Lumpiang Prito with Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Any excuse to make spring rolls is good with me! These veggie spring rolls are particularly good and the vinegar dipping sauce was sensational! I tend to always have my spring rolls with sweet chilli, sweet and sour or chilli dipping sauce, so I wasn't sure how this vinegar sauce was going to turn out. It was so delicious, I think I'll make it for all my future spring rolls and rice paper rolls!

Lumpaing Prito
Ingredients
2 tbsp. oil
1 onion, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups diced sweet potato
2 cups diced carrots
2 cups sliced celery
1/2 cup finely chopped peanuts
1 tbsp. Soy sauce (or vegan fish sauce)
1 cup sliced green beans
2 cups shredded green cabbage
20 spring roll wrappers
Lots of vegetable oil, for deep frying.

Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Ingredients
1 small red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
Pinch of chilli flakes (optional)

To Make
1. Heat the 2 tbsp. oil in a wok and sauté the onion and garlic until just softened and translucent. Add the sweet potato, carrot and 1/4 cup water. Simmer for a few minutes and then add the celery and peanuts. Once the sweet potato and carrot are just tender (they can be just slightly undercooked), turn off the heat and add the soy sauce, green beans and shredded cabbage. The residual heat will just slightly cook them.
2. Cool the filling (while it's cooling, you can make your vinegar dipping sauce) and then roll up the spring rolls. Use about 2 heaped tbsp. per roll.
3.Once your rolls are all done, clean out the wok and then fill generously with oil. Heat the oil and then test it by throwing in a corner of spring roll wrapper - if it floats to the top and look like it's fizzing then your oil is hot enough.
4. Deep fry the spring rolls in batches until golden brown (if you prefer, you can shallow fry them and make sure you turn them while cooking to cook both sides). You will probably need to turn them over to cook both sides as they'll float on the surface. Once golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a bit of paper towel to absorb excess oil.
5. Serve hot with vinegar dipping sauce.

Vinegar Dipping Sauce:
1. Combine all ingredients and mix well until sugar is completely dissolved.

Makes 20 medium sized spring rolls.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food the Philippines.

Check out my other Filipino recipe posts:

Tofu Adobo with Pineapple & Bamboo

Lumpiang Sariwa

Coconut Mango Float

Pancit Canton

Gin Thoke (Burmese Ginger Salad)

I came onto the blog today thinking to share another great Burmese recipe with you for Myanmar month, I was halfway through posting up my Burmese Sticky Rice cake when I realised that so soon after Christmas most people are probably well and truly dessert-ed out! So instead I'll share with you this rather special, very healthy and very fresh salad.

It's a ginger salad, yes, ginger. You might think that is a bit too strong to be a main ingredient in a salad, but this salad uses beautiful fresh ginger which you pickle yourself the night before making the salad. The pickling softens the ginger and smooths the punchy flavour and the end result is really so delicious. I served it up at my Burmese Dinner party and everyone absolutely loved it. It makes a perfect addition to a big meal because the fresh crunchy salad and zingy ginger are so refreshing and make a light and tasty accompaniment to heavier dishes.

Ingredients
1/2 cup grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup lime juice (or a mixture of lemon and lime)
1 tbsp. sesame seeds
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. peanut oil
1 small quarter green cabbage , finely shredded
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1/2 green chilli, finely chopped
1/4 cup peanuts, finely chopped
2 tbsp. light soy sauce
1 tbsp. chickpea (besan) flour

To Make
1. Combine the grated ginger and lime juice in a jar and shake well. Let sit in the fried overnight, or for about 12 hours. If possible, take it out and shake it a couple of times during the 12 hours.
2. Dry roast the sesame seeds in a pan over a low-medium heat until slightly browned. Remove and set aside to cool. Heat the peanut oil in the pan and fry the garlic slices until they start to brown and go a bit crispy. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon to cool. Keep any remaining oil from the pan in a jar or small bowl.
3. Squeeze the lime juice from the ginger and add any juice squeezed out to the jar with the cooled garlic oil. Combine the shredded cabbage, tomatoes, ginger, chilli, peanuts and chickpea flour in a large bowl and toss to combine.
4. Add the soy sauce to the jar with the garlic oil and lime juice and shake to combine. Pour over the salad and toss through. Top the salad with the fried garlic chips and serve.

Serves 4-6 as a side salad.

This month I'm featuring vegan recipes from Myanmar (Burma).

Check out my other Burmese recipe posts:

Vegan Fish Sauce

Ohn No Khao Swe with Chickpea Tofu

Burmese Tomato Salad

Burmese Sticky Rice Cake

Shata (Sudanese Chilli Sauce)

To really get your metabolism going and your tastebuds on fire, here is a fantastic chilli sauce which comes from Sudan. It's simple - but it packs a big punch of flavour and will turn any bland meal into something spectacular :) It keeps well in the fridge in a sealed container for up to two weeks and it an accompaniment to anything you can think of!

Shata (Sudanese Chilli Sauce)

Ingredients
1 cup fresh lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp dried chilli flakes
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

To Make
1. Mix all ingredients together well.
2. Let stand for at least 10 minutes and the serve with anything. 

Guadeloupean Chilli Mango Appetiser

A fresh appetiser which packs a real flavour punch as an appetiser or a burst of freshness between courses. It looks very simple, but the strong flavours dazzle your mouth with every bite. Keep the portions small if you're having it on it's own, or have it as a mango salsa as part of a meal.

This dish comes from the beautiful French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe - my featured country for this month. It's a challenging country, with strong French creole influences combing with tropical vibrant Caribbean ingredients and even, yep, quite a bit of curry from it's Sri Lankan influences. It makes for a unique combination of dishes and flavours, but all the dishes I made were delicious. They tended towards the simple, but with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables combined to make elegant and beautiful food.

Ingredients
3 ripe mangoes
1 fresh jalapeño chilli, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Juice of 2 limes
Cracked pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

To Make
1. Dice the mangoes and place in a bowl. Add the jalapeño, garlic, lime juice and then add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Mix well and then refrigerate for an hour for the flavours to permeate the mango cubes. Serve in individual small bowls.

This month I'm featuring lots of recipes from Guadeloupe!

Check out my other Guadeloupean recipe posts:

Mango Chilli Appetiser

Salsa Piquant

Creole Salsa 

Choko Gratin

Vegan Tofu Feta Cheese Recipe

I invented this simple but very tasty Vegan Feta Cheese recipe quite a while ago, but I thought I would post it now as a reference recipe, because it is so versatile. This tofu feta is just like eating a firm salty feta, like the kind most people eat in Australia - I don't know much about the history of feta, but we call this type of feta Australian feta and it's my favourite type. Much lighter and tangier than the thick and creamy Danish feta, it's perfect for salads, wonderful in pies and divine sprinkled on pizza.

My vegan version is quick to prepare and you can make it either in cubed form or in crumbled form. I found that baking the tofu after marinating really brought out the tangy flavour and gave the tofu a really great chewy cheesy consistency, so I've included instructions for baking. If you're putting it on a pizza or a focaccia, you don't need to bake it first. Just put it straight on and it will bake when you're cooking the pizza anyway.

This recipe makes a big batch, so you can halve it if you like. Or you can keep half of the tofu marinating in the fridge and then just bake it on the day you want to use it. In fact, I have some unbaked tofu feta sitting in my fridge right now just waiting to be baked and tossed in a salad.

Ingredients
600g hard tofu
Juice of 1 lemon
4 large cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp salt

To Make:
1. First, gently squeeze as much liquid out of the tofu as you can.
2. If you want to make cubed feta, chop the tofu up into cubes and place in a bowl. If you want crumbled feta then crumble it roughly with your hands into a bowl.
3. In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice, crushed garlic, and salt and mix well. Add the the tofu and toss to coat. Now you can taste and decide if you think it needs to be more salty or more sour - if you think it does, add more salt or more lemon juice accordingly.
4. Set aside to marinate, stirring or tossing regularly. If you're making cubed feta, you'll need to let it marinate for about 20 minutes, if your making crumbled then 10 should do.
5. Spread it out on a lightly oiled baking tray and grill or bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 170 degrees.
6. Remove and cool. Use however you like!

This tofu feta will keep, baked or unbaked for several days in the fridge.

Recipes using my Vegan Tofu Feta Cheese:

Bosnian Spinach and 'Cheese' Plait

Pasta & Feta Salad with Balsamic Mustard Dressing

Croatian Pizza with Spicy Vegan Sausage & Vegan Feta

Marinated Beetroot & Vegan Feta Focaccia

Easy Asparagus and Garlic Soup

Everywhere in the world we're coming into either Spring or Autumn. Both perfect seasons for light and tasty vegetable soups. Asparagus is either just coming into season or just going out of season wherever you are, and that means it's quite likely to be bagged up and reduced at your local greengrocer. I was lucky enough to pick up 5 bunches of asparagus reduced to a couple of bucks at my local supermarket the other day, which allowed me to indulge in a favourite dish - asparagus soup. 

This soup is as easy and simply as you can imagine, it's just 5 ingredients. In fact, as I'm sure you'll notice, the number 5 is a bit of a theme with this soup!

Ingredients

3 tbsp non dairy margarine

5 bunches asparagus, woody ends removed 

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

5 potatoes, peeled and chopped

5 cups vegetable stock

To Make

1. Break the asparagus up into 3-4 cm lengths.

2. Melt the margarine in a large soup pot. Add the asparagus and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes. The asparagus should go brighter green and start to smell fragrant. 

3. Add the garlic and potato and vegetable stock. Bring to a simmer and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. 

4. Purée in a blender and return to the pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat through and serve.

Serves 4, ideal with some crusty bread or some croutons. 

Torshi-havij (Persian Pickled Carrots)

If you read this blog much then you'll have read how excited I was when I made home made Sugar-Pickled Garlic as part of Iran month. Well - good news! The excitement doesn't stop there because I also made some other pickles! Iranian and other Middle Eastern cuisines love their pickles. I remember the first time I went to a proper Lebanese restaurant and they brought out bread, hummous, baba ghanoush and garlic dip as soon as we sat down. Then they brought out this strange small dish of brightly coloured "things". I had no idea what they were until my Lebanese companions told me they were pickled turnips, radishes and cucumbers.

Like Lebanese cuisine, Iranian cuisine includes a plethora of different pickled vegetables - pickled cucumbers, pickled cauliflower, pickled eggplant, pickled garlic, pickled onions and pickled carrots (read that list aloud really quickly and the word 'pickled' starts to sound really strange!). Although I was tempted to try all these I limited myself to two - pickled garlic and pickled carrots. Both of which I served up to my guests at my Iranian feast as part of the mokhalafat (accompaniments).

These pickled carrots (torshi-havajii) went down really well with my guests (not to mention the fact that they were amazed that I made my own pickles!) and the word that was being bandied about the table as they ate them was "zingy". That describes them pretty well! One of my guests even said it felt like a carbonated drink in her mouth. They're quite strong so I recommend serving them as a side dish with a meal  - but be warned, they will made your meal incredibly special and very zingy :)

Ingredients

1 bunch baby carrots, trimmed and washed (about 100g)

5 cloves fresh garlic, peeled

1/2 tsp dried mint

15-20 black peppercorns

1/2 tsp salt
White wine vinegar (quantity will vary depending on the size of the jar you use)

To Make
1. Wash the carrots well (there is no need to peel them, but you can if you want to) and boil for about 3 minutes in boiling water. Remove from the water and allow to cool.
2. Once the carrots are cooled, place them in a jar with a good lid or seal. As you can see from my pics I used a wide preserving jar for mine, but I think it would be better to use a tall and thin jar so that you can stand the carrots up in it without needing to use so much vinegar.
3. Grate the garlic coarsely and add to the carrots in the jar. Add all other ingredients (except the vinegar).
4. Add enough white wine vinegar to the jar to cover the carrots completely. Put the lid on and store in the fridge for at least 3 weeks.

Makes 1 jar.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing Iranian recipes!

Check out my other Iranian recipe posts:

Persian Carrot and Rose Jam

Artichoke and Pine Nut Dolma

Vegan Yakh Dar Behesht (Ice in Heaven)

Iranian Sugar-pickled Garlic

Sholeh Zard (Rice & Rosewater Pudding)

Salad-e Shirazi

Naaz Khatoon (Eggplant with Pomegranate Molasses)

Mokhalafat (Traditional Accompaniments) 

Iranian Sugar-Pickled Garlic

At the end of last month, when I announced that I would be featuring Iranian recipes all this month in this post, I hinted that you might be seeing something very garlicy from me - well here it is! Sugar pickled whole garlic cloves. You might be thinking that this just sounds a bit too overpowering and strong, but you'll just have to trust me (and all my dinner guests who loved this) when I tell you that it was amazing!

As a cook, I constantly reach little milestones of the development of my skills (I'm sure other cooks are alike),  these are mostly about doing things for the first time by hand (instead of buying things in jars, tins and packets from the supermarket). Things like making my own jam, making my own home made pasta (and then home made ravioli!), making my own pesto varieties or making my own infused spirits! All of these have been small milestones in my development as a cook and here is another one: making my own pickled vegetables!


This Iranian pickled garlic recipe was a great introduction, as it was very easy and didn't need to be stored for a long amount of time (as the garlic was cooked). This allowed me to prepare it in time to post as part of this month's Iranian recipes.

I served this pickled garlic and my torshi-havaj (recipe to come later!) to my dinner guests as part of mokhalafat (traditional Iranian table accompaniments) and it went down so well with my guests that some of them went so far as to say that it was their favourite dish of the night!

What is your favourite pickled vegetable?

Sugar Pickled Garlic

Adapted from www.food.com

Ingredients
3 whole heads of garlic
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup water
8 whole cloves
20 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp salt

To Make
1. Peel all the garlic cloves (I know! This is a pain but worth it!).
2. Place peeled garlic cloves with all other ingredients in a small saucepan. Place over a medium heat.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
4. Remove lid and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Transfer to a glass jar with a tight lid and store in the fridge for at least 3 weeks before serving (1-2 months optimum).

Serve as an accompaniment, add to wraps and salads, add to a cheese platter or antipasto platter.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing Iranian recipes!

Check out my other Iranian recipe posts:

Persian Carrot and Rose Jam

Artichoke and Pine Nut Dolma

Vegan Yakh Dar Behesht (Ice in Heaven)

Sholeh Zard (Rice & Rosewater Pudding)

Salad-e Shirazi

Naaz Khatoon (Eggplant with Pomegranate Molasses)

Torshi-havij (Pickled Baby Carrots)

Mokhalafat (Traditional Accompaniments) 

Fresh Vegan Basil Spaghetti with Roasted Tomato Garlic Sauce

Ok - so I know most people think that making your own spaghetti is just too hard, and truthfully I used to be one of them. But I recently discovered the other day that it is ridiculously easy! Home made fresh pasta has such a great delicate flavour and means that you can get creative with the pasta. Once you can make your own gourmet pastas you can make the pasta the star of the dish and complement it with a nice simple sauce. So go and borrow somebody's pasta rolling machine and give this a try - once you realise how easy and delicious it is you'll go and buy one of your own :) This spaghetti is fine to eat the same day but the longer you dry it the better it will hold together when you cook it - so overnight is ideal!

On the other hand - if you don't feel like making your own spaghetti then you can substitute some spinach fettuccine or other special store bought pasta.

Ingredients:

Basil Spaghetti

1 1/2 cups fine semolina

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1-2 tbsp olive oil

2/3 cup water

1 loosely packed cup fresh basil leaves

Roasted Tomato Garlic Sauce

6-7 fresh tomatoes

3 cloves garlic

1 onion

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp raw sugar

8-10 pitted kalamata olives

3 tbsp chopped oregano

To Make:

1. Preheat the oven to approximately 180 degrees Celsius.

The Pasta

1. Shred the basil in a food processor. Add the semolina and flour and process briefly to combine. With the food processor still on gradually add the water and olive oil. The mix will begin to look like breadcrumbs and then as it mixes will turn into a thick dough. 

2. Dust the a workspace with some flour and turn the mix out onto the flour. Knead very briefly to add a bit more flour to the mix, if the dough is too sticky add some more flour.

3. Cut the mix into 8 equal portions and put through your pasta roller according to it's instructions. You will probably find you need an extra set of hands to help.

4. As you roll out the spaghetti lay them flat carefully on a piece of greaseproof paper (try not to make the strands too long - try for about the length you would get in a packet of ready made spaghetti) and leave to dry. I would advise that you leave it for a minimum of half an hour but I actually recommend several hours. The best would be overnight, the longer you leave it to dry the more the pasta will stick together when you cook it. I dried my first batch for 30 minutes and it broke up into short lengths when I cooked it, then I dried my second batch for 5 hours or so and it stayed together beautifully. 

The Sauce

1. Chop the tomatoes in half and then chop each half into 4-6 pieces. Slice the onion into thin wedges and peel and roughly chop the garlic.

2. Drizzle a baking dish with olive oil and add the tomato, onion and garlic. Stir well to coat with oil. Put in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the onion is cooked and the garlic has softened.

3. Stir in all the remaining ingredients and return to the oven for about 5 minutes while you make the pasta.

And then..

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Once the water is boiling add your basil spaghetti to the boiling water and stir gently to prevent sticking. Fresh pasta doesn't take long to cook and your spaghetti should be cooked after about 1 or 2 minutes of boiling. Drain.

2. Serve topped with the Baked Tomato Garlic Sauce!

Vegan Salad Medley: White Bean Salad, Garlic Artichoke Hearts and Almond Date Couscous

Sometimes when people come over you want to impress but you really don't feel like putting a lot of funds and effort in - well, a great solution is a collection of awesome salads, which are very easy to knock together and can comprise of what you have on hand mixed with a few touches that make it really special. These salads make a great complete dinner when made together but of course the nice thing is that you can break them up and just make 1 or 2 of them for dinner any night of the week.

White Bean Salad:

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of white beans (such as Great Northern Beans), soaked in water over night

2 tomatoes, chopped

400g pumpkin

1 tbsp capers

8-10 black olives

Big handful of baby spinach

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

To Make:

Boil cover the beans in water and boil in a saucepan with the lid on for 1-2 hours (until beans are cooked to the way you like them, their skins should be slightly split but the bean still firm). Chop the pumpkin into cubes, coat in olive oil and roast for 10-15 minutes in the oven until cooked.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and drizzle with some of the oil that you cooked the pumpkin in.

Garlic Artichoke Hearts

Ingredients:

1 cup marinated artichoke hearts

¼ Spanish onion

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

½ clove garlic

1 green lettuce

1 purple lettuce

To Make:

1. Chop artichoke hearts in eighths and dice the onion very small. Combine the artichoke, onion, lemon juice, olive oil and crushed garlic. Leave aside to marinate while you make the other 2 salads.

2. Just before serving break the lettuce into leaves and arrange on a big serving platter alternating the colours. 3. Spoon the artichoke mix into the centre of the plate and drizzle the dressing at the bottle of the bowl over the lettuce leaves.

Almond Date Couscous

Ingredients:

1.5 cups couscous

2 cups vegetable stock

½ cup dates, chopped finely

1/3 cup of slivered almonds

To Make:

1. Preheat an oven or grill to 180 degrees.

2. Put the dry couscous in a bowl and cover with the boiling hot vegetable stock, leave to soak until the couscous is fully expanded and there is no more liquid in the bowl. Fluff the couscous with a fork and mix the dates through.

3. Spread the almond slivers on a tray and toast for 2-3 minutes until slightly browned – keep a close eye on the suckers because they are really easy to burn. Once toasted mix through the couscous mix. Serve.

   Note: this couscous also goes great as an accompaniment to curry or roast vegies. To add a bit of colour to it you can also add a handful of chopped coriander.

Pumpkin, Leek and Garlic Soup

This one has a bit of a difference with the addition of the garlic right at the end so that the garlicy flavour really comes out.

Pumpkin, Leek and Garlic Soup

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

1 leek, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

7 cups of vegetable stock

500g Butternut pumpkin, chopped

500g Jap pumpkin, chopped

300g cauliflower, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

3 tsp cumin

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp lemon juice

Cracked pepper, to garnish

To Make:

1. Heat some olive oil in a soup pot and saute the onion, leek and one of the garlic cloves until soft and transparent.

2. Add the vegetable stock, vegetables and spices and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 20 minutes or until all the vegies are well cooked (this will vary depending on how big you chopped your vegies). 

3. When the vegies are cooked transfer the soup to a blender with the remaining clove of raw garlic and purée in batches. Add back to the rinsed soup pot and heat gently.

4. Stir through the soy sauce and lemon juice. 

5. Eat! (Tastes great with fresh bread rolls!)