Ful kopi daata torkari or Bengali-style cauliflower stalks

The Bengalis have been chomping their way through fish bones and bits of indigestible vegetable for centuries now. Something I've never quite got my fussy head around #BengaliFail

But there are a few things which I have come round to, and this dish of cauliflower with its stalks is one of them. I guess it is the vegetable equivalent of nose-to-tail eating, as it uses the entire cauliflower with very little waste. In fact you can make it totally sans florets (and use those for something else), but I prefer to save about half of them and have it as a more mixed dish. You can also add in other vegetables- as peas or butternut squash which work particularly well.

This dish also uses the typical Bengali spice blend of panch phoron. This is a mixture of whole fenugreek, cumin, mustard, fennel, and black onion seeds, and is used in a range of vegetable dishes. I am reliably informed that this is available in Waitrose, (or any Indian grocery shop).

Recipe (plenty for 2):

2 dried bay leaves
Around 2-3 tsps panch phoron
1 tsp turmeric
Stalks from one medium cauliflower and around half the florets
Around a tblsp of fresh ginger, crushed into a paste
1 whole green chilli
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1-1.5 tblsp plain oil, such as sunflower.

Firstly prep your cauliflower by removing any outer leaves or stalks that look all shrivelled up and inedible, and then start cutting away at the inner stalks to reach the florets. Cut the florets away from the core and set aside any you're saving for later. Slice up the stalks into medium pieces that aren't too thick, and do the same with the core. The cauliflower florets should be cut into smaller pieces too, but nothing too tiny as you don't want them to disintegrate in the pan. Once you've got the ginger crushed and ready, you're ready to cook. Heat up the oil in a large pan, and when it's hot (but not smoking) put in the bay leaves and panch phoron seeds. Reduce the heat if needed so that nothing scorches. When the seeds start to pop a little, put in the ginger and then the cauliflower stalks and florets and chilli, and give everything a good stir. Add the salt and turmeric, turn the heat down, put  a lid on the pan, and allow to cook for around 15 minutes. Check on it during this time, and if it looks like anything is catching, add a little water and stir well. The torkari is done when the stalks and florets are both tender and fully cooked through. If you wanted to add some peas, wait until the cauliflower is cooked before putting them in. But if you were using squash, give this a head start and add it in first, allowing it to cook for around 10 minutes before putting in the cauliflower. Serve with rice, other Bengali things, or chapatis.

Cholar dal- Bengali-style lentils

Coming back from a trip to India always results in an immediate upsurge in the amount of Indian and Bengali food that I cook, so that's going to be reflected in the next few blog posts.

As I child I pretty much detested all forms of dal, and especially the patla, thin dals my mother made with giant pieces of ginger in them. Luckily for me I discovered cholar dal at some point. Cholar dal is somehow quite 'meaty' in taste, and rich with ghee and coconut. It's often a 'celebration dal' served at wedding meals, but is also great with plain rice and a papar/poppadom. Anyway, here's the sort of loose recipe that I use, but as ever with Indian food do feel to adjust the flavours (within reason) if you want.

Recipe (easily enough for 4-6 depending on what else you're eating):

Around 250g cholar dal lentils (Natco are a good brand for this)
Around 500ml water

1.5 tblsp ghee
1-2 small bay leaves
3-4 cardamom pods, split
2-3 small pieces Indian cinnamon/cassia bark
2 tblsp fresh coconut, chopped into small pieces
1-2 large, whole, dried Indian red chillis
0.5 tsp turmeric
0.5 tsp salt (or to taste)

Firstly, cook the dal with plenty of water until it is completely tender and cooked through. I do this on a very low simmer on the hob, and it takes around 30-40 minutes, starting with around double the volume of water to lentils. This should all be absorbed by the time the dal is cooked through, but keep an eye on it and make sure you top up the water if needed and give it the occasional stir to stop it sticking on the bottom of your pan. If you're proficient with pressure cookers, you'll probably be able to reduce this step to 10-15 minutes. Whichever way you do things, you should end up with quite a thick (but still  liquid) mixture, which you can leave to the side to cool.

To season the boiled lentils, warm the ghee in a small pan and add all the whole spices and pieces of coconut. Cook gently until the coconut is slightly browned. Once everything is lightly toasted, add in the turmeric and cook for another minute to coat everything in the yellow powder, and then tip it all into the pan of lentils. Add the salt, and stir the lentils and the flavourings together. If the dal is getting a bit too thick then add a bit of extra water, and check the seasoning, while you you warm it over a gentle heat. Serve with rice, saag, and something fried, or whatever else you fancy really.

A couple of summer salads

Huzzah, summer is still here! So inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigella, I've tried to come up with a few salad recipes that can be served warm or at room temperature, and don't require loads of standing around in a hot kitchen. And the results of this have been an aubergine, feta cheese, tomato, and basil salad, and a green bean, spring onion, and almond salad. The aubergine salad just requires the aubergine to be fried in olive oil, and when cooled a bit mixed with the cheese, chopped tomatoes, and basil, and seasoned with a (little salt) and pepper. The oiliness of the aubergines means that no further dressing is required, but the salty cheese cuts through some of this richness.

For the green beans, I just steamed these in the microwave and softened the sliced spring onions in olive oil. Once the onions were almost done, I added in some flaked almonds and carried on cooking until they took on a bit of colour. The onions and nuts were then tipped over the cooked beans, with any extra oil acting as a dressing, and the whole lot seasoned well. I served both these salads with an Ottolenghi mushroom dish I've written about before, to make an excellent summer vegetarian meal that also avoided overheating in the kitchen.

Cauliflower crust pizza

Pizza pre-cooking.

I am a big fan of the cauliflower. Roasted, puréed, in curries, covered in cheese sauce- it's basically very hard to go wrong. The one area I was very sceptical about however, was the cauliflower crust pizza. Much beloved of the low-carb movement, I just couldn't see how it this could possible work. I was imagining, at best, a sort of thin cauliflower cheese with added tomato sauce. And at worst, well something worse than that.

However when I spotted this recipe listed on the Guardian site a few weeks ago, it all sounded rather promising. And even more so when I saw the original blog post the recipe came from with its lovely photography.

Pizza post-cooking.

I followed all the steps required for cooking the cauliflower (using a food processor makes grating it a doddle but it's probably still feasible by hand), but did allow it to cool a bit before shaping into the bases. And the only minor substitution to the recipe was using a regular Philadelphia-style cream cheese rather than a goat's cheese. I was convinced at every stage that the mini-bases would fall apart, but they didn't at all. I let them fully cool while making a tomato sauce, and once this was done the bases were topped with a selection of cooked mushrooms, anchovies, red onion, and mozzarella or cheddar. They then went back in the oven until the cheese was golden and melted.

I was fully expecting the transfer from baking sheet to plate to result in pizza disintegration, but they even held up to being poked and prodded with a fish slice. The final pizza could be easily cut into segments, and tasted damn good (perhaps even more so as I did not have high expectations). This is not something you are going to mix up with a proper, thin-crust Italian pizza, but as the cauliflower base is very neutral the main flavours that come through are all the pizza toppings. And what's not to like about tomato sauce and melted cheese? So if you're looking for a slightly lighter pizza option, a gluten-free version, or just something a bit different, I would thoroughly recommend this recipe (which coincidently also reinforces my views on the usefulness of food blogs).

Byron, Cambridge, UK

I was rather excited when I found out a few weeks ago that Byron was coming to Cambridge. I really enjoyed it when I visited one of their branches in London a few years ago, as despite their focus on (meat) burgers they had a great range of side dishes and a very nice veggie burger. Two and a half years on, it was slightly disconcerting to find that the menu looked pretty much unchanged but I guess that's what sticking to your core concept is all about. The veggie burger remains a combination of mushroom, goat's cheese, and roasted pepper. Not amazingly exciting but done well. The courgette fries were an excellent alternative to potatoes, crispy and oil-free. The coleslaw was rather disappointing though, and tasted like something that could have come out of a supermarket tub. The MCP had another cob salad, which was declared to be good (though perhaps quite not as good as his first one). 

So anyway, I still really like Byron. The Cambridge branch is bright and airy, with cheery service, and there are plenty of things I'd like to eat on the menu that don't include meat. A pretty substantial lunch for two, with a couple of non-alcoholic drinks, came in at just under £30 (without service), so it's not going to break the bank. And now they are located in Cambridge, I'm hoping to return for a milkshake soon too.

Byron
12 Bridge Street
Cambridge CB2 1UF

CAU, Cambridge, UK

You might think it's unusual for me to be quite excited about the opening of somewhere that specialises in Argentinian steak. But as a non-meat eater I've realised that places like that often have an excellent range of side dishes that I am more than happy to tuck into (see Byron Burger, which appears to be coming to Cambridge soon- woo!). Anyway, when I was invited along to try out CAU, which has recently opened in the centre of town, I thought it was worth giving a go.

CAU is situated in part of the old Barclays bank site on Benet Street, and has a modern funky design. It's not in the main part of the old bank though, so it looks like we're going to have to wait a while longer to see what's become of those amazing ceilings. Anyway, this (currently) mini-chain sells itself on its range of meat, but in fact has quite a wide-ranging and eclectic menu. We kicked off with starters of salt and pepper squid and some vaguely Asian steamed mussels, which were both excellent. The squid (though a rather small portion) was light and crispy, and the mussels were perfectly cooked in their coconut broth.

I tried the aubergine lasagne for my main course, while the Male Companion Person went for the lomito medallions (I don't really know what that means but it was basically some pieces of steak). My veggie dish was aubergine parmigiana by another name, and very good it was too; densely packed with soft aubergine and enough cheese to add a bit of richness and crunch on top.

My 'lasagne' looks a bit burnt in this picture, and though it was on the path to well caramelised it wasn't actually overdone.

The meat was described as "pretty tasty" by the MCP, who is not known for being effusive.  A side order of chips, which were akin to slimline roast potatoes, were also rather good. We finished things off with some churros for me, and a cornflake ice cream sundae for the MCP. Despite the churros being dusted in quite a lot of sugar, the dark chocolate sauce meant that overall they weren't too sweet. I can't comment much on the sundae, as I only got to try a bit before it rapidly disappeared.

So overall I quite liked CAU. Between us, we sampled a range of seafood, meat and veggie dishes which were all very acceptable, and the service was efficient and friendly without being intrusive. Our bill for three courses each, and a couple glasses of wine, would have been somewhere around the £60 mark, so not excessive. CAU is not destination dining, (and isn't claiming to be), but it's somewhere I'd be happy to go back to for a casual lunch. And having a souce of churros in Cambridge can only be a good thing.

CAU 
15 Benet Street
Cambridge CB2 3QN

Thanks to the nice people at CAU and their PR person for providing me and the Male Companion Person with our dinner for free and gratis.

Saag- Bengali-style spring greens

I guess going to Kolkata recently has made me think about cooking Bengali food a bit more regularly. So here's something that's pretty easy to make, but is rather delicious. Bengali vegetable dishes don't tend to include garlic, but this recipe for spring greens is an exception. The greens are braised with garlic and kalo jeera (black onion seeds) until soft and very tender, and then finished off with a bit of ghee. It's an ideal side dish to go with other Indian food, but I suspect it would be quite nice with a bit of poached fish too.

Recipe (enough for 4-6 as a side dish):

2-3 heads of spring greens, around 500g, washed and shredded
4-5 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
2-3 heaped tsps kalo jeera/black onion seeds
1-2 Indian green chillis (optional)
1 generous tblsp ghee
1-2 tblsp sunflower (or another plain) oil
1 tsp salt (or adjust to taste)

Heat the oil in a large, wide-bottomed pan, and when it's warm put in the black onion seeds. Swirl them around a bit, and as the oil gets hotter they'll start to spit and pop. This should only take a minute or so, and when they start doing this add the garlic. Turn down the heat if necessary, as the garlic shouldn't really brown much. After another minute put the greens in and give everything a really good stir to make sure that the garlic and kalo jeera aren't all stuck on the bottom of the pan. Pierce the whole green chillis a couple of times, so that they release their flavour but hardly any heat, and add them to the greens with the salt. Give everything another good stir, turn the heat down low, put a lid on, and allow the greens to cook for at least 15 minutes. The residual water left on the leaves from washing them should create some steam which will help cook them, but stir occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the pan. When the greens are completely cooked, add the ghee and stir it through to coat all the leaves. This is one of those times when you don't want your vegetables to have any bite to them, and the greens should be cooked all the way through with the stalks easily falling apart. The saag won't look that exciting but the generous amounts of garlic and ghee do a very good job of pepping up these otherwise rather boring vegetables. Serve with rice and dahl, (or something else).

Paneer korma

I cook a fair amount of Indian food, but have yet to find a way to photograph most of it in a way that makes it look terribly appetising. Thus the above picture, that shows something vaguely yellow in a gloopy sauce. But don't let that put you off, as this Shahi-style paneer korma is really rather delicious and quite quick to make.
Shahi-style Indian food usually uses ground nuts and cream, so is pretty indulgent, but as the nights draw in I feel that a little indulgence is no bad thing. So here's my version of some classic Indian comfort food.

Recipe (enough for 2 as a main course):

One block of paneer (c.250g)
1 small onion
A thumb-sized piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 dried bay leaf
0.5 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
0.5 tsp salt (or enough to season)
0.5 tblsp tomato purée
1-2 tblsp ground almonds
Around 50ml double cream
1-2 tblsp plain oil
A few tbslp of water, if needed

Firstly chop up the paneer into small-ish cubes, and sprinkle over the turmeric until the paneer is reasonably well coated. Heat the oil in a flat bottomed pan, and when it's hot carefully place the paneer and any extra turmeric in. Cook the paneer for a few minutes on each side until it's lightly browned and golden, with a bit of a 'crust'. When it's done, take the paneer out and set to one side. Make a paste from the onion, ginger and garlic (by mechanical means for convenience). The smoother it is the smoother your finished sauce will be, but as you can see from the photo above it's not essential. Fry the paste in the remaining oil in the pan for a few minutes, along with the bay leaf and chilli. If the pan is too dry, add a little extra oil. Put in all the ground spices, and carry on cooking for a few more minutes before adding the ground almonds. Once these are lightly toasted, put in the tomato purée  and if needed pour in a little water to create a thick paste. Once everything has been heated through for a few more minutes, add the cream and salt to season. Mix well to form a thick sauce, and then put the paneer cubes back in the pan to heat through. You can adjust the thickness of the sauce by adding more cream (or water) if you want too.

Serve with some plain boiled rice and steamed vegetables to balance out the richness of the cheese and cream.

Leek, mushroom, fake chicken and tarragon pie

I don't eat many pies, but suddenly had a hankering for one last weekend. I think it must be something to do with the clocks going back. I thought I'd stick to the classic combination of leek, mushroom and chicken, but as I don't eat meat, I used Quorn pieces instead. As the Quorn adds no flavour, I added a range of other things to make up for this. Though this could have made everything taste quite muddled, it was actually very good.

Recipe (enough for four hearty portions):

3 medium leeks, finely sliced
Around 8 chestnut mushrooms, quartered
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 heaped tblsp chopped tarragon leaves
300g Quorn pieces, or another vegetarian equivalent
Around 300ml double cream
1 tsp English mustard
1 tblsp pecorino cheese (or a vegetarian equivalent)
2-3 tblsp olive oil
1-2 tblsp butter
Salt and pepper to season
1 pack all butter, ready-rolled puff pastry (320g)
A little milk to glaze

To make the filling, melt around a tablespoon of butter and a little oil, and when it's warm put in the mushrooms. Cook over a high-ish heat until the mushrooms start to brown, and then add in the Quorn, garlic and tarragon. Turn the heat down a little, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the garlic is cooked through and the tarragon wilted. Once it's all done, tip it out onto a plate and allow to cool. Put the rest of the butter and oil in the same pan, and cook the leeks over a medium low heat. Add about 0.5tsp salt and leave the leeks until they are soft, giving them a stir every now and again. Once fully cooked through pour in the cream, grind in a bit of pepper, add the cheese and mustard and stir well. Take off the heat and allow the leeks to cool a bit, then mix the mushrooms and Quorn back in. If the filling is ridiculously thick, stir in a little milk to loosen it. Once the filling has completely cooled, you can assembly the pie.
Spoon the filling into a suitably deep, oven-proof dish and lay the pastry over the top. Trim the edges and make some fancy shapes with the extra pastry if you want to decorate the top. Make a small cross in the centre of the pastry to let any steam escape, and brush the top with milk. Bake at gas mark 6 until the pastry is a rich golden colour.

You should end up with a richly savoury, vegetarian pie, with a crisp topping. Serve piping hot with lots of vegetables.

Broccoli pesto mash

I really like broccoli, it's probably one of the green vegetables that I eat most regularly. The tenderstem stuff is ideal as a simple side dish with butter and salt and pepper, and the big green fists of florets are perfect for everything from stir fries to pakoras. So when I was looking for something green to make a pesto with I thought I'd try some cooked broccoli. And it was really good! You can add this 'pesto' to pasta, or if you keep it thick just have it as a mash. I've had it with some pan-fried salmon instead of mashed potatoes, but it would probably go with most things (apart from pudding). I've included a basic recipe below, but do alter the amounts of things based on taste.

Recipe (enough for two):
Around 250g of broccoli florets
1 medium clove garlic
1 big handful pine nuts (lightly toasted if preferred)
Around 50g hard Italian cheese such as parmesan, grana padano, percorino or a properly veggie substitute
Around 1-2 tblsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the broccoli in boiling water for around 8-10 minutes. You want it to be fully cooked through, and probably a bit softer than if you were just eating it on its own (but not boiled to a deathly grey). Drain, and put it and all the other ingredients apart from the oil into a food processor, and whizz together. I have a small Kenwood mini-chopper and make this pesto in two batches, mixing it all together afterwards. Once the pesto ingredients are all combined, but not totally pulverised, add some oil. If you want a loose pesto to go on pasta be generous with the olive oil, but for the mash just use a tablespoon or so to bring it all together. Add some salt and pepper and you're good to go. This process is a bit more complicated without mechanical assistance, but you could probably still crush the garlic, nuts and cheese in a pestle and mortar, mash the broccoli separately and then combine the two together.

I've made this, and allowed it to cool, before it mixing it with hot pasta for dinner. And had it hot straight after being blitzed too. Broccoli is indeed the king of versatility.

Veggie sausage rolls with caramelised onion

I do love a nice picnic, and it looks the weather for them has finally arrived- huzzah! Sausage rolls are a stalwart of al fresco dining, but despite being a non-meat eater I don't like to miss out on anything savoury covered in pastry. So I made these fake sausage rolls with Quorn sausages, lots of red onion, and a good quality ready-made all butter puff pastry. As I've said before, pretty much all meat 'substitutes' like Quorn, soya chunks or textured vegetable protein, don't really taste of much but do add a vaguely meat-like texture to food. So you basically need to ensure that whatever else goes in with meat substitute has enough flavour to carry the entire dish. So for my fake sausage rolls, I added generous amounts of slow cooked caramelised red onion to each one.

Recipe (enough for 12 small sausage rolls):

240g Quorn sausages (I used these new ones they've brought out which come in packs of 4, and they do seem a tad more flavourful than the regular ones)
Around 200g of a good quality ready-rolled all butter puff pastry (I used Tesco finest, but of course you can make your own if you're so inclined)
2 medium red onions (finely sliced)
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 clove of garlic (finely sliced)
A little salt and pepper to season
A couple of table spoons of olive oil
A little flour to stop the pastry sticking to your board
A little milk to seal and glaze the pastry

Fry the sliced red onions with the thyme over a very gentle heat in a little oil, until they are completely soft and unctuous. This will take at least 20minutes. Add a bit of salt and pepper and the garlic, take out the thyme twigs, and cook slowly for another 5minutes or so. When they are done, take the pan off the heat and allow the onions to cool down a bit. In the meantime, cut each sausage into three pieces. I fried these a bit before I used them but in retrospect that was completely unnecessary, so I won't bother again. When the onions have stopped being piping hot, lay out the pastry on a lightly floured board, place a piece of sausage on it, and add a generous amount of the onion. Make sure you have enough pastry to go round the filling, then cut it, wrap the pastry round and use a bit of milk to glue the two ends together. You can either make each sausage roll individually, or wrap an entire row and trim them afterwards. When you've wrapped all the rolls, put them join-side down on a lightly oiled baking tray and glaze the top of the pastry with milk.
Bake for around 15-20minutes at gas mark 6, or until the sausage rolls are a golden brown. These were great warm straight out of the oven, with a bit of salad and some devilled eggs for an indoor veggie picnic (aka lunch). But now that summer is here I will definitely be making them again (ideally before it starts raining).

Cooking from Ottolenghi's Plenty

Although I eat in a meat-free manner, I'm not a proper vegetarian as I'm rather keen on fishfingers (as well as fish and chips). But I still often eat completely vegetarian meals, so am always keen on finding new things to put in them. I'd heard quite a bit about Yotam Ottolenghi, and in fact cooked his black pepper tofu recipe last year. So I was quite excited when some lovely friends bought me his vegetarian cookbook, Plenty, and I've recently tried out a few recipes from it.

Firstly, some sweet potato cakes. The recipe, which initially appeared in Yotam's Guardian column, can be found here and rather unusually I don't think I changed anything about it at all. The recipe is pretty straightforward, as it's basically just mashed potato with some added seasonings, but I did like the idea of steaming the potato (presumably to avoid it getting water-logged through boiling). The cooked cakes were very flavourful, with an excellent combination of sweetness from the potato, and chilli and spring onion savoury-ness. I definitely had to cook these longer than the recommended six minutes though, and they were also a lot less robust than they looked, which made flipping them over a bit tricky. But the end product was worth the careful prodding, and they went very well with the garlicky yoghurt sauce that's suggested accompany them.

Next up were mushrooms stuffed with Taleggio cheese. This recipe is essentially the same as this one which appeared in the Guardian, but Plenty swaps the fennel for a small onion and a stick of celery and also adds a little taragon to the stuffing too. The mix also contains some sun-dried tomatoes, which I've generally found to be little chewy bullets of bitterness, but either they've really improved in quality or else cooking them for a while really does transform them. I made a minor adjustment, which was using the smaller portobellini mushrooms rather than portobello ones, as I prefer these. Again, this is quite a simple and straightforward recipe but used ingredients that I wouldn't think to put together. And for me Taleggio cheese was a new discovery too, as I've somehow never tried it before.

So overall I thought Plenty was an excellent book. I'd not read Ottolenghi's Guardian column, so these recipes were all pretty new to me. I liked the organisation into chapters on different vegetables, and though many of the recipes aren't the quickest to prepare they all seemed quite original and interesting. I have a list of additional dishes from the book that I'd like to make and, unusually for me, I might well stick to the recipe.

Vegetarian cauliflower cheese cottage pie

I spotted this recipe for a cauliflower cheese cottage pie whilst dozing in front of Something for the Weekend (now resurrected as Sunday Brunch on C4), a few weeks ago. I don't really know why I was so taken with it, but I guess it has strong comfort food appeal and looked to be easily adapted for a non-meat eater too. I wasn't sure how a creamy topping would work with a mince base, but it turned out that the answer was 'really well'. The only downside was how un-photogenic my plate of food was, though it's heartening to see that the BBC didn't do much better.
The original recipe is on the BBC Food website, and my version is below.

Recipe (enough for four)

300g Quorn mince (or any other veggie 'mince')
1 carrot, finely diced
1 small stick celery, finely diced
Half a leek, finely sliced
1 small white onion, sliced
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tblsp tomato puree
3 tblsp sunflower oil
Around 4-5 tblsp water
Salt and pepper to taste

1 regular cauliflower
300ml creme fraiche
150ml double cream
1 egg yolk
0.5 tsp English mustard
Around 200g grated cheddar cheese, with a little extra for sprinkling on top
A bit of salt and pepper to season

To make the cottage pie base, gently heat the oil in a medium pan and when it's warm add in all the chopped vegetables and dried herbs. Cook over a medium heat until the vegetables have softened (around 10-15mins), and then put in the veggie mince, thyme, cinnamon and garlic. After about 5mins add the tomato puree and water, give everything a good stir, and season with salt and pepper. Keep things on a gentle simmer for a further 10mins or so, check the seasoning, and then leave to cool.
While the mince is cooling, make up the sauce for the cauliflower by mixing together the cream, creme fraiche, egg, cheese, mustard, and a little salt and pepper. Cut the cauliflower into medium florets, and cook in boiling water until it's tender and almost falling apart. Drain the cauliflower and allow it cool down for a bit before mixing it all into the sauce.
Assemble the cottage pie by putting the mince in the bottom of a deep-ish baking dish in single layer, and then spoon over the cauliflower cheese. Finally sprinkle a bit of cheese over the top, and bake at gas mark 6 for around 30-40mins until it looks lightly golden brown.

Serve with some green vegetables, ideally in mildly autumnal feeling weather.

Bengali-style egg curry or dim er torkari

So here's some real Indian home-style cooking, which is perfectly suited to the recent chilly weather we've been having. This curry is one of my mother's original speedy dinner dishes that I've been eating for several decades now, and is essentially made with store cupboard ingredients. There are versions of this egg curry from all over India, and I'm not exactly certain that this one is particularly Bengali. But as the person who cooked it is, that's what I've called it.

The dish basically comprises some hard boiled eggs in a tomato-based gravy, and for me is the epitome of hearty and warming. It is also pretty quick to make, especially if you have you eggs boiled and ready beforehand.

Recipe (enough for four as side dish):

4 hard boiled eggs, shelled and cooled
Around 1 tblsp plain flour
1.5 tsp turmeric
2 tblsp oil
1 medium onion, finely sliced
3 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
1 green chilli, pierces several times with the tip of a knife
Small thumb-sized piece of ginger, crushed to a paste
Around 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tsp tomato puree
A dried bay leaf
0.5 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
0.5 tsp salt
3-4 tblsp fresh, or frozen and defrosted peas
About half a mug of water

Start by halving the boiled eggs, and lightly dusting them with the plain flour. Heat up a tablespoon or so of the oil (ideally in a non-stick pan) until its hot but not smoking, and carefully place in the egg halves in. Sprinkle over half a teaspoon on the turmeric, and when the eggs are lightly browned on one side turn them over until the other side matches. The turmeric means that the eggs should be golden by this point, and when they are take them out of the oil, and put to one side.
I should say that this 'frying the eggs' stage is optional, but I do find that it adds a slight crispy texture that I really like. But if you can't be bothered then just start with the below.
Put the rest of the oil in the pan and heat, before adding the bay leaf and the onions. Once the onions have started to soften, add all the ground spices including the rest of the turmeric. Stir well and then add the chilli, ginger and garlic. Cook this over a medium heat for a few minutes. Next throw in the tomatoes, and continue to cook until they've softened. Then add the tomato puree and enough water to create a thick gravy. Once it's gently bubbling put the eggs back in, tip in the peas and season with salt. Let this cook for few more minutes until the eggs and peas have heated through.

You can add some cubed, cooked potatoes to this too which makes it more of a main dish, or perhaps increase the number of eggs per person. Otherwise serve with rice and something else (I made a cabbage dish with ginger and cumin which you can just see peaking through in the picture above). Also feel free to adjust the spicing according to taste. I remember this egg curry as quite a mild dish, but if you fancy more of a kick chop up the chilli and fry it with the onions rather than keeping it whole. If you prefer things mild, don't accidentally bite into the whole chilli (I speak from experience).

Fish fragrant aubergine and a Chinese feast

As I'm sure I've said before I really know very little about Chinese food. Of course I can stir fry stuff or chomp on sesame toast, and I have experienced the Indo-Chinese cooking that's produced dishes such as gobi manchurian. However it's only recently that I've had my horizons broadened about the regional variation present in Chinese cooking (thanks internet!) and learnt about some new ingredients too.
I think I first read about fish fragrant aubergine on Lizzie HollowLeg's blog. This is a Sichuan dish, that doesn't actually contain any fish, but is aubergine cooked in style that fish is often prepared in (apparently). It can sometimes also contain minced pork, but as non-meat eater Lizzie's use of tofu seemed like an excellent alternative protein. As I wasn't sure I'd be able to get all the ingredients she used, I also found a slightly simpler recipe from the writer and Sichuan food expert Fuschia Dunlop. So here's my recipe, which takes elements from both and omits the things I couldn't find in the shop.

Recipe (enough for four as a side dish with other things):
1 large aubergine
Enough sunflower oil to fry the aubergine
Around 10 ready-fried tofu pieces
4 cloves of garlic (turned into a paste with the ginger)
Thumb-sized piece of ginger (in a paste)
2 tblsp chilli bean paste (Fuschia also gives excellent advice on which chilli bean paste to go for, and I chose the Chuan Lao Hui brand)
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tblsp Chinese black vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
A few tablespoons of water
1 tsp cornflour (if needed)
2 spring onions, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil

Firstly cut the aubergine into fishfinger-sized pieces, and cook them however you prefer. I shallow fried them in a frying pan in a couple of batches, but you could deep fry, or even brush with oil and bake them. They do need to be cooked through though. Once the aubergines are done, put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok and stir-fry the chilli bean paste for a couple of minutes on quite a high heat before adding the ginger and garlic paste. If anything looks like it's sticking add a little water, and keep it moving. Then add in the tofu, aubergine, soy sauces, sugar and vinegar, stir well, and reduce the heat. Let it all simmer for a few minutes, and add the cornflower if there's lots of liquid (I didn't need to bother with this step). Cook out the cornflower, if you're using it, for a further few minutes and then stir in the spring onions and sesame oil, and take the wok off the heat.
And tah-dah, my first bit of Sichuan cooking was done!

I decided to cook the fish fragrant aubergine as part of a Chinese dinner with salt and pepper squid, Sichuan-style prawns (blog posts to follow), and some steamed green vegetables with sesame oil. But the aubergines would have been perfectly fine on their own with some rice. I really loved their spicy, succulent-ness with hints of sourness and sweetness.

It was also great to be able to cook with some unfamiliar ingredients like the chilli bean paste and black vinegar. I still don't know too much about it, but on the basis of this dish I think I might quite like Sichuan food.

Borek and a meze selection

I like things made with filo pastry, but I've never I actually made anything with it myself. So now I'm in my thirtieth decade I thought I'd better correct this. I wanted something for a light summer lunch, so a meze selection including borek seemed like a good option. Borek are essentially little parcels of pastry with various fillings, which are found all around the Mediterranean and Middle East. The borek I've come across are always filled with a feta-style cheese, but Wikipedia tells me that they can have a range of different fillings. I decided to stick with feta, and used a recipe based on this one. I adapted it a bit, so my version's below. And I (obviously) did not consider making this super-thin pastry myself, but bought some ready-made filo.

Recipe (enough for around 12 pieces):
Ready-made filo pastry (I used 4 sheets in total, but this will depend on the dimensions of your pastry)
1 large egg, beaten
200g feta cheese
1 tblsp chopped dill
A good grinding of black pepper
Around 70g butter, melted
Around 2 tblsp sesame seeds

Firstly make up the filling by mashing the cheese with the egg, adding the dill and seasoning with pepper when they are well combined. It doesn't need to be smooth mix, so don't worry about any large crumbs of cheese.
Next get your filo pastry, and lay one sheet out. Brush this with melted butter, lay a second pastry sheet on top, and then brush this with butter too. I had a large rectangle of pastry so cut this in half across the widest part, and then each half into three, to create six smaller rectangles. I then placed a couple of teaspoons of the cheese mix along the longest edge, tucked in the sides, and rolled them up into cigar shapes (nb I had some rather fat cigars). These were then brushed with more melted butter and sprinkled with some sesame seeds. Depending on the dimensions of your filo you may need to alter how you cut it, but aim to make rectangles. Repeat this process with another batch of filo pastry, to make twelve borek in total. You need to work quickly with filo pastry as it becomes very delicate the drier it is. I found that putting my pastry in the fridge between batches seemed to help, and laying a damp tea towel over it is also supposed to be effective too.
Once the borek are made bake at gas mark 4 for around 25minutes until they are lightly browned.

The borek can be served hot, or at room temperature. I prefer them hot, so as I was making mine in advance I just popped them under the grill for a bit before I wanted to eat them (this also coloured them a little more). Though these are very simple in terms of ingredients, the combination of light, crisp pastry with soft, salty, slighty herby cheese is fantastic.

To go with my borek I made some cacik (a bit like raita but with garlic and mint), and Nigella Lawson's peanut butter hummus. This was a really good recipe which I more or less followed, apart from roasting my cumin and leaving out the yoghurt. To complete the meze selection I included some taramasalata from Waitrose. This is the nicest taramasalata I've had, but I think in this context it wasn't really needed, and the fishy flavour jarred a bit with the other dishes (I think some pitta bread was needed for it to work). But overall this meze lunch was perfect for a warm summer's day- filling but not too heavy, and with lots of flavour. Actually the borek were so nice I'd happily make them in the depths of winter too.

Crust-less mini quiches

A quick post on these super-simple mini quiches which are perfect for a summer picnic, afternoon tea or a general snack. As they lack any pastry they are also suitable for people on a gluten-free diet, or for those who can't be bothered to make pastry.

I used the same filling as I've previously written about, caramelised red onion and mushroom, which was divided between 12 cupcake cases lined with grease-proof paper (I was worried about sticking issues but it probably would have been fine without the double layer). The liquid part of the filling was again what I'd use in a regular quiche- 300ml of double cream, 2 eggs, 2 handfuls of emmental cheese, a little salt and a generous grind of black pepper. This was ladled into the cases, and the tray placed into the middle of an oven pre-heated to gas mark 6. The quiches take around 20minutes to cook, and should be golden on top and set, but still have a little bit of a wibble. They also look very light and puffy initially, but will collapse back down as they cool.

Eat hot or cold while being quite surprised that pastry is not absolutely essential for a quiche.

Anita's dill and mint raitha crisps

So in the search for further snack innovation I stumbled across these crisps by Anita's a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if there really is a little ethnic auntie (Anita) behind it all as claimed, or whether this is just clever marketing, but the unique feature of this brand is its range of Indian flavours.
Their offerings are made up of chicken tikka, mango and lime chutney, achaari paneer, and a dill and mint raitha variety which I tried recently. And I have to say I was very impressed. A bit like the Hairy Bikers coconut prawn crisps, this is a flavour that sounds a bit wrong to combine with fried potatoes but actually works. The herb flavours are not too strong, but still distinguishable, and the yoghurt element of the raitha comes through too. Overall this leads to quite a fresh tasting crisp, with the raitha flavour cutting through any oiliness from the potato.

I'm looking forward to sampling some of the other flavours (all of them except the chicken tikka variety are vegetarian). And though I still a remain a stout (in all senses) advocate of the plain salted crisp, I think I will be adding these to my list of acceptable alternatives.

Anita's Dill and Mint Raitha Crisps
I rate them 8/10
Cost: Around £1.70 for a 150g bag

Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu

London restaurateur and general veggie behemoth Yotam Ottolenghi's black pepper tofu recipe rapidly seems to have become a modern classic. It's appeared in the Guardian, on Masterchef, and has also been widely blogged (which is where I came across it some time ago). It's taken me the best part of a year to get round to making it, but the discovery of bags of ready-fried tofu in a local Chinese supermarket prompted me to finally give it a go.

The original Guardian recipe serves four and has a huge amount of chilli and black pepper in it. I have to admit that while I halved the amount of tofu, I more than halved the seasoning as I am a wuss. I also omitted the sugar in the Ottolenghi recipe and only used the one type of soy sauce, so in case you want my amended version here it is.

Recipe (easily enough for two):

350-400g ready-fried tofu
75g butter
6 shallots (finely sliced)
2 hot red chillies (seeds left in, and finely chopped)
Around 1.5tblsp ginger (crushed to a paste)
6 cloves of garlic (crushed)
Around 2 tblsp black peppercorns (crushed)
Around 5 tblsp good quality soy sauce (such as Kikkoman)
8 spring onions (each chopped into about 3 or 4 pieces)

Melt the butter in a wok or deep frying pan over a medium heat, and then add in the shallots, garlic, ginger and chilli. Once these are soft and a bit golden (around 10 to 15 minutes) add in the fried tofu, black pepper and soy sauce and stir everything around to heat up the tofu. Finally put in the bits of spring onion, stir and cook until these are just soft, and you're done.
I served this with some steamed green vegetables, dressed with a little sesame oil, but plain boiled rice would also be fab.

Do note that even with my slightly reduced amounts of pepper and chilli, this is still a bloody fiery recipe. It's incredibly tasty but my lips were tingling a good thirty minutes after we'd finished eating. But I think most of the heat is from the pepper rather than the chilli, so you do get a lot of flavour too, rather than just chilli burn. And that's what makes this such a top dish.
So a great quick dinner recipe (especially if using ready-fried tofu) and one that definitely combats the tofu is dull and boring brigade.

Indian-style carrots with mustard

This is one of my mum's recipes which uses a very typical Bengali ingredient- mustard, and in this case ground whole black mustard seeds. It makes a perfect side dish to go with Indian food, and is pungent with mustard and garlic with a little carrot-y sweetness. For me it's an ideal way to use up a carrot glut, so just scale this recipe up (or down) as required.
You should be able to find whole black mustard seeds in any Indian grocery shop, and then grind them yourself. I use an electric coffee grinder for this, just don't expect to be able to use it for coffee beans too.

Recipe (enough for loads)
1kg carrots (grated)
Around 3-4 tsp ground black mustard seeds
3 medium cloves garlic (crushed)
Small bunch corriander (roughly chopped)
1 medium green chilli
Around 1-2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt (or enough to season to taste)

Put the oil in large pan, and heat until hot but not smoking and add in the carrots. Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add in the ground mustard. You basically want enough mustard so you can see the little grains against the carrot, as in the picture. Give everything a good stir, add in the garlic, pierce the chilli a few times and then add this in too. Piercing the chilli means you should get the flavour from it but not too much heat. Cover the pan and leave to cook for around ten to fifteen minutes or until the carrots are almost tender. Then add in the corriander and salt, stir and cook for another five minutes or so, by which time the carrots should be fully cooked through. Serve with dhal and rice or some Indian breads, or indeed anything that is likely to go with carrots and mustard.

Addendum: Following on-going conversations, my mother says that she also uses a couple of teaspoons of kalo jeera/black onion seeds in this dish- frying them in the oil at the start before the carrot goes in. However, I cook it without and it's still lovely. She also adds that if you are a serious mustard fan, you could also add some shorshe tel or mustard oil. It's pretty potent stuff though, so exercise caution!