Lemon Chick'n and Mango Fried Rice

This is delicious authentic Asian take-away food exactly like the kind you find anywhere except Asia...
Lemon chicken was always one of my favourites when my family got Chinese take-aways, and this is my Mum's recipe for making it at home. I've used Fry's chicken-style strips here, but you can do it with cubes of tofu too, fried salt and pepper tofu style. It makes a pretty fast, impressive and delicious dinner when paired with fried rice, tonight served with a winter vegetable riff on Isa's Mango Fried Rice (with red cabbage and cauliflower and green capsicum, and sans basil).

Chinese Take-away Lemon Chick'n

For the batter, mix together cornflour, salt, pepper and some baking powder (about 1 tsp per 4 Tbsp cornflour). No-Egg is good if you've got it. Add water, one teaspoonful at a time and stirring after each, until a loose batter is formed. Dip your (defrosted) chick'n strips in the batter and fry on each side in hot oil until puffed and golden, and keep warm until ready to serve. You can also deep fry 'em.

For the lemon sauce, combine the following ingredients in a saucepan:
grated rind and juice of 1-2 large lemons (can sub oranges for some or all)*
1/4 - 1 tsp of vege stock powder (be careful here, as stocks vary in strength. Start with a little).
1 Tbsp cornflour
1-3 Tbsp brown sugar (depending on how tart you want it, and if you've put in orange or not)
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 - 1 cup water (again, depending on how concentrated you want it)

Stir until the cornflour has dissolved, then heat until clear and thickened (saucy). Serve the fried chick'n strips with the lemon sauce poured over, and chopped spring onions. Serve with plain rice and fried/steamed vegetables, or for a fancier meal, serve with a dish of fried rice and veges like the one linked to above.

* I like to combine the juices of both fruits so I can cut down the added sugar. It still works out very lemony if you don't put in the orange rind. Obviously, if you sub orange for all, you will have Orange Chick'n, not Lemon, but that's ok. That's a take-away thing too.

The strips:

Chocolate birthday cake (the best)

I had a friend's birthday to bake for and then Isa at the Post Punk Kitchen came out with this recipe for Chocolate Yoghurt Bundt Cake. It had to be done! I didn't have enough chocolate for both icing and putting in the cake, so I left out the chocolate chips. I also cut out some of the sugar, because I often find Isa's baked goods too sweet. The result was a very dark chocolate cake, which I quite enjoyed. But I think in this instance the sugar amount given is justified, especially without the chocolate chips. I did take inspiration from a Sacher torte, covering the cake in apricot jam and then a rich chocolate-based ganache.

This is a good cake if you want quick and easy without sacrificing fancy. With all the yoghurt, it's not even all that unhealthy. I think it might be the perfect cake. A cake's cake.

Things do do with chick pea flour (besan)...

I love chick pea flour! It is nutritious, tasty and gluten-free. However, I sometimes find myself looking at it in my pantry and thinking - what will I do with all this chick pea flour? Here are some answers...

1) Make gravy. Chick pea flour makes an excellent base for a roux. For an emergency dinner I made a white-sauce style gravy with a chick pea flour base to pour over pasta and beans. It means you don't get that wheat flour sauce on wheat pasta vibe.

2) Make a besan cheela (an Indian pancake a bit like an egg-free omelette)

3) Make an omelette.

4) Make pakoras (Manjula's Kitchen has a lot of pakora recipes, but me I'm dying to try her bread pakoras some time)

5) Make spicy Indian crackers!

6) One day I will try this amazing looking vegan cheese recipe.

Post Punk bouillabaisse

I really wanted to make Isa's latested creation - vegan bouillabaisse. I wanted to make it so much that I couldn't wait until I had a chance to buy the ingredients (not having nori and fennel on hand all the time). But, despite a lot of needs must substitutions, it still came out delectable. I'm still keen to try it as written some time, but it's good to remember that this version will more than do in a pinch:


As the linked recipe, but with celery instead of fennel, fried zucchini instead of roasted squash, dried thyme rather than fresh, no nori, and tomato paste instead of tinned tomatoes, with some fresh cherrry tomatoes chucked in for texture. I also upped the spice.

Lovely for a winter's evening - hearty, brothy, and a bit fancy with the spice and the orange zest. Not your run of the mill lentil soup.

The Bready Brunch

Yesterday I got up, ate some of the dreaded porridge with some lingon berries to liven it up, and set to work on making bread.

First up was my favourite wheat bread recipe - dense, filled with delicious seeds and carrots. But before adding these, I split the dough in half, put the to-be-seeded bread part aside and added more flour to what was left, to make a smooth white bread dough. This, after rising, was turned into Panipopo - Samoan buns that I loved as a child (note that I followed the linked recipe only for the sauce, which is vegan). There were a few bakeries in Newtown where you could get aluminium trays of the things, delicious browned buns with a thick coconut sauce soaked into the bottom. Delicious. So dessert (morning tea? I don't know, what do you call the sweet things you eat after brunch?) was sorted. (I also sneakily saved some dough for frying and turning into toutons, delicious things that my mother keeps writing to me about from her RSL in Newfoundland. Not having molasses on hand, we ate them with fig jam.)

The seed bread we ate in thick slices with scrambled tofu - fried with garlic, onion, cumin, paprika, thyme, green olives, broccoli, and a small sprinkling of nutritional yeast. So, so good.

So that was a lot of links there, but here is my favourite bread recipe, which started the whole thing.

Wholemeal Bread

(you can use white flour too. If you want to omit the seeds and grains, as I did for the toutons and panipopo,  then just add some more flour a little bit at a time till a smooth dough forms).


3 cups white flour
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 cups mixed seeds/grains (my favourite combo is rolled oats with linseeds and sunflower seeds)
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1 grated carrot (optional)

Mix the above together in a large bowl.

The heat the following liquids to finger warmth:

1 1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cup plant-based milk (or more water)

 Dissolve 50g fresh yeast in the liquid.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and knead on a clean, lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes until smooth, adding flour as necessary. Place in a greased bowl, flip dough over once (so that it is greased all round), leave in a warm place until doubled in bulk.

Knead lightly and shape, and leave again until doubled (I don't always do this). Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 mins until golden.

Cheeze sauce

Laziness with regard to soaking and cooking pulses has meant that we've been breaking out the blender recently for some creamy instant protein goodness. This has resulted in some amazing salads, but with the cold weather having arrived in gusts and downpours, some more comforting fare was called for. So I tried Isa's sunflower seed-based macaroni and cheeze recipe. I never liked Mac and Cheese as a child, never having been a huge fan of buttery or cheesy things. But I figured that my matured tastebuds might appreciate a veganised version. Turns out, not so much. I still don't like Mac and Cheese.

But, I discovered that I do really like that fabled American snack, grilled cheese. I think it's pretty much like a toasted sandwich? Anyway, I took the leftover sauce from the recipe, slathered it on a piece of bread, squirted over some sriracha sauce, put another piece of bread on top, and toasted the lot in a lightly oiled frying pan. And then I ate it and then I made another one. So good.

Elegantly Rustic

Last night's dinner:

A turn to colder weather and fridge full of odds and ends of veges means... vegetable soup! I love how cauliflower makes a creamy soup without the addition of extra fat.

Cauliflower and Celery Soup
 
Saute 1 diced onion and 2-3 cloves garlic in a little oil in a soup pot, for a few minutes until softened.
Add half a small zucchini (chopped), 3 medium ribs of celery (chopped), and a head of cauliflower, chopped. Stir around a bit, and add some dried thyme, oregano, and a couple of pinches of ground cumin. Add enough stock to cover (not too strong). Cook with the lid on until everything is soft. Add 1-2 cups cooked chick peas. Blend everything in a blender till smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Ratatouille Tarte Tatin

This would probably be delicious with croutons, but I decided to fancy it up a bit with a savoury tart to serve on the side. I made a ratatouille-inspired version of the classic tarte tatin. Instead of apples and sugar on the bottom, I sauteed some red onions, fresh tomatoes, aubergine, and zucchini, until reduced. Then I sprinkled on some dried basil and salt and pepper, pressed a pastry top on top of the lot (don't burn your fingers!), pricked lots of holes with a fork and bunged the whole thing in the oven until browned. (Frying pan has to be cast-iron or something that can go in the oven - no plastic or wooden handles). To serve, flip upside down, so that veges are on top. I usually find this step difficult, so I often cut it into wedges while still in the pan, and then flip the wedges individually onto plates. This time I made Isa's olive oil pastry, which worked pretty well for me, but I always have best results with store-bought vegan pastry.

Bestest eggplant curry

I don't know how vegans managed before the Post Punk Kitchen. I really don't. Isa is a genius. I love how accessible and adaptable her recipes are. Being on a budget means that we can't usually afford fresh herbs or out of season veg or a fully-stocked spice rack. Last night we took this recipe for Eggplant curry, added some chopped capsicum, left out the beans, the green lentils, the lemon juice, tomato paste, and fresh coriander, and subbed caraway seeds for the fennel seeds. And it was still spicy and hearty and frighteningly delicious. We had it with wholemeal cous cous, which was a winning combination (but obviously rice or mashed potatoes would be great too, and that would make the meal gluten-free). I've made variations of this curry several times now, and it always goes down a treat. Thank you Isa from the very bottom of my stomach.

Better than my local Chinese restaurant

One thing I really miss about Wellington is the food. As my Mum says, New Zealand is really starting to wake up to the fact that it is a multicultural Asia-Pacific nation, rather than little England 30 years behind the "motherland". In Wellington you can get delicious Asian food that actually bears some resemblance to the stuff you get in different parts of China, or Vietnam, or Japan, or Malaysia, etc. Sometimes you get fun fusion foods that make the best of local ingredients. In Sweden, the Chinese food I've tried hardly deserves to be called food, much less Chinese. So I've started learning to cook my favourite Asian food myself - sometimes with heavy moderations based on what ingredients I can find/afford - but often I'm pretty impressed with the result.

Yesterday we had Isa's fabulous Mango Fried Rice, with a side of salt and pepper tofu because we were out of nuts. Varied the veg a bit too - carrots, cabbage and zucchini chopped small, and some mung bean sprouts. All good.


Southeast-Asian lunch

On the weekend I had a group of friends over, and we made Vietnamese summer rolls (example) - a favourite in my family. I was trying to make the most of the final days of warmish weather before rainy autumn sets in. I also like how summer rolls are interactive - like tacos - you just put out little bowls of different ingredients and a bowl of warm water in the centre for softening the wrappers, and people can construct their own. (In Vietnam they even have a chain restaurant called Wrap and Roll).

Summer rolls

(gluten-free if using tamari instead of soya sauce)

What I put in mine usually depends on what I have on hand, but I usually make a base of
- mung bean or rice vermicelli noodles (lightly seasoned with sesame oil so that they don't clump together)
 
Then add:
- grated carrot tossed with some lime juice to prevent browning
- mung bean sprouts
- finely chopped roasted peanuts
- fresh herbs (at least one of mint, coriander, thai basil).

Other good vege accompaniments are:
- thin staves of cucumber and/or capsicum
- avocado

For protein you can either upp the peanuts, or add some marinated tofu, tempeh or soy/wheat meat.
I like this marinade.

For dipping sauce I usually just mix soya sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, chilli flakes and a little sugar together.

Coconut Agar

For dessert I made coconut agar jellies based on this recipe (using soy milk instead of cow) from the wonderful Shesimmers. I separated the coconut mixture into two loaf tins, and only made half of the coffee mixture which I layered with the coconut in one tin. For the other, I blended the flesh of a mango and a little sugar with some soy milk and then followed the same procedure with the agar-agar. Both were delicious, and even better the next day, for some reason. They weren't quite like the coconut agar I'm used to having at Chinese yum char restaurants in Wellington (the recipe was for Thai jellies), which are more coconutty and don't have the other layers. Next time I might try going all coconut and put in some dessicated coconut soaked in coconut milk (as per my genius Mum's suggestion).

The jellies were very pretty when cut into diamond shapes or hearts and stars using biscuit cutters. We ate them with fresh berries supplied by one of my lovely guests, which set off the tastes and colours beautifully.

Nachos

We don't have nachos often, but these are excellent for a quick heartening dinner for a cold rainy Monday night. These were kind of improvised, but turned out so delicious that it was hard to stop eating them. This makes enough to feed a crowd, like 6-8 hungry people.

For the bean stew:

- 2 cans kidney beans, drained
- 2 cans chopped tomatoes
- 1 can refried black beans
- 2 ribs celery, chopped thinly
- one big onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 tsp paprika (smoked preferably)
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp sugar (if desired)
- chilli flakes (if desired)
- 3 Tbsp nutritional yeast

Fry the onion and celery till soft, add garlic, paprika, cumin, coriander and chilli and a little salt. Fry a minute more. Add beans, tomatoes, and yeast and cook until thick and reduced (about 10 mins). I like to add a little sugar with the tomatoes, but it's up to you.

Serve with any or all of the following:

- nacho chips (or tortillas or rice)
- guacamole (however you like it! I like mashed avocado with crushed garlic, lemon juice, fresh coriander, salt, and some finely sliced jalapenos.)
- Isa's divine queso sauce (which I adore as a quesadilla filling for leftover tortillas or a cheezy accompaniment to the bean stew)
- sliced red onion
- sliced roasted red peppers
- sliced jalapenos

Rainbow lunch

We have an open jar of Thai yellow curry paste that I used in the fabulously satisfying Red Lentil Thai Chili (we used yellow curry paste because shrimpless red was hard to come by at our local. And used pumpkin instead of sweet potato because it is phenomenal with Thai flavours).

I wanted stir-fried noodles to eat with my frozen dumplings, but we didn't have any exciting sauces and I was too lazy to whip one up. Thus curry-fried noodles are born!

Curry-fried Noodles

Chop up an onion. Fry for a few minutes with some oil in a wok or large frying pan.

Chop up a carrot, some cabbage (I used red), some green beans (these pretty much just need their tops and tails off), and pea shoots. Add them to the pan, with the tougher veges first. (These were the veges I had on hand, use whatever that stir fries nicely).

Start cooking a packet of rice noodles.

Towards the end of your frying, add 3 heaped tsp of yellow curry paste, and stir well. Add the noodles when they're done, and mix everything around. Season with a dash of salt and soy sauce (or tamari) to taste. Yum.

Wintery warmers

I always laugh when my sisters say there's no food in the house. You can make such delicious things with such simple ingredients. Yesterday I used the leftover pastry from my soup pie to make an improvised savoury tarte tatin with onions, tomatoes, and zucchini, jazzed up with some dried thyme and a sprinkling of brown sugar. That was a tasty lunch.

Then for dinner for the whole family I made this simple and delicious recipe from the wonderful Isa Chandra. Except without the dill as I'm not much of a fan (somehow living in Sweden for three years has made me associate dill with fish). And with the more substantial texture of wholemeal flour in the dumplings, made with fresh rosemary seeing as my parents grow a ton of it. We bunged in an extra can of beans to bulk out the protein content (fava, because we ran out of white beans). Worried too about it not being enough for a hungry family of six, Dad fried up some cabbage and orange capsicum dressed with lemon juice and black pepper and a drizzle of rosemary and garlic infused olive oil. This was not only delicious on its own but also went well just dumped in the soup as my Mum ate it.

Souper Pie

Yesterday Dad made an amazing vegetable soup. I should ask him what he did. It was vaguely tomato-ey, with all kinds of delicious market veges chopped up in it, and four kinds of beans. It was so good that, combined with the fire he made, I nearly feel happy about autumn.

The broth was so delicious that it all got et and there was just a whole wet pile of soup veges left over. So I put them in a pie. It was tremendously satisfying. No time for pictures, although it came out quite appropriately pie-looking. I use store-bought vegan puff-pastry for the top, and the ever-reliable Isa's recipe for the bottom. Maybe the olive oil I used was particularly strong or something (sorry Mum and Dad, maybe I used the good stuff?!), but I found the that the crust was more olivey than I was expecting, and that the oil took a long time to get to the semi-solid state - more so than other oils I've tried. But on the other hand the pastry did what it was told for once and came out with a good texture, so I'm not complaining.

A woman's place is... ?

It all started with an innocent attempt at concocting vegan creme eggs for Easter Sunday. Then we had all these veges and I decided that pizza would be a great idea. Then we had a guest with (justafiably) hurt feelings who needed cheering up, so I baked apology biscuits. I think I spent pretty much the whole day cooking.

VEGAN CREME EGGS (SORT OF)

With a lack of egg shaped moulds, and a lack of neutral syrups, these became more like chocolate-covered caramel patties, but they were still delicious and came out really pretty when dressed up with some piped icing. My recipe was based on this one.

Ingredients

1/4 cup barley malt syrup
1/8 cup Olivani
1 tsp vanilla essence (or less depending on strength)
1/8 tsp salt
1.5 cups icing sugar

about 200g dark chocolate

Method

1. Combine the syrup, Olivani, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
2. Add powdered sugar, half a cup at a time, mixing by hand after each addition. Mix well until smooth.
3. Cover and refrigerate (or freeze!) until firm, a couple of hours or so
4. Roll balls from the filling (about 12). Place on a greased plate and refrigerate again for a couple of hours.
5. Melt the chocolate with a tsp of oil, and dip centres in chocolate using a fork. Chill for an hour or so and dip again.



The pizzas included a few standard ones with a tomato base, fried capsicum and zucchini, black olives and fried vegetarian sausage chunks.
We also tried to recreate my favourite of Old Corner's vegan pizzas, the felafel pizza. Olive Grove felafel mix makes shit easy. Felafels, fresh tomatoes, thin ribbons of zucchini, and tahini sauce on a tomato base, then topped with extra tahini sauce when out of the oven. Tahini sauce is pretty much just tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and paprika. Then we made Isa's fabulous romesco pizza, except with big fat juicy black olives instead of caramelised onions.

My favourite pizza base recipe is:

Ingredients

1 Tbsp DA yeast (or 25g fresh yeast)
1.5 cups warm water
3.5 cups flour
1 Tbsp olive oil
pinch salt

Method

1. Dissolve yeast in water and set aside for a few mins.
2. Add to flour in a well. Add olive oil and salt. Draw ingredients together and mix to a dough.
3. Knead on a floured surface till dough stops sticking. Put in a greased bowl (turning dough to coat in oil). Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1.5-2 hrs. When doubled, punch down and separate into 3 pieces. Roll out into rounds.
4. Add topping and bake at 250 degrees for 20 mins or so till base is lightly browned.


MELTING MOMENTS

(a Kiwi favourite veganised from here)

Ingredients

125g Olivani
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup custard powder

60g Olivani
2/3 cup icing sugar
innards of 3-4 passionfruit (for a real passionfruit kick. Can use less).

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Use an electric mixer to beat the Olivani until pale and creamy. Add the flour, icing sugar and custard powder and use a wooden spoon to stir to combine.

2. Roll teaspoonfuls of the dough mixture into balls. Lightly flouring your hands can help here. Use a fork dusted in icing sugar to gently flatten. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until just cooked through. Remove from oven and set aside for 30 minutes to cool.

3. Use an electric mixer to beat the extra butter and icing sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the passionfruit and beat until combined. Spread the butter mixture over the flat side of half the biscuits and sandwich together with remaining biscuits.

"It's all part of my autumn almanac..."

Today I made Pumpkin Risotto based on this recipe from the PPK.

We had no cranberries, but it was delicious without. Also had to use half kūmara instead of the pumpkin. Added some nutritional yeast because our stock sucks. Topped it with roasted cashews and ate it with steamed green beans on the side. It was a big success with the whole family, and very filling. A doubled recipe fed 7 of us with a little left over.

Followed it with Isa's amazing brownies, which have been turning up at various Wellington cafes recently. I can't be the only one who diligently follows the PPK blog. Except my parents had this amazing sour cherry jam, and this giant jar of preserved sour cherries, so I made cherry brownies instead. All in all, pretty damn good.