My mothers carrot halwa

My nephew has come up for the week; and with him he brought these edible delights.

Homemade Gajrilla translated as either carrot pudding in the Punjab or gajjar ka halwa in other parts of the Indian Subcontinent.

Its was never to my taste when I was a child.  I often found it excessively sweet, but fortunately over time I have come to appreciate this sweet, soft fudgy carroty delight. 

Here I have decorated the halwa bites with some glacé Angelica fronds.

Now your going to ask me for the recipe.  Like me, You will have to wait for the next time I see my mother.

Carrot, Puy Lentil and Parsley Flan

This is not a super healthy green salad, but I think it may be the healthiest of flans I've ever made, if not it sure looks the part.

The carrots almost look like orange ribbons and the puy lentils like bronze sequins enhanced by the flecks of green from the parsley.  The carrots were soft and sweet and the lentils gave it that bite and nutty flavour. All in all it was a very light flan to eat.   Serve this flan simply with some new potatoes.  The recipe still needs a bit of tweaking, so you may have some of the carrot-lentil filling left over.  Don't ditch it, its good cold as a sandwich filler or stirred into sliced cabbage to make a slaw of sorts.

I am submitting a slice of this light flan recipe to My Legume Love Affair # 37. MLLA was founded by Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook who is also hosting Julys edition of MLLA; as well as to Priya and Kaarasaaram who is hosting this months Veggie/Fruit of the month which is the humble 'carrot'. 
Updated 26/07/2011: This recipe was made by Sue at Our New Life in the Country, please do go by and visit her blog.

Carrot, Puy Lentils and Parsley Flan
Serves 6 - 8 as an accompaniment
Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry to line a 8 - 9 inch round tin
225g plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
125g butter
3 tablespoons water
Method
Add flour and salt to a bowl. Add the butter then rub it into the flour with your fingertips, lifting the mixture out of the bowl to incorporate as much air as possible as this will make the pastry light. Continue until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs, then add the water a little at a time and use your fingertips to press the mixture together and form a dough. Put the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead rolling out the dough, into whatever shape you want – a round, oval or rectangle. Blind bake in a hot oven at gas mark 6 for 20 minutes.
Ingredients for the filling
160g puy lentils (or brown lentils)
350g carrots, grated
small handful of parsley leaves, minced
3 eggs
150ml milk
1 generous tablespoon of grain mustard or to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Method for the filling

Boil the puy lentils in water until tender, then drain.  Stir in the carrots and parsley.
Spread evenly over the pastry.
In a small bowl whisk the eggs, milk and mustard.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Then evenly pour over the carrot-lentil mixture.

Bake in oven at gas mark for 5 for 30 - 35 minutes.

This is good at room temperature or cold.

Where's the beef ?

I did not grow up meat such as pork, beef or turkey, only lamb, chicken and fish.  And have to hand on heart say that I have never ever missed any of it.  As a child when I had to eat meat, I used to resent the smell and the stringy sinew texture getting stuck between my teeth, but there was no way of avoiding it.  Meat was part of our family meals that were both compulsory and respectful, not just to my parents - my father for providing for us and my mother for cooking for us, but for the animal too.  We were taught from a young age where our food came from, and I can tell you for sure it wasn't from the supermarket.  At one time, I remember my parents keeping chickens and my father and uncle slaughtering them one day for a feast.  That was one of the first experiences that injected in me a new sense of respect for animals, they were no longer viewed just as a piece a meat.

It was only when I left my parents home that I made the choice to start omitting meat from my diet.  I do not enforce my dietary preferences upon my husband, however he is a demi-vegetarian by association.  There are times when he wishes for a bit of bite, not necessary meaty flavours but texture, so it is with him in mind that I have begun to experiment with mock otherwise known as 'faux meat'.

I've written about seitan previously see here. But in a nutshell, seitan  Setian is wheat gluten. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch dissolves, leaving insoluble gluten as an elastic mass which is then cooked before being eaten. Over the past few years, seitan often described as 'vegetarian wheat meat' has become a much valued ingredient in the West, namely America.  Its even being claimed by some as their culinary invention, but creating faux meat from seitan has had a long tradition in the East, especially in  China - ever heard of mock duck.  I have this amazing book simply called Chinese Vegetarian Cooking by WEI-CHUAN Cultural Education Foundation that has recipes for fish roe, eel, tortoise, goose, partridge, pork, brains and so forth.  Not that I would make any of these (for a start I am not that skillful), but it shows how innovative and creative the Chinese people are, well before faux meat took off in the west as a vegan alternative to meat.

I still have a packet of vital wheat gluten given to me by a good friend reaching its sell by date. Instead of making chorizo sausages and spicy fennel sausages which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I wanted to make something different for our Sunday meal and decided on a recipe for seitan roast that was supposed to mimic roast beef. I thought it would be an interesting change for our roasted vegetables.  I have to admit, the seitan loaf did an excellent job of looking like roast meat, but I am not a convert as I still found it too chewy for my liking.  Therefore the seitan experiments continue.

This seitan roast recipe comes from The Bold Vegetarian Chef by Ken Charney.  This recipe has been on the internet since 2005, so I am reposting it on my blog for convenience so you don't have to jump between blogs.  I am linking some of these meatless 'beef' slices to just another meatless Monday and midnight maniac meatless Mondays#42, as well as Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes who is hosting Julys edition of Bookmarked Recipes that was founded by Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

Savoury Seitan Faux-Roast
Ingredients for the basic seitan dough
250g vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon of wheat germ
2 teaspoons molasses or black treacle
2 teaspoon salt
400ml water
Method for basic seitan dough
In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the water and knead the dough until most of the liquid is absorbed, about five minutes. Knead a little longer to combine the flavours.
Ingredients for the braising liquid
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons red wine
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoons molasses or black treacle
2 teaspoons Tamari or soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 whole cloves
1 tablespoon fennel seeds (Optional) *see note
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
Method
Combine all the braising liquid ingredients and set aside
* Include the fennel seed if you want this to be more 'mock duck'; omit it if you wish it to be more 'beefy'.
Ingredients for the glaze
2 tablespoons red wine
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Tamari or soy sauce
Method for glaze
Combine all the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.
Preheat the oven to gas mark and generously oil a 9 by 5 by 3 inches loaf pan and set aside.
Add the loaf of seitan to the braising liquid aboveand  knead together for two minutes, until the liquid flavourings are incorporated into the dough.

Put the seasoned dough in the oiled pan and pack down as much as possible to press out any air bubbles.  The dough will expand during cooking, so don't worry about any gaps.  Pour over any remaining braising liquid.  Cover with foil.

Bake for two hours.  During the first hour, baste twice during the first hour with the braising pan juices.
After that time, use the glaze to baste a couple more times during the roasting. Remove the foil in the last 5 minutes of cooking. The finished loaf should be firm but still springy to the touch, and the glaze on top should be crisp and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing into ½ inch slices. 

Serve with a robust sauce or gravy.

If you have any of the glaze juice left over, this is great slathered over leftovers that can be sliced and warmed for sandwiches or rolls,hence the reason I've called them 'beefy' slices.  This is how we have been eating the remains the past couple of days.  It is also dolloped with a little horseradish.

Recipe from The Bold Vegetarian Chef by Ken Charney.  The original recipe can be found posted here and here.