Mezze 1

• Babaganoyj (eggplant)
• Tomato salad
• chickpea dip with “beef”
• potato kibbeh

The list above is what I had intended to make for our first mezze night. It didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped though.

First to make the babaganoyj (spelling taken from the book I used, but there seem to be a few ways). The recipe, from the book Arak and Mezze: The Taste of Lebanon, said to put the whole eggplant in the oven and roast it, turning, until the skin was brown. It seemed unlikely to happen in the 5 minutes prescribed, but I gave it a go. It took 15 minutes, but it did get there, to my relief.

Next was to scoop out the flesh and mash it. As I sliced into the eggplant I could sense there might be a problem – it was a really, really seedy one. I was supposed to remove the seeds, but there were just too many, so I left them in. I then tried to mash it, only to find that some of it was better cooked than other parts.

I tried to keep on, and added the tahini, lemon juice, etc, but in the end it was a seedy, uneven, overwhelmingly-tahini-flavoured mush, that just didin’t work. Even Mr thought it was a bit crap, and he eats just about anything. I didn’t get a photo before it was added to the compost, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Ah well, on to the potato kibbeh and tomato salad.

However, I got home, looked through the pantry and realised I didn’t actually buy any potatoes or sour cream (for the tomato salad).

So, onwards and upwards I turned my hand to making cauliflower kibbeh instead. Kibbeh, in this context, seems to mean mashed something with burghul. So, I steamed and mashed and soaked and salted, and it turned out like this:

Kibbeh, tastes much less bland than it looks

A very yummy use of my second favourite vegetable.

For the salad, I just cut up tomatoes, marinated them in lemon juice and sumac, then mixed them with cucumber, parsley and some spinach from our garden. Yum.

Tomato salad, Keira-style

The last part of our meal was the best, and certainly the easiest, due to some cheating on my part.

We had hommus with “beef”, however I used bought hommus from Aldi (perhaps the best bought hommus in Australia) and Sanitarium mince, so it was pretty easy. This was tasty, filling, and a little different than our usual use of hommus, so I’ve added the recipe for you to recreate some fast food at home.

Hommus with "beef" and pine nuts

Easy-Peasy Cheaters’ Vegan Hommus with Beef

• 250g Hommus
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 1 packet Sanitarium (or other) vegan mince
• 1/2 tsp fennel powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tbsp dried parsley flakes
• salt and pepper to taste

1. In a dry pan toast the pine nuts. Watch them closely, as they burn easily. Put aside.
2. In the same pan heat some olive oil, and cook the onion for 5-10 minutes, until translucent.
3. Add the mince, and mash with a fork.
4. Stir the spices through, and add salt to your tastes.
5. Remove from heat, stir the pine nuts through.
6. On a serving plate, arrange the hommus in a ring, with a well in the middle. Put the mince and pine-nut mixture into the ring. Serve with vegetables and flat bread.

Nasi Lemak, a cautionary tale

Nasi Lemak is probably the dish I think of first when I think about Malaysia. With coconut rice, peanuts, fried tofu, sambal, onion and cucumber, it may be one of the best breakfast dishes ever created. Okay, so its supposed to have tiny fish, egg and meat, but whatever, I like it with tofu.

Nasi Lemak... kinda

I have made nasi lemak at home twice now. It hasn’t worked very well. The coconut rice is easy and delicious, even without the pandan leaves, the peanuts are always good, and you really can’t stuff up chopping a cucumber and an onion. I fried up some tofu, or heat up some puffs, and its looking good. But then begins the problems: for me, it all falls to pieces with the sambal.

Now, sambal recipes make it look easy, like something that simply can’t be stuffed up by a well-meaning yet tragically uninformed cook such as myself. Well, that’s just not true. I can be stuffed up, and I’ll show you how.

So we’re all on the same page, check out this recipe, which I used as my guide (kinda).

How to stuff up a sambal

The recipe calls for you to combine:

• 10 chopped shallots, or 8 small chopped red onions
• 2 ounces or 8 fresh chilies, remove seeds and slice
• 5 cloves sliced garlic
• 1 stalk lemongrass thinly sliced (use only the bottom 3 inches of the stalk)
• ½ ounce tamarind (soak in a cup of water and pour the tamarind juice through a strainer before use)
• ½ ounce or 10 dried chilies (soak in hot water for 5 minutes), or 3 tsp chilly powder
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste

So, you don’t have shallots or red onions, having used them yesterday, so you use spring onions instead. You forgot to pick up dried chillies of any asian variety, so you use some ancho chillies you have left over from making Mexican Mole instead. You blend with the rest of the ingredients, but it tastes… well, not quite right.

You heat it all in a wok, having forgotten to do that with just the first three ingredients. Try to sniff it and burn your eyes on the intense onion/chilli fumes. Get your partner to take it off the heat while you lean over the sink, rinsing and swearing for a bit.

Get back to it and taste it. The ancho chillies have made it smokey and dark-flavoured, and the tamarind was too sweet and not sour enough. You can fix it though! You add some lime juice. It tastes a little odd with the ancho chillies, but you persevere. Add a little more lime juice.

It could be saltier, so you add some salt. You run out of salt though, but it requires more. You look around the pantry for something salty. Olives! So you add some olives. Now it is the right amount of salty, but a little brown… and western.

It still isn’t sour enough, so you add a little bit of pomegranate syrup. That was a BAD idea. Now the whole thing tastes like pomegranate, which does not work well with the garlic. You try to mask it with more chilli. It doesn’t really work.

Now its a litlle too strong for Mr with all that garlic and chilli, so you sneak in some tomato paste.

So you’ve got a paste-like substance that tastes a lot like pomegranate with garlic and chilli, and is an off-brown colour, like the brown spots on a tomato that’s getting dodgy. It ends up edible… just.

Thw offending "Sambal"

Serve it next to the other stuff for Nasi Lemak. Consider pretending you didn’t stuff it up. Decide instead to fess up and apologise profusely for the barely edible dinner. Eat your first mouthful. Giggle at Mr’s face as he tried to tell you that its ok, really. Marvel at just how bad it really is. Get out the chilli sauce, push the “smbal” to the side. Finish the dinner with the ready made chilli, and agree not to try to make it again.

Write “Sambal Paste” on the shopping list.

How do you say “Epic Fail” in French?

According to the internets, it can’t be translated well, but a literal translation would be, “échec épique”.

In French or in English,those are the best words to describe my attempt at creme caramel.

I had this great idea, to make one with coconut milk and agar agar. It could have been great.

I should have realised I was doomed when my first attempt at caramel turned into a hard toffee that as so hot it cracked my ramekin. but instead of admitting defeat, I slowly cleaed the toffee out of the saucepan, and started again.

I heated the sugar, added the coconut cream, soy milk, agar agar and vanilla. I heated, I boiled, I whisked. I made the caramel sauce, and this time it didn’t trun to glass. I poured it into tea cups, my ramekins having given their lives for the cause. I followed with the cream mixture. I refridgerated, and I crossed my fingers.

When the time came to turn them out, I held my breath. Images of sloppy messes and puddings stuck in their bowls came to mind. Would it refuse to come out? Would it slip out at an awkward angle and end up a pile of mush?

When they slid out neatly, I just about cried tears of joy. Had I only known what was to come.

Innocently looking alright in this photo. It lied.

A little extra caramel was poured on top and it was time for the eating. And that’s when we realised that the creme caramel had separated into three distinct layers.

On top was a sweet but almost inedibly-hard caramel/jelly layer. On the bottom was a layer of semi-translucent, flavourless coconut fat. In the middle was the only truly edible layer, a creamy, slightly sweet coconut mousse.

You can see why I have decided not to post the recipe. My mistake? Using coconut cream instead of coconut milk, over cooking the caramel, not letting the mixture sit before turning into ramekins/tea cups, using too much agar agar, and well, generally attempting to make it without a recipe.

Its a risky game, cooking by the seat of your pants.

And now, a photo for your amusement.

Le creme caramel de fail

Mr ate the whole thing. Bless him.

Birthday Feast

It was Mr.’s Birthday yesterday, and in honor of the occasion, I made a fancy-pants dinner. I decide I could fit it in with the theme of the week, and create a ‘Modern Australian’ feast.

Modern Australian is basically jut modern restaurant food – either the use of native foods, traditional food with different ingredients, or fusions of other cuisines. Think wattleseed cake, pear, beetroot and cheese in salad, or quinoa with citrus and tofu.

The plan was to make: olives, olive oil and bread; asparagus with lemon myrtle dressing; stuffed mushrooms on mountain pepper potato rosti; macadamia-crusted smoked tofu with a pumpkin, leek and eggplant medley;  panna cotta with rosella coulis.

I ended up changing it a little, as I couldn’t find any rosella or jam thereof, I didn’t feel like eggplant, and I had a tamarillo to use, so i made a sauce and didn’t stuff the mushrooms. In the end, the menu looked like this:

• Parmesan bread with olives
• Asparagus with lemon myrtle dressing
• Grilled mushrooms on potato and parsnip rosti with tamarillo sauce
• Macadamia-crusted smoked tofu with a pumpkin, leek and capsicum medley
• Almond panna cotta with berry compote

It all turned out yum, with the panna cotta and potato rosti with mushrooms being the favourites. The tamarillo sauce was tart and tangy, but went well with the more sedated rosti and subtle mushrooms. The panna cotta fell apart, as I didn’t give it long enough to set up, but tasted divine. The lemon myrtle dressing was a little too tangy for me, but mr loved it.

I enjoyed using some new ingredients  – lemon myrtle and tamarillos are new to me – and it was fun to play with some “Aussie” ingredients.

And now for the recipes and photos! I just made these up on the spot, but here’s an idea of what I did.

Olives and Parmesan bread

This is just bread slices in the grill, then brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with vegan parmaggiano.

Asparagus and Lemon Myrtle Dressing

• Asparagus spears, steamed
• 1 tbs Tofutti cream cheese
• 1 tbs Plamil vegan mayo
• 1 tsp lemon juice (I’ll leave that out next time though)
• About 1/3 cup water
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp lemon myrtle (i used dried and powdered).

Place all ingredients except asparagus into a small frying pan. Stir with a wooden spoon, removing and lumps by pressing with the spoon. Over low heat continue to stir until sauce is warm and homogenous-looking. Spoon over asparagus and serve.

Parsnip and Potato Rosti

• 2 potatoes
• 1/2 a parsnip (the large end)
• 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast
• pepper, to taste
• 3 tbs olive oil, for frying

Place the whole potatoes and parsnip into a pot of boiling water. Cook for about 10 minutes. Remove, and allow to cool completely. Once cool, grate the potatoes and parsnip into a small bowl. Add pepper, yeast, and any other flavourings. Mix with fingers until combined. Shape into balls with hands, and flatten into patties (I made two large ones, but you could make smaller patties). In a wok or frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add the patties and fry, over medium heat, until the bottom is golden brown. This should take about 10 minutes. Turn over gently, and repeat on the other side.

I served this with basic cooked mushrooms.

Tamarillo Sauce

• 1 tamarillo, chopped finely, skin on
• 1 tomato, chopped finely
• pinch cayenne pepper (i really mean just a tiny bit)

In a small saucepan, add all ingredients. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat, and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Serve.

You could add various flavours to this. It would go well with a little pomegranate syrup, some lime leaf, or a little mango chutney. If your tamarillo isn’t ripe it may require some added sugar. The sauce is very tart, but that’s how its supposed to be.

Macadamia crusted tofu

• 1/2 cup chopped macadamias
• 4 smoked tofu ‘steaks’, about 8cm x 4cm x 0.7cm
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 3 tbs corn flour
• 1 tbs non dairy milk

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. In a small bowl, mix macadamias and pepper. In another, very small bowl, mix the cornflour and milk until there are no lumps. Place the tofu on baking paper on a baking tray (the baking paper is really essential here). Brush the tops of the tofu with the cornflour mixture. it should be about 1-2ml thick on the top. Cover with the macadamia mixture. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Gently place steaks onto plates. Serve with vegetables (i used stir-fried pumpkin, leek and green capsicum, with no sauce).

Almond panna cotta

• 1 tsp agar agar
• 20 ml boiling water
• 250 ml almond milk
• 125 g soy yoghurt
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• contents of 1 vanilla pod
• 1/6 cup sugar

In a cup, add agar agar to boiling water, and stir to begin dissolving. Add all other ingredients to a small saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly, until it feels almost hot to the touch. Add the agar and water. Continue to heat, stirring until the mixture almost boils (it should have movement on the surface, but no big bubbles). Remove from heat and pour into ramekins. Allow to cool on bench, then refridgerate for at least 2 hours. To serve, turn desserts out of the ramekins, onto plates. Serve with berry compote – I used frozen berries, left in a bowl to defrost for 2 hours, with 1 tbs sugar and 1 tbs water.

Mine fell apart, as mentioned above, but I have since updated the recipe..so, you know, don’t let this image scare you off giving it a go