Apple Muse

Taken from here (http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec70.htm) and the amounts of ingredients totally made up.

Ingredients:
* about 5 medium sized Granny Smith apples
* 1 lot of almond milk (but I added maybe another half a cup of almond meal to it to thicken it up a bit)
* maybe a cup of breadcrumbs
* maybe a table spoon of honey
* a bit of saffron

Do it!:
* peel, core, and slice the apples.
* stew the apples in a pot with some water (and a little bit of sugar if you want) until ready to get mushy.
* mush the apple up into goo.
* add all of the other ingredients.
* slowly heat through on a low heat, stirring fairly often. This baby catches on the bottom pretty quick.

* serve with a mix of spices on top. This is apparently a starter type soup, but it's pretty thick and hearty.

[Edit: Man, what the heck? It seems like a nice wintery breakfast or a nice desert with some icecream. Perhaps more apple involved would be a good idea, and no sugar at all to keep it from being too sweet. Maybe even tarter apples.]

Grilled polenta and roasted vegetables

Ingredients:

(halve this if you want to make enough for fewer people)
* 2 cups of polenta
* 8 cups of water with vegetable or chicken stock
* salt and pepper to taste
* two capsicums
* a bunch of mushrooms
* two tomatoes
* any other vegetables you want on top
* olive oil

Instructions:

1. Line a non-shallow baking tray with grease proof paper for later. Chop the vegetables up for roasting*. Bring the water, stock, salt, and pepper to the boil.
2. Slowly add the polenta, constantly stirring. The mixture should start to thicken up pretty quickly.
3. Turn it right down and cook for about twenty minutes (or until you get sick of it), stirring all the time if you can. This'll stick to the bottom the first chance you give it.
4. Tip the polenta mix into the prepared tray and smooth it out. It'll set pretty quick.
5. Put the polenta in the oven/under the grill for a while, until it cooks through and starts to toast up.
6. Take the polenta out of the oven when it's getting just about yummy.
(6a. Slice the tomato thinly. Cut the mushrooms into chunks. Etc.)
7. Cover the top of the polenta with slisced tomato. Chuck the other vegetables on top. If there's oil from the capsicum, tip some over the vegetables and polenta.
8. Put it in the oven for a bit longer, until the tips of the vegetables are just starting to burn.

Hopefully yummy.


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* Roast capsicum is nyummy with this. Roast with a bit of oil until not quite done, let cool, then take the skin off. Chop it up into strips. It'll get roasted a bit more later on in the recipe.

Moroccan stew

Ingredients:

* a splash of olive oil
* chopped up onion(s)
* diced celery
* chopped up capsicum(s)
* heaps of chopped up garlic
* vegetable stock (3 cups, if you're counting)
* cubed potatoes (depending on how big you want this, maybe 3 or 4 big ones?)
* 1 can diced or crushed tomatoes
* 1 or 2 cans of chickpeas
* a squeeze of lemon or lime juice (a small lime, or half a lemon)
* 2 tsp grated/ground ginger
* 1 tsp ground cumin
* 1 tsp curry powder
* 1 tsp ground coriander
* 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions:
1. Chop up all the bits and pieces, drain the chickpeas, juice the lemon/lime.
2. Cook onions, garlic, celery, and capcisum, in the olive oil until everything starts to soften.
3. Add the spices and cook for a bit longer. Add some water if necessary.
4. Add anything you haven't put in yet, and bring to the boil.
5. Stir frequently to avoid burning.
6. Let simmer on a lowish heat until everything is cooked and tasty. The juice should thicken and the vegetables should soften, and it should smell like the tastiest thing in the world.
7. Serve with rice or couscous when you get sick of waiting.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients
* potatoes
* a leek
* some onion (I used two, but I sure do dig that onion)
* olive or canola oil
* chicken or vegetable stock

Instructions:
* chop up the onions and sautee them in the oil until they turn clear.
* chop the potatoes and the leek into smallish bits, and add to the onions.
* add a bunch of water and the stock.
* boil until all the bits go soft and start to disintegrate.

I mashed it up with a potato masher thing once the vegetables had gotten soft enough. If you find leek and potato boring, maybe some spices?

Nervous Gumbo

Ingredients:
(3 tablespoons) vegetable (I used canola) oil
3 tablespoons of flour
l large chopped onion
chopped capsicum
chopped carrot
chopped sweet potato
5 or 6 cloves chopped garlic
some string beans or something
half a thing of tomato paste
1 tin of tomatoes
2 - 3 cups water
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper or whatever seasoning you want

Instructions:
* cut up the vegetables into bits that you'd like to find in your gumbo (bearing in mind that it's meant to cook for, like, an hour and a half).
* Heat the oil in a big ol' pot, then stir in the flour. Stir it like you've never stirred before, until it gets all brown and you wonder if perhaps you've let it go too far.
* Chuck in the onions, capsicum, sweet potato, and garlic. Keep stirring and cooking until the onions go clear.
* Add the tomato paste, and stir.
* Throw in the beans and keep stirring over heat until it "goes crumbly or dry". Or until you get sick of stirring it.
* Tinned tomato goes in, and cook slowly on low heat for ever and ever and ever. Add the water, a little at a time, and stir ocassionally. This thing'll stick to the bottom like some sort of manta ray.
* Hey, remember to put in the sugar and the bay leaf, too. Also I put in some peri peri seasoning to make it a bit bitey.

Goes great with steamed or boiled rice. Also, maybe you should use the proper vegetables? Who knows?