We’ve been having cauliflowers every now and again throughout the year. The ones growing at the moment are now big enough to eat so I’m looking for new recipes and ways of preparing them.
Stir-fried Cauliflower
This recipe is quick to prepare and tastes delicious.
INGREDIENTS
Cauliflower florets
4 cloves garlic, micro-planed
1 inch ginger, micro-planed
extra virgin olive oil
sesame seeds
soy sauce
salt
METHOD
Heat a frying pan with some extra virgin olive oil.
Add the cauliflower florets, season with salt, cover and cook on a high heat for about 5 minutes so that they take on a nutty brown colour.
Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Drain the cauliflower in a colander and transfer to a bowl.
Add some extra virgin olive oil to the pan.
Fry the garlic and the ginger for a couple of minutes before sprinkling over some soy sauce.
Return the cauliflower to the pan and mix thoroughly.
Put the cauliflower back in the bowl and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
This is my second recipe for gazpacho. My first recipe (Andalusian gazpacho) is the more traditional recipe that uses onion, cucumber, garlic, green pepper and garlic, but today I wanted to make a more tomato-based, thinner version like the one they serve in glasses in bars in towns around Andalucía, and Sevilla where I have fond memories of it from.
You must use ripe tomatoes with plenty of flavour for this recipe. Our tomatoes are generally ready at the beginning of August, so if I fancy making this before then, I will use plum tomatoes which tend to have more flavour than other early varieties.
This recipes serves two but it can be easily adapted.
Gazpacho
It only takes a few minutes to prepare this refreshing, cold tomato soup which is perfect for hot, summer days.
INGREDIENTS
Tomatoes
1/2 cup water
4 cloves garlic
extra virgin olive oil
cider vinegar
2 capfuls balsamic vinegar
cider vinegar
50g stale bread
½ cup water
salt
METHOD
Core and roughly chop the tomatoes and add to a food blender with the garlic.
Blend for a couple of minutes.
Add the balsamic vinegar, a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, a splash of cider vinegar and a teaspoon of salt, and blend well.
Roughly chop the stale bread and add to the blender with a teaspoon of home-made mayonnaise.
These vegetarian burgers are made from tofu and are flavoured with marmite and soy sauce. They hold together well and can be fried in a frying pan or cooked on the barbeque.
Vegetarian Tofu Burgers
These burgers can quickly be whipped up in advance and fried or cooked on the BBQ the next day.
INGREDIENTS
200g block of firm tofu, cut into chunks
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 teaspoons Marmite
2 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
8 slices of cheddar or Havarti cheese
METHOD
Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan.
Add the chopped onion, season with salt and pepper, and fry gently until soft slightly caramelised.
Remove from the heat after another couple of minutes.
Add the tofu, garlic, Marmite, soy sauce to the food processor and blitz until smooth.
Transfer to a bowl and add the rolled oats, fried onion and salt.
Mix well and leave for at last 30 minutes or overnight to allow flavours to develop and the oats to soften.
Divide the mixture into 8 balls of about 80g each.
Keep a bowl of cold water handy and wetting your hands constantly, shape the balls into round patties about 3cm thick.
Put on a plate and keep in the fridge until you are ready to fry them.
Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan.
Fry the burgers for about 5 minutes on each side, turning once so that they get a nice colour.
Put a slice of cheese on each burger, turn off the heat and cover the pan to melt the cheese.
Although traditional garlic mayonnaise or “aïoli” is only made with egg yolks, I wanted to find a recipe that used the whole egg to take full advantage of the eggs that our hens lay.
In a previous post, I described my first way of making mayonnaise with a stick blender using 1 large egg and 250ml of sunflower oil. Although this original method is fine if you have large eggs, it doesn’t tend to work so well if you have younger hens laying smaller eggs. I also wanted a way of making larger quantities and so I developed the method shown on this page.
The mayonnaise only takes a couple of minutes to make. As long as you use large eggs at room temperature, the mayonnaise will set properly. If you have smaller eggs, then I recommend you use three, blending two together in the first part of the process and using the third in the second stage.
The key to success is to slowly raise and lower the stick blender, using a circular motion to incorporate all of the mixture thoroughly. This method works best if you use the long tall jar that comes with the stick blender.
Here is a link to the video of me making this mayonnaise:
INSTRUCTIONS
INGREDIENTS
250ml or a cup of sunflower oil
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 pinches of salt
4 large cloves of garlic
METHOD
Put one of the eggs, the garlic cloves, sunflower oil, mustard and salt into the tall blender bowl.
Using the stick blender, quickly blend all of the ingredients together on the fastest setting possible.
Crack in the second egg.
Gently lower the stick blender to the bottom directly over the egg yolk.
On the fastest setting of the blender, blend for a couple of seconds.
Slowly lift and lower the blender, first by about 5mm and then 10mm.
Continue blending, gradually raising the blender by a couple of centimetres each time.
As you lift and lower the blender, use a circular motion from front to back.
You should be able to see how mixture lightens at the bottom of the bowl as the mixture turns into mayonnaise.
This is a basic recipe for preparing red cabbage. It is also possible to add some chopped ginger and garlic to the sesame oil before adding the cabbage and then sprinkling some sesame seeds over before serving.
Chinese-style Red Cabbage
This is a quick and easy recipe for preparing red cabbage.
INGREDIENTS
Red cabbage, finely shredded
sesame oil
soy sauce
salt
METHOD
Heat the sesame oil in a sauté pan.
Add the cabbage, season with salt and toss well
Add a splash of water and cover the pan with a lid.
Cook on a high heat for 5 minutes.
If you like your cabbage slightly crunchy, remove from the heat but if you like it softer, lower the heat and cook for a further 5 minutes.
