Like there's no-one listening

Posting this song is inspired by my wonderfully sing-y flatmate. It's not way of the singing that is wonderful but the fact of the singing. It's the enthusiasm and gleeful disregard for any prior versions of the song.

He was shouting/singing something the other day that I thought I recognised from long ago. Turns out it wasn't at all what he was singing, but he did helpfully remind me of that 'long ago' singer's name, Mika. I'd only heard of him when some tweeny guests were staying at mum's one summer and had his CD on repeat. It's a feelgood summer kinda music. It goes well with a swimming pool and iceblocks.

As I'm supposed to be studying French today, here is the song, 'Grace Kelly' in French.

Gazpacho

If you don't make this already, you should. Especially you Perth people. Especially this week. Nuff said.
It's refreshing like crazy. And probably good for us too. I love that scene in Women on the Verge of a Mental Breakdown where she makes gazpacho. This one will be just as good even if lacking the magic ingredient. Sadly it won't be served by a dorky Antonio Banderas though.

900g overripe tomatoes (blanched and peeled is best if you have time)
1 T tomato sauce / paste
1 T olive oil
1 small garlic clove, peeled
1 T sugar/agave syrup (really? taste and decide)
150ml vegetable stock
bunch of fresh basil
2 T redwine vinegar
salt and freshly ground white pepper


Set aside a few basil leaves to decorate then put all the ingredients in a blender and whizz. Strain mixture through a sieve into a bowl, pushing hard to extract all the juice. (The remaining pulp can be used in another recipe, like the gazpacho paella thing). Or you can just put all the veg ingredients through a juicer and then mix in the extra liquid ingredients. I did this today but just juiced half a celery in place of vegetable stock. Adjust the seasoning then chill until ready to serve. If it's as hot as it is in Perth at the moment, you might like to think about chucking some icecubes in the glass / bowl you serve it in.

NB - why not just keep all the pulp in? Well you can, sure, but the clean texture helps it feel extra refreshing, I think. Also, no pulp means no bits of basil on your teeth which is good if you're having this at work!

Gazpacho risotto/paella thing

This is a real 'waste not, want not' meal to use up left overs plus whatever vegetables I had in the fridge. In this case, it was leftover rice, purple carrots and the fibre that remained when I sieved the gazpacho - there was so much of it, I wasn't throwing that away!


1 cup drained gazpacho fibre (see gazpacho recipe in recipe page)
1 & 1/2 cups day-old cooked rice
pinch saffron (optional)
10 pitted kalamata olives
1-2 ripe tomatoes
1 green capsicum
1 red capsicum
1 small orange-flesh sweet potato
1 purple carrot
1 bunch of asparagus
spray cooking oil
2-3 freerange boiled eggs, halved


Heat gazpacho paste in frying pan with a pinch of saffron. Crumble in rice and mix through. Stir in olives.

Halve capsicums, slice sweet potato and carrots into rounds. Spray with oil and grill in oven (fan grill if doing in trays on different racks). When almost done, add the asparagus (tough ends removed).

Serve rice on plates. Decorate with other ingredients as you like.

10 minute chickpea curry

Don't you think this meal looks like an alien or maybe my funny valentine?



When it's too hot to cook...just cheat. A week of temperatures over 38 degrees (that's 100 degrees F to the rest of you) doesn't inspire much cooking, but still I have trouble with the whole just salad for dinner thing, so I cooked, just a little. It is a little Americany in it's combination of mixing two pre-packaged ingredients together but bear with me, it is more natural and has a lot of flavour. The two ingredients are chickpeas in a can - simple, and a jar (well, part of a jar) of Indian chutney. (see below for more on my love of these) Introducing...

The Ten Minute Curry!

Heat 3 heaped tablespoons of brinjal (eggplant) chutney in a saucepan and tip in 1 drained can of chickpeas. Cook, stirring occassionally, for about 10 minutes. Add a little water / liquid from the chickpea can if it gets a little burny.

Serve with salad and a raita made from 1 c unsweetened yoghurt, 1/2 smallish cucumber, cubed, and some chopped fresh mint or a pinch of dill.


Pickles!
I love buying these from local Indian/Asian stores: India knows chutneys! My favourites are lime pickle, mango chutney and brinjal (eggplant)pickle. They have lots of spices that you don't have to prepare yourself, you can read all the ingredients - all real things, not numbers! One of the real ingredients though is sugar, which I try not to cook with much these days, so remember that. But for the every now and again meal, brilliant!

Here are some other ways I like to use these pickles:

- Salad dressing with a kick: Get a nice big teaspoonful (chop any big chunks up finely), mix with 1/4 olive oil.

- Pizza spread: Use in place of tomato paste (a thin spear only) for exotic pizzas. Then just top base with some cheese and one or two toppings like zucchini, pumpkin, whatever.

- as a rub for roast veggies: Mix a tablespoon of pickle with some olive oil in a bowl, tip over your roasting pan of chopped veggies ready to go into the oven. Rub the pickly-oil all over the veg using your (gloved) hands. Roast, keeping an eye on them for burning bits. So yum.

- Dip: Mix with yoghurt for an easy dip that might really impress people (little do they know!). Serve with veg crudites or what you will.

Perfect Poached Eggs

I like to use olive oil or, as in this picture, ajvar to spread my toast with instead of butter. You know, for when you invite me for brunch?


Poached eggs were always something I only ate at cafes as I never got the hang of them. And cleaning the pot afterwards with all that scunge - yeah, nah. But they SEEM pretty simple right, it's not a souffle, just an egg! So I got over my pride at thinking 'one' shouldn't need a recipe to cook an egg and finally turned to Elizabeth David's 'French Provincial Cooking'. (It seems all my other cookbooks assume a knowledge of poaching ability). Now I can do them! And the pot (non-stick kind - does that make a difference?) stays clean!

NB This recipe is for cooking eggs one at a time but at the end I'll give a tip on storing and reheating them till you're ready.

Boil a large pan of water (Elizabeth David suggests a deep frying-pan is better than a saucepan) with about 1 T white wine vinegar. Break each egg into a saucer. Boil water then reduce heat to a simmer (big bubbles can make egg tough and cause bits to break apart). When water is at a gentle simmer, make a whirlpool in the centre by whirling the water around with a wooden spoon. Slide an egg into the middle of this whirlpool and keep the water whirling around as it begins to set and water comes back to a simmer. Remove pan from heat, cover it, and leave 2 1/2 -3 minutes for just cooked with runny yolk and about 4 minutes for a firmer white with partially set yolk.

Remove egg with a slotted spoon and if using right away, blot with a paper towel (or you can rest egg for a moment on a spare crust of bread) before placing egg on toast/plate (you don't want to make your toast soggy!)

If you are doing a few eggs, try this:
Get a bowl of cold water ready with a few icecubes in it (don't crowd bowl with them or they could damage egg). Place the bowl on the bench next to the stove.
As you remove the first egg with the slotted spoon, place it carefully straight in the iced bowl of water. This stops the egg cooking and preserves it until you're ready to serve it.
Repeat with the other eggs (ie. cook them as instructed, remove from pan and place in bowl). The iced water will help the egg stay firm enough that you can actually pick it up but it will still be soft inside. If you want to cook your eggs well in advance and serve later, just put the bowl of eggs-in-iced-water in the fridge until you're ready to reheat them.
To reheat eggs, bring a fresh pan of water to a simmer. No vinegar this time! Leave eggs in for a very short time (just about 15 seconds) to warm through. If you leave too long they will overcook and you'll lose that runny centre. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towel / bread crust before serving on toast/muffin/whatever.

General tips for poaching eggs:
-vinegar helps coagulate the white (so it stays together nicely and the pot is easier to clean!)
- eggs of the day (if you have your own chickens, say) can be hard to poach as the whites tend to fly about a lot. Old eggs can be tough and white and yolk can separate. The best are 2-3 day old eggs.
- don't try to poach eggs in vigorously boiling water - the whole idea of poaching is that it's a gentle business.
- free-range organic eggs taste best and are most nutritious. But then, who eats cage eggs these days anyway?
- some people, Elizabeth David included, recommend putting the whole egg (in its shell) into boiling water for 10-30 seconds prior to breaking egg into a saucer. This is supposed to create a partially coagulated layer to help keep the egg together. I haven't found this step necessary. Some people even make a wee hole into the air pouch of the egg (at the 'fat' end of the egg) to let the water in during this stage. A lot of bother for what?

Green Banana and Eggplant Curry

Today we got green bananas in our organic veggie box - in fact, the whole thing was more fruit than veggies as this is summer and summer's all about fruit. So here's an alluringly tropical fresh and fruity curry. I believe this recipe is Sri Lankan but I can't remember which recipe book I adapted this one from - I 'veganized' it as the original had both yoghurt and cream - too heavy for summer anyway, no? I used fresh coconut in my recipe tonight but to be honest, the subtle flavour of it find of got lost in this dish so unless you have plenty of fresh coconuts to hand, I suggest when you get fresh ones you enjoy as-is or marinated as a side dish as I did the other night. 2 T peanut oil 2 t mustard seeds 1 t coriander 1 t cumin seeds 4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed 3 T desicated coconut 2 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed 1 t chilli flakes 1 t salt (I completely forgot to add this and it was delicious so cut down/ cut out salt if you can) 2-3 large green bananas or plantains, peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces 2 medium eggplants, cut into 2cm cubes 30 fresh curry leaves 200ml vegetable stock (I used some homemade vegetable broth I had in the freezer - very handy) 2 t tamarind paste (I was actually out of this so substituted pomegranate paste which worked well too) juice of 1 lime 1/4 c flaked almonds 1/4 c spring onions finely sliced or a herb like mint or coriander Heat oil in wok or deep saucepan, add seeds and cardamom and fry over moderate heat till fragrant. Add coconut, garlic, chilli and salt and gently fry till coconut is golden. spices banana and coconut before adding the eggplant Add bananas and fry 20 seconds, then add eggplant and curry leaves and fry another 20 seconds, stirring well. Add stock and tamarind paste and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer until bananas are just cooked, about 15 minutes. If the curry dries out, add some boiling water. Stir in lime juice and check seasoning. Serve with basmati rice cooked with a little lemon zest. I also cooked mine with a sprinkling of wild rice (black seeds that turn the rice pleasantly purple). And do you like the plane and heart decorations I made from the banana skin? No? Well, I'm not baking much at the moment and just really wanted to use my cookie cutters!

Pan Bagnat

These surprise loaves make impressive picnic fare. Easier to make and transport than lots of small sandwhiches and there's just something all-community-ish about taking slices from the same loaf that gives me the warm-fuzzies.

For this one, I used all antipasti type ingredients as I wanted to leave it overnight for the ingredients to get to know each other a bit. And lettuce doesn't like being salad-ed up overnight, and I don't like to see it in that state. But if you're throwing one of these together on the same day, go ahead and chuck in as much lettuce, cucumber and fresh basil as you like! You could even use hard boiled eggs if you trusted them. Just put in a few of your favourite things. It's one of those 'concept' kind of recipes.

So, let's begin,
Get yourself a good round loaf. If you're organised ahead of time (like 24 hours in advance) you make your own no-knead slow rising bread using this recipe for what I call Magic Elf Bread.


Cut a circle off the top thick enough to make a good lid. Set lid aside then hollow out the middle of the loaf.


The bread you remove can be stored and used for another recipe such as panzanella bread salad or used to make some good breadcrumbs for crunchy toppings.


In a small bowl, mix up a dressing for the inside of the loaf. I used olive oil with some pesto and tahini. (use vegan pesto or just basil if you're avoiding cheese).


Prepare your fillings. I chose grilled vegetables, mozzarella or other not too overpowering cheese (skip for a vegan meal), antipasti stuff. 1 kumara/sweet potato, 1-2 courgettes....


...1 eggplant/aubergine (slice and grill your own or buy more expensive marinated grilled one), 10 or so pitted olives (sliced in half), about 5 artichoke hearts (halved), about 5 sundried or semi-dried tomatoes (sliced finely), about 1 capsicum's worth of grilled red or yellow capsicum strips. These ingredients can be bought from a delicatessen counter or in jars.


Brush or spread the inside of the hollow loaf with the dressing you made (don't drown it though, it shouldn't get soggy).


Start adding layers of filling : Kumara / sweet potato slices


Cheese slices and sliced sundried tomato (whole tomatoes are too chewy)


zucchini slices and halved olives


halved artichoke hearts


When it gets a bit full, pack it down with a potato masher or a mug or something!


grilled eggplant/aubergine slices and grilled capsicum/pepper slices



Replace loaf lid. Put the completed picnic loaf on a plate covered with two pieces of lunchwrap, like so. Fold in the paper from both sides to wrap it up and secure with string or rubber bands.


Put another plate on top to weigh it down (so it will stay together nicely when you cut it). Put in the fridge overnight or for a few hours before your picnic.


Serve at room/outdoor temperature...


...or heated for a bit to melt the cheese. Mmm!

Imam Bayildi

I made this for the first time for company (why can't I stick with the tried and true when cooking for friends?) but happily, it did work pretty well, it was certainly a morish treat at our pre-film picnic at the sommerville outdoor cinema among all those shady trees. A summer delight to do just that.

I've heard this dish is probably the most famous of Middle Eastern cuisine so it shows how much I still need to travel that I'd never heard of this dish until we went to a Turkish restaurant in Subiaco one sunny day and I fell in love with what was no doubt not the best imam bayildi ever produced (judging from the mediocre quality of the other dishes we tried). It wasn't hard to win me over with this one, though - for someone with an obsession for anything involving slow-cooked onions and tomatoes, how was I not going to love a dish that also involved lashings of delicious olive oil, green capsicum, spices and of course, one of my most beloved vegetables, that great fan of olive oil, the aubergine.

Now the name, Imam Bayildi, means 'the Imam fainted' - and various stories account for the name. some say the imam swooned with delight at being served it, others that he fainted with shock at the amount of olive oil used. Whatever the reason, you are likely to have a swoony moment yourself trying this divine dish.

I consulted two recipes to make mine and was pleased with the results. I greedily took everything from both recipes and left nothing out - it's all about indulgence this dish. The books I used were one of my favourites, Arto der Haroutunian's Vegetarian Dishes from Across the Middle East and a new one Veggiestan by Sally Butcher which takes, you guessed it, vegetarian dishes from the Middle East and imagines they all come from a country called Veggiestan! A flight of fancy and it has fancy pictures to go with it, something missing in Arto's (hence me making a few of his recipes so you can get some idea and then go get your own copy!)

Imam Bayildi

Choose your eggplants - either 2 of the large pear-shaped variety or 4-6 of the baby or long, finger-shaped varieties.
Choose fim, glossy 'pert' eggplants - ie, ripe and fresh ones.
6 T olive oil
2 onions (red or white) finely chopped
2 green peppers (capsicums) finely chopped (I had to use green and red, was ok)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3-4 ripe tomatoes
2 T tomato puree
1 t paprika
1 t allspice
1 T pekmez or lemon juice (I had no idea what pekmez was so used lemon juice)
3 T chopped flatleaf parsley
salt, pepper and brown sugar as needed to balance flavours (add only a pinch at a time as you don't want to ruin all your hard work!)
I cup olive oil (for cooking eggplants)
1/2 c - 2 1/2 c water for cooking, depending on consistency of mixture



Wash and dry the eggplants, leaving on the stalks. Score through the skin and peel away in stripes lengthways down the eggplant. Cut an incision along the length of each one, sprinkle the insides with salt and turn upside down on kitchen paper to drain for 30 minutes. This will remove any bitter juices and also make it easier to scrape out seeds later.

While they are draining prepare the ingredients for the filling: Chop the other vegetables then heat the 6 T olive oil in a large frying pan or wide saucepan. When oil is heated, add onions, green peppers and garlic and fry gently for 10 minutes.



Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, paprika, allspice and salt, pepper to taste. Stir well and cook for a further five minutes. Taste and, if needed, add a tiny bit of brown sugar to balance any bitterness from cooked tomatoes. Stir in half the parsley, the pekmez/lemon juice and remove from heat. (turn off element).

Rinse out eggplants, scrape out soft seed part from middle (being careful that you don't scrape too close to the walls) and with paper towels, pat the eggplants dry, inside and out. Discard seeds. If you also scraped out some flesh, this may be finely chopped and added to the tomato filling - during cooking time even, if the eggplants were drained already then.

Heat the cooking oil (yep, the whole cupful!) in a frying pan and fry the eggplants, turning a few times until the flesh begins to soften. Remember that if the oil temperature is too low they will just sit there soaking up the oil and stay uncooked. I recommend using a 'splatter guard' (looks like a flat sieve,) if you have one, to protect yourself from burns - though you will have to turn the eggplants so be careful. When eggplants have softened and the white stripes may be goldenish (about 7 minutes), remove them from heat and drain on paper towels before placing in an ovenproof dish, split sides uppermost. Choose a dish that fits the amount of eggplant you have so you have room to spread them open enough but not so much room that they only take up half the dish. Carefully prise open the slits and spoon the tomato/onion mixture into each slit - try to get as much in there as possible. If there is any remaining tomato/onion mixture, add it to dish and then pour in the boiling water (use less water if your sauce is already very watery). Lastly, pour over 3-5 T extra olive oil (that hasn't already been used for cooking). Place in the centre of an oven preheated to 200 Celsius / 400 Fahrenheit and cook for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven, let cool and then refrigerate. Serve sprinkled with remaining parsley or fresh mint and accompany with lots of mopping up bread like pita or lavash bread. They will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days. The flavour does improve after 24 hours, so you can cook ahead.



Note about my photos - Yes, the version I made I didn't add all the extra water, oil and tomato sauce to the oven dish as I though it was all pretty cooked already. But I should next time, just to see if it's possible that this exceptional dish could be improved upon if I actually followed the recipe (or recipes!)

Listen with your eyes

Vowels from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

Now go sing a rainbow people.

From the Maldives across the Indian Ocean

It is summer here, with all the delicious produce that goes with it. At the markets I couldn't resist buying young coconuts and mangoes (among other yummies). Having no idea what to do with the coconut though, I had a peek in Chris and Carolyn Caldicott's 'World Food Cafe 2'. There I immediately found a marinated coconut recipe to accompany a mango, chickpea and butternut squash curry. It's a great cookbook, if you can get hold of one. It's full of exotic recipes and gorgeous photography from the couple's world travels. Having never visited the Maldives myself, I'm fairly keen to after trying these new recipes from our Indian Ocean 'neighbours'.

This curry surprised me by having no chilli (and no cumin - I had the ingredients ready and photographed before double checking the recipe - hence the mysterious packet in the photo). Despite the lack of chilli it is spicy and rich and the chunks of mango held their shape and flavour better than I'd hoped. The winning combination of all these exotic ingredients - mango, coconut milk, lime worked well in this savoury dish. So if mangoes, coconuts and such are in season and cheap near you, get cracking!






Maldivian Mango and Chickpea Curry

(I've adapted this recipe from the Caldicotts' to be vegan by substituting oil for butter and skipping the yoghurt at the end).

2 T canola oil
1 large red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1-inch piece of ginger root, peeled and grated
10 curry leaves
2 t black mustard seeds
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground cardamom
1/2 t ground turmeric
1/2 t ground black pepper

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 3 1/4 - 3 3/4 cups)
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 c water
2 x 400g tin chickpeas (2 3/4 - 3 cups), rinsed and drained
2 large mangoes, peeled and cubed
1 x 400g tin coconut milk
1 T lime juice / or zest from 1 lime
salt, to taste (I didn't use any - very delicious already)



Heat oil in a wok or large pan, add the onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves, and saute until the onion is soft. Add the mustard seeds, and when they crackle, add the remaining spices, stirring them into the oil. Add the cubed butternut squash and the tomatoes, and saute until the squash starts to soften. Add the water and the chickpeas, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the chopped mangoes and coconut milk, cover again, and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice or zest. Taste, and add salt if necessary.
Serve with rice or Coriander Cheela (recipe to follow another day). I served mine with Fresh coconut (see below) and store bought spicy kumera and redbean cakes.



Fresh Coconut with Lime

A good accompaniment to any curry.

1/2 fresh coconut
1 garlic clove
2 green chiles, seeded and chopped
juice of two limes
salt, to taste

Cut coconut flesh into strips with a vegetable peeler - this is a little tricky (watch you don't cut yourself!) but produces the thinest, silkiest flat ribbons.
Combine the remaining ingredients and pour them over the coconut strips. Toss lightly then let it marinate for 1 hour or more before serving.

How to get the Coconut out of its shell? Read my tips on Opening a Young Coconut

From there the vegetable peeler bit was rather tricky so just slice those ribbons carefully! If you're using a more mature coconut, then, um, I'll give you more instructions once I've tried that! I'm new to this whole cheap coconuts thing!

How to Open a Young Coconut

So how to get the coconut from the coconut? I had bought a young coconut with some but not all the outside trimmed off.


Using a good big knife, cut away much of the outer fibres. This step is probably optional, but for me, it helped me be able to crack the shell open - all that outside layer just protected the coconut shell from my attempts at hitting it!



Put coconut in a plastic bag with no holes (tie it to keep juice in!) and hit with a rolling pin or mallet. Be careful as the coconut may roll or bounce a bit, but when you're confident you're not going to injure yourself, just give it a really good whack - one decent whack will do it. 10 little hits will do nothing but dent the fibres on the outside.


As soon as you've cracked the coconut shell, carefully open bag and pour juice through a sieve into a jug and set aside.


It also turns out young coconuts have this superb jelly-like white flesh - there isn't as much of it but it is worth the effort now and again, I'd say. As the coconut was so young, I peeled the flesh from the inside of the shell with a flatish spoon.


I strained the juice through a sieve into a jug to enjoy in a cocktail later. Mmm-Hmm!