New season

Try a spicy tagine with a variety of earthy sweet root vegetables, such as kumara, yam or pumpkin, and beef.  Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and saute a small piece of grated ginger & 1 onion, finely chopped.  Add 700 kg lean beef, cubed & seer then add 1-2 tsp ras el hanout.  Add enough boiling water to barely cover the meat, cover the tagine & put in the oven at about 180.  After an hour, add your root vegetables cubed - the equivalent of about 2 medium kumara.  Season and cook another 20 minutes or until the meat is tender.  Add 1/2 cup frozen peas and half a tin of chopped tomatoes.  Cook another 10 minutes until the peas and vegetables are cooked.  Sprinkle with chopped preserved lemon & flat leaf parsley.  I made some Turkish flat breads & served with a dollop of Greek yoghurt.
Last Sunday was a very fishy day.   Chowder at the market and whitebait fritters for lunch - the first of the season are always such a treat, served with a squeeze of lemon.  For dinner we bought a beautiful piece of bluenose from the market and pan fried it with za'atar then served with a pinenut dressing, on a bed of hummus.  To cook the fish, brush with olive oil, then sprinkle with za'atar and quickly cook in a hot pan on both sides.  To make the dressing, combine 2 tbsps pinenuts, toasted & roughly chopped, 1/4 cup flat leaf parsley chopped, 1/4 red onion finely chopped, 1/2 red chilli finely chopped, 2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses, 1 tbsp lemon juice plus a grating of zest.  Mix together & pour over the fish.
New season's Chinese greens are just beginning to appear at the market.  I plan to really experiment with them this year.  This week I just played it safe and had choy sum with pork fillets. 
Now that Zany Zeus is making paneer, I find we are having it more often.  It is one of my favourite cheeses. Try it with chick peas, spinach & tomatoes.  Heat a tbsp vegetable oil in a pan & cook 1/2 tsp each cumin seeds & yellow mustard seeds until they pop.  Add 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 finely chopped red chilli, 1 small onion thinly sliced, 1 clove garlic crushed, 1/2 tbsp grated ginger.  If you don't have a chilli (and they are not quite in season yet) use dried or flakes.  Season with salt & cook until the onion is soft.  Add a tin crushed tomatoes & a tin of chickpeas & simmer 15 minutes.  In the meantime, slice the paneer (about 150g)  into 2 cm thick chunks and saute in a little oil until golden on both sides.  Cut into bite sized pieces.  Wash a handful of spinach & chop roughly.  Stir into the tomato mix to wilt along with a tbsp tamarind concentrate.  If you don't have tamarind (but you should try & get some) add a squeeze of lemon juice.  Toss through the paneer.
The new season's asparagus is in.  One of the first things I like to do is asparagus in French bread with ham & Gruyere.  This has been a great favourite in our house for many years and was something we often had for lunch when Mum & Dad came to stay in the spring.  They were great asparagus fans. Lightly steam the asparagus then fill a baguette with a slice of Gruyere and a slice of ham & 2-3 asparagus spears.  Toast in a medium oven for about 10 minutes.  We cut our baguette into 3-4 portions depending on the size and appetite of the diners.

Roasted vegetables

I seem to have latched onto a theme here. Roasted vegetables have appeared on the table many times in the last fortnight. Roasting suits most vegetables and it is easy to do as well as providing suitable nutrition for a vegan. You can do them all in the oven at once using your fan function. Just put the longest cooking ones in first. I usually cook them at 200-220.
I'll just talk you though a few I have done recently. Some I may have mentioned before but mybe you've forgotten or only recently joined the blog.
I can't go past crushed potatoes so I'll mention them first. Boil new potatoes until cooked then drain until they have stopped steaming. That lets you know they are dry. Put in a roasting dish so they fit snugly and, using the back of a teaspoon (or your fingers if they are the asbestos variety), press each potato gently until the skin breaks & the potato just gives a little. Drizzle over some olive oil & sprinkle on some salt & a herb of your choice. Roast in a hot oven about 40 minutes. If you don't have oven room to roast because you have too much going on in the oven, you can always boil them & toss in oil with salt & parsley at the end. I have discovered a delicious early potato called Perla which is brilliant for this dish.
Baby turnips & carrots go well with fennel. Leave the carrots whole (use a variety of colours if you can buy them or grow them) and halve the turnips if you think they are a little on the large side. Slice the fennel into chunks, toss in olive oil, season & roast in a hot oven about 20 minutes.
Try boiling baby beetroot about 30 minutes then drain & peel. Toss them in a dressing of olive oil & balsamic vinegar, (3/1) and 1 tbsp honey. Roast in a hot oven 20 minutes then toss in a handful of kalamata olives & sprinkle over some feta cheese. If there is a vegan at your table put the feta aside to sprinkle on individual serves & substitute a little brown sugar for the honey.
Roast baby kumara in their skins, either on their own or with shallots & garlic - don't bother to peel the garlic. Toss in oil & season. These will work nicely with rosemary.
Try roasting asparagus with finely chopped garlic & fresh chilli, a handful of ripped basil and 1/2 a dozen cherry tomatoes. Season, toss in oil & put in a hot pan then roast in a hot oven 21 minutes. Add 5-8 minutes to the time if you haven't heated the pan first.
The other day I found some courgettes and an aubergine that hadn't been used in a previous meal so used this method, adding the courgettes & aubergine cut into wedges. This is also a good way to entice reluctant vegetable eaters.
Do you have a favourite roasted vegetable combination?
I also thought I would mention Harriet's vegan mayonnaise that she made to accompany Antoinette's falafels. To half a block of silken tofu, add 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp white wine vinegar & 1 tbsp grainy mustard. Pulse to lightly blend then with the machine on the lowest speed add 1/4 -1/2c olive oil until it resembles mayonnaise. This was delicious. Do not however add 6 cloves of garlic as Harriet did the first time. You can have too much of a good thing.
I also need to mention that I had my sister staying & she needed to be provided with a meal on the run. On a bed of baby cos & baby spinach I put a spicy chick pea salad. Heat 100 ml olive oil in a small saucepan with a finely sliced red chilli, 4 cloves garlic finely chopped, 1-2 finely sliced red onions, 75ml cider vinegar. Mix in a bowl with a drained tin of chick peas, 1/2 cup crumbled feta, 1-2 finely sliced spring onions & a handful of fresh mint & flat leaf parsley. To this I added some slices of pan fried lamb fillet. I rub my lamb with salt pepper & ground cumin & leave to sit at least 10 minutes before frying in a hot pan or griddle.
Harriet made Halloween themed vegan pumpkin cup cakes for pudding. Too good!

Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup

I tend to agree with the Mock Turtle. Soup is one of the best things you can eat in winter. Phoebe has Scholarship maths at 7 on Monday night & Harriet is staying & has French until 8.30. Because I needed to serve meals at 3 different times, we have been having soup Mondays. The soup just sits on the stove in the dutch oven. It is so popular it may become a permanent fixture. We have some old standbys in our house. Basic pumpkin soup is a must. I roughly chop a whole pumpkin - allow plenty of time if you have forgotten what hard work this can be. Add to a large pot with several onions, several carrots, a large potato & I often add a swede - all roughly chopped. You can add bacon bones if you like. Just cover with water, bring to the boil & simmer until all the veg are cooked, especially the carrots. This is your base. I freeze most of it at this stage, in batches. When you're ready to use dress it up as you fancy. This year I've been making a paste with a little curry powder & adding to the base with a little cream. This is one of the few times when I use curry powder - we buy Empire Madras hot. The others are devilled eggs & kedgeree. Try grating in some nutmeg or chopped herbs, and thin with yoghurt or cream. Another favourite in our house is Digby Law's carrot soup which involves gently sweating chopped onions & carrots in thyme with fresh time until soft, then covering with chicken stock & adding 4 tbsp rice. Simmer until rice is cooked, puree in the blender & serve with cream. The rice is deliciously nutty. Or try simmering 4 chopped kumara in chicken stock until almost cooked. Add 1/2 head diced celery & cook a further 5 mins. Puree & serve with cream & a crushed garlic clove. Try a delicious cauliflower soup. Cauliflower can be deceptively smooth, almost velvety. Cook a thinly sliced leek until softened. Chop the cauliflower into small florets & saute most (reserve a cupful for garnish) & add to leek with some chopped garlic. When the cauliflower has softened slightly, add a litre of vegetable stock & simmer 20 mins until the cauliflower is very soft. Puree until very creamy & add more stock if it is too thick. Make croutons according to my method in previous post. Steam the reserved cauliflower until al dente then saute in a little oil with 3 tbsp capers, until golden. If you want a richer soup add a little cream. Serve with croutons & capers. What about a carrot & parsnip soup? In a large bowl mix 4 or five carrots & 2 parsnips, peeled & diced into 2 cm pieces, 1 onion thinly sliced, 2 roughly chopped tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic crushed & some olive oil. Tip onto a large roasting tray & roast at 180 about 40 mins. Turn occasionally. Process half the vegetables & 2 cups of chicken stock until smooth, then tip into a saucepan & add the remaining vegetables & another 2 cups of stock. Simmer for 10 minutes then stir in juice of 1/2 a lemon, 3tbsp cream & chopped parsley to serve. Finally I have saved the best for last. Finely chop in the food processor an onion, 2 carrots, a stick of celery and whatever else you like the look of in the fridge. I used a bit of fennel, some capsicum, 1/2 a red onion. I have taken to using the food processor to finely chop my vegetables for sofrito because I get improved consistency and, let's face it, it just saves a lot of time & effort. Just chop them into rough chunks first. Soften the vegetables in a large saucepan with a few chilli flakes. Add 4 cups boiling water & 3/4 cup pearl barley. I bought this to make a barley & meatball dish I haven't got around to, but this soup is now on my list of must repeats. Simmer about 1 1/2 hours until barley is tender. Stir in a tin of chopped tomatoes & a can of creamed sweet corn. Must be creamed. Simmer 20 minutes or so & serve with chopped parsley. Season to your taste. You can freeze the left overs. Watch this space for more soup Monday ideas. What are the favourites in your house?

The last of summer?

I am not going to get into the study to write this blog every week now that school is back. I am going to try a new approach & do a monthly round up of the things I think you will like the best. It hasn't been the best of weather but we have had a reasonable return from the garden considering. And even a few more outdoor meals. We did all Phoebe's favourites one night. Vegetable skewers - red onion, green & yellow courgette, button mushrooms, capsicum yellow, red, green & orange. Phoebe's all time barbecue favourite is watermelon, red onion, olives, feta & parsley. And she doesn't even like onion, olives or parsley. This really works as a refreshing salad on a hot day. Marinade the red onion in lime juice first to reduce some of the sharpness & bring out the pinkness. Dress with the lime & olive oil to taste. Grind on lots of black pepper.
When you have an abundance of tomatoes don't forget Jamie's Mothership Tomato Salad. This is the best tomato salad in the world. Use as many different colours & shapes as you can. I add a little sugar with the salt to bring out the flavour in the tomatoes. I use my rosemary sugar.


For lamb & kumara lovers we discovered the best lamb salad in an old Cuisine: Lamb salad with spinach kumara & capsicum. We did it for visitors from the UK. I used different types of kumara to give it some variety. If you don't have vincotto maybe try some kind of fruity balsamic.
Another salad which is now firmly in the repertoire is a beef salad with yellow split peas. Cook about 1 1/2 cups yellow split peas in chicken stock until just tender, drain & spread out to cool. Don't overcook or they will turn mushy - I did this the first time & I just froze them to use later as a dip or dahl and started again. It was worth it. Make a dressing in the food processor with 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, zest & juice of 1 lemon, small bunch of flat-leaf parsley. Pan grill a piece of sirloin to your liking and after resting cut into cubes. Mix the split peas with diced capsicum, celery & red onion & mix with half the dressing. Drizzle the remaining dressing over the steak & serve side by side on a platter scattered with watercress.
I recently bought some quinces and poached them in an amazing liquor. There are lots of recipes. Give it a go. We used muscat and spices. The colour is incredible. They are very rich and you only need small servings - but delicious.

Starters

This blog is a result of "conversations with my sister" (sounds like a good title for a memoir). I like to cook for family and friends and you often ask me for the recipe. Here it is. Please post questions and thoughts. And share your ideas & recipes.

So this week in the kitchen. We bought fish off the boat at the market on Sunday (more about this later) so we had pan fried warehou on Monday with Anastasia potatoes and beans. Phoebe cooked on Tuesday & Wednesday because it is school holidays. Thursday we had a pumpkin & chicken pilau. Making the most of the new season's pumpkins. Friday we made hamburgers (what we call "home made hamburgers" to distinguish from Wisconsin). Saturday we had roast chicken because we needed to replenish our chicken stock stocks. And of course we had roast pumpkin as well as potatoes, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, & carrots from the garden.
This morning up at sparrowhop (well there were sparrows hopping in our garden) and to the market. Bought some beautiful butterfish from the boat on Chaffers Wharf. Had intended to plant the bulbs (and Phoebe is very keen to get the bulbs out of the fridge) but weather prevailed so spent a fruitful afternoon in the kitchen.
For lunch made Digby's old faithful Kumara & Celery Soup (Digby Law A Soup Cookbook) in order to use some of the celery not used in the stock. Not really a fan of celery but love the soup.

Peter stewed some delectably pink rhubarb for his breakfasts & Phoebe baked Nigella's Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies while I made the bread. Had been meaning to try a beetroot pesto for ages so did that while Peter pickled the pickling onions we'd bought at the market.

Phoebe was out at a party. We started with the pesto spread on minitoasts followed by more pesto on the butterfish, resting on a bed of courgette on a red capsicum sauce -a variation on Annabel Langbein's Flash Roasted Fish from the Best of Annabel Langbein.