Preparation time: 30 minutes; makes 1 litre
Ingredients:
1 medium | Onion |
2 tbsp. | Oil |
2 cloves | Garlic |
500g | Swiss chard |
1 L | Milk |
1.5 tbsp. | Flour |
1/3 | Vegtable cube (Knorr) |
Salt and pepper |
I think this time I'm finally going to start posting all of my writings. They come rather sporadically since I'm not very good at sticking to one thing for long. I have long since given up completing projects that don't have a specific deadline or any pressure attached!
Preparation time: 30 minutes; makes 1 litre
1 medium | Onion |
2 tbsp. | Oil |
2 cloves | Garlic |
500g | Swiss chard |
1 L | Milk |
1.5 tbsp. | Flour |
1/3 | Vegtable cube (Knorr) |
Salt and pepper |
Of course you could just eat it without the wrap! |
Chunky salsa |
These skewers are another product of trying to use up the leftover vegetables in the fridge. They turned out really well and are perfect for a BBQ. But even if the weather is freezing you can fix them in an oven.
1 | Sweet potato, large |
4 | Potato, medium |
2-3 | Beetroots, boiled |
500g | Broccoli |
Olive oil | |
1 tsp. | Garlic paste |
1/4 tsp. | Roasted curry powder |
1/4 tsp. | Chili flakes |
Salt and pepper | |
20 | Bamboo skewers |
Fill a basin with cold water and allow your skewers to soak. This will prevent them from catching fire when you put them on the grill or in the oven.
Put the fan oven on at 200 C (220C convection oven).
Peel the potatoes and cut into 2 cm dice. I made 20 such cubes. Each of the vegetables is going to have a different taste, thus you'll need two roasting dishes. One for the regular potato and one for the sweet one. You can't really just grill the potatoes on the skewers, that would take forever and the other vegetables would be over cooked. So I pre-baked them. I did this in the oven. The sweet potato I tossed in olive oil (less than 1 tablespoon), salt and the chilli flakes. The regular potato I tossed in olive oil, garlic paste (make it fresh) and salt. Put the potatoes in a baking dish and bake until just tender. You should be able to get a fork about halfway through. If you want to do this on a BBQ just wrap the cut and marinaded potatoes in foil and grill them.
If you use fresh beetroot you'll have to boil them until they are barely cooked. If you live in Germany you can buy precooked ones in the store. This will save you a lot of time, however, the quality of the beets may note be great. I always buy organic ones from Lidl. I've tried other ones but they don't taste good.
Cut your beet into 2 cm dice, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and roasted curry powder.
Wash your broccoli and cut into 20 pieces. Again drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Once all the vegetables are ready skewer them and grill them for about 5 minutes. After this time some of the surfaces will start to burn giving it a nice "grilled" look. Then turn off the grill and put on the oven and leave for another 5 minutes or so. Just enough so that the broccoli is tender.
We found the broccoli a bit dry. That would have not been an issue if I hadn't forgotten to make a the dipping sauce! You can find the recipe here. Another nice accompaniment would be sauce hollandaise.
When I saw these mini eggplants in the store I just had to buy them. I had no idea what I would do with them! The shop owner said that usually people cooked them with walnuts. I'm guessing that is a mediterranean way of cooking them. I searched the web but couldn't find anything that hit the spot, so I went out on a limb and created my own recipe.
Preparation time: 1.25 hours; serves 4 as a main dish
1 kg | Eggplant (about 16 fruit) |
1/2 - 1 tbsp. | Salt |
3 tbsp. | Oil |
1/4 tsp. | Turmeric powder |
1/4 tsp. | Chilli flakes |
1/2 tsp. | Ground cumin |
Black pepper, freshly ground | |
Ingredients for sauce | |
1/2 cup | Coconut cream |
1 tbsp. | Miso paste |
1/2 tsp. | Dark soya sauce |
1/4 tsp. | Chilli powder |
A few mint leaves finely chopped, to garnish Method: |
Wash the eggplant and slice lengthwise down the middle. Leave the stem on so that the fruit stays together. It also makes it look pretty and gives you something to grab the fruit by once it is cooked and soft.
Place the eggplant cut side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Leave them to stand for at least 20 minutes, but no more than 1 hour. You should see beads of moisture form on the top of the eggplant.
While the salt is drawing out the water from the eggplant you can set about making the sauce. It's a really simple sauce to make, but it's full of punch. Simply put all ingredients in a small saucepan, put it on medium heat and stir to combine all the ingredients. I don't know if you can replace the coconut cream with fresh coconut milk. Maybe if you squeezed some fresh milk and then let it sit for a while in the fridge, you could skim off the cream. You might also be able to make a thick cream from Maggie coconut milk powder, but I have not tried it yet. I used canned coconut cream. The dark soya sauce give the sauce a bit of colour. Contrary to what you might think dark soya sauce has a lower sodium content than the light variety. Adjust the chilli powder to your taste.
Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat (about 5 minutes) and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible and simmer for about 10 minutes.
By now the eggplant has probably been sitting for long enough. Wipe off the moisture that has formed on the top of the cut surface with a paper towel and try to take some of the salt off too. You don't need to get all the salt off because there won't be anymore salt added. Just the excess that fell on the baking tray and that sticks to your paper towel and hands.
If your grill needs to be pre-heated now is the time to put it on (a Foreman grill won't work because it will squash the eggplant).
Now with a very sharp knife score the top of the eggplant as show in the photograph below. Don't cut all the way through to the skin, but go deep enough so that the spices get inside and so that it cooks quicker.
Place the eggplants cut side up on a baking tray that can be used under a grill and brush the cut surface with oil. Then take a pinch of turmeric and sprinkle a tiny bit on each cut surface. Do the same with the ground cumin. Note that there is more cumin than turmeric so you should put twice as much cumin as turmeric. Finally crack some fresh black pepper on top and sprinkle with chilli pieces if desired.
Flip the eggplant over and oil the skin sides of the eggplant.
Put the fruit under the grill at 240 C for 2 minutes or until golden brown. If the fruit is too close to the heat the skin will burn, which has it's own taste but might not be what you are looking for. I had mine on the second level from the top.
Flip the eggplant and continue to grill for another 8 minutes. If your eggplants are not getting nice and golden on the top, but they are cooked, move the baking tray closer to the heat source. Keep a sharp eye out to make sure you don't burn them.
Reheat the sauce while the eggplant is cooking so it can be served hot.
Remove the eggplant from the grill and serve immediately with the coconut/miso sauce.
You can sprinkle some finely chopped mint either on the eggplant (if you are serving the sauce on the side) or after pouring the sauce on the eggplant.
Or you could cook them till they are just cooked and then put them back under the grill just before serving to brown the tops. Reheat the sauce, adding a bit more coconut cream if it has dried out, and serve hot.
Here is a shorter version to use when cooking https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DgJXRfl66SHnFnMRu5S3xvAP8cbqOMmGMDFnXVNoOSE/edit?usp=sharing
I first ate a stuffed Hokkaido pumpkin at my Georgian friends place. It was so delicious that I stole the recipe from her and made my own. Unfortunately it didn't taste anything as delicious as my friends. I was so sad, but I blamed it on the fact that her pumpkin was organically grown, with love, in her own garden. Thereafter I lost the recipe, but every year since then, when the shelves were brimming with Hokkaido's during the fall, I craved for a stuffed pumpkin. So for the last few years I've been experimenting with stuffing pumpkins. This year I finally perfected my recipe 😁. We've been so busy eating it that there was no time to post it! I hope you'll still have some pumpkins left on the shelf.
Preparation time: 1.5 hours; serves 2
1 | Organic Hokkaido pumpkin (about 20 cm diameter) |
1 tsp. | Minced garlic |
1/2 tsp. | Salt |
1 tbsp. | Olive oil |
200 g | Feta or similar (I use a cheese based on cows milk) |
1/2 | Vegetable cube |
1/2 cup | Couscous |
1/2 cup | Coarsely chopped walnuts |
1/4 cup | Dried cranberries, coarsely chopped |
3/4 cup | Hot water |
1 tbsp. | Chopped cilantro |
Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (fan oven) [200 C convection].
Cutting and cleaning out the pumpkin is probably the most time consuming and difficult part of the this recipe. You'll need a very strong and sharp knife to cut open the top. See the picture below. Take great care while doing this. Cut the hole big enough so that you can fit your hand in later to scrape out some of the insides.
Put the minced garlic, salt and olive oil into the pumpkin and coat the surface well. Don't forget to coat the inside of the lid.
I've found that Hokkaido pumpkins tend to split in the oven. This is a bit annoying because one of the nice things about the dish is that it looks really good. So if it splits and falls to pieces, well what was the use? Because of this I've taken to wrapping the bottom part of the pumpkin with aluminium foil. Sometimes before I bake it and some times after. However, wrapping with foil is not essential, it's just to keep the pumpkin together.
Put your pumpkin on a baking tray (this is essential) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the flesh of the pumpkin is soft enough to scoop out. This will not only depend on the size of your pumpkin but also on how thick it is.
While the pumpkin is baking you can get the other ingredients ready. Coarsely chop the walnuts and cranberries (if they are too large that is). Cube the feta cheese and finely chop the cilantro.
Once the pumpkin is baked remove it from the oven and scrape out some of the flesh (about 1/2 to 1 cup). Be careful to leave enough flesh so that the pumpkin retains it's shape. If the flesh is hard you can cut it into small cubes, if not it will just break up when you mix things together. Now place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix.
250 g | Brown mushrooms |
350 g | White mushrooms |
1 medium | Red onion |
1 tbsp. | Oil |
250 g | Potatoes, peeled |
1 tsp. | Minced garlic |
180 g | Vegan sausages |
2 tbsp. | Fresh oregano, finely chopped |
1 tsp. | Fresh thyme leaves |
1 tbsp. | Flour |
8 leaves | Swiss chard (Mangold) |
1 tbsp. | Olive oil |
Salt & pepper |
Wash your mushrooms and either slice them into 4 or quarter them. I've heard you should not wash your mushrooms but I always do because they are always dirty. Cut your onion. You can either dice it or slice it finely. I sliced mine in this instance. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan on high heat. When frying mushrooms I always like to use a cast iron pan. It makes the mushrooms brown and caramelises the red onions better. Also using high heat seals in the liquid which makes them taste really good. When the oil is hot add the onions and stir fry for about 1 minute. Next add the mushrooms, sausages and garlic continue to fry stirring occasionally until all the mushrooms are browned (they might not brown if you use a non-stick pan so go for cooked instead). This could take up to 5 minutes. When they are done remove from the heat.
While your mushrooms are cooking prepare the potatoes by peeling and cutting them into large dice (around 2.5 cm). Boil the potatoes. They should be cooked but not break to pieces because they are going to be cooked again and you don't want them to turn to mush. During the time that the potatoes are boiling, and after the mushrooms are done (else you may burn the mushrooms!), wash and roughly chop the Swiss chard. You can use the stems in the recipe too. Drain the potatoes and add them to the mushrooms. Add salt, pepper, oregano, thyme and Swiss chard, sprinkle the flour on top and then mix everything together. It is important to sprinkle the flour on top so that it doesn't clump. The flour is to bind together the juices from the mushrooms and chard forming a thick sauce. Return to the cooker on medium heat and continue to carefully turn things over until the chard is cooked (i.e. is limp).
Put your oven on at 180 ℃ for a fan oven or 200 ℃ for a convection oven.
Now you can concentrate on putting the phyllo dough together. I used store bought dough that was pre-cut to a triangle, but you could use any shape you like and be creative when lining your pan. I used an approx. 20 cm diameter stoneware soufflé dish. Brush your dish with olive oil. Then brush a sheet of dough with olive oil. Make a very thin coating. I found the best way to do this was to use my fingers. I first applied the dough with my brush and then distributed it with my fingers. Line the pan with dough. Make sure there is plenty of overlap and plenty extra to wrap over the top. Each new piece you add to the pie should be coated with olive oil. If you prefer a thicker crust just use more layers of dough, especially if you want to take it out of the pan to serve it.
Pour in the filling and top it off with some extra dough with not so thin layers of olive oil!
Bake at 180 ℃ for 30 minutes.
5 | Eggs, large |
2 tbsp. | Milk |
1/4 tsp. | Salt |
7 slices | Sandwich bread (i.e. white, rectangular, spongy) |
1/2 tsp. | Ground cinnamon |
1 tbsp. | Sugar |
50 g | Butter |
450 g | Fresh spinach OR |
225 g | Frozen spinach |
225 g | Potatoes |
3 tbsp. | Oil |
50 g | Onion |
4 | Eggs |
1/2 | Organic lemon |
Salt and pepper |
3 cups/12 oz/340 g | Flour (wheat or all purpose) |
1.5 tbsp | Sugar |
1 pkt. | Dry yeast |
2 tsp. | Salt |
1 tsp. | Garlic granules |
1 sprig | Rosemary (about 10 cm long) |
3/4 cup/175 ml | Water |
1/4 cup/60 ml | Milk |
1 tbsp./1/2 oz/16 g | Butter |
1 1/2 tbsp. | Olive oil |
Rock salt | |
Rosemary | |
2 tbsp. | Parmesan |