Saturday, February 28, 2015

Sautéed vegetables with quinoa and walnut crêpe.

Time : 31 minutes





Ingredient for one person

Pasta :
100g of flour
50g of water
Salt

Crêpe :
5 walnuts (or other nuts if you prefer)
Salt
Nutmeg
3 tablespoons of flour
A few spoons of soya milk (or other cereal milk)
1/2 tablespoon of starch (tapioca, potato, maize, as you wish...)
A bit of vegetable oil

Vegetables :
Soya sauce (Shoyu or tamari or if you want it it sweet, kecap manis and so on)
1 onion
Leek
Fennel
A few garlic cloves
3 tablespoons of quinoa
Paprika
Black pepper
Turmeric
1 piece of fresh ginger
Water
1 lettuce leaf (I used iceberg lettuce)

Preparation

If you have no time, skip the first part and buy some pasta. :)
Pour the flour in a bowl, add a few pinches of salt, slowly add water until the dough becomes smooth and doesn't stick too much. Leave it in a cool place while preparing the other parts of the recipe. When time comes to cook them, flatten the dough slice it in small pieces (or rasp it) and boil them.

Boil the quinoa with a bit of water (many people rinse the quinoa before boiling it, I never do so), once ready, add some turmeric and soya sauce, mix, serve it on the lettuce leaf.

Meanwhile, chop a piece of leek, a piece of fennel, one onion and some garlic cloves, ginger, stir-fry them, add in the end some soya sauce, paprika powder, black pepper, turmeric and the pasta (or noodles if you wish), mix, it's ready.

For the crêpe : pour the starch flour, a pinch of salt and a pinch of nutmeg in a bowl and small pieces of walnuts, slowly add the soya milk (if you have no cereal milk, water is fine too) while mixing until the dough is more or less like a paste, a bit liquid but not watery.
Fry in a very hot pan with a bit of oil.

You can eat now !

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Vegetable lasagna.

Time : 20 - 30  minutes preparation + 40 minutes cooking



Ingredient for two persons

Pasta (lasagna sheets) :
300g of flour (I used white flour)
150g of water
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt

Filling :
2 or 3 big tomatoes (some of my favourite ones for cooking are beef tomatoes, plum tomatoes or black krim, all are sweeter and less acidic than most common varieties, beef tomatoes also contain less water).
Fresh spinach, nettles (only use young leaves) and or garden orache. I usually combine oraches and nettles.
Orach can be found in the wild and gardens in Eurasia, North America, Australia, maybe other places ? I easily found some in Belgium, Germany and Yunnan (China).
Salt
1 big onion
Paprika or chilli
2 tablespoons of olive oil
A few garlic cloves
Cashew nuts or other nuts

Sauce :
2 glasses of oat flakes
75cl of water (3 glasses)
2 tablespoons of flour
Salt
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Nutmeg powder

Or

75 cl of cereal milk (oat, soya...)
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
3 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of starch (maize, potato or tapioca starch for example)
Salt
Nutmeg powder


Preparation

If you have no time, skip the first part and buy some dried vegan lasagna pasta. :)
Pour the flour in a bowl, add a few pinches of salt, and oil, slowly add water until the dough becomes smooth and doesn't stick too much. Leave it in a cool place while preparing the other parts of the recipe.

Slice or cut tomato dice, slice the onion, add two tablespoons of olive oil and crushed garlic put them together in a bowl with paprika, chilli, salt, mix. You can also simply blend them all together.

Coarsely chop the spinach / nettle (wear gloves !) / orach leave add some salt.

Put the oat flakes and water in a blender, mix, filter with a sieve, keep the flakes for something else (bread, fruit salad, biscuits...).
Dissolve the flour (and starch if you use starch) in a cup of cold water, mix with a spoon while you cook the oat milk, when the oat milk boils, add the flour dissolved in water, thoroughly mix until it sets, remove from the fire, add the olive oil, a few pinches of salt, a bit of nutmeg, and pepper.
Thanks to the home made oat milk the sauce should be very thick, if not, add some more flour or starch dissolved in cold water, boil again. I like it when it looks like a paste - it's a bit similar to a vegan béchamel sauce.

When you're done with the vegetables and white sauce :
Take your dough, cut it in four equal parts, flatten them, add a bit of flour in your fresh pasta machine (if you don't have any, use a rolling pin but the dough might be less thin), pass the pasta through the machine's rollers a few times until it is smooth, add some flour if it's a bit sticky, fold the dough over in two, and continue to pass through a few more times until the pasta is smooth again. Adjust the machine to make the dough thinner and thinner. If using a rolling pin : add some flour on the pin and the working space, and roll from the center until the dough becomes thin enough.

Now, add the tomato mix at the bottom of a plate, then a layer of pasta, a layer of orach / nettle /spinach and some cashew nuts, a layer of sauce, a layer of pasta, a layer of tomato mix, and so on.
The last layer should be made of the white sauce.

Put the plate in a pre-heated oven at 180°C/350°F and bake during approximately 40 minutes.

I'll upload a better photo in spring !

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Carrot, sunflower seeds, cinnamon bread.


Time : 20 minutes preparing + at least 1 hour raising + 40 minutes baking



Ingredients

500g of flour (I used a mix of white and wholemeal flour)
10g of yeast (more or less) or 75 to 100g of sourdough
Water
1 big carrot
Sunflower seeds as you wish
3 tablespoon of sugar
1 level tablespoonful of cinnamon powder

Preparation

Mix the yeast (fresh or dry) or the sour dough (fresh or dry) in a cup of water until it dissolves
Make tiny carrot slices or rasp it, put it in a bowl with the seeds, cinnamon, sugar and flour, mix a bit.
Add the cup of yeast or sour dough to the flour and other ingredients with some more water at room temperature while kneading until the dough doesn't stick to your hands anymore or almost. Now, just knead the dough during more or less ten minutes, add some water or flour if too dry or too wet.
Once it really doesn't stick anymore, add some flour around the daugh.

Put some flour at the bottom of a a plate and leave the dough on it, cover it with a towel, let it raise at room temperature or in a warm place.
After one to four hours (or more if you wish, sometimes I leave it 24h to give it a little sour taste and the bread is lighter, longer you wait - until a certain limit - more gas will be produced), put it in the oven (preferably preheated), bake at 170°C/340°F until the crust gets light brown (it should take about 40 minutes), turn off, wait a few minutes, take it out and let it cool down if you're patient (if not : when the bread is very hot, it's less easy to slice it properly and a bit sticky).

Enjoy.

Another way of raising bread : each time I make some dough, I keep one small portion aside (about a small cup of coffee) on which a add a bit of water, cover, and leave in a fridge, add some water again every 24 hour), once I decide to make a new bread I take this dough out, leave it at room temperature during a few hours and use it in stead of yeast, the bread then raises more slowly but it works.
You can also make you own sourdough, it's pretty easy but it is a slow process the first time (then, you can make loaves with fermented dough from a previous batch, check on Wikipedia).

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Banana dahl with soygurt and rice.

Time : about 30 minutes


Ingredients for two persons

2 cups of rice+ 4 cups of water
4 cups of red split lentils + 8 cups of water
1 well ripe banana
1 onion
1 piece of leek
1 small piece of fresh ginger
4 big garlic cloves
A few tea spoons of curry powder (my mix was : 1/2 tea spoon of turmeric, 1/2 tea spoon of coriander, 1/2 tea spoon of cumin, 1/4 tea spoon of mustard seeds powder, 1/4 tea spoon of ground fenugreek, chilli powder, 1/4 tea spoon of cardamom powder)
1 spoon of soygurt
Salt
Pepper
Paprika or chilli powder
Oil (olive or sesame) - optional

Preparation

While cooking the rice, slice the banana, onions, garlic, leek and add them to the 8 cups of water and lentils in a pot and all the spices and some salt, boil gently for about 30 minutes.

When ready, serve the rice, dahl and one spoon of soygurt on top of it with ground black pepper and paprika (or chilli powder), you can add one spoon of oil on top of it.

Another way to make it is to fry the onions, leek and minced garlic and then add a slice banana with the spices, once the banana has malted, add water, lentils, salt and let it gently boil.