Risotto

We have the most amazing crop of chard at the moment-swiss, rainbow, you name it is is growing strong in the garden.
One of my favourite recipes is for chard risotto, it features frequently in our household and is my ultimate comfort food:
A basic risotto recipe (serves 3):
1 litre veg stock
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large white onions
4-5 sticks of celery finely sliced
about 250-300 grams of risotto rice (I do it by sight so this is a guess!)
250ml of dry white wine

Heat the olive oil slowly in a pan, add the onion and celery cook gently for about 15-20 minutes, until soft. Add the rice and turn up the heat.  Keep it moving until the rice is slightly translucent.
Quickly pour in the white wine, you will smell the alcohol, keep stirring all the time until it has evaporated .
Add the stock a ladle full at a time, stirring and waiting until it has been fully absorbed before adding the next ladle full.  turn the heat down to low so the rice doesnt cook too quickly, and continue to add ladlefuls of stock until it has all been absorbed.  Be careful not to over cook the rice.  It should hold its shape but still be soft and creamy.

Chard (and feta cheese) risotto:
1 clove of garlic peeled and chopped
Nutmeg for grating
150 grms chard washed, dried and very finely sliced
sea salt and black pepper
1 handful of grated parmesan -optional
1 lemon/2 limes-zest and juice
200 grams feta cheese/or a good goats cheese-optional

Whilst you are making the basic risotto recipe you can start on the chard, heat a deap saucepan until medium hot, pour in some olive oil, the garlic and a good grating of nutmeg.  Add the chopped chard.  Cook for 5 minutes, moving it about the pan, until the chard has wilted down.  It will be wonderfully dark and intensely flavoured.  Whizz the chard in a food processor and season with salt and pepper to taste.

When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat, stir in the chard, and beat in parmesan(if using).  Add a good squeeze of lemon or lime juice, add salt and pepper if needed. Put the lid on the risotto and let it rest for a minute, before folding in some of the feta (if using).  sprinkle lime/lemon zest on top, the rest of the feta, and drizzle the risotto with extra olive oil.

Tuck in!  It is divine without the parmesan and feta, so worth a try!

The humble cauliflower

I guess I always had mixed feelings about cauliflowers-I think it was that they only ever came served with cheese, under a blanket of creamy bechamel -whilst a match made in heaven for the cauliflower it was not for a vegan!  It has taken me a while to see cauliflowers as a vegetable of peace and quiet beauty with it's snow white head.
They are generally not easy to grow, but we are lucky here that anything we seem to plant grows and flourishes-but what to do with them then?  I have finally found a way to cook them that I enjoy-a fried cauliflower with salsa verde!  Inspired by Nigel Slater.

a medium cauliflower
sunflower oil for deep frying
gram flour -3 tablespoons
paprika or chili power-half a teaspoon

Salsa Verde:
Parsley leaves-a generous handful
mint-lots!
basil leaves-a handful
garlic-2 cloves crushed
Dijon or a similar grainy mustard -a tablespoon
capers-1 tablespoon-rinsed
olive oil-6 table spoons
lime or lemon juice-2 tablespoons

Break the cauliflower into florets.  Boil in deep salted water for a couple of minutes and then drain thoroughly.
To make the salsa verde, chop the herbs quite finely, the stir in the garlic, mustard and capers.  Pour in the olive oil slowly beating with a fork.  Stir in the lime or lemon juice and season with salt and black pepper.  Be generous with the seasoning, tasting as you go.  It should be bright and piquant.
Get the oil hot in a deep pan.  Toss the cauliflower with the gram flour, a little salt and pepper and paprika.  When the cauliflower is coated, fry it in the hot oil till crisp-three or four minutes.  Drain on kitchen paper before serving with the sauce.

carrot and avocado salad

I thought it might be time I had an avocado recipe on my blog! The preparation is for this salad is so easy, you can make a couple of servings at a time and let the second one sit in the fridge until lunch the next day when it will taste even better. It is inspired by one from www.chocolateandzucchini.com 

You can make this salad however you want but the basic is still the same. I throw in fresh herbs -- especially coriander/cilantro -- I often use tofu-which I have marinated in soy sauce, fresh ginger and fresh garlic and then grilled until golden brown,  you could also put in fresh sprouts-mustard seed, mung bean, lentil into the salad. But the basic structure, give or take, is outlined below.

- One ripe hass avocado, diced


- The juice of a lemon or a lime


- A dash of balsamic vinegar


- Fine sea salt, freshly ground pepper


- Tabasco sauce or similar or strong mustard, to taste


- 4 medium carrots, about 450 grams total, peeled and grated


- 250 grams firm marinated and cooked tofu or smoked tofu (unfortunately in Tanzania smoked Tofu is not available however it is a firm favourite of mine and work well with this), diced


- Toasted seeds -- sunflower, pumpkin, sesame, flax, or a mix thereof (I often toast them with a slash of tamari)

Serves 2.

Combine the avocado, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar in a medium salad bowl, and mash the avocado roughly with a fork. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Fold in the carrots and tofu, and stir until well combined. Cover and refrigerate for half an hour or up to a day. Toss again before serving, adjust the seasoning, and sprinkle with liberal amounts of toasted seeds.

Fennel

I have a massive surplus of fennel in my veggie garden and keep having to find inventive ways of feeding it to people!  I love the gentle aniseedy flavor of fennel, and very often just eat it raw, thinly sliced in a salad, drizzled with olive oil and salt.  Recently I have been experimenting with braised fennel bulbs, a long slow process which is totally worth it as it brings out the sweet treacly flavor.  Here is my favorite version:

Braised Fennel:

4pcs fennel bulbs

1 whole head of garlic

4 tablespoons olive oil

5 table spoons of white wine

5 tablespoons good vegetable stock

Salt and black pepper

Trim the fennel bulbs, removing outer leave and stalks, keep some of the feathery tops to one side.  Split the fennel bulbs in half. Separate the garlic cloves, but leave the skins on.

In a heavy based pan, heat the olive oil, add the fennel bulbs, cut side down.  Put in all of the garlic cloves and season with salt.  Cover and cook the fennel very gently until the undersides are golden.  Turn and allow the other side to color.  This takes about 30-40 minutes.

Squash the garlic flesh out of the skins and mix it in.

Add the white wine and stock, turn the fennel once more ( so it is cut side down again) cover and continue to cook very gently for about an hour.

When the fennel is tender and a rich golden color, season and serves with some of the chopped fennel leaves on top. 

My favourite date shake:

I discovered this when I was thirteen and had just turned vegan, ever since it has been a firm favourite of mine.  JP and I now fight over it!   I turn to it when I want something icy, sweet and utterly delicious.  I never have it after a meal but instead of a meal!

Almond milk:

1 cup almonds blanched (place them in boiling water and remove their skins)

2 1/2 cups of water. 

Put all in a food processor or blender and blend for about 3-4 minutes

Place a fine strainer over a bowl-pour in the almond milk and allow to filter through slowly, then using a spoon gently squeeze out all the remaining milk into the bowl. 

I keep the fibre as use it as a body scrub in the shower!

Date shake:

1 ½ cups almond milk

2 frozen bananas (use all the over ripe ones, peel cut into chunks and freeze in a small bag)

6 large dates, pitted

Place all ingredients into a blender and whizz until thick and creamy

Quinoa recipe with cavolo nero

Quinoa Recipe:

This is one that pasted the JP test, he even said it was yummy!  I was lucky enough get sent a care package this week from a friend in California with Red Quinoa.  It was such a treat!  This recipe takes it’s inspiration from Heather Quinoa Recipe on www.101cookbooks.com

a splash of extra-virgin olive oil


a pinch of fine grain sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper


1 onion, and fresh ginger

3 cups cooked quinoa* (or brown rice, or other grain)


1 cup corn, fresh or canned


1 1/2 cups kale, spinach or other hearty green,-I used cavolo nero from the garden (another good seed find in a garden shop in Sicily).  Finely slice and cook it with an onion and olive oil until it wilts.

3 tbsps pesto
-I use a vegan pesto-bus fresh basil oil would work just as well

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted


1/4 cup slow roasted cherry tomatoes** (or chopped sun-dried tomatoes)

In a big wok or pot heat the olive oil and salt over medium-high heat. Stir in the onion and ginger and cook for a minute or two. Stir in the quinoa and corn and cook until hot and sizzling. Stir in the cooked kale or cavolo nero.  Remove the wok from heat and stir in the pesto and pumpkin seeds. Mix well so the pesto is spread throughout. Turn everything out onto a platter and top with the cherry tomatoes.

Serves 4 - 6.

*Rinse about 2 cups quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa and 4 cups water until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.

** To roast cherry tomatoes: Heat oven to a low temperature. Cut each tomato in half, cut side up and arrange in a large baking tray.  Mix 2 spoonfuls of brown sugar, and a few pinches of salt, and black pepper - sprinkle this over the tomatoes.  Place in the oven and slow roast for 1 hour or so, until the tomatoes are shrunken and sweet.  

The wonder that is Kohlrabi

After a trip to Sicily in May I came back loaded with seeds for my veggie garden.  I got so excited about finding kohlrabi seeds I planted acres of it, and we have been reaping the rewards since, my poor friends get loaded down with “green bulbs” and I frequently get messages asking what on earth they are meant to do with them.  So I am writing one of my favorite new salads-wonderful and fresh, it is inspired by one from Yotam Ottolenghi’s http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/ new vegetarian cook book ‘Plenty’:

Kohlrabi Salad:

2 large kohlrabi

Large bunch of fresh dill –roughly chopped

Grated zest of half a lemon

Juice of one lemon

A good slug of olive oil-I am currently using one from Sicily that we got at the agri tourismo place we stayed in http://www.mandranova.it/

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut the kohlrabi into matchsticks-about 5mm wide and 5cm long.  Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Use your hands to massage everything in together.  Let it stand for 10 minutes before serving, adjust the seasoning-you may need more salt to counteract the lemon.

Use your hands and lift the salad into a serving bowl garnish with alfalfa spouts and serve at once.

A start

 The hardest part to knowing where to start, though I want this to be about my garden, my cooking, my daily inspirations walking around the farm on West Kilimanjaro.  I will start somewhere else, a place that I have dreamed of visiting since I was a little girl-Greystokes in Mahale (http://www.greystoke-mahale.com) on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.  I am lucky enough that my job-running community projects for the Nomad Trust took me there for four magical days last week.  It took my breath away, the lake, crystal clear, the chimpanzees, the local people, dinners under the stars to the sound of frogs.

 

It all started after being picked up from the airstrip and taken by dhow to the camp-it was love at first taste!  On the boat they produced home made sweet potato chips with guacamole.  So I write the recipe below for my friend, and professional photographer Sabine, (see her website www.sabinebernert.fr) whose photos I have included and a love for these sweet potato chips we share!

Sweet Potato chips:

Vegetable oil, for frying

2 large sweet potatoes, washed-we don’t get the orange fleshed sweet potatoes.

In a large saucepan, heat oil.

Thinly slice potatoes into round disks, about 1/4-inch thick. Fry for 1 1/2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel.  Sprinkle with salt and serve with guacamole.  (I won’t bore every one with a recipe for guacamole-as every one has their own-I do like mine with a touch a cinnamon in though!)

 

Below Milton and I.