stuffed baked potatoes with roasted garlic humous and other deliciousness May 12, 2009

oh whow!!!

i have never had a stuffed baked potato before, probably because i have never enjoyed sour cream and it seems to be a kinda vital ingredient. i got a couple of MASSIVE taters yesterday, so i thought i would give this a try and HOLY CRAP it was so tasty!

i topped mine with soy cheese (that nice nacho flavour of cheesly), sauteed mushrooms, roasted garlic humous and caramelised onions. what a combo! i think i now stink like an obsessive vampire slayer. oh well, was totes worth it. look at this:

on a side note, i find the term “stuffed baked potato” quite humorous – makes me think of this fat couch potato, who got a bit stoned and ate too many snacks, thus is stuffed full of food! but maybe that’s just me…

apologies for the photos in this post. it seems the lighting in my kitchen at night isn’t so great.

totally tasty stuffed baked taters

multiply as necessary. this will make loads of humous!

(i am going to attempt to guestimate amounts – i don’t measure, sorry! also, i am not even in possession of a tablespoon. oh, the shame!)

• 1 large potato
• a large handful of munchrooms (or mushrooms, you choose!), chopped
• one brown onion, sliced into rings
• two teaspoons of nuttlex
• a sprinkling of paprika
• a dash of ground black pepper
• a pinch of thyme, basil and oregano
• salt (plenty!)
• a couple of drops of olive oil (or canola oil, or veggie oil)
• some soy cheese to serve (i like cheesely!)

roasted garlic humous

• two heads of garlic (yes, TWO FULL HEADS!), roasted
• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• three desert spoons tahini
• juice of a whole lemon
• lots of olive oil (better quality will = better taste!)
• salt, cumin and paprika to taste

equipment (there’ll be a little washing up):

• oven
• small baking tray
• food processor
• small saucepan
• small frypan

1. pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius. i have an electric oven, so i pre-heat to 250 degrees, then turn it down to 200 degrees just before i put the potatoes in.
2. wash the dirt off your potatoes. dry thoroughly, and prick the potato all over with a fork to let steam escape as your tater bakes. about 10 times will do it. this is strangely satisfying.
3. put a drop (really, just a little) of olive oil on the potato and rub over the skin. this will help it crisp up nicely, but not burn.
4. adjust oven temp (if needed) and place the potato directly onto the oven rack, with a tray underneath just in case there’s any drips. it’ll take between 1 – 1 1/2 hours to bake thoroughly (mine took 1 hour 25 minutes, and it was big).
5. get out of the kitchen for half an hour.
6. place two heads of garlic on a lightly greased tray, and pop in the oven. if you leave them whole, it should take about 30 minutes for the garlic to nicely bake. this also makes it steam a little so the skins will slip straight off.
7. return to your propaghandi sing-a-long for another 30 minutes while the oven does it’s job.
8. remove the garlic from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes.
9. melt a teaspoon of nuttlex in a small saucepan. stir in the rings of onion and sit on the heat, stirring every couple of minutes. caramelised onion requires dilligence, restraint and patience, all of which i find hard when hungry. it takes approximately 30 minutes for 0nions to properly caramelise to that brown, slightly crispy yet sweet goodness. good things come to those who wait! whilst the onion is caramelising, concentrate on making humous.
10. once you can bearably touch the garlic, remove the bulbs from their skin and pop straight into the food processor. add some olive oil (3 desert spoons?) and blend for until you have garlic paste.
11. add the chickpeas and tahini. blend again. add more olive oil if necessary!
12. add in the papprika, cumin, tumeric, salt*, and lemon juice, then blend one last time. taste and add more flavour if needed.
13. melt a teaspoon of nuttlex in a small frypan. stir in the sliced mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes.
14. once the mushrooms are slightly soft, sprinkle in the paprika, black pepper, basil, thyme and oregano. continue to saute, and add salt to taste.
15. remove your potato from the oven. hopefully it is baked to perfection, and all your toppings are ready now!
16. split the potato in half. place a layer of soy cheese in the middle, then spoon on the mushrooms, followed by lashings of humous and topped with the caramelised onions. because i am a garlic fiend i added an extra sprinkling of fried garlic on top:

in case you haven’t notice, garlic is one of my favourite foods. second only to basil on my list of faves!

* do not underestimate the powers of salt! people love my humous, and i think it’s because of the copious amounts of salt, cumin and lemon juice i add.

c-c-c-cold! May 11, 2009

who hates this icy cold weather? me, that’s who!

these wintery mornings are contributing to an extra sluggishness at the start of my days. the remedy? cooked breakfasts of course! i’m not afraid of hectic savory flavours in the morning – most notably garlic and shallots. delish i say!

cold morning cook-up up

ingredients:

• splash of olive oil (or melted nuttlex)
• two shallots, sliced (spring onions are good too, or you can use regular brown onions)
• as much garlic as you can handle, diced
• handful of mushrooms, sliced (the more the better!)
• sliced firm tofu (aka stir fry tofu), approx 1cm thick – i like two slices
• corn bread (that’s a recipe for another day!)*
• sprinkling of sweet red paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• avocado  (enough to spread – be generous)
• lemon / lime wedge (to serve)

tofu marinade:

• 2 tablespoons soy or tamari sauce
• 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
• one teaspoon powdered ginger

how to:

1. the night before, mix marinade ingredients in a bowl until combined. with a fork, stab the tofu slices a few times (this helps the marinade absorb into the middle of the tofu). place the tofu slices in the marinade and toss until marinade evenly distributed. cover the bowl and leave in the fridge overnight.
2. in the morning, heat oil (or nuttlex) in a reasonable sized fry pan, and saute shallots for a few minutes.
3. add the diced garlic and mushrooms. toss and saute for another couple of minutes.
4. stir through the paprika, and a dash of salt and pepper.
5. move this mixture to one side of the pan. place the pre-marinated tofu slices in the other pan. fry for 3 minutes, turning as required.
6. pour the remaining marinade mixture over the tofu. if some of this mixes with the mushroom mix, that’s ok! extra flavour!
7. take off the heat once most of the sauce has evaporated.
8. cut two slices of cornbread and heat (in the toaster or under the grill).
9. to serve: spread warm bread with a generous amount of avocado. plce tofu slices on the bead, and top with the mushroom and spring onion mix. serve with a slice of lemon or lime.

* you could use any sort of bread here really!

a note on avocados:

these things really are delicious! i read somewhere (sorry, no reference here at all!) that if you could only eat ONE thing to keep you alive, you could survive longest on either bananas or avocados. that’s fairly awesome. i would hazard a guess and suggest that this is due to the high fat content of avocados, and the potassium in bananas.

regardless, avocados are joyously creamy and a tasty addition to almost any meal!

new leaf! April 27, 2009

hhmmm, seems i am always planning on making more regular posts! this time i shall MO DEF try my best to become a regular blogger!

i’ve recently been receiving the jura books organic food co-op box of veggies – a fabbo decision! for $10 i get pretty much all the veggies i need for the week, plus a few bits of fruit. gives me an excuse to head down to addison road markets on a sunday and indulge in the best satay burgers you will ever taste!

these veggie boxes are also giving me a greater understanding of seasonal produce and expanding my recipe repertoire. i seem to be left with random collections of veggies by about wednesday. last week i had a nice colourful bunch:

people are constantly on at me about the health effects of a vegan diet – mostly on the negative side. i generally don’t worry too much about the ‘healthiness’ of my diet (cupcakes at 3am, anyone???) but one issue that does concern me is vitamin b12. if one become deficient in b12, irreparable damage is done to the nervous system. i think we need b12 for cell reformation, in particular blood making (so not enough leads to anemia).

i did a little research, and it seems we humans need about 2.4 micrograms of b12 each day – not too much! our bodies can store between 2 and 5 micrograms each day, so it’s possible to build up stores of the stuff. people (such as myself) generally have good stores from their meat eating days, but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on it.

(here is some great info from the vegan society)

some things i eat to get vit b12:

• marmite
• fortified soy milk
• seaweed (especially seaweed crackers)
• nutritional yeast flakes

something i do NOT usually eat is tempeh*. for some reason i just can’t get into it. i think it has to do with the texture. in the name of good health (and in an attempt to use the cookbook tempting tempeh which i haven’t cooked from in the 8 months i’ve had…), i decided to give it a crack!

creamy tahini tempeh and veggie leftovers

(* indicates modified according to what i had)

• a splash of vegetable oil
• 1 red onion*, diced
• 1 medium yellow capsicum , diced
• some green beans*, chopped
• wilting week-old mushrooms*, chopped
• 2 tablespoons white miso paste
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 packet of tempeh (300g?)
• 4 tablespoons tahini
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

to make:

1. saute onions in the oil. i really hate crunchy onions, so whenever they look ‘translucent’, i leave them for 2 minutes more to ensure mushy goodness.
2. add capsicum and beans. cook until warmed (only a minute or two).
3. add miso, veggie stock and cubed tempeh, then simmer for 30 minutes. if you are anything like me (greedy and impatient) this will make you very hungry.
4. combine the tahini and soy sauce in a bowl, then mix into the pan.
5. serve hot!

i ate mine with quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), the super grain! yummo!

quinoa is really easy to cook, kinda like rise. just make sure you rinse it first! otherwise you get all these little white bits in it – looks like maggots. gross! speaking of which, the final meal kinda looked a little off-putting. and the texture of tempeh still gave me shivers. yummy sauce though:

* even though everyone says the only way to get b12 in an absorbable form is with fortified foods, i think it can’t hurt to eat things that have “natural” b12, eg seaweed, miso and tempeh.