Nooched Tofu

So I have been trying to sneak a bit more soy products into our diet. To reduce the amount of meat we eat, and because it is alleged to help with symptoms of perimenopause. There has been some resistance from certain family members though, who find it bland.

But this, now this is tasty tofu! Flavoured-up with soy sauce, garlic and sesame oil and coated with nutritional yeast flakes - 'nooch' for short! The coated tofu is quickly toasted in the air fryer, and it's ready to go - in a stir fry, on a salad, with pasta and tomato sauce, or just eaten by itself. And even the tofu-hesitant here are eating it up with gusto.

If you've not come across them before, nutritional yeast flakes are small savoury flakes of processed yeast, with a vaguely nutty, cheesy flavour. Like marmite, they are rich in B vitamins. You can find tubs of it in larger supermarkets and health food shops under the brand name Engevita.

Simple Meatloaf

This particular recipe has been knocking around the kitchen scribbled on the back of an old envelope for a couple of months now, so it's time to write it up here. It turns a packet of cheap mince into a midweek roast dinner.

Slow Roast Belly Pork Slices and Vegetables

I've made this dish a couple of times now, so this article is to record how I've been modifying the original recipe, which is here. This also works if you replace the belly pork with chicken thighs and drumsticks.

Fish and Vegetable Fritters

So, this week's surprise from the vegbox delivery people was a carton of 15 egg whites that needed using in a few days(!) Not wanting to fill the entire house with meringues, I made these for lunch. Two days in a row.

Lamb and Lentil Ragu

A delicious stew of lamb, lentils, and root vegetables cooked with tomatoes, red wine and herbs.

This goes well over pasta or polenta, and cooks fast enough in the pressure cooker to be doable on a week-night evening after work. 

If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can just dump all the ingredients in a slow cooker and let it cook for 8 hours.

Since this recipe makes enough for about 4-6 servings, I generally serve one third on the day, and divide the rest between tubs to freeze and eat later.

Bulgogi flavoured Mince

This is a quick weeknight recipe that has the flavours of Bulgogi, but without the planning ahead and remembering to actually marinade stuff.

And using cheap beef mince instead of finely sliced steak.

The sauce paste is based on the Bulgogi marinade from Our Korean Kitchen.

Tomato 'Instant' Kimchi sort of thing

The tomato plants in the greenhouse are still fruiting, and there are tomatoes aplenty in need of using up. More tomato recipes are urgently needed!

Inspired by the 'instant' emergency cucmber Kimchi recipe in Our Korean Kitchen, I went searching to see if Tomato Kimchi was a thing. And it was - I found Park Shin Hye's Tomato Kimchi.

I didn't have any Gochugaru (chilli pepper powder) , but I did have some Gochujang (sweetened fermented chilli pepper paste). So I substituted gochujang for the gochugaru and sugar. I also added some chopped fresh basil as I was out of chives. It seems to work, even if it's not authentic.

Quick Chicken Liver Pate

Every fortnight I receive a pack of organic chicken carcasses with my vegbox order. These are what is left over after a chicken has had breasts, thighs, drumsticks and wings cut off - namely the main body, neck and giblets (internal organs). The pack generally contains the remains of two butchered chickens.

I separate out the livers from the giblets, and throw everything else into a roasting tin, cover with foil and pop in the oven to roast, and then into the pressure cooker to make Chicken Stock.

The livers, I make into pate.

Black Bean Sauce

 A quick savoury stir-fry sauce.

All the ingredients are the sort of stuff that is generally lurking in the back of the kitchen cupboards and/or fridge - in my kitchen anyways.
And cause its not from a jar premade, you can juggle the balance of ingredients to your own taste.

Salted fermented black beans are available from Chinese supermarkets.

 This makes enough for a stirfry to feed 3-4 people.

Red Cabbage Kimchi

We appear to have built up a surfeit of red cabbage, having received large red cabbages in two vegbox deliveries in a row, so I am trying making a batch of Kimchi.

Kimchi is like the Korean equivalent of Sauerkraut - generally made from chinese cabbage rather than european, and seasoned with ginger, garlic and lots of hot chillies, rather than caraway seeds. Both are fermented until sour rather than pickled with vinegar.

This recipe comes from Garden Betty.

I have halved the quantities, and didn't have spring onions to hand, so substituted thinly sliced red onion.

• 1 lb Red Cabbage, sliced into bitesize pieces
• 1/8 cup of Salt
• 4oz of Daikon (aka Mooli) (a big white radish), peeled and shredded
• 4oz Carrot, peeled and shredded
• 1 small Red Onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2-4 cloves Garlic, peeled and minced
• About 1/2"-1" long chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and minced.
• Dried red chillies, powdered in a spice mill: 1/4 cup powder.
• 1 small apple, peeled and cored
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup water, boiled and cooled
• 1 tbsp thai fish sauce

Combine the cabbage and salt in a large bowl and mix together with your hands, separating the layers of cabbage leaf and ensuring they all get coated with salt. Pour in some water to cover, and leave it to brine for a couple of hours until the cabbage feels floppy. Drain, rinse in fresh water and drain again. Return the drained cabbage to the big bowl.

Add the daikon, carrot, red onion, garlic and ginger to the cabbage in the large bowl.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend to a paste.

Pour the paste onto the cabbage and other vegetables. Wearing plastic gloves (or just with plastic freezer bags over your hands), mix the paste thoroughly through the vegetables until all the pieces are coated in it.

Pack the kimchi into kilner jars, leaving space at the top for the liquid level to rise during fermentation. Cover loosely with lids and let sit at room temperature for at least 3 days until it becomes sour. As the liquid rises in the jars, press down the vegetables with a spoon to submerge them.

Once the kimchi has soured to taste, tighten the lids and store the jars in a cool place.

Eat as a pickle, or add to stir-fries and casseroles.

Ninniko Shoyuzuke

Don't you hate it when it turns out that somewhere on its journey from farm to shop, someone refrigerated the garlic?

The garlic thinks: "Hm. It was really cold for a while, but now its getting warmer. Must be springtime! Sprout factor 9, Mr Sulu!"

...And your lovely big bargain bag of garlic bulbs starts sprouting everywhere and needs to all be used up at once ASAP!

Fortunately, this Japanese style no-cook garlic pickle is very quick and easy to prepare - though it does take a couple of months to mature.  There is even a bonus extra side product halfway through!

Your sprouty garlic disaster will be saved, and provide a bounty of garlicky deliciousness.

Chiles en Vinaigre a.k.a Mexican Carrot Pickle

Mum used to make this one regularly when I was growing up. Unlike many of the other pickles and chutneys, this one was a big hit with us kids and a batch never lasted long.

The actual name of the recipe in the recipe book is Chiles en Vinaigre, but Mum went lighter on the chillies and bulked it out with the other vegetables, so we called it Mexican Carrot Pickle.

These days, I put in the original proportion of chillies - mild to medium big juicy ones like jalapenos, not scotch bonnets though!

This is the recipe for a single batch, but you could double up if you have a glut of peppers or carrots to use up.

Tomato, Garlic and Herb Bread

To go with the soup made from yesterday's stock, some savoury herbed bread.

Several years ago I bought my parents a bread machine for Xmas, and it was my Dad who took up the making of bread. The idea of adding fresh garlic to the dough is his.

Paprika Turkey in the Pressure Cooker

A weekday pressure-cooked stew of diced turkey thigh and potatoes in a rich tomato, paprika and soured cream sauce. All it needs is some green vegetables to accompany it.

Fish Provencal

Another quick evening meal from frozen white fish fillets.

This time we're aiming for the flavours of Provence - tomatoes, olives, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, garlic and herbs.

Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary Chicken

I catered for a family get-together this weekend. This marinade on roast chicken drumsticks worked well on the buffet. The rosemary was a last-minute flash of inspiration.

Samak bil Tahini

And now for a quick evening meal, using white fish fillets from the freezer.

Samak bil Tahini is a Lebanese dish of white fish baked with onions and a garlicky tahini sauce.