Quick Courgette Patties

This recipe is a light snack that you can have with either some tomato ketchup, or natural yoghurt. Courgettes have a very high water content so you need to make sure that you squeeze all the water out of the grated courgettes before adding the remaining ingredients. You do this by adding a teaspoon of salt to the grated courgettes, and then leave for about 3 minutes. You will then see all the water oozing out of the grated courgettes. Then just get a handful of courgettes at a time and squeeze out all the water.

Ingredients

Serves 2 Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 20 mins

2 large courgettes; grated 

1 cube of ginger; peeled and finely grated

1/2 a green chilli; finely chopped

3 tbsp of gram flour (besan/chick pea flour)

Some oil for frying

Method

1. Grate the courgette add a teaspoon of salt and leave for 3-5 minutes. Squeeze all of the water from the courgette and transfer to a bowl. Add the ginger, chilli and gram flour and mix really well. 

2. Shape the courgette into patties and then heat some oil in a large frying pan, and lightly fry the patties for around 15-20 minutes or until cooked, turning every 5 minutes. 

3. Serve with a some tomato ketchup, or some natural yoghurt.

Turmeric - The Super Spice

Turmeric is truly a super spice. It has healing qualities that I am still finding out about.

I was first introduced to the magic of turmeric growing up in Southend. As a child whenever my brother played rugby at school he would always come home with a sprained ankle or wrist. When he did my Mum didn't rush to the medicine cupboard to get some painkillers, instead she rushed to her masala box to make some turmeric paste. She would mix turmeric with some water and then heat it up until it became paste like. She would then rub this all over my brothers ankle/wrist and wrap it up in a bandage. My brother would then smell of turmeric for the rest of the evening and then go to school the next day with a yellow ankle/wrist.

But the turmeric paste did its job and healed his sprain. As a natural anti-inflammatory it helped with the swelling and as a natural antiseptic and antibacterial agent it helped with any cuts and bruises he might have had.


Cut to twenty years later, and the American Vegetarian falls off her bike injuring her knee quite badly. We go to the hospital and luckily nothing is broken, all we need to do is rest the leg and keep it raised so the swelling goes down. When we get home the first thing I do is not rush to the sofa and make a contraption with all the pillows so her knee stays raised but rush to my masala box to make some miracle turmeric paste. The swelling goes down rapidly.

Another way I use turmeric is in a glass of hot milk. Hot milk with turmeric is a great way to blast away the signs of a cold. Not only is it quite soothing, but the turmeric really does help in getting rid of any coughs and sniffles. 


Hot milk and turmeric also cured my Mum's asthma. My Mum is in her seventies and developed asthma a few years ago. Earlier this year she began to add turmeric in her nightly cup of hot milk. When she next went to the doctors, he had told her her asthma had gone. She puts this down to the turmeric, and I believe her. 

I'm no doctor or nutritional expert but I do know that turmeric is good for you. So if you feel a cold coming on try having a glass of warm milk with a 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric mixed in. It'll work wonders.