will sink then rise to the surface), removing with a slotted spoon and transferring them directly to serving plates.
To serve, add a splash or olive oil and some chopped basil or parsley or tomatoes to the dumplings.
Serve with grated parmesan and a squeeze of lemon juice.

I cut the recipe in half using 250 gms of ricotta and only 3 eggs and this was still enough for dinner and lunch today for the two of us.

I made a sauce of lemon and fennel infused olive oil, pesto and lemon juice, mixed this through the cooked gnocchi and topped with some good Parmesan cheese. 

The result was excellent and delicious and will now become a staple dish. Once I've 'mastered' the basics of a dish I then experiment with different ingredients. I'll try using combinations of pumpkin, potato, spinach, smoked salmon,  with different herbs and sauces in future.