Kung pao seitan with asparagus

February 24, 2014

This dinner had me pulling some home-made seitan from the depths of the freezer and our ol' Charney cookbook from the shelf. It's a formula we know well - cook some rice, chop some veges, stir-fry 'em quickly with a few condiments from the pantry. But there's something about this recipe that I don't think we would have managed on our own: the seitan chunks are chewy and satisfying but not overpowering, the asparagus and capsicum are fresh and crunchy, there's just enough savoury sauce clinging to the veges, and there are whole dried chillies that I'd never let Michael toss in without a chef's express instructions.

The balance was dead on - I reckon this kung pao is at least as good as the ones we've eaten around town.

Kung pao seitan with asparagus
(adapted slightly from a recipe in Ken Charney's Bold Vegetarian Chef)

2 tablespoons tamari
2 teaspoons mirin
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon vegetarian Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon black bean or chilli bean sauce
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon arrowroot
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 carrot, thinly sliced into half-moons
1 large bunch asparagus, chopped into bite-sized lengths
340g seitan, preferably chicken-style, chopped into ~1cm cubes
3 cloves garlic, minced
10 small dried red chillies, 1-3 of them broken open
1 red capsicum, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
230g can water chestnuts, drained

Chop the vegetables and seitan as directed above and set them aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the tamari, mirin, sugar, sesame oil, Worcestershire sauce, bean sauce, pepper, arrowroot and 1/4 cup water. Set the sauce aside.

Heat up the vegetable oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the carrot and asparagus and stir-fry them for about a minute. Pour in 1/4 cup water and allow them to steam for a further minute. Add the seitan, garlic, and chillies and stir-fry for half a minute. Add the capsicum and peanut and stir-fry for another half-to-one minute, until the capsicum is slightly softened. Pour over the sauce and gently stir it through the vegetables until the sauce is thickened. Stir in the water chestnuts and serve over rice.

September 15, 2008: Black bean and avocado soup

   

We'd loaded up on goodies at the Queen Vic Market on Saturday and had decided that we should buy some dried black beans and then get ourselves organised enough to actually use them. Thus, by the time Monday rolled around we'd had a couple of cups of beans soaking for a good 30 hours and were ready to turn them into dinner.

My first port of call for Mexican-y recipes is Ken Charney's Bold Vegetarian Chef, possibly my favourite in our cookbook collection. He didn't disappoint, providing us with a recipe for 'Beautiful black bean and avocado soup'. It all took a bit longer than I imagined it would - despite our preparedness, I didn't realise how long the pre-cooking of the beans would take. I had them simmering for about an hour, but they still ended up a little bit firmer than I'd have liked. Still, that was the only minor complaint about this meal (well, that and its lack of visual appeal).

The soup had a spicy zing, complemented by the citrus tang of the lime and the coriander. Throw in the rich, dark beans and the fresh ripe avocado, and you've got yourself a delicious treat. I probably went a little overboard on the spices, which meant that the spice range was a bit beyond Cindy's preference, but I enjoyed it very, very much.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons of achiote powder (instead of the recipe's chipotle chilli powder)
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup chopped coriander
5 chopped tomatoes
4 cups cooked black bean (you might want to simmer them for 90 minutes)
1 litre vegie stock
2 ripe but firm avocadoes
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil and fry the onion for about 5 minutes - until it's soft.

Add the garlic, cumin, achiote, cinnamon sticks, sugar, salt and half of the coriander. Cook, stirring often, for a couple of minutes.

Throw in the tomatoes and beans and stir everything together. Cook for a couple of minutes and then pour in the stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Take out a couple of cups of beans and liquid and puree them in a food processor, and then stir it back into the pot.

Cook for another few minutes and then kill the heat. Add the avocadoes, lime juice and the rest of the coriander and stir it all together with a bit of salt and pepper.

This is our entry in this month's Legume Love Affair, started by The Well-Seasoned Cook and hosted by Lucy at Nourish Me.

April 9, 2008: Creamy red lentil chowder

I'm really pushing the soup agenda lately - I guess I've missed it during the warmer months. This lentil chowder was a rich and filling mush, with really strong flavours - a little spiciness, some tangy vinegar and the earthy lentils. I loved it on the night we made it, but by the time we'd gotten through the leftovers the vinegary-lemon flavours had become a bit tiresome. I'm sure the whole package would have been improved if we'd used a delicious homemade stock as the recipe recommended, instead of store-bought salty stock. In future it might be best to make it in smaller batches (or for larger crowds).

Creamy red lentil chowder

1 tblsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery rib, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
1 cinnamon stalk
1 large tomato, diced
1.5 cups red lentils
5 cups of vegetable stock
1 cup dry white wine
170g silken tofu
1 tblsp miso
2 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp cider vinegar
Splash of hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil and then throw in the onion, cooking for 3 or 4 minutes. Add in the carrot and celery and cook for another few minutes. Once the vegies have softened, add the bay leaf, garlic, basil, oregano and cinnamon stick. Saute for another couple of minutes.

Add the tomato and cook for another minute or so, stir in the lentils, stock and wine. Cover and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or so, until the lentils are soft. If you can find them, take out the cinnamon stick and the bay leaf.

Put the tofu, miso and 2 cups of the soup mix in a food processor and whiz until well blended. Pour the mush back into the soup pot and stir it all through. Add the lemon juice, vinegar and hot sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

August 23, 2007: Roasted pumpkin and shallot soup

The extraction of Cindy's wisdom teeth has meant that we've been on a liquid-food diet for the weekend. To make sure that she had food available on Friday evening, we spent Thursday night in the kitchen: she whipping up her Indian mango pudding, and me having a crack at a pumpkin soup recipe from Ken Charney's The Bold Vegetarian Chef.

The recipe had a few quirks compared to regular pumpkin soup - not least the incorporation of a roasted pear. I was uncertain whether the pear was going to have any impact on the overall flavour (it was 1 smallish pear in amongst a kilo of pumpkin after all) and speculated that it may have just been a gimmick to make Ken's recipe sound exotic. It turns out I was wrong, the pear (along with a decent splash of lemon juice) added a level of unexpected sweetness to the pumpkin and shallots, to the point that this savoury option turned out to be a little on the sweet side given Cindy's limited food choices. The recipe also suggested a couple of crispy garnishes (fried sage leaves and roasted pumpkin seeds) that we skipped to avoid any unpleasant chewing issues.

Roasted pumpkin and shallot soup
4 shallots
1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
1 - 1.5kg pumpkin
2 teaspoons dried sage
olive oil
200g silken tofu
4 cups vegie stock
juice of one lemon

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

Chop the shallots coarsely and toss with the pear, the dried sage and a teaspoon of olive oil.

Bake the shallot/pear mix and the pumpkin (cut it in half if you didn't buy pre-chopped chunks). The pear and shallots probably take about 25 minutes, while the pumpkin takes a bit longer - say 35. You want it to be nice and soft all the way through.

Once everything is baked, peel off the pumpkin skin and mix together the pumpkin flesh with the pear and shallots, along with the stock, tofu and some salt and pepper. You can add a 1/2 cup of wine or a splash of vinegar here as well if you feel like it.

Blend up the mix in batches in a food processor until it's a smooth, non-chewable consistency and put the whole lot in a large saucepan over low heat on the stove. Simmer for about 10 minutes and add in the lemon juice (along with more salt and pepper if required) and then simmer for a final few minutes. Depending on how your mouth is working - serve either with crusty bread or a frustratingly small teaspoon.

February 8, 2007: Asparagus and fennel risotto

After the fun of the markets, it was back to home-cooked food on Thursday night. With some leftover risotto required for Cindy's Friday night soup plans, we scanned our various recipe books for something delicious sounding. Ken Charney came through with the goods, with an asparagus and fennel concoction. It's nothing too complicated, but the combination of fennel, asparagus and the bite of chilli and pepper made for an enjoyable meal. I've still yet to completely master the risotto cooking technique, meaning the rice ended up a tiny bit crunchier than is ideal, but this still turned out quite successfully.

Asparagus and fennel risotto
1 litre vegetable stock
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped finely
300g asparagus, stemmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 red chilli, chopped finely (with gloves on, if necessary)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup arborio rice
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper

Heat the stock in a medium saucepan until it's simmering nicely.

In a bigger saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and fry the onion and fennel for about 5 minutes, until they're soft.

Add the asparagus and cook for another minute or two and then add in the sugar, the chilli and the rice. Stir everything together and raise the heat a little and ladle in about a cup of stock, which should resume simmering almost immediately.

Stir everything together, and keep stirring while the stock simmers away. Once the stock is absorbed, add in another 1/2 cup and keep stirring. Repeat this process until you're almost out of stock. Add in a generous amount of salt and pepper and keep stirring.

Once the last bit of stock has been absorbed, remove the risotto from the heat and stir through the cheese and another dash of pepper if you're feeling adventurous. Serve it up with a pile of salad and a glass of wine.

January 30, 2007: Penne with roasted eggplant, peppers and parmesan cheese

A quick scan of the pasta section of The Bold Vegetarain Cookbook on Tuesday morning turned up this fairly delicious sounding recipe. Cindy and I aren't averse to eating eggplant, but I don't think we'd ever roasted it before and that, along with the promise of pine nuts and cheese, was enough to make this recipe our meal for the night. Of course I didn't really read the recipe in the morning and so I was a little surprised that it all took so long to prepare. Luckily, it was mostly worth it, with the blended eggplant and capsicum sauce and the fresh oregano making for a tasty meal - of course if I'd remembered to tip the toasted pine nuts into the mix, it would probably have been even better.

Penne with roasted eggplant, peppers and feta cheese*
*we replaced the feta with parmesan, mainly because we had a good sized chunk of parmesan in the fridge, but I think it was probably a better flavour to combine with the other ingredients anyway.

500g eggplant (I used 3 smallish eggplants, but I've no idea how much they weighed)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 medium onion, chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 roasted red capsicums
300g penne
1/4 cup crumbled parmesan
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh oregano
fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper

The first, and most time-consuming, step is to roast the eggplants. Pre-heat the oven to about 200 degrees and pierce each eggplant a few times. Place the eggplants on an oven tray and stick them in the oven, turning occasionally. After about an hour the eggplant should be very soft - it will basically collapse if you give it a gentle squeeze. At this point, it's done. Take the eggplants out and let them cool.

In the meantime, toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan until they're lightly browned. When they're done, set them aside somewhere, but don't forget all about them.

In the frying pan, cook the onion and garlic in half of the olive oil for about five minutes, until it's lightly browned.

By now, the eggplants should have cooled, so you can cut them in half and scoop out the delicious innards (the cookbook, strangely, calls this 'the meat').

Combine the eggplant innards, the peppers, the onion and garlic and the rest of the olive oil in a food processor. Just pulse them a few times, you don't want a completely smooth paste, rather a nice chunky consistency.

At this point it's pasta cooking time - everyone probably has their own methods for cooking pasta, so I'm not going to be too specific. If you like salt or oil in your boiling water, then go right ahead. When the pasta is almost ready, gently reheat the chunky sauce in a frypan or saucepan. Once the pasta is done, drain it in a colander and combine it with the sauce. Stir in the cheese and oregano, season with salt and pepper and top with a splash of the lemon juice.

November 21, 2006: Walnut Pesto Pasta

The recipe is another result from our typical weekday search for a recipe that'll give us both dinner and easily-packed leftovers for lunch. It's called Ziti with Walnut Pesto, Zucchini, and Red Pepper, from Ken Charney's Bold Vegetarian Chef cookbook. Michael bought a little more than the required walnuts for the pesto, so I made extra and we tested it out on crackers while we cooked the pasta: it was a little too sweet for me and the raw garlic was really intense. I'd reduce the maple syrup and roast the garlic if I made this again just for snacking. I used the pasta I bought from Mediterranean Wholesalers a while ago instead of the prescribed ziti, but otherwise stuck faithfully to Charney's recipe. In this context the sweetness and garlic of the pesto became more subtle, creating a light but creamy coating on the pasta. The zucchini and red capsicum were just the right vegetable choices, and in the future I reckon I'll reduce the quantity of pasta and up the veges a lot. We split this into a dinner and two lunches each and I thoroughly enjoyed it fresh, re-heated and at room temperature, making it the ideal weeknight meal!

Walnut pesto
(from the Bold Vegetarian Chef by Ken Charney)

In a food processor, combine 3/4 cup (75g) of walnut pieces, 3 garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped parsley, 1/4 cup of olive oil, a tablespoon of lemon juice and 2 teaspoons of maple syrup. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Walnut pesto pasta
(also from the Bold Vegetarian Chef by Ken Charney)

500g pasta
1/2 cup (60g) pine nuts
1 large red capsicum, cut into strips
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 zucchini, sliced into half-moons
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup walnut pesto (recipe above)
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper
fresh basil leaves, to garnish
grated parmesan cheese, to garnish

Bring 4L of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and stir often. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes (or according to the recommended time on the packet) and drain.

While the pasta is cooking, toast the pine nuts in a frypan until lightly browned. Set aside and use the frypan to cook the red capsicum in the olive oil. When the capsicum is soft and starting to blacken around the edges add the zucchini and cook for a further couple of minutes until the zucchini is tender.

Transfer the veges to the pasta saucepan. Boil the stock in the frypan until it has reduced in volume by half. Stir in the pesto and cook for another minute. Mix together the pasta, veges, chickpeas and pine nuts in the pasta saucepan and fold through the sauce and lemon juice. Season to taste and serve garnished with the basil leaves and parmesan.

Categories

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

November 11-12, 2006: Tapas

Our swag of goodies from the Collingwood markets had me pulled in all sorts of directions for the rest of the weekend's eating. Once I'd hit upon it, I become set on the idea of preparing a series of tapas-style tasting plates for the evening. Michael was feeling lazier, but kindly chipped in anyway.

Round 1: strips of home-roasted capsicum with Holy Goat silk cheese, torn basil leaves, black pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The capsicum and cheese were a perfect pair, the cheese being as smooth as the name suggests and very mild in taste. The balsamic added the acidity it needed, as did the tiny glass of iced limoncello I had on the side. A fabulous start, inspiring me to return to the kitchen for...

Round 2: shitake mushrooms fried in a little butter, flavoured with garlic, chilli and parsley. I intended to buy Swiss brown mushrooms but was careless at the shops (wish we'd hit the markets before the mushroom stand closed). I found the shitakes too rubbery in texture for this dish, but the flavour was spot-on.

Round 3: white bean and roasted garlic spread on toasted rye and caraway sourdough, with baby spinach leaves on the side. The dip comes from The Bold Vegetarian Chef and it's made by processing a head of roasted garlic, 2 cups of cooked white beans, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, 3 tablespoons of lemon juice, 3 or 4 dashes of Tabasco sauce, 3 tablespoons of chopped parsley and basil, salt, pepper, and a bit of milk to thin it out. I found the fresh herbs a bit overpowering, and a bad clash with the caraway seeds in the bread. We'll know what to do on our next attempt!

By this time Michael and I were well fed and not inclined to make our final dish. We saved it up for lunch on Sunday:

Round 4: Steamed aparagus with lemon dressing and a sprinkle of parmesan. Sensational, especially with a bit of bread to mop up the leftover dressing. You can make the dressing by whisking together the juice of one lemon, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt, 1/4 of a teaspoon of pepper, and a 1/4 of a teaspoon of nutmeg. (Kudos to Kurma Dasa and World Vegetarian Food for that recipe.)

Categories:

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

October 31, 2006: Savory harira soup

This soup was another attempt to return to something resembling healthy eating after some overly cheesy meals. We originally planned it as an accompaniment for Another Outspoken Female's millet, pumpkin and almond pilaf, but our failure to find hulled millet anywhere meant it had to stand alone. Luckily, the soup was a roaring success - one of the most flavoursome soups I've eaten, with each spoonful offering new tastes: the sharp black pepper, warm spices, rich tomatoes, tangy lemon juice, nutty lentils and crisp celery all made appearances. With some chunky bread for dipping, it was probably one of the best meals I've cooked since this blog began.

Savoury harira soup
(once again, adapted from a recipe in Ken Charney's Bold Vegetarian Cooking, which is fast becoming my favourite cookbook)

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan and throw in a chopped onion, a couple of chopped celery ribs, 1/2 cup of chopped parsley, a teaspoon of turmeric and a teaspoon each of salt and pepper (make sure you put enough pepper in, it really adds to the final product).

After frying the mix for about five minutes (until the onions have softened), add teaspoons of paprika, caraway seeds and cinnamon, a couple of bay leaves and 1/4 cup of chopped coriander. Stir through for about thirty seconds and then pour in two 400ml cans of chopped tomatoes, a tablespoon or two of tomato paste, 1/2 a cup of lentils and one and a half litres of vegie stock (we opted to use readymade stock rather than go through the homemade stock rigmarole again).

Bring it all to the boil and simmer for about twenty minutes. Just before you're ready to eat, stir together a few tablespoons of flour and 1/2 cup of water in a small bowl and whisk the resulting paste through the simmering soup mix to thicken things up a bit. Serve with fresh bread and a slice of lemon for a spicy soup sensation.

Categories

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

October 29, 2006: Black bean tofu tacos

I ate lots of candy during and after the Halloween party, resulting in a craving for something fresh to eat and plenty of excess energy with which to prepare it. We had a can of black beans in the cupboard that Michael picked up at Piedemontes, so we searched through our recipe books for something new and Mexican-themed to try. Eventually we picked out black bean tofu tacos from Ken Charney's The Bold Vegetarian Chef, extending ourselves to some salsa too.

The salsa recipe is inspired by one in Kurma Dasa's World Vegetarian Food, my main alteration being to use canned chipotles and half a teaspoon of their abodo sauce. The abodo sauce adds a fantastic smoky flavour to everything it touches but packs a mighty chili punch, so its use is always a delicate balance. The black bean tofu taco filling also had a bit of bite: thus the accompanying salad of iceberg lettuce, red capsicum and avocado was a fresh and cooling contrast. I dressed the salad with a bit of pepper and lots of lemon juice, and washed it all down with a Corona (with another lemon wedge floating in the bottle neck, of course). Michael and I were both thoroughly satisfied by this meal, and we'll certainly be making it again in the future.

Easy-Bake Salsa

(inspired by New Mexico Chili and Tomato Salsa in Vegetarian World Food by Kurma Dasa)

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Mix a 400g can of crushed tomatoes, one finely chopped chipotle, half a teaspoon of abodo sauce, a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of brown sugar in an oven-proof dish. (Substitute other chilli options as convenient.) Bake for about half an hour, until the mixture thickens and caramelises slightly. Stir regularly as it bakes, scraping the darkened bits back into the salsa.

Black Bean Tofu Tacos

(based on a recipe from The Bold Vegetarian Chef by Ken Charney)

650g tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 large green chilies
1 large onion, sliced finely
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon salt
400g can black beans
300g firm silken tofu, cut into cubes
6-8 tortillas

Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the core. Place the tomato halves cut side down on a tray and grill on a rack about 30cm from the heat source, until the skins blacken. Once they're cool, pull off the skins and coarsely chop, keeping all the juice.

Dry-roast the garlic and chilies in a frypan. Take the garlic out when the skin gets brown spots, and then the chilies after the skin's blackening all over. Cool and peel, remove the chili stems and finely chop them. Mush up the garlic and chilies with a mortar and pestle.

Saute the onion in the olive oil until it's soft and starting to brown. Add the garlic/chili mix, along with the oregano, cumin seeds, sugar and salt. Stir it all up for about a minute, then add the beans and tomatoes (and all of the tomato juice). Keep cooking until you're happy with the thickness of the mix.

Gently stir in the tofu and simmer for a couple of minutes. While this is happening heat up the tortillas, either in a hot frypan or microwave. To serve, spoon the bean tofu mixture onto the totillas and roll them up. Garnish with salsa and get some fresh salad going on the side.

Categories

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

October 27, 2006: Vegie stir-fry with tamarind and chipotle sweet-hot sauce

Cindy and I spent most of last week working our way through a massive, cheesy lasagne that we cooked on Monday (the lack of a relevant blog entry provides an indication or the overall success of that venture). By Thursday evening, our arteries were filled with cheese, and the only solution was a fresh, vegie-laden stir-fry. Generally, we've made up stir-fry sauces using some combination of seasonings mixed up with soy sauce and lime-juice. This time, in a concession to our food-blogger status, we opted for something more adventurous.

Tamarind and chipotle sweet-hot sauce (adapted from a recipe in Ken Charney's The Bold Vegetarian Chef)

Start off by blending up 2 chipotle chillies (if they're fresh, you'll need to soak them in water first to soften them up) and a can of chopped tomatoes. Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of cinammon, 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander, 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 a teaspoon of ground cloves in a medium sized saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes.

In a different, larger, saucepan fry a chopped onion in olive oil until it startes to go brown. Add a few cloves of minced garlic and fry for another couple of minutes. Stir in the contents of the previous saucepan along with a tablespoon of tomato paste, a tablespoon of tarmaind paste, 1/4 cup of unrefined sugar and a reasonable sprinkling of salt. Turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 25 minutes.

For the stir-fry, we simply cut up some vegetables (carrot, capsicum, zuchini, broccoli and beans) and threw them in the wok for a couple of minutes before adding in a cup or so of the sauce and a packet of noodles. Crispy and delicious.

Categories

• Cooking
• Recipes
• Savoury

October 11, 2006: North African tempeh tagine

Wednesday morning found us short of cooking ideas, so I flicked through the bold vegetarian cookbook over breakfast searching for some dinner options. Cindy was tired of tofu, I didn't feel like pasta and we'd just had Indian, so there weren't too many options. We settled on this tempeh tagine, mainly because we already had most of the ingredients. We were, however, lacking in tempeh. Used to the vege-friendly bounties of West End Coles in Brisbane, I assumed that the local Safeway would do the trick, but its mock-meat selection is pitiful. Luckily, Cindy checked out Allergy Block on the way to work and came up trumps, so we were ready to go.

North African tempeh tagine

Ingredients
2 medium carrots, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon black pepper corns
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
2-4 whole cloves
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons tamarind paste
1 cup vege stock
1 250g packet tempeh, cubed
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped coarsely
a pinch of salt
a dash of hot sauce

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (I forgot this part of course, so the whole process was thrown into chaos) and then boil the carrot slices for about 5 minutes and then drain them and leave them to one side.

Now for the fun part: roast the spices in a dry frypan for about two minutes, until they start to darken. Once they're roasted, tip them into a mortar and pestle and grind them up (a spice grinder can do the job if you've got one).

This filled the house with a warm, spicy aroma. Unfortunately dinner's still a while away at this point, so you just have to try to push on despite the hunger the delicious smells generate.

Once spices are all ground up, fry up the onion in the olive oil until it's soft and slightly browned and then throw in the garlic. After a couple of minutes, add in the spice powder and fry for another minute or two and then take off the heat.

Next, pour the stock into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add in the tamaraind paste, carrots, tempeh and the tomatoes and simmer for a few more minutes. We added in a sliced green capsicum here as well just to bulk up the vegetable component of the dish. Finally, stir in the spicy onion mix, the salt and the hot sauce and bring it all back to the boil. After a couple of minutes, transfer the whole pot-load into a covered baking dish and stick it in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Just before the stew is ready to come out of the oven, mix up some instant cous-cous and you're ready to go.

Cindy's artful photo has the saucy stew and the cous-cous on separate sides of the plate, but if you're more concerned by the taste than the asthetic appeal, I'd suggest smothering the cous-cous in as much of the stew as you can. The spices gave the whole dish a potent flavour - strong and spicy without being very hot. I enjoyed the change of texture that the tempeh provides - most of our soy eating has involved tofu and tempeh is firmer and has a powerful taste. The only downside: this recipe only made enough leftovers for modest sized lunches. Which reminds me - eating cous-cous outside on a windy day can be a difficult and messy experience.

Categories:

• Cooking
• Savoury
• Recipes

September 23, 2006: Roasted potatoes, chickpeas, and spinach with spicy cashew sauce

One of reasons this blog continues to be updated so frequently is the limited social lives that Cindy and I have been living in Melbourne so far. Things are gradually improving, but this morning rolled around and we realised we had nothing better to do tonight than cook. So after a quick flick through the Bold Vegetarian book, we picked out tonight's recipe and headed off to the Queen Vic Markets. Both our trips to the markets so far have been in the midst of the crazy Saturday crowds and have made the whole experience a bit trying, but the glimpses we got of the antipasto and cheeses on the deli counters mean that we'll have to find a time to return when we can browse with a bit more leisure.

Anyway, onto the recipe.

Roasted potatoes, chickpeas, and spinach with spicy cashew sauce

Ingredients
1 kilogram small red potatoes, scrubbed and quartered
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 cinammon stick
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 chipotle pepper, chopped finely (the recipe wanted a jalepeno, but I thought it best to try to use up the chipotles )
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cans chickpeas, drained
1/2 cup cashew butter (like peanut butter, with cashews! Who knew?)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
400ml vegetable stock
1 bunch spinach washed, stemmed and chopped coarsely

Stage 1 is to roast the potatoes for about 40 minutes. I'm still getting used to our oven here, so I checked and turned them about 8 times more than is stricly necessarily (i.e. once). Once the potatoes are almost done, toast the fennel, cumin and turmeric in a large saucepan for a couple of minutes. Before the spices start to burn, throw in the peanut oil, onion, garlic, ginger and chipotle and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes. (Take the potatoes out of the oven about now if you haven't already!) Throw in the vegetable stock (we used prepackaged stock this time rather than go through the stock-making ordeal again), chickpeas, cashew butter and tomato paste and stir everything together. Simmer for another 5 minutes and then stir in the potatoes and spinach, cooking for a few more minutes, until the spinach has wilted and everything is well coated in the sauce.

Ideally you would probably serve this with rice or some sort of bread, but Saturday night apathy overtook us and we ate ours unaccompanied. The chipotle provided a much stronger kick than I'd imagined it would, but didn't overpower the variety of other flavours in the sauce. The roast potatoes were perfect (if I do say so myself) and the spinach and chickpeas allowed me to pretend I was eating a healthy meal and forget about all that cashew butter.

Categories:

• Cooking
• Savoury
• Recipes

September 17-18, 2006: Tofu kebabs with cucumber-yoghurt sauce

Even though we had takeaway for dinner on Sunday night, we didn’t completely slack off on cooking. While Michael was picking up our spicy dinners in Fitzroy, I was spicing up a tofu marinade for Monday night’s dinner. The recipe was our first test of “The Bold Vegetarian Chef” and the recipe did promise bold flavours, as I mixed together caraway seeds, fenugreek, lemon juice, tamarind paste, coriander, garlic, mustard, turmeric, sugar and Tabasco sauce with yoghurt and a bit of olive oil.

This concoction got smeared all over some firm tofu cubes and refrigerated overnight. In the morning I rotated the tofu bits to make sure all surfaces were flavoured.

The sauce, which we prepared on Monday night, was a raita-like mix of cucumber, coriander, red onion, garlic, salt and pepper with lots more yoghurt.

It was a simple but messy job to line up the tofu cubes on skewers, then fry them. I guess the point of the skewers is to make turning the tofu a bit quicker, but Michael found it no more convenient than tossing the remaining cubes around in the fry-pan. There was a lot more marinade glugging up the pan than necessary, but we did use some of it to flavour our carrot, capsicum and beans, which were quickly stir-fried separately in a wok. We served it all up on a plate of leftover green leaves, with yoghurt sauce dripping over the kebabs. The super-firm tofu is not my favourite texture, but it does hold together reliably when being tossed around in marinade and then a frying pan. Next time I’d like to slice it in smaller cubes or perhaps thin rectangular ‘patties’ to maximise the marinating surface area (I know it’s not the global maximum, but some kind of three-dimensional fractal really isn’t practical…). The flavours had heightened the next day, and my lunchbox received a few interested eyeings-off. The downside was the lingering aftertaste of garlic and red onion throughout the afternoon, reigning over the feeble chewing gum I threw at it. For private enjoyment only, perhaps.

Categories:

• Cooking
• Savoury