Root Vegetables With Couscous, Seed and Nut Crumble Topping

Now is the time of year when the much-loved salads and dips of Summer give way to warming stews, root vegetables and grains. Of course, the British weather being what it is we might be rushing out to buy salads again next week. In the mean time, my offering today is something that scared me because I made it up as I went along but which turned out surprisingly well. I subjected my husband Jim to a mini inquisition "If you had this in a restaurant would you have it again?" Yes, he would. "Do you like the crumble topping?" Yes, he did. He then asked what was in it. "You know you don't like couscous?" Yes, he knew that. "Well, it's couscous, sunflower seeds and crushed cashews." He still liked the crumble topping. He also said that he thought that his friends would try it and probably like it - except for one. There's always one isn't there?
I served the root vegetable stew with its crunchy crumble topping in elliptical (or oval if you aren't in the mood for geometry) china dishes on elliptical (oval) plates with baby potatoes. There was French bread too, but Jim didn't need any.

I'd seen a soup base in the supermarket and decided I could do that myself. I heated some extra virgin olive oil and some sunflower oil in a wok and added one chopped onion, 2 finely sliced sticks of celery, four cloves of garlic roughly chopped. The quantities I'm giving you half fill a wok so, please, vary them according to whether you're feeding just you, a large family or the combined bands of several battalions of soldiers. There's something about a wok that seems to draw vast amounts in like a culinary black hole. I was cooking just for my husband Jim and me but I've still got enough left in the wok to turn into a chunky soup to have tomorrow with the bread we didn't eat this evening.

Next to go in were the root vegetables. I had baby carrots which I quartered lengthwise, one medium sized parsnip which I sliced, and some swede which I asked Jim to peel and chop for me. Jim makes a very good sou chef. I prepared the root vegetables while the onions and celery softened and caramelised. I also had some baby Brussel sprouts which I halved. They went in the wok and said Hi to what was already in there. If you've read my other blogs you'll know I'm a what-have-I-got kind of cook, so if you don't have any of the above you can replace it with what you do have. Within reason, of course. Replacing the baby carrots with a 2 foot long mouli might not be to everyone's taste.

The final ingredients were a tin of chopped tomatoes, about a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs although I didn't use a spoon. It was about 'that much' in the palm of my hand. I also palmed about a teaspoon of smoked sea salt and chucked that in. I gave the contents of the wok a quick stir and turned my attention to the topping.

I knew what I wanted to do. I just didn't know if it would work. I'm so daring - not so much as a safety net! What I aimed for was enough topping to cover the vegetable mix to a depth of about half an inch. If you've not used couscous before you need to know that dry couscous doubles in size when you add boiling water to it. Therefore, put in a bowl about half the volume of dry couscous that you need and add enough boiling water to cover it. Add more if necessary. Once the couscous has absorbed the water add the seeds and/or nuts to taste. I used sunflower seeds and cashews. I got a big bag of cashews when they were on offer in the supermarket. I have bargain-seeking radar. It used to surprise Jim but he's getting used to it now. I crushed the cashews with my deluxe, super duper (and rarely used) marble rolling pin. I'm not saying it's heavy but I did little more than put the rolling pin on the cashews. I used more effort lifting it and carrying it to the chopping board where the nuts were nervously waiting. I mixed the topping ingredients, checked the wok, and turned the oven on to 200. One of my unwritten rules is that most thing will cook well if put in an oven set to 200 for 20 minutes. That's things that need to go in the oven. Please, don't try it with trifle.

I put my two pie dishes on an oven tray and put two ladles of the vegetables in each of them. I put the topping on top. Can't fault my logic, can you? The tray went in the oven for about 20 minutes or so until the topping was just browning and Jim had cooked the baby potatoes.

What I may try next is using something to sweeten the topping and put it over cooked fruit. Dessert anyone?

Chickpea and Cashew Curry

I cooked a curry tonight using my patented method 'What have I got? Chuck it in the wok!' I started by heating olive oil and sunflower oil, then added coriander seeds, cumin seeds and black mustard seeds. Once they'd sizzled satisfactorily (without burning) I added a large chopped red onion, followed by chopped garlic then chopped red and yellow peppers. Next to go in was a splash of chilli sauce, some cinnamon stick and some cardamon pods. Some people take the seeds out but I like the whole thing. Please, as with all my recipes, do what works best for you. (This is the second recipe I've posted!) I also added some turmeric (the poor vegan's saffron) and a tiny bit of asafoetida. It's a stinky spice but it's good if used in moderation. I pronounce it using the same rhythm as 'hasta manana' like the Abba song and can sometimes be heard in the kitchen singing "Asafoetida till we meet again. Don't know where..."
I let the veggies and spices chat amongst themselves while I cut half a pack of prepared fresh cauliflower, broccoli and carrot into smaller pieces so that they would cook more quickly. They went in the wok and I gave everything a good stir.
Now for the roux. (I know French and I'm not afraid to use it!) A roux is a mix of flour and oil used to make a sauce. While I was looking for a new bag of mixed grain flour I found a bag of gram (chickpea) flour that I'd forgotten about. I added a bit more oil and about a tablespoon of the flour, mixed them in and stirred while they cooked. I added more flour and some water and kept adding until the sauce was the consistency I wanted.
I set a good handful of cashews to brown in the oven while I opened a tin of chickpeas. I rinsed the chickpeas added them to the wok, stirred them in and scraped the roux from the bottom of the pan. I added cranberries and golden raisins, caught the cashews in time and added them. More stirring.
I zapped a pouch of brown basmati in the microwave and served.

Spiced Vegetables and Mixed Grains

I'm new to blogging recipes but this turned out well, I remembered to take photos and I've been asked to start a blog so I'm posting this one. I sometimes improvise and on this occasion it turned out so well my non-vegan husband wanted more! 
I chopped a large red onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, a red pepper and an orange pepper and cooked them in olive oil and sunflower oil. I added about a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a similar amount of coriander seeds, smoked sea salt and a dash of sweet chilli sauce. I'd have made it more spicy if it had just been for me. I then added some frozen mixed veg (peas, green beans, carrot and sweet corn) and a tin of chopped tomatoes. I then added a generous amount of dried mixed herbs. The final ingredient was a sachet of Merchant Gourmet's Grains, Red Rice & Quinoa Mix which consists of wheatberries, Camargue Red Rice, Green Wheat Freekeh, Black Barley and Quinoa. It's ready cooked so I just got my husband to heat it through in the microwave before I stirred it in. I checked the seasoning and added some more smoked sea salt, some agave syrup and some maple syrup.
The second photo shows it served with some small potatoes.There was plenty for my husband and I with enough left over to serve with jacket potatoes tomorrow.