As Wairarapa continues to fail me in the provision of Malaysian food, I decided it was time to learn how to cook laksa.
The first experiment went well and the second was good enough that I thought I’d record it to help me iterate from there. I’ll be updating it as I get better at it, and I’m open to suggestions. (Updates: changed coconut milk to the light version because it was too fatty, increased lime juice)
It’s not “authentic” but it was delicious.
Laksa in the wok
Ingredients (serves 3-4)
2 tbsp cooking oil (canola)
3 tbsp Exotic Foods Thai red curry paste
1 tbsp crushed garlic
1 cup cauliflower cut into small pieces
1 cup broccoli cut into small pieces
1 cup capsicum cut into small pieces
1 cup button mushrooms cut into quarters
1 tsp Sambal Extra Pedas chili sauce
1.5 litre vegetable stock
2 tsp crushed ginger
400ml light coconut milk
500gm packet fresh noodles
250gm fried tofu puffs cut into quarters
3 tbsp lime juice
100gm mung bean sprouts
4 spring onions finely sliced
4 tbsp dried fried shallots (as garnish)
Instructions
Heat up the wok to medium and add the oil
Add the red curry paste and garlic, and simmer it for a minute or two
Add the cauliflower, broccoli and capsicum and cook for couple of minutes
Add the mushrooms and chili sauce and cooking for another minute or two
Add vegetable stock, bring to simmer and cook for another couple of minutes
Add ginger, coconut milk and noodles and return to simmer
Finish off by adding fried tofu puffs, lime juice, bean sprouts, spring onions, making sure tofu puffs are properly submerged
Serve into noodle bowls and top with a tablespoon of dried fried shallots
Last year’s Christmas trifle was a bit disappointing. The sponge wasn’t quite right, it wasn’t moist enough, and no one really liked it that much. I decided that I wasn’t going to bother again.
But then I had an idea – Ginger Kiss Trifle! I’d already made ginger kisses once and liked them, and I thought they’d make a deliciously flavoursome base for the trifle.
This is less of a recipe and more a set of instructions that relies on other recipes. Therefore you won’t find a complete list of ingredients at the start, and it’s all a bit approximate. Oh, and it’s all vegan of course.
It’s hard to take a good picture of trifle and this doesn’t even come close!
The Day Before
Step 1 – Make a double batch of these ginger kiss biscuits from The Vegan Apprentice. (You’ll make the icing the next day.)
Step 2 – Stew a couple of cups of fruit (rhubarb and apple was nice, but next time I’m going to try pear).
Step 3 – Make sure you have a can of coconut cream cooling in the fridge.
Step 4 – Make this caramel sauce from Jessica in the Kitchen and put it in the fridge to thicken.
On the day
Step 1 – Make the icing from the ginger kiss recipe – make sure it’s not too thick.
Step 2 – Put the first third of the ginger kiss biscuits down. Sprinkle with two tablespoons of brandy.
Step 3 – Spread the first half of the stewed fruit.
Step 4 – Pour/spoon on half of the caramel sauce.
Step 5 – Another layer of ginger biscuits with two more tablespoons of brandy.
Step 6 – Spread/spoon over the icing.
Step 7 – Another layer of stewed fruit.
Step 8 – The second half of the caramel sauce.
Step 9 – Last layer of biscuits.
Step 10 – Top with the whipped coconut cream (add a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla essence, and one or two tablespoons of brandy).
Step 11 – Put in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Step 12 – Just before serving, garnish with chopped crystallised ginger, or chocolate flakes, cherries, or whatever you fancy.
My latest challenge has to been to develop a good vegan pizza – without the use of vegan cheese. Obviously it wasn’t going to be cheesy but I wanted it to have a combination of flavours and textures that satisfied my pizza appetite.
At the same time, I also want to document the cast-iron skillet + grill (US: broiler) technique I use to cook pizza these days.
2 cups diced roasted potatoes (about 3 good sized potatoes)
1 leek – sliced
Method
The general order of things is:
Much earlier – make pizza dough and leave to rise
Earlier – roast potatoes
Make cashew sauce
Prep other ingredients
Make pizza
Eat pizza
Cashew sauce
Combine ingredients and blend.
The texture should be spreadable, add more extra virgin olive oil if required.
Pizza base
Mix yeast into warm water and leave 10 minutes to develop. It should froth up a bit. If it doesnt, either the water is too hot or the yeast is dead, try again.
Sift flour and salt into a large bowl.
Make a well, pour in yeast mixture and olive oil.
Mix to combine.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until it’s all the same consistency and springs back when pressed.
Apply a fine coat of olive oil, put back in the bowl and cover. Leave in a warm place until it has risen to at least twice the original size.
Pizza
Get everything ready first.
Take a third of the dough and roll out to the size of your skillet.
Heat the skillet to medium-hot and the grill to medium.
Put 1 tbsp of extra-light olive oil into the skillet.
Put the rolled out dough into the skillet.
Coat with about 2 tablespoons of the cashew cream and 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste (to taste).
Sprinkle leeks, roast potatoes, rosemary and salt.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the top.
Put the skillet under the grill.
Leave under the grill until it looks cooked (some slight blackening is expected).
Return the skillet to the burner and cook until the base is done (it should be nicely browned).
Dough
– 250ml / 9 oz / 1 cup fortified soya milk (or other non dairy milk)
– 1 tsp fast action / easy bake yeast
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tbsp neutral flavoured vegetable oil, such as rapeseed (canola)
– 500g / 17½ oz / 3½ cups plain (all purpose) flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 6 tsp mixed spice
– 200g / 7 oz / 1 packed cup sultanas or raisins
– 100g / 3½ oz / ½ cup Italian mixed peel
– Finely grated zest of 1 organic/unwaxed orange
-85ml / 3 fl oz / ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice (or other fruit juice)
Glaze
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice (or other fruit juice)
Method
Gently heat the milk until it is lukewarm. Remove from the heat and whisk in the yeast and sugar. After a couple of minutes the yeast will start to froth.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, spices. Stir in the sultanas, citrus peel and orange zest. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the oil, yeast milk mixture, and orange juice. Bring together the ingredients using your hands. The dough should be soft and sticky. Depending on the type of flour used, you may need to add a little more liquid.
Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes or so, until the dough is smooth. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel or oiled cling film (plastic wrap) and leave in a warm place for an hour or so until it has doubled in size. If your house is cool (like ours), cover with oiled foil and place in the oven at 40C / 100F for an hour.
When the dough has risen, knead for a further 10 minutes then divide into 12 or 15 equal size balls. To ensure that the buns are exactly the same size and bake evenly, I weigh the dough. My dough tends to weigh about 1.125kg, so I tear off 75g for medium size buns. Roll the dough into smooth balls and evenly space out on a large baking tray (28 x 40cm / 10 x 15”) lined with non stick baking paper. Cover with the damp tea towel, oiled cling film (plastic wrap) or foil and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes or so, until they have risen.
Heat the oven to 210C (190C fan) / 410F.
To make the crosses, mix 3 tbsp plain (all purpose) flour with 2 tbsp water to form a thick paste. Spoon into an icing bag with a thin nozzle (or a plastic freezer bag and snip the corner). Slowly pipe along each row of buns, then repeat in the other direction.
Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes on the middle shelf, until golden brown.
To make the glaze, gently boil the sugar and fruit juice in a small pan for about 5 minutes until it starts to thicken into a syrup. Brush over the buns while they’re still hot. Allow to set before serving. These buns are most delicious served warm or toasted.
The buns will last 2-3 days in an airtight container. They also freeze well. I tend to slice them in half before I freeze them so that they can be toasted without the need to defrost first.
This is a really simple vegetarian chilli that we make quite a bit. It is tasty with nachos, on rice, with baked potatoes, etc, etc.
It also freezes really well so we always have a few bags in the freezer ready for “Oh dear, what shall I cook?” dinners.
Think of this as a base and, if you follow these rough proportions, you can make all sorts of changes. Switch out one or more cans of kidney beans for black beans, add mushrooms or capsicum alongside the onions, do your own spicing, etc, etc.
Ingredients
Tablespoon of frying oil (canola, light olive oil, etc)
Preheat oven to 190c. Arrange eggplant slices on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spray/paint with olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large non-stick pan and cook onion and garlic until softened.
Add tomatoes, pesto, sugar and chilli. Simmer for about 4 minutes until sauce has reduced. Add most of the basil. Season to taste.
Place half of eggplant slices in lightly greased baking dish. Spoon over half of the sauce. Repeat layers.
Bake for 15 minutes and serve garnished with remainder of the fresh basil.
Kim Edit: I quite like adding roasted asparagus, roasted mushroom, 2 tablespoons of cut up sundried tomato and 2 tablespoons of marinated artichoke. Yum.
This is a straight cut’n’paste of the delicious tabouli recipe from here (well, with half as much pepper). I make it quite a lot and got tired of searching for it each time.
2 cups bulgur or cracked wheat
2 cups very hot water
1 cucumber, chopped
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1 bunch green onions, (8) sliced
1/4 – 1/2 cup fresh chopped mint, to taste
2 cups fresh chopped parsley
1 clove garlic, minced (optional)
Dressing
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Method
Soak the cracked wheat in the hot water until the water is absorbed, about 30 minutes. When it’s ready, drain any excess water, if necessary, and squeeze dry.
Meantime, prepare the vegetables for the salad and mix the dressing ingredients together. Set aside.
Stir the prepared bulghur, other salad ingredients, and dressing together in a medium bowl.
Serve chilled or at room temperature. Makes about 8 cups, 12 to 16 servings.
