The Wonderful World of Food

Party Emergency-Four Simple Dips

2011-02-02T03:19:00.000-08:00

What would be an informal gathering like without food? In one word-dull!
But you are not always ready to serve a four course meal, when suddenly you open the door and there is a bunch of friends with a few bottles of wine, ready to start a party. How to get out of the situation? If you live close by to a supermarket or at least have reasonable supplies at home, you can get through with 15 min worth of shopping and 20 minute worth o fassambley in kitchen.

So:
Party Emergency Kit

Chips (potato or nacho, my ones of choice are plain, but go for flavoured if you wish)everybody loves them if served in an appropriate way. Never, NEVER serve them by opening a bag and dropping it on the table with a phrase ''Help yourself!'' It's plain gross! Use a pretty plate or bowl or a basket. Serve 2 or 3 varieties for a more sophisticated look.
Crackers (choose different varieties to suit the differet tastes of your guests, some will go for rich and buttery ones like ''Tuc'', others will prefer wholegrain varieties, so called water crackers or rice crackers) The same rule as for chips applies, serve them on a platter rather than stright from packaging.
Crudites (vegetables cut into sticks, strips or any other managable pieces, you can use cucumber, tomato vedges, carrot and celery sticks, cauliflower florets, capsicum strips, basically everything that can be eaten raw)
Dips for the three C's mentioned above. In this section I'm going to suggest 4 of my party favourites.

Garlic Sour Cream Dip

Ingredients:

sour cream
lemon juice
garlic
mustard
salt
sugar

Method:

Finely chop or mince the garlic, mix all ingredients according to taste.

Easy Guacamole

Ingerdients:

a ripe avocado
olive oil (extra virgin grade)
lemon juice
garlic
salt
pepper

Method:

Mash the avocado into a fine puree. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper and minced or finely chopped garlic. Mix well, than while intensively mixing, thin to desired consistency with olive oil.

Sundried Tomato Hummus

Ingredients:

canned chickpeas (also called ceci or garbanzo)
garlic
sundried tomatoes in oil
sesame seeds
olive oil
salt and pepper

Method:

Mince or finely chop the garlic. In a dry pan toast the sesame seeds until golden. Add garlic and cook briefly. Transfer seeds and garlic to a food processor and process until whole seeds are not visible. Drain a can of chickpeas and add to the seeds in processor together with a handful of sundried tomatoes. Process the mixture until smooth. If it looks dry, add oil from sundried tomatoes or olive oil, or, if extremely dry, the liquid drained from the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Curry Dip

Ingredients:

salad or light mayonaise
sweet tomato ketchup
mild curry powder

Method:

Mix the ingredients according to taste.

Optional extras:

5. A fruit platter (you can't go wrong with that one)

6. A platter of 3 to 4 interesting cheeses (choose different types of cheese, hard, semi hard, blue-veined, spreadable that might serve as a dip as well)

7. A platter of sweet biscuits, confectionary and chocolates

Remembet about wine, long drinks, and plenty of soft drinks for abstainers, and the gastronomical part of your party is sorted.

The rest is up to you! Have fun!

A Nice and Simple Salad

2011-01-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

No comments this time, just recipe.

Smoked Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

smoked chicken
Chinese cabbage
daikon
red capsicum
white bread
lemon flavoured pepper
salt
sugar
olive oil
wine vinegear
smooth mustard

Method:

Dice the bread and fry it in a dry pan until crispy. Cut daikon and capsicum in strips. In another pan heat some olive oil, fry daikon and capsicum briefly until warm but still crispy. Season with lemon pepper. Make dressing by mixing mustard, salt, sugar vinegear and oil. Shred Chinese cabbage and mix with some dressing just enough to coat it. Pile the cooked vegetables on top of cabbage. Shred the smoked chicken (I like to leave skin on, it's not healthy, but it is delicious) and pile on top of vegetables. Sprinkle with croutons you just made and drizzle with dressing. Serve ASAP.

Christmas Baking

2010-12-17T10:36:00.000-08:00

There is sooooo much to say about X-mas baking, however I'm not the most competent person in this field, I do make a batch of muffins or cookies from time to time, but I'm deffinately not a boulanger, and I would rather do a four course meal than an ellaborate cake (I have tried, taste is just ok, the look, not so much) But X-mas would not be complete without some baking, so I have found a nearly foolproof recipe and stripped it to it's bare essentials, tested a few times, and it really works, at least in the taste department.

Stollen

Stollen is a traditional German bread made for Christmas, the recipe varies from household to household, and it is charachterised by the vast amount of dried fruit used and almonds as the dominating flavour.

Ingredients:

1kg of flour
100g fresh yeast (preferred) or 20g of dry bakers yeast (I tested both and fresh yeast just works better, the dough is more moist and pliable and the surface of the loaf comes out smoother)
300-350ml milk
200g sugar
A pinch of salt
a combination of any of the following spices: ground nutmeg, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon, vanilla sugar or essence, ground bitter almonds or bitter almond essence, ground ginger, ground turmeric
400g butter
200g candied citrus peel
150g dark raisins or sultanas
150g golden raisins
150g candied dried cherries
200g sweet almonds
a small amount of rum(traditional) or cognac, or Amaretto(in that case, do not use bitter almond essence), or Cointreau(for a special twist)
some extra melted butter
icing sugar

Method:

Soak raisins and cherries in alcohol overnight. Coarsely grind almonds in a food processor (or wrap them in a kitchen towel and crush with a rolling pin, if you really need to outsource your emotions). Chop candied peel finely.

Heat milk until lukewarm. In a small bowl combine the yeast, a spoonful of sugar and flour and the milk. Let it ferment until frothy and increased in volume (10 minutes or so, do not leave without attention, as you might end up with all the kitchen table covered in foam that acts as, and btw actually is, alive)

While the yeast ''wakes up'', in a big bowl combine flour, rest of sugar, salt and dry spices. Melt butter but do not heat it up to a high temperature as it may kill yeast. Add essences (if using) to butter. Pour yeast mixture and butter in the flour mixture, mix with your hands, add all the fruits and nuts and knead as if you were asked to give a massage to your sweetheart and they had reallllly tense muscles. Do it with love but with enough vigour too.

Shape the dough into a ball and leave to rise for 2 hours in a warm place, than knead lightly and shape into a loaf.

Bake in 180 degrees Celsius for 1.5 hours or a little bit less, test with a skewer, if it comes out clena, the stollen is done.

While still hot, brush with extra melted butter and dust with icing sugar. Keep it in a cool, dark place for at least 5 days to mature, before endulging with a slice of stollen and a glass of fragrant mulled wine.

An Asian Meal for a Latvian Bloke

2010-11-29T10:47:00.000-08:00

Feeding a bloke is a tricky thing. On one hand, what could be easier than that, just get plenty of meat and remember that guys need far more calories than we, girls, do. On the other hand, the way to guy's heart goes through his stomach, and his heart is the place you really want to be at, isn't it? So why don't you spice up your relationship with a hot Asian meal? Just keep it simple enough, so you are not completely stuffed beforethe dish even hits his palate :)

Dead Easy Chicken Curry

Ingredients:

an onion
chicken breasts (2 average ones were just right for me and my hungry sweetheart)
A few tablespoons of ''Patak's'' garam masala curry paste (or any other curry paste, red, green, Thai or Indian style, you pick, but I have a passion on ''Patak's'' since my New Zealand year, this taste just brings up nice memories. Check their webpage for their products www.pataks.co.uk)
half a can of canned crushed tomatoes
a wee can of coconut cream
sugar and salt to taste
oil

Method:

Dice the onion finely. Cut chicken in strips or smallish chunks. Heat some oil in a wok (or an ordinary pan, it really does not matter, I just prefer wok to a pan 'cos I don't like non stick coating) and cook onion until transparent. Add chicken, cook it unil it has lost it's pinkness. Stir in curry paste, add tomatoes and coconut cream, cook until chicken is done, adjust salt and sugar to your taste.

NB!Serve with the best rice you can afford and cook it in a proper way(nothing ruins an Asian meal as quick as gooey rice cooked in a plastic bag). I suggest puting the rice in a pot with a tight fitting lid, adding salt, shaking the pot so rice creates an even layer in the bottom of the pot, than putting your finger vertically in the pot so the tip touches rice, than pouring in cold water until it reaches the first joint of the finger. Than put on the lid and cook on a low fire until all the water is absorbed.

Spicy Butter Veggies

Ingredients:

large knob of butter
a good pinch of sesame seeds (optional)
dry garam masala spice mix
caraway seeds
coriander seeds
a thumb of ginger
a mix of quick cooking veggies, fresh or frozen (I used frozen cauliflower, grean peas, green beans and some fresh capsicum)
salt

Method:

Chop the ginger finely. Melt butter in a lidded pot, grind up caraway and coriander seeds in a pestle (adding some salt makes grinding more effective), add all the spices and sesame seeds to the hot butter, cook until fragrant. Add ginger, veggies and a little amount of water to create steam. Close the pot with a lid and cook until veggies are tender, adding a bit more water if it evaporates too quickly. When veggies are done, cook without the lid for a few minutes so the watre evaporates and butter browns. Serve on the side of Dead Easy Curry or just with rice as a main course for vegetarians or girls.

Hope you will enjoy this meal as much as we did :)

Fall Stew

2010-09-19T06:24:00.000-07:00

Autum is the right time for warm and hearty foods. Gardens and fields are full of bursting ripe goodies that are crying to get eaten, so grab a pot, toss in the nicest looking, smelling and tasting vegetables and get the pot bubbling!

Sweet Fall Stew

Ingredients:

Use quantities to suit your taste.

onions
a clove of garlic
potatoes
carrots
pumpkin
apples
pepper
instant stock (Once I said that using instant stock is one of the worst kitchen fails, but since I live in a dorm I have found the little cubes rather handy)
oil
sour cream

Method:

Chop garlic and onions finely (a little trick for onion chopping- cut off the top part of an onion but leave the bottom where roots come out intact, peel off the skin, cut in half lenghtways. Sit them flat side down on a chopping board and make cuts starting from the top end and going nearly to the bottom, but not quite to the end so that the onion resambles a comb and holds shape, than chop the comb crossways) Heat some oil in a saucepan and brown onions and garlic well. Add scrubbet and diced carrots (at this stage you can brown them as well if you have time, but this step can be omitted), peeled and diced potatoes, peeled, deseeded and diced pumpkin and apple pieces. Add some water, pepper and instant stock, simmer slowly until everything is tender or mushy, stir through some sour cream and serve!

You can add different vegetables, herbs and spices, if you have them on hand and omit instant stock bor replace it with real stock, feel free to improvise. Remembet, this is just another example of dorm cooking, so it's less fancy than my usual style, but still tastes great!

A Little Bit of Greece

2010-09-11T05:14:00.000-07:00

I know it's a little bit too late for a spinach recipe, as the season is over, but you still might get some, and even rather old and tough leaves will do for this recipe. Spinach is rich in iron, and iron is essential for producing hemoglobin (hemoglobin is that stuff that makes your blood red and more importantly transports oxigen through your body)
Spinach and feta pies are traditional for greek folk, I have never tried an authentic one, so mine are e far cry from the original greek recipe, but my family loves it.

Spinach and Feta Pie

Ingredients:

1,5 cups of flour
100 grams of butter
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
a few tablespoons of milk
300-400 grams of spinach
a block (300-400 grams) of feta cheese
2 eggs
a handful of cashews
pepper

Method:

Grate cold butter with a coarse grater, sift together salt, baking powder and flour, rub it together with butter to form crumbs. Gradually add milk until stiff dough forms. Roll it out and use a bit more than half to line a loose-bottom round baking tin.

Put spinach in a microwave proof container, add a spoonful of water and microwave on high for a minute or so. Let the spinach cool down for a couple of minutes, than squeeze out the liquid and chop it up. Chop the cashews in smaller pieces as well and brown them in a dry pan if you wish.

In a bowl mix eggs, feta, pepper, spinach and cashews (feta is salty, so you won't need any salt). Fill the dough shell with filling, cover it with the rest of the dough, pierce the top in a few places and bake in 180 degrees for an hour.

Serve warm or cold or pack in a lunchbox :)

Uni meals: rice, veges, saveloys

2010-09-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

So, I have started that delightful part of my life- living in a university dorm. And it means cooking myself or eating crap or starving. Obviously I choose the first option!

Dorm cooking has certain qualities and you must mind a few things.
Cooking for one is a hassle, so one must cooperate. [check, my groupmate Egija is happy to cook together]
You won't have a whole lot of fancy equipment. [I have one non stick pot, two plates, a large mug that suits as a bowl as well, a good knife, fork, spoon, wooden stirrer+ Egija has got a similar pot, mug, bowl, knife, fork, spoon at least for now, we are going to get some more pots and pans, chopping boards, but not much more]
You are on a short budget [let's not talk about money, but you can imagine, can't you]
You do not want to shop every day, the time can be used for sleeping or studies and shops are full of temptations [see the statement above]

I and Egija decided to cook togeather on Thursday. At that stage she had no money but some rice, 3 saveloys, a little bit of sour cream, some gerkhin and mustard sauce in the bottom of the jar and instant stock. I had nothing, so I bought a bottle of ''extra virgin'' rapeseed oil (one letter and one step down from my favourite grapeseed oil, but 3 times cheaper and still tastes ok) salt, mixed pepper, some carrots, a garlic, parsley root, 2 small red capsicums, two onions (one smallish and one large) and half a loaf of rye bread and a bag of dried dates for breakfasts and suppers. That's what we made for two lunches!

Orange Vegetable Rice

Ingredients:

a bag of bagged rice
half of the parsley root and some leaves
a smallish onion
one clove of garlic
a carrot
a red capsicum
2 tbsp of sour cream
1 cube of instant stock
oil
pepper
2 saveloys

Cook the rice in unsalted water. In another pot brown finely chopped onion, parsley root and garlic in oil, add diced carrots and capsicums, add some spoonfulls of water and cook until carrots are semi-tender. Add the instant stock, season with pepper and add the cooked rice. Put saveloys in the same pot cook until carrots are done, add sour cream and chopped parsley leaves. Serve with love!

Sauteed Onions and Saveloys with Orange Salad and Rice

Ingredients:

A large onion
1 saveloy
2 carrots
a capsicum
a clove of garlic
1 bag of rice
oil
pepper
instant stock
salt
gerkhin and mustard sauce

Slice onions in rings and saveloys in fine slices, brown them in oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook rice in water with instant stock. Dice carrots and capsicums, chop garlic finely, mix them together and add oil, salt and pepper. Serve onions and saveloy over rice with salad and gerkhin mustard sauce on the side!

Sweet Chilli Sauce/Dressing

2010-08-25T02:49:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows sweet chilli sauce. (At least everyone who has been to an Asian themed restaurant) Yes that is that sweet, red, runny and damn spicy stuff you dip your deep fried prawns or chicken pieces or tempura veggies or spring rolls or whatever in depending on the authenticity of the restaurant. You might also have a bottle sitting in your fridge. However often that bottle sits there for ages and goes off after being used for just a few times simply because you do not eat Asian every day, at least that was the destiny of my last commercially made bottle from the Thai aisle in the supermarket.

So what exactly is sweet chilli sauce? Essentially it is red chillies, garlic, white vinegar and loads of sugar all boiled together to form a thick still runny sauce. Cheapies are thickened with starch or some creepy E's. More sophisticated recipes call for adding lemongrass, galangal and other exotic spices that are virtually impossible to get, at least for the mortal people like me. (I have never seen galangal in my life, lemongrass can be found in Stockmann from time to time, but is bloody expensive)

I really like the flavor of this sauce, but the supermarket ones are a far cry from perfect, and cooking a large amount at home is a hassle, so I invented a dressing rather similar to this traditional sauce that requires no cooking and can be made in small amounts for single or a few days use.

Sweet Chilli Dressing

You will need a pestle and mortar for this recipe. I will give the minimum amounts of ingredients that still work, multiply them as many times as you wish but remember- taste degrades while storing, do not store for longer than 2-3 days

Ingredients

2 long red chillies
one large or 2 small cloves of garlic
2 slightly heaped teaspoons of sugar
1.5 tablespoons of white (rice, wine, champagne or similar) vinegar
2 tablespoons of mildly flavored (grapeseed, rice bran, canola) oil
salt

Take seeds out of chillies and slice them finely. Slice garlic the same way. Put vegetables in the mortar together with sugar and pound vigorously until the mixture is as smooth as possible, there are just a few pieces of skin ant fibers visible. Add the vinegar and give it a good stir.
From this point on you can choose two paths. You can just add the oil, whisk the dressing until there ate no droplets of oil visible, season with salt to taste and serve it straight away or you can to it the fancy way. Take a reasonably fine sieve and pour the veggie-vinegar mixture in it. Push as much of it through sieve with the back of a spoon as you can, use the remains to flavor a stew, a curry, a soup or simply discard them and mix the liquid with oil and salt to form a clear, bright orange and very stylish dressing.

This can be drizzled over almost everything and works well as a salad dressing or dipping sauce too. Enjoy!

Hearty Bean and Mushroom Cottage Pie

2009-02-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

This is a vegetarian dish that meat-eaters in my family found very appealing as well, and it feels like the right sort of a dish in mid-winter.

Ingredients:
*cooked white beans
*floury potatoes
*mushrooms (I use button mushrooms because they are available all year round, but, when wild mushrooms are in season, use those for more interesting flavor)
*oil
*starch
*fresh herbs (I used parsley and dill)
*milk
*sour cream
*onions
*garlic
*parsley root
*salt and pepper
*optional-other vegetables (I added some diced and lightly fried red capsicum, as I love it, but you could try something else or use no vegetables at all)

Method:
Boil potatoes until tender, drain them and mash with some milk, salt and pepper until smooth. Start making the mushroom gravy. Chop onion, garlic and parsley root finely and brown it in oil. Add sliced mushrooms and fry them until they look nice and brown. Add sour cream and a cup or two of boiling water to make up the volume desired (there is no need to use instant stock, actually if there ever is a need for instant stock, something is wrong with the recipe). Mix some starch in cold water. If you are unsure about the amount, choose less rather than more, you want beans and mushrooms in nice, runny gravy rather than in some kind of goo. Add the starch mixture to the mushrooms and boil until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. In a large oven proof dish mix the mushroom gravy, beans, lots of chopped herbs and optional vegetables, spread out the mixture in an even layer and top with the mashed potatoes so they cover all bean mixture. Make some nice pattern with a fork on the top of the mash and bake it in the oven for 35 minutes.

The filling of this cottage pie is loosely based on Alison Holst's vegetarian bean and mushroom pie filling.

Very Green Soup

2009-02-15T07:23:00.000-08:00

Greens are good for you! I know, your mom has repeated it hundreds of times, but it is still true.

The green color of vegetables comes from an amazing substance called chlorophyll. If there wouldn't be any chlorophyll in the world, life might disappear soon, because, by using this pigment that contains magnesium ion, plants make chemical energy from sunlight. I other words this allows plants to grow by using only sunlight, water, air and simple minerals. And the growth of plants provides us a stable source of nutrients. So value your greens and cook this simple, quick and mild soup.

Very Green Soup

Ingredients:
*potatoes
*parsley root
*broccoli
*frozen or fresh green peas
*peppermint (fresh would probably be the best, but I simply opened a peppermint tea bag)
*parsley (I had it fresh, but dried would do as well)
*salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Chop parsley root finely and peel and dice potatoes. Peel and dice the hard stalks of broccoli as well. Put it all in a pot, cover with water and add the dried peppermint. Boil until potatoes are half done. Add the peas. When the potatoes are nearly completely done add the broccoli florets and cook for 2-3 more minutes. Remove from heat, process with a blender until smooth, add salt and pepper to taste, bring back to boil and add fresh chopped parsley.

Shrimp Soup with Rice Noodles

2009-02-10T02:17:00.000-08:00

Again, this is not an authentic Asian dish, I just tried to create a bit of Asian feeling. This soup makes a substantial light but nutritious meal.

Shrimp Soup with Rice Noodles

Ingredients:
*frozen, peeled and cooked shrimp (~100g per person)
*water
*half of an onion
*garlic
*ginger
*parsley root
*kikkoman soy sauce (I'm a little bit obsessed with kikkoman at the moment)
*various vegetables (a large handful per person) I have used capsicum, celery stalks, green peas, Chinese cabbage, but I think other Asian greens, carrots, alfa-alfa sprouts and lots of other things would do as well
*Thai style rice noodles

Method:
Chop ginger and garlic finely, slice parsley root in thin strips, leave the onion whole. In the pot which you are going to use for soup pour some oil, put the frozen shrimp and thaw them on medium heat. When they are thawed, take the shrimp out and store in a container while you are cooking the rest of the soup. Leave the liquid that came out of the shrimp in the pot, add garlic, ginger, parsley, onion and enough water to make op the volume desired. Bring it to boil than add kikkoman and salt to taste (you are aiming for a rather strong taste). Let the broth simmer slowly while you prepare vegetables. Anything that needs to be cut, has to be cut or shredded in fine strips. Choose at least 3 different vegetables and add the ones who need longer cooking to the broth first followed by others. In another pot cook the rice noodles. Pile the cooked noodles in serving bowls, top with the cooked shrimp, and when all the vegetables are done, remove onion from the soup and throw it out, and pour the hot soup over noodles and shrimp.

Rice noodles are a complicated thing to eat, they are long, slippery and can be really annoying, if you feel obliged to eat nicely. Luckily there are a few solutions for this problem. At first, you can break the noodles up before cooking, shorter lengths are more manageable. Or you can eat them like Khmer do it with their noodles -spoon in the left hand and chopsticks in the right. But IMHO the best solution is to eat them at home together with your loved ones and don't bother about eating nicely :)

Easy Vegetarian Stirfry

2009-02-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

The only ingredient of animal origin in this stirfry is honey. I wonder if it could be substituted with syrup to create a completely vegan meal, but the distinctive taste of honey seems to be rather important, and anyway, I don't know any vegans so strict that they wouldn't eat honey. Soymeat can be omitted in this dish if you are going to serve it as a side vegetable dish of a meat containing meal, simply dilute the kikkoman and honey mixture with some warm water before adding the starch.

Easy Vegetarian Stirfry

Ingredients:
*dried soymeat pieces
*zucchini
*capsicum
*carrots
*kikkoman soy sauce
*honey
*garlic
*cumin seeds
*oil
*starch (potato starch or cornflour will do)
*salt

Method:
Boil the soymeat pieces according to the instruction on the packet. While they are boiling, in a bowl mix 2 or 3 minced cloves of garlic, kikkoman and honey. You should get slightly syrupy mixture. When soymeat has been boiling for the given time, drain it and put the drained pieces in the marinade you have prepared. While the soymeat is soaking up the marinade, cut all vegetables in strips. Drain the soymeat again and keep the marinade (you should get more than you started with, because soymeat is like a sponge and soaks up heaps of water when it is boiled and then releases it) Heat some oil in a wok and brown the soymeat pieces quickly, put them in a bowl. If wok looks dry, add some more oil and stir fry carrot and capsicum strips with some cumin seeds. Put them in the same bowl and in the wok stirfry the zucchini. Add a teaspoon of starch to the marinade, return everything from the bowl in the wok, pour the marinade over everything and stir for a couple of seconds. Done!

Cinnamon, Cloves and Turmeric

2009-02-03T01:32:00.000-08:00

There are two ways how to jazz up an ordinary meal. You can travel a huge distance to a fancy shop and blow your budget by buying that very special, hard to get and recklessly expensive ingredient OR you can just play around with herbs and spices. I like both ways, but I have to admit that the second one is far more budget friendly. My collection of spices is still in the developing stage at the moment, but I'm working on it. It's winter here, so warm and sweet spices are on the top of my list.

Cinnamon is the dried bark of a tree Cinnamomum zeylancium that is sold powdered or as bark sticks. I like to keep both in my pantry, but if you choose just one, take the powder, it is more versatile. Sticks can be used more than once if you wash them un cold water and dry in a warm place after use. Cinnamon is often associated only with sweet dishes, but in the Middle East and Indian cuisine it is used foe savory dishes as well.

Cloves are the flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum- a tree native to Indonesia. However today most of the clove crops is grown in Madagascar. Cloves have a specific sweet'n'sour scent, but taste is rather hot. They are often used in pickling. An orange with cloves poked in it does not rot or go mouldy but dries out, has a nice smell and makes a good Christmas decoration. Normally cloves are safe to use, but pregnant women should avoid consuming large amounts.

Turmeric is dried, powdered root of Curcuma longa, a plant that is related to ginger. The powder has a rich yellow color and is sometimes called Japanese saffron because it is used as a substitute of the extremely expensive saffron. It is called a natural food colouring or E100 when used industrially, but it's taste is bitter and peppery and scent earthy. It is an important part of South Asian cuisine and many Indian dishes.

X-mas Flavoured Pumpkin Soup

My mum particulary loves this variation around the pumpkin soup theme.

Ingredients:
*aprroximately 1kg pumpkin (seeded, peeled and cut in chunks)
*2 medium onions
*3 cloves garlic
*one or two carrots
*root of parsley
*allspice corns
*black pepper corns
*cloves
*little piece of cinnamon bark
*bay leaves
*oil
*salt

Method:
Chop onion, garlic, carrot and root of parsley finely. Pour some oil in the pot you are going to use for making soup and cook the chopped vegetables until they are browned slightly. Take a piece of cotton cloth, wrap allspice, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves and secure with cotton thread, so spices can't escape. Put pumpkin and the cloth in the pot where the vegetables are. Cover with boiling water and simmer until pumpkin is soft. Remove the cloth, blend the soup untit it is smooth, add salt and bring it to boil again. Serve with crusty bread.

Tofu Curry

This is deffinately not an authentic Indian curry, but it is rich, spicy and aromatic, and this combination makes me happy. I created this curry by improvising and do not remember the exact proportions of ingredients, so use the common sense and your taste buds!

*tofu (I used the ''Blue Dragon'' tofu simply because that's the only one I can find in ordinary supermarkets)
*red capsicum
*garlic
*plain yoghurt
*lemon juice
*ground coriander
*ground chilli
*sweet paprica powder
*ground cinnamon
*turmeric
*tomato puree
*oil
*salt

Method:
Cut tofu in cubes. Mix yoghurt with spices and lemon juice and pour over tofu. Let tofu marinate in the yoghurt for a while. Chop garlic finely and cut capsicum in chunks. Cook garlic in some oil, add capsicum and tomato puree, bring to boil and simmer for approximately 10 minutes. Add tofu and youghurt and simmer for 20 more minutes. Serve with rice.

Traditionally Indian curries are served with raita and naan on the side. I will try to make them at home and publish my results as soon as possible.

Spicy Rolled Oat Cookies (makes 25-30)

They are wery simple and versatile cookies. The basic recipe stays the same, but instead of spice mix you can add dried fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, citrus zest and other tasty things.

Ingedients:
*100g butter
*1/2 or 1 full cup brown sugar (depends how sweet you want the cookies, coarse demerara sugar makes them nice and crunchy)
*2 eggs
*1 cup flour
*1 teaspoon baking powder
*2 cups rolled oats
*vanilla esence or vanilla flavoured sugar
*cinnamon
*turmeric
*ground cloves (cloves are usually sold whole, to get ground cloves I use ancient electric blade coffee grinder)

Method:
Soften the butter,use fork to mix it with sugar. Add the eggs and spices and mix until smooth. Sift flour together with baking powder, add flour and rolled oats, mix well. Drop teaspoons of mixture on a greased or baking paper covered trau, bake in 180 degrees Celsius for approximately 30 minutes or until hard.

Great bean patties

2009-02-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

I had a sudden attack of inspiration this afternoon and, after eating ravioli (from frozen food aisle in the local supermarket, not home made) and sandwiches for two days, I boiled a big pot of white cannelini beans and improvised with a hope to make something good. The result was a really tasty bean patties.

Ingredients:
*A large handful of breadcrumbs
*A smallish onion (red is better)
*Fresh herbs (I used parsley)
*One carrot
*One egg
*Approximately 200g dried white beans
*Salt and pepper to taste
*Oil for frying

Method:
Soak the beans overnight, than boil them until they are soft. In a food processor pulse onion, herbs and carrot until everything is finely chopped. Put it in a bowl together with breadcrumbs. Mince the boiled beans in the processor. Add beans to the contents of the bowl, add the egg and mix well with your hands. Shape the mixture in patties. Shallow fry them in a large pan from both sides, until they are nice and brown.

I was really hungry, so I just ate lots of them with tomato sauce and some boiled cauliflower on the side, but, I reckon, they would do as vegetarian burgers just as well. (They deffinately tasted better than Subway vegie patties)