Mum's Zucchini and corn stew

I have for you all another of those 'mum' recipes. There are recipes that my mum used to cook all the time and are tried and true and just yum. This is the first time I have made this since I moved out of home (about 3 years ago) - I don't know why I haven't made it for Nat yet - I guess I have had other things to make - or never had all three main ingredients (kidney beans, zucchini and corn) on hand together. My kidney beans were a little different in colour to what you find in cans (more purple) but they are still wonderful.

I served the stew over some quinoa but it is also wonderful over rice or cous cous. Nat cleaned up his plate and by the time I was home from work the next day he had also devoured all the left overs.

The copy of the recipe that I have is handwritten and I don't know where it came from - so apologies for not giving credit where credit is due (that includes if mum is the creator)

Mum's Zucchini and Sweet-corn Stew
1 onion - chopped finely
2 cloves garlic- crushed or minced
3-4 medium zucchini's - sliced (mum had written 450g of zucchini)
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cummin
1 cup sweet corn kernels
2 cups (or 1 can) red kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1/2 large or 1 small red capsicum cut into 1cm cubes
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 - 1 tsp chili paste (to taste)
sea salt to taste

1. Heat a small amount of oil (or water) in a large saucepan and saute onion 5-10mins until soft and transparent.
2. Add garlic, spices, red capsicum and zucchini and cook for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, sweetcorn, beans and chili paste.
4. Simmer for 10-15mins.
5. Serve over rice, cous cous or quinoa.

Cooling cucumber and corn salad

Before I get onto talking about my yummy lunch I just want to proclaim to the world that as of 10.15am this morning I FINISHED MY UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE!!! I had my last exam (survey research and statistics) this morning and now I am done. It is also a beautiful day outside. Nat is working and rode his bike to work (he left at 6am this morning) and so he won't be home till about 8 tonight I would imagine - so I am going out for a coffee with one friend and then a few drinks with a few others and then come home and have a late dinner and crack open a bottle of wine and watch a movie or something.

So... the long and the short of it is that... pending passing all my exams - I will have a month of holidays before starting work in my graduate position at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Anyway - onto my awesome raw lunch that I am munching on right as we speak.

Cucumber, corn and celery salad

I am really trying to make an effort to include a lot more raw foods in my diet. I am eating a lot more fruit - especially the fruits with higher concentrations of water - and I am trying to eat raw food right up until dinner. It is not a big effort as my body is craving simpler, lighter and cooler foods. (I do sometimes miss my occasional bowl of muesli, but I really want to give this a crack to see whether I notice any difference in my health, energy, mood and skin condition. I am expecting my body to go through a period of detox first though. I don't want to give up on cooked food altogether - I love preparing food and having people over for dinner and going out for dinner with other people. I am going to try and keep my cooked meals simpler but I will still cook food for Nat and when people come over. This is really just a trial.

Anyway - onto my new favourite salad. I am able to eat this salad without any dressing, but if you wanted to it would be nice with some balsamic or cider vinegar or braggs amino acids. Nat doesn't like the idea of raw corn - so when I make him some I usually steam it for a little bit and then dunk it in some cold water before throwing it in.

Cool corn and cucumber salad
Serves 1

1 fresh cob of corn - kernels removed from the cob
1/3 continental cucumber - cubed
1/2 stalk celery - sliced finely
1/2 spring onion or a small amount of red onion diced finely
any other fresh herbs or vegetables you feel like - I like parsley and basil.

Chickpea cutlets, exams and a new dawn for America

Chickpea cutlets with lemon drizzled potatoes,
green beans and corn kernels.

So tonight I finally got round to making chickpea cutlets from Veganomican. I have been wanting to make these since I got the book - but just when I planned to make it Nat got sick - but last night his appetite was back (and with a vengeance!) So after my exam (which went better than I thought possible - I remembered things that an hour previously I thought I was never going to get) and walking out of the exam and turning on my phone to get a text message from nat saying "president Obama", I rushed (well walked quickly) home and was there just in time to watch his victory speech. I had tears in my eyes - there is hope for the world yet.

I was in such a good mood that I thought that chickpea cutlets should be for dinner - and they were FANTASTIC. After reading a number of blogs and the PPK forums I saw that people like them better if they are baked - which is good for me because I am a fry-a-phobe. I was going to make some lemony roasted potatoes, but I ran out of time and I also thought that lots of oil might not be good for Nat's tummy - so instead I just steamed some potatoes, green beans and corn kernels and then drizzled them with lemon juice and seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

My stomach didn't feel like anything as heavy as a cutlet - but I did take a bite out of Nat's and it was good. I just had the veggies and they were simple and hit the spot.

A great dinner to finish a stressfull (from exams and election waiting) but very good day.

Vegan Mofo #9 - Talking about my first time... seitan

Well, I set myself one major challenge during Vegan mofo for 2008 and that was to make my first seitan. The only time I have ever eaten seitan was once in a vegetarian chinese restaurant in Melbourne. I was the only vegan (there were also two vegetarians) but the omnis found it highly amuzing that they were ordering steak and sweet and sour chicken and the like.

My first seitan after it was cooked. Sorry its just on our chopping board - it was 8pm and we still hadn't had dinner and were starving (I decided to make the Seitan a little late in the afternoon. Whoops).

So.... I have been reading all these amazing seitan recipes but I was nervous. Despite looking at seitan recipes for a few weeks, it wasn't until about 10mins before I started making the seitan that I had decided whether I was going to steam or bake or wrap in foil or boil... oh goodness me - there is so much variety out there.

I ended up tossing up between the seitan recipe from VWaV and Seitan O'Greatness. After asking nat - we decided that we would attempt a baked seitan and so my seitan challenge began in earnest.

Me kneeding seitan

It was really good - my aliminum foil ripped on the bottom so it was a little tough underneath (Tip: don't ever buy cheap al. foil) I actually couldn't believe how easy it was (I was imagining it to be some kind of horrible difficult multitasking thing that took hours (maybe because the first time I ever saw a recipe it called for ordinary flour and a heck of a lot of kneeding).

And what did we do with the seitan. Well we chopped it up and put it on some baked spuds with some corn, spinach leaves (the only greens I had in the garden) and a cheesy sauce that I make when I make cauliflower cheese (its made from soymilk, nutritional yeast, arrowroot flour, onion powder and salt). I was desperate to try another type of "cheese" but I just thought that too many experiments was asking for trouble.

The best bit about the spuds was that I was able to fit the potatoes with the seitan into our little toaster oven so that we were using a lot less power.

I enjoyed my first time with seitan and hope to make at least one other type before mofo finishes. Does anyone have a good recipe for a chicken style seitan - or their favourite seitan recipe that they would like to share?? I am very open to suggestions!!

Vegan MoFo - #2 - I have an assignment due... so instead I make a stew

Ok, so my rhyme isn't the greatest. But it's true. Whenever I have assignments and tests and exams where will you find me?? In the kitchen of course!! I find cooking is the best form of procrastination as I get the most lovely hugs and kisses from nat when he comes home from work to a house that is filled with yummy smells. Speaking of smells - the worst thing about our unit is that we get to smell what the unit downstairs are cooking for breakfast or dinner (or lunch if it is a weekend). That wouldn't be so bad if they baked nice things - but they live on the SAD (Standard Australian Diet - very closely related to the Standard American Diet) and so all we smell is fried foods - be it chips, fish, beef, lamb - its aweful. This morning at 7am it smelt like fish - and this evening it smelt like they hadn't changed the oil in their deep fryer for a while - yuck!

Wow I got off track. This dish has different flavours to what I usually make. I loosely based it on a recipe I found in a magazine a while back but I added the beans and changed the spices slightly. It tasted wonderful. There are heaps of leftovers and since I am going out tomorrow night - nat is more than happy to have leftovers tomorrow night which is a good indicator of how good a recipe is (usually I get leftovers if it is not so great).

Sweet potato, corn and bean stew

• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 3 medium zucchini, cubed
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 green capsicum, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2x 400g cans diced tomatoes, drained (reserve the liquid in case it needs moistening)
• 1 can of kidney beans, drained (or equivalent soaked and cooked)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, to taste
• 2 cups frozen corn kernels

1. Saute onion, garlic, pepper and celery in oil or water, stirring, until onion begins to brown, about 7 minutes.
2. Add the kidney beans, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, bay leaf, paprika, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 6 minutes.
4. Add the zucchini and cook covered about 20mins.
5. Remove the bay leaf.
6. Add the oregano, thyme and hot sauce to taste.
7. Add the corn.
8. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
9. Simmer uncovered for 10-15 mins until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick.
10. Serve over rice.