Delicious Kake Food

This is a version of a salad I’ve posted about before. My aim here was to make a version that will freeze well.

Flageolet bean salad. Cook lots and lots of finely- chopped garlic very slowly in plenty of olive oil, until the garlic flavour has mellowed. There should be enough oil to make a dressing in the next step. Mix the garlic and oil with some (canned, rinsed, drained) flageolet beans, some (drained, finely sliced) sundried-tomatoes-in-oil, some (drained, finely chopped) capers-in-brine, and a good few spoonfuls of brine from the caper jar. Season to taste with salt if needed. Let it all sit for at least 10 minutes if possible, to let the flavours blend.

Served with wholemeal bread.

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.

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.

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).

Puy lentil stew. Finely-chopped onions, cubed aubergines and courgettes, tinned tomatoes, veg stock, squeezy garlic, puy lentils, bit of sugar and salt.

Sweet and sour leeks. Sliced leeks wilted in olive oil then braised with balsamic vinegar, jaggery, veg stock, and a pinch of salt. Made up while staring at the fridge contents an hour before lunch guests were due, turned out even better than I’d hoped.

Vermicelli rice. Done in the rice cooker, with the vermicelli cooked separately in olive oil in a frying pan and added to the rice cooker along with the normal amount of rice and water. Stirred well before serving.

Pumpkin, green bean, and chickpea curry. Chop and sauté an onion and some garlic; add hot curry paste and tomato purée and cook for a few more minutes; add vegetable stock, tamarind paste, grated jaggery, coconut cream, cooked chickpeas, and peeled, cubed pumpkin; cook for about 20 minutes; add sliced green beans; cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.

Black chickpea stew. Black chickpeas, red peppers, okra, onion, garlic, ginger, curry paste, tamarind, jaggery, tomatoes.

Fried plantains.

Parathas.

Tired tonight, so you don’t get instructions.

Nigerian brown beans cooked with palm oil. Following instructions from eccentricyoruba, who is teaching me to cook Nigerian food.

Yam pottage with spinach. Left over from last night.

Jollof rice. Roughly following instructions from African Food TV, though I left out the bell peppers, and I substituted garam masala for the curry powder since I didn’t have any.

Fried plantain. Ripe (but not too ripe) plantains, sliced diagonally and fried in sunflower oil.

Aubergine and courgette stew. Sauté finely-chopped onion in olive oil until soft, add chopped garlic, cook for a couple of minutes longer. Add chopped aubergine (large or small dice, up to you) along with a jar of tomato-based pasta sauce and cook until the aubergines are about half-done. Add chopped courgettes (make them similar size to the aubergine pieces) and cook until completely done. Season with black pepper to taste.

(My original intention was to use a can of tomatoes and control the other seasonings myself, but I appear to have run out of canned tomatoes.)

Leek and garlic mash. Cut potatoes, boil until soft enough to mash. Meanwhile, sauté chopped leeks in some form of butter (I used vegan margarine) until almost soft, then add a good dollop of squeezy garlic and cook until leeks are completely soft and garlic has mellowed. Mash the potatoes with the leeks and an optional extra spoonful of butter/margarine. Season with black pepper and celery salt.