Kale Salad with Sumac Onions and Chickpeas

Ingredients:

Kale (pick almost enough to make a vege for two when cooked this is perhaps double what you’d expect to need for a salad)

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1 red onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp ground sumac

i tsp toasted sesame seeds

1 Tbsp lemon or lime juice

1 clove garlic

2 teaspoons mustard

125g chickpeas cooked

Method

Soak and cook the chickpeas.

Remove the thick central veins from the kale and rip oor cut into small pieces. Pour oil and 1 tsp salt over kale and stir and rub it to coat thoroughly. Leave for an hour, this with the massage, will help break down the toughness.

Mince the garlic clove (a microplane is ideal) mix with mustard and citrus juice. This will be the dressing for the kale.

Wash the onion for a minute or two in fresh water (this will remove much of the sharpness (or heat?), drain, sprinkle with sumac and sesame seeds, mix.

Finally assemble toss the oily kale with dressing and chickpeas. Top with onions.

Beetroot with horipito mayonnaise, smoked warehou and almond crisps

Both Barbara and I love beetroot, we’ve been cooking it as a vegetable (lovely dripping with melting butter and some salt) since the 70s, but now it is ‘fashionable’ (or was last year). Beetroot also despite its strong flavour and because of its strong colour (as we discovered at a degustation menu) pairs well with smoked white fish. Both beetroot and smoked fish love horopito (very fashionable with me at present) and mustard.

Both smoked fish and beetroot (do not forget the melting butter, o best beloved) risk being dry, so a horopito and mustard mayonnaise seemed the perfect match. But that would have no crunch… enter the almond cracker recipe I have been wanting an excuse to try…

If you don’t have horopito mustard probably a decent wholegrain mustard would work, though I added extra horopito…

Just boil the beets, peel, and slice thinly but not too thin (around 0.5cms or 0.25 inches roughly works for me), put some sliced or broken hot smoked white fish on top of each slice, top with mustardy lemony mayo.

Almond crackers

Ingredients:

200g ground almonds
1 egg (we have some very tiny ones currently so I used two)
3 pinches (one chef’s pinch) salt

Method

Mix the ground almonds with the egg and salt, if the ‘dough’ is too dry you needed more egg if it is too moist you can add more almond. If it is just right, congratulations Goldilocks.
Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper. Thin, very thin, as thin as you dare. I left it much too thick the first time. Cut to shape or if you want round ones use a wine glass to cut circles (the dough can be reformed several times). You can top with grated parmesan to gild the lilly, but I just sprinkled with salt.

Place on a greased baking sheet, small gaps will do as these crackers do not spread.

Bake at 180°C (350°F for those still using Farenheit) for about 12 mins turning half way through. Leave to cool before freeing them.

Lamb Flap Salad: with carrot, rose petals, and cumin

Nice quick lunch today, Lamb Flap Salad: with carrot, rose petals, and cumin. Actually as you’ll see there are apple and fennel in there too, but they are secondary (except the apple adds a touch more sweetness. ¹ Lamb goes so well with carrots because lamb ‘likes’ sweetness, the apple just adds a little more.

Ingredients

200g ² No, I did not measure this is a guess, but about right. precooked lamb (we used flap as we had done several in the slow cooker earlier)
4 medium carrots
1 eating apple (in our case since our Cox’s are small I used two)
several slices from a fennel bulb (then diced)
1 tsp ground cumin
petals from one large or two small roses

Put your frying pan on to heat (you want it smoking hot). Grate the carrots and apple, I use a Vietnamese grater that makes thin triangular sticks which are crisper than European-style graters. Salt the lamb and fry briefly, to get just a little Maillard reaction going and enrich the flavour. Tip on to chopping board to begin cooling. Sprinkle the veges with cumin. Put lamb on and rose petals on top, mix (reserve a few petals to decorate if necessary). Serve with mayonnaise (ours was slightly lemony and mustardy).

I think the flavours work really well and the cumin and rose petal should be just discernible with the fennel almost not noticable but just adding its own notes.

Notes [ + ]

1.	↑	Lamb goes so well with carrots because lamb ‘likes’ sweetness, the apple just adds a little more.
2.	↑	No, I did not measure this is a guess, but about right.

Recipe for socca – or farinata

Socca is the French word for it, it is a specialty around Nice, across the border in Italy too, but there it is called farinata. As a tasty snack or starter it’s simple, quick, and nutritious. It’s also completely gluten free. Simple and made from simple things it is an ideal quick meal after Christmas when one needs no more rich food, but wants something tasty and special.

Socca is a breadless ‘flatbread’ of chickpea flour (gram flour from an Indian shop works nicely) and water with a little oil cooked in a cast iron pan. (You could use another ovenproof pan, but cast iron is great because of its heat retention.) Socca has many variants, two I love add: rosemary and onions (chopped fine and mixed into the batter prior to cooking), or some chopped fennel seeds.

Mix equal parts (one cup of each will feed two for a light lunch) chickpea flour (gram flour) and water for a not too thin or too stiff batter, add two tablespoons of oil, a little salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. (At least as much pepper as salt, but probably more. Be brave and you will find even pepper-shy people like it! Be brave, socca is a simple dish for culinary extremists as I’ll explain again below.)

When the batter is mixed, let it rest. Half an hour is great, but at least while you warm the oven and pan. Heat the oven to at least 230⁰C on grill setting and put the pan on the hob to get it smoking. This is another place to be extremist, get the pan and the grill as hot as you can, the extra crispness of the crust will repay your extremism!

Place two tablespoons of oil in the pan and tip to coat. Pour in the batter and place in the oven (probably 4-5 mins depending on the thickness of the bread and just how hot your pan and grill will go).

You could eat it with olives and small tomatoes for a healthy snack or starter. Ideal when chatting with friends.

Actually socca, like soccer, is not immune to national rivalry. The Italians call it ‘farinata’. But the name doesn’t change the taste. So, I’m content to credit both the nice people from Nice and the generous people from Genoa!

Recipe for socca

One frying pan size, serves two as a light lunch or four as a snack.

1 cup chickpea/gram flour
1 cup water
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
diced onions or rosemary if you want more flavours

Mix and leave to stand. Pour into a frying pan as hot as you can, with a little oil round the base. Place under the grill, again as hot as you can. Ready when the top is nicely browning.

Vietnamese Aubergine

This recipe is deceptively simple and yet delicious (common characteristics of Vietnamese cuisine). Eat on its own with rice for makes a light Vegan meal, or as tasty vegetable dish for larger meals.

Ingredients

2 tsp oil (peanut is authentic)
1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
2 tomatoes
1 tsp lemongrass
1 1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar (palm sugar is authentic)
2 small or 1 large aubergine cut into 1cm chunks (the thin Asian ones are authentic, so 2)
1 spring onion (chopped)
1 red chilli (cut finely, scrape off the to make the dish less hot)
pinch turmeric
pinch pepper
basil

Method

Fry the garlic, add tomato and lemongrass, add 2 Tbsp water, stirring. After a couple of minutes add half fish sauce, sugar and aubergine. Add 1 cup water and rest of fish sauce and sugar, add turmeric, pepper and the stalk of the lemongrass (if you are using the real thing). Simmer for about 7 more minutes till the aubergine is cooked, garnish with chilli, spring onions and basil (or other herbs like corriander)

Mushroom risotto

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA — Photo by tristanf

1 Tbsp dried porcini mushrooms
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large or 2 small onions
3 garlic cloves
300g fresh mushrooms (I used half button, half portobello for cheapness and variety)
350g arborio rice
150ml white wine preferably dry
1+ litres hot vege stock
3 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chives, spring onions or fennel
a little more oil, Avocado is nice as well as good Extra Virgin Olive (non-Vegans can use c25g Butter)
Salt and pepper
Non Vegans can top with grated Parmesan

Cover the dried mushrooms in hot water and soak (c15 mins), drain them.

Chop the onion and garlic finely. In a heavy saucepan big enough to take the full recipe, heat the olive oil and fry chopped onion and garlic (use a low heat, the idea is to sweat them until soft, not turn them to carbon). Chop the fresh mushrooms and fry them also for a few minutes. Add the rice and stir to coat. Add wine and simmer, stirring often. When it has been absorbed add stock a little at a time. Keep stirring! Add stock (Remember it is important that this is hot, we don’t want to shock the poor little rice grains do we?) till the rice is tender.

Chop and add the porcini and parsley. Season and add the extra oil (or butter and Parmesan).

Breads and dips

2684556172_1fcd278fae_z — Again the photo is not our meal, I must get in the habit of taking shots of my food 🙁 so, photo by jbcurio

One of the most pleasant Vegan lunches is breads and dips, most often when it’s just the two of us it is bread and dips, but several breads or toasts do help make it more special. The recipes are simple, keep well in the frig, and cheap too 🙂

For lunch today we had hummus, skordalia, some olive oil with a little fruity balsamic at the bottom, and Miriam’s competition recipe Guacomole.

Miriam’s Vegan Guacamole

1 perfectly ripe avocado (you can tell it’s perfect when then little knobbly bit where it used to be attached to the tree comes off easily when you nudge it gently-ish with your thumb).
1/4 onion/red onion or one shallot or a couple of spring onions cut into tiny little pieces.
1 small-medium sized tomato cut into equally tiny little pieces.
lemon or lime juice
plenty of salt and pepper
1-2 teaspoons of ground cumin
3 or 4 good shakes of your favourite hot sauce (I favour Kaitaia fire)

Mash up the avocado with a fork, mix everything else in, add more lemon juice etc to taste.

I omitted the hot sauce, though I got quite used in Africa to adding chili paste to my meals I don’t like to add a little chili to everything as so many Kiwis do, I also reduced the salt, making a healthy dip even more healthy.

Nathan’s Really Quick, Really Tasty, Really Easy Lunch

The remains of the Really Quick, Really Tasty, Really Easy Lunch after the Carey Baptist College Staff Lunch Club had both eaten their fill

Can of mixed beans, drained.
Sundried tomatoes, sliced.
Fresh parsley or whatever herbs you have, torn/shredded/chopped/cut/rubbed/whatever.
Olive oil and a splash of balsamic, (Nathan says S&P I wonder if he meant Lea and Perrins? I used lemon juice).

Serve with nice bread and mixed leaves.

Nathan adds some ground corriander and chilli flakes or whatever I have around.

This really was really, really quick, really really easy, and pretty tasty too 🙂

African Black Eyed Beans

Last night I tried Lois’ African Black Eyed Beans. ¹I did not mean to do two of Lois’ recipes in a row, but that’s what I had in the storecupboard 🙂 Barbara was just back from Tauranga and I had them ready with rice, Barbara did not know it was a competition recipe but said the beans were delicious without prompting 🙂 I adapted the recipe for Repentant Carnivores (rather than Vegans) by cutting the fat, especially the bad fat in the coconut cream, halving this works fine and still tastes deliciously different.

1½ cups black-eyed beans. Start these cooking for 30 – 45 minutes.

Make the sauce with:

2 chopped onions Sautéd in a little oil until they’re softish.
1 small can tomato paste (or chopped tomatoes but then you will need to “reduce” ²That is boil to remove some of the water. the sauce a bit).
½ can coconut cream
2 tsp paprika ³I used smoked, it adds a nice depth to the warmth – as I also used less chili.
½ tsp (or more or less) chili powder
½ tsp cumin
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Stir together till combined, if necessary reduce to thicken, but if you keep the beans warm in the sauce before serving it will thicken up a bit then.

When the beans are cooked, drain and mix the sauce into them.

Serve with rice. This is would serves 4 as a main meal. ⁴Lois or Alison reckoned 4-6 but the 6 would all need small appetites or to eat desert as well 😉

Lois gave credit to Alison Holst, the beans taste interesting and different as most Westerners are not used to the coconut and bean combination, which worked very well. Once again the recipe risks looking plain, I think (in the Capsicum season at least) some thin Jullienne strips of green Capsicum might lift it… I am sure this dish, especially if it was enhanced by some appropriate (or better still inappropriate) story about the African origin of the recipe, would go down a treat with most children – though definitely reduce the chili (like I did) in that case.

Like the previous two entries I’ve tested this is likely to stay on my regular list, so far it is going to be hard to choose who gets the prize 😉

Notes [ + ]

1.	↑	I did not mean to do two of Lois’ recipes in a row, but that’s what I had in the storecupboard 🙂
2.	↑	That is boil to remove some of the water.
3.	↑	I used smoked, it adds a nice depth to the warmth – as I also used less chili.
4.	↑	Lois or Alison reckoned 4-6 but the 6 would all need small appetites or to eat desert as well 😉

Mushroom and Barley

Lois' Mushroom Barley Mix - all packed for lunch

After a fortnight of a cold that left me with no enthusiasm for recipe testing 🙂 I have again begun to trial the Great Vegan Recipe Competition entries.

Yesterday I tried Lois’ Mushroom and Barley Mix, and brought the “left overs” in a box for lunch. The recipe is extremely easy, and seems forgiving – I left it simmering with no stirring for an hour and it was still fine!

1 cup uncooked barley
1 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 cups chopped mushrooms
3-4 cups vege stock or water
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup cooked chickpeas
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp Harissa (or in Lois’ original chilli – I like less chilli and more spices that most Kiwis)

Sauté onion, carrot, garlic and spices. Add barley, mushrooms, soy sauce and stock. (I’d now keep half the mushrooms to add later with the chickpeas – if you are using soaked, dried but uncooked chickpeas add them now.)

Leave to simmer happily for about 3/4 hour, until the barley is soft but chewy. Check occasionally to ensure there’s sufficient liquid. I found with precooked chick peas that 3 cups was plenty, but if cooking the chick peas then I expect the extra cup is needed. Add the sundried tomatoes (or other veges like Lois’ capsicum [too expensive at this time of year]) for colour before serving.

This is savoury, convenient one pot, and one serving. It works well to warm up next day for lunch. I would also add some chopped fresh herbs at the end to add more colour as garnish and to add a little zing to the flavours which are otherwise savoury but almost bland. (It was the same reasoning, as well as what was in the fridge, that led me to use sundried tomatoes.)