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Salads & Suppers

Lunchbox, Salads & Suppers, Sides, Vegan &/or Raw

Mojo Rojo & Courgetti

Known as Mother Nature’s sting, chilli peppers are electrifyingly hot. And devious.

Eating them will rev up your metabolism, heart rate, body temperature and mood for Barry White. Legend tells us that the great Aztec emperor Montezuma necked a chilli chocolate drink in preparation for visits to his lady friends. There could be something in that.

Chillies are also great for the blues. The compound capsaicin helps hotwire our feel-good endorphins, easing stress and massaging nerves. Think of it as sunshine for the veins. Capsaicin also distracts the chemical responsible for transmitting pain messages to the brain. Have some at hand when opening your next visa bill. Or treat yourself to this mojo.

If you don’t like setting your mouth alight, here are a few tips on keeping the sweating and swearing at bay. Never drink water, beer or wine to calm the fire in your mouth. This will only enhance the storm. Take olive oil, egg yolk or something fatty to absorb its blaze. Greek yoghurt is often used to help dilute a chilli’s enthusiasm. And finally, be sure to wear industrial mascara to weather the floods of tears.

Mojo Rojo

As soon as I met Rojo, I knew it was love. My chest swelled, my lips burned, and I began levitating at the table. He is from Moro restaurant, and works for Sam and Sam Clarke. Such is his popularity, he’s rarely available. This is despite having a permanent fixture on Moro’s menu.

So here it is. An adaptation of Moro’s legendary Mojo Rojo, designed to do funny things to our thighs.

2 large red peppers, 3 medium

1 red chilli

3 slices rye or gluten-free bread, crustless

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

5 fresh bay leaves, stalks removed

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 tablespoon lemon juice or red wine vinegar

4 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1 teaspoon raw honey, coconut nectar or maple syrup

Deseed the peppers, and roughly chop into chunks. Roast on a baking tray with a little olive oil for 30-40 minutes at 180 degrees.

Roughly chop the bread into cubes like croutons. Lightly fry in a little olive oil for 60 seconds.

Then deseed your chilli and finely chop its flesh. Add everything to a high-speed food processor. Briefly pulse into a smooth dip, and serve in a pottery dish. You could thin it down with a few tablespoons of water or lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt. Or use Greek yoghurt if the chilli is too loud.

We love ours besdie a lazy 10-hour shoulder of lamb, or with soba noodles mixed through some courgetti. Fix a small courgette to a spiruliser, and kabam! Spaghetti from courgette. Fat carrots work really well too. If you don’t fancy forking 30 quid out for another kitchen gadget, you could use a potato peeler to scrape ribbons from the vegetables instead.

After this piece was published, spirulisers were sold out on Amazon and kitchen stores across Dublin! Thank you Irish Times!

May 31, 2014

Salads & Suppers, x For Freezer x

Goji Berry Rendang

Goji berries are little beauts.

Rich in iron, complete protein, super carotenoids, vitamins C, E and A (phew!) these dainty berries are patently potent.

We love carotenoids, vitamin C and E for their immune-pumping qualities. Think of these vitamins as artillery against the sniffles and dodgy office viruses. A deficiency in these vitamins can also make our skin look as dull as a tombstone. This is why the Chinese like to call goji berries “red diamonds” – a girl’s best friend.

Various studies highlight the promising cancer-fighting properties these berries may contain. One group of researchers from Ohio State University injected rats with carcinogenic chemicals. Half the sample size received normal food. The other rats received the same food, with added 5% dehydrated berry. Nearly all of the rats on the normal diet developed cancer, where only 60-75% of the berry-supplemented rats developed cancer. But that’s not all. The berry-eating rats had about half as many tumours overall. Exciting? I certainly think so.

Tempted as you may be, eating goji berries straight from a packet can make your teeth look radioactive. They have the beautiful knack of sticking to everything. Best to soak them in a little water first, before sprinkling over salads or yoghurt.

Psst! Asian stores stock them for a fraction of high-street prices. This is because gojies are popular in Chinese medicine.

Hot Goji Berry Rendang

I have completely bastardised Lamb Rendang. And man did it work. I borrowed my favourite chef Domini Kemp’s recipe, but used less red meat and lobbed in some gojies and aubergine. Goji berries look like teensy chillis in the Rendang and will scare the bejaysus out of your guests. Small pleasures in tough times.

Freezes beautifully. Serves 8 with rice, or 5 people as is.

4-5 tablespoons extra virgin coconut oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

500g lamb chunks, preferably shoulder

Half a tin of coconut milk (sounds too little, but it works)

A few turns of the pepper and salt mill

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

2 tablespoons black & yellow mustard seeds

2 tea-spoons turmeric

Big knob of ginger, peeled and chopped

4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1 chilli, chopped

2 stalks lemongrass, finely chopped

Generous handful dried goji berries

1 large aubergine

Fresh coriander (to top)

Start by sweating the onion on a gentle heat with one tablespoon of coconut oil until glassy-looking (7-10 minutes).

Add the lamb, and remaining ingredients in one go (except for the aubergine, gojies and fresh coriander leaves). No need to brown the lamb first.

Cook for around 2 hours over a low-medium heat on the hob. Any higher, the lamb will toughen.

Remove the lid for the final 20-30 minutes and parachute the goji berries into the mix. This will add sweetness and nutrition while concentrating the flavours. Rendang is best strong and punchy, than soupy or saucy.

Taste after 2 hours and see if the lamb needs longer. It should be juicy and flavoursome, not tough.

During the final 30 minutes of cooking, fire up your oven to 200 Celsius (relatively the same time as you are removing lid and adding gojies). Slice the aubergine into discs, and then into quarters. Add 2 tablespoons of the coconut oil and roast for 30 minutes. Coat the aubergine well by shaking the tray after 10 minutes of roasting. The Rendang and aubs should be ready at the same time. Stir the Rendang through the hot aubergine, tickle with fresh coriander leaves, and holler at everyone to take their seat.

Sticky black rice is a fabulous accompaniment if you want the Rendang to stretch to 8 people. For instructions on how to perfectly cook 9 different varieties of wholegrain brown rice, including black rice, type “brown rice” into the search box to the left.

May 8, 2014

Lunchbox, Salads & Suppers, Sides, Vegan &/or Raw, Videos

Cooking Supergrains – Quinoa

It’s much easier to cook quinoa than pronounce it.

Once you give this super-grain a shot, you’ll be outraged couscous ever seduced you.

Cooking Quinoa – a 60 second demo from Susan Jane White on Vimeo.

What’s so snazzy about quinoa? Here’s the jazz from a post last January with a recipe for black garlic quinoa, and another for smoked paprika and cumin quinoa. Below, I’m including the recipe for Beginner’s Quinoa from the video above, to help get you started.

1 cup quinoa
1 & 1/2 cups stock or well-seasoned water
8–12 juicy baby tomatoes, halved
flesh of 1 avocado, roughly chopped
1 mild chilli, de-seeded and sliced
handful of rocket, chives, cress or coriander, roughly torn

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
sea salt flakes and a few twists of the black pepper mill

Wash the quinoa very, very well in a sieve under running water. Some grains have a pesky bitter coating.

Transfer to a heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil with the stock or well-seasoned water and cook for 12–15 minutes with a lid on. The longer you cook it, the softer and stickier it becomes. If you prefer it this way, add a little extra time and water.

Take the pan off the heat as soon as the quinoa has drunk up all the water. Let it sit on the countertop and fluff up in the residual heat of the lidded saucepan.

Leave the quinoa to cool a little before stirring through the remaining ingredients. Adding olive oil too early often makes it soggy. Give the black pepper mill a few twists and add a smattering of sea salt flakes.

You could pack the quinoa into an empty container for lunch at the office. I use the cardboard ones from my local deli’s salad counter. They seem far snazzier than my manky old Tupperware.

Some rice cookers have a special ‘grain’ setting that works perfectly for quinoa. Mine is the Tefal 8-in-1 rice cooker. I measure 2 Tefal cups of quinoa, and fill the basin to level 2. Press grain setting. Perfectly fluffy quinoa in 45 minutes.

April 4, 2014

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