Recipes
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Transcendental Lentils
INGREDIENTS:
500g brown/green lentils
100g butter
1t salt
1t cumin (whole or ground)
1t coriander (ground)
1t tumeric (ground)
pinch cardamom (ground)
250g pumpkin or potato (cubed and steamed) -- optional extra
250g tomatoes (fresh or tinned) -- optional extra
METHOD:
Check over the lentils for any foreign matter. Wash in three lots of boiling water, then cover with water in a heavy pot and leave to soak overnight (unless using pressure cooker or cooking all day).
Bring to the boil, add salt, cover and simmer for two hours (about six hours if unsoaked, about 45 minutes in a pressure cooker) or until lentils are starting to break up.
In a small pan melt butter and add spices, sautéing gently for a minute or three until they give off a full aroma – careful not to burn!
Remove lentils from heat and slowly add spiced butter, being careful not to splatter as oil hits hot liquid.
Add pumpkin or potatoes and/or tomatoes if desired.
Return to heat and simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring regularly (preferably with a flat-edged wooden spatula) to keep them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Serves 4
This can also be made with blue (or Puy) lentils, but these are better for pies as they keep their shape when fully cooked. For example:
(From http://www.abc.net.au/jamescancook/thisweek.htm)
Puy Pie
© 2008 ABC
see http://www.abc.net.au/jamescancook/thisweek.htm
INGREDIENTS:
250g puy lentils
3 bay leaves
2 carrots
2 onions
3-4 sticks celery
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
2 tablespoons kecap manis
2 shakes of worcester sauce
2 shakes of tabasco sauce
Topping:
200g lima beans (soak overnight to soften before cooking)
½ cauliflower
Pastry:
250g besan (chick pea) flour
250g plain flour
50ml olive oil or any vegetable oil 2 ½ teaspoons freeze dried yeast 2 teaspoons sugar
METHOD:
Put lentils into 4-5 litres of boiling water with two bay leaves and a good pinch of salt and cook for 45 minutes.
Sift the flours into a bowl and add the yeast, sugar, and a pinch of salt. Roughly mix the dry ingredients together. Drizzle the oil over the dry ingredients. Add enough hot water to make a wet mixture. (This will be about 300-400ml, depending on the nature of the flour you are using, so don’t add all the water at once. The water should be quite warm to the touch, but not so hot it burns. Mixing equal parts of boiling water and room temperature gives the desired temperature.) Work the water into the mixture with your hand. This should not take very long. The wet mixture does not require kneading.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel and allow the dough to prove in a warm spot for about 45mins. It has proved sufficiently when it has doubled in size.
Roughly chop the cauliflower. Put the cauliflower and lima beans into 4-5 litres of boiling water and cook for about 20 minutes.
Finely chop the celery, carrot, onion and garlic and cook in a hot pan containing a little oil. Stir frequently. Add a pinch of salt and a bay leaf. Cook until the vegetables are almost translucent. Add the drained lentils to the vegetables in the pan. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the liquid the lentils have cooked in for extra flavour. Stir the vegetables and the lentils to combine. Add the tamarind pulp and kecap manis. Add a couple of shakes of worcester and a couple of shakes of tabasco to your own taste.
Drain the cauliflower and lima beans and mash. Press the proved dough into a large pie dish to make the piecrust. The crust should be 1- 2 cm thick. (There is no need to blind bake this crust.)
Put the vegetable and lentil filling into the piecrust. Put the mash on top and smooth it out.
Bake in a 220-degree oven for about 50 minutes
Cut into pie wedges and serve hot or cold. A crisp green salad is a good accompaniment.
© 2008 ABC
see http://www.abc.net.au/jamescancook/thisweek.htm
Red Quinoa Risotto
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups red quinoa (or black if you like that licorice look)
500g pumpkin
1 medium-sized brown onion
200g beans
2 zucchinis
3T sunflower oil
50g butter
6 cups stock (or 5 cups stock and a cup of white wine)
100g cheese
2T fresh sage.
METHOD:
Peel and dice the pumpkin into bite-size bits (preferably a middling-firm variety like Kent, but any kind will do). Chop the onion. Slice the beans and zukes into bite-size lengths. Grate the cheese (I like cheddar or Edam, but parmesan is traditional). Chop the sage.
Bring the stock (vegetable or chicken) to the boil and keep simmering on a separate burner. In a large cooking pot melt half the butter into the oil until it foams. Add the onion and beans and saute until the onion starts to go translucent. Add the pumpkin and saute until it loses that fresh look.
Add enough of the still-simmering stock to not quite cover the tallest peaks of the pumpkin and simmer uncovered until the pumpkin softens slightly and a lot of the liquid has evaporated.
Add the quinoa and stir until well coated. Let it absorb the remaining fluid, stirring sparingly (I like a flat-edge wooden spatula for this kind of job) so the quinoa gets to almost stick to the bottom a bit.
Add a ladleful of the still-simmering stock (or the wine if you are going for the alcoholic version) and stir frequently until absorbed. Repeat until all the stock is gone or the quinoa has reached the right al dente texture. Halfway through add the zukes (so they stay intact).
When done to your satisfaction, remove from the heat, add a little more stock if you like your risotto a bit moister, then stir in the rest of the butter, the grated cheese, and the sage.
Serves four.
Southern Chole
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups white chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1/2 cup desecrated coconut
2 cups stewed tomatoes
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon butter (or ghee)
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
2 teaspoons whole mustard seeds, yellow or black
1 teaspoon seasalt
juice of one lime (or two nimbu)
METHOD:
Soak dried chickpeas in water overnight. (You can rinse them in three lots of hot water before soaking if you are one of those who believes this reduces their flatulent effect!) Make sure there is still at least a two-finger-width of water above the chickpeas before cooking. Bring to the boil, add salt, and simmer until tender, about 2 hours. (About 6 hours if unsoaked, about 45 minutes in a pressure cooker.)
Soak the coconut in the lime juice.
Heat oil and butter in a medium size frypan or skillet or wok over medium heat. When oil is hot, but not smoking, stir in chilli and mustard seeds. Cover and fry until mustard seeds burst (listen for that popping sound).
Remove from heat and add tomatoes and lime-juiced coconut, being careful it does not spatter. Mix well and stir fry for another minute.
Add to chickpeas, and simmer for a further 10 or 15 minutes to work the flavours through.
Serves 4 to 8 to 12 (sole course to main course to soup course).
Gluten-free and Grain-free Crumble Topping
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup rolled quinoa
I cup besan (chickpea) flour
1/2 cup fruit medley
2 tablespoons chopped macadamias (or slivered almonds)
1 teaspoon arrowroot
pinch cinnamon
1 to 2 tablespoons honey
1 to 2 tablespoons butter
METHOD:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Melt the butter and honey in the microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove, and pour over the dry mix, turning with a wooden spoon until just evenly moistened.
Cover the bottom of a shallow oven-proof dish (I find the lid of a Pyrex casserole dish works well) with the stewed fruit of your choice, adding spices if desired (e.g. cloves with apple, cardamom with guava).
Spread the crumble topping over the top and bake in a 180-degree-C oven until golden brown on top (about 15 minutes)
Serves 8 to 12.
For grain/gluten-eaters, you can just use equal parts of muesli and flour, adding baking powder rather than arrowroot with the cinnamon, and then the melted butter-honey. Quick and easy!
Muesli
Adapted from Karen Meyer's Vegetarian Adventure cookbook
INGREDIENTS
1 cup fine or coarse rolled oats
1 cup coconut (dessicated or flaked)
2 cups of wheatgerm or oat bran or quinoa flakes
1 cup lecithin
1 cup of dried fruits chopped
1/2 cup LSA (crushed nuts/seeds)
1/2 cup sunflower kernels
1/4 cup linseed
1/4 cup goji berries
1/2 cup bran flakes
2 tbspn honey
2 tbspn oil
METHOD
Mix the oats and coconut on a shallow tray. Mix oil and honey in hot water and stir through the oats and coconut before toasting in a hot oven stirring a few times to evenly toast. Add sunflower kernels on top to toast when oats and coconut nearly done. Cool and mix with all other ingredients.
Lovely with soy milk! Vary ingredients and proportions according to taste.
Chia Pancakes
http://www.chia4life.com.au/recipes/
INGREDIENTS
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
2tsp. baking powder
2tlbs brown sugar (or panella)
2tbls honey
3/4 cup chia gel
2 cups milk (soy, chia milk or regular milk)
pinch of salt
olive oil
METHOD
Mix spelt and wholemeal together with salt, baking powder and brown sugar.
Stir in chia gel, milk and honey then mix together to make a smooth batter. Pour batter on lightly oiled fry pan. When bubbles appear over top of pancake turn over.
For thinner batter add more milk for thicker use less milk. These are even great cold.
Great with fresh and/or stewed fruit, plain yogurt and maple syrup!
Chia Gel
http://www.chia4life.com.au/recipes/
The most important recipe for chia seeds is the chia gel. Always keep on hand to mix in a variety of things! Chia gel can be used to replace oils in most baking recipes that call for oil or butter. It can also replace eggs in many recipes as well. It can be blended or used "as is".
METHOD
Mix 1 part chia seeds to 9 parts water. Whisk to break up any clumping and let stand 15 minutes. Whisk again then place in an airtight container and refrigerate. Will keep up to 3 weeks.
Tamarind pongal
Ingredients:
1 cup raw rice
1 big dry red chillies
1 pinch asafoetida
1 sprig curry leaves
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon black gram
½ teaspoon Bengal gram
lemon sized tamarind
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
salt to taste
Preparation time:
30 minutes
Serves:
2
HOW TO PREPARE:
Soak rice for an hour. Soak the tamarind in half cup water. Drain the water completely. Grind it one by two in a blender. Now take a frying pan and pour the oil. When the oil is hot add the mustard seeds and red chillies and let them crackle. Add the curry leaves, asafoetida, black gram and Bengal gram. Strain the tamarind and add the tamarind water to the pan and stir well. Add the ground rice and sauté for a while. Add water according to desire. Cover with a lid, simmer and cook. Check at regular intervals if there is enough water and is the rice cooked. Since its ground rice it may be quick to stick to the bottom and so keep stirring on and off. Serve hot with pudina chutney.
See : Rice Recipes
Fried mackerels
Ingredients:
500 grams pomfret
banana leaves
4 tablespoons lemon juice
½ cup grated coconut
½ cup chopped coriander leaves
4 green chillies
½ tablespoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
salt to taste.
Preparation time :
25 minutes
Serves :
2
HOW TO PREPARE:
Clean and wash the pomfrets thoroughly. Make horizontal cuts in the fish fillet making small pockets. Rub some salts into the fish fillet and then pour some lemon juice in it. Let it marinate for an hour. Now take a blender and put the grated coconut, coriander leaves, green chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, 1 tablespoon lemon juice and salt to taste. Blend all these ingredients into a fine paste. Now apply this paste on the fish and let it marinate for half an hour. Now take the banana leaves and place a fish inside it. See to it that there should be enough marinade in and around the fish. Wrap up each leaf with a fish inside and set it on a steamer. Steam this for about 25 minutes. Just before serving only remove from the wrap and garnish with lemon slices and serve.
See: Fish Recipes
Baba ganoush
INGREDIENTS:
2 medium eggplants
1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 Tbsp plain yoghurt
Juice of 1 lemon
Sea-salt flakes
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
50ml extra virgin olive oil
METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Put eggplant directly on a gas flame and allow to char and blacken all over, turning often with tongs. Put in a baking dish and bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. Cut eggplant in half lengthways and scoop out flesh using a spoon. Discard the blackened shell and pick over flesh, removing any blackened bits. Roughly chop with a large knife, leaving a little texture. Put in a large mixing bowl with the garlic, yoghurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper and olive oil. Mix well until well combined.
Japanese Style Simmered Sweet Kabocha
This is a Japanese style sweet and savoury pumpkin recipe. Kabocha is cooked in many different ways in Japanese cuisine. For example, tempura is a popular way to cook kabocha. Cut kabocha into thin slices to make tempura. Also, simmering is a common way. Kabocha tend to keep its shape even if it's simmered.
INGREDIENTS:
500g Japanese pumpkin (kabocha)
3/4 cup dashi stock
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
METHOD:
1. Cut kabocha into small chunks about 1 and 1/2 inch cube.
2. Leave skin on (the texture of the cooked skin is great!).
3. Put dashi soup stock, sugar, soy sauce, and kabocha chunks in a pan.
4. Place the pan in high heat and bring it to boil.
5. Turn down the heat to low.
6. Simmer kabocha until the liquid is almost gone.
7. Serve warm or cold.
How to make 24 yogurt
This method removes virtually all the lactose from the milk.
METHOD:
1. Heat the milk:
Put desired quantity of milk into a clean pot and heat slowly on a medium heat until the temperature reaches 85-90 degrees C.
Stir the milk from time to time to keep the bottom from scorching. The purpose in heating the milk to this temperature is to kill any bacteria that might be present and interfere with the yoghurt making culture.
Both cow milk and goat milk must be heated to just past 85 degrees C, in order to sterilise them. However, cow milk can tolerate temperatures up to about 100 degrees C, while goat milk is more delicate and should not be heated much above 85 degrees C.
2. Cool the milk:
Turn the heat off and allow to cool to between 40 and 45 degrees C. Stir well before determining the final temperature. [Cooling can be accelerated by placing the pot in a sink of cold water and stirring frequently.]
3. Add the starter:
If you use store bought yoghurt as your starter. The yoghurt you buy can contain Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Streptococcus Thermophilus, and Lactobacillus Bulgaricus. I use 200 ml of Paul's Natural Set Yogurt, Plain per 4 litres of milk as my starter and whisk this through the 40-45 degree milk.
4. Incubate the yogurt at a constant temperature of 40-45 degrees for 24 hours:
I put the covered milk filled container in an electric fry pan, pour warm water in the space between the pan and the milk container, turn the fry pan on low and monitor the temperature of the milk with a thermometer to keep it at a constant temperature. [I put mine in an Esky just big enough for the pot with a 25-watt lightbulb on the end of a skinny cord trapped under the lid so the lit bulb hangs above the pot.]
5. After 24 hours, remove the pot and put it in the fridge for about 8 hours. Do not disturb the yoghurt until it is set up properly, or you will change the consistency.
6. Once the yogurt is cold, it can be dripped to make as thick a consistency of yogurt as you like.
Chocolate Beetroot cake
You'll never look a beetroot in the face in quite the same way again. The cake is delicious served on its own or heated and served with ice cream. It will survive freezing and re-heating with no noticeable diminution of flavour and without becoming a crumbly mess (although that does depend a little on our choice of ingredients - see below). When made with chocolate and oil the result is a strong, rich cake that will serve a large group - it's filling and very satisfying.
INGREDIENTS:
1. 2 large beetroot (approximately the size of your fist)
2. 2 cups of flour. Note: if you use wholemeal flour, use slightly more vegetable oil. If you use gluten-free flour you might need quite a bit more vegetable oil or the cake may be very dry
3. 1½ cups of brown sugar (for the cake)
4. ½ to ¾ cup of brown sugar (for the icing)
5. 1 cup of dark, bitter chocolate. Note: if you prefer, you can use half a cup of cocoa powder – preferably one of the dark and better kinds such as Dutch cocoa. If anyone tries the co-op organic cocoa powder, please update this recipe with your results.
6. 3 teaspoons baking powder (or 1½ teaspoons of baking soda + 1½ teaspoons of cream of tartar, if you like to make your own baking powder). Do not use self raising flour.
7. ½ cup vegetable oil. I recommend macadamia oil if you would like a little extra flavour, or safflower if you would prefer the minimum oil flavour.
8. ¼ cup chopped nuts (hazelnuts, macadamia, pecan, almonds - they're all yummy)
9. 4 eggs (beaten)
10. 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. Note that if you want to make your own, get a vanilla pod from the co-op and soak it in diluted grain-neutral spirits (vodka will do the trick - you don't need very much but you'll need to experiment to find our how strong a solution suits your palate ... the weaker the solution, the longer it will take for the essence to be extracted).
METHOD:
1. Cook the Beetroot If you're using a conventional stovetop, simmer the beetroot for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. If you're using a pressure cooker it will take 15 - 25 minutes, depending on your cooker's operating pressure. As a guide, I've found Fissler Bluepoint = 15min, Fagor Duo = 20min and WMF Perfect Plus = 20-25min.
Once the beetroot are cooked, drain the liquid and put it to one side - you will need it to make the icing. Do not cook the beetroot until they are soft or mushy; once they are cooked and cooled they need to be grated.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C.
3. Combine all dry ingredients:
flour sugar baking powder chopped nuts cocoa (if you are using cocoa instead of chocolate)
Mix thoroughly.
4. Combine all liquid ingredients:
the beaten eggs oil chocolate (if you're using the chocolate instead of the cocoa) vanilla essence
5. Grate the beetroot and add it to the combined liquid ingredients.
6. Fold the combined liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Don't rush this step, it makes a vital difference to the structure and consistency of the cake and the difference between it having some buoyancy and being a brick.
7. Place the cake mix into a greased cake tin and bake it for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer poked into it comes out with nothing adhering to it. Once that's finished cooking, cool it on a cake rack and make the icing.
8. Making the icing:
Reheat the liquid that was drained from the cooked beetroot on a low heat, stirring continuously while adding the ½ to ¾ cup of brown sugar. It is important to keep a low and steady heat - a little below a simmer - so that the liquid will caramelise. If you are feeling adventurous, you may want to add some other subtle flavour or essence just before you take it off the heat. If you don't mind alcohol, a dash of Absinthe or Cointreau adds a certain something; just don’t add it until the very end or most of the flavour will be boiled off.
Be very careful that you don't overheat it or cook it too long, as it will go from a runny toffee consistency to a solid in less than a minute.
Dahling Dhal
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup red lentils
3 cups water (less if you like your dhal thick, more of you like it runny)
2 tablespoons butter or ghee (or macadamia oil if vegan)
1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch ground fennel (aniseed)
pinch sea salt
METHOD:
Melt half the butter or ghee in the bottom of a heavy saucepan. Add lentils and salt and sauté until they turn yellow. Add the water, bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes.
In a tiny skillet or pan melt the rest of the butter/ghee, and saute the spices for a minute or three, until the aroma rises (take care not to burn). Add to the lentils and simmer for a further 15 minutes or until the dhal is the right consistency.
Serves four.
Gadzukes
INGREDIENTS:
Zuchinis of even size
Salted butter (nothing else will do)
Paprika or ground chillies
METHOD:
Cut the zuchinis lengthwise. Spread softened butter onto the cut surface. Dust with paprika or chilli powder. Place on a scone tray and bake in a very hot oven (say 250 degrees C) for a few minutes until the zukes have softened.
