meatless dishes to make your table pop
Traditionally served with greens, kasundi ( कसूंदी ) is a perfect accompaniment to dry vegetable snacks such as pakora and samosa. Added to pasta it’s a marriage made in heaven.
Though available commercially, kasundi is easy to make at home. No vinegar or other acids, no additives, no cooking even. Just natural fermentation of raw materials for a condiment bursting with pro-biotic goodness and umami deliciousness. Continue reading “Aam Kasundi – Bengali Mustard & Green Mango Relish”
Polenta-based pizza is nothing new. And quite delicious, though many would argue whether it’s a pizza at all. The question seems to me academic. What is not academic is that nixtamal or lime-treated corn is not polenta! Nixtamalized corn has more protein, more vitamins – especially vit B3 (niacin), essentially unavailable in untreated corn – and of course exrtra calcium from the lime. It also has a more intense flavour – the flavour of maize. Continue reading “Pizza Tamalera: Gluten-Free Maize Crust Pizza”
Known for its use in Moroccan cooking this versatile condiment originates in Tunisia. Dried chillies are re-hydrated and ground into a coarse paste. Purists add salt and at most a little oilive oil. The Moroccan take is rather more aromatic Continue reading “Tunisian Harissa Paste”
We’ve been enjoying a heatwave in London gettting on for nearly a month and with no apparent sign of it abating. In a matter of days Londoners are enjoying a good sunbathe over parched straw where soft green grass once was. When northern Europeans come to us in Spain in the dry, scorching summer they sometimes find it hard to believe that we could have green grass and flowers. “Come in autum, winter or spring”, we say “but the price of green could be a touch of rain” – I wish!
My point? Who the heck wants to eat hot food in this weather? Continue reading “Fava Hummus With Harissa”