soup season

its winter here and i am so pleased, as it means soup season! 

i have re-discovered adzuki beans. they are usually used in cakes and sweets as a red bean paste in asian cooking but they are also great in savoury dishes.... especially for vegos as they contain 25% protein.

my naturopath has put me on a high protien diet - i have sadly said good bye to my high in refined carbohydrates diet. oh how i miss my weekly pasta night and pizza has now become a guilty pleasure.

i used to be proud about eating carbs as every mo fo is on a protien diet -the NW / jennifer aniston loose a million kilos, carbs are evil blah blah blah. 

but i am not on that type of diet.....oooh no! it's to make me big and strong not a nicole ritchie lollypop head!

shannon gave me a wonderful cookbook for my birthday wholefood for the family by jude blereu. she has some amazing recipes, especially soups!

i roasted the garlic with the pumpkin instead of adding it to the pan along with the onion. i used approx 4-5 cloves as roasting the garlic takes away its pungent flavour and gives it a creamy taste. it takes about half of the pumpkin's roasting time. their skins will be brown and crispy and inside will be soft. remove the skin and husk and mash to a paste. add it to the soup with the pumpkin.

otherwise use 3 cloves to saute in pan.

spiced pumpkin and adzuki bean soup

220gms adzuki beans, soaked over night in plenty of water

1.3 kg pumpkin, butternut squash, kent or jap

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 brown onion

4-5 garlic gloves, whole with skins left on

1 tablespoon finely grated ginger

pinch of nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoonn ground coriander

a handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1.75 litres vegetable stock

2 teaspoon of tamari or light soy sauce

natural yogurt to serve [optional]

pre heat oven to 200 deg C

for butternut pumpkin, cut in half and scoop out the seeds.

for the kent and jap fans cut into very large sections and remove seeds.

rub with 1 tablespoon of the oil

place on a baking tray and bake for 40-60 minutes or until soft.

remove from oven and set aside

or start the soup when your pumpkin is just about cooked.

put remaining olive oil into a large saucepan [24 cm] 

add onion [ 3 cloves of chopped garlic -if you have not roasted] and ginger and saute over a low heat for approximately 5 minutes till onion is soft and lightly coloured.

add the nutmeg and ground spices plus half of the coriander, stir through for 1 minute.

scoop the flesh from the pumpkin plus the roasted garlic paste and add to the pan

add to the pot the drained beans

pour in stock, partly cover and simmer gently for 1 hour.

check that the beans are tender by squishing one onto a bread board. the bean should easily smoosh.

if cooked you can blend the soup. if it is too thin cook over medium heat at a high simmer until you have your desired consistency. 

check for taste and add the tamari or soy if needed.

spoon into warmed bowls, top with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of fresh coriander.

mmmm........

sorry pics will be added soon..i forgot and ate the soup !!

caramel craving

i must apologise for the no show in march.. my excuse..too many parties.
birthday parties that is. So i have decided to post adam's absolute favourite dessert -which i made for his birthday of course! Again it is based on stephanie alexander's a cooks companion recipe.. this is the second time i have made this ..and it is pretty fool proof.

not only did i double the quantity which allowed me to have three servings of it...yum!!! i also doubled the infusion of oranges...in both syrup and custard. i remember eating the seville orange creme caramel at neil perry's rockpool and their orangey caramel sauce was soooo good i wanted to lick the plate..actually i think i did!?




orange infused creme caramel


serves 4

2 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons castor sugar
350ml milk
zest of 1/2 orange

caramel
1 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup water
zest of 1/2 orange

500 ml ramekin / souffle dish

warm milk in a small saucepan and add zest 1hr prior.

pre heat oven 160 deg.

to make the caramel sauce dissolve sugar in water in a small saucepan over medium heat.
bring to boil DO NOT STIR brush sides of pan with a wet pastry brush too avoid crystals forming on the sides of pan.
add the zest and increase heat, boiling till till you have a deep golden carmel.

remove from heat and allow to rest till all bubbles have gone then pour into dish and CAREFULLY as the caramel is extremely hot! turn dish to coat sides evenly.

lightly whisk eggs, yolks and sugar together -no need for an electric mixer here.
then pour in milk.
strain [or if you're like me and couldn't be bothered -don't!] into caramel lined dish.

place into a large baking dish and pour in hot water to come halfway up sides.

bake for 45mins or until just set. remove from baking dish and place in the fridge overnight.

to serve, place a large plate over dish and invert... the caramel will pour over and down the sides of the custard and you'll not want to share any of it!

i wish it was still in the fridge!

enjoy!

In the cal-zone

After a busy months end (hmmmm too many holidays), I am cheating a little here and using some of an old post for ingredients and method. You may remember the very first entry for pizza,
and that the amount of dough is quite substantial. Well the great news is the dough freezes well and can be used for other tasty treats such as this calzone. You can also use some of the sauce in the filling too. Love a meal with pre-prepared yet homemade ingredients......

Dough
See method for pizza entry

Filling
This is the fun and creative part! This can be totally up to your taste, or even what you may have in the house! Here are just two of the standard combos we use in our place/

Veg- Mix spinach, fetta, parmesan, mushrooms, black olives and a splash of tommy sauce also on pizza page

Meaty- Any ham, prosciutto, (ground or thinly sliced)lamb or beef, mixed with spinach, cheeses, mushrooms, olives and of course the splash of tommy sauce

Putting it all together

* So you roll out your dough on a large floured surface.
* Then get a small(ish) dinner plate and cut out as many dough circles as you need.
* Once the rounds are made, you spoon about two tablespoons of the filling mixture into the middle of each round.
* Fold the rounds in half and pinch and fold round edges together.
* Brush top with egg or even just a little olive oil

* Place onto baking tray and put in 180- 200 degree oven for about 15-20 mins until each calzone in a lovely golden colour.
* When you take them out drizzle with a bit of yum e.v.o.o especially in the crease, and enjoy as a snack on its own or with a crispy rocket based salad for a main meal.
Enjoy

Laksa

While supermarket shopping in Thailand the other day I came across fried tofu puffs which I have never seen in Laos and immediately thought Laksa. Now, I have made many Laksa's over the years and while they are usually very tasty they are often really, really time consuming. I mean really, on most days, who could be bothered to boil prawn heads to get a stock - even if it is a damm tasty stock. So I took a risk and attempted a recipe from my new 'Bowl Food' cookbook purchased from the Cambodian chain bookstore that sells a wide range of photocopied, copyright infringed books. It looked easy and surprisingly was quite tasty. Anyway, that is why a make this post -it is a recipe for a tasty Laksa that you don't have to dedicate a day to.

For paste

1 ½ tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 onion, chopped
1cm x 3cm piece of ginger, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 stems lemongrass, sliced
4-6 small red chilies
2-3 teaspoons shrimp paste

For soup

1 L chicken stock
½ cup oil (I only used a few tablespoons)
3 cups coconut milk (I made do with a 200ml can coconut cream)
4 fresh kaffir lime leaves
2 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 table spoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar
Handful of prawns or pork or beef or veggies
250g dried vermicelli noodles

To serve

1 cup bean sprouts
Handful of fried tofu puffs
4 hardboiled eggs
Mint, coriander – chopped
Lime wedges – to serve
Fried shallots – to serve

Dry roast the coriander seeds. Grind in a mortar and pestle. Repeat for cumin seeds. Put all of the ingredients for the paste in a blender and add half a cup of stock and blend to a paste.

Heat the oil and cook the paste on a low heat for 3- 5 minutes while stirring. Add remaining stock and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 min, until slightly reduced. Add the coconut milk, lime leaves, lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. At this time pour some boiling water over the vermicelli and leave for about 5 minutes until soft. Drain.

Add meat or vegies to soup and simmer until cooked.

Add noodles to each bowl. Top with soup and then garnish with eggs, bean sprouts, tofu puffs and herbs. Serve with lime and shallots. Serves 4-6.

Smoked Fish with Vegetables, Matapha and Gari

The food from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique has some similarities. The use of peanuts. Coconuts. Dried and smoked fish. Leaves from cassava and other plants as a primary ingredient. Combine all these ingredients with some onions, chillies, palm oil, and garlic and you have a fusion of Mozambican Matapha and Congolese Pondu. Served with some pap, rice or gari and you have a delicious and filling dish. We prefer to add another dish, like smoked chicken with peanut sauce (DRC), or (very) spicy fried okra with prawns (Mozambique). Since I’ve made these dishes many times before, I opted for a new addition: fried smoked fish with vegetables.
So here they are.

Fried Smoked Fish with Vegetables

Found in Dorinda Hafner's A Taste of Africa, purchased at Borders for $10!

Ingredients

500g smoked herring or mackerel

3 tbs peeled and finely grated ginger

½ cup vegetable or peanut oil

2 onions, minced

4 tomatoes, blanched, peeled and puréed

1 tbs tomato paste blended with ¼ cup water

2 red chillies, minced

250g green beans
½ teaspoon garlic salt (or salt and garlic)

Directions
Season the fish with salt and ginger. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, and sauté the fish (I used mackerel) until crisp and brown. Remove from the oil, drain, and set aside. In the remaining oil, add the onions and sauté until they are almost brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chillies, green beans, and garlic salt. Return the fish to the pan, cover, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the sauce thickens.

Matapha / Pondu

This is an amalgamation of many internet recipes that I no longer have because I wrote them in Rakas departing present, the cook's companion recipe journal.

Ingredients
6 handfuls Cassava (or Matapha) leaves
3 tbs palm oil
2 onions
8 cloves garlic
one piece of dried, salted or smoked fish, broken up
3 chillies (or more if they’re not very hot)
salt to taste

For Matapha add:
1 can coconut cream
1 cup roasted peanuts

NB: I’ve guessed the quantities as I normally make it by taste, so you may need to adjust.

Equivalent ingredients
Cassava or Matapha leaves have a distinct chlorophyll fragrance and taste, which is difficult to replace. If you can’t find them in Footscray or some other suburb of Melbourne which I don’t know about which has African grocers (sorry Melly, but I have no idea if you’ll have an option at all here), use 8 handfuls of spinach.

Palm oil is thick, red and sticky. Again, if you can’t find an equivalent, use peanut or ground nut oil.

For the smoked fish I tend to use half a small smoked fish (see picture), but you can also use a bunch of those tiny dried fish you get at Asian grocers (although not as fragrant).

Directions
If using fresh leaves, grind leaves in mortar and pestle with the garlic and chillies. Otherwise grind garlic and chillies then add frozen leaves. Place in a saucepan, cover with water and cook until almost dry (approximately ½ hour). Add all remaining ingredients and cook for one hour, adding water if necessary. For Matapha, once cooked, blend until almost smooth (it should be the consistency of a pumpkin soup). The dish should be nutty and smoky, but not spicy despite the inclusion of chillies.

Gari

Again, taken from Dorinda's cookbook

Gari is a new addition to my African recipes, and is delicious. It is actually a Portuguese and/or French dish which has been adopted by the Ivory Coast (I think it might be a Portuguese dish adopted by French colonies). It is almost like a cross between polenta and bread, and is very simple to make. If you can’t find it in African or Portuguese / Spanish grocers, use polenta, rice or mashed potato instead (I’ll explain pap another day).

Ingredients
Farine de Manioca (in French, or Farinhe de Mandioca in Brazil, or Farinha de Mandioca in Portugal, or dried ground cassava)
Water
Salt

Directions
Put 2 cups gari in a bowl and add enough lightly salted water to cover it completely (I also give it a little stir). Let is stand for 10 minutes, or until the gari absorbes the liquid and swells (it will swell to about twice its original size). Fluff the gari with a fork and serve with the fish and the Matapha poured over it.

Serves 4

Ban Keun Soup

When I first moved to Laos I lived for a year in Ban Keun. My kitchen was fashioned from a concrete shell of a room with old school tables for benches. There was no glass on the windows and I used to wipe the red dust from the surfaces daily. I had no sink, cupboards or stove - just a bucket of water, an electric frypan and a few bowls and spoons. To put it quite simply, it was uninspiring. But it was from here that Ban Keun Soup was created.

Essentially a one-pot dish created from whatever fresh ingredients you can get your hands on, plus some longlife staples such as miso paste, canned tuna and eggs, Ban Keun soup for me is now one of the most soothing, simple, healthy things I can think of. It is Monday night food!

Serves 2
1 brown onion - sliced
1 small piece of ginger - diced small
1 japanese eggplant - halved longwise and sliced

handful of oyster (or other) mushrooms - sliced

1 small green cabbage (or chinese cabbage - wong buk) - sliced
1 small bunch morning glory - cut into thirds
1 medium sized can of tuna
2 tbsp miso paste (shiro or the light brown one)
2 tbsp soy sauce (yellow boy brand is best)
1.5 tbsp white vinegar
3 cups water
1 egg
2tbsp fried red shallots (pre bought is far easier) (to serve)
chilli paste or sauce ( to serve)

Fry onions in a small amount of oil in a wok or deep based saucepan till transparent. Add ginger, eggplant and mushrooms and fry for about 3 min, until the eggplant is a bit soft.

Add water (it will pleasantly sizzle!) miso, soy and vinegar and bring to boil. Add tuna. Taste for flavour, adding more miso, soy or vinegar if necessary. Turn heat down to a simmer and add vegies. Cook for another 1-2 min. Break egg into liquid and stir a little. Cook for another minute or so and you're done.

Serve with a spoon of deep fried shallots and some chilli sauce.

* this version had tomato too....flexibility is the key!

Kanel Bulle - Swedish Cinnamon buns

In the food stakes the Swedes are at quite a disadvantage to every other country we have spent a long time in. Just about all produce has to travel large distances to get here. The presence of good, tasty, plentiful vegies and herbs is limited, thus the main diet is (in my opinion) quite bland. Except in the summer when the berries are truly amazing.

But what these folk do well, very well, is 'fika'. Which basically means coffee and cake. So they bake well and often. The most traditional of these baked delights is the kanelbulle (literally cinnamon bun). There is even a national day dedicated to these little treats. This recipe came from the back of a flour packet here, with reference to another blog for the technique (I think it was called goodmoodfood.blogspot hosted by an Irish guy from Dublin). My translating skills are pretty good for all ingredients, but my verb knowledge of swedish is still pretty rudimentary.

Here goes.....

Dough
150 grams butter
150 mls full fat milk
50 grams yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
150 ml caster sugar
800 grams plain flour
2 tablespoons cardamon (kardemumma)

For the "cinnamon butter"
125 grams butter
150 ml caster sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

To paint the top of each bulle
1 whisked egg
Pearl sugar, or some other coarse sugar for sprinkling

Method
Dough
*Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add milk. Heat to lukewarm/finger warm.

*In a large bowl, crumble the yeast and add a little of the butter/milk liquid. Stir the yeast in until it becomes a smooth paste. Then add the rest of the liquid.

*Add the sugar and the salt.

*Add the flour and the cardamon the smell here is heavenly

*knead the dough lightly by hand a little (do not take it out of the bowl to do this). It's fine if the dough is sticky.

*Place a damp tea-towel over the bowl and leave the dough to rise, for about 45- 50 minutes.

Cinnamon butter
*Melt the butter and add the caster sugar and cinnamon. Leave to stand while you are waiting for the dough to rise (but NOT in the fridge!).

Putting it all together
*Once the dough has risen, place on a large table. If it's too sticky to handle at this point, sprinkle the table and the dough with a little extra flour. Knead the dough a little, very lightly.

* Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll each piece out into a large, thin rectangle and smear the cinnamon butter over the entire surface of each, right up to the edges.


Roll each rectangle up (as you would with a swiss roll) and cut each "log" into 2-3cm pieces.

*Place each piece on a large paper cup-cake case. Cover with a (dry) tea-towel and leave for 20-30 minutes.

*During this time pre-heat your oven to 210-220 degrees.

*After 20-30 mins, paint the tops of each bulle with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

*Bake in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes.

Make yourself a nice cuppa and have your own Swedish style fika.