Spring Vegetable Tarte Fine

From The Meat Free Monday Cookbook, Kyle Books, 2011.

It looked like I was set for a green meal. I had made a basil soup and now set to work to make a tarte fine that was entirely of green vegetables.

Firstly I made the base that was of three filo pastry sheets laid on top of one another with melted butter as the sealant. The sheets were now cut into four and placed on an oven tray with another tray placed on top to weigh the pastry down. It went into a 180º oven for 15 minutes and it was done.

This was one of those recipes where you cooked all of the vegetables one after another. Some asparagus stalks were sliced finely on the diagonal and paced into boiling salted water for 10 seconds then into an iced water bath to prevent them continuing to cook. A zucchini was treated the same way. Then some peas were cooked for a couple of minutes and iced water bathed. These vegetables were all drained and dried.

Tablespoons of chopped chervil and chopped parsley were blended with about 50g of crème fraîche and two egg yolks. 30g of Gruyère cheese was grated and added to this.

Three spring onions were chopped and fried in a little butter. When cool this was added to the egg mixture.

Now the tartes were put together. The egg mixture was spread on first. Then some baby spinach leaves were placed over this. The vegetables went on next. Now some more Gruyère was grated and sprinkled over the top. It now went into a 160ª oven for about 10 minutes and it was ready.

This turned out to be a pleasing light meal. It looked healthy and appetising though was not always easy to eat as the pastry being light and flaky shattered into pieces on the plate. That aside, it all went down satisfactorily, even to the extent of eating two of the tartes.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Early Summer Basil Soup

From Vegetarian Cookbook, Paul Gayler, Dorling Kindersley, 2000.

Well, third day of summer so thought I’d try this early summer soup.

A leek was chopped roughly as well as two celery stalks. They went into a saucepan with 50g of butter. The lid was put on and on a low heat they were steamed for about seven minutes. A litre of stock was now added with the zest and juice of half a lemon. The mixture was brought to the boil and simmered for 15 minutes.

The pot was taken off the heat and the leaves of a bunch of basil were added. The soup was now blended until it had become reasonably smooth. It was left to cool and then went into the refrigerator for an hour.

Before serving six tablespoons of cream were stirred in and it was tasted for seasoning.

This was a light, flavoursome soup. I had cut back slightly on the amount of basil but it still came through strongly. The lemon added just the right hint of additional flavour.

I’ve made several meals lately from Paul Gayler’s books and they have been proving to be very acceptable.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Aunt Nellie’s Tomato Pie

From Mrs Harvey’s Sister-in-Law and other Tasty Dishes, Margaret Dunn, Murdoch Books, 2007.

I always enjoy making recipes from this book with the fascinating title. It is a collection of family and friends’ recipes and they have the feeling that they are the result of a loving collection that must work.

For this easy dish three medium-sized tomatoes were skinned, chopped roughly and placed in a saucepan on a low heat for half an hour. I added a little salt. At the end of this time a cup of soft bread crumbs was added and the mixture left to cool.

Two eggs were beaten with a cup of milk, some salt and pepper, and added to the tomato mixture. They were placed in a pie dish and put in a low oven for an hour. That was it.

The result turned out to be more like a set tomato custard than a pie. It was tasty but had the texture of a savoury custard. It was better cold than it was hot. While I didn’t mind it I think I would let Aunt Nellie keep this recipe.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Arab-style Rice with Vermicelli and Chickpeas

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

I usually cook rice in a rice cooker but, for a change, I thought I would follow this recipe. The variation sounded interesting.

Some water with salt in it was put on and brought to the boil and kept on a simmer to be ready.

A little olive oil and the same amount of butter was placed in a pan. About ¾ cup of vermicelli was broken into small pieces and fried until it had coloured. Half a teaspoon of asafoetida was added and ¾ cup of rice (half the quantity of rice to the amount of water) and it was all stirred around until it was fully covered in the oil. Then the water was added, it was brought to the boil again, the pan was covered and the heat turned to low.

Ten minutes later ¾ cup of cooked chickpeas was added and the lid placed on again for another 10 minutes. The water had now all been absorbed so the heat was turned off, the rice was fluffed up with a fork and it was ready to be served.

This method cooked the rice really well and the addition of vermicelli and chickpeas gave a little more flavour, as did the little touch of asafoetida. This is a welcome change, especially if you have some cooked chickpeas waiting to be used.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Terry’s Peperonata

From Smart Food, Gabriel Gaté, Anne O’Donovan Pty Ltd, 1992.

I had not used Gabriel Gaté’s book before though it seems as though I’ve had it for some time. I’m going through a spell of getting back into some lesser-used books that have been sitting patiently waiting to be picked up again. This one was an Anti-Cancer Council cookbook and, though it is not a vegetarian book, it has a reasonable number of recipes that are worthwhile. I settled on trying this peperonata.

From the ingredients list it appeared to be very similar to a ratatouille—and so it proved to be.

Firstly an onion was cut into slices along with a green and a red capsicum. They were fried gently in a little olive oil until they had softened. Then two sliced zucchini, half an eggplant quartered and sliced and two large tomatoes cut into eighths were added along with half a teaspoon of dried oregano. I had run out of garlic so instead of adding a clove I tossed in a teaspoon of garlic powder. A large grinding of black pepper was added with a few pinches of salt (though salt was not called for). The ingredients were stirred to mix them well and then they went on a low heat until cooked.

Like its cousin the ratatouille this had plenty of flavour and a rich sauce from the vegetable juices as no water was added at all. An easily made, reasonably quick one to prepare as you just cut up the vegetables and put them into the pot.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Apple and Walnut Ice Cream

From Ice Cream, Hilary Walden, Golden Press, 1985.

Generally I don’t get into making desserts though sometimes I am hit with a sudden inclination to make one. This was one such occasion.

Two eating apples were peeled, cored and thinly sliced then put into a saucepan with 50g butter and 2 tablespoons of orange juice. They were cooked until soft when about 25g of caster sugar was added and the mixture stirred until pulped.

Two egg yolks were beaten and then added to the apple mixture and cooked on a very low heat until it had thickened a little. It was then left to cool.

A 300ml carton of cream was beaten until stiff and added to the cooled apples with 50g of chopped walnuts. It was then placed in the freezer until partly frozen. This took about 1½ hours.

Two egg whites were beaten until stiff. The half frozen mixture was taken from the freezer and tipped into a bowl and the egg whites folded in.

As you can tell from the publication date this book has sat sad and unused on the shelf. It felt like time to take it out and have another look at it. It’s a large size book, rather annoying as it doesn’t fit readily on the normal bookshelf. Nevertheless it’s packed with recipes for a huge variety of frozen desserts. The contents are arranged in alphabetical order so you move from a double page on Almonds and variations, through to Apple, on to Apricot and ending with Wines and Liqueurs. There are then sections on recipes for special occasions and creating desserts.

I’m afraid I couldn’t wait long enough to fully freeze and had to get into the ice cream before it was fully set. It still tasted reasonably good with some fruit salad, but I’ll have to wait until later to try it completely set.

There’s uncertainty here whether you could really call this ‘ice cream’ or ‘frozen fruit dessert’. It does seem more appropriate to call it the latter. Whatever, it’s still acceptable.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Sweet Peppers stuffed with Cheese and Spring Onions in Sauce Afghan

From Classic Indian Vegetarian Cooking, Julie Sahni, Doubleday, 1987.

The last element of my Indian meal needed 2 capsicums (peppers) to be cut in half and the seeds and the membranes taken out.

There were two fillings to be made. There was a mixture of paneer crumbled, finely chopped spring onions, a red chilli finely chopped, some chopped coriander and a tablespoon of flour. These were well mixed and they were ready.

The second filling was made from mashed potato. A pinch of cumin seeds was fried for a few seconds in hot fat and then some grated ginger was added for a short time before the mashed potato was added and stirred in. This was fried until it started to become brown. The heat was turned off and a squeeze of lemon juice was added with some salt. The mixture was left to cool.

To stuff the capsicums, firstly the cheese mixture was placed into the halves. This was then topped with the potato which was tightly packed in and then smoothed over.

A pan had some oil heated in it and the capsicums were placed in it potato side down. These were fried until the potato had browned. They were then turned over and cooked for a few minutes more on the other side. When the capsicums seemed cooked but were still retaining a bit of crunch they were ready. They were served with Sauce Afghan.

This was made by frying chopped onion in a saucepan until it had softened. I then added a chopped red chilli, a chopped garlic clove, 2 chopped tomatoes, ½ teaspoon of ground cumin and the same amount of ground fennel, 5 tablespoons of yoghurt and salt to taste. This was cooked gently for about half an hour. It needed watching to make sure it did not burn and occasionally some water was added to stop it sticking to the pan. When it was ready a little more water was added to bring it up to 300ml.

I quite enjoyed this. With the courgette koftas and the cucumber and paneer salad it made a nicely balanced spicy meal.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

As some of these books may be out of print if anyone would like a particular recipe, email me (alfcooksvege@ozemail.com.au) and I’ll send a version. Of course, the whole book would be better; it’s loaded with other goodies.