Dear Jen...

Books for Cooks

2008-02-06T20:52:00.000Z

D and I are both avid bibliophiles. The walls of our house are lined with books of all types but I have a special passion for cookbooks. About 90% of my collection is vegetarian ranging from 1902 to the present day. I love searching out old books from the sixties and seventies especially ones from restaurants that were around at the time. It's amazing to see how the cuisne has evolved over the years as we've learned more and more about nutrition.

Jen gets to use my collection as her own personal lending library so I thought she'd like a visual catalogue of what's available. So here goes:

Bottom shelf is my magazine collection. Mainly BBC Vegetarian Good Food, Vegetarian Times, Donna Hay, VegNews, Herbivore and some other random food mags.

Theres a few more small paperbacks hiding in the kitchen and a pile by the side of the bed but that about covers it.

Dal-ightful

2008-02-01T19:31:00.000Z

More dal recipes for dinner this week - perfect winter comfort food.

First up moth bean dal with mango. Moth beans cooked with tumeric, panch phoran (fenugreek, mustard, nigella, fennel and cumin seeds, toasted and roughly ground), chilli, curry leaves and grated unripe mango. Served with spinach and garlic greens and chapati.

Next up, urad dal with ginger, garlic, chilli and poppy seeds from Bittman's 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian'. There's some basmati rice hiding under there somewhere.

Finally last night's dinner, and shock horror it's not dal. Stir-fry (or super-fry as we call it). Tofu triangles with orange and green peppers, sugar snap peas, baby corn and carrot cooked in ginger, garlic, soy and mushroom ketchup.

Dal-icious

2008-01-28T16:44:00.000Z

Another bean recipe for dinner last night. This one comes from "The Ultimate Dal Cookbook" by Mona Verma and is simply called 'Delicious Black Beans'. It uses black turtle beans which I found in Tesco and which are pretty quick cooking. I've cut down on the oil suggested in the recipe to make it more diet friendly and served it with Gujerati courgettes and chapati.

Delicious Black Beans
(serves 4)
1 cup black turtle beans soaked overnight
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin seed
2 tsp coriander seed
2 tsp minced ginger
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 - 1/2 tsp chilli powder (to taste)
1/2 tsp garam masala
400g chopped tomatoes
2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp lime juice

- Drain and rinse the beans, put them in a pan with the turmeric and plenty of water. Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 40 mins or until tender. The cooking time will depend on how long they have been soaked for.
- While the beans are cooking, lightly toast the cumin and coriander seeds and then grind them to a rough powder.
- When the beans are ready, heat the oil and add the ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, garam masala and chilli and cook for a couple of minutes on a low heat until fragrant and combined.
- Add the chopped tomato and dried fenugreek, cook for a few more minutes.
- Add the beans and lime juice and simmer for 10 mins, then serve.

Gujerati Courgette Salad
(serves 2)
2 medium courgettes
2 tsp oil
1 tbs black mustard seeds
1 tbs lemon juice

- Coarsely grate the courgettes and drain them on kitchen paper to remove excess moisture
- Heat the oil in a lidded pan and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds start to pop against the lid, add the courgettes and stir the mustard seeds through.
- Add the lemon juice and and stir until everything is heated through.
- Serve immediately.

Bittman's Bites

2008-01-18T18:43:00.000Z

When I first heard the title of this book I have to say my first response was "Oh really, everything huh?" but cookbook addict that I am I couldn't resist so into the Amazon cart it went.

Once it arrived I settled down on the sofa, sticky tabs and tea at hand, and worked my way through the 996 pages. There are some great aspects to this book, most notably the green information boxes and the recipe variations. The information boxes were full of really interesting and useful information and not just the standard conversion charts and bean/grain cooking times (although they're in there too). Some of my favourites were:

- Rice Salad Variations: Hippie, Cuban, Wild, French etc.
- 10 Good Fruit Cheese and Nut combinations
- 25 Fast and Easy Ways to Spin Tomato Sauce
- Substituting Leaveners
- Vegetarian Thickeners at a Glance

Along the same lines were the recipe variations. These were included at the end of many of the recipes and ranged from how to change the character of a dish completely (Braised Lentils Spanish Style become Moroccan, Ethiopian etc) to subtle changes and substitutions.

There's a huge section of the book that lists vegetables alphabetically giving information on what they are and how to cook them. Much of this section could have been replaced with a few more of the information boxes so that rather than a recipe in every section that explains how to steam that vegetable, there could be a box with basic instructions and steaming times for all veg. If you're entirely new to cooking with and eating veg then this section is probably very helpful, but if you've been veggie for a while you might find it a bit dull.

That said, there were plenty sticky tabs hanging from the pages by the time I'd finished but they tended to be clustered around the salad, bean and grain chapters where all the individual components in the book come together. I was very much drawn to the bean section where almost every second recipe was rewarded with a marker. There's some really unusual recipes in here full of complex flavours. After a tricky short-listing process here's what I tested:

Autumn Millet Bake

Inspired by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks I launched my testing with this recipe, adding a can of chickpeas to turn it into a complete meal. The combination of cranberries, squash and sage is deliciously savoury making this the perfect winter comfort food.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Red Pepper Vinagrette
Tasty, but next time I would add more roasted peppers to the dressing.

Braised Lentils Spanish Style
I substituted black beluga lentils for the brown called for. Slow cooked with garlic, saffron, smoked paprika and wine. The results were delicious served with crusty bread and a few strips of roasted red pepper.

Esspresso Black Bean Chilli
I didn't have any dried black beans so used chickpeas instead and I only added one tablespoon of the quarter cup of sugar suggested. The coffee and cinnamon lend this chilli a subtly complex flavour. Another hit.

Mung Bean Dal with Apples, Coconut and Mint
Again I ditched the sugar in this Thai inspired Dal as I felt the apples made it sweet enough. It's very rich due to the coconut milk so this would be special occasion only. It's really crying out for some chopped fresh tomatoes as a garnish but we didn't have any.

Spicy Red Beans, Indian Style
This recipe called for a spoonful of almost everything in my spice drawer (ginger, garlic, fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and tumeric) producing an incredibly fragrant dish. Next time I would cut the ground cardamom from one tablespoon to two teasspoons as the flavour is quite prominent.
Other recipes I plan to try in the future include:
- Faux Pho
- Quinoa Salad with Lemon, Spinach and Poppy Seeds
- White Beans Tuscan Style
- Urad Dal with Poppy Seeds and Cilantro
- Fruit and Nut Bread (or at least one of the 11 variations)
- The smoked tea (Lapsang Suchon) and Chinese spiced variation to the esspresso chilli

I do feel that this book is larger than it needs to be but once you get past the encyclopeadia section there are some real gems.

Highly Recommended.

Resolving, Revolving

2008-01-08T21:03:00.000Z

As promised the recipes around here are taking a turn for the lighter side. Once again I find myself at the start of a new year resolving to eat more healthily and shed a few pounds. Perhaps it'll be easier to keep it going this year with the eyes of the blog world (or at least a couple of you) on my dinner plate.

Today's dish is an old favourite inspired by a recipe in Rose Elliot's Bean Book. The directions are a little vague but unless your baking there's always a little room for manoeuvre in a recipe. This is perfect comfort food for me, easy to make, filling and mellow. No one ingredient shouts for attention everything just cooks down into a delicious stew.

For the rest of this week I'll be cooking recipes from Mark Bittman's new book 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' and will post a review and the results at the weekend.

Butter Beans with Aubergine and Mint

1 tablespoon olive oil (use more or less to taste)
1 onion, chopped
1 aubergine, chopped into medium bits
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried mint
1 can butter beans, drained
1 can chopped tomatoes
Fresh mint to garnish

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan (I use a wok), add the onions and fry for a minute or so. Add the Aubergine and continue to cook, stirring often until the aubergine has browned and is beginning to soften. Add the garlic, mint and beans and stir through. Add the chopped tomatoes, turn the heat down and allow to simmer until the aubergine is cooked to your preference - I like mine meltingly soft. Season to taste with salt, pepper and sugar (if the tomatoes are too acid I add a teaspoon of sugar), sprinkle with fresh mint if you like it and serve.

I had mine with bulgar wheat but this stew goes well with most grains, is good on toast or a baked potato and can even be eaten cold for lunch when the microwave at work is broken (ahem).

Dentists Beware

2007-12-27T18:58:00.001Z

If you work in the dental industry I advise you to look away now. The following recipe is for tablet, a traditional Scottish treat, and probably partly responsible for our terrible health record (that and the infamous deep fried Mars bar).

This particular batch was made as a gift for my in-laws on boxing day and is the perfect accompaniment to an after dinner cup of coffee.

This is the last of the sugar and butter extravaganzas for this holiday season. January is fast approaching and tradition dictates that we'll all be eating more healthily - at least for a short while ;)

Walnut Tablet

2lbs / 900g unrefined sugar
4oz / 100g unsalted butter
1 can condensed milk
1 teacup of milk (not skimmed)
8oz / 200g walnuts (very roughly chopped)

There are very few ingredients in this sweet so use the best you can as poor ingredients have nowhere to hide. Don't break the walnuts up into tiny pieces or the end result is gritty. I generally chop the walnut halves into four but leave a few larger pieces for texture.

- Butter two baking sheets, line them with greaseproof paper and butter the greaseproof paper.

- Put the butter, milk and condensed milk in a pan and heat very gently until the butter has melted.

- Add all the sugar to the liquids and stir to combine.

- Gently heat the mixture, stirring all the while, until all the sugar has dissolved (this may take some time). Use the spoon to see if all the sugar has dissolved. If the mixture running off the spoon is shiny and has no sugar granules in it you're ready to move on. If there are still sugar granules on the spoon, increase the temperature a little at a time until they are gone. Do not let the mixture boil until all the sugar has dissolved or your tablet will be gritty.

- Once the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat and allow the mixture to boil gently, stirring constantly.

- Test the mixture after 10 mins of boiling by dripping some of it into a cup of cold water. If the drops form individual balls and do not all melt together at the bottom you're ready for the next stage. If the mixture doesn't pass the test continue boiling it and test it every minute or so. Try not to over boil the mixture. It should darken slightly but should remain creamy beige and not turn nutty brown.

- Take the pan off the heat and place it on a folded tea-towel or trivet on your counter top. Beat the mixture vigorously until it starts to thicken.

- Add the chopped walnuts and continue beating until the sugar starts to crystallise.

- Quickly pour the mixture into the prepared baking sheets and tap / wiggle / shoogle them until the mixture is evenly distributed (you may need to redistribute the walnuts if they have all migrated to one corner). Don't be tempted to use a finger, this stuff is hot.

- Place the baking trays somewhere flat and cool and free from cat hair (we use the porch).

- After five minutes, the mixture should be setting well. Score the top with a knife to make it easier to cut later. This stuff is tooth achingly sweet so keep the pieces small.

- Once the tablet is completely set cut into pieces and store in an air tight container. If you don't it will go rock solid making it a double threat to your dentistry

Health Warning:
Aside from the fact that this stuff is incredibly bad for you, please be careful when boiling, beating and pouring out the mixture as it gets incredibly hot. Needless to say this is not a recipe that children should help out with.

Pucker Up

2007-12-27T18:52:00.000Z

This blog is at serious risk of morphing into an homage to Dorie Greenspan. Reading her book makes me want to head straight for the kitchen and work some magic with the measuring cups. My contribution to the family feast this festive season was her 'Tartest Lemon Tart', the perfect pick me up ending to a very rich meal. They'll be no snoozing on the sofa after this zingy dessert (ok well maybe just a little).

Despite involving homemade pastry (eeek) it came together easily and looked very impressive. There were a few scary moments in the oven towards the end of the cooking time where the filling bubbled up and then merrily bubbled over the edge of the pastry case onto the baking sheet. No harm done. Dorie does warn that this might happen and I think it's actually a cunning plan to
allow the baker a sneaky sample of good things to come.

As the filling uses whole lemons the end result is stickily sweet and sharp with a slight hint of bitterness - like lemon marmalade. Gorgeous with adollop of freshly whipped cream.

Heaven's Kitchen

2007-12-23T13:25:00.000Z

Drum roll please.....

The kitchen is officially complete. Unfortunately I don't have any before photos for comparison but just imagine a 1976 Formica kitchen painted dark blue with no work surfaces. Add the worst cooker you can imagine, a leaky fridge and some ancient linoleum. Hold that picture in your head. Got it?

Well...taa daaa!
This one corner has more storage space than the whole of the last kitchen. I love the dresser unit because it means I can have all of my favourite pottery on display but behind glass so it's not covered in cat hair - an important feature of tableware I think you'll agree.

Dishwasher (woo hooo) and the ubiquitous cat - in this case Oscar.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous induction hob and double oven.

Dolly the sheep keeping my teapot warm and the biggest fridge freezer I've ever seen with a liberal scattering of magnetic poetry (food edition naturally).

And just in case you missed him in the cooker shot, a close up of Mr Gingerbread.
Finally, some food. Lemon poppy seed muffins with lemon glaze baked as a treat for my Callanetics class. Thanks to Ms Greenspan again for the recipe.

.....and spice

2007-12-18T20:41:00.000Z

Just to prove that we don't just live on cake....

...tonights dinner

Quorn chilli with guacamole and brown rice.

Yumm.

Sugar....

2007-12-17T18:47:00.000Z

A weekend of baking firsts for me. I christened my new oven with a batch of fairy cakes for Keira's 5th birthday and (you'll never believe this) it was also my first ever Victoria sponge. Crazy to think it but I've never made a basic Victoria sponge before. I must've made hundreds of batches of muffins, dozens of chocolate cakes and cookies galore but never a plain egg sponge.

The recipe I used came from 'Pretty Party Cakes' by Peggy Porschen (pleasingly alliterative) and forms the basis for the cupcakes I'm planning for a wedding cake next year. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to practice both the sponge and the icing. Overall they were a great success but I learned two things. One, that creaming together butter and sugar with my current electric whisk leads to explosive results no matter how soft the butter and two, that I'm not a fan of plain eggy sponge cake (or butter icing).

Luckily Keira and her nursery school friends were, and pink cakes with heart shaped sprinkles went down a treat.

I was on a roll (and had another party to go to on Saturday) so I threw together a batch of classic brownies from Dorie Greenspan's book, 'Baking: From my Home to Yours'. I say threw together because compared to the fairy cake faff these were a breeze and tasted amazing. If you don't already own this book then buy it now (or speak nicely to Santa).

Finally, as if I hadn't used enough butter and sugar this weekend, I made my first ever batch of tablet. We decided that it would make the perfect Christmas gift for D's Dad who has a really sweet tooth. I spent 45 mins on the phone to my Mum whilst stirring and stirring and stirring with her giving me instructions and advice. Four further phone calls later and I had the perfect slab of creamy coloured, hyperactivity inducing sugar rush. This was a test batch so D and I packaged it up to distribute it among our colleagues and we get to do it all again next weekend!

All in all, we got through two kilos of sugar, one kilo of butter and ten eggs - oh well, 'tis the season.

Kitchen Sink Drama

2007-12-04T13:56:00.000Z

You may have noticed that there's been a distinct lack of content on these pages recently. Ooops. So much for an excellent way to keep in touch.

The main reason for the radio silence is that D and I have been buying our house and doing some major renovation work. We've been renting the house for the last year but in September (a week after I moved jobs) we finally got the opportunity to buy it. After much too-ing and fro-ing we exchanged on November 2nd. On November 5th and 6th the gas board came and ripped the massive, ugly boiler off the wall in the kitchen and replaced it with a shiny new one which they neatly stowed away in a cupboard upstairs. On the 12th and 13th another set of workmen arrived and replaced our draughty single glazed windows with snuggley, warm double glazing. On the 16th we smashed the old kitchen up with a hammer and threw it in a skip and since then we've been installing the new kitchen.

In the midst of all of this Jen came over for a visit and had to sleep on the couch surrounded by the contents of the kitchen cupboards (and the cupboards themselves) - sorry Jen

Reduced to cooking on a one ring camping stove and washing the dishes in the bath, we gave up all pretensions of culinary skill and resorted to pasta 'n' sauce or take-out food.

There are a few small jobs left (handles on the units, tiling) but I'm almost back to having a fully functioning kitchen - I say back, the previous 1976 formica kitchen couldn't quite be described as fully functioning. My new workspace comes complete with fridge/freezer (yay - bigger than our bathroom), double oven (woo hoo), shiny, smooth induction hob (whoopee), extractor fan (yippee) and dishwasher (praise the lord).

To celebrate (and to spend the very last of our savings) I ram raided my Amazon wish list and ordered a veritable mountain of books and have lined up so many recipes to cook that I've run out of sticky tabs.

I'll post some pics of the finished product next week - it'll take me that long just to put everything back in the cupboards.

In the meantime here's a picture of our other new arrivals - George and Oscar

Grandmother's old double boiler...

2007-08-23T13:32:00.000+01:00

When we were flatmates Jen and I spent many a Sunday afternoon in front of UKTVFood watching an entire series of Tamasin Day-Lewis or Nigella in back to back episodes. Nigella has a kitchen to die for (loads of light, lined with books, and a plate or bowl for every circumstance) but there was something much more comforting about Tamasin's kitchen with the knackered oven where the door fell off and no real counter space to work on (much more like the scabby flat we lived in).

The other thing I always remember about Tamasin's program was that she was always producing ancient kitchen heirlooms from out of nowhere. When whipping cream or egg whites out would come the hand powered whisk and when melting chocolate she would always be waxing lyrical about her grandmother's old double boiler.

When my maternal grandmother moved from her current house into a nursing home I inherited a few of the bits and pieces from her kitchen including my very own hand powered whisk, two Le Crueset pans and around a thousand wooden spoons (you can never have too many). My favourite items were the two aprons we found at the back of one of the units. My mum thinks she made one of them at school. There's nothing like a frilly floral waist pinny (with unfeasibly small pocket) to make you feel the part when baking.

This month I have spent most of my weekends helping my parents clear out my paternal grandmother's house (she's moved to sheltered accommodation). Unfortunately there were no such lucky finds to add to my hoard of kitchenalia (Gran B was more of a cheese on toast kind of lady). I did manage to liberate a rather funkily decorated set of pans from the seventies that go beautifully with my kitchen cabinets - a few more goes through the dishwasher and they might be usable (they were in the cupboard for a looong time.

As for my double boiler, I found it in a charity shop last year, but sshhhh don't tell.

Books for Cooks

2007-06-20T20:41:00.000+01:00

Having seen how much Jen struggled to identify her ten essential cook books to tide her over until the removal van arrived (she ended up with twenty-three) I thought I'd have a go at picking my top ten.

I've tried to stick to ones that I actually cook from all the time, rather than those I curl up with on a Sunday afternoon and daydream about Nigella-esque dinner parties. So here goes, Kate's essential reading list:

Moosewood Restaurant Low Fat Favourites
This is the first cook book I bought when I went veggie (10 years ago) and several of the recipes are in constant rotation as midweek suppers - saffron zucchini pasta and Japanese sesame spinach in particular. I love American cook books. Whoever had the idea of chucking the scales in the bin and using volume measures (particularly for baking) was a genius. A cup of this, a spoonful of that, mix it up a bit and ta-dah! Muffins!

Vegetarian Planet - Didi Emmons
Another American book full of gorgeous recipes. There are some really innovative twists on classics, none of which are overly complicated. I particularly love her selection of veggie burgers and this is generally the fist book I reach for when I want to bake cookies.

1000 Vegetarian Recipes - Carole Gelles
This is a fab book full of excellent basic recipes. I bought a copy for my little brother when he went veggie a couple of years ago and would recommend it to any new veggies.

Vegan With a Vengeance - Isa Chandra Moscowitz
Iconic vegan cook book. The banana pancakes are our special Sunday brunch treat and I have many future plans that revolve around cupcakes.

Veg / Vegetable Heaven - Catherine Mason
Technically two books but I love them both. Seasonally focused recipes with beautiful flavour combinations.

The Vegetarian Gourmet's Easy Low Fat Favourites
Ahhhh, banana bread. This book contains the best banana bread recipe ever (low-fat and full of choc chips) what's not to love. Easily veganised and a firm favourite on cake Friday (in my office) I'm sure you'll be reading more about it here in the near future. Oh yeah, there's also loads of other great recipes in here including a fab Hungarian paprikash.

The Low Fat Indian Vegetarian Cookbook - Miridula Baljekar
Dahl. mmmmm.

Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery
I eat Indian food at least twice a week and this book is a classic. I have been buying copies of this in second hand shops for years and distributing them around family and friends.

The Bean Book - Rose Elliot
Rose Elliot is the Delia Smith of vegetarian food. I have fifteen of her books and they're all great. However, as a total legumaniac this is the one i use the most.

Feast - Nigella Lawson
The list wouldn't be complete without at least one of Nigella's offerings and this is my current favourite.

So that's my top ten, only another three hundred and fifty left to review.

Old friends, new lives

2007-06-13T17:59:00.000+01:00

I spent last night helping one of my closest friends sort through her belongings in preparation for her move from Edinburgh to Ireland (sniff). Jen and I used to be flatmates, when I moved in with her I had been vegetarian for 5 years and owned around three cookbooks. By the time I moved
out a year later I owned a whole shelf full and four years on from that I have enough to fill two bookcases. We have been sharing ideas, books and inspiration for more than five years. Our individual cookbook collections blur and merge around the edges with the constant flow of books from hers to mine and mine to hers. She's the only person I know that can buy me a cookbook for Christmas that I don't have to surreptitiously return as I already own it.

Last night we gathered all her cook books and magazines into the living room ready for packing; retrieving all the precarious piles liberally scattered around her flat. Afterwards we looked at the mountain we had created, photographed it for posterity, and tried to figure out how to make the
collection look smaller before her husband arrived home (she rejected the idea of hiding them at my house). To keep her going until the van arrived at the other end (five days) we packed up her ten carefully selected 'desert island' books (twenty-three in total).

Phase two of the plan found us reclining on a sofa apiece, flicking through a tottering heap of magazines nearly as tall as she was, ensuring that no useful article or interesting recipe accidentally made it into the recycling pile (vital work I think you'll agree). We retired to bed well after midnight satisfied with a job well done - I'm not entirely sure her husband will agree when he arrives today and is faced with the chaos that used to be his living room.

I'm definitely going to miss hanging out with Jen - she's the only other person I know that can spend a whole afternoon reading cook books, talking about food and watching UKTV Food and then order takeout for dinner as there's no time left to actually cook any food.

So that's the purpose of this Blog, to keep Jen up-to-date with the comings and goings on my shelves and through my kitchen and to save on phone bills so that I can afford to fly out to Ireland more often.

Good luck in your new home.

Hugs and cookies.

Veggiekate