Charred carrots & tofu with harissa

October 5, 2024

   

The second phase of our impromptu Ottolenghi afternoon was this double tofu ensemble, combining a silken tofu and tahini-based cream with some charred up firm tofu and carrots. We made a few simplifications from the original recipe, holding back on the spring onion garnish, but otherwise stuck pretty close to Yotam's directions. This packed a pretty decent punch - our supermarket harissa had a good kick, and you really needed the creamy silken tofu underlayer to balance things out. It was great in combination with the fresher greens and rhubarb dishes and the leftovers kept me going for a few lunches. Not a show-stopper, but a very solid contributor.

Charred carrots & tofu with harissa

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in The Guardian)

100g silken tofu

2 tablespoons tahini

salt

50g harissa

1 teaspoon golden syrup

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons tamari

5 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

20g fresh ginger, grated

1.5 tablespoons olive oil

300g firm tofu, cut into thin rectangles

250g baby carrots, trimmed

Blend the silken tofu, tahini and salt together and set aside

Combine the harissa, syrup, vinegar, tamari, garlic, ginger and oil in a biggish saucepan and saute over medium heat for five minutes, until fragrant.

Meanwhile put a frying pan over high heat (we used our cast iron one) and fry the tofu in batches, with just a spray of oil. You want it to char up, so leave it on each side for a couple of minutes. Once it's all cooked up, pop the tofu in the saucepan with your harissa mix, along with 100ml of water and stir together gently.

In the same frying pan, char up your baby carrots until they've blackened in a few spots and softened through - the time it takes will depend on how thick they are, ours probably only took 5 or 6 minutes with a couple of turns. When they're done stir them into your saucepan as well.

 

Serve it up by layering the silken tofu cream down first and then gently arranging the saucy tofu and carrots on top.

Broccolini & asparagus with green salsa & butter beans

October 5, 2024

   

On a weekend in early October, we had the time and energy for a big cook-up. I was in the mood for fresh flavours and hit on an Ottolenghi Guardian column that I bookmarked last year about grilling (i.e. using an open flame). It was bright and all-vegetarian and we were ambitious enough to cook all three dishes!

Since we were making three multi-component dishes, it wasn't realistic to grill everything. We actually grilled (as in 'broiled') the green capsicum and garlic involved. But we oven-baked the intended-to-be-grilled broccolini and aspargus, trusting that they'd acquire a gentle crispness and char around the edges. They're served on a bed of mashed butter beans, intermingled with a spicy green salsa and topped with toasted, cumin-spiked almond flakes.

It was a savoury, hearty dish on the night we made it, still great at room temperature on the following days, and Michael even had some bonus salsa to eat with hummus on toast.

Broccolini & asparagus with green salsa & butter beans

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in The Guardian)

250g broccolini, cut into large bite-sized pieces

200g asparagus, cut into large bite-sized pieces

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

green salsa

1 green capsicum, sliced into four flat surfaces

6 cloves garlic, peel still on

3 large red chillies, sliced into large chunks

30g fresh coriander

10g fresh parsley

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly crushed

salt, to taste

fried almonds

1 tablespoon olive oil

30g flaked almonds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly crushed

salt, to taste

mashed butter beans

2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained

2 tablespoons lemon juice

salt, to taste

Turn a grill onto medium-high heat. Place the capsicum pieces skin-side-up on a baking tray and add the garlic cloves. Place them under the grill until the capsicum skin blisters and turns black, and the garlic cloves have softened. Turn off the heat and set them aside.

Preheat an oven to 180°C. Place the broccolini and asparagus pieces in a baking tray, drizzle over the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss everything around. Bake for 15 minutes until tender, then set them aside.

When the capsicum is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and place the pieces into a food processor. Peel the garlic cloves and add 3 of them to the food processor. Add the remaining salsa ingredients and blend until everything is almost smooth. Transfer the salsa to a bowl and rinse out the food processor.

Set a frypan over medium heat, add the oil for the almonds, then the almonds and a pinch of salt. Saute, stirring regularly, until the almonds are golden and fragrant. Turn off the heat and stir in the cumin.

Place the butter beans in the food processor, add the remaining 3 peeled garlic cloves, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Blend until it's all as smooth as you can reasonably achieve.

Spread the butter bean mash over a large platter. Spoon most of the green salsa over the top and swirl it around. Pile on the broccolini and asparagus, drip over the remaining salsa, and sprinkle over the almonds. Serve.

Celery-cashew stir-fry with a food court omelette

October 3, 2024

   

We're pretty ambivalent about celery over here - it's a valued ingredient in a few favourite recipes, but often leaves more stalks behind than go into the chosen dish. Roasted cauliflower salad is my usual fall-back and it can take some extra beyond the written quantity. When I chose that as my first celery-laden dish this week, I decided to test whether Hetty Lui McKinnon's recipe for cashew celery could serve as a similar back-up.

McKinnon stir-fries celery chunks with your choice of green vegetable, strips of five-spice tofu and cashews, and coats it all in a cornflour-thickened savoury sauce that's lively with ginger. Served with rice, it's a full meal. Even so, I decided to serve it alongside McKinnon's food court omelette, another recipe I'd bookmarked from Tenderheart. It's stuffed with broccoli (or in my case, what remained of a bag of frozen mixed green vegetables) and smothered in a salty-soy gravy that echos the stir-fry sauce.

The omelette is another dish that, served atop rice, is potentially a full meal on its own. (I remember first encountering something similar at Middle Fish and absolutely loving it.) My omelette was much messier than McKinnon's, and I'll not repeat frozen veges for this one, but the gravy was fun and these two dishes worked together well. Time will tell whether we return to this tasty combination, either to use up more celery or entirely on its own terms.

Food court omelette

(slightly adapted from a recipe in Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

a few spring onions, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

6 eggs

salt and white pepper, to taste

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets and a 5mm dice (or two handfuls frozen green vegetables)

rice, to serve

gravy

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 1/2 tablespoons tamari

3 teaspoons vegetarian oyster sauce

3 teaspoons Shaoxing rice wine

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 cup vegetable stock

pinch of white pepper

Make the gravy by placing all of the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring consistently, for 4-5 minutes. When the gravy has thickened, turn off the heat and set it aside.

Heat a few teaspoons of oil in a frypan, then add the spring onions and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set it aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, salt and pepper. Stir in the broccoli. Return the frypan to the heat and add a tablespoon of oil. Add a quarter of the spring onion mixture and a quarter of the egg mixture, cooking until the underside is golden and much of the egg has set. Flip the omelette over and allow it to cook through. Remove the omelette from the pan (I stored mine on a paper-lined tray in the oven on low heat) and repeat with the remaining oil, onions and eggs.

Serve each omelette over rice with gravy poured over the top.

Cashew celery

(slightly adapted from a recipe in Hetty Lui McKinnon's Tenderheart)

2 teaspoons cornflour

3 tablespoons vegetable stock or water

1 tablespoon tamari

2 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine

vegetable oil

4 stalks celery, trimmed and slice diagonally

1 tablespoon minced ginger

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

a few spring onions, finely chopped

green vegetable of your choice (we had kai lan), cut into 5cm lengths

200g very firm five-spice tofu, sliced into 5mm strips

1 cup roasted cashews

white sesame seeds, to serve

rice, to serve

In a small bowl, stir together the cornflour, stock/water, tamari, and wine until they're well mixed. Set them aside.

Set a wok over medium-high heat and add some oil. Add in the celery and stir-fry for a couple of minutes until the celery starts to soften. Push it to the side of the wok so that you can stir-fry the ginger, garlic and spring onion for 30 seconds, then bring the celery back in to the mix. Add the green vegetable, tofu and cashews, cooking for just a minute. The cornflour has probably separated from the other sauce ingredients in the small bowl, so stir them back together and pour them into the wok. Toss everything together until the sauce has slightly thickened and coated everything evenly.

Serve over rice, sprinkled with sesame seeds.