January Challenge: Day 14

Time for another Tuesday Night Vego Challenge!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to visit L and come home with 6 golden nugget pumpkins, 150g of dwarf green beans, and a couple of cucumbers. Add this to my normal vegie delivery and the fridge is bursting with fresh fruit and vegies.

I've been really impressed with the golden nugget pumpkins. They have a beautifully soft, starchy texture, rather than being stringy like some varieties.

The tinned lentils are probably cheating a little, but they were in the cupboard, and now they are not! I'm calling these patties. They're a bit soft to turn into burgers, but they're not made with batter like fritters. The polenta forms a nice crust.

Crispy!

Pumpkin, Lentil and Feta Patties (makes 6)

500g diced pumpkin
100g diced feta cheese
1 tin lentils, drained and rinsed
1 small finely diced red onion
1 tsp ground paprika (I use smoky paprika)
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup polenta (fine yellow cornmeal)

Boil or steam the pumpkin until very soft and mash. Allow it to cool. Add lentils, egg, cheese, onion, paprika, cumin, polenta, and season well with salt and pepper, and mix well.

Use a spoon to shape the mixture into large patties and shallow fry in olive oil over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes each side. Cover while cooking to ensure the patties cook through.

Serve with a dollop of plain yoghurt and some home made chutney, or a squeeze of lemon.

January Challenge: Day 7

So a week into the Pantry Challenge and so far I haven't done too much damage to the pantry or the freezer, but I have found some new inspiration in ingredients and cooking techniques.

I was pointed towards The Witches Kitchen, and it turns out that Linda has run challenges of her own for some time - but hers run all year! Challenges such as the breakfast challenge (grow things that you can make breakfast with that aren't cereal), and the muesli bar challenge (home made muesli bars that kids judge to be better than commercial snacks).

For 2012 it's the Tuesday Night Vego Challenge. I'm in! I cook vegetarian at least once a week anyway. There are rules:

• The have to be based on ingredients that are all locally in season together. I think it is fine for spices to travel half way round the world, and grains, legumes and seeds to travel interstate.  But  asparagus air freighted from California will just be a very expensive, very jet lagged, mummified version of the real thing.
• They have to be healthy, as in, low fat, low sugar, whole grain. Cream based carbonara sauces are fine for a special occasion, but if you eat them as a regular mid-week dinner, you better be very active!
• They have to use, or at least be able to substitute, equipment that you can probably find in an op shop.
• They have to take less than half an hour to make, mostly from scratch.

Indian cuisine is a great place to start looking for vegetarian recipes that look and taste sensational. I made two delicious vegetarian curries and a salad for dinner, served with steamed brown rice. Easily made in about half an hour if you put your rice and lentils on at the same time.

This much colour has to be healthy!

Dahl

"Dahl" simply refers to the split peas or lentils. There are numerous versions of this dish, depending on the legume used. Red lentils cook very fast and don't require any soaking. If you are using split peas or brown lentils, then you need to soak and rinse them beforehand, or use a pressure cooker. You can add other vegies too, like some greens or diced potato.

1 cup red lentils, rinsed

4 cups water

1 tbsp oil (I used virgin coconut oil)

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp tumeric

pinch of chilli

1 tomato, diced

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp grated ginger

salt and pepper

Place the lentils and water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, then rapidly simmer for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are tender. In a separate saucepan or frying pan, heat the oil and add the tomato, onion, garlic and ginger and gently sweat over a medium heat until soft. Add the spices and cook for another 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Add the onion mixture to the lentils and season well. Cook until thickened and serve with rice.

Dry Vegetable Curry

Aloo Subzi is a dry (no sauce) potato curry where cubes of potato are cooked in spiced oil or ghee. It's absolutely delicious, very very quick and easy to make and it's much lighter than "regular" curries that can be heavy with cream or coconut milk. Best of all, you can add whatever seasonal vegetables you have - spinach (aloo palak), cauliflower (aloo gobi)... I used golden nugget pumpkin and zucchini (no potato). The pumpkin was creamy and delicious!

500g diced pumpkin, zucchini, steamed until tender-crisp (4-5 min microwave)

1 pinch cumin seeds

1 pinch fennel seeds

1 pinch yellow mustard seeds

1 pinch black mustard seeds

1 small pinch chilli flakes

1/4 tsp ground tumeric

1 small onion, sliced

2 tbsp oil (I used virgin coconut oil)

salt and pepper

Heat the oil and gently fry the spices and onion until fragrant.  Add the vegetables and a little cooking water and cook until tender. Season well and serve.

Tomato and Cucumber Salad

1 cup peeled and seeded cucumber, chopped

8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 green spring onion, finely sliced

1/2 tsp minced ginger

pinch of sea salt

1 tbsp mint sauce**

Mix everything together and serve as a cooling side dish to spicy food.

** Yes, you read that right - mint sauce! That terribly english concoction of malt vinegar, sugar and mint makes a fantastic dressing for cucumber! This is what the Pantry Challenge is all about!

January Challenge: Day 5

Friends came round today, which presented an excellent opportunity to eat up some leftover nibblies from New Year.

Today was also about preserves. I recently picked a monster zucchini weighing 1.88kg, and also have several lovely golden nugget pumpkins from L at 500m2. This really is more than we can eat, so I decided to make a squash chutney from these tasty summer vegies. I can give some away to friends and family, and keep a bit for winter. It took 5 hours to make but I now have some jars of delicious chutney that don't look like they were made from zucchini and pumpkin.

I even managed to seal the jars

I started with this recipe for Marrow Chutney, but found that it needed some extras to get it working well, possibly because my zucchini wasn't very watery. Now I'm looking forward to picking more vegies!

Squash Chutney (makes approx 8 cups)

1.5kg peeled and chopped zucchini and pumpkin

1 large onion, chopped

1 large apple, chopped

250g sultanas

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin seed

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds

2 tbsp sea salt

450g sugar (2 1/2 cups)

750ml white vinegar

juice of 1 lemon

Place all the ingredients into a very large pot (the wider the better) and bring to the boil, then simmer for 4 hours, stirring regularly, until it has reduced and thickened. While it is still hot, spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal (this process depends on the kind of jars you are using).

I found that I had to squash the squash (!) because it was quite chunky and I wanted it to be more spreadable.

Right now I'm feeling very satisfied with myself and thinking I should join the CWA or enter the Royal Easter Show in 2013, although I might need a bit more practice...

Pumpkin Miso Soup

Something I learnt when visiting Japan is that miso soup can be anything you want. Here in Australia, most miso soup is the instant stuff. In Japan, most restaurants (and probably most families) make their own from dashi stock and miso paste, and add whatever else is in season. My favourites were a seafood version with teeny tiny clams (the size of your thumbnail!) and a vegan version with vegetables. So here's a winter pumpkin miso soup. To make it from scratch you can make your own stock with dried konbu (seaweed) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes), but the stock sachets taste pretty good and can be easier to find in the supermarket.


Pumpkin Miso Soup (serves 4)


1 litre water
1 sachet konbu stock
1 sachet dashi stock
1 tablespoon white miso paste (shiro miso)
150g jap pumpkin, cut into 1cm dice with the skin left on
Optional: diced tofu, sliced shallots or dried wakame


Mix the stock and water and bring up to a simmer (do not boil!). Place the miso paste into a ladle, and scoop up some of the stock. Use a small spoon or a chopstick to slowly melt and blend the paste into the stock. Add the pumpkin and gently simmer until the pumpkin is tender but not falling apart.

Gluten Free Lunch

I was originally going to do two separate posts, but I only have one photo and both dishes were for the same meal. I have a friend who's been unwell lately and needed some cheering up. So I made her a tasty gluten free lunch.


Spinach Tart with Potato Rosti Base (Gluten Free Vegetarian)


The trick with a rosti is getting the moisture out of the potatoes. I've got nicola and dutch cream potatoes at the moment. They're nice and waxy, which means they hold their shape when cooked and you get a grated potato cake, rather than a mashed potato cake. The potatoes are grated and left to drain - squeeze as much of the water out as possible. Adding a pinch of salt can help them along. The potatoes were then spread over the base of a flan tin, drizzled with olive oil and baked in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes until it started to go golden and crispy.


To make the tart filing I mixed beaten egg with wilted spinach and caramelised red onion, and seasoned well. I poured this on top of the potato base and dotted with goat cheese (fetta would work well too). I finished with a sprinkling of paprika. Then back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes until just set in the middle (it keeps cooking as it cools). You could make individual versions too if you have the tins.


Crustless Pumpkin Pie (Gluten Free Vegan)

Coconut Yoghurt is very white!

The pie doesn't have pastry, it's in the style of an "impossible pie". I've based it on this recipe, but modified slightly for the ingredients I had available, and halved the recipe for the mini springform tin I have. I was really worried that it would turn out 'pasty' - the raw mix didn't taste that good and had a really strong raw flour taste. 

The final product was delicious and moist, and got the thumbs up for authenticity from my friend (who grew up with the real thing in Canada). We ate it with a dollop of Coconut Yoghurt - something I didn't even know existed (it was lovely!).

1 cup steamed pumpkin (I used jap for its colour)
½ cup coconut cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon macadamia oil
1 tablespoon Orgran No Egg

2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

½ cup gluten-free flour

1 tablespoon tapioca starch

1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

1 pinch salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

The pumpkin was blended to a puree, then mixed with the maple syrup, vanilla, oil and coconut cream. The dry ingredients were mixed in a separate bowl and then the liquid slowly blended in until smooth. You could also pop everything in a food processor. It was baked at 150 degrees C for approximately 40 minutes until almost firm, and then cooled slowly in the oven (as you would for a baked cheesecake).

Mini Chestnut and Pumpkin Tarts

I usually buy chestnuts once a year and try to make something nice with them. I've made chestnut cakes, chestnut stuffings, and I think even a chestnut risotto one year. Given they're not cheap and have such a short season, one dish is usually all I get to make.

This year I've made my own chestnut puree by boiling the chestnuts, peeling them, simmering with water, milk and honey, then blitzing with the stick blender. I've combined this with the other great autumn ingredient, pumpkin, to make some mini pumpkin and chestnut tarts. The mixture contains some egg, cream, nutmeg and cinnamon.


I find that frozen pastry circles in a muffin tin don't need to be blind baked to come out nice and firm on the bottom - you just have to make sure you line the bases with baking paper so that they come out and don't get stuck. This recipe was also good because I was able to make the mixture the night before and then just had to quickly assemble and bake them before my afternoon tea guests arrived.

A chestnut cake at Lucky's Cafe, Hakone (Japan), 2008