Red and Green Bean and Cheese Quesadillas with Sweet Potato Salsa

From New Vegetarian, Robin Asbell, Chronicle Books, 2009.

I seem to have been obsessed with Mexican flavours lately but there has been a gap from them for I have been holidaying in Kakadu and Darwin and eating out. But what’s the first thing I make when I return to Sydney and begin cooking again: Mexican food.

These quesadillas sounded interesting to me as they did not have the usual filling and the sweet potato salsa definitely sounded to be very different.

For the salsa I cooked a cup of sweet potato and placed it into a blender. To it I added a peeled garlic clove, about half a cup of coriander leaves, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, a good pinch of chilli flakes and salt. The ingredients were churned, tasted for seasoning (a little more salt added) and placed in a bowl for serving. Despite my doubt this turned out to be a really tasty salsa.

For the quesadilla filling, I placed in a bowl ½ cup edamame and ½ cup red beans (the recipe called for black soya beans but I did not have them so used a can of Mexican beans which were in a sauce). With a fork I mashed the beans just a little. To the two beans I added ½ teaspoon salt and about 2 teaspoons chipotle in adobo sauce, well chopped. I grated a cup and a half of tasty cheddar cheese and mixed this in.

Three 15cm tortillas were laid out and the mixture spread over them to about 1cm from the edge. Another three tortillas were placed over them. They were then fried one by one in an oiled pan for about 2 minutes per side, pressing them down a little to aid them to stick together.

I served these with the sweet potato salsa and a lemony guacamole. The salsa went perfectly with them; the guacamole was okay but not as perfect a match as the salsa. The quesadillas were full of flavour, cheesy and spicy with an occasional crunch from the edamames

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Risoni and Three-Cheese ‘Risotto’

From Vegetarian Dinner in Minutes, Linda Gassenheimer, Chronicle Books, 1997.

An easy-to-make risotto without the constant attention sounded wonderful.

The recipe called for orzu but I used risoni instead, another grainy looking pasta. Four cups of vegetable stock were brought to the boil and a teaspoon saffron added. To this went in half a red onion chopped, 2 cups risoni and ¾ cup fetta crumbled. When all came back to the boil it was cooked for another 5 minutes.

While this was cooking I mixed ½ cup ricotta cheese, ¼ cup Parmesan cheese and ¼ cup milk together with a good pinch of cayenne pepper.

The risoni was now checked to see if it was cooked. It needed a little longer, but when it was done the ricotta mix was added. I gave it a good amount of freshly cracked black pepper and a little salt.

While not the best risotto I have made it was not bad. The pasta has a totally different texture to that of rice so it did not really feel that I was eating a risotto. However it was a pleasantly creamy dish that was quite enjoyable.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Lemon-Cumin Dal

From Ruhlman’s Twenty, Michael Ruhlman, Chronicle Books, 2011.

This particular recipe in Ruhlman’s Twenty was to illustrate the effect of acidity on a dish.

I used 100g mung beans and 25g black-eyed peas and cooked them together in a saucepan with 400ml water. They were brought to the boil and then simmered for almost an hour. The water now had almost gone and the beans were tender.

Now I measured out ½ teaspoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon ground turmeric and ½ teaspoon cayenne. With these I added a chopped garlic clove and a little grated fresh ginger. I heated a tablespoon gee in a small frying pan and when it was bubbling added the ingredients for about ½ minute. They were then added to the beans.

The beans were now tasted and they needed a little salt. I took the beans off the heat and added juice of half a lemon, the acidic element. The difference between the pre-lemon and the post-lemon was truly noticeable. From tasty but rather dull the dal suddenly took on a liveliness.

This was a pleasant dal. It was a change to have the texture of beans rather than the usual dal where all has dissolved into a type of puree.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Golden Spring Rolls

From The Vegetarian Table: Thailand, Jacki Passmore, Chronicle Books, 1997.

I took this recipe as a starting point and I am afraid that as I was working at it I was gradually changing the ingredients to suit what I had with me. Actually I do think it is the type of recipe that works well in this way.

I took a little thread vermicelli and soaked it in water for about 10 minutes while I prepared the other ingredients.

I cut some firm tofu into thick slices and placed it in a bowl. With it I added a spring onion sliced, a carrot sliced into thin slivers, three button mushrooms sliced finely, a handful of salted peanuts chopped, a large red chilli cut into thin slivers, salt, white pepper, chopped coriander and some finely shredded ginger. I now added the vermicelli drained and cut into shorter pieces. About a tablespoon of light soy sauce was stirred in.

I now took some spring roll skins. I placed a quantity of the filling in the centre of the sheet, folded over one corner diagonally to the other corner to make a triangle, folded the two side corners in and then rolled the whole thing up to make the roll. I moistened the final corner to aid it in sticking and then laid it final side down while I made the other rolls.

These were all fried in some hot oil, turning them bit by bit to ensure they were browned all over.

They were eaten with a dipping sauce made by placing in a small saucepan ½ cup white vinegar, about 4 tablespoons sugar and enough chilli sauce to suit my heat level. This was brought to the boil, then taken off the heat to cool. Chopped coriander and grated cucumber was now added and the sauce was ready.

I was surprised at how good this turned out to be. I had memories of spring rolls from fish and chip shops and, with my limited background of cooking with Asian ingredients, I was not expecting much of a result—though I wanted to try it to learn a little more about Asian cuisine. The spring rolls were crisp and had plenty of flavour, all enhanced by the sweet/sour dipping sauce. I must make more and vary the ingredients to see what will eventuate.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

African Chickpea, Peanut and Kale Soup

From New Vegetarian, Robin Asbell, Chronicle Books, 2009.

I chopped an onion and sliced a carrot. These went into a pan with a little olive oil to sauté until softened. A chopped garlic clove was then added and stirred around for a minute. I then added a teaspoon ground coriander, a teaspoon paprika and ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper. These were stirred until the aroma came through. At this stage I added 2 cups stock in which had been dissolved 4 tablespoons peanut butter, a cup tomato puree and a can chickpeas that had been drained and rinsed.

While this was being brought to the boil I chopped 2 cups kale that I added as soon as the mixture reached boiling point. The soup was now simmered for 10 minutes and was then seasoned with salt and pepper.

This was quite an unusual mix of ingredients but they did work well together. The soup was brimming with flavour, the chickpeas gave a little texture and the spices came through nicely with the slightest hint of heat from the cayenne. The kale, though, was a little lost in amongst the other rich flavours. A fulsome, easily made soup.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔