News

Our monthly nutritional news letter with the latest research and thinking.

Recipes for a news letter birthday

On the 2nd April 2009 I pressed ‘publish’ on the first Nutritional news upload. I wasn’t really sure what to expect at the time but as it turned out I needn’t have worried. Countless emails, comments and suggestions come in each month and the Nutritional news is doing the job I hoped it would; informing people and creating debate. I don’t think I’ll ever be a prolific writer but I do look forward to sitting down and working on the latest issue or responding to questions from the last one. I’d very much like to thank all of you for reading it and for your comments and questions along the way.
This isn’t a recipe exchange website but as a break from the norm and to celebrate our birthday, here are a couple of my favourites to enjoy.

Chicken noodle broth (vegan recipe below)

There are no amounts or exact guidelines here. Just variations of a concept. The idea is to take the goodness of the whole chicken then add a host of beneficial ingredients and flavours that stimulate the senses and your digestion. This has been my favourite meal for quite some time now and I don’t see that changing in a hurry.

• Whole organic chicken
• lemon grass
• ginger
• garlic
• fresh turmeric
• live miso
• limes
• lime leaves
• pak choi
• spring onions
• thick noodles
• soya sauce
• coriander
• sweet basil
• mushrooms of some kind

Place a whole organic chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add a roughly chopped onion and some celery. Bring to the boil, skim and then simmer for around an hour. Remove the chicken and leave it to cool whilst you strain the stock and return it to the pan. At this point I normally have much more stock than I need so I put half of it to one side for the moment. To the other half I add 2 or 3 crushed lemon grass stalks (use the base of a saucepan or a rolling pin) and then a large thumb sized piece of ginger, some fresh turmeric and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic all finely chopped or minced. Add 6ish kaffir lime leaves and a desert spoon of light miso. Keep the broth simmering while you begin to strip the meat off the chicken. Add as much of the meat as you like and reserve the rest for another meal or two. Now add some noodles. I really like the King Soba pumpkin, ginger and brown rice ones right now. They’re substantial and have a nice bite to them. Add some greens like pak choi, chopped spring onions, a good splash of soya sauce and plenty of lime juice. Right at the end add a large amount of chopped coriander and some sweet basil.
Lastly, you can break up the chicken carcass and return to the left over stock. Add some more water and add a good dash of white wine vinegar to help release the goodness from the bones. Add some more onion and celery and simmer it for another 2 hours at least. Strain it off and allow it to cool. It will refrigerate well for 3 days or freeze for longer.

Extravagant pumpkin and coconut curry

There’s a fair bit of prep to do for this one but the cooking is a breeze and the end result is amazing. It’s well worth all the chopping.

• Coconut oil for frying. Olive oil if you don’t have coconut oil
• 2 red onions, finely chopped
• 3 stalks of lemongrass crushed, outer layer removed
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 8 spring onions, chopped
• grated zest and juice of 2 limes
• 2 kaffir lime leaves shredded
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds toasted and ground
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• thumb sized piece of ginger, grated or finely chopped
• 3 chillies finely chopped. Seeds in or out, you choose
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• small handful of chopped basil
• large handful chopped coriander
• 1 tablespoon crunchy peanut butter
• 2 cans coconut milk
• 2kg pumpkin or butternut squash, skinned, deseeded and cut into chunks
• handful of cashew nuts, toasted – optional

Pre heat the oven to 200c, gas mark 6. I use a large casserole with a lid or you could use a wok and then transfer to an ovenproof dish as long as you cover it. In the casserole, fry the onions for a minute then add the garlic and lemon grass. I begin to add a little water at this point. After a minute, add the peanut butter and continue to cook until it becomes sauce like, adding a little water to help it break down. Then add all the remaining ingredients except the pumpkin and coconut milk. Cook for a further minute, combining all the ingredients. Lastly, add the coconut milk and pumpkin. Put the lid on the casserole and place in the centre of the oven for approximately 40 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender. I serve from the casserole at the table with some well cooked brown basmati rice (optional) and some extra toasted cashews to garnish.

A grown up soft drink – The Ginger Kicker

This isn’t quite a soft drink because of the Angostura bitters but they are in tiny quantities.
Finding drinks for occasions when others are knocking back the booze is quite a challenge. There are two problems with this drink. Firstly it’s really difficult to find a pub that has the ingredients or the inclination to make it. And secondly, when I make it at dinner parties everyone ditches the wine and piles in.
Take a large jug and fill it with ice. Add 6 drops of Angostura bitters. Fill the jug with 1/3 tonic water, 1/3 ginger ale and 1/3 ginger beer. Top off with the juice of a very juicy lemon, stir and enjoy.

Gary Lake’s endurance event

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Nutri-Link for their very kind support of the Amateur MTB marathon attempt. Nutri-Link are a practitioner only supplement company so there is very little commercial reward from being associated with this type of support. Now with a supply of high end supplements from Nutri-Link we can begin to push Gary onto the next level.

Lastly I’m really very proud to announce that I’ll be starting a weekly clinic at St Lukes Medical Centre in Stroud. It’s a wonderful place to work and I’m truly excited by the prospect. A start date should follow shortly.

That’s it for now. I’m off for a celebratory ginger kicker. Happy eating to all of you.