Yellow Salsa (Grilled Peach)

This summer I was inspired by friends to make salsa.  As the summer winds down, here's a perfect dish to enjoy with the lasts of the summer produce.

Select yellow salsa ingredients, yellow tomatoes, peaches, corn, yellow onions and peppers.

Coat the peaches and corn in olive oil and add some colour and char on the grill.

You don't want to cook the peaches to a mush, just sear them well.

Mince the ingredients and stir together with a bit of salt, cumin and chipotle (for that nice kick and extra smokyness).  Garnish with parsley or cilantro and serve with your favourite tortilla chips.

Grilled Courgette with Spaghetti and Vegan Cream Sauce

Fresh from the garden grilled zucchini snuggling a nest of spaghetti.

First, cut strips of, and grill, the zucchini.  Not too long on the grill - just hot and fast.  Be sure to take the nice even strips from the middle of the zucchini.

Hack up the remainder of the zucchini and add whatever else you've got: a few green beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers.  Caramelize over medium-high heat with a bit of olive oil and salt.

Deglaze the pan with water and allow the mixture to cool slightly.  Then add soaked walnuts and the veg mixture to the blender and puree until creamy.  Season to taste.

Arrange the plate with the cream sauce as a base, followed by spaghetti (seasoned with salt and olive oil) and wrap with the grilled courgettes.

Grilled Aubergine with Rice and Tomatoes

Fresh from the garden and grilled until tender.  Served with seasoned rice, diced tomatoes and a balsamic reduction.

First, slice and soak the eggplant in heavily salted water while the grill preheats.

Drain and rinse the eggplant.  Coat with olive oil and grill until tender.

Make sure to get some good grill lines.

Season jasmine rice with salt, smoked paprika and olive oil.

Plate by layering rice and eggplant.  Garnish with diced tomatoes and a balsamic reduction with shallots.  And basil, always gotta have basil.

Baked Summer Squash

A delicious, fresh from the garden and vegan dish; baked and stuffed summer squash.  Many squashes, scallop, patty pan, rond-de-nice, don't slice well.  Rather than chunking them in a stew, this preparation provides an elegant presentation.

Select the chunky and round squash.

Slice the bottom to flatten it, scoop out the insides with a melon-baller and save them for the filling.  Then coat each of them with olive oil and bake at 35oF.  To keep them from moving, ramekins or muffin tins can be used.  Thirty minutes is usually long enough - just make sure they're tender.

While they're baking, saute a mirepoix (carrots, celery, onions), adding tomatoes, peppers and the scooped out parts of the squash.

When it's reduced, it should nice and thick.

Spoon the filling into the squash and garnish with fresh herbs.

Oat Bread

Give any wholegrain bread a classy look and a full flavour with oatmeal.

Simply dip the dough in water and roll in oats.  Don't try with quick oats - it just doesn't work well.

Pasta and Vegan Cream Sauce

Made from scratch pasta and a vegan cream sauce that doesn't taste like puke!

Start making the pasta with equal parts of semolina and spelt flour.  Add in water, olive oil and a bit of salt and knead until it forms a ball.

Let is rest for a while; wrapped in cling film or under an inverted bowl.

Puree soaked walnuts, sauteed onions, peppers and celery along with stewed tomatoes.  I used cashews in this recipe and was slightly disappointed.  It just made the sauce too sweet.  Since the vegetables have already been cooked (sauteed and stewed) the sauce is ready at this point.  Simply warm it if needed.

Shape the dough into the desired shapes.  I'm a fan of fettuccine.

Serve with the sauce - a tasty and authentic vegan dish.  It's simple and, although it's a "cream sauce," it stands on it's own rather than merely imitating a dairy version.

Squash Blossom Fritters

Mmmm... fried food.

Prepare mashed potatoes with a nice savoury spice: onion powder, dill, green onion, parsley, smoked paprika and salt.

Pick full and large flowers that open easily.  This has to be done early in the morning as the flowers tend to wilt in the sun.  Be sure to pick the "male" flowers as they are the easiest to work with.  It's easy to tell the difference - the female flowers have small squashes attached.

Pipe in the potato mix:

Coat with a flour-water batter.  I used buckwheat so that it's gluten free.

Fry ~375F until golden brown.  Buckwheat is a darker grain, so these are fairly brown.

Drain on kitchen roll (paper towels):

Serve while still hot - otherwise they go soggy.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Sauteed sweet potato gnocchi served with spinach, basil, tomatoes and balsamic "caviar."  Here's the link to how to make the "caviar"

Boil and rice the yams:

Add flour, salt and mix:

Roll, cut and boil the dumplings.  Then pan-fry.

Beignet

Happy doughnut day!  Celebrating French style with made from scratch beignet.  These are made from my whole wheat (50%) and molasses bread dough.  Mind = blown.

This one is full of Nutella!

(not vegan)

Vişne Nektari

More travels have brought me new flavours. This is a beverage typically found in Turkey. Although I rarely drink sweetened beverages, this is worth the calories.

Start with fresh or frozen tart cherries. They should constitute ~35% by mass for your recipe (I know, I know, just get a kitchen scale and everything works perfectly).

If you haven't got fresh tart cherries, frozen pie cherries are perfectly fine.

More math: ~5% should be sugar. Ex: ~250g cherries needs 50g sugar and ~750ml water.  The total mass is ~1kg, but after straining the pulp, the volume yield is a bit less than a litre.

Blend it up!

Strain it through progressively smaller sieves. The more pulp that remains the more astringent, or dry, it will be.

Serve chilled.

Balsamic Vinegar "Caviar"

Flavourful balsamic bundles, perfect for serving with fresh tomatoes.

Start with a moderate vinegar:

Mix agar agar and vinegar:

Heat until all the agar agar crystals are dissolved:

Fill an irrigation syringe with the hot mixture: Irrigation Syringe available at Amazon.com

Drop slowly into freezing oil.  Grape seed oil works well:

Strain:

It keeps well for a few days in the refrigerator.

Chopped Salad with Carrot Ribbons

Red bell pepper, carrots, tomatoes, cauliflower and basil. Dressed with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt.

I used these peelers to make the carrot ribbon:

Pomegranate Avocado Spread

I'm enjoying some of the best pomegranates at the moment.  This simple spread is the perfect alternative to mayo or butter in sandwiches.

Extract the kernels:

Whisk an avocado until smooth.  Add a pinch of salt and a bit of lemon - just enough to prevent oxidation:

The perfect spread:

Thai Noodles and Veg

This tasty dish is rich, warm and packed with lots of fresh veg.

Soak and drain the rice noodles:

Prepare the seasonings: curry paste, peanut paste, lemongrass, salt, red curry paste:

Cashews for protein:

Chop the veg - carrots, onions, green onions, lettuce, sweet peppers:

Heat a can of coconut mild; add the seasonings and veg:

Promptly add in the noodles and cook until done:

Warm yet spicy comfort food!

Roasted Cauliflower

A cauliflower roast plated on quinoa and garnished with pistachios.

First, hack up the cauliflower, sprinkle with salt, drizzle with olive oil and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

After baking at 350F for ~20 minutes, you may want to broil it to add colour.

(nom)

Serve with prepared quinoa and garnish with salted pistachios.  Nutty, roasty and filling.

Doughnuts

Fried carbs!!!!

Regular dough recipe with the addition of more sugar, barley malt powder, a whisper of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Mix, let raise and roll to 6mm (.25 inch).

Use a doughnut cutter or, simple ring cutters.

Peel the sheet of dough away leaving the cutouts.  Re-roll the dough or form to other shapes.

Peanut oil is one of the best frying oils.

Use a deep fryer, or a pan and thermometer.  175C or 350F seems to work best for me.

Place gently in the oil and flip them as needed when they're that magical golden brown colour.

Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels.  I also place newspaper underneath the paper towels to absorb more oil.

Make a glaze of icing sugar, vanilla, salt and water (or soy milk).

Mmmmm, sugar...

Dip the fried dough in glaze.

I also added cocoa powder and coffee to glaze and make a nice mocha drizzle.

Indulge, doughnuts are vegan ;) Mind = blown.

Apricot and cranberry scones

Mix chopped dried-apricots and dried cranberries.  Rehydrate with orange juice.  Add a grating of orange zest and a slash of vanilla essence.

Mix the flour and fat - here it's coconut oil with.  A little salt, sugar and baking powder and it's ready to have the soy milk added.

Form into a round flat (2cm thick) loaf.  Bake at 175C  (350F).

These are not the modern American scones, sugary, eggy and greasy.  These are more like the English mildly sweet biscuits.

Kale Chips

Fresh picked from the garden.  Coated with olive oil and sea salt.

Spread on parchment or a baking mat.

Bake at 175C (350F) until crisp - guilt free deliciousness.

Winter salad

Fresh grown salad in winter?!  That's the way how I grow.

Fresh: lettuce, beet leaves, broccoli, carrots, onions

Strawberries and Fried Shortcake

Happy Valentines Day from jLAmode! [vegan]

Here's a vegan and dairy version of a classic - with a twist.  Rather than baking a shortcake, fry it!

First, add sugar to diced strawberries to begin the maceration process - it draws the liquid out of the berries making a natural, flavourful syrup.

Combine flour, malt, sugar, coconut oil, salt, baking powder and nutmeg.

Add soy milk and vanilla extract and mix just until combined.

It should be a very thick batter.  Scoop spoonfulls into medium hot oil and fry until golden brown.

Drain and allow to cool for a few moments.

Plate with strawberries and soft-whiped cream (or omit for vegan)

[dairy]