Home Cook Liverpool 2: More signature dishes from the city, and these all have a veggie twist

Eating ‘in’ doesn’t mean we have to miss out on any of our favourite dishes from our favourite restaurants, each week we bring you Home Cook Liverpool which will hopefully liven up your kitchen through lockdown.

Some of Merseyside’s most popular people and places are sharing their secrets, so here are more great recipes for you to try at home…

Sri Lankan Beetroot Curry with coconut chutney

This is a perfect vegan recipe that’s full of flavour for you to create. Fill your house with flowers and it will almost be like being there… well, until you can go back and enjoy the real thing.

Ingredients:

For the beetroot curry
60ml olive oil
500g cooked beetroot
400ml coconut milk
1 red pepper (diced into 2cm chunks)
1 red onion (diced into 2cm chunks)
1 brown onion
handful of spinach
1 cinnamon stick
1 red chilli
lemongrass
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp curry powder
3cm fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves
toasted almonds
salt

For the coconut chutney:
200g dessicated coconut
juice of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove
1 red onion (diced)
handful of fresh coriander

Method: Add all of the following into a blender until it forms a smooth paste: 50ml olive oil, red chilli, lemongrass, fennel seeds, ground cumin, ground coriander, fresh ginger, garlic cloves, 1 brown onion, 250g cooked beetroot (saving the rest for the curry itself), curry powder and salt.

Once blended together into a paste, add up to 400ml of water to combine into a smooth curry sauce. Heat a frying pan with the remaining 10ml of olive oil. Then fry your beetroot curry paste for 2-3 minutes.

Add the red onion, red pepper and remaining beetroot to the pan. Cook until the veg begins to soften. Once softened, mix in the coconut milk and spinach. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and serve with coconut chutney, rice and chapatis.

To make the coconut chutney, simply add all the ingredients and pulse in a blender until combined.

Visit The Florist website here.

Flat Bread

This month marks the fourth birthday of local mobile afternoon tea emporium and baking school Room Forty – so it seems only fitting to share a recipe from founder, Jen Perry.

Everyone is having a go at bread during lockdown, and this recipe from Jen is an amazingly versatile and tasty flat bread.  

She says: “It is so quick, doesn’t need any yeast and can use almost any flour that you have in your cupboards.

“It is a great one to get the children in the kitchen, all you will need to do for them is the hot stuff.”

Flat bread

Ingredients:
300g plain flour (plus extra for rolling)
1/2 tsp salt
50g butter
185g milk
A little oil for your pan

Topping ingredients (if you wish):
Garlic and butter to make garlic bread
Passata or tomato puree and cheese to make pizza. Some dried herbs would be good too.
Cumin seeds and coriander for Indian inspired bread

Method for the basic bread:
Melt the milk and butter in a pan or in the microwave.
Mix in the flour and knead lightly for a minute
Split into six balls.  Cover the ones you’re not using so they don’t dry out.
Roll the ball into a bread shape.
Heat a tiny bit of oil, and get your pan quite hot.
Put the bread in the pan and cook for around 2 minutes or until it begins to brown.
Turn it over and cook the other side.

Asian Marinated Tofu, Spaghetti Vegetables, Baby Spinach, Girolle Mushrooms & Pak Choi Shoots

The Art School

Got your chef’s hat on? Because here’s one that’ll definitely impress the family from chef patron Paul Askew.

It looks quite complicated but taken through step by step…you’ve got this! 

Serves: 4

Ingredients for Asian Marinade (a little bit of Singapore) 

Kikkoman Soy Sauce

50g Fresh Root Ginger, Peeled and Roughly Chopped 50g Garlic, Peeled and Roughly Chopped

1 Red Chilli

The Zest and Juice of 1 Lime

50g Fresh Coriander, Leaf and Stalk

Method: To make the luxurious Asian Marinade, add all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix together until combined, using a stick blender. To this the tofu will be added.

Tofu ingredients

Tofu, 120g per portion (our preference is to use a product called seacakes. We use this because it has strands of seaweed running through it to add texture and depth of flavour. If you can’t get it, you can use plain tofu made from bean curd only).

1 large courgette

1 large carrot

20 medium sized girolle mushrooms, brushed and trimmed

150g baby leaf spinach, washed

Almonds, 5 per portion

10ml vegetable oil

50g sesame oil

Maldon salt

Method: Allowing five cubes of tofu per person,  each diced at 2cm cubed, place into the bowl of marinade, using only half of it. The remainder of the marinade will be used for the sauce to garnish. Leave the tofu to absorb the marinade in the fridge for at least one hour.

Remove the tofu from the marinade. Place the cubes onto a non-stick tray or a tray with parchment paper, and place into the oven on 200 degrees for 3-4 minutes until they’re hot and slightly coloured.

Do not overcook otherwise the tofu will dry out. If you prefer, flash frying is also a good way to cook the dish. With a spiraliser or a Japanese vegetable turning cutter, create some vegetable spaghetti. Add that to a hot pan and toss in a little vegetable oil, leaving a slight bite and texture

Finish it with a splash of marinade.

Using a little bit of sesame oil, sweat down the baby spinach and finish with a little soy sauce, which will be absorbed into the leaf.

Beetroot puree ingredients

5 large beetroots

50ml of olive oil

2 strands of thyme

Maldon salt to season

Method:

Peel the beetroot and cut into even dice. Pour diced beetroots into a pan of cold water add thyme, bring to boil and simmer until the beetroot are soft.

Once soft, drain, pour into a food processor, add seasoning and start  blending.

Gradually pour olive oil into the mix until the puree is smooth. Pass through a fine chinois.

Garnish: Bok Choi  and sunflower cress

Assembly: To create the finished plate, centre the spinach garnishing the Tofu around it. Add your spaghetti vegetables on the top.

Dot the beetroot puree and roasted almonds around the dish, drizzling your marinade around the plate. Complete using by using Bok Choi and sunflower cress for decoration.

Risotto ai Funghi

Fabulous Italian cooking – and this Risotto ai Funghi from head chef Alfonso Cornelio is one you can impress your guests with long after lockdown.

Ingredients:

Arborio rice

Chestnut mushrooms

1 large onion 

Butter

Grated parmesan

White wine

Vegetable stock

Splash of double cream

Method: To make the risotto base, finely chop half the onion, heat butter in a pan and cook until softened. Add the rice into onion and stir before adding white wine. Keep the mixture bubbling gently while you gradually start to pour in stock, adding more as it reduces down. 

 Grind in salt and pepper and keep cooking the rice very slowly for around 10 minutes until the liquid is gone and the rice is cooked but still al dente.

 In a separate pan, heat more butter and fry finely chopped half onion, sliced mushrooms and more white wine. When mushrooms are cooked and wine reduced down, add the cooked rice, a little more salt and pepper, a little butter, grated parmesan and a splash of double cream to mix. Once you’ve plated it up, add a sprinkle of parmesan to finish.

Take a leaf out of this great restaurant’s book with this truly tasty tacos recipe, and have your own Mexican evening at home with Jackfruit Tacos with Mango Salsa.

Ingredients for Pulled Jackfruit

400g of Jackfruit

2 Peeled Garlic

1 small tin of Pineapple chunks

1tsp oregano

10g Smoked Paprika

10g Cumin

1 White Onion diced

50g Caster Sugar

50ml Water

10ml White Wine Vinegar

1 tsp Chipotle paste (to taste)

1 tbsp Tomato paste

50ml rapeseed oil

Ingredients for Mango Salsa

1 Mangos Finely diced

½ Red Onion Finely diced

¼  Red Chilli fine diced

1 Lime, Zest + Juice

Small Bunch fresh coriander

Pinch salt & sugar

Rapeseed oil

Corn tortillas or tacos

Jack fruit method: 

Combine all ingredients into a paste except the water, sugar and jackfruit.

Drain and squeeze liquid from the jackfruit.

Make a sugar syrup of equal parts using the 50g of sugar and water, boil.

Combine paste, Jackfruit and syrup in a non-stick baking tray and bake at 130 for 15 mins. Season to taste.

Mango salsa method

Dice and combine all ingredients, coat in Rapeseed oil and season to taste.

Warm through corn tortillas or tacos, add jack fruit and top with mango salsa. This can be served as a starter or main course and will go great with a sweet jacket potato, brown rice or a mixed salad. Enjoy!