I've always loved the flavour of kaffir lime leaves and now we have a small tree at the clinic where I work, I have a regular supply.  Here are three recipes I've spotted, which make very good use of this lovely fragrant leaf.

 

 

Thi s meal from The Indolent Cook looks so very good. Chunks of tofu are marinated in a mixture of chilli, tamarind, kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce and palm sugar. The tofu is then cooked quickly, in a small amount of oil. Serve with rice and a green salad for a delicious meal.

 

 

 

The third recipe on this page, by Yotam Ottolenghi, is a wonderful looking soup. Carrots and pumpkin are mixed with cumin and fennel seeds, fresh ginger, lemongrass, lime juice, fresh coriander and coconut milk. It's a delicious and flavour filled soup.

 

 

Another soup, although this one from Nourish Me is a more wintery recipe. It has similar flavours to the last soup, with the addition of oven roasted onions. I've made this several times and love it.

 

 

 

Photo by Andrea Nguyen.

 

As I mentioned before I've been cooking a lot over the last few weeks and I've enjoyed trying out some new recipes. Below is a photo of the tart I mentioned in that previous blog post. It was quite delicious and I ended up making the tart three times, to take to picnics and people's houses.

 

 

 

 

I also re-found this recipe for a Tomato, Walnut and Pomegranate Molasses Salad. I made this a few times two years ago, when I first saw the recipe. However I then forgot about it over the following winter, when there were no decent (and affordable) tomatoes available. It is an unusual salad, but quite outstanding. Make sure you keep any leftovers, as they are delicious tossed through pasta the next day.

 

Having a barbecue one Sunday I made up a large batch of these tandoori kebabs, from K.O. Rasoi. The marinade is good. I mean really, really good. We had paneer, tofu and mushroom kebabs, I left out the cassava, served with rice, natural yoghurt, lime pickle, a green salad and a whole lot of barbecue vegetables. The meal was a great hit and the marinade was so good I'm planning on making and freezing a batch for future use.

 

 

 

On holidays and out of my normal routines, my meal preparation also changes. Some days I don't feel like cooking at all, while other days I'm happy to potter in the kitchen, trying out something new or making an old favourite that I've long forgotten about.

 

So far I've made this T ofu and Mushroom Pot Pie. I downscaled the recipe from its twelve portions to six, used a combination of reconstituted shiitakes and button mushrooms, and added some white miso to the filling - the flavour just needed a little more oomph. I also ignored what I can only believe is a typo, where it says the pastry crust will be "one inch thick". Mine was about 75mm and quite biscuity enough. It was absolutely delicious, did us for several meals and I will definitely be making this again.

 

For our New Year's Eve picnic I cooked a Tomato and Pesto Tart based on Martha Rose Shulman's recipe. I made the yeasted olive oil pastry - which turned out really well. Rather than using mustard and goat cheese I spread the base of the tart with home made pesto, topped that with fresh tomatoes and then put a few more dollops of pesto on top. It was a big success.

 

For the same picnic I also made this Giant Couscous and Chickpea Salad, again by Martha Rose Shulman. I wanted this to have a bit more vegetable content and variety, so I doubled the red capsicum and also added three big handfuls of mixed rocket and baby English spinach leaves. I also wanted it to be dairy free, so I left out the yoghurt and feta. I completely forgot to add the pine nuts and ended up doubling the lemon juice, as to my taste buds it needed a little more sour. Again, this was delicious and the leftovers the next day were even better.

 

 

Over the weekend we had our first barbecue of the year. A few friends came over, for a very relaxed lunch, sitting in the garden. The weather was glorious, I hadn't seen some of the people for months and it was a beautiful afternoon.

The combination of people invited also meant a combination of food requirements - vegetarian, wheat free and dairy free. After a busy week I wanted the lunch to be very low fuss, spending minimal time in the kitchen.

Vegan "sausage" rolls: we started off with a batch of these "sausage" rolls from Where's the Beef. I've made this recipe countless times, they're delicious, easy and always go down well a treat. I pre-made them and then cooked when the guests arrived.

Sweet potato and coriander fritters: we had loads of sweet potato, leftover from the last few week's vegetable boxes. So I used them to make these fritters. I replaced the parmesan with some miso, because of the dairy intolerant friend. The fritters were absolutely delicious and barbecued really well. I made double the batch and have about a third left, for lunches and dinners this week.

Barbecued eggplant with tahini sauce: a variation on a recipe from the Ottolenghi cookbook, we sliced up some eggplant and salted them. I made a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, chilli, fresh coriander and garlic, plus an easy tahini and lemon sauce.  We then cooked the eggplant slices on the barbecue, put them on a plate, poured over the olive oil marinade and served with the tahini sauce.

Chilli tofu: we thickly sliced some tofu and cooked it on the barbecue with some bought chilli infused sesame oil.

Flat "chips": I thickly sliced and then par boiled some potatoes, before our guests arrived. We also cooked these on the barbecue, together with some sliced onions.

It took me about an hour and a half to pre-make the sausage rolls, fritters, eggplant marinade and tahini sauce. Then, once our guests arrived I put the sausage rolls in the oven and par-boiled the potatoes.

Once these were cooked I sat in the garden, with my friends and a glass of wine and formed the sweet potato mix into fritters, while chatting away. Everything was then cooked on the barbecue, while we all sat around enjoying the sunshine.