Veggies On The Counter

When I was a kid, sundays were the days I used to dislike. I didn’t really adapt well to the kindergarten, and in the late afternoon of every sunday, I’d feel quite sad about the fact that Monday morning I had to go there.  As a child, I was indeed a pretty unsocial human being: I didn’t speak much, and I’d most likely run away when other children would come to talk/play with me – fortunately, I’d overcome this extreme shyness as I was growing up, even though some of it has remained throughtout the years and I’m afraid to assume it still remains as part of my adult personality.

It might sound weird, but I do think my photographic obsession with still lifes has a lot to do with my childhood and those distressed sunday afternoons. Still lifes are always melancholic, quiet, and perhaps also a bit enigmatic. On the same hand, their classical concept involves the presence of food and some other elements (such as sheets of paper, hardcover books, feather pens, and so on) that, when combined together, almost always make for bucolic, serene scenes.

It’s also surprising that usually, in still lifes, food and writing tools are placed together. It’s as if the first couldn’t live with the latter. Food isn’t dissociated from writing, and that’s also the reason why I find, in the still life, the basis of food writing.

So today is Sunday, seven o’clock in this part of the world – unlike some years ago, there’s no drama involved as I don’t have to go to school tomorrow. My afternoon, as many of my sunday afternoons, was spent in the kitchen, making a big pot of pea soup and a couple other things to be enjoyed throughout the week. It’s not a traditional pea soup the one I’ve prepared today: sweet apples were used as well as a good amount of freshly grated ginger. The end result: you have sweetness from the peas and apples, freshness from a couple leaves of mint, and a light heat from the ginger. Both flavor and texture are well balanced – almost as every still life composition seems to so effortlessly be – contributing for a subtle, yet tasty, outcome.

I always love to watch people cooking, specially to see how their process is – not only in terms of what ingredients they choose to cook with, but also in terms of how they organize things and manage the time they spend preparing a meal. I’m not sure if I’ve told you this before, but I’m not (really) an organized cook. Firstly, I spend way too much time preparing things, and secondly, I tend to be messy. I know some people who are always cleaning up and arranging the ingredients they’re working with on the kitchen counter, and even though I try to be like them, it seems I can’t achieve such level of method. Pans, plates and bowls are left on the kitchen sink, waiting for the meal to be done to get washed; ingredients remain on the counter even though I might have already used them; t-shirts and sweaters get stained with tomato sauce, cake batter, and so on, because most of the time I forget to put the apron on. I don’t mean to scare you – in fact, if you’d come over for dinner, I’d do my best to hide the evidences of my messiness.

Things tend to get worse when I bake – flour all over the place, packages of sugar and margarine clearly out of their natural environment, dirty bowls and cups pilled up on the sink. You get the scenario. As I was thinking about this the other day, I thought it’d be great if I could come up with a cake recipe that would require minimal effort and the use of only a few kitchen utensils.

The recipe for the Apple Cake I’m sharing with you today, even though requiring the use of a food processor, can be pretty much considered a clean-up-friendly type of cake. It’s also gluten-free and (almost) fat free, meaning that a second or third slice won’t hurt. The fact that it’s a fat free cake doesn’t compromise its flavor, which is delicate, yet full of warmth, for which the addition of a generous amount of ground cinnamon definitely contributes.

And finally last, but definitely not the least: I’m really (really!) excited to be a contributor for Honest Cooking, a brand new online food magazine that has launched just yesterday. My very first article can be found here, but please do check out the website, it’s really well worth it!

The idea for this dessert has been in my mind for almost a week. I’ve had some filo pastry on the freezer that would expire next month, so I desperatly needed to use it in some kind of sweet and/or savory treat. I’ve bookmarked a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s book Jamie Does, that basically consisted of feta cheese wrapped up in filo pastry. It looked absolutely stunning. “Are you going to replace the feta cheese for tofu?”, my mum asked. “Humn, no. I think I’m going to take this to a whole different level”, I replied back. In fact, substituting the feta cheese for tofu was my very first idea, and even though it sounded great, I didn’t want to make a dairy free version of Jamie’s recipe by using ingredients, such as tofu, that  have a similar look to feta but – let’s be honest – don’t have that strong character the latter has. I’m glad I’ve worked on the recipe and made something different from the original source: pears, raisins, and a good amount of Port wine come into play, and thus a new recipe is born.

This recipe is, in fact, very easy to make, and even though filo  is a very delicate pastry, with a bit of practice you manage to work with it very easily. As I was writing the recipe today, I suddendly blocked when it came to explain on how to work and fold the filo sheets. I’ve done my best to clear it out for you, but I honestly think that’s something that would be better explained with the add of a simple drawing. Anyway, I have made no drawing, nor I took pictures of that part of the process, so if any of you have doubts regarding that component of the recipe, I’ll draw a quick diagram and post it up here to help you to visualize things. Anyway, don’t worry too much on trying to get perfectly shaped rectangle parcels: as long as the filling is sealed, you’re good to go.

I’m not sure why, having already tried some recipes from Plenty, I haven’t wrote about the book in here before. Plenty is strictly vegetarian (no meat, no fish) but, on the other hand, isn’t particularly vegan-friendly (a large number of the recipes call for dairy and eggs). Anyway, that isn’t really a disavantadge, as I usually find a lot of inspiration in dishes that aren’t vegan already, as part of the fun is to actually try to veganize them – that both mental and practical exercise on how to substitute non-vegan ingredients for plant-based ones, is one of the things I enjoy the most about the process of recreating recipes.

Back to the book: it is filled with amazing dishes from cover to cover (the photography is also great, and there’s an image for every single recipe on the book too) – next on the list, is the Soba noodles with aubergine and mango, already mentioned here – but this one in particular – saffron cauliflower – not only is really tasty, but also couldn’t be simpler (and require fewer ingredients) to make.

’ve already shared with you my love for cauliflower – one of the vegetables I like the most to work with – and with this recipe on hand, I assure you, there’s no reason why not to eat it more often. I also haven’t modified the recipe that much, so my version only includes some minor tweaks: I ommited the bay leaves the original recipe called for (actually because I forgot them on the counter and only realized that a few minutes before the cauliflower was done roasting), subbed saffron strands for the powdered version (as it was what I had on hand), and added ¾ teaspoon of sea salt. Although the book features a very slightly different version of this dish, you can find its first version online, published on The Guardian’s column the new vegetarian.For a tasty, unusual, side dish, this is it.

I’ve decided, a couple weeks ago, to start experimenting with gluten-free recipes, specially baked goods. I’ve been reading a lot on how to work with different gluten-free flours, and started having fun experimenting with them. Vegan baking is, by itself, a challenge; but baking vegan and gluten-free goodies can be even more challenging, specially when you realize, after some reading, that even rye and spelt flours have gluten on them (until a few days ago, I was convinced they didn’t). But the thing is: once you get succeeded at baking vegan and gluten-free, you know that everybody – vegans, non vegans, and people with food allergies – can happily enjoy what you’ve prepared, and that’s the great thing about it.

So, on saturday, I’ve spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen baking gluten-free muffins and cakes, and was really surprised on how good everything has turned out. These corn and broccoli muffins is the very first gluten-free baked good I’m posting on Veggies on the Counter (and many others will come in the future), and they are/were surprisingly fluffly and tasty – give me them toasted with a little butter, along with a steamy soup, and I’m in heaven. The recipe can be easily adapted too: you can substitute the broccoli for corn kernels, or simply ommit those add-ons, for a simpler, but not less tasty, version. And if you’re not concerned with gluten-free baking at all, just substitute the white rice flour for unbleached all-purpose.

When I first started this blog I promised myself I’d be posting a recipe at least once a week. Back then, I was so excited about this whole blogging thing that I found myselft posting two, three, recipes a week. But school work has been leaving me with very little time to cook these days, and that’s the main reason why I can’t keep with my former promise all the time. Anyway, today, after an almost 12 hour sleep (yes, that’s possible), I cured my tiredness from the very busy week I had, and sit in front of the computer after lunch – this time, not to work on the projects I have on hand, but to write you the recipe for a delicious upside-down pear cake.

As I’ve told you in the previous post, I’ve been working with gluten-free flours recently and the results couldn’t  be better. So, this cake not only is gluten-free but delicious on its own. Chickpea flour is here used in place of eggs and the pairing of buckwheat with fall fruits such as pears, seems to work extremely well. As we’re approaching Christmas, and I’m experimenting with a couple ingredients typicall for this time of the year, it’s more likely that the following recipes will be desserts, cakes, and hearty savory dishes – we’ll then have plenty of time in January to  get back on track. ; )

I served this soup yesterday to some house guests who came over for dinner and got such great reviews that I thought sharing it with you. We were eight at the table yesterday night, meaning that I made a huge pot of soup and will be enjoying the leftovers today as part of my Christmas dinner. Red lentils and butternut squash really are a great combo, and the natural sweetness of the latter (enhanced by roasting) is complemented by the addition of cinnamon. To give things a little punch, dried chiles are added to the soup, and the final result – yet very delicate – has some background heat, almost like the role played of back vocals in melodies. A couple more technical notes on the soup: it lasts for a couple of days in the refrigerator (three to four), but as it has the tendency to thicken over the time, add a little water when reheating it. Also, if you don’t have the chiles at hand, you can add some cayenne pepper instead (1/4 teaspoon should be enough).

And finally last, but not the least: there are a couple of traditional portuguese recipes (both sweet and savory ones) typical for this of the year that I’d like to post up here. I still do have to work on them, as they’re not vegan, but once I get them right, they’re all yours too. Mery Christmas to all of you. Love, J.

1,3 kg butternut squash, seeded and cubed, but not peeled

I arguee that cauliflower is one of the most versatile vegetables. Like potatoes, for instance, it can take on big flavors, specially spices. Curried mashed cauliflower is a favorite in this household, as it is the Roasted Cauliflower Soup I’m sharing with you today. There’s the general idea that for making a perfect creamy soup, you have to use potatoes: honestly, I think that for that matter, cauliflower does a very great job too. As far as today’s soup goes, roasting the cauliflower is the step that will obviously take you longer. Apart from that, the soup only takes a few minutes to put together. And for those of you who might be doubtful about making a soup using cauliflower as the main ingredient, I tell you there’s nothing bland about this soup. Actually, roasting the cauliflower with the spices gives this vegetable a totally different personality: as a comparison, think about tofu and how you can make it incredibly tasty just by marinating it  or seasoning it right.

As I was working on the soup today, a couple ideas for some improvements and variations popped up into my head: for instance, I’ve blended all the ingredients, but I think it would be great to put some roasted cauliflower aside and add it on top of each serving of the soup. Also, I suspect that using half cauliflower and half broccoli, could be an interesting tweak to the recipe. And lastly: I had the soup for lunch today with a very simple tofu sandwich (basically, grilled tofu sandwiched in between to slices of toasted whole-grain bread), but plain toasted bread with a knob of vegan margarine also makes for a perfect accompaniment.

The other day, I was home alone and watching Nigella Lawson’s tv show while having dinner. I like Nigella and her way of cooking – which is very casual and focused on the pleasure of eating – and despite the fact that she almost never cooks vegan food, I can really get inspired by some of her recipes. That evening, she was preparing an express menu, and a recipe for scrambled eggs was on the list. What I found interesting about Nigella’s dead easy scrambled eggs, was that she added fried tortillas to it. I immediately thought about doing the same next time I’d be making scrambled tofu, as fried tortillas would definitely add some crispiness to the dish as well as an interesting, hearty, flavor.

Now, I feel a bit dumb giving you a recipe for scrambled tofu, as every vegetarian/vegan out there seem to have their own recipe for it. My version, although being tasty and highly seasoned, isn’t particularly different from a thousand others, except for the addition of tortillas. Everybody seems to like it, both vegans and meat-eaters, and I think it’s specially good served on toasted whole-grain bread (seriously, how many times have I said on these blog that certain foods go well with toasted bread?). ; )

Wish you all a great and relaxed weekend! (Mine, on the other hand, will be particularly busy, with tons of school projects to work on..)

Today’s recipe is a quick bread I’ve bookmarked from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. Peter Berley’s book is a reference on vegetarian/vegan culinary, and while some of the recipes in the book may look a bit laborious, the end results are well worth it. Anyway,  this bread won’t take you that much time to make, and having the grains cooked, you’re only a few steps way from getting a good loaf of fresh, homemade bread.

The original recipe called for five different kinds of grains, but I didn’t have all of them at home, and ended up making the bread with only three  – millet, quiona, and brown rice. I guess we’re here talking about a baked good that has a very similar flavor to that of soda bread, and I think it isn’t without that purpose that the recipe calls for two and a half teaspoons of baking soda. The addition of cooked grains contributes for a fluffier and kind of moist bread, while the toasted sunflower seeds add a bit of crunchiness to the whole thing. If you attempt at making this, you’ll notice that sunflower seeds will turn greenish after being baked – although being unaesthetic, is just a natural reaction that happens when seeds are mixed in a batter that has baking soda on it.

I made this bread yesterday, and I’ve been eating it toasted with some vegan margarine and a spoonful of homemade chutney. It made my lunch today along with a courgette soup, but it also makes a good aftenoon snack, along with a cup of tea. With such a bad weather around here in the last couple of days – it has basically been raining constantly – all I want is to stay inside and to be sourrounded by comforting and nourishing foods such as this.