Asparagus matar malai - asparagus white curry

 

Some time ago I adapted/created a mushroom white curry - mushroom matai malai - and have become addicted to it.  While having all the glorious flavours of curry, it is also quite different from most other Indian recipes that I've tried.  I have also found it a good meal to serve to guests, because it is one of those recipes that can be half made, set aside and then quickly completed when you're ready to eat.  However, I found it frustrating that the curry always came out brown, rather than white and because I can't find oyster mushroom locally, have just had to put up with it.  However, when the asparagus season started and I found myself wondering how to cook it, it occurred to me that it might go well in this white curry sauce.

 

Fresh asparagus is something of a luxury and combining it with Indian spices might sound like sacrilege: however, I urge you to try it.  I find it incredibly good eating and could happily enjoy it twice a week during the all-too-brief asparagus season.  Because it is a bit of a luxury, I make the cashew nut cream, that these white curries usually contain.

 

The onions, garlic and ginger are meant to be ground to a paste in a blender.  However, this means that you need to wash and dry the blender just before making the cashew cream.  I find this a bit of a bother and simply dice the onion very finely and use ginger and garlic pastes.  I don't think that the onions intrude.

Matar, by the way, means peas, so they are, strictly, essential. otherwise it will be simply asparagus malai. I use freeze-dried peas – essential voyagers’ provisions.  You could leave them out, I suppose, but they add interest to the appearance.

I have made this curry several times and adore it.  If you’re not fond of too much chilli, leave out the chillies and simply use the Kashmiri chilli powder.  It is so good that I could probably eat both servings at one sitting and other people also scrape their plate clean.  Because of this, it's worth adding chickpeas or white beans to make it more filling.  either that or have rice and roti!  Moreover, as it is spectacularly delicious, it's difficult not to eat the full two servings oneself and I've taken to adding chickpeas to it.  However, if serving it for guests, the beans do detract slightly, so maybe just splurge on more asparagus.  In my opinion, this is not a curry to serve with a dal, or another curry, because I want to appreciate its uniqueness.

 

Unfortunately, it still doesn't end up white.  I shall just have to try it with cauliflower! 

Serves 2

Ingredients

 

one bunch of asparagus - about a dozen stalks

1/4 cup cashew nuts plus water for blending

1½ tbsp ghee or oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 small piece mace

1 or 2 green chillies, chopped

1 small onion, finely diced

1/2 tsp ginger paste

2 garlic cloves, finely diced or 1/2 tsp garlic paste

2 green cardamoms, seeds only

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp water

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup freeze-dried peas soaked in 1/4 cup hot water

1/4 tsp ground white pepper or black, if that’s all you have

1/4 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

Method:

• Trim the ends of the asparagus and cut it into pieces about 35mm/1.5 in long. 
• Put the cashews in a blender and grind them to a powder.  Than add 1/4 cup of water and blend until you have a smooth liquid.  
• Heat the ghee in a heavy-based saucepan and sizzle the cumin seeds and mace.
• Add the chilli and cook for a few moments. 
• Now add the onion, ginger, garlic, cardamom seeds, coriander, chilli powder and salt. Cook for a couple of minutes, lower the heat and add the water. (This is to stop the vegetables browning). Cook until the onions, etc are soft adding a drop more water if necessary. 
• Now raise the heat once more, add the asparagus and cook for a few minutes, ensuring that it is well-covered in the ghee/spice/aromatics mixture.
• Add the peas and any remaining water.  
• Cook for another four or five minutes and then stir in the cashew cream and cinnamon and bring everything to a very gentle boil. I usually find I need to add more water, so you could rinse out the blender with a couple of tbsp water and add that to the pot.  Now turn the heat right down until the mixture is barely simmering and add the pepper.
• Put a lid on and simmer until the  asparagus is cooked. Remove the lid so that the sauce can thicken to the consistency you want, then add the methi and garam masala. Cook very gently for another couple of minutes.

Serve with roti, brown basmati rice, or cumin rice if you prefer.  

Notes:

• Whole mace, unlike the ground variety, has a surprisingly intense flavour. If you’re not used to using it, be careful how much you add. I use a piece about the size of an almond.

Variations:

• If cashews are too expensive or unobtainable, you can use blanched peanuts instead.
• Use yoghurt instead of cashew nut cream. 
• If you want to end up with a smoother sauce, add the onion, ginger, garlic, and green chilli to a blender or food processor and blend to make a rough paste.  Add this paste to the pan, after you've fried the cumin and mace.
• For a more filling meal, add ½ cup chickpeas or white beans, soaked, cooked and drained. Or a can.  
• This is quite a quick meal to make because you can just add everything in order, stirring to ensure that it’s all mixed, as you don’t want the fried vegetables and spices to turn brown. 

 You will find more recipes like this here

 

Aubergine and pesto pasta

 

Gluten free with appropriate pasta

  

This recipe is very freely adapted from one of Jamie Oliver’s. Firstly I tweaked it so that it just made one serving, then I altered it again for this blog, to serve two, and then I adapted it for a voyaging locker, which probably doesn’t include fresh basil, but might and should, include a jar of pesto.  

 

Before going any further, not all jars of pesto are created equal. Some contain a ghastly green purée, while others look like something you’d be quite proud to make yourself and have a delightful texture, just like the Real Thing. When I first came across jars of pesto, I was inclined to believe what it said on the label about having to be kept refrigerated. However, my local supermarket sells small jars at a very reasonable price and as I wanted to try out different recipes for calzone, I thought I’d probably get through the jar quite quickly, anyway. I used most of it and then out of curiosity, left the near-empty jar in my locker. It kept for weeks.

 

I was also surprised how good it tasted: the one that looked the best value, “Pam’s” is not an expensive brand, so therefore there wasn’t much chance of it being made with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Pine nuts or Pecorino cheese - all of which would be found in a traditional pesto. In fact the ingredients were: canola oil, 35% basil, sunflower seeds, cheese (unspecified), garlic, sugar :-(, salt and natural flavours, so it’s rather surprising that it does taste so good and implies that the best part of the pesto is the basil. My “Pam’s” Pesto also included three e-numbers in the ingredient list: E202 - potassium sorbate, E270 - lactic acid and E300 - ascorbic acid, and I thought that before suggesting that others put it in their lockers, I should see what these were. I try to avoid ultra-processed foods, and this certainly looked a bit like one. I had a look online and even the most hysterical of ‘health-food’ sites seemed pretty chilled about lactic and ascorbic acid (which is just another name for vitamin C). There was a bit more tooth sucking about potassium sorbate, although it is derived from sorbic acid, which occurs naturally in rowan berries. It is very commonly used in all sorts of food production and the worst that anyone had to say about it was that if it is consumed in high doses during pregnancy, it might effect the DNA. Personally, I feel quite happy about my jar of pesto: my only genuine reservation is that it contains cheese, and I prefer to eat a vegan diet. The reason I’m rabbiting on about this is because fresh basil doesn’t keep well at all - even if you have a fridge - and for something like this recipe, you wouldn’t want more than a quarter of a cup, which wouldn’t use up a whole bunch. However, by all means make your own pesto if you prefer!

 

The recipe calls for cherry tomatoes, but I find those miniature plum tomatoes are even better, if you can lay hands on them. If they are tiny, double the quantity.

 

Serves 2

 

Ingredients

 

1 large or 2 small aubergine

olive oil OR olive oil and butter

salt

penne, pasta spirals or similar 

2 tbsp pesto

Pecorino cheese or "Parmegan"

6 cherry tomatoes

 

Method:

• Cut the aubergine in half. Rub it – particularly the flesh, with oil and put it on a well-oiled baking sheet. Roast it at 180° for 35 min. Or cook it in the pressure cooker until it’s tender, cut it in half, scoop out the flesh and briefly fry it in a little oil so that the flesh is lightly browned.
• While it’s cooking, cut the tomatoes in half. The original recipe says to remove the seeds, because of their bitterness, but I don’t bother. I generally find cherry tomatoes are quite sweet and the seeds not very intrusive. Then cut them into fine dice.
• When the aubergine is thoroughly soft, let it cool and scoop out the flesh. Chop it all up, put it into a bowl and keep warm.
• Boil a pan of hot salted water and add the pasta. 
• Pour the pesto over the aubergine and mix it all up. Add olive oil and/or butter for taste and texture.
• Now add a little bit of cheese.
• As soon as the pasta is ready, add some of the water to the aubergine mix, so that you have a saucy consistency.
• Mix in the tomatoes.
• Tip in the pasta and serve.

 

Pass round extra cheese, and maybe pine nuts, chopped almonds, or sunflower seeds at the table.

 

Notes:

• If you have fresh basil, some leaves would be a lovely addition when the pasta is served.
• Another way to cook the aubergine, would be to ‘roast it’ in the frying pan.
• I like aubergine skin, so I generally just dice the aubergine, fry it in olive oil, and mix it with the pesto.

Variation:

• This isn’t particularly filling, so you might want to increase the pasta from what you normally would cook, or serve it with bread, or maybe even add some cooked white beans or chickpeas to the aubergine sauce.

You will find many more recipes for pasta dishes here

Black-eyed peas curry

Black Eyed Peas Curry

 

 

Blender alert *

Black-eyed peas are popular in India and they have the great advantage of not needing to be soaked, if you are going to cook them in a pressure cooker. This means you can make a curry with more substance than a dal, or even whole lentils (including Indian ones such as mung). They also cook in about the same time as whole lentils, so are ideal for when you’ve been out (or sailing) all day and want to get a meal underway as soon as you’re back on board, or have the anchor down. Their earthy taste is quite unlike any other legume I can think of and goes very well with curry spices.

This is also a quick and easy curry to put together. Although there is a blender alert, it isn’t really necessary to use one: you’ll just end up with a slightly different texture. In this black-eyed pea curry, no tempering is required after the initial cooking, so the whole thing goes together quickly. The beans are cooked in a sauce flavoured with onion, tomatoes, and coconut, along with seven other spices which, apart from asafoetida, you’ll probably have on board. It’s well worth adding to your standard repertoire and makes a change from chickpeas, which tend to be the obvious ‘go to’.

 

Because this recipe doesn't have that many ingredients, you don't have to be a dedicated curry cook to make it.  The only thing you are unlikely to have on board is asafoetida and possibly garam masala.  You can leave them both out and perhaps add a pinch of ground cinnamon, cloves and/or nutmeg and a tad more cumin. 

Servings: 2

Ingredients

1/2 cup dry black eyed peas

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1.5 tbsp shredded coconut unsweetened

1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped

1 medium ripe tomato quartered

1/2 tsp ginger paste

4 garlic cloves

1/2 tbsp cooking oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

pinch asafoetida (omit if GF)

1/8 tsp ground turmeric

1½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp salt divided

1 ½ cups water

Instructions

• *Blend cumin seeds, coconut, onion, tomato, ginger and garlic to make a smooth paste.
• Put the pressure cooker on the cooker and add oil.    When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Add asafoetida and turmeric. Add the onion and tomato paste and cook for a minute stirring frequently.
• Add red chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder, garam masala and salt. Mix well.    Cook on a low heat for 3-4 minutes.
• Mix everything once more, ensuring that there are no spices stuck to the bottom of the pot.
• Add black eyed peas and water. Give a quick stir.
• Put the lid on the pressure cooker and cook under pressure for 10 minutes.    Allow pressure to reduce naturally.

Serve with rice or roti.

Notes:

• If you don’t have a fresh tomato, use a tbsp of purée.
• Any dried coconut will work in this recipe.

Variations:

• * If you don’t have a blender, use ground cumin, dice the onion and tomato and use ginger and garlic paste. Mix everything together in a cup or jug and use in the same way as the blended mixture. The curry will taste just as good.
• Add some chopped vegetables such as carrots or sweet potatoes, which will survive cooking with the peas, without turning into a mush.

 

  

You will find many more recipes similar to this here and here.

 

Leek and hazelnut pasta

This is a quick and simple recipe, but it’s not particularly filling. I sometimes precede it with bread and dukkah to ensure that there’s a good, filling meal. You could of course simply make more, or more pasta and there’s always the no-fail filler of adding some beans to the meal. I think white beans would go best here.

It is well worth taking the little bit more effort to toast the hazelnuts, it completely transforms them!

I’m very fond of Brussels sprouts and like to make them a feature of my meals, rather than a side dish. If you look through the blog you will see several recipes with sprouts as star of the show. I suggest adding them in my variations at the bottom of this post and would say that they make this recipe even more interesting.

 

Ths recipe can be made gluten free with the appropriate pasta 

Serves 2

Ingredients

1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

olive oil

I whole, large leek, thoroughly cleaned

1/2 tsp salt

up to 1/4 tsp chilli flakes

1 large garlic clove, crushed or diced

2 heaped tbsp thick yoghurt

4 handfuls of short pasta such as fusilli

a generous grind of black pepper

a handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

grated Parmesan*

Method:

• Heat a small frying pan or saucepan and then tip in the hazelnuts. Toast them until the skins darken and begin to shed. Shake the pan or stir the nuts frequently so that they don’t burn. Set aside and chop them when they get cool.
• Pour the olive oil into a larger frying pan, and while it’s heating, slit the leek down the middle and slice it into half moons. Use the dark green leaves as well (you may have to remove one or two and the discoloured parts at the top of the leek). Sprinkle the salt over and add the chilli flakes.
• Cover and cook over a moderate heat until the leek has softened. Check regularly to see that it’s not burning. Add the garlic and stir in the yoghurt. The leek should have produced quite a lot of juice, but if they look dry, add a little water, white wine or stock.
• In the meantime, cook the pasta to your taste.
• When the pasta is cooked, using a slotted spoon, add it to the frying pan and carefully mix everything together. Season generously with black pepper; taste and see if more salt is needed.
• Garnish with the parsley, should you happen to have some.

 Serve on heated plates or bowls, with

Notes:

• *If you prefer vegan food, use 'Parmegan' cheese.
• Substitute vegan yoghurt, if you prefer, or crème frâiche, or a similar product.
• If your leek seems really dirty, cut them about an inch below the first split leaf and take off the outer green leaves, one by one. Often you will only find dirt in the first few of them, which saves the tedious and unnecessary job of washing the whole leek. Unless you are a convinced vegetable washer, of course. I usually only give the a cursory rinse, if that.

Variation

• Add about a dozen Brussels sprouts, quartering the large ones and halving the smaller ones, in the frying pan with the leeks.
• Add 1/2 cup of white beans, soaked and cooked in the usual way, once the leeks have softened.
• If you have no parsley, use half a teaspoon or so of my mixed herb blend.
• Substitute walnuts for the hazelnuts.

 

You will find many more recipeslike this here and here

Seitan Italian Sausage

I am besotted with seitan recipes: the texture is so different from most other vegetarian and vegan foods, it’s cheap, and making ‛meat’ with it is so quick.    I’m not fond of tofu and anyway have no fridge to store it, but seitan can often be substituted in tofu recipes.

These ‛Italian’ sausages are great on their own, in a bun/sandwich or in a sausage and white bean stew.    The couscous/bulgar wheat is to give them a more sausage-like texture.   If you don’t want to use that, go for the chorizo sausage recipe instead, and substitute the seasoning.

If you haven’t cooked with seitan before, I strongly recommend you read right through the instructions first.    You will need baking paper and a trivet for your pressure cooker, to follow this recipe.

Makes 8

Ingredients

1/4 cup fine bulgur wheat/couscous + 1/2 cup water

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds roughly crushed

1 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp Annie's Mixed Herbs

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic granules

1/2 tsp salt

6 sundried tomatoes in oil, finely chopped OR 2 tbsp sundried tomato pesto

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp yeast extract OR miso

1/2 tbsp tomato purée

1 tbsp olive oil/ or take some from the tomato jar

1/3 cup water

1 cup vital wheat gluten

Method:

• Cut baking parchment into 8 sheets, approximately 200/8" x 150/6".
• Heat 1/2 cup of water and our it over the couscous or bulgar wheat and wait until all the water is absorbed.   
• Mix in the nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, fennel seeds, cracked black pepper, Mixed Herbs, chilli flakes, onion powder, garlic granules* and salt, stirring between each addition so that it is all thoroughly combined. It has to be very thorough because once you add the vital wheat gluten, everything sticks together in a hurry and it’s hard to mix anything in.
• Finely chop the tomatoes.    Because this is so messy, I use scissors, holding the tomato over the bowl. You can hold onto the tomato right down to the last small piece and both it and the oil will go into the bowl.
• Then add the soy sauce, yeast extract, tomato purée, olive oil (or take some from the tomato jar) and water. Again, mix thoroughly after each addition.
• Now add the vital wheat gluten and mix as well as you can with your knife/spatula and then use your hand, incorporating all the flour that will be trying to stick to the edge of the bowl.    Keep mixing until everything is blended and the dough stops sticking to your hand.
• Place the dough on a board.    Roughly shape it into a rectangle about 100 mm/4" across, or as long as you want your sausages to be.  (Be warned that the dough is nowhere near as accommodating as bread dough when it comes to shaping it).   
• Cut the dough in half, quarters and then eighths If you want your sausages all to be the same, cut as accurately as possible. The dough doesn’t seem to stick very well to itself, once you’ve finished mixing it.    Shape the sausages to be best of your ability – the wrapping finishes the job.    Don’t worry about gaps and creases.    The cooking sorts out most of that.
• 

  Now put each sausage, centred at the edge of a piece of baking paper and roll it up tightly. This helps make it cylindrical.    Twist the paper at either end, like a Christmas cracker, until it’s squashed against the end of the sausage.    Do this with all eight sausages.
  
• Put the trivet into your pressure cooker.    Add about half a cup of water – don’t let it cover the trivet.    Place the sausages onto the trivet – it doesn’t matter if they are stacked – and bring up to pressure; cook for 10 minutes.
• Let the pressure come down naturally.

When they’re cooked, take the sausages out of the pressure cooker and unwrap them.    Put them somewhere where they can cool and dry out a little, before using or storing them.    I find they keep best in my wooden bread bin!    Fry them before eating them – the added olive oil gives additional flavour and I enjoy them cooked until they are slightly crisp.

Notes:

• While the diced, sundried tomatoes certainly add to these sausages authenticity, they are quite messy and have a tendency to keep falling out as you create the individual sausages. If you tend to lose patience with fiddling around, I suggest you go for the pesto, instead.
• *If you find you like these sausages, you might prefer to make yourself a seasoning mix to keep in a jar, using 8 tbsp nutritional yeast, 8 tsp smoked paprika, 6 tsp fennel seeds, roughly crushed, 4 tsp cracked black pepper, 8 tsp Annie's Mixed Herbs, 2 tsp chilli flakes, 4 tsp onion powder and 2 tsp garlic granules.
• If you’re not fond of biting on a fennel seed, use ground fennel instead.

 

 

You will find many more recipes like this here

Brussels sprouts with mung dal and carrots

This is a great recipe for showcasing Brussels sprouts – a very underrated vegetable in my opinion. When they are unavailable, they can be replaced with courgettes. Having both dal and vegetables in the one pot, means that cooking a proper meal is a simpler process and serving it with rice or roti will complete the protein for best nutrition. Carrots, are also underrated and in combination with the sprouts will provide a good selection of minerals and vitamins and cooked with the bright yellow mung dal, you end up with a very attractive dish. Mung dal are one of my favourite legumes; they cook quickly and have their own distinct flavour. They don’t break down quite as much as split lentils (masoor), but are softer than chana dal. I use them a lot.

The original recipe ends up with completely softened sprouts and carrots. I like well-cooked carrots, but prefer my Brussels a bit firmer. Please see the * Note for alternative cooking. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 tsp oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp fennel seeds

1 Indian bay leaf

a generous pinch of asafoetida

1 green chilli chopped

2 large garlic cloves, chopped OR 1 tsp garlic paste

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1 medium tomato chopped

dried fenugreeek leaves or chilli flakes

1/2 cup yellow mung dal

1 3/4 cups water

1/2 tsp salt or more to taste

1/4 cup chopped carrots

10 to 12 large Brussels sprouts, or equivalent smaller ones

Method

• Trim the sprouts removing the discoloured leaves and excess stem. Depending on their size, half, quarter them or leave them whole.
• Put a saucepan over a medium heat, add oil and heat it.
• Add mustard seeds and wait for them to sputter.
• Then mix in the asafoetida, fennel seeds and bay leaf. Cook for about half a minute
• Add the chilli and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic browns evenly. (If you’re using garlic paste, add at the next stage, otherwise it will spit all over the place.
• Throw in the carrots and Brussels sprouts*, if you like them soft cooked. (See Note) You can add some other veggies depending on availability and preference. Cook them for a minute.
• Now add the tomato, turmeric and cook for 2-3 minutes until the tomato gets mushy.
• Add the dal to the pan with salt, and water and mix well.
• Cook covered on a low heat for 20-30 minutes, until the mung dal is tender.
• Serve hot, with dried fenugreek leaves or red chilli flakes and roti/naan or rice.  I like cumin rice with it.  (Cook the rice.  Fry 1/2 tsp cumin seeds in a small pan until brown and savoury and pour over the rice.)

Note:

•  To make this gluten free, leave out the asafoetida.

• * If you like your Brussels sprouts firm, I suggest cooking the recipe as written, but adding the Brussels sprouts when the dal starts to soften, depending on whether you want them almost crunchy or merely al dente. This unfortunately is a bit hit and miss, depending on how big the sprouts are. Better to put them in too late and then add some more water if the dal is drying out, than put them in too early and overcook them.
• To refresh the dal the next day, make a new tempering: add a teaspoon of oil, to a small frying pan, heat on medium, add 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, a bay leaf and chilli flakes. Wait for the mustard seeds to sputter.  Pour this over the heated dal and serve.
   

Variations:

• Substitute 1/4 cup (31 g) chopped or grated courgette for the sprouts.
  Use mustard oil for a change of flavour. 

 

You will find many more recipes like this here.