Berry & Rosehip Iced Tea

Spring is here now and the warmer weather seems tantalisingly close. Yet not quite in reach. It's lovely and warm in the sun and the temperatures are not too bad, but as soon as the sun disappears behind a cloud the chill sets in and you're reaching for a jumper. Evenings are still cold enough for heaters and blankets (in our cold house especially) but in the day I can cling optimistically to the promise of warmer things to come. It's about this time of year that I find myself optimistically digging out a t-shirt to wear and starting to think about summer foods. I can't wait for mangoes and stone fruits to become cheap & plentiful, but until then I can celebrate with summer style drinks, sitting out in the sunshine on my back deck.

This iced tea is caffeine free and unsweetened, so it's great if you want to enjoy a refreshing drink on a hot day without the caffeine and sugar. The berry teabags give it the sweet tang of berries without the sickliness of canned berries or berry juices. This recipe uses freshly squeezed orange juice, but feel free to get creative and add any juice you like. And if you have a bit of of a sweet tooth, some elderflower or ginger cordial can certainly be added. It can also be lovely with a small splash of orange blossom water or rosewater.

If you're celebrating or entertaining, add a bottle of champagne and thank me later :)

Berry & Rosehip Iced Tea

Ingredients:
3 berry tea bags (any kind you like, I used a 'forest fruits' one, but any mixed berry type thing is great)
2 rosehip tea bags
2 litres of boiling hot water
1 litre of freshly squeezed orange juice
Juice of 1 fresh lime. 

Optional garnishes - fresh berries, mint leaves, orange or lime slices. 


To Make:
1. In a large jug, add water and tea bags. Allow to cool to room temperature and then fish out the teabags Place in the fridge to chill. 
2. Remove from fridge and add orange juice and lime juice. Stir.
3. You can chill it again if you like, or just serve it straight away (with or without ice, as you prefer). 
4. You can add fresh berries, if you like and if they are in season, or even fresh mint leaves to garnish. 

Makes 12 cups (3 litres).

Orange Teacake Biscuits

It's only since I started blogging that I realised how much I love orange. It had never really occurred to me before, but since I label each post according to key ingredients and the list appears in the side bar to your right, I've discovered that 'orange' is one of my most frequently used labels. In fact, I've got almost as many recipes labelled 'orange' and I do 'chocolate'! I glanced down the list, they're a fairly equal spread of sweet and savoury. When people ask me about my favourite ingredients I never think of orange, but it turns out I use it a lot more often than many of the ones I would list as favourites.

Part of the reason is because I'm a bit addicted to home made orange curd, and use it on a lot of things :) But actually I think the main reason is the use of oranges across the whole world to add flavour to such a broad variety of dishes. Many of my orange recipes on this blog are actually part of my world food challenge posts, recipes from all different parts of the globe which use orange as a central flavour to their cooking, it's amazing when you think about how far ingredients spread around the world to be adapted and interpreted by so many different cultures. Here are a few examples of the Orange posts from all over the globe, just to highlight my point:

The Netherlands - Dutch Orange Bitters (Oranjebitter)
Tunisia - Orange Flavoured Doughnuts (Yoyo)
Brazil - Fried Rice Balls flavoured with Orange, Olive & Brazil Nuts (Bolinhos de Arroz)
Nepal - Chilli, Grapefruit and Orange Salad
Egypt - Orange & Olive Salad with Cumin
Samoa - Chocolate Orange Rice Pudding (Koko Rice)
Costa Rica - Orange & Passionfruit Pudding

We could actually add Russia to that list now, because I found and adapted these lovely Orange Teacake Biscuits when researching Russian recipes for the blog.

Orange Teacake Biscuits

Ingredients
1 cup nuttelex (or other vegan friendly margarine or butter)
1 cup castor sugar
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. orange juice
2 tsp orange extract
2/3 cup apple sauce (or you can use an egg replacement such as 'no egg"'to the equivalent of 2 eggs)
3 cups wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
Large granule sugar (sometimes called 'coffee sugar'), for decorating

To Make:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer (or some nice vigorous elbow grease, which is my most common method). Add the orange zest, juice, extract and the apple sauce and mix until completely smooth.
2. Sift in the flour and the baking power and mix well. Form your dough into a ball and wrap in cling wrap, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime preheat your oven to 180 degrees C. Cut your dough into 3 pieces and roll out the first one on a floured bench to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out whatever shapes you like and arrange on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Press a sprinkling of the large sugar granules into the top.
4. Bake in batches for about 8 minutes, or until just lightly golden in colour. Turn the tray around about 5 minutes into the cooking to ensure even baking. If you're using smaller than average cutters, they will need a bit less cooking time.

Makes 25-35 biscuits, depending on the size of your cutters.

Oranjebitter - Dutch Orange Bitters (Vegan Virtual Potluck 5)

Remember when we had Netherlands month on the blog? Of course you don't, it was ages ago! This recipe for Oranjebitter (Orange Bitters) is from way back then but I was holding onto it for a special occasion. The return of the spectacular Virtual Vegan Potluck is the perfect time to share this one with you, not only because I'm in the beverages category - but also because the (optional) theme ingredient this time around is Citrus.

Cue: Orange Bitters. You might be wondering what orange bitters is, and thinking that the use of the word "bitter" in the title is not so appealing. Ever had a Lemon, Lime & Bitters? They use Angostura bitters. Dutch Orange Bitters (Oranjebitter) is another type of bitters, but an orange flavoured one - pretty self explanatory.

Their uses are very broad, they make a great aperitif, digestif and cocktail ingredient. One of the easiest ways to use your orange bitters is to make yourself a Lemon, Lime & Orange Bitters. Just swap out your angostura bitters for orange. There are many cocktails which specifically used orange bitters, but you can also use it to drizzle over ice cream, to flavour cakes and desserts or just to drink on ice if you love the taste of bitter orange (if you're a marmalade lover, then you probably do love the taste of bitter orange!). If you're keen to just drink it as a dessert, you can whip up a simple sugar syrup (gently heat 1 cup water with 1 cup sugar to dissolve and then cool to room temperature) and then add the orange bitters to taste.

Because it's been such a long time since Netherlands month, I'll remind you of some of the delicious vegan recipes I shared:

Lazybones Buns (Luilakbollen)

Speculaas (Spice Biscuits)

Hollandse Stroopkoek (Syrup & Beer Cake)

Gevulde Speculaas

Naked Babies in the Grass

Dutch Orange Bitters (Oranjebitter)

Ingredients

1 lemon, washed

1 orange, washed

5 cardamom pods

3 tbsp sugar

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1/3 vanilla bean

2 cups vodka

To Make

1. Use a potato peeler to thinly peel the orange and lemon. Juice them both and then set the juice aside, but save the seeds. Lay the peel and the seeds out on a tray and dry them in a warmed oven until dried out and crisp.

2. Place the peel, seeds, cardamom pods and sugar in a mortar and pestle and crush up just a little bit.

3. Combine all ingredients in a medium sized jar and pour the reserved orange and lemon juice and the vodka over the top. Shake well and put the lid on nice and tight.

4. Leave in a cool, dark place for 2-3 weeks to infuse, taking it out and shaking it up every couple of days.

5. You can leave it as long as you like, and taste it every so often until you get it as strong and bitter as you like. When you like how it tastes, strain through a tea strainer lined with filter paper to get a clear golden liquid. Stores in the cupboard for 12-18 months. 

Makes 2 1/2 - 3 cups. 

A quick note- I've photographed mine before I strained it out, to show the ingredients infusing in the jar, which is why it's still quite cloudy in my pictures. The final result after straining will be clearer.

Cocktails using Orange Bitters:

Yule Mule

This is part of the Virtual Vegan Potluck #5, so please use the buttons below to check out what other delicious recipes have been brought to the potluck:

Or, if you'd like to start at the beginning and work your way through, click here.

Thanks for stopping in and enjoy the potluck! If you like what you see on the blog and want to keep in touch, I recommend liking the Gormandize facebook page so that you can get my new recipes all up in your feed!

In case you're interested.... this month is Myanmar (Burmese) Food Month on the blog.

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

Gin Thoke (Ginger Salad)

Burmese Sticky Rice Cake

Vegan Orange Curd Swirl Yoghurt with Sunset Fruit Salad

Giving a loved one breakfast in bed is one of the nicest and simplest things you can do for someone, start their day with a wonderful surprise and let them know you're thinking of them. It's a lovely gesture for a partner, parent, best friend or even house mate. My partner's birthday was last month and I always like to make sure he starts it with breakfast in bed. But he's much keener on a lighter start to the day than a fry up, a big breakfast, waffles or even pancakes. After living together for about 3 years now, I'm glad to say I knew him well - his eyes lit up when he saw this beautiful, colourful and fresh breakfast.

That was a while ago, and I've had these photos in my file since. But it seemed like Valentines Day might be a good excuse to share it with you. I'm a firm believer in not indulging too much on Valentines Day (see my post from last year with this fun bouquet of melon hearts), we don't do anything together for it - plus I don't need any more excuses to eat lots of chocolate and drink more. But if you want to do something special and thoughtful for your partner, then this gorgeous breakfast in bed is just the ticket (without encouraging them to be unhealthy).

It's a bit of a cheat - the yoghurt isn't home made - but the delicious flavourful orange curd makes your plain vanilla yoghurt really, really special. Just use your favourite brand of vanilla yoghurt (vegan if you're vegan, of course). You can prepare the Orange Curd Swirl Yoghurt the night before so that it's ready to go in the morning.

I chose these fruits because they were beautifully seasonal, but also because of the vibrant hues that look so lovely together. Feel free to change up the fruits used - but try and stay in the orange and red spectrum because it gives the Sunset fruit salad it's name. :)

Ingredients:
1 tub your favourite vegan vanilla yoghurt
1 mango, seeded and chopped
3 apricots, seeded and chopped
1 punnet strawberries, washed and sliced in half
1 pomegranate, seeds only (you won't need a whole pomegranate, just use as many of the seeds as you like)
2 passion fruits

Vegan Orange Curd
Zest of 1 orange (hint: zest before juicing!)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice (should be about 1 naval orange)
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 heaped tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric (just for colour, if you make with blood oranges then leave this out)

To Make:
1. First make the curd: Combine all the curd ingredients in a small saucepan and whisk well to combine. The cornstarch will be lumpy at first, but if you keep whisking the lumps with go (it's ok if there are just a few remaining, they'll cook out). If you want to avoid all that whisking then I guess you could use a blender.
2. Place the small saucepan over a medium heat. Whisking constantly, heat it for about 2 minutes - or until the contents of the pan are hot but not simmering or boiling (if it starts to simmer, reduce the heat immediately!). Once hot, reduce the heat and continue stirring for another 3-5 minutes. The curd will thicken suddenly quite a lot. Once this happens remove from the heat (still stirring) and swirl through your bowls of vanilla yoghurt. Chill in the fridge while you make the fruit salad.
3. Place all the chopped fruit in a bowl and toss together. Serve with orange swirl yoghurt.

Serves 2.

{Baked} Tunisian Yoyo (Orange Flavoured Doughnuts)

It's wonderful to try new desserts from all over the globe as part of my world food challenge. The only problem, of course, it it's potential impact on my health!! In Tunisia they have a dessert of fried orange flavoured doughnuts soaked in orange blossom and honey syrup. Sounds divine but oh my, I'm not sure if I should be eating that! So, I've dived well off the ladder of authenticity with this one and baked my doughnuts. I'm sure it creates a much different dish but honestly they were pretty delicious, although with a slightly more bready/bagel-y consistency than they were probably supposed to. I made my orange blossom syrup with agave instead of honey and I think that it replicated the flavour quite well.

Ingredients
1 x 7g sachet of yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 cups plain flour

Agave & Orange Blossom Syrup
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup water
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 tsp orange blossom water

To Make
1. Combine the yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes until the top becomes very frothy and it smells yeasty. Stir in the oil, orange zest and orange juice.
2. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and then make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture and stir well. Turn the dough out onto a floured benchtop and knead for 5 minutes (or use a mixer with a dough hook, I think I have one somewhere but I always prefer to knead my dough by hand).
3. Wash, dry and lightly oil the large mixing bowl and then return the dough to it. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a cloth and set aside in a warm place to let it rise for 2 hours.
4. While it's rising you can make the syrup by combining the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves and then bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and add the agave nectar and orange blossom water. Simmer on a low heat for 20-30 minutes, or until thickened and syrupy. Transfer to a jar or bowl and cool completely. Once cool, refrigerate.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch down and then tear off pieces about the size of a billiard ball. Roll into a log between your hands and then connect the ends to make a doughnut shape. Now stretch the hole in the middle out so that it's a bit bigger than you think it should be (because the yeast will rise more as it bakes, so if you make the holes small they'll disappear when you bake them!). Continue until all the dough is gone.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes, until just golden. Remove from the oven a punch a couple of holes in them with a skewer to help absorb the syrup and then put the hot doughnuts straight into the cold syrup. Allow to soak, turning as necessary for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a plate. Serve.

NOTE: To make these more authentic, follow the recipe up to step 5 (inclusive), and then instead of baking them fry them in oil for about 3-4 minutes each side. Then drain briefly in a paper towel, punch holes with a skewer and soak in the syrup.

Makes about 14 yoyos.

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

Check out my other Tunisian recipe posts:

Cooked Carrot & Olive Salad

Mzoura (Harissa Parsnips)

Hlalem (Tunisian Pasta and Beans)

Sweet Potato, Olive & Caper Briks

Bolinhos de Arroz (Brazilian Fried Rice Balls) with Orange, Olive & Brazil Nut Rice

Cooking with friends is one of my favourite things to do, and the other day my gorgeous friend Ruth came around to help me cook up a feast of Brazilian dishes. It's so much more relaxing to have an extra pair of hands to help out and to have a great person to chat to while we cook. Not to mention a good excuse to open a bottle of wine while you cook and catch up.

I'm always wanting to try new ideas in food styling, so I thought I would let a fresh pair of hands & eyes contribute. Ruth decided that, since it was Brazil month, everything should be as colourful as possible which I completely agree with! So she dug out my most colourful tablecloth, place mats & table decorations and used them all together. Did it clash? Yes. Was it brilliant? Yes. So I hope you enjoy these colourful photos, courtesy of Ruth's sense of fun :) Keep your eye out and you'll see her slightly crazy influence in some of my other Brazil month photos too!

Onto the food now. These fried rice balls turned out so much better than I had ever imagined. The rice is so delicious and flavourful that you don't need any dipping sauces or condiments with them & they're fried so light and crispy that you can't help going back for one more tasty crunchy bite!

These style of fried rice balls are often made in Brazil to use up leftover rice, but I cooked my own rice flavoured with chilli, orange, olives and Brazil nuts. I don't know about you, but whenever I think of Brazil nuts I think of the episode of the Simpsons in which they go to Brazil. Homer says to his kidnapper: "I have a bladder the size of a Brazil nut" and the man replies: "We just call them nuts here". I find that so funny that every time I think of Brazil nuts I hear his voice in my head saying "We just call them nuts here".

Traditionally, this recipe uses eggs as a binding agent. To make it vegan I just left them out and they held together fine because I cooked the rice by absorption so all the starchiness remained. If you have leftover rice which has been boiled, drained & rinsed then you may have more difficulty making them stay together. I recommend using rice cooked by absorption if you use leftover rice (otherwise you may need to add some egg replacer or cornstarch to bind). But if you follow this recipe you won't need any binder at all.

You can prepare the rice the night before, keep it in the fridge and then roll out and fry them just before serving.

Bolinhos de Arroz (Brazillian Fried Rice Balls) with Orange, Olive & Brazil Nut Rice

Ingredients
2 cups long grain rice
4 cups water
1 tsp chilli powder (add more or less, to taste)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp orange zest (about half an orange)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped Brazil nuts
1/3 cup sliced black olives
Vegetable oil, for frying.

To Make:
1. Combine the rice, water, chilli powder, garlic, olive oil, brown sugar, orange zest & salt in a large saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook on a low heat, covered, for about 30 minutes - or until the rice is cooked and all the water has been absorbed.
3. Stir in the chopped nuts and olives and set the rice aside to cool.
4. When the rice is cool enough to handle, pick up a handful and press it firmly into a ball. You won't be able to actually roll it between your palms or it will break up, so just press it firmly into place with your hands. Keep doing this until all the mixture is gone.
5. Heat a generous amount of vegetable oil in a wok, frypan or saucepan. Fry the balls in batches for just a few minutes on each side. Drain on paper towel and set aside while you fry all the others.
6. Serve immediately, or keep warm in the oven until ready to eat.

Makes about 30 balls (will vary depending on how big you roll them).

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

Check out my other Brazilian recipe posts:

Avocado Cream & Passion Fruit Mousse (Creme de Abacate & Mousse de Maracujá)

Chocolate Coconut Kisses

Pizza de Brigadeiro (Chocolate Pizza) with Strawberries & Cream Cheese

Black Eyed Bean Acaraje

Hearts of Palm & Rocket Pizza
Hearts of Palm & Olive Empadinhas (Empadinhas de Palmito)

Kale, Orange & Almond Pesto Spaghetti

Our digestive systems taking a beating these days. Foods laced with artificial ingredients, chemical additives, flavours and colours are commonplace in every kitchen because it's quick convenient and cheap! I'm no different, it's so convenient to buy a bottle of passata or a stir fry sauce to make a quick dinner or lunch. In my practice as a health care practitioner I see not only lots of people with diagnosed digestive problems, but also countless people with undiagnosable "digestive discomfort", including heartburn and indigestion.

If you suffer from symptoms of heartburn, indigestion, lower abdominal pain, flatulence or irregular bowel movements you should talk to your doctor or pharmacist about getting some relief. If they aren't able to diagnose a cause then your best bet is to see an acupuncturist or Chinese herbalist, as they will treat the root of the problem for a more long term solution (disclosure: I'm a doctor of Chinese Medicine!). You should also look at your diet, as in my professional experience it can often be as simple as altering what you put into your body. It may be an intolerance such as wheat or lactose, or it may be time to start reading the labels on what you're buying at the supermarket!

It's really easy to start making a few things at home instead of buying commercial ones full of preservatives and things our bodies were never meant to consume. It only takes a few minutes to make your own pasta sauces and salad dressings. You can even whip up your own smoky bbq sauce in just a minute. Making your own pesto is easy too, and it tastes much more fresh and delicious than store bought. I love the bright green colour when I make my own pesto and the gorgeous fresh taste. It couldn't be easier - just chuck it all in a food processor and blitz it for a few minutes. It doesn't have to be basil pesto, either.You can experiment with different types as well, such as my rocket & chilli pesto and my broad bean pesto.

This healthy, vegan & additive free meal takes only 10 minutes to make. For quickest results, put the spaghetti on to cook and make the pesto in the 8-9 minutes it takes for the spaghetti to cook (varies depending on which type of spaghetti you use).

Kale, Orange & Almond Pesto Spaghetti

Ingredients
400g dried spaghetti
1 bunch kale, washed and stems removed
1/2 cup blanched almonds
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Zest of 1/2 orange (about 1 tsp)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra olive oil, as needed
Blanched almonds, to garnish

To Make
1. Boil the spaghetti according to the directions on the packet, until al dente.
2. While the spaghetti is cooking, tear up the kale and put it in a food processor with the almonds, garlic, orange zest and olive oil. Process until all chopped up into a paste, you can make it as smooth or as coarse as you like - I like to leave mine a little chunky.
3. Drain the pasta as soon as it is cooked and return to the pan. Add an extra 2 tbsp of olive oil and toss through the pasta. Mix the pesto through the spaghetti evenly, you can add a little more olive oil if you need to to make the pesto mix easier.
4. Lightly toast a handful of blanched almonds to garnish and serve immediately.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Gavsicon.

Blood Orange Curd Vegan Cheesecake Tart

Sometimes things just come together even better than you had ever imagined. I had an imagine in my mind of this tart and I was pretty sure it was going to taste great. What I wasn't prepared for was it turning out to be probably the best thing I have ever eaten. I'm not even joking. The pastry is light and super crumbly, the cheesecake filling is soft, luscious and creamy, the orange curd it tangy and melts in your mouth, and the candied blood orange slices not only look beautiful but add the slight bitter sweetness of candied peel (because, yes, you can eat the peel and, yes, it's delicious!).

I had originally planned to make this using only blood oranges, a blood orange curd with candied blood oranges on top. Foolishly, I didn't think this through and I only bought 2 blood oranges. When I realised that I would need more, I went back but they were sadly sold out at my fruit shop. So I made the curd using a regular naval orange and used the blood orange slices as the candied garnish. I actually think it's rather lovely because of the bright colour contrast, but if you have plenty of blood oranges then feel free to substitute blood orange into the curd as well, I'm sure it will be amazing.

There are four separate parts to make for this tart, but they are all quite straight forward so it's not too hard and it doesn't actually take too long. It's also conveniently no-bake, so just pop it in the fridge once you're done and it's ready to go. You could also make this in a round cake tin as a cheesecake, but I would recommend doubling everything and probably tripling the cheesecake filling.

Blood Orange Curd Vegan Cheesecake Tart

Ingredients
250g light digestive biscuits (or other plain vegan biscuits)
2 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup nuttelex (or other vegan margarine), melted
150g vegan cream cheese
2 tbsp marmalade
2 blood oranges
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Vegan Orange Curd
Zest of 1 orange (hint: zest before juicing!)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice (should be about 1 naval orange)
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 heaped tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric (just for colour, if you make with blood oranges then leave this out)

To Make:
1. Process the biscuits in a food processor until they become crumbs. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the zest, cinnamon and melted margarine. Mix well.
2. Lightly grease your tart tin and then tip the biscuit crumbs in. Use your fingers to firmly press it up onto the sides of the tin to create an even later. Then spread out the remaining crumbs over the base and press down firmly with your fingers to create an even base.
3. In a bowl, whisk or beat together the vegan cream cheese and the marmalade. Spread evenly over the biscuit base.
4. Now set that aside and make the curd: Combine all the curd ingredients in a small saucepan and whisk well to combine. The cornstarch will be lumpy at first, but if you keep whisking the lumps with go (it's ok if there are just a few remaining, they'll cook out). If you want to avoid all that whisking then I guess you could use a blender.
5. Place the small saucepan over a medium heat. Whisking constantly, heat it for about 2 minutes - or until the contents of the pan are hot but not simmering or boiling (if it starts to simmer, reduce the heat immediately!). Once hot, reduce the heat and continue stirring for another 3-5 minutes. The curd will thicken suddenly quite a lot. Once this happens remove from the heat (still stirring) and pour straight onto the cream cheese layer. Use a knife to spread it out and smooth it over the top.
6. Heat the cup of sugar and the cup of water in a saucepan until dissolved. Thinly slice the whole blood oranges and simmer the slices in the syrup for about 5 minutes (you may need to do this in batches). Use these slices to decorate the top of the tart and then drizzle about 1-2 tbsp of the syrup over the top.
7. Place in the fridge for at least half an hour before serving.

This post is part of the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. I haven't participated for a while in the SABH, so I thought I should get back in the swing. This month's theme is 'Cheese' desserts, which I'm sure will have some interesting submissions! You can check out the other entries below.

Chilli Grapefruit & Orange Salad

I'm growing to love fresh juicy and tangy citrus in savoury salads! It's not something I've ever done much of before, but one of the wonderful things about exploring foods from all over the world is that I'm discovering and trying new things constantly. Last month I made a sensational Orange & Olive Salad with Cumin for Egyptian food month. I fell so much in love with that salad that I jumped at the chance to make another citrus filled salad this month for Nepal. It was delicious - and a perfect fresh accompaniment to all the spicy dishes and curries from this month.

Chilli Grapefruit & Orange Salad

Ingredients
2 ruby grapefruits
3 oranges
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh chopped coriander
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 cup plain [vegan] yoghourt

To Make
1. Peel the grapefruits and oranges and slice into segments. Reserve in a small bowl any juice that comes out onto your chopping board as you slice them.
2. Combine the grapefruit, orange, chilli and coriander in a bowl and toss to combine. Mix the sugar, turmeric and salt with the reserved citrus juices together in the bowl and add to the salad.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and toast the fenugreek seeds until just browned. Add to the salad and toss well.
4. Serve with a dollop of yoghourt and fresh coriander to garnish.

Serves 4.

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

Check out my other Nepali/Nepalese recipe posts:

Tomato Achar

Aloo Roti (Potato Roti)

Semolina Halva

Vegetable Momo with Chilli Sesame Dipping Sauce

Saag Tarkari

Sesame Chilli Fried Potatoes

Egyptian Orange Olive Salad with Cumin

I love trying new salads, and with spring well and truly here now it's the perfect time to be experimenting with them. I found this beautiful salad on (shifty eyes) wikirecipes. I know, it's not the most reliable source of information. But it was listed with the Egyptian recipes and even though I really wasn't sure if it was authentic at all, I thought it sounded delicious so I decided to make it  anyway - maybe an Egyptian reader can tell me whether it is the kind of thing that Egyptians would actually eat :)

In the end though, it didn't matter if it was authentic or not because it was really, really tasty and I will definitely make this again. It is a fresh and light salad which makes a perfect accompaniment to heavier, carby-er main dishes.

This Orange & Olive Salad is flavoured with ground cumin - which is not an exotic spice but it's not something I normally put in salads in ground form (I often do use toasted cumin seeds in salads which is delicious!), so it was nice to learn a new use for this incredible spice.

Cumin
Cumin is a cooks best friend, it has amazing flavour and enhances any curries, soups, casseroles and salads you could dream to put them in. It is believed to be indingenous to the middle east and has a strong history in Egypt.  Cumin seeds have been found in the pyramids of the pharoahs, they were used by Egyptians in their mummifying process. There is also references in the Old and New Testaments of the bible to cumin. In ancient Rome, cumin was a symbol of greed and the miserly emperor Marcus Aurelius was nicknamed "Cuminus".

Reference: Hemphill, 2006

For my month of spices I'm using Spice Notes and Recipes by Ian Hemphill as my reference tool to learn about spices and for all the information above. Thanks Ian for writing such a great and informative book! 

Orange and Olive Salad with Cumin

Ingredients
8 navel oranges, sliced and with skin and pith sliced off
1/2 cup halved marinated black olives
1 small Spanish onion, peeled and sliced
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and cracked black pepper to taste

To Make
1. Combine the orange slices, olives and onion in a salad bowl.
2. Mix the lemon juice, cumin, olive oil, salt and pepper in a jar and shake well.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad and allow to sit for 20 minutes to let the flavour meld. Serve at room temperature.

Serves 6-8 as a side salad.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Egypt.

Check out my other Egyptian recipe posts:

Preserved Lemons

Limoonada (Egyptian Lemonade)

Mesa'a'ah (Spicy Eggplant)

'Ancient Egyptian Peasant' Beer Onions

Creamy Tahini Sauce

Ful Medames

Khoshaf

Egyptian Limoonada (Orange Blossom Lemonade)

The second of my Egyptian Food Month recipes stays with the "lemons" theme :) A couple of days ago I posted my Preserved Lemons (yum!!) and now here is some absolutely fantastic Egyptian Lemonade. This is a bit different to traditional lemonade, it's mostly lemons and has very little sugar. This means it isn't very sweet and it's very lemony! It is smoothed out with delicious orange blossom water and fresh mint but it's actually not meant to be served as it. Because it's so lemony, it is served with only a bit on the bottom of the glass on ice and then topped up with soda water. This small jug of limoonada plus two bottles of soda water kept 8 people very well watered for a whole evening - so a little bit can go a long way! I, personally, much prefer this to the sugary sweet lemonades which I'm more used to. 

Egyptian Limoonada

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup boiling hot water

10 lemons

2 tsp orange blossom water

1/2 bunch mint, roughly torn

Ice & soda water, to serve

To Make

1. Dissolve the sugar in the boiling hot water and set aside to cool.

2. Juice the lemons and tip into a jug. Add the sugar and orange blossom water and stir well. Chill until ready to serve.

3. When ready to serve, stir through the mint.

4. Pour a small amount over ice in a glass and top up with soda water. Enjoy!

If you'd like to make this a bit more adult you can add a splash of vodka, gin or white rum.

I've submitted this recipe to the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck - click here to see the other entries.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Egypt.

Check out my other Egyptian recipe posts:

Preserved Lemons

Mesa'a'ah (Spicy Eggplant)

Orange and Olive Salad with Cumin

'Ancient Egyptian Peasant' Beer Onions

Creamy Tahini Sauce

Ful Medames

Khoshaf

Lemon and Orange Vegan Cupcakes

Sunny citrus cupcakes always brighten my day in winter. Mid July is windy, rainy and miserable in the Blue Mountains in general - so if you're living somewhere equally cold then I recommend light and fluffy citrus cupcakes to warm you from the inside! As this post goes live I'll be exploring castles in Denmark, and since it's summer over there it shouldn't be cold, rainy or miserable! But I'm thinking of you all back home in the cold (suckers!) so have some sunny cupcakes :)

Ingredients:

The Cupcakes:

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil

1/2 cups of oat milk (or other non dairy milk)

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

The zest from 1/2 an orange and 1/2 a lemon (TIP: do this before you juice it!)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp orange extract

1 1/3 cup of plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

The Icing:

1/2 cup nuttelex (or other vegan margarine)

2 2/3 cups soft icing mixture

2 tsp lemon juice

The rest of the zest from the other half of the orange and the lemon

To Make:

1. Preheat the oven to a moderate (about 180 degrees C) temperature.

2. Combine sugar, oil, oat milk, orange and lemon juice, zest, vanilla and orange extract in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.

3. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly with a whisk again to combine.

4. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way bake for 22 minutes, at which point a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Remove from the oven and cool completely before icing.
5. Mix the nuttelex, lemon juice, zest and icing mixture together in a bowl using either an electric mixer or a knife and some good old elbow grease (nice workout).

6. Once the cupcakes are cool, pipe the icing on in a spiral generously on the top of the cakes and decorate with sugar flowers if you like.

Makes 12 cupcakes, and enough icing to ice generously.

Koko Rice (Samoan Chocolate Orange Rice Pudding)

I've been a little bit slack getting the posts up this month, so now at the end of the month I find myself with a whole bunch of Samoan recipes to post! So, over the next couple of days prepare to see quite a few posts while I try and fit them all in. This one is simple, luscious, rich and chocolatey - and what more could you want?

It's a rice dish called Koko Rice. It would traditionally be made with Samoan Koko, which reportedly is quite rich and without any bitterness. They use it in Samoa to make drinking chocolate and this delicious rice dish. Without this special ingredient available to me, I opted for real dark chocolate instead. Traditional versions also use orange leaves to give an orangey flavour to the rice, but not having any of those either I've used strips of orange peel to give it the orange flavour (and it worked very well!).

Koko Rice

Adapted from Saolelei and Global Table Adventure

Ingredients

1 cup dry rice

1 long piece of fresh orange peel (just use your potato peeler to peel off a good strip)

4 cups water

1 x 400ml can of coconut cream

1/2 cup sugar

100g chopped dark chocolate

To Make

1. Place rice, orange peel and water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.

2. Once boiling, reduce heat to as low as it will go and cover with a lid. Let it simmer for 20 minutes, or until rice is completely cooked and it looks nice and thick.

3. Add the coconut cream, sugar and chopped chocolate. Keep over a low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate is completely melted. Once the chocolate is melted, it is ready to serve.

Serves 6. 

~NOTE: Traditionally this would be served hot, but it was also quite nice cold. We had plenty of leftovers which we ate cold or heated up briefly in the microwave. If you do store leftovers, it will thicken a lot as it cools and end up looking more like the pictures in this post. If you eat it hot straight off the stove then it will be a bit runnier than in these pictures.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Samoa.

Check out my other recipe posts:

Paifala (Pineapple Turnovers)

Creamy Coconut Rice (Alaisa Fa'apopo)

Coconut Bread Rolls

Sweet Potato in Creamy Coconut Sauce

Sapasui (Chop Suey)

Orange & Passion Fruit Pudding (only 5 ingredients!)

It's simple desserts like this which fill me with joy. This vibrant orange pudding only contains 5 ingredients (actually technically only 4 because two of the ingredients come from the same oranges...) and is very easy to make (as long as you don't take your eye off it when it's cooking!) This recipe is part of Costa Rican Food month, which kicked off a couple of days ago with the very special Resbaladera (Rice and Barley Milk Drink). I had to post this recipe next because it was one of my absolute favourites!

The reason it is part of Costa Rican food month, is because I have based this recipe on a Costa Rican dish - Atol de Naranja. An atole/atol is a Central/South American dish which is thickened with either cornstarch or hominy grits. It is often consumed as a hot drink, however I decided to make mine a cold dessert pudding instead. I've also added a tropical touch with the gorgeous fresh passion fruit on top which really took this simple dessert to a whole new level!

So- with all the changes is it actually an authentic Costa Rican dish? I have no idea! Maybe a Costa Rican can tell me. What I can tell you is that this dessert is spectacular. So just make it :)

Ingredients
3 cups fresh orange juice (should be about 3-4 oranges worth)
1 tbsp orange zest (tip: zest orange before juicing)
1 cup cornstarch
2 cups brown sugar
4 passion fruits

To Make
1. Place the orange zest and 1/2 cup of the orange juice in a saucepan.
2. Add the cornstarch and stir well until completely dissolved and with no lumps.
3. Gradually stir in the remaining orange juice and the sugar.
4. Place the saucepan over a medium to low heat and stir continuously while you slowly heat it through.
5. As the pudding heats it will begin to thicken, stir continuously to prevent lumps forming. Heat until the pudding is thickened (this should take about 10 minutes, but may take less or more time depending on how hot your stove is).
6. Once the pudding is thick transfer immediately into 8 individual serving bowls (or glasses). Place in the fridge and chill for a couple of hours until completely cold.
7. Top each serving with the pulp of 1/2 a passion fruit and serve.

Serves 8 (note: makes fairly 'modest' servings, if you want large servings you can use this recipe to serve 4-6 people with larger serves).

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Costa Rica.

Check out my other recipe posts:

Resbaladera (Rice & Barley Milk Drink)

Paprika de Papa (Paprika Fried Potatoes)

Chayote con Maiz (Chokoes and Corn)

Home Made Salsa Lizano 

Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding)

Gallo Pinto (Beans and Rice)

Hearts of Palm Salad with Lime Coriander Dressing

Mushroom Ceviche

I've also been nominated in 2 categories in the 'The Homies' blog awards for 2013. It's an annual award run by The Kitchn, and it's a bit of a popularity contest - so your support would mean more to me than I could possibly express!

If you enjoy my recipes or my photos then please take a moment to hop into The Kitchn using the links below, if you think I'm worthy, that is :)

To vote follow these steps

1. Create an account an in order to vote here or if you already have an account simply login to vote.

2. Vote for Gormandize with A-dizzle & K-bobo here for the Best Food Photography on a blog category or vote for Gormandize with A-dizzle and K-bobo here for the Best Recipe Blog category.

Thanks for all your support over the years and I hope you enjoy perusing my blog and trying my recipes!