Shortcrust pastry

 Haven't tried it yet, but this looks good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtxrY0jTaA

250g flour

125g butter (tried with vegan block)

1 egg yolk

50ml water

pinch of salt

Parsnip, feta & butter bean pie

This worked very well but was quite a lot of work. On the other hand it made lots. Could probably simplify the filling. But the principles are very useful - fill a pie with creme fraiche, eggs, feta and veg and it's delicious.

I used a spelt flour pastry instead of the one here, pastry recipe in another post. I used 400g of flour (doubling quantities in the other recipe) and had loads - enough to make 2 pies one in the round ceramic lidded dish with the flowers, and the other in a silicone loaf tin. And still had pastry left over for an apple flan.

• Prep:35 mins
• Cook:1 hr and 35 mins plus resting and cooling
• Serves 8 - 10

Ingredients - pastry

• 400g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 150g rye flour
• 300g cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• 2 large eggs, plus 1 egg yolk to glaze
• pinch of dried thyme or mixed herbs

Ingredients - filling

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 600g parsnips, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes
• 2 large eggs
• 200g crème fraîche
• 200g feta, crumbled
• 1/2 small bunch of thyme, leaves picked
• 2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
• ½ tsp ground mace (skipped)
• 1 lemon, zested

Method

STEP 1

To make the pastry, put both flours into the bowl of a food processor with the butter, thyme leaves and ½ tsp fine sea salt. Pulse for a few seconds until the mixture resembles sandy rubble, then add the whole eggs and 2-3 tbsp cold water. Pulse again until it comes together into a ball, then transfer to a lightly dusted work surface and knead briefly until smooth. Wrap and chill for 30 mins.

STEP 2

To make the filling, heat the oil in a frying pan over a low-medium heat, and cook the onion for 30 mins until sticky, golden and caramelised. This will take some time, but it will add depth and sweetness to the pie. Add a splash of water if the onions start to darken too quickly or catch.

STEP 3

Add the parsnips and 250ml water. Cook for 15 mins, stirring often until the water has evaporated and the parsnips are tender and just starting to colour. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

STEP 4

Mix the eggs and crème fraîche together in a large bowl until smooth, then fold in the feta, thyme, butter beans and the veg mixture. Add the mace, lemon zest, ½ tsp black pepper and a little salt.

STEP 5

Cut off two-thirds of the pastry and roll it out on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of 3-4mm. Use it to line a 23cm cake tin or round pie dish (it should be about 7cm deep), leaving some pastry overhanging. Spoon in the filling, levelling the top.

STEP 6

Roll out the remaining pastry until it’s large enough to cover the top of the pie. Brush a little of the egg yolk around the edge of the pie, then lift the pastry lid over the top and press the edge to seal. Trim any excess pastry with a sharp knife. Make a steam hole in the middle of the lid, then glaze with the rest of the egg yolk. Sprinkle over the dried herbs, then chill for 30 mins. Will keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

STEP 7

Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Bake the pie for 50 mins until the pastry is golden, crisp and dry. Leave to rest for 15 mins before cutting and serving.

Source: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/parsnip-feta-butter-bean-pie

Wholemeal Spelt Pastry

I doubled this recipe and it worked well.

Ingredients

• 200g Doves Farm Organic Wholemeal Spelt Flour
• 100g butter
• pinch of salt
• 8-9 tbsp cold water
• butter, for dish
• flour, for dusting

Method

• Pre-heat the oven.
• Rub a little butter around the inside of your dish or tin.
• Put the flour and butter into a mixing bowl.
• Using a fork or pastry blender, work the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the salt and mix. (I used hands)
• Stir in enough of the water to bring the pastry together into a soft dough.
• Using your hands gather the mix together to form a smooth ball of pastry dough.
• Dust the work surface with flour, put the dough in the middle and sprinkle it with flour.
• Roll out the pastry into a circle 5cm larger than your dish and lift it into the dish, OR simply press it into the baking dish using your fingers.
• Cut away any pastry that hangs over the edge of your dish.
• Continue as per your recipe.

Temperature

Fan 160°C. Recipe I used had it baked for 50 mins, which came out fine.

Source: https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/wholemeal-spelt-shortcrust-pastry

Spinach, pumpkin and potato curry (no onions or garlic)

This was delicious. Took a bit of time to soften potato and pumpkin but otherwise pretty quick and easy. Could probably speed them up by sautéing with some water rather than just frying them.

Ingredients

• 500 grams spinach, roughly chopped (one I used works fine, but no idea if it's the type the recipe calls for, which is pui shak/basella leaf/malabar spinach)
• 250 grams pumpkin, cubed. I substituted a small butternut squash which was fine.
• 1 potato, peeled and cubed
• 2-4 green chilis, slit but not chopped (I used 2, but it was mild so prob fine with 4 as recipe suggests)
• 1 red chili, whole not chipped (I substituted with chili flakes, which promptly burnt)
• 1 tsp punch poron (Bengali 5 spice mix)
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt to taste
• Cooking oil/ghee

Method

• Heat oil and add red chili and panch porom, let them crackle (not too hot, definitely possible to burn them)
• Fry chopped potato until light golden, about 2 mins
• Add pumpkin and cook until they soften (not sure of the time,15-20 mins?)
• Add green chilis and turmeric powder, mix well and cook for 2 mins
• Add spinach a handful at a time and stir continuously. It needs to reduce a bit to fit it all into the pan.
• Dry up as much as possible of the water released from the spinach (weirdly spinach I used didn't release much water, but think it normally does)
• Stir in salt and sugar
• Cover and cook for 5-10 mins until soft
• Lightly smash some of the veg with end of spatula and stir well

Based on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=iZwbBZhLxOU

Left out shrimp from original recipe. Didn't cook in mustard oil as discovered after some research that there's credible evidence of negative health effects.

Paneer

Two paneer recipes were both helpful:

https://healthynibblesandbits.com/how-to-make-paneer/

https://www.cookwithmanali.com/how-to-make-paneer-at-home-homemade-paneer-recipe/

Recipes don't seem too specific about how much milk to use. Used about 1.2 litres of milk, and got about 200 grams of paneer. That was as much as largest long handled saucepan could take. Next time definitely use largest saucepan (the one with 2 small handles).

Used a bit of old cotton sheet instead of a cheesecloth, which took more effort to squeeze water out of but was basically fine. Came out quite crumbly. I crumbled it anyway for the recipe I needed, but not sure if cubes would have held together. Was a bit half-hearted about bothering to get weight on it, and maybe that's the key.

Chole (Jain)

Worked well. Only made about 2 portions, so could easily double or triple quantities. Simplified the recipe to use tinned chickpeas - if boiling dried chickpeas see original recipe. Also see excellent photos there. 

Original recipe also calls for cinnamon when you're cooking the chickpeas. Instead I added this to the accompanying rice. Generally recipe seems adaptable, not that sensitive to missing ingredients.

Ingredients:

• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1 tin tomatoes, or ~5 fresh tomatoes, blended
• ~3 diced fresh tomatoes
• 2 fresh green chillies
• Fresh coriander
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp anardana (pomegranate seed) powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• Salt
• Oil/ghee

Method:

1) Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add cumin seeds and let them sizzle.

2) Now add chopped green chilies and saute for 20-40 seconds.

3) Add tomato puree and salt. Mix and let it simmer. If it splutters a lot then you can partially cover and cook.

4) Cook until all the moisture evaporates and oil starts to ooze out from the sides. Do stir in between to make sure that it is not sticking to the pan.

5) Now add red chili powder, coriander powder and anardana powder.

6) Mix well and cook for a minute.

7) Add chickpeas, and some water to thin (original recipe is to use some of the water chickpeas boiled it, could use water from the tin but might be v salty).

8) Mix and let it simmer for 7-8 minutes or until you get the desired thickness of the gravy.

9) Now heat the oil in a small pan for tempering. Once hot add tomatoes and cook until it is semi-soft.

10) Add that to the ready Jain chole masala.

11) Immediately cover the pan to trap all the flavors. Keep it covered for 5 minutes.

12) Now garnish with chopped cilantro and serve.

Based on: https://www.spiceupthecurry.com/jain-punjabi-chole/

Dal Makhani (Jain)

Based on this recipe:

https://www.archanaskitchen.com/jain-style-dal-makhani-recipe

May be worth comparing to others, it was decent but not perfect.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Black Urad Dal (Whole)
• 1/4 cup Rajma (Large Kidney Beans) - used 1 tin
• 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)
• 1 inch Cinnamon Stick (Dalchini)
• 3 Cloves (Laung)
• 2 Black cardamom (Badi Elaichi)
• 2 Tomatoes , pureed
• 1 Green Chilli , finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon Red Chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon Garam masala powder
• 2 teaspoon Dry ginger powder
• 2 tablespoons Ghee
• 1 cup Milk , low fat (optional)
• Salt, to taste

To garnish

• 1 inch Ginger , cut to julienne (optional)
• 2 tablespoons Fresh cream (optional)

Method

• Wash and soak the whole urad dal and overnight.
• Boil and dal until soft.
• Add the kidney beans and lightly mash. Set aside the beans.
• In the meantime, puree the tomatoes using a mixer grinder and keep aside.
• Heat ghee in a wok/kadhai on medium flame, add the cinnamon stick, cloves, black cardamom and let it release its aroma into the ghee.
• Add the cumin seeds and let it crackle. (not too hot, I burnt them)
• Add the tomato puree, green chillies and cook for 2 minutes.
• Once the tomatoes have cooked add the spice powders including red chilli, garam masala, dry ginger powder and cook until the ghee floats on top.
• Now, add the cooked dals, season with salt, add water to your desired consistency and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add the milk if using, let the dal boil.
• Once the Dal Makhani reaches your desired consistency, switch off the flame. 
• Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with ginger julienne and cream.