Ramadan is about to draw to a close by the end of this week and in all honesty a Ramadan in lockdown wasn’t all that bad, a little repetitive but that’s to be said about the last few months as a whole.
I didn’t conquer any grand cooking achievements during Ramadan but just lots of little things, all of which were made with zero tasting involved.
That in itself has been a good learning curve as its helped me balance my salt, spices and sweet without relying on taste.
Yum Woon Sen – Thai Noodle Salad
This is usually made with glass noodles but I didn’t have any so we made do with rice paper balls. There are several variations to this salad but what key is that the vegetables need to be thinly sliced and there needs to be a variety of textures.
Salad: Radish, Cucumber, Purple Cabbage, Chilli
Crunch: Toasted peanuts and sesame seeds
Dressing: Palm sugar, dried chillies, vinegar, tom yum paste and fish sauce
Rice noodles balls: I boiled Vietnamese rice paper (the kind use to make rice paper rolls) and then rolled the glup into a ball. Then let this soak in soy and fish sauce. They sort of reminded me of prawn balls.
Baba Ghanoush
I’ve tried various ways of making it but the best is when you roast the aubergine on an open flame until it wholly softens. Then wash with cold water and remove the skin.
Ingredients:
Tahini
Red Chilli Powder
Sumac
Pomegranate Molasses
Tomatoes
Herbs (Parsley or Coriander)
Method:
- You could chop everything up and mix in a bowl but the best way is to use chopping as a way of mixing.
- So add the ingredients one by one and then chop through the aubergine pulp, this makes it super smooth and amalgamates the ingredients together.
- Plate in a surrounding pool of olive oil.
Pao de Quejo and Cous Cous
This was developed on a whim on a drowsy afternoon of fasting.
The two foods have no correlation but work well together. The cous cous is an everything couscous of peppers, chilli, tomato, lots of chopped coriander, various seasonings and lemon juice.
Pão de Quejo
- My inspiration was Brazilian goats cheese and cassava bites. But where on earth would I find cassava flour in the current situation.
- Essentially you need a sour, saltier cheese so I used feta and parmesan with some mozzarella for the pull and added some semolina instead of cassava flour.
- Then coated the mixture in panko breadcrumbs and fried. The salty cheese and the coarse semolina worked very well.
Gözleme
These traditional Turkish flatbreads with various fillings including spinach with feta, various meats and sauces.
I made mine with tofu because well I missed eating tofu, and made a whole wheat dough instead of using white flour
Dough
- Two cups whole wheat flour
- Water
- 1tsp yeast
- Knead and let rise
- Then knead again and let rise in little dough balls.
Fillings
- To imitate a cheese and spinach mixture I made a tofu and spinach mixture seasoned heavily with garlic. Just make sure its a dryish mixture as any moisture will cause a problem later in the folding process.
- I also made a tomato and mince chicken filling.
Method
- Make sure to roll the dough out as thin as possible remembering the fact that you have to fold it out.
- To seal the Gözleme mix a small amount of yogurt with a tablespoon of oil and that acts as a glue to put it all together.
- Once they are all folded up, fry on low heat for around 3 minutes each side and serve with some form of a yogurt dip.
Momo's
Originally Tibetan dumplings but very widely eaten all over India, with all sorts of variations.
I filled mine with a noodle and vegetable mixture.
The real star was the tomato chutney. It was very very spicy, a handful of whole dried red coupled with Sichuan peppercorns is a fiery match.
Ingredients:
Boiled tomatoes, skin peeled
Dried whole red chillies
Sichuan peppercorn
Salt and Pepper
Sugar
(I went to a momo festival in the Northeast of India when I was travelling in 2016)
Hummus, Falafel & Cacik
Coconut Panna Cotta, Mango Jelly and Passionfruit
and thats that for this Ramadan.
Shanzé