Mexican Mac n' Cheese

What happens when you want Mexican and American-Italian at the same time? Answer; this kind of fusion mess. Like all fusion this kind of thing will annoy some people, but I have to say the combination goes really well together. In the picture, I admit it looks a little dry, which it was, not too dry, but it could've been a tiny bit more creamy in texture so I've upped the liquid quantities slightly in the cheese sauce recipe. 

This was our last Bank Holiday meal and as such it didn't disappoint. I think we just had a green salad on the side with toasted pepitas and that was all the accompaniment needed. I would have to say, next time I'm thinking of doing a Mac N Cheese I'll do this as it adds a lot extra to have the tempeh layer with it. It gives a great texture and a good counterbalance to the creamy cheese sauce as well as a protein in there with all that pasta. 

mexican tempeh mac n' cheese

For the tempeh layer

1/2 pack tempeh (roughly 125g) cubed
2 tbs sunflower oil
1 stick celery
1 tbs tomato paste
1 cup stock or water
1/2 cup chopped tinned tomatoes
1 tbs liquid smoke
2 tsp mexican oregano
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper

For the mac and cheese

150g pasta (we found a good wholewheat penne from Biona)
3 cups non-dairy milk
2 cup stock or water
1/3 cup cashews (soaked overnight if possible) then drained and ground into a paste
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1/4 cup chickpea flour
3 tbs tahini
1 tbs dijon mustard
1 tbs cider vinegar
salt and pepper

For the topping

tortilla chips
Jalapeños

1.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and grease a large baking tray
2. First make the tempeh layer; set a steamer over a large pan of hot water, or a sieve with a lid over the top and steam your tempeh for 15 minutes. Reserve the water to use for cooking your pasta.
3. In the meantime,  sauté the celery in the oil and when softened add the tomato paste and a couple of tablespoons of stock. Cook the tomato paste for c couple of minutes, stirring frequently and then add the rest of the ingredients. Turn to a low simmer, crumble the steamed tempeh into the pan and partially cover. Continue to cook for 20 minutes, stirring at intervals until fairly dry.
4. Now set the pan of water you used for steaming your tempeh on to boil again. When it reaches boiling point, throw in a little salt and your pasta, then turn down slightly and stir briefly. Cook according to the instructions on side of the pocket of pasta your using. These cary according to shape and flour-type. 
5. As the pasta is cooking prepare your cheese sauce. Whisk all the rest of the ingredients in a pan and slowly bring to a simmer. Keep whisking to prevent lumps forming as it thickens for about 15 minutes. It should be the texture of pouring cream, you don't want it too thick as it will thicken further as it cooks again in the oven with the pasta. 
6. When the pasta is cooked, drain and immediately mix with the cheese sauce. Then prepare the bake by layering the tempeh below and a layer of pasta on top. Finish with the Jalapeños and tortilla chips if you have them, or you could use breadcrumbs of chopped nuts.
7. Cover with foil and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Then uncover and bake for another 5-7 minutes to brown the top.

sour cherry (vegan) clafoutis

I always think that creativity works in unknown ways. I think the best advice for being creative is to work on relaxing your mind in order to allow ideas to enter freely.  We process so much stuff during the day that most of it goes unrecognised. Just allowing the impressions to filter through without fixating on any particular idea or outcome will lead to new territories. I don't think you can actually 'try' to be creative. This  strain will strangle anything new from coming into your consciousness. The effort and skill comes later in shaping the idea and this is when practice and consistent work do make all the difference.

This is a long prelude to how my vegan clafoutis came into being. In a way I'm trying to understand just where the whole thing starts and why certain dishes just come into my mind. I can trace this one back to a stall in a market in Goa run by two french ladies who baked all their own desserts and cakes, and true to French style they all contained lots of butter, eggs and cream; like their cherry clafoutis that Theresa and I used to love before we stopped eating eggs. 

When I looked for an egg-free version I did find a couple of recipes using silken tofu online, but I make so many pies using silken tofu I wanted to try something different. This is when I linked in another memory I'd had of an Australian chef once making a vegan custard with polenta at a yoga-retreat I worked on in Crete. Hence the fusion of the two and a baked-custard was born.  Lighter weight than the tofu, I know I always say it, but this really is a healthy dessert. Though dense enough with the polenta to be satisfying with only a small slice, I would really insist that you serve it with some kind of cream to complement the slightly firmer consistency that the polenta lends over the traditional egg filling.

For the Crust
1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted)
1 cup oats
1/4 cup rice flour
2 tbs unrefined sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of salt

2 tbs coconut oil

3 tbs soya milk

For the Filling

3/4 cup polenta
3 cups soya or other non-dairy milk
1/4 cup maple syrup or other sweetener
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tbs vanilla essence
1/2 cup sour cherries (we use a frozen type we found at the organic store)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a small pie plate. Place your walnut in the oven for 5 minutes until lightly toasted. 
2. Grind the walnuts in small food-processor along with the oats. Empty into a large mixing bowl and sift in the rice flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Gently in the oil until you have the texture of fine breadcrumb, then add the soya milk, mixing and trying to gather up the dough. It will be wet, so press into your prepared pie plate and bake for  10 minutes until lightly colouring. 
3. In the meantime prepare the filling by heating the polenta, milk, sweetener and nutmeg over a ,medium low heat, stirring constantly for 15 minutes, until it's thickened considerably into a smooth, thick batter. Mix in the vanilla off the heat.
4. Empty out into the tart case and smooth down. Press the cherries into it and bake for  25 minutes. Take out and chill for an hour or so before serving with a vegan cream.

Pumpkin Brown Risotto

I always say to people, good cooking is more about preparation and organisation than skill. Of course, certain recipes demand a little technique and practice; like getting the feel of how wet you need your dough to be for a particular bread, or the temperature of the pan for grilling as opposed to pancakes or a stew. But these are small things compared to a little forward planning and clear-thinking in when to do what steps for the recipe. Also, nothing beats having your ingredients to hand and not having to go out and shop first.  

Of course, you can't always know what you want, or how long you'll have to cook it the day before. With English weather eternally unpredictable we didn't know at the weekend if the sun would shine and we'd want to be out, or have a lighter lunch, or plan for the normal rainy and cold day here with heartier fare. One thing I always do is prepare stock in advance and freeze it, portioned-up in separate containers. This way you can have a meal with quite a depth of flavour and sophistication almost the moment you want to. In this case, just defrosting a stock and adding to rice with a little white-wine and pumpkin gives a result much more worthy of dinner-party dining than a quick 40 minutes when you've come back hungry from a trip out.

Pumpkin Brown Risotto
(Serves 4)

2 cups of pumpkin chopped into 1cm cubes.
1 cup risotto rice
1 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 stick of celery
1 cup of white wine (we use a non-alcoholic Sainsbury's own brand)
5-7 cups stock
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

1 cup milk or flavourless dairy free milk

1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted (optional)s

grated parmezan or vegan cheese (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

1. preheat your oven to 200 degrees and toss the pumpkin with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, season with sake and pepper and scattering evenly over a baking tray, bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Checking and turning or shaking once of twice. 
2. Add the rest of the oil and butter in a heavy bottomed pan and warm over a medium-low heat. Now add the celery and sauté for five minutes until it softens,  then add the risotto rice and stir, toasting the grains for another five minutes. 
3. Now turn up the heat and add the white wine. Keep stirring until the wine has cooked off and the rice is almost dry again. Then add two ladle fulls of stock and turn the heat down to medium again.
4. Keep stirring constantly and adding stock when the rice has almost dry, being careful to taste after 15 minutes, to check if the rice is cooked. Add the stock cautiously towards the end so you avoid a 'soppy' consistency to your risotto. You want it 'all a olla'; like a 'wave'. Not too wet, not too dry, texture is everything.
5. As soon as the pumpkin is cooked, puree half of it with the milk, thyme and nutmeg.  When the rice is almost cooked but still has a very slight bite too it, add the pumpkin-puree and keep stirring for a few minutes more. 
6. Cover and let the risotto rest a few minutes to firm up slightly before stirring in the rest of the pumpkin. Scatter the pine nuts over the top and a little grated parmesan if using.

Apricot Cottage Cheese Cheesecake

A perfect dessert for when you want your cake and to eat it too (a funny expression of having it all if you're not a native to the UK). Theresa stated that this cake tasted very rich and decadent, but having made it, I reassured her that it wasn't, that it was a healthy cake and to enjoy it..

I think the flower by the side adds a lot, no?

Makes 1 8" Pie (about 6 servings)

For the filling

1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
2 tablespoons honey or agave
zest of 1 lemon
about 8 dried unsulphured apricots chopped into small pieces
1 tbs rice flour
1 tsp corn flour

For the cake base
1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted and chopped finely or pulsed once in a food processor
1/2 wholewheat flour
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unrefined sugar
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2-3 tablespoons cold water

1. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees and grease a cake tin or line with baking parchment.
2. To make the filling blend the cheese, yoghurt and honey or agave together until smooth. Then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well and set aside.
3. To make the base, sift the flour, walnuts, sugar, salt and cinnamon together. Then add the coconut oil and rub in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the water until you can gather the dough up into a firm ball and press into the cake tin.
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the base starts to brown slightly. 
5. Take out of the oven and let cool slightly. Smooth the filing equally over the base and place back in the oven for another 30 minutes. 
6. Let cool, then place in the fridge for a couple of hour to chill and firm up.

Rye Sweet Potato Cracker Breads

A great cracker for when you don't fancy bread but want something slightly denser and more robust than a regular cracker. These "Rishka" ( I think originally Swedish or Danish?) are perfect for scooping up hummus or other dips without any chance of snapping into the pot..  As with most of our recipes too, they're really easy to make. If you have the sweet potato on hand the whole thing can be completed in a half an hour.

Rye Sweet Potato Cracker Breads

1 large sweet potato, peeled and either roasted (better) or boiled, then mashed
1 cup rye flour
3/4 cup plain flour
2 tsp salt

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and lay baking parchment over a large oven tray
2. Sift the flour together with the salt and gradually add the mashed sweet-potato, gradually gathering the dough up into one large ball. It should be tacky at this point, but not too wet to divide and press out into rounds. Add a little more plain flour if you need to.
3. Dusting a work surface (and you hands) with plain flour,  divide the dough into five pieces and pat each out with your hands into a thin circle roughly 1cm thick by 15cm wide.
4. Lay on the baking tray, leaving a small gap between each one. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool slightly to crisp up. These will store fine in a sealed bag for a few days with no depreciable difference noticeable.

Sweet Potato Waffles with Cashew Cream, Vegan & Gluten Free

Often on weekends I get requests for waffles. We bought a waffle iron recently which during the last time I used I managed to inadvertently stab myself in the foot with the kitchen knife. I was chopping some fruit for the toppings and I turned around and knocked it off the chopping board and it went summersaulting down and ended up point down in the top of my foot. Bad luck. When the knife was removed the blood started flowing quite freely and I had to lay down to stem the flow and call Theresa. Not the first time I've had to call her for a kitchen accident, but I've always been accident-prone. But she never gets used to my casualties and almost fainted. Anyway, it ended up not begin so bad at the time, but then a week later turned infected, literally overnight, swelled up to double it's normal size and I ended up in A&E. 

Gluten Free Sweet Potato Waffles with Cashew Cream

Anecdote over, these waffles involved a more harmonious cooking session. There were no accidents and I improvised this recipe with a halve a sweet potato I found left over in the fridge. It did most definitely produce a different kind of waffle. Denser, less fluffy and you can taste the sweet potato, but I liked them and so did Theresa and as she's notoriously the hardest judge to please and a pretty tough and exacting cookie (excuse the pun) when it comes to being cooked for, you can take it that these are worth trying.

Sweet Potato Waffles - Vegan & Gluten Free

1/2 sweet potato (boiled and peeled)

1/2 cup soya milk

1/4-1/2 cup cup water

1/2 cup gluten free flour (or I use a mix of rice, buckwheat and corn)

1 tbs molasses

1 tbs coconut oil

1 tsp cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

sunflower or any other neutral oil for greasing

1. Grease your waffle iron well, the sweet potato in this recipe gets a little sticky. Heat your waffle iron according to makers instructions. Usually you just turn it on and wait five-minutes.
2. Blend the sweet potato, soya milk, 1/4 cup or the water, coconut oil, cider vinegar, molasses and vanilla extract together. Set aside.
3. Sift the rest of the dry ingredients together, then add the wet to the dry with deft, sparing strokes until just mixed. You want the batter to be the consistency of a very thick double-cream. Adjust by gently folding in more water if it's too thick. 
4. Pour a ladleful of the batter into the centre of each mould. Close the lid and toast for about 4-5 minutes. Due to the sweet potato these take a couple of extra minutes more than regular waffles. Grease the waffle iron again between making each batch.

Cashew Cream

3/4 cup cashews, rinsed then soaked for 3 hours, preferably overnight

1/2 cup water 

3 tbs agave or any other liquid sweetener

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs lemon juice

1tbs coconut oil

pinch of salt

1. Drain the cashews and place them in a small food processor or the jug of a hand-held blender with the rest of the ingredients. Blend for a minute or so, stopping intermittently and scraping down the sides until you have a smooth paste.

Tempeh Meat Loaf with a Red Wine Gravy

The inspiration for this recipe comes from the Real Food Daily cookbook. When we get it together we're going to do a compendium on the blog of all our favourite cookbooks, but for now, take it that when we mention a book it's generally worth getting. The Real Food Daily chain of cafe/restaurants hails from LA. It reflects the healthy and varied cuisine of California and it's all vegan. My only reason right now to go to LA but a good enough one.

Full meal with the wonder gravy

Meal shots never turn out right but I hope that by including them; when we get around to pausing long-enough before getting stuck-in to take a photo, they act as some kind of inspiration for planning the meal as a whole.

The definitive 'slab of something' photo. tastes good though..

I have to say what made this meal in the end was the red-wine gravy itself. A truly masterful creation if I do say so as the chef-creator of this vegan gravy.  I might alter slightly the meat loaf if I did it again. The consistency was quite good, but I felt it tasted too much of tempeh. I've see a number of other vegan recipes featuring tofu and oats, and I think this would give more of a neutral taste background on to which to add your seasonings. 

Tempeh Meat Loaf
Serves 4

4 tbs sunflower or other flavourless oil
200g/ 1/2 pound of tempeh
1/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup light miso
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
1 tbs mustard
2 tbs unsweetened soya milk or other dairy free milk
1/2 cup gluten flour
1 stalk celery chopped into fine dice
1 carrot chopped into fine dice
1 tomato chopped into small pieces
1 tbs fresh oregano, thyme, parsley, sage, rosemary (or 1 tsp each dried)
salt and pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil a baking sheet with 1 tbs of the oil.
2. Shred the tempeh in a food processor and mix it with the ketchup, miso, nutritional yeast,  mustard and soya mil in a large mixing bowl. Turn on to you prepared baking tray, cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile use another tablespoon of oil to grease a 9-5" baking tin. Set aside.
4. Heat another tablespoon of oil in a medium frying pan. Saute the celery and carrot and when they begin to soften, about 5 minutes, add the herbs and continue to fry for another minute or so, stirring as you do.
5. Add the hot tempeh mixture to the contents of the frying pan and stir to blend.
6. Transfer the mixture to your prepared baking tray and smooth down. Baste the top of the loaf with the remaining tablespoon of oil and bake for 25 minutes.  Uncover and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until the top os a golden brown. 

Red Wine Gravy

2 tablespoon sunflower or other neutral tasting oil
2 tbs flour
1 tablespoon tomato puree
2 cups stock or water
1 cup wine  (we use these ones)
1 tablespoon dark miso
1 tsp mustard
2 tbs soya sauce
1 tsp dried sage, rosemary and parsley  (substitute 1 tbs if you're using fresh)

1. heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan over a low heat. Add the flour and  stir to combine. Keep stirring over a low heat for 3-5 minutes, or until the roux darkens a shade and starts to smell toasted. 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients off the heat and then, returning the pan to the heat start to whisk the mixture to get rid of any lumps. Do not let boil.
3. Semi cover the pan over a medium-low heat and simmer for another 25 minutes, stirring regularly. If it has not thickened substantially enough, uncover and turn up the heat,  stirring constantly, for another 5 minutes until reduced.

Persian Koresh Recipes; Fessenjen and Ghormeh Sabziabzi

For Theresa's birthday last month we went to a Persian restaurant we had our eye on. As always, we weren't sure whether to go; we seem to be constantly disappointed by our eating-out, but we also never learn the lesson (or you could call us perpetual optimists) so we went and were routinely disappointed.  No names mentioned and enough of the negativity, we're moving on. We'd just been to see a talk from an advaita-master in Hampstead so I was kind of in an 'all experience is equal with me' kind of mood, which as it  turned out with the meal was pretty fortunate. 

Koresh-e-Fessenjen

What it did inspire us to do is recreate a Persian meal, or what we would imagine a good Persian meal to be like, chez Yogi KItchen.  This we did using the fantastic Silk Road Cooking.  As usual, if you haven't got this one, really, this time I mean it, it's one worth getting. The whole book is full or really new tastes for me. 

The food of this area seems characterised by it's use of dried fruit and a great deal of fresh herbs in the recipes and the result was unlike any other meal I'd had in a long time. Warming and hearty as well as fresh, fantastic for our seemingly endless winter here served over a steaming plate of rice.  As I understand it, a traditional Persian main meal consists of a Pulao; a rice dish, often set into a mould so it can be almost sliced, cake like, and the stews or Koresh, that accompany this. Generally all the stews contain some kind of meat and these are no exception. You definitely could add a tofu to the walnut sauce and a seitan or tvp chunks to the kidney-beans if you wanted to try that out. 

Koresh-e-Fessenjen

Serves 2

1 cup walnuts lightly toasted

1/4 cup pomegranite molasses diluted in 1 1/2 cups of water

2 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp cumin

pinch of cinnamon 

1 tbs sunflower oil or ghee

1 stick of celery

1" piece of fresh ginger,minced

1/4 cup of dried apricots

1/4 cup dried dates

1/4 cup sour cherries

3-4 dried figs

salt and pepper

1. Grind the walnuts in a food processor with the pomegranate, sugar, cumin and cinnamon into a smooth paste.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan and sauté the celery for 5 minutes. Add the ginger and dried fruits and stir for another 2 minutes.
3. Let cool and transfer to the food processor with the pomegranate-walnut paste. Blend until smooth. Heat to serve adding a little water, if necessary, to achieve your desired consistency.

Koresh-e-gormeh Sabzi

Koresh-e-gormeh Sabzi

Serves 2

3 tbs sunflower oil or ghee
1 stick celery finely diced
1 small green chilli, seeded and minced
2 cups fresh parsley, chopped roughly
1 cups fresh coriander, chopped roughly
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 dried limes, pierced
2 cups cooked kidney beans
2 cups water
a few threads of saffron soaked in 2 tbs of hot water
salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat and sauté the celery for 5 minutes. Add the chilli and fresh herbs and partially covering, braise for 20 minutes, stirring regularly. 
2. Add the fenugreek, turmeric, limes and kidney beans and stir for another few minutes, then add the water, saffron-water and season well. Simmer over a low heat, partially covered for another 30-40 minutes.

Easy Soda Bread

This is a bread for when you want a bread in an hour without any fuss. Also, a great choice for a breakfast bread with spreads; it's also kind of cake so can double up as an afternoon tea-time snack. Rather like a scone, though without the prodigious quantity of butter, it's natural pairing is with butter and jam.

You can make a great vegan version of this by swapping out the dairy for vegan versions. Just remember to add a tablespoon of cider-vinegar to help in place of the yoghurt to rise the bread, reacting with the baking soda .

The loaf can also be made a little lighter by using solely white flour in the making. The wholemeal is really for those that like a dense and chewy bread.

Easy Soda Bread

1 cup strong white bread flour
1/4 cup plain white flour
3/4 cup wholemeal flour
2 tbs each of sunflower, pumpkin,
1 tbs each of sesame, flaxseed
2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk (or sub yoghurt if you can't find; 3/4 cup beaten with 1/4 cup water)
2 tbs molasses
3 tbs butter

1. Preheat your oven to 390 degrees and grease a baking tray
2. In a large bowl sift the flours together with the baking soda and salt. 
3. Over medium low heat in a small saucepan stir together the buttermilk, molasses and butter until the butter is completely melted. Let cool slightly.
4. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, bit by bit, using minimal number of strokes,  until you can just about gather up a wet tacky but firm dough. 
5. Shape into a round and place the loaf on the prepared tray. It should be about 2 inches high and 8" wide. Score a cross an inch thick through the dough from both ends. 
6. Bake for 45-1 hr, checking after 40 minutes. If the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom it's done.

Thai Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew

This is an easy go-to meal when it's cold outside and you haven't got much time on your hands. I once told Theresa, rather uncharitably in retrospect (sometimes these things just slip out), whilst she was crowing over a meal she'd made using coconut milk; that, in fact,  anything tasted good with creme-freche or coconut milk. It's become one of those legendary statements with us. Used mainly by Theresa to remind me how generally unfair I am. On the other hand, I still stand by it and this recipe is a case in point.

It's made even easier by the fact that we have a slow cooker, so you just put everything in that, place the lid back on and in a few hours, or whenever you're ready, there's your lunch waiting for you. Some things you buy and never use, this we use almost every other day in the winter months. 

I've had so many attempts at a decent thai meal and not many has turned out the way I envisage. generally too much of a lemony flavour, but this recipe I feel is perfectly balanced. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Feel free to play around, you can garnish with toasted cashews and use whatever veg is on hand, though sweet potato goes well. I wouldn't alter the red-lentils, though you can add other beans too, as they create the thickness of the sauce.

Thai Lentil and Sweet Potato Stew
(Serves 2)

1 tbs flavourless oil, sunflower, canola, etc.
1 stick celery, cut into fine dice
1 small knob of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced
1 thai green chili, seeded and minced
1/4 cup red lentils (rinsed and soaked for 2 hours of possible)
1 sweet potato, cut into 1cm dice
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
2 cups water or vegetable stock
2 tbs soya sauce
1/2 stick lemongrass, bruised
2 kafir lime leaves
grated zest of 1/2 lime
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric, chilli powder
fresh coriander
salt and pepper to season if necessary

1. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan and sauté the celery over medium-low heat. After a few minutes add the ginger and fresh chillies and stir a few times.
2. Add all the other ingredients apart from the fresh coriander, cover with a lid and let simmer over medium-low for about 45-1hr, checking it hasn't run-dry in that time.
3. Add the fresh coriander, adjust the seasoning and serve over a steaming bowl of rice.