Archive for December, 2006If you need a centrepiece vegetarian dish for Christmas or another big occasion, this might be the one for you. We cooked this for an early family Christmas last weekend and it had the desired effect. I used to cook this dish years ago when I was living in college but this was the first time in some time that I had made it. Still as impressive and as delicious as ever.
Step 1: Start with a whole pumpkin. Pick a good-looking pumpkin which preferably has some symmetry and dignity about it.
Step 2: Take a good sharp knife and cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin to create a lid. Use whatever kitchen implements you can lay your hands on to scrape all of the seeds out of the pumpkin.
Step 3: In a mixing bowl, combine finely chopped ingredients to make up the stuffing. You can use your imagination, or you can use a combination of ingredients like the following: 5 slices of crumbed bread, a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds, 4-5 chopped shallots, 5 large mushrooms, a stick or two of celery, 3-4 teaspoons of fresh rosemary and dill, a cup of grated cheese, all bound together with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. You could also use cooked brown rice instead of breadcrumbs and other fresh herbs such as parsley.
Step 4: Stuff the stuffing into the pumpkin. In fact, you can pack it in.
Step 5: Take the lid and pop it back on the pumpkin. If it is loose you can wrap the lid in aluminium foil.
Step 6: Take the pumpkin, pop it in a baking tray and put it in the oven at around 180 degrees Celsius (medium heat). You need to bake the pumpkin for a surprisingly long time - it can take 2 hours or possibly longer for the heat to make it right through to cook the pumpkin. A lot happens in the last 30 minutes. Best thing to do is to leave it for at least an hour and a half and then poke the inside with a sharp implement to see if it is done.
Step 7: Serve the pumpkin with a flourish and carve and serve it at the table. Delicious!
Happy Christmas to everyone and a big thank you and well done to Kate for a fantastic first year of veggiefriendly. Andrew This is a delicious, elegant and (most importantly) simple dessert that I recently made for a dinner party. Andy was making his signature egg drop Indian curry, so I searched high and low to find an Indian or Asian themed dessert that would work with the strong curry flavours.
When I saw this recipe for coconut and kaffir lime panna cotta in Rose Elliot’s gorgeous Veggie Chic I knew that I was onto a winner. Coconut and kaffir lime panna cotta Ingredients 400g of organic coconut milk Syrup 1 lemon grass stalk, crushed Method Put the coconut milk and cream in to a saucepan with the lime leaves and lime rind. Bring to the boil, then cover, remove from the heat, and set aside until cold. Remove the lime leaves. Stir in the sugar, then sprinkle the gelatine or agar-agar over the top. Stir constantly to prevent lumps. Heat gently, until the mixture just reaches boiling point, them remove from the heat. Pour the mixture into 4 x 125ml ramekins (I used slightly bigger ones - not an awesome idea). Leave to set, but don’t refrigerate. To make the syrup, put the lemon grass, lime juice and rind and the sugar into a saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and set aside until required. Remove the lemon grass before serving. Turn the panna cotta out on to individual serving plates and drizzle with a little syrup. Decorate with the slice of lime and kaffir lime leaves. How I actually did it I largely stuck to Rose’s recipe for this dish. However, rather than decorate the panna cotta with lime and kaffir lime leaves, I used pomegranate seeds and juice. Another lovely option is fresh fig slices. I also kept the panna cotta in the ramekins rather than turn them out on the plate. Served this way the syrup turned out to be a bit much because it formed a reservoir on top of the pudding. If you do serve them in the ramekin I’d suggest holding back on the syrup.
V Rating: VV PEN is surreptitiously located at the corner of two biggish roads in Pyrmont in a converted wool shed. The exterior looks like your run of the mill, humble local cafe serving the office crowd. It’s always intrigued me because the name reminds me of a writer’s activist group - but until recently I’d never ventured in.
Once inside, you realise that it has a tardis like design. The narrow frontage belies the large, single room that makes up the cafe. The interior is very striking, with vivacious red walls, exposed dark wood roof beams, and a large, polished wooden table running down the centre of the room, adding an inner West cum country kitchen feel. The menu, while full of fresh market ingredients, is not abundant with vegetarian options. There are two vegetarian salads, including a salad stack, a vegetarian sandwich, and a vegetarian pasta sauce than comes with a choice of four pastas. There were no vegetarian specials the day I visited, and my first choice of salad was out of stock, even though it was slightly before 12.30 when I ordered. So, while I usually avoid ordering dishes that sound tokenistic, I went the salad stack. My first impression wasn’t great. The stack didn’t come with all the ingredients listed on the menu. Also, when I asked for the optional cheddar cheese I assumed it would be delicately scattered around the plate, not stuck in a chunk at the top of the stack. These things aside, this was one of the better stacks I’ve tried. The nicest part was that it utilised a lot of fresh ingredients, like grated carrot, avocado, alfalfa beetroot and lettuce, rather than being made up of oily grilled vegetables. The dressing was a light, lemon vinegarette, which brought the fresh ingredients to life by adding some zing. I wouldn’t rate PEN as my favourite lunchspot in Pyrmont. However, it stacks up (boom tish) well against its other cafe counterparts.
V Rating: Super V I’ve been promising to review Maya Masala for Maya Masala is on the eastern end of Cleveland street, surrounded by trendy retro shops and other Indian and Lebanese restaurants. It can be easy to miss, so look for the bright green neon Maya Sweets sign in an otherwise nondescript glass window. Although, I like eating in cafeteria style surrounds while Bollywood movies play happily in the background, it’s fair to say that no-one goes to Maya Masala for the genteel atmosphere. No, my friend, you go there for the food.
The Maya menu is much more traditional than your average Indian restaurant. Rather than a long list of curries, you choose from thalis, dosai, chaat, or tandoor dishes. It also takes a matter-of-fact approach to vegetarianism in that they don’t heavily promote the fact the restaurant or dishes are all vegetarian, they just take it for granted that patrons will assume as much. A good choice at Maya is one of three types of thali tasting plates. I order it every time (I mean, why have one dish when you can try ten?) The downside to the thali is that I inevitably eat more than physiology suggests is possible. Something about serving food in little plates of goodness always leads me to think I’m not eating that much. Ahhh, the happiness of a fool.
This time around we got the punjabi and South Indian thalis. Mine (the South Indian version) came with a spinach curry, an okra curry, a vegetable curry, rasam, raita, rice, a pickle, 2 pieces of puri, a pappadum, kuchumber salad and a little rice dessert. My favourite dishes were the soft textured spinach curry and creamy, slightly sweet rasam. Maya Masala also offers 19 varieties of dosa - huge Indian crepes with a variety of fillings. These look amazing (one first-timer saw her dosa being set down at the table and almost fell off her chair), although can be a little slow to arrive if you turn up first thing in the morning. If by some miracle you aren’t full by the end of the meal, it’s worth taking advantage of (or at least gazing in wonder at) Maya Masala’s undisputed speciality: sweets.
The Maya sweets fill two glass counters at the front of the store. The sweets are traditional desserts generally made from milk or cheese (Maya claims they are made by an experienced Indian Halwais or sweet makers). They come in a myriad of shapes and colours and often have a thick, soft, doughy texture that may be sweetened by being doused in a syrup. Some favourites include gulab jamun, rasmalai and burfees. It’s probably the case that you will find better Indian food in Sydney (although the dosai are hard to beat). But for the sheer pleasure of being able to eat traditional, all vegetarian Indian meals for less than $10, Maya Masala is an unassailable Super V choice. If I’d been more organised, rice paper rolls would have been my entry in the inaugural morsels and musings festive food fair. But, you know, the demands of being festive and all that.
Rice paper rolls make a great Christmas time meal for vegetarians. For one, they’re light and refreshing, so are perfect for a hot day or as a vegetarian alternative to a fresh seafood banquet. The other advantage is that they don’t take long to prepare. Even better, I often leave the fillings on the table and let guests make their own rolls. This looks very colourful and festive, is a lot of fun, and also works as a great compromise meal because you can still have seafood or meat options ensuring everyone’s special needs are catered for. This can get a bit messy and takes some space, so you might find this works better as a boxing day lunch. The other great thing about rice paper rolls is that you can tailor the fillings to suit your tastes. The ingredients below are the standard items I’d use - don’t feel you have to use all of them! If you do want some non-veggie options, prawn, shrimp or fish would also work. Rice paper rolls Ingredients Rice paper sheets Dipping sauces Soy sauce Method Fill a large saucepan with boiled water. Dip the rice paper sheets into the saucepan. Make sure all the rice paper is submerged and softened, then remove it. Flatten out the rice paper sheet onto a plate. The quicker you get it on to your plate the better because the rice paper immediately starts to stick together. About a third of the way along your rice paper, add ingredients of your choice in a thin line. Do not be greedy. Two much stuffing makes it hard to roll. A good mix is vermicelli noodles, satay sauce, tofu, carrot, avocado, lettuce and mint. Starting at the side closest to the stuffing, gently fold the rice paper over the filling and keep rolling so that the filling is covered.
When you’re about halfway done, carefully fold the sides in front of the roll, then finish rolling.
At this point, your roll should look like this:
Keen-eyed readers might notice that the ingredients in the photo don’t entirely correspond to the list in the recipe. I blame this man. There was no way I could go out and buy fresh veggies while Mr Cricket was at the crease. This is a belated entry in the Morsels and Musings Festive Food Fair. The lovely Anna has invited bloggers around the world to share the food they use to celebrate their respective end of the year holiday in a global food event. Cheers to that! I don’t have any special Christmas traditions to share, but I thought that I would post some ideas for people who need to cater for vegetarians at Christmas. Both of the recipes below are from ‘Vegie Food’ by Murdoch Books. In my family, Christmas lunch can be anything from a formal affair with a hot English roast lunch, to a relaxed BBQ in the backyard (or on the verandah overlooking the sea). I think both of these approaches lend themselves to vegetarian food. However, one of the most important things is to find out what kind of vegetarian you’re having around for lunch. Check whether they eat seafood (most vegetarians don’t), and whether they eat dairy food and eggs (vegans don’t). If someone is vegetarian for religious reasons, there may be other types of food, or food combinations, that they don’t eat. Whether you’re traditional roast lunch, or relaxed BBQ, make sure to include plenty of vegetable side dishes or salads. Here’s a recipe for a lovely side dish that is quick and easy to make just before you want to serve it. The nice thing about this dish is that it works with a cold or hot lunch, because the lemon and mint add a fresh, zesty taste, but the hot zucchini and feta cheese give the dish a bit more formality than a cold salad.
Zucchini with mint and feta 6 zucchinis Method Cut the zucchinis in half and then cut into long strips. Fry the zucchini strips in olive oil for a few minutes, until they turn a golden brown. Crumble the feta into the zucchini strips. Mix the juice of the lemon, a tbsp of olive oil, the garlic and 1/2 tsp of lemon zest. Pour the dressing over the zucchini. Scatter the mint and parsley over the zucchini and toss. Add pepper and salt to taste. Serve hot. Personally, my Christmas is not complete without cauliflower cheese. If you’re having a vegan for lunch, make roast vegetables, a green bean dish, chilli and coconut carrots, or braised red cabbage. If you’re feeling guilty about your vegetarian guest picking at side dishes while the other guests chow down on roast lamb or turkey, a more substantial vegetarian option is a stuffed vegetable dish. Eggplants and capsicum are the best, as they bake well and have a substantial, strong flesh that hold their structure. A delicious stuffed eggplant recipe is imam biyildi. It’s also known as ’swooning imam’, because legend has it that it was first made for an imam and caused him to soon with delight. This would be my first choice, because the dish is good for vegans, doesn’t take that long to make and has a lovely rich flavour. Another option for vegetarians is eggplant moussaka. It involves a bit of preparation but is a tasty and filling option that will leave any vegetarian feeling well catered for.
Eggplant moussaka Ingredients Method Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut the eggplants in half lengthways. Spoon out the flesh leaving a 1.5 cm border (this feels wasteful to me - another reason why I like the imam biyildi recipe). Lightly spray a baking tray with olive oil, then place the eggplants on the tray cut side up. Prop them up with aluminium foil so that they are sitting flat (important when you come to stuff them). Heat the oil in a frying pan. Cook the onion and garlic for about three minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano and white wine or verjuice (I used verjuice which gave the sauce a slightly sweeter flavour). Bring to the boil and cook for three minutes, or until the liquid is reduced and the tomatoes are soft. Stir in the cannellini beans and parsley. To make the white sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan. Gradually add the flour, stirring constantly so no lumps form. Gradually add the milk and nutmeg, again stirring constantly. Pour one third of the white sauce into the tomato mixture and stir well. Spoon the tomato mixture into the eggplant cases. It should almost fill the eggplant. Spoon the remaining white sauce on top of the tomato mixture, then cover with grated cheese. Bake for 50 minutes and serve hot. Merry holiday season! |
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