Butternut squash soup

Although the days are getting longer it's still cold out there and nothing feels better than a nice hot soup at the end of the day. I've tried soups with different types of pumpkins and squashes, but this is my most absolute favourite squash soup. The base recipe I found somewhere on a website many, many years ago. I've served it at all kinds of functions. 

The one time I will never forget is the time I had my coworkers in San Francisco over for a party. It was the first time ever that I was serving soup and I only had a small ladle. One of my friends asked me what the deal was and whether I didn't want her to enjoy too much soup. At first I didn't get it (for all my Sri Lankan friends, yes I am a total tube light). But then she very abruptly asked me whether I didn't have a larger spoon! I was so embarrassed. I dug into my drawers and found the largest coconut spoon that I could. She was still not totally happy. I think it was because she enjoyed the soup so much that she wanted a huge serving! The next day I went out and bought a proper soup ladle. Never again will I be embarrassed for the lack of a proper soup ladle!!

Preparation time: max 1.5 hours (includes 45 minutes baking); serves 4-6 

Ingredients:

1	Butternut squash
1-2 tbsp.	Honey
1/2 large	Onion
2 tbsp.	Butter (or oil)
2	Vegetable cubes
4 cups	Water
1/2 tbsp.	Chopped, fresh rosemary
	Salt and pepper

Method:

To make this soup taste good you have to have all the ingredients. Substituting will make it taste different. Not necessarily worse. Just not the same. If you are making this in Sri Lanka and can"t find rosemary, I'd love to hear what you substituted it with and how it tasted.

Take your butternut squash and split it in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and then brush the cut surfaces liberally with bees honey. Put it cut side up on a baking sheet and bake at 160 C in a fan oven for 45 minutes (180 C/350 F in a convection oven) or until well cooked. It is a good idea to put the squash on parchment paper or something similar. If either the honey or the sugar from the squash drip down onto the baking sheet it is a pain to clean. Once it comes out of the oven let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Saute the onions in butter for a couple of minutes over medium high heat. Add the water and the vegetable cubes to the onions and bring to the boil. While you are waiting for the water to boil remove the skin from the pumpkin, chop it roughly and add it, together with all other ingredients, to the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. 

Now you have choices! If you want a chunky soup you can mash the hot soup with a potato masher. If you want a very smooth soup (I prefer smooth soups) you either have to let the soup cool and then put it into a liquidizer or use a heat resistant stick blender and stick it directly into the boiling soup. If you use the last alternative you have to be very, very careful that the liquid does not spit. Although rather dangerous it's the method I use and the one by which I calculated the preparation time. 

Whichever method you use, bring the soup to the boil again. Serve hot with home made croutons and fresh bread. (Make pretty patterns with heavy whipping cream.)

Vietnamese summer rolls - vegetarian

What I really wanted was spring rolls to serve with a dim sum dinner. But I figured that there would be too many fried things and summer rolls would be nice and healthy. In addition, I still had wrappers left over from a previous try.

I really like these rolls because they are crunchy and fresh. You could put so many different things in them. And the only time consuming thing about these rolls is that you have to cut up the fillings into nice thin sticks. My husband thought that the rolls were too big, so I cut them in half which really helps show off all the fillings inside.

Most people make these with shrimp because they like how they look with the shrimp. You can add shrimp to the filling (marinade with lime and salt, steam and slice lengthwise), but personally I think they look much better without the shrimp. In fact I find it quite spooky with the shrimp showing through. This might be because I am vegetarian!!

Here's my recipe:

Preparation time: max 2.5 hours (includes a lot of sitting time); makes 16-20 rolls 

Ingredients:

16 - 20	Round rice paper wrappers, available in Asian stores (at least in Germany and the USA)
1 pack	Tofu, firm
2 - 3	Carrots
1/2	Cucumber
1 head	Lettuce
2 oz	Bean thread noodles, Chinese vermicelli, rice vermicelli
10 sprigs	Coriander
5 sprigs	Mint leaves
1 tbsp.	Soya sauce
	Oil for frying
Dipping sauce
1/4 cup	Peanut butter
1/2 cup	Coconut milk (3 tbsp. coconut milk powder + water)
2 tbsp.	Sugar (omit or reduce if peanut butter already has sugar in it)
1 tbsp.	Fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon)
2 tsp.	Soya sauce
2 tsp.	Sriracha sauce
1 tsp.	Sesame oil

Method:

I don't particularly like fresh firm tofu so I fried some for these rolls. Tofu fries best if some of the water is pressed out. There are many ways to do this. I drained the water out of the pack. Placed the tofu on a chopping board which I made sure was tilted enough so any pressed out water would run off. Placed another chopping board on top. Filled a jug with water and placed it on top of all of this. Now you probably can figure a safer way of doing this. In my case eventually the water jug fell off because the tofu got compacted unevenly. Lucky for me the glass jug fell into my plastic strainer that was in the sink. The glass did not crack and all the water fell tidyly into the sink. Of course this was my plan all along ;) At least this is what I told my husband after we both rushed downstairs to the kitchen to see what the noise was. (We had had scares the night before because we heard thuds in the night. These turned out to be ornaments slipping off our Christmas tree because the tree had dried out!) Anyway, let the tofu drain for around half an hour.

Slice the tofu into strips. I cut the block into 3 slices parallel to the kitchen surface and then widthwise so that the sticks cross section was roughly square. The width of the tofu is the perfect length for the sticks. Heat a pan of fresh oil (else the sticks will not taste very good) over high heat and lower the sticks in a few at a time.
I'm sure others have noticed that when you deep fry tofu sticks they attract each other and stick together. For this reason I only fried 3 at a time trying hard to keep them from getting stuck. Each stick was fried for 1:20 to 1:30 minutes (I aimed for a light crust and a soft inside) and drained on kitchen paper. Set them aside to cool.

Next thing to do is to soak the noodles. There are many different types of noodles that you can use. I actually have no idea which ones I have in the kitchen right now (Eeek!). My guess is that they are bean thread noodles. You can use rice noodles as well. To make my life easier I buy the cheap noodles that are packed in a plastic bag and are all broken to pieces. I really hate the regular noodles that are all so nicely packaged because when you want only 1 oz from a 5 oz pack it is almost impossible to separate them. And there is no magic way that I know to separate them. I've tried knives and scissors. I gave up when I saw my father-in-law (previously the owner of a fantastic Chinese restaurant) instruct his daughter to cut a pack up with scissors. It was a very cruel form of torture and it led me to believe that there was no better way to divide up bean thread noodles. Then I discovered the cheap bags in the local Asian store. They are really a life saver if you can find them.
I poured boiling water over my noodles and left them to soak until they were soft. Once they are soft drain them really well by letting them sit in a strainer for 15 minutes or so.

Cut the carrots into sticks as thin as possible and about as long as the tofu sticks. Cover them and set aside. Peel and de-seed the cucumber and also cut into sticks. These can be a bit thicker than the carrots but should be around the same length. Cover and set aside.

Wash, dry and cut the leafy parts of the lettuce into thin strips. I used romaine lettuce to get a bit of crunch.

And wash the coriander and mint leaves. Remove the leaves from the stems and cut the mint leaves into very fine strips.

By now the tofu has cooled off. Take each matchstick and cut, using a very sharp knife, into 4 quarters lengthwise. Sprinkle the soya sauce over the tofu.

Now set everything up in an assembly line fashion. Get a large bowl of very warm water (but not boiling) to soak your wrappers in and you are ready to start.

Immerse a wrapper in the bowl of water and let it soak for 10 seconds. Take it out and lay it on the counter and wait until it is completely soft. While waiting you can soak the next wrapper. I seemed to be able to have two wrappers on my counter at any given time. Once the wrapper is soft you are finally ready to put everything together. It's so difficult to describe how to do this so here are some pictures to guide you. The photos are (obviously!) from left to right!

1. carrots, 2. cucumber, 3. tofu, 4. lettuce, 5. noodles, 6. coriander & mint

Now the big challenge... rolling up the roll. The good thing is that these things are very elastic and don't break very easily. If you are Sri Lankan, then roll it up just like a Chinese roll. If you have no idea what I am talking about it would be best to take a look at this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfI1wMeDXhg starting at around 21 seconds. Some people like their summer rolls flat, but I like mine round!

You can make your rolls in advance and keep them on the counter for a couple of hours. However, they will stick together. Thus you should line them up so they don't touch each other and cover each layer with cling wrap. Finally cover everything with cling wrap to keep them fresh and moist until you are ready to serve. If you are going to cut them in half you should do this just before serving.

Now no summer roll would be complete without a dipping sauce. My favourite is a peanut sauce. You can either buy it in a bottle in any Asian market or you can make it yourself. Just put all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender and pulse until everything is combined. Alternatively mix with a fork.

Guten Appetit!

Eggplant with Tofu - Chinese

This year I planted eggplant in my small vegetable patch. It amazingly survived 3 super hot summer weeks without water and produced a decent number of fruit. Not enough for our normal consumption but enough to enjoy.
I also had a cabbage plant that did not do well at all. It grew tall and flowered. The blooms were really pretty so I just let it be. Turns out that the seeds from the cabbage dropped all over my vegetable patch and late in the summer I had literally hundreds of tiny cabbage plants. I had to thin them out because there was no way that any would survive at that density.
So there I was with a couple of eggplants and heaps of very young green cabbage and dinner to cook! I figured I'd try and put them together Chinese style because I also happened to have a pack of tofu in the fridge.

Served over udon noodles

The resulting experiment was very well received, which led to me having to jump up from the dinning table and grab a pen and paper before I forgot what I had put in to it. It took me a while to revisit the recipe, but that is exactly what I did last night. I didn't have any homegrown produce so I thought it might not taste as good. This didn't seem to be a problem. My teenager stuffed her face and could not keep saying how good the food was! This is not the normal reaction I get these days. Normally I get "oh, not that AGAIN!". So I figured I better post this recipe before I loose my notes!

Preparation time: 1.5 hours ; serves 8 (together with a couple other dishes) 

Ingredients:

800 g	Eggplant
1 bunch	Any type of greens (mustard, leafy green cabbage, etc.)
1 pack	Firm tofu
8 tbsp.	Oil
1 tbsp.	Minced garlic
1 tbsp.	Minced ginger
Sauce
1 1/2 tsp.	Bulion powder or 1 veggie cube
250 ml	Water
4 tsp.	Soya sauce
1 tbsp.	Hoisin sauce
1/2	Lemon, juice of
1 tbsp.	honey (substitute maple syrup if vegan)
1 tsp.	Sirachara sauce

Method:
First of all let me say that the amount of eggplant and greens that you use is not that precise. I used 2 eggplants and I am pretty sure they were much smaller the first time around. If you eat a large amount of tofu you could use 2 packs instead of one. And I really can't tell you what a "bunch" is!! Chopped up I had a cereal bowl full (how big is your cereal bowl?). Sorry that I forgot to weigh the greens :(

Start by cutting the tofu into this slices about 5 mm thick. Lay the slices out on a paper towel, cover with a second paper towel and leave them to allow the water to be absorbed. While your tofu is drying cut the eggplant into 1 cm dice (fancy way to say 1 cm cubes) and wash and roughly chop your greens. You can really use any greens that you like. First time around I used a bowl full of young cabbage plants, the second time around I just picked up some nice looking green stuff from the local Turkish store. I don't even know what they were, but they looked mighty like kale. It might be a good idea to try greens that won't loose too much water when you cook them.

Heat 2 tablespoons of your oil in a frying pan, over medium high heat and add a layer of tofu rectangles. You need to make sure there is no overlap. Fry each side until slightly brown and then flip them over and do the other side. Drain them on paper towels. I had to do three batches. The best type  of pan to use is of course a cast iron pan. I happened to use a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet this time around and it worked fine.
If you're pan runs dry of oil add another tablespoon. If there is not enough oil your tofu won't become golden brown and will dry out before giving you any colour.

Once the tofu is done add 4 tablespoons of the oil and fry the eggplant. Give it a good stir at the beginning so that all the pieces are coated with oil. Fry the eggplant until cooked through and possible browning. You'll need to stir it once every minute or so to make sure it browns evenly, and doesn't stick or burn. While you're doing this you can mix the sauce together. Just get a large enough bowl and mix all the "sauce" ingredients. You can also get your ginger and garlic ready. There should be plenty of time! Eggplant takes a while. Once the eggplant is cooked tip it out into a bowl and return the pan to the cooker.

If you are preparing other dishes and want this to go to the table piping hot you can stop right now. The rest will take you about 10 minutes to put together.

 Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and tip in the ginger and garlic. Saute for 5 seconds. Don't let them burn, although browning is okay. Add the sauce, mix well and bring to the boil. Then add the tofu to the pan and bring it back to the boil. Use a slotted spoon to remove the tofu and arrange on a serving dish.

Add the eggplant to the pan and toss in the sauce. Bring to the boil and then using a slotted spoon spoon out and place on top of the tofu.

Finally add the greens to what is left of the sauce. Saute until cooked (i.e. the greens are limp) and tip the greens together with the remaining sauce onto the eggplant.

Serve steaming hot with jasmine rice or with udon noodles.

Here is a printable version

Cheesy cauliflower bake

I found a nice cauliflower at the grocery store and decided to  turn it into a baked cauliflower, like my mum always used to make. Haven't had it for a while. We are going to enjoy it with some bratkartoffeln and vegetarian schnitzel.

Preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes; serves 4 - 6 

Ingredients:

1 medium	Cauliflower
80 g	Peeled onion
1 tsp.	Minced garlic
50 g	Butter
30 g or 1/4 cup	Flour
500 ml	Milk
1/8 tsp.	Ground nutmeg
50 g or 1/2 cup	Grated cheese
3 tbsp.	Parmesan
	Salt & Pepper

Method:

Remove the green parts from the cauliflower and wash well. If you suspect that there are caterpillars, or other creepy crawlies, in it, place the cauliflower submerged in a bowl of salted water for about 15 minutes. They should all float to the top. I didn't know this the first time I made this on my mothers request. It was a very protein rich cauliflower!

Place the cauliflower in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes. You don't want your cauliflower to be completely cooked and definitely you don't want it overcooked. So keep an eye on it while doing the next step.

In the meantime you can put together the white sauce. First slice the onions and mince the garlic. Once this is done melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy bottom saucepan. Don't let the butter burn else the sauce will be ruined. If it gets a bit brown this is okay. While the butter is melting you can measure out the flour. Add the onions and garlic to the melted butter and allow to cook for about 2 minutes stirring all the time. Next add the flour and continue to stir. Allow the flour to cook for about 1 minute. Then add all the milk at once and keep stirring. If you stop stirring at any other point in time it's not so critical, but if you stop here you will end up with a lumpy sauce. If you didn't have the onions and the garlic even this could be saved, but with them it's neither possible to see the lumps nor to toss the whole thing into a blender. So keep stirring. To ensure that nothing gets stuck to the bottom I like to use a wooden spatula. If you buy one made out of a hard wood it can last for ever. Mine is almost 20 years old and still works well.

Stir until the mixture boils and then reduce the heat so that it is just simmering. Stir all the time. Now keep stirring until the sauce has thickened. Now you can remove it from the heat and stop stirring!

At which point my cauliflower was done. Perfect timing! Remove it from the steamer and run under cold water to stop the vegetable from cooking. If you are in the middle of making your white sauce and cannot stop what you are doing just dump the whole saucepan with the cauliflower in the sink and let cold water run over it until you have time to deal with it.

Add salt and pepper to taste, 1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and the grated cheese (I used emmental but you could use anything that is at hand) and stir until it is well combined. Now place the cauliflower in an oven proof dish and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan and bake at 180 C in a fan over for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown. Garnish with some green herbs to make it look pretty. I used chives since they are growing wild in my garden!

And if you are wondering why there are so few photos with the instructions it is because white sauce and white cauliflower looks really bad on an overcast fall afternoon.

And finally since I have some extra time here is a printable version i.e. a version without all the noise ;)

Coffee meringue cake

This is a very old recipe. I think it comes from one of my mum's old recipe books but I cannot be sure. I have found it elsewhere on the web, but there are no references (surprise, surprise!).  I've made it a couple of times but it never turns out right. But it always tastes exceptional. This time it turned out perfect so I'm sharing my tips with you. This is a great cake if you have someone who is gluten intolerant, like my good friend whose birthday it was. 

Preparation time: 3 hours ; serves 8 (because it is very, very rich and sweet it could serve many more) 

Ingredients:

4	Egg whites (L or M)
8 oz/220 g	Caster sugar (if you don't have "caster" sugar see below)
4 oz/110 g	Granulated sugar
5 tbsp.	Water
4	Egg yolks
12 oz/330 g	Unsalted butter (Süßrahm if you are in Germany)
1 tsp.	Instant coffee dissolved in 2 tsp. hot water OR
150 g	Chocolate

Method:

There are some points during this recipe where you have to be really careful. The first place is when handling the eggs. Since the egg yolk does not get properly cooked you should use very fresh eggs and not give this cake to the young or the elderly. When separating the egg yolk from the white make sure everything is absolutely dry and free of oil else your whites won't become stiff when you beat them. There are many ways to separate your eggs and I won't go into that here because you can find multiple ways with a google search. 

The recipe calls for caster sugar. Its really important for making the meringue. It has to be very fine, but not as fine as icing sugar. Even German fine sugar is not fine enough. I got around this by putting my sugar in a small food processor and pulsing it a few times. Seems to have worked fine. Oh and if your sugar is not fine enough it will sink to the bottom of the meringue and you will have a sticky mess. (Still tastes good. A bit sticky on the teeth and nothing like a meringue.)

Once you have the two ingredients sorted out the next thing you need to do is prepare your baking sheets. You need 3 of them. Make sure you can fit all 3 in one go into your oven. If you can't then you can't really make this cake. You cannot let the egg whites sit while the first batch is cooking. The Whites will deflate and be useless. 

Take 3 sheets of parchment paper and draw 3 8" Circles on them. Tun the paper around to make sure that the pen marks are not in contact with the food. Make sure the paper lies flat on he baking tray. If it was in a roll you should roll it the "other way" to flatten it.  

Now put the oven on. I used a fan oven at 150°C (200°F). The oven has to be hot enough when you put the meringues in. This is not a good time to optimize!

Next Beat your egg whites in a metal bowl. Somehow eggs beat better in a metal bowl! You will know that your egg whites are stiff enough if you can hold the bowl upside down and the eggs don't fall out. This does not work so well if you use a glass bowl so be careful. Once the egg whites are stiff enough add 4 teaspoons of the caster sugar to the egg whites and beat until well combined. About 1 minute.

Now using a metal spoon fold in the rest of the sugar.

The next part took me a bit of reading to figure out how to do it best. Luckily macaroons are all the rage, so there were plenty of places to get some tips from. I packed my beaten egg whites into a piping bag without a tip (I don't own a tip large enough!), and then first piped along the circumference of the Circle drawn on the parchment paper. Then I slowly piped the interior.  At the end I took a spatula and smoothed the tops. Finally I put all 3 meringues  into the oven at the same time and baked them for I hour.

The meringues were done perfectly, which really was a pleasant surprise. Let them cool on a wire rack and start making the butter cream.

This butter cream is a bit involved but it is delicious. Do not be tempted to use a regular american style butter cream That would taste horrible here.


Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved you can increase the temperature and let it boil. Don't continue stirring it, but give it a swish every now and then. While you are waiting for the sugar to be done you can beat the egg yolks so they are broken up and have a few bubbles. Now comes the eternal question. When is the sugar ready? If your syrup drips off your spoon like water it is not done enough. You need to be able to what they call "pull to thread". This means you can take a cooled drop of syrup and pull between finger and thumb to a fine thread. This description is actually pretty good one and you will see what is meant when you make the syrup! Make sure you don't caramelize the sugar.

Once the syrup is ready you have to pour it over the egg yolks beating all the time. It is really good if you have a second pair of hands here. Someone to beat & someone to slowly pour in the sugar syrup. Be very careful because you have to pour the syrup in when it is boiling. Don't pour it on the whisks because this will cause it to splatter everywhere and you will probably get burned. The syrup will cook the egg yolks at least a little bit. Keep beating until it is pale and fluffy. If making the cake with coffee flavour (which I highly recommend) add your flavouring to the egg mix. Now beat the butter in a separate bowl until it is soft and then slowly add the sugar mousse into the butter. Beat until smooth. If you want to make chocolate flavour melt your chocolate and add it to the butter before you beat it. The heat will help soften the butter in case you forgot to take it out of the fridge in time!

Now you can put the cake together and enjoy!

TVP - Soya chunks - Sri Lankan Curry

If you are Sri Lankan then you definitely have eaten TVP. You can get it in all kinds of flavours in Sri Lanka. It's not very popular among the wealthier, meat eating population, mainly because it does not taste good if not prepared properly. You might be tempted to just buy a pack with flavouring from the store and cook it according to the instructions. And then it will taste like my dad describes it "fake sausages with no taste". But if you use this recipe you will have a delicious curry to eat with anything you fancy. I've been working on this one for years and it passes my biggest test - my kids LOVE it!

Outside of Sri Lanka you can buy TVP in stores that sell Indian foods. They call them soya chunks, because this is exactly what they are! Chunks of dehydrated soya.

P.S. Don't waste your money buying stuff that claims to taste like chicken or cuttle fish (or anything else for that matter) because it won't and it will cost a whole heap more.

Preparation time: 10 hours (don't despair, read on); serves 6 - 8 

Ingredients:

125 g	TVP/Soya chunks
3 tsp.	Curry powder (Sri Lankan) or garam masala
1/2 tsp.	Chillie powder (fantastic hot, put as much as you can bear)
1/4 tsp.	Tumeric
1 tsp.	Salt
1 tbsp.	Soya sauce
1 tbsp.	Vinegar
1 tbsp.	Tomato ketchup
1/2 tsp.	Mashed fresh ginger
1/2 tsp.	Mashed fresh garlic
1 small	Onion
1 sprig	Curry leaves
1/2 tsp.	Dill seeds
3 tbsp.	Oil
3/4 cup	Water
3 tbsp.	Coconut milk powder
1 tsp.	Roasted curry powder

Method:

I learnt how to make this by learning a few tricks from a very experienced aunty. She was a very good family friend and was always very particular about food. She had a battalion of people to help her with the cooking and they produced some amazing dishes. I loved hanging out in their kitchen when I was a child. The first part is thanks to this experience.

Put the soya chunks into a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over the chunks. Don't just put enough water to cover them, but as much as the bowl will hold, or your kettle will boil! Stir the chunks to make sure they are all wet. They will naturally float to the top, but this does not matter as long as they are wet. Let your chunks soak for 6+ hours! If at any point there is no more water in the bowl then you should add more.

If you want them for breakfast put them to soak the night before. I generally put mine to soak as soon as I get up in the morning so that they are ready for dinner. Now you may not need to soak them for so long, a couple of hours might be enough, but if you let them soak for longer they taste better. However, I once put mine to soak the night before and when I went to cook them the next day in the evening I realized that they were rotten. Too much of a good thing! So don't leave them too long. In hot climates this might be a bigger problem.

Once your TVP has soaked for long enough the chunks will be all bloated. Now take a handful out of the water and squeeze it hard to get rid of as much of the water as possible. Continue to do this until you have squeezed all the nuggets. I know this is disgusting, but the water that you extract will look like pee and smell bad. This is exactly why you need to get rid of it!!! Now put the TVP back into fresh, warm water and let it soak for a further 30 - 60 minutes. Again squeeze out your chunks. This whole process will get rid of the nasty taste that so many people associate with TVP. By doing a final squeeze you are vacating space that will be taken up by the sauces and spices.

Now add everything in the list above from the curry powder all the way to the mashed garlic. Mix it in well and if you have some time let it sit for 30 - 60 minutes.

While waiting dice the onions and heat the oil over medium high. Then temper the onion, curry leaves and dill in the oil (i.e. fry them!) for around 1 minute. If it seems like the stuff is burning reduce the heat or remove the pan from the heat.

Now add the marinated soya chunks to the pan. Stir well so that everything is well mixed and then add the water. Cover the pot, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat so that it keeps simmering. I keep it at around 5. The thing with this curry is that the less gravy it has the better it tastes. So you have to keep cooking it until everything is either absorbed or evaporated. The longer you cook it the better it tastes. You could eat it after half an hour but to get the best flavour let it cook for an hour. Don't let the curry completely dry out. If you notice that it is dry add 1/4 cup of water. Obviously the longer you let it cook the more water you will have to add.

After around half an hour you can add the coconut milk powder. It's best to dissolve it first, and never add it to boiling water because it will form lumps. If you have a lot of liquid in your pan you can tip some out, let it cool a bit and use this to dissolve the coconut milk powder. Alternatively mix it with a bit of warm water. Now add this to the TVP and continue to cook it.

If at some point you get bored or just need it to be done NOW, like I do, just take the lid off the pan and increase the heat. Keep stirring so that it does not boil and then take it off the fire once all the liquid has evaporated. At the very end you can sprinkle on your roasted curry powder, although I must admit I usually forget to do this!!

And this is how to enjoy your TVP (or fake sausages)!!

Re-fried beans

I picked up some really nice avocados last week, so we had to make some guacamole and everything else that goes with it. In our house that includes re-fried beans. The beans are super easy to make if you have access to canned kidney beans. If you don't have the canned variety you can use the dried ones, but then the process takes way longer. Just soak your beans for a good 8 hours and then boil them until they are tender. I can't tell you how long it takes or how many beans to use, because I have never done it myself. If you do try it share it in the comments below so we can all profit from it.

Preparation time: 30 minutes ; serves 4 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp.	Oil
250 g	Diced onions
1/2 tsp.	Garlic puree
2 cans	Kidney beans (1 can = 425 g)
1 tsp.	Cumin powder
1 tsp.	Coriander powder
1/2 tsp.	Salt
150 ml	Water + possibly more

Method:

This recipe is pretty simple. The key to perfection is to cook it in a heavy bottomed pan. I use a cast iron frying pan. There are two reasons for this choice. The first being that the beans are less likely to burn and the other you will find out later!

You can add more or less onion and garlic depending on your taste so go ahead and experiment. I usually use yellow onions, but I assume you can use any available type.

While the onions are doing their thing crack open the cans of beans, empty them into a colander, drain the liquid and rinse them under running water. Of course not forgetting to stir the onions every now and then!

Place the pan on medium-high heat and heat the oil. Once the oil is hot enough add the onions and fry them for a couple of minutes. If you are not sure when your oil is not enough don't fret. It doesn't really matter! Sometimes I just put my onions in before the oil is really hot and it does not seem to do any harm. If you like the taste of caramelized onions you can fry them until they are slightly brown, otherwise once they start looking transparent should do. The main thing is that they are evenly cooked, so stir them every now and then.

Once the onions are cooked to your satisfaction add the garlic and fry for another 1 - 2 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients into the frying pan, stir well and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat so that the beans remain simmering. Now comes the fun part (and the second reason for using a cast iron pan). To make your beans come together they need to be mashed. If you like your beans to be a smooth paste you could always put your beans into a food processor before adding them to the frying pan. However, we like a bit of texture in this household so I use first the back of a wooden spoon and then I move to a potato masher. Of course it would be much more efficient to just use the masher but I really like attacking the beans and crushing them with a wooden spoon. At some point I get bored with it and that is when I move to the potato masher!

When you mash the beans the insides come out and start forming a paste. This absorbs a lot of the water that you added to the pan. The beans should not dry out, so keep a jug of water on the side and add about a 1/4 cup when ever you feel like the beans are sticking to the bottom of the pan. Mix it in well each time and continue mashing until you have the desired consistency. I cannot tell you what this is, it will depend on your taste. All I can say is that if you don't smash any of the beans you won't have real re-fried beans :(

Serve with mexican rice, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, grated cheese or wrap it up and make a burrito.

Brownies

I've had the urge now for a couple of weeks to bake some brownies, but never got round to it. In fact I wanted to make them for my co-workers in Duisburg and spread the love. Well now that I've baked them, on a Friday evening, there is no chance in hell that they are ever going to see them. Already half of them are gone, some to the neighbours (spreading love there) and the rest in our tummies AND the kids are not even at home!!

There is a bit of a dilemma in my mind about sharing this recipe. Mainly because it's from my Spago recipe book. I've changed it to suit my tastes and converted it to metric units, but does that make it my own recipe? Neither Spago nor Wolfgang Puck has posted the recipe on-line, other people have, but does that make it okay? Copyright is such a complicated thing, especially with recipes. How much do I have to change to call it my own??

Preparation time: 90 minutes ; makes (15 large) pieces  

Ingredients:

350 g	Bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
225 g	Butter, unsalted
1 tsp.	Instant coffee
200 g	Flour
1 tsp.	Baking powder
1/2 tsp.	Salt (leave it out if you can only get salted butter)
4	Eggs, large
400 g	Sugar

Method:

Although the ingredients call for bittersweet chocolate you can use any other type. If you can't get cooking chocolate and want to use regular stuff just make sure you reduce the amount of sugar you put in. You might also want to increase the amount of chocolate!

For this recipe you need to use something called a "bane-marie". Most of us don't have one of these sitting around at home and I would not advise you to go out and buy one! You can use regular kitchen stuff. Basically what it is is a a bowl within a bowl. The inner bowl has water in it and thus distributes the heat evenly to the upper bowl. This is crucial when you have to heat something evenly.

The first thing you need to do is find something in your kitchen that works for you. I use either a Pyrex (with a lip for chocolate) or a metal bowl and a saucepan that the bottom of the bowl fits into but that the whole bowl cannot fall into. In this recipe you need two medium sized bowls.

Put your chocolate, butter and instant coffee into a bowl with a lip. The reason I recommend a lip is because then the evaporating water which condenses on the top of the bowl cannot drip down into the chocolate. Don't forget, if you get even a drop of water in your chocolate it will seize and you'll have to start again. It is a real shame if you have to set aside 350 g of chocolate (I say "set aside" because you can use it in other baking projects, for example, it still works well in cake recipes).  Fill your saucepan with around 4 inches of water (the bottom of your bowl should not touch the water) and bring it to simmer. Place a wooden spoon in the water and then the bowl with the chocolate on top. I put the spoon in there to stop excess steam from building up in the pan. I am rather scared that I might burn myself on the steam. This way the steam always comes out from one side, and I know which side it is. Don't use a metal spoon for this, the water will condense and run into your chocolate (been there, done that)!

Allow the chocolate to melt. Do not stir to often. While your chocolate and butter are doing their thing you can measure out the rest of the ingredients and get another bowl ready with the eggs and sugar. The same method will be used as with the chocolate. Give your chocolate a stir once the bottom has melted. I use a chopstick for this, wooden! And allow it to continue melting. If your water is boiling reduce the heat. You only want it to simmer.

Around about now is the time to put on the oven 160 C in a fan over/180 C regular/350 F.

If you want really thick brownies prepare a 8" by 8" pan. They will take forever to bake so you can add on another half an hour to the preparation time above. I use a quarter tray (13" by 9") for my brownies, which considerably reduces the baking time, saving on energy and allowing for smaller portions. Line the tray with parchment paper so that the cooked brownies are easy to remove from the tray.

Easily removable if you use parchment paper

By now your chocolate is probably melted. Stir it well to incorporate the butter. If there are still a few bumps don't worry take it out of the saucepan and set it somewhere. Go back to it later and give it another stir, that will probably get rid of all the bumps. But if it doesn't don't worry too much, no one ever complained of a lump of chocolate in their brownie, right?

If you need to fill more water into the saucepan do so and bring the water back to simmering. Place the bowl with your eggs and sugar into/onto it. With an electric hand mixer beat the eggs and sugar. Beat it until the sugar dissolves.

To tell that it dissolved stick your finger into the mousse and rub it onto another finger. If there are still sugar crystals you will feel them (lick your finger clean!). By the time your sugar is dissolved you will have a pale yellow looking mousse. Take this off the fire (some things are best described the Sri Lankan way!) and add the chocolate. Whisk until well incorporated.

It's not well incorporated here, just looks pretty!

You will notice that your mousse deflates, this is okay. Then add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix in with a spatula until well incorporated.

Fill this into your prepared tray, pop it in the oven and bake for 45 minutes. You can tell that it is done by sticking in a knife. If it does not have soggy stuff on it when you take it out, it is done. Note that it may have crumbs sticking to it. Some people like their brownies soggy, if you are one of these people don't bake it for so long. Brownies are much like chocolate chip cookies and will get hard once they cool down. A typical beginner mistake is to keep baking them until they are hard. If you do this then your brownies will be super hard by the time you get round to eating them. Resist the urge to over bake. My guess is that the sugar and chocolate get hard as the brownie cools down.

Allow your brownies to cool, cut them to the desired size, and then enjoy them (although we enjoyed our straight out of the oven with a cup of Dilmah).