food: quinoa surprise

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is the seed of a grain-like crop mostly grown in Peru & Bolivia and is a great source of protein. The surprise of quinoa surprise is that it tastes surprisingly good for something which is so healthy.

Here’s a delicious recipe which is a great accompaniment to poultry etc:

Ingredients:

400g quinoa
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 spring onions, sliced
400g broccoli broken into florets
juice of half a lemon
60g feta cheese, cybed
dash of elderflower cordial (or similar)
2 small carrots, grated
1 tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
salt’n’peppa

Method:
Toast the quinoa in a dry pan over a low heat for a few minutes, then tip into a pan of boiling water for about ten minutes, turn down to a simmer and cover. Meanwhile, toast the cumin & coriander seeds in the dry pan until they smell amazing, then crush in a pestle & mortar. Break the broccoli into florets, steam briefly and then plunge into cold water to stop them cooking, they should be really crunchy.

Next combine the oil, soya, lemon juice, rice vinegar and elderflower in a jar, chuck in the salt’n'pepper, crush the garlic chuck it in too then put on the lid and shake it like there’s no tomorrow. This is the dressing.

When the quinoa is cooked, drain and allow to cool down a bit, put it in a serving bowl and add the crushed seeds, add the dressing, broccoli, cubed feta, grate the carrots, slice the spring onions and mix everything together.

Delicious!

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new toy

flickriver
just keep scrolling down

OK I’m uploading this for no other reason than I seem to be breaking every available rule about blogging, namely: post regularly, keep it simple & keep it focused. I do none of these, but there again I have a very small audience, so it’s mostly just for me. So for those few of you out there: here’s a pretty girl, in blue. I took the photograph.

Pictured above is one Lisa R, an Irish model, with makeup and eye-prosthetics by Danielle Horan, an Irish student from the LA Makeup Academy. This was a fun session to shoot, however I kept on worrying about Lisa’s future health, batting those baby blues in a light breeze would possibly see her aloft, because Lisa is a slightly slight girl.

I agonised over the version above, or a BW conversion, so for those of you who’ve stayed with me this far, here’s another version, you be the judge, you be the jury.

For those of you old enough who might recall a song by Siouxsie & the Banshees called Eve White/Eve Black, you might be aware that I’m being a bit derivative in the title of this post, a little nod to my youth. I used to hang round with a bunch of people who played this song at the wrong speed on the turntable – 33 instead of 45 rpm (that’s a record Kids!) – scared the wits out of ourselves. It’s not the sunniest of songs. For those of you interested or old enough, here’s a link to it on youtube.

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Climbers approaching Camp 3, Lhotse Face, Everest

Some of you know that I went on a charity trek up Kilimanjaro last September under the guidance of Adventure Alternative, a Belfast-based outfit which brought us safely to the top and back. Their director and founder Gavin Bate, is currently perched on the South Col just below the summit of Everest and he’ll be making his bid for the top tonight. You can hear his audio message here:

Gabcast! Everest2009 – MyEverestChallenge.com #45 – Tonight is SUMMIT NIGHT!!!!!

Weather Update and Situation Report from Ireland.com Camp Four

Anyone who wants to support Gavin may do so through his charity, Moving Mountains. This is a brilliant cause and you should give even a few quid. Amazing guy. You can also follow him on twitter if you’re so inclined.

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