Cookery

Another delicious recipe from Denise Phillips

For more recipes and inspiration visit my website: www.jewishcookery.com

Blackberry & Spinach Freekeh Salad

Freekeh is a super grain, a wheat that is harvested while young and green. It is roasted over an open fire, the inside grain is firm, slightly chewy and has its own distinct nutty and smoky flavour. It has been a staple grain in the Middle Eastern diets for centuries but is now having an international revival. Loaded with nutrients, high in fibre and protein and low in fat, in fact superior to quinoa but of course not suitable if you are gluten free! Use bulgur wheat as a tasty alternative to freekeh if you can find it!

Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes plus cooling time Serves: 4-6

Ingredients 250g freekeh 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder ~ 75g baby spinach leaves 100g red cabbage – tough core removed, very finely sliced 1 small eating apple – cored and cut into matchsticks ¼ small red onion – sliced wafer thin 15g walnuts pieces – toasted 75g blackberries

Dressing: 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 ½ tablespoons cider vinegar 90ml extra virgin olive oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper Method 1) Put the freekeh and 1 litre water in a pan together with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon vegetable stock powder. 2) Bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer covered for 15 minutes or until just tender. 3) For the dressing – combine all the ingredients together. 4) Bunch the spinach leaves together on a chopping board and slice them finely. 5) When the freekeh is cool, stir in the spinach, cabbage, apple, onion, walnuts and blackberries. 6) Transfer to a serving bowl. 7) Add the dressing, just before serving.

Creative Salads

BY DENISE PHILLIPS

A salad can match so many different descriptions; hot, warm cold, with a vast array of ingredients. As plant-based menus become more popular chefs are experimenting with new ingredients, new flavours, textures and even shapes; appealing dressing varieties and classics with a ‘green’ twist. • New lettuce varieties - Beyond the usual romaines and icebergs are the micro- varieties of herbs and micro greens. Micro greens are the seedlings of leafy herbs and plants that are harvested before they grow to full size. It is easy to see why they have become a must-have ingredient. For one thing, they are a simple way to get your five-a-day. They add texture and colour in minute dainty ways to a salad and add finesse as a final garnish. • Power Ingredients – Ingredients that are considered good health options such as chickpeas, edamame, quinoa, ancient grains, nuts, seeds, lean proteins (including eggs), leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach, butternut squash and berries. • Cheese – speciality cheeses, smoked cheese, artisan cheeses, aged cheddar, and other branded cheese and all the vegan cheeses are entering the salad world! • Contrasting combinations – Contrasting bitter, sweet, spicy, salty, and savoury seems to be extremely popular when building salads. Textural contrasts too work well like smooth and crunchy, crisp and creamy. Combining acidic sliced beetroot and wedged tomatoes or sweet mango with pickled onions are good examples of contrasting bold colours and flavours. • Using Shapes – This creates interest on the plate and eye-catching impact that can also enhance flavour by allowing better absorption of dressings. Shaving or grating celery root, butternut squash, fennel or carrots works well. Softer vegetables can be spiralized or cut into noodles. Simple knife shapes like julienne or dice can provide great tasting garnishes as do deep fried herbs. • Crunchy Toppings – I love a little crunchy element to my salads. Croutons or bread toppings are tasty - use different types of breads. Nuts too like pistachio, pecans, pine nuts and walnuts especially roasted really ramp up the flavour and crunch factor. Seeds such as sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, sesame and even tortilla chips can add another dimension to the salad to give the wow factor. • Quirky Fruit Salad – add caramelised nuts, artisan chocolates, popcorn, herbs, cubes of cheese. Or add berries to savoury. Alcoholic dressings, candied ginger, courgette ribbons, peaches and macadamia cream can all add a little zing to your fruity mix! • And finally, the dressing – here is another opportunity to add an element of surprise and flavour. Lemon, sesame, soya sauce, chilli, ginger, flavoured vinegars, tahini, nut butters are just some of some many ingredients that can add a distinct flavour and tasty triumph to your salad.

Paperweight Perspective Life insurance: Don’t leave it too late!

BY DOVID POSEN CASEWORKER TEAM LEADER, THE PAPERWEIGHT TRUST

A famous Jewish comedian once said: “Whatever excuses you may have for not buying life insurance now will only sound ridiculous to your widow.”

We live in a time where the only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty, and the biggest and most dramatic uncertainty is death. Many people don’t like to think about, let alone discuss their mortality, others are put off contemplating life insurance by a lack of knowledge, convinced it is something that is too expensive or complicated, where in reality, that is not the case.

Take for example Mark, a 35-year-old, married to Sarah with two gorgeous kids, Josh and Eve. His career is going in the right direction, but each month it’s becoming a bit more of a financial squeeze. He’s looking where he can make some cuts, whilst trying to stay away from the daily list of depressing news headlines both reporting on and predicting even further doom and gloom.

The last thing Mark wants to think about is adding a further expense of life insurance. He doesn’t have the time to look into it, feels fabulously healthy, (although maybe a bit worn out from schlepping the kids around all their different activities and play dates), so why would he consider it?

The problem is that 2-3% of 35-year olds won’t make it to 45. A statistic that obviously gets worse as one gets older. Now, if something G-d forbid happens to Mark, besides the devastation and grief the family will undoubtedly feel, the damage will only be magnified if the family lose a significant part of their income. Who is going to pay the mortgage, the bills, cover everything the kids need?

Paperweight knows only too well the fallout of grief; people often need help no matter what their finances look like, but for those left in the financial lurch, it is a depressingly different picture. Those left behind always have more than enough to deal with, without the additional burden of financial ruin.

Obviously, there are different levels of life insurance one could get; different providers and different products, but to keep it simple: £250,000 of cover for a 20-year term can often cost less per month than a Netflix subscription.

Granted whilst you personally won’t be able to watch the latest televised goings on in other people’s lives, at least there is the comfort that, should the worst happen, one’s own family’s lives won’t play out like an unfortunate reality show, with people who have no idea how to pay for their next meal.

An American journalist once remarked, “Fun is like life insurance; the older you get, the more it costs.”

Taking life insurance out whilst younger not only protects one’s family straight away, it is also cheaper per month the younger you start. A balance has to be found for the length of term and level to insure, but there is nothing stopping you later in life taking out a larger policy for a longer term as a top up, when not only you may have more financial responsibilities, but also perhaps the means to pay for the increased policy. Meanwhile, not delaying and taking out at least some level of cover could be one of the most important things one ever does for your family.

There is nothing we wouldn’t do for our children; we can dedicate our whole lives to making their lives better, encourage them to become better people and make them appreciate how much we love them and how special they are, both to us and to the world.

However, delaying taking life insurance could literally shape the lives of the children left behind. We pray that we should always be healthy as well as financially stable; we may not have control of how things turn out but we certainly have to do our part.

We live in a time where the only thing we can be certain about is uncertainty, and the biggest and most dramatic uncertainty is death.

Debt-negotiating, courtattending, benefits-advising, law-guiding, tribunalaccompanying, hand-holding, rights-advocating, landlordchallenging and people-empowering.

Your situation may involve any of these tasks, and more. Whatever your administrative, legal or financial problems, our 200 caseworkers, based in London, Manchester and Gateshead, have the expertise to help. And it’s all free of charge. To access our services or to make a donation to support our work, call 0330 174 4300 or visit paperweight.org.uk