VEGETABLE STOCK

The organic vegetable stock cubes or granules that are sold in organic stores are very expensive and I have resisted buying them all the while. So it was by such lucky chance that I came across this great blog called Indonesia Eats or The Art and Science of Food by Pepy, Budi Nasution and Co. They had this wonderful recipe for a vegetable broth which they had taken from a magazine called Canadian Living and which they had modified. It looked so good, so golden and rich that I had to try it and save myself some money and avoid chicken stock which has fat in it. Thank you Pepy and Budi!

The combination of shitake mushrooms, celery, carrots and herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme make it a very flavourful broth and I am going to use it for a vegan recipe that I hope to try tomorrow. If it turns out yummy I will be posting it soon otherwise you'll know why I didn't.

In the meantime make this veggie stock and freeze it paper cups, unmould them and throw them in instead when a recipe calls for chicken stock.



The recipe.......

1 cup shitake mushroom, cleaned with a brush
3 each of carrots, onions and celery
1 head of garlic
2 tbsp vegetable oil
sprig of thyme
sprig of rosemary
sage
10 peppercorns, broken
2 or 3 bay leaves
8 cups of water
seasalt

Place musrooms, carrots, onions, celery and garlic on a baking tray. Sprinkle with teh oil and mix well. Roast in the oven at 230 C for 40 minutes until brown.



Fill a pot with 8 cups of water and throw in the roasted veggies and the herbs and peppercorns. Boil and simmer for 40 minutes to an hour until the stock is a deep brown. add sea salt if you like. Or you can crumble in some dried mushrooms for more flavour.

When done strain through a asieve and cool. Store in paper cups in freezer for about 4 months or in the fridge for 4 days.

LENTILS AND DUMPLINGS (DHAL PITHEE)

I think this week is going to be health week for me. And you. I've been looking at vegan food blogs and all those healthy recipes have aroused a certain amount of envy in me. Envy at the way some people have the discipline and the appetite for vegan food 24/7, 365 days a year, year in year out. They must be a really healthy group of people to be living and eating like that so I thought I would join them. For a week. Perhaps.

Although this recipe for dhal or lentils is completely vegan it looks sooo good and yummy that I just had to try it. I got this from the Nomadic Gourmet (who is not vegan but has some vegan- like recipes on her/his blog). Thanks Nomadic Gourmet! He/she is a Grenadian/American and this is a Carribbean dish probably with some Indian influence. So being the ignorant cannibal that I am I asked the expected question. Where is Grenada? Grenada she/he answered is in the Carribbean, in between Trinidad and Tobago and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

That in turn reminded me of V.S. Naipaul who is Trinidadian which in turn reminded me of his novel The Mimic Men in which this nursery rhyme was echoed throughout the book.."Who comes here? A Grenadier. What do you want? A pot of beer.."

Since completing that book I was never able to shake off that little nonsensical jingle from my head no matter how hard I frisked it or how much water I dripped in one ear and out the other and no matter how hard I banged my head on the kitchen wall and the sink. So I did the inevitable. I googled and looked up the rest of the rhyme just so I could have some closure. And then one day, thank God, I found the rest of it which went like this...."Where's your money? I've forgot. Get you gone. You drunken sot! Well at the least I now know whether the Grenadier got his beer or not. Thank be to God.

Now back to the dhal... Ummmm...ahh.... yes.. I was attracted to this recipe because of the dumplings. I love dumplings. At least I imagine that I love dumplings. I've never eaten them before but by the instincts of the recipe junkie that I am I thought and I was quite certain that it was something within the periphery of YUM. So that started me drooling.

The ingredients were what I had on my shelf, in my kitchen cupboard and in my spice rack. So dumplings and dhal were what I made today. And it was yum. If only I had some Indian roti like capati or roti canai to go with it today that would have been even better.



Here's the recipe.....with some minor adjustments....

1 cup split peas or red or yellow dhal/lentils
1 tspm tumeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp meat curry powder
1/2 tsp whole cumin
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp oil
3 cups water

Dumplings :

I also made some adjustments to the dumpling recipe by adding a teaspoon of baking powder to the flour. It was a little softer and ok but still not entirely satisfactory so I will be giving two dumpling recipes here for those of you who would like to try the second version which I had got from Betty Crocker's cookbook. It contains shortening and milk though.

The dumpling dough should be made first before the dhal.

1st dumpling recipe: (close to the original)

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup water, more or less

Mix dry ingredients and then pour water in a little at a time and bring together until it forms a soft but firm dough. Keep aside.

2nd dumpling recipe : (Betty Crocker's )

3 tbsp shortening
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 Tbsp dried parsley flakes if desired
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 milk

Cut shortening into the flour, parsely, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, using a knife or pastry blender until mixture is like breadcrumbs. stir in milk. mix well and keep aside. This recipe yields a little bit more so you could halve it if you like.


The Dhal/Lentil curry :

Place the dhal/lentils, tumeric, ground cumin and chopped onion into a pot. Pour in the water and let boil for about 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft but still whole. Add salt.

Carefully drop teaspoonfuls of the dumpling dough into the pot over the lentils and cook until the dumplings are done. Maybe 15 minutes.

In a seperate small pot, heat up the oil. Add the whole cumin, garlic and fry till the cumin pops and the garlic soft. Add to the lentil/dhal and dumpling curry (don't omit this step because it makes such a difference and adds so much flavour). Stir and adjust for salt. Serve hot preferably with capati or roti canai.



PS : The curry may be adjusted to make it thinner if you prefer by adding more water.

Cucumber, Carrot & Pineapple Chutney

This is a simple and quick chutney. It's spicy and sweet at the same time and to make it even more appetizing you can add small chunks of salted fish and some preserved limes. Salted fish would be a such a delish addition. In fact it would be so good that I can almost savour it as I write this.

In addition to the vegetables below you can also add young sour mangoes that have been sliced to roughly the same size as the cucumber and carrots. The mustard seeds give it a nutty crunch and provides a a good contrast of texture to the soft vegetables.

1 medium cucumber, cut into 1 inch strips and remove centres
1 medium carrot, cut into 1 inch strips, same size as the cucumbers
1 very small pineapple, a ripe one, peeled, cut into small slices
4 medium onions, quartered

4 tbsp curry powder (I used a meat curry powder)
4 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp vinegar, (I used apple cider)
2 tbsp mustard seeds

1 inch ginger, pounded to a paste
4 cloves garlic, pounded to a paste

4 tbsp cooking oil

Prepare the vegetables and put aside.

Mix the curry powder with some water to form a fairly thin paste the consistency of pouring cream.

Saute the pounded ginger and garlic in about 4 tablespoons of oil until fragrant. Add mustard seeds and stir for about one minute, then add the curry paste and saute for a further 3 - 5 minutes until fragrant and the paste turns a darker shade.

Add the vegetables, vinegar, sugar and salt and stir to coat the vegetables with the spices. Leave to simmer untilteh vegetables are tender and adjust salt to taste.

Maybe served cold and any extra may be kept in a glass jar in the fridge. To serve just bring it to room temperature by letting it sit on the table for as long as is required.

TIP : When sauteing a curry paste you may add some water to loosen it up if the mixture gets too dry. It takes a good few minutes for the spice paste to cook through and is done when it turns a shade darker than the original colour.