Classic Bliss Balls with Activated Almonds

Bliss balls, vegan truffles, protein balls... call them what you like, these popular sweets are easy to make and super yummy. I've used a recipe from Bliss Organic Café's website, but there are hundreds of recipes online. You could certainly experiment heaps with this recipe, but I'm going to stick to the original to begin with.

 

I thought I'd experiment with "activating" my almonds. Which basically means soaking them for 12 hours then drying them out in a low oven or dehydrator. It is said to make them easier to digest. There is currently no scientific evidence to support this, however I think nutrition science has a long way to go and don't think it can hurt. Pete Evans from MKR got into quite the controversy about them late last year.

 

I soaked a cup of almonds for 12 hours, put them in the oven on low (~60-80 degrees) for 2 hours, turned off the oven and left them in there for another 2 hours until they were dry to touch. I have no idea if they are dry enough and storing them in the fridge to be safe.

 

 

I'm being very "super foodie" with this recipe, raw cacao powder, activated almonds and coconut. Except I don't like the "super foods" label. I think it's misleading and unbalanced. I'm sure science is discovering new and exciting things about specific foods, but I can't help but wonder whose paying for it? Natural sultanas, organic apples and good old white cabbage are also good for you and a whole lot cheaper than goji berries and kale.

 

It's just food people. Variety and moderation is the key.

Bliss Balls

 

 

1 cup activated Almonds

1 cup dates pitted

1 cup prunes pitted

1/4 cup Sunflower seeds

1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds

2 tbl Sesame seeds

2 tbl Shredded Coconut - extra for decorating

2-3 tbl raw Cacao powder

 

In a food processor putting the ingredients in the order above one by one.

 

 

first almonds, give a few pulses

 

 

then dates, pulse

 

 

then prunes pulse...

 

It was at this stage that my tiny food processor started struggling and I had to do the mixture in 1/4 batches to get an even consistency. A bit of a pain but worth it.

 

Add the sunflower and pumpkin seeds and pulse again. If you don't want to recognise them in the final product add them earlier. If you like your balls chunky, add them later. 

 

If you have a super powerful food processor add the sesame seeds, coconut and cacao powder and blend into a dark, sticky ball.

 

If your food processor challenged like me, put the sticky date, almond, prune & sunflower/pumpkin seed mixture in a bowl and mix in the sesame seeds, coconut and cacao.

 

  I used a metal spoon to press it through

 

Then roughly brake the entire mixture into tsp sized pieces

 

With damp hands roll them into balls and then coat them in coconut

 

Try really hard to not the eat the entire batch

 

 Chill in the fridge to firm.

 

It's that easy!

 

Happy Easter!

Black Bean Chilli

This post follows directly on from Black Beans 101. Martha Rose Shulman has a number of recipes using her perfectly simmered black beans. The first one I tested out was her  Black Bean Chilli. I've been searching for a vegetarian chilli recipe for ages and I'm so happy I found this one.

I made a few changes, primarily due to a lack of canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce available in Australia. As a substitute I added paprika, fresh chilli and apple cider vinegar. I also added some celery, because it was in the fridge and needed to be used.

It's thick, rich and delicious!

1 pot simmered Black Beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions finely chopped
6 large garlic cloves, minced
2 fresh chillies
3 sticks celery
1 tbl dried chilli
1 tablespoon lightly toasted cumin seeds, ground
425 gm tin tomatoes
2 tbl apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tbl paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt
1/2 cup chopped coriander

Make the black beans as directed, preferably the day before you wish to serve.

Heat the oil over medium heat and add the onion and celery

 

Cook, stirring often, until the onion is lightly colored, about 10 minutes.

Add the fresh chilli and garlic, fry for a minute or two until fragrant

 

Then add the spices, dried chilli, cumin and paprika. Cook, stirring, for two to three minutes, until the mixture begins to stick to the pan.
 

 

Add the tinned tomatoes, vinegar and oregano. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.

  

 

Stir in tomato paste then simmer for another 15 minutes, stir often to prevent it from sticking and burning.

 

Add the Black Beans to the tomato mixture and bring back to a simmer.

 

 

 

Continue to simmer, stirring often, for 45 - 60 minutes.

 

Taste and adjust salt.

 

I've been eating this all week in various ways along the theme of a burrito salad.

Served with brown rice and/or sweet potato

Garnished with fresh tomatoes, lettuce, black olives, coriander, jalapeños, spring onion, grated cheese, natural yogurt and corn chips.

 

Black Beans 101

Black beans are not widely used or available in Australia, which is sad, because they are so delicious not to mention super healthy. Lucky for me the Kakulas Brothers in Northbridge, Perth have bulk bins of almost everything you could desire, including dried black beans.

I attempted cooking black beans once before with poor results because I boiled them and discarded the cooking water - amateurs mistake. They require more time and effort than other dried beans, but after discovering the absolute brilliance that is Martha Rose Shulman and her guide to Black Beans as part of her awesome recipe series with the NY times called Recipes for Health, I think my cooking abilities are about to take a leap forward.

 

On her website she says, "I draw my inspiration from Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines, inherently healthy cuisines with big flavors, whose recipes can be easily adapted, if they need to be, to lower-fat versions without compromising flavor"... I want to meet this woman!

 

This recipe is pretty much Martha Rose Shulman's to the letter, it takes a good 2-3 hours and completely worth the time and effort. 

I am tired of the excessive foodie language used today in Australia. Comments like "I love how the saltiness of the fish sauce is balanced by the sweetness of the palm sugar", or "I love the way the lemon zest brings out the flavour of the beans" are so over used and drive me bananas. For this reason I avoid being too verbose when describing food.

But for this recipe I can't help it. The rich earthiness of these black beans has to be tried to be believed, it is deeply satisfying.There I said it..

When you have time, give this recipe a go, you won't regret it!

 

2 cups dried black beans, washed and picked over for stones

1 tablespoon canola oil

2 medium onions diced

6 large garlic cloves roughly chopped

1/4 cup chopped coriander

Salt to taste 

Soak the beans in about 2 litres of the water for at least six hours. If they will be soaking for a long time in warm weather, put them in the refrigerator.

 

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy soup pot or Dutch oven, and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, about three minutes.

 

Add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about one minute.

 

Add the beans and soaking water. The beans should be covered by at least an inch of water. Add more as necessary and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and skim off any foam that rises.

Once it comes to a boil, this is when I put mine in the oven at about 170 degrees for an hour, alternatively simmer on a low heat for an hour.

Add salt and fresh coriander and simmer for another hour.

 

The beans will become soft and the broth thick and fragrant. Taste for salt.

T

Let sit overnight in the refrigerator for the best flavor.

 

 

I ate mine with brown rice, coriander, spring onion, lettuce, jalapenos, fresh chilli, black olives and a couple of corn chips. Some sour cream or natural yogurt would have been good, but it wasn't missed.

Couscous Salad

I just got back from camping down near Margaret River. Before we headed off I made a big couscous salad, it's one of my favourites and very versatile. I make it in a saucepan as a kind of one pot wonder, it allows you to brown the nuts/cumin seeds and then the residual heat of the saucepan makes sure the couscous cooks properly.

CousCous Salad

1 cup instant couscous

1 cup hot water

small handful of pine nuts (or slivered/flaked almonds)

1 tbl sultanas

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbl olive oil

3 sundried tomatoes

fresh parsley, mint and/or basil

boil the kettle

In a saucepan, add oil, cumin seeds and nuts, on a medium heat until the nuts start to partially brown

then add sultanas, very soon they will swell up

when this happens immediately add 1 cup of hot water

be careful the sultanas burn is you leave them too long

once the water boils, add 1 cup of instant couscous, give one quick stir, take it off the heat and cover with the lid.

After 3-4 minutes, take off the lid, quickly fluff up the couscous, then replace the lid

fluffing at this stage is important otherwise the couscous sticks to itself and is all lumpy

After 5-6 minutes,  take off the lid, again fluff up the couscous, taste a few grains to check if they are cooked. It should be done, but if not, replace the lid and wait a few more minutes. 

add some extra tasty things like...

sundried tomatoes, fresh herns

1 tbl finely diced onion

I made a garden salad too. If you don't have it with a garden salad, you can add deseeded cucumber/tomato, diced red capsicum and celery.

Fetta is also a really nice addition

This couscous goes really well with grilled haloumi, roasted vegetables, roast lamb and many other things...

Delicious Dahl

I have made dahl from scratch many times, dry roasting the whole spices separately and pounding them in a mortar and pestle, but I don't think I've ever got the spice ratios quite right. Plus and perhaps more importantly, spices need to be fresh and a great curry has many different spices in it. I don't cook with spices every day and over time the ones in my cupboard become stale and the cost of replacing them isn't cheap. Plus I am convinced that the majority of spices we get in Australia are already quite old.

Having said that I do try to always have a handful of whole spices on hand, which are

coriander seeds

cumin seeds

fennel seeds

cinnamon sticks

green cardamon pods

cloves

star anise

I haven't had much luck with store bought Indian curry pastes, they often contain a bunch of e numbers and quite dense. Recently, thanks to Udeni a Sri Lankan PhD candidate I used to share an office with, I have discovered the joys of using authentic curry powders. It's easier, I think they are fresher, far cheaper, much faster and I don't think you sacrifice on taste. I do usually add additional whole spices to give it an extra kick - but this isn't essential. I have had a lot of luck with Mangal brand curry powders, many of them don't have added salt or any e-number additives. Mangal have a few different "dahl" blends (boxes that say dahl and tell you to add lentils), I just take a leap of faith and pick one, it has lead to a few different batches of dahl and I have not been disappointed yet.

I think the trick to any good curry is figuring out what else to put in besides the curry powder/meat//vegetables/lentils, for example a thai green curry is not the same without kaffir lime leaves and with regards to dahl, the importance of fresh curry leaves cannot by stressed enough. Buy a tree and grow them yourself if you have to. If you buy a big bag and don't use them all, they store in the freezer just fine (this goes for kaffir lime leaves too). 

Dahl, put simply is a lentil curry, it's made in many countries, many different ways. Some are tomato based others use coconut milk. I use coconut milk. I think there is a difference between cheap and good quality coconut milk, in both its texture and its flavour, so I suggest you don't choose the cheap stuff. I use mung dahl lentils, these are usually in Asian grocery stores but  if you have any trouble, red lentils are a fine substitute. You can use ghee instead of vegetable oil, it definitely achieves a richer flavour, but... it's butter and probably not as good for you. So I tend to just use oil.

The following recipe is pretty close to what my Aunt Shamim taught me, it makes heaps of dahl and keeps brilliantly in the freezer.

Shamim's Dahl

 400gm Mung Dahl (about 2 cups)

3 tbl Mangal Brand Dahl Curry Powder

vegetable oil

2 onions diced

4 cloves garlic minced

2 cm knob ginger grated

10 cardamon pods

~30 curry leaves

2 sticks lemon grass (hard outer removed, sliced into 5 cm pieces)

Juice of one lemon/vinegar

small tin (80ml) coconut milk

fresh coriander to serve

dry roasted the following ingredients individually in a dry fry pan and pound in mortar and pestle

1 tbl cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tbl shredded coconut

  

In a saucepan bring the lentils to boil in 4 cups of water, turn it down to a simmer and skim off the foam as it forms. Make sure you stir it regularly and check it isn't sticking at the bottom-add more water if it does. They cook in about 10 minutes, when cooked they swell up and go very soft and mushy.

In a deep fry pan or large saucepan fry diced onion and garlic until translucent

add cardamon pods and ginger, fry for a minute or so, then add the rest of the dried spices. Fry for 2-4 more minutes

add curry leaves and coconut fry for another minute

add coconut milk and lemon grass

give it a few minutes to let the flavours develop

add the cooked lentils, bring to simmer, add the juice of one lemon and you're done

So you've made this big effort, don't stop now! My method is to have 2-3 currys in the freezer at a time, get them out of the containers, cut off a block of each curry and heat them up in the microwave. Usually I don't eat the dahl (or any indian curry) the day I make it. Making it the day before does seem to make a big difference, in flavour and also in the effort made serving it...

try serving your curry with a combination of...

Rice (white/brown/jasmine/basmati)

Papadums cooked in the microwave or pita bread/chapatis/naan browned in a dry fry pan or Parathas (pictured below, bought raw and frozen in asian grocery, put in fry pan on medium heat while still frozen-no oil required- turn frequently until brown)

A salad with tomato, cucumber, red capsicum, mint, coriander, lemon juice and onion (red or spring onion)

chutney (I love spicy mango)

Natural yogurt mixed with 1/4 clove of minced garlic, a little salt and mint
other steamed vegetables, cabbage and dahl are a good combination

good luck!

Hummus Wrap #1

Hummus & Dukkah Wrap

1/2 a tomato, diced

1/4 red capsicum, diced

1/3 Lebanese cucumber, diced

1 thin slice of red onion

1/2 a hot chili

a few coriander and mint leaves

dukkah & hummus (recipe here)

pita bread, lightly toasted

it's so simple and so frick'n delicious

Hummus and Dukkah

I think middle eastern flavours are some of the best. If I had to choose one thing to eat for the rest of my life it would be a falafel pita wrap with garlic yogurt sauce, hummus and tabbouleh. The thing is all of these components are fairly time intensive and so understandably my motivation to regularly make falafels and tabbouleh at home is low. Although it is good incentive to grow parsley and mint in your garden, so if the mood takes you, you have some of the critical ingredients at the ready! 

I haven't been eating proper lunches the past week or so and I find that eating low amounts of meat and fish means I can't afford to be lazy with what I am putting in my body, otherwise i start craving rubbish like processed cakes and chocolate. I also find I keep eating even though I am full because I haven't given my body what it needs. When I get like this I make a big batch of hummus and dukkah and eat it with salads for several days and pretty soon I start to feel better.

Hummus: anyone who tells you hummus is hard to make is talking shit, it is one of the easiest, healthiest, tastiest things you can prepare. Personally I think the trick is to taste as you go, add less than the advised amount of tahini, lemon juice, garlic, salt and olive oil - taste - then add whatever you feel is missing. How you like your hummus is down to personal taste. If you like it nutty, add more tahini, if you like it sour add more lemon, if you like it rich - go hard on the olive oil. After a few goes you will figure out how you like it.

All you need is a hand blender or food processor (I do not recommend doing it in an upright blender - it's too thick) and the following ingredients....

Hummus

1/2 cup dried chick peas soaked overnight OR 1 tin chickpeas

1-2 tbl tahini

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 a small clove of garlic

good quality extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

(1/2 tsp roasted cumin seeds* optional)

if you are using dried chickpeas (which I recommend due to their ability to make a lovely, light and fluffy hummus), soak them overnight, change the water and boil for about 10-15 minutes until they are fluffy and soft on the inside. Drain the water. If you are using tinned, don't forget to rinse them under cold water.

in a food processor add all the above listed ingredients and about 3 tablespoons of water and blend. It will probably be very thick, taste, add what you think is missing, blend and repeat.

Remember you can't go backwards unless you add more chickpeas, so add a little water at a time to get your desired consistency and go easy on the garlic, it is very strong because it is raw and has a way of sneaking up on you

If you are on a health kick, just add a splash of olive oil or none at all

If you are serving this to friends, add a generous amount of good quality olive oil and people will spend all night telling you how great it is

Dukkah: is another thing you can prepare that is fun to mess around with, in principle it's toasted nuts, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and sesame seeds, but you can add all kinds of things like chili, lemon myrtle, sumac, fennel - experiment and see what you come up with. I think traditionally people make it with hazelnuts, but personally i don't rate them. In this instance I used what i had in the pantry, which was pine nuts, cashews and walnuts. The ratios are not set in stone but i think you do a few tablespoons of the spices to about 2 cups of nuts... but again it's up to you

Dukkah

3 tbl cumin seeds

3 tbl coriander seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1/3 cup pine nuts

1/3 cup cashews

1 cup walnuts

1/3 cup sesame seeds

toast all ingredients

I toasted the sesame seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and pine nuts one at a time in a dry fry pan

I toasted the walnuts and cashews together under the grill.

in a food processor first blend the coriander seeds for about a 30-60 seconds because they are large, strong in flavour and don't break up easy,

then add cumin and fennel seeds and pulse a few more times

add the large hard nuts (walnuts/cashews) and pulse 2-3 more times

add soft nuts (pine nuts) and pulse until it at your desired consistency

add sesame seeds and you're done!

sprinkle the dukkah over the hummus and serve with carrots, celery, cucumber snow peas, tomato and pita bread