Vegan MoFo Day 19 - Tidy-up Thursdays - Mung beans for Hummus

In the past two weeks Tidy-up Thursdays has involved an obscure flour and some old tinned produce which had past it's prime. This week it was time to play with a legume so I selected the most neglected one in my pantry - mung beans. At the moment my pantry is home to 14 different varieties of dried lentils and beans - black beans, pinto beans, red kidney beans, brown lentils, black lentils (urad dal), yellow split peas, red lentils, chickpeas, puy lentils, cannellini beans, soy beans, black eyed beans, Egyptian broad beans and mung beans. That's a lot of legumes! Most of them are used fairly regularly but I haven't been game to use mung beans since my fellows took a dislike to everything I made with them.

To be fair I didn't experiment with them broadly enough and only tried them in a handful of Indian curries. Curries are generally hits rather than misses so it was a bit disheartening that I was the only person enjoying these cute little green legumes. The mung beans were relegated out of sight next to the black eyed beans which are my least favourite. A recipe for Mung bean hummus posted on 101 Cookbooks caught my eye a few months back - there are heaps of different hummus recipes around using so many types of legumes but this was the first one I had seen using mung beans.

Mung beans are a lot easier to prepare than chickpeas as they don't require to be pre-soaked and only take around 30 minutes of cooking to soften so this hummus was pretty easy to whip up from scratch. Heidi's version didn't include cumin but I added some to mine and only used around half the amount of tahini as I was almost out of it. I also made a slightly larger quantity as I had cooked up a very big batch of mung beans. 

   

My fellows were none the wiser when I presented them with this hummus. They could tell that it was different to my standard chickpea hummus yet they had no idea what the secret ingredient was. It did have a slightly earthy flavour although it didn't taste anything like the mung beans we had eaten in the past. The hummus was spread on homemade pita bread along with falafels from Oasis Bakery that had been sitting in the freezer for a while to make falafel wraps. The remainder of the hummus disappeared rapidly mopped up with more pita bread and some baby carrots that had been pulled up from the garden. As this was so successful and I still have lots of cooked mung beans in the fridge I'll be whipping up another batch in the next day or two. Veganosaurus wrote a helpful post about sprouting mung beans a couple of weeks ago which is something I would like to try in the future too.

Mung Bean Hummus (Adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

2 cups cooked mung beans
1/4 - 1/2 cup tahini
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped
1/2 cup (or more) water
olive oil, sliced spring onions and smoked paprika, for garnish

Place the cooked mung beans in a food processor and process on high speed until the beans have broken down into a coarse mixture. Add the tahini, lemon juice, salt, cumin, garlic clove and 1/4 cup of water into the food processor bowl and continue processing. Add 1/4 cup of water (or more) slowly while the food processor is running until the hummus reaches the consistency you are happy with.

Spoon the mixture into a serving bowl and garnish with olive oil, spring onions and smoked paprika.

Around the world - Stopover 26 - Montenegro

Montenegro was drawn out of the hat the week before Christmas which feels like such a long time ago now. I managed to research, plan and cook up a meal during the chaos of the silly season although I haven't had the chance to post about it until now. Montenegro is a small European country located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea which shares borders with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania. Montenegrin cuisine varies depending on the region, the coastal areas have a Mediterranean influence whereas inland regions consume dishes that are also common in Turkey, Hungary, Croatia and Serbia.

When I made a version of Bosnian Zeljanica with filo pastry during Vegan Mofo, I mentioned that I would have liked the opportunity to attempt making burek pastry if I had more time on my hands. Even though time was limited again on this occasion, I stubbornly wanted to give a Montenegrin burek called krompirusa a try. Krompirusa is a snail shaped burek filled with finely cubed potatoes and onions that have been precooked in vegetable stock.

The recipes I adapted my version from were written in Serbian or Croatian and with the aid of Google translate it still was a challenge to make complete sense of the ingredients and methods. My long bench top was an essential tool in preparing the krompirusa and even though I split the dough into two pieces to make smaller bureks, the length of the pastry measured just under 2 metres! After the lengths of dough were rolled out, filling and shaping the krompirusa didn't take much time at all.

As I wasn't sure how flavoursome the filling would be, I searched for an accompaniment and decided to make a dip/relish based on roasted red capsicum/bell peppers called ajvar. It wasn't incredibly complicated to make although it wasn't the speediest process either as the vegetables needed to be oven roasted and onion and garlic sautéed prior to processing it all into a paste.  

After all the effort that went into the meal I wasn't impressed with the texture of pastry as it wasn't light and flaky as you would expect from a burek so I'm back to the drawing board with this type of dough. Regardless of the unsatisfactory pastry, the krompirusa tasted fantastic and was surprisingly delicious on it's own. The ajvar was a fantastic partner for the krompirusa and would be perfect to serve alongside a bunch of other dips so I've included my version of it below.


Ajvar (Adapted from Todd's wanderings)

3 small red capsicums/bell peppers
1 lebanese eggplant
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 240C. Place the capsicums and eggplant on a roasting tray and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the skins have charred. Flip the vegetables over and bake for a further 10-15 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and when they are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins from the capsicum and eggplant and discard the seeds and membranes from the capsicums.

While the vegetables are roasting, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small frying pan and sauté the onion until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute then turn off the heat and set aside.

Place the cooked eggplants and capsicum in a food processor along with the onion/garlic mixture, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, salt, remaining tablespoon of olive oil and black pepper. Process until it becomes a smooth paste, then transfer to a serving dish.

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Did you know?

The Montenegrin people are reportedly the world's tallest. The average height for males is 186 cm (6 feet, 1 inch) and the average for women is 171 cm (5 feet, 7 inches).

Low fuss camping food

Over the last couple of decades camping trips with friends, family and the young man have been a popular pastime of ours. These trips have varied widely in locations yet there is a particular spot in between Seymour and Nagambie we have returned to more than others as dogs are permitted and to be able to swim in a creek with your pooch is so much fun for all. The other bonus is this place is it's generally not overcrowded with people which is often the case with more popular camping locations.

After a recent failed attempt trying out a new camping site that was full to the brim on a long weekend, the man and I were keen to head back to our rugged place of serenity. As we were only camping overnight I decided to make the food completely low fuss and picked up some supplies from Oasis bakery. This also meant packing less as we didn't need to worry about bringing the camp stove, gas bottle and cooking utensils.

Not long after arriving and setting up the tent, we constructed some delicious falafel wraps in a matter of minutes. They were made with mountain bread, hummus, falafels, a mixture of salad leaves, tomato, red onion and a dash of Tapatio hot sauce. Ollie doesn't usually get the chance to be involved in food photography and jumped at the chance on this occasion! He is very well mannered around food and didn't think about taking a bite.

Our dinner plates consisted of dolmades, more falafels, baba ganoush, hummus, olive bread and a bean stew. I was on the verge of buying a chickpea or bean salad whilst shopping at Oasis but after I spotted a bean stew the thought of a salad was immediately dismissed. The bean stew was labelled as being spicy yet the man thought it needed more oomph and stirred through a decent amount of hot sauce before we served it up. Although this is something you would usually eat warm we thoroughly enjoyed it as a cold dish. A similar spread was also enjoyed for breakfast the following morning.

These foods were perfect for an overnight camping trip and I can imagine they would also be great for remote road trips where vegan foods are limited. Even though I'm fortunate to have a fantastic Middle Eastern bakery nearby, some of the items we took away can also be sourced from most Australian supermarkets.

Ollie was mortified when we departed after his morning dip and uncharacteristically cried most of the car trip home. We are glad although not surprised that he enjoyed it as much as we did and are keen to take him for a longer camping trip soon.

Vegan MoFo - Stopover 8 - Lebanon

When the young man drew Lebanon out of the hat, he grinned and said to me, "I think you'll like this one". He was spot on, what's not to love about Lebanese food - falafels, hummus, baba ganoush, pita bread, tabbouleh, ful medames and mujaddara to name a few. The only problem with these foods is that I've made them all before so I searched further to find something new to try.

Kibbeh is a national Lebanese dish typically made of burghul, onions, ground meat and spices. It can be served in a number of ways, the most common form is stuffed and fried in the shape of mini footballs. I had more than enough fried foods last week so when I spotted a baked version in World Vegan Feast by Bryanna Clark Grogan I simply had to try it. Bryanna's version started with a layer of thinly sliced onions drizzled with olive oil which were covered with a bulgar and mashed potato mixture followed by a layer of lentils and topped off with the bulgar and mashed potato.

The most substantial change I made to the recipe was to use quinoa in place of bulgar as it's something I don't keep in the pantry. I loved that the recipe provided several options with regards to the fresh herbs that could be used and as I had mint and parsley on hand that's what I used. The spices in the dish were minuscule by my usual standards which made me wonder whether this meal was going to be flavoursome enough. I needn't have been worried as it turned out to be really lovely, the spices and mint were quite subtle although it was the onions throughout that really made the dish. Using quinoa may not have been the best substitute as the texture of the kibbeh turned out to be rather crumbly which made it impossible to cut squares neatly. I served the kibbeh with pita bread and leftover baked okra as it need to be used up.

During my research I came across a dip I hadn't heard of before called mutabbel before realising that it's a slightly spicier version of baba ganoush. Both of these eggplant dips are common to Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Kurdistan, Israel and Egypt even though their names and ingredients vary slightly between countries. I've made baba ganoush plenty of times before using different methods to cook the eggplant and this time I decided to initially blacken the eggplant over a gas flame, stuff it with garlic slivers and finish the cooking in the oven. I enjoy the smoky flavour that roasting eggplants over a flame brings although I find it time consuming and fiddly to completely cook the eggplant this way so I was much happier with the method I chose.

Mutabbel

1 large eggplant (about 750g)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons tahini
¼ cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon smoked salt
olive oil, parsley and smoked paprika, for serving

Preheat oven to 200C.

Place the eggplant over a gas flame until the skin is mostly blackened (this step can be skipped if you like and the eggplant roasted a longer time. Make incisions in the flesh of the eggplant and insert slices of garlic in the cuts. Place the eggplant on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until the eggplant is very tender and collapsing.

When the eggplant is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin and discard. Roughly chop the eggplant flesh and place into a food processor bowl with the tahini, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne pepper and smoked salt. Process until it has a smooth texture then transfer to a serving bowl. Make a moat in the middle and fill with olive oil. Garnish with chopped parsley and smoked paprika.

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Did you know?

Lebanon is a unique country in the Middle East as it's the only country that doesn't have a desert.

Do you want to know where else I've been this month? Click here for the round up.

Buffalo tofu with ranch dipping sauce

A couple of weeks ago, the man and I went back to Gasometer as we heard that the menu had changed again! I was delighted to find buffalo tofu strips back on the menu as I never had the chance to try them previously. We were both smitten with the spicy dense sticks of tofu and their accompanying dipping sauce so I wanted to try and replicate them at home. I had a secret ingredient up my sleeve to make life easier, a buffalo wing spice mix I had purchased from USA Foods ages ago which contained four simple ingredients - chile, red jalapeno, salt and garlic.

The buffalo wing mix came with a recipe for making wings which didn't really suit my purpose although it wasn't entirely useless either. I scaled down the marinade quantities to suit my block of tofu and when I couldn't make up my mind about frying or baking the tofu, I split the batch in half and put both methods to the test. There didn't turn out to be a lot of difference between these methods, I would say the baked tofu was slightly chewier and firmer than the fried version. I sought out a vegan ranch dipping sauce recipe to have with the tofu on VegWeb which was a breeze to mix together and the perfect cooling condiment to tone down the spices a little.

Recently we have made concerted efforts to seek out local farmers markets on weekends when time permits (stay tuned for another post on this soon). Last weekend I was pleased to bring home a bunch of organic baby purple carrots, baby leeks and kale amongst other things. The buffalo tofu was teamed up with some baked potato wedges with smoked paprika and salt, sauteed baby carrots with garlic and parsley and sauteed kale with baby leeks and a dash of lemon. Everyone agreed that the side dishes were just as delicious as the tofu. The buffalo tofu was really tasty and spicy yet not quite on the same level as Gasometer's fantastic version. As there is a large portion of the packet mix remaining this will definitely be on the menu again.


Buffalo Tofu (Adapted from Los Chileros buffalo wing mix)

350g firm tofu
1 tablespoon Los Chileros buffalo wing mix
1 ½ tablespoons vegan worchestershire sauce
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

Press tofu for 30 minutes. Cut the block of tofu into thirds lengthwise then cut each piece into six equal sized sticks. Whisk together the buffalo tofu mix, worchestershire sauce and olive oil in a bowl. Add the tofu to the bowl and coat thoroughly with the marinade. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.

Bake the strips in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes. Alternatively, fry in a pan with a little oil over medium heat until browned on both sides. Serve with ranch dressing.


Ranch dipping sauce (Adapted from VegWeb)

½ cup vegan mayonnaise (I used Praise 97% fat free)
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
½ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients together in a small bowl and refrigerate until required.

Easter beans

Easter is normally associated with indulging in chocolate and hot cross buns, this year I went against the norm and switched my focus to beans! Over the long weekend I turned into a bean prepping machine in an attempt to diminish my reliance on tinned beans. Last year I was in a wonderful habit of planning out my meals for the week which meant that I would be organised enough to prepare beans from scratch more often than not. I still plan meals to a certain extent although I don't have a hard and fast rule about what we are going to eat on a given night. This provides more flexibility to cook what I feel like on the day but tinned beans have been the only viable option when I decide halfway through the day that beans will be on the menu that night.

Preparing beans from scratch has always given me a lot more satisfaction than simply opening a tin and rising off the brine. The process never fails to fascinate me, particularly observing the vast amount of water the little dried beans manage to absorb after the initial soaking period. Dried beans have several benefits over tinned ones as they are a lot more economical, use less packaging and there is no concern about controversial toxins like BPA in tin linings leeching into your food.

I've read about freezing batches of cooked beans before and with some spare room in my freezer it was the perfect time to make it happen. My plan was to cook up five batches of beans; kidney, pinto, black, cannellini and chickpeas. I ended up cooking an extra batch of kidney beans because we ate most of them straight away and I also prepped a batch of black-eyed beans when I found some hiding in the pantry.

Preparing a batch of beans takes a bit of time from start to end although very little of it requires any interaction. After rinsing the beans, leave them to soak in a bowl filled with plenty of water overnight or at least 8 hours. Rinse the beans in a colander with fresh cold water, place them in a pot and cover them up with about 5cm of cold water. Bring them to the boil and after a couple of minutes scoop off as much of the white foamy stuff as possible with a spoon. Turn the heat back to low, pop the lid on and let them simmer away. The time they take to become tender varies between the type of beans as well as their age. I usually start testing after they have been simmering for about an hour by removing one that looks firmer than the others, allowing it to cool slightly and then biting it in half. If the bean isn't totally soft and tender, I continue the cooking process and retest in another 10-15 minutes.

Many beans were consumed over the course of the long weekend too. We enjoyed kidney beans in chilli non carne, curried tofu scramble and a Thai red lentil chilli stew from PPK (this was the recipe that taught me a lesson about US chilli powder last year but this time around I didn't find the stew spicy enough). I also cooked up a saucier version of cheater baked beans from Veganomicon, a black-eyed bean hummus adapted from Appetite for Reduction and still wound up with the equivalent of more than 20 tins of a variety of beans in the freezer.

Easter wasn't totally about healthy eating as I did enjoy revisiting Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe's hot cross buns recipe which only needs a couple of simple ingredient substitutions to make them vegan. Even though the crosses didn't work out as well as the batch I made last year, I was thrilled with how delicious they tasted.

Black-eyed bean hummus (Adapted from Appetite for Reduction)

1 x 400g tin black eyed beans
2 tablespoons tahini
juice of half a lemon (about 3 tablespoons)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped roughly
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch cayenne pepper
chopped fresh parsley leaves, for garnish

Place all ingredients (except the parsley) in a food processor bowl and pulse until combined, scraping the ingredients down the sides a few times. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Serve garnished with parsley.

A milestone celebration

Our son's 18th birthday was last week! Wow, it makes me feel old to be the mother of an adult but I am actually quite a young parent as I gave birth to him just after turning 19. On his actual birthday, the three of us went to a favourite local restaurant (which I must bring my camera to next time so I can post about it) and then we hosted a family party on the weekend. It was a great night that was thoroughly enjoyed by all, including the birthday boy.

During the month preceding the event I perused many recipes for dips, finger foods and sweets and pre-cooked a few freezer suitable items along the way to keep myself organised. I actually had to stop at one point because my freezer was full to the brim of baked goods so I couldn't squeeze another item in. The photo below was taken after clearing out the freezer on the morning of the party, pictured are samosas from Terry Hope Romero's recipe testing, pinwheels, sausage rolls from where's the beef and oven baked falafels.

I chose a selection of dips and daringly made a couple that I hadn't tried previously, one of which turned out better than the other. As my mum is seriously allergic to all nuts I decided to keep them out of everything apart from the sausage rolls and changed this Mexican layered dip around to suit. I started with a base of refried beans and layered it with guacamole instead of cashew cream, then topped it all off with chopped tomatoes, olives, spring onions and coriander. This was a big hit, especially with my niece and brother in law.  

A hummus variation with roasted red capsicum, olives and smoked paprika that I made last Christmas, a spiced carrot dip which I wasn't very fond of, and a Moroccan broad bean dip called bessara were the other dips I made to go with pita bread. The bessara was quite similar to hummus although it had a deeper earthier flavour. I stumbled across this dip when I was searching for recipes that used dried broad beans a while ago as I accidentally purchased broad beans when I meant to buy Egyptian fava beans for ful medames.

For sweets, I made a carrot semolina halva from recipe testing and rocky road from Green Gourmet Giraffe minus the nuts. I also made a chocolate cake and frosting from The Joy of Vegan Baking which was decorated with choc-mint balls (see top photo).

Now that the party is over and with recipe testing finishing up soon, I aim to get back into a more regular blogging routine. That's the plan anyway!


Bessara (Moroccan broad bean dip) (Adapted from this recipe)

200g dried broad beans
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 heaped teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
fresh chopped parsley, for garnish

Place the broad beans in a bowl and cover well with water. Allow to soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Drain the beans in a colander and rinse well with fresh water. Place the beans in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered for about an hour or until the beans are tender.

Drain the beans in a colander and allow to cool then place them in a food processor with the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. Pulse for a few minutes, scraping down the sides every so often, until it becomes a thick smooth paste. Add some additional water if you prefer a thinner consistency.

Transfer to a bowl and garnish with parsley. Bessara is traditionally eaten warm, I served it at room temperature which was fine.

Vegan MoFo - Z is for Zaalouk

I wanted to revisit an old recipe for my last alphabet post as it's one I have been meaning to make for a while. Zaalouk is a slow roasted eggplant and tomato combination finished off with harissa, cumin, caraway, fresh coriander and mint that can be served chunky or pureed. I chose to puree it and serve it as a dip with pita bread but when left chunky it can also pass for a salad. It's not a quick dish to make although there is plenty of downtime throughout the process and the end result makes your efforts worthwhile.

The original recipe sourced from a Sunday paper makes a huge quantity and as I only had one eggplant around, I made a third of it this time which resulted in about a cup of dip. It was just as delicious as I had remembered it and one I will definitely make again.

This is my last Vegan MoFo post for the A - Z of golden oldies and newbies. I managed to meet my original goal of posting at least 2 new recipes per week, 12 for the month and ended up posting 15 new recipes, so I'm pretty happy about that. The full list of alphabet posts can be found on this page.

I have had a lot of fun with the theme and ventured into cooking with new ingredients like jackfruit, daikon and fava beans. My favorite new recipes to come out of the month were Hot Potato Salad, Imam Bayildi, Pinwheels, Rendang Nangka, Seitan Gyros, Vanilla Slice and Yassa Tofu.

I hope to get one more post in quickly to share some of my bookmarks from the second half of MoFo.

Mexican Fiesta

Last Saturday night, we had our first official family gathering post renovations. Although the majority of our renovations were completed early this year, we wanted to hold off on dinner parties until we purchased a new dining table. The year has been slipping away too quickly and as we are no closer to purchasing a table, we decided it was time to pull out the old trestle tables and have the man's family over for a meal.

Over the last couple of years we have fallen into the habit of having curry nights in colder months with everyone bringing a curry or two to share. As this was to be our first hosted dinner, I wanted to do something different and suggested a Mexican night which was warmly received.

I planned to make enchiladas and the man suggested that I make two different kinds, potato-chickpea-spinach filling with tomatillo sauce and smoky tofu and black bean filling with tomato enchilada sauce. As well as guacamole, salsa and cashew crema, I felt it would be a good time to try out a salad from Viva Vegan and settled upon the classic cabbage salad with cilantro-lime dressing. And then I felt like there should be some sort of appetiser and a dessert and went off to explore some further options.

On Friday night, my preparations began. I wrote out a task list, marked a few things that could be knocked off in advance and away I went. A couple of hours (and several dishes) later, two different sauces and fillings had been made for the enchiladas, black beans and cashews were soaking and the dressing for the salad was made.

The following day I made two types of flans from Viva Vegan for dessert, vanilla coconut and coffee flavoured (cafe con leche). They had the same caramel topping with a touch of lime juice so it was simple to prepare my moulds in advance with a double batch of this mixture. The fillings were fairly easy to make using agar flakes as the setting agent.

A few years ago I made a 7 layer dip to take to a party and it was very popular although I found it difficult to enjoy as there were too many layers to appreciate at once. I decided to cut back on the layers this time around and wound up with what I will call a triple layer dip. It starts with a layer of refried beans, followed by cashew crema and the top layer is a mixture of chopped avocado, tomato, olives and coriander. The dip was enjoyed by all and the man thought that it deserved a place on my blog. Other family members requested that the cashew crema recipe be posted as they thought it was fantastic as part of the dip and an accompaniment to the main meal.

It was great fun cooking so much food and I enjoyed dabbling in desserts which is something I should do more often!

Triple layer dip

Refried bean layer

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno chilli (or to taste), finely chopped
310g tin pinto beans
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup water
salt, to taste

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and fry the onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Stir through the garlic and jalapeno and cook for another minute. Add the pinto beans, black beans, cumin, oregano and water and simmer for about 10 minutes on low heat. Mash the beans with a potato masher or a fork until they reach the level of smoothness you want. Season with salt to taste.

Cashew crema layer (From Viva Vegan)

1 cup cashews
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon agave nectar (or use other sweetener)

Soak the cashews in water for at least 4 hours. Drain and rinse then place into a blender with the remaining ingredients. Process for a couple of minutes until a smooth paste is achieved. Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Top layer

1/2 large avocado, diced small
1 medium tomato, diced small
8 kalamata olives, diced
1 spring onion, chopped
2 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
squeeze of fresh lime juice
salt and pepper, to taste

To assemble, spread the refried beans evenly on the bottom of your serving dish followed by the cashew crema. Sprinkle the diced avocado, tomato, olives, spring onion and coriander on top. Add a squeeze of lime and some salt and pepper.

Pita Bread

You know you are food obsessed when after reading the front page of the Sunday paper the next thing you turn to is the weekend feature which contains two or three recipes. Most of them are meat related so it's a pleasant surprise when you do stumble upon something without. It seemed apt after my failure with turkish bread the day before that in Sunday's paper there would be a recipe for pita bread. Today was the day to make amends!

The only ingredient lacking from my pantry was semolina so I decided to use some polenta and hope for the best as the quantity required wasn't huge. The dough was fairly straight forward to put together and it was nice change to fry the bread (rather than bake) and watch it puff up in a matter of minutes. This is a technique I have previously used in making Indian flat breads.

The pita bread turned out to be really nice and was excellent to use with the little bit of zaalouk that didn't make it to the BBQ. The batch I made was half of the recipe below which made 5 decent sized pitas. I will definitely be using this recipe again! 

Edited to add: I have made this recipe heaps of times now and always use semolina which gives the bread a better texture. You can also substitute half of the plain white flour for wholemeal if you prefer.


Pita bread (Adapted from Karen Martini's recipe - Sunday Age 13/3/2011)

7g dried yeast
20g sugar
375ml warm water
2 teaspoons salt
500g plain unbleached flour
100g fine semolina (I used polenta)
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra

Place the yeast and sugar into a small bowl and pour in 125ml of warm water. Stir briefly to dissolve the sugar then set aside for 5 minutes. Combine the plain flour, semolina and salt together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the yeast mixture, remaining 250ml of warm water and a tablespoon of olive oil. Work the flour into the wet ingredients with your hands until combined, then tip out the contents onto a clean bench dusted with flour. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and springy, then return the dough to the bowl and cover with a tea towel. Allow the dough to rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and knead on a floured bench for a minute. Divide the dough into 10-12 pieces and roll each one into a ball. Roll each ball into a thin circular shape using a rolling pin, dusting with flour as necessary to prevent them sticking to the bench. Prick the dough with a fork in several places. I usually have about 3 pitas rolled out before I begin frying and roll the rest as I'm cooking.

Fry the pitas in a preheated non-stick pan over medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side until lightly browned. Stack the cooked pitas on a clean tea towel, placing a tea towel between every second one to absorb the moisture.

Zaalouk

Whilst browsing through my recipes recently, I discovered an interesting sounding dip which had been torn out from a Sunday paper many moons ago. Zaalouk is a Moroccan roasted eggplant and tomato dip with spices, the ingredients sounded like a good blend and something that was a little different so I decided to bring this along to a family BBQ along with the quinoa salad.

It is a rather time-intensive snack to put together, however there is a lot of down time throughout the process. Slightly charring eggplants over a flame, then roasting the eggplants, followed by removing their skin, slow-roasting of the eggplants plus the tomatoes, and finally frying the eggplants and tomatoes with spices. Phew, that is quite a process for a simple dip!

After sampling the zaalouk with some rice crackers, I was very happy with how it had turned out. I knew it would taste so much nicer with some Turkish bread and decided to give this a try. The result of the bread was not up to scratch as it turned out to be rather dry and not at all soft and spongy like nice Turkish bread is, so I will be looking for another recipe next time.

The sad part about the dip is no-one was able to sample it as soon after our arrival a flighty young cat jumped onto the bench and knocked the dish containing the dip off. The dish smashed, made an almighty mess and that was the end of the zaalouk! Being the animal loving person that I am, it was impossible to stay cross with naughty little Tom for long. I'll definitely have to make this again for a gathering, next time hopefully everyone will be able to try it!  

Zaalouk (Recipe by Karen Martini from the Sunday Age)

3 eggplants
10 ripe roma tomatoes, core removed
200ml extra vigin olive oil (I used about half or less)
salt and pepper, to taste
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon harissa
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 bunch coriander, chopped finely
1/2 bunch mint, chopped finely
Nigella (kaloonji, black cumin) seeds, for garnish

Preheat oven to 200C. Rest eggplants over a naked gas flame to blacken the skin, turning over on all sides for 3-5 minutes. Place eggplants on an oven tray and roast for 15-20 minutes. Remove and scoop out flesh with a spoon, discarding the skin.

Place eggplant in a clean roasting dish, Add tomatoes and olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Reduce oven temperature and 150C and slow-roast from 1 hour. Remove and allow to rest for 20 minutes. When cool enough to handle, pull off tomato skins with your fingers. Remove eggplants and tomatoes from the oil and set aside.

Place 3 tablespoons of the roasting oil (skimmed from the top of the roasting dish) in a large frying pan and cook garlic over medium heat for 2 minutes. Grind spices in a mortar and pestle and add to the pan. Stir in eggplants and tomatoes and cook for 10-15 minutes or until thickened. Add harissa, season with salt and allow to cool.

Transfer mixture to a serving bowl or plate, add lemon juice and drizzle over more roasting oil. Stir herbs through the dip and add nigella seeds to garnish.