Bitzer Meal

Every so often I like to just gather bits and pieces from the refrigerator and make a meal. So long as there are cracker biscuits of some sort in the pantry you can generally fill the table with sufficient to satisfy: gherkins, olives, cheese, grapes or sliced apples, perhaps firm pears. But I always can't resist making something to add to it all.

Tomato and Nut Balls
I sauteed a chopped onion and garlic clove in olive oil until soft. While it was cooking I peeled and chopped two tomatoes. These went into the pan for about 5 minutes. In a bowl I now mixed this with about 100g nuts ground roughly in a pestle and mortar. The nuts I used were mainly hazel nuts but as there was insufficient I added some macadamias. It was now time to add breadcrumbs until the mixture firmed up sufficiently to roll it into ball shapes. I didn't have a lot of breadcrumbs so added some finely ground oats. I added a little salt, though not enough it proved later as we ate them.

The balls were now to be rolled in chopped parsley. Unfortunately what I thought was parsley was coriander. This was fine to use, but it wasn't sufficient so I picked some basil from the garden and made up the quantity with this.

I felt that these balls looked unattractive but they were crunchy (and quite filling) bites. The tomato flavour seemed to vanish in the nut mixture but added a touch of umami. I wish I had seasoned them a bit more.

Some were left the next day so I flattened them into rissole shapes, gave them a sprinkle of salt and fried them for lunch. I preferred them this way.

Tahini Dip
I crushed with salt 1/2 clove garlic and mixed it in a bowl with 1/4 cup tahini, 2 tablespoons olive oil, a tablespoon water. I now stirred in the juice of 1/2 lemon. The mixture immediately thickened so I now  beat in water little by little until I had the texture that I wanted. I added salt and pepper to taste and a little chopped parsley and the dip was ready.

Spread on cracker biscuits this was a wonderful base to add any other elements: olives, cheese, sun dried tomatoes. I only made a small amount so it all went.

Chile Con Queso
There was 115g fontina cheese left from a block so I thought this was a good opportunity to use it. It was grated and went into a small saucepan with a tablespoon chopped jalapeno chilli from the jar, a finely sliced spring onion and 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds. The mixture was stirred until it had melted and was then quickly brought to the table to be eaten straightaway before it went cold—I didn't want to set up a fondu set for this small amount of cheese.

Of these three items I made for the bitzer meal this was the one I think I enjoyed the most. Something with chillies will always appeal to me.

Aduki Bean Roll

From The Vegan Diet: True Vegetarian Cookery, David Scott and Claire Golding, Rider, 1985.

Before getting into making this roll I had to first cook the aduki beans. Never having cooked them before I had to do a little reference work to find out how long they would take to cook. The volume I consulted told me 30 minutes, so I put 175g aduki beans in a bowl in the morning, covered them with water and left them to soak until I was ready to cook them later in the afternoon.

Later that day I drained the beans, rinsed them and then put them in a saucepan with water to cook. When 30 minutes had gone by I tested them and found that they were cooked. Now I could begin the rest of the recipe.

A small onion was chopped as well as a garlic clove. They went into a pan with oil to cook until softened. Now I added 225g sliced mushrooms and continued the cooking until the mushrooms were done.  This mixture went into the blender with the aduki beans and 100g ground almonds. The mixture was blended until reasonably smooth.

Flaky pastry was rolled out to a rectangle about 40cm by 25cm. The bean mix was laid out on one half in a thick sausage shape. The other half of the pastry was folded over and sealed along the edge with a little water. I laid the roll on a greased baking tray with the joined edge underneath. It was cooked in a 200ºC oven for about half an hour. The roll was now rested for about 5 minutes, sliced and served.

While the roll was quite tasty it was very dry and needed a sauce of some sort. There was a nuttiness to the flavour that I quite enjoyed. The next day I had some of the remainder with tomato sauce—the only sauce that was handy—and it was improved considerably.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Pear and Avocado Salad with Tahini Mayonnaise

From The Penniless Vegetarian, David Scott, Rider, 1993.

There was a pear in the fruit bowl just begging to be eaten so I got hold of an avocado and made this very simple salad.

The pear and the avocado were both peeled and cut into slices that were arranged on serving plates. A dressing was made of mayonnaise and tahini in an easy ratio of a tablespoon mayonnaise to a teaspoon tahini. For this salad I used three of each. Stirred together this made a really tasty dressing.

This was the easiest of salads to put together and it made a light and appetising starter.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Falafel Relish

From Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery, David Scott, Rider, 1981.

I wanted something to go with the falafel I was making so settled on this simple relish.

I peeled a tomato, chopped it roughly and then mashed it. I then added about 5cm finely chopped cucumber, half a green capsicum also finely chopped, about a tablespoon chopped parsley, salt, black pepper and about ¼ teaspoon sambal olek for a touch of heat. It was then refrigerated until needed and to let the flavours mix well.

This relish went perfectly with the falafel, truly enhancing the flavours.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔

Falafel

From Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery, David Scott, Rider, 1981.

Still on my Middle Eastern cookery binge I decided to make falafel. I soaked 100g chickpeas in boiling water and let them stand for an hour. I then drained the peas and placed them in a saucepan with water to cover. They were cooked for a little over an hour until they were soft. They were then pureed in the blender.

This chickpea puree was mixed with a finely chopped onion, a chopped garlic clove and a goodly amount of chopped parsley. I actually put all of these items in the blender and let it do the chopping. I now added ½ teaspoon both ground cumin and ground coriander, ¼ teaspoon each of turmeric, cayenne and baking powder.  Salt and pepper were added to taste. The mixture was left for half an hour.

It was now formed into balls but I had doubts about whether they would hold together while they were fried. I tried one ball and doubts were confirmed. So I added a beaten egg to the mixture to make it hold. It was now somewhat sticky so the balls were rolled in flour before they were fried.

I have always been a fan of falafel though never made it before. I was happy with the result, especially when eaten with the falafel relish that I also made.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Cannellini Beans with Basil and Tomato Sauce

From The Vegan Diet, David Scott and Claire Golding, Rider, 1985.

This recipe originally was for butterbeans but I had cannellini in the pantry so decided to use those. I had just 100g left so after pre-soaking I put them in a saucepan and cooked them until done. They took roughly an hour.

While the beans were cooking I fried a chopped onion, a chopped garlic clove and a tablespoon of chopped basil until the onion was soft. I then added three peeled and chopped tomatoes with a little water. The recipe called for a can of tomatoes but I had fresh on hand. I also added a tablespoon of tomato sauce and a small piece of dulce seaweed chopped finely. These were cooked for about 5 minutes and then I added a teaspoon of miso dissolved in a little of the water from the pan. I took it off the heat and tasted for seasoning. I added about a teaspoon of soya sauce and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

When the beans were cooked they were drained and the tomato mixture was stirred in. A sprinkling of chopped parsley and it was ready.

This was used as an accompanying vegetable to go with cheese sausages and it worked well in this capacity.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔