One of the reasons I love winter is because you can make a hearty soup that warms the body and soul. You kind of feel good tucking into a bowl of wholesome soup because you know it is very nourishing. I love to experiment not only with different flavour combinations but also incorporate beans or lentils or grains for the protein.
When I was growing up I hated cooked carrots, felt that they have a smell and it is more pronounced on cooking. Luckily I got over that and carrots cooked or raw are absolutely delicious. The soup is a bit different in the sense that I cooked the lentils separately.
A piece of trivia for you – I always thought chick peas were native to the Indian subcontinent but now know that they were grown in Turkey about 8000 BC!!
Tagine or Tajine is a North African Maghreb dish which is named after the earthenware pot in which it is cooked. Algerian and Moroccan tagine dishes are slow-cooked savory stews, typically made with sliced meat, poultry or fish together with vegetables or fruit. Spices, nuts, and dried fruits are also used. Common spices include ginger, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, and saffron. Paprika and chili are used in vegetable tajines.
My version is a vegan one (omit the feta cheese as topping) and it is a one pot dish cooked over a couple of hours in the oven. Unfortunately, you can’t put the oven on timer and wander off as you need to stir once in a while and add the herbs in between! It is very flavourful and the prunes breakdown giving a bit of sauce and also makes the stew rich and gooey.
Chick pea tagine style
INGREDIENTS
400g dried chick peas, rinsed and soaked in lightly salted water overnight
This is my take on the Vietnamese classic Cha Ca La Vong. Cha Ca means grilled fish and “La Vong” was inspired by a local statue of Jiang Ziya, also known as Lu Wang (pronounced as La Vong in Vietnamese), the fisherman-turned-politician who symbolized the potential for patient, talented people.
I just love the combination of ingredients – fish that is flavoured with turmeric, lemon grass, tamarind and fish sauce and served with soft cold noodles, fresh and vibrant herbs and some crunchy peanuts. I used our local New Zealand fish warehou but any white fleshed firm fish like blue cod would work well.
Vietnamese Style Fried Fish with turmeric & herbs
INGREDIENTS
750 – 800g of firm white fish like monk or warehou or ling fillets
1 heaped teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons crushed lemon grass (I used ground frozen lemon grass)
A Canadian colleague of mine gave me this recipe a few years back. I have modified it (reduced butter, sugar and made it gluten free) and managed to retain the taste integrity. When the kids were younger and had to take something for a bake sale or whatever, I used to make these brownies and they were a big hit. They are good enough to be served up slightly warm for dessert with a scoop of ice cream and a bit of chocolate sauce.
INGREDIENTS
200g butter
½ cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown cane sugar
¾ cup cocoa
3 eggs
½ cup oats, powdered
¼ cup ground linseed (flaxseed)
1/3 cup ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing sugar for dusting
METHOD
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Butter a 23cm x 33 cm (9 x 13 inch) baking pan.
Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add sugar and cocoa, stirring constantly. The mixture should look glossy. Remove from heat but keep stirring to cool slightly. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating before adding the next one in.
In a separate bowl, combine the oat powder, ground almonds and linseed (flaxseed) and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture in the saucepan. Stir in vanilla.
Pour mixture into the prepared tray. Bake for 30 minutes or 35 minutes or until the crust is firm and resistant to pressure. Check about every minute after 30 minutes as brownies easily overbake.
Remove from oven and let cool completely in the tray. Once cool dust with icing sugar and cut into squares.
Aash or Aush is a staple in Persian cuisine. Generally made with two unique ingredients reshteh a type of thin noodle and kashk which is a whey like fermented product. There are about 50 types of this soup and generally made during autumn and winter. My recipe has been adapted from Sabrina Ghayour’s book “Bazaar”. Please do try as it is wholesome and super delicious. Prepping the herbs takes a long time!
I buy a big bunch of bananas every week – some weeks everyone wants to use it for a breakfast smoothie and some weeks they just get riper and riper. What do you do with over ripe bananas – I make tofu puddings (great as a start to the day or end the night on a slightly sweet note) or this banana cake with over ripe bananas. This is a bit different in the sense that I have used a combination of stone ground wholemeal flour and buckwheat flour. Cocoa and LSA (linseed, sunflower and almond powder) added to the richness. If you don’t have LSA, use just linseed powder. Do try this recipe and let me know how you go.
Banana Chocolate Cake
INGREDIENTS
150g soft butter
1 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons dark brown cane sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 over ripe bananas, mashed
½ cup plain yoghurt, whisked
¾ cup wholemeal flour
¾ cup buckwheat flour
½ cup LSA
¼ cup good quality cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
METHOD
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Butter a 23cm round spring form cake tin.
Cream the butter and sugar, and beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.
Combine the flours and the baking powder plus soda. Sift and mix in with the dark brown cane sugar, LSA and cocoa.
Fold the flours into the egg mixture, a third at a time, alternating with the mashed bananas and the yoghurt.
Bake in the oven for 45 -50 minutes. You know that the cake is done when a knife pierced in comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to rest in pan for 15-20 minutes before turning it upside down onto serving platter.
You can jazz this up by icing with chocolate or keep it plain by dusting with icing sugar. You can serve with whipped mascarpone or crème fraiche or unsweetened natural Greek yoghurt.
I was inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s cauliflower cake recipe and wanted to create my own gluten free version. It is in between a cake and a bread and because of its savoury nature I called mine a bread but the jury is out! What do you think – is it a cake or a bread?
It is a lovely dish to take to a potluck meal or if you are having a large group for a barbecue. There is a long list of ingredients, but let it not put you off because it comes together easily.
Cauliflower corn bread with pickled daikon and tomato chilli jam
INGREDIENTS
1 large cauliflower, weighing about a kilo, stalks removed
The word “shorba” is of Persian origin and almost a dozen variations of the word exist. It is traditionally prepared by simmering meat or vegetables in boiling water along with salt and flavored with aromatic curry spices and herbs.
Carrot shorba
My recipe is an oldie but a goodie from the Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor who has been the celebrity chef on one of the longest running food shows of its kind Khana Khazana. (In fact the show has been running since 2010 and has over 500 million viewers.) I remember watching this show on my visits to India. I have simplified the recipe so it is easier and you don’t have so many dishes to wash up!
This is a great soup to serve as a starter for a dinner party and I assure you will have your guests wanting more and the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
500g carrots, peeled and cut into 2 centimetre chunks
A few weeks back Eva Longoria posted her take on Bobby Flay’s recipe of Eggplant Milanese. I had to put my own signature on the dish and the result is spectacular even though I say so myself. There is textural as well as taste contrast and I would make it again in a heartbeat. Milanese style is a fancier way of saying crumbed!
My tip choose even shaped eggplants – shouldn’t be too narrow around the neck and bulbous at the bottom. You can cut eggplants lengthwise but I prefer the rounds.
Eggplant Milanese
INGREDIENTS
2 large eggplants, cut into ½ to 1 cm thick rounds
This cake is from Marie Pierre Moine’s “Recipes for a Perfect Sunday Lunch”. My copy is almost 30 years old and I still refer to it because it has some treasures like this one! It is based on the pound cake principle so the sugar, flour, butter, and eggs are an equal measure of 115g each! Flavoured with orange juice and Cointreau, this is an easy and beautiful sponge to whip up for a special afternoon tea. It is quick, so do try – you will love it.
Orange cake
This is a smallish cake and best eaten on the day it is baked. It does not keep very well.
INGREDIENTS
115g caster sugar
115g soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
2 large eggs
115g self-rising flour
2 tablespoons orange juice and 2 teaspoons grated zest from the orange
