How Are Dishes Born?
Mysterious process, isn't it?
This one started its life in the grocery store, when I wanted to have some different tastes in our vegetarian diet. I bought few beets ('beetroot', if you prefer), a turnip, and — as usual — celery, tomatoes, spuds, the staples of a pantry/fridge.
It had a few days' gestation period (I usually wake up in the morning thinking about what I'm going to fix for lunch, during which time I imagine flavour combinations, the processes involved in cooking a dish, and how the finished product will present and taste.)
So this is what I came up with over the last few days, and what was born today:
1 TURNIP and 2 BEETROOT, both chopped into ±1,5cm cubes and steamed.
LIMA BEANS (the dried kind), soaked overnight, and boiled in water until 'al dente'.
SAUCE:
Do this in a nice, big pot. I used a 3-litre cast Iron pot on an induction plate, but use anything you've got that saves energy and global warming.
Seeds: you can either roast these dry, or sauter them in oil (I used olive) as you like: black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds (VERY IMPORTANT) and cumin seeds.
Half an onion, diced; thumb-sized shallot, diced; chilli, finely diced to taste; diced celery, to taste. Add these to the oil after the seeds have started to 'pop', and sauter until translucent.
Tomato: 3 medium, finely diced, added to the pot.
Season the sauce: salt, ground pepper, Maggi, a good splash of V8 juice, herbs of your liking (I used Italian, tarragon, 2 kinds of curry powder (not too much, this isn't a curry, they're just for depth), and a good tablespoon of turmeric, just for health. Two heaping teaspoons of wholegrain mustard add a lot.
Add a good big clove of garlic (crushed) towards the end of the cooking time, along with the juice of 1/3 of a lime. Stir well, and let blend.
MASHED POTATOES: old 'n easy, just boil some walnut-sized potato chunks in some water, when they're tender (test with 'Granny's' fork) smush them with a good utensil, add a good slab of unsalted butter, salt & pepper, and set aside to warm in the oven.
When your sauce is done (you might want to taste, to make sure you've got it right), add the beans, the beetroot, and the turnip, stir well and simmer for a few minutes so that the flavours combine.
Warm your plates (1 minute in a full-whack microwave.)
Serve, laying down a bed of mash, and topping with the stew.
Delicious winter meal, and — depending on your quantities — great for leftovers reheated in the zapper!
The nice thing about this is that the veggie flavours remain independent, and are bound together by the sauce. You'll get a bit of turnip with sauce, a bit of beet with sauce, a bit of bean with sauce, and they're all delicious!
How Are Dishes Born?
Mysterious process, isn't it?
This one started its life in the grocery store, when I wanted to have some different tastes in our vegetarian diet. I bought few beets ('beetroot', if you prefer), a turnip, and — as usual — celery, tomatoes, spuds, the staples of a pantry/fridge.
It had a few days' gestation period (I usually wake up in the morning thinking about what I'm going to fix for lunch, during which time I imagine flavour combinations, the processes involved in cooking a dish, and how the finished product will present and taste.)
So this is what I came up with over the last few days, and what was born today:
1 TURNIP and 2 BEETROOT, both chopped into ±1,5cm cubes and steamed.
LIMA BEANS (the dried kind), soaked overnight, and boiled in water until 'al dente'.
SAUCE:
Do this in a nice, big pot. I used a 3-litre cast Iron pot on an induction plate, but use anything you've got that saves energy and global warming.
Seeds: you can either roast these dry, or sauter them in oil (I used olive) as you like: black mustard seeds, fennel seeds, caraway seeds (VERY IMPORTANT) and cumin seeds.
Half an onion, diced; thumb-sized shallot, diced; chilli, finely diced to taste; diced celery, to taste. Add these to the oil after the seeds have started to 'pop', and sauter until translucent.
Tomato: 3 medium, finely diced, added to the pot.
Season the sauce: salt, ground pepper, Maggi, a good splash of V8 juice, herbs of your liking (I used Italian, tarragon, 2 kinds of curry powder (not too much, this isn't a curry, they're just for depth), and a good tablespoon of turmeric, just for health. Two heaping teaspoons of wholegrain mustard add a lot.
Add a good big clove of garlic (crushed) towards the end of the cooking time, along with the juice of 1/3 of a lime. Stir well, and let blend.
MASHED POTATOES: old 'n easy, just boil some walnut-sized potato chunks in some water, when they're tender (test with 'Granny's' fork) smush them with a good utensil, add a good slab of unsalted butter, salt & pepper, and set aside to warm in the oven.
When your sauce is done (you might want to taste, to make sure you've got it right), add the beans, the beetroot, and the turnip, stir well and simmer for a few minutes so that the flavours combine.
Warm your plates (1 minute in a full-whack microwave.)
Serve, laying down a bed of mash, and topping with the stew.
Delicious winter meal, and — depending on your quantities — great for leftovers reheated in the zapper!
The nice thing about this is that the veggie flavours remain independent, and are bound together by the sauce. You'll get a bit of turnip with sauce, a bit of beet with sauce, a bit of bean with sauce, and they're all delicious!