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Its too darn hot, and as Mr. Cole Porter says, I’d like to sup with my baby tonight. (yes, that’s missing many of the lyrics, but you get the point.) There’s nothing more oppressing than cooking over a hot stove when its 100F outside. So I didn’t. I saw this recipe for cold sesame noodles on Chez Pim and was saving it for a day just like this. What can I say? Delicious! Cold, creamy and nutty with minimal prep time and maximum taste. I didn’t have the cucumber the recipe called for, so i used broccoli. I am definitely making this again.
I could wax poetic about fruit all day (but not wax fruit). I love the sweet and tart flavours, the juicy burst after the outer crunch, and they way it always leaves me feeling satisfied. I guess that’s why you see a lot of fruit in my bentos. These are two that I made for D and myself. The one of the left is mine, and the one on the right is D’s snack to go with a larger lunch of leftovers from our African Inspired dinner.
In my bento you can see i’ve packed myself some of the red lentil stew. I used this recipe from Eating Well, partially because i could stick it all in the crock pot and forget about it. The only differences was that instead of using the squash the recipe called for, I added another 1/2 cup lentils and I omitted the saffron entirely. I love saffron as a spice, but its just too expensive for me.
Originally uploaded by mosli
This one was a fun challenge for me. I don’t have much experience preparing African foods, even though I love the flavours when I’ve had the opportunity to try it. The only thing from this dinner that i’ve made before is the fried plantains (sooo good and the perfect sweet accompanyment for the spices and savoury of the other dishes).
Placed on top of homemade injera (sort of), clockwise from the bottom is groundnut stew, fried plantains, red lentil stew, and spiced green beans with almonds centered around steamed rice.
Using this recipe from Congo Cookbook as a guideline for the Groundnut Stew, I made a vegan version.
- 2 sweet potatoes, cubed
- 1 medium aubergine (eggplant), cubed
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped fine
- 1 chili pepper, chopped fine
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
- 1 inch ginger, chopped fine
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp corriander
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 1/2 cups veggie broth
- 1 cup natural unsalted peanut butter
- salt and pepper to taste
Steam sweet potato chunks and set aside. in a large pot saute onion, garlic, chili, ginger and tomato until all ingredients are well mixed and onions are translucent. Mix in spices, salt, and pepper. Mix in aubergine, sweet potato, and green pepper. Add veggie broth and bring to simmer. Once aubergine begins to soften, stir in peanut butter and simmer over low heat until all vegetables are tender. Serve with rice or injera.
Peanut… peanut butter, and spinach! I’m all for finding new ways to use my favourite spreadable food. I peanut butter in cookies, breads, grits (no, really – my Zimbabwe friend got me into that one), and as a pasta sauce. I guess that’s another reason why I love this new dish of curried peanut butter spinach. The influence is kind of African, and its darn tasty.
On the right is some steamed rice with furikake. On the left are mango chunks, steamed potatoes and carrots, and curried peanut butter spinach
Curried Peanut Butter Spinach
- 1 lb spinach
- 1/2 onion, sliced fine
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (natural, unsweetened works best)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 2 tbsp oil
Wash spinach, removing stems. Roll tightly and make fine cuts so that you are left with ribbons of spinach. Fry the onion with salt, chili, and curry powder in the oil over a low-medium flame until the onions are translucent. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Mix together peanut butter and coconut milk, then stir into spinach. Once the spinach and sauce begin to bubble, its ready to serve!
There’s nothing more exhausting than vacation. I actually look forward to going back to work for the relaxing, scheduled normalcy. And for some odd reason, I cook more when I have a work schedule than when I’m on vacation. I honestly don’t get it.
So to celebrate my return to work, and the fact that I still had a rather large courgette in the crisper, I made baked courgette parmesan. I love aubergine (eggplant, to some) parmesan, and substituting courgette works wonderfully. You prepare the slices of courgette just as you would if you were making courgette fries, but depending on the thickness of the slices you are using, should cook from 20-40 minutes. When the slices are golden brown, spoon pasta sauce over the top and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. This returns to the oven only until the cheese is melted and starts to bubble (5-10 minutes).
