Mr Image claims he does not like sweet potatoes. While I agree with him about the Thanksgiving sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top, he refuses to try them any way I fix them. I had a number of them from my weekly organic food deliver box and I was looking on what I might do other then pass them along to the neighbors. I made a sweet potato pie today and told him it was pumpkin pie. He loved it. Next time we get sweet potatoes I will confess, and see if I can get him to try some other dish.
Sweet potato with marshmallows!? Where is that vomit emoji?
Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m not proud. It’s one of the few ways I like sweet potatoes—mashed and baked with toasted marshmallows on top, or mashed and baked with lots of brown sugar and nuts on top. Otherwise, not so much. As for pumpkin—no way, no how, no matter how prepared. Just no.
There, I said it.
The marshmallows sound revolting...
No argument on that, and as a general rule I don't like marshmallows. But properly toasted/caramelized on top of (adequately spiced) sweet potatoes, they can be surprisingly good—at least good enough to make me not mind eating sweet potatoes.
I must admit that being a UK based shippie, my encounters with sweet potatoes are pretty much entirely savoury. I used them in a veggie tagine last week.
I thought the reason I don't like sweet potatoes was because of the sweet-potato fries we got in Newfoundland, which managed to be simultaneously burnt and greasy (no idea how they managed that). But my sister had them in a pub the other day and while they were as nicely crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside as a good chip should be, I still didn't really like the taste, so I'm assuming that, like Marmite or oysters, they're just Something I Don't Like.
@Firenze - I'd second Stercus Tauri's suggestion for your parsley - it'll add a nice zing to any kind of green soup. I'd put the thyme in any kind of beef or chicken casserole.
Or you could chop up both to make a herb butter - mix them with some softened butter, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, form it into a log, wrap it in cling-film and freeze it, then use it for melting over steaks or making garlic bread.
What is the matter with you people? Sweet potatoes, (known here as kumara) are wonderful and far better for me as a diabetic than ordinary spuds, which are boring.
One of my favourite soups is kumara and pumpkin.
As for marshmallows... I need the vomiting emoji back.
We eat sweet potatoes, but I need to put some form of hot or sharp seasoning on them, as they are far too sweet for my palate.
I'm not mad about parsnips for the same reason, and adding sweeteners such as honey to carrots, as many recipes do, makes them impossible for me to eat.
That being said, if the situation gets desperate....
I think the thing about parsnips is that a little goes a long way - they can overpower other flavours if you're not careful.
For the most part I'll leave the sweet potatoes for those of you who like them, but my sister brought home a curried sweet potato thing from Marks & Sparks the other day, and it was really rather nice.
I've never had parsnips but I have been curious about them for a while. They look rather like carrots. Anyone have a way of describing their taste that would give me an idea?
My mother would mash up parsnips and potatoes and mix them together. Ruined the potatoes for me.
If you mash about equal quantities parsnip and potato with butter, some milk if it's too thick, then add dried parsley and black pepper, it changes the character of the parsnips most agreeably. For added pleasure, mixing in some minced garlic works very well. If you use turnip instead of parsnip, you have clapshot (or a close relative of it), which I like even better.
The parsley and black pepper really make it less stodgy in my opinion. I really like parsley. mine self seeded but the new growth was no more than a couple of centimetres high. I did read once that there was a note in an old herbal that Parsley will only grow in the garden of a virtuous woman which made we wonder how I had strayed as it grew the previous year.
I've never had parsnips but I have been curious about them for a while. They look rather like carrots. Anyone have a way of describing their taste that would give me an idea?
My mother had a standard way of serving them - sliced and boiled 50:50 with carrots. That way, they taste of nothing - mealy and characterless. They need IMO to be cut longitudinally (take out the core) and roasted. They then become sweet, like a milder version of sweet potato.
Our supermarkets and greengrocers now stock baby parsnips which are tender and milder in flavour than some of the woody horrors otherwise available. We first found them at a roadside market. Just peel and roast - yum!
I've never had parsnips but I have been curious about them for a while. They look rather like carrots. Anyone have a way of describing their taste that would give me an idea?
My mother had a standard way of serving them - sliced and boiled 50:50 with carrots. That way, they taste of nothing - mealy and characterless. They need IMO to be cut longitudinally (take out the core) and roasted. They then become sweet, like a milder version of sweet potato.
If by swede you mean the purply-orange thing known hereabouts as the neep - cook, mash, and fry up in the pan with onion. Eat with butter and black pepper (and tatties and haggis).
Mashed swede/neep/rutabaga/turnip (Canadian usage) - I quite love, with a generous grinding of black pepper, of course, but also just a pinch of nutmeg. If you think that you've added enough nutmeg, you've added to much. Just enough to accent the earthiness of the swede/etc.
But don't do as I did and make gnocchi with swede. It was a few years ago, but it was memorably - odd.
Swede grates into salad with a creamy dressing. Cut into narrow chunks and tossed in a little oil it makes oven chips, on its own or in a mix of other root veg (any or all or potatoes, sweet potatoes, swede, parsnip and beetroot). I've also successfully swapped swede for potatoes in rostis / latkes - grated potato cakes, serve with a poached egg and ham on top or as a side. Winter veg boxes often contain a lot of swede.
Parsnips have a flavour of their own, slightly sweet, but undertones of musty. I like them as crudités, grated in salad or as oven chips too, but my favourite recipe for them is a cashew and parsnip nut loaf with mushroom stuffing - from Sarah Brown.
I greet sweet potatoes with joy in the veg box. Sweet potato marries with butternut squash in curries. They roast, bake and chip like potatoes. My latest favourite recipe for sweet potato pakoras came with the Riverford box.
Ooo! oats, sesame seeds, and soy sauce roasted carrots sounds like something delicious! And maybe when I stop ordering grocery delivery and do my own shopping, I'll try it with parsnips.
Parsnips are one of those things that people haven't eaten since some dire meal at their grandmother's home four decades ago, but they will swear that they are horrid. I love them prepared in a number of ways, but they are key to my (much praised, I immodestly say) borshcht. The parsnips, carrots, cabbage have to be sauteed to tease out the flavours, but you have to add a slurp of vinegar or pickle brine to balance the sweetness. And, regarding the beets, only for a summer borshcht do I add them raw. A winter broshcht requires the beets to be roasted - this intensifies the flavours, and gives a rich, dark pigment.
PG, please post your recipe for winter borscht -- if we can still get beetroot and parsnips out here in a week or two, I'd love to make it. There's a small jar with pickle juice from gherkins waiting in my fridge.
Something I did this week to use the parsnips in my veg box that my daughter wouldn't eat was parsnip pakoras - it's not what they were called in the recipe, but the ingredients were pretty much the same for all the other pakora recipes I make: from BBC Good Food (link) - parsnip pancakes with honey mustard dressing - I ignored various ingredients I didn't have, such as the semolina, which is wheat based so not in this GF kitchen. I would have substituted tapioca if I could ever find it.
For Mary Louise (but, really, for anyone, hence the detail so even a novice can pull this off):
BORSHCH (as it's properly transliterated - shch is a single letter in Russian cyrillic, and in Russian the word has no 't' )
By way of introductory remarks, this is peasant cuisine, and this isn't baking, so precise measurements aren't necessary. My 'recipe' (just guidelines, really) is based on an amalgam of recipes taken mostly from Anne Volokh's The Art of Russian Cuisine, conversations with aUkraian firend, (RIP), and my thirty years of making borshch. Feel free to adjust the proportions, meat, and vegetation according to your tastes or whatever you do or do not have at hand.
Some Russians might balk at my inclusion of allspice - that's more a Finnish touch, and I'm half Finnish, so I don't care.
Don't be intimidated by the length here. I'm being very detailed, but it's essentially three steps: (1) Roasting the beets (which requires no attention); (2) making the stock (which requires a little attention); (3) sauteing vegetables (which requires fair attention, but very little skill). All three steps can easily overlap. If you're not confident, any one of the three steps can be done in advance, like the stock and/or the beets could be done the day before. I would saute the vegetables day of.
Borshch for Winter
I make a meat stock from whatever bones and trimmings I have in the freezer. My most successful stock included the remains of cow, pig, lamb, and chicken. I refer to it as a "mongrel stock" (no mongrels were harmed...) I do not include meat in the end product. If you are going to include meat in the end product, you include it in the stock, remove it, and then add back toward the end.
Preheat oven to 325-350F. Put your Unwashed, Untrimmed (well, trimmed of the greens, but above the top of the root, so there is a bit of stalk attached) beets in the 350F oven. Bake until tender. Depending on the size and maturity of the beets, so usually 40-60 minutes. I use 6 medium beets 3-4cm in diameter. I place them unwrapped on foil just in case they bleed. This step is non-negotiable. It sets the pigment and intensifies the flavours. No one likes a pallid borshch.
Once the beets are done, let them cool. Latex gloves might be advisable for this stage. Peel the beets. You can grate them coarsely or (my personal preference, but this is up to you) cut them into chunks, not too fine.
While they roast, set to work on the stock...
For the stock:
bones (because I omit the meat, I use a lot of bones - your call)
1 - 1.5 lbs beef (chuck or some such stewing cut)
1 - 1.5 lbs pork spare ribs
1 largish carrot
1 medium to large onion
1 parsnip
1/2 smallish celery root
salt
~ 1 tsp pepper corns
< 1 tsp allspice berries
1 bay leaf
You will be discarding the above vegetables, so don't waste time cutting to a perfect brunoise. Split the carrot and the parsnip lengthwise, cut the celery root into large rough chunks, and the onion cut into quarters. Put all the above into a pot of cold water, about 3 quarts, (The amount of water depends on the size of the vegetables and the volume of bones, of course. Cook and learn, I guess.) Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, partially covered. Occasionally skim the surface of the scum that accumulates. You'll have to do this more frequently at the beginning, less as time goes on. If it's above a simmer, the proteins, blood, etc., won't come to the surface and you'll have a cloudy, bitter result. This stage takes about an hour, or until the beef (if you're using it) is tender, at which point you remove the meat and reserve it. Strain the stock and discard the bones, vegetables, and anything else in the sieve (and cheese cloth, if you have it). Keep the stock simmering
While the stock is developing...
For the vegetables:
1 carrot
1/2 celery root
1 largish parsnip
2 or 3 potatoes
1 onion
~ 2 cups tomato (whole, tinned are best for this - do not use passata, or puree, or pre-diced tomato if you can possibly avoid it)
1/2 large to a 1 whole small cabbage, cored, cut into ca. 2.5cm dice
2 Tbsp thick tomato paste
> 1/4 cup plain, cider, or white wine vinegar OR 1/4-2/3 cup pickle brine
1-2 Tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
oil or butter
Cut the carrots and parsnips into "half-coins" 3-5mm thick., the celery root into small chunks, ca. 1cm cube, perhaps a bit smaller.
In a large, wide, non-stick skillet, melt about 3 Tbsp butter or oil. Add the carrots, parsnips, and celery root, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper, and saute for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. Add the cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste to the pan, but 'toast' it slightly by itself in one corner of the pan for a few minutes before mixing it in. Add the tomatoes. I like a rough, irregular texture, so I gently crush them in my hand, between my fingers - you can cut them in whatever size you prefer. After all this, you will notice that your sauteing vegetables have a very sweet aroma. Now add the vinegar or pickle brine in batches. Initially the evaporating acid will burn your nostrils. once you've added all your acid component, and there's no more burn, smell and taste again. There should be a sweet/tangy balance. It's OK if it seems strong, because it's all going into the stock.
While the root vegetables are sauteing, cut the potatoes into six or eight chunks, add to the simmering stock.
Add the vegetables to the the stock. Taste the stock for salt and pepper. Let it simmer for ca. 10 minutes. Some people will also add diced cooked ham or kielbasa at this point. I don't.
I like my borshch chunky. If you don't, puree it now, then add the meat (including the meat that you may have used to make the stock) to heat the meat through.
To serve:
At the bottom of each bowl, put 1/8-1/4 tsp (or more, according to taste) finely minced garlic (obviously, ask the guests first, as some people don't like garlic), ladle the hot borshch over the garlic. Provide a bowl of chopped fresh dill and a bowl of sour cream for the guest to dress their borshch as they like.
@Pangolin Guerre this is exactly the kind of detailed recipe I love to have as a guide -- I spent most of last Sunday arguing about tzatziki with a Greek friend on Ikaria, debating via emails about whether to use fresh mint or dill and how much, chopped or pureed garlic, what is genuinely Greek yoghurt, how long to drain the grated cucumber, if dill pickle is a Good Idea or not, why nobody ever gets the vinegary taste right, etc.
I shall make this when next I get fresh autumn beetroot and pork ribs. It should be enough to provide bowls (prepared under extremely sanitary conditions) for all my neighbours and the colour -- it goes a vivid '60s hot pink when sour cream is added -- will create some enjoyable controversy.
Well, as I said, I don't bother with meat, as such, but, it's very good with, as well. Do let me know how it turns out for you. I will post two summer borshch recipes, as well. I realise for you there's no immediate demand, but it's best that I do it while it's top of mind.
Talk about a small world... Not only do we share a South African connection, which we've discussed in past, but now a Greek connection! One of my best friends since university, who lives a five minute walk away in my neighbourhood, last year bought with her husband a place on Ikaria. I was thinking about it just this morning. How very eerie.
Tonight's Veggie Option is worth memorialising. You need -
Spinach
Mushrooms
Onion
Potatoes
Cheese
Eggs.
Cook the spinach - microwave 2 min.
Stew the mushrooms in a little butter until soft.
Soften the chopped onion - m'wave 2 min
Cook the spuds - m'wave 10 min
Grate a lot of cheese.
Mix chopped spinach, onion, mushrooms and egg and pour into a pie dish. Top with sliced potato and cheese. Bake c 15 min and finish under a hot grill until brown and bubbly.
Staying with my (mostly) pescatarian sister and doing most of the cooking (I feel I ought to contribute something to the household) is giving me quite an education.
Yesterday I made chilli sans carne with meatless mince, and it was good enough that I'd like to post the recipe.
Chilli oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 fat cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp each ancho and ordinary chilli flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 fresh green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
Salt and pepper
2 packages of Plant Kitchen meatless mince
A 14-oz tin of chopped tomatoes
A can of American-style veggie chilli*
A squirt of tomato puree
A slosh of red wine
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
6 medium mushrooms, chopped
1 can each of red kidney and black-eyed beans
Heat the oil in a casserole or Dutch oven and add the onions, garlic, spices, green chilli, salt and pepper and cook gently until the onion begins to soften.
Turn the heat up a little, add the mince, stir and cook for a few minutes more, then add the veggie chilli, tomatoes, tomato puree and wine. Bring it up to a simmer, turn the heat down low, cover and cook for about 20 minutes.
Add the red pepper, mushrooms and beans, cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes and serve with rice, salad and garlic bread - a real 1970s feast!
* This is optional; we'd bought it as a sort of "emergency planning" thing at the start of the crisis, but we've been able to get plenty of fresh food, so I added it and we've got enough to have with baked potatoes another day.
Lunch today was really nice despite being my last bits before sis drops off a fresh load of eatables.
2 Large flat mushrooms
2 red peppers
1 packet of chilli rice (Uncle Bens)
1 tbsp greek yoghurt
1 tbsp grated cheese
Hendersons Relish or Worcester Sauce if you have to
Cut the top and bottom off the pepper and take out the seeds. Chop the bottom up and mix into the rice. Put the mushroom on a baking tray and fill the gills with relish, place the pepper on the mushroom and fill with rice to about three quarters full. Top up with cheese and yoghurt then put the top of the pepper on. Bake for about twenty minutes.
If I had a tomato I would have chopped it into the rice as well but no matter.
@Piglet - if you are looking for the mildly spicy fish, this worked this evening.
Firm fish (I used salmon, but cod would be equally good)
Peas - sugar snap, mange tout or just frozen
Baby corn
Shallots
Coconut milk (small tin)
Turmeric
Cumin
Cayenne
Fresh ginger
Lime juice
Soften the finely chopped shallot in a little oil. Add tsp turmeric, tsp cumin and cayenne to taste, and fry for a minute. Add sparing amount of water 200 or 300 ml, the grated ginger and the coconut milk, and the chopped veg (except if using frozen peas). Simmer about 10 mins until corns just tender. Add the chunked fish, frozen peas, a dash or so of fish sauce if you have it. Five or six minutes until the fish is opaque. Squeeze over half a lime.
That sounds rather nice - we've got most of that except the sweetcorn and fish sauce (I've never used it and would be a bit wary anyway). Would a dash of soy sauce do instead?
Or leave out the fish/soy entirely. Also it doesn't have to be corn - carrot or sweet potato or squash or courgette would do - tweak cooking time accordingly. Corn just happened to be what I had.
Now: culinary question. Despairing of ever finding cornflour anywhere, I bought a bag of potato starch in the Polish shop. Reading up on t'net says the main difference is that it needs to be used as a thickening agent only at the very end of cooking. Fair enough. But the use I had in mind was for dusting tofu before frying. Anyone got experience?
I'd be interested in potato flour experiments - I'm planning to use mine instead of flour next time I make potato gnocchi.
In my most recent GF experiment, I successfully baked Jack Monroe's cherry and white chocolate traybake substituting GF flour, dairy free marge for butter and vegan white chocolate. These experiments aren't usually as nice as GF flour is not the same, but this was excellent.
Now: culinary question. Despairing of ever finding cornflour anywhere, I bought a bag of potato starch in the Polish shop. Reading up on t'net says the main difference is that it needs to be used as a thickening agent only at the very end of cooking. Fair enough. But the use I had in mind was for dusting tofu before frying. Anyone got experience?
As a guess I would think it's probably fine, especially if you're using a deep-fat-fryer. I'm presuming you're after it as a coating, rather than for thickening. Alternatively, if you've got semolina or polenta I would think either of those would also do the trick...
I made this today for the first time in ages. Quick, easy and tasty.
Mince a small onion and sweat in some olive oil. Add chopped chicken breast and brown. Pour in some apricot juice, add instant onion soup powder and dried apricots. Simmer until the sauce is thickened and the chicken cooked. Serve with rice or couscous.
Comments
@Firenze - I'd second Stercus Tauri's suggestion for your parsley - it'll add a nice zing to any kind of green soup. I'd put the thyme in any kind of beef or chicken casserole.
Or you could chop up both to make a herb butter - mix them with some softened butter, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, form it into a log, wrap it in cling-film and freeze it, then use it for melting over steaks or making garlic bread.
One of my favourite soups is kumara and pumpkin.
As for marshmallows... I need the vomiting emoji back.
Sorry - got a bit carried away.
I'm not mad about parsnips for the same reason, and adding sweeteners such as honey to carrots, as many recipes do, makes them impossible for me to eat.
That being said, if the situation gets desperate....
For the most part I'll leave the sweet potatoes for those of you who like them, but my sister brought home a curried sweet potato thing from Marks & Sparks the other day, and it was really rather nice.
If you mash about equal quantities parsnip and potato with butter, some milk if it's too thick, then add dried parsley and black pepper, it changes the character of the parsnips most agreeably. For added pleasure, mixing in some minced garlic works very well. If you use turnip instead of parsnip, you have clapshot (or a close relative of it), which I like even better.
My mother had a standard way of serving them - sliced and boiled 50:50 with carrots. That way, they taste of nothing - mealy and characterless. They need IMO to be cut longitudinally (take out the core) and roasted. They then become sweet, like a milder version of sweet potato.
But swede.......is a whole other Thing
Agreed!
But that is one heck of a lot of faff for an egg recipe
Thank you, Firenze!
Oh and we Do have haggis in 🤗
Known as Potch in our house.
Swede grates into salad with a creamy dressing. Cut into narrow chunks and tossed in a little oil it makes oven chips, on its own or in a mix of other root veg (any or all or potatoes, sweet potatoes, swede, parsnip and beetroot). I've also successfully swapped swede for potatoes in rostis / latkes - grated potato cakes, serve with a poached egg and ham on top or as a side. Winter veg boxes often contain a lot of swede.
Parsnips have a flavour of their own, slightly sweet, but undertones of musty. I like them as crudités, grated in salad or as oven chips too, but my favourite recipe for them is a cashew and parsnip nut loaf with mushroom stuffing - from Sarah Brown.
I greet sweet potatoes with joy in the veg box. Sweet potato marries with butternut squash in curries. They roast, bake and chip like potatoes. My latest favourite recipe for sweet potato pakoras came with the Riverford box.
https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a27034342/instant-pot-chicken-thighs-recipe/
Parsnips - yes, roasted having been rolled in oats, sesame seeds and soy sauce (works for carrots too). Otherwise I use parsnips to make wine.
Not that I hold strong opinions in these matters.
BORSHCH (as it's properly transliterated - shch is a single letter in Russian cyrillic, and in Russian the word has no 't' )
By way of introductory remarks, this is peasant cuisine, and this isn't baking, so precise measurements aren't necessary. My 'recipe' (just guidelines, really) is based on an amalgam of recipes taken mostly from Anne Volokh's The Art of Russian Cuisine, conversations with aUkraian firend, (RIP), and my thirty years of making borshch. Feel free to adjust the proportions, meat, and vegetation according to your tastes or whatever you do or do not have at hand.
Some Russians might balk at my inclusion of allspice - that's more a Finnish touch, and I'm half Finnish, so I don't care.
Don't be intimidated by the length here. I'm being very detailed, but it's essentially three steps: (1) Roasting the beets (which requires no attention); (2) making the stock (which requires a little attention); (3) sauteing vegetables (which requires fair attention, but very little skill). All three steps can easily overlap. If you're not confident, any one of the three steps can be done in advance, like the stock and/or the beets could be done the day before. I would saute the vegetables day of.
Borshch for Winter
I make a meat stock from whatever bones and trimmings I have in the freezer. My most successful stock included the remains of cow, pig, lamb, and chicken. I refer to it as a "mongrel stock" (no mongrels were harmed...) I do not include meat in the end product. If you are going to include meat in the end product, you include it in the stock, remove it, and then add back toward the end.
Preheat oven to 325-350F. Put your Unwashed, Untrimmed (well, trimmed of the greens, but above the top of the root, so there is a bit of stalk attached) beets in the 350F oven. Bake until tender. Depending on the size and maturity of the beets, so usually 40-60 minutes. I use 6 medium beets 3-4cm in diameter. I place them unwrapped on foil just in case they bleed. This step is non-negotiable. It sets the pigment and intensifies the flavours. No one likes a pallid borshch.
Once the beets are done, let them cool. Latex gloves might be advisable for this stage. Peel the beets. You can grate them coarsely or (my personal preference, but this is up to you) cut them into chunks, not too fine.
While they roast, set to work on the stock...
For the stock:
bones (because I omit the meat, I use a lot of bones - your call)
1 - 1.5 lbs beef (chuck or some such stewing cut)
1 - 1.5 lbs pork spare ribs
1 largish carrot
1 medium to large onion
1 parsnip
1/2 smallish celery root
salt
~ 1 tsp pepper corns
< 1 tsp allspice berries
1 bay leaf
You will be discarding the above vegetables, so don't waste time cutting to a perfect brunoise. Split the carrot and the parsnip lengthwise, cut the celery root into large rough chunks, and the onion cut into quarters. Put all the above into a pot of cold water, about 3 quarts, (The amount of water depends on the size of the vegetables and the volume of bones, of course. Cook and learn, I guess.) Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, partially covered. Occasionally skim the surface of the scum that accumulates. You'll have to do this more frequently at the beginning, less as time goes on. If it's above a simmer, the proteins, blood, etc., won't come to the surface and you'll have a cloudy, bitter result. This stage takes about an hour, or until the beef (if you're using it) is tender, at which point you remove the meat and reserve it. Strain the stock and discard the bones, vegetables, and anything else in the sieve (and cheese cloth, if you have it). Keep the stock simmering
While the stock is developing...
For the vegetables:
1 carrot
1/2 celery root
1 largish parsnip
2 or 3 potatoes
1 onion
~ 2 cups tomato (whole, tinned are best for this - do not use passata, or puree, or pre-diced tomato if you can possibly avoid it)
1/2 large to a 1 whole small cabbage, cored, cut into ca. 2.5cm dice
2 Tbsp thick tomato paste
> 1/4 cup plain, cider, or white wine vinegar OR 1/4-2/3 cup pickle brine
1-2 Tbsp finely chopped Italian parsley
oil or butter
Cut the carrots and parsnips into "half-coins" 3-5mm thick., the celery root into small chunks, ca. 1cm cube, perhaps a bit smaller.
In a large, wide, non-stick skillet, melt about 3 Tbsp butter or oil. Add the carrots, parsnips, and celery root, sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper, and saute for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. Add the cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste to the pan, but 'toast' it slightly by itself in one corner of the pan for a few minutes before mixing it in. Add the tomatoes. I like a rough, irregular texture, so I gently crush them in my hand, between my fingers - you can cut them in whatever size you prefer. After all this, you will notice that your sauteing vegetables have a very sweet aroma. Now add the vinegar or pickle brine in batches. Initially the evaporating acid will burn your nostrils. once you've added all your acid component, and there's no more burn, smell and taste again. There should be a sweet/tangy balance. It's OK if it seems strong, because it's all going into the stock.
While the root vegetables are sauteing, cut the potatoes into six or eight chunks, add to the simmering stock.
Add the vegetables to the the stock. Taste the stock for salt and pepper. Let it simmer for ca. 10 minutes. Some people will also add diced cooked ham or kielbasa at this point. I don't.
I like my borshch chunky. If you don't, puree it now, then add the meat (including the meat that you may have used to make the stock) to heat the meat through.
To serve:
At the bottom of each bowl, put 1/8-1/4 tsp (or more, according to taste) finely minced garlic (obviously, ask the guests first, as some people don't like garlic), ladle the hot borshch over the garlic. Provide a bowl of chopped fresh dill and a bowl of sour cream for the guest to dress their borshch as they like.
Next will be Borshch for Summer.
Priyatnovo Apetita!
I shall make this when next I get fresh autumn beetroot and pork ribs. It should be enough to provide bowls (prepared under extremely sanitary conditions) for all my neighbours and the colour -- it goes a vivid '60s hot pink when sour cream is added -- will create some enjoyable controversy.
Talk about a small world... Not only do we share a South African connection, which we've discussed in past, but now a Greek connection! One of my best friends since university, who lives a five minute walk away in my neighbourhood, last year bought with her husband a place on Ikaria. I was thinking about it just this morning. How very eerie.
realm-msa.com/
Cutting the tops off radishes as soon as you get them home also makes them stay crisp for longer.
Spinach
Mushrooms
Onion
Potatoes
Cheese
Eggs.
Cook the spinach - microwave 2 min.
Stew the mushrooms in a little butter until soft.
Soften the chopped onion - m'wave 2 min
Cook the spuds - m'wave 10 min
Grate a lot of cheese.
Mix chopped spinach, onion, mushrooms and egg and pour into a pie dish. Top with sliced potato and cheese. Bake c 15 min and finish under a hot grill until brown and bubbly.
Yesterday I made chilli sans carne with meatless mince, and it was good enough that I'd like to post the recipe.
Chilli oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 fat cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp each ancho and ordinary chilli flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 fresh green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
Salt and pepper
2 packages of Plant Kitchen meatless mince
A 14-oz tin of chopped tomatoes
A can of American-style veggie chilli*
A squirt of tomato puree
A slosh of red wine
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
6 medium mushrooms, chopped
1 can each of red kidney and black-eyed beans
Heat the oil in a casserole or Dutch oven and add the onions, garlic, spices, green chilli, salt and pepper and cook gently until the onion begins to soften.
Turn the heat up a little, add the mince, stir and cook for a few minutes more, then add the veggie chilli, tomatoes, tomato puree and wine. Bring it up to a simmer, turn the heat down low, cover and cook for about 20 minutes.
Add the red pepper, mushrooms and beans, cover and cook for another 15-20 minutes and serve with rice, salad and garlic bread - a real 1970s feast!
* This is optional; we'd bought it as a sort of "emergency planning" thing at the start of the crisis, but we've been able to get plenty of fresh food, so I added it and we've got enough to have with baked potatoes another day.
2 Large flat mushrooms
2 red peppers
1 packet of chilli rice (Uncle Bens)
1 tbsp greek yoghurt
1 tbsp grated cheese
Hendersons Relish or Worcester Sauce if you have to
Cut the top and bottom off the pepper and take out the seeds. Chop the bottom up and mix into the rice. Put the mushroom on a baking tray and fill the gills with relish, place the pepper on the mushroom and fill with rice to about three quarters full. Top up with cheese and yoghurt then put the top of the pepper on. Bake for about twenty minutes.
If I had a tomato I would have chopped it into the rice as well but no matter.
Firm fish (I used salmon, but cod would be equally good)
Peas - sugar snap, mange tout or just frozen
Baby corn
Shallots
Coconut milk (small tin)
Turmeric
Cumin
Cayenne
Fresh ginger
Lime juice
Soften the finely chopped shallot in a little oil. Add tsp turmeric, tsp cumin and cayenne to taste, and fry for a minute. Add sparing amount of water 200 or 300 ml, the grated ginger and the coconut milk, and the chopped veg (except if using frozen peas). Simmer about 10 mins until corns just tender. Add the chunked fish, frozen peas, a dash or so of fish sauce if you have it. Five or six minutes until the fish is opaque. Squeeze over half a lime.
Now: culinary question. Despairing of ever finding cornflour anywhere, I bought a bag of potato starch in the Polish shop. Reading up on t'net says the main difference is that it needs to be used as a thickening agent only at the very end of cooking. Fair enough. But the use I had in mind was for dusting tofu before frying. Anyone got experience?
In my most recent GF experiment, I successfully baked Jack Monroe's cherry and white chocolate traybake substituting GF flour, dairy free marge for butter and vegan white chocolate. These experiments aren't usually as nice as GF flour is not the same, but this was excellent.
As a guess I would think it's probably fine, especially if you're using a deep-fat-fryer. I'm presuming you're after it as a coating, rather than for thickening. Alternatively, if you've got semolina or polenta I would think either of those would also do the trick...
Mince a small onion and sweat in some olive oil. Add chopped chicken breast and brown. Pour in some apricot juice, add instant onion soup powder and dried apricots. Simmer until the sauce is thickened and the chicken cooked. Serve with rice or couscous.