Tempeh red curry

This is a tasty variation on a Thai-style dish with Indonesian tempeh. I quit making curries when I went veg, mainly because I had just started dating my partner, who has taken cooking classes in Thailand. He was the curry expert, so I left it to him! Recently I decided to dig out some old recipes and give them a go, and, surprise surprise, Mr Thai Cooking Expert approves! So here’s one of them. I’m also working on revamping an old green curry recipe with tofu, which I’ll post soon, along with some tom kha soup…

Ingredients
1 tablespoon peanut OR sesame oil
2 spring onions, sliced
1-4 tablespoons vegan red curry paste (eg. Maesri brand)
around 200mL coconut cream (half to three-quarters of a cup)
around 200g tempeh, cut into chunks (around 2cm)
1 cup veg stock (or Massel’s chicken-style veg stock)
a few medium potatoes, cut into quarters, or baby potatoes if you can get them
2 carrots, sliced medium-thin
1 zucchini, sliced thick
1 tablespoon (or to taste) palm sugar (OR brown sugar)
1 tablespoon (or to taste) Braggs OR vegan fish sauce
1 tablespoon (or to taste) freshly squeezed lime juice (or lemon juice, but lime is better!)
1 tablespoon (or to taste) shredded fresh basil leaves
a few whole basil leaves and finely sliced birdseye chillis to serve, if desired
cooked rice to serve, if desired

Method
1. Heat oil in wok or large pan. On high heat: add paste, cook until fragrant. Add onion, stir until soft. Add tempeh chunks. Stir until coated in paste and heated/browning on the outside.
2. Add stock and potatoes and carrot to pan. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.
3. Add coconut cream, zucchini, palm sugar, and Braggs. (TT: to check for enough sugar and salty flavours). Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
4. Stir through juice and basil (TT: for juice, basil, sugar, salt / flavour balance). Serve over rice and top with extra basil leaves and chilli if desired.

Here’s a crappy photo of some leftover tempeh red curry:

Notes:
* These are rough measurements in this recipe. This sort of cooking should always be done to taste. (TT = some suggested Taste Test points!)
* For Maesri brand paste (I buy the wee cans of paste), a rough guide to “hotness” is: 1 tablespoon = wussy mild, 2 tablespoon = average medium, 3 tablespoon = sorta hot, 4 tablespoons or more = burning hot tasty goodness.
* Don’t buy a watery looking curry paste. It should look like a thick, dry paste, not a sauce. You use the paste to make a sauce. A sauce to make a sauce makes bland food.
* I used zucchini because it was looking kinda wilted and soft. A curry can revive old vegies – don’t waste ‘em if you can curry ‘em! You could also use green beans in this curry instead of zucchini, or throw it a handful of bean sprouts if you got ‘em.
* There are a few OR options because… it’s curry. Use what you got. Curries are supposed to be cheap and cheerful peasant food. Don’t waste time and money getting too fancy!
* Curry tastes better a day or two after it was cooked. Leftovers rock.
* If you haven’t already, check out these grouse vegan curry pastes and stocks: Maesri (always check ingredients on label, not all their stuff is veg-safe!) & Massel.

Fennel and Mustard Seed Pakoras

Ingredients
750g can of mixed beans (eg. small red kidney, baby lima, garbanzo, great northern)
1 – 2 tablespoons gluten-free self-raising flour (I use FG Roberts)
1 tablespoon dried fennel seeds
3 teaspoons dried yellow mustard seeds
1 teasp turmeric
1 teasp ground coriander
1 teasp ground cayenne pepper
1 teasp ground cumin
2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
sesame seeds, optional
vegetable oil for deep-frying (eg. sunflower)

Method
1. Drain and wash the beans. Put them into a food processor – add water until the mixture starts to move/blend easily (but is still a thick, heavy dough-ish consistency, not runny). Add flour and blend thoroughly, until a smooth consistency.
2. Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pot. Add the mustard and fennel. Cook at high temperature until the mustard seeds start popping, then quickly add other spices. Take off the heat and add to the food processor, and blend until combined/evenly dispersed (the fennel seeds won’t break down).
3. Heat up oil for deep-frying. Roll mixture into balls in the palm of your hand, roll the balls in sesame seeds, coating them and pressing firmly so they stay on (optional), then deep-fry the balls in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on rack or paper towels.
4. Serve with fresh coriander, and sauces (sweet chilli and kecap manis). This recipe makes more than enough for four people – for an entrée or snack.

Pakoras without seeds:

You could use channa flour + a little starch (eg. potato or tapioca) and a pinch of baking powder in place of the gluten-free SR flour.

Burmese Potato & Chickpea Yellow Curry

Ingredients
1 large tablespoon vegan yellow Thai curry paste*
1 tablespoon curry powder
400mL can coconut cream
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
2 large potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
200g cooked chickpeas
fresh coriander, chopped, to serve
cooked rice, to serve

How To
1. In a wok, fry yellow curry paste with curry powder and 1/4 of a tin of coconut cream.
2. Keep frying till it becomes aromatic.
3. Add turmeric and coriander, stir until combined.
4. Add the potatoes, chickpeas, and the rest of the coconut cream.
5. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are cooked through and the sauce is thick.
6. Serve over rice, topped with chopped fresh coriander leaves.

* The vegan, shrimp-free stuff. If the curry paste is runny or contains a lot of coriander, it’s probably crappy stuff. Try to get your paste from Asian grocers if possible.

Masoor Tamatar Dal

… aka red lentil and tomato dal. Serves about a million. Don’t worry – it freezes well!

Ingredients:
3L vegetable stock
3 cups masoor dal (red lentils), rinsed/cleaned
1 large onion, chopped
800g chopped tomatoes (canned is fine)
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 1/4 teaspoons powdered/ground cumin
salt + pepper to taste
1-2 lemons

How To:
1. Bring stock to boil in a large pot (the biggest you’ve got, probably). Add lentils, onion, tomato, and garlic.
2. Simmer 40-50 minutes, uncovered, until lentils cooked, breaking down, and sauce reduced. Stir occasionally during this time (if you remember) making sure the lentils don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Add more water if mixture gets too thick before lentils are cooked (unlikely, unless the lentils are old).
3. Stir through cumin. Add salt + pepper to taste.
4. Serve over rice, with wedges of lemon to squeeze over it. (You add lemon juice after cooking so the vitamin C/taste isn’t destroyed by the heat.)

Dal – as well as a decent main dish – goes well as a side dish to all sorts of curries, too, or with soups. You can also serve this as a dip with pappadums, crackers or chips… Don’t forget to stir through some lemon juice first! (Note that if this tastes funny, you’ve probably added too much cumin – be careful not to add too much! Powdered cumin is much stronger than jeera/cumin seeds. If it’s bland, there’s probably not enough salt/stock or garlic/cumin, or you forgot the lemon – getting the right balance of flavours in this recipe is important, but pretty easy.

Middle Eastern Lentil Paprika Soup

Unusual, but very, very tasty, and easy to make.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 teasp sweet paprika
1 cup brown lentils, cleaned/rinsed
8 cups vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
4 tbsp tomato paste
2 teasp hot chilli sauce
4 tablesp fresh mint, chopped
salt + pepper to taste

Method:
1. Saute onion and garlic in oil in pot.
2. Add paprika and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add lentils and cook for a few minutes.
4. Add vegetable stock and bay leaf to pot. Bring to boil, simmer gently for about 20-30 minutes.
5. Stir in tomato paste, hot chilli sauce, and salt + pepper, cook for 10 minutes more.
6. Take off heat, stir fresh mint through, and serve.

Other points:
- I really like this with brown lentils, but you could probably use red.
- Brown lentils = continental lentils = Egyptian lentils = German lentils
- This is a mild soup, but make sure you use a proper hot chilli sauce for that great peppery kick. None of that sweet shit.
- Vegetable oil means sunflower, soy, a vegetable oil blend, or similar, never ever olive oil. The olive flavour is so very wrong for this sort of food. Stick it on your salads and pasta, not in curries.
- Based on recipe from the Oxfamshop Vegetarian Cookbook.

Indonesian Tofu Rendang

This rendang has been approved by a friend who grew up in Indonesia, and was created by my partner who has travelled there. It’s fantastic.

Ingredients
400mL can coconut cream
400mL can coconut milk
5 garlic cloves, crushed
2 large onions, finely diced
1 teaspoon laos powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 inch piece ginger, grated
4 tablespoons of vegetarian hot red curry paste*
curry leaves (fresh, instead of dry, if possible!)
4 tablespoons tamarind (or lemon juice if tamarind is unavailable)
500g fried tofu
wheat-free light soy sauce, to taste
fresh coriander to taste, chopped
fresh hot chillis, chopped (optional)
rice, to serve

Method
Reduce 1/2 of a can of coconut cream in a wok until it starts to become oily.
Add crushed cloves of garlic and fry them for a few seconds.
Add onions and fry everything until the onions are cooked.
Add laos powder, coriander, cumin, and turmeric. Stir briefly.
Add fresh grated ginger, curry paste, curry leaves.
Stir the lot until it becomes aromatic.
Add tamarind to taste.
Add the rest of the coconut cream and the can of coconut milk.
Add fried tofu.
Add wheat-free light soy sauce to taste.
Reduce until it is very thick. For best results, reduce over low heat for a few hours+.
Serve with rice. Top with fresh coriander and extra chillis (optional… you wuss).

Notes:
I tend to do alot of things to taste, so the quantities can vary a little. Taste test as you go!
You can also add vegetable stock before you reduce the mix, if you want that flavour soaked into the tofu (just remember to be light with the soy sauce if you do).
If you can’t get wheat-free light soy sauce, use Braggs or wheat-free tamari – but very sparingly! These are dark soy sauce rather than light.

*Curry Paste:
Any vegetarian Thai-style curry paste will do. The hotter the better – rendang should be wonderfully burning. Using vegetarian red curry paste is an alternative to spending time pounding lemon grass into paste. Just don’t use one containing prawn/shrimp paste, because (a) it has a different flavour, (b) it’s not vegetarian or vegan, (c) yuck!, and (d) I’m allergic to crustacea.

To make your own curry paste for this recipe, mix together:
5 stalks of lemon grass, chopped finely, then ground to paste.
5 large hot chillis ground to paste (with seeds).

Faux Pho! (aka Vegan Vietnamese Pho Soup)

In Vietnam, people eat pho for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Personally I like to have it for breakfast on Sunday mornings! This is a version that best imitates the veg pho that I had when I was travelling in Vietnam with my partner – it is his recipe. Quantities may be a little rough, so taste-test as you go (as you always should!). Enjoy!

Serves around 4-6, depending on bowl-size/course…

Ingredients
2-4 finely diced chilli peppers (eg. birdseye)
1.5in piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 sweet onion, chopped or diced
3 Litres of Massel’s Vegetarian Beef-style Stock*
1 cinnamon stick
5 star anise pods
1 finely diced garlic clove
lime, juiced
palm sugar to taste
fresh pepper to taste
bean sprouts, handful or two
rice vermicelli, cooked
1 bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
2 shallots, finely sliced
extra finely diced chilli pepper, optional

How To
+ In a stock pot fry the chilli, ginger and onion, with a little oil, till it is seared and a little crusty, but not burned. Add stock.
+ Crush then add the cinnamon and star anise. Add the garlic.
+ Simmer for 30min. Take off heat. Add lime juice, and a little bit of palm sugar until it is only slightly sour. Cover till served.
+ Get out some soup bowls. Add beansprouts, then hot vermicelli, shallots and coriander, and optionally fresh sliced chilli into each bowl. Pour the hot soup over the veg-noodle mix.
+ Serve. OMNOMNOM.

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*This is a dark vegetable stock. You could also use any other vegetable stock (maybe add a splash of dark soy sauce or Braggs to darken it a bit perhaps? ! probably not necessary). Massel brand stock can be found in any supermarket I’ve been in to in Australia – including Woolies and Coles. The tins of powdered stuff are great quality, but there are also stock cubes and tetra packs of liquid stock available. Massel is the best instant stock around, and it’s all vegan! Hooray!