Delicious Kake Food

Tomato and mung bean sheet casserole (蕃茄粉皮煲).

Smacked cucumber salad (拍黃瓜).

Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.

I have been under the weather for the past week due to food poisoning, and I’m only just getting back to the point where I really feel like eating. Last night, bob made pork sausages, Marmite roast potatoes, steamed green beans, and anchovy gravy. Tonight I used the leftover sausages and anchovy gravy to make…

Puy lentil, spinach, and sausage stew. Cook Puy lentils in vegetable stock until done; meanwhile, fry sliced onions until nicely browned. Combine the cooked Puy lentils, the cooked onions, some frozen whole-leaf spinach, a sliced cooked sausage or two, and some anchovy gravy. Simmer down until the spinach is thawed and cooked, and the liquid is mostly gone.

You could serve this with bread or potatoes, but I just had it on its own.

Salmon and pepper stew. Chopped onion and sliced garlic, softened in olive oil; red peppers, chopped; canned chopped tomatoes; capers and green olives; balsamic vinegar and honey; cubed salmon fillet; fried chopped aubergine.

Served with vermicelli rice.

Fish and red pepper curry. Filleted and cubed red bream; sliced red peppers; finely-chopped onion; thickly-sliced garlic; hot curry paste; shrimp paste; tamarind paste; fish sauce; palm sugar.

Served with basmati rice.

Gnocchi with artichokes and olives. Cook gnocchi, drain, put on plate. Top with finely chopped artichoke hearts (from a can, rinsed and drained), a small handful of grated hard cheese (Parmesan is good, though not vegetarian), a dollop of black olive paste (or some finely-chopped black olives), a drizzle of olive oil, and plenty of freshly-ground black pepper.

Buffet lunch for various friends.

Roasted carrot pate.

Cucumber, edamame, and kelp salad. Scoop out and discard the seeds from a cucumber; cut the rest of it into chunks. Cook some edamame, take them out of the pods if they didn’t already come that way (I used frozen depodded ones). Mix with a packet of spicy kelp. Season with a little white vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar.

Chickpea, artichoke, and pepper salad. Mix cooked chickpeas with quartered artichoke hearts and chopped peppers; dress with olive oil vinaigrette.

Sweet and sour peppers. Slice peppers, fry in olive oil until very soft. Add balsamic vinegar, palm sugar, and a slosh of vegetable stock concentrate; cook down until the liquid becomes a thick glaze.

Vermicelli rice. Made with olive oil instead of butter.

Everything I cooked was vegan, though I did serve some non-vegan things (cheese, taramasalata, chicken wings) on the side. I also served various breads; black Lithuanian bread with cumin, Caribbean mongoose bread, Turkish bread (all these were bought within 5 minutes’ walk of my house).

Gnocchi with prawns and spinach. Gently cook some finely-chopped garlic in plenty of olive oil, without browning. Add defrosted frozen chopped spinach and continue to cook. Add a dollop of tomato sauce (I used Loyd Grossman brand). Add cooked peeled king prawns, season to taste, and heat through. Serve with cooked gnocchi (I used ready-made ones).

Black bean, red pepper, and chorizo stew. Render fat from cubed chorizo, add chopped onion, soften. Add garlic purée and tomato purée, cook 2 minutes. Add cooked black beans with their cooking liquid, along with stoned quartered black olives, plenty of paprika, and a slosh of vegetable stock concentrate. Cook down until the liquid has reduced, then add chopped red peppers and broccoli florets, and continue to cook until the vegetables are done.

I served this with a slice of sourdough bread and a glass of Rioja.

Gnocchi with broccoli pesto. Cook broccoli florets in boiling water until soft; chop very finely and reserve. Blanch chopped red pepper in the same water for a minute or two; remove and reserve. Cook gnocchi in the same water until done; drain. Mix chopped broccoli, blanched pepper, drained gnocchi, quartered canned artichoke hearts, a couple of spoonfuls of ready-made pesto, a glug of olive oil, a little finely-grated hard cheese, and freshly-ground black pepper to taste.

I used parmesan, which is not vegetarian, but you could use any hard cheese. You could also use dairy-free pesto (which I in fact did) and omit the cheese to make it vegan.

Squid and tomato stew. Tomato sauce made with sautéed onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, red wine, sugar to balance the sourness of the wine and tomatoes, little bit of African fish sauce to add spiciness, bit of soy sauce to add umami. Simmered some chopped aubergines and peppers in this, adding frozen squid rings a few minutes before they were done.

Served with plain polenta.