Celeriac and Orange Soup

Posted on May 4, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

When you’re poorly, like I was, there’s nothing better to have to eat than soup. Chances are you’ll keep it down!

This soup is delicious. Not sure why its called Celeriac and Orange soup. I’d have called it Celeriac and Fennel Soup. The orange it really only zested over the top!

After roasting some fennel, you add it to chopped celeriac and cook until tender. Then you add some coconut milk and umeboshi plum puree. Then you puree the whole mixture in a blender until smooth.

The zesting of an orange over the top really makes this special. It really adds another layer of flavour to the soup.

If I’m honest I couldn’t really pick out the celeriac or the fennel in the soup. I could really taste the umeboshi plum puree – which is tart and tangy. Maybe we were a little heavy handed with it.

I’ve been eating this for two days now and really like it. It’s good hot or cold. It’s lovely and thick and I’ll definitely be making it again.

I’m looking forward to doing some cooking tomorrow and some proper blogging. I’ve missed it the last couple of days!

Chia Seed Porridge with Kuzu and Berry Compote

Posted on May 4, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

This is an odd one for breakfast, taken from Honestly Healthy for Life.

Chia seeds are tasteless seeds – and all you do is soak then in milk – we used Almond Milk and Hazelnut Milk – and a half teaspoon of cinnamon.

This has a completely different texture to an oat based porridge, but you do have to soak the seeds for some time. It says 30 minutes in the recipe – but I’d say a couple of hours might be better. That’s what we did.

The texture is a bit frog-spawny. Freya didn’t like it. I thought it wasn’t too bad.

The compote went really well with the porridge. There was also a sprinkling of almonds.

The compote is made up of raspberries, blackberries, agave syrup, vanilla extract and kuzu. The ingredients are boiled up and simmered and that’s pretty much all you have to do.

Kuzu is one of my ‘special’ ingredients. It’s a gluten free starch made from the kuzu root, which is used for thickening.

Unless we can’t find another use for the Chia Seeds we have I imagine we won’t be making this again. Although it is supposed to be really good for you, it’s relatively tasteless.

Roast Potatoes with mint, garlic and preserved lemon

Posted on April 20, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Roast potatoes are essentially just roasted potatoes.

We don’t usually eat a lot of potatoes – as they are too carby and we are trying to lose weight – but we’ve been working hard on the boat so we deserved it.

This recipe is supposed to be made with baby potatoes but I didn’t have any – so I just used up some bigger ones – chopped them up into bite sized pieces and left the skin on. Roasted potatoes are so much tastier with the skin on.

This dish crazy simple. Just roast the potatoes in olive oil and while they are roasting, toast some garlic, tear some mint and slice some preserved lemon. When the potatoes are ready, mix in the other three ingredients and serve.

This side was part of the three course Easter Lunch featured in the Telegraph’s Stella Magazine. It caught my eye because it was provided by Diana Henry of A Change of Appetite fame.

Ful Medames

Posted on April 10, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Phew – the fava beans were fine! Not burned after all. It’s not like me to leave cooking food unattended!

I seem to have gotten into the habit of photographing my food as if it was meant to be a screensaver. Maybe I should plate more food – but then I’d need nicer plates. White ones don’t always cut it! Hmm – it’s my birthday soon – who knows!

Ful Medames are essentially cooked fava beans mixed with chickpeas and tahini, garlic, lemon juice, cumin and parsley. When you think about it – it’s not far off being a deconstructed houmous – all the constituent ingredients are there.

One thing we aren’t really sure about is the fava beans have quite tough skins. Even after 24 hours of soaking and 2 hours of simmering. Maybe I’ll try this again with shelled fava beans (I have some) – I don’t think it’ll look as pretty though as the end product will all be the same colour – houmous coloured! They might go mushy too! Like houmous!

I like salads with this sort of texture. But I’m not sure I’d make this again. It’s bit of a faff. Fava beans aren’t readily available in a regular shop. That said – neither are mung beans and I’d make the mung bean casserole any day.

We’re off to the boat tomorrow – hopefully this day off work will produce some sun and we can be a little more productive. This salad will keep us going for sure. Along with the leftover egg stuffed tomatoes!

Eating out when you’re a Vegetarian

Posted on April 2, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

When I started dating Freya we would quite regularly go out to eat with Freya’s parents.

Now, at the time only Freya’s mum was a vegetarian and we would always try and find places to eat that had a good vegetarian menus. This was harder than we could imagine.

With the possible exception of ‘Incanto’ in Harrow on the Hill and ‘Vanilla Black’ in Clerkenwell (you really must go to these places once you’ve saved up the money) there really isn’t much to choose from. Apparently ‘The Gate’ in Notting Hill is good too but I’ve not been there.

We have been to so many restaurants and failed. There’s usually one starter, one main and of course all the desserts. But why? It just doesn’t make sense.

If you’ve looked at anything else on this blog you’ll see there is so much you can do with so few ingredients – so why is it always soup, souffle or some tart or other.

If I ever want a change of lifestyle – and win the lottery – I’ll be doing my best to stop this!

For now – we just stay in – and enjoy my cooking. Freya says she’d rather stay in and eat my cooking any day rather than go out. Unless it’s Vanilla Black. Eek !!!!

Figs with Halloumi

Posted on April 2, 2014 by tenuoustoaster

Saved by the Figs!

You will find a rendition of this dish in almost every Middle Eastern cookery book. Figs and Halloumi are made for each other and this version is as good as any I’ve had previously.

The winning formula – so prevalent in Ottolenghi’s books – of leaves, nuts, fruit and cheese – works every time. In this dish it is Rocket, Pistachios, Halloumi and Figs.

We would eat this sort of dish every day. It is really satisfying.

The dressing works well too if you follow it to the letter – but I guess not many people have Raspberry vinegar (souschef.co.uk sell it).

A wonderfully simple dish from Veggiestan by Sally Butcher

There’s an amusingly seductive tone for the recipe of this dish. You need to play some sexy music on your Hi-Fi – get the candles out – throw this together – and expect your evening to go very well. That said, I’ve had a lot of Dates (see previous recipe) – I think my chances are slim!

Two Potato Vindaloo

Image

Most people see the word Vindaloo and think – HOT!!!!! – I don’t want anything that hot. Unless you’re like me and buy insanely hot chilli sauces just so you can inflict them on your friends and colleagues.

If you go on the title you’ll probably avoid this dish – until you check the ingredients list and realise it can’t possibly be hot. Yes there are spices – and yes there is one red chilli – but it’s just a regular red chilli – not a Scotch Bonnet or Ghost Pepper.

Vindaloo – means Wine and Potatoes. (vin = wine) (aloo = potatoes) and was created by the Portugese (and not the Indians as you might originally have assumed. The dish evolved and the wine was typically substituted for vinegar.

This dish conforms to all those rules – only in this case we have sweet potatoes and waxy potatoes (mine were new potatoes) cooked in a tomato and spiced sauce with garlic and white wine vinegar – along with a red pepper.

I made a lot of this. More than 3 meals worth and – as it says in the book – it just gets better the longer you leave it. This is the third day – and the spices have just made the dish even better.

Ottolenghi has some amazing recipes in the Plenty book – it’s one of the best books I own. This dish is excellent – although I think a contrasting dish alongside would be good.