Mac and Bean Florentine

Stolen from : Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Serves 4

• 4.5L slow cooker
• 250g macaroni
• 300g cooked spinach
• 1 onion, chopped
• 100g raw unsalted cashews
• 300g cooked white beans or 1 tin of same (I used Cannellini)
• 1 tblspoon miso (optional)
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• pinch ground nutmeg
• salt
• water

1. Cook the macaroni to al dente
2. Cook the onions (I boil mine, you can fry if you like)
3. Grind cashews, add 200ml water and make a paste so it doesn't lump later
4. Put everything in the slow cooker, give it a right good stir
5. Cook on low for 3+ hours

I wasn't expecting much once I'd mixed it all together but the flavours come alive in the cooking. While eating it, I wanted a side salad, that would have been perfect. Only 3 stars because it didn't wow but might have done with bread, balsamic & salad.
Surprisingly unfilling

Broccoli Flan

1 Piecrust
1 Bechamel Sauce
700g broccoli florrets.
Pine nuts / almonds / something that goes with broccoli for the top.

Cook the broccoli, mix with the sauce, put in the piecrust.
Put something on top to make it look nice & give it some crunch.
Gas Mark 6 for 20 mins or until you're happy.

Piecrust

Enough for 20cm / 8" pie / flan / quiche tin.

100g wholemeal flour
pinch salt
50g vegan marge
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons water

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Put the bran back in.
Add the salt & marge, give it a good mix so that the marge isn't lumps.
Mix olive oil & water, add to the bowl.
Make it into a dough.
Chill it for 30 mins in the fridge.
Roll it out, line your greased dish/tin/whatever
Bake for ~20 mins at Gas Mark 6 until it's ready, you know what ready pastry looks like !
If you're feeling professional, you can remove them from the tin/dish ready for filling, or just leave them in to save your embarrassment/annoyance when it breaks to bits trying to get it out.

White Sauce

2 tablespoons nice oil (soya, walnut, sesame etc.)
25g sauce flour or just plain flour
300ml soya milk
salt & pepper
bit o'nutmeg

Warm the oil, add the flour, give it stir & take the lumps out but don't let the flour brown.
Add third of the milk, stir until it thickens, repeat until you have no milk.
Making it thinner is easier than making it thicker because of lumps.
Gently heat it for 10 minutes to cook the flour.

Garden Vegetable Borscht

Stolen from : How It All Vegan
Borscht

1 small red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed (of course!)
2 large carrots, chopped
2-4 medium beetroot, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
115g cabbage, chopped
50g spinach, chopped
5-8 fresh toms diced + 4 tablespoons water (or 2 x 400g tins if you must)
600ml veg stock
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon horseradish sauce

In a large pan sauté the onion, garlic, carrot & beetroot in oil on a medium heat until the onions are clear. Add the cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, stock, pepper and horseradish.

Simmer on medium heat for 20-30mins until the carrots and beetroot are cooked.

Makes 4-6 (or 3 if you are Poppy & I)

Tomato Bhath

stolen from : Cereals and Pulses p. 25

serves 8 (though it says 4!)

500g rice
1kg tomatoes
115g onions (otherwise known as 2) - chopped
4 flakes garlic (2 cloves)
5g ginger
4 peppercorns
3 cloves
1 litre water

(you could use a 500ml carton of passata & 500ml water instead of fresh toms)

1) add half water to toms, boil up, remove skins - puree
2) add ground ginger & garlic
3) fry onions till browned
4) add peppercorns & cloves - fry till they crack
5) add dry rice and fry
6) add tom juice & remaining water & cook the rice

dats it amigo

Quick Potato Curry

Stolen from Tarala Dalal's "Potatoes" p. 60

10-12 baby potatoes, boiled
2 sticks cinnamon
2 cloves
2 cardamoms
4 tbps fresh cream (optional)

Grind to paste :
3/4 cup chopped toms (i.e. 1 large)
1/2 cup chopped onions (i.e. 1 medium)
1" piece ginger, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp chilli powder

Crush the cinnamon, cloves & cardamom then fry it.
Add the paste fry it golden.
Add the potatoes - and cream of you think it's required.


This one's peasy and tasty - a great combo.
Could try yoghurt instead of cream. I didn't use the cream *and* I microwaved the potatoes in 8 mins.

Nawabi Guchhi

Stolen from : Nita Mehta's "Vegetarian Curries" p. 90

100g mushrooms - cut into halves
1 cup shelled peas
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander
3/4 tsp salt

Nawabi Paste
2 onions
1" piece ginger
1/4 cup kaju (cashewnuts)
1/2 tsp shani jeera (black cumin)
1/2 jeera seeds (cumin seeds)
1 green chilli
1 dry red chilli

Grind all the stuff for the paste together with a bit of water.
Fry it until rich golden colour, adding a bit of water as you go along to keep it from burning.
Add garam masala and chilli powder, give it a good stir.
Add 1/2 cup water & bring to boil.
Add mushrooms and peas and cook for 4-5 mins on low.
Add 1 cup water & 1 tbsp coriander leaves, keep simmering until veg is cooked.
Other coriander leaves are for the garnish.

Bhindi with Pistachio / Peanuts

Stolen from Nita Mehta's "Indian Vegetarian"

300g bhindi - cut diagonally into 1/4" thick slices about 1" long
1/2 cup pistachio kernels / peanuts
3-4 flakes garlic - crushed roughly
1 onion - chopped finely
1 tomato - chopped finely
1 tomato - puréed
1 1/2 tsp dhania powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red chill powder
2 tsp tomato sauce / concentrate

Wash bhindi and cut off the heads. Cur diagonally to get 1" pieces.
Fry bhindi, in two batches if necessary. Put aside on paper to soak oil.
Fry the pistachio kernels / peanuts and remove to paper to soak oil.
Clean frying pan.
Fry the garlic until it changes colour then add the onion and fry until brown.
Add tomato cook for 4-5 mins.
Add tomato purée, tom sauce, dhania powder, garam masala, salt & chilli powder & cook them for a minute on low.
Add the bhindi and nuts stir & serve.


This was as excellent side dish & the eaters wanted more.

Tomato Curry

Stolen from : Harvey Day "The Best of Vegetarian Cooking: Indian Curries" [1984] p. 84

12 large tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 dessertspoonful garam masala
3 onions
1 dessertspoonful coriander leaves
1" stick cinnamon
1/2 coconut
1/2 in piece of green ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp vegetable fat
seeds 3 cardamoms
salt to taste

1. chop the ginger, onions, coriander leaves, garlic and garam masala
2. heat the fat and stir in the coconut flesh with the tomatoes (whole if fresh)
3. add remaining ingredients and stir over a low heat until the mixture thickens

I'm not sure why Harvey took the trouble to chop his onions first, there's *plenty* of time to do it while you're waiting for the tomatoes to lose their skins.
What's a dessertspoonful, I used 1 tbsp but perhaps it's more like 2 tbsp.
I used 18 salad toms because Lidls had them half price.
Harvey also doesn't mention any prep for the coconut, I figured half a coconut in 3 pieces just wasn't going to be nice so I put it through the grinder. When I say half I mean 1 coconut. The last recipe I used coconut in said 1/2 coconut or 200g and I found that 1 puny coconut was about 200g. I hope Harvey didn't get his coconuts from Pak foods like I did.
The toms took *ages* to get going, I thought it was never going to go watery so I smushed a few of them with the spatula. It's bubbling away on the stove now, so it's going ok. It's been 45 mins since I started, the rice was ready 10 mins ago. I cracked at an hour and served myself a portion. The flavour is very good, though the tomatoes were a bit thin in flavour; probably GM ones bred for looks - they were Lidl own brand. The coconut bits were getting hard going at the end of the portion, just needs longer in the grinder, or less of it and add some reduced coconut milk.
What I didn't eat first serving I left on the low heat to see how it went. Looks much the same.

Could use onion paste instead of onions, they don't get cooked so well, you could do the ginger, cinnamon and garlic and onions in the grinder together to a paste.

Sago Milk Pudding

Stolen from : Sago seeds packet

3 cups fresh milk (or rancid if you prefer !)
1/2 cup sago seeds
1/2 cup sugar
6-7 cardamoms
1 1/2 tsp blanched almonds
1 1/2 tsp pistachio kernels (halved) [get your butler to do it]
1 1/2 tsp raisins (or 6 in old money)

1. get the milk boiling then add the sago
2. boil until it starts to thicken
   
3. add rest of stuff
4. keep boiling until you feel you've had enough (says 30 mins on packet)
   

I used seed milk (sunflower, pumpkin & linseed) and it goes thick quite soon so I added extra water. I also just added dried mangos and some sultanas and some whole cashews. These extra bits were a waste really, the sago & seed combo was quite nice. Good experiment :)

Vatana Batete No Rotlo

Stolen from : Tarla Dalal - Potatoes

4 large potatoes, boiled
1 cup green peas
2 tbsp rice flower (chawal ka atta)
juice 1 lemon
2 tbsp green chilli-ginger paste
1/2 tsp sugar
salt

1. grind peas to coarse
2. Mash the potatoes, add the peas, rice flour, lemon juoce, green chilli-ginger paste, sugar and salt; mix well.
3. Grease a 6"x6" tray.
4. Press the mixture into the tray to make an even layer.
5. Bake 200c for 20-25 mins until crisp

I used a large yam instead of potatoes, made some green chilli-garlic paste with too much chilli and a lime instead of lemon/sugar. It's in the oven now. Yep, too chilli, quite lemony but pretty damn good.

Easy Mushroom curreh

450g mushrooms
400g tomatoes
1 chopped onion
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp peppercorns
4 cardamoms
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1g chilli chopped
2 garlic
1" ginger

1. Fry cumin, peppercorns, cardamoms, turmeric for 2 mins in oil
2. Add the onion fry until golden
3. Add cumin, coriander, garam masala - fry 2 mins
   
4. Add chilli, garlic & ginger - fry 2 mins
5. Add toms - boil 5 mins
6. Add mushrooms - low heat & cover 10 mins

Eat

(B) Rasam (dal type thing)

Stolen from : The Beginner's Cook Book : Cereals and Pulses p. 132


30g split red gram
115g (1) tomato
1 lime
few curry leaves
1/2 bunch coriander leaves
5 g (3) green chillies

Temper
1 tsp mustard seeds
2g black gram
1 pinch cumin
2 red chillies
pinch hing

1. Boil the gram till tender; remove the water
2. Cut tomatoes, slit green chillies & chop coriander
3. Add above to gram water. Boil
4. Heat oil & add tempering ingredients
5. When spices crackle add to boiling rasam, add salt & boil for 5 mins.
6. Remove from heat & add lime juice

This one's a bit confusing, it tells you to remove the water then boil in it. I softened the red gram in a bit of water and just left it in. I didn't even bother with the tempering and also forgot about the lime juice. Nevertheless it was really nice.

Dal Banjari

Stolen from "Dals" - Tarla Dalal p.51

Serves 6 (true)

1 cup urad dal
1/2 cup chana dal
1/4 tsp haldi
1 onion, sliced
2 laung (cloves)
1 stick cinnamon
2 dry whole chillies, chopped
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp chilli powder
salt to taste

1. Pressure cook dals with haldi with 3 cups water for 4-5 whistles or until dal is cooked (because you can see through the pressure cooker right!)
2. Fry the onions, cloves, cinnamon and red chillies in some oil until the onions are done in a saucepan big enough to hold the dal in 4.
   
3. Add ginger-garlic paste, green chillies and chilli powder and saute for 2 mins.
   
4. Add the dal and boil for 4-5 mins or until you want to eat it.

None of the dals I have cooked seem watery enough to me. Even so, this one was good if not exceptional and it was very easy to make. I liberated the pressure cooker for stage 4 so I could cook something else and finish the dal off so they were cooked at the same moment.
Next day I added some more water and gave it a boil, much better.