Vegetable Casserole with Dumplings

From The Slow Cook Book, Heather Whinney, Dorling Kindersley, 2011.

This was supposed to be made in the slow cooker but after looking at the instructions wherein most of the initial stages were to be done before the ingredients went into the cooker, I decided to cook it in a casserole in the oven. The cookery book is very generous in that it presents the recipes in two forms: slow cooker or traditional.

I turned on the oven to preheat to 160ºC and then commenced preparing the casserole. I chopped an onion and added it to the casserole with a little oil to sautee for a few minutes while the other vegetables were prepared. A leek, a carrot and a stick of celery were cut into suitable-sized pieces. A garlic clove was chopped and added to the onions with a pinch of chilli flakes and salt and pepper. After a quick stir the vegetables were added, stirred in and let cook for about 10 more minutes. I now added a zucchini cut into pieces though this was not in the recipe but I had one to spare.

Into the casserole now went a dessertspoon plain flour. This was stirred in, then 450ml stock was added. A can of cannelloni beans was drained and added with a small piece of fresh rosemary. The casserole was now brought to the boil, the lid was placed on top and it went into the oven for an hour.

After about 45 minutes I added the dumplings. They were made by mixing together 100g self-raising flour, 50g Copha (a vegetable lard) and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley with plenty of salt and pepper. Water was added until a soft dough was formed. This was rolled into 6 balls and added to the casserole. It was cooked for about 20 minutes and the lid was removed for another 10 minutes to let the dumplings brown a little. All in all the casserole had cooked for a total of 1¼ hours.

This was a comforting pleasing casserole for a cold night. It was juicy with a strongly savoury flavour from the leek and onion while the dumplings satisfactorily soaked up the liquid. The dumplings lacked a little flavour which I think was due to using Copha which is tasteless. I think in future I would use something like margarine.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Muesli Slices

From Impressions of Food, SPC, 1985.

I don’t often get into thinking about healthy foods; I think that being a vegetarian is well on the way to keeping to healthy eating, especially if you use only fresh, not processed, ingredients. But I saw this recipe for muesli slices and thought I’d make them. I don’t purchase similar items from the shops.

It was an all-in-together recipe. You place all of the ingredients in a bowl, mix them, then pack them down firmly into a prepared (baking paper lined) 20cm square baking tin. The ingredients used were 1¼ cups rolled oats, ¼ cup milk powder, ½ cup apricot conserve, 1 cup chopped mixed dried fruit, 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, ½ cup chopped hazelnuts, ¼ cup desiccated coconut and 100g melted butter. 

When the mixture was pressed into the baking tin 1 tablespoon pumpkin seed kernels were sprinkled on top and also pressed into the mixture. It was baked in a 180ºC oven for half an hour. When they were cooked they were let to cool completely before being cut into bars.

Crunchy, honey sweet and moreish—but, then, they’re healthy, aren’t they?

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔✔     

Thai-Spiced Polenta with Sweet Chilli Bok Choi

From New Vegetarian Kitchen, Nicola Graimes, Duncan Baird Publishers, 2011.

This was one of those recipes wherein you have to be cooking two things simultaneously so that they both end up ready at the same time: one was the polenta and the other the stir-fried vegetables.

To begin I prepared all of the ingredients. I measured out 2 cups of vegetable stock in a saucepan and placed by the side 100g polenta, a teaspoon Thai spice powder and 10g butter. For the wok I prepared two bok choi by cutting off the green leaves and then slicing the white section into quarters; I chose sufficient baby broccoli for the dish; I washed, topped and tailed some snow peas; I chopped an onion, chopped some garlic, grated a little ginger and sliced a red chilli. I also prepared the sauce: 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce, 2 tablespoons light soy sauce and 2 teaspoons sesame oil. All was now ready to begin.

I added a little vegetable oil to the wok and began frying the chopped onion. I turned up the heat under the saucepan and poured the polenta into the water, giving it the occasional stir as it was heating up. Now the broccoli and the white parts of the bok choi were added to the wok. They were given about 2 minutes. The polenta by now had boiled so the heat was turned down and I continued stirring. The remaining ingredients were added to the wok: the leaves of the bok choi, the snow peas, the garlic, ginger and chilli. These were stir-fried for a couple of minutes more when the sauce mixture was poured on and the vegetables tossed. The spices and the butter were stirred into the polenta.

To serve, the polenta was spread on the plates and the vegetables added on top.

This quick dish turned out to be full of flavour. The polenta was creamy and bursting with taste from the spice while the vegetables had that great mix of sweet, salt and heat added to them.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔    

Banana, Honey & Walnut Bread

From Supergrains, Chrissy Freer, Murdoch Books, 2013.

Despite all the statements about how good quinoa is for you, I find it pretty much a non-entity as far as flavour is concerned. Nevertheless I try it every so often just in case I’m missing something. In a cake, I thought, might be a good way.

I mixed 225g plain flour with a teaspoon ground cinnamon and 3 teaspoons baking powder. These were sifted together, then had 70g quinoa flakes added with 40g chopped walnuts.

In a separate bowl I mixed together 2 eggs, ½ cup honey, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 60g crème fraîche (instead of the sour cream in the recipe) and 3 mashed bananas. Once well combined this was added to the flour mixture. I stirred it until, like a muffin mix, it was just combined.

It now went into a baking paper lined loaf tin. The surface was sprinkled with more chopped walnuts and went into a 180ºC oven for 50 minutes.

This was an enjoyable moist bread. A mixture of walnuts, honey and bananas can hardly fail. It had a flavour as though it was made with a wholemeal flour that was, I guess, the result of the quinoa. The second day I found that I enjoyed it a little more when the flavours seemed to have matured somewhat.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔     

Mexican-Style Noodles (Fideos Secos)

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

I had recently used part of a can of tomatillos and wanted to use up the remainder so decided to make these Mexican noodles. It looked like an interesting dish with four different kinds of dried chillies.

The first stage was to make the sauce. I turned on the oven grill and placed two arbol chillies in to roast while I prepared the tomatoes and tomatillos (interesting plurals there: tomatoes adds ‘es’ while tomatillos makes do with just ‘s’). The chillies needed watching as they can burn quickly. When they had changed colour and added a few bits of burn tp them they were taken out. The tomatoes were now added. They had been cored and given a small cross on the base. They went under the grill top-side up. The tomatillos went in as they were. When the tomatillos had browned somewhat they were taken out. The tomatoes were left until they had blackened and the skins had split.

While the tomatoes were roasting 4 guajillo chillies and 2 ancho chillies were split open, seeded and placed in a bowl of water to soak.

It was now time to blend all of the ingredients to make the sauce. The roasted arbols, the soaked guajillos and anchos went into the blender with the tomatoes and tomatillos. With them went 5 garlic cloves, a chopped white onion, a small piece of cinnamon stick, a little over a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a teaspoon dried Mexican oregano, 2 teaspoons salt and ½ teaspoon sugar. A cup of stock was added and the mixture was churned until smooth. It then went through a sieve to remove any small pieces. The sauce was ready.

Noodles after they have been shallow fried.

For the noodles I had purchased spaghettini. A large saucepan was placed on the heat with about ¼ cup vegetable oil. Two pasillla chillies were added and sautéed until they had puffed up and become crisp. They were removed. The spaghettini was broken into halves and added a small amount at a time to the heated oil. It was cooked until it changed colour. Once done it went into a large bowl with kitchen paper to drain excess oil.

Now I made a tomatillo salsa to go with the noodles. In a blender I placed 5 tomatillos, 2 chopped red chillies, about 2 tablespoons of chopped white onion, a goodly amount of chopped coriander, a garlic clove and some salt. These were all churned until reasonably smooth. The salsa was made. I had a taste and it was great.

Fried noodles, fresh herb bouquet garni, tomatillo salsa, crisped pasillo chillies,  and sauce ready for the final stage.

It was now time to cook the noodles. In the saucepan in which the noodles were cooked there was a few tablespoons of oil left so the sauce was poured into this and cooked for a few minutes more. This helped alleviate the rather harsh taste of the raw garlic. Now 4 cups stock were added together with the noodles. They were stirred to fully mix and then brought to the boil and turned to a simmer to cook. A bouquet garni was made of 4 stems coriander, 2 stems fresh mint and 2 stems parsley. This was added to the mixture. It took about 10 minutes for the noodles to be cooked. The bouquet garni was removed and the noodles were served in bowls.

The noodles were now dressed with crumbled feta cheese, some crème fraîche softened with a little water so that is was a pouring consistency, slices of avocado, the tomatillo salsa, some of the crisped pasillo chillies crumbled and chopped coriander.

Though a bit of work to put this all together it was worth the effort. There was a wonderful depth of flavour to the sauce and a warmth that was totally satisfying—not hot but a cheery warming heat. And then there were all the additional tastes from the dressings: creamy cheese, smoky dried chilly, the bite of the salsa.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔