Super Food Every Day Maple-Glazed Eggplant with Tempeh

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I fell in love the minute I saw this book. And I don't say that lightly ... I've seen a lot of cookbooks that are either vegetarian or predominantly vegetarian and I'm usually mightily underwhelmed.

This one is packed with super-healthy ingredients, but made to look delicious and decidedly un-scary - an absolute requisite in my case. The photographs are beautiful and understated and make me wish I lived in San Francisco, which I'm sure isn't the first time something's made me feel that way.

Heidi Swanson is the author of the incredibly popular and award-winning 101 Cookbooks blog, which is the first place I go to when I'm jonesing for a veggie food porn hit. And even those times when I think I need to eat something ridiculously healthy, like California healthy, full of sprouts and avocado and sunshine and goodness. I'm never disappointed. I also go away mentally flogging myself for not getting more light in my photos. Sigh.

I made this eggplant-and-tempeh dish because her picture was insane, and it had the word "glazed", and not only had eggplant, which I adore, but also tempeh, which I am trying to like. And lemon zest and garlic and chilli and coriander and feta and oh my god I can't resist.

All the recipes are that ridiculously good. I've also made the buttermilk cake, which is so moist (I hate that word, but can't think of another to accurately describe!), with a hint of lemon. It even called for wholemeal flour which usually makes me cry in baked goods, and I found there were a distinct lack of tears. From me and Veggie Dad's staff party, who thoroughly enjoyed it. I used rapadura sugar instead of caster and thought I was so hippie all my Apple products would immediately disappear into thin air, leaving paperbark and sharpened sticks in their place.

Heidi says Super Natural Every Day is for people who want to eat healthier but haven't quite made the jump from an "all-white" pantry, which we all know is bad. After my recent foray into brown rice, wholemeal flour was the last thing on my list to endear itself to me... I'm getting there.

There are almost 100 recipes based around whole and natural foods. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, baked goodies, drinks and bits and bobs at the end - there is something for everyone. I had it on my kitchen counter for about a month, every time I went shopping I flicked through for a bit of inspiration. And a reminder to buy things like sunflower seeds that I know i should eat but always forget.

Originally, this dish called for pomegranate glaze, but I didn't have any, so used maple syrup, which the recipe recommended. Oh boy.

Ingredients:
1 long, thin eggplant cut into 2.5cm chunks
225g tempeh, cut into 1cm cubes
125g peeled pumpkin or sweet potato, cut into 1cm cubes
Grated zest of 1 small lemon
1 tsp fine sea salt
3 medium garlic cloves
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
80ml pomegranate molasses/maple syurp
80ml extra-virgin olive oil
15g chopped fresh coriander
30g ricotta salata or feta cheese, crumbled

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C with a rack in the middle of the oven.

2. Mound the eggplant, tempeh, pumpkin and lemon zest on a rimmed baking tray.

3. Start making the glaze by sprinkling the salt over the garlic. Chop and smash the garlic into a paste using both the flat side and the blade of your knife (I used a mortar and pestle). Combine the garlic paste in a bowl with the chilli flakes and pomegranate molasses/maple syrup. Whisk in olive oil. Drizzle 3/4 of the mixture over the ingredients on the baking tray. Toss well and arrange in a single layer.

4. Bake for 45-60 minutes, tossing everything at the 35-minute mark, until the eggplant and pumpkin are soft and starting to caramelise.

5. Drizzle with the remaining pomegranate glaze, sprinkle with coriander and cheese and serve.

Serves 4.

Super Natural Every Day (Hardie Grant, RRP $29.965) is available now.

Japanese potato salad

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Oh Japan. There was so much to you that I fell in love with.

Toilets that played music. Pedestrian crossings that played music. Gadgets that played music. Buses that told its passengers over the loudspeaker to not talk on the phone too loud in case it annoyed the other passengers. Incredibly sweet and kind Japanese EVERYWHERE. 

Even their fire hose covers in the street were cute.

Golden Hello Kitty idols in the street were cute.

Hello Kitties made of flowers in the street were cute.

Japanese girls on TV were cute.

Insanely gorgeous places to stay were insanely gorgeous.

Incredible English translation was awesome.

Please excuse my rather tipsy head there.

Their cute food was cute. They had Hello Kitty stamped on tiny sausages for kids. Just about everything had a face. I fell in love with edamame. I fell in love with the dainty portions, the prettiness of their food, the care with which it was all prepared.

And I fell in love with Japanese potato salad.

Every morning we would walk to the dining room of our ski hotel for breakfast. You never knew what you were going to get - one day it was some kind of filled cabbage leaf in some kind of broth, the next it would be tiny sausages, a stalk of broccoli, an ice-cream scoop of potato salad and three carefully-placed dots of ketchup. 

I kindly offered my sausages in exchange for extra portions of potato salad. I'm caring like that.

Recently Veggie Dad scored a win when he bought me Adam Liaw's cookbook - you know that incredibly talented and adorable, green-jumper-wearing, samurai teddy bear that won Masterchef? Yeah that guy. And in his cookbook, he gives a recipe for Japanese potato salad. 

私の名前はStaceyである。 私はポテトサラダを好む。

Ingredients:

4 large floury potatoes

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/2 small lebanese cucumber

1 small white or brown onion, thinly sliced

1/2 small carrot

1 egg, at room temperature

1 cup kewpie mayonnaise

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Boil in salted water 15 minutes until quite tender. Drain and return the potatoes to the hot pan. Stir regularly over very low heat 2-3 minutes to dry the potatoes without burning.

2. Transfer the potatoes to a deep bowl and season with a little salt and white pepper. Using a wooden spoon, crush the potatoes against the bowl to make a rough mash. Whip the potatoes vigorously with a wooden spoon for a few minutes until fluffy. Leave to cool to room temperature.

3. Meanwhile, peel the cucumber, leaving on a little peel for colour and texture. Cut in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Slice very thinly into half-moons. Combine the cucumber and onion and toss with a little salt. Put in a colander and leave to drain for 15minutes. Rinse off the salt under running water and dry on paper towel.

4. Peel the carrot and thinly slice into half-moons. Boil in salted water 3-5 minutes until tender. Drain and set aside on paper towel to cool.

5. Bring a small pan of water to the boil. Add the egg and boil 8 minutes, then transfer egg to iced water to stop the cooking process. When the egg is cool, peel and roughly chop.

6. Add the mayonnaise, carrot, cucumber and onion to the potato and whip vigorously with a wooden spoon. Stir in the egg. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

A Walk Down Vintage Lane - The Ladies Handbook

One of my favourite things to do besides cook is read. And the older the book, the better. My two loves often combine in antique or vintage cookbooks, which provide a lot of joy, but not a lot of recipes (beef tea, anyone?). I adore the old ads, the sensible advice, the ingenious use of staple ingredients, and just, well, the look of these books. So I decided this year to share some of my collection with you as sometimes they're not just pretty, but downright hilarious, too. It's sweet to look back at what mattered most back then - being an able housewife, a competent nursemaid to ill relatives, creating a warm and loving nest for your family, and 100 ways to make jellied salads. Boy did they love their aspic.

Being as I'm 32 weeks pregnant, I decided to begin with The Ladies Handbook, an all-round useful tome for women getting married, raising families, feeding the families, going through 'the change' and being always on the lookout for economical recipes. It's adorable and it has surprisingly useful advice on pregnancy and labour (they assumed you'd be doing it at home) and how to care for your bonny bairn.



This particular issue was printed in 1947, and it's full title is The Ladies' Handbook of Home Treatment: containing the best modern methods for treatment of women's and children's diseases, with a comprehensive index of symptoms.

Thorough.

Anyhoo, one of my favourite features is this cutting-edge-for-its-time "manikin" of the pregnant female body, showing what goes on inside.




Pretty cool, huh?

 

It also has some pretty graphic drawings of scabies and cancer of the breast, but in the interest of keeping your lunch down, we'll leave those to your imagination.



Ah so that's where those birds and bees stories started...



Now, before we go leaping straight for motherhood, everybody in 1947 knew you weren't doing it solo. So the first chapter helpfully describes how to go about getting yourself married to a respectable man who was going to look after you. We are informed that in choosing a partner for life, there were many things to be considered: one should choose a man of high ideals, noble character and a pure life; a man of sound constitution and good heredity. He should be of suitable age, of pleasing disposition, and one's equal, but not one's superior in social position. He should be a young man of proven worth, not flitting from one position to the other and making a success of none. He should have demonstrated his ability to earn a reasonable living and to provide for the necessities and comforts of a family.

Lucky for me I found such a gentleman before I had been informed of such requirements. Only nobody told me I'd also have to start watching rugby league, listen to punk music ad nauseam and be able to drink like a sailor. Added benefits, let's call them.

Only kidding Veggie Dad, you rule.

Once you've been sufficiently wooed and you've embroidered yourself a lifetime of tablecloths, it's time for the biblical sex-talk. You want babies, you understand how plants reproduce first. Then we'll use these euphemisms to describe what goes on between the starched sheets. Seeds, eggs, nests, a baby is really just like a newly-sprouted dahlia. After leading you in gently, it actually provides some legitimate and correctly-termed information about pregnancy and gestation.

Now, we are reminded that the need of maintenance after marriage of the fight against excessive sexual indulgence is incumbent upon all. (No I'm not making this up). It is a natural instinct, as is thirst and hunger, but as we can careen dangerously into gluttony and drunkenness, as can we dive headfirst into sexual gluttony, which we're told is utterly inescusable.

If you are chaste, clean, pure and morally upright, this shall be your reward:

One is advised to get plenty of fresh air and sunshine as a pregnant woman, and eat sensibly. In fact, we are warned against eating too much animal protein, and to focus on fresh fruits, vegetables, beans and grains, as meat was thought to be taxing on the kidneys. What follows is a helpful section on vitamins and minerals, recipes for laxative treatments and advice on what to wear. It's all much the same as what we are told now, except this interesting contraption: the abdominal belt.



Comfortable, yes?



For those who long for the support of the corset in the latter stages of pregnancy. No need to buy one ready-made, just wrap a towel around yourself, sew on some straps and safety pin yourself into abdominal comfort.

What comes next is the pointy end of the business - "the confinement". Again, much the same as what we're told now, except during the pushing stage, one is required to be bedridden, not getting up for any reason whatsoever. And there is a long list of things that need to be boiled and sterilised and that we'll be unconscious by the time baby arrives, thanks to the miracle of modern painkillers, of which we have no choice but to be given. Oh - and it's strict bed rest for two weeks post partum, eventually getting up here and there during the third week, with the baby only brought to you at feeding time, and no visitors.

I am firmly convinced that is is the reason my grandmother had eight children (Catholocism notwithstanding): she was hanging out for those three weeks where everyone would just leave her the hell alone.



um, cute!



We are instructed as to how to choose a nurse, and what sorts of qualifications and personality traits she should have. She should preferably look like this:



Nightmares? never heard of such nonsense.



Care, bathing, feeding (fried foods and pastry are not suitable for young children, here's a recipe for swede turnip juice) and keeping your child free from illness ensues. Puberty, middle age, and the menopause follows, and then is all neatly tied up with descriptions of just about every illness concievable, and some first aid tips. One hell of a comprehensive handbook for a lady indeed. Her and her family's physical and mental welfare are considered and advice helpfully given. Perhaps one of the coolest things in this book is the inscription at the start, a reminder to all:

THEY say that man is mighty,

He governs land and sea,

He wields a mighty sceptre

O'er lesser powers that be;

But a mightier power and stronger

Man from his throne has hurled,

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

-Wm. Ross Wallace.

Now try to stop thinking of Rebecca deMornay...