Gettin' more exotic

I've been obsessed with Asian foods (the spicier, the better) since I was a kid, and as an adult have had the pleasure of visiting various Asian countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Japan and Timor-Leste). As well as eating at Asian restaurants as often as my waistline and budget will permit, I've experimented with many dishes at home, and even taken cooking classes in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Australia to help hone my skills. I haven't, however, visited anywhere in the Middle East. Just when I was thinking it was time to explore the cultures and cuisines of that part of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and any travel plans, however vague, ground to a halt.

But when one door closes, another opens …? The pandemic has seen many businesses switch to online selling – and has caused others to spot and fill a niche – and that's how I stumbled across Exotic Bazaar. The company is based in Queensland and makes a delightful range of Persian, Moroccan and Turkish recipe bases, spices, condiments, and cake mixes. Apparently they started by selling ingredients at community markets and branched out into internet sales. I bought a Middle Eastern feast pack (pictured above) about six months ago and enjoyed everything so much I've ordered additional recipe bases and cake mixes since then. It's been fun to veer sideways in my food obsession, to travel a little further west …

Update: Sunday 25 June 2023

The first time I made a Persian Love Cake, using the ingredients and recipe in the box shown above, I used a baking tin that was too small. The cake mixture rose up the sides, flowed over the top, and was partially lost. After that I purchased a larger silicone cake baking mould and recent attempts have been more successful. Here's the cake I made yesterday to take to our friends' place for dessert tonight:

Of course, you don't have to buy a pre-packaged cake mix to make this sort of cake. The recipe shown here, from Recipe Tin Eats, also works well, if you don't mind tracking down the more unusual ingredients rather than having them land on your doorstep.

My desert island food

About a month ago, while sitting in a tiny, suburban Indian restaurant in Christchurch, New Zealand, I had a revelation. A eureka moment, if you will. I realised that, if I could only eat one dish for the rest of my life, I would want it to be palak paneer. It's vegetarian, delicious, creamy, spicy and contains plenty of fibre and vitamins and protein. Possibly the perfect food. I almost invariably order palak paneer when I go to an Indian restaurant (is this boring of me? perhaps ...) and have never been disappointed. It's also easy to make at home. My recipe is here, and if you'd prefer it to be vegan rather than vegetarian you could replace the paneer with cubes of tofu.

This is the palak paneer we ate that night at Pepper Bridge Indian Restaurant. 

That's all. Just wanted to share the news.

Chocolate gingerbread cake

I revisited this old favourite recipe today and confess I doubled the quantity of chocolate chips! We're taking the cake to our friends' place for dessert tomorrow and I'm sure their kids will approve of the bonus chocolate.

1.5 cups wholemeal flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
0.5 teaspoon ground allspice
0.5 teaspoon ground nutmeg
125 grams chocolate chips
75 grams butter, softened
0.5 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
0.5 cup dark molasses

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and butter and flour a cake baking tin.

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and spices in a bowl. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl until fluffy, then beat in the egg. Mix the molasses with 0.5 cup warm water. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the molasses mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Bake about 55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. Invert onto rack and cool completely.

Note: you could also make this in muffin-sized pans, in which case cooking will take about 30 to 40 minutes.

'Tis the season to eat ice cream! (At least if you're in the southern hemisphere.)

Summer has arrived in Canberra with a thump. November was unseasonably cold and very, very wet. So we weren't quite prepared when a wave of hot, humid weather hit us this week! When I was at  our lovely local organic shop this morning they offered me a deal on some ageing bananas ($1/kg) so I bought a bunch and invented a new ice cream flavour: banana and cacao.

several over-ripe bananas
300 ml pouring cream
50 grams cacao nibs

Whip the cream till thick. Whiz the bananas in a blender. Combine bananas, cream and cacao and pour into a freezable container. Freeze. Yum.

Here are some other easy home made ice cream options, if you're feeling inspired or overheated ...

avocado, lime and ginger
Bailey's and macadamia [or other nuts]
basil, lime and honey
brandied fruit and nuts
chilli chocolate

coconut and cacao nibs
coffee and cardamom
green tea
Kahlúa and pecan [or other nuts]
rocky road
strawberry

Enjoy!

X is for Xmas (sorry for the awful abbreviation)

One of my proudest achievements in 2019 has

been growing our first-ever sunflowers from seed

It's Day 24 of the alpharecipe challenge and after much puzzling over what ingredients might start with the letter X (xanthan gum? xylitol? ewwwww) and someone suggesting I write about xylophones, Andrew said 'Xmas pud'. Xmas, of course, is a short form of Christmas, and Christmas Day is tomorrow. So yeah! I don't actually have a favourite recipe for Christmas pudding, but here are some other dishes that wouldn't be out of place on a summery Australian kitchen table:

rice paper rolls
avocado, mango, walnut and bacon salad
colourful corn salad
spicy Thai salmon and lychee salad
beetroot, spinach and goat's cheese salad
lemon meringue pie
brandied fruit and nut ice cream
mini Christmas cakes

And here are some edible gifts you could make for people like me who don't like stuff:

lemon butter
nutty maple granola
shortbread
spicy almonds

We've been feeding our friends' chickens

this week. Merry Chick-mas!

W is for wholemeal

Day 23 of the alpharecipe challenge. The end of the alphabet is looming! It's been fun revisiting recipes I hadn't thought about lately. It was hard to think of an ingredient beginning with W – I don't use much wasabi and we've already done wine – but I realised that wholemeal flour would fit the bill. For many years, probably at least a decade, I've substituted wholemeal flour whenever a recipe calls for white flour. I don't even have any white wheat flour in the house, though I do have some rice flour and besan [chickpea] flour for recipes where they'd work better. While wholemeal flour has a different consistency to white/plain flour it doesn't matter for the things I cook. (I'm not one of those people who crafts light-as-air sponge cakes or enters scones into baking competitions!)

Here are some recipes that probably started out life requiring white flour but work just fine with wholemeal:

Afghan cookies
banana bread
cheese soufflé
choc chip cookies
chocolate fudge pudding
corn muffins
chocolate cake with stone fruit
chocolate mud cake
cranberry cornbread
date loaf
dolly pudding
pumpkin scones
really easy pizza
shortbread
zucchini, basil and feta fritters

Enjoy ;-)

T is for tofu

Yum! I really like the versatility of tofu. Today is Day 20 of my alpharecipe blogging challenge. Here are some fun things to do with tofu ...

black pepper tofu with snow peas
pea and tofu soup
tandoori tofu salad
tofu in lemongrass coconut milk
vegetable laksa
vegan palak 'paneer'

P is for pumpkins, peas and potatoes

Day 16 of the alpharecipe challenge. It's been fun reminding myself of dishes I hadn't made for a while. Peas, pumpkins and potatoes are all among my favourite vegetables. Here are a few things you can do with them:

Peas

coriander and green pea dip
deconstructed samosas
pea and tofu soup
black pepper tofu with snow peas

Potatoes (including sweet potatoes)

potatoes with black-eyed beans
potato goulash
spicy potatoes and snow peas
vego shepherd's pie
kumara soup
lentil, cauliflower and sweet potato soup
Vanuatu salad

Pumpkins

pumpkin, pomegranate and pecan stew
pumpkin soup with drizzled coriander pesto

and some recipes that combine them ...

pumpkin and pea curry
potato and pea curry

L is for legumes

Day 12 of the alpharecipe challenge. Legumes are fantastic! Delicious, nutritious, and fabulously frugal. Here are a few legume-y recipes ...

nachos
dal makhani
potato and pea curry
hearty vegetable soup
parapou
mushroom, lentil and rice casserole
potato, leek, bacon and cannellini bean soup
pea and tofu soup
chickpea delight
vegetarian shepherd's pie
coriander and green pea dip

K is for kelp noodles

Day 11 of the alpharecipe challenge ...

I don't know Maša and Michael, the Canberra couple who blog at The Minimalist Vegan, personally. But I enjoy following their blog posts, and appreciate the recipes they share. A particular favourite is their kelp noodle salad.

You can buy kelp noodles at health food shops. Delicious!

I is for ice cream

There are heaps of different ice creams you can make at home without any fancy devices. A hand beater (or electric mixer) will do just fine. It's summer here in Canberra and I'm always rather torn ... between wanting to fill the freezer with delicious home made ice cream, and realising that if I do it'll be hard not to overeat. Ah well. At least I do plenty of exercise. Here are some flavours you may like to try ...

avocado, lime and ginger
Bailey's and macadamia [or other nuts]
basil, lime and honey
brandied fruit and nuts
chilli chocolate
coconut and cacao nibs
green tea
Kahlúa and pecan [or other nuts]
rocky road
strawberry

Enjoy!

G is for garlic

In my new-found extra leisure time over the past couple of years I've rediscovered macrame. As you do. Recently I made a bright orange garlic bag!

I've also managed to grow garlic, a little more each year, in our garden:

Here are some recipes featuring garlic, to celebrate Day 7 of the alpharecipe challenge ...

asparagus, blue cheese and mushroom risotto
avocado salsa wraps
black pepper tofu with snow peas
chickpea delight
Greek-style meatballs with tomato sauce and green olives
Hermine's magic mushrooms
nachos
palak paneer
pumpkin soup with drizzled coriander pesto
ratatouille
roasted mushrooms with feta and garlic
Sri Lankan lentil curry
stir-fried brussels sprouts

Enjoy ;-)

A is for avocado

Avocados have been in the news in recent years. An Australian social commentator, Bernard Salt, suggested (tongue in cheek ... I think?) that young people would have a better chance of successfully saving up for a house if they stopped splurging on avocado toast. While extreme frugality certainly can help in saving for a house deposit – Andrew and I barely had any travel, meals out or new clothes in the four years leading up to buying our first place together in 1996 – I don't want to weigh in on millennials' spending habits. I would, however, like to share some yummy avocado recipes!

Today's the first day of my alpharecipe blogging challenge and A is for avocado. If you haven't tried these dishes, you should. They're scrumptious ...

Avocado, lime and ginger ice cream
Avocado salsa wraps
Avocado macaroni cheese
Rocket salad with pears, blue cheese and pecans

Enjoy ;-)

Vegetarian thali cooking class @ Foodish

Back in the early noughties, my friend Elizabeth and I attended several half-day cooking classes at Belconnen Markets. They had a demonstration kitchen where the audience sat on tiered rows of chairs and watched as instructors (once, the great Charmaine Solomon) cooked and narrated. At the end of the classes we got to eat the food we'd seen cooked and take the recipes home.

It had been a long time since I'd been to one of these classes (though Andrew and I have taken cooking classes in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan in the meantime) but we recently signed up to attend a vego thali class at Foodish, the current incarnation of the cooking school at the Markets. When we arrived there last night I expected a lazy evening (just watching and eating) but it seems the classes are now more hands on! The ten course participants broke into three teams and created six dishes:

Spinach and chickpea curry
Dry okra curry
Masoor dahl
Raita
Lemon rice
Chapattis

over the course of two hours, which we then sat down and ate. Delicious. Some pics ...

We'll definitely be cooking these recipes again. Oh, and the timing of the class was (accidentally) perfect as we currently have no kitchen! It's being renovated. The old kitchen was removed yesterday and the new one started arriving today. May have to share some pics when it's done. Watch this space ;-)

Well, hello Bamix! (Oh, and a yummy ice cream recipe.)

Andrew likes to make banana smoothies for breakfast, using a hand-held stick blender. About a year ago our Breville stick blender died of old age. It had done an excellent job ... lasting over ten years and making at least 3000 smoothies! Not to mention helping out with soups, sauces, dips and the like. We started looking into options for a replacement blender and were disappointed to find that, these days, it is REALLY hard to find stick blenders that don't come with a whole bunch of unnecessary plastic clutter. Bowls, jars, scrapers, and all manner of pointless attachments. As someone who has been functioning as an adult for 35 years, I already own all the kitchen clutter I'll ever need. So we set our sights on a Bamix stick blender as it was simply a blender. No jars, no bowls, no crap. The Bamix is more expensive than most brands on the market, but is famously reliable (it comes with a 20-year warranty on the motor) so it meets our criteria for expected longevity better than the cheaper brands would have.

Meanwhile ... we decided to make do for a while, using an ancient bench-top blender we'd bought years ago from a friend who moved overseas. This blender works OK, but is harder to clean and isn't suitable for some foods. So we finally splashed out on the Bamix a couple of weeks ago.

It's purple!

So, anyway, I'd always used a hand mixer:

to make my many flavours of home made ice cream. Today, however, I tried whipping the cream with the Bamix rather than by hand. It worked well. So fast! So little arm-ache! Here's what I made:

Avocado, Lime and Ginger ice cream

Don't be deterred by the idea of avocado ice cream. This is delicious. The avocado gives it a gorgeous colour and texture, while the lime and ginger provide the flavour.

1 avocado (or two if they're small)
juice and pulp of 2 fresh limes
125 g glacé ginger, chopped finely
0.25 cup caster sugar
1 cup cream

Purée avocado with lime juice and pulp. Fold in ginger and sugar. Very lightly whip cream. Fold all together. Put in freezer. Take out 15 minutes before serving.

Rest in peace, Breville blender ;-(

Singapore!

It's been over 17 years since we first visited Singapore. At the time, neither Andrew nor I had been anywhere in Asia and it seemed like just the right balance between exotic (multicultural, tropical, famous for its food) and safe (a developed country where English was spoken). Since then we've ventured to far more challenging places ... yet we still crave Singapore between visits.

While most people see Singapore as merely a stopover between flights, we like to visit for several days at a time to soak up the ambience and hoover up the food. We were there again a couple of weeks ago. The adventures included ...

Intriguing signs

Apostrophes embedded in the pavement

Colourful buildings

A fabulous tour of three hawker [street food] centres

led by the lovely folks from Singapore Foodsters

Kaya toast and kopi C

Richard Feynman's bongo drums, in an

exhibition at the ArtScience Museum

Cooking class (our second!) at Food Playground

Tour of black and white bungalows (with Jane's Tours)

Discovering Azmi Muslim Restaurant in

Little India ... so fabulous we ate there twice

The cat cafe. Who can resist a cat in a cravat?

Singapore is always a joy to visit. Although it's changed a lot over the years, we still find quirky things to do ... and delicious things to eat.

Timorese food. Nom nom!

Timorese food is a marvellous melding of southeast Asian and Portuguese flavours. So delicious! The country also has some fantastic fresh fruit and vegetables. I've come home inspired and eager to try cooking many of the dishes we tried. The delights included ...

Fresh coconut (with bamboo straw!) at the Australian Ambassador's residence

More local goodies at the Ambassador's dinner party

A wonderful vego lunch spread at the Alola Foundation

Plantain, sweet potato, cassava, tomatoes, chillies and

hot, sweet black coffee at Belola School

Mee goreng and pizza at Black Rock Restaurant

(Ahem) weird combinations from the breakfast bar at Novo Turismo Hotel, Dili

Fabulous flavours at Agora Food Studio

Delicious dinners at Kirsty's home

Fried breadfruit! 

... and banana juice. Really ;-)

Next post ... the wrap.

Aloo tama (potatoes with black-eyed beans)

We have a lovely Nepalese restaurant near our place called the Hungry Buddha. I've eaten there several times (and blogged about it here) and by booking online I ended up on their email list. While not usually a fan of mailing lists (who needs more brain clutter?) I quite like the messages from the Hungry Buddha. They provide interesting facts about Nepal ... and recipes! Tonight we ate Aloo Tama, a spicy dal with potatoes. I confess I used red lentils rather than black-eyed beans, as that's what I had on hand, but otherwise followed the recipe. Here it is! The quantities of ingredients shown made enough for three, two-person meals. One for tonight and two more to stock the freezer. Delicious. Serve with rice or roti.

Dinner @ Junk

I'm currently in Brisbane for a two-day conference. It has been great catching up with old friends and making new ones, and last night I skipped the formal conference dinner to meet up with my buddy Liana. She recommended we eat at Junk in Southbank, and it didn't disappoint!

The food is described as having 'several Asian influences including Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and Chinese' and Junk was the perfect venue for a casual, colourful and delicious gossipy catch-up. Liana is a vegetarian and I'm more omnivorous so we shared some things but not others. We started with lotus chips and spicy edamame, then had crispy pork belly (with a kaffir lime and dark palm sugar caramel, laksa, green papaya and cashew nut salad) and salt and pepper tofu (with wakame, pickled ginger, yuzu avocado and soy dressing) for the main meals. It was all fabulous.

Junk is at Shops 11 and 12, Little Stanley Street, South Brisbane and they also have branches in Maroochydore and Toowoomba.

Yum ;-)

Palak 'paneer' ... the vegan version!

One of my favourite Indian dishes. Palak means spinach, while paneer is the Hindi word for fresh cheese. This recipe is not only delicious, but very simple to make. You can buy paneer ready-made at some South Asian grocery stores, though it is easy to make your own. Recipe here.

This week I tried something different. Rather than using paneer I used tofu! Simple and delicious.

2 bunches spinach, washed and chopped [silverbeet also seems to work OK]
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1 teaspoon cumin
salt, to taste
garam masala, to taste
red chilli powder, to taste
vegetable oil
375 grams firm tofu

Cook the spinach and onion till soft (use microwave or steamer). Cool slightly, then blend the spinach and onion till you have a gorgeous green sludge. Heat some oil in a pan, and fry the ginger and garlic for a minute. Add the other spices, then add the spinach mixture and cook for four to five minutes. Allow mixture to cool while frying tofu slices. Add the tofu and heat through. Serve hot with naan or roti, or as a side dish for curries.