Millennium Paella September 15, 2009

I had the weekend to myself, without much testing to do. I’d sort of decided to spend Saturday slaving over a hot stove, but when I saw how sunny it was, I had a change of plan. I still wanted to cook myself something nice, but didn’t want to spend the whole day doing it.

I decided to try the paella from the Millennium book. It’s actually one of the quicker dishes from Eric Tucker’s two books, and as long as you do a bit of planning it comes together quite quickly at the end.

It’s based on a saffron rice pilaf, which I made earlier in the day. I also home smoked the tofu at the same time – and it was the best smoked tofu I have ever done. I’ll do a tutorial on what I did when I next do it and get some photos. I didn’t take any because I’ve done it loads of times and didn’t expect it to turn out so well. There was a secret part to it, which was just a happy find.

The other main flavours of the dish included arame seaweed, capers, orange zest, chile flakes, courgettes, cumin seeds and black olives. Looking at the amount of seaweed after it had soaked, I suspected it would be too overpowering, but it just provided a really gentle taste of the sea, which was perfect.

It was served with a chile tofu aoli. I’m always a touch suspicious of silken tofu where it’s standing in for mayonnaise or sour cream. This is probably a hangover from a very early vegan brush with a Sarah Kramer recipe where the tofu ended up tasting resoundingly of… tofu, and had to be thrown away. However, this was deliciously creamy, garlicky and fresh, and worked perfectly with the deep flavours of the paella.

For a really tasty dish, from a book renowned for difficult dishes, this one really didn’t take too long. You don’t need to smoke your own tofu so don’t let that put you off. You can use shop bought smoked tofu or a seitan sausage. I would highly recommend giving this a go. And look! The recipe is available on googlebooks here – no excuses!

Saffron and butternut squash risotto March 7, 2009

My husband’s dislike of vegetables is split into two levels – the “won’t touch with a bargepole” sweetcorn, peas, parsnips and brussel sprouts, and the “would never choose to eat but don’t mind them if they’re well disguised” beetroot, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin.

So when he was away the other night and I fancied something comforting, I found this recipe which contained both sweetcorn and butternut squash and decided to treat myself. It’s one of the relatively easy recipes in the Millennium cookbook and I always like to find a recipe for risotto that is tasty in its own right without needing cheese.

This risotto is really rib sticking and hugely tasty. I think I was a touch heavy handed with the saffron – I seem to remember it was the Masterchef judges who said that if you can taste saffron in a dish, you’ve put too much in. I know that sounds daft but after I’d eaten this, I knew what they meant. That could easily be my fault not the recipe though. I would have served this with some braised greens if I’d had any and I think they’d have gone together well.

I always feel good when I cook something from either of the Millennium books and this was no exception!

White bean-filled phyllo purse over soft garlic polenta with porcini-zinfandel sauce, kale and grilled pear January 1, 2009

Wow! That’ a long title!

I’ve been determined to cook this meal for a long time and have somehow not managed it on at least 3 occasions. Yesterday I finally managed it, and I’m so glad I did.

It’s from “The Artful Vegan”, which is the second book from Millennium chef, Eric Tucker. I’ve been to the restaurant 3 times and been blown away by the clever combinations and fancy vegan concoctions. I own both books but have definitely made more from the first one.  I’d previously only cooked one meal from this book. When I first got the books I thought the food was beyond me, but I think it’s a measure of how much my cooking has improved that I can pick them up now and find quite a few things I want to cook.

That said, it’s not a meal to cook when you get in from work! It involved quite a lot of steps but individually none of them were particularly hard – they just needed planning. The first thing I did was make the sausages. I used the Millennium recipe but steamed them, as I’m quite comfortable steaming seitan sausages now and it seemed easier. Then I made the mushroom stock for the sauce, followed by the sauce itself. I’d never made sauce like that, using a dark roux and homemade stock, but it resulted in a rich thick deep glossy sauce.

Next I made the filling for the purses, which used vegetables, sausage, sherry, herbs, stock, white beans and truffle oil. I let that cool and assembled and baked the purses last. The garlic polenta was pretty easy and I’m sure I’ll find other uses for the thick tasty cashew cream that went into it. Then the recipe called for broccoli rabe, but I substituted kale, and finally there was grilled balsamic pear.

I made 2 mistakes throughout – neither of them affected the taste but they did alter the look of the dish. I didn’t realise until quite late in the proceedings that my phyllo pastry was a different shape to the recipe, so my purses were a lot chunkier and less elegant than in the book. The other mistake was using plates that were too small so the meal looked crowded and messy, when I’d hoped for a really good photo and presentation just for once! There’s a much better picture in the book and another one on the website which I hoped to recreate, but no matter. The taste was sublime and went perfectly with the bottle of zinfandel we brought back from California a few years ago.

It was a lot of work considering the meal was demolished very quickly – but it was time well spent. And of course, the individual elements of the dish can be altered or used in conjunction with other things – for example, I’d definitely make the polenta again – it was probably the tastiest polenta I’ve ever had but on its own it was super easy.

I’m not intimidated by these books anymore and although they aren’t quick they are well worth considering when you want something a bit special.