Palov, salad and soup

Oh my goodness, I forgot to actually post the other Uzbek posts!

So it’s a double-post day.

The most famous Uzbek food is Palov. Similar to pilaf, plov and other rice dishes I’ve covered from all over the world, palov is made with rice, meat, vegies and seasonings. This one is the kind you cook in a pan, without touching the bottom, so it sets a little and has layers when you serve it.

I made a fairly basic palov, with vegan sausages and carrots, coloured with a little fake saffron (I think it’s marigold – from Turkey). It was actually a little bland, I’m sad to say, and I really couldn’t get the layers thing happening.

Unlayered Palov

We ate it with a mung bean and pumpkin soup from the book, The Art of Uzbek Cuisine, which was much tastier than expected, and a basic tomato and onion salad, which is always one of my favourites.

Pumpkin and Mung Bean Soup

Tomato and Onion Salad

All in all it was a filling, comforting meal, but not the tastiest food I’ve tried. I think I might have to try the palov of an experience Uzbek cook to really get it, because so far my attempts at this style are coming nowhere near the best pilaf ever, or other versions thereof.

Favourite things Part 1

Over the last week I’ve been cooking up a storm, using all my favourite ingredients. Some, like lasagne, McVegan breakfast burgers, and caramel topping, I haven’t bothered to photograph.

Others were more fortunate and without further ado, here’s the first batch!

Brussels Sprouts, Pumpkin and Walnut Stir-Fry
Okay, actually I like to make this with hazelnuts, but I couldn’t find any. I also added some Tofutti ricotta because I hadn’t tried it before. It worked pretty well, but it isn’t a necessary ingredient.

Pumpkin, Walnut, Brussels Sprouts

Serves 3 as a side (when two of those people are 6 foot something and hungry)

• 1 1/2 cup cubed butternut pumpkin
• 2 cups peeled and halved brussels sprouts
• olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tsp agave syrup or maple syrup
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup halved walnuts or hazelnuts
• pinch nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vegan ricotta

1. In a large, non-stick pan, sauté the pumpkin and garlic for 10 minutes.
2. Add the sprouts, and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Add the agave and soy, and the nuts, and toss through over heat for another 5 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and quickly toss through the ricotta and nutmeg.
5. Serve immediately.

Orechiette with pesto
This doesn’t need a recipe, really. I was just excited to find herb orechiette pasta. Such a pretty green.

Orechiette with stir-fry

Coconut buckwheat pancakes with coconut, pineapple and banana topping

Coconut pancakes with tropical topping plus cashew butter and agave

I love pancakes, but I can rarely be bothered with them, but I decided to use the opportunity while I am unemployed and have access to non-stick pans.

Coconut Buckwheat Pancakes (Vegan and Gluten Free)
serves 2

• 1/3 cup coconut flour or coconut cream powder (I found it at an Indian grocer)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 tbs ground flaxseeds
• 1 tbs cornflour
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• 1/2 to 1 cup soy milk (Depends on how thick you want them)

1. In a large mixing bowl mix coconut flour, buckwheat flour, flaxseed, sugar, cornflour and bicarb until well combined and lumps removed.
2. Slowly add the milk, one 1/4 cup at a time, stirring it through before adding more. I like thick pike lets, so if you want thin pancakes you might want to add more milk.
3. Heat a non stick pan and grease.
4. Pour mixture in, swirl, and cook until lightly browned on each side.
5. Serve with your favourite toppings.

Coconut buckwheat pancakes

Tropical Topping
Serves 2 to 3

• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 Banana, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped pineapple

1. In a large, dry, non-stick skillet, heat the coconut until it begins to brown. Shake it around a little to get a good coverage, but don’t let it burn. Once beginning to brown, immediately remove from heat, and put coconut in a bowl.
2. Chop the banana and pineapple and place in the bowl with the coconut.
3. Stir through until all the fruit is coated.
4. Serve with pancakes, or ice cream (or pancakes and ice cream).

Tropical Topping

Pancake Fixin's

Sisig and squash in coconut milk

Sisig is a mince dish, Filipino-style, and it is served in bars, like beer nuts. Its sort of sweet and sour, with pineapple and calamansi lime juice, ginger, garlic, onion and peppers.

I used this recipe from http://www.pinoyrecipe.net, although I subbed Sanitarium vegetarian mince for all the various parts of pig usually used (cheeks, heart, tongue, liver). Veganising also meant I skipped the grilling steps, and went straight to cooking the vegan mince in the marinade.

Vegan Sisig - much better than it looks

In all it was a tasty, quick meal, and yet another fun way of getting some fortified protein on a busy week-night.

We ate the Sisig with Ginataan Kalabasa, or Squash in Coconut Milk. The recipe generaly calls for prawns, but I just left them out.

I used this recipe from Filipino-foods.com, and left out the prawns and fish sauce. I subbed Massel stock for meat-based stock, and added a tiny bit of soy sace in place of the fish stock and shrimp paste.

The updated recipe looked like this:

Squash in Coconut Milk

• 2 tb olive oil
• 1/2 a small butternut pumpkin, large dice
• two small handfuls of green beans, top and tailed
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 small onion, small dice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tb ginger, minced
• 1 green chilli, sliced in half lengthwise
• 1 can Coconut Cream ( I use the Ayam brand, the green can that has no extras in it)
• 1/2 cup water mixed with 1 tb Massel chicken style stock powder
• 2 tb soy sauce

1. Heat oil on a saucepan. Cook onion until tranlucent (about 10 minutes) then add garlic and ginger and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
2. Add the squash, tomatoes, beans, coconut cream, and stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the squash is almost cooked through (10 minutes or so).
3. Add the chilli and soy sauce. Continue to simmer until squash is tender, but not falling apart, about 5 minutes. Serve.

Squash in Coconut milk

This was a tasty way to eat pumpkin/squash, which isn’t my favourite vegie, I have to admit. (Except in soup, then it gets 4th or 5th place in the fave vegie stakes). I would make it again, but next time I would add a little more ginger, and a little less chilli.

Curry squash, Makubi, coconut rice

For the first night of cooking Tanzanian, I wanted to try a mixture of foods, as well as get some vegetables into us, after a few days of not-so-healthy eating. We tried curry squash (actually butternut pumpkin), makubi, which is greens with tomato and peanut butter, and some coconut brown rice.

To make the makubi, I used this recipe. It was very easy, and a very tasty way to eat our greens. I used some kale, which our garden happily offered, instead of the spinach, for an extra green kick. I used chopped ripe tomatoes with a little bit of tomato paste instead of tinned tomatoes, and used crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth, because we don’t have smooth around much.

Makubi

The coconut brown rice was just cooked in a saucepan, with coconut milk added when the rice had about 10 minutes to go. I don’t think brown rice is particularly Tanzanian, but I wanted to up the nutrient and protein content to make up for past sins

A triangle of coconut rice

I had come across a recipe for curry squash somewhere on the internet, but of course I can’t find it now that I want to link to it! I’ll add the recipe as I remember it, and if/when I find the link I will credit the original poster.

Curry Squash

This was a healthy-ish, fun dinner. I loved the peanut butter in everything, and the curry using Keen’s curry powder was reminiscent of our childhoods, which was nice. The food was quite mild, though, and could probably use a little salt to make it appeal to western tastes (I’ve said to add some in the recipe below, but we didn’t). The makubi was an interesting way to prepare greens, especially kale, which needs some cooking, and made them very flavourful.

All dishes I would eat again, and happily, no changes had to be made to veganise, which could be a first for this blog.

Dinner

Tanzanian Curry Squash, serves 2

• a little oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 cups of butternut pumpkin, large dice
• 1 teaspoon curry powder (the bright yellow stuff)
• 1 tin tomatoes
• some water
• 2 cm ginger, minced
• 1 green sweet pepper, sliced
• 1 tablespoon peanut butter
• salt, if you use natural peanut butter

1. Fry the onions in the oil until soft.
2. Add the garlic and continue to fry until fragrant.
3. Add the pumpkin and curry powder and stir fry for about 3 minutes, until everything is coated in curry powder and goes bright yellowy-orange.
4. Add the tomatoes, ginger, sweet pepper, and enough water to almost cover the pumpkin. Simmer until pumpkin is soft and the liquid has reduced.
5. Add peanut butter and keep over heat until the mixture thickens a little.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Serve with a grain.

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

Aussie round-up

Being Australian, not every Aussie week dish was made by me. We visited Mr.’s nanna, who made us ‘meat’ and three veg, and fed us Anzac Biccies and scones (unfortunately I don’t have a photo).

However, there are a few dishes I just haven’t posted yet, so here they are, condensed into an ‘out-of-time’ double post

Pumpkin Soup

As it turns out, Australians and Indians are perhaps the only people in the world who take pumpkin seriously as a savoury, dinner-worthy vegetable. And no one else eats it in soup. In England they feed it to pigs, in the US they bake it with sugar, and most other countries seem to ignore it.

Pumpkin soup, then, is more Aussie than I knew. We ate it frequently when I was growing up, and there are so many different versions of pumpkin soup – curry, spiced, creamy, tomatoey – that I learned from my family, its hard to pick just one to post! Instead, I’ve decided to give you my recipe for pumpkin soup base, and you can add what you want from there.

Pumpkin Soup

• 1 onion, diced finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 cups chopped pumpkin ( I like butternut)
• 2 medium potatoes, chopped
• 1 can  pureed tomatoes
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• salt to taste

1. In a large soup pot, saute the onion in a little olive oil for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant (about 2 minutes)
3. Add the pumpkin, and saute for around 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.
4. Pour in the stock, and add the potatoes and tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and allow to simmer until the pumpkin is cooked through.
5. Using a bar mix (or similar), puree the soup until no lumps are left.
6. Taste now.

I like to add: 2 tbs tomato paste and 1 tbsp mixed herbs or; 1 tin of coconut milk, 1 tbsp curry paste and some fresh corriander or; curry powder and cayenne pepper or; lime juice, cumin, dried corriander and carraway; or any combination of these.

Serve with bread.

Golden Syrup Dumplings

I’m sure I’ve said it before, but maybe its time for a reminder – I’m a complete sugar-addict. I know its bad for me. I’m a personal trainer, so I work with the consequences of sugar addiction on a daily basis and yet… Its just so tasty!

Golden syrup dumplings were probably my favourite dessert when I was a kid, and they’re still a favourite now. I especially love to make them in the cold weather, and serve them up with some yummy vegan custard – divine.

Steaming golden syrup dumplings!

This is my standard recipe, it makes about 2 serves.

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup golden syrup
• 1 tbsp margarine
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp margarine
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup soy milk

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, brown sugar, and the first listed serve of margarine and golden syrup.
2. Bring to the boil, then allow to simmer gently.
3. In a mixing bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder.
4. Add the margarine, and rub in until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
5. Add the golden syrup and soy milk, and mix together to form a dough.
6. Make balls out of tablespoons of the dough.
7. Drop balls into the simmering mixture, and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
8. Serve with custard, cream or ice-cream.

Aussie breakfast

There’s no recipe here, as such, but I wanted to add a little bit about our standard Aussie breakfast (or brekky). The world knows we love or vegemite, but have you ever seen it?

I took a photo to explain standard brekky at our place.

Marmite on toast, Marmite, and knock-off weetbix

Mr. has 8 (yes 8) Weet-bix with soy milk and raw sugar, followed by some fruit. I usually have a cup of tea and 2 pieces of toast with margarine and a little Marmite (because Kraft owns vegemite, and Phillip Morris owns Kraft), or cereal and fruit.

Not the most exciting breakfast going, but oddly Australian.

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

Baking with pumpkin

Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Cookies, Pumpkin Muffins…the list goes on. Americans like to bake with pumpkin.

Its not something we do here very often, we usually turn our pumpkins into soup (or curry), or eat them roasted, so I have been intrigued.

The first time I baked with pumpkin was for my cookbook, and I made a chocolate pumpkin pie. It was sweet, creamy and a little odd to my taste-buds, being used to having pumpkin with gravy, not chocolate. It was pretty good though, and a very unusual dessert by Australian standards.

Now that I am cooking the USA, vegan style, I figure I should probably get on the baking with pumpkin bandwagon.

I chopped, seeded, skinned and baked one of my whole pumpkins. I let it cool, and gave it a good mash. Great…now what?

Scouring the internet, and my cookbook shelf, for recipes with pumpkin, I found some interesting looking recipes for pumpkin bread, and a recipe for pumpkin cookies (biscuits!) from my Lickin’ The Beaters cookbook, which looked promising.

So, off to work. I made the pumpkin read first, by combining a few recipes I found around the traps, including this one from IVU, and this one from gluten free goddess. Mine used white sugar and maple syrup as sweeteners, white and buckwheat flours, canola oil and sour cream as fats/wet ingredients, and I added walnuts. I didn’t use an egg replacer, and it didn’t matter.

Pumpkin Bread: My favourite!

As it turns out, pumpkin bread would be better described as pumpkin cake. It was awesome! I made two loaves, cutting the recipes by a third, and after two days (now) we have already run out (and there are only two of us). It was moist and sweet and spicy and just generally scrumptious. Definitely a winner, and something I plan to make again and again. In fact I might have another crack next week, with the remaining mashed pumpkin, which is sitting in my freezer.

Next were the Pumpkin Maple Cookies. I followed the recipe for these, uncharacteristically adding no changes or substitutions. They looked promising, but turned out a little underwhelming.

Maple Pumpkin Cookies: Not my favourite

They were spongy in a way I wasn’t keen on, and had a strong earthy flavour, which I just don’t think should be found in sweets. I think this recipe would be a good fit for some people, especially those who are less sugar-addicted than me, but it just wasn’t right for our house. To prove it, we have a biscuit jar full of them, hardly touched by either Mr or myself.

Today, I also made pumpkin muffins. I ditched the US theme temporarily, and made them savoury, as I just didn’t feel like any more of the maple syrup/mixed spice/pumpkin combination this week. We ate them with pumpkin soup, of course!

So my muffins are falvoured with nutritional yeast, tomato paste, salt and sage, and I used vegan sour cream as the moisture/egg replacer. The recipe for my savoury, not at all American pumpkin muffins is below.

Savoury pumpkin muffins and pumpkin soup

Savoury Pumpkin Muffins

makes 9

• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 tbs dried sage
• 2 tbs nutritional yeast
• 1 tsp salt
  

  Mmmm, muffins

• 1 cup pureed pumpkin
• 2 tbs sour cream
• 1/6 cup canola oil
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 2 tsp dijon mustard
• 3/4 cup white flour
• 1/4 cup wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp soy milk

1. pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees, oil a muffin tray
2. In a large bowl mix herbs, yeast, salt, and all wet ingredients together (except milk).
3. Sift in flour and baking powder, and beat well.
4. Add milk now if the mixture is a little dry.
5. Spoon mixture evenly into muffin tray, filling each cup about 2/3rds full. It make 9 muffins in my tray.
6. Bake at 170 for 15-20 minutes, or until a knife poked in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in tray for 10 minutes, then turn onto rack to cool further. Serve warm with margarine.

Disaster strikes, but turns out yum

The aim for last night was to attempt the Traditional Pancake Rolls, or Milssam, and Pumpkin porridge, with Persimmon Tea, Persimmon sherbet, and Barbequed beef. I had made a plan, I had all the ingredients, I had a clean kitchen to start with and I was in my element- this was going to be good.

I started with the Persimmon Sherbet, or Yeonci. Re-reading the recipe, I realised I didn’t have the required freezing horsepower to turn a whole persimmon into ice before dinner, so instead I peeled and belnded it, and stuck it in the freezer in a plastic container.

I then moved to the tea, and realised that I had again mis-read the recipe and had bought fresh rather than dried persimmon… ah well, how different can it be, right? So on with the tea, fresh chopped persimmons and all. At least I got to throw in some of my newly-procured jujubes.

I then moved on to the seasoning the beef-flavoured seitan and some tempeh to make the barbecued beef. No worries here, at least. I cooked the pumpkin for the porridge, again, no issues. For the pancake rolls, I managed to get the vegetables julliened without a hitch.. things are beginning to go well. I made the batter, no worries there, and then preceeded to heat the wok.

I poured in the stated amount of batter, fried the pancake, began to lift it and bam! pancake crumbles. That’s ok, I say to myself, the first one never works out, we’ll try again. So I pour in the next spoonful, fry one side, lift it up… and no joy. It tears, it crumbles, it falls apart. Okay, third time’s the charm right? Wrong. The third one was the worst. It wouldn’t swirl, it got all thick in the middle, and then it just stuck to the bottom of the pan and no amount of coaxing would get it off.

So I left off for a while, stuck the evidence in the compost, and fried up the ‘beef’. I, rather nervously as I just couldn’t imagine it working, added the rice flour to the pumpkin mixture. Inspiration struck, and I wrapped the intended pancake filling in some rice paper rolls, and served the lot with some rice noodles. Mr made the mustard lemon sauce, being drawn to the kitchen by the sounds of and impending tantrum.

We ate the lot with the persimmon tea (which was wonderful), and followed it up with the pureed frozen persimmon and some vanilla soy ice-cream.

In the end all was well. I loved the ‘beef’, and the rice-paper-cum-pancake rolls were great, especially with the lemon mustard sauce. The pumpkin porridge, which I had been suspicious of from the start, was fantastic- much better than either of us imagined. My noodles (I made them up on the night) were a good fit with the other flavours, and Mr loved the persimmon sherbet. Me, not so much, I didn’t like the flavour of the persimmon, but otherwise it was yum.

So, without further ado, I have some photos, and my recipe for fresh-flavoured noodles to go with the tempeh and seitan.

Dinner on the box table

Tempeh, seitan and noodles

Surprisingly yummy pumpkin porridge

Yummy mustard sauce in my favourite tea cup, and rice paper rolls

Persimmon Tea - so good

Sweet Noodles

1 packet glass noodles

4 tbs chopped corriander

1 nashi pear, diced (small)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbs raw sugar

2 tbs lime juice

3 tbsp sesame seeds

Cook the noodles in some water, as per packet instructions, drain and set aside.

Chop the pear and corriander.

Add the rest of ingredients to a large frying pan, add noodles and stir until completely mixed. Serve warm.