entirely inauthentic veggie samosa with puff pastry

entirely inauthentic samosa
Originally uploaded by pindec

Another haphazard chuck-fridge-slurry-together item that turned out ok.

Ingredients

1. 1 onion
2. 2 cloves garlic
3. 3 carrots
4. 1/2 bag spinach
5. cup frozen peas
6. 3 med potatoes
   (but you can use pretty much any fridge detritus)
7. tbsp cumin seeds
8. chilli to taste
9. curry powder (whatever you've got lurking)
10. ready made puff pastry
11. oil
12. splash milk (or soya milk to make this vegan)
13. quorn chunks (optional)
14. juice of a lemon

Method

• chop the onion and put on to fry in the oil. after a bit bung in the garlic and spices.
• while that fries gently, grate the carrot and whiz the spinach in the food processor (or laboriously hand chop it).
• peel and cube the potato and bung it in the microwave for 10 mins with a tbsp or so of water.
• once you can smell the spices, add the carrot and spinach. fry gently for about 10 mins until the potatoes are cooked.
• meanwhile roll out the pastry into oblongs, whatever size you fancy. I did a mixture of her-uge (for us) and teensy (for the baby).
• add the cooked potatoes, frozen peas, lemon juice and Quorn (if using) to the mixture, stir, and continue frying, keeping an eye on it to prevent burnings.
• if you are catering for a Small Child or someone with an old person's mouth, separate out a bit of the mixture before you add the chilli.
• if you have time, let the mixture cool a bit before you bung it in the pastry. seal the edges by brute force and a bit of milk/soya milk and brush the same on top. Bung in the oven at approx Gas 6 for the suggested pastry times, depending on the size of yer pasties/samosas (approx 20 mins). Take out before burnt.

leftover potato city

This was super fast and surprisingly tasty for a random fridge-raid fry.

Ingredients

• Leftover mashed potato - about a cup. Mine was garlic :).
• Handful pine nuts
• 2 eggs
• Tsp capers
• Tbsp flour
• Pepper, dried chilli flakes
• Splash of olive oil
• Rocket
• Lemon juice

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients bar the last 3 together. I wished I'd been arsed to chop up the capers - so depends how lazy you feel.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan and drop tablespoons of the mixture in and fry on both sides for a few minutes - make sure neither the heat nor the cakes are too high cos you need to make sure the egg is cooked in the middle.
3. Bung 'em on a plate with the rocket, sprinkle with lemon juice.

edible courgette salad

Yes, yes, I know courgettes *can* be the vegetable of the devil, but if you don't boil 'em to death they can actually be quite tasty. Have them raw in a coleslaw or grill the suckers into submission (see below) to enjoy in a salad with some nutty buckwheat and crisp apple. Just don't let my mum near them.

Ingredients

1. A courgette
2. 2 handfuls spinach
3. cupful of buckwheat
4. 2 spring onions
5. 1 apple (granny smith's)
6. olive oil
7. lemon juice
8. salt & pepper
9. dried chilli (optional)
   

Method

• Halve the courgette widthways then slice as thin as you can lengthways without removing your skin. Brush lightly with olive oil, then bung under the grill. When one side chars, turn over, rebrush and slam 'em back in.
• Prepare the buckwheat by rinsing thoroughly and boiling for approx 10 mins, depending on how crunchy you like.
  
• Meanwhile, chop the spring onions and apple into bite-size chunks. Squeeze some lemon on the apple so it doesn't go brown and horrible, and make a vinaigrette with the rest of the juice, oil and seasonings.
  
• When the buckwheat's ready, rinse under cold water to cool down and squeeze the water out. Then bung in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients (spinach, courgettes, onions, apple). Toss lightly with the vinaigrette, add the chilli if you're not a jessie and enjoy.
  

crunchy couscous

really easy - the only cooking is bunging some hot water on the couscous, though sprouting the moong beans took a couple of days.

Ingredients

1. small cup of couscous
2. 1/2 tsp veg stock powder (optional)
3. about 1/8th red cabbage (or whatever you have lurking in fridge)
4. olive oil
5. 1/2 lemon
6. 1/2 red chilli (or that ready-squished stuff)
7. 1/2 cm ginger (ditto)
8. 2 spring onions
9. 1/2 cup bean sprouts (i sprouted some moong beans, but whatever you can get hold of)
   

Method

• Put the couscous in a bowl and cover with boiling water. If you want tastier couscous (but with more salt), add some veg stock powder. stir and leave to soak.
  
• Meanwhile, chop the cabbage and chilli finely. Grate the ginger and slice up the spring onions.
• Once the couscous is no longer gritty, toss together with the rest of the ingredients, adding more seasoning if required.
  

summery shrooms

With some vague bits of summer peeking through UK clouds, I've experimented with ways to make mushrooms summery treats. This would be even better if I had some fresh tarragon, but my gardening-fu is consistently hampered by slugs and ineptitude....

Ingredients

1. button mushrooms - the bigger the better as you want some nice big slices
2. 1 lemon
3. slug of olive oil
4. tarragon - dried or fresh
5. seasoning (salt; pepper; chilli)
   

Method

• Wipe or peel the shrooms, depending on how filthy they are. Don't wash them 'cos they'll soak up lots of water and taste a bit ... flabby.
• Slice the shrooms as finely as you can, and place in a bowl.
  
• Whisk together the olive oil, juice of the lemon, a pinch of tarragon and seasoning.
  
• Toss the shrooms in the vinagrette and leave to marinate for at least an hour.
  

This tastes great with a salad of watercress, spring onion and finely chopped red cabbage.

Quinoa & purple

A wintry salad to stave off hunger and snow

Ingredients

1. quinoa - about 1/2 - 1 cup
2. 1 onion
3. can of mixed beans - or unmixed if you only like one kinda bean. Not baked beans though. Bleurgh.
4. 1/4 red cabbage, roughly chopped
5. jar of piquant peppers (try saying that fast)>
6. oil, lemon juice, chilli, seasoning

Method

• First, toast the quinoa - basically bung it in a dry saucepan over a highish heat stirring frequently so it doesn't burn until it's golden brown and starts to smell (nice). Then add twice the volume of water and simmer for 10 mins until it splits and goes soft.
• While the quinoa is cooking, chop the onion and bung it in the microwave on high for about 5 mins to soften and sweeten it.
• Roughly chop the cabbage and peppers; drain the beans.
• Add all the ingredients together with the quinoa while it's still warm, add oil, lemon juice, chilli and seasoning to taste. Everything will marinade as it cools down ....

This goes well in a winter lunchbox, and as it's not too gloopy it won't leak out the edges of your Underwhelming Tupperware box ....

dip theory (a)*

for dip heads everywhere... i ran out of houmous (shock! middle class disaster!) and decided to go off road with an alternative with random items.

Ingredients

1. can of cannellini beans, drained
2. juice of half a lemon
3. couple of good handfuls of spinach
4. seeds from a couple of cardamon pods - bash up to get the seeds out
5. splash of olive oil
6. 1 tbsp tahini
7. pepper
   

Method

• toast the cardamon seeds in a dry frying pan.
  
• if you're a jessie, heat the oil in the very same pan and gently fry the garlic. hard core garlic nuts can just chop it up.
  
• bung it all in a liquidiser and process until squish. serve with pitta.
  

that's it .... you can add salt if you want but i tend to leave it out, given that the pitta usually comes with quite a lot of added salt (read the label ...)

* the theory is that pretty much everything can be dipified.