Posts Tagged With: stuffed

Giant Courgette Hats Stuffed with Walnuts, Sweetcorn & Red Rice (Vegan)

Posted on September 30, 2013 by leroy watson

Ready for a final roast

In the time of harvest bounty my mind naturally turns to stuffing things! I have no idea why, there are so many massive vegetables everywhere that it seems like the logical thing to do, they look so cool served whole and are far, far more interesting when stuffed with something uber delicious like fresh sweetcorn, toasted walnuts and some nutty red rice.

Most cultures love a good stuffing, I read recently that in the Middle East they actually have machines to carve holes in carrots etc, you can buy pre-hollowed vegetables at the market in bags. Now that’s spoiling all the fun (or is it?!) I am not very good with DIY, the thought of getting the Black and Decker out to carve a carrot sets alarm bells ringing. Do I love stuffed veg that much?

Everything is going a very courgette at the moment! They are everywhere and this is a fine way to use up the wonder glut of this delicate fruit. This particular beast is of the golden/ yellow variety and was over a foot long. (This post was written a month ago when courgettes were really hanging out there, now they have finished their shenanigans for another year. Mores the pity. Bring on the roots!)

In fact, the best thing that can happened to a courgette is a good stuffing. Its not every vegetable you can say that about, but a courgette is at it finest full of filling other than its own, it has to be said, watery, slightly mushy interior. Especially when they’re massive like this. Resembling a marrow really. Here we have upgraded the mush with red camarague rice, walnuts, sweetcorn and many other forms of ultra deliciousness. A stuffing to be proud of!

Mighty Golden Courgette Towers

I also like to cut courgettes thin length ways and salt them for a while, then use them as a base for an endless number of bakes and gratins. You can pack alot of courgettes into one of these dishes and the dense nature of a well baked gratin is a wonderful way to serve this normally gentle and light veg. Having said that, simply fried with garlic and olive oil, there’s another real winner.

Courgettes are allegedly easy to cultivate, but we don’t get the heat up here on the hill. We also get wind, which tends to knock them down or drag our mini green house away. We get extreme weather on tiger hill! We get our courgettes from Trigonos, a small organic farm and retreat centre just over the hill in the next valley, Nantlle. I am very lucky to work there at the moment and play with all the produce from the fertile land near the lake. See here, its a magic place,

Jane is going away a lot recently (attending many interesting workshops) and we are making the very most of our short times together. Today has been a rare early autumnal day, fresh this morning, warm in the day and a beautiful sunset, the perfect day for al fresco dining with some bubbles and twilight all around.

We sat on our bench near the stone circle and wolfed these delicious courgette treats with lashings of Russian chard and beetroot leaves. It is that wonderful time of year when every veggie seems to be coming out to play (on the plate) and we are inundated with beautiful produce. The only problem is, what to do with it all? Our veg basket is brimming over and the freezer is filling nicely, anybody fancy coming over for dinner? We feel like gluttons, but are still smiling.

BERRY NICE

One of my favourite things to do at this time of year is berry picking. How cool is that! All these free berries sprouting from hedgerows and footpaths. Leave the berries near railways alone, they use a weed killer-type train to kill all the plants around the railways meaning these berries will be contaminated. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news (again!)

The elderberries on our hill are nearly ready and we fancy making some wine this time around, I have a recipe up my sleeve. The thought of homemade elderberry wine makes us both whoop, and we haven’t even drank any yet!

Camarague Rice filling on the hob

If you can’t get your hands on giant courgettes, normal size ones are fine, but a little more fiddly. They will also cook quicker, take 5-10 minutes off the final roasting time.

This recipe will make a little too much stuffing, but its great cold as a salad or maybe find another vegetable to stuff. Tomato? How about an apple? Serve with a simple, creamy sauce.

Char those bad boys

The Bits – For 4

1 giant courgette (yellow, green…… or 3 smaller ones)

1 1/2 cup cooked camarague rice (or rice of your choice)

1 handful chopped and toasted walnuts

1/2 handful of sunflower seeds (roasted is best)

1 small onion

1 small carrot

1 medium potato (all three finely diced)

1 corn on the cob (kernels off the cob)

4 cloves garlic (crushed)

8 cherry tomatoes (quatered, or one normal sized tomato)

3 tbs tomato puree

1 teas dried dill

1/2 teas dried mint

1/2 teas dried thyme

1 teas all spice

1/2 cup veg stock

1/2 cup raisins (chopped)

Do It

Cook your rice (as you like or follow packet instructions)

Preheat oven 200oC

Warm a griddle pan (not necessary, but looks pretty).

Start by chopping your courgette into interesting shapes with flat bottoms, so they sit up on the roasting tray, like hats. We have gone for bishops, maybe you’d like a crown, or just a flat top?

Rub them with oil, use your hands and pop them on a griddle pan, presentation side first. Leave to char up for around 5 minutes. Be sure not to move them and you’ll get nicely defined scorch marks. Then into the oven for a 10 minute pre-roast.

Why this is going on, get your prep ready for the filling.

In a large frying pan, warm 1 tbs olive oil on med/ high heat and add the onion, saute for five minutes until going golden, then add your corn and carrot, stir and heat for three minutes then add your potatoes and garlic, saute for a further three minutes then add your herbs and spices. Stir well, so not allow any bottom sticking. Add tomatoes and stock. Add 1 tbs of water if the heat is too high and things are getting stuck to the bottom.

Now add your seeds, nuts and cooked rice. Bring to a boil, add a glug of good olive oil, give it a final stir and pop a lid on it. Turn heat off and leave to settle for ten minutes.

Your courgettes should now be ready. Grab them out of the oven and set aside for a moment to cool just a little.

Get a reasonable spoon (dessert) and begin to spoon your hot mixture into to courgettes, packing it down as you go, filling every possible space with tasty filling.

Now pop them back into the oven for a fifteen minute blast and after that the courgette should be softened and the filling piping hot and ready to devour.

Serve

We sprinkled ours with chopped toasted walnuts, a few twists of black pepper, some wilted chard, beetroot leaves and good olive oil.

We would also recommend a nice tangy tomato based sauce or chutney, a creamy sauce is also lovely. These densely packed courgettes are meals in themselves and need little else on the plate to satisfy.

We Love It!

A real decadent dinner treat here, fit for special occasions and Tuesday nights after work. It does take little preparation but the combinations of textures and flavours are worth the modest toil. Get golden courgettes if you can, if they aren’t in the shops, hit your local veg farm and flutter your eyelids a little (always works for me).

Foodie Fact

Technically courgettes are an immature fruit (which sounds a lot like a good friend of ours) and can grow to over a metre long.

Golden/ Yellow courgettes are not only very cool to look at they are also have a higher carotene content than your average green courgettes, they are also good for vitamin C and A with plenty of potassium to boot.

Brit disclaimer – What we repeatedly refer to as a courgette in this post may be known to some of you as a zucchini. We at the Beach House Kitchen mean no offense in the flagrant use of our British-ness and actually prefer the name Zucchini, it sounds like fun and has a ‘Z’ in it, which is always very cool in our world. Maybe we can all just call them Zuch-ettes and bridge our islands vocab gap. Just to add greater confusion to the mix in South Africa they call these beauts ‘baby marrow’.

Categories: Autumn, Dinner, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: camarague rice, courgette, courgettes, gluten-free, healthy, recipes, seasonal, stuffed, vegetarian, zucchini | 10 Comments

Imam Bayildi – Turkish Stuffed Aubergines (Vegan)

Posted on April 6, 2013 by leroy watson

Imam Bayeldi (Turkish Stuffed Subergines)

Turkish food has always tantalised me, Ive had a few dishes that promised so much, but finding good Turkish restaurants is difficult in the UK and I have resorted to educating and cooking them myself at home. Isn’t that always the best way anyway! I much prefer a home cooked meal, prepared with love than something bought. I am not a good diner out-er, I rarely have a good time and seem perpetually let down by the food. This maybe due to the fact that I live in the sticks in Wales and in Spain, in the big cities, where cultures merge and intermingle, things are a very different story.

Thing is, I’ve always been more fond of food from further afield that Europe (is Turkey now a part of the ever expanding ‘Europe’!?), maybe its the exotic element and imagery of new and distant horizons. Turkish cuisine has such bold flavours and is normally pretty simple to get together, focusing on super fresh produce and a constant flow of awesome yoghurt!

A wonderful dish this ‘Imam Bayeldi’ of Turkish origin, bursting with flavour and delicious texture. You’ve probably made something like this in the past, but its nice to get a specific origin to things, I love the heritage and tradition attached to dishes, the stories and legends behind them.

Imam Bayeldi translates as ‘the priest fainted’, according to Armenian legend, a housewife was surprised by a visit from a priest and created this dish especially (whipped it up quickly I’m sure!) At the first mouthful the priest fainted with delight!

I have been buying a few cheap as chips cook books on-line, I’m shifting slightly away from constant experimentation in the kitchen and looking at what other people are up to. The books I am buying are mainly retreat style cooking, Ayurveda and Macro-biotic influenced; I have some very cool Zen Buddhist cook books but this recipe (well most of it) came from the awesome ‘Shoshoni Cookbook’, which is a Yoga retreat up in the hills of Colorado. The food is simple, vibrant and superbly nutritious. The philosophy of cooking at Shoshoni, be ever present and immersed in your activity, constantly channeling love and good intention into your food and its preparation are essential for me in the whole wonderful food game, enjoyment! This is food charged with positive energy, cooked from a special place.

I know there are many different ways of preparing this dish, but this is my favourite. The aubergines are very tender after boiling and the light spices and herbs work very well together.

Aubergines can be grown in Britain, but only in greenhouses. We are struggling getting good local produce at the moment, so our seasonal fare is sparse. Fingers crossed this cold weather won’t hold, it’s been gloriously sunny in the days and freezing in the morning and nights. Not good for our poor plants, but makes for beautiful days walking.

You my live in a lovely part of the world where your veggies are just plain amazing and sweet. I would omit the honey and even the tomato puree in this case, with great produce, well, it speaks for itself and needs no assistance.

Yemek Keyfini! Enjoy!

Serves two quite nicely.

The Bits

2 aubergine (whole), 1 onion (diced small), 3 cloves garlic (crushed), 4 tomatoes (diced small), 1 red pepper (diced small), 1/2 teas ground coriander, 1 teas cumin seeds, 1 tbsp tomato puree, 1 teas honey, 3 tbs pine nuts, 1 cup coriander (leaves and stems), 3 tbs olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper (to taste), parsley and mint (chopped for topping)

Aubergines/eggplants ready for the pan

Do It

Place aubergines in a pot of boiling water, press down into the water with a lid and boil for 15 to 20 minutes until tender. Do not overcook, they have a lovely smooth texture, but the skin is fragile and breaks easily (as I learnt the hard way!) When cooked, run under cold water to chill quickly.

Split the aubergines down the centre lengthwise and gently score out the pulp and remove without piercing shells. Good luck here! Keep the skins warm somewhere of your choosing, a warm covered plate works well.

Saute your cumin seeds for two minutes, they will pop a bit, then add onion and cook until translucent, add aubergine and cook for 10 minutes or until tender, add ground coriander, tom puree, pepper, garlic, honey (if needed) and tomatoes and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add some of your herbs (coriander, parsley or mint or a mix) and pine nuts, season well to taste.

Serve

Fill the warm shells with vegetables and sprinkled with some more herbs and a good drizzle of amazing olive oil. Traditionally served with Mudjedera (recipe to come soon) or cous cous.

We Love It!

A simple, tasty dish that didn’t make us faint this time, but we’ll work on it!

Foodie Fact

Aubergines have very few calories but plenty of fibre, it contains loads of the vitamin B’s and some vitamin C. It also has good levels of manganese which acts as an anti-oxidant around the body and plenty of potassium which is good for many of your parts! (nerves and heart especially).

Categories: Dinner, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: aubergine, eggplant, food, recipe, stuffed, turkish, turkish cuisine, vegan, vegetarian, yoga, yoga retreat cooking | 20 Comments

Stuffed Courgette with Hazelnut and Peach

Posted on August 4, 2012 by leroy watson

The Bits

Cooking is still a bit weird here after all of our raw escapades. We are still eating mainly raw, with a few exceptions, when the produce and mood take us in a hotter direction. I need to keep my hand in because of the work that I do.

I’ve always loved a stuffed veg, Mum used to make stuffed peppers back in the dark ages on the early 90’s. Mum’s always been a bit of a maverick. I remember the first time she made cheesecake, in the mid 80’s with cheddar cheese! The family all came around to try this new found food. We’ve come a long way since then.

This is a dish along the lines of the millions of other ‘stuffed’ dishes on cyber space, the only difference being, this is ours and its only semi-stuffed. Recipes that spring to mind via what you have at hand are always my favourite. Spur of the moment cooking, making the best of what you have. This recipe goes against all of the food combining advice that we have been following recently, but we felt like living dangerously!

We are lucky to have brilliant courgettes at the moment from the farm and some sweet ripe peaches; combine that with a nut cabinet that never runs dry, mint growing wild like a madman in our garden and the ever-present cauliflower and you have the makings of a feast.

I decided to add the cauliflower to the cous cous, I love the subtle flavour that cauliflower gives off when steamed/ boiled. It added great flavour to the cous cous.

Being very much an amateur cook, I make many mistakes, or as I call them, great opportunities to learn. Cooking with an electric hob can be a real drag, but that is what we have. I much prefer gas stoves, mainly for controlling the heat by eye. When cooking the cous cous and cauliflower here, I forgot that the hob was still on very low and went off to do other things (drink tea), leaving the poor cous cous to overcook. Oh well, this is ‘real’ cooking and it still tasted good, if a little soft and congealed.

The French beans here are optional and can be substituted with anything else green and is season. Peas, spinach, broad beans etc would be grand.

We are an energy conscious household at the Beach House and don’t like turning on the oven unless very much necessary, namely, when we have lovely guests. Otherwise, it’s all hob. These courgettes could be blanched off in boiling water then thrown in a hot oven for a while, that would be nice. We have opted for the simpler and more efficient method of re-using your frying pan.

This is an ideal seasonal summer lunch which oozes flavour. All that sweetness and crunch with the bitterness of the olives. You could even cook the courgettes on the barbecue if you fancy!

Peaches and Raisins

The Bits

2 cup wholemeal cous cous (or brown rice, quinoa etc), 1/2 cauliflower (chopped finely), 1tbsp good veg stock, 1 large onion (chopped), 10 french beans (topped and tailed and chopped), 1 teas carraway seeds, 2 cloves garlic (minced/ finely chopped), 1/2 cup olives (sliced, we like the green ones), 1 ripe peach (finely chopped), 3 tbsp hazelnuts, 2 tbsp raisins (chopped), 2 tbsp mint (chopped), 1 tsp parsley (chopped), sea salt and cracked black pepper, 1 tbsp good oil, 4 courgettes (halved lengthways)

Chopped Cauliflower

Do It

Boil some water in a saucepan (follow quantities written on your cous cous packet, you will need a little less due to the water given off by the cauliflower) and stir in your stock, add your finely chopped cauliflower and cous cous, stir a little then tightly cover and leave off the heat to cook for 20 minutes. Fluff cous cous with a fork and re-cover until needed. If more water is needed, add now.

Heat your frying pan, add your hazelnuts and warm them through, lightly roasting them. Allow to cool, chop up into chunks.

Then heat some oil in the pan, gently soften your onions for 5 minutes, until slightly golden; add carraway seeds and french beans. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly, then add your mashed garlic, cook for 5 minutes more.

Gently soften your onions

Now add your mint, parsley and chopped hazelnut, stir for a minute to heat through, then add your cous cous and cauliflower, raisins, olives and peaches, with plenty of cracked pepper and some sea salt. Combine well. Be gentle with the cous cous here, you don’t want a mush! Cover pan and keep warm.

In another large frying pan, heat some oil and on a low/med heat, fry your courgettes face down. Allow them to colour for a few minutes then flip over, repeat this twice and the they should be cooked. You don’t want to overcook the courgette, it should still have a little crunch in the middle.

Stuffed Courgette with Hazelnuts and Peach

Serve

Place two courgettes on a plate, leave a little space inbetween, spoon over your filling. Pile it nice and high, finish with some of your chopped herbs.

We Love It!

This is a great dish, ideal for a light summer dinner. The combination of flavours and textures here is something that delights the mouth (even with overcooked cous cous)!

Stuffed Courgette with Hazelnut and Peach

Foodie Fact

Cous cous is small balls of semolina flour, whole wheat cous cous is made with wholewheat flour and has higher nutritional properties. Wholewheat cous cous contains higher fibre and iron than the normal stuff, 1 cup gives you a third of your daily fibre requirement.