Chocolate and walnut soya cake

I use the soya milk machine to make black bean soya milk, and use the slightly grey soya residue to make this chocolate cake, a bit like a brownie but without using butter.

1. Mix into a portion of cold soya residue 50 gm flour, 30gm cocoa powder, 1 sachet of baking powder, 80gm brown sugar, 3 eggs and a handful of walnuts, to form a very wet dough.

2. Pour mixture into a well greased and floured baking dish, bake at 160˚C until the surface is dry and firm when touched, around 30 minutes.

3. Cut into slices and serve with yogurt or sour cream. 

Khol rabi salad

When used raw in salad, khol rabi  (大頭菜) is a crunchy, mildly sweet vegetable.

1. Remove the outside hard skin of khol rabi, then cut into fine slices or strips, the same for red onion and bell pepper. Add a big pinch of salt and mix well, let the vegetable soften, around 15 minutes.

2. Add a handful of roughly cut mix herbs (parsley/basil/mint), drizzle with olive oil and freshly grounded black pepper. I like to serve it like this, without adding lemon juice or yogurt dressing, as the flavor of all vegetables are more noticeable.

Container gardening

Mix herbs

I grow parsley, basil, coriander, 2 types of mint, rosemary and chive in this bucket, around 2 feet diameter. They provide more than enough fresh herbs for my daily use.

Lettuce

In the supermarket, we use to buy a whole head of lettuce. Actually, if you grow lettuce at home, you just remove enough outside big leaves for a meal. This will allow the inside smaller leaves to have a chance to grow big. By using them like this, I have been eating these 6 heads of lettuce from May till now. 

Shredded duck and eggplant

1. Cut eggplants into dices, shallow fry in a oil until corners are golden brown, drain in a sieve.

2. De-glace the pan with sherry, then add in shredded cooked duck meat, soya sauce, balsamic vinegar, coriander seed powder and black pepper, stir-fry until sauce dries up.

3. Mix in eggplant and a small handful of chopped up basil leaves.

Summer salad

In France, the first harvest of this year's carrots is in the market, they call them 'primeur', so sweet. This is a colour salad with all early summer primeurs.

1. Cut carrot, fennel and red bell pepper into long fine strips, mix in a big pinch of salt, some freshly grounded black pepper, let them soften for 20 minutes.

2. Cut yellow nectarines into thin slices, tear a small handful of coriander leaves into pieces. Mix into the vegetables, each mouthful is the freshest tastes of all the individual produces.

A wedding cake

The couple are hobby pilots and they like hiking, what a beautiful cake. 

An organic dairy farm

Finally I have time to start visiting organic farms near where I live. This is a dairy farm in the Basque area near a village called Mendionde. The current owner's father started the farm 50 years ago.

It has been his intention to turn it into an organic operation since he took over around 15 years ago. He made the change over a very slow and gradual process and he has no idea how the reduced use of chemicals (herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics etc) will has an effect on finance of the farm operation.

He has around 30 hectares of grazing land to rotate his 25 dairy cows in. He moves the cows every morning to a new small strip of fresh green juicy grass field using electric fencing. He will bring the cows back to the same strip of land in a month's time. This allows that strip of grass to re-grow at it's fastest rate. There is more work but ensure maximum yield from the land and very good nutritious food for the cows. The land is maintained at excellent condition. 

He has another 10 hectares of rough land in the hill where he will cut and compost the vegetation to be used as fertilizer. The cows' manure are collected and processed into fertilizer for his land, nothing is wasted.

He still has to purchase organic grains to add to the feed. With rising feed cost, he plans to reduce the number of cows so that he can convert part of the land to grow his own grain, so that he will be totally independent in running his farm.

Nectarine soya cake

This is a good way to use up not very ripe fruit and soya residue from making soya bean milk.

1. Cut nectarine into segments. Melt a big spoonful of butter in a frying pan, place nectarine segments in the pan and sear both sides brown.

2. Arrange seared nectarine in a circular form in the bottom of a baking tin.

3. With the butter left in the pan, add 4 heap spoonfuls of brown sugar and 200gm of cream, cook until sugar melted. Pour on top of nectarine in the baking tin.

4. Mix a portion of cold soya residue with 50 gm flour, a sachet of baking powder, 60gm sugar, 3 eggs to form a soft dough. Pour on top of nectarine.

5. Bake at 170˚C till light brown and the top of the cake feel dry when touched, around 45 minutes. Serve upside down on a plate. 

Tofu fennel and chicken stir-fry

1. Cut medium hard tofu into small cubes. Cut fennel into similar size cubes.

2. Mince chicken or cut into cubes and season with salt, pepper, oil and corn starch.

3. In a wide pan, add olive oil and sear tofu on medium heat until golden brown on all sizes.

4. Add chicken and fennel, season with salt, pepper, freshly ground coriander seed powder. Stir-fry until cooked, a couple of minutes, add in a handful of chopped coriander leaves. 

Fennel mango coriander salad

1. Cut fennel into strips, mix with a pinch of salt, leave to soften slightly for 15 minutes.

2. Cut mango into strips, mix with fennel and a handful of chopped coriander, season to taste with lemon juice, salt & pepper. 

Eggplant pine nut carrot mash

1. Use a toothpick to poke holes in eggplants, place in a baking try and cook at 180˚C until soft, around half an hour. Leave to cool down.

2. Cut a carrot into small pieces, mix with a pinch of salt, leave to soften slightly for 15 minutes.

3. Roast pine nut in a dry pan, stirring all the time.

4. Cut eggplants into halves lengthwise, scoop out the flesh, mash up by fork or blender, season with lemon juice, salt & pepper. Mix in pine nuts, carrots and a handful of chopped basil.