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...

Stuffed Zucchini Recipe

I realised that some people might want the recipe for the stuffed zucchini from the other day. It's very simple, and the good news is that once you've tried it, you can use the same technique to stuff other vegetables such as eggplant, peppers, squash, pumpkin or tomatoes.

You can make this a vegetarian dish by substituting the mince for a mixture of lentils and TVP (soy mince).

Essentially, take your favourite recipe for burger patties/meatloaf/rissoles/meatballs and stuff it into a vegetable :)

A note on the hollowing-out process. My zucchini was very large, and insides containing the seeds had become fluffy, so I scraped it all out and it went to compost. If you're using smaller zucchini, save the insides and use them to make some frittata or pasta sauce.

The making of...

Stuffed Zucchini (serves 4)

1 large or 4 medium zucchini

500g beef or lamb mince

1 egg

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1/4 cup finely diced red capsicum

olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds (whole)

chilli flakes to taste

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp chopped italian parsley

salt and freshly ground pepper

 

Preheat an oven to 180degC, and line a large tray with baking paper.

To prepare the zucchini, remove the stem end, and a very small section from the flower end. Slice the zucchini lengthways. You may need to shave a little off the side so that it sits on the tray without wobbling.

Heat a small frying pan over a medium heat and add a little olive oil. Cook the spring onions and capsicum for 2-3 minutes until soft and tender, then add the cumin, allspice, chilli, garlic and cook for another minute until fragrant. Take off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl mix the mince, egg, rice, onion mixture, parsley and season well with salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix - it gives the best consistency.

Fill the zucchini with the mince mixture. Wet your hands and smooth off the top of the mixture. Cover lightly with foil.

Place in the oven and cook for 45minutes, then remove the foil and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until the mince has browned on top. The zucchini should be nice and tender.

To make a quick tomato sauce, add 1 tin of chopped tomatoes to a frying pan over a med/low heat. Add 2 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp minced garlic, salt and pepper, and some paprika and/or chilli powder (I used hot smoked paprika). Allow to gently bubble and thicken.

If the zucchini is very large, you can carve it up and serve, or just serve the smaller zucchini whole with sauce spooned over the top. Serve with some salads and perhaps some hommus or greek yoghurt.

Not-so-baby zucchini!

Oops! Need to harvest a bit earlier next time...

Remember those adorable little baby zucchini I posted about a couple of weeks ago? One of them turned into this 1.5kg MONSTER!

So we celebrated the start  the summer harvest with a dinner featuring lots of tasty things from the garden.

Vegies!

There was the monster zucchini, green beans, basil, lettuce and rocket, and some baby radishes (probably picked before they were ready but I couldn't resist!)

The tomatoes are growing up and up, but there's nothing ready to eat yet. The eggplants have flowers on them now, as do the button squash and chilli plants. The carrot seeds are sprouting. The rocket has bolted and gone to seed, so it might be time to replace it with some rainbow chard. The tiny dwarf bean plant is putting out an incredible amount of delicious beans - we might have to plant another!

Stuffed with mince and rice

Vegetable Feast

Zucchini stuffed with Minced Beef and Brown Rice with a Spicy Tomato Sauce

Red Cabbage Salad

Green Bean and Capsicum Salad

Tomato and Basil Salad

Green Salad

Toasted Pita Bread

Hommus

Greek Yoghurt

I was a little worried that the zucchini might have been bitter after growing so large, but it was still sweet and delicious - hooray for home grown vegies!