Category: Vegan

This could get meze: Hummus and Tabbouleh

I LOVE Middle Eastern food.  One of my favourite cookbooks is Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour and I also love all the Ottolenghi books.  Maha in Melbourne is one of my favourite restaurants – their 12-hour slow cooked lamb is to die for!  I also used to live in an area of Melbourne that is full of middle eastern restaurants and ate at one of them at least once a week. So I was very excited to see that the next chapter in Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery (1972) was for food from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran.  I was even more excited to see that there were recipes for two absolute classics of the region – hummus and tabbouleh.  Both of which were in the Lebanese section. 

Hummus and Tabouleh

Apart from the deliciousness, one of the other reasons I love Middle Eastern food is the amazing names for example,  The Imam Fainted, and The Dervish’s Rosary.  No other culture that I can think of has such poetic names for their food.  My original plan had been to feature both of these recipes however, I recently discovered that I have an allergy to eggplant (aubergine), an ingredient that features heavily in both of these dishes.  

Have you ever wondered if what you see and call “green” is the same as what other people see when they see green?  Yes, it’s the colour of grass and leaves and apples but is the green I see the same as the green you see?

I wonder about things like that all the time.  

I’m super fun at parties…

Well, my experience with eggplant was a little like finding out that what I call green is what everyone else calls pink.  I was talking to a friend of mine about eggplants (as you do) and happened to mention “I like the way they make your mouth go all tingly”.  

My friend was like “No…no it doesn’t….” with this face:

Long story short, it turns out that not everyone’s mouth tingles when they eat eggplant and that tingle is actually an allergic reaction.  Turns out I am mildly allergic to nightshades, particularly eggplant and capsicums. 

So an eggplant heavy menu was off the menu.    So, no great names today,  just some damn nice food.  Starting with…

Hummus


Hummus

Luckily I have no allergy problems with hummus which is wonderful because I eat it by the truckload. And yet, I have never made it before. And I may never make it again.  I’d read that for really smooth hummus you need to peel the chickpeas.  This is not only utterly boring (even using the hacks that abound on the interwebs) but also oddly repulsive.  The chickpea peels kept sticking to my fingers and pulling them off felt weirdly like removing my own skin.  It even looked a bit like it too…

Chickpeas

The hummus was lovely though.  This was a very classic recipe but, you could jazz it up by adding herbs or other flavourings to it.  

Here are twenty or so variations from my Appetizers spreadsheet:

Types of hummus

You say Tabbouleh, I say Tabouli

For the love of Mike can we settle on one spelling and stick to it?  I’ve seen this spelt so many different ways – Tabbouleh, Tabouleh, Tabouli, Tabbouli…..in the end, even Good Housekeeping gave up.  They list this in the index as Mint and Parsley Salad!

Unlike hummus, which I buy pretty much every week, I never buy tabbouleh. Because store-bought tabbouleh is generally disgusting – soggy and bland. 

Homemade?  Delish!  

Tabbouleh

Like the hummus, the tabbouleh recipe in World Cookery is fairly plain.  But this will allow you to jazz it up as you wish.  Next time, I will add a little sumac into the dressing to ramp up the zing factor.  I am also very taken with the Ottolenghi idea of topping tabbouleh with pomegranate arils.  

That variation and a number of others can be found here.

The Recipes

Hummus Recipe

I used tinned chickpeas for my recipe.  I also assumed that when they said sesame oil in the recipe for hummus that they meant tahini (given it is in the recipe title) and not the sesame oil you use in Asian dishes.

Also, I did not garnish with parsley as per the suggestion because I needed all my parsley for the tabbouleh.  I used a sprinkle of paprika. 

Tabbouleh Recipe

 

The tabbouleh recipe suggests that you eat your tabbouleh using lettuce, vine or cabbage leaves as scoops. I prefer pita as the scoop, and if that piece of pita happens to have a smear of hummus on it, so much the better!

Hummus and Tabbouleh

You could add some other delicious Middle Eastern titbits (for inspiration see here) and make up a lovely meze platter with these.  Or, you could do what I did and just have them, along with the pita bread for lunch.

For those who care about such things, this meal is vegan. 

Have a wonderful week!  But before we go, tell me, what is your favourite cuisine?

REPOST from 2016 -Four Kumquat Canapés For Four Food Heroes

I was celebrating this week and these kumquat canapés helped to get the party started!  How pretty are they?

Kumquat Canapes

These lovelies were inspired by a recipe by Gretta Anna Teplitzsky.  Gretta Anna has been called the Julia Child of Australian Cooking.  Through her books and her cooking school she brought French cooking to the Australian masses . She is one of my food heroes and an absolute glamour puss to boot!  I have spoken about her before but as a refresher, her she is in all her glory!

Gretta AnnaI said it before and I will say it again.  That fireplace!  The colour co-ordination of caftan, candlesticks and couch!    Love, love, love.  Gretta Anna is the big sister I never had, the cool older girl at school I always aspired to be but never quite pulled it off.

I was looking for Gretta Anna recipes this week because, as a little present to myself I popped online and bought a copy of her second book, More Gretta Anna Recipes.  And I was buying myself a little present because May is the month of the blogiversary!  Retro Food for Modern Times will turn four later this month.  Can you believe it?   And we will celebrate in style but first, we need to talk about Kumquat Canapés because they are super delicious and a snap to make!

KumquatsKumquats are a small citrus fruit (about the size of a large olive) and incredibly sour which I love! A funny thing about them, is that if you eat them peel and all they actually become sweeter.  It is the season for them here and as I was making my Gretta Anna inspired canapes I started thinking about my other food heroes and got totally carried away.  I ended up making four different kumquat canapés because of the blogiversary and I named them after my food heroes. So without further ado, here they are.

Kumquat Canapé 1 – The Gretta Anna

Gretta Anna’s original recipe called for kumquats, rare roast beef and mint.  She also wanted you to roast the beef.  I just bought some rare roast beef slices from my local deli.  I also had another idea for my mint leaves so I subbed in some rocket (arugula for my American friends).

Kumquat Canapes Roast BeefWhy this works

The rare roast beef has a slightly metallic taste with some saltiness and umami.  The acidity of the kumquat worked really well against this and the rocket gave a note of pepperiness.  A little dob of horseradish would also not go astray here either!

Kumquat Canapé 2 – The Nigella

For the Nigella Kumquat Canapé we are heading to Italy where we are pairing our tangy little friend the kumquat with some spicy chilli salami and a basil leaf.  And to steal a quote from one of my favorite movies ever, Gregory’s Girl (if you have not seen this, stop everything and see it now!) the Nigella is bella, bella (with those last two words being spoken in the broadest Scottish accept you can muster!

Salami Kumquat Canapes3Why The Nigella Works

The sharpness of the kumquat cuts against the fatty unctuousness of the salami, the chilli adds a kick of heat and the basil brings in some herby spiciness.This is a Mambo Italiano in your mouth!  Plus even writing the words fatty unctuousness made me feel like I was channelling the real Nigella.

Kumquat Canapé 3 – The Sabrina

As if I was ever going to make a food hero kumquat canapé and not include Sabrina Ghayour!    I still have 22 recipes to make from Persiana but Sirocco is wending it’s way to me as we speak!  I know I said I wasn’t going to buy it until I was totally done with the Persiana Project but I read on Twitter that if you ordered it pre-release on Amazon UK, you could  get it for a ridiculously low price.  And I’m all about the savings!

I promise I won’t read it, will not even open the package until the Persiana Project is done!

Well, I might open the package just to make sure they have sent me the right book and it is not damaged.  But then I will pack it back up again and put it out of sight until the end of the Persiana Project.

However, if during that purely quality control inspection it happens to fall open at a page….or ten….and my eyes just happen to fleetingly glance over them….then that is just what I like to call serendipity and no, it’s totally not cheating!  Let’s quickly move on to the objêt itself.

Kumquat SabrinaThe Sabrina Canapé takes us to the delicious flavours of the Middle East – hummus, dukkah, coriander and of course our little golden friend subbing in for what would traditionally be a preserved lemon.

Why the Sabrina Works

Is is a little bite of the Middle East.  The creamy earthiness of the hummus is complemented by the zing of the kumquat, the dukkah adds crunch and more spice and the coriander some greeny freshness.  And for them that care about such things the Sabrina is also vegan.

The final kumquat canape was the hardest to name.  It had some Mexican overtones, avocado, tequila, chilli but I was damned if I was going to name it after the writer of Cantina after the terrible problems I had with that book.  So, who else would I  count as a food hero who would suitably represent my canapé?  Jamie Oliver? Margaret Fulton? Charmaine Solomon?  No, no and no came the answers.  And then, taking inspiration from the tequila – which is possibly not always a good rule to live by I hit upon the name for my fourth and final kumquat canapé.

Kumquat Canapé 4 – The Floyd

So obvious!  I’m not sure if Keith Floyd ever made it to Mexico but I’m sure he would have, at the very least liked the idea of my tequila soaked avocados.  A bon vivant, raconteur and also a bit of a boozer, Floyd was one of the first celebrity chefs. Many of his shows are on you Tube and I can thoroughly recommend them  for the sheer force of his personality if not always for the recipes made.  Zebu Penis and Marijuana Stew anyone?

Kumquat Avocado CanapeThankfully, The Floyd contains none of the above but consists of avocado marinated in tequila and  sprinkled with salt with a side of radish, topped with a strip of pickled chilli and a slice of kumquat and garnished with a mint leaf. And again, it’s vegan!

Why The Floyd Works

It’s a bit like a deconstructed guacamole, all the flavours are their with the kumquat subbing in for the lemon or lime and the radish adding some crunch!

These were each delicious and I’m glad I expanded my thinking beyond the original!

Kumquat Canapes

Coming up we are celebrating the blogiversary and not only are we having a party with the letter D but it’s also themed!  I can hardly wait!

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Kumquat Canapes

Some cute and quirky canapes using cute and quirky kumquats

Ingredients

Scale
  • 16 small cracker biscuits
  • 68 kumquats, cut into thin slices (I found you could only get 2-3 slices from each kumquat

For the Gretta Anna

  • 2 slices of rare roast beef, either home made or from your local deli,cut into two pieces
  • 4 rocket leaves
  • 4 little dobs of horseradish (optional)

For The Nigella

  • 2 slices chilli salami, cut into 2 pieces
  • 4 basil leaves
  • For the Sabrina
  • 4 tsp hummus
  • 2 tsp dukkah
  • 4 coriander leaves

For The Floyd

  • 4 chunks of avocado
  • 1 tbsp tequila
  • sea salt
  • 4 strips of pickled chilli
  • 4 mint leaves

Instructions

For the Floyd

  1. Sprinkle the avocado chunks with the tequila and allow to sit for a couple of hours.
  2. Just before serving remove from the tequila and sprinkle with the salt.

For All

  1. Arrange the ingredients on the crackers in a manner that looks appetising.
  2. Top with the kumquat slices.
  3. Enjoy!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 2

Coming up we are celebrating the blogiversary and not only are we having a party with the letter D but it’s also themed!  I can hardly wait!

Meantime, if you were to make a canape for one of your food heroes, who and what would it be?

Have a great week!

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Breakfast Banana Cream

I know I said that we were going to skip the G is for Good Health section in the A-Z of Cooking because I had already made the Cheese and Date Bread. Then I remembered that the banana cream I have been eating for breakfast for weeks came from this same section.   And for those of you who care about such things my favourite version is also vegan because guess what?  The Banana Cream contains no cream. That’s 1970’s health food for you.

Banana Cream2

So pretty.  And it’s delicious too.  And so easy to do.  It takes all of about 30 seconds to make .

But first a little digression.  They…whomsoever they may be…say that you are what you eat.  It might be why health food often gets such a bad rap.  I mean who wants to look like the burghul salad which is the first recipe featured in the G is for Good Health section of the A-Z of Cooking.

Burghul SaladSo back to breakfast and the no-cream banana cream.  This tastes and feels rich and luscious so you can almost feel a bit decadent when eating it.  Banana CreamThe basic recipe for the banana cream is bananas, yogurt, honey, lemon and crushed nuts.  I have played with this for a number of weeks now and my favourite combination is to use coconut yogurt and maple syrup. The one highlight of that time I did Paleo was discovering coconut yogurt.  OMG that stuff is the BEST.  Shame it is so hideously expensive.  At the time I looked into making it and it can be done relatively easily. I’ll add that to the to do list!  And maple syrup is one of my favourite flavours.  Its so good.  But you can use plain yogurt or honey – whatever your favourites are.

I have also eaten the banana cream as a topping for granola and swirled into warm oatmeal //porridge and it is good with both!

I have used walnuts as the nuts in these pictures but almonds are also good.  Sub in whatever you like. Or, if you hate nuts, use a sprinkle of granola for a lovely crunch!

I’m not overly fond of bananas but I have eaten the banana cream a couple of times a week for a few weeks now and there is no sign of it going off high rotation.  I make the serving size below and put half in a container in the fridge for the following day – it keeps quite well overnight.  Quick, versatile, delicious so simple and healthy to boot!  So much nicer than that burghul salad!

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Breakfast Banana Cream

A quick, easy and healthy breakfast dish. Vegan optional.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large banana
  • 125ml coconut or plain Greek Yogurt
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp toasted walnuts or almonds

Instructions

  1. Place the banana, coconut yogurt, maple syrup, lemon juice and half the nuts into a food processor.
  2. Blitz until just combined.
  3. Spoon into serving dishes and sprinkle with the remaining nuts.

I feel that the A-Z of Cooking has given us two very simple recipes in a row.  Next time we head there it should be for the Gourmet section.  I have semi-chosen what I am going to cook and it involves a deep fryer so I am going to have to beg, borrow or steal one sometime soon.  And if gourmet food and deep frying don’t quite go together in your mind, remember it was the ’70s – all sort of things happened that made totally no sense.  Deep fried gourmet food was the least of their worries!

Have a great week!

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Frosted Tomato Cocktail

The frosted tomato cocktail was my pick from the Adventurous Appetizers section of The A-Z of Cooking. 

Frosted Tomato Cocktail
Frosted Tomato Cocktail

But first, each section of The A-Z of Cooking comes with a sentence or two to introduce it vis a vis:

A is for… ADVENTUROUS APPETIZERS: start a dinner party or special family supper with a new and exciting idea.

Booooooring.

How much more fun if they’d done them all in verse:

There was a young girl called Eliza

Who wanted to make appetizers

She tried the tomat-er

As an exciting new starter

And the result did really surprise her.

Yeah, I know that was hardly “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” but the A-Z of Cooking is hardly The Larousse Gastronomique either.

You know what they say, water finds its level.

I nearly chose a recipe called Sweetcorn Scallops but the only thing scallopy about them was that they were served in scalloped shaped dishes or shells, neither of which I own.

I feel they were already drawing a slightly long bow in naming it. If I’d made it in a normal dish you guys would have left wondering if I’d lost my mind…

I can hear it now  “Errmmmm, that’s bacon, honey, not scallops”

Sweetcorn Scallops
Sweetcorn Scallops

Anyhow, I really liked the picture of the Frosted Tomato Cocktail  from The A-Z of Cooking which is why I chose this one to make. I love that glass.   And  just so you don’t think it’s me, they love a long skinny photo in The A-Z of Cooking.

Frosted Tomato Cocktail - Picture
Frosted Tomato Cocktail – Picture

Here is the original recipe:

Frosted Tomato Cocktail - Recipe
Frosted Tomato Cocktail – Recipe

This was really nice.  So refreshing.  It would be a gorgeous starter for a hot day in mid summer when tomatoes are at their very best.  Or even as a palate cleanser between courses.

However, I felt it was missing something.  Because you know what?  As far as I’m concerned if you’re going to call something a cocktail, it better damn well have some booze in it.  Also, you really needed to ramp up the flavourings in the original.  .

My fennelly  take on the Frosted Tomato Cocktail was inspired by this Serious Eats recipe. You could put the fennel salt around the rim of the glass as they suggest or just include it in the mix like I did.  Celery salt would also be great here, in which case, I would garnish with a celery stalk instead of the mint.

I wanted mine to be vegan so I also omitted the Worcestershire and replaced it with tabasco. It may also be the most delicious thing I have ever made that is zero fat.

Frosted Tomato Cocktail 2
Frosted Tomato Cocktail 2

We’ll be sticking with the letter A for the next sortie into The A-Z of Cooking where we will be looking at the world of after school snacks.  And I might try a haiku.

Have a great week!

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Frosted Tomato Cocktail

A lovely refreshing start to a meal with a slight kick of heat!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 kilo tomatoes, skinned and chopped
  • 125 mls tequla
  • 4 tbsp water
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • juice of 1 lime
  • dash of Tabasco Sauce
  • 1 tbsp sea salt, I used Maldon
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds
  • Mint Leaves to garnish
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. Toast the fennel seeds in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Place the salt and toasted fennel seeds in a mortar and grind until they are well combined and the seeds have broken down. Pass through a very fine sieve and set aside.
  2. Place the tomatoes, tequila, lime juice, and sugar into a blender and puree until smooth. Add the fennel salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce to taste.
  3. Pour mixture into large ice cube trays and freeze. Just before serving remove from freezer, take the frozen cubes out of ice tray and place them back in the blender.
  4. Puree until smooth but still frozen.
  5. Spoon into chilled glasses, garnish with mint and serve immediately.

 

Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup with Berbere Pepitas and Pinenuts

If there’s one food Australians love, it is pumpkin.

Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup
Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup

But unlike our American pals who like to eat their pumpkins for dessert, for us it is sadly almost always served savoury as a vegetable.  Just incidentally though, Australia, why don’t we have pumpkin pie?  We get all the trashy American stuff – the Kardashians and ice bucket challenges to name but a few.  Why can’t we get some of the yummy delicious pumpkin pie action too?

According to this, you don;t even have to cook it.  It’s MAGIC…

Pumpkin Dream Pie

Sadly for us, Pumpkin Dream Pie remains just that…

We eat pumpkin as a side for a roast, in lasagné’s risottos, salads and scones.  But more than eating pumpkin,  we love to drink it.

How much do we love to drink it? Pumpkin soup is a, no probably the Australian ubiquitous menu item –  just about every cafe, restaurant, pub bistro and hole in the wall has their own version prominently displayed on the menu – I go to a cafe where it has been the soup du jour for at least five years.

Out of curiosity  I had a little look on taste.com.au for pumpkin soup recipes. There are 79 of them.  Ok, so it’s not the 765 recipes they have for chocolate cake but 79 variations on a theme of pumpkin is still quite a number.  There are recipes for Classic Pumpkin Soup, Creamy Pumpkin Soup, Perfect Pumpkin Soup and Smashing Pumpkin Soup (I guess that’s the soup that despite all it’s rage is still just a rat in a cage).

I did start to notice a trend though -not only do we love our pumpkin soup but we like it to be a bit of a international bright young thing.  There are  recipes for:

Thai, Moroccan, non – specific Asian, Tortellini (Italian), Japanese, Thai again, Thai again again, Curry x 3, South Indian, Australian (whatever that maybe…I didn’t look, possibly flavoured with beer and vegemite), two more Thai’s.  The Americas are represented by one paltry entry for Maine Pumpkin soup.

Africa too is sadly missing from that list.  Ok, yes, Morocco is there but…jeez…(eyeroll), if you must be pedantic, sub-Saharan Africa  is completely missing.  Hopefully not for much longer…because it’s time this delicious Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup adapted from Diana Henry’s Plenty  took the stage!

This is gorgeous to look at, the inclusion of tomato paste and the Berbere spices gives it a real 1970’s burnt orange colour.  It’s really tasty too – slightly sweet from the pumpkin, slightly smoky from the spices, slightly spicy from the chilli and cinnamon and ginger.  If you leave out the yoghurt garnish it is also vegan.

Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup2
Ethiopian Pumpkin Soup 2

And, whilst I don’t want to blow my own trump….actually, no, wait, it’s my blog, I can blow whatever I damn well want! The Berbere pepitas and pinenuts which were my own invention were amazing!  They add some additional spice and salt and crunch.  The only problem with these is that they are so good you will be hard pressed to save any for the soup.  I had to make about three or four batches of them because we kept eating them before they could be used as the soup garnish.  They are seriously good!

Berbere Roasted Pepitas and Pinenuts
Berbere Roasted Pepitas and Pinenuts

The key to this soup is the Berbere spice mix.  I bought mine but you can make your own.  There are about a thousand of these on the interwebs, each of which is slightly different. I have included a recipe for Berbere here

Berbere Spice Mix
Berbere Spice Mix

Either way you’re going to end up with a lot more Berbere than you need to make this one recipe.  Of course you could make the soup more than once and you will surely make the Berbere Pepitas and Pinenuts more than once but if you want to experiment a bit more with this spice blend you can also try these:

Doro Wat  – Ethiopian Red Chicken Stew

Berbere Lamb Chops With Lentil Cucumber Salad

Enjoy and Have a great week!

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