Chengdu Tofu

Ingredients

800g tofu (original recipe uses chicken so you can substitute back if you like)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup (60ml) peanut oil
300g spinach, trimmed, chopped coarsely (I used a mix of spinach and silverbeat)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
4 green onions, sliced thinly
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp sambal oelek (fresh chili)
1 tsp sichuan peppercorns, crushed (any peppercorns will do)

Combine tofu, half the soy sauce, half of the wine and half of the sesame oil in a large bowl.
Cover and refrigerate for 20 mins

Heat 1 tbsp of peanut oil in wok
Stir-fry spinach until just wilted
Remove from wok
Cover to keep warm

Heat half of the remaining peanut oil in wok
Stir-fry tofu mixture, until browned
Heat the remaining peanut oil in wok
Stir-fry garlic, ginger and onion until onion just softens

Return tofu and remaining sauce, wine and sesame oil to wok with vinegar, sugar, and sambal
Stir-fry tofu until cooked
Serve spinach topped with chicken and sprinkle with pepper



From The Complete Book of Modern Asian

Butter Beans with Baked Polenta

Ingredients

4 cups water
2 cups polenta
1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic
2 x 400g cans tomatoes
¾ cup vegetable stock
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 fresh chilli, seeded, chopped finely
2 x 400g butter beans rinsed, drained (any kind of beans can be substituted for canned beans, if preferred. Also I found the ratio of spinach to beans not quite right so added another can)
500g spinach, trimmed, chopped coarsely
1 tbsp finely shredded fresh basil
salt

Oil 23cm square cake pan.

Bring well salted water to the boil in a large sauce pan, gradually whisk in polenta.
Reduce heat; simmer while whisking for about 5 mins or until mixture thickens.
Stir in cheese

Smooth polenta mixture in prepared pan. Rest until firm. (Be patient when spreading polenta into prepared pan; it tends to move and slip about but if you oil the back of the spoon you are using or your hands it will spread more easily)
Turn polenta onto board and cut into triangles or what ever shape takes your fancy and put on baking tray. Pour a small amount of oil over and lots of salt

Cook polenta triangles in oven at 200 degrees Celsius until golden and crispy on both sides

Heat oil in medium saucepan; cook onion and garlic, stirring until onion is soft.
Add un-drained crushed tomatoes, stock, paste and chilli; bring to the boil.
Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes or until thickened slightly.
Add beans, spinach and basil cook uncovered until spinach is wilted and beans are hot.

Serve with polenta triangles, sprinkle parmesan on top and a mesclun salad tossed in balsamic vinaigrette, if desired.

 


From Great Vegetarian Food by Womens Weekly

Thai Spiced Potato Cakes with Spicy Coleslaw

Ingredients
Plain flour, for rolling
2 eggs, beaten, for egg wash
150g fresh bread crumbs
Oil for frying
Freshly chopped coriander leaves and lime or lemon slices to serve

For the spicy coleslaw

100g cabbage, finely sliced
½ red onion, finley sliced
2 grated carrots
50g mayo
1 tbsp wasabi paste
3 lime leaves, shredded
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put cabbage, onion and carrots into a large bowl and season well.
Add the mayo, wasabi and lime leaves and mix it up well

For this coleslaw I also added lightly toasted black sesame seeds. This is optional and you can also use white sesame seeds.


For the potato cakes

3 large potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed
1 raw potato, peeled and grated
3 tbsp mayo
1 bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
2 small red chillies, deseeded and chopped
Freshly chopped coriander leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 stalks of lemon grass, finely chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
(I didn’t have any lemon grass or kaffir lime leaves so instead squeezed some lemon and lime juice in and a bit of rind from each)
2.5cm/1inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 onion or 2 shallots finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

First, make the potato cakes. Put the mashed and grated spuds in a large bowl, add all the other potato cake ingredients and season with salt and pepper

Mould the mixture into patties in what ever size you want.
Recipe says to pop them in the fridge for an hour but I didn’t and they turned out fine

Set up three plates or bowls: one with flour, one with egg wash and one with bread crumbs.
First roll the cakes in flour, dust of any excess, then roll them in the egg and finally in the bread crumbs

Don’t be fooled. This sounds simple but is the most time consuming process in the world.
You can shallow or deep fry then. If you shallow fry as I did, be careful not to burn them, cooking them for longer and on a low heat is best. Either way they are done when crisp and golden. This also takes a fair bit of time

Make a bed of coleslaw on your plate and sit potato cakes on top.

Sprinkle some chopped coriander over and add a wedge of lime or lemon on the side.



From The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

Sticky Rice and Peanut Balls

Ingredients

400g cooked jasmine rice
4 tbsp red Thai curry paste
Juice of 1 lime
150g roasted peanuts finely crushed
Vegetable oil for deep frying
Salt
Sweet chilli sauce for dipping

Blend half the rice in a food processor until it’s not quite a paste.
Turn out into a bowl and combine with the remaining rice, the curry paste, lime juice and salt to taste
Mix it up really well

Roll the mixture onto balls (small enough to pop into your mouth, but big enough to get a good mouth full)
Now roll the balls in the peanuts and deep fry in hot oil until golden.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve with chilli sauce.


My advice is to make your own curry paste. Anytime I have made these (admittedly its only been twice) I have tasted the potential but not truly enjoyed the flavour and I think thats because bought curry paste is yuck so make your own.

From The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

Frittelle de Spaghetti

Frittelle de Spaghetti is just a fancy Italian way to say Spaghetti Fritters. These bad boys and delicious and totally more-ish. Soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside and totally addictive

Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
a handful of finely chopped parsley
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
fresh grated parmesan cheese
Feta cheese (Jamie's recipe does not say use feta but I only had a small amount of parmesan and a block of feta so in it went)
1-2 dried chillies (to your tase, I didn’t have fresh chilli so I just chilli flakes and LOTS of it)
salt
200g dried spaghetti
olive oil

Put all your ingredients, apart from the spaghetti and olive oil, into a bowl and mix together.
Add your spaghetti to a pan of well salted, boiling water and cook according to the packet instructions.
Drain the pasta in a colander and rise under cold water to cool it down.
Once the pasta is cool, snip it with sissors into the pieces roughly 8cm inches long and add them to the bowl.
Mix everything together well.

Pour a little oil into a pan and place on the heat.
Then, using a fork, add piles (as big or as small as you like) of the spaghetti mixture onto the pan and fry until golden and crisp on both sides.

From Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italy

Moroccan Spaghetti

300g dried spaghetti
100ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
pinch of tumeric
100g toasted, flaked almonds
100g cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed is tinned
bunch each of fresh parsley, corrianderleave and mint, chopped
salt and fresh ground black pepper

Cook the spaghetti in well salted boiling water until al dente
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until soft
Add the tomatoes, cinnamon, cumin and tumeric and cook over a medium heat for about 20 mins until the tomatoes break down
Season the sauce and then add the almonds and chickpeas
Drain the pasta and divide between four plates
Fold the herbs into the sauce and mix with the pasta.



From The Accidental Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

Chocolate Sauce Pudding

About once a year I get a craving for this beastie, and only once a year because this recipe makes so much that you become completely sick of it by the time you have forced yourself to eat all over it... over a week or so.
So if you are ever having guests around or need to feed a lot of people then this is a lovely simple recipe for you.


2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups milk
60 g (2 oz) butter, melted
2 tsp baking powder
2 dsp cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar
2 dsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla 
1/3 cup raisins (optional, I optioned to leave those out)


Combine the boiling water, 1 cup sugar, 2 dsp cocoa, vanilla and set aside. This constitutes the sauce.

Sift flour, baking powder, 2 dsp cocoa, 3/4 cup sugar, melted butter and milk, mixing until smooth, add raisins if you so desire.

Put into a large buttered oven ware dish.

Carefully pour the sauce over this mixture.

Bake uncovered in a 200°C oven for 35mins or until the sponge is cooked.

When serving, a thick chocolate sauce will be found under the chocolate sponge.

Tartalicious

The original recipe I had for a French Chocolate Tart failed. Miserably.
Unknown to me at the time, it was essential to get Valrhona Chocolate for the tart to actually set. Instead I went to New World and got Pam's dark chocolate for $3.00 a packet. Needless to say there were tears before bedtime.

Fortunately just as I was throwing my liquid tart out the window my mum came home and told me to stop the crying and fix it. To you this may sound like a lovely and supportive mother to have, but in reality she didn't want to do dads baking for the week and was counting on this tart to save her the hassle.

Anyway, after learning that French Cooking is temperamental and stupid I decided to go with the fool proof teachings of Jamie Oliver who saved the day once again. Sort of.

After fixing the filling to a point that I was fairly confidant that it would set, I managed to tip half of it all over the floor and through all the kitchen draws. That went down well.

So the following is the much modified and combined recipe from two different cookbooks

Note to reader: as you will soon see making pastry is time consuming and frustrating because it never ever turns out right. Mine tends to fall apart the moment I trying to transfer it from the work surface and into the case. When I do finally manage to get it in I tend to just tear off bits and pieces to fill in the holes and rips, and then the whole thing sags.
If you want to save yourself this hassle, by all means buy preprepared pastry. No one will judge you for it

Ingredients for Pastry

175g butter
120g icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp lemon juice
300 g standard flour, sifted

To make the pastry, place the butter and icing sugar in a food processor and cream them.
Add the egg and lemon juice, mix until fully combined, then add the flour and pulse the machine until the flour is only just incorporated.
Tip the pastry out of the food processor on to a work surface and knead until it forms a smooth dough.
Wrap in gladwrap and place in fridge for 30 mins to rest

Preheat oven to 180°C
Grease a 22cm diameter tart case with a removable base with butter, and dust with flour.

Remove pastry from the fridge and knead gently to make the dough workable.
Lightly flour the work surface and roll the dough out to about 3mm in thickness.
Roll the pastry on to the rolling pin and drape over the tart case.
Using a small ball of excess dough, gently ease the dough into the tart case (This allows you to press the dough into that start case without tearing the dough; the heat from your hands can make the pastry delicate.
Trim some of the excess pastry from the tart case but leave a good 5cm overlap (This will help prevent shrinkage when baking blind)

Place the preprepared tart case into a baking tray, line it with baking paper and fill with baking beans.
Refrigerate for 20 mins

Place the tart case in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the edge of the tart has started to colour,
Remove from the oven, trip the excess pastry from around the edges and lift out the baking paper with the beans.
Return the tart case to the oven and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, or untill it is lightly golden.
Remove from heat and set aside.

Ingredients for Chocolate Filling

600g chopped chocolate
675 ml crean
225 ml milk
100 g sugar
5 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp honey
3 tbsp sour cream or yogurt (I used 1 tbsp yogurt, ran out, didn't have any sour cream so used cream cheese)
4 tbsp sifted flour

Bring cream, milk and sugar to the boil.
Remove from heat, add the chocolate, stirring for about 5 minutes, making sure all the chocolate had melted.

Whisk the 2 eggs together and stir into the chocolate mixture. Make sure you wait for the chocolate mixture to cool significantly down before putting in the eggs otherwise they will just scramble. Trust me, they do.

Run through your finest sieve.

(Up to this point it is the French Tart Recipe, after 2 hours in the oven and the filling still being the consistency of cream I had taken it out of the oven and was aiming for the window when mum came home. So the following is where Jamie Oliver comes in)

Whisk the last 3 eggs together with the caster sugar till frothy and slightly thick; add honey and yogurt/sour cream/cream cheese and whisk till combined.
Add chocolate mixture and whisk again
Sift flour and beat until just combined.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Cool Completely before removing for case and serving

With ice cream