October 28, 2009: Agar agarrrrgh

In a bid to use some leftover wholemeal shortcrust and a few oranges, I set about making a tart. My vision was a wholesome, non-sweet crust filled with a sweet cashew cream, topped with orange segments set in an orange juice-agar agar jelly.

The crust was passable, though I'll try something different next time. The cashew cream was great and I'll share it with you in a future post. I even managed to segment the oranges rather nicely, thanks to this video tute. My undoing proved to be the orange juice-agar agar jelly. I used this recipe from the Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland website. The agar agar gelled very effectively as I stirred it into the water over heat, then turned to hideous jellified strings when I added it to the orange juice. The remaining liquid juice didn't ever set, ultimately leeching into the crust and making for one soggy tart.

Can you offer me any agar agar advice? I wonder if the orange juice should have also been hot or warm as I stirred in the agar agar-water mixture. What have you made (succesfully or unsuccesfully) using agar agar?

October 28, 2009: Spicy tempeh and broccolini pasta

A couple of weekends ago, Michael and I wandered down Nicholson St and ran into Maria's Pasta Shop. Vaguely remembering some positive blog reviews, we picked out some frozen pasta packages for future meals. The eggplant and roasted capsicum ravioli made its way into this slight adaptation of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's spicy tempeh and broccoli rabe with rotelle. While the recipe's rotelle isn't a filled pasta, I can highly recommend the complexity and comfort that ravioli add to this dish. In particular, Maria's pasta is the most enjoyable store-bought ravioli I've eaten - it actually tastes of roasted capsicum!

Otherwise the dish has an Italian sausage theme, featuring tempeh chunks cooked in a spicy tomato broth - they've a strong yet pleasant aftertaste of fennel seeds. I don't know that I've come across Isa's preferred broccoli rabe, and after some internet browsing came to the conclusion that broccolini would make an adequate, if different, substitute. And even though I overcooked those greens, this was one fine meal. Michael loved it, and ended up torn between eating seconds and saving leftovers for lunch (he managed to do both).

My one difficulty with this recipe was that it demanded the tempeh, greens and pasta be cooked in separate pots. It made for a messy, busy kitchen and I didn't schedule things well. Next round, I'll be experimenting with cooking the tempeh and green veges in a single pan while the pasta bubbles in the background.

(Vegans beware: The ravioli we used on this night isn't vegan, though I believe some of Maria's other products might be. I've appended the vegan or vegan-friendly tag because this recipe is likely to do brilliantly using any number of other pastas.)

Spicy tempeh and broccolini pasta
(based on spicy tempeh and broccoli rabe with rotelle in Veganomicon)

600g tempeh, diced
1 cup stock
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons tomato paste
10 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons chilli flakes
2 teaspoons oregano
4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
2 small bunches broccolini, chopped coarsely
500g pasta
salt and pepper

Place the tempeh in a large frypan over medium heat. Whisk together the stock, soy sauce, tomato paste, 2 of the garlic cloves, the fennel seeds, chilli flakes, and oregano. Pour the mixture over the tempeh, stir it through, and allow the tempeh to cook for 8-10 minutes. Isa recommends covering the frypan during this time, but I found that I had too much liquid left at the end - instead I'd suggest allowing some of the liquid to evaporate away by cooking the tempeh uncovered.

When most of the liquid is gone and the tempeh is tender, transfer the tempeh to a bowl and smush it briefly with a wooden spoon, so that it's half cubes and half mush. Give the frypan a quick clean and heat up about 2 tablespoons of oil in it. Drop the tempeh back in, stir-frying it for 4-5 minutes, until it begins to brown. Sprinkle over a teaspoon of the balsamic vinegar.

Bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta until tender (time required will vary a lot amongst types).

In another frypan, heat the remaining oil and add the remaining garlic, cooking it for just a minute or two. Add the broccolini, toss them around to coat them in oil, and sprinkle over a little salt. Sprinkle over the remaining balsamic vinegar. Cook the broccolini for 5-8 minutes, until it's just tender and still bright green (I overcooked ours).

Drain the pasta and gently toss everything together in the dry pot. Season to taste and serve.

October 27, 2009: Baked mushrooms with herbed fetta

I dealt with October's calendar recipe only in the last few days of the month. While I knew I'd like these baked mushrooms - topped with cherry tomatoes and pine nuts and served with marinated fetta - I suspected they wouldn't well suit Michael's long-term tomato issues and newfound cutlery-operation challenges. This was pretty much the case, though we both enjoyed the meal more than I expected at the outset.

For the tomato-lovers amongst us, these are terrific. Cherry tomatoes get wedged into the large mushrooms and as they bake, the tomatoes' skins puncture while the flesh sweetens and almost melts. It nearly but not quite falls into the acceptable category of 'tomato sauce', with Michael compelled to set aside the last couple of tomatoes on his plate. At least he agreed that the marinated fetta was a winner - I used lemon thyme rather than the standard stuff and can highly recommend it. If I made these again, I'd use a little less fetta and crumble it over the tomatoes rather than serving it, uncooked, on the side. For the anti-tomato brigade, I'd be interested to try slotting in olives and whole garlic cloves instead. I'd probably add a splash of balsamic vinegar across the board, too.

Baked mushrooms with herbed fetta

150g fetta, diced
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, roughly chopped
1 teaspoon fresh lemon thyme leaves, plus 4 extra sprigs
1/3 cup olive oil
4 large field mushrooms
16 cherry tomatoes
1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
salt and pepper

Place the fetta cubes in a shallow dish. Sprinkle over the rosemary and thyme leaves, crack over some pepper, and pour over the olive oil. Allow the fetta to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Break off four pieces of baking paper, each roughly 30cm square. Put a mushroom at the centre of each one. Put four cherry tomatoes and a sprig of thyme on each mushroom. Sprinkle over some salt, pepper and a little of the oil from the fetta. Wrap the mushrooms up in the baking paper and bake them for 40 minutes. Unwrap the mushrooms and transfer them to plates, sprinkle over the pine nuts, and serve the fetta alongside.

October 26, 2009: Coconut cauliflower curry

It should be Michael writing about this lovely curry. Yes, it was me who spotted it on Another Outspoken Female's blog, bookmarked it, and made the immediate connection when cauliflower and broccoli turned up in our next fruit and veg box. But I was flying interstate a day later for work, and I pointed it out for curry-loving Michael's enjoyment while I was away. Things went awry when, over the weekend, a cycling accident dealt Michael two fractured elbows.

It could have been a lot worse, and we're grateful that it wasn't, but it means Michael won't be making curries (or doing very much at all) for some time. I booked the next flight home and took up tending duties where several very generous friends left off. Since then I've been caring for Michael as best I know how, and that means lots of cooking. (Don't expect too much restaurant blogging over the next few weeks!)

AOF's Sri Lankan inspired curry was the perfect place to start. Curry is probably Michael's favourite food group (or might come a close second to Weetbix), it made use of that vege delivery (I added some unsolicited green beans), and the tender bite-sized pieces are the easiest kind of food for Michael to feed himself at this stage. It's comfort food we both needed. The sizzling spice mix stimulated our appetites, but the coconut milk cooled it down and a finish of lemon juice kept things perky. It was great over brown rice, as AOF recommends, and we also enjoyed some of the leftovers with roti (messily torn and messily eaten, in Michael's case).

Coconut cauliflower curry
(based on a recipe developed by AOF on her blog Confessions of a Food Nazi)

1/2 cup cashews
2 cups water
3 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons fenugreek
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon minced ginger
6 curry leaves
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 onion, diced
1/2 large cauliflower, broken into florets
2 small heads broccoli, broken into florets
1 handful green beans, chopped into bite-size lengths
1 x 400mL can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable stock
salt
juice of half a lemon

In a medium sized saucepan, boil the cashews in the water for 20 minutes. Set them aside.

In a dry frypan, gently toast the coriander and cumin seeds, fenugreek and chilli flakes. Grind them with a mortar and pestle - I didn't get them down to a fine powder, but found that the coriander seeds needed a good bash to break up.

Heat the coconut oil in a large pot or wok over medium heat. Add the ground spices, garlic, turmeric and ginger, stirring as they cook and sizzle for a couple of minutes. Stir in the mustard seeds and curry leaves, then the onion, cauliflower, broccoli and beans - make sure the spices are coating everything. Pour over the coconut milk and stock, then drain the cashews and add them too. Stir everything until well mixed, then leave it on a gentle simmer for about half an hour. Give it the occasional stir for even cooking.

Add salt to taste, a generous squeeze of lemon, and serve.

October 22, 2009: Indya Bistro II

Edit 22/12/11: Indya Bistro is now closed. It's been replaced by another Indian restaurant called Ganesha.

When Mike and Jo arranged to come over for a takeaway dinner and cards, Jo registered an interest in trying out Indya Bistro. Our first experience was certainly pleasant enough, and we'd received comments indicating that the menu has expanded since then. It has indeed - there've been a few alterations to the entrees (no more Mumbai fries!), while the number of main courses to choose from has almost doubled. If anything, it looks a little more like the typical Indian takeaway menu and a little less like a modern reinterpretation of Indian cuisine. Nevertheless, the unusual and irresistable gobi florets ($7) are still there - hooray!

The Diwani Handi Delight has been renamed the mixed vegetable sabzi and goes for $3 less ($15). It still tastes great, with Mike deeming it his favourite of the night. This is high praise, since all of us agreed that the paneer and spinach delight ($15, a long-term Indian favourite amongst the group) was probably the best we'd ever tasted - it was terrifically creamy and probably dreadfully unhealthy! The new malai kofta ($15, another of our Indian meal yardsticks) was also lovely. We mopped those thick, delicately spiced sauces with basmati rice ($4), garlic naan ($4) and kashmiri naan ($4).

On paper, I wouldn't have expected to become an Indya Bistro regular - the vegetarian options aren't too different from the norm and cost a few dollars more than usual. But they're easily the tastiest in the neighbourhood! Next time we're in the mood for Indian takeaway, we'll almost certainly be ordering it from Indya Bistro.

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You can read about our previous visit to Indya Bistro here.

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Indya Bistro now have a website: www.indyabistro.com.au.