Mini Grilled Eggplant

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

Ingredients:

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

Origami window dressing

 My window has been looking pretty empty after I took my Christmas decorations down. It's not totally bare because 3 of my orchids happen to be in bloom. I have a total of 5 orchid plants. I did not buy any of these plants. They were all gifts. The only indoor plants I buy are cacti because everything else dies. But apparently not orchids. I've even chucked them outside because I really did not want to deal with them, but they relentlessly survived. I feed them once a year if they are lucky and I water them once a week (which I'm told is plenty) and they just keep giving. My husband says I must be growing old because I have a knack for orchids and only old people grow orchids! But he's just joking, of course.

Being just the beginning of February I felt it was too early for spring and flowers. God forbid, it is still snowing outside. I thought we need a bit of peace and goodwill and someone really needs to use up all that origami paper that has accumulated over the years. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but when I see cheap origami paper I just have to buy it. I have no idea why. I also buy origami books. I have one math book which describes the geometry of origami. I have another in which the origami insects are so complicated that I have never managed to complete a single one. I actually know why. It says you should use the highest quality paper to prevent tearing. And cheapo me does not have any high quality paper and is not going to invest in any. This is how I came up with the idea to make strings of origami cranes to dress my window. 

All you need to make these strings are:

1. Origami paper
2. Fishing nylon, beading nylon or any other thread
3. A needle with a head big enough for the thread to fit through
4. One weight per string 
5. Blue tac, a glue gun 

First of all make the cranes. I will not go through how to do this because there are hundreds of instructions out there. If you are like me and like an old fashioned paper instruction try this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orizuru (I'm trying to be neutral here!). If you prefer a video ... well you know exactly what to do. Some cranes are slightly easier than others. The one on Wikipedia is the easiest type. If you don't know the origami notation then probably a video is a better option for you. 

I used multicoloured origami paper so I lay them out on the table and swapped them around until I was happy with the colour combination. I mean, I wasn't totally happy with my combinations, but I really didn't want to make anymore cranes so I made do with what I had! 

Measure how much string you need and add on about 30 cm so you have some extra to tie knots and adjust the length. Start with the bottom most crane. Thread the string into your needle, gently press your crane flat, and then pass the needle through the hole in the bottom and out through the middle of the body. By pressing the crane flat it is easier to see where the middle is and it is less likely that the paper tears.  Continue threading your cranes until you have the desired number, which in my case was 4. 

You'll need a weight at the bottom of the string because the cranes don't weigh enough to keep tension in the string. You can use anything for the weight. I happened to find these "things" in my basement. I bought them on sale at a crafts store because they were pretty (and on SALE). I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. My husband keeps me out of craft stores because I can't help myself. And if I do wander in because I really, really need something (like a pot of glue) I always head over to the sale rack, and I ALWAYS find something that has my name on it. I remember when I picked these up. I was standing outside with my husband while my kids were inside buying stuff. Then my husband popped into the bakery opposite to pick up some bread. One of my kids popped their head out of the store just then (I'm sure they noticed that I was alone) and asked me if I could come and look at something they wanted to buy. Unable to resist I took that bold step into the store, I looked at their potential purchase and then was told by my eldest "hey mama, you know they have some nice stuff on the sale rack". I gave her a scolding, told her that she would be in trouble with her father (as would I be), and all too willingly headed to the back of the store. My kids had a field day of it, picking things up and enticing me with them. "Mama, wouldn't this look good", "Oh mama, look how cheap this is. Are you sure you can't use it?", "This looks really, really cute". They got so much fun out of it and I got a whole heap of stuff that was so cute, so cheap, and I so did not need. Including these metal lattice hanger things. When we came out of the store my husband just shook his head in despair and I blamed it all on the kids 😉

Now string your weight on to the bottom and secure it with a double knot.

My window is above my kitchen sink and I have to climb on a stool and lean over the sink and kitchen counter to get to the top. So it's not very easy to adjust things in situ. So I hung my strands onto a curtain in my living room using a safety pin. Then I figured out how to space the cranes. I used a tiny piece of blue tac to hold the cranes in place. A tiny piece right at the bottom. Because I used blue tac I was able to adjust the heights so that they matched. It is also much easier to adjust if you find it doesn't work when you move it to where it should be. You could of course use a glue gun to place a small bead of hot glue at the bottom of the crane. But you then have to be sure that you have the right place. If you don't have blue tac you can use any other type of poster tac or you could use plasticine, clay or play doh (although the play doh may not work quite as well). If you want to be really fancy you can string a bead on before you string on a crane and tie the bead into place. The problem with this is of course that it would be really hard to change it later and you would have to tie that knot before you put the next crane onto the string. 

Then you are done. All I had to do was to move the cranes over to my kitchen window! 

If you are wondering how I attached them to my window frame I used some self adhesive ceiling hooks. I'm so happy with these hooks that I bought a heap more so that I could dress all my windows for Christmas. Needless to say the hooks are still in a drawer and the windows were completely naked! Well maybe I'll get round to it next Christmas.  

Stuffed roasted peppers with spiced rice

 I have a memory from many, many years ago. We visited a friend of my second cousin (together with my second cousin) up on a lonely tea estate. My parents went home leaving my sister and myself with my second cousin (who was quite a bit older than us and already married) because we really loved the place. We were served stuffed bell peppers for dinner. It was the first time I ever ate stuffed peppers and I found the dish absolutely delicious. Many years later, when I moved to the west where bell peppers are in abundance, I tried to replicate something similar. I was never successful. Eventually I even forgot what that delicious meal tasted like. I tried various different recipes because I knew, deep down, that baked stuffed peppers could taste absolutely divine. I had quite given up especially since my children did not share my obsession with baked peppers. How I came about the idea to give it another try a few weeks ago I have no idea, but try I did. I threw everything I had at it to a point where I thought it may taste disgusting. But I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome, which was a happy family gobbling down some healthy chow saying "But I don't like baked peppers. These are so good."

Preparation time: 1.5 hours; serves 4

Ingredients:

2	Rice cooker cups of basmati rice
2 tbsp.	Oil
1/2 tsp.	Mashed garlic
65g	Onion, diced (about half an onion)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1 tsp.	Salt
3	Rice cooker cups of boiling water
1 tbsp.	Oil
4	Red bell peppers
1 tbsp.	Oil
65g	Onion, diced (the other half of the onion)
1 tsp.	Mashed garlic
180g	Vegetarian mince
1 tsp.	Salt
1 tbsp.	Nutritional yeast (substitute with a veggie cube)
1/2 tsp.	Cumin powder
1 tbsp.	Tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1	Green chilli, finely sliced
3	Green onions or two very small leeks with lots of leaves, finely chopped
1 can (265g)	Chickpeas, lightly mashed
3/4 cup	Tomato puree
1/4 cup	Water

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (fan oven) [200 C convection].

Wow! That is a long list of ingredients. My advice is to get all the ingredients together, measured and prepped before starting with this. At least the first time you make it. Else you'll end up totally stressed out and overcooking something or spilling stuff everywhere. I talk through experience!

Start off with the rice. I used 2 rice cooker cups of rice because this is all I need for 4 people. If your lot eats more than that then increase as necessary. Alternatively, reduce as necessary. Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clean and allow to drain while preparing the rest of the ingredients, i.e., mashing garlic, dicing onions and heating 2 tbsp. oil on high heat. Once the oil is hot enough to make your onions sizzle add them to the oil together with the garlic and stir. Reduce the heat to medium. Stir fry them for around 30 seconds and then add the rice to the saucepan. Keep stirring the rice else it will stick and burn. I use a galvanised aluminium, heavy bottomed saucepan and it works well. I imagine that if you don't have a heavy bottomed pan the rice might stick, in which case you should probably add more oil. Immediately after adding the rice add the turmeric and salt. Keep stirring and frying the rice for 7 minutes. In the mean time put on your kettle and boil 0.5 L water. Once your 7 minutes are up carefully add 3 rice cooker cups of boiling water to your rice. Be careful the steam will burn (again talking from experience!). Reduce the heat to the minimum possible, stir the rice, put on the lid and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes. 

Now to the bell peppers. Cut them in half and take out the seeds. As you see in the picture I left the stems on and so had to take a sharp knife and cut out the white parts of the pepper. 

You can use any pepper you like. We don't fancy green peppers and love the sweet taste of red ones. You can also take the whole stem off. I washed my peppers to get rid of some of the seeds, but if you do this make sure you dry them afterwards else the oil will not stick. Take 1 tbsp. of oil and brush a baking tray (or 2) that will hold all your peppers. Then brush the insides and outsides of your peppers and place them with the cavity facing to the sky. Bake them for 12-15 minutes at 180 C (fan oven) or until slightly tender. You want to avoid over baking them because they will go back into the oven again and there is nothing worse than overcooked vegetables. 

Could only fit 6!

While your peppers are baking make the stuffing. Drain and wash the chickpeas then mash them slightly. I pulsed mine a couple of times in a food processor. It's okay to have a few big chickpeas, but make sure you don't have mush. On medium heat fry the remaining onion and garlic in 1 tbsp. of oil for about 1 minute. then add everything else, in no particular order and mix. Allow it to cook for about 3 minutes or as long as you like as long as it does not burn!

Once the bell peppers are done remove them from the pan and set aside. There may be some juice in the peppers or in the pan. Wherever it is just leave it there. Turn the rice into the baking dish and arrange the bell peppers on top of it with the opening to the sky. Stuff the peppers with the filling. You can heap the filling if you have too much (this will depend on the size of your peppers). 

Bake for 10 minutes. I did not cover my baking pan with foil (trying to reduce that carbon footprint) but you could cover it if you were afraid it would dry out or don't like having a bit of crunchy rice. 

Serve hot! 

You can find a more printer friendly version here. 

Stuffed Hokkaido Pumpkin

 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

Ingredients:

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

Method:

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. 

Pour in the hot water, mix everything together and then stuff the pumpkin with the mixture. 

Put on the lid and bake for a a further 15 minutes.

You can serve this as a side or a main dish. We like it with a bit of crusty bread and a salad.

Pumpkin fairy lights

 I wanted to make pumpkin fairy lights to light up the crochet witch that my daughter made for me, but I could not find anything I liked anywhere. I was not about to buy some lights. I'm not sure why, but that somehow didn't seem right. After raiding my craft drawers I only had to buy some paper!

You will need:

A string of 20 fairy lights 

A hole punch

20 Brads [for some reason called "sample bag clips"(Musterbeutelklammern) in Germany]

Brown play-doh or plasticine or similar substance

1 sheet 50,5 * 70 cm Orange transparent paper (Transparent-Extrastark)

Scissors

Ruler

Cellotape

Pen/pencil (maybe!)

Method:

First make a trial strip. You need to do this because the bulb has to fit through the hole that you punch. Cut a 1.5 cm by 10 cm strip of orange paper and punch a hole into the end. Check if the bulb completely passes through. I found that the wires coming out of the bulb are wider than the bulb itself so I had to squeeze them a bit to get them through the hole. If your bulb does not fit through you may have to find a hole punch with a larger hole or a smaller bulb. If you have to buy the string of fairy lights and have a hole punch at home make a hole in a thick piece of paper and take it to the store with you so you can see if the bulb fits through it. Don't forget it you make a larger hole your strips will have to be wider. Adjust accordingly. Also don't forget if your bulb goes through too easily it will also come out easily. Mine just happened to be perfect. Once I had the paper in it did not just slip out. 

Once you have the correct material cut 11 strips of orange paper per pumpkin (1.5 by 10 cm). It is not so important that the strips are exactly the same width, but it is important that they are exactly the same length (that is, for one pumpkin). Stack them and trim them if necessary.

Punch a hole in the bottom and in the top. If you have a single hole punch things will be easier, but if you don't you can use a regular hole punch. I have a single one somewhere in the house but no one seems to know where it is! When using a two hole punch you'll need to take the back off the hole punch so you can see where you are punching. Make a small dot at the place you want to be the center of the circle. Place the strip into the hole punch so that you can see the dot and then punch! You can stack a few together so things go quicker. In fact if you can punch all 11 in one go then it will be much easier for you to pass the bulb and the brad through the hole. It worked with my standard hole punch so I think it should work with most.

Pass the bulb through 11 strips of paper. The side you want to be on the outside is facing my hand in the picture. The side on the top will be inside the pumpkin. In the photo I passed one strip through, but later on I passed all 11 at the same time and to get it through the last bit I bent the paper a bit. This seemed to get it through.

And then pass a brad through the hole on the other side as shown in the picture. 

Next distribute the strips to form what looks like a Chinese lantern (at least thats what my kids think it looks like).  You may need to loosed the brad to make it easier to distribute the layers. It's easy enough to tighten it later. Squeeze it a bit to make it look more like a pumpkin. 

Take a small blob of play-doh and form the stem. You may need to hold the wires together. My wires insisted on separating so I put a small piece of tape around them to hold them together. 

And voila!! 

PS. You may need to wait for your play-doh to dry before hanging your lanterns.

Sri Lankan Vegetarian Cutlets

This recipe has been a while in the making. While I can make fish cutlets pretty well it doesn't do us much good because my kids are vegetarian and it is only my husband who is a pescatarian. Cutlets are a popular Sri Lankan short eat, but they are also served with rice and curry unlike other short eats. Like all Sri Lankan short eats they take time to prepare and are best eaten piping hot. 

Sri Lankan's have all kinds of myths as to why cutlets pop. I've been given years of advise about how to make the perfect cutlet. I've followed all instructions but none of them work consistently. But fortunately, after around 20 years, I finally realised why these snippets of advice actually work and why cutlets pop.

Cutlets pop because there is too much moisture in the cutlet and/or the oil is not the right temperature. [This is exactly the same reason why my falafel used to pop (passed tense since I've perfected my falafel!)] And it is as simple as that. Reduce the moisture, use a thermometer and you too can make the perfect cutlet. So you might ask "then why did it take so long to perfect this recipe?" The answer is a simple combination of "it's not so easy to reduce the moisture with just vegetables" and "it's hard to find the time when you have a full time job and two kids". 

Preparation time: 2.5 hours; makes 24

Ingredients:

500 g	Floury potatoes, peeled
250 g	Carrots, peeled
1 tbsp.	Butter
100 g	Leeks (tender green part)
1	Garlic clove (small), minced or pulped
1/4 tsp.	Bullion powder (or bullion cube)
1 tsp.	Salt
1/4 tsp.	Pepper
1/4 cup	Breadcrumbs
1 l	Oil - for deep frying
1 lrg	Egg
1 tbsp.	Flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp.	Breadcrumbs

Method:

Make sure you use "floury" potatoes. In SL this would be the yellow ones. Unfortunately I don't personally know which type these are in other countries. According to the BBC Food Desiree, Estima, King Edward and Maris Piper are floury varieties. In Germany they are sold as "floury cooking" (mehlig kochende) potatoes! If you use what German's call "firmly cooking" (festkochende) the potatoes will not be as easy to mash and seem to retain too much water because they have to cook longer to become mashable. 

In case you need it (maybe floury=fluffy?)

Cut the potatoes roughly into large dice (~2 cm cube) and add them to boiling water. Cook for around 8 minutes or until soft and mashable. Don't cook them so that they disintegrate. You want some body to your cutlets. This is what distinguishes them from croquettes. Drain the water and allow the potatoes to cool.

While your potatoes are cooking prepare your carrots. I've struggled for a long while trying to figure out how to integrate carrots into my cutlets. I don't know why but I just feel like carrots are the right thing to have in there. What I've found with carrots is that they don't smash very well (unless you put them in a food processor and turn them into puree) and if you boil them forever they absorb too much water. So to incorporate them into my recipe I had to figure out how to cook them and get rid of some of the water. I finally accomplished this by grating them and then steaming them in a cheesecloth.

I like to use organic carrots because they tend to taste of something. I mean, they actually taste of carrots! You should grate the carrots on a coarse setting (the coarse setting of any "old" grater should be fine). Then line your steamer with cheesecloth and place the grated carrots in the cheesecloth. Steam them in this way for about x minutes or until they are soft. How long you actually have to steam them will depend on how coarsely you grated them. When you remove the carrots from the steamer pick them up in the cheesecloth and leave them in a colander to cool.

Leeks are another must have in cutlets. However, leeks cannot be mashed. So apparently the trick is to fry them in butter until they are soft else they will cause your cutlets to pop. I'm actually extrapolating from advice I have been given about onions! Use the leafy part of your leeks. If you are in SL or ever have been marketing in SL you will know that Sri Lankan leeks have way more green top than white bottom. In Germany it is completely the opposite. My theory is that Germans just leave their leeks in the ground for so long that the green tops are too hard to be eaten and thus have to be trashed. I personally cannot buy leeks with soft enough leaves that they could be used in a cutlet. But I'm hardcore and decided this year was the year for cutlets so I planted my own leeks. And they do not have a thick white bottom AND they have lots of nice soft green leaves (at least now they do!). If you cannot find leeks with soft leaves you can substitute with green onions (scallions, spring onions, whatever you want to call them). And if you are not in SL you know exactly what all these things are!

Leeks straight from my garden

Chop your leeks finely. Add the butter to a pan and pan fry the leeks (scallions, green onions, spring onions,...) together with the garlic. If you want to add onions you can also fry them in the butter. Just make sure you dice them really, really small. If you over fry any of these ingredients they will become hard. You don't want this. So very lightly fry them and as soon as they are soft remove them from the heat. 

By now your potatoes are cool enough. You can smash them with the back of a fork or use your hands. Don't use a potato masher because then you will have croquettes and (just a reminder) we are not making croquettes. Move over to the carrots. Pick them up in the cheesecloth and squeeze some of the water out. Don't squeeze all the water out. Just give it a light squeeze. Too much squeeze will make the carrots very dry and not very tasty. 

Add the carrots to the potatoes along with the leeks/garlic, salt & pepper, bullion powder, breadcrumbs and mix all the ingredients together. 

Now we come to forming the balls. It's very easy and unlike popular belief, they will not pop if they are not perfectly spherical. How big your balls are depends on, well, many things. But mainly it is a matter of taste. I like smaller balls. About a tablespoon full or something that fits neatly in the palm of my hand. So take a tablespoon of mixture and roll it into a nice tight ball. The first time you attempt this recipe you should make all the balls first and line them up on a baking tray (or a large plate, chopping board, etc.). Next, in a bowl, whisk together a tablespoon of flour and one egg. Pour the remaining breadcrumbs into another bowl. 

The next part some people find very messy and end up getting egg into their breadcrumbs and loads of stuff sticking to their hands. To avoid this use my two hand method. 

Take a cutlet (in your right hand) and drop it into the breadcrumbs. Use your left hand to pour some breadcrumbs over it. Once the surface is no longer damp pick it up in your left hand and squeeze it a bit so that the breadcrumbs stick and the cutlet becomes tighter. Dip a bit of this cutlet into the egg mixture and then move it to your right hand where you can roll it about so that the egg dampens all the surface. Then drop the cutlet back into the breadcrumbs, pour some breadcrumbs over it, pick it up in your left hand and put it back on the board until it is ready to be fried. So left hand dry, right hand wet. Of course you can switch the hands. Or if you are really lucky have someone else to do the dry/wet part.

Somewhere along the line you can heat up your oil. You need enough oil to deep fry. If you are using a deep fryer just follow the deep fryers instructions. I use a saucepan and fill it with 1 litre of sunflower oil. You can use whatever oil you like. Nothing can make a cutlet healthy! If you do not use a deep fryer make sure your pan is deep enough so that the oil is only half way up to avoid the oil from overflowing. Heat your oil to 350 Celsius and fry your cutlets until they are golden brown. You should lower them into the hot oil to prevent splashing. I usually fry 3-4 at a time. If you put too many in the temperature of the oil will drop too much and you can only guess what happens then (yes, POP!). If your cutlets sink to the bottom and stay there (mine do) then the part touching the bottom of the pan will burn. So you need to figure out a way to prevent this from happening. I stick my skimmer mesh under them to keep them off the bottom. 

(In case you are wondering what a "skimmer mesh" is)

Drain on paper towels. Enjoy hot with ketchup, Sriracha sauce, or your favourite dip. Or serve them along side rice and curry. Check out my Sri Lankan curry recipes for rice and curry inspiration. 

You can find a printable pdf here.

Vegetarian Phyllo Pie

After attempting to make some Turkish cigars I had some left over phyllo pastry. I also happened to have a lot of mushrooms and an urge to eat pie (despite the temperatures outside being 30℃!). The pie filling was very photogenic and my tummy was rumbling even before I had put it in the pie. Definitely a keeper since it tastes as good as it looks.

PS. You could use a basic dough or use my pot pie filling with the phyllo dough.

Preparation time: 90 minutes; Serves 2-4

Ingredients

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

Method:

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.