The first feast

The first Iranian things I tried making were from the dinner selection.

The menu went as follows:

• bread
• herb salad
• pickles
• kashk-e badenjan
• chelow
• khoresht – sour tofu and herbs

I read in Saraban that Iranian meals usually begin with flat bread and a basket of herbs and cheese. These are then followed by pickles, lie or lemon, then the ‘main’ component, either soup or stew and rice.

I actually went and made the bread (which is a BIG DEAL because I have tried and failed at bread many times over), but I bought the pickles. The bread I made was barberi, or breakfast bread – I made sure we had some left for breakfast the next day.

I used the recipe from Saraban and it turned out…okish. It was fluffy, but also had that slightly bland, tough thing going on which my bread always has. I’m doing something very wrong with bread, but I just don’t know what it is. Imma buy it instead.

There are no photos of the bread, but there will be some from breakfast.

The herb salad came mostly from our back yard veggie patch, but our eggplants are still pretty weedy looking and haven’t fruited yet, so I bought the eggplant too.

Salad, pickles and khask-e badenjan

The eggplant side dish was the star of the evening. I have added a veganised version of the Saraban recipe below, because it was so fabulous it really must be shared.

The chelow, which is Iranian rice, is another riff off of the pilaf theme which pervades the cuisines of central asia, southern europe and the middle east, this one with a very crunchy bottom. The crunchy-bottom concept is a concept I came across a few years back when I covered Azerbaijan, but I didn’t have the right tools to replicate it then.

Now, with my hard-anodised pan of non-stick wonder, I was able to turn my attention to an appropriately crunchy-bottomed rice dish.

It turned out beautifully – lovely and golden, crispy and fluffy. Sadly though, the crispiness was actually a little too crispy for Mr and I. I think we prefer our grains with a little give. It was gorgeous though, I’ll give it that.

Khoresht and chelow

The stew, or khoresht, was from this recipe for sour chicken stew at Turmeric and Saffron. I followed it for the most part, subbing fried tofu for the chicken, and making a much smaller dish over all. I also used lime instead of bitter orange, because I don’t know where I would get a bitter orange in Melbourne.

Frying tofu in the wonder-pan – looks tastier than it was.

I enjoyed the stew especially the sour part,  but Mr was not so fussed about it. The tofu didn’t really take in much flavour, and if I made it again i would marinate it a long while before frying it.

 

Eggplant with sour creamy sauce

• 1 large eggplant
• salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small onion
• olive oil
• pepper
• dried herbs (the original recipe specifies mint, but I had none so used some dill, tarragon and oregano)
• 3 Tbs tofutti better than cream cheese
• 100ml water
• 2 Tbs vinegar

1. Peel and slice the eggplant into rounds. Salt and leave to sweat for 20 minutes.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees.
3. Fry the onion and garlic in some oil until just soft. Set aside, but don’t clean the pan.
4. Wash and fry the slices, then fry in batches until just coloured on each side in the same pan as used for the onions.
5. Put all the eggplant, onions and garlic into a baking dish with some pepper and dried herbs and bake for 20-30 minutes. (Mine were 30 minutes, but that was while I waiting for something else to happen, so it might not need this long)
6. Pull the eggplant out of the oven and mash with a fork. It will be a bit lumpy.
7. Put the mashed eggplant in a serving dish, with some room left over.
8. In a small saucepan which the tofutti, water and vinegar and bring to the boil. Return to simmer, stirring constantly until it is a little thicker.
9. Pour the liquid on top of the eggplant and serve warm or at room temperature.

 

 

Happy Birthday Mumma!

Today is my Mum’s 50th Birthday (Happy Birthday Mum!), and earlier in the week we had a High Tea birthday party to celebrate.

Its no secret that one of my favourite things is to make little food and sweets, which is good, because one of my mum’s favourite things to do is eat little food and sweets So my sister Katie, Mr, and my brother Jay all got in on the action and we cooked up a feast so pretty I figured I’d better share.

First things first, Katie was  charge of decorations, and she did such a great job. She op-shopped for cake stands and plates, and made everything totally gorgeous.

Katie's handiwork

The spread

The entirely vegan and almost entirely gluten free menu included:
•    Arancini
•    ”Meat” balls (some gluten)
•    Samosas (some gluten)
•    Rice paper rolls
•    Warm mushroom dip
•    Sushi
•    Hommus in cucumber cups (curtesy of Toby and K, who got it from Wind Attack)
•    Cupcakes
•    Chocolate crackles
•    Caramel and white chocolate slice

Cucumber cups and ugly sushi

Samosas and Arancini

Rum balls and Chocolate Crackles

White chocolate caramel slice (well, pink chocolate in this case, and slightly oozing)

Recipes-wise there isn’t much to share. Katie made the rice rolls, the cupcakes came from a packet mix, I’ve covered arancini before, everyone can make chocolate crackles, same goes for sushi, and the samosas came in a box from the Indian grocer on Beaumont St. The caramel slice recipe is mine, but it was a less successful version of a top secret from my book (that I’m still trying to get published – we’ll see). I can share my “meat balls” recipe and the warm dip recipe though.

vegan meat balls

Meat balls
1 cup frys chicken style strips, thawed
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup almonds
1 tsp vegan chicken stock powder
1 tsp mixed herbs of your choosing (I use oregano, sage and thyme)
1 tbs soy sauce
pepper to taste
1 tsp cornflour in 2 Tbs of water, to make a paste

1.    Put strips, rice, almonds, stock and herbs into a food processes and process until crumbed.
2.    Place mixture into a bowl and stir the cornstarch paste and soy sauce through.
3.    Mix to form a dough. Taste, add pepper if desired.
4.    Form balls.
5.    Fry balls in a little oil in a non-stick pan until browned on a few sides.
6.    Serve with some dipping sauce such as tomato, BBQ, or sweet soy.

Vegies and dip

Warm Mushroom Dip

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium brown onion, diced
1 cup chopped mushrooms (I like portobellas and/or oysters)
1 tsp vegan stock powder or appropriate amount of preferred salt
1 cup vegan sour cream
pepper
two tablespoons chopped chives

1.    In a large saucepan, fry the onion in olive oil until soft.
2.    Add mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring, until cooked through.
3.    Remove from heat, add salt and sour cream and blend with a stick blender.
4.    Stir pepper and chives through and serve warm.

I usually serve this in the middle of a cob loaf, but finding a gluten free loaf was a no-go, so we stuck it in a bowl near a platter of veggies instead.

Cupcakes!

Cupcakes
I’m no guru of gluten free baking. Most of my attempts have turned into weird, squishy, wafer-like substances, or rocks. But we had success with the cupcakes. Mr did the making, I contribute technical advice, and we totally cheated and used the Basco cupcake packet-mix. To make sure they rose without using egg, we used teensy-tiny cupcake pans instead of a muffin tray, and we replaced the eggs with three spoons of silken tofu. They turned out totally gorgeous, and all credit for their gorgeousness goes to Mr.

Quick Hit – Aoili

I may have stumbled across the best vegan aioli. In the world. Ever.

Ok, so I haven’t had vegan aioli before now, so I may be over-reaching with that statement, but its was pretty darn good. Here’s the recipe:

Vegan Aioli

• 1 pack firm silken tofu (297g)
• 3 tb olive oil
• 3tbp vinegar
• 2-5 cloves garlic, roasted (I’m a 5 clove girl, Mr is more a 1-2 clove person)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp nooch
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp celery salt
• 2 tbs water

• Roast garlic cloves (skin on) in hot oven until soft, or about 15 minutes.
• Allow garlic to cool, then peel it.
• Add all ingredients to bowl or blender and blend/mix until smooth.
• Taste test, add vinegar, salt and pepper as necessary.
• Serve with oven baked wedges.
• Bask in the awesome.

We’ve had it twice this week – twice with wedges, and once some leftovers used in some brown rice sushi.

Wedges, Aioli and Kangkong salad

Carrot and Cucumber Sushi and Cold ginger tofu

Mezze two

On Mezze night number two, we had pumpkin kibbeh, tabouli, bean dip, flat bread chips, and fried tempeh kibbeh. Overall, it was delicious, and I have to say I’m pretty proud of my new creation, the fried tempeh kibbeh.

The pumpkin Kibbeh was bought from the Middle East Bakery on Hope st. I just happened upon them in the freezer while I was looking for the ill-fated felafel. They are vegan, and cooked straight from frozen, so they’re quick and hard to stuff up, which is always a winning combination.

I picked the bean dip after a cursory net serach about Lebanese food. I have since discovered that it is not Lebanese, but Egyptian. For that I apoligse. However I did make it, because it is what I had the ingredients for, and I have to say it was very yummy.  I used this recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, and served it with vegetable crudites and flat bread chips.

Bean dip with capsicum, carrot and snow peas from our garden

I made the tabouli from a recipe in Arak and Mezze (available from the Moreland Libraries), however I overestimated the amount of parsley I had left so it was a little heavy on the burghul.

As tasty as all of this was, the main event was the tempeh kibbeh. I made these up because we had some tempeh that needed using, and I wanted to try my hand at veganising the meat kibbeh I always see at Lebanese restaurants.

Pumpkin kibbeh to the right, Tempeh Kibbeh on the left

Vegan Tempeh Kibbeh

• 250 g tempeh, mashed
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 3 tablespoons of soaked burghul
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 2 chopped spring onions
• salt, to taste
• oil, for frying

1. With your hands, mash all ingredients together very well, until there are very few tempeh lumps left. If it is too dry, add a little oil. If it is too wet, add some more bread crumbs.
2. Taste the mixture, add salt if necessary.
3. Roll the mixture into balls.
4. Deep fry the balls in batches, in a wok or deep fryer. You could also bake the balls in the oven for a lighter dish.
5. Serve with bread and salad.

 

Picadillo and a Bean Bonanza

Picadillo is a mince-based dish, sometimes eaten alone, and sometimes used as a filling for various tortilla dishes like burritos and tacos. It is served in many countries, including the Phillipines, and is basically just mince and vegetables.

I used this recipe from MexicanFoodie and served it up with some rice cooked with tomatoes, chillies, capsicum and onions, as a sort of Mexican Risotto.

It was the perfect weeknight dinner- fast, filling, tasty, and with a nice protein hit from the vegan mince we used.

Picadillo and rice - not exactly photogenic

On the last day of Mexico week, it was time to make refried beans. I had a lot of bits and pieces in the cupboard and the fridge, and decided to turn this into meal less ordinary, with some inspiration drawn from Vegan Mexican Food’s 7 layer Fiesta Bean Dip.

I used variations on this recipe to produce to versions of refired beans: a typical kidney bean version with chilli, and my own canellini (white) bean version with some nooch, liquid smoke and cumin.

I made a quick red salsa and green salsa, and mashed some avocado, then layered them to make a 5 layered bean dip in the colours of the Mexican flag (kinda, and with repeats).

It was tasty and filling, and I served it with steamed vegies and some bread. Top marks, if I do say so myself, for creative use of fridge dregs.

Layers - not exactly neat, but you get the idea

Its pretty from this angle

tart n stuff

On the menu this post is a tart, a salad, and some paté (i totally just worked out how to add accent I might be slow to the game, but I’m still pretty pleased with myself).

First, the mushroom pate. I sort of made this up as I went. I ground walnuts and green onion with some cooked mushroom (wiped dry after cooking), a dash of lemon juice, some dried thyme, lots of pepper, 300g of silken tofu, vegie salt, and about 4 tablespoons of Tofutti Better then Cream Cheese. I blended the lot, tasted and adjusted, then stuck in a bowl to set up in the fridge for an hour or so.

mmm paté

It was divine! I had intended that we eat it with crusty French bread, but we had already polished it off the night before, so instead we ate it with Vita-Weats. Only the best will do at our place.

Next up was the tart of leek, caramelised onion, pesto, olive and roast pumpkin. This is easy to prepare, but looks and tastes like a knock-out dish. You could make it a day ahead and serve it cold, too, though we ate it warm.

The Finished Tart

You need:

• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pumpkin
• tiny bit of oil
• 4 tbs pesto
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 3 red onions, chopped
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• another tiny bit of oil
• 1/2 cup green olives, halved

1. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Defrost the pastry.
3. Bake the diced pumpkin in a tiny bit of oil, until it is soft.
4. Cook the leek in a little olive oil for about 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
5. I the same pan (remove the leek) fry the red onions  on medium to high heat for about 5 minutes.
6. Lower the heat, and add the brown sugar. Continue to cook the onions, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. You may add more oil if necessary, but do not add any water (it should seem obvious, given the recipe doesn’t call for water, but I’ve seen someone do it – it turns to toffee).
7. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
8. Line a tart tin with pastry. Cover the pastry with the pesto, spreading it out in a thin layer.
9. Add the cooled pumpkin.
10. Top with the leeks, then the caramelised onion.
11. Finally, scatter the olives across the top.
12. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until pastry has browned a little.
13. Cool in tin for at least 10 minutes before cutting to serve

The salty and sweet flavours in this tart work well together, and I like that way the bland, slightly sweet pumpkin benefits from the sugar, olives and pesto.

Last, we had a fennel and orange salad. This one’s easy, tastes light and fresh, and looks gorgeous.

Fennel and orange salad

• 1 fennel bulb
• 2 oranges
• 1 red onion
• juice of 1/2 an orange
• 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp apple juice concentrate
• 1 tbs flaxseed oil

1. Prepare the fennel bulb by removing any stringy bits, and chopping into thin strips, across the stalks.
2. Prepare the oranges by segmenting them. This involves removing the tops and bottoms, then the peel with a parking knife, then gently cutting between the membrane to produce orange segments without any pith. I’ve added photos at the end to explain, though note, I use my ‘everything’ knife, as I don’t actually own a paring knife. Careful if you do this, there is a high risk of cutting your hand if you’re not VERY careful.
3. slice the onion into thin half crescent slices.
4. Arrange the onion, orange and fennel on a plate.
5. In a small cup, mix the vinegar, mustard, orange juice, apple juice concentrate and oil. Pour this dressing over the salad, and serve.

How to segment an orange… in pictures

Please forgive the photo order, I have so little control over where they go!

1. Cut off the top and bottom.

2. Remove the pith and peel.

3. keep going

4. Until it looks like this.5. Carefully cut down one side of a segment6. trim down the other side of the segment until it pops out. This is what you should have left at the end.7. pretty, pithless segments