Lumpiang Hubad

 

 

You might have noticed a lot of lumpia on the blog this month - here is another! Lumpia are Filipino spring rolls and they come in all varieties. I've already shared fresh (lumpiang sariwa) and gorgeous fried (lumpiang prito) spring rolls, you can find links to those recipes at the bottom of this post. Lumpiang hubad is essentially the filling of the rolls and the sauce, but without wrapping them up into rolls. Same great flavours, but a 'lazy' version which doesn't involve taking the time to roll them. The peanut sauce all over it is just delicious.

 

I've chopped my veggies bigger than I did when making the lumpiang sariwa and prito, because I knew I wouldn't be rolling it up. You can also just make a double batch of lumpiang filling and use half for rolls and half with peanut sauce like this for another meal.

 

 

Lumpiang Hubad

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced
400g hard tofu cut into cubes
1 cup sweet potato cut into cubes
1 large carrot, cubed
1 cup chopped celery
2 tsp vegan fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup sliced green beans
1 cup cabbage
Shallots, for garnish

For the peanut sauce:
2 cups water
1/8 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup finely chopped peanuts
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 tbsp cornstarch

To make:
1. Heat oil in a large frypan or wok and add the onion and garlic. Sauté until translucent and then add the tofu and sweet potato. Cook for about 3 minutes and then add the carrots, celery and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring often.
2. Add the fish sauce and soy sauce. Once the carrot is tender, turn off the heat and stir through the green beans and cabbage. The residual heat will cook them just enough. 
3. Set the filling aside to cool a little, it can be warm but not hot when you wrap up the rolls.
4. To make the sauce: Combine 1 1/2 cups water, soy sauce, brown sugar and salt in a saucepan over a medium heat. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Once all the sugar is dissolved add the peanuts and garlic and simmer for 3-4 minutes. In a cup, combine the remaining 1/2 cup water with the cornstarch and stir until smooth. 
5. Stirring the sauce continually, add in the cornstarch. Stir continuously over a low heat until the mixture thickens up a bit. Remove from the heat. 
7. Arrange lumping hubad in a bowl and pour the peanut sauce over the top. Garnish with chopped shallots.

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

Lumpiang Prito with Vinegar Dipping Sauce

Pancit Canton

 



Chakalaka (South African)

It's been quiet on the blog because lately a lot of life has been happening instead, I've got so many wonderful things on and some great things that I'm working towards at the moment. But I do have a file full of photos and recipes to share with you, and I'll do my best to get as many of them up as I can.

I'm going to be taking the next couple of months off my world food challenge, because I've got a bit too much else happening. But I have quite a few recipes left over from South Africa month (last month) which I didn't get a chance to share, so I'll post them and you'll still get your fix of world food on Gormandize.

Today I'll give you a fun but simple dish. The fun is really in saying the name - chakalaka! But also the dish is delicious. It would traditionally be packed full of capsicum, but as capsicum makes me sick I hope I'll be excused for making mine without. I've added a grated zucchini in their place, which was really delicious. If you'd like to try it with, add one green and one red at the same time you add the chillis.

South African Chakalaka

Ingredients
2 large onions, chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 Serrano chillis
4 cloves garlic, crushed
3 carrots, grated
1 large zucchini, grated
2 tsp curry powder
5 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp. tomato paste
1 can baked beans
1 tsp. paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

To Make
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onions. Cook until just starting to brown and then add the chillis, garlic and curry powder and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes or so.
2. Add the carrot and zucchini and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add the tomatoes and reduce the heat. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes (if you tomatoes weren't very juicy, you may need to add a little water to stop it sticking).
4. Once the tomatoes are cooked down and the vegetables are cooked, add the tomato paste, baked beans, paprika and salt and pepper to taste and let simmer for a further 5 minutes. The end result should be thick and saucy, if it is watery, cook down for longer until it reduces.

Serve hot on toast, with rice or as a side dish. Or serve cold as a relish on burgers, wraps or anything you like.

I've entered this dish in the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.

This month I'm featuring recipes from South Africa.

Check out my other South African recipe posts:

Vegan Milk Tart

South African Tomato Chutney

Soetkoekies

Panamanian Black Eyed Beans

Hearty bean dishes are perfect for winter evening meals and even though this winter in Sydney has been very mild and sunny, it still has that evening chill which makes me crave slow cooked nourishing foods (and chocolate.....). It's a recipe from Panama month which I didn't get a chance to share with you then because I doubled the amount of work I was doing at the clinic (no time for blogging!), but now I have a moment to bring this one to you.

It's a bit of an unusual recipe, I found I on bluejellybeans.wordpress.com and adapted it to have at our Panamanian dinner party. It's got an odd mixture of flavours - bay leaves, chilli, cumin, fresh coriander and ..... red wine! Not usually what I put with those spices but my goodness it really worked. Everyone who tried these beans commented on how particularly delicious they are, so I recommend them for your next potluck!

Panamanian Black Eyed Beans

Ingredients
500g dried black eyed bean, soaked for 48 hours
1 onion, halved
2 bay leaves
1 Serrano chilli
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2/3 cup olive oil
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
1/3 cup chopped fresh coriander (or to taste)
1/2 cup red wine
Salt and pepper, to taste

To Make
1. Soak the beans for 48 hours and then drain and rinse. Place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Add the bay leaves and half of the onion and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the beans are just tender. Drain and set aside
2. Finely chop the other half of the onion and the serrano chilli. Heat the olive oil in your large saucepan and sauté the onion, garlic and chilli until the onion is translucent. Add the coriander, cumin and oregano and cook for 2 more minutes.
3. Add the drained beans, red wine and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer for another 20 minutes. Serve sprinkled with some extra chopped coriander. 

This month I'm featuring recipes from Panama.

Check out my other Panamanian recipe posts:

Panamanian Empanadas

Sweet Corn Cake with Lemon Glaze

Bollos de Mazorca

I've entered this dish in the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.

Georgian Lobiani (Kidney Bean Bread)

Since in my last post I was chatting away about Georgia and Eurovision, let's chat about it some more. Since now Eurovision 2014 has been broadcast live around the world from the beautiful city of Copenhagen. Sadly, Georgia's entry this year was a little bit too 'unusual' to do very well, and didn't even make it through to the finals. They've never had an entry as their first every entry (Sopho! I loved her!), so we don't need to talk about their entry. But I will mention this year's winner, Conchitta Wurst, because I'm so happy for her right now. Here she is:

I think she is absolutely beautiful, what a stunner! She took Eurovision by storm with her Bond-style ballad "Rise Like a Phoenix". Her inclusion was somewhat controversial, as it was heavily opposed by conservatives Russia, Armerna and Belarus. But she took every piece of criticism and vitriol with elegance and good grace and behaved so much better than all those who abused her. Wonderfully, so many other countries in Europe rallied around to support her, giving her a clear win on the night. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily the best song of the night, but further proof that the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 is not really about the songs, but about the politics and it was wonderful to see most of Europe rally around and show their support for this exquisite 'gender neutral' drag queen. 

Congratulations Conchitta on your amazing win and I'm looking forward to seeing you again in Vienna in 2015. 

Enough about Eurovision until next year, when I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again about it :) 

Continuing in the Georgian theme, here is another delicious dish - also featuring kidney beans! It's a pan fried flatbread filled with kidney beans, but really has the potential to be filled with whatever you like. My partner keeps asking me to make him one filled with "pizza" (i.e. tomato paste, pizza toppings and gooey cheese). It really does have a lot of potential.

Georgian Lobiani (Kidney Bean Bread)

Ingredients

1 cup kidney beans, soaked for 48 hours

3 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp vegan margarine

500g plain flour

14g dried yeast

1/4 tsp salt

200ml warm water

To Make

1. Drain the soaked beans, place in a saucepan and cover with plenty of water and the bay leaves. Boil for 45-60 minutes, or until cooked through. When cooked remove the bay leaves and then drain and transfer to a bowl. While still hot add the crushed garlic and the margarine. Mash up until it has the consistency of mashed potatoes. I left my beans a little chunky but you can make them as smooth as you like.

2. Mix the yeast with the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes, until frothy. Combine 400g flour, salt and yeast mixture in a bowl. Mix by hand until you form a smooth dough, you may need to add more flour if it is too sticky (it shouldn't be sticking to your hands as you knead) or more water if it is too dry (not able to come together in a smooth ball). Place in an oiled mixing bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour to rise. 

3. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining 100g flour. Knead until you have a firm dough. Divide into 2 equal parts and form each into a ball. Flatten each ball out with your fingers (or a rolling pin) to make a 1cm thick circular disk. 

4. Place half of the bean mixture in the middle of each disk. Wrap the edges of the dough around the bean mix and pinch the edges together to seal it in (be careful not to trap any air inside as you do this). Gently flatten out the ball of dough, spreading the bean mixture inside as you do so. You'll end up with two flat disks 2-3cm thick.

5. Gently score the top of each one with a knife. Heat a non stick pan on a medium heat and cook each lobiani for 5-7 minutes on each side, they should be just slightly golden but still pale. Remove from the pan and brush immediately with a little vegan margarine. Serve immediately. Allowing them to cool down and then reheating them can cause them to go very hard and crunchy (which isn't always a bad thing, but not what you're going for!).

Makes 2.

This month I'm featuring recipes from Georgia.

Check out my other Georgian recipe posts:

Lobio (Kidney Bean Salad)

Nigvzis Torti (Walnut Raisin Torte)

Oyster Mushroom & Rice Pastries

I entered this dish into the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.

Lobio (Georgian Kidney Bean Salad)

I've had a strange fascination with Georgia for some time. Why strange? Because really I don't know anything about the country at all! But, in 2007 they entered Eurovision for the first time with this incredible song (watch it!) by Sopho. I love the Eurovision meets Bjork style, I loved her stunning red dress (which continues it's detail on her back and arm!) and, hey, you can't go wrong when there are men dancing with swords. I loved this song so much that I immediately decided that I loved Georgia and wanted to go there. Such is the powder of Eurovision! So, Georgia has a special place in my heart - even though I know next to nothing about it except that the capital Tbilisi. Sadly, I haven't yet had the chance to travel there to find out more, but recently I got an email from a reader requesting Georgia as a featured country on my world food challenge. I couldn't have been happier, in fact I was so excited by the idea that I moved it up the list in front of some other countries which had been requested earlier (sorry, other countries but the heart wants what the heart wants!).

Just in case you've never heard of this tiny country, here is what it looks like:



So what did I learn about Georgia? Well, one thing was that finding vegetarian dishes was a piece of cake, there was loads of them. So I had a really fun and easy time putting together a savoury menu for Georgia and it was all really delicious. The sweets I found harder, I only found one or two at all on the internet so had a much more limited sweets menu. I'd love to hear from some Georgians if you have a wonderful traditional dessert that I missed!

I also learned that the cornerstone of many of their dishes was walnuts! There were walnuts in everything, sweet and savoury! There also seems to be a lot of kidney beans in the savoury dishes, so I ate my fair share of them this month.

This first recipe I'm sharing with you brings both of those ingredients together, it's a typical Georgian salad called Lobio. It makes a great cold weather salad as well as warm weather, because of the lovely cooked beans and the warming hint of chilli. It's perfect for a potluck but is also great spooned into a salad wrap or piled on your veggie burger, it's just very versatile and a great source of protein.

Lobio (Georgian Kidney Bean Salad)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups dried kidney beans, soaked for 48 hours and drained
1/2 Spanish onion, finely diced
1 jalapeño chilli, finely minced (you can remove the insides if you want it milder)
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh coriander
1/3 cup walnuts, broken into small pieces
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

To Make
1. Place the kidney beans in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the beans are just tender. Once cooked, drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside to cool and dry out.
2. While the beans are drying you can prepare all your other ingredients. Combine the Spanish onion, chilli, garlic, coriander, walnuts and kidney beans in a bowl.
3. Place the vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper in a jar, put the lid on and shake until well combined. Pour this dressing over the bean salad and stir well to combine. Adjust seasoning to taste (add more salt, pepper, coriander or garlic to taste).
4. Serve garnished with walnuts and fresh coriander (optional).

Serves 4-6.

This month I'm featuring recipes from Georgia.

Check out my other Georgian recipe posts:

Lobiani (Kidney Bean Bread)

Nigvzis Torti (Walnut Raisin Torte)

Oyster Mushroom & Rice Pastries

Brazilian Black Eyed Bean Acaraje

These delicious black eyed bean acaraje from Brazil seem almost too simple to be as good as they are. You soak beans, blend them, add a couple of spices and fry them. Too good to be true? No! It's true and it's oh so good! You can make these with any kind of beans you like, just make sure you use dried beans and soak them for 24 hours before hand. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these are very much like a Brazilian style felafel. The flavour is simple but makes you want to go back for another one! I recommend serving with a garlic mayonnaise sauce or maybe a tahini sauce (not that it's very Brazilian, but it would be delicious). Now you've got a base recipe, you can also experiment with different herbs and spices and make your own special version. Wrap up with salad and mayo or hummus in a wrap for a super special packed lunch.

These can be made a bit ahead of time and kept warm in the oven until you're ready to serve them. They stay beautifully crunchy, and are a great thing to serve up to people.

Brazilian Black Eyed Bean Acaraje

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups black eyed beans

1 small onion

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegetable oil, for frying

To Make

1. Place the beans in a bowl and cover with cold water. Soak for 24 hours then drain and rinse. 

2. Spread the beans out on a bench or board and gently rub with a tea towel or paper towel to dry. Then leave them to air dry for about 30 minutes.

3. Place the onion in a food processor and pulse until roughty chopped. Add the soaked beans and the spices and process unto a coarse paste.

4. Heat plenty of vegetable oil in a frying pan or wok. 

5. When the oil is hot, use 2 dessert spoons to press spoonfuls of the mixture into neat little quenelle shapes. Drop straight into the oil and dry for about 30 seconds or until just golden. If you are shallow frying, you'll need to turn them over and cook on both sides.

6. Remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper to remove any excess oil. Do this until you've used up all the bean mix. Keep warm in the oven until you're ready to eat them.

Serve with garlic mayonnaise or creamy tahini sauce. 

Also part of the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.

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)

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

Chocolate Coconut Kisses

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

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

Ful Medames (Egyptian Mashed Broad Beans)

This delicious dish of mashed up broad beans is considered by some to be the national dish of Egypt. Interestingly, it is eaten for breakfast. Breaking with it's traditional time of consumption, I served mine as an appetiser at a dinner party like a dip. It also makes a great side veggie dish though. It's easy to make and very tasty - you can even make most of it the day before and then just reheat it and mash it up when you want to serve it.

Ful Medames

Ingredients
600g frozen, fresh or canned broad beans (fava beans)
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more or less, to taste)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup vegetable stock or water
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

To Make
1. If using frozen broad beans, thaw. If using canned, drain. You can peel them if you don't like the chewy skins in there, but I like them so I didn't.
2. Put the broad beans, garlic, spices, lemon juice and vegetables stock in a saucepan, cover and simmer until broad beans are soft and cooked and the water is mostly gone, about 20 minutes.
3. Season with salt and pepper and then mash roughly with a fork or potato masher (if you'd prefer it smooth you could use a food processor), so that there are still big chunks of bean in it.
4. Drizzle with olive oil. Serve with pita bread, tahini sauce, fresh lemon wedges and, if you like, preserved or pickled chillis.

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)

Orange and Olive Salad with Cumin

'Ancient Egyptian Peasant' Beer Onions

Creamy Tahini Sauce

Khoshaf

Naked Babies in the Grass Recipe (Naakte Kindertjes in Het Gras)

Have you ever come across a dish with a cuter name? If you have I want you to tell me about it in the comments! This Dutch dish is called Naakte Kindertjes in Het Gras - which translates as Naked Babies in the Grass. I'll admit, the adorable name is the main reason I decided to feature this dish. It's a simple but satisfying dish, well suited to being a side dish or an addition to a buffet or potluck. You can see where it gets it's name right? The little white beans are like tiny babies nestled amongst very tall grass.

You can make this dish using any small white beans, such as navy, great northern or cannelini beans. I guess if you wanted to make it with lima beans you could call it Fat Naked Babies in the Grass! What I'm putting up here are some rough quantities, as you don't really need to follow the recipe too closely. I made a fairly big quantity as I was serving it up at a dinner party, so you'll probably want to halve it to make a side dish for a family of four. Use whatever quantities you like!

Now tell me - what is the most adorably named dish you have ever come across??

Ingredients
300g dried white beans, soaked for 24 hours
500g green beans, trimmed and cut in half
2 tbsp vegan margarine (Nuttelex)
Salt and Pepper to taste

To Make
1. Soak the white beans for 24 hours and then drain and rinse. Place in a large pot and cover with plenty of water. Bring to a boil and boil until cooked (times may vary between different types of beans - but I used cannelini beans and it took about 50 minutes).
2. In the last 10 minutes of cooking add the green beans so that they'll be just tender but still a bit crunchy.
3. While they're cooking. Heat up your serving bowl with some boiling hot water.
4. Drain the beans and tip the water out of your serving bowl.
5. Add the hot beans, Nuttelex and generous amounts of salt and pepper to the warm bowl and toss it all together. Serve straight away (if you have to make it it advance, make sure you heat it up before serving to make sure the Nuttelex is properly melted).

Serves 8-12 as a side dish.

I entered this dish into the Vegan Virtual Linky Potluck.

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

Check out my other Dutch recipe posts:

Lazybones Buns (Luilakbollen)

Speculaas (Spice Biscuits)

Hollandse Stroopkoek (Syrup & Beer Cake)

Gevulde Speculaas

Gallo Pinto (Costa Rican Beans and Rice)

Gallo Pinto - the classic dish of beans and rice which is apparently eaten pretty much all the time in Costa Rica. It's a popular breakfast, but also an accompaniment to any other meal during the day. It's the dish that comes up again and again and again when you search for Costa Rican food or ask people about what they eat/ate in Costa Rica. So here is it. And you know what - it's delicious! I thought it would be a bit basic, but actually it's very flavourful and stands up by itself as a dish as well as a side dish. It would be great to bring to a gathering because it compliments other dishes so well.

Gallo Pinto is traditionally made using Salsa Lizano. If you can get this where you live then great! I can't so I used my own home made salsa lizano. You can make some following my recipe, but if you don't want to then I've included a second version in which you can make a simple paste which will hopefully replicate the flavour of the salsa lizano. A lot of recipes substitute Worcestershire sauce for salsa lizano: I'm not sure that would have the same flavour, but it might be nice.

Gallo Pinto

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1 cup cooked black beans (or 1 x 400ml tin of black beans, drained and rinsed)
4 tbsp salsa lizano (see note below)
Cracked pepper and fresh coriander to taste, for garnish

Note: you can make your own salsa lizano style sauce using my recipe here. If you don't want to then you can try this to replicate some of the basic flavours: In a small bowl mix together 1 tsp finely chopped green chilli, 3 tbsp water, 1/2 tsp blackstrap molasses, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp white vinegar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1/8 tsp ground cumin, 1/8 tsp turmeric, 1/8 tsp celery seeds and 1/2 tsp sugar. Use this mix in place of the salsa lizano.

To Make
1. Place rice in a large saucepan and cover with plenty of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Drain and rinse rice and set aside.
2. In a large saucepan or a wok heat the vegetable oil. Sauté the onion, garlic and coriander until the onion is soft and transparent.
3. Add the beans and the salsa lizano and fry for a further 3 minutes, or until fragrant.
4. Add the cooked rice and stir through. Cook for a further 4-5 minutes, or until rice is heated through and coated in salsa.

Serve with fresh coriander, cracked pepper and more salsa lizano to taste.

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

Check out my other recipe posts:

Resbaladera (Rice & Barley Milk Drink)

Orange & Passion Fruit Pudding (Atol de Naranja)

Paprika de Papa (Paprika Fried Potatoes)

Chayote con Maiz (Chokoes and Corn)

Home Made Salsa Lizano 

Arroz con Leche (Rice Pudding)

Hearts of Palm Salad with Lime Coriander Dressing

Mushroom Ceviche

Mushroom and Bean Vegan Jambalaya

A month of American food wouldn't be complete without my favourite American dish - jambalaya, a Louisiana speciality. Discovering this delicious dish essentially made me want to go to Louisiana! This jambalaya uses field mushrooms and vegetarian sausages instead of the traditional meat. Traditional jambalaya is also laden with green capsicum, however, I've left this out because it makes me sick - but if you are partial to a bit of green capsicum feel free to add it in, although I don't think it needs it!!

I've also made this recipe using brown rice instead of white, it was also fantastic. You just need to increase the amount of water by about 2 cups and increase the cooking time by at least 20 minutes. 

Ingredients

5 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 field mushrooms, washed and chopped in large chunks

3 vegetarian sausages, chopped

1 celery stick, chopped

1/2 cup dry sherry

4 tbsp tomato paste

2 cups basmati rice

6 cups vegetable broth

1 tin diced tomatoes

2 bay leaves

4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

2 tsp dried marjoram

1 tsp sweet paprika

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tin cannelini beans, drained and rinsed

1 tin Kidney beans, drained and rinsed

(More hot water, as required)

To Make

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan or soup pot. Sauté the onions and celery for 2-3 mins. Add the mushrooms and veggie sausages and sauté until the veggies are cooked.

2. At this stage you'll notice the bottom of the pan is getting all brownish from frying the veggies. So - deglaze the pan by adding the sherry (you'll notice all the browny bits come right off the bottom and make your dish a lovely rich colour). Add the tomato paste as well and heat through.

3. Add the uncooked rice and cook, stirring constantly, for about 3-4 minutes. Add the vegetable stock, tinned tomatoes, bay leaves and all herbs and spices. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring very frequently for about 30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked through, you may need to add more water as you are going to stop the rice sticking onto the bottom depending on how thirsty your rice is.

4. When the rice is almost cooked stir the tinned beans through. When the rice is fully cooked serve.

Serves 4.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Southern USA!

Check out my other recipe posts:

Mint Julep

Peach and Bourbon Cobbler

Vegan Chili Pone (Chili Cornbread Casserole)

Succotash

Pecan & Molasses Pie with Spiced Pumpkin Whipped Cream

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Vegan "Fried Chicken" and Waffles

Home Made Smoky BBQ Sauce

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

Succotash (American Beans and Corn)

I'm actually finding it quite challenging to fit all my Southern USA posts and my Xmas posts in at the moment, especially because I'm also busy getting everything ready for Xmas itself! But I've managed to find a few minutes to share another recipe with you from Southern USA. It's a deceptively simple one. You might look at it and think it'll be a bit ordinary, but you have to believe me when I say it is quite special. Simple - yes. Easy - yes. Healthy - yes. But also full of flavour!

Succotash

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
3 cobs fresh corn
2 x 400g cans lima or butter beans, drained and rinsed
1 jalapeño chilli (I used preserved ones from a jar, so they are slightly milder. If you use fresh, just use half)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
salt and pepper to taste

To Make
1. Heat oil in a large pot over a medium heat. Add the onion and saute for about 5 minutes, or until transulcent. Add the garlic and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes (including any juices) and cumin and cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Cut the corn kernels off the cob (reserve as much of the liquid that comes out if it as well). Add the corn (and any corn juices), beans, chopped jalapeño and vegetable stock.
4. Simmer, covered for about 10 minutes. Remove lid and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.

Serves 4

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Southern USA.
Check out my other recipe posts:

Mint Julep

Peach and Bourbon Cobbler

Vegan Chili Pone (Chili Cornbread Casserole)

Pecan & Molasses Pie with Spiced Pumpkin Whipped Cream

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Mushroom and Bean Jambalaya

Vegan "Fried Chicken" and Waffles

Home Made Smoky BBQ Sauce

Lawar Ayam (Indonesian Coconut and Bean Salad)

I secretly wish I could own all the cool cooking utensils which have very limited use. I'm not talking about electrical appliances - I have no desire for large electric stand mixers which take up heaps of bench or cupboard space. Nor do I covet the strange electrical appliances like pie makers, popcorn makers, egg cookers etc - because you don't really need those things, I can bake pies in the oven and I can make popcorn in a saucepan. If I ate eggs I would cook them in a pan. No, I'm not talking about appliances - I'm talking about utensils.

Here is an example - cannoli tubes. I'd LOVE to have some cannoli tubes - so I could make cannoli! But honestly, I wouldn't make cannoli very often and since they have such a specialised use I can only conclude that they would sit in my draw and never get used. I still want them though.

But why am I talking about this when there is a picture of bean salad at the top of this post? Good question. It's because I'm going to introduce you to a very specialised utensil that I bought on my recent trip to Sri Lanka, and I'm so glad that I did! It's a coconut grater. That's all it does, grate coconuts. It might seem excessive to have a utensil just for grating fresh coconut, after all I don't buy them that often. But, if you have ever tried to use a fresh coconut in your cooking before then you'll know what I'm talking about.

The first time I bought a fresh coconut it seemed like such a great idea - they were $1.99 each! I thought, "awesome - we can have lots of things with fresh coconut!". So, I bought it and brought it home - where it proved to be somewhat of a struggle. You might think that getting into the coconut is the hardest part - I admit, it was challenging. As we don't have a machete in our kitchen (mores the pity), we eventually managed to get it open with a hacksaw. But then the real challenge started: how do you get the flesh out?

I once read a recipe on the internet which said: "scoop the flesh out of the coconut". This is laughable, because if there is one thing that coconut flesh isn't - it's "scoopable". The flesh is hard and it very keen on staying attached to the outside shell. I ended up hacking away at it viciously with a knife, slightly dangerous. This yielded some randomly sized chunks of coconut flesh, but I made do with it. But then - the recipe said "grated coconut", so I wasn't finished battling with the coconut yet. My traditional grater was useless against it, it was too hard. In the end I tried it in my food processor, which worked slightly better but the pieces were still too hard for the processor to grate finely.

The whole experience really put me off using fresh coconut in cooking. I hung up my apron and declared "never again!".

Until.... during my trip to Sri Lanka in July of this year, we took a cooking class in Unawatuna. The first thing we did in the class was to grate up some coconut and make our own fresh coconut milk and coconut cream. She had an amazing contraption for grating her coconut which simply worked like a dream (she also showed us how to crack it open without a machete or a hack saw!). Here it is:

I bought one from her on the spot and, despite it looking like some sort of horrible torture device, didn't get any questions from customs on the way home to Sydney. So now fresh coconuts are no longer as daunting, which was lucky - because I found a lot of recipes during my research for Indonesia Month which called for fresh grated coconut. No problem, I thought, I've got it covered!

Grating coconuts with ease in Sri Lanka

This recipe uses fresh grated coconut, courtesy of my coconut grater. However, most kitchens don't contain such a contraption, so you may have to substitute. Fresh grated coconut can be bought in some Asian supermarkets, or you can substitute desiccated - however I recommend steaming it to put some of the moisture back in otherwise your dish will be too dry.

Lawar Ayam

Ingredients

200g green beans, trimmed

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 shallots, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 red chilli, minced

1 tsp red curry paste

3-4 tbsp water

1 cup fresh grated coconut (probably sub 1/2 cup desiccated, and steam to rehydrate)

Juice of 1 lime

Salt and pepper to taste

To Make

1. Cut the beans into 2 inch lengths and blanch in boiling water until just tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water until completely cold.

2. Heat the oil in a small frypan and add the shallots, garlic and chilli. Cook for about 4 minutes. Add the curry paste and water and simmer for about 2 minutes.

3. Remove the frypan from the heat and stir the coconut through. Combine this with the cooked green beans in a bowl and mix well. Finally, add the lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve at room temperature. Serves 2, or 4 as a side.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Indonesia!

Check out my other Indonesian recipe posts:

Gado Gado

Triple Threat Coconut Cake

Acar Kuning (Hot, Sour & Sweet Vegetables)

Lontong Paris 

Jus Alpukat (Avocado Milkshake)

Rujak (Spicy Fruit Salad)
Rendang Tofu

Meat-free Mashawa (Afghan Spicy Beans)

This month I am experimenting with recipes from Afghanistan. Every month on Gormadize, I take a country which was requested by a reader and I go on a quest to discover their traditional dishes and cooking methods. Of course, making everything vegan means that I can't always do things the traditional way, but I learn a lot of new things along the way.

I was really excited when an anonymous reader suggested Afghanistan, as I adore middle eastern food and any excuse to cook more of it if fine by me. I was also intrigued because most of the middle eastern food I have eaten has been either Lebanese, Turkish or Iranian. So Afghanistan was quite an unknown for me. I found some absolutely amazing looking recipes online - especially the sweets, oh my! I think that I could eat Afghan sweets forever, stay posted for some amazing recipes!

I'm starting off with a savoury dish. This is Mashawa, well a vegan version. It would traditionally be made with red meat and served with yoghourt. But I have to say I didn't feel that this vegan version needed anything! It was exceptional, and very easy to make. The main thing you have to remember is to soak the bean for 24 hours beforehand. You can also use canned beans in this recipe, however, if you do you will need to add them much later in the cooking process which means they won't absorb as much of the flavour.

Why Soak Beans for 24 hours?
Soaking dried beans is important for two reasons. Firstly it allows them to absorb a lot of the water they need before you put them in your cooking. This means they won't absorb all of the liquid that you put in your dish and leave you with a dry pot! Soaking them in cold water also means that they will absorb the liquid more evenly and are less likely to split open when cooked.

Secondly, it makes beans much easier for your system to digest. This is where the 24 hours comes in. Most recipes will recommend you to soak beans overnight. Some even claim you can take a shortcut by soaking them in warm water for a couple of hours. These methods will take care of the water absorption, mentioned above. The reason we need to leave them to soak for 24 hours is because after that amount of time they begin to start their germination process, not so much that they become sprouts, just enough to make them easier for you to digest. This will also make the beans much less likely to give you flatulence.

The the great thing about using dried soaked beans is that you cook them in with your dish, as opposed to tinned beans which are already cooked and get added in at the end of cooking. This means that dried beans absorb more of the tasty flavours of your dish. They'll taste better!

*Bean Soaking Tips*
~ Soak your beans in bulk as soon as you buy them. After soaking for 24 hours (or even a bit more) in cold water, drain them and put them in a ziplock bag. Get as much air out as you can and put the bag in the freezer. They are now ready to use as you need them.
~ Buying dried beans is much more cost effective than buying tinned beans. E.g. A can of tinned chickpeas costs about $1.5-$2, depending on the brand. They're about 400g which will give you about 1 1/2 cups of chickpeas. A bag of 375g dried chickpeas costs me $1.29. Once they are soaked they give about 5 cups of chickpeas.
~ If you are soaking your beans in hot weather it is advisable to leave them in the fridge. If the weather is cool then you can just leave them out on the bench.
~ If you use tinned beans it is important to rinse them first.
~ Buying tinned beans means you have no control over how long they have been soaked before they were cooked, which means they may be harder for you to digest and cause more flatulence

Afghan Mashawa

Adapted from Afghancooking.net

Ingredients 
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (more or less, depending on your preferred level of hot)
6 cups vegetable broth (or use vegetable based beef stock, such as Massel)
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup dried mung beans
2 cups pre-soaked kidney beans (or 1 can, drained and rinsed)
2 cups pre-soaked chickpeas (or 1 can, drained and rinsed)
2 tbsp dried or fresh dill

To Make:
1. Heat the oil in a large pot and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and salute for a further 2 minutes.
2. Add the dried coriander, pepper and chilli to the pot. Stir well and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add the tomato paste, vegetable stock and mung beans to the pot. Bring to the boil.
4. Lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the chickpeas and kidney beans and simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until the beans are cooked through. They will have absorbed a lot of the broth.
6. Add the dill and season to taste with salt (or soy sauce if you prefer). Simmer uncovered for another 8-10 minutes. Serve.

Serves 4, ideal with some crusty bread. Also perfect to bring to a potluck or family dinner.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Afghanistan!

Check out my other Afghan recipe posts:

Halwa e Zardak (Rose, Cardamom and Carrot Pudding)

Awb e Dundawn (Incredible Pistachio Biscuits)

Brides Fingers with Orange Blossom Syrup

Sweet Potato and Coriander Bolani 

Spiced Tofu Palau (Afghanistan's National Dish)