Home made rolls

These are so much nicer when you bake them. And you can. I am the world's worst baker, so if I can, you can too!

4 cups white bread flour (cake flour also works)
1 packet instant yeast (10g)
1 tablespoon honey
Dash of salt (or lo-Salt, if you have it)
1 tablespoon malt powder (if you don’t know what on earth this is, substitute molasses, or treacly syrup, or just add a little more honey)
1 egg
1 eggwhite
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 and a quarter cups water, tepid.

These are baked by me - promise. I sprinkled sesame seeds to look professional

Combine 3 cups of the flour and the other dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. I use a stand mixer, with a dough hook but I have made these using my sister’s hand held mixer. The dough is quite sticky, so I haven’t tried to knead by hand. If you do, make the kneading for ten minutes.

Mix in the water, honey, eggs and oil. Knead in mixer for 5-7 minutes, adding rest of flour slowly. The dough should form a fairly manageable large ball. If it looks stringy, and isn’t coming away from the sides of the bowl, keep adding flour.

Cover with glad wrap, and a tea towel, dampened with warm water. It will double in size in about 40 minutes.

Homemade beef burgers

Jamie’s Burgers - adapted to be lower sodium

12 water biscuits or few matzos, crushed, or two handfuls white breadcrumbs – salt free

500g minced beef

1 large egg

1 tsp mustard (or mustard powder – to your taste)

A generous few shakes of mixed spices (I used a combo of cumin, coriander, ginger and cloves, ground in spice grinder)

Olive oil

Mix all the ingredients except the olive oil and shape into patties. Drizzle with olive oil and leave covered in the fridge for a bit.

When you are ready to cook them, fry until cooked – about 5 minutes on medium to high heat.

Garnish with lettuce, tomato and fried onions (compulsory in our house) on freshly baked rolls. Serve with oven-baked chips if you want them - try adding herbs, fresh rosemary, lemon juice and olive oil, with just a sprinkle of lo-Salt. And here's the link to home made tomato sauce. My favourite.

Why low sodium? Read here.

More recipes

Reducing the salt and home made burgers

I promised a recipe a week – you got one last Monday for Broccoli Soup. And today, you get one for Homemade Beef Burgers.

But first, the story…reducing the salt:

I’ve got high blood pressure. My sister has polycystic kidneys, which she got from my Dad. My eldest daughter has had a few kidney stones. So clearly, one of the things we need to do as a family is eat less salt. Not exactly rocket science. But easier said than done.

You may think that eating less salt is merely not adding it. Yes that helps. As does cutting out all processed and prepackaged food.  In fact, that probably solves most of the problem. Problem is, even once you have done that, you are still getting too much salt daily. There is salt in almost everything – carrots, celery, and even spinach. And even if you “never add salt”, you may be getting too much.

So “how much is enough?” I hear you ask. Less and less, actually. The more studies are done, the more research shows that less is more, in this case. When we consulted a dietician for kidney stones, she gave us some sound advice – For normal people no more than 1 teaspoon per day (or 2300mg). That is a third of a teaspoon with each meal. For those of us who need to eat less salt, it is half of that. You can achieve this if you eat foods with no more than 100mg of salt per 100g of serving. 

Most fruit and vegies are fine, actually. As are most foods that are fresh and not smoked or cured in any way. But how do you tell?

Two Brothers by Ben Elton

5 out of 5 stars

So, I’m not giving anything away if I say the book is about two brothers. They are born at the same time as the Nazi party in Germany. The book follows their lives and loves and weaves a wonderful tale of childhood fun, romance and then war. My husband reads more war stories than me, so I’ll quote him here: “Where the book earns its accolades is how it provides insight into the workings of the national psyche in Germany over this tumultuous time. How does a nation slowly turn on the Jewish people and become complicit in the extermination of millions of people? Elton brilliantly critiques the evils of nationalism, elitism, racism, through the lives of his characters.”

This was a brilliant read. I cannot say enough good things about this book.

Not only was the history well researched, it was written from such a personal perspective, that I couldn't put it down, except when I needed a break from the raw emotion. And then I had to take it up again, because I couldn't wait any longer to see how the story developed.

I read it start to finish in a single day, and it left me breathless at times. Who says historical fiction can’t be page-turning of note?

One of my books of the year!

You may also enjoy Time and Time Again by the same author.

ISBN:  9780593062050

Here are all my reviews and recommendations.

Time and Time Again by Ben Elton

4 out of 5 stars

Imagine if you could go back in time and change one thing in history. What would you do? Hooked? I was. Once I’d stopped trying to think of all the things in my life I’d go back and do differently, I did start to think about society – where did it all go wrong?

But what really drew me in is that I cannot imagine writing about this. How do you begin to plot a novel where altered history is your canvas? Where do you start? How does it end? Just. How anything?

Having read Two Brothers, I had no doubt that if anyone could write this, it would be Ben Elton. He is a brilliant storyteller, and manages to take history and find the familiar, the personal, and still keep the facts intact. In this novel, Hugh Stanton is the one who must ride off into the sunrise of time and save the universe. And, an ex- army MacGyver type with no personal ties, he is the very person for the job.

I get knocked down...

I remember the first time. It was a cold morning. We were blowing on our cold hands, rubbing them together as we started our run from school.

Anyone ever run a gauntlet? For those of you who haven’t, here are a few examples: Warning – you may need to use some imagination…

Gauntlet  #1: Negotiating a very long queue at Woollies with a toddler (or two) in tow. Make that a hungry toddler who eyes all the brightly coloured, attractively packaged sweets/chocolates and other unhealthy choices. And you have maxed your credit card. And you have just enough cash for the bread and milk you have to get. 

Gauntlet #2: Imagine you are a small edible fish. You have to swim against the current to get to your food source. Not only that, the shadows of sharks and other hungry predatory fish are looming. How fast will you swim? 

Gauntlet #3: You are playing a game of touch rugby with a group of people much bigger, stronger and faster than you. You catch the ball, but there is no one else to pass it to. You have to make a dash for the try line. There are only 4 huge boys who are defending. You run like hell. 

So our version of the gauntlet on this fine wintry morning is the fact that we are in our running gear – you know – tight leggings, figure hugging lycra, caps hiding bed hair.

My food journey: The basics

The story – there is always a story with food. It’s never only about the food, is it?

I have always considered myself a fairly healthy person – eating and exercise wise. I had two children in my early thirties, and didn’t worry about weight much, as I never had to really. As a teenager, if I wanted to lose weight, I watched what I ate for a while, and was fine.

Kids at school, I started walking/running as exercise with a friend, and the bug bit. I loved running, and lost some weight, which was a bonus. Then, gradually, year by year, my weight increased, kilogram by kilogram, until I weighed what I had done at my most pregnant. I was still happy, and still running. One day I looked at a photograph, and I had to admit, I looked overweight. At this point, I should mention that I am a shortie – 5 foot 2. The other shorties out there know this truth - when I put on weight, I look fat quickly.

I read an article in the Times magazine on why exercise won't make you thin that claimed that although exercise has benefits, weight loss is not one of them. In short, we have a limited amount of self-control. If we control ourselves sufficiently to exercise, it is unlikely that we have enough resistance left to avoid the doughnut/pastry/pizza we crave. This rang true for me. Thus began my journey.

Bev's Broccoli Soup

Compulsory ingredients:
Broccoli - whole or florets
1-2 Onions (peeled- one large or two small)
Chicken/veg stock (low sodium or homemade) adjust quantity depending on ingredients.

Optional ingredients:
Leeks - 3-4, or just the one leftover in the fridge
Celery
Baby marrows (courgettes), turnip and potato all work too.
Rocket, basil, spinach, watercress, coriander - again if you like it, and up to a cup of each.
Garlic - to your taste


It's nicer if you fry the ingredients in coconut oil or butter in the pot you will use to make the soup - for about 3-5 minutes. But you don't have to. Throw everything into the pot and cover (just) with stock. Bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and blend until smooth. Yum. I like it just like that.

But if you want to you can heat it up and add cheddar cheese (not too much) or cream. 

This was inspired by Sarah Wilson in her book - "I quit sugar", but I couldn't find an online link.

More on low sodium

In the beginning - the start of my journey

Serve with Freshly baked home made rolls

Miss Fortune by Albina Hume

Albina Hume has a most interesting life. Born in a small village in the Ukraine, Albina found opportunities where most of us would just work on surviving. She faces down a number of setbacks, and her persistence and determination to follow her dreams is remarkable.

We follow her to Greece, where she works as an exotic dancer. She is frank and honest about the string of relationships, some good and some bad, with the men and the women who she meets in Greece and when back in Ukraine. She tells of the horrors of jail, illegal border crossings and working for and with people who don’t share her desire to do the right thing. The matter-of-fact telling underplays some of the horrors she endures, which made for more engrossing reading. Albina is not ashamed of her mistakes and is open with us about her quest for love and the success that she believes that will bring. There is a lot to tell in this part, and I felt that perhaps some of the detail could have been sacrificed for a better appreciation of the characters involved.

The Whip by Karen Kondazian

4 out of 5 stars

The Whip is “inspired by the true story of Charlie Parkhurst”. I love reading historical fiction, and thoroughly enjoyed the author’s take on this famous stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo, discovered on death to be a woman (all true). The title says “inspired by”, which implies that this has a large degree of fiction, which it does, and was well told. Critics have asked for more accurate history, but I disagree – the fiction part is also important, and here a story was created out of a remarkable life.

Karen Kondazian has a beautiful writing style. Her sense of place and setting evokes vivid images, and it is no wonder that there are a number of fans who are suggesting this be made into a movie.