After another renovation project, two months of hallway
cooking on a camping stove, washing dishes in the bathtub - I am back online!
In my new kitchen. I am deeply in love with its spaciousness and the fact that it has enough space for
every single ingredient -
it will be an exciting space to create new projects. It was relaxing
being offline for so long, perfect for overall reset.
Flawless juggling and simple food have marked past months,
now I am looking forward to more complex autumnal flavours. I have gathered
heaps of inspiration and recipes that I cannot wait to try out. Sarah Britton's
recent post on her blog My New
Roots for cashew corn chowder with
coriander cream is on the top of my list. It is the epitome of autumn and for warming our bodies
in ever-shorter days: you can find the recipe here.
A book by this phenomenal blogger
has arrived and I simply don't know what to make first! The book is full of brilliant photographs
taken by her husband and Sara's recipes shine a new light on vegetables.
This is a truly autumnal recipe, brimming with colours of
fallen leaves: pumpkin's ochre flesh, bright orange-red sweet potato, chestnuts
resemble cocoa beans and adzuki beans like warm claret. I couldn't capture all the
shades on camera, whether because of the dimming light or the way colours fade.
You’ll have to
trust me that the sweetness of this stew warms and relaxes the body. All you
have left to do after the meal is to play - with your child or a favourite
book. I must finish reading the elevating "The Storyteller or The Hakawati" by Rabih
Alameddine.
ADZUKI BEANS, CHESTNUTS, PUMPKIN AND SWEET POTATO STEW
Ingredients:
1 large onion or 2
medium, cut into half moons
3 cloves of garlic,
minced
fresh thyme,
preferably lemon thyme
200gr cooked chestnuts
1/2 cup cubed sweet
potato
1/2 cup cubed pumpkin
1 cup cooked adzuki
beans (first soaked overnight and cooked with a strip of kombu)
3-4 cups homemade
vegetable stock
1 tsp. kuzu
Caramelise the onion in a teaspoon of olive oil
(around 10 minutes), add the
garlic and stir for a few minutes. Add the thyme, vegetables and chestnuts, and pour-in the stock and cook 20
minutes. Add the adzuki
beans. Dilute the kuzu in a bit of
stock and add to the mix. Cook for 5 more minutes and add salt and paper to taste. For a
creamier texture, mash chestnuts in a bit of stock and stir it back into the
stew.
Serve with fresh spelt rolls with sesame.
SPELT ROLLS WITH COCONUT OIL AND SESAME
Ingredients:
2/3 cup wholegrain spelt
flour
1 1/2 cups white spelt
flour
1 cup goats’ milk
pinch of salt and 1
tsp maple syrup or rice syrup
1 tsp dry yeast
1 full tablespoon of
coconut oil
black and white sesame
seeds
Heat the milk so it's
warm, add salt, maple syrup and yeast and let it bubble up (around 15 minutes).
Slowly pour it into mixed flours, kneading with your hands; knead for 5
minutes. Let it rest in a warm place 2-3 hours, covered with a tea towel. Melt
the coconut oil if it's solid. Flatten the dough to around 1 cm with a rolling
pin, brush the whole length with oil, fold
so the oiled sides touch and let it rest for 20 minutes. Repeat the process 3
times. When you flatten the dough for the last time, cut it into equal 10
pieces, knead into balls, place into oiled oven bowl and let the dough rise
again (1-2 hours). Brush with an egg yolk and sprinkle sesame seeds.
Preheat the oven to
200 degrees; turn it down to 170 when you put the rolls in. Bake 50 minutes.
Serve them warm.
