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.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Christmas: Filo mince pies with marzipan
I haven't been making anything much new in the last couple of weeks. I cut my finger pretty bad preparing chestnuts (which were delicious but perhaps not worth it?), so chopping etc was a bit of a pain for a while, and I was feeling a bit silly and not very inspired. Since I got back in the kitchen I seem to have been sticking to comforting old favourites (some several times / variations) - tapioca 'cheese' rolls, carrot and mung bean salad, lentil and onion salad, ful medammes, freekeh, chickpea curry...
But tomorrow is Christmas Day, so I have stirred myself and am just about feeling ready to cook new things again. I feel much better for it - I've realised cooking comprises much of my relaxation, creative stimulation and fun these days - without it I feel a bit flat.
It doesn't feel like Christmas until I eat my first mince pie, but mince pies don't seem to have made the transition across the ocean. So the only way I get to eat them is by making them myself. Luckily I had some mincemeat left that I made earlier. I was thinking of making my favourite mince pie pastry, but then I realised I also had filo on my mental list of things I wanted to make / to use up / that could be fancy for Christmas. So I used filo as the pastry (added bonus of keeping it simple by not needing to make pastry). Similarly, I had a huge hunk of marzipan* that we'd bought from Polcari's in Little Italy with Christmas in mind. I guess I was thinking of Christmas cake but it seemed daft to make more cake with so much birthday cake still hanging around; and Christmas cake AND mince pies seemed like overkill besides. So I thought I'd combine the two and put some marzipan inside the mince pies.
(makes 12 mince pies)
(move the filo from freezer to fridge to defrost 3-24 hours in advance)
half a large package of thickish (#7 - #10) filo pastry (you need 48 ~4 in squares) (used the rest of the filo for this)
1 400g jar of mincemeat
~100g marzipan*, approx 2 mm dice
Heat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin tin. Taking one square at a time, line each muffin cup with three squares of filo (you should wind up with 12 squares left; be careful not to let them dry out - keep under a clean, damp cloth). Add in the mincemeat (~2 tbsp per cup), and sprinkle some diced marzipan over the top of the mincemeat. Scrunch one of the remaining filo sheets and place on top of the mincemeat in each cup. Brush with a little almond milk if you like. Bake for approx 10 min, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and lift out of the cups to cool on a baking rack.
Once I'd done the maths of how many pieces of filo I needed, how big, how much mincemeat, etc, these were incredibly simple (thanks to having pre-made the mincemeat). Seriously, a three ingredient recipe - you can't get much easier than that. The crispy filo is very different from the usual crumbly shortcrust but I actually really like it: it looks really pretty and fancy, and crucially is not sweet - I think it's really important to have savoury pastry in mince pies as a counterpoint to the crazy intense sweet-spiciness of the mincemeat.
*actually, it is labelled almond paste and I think marzipan and almond paste might technically be slightly different things. If they are I prefer almond paste for most things - think it is less sweet and has a more pronounced almond flavour. Found full truth here.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Quick fried tofu with spring onions and sesame
This is like a speeded-up version of this delicious beast. Taking advantage of TJ's super firm tofu (no need to drain, doesn't fall apart easily so can be stir fried), simplifying and using a bit less heat.
2 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 pack super firm tofu (shrink wrapped), chopped into large chunks
~5 spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
generous grinding of black pepper and salt
Heat oils and then add the tofu. Stir fry, tossing regularly, for a few minutes, then add spring onions. Stir fry a little longer then add sesame seeds, chilli, pepper and salt. Keep frying until the tofu is lightly browned and the spring onions are wilted and crispy in places. We ate this with soba noodles and a quick peanut-tamarind sauce (peanut butter, tamarind paste, lime juice, soy sauce, mirin).
2 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 pack super firm tofu (shrink wrapped), chopped into large chunks
~5 spring onions, chopped
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
generous grinding of black pepper and salt
Heat oils and then add the tofu. Stir fry, tossing regularly, for a few minutes, then add spring onions. Stir fry a little longer then add sesame seeds, chilli, pepper and salt. Keep frying until the tofu is lightly browned and the spring onions are wilted and crispy in places. We ate this with soba noodles and a quick peanut-tamarind sauce (peanut butter, tamarind paste, lime juice, soy sauce, mirin).
Monday, December 9, 2013
Egg yolk ravioli (and oriecchette)
I spent much of the weekend getting in the mood for Christmas: I cooked brussels sprouts, we bought a tiny tree, I caught up with family and their Christmas plans, I made zimtsterne, put up Christmas decorations, we bought and initiated an advent calendar, stayed in playing games and eating Lebkuchen... And overnight last night it snowed and capped off my indoor decorations with a beautiful (if rapidly melting) outdoor sprinkling of white. I do feel a bit more festive now.
With the three egg yolks remaining after making zimtsterne (I decided Christmas / zimtsterne was enough of a special occasion to warrant buying eggs... fancy, multicoloured ones) I decided to try out making egg yolk ravioli. We'd seen an egg yolk raviolo on Professional Masterchef a few years ago and it looked awesome (think we are usually inordinately excited whenever they make something vegetarian, but in this case it seemed justified). I used the eggless pasta dough recipe I have used before, and decided to try turnip as an additional filling (the traditional version seems to involve ricotta; I was intrigued by the idea of turnip though and had some in the fridge).
For the pasta dough:
(note: this makes way too much for 3 ravioli, hence the oriecchette - estimate enough for ~15 ravioli)
1/2 cup pasta flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tbsp gram flour
1/2 tsp salt
water
For the filling:
(note: the mashed turnip is probably enough for about 10-12 ravioli, depending on size of turnip)
1 large turnip (the white kind)
salt
~ 1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp soy yoghurt (or fake milk, or nothing)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
pepper
3 egg yolks, carefully separated from the whites so as not to break the membrane
a little bit more egg for closing
First prepare the pasta dough: mix the flours and salt in a pile on a clean worktop, then made a pit in the middle and add the water a little at a time, mixing with your fingers (while being careful not to break the ramparts), until it comes together into a kneadable dough. Knead for a few minutes then wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least 30 min / up to a few days.
While the dough is chilling, peel the turnip, chop into large chunks and then put into a pan of salted water to boil. Boil for ~10-15 min, until tender, then drain thoroughly and transfer back to the pan. Add the thyme, yoghurt (if using), olive oil and some salt and pepper and mash with a fork until fairly smooth. If it seems liquidy at all heat a little while to evaporate off the extra liquid. Set aside and let cool until handlable.
Take out the dough and make six small balls (each about the size of a large marble). Flour a clean worktop and rolling pin, then roll out each ball until it is super thin and you can see through it (try and keep the shape roughly circular). Choose three base pieces and space them out flat on a board. In the centre of each make a little nest of ~ 1 1/2 tbsp turnip mash, with a dent in the middle for the egg to go in. Wet your hands (and anything else you plan to touch the egg yolks with), and carefully transfer one egg yolk into each nest. Gently place the top pieces of rolled-out pasta dough over the egg yolks and press into place carefully, trying to exclude large air bubbles from getting in with the filling. Make a ring around the filling using any remaining egg yolk and/or white and press down firmly all around the circle to close the ravioli. Use the back of a fork to press some more if you want to be really sure of a firm closure. Trim the edges to remove excess pasta (keep the offcuts - you can cook them as random pasta shapes).
Bring a large pan of slightly salted water to the boil. Add the ravioli. Boil for ~3-4 minutes. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon, drain, transfer to plates and eat.
I cooked the offcuts as irregular fettucine. I also made oriecchette (wanted to try making a shape that didn't involve rolling!) with some of the remaining dough to make this into more of a meal: pinch of pieces about the size of a small marble and flatten into discs about 7 mm thick. Put on a clean surface, then roll your thumb across the disc, pressing firmly all the way across. It should roll up into an oriecchette (little ear) shape. These will take a little longer to cook than the ravioli as the pasta is quite thick - perhaps 5-6 min. They can be dried and stored if desired.
The egg yolk ravioli were amazing. The turnip and thyme went beautifully, and I felt like it was nice / important to have something extra to complement the egg yolk taste and also for structure when building the ravioli. Really fun to cut into the ravioli and have the orange yolk gush out. S was excited, and that was my main aim, so I'd call this a success. The mashed turnip was also pretty tasty on its own, and what's more reminded me of S's favourite celeriac pasta sauce, so I mushed it in with the oriecchette and that worked quite well too.
With the three egg yolks remaining after making zimtsterne (I decided Christmas / zimtsterne was enough of a special occasion to warrant buying eggs... fancy, multicoloured ones) I decided to try out making egg yolk ravioli. We'd seen an egg yolk raviolo on Professional Masterchef a few years ago and it looked awesome (think we are usually inordinately excited whenever they make something vegetarian, but in this case it seemed justified). I used the eggless pasta dough recipe I have used before, and decided to try turnip as an additional filling (the traditional version seems to involve ricotta; I was intrigued by the idea of turnip though and had some in the fridge).
For the pasta dough:
(note: this makes way too much for 3 ravioli, hence the oriecchette - estimate enough for ~15 ravioli)
1/2 cup pasta flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tbsp gram flour
1/2 tsp salt
water
For the filling:
(note: the mashed turnip is probably enough for about 10-12 ravioli, depending on size of turnip)
1 large turnip (the white kind)
salt
~ 1/2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tbsp soy yoghurt (or fake milk, or nothing)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
pepper
3 egg yolks, carefully separated from the whites so as not to break the membrane
a little bit more egg for closing
First prepare the pasta dough: mix the flours and salt in a pile on a clean worktop, then made a pit in the middle and add the water a little at a time, mixing with your fingers (while being careful not to break the ramparts), until it comes together into a kneadable dough. Knead for a few minutes then wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least 30 min / up to a few days.
While the dough is chilling, peel the turnip, chop into large chunks and then put into a pan of salted water to boil. Boil for ~10-15 min, until tender, then drain thoroughly and transfer back to the pan. Add the thyme, yoghurt (if using), olive oil and some salt and pepper and mash with a fork until fairly smooth. If it seems liquidy at all heat a little while to evaporate off the extra liquid. Set aside and let cool until handlable.
Take out the dough and make six small balls (each about the size of a large marble). Flour a clean worktop and rolling pin, then roll out each ball until it is super thin and you can see through it (try and keep the shape roughly circular). Choose three base pieces and space them out flat on a board. In the centre of each make a little nest of ~ 1 1/2 tbsp turnip mash, with a dent in the middle for the egg to go in. Wet your hands (and anything else you plan to touch the egg yolks with), and carefully transfer one egg yolk into each nest. Gently place the top pieces of rolled-out pasta dough over the egg yolks and press into place carefully, trying to exclude large air bubbles from getting in with the filling. Make a ring around the filling using any remaining egg yolk and/or white and press down firmly all around the circle to close the ravioli. Use the back of a fork to press some more if you want to be really sure of a firm closure. Trim the edges to remove excess pasta (keep the offcuts - you can cook them as random pasta shapes).
Bring a large pan of slightly salted water to the boil. Add the ravioli. Boil for ~3-4 minutes. Remove carefully with a slotted spoon, drain, transfer to plates and eat.
I cooked the offcuts as irregular fettucine. I also made oriecchette (wanted to try making a shape that didn't involve rolling!) with some of the remaining dough to make this into more of a meal: pinch of pieces about the size of a small marble and flatten into discs about 7 mm thick. Put on a clean surface, then roll your thumb across the disc, pressing firmly all the way across. It should roll up into an oriecchette (little ear) shape. These will take a little longer to cook than the ravioli as the pasta is quite thick - perhaps 5-6 min. They can be dried and stored if desired.
The egg yolk ravioli were amazing. The turnip and thyme went beautifully, and I felt like it was nice / important to have something extra to complement the egg yolk taste and also for structure when building the ravioli. Really fun to cut into the ravioli and have the orange yolk gush out. S was excited, and that was my main aim, so I'd call this a success. The mashed turnip was also pretty tasty on its own, and what's more reminded me of S's favourite celeriac pasta sauce, so I mushed it in with the oriecchette and that worked quite well too.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Apple and fresh cranberry chutney
I remembered fresh cranberries are in season, bought a bag, and commenced experiments. Raw they are very sharp - they need some kind of sweetness or dilution. I baked: cranberry and apple crumble, cranberry and pumpkin muffins. Wanted to go somewhere savoury with the rest of the bag. Considered some ideas from the Cranberry Slam at Egleston Farmers' Market. The most interesting was somewhat complicated, with several steps including fermentation. I decided to borrow some of the flavours but just make a chutney - that way my savoury cranberry stuff would keep for a while, into times when fresh cranberries are nowhere to be found. I based it on this recipe, tweaking the spices and flavour additions.
(made 2 small jars - sensible to scale up if you have a full bag of cranberries!)
450 g apples (~ 2 large ones), peeled and chopped into chunks
135 g onions (~2 small ones), peeled and chopped or sliced
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~2 cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
zest of 1 little orange
1/4 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
75 ml cider vinegar
150 g sugar
150 g fresh cranberries
Put all ingredients except the cranberries in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for ~50 min, until everything is reduced, thickened and broken down. Add the cranberries and cook for ~10 min more - try not to let them all burst. Spoon into sterilised jars, seal while hot and then let cool before labelling. Tastes best if allowed to mature for ~1 month before opening.
This looks very pretty and festive, with seeds, strands of orange zest and ruby cranberries pressed up against the glass. Haven't tasted the mature version yet but am hoping it is not too sweet.
Edit: well, it is a bit sweet (although very pink-red and pretty). The explosions of whole cranberries are really delicious, same with the spice seeds, but the background is mainly like applesauce and just a bit too sweet. Cooking apples instead of eating apples would probably be a good idea, if possible. But anyway, this did go very well with nut loaf for Christmas.
(made 2 small jars - sensible to scale up if you have a full bag of cranberries!)
450 g apples (~ 2 large ones), peeled and chopped into chunks
135 g onions (~2 small ones), peeled and chopped or sliced
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~2 cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
zest of 1 little orange
1/4 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
75 ml cider vinegar
150 g sugar
150 g fresh cranberries
Put all ingredients except the cranberries in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for ~50 min, until everything is reduced, thickened and broken down. Add the cranberries and cook for ~10 min more - try not to let them all burst. Spoon into sterilised jars, seal while hot and then let cool before labelling. Tastes best if allowed to mature for ~1 month before opening.
This looks very pretty and festive, with seeds, strands of orange zest and ruby cranberries pressed up against the glass. Haven't tasted the mature version yet but am hoping it is not too sweet.
Edit: well, it is a bit sweet (although very pink-red and pretty). The explosions of whole cranberries are really delicious, same with the spice seeds, but the background is mainly like applesauce and just a bit too sweet. Cooking apples instead of eating apples would probably be a good idea, if possible. But anyway, this did go very well with nut loaf for Christmas.
Chickpea bread
I made this beetroot soup the other day and it was just as good as I remembered. Although I used candystriped beetroot because that's what I had and the colour was way off - very drab compared with real beetroot - I prefer the beetroot-coloured kind for almost everything. Anyway, the soup went beautifully with this bread - an interesting loaf with chickpea flour in it I'd bookmarked a while ago and finally got round to making.
50g unsalted butter (used ~35g olive oil)
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for shaping
175g chickpea flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp fast-action yeast
300ml warm water
In a large mixing bowl, rub the butter or oil into the flours and salt, then add the yeast and water (I needed to add a couple of tbsp more water). Mix to a smooth dough, and leave for an hour without kneading. Now lightly knead the dough for 10 seconds only, then leave for another 30 minutes. Tip the dough on to a floured worktop and pull the edges into the centre six or seven times, to make a giant Kaiser roll shape. Flour the bowl, then place the dough seam side up in it. Leave to rise for an hour, then heat the oven to 220C/200C fan-assisted/425F/gas mark 7. Transfer the dough onto a floured baking tray(still seam side up). Bake for 20 min, then reduce the heat to 200C/180C fan-assisted/390F/gas mark 6 and bake for 25 minutes more. Move to a cooling rack to cool completely before cutting.
This is fairly dense and has a distinct chickpea flavour. In a good way, though. Really excellent with something wet like the soup for dunking it in.
50g unsalted butter (used ~35g olive oil)
500g strong white bread flour, plus extra for shaping
175g chickpea flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp fast-action yeast
300ml warm water
In a large mixing bowl, rub the butter or oil into the flours and salt, then add the yeast and water (I needed to add a couple of tbsp more water). Mix to a smooth dough, and leave for an hour without kneading. Now lightly knead the dough for 10 seconds only, then leave for another 30 minutes. Tip the dough on to a floured worktop and pull the edges into the centre six or seven times, to make a giant Kaiser roll shape. Flour the bowl, then place the dough seam side up in it. Leave to rise for an hour, then heat the oven to 220C/200C fan-assisted/425F/gas mark 7. Transfer the dough onto a floured baking tray(still seam side up). Bake for 20 min, then reduce the heat to 200C/180C fan-assisted/390F/gas mark 6 and bake for 25 minutes more. Move to a cooling rack to cool completely before cutting.
This is fairly dense and has a distinct chickpea flavour. In a good way, though. Really excellent with something wet like the soup for dunking it in.
Pumpkin, cranberry, chocolate and orange muffins
I had experiments with a bag of fresh cranberries in mind - first crumble (with apples I scrumped with M the other day), then these. I based them on a pumpkin muffin recipe I'd used before, but tweaked the flavours to incorporate the chocolate, ginger and orange I wanted to be in there. It's kind of a second iteration of these ones.
(Makes 12)
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup demerera sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
Zest of two little oranges
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup fake milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
Heat oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin. Mix flour, baking powder, sugars, ginger and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add orange zest and chopped chocolate and mix again. In a separate bowl beat together pumpkin puree, fake milk and oil. Add wet to dry and mix til just combined, adding the chopped cranberries in the last few strokes. Scoop the mixture into muffin cups. Bake for ~25 min, until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack.
These are great. I overcooked them slightly but the pumpkin makes them wonderfully orange in colour, the orange and ginger taste exciting, and the cranberries and chocolate are beautiful to see and insert little jewels of intensity... Yum.
(Makes 12)
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup demerera sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Pinch of salt
Zest of two little oranges
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup fake milk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 cup fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
Heat oven to 400F. Prepare a muffin tin. Mix flour, baking powder, sugars, ginger and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add orange zest and chopped chocolate and mix again. In a separate bowl beat together pumpkin puree, fake milk and oil. Add wet to dry and mix til just combined, adding the chopped cranberries in the last few strokes. Scoop the mixture into muffin cups. Bake for ~25 min, until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack.
These are great. I overcooked them slightly but the pumpkin makes them wonderfully orange in colour, the orange and ginger taste exciting, and the cranberries and chocolate are beautiful to see and insert little jewels of intensity... Yum.
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