What Wat- Shiro Wat, Doro Wat

 It wasn't until I read a novel set in Ethiopia that I heard of Wat- Ethiopian stew and Injera- fermented flatbread. I made Shiro Wat all through last winter and loved it so much, but then suddenly realised that I didn't need to just make it plain & smooth. Oh my goodness what a marvellous dish Wat is! 

It's kind of like "stone soup" as you start out with a wee handful of ingredients and you cook and stir and add some water and then a bit more water until suddenly you have a fragrantly delicious meal that fills the whole pot!  

Wat is really just a sauce made with onion, spices, tomato, chickpea flour, butter and water.

Cut up and gently fry 2 onions in some butter, ghee or olive oil. Or use a whole lot of onion weed instead, or a couple of leeks.

Add salt, ground pepper & a pinch of sugar.Add more butter or olive oil. 

And a tbsp of Berbere spice mix or:

2 tbsps paprika, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground fenugreek, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of cloves. Add a little chilli if you want some heat.

It would be good to make up a little jar with this mix so you didn't have to get out all the spices each time.

I am still experimenting with the spices. But you can google Shiro Wat for some other ideas.

Then a large tbsp of tomato paste and a cupful of chickpea flour, add some water and stir it all together. As it thickens add more water & more water and some more butter or oil and keep stirring.

This is now Shiro Wat. You can blend it smooth or leave it as is.

You can add all kinds of greens, some chickpeas, shredded chicken, mushrooms, sweetcorn or anything that you think might work for you. Add chopped fresh coriander near the end of cooking if you like.

If you have added chicken the stew now becomes Doro Wat.

You may be confused about the oil and butter- use as much as feels good to you, but when you add enough and it all goes glossy and thick it'll taste amazing!

We love paneer cubed and fried a little on top. The cashews worked well too.

This tastes even better the next day and keeps really well.

Green Falafel

 These green falafel are just brilliant! Entirely flexible in the making, full of greens and so tasty.

So different to any other falafel I have ever come across. Based on a Jamie Oliver recipe, but I have made some additions- like loads of onion weed and wild greens. 

A food processor is a good idea as my poor little stick blender was pushed to it's limit in being asked to blend everything.

1 1/2 cups of any of these, or a mixture: frozen green peas, broad beans or edamame

1/3 cup of chickpea (or plain if you prefer) flour- organic is best for texture. 1/3 tsp baking powder.

A whole pile of wild or other greens such as onion weed, puha, spinach, dandelion leaves, beach beet, nettles, nasturtium leaves, coriander etc

A large handful of fresh mint. 

Salt, pepper & the magic ingredient- a preserved lemon. I dare say you could just add some zest if you don't have a preserved lemon on hand.

1 tsp black cumin seeds or regular cumin. 1/2 cup of either chickpeas or butter beans etc (canned). 

Add a slug of olive oil and process until it all comes together and is green!

Fry in a little olive oil until golden. 

Preserved lemons are very easy to make.

Just cut up a few lemons removing seeds as you go & fill a jar with the wedges sprinkling salt over the layers- 1 tsp salt to each lemon. Packing firmly. Pop on the lid & leave for a week to process.

You can also do limes and oranges this way.

Orange Frangipane Tart

 Oh how did I not understand frangipane before now!?

We fell in love with a walnut tart a while back, so when I read a recipe from @NZLife for an orange tart I knew I needed to adapt it to be frangipane too.

So here it is- an orange frangipane tart that is perfect for mid winter, while we have the sublime locally grown navel oranges in abundance & for picnics. Last week we had a wonderful wandering adventure out in Havelock North. Our afternoon tea under a leafless oak tree up at Keirunga gardens simply comprised of an orange frangipane tart & a tea of rose petal, hibiscus (sabdariffa), linden & double pink hawthorn blossom that was light & floral & perfect.

So to make the tart:

Pastry: 125 gms of chilled, cubed butter, a pinch of salt if it's unsalted like ours

1 1/4 cups of flour- I used 1 cup of wholemeal spelt & 1/4 white spelt flour

1 rounded tbsp of jaggery or brown sugar & a 1/4 tsp ground cardamom

2 tbsps cold water.

Either process the mix to a fine crumb & then pulse in the water, or rub the butter through the flour & sugar & mix the water in. Chill while you get organised- like turning on the oven to 180 degrees C 

Bake for 10 minutes in a 23cm tart tin lined with baking paper, or several smaller ones 

Filling: soften 75 grams of butter & a large tbsp of jaggery, raw or brown sugar, beat together 

Add 1/2 cup of lovely honey

Beat in 4 eggs one at a time

Add the grated zest of a good rough (easier to grate) large orange so that you have at least a tbsp of zest

Add the juice of the orange, a tsp of lemon zest & the juice of half a lemon

Then stir through a cup of ground almonds & a tbsp of flour

Pour in to the par baked shell. Add mandarin segments in a pattern on top if you like.

Bake 180 degrees for 10 mins & then 20- 25 minutes at 160 until the tart is golden & set.

Cool before removing from the tin/s

Katie X

Apple, Raisin and Oatmeal Biscuits

 I don't bake a lot of biscuits but these apple, raisin and oatmeal biscuits are great.

See alternative recipe below made with sweet persimmon.

The recipe makes loads of good sized biscuits. They keep surprisingly well considering they have apple in them, they are really satisfying and best of all they are perfect for picnics.

In a large bowl mix

3 cups of rolled oats & 1 cup of flour- I prefer white or wholemeal spelt flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 

1/2 tsp of cinnamon.

In another bowl cream 170 grams of butter (cut up & soften) with 3/4 cup brown sugar or jaggery.

Add an egg, a tsp of vanilla extract and 1/3 of a cup of milk.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together along with a large grated apple and 1 1/2 cups of raisins or sultanas. 

Bake in a preheated oven at around 160 degrees C on baking paper for 15- 20 minutes until golden.

I used generous tablespoonfuls of mixture. They don't spread particularly so you can bake them quite close together.

Cool on a wire rack.

June 2024 and we are still loving these biscuits. Right now we're in the middle of persimmon season. To be honest, I prefer sweet persimmons just as they are but lots of people have been telling me about using them in other ways so, when we decided to head off for an adventure on Monday- King's birthday, I decided to have a go with persimmon not just apple & they are fabulous biscuits indeed.

I made a variation of the above

In to one bowl put:

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup of shredded coconut

1 cup of organic flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups raisins (or cranberries, apricots etc

1 tsp each cinnamon & ground ginger

1 tbsp chia seeds (add some sunflower seeds if you like too)

2 grated persimmons

calendula flowers- three or four flowers just the petals

In another bowl add:

170 gms butter- soften

3/4 cup brown sugar cream together

Add 1 egg 

1 dsp vanilla essence

Add the above dry stuff in to the bowl plus 1/3 cup milk 

Mix altogether.

Spoon out large spoonfuls of mixture- shape & flatten a bit.

Bake for 20 minutes at 160 degrees just the same.

Katie X

Sweet Persimmon Chutney

It's never really occurred to me to actually "make" anything with sweet persimmons before, but this season I have discovered that they slow bake brilliantly, that they also make a unique and delicious chutney & they're jolly good in a loaf. 

To slow bake them simply slice them through as evenly as possible- no need to peel them, lay them out in a baking dish on baking paper & bake at about 140 for around 40 minutes. Once cool they keep really well in the fridge uncovered.

The sweet persimmon and turmeric chutney I came across at This NZ Life. 

I had a few misgivings about the recipe but decided to more or less follow it the first time round- cooking it in a pot, but also reducing the enormous volume of fresh turmeric (2 cups full!) and tweeking a few other aspects. Even then it tasted like an odd kind of jam thing as it had no vinegar in the recipe. Nice but strange.

So, the second time round I made it in a baking dish & cooked it in the oven and what a difference that makes.

I think that it needs to be a loose recipe- use what you've got and adjust to your own taste.

This last batch was made with around 8 pretty ripe, but not squishy sweet persimmons. No need to peel. Cut them all up fairly finely and add to the baking dish.

Add 1/2 apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar.

1 cup of mango juice- yip you can taste the mango flavour in and it works

1/3 cup of jaggery, or other sugar

A large tsp of good salt

1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon (cinnamon stick if you prefer) 1 tsp cardamom, a pinch of cayenne pepper or a little chilli 

3 fresh turmeric roots, a knob of fresh ginger grated

1 cup dried cranberries & a cup of dates if you like, but I prefer golden raisins.

Mix altogether & bake in a moderate oven stirring occasionally for around an hour or until it tastes amazing and looks about right to you. Adjust the the balance if you need to- more salt, spice etc.

Pour into sterilized jars and pop the lids on. Hot or cold doesn't seem to matter.

Label!

Katie X

Passionfruit or Feijoa Chia Pudding

Last week I kept looking at the lovely wrinkly passionfruit sitting on the bench wondering what I could use them for before they go off and I waste them, when I suddenly thought of chia pudding (don't know why they have to call it "pudding" but there you go). It is so easy to make and incredibly delicious. 

So I put a 1/3 cup of chia seeds (any colour) in to a small agee jar (500mls) then added 

1/2 tin of Kara coconut cream

1/2 cup of thick natural yoghurt

5/6 passionfruit scooped out

And a large tbsp of honey

Mix thoroughly and leave to sit until the chia seeds swell and the whole thing goes gloopy.

Add more yoghurt or coconut cream if it's too thick.

Probably best left overnight in the fridge. It's brilliant poured in to small jars so then it can be taken to work, school or just to serve one person. 

Serve the pudding with fresh fruit or eat it from the jar.

Feijoa chia pudding is so amazing and very feijoary!

If you're making this you're probably at the stage in the feijoa season where you're wondering what else you can do with all the fruit, so scoop out a whole lot into a pot and cook on a low heat, adding nothing else at all, until the feijoas have made their own juice and then cook a little more until they've thickened up a bit. While they're still warm add a large tbsp of honey and stir it in.

I love to add a dash of rose water too.

To make the pudding choose a jar or bowl that works for you and add 1/3 cup of chia seeds

Then 1/3 cup of coconut cream (Kara is great) and 1/3 cup of natural yoghurt.

Stir altogether very well.

Now stir in the cooked feijoas- as many as fills the jar or whatever seems good to you.

Mix again.

Pop in t the fridge to soak for an hour or overnight.

Check the thickness and add more coconut cream, cream, milk or yoghurt if it seems too stodgy.

Once you've got the hang of this I am sure you could experiment with all kinds of different fruits.

You can also make it with whatever you like- nut or oat milk, coconut yoghurt etc.

That's it! 

Feijoa chia pudding with apple, sweet persimmon and red clover flowers and a glass of nettle infusion.

Katie X

Feijoa Jelly

 A few weeks ago when a man gleefully bought himself a large bag of feijoas from our wee stall he paused to chat and told me about how he likes to make a delicate jelly with the fruit. He uses a whole can of condensed milk to the blended fresh feijoas and them sets the liquid with gelatine. I just can't quite bring myself to use a tin of condensed milk so instead I used 1/2 can of Kara coconut cream, some honey and a little rose water. I soaked some gelatine in a little of the liquid, heated it gently to dissolve and then stirred some feijoa/coconut cream mix in to the warm gelatine stirring all the time- mix it all in together and then pour in to jars, small bowls or a larger one and leave to set in the fridge. It's quite gritty- feijoas will do that, but it's delicious. Adjust the amounts to suit. and gosh, use condensed milk if you want to!

Katie X