Having my lovely husband cook me anniversary dinner

This morning I got woken up with Nat proclaiming "Happy 6year anniversary". So it was that 6 years ago Nat and I were sitting on the beach on the east coast when he told me he liked me (I can't tell you how happy I was that day until I ended up with the most severe sunstroke that night and had to go to bed at about 8pm with a fever). I had really liked him from the moment I met him (about 8 months previously) and so we started to date - for the first 5 years of the relationship we didn't live in the same city (and sometimes even the same country). On Friday it will be a year since Nat proposed. It would be lovely to do something for that but we will be travelling to the north of the state to celebrate his nephews first birthday the next day. Oh well.

So what did we do for our anniversary - not much really. It was pretty miserable weather here :( Typical spring weather in Tassie - 4 seasons in one day (and sometimes 1 hour). I am the treasurer of a local animal welfare group and we had a meeting this evening and so I had to prepare the books and go to the meeting. This meant that I didn't have time to cook dinner. Not to fear - when I came home Nat was cooking one of my favourite dishes - Ratatouille. The flavours are subtle - I think I like that sometimes. He served it with tri-colour cous cous.

I love the dish - but I realised that Nat had cooked it just for me because he doesn't really like it that much - so sweet (in more ways then one cause it means that I don't have to fight with him for the leftovers).

So without further ado - here is Nat's ratatoullie

Ratatouille Cous Cous

1 medium onion, sliced or diced (depending how chunky you want it)
2 cloves garlic -crushed
1 large red capsicum - chopped
1 large green capsicum - chopped
2 medium zucchini - chopped
1 medium/large eggplant - chopped
1 x 400g dices tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups chickpeas - cooked (or 1 can)
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp fresh basil - chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
2 tbsp fresh parsley -chopped (optional)

2 cups boiling water
2 cups cous cous
salt to taste

parsley (or other herbs) to garnish

1. Saute onion, garlic, capsicum, zucchini and eggplants in oil or water, cook stirring until vegetables are lightly browned.
2. Add undrained crushed tomatoes, stock and dried herbs - bring to the boil, simmer covered for about 30 mins or until vegetables are tender- stir in chickpeas.
3. Combine water, cous cous and salt in a medium bowl, mix well. Leave cous cous until the liquid is absorbed, fluff with a fork and stir in basil and parsley.
4. Serve ratatouille over cous cous and garnish with fresh herbs.

Moroccan inspired foods - pumpkin dip and tajine

**Thanks to all the well wishers - Nat is feeling much better - he had a day off yesterday and was able to relax. Last night he was barely coughing at all and not so cloggy. YAY!!**

I love the subtle flavours of Moroccan foods. The sweet spices and fruity flavours just make me enjoy the food - even if it is slightly mushy and over cooked (like last nights dinner). Yesterday I ran out of hummus - so overnight I defrosted a container of chickpeas and today I made some spicy pumpkin dip - now - I know that its not moroccan. But it does have a Moroccan spice blend in it - does that count?? So here is my Moroccan inspired day.



Spicy Pumpkin Dip
- This is another of mum's recipes - she found it in a magazine and cut it out years ago - but didn't keep anything that let me know which magazine to credit. I have changed it a little bit to reduce the fat content.

500g butternut pumpkin - cut into cubes
1 clove garlic
400g chickpeas (rinsed and drained if from a can - reserve the cooking liquid if you cooked them)
2 tbsp tahini
1 lemon - juiced
1 1/2 tsp Moroccan Spice Mix*
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (depending how hot you like your dips - I don't use much at all)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray - roast for about 40mins until soft
2. Process garlic in food processor (putting it in first means it gets chopped up enough)
3. Add remaining ingredients - season with salt and ground pepper.
4. Add cooking liquid (or water) to reach desired consistency. I found that this sets a lot, so if refrigerating it - make it runnier than you want - otherwise it will be a pate rather than a dip.
5. Devour!!!

*The ingredients in my moroccan spice mix are: salt, garlic (11%), cumin, paprika (10%), sugar, onion, tumeric (6%), pepper, citric food acid, parsley, red pepper, coriander (1%)


Moroccan Bean Stew
I got the flavour inspiration for this dish from the New Internationalist cookbook - Vegetarian Main Dishes From Around the World. I changed many of the veggies to suit what was in my fridge and so got a bit confused as to when I should add each vegetable in. The result was that my eggplant turned out quite mushy. Next time I will add it later. I have adjusted the recipe so that it will not be too overdone. You could really add any veggies that you wanted to - green beans, carrots and zucchini would all work really well.

This recipe was really comforting and damn easy (I still had some black eyed peas/beans in my freezer so I thought it would be a good dish to have.

Serves 4

1 onion - chopped
1 red capsicum - chopped
1 medium sweet potato - chopped
1 medium eggplant - cubed
4 tomatoes - chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
400g black eyed peas (retain the cooking water)
400g spinach - chopped
1/4 cup sultanas (or raisins)

1. Saute the onion in oil or water until it is transparent.
2. Add red capsicum and sweet potato and a little bit of the black-eyed peas cooking water. Cook about 10 minutes.
3. Put in the tomatoes, tomato paste, cinnamon, nutmeg, peas and eggplant and stir well. Season with salt and pepper and then place the spinach on top. Add more reserved liquid and stew until vegetables are tender (but not mushy) - about 20 mins.
4. Serve over rice or cous cous

VeganMoFo - It must be eggplant season... that makes me a happy lady

Eggplants are cheap!! But they are not just cheap compared to how much they cost during the rest of the year... they are cheaper than most other vegetables at the moment. Now I love eggplant... but Nat is taking a little longer to warm to this versatile vegetable. However he did love this dish.

Dahl with eggplant and spinach

1 or 2 medium eggplants
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 tsp madras curry powder
1 tsp chili paste
1 1/2 cups lentils
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups water
About 50g frozen spinach, thawed (I would have used more but I only had one cube left)
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste

Directions
Preheat oven to 200ºC, pierce the eggplant with a fork a couple of times and put on a tray on the middle rack for 30 minutes. When done, cool and then peel off the skin and place in a food processor. Add the spinach.

While the eggplant is roasting, fry the onion and garlic in oil or water until brown. Add spices and seeds and continue to stir for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the lentils, salt and the water to the pot. Bring them to a boil and then cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until the water is almost gone.

When the lentils are cooked, add half the lentil mixture to the food processor.
Add the spinach, tomatoes and tomato paste and process the ingredients on low. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the unblended lentils.

Serve over your choice of rice with naan or pappadams.

**I am going to make my first ever seitan tonight*** WATCH THIS SPACE*** I am super excited... and a little nervous.

Two of our favourite veggies in one dish!!

My husband and I were rudely awoken this morning (at about 5am) to hear someone trying to get into our unit with a key. When my husband went to see what was going on they sheepishly realised that they had the wrong unit. I wasn't too impressed - I mean there are only 8 units are in our block. Anyway - from there it was a busy day for both of us. My partner worked from 9am to 6pm and I had uni until 1pm and then was home writing an assignment for the afternoon. For dinner because I know that nat is SO hungry after a full day of work (and riding his bike home up a long hill). Sweet potato is one of nat's favourite vegetables and I had a few eggplants to use up (Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables) so I was incredibly excited when I found a recipe from Ashbury's Aubergines. I followed the recipe pretty well but did alter it a little. I have put my revisions below. I served this dish with an easy chickpea and silver beet side dish.

Sweet Potato Stuffed Eggplant

Stuffed Eggplant

2 medium eggplants
2 tablespoons soy sauce
oil
3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large capsicum, diced

Spicy Peanut Sauce

• oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
• 1/2 teaspoon chili paste, more to taste
• 3/4 cup natural unsalted crunchy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1-2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 cups water
• salt to taste
  
  

1. Preheat oven to 175ºC. Spray a baking pan with oil.
   
2. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, brush the cut sides with soy sauce, and lay them flesh side up in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan and cover with foil. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Steam the sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes, until just tender.
   
4. In a non-stick fry pan, sauté the onions and garlic for 5 minutes, until the onions are soft. Add the capsicum and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes to the skillet. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir, cover, and set the filling aside.
   
5. Peanut Sauce: saute onions in a saucepan for 5 minutes. Add the ginger, chili paste and saute for another 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and stir thoroughly until the peanut butter has melted and mixed with the remaining ingredients.
6. When the eggplants are done - remove them from the oven and scoop out the centre (leaving a little flesh attached to the skin), chop the removed flesh and add it to the sweet potato mixture.
   
7. Place the sweet potato mixture in the eggplant shells and return the eggplants to the oven and cook for 15mins.
8. Remove from the oven and top with the peanut sauce and serve.

Sauteed chickpeas and silver beet

• 1 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 400g chickpeas, (either from a can or home cooked)
• 500g fresh silver beet, washed, stems removed and chopped. (or spinach)
  
• salt and pepper to taste.

1. Saute onion and garlic with either water or oil in a non-stick pan until onion is browned, about 5 mins
2. Add chickpeas and silver beet. Cover and heat until silver beet is wilted.
3. When silver beet is done, season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.