Curry Rice - Japanese style

I finally perfected my Japanese Curry Rice. Or at least I think I did anyway. The curry it's self is very easy so I really don't know why people bother with the Curry blocks that you can buy in most supermarkets. Made this last night and it was a hit.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 tsp of Rice Wine Vinegar

half a carrot, grated

1 tomato, chopped

2 cups of stock

3 bay leaves

1 tsp of curry powder

1 tsp of garam masala

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 to 2 tsp of ginger, crushed

Olive Oil

Margarine

Flour (I use potato flour as it is gluten free)

Rice

WHAT YOU'LL DO WITH IT:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onions until they are soft. Add the Rice Wine Vinegar and stir. Set the onions to one side.

Heat the margarine and add the flour mixing it till the two combine. Add garlic and ginger and stir for just a few moments. Add the grated carrot and stir till soft then add the stock a little at a time making sure to stir it so the flour dissolves into the stock with out creating lumps. Once all the stock is in the pot put the onions back in along with the chopped tomato, curry powder, bay leaves and garam masala. Stirring, bring it to the boil then let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

This is the basic sauce and at this point you can put any vegetable you like in to cook. I like to add corn, peas, zucchini, egg plant, mushrooms, spinach and sometimes potato to the sauce but it's really up to you.

Serve with steamed rice.

Chocolate Rice Pudding

I love rice pudding, I have always loved rice pudding ever since I was a kid and my mum makes the best rice pudding in the world so of course I had to use her recipe. Then one day I was thinking, how can I make rice pudding even better? It can't be possible can it? Then at that moment I looked up into my cupboard and saw a shinning beacon in the shape of a tin, a tin of cooking coco.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Arborio/Risotto rice
Two tea spoons of brown sugar
one tea spoon cooking Coco
half tea spoon cinnamon
half tea spoon nutmeg
Water
Milk
Margarine

WHAT YOU'LL DO WITH THEM:
First melt a good table spoon of margarine into a pot and add the rice. Stir through till the rice becomes shinny.

Add enough water to just cover the rice. Stir until soaked in.

Add Sugar, coco, nutmeg and cinnamon and stir quickly then add some more water to cover and stir till soaked in.

At this point check to make sure the rice is almost cooked through. If the rice is still crunch add a little more water and check again.

Add milk (about a cup at a time) mixing in until soaked up. You'll do this only twice but if you want the pudding to be extra creamy you can add a cup of cream instead of the second cup of milk or add an extra cup.

Serve in a BIG bowl because you worked hard and need the deliciousness (or you can share with another person who didn't lift a finger to make it and there for are unworthy of the deliciousness).

If you're vegan try replacing the milk with a nut milk and let me know how it went.

肉じゃか without the 肉。

So first things first, a mini Japanese lesson. 肉　niku is Japanese for meat. じゃが　jyaga is Japanese for potatoes. So the litteral translation for this dish is Meat and Potatoes but in reality the dish would be called Japanese meat and potato Stew in English. But since this is with out the meat we'll call it 'Aussielungs Japanese Potato Stew'.

This is another one of those warming winter dishes. I found that it does not go to well as left overs though and don't even think about freezing it. Essentially the sauce that is being made is a teriyaki sauce. Traditionally there would be no garlic in this dish at all but I like it.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Potatoes
Onion
Carrots
Peas
Mushrooms
Rice Noodles
1/4 cup Mirin
1/4 cup Soy Sauce
2 tsp Brown Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Stock
Olive Oil
Garlic

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO WITH THEM

First thing is to cut up the carrot, potato, mushrooms into bit size pieces and put to the side, then slice the onion. Pop a sauce pan on the stove and heat the oil then put in your onion and stir fry until soft. Pop in the potato's and carrot next and give them a stir until the carrot starts to brighten up. You don't want to cook the carrot all the way through before the soy, mirin and stock go in. Add the garlic and stir for one minute.

Add sugar (you can use less as the mirin is kind of sweet) then mirin and soy sauce, stir for a moment to mix them up then add enough stock to cover the vegetables. Cover and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Add the peas and simmer for another 5 minutes then add the mushrooms and simmer until the potato is cooked.

About 2 minutes before serving add the rice noodles to the pan and once they are cooked serve.

You may want to let it sit for a minute or two before eating because the dish can be hot. Also be warned, mirin is alcoholic so if you have something against the consumption of alcohol, even in cooking, don't make this dish.

Chili Con Carne

I love making this one, especially in the winter or when the bank account is looking a little on the skinny side. I used to make this with meat when I was younger. In fact this, Spaghetti Bolognese and my mum "disco" recipe where the first three things I learnt how to cook. The great thing about this chili is that is is filling. It will last for ages frozen and always taste better a day or two after it's been cooked.

You have two choices when it comes to the beans. You can either get the beans in a can or you can use dried beans and soak them over night.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Olive Oil
Red Kidney beans
Berlotti Beans
Chick Peas
Green Peas
Carrot
Onion
Red and Green Capsicum (Bell peppers for the yanks out there)
Garlic
Red Chili
Cayenne Pepper
Sea Salt
Coriander
Thyme
Oregano
Cumin
Chopped tomatoes (tinned)

WHAT YOU'LL DO WITH IT:
If you're using tinned beans just drain and rinse the beans and leave to the side. If you're using dried beans let soak for 6 to 8 hours then boil for 20 minutes, once boiled drain and leave to the side.

Dice carrot, onion, capsicum, garlic and chili and fry up in a wok or large sauce pan. When the onion is soft add the other herbs and stir through till you can smell the aroma of the herbs. Add beans and two tins of chopped tomatoes. Add peas.

Simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste test to make sure the taste is right. You should be able to get a good kick from the chili and taste the other herbs. If you get more heat than flavoure add more herbs and mix again. The strongest herb smell should be the Cumin.

Serve with either mashed potatoes (my favorite) or rice.

Spicy Pasta

I was trying to recreate a pasta dish that my dad ex girlfriend used to make many years ago. The original recipe had hardly any vegetables in it and lots if chicken and oil so I have adapted it to be vegan but the spice with the pasta and the oil was to die for. As I didn't ask her for the recipe I had to experiment a lot to get the spices and tomato right but I finally got it.

For the celiacs reading make sure your using a gluten free pasta like me. As the gluten free past is generally also egg and dairy free this is vegan by default.

WHAT YOU"LL NEED:
Shell Pasta
1 Tomato
Asparagus
Broccoli
Carrot
Spring Onion
Zucchini
Oregano
Basil
Paprika
Chili Powder
Garam Masala
Coriander
Cumin
Garlic
Ginger
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper (optional)

Olive Oil

WHAT YOU'LL DO WITH IT:
First put the pasta on to cook as per packet instructions,

While the pasta cooks cut up the vegetables. Cook all the vegetables except for the tomato first. Add garlic, ginger and the herbs and stir through. Add the tomato last with a splash of water to create a light sauce.

Drain pasta and add to vegetables. Stir to coat pasta in the vegetables and sause. Serve.

Welcome to Aussielungs Recipe Corner

This is my recipe blog of vegan, vegetarian and pescatarian culinary delights.

The majority of the recipes on this blog are my own and a few are adapted from other peoples recipes. Give them a go and mess with them. If you do something different that works better than my original recipe then post your changes so I can give them a go to.

I will try my best to tag all the recipes based on which dietary class they fall under, Vegan, Vegetarian or Pescatarian. Also keep in mind that I am wheat intolerant so all the recipes will be wheat free but not always gluten free so if there are any celiac sufferers out there please share your gluten free adaptations with the rest of the readers. I will do my best however to mark the recipes that are celiac friendly.

WHATS THE DIFFERENCE.

Now I'm sure there are some people out there who are new to the whole meat free, or limited meat diet so lets talk about the differences for a moment.

VEGAN:

A vegan is someone who does not eat any animal flesh or animal by products. Vegans are strictly vegetable, grains, nuts, legumes, fruites etc etc only. A vegan sub types Raw Food Vegans who don't heat food over a certain temperature.

VEGETARIAN:

Vegetarians is someone who does not eat animal flesh but will in certain circumstances eat animal by products like milk, cheese, honey and eggs. There are four types of vegetarians

Lacto Vegetarians will eat dairy but not eggs

Ova Vegetarians will eat eggs but not dairy.

Lacto-ova Vegetarians will eat both dairy and eggs.

Vegetarian are those who don't eat dairy or eggs but will eat honey. The reason this group does not fall into the vegan category is due to the fact that honey is an animal by product although many don't know this.

PESCATARIAN

A pescatarian (which can also be spelt pesceterian) are people who avoid all animal flesh except for fish. Many people who are new to the vegetarian diet get Pescatarian and Vegetarian diets confused as they are so similar or they do not see fish as meat. There are also some that argue that Vegetarian and Pescatarian are the same due to those that eat either dairy or eggs is no different to eating fish. A Macrobiotic diet would also fall under the Pescatarian diet as although it is closer to a Raw Vegan Diet in most instances they are allowed to eat fish on occasion.

FLEXITARIAN

This is a new dietary class that has been brought to my attention recently. Basically if you're one of those people who love vegetarian food but simply can't give up at least one or two servings of red or white meat a week you're part of this group.

WHY BECOME A VEGAN, VEGETARIAN, PESCATARIAN

There are a lot of reasons why people decide to change from a traditional western meat heavy diet to a meat free/limited diet. Most common one you'll hear is that animals are a beautiful living creature and have as much right to live as humans do. The next most common is for health reasons, maybe a person wants to loose weight or their blood pressure or cholesterol is to high. Then there are those who are allergic to animal protean and have to avoid it at all costs.

There is no right answer as to why someone decides to stop eating meat or limit their meat but there are many health benefits to a meat free diet. My personal recommendation is to see a doctor to make sure your body can handle the meat free diet of choice and to move into it slowly. Don't go and throw all your pork and rump roast and replace it with tofu straight away.

HOW TO MAKE A MEATLESS KITCHEN

First I want to point out that this section is from personal experience. Some people I know have been able to go from carnivore to vegan with no in-between periods. Others I know have tried to quite the meat cold turkey (excuse the pun) and been back into the lamb chops a week later. I took the slow and steady method, cutting out different types of meat and then cutting down the servings per week. This was the easiest method for me as my body didn’t go into dietary shock and I was also able to avoid most meat cravings.

Now it's time to get your kitchen ready for a meat free diet. There are some essential food staples that all meatless kitchens need. Green leafy vegetables are high in iron so stock up on them along with as many different types of mushrooms you can find. To keep your protean levels up have a large supply of different types of beans, peas and tofu. Go to your local market and buy the beans dried and in bulk, they will last for months as long as you check them every now and then to make sure no fungus has gotten to them. If you feel that your going to miss the texture of meat then there are a number of meat substitutes out there in your local super market. You're also going to need a fully stocked spice rack or, if you're anything like me, spice cupboard. Potatoes and pumpkins are also a must have as most people who are on a meat free diet get hungry easily and potatoes are filling and pumpkins, especially butternut pumpkin, are a low GI food.

Here is an example shopping list to get you started. *

Tofu

Mushrooms

Broccoli

Potatoes

Butternut Pumpkin

Onion

Spring Onion

Cabbage

Spinach

Zucchini

Capsicum (Bell Peppers)

Cucumber

Asparagus

Tomatoes

Baby Tomatoes

Celery

Carrots

Lettuce

Green Beans

Peas

Corn

Butter Beans

Borlotti Beans

Red Kidney Beans

Chick Peas

Barley

Garlic

Ginger

Oregano

Basil

Garam Masala

Thyme

Parsley

Bay Leaves

Cumin

Coriander

Safe

Rosemary

Paprika

Curry Powder

Chili Powder

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

Marjoram

Mint

Tarragon

Star Anise

Sugar

Soy Sauce

Mirin

Lemon

Lime

Long Grain Rice

Arborio Rice

*Depending on which diet group you fall into you can also add dairy, eggs, fish and honey. This is just a basic shopping list that assumes the fridge and cupboard are completely bare. Many of the items like the beans and herbs will not need to be purchased ever week and some of these foods can be bought in bulk.