Agadashi Tofu (vegan)

Serves 4
This delicate recipe makes great use of fresh medium-soft tofu which will be crisp on the outside, soft in the middle. If you feel brave, you can try with silken tofu but this requires VERY gentle handling.

"This popular dish with its mild sauce and array of exotic garnishes is often served in an izakaya - the traditional Japanese bar that the salaryman frequents after work for a drink and a quick bite before making the long commute home."
~ Hema Parekh, 'The Asian Vegan Kitchen'

FOR THE TOFU
2 blocks of medium-soft or silken tofu about 300g (11 oz)
1/2 cup (80g) potato starch
vegetable oil for deep-frying

FOR THE SAUCE
1/2 cup (120ml) kombu  dashi (see method)
2 teaspoons of sake (optional)
2 teaspoons of mirin
2 Tablespoons of soy sauce

FOR THE GARNISHES (choose those you like)
60g (2 oz) daikon, peeled and grated
2.5cm (1 inch) cube fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Nori seaweed, toasted carefully over element, until crisp, cut into strips
Chopped chives
White sesame seeds, toasted in dry frying pan until aromatic
Shishito peppers
Shichimi 7-spice mix


TO MAKE THE DASHI

3 pieces of kombu kelp, each approx 10cm x 5 cm (4x2 inches)
3 1/2 cups of water

Soak the kombu in the water for 1 hour, then remove the kombu, and use the water as dashi. (If short on time, place water and kombu in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. As soon as it starts to boil, remove the kombu, turn off heat.


METHOD FOR AGEDASHI TOFU

1. Wrap each block of tofu in a thick dish towel and place in a flat dish. Let stand for 30 minutes.
2. arrange all the garnishes in small bowls and set them on the table.
3. in a small saucepan, combine all the sauce ingredients, and bring to. a boil. Turn the heat down to medium and and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. Cut each block of tofu in half. Dab each piece in the potato starch, turning to coat evenly. Set aside on a dry dish. If you can, fry the tofu as soon as it is coated so coating stays on.
5. Fill one third of the frying pan with the vegetable oil and heat to 180 degrees celsius (350 F). Put one coated tofu piece in the hot oil and deep-fry until both sides are crisp and brown. Repeat with the remaining pieces. Drain on a paper towel. 
6. Transfer the tofu pieces to individual bowls. Pour a little sauce around the sides. Garnishes can be added according to individual preferences.

Here is a video tutorial (narrated by dog!) for a recipe for 2 people - or one person, one dog, I guess.

Agedashi Tofu by 'Cooking with Dog'

Falafel

So pleased to have delicious falafel that don't fall apart. I think my previous mistakes were too many wet ingredients and maybe wrong oil temperature. Feel free to skip any herbs and spices you don't want. I keep chopped herbs in the freezer for recipes like this. For the breadcrumbs I just tore a chunk of bread and chopped it in blender before adding the chickpeas.

Chickpeas 3 cups pre-soaked, rinsed, drained and dried off. (1.5 cups dry soaked in 2 litres of water 8 hours / overnight).
OR 2x400g tins of chickpeas, drained, rinsed, patted dry. (the liquid can be reserved for some other recipes)
Onion 1/2 average size (about 80 g) finely chopped
Garlic 1-2 cloves, crushed
Parsley 1 Tablespoon, finely chopped
Coriander fresh, 1 Tablespoon, finely chopped
Coriander powder 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin powder 1/2 teaspoon
Cayenne pepper powder 1/4 teaspoon
Cardamom powder 1/4 teaspoon
Baking soda 1/2 teaspoon
Breadcrumbs fresh, 1/2 - 1 cup (can be skipped but breadcrumbs or a little flour, 2-4 Tablespoons, helps keep them quite light and bind together, especially if using canned chickpeas.)
Tahini paste 1 Tablespoon (or substitute olive oil)

In a food processor, whizz together the chickpeas, onion, garlic and fresh herbs (if you've washed these make sure to dry well to avoid adding too much liquid to mixture).

Once you have a good paste-like texture, mix in dry spices, baking soda, breadcrumbs/flour and tahini/oil. Mix these in until you have a soft but firm mixture.

with clean, wet hands, form into walnut-sized balls (about 25g). make sure to squeeze firmly enough to ensure shape holds and doesn't crumble. If you will be shallow-frying or baking, these can be flattened into more fat disk shapes. For deep(ish) frying, leave as balls. If you like you can roll them in sesame seeds or flour but they should be fine as they are.

These often benefit from resting in the fridge for a while (to firm up) but if mixture is not too moist they are fine to cook straight away.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, add about 7cm oil. Heat to 180 degrees Celsius (or if you don't have deep frying thermometer, until a piece of stale bread dropped into oil browns in about 50 seconds). Fry in several batches until browned on the outside and cooked in the middle (test one). About 3-4 minutes. Drain them in a colander lined with paper towels or on a cake cooling rack while you cook the next batch.

Serve hot.

I will add a tahini sauce recipe and other serving ideas later. x

Borscht

My photo using homemade sunflower cream. Borscht recipe by Alissa Saenz. connoisseurusveg.com

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 medium beets, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 cups finely chopped beet tops or cabbage
1 medium russet potato, peeled and diced (1/2 inch)
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, plus more for serving
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegan sour cream, yogurt, or cashew cream, for serving
Chopped fresh chives and/or parsley, for serving

Instructions
Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil and place it over medium heat.

When the oil is hot, add the beets, carrot and onions. Sauté until the veggies begin to soften, about 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and sauté another minute, until very fragrant.

Stir in the broth, tomato paste, beet tops /cabbage and potato. Raise the heat and bring the liquid to a boil.

Lower the heat and allow to simmer, uncovered, until the veggies are tender, 15-20 minutes. You can add more broth or water if you like.

Remove the pot from heat and stir in the lemon juice and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the soup into bowls and top with vegan sour cream, yogurt, or cashew cream, and a sprinkling of fresh dill, parsley and/or chives. Serve.

Pumpkin curry wattaka kalu pol (Sri Lanka)

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 medium red onions, finely sliced
2 sprigs curry leaves
4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
3 long green chillies, sliced
½ tsp black mustard seeds, ground
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
1 kg pumpkin, cut into cubes, skin left on
1 tsp seeded mustard
2 tbsp dark roasted curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric
1–2 tspsalt
500 ml (2 cups) coconut milk
2 tbsp short-grain rice, plus extra, cooked, to serve
⅓ cupdesiccated coconut

Cook's notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Instructions

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, curry leaves, garlic and green chilli. Fry briefly then add the mustard and fenugreek seeds and continue frying.

Quickly toss the pumpkin in a bowl with the seeded mustard, ground spices and salt and add to the pan along with the coconut milk. Bring to the boil and cook over high heat until the pumpkin is tender.

Meanwhile, heat a small frying pan and dry-fry the rice and coconut until brown and fragrant. Grind to a powder in a mortar or blender.

Add the rice and coconut powder to the curry and cook for a few more minutes. Serve with rice.


Sri Lankan recipe featured on SBS Food Safari Sri Lanka

Walnut Mushroom and Bean Burgers

Walnut mushroom bean burgers

(Approximates as I was just using up what I had)

3/4 cup walnut pieces
10 button mushrooms, halved
Handful (20?) Greenbeans, trimmed
2-3 shallots / 1 small onion, quartered
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 Tablespoon miso paste (I used rice miso)
1 Tablespoon vegan worchester sauce
1 teaspoon thyme
....then to bind....
1 smallish steamed potato, peeled and smashed
2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten

Put all first group of ingredients in a food processor and whizz until quite consistent texture. Transfer to large bowl with potato, mix together then sprinkle over gluten and mix that in last, with hands if needed. Shape into patties. This made 10 small patties. Could be put in fridge/freezer or cooked straight away.
Fry a couple of minutes each side to brown then place on ovenproof tray and bake at 180 for...some time while you look after kids / housework and just get them before they're too dried out! So, another 15 minutes? Check on them...
I used vegan mayo and Indian pickle for sauces but use whstever you think would go well. Something like a garlic vegan aioli or a smoky chipotle sauce or ajvar?
Let us know if you try and have improvements!

Vegan Tuna Salad

Making sandwiches for a picnic. My omni husband is a big fan of the white bean spread (like vegan tuna salad). White beans, vegan mayo, lime juice, red onion, little gherkins, flat parsley, shredded nori, salt and pepper.

Asian coleslaw

It's the dressing that's Asian inspired. I was never much of a fan of the mayonnaise version. So to make the dressing it was something like: Add to a screw top jar: small red onion finely diced, clove of garlic crushed, big handful of either Thai basil or cilantro/coriander chopped. Third of a cup each of palm sugar (I used less), vegan fish sauce or salty alternative like soy sauce (I added a good spoon of accidentally vegan paste to make beef pho soup, as well as tamari), lime juice. 1 tablespoon of oil (I added a bit of sesame oil and the rest a neutral veg oil). 1-2 Thai chillies julienned. Close lid and shake it all up until ready to use (can add up to an hour before if using Savoy cabbage or longer with erm, normal cabbage as it stays crisp better. I have chilli hating kids so kept it separate for those who wanted to pour on. The kids just prefer raw unseasoned veg!

Potato Gratin ~ vegan

It's getting cold and everyone in France seems to be getting into their baked cheese dishes in a big way. Well I love comfort food too so had a go making my own potato gratin (flavoursome potatoes are key).
Ingredients listed by quanity, but not exact quantities, are as follows :
Good waxy potatoes
Cashew cream (or other thick cream may work)
Nutritional yeast
White Miso
Dried shallots
Sea salt
Garlic powder
Cumin powder
Turmeric powder
Drizzled with olive oil and scattered with walnuts.
There were no leftovers; I scoffed the lot!

Carrot Cake ~ vegan

Recipe by Alison Andrews (Loving it Vegan). Photo of my first attempt. Tasted wonderful, great texture. Pity icing curdled a little with lemon juice. 

For the Carrot Cake:

• 2 cups (250g) All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 2 and 1/3 cups (255g) Grated Carrot
• 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) Brown Sugar
• 2 Flax Eggs (2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Water)
• 1/2 cup (120ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 cup (100g) Chopped Walnuts (Optional)

For the Lemon Buttercream Icing:

• 3 and 3/4 cups (450g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Vegan Butter
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 3–4 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

---

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to  180°C (350°F).
2. Grease cake tin / tins and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg into a mixing bowl.
4. Add the grated carrot and the brown sugar.
5. Prepare the flax eggs, by mixing 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal with 6 Tbsp Water and allowing to sit for a minute.
6. In the meantime, add the oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar to the mixing bowl.
7. Add the flax eggs.
8. Mix everything together in the mixing bowl. Have a little patience and let the batter sit for a minute or two so that the carrots can release more water into the batter to enable you to mix it all together.
9. *If your batter is still too dry to mix after letting it sit for a couple of minutes (and only if it’s too dry to mix after sitting for a few minutes) then add in a little non-dairy milk, only as much as you need to get the batter to a wet enough consistency so that it can mix properly.
10. Lastly add the chopped walnuts if you want to add them.
11. Divide the mixture between the two small cake tins or leave in one larger tin.
12. Place into the oven and bake for 30 minutes for small cakes, up to 50 mins for large cake, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
13. Allow the cakes to cool completely on a cooling rack.
14. While the cakes are cooling, prepare your icing.
15. Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and 3 Tbsp of lemon juice to an electric mixer bowl.
16. Start mixing on low speed.
17. If your icing is too thick then add in more lemon juice a drop at a time as needed to get your icing mix to the perfect consistency. If your icing ends up too thin, add more powdered sugar.
18. Add icing to the top of one of the layers.
19. Add the other layer on top and complete the icing of the top and sides of the cake.
20. Sprinkle crushed walnuts on top of the cake and serve.

Spinach and potato gozleme ~ vegan

for the pastry but I cheated and used a rolled out pizza base we had - we are here on holiday with limited kitchen supplies. Filling is sauteed leek, frozen spinach heated to evaporate some water, dried dill weed and yesterday's boiled potatoes, peeled and smashed, salt. Served with squeeze of lemon. Simple but good thanks to good quality vegetables.

Korean Noodle Salad (Salad Guksu)

recipe by Lee MinJung. Photo by me.

• Soba noodles 2 bundles
• Cabbage or lettuce 5 leaves cut into 5cm lengths
• Cucumber 1 medium cut into 5cm lengths
• Carrot 1/2 cut into 5cm lengths
• Cherry tomatoes 10, each cut in half
• Tempeh marinated 

SAUCE

3 Tablespoons light soy sauce

3 Tablespoons vinegar

3 Tablespoons  lemon juice

3 Tablespoons sugar or other sweetener

1/2 Tablespoon vegetarian oyster sauce

1 Tablespoon crushed garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons wasabi

1 Tablespoon chilli powder

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

Combine ingredients for sauce. Blend well and refrigerate.

Blanch noodles in boiling water, then rinse under cold running water. Drain well.

Mix noodles with sauce and half the veggies and tempeh. Use hands to ensure thorough mix.

Garnish with remaining veggies and tempeh, serve.

Du Bu Jo Rim - Fried tofu in lightly spicy Korean sauce

recipe by Lee MinJung. Photo and drawing by me.

Devilled Sausages ~ vegan

 6-8 vegan sausages
2 Tbsp neutral oil
2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 cups veg stock
2 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp fruity chutney or pickle
2 Tbsp dijon mustard
2 Tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp tamarind sauce
1 tsp soy sauce or tamari
Pinch ground cloves
¼ tsp cayenne pepper, or more to taste
2 tsp thyme leaves
salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Cook in a heavy-based frypan over medium heat or in an oven preheated to 200˚C fanbake until browned all over.

While sausages are cooking, heat oil in a large pot, add onions to the pan and cook over medium-low heat until onions are very soft and starting to brown (12 minutes).

Stir in all remaining ingredients except sausages and simmer gently over low heat for 15 minutes. Add browned sausages and simmer another 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve hot.

TIP
You can also make this meal in a slow cooker.

Bibimbap again (vegan)

It is one of my favourite meals. Traditionally it has meat and/or egg too but just like Koreans make it seasonal, I adjust protein and veggies to suit what's available (can include mushrooms, spinach, beansprouts etc, often sauuteed or steamed then drizzled with a little seasame oil). Always have some greens and the hot sauce : 

Gochujang hot sauce for bibimbap

4 tablespoons gochujang (Korean red hot pepper paste)
2 tablespoons sesame oil.
2 tablespoons brown sugar/alternative (or nashi pear, pureed).
1 tablespoon soy sauce.
1 tablespoon water.
2 teaspoons rice vinegar.
2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Mousse au chocolat liégeoises (vegan)

For 4 adults  (filling!)

Recipe and impressive photo from Bible Vegan by Marie Laforet. Less impressive photo my first effort!
170g dark chocolate
1 Tablespoon of coconut oil
50g icing sugar / caster sugar
400g silken tofu
Chantilly of coconut cream*

Melt chocolate in a bain marie (in a metal bowl above pot of simmering water). Remove from heat,  mix with the coconut oil and sugar, then with well -chilled tofu. Mix with a hand mixer to incorporate air -she says a good 5 minutes, I tried to but thought the consistency was good before that and over mixed,  will try less next time. Divide between 4 glasses and refrigerate for 4 hours. Cover with the coconut chantilly cream just before serving.

*Coconut Chantilly cream
Chill a 400g tin of coconut CREAM overnight if possible or in the freezer for a while (not too long or it could explode) then in the fridge. Also chill a mixing bowl and beater whisks. The thick cream floats to the top of tin and hardens. Scrape this into chilled bowl and whip with beater.

Pasta and Borlotti Bean Soup

This recipe from one of my favourite vegetarian cookbooks 'Verdura' - Vegetables Italian Style. As I am sick today and lazy, am just taking a photo of my cookbook. As I am sick today and lazy, this was a perfect time nourishing bowl of yum. And my sick kids liked it too, at least the one with an appetite.  So here it is, pop ingredients in the slow cooker like I did  ('prep and forget' meal for making a hard day easier) if you like, cheat and use packet pasta if it's all you have, it still works!

Broccoli and Cheese Muffins

Makes 12 Muffins. Recipe can be doubled to have extra for freezing.


Searching for a veggie muffin recipe to get my toddler to eat some 'hidden greens', I picked up a rarely used cookbook '750 Best Muffin Recipes' by Camilla V. Saulsbury and quickly found her 'fresh broccoli and parmesan muffins' recipe. And I had almost all the ingredients. I added green peppers (as didn't have quite enough broccoli left) and pinenuts and substituted leek for her green onions (scallions) and honey for her sugar. Like she wrote though, it's a versatile recipe that suits a variety of cheeses, and, I think, a few extra veggies too! I used Comte cheese and it worked well. She said she made them successfully with Cheddar, Swiss, Gruyere, Blue cheese, goat cheese and manchego.
The verdict? Family, toddler included, gobbled them up happily!

Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped broccoli
1 leek (1/2 - 3/4 cup), washed and chopped finely
50g pinenuts (optional)
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour (or use all normal flour)
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Tbsp honey
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 cup (divided) coarsely grated strong cheese

Method

1. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin and dust with flour. Preheat oven to 200˚C (400˚F).
2. In a frying pan or similar, sauté leek in a little olive oil till becoming tender. Add broccoli (and any other veg you're using) and stir fry a couple of minutes till tender, adding a dash of water if needed to stop it browning. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, oats, baking powder and salt.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together honey, eggs, milk, oil and mustard until well blended. Stir in the vegetables, pinenuts and half a cup of the cheese.
5. Add the egg/vegetable mixture to the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
6. Divide mixture evenly into muffin tins. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
7. Bake 12-15 minutes or more until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool in muffin tins on a wire rack for 5 minutes then transfer onto the rack. Serve warm or let cool. Once cooled can be frozen and later rewarmed in oven or left to defrost at room temperature.

Mixed Vegetable Fritters

I hardly ever cook deep-fried food but that's not because I don't like it. I'm just reluctant to use too much oil, scared of the hot temperatures and fires and everything. But seeing a recipe for fresh vegetable fritters in an otherwise healthy cookbook must have inspired me, and it's true that if you get the oil temperature hot enough the fritters don't absorb lots of oil. I cooked these in my wok and drained them on what I guess is a draining attachment and they were light and crisp and a great treat.

Ingredients

Selection of seasonal vegetables. (The cookbook also proposes another recipe, herb fritters, using parsley, basil, mint and sage instead of veggies, so feel free to try that too alongside veggies or on their own with a class of something cool as an apero).

The recipe uses 1 fennel bulb, 2 fresh artichokes, 2 small courgettes, a handful of cauliflower florets, as well as 

12 large pitted green olives and 

115g / 4 oz drained fresh mozzarella, cut into 2.5cm / 1 in dice. 

(I had no artichokes or mozzarella this time but did have eggplant so used that as well as the other veggies).

Olive oil (or if not, canola oil) for frying

salt, to taste

Lemon wedges or a sauce of your choice (homemade aioli could be a nice treat) 

Leafy herbs to garnish (optional)

Beer Batter

2 eggs, separated

2 Tbsp olive oil

175ml / 6 fl oz beer

115 g / 4 oz flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method

First, start batter preparation: Beat egg yolks, then slowly add the oil, beer, and flour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and set aside for one hour (I only set aside for a short time and it still worked fine. I had used quite a yeasty Belgian beer, not sure if that helped). Right before using, whisk egg whites and fold into batter.

While batter (minus eggwhite) is resting, prepare veggies:

Cut fennel into thin wedges. Cut artichokes into 8 wedges. Cut courgettes in half crosswise then lengthwise again into quarters.

Lightly cook separately in salted boiling water (or steam in rice cooker like I did) the fennel, artichokes, and cauliflower. Cook until just al dente. Drain well on clean dish towels. - Eggplants, which I used also, absorb a lot of water and frying is best when ingredients are drier.

Pour the oil into a large frying pan or wok to a depth of at least 1cm ½ inch (or fill pan ⅓ full if you have enough oil - afterwards the cooled oil can be filtered and stored in a jar for reusing later for more deep frying adventures). Heat oil until hot but not smoking.

Meanwhile, dip a few of the veggies, mozzarella cubes and olives into the batter, letting the excess drain off. Transfer to the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides (turn with long handled tongs or use a strainer). Remove fritters with a slotted spoon or strainer, letting the excess oil drain back into the pan. Transfer to paper towel to drain. I kept mine warm as I continued cooking by placing them on a paper towel lined tray in the oven. I was a bit shocked how much oil was absorbed by paper towels even after initial draining! Just as well deep-fried food is just a 'sometimes' treat for me.

Continue frying the fritters in batches, transferring to paper towels to drain.

Arrange fritters on a clean plate and garnish with lemon wedges and, if desired, fresh leafy herbs.

Moroccan Cooked Carrot Salad

Serves 4 (photo shows only a small amount of what it makes)

This is my attempt* to recreate a nice salad I bought from a Moroccan vendor at the market. He is lovely and makes lots of nice salads but they are sold in plastic containers. I had people over the other day so bought a swag of his salads and have kept the plastic containers to store leftovers in. Photo shows leftovers of the salad I made based on his. It's nice and lemony/vinegary. When I have time, I'll ask if he offers cooking lessons, but for the meantime, here's this one I thought I could do, made with delicious organic carrots from another farmers' market vendor.
*using a mix of a couple of recipes online with a couple of my own variations

INGREDIENTS
8-12 carrots, peeled/well scrubbed and thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves
3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (to taste)
Salt to taste
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin (or, better: 1 tsp. cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground)
1⁄4 tsp. paprika
3 pinches cayenne
2 pinches ground cinnamon
2 to 3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (to taste)
1-2 Tbsp. cider vinegar (to taste)
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley (I used coriander instead and it was nice too)

FOR THE GARNISH (optional)
black olives
2 hard boiled eggs, cut in wedges


PREPARATION
Place the carrots and whole garlic cloves in a steamer above 1 inch of boiling water, cover and steam 5 to 8 minutes, until tender. Remove from the heat, rinse with cold water, and drain on paper towels. I actually used my 'multicooker' with a tiny amount of water and didn't need to drain them.
Mix through with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust salt and lemon juice and vinegar as desired. Transfer to a platter, and decorate with olives and hard-boiled eggs if desired. Serve at room temperature.

Tip
Advance preparation: You can make this several hours before serving. The dish, without the lemon juice/vinegar and parsley, will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator. Reheat gently on top of the stove and add the lemon juice and parsley.

Ye Olde Porridge Cake

November and still pretty warm here (like 20 + degrees!) but some cool foggy mornings beg a nice bowl of porridge. Our toddler won't touch it though so I had leftover porridge today and as I was in a cake-making mood anyhow, wondered 'is there such a thing as a porridge cake?'. Of course there was. So here's the first search result that came up. I reduced the amount of sugar a bit as I just couldn't bring myself to add that much, and our eggs were small so I used an extra one and the texture was still fine - a crunchy caramelised top and a moist crumb inside. - My cake had an odd shape as I used scrunched baking paper (in a hurry) instead of greasing the tin.
I decided just to make the plain cake to start with to get a feel for it and would like to try some variations in the future with coconut etc - perhaps even a healthier version. This one was very nice though, and the toddler was delighted! 

Leftover Porridge Cake

 by  jrdnjlly on BBC GoodFood

Ingredients
1/2 cup Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2 cups Cooked Porridge
1 1/4 cup Flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2-3 tsp Cinnamon
Optional Additions: Shredded Coconut, Chopped Nuts, Diced Apple.

Method
Preheat oven to 180C/fan
Cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and porridge. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (and any other extras e.g. nuts). Add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Pour into greased and floured 6cm x 26cm cake tin. Bake for 35 minutes or until it tests done.

Extra: Top with either cream cheese icing, or a caramel glaze with chopped nuts and coconut, if desired.