Tag Archives: Butternut squash

Mixed Dal Curry

28 Friday Aug 2020

Posted by in Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Dal or lentils have the second highest protein content of pulses after soy beans, and more importantly are very tasty. There are many recipes for dal using a variety of ingredients, so you can adapt to whatever you may have ready in your veg garden or fridge.

The dal are generally boiled with flavourings and then once cooked a fried spice mix is added to complete the flavouring.
My regular readers will already know that I am a great fan of soaking dried pulses and grains for several hours or overnight. I find that this way the centre of the pulse is already softened so then they cook more evenly and quickly.

For 4 portions

70 grams green lentils/ Pardinas

70 grams moong dal/mung beans

50 grams white lentils

125 ml tomato passata / tomato frito

125 grams butternut squash cut into small cubes

Piece of fresh ginger 2x2x2 cm – chopped

1 small green chilli – chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

For the finishing spice

2 tablespoons peanut or olive oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

8 curry leaves

3 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

piece of ginger 2 x 2 x 4 cm – finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida

Put the lentils and beans in a container with a generous amount of cold water to allow for absorption. Leave for alt least four hours.

Once the lentils are soaked, drain and put in a pan with the passata, ginger, chilli, butternut squash and salt. Add water to cover.

Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer.

Check the water level from time to time and add more if needed. You want a fairly wet mix and some of the lentils will break up into the liquid and thicken it.

The lentils should take around 40 minutes to cook through, so check them after this time. If you prefer your curry to be a softer purée, then continue cooking a little longer.

Once the lentils are about done, prepare the spice mix.

Heat the oil in a shallow pan. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, then the curry leaves. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the garlic an ginger and fry for a few more minutes until the garlic is lightly browned.

Stir in the turmeric, coriander and asafoetida, then add the spice mix to the pan of lentils.

Stir well to mix in an leave to cook for another five minutes for the flavours to mix.

I served my curry with plain boiled brown rice, spicy spinach salad, a fresh peach chutney and pickles. So tasty! I’ll give you the recipe or the spinach salad and peach chutney tomorrow.


Chickpea & Vegetable Curry

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Main Courses, Vegan

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This recipe is adapted from Gaz Oakley – the Avant Garde Vegan – and his recipe for Chickpea Curry. I wanted to make a curry that was a little less solid than only chickpeas, so have added various vegetables. I’m going to list in this recipe exactly the vegetables that I used, but of course you can change these according to what you have. I would alway include the red and green peppers, but then alternatives for the other vegetables are aubergines, peas, green beans or cauliflower.

Do have a look at Gaz’s website, there are some great recipes there, most with how to videos.

For 4 portions

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

6 curry leaves

1/2 teaspoon salt

oil – either olive or peanut

1 onion – sliced

3 cloves garlic – finely chopped

1 dessert spoon finely chopped ginger

2 teaspoons finely chopped red chilli

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

1 small or 1/2 large courgette

1/2 col rabí

2 x 1 cm slices from a butternut squash

400 grams cooked chickpeas – either ready cooked from a jar or can, or if you want to start with dried peas, 200 grams – soaked overnight and boiled in salted water until tender.

small broccoli florets

1 banana – unpeeled

1 tin coconut milk – full fat

2 tablespoons tomato purée

Firstly slowly toast the first four spices listed in a thick bottomed pan until The mustard seeds start to pop. Grind them either in a coffee grinder or pestle and mortar.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large shallow pan and add the onions, garlic, ginger and chilli. Cook slowly until the onions are nicely caramelised stirring from time to time. This will take 10 to 15 minutes, don’t rush it as this gives a rich flavour to the curry.

Cut the rest of the vegetables into 1 centimetre cubes.

Add the peppers to the onions and carry on frying for another 10 minutes.

Add the spice mix together with the turmeric and curry leaves. Stir to mix.

Add the tomato purée and stir to mix this in.

Now add the coconut milk and chickpeas. Mix in and heat to a simmer.

Add the courgette, col rabí and butternut squash. Simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are just cooked.

Wash the banana and without peeling it, top and tail it then cut it in half lengthwise and the cut into thick slices. Add to the curry together with the broccoli florets. Most of you have probably never added banana to your curry before, but trust me and try it, it adds a rich sweet element to the curry.

Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Serve with plain rice, chapatis and your favourite chutneys.

Butternut Squash Risotto & Crispy Sage Leaves

09 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Starters, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

For 1 portion

150 grams butternut squash

olive oil

1 small or 1/2 larger onion – finely chopped

1 clove garlic – finely chopped

60 grams risotto rice

2 tablespoons white wine

300 – 400 ml vegetable stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

20 small sage leaves

Cut the butternut squash into small cubes.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and add the butternut squash. Cover and braise slowly until slightly browned and nearly cooked.
Remove from the pan.

Heat more oil in the pan and add the garlic and onion. Gently fry until transparent. Add half the butternut squash and mash to break it up a bit.

Add the rice and stir in to coat the rice with the other ingredients. Warm through for a couple of minutes.

Add the wine and stir in.

Add enough vegetable stock to just cover the rice and add a pinch of salt if your stock is not already salted.

Cover the pan and turn down the heat to a slow simmer to cook the rice. Check the pan every five minutes or so to see if the risotto is getting too dry, adding stock as needed.

When the rice is almost cooked, stir in the rest of the butternut squash. Check the seasoning of the risotto and add salt and pepper as needed. Cook gently for another five minutes then turn off the heat and leave to rest for five minutes.

Heat 3 or 4 tablespoons of oil in a small pan and when hot add the sage leaves. Fry for three or four minutes until crisp.

Serve the risotto with the sage leaves strewn over.

A Warm Winter Salad

16 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

A base of sweet garden peas and steamed chard topped with braised butternut squash and lemony, garlicky red peppers – what’s not to like?

Let’s do the butternut squash first. The amounts are per person so just multiply or expand if you are mega hungry.

Half a butternut squash – peeled and de seeded then cut into chunks.

Fry in olive oil with a lid on so it can steam. After about five minutes turn the cubes and season with a little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Let cook another five minutes, covered, then stir again and add a tablespoon of green pumpkin seeds. Stir in and let cook a couple of minutes more then turn off the heat.

 

Next the red peppers.

Cut them into short strips and fry in olive oil with some finely chopped garlic. Fry them on a medium heat so that they cook quite quickly and brown a bit.

When the peppers are almost cooked throw in a handful of cashew (or other) nuts and stir round and let cook until slightly toasted.

Remove the peppers to a small bowl and season with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

 

Cook the chard leaves in the same pan. The chard wants to be washed and cut into strips.

Add to the pan together with some frozen or fresh garden peas. Cover and let the chard leaves wilt.

Turn the chard over from time to time.

Once it’s cooked enough, turn off the heat. Season with salt, pepper and the juice of half a lime.

Assemble the salad with the chard and peas as the base, then scatter over the pumpkin and seeds, then top with the peppers and nuts. Yum!

The Dinner that Started it all……

08 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Starters, Sweet Things

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

This is the meal that inspired my friend Gines to insist that I start to write a diary of what I cook, which then led on to this blog, so I thought you would be interested to see the menu and recipes for this dinner.

The starter was Butternut Squash Ravioli served with Lemon and Sage Butter. The tartness of the lemon in the sauce cuts thought wonderfully the sweetness of the butternut squash. In the photo I have garnished the ravioli with some fried artchoke slices – just in case you were wondering what it was.

After a soft textured and saucy starter the main course needed to be something crunchy. I always have a selection of salads in the vegetable patch, so a crispy green salad to accompany a nice fat piece of grilled fish, salmon in this instance.

For dessert a grown up sundae. Vanilla ice cream, bitter chocolate sauce, rum soaked raisins topped with a coffee meringue and maple syrup. I see no shame in using a good shop bought vanilla ice cream as the basis for this type of dessert. Buy a sample tub from each of your local supermarkets to see which you like best, it may not be the one you expect. My favourite comes from a well known German supermarket chain.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH RAVIOLI

For 4 people

The pasta – 40 grammes 00 flour

2 large egg yolks

good pinch of salt

The filling – Half a medium sized butternut squash

30 grammes butter

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

an egg white

50 grammes grated cheese

Salt and pepper

Another egg white for sticking the ravioli

The sage and lemon butter

                   50 grammes butter

                   grated zest and juice of half a large lemon

                    teaspoon finely chopped fresh sage

To serve – finely grated parmesan cheese

Firstly make the pasta. Put all of the pasta ingredients into a small food processor and blitz until you have a lumpy dough that will stick together. Remove dough and form into a ball. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge until needed.

The filling. Peel and deseed the butternut squash and cut into rough cubes about 2cm square. Place in a saucepan with the butter. Cover and gently stew in its own moisture until tender, stirring from time to time to prevent sticking.When done put in the food processor and puree. Add the egg white, breadcrumbs and seasonings. Pulse to mix. Add the grated cheese and pulse again. Check seasonings. Put aside in the fridge for the breadcrumbs to absorb the moisture and bind the mixture.

Using a pasta machine roll the pasta in the usual way and roll into thin sheets – number 7 on my machine.  Cut into squares of the desired size – mine usually end up about 5 cm square. Put a blob of the butternut mixture in the centre of the squares, brush with egg white around the edges, put another square on top and gently squeeze the edges together. Dust liberally with flour and put in a tray in the fridge until needed.

Prepare the sage and lemon butter. Put all ingredients in a saucepan. Cover until needed.

All the above can be prepared some time in advance. Shortly before serving bring to the boil a large pan of water to which you have added salt and a tablespoon of olive oil. When boiling add the ravioli – they will only need three or four minutes to cook. Meanwhile put the sage and lemon butter on a low heat and swirl regularly to combine the ingredients. You do not want this to boil, only heat enough to amalgamate the ingredients then turn off the heat. Drain the ravioli and add to the pan containing the butter and swirl around to coat the ravioli.

Serve on warm plates and sprinkle with finely grated parmesan.

SOPHISTICATED SUNDAE

 Vanilla ice cream, raisins soaked in rum, bitter chocolate sauce topped with a coffee meringue and maple syrup. This turned out to be an absolute wow with my guests. Remember to put your sundae dishes in the freezer to chill them down at least two hours before they will be needed. They look so pretty with the frosting of condensation on the cool glass and help keep the sundae from melting before it gets to your guests.

For  coffee meringues for four, beat 5 egg whites until really stiff having added about half way through the beating half a sachet of instant expresso coffee powder. To this I beat in 250 grammes of caster sugar.

To bake the meringues, heat the oven to 180 degrees F. Line your baking tray with baking paper and make mounds of meringue. This amount of mixture made 14 – more than was needed – but they do keep.

Once the oven is hot put in the meringues and turn the oven down immediately to 140 F. Bake for one hour by which time they should be crisp and crunchy on the outside and still a bit gooey on the inside. Let cool before removing them from the tray and using or storing.

It is very easy to make your own chocolate sauce and it gives you control over the sweetness or richness that you want for your dish.

For this sauce put a couple of heaped tablespoons of good cocoa powder – the unsweeted one – in a small saucepan and add black coffee bit by bit to make a thin sauce. At this stage add a dessert spoon of brown sugar. Heat slowly until the sauce comes to the boil. Continue cooking on a low heat for 20 minutes stirring regularly. The sauce will thicken and darken during this cooking time. If you think that it is too thick add a bit more coffee. Taste the sauce and add more sugar to your taste if you like but stir the sugar in well to dissolve it.

Once cooled this sauce will keep quite a long time in a jar in the fridge. It can also be frozen for an intense sorbet. If you want a richer sauce to serve hot you can add a knob of butter at the beginning.

To assemble the sundae start with a spoon of the vanilla ice cream, a dribble of chocolate sauce, a spoon of raisins with some of their rum. Repeat these layers then top with a coffee meringue and a drizzle of the maple syrup. Enjoy!