Latkes

I could eat latkes every day, if making them didn't involve grating the potatoes. If you have one, you can use a food processor with a shredder attachment to speed up the route to delicious crispy latkes.

Latkes

Makes around 25 latkes

Ingredients

1100 ml potatoes
1/4 tsp salt
150 ml flour
vegetable oil

Method

1. Peel and grate potatoes, by hand or with the shredder attachment of a food processor. Put them in a colander and squeeze the water out them as best as you can.

2. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of oil. Mix the potatoes with the flour and salt. Put a few latkes in the pan. Wait until one side is browned and the latkes move easily before turning them. Brown the second side. Cook the rest of the latkes, adding oil between batches as needed.

3. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with some more salt. Serve with apple sauce or vegan sour cream.

Garlic Roasted Carrots

These garlic roasted carrots are an easy and impressive side. They get a lovely delicate flavour from the garlic. They can bake while you make the rest of dinner and you can easily double or triple this recipe if you need to feed more people.

Garlic Roasted Carrots

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 large carrots
3 cloves garlic

Method

1. Peel the carrots if the skin doesn't look nice. Slice them on the diagonal into 1 cm slices. Toss with the garlic, olive oil and salt. Spread on a baking sheet (covered with baking paper if things tend to stick to it) and bake at 200 C for 20 minutes. Turn and bake for 30 minutes more or until soft and crispy.

Lindsay's Bean Salad

It was always a treat for us kids to go on holiday to our grandparents'. One of the reasons was that my grandmother was a wonderful cook. She and my grandfather had a big garden in which they grew most of their vegetables, and she put them to great use. One of her dishes that I remember particularly well is this very simple but delicious bean salad. It goes perfectly with quiche.

Lindsay's Bean Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 400 g cans mixed beans or kidney beans (ca. 750 ml)

400 g green beans (ca. 1 litre)

1/2 onion

4 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Method

1. Top and tail the green beans. Steam them until tender, drain, and rinse with cold water. Drain and rinse the canned beans. Slice the onion finely.

2. Mix the beans and onion with all the remaining ingredients. Leave to marinate for at least half an hour.

Kimchi Jeon

I've been very busy with university in the last few weeks. It's a good thing I have to write blog posts; testing recipes, taking photos and putting together posts gives me a break. Not that I'm complaining, what could be more fun than trying to work out what, exactly, Adorno is trying to say when he pops out something like this: "Though discursive knowledge is adequate to reality, and even to its irrationalities, which originate in the laws of motion, something in reality rebuffs rational knowledge"?

Anyway, onwards to the most important thing, the food. Kimchi jeon are fritters overflowing with tangy kimchi. They make a great snack or dinner with a side or two. In my opinion, they'd also go really with a barbecue or as snacks for a party. They're very easy to put together - just mix everything in a bowl and fry them up. On the evening I took this picture I had them with hobak namul (stir-fried zucchini) and rice for dinner.

Kimchi Jeon

Makes 6 jeon

Ingredients

500 ml vegan mak kimchi
6 tbsp kimchi juice
6 tbsp soy milk
4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp rice flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Method

1. Drain the kimchi, saving the juice. Combine kimchi with all remaining ingredients.

2. Heat an oiled pan over medium heat. Spoon in 1/6th of the batter and spread evenly into a thick fritter. Fry until browned, turn, and brown the other side.

3. Cook remaining fritters, adding more oil between batches as necessary. Enjoy! You can have the jeon with soy or dipping sauce, but I find them flavourful enough just as they are.

Variation: You can make two large jeon instead of six small ones, and then cut them into wedges or tear them up with your chopsticks to eat them.

Tofu with Black Vinegar

I had this tofu drizzled with black vinegar in a restaurant while stopping over in Hong Kong airport. It was simple but tasty, and hit the spot perfectly. We then had some snacks and beer while watching the sun "setting" into the smog above the horizon... It started out orange, melted into a deep red, and then disappeared.

You can find black vinegar, which is also called Chinkiang vinegar, at an Asian supermarket. I really like to eat this with red-cooked eggplant and some rice: it's an impressive combination and everything is done in less than half an hour.

Tofu with Black Vinegar

Serves 2

Ingredients

450 g tofu
2 tbsp black vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari

Method

1. Cut the tofu into slabs. Heat a generous amount of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry tofu for a few minutes on one side, until deep golden brown, then turn and brown the other side. Drain on paper towels.

2. Mix together soy sauce and vinegar. Lay the pieces of tofu on a plate and drizzle sauce over them. Eat with your favourite Chinese vegetable side, or just with rice.