Golden cauliflower in a glorious sea green bed of ginger spinach

Your powers of multitasking will be required to create this dish of two stir fries. The cauliflower takes a little longer to cook, as the spinach is just being wilted, so start that cooking first. The golden colour comes from a mixture of powdered turmeric, as well as some grated fresh turmeric root.

In the golden cauliflower...

• half a red onion - roughly chopped
• 1 cup of cooked chickpeas
• 1 1/2 cups of cauliflower florets
• 3 cm length of turmeric root - grated using a ginger root grater
  
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of spanish smoked paprika
• olive oil for frying

• Saute all ingredients together in a heavy based pan - should take between 5 and 10 minutes

In the glorious sea green spinach...

• a generous colander full of washed and well drained spinach leaves
• a generous handful of green beans - topped and tailed and halved
• a cup of chopped shiitake mushrooms
• 2 cloves of garlic - chopped
• 4cm length of ginger root - grated
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• a splash of tamari
• olive oil for frying

• In a large wok, saute everything. Start with the garlic, cumin, mushrooms, and beans, cooking these on their own for about 1 minute. Add everything else and toss to ensure even mixing

Serve, with the spinach arranged in a ring around the plate, and the golden cauliflower in the centre. Squeeze half a lime lightly over the meals before serving.

TGV Pumpkin soup

Travelling to Cannes last week on the train, The VegHead knew that the rail buffet sarnies would be as edible as a monkey's earlobe. The day before travelllng, this soup was made, then warmed up again just before leaving and poured into a thermos.

Paris never seemed as welcoming...

In...

• 1/2 cup of chopped pumpkin - boiled til soft
• 1/2 cup of cooked chick peas
• 1 teaspoon of Berbere paste
• olive oil
• water

Do...

• lightly saute the chick peas with the paste
  
• mash the chick peas with a fork
• blend the cooked pumpkin with some water, to your desired soupy consistency
• mix through the mashed chickpeas
• take the train to Cannes. Take some pita bread with you. Go to the buffet car when you're hungry and ask for a large waxed paper cup to pour the hot soup into. Watch the fellow passengers eating vending machine sandwiches and feel superior.

Broad bean hommous

SheWhoMustBeFed fffzzzzzz'd up the pressure cooker today, so it was the VegHead's duty to follow up with some hommous. Unfortunately, SheWhoMustBefed was doing three batches of beans; adzuki, chickpea and butter beans. The adzuki beans got done first, leaving The VegHead with an hour before having anything to do as the chickpeas weren't ready.

How to pass the time?

Fiddle...fiddle......fiddle.....

Decided to lightly saute the garlic and cumin for the hommous.

Then had time to think and so decide to use half and half chickpeas and broad beans.

Fortunately by then the chick peas were ready!

What went in...

• half a cup of cooked chick peas
• half a cup of blanched broad beans
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder
• olive oil
• french walnut oil
• 1 tablespoon of tahini
• 1 tablespoon of water
  
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Doing....

• very lightly saute the garlic and cumin in a little olive oil
• blend / bamix everything together

Its a hing thing

Hing is the Indian name for asofetida, which together with a big, fat, grated root of fresh turmeric is the spice that gives the most to the flavour of this chick pea curry. Many recipes have asofetida thrown in to the hot oil at the beginning of cooking, together with the other dried spices and chillies. However The VegHead finds that its flavour is overcome and lost if this is done, and prefers instead to sprinkle a little in once most of the cooking has been done.

Friday's are the principal shopping day for the VegHead larder, and so Thursday nights tend to be "whatever is left" night. A shiny black-skinned aubergine begged to be eaten, and a pile of orange sweet potatoes just cried out to be culled somewhat. These, together with the big jar of chick peas in the fridge formed the basis for dinner.

The Thursday night larder:

• 1 medium aubergine - cubed
• 1 medium sweet potato - cubed
• 1 cup of cooked chick peas
  
• 1 small onion - diced
• 2 cloves of garlic - chopped
• 2 medium tomatoes - chopped
  
• 1 chilli - chopped
• 1 thumb sized turmeric root (substitute 2 teaspoons of turmeric powder if unavailable)
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds
• small pinch of fenugreek seeds
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1 clove
• 1/2 teaspoon of asofetida powder
  
• 1 tablespoon of miso (or substitute vegetable stock)
• sunflower oil
• water
• corn flour (or other thickening agent)
  

To do:

• dry roast the spice seeds for 10 minutes or so, then grind to a powder with a mortar and pestle
• roughly mash the chick peas with a "potato masher"
  
• fry the dried spices, chilli, onion and garlic over a low heat for a few minutes (if using powdered turmeric add at this stage too)
  
• add the chick peas, sweet potato, and aubergine. Mix thoroughly and cook covered over a low heat for several minutes
• add the tomato and miso, and enough water to cover. Bring to a steady, low simmer and maintain until the sweet potato and aubergine are tender but not mushy
• if using fresh turmeric root, grate and add now (best to only grate fresh turmeric root just before using or it browns quickly through oxidisation). Also add the asofetida powder. Simmer for another few minutes.
  
• thicken the sauce. The easiest way to do this is to scoop out the vegetables into a bowl using a slotted spoon, leaving just the sauce in the pan (off the heat). Then spoon out a little of the sauce into a small bowl, add a little corn flour, and mix all the lumps out with a fork. Then add the corn flour mix back into the rest of the sauce in the pan, and mix through thoroughly over a low heat. Then add the vegetables back in. This might sound fussy but it ensures a lump-free thickening experience at the expense of two extra bowls and a slotted spoon in the washing up.
• bring the saucepan back to a low simmer
• serve with rice or idli
  

Chick Pea and Brinjal with tumeric and methi leaves

This recipe relies pretty heavily on you having some fresh Turmeric Root. Though turmeric root is the source of the more common dried turmeric powder, it has a subtly different flavour. Turmeric root should is best grated on a ceramic ginger grater, just before you need to add it to the dish - it oxidises very quickly and then the bright orange turns a rusty brown.

The act of grating turmeric root is also recommended for anyone who wishes to go to an X-Files themed fancy dress party as The Cancer Man. It is incredibly staining, and even if you immediately wash your hands your finger tips will be left with an orange tinge reminiscent of a 2 pack a day habit for a day or so. It is quite a cheerful colour actually and will serve as a happy remembrance of a lovely meal even as you sit the next day in yet another interminable business meeting getting a numb arse, and an earache from all the corporate nonspeak.

Ingredients:

• a small onion, thinly sliced
• 2 baby brinjal (aubergine), cut into thin wedges. It is best not to cut the brinjal until just before you need it, as the cut flesh quickly oxidises and turns brown.
  
• 1 cup of cooked chick peas
• 1 small tomato, chopped
• 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon of dried black peppercorns
  
• 1/4 teaspoon of fennel seeds
• 3 cardamom (seed) pods
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
  
• 6-7cm (approx) long turmeric root, grated
  
• 1 cm (approx) of ginger root, grated
  
• tablespoon of light miso paste (or similar vegetable stock source)
• 1 cup (approx) of methi leaves
• (up to) 1 cup of water
  
• vegetable oil

Zee making:

• de-pod the cardamom seeds from the pods, and then dry roast together with all the other dried spice seeds for 5-10 minutes. Then grind to a course powder in a mortar and pestle.
• saute the spices, together with the onion
• add the chickpeas, tomatoes, miso paste, garlic, grated ginger and water and simmer for ten minutes on a low flame
• add the brinjal and the grated turmeric root continue to simmer for a minute or two. The brinjal should best be still a little crunchy. Simmer longer however if that is not to your taste.
• stir through the methi leaves and serve
  

* Image of turmeric root sourced gratefully from www.food-info.net

A superior Morrocan Hommous

Subtle variety is the reason that the masses trawl happily up and down the aisles of the supermarket, dazzled by the almost endless variations of milk, bread, snacks. This then is "Superior Moroccan Hommous" - as opposed to "Lesser Not-Moroccan Hommous".

Bushra tells it like it is, "Hommous should not be made with tahini. All these people, they put tahini in their hommous. Is no good. Makes you feel urgh-agh-ugh-ugh [for full effect, clutch your stomach and try to look as bloated as possible at this point]. These Greek people, these Lebanese, these whatever, they don't know that they are doing. Not like that in Morocco. We make the best hommous. No tahini. Chick peas....yes. Olive oil...yes. Garlic...yes.A pinch of cumin...yes. And it must be Morrocan cumin, not tthat terrible Indian cumin! A pinch of salt. Lemon juice. Blend and blend until smooth. More olive oil if you need, more lemon juice if you need."

Bushra might just be ever so slightly opinionated on this topic. She is however right that this variation makes for a lighter hommous.

Ffffsssssst

Ffffsssssst....That's the sound I can hear from downstairs.

SheWhoMustBeFed is doing her weekly task of pressure-cooking up a weeks worth of dried beans. This is a once a week task that provides all the beans in whatever we then cook. Almost every week we pressure-cook up a batch each of chick peas, butter beans, and one other.

The first two are staples in a number of other recipes that we cook every week (not that I've posted anything with butter beans in it yet but by the end of this week I will have). The latter we change depending on what we'll be cooking later; haricot, kidney, black, adzuki, black-eyed....

This process is much cheaper than buying precooked tinned beans, and comes with a lower "footprint" than using the more heavily pre-processed and packaged tins.

Moral: pressure cookers are your best friend (OK...a Bamix is your best friend who you see every day and a pressure cooker is like your other best friend who you only see once a week but who is a uniquely wonderful and useful person to know)

Hommous...Hommos...Hummus...its all just chickpea paste to me

The basic ingredients of hommous are something I've known for a while. Recently I have however discovered "the trick" that suddenly made for a much more evenly blended and light consistency.

What you need

• A lemon
• Light tahini
• One clove of garlic
• Water
• Olive oil
  
• Chick peas
• (Optional) chopped parsley

What to do

Here's "the trick"....what I used to do was blend up the chickpeas first and then add everything else. The resulting hommous was OK, but it could have been smoother IMHO. So then I thought...." Hhmm.....Tahini Sauce has almost the same ingredients as hommous only without the chickpeas.....I wonder....."

As an aside; if you've never made Tahini Sauce then here's what happens: When you blend tahini, water and lemon the mixture first gets amazingly gooey and then as you add just a l-i-i-i-i-ttle bit more water it suddenly changes consistency and becomes more a mousse consistency. You have to see this happen to understand the change.

So....blend in this order:

• half a lemon worth of lemon juice
• 1/4 cup of tahini
• 1 small clove of garlic
• (optional) a few sprigs of chopped parsley
• water (until it gets the mousse texture). At this point the mixture should be slightly "wet" as the chickpeas will then thicken the mixture.
  
• THEN....add and blend the cooked chickpeas until the mixture thickens to the desired consistency - I figure you've all bought ready-made-hommous so you know what you're aiming for. Remember that after refridgeration the mixture will thicken slightly.
  

Chick Pea and Beetroot tagine

Beetroot is a misunderstood thing. Gorgeously purple. and almost the entire plant is edible....but more on that at another time. Seeing as today we had potatoes at lunchtime (see "Roast Potato and Onion Soup) then it seemed too-much-of-a-good-thing to have a starchy vegetable at dinner time. Hence...beetroot.

Ingredients

• 2 medium beets. Top and tail, scrub and segment into smallish wedges
• 1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas ("garbanzo beans" if you're a seppo)
• 1 small onion. Thinly sliced.
• 1 clove of garlic. Chopped.
• 2 teaspoons of cumin powder.
• 2 teaspoons of ground pepper.
• Olive oil.
• Sesame oil.
• 2 tablespoons of light tahini.
• Water.

What to do..

• Preheat oven (I also put the empty tagine in straight away to begin to heat, while I get on with the preparation. As it is very heavy pottery it takes a long time for the tagine container itself to come to heat, and until it does the food inside is not cooking one little bit. Preheating the tagine can save you 30 minutes cooking time later)
  
• Combine all ingredients except for the sesame oil into a tagine. If you don't have a tagine then use any covered baking tray that is about 30cms in diameter.
  
• Add water until the level is about 1cm below the edge of your tagine.
• Bake on high for 45 minutes to 60 minutes
• Lightly drizzle on the sesame oil before serving

Nice with couscous (or other grain), or some steamed vegetables.