I get a weekly delivery of seasonal fruit and veg each week from Abel and Cole. It’s a great way to stick to local produce and support the farmers of Britain (not that they only supply British produce, but a good majority of it is).
The exciting thing about the boxes is that you don’t choose what to get; each week is a surprise based on what their suppliers have grown. This also means you are often confronted with an unfamiliar vegetable. Some recent examples include black salsify, Jerusalem artichokes and Romanesco broccoli. Well last week I was surprised to find two scalloped UFO shaped yellow blobs in my box. Checking that they weren’t alive, I recalled the name “patty squash” and thought this seemed a likely match. Turns out I was spot on, they also go by the name pattypan, sunburst and button squash. They’re a variety of summer squash, squashes that have been harvested when still very young. Surprisingly the flesh and rind are all edible, unlike more mature squashes.
Two squashes
And then diced
So what to do with these delicate little baby squashes. I decided a risotto would complement them nicely with a bit of basil to pep up the flavour. My only worry was the water content of the squashes would make them mushy if cooked with the rice and stock so I sauteed the squash separately and added them to the rice at the end.
Serves two
- 2 medium patty squash (or 4 smaller ones if possible)
- 1 medium white onion, finely diced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- Approximately 500ml of chicken or vegetable stock
- Approximately 150g to 200g of Arborio risotto rice
- A handful of fresh basil, chiffonaded
- 2 tablespoons of butter
- A splash of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Finely grated Parmesan [optional]
- A small glass of white wine or splash of vermouth / dry sherry [optional]
This is my basic risotto recipe and has served me well for the past few years. Firstly, heat some oil in a heavy bottomed pan over a medium low flame. Add the finely diced onion and gently soften them, stirring occasionally. Once the onions are nearly done, add the garlic for a couple of minutes making sure not to brown it.
Add the butter and rice and stir to fully coat everything with the butter. The rice will become semi-translucent as it absorbs the butter. At this stage deglaze the pan with some white wine / sherry / vermouth (if you wish to), and heat until boiling. Reduce the heat and add all the stock together. Lots of people will argue you need to lovingly spoon a ladelful of stock at a time, I’m with Heston Blumethal on this, don’t bother!
Softening the onions
Adding the stock
Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan with a thin layer of oil to a medium high heat. Prepare the squash by dicing into batons. The joy of these squash is you don’t need to peel them, just wash and keep the rind on. Once the pan is hot, throw all the batons into the pan in one layer and leave them for five minutes to brown a little. After five minutes, turn them and leave for another five. During this time stir the risotto occasionally and top up the stock if needed. Once the squash is nicely brown, turn off the heat.
Sauteeing the squash
Nicely browned
The risotto should be ready after 15 to 18 minutes, I like it with a little bite but it shouldn’t be gritty, try it and see. Once the risotto is done, add the cooked squash and basil and salt and pepper to taste. Optionally, some finely grated Parmesan would be lovely on top. Serve and enjoy, delicious.
The finished product, with basil garnish for extra points
Hi, this is Daniel here, the developer behind graffed. I’ve stayed silent on the blog so far but thought it was about time I introduced myself and one of my passions: cooking. I want to make it clear that although I am passionate about cooking, I am also entirely an amateur and there may be some mistakes along the way in my posts, so go easy on me.
Healthy Eating
So in terms of graffed, I thought I could start including some healthy recipes to help you trim your body and reach your targets. It also gives me an excuse to start a recipe blog! I am a strong believer in eating for pleasure rather than sustenance, what else do we have an excuse to do 3 times a day to indulge ourselves (with our clothes on at least). Being healthy does not have to mean being boring. I am also wary of obsessive counting, being sensible most of the time is more important to me than convincing myself into shameful guilt for having a chocolate bar at lunchtime. This means I won’t be putting calorie counts and such on the recipes. I’ll try and estimate the healthiness and give indications of where you can cut back a recipe or maybe even be more indulgent though.
Margaret’s big round courgettes
Stunning round courgettes from Magz
Part of the credit for this blog must also go to Magz, who very kindly and unexpectedly donated two amazing round courgettes from her allotment.
The recipe
(serves two)
1 large round courgette (or 2 normal medium courgettes)
2 thick salmon fillets
1/2 medium red onion
10 cherry tomatoes, or 2 medium tomatoes
Chilli flakes or hot pepper sauce
1 cup of rice
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Dried basil
Fresh basil
Parmesan (optional)
Turn your oven onto 200 degrees c fan assisted (220 unassisted).
Initially we’re going to make the stuffing for the courgettes. I’m not too fussy about tomato skins and seeds, but if you are, skin and deseed them after blanching in hot water for 1 minute. Roughly chop the tomatoes and onion. Boil these together with the rice for the specified time on the packet. Drain and reserve on the side.
Now we’re going to prepare the courgettes. Chop them in half and scoop out the insides to leave approximately a 1cm thick shell. You can discard the insides. We’re going to add some seasoning to the stuffing, personally I used fresh basil, salt, pepper, hot pepper sauce and a touch of tomato puree all blended in, but go with your instinct. Once that’s mixed in with the rice, fill the courgettes with the delicious mixture.
Salmon being prepped in the foil
The salmon is extremely easy to prepare. Just rub the oil, salt, pepper and dried basil all over it and place it in a sheet of tinfoil. Fold the tinfoil up into a tent which is as tightly sealed as possible, but with some room above the salmon.
So, chuck the courgettes on a baking sheet and place them in the oven. In total we’re going to cook them for about 45 minutes. Hence 15 or 20 minutes (depending on thickness of the fillets) before the end of cooking, place the salmon in the oven. Extract from the oven and serve simply by themselves, wonderful:
Indulgence: I added a topping of grated Parmesan about halfway through cooking the courgettes for a nice crisp cheesy topping.
The good and the bad
From my perspective, there’s lots of good in this recipe. We have a nice oily fish, salmon, cooked simply and healthily by being baked in the oven. There are also chilli elements and onion, together with both red and green vegetables and a nice balance between fish, vegetable and carbohydrate. You could replace the white rice with brown to be extra good, just cook the rice longer as per the instructions. Otherwise a good recipe to start with!
I think it’s just one of those ways that people have kept score, but only with yourself. But really, when you see a hot girl, do you really think, “Wow, she must weigh 112lbs!”, or when you see a hot guy, do you really think, “Oh gosh, he must weigh about 187lbs.”
No, you think, “My gosh, she has such a tiny waist and muscular legs and butt.”
And being really light ISN’T really what a lot of people want, so why are people STILL keeping score with the scales?
Real life example of how scales don’t work
I have two good friends. Both are tiny. One works out a lot. She’s actually an aerobics instructor. She eats well, runs half marathons and works out a lot. She’s got pretty much no fat on her stomach and is very toned. My other friend is one of those naturally thin girls. She doesn’t work out, but is also naturally blessed with fat that basically doesn’t even move when it jiggles.
The fitness enthusiast and the naturally thin are both the same size in clothes, but there’s a 25 lb difference between them.
Fitness girl is all muscle. I bet inch wise, they’d be pretty close.
Inches matter to your health
My dietician told me that when a woman’s waist is more than 32 inches, or a man’s waist is more than 37 inches increases your risk for obesity related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease etc, substantially. For more information about those risks, read this.
For women, other measurements, such as when your ratio of your waist to hips exceeds 0.8, also increase your health risks (of course, this sucks for us apples, who have to work harder than our pear shaped friends to keep our inches in check!).
…and to the opposite sex
Why do people want to lose weight? It’s to feel better about themselves, to give themselves confidence, and let’s be honest, to be attractive to our mates and potential mates. You won’t life them up and guess their weight to make a judgment onto whether they’re attractive (although it is fun to pick people up!). No, you’ll think judge and be judged by how great you look in a pair of jeans.
Can’t forget about pounds?
Sure, you’re measuring, your clothes are fitting better, you look great in the mirror, but you’re still obsessed with the scales?
Don’t worry about it. It is a fun way to keep score. But just remember it shouldn’t be the most important measurement!
I’ve been tracking body measurements with graffed since we launched (and before, of course, as I used my measurements to help make the female body).
I’ve also been exercising and eating less. I’m not doing it quickly, as I want this to be a permanent change. So far, I have lost the most prominent inch-loss around my navel (around 1.5 inches!) but I haven’t really lost weight around my waist, which is where I want it the most.
It’s always a problem with different body shapes– the place we want to lose weight the most is also the last place it seems to go from. Women who hate their hips or thighs, always lose inches in their bust and waist first. Us apples see our bums reduced to the bare minimum before it starts to come off the stomach. Of course you can target exercise to tone these areas, but that doesn’t control where fat comes off. No matter how much you want to, it comes off where it likes to.
It’s not fair, but that’s just the way it is. I’ve readjusted my goals for waist to be more attainable for the way my body works. I will never be a perfect hour glass, and just as I’ll be disappointed that I’ll never reach that goal, so I encourage all of you to be realistic about your goal bodies on graffed. Be a bit kind to yourself, and you WILL get to those goals.
This is an exciting day: we are finally releasing graffed out into the wild! We’re just in beta, so bare with us as we refine and perfect the app.
What is graffed?
Graffed is a simple tool for tracking your measurements. When you’re losing weight AND gaining muscle, the scales never tell the whole picture. And besides, the thing people notice most about you is the way your body shape has changed. Being able to measure key body parts and set goals, and then watching your body shape change is very rewarding!
The story
I have been recording various body parts in the past, and while my charts in my notebook looked okay, it didn’t feel very tidy or satisfying. So, I looked around for fitness tools online and found none that really worked for me. Luckily, I’m also a web designer, and I began toying with the idea of creating my own website that would do that. Fortunately, I also know Dan, a fantastic developer, who learned flex (the flash-based language graffed is built in) and did all the maths I definitely could not do myself.
Why measure on a body?
Initially the idea was to create graphs and charts. Although this is a great way to see the downward trend, it didn’t really show me how it has really changed my body. The best way to do that is on a real body shape. We plan on creating some tools for more traditional reporting very soon, so you can see your changes in lots of different visual ways.
Perfecting the bodies
The most difficult part of this app was getting the bodies to properly represent both the girl and the guy. Because there are such a variety of body shapes, the curves need to move seemlessly into the next curve. Perfecting the bodies will be an ongoing project: I’ll be constantly refining the curves, and in the future, we’ll also use your proportions to determine if you’re more athletic or curvy. For the very skinning or the obese, the bodies lose their shapes at a certain point. I will also be addressing that. If you are measuring a body part that looks weird to you, please send me a screenshot. Using real measurements from real people is the best way to determine if my curves are working correctly, so I appreciate your help!
Have fun
We’ve set a few minimum and maximum values for the body shapes, but they’re pretty generous. One of my favourite things about graffed is how fun it is to play with the bodies to make them look crazy!
I hope you enjoy graffed, and I look forward to hearing what you think!
