Aubergine and Spinach with Garlic Aioli

The only time-consuming part here is roasting the aubergine. But put it in the oven, go off to do something else, then come back and throw the meal together.

 

Ingredients:

2 aubergines

olive oil

water

giant couscous (about 25-35 g per person)

50-100 g fresh spinach

garlic aioli (from previous post)

herbs and spices (I like mint and cinnamon)

 

Instructions:

1. Wash the aubergines and slice the skin, but not through to the flesh. Rub with a little olive oil and roast for 30-45 minutes at 200 C, until soft and falling apart.

2. Boil the water, pour it over the giant couscous, and simmer for 6-8 minutes, with the lid on, until soft. Add the spinach and put the lid back on, so the spinach wilts.

3. Remove the flesh from the aubergines and add it to the pan.

4. Mix in the aioli and herbs.

5. Mix everything together, then serve.

Cheat’s Aioli

I confess: I wanted a quick way to make a garlic mayonnaise. So here it is. Maybe one day I’ll make it all from scratch.

 

Ingredients:

1 head garlic

4-6 tbsp mayonnaise

black pepper

herbs (parsley and/or basil)

 

Instructions:

1. Roast the head of garlic at 200 C for 30-40 minutes.

2. Let it cool, then squeeze the garlic out and discard all the skin.

3. Mix the garlic into the mayo and season with pepper and herbs, as desired.

Raw Chocolate Mousse

At the library, I randomly picked up The Raw Food Diet by Christine Bailey. I’ve done some raw cooking before, so I was intrigued.

 

The first recipe I tried was her chocolate-orange hazelnut mousse, but I adapted it quite a bit to suit what we had at home and our tastes.

 

Ingredients:

1 ripe avocado

1 orange

25 g cocoa powder (or 10 g cocoa powder plus 20 g dark chocolate)

1 tbsp agave

2 tsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla

30 g chopped hazelnuts

¼ cup water

 

Instructions:

1. Halve, pit, and chop the avocado. Put the flesh in a food processor.

2. Juice and zest the orange and add to the avocado.

3. Mix in all the other ingredients. Process well, until smooth.

4. Chill for 30 or more minutes, then serve.

Lower Fat Granola

I decided to try to get the fat content of granola way down by replacing much of the oil with apple juice. That also allows you to leave out some of the sweetener.

 

Ingredients:

1 cup nuts

2½ cups oats

½ cup seeds (I used pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, and sunflower seeds)

½ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

½ cup apple juice

¼ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup maple syrup

1 cup dried fruit (raisins, apricots, prunes, cherries, etc)

 

Instructions:

1. Chop the nuts. Mix them with all the other ingredients except the fruit.

2. Make sure everything gets coated with the oil and maple syrup.

3. Put a piece of parchment paper or baking paper on a baking tray, then spread the oat mixture on it in a thick layer.

4. Bake for 20 minutes at 160 C, then rotate the tray, and bake for another 15-20 minutes.

5. Leave to cool, then break up the granola into whatever size pieces you prefer. Add the fruit. Store in Tupperware or similar.

Out at the Wedding

This film is very silly, so if you are going to watch it, you need to be prepared for a ridiculous plot and some less than stellar acting (Reginald VelJohnson is good, and one wishes Mink Stole had been encouraged to camp it up a bit).

 

Basically, the main character, Alex, is a woman in love with a man. So far so uncomplicated. But Alex doesn’t seem to care much for her family, so she’s told the man that her entire family is dead. Meanwhile, she rarely sees her father and sister (her mother actually is dead). Somehow, when she goes to her sister’s wedding, her best friend accidentally tells everyone there that Alex is gay, when in fact it’s the best friend who is.

 

Alex’s sister doesn’t take kindly to being upstaged at her wedding, but she is sympathetic to the idea that Alex felt unable to tell the family about being a lesbian. Rather than let her sister believe that she ruined the wedding for no reason, Alex lets her sister continue to believe that she is gay and that she’s in a relationship with a half-black, half-Jewish woman named Dana (in fact her boyfriend is a half-black, half-Jewish man named Dana).

 

When her sister comes to visit her, she ends up hiring an actual lesbian to pretend to be this half-black, half-Jewish woman named Dana. As you can imagine, much ridiculousness ensues.

 

The whole premise is unbelievable, but if you can get past that, it’s an easy watch. Alex ends up reconciled with her family, one woman gets her man, and another woman gets her woman. Happily ever after.

 

The most I can say is that at least it’s not depressing and at least it doesn’t feature a predatory lesbian, as many gay films seem to.

Scrambled Eggs

This is a fast, tasty breakfast. Top with chives and serve with toast.

 

Ingredients:

butter or margarine

4 eggs

6-8 tbsp cream (I use Oatly)

 

Instructions:

1. Melt the butter or margarine in a non-stick pan.

2. Whisk the eggs and cream together. Pour into the pan.

3. Let the eggs set for about 30 seconds, then continue to heat over a low flame while stirring (with a silicone or wooden spoon). The eggs should form into curd-like shapes.

4. When still soft and just barely set (about 3-4 minutes), serve.

Sourdough Pancakes

This is a nice change on the usual pancakes. Great with fruit and syrup/agave or cream.

 

Ingredients:

115 g flour (about 1 cup)

2 eggs

120 ml milk (I used rice milk – about 100 g)

150 ml sourdough starter (about 120 g)

1 pinch salt

1 tbsp sugar

oil

 

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together but the oil.

2. Warm the oil in a frying pan and fry the pancakes until golden on both sides.

Sourdough Bread

If you want, you can use an egg or milk wash on top of the bread, and/or you can also sprinkle it with seeds.

 

Ingredients:

130 ml milk (I use rice milk)

6 g fast-action dry yeast (about 1 tsp)

340 g strong white bread flour

20 g sugar

pinch of salt

15 g oil

190 g starter (about ¾ cup)

 

Instructions:

1. Warm the milk and sprinkle the yeast over it.

2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and oil together, then add the yeasty milk.

3. Mix in the starter. Knead well, then leave to rise for about an hour.

4. Knead, shape into a loaf, and let rise for another hour or so.

5. Bake at 190 C for about 30 minutes.

Sourdough Starter

The longer you leave it, the sourer the flavour. Often, the first breads you make with it don’t taste that sour, so keep trying. If it gets a strange colour, do not use it. It should be brownish-grey.

 

Remember to add back whatever you use from it. So if you use 100 g, add another 100 g flour and 100 g water.

 

Ingredients:

1 tbsp fast-action dried yeast

250 g flour

475 ml lukewarm water

 

Instructions:

1. Mix the ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

2. Cover and leave in a warm place for 4-8 days, until it has developed a sour smell.

Macarons

We’ve finally given in and made a trendy dessert. Yes, we made macarons. They seem fiddly but as long as you’ve got the proportions right, it’s not too hard. I looked at lots of recipes and it seems the egg to almond ratio should be about 120% and the egg to sugar (both types) about 50%.

 

To make chocolate macarons, replace 25 g of sugar with cocoa.

 

Make any buttercream or other filling you like. We used my chocolate ganache.

 

Ingredients:

140 g egg whites (about 4 medium eggs)

75 g granulated sugar

1 pinch salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

230 g icing sugar

115 g ground almonds (if they are not fine enough, mix in a food processor with the icing sugar)

 

Instructions:

1. Whisk the egg whites, granulated sugar, and salt until stiff. Add in the vanilla and whisk a little more.

2. Mix the icing sugar and almonds together and then add to the meringue. Stir well, until no longer stiff but not liquid either (25-35 strokes).

3. Pipe evenly onto parchment-lined baking trays. Knock the trays to get out any air.

4. Bake for 12-18 minutes at 150 C.

5. Let cool, then sandwich pairs of macarons together with filling.

Vegan Vanilla Coconut Ice Cream

This is a really simple, pleasant vegan ice cream. I like to serve it in the Scandinavian way, with jam (cloudberry jam is perfect).

 

Ingredients:

1 tin coconut milk

4-5 tbsp icing sugar, or more to taste

3 tsp vanilla

 

Instructions:

1. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth. Adjust amounts according to taste.

2. Freeze, then serve.

Four-Faced Liar

Yet another lesbian film that was obvious from the beginning. One character has a boyfriend and has clearly never thought about her sexuality. Then she meets another young woman who is a raging dyke (sleeps with different women every night; oh, and she wears men’s boxers and vests and waistcoats, and sits with her legs spread – stereotypical much?). Guess what happens?

Vegan Red Pesto

Ingredients:

½ bunch basil (about1/3 cup)

2-3 garlic cloves

50 ml olive oil

2 roasted red peppers (jarred is fine)

6-8 sun-dried tomatoes (ideally in oil)

40 g pine nuts

35 g nutritional yeast

black pepper to taste

 

Instructions:

1. Wash the basil. Peel the garlic.

2. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth.

Apple Cake

This is based on a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. I love the scientific nature of the magazine – I even enjoy reading the meat recipes just to get information on the science of cooking, even though I obviously do not cook or eat meat.

 

The premise of this recipe is that there are multiple layers to the cake. The bottom, biggest layer is a mix of fruit and custard. On top of that is a more cakey layer. You then sprinkle that with sugar for some crunch.

 

I adapted this recipe to simplify it, and to include spices, plus I added more fruit, because I like a cake with a lot of fruit. This is great with Oatly cream.

 

Ingredients:

750 kg apples (about 6-7 apples)

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tbsp apple juice (or, you can do as they suggested in the magazine and use Calvados or brandy)

1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour

1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1-2 tsp mixed spice

2-3 tsp cinnamon

1 egg plus 2 yolks

1 cup vegetable oil, plus a little extra for the tin

1 cup milk (I used rice milk)

 

Instructions:

1. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Then leave them to soak in the lemon and apple juices while you prepare the rest.

2. Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, the vanilla, and all the other dry ingredients.

3. Mix 1 egg, the oil, and the milk together, then whisk into the dry ingredients until well combined.

4. Remove 1 cup of this mixture and mix with the other 2 tbsp of flour. Set aside.

5. Whisk in the other two yolks into the main mixture, then add the apples and stir well.

6. Oil and line the tin.

7. Pour the apple mixture in and spread well.

8. Top with the flour mixture (i.e. the cakey layer) and spread well.

9. Sprinkle evenly with the extra 2 tbsp of sugar.

10. Bake at 170 C for 60-80 minutes.

Pesto Risotto

I used the pesto recipe I posted last and stirred it into risotto along with peas, broad (fava) beans, and corn. It was fantastic.