Daal and Chapatis

Ah daal, the poor students staple, it costs about $1.20 to make and can feed you for a week, and the best part is that it is so versatile. What ever you've got it can probably go in daal.


You'll need


2 cups lentils (I used brown)
1 brown onion roughly chopped
1 tomato roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
4 tsp cumin
4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp biryani seasoning
Salt to taste


Rinse lentils well and remove any that are discoloured. Place lentils into a saucepan and cover with 4 cups of boiling water.
Add a few pinches of salt and place a lid on the saucepan, boil for 10 -15 minutes or until lentils begin to soften. Adding more water if necessary.
Once lentils are softened fry off onion in a saucepan until browned.
Add the lentils to the onion, add tomatoes, garlic and ginger and cook for  minute or two.
Add spices and simmer for another 10 minutes or until lentils are fully cooked, if the mixture begins to dry add more boiling water.
I like to taste the daal throughout the cooking process and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Chapatis


2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
2 tsp olive oil


While the daal is simmering you can prepare the chapatis.
Place flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
Add half the water and the olive oil and mix together.
Add the rest of the water slowly until you form a soft dough.
Roll the dough into small balls and then roll flat using a rolling pin on a well floured surface.
Cook one at a time in a hot frying pan. Cook for 2 minutes on either side and serve warm with daal.


This recipe is just a guide, honestly you can put any mix of vegetables and spices into it and it will still taste awesome! Enjoy Xx

Shiitake Miso Soup

This is probably the easiest simplest thing to cook....ever.  And it's tasty


A handful of dried shiitake mushrooms sliced
2 pieces dried black fungus
Pinch sliced dried seaweed
2 teaspoons white miso paste
2 spring onions sliced.
2 cups boiling water


Re-hydrate the fungus and shiitake in some boiling water for 10 minutes or until soft (if your shiitake mushrooms are whole this will take longer).
Place miso paste in small heavy bottomed sauce pan and add a small amount of the water from the mushrooms to mix through.
Add water then mushrooms and spring onions and cook over a medium heat until boiling, reduce heat and add seaweed.
Allow to simmer for 1 or 2 minutes.
Rest for 5 minutes and then serve


Variations: Cubes of silken tofu are also really good in this dish, I just didn't have any on hand. Also fresh mushrooms can be used and some grated ginger...other ingredients which I don't currently have.

Mushroom and Snow Pea Salad

This salad is really simple, it seems too simple, but comes out incredibly tasty. You can add any vegetables you want but this is the traditional way my mum makes it. Play around with the dressing, all measurements are approximates, this is something I generally do by sploshing the ingredients together until it tastes good. Some fresh cucumber or steamed  and cooled broccolini would also be great additions.


Salad
250 grams button mushrooms - sliced
1 red capsicum  - cut into strips
500 grams snow peas - topped and tailed
Dressing
2 tsp fresh ginger - grated
2 tbsp sherry
1 red chilli - finely chopped
1 tbsp sweet soy
1 tbsp light soy


Arrange snow peas around the edges of a serving plate


Combine dressing ingredients and mix well.


In a bowl toss mushrooms capsicum and dressing.


Place mushroom mixture in the centre of your serving plate.


Top with freshly chopped coriander (optional)

Crumbed Mushrooms

So simple and sssssssssssoooooooo tasty. We had some friends over for drinks last night and having about $20 between us needed cheap and simple snacky food to feed them. This recipe has everything you could possibly want...
Crispy deep fried goodness? Tick
Mushrooms? Tick
What else do you need?
You can also add any flavourings you like to the crumbs, I used some fresh herbs but you can experiment with chilli's, curry powder, really anything you want.


What you'll need...


Button mushrooms....as many as you want...less is NOT more!
Plain flour
Soy milk
Panko breadcrumbs
Mixed fresh herbs ( I used parsley, lemon thyme and garlic chives)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil for deep frying.


Put your oil on to heat.
Chop up your herbs finely and add to bread crumbs, you can use any breadcrumbs but I really recommend Panko, they are extra crispy! Mix through a few tsp of salt and pepper.
You'll need to make a little production line, have  a plate of flour, a bowl of soy milk and a plate of the crumb mixture set up.
Brush any dirt off mushrooms and trim of any long stems.
Dip your mushrooms one at a time into soy milk, coat in flour, re-dip into soy milk and then roll in crumbs. Set aside until all are crumbed and ready for frying.
If I can stress anything it would be make sure you flour them first! If you just directly crumb the mushroom all your crumbs will float off as soon as you put them into the hot oil.
I test my oil by putting a cube of bread in, if it floats and bubbles your oil is hot enough.
Lower the mushrooms carefully into the hot oil and cook in batches until all are golden and crisp, should take about 2-3 mins per batch.
Drain on some paper towel to soak up any extra oil.
Serve warm with a few beers and some good friends!

Banana and Fig Cake with Passionfruit Icing

Hey hey!
The Rocklea markets have reopened for the first time since the  Queensland floods and I am able to purchase lovely fruits and vegetables once again. The price of fruits and vegetables in the supermarkets has been exorbitant, eg $10 a kg for tomatoes, where as when I went to the markets yesterday they were selling better looking tomatoes for 99c a kg, makes me wonder how the supermarkets can justify that kind of price.
They were selling huge bags of banana's for $1 and fresh figs for only $5 a kilo so I ended up with a surplus.
This cake is really moist and fudgey. I like to eat it warm but it also keeps well in the fridge. 


You'll need;


3 Ripe bananas - mashed
3 ripe Figs - mashed (you can leave these out)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup of plain flour
2 eggs worth of no egg replacer
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
2/3 cup soy milk


I also added a handful each of chopped dates and walnuts that I had left over from making my christmas cake.


Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius
Cream sugar, bananas and figs until creamy then add egg substitute and mix until just combined.
Stir in half of the flour and the cinnamon until combined, add soy milk hen stir in the remaining flour and vanilla essence.
Place into a greased loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely before icing.




For icing you'll need
1 passionfruit
1/2 a tub of vegan cream cheese
1/3 cup of icing sugar


Combine ingredients until smooth and creamy then pour over cake, if the icing seems too runny add more icing sugar or chill for one hour before icing your cake.

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Sticky Berry Scrolls (aka ugly buns)

I felt like baking today, it's still raining and I am really beginning to run out of things to do. I made these up on a whim, but they sure are delicious, you've got flaky doughy parts, gooey fruity parts, and yummy sticky parts, all of which get the thumbs up in my book.
These are kind of like a cross between a sticky bun (they're really very sticky) and a fruit scone. Try them, seriously.


For the buns;


Self Raising Flour - 1.5 cups
Dairy free margarine - 2 tbsp softened(I use nuttelex)
Cinnamon - 1 tbsp
Soy Milk - 1/2 cup


Place you flour in a bowl and rub through your margarine pinching with your fingers until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs.
Add cinnamon and then milk and combine to form a soft dough.
Dough should be soft but not overly sticky, if too sticky add more flour.
Knead for a minute or two and leave somewhere cool until ready to use.


For the filling;


Mixed Berries - 1.5 cups (I used a frozen mix of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries
Caster Sugar - 1/2 cup
Dairy free margarine - 1 tbsp
Golden Syrup - 1 tbsp


I used golden syrup because I didn't have any brown sugar, if you do use it instead of caster and leave out the syrup.


Melt butter in a small saucepan, add sugar, berries and syrup and mix until sugar begins to melt and the mixture becomes thick and sticky (should only take 1-2 minutes) remove from heat and set aside.


Bring it all together;


Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease a muffin tin (I used a large texas tin and made 6, if you only have a smaller tin cut your portions smaller to make more)
Flour a clean surface and roll out your dough into a rough rectangle shape at least 30cm long and 15 cm wide.
Spread your berry mix over the dough leaving a good gap near the edges.
Roll up the dough so you get a long roll, don't worry if some mix spills out.
Slice the roll into portions to fit your muffin tray. Scoop up any berries that fall out and put them on the top of your scrolls.
Cook in middle of oven for 15-18 minutes until scrolls are golden and sauce is bubbling. I recommend putting a lipped tray underneath you muffin tray as the sauce is prone to bubbling over.
Let the scrolls rest in the tin for 5 minutes then remove. Flip them when you remove them from the tray so that the flat berry soaked side is on the top. Scoop out any remaining sauce and berries from the tin and drizzle over your scrolls.
They're not that pretty but they sure do taste good! Also they are this fantastic rich purple colour, not enough foods are purple in my opinion. Enjoy Xx

Serve warm and sticky!

Ok so they're not that ugly...

Vegan Lasagne

So it's been raining for days...it's cold and windy and miserable, nothing to cheer you up like a gigantic portion of saucy, yummy, cheesy, tomatoey lasagne-ey goodness!

Make up a big portion of your favourite tomato based pasta sauce...or use the one below

You'll need

Brown Onion - 1 large diced

Garlic - 4 cloves crushed

Sliced mushrooms - 1 cup 

TVP - 800 g, I use the tinned casserole mince

Tomato Paste - 4 tbsp

Baby Spinach - 2 handfuls

Pasta Sauce - 1 jar

Mixed Herbs

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Fry onion for 2 minutes then add sliced mushrooms cook for a minute more then add garlic and stir well.

Add all other ingredients and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add what ever herbs you like, I used fresh parsley and thyme and dried oregano and basil.

While it's simmering make your Cheese Sauce 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and prepare your lasagne by using alternating layers of lasagne sheets, pasta sauce and cheese sauce (Buy instant lasagne sheets they are so easy to use). Cover the top in cheese sauce and sprinkle with fresh parsley. Cook for 40 minutes so top is nice and brown.