Veggie Bake with Mango Dip

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I love the indian veggie bakes. These are often made with just onions but, inspired by a recipe I found in a newspaper, here I also include cauliflower and turned out absolutely delicious! Also, they are baked, not deep fried, which I think is a lot tastier for this recipe. The sweet dip is the perfect match for the veggie bake with all its spices/flavours. Serve as a pre-dinner snack with a bowl of the sauce to dip in, as a starter or as part of a main course.

400 g cauliflower, finely chopped (no large chunks)
2 medium leeks, finely chopped
Olive oil

Coating:
200 ml quinoa- or buckwheat flour
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground turmeric
Pinch of salt
150 ml water
2 tbsp hot mango chutney
1,5 tbsp tomato puree
olive oil

Sauce:
150 g Greek yoghurt
½ large ripe mango
1,5 tbsp mango chutney, hot
6-8 fresh mint leaves
1 tsp lemon juice
Dash of salt

Oven at 200 C
1. Sauce: Mix the ingredients together with a hand held blender. Chill in refrigerator.
2. Chop and fry the cauliflower and leeks until soft.
3. Mix the coating until smooth.
4. Combine the coating and veggies well.
5. Drizzle oil on baking tray. Drop the mix from a spoon and flatten each pile slightly. Drizzle some more oil on top.
6. Bake for 25 minutes turning once. Please note that if the veggie piles are difficult to turn you need to leave them a bit longer.

Campari Mango and Orange Juice Spheres

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Molecular Cooking has long intrigued me and I have just begun exploring this technique. I’d like to share one of the easiest recipes I have so far come across, almost fail-safe…

It may look like an egg yolk but it is actually a drink inside a thin membrane of jelly. A fun way to serve the pre dinner cocktail!

The technique used is called Frozen Reverse Spherification. This is the equipment I used t create this:

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For the Spheres:
200 g mango, pureed in a mixer
100 ml orange juice
3 tbsp Campari
4 g of “Gluco” (Calcium Gluconolactate – two types of salt)
Silicone moulds to freeze the semi spheres in.

Bath:
1 liter of water
5 g of algine (sodium alginate – extracted from brown algae)
A slotted spoon to fish out the spheres without any accompanying liquid.

Clean Bath:
1 liter of clean water in a wide bowl.

1. Combine all ingredients for the Campari mix and pour into the silicone moulds. Place overnight in freezer with some cling film on top.
2. Using an immersion blender, thoroughly mix the Bath until the algine is completely dissolved. This will take some time. Pour in a wide bowl and cover with cling film. Set in refrigerator overnight to let the air bubbles in the mix escape.
3. Next day, heat the Bath and the Clean Bath to around 50 C (easiest done in a microwave oven).
4. Drop one Campari Sphere at the time into the Bath, swirl around so it is coated all around (don’t let them float nor sink) and let stay in bath for 4 minutes (if you let them stay in longer the membrane will become thicker). You can do several pieces at the same time as long as they do not touch each other.
5. Using a slotted spoon, fish out the spheres and transfer to Clean Bath to rinse off.
6. Then place on a plate to thaw completely before serving.
7. You should end up with perfect semispheres of Campari and Mango/Orange Juice. They will have a thin layer of jelly around them that will pop in your mouth (they should be eaten whole) with the liquid (the drink) seeping out.
8. Fun and delicious!

Fresh and Fruity Vegetable Starter

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This starter takes a while to prepare since everything must be cut into really fine pieces. Quite time consuming but definitely worth it! The flavours will come out much stronger and also mix better with eachother.

Serve as part of a dinner with:
Main course – Chilli Crab Cakes and Rosemary Courgette Spaghetti
Dessert – Sweet and Sour Sauce with Strawberries and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Serves 4

3 large tomatoes, discard seeds and chop
½ medium size cucumber, discard seeds and chop
½ large red onion, chopped
3 sundried tomatoes, chopped
½ ripe mango, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, chopped

3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil

Season with ground coriander, salt and pepper
(OPTIONAL – Smoked Salmon Slices)

  • Mix all finely chopped ingredients together
  • Season
  • Add the oil and juice

Serving options:

  • In a glass
  • Using a ring mold, shape on the serving plate
  • Fill a rolled up slice of smoked salmon.

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Warm Mango with Honey and Ginger

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This dessert can be heated on the grill or in the oven depending on what you prefer. Serve it with homemade vanilla ice-cream!

Serve with:
Starter: Crackers with Glazed Onion and Blue Cheese
Main course: Chicken and Aubergine skewers with Dukkah and Sallad


Serves 4

2 mango, peeled and cut into pieces
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tbsp honey
50 ml desiccated coconut, roasted
Fresh mint leaves, chopped, for decoration

1. If you are preparing this dish on the grill use an aluminium tray, otherwise you can choose to make a package with aluminium foil.
2. Heat the grill or put the oven to 200 degrees. Add butter to a pan, let it melt, then add ginger and honey. Put the mango and the butter mixture in the aluminium package and mix well. Grill for 5-10 minutes then remove from the grill and sprinkle coconut and mint on top. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.