THAI RED CURRY WITH VEGETABLES
(BUT NO TOMATO)

Prep Time: 10 mins     Cook Time: 30 mins     Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups jasmine rice or long-grain rice, rinsed
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil or olive oil
• 1 small white onion, chopped
• pinch of salt, more to taste
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger (about a 1-inch nub)
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed or chopped finely
• 2 under-ripe zucchini, thickly sliced
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal into ¼-inch thick rounds (about 1 cup)
• small head of broccoli, broken into florets and stem peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
• 1 can coconut milk
• ½ cup water
• 1½ cups packed thinly sliced silverbeet
• 1½ teaspoons coconut sugar or raw sugar or brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• 2 teaspoons rice vinegar or fresh lime juice
• handful of chopped fresh basil or coriander,
• optional red pepper flakes, sriracha as garnish
  

Instructions

• To cook the rice, bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the rinsed rice and continue boiling for 12 or so minutes, reducing heat as necessary to prevent overflow. Remove from heat, drain the rice and return the rice to pot. Cover and let the rice rest for 10 minutes or longer, until you’re ready to serve. Just before serving, season the rice to taste with salt and fluff it with a fork.
• To make the curry, warm a dutch oven over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add the oil. Add the onion and a sprinkle of salt and cook, stirring often, until the onion has softened and is turning translucent, about 5 minutes.
• Add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds, while stirring continuously.
• Add the green vegies and carrots; cook until the broccoli stems are fork-tender, up to 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Then add the curry paste and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk, water, silverbeet and sugar, and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle simmer and cook until the peppers, carrots and silverbeet have softened to your liking, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Remove the pot from the heat and season with tamari and rice vinegar/lime juice. Add salt (¼ teaspoon for optimal flavor) to taste. If the curry needs a little more punch, add ½ teaspoon more tamari, or for more acidity, add ½ teaspoon more rice vinegar/lime juice. Divide rice and curry into bowls and garnish with chopped coriander and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, if you like.
• If you like spicy, serve with sriracha or chili garlic sauce on the side.

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As with most recipes, I’ve found the cooking times variable. It depends entirely on the vegetables in the curry as to how long to cook ’em. Trial and error, trial and error – without any error, of course !   🙂

MEXICAN QUINOA

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• long red chilli, chopped finely
• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup corn kernels (note: not can !)
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp cumin
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 avocado, diced
• juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsps chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

—Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Add garlic and chilli, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

—Stir in quinoa, stock, beans, tomatoes, corn, chilli powder and cumin; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

—Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

—Stir in avocado, lime juice and parsley and serve immediately.

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There’s a bit of a problem with seconds, as in next day seconds: the quinoa goes on soaking up the liquid so that there isn’t any left after the first delicious consuming’s done. I have yet to solve this; but I think I’ll make a bit of  weak stock, because I’m not keen on the thought of adding simply water.

This interests me: there are many vegetarian meals to which the thinning down with water is absolutely fine, so what’s the difference ?

My suspicion is that it’s the amount of tomato in this recipe, and/or its prevalence (so to speak): there isn’t much. Also, I used Mutti’s Polpa Pronta (i.e., no chunks), which meant that the tomato content was largely .. erhmm .. absorbed. Or perhaps hidden ? And this is food for thought for all vegetarian dishes, especially as I quite often feel that there’s too much tomato. (Northern Italians are very demeaning about Southerners’ over-use of this vegetable; but their emphasis on cream-based sauces is out of bounds for me.)

I’m still on the WW thing, and I’ll post about it because it’s changed again ..

TEMPEH CHILLI

Ingredients

• 300g package tempeh, crumbled
• 1 large onion, chopped smallish
• 3 large cloves garlic, ditto
• 2 tablespoons olive oil for sautéing
• 1 400g can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 400g can borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 400g can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 double size can diced tomatoes
• 1 fresh sweetcorn, kernels cut from the cob
• 1 green capsicum, cored, seeded and diced
• 1½ tsps chilli powder
• 1½ tsps cumin
• 1½ tsps Chinese chilli garlic sauce
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 cups water

Method

• In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat: add onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes stirring frequently.
• Add spices and tempeh, beans, tomatoes, capsicum, corn kernels and water, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes with an occasional deep stir.
• You can cook it longer if you think it needs it; but I cooked it for about 20 minutes while the original recipe calls for an hour !

Chilli will thicken upon standing.

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A woman at my WW group meetings asked me if I were vegetarian, and I told her that I have been but am being flexitarian while changing my eating pattern. She then wanted to know if I’d ever tried tempeh, and I had to admit ignorance of it (other than knowing it exists); and she added that I should really give it a go, as it’s really  nice ..

So I did.   🙂

I can only augment this short rave by telling you very truthfully that this chilli recipe – you know I love all chilli – is the best so far. BY far.

I made it for my lunch, and I shall have more for my dinner. It’s almost no points in my WW existence, but squillions in terms of favourite meals !!

I know there are them wot can’t eat or even don’t like eggplant, but it’s now not only my favourite vegetable when made into eggplant parmigiana or eggplant schnitzels by my very dear friend M but also my f.v. when the base in meals as described above.

La melanzana is a wow of a vegetable !

Of course there are lots more types of eggplant; but I never find them and so I just go on cooking and eating the ones in that painting (yes, that’s what it is: Italians are as fond of le melanzane as I am). The first recipe I’m posting actually means me to use one of those or two of the long thin ones, I think: but as I can’t find any of the latter I just use two of the former.   🙂

And I’m also a fan of BEENZ ! – any kind including borlotti, kidney, cannellini, butter, black and chickpeas. I’d always considered that last-named pulse to by my favourite; but these recipes have shown me that I love ’em all !

I shall attempt to simply attach each recipe, rather than go through the whole boring thing of re-typing them. You may start praying now ..

Spicy Bean Stew. The simplest, but the vegies should be cut up pretty damn small.

BAKED EGGPLANT & BEAN STEW. Hang on a tick — I can’t remember if that’s the correct name for this one .. But it don’t matter much, eh ? And btw, it ain’t baked – it doesn’t need to be.

Creamy Eggplant & Bean Casserole. Tahini creates the ‘creaminess’: personally I would prefer it be described by some other adjective. Simple and quick(ish).

If you’re allowed eggplant and beans, these three dishes will make meals for whole families or for one grumpy old lady with some fridge space. In my frightfully humble opinion, each of these recipes is DELICIOUS, to put it mildly !!

 

 

 

This is another new recipe !

I worked out that the stress is only there if I’m cooking for Others. When doing it alone, I give myself a big finger-wagging lecture about being stupid, and it really seems to help !    😀

I do not recall how I came upon this INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS vege recipe, but I can only thank all the gods for having done so: I consider this to be the most tasty meal I have ever made.  Anyone heard muttering anything like “but the bar is so low !” will be sent to coventry forever.

It’s a fragrant curry, not a hot one: I can’t eat hot any more (sob !) ..

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UTTERLY DELICIOUS Cauliflower Curry

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• a whole cauliflower
• 3 garlic cloves
• 10g piece fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp curry powder/paste
• 1 lemon
• 2 red onions
• 60g small mixed nuts
• can coconut milk
• can tinned tomatoes, chopped
• can chickpeas
• 100g baby spinach leaves
• 1 red chilli
• 35ml vegetable oil
• seasoning to taste

Method

• Chop the cauliflower and discard all stalk*; peel the onions, cut them in half and slice thinly; peel and chop the garlic small; grate the ginger; finely chop the chilli; grate and juice the lemon.
• In a large heavy-based saucepan sauté the onions in the oil for some minutes on a low heat; then add the nuts and cook for a further minute.
• Add the chilli, garlic, ginger, ground cumin, paprika and curry powder/paste; cook on a low heat for 1 minute, stirring as you cook.
• Add the coconut milk and the chopped tomatoes, stir in.
• Add the grated lemon rind and juice.
• Bring it to the boil, season with some salt and plenty of black pepper, then add the cauliflower pieces and the drained chickpeas.
• Cook gently for 20—25 minutes until the cauliflower is just cooked.
• Add the spinach, stir through and cook another few minutes.

Serve on basmati. The juice alone is sheer heaven.

*You’re going to need the space in the saucepan !  😀

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I think the secret is the lemon juice. But whose nose ?, as Stringer was wont to ask.    🙂

The whole of the ingredients combine to make a vegetarian dish that ANY carnivore would eat with relish and follow with a bit of lip-smacking.

OTY, then ..

Yes, it means exactly what it looks like: the perfect refuge.

I’m referring to the YouTube cooking site that seems to’ve grown hugely since I first became aware of it. But my impressive degree of ancientness means that I really don’t understand whose site this one actually is: it seems to be divided among 2 or 3 women .. I leave you to sort that out for yourselves.

This is how the title arose:

and in fact there are cleaning videos early on. I know this because, as I often do, I sorted the videos from oldest to newest; and at a sort of mid-point, I found these two side by side:

and from then on we appear to have abandoned the cleaning and taken with enthusiasm to the cooking ! (I wonder if she just exhausted cleaning topics, or if her husband said  – in Italian, of course ! – “Oh fer crissake ! – will you STOP vacuuming under my feet and .. and go and do something in the kitchen ?!”  [grin] In truth, there are a few cooking videos slotted in among the cleaning ones, but not many.

The place-marking video for the cooking ones has V/O and post-production; but, I am very happy to say, thereafter there’s no voice-over at all – just sound effects and some basic captions, deo gratias. She includes ingredients underneath every video (you know, above the comments), so it’s up to the viewer to note down the method for later. Or learn it off by heart if you’re clever like that.

Her particular schtick is (apart from the meals’ being Italian) low-cost cooking. She doesn’t ever use high-falutin ingredients: even the vegies are completely familiar. She’s largely vegetarian, but not entirely; and she does heaps of baking cakes and bikkies.

Check it all out: you won’t often be lucky enough to find cooking videos without dialogue – which is, in my opinion, a bloody blessing !

Here’s a recipe that is in my .. erhmm .. history ? rolladex ? Whatever. It’s a recipe known to me and not one to bring sweat to my brow. It claims to be a curry, but you’ll need to hot it up if you like real curry.

Chickpea Curry

Ingredients

• 1 onion, halved and sliced finely
• 3 cloves garlic chopped small
• 1 long red chilli, chopped fine (2 is better !)
• thumb-sized piece ginger, chopped fine
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp mustard seeds*
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 4 dried curry leaves
• 1 tsp fenugreek*
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 2 cans chickpeas, drained
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 tbs coconut flour

*if you have a mortar and pestle, these should be ground together; but if you don’t, see if you can buy ’em already ground

Method

• Place a large saucepan on medium heat and add the oil.
• When the pan is hot add the onion, garlic, chilli & ginger, cook for 10 minutes stirring often. (This is the most important part of making the curry: getting your base ingredients lovely and golden will insure the finished curry has a powerful flavour. So says the AvantGarde Vegan — quite cute, if you go for that hair shaved up the sides thing ..)
• Add all the spices & cook while stirring for another 3-4 minutes to let the spices roast & release their aromatics.
• Throw in the tomato paste and cook for 1 more minute before adding the chickpeas: stir well so they are coated.
• Shake the can like mad and pour in the coconut milk and stir well; then bring the pan to a simmer.
• Let the curry bubble away gently for around 10 minutes.
• When the rice is cooked, just before serving stir the coconut flour into the curry to thicken it up a little.

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I didn’t make this one for a long time, thinking in superior fashion that a curry of nothing but chickpeas would be, like, BORING ! – channelling Villanelle .. [grin]  It isn’t: the spices give the chickpeas a super burst of flavour.

Of course you can add any vegies you like: the harder ones come to mind. I think partially-cooked potatoes and cauli are great – you need to pre-cook ’em a bit to avoid having to cook the shit out of those yummy spices while waiting for the vegies. Just saying ..

No anxieties about making soup ! I shoulda been doing more of this, as I have several thousand soup recipes. Well, OK, several then ..

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Broad Bean, Pea and Rice Soup

Ingredients

• 2 shallots finely sliced
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• ½ tbsp olive oil
• tsp dried oregano
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen broad beans
• 700 ml vegetable stock
• ¾ cup long grain rice
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach
• seasoning to taste

Method

• In a large saucepan sauté the spring onion and garlic in the olive oil for 2-3 minutes
• Throw in the oregano, peas, broad beans and seasoning. Mix well and cook for 5—8 minutes, until the beans take on a little colour
• Add the vegetable stock and stir; bring to a boil, add the rice then cover and simmer for 10 minutes
• Place the baby spinach on top of the soup and let it simmer until it wilts
• Do your best to get it into the bowls with the spinach still on  the top
• Serve with crusty bread

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My very dear friend the-Goanna-up-in-Sydney (where I lived for 41 years) was telling me on the phone that she makes a lot of soup; and it reminded me that I should be doing that, too. You can make a perfectly yummy one by throwing a chopped vegetable into some stock, adding seasoning and a bit of cream if you have it or perhaps a drop of Tamari or balsamic vinegar – depending on what you’re cooking – and then using what Stringer and I used to call “a whooshoo” .. you know, one of those hand-held stick choppers ? .. to blend it. Of course, the more vegies you put in, the better; and who doesn’t often find a bit of broccoli, a zucchini and half a butternut lurking in his/her vegetable keeper ?

Just remember that, were you using precisely that trio, you’d need to put the pumpkin in first for a while then add the broccoli and last the zucchini: vegies do need different cooking times.

But yes: soup of the evening, beautiful soup ! – the Mock Turtle knew what he was singing about.   🙂

Ah. P.S.: the original recipe called for half a cup of broad beans. I really like broad beans, so I doubled it.

It’s all got a bit beyond me, this constant experimenting with new vegetarian recipes. My problem is simple, and probably incomprehensible to most cooks: I get stressed by the various timings.

Let’s say a recipe instructs me to “cover and allow to simmer actively for 8-10 minutes, and meanwhile prepare the tomato sauce”. What almost invariably happens is that I take too long to make the sauce and the [whatever], simmering away with gusto, has thickened down to the point of being glutinous. (No, not gluttonous – that’s moi !)

Multiply this by one, two or three other stages and you have a large, stressed and rapidly becoming enraged cooking person.

OK, so it don’t happen every time; and I have certainly taken to reading any recipe through exhaustively .. but as I’ve generally forgotten the opening sentence by the time I’m half-way through, that doesn’t help enormously. Sighh .. No: senility and increasing grumpiness combine to produce a steamy kitchen !

ANYWAY ..

Here goes for the last recipe I’d never made before.

Pay attention this way, Sue !   🙂

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Lentil Shepherd’s Pie with Root Vegies mash

prep: 15′   cook: 45′   serves 4

Ingredients

• • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 4 red onions, thinly sliced
  • 200g puy lentils
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
  • 1 tbsp vegetable stock powder
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 350g peeled and diced carrots
  • 350g peeled and diced swede
  • 350g peeled and diced potato
  • 50g parmigiano, finely grated

Method

• • Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions for 8 mins until softened.
  • Put a kettle on to boil. Stir the lentils, rosemary, stock powder and balsamic vinegar into the onions, pour in 1 litre boiling water, add seasoning, and simmer for 25-30 mins with the occasional stir until the lentils are soft but still have some bite.
  • Meanwhile, cook the root veg for 25 mins. (I can only imagine it’s really exciting if you get these two stages to match ..)
  • Mash the root veg with a masher. Add seasoning.
  • Use a slotted spoon to transfer the lentil mixture into a pie dish, top with the mash, then scatter over the cheese.
  • While it’s still hot, grill the pie to melt the cheese
  • Serve pie with cooked green veg. My favourite green veg is cabbage, but broccolini passes muster; and you should prepare ’em small. Use one of these

for cabbage, and not only will you shred it wonderfully fine in  no time at all,  but you will also festoon practically everything around you with little light green bits. Yesss !   🙂

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Astoundingly, this is REALLY tasty. Well, I think I’m surprised by the lentils part: I expected the bottom of the shepherd’s pie to be fairly bland, but it was extremely flavoursome. Of course, I should’ve said “is”, as there’s enough left over for even the largest and grumpiest of cooking persons to have several more meals out of it. Which is how I eat, basically. And I don’t get bored, either.

So that was it. From now on I shall simply rotate among the plentiful number of recipes I’ve made before and know I like. There are so many of these that already I’ve reached the stage of saying “Oh, I’d forgotten all about haloumi pasta ! Great ! That’s my next dinner !”.