Fried peppers

In much of southern Spain, you can buy long, thin peppers, which look like an overgrown chilli. In fact they are ‘sweet’ and the locals tend to cook them on a plancha, which is essentially a sheet of well-seasoned steel, that's placed at one end of the barbecue. Hot coals are swept under it and the metal gets extremely hot. When the peppers are cooked like this, the skins char and the core and seeds cook to a delectable softness and do in fact, taste positively sweet. They’re unbelievably good with lots of coarse salt ground over them. Occasionally, one of the peppers is spicy hot, which causes much amusement, when the greedy diner has bitten a huge chunk off the end. Lacking a large barbecue and plancha, I suggest cooking them in a more mundane frying pan.  They are sublime as a starter, because you just have the peppers alone and can really appreicate the flavours.  The long, thing ones (sometimes sold as Romano) are full of scalding hot juice - be careful! - which is totally delicious and can be mopped up with bread.

Although they’re common in both Spain and South America, these slender peppers are not easy to find elsewhere. However, ordinary peppers make a good second best, although the seeds don’t cook the same way and aren't usually worth eating. You can also find miniature peppers which taste equally appetising when cooked this way - seeds and all.

Roast peppers have become very popular recently, and many people cook them over the barbecue. Nothing, however, quite matches the searing heat of a hot plancha or frying pan. 

Serves 4 as a starter 

 

12 Spanish peppers or 4 peppers

olive oil

coarse sea salt

 

Method:

• Wipe the peppers.  If using ordinary perppers, quarter them and remove the seeds.
• Heat the oil to smoking hot in a heavy frying pan. Put in the (pieces of) pepper(s) and toss them in the oil. If you think you're going to overload the pan, cook them in batches.
• Using tongs, keep them moving so that most of the skin gets burnt and almost blackened. The inside should soften at the same time.
• Remove the cooked peppers and keep hot. Add more to the pan (with extra oil, if necessary) and repeat the process until such time as all the peppers are cooked.
• If you’ve nowhere to keep them hot, chuck them all back into the pan, after the last ones are cooked, so that they’re reheated.
• Serve with plenty of salt and some fresh bread to mop up the oil and juices.

Stuffed tomatoes

If you can get the really big tomatoes sometimes (incomprehensibly) known as ‘beef’ tomatoes’, they make a gorgeous starter when stuffed with a savoury filling. There are, of course, countless ways of making these, but I will give one example and a couple of variations. Experiment as you wish.

I use bulgur wheat rather than breadcrumbs, for making the stuffing, but either gives excellent results.

Serves 2

 

2 tbsp bulgur wheat

1/4 cup boiling water

2 large tomatoes

1 small onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

1/4 tsp basil

1/4 tsp thyme

salt and pepper

 

Method:

• Put the bulgur wheat into a small bowl and pour the boiling water over it.
• Cut a thin slice off the top of each tomato and put to one side.
• Scoop out the insides with a teaspoon. You won’t need these for this recipe, but will undoubtedly find a use for them. (If you’re worried about it going mouldy, heat to boiling with a little hot water and put in a vacuum flask until you can use it the following day.)
• Put a little salt on the insides of the tomatoes to draw out excess juice. Turn them upside down to drain.
• Dice the onion and garlic and fry them in the oil until golden.
• When the bulgur wheat is softened, add the onion/garlic and the basil and thyme and season with salt and pepper. Be generous with the pepper.
• Place the tomatoes in the pressure cooker’s vegetable separator and put half the stuffing in each. Cover each tomato with its top.
• Put the trivet in the pressure cooker together with 1/2 cup water. Put the stuffed tomatoes on top. Bring up to pressure. Cook for 1 minute and allow the pressure to reduce naturally.
• Carefully lift out the tomatoes and serve hot.

Variations:

• Add 2 tbsp pine nuts to the filling, to make them even more special.
• Serve with rice (and wild rice) for a main course.
• Leave out the onion and the herbs and mix in 1/2 cup grated cheese with the bulgur wheat.
• Use 1/4 tsp dried, minced garlic with the bulgur rather than frying the garlic.

Toasted cheese sandwich

I no longer eat butter and dislike margarine, so if I want to make a toasted sandwich these days, I tend to fry it in a minimum of olive oil.  However, so far I've been unable to find edible vegan cheese in New Zealand, so, sadly, toasted cheese sandwiches now exist only in my memory.  

I'm still looking for a successful vegan "Cheddar cheese" recipe.  All suggestions gratefully received.

Makes one

2 slices bread

butter

Cheddar cheese or similar

• Butter the bread generously.
• Slice the cheese and fit it to the bread – don’t make the sandwich too lumpy or it will be difficult to toast and don’t let the cheese overlap the crusts because it will drip onto the toaster and start to burn.(This is much less of an issue if you 'toast' it in the frying pan) 
• Put the toaster over a medium flame and carefully place the sandwich on it. Don’t use too high a flame or the bread will toast before the cheese has started to melt. Depending on the size of both your bread and the flame, you may have to move it around to toast evenly. 
• When one side is done turn it over and toast the other side.

Variations:

• Cheese and mustard: make as above, substituting Dijon or your preferred mustard for the butter. If you don’t watch calories, you can use butter and spread the mustard on the cheese.
• Cheese and onion: add thin slices of onion with the cheese.
• Fried egg sandwiches are good at any time of the day, although this isn’t strictly a toasted sandwich.
• Peanut butter is good, and even better with a couple of slices of tomato.  Beware that the tomato can get extremely hot.
  
• Make them with banana skin bacon. Toast the bread on one side only and if you’re feeling particularly decadent, dip the untoasted side in the cooking oil before assembling the sandwich.  
• Any bean or nut spread will go well on a toasty.  This can also get extremely hot.
  

Savoury scone

Sometimes you want something more sustaining than a sandwich, but don’t want to eat out of bowls. A savoury scone can provide just what’s needed.

1 onion 

1 tbsp olive oil

 1/2 tsp sage 

1 cup flour

 2 tsp baking powder

 pinch of salt

 4 tbsp soft butter – OR 3 tbsp olive oil

1/4 cup milk or water

• Dice the onion and fry it in the oil until soft. Put to one side
• Add the sage, baking powder and salt to the flour.
• Rub in the butter/oil, or mix it in with a fork until you have a coarse, crumbly mix.
• Quickly mix in the milk until you have a fairly soft, but non-sticky dough that you can handle easily.
• Knead this for half a minute and then roll it out on a floured board into a roughly circular shape. Alternatively, if you have an oven, roll out the dough and cut it into six or eight discs, using a glass or a scone-cutter.
• Put the dough in a frying pan over a flame tamer on a low flame. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or place in a preheated hot oven for 15 minutes.
• Turn out, cut into wedges and split each, buttering and serving it while it’s still warm.

Variations:

• Use some fresh herbs, if you have any available.
• Add 1/4 cup grated cheese to the flour before mixing the dough.Fry some diced Seitan chorizo with the onion.
• Add garlic to the onion, if you like./
• Spread some Marmite or Annie's Big Mix (or both!) on the scone.
• Instead of making scone dough, use Zebedee bread.

 

Welsh Rarebit

Sometimes known as Welsh Rabbit, but I can assure you this is a vegetarian meal.  Vegans can make the Vegan cheese sauce variation of Basic white sauce, and add the additional flavourings suggested below, or follow this recipe substituting grated Vegan cheese if you use it.  Welsh rarebit is a favourite in England for lunch or a light dinner.

 Serves 2

 

1 portion Basic White Sauce

1 cup grated cheese

1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce OR 1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper

2 – 4 slices of bread

• Make the white sauce.
• Reduce the heat, add the cheese, Worcestershire sauce or mustard and season with more salt and pepper, if you think it needs it.
• Keep the sauce warm while you toast the bread.
• Pour some sauce over each slice of toast and eat immediately.

Crispy fried chickpeas

These make a change from peanuts and can be as hot as you like!

Serves 2

1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked and cooked

1 tbsp coconut or olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp garam masala

3/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 to1/2 tsp cayenne, or to taste

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp dry mango powder OR 1/4 tsp kala namak (black salt)

 

Method:

• Drain the chick peas.
• Add them to a bowl and then add all the spices and mix well. 
  
• Heat the oil until it’s hot. 
• Tip in the spiced chick peas and fry until they’re crisp and golden all over.
• Add more salt if you want and serve.