Stir - Fried Watercress

Found some more watercress and wanted to try this recipe. A bit of spicy heat mixed with a nutritious green. You can quite possibly add 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, if you like, however I think this recipe is all about keeping it simple and clean.  

Stir - Fried Watercress

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3 bunches of watercress

3 red hot peppers, seeds removed

3 packages of firm tofu

1/2 teaspoon salt

chopped garlic

In a large saucepan take 3 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon oil and watercress, then bring to a boil. Immediately remove watercress and excess water.

Shred red peppers into thin strips.

In a wok add 3 tablespoons of oil into the pan, over high heat, pan fry the red hot peppers and chopped garlic until the garlic turns to a deep golden colour. Then add in the watercress and fermented bean curd. Add in salt. Pan fry over high heat until soft and mixed well. Remove and serve.

Notes: If you do not like too much spice then use only 1 red hot pepper and 1 to 2 sweet red bell peppers. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend, we did! Also the past two days have been busy ones.  - JD 

Potato and Watercress Soup

We made this lovely soup. The recipe is fairly easy, if you can mind chopping the watercress, and even the kidlets helped out. My daughter added a bit more pepper, at her brother's request, which made this soup more peppery in flavour than expected. Regardless, it was quite flavourful.

 
Potato and Watercress Soup

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2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 potatoes peeled and cubed
1 onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 and 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 and 1/2 cups milk
1 and 1/2 pounds watercress, semi chopped with stems remove
watercress leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the potato and onion and stir to coat in the oil. Add the salt and pepper. Reduce to medium heat. Cover and heat for 5 minutes. Occasionally stirring to prevent the potatoes and onions from sticking and the pan browning too much. Do not panic a little browning is fine... call it seasoned flavour. 

Pour chicken stock and the milk, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Stir in the watercress and simmer, uncovered, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until watercress is just cooked.

In small batches, transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and purée until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, season to taste. Ladle into individual bowls or place in refrigerator if not serving immediately. I used a handheld blender therefore no transferring required. I removed the pot from the burner and when finished blending returned the pot back to the burner. 

You can serve each serving with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired and garnish with a bit of watercress leaves. 

Today is Food Revolution Day. I signed the petition, have you? Feeling much better today just in time for the long weekend. Enjoy the long weekend everyone! - JD 

Watercress Soup

When I swung by my local grocery store and saw a bunch of watercress I could not believe my eyes. Watercress is very hard to come by in E-town and probably Canada. Watercress is packed with vitamins and minerals. I checked through the majority of my cookbooks and watercress recipes are few and far between. Why isn't there a watercress cookbook? Perhaps recipes are not as abundant for this mighty green. Until I searched on internet and found a glorious site dedicated to watercress. I instantly fell in luv. It has loads of recipes and information regarding watercress and that is where I got the inspiration to make a watercress soup. 

Pictured here is the Classic Watercress Soup recipe I made. It was very tasty! The fresh lemon juice made this soup uplifting. I urge you to visit their site by clicking *here* or visit them at watercress.co.uk   - JW 

* All pictures on this website taken by Jacqueline Williams.*  

Curried Potato Salad

For some reason this week it's all about the curry powder and potatoes. Not that I am   complaining! It started with the potato kedgeree and will end with a potato strudel. Last night I made a curried potato salad. My plan was to use the recipe from the cookbook I reviewed yesterday, The Nobel Spud. However when I get reading any recipe my mind starts bubbling with ways to tweak it. Until I finally say... "well this is what I am going to do." That's exactly what I have done here. This is my recipe:

7 medium potatoes - boiled with their skins on

half a red onion - peeled and chopped

half a white/yellow onion - peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter or low-sodium margarine 

2 teaspoons curry powder

celery - 2 stalks chopped

1 cup or half of a 600 gram tub of plain low fat organic yoghurt

1-2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

pinch of salt

pepper 

chopped watercress - optional

3 chopped hard-boiled eggs - optional

1) Boil the potatoes with their skins on and cook until firm. A fork should be able to pierce the potato not slide through it... you want them cooked but not over cooked. When the potatoes are done. Drain and rinse with cold water. This stops them from cooking any further.

2) Chop the onions. Add the butter to a hot pan and melt. Once the butter has melted add the onions. Fry until almost transparent. Then add the curry powder. Stir and mix well. Cook for another few minutes longer. Then remove from heat.

3) Chop the celery. Then chop the boiled potatoes.

4) In a large bowl combined the potatoes, celery and curried onions and mix gently. Making sure not to break the potatoes up too much. Then add the yoghurt, mayonnaise and salt and pepper. Gently mix together. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or overnight. Letting the flavour set.

I would luv to add watercress, unfortunately watercress is very hard to find here. Using a low fat yoghurt reduces the fat content. You can also omit the curry powder if you don't fancy it. You then may want to add some garlic, chives or dill to flavour the potato salad. You can also try adding chopped apples, chicken, dried cranberries... the possibilities are almost endless. There was some salad left over so I will be having that for lunch today. - JW