Lauras Tuscan Cooking

When many people think of Caribbean food the automatically think about jerk chicken and curry goat with pea and rice and although this is a favourite for so many people this is mainly enjoyed by the people wanting to taste a bit of the Caribbean flavour.

Traditional Caribbean food consists of so much more than the common dishes we see the most common food in many Caribbean islands is fresh fish this is commonly pouched or grilled on a BBQ

Other foods consist of their soups these can contain things such pigs trotters, snouts & ribs and finished off with yam and dumplings and sweet potatoes. (Yum Yum)

I do like my Jerk sauces and so things like  jerk pork and chicken are always a winner.

I often have this argument with many people that eating smaller portions is just as good as dieting. The thing is most things are good for you in responsible quantities including fats and so it is when we over indulge or eat to be much that the problems start such as obesity & diabetes.

My thought is that when plating out your meals have reasonable sizes if there is still some left in the pan that don’t mean that you have to eat it all you can always save the rest for anther meal you never know this might save you some and you will find yourself not cooking as much.

Like so many of us we all like a full English breakfast whether this include your egg fried or scrambled and the majority of the time when abroad on a holiday or business trip we always like to eat something that we know,

For the Italians their traditional breakfast or as they call it the “prima colazione” consists of a number of things such as, cappuccinos, bread or rolls with butter or Maraschino Cherry Marmalade, Brioche or Panini’s.

Now to me that sounds allot more appealing than eggs, beacon & sausages swimming in fat but i suppose it’s what people know best.

Channel 4 had a programme called Cook Yourself Thin and you can go online to www.channel4.com and look up and print off the recipes to cook at home and i must say the ingredients and instructions to cook the recipes are sooo easy even the non cooks out there will not struggle.

You can make starters, mains, desert’s and snacks so there is a bit of everything out there.

My personal favorites are:

Mushrooms on toast
Potato skins with soured cream
Korean fried chicken
Roast lamb with warm salad

Let me know what your favorite recipe is so other people can try.

I went to a Market in Chelford Cheshire yesterday and i saw a lot of people gathering around a large van and when i got near i saw that it was a specialist butcher van selling meet which there were cutting and weighing in front of you.

I ended up spending £40 and managed to fill a freezer draw with sirloin steak, chicken, minted lamb chops and normal lamb chops and these will now feed myself and my partner for at least 2 months.

I would definitely go back when these have sold out as all of the meat looked lovely and so far it has been nice to eat and the plus side is that i have probably saved a small fortune…

Jamie Oliver has brought out a new book called “Jamie Does – Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, Morocco, Greece” as a spin off from his TV programme on channel 4 which i watched and if you go online you can buy the book signed by Jamie Oliver himself.

Some of the recipes from the book are:

• Gorgeous rosemary prune skewers
• Roquefort salad with warm croutons and lardons
• the world famous tarte tatin
• Greek Salad
• best tiramisu
• nini bellini
• beef tagine
• prawn stuffed spicy fish with vermicelli

let me know if you have bought the book and if you found it is usefull for use in England or if it is for the countries listed in the title only…

i have been cooking a lot for my friends at the moment and cannot afford to cook extravagant meals for them so i have been going to Sainsburys and making the “feed your family for a fiver” meals as displayed on cards in the entrance or online at www.sainsburys.co.uk.

I made them Thai Peanut Chicken on Saturday night and it turned out fantastic and my mates cannot believe it cost under £5 to make for 4 people to eat.  Actually i am lying i got some warm bread on top so it cost just over £5 to make.

My next recipe i want to make is the Spicy Veggie burger!!!!

I have been making lots of meals using the recipes off the Philadelphia website as they can be made using all low fat ingredients and it makes the meal a bit more interesting.

The different recipes they have online are:

• Tangy Mango Cheesecake
• Vanilla & Lavender Philly Brulee
• Cray Fish, Clam & Haddock Fish Pie with Philadelphia mash
• Asparagus, pea & mint Philadelphia souffle
• Thai fish skewers
• Philly & fruit open sandwich
• Philly chicken and bacon bake
• Asparagus, Philly & mint tagliatelle
• Philly Smoothie
• Oreo vanilla cheesecake

For a full list of recipes and more ideas visit the site at www.philadelphia.co.uk.