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!

How To Fake French

I am TRYING to learn French, ok? I'm at that understanding more than I can speak stage (read: I can understand a few words here and there and can still barely string two words together). Despite living with Frenchmen, all I seem to have picked up are these 'listening noises' shown in this video. That really is how they roll!
A-puh!
Oh lala!
Oh la la la la!
Achhhhhhhh



By the way, just pretending to be French (doing a French accent when reading) helps me get the right pronunciation and also (a handy thing about English being such a magpie language) half the time I can just 'make up' French words by taking a likely English word and saying it as a French stereotype would.

And here's how to use Oh la la (so versatile!)

Gyoza in Lemongrass Broth

This soup with dumplings (the Japanese 'potsticker' kind, not the stodgy British kind) is just delicious and makes a filling meal. I always thought of 'broth' as something like watery healthful but bland meat stock for the infirm - not so in this recipe! We've been getting asparagus just recently in our organic delivery box (Australia has food in season at strange times, lucky us). If you want to make this when asparagus is not in season, use your imagination and substitute some other yummy veg like something from the broccoli family maybe.

By the way, it's easy (at least here) to grow lemongrass. I have a border of it doing well along the wall below the leaky gutter - perfect as lemongrass likes water which is a scarce resource here.

This recipe comes from a beaut book by Nicola Graimes called New Vegetarian Kitchen: Raw/Broil/Fry/Steam/Simmer/Bake. (Recipe is hers but photo is of my attempt; hers looked good too!)




1. First make the gyoza. Put the aduki beans, sesame oil and half the soy sauce in a bowl and mash lightly with the back of a fork, leaving some of the beans whole. Stir in the ginger, spring onions, garlic, cornflour and cabbage, Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix well.

2. Put 1 heaped tablespoon of the filling in the centre of a gyoza wrapper - you want the parcels to be as full as possible. Brush the edge of the wrapper with water, top with another wrapper and press the edges to seal. Set aside and repeat to make 11 more gyoza.












3. To make the lemongrass broth, put the stock, lemongrass and lime leaves, ginger, vegetarian fish sauce, lime juice and caster sugar in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain the stock into a clean bowl, discarding the solids, and return broth to the saucepan. Add the remaining soy sauce, coconut milk and chilli and cook for another 5 minutes until slightly reduced and thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 70 degrees celsius / 150 fahrenheit and heat a griddle pan (I didn't know what one was so used a frying pan) over medium heat. Toss the asparagus in the sesame and sunflower oils and griddle it (fry) for 5-7 minutes, turning occasionally, until tender and charred in places. Transfer to an ovenproof plate and keep warm in the oven.

5. I fried the gyoza with just a little oil in a non-stick frying pan but the recipe suggests deep frying: To deep fry the gyoza, heat the remaining sunflower oil in a deep saucepan to 180 C / 350 F, or until a cube of bread turns golden in 40 seconds. Fry the gyoza, 3 at a time, for 2 minutes, turning once, until golden and puffed up. Remove, using a slotted spoon, and drain on kitchen paper. Transfer to an ovenproof plate and keep warm in the oven while you cook the remaining gyoza.

6. To serve, heat the lemongrass broth, if necessary, then ladle it into four large, shallow bowls. Sprinkle with coriander and put three gyoza in the centre of each bowl, slightly overlapping them. Arrange the asparagus on top and serve immediately.