Hummus - pure and Simple
(serves 4-6 as part of a “Meze” meal)
Practically the easiest thing you can do, though, depending on the quantities of the ingredients the product can vary immensely. I’ve made some pretty un-impressive Hummus in my time and now and again I’ve made some truly noticeable renditions of this ubiquitous Vegetarian staple.
My inconsistancy has had a lot to do I think with just guessing measurements. To be fair, I do also think the quality of the chickpea’s plays quite an important part also though. This is my excuse, but it’s not valid in Andalucia where they produce and sell really fresh dried-chickpeas.
So in order to not face humiliation on the Hummus front in front of Theresa I’ve finally come to writing down my winning combination.
*Note: most Hummus recipes feature garlic quite heavily into the mix. By all means add it if you like. I don’t feel anything is missing from mine, however; I would say it actually tastes brighter and fresher as I up the Lemon a little to compensate*
1 cup of chickpeas
2 large Tbs Tahini
¼ cup Lemon Juice
¼ cup Olive Oil
1 ½ tsp Salt
- Rinse the chickpeas in a few changes of water and cover with fresh water by an inch. Leave to soak overnight.
- Drain and place the chickpeas in a saucepan with water to cover by a couple inches. Bring to the boil, partially cover, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for roughly 1 hr- 1 ½ depending on the freshness of your chickpea. When they’re done they should be very soft to the bite.
- Drain chickpeas (reserving a little of their cooking water) and while they’re still warm add them with the rest of the ingredients into a food processor and process until smooth, adding reserved cooking water if the Hummus is too thick for your liking.
Home-made Yoghurt
The first time I heard of someone making their own yoghurt I was deeply impressed. They may as well have told me they invented the space rocket I was that much in awe of their artisan craftsmanship.
Then I tried it. Turns out, anyone can make their own yoghurt. I reckon I could even teach an intelligent Chimp. I was slightly disappointed in a way that the mystique of one more thing in the world had been taken away. But hey, that's what it's like getting older, get used to it; and the upside is for so little effort I have a fresh and healthy yoghurt for pennies these days made by my own fair hands.
1. Get a litre of Organic Milk and heat it on a medium heat to boiling point, stirring all the time to prevent burning and watching to remove it from the heat as it starts to froth up.
2. Remove your starter yoghurt from the fridge so it comes to room temperature before you add it to them milk. Otherwise it will lower the temperature of your yoghurt to quickly which is not what you want. I would not recommend that you use some from the old batch as it will not be as thick or creamy. Push the boat out and get something like Greek Total Yoghurt for a really luxurious batch of your own. Put a lid on it and
3. Check back ever 20 mins on the cooling of the milk. In roughly an hour, when the milk has cooled to body temperature (ie. when you dip your finger in it feels luke-warm and you can hardly feel any change of temp) whisk in a large half a cup of your yoghurt starter until completely dissolved.
4. Now pour the milk into a wide-mouthed thermos flask or wrap in a towel and place the pot in the air-cupboard, by a radiator, in the oven with the pilot-on, or some other warm place. The idea is that the milk cools very slowly and hence the bacteria react with the starter. To be honest I don't know that much more than this, and you don't really need to. In about 8 hrs your yoghurt should be ready.
Place into a container with a tightly sealed lid and fridge. Should keep for about 10 days. When it's staring to turn it isn't deadly to you, it just starts to taste too tangy and not good.
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| Soya Beans soaked overnight and ready to use |
Firstly, I would say don't waste time on trying to make soya milk without investing in a Soya milk Maker. When you think of how much you spend on cartons of soya milk, it pays for itself in under a month I would say. Also, My God, does it make life easier. Yes, you can do it without one, but it you have to stand there grinding the beans in a food processor and transfering boiling-hot liquid from one place to the next. I did it for some time in India where soy milk makers were not so easy to come by. In my opinion now, that is the only excuse that holds water with me - and even then I would recommend ordering one there by hook or by crook.
By the way, I just had a thought..don't try and make this with ordinary soya milk from a pack. It won't work, you have to make a fresh one of you're own so carry on reading...
So, I'm not going to go into the steps of how to make it without one of these. Just get one. The all you do is soak your soya beans overnight, rinse and drain them, put them in the machine and turn it on. You even get a measuring cup and there is a measuring line on the inside of the jug. An absolute no- brainer; you can also vary it with adding rice, nuts or other grains, or even doing rice of almond milk on their own. And all in a bout 20 minutes. The only downside of this thing is that it's hard to clean as you have to heat up the soya beans as you grind them. Then again, if you don't want extra lceaning hassle just make almond milk as it doesn't take heating and hence the stuff doesn't get so stuck on to the sides.
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| the soya milk maker |
Well, I'd like to drag this post out more but there's really no need. So, to make the Tofu, once the machine beeps you have to sieve the milk to remove the extra pulp (Okara) that the Soya Beans make once their ground. Once this is done (ensuring the milk is still close to boiling temperature ) you simply gradually stir in your Citric Acid or Magnesium Sulphate or Nilgiri. This you can get from the supplier of your machine. Or if not you can get Citric Acid from the Pharmacy/Chemist. I'm not sure of the quantities for that, but using Nilgiri as I do, one batch of soya milk (1L) uses about a large teaspoons' worth. As you stir it in, it should start to curdle the milk, keep stirring slowly. Then cover and leave for a minute.
At this point the tofu curds should have separated completely from the whey and sunk to the bottom. Over a sink, pour the liquid through the cheesecloth into the tofu press. The whey will run through the cloth and you'll be left with the curds which you then press for an hour or more; depending on how firm you want your tofu. Enjoy!
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| Tofu Press |
A blueprint for a basic Granola Recipe
Granola is one of those things that has somehow got lost mid-atlantic ocean on the way over to Europe from North America.
Or, maybe in typical English fashion, it was rejected as too luxurious or too indulgent compared to it's poorer cousin Porridge.
It never fails to surprise me how you can go one place and something is so absolutely everywhere you get tired of seeing it, then in another place when you ask around the shops they look at you in a kind of incredulous disbelief that you could even come out and ask the question.
Granola is like that. When we were in Canada it seemed like whoever didn't really know what to do with their lives went in to making Granola. It doesn't take much effort and you get the chance to feel a little creative once you've added the oil to the oats with adding your own dried fruit and nut combo.
It's a kind of easy and fun thing to do. But the one place I think the Granola mini-entrepreneur falls down, and this being the most critical stage in fact, is that the stuff doesn't keep well past a week. It starts to lose it's freshness and you really can taste the difference between a store bought pack that's probably months old at least and a homemade version. So sorry to all those would be granola-millionaires just waiting to finally take Europe by storm, but better folks that you make your own, and, however pretty the packaging may be (and they truly do a good job on this) resist a stale old bag from the shops.
Or, maybe in typical English fashion, it was rejected as too luxurious or too indulgent compared to it's poorer cousin Porridge.
It never fails to surprise me how you can go one place and something is so absolutely everywhere you get tired of seeing it, then in another place when you ask around the shops they look at you in a kind of incredulous disbelief that you could even come out and ask the question.
Granola is like that. When we were in Canada it seemed like whoever didn't really know what to do with their lives went in to making Granola. It doesn't take much effort and you get the chance to feel a little creative once you've added the oil to the oats with adding your own dried fruit and nut combo.
It's a kind of easy and fun thing to do. But the one place I think the Granola mini-entrepreneur falls down, and this being the most critical stage in fact, is that the stuff doesn't keep well past a week. It starts to lose it's freshness and you really can taste the difference between a store bought pack that's probably months old at least and a homemade version. So sorry to all those would be granola-millionaires just waiting to finally take Europe by storm, but better folks that you make your own, and, however pretty the packaging may be (and they truly do a good job on this) resist a stale old bag from the shops.
6 cups rolled oats
Around 1/2 cup chopped nuts (Hint: I use pecans or Macadamia’s)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup to ½ cup honey, Agave, or maple syrup (Hint: try the Maple and add a large tablespoon brown sugar too. It gives more caramel crunchy aspect)
1/2 cup raisins, currants, cranberries or chopped apricots
*add any other extras you want to the dry ingredients, but keep the wet –dry ratio and only add dried fruits after cooking as they will burn*
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients except the dried fruit in large bowl and mix to make sure everything is distributed.
2. Pour the wet ingredients into a food processor, or use a hand held blender, and blend thoroughly to emulsify the sugar in the oil. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and stir for a minute to completely combine.
3. Cut baking parchment to the size of your two oven trays, spread the mixture evenly to cover, and bake until golden, turning every 10 minutes so that it browns evenly. This will take about 20-30 minutes, but depends on your oven.
4. Take out when done and immediately mix in the dried fruit. Allow to cool completely on the trays before Store in a plastic container.
Making Your Own Fresh Pasta
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| Rolled Out dough ready for Lasagne or to be cut into noodles |
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| The Pasta Machine doing it's work (and my hand helping) |
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| Storing the noodles so they don't clump into one big dough-ball |
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| another way to do it involving a broomstick |
This is essential if you want to health-ise your Pasta meals. The difference you will notice is worth it; both in taste and the way you feel after. Firsly, these noodles haven't been sitting around in a pack somewhere for a couple of years. They're a bit fresher, which always helps with taste I think. Second, they are not only white flour, but include semolina which is a more whole form of wheat and chickpea flour too. I find the chickpea flour really adds depth to the flavour as well as completing a full-protein when combined with the grain flours.
It's not half as odious as you might think making noodles and even easier if you just want to make Lasagne or even home-made Ravioi's as you don't need to cut and dry the noodles. The real thing is too, that after doing this you just feel amazingly proud of yourself and when you're sitting with your partner eating your pasta you just help keep pointing out that you actually made the noodles yourself; no really..
Ingredients for Pasta Dough (enough for 1 meal for 2 hungry people)
1/2 cup semolina flour
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp vital wheat gluten
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbs Olive Oil
Roughly Half a cup Warm Water
1. Sift the dry in ingredients together (I use a wire whisk to make sure everything is nicely incorporated). Make a well in the centre and add the Olive Oil and two-thirds of the warm water. Starting turning the flour into the liguid, gradually bringing together a dough.
2. Add more water until you have a pretty stiff dough and then kneed for a few minutes until smooth. Place one tsp of Oil in a bowl and roll the dough in it. Cover the bowl and leave for a half and hour.
3. Take out the dough and flour a work surface wide enough to roll the dough out on. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Either put through a Pasta Machine following the instructions (basically fee through the rollers twice on each setting decreasing the setting by about 3 - down from about 7-4 depending on your machine). If you don't have a machine, or even if you do, you can try rolling i out by hand with a rolling pin, I actually find this easier these days.
4. Leave the rolled sheets to rest for 10 minutes before cutting (by hand or with the Machine), making into Ravioli's or fresh lasagne-sheets.
