Raw broccoli & pomegranate tabouli with harissa chicken skewers and a lemony, garlicky tahini yogurt sauce. An easy, fresh summer salad.  Jump to Recipe 

For the last couple of years, I have struggled with the inextricable linking and opposition of my love for food with my health and exercise goals. Blogging and food often dominate my mind – the next meal, the next way to combine different flavours, what I could eat for dessert or the next blog post – and to be honest, my self control around butter, sugar and quality ice cream is almost non-existent. But growing up in an extremely active family (the sort where the week was based around who has sport where when, and it was normal, expected, that exercise is a daily kind of thing) has left me with an entrenched commitment to health and fitness. Studying medicine and seeing the impact of our obesogenic environment on our communities has enforced it.

And I do enjoy exercise! I love starting the day with a run or a swim, or heading to the gym for a workout. Bircher muesli remains my favourite breakfast, and I don’t shy from green vegetables. It’s just that it is in constant competition with the square of brownie that accompanies my morning coffee, the afternoon snacking on whatever baking is sitting in the pantry, and the feeling that dessert is not an option, but a necessity. Who else manages to gradually cut off slivers of cake until you’ve basically polished off two or three slices? I even have a freezer stash of individually wrapped balls of NYT chocolate chip cookie dough ready to bake up – resisting a warm, gooey cookie studded with dark chocolate chunks is near impossible.

I’m sure we all wish baking and health weren’t so conflicting. What would you give to be able to eat whatever you wanted, whenever?!  It wasn’t an issue for me through school – swim training 16 hours a week will do that. It’s been the onset of long university days, a consequent decline in exercise, and a ramping up of my baking: weekend cookies has turned into over-the-top cakes, tarts, brownies and crumbles. And more often.

I turned to more drastic measures this month. I’ve never dieted or done this kind of thing before, but when I realised I couldn’t stop myself from reaching for sugar-ladden treats multiple times a day, I decided I’d have a go. This is the third week ‘refined sugar-free’. For me that means no brown, white, raw, coconut or any other obvious sugar, and no honey, maple syrup, agave or other sweetener. Though some ‘I Quit Sugar’ style diets also eliminate fruit, they’re also fibre and nutrient-rich – so I’m not taking that step (and, to be honest – I probably couldn’t do this without my morning strawberries and summer peaches for snacking!).

Side note: I’m not a dietician, my normal ethos is everything in moderation, including moderation, and I am not at all a proponent of elimination diets. Gluten, dairy and sugar make up the bulk of my favourite foods!

Thirty days seemed doable, and it has been a lesson in just how often sugar becomes a crutch during the day. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll be back to baking brownies as soon as February is up. I just hope that it teaches me a little about how to exercise my (flimsy) self-control, that I can survive days without dessert, and that not every meal needs to be followed by something sweet.

I couldn’t exactly follow this up with one of the decadent cakes I photographed over the holidays, so instead here is my current favourite summer meal – raw broccoli & pomegranate tabouli with harissa chicken skewers and tahini yogurt sauce. The broccoli is whizzed up to a crunchy crumble and combined with all the goods – ample parsley, mint, pomegranate, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, toasted pumpkin seeds and spring onion. Bulgur wheat bulks it up, and I love that it only takes a 10 minute soak to cook, compared to the long boil of quinoa or pearl barley. It also uses my favourite fast dressing – lemon juice, olive oil and a dollop of sticky pomegranate molasses for extra tanginess. Barbecued chicken skewers and a drizzle of zesty, garlicky tahini yogurt sauce tops it off.  If you’re a bread lover like me, fresh pita or turkish bread makes an ideal accompaniment. AND it makes the best lunch leftovers.

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Spicy yogurt-marinated tandoori chicken, crunchy lime coriander slaw, fragrant pesto and buttery burger buns.  Jump to Recipe 

I’ve never been a cooking show person. Their rise in popularity over the last few years has been monumental – Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules are some of the most highly rated TV shows in Australia, and their judges are household names. It’s mainly the lack of time to sit down and watch the five new Masterchef episodes that churn out weekly that turns me off. And the fact that I get way too frustrated with the contestants, and just want to shout “but I could do that!” (mostly, anyway). But there is something else, too.

They turn the necessity of cooking into an artificial, contrived competition – removing the enjoyment and replacing it with stress, staged emotional conflict between contestants and booming reality TV theme songs. I read recently that during Masterchef, the entire pressurised tasting segment really involves cold plates of food, completed hours earlier and refrigerated while the judges go off to eat lunch first. Apparently if you have time, you make two of your dish – so the judges can try one during filming while it is still fresh. I get that this is probably unavoidable with the nature of  TV schedules etc etc…but doesn’t it make those exaggerated judge reactions, swallowing down mouthfuls of tepid food, seem a little bit fake? I’m not 100% against it. It has launched the successful careers of many now (with Nadia Lim being a prime example), and it’s entertaining – it’s just not my thing.

Enter Chef’s Table, the Netflix documentary style series documenting the rise of professional chefs in  high-end restaurants worldwide. It’s the raw challenges – the 15, 16, 17 hour days, the lack of a life outside of the kitchen, the questioning of “is this even worth it?”, the bleeding fingers and extreme pressure to succeed – set against a backdrop of elegant visuals and artistic camera work. Though more focussed on the individual chef than the food, it is another case of living vicariously through the screen. We can imagine visiting that $300 per head restaurant and watch the behind-the-scenes footage of the kitchen plating ethereal dishes. Yes, it’s inspiring. Yes, it’s beautiful. Yes, I find it fascinating as a person fully interested in every aspect of the industry and its players. Yes, I’m sure I will end up watching the remaining episodes. But it’s not how 99.999% of the world cooks or eats.

This morning I listened to a Food52 podcast interview with Nigella Lawson. For her it is about love, and food, and relatability. It’s a change from the elaborate, complicated world of professional chefs and cooking competitions – as she says, “it’s not performance art cooking”.  She discusses the rhythm of the kitchen, the playfulness of changing up ingredients, the simplicity of a recipe made so many times it almost runs in your veins. But she acknowledges that “you don’t always feel like cooking”, and that it isn’t always enjoyable – which is a particularly human approach. She is a home cook, an eater. It’s the language of somebody who loves food, but doesn’t always have time to follow recipes, and knows food well enough to take the fridge contents and make something of it  – a skill I am trying to work on.

While cooking shows will remain popular, and Chef’s Table is a fascinating insight into the world of professional kitchens – it is Nigella’s perspective that stuck with me the most. Over here at The Brick Kitchen, I can’t see a particular philosophy, or theme, to these recipes  – it’s just what I love to eat. 

I’m not sure I’ve seem my brothers demolish burgers as fast as these tandoori chicken brioche sliders with coriander-cashew relish. It’s a soft, tender brioche bun, smeared with a nutty-herby relish that gives a gingery-coriander kick to the dish. Tenderised with greek yogurt and lemon juice, the grilled chicken thighs marinate in an easy spice mix, and it’s all layered together with a crunchy cabbage-cucumber salad and minty yogurt raita. If you’re enjoying summer barbecues in the US, or need a bit of heat in the Southern hemisphere winter – they’re for you.

The sliders were originally dreamt up by Sid Sahrawat, owner of restaurants Cassia and Sidart in Auckland (both of which I would highly recommend, if you are ever there) – and I’ve only made a few slight changes for ease of recipe-following, as well as the brioche bun addition. If the homemade brioche buns push them into the too-hard-basket for you, just buy them. I’m all for shortcuts when you are short on time. The brioche buns I made ended up being a bit big for a slider, and a bit small for a burger, so my family decided to rename them “slurgers”. Still not sure how I feel about that.

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One week of holiday has already disappeared! Scary.

Even scarier is how busy it has been: almost busier than university, if that is possible. I don’t know how. Catching up with friends, having people for dinner, cooking food to photograph and write up, exercise, doing odd jobs that come up (like the dentist…) and BAM, a week is gone.

It has also make me realise how HARD food blogging can be. I love it, don’t get me wrong – but it would be a challenging full time job. I have been trying to make, perfect and photograph weeks worth of recipes in a few short days to gradually feed out next semester, knowing that I won’t have the time, money (or kitchen) to cook back at college. Most difficult is preparing things in advance: since it is winter here, we run out of daylight at about 5pm, so anything that I want to photograph, even for dinner, needs to be ready well before then. I have adapted to making a small batch to take photos of earlier in the day, then making the rest that evening before we eat – but it means it takes at least twice as long as just making the meal ordinarily. And then – frustratingly – photos won’t turn out as well as you had envisaged, or the cake won’t be quite right, or SOMETHING happens and you do it all again for the same recipe, changing things along the way. (I don’t know if you can tell, but the photos for this post were taken on 2 separate days – the first time my pita was a bit broken, the chips a bit overdone, it was wrapped awkwardly with string… just not good. I had to have another attempt!). I now have a new appreciation for the time, effort and thought behind each photo and post on other food blogs, that is for sure.

Anyway – these Greek Chicken Souvlaki were inspired by our many trips to Jimmy Grants and Gazi this year, the popular greek street food joints by George Calombaris in Melbourne. Souvlaki, or souva, are the staples there: choose chicken or lamb, which are cut of the spit over coals and wrapped in a warm, pillowy pita bread with hot salty fries, parsley, lemon, onion & mustard aioli – SO good. I used a similar recipe to those seen on The Sugar Hit and Erin Made This, adapting them to ensure they would feed my three hungry brothers – who all loved them, by the way. The chicken is coated in a greek garlic-herb marinade and grilled on the barbecue, while the fries are oven baked (both easier and healthier) before being tossed with feta and more dried herbs, taking them from something I wouldn’t normally bother eating to something I can’t help grabbing another of. Easily served with a garlic mustard aioli, a squeeze of lemon, parsley, pickled onion and crisp contrasting cucumber, this is a top notch dinner.

Key to the recipe is using good pita bread –  I actually made my own and it was about 100000000x better than any I have ever had before, and insanely easy. Definitely make them if you have time – all you do is mix up the dough sometime during the day, let it rise, chuck it in the fridge until you are almost ready to eat, then pull it out and cook the pita on a hot pan.

I served the souvlaki with a Cypriot grain salad to bulk it up a little – the recipe for which actually IS adapted from a George Calombaris creation from his Greek restaurant Hellenic Republic (yes, he owns many!) and a similar version is served at both Jimmy Grants and Gazi. Stuffed with grains, nuts and seeds, it is honestly one of my all time favourite salads. Crunch comes from pumpkin seeds, almonds and pinenuts, herby freshness from coriander, parsley and lemon juice, and dollops of tangy cumin-flavoured Greek yoghurt adorn the top. It is also very adaptable – feel free to vary the amounts of each component to suit your taste. I do recommend making it this way first though, as it is easy to add a bit more of anything after. It does make quite a lot, but left-overs keep incredibly well in the fridge for a few days and would be a super healthy lunch or welcome addition to another meal.

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Vietnamese grilled chicken burgers – green mango slaw, avocado, and crispy edged grilled chicken on toasted ciabatta buns.  Jump to Recipe 

Healthy winter burgers.

Yes, you read that correctly. Right now, that statement may seem a little dubious, with burgers being pretty strongly associated either with fried fat, processed meat and late night Macca’s trips or with summer barbecues and warm evenings with build-your-own burger construction lines – but these burgers are here to prove that wrong.

So, I present: Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Burgers with Slaw. Delicately constructed with toasted ciabatta buns, a layer of avocado, heapings of mango-capsicum-mint-coriander-basil-cabbage vietnamese slaw and slices of the easiest, amazingly tender grilled chicken, this is a winner. And yes, it is winter. And yes, you can still make these burgers. They are so NOT a summer-only deal. (In saying this, for all you lucky people in the Northern hemisphere going into summer: please make these too – also still perfect for a summer barbecue.)

PLUS they are healthy – burgers do tend to have a bad rep in that department. Without cheese, heavy mayo, sugary tomato sauce, or anything fried at all, these Vietnamese inspired burgers are just full of colourful veges, the healthy fats of avocado, and the good quality protein of grilled chicken thighs. Don’t take that to mean the flavour can’t pack a punch, however – the intensity of fish sauce, sharp fresh tones of coriander and mint, tangy lime and fiery chili, balanced by the sweet notes in the chicken, mango and smooth, rich avocado results in complex layers of texture and flavour.

Also vital to these Vietnamese burgers is that they are quick: exactly what you need on days when you get home from work late, or have just been flat-out with uni, or, like me, have had minimal sleep the night before and are struggling to muster energy to cook dinner. Last night was our college ball: a great night in Southbank which has left me a little bleary-eyed and ready to hop back into bed (and it is only 10am). The only pain was that it was freezing cold and raining (thank you, Melbourne) but there was no cloakroom at the venue, making for a particularly unpleasant trip there and back (not to mention the stress over my straightened hair – it was the first time I had bothered to straighten it in almost two years, so I was not keen for it to frizz up before we even got there!!). Anyway, I survived, and so did my hair, but if at home, I think I would head straight for this burger recipe for dinner. So easy, but also won’t leave you in a sugar-fat induced food coma. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I would probably follow it up with a big hunk of brownie or chocolate self-saucing pudding with ice cream….my self-control does not extend quite that far!).

Anyway, back to this recipe: I first constructed them in the easter holidays, inspired by Vietnamese banh mi and needing quick and easy holiday-house recipes, and just KNOW that they will be a staple for me in future. Winter, summer, autumn or spring, for a crowd or just for a few, both impressive and simple, these colourful grilled chicken burgers will always hit the spot.

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Vietnamese green mango salad with barbecued chicken – a bright, zesty, crunchy slaw and spicy turmeric grilled chicken. Great served with steamed rice.  Jump to Recipe 

It is currently 6:45am as I sit at my desk typing this blog post. I ran out of time earlier this week, with university work going full steam ahead though the gastrointestinal system, and with the weekend taken up, this morning was my only option. Today, three hours of lectures start at 9am, followed by a 3.5 hour PBL (problem-based learning) discussion session. Our college floor retreat starts tonight, so as soon as uni finishes I am road-tripping with four others from my floor, in my cute little car, down to Torquay for the night.  Needless to say, I will be keeping this short and let the photos do the talking!

This green mango salad is definitely a family favourite – we probably had it at least once a week over the summer, and my brothers love it as well. It is adapted from a Nadia Lim recipe, while the chicken and the salad dressing are recipes from Ms Vy’s ‘Taste Vietnam’, the Morning Glory Cookbook – one we bought in Vietnam 5 years ago after loving a cooking class we went to at the Morning Glory Cooking School in Hoi An. Run by Ms. Vy, we visited the daily markets (where the Vietnamese ordinarily go before every meal to ensure food is as fresh as possible), and then made all our own food as Ms Vy demonstrated up the front. It was the starting point for my love of the fresh, sharp flavours of Vietnamese food which I have sought out at various restaurants since. Part of the difficulty in making authentic vietnamese in NZ is the lack of some ingredients: though some you can find at the Asian markets, like fresh turmeric and crispy fried shallots, many, like banana-flower, I have never seen sold. Below is a shot of the Hoi An Markets from when we were in Vietnamese- the freshness and range of greens was incredible!

Though it is a ‘green mango’ salad, I can hardly ever find truly green mango in Auckland, so tend to use slightly underripe mango from the fruit & vege shop (see the colour of the mango in the photos). I actually prefer the sweetness of it being slightly more ripe, to contrast with the herbs and lime-fish sauce dressing, but if you prefer the crunch and tang of green mango that would work well too. In terms of slicing the mango, I use a special mango slicer that we were given at the cooking school in Vietnam, but you could mimic it by cutting through the mango longitudinally at even 1-2cm intervals, then using a thick vegetable peeler to cut slices off. If your mango is firm enough, you could also try using a julienne peeler, or simply use a knife to cut slices and then cut those into thinner strips.

The chicken is some of the best barbecued chicken I have ever had so please don’t let the ingredient list scare you – it actually doesn’t take long to mix together. As for the salad, the contrasting flavours and textures of the mango and fresh, sharp mint, vietnamese mint, and coriander with the sesame seeds, peanuts and crispy fried shallots, make it light and healthy but absolutely addictively good.

The herbs are essential to the salad: coriander and mint are easy to find, but Vietnamese mint could be 
a bit trickier – you may have to visit a specialty store or markets to find it. It is also very easy to grow, which is a much cheaper and easier option if you have room!

We normally serve this meal with steamed rice on the side.

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