Deliciousness.

Some recent cooking highlights!

Ottolenghi's Plenty is an amazing cookbook - one of my favourites. The recipes are generally not particularly simple but the amazing flavour combinations are worth the extra time/effort/ingredients that are called for. A dish I've cooked a few times now is the soba noodle salad with eggplant and mango. It's amazing, and great for dinner parties. The recipe can be found all over the internet, e.g. 101 Cookbooks.



A swiss cheese and tomato tart from taste.com.au. A simple and tasty recipe. As suggested in the comments I doubled some of the filling ingredients, although didn't quite cook it as long as I should have because of this. Next time!



Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible is my number one favourite cookbook. Almost every recipe that I've tried (more than 10 now) has been spectacular, and I've used it so much since I bought it a few months ago that it's almost permanently stationed on my cookbook stand. The royal chicken korma below is one of my favourites.



Not much in the way of cooking was involved here, but this was a very delicious cheese! (from the Wursthaus).



What tasty things have you been cooking recently?

A pretty amazing dal

I love dal and have been experimenting with a few different recipes lately. This particular one is my favourite so far, and is adapted from a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible. It's a South Indian style, and the finishing touch of adding the curry leaves and mustard seeds in ghee is what sets it apart - it wouldn't be the same without this step!

Fresh curry leaves can be hard to find in Hobart, but Spice World in the Bank Arcade usually have them. They have an amazing, nutty aroma that I can't get enough of. They can be frozen, and this is nearly as good as fresh. I don't think that dried curry leaves are worth using though, as the flavour is just not there.

This recipe is great with rice, or creamy polenta.

Ingredients:
90g mung dal (red lentils)
90g toovar dal (split pigeon peas)
pinch asafetida (optional)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 shallot, very finely diced
1 green chilli, finely diced
1 tsp salt
Silverbeet or spinach (optional)
2 tbs ghee (or olive oil)
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
2 tsp dried red chilli flakes
10 fresh or frozen curry leaves
3 tbs coriander leaves, chopped

Wash the dal well, then drain.
Add the dal plus 1 litre of water to a large saucepan and bring to the boil without boiling over.
Skim off any scum that rises.
Add the asafetida, cayenne pepper, turmeric, ginger, garlic, shallots, green chilli and salt.
Stir well then reduce the heat so that it's lightly simmering.
Cover partially with a lid and stir occasionally until the dal is tender (up to an hour), then turn off the heat.
If you include silverbeet, roughly chop it and mix it in after 45 minutes. If using spinach, add it when you turn off the heat.
Add the ghee to a frypan and heat.
Add the mustard seeds and chilli flakes and stir quickly.
Crush the curry leaves in your hand and add to the frypan.
Stir very briefly then quickly tip the contents of the frypan into the dal.
Mix together, then immediately cover with a lid and let it sit for several minutes.
Add the coriander and then stir briefly before serving.

In the kitchen

A few bits and pieces that I have cooked in recent weeks.

Polenta with mushrooms, based on this recipe, but without the fennel and cheese. It was nice, but it definitely needed a sauce or chutney to offset the dryness of the polenta.



Cauliflower, potato and bacon soup, based on this recipe (but I used a whole small cauliflower). J's biggest food hate is cauliflower but he enjoyed this soup!



Cheesey homemade pizza using my new favourite dough recipe from here:



And from warmer days when things like tomatoes were still in season: homemade green tomato mustard pickles. I used my dad's recipe that I adore and made a couple of batches, this is one of them:



Spiced apple, pear and plum chutney. All the fruit came from our backyard!



Summer blackberries picked from the side of the road on the way to Binalong Bay. They were beautifully plump and sweet as-is, no alterations or recipe needed!

Thai pumpkin soup

This recipe was adapted from My Table by Pete Evans, which is another great cookbook with a wide variety of great recipes. This soup is full of flavour and contains lots of good things to help fight off winter colds.

Ingredients:
1 tbs oil
3/4 cup diced leek
3 tbs finely diced lemongrass
1 red chilli, finely diced
1 tbs ginger, finely diced
1 kaffir lime leaf, julienned
1 bunch of coriander, stems and roots chopped, leaves reserved
4 garlic cloves, finely diced
1kg pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 tin (400ml) coconut milk
500ml vegetable stock
zest of one orange

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add the leek, lemongrass, chilli, ginger, lime leaf, coriander stems and roots and garlic.
Fry until fragrant, but don't allow it to brown.
Add the pumpkin, coconut milk, stock and orange zest plus 150ml water and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat slightly and cook for about 30 minutes or until the pumpkin has softened.
Blend the soup with a stick mixer (or blender or food processor).
Season with salt and pepper and serve with a sprinkle of coriander and chilli flakes, and a dollop of cream, sour cream or even yoghurt (whatever you have handy!)

Green pancakes

My new favourite cookbook is Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty. I've been reading lots about this vegetarian book on blogs such as Where's the Beef? and Cook Almost Anything, and read his posts on The Guardian website and knew that I had to get my hands on a copy. It's an amazing book that I'm sure even the most dedicated meateater would find it hard to resist. It's not full of lentil/chickpea/bean recipes, rather it puts all sorts of vegetables to amazing and delicious-sounding uses. Once a Waitress has a great post about it.

This is the first recipe that I've cooked from the book, and it definitely won't be the last! I adapted it slightly by using silverbeet instead of spinach, halving the recipe, leaving out the whisked egg white at the end, and I didn't serve it witht the suggested lime butter. The pancakes were very fast and easy to prepare and tasted simply fantastic. The recipe is completely adaptable to any leafy vegetables that you have handy.

Ingredients:
125g silverbeet, washed
55g self-raising flour
1/2 tbs baking powder
1 egg
25g butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
75ml milk
50g spring onions, finely sliced
1 green chilli, finely diced
olive oil for frying

Wilt the silverbeet in a frypan with a splash of water.
Remove to drain in a sieve, and when cool, squeeze out as much water as you can with your hands then finely chop.
Put the flour, baking powder, egg, butter, salt, cumin and milk into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Add the spring onions, chillies and silverbeet and mix in.
Add a dash of olive oil to a non-stick frypan and turn on to medium-high.
Spoon ~2 tablespoons of batter into the frypan and shape into a circle around 1cm thick.
Cook for about 2 mins each side, until golden.
Continue making and cooking pancakes until the batter is all used (I made 3 pancakes, more than enough for one person for dinner)

Red wine and mushroom risotto

Using this recipe as inspiration, I made my first ever red wine risotto (I do white wine ones quite regularly). It was fantastic - will definitely cook it again.

Ingredients:
1.25 litres chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
80g butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups risotto rice
200ml red wine
75g finely grated parmesan, plus extra, to serve
200g mushrooms, thickly sliced. I used a mixture of brown and oyster.
2 teaspoons thyme leaves (fresh is best)
5 large leaves of silverbeet, center stems discarded (could substitute spinach, kale, beetroot greens or any other leafy greens you need to use up)

Place the stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and keep at a gentle simmer.
Heat oil and half of the butter in a heavy-based pan over medium heat
Add rice and cook for 2 minutes until well coated in onion mixture.
Add wine and simmer until almost evaporated.
Add the stock to the pan, a ladleful at a time while stirring continuously, allowing the stock to be absorbed before adding the next.
When you have about 1 cup of stock left, stir in the parmesan and season with salt and pepper.
Remove pan from heat, stir in remaining stock, cover pan and set aside while you cook the mushrooms.
Heat remaining butter in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat until foaming.
Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Add mushrooms and thyme cook until the mushrooms are soft and golden.
Add silverbeet and cook until wilted.
Serve the risotto topped with the mushroom mixture and cheese.

Basil, garlic and chilli bread

Adapted from this recipe. Texturally it's the best loaf of bread I've ever baked, thanks to my Kitchenaid doing the kneading work and my new proper bread tin. Yay! The flavour is pretty good too, though maybe needs a little bit more salt.

Matar paneer (Indian paneer and peas)

I used my paneer in a curry loosely based on this Taste.com.au recipe. This is a perfect weeknight dinner recipe - it's fast, easy, healthy and other than the paneer, uses ingredients that are always in my pantry.

Ingredients:
200g paneer
60g ghee
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tin crushed tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup fresh or frozen beans (I used a combination of both)
1/2 tsp garam masala

Dice the paneer into cubes.
Heat half of the ghee in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and fry the paneer until golden.
Add the remaining ghee in same pan over medium heat and cook garlic and ginger for one minute.
Stir in all spices except garam masala and cook one minute.
Add the tomatoes, fill the tin with water and add this as well, then cook for 5 minutes.
Stir in the chickpeas, peas, beans and paneer, and cook, partially covered, for a further 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in the garam masala and serve with either rice or Indian bread such as naan.

Paneer (cookbook challenge #2)

The theme for week two of the cookbook challenge is citrus. I decided to put a spin on this and make paneer, where lemon is a crucial ingredient when making the cheese (although other acidic ingredients such as vinegar can also be used).

It's a pretty simple process but results in a delicious fresh cheese that is tastier than what you can buy at the supermarket (and probably cheaper too, depending on the milk price).

Ingredients:
2L of good quality, full cream milk, unhomogenised is ideal. I used Ashgrove's Green milk.
1/8 cup lemon juice

Heat the milk in a heavy-based saucepan until it is almost boiling.
Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice.
Place back on the heat briefly while gently stirring the milk.
Remove from the heat as soon as curds start forming, cover the saucepan, and set it aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
Line a colander with cheesecloth (and place a bowl underneath if you wish to collect the whey - it's great for watering roses and rhododendrons)
Use a slotted spoon to gently transfer most of the curds from the saucepan into the cheesecloth.
Pour the remaining curds and liquid through the cheesecloth.
Gather the edges of the cheesecloth and twist it tightly to squeeze out more liquid.
Place a saucer on top of the twisted parcel and weigh it down with heavy cans or jars.
Leave to drain for at least 30 minutes.
Remove the cheese from the cloth, wrap with damp paper towel then place in the fridge in an airtight container.
Leave overnight before using.



After adding the lemon juice to the milk:



The finished paneer after resting overnight - I got 290g cheese out of 2L milk:



I used the cheese in a really tasty curry, the recipe is posted here

Cookbook challenge, week 43: Kale chips

The theme for week 43 was crunchy. I decided to try making kale chips, seeing as my kale plants have plenty of leaves just waiting to be eaten. The concept really interested me - crunchy green chips! - and I was curious to see how they turned out.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale leaves, washed
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Cut out the thick middle vein of the older kale leaves, then cut/rip into pieces
Toss with olive oil and salt until evenly coated.
Bake on a baking-paper lined cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, or until crisp.


The thing that bugs me with this sort of recipe is: how much kale is a bunch of kale? Because the amount that I used (a big bowl full, 66g) was clearly not enough, as my chips ended up way too salty and oily. They definitely were crunchy though, and I will give them another shot with far less oil and salt. I think I'll play around with other seasonings too, such as garlic salt, cumin or chilli powder. Despite the results of this attempt not being great, I can definitely see how kale chips are appealing!

I used both curly and flat-leaf kale, the curly ones were definitely better in the end



Dressed and ready to bake - you can see there is far too much oil



Post-baking crispiness!

Cookbook challenge, week 39: Curried cauliflower and cheddar soup

The theme for week 39 was TV Chefs. I have a few celebrity chef cookbooks, and decided to use Gordon Ramsey's Cooking for Friends as as his recipes haven't featured here as regularly as Nigella, Jamie and Stephanie. The recipe is for a curried cauliflower and cheddar soup, perfect for this time of year when the weather is cold and cauliflowers are plentiful.

4 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tsp mild curry powder
300ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
300ml milk
100g grated cheese

Heat half the oil in a saucepan, and add onion and celery.
Stir over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
Add the remaining oil, cauliflower, curry powder, and season.
Stir well and cook for a couple of minutes.
Cover the pan and cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the stock and bring to a simmer.
Add the milk and splash of water if the liquid does not cover the vegetables.
Return to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft.
Use a hand blender to liquidize the soup.
Stir in the cheese.
Adjust the seasoning and add a little water if the soup is too thick.


This turned out alright - it wasn't amazing but it was enjoyable enough! I've got a better recipe for cauliflower soup buried somewhere, though.




The theme for week 40 is apple, and I know exactly what I am going to make. It's another recipe from this cookbook that I also had my eye on as it sounds amazing... stay tuned!

Cookbook challenge, week 32: Potato and cabbage vegetable

The recipe for this week's Potato theme comes from a book I hadn't used yet. It is 'The Higher Taste: A guide to gourmet vegetarian cooking and a karma-free diet'. It's a neat little book that I picked up second-hand, after loving the Hare Krishna food at the Falls Festival. I regretted not buying their book at the festival and hoped to find similarly good recipes in this book.



Ingredients:
1/4 large cabbage, thinly sliced (I used a Chinese cabbage)
3 large potatoes, cut into 1.5cm cubes
2 tbs ghee
1 small hot chilli, finely diced
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp salt
1 small wedge of lemon

Heat the ghee in a large saucepan, then add seeds, turmeric, and chilli.
When the seeds start to crackle, add the potatoes and stir for 5 minutes on medium heat.
Add cabbage and cook for 15 more minutes until potatoes are tender.
Add salt and coriander powder.
Sprinkle with lemon juice.
Serve hot.


I'm not sure about this recipe - we ate it but it wasn't great. I don't know if it's the combination of ingredients, or if my spices or ghee were a bit too old, but the flavour was just a little odd. If I cook this again, I'll use a different combination of spices.

Kitchen garden update: mushroom kit and hopeful winter crops

A quick update on stuff that I am growing: I bought a mushroom kit this weekend.

This is what's in the box: the casing in the bag on top, and underneath that is the mushroom compost that has been innoculated with white button mushrooms.


A closer look at the compost:


The first step is to spreading the casing over the compost.


Then wet it and put it somewhere dark to grow - I've put it in a cupboard that isn't being used for anything at the moment. It needs to be watered with a mister every couple of days, and in a week or two I should start seeing some mushrooms start to grow, and they'll be ready for harvest in 2-3 weeks.

The kit cost about $20, and the website says to expect to harvest about 1.5kg of mushrooms. If so, they'll work out to cost more than store-bought mushrooms (which are about $10/kg) but it'll be great to watch them grow!

I've also planted some more things in my vegie patch: spring onions, leeks and garlic. I don't hold high hopes as the patch doesn't get direct sunlight at this time of year, but we'll see. I've also planted some Italian parsley and coriander into pots and put them in our sunroom - now I just have to remember to water them!

Pumpkin and rosemary macaroni

This recipe was inspired by a recipe on taste.com.au, except that I didn't really want to make a pasta bake, just a pasta.

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
800g pumpkin, diced into 2cm cubes
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
3 cups chicken stock plus 1 cup water
500g macaroni
250ml cream - I used Philadelphia Cream for Cooking
1 tbs chopped rosemary

Heat oil in a frypan over medium heat.
Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until the onion softens slightly.
Add the pumpkin and dried chilli flakes, stir to combine, then add half the chicken stock and cook for 5-6 minutes until the pumpkin begins to soften.
Stir in pasta, cream, rosemary, remaining chicken stock and water.
Bring to a simmer then reduce the heat to low and cook for about 10-12 minutes, until the pasta is cooked, adding more water as necessary.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I also threw in some shredded roast pork, as I had some handy in the fridge. It would also be nice to add bacon when frying the onion and garlic.

Very tasty! It makes heaps - plenty of leftovers for lunches.

Cookbook challenge, week 30: Onion and rosemary focaccia

Week 30! You might have noticed that I've missed a couple of weeks here and there as life in general has been rather busy. My plan was to catch up on cooking previous themes before posting current ones but it just wasn't happening, so instead I will just try to keep up with current weeks and post sporadic previous weeks when I can.

This week's theme is baked, and I decided to try a yeast-based product, as I tend to shy away from breads. This focaccia in the Marie Claire cookbook Comfort looked pretty tasty.

Ingredients:
450g plain flour
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
4 tbs olive oil
2 tbs fresh rosemary
1 small onion, finely sliced (I used a shallot)
2 tbs olive oil

Put the (unsifted) flour in a bowl, add salt.
Put the yeast in a small bowl and add the sugar and 310mL warm water.
Set aside for 10 minutes.
When it starts to froth, add the yeast mix plus the oil to the flour.
Work the ingredients together then knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic.
Put into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Spread onto a lightly greased 25x37cm tray and press it out to cover the tray.
Use fingers to make dimples.
Leave to rise for 20 more minutes.
Preheat oven to 200ºC.
Scatter the rosemary, onion and sea salt over the dough, then drizzle with olive oil.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.
Serve warm.

I made a half recipe and it turned out pretty well. The sea salt is essential, it would be very bland without it. I was a bit concerned that it didn't rise at all during the second rising period, and I perhaps should have left it to do so for a bit longer. And as with everything I bake, the curse of my oven struck again - it barely browned on top at all. However despite all this, it was lovely eaten fresh out of the oven.

Easy sushi

I don't have a recipe for this, just a bunch of tips! I think it's best to learn sushi making in person with someone experienced than reading how to do it.

Sushi is really fast to make when you've made it a few times before - this took me about 30 minutes, which includes 12 minutes of cooking the rice.

I cook my rice in the microwave. Use sushi rice and rinse it in a colander under the tap. The rice to water ratio is 1:1.5, and it takes about 11 minutes in my microwave. 1 cup of dry rice makes around 3 standard-size sushi rolls. Remember to fan it once it's cooked and to very gently stir through a little rice vinegar with a little sugar mixed in. It should end up nice and glossy.

While the rice is cooking, prepare your fillings. Clockwise from top: mushroom, radish (an experiment!), omelette (egg plus a little bit of sugar), shredded barbecue chicken, carrot and cheese in the center (not exactly a traditional ingredient, but it was introduced to me as a sushi ingredient by my Japanese sushi instructor!). This is just what I had available to use in the fridge - be as traditional or as creative as you like with your fillings.



Rice spread on the nori. To avoid getting rice stuck on everyone and everything in the kitchen, use a metal spoon dipped in water, and spread the rice with the back of the spoon.



Filling added:



Rolls. Put them in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to chill before slicing. To make slicing easy, wipe the knife in-between each cut.



Ready to eat (with Kewpie mayonnaise of course!)

Slow-cooker vegetable soup

This is just the thing to cook when home sick with a cold. It took about 10 minutes to prepare and is comforting and nutritious.

No recipe, I just threw the following ingredients in and left them to bubble away:
Chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Red chilli
Butternut pumpkin
Sweet potato
Carrot
Yellow zucchini
Soup mix (dried lentils and beans)
Cumin seeds
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Nutmeg
Pepper
plus enough water to just cover the vegetables.

After about 4 hours on high I roughly mashed it with a potato masher, and served with a dollop of sour cream. Yum.

If you have more time and energy, it's much tastier to briefly cook the vegies in olive oil first, or even better is to roast them.

Cookbook challenge, week 26: Potato salad with green goddess dressing

The theme for week 26 was green, and I found this recipe in Nigella Lawson's How to Eat. The original recipe uses 'little gems', which I think are baby cos lettuce. I just made it as a simple potato salad served on cos leaves.

Ingredients:
800g salad potatoes, cleaned and cut into 2cm square pieces
4 anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped
2 tbs milk
2 tbs tarragon vinegar
6 tbs creme fraiche
8-10 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 spring onion, finely diced,
3 tbs chopped tarragon
4 tbs chopped parsley
18 cornichons, or sliced gherkins

Boil the potatoes until just cooked, then drain and cool slightly under cold water.
Grind the anchovies using a mortar and pestle.
In a bowl, whisk together the anchovies, milk, vinegar and creme until smooth.
Slowly add the olive oil, whisking constantly.
Stir in the spring onion, tarragon, parsley and diced cornichons.
Check for seasoning, add black pepper.
Mix into the cooked potatoes.
Line a bowl with cos leaves, and add the potatoes.

It's pretty tasty - the dressing is really nice. I think if I make it again I'll add some bacon or prosciutto as it would be even better with that meatiness.

Kitchen garden: carrots

So, back at the start of December I planted carrot seeds, along with other things. The carrots really didn't seem to go very well, with only a handful of the seeds sprouting. A couple of weeks ago I finally gave up on them and pulled them out, and this is my amazing harvest:



Yep, not very successful!

Not much is happening in my garden at the moment, I don't really have a lot of time to dedicate to it lately, and it's not good growing weather either, of course. I am thinking about establishing some more herbs in indoor pots though.

I also want to track down a bay tree and a curry plant to grow in pots. Has anyone seen any for sale at any garden centres down south?

Bhatura bread

Bhatura is an Indian fried bread, and a tasty alternative to the usual naan or roti.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp sugar
oil for frying

Sift flour and baking powder, then add salt.
Mix yoghurt, milk and sugar, then add this to the flour.
Knead the dough softly until it is smooth.
Cover and keep in a warm place for an hour.
Divide into 12-20 portions (depending on how big you want the bread to be), rolls into balls and set aside for 10 minutes.
Flatten the balls with your hands, dip into some extra flour on each side, and roll out with a rolling ping to 3mm thick.
Heat 4-5cm oil in a wok or deep saucepan and fry the dough until light brown in colour.

There are quite a few bhatura cooking demomstrations on youtube, so browse the videos there to watch the frying technique in particular.

This easy recipe results in lovely fluffy bread that makes a perfect sponge for soaking up curry!

Generally they should puff up into a ball when fried with some TLC, but as I was cooking 3 at a time in a hurry they ended up with a slightly different texture. I may have also rolled them a bit too thin. Still just as tasty!