Royal wedding afternoon tea

We decided to have an afternoon teaparty to celebrate the Royal Wedding (William and Catherine). It was kind-of Nick's idea, then I ran with it, with Seb's encouragement. I made loads of Union Jack bunting of all sizes, and a ridiculous collage - all from scrap paper and a few print-outs. We bought six teacups and saucers and a teapot and 2 tablecloths all from thrift stores (about $15 total). And then made lots and lots of food and drink...

Green tea buns (L); cucumber+mint sandwiches (top), savoury scones (middle), tomato+basil sandwiches (bottom)

Savoury:

Cucumber and mint sandwiches (on light wholewheat bread that I thought would be white)
Tomato and basil sandwiches (on wholewheat bread)
Tomato, olive and rosemary scones (GF)
Pretzels (Seb's)

Sweet:

Tealoaf
Green tea buns
Orange, semolina and orange blossom cake
Raisin scones with strawberry jam / lemon 'curd'
Peanut butter cookies (GF)
Whole, fresh strawberries

Drinks:

Mint tea (from Bella's watering can)
Various black teas (mostly Earl Grey) - thanks to Nick and Alvin for lending teapots
Pimms (with lemonade, fizzy grapefruit juice, mint, strawberries, oranges and cucumber)
Lemon slices, sugar, almond milk to go with

Other people brought:

Scones (Beth + Per)
Blueberry and Apricot pies (Luis and Ana)
Hummus, falafel and pitta from Rami's (Kishore, Suzanne and Ramil)
Gingersnaps (Andrea)
Digestive biscuits, cake stand, teapot, tea and milk (Nick)
GF chocolate cookies, teapot and tea (Alvin)
Mini cupcakes and lemon sugar cookies (Katy)
Prep and washing-up skills (Andy)


Tealoaf

2 Earl Grey teabags
125g golden caster sugar
300g mixed dried fruit (raisins, golden raisins, currants and candied peel)
225g plain flour, sifted
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
2 tbsp clear honey, to glaze

Place the tea bags in a heat-proof bowl and add 300ml boiling water. Leave to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags, add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the fruit and leave in a cool place to stand for between 4-12 hours, depending on how much time you have.

When ready to cook the tealoaf, preheat the oven to 180°C / 356F / gas mark 4. Line a 1kg loaf tin with baking parchment.

Drain the fruit and mix in some flour (to coat raisins and stop them sinking). Add the flour and the zest and juice of the lemon to the tea mixture and beat well. Add the fruit back in and beat some more. Pour into the lined tin and bake for 1-1¼ hours, or until golden on top / a skewer comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. While it’s cooling, warm the honey slightly in a small pan or microwave then brush the honey over the top of the loaf with a pastry brush. Serve thinly sliced, with tea.


Green tea buns

1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3-4 tsp green tea powder (I just ground up some dried leaves)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup rice milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
juice of 1 small lime (~2 tbsp)

For icing:
~1 tbsp margarine
1 cup icing sugar
1/8-1/4 tsp green tea powder
1 drop green food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
~1 tbsp rice milk

Flaked almonds to decorate

Heat oven to 350F. Mix the dry ingredients with a fork. Add the wet ingredients and mix til just combined. Fill cups 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 min.

For the icing, beat the margarine then add the sugar and tea powder. Add the vanilla, food colouring and enough rice milk to make a good pouring (but not too runny) texture.

When buns are completely cool, cover tops with icing (it's OK if it runs a little), and decorate each with flaked almonds (I tried to arrange these to look a bit like a heart).


Semolina, orange and orange blossom cake

Followed this recipe (veganized).

For the cake
300g/11oz semolina
175g/6oz soft brown sugar
175g/6oz plain flour
40g/1½oz ground almonds
1½ tsp baking powder
1 orange, zest only
75g/3oz fake butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
225ml/8fl oz fake milk
16 blanched almonds / almond flakes

For the syrup
150g/5fl oz acacia honey
110ml/4fl oz water
1 tbsp orange blossom water

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease a 20cm/8in
loose-bottomed square baking tin (used 2 x 8in cake tins lined with foil).
2. For the cake, mix the semolina, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking
powder and orange zest together in a bowl until well combined.
3. Gradually stir in the melted butter and milk until you have a smooth
batter.
4. Pour the batter into the greased tin and carefully arrange the
almonds on top in 4 rows.
5. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake is
golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes
out clean.
6. Meanwhile, for the syrup, heat the honey, water and orange blossom
water in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly, for 2-3
minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and has thickened slightly.
7. When the cake is cooked, remove it from oven, prick the surface
several times with a toohpick, and slowly pour the syrup over the
surface of the cake. Set the cake aside to cool and absorb the syrup.
8. To serve, cut the cake into 16, so that there is an almond in
the middle of each piece.  Serving suggestion with whipped cream (or greek yoghurt) if not vegan.


Scones

From this recipe.

Ingredients
225g/8oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz fake butter
25g/1oz caster sugar
150ml/5fl oz fake milk
1-2 oz raisins
~ 2 tbsp fake milk to brush on top

1. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter.  Mix in the raisins.
3. Stir in the sugar and then the milk to get a soft dough.
4. Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a
round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and
place on a baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough
and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
5. Brush the tops of the scones with fake milk. Bake for 12-15
minutes until well risen and golden.
6. Cool on a wire rack and serve with fake butter and jam.

I also made a GF / savoury version leaving out the sugar, using gram flour instead of normal flour, adding tomato paste to the milk mix, and adding chopped olives and fresh rosemary.

For both sets of sandwiches, took sliced bread, removed crusts (made these into breadcrumbs for future use), then lightly (fake) buttered one side, then added veg + herb filling, seasoned with salt and pepper, closed sandwich and sliced into quarters.


The tealoaf was excellent - really simple and really moist / excellent flavour.  Definitely a keeper.

I was really pleased with the green tea cupcakes / buns too - when I opened what I thought was a packet of green tea powder I found it was actually leaves, so decided to risk grinding them in my spice grinder to make powder.  It worked quite well, to my surprise, and I think the amount of green tea was about right - definite taste and colour without being too much.  The frosting was pretty good too - colour was a bit icky without the food colouring, but with it was fine.  And they looked pretty cute in the end I thought.

The semolina cake was alright.  I liked the semolina and orange / orange blossom, but it was a very dense, almost rubbery texture.  The syrup was really a lot when I added it - it was drowning in it.  But after I left it to cool there didn't seem to be any problems with that.  Perhaps using the wrong container to cook it didn't help?  I was relieved that it came out of the container quite easily though.  I kind of like this as a vegan cake recipe, and like the use of semolina - worth playing around with?

The scones were awful.  The sweet ones were edible with the addition of jam or curd, but didn't rise or colour properly.  Was the oven temp too high?  The savoury ones were overpowered by the gram flavour and texture (better to use half and half gram and cornmeal?)...  Beth's were much better!

The sandwiches were surprisingly good, esp the cucumber and mint.  Seb had a pretzel embarrassment - he was very disappointed.

Purple potato and artichoke salad

4 medium globe artichokes
1 1/2 lemons
~7 purple (salad) potatoes
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 1/2 tbsp chopped mint
1 1/2 tbsp wholegrain mustard

olive oil
salt and pepper

Trim artichokes, then cook in boiling water with 1 lemon (sliced).  Takes about half an hour - done when outer leaves come off when tugged.  Drain and leave to cool.  At the same time boil the purple potatoes til done (takes 20-25 min) and leave to cool.  I did these both previous days and had them in the fridge.

Get as much of the good stuff out of the artichokes as possible.  Slice the potatoes.  Put in a medium bowl.  Add the juice of 1/2 lemon and the other ingredients.  Mix up and taste to check it's good.  Eat.

Spiced, crisped chickpeas with salad

A quick weeknight supper, although S declared it not quick enough and decided he had to make gnocchi instead (?!).  I'd soaked the chickpeas overnight and cooked them while I ate breakfast this morning.  I remembered this recipe I'd noted awhile ago, and decided to make a simplified version.  At the same time I made coriander hummus and ate it with carrot sticks.

A lunchbox: Chickpeas top right-hand corner.  Clockwise from there: carrot sticks, coriander hummus, wheatberries with sweet chili, fresh spinach, roast veg+pesto.

2 large handfuls cooked (dried) chickpeas, freshly drained
1 tsp cardamom, ground
1 tsp cumin, ground
1 1/2 tsp allspice, ground
1/4 tsp salt
olive oil

for salad:
1 plum tomato, diced,
handful mixed leaves
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 spring onion, finely sliced
juice of 1/8 lemon
salt and pepper

Mix spices on a plate.  Toss the chickpeas in the spices in batches.  Heat olive oil in a pan and fry for 2-3 min, shaking to cook evenly.  Fish out onto kitchen towel when done. Mix the salad ingredients (this is enough for 1) in a bowl.  Serve the chickpeas warm over the salad.

The chickpeas were really tasty but perhaps a little dry - eating with salad and the hummus I made was a good combination.

Lemon+seed muffins and lemon 'curd'

My lemon curd in the past has typically been disastrous - I know it's supposed to be easy, but I just seem to be jinxed with it.  I never liked the egginess of curd that much either - perhaps vegan curd will break the curse.  Basically followed this recipe.

Lemon 'curd'

1 cup lemon juice (~4 lemons / don't forget to zest first... used a mixture of sweet Meyer lemons and regular lemons)
1/2 cup water
1 cup white sugar
4 tbsp cornflour
1/8 tsp salt
zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup fake milk
2 tbsp margarine

Put lemon juice, water, sugar, salt and cornflour into a blender and whizz up til smooth.  Pour into saucepan and add zest.  Heat at medium heat and whisk until boiling (10-15 min).  Boil for 1 min undisturbed until thickened and starting to clear.  Remove from heat.  Add milk and margarine.  Whisk til fully combined.  Allow to cool in pan, then put into clean jars and into fridge - should keep for a few weeks at least.



While considering curd, I got inspired to make lemon poppyseed muffins too.  Found this recipe and it looked good.  Didn't have that many poppyseeds so I did a mixture of seeds...

Lemon+seed muffins

2 cups flour (used 1 1/2 cups white flour and 1/2 cup wholewheat flour)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup poppyseeds (mixture of black sesame seeds, millet and poppyseeds)
2 tsp powdered ginger
2 tbsp lemon zest
1/2 cup veg oil
3/4 cup fake milk (coconut)

Heat oven to 375F.  Mix dry ingredients with a fork.  Add wet ingredients and mix til just combined.  Bake ~25 min / until done.  Cool and eat.

Both were good!  I wasn't sure about the lemon curd at first (mainly consistency-wise) but once it was chilled I really liked it.  The muffins were really tasty (I liked the seed mixture, and the cooked texture was great).  And they were good together.  I wonder if they will keep better than nonveg muffins?

Lentil, tomato and alfalfa salad

Making interesting salad out of random selections.

~ 1 loosely packed cup alfalfa sprouts (about 4 days' sprouting time, then stored in the fridge)
~ 3/4 cup puy lentils, cooked+cooled
1 1/2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
1/2 cup mixed roasted veg leftovers (red pepper, little mushrooms, garlic, onions, courgettes)
4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tbsp chopped parsley
dressing: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper

Prepare the ingredients (I cooked the lentils while making pesto), then put all in a bowl (adding sunflower seeds last), add dressing (quantities to taste), toss and eat.  Ate with a bit of toasted poppyseed bagel and with pesto mixed in / on top.  Was pretty satisfying - am a fan of lentils in salad, and I enjoy sprouts as a substitute / complement to leaves in salad (didn't have any salad leaves except herbs).

Chickpea lentil couscous salad and sauteed spinach

A worknight when both of us got home around 7.30, early and lucky.

Sauteed Spinach

Seb wanted to saute spinach 'like you did it, because it was better' - what I did was really simple but I told him anyway and he did it.  We had a huge bag of baby spinach from the Haymarket which was actually in great nick, but spinach doesn't last forever (unless it is in those weird alien bags).

large bag of baby spinach, washed
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
~2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
nutmeg

Heat the oil in a large frying pan.  Add garlic and fry gently until softened and just starting to colour.  Add the (washed) spinach.  Move around gently until it is almost done (cover if you like), then add salt, pepper and some grated nutmeg to taste.  Cook until the spinach is completely wilted.


Chickpea, lentil and saffron couscous salad

Fancied some fibrous pulses.

From this recipe.

225g couscous / 112g wholewheat couscous
½ tsp saffron strands / 1/4 tsp saffron
Salt and black pepper
260ml boiling water / 130ml boiling water (+maybe 20ml more as it looked like v little)
150g cooked chickpeas (tinned are OK) / ~75g but really just a bag of frozen cooked ones defrosted
150g cooked Puy lentils / ~75g
80g dried cranberries / handful - end of a packet
1 red endive, cut into 1cm-thick slices / none- didn't have any
2 spring onions, thinly sliced / 1 spring onion
4 tbsp chopped mint  / 2 tbsp mint
3 tbsp chopped coriander / 1.5 tbsp
3 tbsp chopped parsley / 1.5 tbsp
Grated zest of 2 lemons / zest of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed / 1/2 garlic clove
1 tsp nigella seeds
4 tbsp olive oil / 2 tbsp
Put the lentils on to cook (should take ~20-30min).  Put the couscous in a shallow bowl. Add the saffron and a pinch of salt to the boiling water, and pour this over the couscous to cover. Wrap the bowl in clingfilm and set aside for 15 minutes, so the couscous soaks up the liquid. Remove the clingfilm, fluff up the couscous with a fork, then set aside to cool down.  When ready, drain cooked lentils.
Transfer the cold couscous to a mixing bowl, add the chickpeas, lentils and cranberries, and toss. Add the (endive), spring onion, herbs, lemon zest, garlic and nigella seeds, stir gently to combine, then stir in olive oil and season to taste.
Serve this salad straight away, or chill it for up to 24 hours; the flavours actually improve over time. Before serving, bring back to room temperature and add more olive oil or seasoning as necessary.


Both were pretty simple and tasty.  The salad was good - perhaps a little dry?  Might add some lemon juice another time.   Am enjoying using a lot of fresh herbs - at the moment we have mint, basil, parsley, dill and coriander in the fridge, and I am getting better at adding them to a variety of things.

Black Bean Hummus; Minted Bulghur Wheat; Yellow Split Pea Dal

Seb is out at the Korean party, so I am home alone.  What did I do with my evening?  So far I have cooked myself a three course dinner and have been dancing around the sitting room a lot.

Clockwise from left: minted bulghur, black bean hummus, dal

Black Bean Hummus

~400g cooked black beans
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp tahini
lump of garlic (~ small-medium clove, to taste)
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tbsp coriander leaves
salt to taste

Put all ingredients into a blender and whizz til smooth.  Add a little water if it is too thick.  Taste to check seasoning etc.


Minted Bulghur Wheat

~1 cup medium bulghur wheat
1 tbsp chopped mint
juice of 1/4 lemon
1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt + pepper

Put the bulghur wheat in a medium bowl and pour boiling water over it.  Cover top of bowl with a plate and leave 20-30min until the wheat is a good biting texture.  If necessary drain by holding the plate in place and inverting the bowl over the sink.


Yellow split pea dal
(see here - Allegra McEvedy in the Guardian)

2 tbsp vegetable oil
8 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 tbsp mustard seed
1/3 tbsp cumin seed
1/3 tbsp coriander seed
seeds from 5 cardamom pods
250g dried yellow split peas (chana dal)
1 litre water
salt

Heat the oil and add the chopped garlic and whole dry spices.  Fry til golden brown (~5 min).  Then add the split peas and mix around to coat.  Then add the water.  Bring to a boil over 10min then boil for 45-60min until the peas are well cooked and the texture / sloppiness is as desired (will thicken up a bit as it cools / sits).  Taste and season.


I dipped raw red pepper in the black bean hummus to start with, then ate the minted bulghur and dal together when they were ready.  While the dal was cooking I also made chocolate tofu pudding (yum) = third course.  Going to eat it in a minute with some fresh mint tea (washed fresh mint leaves and nearly-boiling water in a mug).

All were pretty successful - the bb hummus was tasty, the dal was really good (I'm into yellow split peas at the minute, it would seem) - lots of potential for playing about with spice combinations, and the bulghur wheat was simple but a really nice clean taste and texture.  A bit eclectic together, but I liked it.  All really easy, too.

New things I ate so far this week

1) Ethiopian food (from Addis Red Sea) - most excitingly, the injera bread, which seems to be made with teff flour - I had never eaten either teff nor injera.  Like a cross between a crumpet and an English pancake.

2) Jicama - in a salad.  I liked it.  Big round brown rooty thing, crisp and slightly sweet inside.  In shape and texture reminded me of kohlrabi, although the taste was quite different.

3) Hominy - just looked it up, and as I suspected it was maize-based.  They had it in the canteen downstairs.  It was very white and looked a bit like maggots.  It tasted really bland.  Not very inspiring, don't think I'll bother again (like cornmeal grits, didn't think much of those either) - it's like they've taken corn and taken all the taste and texture and colour out.

Mango rose 'lassi'

I seem to be on a mango tip right now - yesterday I found myself in TJs randomly buying dried mango (now I am going to have to eat some of that) and mango butter (is vegan - the jamlike stuff - in fact only had mango, sugar, pectin and lime juice in it - sounded too good to miss).  The other day I bought a packet of frozen mango chunks, and today I was in the mood for frozen mango - straight out of the packet, and made into smoothie type things...  This one was pudding after the black pepper tofu and yellow split pea fest.

5 large chunks frozen mango
1 large chunk (~1/4) frozen banana
1 cup rice milk
1/2 tsp rose water

Put all in a blender and whizz.  Makes a fairly thin consistency.  Drink through a big fat straw.

Pretty much exactly what I wanted.  Combines two of my favourite lassi flavours - mango and rose.  Why didn't I think of putting them together before?

Black pepper tofu

This is by Yotam Ottolenghi, from the Guardian.  I made it for the first time a while ago and it was good, if very very spicy.  That endorphin-triggering, intense heat.  Addictive, I guess - I seem to be wanting more...  This time I decided to reduce the heat by leaving out the chili and just using the black pepper: it's still hot, but not so mouth-blowing.

Serves four.
800g firm, fresh tofu / 200g
cornflour, to dust the tofu
Vegetable oil, for frying
150g butter / use veg oil ~ 2tbsp
12 small shallots (350g), peeled and thinly sliced / 1 medium onion
8 red chillies, thinly sliced / none
12 garlic cloves, crushed / 3 , finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped ginger / 3/4 tbsp
5 tbsp crushed black peppercorns / 1 1/4 tbsp
3 tbsp sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) / 3/4 tbsp sweet chili sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce / 3/4 tbsp
4 tsp dark soy sauce / 1 tbsp
2 tbsp sugar / 1/2 tbsp
16 small, thin spring onions, cut into segments 3cm long / 3 medium sized, cut into slivers

Cut the tofu into 3cm x 2cm blocks and toss them in cornflour, shaking off the excess. Pour in enough oil to come 0.5cm up the sides of a large frying pan, and bring up to frying heat. Fry the tofu in batches in the oil, turning the pieces as you go. Once they are golden all around, and have a thin crust, transfer to a paper towel.

Remove the oil and any sediment from the pan and put back in 2 tbsp of veg oil. Heat and add the shallots/onions, (chillies), garlic and ginger, and sauté for about 15 minutes on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the contents of the pan are shiny and totally soft. While you wait, crush the peppercorns, using a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder. They should be quite coarse.

When the shallots/onions and (chillies) are soft, add the soy sauces, sweet chili and the sugar, stir, then stir in the crushed pepper. Warm the tofu in the sauce for about a minute, then add the spring onion and stir through. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Ate it with boiled basmati rice and yellow peas.


I made various substitutions because of not having the right ingredients etc, but it still came out very tasty.  Considering doing it with the addition of some sweet pepper instead of chilis another time - I do feel like it misses an element of taste without the chili somehow.  Still really good though (and not as scary).  Made enough for two.  Would consider frying the rest of the tofu and keeping it to make something else the next day (this amount was half a regular-sized packet of tofu), as frying like this is so stinky and gross.

Yellow split peas

I've never really bothered with split peas much, but heard of Ethiopian yellow split peas and thought it sounded interesting.  Bought some yellow split peas from the Indian store today and thought I would cook some...

Used this recipe.

Also just realised this ticks off one of the three alphabet letters I hadn't cooked with - only U and X left...

Ingredients
3 cups water plus 2 tablespoons (divided)
1 cup dried yellow split peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1 inch-long piece fresh ginger, peeled,
finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Place 3 cups of the water and the peas in large saucepan. Heat over high heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium; cook (covered) until almost tender, about 30 minutes.
Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat; cook onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and turmeric; cook 1 minute.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons water; cover. Cook on low heat 3 minutes. Add mixture to cooked peas; stir in salt. Simmer until peas are very soft, about 30 minutes. Taste; adjust seasonings.

Ate it with basmati rice (1 cup rice / 2 cups water; cook with lid on for 20min, switch off heat and leave with lid on to steam until wanted).


Simple and tasty - the peas have a rich, leguminous, almost buttery taste.  Total cooking time about an hour so not that quick though unfortunately.  Could definitely make lots at once and eat it all week though.  It was quite thick in the end - should make sure to cover during cooking / perhaps add more water?

Chickpea salad

A quick lunch.

1 tin / equivalent cooked dried chickpeas
2 tbsp frozen sweetcorn
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 tbsp red onion, finely chopped
1/2 v small cucumber, diced
1/2 tbsp curly parsley, chopped
1/2 tbsp mint, chopped

for dressing:
juice and zest of half a lemon
1/2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Defrost the chickpeas (if frozen) and sweetcorn (by putting in a medium bowl, pouring boiling water over and leaving for 5-10min, then drain.  Put the dressing ingredients into an empty bowl and mix.  Add the chickpeas and sweetcorn and toss.  Add the other ingredients, toss and serve.

Socca / farinata

A recipe I'd cut out of the Guardian a few years ago but never got around to making...  Was flicking through my recipe folder and noticed it, partly as I just bought some chickpea flour and partly as I'd just noted down another, different recipe for socca (I think from the NY Times).  I went with the Guardian version, mainly because the cooking method of the other involved an ovenproof frying pan which I don't have...

Guardian recipe

Serves four.
300g cherry tomatoes, halved
Salt and ground black pepper
Olive oil
800g white onions, peeled and cut into rings
2 tbsp picked thyme leaves
½ tsp white-wine vinegar
200g chickpea flour (aka gram flour)
450ml water
Crème fraîche to serve
Preheat the oven to 130C/250F/gas mark ½. Spread the tomatoes, cut side up, over a small baking tray, sprinkle over some salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil, and bake for 25 minutes - they are not supposed to dry out completely, just semi-cook.
Next, heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and thyme, season and sauté, stirring all the while, over a high heat for about a minute. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking the onions for another 20 minutes, stirring them occasionally. You want them soft, sweet and golden brown, but not very dark. At the end, stir in the vinegar, taste and adjust the seasoning.
Increase the oven temperature to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. In a bowl, use a hand whisk to mix together the chickpea flour, water, one and a half tablespoons of olive oil, half a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. The batter should be totally smooth. Line two oven trays with greaseproof paper, brush this with a little oil and set aside. Take a small nonstick frying pan, roughly 14cm in diameter at its base, and brush very lightly with oil. Place the pan over a high heat for a couple of minutes, then reduce to medium-high and pour in a quarter of the socca batter - it should be about 0.5cm thick. After two minutes or so, air bubbles will appear as it sets. Use a palette knife to release the pancake's edges from the pan, then carefully lift and turn over. Cook for two more minutes, then transfer to the lined oven tray. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Put the pancakes in the warm oven for eight minutes, then remove and set aside until ready to serve.
Spread the pancakes with plenty of onion - they need to be covered all over - then top with tomato halves and return to the oven to heat up, for about seven minutes or so. Serve warm with crème fraîche on the side.

It was good, like an oniony, vegan pizza / pissaladiere.  Lots of potential for varying the topping etc.  Also, the chickpea pancake for some reason reminded me of egg - was a bit like an omelette.  This could be the basis of some vegan pseudo-omelette experimentation...


NY Times recipe


Time: 45 minutes
1 cup chickpea flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon, at least, ground black pepper
4 to 6 tablespoons olive oil
½ large onion, thinly sliced, optional
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, optional.
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a well-seasoned or nonstick 12-inch pizza pan or cast-iron skillet in oven. Sift chickpea flour into a bowl; add salt and pepper; then slowly add 1 cup lukewarm water, whisking to eliminate lumps. Stir in 2 tablespoons olive oil. Cover, and let sit while oven heats, or as long as 12 hours. Batter should be about the consistency of heavy cream.
2. If using onion and rosemary, stir them into batter. Pour 2 tablespoons oil into heated pan, and swirl to cover pan evenly. Pour in batter, and bake 12 to 15 minutes, or until pancake is firm and edges set. Heat broiler, and brush top of socca with 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil if it looks dry.
3. Set socca a few inches away from broiler for a few minutes, just long enough to brown it spottily. Cut it into wedges, and serve hot, or at least warm.

Edamame noodles (+superquick)

~250g frozen edamame
~200g fine / glass noodles
2 spring onions, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small chili, finely chopped
1 tbsp coriander, chopped
1 tbsp mint, chopped

1 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted

sauce ingredients:
1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil mixed with sesame oil
juice of 2 limes

Prepare the ingredients.  Defrost the edamame in hot water.  Put the noodles in hot water for 5-10 min til softened but not soggy.  Drain and put aside.  Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and then add the garlic.  Cook until just starting to brown, then add noodles, edamame and sauce.  Remove from the heat and mix up.  Then add the onions, chili and herbs.  Return to heat and stir until heated through.  Serve sprinkled with the sesame seeds.


Superquick version

I had about half an hour to get ready to go out, needed to eat something, so decided to do a variant on this and make it superquick.

1 nest (~100g) fine noodles
generous handful frozen edamame
handful frozen sweetcorn

1 tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted

sauce ingredients:
1 1/2 tbsp tahini (or peanut butter)
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 1/2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar (or lime juice)
1/2 tbsp root ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp mint leaves
1 tbsp coriander
1/2 a small cucumber
1-2 spring onions
~50g firm tofu, diced into pieces to taste
~1/2 an avocado, chopped into chunks

Pour boiling water over the noodles in a bowl.  Add the frozen edamame and sweetcorn.  Leave to soften / defrost.  In the meantime wash and chop everything that needs to be chopped (herbs, cucumber, ginger, spring onion, avocado, tofu), and toast the sesame seeds.  When the noodles are soft drain them and the beans and set aside.  In the same bowl, mix the sauce ingredients in the bottom.  Add the noodle / bean mix and mix up well.  Add the rest, mix and eat.  Took about 15min beginning to end, tops.

Alphabet

Just noticed the only letters I haven't got things beginning with in my list at the top are U, X and Y...  Need to make some udon, yuzu, upside down cake, yellow something, what else (X is going to be hard)?  Only X I can think of is xanthan gum.

Edit: Y is ticked - Yellow split peas / Yellow beans.

Edit: all letters used: Xanthan gum (Alvin gave me some to aid in my GF experiments), and Umeboshi (umeboshi plum vinegar, from Brattleboro Coop, because I was curious about it).

Apple, Beetroot, Chickpea, Dill, Edamame, Fennel, Garlic, Hazelnut, Icing, Jicama, Kale, Lime, Mint, Nutmeg, Olives, Parsley, Quinoa, Raisins, Sesame, Tofu, Umeboshi, Vanilla, Walnuts, Xanthan Gum, Yellow Split Peas, Za'atar

Quick 'pickled' cucumber

A quick and tasty way of eating up cucumbers / making a side dish to eat with... anything really.

2 small cucumbers (or 1 large)
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Wash, peel (optional) and thinly slice the cucumber(s).  Put in a bowl and add the vinegar, sweet chili and salt.  Mix up and eat.  Leave in the fridge for an hour or so for the flavours to mingle optimally.

Red lentil dip and skordalia

We bought flower bread from Clear Flour and fancied some stuff to eat with it.  So I roasted some tomatoes (with onions, garlic and thyme, as here), and made some dips...


Red lentil dip

For a while back in Norwich this was a regular feature.  Hadn't made it for a while, but bought a bag of red lentils the other day (after a meal at Red Lentil - so easily suggestible), and remembered about it.

1 cup red lentils
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
salt

Put the lentils in a small saucepan with the water.  Boil for 2 min, then turn off heat, cover and leave for ~15min.  Add other ingredients and blend to a paste.


Skordalia

We ate this in a Greek place in Queens the other week and it was tastebud-crushingly garlicky, but also very good.  It reminded me I'd made it once before, with wild garlic in Norwich (where foraging was a more realistic option than here).  Thought it could be good with the bread too.  This time I made it with regular garlic, although tried to downregulate the garlickiness to save our tastebuds a bit.

500g / 4 medium, floury potatoes
~3 cloves garlic
1 tsp white wine vinegar
juice of 1/2 a lemon
~ 3 tbsp olive oil
salt

Boil the potatoes until done (~20-25min).  Drain, and mash until smooth. Crush the garlic to a paste. Add the other ingredients to the potato and mash til smooth. Add more olive oil / salt to taste.

The red lentil dip is an instant classic - so quick to prepare, and open to endless variations. My current fave is with cumin, paprika, cinnamon, a little chilli and ginger, and some pomegranate molasses.

The skordalia recipe makes quite a lot. We ate a lot of asparagus (pan-fried and steamed) in the following few days and discovered that skordalia makes an excellent creamy / garlicky sauce to eat with it - just as I was thinking 'hmmm this needs something' skordalia appeared before me and was a perfect match.

Wheat berries, roasted veg and harissa-style dressing

Wheatberries:
1 cup wheatberries
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
juice of 1/4 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
salt and pepper

Roasted veg:
1 red pepper
1 medium courgette
1 medium onion
2 handfuls small cherry tomatoes
5 cloves garlic
2 tbsp basil, chopped
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Harissa-style dressing:
juice of half a lime
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp tomato puree
1 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cayenne

Cook wheatberries in 2 cups water for about half an hour / until done.  Mix lemon juice, olive oil, honey and salt and pepper in the bottom of a medium bowl.  Add the cooked, warm wheatberries and mix together.  Allow to cool a little and then add the chopped parsley and mix.

Chop the pepper, onion and courgette into chunks.  Peel and chop the garlic.  Put into a medium baking tray and sprinkle with chopped basil, olive oil and salt and pepper.  Roast at 375F for ~45min, tossing occasionally to avoid uneven cooking / burning.  Remove from the oven, cool a little then add the balsamic vinegar and toss.

Mix the ingredients for harissa-style dressing together, tweaking quantities to taste.

Eat together, mixing to taste.

The harissa dressing is an old favourite - Delia Smith via Shireen.  The rest was just simple bits and pieces.  A good supper.

Peanut butter and flax seed cookies (vegan and gluten-free)

Based on this recipe - added more flax seed and made them gluten free. These were to take to another garden work day - lots of the garden people seem to eat GF.

1 3/4 cups gram flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground flax seed
1 1/4 cup brown sugar (or a mixture of brown and white)
2/3 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy - I had smooth so used that)
1/2 cup fake butter
3 tbsp fake milk
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsp whole golden flax seed

Put flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and mix with a fork.  In a separate, large bowl beat together the sugar, butter and peanut butter.  In a small bowl, mix together the flax powder, fake milk and vanilla essence.  Add the milk mix to the beaten peanut butter mix and beat.  Then add the flour mix and whole flax seeds and mix until well combined.  Separate out the dough into walnut-sized pieces and roll and flatten into flattened balls.  Put on a greased baking sheet (well spaced out) and bake at 375F for 10min.  Remove from the oven, allow to cool a little on the sheet and then lift off with a flat knife and cool.

Quite decadent, nice combination of sweet / salty / savoury.  They didn't seem to lose anything by being GF

Chickpea tomato slop

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seed, roughly crushed
1 dried chili, crumbled
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 small onions, sliced
1 small green pepper, chopped
4 mushrooms, sliced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups veg stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp za'atar
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 small bay leaf
1/2 cup green lentils
1 cup cooked chick peas
2 cups kale, chopped
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Heat oil.  Fry the dry spices til popping, then add the onions and garlic and fry til softened and golden brown.  Add pepper and mushrooms and fry for a few more minutes.  Add stock, tomatoes, lentils, tomato paste, soy sauce, tamarind, za'atar, bay leaf then bubble until lentils are nearly done and liquid much reduced (~15min).  Add chickpeas and cook 2 more min.  Add kale and parsley, cook til kale is green.  Season to taste (if required - the soy sauce and chili should negate the need).

I made tattie scones out of mashed potato mashed with fried red onion and wholegrain mustard to eat with the slop.

This was a tasty and warming dinner for a sleety end-of-March night.