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.

 

 

Stew and Pilaf and Salad

The first Armenian meal was a stew called Bozbash.

I originally decided to make Bozbash after coming across praise for it in a book about Eastern European cuisine. This book, and several websites, identified Bozbash as an Armenian dish. I found several recipes for so-called Armenian Bozbash also. I also came across this article, containing a conjecture that Bozbash is not Armenian, but Azeri. I have no idea, and I had already made the thing, so to keep things simple this is my totally inauthentic, veganised version of the Azeri/Armenian/generally Central Asian dish.

For the record it was warm, hearty, but a little boring. I forgot the vinegar though, and this may have made the difference. No doubt the meaty version is less bland, but you can only get so much juice out of soy sausages.

Pilaf and Bozbash

I adapted it from these recipes:
http://beyondborscht.tumblr.com/,
Lamb Soup with Chestnuts, and Bozbash Yerevan.

Vegan Bozbash

Serves 3

• olive oil
• 2 Fry’s burgers
• Medium brown onion, small dice
• 1 tbs margarine
• 2 carrots, chopped into rounds
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 3 cups vegan “beef” stock, 1 cup water
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 leek, diced
• pepper
• 2 potatoes, big dice
• 1 large tomato, peeled and diced
• 1 can chickpeas (400g), drained
• 1/2 cup fresh peas
• 4 semi dried prunes
• Leaves of 2 sprigs flat leaf parsley
• Leaves of 2 sprigs coriander
• a little vinegar, to serve

My method was mostly like the Beyond Borscht recipe, with a few deviations.

1. In a large saucepan fry the diced burhers in a little oil until they brown. Remove from an and put aside.
2. In the same pan, fry the onion in some margarine, until brown. Stir so it doesn’t burn too much ( a little is ok).
3. Add the carrot and continue to fry over medium heat until beginning to brown, stirring to avoid burning. Remove carrot and onion but don’t clean the pot.
4. Add the bay leef, thyme, water and beef stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid off.
5. Put the carrot and onion back in the pan, and add the leek, garlic and pepper. Put the lid on and simmer for about 45 minutes. Check occassionally to ensure yours doesn’t go dry. (mine didn’t).
6. Remove from heat but let it sit with the lid on, for 1 hour or more. (If you need to let it sit overnight or for a few hours, sit it in the fridge after it cools, to avoid nasties building up).
7. In a separate pot boil the potatoes until tender, but not falling apart. Once done, set aside.
8. To peel the tomato: Cut a small, very shallow cross on the bottom of the tomato, and remove the core in a small cone shape. The tomato should still be in one piece after this. Then put the tomato into boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Remove and allow to cool a bit. Once cool enough to touch, the skin should come off easily. Then dice the tomato and set aside.
9. When you are ready to eat, put the soup together. Pull out the bay leaf and discard. Add the burgers, tomato, chickpeas, peas and potatoes to the carrot/leek/stock mixture and heat to your serving temperature.
10. Dived the prunes and the solids of the soup into three bowls, pour the soup over. Garnish with parsley and coriander, and a little squirt of vinegar.

I served it up with a lentil pilaf, and an eggplant salad.

For the pilaf I used this recipe I found on CeltNet, although I used half rice and half bulgur.

Eggplant Salad

Eggplant Salad (based on this recipe from Little Armenia)

serves 2

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 spring onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbs Sun dried tomatoes, small dice
• 3 Tbs red capsicum, small dice
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp sumac
• lemon juice from 1/4 lemon
• salt to taste
• 2 Tbs chopped parsley

1. In a very hot oven, roast the eggplant, turning 3 times so all side brown and the eggplant deflates a bit. Takes about 20 minutes.
2. Let the eggplant cool enough to handle. Open the eggplant and scrape the flesh and seeds into a bowl. Discard the skin.
3. Mash the eggplant with a fork, then add the onion, garlic, tomato, capsicum, oil, spices, and lemon juice, and mix together.
4. Add salt to taste if desired.
5. Put the mix in a serving bowl and sprinkle with parsley. I like it best if it sits for 30 minutes or more before eating.

Eggplant salad and bozbash

 

 

 

 

Meals from Spain

I’m reaching back into my memory here, because most of the Spanish food I made was made a few months ago now, but I do remember how tasty they were.

I focused mostly on Tapas, because I love tiny food, but I also included paella (kinda), mashed potato, stew, stuffed eggplant and polenta in my foray into Spanish cooking.

The Stew

I based my stew on a recipe for rabbit stew that I found in a cookbook I borrowed from the Newcastle library. The recipe called for herbs such as parsley, thyme, and bay, as well as red wine, tomatoes, onions, garlic, red capsicum and paprika.

I changed it from a Rabbit Stew to a Rabbit-food Stew by subbing carrots, chickpeas, cannellini beans, a little vegan sausage and mushrooms the rabbit and bacon.

I cooked the onion, garlic, dried herbs, veggies and beans in the wine for about 45 minutes, and added the fried sausage, fresh herbs and paprika at the end. I served it up with a basic olive-oil mash, using potatoes, 0live oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Rabbit-food stew and olive oil mash

The Polenta

While I was trying to cook Spanish food I had another bout of gastritis, so I had to go back to bland food for a week or so. During this time I made some carrot polenta, based on a Spanish recipe. It was very easy, and quite a tasty side dish for everyone else, although it was the main for me.

It consists of grated carrot, polenta, a little margarine, a little salt, and some vegan plain yoghurt to serve. I made the polenta as per the package instructions, adding sauted, grated carrot and some smooshed, boiled potato before cooking.

Carrot Polenta

The Paella

My attempt at Paella was pretty far from the original, as I don’t have a paella pan, and wasn’t able to present it in a big pan covered in pretty veggies. I made mine in my Mum’s electric frying pan, and presented it in bowls. Easy, yummy, but probably not actually recognisable as paella.

I added capsicum, cherry tomatoes, carrot, celery, zucchini, chickpeas, onions, herbs and a little bit of fried vegan sausage (I like Sanitarium’s hot dogs for Spanish food). I used a bit of brown rice and a bit of basmati rice.

(An aside, I was under the impression that Basmati was a whole grain. It isn’t. That makes me a little sad, because I was really enjoying the moral superiority of eating whole grains that tasted so white-ricey.)

Vegan Paella

 

The Eggplant

I made the eggplant in my second go at Spanish food, after we moved back to Melbourne.

I found the recipe in The Mediterranean Cookbook by Joanna Farrow and Jaqueline Clarke, which I actually bought for someone else, but ended up with, and use frequently.

I used baby or Japanese eggplants, and stuffed them with toasted pine nuts, sultanas, dried cranberries (my addition), fresh thyme from my garden and caramelised onion. I boiled the eggplant rather than baking it, for a quicker and less oily result. These were very tasty, and much better than I expected. I think the cranberry addition is a winner – so much nicer than sultanas.

Stuffed eggplant, the Spanish variety

Mezze Hooray!

No recipes today because I followed all the directions exactly. Feel free to click the links if you like what you see

 

The Imam Fainted

Eggplant stuffed with onion, garlic and tomato. There is a lot of hype about this dish, and the story goes that one Imam loved the dish so much that he fainted, either because he liked it so much, or because he heard they had run out of the oil to make it. I liked it, but I’m not sure I’d say it was swoon-worthy. It was good, just not amazing. Looking forward to trying a local version soon, to see if its just my cooking that’s disappointing!

The Imam Fainted - stuffed eggplant

Fried Cauliflower and Stuffed Mushrooms

This cauliflower dish is easy as: steam the cauliflower florets, coat in a basic flour+water batter, and fry. They are supposed to be served up with yoghurt sauce, but I just used salt and some chilli. The recipe had eggs, I just left them out.

 

Maybe not a particularly Turkish dish, but I love me a good stuffed mushroom, so I turned the last three in our fridge into yummy, lemony, morsels.

Stuffed Mushrooms and Fried Cauliflower

Dolma

Red capsicums stuffed with rice. This was very similar to the stuffed cabbage dish, although this time I roasted them. I flavoured the rice with dried mint and other herbs.

Dolma - stuffed peppers

For the recipes, check out these yummy links:

http://www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com/2009/02/fried-cauliflower-karnibahar-kizartmasi.html

http://www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com/2009/04/imam-fainted-turkish-ratatouille-imam.html

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/recipes/display/recipe_id/830/

http://almostturkish.blogspot.com/2007/07/vegetarian-stuffed-peppers-zeytinyal.html

Turkish Feast in Tbilisi

The first meal of Turkish origin I tired was actually a week or so ago, when a friend came around for dinner. I decided to put on a bit of a feast (I have a lot of time at the moment), and served up a spread including chickpeas in tomato sauce, eggplant mezze, stuffed cabbage, pilaf and shepherd’s salad. I also served up what was supposed to be brownies but turned into very dry biscotti due to my difficult oven and inappropriate ingredient substitutes – but that’s not Turkish, and I don’t have a photo, so lets forget it happened.

Sadly, I got wrapped up in conversation and forgot to take pictures until everyone had started eating, so most of the photos are of semi-destroyed dishes.

Eggplant in olive oil and tomato sauce, with Cabbage roll in the background

Everything was good, but the eggplant mezze dish was the definite winner. It was well cooked and oily in a good way,  and the tomato sauce was a perfect match. A recipe for this is at the end of the post.

The cabbage rolls were a little beyond my dexterity and fell apart when lifted. They tasted pretty good though, with some heavy handedness on the dried mint and sultanas.

 

Shepherd's Salad and Pilaf

Shepherd’s Salad is a Turkish take on an internationally popular combination: cucumber, onion and tomatoes with herbs. This one has garlic, coriander and parsley, with a little lemon juice and vinegar as dressing.

I went with a mixed pilaf with sultanas, a little orange capsicum, onion, garlic, herbs, and some left over chickpeas. This is probably very un-Turkish, but it is what I had. I added a little clove, cinnamon, salt and pepper to flavour it. I’m not personally a big fan of sweet dinner food or non-citrus fruit in savoury dishes, but this was okay. I used a combination of recipes from the land of the internet, but they all involved cooking the rice in some olive oil, then added the onion, then vegetables, then stock and fruit, and cooking the liquid off.

Chickpeas with tomato

The chickpea dish was based on a recipe from the book, Contemporary Turkish Cooking, by Filiz Zorly (2007). I changed it due to ingredient availability, as I can’t get dry chickpeas, cumin or good tomatoes. It turned out really nicely, a little spicy but not too hot, and quite flavoursome. I’ll post my recipe below, but do check out the original if you have access to dry chickpeas, because I imagine that would be even better.

The recipe for the stuffed cabbage rolls also came from Contemporary Turkish Cooking, which I perused at a public library in Vienna, on a cold, too-tired-to-tourist day.

Chickpeas with Tomatoes

Serves 4

• olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 good tomatoes, diced
• 2 cups drained and rinsed, tinned chickpeas
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp corriander powder
• dash cinnamon
• dash tsp cayenne pepper (use as little or as much chilli as you want. I and my friend both have stomach problems that mean no more hot foods without risk of ulcers and stomach cancer, so not much chilli for us )
• Juice on half a lemon
• salt and pepper to taste
• I would have added a little cumin, if I had access to it.

1. In a little olive oil, sweat the onions until translucent.
2. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant (about 3 minutes).
3. Add the tomato, chickpeas, tomato paste, spices and 1/3 cup water. Bring to the boil then return to simmer until the tomatoes are falling apart. Add more water if necessary. This took me about 15 minutes, with occasional stirring.
4. Add the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste. Let sit until, and reheat before serving. I let mine sit for about an hour, and it became much more flavousome with the time.

The recipe for the eggplant mezze dish was originally found somewhere on the internet, but I can’t find it now, of course. I’ll attribute when I figure it out, but this is what I did.

Eggplant in Olive oil with Tomato Sauce

Serves 2

• 1 large, long eggplant (or two smaller eggplants)
• Salt
• Olive oil (the amount is up to you, but at least 3 tablespoons)
• 1 medium brown onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 1-2 tsp sugar (if your tomato paste isn’t sweet)
• salt and pepper
• 1/3 – 2/3 cup water

1. Peel strips of the eggplant, lengthways, so that it looks a little like a circus tent. Slice the eggplant into rounds, salt, and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. Wash and dry the eggplant slices. Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick pan, and fry the pieces, turning once, in batches until they are all cooked through and lightly browned. I used about 1 tbs of olive oil here, but there are versions of the recipe that use up to 1/3 cup, so do what you please.
3. Arrange the cooked slices on a serving dish, and drizzle with remaining olive oil (I used about 1 tbs here).
4. In a small saucepan, cook the onion in a little more olive oil, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes, though don’t let the garlic burn.
5. Add the diced tomatoes, and cook, stirring occasionally, until they fall apart.
6. Add the tomato paste here, and then taste test – if it tastes sour add some sugar. I add salt and pepper here.
7. Add 1/3 cup of the water and continue to cook the sauce, stirring occasionally over low heat, for another 25 minutes. It should cook down, and all the tomato pieces should be pulp by now. Add extra water if it becomes dry before this point.
8. If you are a careful sort, pull out the floating bits of tomato skin (or remove them before hand, as shown in my post on ratatouille). I decided not to bother this time.
9. Pour the sauce over the eggplant slices, and refrigerate. Serve cold or at room temperature.

 

More beans, more eggplant, more potatoes and more walnuts (of course)

I’m convinced that at some point in the distant past, some wrote a book (in Georgian – one of the oldest living written languages) about the wonders of walnuts, and how to make sure you eat them at every single meal. It must have been a best-seller, because really and truly, walnuts are in everything here.

But enough about walnuts.

Tonight I had another go at Lobio, or red beans, although this time I followed a recipe for a cooked version. This version is a sort of soup/stew/dip, made of onion, garlic, kidney beans, herbs and spices. I used suneli (a special Georgian spice made from the flowers of the fenugreek plant), dried mint, coriander seed, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, fresh coriander and fresh parsley. The recipe said to use raw garlic and onion, but MR is a bit of an alliumphobe, so I used roasted garlic and red onion.

Lobio

It was warm and filling, but to be honest it just didn’t push my buttons like the salad version did. As kidney beans are the main source of vegetarian protein here in Tbilisi, I’ll probably try to make this again, though next time I think I’ll use raw garlic, and add more salt, more clove, and track down some fresh mint and dare I say it… dill.

I used two recipes conflated, which you can find here, and here. They are already vegan, hooray!

The second part of tonight’s menu was stuffed eggplant. The main feature that separated this Georgian versionto all the other kinds of stuffed eggplant was the method of cooking – the eggplant with stuffing got simmered in a skillet for about 45 minutes, instead of being baked.

Stuffed Eggplant

Sadly, this dish was also a little bland to my tastes, and I missed the oily, baked goodness I’m used to. The blandness could be because I only had kinda crappy tomatoes, or because I’m a salt-fiend. In any case if I make this again I will be using a little more salt, and maybe some nooch and lemon juice.

The saviour of the evening was the potatoes with walnuts, which is a very simple dish of boiled chopped potatoes, tossed with walnuts and fresh herbs. The original uses butter, I subbed olive oil. If you’re playing along at home, I would recommend using a butter substitute like vegan margarine for the flavour, although the olive oil was good.

Potatoes with Walnuts

I am a big fan of potato salads without mayo, so this was a winner for me.

On a tangent, I am very happy to say that as Christmas approaches, the shops have more and more “lenten” or “fasting” foods. Today I scored vegan cake slices, which we had for afternoon tea. At one lari a pop (about 70 cents), I’m looking forward to eating lots of these in future.

Georgian Cherry Cake

Georgian Chocolate cake

 

 

 

 

 

One disaster, a few thngs that didn’t quite work, and salad

When we first arrived in Tbilisi we were cold, tired and hungry as a result of a long flight and very little sleep the night before. We stayed with a couple we met through couch surfing, and Natalia, our host, made us a really tasty dish, which she said would probably be called something like “Potatoes on the family way”. She said it usually gets made with meat, but as a vegetarian she makes it with mushrooms.

Mr and I both loved it, so as soon as we were settled into our own place, its the first thing I tried to cook.

Unfortunately, my version didn’t match the golden, crispy texture her’s had, so I wont be posting the recipe yet. For now, you get a photo of what my version-that-didn’t-quite-work looked like. I added chickpeas for protein, too.

I didn’t get a photo of Natalia’s version, because I had just met her, and felt like a dork.

Potatoes that didn't quite work

The next dish I tried, again without success, was Eggplant with Walnut Sauce. I’ve seen photos on the net, and a number of recipes, and it looked fabulous. Unfortunately, I don’t actually have any blending/crushing/grinding implements in this kitchen, so my walnut sauce was more like walnut gravel, and I added too much vinegar, and my walnuts didn’t taste good, so the result was gritty, bitter and sour nastiness. I served it up with a pilaf that turned gluggy and a salad that tasted of slightly bitter cabbage and too much vinegar.

Even the photo sucks

All in all, not my greatest kitchen success.

I don’t think I’ll try to make this again, as I don’t have the right gadgets, and the version of the sauce I can buy is fantastic and affordable. If you want to have a go at it, check out these recipes: Nami Nami’s recipe, Ashbury’s Aubergines, Sisauri’s version, and Tsai.

Happily, not everything has been a disaster. We have been enjoying a lot of really nice salads and soups made with my home made stock. At the moment, the vegetables we can get are limited to cucumber, cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, eggplant, cauliflower, the occasional capsicum, and some not-too-good tomatoes. We can always find a lot of fresh herbs, including parsley, coriander, mint, dill, spring onions, and tarragon.

Purple and green salad

My favourite salad at the moment is cabbage and cucumber, or Purple and Green Salad.

Purple and Green Salad

• 1/3 head of red cabbage, shredded finely
• 1 cucumber, sliced thinly
• 1 handful chopped mint
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
• 1 small red onion, sliced very fine
• 1 tsp sugar
• pepper
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp olive oil

In a large bowl, mix the cabbage, cucumber, onion, half the mint, and all of the coriander.

In a small bowl beat together the remaining mint, sugar, vinegar, pepper and oil

Combine. Easy peasy.

If you don’t like the onion flavour you can leave it out or try this trick- before peeling or chopping, boil the whole onion for about 5 minutes. Cool, then slice as usual. It takes away some of the bite. I’m always boiling something, so I just pop it in with the pasta, potatoes or what have you.

Carrot and Cabbage

My second favourite salad at the moment is Carrot and Cabbage.

Carrot and Cabbage Salad

• 1/3 head of green cabbage, thinly shredded
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons sultanas
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a salad bowl.

Cabbage soup

The soup has been mostly a Russian cabbage soup or a Turkish red lentil soup both of which I’ll post about when I get to the Russian and Turkish weeks.

Vegan things you can buy in Georgia

While it is true that no Georgian I have met so far has managed to hide the confusion and shock they feel when I say I don’t eat meat OR cheese, there is actually quite a lot of vegan fare available in Tbilisi without any substitutions or changes required.

In fact, a lot of the food available in the supermarket here is so good, its hard to be bothered cooking. Its also very easy to find this food, particularly as my local supermarket labels everything in the deli section in Georgian and English, and I have made myself a handy cheat-sheet for reading the Georgian words for milk, dairy, eggs, advent, lent and fasting (some Georgians give up milk and meat for lent and advent, so there are vego versions of the classics available sometimes).

Here are a few of the delights we’ve been tasting in Georgia so far:

Roasted capsicum wth walnut paste

Eggplants stuffed with walnut paste

Walnut Paste with Beet Leave (left) and Eggplant with Cinnamon (right)

Be aware, there are many kinds of walnut paste dishes. They all taste fabulous, but I don’t recommend the one with the beet leaves – its tastes good, but looks like cat vomit, and feels how I imagine cat vomit would feel, because of the hard, stringy leaves.

Every kind of jam and preserve imaginable. These ones are chilli (wth fenugreek and dill, of course), pomegranat and plum (all local products)

Lobiani, a bean pie, or "Lenten" pie

Bean pie filling - savoury, not sweet

Be careful when buying the bean pies – some of them may have an egg wash. This one doesn’t.

Shotis Puri, a Georgian bread

Fastng Khinkali (this one is mushroom, though the potato one tastes better)

What lunch looks like for vegans in Tbilisi - bread, spreads, jam, tea and varenki (Russian dumplings)

Also, sometimes like this- salad, sauted cabbage, seeds, khinkali, tea and Georgian pear lemonade

Also available at Goodwill (supermarket closest to my place) is pre-made fried potatoes with mushroom, roasted vegetable medley, rice dishes, breads, pastries, dips, salads, red beans, red bean salad, red bean soup, Georgian corn cakes, vegetarian spring rolls-looking things, soy milk, vegan lard, and even vegan (though not fair trade) chocolate.

The far more numerous supermarket chain, Populi, also has bread, frozen vegan khinkali, and a some of the walnut and eggplant dishes, though they don’t have an ingredient list. There are also bakeries selling warm, local bread (vegan!) everywhere, numerous popcorn and doughnut vendors (I’ve been told the doughnuts are ok for fasting, so no animal fat or milk, but they may have egg) and plenty of fruit, veg and all the walnuts you can eat (these guys have a for serious obsession with walnuts).

So, you see its a total walk in the park being vegan in Tbilisi, regardless of the incomprehension of the locals.

Eggplant and mushrooms and walnuts, of course

Kamarjoba!

(Yup, that’s the only word, other than bread, that I can say in Georgian).

Last night’s dinner was intended to be all Georgian, all the way, however, of course, it didn’t quite turn out that way.

I had intended to make my own version of the fabulous eggplant and cinnamon dish that I get at Goodwill (the supermarket), and serve it alongside mushrooms and cream, and a red bean salad. Unfortunately I forgot that I  didn’t actually have any red beans, Mr having used them all up in his signature kidney bean, soy sauce and coriander dish the night before. Also, I rarely have the patience for eggplant, and this was not an exceptional evening.

As I didn’t realise that I was out of red beans until I had already made most of the salad, I have to apologise to all of Georgia for presenting my “Georgian Red Bean Salad”, made with chickpeas. The horror!

I am posting the recipe for my version of the eggplant with cinnamon dish, and if you actually follow it, yours should turn out really nicely. I got sick of salting the eggplant and started cooking it too soon, and then didn’t wait long enough before I added the water, so mine was a little undercooked. I also burned my finger, which is bad because I don’t have patience for holding burned fingers under the tap for long enough, either.

Both the mushrooms in cream and the salad recipe originally came from GeorgianTaste, however I am re-posting them with my vegan/available ingredient related changes. If you have access to vegan cooking cream, I suggest you try to follow the original recipe for the mushrooms- mine was great, but real cream would have been even better.

From front, clockwise: Bread, Eggplant and Cinnamon, Mushrooms in Cream, and (chickpea) Bean Salad.

Eggplant and Cinnamon

We’ve been loving the eggplant and cinnamon dish I get at the deli, so I though I’d give it a try.

• 1 medium eggplant, diced, salted for 40 minutes
• 1 onion, diced finely
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon, or more if you like
• dash cloves
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• dash fenugreek
• 1 tablespoon minced dill (or if you don’t have any, some dill-flavoured vinegar from the pickle jar)
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 cup water
• salt,to taste

1. Leave the eggplant to salt for ages and ages, seriously! (about 30-40 minutes) I never do this for as long as I should and it makes it a bit crap. Then give it a pat down or a rinse.
2. In as much oil as you are comfortable with (between 2 tablespoons and about 1.3 cup), fry the onion, garlic and eggplant together until the eggplant is soft (this takes a while).
3. Add the tomato, spices, and water. Stir together and leave at a simmer to cook down. This takes about 25 minutes, but check it occasionally.
4. Taste, and add salt as wanted.
5. Serve sprinkled with a little chopped coriander and some pomegranate seeds.

 

Red Bean Salad

Original recipe here.

• 2 garlic clove, minced
• 4 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped, not ground
• 2 tablespoons white  wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp red pepper powder
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (clearly, I used chickpeas)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Only one step – mix everything together!

Bean Salad

Mushrooms in Cream, Soko Arazhanit

Originally from this recipe. My version, below, makes enough for two, as a side dish.

• 1 clove garlic, minced
• a little olive oil
• 1 cups of mushrooms, trimmed and thickly sliced
• 1 tablespoon of vegan margarine (I can’t get margarine so I use vegan lard here)
• 2 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 1/2 cups soy milk (unsweetened)
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp powdered cloves
• sat to taste

1. Cook the garlic and mushrooms in a little oilve oil until soft.
2. Add the margarine and flour. Stir constantly until a soft dough forms, then continue to stir and cook for about 5 minutes (this “cooks out” the floury flavour).
3. Add a 1/4 cup of soy milk, and stir into a paste. Continue to add milk, a little at a time, until you have added 1 cup.
4. Add the spices, pepper, bay, a little salt and parsley, and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Mixture should have thickened a little. Add extra soy milk if needed, and stir through. Remove bay leaf, and serve  with rice, pasta or bread.

Gintaang Talong and Adobong Gulay

Gintaang Talong is Eggplant in Coconut milk. Similar to the squash in coconut milk, but much simpler. Basically, you just get some eggplant, and simmer it in coconut milk. Easy.

I used the recipe from http://www.asiarecipe.com which has an excellent section on vegetarian Filipino foods.

It turned out like this:

mmm, yummy eggplant

So, sort of grey, and not super appetising, but actually quite nice, if a little bland.

We had it with Adobong gulay, or vegetables cooked in vinegar and soy sauce. I have read the Adobo is a quintessential Filipino meal, so i thought I’d better give it a try.

I used the recipe from the book I mentioned in an earlier post (the title of which I can’t remember, but its blue and at the Coburg Library) But this recipe from Asiarecipe.com is similar. I used potatoes as the vegetable, I used apple cider vinegar and I added tofu to get some protein on our plates. The recipe I used called for tinned tomatoes, but none of the net versions do, so do what you feel, I guess. This was very yummy, and quite sour to my tastes.

Potato Adobo

Filipino food should be served with very different flavours on the same plate – the people pride themselves on their interesting palate, and like to have spicy, salty, creamy, sweet and sour flavours in contrast to each other. To stay at least a little traditional, we had the creamy, almost bland eggplant and the tangy, sour adobo together, making for a stark contrast. This was different for me, as I usually try to match flavours, but it was tasty and fun.

Flavours at war