Satsuma chickpea curry

Or "chana dahl," which I'm fairly sure means a chickpea curry of sorts. This was a bit of a "Oh my, what is hiding out in the fridge?" adventure. Spicy and fragrant hint-of-coconut rice and a cucumber and mint raita accompany this hot and slightly fruity curry.

For the rice:

Basmati rice

3 cardamom pods

1/4 tsp very coarsely ground black pepper

2 - 3 tbsp coconut milk

Rinse and drain the rice before setting it over a high heat with 1:1.25 ratio of rice to water. Add cardamom and black pepper to the pan, bring to the boil, and then cover and move to lowest heat to steam. Stir in coconut milk just before serving.

For the raita:

4" piece cucumber

7 or so leaves of fresh mint, finely chopped

3 dsp Greek yoghurt

Black pepper

Seasalt

Cut the cucumber into small cubes, peeling and/or discarding seeded part if you prefer. In a bowl mix up the yoghurt, mint and seasoning. Stir in the cucumber, and adjust dressing to taste.

For the chickpea curry:

1/3 onion, finely chopped

1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped

1/2" piece of ginger, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

3 whole cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 small green pepper, diced

1/2 head of cauliflower, broken into small florets and steamed

1/2 can chickpeas

Pieces of leftover beef, vegetable (optional)

1 - 2 cups hot water

1/2 satsuma, all pith and segment skin removed

1 dsp sultanas

1 tbsp mango chutney

1/2 tbsp tomato purée

2 - 3 tbsp pumpkin purée

1/4 cup thin coconut milk

2 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1 - 2 tsp potato starch, mixed with a little cold water

Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the spices, and stir to release oils.

Add onion, chilli, ginger and garlic to the pan, and sauté until onion has softened.

Stir in green pepper. Then add cauliflower, chickpeas and any additional leftovers (e.g. beef.) Heat through.

Add hot water to just cover contents of pan - a lovely bright orange yellow and fragrant sauce should now be simmering. Add the pieces of satsuma and the sultanas. Stir in the mango chutney, tomato and pumpkin purées. Leave to simmer until vegetables are just cooked.

Shortly before serving, add the coconut milk. Thicken the sauce a little with the potato starch slurry (taking care as it is far more powerful than cornflour, and quite viscous in quantity.) Stir in the yoghurt, and serve up over the fragrant rice and with a good helping of raita. Leftover chickpea latkes and flatbread make good accompaniments, too.

Flatbread

I'm still working on breads, although I think I almost have a good custom wheat-free flour mix figured out. The problem is when I forget to use it, and go a bit too heavily on the starches. My multi-flour mix was simply turned into a dough with flour, warm water and flaxseed meal (mixed with a little water as a binder.) Some was fried into the wedges in the photo, creating a chewy dense and nutty flavoured bread. (That would be the millet and sorghum flours and the potato starch, I think.) Some was grilled as flat thin discs on some oiled foil. They turned out quite pleasantly crispy, and so a supper of flatbread, Port Salut and some sweet paprika spiced salami was had.

Pumpkin seeds

I bought a pumpkin. A little one, for a cake I forgot to photograph. It is the first pumpkin I have ever bought, and in messing around with the innards I found all these seeds. "Ah ha!" went the lightbulb, "Roast them!"

Take the seeds from one pumpkin. Rinse and clean them, removing as much of the slipperiness as you can. Pat dry. Spend 5 mins removing the seeds deftly stuck to the paper towel you tried to use to pat them dry. Resort to putting them in oven for a bit to dry off.

Arrange seeds in a baking tray so that they're mostly in a single layer. Mix with a little olive oil (and a tiny bit goes a long way - the above result features far too much), and more seasalt than you consider necessary.

Bake seeds until golden brown and crispy, some 15mins or so at 160C. Check regularly and adjust oven if they're scorching or nothing's happening.

Mix with some whole skin-on almonds and toasted sesame seeds for a mid-morning snack!

Sesame seared beef salad

This was essentially a simple little meal, of rice and seared steak and some vegetables and salad. It's one of my favourite sorts, though.

1 piece steak

3 portobello mushrooms, stalks removed

1/3 red pepper, thinly sliced

Spinach, baby leaf

Cucumber, sliced

Olive oil

Soy sauce

Sesame seed oil

Rice vinegar

Sesame seeds

Jasmine rice

Take the steak and marinate in a small bowl with a little soy sauce and sesame seed oil. Set the rice a-cooking and leave to steam.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, and when medium-hot sear the steak to preferred cookedness. Remove to one side.

In the steak juice laden pan, add a little more oil if required and then add in the red pepper and mushrooms. Sauté until a little coloured but not too softened. Set to one side.

In a dry frying pan, toast some sesame seeds over a medium heat. Check for a nutty flavour (all "greenness" should be gone) and remove to a small dish.

Mix a teaspoon or two of olive oil with a little (1/2 tsp) sesame seed oil, 1/2 tsp soy sauce and 1/2 tsp rice vinegar for a dressing. Rinse and drain spinach.

To serve place a small heap of rice and the spinach and cucumber on a plate. Drizzle some of the dressing across the salad. Then arrange red peppers and mushrooms, and top with the steak (sliced for eating with chopsticks.) Sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds, and enjoy!

Cauliflower salad

I've previously tried a cauliflower salad recipe from Elana's Pantry, and was quite smitten with it. This is a variation that happens to be even simpler and works well as a sort of substitute to a heap of starchy carbohydrate based salad.

1/2 head cauliflower, broken into small florets

1/2" sliver of red onion, finely chopped

3 tsp mayonnaise

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

2 - 3 tsp lemon juice

Black pepper

Seasalt

Steam the cauliflower florets until just tender. Remove, rinse under cold water, drain and then roughly chop into smaller pieces.

In a bowl whisk together the salt, pepper, mustard, lemon juice and mayonnaise. Add the finely chopped red onion.

Stir in the cauliflower, and adjust dressing ingredients if required.

Top with a garlic sautéd portobello mushroom, thinly sliced, if you happen to have one just waiting. Inadvertently let it strike a heartwarming pose.

Chickpea and sweet potato spiced latkes

By latkes I mean fritters with potato in, but I quite like the word latke. These, then, are spiced sweet potato and chickpea fritters! With a little mint yoghurt dressed salad they were quite divine. Makes about 9 fritters.

Olive oil, for frying

Extra virgin oil

1/3 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground

1/2 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground

Juice of 1/8th of a lemon

1 small sweet potato, cubed

1/2 can chickpeas, drained

1 beaten egg

Chickpea flour, for thickening

For the salad:

Spinach, baby leaf

Cucumber

Red pepper

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp greek yoghurt

Black pepper

1 - 2 tsp finely chopped fresh mint

Seasalt, pinch of

Set up a steamer over some simmering water, and steam the sweet potato until tender. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk the olive oil and lemon juice together with the mint, pepper and salt until somewhat emulsified. Stir in the yoghurt (at this point I recalled curdling, but due to the emulsification I think this is avoided.) Add sliced cucumber and red pepper, and set to one side. Rinse spinach and leave to drain.

In a second bowl, combine a few teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil, the onion and garlic, spices, and sweet potato. Mash the potato until blended in with the other ingredients. Stir in the chickpeas, beaten egg and lemon juice. Mix well, and if a little on the thin side add a few spoonfuls of chickpea flour until more manageable.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan to a medium heat, and then drop in spoonfuls of the fritter mix. Flatten to about 1cm thickness, and let cook for a few minutes. When it's looking golden brown on the edges, flip and cook the other side. Once cooked remove to a plate lined with kitchen towel, and leave to blot while cooking remaining batches.

Serve up fritters alongside the cucumber and red pepper salad, over some fresh spinach. Also went very well with a side dish of cauliflower salad, and some garlic fried portobello mushrooms.

Minestronesque soup

Rifling through the fridge and glaring in the freezer revealed the motley ingredients for an almost-minestrone soup. I give you - Minestronesque Soup! Also a couple of days ago I tried out gluten-free girl's dinner rolls. There was a bit of fiddling with the baking (my oven is cranky), but now once toasted and buttered I have these rather flavoursome, chewy and crispy yet dense scone-like things. I like them, although I'm not entirely sure what they are. They accompany soup nicely, anyhow.

Butter and olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 courgette, finely diced
2 sticks celery, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1 small potato, finely cubed
1/4 tin cooked red kidney beans
1/2 tin tomatoes
Hot water
1/2 vegetable stock cube
1 tbsp tomato purée
1-2 tsp marjoram
1-2 tsp thyme
1 tsp ground paprika
Seasalt
Black pepper

Put a large pan on a medium-low heat, and add a tablespoon or two of butter and a couple of olive oil. (I like to use a little butter for flavour and make up required cooking fat with some plain olive oil.)

Add the onion and garlic, and sauté for a few minutes while preparing the next vegetable. Repeat this step to add the courgette, then celery, then carrots.

Stir in the potato, kidney beans and tomatoes. Break up tomato into pieces with a blunt-ended stirring utensil if they're not already chopped.

Pour in enough hot water to cover the ingredients and bring to a simmer. Dissolve stock cube in a little hot water and add to taste.

Squeeze in the tomato purée and stir in. Add herbs, spices and other seasonings, adjusting to taste. Add a little more water if required, then leave to simmer for a good half hour.

Serve up with extra black pepper, and toast a few dinner rolls before slicing and buttering them as accompaniment.

Dinner rolls

A little while back I espied a recipe on gluten-free girl's site for dinner rolls. Slightly mystified, I pored over the lengthy list of ingredients. "This is ridiculous," I thought, "There are at least 20 of them!"

Over the next month or two if I happened to find potato starch, or quinoa flakes, I surreptitiously picked it up. Eventually, I had all the ingredients and even found some appropriate pans in a sale. Project dinner rolls commenced!

I followed the recipe fairly closely, bar omitting milk powder (this may have been important, I forgot to switch the water for soy milk too), using more xanthum gum as guar gum is impossible to come by it seems, and... the rest I kept to fairly faithfully. Ah, I let the initial dough rise for too long, after forgetting about it - I don't think I'm a born baker. Then there was the shaping, the second rising, and the above appeared. These were then baked, and about 20mins into that I remembered the pan of water I'd left at the bottom of the oven.

They were cooked for a little longer than was stated as they remained seemingly quite doughy, partly due to a cranky oven too I suspect. They came out somewhat denser than I'd expected, and I couldn't quite decide if I liked them. Eventually upon the next day, I tried them toasted with a little soft goat cheese. Then, they were wondrous. Even if getting them out of the toaster at work the next day involved some variant of whack-a-mole (hit up the lever, one or two pieces will appear in a random position, and only a side swipe will stop them returning into the toaster.)

They were pretty good, and probably better if the recipe is stuck to precisely. I may try again, when the madness next descends and having a heap of small bread rolls seems like a good idea. They did accompany soup nicely - there are a few other things to try out first, though!

Sesame green tomatoes and egg

Courtesy of a night of frost, my rescue tomato plants came to a withered and somewhat prompt end. Their last burst of life did gift me with three green tomatoes, though. Following a bit of internet scouring, I was inspired to mostly eat vegetables and so this stir fry came about - to be accompanied by a slightly sweet ginger rice porridge.

1" piece of fresh ginger, thinly sliced to matchsticks

1" green chilli, thinly sliced

1 stick celery, thinly sliced

1 carrot, thinly sliced

3-4 leaves Chinese leaf, sliced
1 spring onion, finely sliced

3 green tomatoes, cut into 1/8ths then halved across the middle

1 egg

1/4 tsp green chilli, finely chopped

Sesame oil

Soy sauce

Oyster sauce

Shichimi togarashi (7 spice mix)

Heat some sunflower oil in a wok to a medium high heat. Add chilli, and fry until browned (note: do not breathe any vapours from this in unless you're fond of coughing). Then throw in the ginger, and stir for 30 seconds or so until this has turned faintly translucent.

Add carrot, stir fry for a minute or so, then add celery and repeat. While they're still reasonably al dente, add a few teaspoons of soy sauce and of oyster sauce, to taste.

Stir in Chinese leaf and spring onion, and stir fry for another minute or so. Remove pan to one side.

In a separate small frying pan, heat a little oil on medium heat. Add 1 tsp of sesame seed oil and then the finely chopped chilli, and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Add the green tomatoes and cook until just done - should be a few minutes. Sprinkle in a little soy sauce for seasoning, then break in the egg and leave for a few moments. Stir it up briefly as it cooks on the bottom of the pan, and wait again. Continue until egg is cooked to your liking (I tend to prefer pieces of white and yellow, with softness but no actual clear egg white remaining.)

Serve up the vegetables, and top with the sesame green tomatoes and egg. For some added spice, sprinkle on a little shichimi togarashi.

Sweet ginger rice porridge

I made something akin to this ages back, but recently found a ginger-y version while browsing around an inadvertently discovered recipe site. One that reminded me of the wonders of simplicity, at times. Such it was that I simmered jasmine rice with a variation of ingredients from this recipe.

1/4 cup jasmine rice
2" piece of ginger, peeled and finely minced
6 dates, stoned and halved
1 dsp dark brown sugar
2-3 cups of water

Add rice and water to a pan, and bring to the boil. (Note that I don't rinse or soak rice for porridge, though perhaps this makes it a little gloopier.)

Stir in ginger, and lower heat to a simmer. Add dates and sugar (adjusting to taste), and leave to simmer gently until rice starts to break down.

Cook to preferred softness of grain, and serve. Beware, this stuff is implausibly moreish.

Thai curry soup

This is a rather simple dish, by way of relying a little on some pre-concocted ingredients - notably Mae Ploy Green Thai Curry Paste, and Asian Home Gourmet paste for Tom Ka soup. They're simply spices and not-readily-available ingredients already mashed up for you - I did once even find candlenuts for making curry paste from scratch, but the ready-made was still better. I conceded a minor defeat. This is a simpler soup-like version of the usual curry, for which I'd use more coconut milk and additional ginger root, garlic, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf. (And better camera settings, sadly this was the most in-focus of the lot.)

1 tsp Thai green curry paste (Mae Ploy is my favourite)

1 tsp Tom Ka soup paste (optional, but adds extra piquancy)

1 tin coconut milk

1 chicken thigh, meat roughly cubed and bone retained

1 shallot

1/2 sweet potato, cubed

1/2 aubergine (large purple eggplant), cubed

1 green (bell) pepper, diced
2 - 3 leaves Chinese leaf, sliced (optional)

1/4 lime

Fish sauce

Palm sugar

Fresh coriander (cilantro)

Jasmine rice (scant 1/2 cup per person)

Rinse and drain jasmine rice, add water in a 1:1 ratio with the rice, and bring to a boil over a high heat in an open pan. Once bubbling remove it to the lowest heat setting you can manage, cover with pan lid, and leave to effectively cook and steam for 15 - 20 mins. Once cooked, fluff it up with a fork and leave it to stand for 5 - 10 mins off any heat, covered once more.

Heat the curry and soup pastes with an 1/8th of the tin of coconut milk in a pan on medium heat, stirring until it warms through and grows fragrant. Add in a half tin more of the milk, and let come to a simmer. (Note that I use very little curry paste as I find it quite hot, so adjust to taste here as desired.)

Add the chicken, shallot and sweet potato to the curry, and let cook for 5 - 10 mins.

Stir in the aubergine, and add some coconut milk or hot water if more liquid is needed to cover the meat and vegetables. Leave to simmer for another 5 - 10 mins.

It should be about cooked by now, so add in the green pepper and simmer for a few minutes until this is done to your liking. Stir in the Chinese leaf now, if using.

A few minutes before serving, squeeze in the lime juice, balance it with a 1 tsp or so of sugar, and add fish sauce to taste. (I tend to start with a teaspoon of it, then adjust until the sweet/sour/saltiness is to my liking.) Add remaining coconut milk for a thicker, richer soup.

Stir in plenty of fresh coriander, then serve over a small heap of steaming fragrant jasmine rice. If you have the seasonings just right, you'll proceed to somewhat helplessly devour it.

Sweet spiced sesame pork

There is a wonder to having an abundance of odds and ends in the fridge - leads to all sorts of creations. The creature of this night's toil is as follows:

1 dsp dark brown sugar

2 dsp dark soy sauce

2 dsp rice wine

1 tsp Chinese 5 spice

2 cloves garlic, sliced

2 dsp orange juice

1 dsp sesame seed oil

Vegetable oil

1 piece pork tenderloin, sliced into rounds and then thin strips

2" piece of ginger, cut into 1mm thin rounds and then julienned

1 tsp cornflour with just enough cold water to make a paste

1/2 tsp chilli oil

1/2 shallot, finely sliced

1" green chilli, sliced

1/2 cup finely shredded spring cabbage

1/3 green pepper, sliced

1/3 yellow pepper, sliced

1/2 stick celery, sliced thin on the diagonal

2 spring onions, sliced thin on the diagonal

Handful torn baby leaf spinach

Cilantro

Jasmine rice (1/2 cup per person)

Mix together the sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, 5 spice, half the garlic, orange juice and sesame seed oil. Add the thinly sliced pork, and leave to marinate.

Meanwhile prepare the remaining vegetables, make up the cornflour paste, and put the rice on.

Heat 2 dsp or so of oil in a wok on medium-high heat. Stir fry half the ginger for 30 seconds or so and then add the marinated meat, lifted out of the marinade by a slotted spoon. Cook pork until just done, then remove from pan and return to marinade dish.

Clean wok, return to heat and add another 2 dsp or so of oil. Add chilli oil, and remember to breathe air from elsewhere. Add remaining ginger, and green chilli. Stir fry for a minute or so, then add the shallot and cook for another minute until softened and coloured. Add the cabbage, cook until softened.

Add in the green then yellow pepper, stir fry for another minute, then add the celery and remaining garlic. 30 seconds or so later add the spring onions, heat through, then remove from heat and stir through the spinach. Set vegetables aside in a separate dish.

Return pork and all marinade to emptied wok, and heat until bubbling. Thicken sauce as necessary with cornflour and water mixture.

Dish up the jasmine rice alongside a heap of the vegetables, and top with a pile of the sticky spiced pork. Add some fresh coriander and serve with some pickled aubergine.

Sweet chilli harusame noodles

This is probably not what you're meant to do with harusame noodles. Made from potato starch, they're a little jelly-like but nicely chewy; to my mind quite different from the tentacleness of the yam-origin shirataki noodles, their distant cousin. There should be some sort of gelatinous warning on those things.

1/2 packet harusame noodles

1" piece of ginger, thinly sliced

1/3 yellow pepper, sliced into short sticks

1 carrot, cut into short thin sticks

2 chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2 spring onions, finely sliced on diagonal

Soy sauce

Sesame seed oil

Sweet chilli sauce (clear, dipping sort)

Vegetable oil

1 egg

Beni shoga (salty pickled ginger, usually vivid red)

Seasalt

Heat a pan of water, add noodles and simmer until al dente. Drain, rinse in cool water and leave to stand.

Stir fry ginger for 30 seconds or so, then add mushrooms. Cook for a minute, then add peppers for another minute or so. Add carrot, stir fry until heated through, then add spring onions. Stir in soy sauce and sesame seed oil to taste, then sweet chilli sauce. Tip in noodles, and heat through.

To one side, fry an egg in a few drops of sesame seed oil to preferred method. (I managed a crispy-on-the-outside flipped egg which was still gooey in the middle, which happens to be a favourite.)

Serve up noodles and vegetables in a bowl, top with fried egg, and add some beni shoga. Add a little extra soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce if desired, plus a tiny pinch of seasalt to the egg.

Vegetable and herb soup

[Photo to follow, as there isn't one at present and I wanted to make a note of this.]

It's clear-out-the-fridge soup, really. Or at least, I had an abundance of vegetables and my stomach was keen to make the acquaintance of some of them.

1 large carrot, sliced
1 heart of celery, sliced
2 spring cabbage hearts, sliced
Vegetable stock
2 tbsp tomato purée
Half handful fresh basil leaves
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp dried thyme
Seasalt

Simmer the above. Blend. Add water until you can honestly call it a soup. Adjust stock and seasoning, then serve with toast and goat's milk brie.

Mango with ginger custard

Instead of heeding wise advice, I played around with buttons and took a set of out-of-focus shots for this. Guess I'll have to make it again, and re-photograph. (Oh noes!)

There's an American dish called "pudding" that is basically custard, as far as I can tell. This one's a bit different though, and the setting agent relies on a protease (not pronounced pro-tease, it seems) enzyme in the raw ginger root coagulating the milk protein (I think). Turns out that this process happily works on soy milk as well as it allegedly does on cow milk. Then add it to fresh mango, and magicalness happens. Recipe as follows.

Plain soy milk (approx. 1 pint - a deep cereal bowl's worth, in any case)

Agave nectar

2" - 3" piece of ginger root

1 mango

Brown sugar

Heat one bowl's worth of plain soy milk (the most delicious you can find, or make your own) over a low heat, to below simmering point. (I assume if the milk is too hot, it'll adversely affect the ginger enzyme.) Add a few teaspoons of agave syrup to sweeten it a little.

Meanwhile, peel and grate the ginger to a pulp. (So far the best tool I've found is one of the small ridged, no-hole metal ginger graters from a Japanese food shop.) Squeeze and strain the pulp to produce approx. 1/8th cup of fresh ginger juice. Add to a bowl.

Pour the warmed soy milk into the bowl with the ginger juice. Let cool and refrigerate, leaving it to set for at least half an hour to an hour.

To serve, cut up a mango into small pieces and arrange on saucers. Spoon over some of the ginger custard, and then sprinkle on a few pinches of brown sugar. Enjoy!

Chicken and vegetables in garlic oyster sauce

Sometimes a simple concept is a delightful one. So it is with this one, combining marinated chicken thigh with vegetables in oyster sauce.

Chicken thigh meat*

1 spring onion

2 cloves garlic

1 dsp soy sauce

1 dsp Chinese rice wine

Vegetable oil

5 chestnut mushrooms

1 large carrot

1/2 stick celery

4 - 5 Chinese leaves

2 dsp oyster sauce

1 tsp cornflour

Water

*If meat is on the bone, salvage bones and simmer gently with some fresh ginger root, spring onion, a few slices of chilli and a pinch of seasalt. By the time everything's ready you'll have a chicken broth to serve alongside the main.

Dice chicken, and place in a bowl. Add finely chopped spring onion, one finely sliced clove of garlic, the soy sauce and rice wine. Mix well and leave to marinate.

Mix cornflour with a little cold water to form a watery paste, and set aside.

Slice up the mushrooms, carrot and celery on a slight diagonal, and optimally about 3-4mm thick. Slice the stem parts of the Chinese leaf into 1" wide pieces, place apart, and then slice up the green leaf part.

Heat up some vegetable oil in a wok to medium-high heat. Add chicken, and stir fry until just cooked (a tiny bit of pink can remain.) Remove to a bowl, wipe clean wok, and return to heat with some more oil.

Stir fry mushrooms for 1-2mins, then carrot for 30secs, then garlic and celery for another minute or so. Return chicken to pan, heat through, and then stir in chinese leaf stem pieces. Add oyster sauce to taste (approx. 2 dsp), and mix thoroughly. Add remaining green chinese leaf, stir fry until that is just done, and remove pan from heat.

If the sauce is a little watery, scoop contents of wok to one side and add cornflour paste to the sauce. Stir sauce over heat until thickened, then stir contents of wok thoroughly.

Serve chicken and vegetables over fragrant thai rice, with a little pickled daikon and soy sauce.

Teriyaki salmon

Salmon is one of those delicious fish that only of late I discovered could be made even more delicious by cooking it less, so that the inside becomes a juicy near jelly-like delight. Here the salmon is grilled, marinated in a favourite teriyaki sauce and served over japonica rice (the sort used for sushi), with sautéd green beans and some pickles.

1 piece salmon, de-scaled

5 dsp soy sauce (shoyu if available)

5 dsp brown sugar

5 dsp cooking saké

Vegetable oil

Handful of green beans (per person)

Fresh lemon

1 clove garlic, finely sliced

Pickles

Rice (1/2 cup per person)

Add the soy sauce, sugar and saké to a small pan and stir on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside teriyaki sauce and let cool.

Rinse and then pat dry the salmon with a paper towel or similar. Place in a pyrex (or other grill-friendly) dish, spoon over a few spoonfuls of the teriyaki sauce until covered, and leave marinating in the bowl flesh side down. Tip remaining sauce in a jar and store in the fridge for future use. (It keeps a while.)

Rinse rice well, drain, and add water in a 1:1 ratio. Set over a high heat, wait until it's bubbling, then cover pan with a lid and move to a spot with the lowest heat setting available. Leave to cook until done. (Approximately 20mins - and no lifting the lid!)

Place salmon under grill on medium heat, skin side down, for a minute or two until the top is a little cooked. Then remove, baste, flip it to skin side up and return to under grill. Cook until the skin is bubbling and there's still a little wobble left to the flesh (meaning the interior is still juicy.)

Slice up a few pickles, and set to one side. Current favourites are pickled daikon (mooli) and baby aubergine (eggplant).

Finely slice a clove of garlic, and prepare beans. If a little tough, slice thinly and steam for a few minutes until just done, then dress with some lemon and garlic vinaigrette. If more tender, blanch and then sauté with the garlic, then add lemon and a drop of soy sauce to serve.

Serve up a heap of steaming rice, a side of tender green beans, and the crispy-skinned teriyaki salmon. Add pickles, and enjoy!

Grilled cheese with basil and apple

It is possible I have a deep and long-held fondness for cheese merrily toasted onto bread. This evening I wondered what might happen if you added other things to it. (Apart from pickle or chutney, which is a standard option.) Until mere moments ago I was fortunate enough to have the tranches onctueuses form of Chavroux mild goat cheese in my fridge. "Apple!" I thought, espied basil, and pondered cranberries. The following evolved.

2 slices multigrain rye bread

Butter (by which I mean Pure Soya spread; choose your poison)

2 slices of cheese (sliced Chavroux, gouda, or emmental are good)

1/2 an apple, thinly sliced (Gala was used, Braeburn would be more fortuitously appley)

12 basil leaves, finely chopped

Redcurrant jelly (any sweet/sour jelly or conserve would work, I think)

1 - 2 whole almonds, finely slithered

Heat up the grill (broiler) to maximum. Toast one side of the rye bread until slightly crispy, then the other side until half done. (This prevents it scorching while it toasts further with added cheese etc.; a habit formed upon discovering the white wheat-free breads of the world can self-immolate in simple seconds.)

Butter the less toasted sides of the bread, then add dabs of redcurrant jelly. Scatter the basil across each slice, then lay on the cheese.

Toast cheese until melted, but not yet bubbling. Remove from grill. Arrange slices of apple, return dressed toast to under the heat, and grill to one's preference.

Serve up on a plate, scatter with any remaining shreds of basil and the almonds. Enjoy!

Chilli basil beef

There was a day of un sandwich, pickle chips and gaufres liègeois - with raspberries. I frequently confuse fraises and framboises. They're a mere mbo apart. In any case, mysteriously the idea of eating as many fruits and vegetables as I could suddenly appealed. This is the result of a few recipe ideas crammed together, which leads to a formidable combination of super-délice. (I maybe just invented that phrase.)

1 piece of rump steak (or stir fry beef of preference)

Vegetable oil

3 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1/2 chilli, finely sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

5 - 6 chestnut mushrooms, quartered

Cashew nuts

1 cup (approx.) beansprouts, rinsed and drained well

Handful or so of baby spinach leaves

6 mint leaves, torn

12 basil leaves, torn (substitute thai basil for this and the mint, if you have it)

1/8th lime

Soy sauce

Sesame seed oil

Finely slice beef into 3" or so strips, and then marinate in a small bowl with 1 - 2 tsps fresh lime juice, 1 - 2 tsps soy sauce and 1 - 2 tsps sesame seed oil. Adjust to taste. (Optional: marinate entire steak, sear and slice for bloodier meat.) Leave to marinate while preparing other ingredients.

Heat 1 - 2 tbsps oil in a wok, over medium-high heat (high as you can go without insta-scorching, in essence.) Add chilli, stir for a few seconds 'til it starts browning, then add 2/3 of the garlic and stir for another 30 seconds or so. Add spring onion for 30 secs or so, and then stir in the beef. Cook until just to your liking, then remove from wok and set aside.

Clean wok, add another 1 - 2 tbsps oil and allow to heat. Add mushrooms and cashew nuts, and stir fry for 1 - 2 mins, until mushrooms are partly done and a little golden brown on the outside. Add another tsp or so of sesame seed oil and then the remaining garlic, stir fry for 30 seconds, then add beansprouts. Allow to heat through, but do not overcook.

Add beef back to pan, and stir through to warm. Remove wok from heat, and add lime juice and soy sauce to taste. Shortly before serving stir in the spinach leaves and fresh herbs.

This is all piquant and delicious, though the sauce was a little thin - can thicken with some cornflour, especially if serving over rice or with rice noodles.

Lentil, coriander and tomato spiced soup

This is a little bit of a cheat, what with reusing previously cooked food - but it was so wholesomely warming. Also starting to realise the wonder of making extra food as I go along.

1 portion frozen dahl (still much embued with fresh coriander and lime)

Dilute coconut milk (Kara is rather all-purpose and useful)

1 chopped tomato

2 handfuls spinach

Seasalt

Mango chutney

Chapati dough (sorghum, potato and tapioca flours with ground almonds)

Defrost and heat the lentil curry in a pan, with a 1/4 cup of the coconut milk. Bring to a simmer.

Chop one good sized flavoursome tomato, and add to the pan. Let cook through, then stir in the spinach. Let it wilt, then season with seasalt to taste.

Meanwhile pinch out one chapati, and lightly fry both sides over a medium heat.

Serve up curry soup with a bit of mango chutney, and the chapati.

Carbonnade à la Flamande & Stoemp

Changes to cooler weather, and all the ensuing sniffles that brings. Heartier foods found amongst Belgian cuisine appealed, and so Carbonnade à la Flamande with Stoemp was decided upon. The recipe for the former is a fairly close copy of one found in a book "Everybody Eats Well in Belgium", which I will remember to snaffle a copy of at some point. Stoemp is essentially mashed potato with extra things - I'm probably bending the description a little here. Carbonnade is a (Flemish) Belgian beer and beef stew.

Carbonnade à la Flamande

1 450g pack (half lb) of stewing steak, roughly cubed

1 small onion, finely chopped

Vegetable oil

Butter

Cornflour (or wheat flour if available)

1/2 bottle dark Belgian beer

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 small bay leaf

Black pepper

Seasalt

Hot water/beef stock

2 - 3 tsp redcurrant jelly

Heat the oil and add a little butter to a pan on medium heat. (Use all butter if a stronger flavour is preferred.) Dredge the beef in cornflour before browning it in batches, removing to a bowl until all is done. Scrape up any burnt bits from the pan, and add to the bowl too. (Remove stubborn ones with a little beer to deglaze, if necessary.)

Wipe pan clean, add a little more oil and butter, and sauté onion until a little browned. Then return beef to pan, and stir to heat through.

Add beer to pan, stirring as you go. Bring contents to a simmer, and boil off any alcohol remaining.

Add thyme, bay leaf, pepper and a pinch of seasalt to taste. Stir, then pour enough hot water or beef stock into the pan to completely cover the contents. Bring to a gentle simmer and leave for 45mins - 1hr, or 'til the beef is tender.

Shortly before serving, stir in the redcurrant jelly and adjust to taste. Any cornflour originally used will have broken down by now, so make a cold water cornflour slurry (1 - 2tbsp cornflour) and add to thicken as desired.

Stoemp

2 - 3 baking potatoes

1 carrot

Handful of spinach

Grapeseed oil

Rice milk

Butter or "Pure" spread

Black pepper

Seasalt

Peel and dice the potatoes into large chunks, add to a pan of cold water and bring to the boil. Remove when fully cooked.

Very finely dice the carrot, and tear up the spinach leaves. Add carrot to potatoes shortly before the latter are cooked.

When the potato is done, drain and rinse. Return potato and carrot to empty pan, and roughly mash. Splash in a little rice milk and a tsp or two of butter/spread, and combine. Stir in spinach, season with pepper and salt.

Serve Stoemp along with a generous helping of Carbonnade, and enjoy!

Thai yellow curry

There were vegetables, and chicken, and coconut milk, and it had been at least three days since I'd had some jasmine rice. The following appeared:

2 dsp grapeseed oil

1 tsp madras curry powder

1/4 onion, finely sliced

1" ginger root, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 bruised stick of lemongrass, cut into 3 pieces

1 kaffir lime leaf

Thin coconut milk

Chicken thigh (cubed meat + bone)

1/2 small sweet potato, diced

1/2 aubergine, diced

1 small green pepper, cubed

1/2 red pepper, cubed

1 sliced carrot

1 - 2 tsp lime juice

1 tsp palm sugar

2 tsp fish sauce

3 tbsp raw grated coconut (frozen)

Heat oil over a medium heat in a pan, and add curry powder. Let oils release, then add onion for 5mins. Stir in garlic, ginger, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf, and fry until all is a little softened.

Add chicken pieces and the bone, stir, and cook until meat has lost its pinkness. Add thin coconut milk to cover, stir in grated coconut, and let simmer for 15mins or so.

Stir sweet potato and aubergine into the pan, and let simmer for a few minutes more. Add more coconut milk if required.

Some 10mins before serving, add the peppers and carrot. Season with lime juice, palm sugar and fish sauce - adjust to taste.

Serve over steamed jasmine rice, preferably with a sprinkling of fresh coriander.

Treacle pancakes

Based loosely upon a Dora Yaki recipe (Japanese mini pancakes, akin to Scotch pancakes), I thought I'd try out treacle instead of syrup. (I was out of syrup.) Sweetly soft, chewy, and just the littlest bit dense - good with sweet chestnut spread.

5 tsp sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp dark treacle

1/2 tsp agave nectar

1/2 cup flour (I used 2 dsp ground almonds, 1/4 cup rice/tapioca/potato starch mix, and 1/4 cup sorghum flour)

1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 cup water

Whisk the egg, sugar, treacle and syrup lightly until smooth. Sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Whisk to incorporate some of the flour, then pour in water and continue to mix until a slightly stiff batter has formed. Leave to stand for a few mins.

Heat up a frying pan to medium heat, and wipe with a paper towel holding a bit of grapeseed oil. Spoon in one dessertspoon of mixture, and wait until the top surface has some bubble holes and has solidified (2-3mins). Flip, cook for another 30sec - 1min. Remove onto handy plate.

Serve with chestnut spread, an (sweet red bean paste, Japanese style), sirop de liège, honey etc. Good with a cup of spiced tea.

Spiced chickpea ragoût

Twas a cool and wet evening, and the wild winds did blow! "Stew," I thought to myself, and went shopping for such.

Olive oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp coriander seeds

1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (or 5-6 sweeps of a nut over the grater)

1/4 tsp harissa paste

1/2 onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1/2 aubergine, cubed

1 small green pepper, diced

2 small red peppers, diced

1/4 vegetable stock cube, dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water

1/2 tin tomatoes

1 tin chickpeas

Sultanas

Lemon juice

Black pepper

Pinch of seasalt

Optional:

Spinach

Rye bread

Goat's milk soft cheese

Fresh coriander

Toast whole spices in a dry frying pan on medium heat, then grind up before dropping into a pan of medium-heat containing a splash of olive oil. Add chilli flakes, cinnamon and nutmeg, and let the oils release for a minute or so. (Take care not to scorch the spices on too high a heat, or you'll have to start again.)

Stir in the harissa paste, then add the onion and let sauté for a few minutes.

Add in garlic, aubergine. Stir for a minute, then add peppers and let cook for another minute or so.

Now stir in the tomatoes and chickpeas, and pour in the vegetable stock (can just use water or a meat stock if you prefer.) Stir everything well, sprinkle in a 1/4 handful of sultanas, squeeze in a wedge of lemon, and add some black pepper and a pinch of seasalt. Let simmer for 15mins or so.

Check for seasoning (the sauce will taste a little sweet/sour, but this is balanced by the chickpeas.) Vegetables should be cooked but not overdone - for well cooked chickpeas, cook for longer but I'd reserve the peppers and add 10-15mins before serving. (I only remembered this right at the end, however.)

Serve over a few handfuls of fresh spinach, alongside some toasted rye bread with goat cheese. (The La Soignon brie is pretty good.) Add a little fresh coriander if desired.

Enjoy!

Strawberry feta salad

I hadn't thought of putting strawberries in a salad until someone prompted me to reconsider the humble fruit - and so, this was created!

Feta cheese

Strawberries

Avocado

Almonds

Baby leaf spinach

Chicory

Baby gem lettuce

Balsamic vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Seasalt

Tear up lettuce and spinach, add finely sliced chicory and cubed avocado. Drizzle on a bit of oil and vinegar, a pinch of salt, and lightly mix up. Cube some feta cheese, slice up some strawberries and add to the salad. Then very finely chop some whole almonds (with skin) into wafer-thin slithers, and scatter on top.

Recipes

This is mostly a place to remind me of what I've cooked, as much of it is newly invented or an adapted recipe that may prove to be handy inspiration later on. (There are a lot of mystery photos for which I can no longer recall the particulars.) As such I've taken to describing the cooking process, as I find it simpler than composing a quantitative list of ingredients followed by a precisely timed set of instructions. (You may note a lack of baking entries, dear reader.)

It seems to be working quite nicely so far, we shall see how it goes! I am thinking an ingredient list at the beginning is a handy shortcut to see what the post is all about though. Hm.

I should add that while most recipes will be things from within the previous day or two, a few others for now will be catch-up work. Should at least be appropriate for the season, though!

Ginger sesame salmon with strawberry salad

The evening called for something very lightly seasoned and with plenty of raw crispy salad. Salmon it was!

1 salmon fillet
Ginger root, spring onion
Green (bell) pepper
Lettuce, baby leaf spinach, celery, cucumber, red chicory, etc.
Strawberries
Lime juice, sesame seed oil, soy sauce
Grapeseed oil

Slice up 1/3 of a green pepper into long thin slithers, and sauté over medium-high heat in some grapeseed oil.

Meanwhile very finely slice some crisp heart of romaine lettuce (2 - 3 leaves), and arrange in a dish. Sprinkle on a handful of torn baby leaf spinach. Check and stir green pepper.

Slice up and add half a stick of celery, about 2" of cucumber and a bit of red chicory.

Finely julienne a 1/2" piece of ginger root (into discs across the root, then into thin matchsticks.) Cut a spring onion into 2 or 3 pieces, then slice these into long thin slithers.

Green pepper should now be a little softened and have taken on a bit of colour, so remove from pan into a small bowl and let cool a little. Add some extra oil to the pan; once warmed up throw in the ginger and stir.

Rinse and pat dry one piece of salmon fillet.

Ginger should be a little translucent after 30 - 60 seconds, so then turn the heat down to low-medium and spread out spring onion pieces across the middle of the pan. Lay the piece of salmon skin-side-up onto this. Let fry for a minute or so, then pour a few tbsp of water into the pan and cover with a vented lid. Leave to poach for a few minutes.

Arrange cooled green pepper onto the salad so far, and core and quarter a few strawberries.

Check on the salmon, it should be mostly done with the additional water gone now. Flip to skin side down, and continue to cook uncovered to preferred doneness.

Slide salmon (with ginger and spring onion pieces) onto salad, and surround with strawberries. Squeeze 1/8th lime over fish and salad then drizzle on a 1/2 tsp of sesame seed oil, and a 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce. Enjoy!

Dahl with lime and coriander

The wind and rain have been blowing all day; cold weather food it was. Alas, the fridge was full of salad. "Never fear!" cried my stomach, "We have lentils!" We also had some motley spices that resulted in throwing away the first attempt and wasting half an onion. (Apparently not all spices keep so well after 5 years or so.) The second attempt turned out better, though.

Green lentils
Onion, garlic, ginger root
Madras curry powder, mustard seeds, ground cinnamon
Vegetable stock
Sliced carrot, celery
Green pepper, tomato
Fresh coriander
Lime juice, coconut milk
Pinch of seasalt

Soak and simmer half a cup of green lentils (this is not at all necessary, but I find it makes them more digestible.) Meanwhile heat up some oil in a pan over a medium heat, and add half a chopped onion. Cover pan with a lid. Boil 1 - 2 cups of water in the kettle for use later.

When the onion has softened a bit, sprinkle in 1 - 2 tsp of madras curry powder, a 1/4 tsp of mustard seeds, and a 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon. Stir and let lightly sizzle for a minute or two.

Add 2 - 3 minced cloves of garlic, and a minced 1/2" piece of ginger. Stir for a few minutes, then tip in mostly drained lentils. (At this point I also added a half cup of reconstituted soy mince, as I'm having a cupboard clear-out.) Add hot water to cover, and bring to a simmer.

Slice up two small carrots, and a large half stick of celery. Add to pan, and continue to simmer.

Mix up 1/4 of a vegetable stock cube with some hot water, and stir it in. Add a good few grinds of black pepper too. (Pondered a bay leaf, but didn't add one this time.) Let this simmer for 15 - 20mins, until everything is tender but the carrot and celery are far from mush.

Finely dice a 1/3 of a green pepper, and add this to the pan. Then stir in a handful of chopped fresh coriander, squeeze in a small wedge of lime (to taste), and splash in about a 1/4 cup of thin coconut milk. Stir, and let simmer a few minutes longer.

Shortly before serving, add a tomato cut into 1/8ths and a pinch or two of seasalt. Check seasoning, adding more coconut milk or lime juice as desired.

Serve with an additional bit of fresh coriander and devour in smug delightedness, all vestiges of attempt no.1 quite forgotten. Later discover that fiddling somewhat chaotically with f number settings on the camera made for a far prettier photo than usual, too.

Grilled cheese, à la Américain

I assumed that American grilled cheese was cheese, on bread, put under a grill and retrieved a little later. But no! For their grills are barbecues, and their broilers are grills.

Grilled cheese can simply be made with a frying pan and a few simple ingredients. Yes, it is a fried cheese sandwich, as far as I can tell.

Bread
Butter (or preferred spread)
Cheese
Gherkins, tomatoes, pickle

Take some sliced cheese, something akin to a mild cheddar works well (I actually tried out Monterey Jack, and found it was similar to that.) Place the cheese upon one piece of bread, sandwich it with another slice of bread.

Now butter the top of the sandwich, and place this butter-side-down in a frying pan over a low-medium heat. Butter the new topside.

After a few minutes, flip it. There should be some light golden-brown toasting on the new topside, and the cheese should be looking a little melty around the edges. Leave for a few more minutes until toasted on the second side. Do not hurry! This is the trick of it.

Serve with pickled gherkin, and some cherry tomatoes don't go amiss. And pickle, if you are a fiend for it such as I am.