Slow Food Sunday

A while ago I bragged about our new cast iron pot and we’ve made some slowly simmered stews in it lately. Usually we’ve made them on Sunday and since the cooking time is long we’ve been calling those days Slow Food Sundays. The cast iron pot is really a magic pot: you can put nearly anything in it, simmer it few hours and it always tasted delicious.

On Friday our friends gave us couple of black cardamom pods. We had never used them before, so we decided to try it in our Slow Food Sunday stew. We also put fava beans, carrots and crushed tomatoes in it. The stew was served with vegetable couscous (=couscous, celery, corn and cashews).

Fava Bean Stew

3 tbsp oil
3 big garlic cloves
1 black cardamom pod
1 tsp caraway seeds
3 big carrots (or 4-5 smaller)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1,5 dl red wine
700 g cooked fava beans
1 tsp lovage
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp green pepper corns
salt
water

Chop the garlic cloves coarsely and crush the cardamom. Peel the carrots and cut in 1-1,5 cm slices. Heat the oil in a pot. Sauté cardamom, caraway seeds and garlic couple of minutes. Add the carrots and sauté few more minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and enough water to cover everything. Put the lid on, put the pot into oven and bake at least couple of hours in 175 Celsius degrees.

Something Simple

If I don’t feel like cooking I often just throw some noodles and other things to a pot and boil them few minutes. Today was one of those days. I will add a picture later if the camera and computer start co-operating. And here’s the picture!

Noodles with Mushrooms and Vegetables

1 l water + bouillon cube (mushroom or other)
2 handfuls of dried funnel chanterelles
some dried chard stalks
1 big carrot
half bell pepper
1 celery stalk
2 handfuls of frozen green beans
1 handful frozen kohlrabi
100g whole wheat noodles
1 onion
soy sauce for serving

Cut carrot, bell pepper and celery into strips. Bring the water to boil and dissolve bouillon cube in it. Add funnel chanterelles, chard, carrot, bell pepper and celery, and boil 2-3 minutes. Throw in frozen veggies and noodles and boil 3 more minutes. Cut the onion in thin half moons and stir it in before serving. Nom nom.

Tagliatelle and Walnuts

I think I should eat more nuts and I’m trying to find new ways to use them. We had couple of pears at home and I got an idea of pasta with walnuts and pears. The combination was good, but the nuts could have been nicer if they had been partially crushed. I sprinkled almesan (from Veganomicon) on top, but the meal would have been good without it too.

Walnut Pasta

180g tagliatelle (6 balls)
water and salt for cooking

2 small pears
1 dl white wine
2 tbsp oil
2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
2 celery ribs
3 dl walnuts
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp basil
0,5 tsp parsley
salt and pepper

Cook the tagliatelle according to instructions on package.

Peel the pears and cut in bite size chunks. Put them and white wine into a small pot and simmer 10 minutes. Peel the shallots, cut them half and slice. Mince the garlic and slice the celery. Heat the oil in a frying pan and sauté the shallots and garlic about a minute. Add celery and sauté another minute or two. Add the walnuts and keep sautéing until the shallots and celery are soft. Add the pears and wine, herbs and lemon juice. Season with salt an pepper. Combine with cooked pasta and serve.

Non-fried Spring Rolls

Spring rolls are usually fried, but non-fried are good too. And they’re easier to make. The filling of the non-fried rolls can be either raw or sautéed, I prefer sautéed. We had some last year’s plums in our freezer and I used them to make dip for the rolls. It needs improving, so I’m not posting a recipe for that. You can use store bought sweet chili sauce as dip too.

Spring Rolls

10 rice papers
1 carrot
1 celery rib
3 dl shredded cabbage
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp soy sauce
stalks of 1 onion, chopped
3-4 dl mung bean sprouts

Grate the carrot and slice the celery. Heat the oil in a pan and fry carrot, celery and cabbage couple of minutes. Add soy sauce and mint and simmer until the vegetables are tender but crispy. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in bean sprouts and onion stalks.  Take a dish that is bigger than the rice papers and fill it with water. Put one rice paper to the water and let it soak until it’s soft. Put it on the table and put the second rice paper to the water. Put some filling on the wet rice paper and wrap. I like to do that on a towel, so the table won’t be flooding when I’m finished. If you need instructions for wrapping, check this tutorial. Serve the rolls with a sweet chili sauce or other dip.

Easy Weekday Dinner

An easy and fairly quick dinner we made one evening after work and school. We had sprouted and cooked chickpeas, but canned could be used too.

Chickpea Curry

3 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard seeds
1,5 tsp good curry powder
2 shallots
2 garlic cloves
3 medium potatoes
2 celery ribs
4 dl cooked or canned chickpeas
5 dl water
50g creamed coconut
salt to taste

Chop the shallots and mince the garlic. Wash the potatos well (or peel) and cube. Slice the celery ribs. Heat the oil and fry cumin, mustard seeds and curry powder for a minute. Add shallots and garlic and fry until shallots are soft and translucent. Add potato cubes and simmer 5 minutes. Add celery and chickpeas and simmer few more minutes. Add water, bring to boil and add creamed coconut. Simmer until potatoes and celery are soft. Add more water if your curry looks dry or boil on higher heat if it has too much liquid. Add salt to taste and serve with cooked barley, rice or other grains.