Saturday 6 February, 10.30am-4pm
The Guildhall, High Street, Bath, BA1 5AW. Click here for a map/directions

Hot food tasting recipes

Our recipe sheet has recipes we will be cooking on the day for you to try.

Cookery demonstration recipes

By Rachel Demuth from Demuths Restaurant & The Vegetarian Cookery School

The recipes are from Green Seasons Cookbook by Rachel Demuth

All the recipes are vegan, simple to make and Rachel will demonstrate how to use spices.

All the Ingredients will be from Harvest Wholefoods in Bath.

Banana Puris

Dietary: Vegan

Makes: 10

Ingredients:

• 120g gram flour
• 40g plain brown flour or chapatti flour
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ghee plus extra for cooking
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 tsp jaggary or soft brown sugar

Method:

Sieve the flours together and mix in the chilli, turmeric, cumin and salt. Rub in the ghee.

Mash the banana with the sugar & knead into the flour mix, bit by bit, you may not need all the banana, until a rollable dough has formed.

If the dough is too sticky add a little flour or a drop of water if the dough is dry & crumbly.

Divide into 10 equal balls, dip in flour and roll out into circles about 10cm wide, shake off any excess flour. Smear a non-stick frying pan or a griddle with ghee and fry the puris one at a time until golden on both sides.

Eat hot with a thali.

Tips: Use a vegan version of ghee made from vegetable oil. The Taj Mahal brand is available from wholefood shops and Indian stores. Try using cooked sweet potato instead of banana & fresh coriander leaf with desiccated coconut.

Gram flour: Gram flour sometimes called besan flour (Indian) is ground chickpea flour, excellent for batters & has the added advantage of being gluten free.

Jaggery: Jaggery is Indian traditional brown sugar made from the sap of palmyra palm trees & sold in round cakes or cylinders. It is very hard, but easy to grate & has a flavour similar to molasses, but not as over powering. You can buy jaggery from Asian Stores. Alternatively use a mixture of dark brown & light brown soft sugar.

Indian Spiced Chickpeas

Dietary: Vegan

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 x 400g tins chickpeas, drained
• 300g potatoes, peeled and chopped into small cubes
• 1 large onion, finely sliced
• 3 tbsps sunflower oil or vegetable ghee
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground (or 1 tsp ground cumin)
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground (or 1 tsp ground coriander)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 250ml water
• 1 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 250g leaf spinach
• handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped, for garnish

Method:

Heat the sunflower oil or ghee in a saucepan, fry the onion until it is soft and starting to brown.

Add the potatoes, garlic and chillies, stir, then add the ground cumin, coriander, turmeric and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Add the water, sugar and salt and cover. Simmer for approximately 10 minutes, until the potatoes are just cooked.

Add the chickpeas, stir and heat through. Add the spinach, cover to allow the spinach to wilt (this will take a matter of moments!).

Season to taste and garnish with fresh coriander.

Tips:

Coriander: Coriander seed is a major component in spice mixes from India to the Far East and is used much more universally than coriander leaves. The seeds are small, round and fawn in colour. To release their flavour they need to be lightly dry-fried before crushing to a powder. Freshly made coriander powder is far more fragrant than shop bought.

Cumin: Cumin is one of the most important spice seeds, along with coriander. It looks similar to caraway seeds but tastes totally different. Dry roasting brings out the flavour in the cumin. They burn very easily so go easy on the heat. If you do burn them, best to discard them, as they will ruin the spice mix.

Turmeric: A rhizome of the ginger family which has a aromatic earthy slightly medicinal flavour and is best known for its brilliant orange colour. Food coloured yellow is sacred for Hindus so turmeric is a very important spice in India.

Khadi

Spicy Yoghurt Dip

Dietary: Vegan

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 250ml soya yoghurt
• 1 tsp vegetable ghee
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• ¼ tsp kalongi/nigella seeds
• ¼ tsp cumin seeds
• a few curry leaves
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pinch of salt

Method:

Spoon the yoghurt into a serving bowl.

Heat the ghee, add the chilli, kalonji seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Stir until the seeds start popping and smelling fragrant, but be careful they will burn easily, decant into he yoghurt and stir in.

Add the lemon juice, and season to taste.

Tips:

Curry leaves are the leaves from a native Indian tree, they give off a spicy aroma when rubbed and are much more pungent when fresh. They add aroma, often added into the hot tempering oil, but are not eaten. Available from Asian stores. Buy fresh and then freeze them, dried curry leaves have lost most of their piquancy.

Kalongi seeds or Nigella are also known as black onion seeds have a delicate peppery flavour.

Chillies: Generally the smaller the size the more powerful the heat kick is. Red chillies are not necessarily hotter than green, as red chillies are ripe and tend to be sweeter. The hottest part of the chilli is the white membrane inside that holds the seeds called capsaicin. The seeds are the next hottest so for a milder flavour scrape out the membrane and the seeds.