Today or tomorrow there will be congee! Cooked in the Chinese clay pot which makes such a difference to the taste. I have quite a few congee recipes but will be making the one from #Tenderheart by #HettyMcKinnon - Ginger jook with frizzled ginger and garlic. 😋

#Food #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmCookingFrom #vegetarian #vegan #glutenFree

Diving into #MeeraSodha #East again this morning for more Scrambled Tofu Akuri. Akuri style is from the Indian Parsi community, and uses chilli, ginger, cumin, garlic, coriander leaves and tomato.

I used Pressed Silken Tofu this time, and it was perfect. I love her idea of draining the tofu for 10 mins prior to cooking. Yum. A definite favourite, along with Ottolenhi's scrambled harissa tofu.

BTW, I prefer scrambled tofu made with silken tofus over the more popular firm tofu. It is naturally more creamier and soft, whereas you do need to be careful of moisture when using firm tofu - recipes often add milk, cream and even mayo! No need for that here.

#Food #cookingAU #cooking #IndianFood #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmCookingFrom #WhatIAmEating #vegetarian #EggFree

The protein-hit of a soup, Zuppa di Farro (or Soup of Farro, Borlotti, Cannellini and Chickpeas) is awesome. The beans are cooked with garlic and a tomato, before being added with cooking liquid to a reduced tomato sauce. Chickpeas, cooked and added as well. Bayleaf, sage and rosemary used during the cooking stages.I added some red lentils for good luck and topped with nutritional yeast.

The recipe is from #RiverCafeCookbookTwo by #RoseGray.

You can substitute a lot - freekeh for farro, kidney beans for borlotti beans, haricot beans for canellini beans, and if you have a reduced tomato puree in the freezer - use that for the tomato reduction. Easy!

#WhatIAmEating #WhatIAmCookingFrom #FromTheKitchen

The veggies are roasted for Vegetable and Pecan Pie, from #Nourish by #HollyDavis, a macrobiotic cookbook from way back when. Full of delicious recipes that I still use today. The pie is not all root veg - it is leeks, pumpkin, sweet potato, eggplant. I couldn't help adding some curry powder mix to the veg this time for a Curried Veg and Pecan Pie. The pastry is a shortcrust made with olive oil. Should be good.

This is the first of 2 veggie pies I am making over the next week 🤞 The other is mainly root veg based, but with lots more flavourings. I'm going to make individual pies with that one.

#WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmCookingFrom

That Sarson ka Saag is absolutely awesome! It is a spicy intense puree of greens - and who doesn't need a hit of greens periodically. I used mustard greens, spinach and fenugreek leaves, all pretty traditional. Tomatoes to temper the intensity and add some "sour" to the dish. Chillies, garlic, ginger. And true to Punjabi food - a pat of butter on the top.

Leftovers tonight just with aged basmati. Oh my!

The recipe I used this week is from #TheCompleteIndianRegionalCookbook by#MridulaBaljekar.

Here is one I cooked (a lot) earlier.

#FromTheArchives #WhatIAmEating #WhatIAmCookingFrom

The River Cafe Cookbooks (One and Two) - the ones by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers - never fail to disappoint, altho they were published in the 1990's. Do you have these books, the blue one and the yellow one?

Browsing them this morning, such delight. Settling on a Soup of Farro, Borlotti, Cannellini and Chickpeas for our next Wintery soup.

#WhatIAmCookingFrom

Rightoh, I have some dishes sorted for the weekend. We've been low on grains, lentils, beans lately so:

🤩 My beautiful Fagioli Stufati |(Tuscan Beans Baked with Sage and Lemon), with some focaccia straight from the oven and a side of greens and baked and mashed sweet potatoes.

🤩 Mung beans (whole) with greens, tamarind and turmeric, another #Ottolenghi Indian-influenced dish from #ShelfLove, but I will make some adjustments to (of course). Sides of rice, yoghurt, cabbage thoran, and I will open the Indian-style quince pickles.

🤩 Burghul salad with greens, nuts and herbs - a common enough salad (outstanding versions with different grains by #Ottolenghi in one of his books, and by Adelaide's #Simon whats-his-face) - this is a simpler one from #Med by #ClaudiaRoden. Probably with leftovers.

🤩 And some real Indian - Bandhgobhi Kofta in a spicy sauce - either tamarind or tomato-based. From #LordKrishnasCuisine #TheArtOfIndianVegetarianCooking by #YamunaDevi. With rice and Indian accompaniments.

That should do us for the weekend, with leftovers.

🤩 Also I need to put something in the freezer. So there may be more. For quick eats I like to freeze whole meals - eg rice, a lentil curry and a veg curry - in the one container. On long busy days, it is delicious food that can be quickly heated and eaten with pickles and yoghurt added. Perhaps a quick green or tomato salad.

#WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmCookingFrom

From the Kitchen playtime this morning....

🍲 I was up early enough to put the soup on before other things got in the way. Today it is Butternut, Celeriac and (the rest of the) Jicama. The idea came from The French Market Cookbook, by Clotilde Dusoulier, but it is a fairly simple French soup so I had to up the ante with some warming spices and lots of herbs.

📚 I was a bit disappointed in this book when I got it quite a few years ago now. The recipes are overly simple. Dusoulier did or used to have a blog, and this was a spin-off from there. I bought it because I am attracted to Market cookbooks. Still, the book is perfect for inspiration.

🇮🇳 Later today I hope to have time to make Crunchy Chana Dal Patties with Coconut and Sesame Seeds (Masala Chana Bada) from The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. This book is huge, and a classic. Recipes never fail.

:pumpkin_tired: Yesterday I had a prep day. Brussels sprouts roasted with lots of lemon juice and almost the last of the home made cherry jam. Brussels are a little bitter, so they can take some tart sweetness (my jams are always on the tart side). They are delicious, and altho they are supposed to be used during the week, I couldn't help having a small bowl to myself.

:pumpkin_tired: The huge butternut from next door was cut yesterday. I roasted a pan full until caramelised for risotto later this week. Another 1/3 went into the soup. I have the base left. I can't help thinking I will clean it out, roast it and stuff it.

:pumpkin_tired: Also, I pre-cooked some freekeh (also so delicious I snuck a couple of tablespoons) for a pilaf or salad, plus it makes great toppings for soups etc.

#FromTheKitchen #cookingAU #cooking #vegetarian #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #WhatIAmCookingFrom

From the Kitchen yesterday...

I managed to spend a little time in the kitchen yesterday, with some varying results.

🍞 To go with our soup, I made Garlic and Rosemary Focaccia. I use the fool-proof recipes from Gennaro's Italian Bakery by Gennaro Contaldo. So far all the bread, pizza and focaccia recipes in this book have been a huge success. This was no exception. It was glorious!

🍞 Breakfast today will feature left-over focaccia, split and toasted. Some fried red and green tomatoes.

🍅 Back to yesterday, breakfast was #Ottolenghi's Scrambled Tofu recipe, from Simple. I've mentioned before that it is made from silken tofu, which gives the dish a deliciously creamy texture. Today I made it with caramelised onions, sauteed green tomatoes and tofu, topped with crispy fried shallots, garlic black beans, and my tomato-chilli jam.

:nocookie: In an effort to use up some Golden Syrup I made some old-school biscuits that used a whole cup of GS. I was very sceptical it would work - basically sugar, GS and loads of butter, tied together with a little flour and dried ginger. But I was curious too. Curiosity satisfied - they are the most not-delicious foods I have had in a long time 😭 Perhaps it was meant to be 1 Tblspoon instead of a cup. That would make more sense.

☕ I am still coffee-free for the moment. That means I am using up all the green teas and spiced teas at home at a great rate (I have inlaws who regularly bring back teas from Hong Kong). Still, each day I think about whether I should have a cup of coffee. (On the rare occasion I am in a cafe I am Ok to have a decaf, so not 💯 coffee-free.)

🛌 I sleep a little better though. Not :100a: but better.

#FromTheKitchen #cookingAU #cooking #vegetarian #WhatIAmCooking #WhatIAmEating #WhatIAmCookingFrom

From the Kitchen today....

🌶️ I set out to make a Peshawari Rajma Curry today - a red kidney bean curry from Peshawari in the Punjab. But kidney bean curries can be "heavy" in nature, even if you don't add all the butter and cream they demand.

🍛 I wanted to lighten it up. So I left out all the dairy (yoghurt, butter, cream), used fewer kidney beans than specified, and added a ton of finely chopped tomatoes (rather than the specified 2 tomatoes), some grated zucchini and some peas (from the garden via the freezer). I kept the spicing the same.

😋 It was mind-blowingly good. A new favourite. It shall be made again.

You could do similar adjustments to any Rajma Masala or Rajma Curry recipe on the internet.

📖 The recipe I used is from a book much loved, called The Classic Book of Vegetarian Curries, by Mehra. It is hard to get now but see ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/394484864708. Older book, no pics, good recipes, mainly North Indian and Punjabi. Every recipe is simple and straight forward if you have some knowledge of Indian food. I have made quite a few from this book, and many are favourites.

🥬 I found some sauteed beetroot leaves in the freezer and so made beetroot leaf rice to go with the curry. Added some of last years eggplant pickle for a special lunch. Followed by Haighs chocolates

👏 All in all, a good and healthy eating day.

#FromTheKitchen #WhatIAmCooking #cookingAU #Cooking #WhatIAmEating #WhatIAmCookingFrom #vegetarian

A nice little protein shot for veg*ns - large butter beans, curried, cheesy, on cheela (Indian chickpea flour pancakes).

The curried butter beans are from #ShelfLove by #Ottolenghi (with a few tweaks). He serves them on toast, I made us some cheela to wrap them in.

Pretty delicious. VERY easy.

I used some jarred butter beans I found in the local Continental grocery. Jarred beans are common in Europe (and possibly North America??) but unusual here. I like the taste better than tinned.

#FromTheKitchen #food #cooking #WhatIAmCookingFrom #cookingAU #WhatIAmEating #IndianFood #sortOf

A little yoghurt left in the fridge, so I made a simple raita for a snack - celery, onion, mint, coriander, parsley, s&p, lemon ju.

From Food of Life.

#FromTheKitchen #FoodOfLife #WhatIAmCookingFrom #cookingAU

Aubergine Frites? Snack time. And they were delicious.

Eggplant wedges, rolled in flour, deep fried. Best if you salt and drain them first (30 mins) to remove some water - rinse lightly and pat dry.

Served for snacks with liberal sprinkling of salt, and tomato sauce for dipping. A few greens on the side, for a healthy appearance 🤣

I love deep-fried eggplant, but for obvious reasons don't do it very often. There are lost of Indian and French recipes that deep fry them - perhaps not so common elsewhere (?)

From an old cookbook of mine - Hows and Whys of French Cooking, by Alma Lach.

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Here's the eggplant curry - the teeeeniest of eggplants were cooked a few days ago with turmeric, salt, green chilli, onion. Tonight, curry leaves and coconut milk were added and it was simmered a little longer. Finished with a good squeeze of lime juice.

It is based on Coconut Brinjal Curry from Recipes of the Jaffna Tamils, by Nesa Eliezer.

#MyRecipes #food #cooking #WhatIAmCookingFrom #SriLankanFood #WhatIAmEating #SriLankanCuisine #TamilCuisine

Finally today, and in prep for the heat tomorrow, a simple but utterly delicious Eggplant Curry with a tomato base.

It is based on a curry from Monks' Cookbook by the Monks of Kauai Aadheenam.

I used baby eggplants cut into wedges and cooked in the sauce until achingly soft.

The first cup of the 10kg bag of aged basmati rice made beautiful, long grained, aromatic rice as an accompaniment. I don't salt plain rice when eating with a curry.

#food #WhatIAmCooking #FromTheKitchen #vegetarian #cookingAU #cooking #WhatIamCookingFrom

Sharing a remarkable Date Pie from The Food of Life, Najmieh Batmanglij. I often mention this book, as it is one of my favourites. This pie is #EggFree, and such a delicious delight. Not at all difficult to make.

#food #cookbook #WhatIamCookingFrom #cookbooks #vegetarian #FoodofLife #NajmiehBatmanglij

I am cooking from a pasta book atm - Art of Pasta - you might have noticed. I adore this book. So, lots of pasta nights! There will be more mushroom pasta tonight, but different to last night. It will use raw mushrooms rather than a cooked sauce. I need to use up all the mushrooms! They are terrific in the shops atm and I bought a lot.

#WhatIamCookingFrom #ArtofPasta #LucioGalletto

#TonightIamEating #Pasta #Vegetarian

Here it is at last - Farfalle with sauteed mushrooms and zucchini, with some tofu sliced very thin. Freeze the tofu and then defrost. It loses its water and is so easy to slice thinly - I use a mandoline. The tofu adds some protein to the dish.

Topped with hand-made pesto - which has a superior flavour and texture to pesto made in a blender or processor imo. So easy to make if you have a good mortar and pestle. I made it while the mushrooms were cooking.

Leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

#WhatIamCookingFrom #ArtofPasta #LucioGalletto

#TonightIamEating #Pasta #Vegetarian #food #HomeCooking #cooking

Here it is, the Focaccia al Sale, straight out of the oven.

#WhatIamCookingFrom #GennarosItalianBakery #GennaroContaldo #TonightIamEating #Vegetarian

Books I am cooking from atm:

Vegetariano: 400 Regional Italian Recipes, by Slow Foods #vegetarian

Gernaro's Italian Bakery, Gennaro Contaldo #Afavourite

The Art of Pasta, Lucio Galletto #Australian, used to own/run Lucio's in Woollahra, Sydney. One of the most beautiful cookbooks I own.

#WhatIamCookingFrom #cookbooks #cookingthebooksNov #cookingthebooks