HotM #7 - the roundup

Sorry for letting you wait but I had to finish writing a review, what is really sad is that I haven't finished it still but I can hardly let you wait more can I? So here we go with the seventh roundup of the Heart of the Matter - eating for life. This month the theme was fruit and berries and we have a surprisingly varied menu here as you will see!


The first entry to arrive and the first I forgot was this Cherry-Orange Compote from Jugalbandi, please forgive me for being so scatterbrained! It is a lovely fruit compote and they provide us with several really appetizing serving suggestions.


When I saw Amanda's Fresh Figs with Fleur de Sel, Aged Balsamic, & Hazelnuts over at Figs Olives Wine I brazenly asked her to submit it as an entry for this month's HotM, such goodness cannot be passed by, can it? Judge for yourselves, I'm sure you will agree with me!


Lakshmi from The 'yum' blog gives us a Plum Banana Spread that sounds really interesting and simple to make! And you can eat with bread and/or ice cream - I love versatile food!


This is a great fruit salad where Lisa of Lisa's Kitchen mix watermelon, pink grapefruit and raspberries to make a very fresh Red Fruit Salad I must say that I find the choice of fruit and berries very attractive!


Simona over at Briccole has made a brilliant salad in which she mixes pears, radicchio, baby spinach, and pecan nuts! I love it! And she gives us linguistic information as well...

My first entry was Grilled Chicken Breast with Fig & Balsamic Salsa

And then it was me again, this time with a Hot but Cold Fruit Soup with Walnuts, Cardamom and Coffee.

Blackberry Jam is the next on the list, Pravs of Simply Spicy gives us the recipe of a lovely jam using apple and lemon as natural pectin. I'm really sad that the blackberry season is over here but next year...


This is surely one of the most delicious recipes for tea that I have seen for a long time, Linda's of Make Life Sweeter entry is Vanilla Roibos Nectarine Ice Tea with basil in it! As soon as I find some Vanilla Roibos I'm making it!


My co-host Joanna from Joanna's Food gives us a recipe of a pastry dough without butter, talk about heart healthy. And then she filled it with plums, I think it looks beautiful! You can find her Butter-less pastry - & a fruit tart here.

This is the first time John from Hungry Again participate in an event and I am very flattered that he choose ours. His Peach and Pumpernickel Panzanella sounds really good, my father would have loved it, he was crazy about pumpernickel bread!


After a lot of sweet entries it's time for a savoury one, Maryanne presents this impressive Stuffed Baked Acorn Squash where she uses rice, orange, walnut and mint. It definitely worth to click over to Finding La Dolce Vita to check out the recipe.


Another beautiful salad, this time it is a Spinach-Strawberry-Almond Salad that Mansi of Food and Fun has made, it's so attractive! I'm getting hungrier and hungrier over here!


Will you be able to resist Mercede's Fish Baked with Pomegranate and Lime? I'm not sure I can especially as the pomegranate season is here but I'm not so sure I will find the loumi needed. You don't know what a loumi is? Check it out over at Desert Candy!


Christine of Christine Cooks always makes the most delicious things for the HotM, this time she has made a Peach Blackberry Crumble and as usual she has included a lot of useful information about what she has used!


Now Franz from Einfachkoestlich.com reminded me of something I haven't eaten for eons, he presents us with Calf's heart with Balsamico and pearl onions, my mother and I used to feast on calf's heart when I still lived at home so I know that this is delicious! Just remember to substitute the butter with heart healthy oil!


Over at Vanielje Kitchen you not only find a lovely breakfast suggestion with Pomegranate seeds, you are also entertained with the story of Persephone, could you ask for more?

Last but not the least we have Aagje's Stewed pears with star anise and cardamom, they are simmered slowly for at least 2 hours and this incredible and simple dish can be eaten as a dessert or why not as a condiment? I just have to tell you to go to Leafy Cooking to check out Aagje's new kitchen, I turn green of envy over here every time I think about the window corner...

Update:

There's no need to throw yourself at my mercy Jeanne, I'm more than happy to include your lovely Gingery Baked Nectarines even if you missed the deadline! Steer over to Cook Sister! to get the recipe, it's worth it.

So this is it, I think we have a wonderful and inspiring collection of heart healthy recipes here and I thank all of you for participating! Next month it's Joanna's turn to host so keep your eyes open for her announcement!

HotM 6: the very late round-up

Next time I'm away for a chunk of August, I'll get someone else to do the round-up - how can I have thought it would work? No, that wasn't it ... I just didn't think at all. And next time it's grilling, perhaps the round-up should be done by someone who can rely on a little summer sunshine, even in these times of weird weather. We haven't used our grill once this summer, and I'm not sure that we will now - my family is all in winter mode (I'm not), pulling on jerseys and muttering about open doors and windows. That's enough breast-beating ... there are some great recipes to try - and I have already promised to cook all of them as a kind of penance. Wrong word, of course, it will be my pleasure.










Katie at Thyme for Cooking has made wonderful Spanish roasted potatoes with allioli, a garlic sauce not unlike French aioli, only without eggs, which makes it perfect for HoTM. Katie also has a grilled chicken salad (and a photo of some very black sausages her husband cooked ...)












Gilli at So So Simple Food has a good trick to keep her Ultimate Chicken BBQ moist - soak it in brine for a couple of hours.










Chris was in the hairdresser flipping through the magazines when she got the inspiration for her wild mushroom linguine with grilled gazpacho sauce. You'll find details for cooking indoors or outdoors at Mele Cotte. She's also sent a recipe for grilled salmon with three vegetables.









Cookie Baker Lyn loves asking couples how they met. So you won't be surprised to hear that she calls her grilled seafood Happily Ever After Shrimp.










Sophie says that her Earthy fig, chicken and mushroom salad can be used as a basic formula for healthy grilling. She's a nutritionist, and often includes useful links in her posts at Mostly Eating.









Kalyn gets out her mortar and pestle to make the rub for her herb encrusted grilled salmon, which she says is one of the best-tasting salmon steaks she's cooked. As usual at Kalyn's Kitchen, there are full South Beach details for dieters, and plenty of links for further information.













Ilva, my co-host for Heart of the Matter, loves to grill, and has posted grilled sweet peppers with onion and thyme or peperoni grigliate con cipolle e timo. As always at Lucullian Delights, lovely clear flavours, and beautiful photographs.











The wet weather in England is no excuse: Swaha used her George Foreman grill indoors (in a heatwave) to make Rosemary-garlic-lime tilapia and Barbeque tofu. I'm not sure that my fishmonger stocks tilapia, but I'll definitely ask him. And Swaha discusses the concerns some people have with soy products.


So, lots of things for me to cook at the first sign of an Indian summer ... thanks for joining in, thanks for being so patient about the delayed round-up. And don't forget, September's HotM is fruit and berries ....

HotM #7: Fruit and Berries

I'm hereby announcing the seventh round of The Heart of the Matter and this months me and Joanna have chosen a theme that at least is fitting for our northern hemisphere: Fruit and Berries! Use it in the way you want, as long as it's heart healthy! You can bake them, grill them or use them fresh; you can make salsas, sweet or savoury ones, you can use your fruit and berries with lean meat, fish, low fat dairy products or whatever you can come up with as long you think heart healthy, avoid using bad fats (like butter and trans fats) and too fat dairy products for example, for more info see Joanna's Basic Rules! This month I'm in charge so you have to send your entries to me at i_beretta AT yahoo DOT it before the 23 september. And as usual you will be able to read the round up here and on the HotM blog were we are building up a recipe base of heart healthy recipes and with we I don't intend me and Joanna but all of us who are contributing with recipes! So by participating you are doing a good deed, doesn't that sound good?
Many of you know how this works but for those of you who are new to this here are some guidlines: send me the link of your blog post to the address above, make a link to Lucullian, or to the HotM blog if you prefer, so that your readers get to know about the event and can see the roundup later! In order to keep this focused on heart health we ask you to consider this as a one entry event, i.e. we prefer that you don't use your entry for other events as well. That's it! Time to get cooking!

HoTM 6: the grill

It's time to announce the theme for August's Heart of the Matter - let's hope the weather improves, because it's grilled food.

Ilva and I have been really thrilled by the response to Heart of the Matter in the six months since we set it up ... so many of you have joined in to help us make a bank of heart-healthy recipes which everyone can consult. The main points to consider in a heart-healthy diet are: drastically reduce saturated fats (found in meat, cheese, butter, cream), increase consumption of friendly fats (found in oily fish), eat lots and lots of fruit and vegetables.

This theme is going to be a huge learning curve for me, because we rarely use the barbecue here - laziness, lack of expertise, I'm not sure of the reason. A few years ago I bought a Weber kettle barbie, and love cooking a chicken or a whole leg of lamb on that for a party, but the children all turn up their noses when I suggest that for a summery lunch for friends. And so we hardly used the Weber last summer, and haven't used it at all this summer. Although that may also be something to do with the fact that, so far, this summer has felt more like winter.

But grilling is a good way to go in a heart-healthy diet - there's lots of scope for cooking vegetables (would somebody consider doing a post on the different ways to bake potatoes on a fire?), fish tastes really good grilled, and there must be good sweets to eat apart from marshmallows on sticks (which, of course, are fine in moderation because they are made with egg whites, and all the saturated fat in an egg is found in the yolk).

So I'm really looking forward to hearing all about the things you cook on your grill: anything and everything from starters to main courses to pudding (which you now all know includes desserts!). And then I'm going to get out there and cook them one by one.

I'm sure many of you know the "rules" by now, but here's a recap: all you have to do is to send me the link to your entry at joannacary AT ukonline DOT co DOT uk before 23 August, make a link to Joanna's Food and to the HotM blog as well if you like. I'll post the round up on both blogs. In order to keep this focused on heart health we ask you to consider this as a one-entry event, i.e. we prefer that you don't use your post for other events as well.

I'm really looking forward to reading all your recipes and tips ...

HotM #5-The roundup (updated)

Waterlife was the theme of this month's round of The Heart of the Matter and I can tell you that there's a winner among all the entries I have got and that is the shrimp! But there are/is(?) fish as well and we have a great variety of dishes, we have soups, salads, appetizers, seconds and even a drunken shrimp! I didn't expect so many entries to arrive but they did, I thought food bloggers went on vacation but I was obviously wrong:
Updated: I apologize so much to Lorraine of Italian Foodies for leaving out her two entries, I'm so sorry (I will walk on my knees over chick peas as a sign of repentance) especially as she is such an enthusiastic HotM participant and because she sent me her entries early on. Lorraine please forgive me!

Lorraine's of Italian Foodies first entry is this really fresh Oven-baked Cod, a healthy and simple all-in-one dish that gives you the time to to other things.


Lorraine's second entry was this delicious Sea bass with fennel in a bag
where the fish is cooked or even steamed in its own juices with the fennel adding a lot of flavour to it. Absolutely worth a try!



First to send me an entry was Katie over at Thyme for Cooking (how I love that name!) who presents a Moules Gratiné that really looks good (dangerously so, I'm allergic to mussels but I'm tempted to try it anyway) and she also tells us about her meanderings before finally eating mussels herself.


I cannot but consider Aagje from Leafy Cooking as a friend, she is always here to leave me nice comments (and I even miss her when she goes on vacation) so I was happy to see that she participated in the HotM, she has made a very flavourful Salmon à la minute that she ate watching Shark, that's dedication I tell you!


Gilli of So So Simple Food is sharing an old favourite recipe with us, Fish and Tomato Bake, that seems really good and it is also simple to make, just let the ingredients bake to bring out all the flavours!

Next entry is this intriguing Sashimi of sea bass Italian style, Franz from Einfachkoestlich assures us that even those of us who don't like raw fish will like this recipe and I think he might be right!


Dear Chris from Mele Cotte has sent me this delicious entry of Pecan-crusted Tilapia, and not only does it sound good, the presentation is really pretty!

Who can resist this Asian-Style Marinated, Grilled Salmon that Christine of Christine Cooks is presenting us with? It makes me wish I could find perfect salmon here but I suspect I have to wait until I go to Sweden in a week's time. It's mouthwatering!


Here's the first shrimp, Fruit Tart serves us these delicious Orange-Ginger Shrimp Skewers, I really think the orange ginger combination must be great!


Some day very soon I will tell you about how nice Kalyn has been to me lately but now I can only recommend her Broiled Wild Salmon with Mustard-Mint-Parsley Sauce over at Kalyn's Kichen, I'm especially curious about the mint-mustard combination!


Over at The Miller Melting Pot you can check out a dish that really fits in there, it's the Miso and Herb Salmon, an interesting mix between east and west!


Guess what, Katie sent me another entry, this thyme no time it is a Composed Salad with Tuna and I wonder if it is composed as in behaving or in combination, whatever, it's an inspiring salad so click over to Thyme For Cooking!



Fruit Tart didn't intend these fish burritos to the HotM but I asked if I could include them because I like the idea of using leftover fish like this so much!


Johanna sent me this wonderful Catalán monkfish & clam "stew" or mock "bouillabaisse" which is not only good looking but sounds great, full of flavours and quick(ish) to make! You find it over at thepassionatecook


What you see in the photo are drunk prawns or should I call them ex drunk prawns because they can hardly be anything in that state but that's just better for us! Mmm lovely! Over at Teczcape you find a lovely post and the recipe of Drunken prawns.


Kebrunella is back and I'm happy she is, this time she has prepared a Cod in Phillo Pastry which should be a good alternative for puff pastry as it is far less fat! Take a look at her photos of Lanzarote as well, they are wonderful!


Sophie of Mostly Eating gives us both a delicious recipe of her Mackerel, Pepper and Bulgur Wheat Salad and some very good information about fish and heart health! Thanks Sophie!


My co-founder Joanna of Joanna's Food has been partying wildly the whole month but I'm happy that she did find time to make this Quick prawn stew which sounds really good!


I was really happy to receive this entry from Alanna who posted this great soup recipe on her Kitchen Parade blog, she doesn't know where the name come from but she assure us that Sengalese Soup is a winner!


The first of my own entries was a White Bean Salad with Dried Fish Roe.


This is a dish without a name (maybe I could hazard Shrimp Curry?) but that doesn't make it less delicious, Baghs of Crazy Curry was faced with shrimps that needed to be cooked and this is what she (or is it a he?) came up with! Just great!


My second entry was Beans with Shrimps and Onion.

Don't you think that Aagje's Small appetizers for a summer afternoon look wonderful? I do!

Hilda of Saffron & Blueberry presents us with Salmon Cucumber-Turnip Cups, her own creative adaptation of a cult recipe! Scroll down for the English version!


My third entry was a Sardine, Rucola and Sesame seed Sandwich.


Isn't Food is Love a promising name for a food blog? Here we find a hot recipe of Rose fish Diabolo served on this wonderful fish plate, that's what I call staying in tune with the theme!


Becky and husband of Columbus Foodie has made delicious Pan-Seared Salmon over Red Cabbage and Onions with Merlot Gastrique, a real gourmet meal!


Late but not too late, my great friend Tanna from My Kitchen In Half-Cups has been so busy cooking lately that she forgot to post this in time but who cares about time limits when it is something so good and neat as her Spring Rolls with Shrimps?!


And sweet Jeanne of Cook Sister was even later but as I hadn't started writing this roundup yet I was happy to include her gorgeous looking Pasta with gingered prawns, mange tout and sake! The sake touch sounds interesting!

Oj oj oj as you say in Swedish, two roundups in such a short time has taken its toll, I hope I haven't messed up links and photos, please tell me if I have! But most important, Thank You for all these wonderful entries, without you The Heart of the Matter-eating for life wouldn't exist! And please continue to participate, next month it's Joanna who is hosting the event!