Delicious Kake Food

Spinach and cheddar savoury muffin slices. Based on a recipe for spinach and feta muffins. I used grated mature cheddar instead of the feta. I also baked the mixture in the base of a silicone 1 kg loaf pan for 30 minutes at Gas Mark 4, to get a more easily-sliceable end result. Adults and 10-month-old baby ate this, plain or spread with cream cheese.

Puy lentil salad. Canned Puy lentils, drained and mixed with finely-chopped red onion, halved cherry tomatoes, and roasted red pepper slices, then dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Only people with molars ate this.

Halved cherry tomatoes and roasted red pepper slices. Alternative to the above for younger persons with fewer teeth.

Clementine segments. (The ones with pips were eaten by the chef in the kitchen before serving. You can see which ones have pips by holding them up to the light.)

Sliced plums. Zapped in the microwave for a minute to soften, then left to cool. Enjoyed by adults and baby.

Roasted jerk-marinaded chicken legs. Bought pre-marinaded from the supermarket.

Savoury rice. Wash basmati rice, put in rice cooker with an appropriate amount of water. Add Maggi cubes along with chopped leek, carrot, and red pepper. Cook as normal and stir before serving.

Mushroom stroganoff. I made it exactly as stated in the recipe, except I added some squeezy garlic with the mushrooms, and I used sour cream instead of yoghurt.

Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker (without the suggested addition of cloves).

Salmon en papillote with sundried tomato and anchovy tapenade. Pound sundried tomatoes, fresh garlic, capers, and anchovy fillets to a paste in a mortar (you could use an electric mini-chopper; I didn’t, because mine has died). Leave for an hour to let the garlic mellow a bit. Spread on top of skinless salmon fillets, wrap in a foil or baking parchment parcel, bake in oven until done (they won’t take very long).

Sweetcorn polenta with black olives. Cut the kernels from fresh corn cobs, put in a pan and add just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add a spoonful of dairy-free spread (or butter, if you’re not cooking for a lactose-intolerant person) and a few cubes of fermented tofu. Blenderise it all up, then stir in some finely-chopped black olives. Return to the heat and cook, stirring, for at least 10 minutes (cook longer if you want to drive out more moisture and make it thicker). (This is a lactose-free adaptation of Yotam Ottolenghi’s sweetcorn polenta recipe.)

Red pepper salad. Deseed a red bell pepper and slice it thinly. No dressing; you don’t need it with the above dishes and it would clash with their flavours.

Black bean stew with courgettes and peppers. Simmer a chopped yellow courgette and a chopped red pepper with a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of Maggi cubes, a finely-chopped scotch bonnet pepper and a bit of water, until the vegetables are soft and most of the liquid has gone. Add some smoky chilli sauce (I used Mad Ass Double Smoky) to taste. Stir in a drained can of soft black beans and simmer for a couple more minutes.

(The beans I bought were really very soft, so I didn’t want to cook them in the stew too long or they’d have disintegrated.)

Vermicelli rice. Made with olive oil instead of butter.

Flageolet bean salad. Cook lots and lots of chopped garlic very slowly in plenty of olive oil along with chopped capers and sliced red peppers, until the garlic flavour has mellowed and the peppers are softened to your liking. There should be enough oil to make a dressing in the next step. Mix all this with some (canned, rinsed, drained) flageolet beans, some (canned) artichoke hearts cut into 4 or 6 pieces each, a splash of red wine vinegar, and salt to taste. Leave it for a bit to let the flavours meld.

Vermicelli rice. Made with olive oil instead of butter.

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.

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).

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.