Polenta paprika parsnips

Parsnips... I like them, but I only really like them roasted... or perhaps in soup? We got them in the veg bag a couple times recently so tried a couple of different roasting methods:

1) Delia mustard and maple syrup

2) Polenta and paprika  

In the end, I think we liked the polenta version better - the process was a bit simpler, and parsnips are already sweet so adding maple syrup seems a bit overkill. So here it is:

 

2 kg parsnips, peeled, trimmed and cut into halves or quarters lengthways

100ml rapeseed or sunflower oil 

5 tbsp polenta

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp paprika

Prepare the parsnips and put them in water if doing ahead. Heat the oven to 220C. Blanch the parsnips in boiling water for 4-5 mins until slightly soft. Drain, leave to steam-dry, then tip into a large bowl. Drizzle over the oil and toss to coat all the parsnips.

Mix the polenta, salt, pepper and paprika, and sprinkle over the parsnips. Toss well, then lay the parsnips out on one large baking tray (or two small ones), with lots of space between them. Roast for 15 mins, turn them over, then roast for another 15-25 mins until golden and crunchy. (mine didn't take that long - perhaps the pieces were on the small side)

Shakshuka

I first ate shakshuka quite a while ago. Perhaps it was made by my friend N, it was one of his signature dishes (he's also vegetarian, and a good cook). But somehow never got around to making it for ages. We had some for lunch in a cafe recently, and I realized it is good, and also super simple if you make the sauce in advance. I used approximately this recipe, and made the sauce in advance, before cracking 4 eggs into it for a weeknight dinner.

 4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 sweet peppers, diced
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp cayenne
800 g (2 tins) tinned tomatoes
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
4-8 eggs*
small bunch coriander, chopped
c. 2/3 a pack feta

Heat the oil in a large lidded pan. Add onion, cook until golden. Add peppers, fry until soft. Stir in garlic and spices and cook for a few more minutes. Add tinned tomatoes, stir in the sugar and lemon juice and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for c. 30 min. Taste and season.

When ready to eat, heat the sauce in a large lidded deep-sided frying pan. When warm, turn down to the lowest heat, make the right number of wells for the eggs, then crack the eggs one at a time into a cup before pouring into a well. Simmer gently for approx. 10 min (mine took a bit longer) - you may wish to put the lid on to encourage the eggs to cook more evenly. Sprinkle with coriander and feta and eat with crusty bread. 


*The eggs took a little longer to cook than I expected (maybe more like 20 min?), but other than that it was great - perhaps even a good idea to leave the sauce in the fridge for a bit, to let the flavours meld.

Pulled jackfruit

After one of my chemo appointments, Seb and I went for lunch at a vegan place in Nørrebro. I ate something with jackfruit and wasn't that into it - whether it was the preparation or just how I was feeling that day. But Seb was intrigued, and he later returned from the shops with a tin of it - after we'd spotted the fresh stuff at the Thai supermarket in Vesterbro and resisted... So it was a mission for him, to convince me to like it. He made a classic pulled jackfruit, following this recipe. And I did like it! It was sweet and salty but the texture of the jackfruit was really tender and delicious. More experients may be in order!

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp chipotle Tabasco
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp BBQ sauce
200 g can chopped tomatoes
2 x 400g cans young jackfruit in salted water

Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion until very soft, for around 10-12 mins. Add the cinnamon, cumin and paprika to the onions and cook for a further 2-3 mins. Next add the Tabasco, vinegar and bbq sauce and mix well before adding in the tomato, the drained jackfruit and 200ml water. Leave to simmer gently, covered, for 30 mins stirring every 5-10 mins to help break down the jackfruit, then take the lid off and cook a further 10 minutes.

Once cooked, use a fork to make sure all of the jackfruit is well shredded. Check seasoning and add another tbsp of bbq sauce if necessary for extra stickiness.

Berbere lentils

I've made berbere lentils before, but at the weekend was browsing my precious weeks-old Guardian Weekend (that Y shepherded carefully over from Beccles for me), and found someone professing this berbere lentils recipe (that I had noticed then forgotten about previously) to be the best thing. And I had exactly the 250 g of red lentils it called for, so off we went.

2 medium onions, chopped
sesame oil (untoasted) or peanut oil, for frying
2–3 garlic cloves, chopped
250g red lentils
2 tbsp berbere spice mix (recipe below)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
400ml water
salt and black pepper

For berbere spice mix:
2 cloves
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp each of ground allspice, black pepper, ground cardamom, and ground nutmeg

To make the berbere, toast the cloves with the fenugreek, cumin and coriander. Grind and then mix with the cayenne, paprika, salt, black pepper, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric and allspice.

Fry the onions. When softened, add the garlic, lentils and berbere. Mix, then add the tomatoes and water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary.


Pretty good. Was a bit salty - I've reduced the salt a little above (as well as tweaking spice levels to my taste).Very similar to the recipe I tried before (except a bit saltier).

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.

Dukkah

One of our best food finds in Copenhagen so far has been Sticks n Sushi. The name didn't sound that promising but there was one near work and I'd read that they had some good veggie stuff, so S and I decided to check it out one lunchtime, and call it research for the interviews he was hosting soon for people in his new lab (!).

It was empty that first time, but really really good once we got going. We ate a veggie selection (I think called the Greens Keeper), and it had a bit of creative veggie sushi, some unusual summer rolls, grilled corn on the cob and edamame in pods, and something really simple but delicious: sticks of sweet raw veg, with a miso dip and a sort of a dukkah of poppyseeds and something red - so you dunk the veggie stick in the miso stuff then the dukkah so the seeds etc stick. Really fresh and tasty...

(nb they had exactly my kind of puddings too: little tasty things. I tried a caramel covered in dark chocolate with sesame seeds on the outside and it was gooood)

So anyway, we went there again the other evening and ate that dip/dukkah thing again, and I started thinking about dukkah, and how M gave me some she'd made a while back and it was yummy and fennel seed-y and I put it on everythingggg. And then I made broccoli with miso sauce and seeds, and realised the world was telling me to make dukkah. So then I did. I thought Ottolenghi would probably have a good way of doing it, and I had hazelnuts left over from S's birthday cake, so I followed this recipe (subbing black pepper for green because I didn't have green and I think I like black better anyway).

70 g hazelnuts
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp dry green peppercorns (or white... used black)
3 tbsp coriander seeds
1½ tbsp sesame seeds
½ tsp nigella seeds
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp paprika

Heat the oven to 140C/285F/gas mark 1. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking tray and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Add the sunflower seeds to the tray halfway through, keeping them separate from the nuts. Remove from the oven and leave to cool while you toast the seeds.

Heat a small frying pan, then dry-roast the fennel seeds for 30 seconds. Add the cumin seeds and cook for another 30 seconds, or until they start to pop, then tip both into a little bowl. Put the pan back on the heat, toast the coriander seeds, and tip into the same bowl.

Toast the sesame and nigella seeds together until the sesame turns light brown, then tip into another small bowl.

Rub the hazelnuts to discard some of the skin. Crush coarsely with a pestle and mortar, then transfer to a medium bowl. Lightly crush the cumin and fennel seeds, and add to the hazelnuts. Repeat with the coriander seeds, then the sunflower seeds. Add these to the nut bowl, along with the ground black pepper, sesame and nigella seeds, add salt and paprika, and mix well.


I ate it with celeriac puree made like this, and it was truly delicious, either on bread, with pasta, or just the dukkah and the puree. After making this I remembered making dukkah once before, that time slightly different (I really wanted the fennel seeds this time), and eaten with baked squash.

Lazy vegetable and red lentil curry

Since we're subletting I haven't really felt like I settled in, foodwise, yet. The kitchen has most everything we need but not all, and I'm conscious of trying not to mess things up. And since we move again soon (to a different sublet) it feels like it would be silly to buy up lots of foodstuff. Not to mention that there is a whole lot of exciting food out there to buy / eat - baked goods especially are making us happy. And there's just a lot of adventuring / work etc to be done, so spending time doing anything very involved in the kitchen doesn't feel quite right. But then again, just eating pasta or salad all the time doesn't feel right either.

This has been my solution: simple curried vegetables, with red lentils to thicken and deepen. No weighing or measuring and minimal effort; but feels hearty and hygge (and yes not much different from that soup - just a few more spices, less varied vegetables and less liquidy).

(Note: partly inspired by our favourite food place discovery since getting here: Grød - all kinds of sweet and savoury porridge (including dal, barley-otto); perfect for a Danish winter and quite near work.)

~1 tbsp veg oil (or olive oil)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 in piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
few grinds black pepper
1 tsp curry powder
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
chunk of celeriac, peeled and diced
~1 cup red lentils
1 veg stock cube made up with 2 cups boiling water
smallish piece of broccoli, washed and separated into florets
~1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
~1 tsp salt
~2 tbsp chopped coriander
brown rice and skyr / yoghurt* to serve

Heat the oil in a medium lidded saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and onion. Cover and cook until softened and slightly browned. Add the spices and mix / toast for a minute. Add the carrots and celeriac and mix. Add the lentils and stock and stir. Cover and simmer for ~15 min until the veg and lentils are nearly tender. Add the broccoli and simmer for ~5 more minutes. Check everything is done and add vinegar and salt to taste. To serve, mix through some of the coriander and scatter some more on top. We ate with brown rice and some skyr*.


This keeps well to become work lunches etc as well - perhaps even improves with a day in the fridge. Usually I would have added tinned tomatoes to something like this, but (a) I didn't have any, and (b) I found that red lentils+stock work well in their place to create a sauce as well as adding texture and earthy flavour.

*I have been having a bit of a break from veganism since getting here - it's tricky to figure out what is / isn't vegan when there's a language barrier. So I am making the best of it and eating lots of all my favourite non-vegan foods (mostly yoghurt; occasionally cheese / eggs / non-vegan baked goods) - no meat! Hence the skyr - I always loved how natural yoghurt goes with spicy curry and brown rice. But this is just fine without it too.

New Year's Hygge Soup (chunky spiced red lentil and root veg)

We live in Denmark now. Since last Sunday. Crikey: nearly a week. After a rush of moving and flying and packing and cases and goodbyes and Christmas and birthday and everything, there we were. It snowed. Amy arrived from Berlin for New Year's Eve - hurrah. We explored a bit. Walking: the Mermaid and the busbies in Amalienborg. 360 degrees of Round Tower. Half-electric bikes to look at the Carlsberg elephant gate. Looks like we can swim and sauna at the harbour baths, but we didn't know in time to achieve it on New Year's Day. Sooo many fireworks.

Discovering supermarkets. Nearest is Rema 1000 (seems to be mid-range), also Aldi; Irma (seems to be more fancy / økologisk). After some foggy outdoor explorations on New Year's Day it felt like enough activity and we went home to create some hygge. With a bag full of red lentils and root vegetables. Soup.

(this served 3 good appetites, with bread, for dinner)

~2 tbsp olive oil (olivenolie)
3 cloves garlic (hvidløg), peeled and chopped
2 medium leeks (porre), sliced
4 medium persillerod (aka petersilienwurzel aka parsley root aka my new favourite thing - seems quite easy to get here; alternatively use parsnips, pastinak), peeled and diced fairly small
6 medium carrots (gulerod), peeled and diced fairly small
1/4 celeriac (knoldselleri), peeled and diced fairly small
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin (kommen)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (kanel)
1/4 tsp turmeric (gurkemeje)
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground thyme (timien)
1 cup red lentils (røde linser)
1 veg stock cube dissolved in boiling water
more boiling water
6 baby pattypan squash, chopped
6 mushrooms (champignon), chopped
splashes of balsamic vinegar (eddike)
splashes of soy sauce (sojasovs)
salt+pepper (salt og peber)

Heat oil in a large lidded saucepan. Add garlic and leeks, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add the chopped root vegetables, cover and cook for a few minutes more until everything is slightly tender and just starting to soften. Add the spices and thyme and stir for a few minutes until you can smell them. Add the lentils and stir, then add the stock and enough water to achieve a consistency a bit runnier than you'd like to end up with (the lentils will absorb some). Turn down low, and simmer for 10-15 min, until the lentils and vegetables are almost tender. Add the squash and mushrooms and cook another 5-10 min, until everything is done. Taste, and add vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Eat warm with bread (brød). Would be good (perhaps better) reheated the next day, if there is any left.


This came out just as I wanted, and really hit the spot. A big pan of it went down real well.

Cajun spiced potato wedges with dilly cream cheese dip

These were an afterthought - I had the oven on to make roasted brussels sprouts with birch syrup, and thought I may as well root through the fridge and see what else I could bung in the oven while I was at it. I found potatoes.

For the potato wedges:
3-4 medium-large potatoes
pinch of salt
~1 tbsp cajun spice mix (mostly paprika I think)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

For the dip:
~5 tbsp vegan cream cheese
juice of one small lime
~1 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or chives)
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 400F. Wash (don't peel) the potatoes, trim off any dodgy bits, and cut into regularly-sized wedges. Toss the wedges with the salt, cajun spice and olive oil, then lay out on a baking tray, if possible with a skin side down. Put in the oven and bake for ~20 min, then take out and turn, checking they are golden underneath, and put back in for another 15-20 min. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the dip. Beat together the cream cheese, lime juice, dill and salt in a small bowl.


Really simple and good - these disappeared like lightning when S found them. The dip really made them (nb it is just as good although different with chives instead of dill... and TJs vegan cream cheese is so very surprisingly good).

Oven-baked polenta chips

This recipe uses cold polenta, ie leftovers. Usually, we don't have leftovers when it comes to polenta. But I had some polenta with bean stew for lunch when working at home the other day, and there were leftovers! So I put them in a loaf pan in the fridge until Friday, when I tested oven chip-making, using a method similar to that for panisse. I'd found the panisse stuck to the tin really easily, so thought it might be smart to use a coating here to try and prevent sticking.

For the polenta:
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
3 cups water

For coating / baking:
grapeseed oil 
~1 tbsp cornmeal
~2 tsp paprika
~1/4 tsp salt

To make the polenta, mix cornmeal and salt in a bowl. Heat the water until just boiling in a small saucepan. Add the cornmeal mixture, gradually, while whisking constantly. Keep whisking until it thickens. Turn heat really low, cover and let cook for a minute or two. Pour into a greased, straight-sided tin, let cool and either make chips immediately or refrigerate the tin until needed.

To make the chips, heat the oven to 400F. Grease a baking tray with grapeseed oil. Turn the polenta out of its tin onto a board (it will hold its shape). Cut into chunky chip shapes (~2 cm thick). Mix the paprika, cornmeal and salt in a small bowl. Roll each polenta chip in the paprika-cornmeal mixture so that all sides are coated, then transfer to the greased baking tray. Put in the oven for about 20 min, turning halfway through. The outside should be lightly browned and crispy. Take out and eat immediately, dipped in whatever sauce you fancy.


We ate with the last of the bean stuff and some liquorice ketchup. The polenta chips were pretty delicious, and the coating really made them.

Christmas: Lion's Mane 'crab' cakes

A gave me a bag full of Lion's Mane for my birthday. A very thoughtful (and tasty) present. I managed to take it home with me from the party (after rescuing from a drunken food-marauder), and then decided it was appropriately fancy to become part of our Christmas meal.

When I cooked it previously I wasn't too enamoured of the texture of it just sauteed. Also, this bagful was quite wet. So roasting seemed to be a smart place to start. Then I remembered seeing that Mycoterra Farm (who grew them) often use them to make 'crab' cakes. So I looked up a recipe and thought this one (and this one) sounded like exactly the right kind of thing.

(makes six little cakes)

To roast:
200-400g (approx 1/2 lb) Lion's Mane
~2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
salt+pepper

Rest of the cake ingredients:
2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise (used vegan cream cheese as we had some leftover from the birthday cake S made me)
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 egg*
~ 1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp paprika
~ 2 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

coconut oil for frying

For the sauce:
3 tbsp vegan cream cheese (or vegan mayonnaise - reduce the lemon juice a bit if using)
1 tsp olive oil
1-2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp white pepper
~1 tbsp cider vinegar
pea-sized blob of wasabi
few drops hot sauce
~1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

Heat the oven to 350F. Tear the Lion's Mane into little pieces and put in a roasting dish. Add the whole garlic cloves, olive oil, salt and pepper and roast for 30-40 min, until the garlic is cooked, much of the liquid has evaporated, and the mushroom is brown. Remove from the oven.

While the mushroom is in the oven you can make the sauce - mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl with a fork. Taste for salt, pepper and acid and check consistency.

Mix the Lion's Mane (and roasted garlic - be sure to chop and/or mash up so it can spread through the mixture) together with the remaining cake ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Shape into little round burger shapes.  Heat coconut oil in a frying pan over medium heat and cook the cakes until browned on both sides. Eat while hot.


These were quite successful. S really liked them (especially the sauce), and while the total prep might be a bit much for an average day, the roasting method seemed to be a good way of cooking the Lion's Mane - better than sauteeing.

*think linseed-water mixture would be a fine vegan substitute

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.

Sweetcorn, tempeh, parsley and paprika

As I rode home last night I was thinking about how evocative food is for me - how both cooking and eating can make me feel connected to people, places, or times in the past. Then, as I parked my bike, I thought about my favourite childhood dinner - sweetcorn and cottage cheese pie with paprika and chives - and wondered why I'd never tried to make it. I couldn't really be assed with pie crust last night, and I don't really eat cottage cheese any more. But decided to substitute tempeh and see how it went.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 pack soy tempeh
1 1/2 cups frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
~1 tbsp chopped parsley
~1 tbsp chopped chives
~2 tsp paprika
salt+pepper
juice of 1/2 a lime (optional)

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Crumble in the tempeh and stir and fry for a few minutes to heat and brown. Add the sweetcorn, herbs and paprika and fry for a bit longer, until everything is combined and hot. Season to taste, and add lime juice if using.


I liked this. Not sure how accurate it was, but perhaps a little evocative. I didn't add lime juice, but did wonder if it could have used a little acidity. We ate it with cooked tomatilloes, so in this case lime wasn't needed but otherwise might have been nice? S pointed out it is quite similar to my favourite chicken of the woods preparation, which is totally true. It's also true that the tempeh is fairly similar in appearance and especially texture to chicken of the woods, although different in taste - also hadn't occurred to me til he pointed it out.

Carrots, red lentils and big couscous

While S is away I've ended up spending a fair bit of time in the kitchen, trying to work my way through a backlog of vegetables. Having got more carrots in the CSA this week, I made an effort to get through all the titchy / odd-shaped ones still hanging around in the fridge from previous weeks - in this and piccalilli.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1 green chilli, seeds removed, chilli chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped 
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander seed
2 tsp ground paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
~6 medium carrots, peeled and diced fairly fine (~1cm)
3/4 cup red lentils
1/2 cup big couscous
1 1/2 cups veg stock
2 tsp honey
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp soy sauce
salt+pepper
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli, cover and cook for a couple of minutes until starting to soften. Add the onion and cook for a few more minutes. Add the ground spices and cook, uncovered, for 30-60 sec, until fragrant. Add the carrots and mix / cook for a minute, then add the lentils and couscous and mix well. Add the stock, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the lentils, carrots and couscous are all cooked. Add the honey, lime juice, soy sauce and taste for seasoning. Mix in the fresh herbs. Eat warm.


I was aiming for something between a soup, a stew and a pilaf, which is what I ended up with: a warming, one-pot, Autumn dinner. Processing all those weirdo carrots took awhile but it was kind of nice to be cosy in the kitchen and feel useful.

Sweetcorn, chicken of the woods, lime

Rolling home, around 8pm. A frilly, orange mushroom I hadn't noticed before catches my eye. On a tree, a little above eye level, right by my way. I ride on a little, approaching the next green light, my brain processing what my eyes had seen. Could it have been a chicken of the woods? I pull over and turn around. I'm sure it is. It is beautiful, with a soft-but-firm texture and a mushroomy, slightly fruity (and very tempting) smell. It's about the diameter of my spread-out hand, and very clean and fresh-looking. I debate picking: it looks so perfect and tasty; but is right beside the road; and is so pretty as well - it seems a shame to take it so others can't see it. Then again, I am amazed that no-one else seems to have seen it / nabbed it - so many people tramp this way, towards the T, all the time. I decide to take just a bit - that way I can taste it while leaving the rest to be beautiful. I break off a couple of lobes and secrete them in my backpack.

I excitedly doublecheck my ID when I get home; the mushroom book only confirms what I am sure of already. I can't wait to eat it! It hardly needs washing but I do anyway. It's just a little bit, but I decide it would go well with freshly-cut sweetcorn, a little bit of chilli, salt and lime, chives for colour, and garlic because I seem incapable of cooking a mushroom without garlic.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2-3 cobs of sweetcorn (make sure it is good, sweet corn)
about 50g of chicken of the woods
little pinch of salt
good pinch of paprika
2 tsp chopped chives
good squeeze of lime

Prepare the corn by removing the husk then carefully cutting off the kernels by working a sharp knife down the sides of the cob. Set aside in a bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic and cook for a minute until starting to soften. Add the chilli flakes and cook for 30 sec. Add the chicken of the woods, torn into small (1 inch long / 1/2 inch across) pieces, and saute until it starts to look lightly browned: 2-3 minutes. Add the corn, and continue cooking for 4-5 min. It will get deeper yellow and start to brown a little. If it sticks a little bit that's ok: the burny bits are weirdly good. When the corn is done, add salt and paprika and taste for seasoning. Finally, turn off the heat and stir through chives and lime juice. Yum!


Chicken of the woods has to be one of my all time favourite mushrooms - it has great taste and texture (really substantial and not at all wet; quite unique) and beautiful colour. The reddish-orange mushroom in combination with the yellow corn and the flecks of green chives and red-brown chilli and paprika is super pretty. And tastes awesome: the sweetness of the corn offsets the vibrant, rich mushroom taste really well, and the lime and chilli cut through nicely. We ate it with wheatberries, and that was good too. I was planning to observe the rest of the mushroom in situ and see how it changed over time, but the following evening on the way home from work someone had taken the whole thing!


Note: I've found out a few things about CotW since I wrote this - first that specimens can be variable in taste (I haven't had a bad one yet but apparently they exist) and texture (older ones can be dry); second that it has a tendency to soak up a lot of oil and dry out in the pan - have been dealing with this by keeping covered and adding liquid. Looking forward to trying out a CotW risotto. I froze some of my last one (just as was, in cleaned pieces), so there's potential risotto right there in my freezer.

Gluten-free baking

Photo by Alvin

My friends A and K asked me to teach them what I knew about GF baking. I was unsure at first: unconvinced that I knew any more about it than they did. But they persuaded me that even what little I knew would be helpful to them, and I figured it would be fun whatever happened - I like hanging out and drinking tea and cooking, and they are good company. So we got together for a day of GF baking.

I think the main thing I have figured out about GF baking is that you often need a combination of flours - something like glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour or cornstarch or potato starch to stick it together, and then a combination to give good texture: rice flour alone is light but tastes dusty, gram flour is heavy and its taste is overpowering (although lends a pleasant eggy flavour when used in small quantities), oat flour I like, others such as quinoa or millet flour are different again, and some combination (varied depending on the taste you are looking for / what goes with the other stuff in the mix) is what will make it good. Getting a good rise is doubly challenging when doing vegan+GF (no eggs, no gluten).

I thought of three things:

1) Oat-sunflower-raisin biscuits
(I knew these would work (and they did), also thought they were interesting because of the lack of flour / most of the fat coming from the nut/seed butter)

2) Savoury corn muffins
Wanted to do a basic muffin type thing. A mentioned he got coarse cornmeal from his CSA and this idea suggested itself - though it would be nice to do something simple and savoury as most of the GF things I have baked are sweet... I also recently noticed that Trader Joe's started doing a GF flour blend (brown rice flour, potato starch, white rice flour and something else), so thought it would be fun to try something with that. This is based on my favourite basic cornbread recipe, made in a muffin form and with lots of additions.

2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with ~5 tbsp boiling water
1 TJ’s GF flour mix (see above)
½ tsp xanthan gum
1 cup cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp paprika (note, spice combination is very flexible; adding dried chili or finely chopped fresh chili would also be good)
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tbsp honey (or sugar)
1 cup fake milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
¼ cup oil (used grapeseed, any oil would work here really - even stronger flavoured ones - as these are savoury)
Handful sweetcorn kernels, defrosted
~4 spring onions, cleaned, trimmed and chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat oven to 425F*. Prepare muffin cups by lining with paper cases. Mix flour, cornmeal, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, dry spices and seeds (and sugar if using) in a bowl. Add vinegar to the milk, then mix this with the linseed mixture, oil and honey (if using). Add the sweetcorn, coriander and spring onions to the dry ingredients and toss. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just combined. Bake for 20-25 min.

These came out well: pleasant, savoury, corny taste, with a robust texture from the cornmeal and a slight sweetness from the kernels. Quite dense, but held together well and rose enough to give a nice shape. *Could perhaps try a slightly lower temperature next time: they browned up on top quite quickly (not a problem really).


3) Little nutty cakes (an educational semi-disaster)
I'd seen these a while ago, and thought they sounded interesting: liked the nuts and the olive oil. But noticed the reliance on eggs and thought maybe they'd be too difficult to adapt. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to try anyway - I think partly because I got into the idea of mixing nut flour and buckwheat flour.

3 tbsp linseed mixed with 7.5 tbsp boiling water (or 3 eggs)
1 cup (200g) sugar
2/3 cup (90g / 3 ¼ oz) ground almonds (or hazelnuts)
1 ½ cups flour – sub ¾ cup oat flour plus ¾ cup buckwheat flour plus ½ tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp (200 ml) mixture of extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil
About ¼ cup (25g) mixed chopped untoasted nuts for sprinkling (used hazelnuts)

Heat oven to 400F. Prepare muffin tins. Beat linseed (or eggs) and sugar together with a whisk, a lot – til doubled in volume. Mix ground nuts, flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add olive oil to the linseed-sugar mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fill muffin cups halfway. Sprinkle mixed chopped nuts on top. Bake for 15 min / until springy (might take a bit longer without muffin tins).

These kind of rose up massively and spilled out of the muffin cups across the surface of the tin, leaving a sunken middle - ended up looking a bit like little bird's nests. But they actually tasted delicious: the top parts were all crispy and like a nutty meringue or something, the middle/bottom was squishier but also lovely and nutty, with a hint of grassiness from the olive oil (although quite well stuck to the paper liners). Could have been fun as Easter nests with Greek yoghurt and fresh fruit (grapes to look like eggs?) in the hollows.

My guess as to what went wrong: they rose due to the baking powder and the air from the beating, but lacked enough of anything (no gluten, no eggs) to hold them up and give structure, so sank right back down again. I forgot to add the xanthan gum, so that was probably part of it, but I feel like that might not have been enough anyway. Perhaps adding some cornstarch or glutinous rice flour would have helped (or using eggs instead of linseed, if that's an option). I also found them a bit too oily and a bit too sweet (reminded me a bit of these) - try dialling down the sugar and oil if making again. And, I wondered how the mixture would have fared in a cookie form: perhaps they would have turned out as delicious, nutty, meringue-like things like the top parts tasted like...

Whole okra with tomato and spices

We ate okra and tofu curry from Yoma last Friday, then bought okra from the Haymarket on Saturday. I think these facts were connected (the curry was good). Last time we bought okra I forgot about it until it was too late, this time I did not let that happen. My usual way with okra is to slice it finely and saute with chopped onion and garlic, mustard seed and other whole spices. This time I wanted it whole and tomato-y, still curry-ish but not the same as the Yoma one. Simple and warming. This is a long list of ingredients but most of them sum up to curry powder.

(total cooking time approx 30 min - make sure to get the rice on first and chop veg in order as you cook)

1 tbsp veg oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 in piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 clove
1/4 tsp red chilli flakes
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp paprika
1 400g tin tomatoes
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp light soy sauce
slug of (vinegary) red wine
1 bay leaf
3/4 tsp salt
black pepper
~30 medium sized whole okra, washed and stems trimmed but otherwise left uncut
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add ginger and garlic and soften a few minutes more. Meanwhile, make the spice mix: grind the clove, chilli flakes and seeds together and mix with the ground spices. When the onion, garlic and ginger are softened uncover and add the spice mix to the saucepan. Stir and fry a couple of minutes more, until the spices are fragrant. Then add the tomatoes, water, puree, soy sauce, wine, bay leaf, and some salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Lastly, add the whole okra. Cover and simmer for ~15 min, stirring occasionally (careful not to break the okra), until the okra are soft and well cooked. Taste for seasoning and stir in the fresh coriander. We ate this with raw red rice cooked with cumin seeds and a cinnamon stick and tossed with 2 tsp coconut oil when done.


This came out exactly as I hoped, and was ready just as S walked in the door. We also had salad with papaya seed dressing (similar to this one).

Tamale pie

It's S's birthday tomorrow and I've been devoting a lot of my daydream time to thinking up ideas for what to do to make it special. He is playing football in the evening, which he likes, so that's good. I'm going to make a cake. But then also thought it might be fun to go for lunch somewhere. El Pelon (little Mexican place near work) sprang to mind: I heard good things about it but didn't get around to going there for a long time; when I did get there I discovered joyously tasty, filling vegan tamales. So the taste of tamales was drifting temptingly around my brain when I came across the concept of tamale pie: it's sort of like shepherd's pie with Mexican influences. S had accidentally bought masa harina (corn flour made from hominy) a while ago. It's what you need to make corn tortillas or tamales or pupusas. All those things are delicious, but somewhat fiddly - tamale pie is a super simple way of getting that tamale fix. Note: this is my reinterpretation / amalgamation of a bunch of recipes.

(this took me about an hour to make from start to finish - it's a good idea to prep the veg sequentially as you cook to minimise the total time)

For the topping:
1 cup masa harina
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 tbsp fake butter
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:
1 tbsp veg or light olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 400g tin tomatoes
2 cups pinto, kidney or black-eyed beans, pre-cooked
1 cup frozen sweetcorn
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp mushroom powder
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp red wine
3 tbsp chopped coriander
salt+red chilli flakes

To finish:
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tsp paprika
few squeezes of lime

Heat oven to 400F. Mix masa harina, salt and paprika for the topping in a bowl with a fork. Add boiling water gradually, mixing to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add garlic and chilli and cook a few more minutes. Add grated carrot and cook for a few more minutes. Add the tomatoes, beans, sweetcorn, cumin, paprika, oregano, soy sauce, mushroom powder, wine and coriander and simmer until it is thickened and all the veg are cooked. Taste for seasoning and add salt and chilli flakes to taste if required.

Mix the butter and baking powder into the masa mixture. Put the filling into a lidded oven dish. Squish the masa to cover over the top as if making a shepherd's pie. Put the lid on (or cover with foil if no lid) and put in the oven for 30 min. Uncover and cook about 10 min more, until it is lightly browned and crispy around the edges.

Let it sit for 5-10 min before serving. Sprinkle with chopped coriander, paprika and a squeeze or two of lime juice.


Notes: Could use squash, mushrooms, courgette, peppers instead of carrot. Tomatilloes might be good too. Could use polenta (or cornbread) as topping instead of masa.


This was filling and tasty - the topping definitely had that tamale taste and went really well with the inside layer.

Beetroot, horseradish and pumpkin seed dip

We bought some bread and a spicy red (unlabelled) dip from the Turkish store and I promised S I'd make more dips when we got home.

I did a muhammara and a version of baba ghanoush. I also made a beetroot dip. I've made beetroot dip before and it great, but that was ages ago - thought it was time for a revisit...

2 large beetroot, scrubbed
3 tbsp fresh coriander, washed
3 tbsp prepared horseradish from a jar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
3-4 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 small clove garlic, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt+pepper

Submerge the whole beetroot in a pan of water and boil for 45 min - an hour, until a fork goes in easily. Drain and allow to cool. Peel and chop roughly. Put beetroot pieces in a blender cup with the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Taste and add more horseradish, lime or salt if needed.

Note: could also be good with toasted walnuts instead of pumpkin seeds.

Molasses Flood: Boston Baked Beans and Boston Brown Bread

The Great Boston Molasses Flood happened at this time of year in 1919. I was incredulous when I first heard of it - seemed like such a strange and awful source of disaster (21 people died, drowning in a huge flood of molasses after a storage tank burst in the North End). A friend of ours is having a commemorative party. Not sure if it's something that should be partied about, but I guess it's important not to forget.

I thought of making Boston Brown Bread because I'd been keen to try making it for a while and knew it had molasses in it. Then I started suspecting it wasn't the only regional recipe to involve molasses and I was right - Boston Baked Beans also makes heavy use of molasses, as does Indian Pudding. The Boston-molasses connection, it turns out, is through the Triangle Trade and alcohol production. Apparently slaves were shipped from Africa to South American sugar plantations, then sugar and molasses were shipped to New England to be distilled into rum or other alcohol (hence the huge molasses storage tank and the disaster), then the alcohol (and ice, to make up the weight) was shipped to Europe and elsewhere (including back to Africa, completing the triangle).

Quite a series of connections. I made a Brown Bread and a vegetarian Baked Beans (usually it has salted pork or bacon in it).

Boston Brown Bread

(based on this recipe, although I used the flour mix recommended here and this recipe also looked good)

(I used the in-oven cooking method written out below, as opposed to the stove-top steamer method, due to the fact my coffee can was too tall for my steaming apparatus)

I first came across Boston Brown Bread at P's house in New Hampshire - my friend G and his uncle P are from a big New England Irish family, and P had half a can of brown bread in the fridge left over from a fry-up. I'd never seen anything like it before: bread in a can?! But, bread packed with molasses and wholewheat and raisins - sounds like something I'd love (and similar to a malted tealoaf)!

Butter for greasing loaf pans or coffee cans
1/2 cup (heaping) wholemeal flour
1/2 cup (heaping) rye flour
1/2 cup (heaping) finely ground corn meal (must be finely ground)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup molasses (any kind - I used blackstrap)
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup almond milk with 1 tsp cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

One metal 6-inch tall by 4-inch diameter coffee can, or a 4x8 loaf pan (used a coffee can)

Heat the oven to 325F and boil a full kettle of water (to do oven steaming method). Or heat oven to 350F (for oven baking method - use loaf tin).

Grease the tin with butter. In a large bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, rye flour, corn meal, baking powder and bicarb, salt and allspice. Add the raisins if using.

In another bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla essence (if using). Whisk in the molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well with a spoon.

Pour the batter into the tin taking care that the batter not reach higher than 2/3 up the sides of the container.

Oven steaming method:
Cover the tin tightly with foil and tie in place with string. Put the prepared tin into a high-sided oven-proof pan that can hold water up to 1/3 the height of the tin. Pour boiling water into the pan until it reaches 1/3 up the side of the tin. Put the pan into the oven. Steam the bread for at least 2 hours and 15 minutes. Check to see if the bread is done by inserting a skewer (or thin metal knitting needle) into it. If the skewer comes out clean, you're ready. If not, re-cover the tin and cook for up to another 45 minutes (I ended up cooking it for the extra time but I think it would also have been fine earlier).

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before putting on a rack. Let the bread cool for 1 hour before turning out of the tin (it turned out quite easily, although the edges were soft from condensation and I wondered if it wasn't done yet, once turned out and fully cooled it was totally good).

Oven baking method:
Put loaf tin in oven (at 350F) and cover the top with a baking tray. Bake for ~45-50 min, until it is coming away from the sides and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin.

This also worked well  in muffin form (I like this form because they're easy to freeze and defrost in portions): I filled four cups down each side of my muffin tin (8 total), and filled the middle cups with water / put an oven dish of water in the bottom of the oven to stop it drying out - this might have been overkill. Bake for ~25 min at 350F.


Slice and eat plain, or toast in a little butter in a frying pan.

This is delicious - rich with irony molasses loveliness; definitely reminiscent of malted loaf, and of course pleasingly can-shaped. Loved the cooking process, even if it did take rather a long time - was really pleased to find an actual empty coffee can of about the right dimensions in my cupboard - it had already been repurposed once to store bulghur wheat, now onto its next life... Also made use of some string, a large steel pan, and a knitting needle.


Boston Baked Beans

(based on this recipe, being the tastiest sounding veggie version I came across... there are an awful lot of variants out there)

The molasses contains lots of sugar and calcium (as well as iron, magnesium and potassium) - apparently these are what allow you to cook the beans for so long without them collapsing.

I have never eaten real Boston baked beans, veggie or otherwise, so don't know what this should turn out like. Still, feels right to eat Boston baked beans at least once while living in Beantown.

1 1/2 cups yellow eyed or navy beans, with water to cover (I used ~ 4 1/2 cups pre-cooked kidney and black-eyed beans)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (I used turbinado)
2 tbsp ground mustard (used ground white mustard seeds)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp paprika
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt
16 oz tin chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup molasses (used ~1/3 cup blackstrap - was running out of molasses!)
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Heat the oil in a high-sided frying pan and add onion. Cover and fry until softened and starting to brown. Add garlic and salt and cook for a few more minutes. Defrost beans if frozen, then add the beans, tinned tomatoes and tomato puree to the pan and mix.  Mix the brown sugar, mustard, nutmeg and paprika in a small bowl, then add to the pan along with the molasses and mix. Add vinegar last and stir. Cover and put in oven for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Check for liquid level, adding a bit of water if mixture is too thick or drying out. Uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes.


Really like the texture of the beans - nice and firm. In general a good balance of spiced, sweet and salty.