Tomato Salsa with Quesadillas and Spinach and Mushroom

From Truly Mexican, Roberto Santibañez, John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

I am very fond of Mexican food. I occasionally try to cook it but never quite seem to be able to achieve anything near the real taste. So this book, I hope, will be able to help me master something nearer to proper Mexican cuisine.

The book concentrates on the sauces and condiments giving instructions on how to achieve the best results with these. So the book is arranged into sections according to these elements: salsas, guacamoles, adobos, moles and pipianes. In each section the reader goes through a series of instructions on making the sauce or condiment. The section then ends with some recipes for using these elements in particular dishes. The author hopes that once a person has achieved success with the sauce or condiment they will be able to construct their own recipes.

The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. I began with a salsa, a pico de gallo (fresh tomato salsa). This was the easiest salsa to make. All of the ingredients were mixed together, it was seasoned and served.

This was a salsa with a great tang to it and one I think I would go back to whenever I am preparing a salsa dip for other occasions.

The recipe ends with suggestions for what to serve it with. These were generally not vegetarian so I settled on having it with quesadillas, the instructions for which were in a later section of the book. Again these were simple to make, though once again I should mention the difficulty in Sydney of obtaining corn tortillas.

As a side I made sautéed spinach and mushrooms, again from the end section of the book.

This turned out to be a very satisfying meal (salsa, quesadillas and spinach with mushrooms) with lots of flavour and spicy bite that I like.

I’ll be back into this book again soon, I think.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Vegetarian Scotch Broth

From Gourmet Cooking without Meat, Paul Southey, Marshall Cavendish, 1980.

This book used to be a constant for me but has gradually dropped out of my cooking repertoire. I thought I might like to revisit it. In its time it was a very useful book because there were not a many vegetarian cookery books available. It is quite different now and cooking styles and cuisines have changed remarkably. However, the old recipes are still valid and it’s possible to vary them with some of the more recent variations.

I’ll always go for a soup when I’m flipping through pages so thought I’d have a look again at Scotch broth.

One of the most noticeable differences in this older recipe from more recent ones is the amount of time given to cooking the soup. It was actually cooked for 1½ hours, a time which I cut back considerably.

It was an easy cook. Onions and carrots were fried for a little while. Then all the remaining ingredients (turnips, parsnips, barley, water, thyme, bay leaves and seasonings) were added except for the leek. These were supposed to cook for an hour. I only gave it about 20 minutes, sufficient for the barley to be almost done.  The sliced leek was then added and cooked for another 30 minutes; 20 for me.

The result was a thick rather heavy soup. With ‘broth’ in its name I expected a lighter more watery dish. It was, however, a pleasant enough soup, and substantial enough to be satisfying.

 Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Fennel Salad with Orange Vinaigrette, Crème Fraîche and Parmesan Crisp

From Biró: European-Inspired Cuisine, Marcel Biró and Shannon Kring Biró, Gibbs Smith, 2005.

This is not a book for vegetarians but on glancing through the pages I felt that there were adequate recipes to make it worthwhile.

Marcel Biró being an acclaimed chef and opening his own restaurant, Biró, in the United States, the recipes should be reasonable. The book is a collection of recipes from the SBS Series The Kitchens of BIRÓ.

The first part of the book consists of amuse-bouches. These are supposed to be bite-sized portions served before the meal and generally not ordered but served at the discretion of the chef.

The name for the one I tried was basically longer than the titbit, although mine did not turn out to be anywhere near a titbit.

There were two parts. The first was to make Parmesan crips. This was not difficult. A dough was prepared with water, oil and salt. It was rolled out as thin as possible—thin enough to read through—sprinkled with parmesan and baked.

This worked out reasonably but, even though I halved the quantity, I ended up with heaps too much. However it did serve as nibbles later.

I followed the ingredients list carefully and made sure all the portions were correct. It was basically fennel and carrot grated and mixed in with orange juice and olive oil which had been whipped until emulsified. Crème fraîche was added and seasonings.

It was then supposed to be shaped into a quenelle and served with a Parmesan crisp. There was no way I could turn mine into a quenelle as the crème fraîche seemed to lose its texture as soon as it was added to the other ingredients and became very watery. I put it into a mould to see if it could gain at least some shape. When turned out it just flopped into a runny lump.

It was all right to eat—especially the Parmesan crisp—but it was a most unpleasant sight on the dish.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔

Fresh Tomato Pasta

From Sydney Food, Bill Granger, Murdoch Books, 2000.

This is not a vegetarian cookery book but vegetarians will find that the few dishes that are suitable for them are certainly worth trying out.

This pasta dish with uncooked tomatoes is one that I really enjoyed—and it was an easy one to make.

The tomatoes were skinned, seeded and chopped. They were then sprinkled with salt and left to drain. When about half an hour had been allowed for the draining the chopped tomatoes were mixed with olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and chilli—a sort of dressing with added chilli.

The mixture was left to meld while water was put on to boil for the spaghetti. When this was cooked it was drained and the tomato mixture tossed through it. Some parmesan was added on top and a few torn basil leaves.

This was such a pleasing pasta. The flavour of the tomatoes was refreshing after the cooked tomato sauces that are usually used. I’ll go back to this one for sure.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Tortilla Triangles with Smoky Avocado Salsa

From Quick Vegetarian Dishes, Kurma Dasa, Chakra Press, 2000.

I’ve had this book in the library for some time now but never really got around to using it. I can’t think why it has been overlooked but it has. Now I think it is time to give it a try.

The book is divided into the usual sections of appetisers, soups, salads and so on. There are ample illustrations in the form of photographs. The print is clear and the recipes are provided with a list of ingredients first. What I like about the instructions themselves is that each paragraph begins with a verbal instruction highlighted in bold. For example, here are the highlighted verbs at the beginning of one recipe: Heat… Pour in… Fold… Reduce… Serve… It clearly identifies where you are.

I began with a simple snack to test out the waters: tortilla triangles with smoky avocado salsa. Tortillas were just cut into triangular wedges and fried in a little oil. Easy. The most difficult part was to obtain corn tortillas. The stores seem to be overstocked with wheat ones of a brand currently advertising on television.

For the salsa all the ingredients were combined and mixed. Also easy. The most difficult part of this was to spend some time reconstituting a dried chipotle.

This was an enjoyable snack, possibly a little bit bland for my liking. I think I would prefer to add a little Tabasco to brighten it up a little or a touch of Sriracha sauce. What I found stood out a little was the shredded iceberg lettuce, a salad green which I usually find not to have a lot of character, but here it came through well.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Thai-Inspired Black Bean, Tofu and Potato Patties

From The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet, Joni Marie Newman, Fair Winds Press, 2011.

These were originally called burgers not patties in the book but I did not want burgers to eat in a bun when I made these. To the best of my knowledge burgers do not occur in the Thai cuisine. I wondered what a Thai-inspired one would be like. This book, which gives recipes for burgers from a different number of cuisines, has to guess what a burger in each cuisine might possibly be like.

The Thai inspiration seems to have been that of using tofu and peanut butter. The main ingredient though was potatoes that were chopped into 3 cm blocks, boiled first and left to cool. The firm tofu was broken up and mixed with an assortment of items: a can of black beans, peanut butter, chopped spring onions, red pepper flakes (I used chilli), garlic, curry paste, Sriracha sauce and ground coriander.

The potato was now added when it was cool enough to handle. It was then that hands were used to squash it all together. The resulting mixture was formed into burger shapes. The fact that the potato was not mashed but left in its blocks gave a mix that held together well but had satisfying lumps of potato and whole black beans.

These were an enjoyable eat, not exactly Thai-flavoured to my mind, but tasty though somewhat dry. I served mine with a stir fry of Asian greens, puffed tofu and reconstituted dried mushrooms.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Soba Noodles with Aubergine and Mango

From Plenty, Yotam Ottolenghi, Ebury Press, 2010.

When I read eggplant and mango together I hesitated. Would that work? I felt somewhat uncertain about that combination. And I had never used soba noodles before. However, I had previously made several recipes from this book so I did trust Yotam Ottolenghi. I decided to give it a go.

The dressing was made first. That in itself seemed unusual to me. But go with the chef’s instructions. It was an Asian mix of rice vinegar, sugar, salt garlic, red chilli and sesame oil with some lime juice and zest.

Next I fried the eggplant (aubergine) that I’d cut into cubes. When they were golden they were sprinkled with salt and left to drain.

Next the soba noodles were cooked, drained and left to dry.

The noodles were mixed with the mango cut into pieces, the eggplant, chopped basil and coriander and some sliced red onion. These were tossed with the dressing and left for an hour or two until ready to serve. Basically this was a type of noodle salad.

It was surprisingly tasty. The mango and the fried eggplant complemented one another quite well. And the soba noodles are tastier than the usual noodles.

One to add to my make again list.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔