Chili and Rosemary Polenta with Tomato sauce

I am writing with no idea of what recipe I will post!  The marathon training seems to have taken over my life and with it my eating habits have gone hay wire.  I now consider a good meal crunchy nut cornflakes with soya milk!  Tomorrow is my long run-about 18km and this afternoon I have decided not to train on my bike, so I have all this free time!  I thought I had better update my blog, I am having a mug of peppermint tea and listening to Emeli Sande (http://www.emelisande.com/).  I have just been out planting broad beans in my garden, the heat has taken it's toll on my poor garden and all the mulching we have done doesnt seem to be helping.
I often eat at the Bayleaf in Arusha and Mary makes the most wonderful thngs with polenta. This is inspired by something she made last week:  Chili and Rosemary Polenta with Tomato sauce
For the polenta:
4 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped (or a sprinkle of ground chili flakes)
1 tbsp finely chopped rosemary
150g quick cook polenta
Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the tomato sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 x 400g tinned tomatoes
1 bay leaf
a pinch of sugar

To make the polenta, heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil in a frying pan over a low-medium heat.  Add the garlic and chili and sweat gently for a couple of minutes - dont let the garlic colour.  Add the rosemary and remove from the heat.
Pour 800ml in a sauce pan and bring to the boil.  Now pour in the polent in a thin stream, stirring all the time.  When smooth allow it to return to a simmer.  Cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly, then remove from the heat.  Stir in the garlic, chili and rosemary, season generously with salt and pepper.  Mix well.
tip the polenta onto a cold surface-such as a marble slab or plate, and spread it smoothly into an even disk, about 2cm thick.   Leave to cool completely.

To make the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan over a medium-low heat.  Add the garlic and sweat gently for a couple of minutes; don't let it colour.  Add the tomatoes with their juice, add a bay leaf if you have one.  Bring to a simmer then cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring often and crushing the tomatoes with a fork until you have a thick sauce.  Season with salt and pepper and a little sugar.

When the polenta is cool and firm cut into slices or wedges.  Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a non-stick pan over a medium-high heat and fry the polentapieces for 2-3 minutes on each side, until they have a light golden brown crust.  Serve topped with the tomato sauce.

Good comfort food! 

Toasted millet, sugar snap & avocado salad with ginger, honey & pumpkin seed dressing

This is out of Dennis Cotter's amazing book "for the love of food", however there are a number of additions and substitutes one can make.  This makes a lovely little starter or a light lunch.

At the moment in my garden I have a huge abundance of french breakfast radishes so they go into the salad as well, and alfalfa and sprouted mung beans are a good addition too.
 
For 4
1 tbsp olive oil
300grm millet  (one could also use couscous or bulgar wheat)
4 spring onions-finely chopped
150 grms sugar snap peas-strings removed and halved
2 hass avocados
1 handful of micro salad or water cress (or any small salad leaves you can find!)

The dressing:
150g pumpkin seeds-toasted
juice of one lemon or lime
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp runny honey
125 ml olive oil

First prepare the dressing: set aside 2 tbsp of the pumpkin seeds and chop them coarsely.  Put the rest into a food processor and grind to a fine powder.  Add 150ml water and blend to a paste.  Add the lemon juice, ginger, honey and olive oil and briefly blend to get a pouring consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy sauce pan over low heat.  Add the millet and toast for 7-8 minutes, stirring often.  Add 600ml/1 pint of boiing water and a pinch of salt.  Lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer the millet for 15 minutes, until all the water has been absorbed.

Stir the spring onions and sugar snaps into the millet, spoon this into shallow bowls and drizzle some dressing over.  Peel the avocado, remove the stone and cut the flesh into thick dice.  Toss with the salad leaves and a little of the dressing.

Spoon some of this salad on each portion of the millet, and drizzle some more dressing over and around the sald.  Scatter the reserved chopped pumpkin seeds on top and serve.

Roast Beetroot Soup

I fed this to JP and my mother in law the other day and it went down a treat.  It is adapted from one of Sarah Raven's "Garden Cookbook".  The secret is first roasting the beetroot in the oven.

500 grms beetroot
2-3 large beetroot leaves or swiss chard
1.5  litres of veggie stock
olive oil
2 onions-chopped
3 leeks chopped
2 carrots-chopped
2 celery stick-chopped
2 garlic cloves-crushed
salt and pepper
sour cream or cream to serve
chopped tarragon to serve

Preheat oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4.  Tear the leaves off the beetroot, but do not cut its roots off.  Scrub the roots clean and roast in the oven for an hour or so.  The beetroots are cooked when the skin looks wrinkled and can be easily pushed off.
If using chard, seperate the green part of the card from the stalks and shred the leaves-do the same of using beetroot leaves.  In a pan gently fry in the olive oil the onions, leeks, celery, chopped carrots and garlic, until soft.  Add the stock and greens and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Rub the skin off the beetroot and chop it up.  Add it to the pan and simmer another 5 minutes or so.
Blend using a hand held blender or in a food processor.  If necessary sieve or mouli the soup to remove any fibrous bits.
Add a little water if the soup is too thick.  Check the seasoning and serve either hot or cold, with a swirl of cream and a scattering of chopped tarragon.

My Store Cupboard Essentials

I recently got a request from a friend for a list of my store cupboard essentials-it might be rather a long list!  
My favourite Grains:
Short grain Brown rice, risotto rice, toasted buckwheat, polenta, wild rice and oats.  Two less commonly known ones out here are:
Millet: Millet is painfully underutilized.  It is given to birds more often than used in homes. These perfect, delicately textured, butter-colored beads are good for you. Easy to digest and sporting a fantastic heart-healthy magnesium content, millet is a great, quick-cooking starter grain. If you have the time for the extra step, the flavor of millet generally benefits from pre-toasting, easily done in a skillet. It brings forth a nutty flavor and tints the grains a wonderful spectrum of deep yellows and light browns.
Quinoa: Pronounced (KEEN-wah). This is a small, quick-cooking grain which I love. High in easy-to-digest fiber and tops in protein, it has an encyclopedic vitamin and mineral profile. This is the grain credited with keeping Incan armies strong and resilient. Because the protein in quinoa is considered complete, it’s an ideal grain for vegetarians concerned about getting enough protein. It includes all of the essential amino acids and is a rich source of the amino acid lysine, which promotes tissue growth and repair and supports the immune system.  It has a slightly grassy taste and fluffed-up, creamy-while-crunchy texture. Always rinse it before using to remove the bitter saponin coating (which the plant produces to deter birds and insects). 
Dried Beans:
These all need pre-soaking but are a power house of nutrients.  Store them in a dark place to retain nutritious values.  Soya beans, red kidney beans, butter beans, chick peas, black beans and black eyed peas are always in my store cupboard, I tend to have a few tins of beans as well for moments when a quick meal is needed. 
Lentils:
We are so lucky in East Africa to be able to get the most amazing selection of cheap lentils, they are substantial, filling, highly nutritious, and relatively quick to cook. They are great cooked into stews, mashed into spreads, molded into croquettes of all sizes, and mixed into grain-based salads. Plus, unlike most dried beans, they require no presoaking.
Red lentils, yellow & green split peas (always good for soup and dhals), mung beans-done in a coconut sauce.
Flours:
Being mainly gluten free the two flours I tend to use most are gram flour-for bhajis, pakoras, pancakes-and millet flour for a millet bread. 
Nuts & Seeds:
There is huge amount one can do with nuts-Toast that nut and the flavor becomes more pronounced, Chop it and you have a crunchy, textural element to play with in salads. Mill it into a flourlike meal and you have an ingredient that can be used to add flavor to deliciously thicken a pureed soup. Grind it and you have a spread or butter. Or blend it with water to make a nut milk-like my almond milk. 
Because of their naturally high fat content, nuts and seeds can quickly go rancid. Seek out good sources with fresh stock, and store them refrigerated. Nuts that are sold sliced or chopped are much more likely to be rancid upon purchase than whole nuts. 
I always have a selection of the pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, linseed, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, macadamia nuts, cashew nuts in the house.
Bits and bobs:
Soy Sauce, tamari, or shoyu.  I could not live without my Tamari-it goes on everything from salads, to brown rice.
Vinegars:  Red, apple cider, raspberry (delicous on hass avocado with a bit of honey, mustard, and fresh chopped basil), balsamic and an aged balsamic for sepcial occasions!
Chili sauce-I make a pili pili hoho with sherry and birds eye chilies, and then always have a chipotle sauce on the go as well.
Dark Chocolate.
Soya milk
Spices:  Garam masala, cloves, cardamon, corriander seeds, cummin seeds, spanish paprika, cinnamon.  

A few good books

I have read a few really good books recently-generally about food and the food industry.
'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' - by Barbara Kingsolver is excellent, it's about her family's quest to live on only local produce.  It was inspiring and amusing!  http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/.

I just finished reading 'The Omnivors Dilema'  by Michael Pollan http://michaelpollan.com/books/the-omnivores-dilemma/    another book of his I enjoyed was 'In defence of Food'.

I am currently reading 'The New Complete book of Self-suficiency:  The classic guide for realists and dreamers'.  I have always wanted this book and finally have it!  It has a wonderful section on the cultivation of vegetables.  

Rhubarb Vanilla Mincemeat

Yesterday I got given a gorgeous bunch of rhubarb, I am not feeling very christmassy so I decided to make some mincemeat.  I found a different recipe for mincemeat in Nigella's Feasts, it doesn't contain suet or apples and the combination of deeply aromatic vanilla seeds with rhubarb is always a winner
.
1 kg rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 5mm slices
300g soft dark brown sugar
2 vanilla pods
2 tsp ground mixed spices
225g raisins
225g sultanas
225g currants
2 tbsp brandy.

Put the sliced rhubarb with the sugar into a large pan.  Cut the vanilla pod into halves lengthways and scrape out the seeds, then cut each half into pieces, adding seeds and pod slices into the pan.  Add the mixed spices and cook for about 5 mins.
Add the dried fruits and simmer the pan for about 30 mins.  Stir in the brandy and take off the heat.  when its cool enough to handle, bottle in jars.

It makes a great christmas pressie! 

Cauliflower Pakoras

These have become a staple in the house recently, they are heavenly with a gado gado style peanut sauce, however they can also be eaten with a raita, or alone, just as they are!
1 medium-large cauliflower-trimmed
sunflower oil for frying

150 g gram flour (chickpea flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cummin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
a pinch of chili powder
a pinch of fine sea salt

Cut the cauliflower into small florets.

For the batter, add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to combine and remove large lumps.  Slowly whisk in 175ml cold water, which should give you a smooth batter with a similar consistency to double cream.
Add the cauliflwer florets to the batter turning them to ensure they are coated.

Heat about 1 cm depth of oil in a heavy based pan over a medium high heat.  When the oil is hot enough, start cooking the pakoras, a few at a time so you dont over crowd them.  Place spoonfuls of battered cauliflwer into the hot oil.   cook for about 2 mins, until crisp and golden brown on the base, then turn them and cook for another min or 2.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot with your choice of dipping sauce!