Nut Meat

There is tiny vegetarian Thai place on King St in Newtown (it's actually just called Vegetarian Thai) that sells really tasty vegetarian rice paper rolls for $5 - possibly the cheapest healthy feed on King St. The most amazing thing about the rolls is this ingredient they have inside which tastes like chicken. Curious as to what it was, Claire asked the people behind the counter and turns out it's something called nut meat, sold in cans at supermarkets.

I happened to be at Woolies later that night, and decided to get one to try. Wasn't easy - I walked the floor of the entire Woolies with no luck, the guy I asked had no idea what it even was and had to ask his supervisor who pointed me to the health food aisle. After scouring the entire aisle back and forth for a good 10 minutes I found it hiding in a corner on the top shelf. It's that same feeling of extreme accomplishment as when you finally find all the characters in a particularly difficult Where's Wally.



As you can see, when I tipped it out it was more like brown spam than the tasty chicken-y thing in the rice paper rolls. I tried a little bit of it raw straight out of the can, and it tasted like peanuts. Figures, right?

The instructions on the can said to grate the glob and mix it with some garlic and what not to make patties, but I'm quite lazy when it comes to cooking, and so I decided to just cut some up into patty shapes and fry them with chopped garlic and onion. You can never go wrong with garlic, onion and salt when you're frying things, I've learnt.



Turns out though, just because you can never go wrong with those three doesn't mean it will always taste good. Unfortunately because I just cut them up into thick slices, the patties still tasted heavily of peanuts in the middle where the garlic, onion and salt couldn't reach. It wasn't horrible, but it just makes for a really strange combination of tastes - initially you get the familiar crispy, salty taste of fried food on the outside, but then you bite in and BAM! PEANUT BUTTER! Takes a lot of getting used to.

This first attempt at cooking nut meat wasn't quite a success, but I guess it was my fault for being lazy and not preparing it properly. There is still some in the fridge right now (although not sure how long these things can keep once opened) which I will try to make again, properly.

Coconut is king!

 
This awkward and ugly looking fruit is the secret ruler of the fruit kingdom (or ‘drupe’ kingdom if you want to get technical). I started including more in my diet a few months back when it was suggested it would help with my fatigue and immune system. 

I have been a convert ever since. While it was once derided by respected healthies as ‘bad fat’ it is now being lauded for its abundant health properties. The fat from the coconut is lauric acid, a medium-chain fatty acid that is easily absorbed by the body and used instantly as energy. It’s the same stuff that is found in breast milk, so you can be as healthy as a new born bubba. In addition to boosting the metabolism and serving as a great post-workout recovery drink (Nina, the hockey-dynamo-fitness-freak can attest to this!), it also has potent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties to help you fight off infection. And - as Jenny’s ever-wise Mother has confirmed - coconut oil is actually a great skin care product!

                                       Nina's coconut love

There are lots of ways to incorporate this superfood into your diet.

• Coconut on its own - cut off the top (perhaps with a hammer, or maybe chuck an anvil on it. They are impossible to open) and sip on its sweet nutritious innards. Or alternatively buy it from a shop where it already has a hole drilled into it. Drinking with a straw is very hip.
• Coconut oil - great for almost any cooking which involves frying (dw it's healthy! and when its heating it has the alluring smell of a sweet and buttery lipsmacker). You can buy it at most health food/organic store. I usually fry it with chopped carrots, spinach and nuts, with a little sea salt and tumeric to have it with pasta or rice. Also try deep-frying with cut-up potatoes for amazing coconut potato chips! 
• Coconut milk - not just for curries! Put it in smoothies, porridge, in baking, anything! 
• Coconut ice-cream - this stuff is AMAZING. It has become a favourite of our household. You can make it yourself, or you can buy it from most organic stores - we normally get it from Dr Earth in Newtown. We found CoYo is the best brand. Though it's a tad pricey so you may want to try make it last longer than a day (or ignore the poor frugal student in you and eat it in a couple of hours as Sarah and I do)

Ooooo Mummaa!!!