Category: MAINS

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CREAMY BROCCOLI AND KALE SOUP

I love brassicas and always look for new and innovative ways to feature them front and centre as opposed to relegating them to a mere side dish. My creamy broccoli and kale soup is wholesome enough to be served on its own for lunch. This soup is vegan and the creaminess comes from the haricot / cannellini beans. The preserved lemon adds a refreshing, lemony flavour.

Creamy broccoli and kale soup

INGREDIENTS

500g broccoli (1 medium sized head), cut into small florets, stem and all

100g kale, remove the rib and cut

150g onion, chopped

100g boiled potato, diced

6 plump garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 green chilli, sliced

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons tahini

750ml vegetable stock

1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans

½ a preserved lemon (discard seeds and chop)

Salt to taste

For garnishing:

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

METHOD

Heat the olive oil in a largish saucepan. Throw in the crushed garlic and green chilli. Fry for a minute and add the onions. Continue frying for three minutes. Add the potato and the tin of beans along with the liquid. Pour the stock in along with 500ml water and let it come up to the boil. Mix in the preserved lemon, tahini and kale. Cook for 3 minutes.

Toss in the broccoli. Once the soup comes up to the boil, cook for a further 3 minutes. Season with salt. Blitz the soup using an immersion or stick blender.

Spoon the serve into four bowls (if serving as a main or six bowls as starter). Drizzle a few drops of the sesame oil and sprinkle sesame seeds.

Serves 4-6

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PISTACHIO CHICKEN KORMA

When I was growing up in India, most of the dried fruit and nuts used to come from Afghanistan or Pakistan. They were mobile vendors on bicycles, who would do door to door selling. They were referred to as Kabuliwala, meaning a person from Kabul.

I am writing about this, because this korma dish uses pistachios. They are referred to as pista for short and generally reserved for ice-creams and halwas but pistachios along with cardamom add an interesting flavour to this chicken dish.

Pistachio Chicken

INGREDIENTS

1 kilo of boneless, skinless chicken thighs

100g shelled pistachio nuts, unsalted

6 green chillies

2 onions (100g each approximately)

3 centimetre piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

6 plump garlic cloves

¾ teaspoon garam masala powder

2 bay leaves

¾ teaspoon ground white pepper

1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds

12 cardamom pods

3 tablespoons chopped coriander stems, leaves and roots

1 teaspoon tamarind puree

200ml chicken stock

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt to taste

METHOD

Cut the chicken thighs into half or a third depending on the size. Set aside.

Place pistachios in a microwave safe bowl that is fairly large. Pour enough water to submerge the nuts from a freshly boiled kettle. Let soak for a couple of minutes and then microwave on high for three minutes. Let cool. Once cool, rub the nuts with your fingers and remove the skin. Set aside.

Quarter one of the onions and finely dice the other onion. Place the onion quarters in a microwave safe bowl and pour enough water to drown the onions from a freshly boiled kettle. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Discard the cooking water by fishing out the onions.

Put the pistachio nuts, the onion quarters, ginger, garlic, 4 of the green chillies, coriander leaves in a food processor along with 50mls water and process to a fine paste.

In a large sauté pan, heat the oil and fry the onions on medium high for five minutes until lightly coloured. Add the garam masala, white pepper, bay leaves and fennel seeds and fry another minute. Mix in the spice paste and stir continuously for a further two minutes.

Add the chicken and sauté for five minutes. Add the tamarind puree, remaining chillies, chicken stock and salt. Cook for another 15 -20 minutes until done.

Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and using a rolling pin or mortar and pestle powder the seeds. Just before serving, sprinkle the freshly ground cardamom powder. Serves 4-6.

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KHAMAN – a GUJARATI SPECIALITY

I consider myself lucky to have experienced authentic Gujarati cuisine when I was in the hostel studying for my post graduate degree in Mumbai. People not familiar with Gujarati cuisine use the term khaman dhokla without realizing that there is no such dish. There is dhokla which is made using rice flour and khaman is made using chick pea flour or besan.

Khaman

My mother used to make khaman by using a few tablespoons of idli batter as leavening agent. I used the same technique. Also I used a sponge cake tin (20 centimeter diameter) as a vessel for the batter and steamed in my Dutch oven.

INGREDIENTS

1 and a ½ cups of chick pea flour or besan

4 tablespoons idli batter

5 centimetre piece of ginger

3-4 green chillies

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HOT & SOUR GOAN FISH CURRY

I make this spicy fish curry with monk fish but any firm white fish fillets would work. I can’t claim credit for this curry – I have adapted from Atul Kochhar’s “Simple Indian” cook book.

The curry goes well with plain steamed rice and a refreshing salad with cucumber, radish and carrots.

Hot & Sour Goan Fish Curry

INGREDIENTS

600g monk fish, cut into 5 cm cubes

30g tamarind pulp (read note below)

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

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ROAST TOFU WITH KALE & SPRING ONIONS

I could just about write a recipe book just on 100 ways with tofu as I am confident I can convert any tofu hater to a tofu convert!!

In some of my previous blogs, I wrote about my desire to render the same cooking method to vegetarian / vegan dishes as conventionally reserved for meat based dishes. This dish evolved as I was making a chicken version for the family and this vegetarian option for myself. My son actually preferred this tofu version so here is the recipe.

Roast tofu with kale and spring onions

If you don’t have firm tofu, press tofu amidst several layers of paper towel for 15-20 minutes. You do have to marinate the tofu for six hours and the roasting takes 45 minutes so it’s not exactly something you can whip up on short notice. Serve with steamed rice and a salad.

INGREDIENTS

300g firm tofu

100g kale, finely chopped

3 spring onions, chopped 1 cm pieces

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CREAMY LEEK & FENNEL SOUP

I have mentioned in some of my previous posts that I like to incorporate some protein element to my dishes to keep them nutritionally balanced. The logic is that if this is the only thing you are going to eat for that meal, you will feel satisfied and fuller for longer because of the fibre, protein and low glycaemic index of vegetables. Fennel is a versatile vegetable and you should try if you haven’t tried it before. You can roast it with beetroot for a roast salad or finely slice for a crisp coleslaw or is great in soup. Fennel also goes well with tomato and any white beans – you can make a soup out of tomato, fennel and cannellini beans.

Creamy leek and fennel soup

My recipe uses your pantry staple lentils, leek and fennel. The trick to washing leeks well is to cut them in half longitudinal and wash the layers with running water. Fennel the vegetable is mild but it lets you know that it has been used. It is not in your face flavour but in the same token it is creamy when cooked and does take on more flavours. Do give this soup a try because every time I make it, the bowls are licked clean and it is a no fuss recipe with few ingredients!

INGREDIENTS

1 leek, sliced thinly into half moons

1 large fennel or 2 medium sized (about 750g), chopped

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POORIS WITH POTATOES

In India, pooris are often eaten for breakfast along with a potato preparation. What’s not to love about a poori that is beautifully puffed and deliciously light even though it has been fried in oil? My mother reminisces the time when she prepared the dough wanting to make rotis for lunch and had gone shopping. I must have been just about 10 years and I don’t remember it but I used that dough to make pooris for everyone instead of rotis! Such is the love for pooris in India, however these days it has become a very occasional treat.

For all my Indian breads I use atta that one can buy in the Indian store – it is not the same as wholemeal flour but personally feel atta is milled fine.

Frying pooris

INGREDIENTS FOR POORIS

400g atta

¾ to 1 cup warm water (40 degrees Celsius)

Pinch of salt

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PIZZA DOUGH FROM SCRATCH & PIZZA BIANCA

Pizza needs no introduction. From humble beginnings as peasant food in 17th century Naples, it is now one of the most popular and well known foods today. Store bought vegetarian pizzas are meh, so I love making my own pizzas from scratch and injecting tons of flavour at the same time not making the crust soggy.

I love this pizza dough recipe because you can freeze it or refrigerate overnight. You do need a stand mixer otherwise you need to manually knead the dough for over ten minutes. Normally I find kneading therapeutic so don’t use stand mixer for doughs that require shorter knead times! For the dough, best to use bread flour or 00 flour or any flour with a higher gluten content.

It is best to weigh out the water to be precise. Approximately one and a half cups of water makes up to the 350 grams of water needed for the dough.

In Italy, pizza bianca means “white pizza”, which is a pizza drizzled with olive oil and salt and of course no tomato sauce. Sometimes topped with Mozzarella or Parmesan Cheese. We love to top our white Pizza’s with wafer thin slices of potato and herbs.

Pizza bianca

INGREDIENTS FOR THE PIZZA DOUGH

548g high grade flour

1 tablespoon sugar

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PASTA WITH CAVALO NERO & CHICK PEA SAUCE

Cavalo nero has several other names. Lacinato kale in Italian, or black cabbage, Tuscan kale, Italian kale or dinosaur kale. Whatever the name, it is rich in iron, Vitamin K, A and C and like its other cousins, has more calcium than milk.

Cavalo nero

The sauce is fairly simple and quick to make, using only a few ingredients. I used parsley pesto but basil pesto should work. Also the cavalo nero is cooked well for 20 or so minutes, as recommended by Italian chefs. You can use casarecce or strozzapretti shaped pasta.

Pasta with cavalo nero and chick pea sauce

INGREDIENTS

60g butter

3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

½ to 1 teaspoon chilli flakes

1 tablespoon parsley pesto

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TOFU KATSU CURRY

Japanese curry is served in three forms – curry rice (simply referred to as curry), curry udon (noodles) and curry bread. You guessed it, curry was introduced from India by the British and is extremely popular in Japanese cuisine.

Katsu is simply a cutlet, crumbed and deep fried and put in a curry sauce. Mine is a vegan version and I shallow fried the tofu. I know, I wax lyrical about tofu because it is so versatile and a great bearer of flavours. So do try this curry as it is very different to Indian curries.

I served mine with medium grain rice which is naturally sticky. After cooking, I mixed through cut spring onions and poured a few drops of sesame oil on each serve.

Tofu Katsu Curry

INGREDIENTS

5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

100g onion, chopped

2 teaspoon dark brown sugar

200g carrots, peeled and chopped

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