Now this is something that is really inspiring and interesting, well worth reading and how I'd love to give it a go sometime...
feeding maybelle: A Tasting Menu Inspired by Masterworks of Art
Not vegan, but such wonderful work.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Back to Basics
Tempeh and Oven Chips
Traditionally styled food to make life easy. The chips are a mixture of ordinary potatoes, this variety is Kestrel, and a small sweet potato cut into wedges, tossed in oil, black pepper and chopped rosemary and cooked in hot oven for about 30 minutes. Give them a turn at half time.
I can detect a slightly off putting taste in tempeh so I usually overcome this by a dusting of turmeric powder and a little salt sprinkled over half an hour before cooking. Don't over do it, Mr. S-C said it was bit strong last night but then he can't taste what I do in tempeh.
The glaze was made from homemade 'brown' sauce diluted with an equal volume of soy sauce and a couple of spoonfuls of nutritional yeast. You won't have access to our sauce so substitute HP sauce or your favourite plum sauce for it.
Lightly coat the tempeh cubes and bake in the oven on an oiled tray for 20 minutes or so. Too long and the tempeh gets unpleasantly crunchy.
We served this with some oven roasted garlic and a fresh tomato garnish. It was alright.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Spring onion pancakes
After two weeks of living on crisps and wine I'm beginning to become interested in cooking again. Something that's caught my eye in the webbysphere as a tasty snack is the Chinese or Korean Scallion pancake, oniony, fried and served with plenty of spicy rice vinegary dipping sauce.
The method is almost the same as making stuffed parathas, Indian flat breads which I've been fairly successful with in the past, so I rolled up my sleeves and went back to the kitchen.
What I did was take 230g flour and 150ml warm water. Put the flour in the food processor and add 100ml of the water. Pulse to combine, then add water in tablespoon measures with the motor running until the whole mass forms a soft ball. Remove from the processor and knead for a few moments, you're aiming for a non sticky texture which is soft and pliable. Don't add too much more flour, just enough to stop it sticking to your hands. Form into a tidy ball and set aside, covered to rest for half an hour.
Meanwhile, chop a bunch of spring onions, about 10, finely so that you have 100g or so after preparation.
When it's rested roll your dough into a rough log shape and divide into six parts. Keep the sections covered as you work on each one.
Roll each part out into a circle about 25cm across. I experimented with more oblong shapes which seemed to make more sense from an engineering perspective but it's up to you.
Lightly brush the circle with oil, sesame is best but I didn't have any, and sprinkle your onions all over, then roll up from one edge to enclose all the onions in a long sausage. Make the sausage into a spiral, lightly flatten with the palm of your hand and set to rest while you make the others in the same way.
Finally roll out each spiral again to make a circle about 15cm across. The onions should be enclosed in thin dough and layered against each other.
Fry on a medium hot well greased griddle for about 4 minutes each side. Stack them up when they are golden and fragrant and divide into wedges. Serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar and water in equal parts with a little grated ginger and thinly sliced garlic in it. A few rings of a red chili are nice too.
Unfortunately they didn't turn out quite as toothsome as I had hoped, so the recipe is not a sure fire winner, more of a starting place that we can all move on from together.
The problems were that the onions burst through the very soft dough - two ways to help that would be to chop the onions more finely or to knead the dough longer so that the gluten develops better. I also wondered about briefly softening the onions before stuffing the breads although I've not seen any reference to this in the recipes I've researched.
The dough didn't stick together very well in the spirals so that they were tending to unravel on the griddle - too much flour when rolling out probably.
The end result was a little bit tough and not very flaky; this was a combination of all the problems above. The dough was a bit soft, over floured and the onions too large so that a long cooking time was needed. I also think I didn't use enough oil because I was trying to be healthy! Never try to be healthy with an ethnic food if you want to keep the proper character, enjoy it with full fat but don't eat it very often.
The method is almost the same as making stuffed parathas, Indian flat breads which I've been fairly successful with in the past, so I rolled up my sleeves and went back to the kitchen.
What I did was take 230g flour and 150ml warm water. Put the flour in the food processor and add 100ml of the water. Pulse to combine, then add water in tablespoon measures with the motor running until the whole mass forms a soft ball. Remove from the processor and knead for a few moments, you're aiming for a non sticky texture which is soft and pliable. Don't add too much more flour, just enough to stop it sticking to your hands. Form into a tidy ball and set aside, covered to rest for half an hour.
Meanwhile, chop a bunch of spring onions, about 10, finely so that you have 100g or so after preparation.
When it's rested roll your dough into a rough log shape and divide into six parts. Keep the sections covered as you work on each one.
Roll each part out into a circle about 25cm across. I experimented with more oblong shapes which seemed to make more sense from an engineering perspective but it's up to you.
Lightly brush the circle with oil, sesame is best but I didn't have any, and sprinkle your onions all over, then roll up from one edge to enclose all the onions in a long sausage. Make the sausage into a spiral, lightly flatten with the palm of your hand and set to rest while you make the others in the same way.
Finally roll out each spiral again to make a circle about 15cm across. The onions should be enclosed in thin dough and layered against each other.
Fry on a medium hot well greased griddle for about 4 minutes each side. Stack them up when they are golden and fragrant and divide into wedges. Serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, rice vinegar and water in equal parts with a little grated ginger and thinly sliced garlic in it. A few rings of a red chili are nice too.
Unfortunately they didn't turn out quite as toothsome as I had hoped, so the recipe is not a sure fire winner, more of a starting place that we can all move on from together.
The problems were that the onions burst through the very soft dough - two ways to help that would be to chop the onions more finely or to knead the dough longer so that the gluten develops better. I also wondered about briefly softening the onions before stuffing the breads although I've not seen any reference to this in the recipes I've researched.
The dough didn't stick together very well in the spirals so that they were tending to unravel on the griddle - too much flour when rolling out probably.
The end result was a little bit tough and not very flaky; this was a combination of all the problems above. The dough was a bit soft, over floured and the onions too large so that a long cooking time was needed. I also think I didn't use enough oil because I was trying to be healthy! Never try to be healthy with an ethnic food if you want to keep the proper character, enjoy it with full fat but don't eat it very often.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Don't hate me
I'm a very judgmental person and regret it...
Please don't hate me because I've not posted for a while. There are reasons, good reasons perhaps, but whatever, I feel guilty for not keeping up with posts and guilty for whinging about it, because when others do this it makes me a tiny bit irritated.
Back soon I hope. I'm still reading, just not talking very much.
Please don't hate me because I've not posted for a while. There are reasons, good reasons perhaps, but whatever, I feel guilty for not keeping up with posts and guilty for whinging about it, because when others do this it makes me a tiny bit irritated.
Back soon I hope. I'm still reading, just not talking very much.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
A load of balls
Tonight's dinner was such a failure that I really didn't want to share it but decided in the interests of painful truth and transparency to admit that once in a while I make a small error, sometimes, maybe, a bit.
If I were to tell you how I made these I'd have to kill you but if you're determined to have a go set your search engine for Bondas, for it was these delectable treats I based my disaster upon. My advice? Don't try to use up leftovers, it'll only end in tears.
However, having made my supper I ate it and what made that possible was the coating of sweet spicy tomato sauce I poured over the deep fried lumps while they were still hot.
In fact, I've spent a long time working on this sauce or ketchup or even, if you like, tomato jam as part of the autumn task of preserving the tomato crop for winter.
It's a lot of work for a scant 800ml* of sauce but the flavour is good. If you have a lot of tomatoes, or they're cheap at the market give it a go. You have only most of the day to lose.
Sweetly Hot Tomato Ketchup.
2kg tomatoes, green stems and bad parts removed.
25g or so fresh ginger root, grated.
4 or 5 cloves
Cinnamon stick, about 4 cm.
Dried red chillies, to taste. I used three.
4 cloves garlic, crushed.
15g salt
250g sugar (white is fine)
250ml 6% vinegar (I used a red wine version because I'm in France but white malt would do)
Put everything except the sugar and vinegar in a pan, put the lid on and bring to a simmer over a gentle heat for 45 minutes or so. The tomatoes will release their juice and cook in it. Allow to cool with the lid on the pan.
Run the whole lot through a mouli or food mill (or press through a fine sieve) to remove the tomato skins, lumpy bits and spices. You will have a quantity of thin, flavoured tomato juice.
In a cleaned pan, put the juice, sugar and vinegar and bring back to simmer. Stirring frequently, allow to reduce until the spoon leaves a short lived clean line on the bottom of the pan after a straight stroke. The sauce should now be about the thickness of ketchup. This may take a couple of hours or more. If the heat is too high and your attention is distracted it will probably burn. Bottle into hot sterilised jars and seal with vinegar proof lids immediately. Should keep for a year but probably won't as it gets eaten very quickly once opened.
* It might not have been quite such a meagre yield had I not raided the pan to douse my Bondas, but a girl has to eat.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Trio of Beetroots
A starter trio of Roasted Beetroot Salad en Croute, Tower of Miso Infused Potatoes and Beetroot and a Chilled Borsht Shot.
Not really sure how to write up tonight's exploits. This is served in restaurant style although not, perhaps, to restaurant standards. More difficult than the cooking the presentation was hampered by issues of lack of equipment, no cutters for the stacks, a lack of filtration for the soup, even plating up was difficult with a limited range of plates picked up from junk shops and remaindered stores.
But in the cooking I should have liked to have infused the potatoes in their miso/malt syrup marinade sous-vide (this is something I've never done and am never likely to have the equipment to do) and for some inexplicable reason to do with not getting fryer smells in my hair I chose to shallow fry the croute, a bizarre decision that did nothing for the food.
Finally, food like this demands an audience. Although I tell myself the practise is good for me and the skills will be reusuable it's harder to keep standards high without a sour faced critic waiting at his table for the morsel that will melt his heart. I need to be somewhere to cook for people.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
A big fat slice of Pizza
Comfort food for a dreary wet Sunday. You don't need me to give you a recipe for this.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Muffins, Crumpets and Pikelets
There's a lot of confusion in the world over the naming of foods. Take muffins for example, in the UK these are griddled and toasted bready buns, in the US it's often hard to distinguish them from cupcakes.
I'm in France but I was brought up in a very English environment and I find that the culinary culture of my youth becomes increasingly important to me as the boundaries of available cuisines are nullified by the overwhelming and all pervading influence of the internet.
So I'm going to try to set the record straight for British breads today and define muffins, crumpets and pikelets as they are traditionally understood in Britain. They haven't had a particularly good press over the years, often being likened to greasy cardboard or soggy blankets. Although they may give the jaws a workout they are still a comforting filling food and anyone brought up them remembers them with affection.
All three are similar in that they are cooked on a griddle, a flat cooking surface often made from cast iron and heated from below. This is sometimes spelled as girdle which can be confusing in itself. The facility of having an oven in every kitchen is really quite a recent thing. Cooking over an open fire or on the hot plate of a simple stove is a very old practice, like these breads.
These ancient bread forms make use of traditional local ingredients, the sort of grains that are easily grown in the British climate. Hard bread wheat does not do so well in our moist temperate climes so most ancient flours were made with lower protein wheats and other grains.
The other similarity they all have to each other is that it was traditional to mix the dough and leave it overnight before cooking the next morning. These are the original no-knead breads, time savers for busy housewives with many mouths to feed. It is unusual to enrich the doughs with extras like butter or eggs but I have seen recipes with both. For the richer families perhaps.
Muffins have the stiffest mixture of the three, firm enough to hold its own shape after rising. A bread dough is made up, lightly kneaded and set to rise overnight. In the morning it is knocked back, shaped into flat buns and cooked gently over a very lightly greased griddle. The buns are later toasted (presumably to freshen them) then split in half and served butter and sometimes preserves.
Crumpets are a much wetter mixture and in order to form their shape on the griddle special crumpet rings are needed. Again, the batter is mixed, left overnight, refreshed in the morning and then cooked on the griddle until the bottoms are browned and the tops pocked with holes where the bubbles in the dough have burst. They are then turned over for a few moments to seal the tops. These also require toasting before eating, fun to do with an old fashioned toasting fork in front of a roaring fire on an autumn afternoon. Their firm texture means they don't fall off the fork as easily as bread does.
I wanted to make crumpets today but had no rings and so after wondering about creating some from old bean cans eventually decided to give them a miss.
Pikelets seem to have become confused in their identification even the UK. I've seen several recipes for baking powder leavened versions which are almost the same as recipes for drop scones or American Pancakes but in my mind a proper pikelet is a thin crumpet. It has to be thin because without a ring there is nothing to hold the mixture high while it cooks. They are small cakes made with a meagre batter and use a little less fuel while cooking. The home made bread of the very poor.
Pikelets
250g plain flour (a fine wholemeal will work, I used a mixture)
200ml water
2g dried powdered yeast (2g granular yeast, reconstituted in a little of the water, 5g fresh)
pinch of salt.
Put everything into a big bowl (the mixture is going to rise) that can be covered and mix well together with a wooden spoon. Beat the mixture until your arm gets tired, then cover and leave at room temperature until the next day.
At this point you can add a little bicarbonate of soda if you want big bubbles. Beat the mixture again and drop small (dessert) spoons of the dough onto a lightly greased hot griddle. Spread them out a little to get nice round shapes, not too thin but equal thickness all over. Allow to cook over a gentle heat for five minutes or so until the tops have dried and the bubbles popped. Turn over and cook for a further couple of minutes.
Remove from the heat and wrap in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest of the batch.
Before serving toast lightly on both sides, butter well with vegan spread and serve for tea with jam if liked. I had some for breakfast with Marmite but maybe that's taking cultural preferences a step too far for most!
I'm in France but I was brought up in a very English environment and I find that the culinary culture of my youth becomes increasingly important to me as the boundaries of available cuisines are nullified by the overwhelming and all pervading influence of the internet.
So I'm going to try to set the record straight for British breads today and define muffins, crumpets and pikelets as they are traditionally understood in Britain. They haven't had a particularly good press over the years, often being likened to greasy cardboard or soggy blankets. Although they may give the jaws a workout they are still a comforting filling food and anyone brought up them remembers them with affection.
All three are similar in that they are cooked on a griddle, a flat cooking surface often made from cast iron and heated from below. This is sometimes spelled as girdle which can be confusing in itself. The facility of having an oven in every kitchen is really quite a recent thing. Cooking over an open fire or on the hot plate of a simple stove is a very old practice, like these breads.
These ancient bread forms make use of traditional local ingredients, the sort of grains that are easily grown in the British climate. Hard bread wheat does not do so well in our moist temperate climes so most ancient flours were made with lower protein wheats and other grains.
The other similarity they all have to each other is that it was traditional to mix the dough and leave it overnight before cooking the next morning. These are the original no-knead breads, time savers for busy housewives with many mouths to feed. It is unusual to enrich the doughs with extras like butter or eggs but I have seen recipes with both. For the richer families perhaps.
Muffins have the stiffest mixture of the three, firm enough to hold its own shape after rising. A bread dough is made up, lightly kneaded and set to rise overnight. In the morning it is knocked back, shaped into flat buns and cooked gently over a very lightly greased griddle. The buns are later toasted (presumably to freshen them) then split in half and served butter and sometimes preserves.
Crumpets are a much wetter mixture and in order to form their shape on the griddle special crumpet rings are needed. Again, the batter is mixed, left overnight, refreshed in the morning and then cooked on the griddle until the bottoms are browned and the tops pocked with holes where the bubbles in the dough have burst. They are then turned over for a few moments to seal the tops. These also require toasting before eating, fun to do with an old fashioned toasting fork in front of a roaring fire on an autumn afternoon. Their firm texture means they don't fall off the fork as easily as bread does.
I wanted to make crumpets today but had no rings and so after wondering about creating some from old bean cans eventually decided to give them a miss.
Pikelets seem to have become confused in their identification even the UK. I've seen several recipes for baking powder leavened versions which are almost the same as recipes for drop scones or American Pancakes but in my mind a proper pikelet is a thin crumpet. It has to be thin because without a ring there is nothing to hold the mixture high while it cooks. They are small cakes made with a meagre batter and use a little less fuel while cooking. The home made bread of the very poor.
Pikelets
250g plain flour (a fine wholemeal will work, I used a mixture)
200ml water
2g dried powdered yeast (2g granular yeast, reconstituted in a little of the water, 5g fresh)
pinch of salt.
Put everything into a big bowl (the mixture is going to rise) that can be covered and mix well together with a wooden spoon. Beat the mixture until your arm gets tired, then cover and leave at room temperature until the next day.
At this point you can add a little bicarbonate of soda if you want big bubbles. Beat the mixture again and drop small (dessert) spoons of the dough onto a lightly greased hot griddle. Spread them out a little to get nice round shapes, not too thin but equal thickness all over. Allow to cook over a gentle heat for five minutes or so until the tops have dried and the bubbles popped. Turn over and cook for a further couple of minutes.
Remove from the heat and wrap in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest of the batch.
Before serving toast lightly on both sides, butter well with vegan spread and serve for tea with jam if liked. I had some for breakfast with Marmite but maybe that's taking cultural preferences a step too far for most!
Friday, August 29, 2008
A Carb Rich Friday
No real cooking for a couple of days, too many leftovers of cake and potatoes to eat. Here are a couple of snack meals taken to break the monotony.
Soyasun Vegetable Burger with cornichons, onions and ketchup
Cinnamon Toast with a nice cup of tea.
Soyasun Vegetable Burger with cornichons, onions and ketchup
Cinnamon Toast with a nice cup of tea.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Stacked
Tower of White Aubergine, Tomato and Mushroom Patty served with Home Style Potato Salad and a Woodpile of Radish Pickle.
I'm going to stop trying to fancy up the food for the camera, it's not working. The food is delicious enough but I can't wait with all the fannying around for the picture.
Back to simple stuff tomorrow and snaps with the Ixus, at least until I get the hang of the Nikon.
But, the mushroom patties at the heart of all this pretentiousness are quite lovely if rather fragile so here is the recipe. Quantities are very small, I'm beginning to have nightmares about leftovers so am really trying to scale down to one person portions, another hindrance in the phood fotography discipline because it's not possible to choose the best item for the shot, there is only one.
Mushroom Patties
Easiest with a food processor, for tiny amounts like these a mini Robotchef is ideal.
25g fresh breadcrumbs
25g peeled shallots
50g fresh white mushrooms with stalks
1 tsp. nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp. olive oil
Basil, Tarragon and Lemon Thyme
Mince together the shallots, mushrooms and herbs stripped from their woody stalks. Don't use too much Lemon Thyme, it can be overpowering. Add the breadcrumbs, yeast flakes and oil. Go easy on seasoning, these develop a great flavour by themselves.
Mix together well and press down into a bowl. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.
Form small patties, this made three tiny ones the size of aubergine slices. They are very fragile.
Fry gently in some vegan margarine and olive oil mixed. They are difficult to turn so give them at least five minutes on the first side before turning, then cook for five minutes more on the second side. Keep the heat gentle or the outside will burn before the middle is cooked. If they do fall apart it should be possible to pat them back together in the pan.
Serve in a bun or with chips or in a huge stack of vegetables...
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