Healthy eating day

The last in-between weekend of the course was very enjoyable indeed, despite the rain. I drove up to Wales to see my university ex-housemate Pete who lives in Port Talbot and my other ex-housemate Frankie. It was a mistake to drive up on a Friday afternoon though. It was stop-start all the way from Exeter to Bristol on the M5 and bucketing it down with rain. Still, the cheese straws and some lemon fanta kept me going! We went to Barry Island on Saturday for an adventure and saw where the sitcom Gavin and Stacey was filmed. We even went inside Stacey's house- the lady who lives there let's you and you can even lie on the bed. Amazing!

Anyway, back to the cooking. The final week began with a healthy eating day. I had been looking forward to this day as I was eager to learn how to cook healthy food that is both delicious and exciting. We started by making some breakfasty things. Violetta, who is German and extremely healthy, showed us how to make raw porridge with a fresh fruit salad. What?! 'Raw porridge' I hear you cry? You soak oat groats in water for about 24 hours which brings the energy out of them and softens them to aid digestion. Blitz them in a blender to break them up, add some cinammon, natural sweetener and fresh fruit of your choice et voila. It was good. A little chewy, but I think I'd get used to it. I'm just used to cooked porridge. But it does you a world of good, so maybe I'll be eating this for breakfast often in the future?! Slow release energy etc. We then made a smoothie out of raspberries (yep, got it, sounds good), mint (ok...for flavour and freshness) and curly kale (umm...what?!) It also had oranges, apples and apple juice in it. Kale is very good for you- rich in iron, calcium, folic acid and cancer phytochemicals. It's the best of the 'green' veggies you can eat. It made the smoothie a little browner than pink from the raspberries than you'd expect, but it was quite nice. I think I'd strain out the raspberry seeds though, as it was a bit chewy and I didn't like the sensation of the seeds being stuck in my teeth. Violetta suggested juicing kale as it's really good for you. Or having 'green' juices such as cucumber or celery. I really don't like those kinds of bright green juices, so I'm not so sure.

Organic steamed salmon fillet with basil pesto, rocket and edible flower salad and lightly toasted seeds

For lunch it was steamed salmon. Steaming is the healthiest way to cook food, you know. We made a pesto without the standard parmesan cheese, which is actually called 'pistou'. It was really delicious. The pesto was really good, even without the cheese. Absolutely delectable. Perfect for a light lunch, but full of goodness. We then made a gluten free pasta. Do you know what the magic ingredient to give gluten free pasta dough its stretch is? I feel another fact coming up! It's xanthan gum which is used to make chewing gum. But do you know where it comes from? That's right, it's a slime from a certain type of bacteria. Mmm! Anyway, we were all excited to see if we could taste the difference between normal pasta and gluten free, so we rolled out the pasta dough, cut it into tagliatelle and angel hair, cooked it, tossed it in the left over pesto and had it as a starter with some pine nuts, green lentil shoots and parmesan. My partner, Margaret and I were like a well-oiled machine today, working well together as a pasta-making factory line. (There's a running joke in the group, that whenever we call Margaret's name, it sounds like Matt Lucas from Little Britain calling 'Margaret? Margaret?...Yes??' I think it just started from when teacher James started doing it and we've all picked it up).

So we had the pasta as an impromptu starter and I really couldn't tell the difference between normal pasta and the gluten free. The gluten free was just a bit thicker as you wouldn't be able to roll it as thin as normal pasta because there isn't any gluten to allow it to be super thin. I like thick pasta anyway. Superbly divine.

The supper main course was poached chicken roulade stuffed with roasted red peppers, sun blushed tomatoes and olives, served with a chilli, chickpea and red pepper coulis and steamed green vegetables. We made the chicken roulade by butterflying the breasts and then flattening them to thin them out. Rob said as he heard some people bashing their chickens rather harshly, 'remember, they're already dead, so you don't have to bash them too hard!' Haha! Then we simply added some olives and sun blushed tomatoes, rolled up the breast and then steamed it until cooked. You could add some cheese in the middle if wanted, perhaps some mozzarella. But then if we did that today, it wouldn't have been so healthy!

The meal was scrumptious. I especially enjoyed the moist steamed chicken and the chickpeas. I felt my body appreciate the nutrition of the steamed greens too. Mange tout, pak choi and sugar snap peas. Mmm mmm. The coulis was good too. Not too much heat from the chilli either. Perfect.

Then it was pudding time. A dark chocolate mousse that is dairy and egg free. Suitable for pregnant women, the young and the old, as there's no raw egg in it. Now I hear you cry (again) well how on earth do you make a chocolate mousse without double cream or egg whites? The answer is, you use mashed avocados as a base and a setting agent. You don't taste the avocados at all. And you also add some medjool dates for sweetness.

Dark chocolate mousse with a banana choco nut smoothie.

When you taste it, apparently, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this mousse and normal chocolate mousse. I noticed a slightly gritty texture of the dates, but it was very tasty. Margaret gave her verdict on its appearance, 'a dog poo with a raspberry in the middle of it!' Oh Margaret. The smoothie was made with almond milk, bananas and cocoa powder. There was a technological problem with the blender though. The bananas were frozen when blended to make the smoothie cold and to give it some substance. However, there was an awful noise of what we thought was the blender struggling with the frozen bananas. However, when we transferred it to the food processor, it turns out that the turner bit of the blender had actually broken itself and the plastic had crumbled. Anyway, the mousse was good, but I think I prefer the fatty, creamy version. But a good alternative. People might say that this mousse isn't very healthy because of the avocado as it is quite fatty itself, but it's good fats. I tried the smoothie, but I really don't like bananas and it tasted too much of bananas for me. It needed a lot more chocolate to cover up the banana taste. But I enjoyed the mousse.

So tomorrow is judgement day. I'm one of the five people who are cooking from the mystery box tomorrow for everyone else while they wine taste. Arghhhh!! Rob told us that we'll definitely be making a risotto, a flavoured bread, we'll be given a piece of fish or shellfish, some form of meat for a main course and the pudding must contain chocolate as the main ingredient. We can't really prepare much for it, but maybe we can think of potential recipes. So now I'm off to bed, to dream of kitchen failures. Wish me luck for tomorrow!!!