Pasta and chickpeas (pasta e ceci)

Our trip to Italy last winter got us excited about more foods than pizza. We did a cantina food tour in the village next to S+C's house. We had seven or eight little courses and glasses of wine in different cantinas (private cellar / bars opened up for the event) connected by a walking map. Far and away S's fave was pasta and chickpeas. It's really simple, like most of the best food we had in Italy: pretty much just pasta and chickpeas cooked in stock to make a hearty soup.

I saw these recipes soon after getting back, and then pasta e ceci went into heavy rotation in our house through the winter months. In the end, I think our fave version was a merger of those two versions: dried pasta, dried chickpeas, rosemary, garlic, olive oil, and perhaps some celery.

250g dried chickpeas
2 garlic cloves
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 stick of celery (optional)
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200g short pasta, stumpy rigatoni was usually what we ended up with - you're aiming for something chickpea-sized
Salt and black pepper
olive oil and black pepper / red chilli flakes to serve

Soak the chickpeas in plenty of cold water for 12 hours or overnight, changing the water twice if you can. Drain the soaked chickpeas, cover with 2 litres of fresh water, add a clove of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Bring the pan to the boil over a medium heat, and simmer for 1½ hours or until the chickpeas are tender. Start tasting after one hour. Keep in mind you want 1.2 litres of cooking liquid, so top up with more water if necessary.

In a large heavy-based pan or casserole, heat the olive oil and add the remaining clove of garlic (peeled and gently crushed with the back of a knife), and the other sprig of rosemary. Fry gently until the garlic and rosemary are fragrant. Cook for another few minutes.

Add the chickpeas, and then add the chickpea broth, making sure there is 1.2 litres – make it up with hot water if there isn’t – and a pinch of salt. Increase the heat to bring the soup to the boil.
Add the pasta and cook until tender, stirring, tasting and adding more broth to keep it a nice soupy consistency. Serve with a grinding of black pepper (or sprinkle of red chilli flakes) and a little more olive oil poured over the top.

Note: this works well simplified to use chickpea broth from cooking any amount of chickpeas (the more you cooked, the more intense the broth flavour), and without any measuring - heat oil and fry rosemary and crushed garlic, add cooked chickpeas, add enough chickpea broth to cook pasta (top up with water if not enough) and some salt, add pasta and any additional veg desired (e.g. chopped celery, diced courgette), boil until pasta is done and eat with a drizzle of olive oil and some black pepper or chilli flakes... or even a spoonful of walnut pesto on top if you want to be fancy. Also good with chopped fresh tomatoes added at the end... And our fave pasta shape for this, after testing many, is oriechette.

Diced cucumber, tomato and feta salad with chickpeas

Cucumbers are so deliciously crunchy and crisp and delicately tasty and juicy. Perfect antidote to accidentally drinking too much coffee... again. Why not cut them into chickpea-sized pieces along with some cucumbers and a little bit of feta... add parsley and tasty bits and pieces, and crunch on it along with a bit of bread... whenever I cook chickpeas they disappear so fast!

1/2 cucumber, diced
6 ish small-medium tomatoes, diced
1 in piece of feta, diced
cupful of cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped capers
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper

Mix everything together, dress with olive oil, balsamic, salt+pepper. Done.


Nothing but simple food, and especially salads at the moment. S has been bringing lunch to work as well since we moved here, so it's kind of a fun challenge thinking of what will feed my appetite plus his.

Roasted carrots, chickpeas and cauliflower with yoghurt-tahini sauce

More cauliflower. I fancied roasting some chickpeas, and roasting carrots with coriander and spices. They all got roasted together and it was very very good.

Roast:
5 large carrots, scrubbed and top-and-tailed
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tsp sumac
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
1-2 tsp nigella seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds
salt+pepper
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cauliflower, broken into florets
about 1 cup cooked chickpeas

Sauce:
4 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp lemon juice

Heat the oven to 230C. Put the carrots in a large baking tin along with all of the spices and seeds, salt and pepper and the olive oil (be generous with these - remember the cauliflower and chickpeas will be added partway through and they want to be coated with goodness too). Mix well and put in the oven for 10-15 min. Take out and mix in the cauliflower and the chickpeas. Put back in the oven and roast for another 20-30 min, until everything is tender and starting to crisp. While it's roasting make the sauce just by mixing together the yoghurt, tahini and lemon. Serve together.


Both roast and sauce are definite make-agains. S particularly loved the roasted chickpeas.

Pickled shiso and chickpeas

I almost let the shiso go off in the fridge before tasting a bit and realising it is spectacular stuff. It tastes really fresh and tangy, a little bit like mint if I had to pick something, but its own thing.

This was an accident really. I had some pickling liquid over when I pickled carrots, and remembered having pickled shiso in among the umeboshi plums we used for onigiri, cast around for another vegetable to chuck in with the shiso but (surprisingly) didn't find anything suitable. I had some freshly-cooked chickpeas hanging around though, so bunged some of them in.

Amazingly, it turns out pickled chickpeas are delicious, and since they have a mild taste of their own they really take on the shiso flavour (and colour, a little - it was red shiso, so the chickpeas became soft pink). The pickled shiso leaves are good too - I ate some on toast with a bit of miso.

Carrot, chickpea and ginger soup (with shiso and sweetcorn)

D gave me a big bag of reject carrots from his farm (perfectly good, just broken or slightly nibbled and therefore unsaleable) after a lovely evening at ECO.

I bunged them in the fridge and forgot about them for a few days, but then peeled one and dipped in it hummus, and it was such a tasty carrot I started to think about what to do with them. Some I pickled, and I also decided to make soup, for an unknown reason totally unlinked to the fact it just got hot again...

We had shiso from the CSA last week, and I didn't know what to do with it... I tasted some and I actually like it - tangy and slightly minty, but different. Sprinkled on soup seemed like it could work?

1-2 tbsp olive oil
~5 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
2 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
~4 cups chopped, peeled carrots
~2 cups chickpeas
~5 cups water
~4 tbsp chickpea miso
~1 tsp honey
salt+pepper
~4 leaves shiso, shredded
kernels from 1/2 a sweetcorn cob

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the spring onions and ginger. Cook until softened. Add the carrots and cook for a few more minutes. Add the chickpeas and water, bring to the boil and simmer for ~ 20 min, until the carrots are just tender. Let cool, then blend until smooth. Add the miso, honey and salt and pepper to taste and mix well. To serve, sprinkle generously with shiso and sweetcorn kernels. Think it might also be good cold: will test this later.

Massaman curry (from tinned paste)

Sascha bought this little tin of curry paste when he stayed with us (and S demanded he make us dinner when we got home from work / before going to basketball). The remainder of the tin had been in the fridge ever since - I wasn't sure how long it'd last but guessed it needed using up before too much longer. Last night I got home before S and decided it was time for curry. I filled it with a pretty random selection of stuff from the corners of fridge, freezer and cupboards. Which actually worked out really well.

The paste is good, and tinning means it has no unidentifiable ingredients. In case I want to try and recreate it / find it again, it is labelled Massaman curry paste, and the ingredients list is: garlic, sugar, soybean oil, dried red chillies, tamarind juice, shallot, salt, lemongrass, spices (coriander seeds, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaves, lesser galanga, cloves), kaffir lime, galangal, citric acid (E330).

1/2 tin Massaman curry paste (see above)
1 tin coconut milk
1/4 butternut squash, deseeded and chopped into ~2 cm chunks
2 medium potatoes, washed and chopped into ~1 cm chunks
~1/4 cup okara (optional - chucked it in because it needed eating)
~1/2 cup frozen chickpeas
1/2 block super firm tofu
~1/2 cup frozen peas
~2 tbsp crushed toasted peanuts
~2 tbsp chopped coriander

Heat a deep frying pan with a lid. Put the curry paste and half the coconut milk in and stir-fry for ~ 3 min. Add the potato and squash. Cover and simmer for ~15-20 min, until the potato is almost cooked, adding the okara after about 5 min if using. Add the chickpeas and tofu and heat for another 5 min or so, then add the frozen peas and heat for 2-3 min, until they are cooked. Take off the heat and stir in the toasted peanuts. Serve with rice, and with coriander sprinkled on top.

Miso

Having made koji over the last few days, I decided to move right on to making miso from it while the koji was fresh. I decided to test a couple of variants: one with 48h koji, another with 60h koji; some with soybeans and some with chickpeas. So, four tubs prepped in total (in empty 1 quart yoghurt tubs; double the recipe below in total ie half the recipe in each tub).

Instructions came from this awesome website.

1 cup dried soybeans (or chickpeas)
3 1/2 cups koji (at room temperature)
2 1/2 tbsp sea salt (used coarse; plus some extra for sprinkling on top)
1 cup cooking liquid (from the pulses)
1 tbsp unpasteurised seed miso (any unpasteurised miso - I used the one that came with the kit)

Soak the beans in a good covering of water overnight (at least 6 hours). Rinse, drain and put in a pan. Cover with water and boil ~3 hours until the beans are soft. Drain and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Bring koji to room temperature.

Mash the beans thoroughly in the bowl. Add the salt and cooking liquid and mix well. Check the temperature is not too hot (ideally ~60C). Mix in the miso. Then add the koji and mix again.

Transfer the mixture to clean, dry, straight-sided containers (you will need 1 1/2 quart total - I used two quart yoghurt tubs for this quantity but glass or ceramic would have been preferable). Pack it down well, trying to squish out any air bubbles. Sprinkle the surface with an extra 1/2 tsp salt.

Cover the surface with clingfilm, bringing the clingfilm up the insides and over the edges. Put a flat lid on the surface, on top of the clingfilm, and add a weight. Cover the whole of the top with paper, secured around the perimeter with string or elastic bands. Label with date and recipe.

Incubate at 25C (77F) for at least 3-4 weeks.


Notes: I followed exactly the same protocol for chickpeas as recommended for soybeans (there is a nice chickpea miso from South River and chickpeas are a similar size, thought it could work?). I used yoghurt tubs, with smaller yoghurt tub lids, and full jam jars for the weights. I am incubating near the radiator, monitoring temperature with the outdoor thermometer. To minimize contamination risk, I do not want to open them until the minimum expected incubation time is over.

At 1 week I sniffed around the edges of the paper lids and they smelled mildly alcoholic / fermenty, not bad - I figure if they are just rotting in there it should smell really bad?

At three weeks I opened up all the tubs and checked them. They all smell quite alcoholly, and have a layer of liquid on top while the rice-pulse mush underneath looks quite similar to how it did at the start, and is not very soft or paste-like. On a few of them, where the liquid had risen high up the edges, there was some mould at the top of the liquid layer (esp 60h soybean, a little on 48h soybean). I took some out and put the rest back at 25C. Now I am not sure how to tell if they are good or not - they don't seem disgusting, at the same time more alcoholic than I expected? Need more time?

The rest of the filo: sweet potato, chickpea, kale and almond filo parcel

It can be a little challenging thinking of something that feels fancy and festive enough for Christmas, still a little traditional, but vegetarian and appetising to us. I was considering making something with filo pastry (we had some in the freezer), but then realised I had way too many things I wanted to make, and actually, since I had the filo defrosted for making mince pies, it made more sense to make this on Christmas Eve. So I did. It started with sweet potato, kale and almonds, then I added a bunch of stuff and spices and ended up with something kind of Middle Eastern in flavour. 

(makes 2 medium parcels)
(move the filo from freezer to fridge to defrost 3-24 hours in advance)

4 sweet potatoes
1 cup chickpeas, defrosted
~4 medium kale leaves
3 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
~2 tbsp slivered almonds
2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp golden raisins
1-2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper
olive oil
half a package of thickish filo (#7 - #10) = ~10-12 sheets (used rest of package for mince pies)

Heat the oven to 375F. Put the sweet potatoes on a lightly greased baking sheet and put in the oven for ~30 min, until tender. When ready, remove, let cool until you can handle them and then peel.

Meanwhile, defrost the chickpeas and mash them roughly with a fork. Wash and chop the kale and steam it until just tender, along with the spring onions. Toast the almonds, tip into a bowl, then toast the coriander and cumin seeds. Let cool a little, then tip into a grinder and grind to powder.

Put the peeled sweet potatoes in a bowl and mash lightly with a fork. Add the mashed chickpeas, steamed kale and spring onions, almonds, all the spices, raisins and parsley. Mix, taste and season with salt and pepper.

Take the first sheet of filo and lay it on a baking tray. Grease lightly with olive oil, then put the next sheet on top. Keep going until you have laid out six sheets (or half the total number you have, some number between four and six). Squish half the filling mix into a fat sausage shape along one of the short sides of the filo pile, then roll up around it, tucking in the short ends as you go. Repeat with the other six sheets of filo. Brush the tops with more olive oil, cut slashes on top, then bake for 30-40 min, until hot and golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool a little before eating.

Three bean salad

Amazingly enough green beans to do something with, already. This time a multi-bean salad. I used to make these a lot, chucking in as many kinds of beans as I had, trying to max out the bean variety count. This time I kept it to three, as I thought they looked pretty and tasted good together. With tomatoes, herbs and nasturtium seeds (our other current favourite thing) from my pot garden (and garlic and sweet pepper from the CSA), this is super fresh and packed with flavour.

~1 cup green beans, top-and-tailed and chopped into ~2 cm pieces
~1 cup black eyed beans, defrosted
1/2 cup chickpeas, defrosted
1/2 sweet pepper (mine was yellow), diced
2-3 medium tomatoes, diced
~8 fresh nasturtium seeds, chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1-2 tbsp mint, chopped
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
zest and juice of 1/4 lemon
1/8 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp honey
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Prepare the green beans and steam them for 10-15 min, until tender. Plunge into cold water to stop cooking, then drain. Mix the black eyed beans, chickpeas and green beans in a bowl. Add the chopped pepper, tomatoes, nasturtium seeds, herbs and lemon zest. Mix the lemon juice, garlic, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl then add to the bean mixture. Toss everything together, taste for seasoning and eat.


This was really fresh and crunchy and tasty. There was quite a lot of liquid in it so I reduced the dressing quantities listed above (originally used more like 1/2 lemon etc).

Purple noodles with purple carrots and chickpeas

1 pack of purple yam noodles (thickness of spaghetti)
1 bunch purple carrots, scrubbed, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 purple spring onions, cleaned, trimmed and chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1-2 tbsp tahini
2 tsp honey
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
3/4 cup chickpeas, defrosted and mashed roughly with a fork
1/2 an avocado, peeled and roughly chopped 1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Put the carrots on to steam until just done. Refresh in cold water immediately. Put the purple noodles in a pan of boiling, slightly salted water and cook until just tender, about 10-15 min. Run under cold tap to stop cooking. Put the spring onion, ginger, tahini, honey, soy, mirin, vinegar and sesame oil in a serving bowl and mix together to make the dressing. Add the noodles and toss to coat. Add the mashed chickpeas, steamed carrots, chopped avocado, coriander and toasted sesame seeds, toss, taste for seasoning and eat.


I like the coriander, avocado, sesame, carrots and chickpeas together, and the noodles, but the dressing is not quite right - it needs to be brighter and cleaner, and the tahini creaminess is wrong here. Still, all the purple stuff is awesome.

Warm lentil and onion salad

My stepmother S makes a simple lentil salad that I love. I think it is Indian-influenced (she is half Indian). It is Puy lentils, with crispy fried onions and dollops of thick yoghurt on top.

This recipe reminded me of S's lentil salad. I didn't feel like making exactly either of those, but something closely related, simple, but with enough complication to be exciting.

To cook the lentils:
1 cup green or brown lentils
1 large clove garlic, peeled and sliced into three
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
water

To toast in a dry pan:
2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
2-3 tbsp sesame or sunflower seeds

For the onions:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 small onions, peeled and finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

For the dressing:
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbsp tahini
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tbsp water
2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1-2 tsp salt

Also:
zest of 1/2 a lemon
2-3 tbsp mint leaves, chopped
1 cup cooked, defrosted chickpeas
fresh tomatoes, chopped

First, put the lentils on: put lentils, garlic, bay leaves and olive oil in a small pan with enough water to cover the lentils by about 1cm. Cover the pan and simmer until lentils are done (20-30 min / will vary depending what kind of lentils).

As soon as the lentils are on start the other preparations. Dry fry the cumin and coriander until fragrant, then tip them out into a bowl and set aside. Do the same with the sesame/sunflower seeds, transferring them to a different bowl. Then heat the olive oil in the same frying pan, add the onions and garlic, cover and cook gently until the onions first soften then start to go sweet, brown and crispy/melty.

To make the dressing, grind the toasted coriander and cumin and tip it into a serving bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, salt, balsamic vinegar and water and mix to a good consistency. When the lentils and onions are done, add them to the serving bowl along with the chickpeas and lemon zest, and mix everything together thoroughly. Finally, add the mint and seeds, toss, and serve with fresh tomato and more balsamic to taste, on brown rice.


It is an ugly brown mess, but it is delicious. Good balance of fresh (lemon, mint) with deep and earthy (lentils, tahini), sweet (balsamic, onions), and toasty spices (coriander+cumin). Nice textures too - the crunch of seeds alongside the robust squish of cooked pulses. Best warm, fine cold the next day.

Parsnip and peanut curry

I love parsnips, but in all honesty I have stuck to relatively few ways of cooking them: mostly pureed (in soup or mash) or roasted (both are recommended, and delicious). Neither of those methods makes something that is as good cold the next day. The best thing for eating cold (or reheated) the next day is curry: the longer it sits, the more the flavours play together and the more interesting they become. I have roasted and souped parsnip with curry spices before, why not make a parsnip curry? S and I were talking about making curries with spice pastes recently, thought I would try something in that style. And really liked the idea of peanuts with parsnips for some reason (possibly partly alliterative).

My littlest sister has been in India these last few weeks, I think that might have inspired this longing series of curried veg. She's in Thailand now, perhaps Thai curry experiments will follow?

(makes quite a huge pot - prob serves 4-6)
(based on this recipe)

5 cloves garlic
2 inch piece of ginger
1 small onion
1 green chilli
75ml water + 325ml water
1/2 cup peanuts
2 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
2 tbsp safflower, canola or peanut oil
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 a tin of tomatoes
2 lb parsnips
2 cups chickpeas
1-2 tsp tamarind paste
1-2 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Put the garlic, ginger, onion and chilli in a blender with 75ml water and blend to a paste. Grind the coriander seed and half the cumin seed. Toast the peanuts in a dry frying pan and then grind them coarsely, so there are still plenty of chunks left (or chop them).

Heat the oil in a tall saucepan. When hot, add the whole cumin seeds and toast for ~30sec, until fragrant. Add the ground spices and peanuts and stir and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the garlic-ginger paste and cook for a few minutes more, until it starts to thicken. Add the tomatoes, the rest of the water, the parsnips and the chickpeas, cover and simmer for 20-30 min, until the parsnips are tender. Add salt and tamarind, taste and add more if needed. Eat sprinkled with chopped fresh coriander, with brown rice.


This was an excellent pre / post midnight bike marathon snack. The parsnips are sweet: I know they are a love or hate thing but I am firmly in the 'love' camp, and I think they work excellently with the earthy / toasty / robust chickpeas, peanuts and curry spices. It was a treat to have such a big pile of parsnips (thanks A!).

Chickpeas with amchoor

I bought a bag of amchoor (powdered green mango) yesterday. It had been on my mental shopping list for a while, and although it was a rather big bag, when I found it I couldn't resist. So here is something with amchoor (which seems to be something fit for a similar kind of role to tamarind: sweet / sour flavour depths) - basically this recipe.

4 cups cooked chickpeas (+ keep 1 cup cooking liquid)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2-3 cardamom pods, crushed
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp amchoor
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cayenne
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 chopped tomatoes or 2 heaped tsp tomato puree plus 1 tsp red wine vinegar and 1/2 cup water
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander
1 1/2 tsp salt

Heat the oil over medium heat in a medium-large saucepan. When hot, add the cumin, cardamom and cinnamon, and cook for 1 min. Add the ground spices, stir, and pour in the tomatoes / tomato puree plus 1/2 cup water. Cook, uncovered, stirring often, until for 5-10 min or until the tomatoes are reduced. Add the chickpeas, cooking liquid (or sub water if you don't have), and half the chopped coriander. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 min or until the sauce has thickened. Remove from heat and add salt, and vinegar if it needs it. Serve with the remaining coriander.

Amazing miso: chickpea-miso dip

I bought the most amazing miso yesterday. It is chickpea miso, from a company called South River Miso in Western Mass. It is intense, sweet, salty, umami, full of beautiful chunks of chickpea and rice, and one year old. Seriously: I liked miso before, but this stuff has blown my mind. I liked it so much I looked up their website. Now I am coveting their other kinds of miso - their dandelion and leek sounds incredible. I also found their wealth of recipe ideas, and tried a couple of simple / intriguing ones. This one is basically hummus, but with miso and without oil.

1 cup cooked chickpeas
4 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp chickpea miso
1 clove garlic
Juice of one lemon (used lime)

Drain chickpeas and reserve cooking liquid. Put all the ingredients in a blender cup and blend until smooth, adding cooking liquid as needed to reach desired consistency.


The miso taste really comes through, this stuff is smooth and creamy and delicious.

Thai green curry with plantain, chickpeas and cauliflower

I have been ferreting through the freezer, trying to figure out why it is so full and disorganised (probably a clue is its bad design... at least, S pointed out, it being really full means it is more energy efficient!), and what treasures might be lurking at the back...

Among other things, I discovered galangal, lemongrass, and half a bag of frozen peas. And, possibly due to an exciting visit to Jitlada Thai in Hollywood, wondered if maybe I should make a Thai curry?

This recipe looked like the business. Amazingly, I actually had most of the key ingredients for the paste (or reasonable substitutions). I didn't have any of the recommended veg to go in it, but decided to freestyle with what I had - no way was I going out to buy food last night - it hit -12C and my fingers froze on the bike ride home in spite of double, super thick gloves.

Green Curry Paste:
1 stalk fresh lemongrass, sliced finely and minced OR 3 tbsp frozen or bottled lemongrass
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2+1/2 tbsp soy sauce, OR equal parts Thai Golden Mountain Sauce and soy sauce, leave out the dark soy
1-2 tsp brown sugar (to taste)
1-3 green chillies, minced (to taste) (used 1-2 tsp dried red chilli as we didn't have any green)
1 small onion
3 cloves garlic
1 thumb-size piece galangal OR ginger, peeled and sliced
2 kaffir lime leaves (fresh or frozen), snipped into thin strips with scissors, OR substitute 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 loose cup chopped fresh coriander leaves and stems
1/4 cup fresh basil
1 tsp dark soy sauce, OR substitute 1 more tbsp regular soy sauce

Other:
2 kaffir lime leaves, OR substitute 1 bay leaf
1 tin coconut milk
1 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas OR 1 1/2 cup firm tofu drained and chopped into cubes OR a combination
1 black plantain, peeled and chopped into chunks
~3 medium carrots peeled and sliced
~10 mushrooms, roughly chopped into quarters
~1 cup of cauliflower chunks about an inch diameter
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped (optional)
2-3 tbsp oil for frying

To make the green curry paste, place all paste ingredients in a blender. Add a few tbsp of the coconut milk, enough to blend ingredients. Process well.

Place oil in deep frying pan. Turn heat on medium-high and add paste. Stir-fry until fragrant (about 1 minute), then add the coconut milk. Add tofu and / or chickpeas and stir to combine.

Add lime leaves (used bay) and reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.

Add plantain and carrots. (Note: if more sauce is desired, add up to 1 cup vegetable stock.) Cover and simmer another 5 min, then add the cauliflower. Simmer for 3-5 min more, until carrots are soft enough to pierce with a fork.

Finally, add mushrooms and frozen peas. Stir and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes, or until peas are cooked but still bright green.

Do a taste test for salt and spice, and add more soy sauce, salt, lime juice or coconut milk accordingly.

Vegetables: The recommended combo was 1 cubed sweet potato (added when I did the plantain and carrot), 1 red pepper, chunked and a cup of sugarsnap peas (both added when I did the mushrooms) - alternative recommendations were: broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, spinach, french beans, aubergine, squash, and courgette.


All in all this was really successful: the curry paste worked out well and tasted good and quite authentic. The colour of the curry paste was a bit off (kind of greenish, but also brownish): wondered if I might have skimped a little on the coriander by measuring it before chopping - another time measure after chopping and will probably end up with more. The basil was the tired stuff off our windowsill - fresh holy basil would probably have been much better (and greener).

The plantain, chickpeas and cauliflower all tasted great in this format - was especially pleased with the plantain and chickpeas together. However, they are all brownish and so are the mushrooms and tofu, so that didn't help with the colour issues! So, another time it would be cool to try and get hold of some kaffir lime leaves and holy basil, and some more colourful veg, but I was really impressed with this recipe as a quick, storecupboard-based weeknight supper.

It probably took about an hour in total - could have sped this up by cutting the carrot thinner, and also by prepping the cauli / mushrooms / peas while the pot is on (I was tired and thought it best to prep everything at the beginning to avoid getting confused / stressed). We ate it with simple coconut basmati rice (toss through a few tsp of coconut oil when the rice is cooked and steaming).

Edit: I made this again (after another freezer-clearance effort): this time used holy basil and lime leaves, and green chillies, and made sure my herbs were well-packed. And the paste came out deep green and wonderfully aromatic - I could eat it on its own. I used only one chilli - perhaps use more next time, it wasn't very spicy. For content, I used chickpeas, carrot, tempeh, baby turnips (roots and greens), courgette, peas, radish greens... turns out this is a good way to use random things up / most of the necessary items can be stored in the freezer or pantry indefinitely - only really need the fresh holy basil and coriander.

Colourful, robust winter salads

We ended up eating at / from Whole Foods quite a lot while we were out West. It was S's idea. We arrived in Vegas and had one very uninspired meal with awful service, and then he had the idea of looking for local Whole Foods (apparently his buddy who runs learning-to-play-poker courses there stocks up at Whole Foods before getting going on the poker). We found a huge one in Henderson, and that was us sorted for the next few days.

A recurring Whole Foods salad theme was mixed grains and pulses. Which put me in the mood for more on our return. Here are a couple of variants:


Giant couscous, lentils, rice, cranberries and pumpkin seeds

3/4 cup giant / Israeli couscous, cooked in 1 cup water with 1/4 tsp turmeric for colour
1/2 cup brown and/or wild rice, cooked in 1 cup water
3/4 cup brown lentils, cooked in 1 1/2 cups veg stock with a bay leaf
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
~8 salty black olives, chopped
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper
wholegrain mustard
maple syrup

Mix olive oil, vinegar, mustard, maple syrup and seasoning in a medium bowl to make the dressing. Add the cooked, cooled couscous, rice and lentils and toss. Add the cranberries, pumpkin seeds, olives and coriander and mix up again. Taste to check seasoning / that there is enough dressing.


Massive couscous (moghrabieh), chickpeas, beetroot and sesame

3/4 cup moghrabieh, cooked in 1 cup water with 1/2 tsp turmeric for colour
1 cup chickpeas, cooked and defrosted
2-3 medium beetroot, boiled until tender, cooled and diced into ~1 cm dice
~2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 tsp white sesame seeds
1 tsp black sesame seeds
1/2 tsp nigella seeds
juice of 1/2 lime
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Put the pre-cooked and cooled couscous, chickpeas and chopped beetroot in a bowl, add the seeds and coriander and toss. Then add the dressing ingredients: oil, vinegar, lime juice, salt+pepper, quantities to taste (use plenty), toss and eat.

Sesame star mince pies (gluten-free)

I made these two years ago, but did not make them completely gluten free (used plain flour instead of the gram/rice mix). I really liked the pastry though - much more interesting than normal pastry. This time I went the whole hog and they are fully GF. The source of the recipe has now truly disappeared into the ether, but I found it somewhere on the internet back then.

(these quantities make 12, when bases cut using Coke glass and baked in regular-sized bun tin)

50g ground almonds
60g cooked chickpeas, mashed to a stiff paste
100g gluten-free plain flour (or 50g gram flour, 50g rice flour)
2 tbsp sesame seeds
40g margarine (or cold-pressed plain sesame or safflower oil)
water, to bind
1 400g jar of mincemeat

Combine seeds, ground almonds, flour and ground chickpeas. Rub in fat and mix with a fork. Add a little water to combine. Rest in the fridge 30min.

Heat oven to 400F / 200C. Roll out the pastry to about 2 mm thick and cut into rounds for pie bases (deep fill used tall plastic measure beaker / normal size used Coke glass). Put bases into bun / muffin tin. Fill with mincemeat or a mixture of mincemeat and cooked apple. Cut out stars (I freehanded) and put them on the tops. Bake for 20-35 min, til lightly browned and crisp. Leave to cool before trying to remove from trays.


The mincemeat I made 2 years ago was still in good nick, so that's what I used for these. I did see mincemeat in Stop n Shop the other day though, for future reference. The pastry was perhaps relatively brittle due to the use of GF flours, but it rolled out OK. I'm wondering if the gram flour was a mistake: it does have quite a pungent taste. Truth will be in the eating - they are cooling right now.

They are good! The pastry is nice and crunchy and robust, and delicious in combination with the mincemeat. The gram taste has baked out. The pastry isn't like regular mince pie pastry, but I think it's better.

Only thing is, the combo of the GF pastry (which cracks quite easily) and the runnier than normal mincemeat (because I used booze instead of fat to preserve it) means the liquid has seeped through the bottoms of a few of the pies and they were kind of welded onto the pans... still came off, but a couple lost a small part of the base. I guess I could have taken more care cutting them out and getting them into the tins...


Note: these freeze (baked) very well: can basically eat them straight from the freezer.

Halloween pumpkin: from owl to curry (with banana)

I can never bring myself to choose between carving a pumpkin and eating it. Thus, last night after I biked home a long way round to pass through the trick or treating heaven (hell?) that is Brook St (featuring skeleton ship's captain at the wheel and circling red-eyed bats), in a fit of Halloween slasherdom, I butchered the owl I carved out of a tiny pumpkin last week at Mariah's, and it became curry.

The recipe I noted down from Meghan's pumpkin recipe book, which she brought in to inspire us ahead of our pumpkin-themed happy hour.

3 tbsp veg oil
1 small onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 small pumpkin (1 1/4 lb), seeds, peel and guts removed, cut into cubes
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 dried red chillies
1 1/4 cups veg stock
1 3/4 cups cooked chickpeas
1 large, underripe banana
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp tamarind paste

Heat 2 tbsp oil, add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry for ~5 min, until the onion is browned. Add the ground spices and stir-fry for a minute or two more, until fragrant. Add tomatoes, chillies and stock to the pan and simmer for 15 min.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan, add the cubed pumpkin and fry for 5 min, until lightly browned. Add the pumpkin to the tomato mixture with the chickpeas, cover and cook for 20 min.

Peel the banana, slice thickly and stir in to the pan 5 min before the end. Lastly, add salt, sugar and tamarind, taste for seasoning and add the fresh coriander before serving.


I followed the recipe loosely: I figured it was that kind of recipe.  I wasn't sure what type the pumpkin was, but in curry the taste of the pumpkin is not all that important so I figured it would be fine either way.  It came out very pretty and equally tasty: a good balance of sweet/spicy/savoury/hot.  It was slightly fierier than I intended, due to my new jar of 'red pepper flakes' in fact being chilli pepper, but it was just about on the good side still.  We ate it with cumin rice.  And E Nesbit's ghost stories on Radio 4.

Butternut squash and chickpea salad with tahini sauce

Having accumulated 4 squashes (3 butternut and 1 acorn) I guess I was kind of on the lookout for new things to do with squash. I stumbled across this recipe, and it seemed to be combining a bunch of things I like / I know go well with squash, so I thought I'd give it a shot. As I assembled the ingredients and started to make it, I realised it is actually quite familiar - it's similar to the roasted squash and chickpeas I've made and liked before, with a tahini sauce that is another variation on a favourite quick sauce. Still, it's a new construction and with those credentials I'm bound to like it...

For salad:
1 medium butternut squash (about 2 to 2 ½ lb), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 ½-inch pieces
1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped
½ tsp ground allspice (or sumac)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
equivalent of 1 tin cooked, defrosted chickpeas
¼ of a medium red onion, finely chopped
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander

For sauce:
1 medium garlic clove, finely minced with a pinch of salt
3 ½ tbsp lemon juice (approx. juice of 1 lemon)
3 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oven to 425F. In a large bowl, combine the butternut squash, garlic, allspice, olive oil, and a good pinch or two of salt. Toss until the squash pieces are evenly coated. Turn them out onto a baking sheet, and bake for 25 to 45 minutes, or until soft. Remove from the oven and cool.

Meanwhile, make the tahini sauce. In a small bowl, mix together the garlic and lemon juice. Add the tahini, and mix to blend. Add the water and olive oil, mix well, and taste for seasoning.

To assemble the salad, combine the squash, chickpeas, onion, and coriander in a mixing bowl. Either toss with tahini sauce, or serve with tahini sauce on the side.


Perhaps a little more onion than I would have liked, but pretty colours and tasty.  Nothing very new but nonetheless nice, autumn-turning-colder comfort food.

Salad: kale, chickpeas, onion, sumac

Still largely apathetic about cooking much, due to the heat and also an abundance of tasty fresh veg that needs nothing more than a wash and a chop to make it good (Alvin is bringing me excess from his CSA every week and won't take no for an answer!).  I did manage to switch on the oven for a few minutes on Friday night to make some muffins to take to M's for brunch on Saturday, but that's been about it.

While I was in the kitchen that night I also made this kale salad: I'd been thinking about making something different with kale - I always end up either making kale chips, sauteeing it with garlic, or just adding it to stew or curry.  I remembered a tasty kale salad I tried from the Boston Veg Food Fest last year, and with the aforementioned heat-induced apathy the idea of not cooking the kale at all seemed good.  A quick Google immediately threw out a recipe that seemed to be exactly what I wanted: kale with sumac (one of my current favourite spices) and chickpeas (my alltime favourite bean), plus a few other things that sounded like a great combination.

1 bunch (about 1 lb) kale, tough inner stems discarded, leaves roughly torn
2 tbsp olive oil
salt
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp dried ground sumac
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1 tbsp lemon juice (or cider vinegar)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
equivalent of 1 tin of cooked chickpeas or white beans, defrosted
pepper

Put prepped kale leaves in a large bowl. Add olive oil and salt and rub and toss with your hands until all the kale is coated. Rest at room temperature until kale is lightly wilted, about 1 hour (or overnight in the fridge).

Meanwhile, put the prepared onions in a medium bowl and cover with cold water.   Rest for 15 minutes. Rinse in several changes of water then pat dry. Sprinkle with sumac and sesame seeds, and salt if desired.

Mix lemon juice or vinegar, garlic and mustard in a small bowl.  When the kale is ready, put everything together in a large bowl, toss and season.


In all, this was a great experiment.  The kale was super tasty and green, and went well with the onions.  The kale was just softened enough to be good - I wondered if I might have added a little more oil to make it a little easier to bite.  And the soaking of the onions in water seemed to negate their pungency - I was initially wondering if the raw onions and garlic might generate the old everything-tasting-of-allium-for-a-day-after-eating problem, but actually it was totally fine.

Another good point about this salad is that it really does keep overnight / for days, in fact I thought it was better the next day as the kale had softened a little more.  Which was especially lucky in this instance, as S was going to make pretzels to take to R's party but discovered at the crucial moment that he had no sodium hydroxide at home - this salad, which I had made the night before and discovered there was rather a lot of - stepped in and saved the day (ie we took it to the party instead, and S stopped into work on the way home from the party and then finished off the pretzels the next day - very good they were too - leaving them shaped overnight caused no problems).