Deliciously Ella with Jersey Festival of Words – from Kardashians and Haribo to a healthy eating empire

It maybe 11pm, but I’m a little buzzed after an evening with Ella Mills of Deliciously Ella fame and Jersey Festival of Words. Honest, relatable and funny, Ella spoke openly about her life and journey so far.

I enjoyed listening to Ella’s story. You can read more about her journey on the Deliciously Ella blog  but my favourite quip of the evening is how she used to sit watching the Kardashians and eating Haribo. It’s hard to imagine with someone who literally glows.

To think she started with a blog as a hobby to what is pretty much now a healthy eating empire is amazing. I’m also super impressed she still personally responds to comments and posts on social media as well as emails. Ella has passion for healthy eating and helping other people and it shows.

What inspired me most from was how she spoke about changing mindset and culture around food. Healthy food needs to sound exciting, especially for younger generations to get involved. Don’t just say “Have some greens”. It should be about “Have some greens sauteed with garlic, a dash of lemon and fresh herbs.” Make it an experience for people.

‘For anything to be enjoyable it needs to be sustainable’. 

 

She also gave some very relatable advice. The diet Ella leads may be labelled as restrictive by some but through her blog, social media and cook books she is giving people alternatives. You may dip in and out or select certain things, but if it’s inspiring people to think about differently then great – and that’s definitely something I am on board with!

Thanks to Jersey Festival of Words for letting me take over their Twitter for the evening. I had a great time. There is still a whole programme of authors and bloggers on until Sunday so check out the website.

#MeatFreeWeek – veggie chilli

Autumn is my favourite time of year and it feels like my life centres around warm, orange and red hues. This is especially so in the kitchen – squash, marrow, beetroot, sweet potato, carrots…

With the mild days and cool nights, a veggie chilli packs a good punch with lots of vitamin C to combat those back-to-school colds. Another one-pot meal for the whole family (depending on the spices you use). My weapon of choice for this one is my trusty Le Creuset cast iron pot.

I also use a special ingredient in this one… a shot of coffee! Don’t let that put you off. A shot of coffee adds a lovely earthy, smokey flavour to the dish.

All other ingredients are from farm stalls or the larger farm shops on the island.

Ingredients

2 x shallots or small onions (finely sliced)
3 x garlic cloves (finely sliced)
2 x sticks of celery (finely sliced)
2 x teaspoons of cajun spice mix
1 x teaspoon ground cumin
2 x teaspoon ground coriander
1 x teaspoon smoked paprika
1 x teaspoon coriander leaves (dried or fresh)
1 x shot of coffee (good quality instant or freshly ground is best)
1/2 sweet potato (cubed)
1 x small swede (cubed)
1 x small butternut (cubed)
1 x red pepper (roasted in the oven for 10 mins and cut into thick, long slices)
1 x tin of mixed beans
5 x large tomatoes (peeled) or 1 x tin of  whole tomatoes

Optional: Sweet corn, mushrooms, red chillies, chilli powder

To serve: wholemeal wraps, wholemeal rice, sliced avocado, natural yogurt or feta cheese.

Method

1. Heat a good glug of olive oil on the medium heat hob in a large, oven-proof dish with a lid. Turn the oven to 150ºC.
2. Add the garlic, celery and onions and cook until soft.
3. Add all the spices, except if you’re using fresh corriander then leave it until later on. Pinch of salt and pepper.
4. Add the swede and butternut and make sure it gets a good coating in the spices.  Cook for 5 mins on a medium heat.
5. Add your freshly peeled tomatoes or your tin of tomatoes. Keep your fresh tomatoes whole as it will keep the naturally sweet flavour. You may want to add about 200ml of water to your dish at this point to keep it moist whilst in the oven.
6. Add the sweet potato and the shot of coffee. Give everything a good stir.
7. Put the lid on and put in the oven. Let it cook for a good hour before adding the beans and red pepper. If you’re adding mushrooms this would also be the time to add them in.
8. Stir now and again and leave it to cook for another 30 minutes in the oven. You want the vegetables to be soft, but not turn to mush. You also want the consistency to be slightly sticky. If there is too much water then put your dish on the hob for a bit with the lid off.

I accidentally deleted the photo of the finished article on my phone, so here is an image from Google of what you’re aiming for.

#MeatFreeWeek – sweet potato and chickpea curry

This is my weekday go to dish. It’s fresh, it’s quick and you can add lots of different spices. It also works as a dish for the family. I like to use ready made herb and spice pots from the Spice House in the Central Market, the blends are really tasty and you can add your own spices to it depending on your taste.

You may think sundried tomatoes and coconut milk doesn’t work… but honestly give it a try, it has the most amazing sweet and tangy flavour.

I also like to make things in bulk that I can keep in the fridge for a week or so, or bag up for the freezer.  Blitzed sundried tomatoes will keep in the fridge for a week; perfect for this and pasta dishes, and the curry will be good for leftover lunch.

Ingredients

• 3 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
• 2 shallots – finely chopped
• Thumb sized of ginger – peeled and finely chopped
• Tablespoon of Coconut oil
• 150g of sundried tomatoes in oil, blitzed in a food processor to a paste
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1 tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tin of good quality coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of ground almonds
• Dry spice mix – korma, balti or tandoori mix work well as they are quite mild
• Spinach or green beans
• Handful of flaked almonds (for adults only)

Optional – turmeric, paprika, cayenne pepper, garam masala
For the kids’ portion you can replace green beans with frozen peas

Serves 2 adults with leftovers for lunch, plus 3-4 baby portions. Suitable from 9 months for babies

Method

1. Steam or boil the sweet potato chunks for 10/15 mins until al dente. Take off the heat and let them steam in the saucepan until required.
2. Heat the coconut oil over a medium heat in the wok. When melted add the garlic, shallots and ginger. Fry until soft but not brown.
3. Add your spice mix. I usually add a good tablespoon of the spice mix, then depending on how I’m feeling I would add a bit of ground turmeric, paprika or Garam masala. If you want to add more heat then make the kid’s portion alongside in a separate frying pan.
4. Add the blitzed sundried tomatoes and steamed sweet potato to the wok. Make sure you keep the food moving in the wok.
5. Add half of the coconut milk. If the milk and water have separated in the tin, add half the water and half the solid milk together, they will quickly combine in the wok as you stir the coconut milk in. Cook for 10 minutes
6. Add the chickpeas and the remaining coconut milk/water from the tin. Stir gently so the sweet potato doesn’t fall apart. Taste your curry and decide if you need extra spices depending on your taste.
7. Add ground almonds. Stir the curry now and again to stop it sticking to the wok.cook for another 5 minutes or until the sweet potato is soft.
8. Add in your greens. I love spinach or green beans. Add as much or as little as you like. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
9. Dish up and add flaked almonds for the adult portions. Serve with wild rice, chutney, lime pickle, popadums or nan bread.
10. For kids’ / baby portions you can mash the curry up and add frozen peas instead of green beans and spinach which can be stringy.

 

If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air

A friend of mine recently reminded me of the ‘By the River’ by Groove Armada.

If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air,

Quaint little villages just here and there.

It pretty much sums up Jersey perfectly and this Island home is now my inspiration for my own drive to buy from local farmers and suppliers.

Image source: Jersey.com

Jersey is literally bursting with flavours. Just walk around the central markets, the country lanes to see the honesty boxes, or the harbours dotted around the coast with their fishing boats. We live on an island proud of its food heritage. My two main passions in life are cooking and my island home, and so Jersey Pickle Pantry was born.

I’ve been making a conscious effort over the past two years to buy local, especially when it comes to fresh produce, and with food becoming more expensive we also decided to cut down on our meat consumption. My husband is South African so it wasn’t an easy sell, but the promise of curries helped. All round it’s a win-win situation: good quality, fresh, majority is grown locally, supporting local business, saving the pennies and less food miles and packaging so better for the environment.

This all led to me researching and experimenting some quick, go to dishes for a week night, especially for those days when it was meat-free. I also wanted the dishes to be based on seasonal produce and what I could buy at nearby farm shops.

My other criteria was food that I could easily adapt for our wild child, Violet, who is 16 months going on 16 with an appetite you can only compare to walrus. She took an early interest in food (no surprises there) and initially I took the lead from an Annabel Karmel book (baby weaning guru with glowing skin and cashmere jumpers).

The wild child

From about 7 months she has been eating the same food as us, albeit minus the odd ingredient including salt and hot spices. I also want to make sure she’s getting the best start with her diet, and for me using Jersey produce ticks that box.

Over the next few months, I’ll be documenting our journey here and on the Jersey Pickle Pantry social media pages. I’ll also be posting some recipe ideas that are suitable for the whole family. If you have a question, want to find out more or get involved then I would love to hear from you.

I hope Jersey Pickle Pantry will introduce you to some of the best suppliers and growers in Jersey, and give you some family meal inspiration.

Me and the Wild Child