Spicy Chipotle Maple Roast Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprout Grain Bowls

Do you know what a “Grain Bowl” is? No, neither did I. Turns out it is a quick and easy, one-dish meal, which contains among other things, one or a variety of grains. In England I guess this is just called “Lunch” but in America, where they simply have to invent a name for everything, they are very big, as part of a healthy, well-balanced diet .

The basic idea is you pick a grain – brown rice, Freekeh, quinoa, Farro or couscous.

Add salad or leafy greens – anything from raw kale, spinach, rocket, radicchio or salad leaves. (Not too much apparently, as then it is a salad and not a grain bowl!)

Add cooked seasonal vegetables– roast beetroot, squash, sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli or Brussel sprouts for example.

Add protein – fish, chicken, beans, chickpeas, edamame or an egg, poached, fried or hard boiled.

Add dressing or a sauce – a basic vinaigrette or a themed dressing such as Asian, Moroccan or Thai. Use ingredients such as Harissa, curry pastes stirred into yogurt or mayonnaise, coconut milk, miso and lots of herbs and spices.

Add garnishes – toasted nuts, seeds, crumbled cheese, avocado, broad beans or crispy bacon.

So as you can see, the possibilities are endless. My fridge though is packed with sweet potatoes and Brussel sprouts from my weekly veg box, so this seemed a good place to start.

My choice of grain was cous cous although I am a great fan of Farro too. I am off quinoa ever since I discovered that it comes with a heavy environmental footprint. Due to the huge rise in demand, Bolivians can no longer afford to buy Quinoa, as its price is now so over inflated, and as a result they are starving. The demand has also resulted in decreased soil fertility and erosion due to over farming. I don’t know all the ins and outs, but quite frankly I can survive without it. For those who require a gluten free option, try the less popular, and therefore less destructive, Amaranth. But for now Quinoa, along with unsustainable Palm Oil, which is threatening the future of Orangutans, has joined my list of avoided products.

My sauce is based on the Spanish Adobo sauce. It turns up all over the Americas too, in various guises. I opted for a smoked Chipotle chilli, which is my favourite and ready available, and I was really pleased with the outcome. The combination of chilli, garlic, ginger and cumin is one that I use so often, that I know that I will be using this recipe all the time. In fact, I used it again this week in my Spicy Sweet Potato and Bean Burgers.



I have never tried roasting Brussel sprouts before. I never thought they would work, but I was wrong. The combination of the Brussel sprouts roast with sweet potato, maple syrup and my home made Adobo sauce was enough to convince me that I will be making this again too.

Finally, my garnish was Crispy Roast Chickpeas. They are an old favourite, though I have never used them in a "Grain Bowl" before. Up until now I just put them on a salad!

Adobe Sauce
4 or 5 Smoked Chipotle Chillies (soaked in water)
Large knob of ginger
2 cloves garlic (peeled)
2 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp salt
2-3 tbsp olive oil
Peel the ginger by scrapping off the skin with a teaspoon, roughly chop and put together with all the other ingredients. Whiz up with a hand blender. Add a little water if necessary to get a smooth paste.



Spicy Chipotle Maple Roast Sweet Potato and Brussel Sprout Grain Bowls.
200g Brussel sprouts, stems trimmed and cut in half
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon Adobo sauce (more if you like it spicy)
½ small sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 cms chunks
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon coconut oil
100g whole wheat couscous
Wild Rocket
½ lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp Mayonnaise (leave out for vegans)
1 tsp Adobo sauce
 Crispy Roast Chickpeas

Preheat the oven 200C. Line a baking sheets with parchment paper. Toss the Brussel Sprouts and sweet potato with the maple syrup, Adobo, a little salt and pepper and coconut oil. (If you keep your coconut oil in the fridge like I do you might want to melt it in the microwave for a minute or two.) Spread on the sheet. You can add your chickpeas (see recipe below) at the same time. Check the veg and chickpeas regularly and move round the trays if necessary to ensure even cooking. The Brussel sprouts are done when they are turning golden brown and beginning to caramelise.

Meanwhile put your cous cous in a bowl with a little salt and olive oil. Mix well and cover with boiling water. Leave to sit for 15 minutes.

Make a dressing from the juice from the lemon, some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Whisk well. Dress your salad leaves with the lemon dressing and put in the bottom of your bowl. Next fluff up your cous cous with a fork and add the roast vegetables. Check seasoning and pile on top of the rocket, finally scatter the roasted chickpeas on top. Mix the mayonnaise with a little more Adobo sauce and let it down with water until you have the consistency of single cream. Drizzle over the salad.

Plenty

Usually the necessity of having to work for a living is nothing but a distraction for getting on with my blog. Recently however, I have been doing recipe testing and photography for Riverford, for their soon to be launched "Recipe Boxes".This is a new craze sweeping the nation when you receive, delivered to your door, three easy to follow recipes plus all the ingredients to cook your evening meals. 

I have to admit that I wasn't overwhelmed by the idea until I put them to the test. I like to think I am not the sort of girl who is not short on ideas or creativity when putting together a dinner for two, but I cannot tell you how pleasant it is, just sometime to not have to think about it. To know that everything I need is there at home waiting for me, no shopping, no planning and what turned out to be an even greater plus is that even Hugh, the other half, can cook them too. For the first time in years he actually managed to cook dinner on his own, not once but twice in a week. He found the recipe cards easy to follow and what with the unavoidable convenience of having all the ingredients weighed out, to hand, managed to knock up dinner with practically no fuss at all!  And you would not believe how pleased he was with himself.

In the meantime I needed to deal with my latest allotment glut. Due to my failure to sew few and often, to stagger my crops and in my total over enthusiasm to grow anything at all, I now am reaping the excess crops to mirror my initial excess impatience. I failed to thin my crops sufficiently and I am weighed down with Fennel, Chard and Spinach, all ready at the same time.

Lucky for me, guess what recipes I have been testing this week. Being seasonal, the recipes I am testing exactly match what I am harvesting and these two recipes for Indian Spiced Spinach & Chickpeas and Fennel & Chard Gratin could not have been more perfect for using up my surplus vegetables.  Now I can start dealing with the tomatoes!

Indian Spiced Spinach & Chickpeas with Coconut & Coriander Rice
prep & cook 40 mins, 

serves 2
1 onion (150g)
1 garlic clove (5g)
piece of ginger (25g)
fresh coriander (20g)
20g butter
150g long grain white rice
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
salt
oil for frying eg sunflower or vegetable
200g spinach (or change to 150g chard)
1 x 400g tin chickpeas
½ teaspoon brown mustard seeds (2g)
½ teaspoon ground cumin (2g)
½ teaspoon garam masala (2g)
¼ teaspoon chilli powder (1g)
¼ teaspoon turmeric (1g)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon (1g)
400g chopped tomatoes
1 lemon (150g)

Put the rice in a sieve and rinse well under the tap. Peel and chop the onion. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Peel the ginger and finely grate it. Wash the coriander leaves and leave them to dry. Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add the rice and stir to coat the grains. Stir the coconut milk so it’s smooth and add to the rice with 150ml water. Season with a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, the lower the heat, cover and leave it cook on a bare simmer. Keep an eye on the pan, stirring it every now and then to stop it catching on the bottom. Add a little water or more of the coconut milk if it’s getting too dry. While the rice is cooking, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and gently fry without colouring for 6 minutes. While the onion is cooking, rinse the chickpeas well and leave to drain. Wash the spinach and remove any tough stalks. Roughly chop the leaves. Add the garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, cumin, garam masala, chilli powder, turmeric and cinnamon to the onion. Fry gently for 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoes and a good pinch of salt to the onion. Bring up to a simmer. After the tomatoes have been simmering for 10 minutes, remove the rice from the heat and leave to steam, still covered. Continue cooking the tomatoes for another 5 minutes. Finely chop the coriander leaves. Uncover the tomatoes and add the drained chickpeas and spinach. Stir together and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed. (It does look like a lot of spinach to start with, but it wilts down). Fluff up the rice with a fork. Squeeze in the juice from ½ the lemon and stir in the chopped coriander leaves. Serve with the chickpeas and spinach.

Fennel & Chard Gratin
prep & cook 45 mins
serves 2
2 fennel bulbs (500g)
olive Oil
salt & pepper
300g chard
2 garlic cloves
100ml white wine
1 whole nutmeg
125ml crème fraîche
fresh thyme
salt & pepper
25g wholemeal breadcrumbs
40g parmesan
1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 190C/180C fan assisted/gas mark 5. Put on a large pan of salted water to boil. While the oven is heating up, trim any large spiky tops of the fennel and remove any tough outer leaves. Cut the bulbs into thin wedges, still with the core intact to keep them together. If a few odd bits fall apart, don’t worry. If you have any feathery fronds on your fennel, keep those and add them when you stir in the cream. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan. Add the fennel and cook it very slowly, stirring every now and then. It will take about 20 minutes, until it’s starting to caramelize. Strip the chard leaves from their stalks. Wash both, then chop the stalks very finely. Peel and finely chop or crush the garlic. Once the water is boiling, plunge the chard leaves in and boil for 3 minutes. Get a large bowl of cold water ready. Drain the leaves and plunge into the bowl to refresh, then drain again. When cool enough to handle, roughly chop the leaves. After about 20 minutes or so, when the fennel starts to look a golden brown colour, add the chard stalks and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the wine and use a fine grater to grate a little of the nutmeg into the pan. Cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the cream, chard leaves and the thyme leaves. Season well with salt and pepper. Transfer to the baking/gratin dish. Put the breadcrumbs in a small bowl. Finely grate enough of the lemon zest over the bowl so you have approximately 1 teaspoon in there. Grate in the cheese too. Mix together then scatter over the fennel mixture. Transfer the dish to the oven (ideally keep the sweet potatoes on the same shelf but move them onto a lower shelf if you need to make room – you might just need to cook them a little longer) and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven, until the gratin is golden on top.

Hot and Spicy

I am determined to enter my first challenge.  I have been desperately trying to for about six months but it would appear that I am woefully ill-informed in the world of blogging and every time I hear about a challenge, it is because it has just finished.  I have a suspicion that other bloggers try and keep challenges secret, so less people enter and they have more chance of winning.  I know! Shocking!  It's a dog eat dog world, this blogging business.  You can trust no-one.  On the other-hand, maybe I am just completely paranoid.

Anyway, thanks to Farmersgirl and her great new group UK Cooking and Baking Challenges I am no longer in the dark.  Unsurprisingly however, I missed the first Sweet Heat Blogger Challenge set by Lyndsey of Vanilla Clouds and Lemon Drops fame.  But I am super-excited to say that I am in time for challenge Sweet Heat # 2 - "Spicy Soup."

This soup, interestingly enough started life as a made-up recipe for Harissa.  I make it exactly the same way as the soup, roasting the peppers, garlic, chilli, onion and cumin and then whizzing up the whole lot up with some olive oil, lemon juice (or preserved lemons) and fresh coriander.  I would use this to maybe marinade a chicken or stir into cous cous with some roast winter vegetables.  But somehow along the way this recipe evolved into a soup.  With just the addition of chickpeas it has been a winner at my Riverford lunches and a great way of using up peppers. And it is really delicious.  I made a a little extra effort for my first challenge and added some of my crispy roasted chickpeas.  I blogged about these a few weeks ago but this time I seasoned them with some delicious Ras-el Hanout from Seasoned Pioneers.  The combination of the soothing, earthy spices and the floral notes of the rose petals really enlighten this bowl of comfort.

Spicy Red Pepper, Chickpea and Coriander Soup

3 large red peppers (cut in half and de-seeded)

2 red onions (peeled and quartered)

4 cloves garlic (peeled)

1 -2 Fresh Red Chilli (de-seeded and roughly chopped)

3 teaspoons of cumin

Extra virgin olive oil

2 tins of chickpeas

Bunch coriander (roughly chopped)

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Put the peppers, onions,  garlic and chilli in a dish.  Sprinkle with cumin, salt, pepper and drizzle with a good slug of olive oil. Wrap in tin foil and put in the oven for about one to two hours until really soft.  Tip into a saucepan and cover with water.  About  2 pints.  Add the drained chickpeas and bring to the boil.  Add the coriander and give a good stir.  Liquidise with a hand blender or in a liquidiser.  Adjust seasoning to taste. 

What's in a name?

I am sure you wouldn't remember but one of my favourite advertising campaigns ever, was when "Mr Dog" changed it's name to "Caesar".  Mr Dog was a dog food for "small dogs" and not a brand that I was familiar with, since I have never had a small dog. I don't even think many small dog owners were particularly familiar with the brand either, since they probably fed their dogs on dog food which was suitable for all dogs, regardless of size.  So to have an advertising campaign for a dog food, you had never heard of, changing it's name, just seemed bizarre.  Why bother?  Was this the brain child of some top advertising company?   Did they think that re-naming a dog food "Caesar" was somehow going to catapult this product from obscurity into the best-selling dog food list? And after the initial "Why?" which sprang to mind every time they ran this advert, came an even more strong sentiment of "So what? Who cares? So what if Mr Dog is now called Caesar?". 

So when I tell you that, as you may or probably more likely may not have noticed, that my blog has changed name, as a result of a complete crisis at sometime around 3.00am in the middle of the night a few day ago, when I decided somewhat over-dramatically, as one does at that time of night, that Urban Ethnic cooking could not go on any more,  I do expect you to exclaim - who cares?  Well I do!  Urban ethnic cooking was just a bit pretentious and long winded for me and I am much happier now to be witting under a somewhat less profound and ostentatious identity.  And, so why Checky's Kitchen? - well, my nickname is Checky and I spend most of my life in the kitchen!   

So, without no more to-do, this weeks blog.... I  have been making a lot of Samosas recently.  They are just perfect as a snack and I thought they might even be nice to serve up for friends on bomb fire night.  I have made them with sweet potato, pumpkin and butternut squash but I do think that the recipe below works best.  I have to admit that I have been using ready made pastry which you can buy from all good Asian shops.  You will find it in the freezer and it may well be called Spring Roll Pastry, which is the same thing.  It comes in all sorts of sizes.  I usually buy the largest unless I am making canapés.  They are a good time saver to making your own pastry but not as good as the real thing so I will be giving the pastry a go next week and I will let you know how I get on.    

Finally another favourite snack at the moment, Crispy Roast Chickpeas.  You can have lot of fun with flavours and I much prefer them to the savoury flavoured pop-corn trend. Chickpeas are used in so many world cuisines I am actually finding it hard to find a country that doesn't eat them, although not everybody calls them the same thing.  Half the world knows them as Garbanzo Beans.  I can just hear it - "Chickpeas have changed their name to Garbanzo Beans". No, I won't start that again.

Vegetable Samosas

I have been giving a lot of thought to good fats recently and I am always questioning what is the best fat to use when cooking? It is a bit of a minefield out there of information at the moment. When I was growing up they told us butter was bad and margarine was best. Now there has been a complete reversal of opinion apart from, rather worryingly, the NHS.

This time it was a tossup between butter and coconut oil. Olive oil, my usual oil of choice, was not appropriate for samosas and I am very anti-vegetable oil. Health wise, butter and coconut oil are both in a similar boat. Once considered bad boys for their high content of saturated fat, (coconut oil has a much higher ration of saturated fat to butter) opinion seems to have changed. It is now considered that it is more important that they are low in omega 6, compared to vegetable oils which are very high. Our bodies need Omega 6 and Omega 3 but in equal ratios. Unfortunately, we are consuming far too much Omega 6 and not enough Omega 3 and vegetable oil is the main culprit. I now try and use primarily olive oil (high in omega 3), then butter (grass fed cows are also a good source of Omega 3) and finally coconut oil which contains no Omega 3, but neither does it contain Omega 6 and it can withstand high heats and adds a great flavour. Just use them in small amounts!

Taking all this into consideration, I decided to use Coconut oil for flavour BUT to bake my samosas instead of frying, to dramatically reduce the amount of oil I was using.

Finally, a note on frozen peas. I know I shouldn’t be telling all you seasonal veg enthusiasts, striving to eat fresh and local produce but to me, a samosa needs peas, even in the winter. But you can add any vegetables you like.

Vegetable Samosas

If cooking for the kids, omit the chilli. To avoid any bad fats, you might want to make your own pastry.
Coconut oil
400 g Maris Piper (or similar floury) potatoes
250 g cauliflower
125 g frozen peas
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
Large knob of fresh ginger
1 fresh green chilli
2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cardamom seeds
½ a lemon, juice from
Bunch of fresh coriander
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel and chop the potatoes into rough 1cm chunks. Break the cauliflower into similar sized florets as the potato. Add the potatoes to a large pan of salted water and bring to the boil. When nearly cooked, about 8 minutes, add the, adding the cauliflower and after a further 3 minutes add the peas. Bring back to the boil and cook for a final minute, then drain.

Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the onion. Peel the garlic and grate finely. Scrape the skin off the the ginger and finely grate. Deseed and finely chop the chilli. Heat some coconut oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, and add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes or so until translucent and pale. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and the spices and a teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Cook for a minute or two more and add the drained vegetables. Squeeze in the lemon juice and season to taste. Stir in the chopped coriander. Taste again. Add more spices or chilli to taste.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Lightly grease a large baking tray with oil.

Lay out the filo pastry and cut it in half lengthways. Take your first sheet and brush with some melted coconut oil. Spoon in the filling right down one end and fold over in triangular turns until you reach the other end. (Please see youtube link.) Finally brush with a little more coconut oil and place on a lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven for around 25-30 minutes, or until golden and piping hot through. Serve straightaway if possible.



Crispy Roasted Chickpeas

I'm really love these with all sorts of seasoning but anything with chilli lends itself particually well.  Check out Seasoned Pioneers for some of their spice mixes such as Cajun or Creole Spice Blend , Thai Seasoning Blend, Fahita Seasoning or Baharat or Ras-el-Hanout.  

One 15-ounce can chickpeas
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Spice blend of your choice

Preheat oven to 180C.
Drain the can of chickpeas in a strainer and rinse with water for a few seconds to clean. Shake the strainer to rid of excess water. Lay paper towl on a baking sheet, and spread the chickpeas over. Use another paper towel to gently press and absorb the excess water. Roll around with the paper towel to also remove the thin skin where possible.
Drizzle the olive oil over the beans and coat. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the chickpeas are a deep golden brown and crunchy. Make sure that they do not burn.
Season with salt and spice blend whilst still warm.

Monsoon Madness

It was pouring this morning. Another English Summer July day.  It was like a Monsoon.  Maybe that is why I got the strongest craving for a curry.  And not just any curry, but it had to be an Aubergine curry.  I am not sure why.  In fact I am not sure that I have ever even eaten an Aubergine Curry before, or Brinjal Bhaji as it is more authentically known, but I knew that I wanted to.  This recipe has Tamarind in it which gives it a delicious sour flavour with combines brilliantly with the sweetness and richness of the Aubergine. 

Tamarind is easy to get hold of from most Indian shops but if you are having any problems getting hold of any spices, then I really recommend Seasoned Pioneers. They have such a fantastic selection of seasonings from all over the world and will send them out to you anywhere in Europe, for very little postage. All their spices come in sealable foil bags and although I am usually the sort to mix up my own spice blends, I was so excited by their range that along with Chipolte Chilli, which I have been searching for forever, I have ordered a few, ready mixed blends and I will be letting you know how I get on in the very near future.



Aubergines are at their best just now, shiny and fat and delicious.  There is something slightly dark and mysterious about them.  Native to India, they turn up in dishes from all over the world and work particularly well when char-grilled, either sliced or whole, as they absorb the smoky flavours, which gives dishes such as Moutabal its fantastic flavour.  Aubergines also feature in Japanese recipes, such as Aubergines Baked with Miso and the little baby ones known as pea aubergines are a main feature of Thai Curries.

They are notorious, however, for soaking up oil and I almost wrote them off at one stage, as I was so concerned how fattening they might be.  All the recipes that I was cooking seemed to require frying. Dishes such as Ratatouille or a number of Italian dishes which require them to be cooked "al Funghetto" or "in the style of mushrooms", i.e. fried in loads of olive oil.  It is only when I discovered that there was another way, that I came to love the aubergine again.



Simply cut your aubergine into large chunks (about 1" squared) and toss them in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and lay out on flat trays, with plenty of room between pieces and roast in a medium/hot oven until golden brown, crisp on the outside, melting soft on the inside and delicious. So now this is how I make Ratatouille or Imam Bayeldi or Capanata.  And for Melanzane Parmigiana and Moussaka which used to involve flouring and frying the Aubergine slices in loads of olive oil,now I just brush them with oil and char-grill them instead.  All the flavour, half the fat!  Got to be a good thing.

Brinjal Bhaji (Aubergine Curry)

4 Aubergines

2 tsp of Ground Coriander
1/2 tsp Ground Turmeric
Small handful of Curry leaves
2 tsp Mustard Seeds
3 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
1 large onion, finely chopped5 cloves of Garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
2" Fresh Ginger,peeled and very finely chopped or grated 
1 Fresh red Chilli, very finely chopped
1 tin of whole plum tomatoes (400g)
1 tin chickpeas, drained
20 g of tamarind paste or pulp
1 bunch of Fresh chopped corriander
Oil
Salt
Yoghurt to serve


Chop up your aubergine into 1" chunks and toss with a little oil, some salt and some freshly ground black pepper.  Spread out on some baking trays with plenty of room and roast in a medium/hot oven until golden brown all over.


Take a Wok or large heavy bottomed saucepan and heat with some oil.  Add mustard seeds. When they start to pop add the cumin, ground coriander and turmeric, fenugreek and curry leaves. Then add chopped onions, ginger, garlic and chilli.  Fry on medium flame until really soft.  Add the tomatoes and break up untill really mixed through.  Add the aubergines and a little salt to taste. Then add tamarind.  (If using pulp soak for 15 minutes in boiling hot water.   Then strain to remove the seeds.)   Add the chickpeas.


Cover with a lid and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes to allow the flavours to combine and mellow. Finally add the freshly chopped corriander and serve with freshly cooked basmati rice.  Add a dollop of yoghurt if you like.