Alice's only constraint to the food that we cook was that it contain lots of vegetables, not a hard thing since Alice's fridge was full of great veggies. I also wanted to use something that I had never cooked before, Quinoa. We started by roasting lots of vegetables, including sweet potato, carrot, acorn squash and garlic, cut into half inch pieces and tossed in herbed olive oil. For the Quinoa, we were advised to treat it like cous cous, something that I do cook often. We cooked the Quinoa in half vegetable stock, half water, with a little white wine added for flavour. We then sauteed some onions, kale, oyster mushrooms and garlic, and tossed these with some toasted pine nuts, mint and the juice and zest of a lemon. This was added to the cooked Quinoa and seasoned well. The final touch was some toasted sourdough, rubbed with more garlic (there seemed to be a lot of garlic everywhere this time), smooshed with goats cheese and broiled until slightly browned.
As no good meal is complete without something sweet to end, I knocked up a banana and crystallized ginger, blueberry muffin & butter pudding. After sauteing some chopped banana and crystallized ginger in a little butter and placing it in a heatproof bowl, I topped it with slices of blueberry muffin that had been soaked in an egg custard. Finally, i sprinkled the top with raw sugar and baked for about twenty minutes.
So, the specific recipes:
Warm Quinoa Salad with Roast Vegetables and Goats Cheese Crostini
Serves 4
For the Warm Quinoa Salad
1 cup Quinoa, rinsed
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup water
2 tbsp white wine (optional)
1/2 tsp pinch salt
1 cup hot tea
6 dried apricots, sliced thin
1 tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced
4 leaves kale, shredded
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 large oyster mushrooms, sliced
1 small tomato, diced
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
8 leaves mint, chopped
1 lemon, juice and grated zest
Bring the stock, water, wine (if using) and salt to a boil. Add Quinoa, stir and reduce to a simmer. Cook until done and the liquid absorbed (about 15 mins but keep testing for doneness). Meanwhile rehydrate the dried apricot in the tea until plump, then use the tea for the next recipe. Saute the onion and kale in butter over medium heat. After slightly browned, add garlic and oyster mushrooms and saute for a few minutes. Add the chopped tomato, cook for a further minute and remove from heat. Add the pine nuts, mint and lemon juice and zest. When the Quinoa is cooked, stir in the vegetable mix.
For the roasted vegetables
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1 large sweet potato, 1/2 inch cubes
2 carrots, 1/2 inch lengths
8 cloves garlic
1 acorn squash, chopped into inch chunks with skin on
Mix the oil, vinegar, herbs and salt together in a large bowl. Toss the vegetables in the mix and arrange on a baking tray. Bake at 400F (210C) for about 30 mins or until tender.
For the goats cheese crostini
4 slices sourdough, sliced into thirds
1 clove garlic
4 oz goats cheese (100g)
Toast the sourdough slices under a broiler. Rub with garlic and smoosh with goats cheese. Broil for about a minute or until the cheese is slightly browned.
Banana and Crystallized Ginger, Blueberry Muffin & Butter Pudding
1 cup hot tea
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbsp butter
1 banana, sliced
2 tsp crystallized ginger, chopped fine.
2 tbsp conserve or marmalade (I used lime pear conserve)
1 blueberry muffin (or any other type of muffin), sliced
1 egg
100mL cream (3 oz)
2 tbsp raw sugar (or brown sugar)
Rehydrate the raisins in the hot tea until plump; discard tea. Saute the banana and ginger in the butter over medium heat for 1 minute or so. Add the conserve and cook for a further 30 seconds. Place in the bottom of a heatproof bowl with the raisins. In another bowl, whisk the egg and cream together. Submerge the slices of muffin in the custard mix then arrange on top of the banana. Pour any remaining custard mix over muffin slices, then sprinkle top with raw sugar. Bake at 350F (180C) for about 20 mins.
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