We Love Cooking!:
pecans

  • :: Sally Bee's Prawn, Avocado and Pecan Herb Salad

    :: Sally Bee's Prawn, Avocado and Pecan Herb Salad

    If you haven't heard of Sally Bee before, and I hadn't up until recently, Sally is a mother of three who at the age of 36, despite a healthy lifestyle, suffered 3 major heart attacks in the space of one week. I'm not even going to go into the amazing story of her recovery, you really just have to read it. "The Secret Ingredient" is a collection of super healthy recipes which don't go over the top and features meals which are perfect for family home cooking.

    I recently got the opportunity to meet the lovely Sally Bee, and despite our extremely brief encounter she comes across as an extremely vibrant and fun individual and when I remarked on her incredible story, joked and feigned heart pains! This is one of the fantastic recipes from her book, "The Secret Ingredient" which is out on Thursday 21st of January and can be ordered online via Amazon.

    Prawn, Avocado and Pecan Herb Salad

    You know, salads don't have to be boring. This dish is full of flavour! You can serve it as a main meal or smaller portions for a healthy starter. If you don't like prawns, you can substitute with chicken; anything goes, really. Be adventurous with your salads and make this a regular, everyday dish. Prawns give great texture and flavour to this recipe, but they do contain cholesterol,so I have allowed only four prawns per serving. If you want to make it more substantial, you can add extra protein: such as tuna, chicken or turkey.

    Serves 2
    Drizzle of olive oil
    2 salad onions or spring onions (scallions),peeled and finely chopped
    1 garlic clove,peeled and crushed
    1 tbsp soy sauce
    Freshly ground black pepper
    8 uncooked king prawns (jumbo shrimp)
    Mixed salad leaves
    Watercress
    1 ripe avocado
    2 tomatoes, sliced
    Juice of 1 lemon
    Handful of fresh basil, torn
    Handful of shelled pecan nuts

    Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat.
    Add the chopped salad onions, crushed garlic, soy sauce, black pepper and raw prawns.
    Sauté until the prawns have turned pink all the way through.
    Arrange the salad leaves, watercress, avocado and tomatoes in a big dish, then pour over the prawns and other cooked ingredients.
    Squeeze over the lemon juice, sprinkle with torn basil and pecan nuts and serve.

    Follow Sally Bee on Twitter over here.

  • :: Chocolate Pumpkin and Pecan Brownies

    :: Chocolate Pumpkin and Pecan Brownies

    I promise no more pumpkin recipes up on the blog for while after today's recipe! But I did save the best till last! These pumpkin brownies are so delicious, you just have to try them. I didn't manage to get my hands on pumpkin puree so I made my own. I slowly roasted the pumpkin until it was soft, scraped out the flesh, then I puréed the mixture and passed it through a sieve. Unfortunately my homemade purée didn't have that authentic neon orange colour that you see in American food photo's so you will have to allow me a little artistic creativity, as I did play around a little with the colours in the photos.

    Chocolate, pumpkin and pecan brownies

    Recipe from The Daily Mail

    Makes about 20 squares
    For the pumpkin mixture:
    25g butter
    75g cream cheese
    100g caster sugar
    1 egg
    100ml pumpkin purée
    1tsp vanilla extract
    1/2tsp ground ginger
    75g plain flour

    For the chocolate mixture:
    200g unsalted butter
    200g dark chocolate, chopped
    3 large eggs
    300g granulated sugar
    2tsp vanilla extract
    125g plain flour
    Pinch of salt
    100g pecans, roughly chopped

    Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
    Grease and line a rectangular baking tin, approximately 20cm x 30cm (8-12in) and 3-4cm (1 1/4-1 1/2in) deep, with greaseproof or parchment paper.
    To make the pumpkin mixture, beat all the ingredients together until smooth. Keep to one side.
    For the chocolate mixture, melt the butter and chocolate together, either in a bowl over a pan of simmering water or gently in the microwave.
    In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract with an electric hand whisk until thick and creamy.
    Mix in the melted chocolate and butter. Finally, stir in the flour, salt and pecans.
    Pour the chocolate mixture into the lined baking tin and level off the surface.
    Using a tablespoon, drop dollops of the pumpkin mixture all over the top, and then, using the back of a table knife, loosely swirl it into the chocolate mixture.
    Place in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes, until the top is cracking and the centre is just set.
    Leave to cool in the tin for 40-45 minutes before cutting into bite-sized squares.