Did you read my earlier Blog on GI?
This Blog will make more sense if you read that first to save me repeating what GI is !
You can find it by clicking this link and then return here!
By way of a quick precis "choosing low-GI foods can promote a healthy lifestyle for you, your friends and your family." " If you have Diabetes you will be aware of the beneficial effects GI has on blood sugar or glucose levels"
"Carbs that break down quickly are given high GI values: they raise blood glucose quickly. Carbs that break down slowly are given low GI values, they raise blood glucose slowly- such as wholegrains, lentils, pasta, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables- which are inherently healthy. Experts agree these foods can make a valuable contribution to your diet"
Source: Low GI food for Friends by Azmina Govindji
I bought this recipe book in 2011 at the suggestion of my then dietician, Elba, as I entertain a lot and wanted recipes that were easy to make but use Low GI foods. The book also has menu suggestions combining recipes in the book for different occasions/numbers:
- Meal for two
- Winter warmer for 6
- Summer alfresco lunch for 6
- Family supper for four and so on
OK let's get cooking!
1. Courgette Rondelles
Usually I cannot bother to make vegetables but if I have friends for these are one of my favourites. They have lots of big courgettes ( they call them Zucchini) here but I have not seen any of the smaller yellow ones.
2. Ginger Broccoli
Another easy to make vegetable that's low in GI.
My Ginger Broccoli- here is the simple recipe:
3. Thai chicken salad
Having spent many years visiting Thailand to see my friends Mike Roache, Wanchai and others I really love Thai food so this was an obvious choice for me- Thai and healthy! However we could not find the Bokchoi or Beansprouts so improvised with tomatoes and cucumber. The dressing was very Thai however!
4 Olive and Chick pea salad
A very simple healthy salad using olives and chick peas with Greek yogurt and cherry tomatoes.
5. Japanese-style Salmon steaks
Sadly the Salmon here is imported in huge slabs weighing about 1.5 kg and costing 1,600 pesos ( £22) but one of the Deli's I use ( Deli Mart and More on Rizal street) will cut it to order
Their Facebook page is : https://www.facebook.com/delimartpalawan
For the Japanese style Salmon steaks I got two from Puerto Deli which is enough to serve 4 people.
Again a quick word of warning- the Salmon needs marinading to give it the Japanese taste!
My Salmon steaks marinading
6. Seared Tuna with Lemon salsa
Tuna is caught off the coast of Palawan and is sold fresh on most street corners and markets . I have made this dish several times and love the flavour with the chilli, garlic and fennel coating the Tuna, then it's marinated in Lemon juice and served with a lemon salsa ( Sarap! Delicious!)
Jhoanna finally managed to get 5 Tuna steaks at her second attempt and I cooked them for Joven and her sister Elay and Cousin Monica when they delivered my shopping on Saturday. However Monica had to do her washing and Elay was late and Joven left half of his. Chester , the cats and I enjoyed what they left!
The Tuna steaks coated in crushed Fennel seeds, chopped Garlic and crushed chillis
My Tuna steak with lemon salsa
If you like Tuna I have a special surprise for you next week as we are having a Tuna week in the Blue House! All will be revealed in our next blog!
7. Butterfly Prawns with Courgette Ribbons
Another item in plentiful supply here in Palawan is Prawns ( Hippon) which Jhoanna gets fresh from the market and cleans and takes the shells off for me and removes the black intestinal thread each week. I love eating fish but hate the feel of them and preparing dishes like Bangus and squid. I have a division of labour amongst my scholars- Jhoanna is in charge of shopping and prawns, Elay has taken over WIFI and phone top ups, TJ deals with Bangus and squid, pictures and international calls ! Courgettes ( or they call it Zucchini here) are also readily available and low GI.
Kevin and I had this as our picnic lunch at Tala beach
I like the way the recipe book explains that courgette ribbons can be used to replace past and lower the GI content of the meal.
8. Rosemary Lamb shanks with red onions and spiced beans
Our Lamb (Tupa) with spicy beans and balsamic onions and sweet chilli Camote ( sweet Potato)
As I was deciding which recipes to make this week one jumped out of the book for me. We have become addicted to Lamb ( Tupa in Tagalog) in the Blue House and Noel and Frythy even prefer it to Jolibees! They had never even tasted it before I arrived here. When I was shopping the other day with Joven I found some fresh Rosemary ( strangely here you only find ingredients you needed when you no longer need them!) and I added it to the Lamb chops last week and the smell and taste was amazing. Luckily I kept the remainder and went back to Puerto Deli to buy a frozen Leg of Lamb for this weeks special dish. They import them frozen from Australia.
The Leg of lamb from Puerto Deli with rosemary and garlic
You make slits in the lamb and insert garlic and rosemary and marinade it for an hour before roasting and serving with spiced beans and grilled onions- Yummy!
The Red Onions are grilled marinaded in Balsamic vinegar
Just a quick word of warning- the Lamb has to be marinated for an hour and then roasted for 2 hours so you need to make this at least 4 hours in advance of when you need it!
Here is the recipe if you want to make this tasty dish:
9. Chermoula Chicken
Pearl Barley, Chermoula chicken and Raita ( from the recipe book!)
This week I have tried to steer away from my favourite red meat ( beef and steak) and eat lots of fish ( Salmon, Tuna and Prawns), Lamb and Chicken. I last made this dish in July 2019 and wrote in the recipe book "mmm masarap and spicy" ( masarap means delicious) - sounds like a good recommendation for me. The recipe book suggests using 1 kg of chicken on the bone ( thighs, legs etc) but I hate trying to get the meat off the bone so I have asked Jhoanna to get me 1 kg of chicken breast. Then I can make stock with the skin and bones and the cats will love the bones ( too small for Chester) and just cook the cubed chicken breast.
The recipe book has the reminder that removing the skin will reduce the fat content considerably but also has the advantage of allowing the spice flavours to penetrate the chicken flesh.
My version, without the Pearl Barley- if anyone knows where to buy it in Palawan - let me know!
Hope you like it!
11. Spicy scrambled egg with onion and red pepper
The recipe book says it serves 4 but Joven and I managed it between us!
There is only one dish suitable for breakfast in this recipe book ( I guess not many people have friends stay for breakfast!). Joven , a first year Mechanical Engineering student works for me every Saturday from 8 am to 5 pm doing my ironing and washing and vacuuming my car. I remember the days when I was a poor student and my friends in Huddersfield ( RIP David) used to feed me " the man who ate the sandwiches" as I was known then! So now I pay it forward cooking breakfast for Joven every Saturday. Last week we had scrambled egg and smoked salmon and this week we have spicy scrambled egg!
12. Sweet Potato and chilli mash
Although Joven , Noel and Frythy left most of the Veg I cooked with the Lamb chops last week I decided to try some more vegetable recipes this week and opted for Sweet Potato and chilli mash. They grow a lot of Sweet Potato ( Camote in Tagalog) here in Palawan and its great combined with sweet chilli sauce ( I think I am now on my 4th bottle!). It tasted really delicious.
13. Five minute baby sweetcorn with coriander
The words five minutes appealed to me and baby corn is readily available in the market and this dish only takes 5 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to cook. It has a nice mix of herbs and spices ( Coriander seeds, Turmeric, Coriander /Cilantro leaves and Lemon juice) so should smell and taste nice.
My baby sweetcorn without coriander!
Here is the recipe- their nutrition note was of interest too
Finally I decided to make 3 Low GI desserts using local fruit in the second half of this week:
14. Pineapple creole wedges
Chester loves Pineapple and they are usually sold at my local sari sari store. I did not bother with the dark rum as I do not touch alcohol any more, but the lime juice and sesame seeds were great. Of course because I actually wanted to buy Pineapple it took several weeks for the Store to get Pineapple back in stock! Then one day I drove past and saw they had some on display so stopped and bought one!
The dish is so simple and very tasty- just cut the pineapple in four, drench it in lime juice, grill it, turning occasionally and serve covered with Sesame Seeds.
15. Sizzling Bananas with orange and pistachio
Back in December 2020 Writer Relocations packed my 50 jars of spices from around the world and then when I could not move to the Philippines as planned in February 2021 Jhoanna arranged for them ( and the 60 other boxes of my belongings) to be stored. Finally , a year ago, they were delivered to the Blue House and unpacked. I gave Sarah the task of checking which were usable ( some had gone damp or had insects in them) and she made a list of which ones we threw away.
Over the last year I have been replacing them and Chester ( the Hooman) in Marikina has made new "Chef Neil" labels for the jars.
That is how I know I have Pistachios . Bananas are in ready supply at the Sari Sari store and Puerto Deli has the Greek Yogurt! A typical example of how you have to go to 3 stores to get the ingredients for one dish here!
I enjoyed making and tasting this dish to add to my banana dessert repertoire ( Banana Turon, Caramel Banananas etc)- it was delicious! In fact it was so good when I had some bananas going black a couple of weeks later I made it again and this time added brown sugar- it tasted even better!
16. Hot Berries with orange cream
Adding the cream and yogurt to the berries before grilling them
Joven and I tried to buy frozen berries from SM Mall recently but after being sent from Fresh fruit to the freezer section and back we gave up! I eventually found them in Robinsons and decided to get two bags! This dish also uses Greek Yogurt ( which Chester loves so we will get 3 pots) and single cream which Puerto Deli also sells. I will, however, have to go back to Robinsons to buy Blueberries and Strawberries. When I returned they had 4 berry mix and strawberries so I had to pick the blueberries ( 150 g) from the 4 berry mix. They had no oranges!
For those of you who asked how I will spend my days once I retire you now have the answer- going from SM Mall to Robinsons, to Deli Mart, to Puerto Deli to find the ingredients I need , then cooking, eating, taking photos and writing blogs!
The final dish is below- at last I found another use for my Ramekin dishes. Just need to heat them a little longer for tomorrows guests!
My warm berries with cream!
Well that's my 16 recipes for this week- most of which serve 4 so that's 64 portions ( but we have made starters, mains, veg and desserts this week. As it says on the front of the recipe book it's:
LOW GI food for friends
I hope they like it and that we get healthier, loose weight and further reduce our blood sugar. This is how I got on this week:
Blood Sugar: 80
Weight: 118
Exercise: 28,527 steps in the last 7 days ( 4075 a day average)
My brother suggested a month ago that I use my culinary skills to reduce my weight and blood sugar and so I have made 47 recipes over the last month and shared them with you in 4 blogs:
- Dealing with Diabetes in the Philippines
- Joe Wicks ( The Body Coach) Reduced Carb Recipes
- LOW GI food
- LOW GI food for friends
Blood Sugar: Down from 85 to 80 mml
Weight: Down from 120 kg to 118 kg
Exercise: 78,089 steps in 30 days- average 2,603 a day
We will be back next week with more Blogs and Vlogs from Palawan- stay tuned!
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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