Big Vegan Borscht

This week's organic veggie box had beetroot, potatoes and carrots, so I decided to make a dish I've been thinking about for a while -  borscht!

It's been a relatively cool summer week here in Melbourne, so rich earthy soup really hit the spot, with some dill sour cream left over from the latkes.

I know that borscht is supposed to be more of a chunky soup, but despite liking the taste of beetroot, I'm not really a fan of eating big chunks of it, so I blended this a little, leaving a few chunks for texture.

Such a hearty soup, but so many vitamins! I love when healthy things are also yum.

Jerusalem

Another dish I made this weekend was the Burnt Aubergine and Mograbieh Soup from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem. I've become a little obsessed with Ottolenghi recently, after getting Plenty More for Christmas. I love the simple but rich dishes, and the Middle Eastern style of cooking, so sumptuous.

The soup is a little time consuming, but worth it. I just wish aubergines were cheaper, I want to make all his aubergine recipes!

First you need to roast the aubergines on an open flame or under a hot grill (this is what I did as we have an electric stove) until the skins are burnt, and meanwhile also fry some extra diced aubergine for texture and garnish. After making the tomato base for the soup, you add the burnt aubergine flesh and blend it all up, then add the diced aubergine and cooked mograbieh (Israeli couscous). It's pretty simple in terms of ingredients, but turns out really creamy and filling. Yum.

I'm back!

So after a loooong hiatus, I'm back! One of my news year's resolutions is to start cooking new recipes again, so here I am.

Maybe it's the Irish in me, but I've always loved potato dishes. So today I made Isa's latkes! With dill sour cream and apple sauce, so yum.

Recipe from the ppk (I used breadcrumbs instead of matzoh meal):

http://www.theppk.com/2007/12/happy-hannukah-eat-some-latkes-for-me/

2 1/2 pounds starchy white potatoes, peeled (russets, idaho, et al)
1 small yellow onion, peeled
1/4 cup potato or corn starch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cups matzoh meal

Lots of vegetable oil

If using a food processor:
Use the grating blade to shredd the potatoes and the onion.

If shredding by hand, use a grater to shred all the potatoes. Dice the onion as finely as possible.

Have ready brown paper shopping bags or paper towels for draining the oil from the latkes. You may also want to have the oven on at 200 F to keep the latkes warm until you’re ready to serve. If serving immediately then just have a baking pan covered with tin foil ready to keep the finished ones warm after they’ve been drained.

In a large mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon or your hands (I use my hands, it’s faster) mix the potatoes and onions with the potato starch until the potatoes have released some moisture and the sornstarch is dissolved, about 2 minutes.

Add the salt and pepper to combine. Add the matzoh meal and mix well. Set aside for about 10 minutes. The mixture should get liquid-y but sticky.

In the meantime, preheat a large preferable cast iron but definitely non-stick skillet over medium heat, a little bit on the high side. Add about 1/4 inch layer of vegetable oil to the pan. The oil is hot enough when you throw a bit of batter in and bubbles rapidly form around it. If it immediately smokes then the heat is too high and you should lower it a bit. If the bubbles are really lazy then give it a few more minutes or turn the heat up a bit.

With wet hands (so that the mixture doesn’t stick) roll into small golf ball sized balls. Flatten into thin round patties. I do about 4 to six at a time. Fry on one side for about 4 minutes, until golden brown. Flip over and fry for another 3 minutes.

Transfer to the paper towels and proceed with the remaining latkes. Once latkes have drained on both sides, place in a baking pan to keep warm.

Week 7: Pumpkin Tomato Curry and Chandra Malai Kofta

Pumpkin curry

This was a surprisingly easy recipe from a random Penguin curry book I have, that I discovered when flipping through my cookbooks for something to do with the Pumpkin I had.

Oh man, I wish I could transmit scent through this blog because it smelled amazing, with just the Pumpkin, vegan butter and Cumin seeds. Mmm.

Quick, easy and delicious, this is going to be one of my new staples, along with the chickpea curry I love. The only ingredients in this really are Pumpkin, ghee, Cumin seeds, onion, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, turmeric and Chili. I also added amchoor powder because I had it and thought it might add to the flavour.

I was craving the Pumpkin Lakhnawi from my favourite Indian takeaway place and this really hit the spot.

Malai Kofta

This was actually a lot easier than I'd thought, providing you remember to soak the nuts or as Isa says "always be soaking"! Which I am not, but luckily I did remember.

I like that this is made mostly from ingredients I usually have on hand (except Panko Crumbs). :-)

The kofta mixture came out a little too wet, so I added some more Panko Crumbs, but then it didn't hold together super well when frying (side note: I am always frying with Coconut oil from now on. Yum.), maybe because I tried to chop the Zucchini instead of shredding it finely due to not being able to locate my grater. Oh well.

The sauce was super thick and creamy and amazing. If anything, maybe slightly too rich, but so worth the time put in. It would be equally as good just poured over some steamed veggies. Definitely making again!

Time for food porn photos:

Week 6: Black Rice and Cashews

This week's dish is from Robin Aisbell's Big Vegan. (I have a beloved sweet potato gnocchi recipe from this book that I make regularly, it is divine.)

Big Vegan

It's been a long week, so I decided to go for something a little easier - black rice with cashews. I also added in some other veggies (zucchini, red Bell peppers and mushrooms) for some colour, but the rice kind of overcame all their colour and in the end the whole thing was black. Oh well!

In the end it turned out a little too salty for me, what with the Miso as well as the vegetable stock. I probably wouldn't make this again, but I would like to try black rice in more dishes. :-) 

Week 5: Dosa deliciousness

Potato Dosa from Great Gluten Free Vegan Eats

Great Gluten-Free Vegan Eats

This week's dish was a little ambitious, but I didn't realise how much so until I actually read the recipe properly. ("Wait what, you mean I have to soak it for eight hours then let the batter ferment for eight hours??") So yes, definitely not a spur of the moment dish, but definitely worth the effort.

I went to a bit of trouble a while ago to find the right kind of dal - urad dal - for the dosa pancake, then stored it in my cupboard and forgot all about it. I remember looking at it and remembering that I'd gone to a lot of trouble to find it but having no idea what recipe I'd bought it for, until recently when I remembered, hooray!

As I'm the queen of substitutions (and had trouble finding ground fenugreek powder), I used asfoetida in this instead, after making friends with a lovely Indian guy at the supermarket, who assured me that the internet was lying to me and no neither fennel seeds or mustard powder would make an adequate substitute. (And because I'm not gluten free I just used normal flour in this recipe, as opposed to the two types of rice flour suggested)

So a lot of planning is involved in this dish. First I had to soak the split lentils overnight, then make the batter and let that ferment for another eight hours. Here is the interesting bubbly effect that happened the next day:

In the meantime, I made the potato and leek filling: 

Maybe because I didn't cover them properly, but the potatoes took way longer than expected to cook. (Pro tip: don't try to cook these in the morning before having to leave for a family lunch, it will be very frustrating.)

The hardest part though, proved to be making the actual dosa pancakes. It took many failed attempts (and a lot of swearing) to get the technique of swirling the batter with the bottom of the ladle so it spread wide and thin across the pan, without breaking or lumping up. The key seemed to be keeping the heat at an even medium-high, and a slow, light touch as I smoothed the ladle around. One thing that still bothered me though was that it didn't bubble and have little holes in it like with regular dosa (and in the picture in the book). I'm not really sure why this was, maybe because of the flour I used, or it didn't ferment enough.

I served these cut in half with lots of mango chutney at the family lunch and vegetarians and omnivores alike seemed to enjoy them, so I'll call that a win!

Smith & Daughters

So for mothers' day brunch today I took my mum to Smith & Daughters, so she could see what I've been raving about. At first I was disappointed they weren't serving the dinner menu and paella, until I ate this:

Mmmm, Spanish-style omelette with chorizo, sweet peppers and soffrito, with avocado on top. Yum.

Mum chose the French toast with poached quince which was also very nice:

I am determined to go back soon for dinner and taste more of that amazing paella!

Week 4 - Green green risotto

Alas, time got away from me again last week, who would have thought just one new recipe a week was such a challenge?! But I did come through with another delicious dish from Isa Does It:

Pesto Risotto with Roast Zucchini

Isa is the first to admit that risotto can often go awry and though I haven't had a lot of experience with cooking risotto, this one turned out to be mostly foolproof. Like many Isa recipes, it takes a little longer, but is so worth it.

I always love recipes that are not only rich and delicious but also filled with things that are good for me (which doesn't always go hand in hand in my kitchen). I liked how green and appealing my shopping trolley looked with all the herbs and zucchinis!

There's several steps involved in this, but if you're good at multitasking (and make the pesto ahead) it shouldn't take much longer than 30-40 minutes.

The pesto hit a bit of a road bump when I got home and realised I'd picked up parsley instead of coriander by mistake, which is far too pungent to add into this kind of combination. I also couldn't find fresh thyme so I substituted fresh marjoram, which still seemed to work pretty well.

The zucchini went into the oven while I started the onion and rice mixture:

After that it was just alternating the adding of stock and pesto until they were all absorbed and it was very creamy:

I also had some pine nuts slowly toasting in a pan so I could add these for garnish with the zucchini on top of the risotto:

In a word: yum. The garlicky zucchini was simple but delicious, and the risotto so flavourful and pretty. Would definitely make it again, if I had some pesto pre-prepared. A great warm and hearty meal for cold days. What's your favourite winter recipe?