Someone once asked me how did you make the tofu so crispy? At first I was mystified, but then realised they must have meant the tofu that was baked in the oven instead of fried in a frying pan. I do it quite often these days as it’s more convenient to make in large batches […]
Category: Main Meals
Japanese-Style Noodles with Hot Broth
The last Friday of the month at Kirigayaji in Tokyo, Hojosan holds a zazen-kai evening (meditation gathering). After sitting zazen and chanting the Sandokai all the members come together to slurp down soba noodles with great abandon. It’s a very simple dish to make if you can get hold of the ingredients (check your Asian market for good deals!). […]
Caribbean-style Kidney Beans & Veggies
When I was an art student in Manchester, my friend Mark used to like to cook from a small paperback called The Frugal Cookbook. There was one recipe that was easy to make, and one that I could never get enough of; Jamaican Stew Peas. Beans and rice with coconut, thyme and black pepper. A delicious, comforting combination – […]
Buckwheat Stir-Fry
It was one of those rare days when all the ingredients I expected to find were not there. It was after sesshin, and the shopping hadn’t arrived. Looking to the right of the empty spot in the pantry where the short-grain brown rice usually sat, I saw a few bags of buckwheat groats; and in the […]
Five Spices Indian-Style Dal
The art of curry seems to offer endless possibilities. It’s like life itself; no sooner is one challenge mastered, along comes another to keep things interesting. On an ordinary day, it makes one stop and think. Or reflect. Or meditate. Or simply ask, now what? This fickle life that requires endless feeding seems to go in a never-ending […]
Mung Dal Savoury Pancakes
While playing with some alternatives to scrambled eggs someone asked if I’d ever heard of a mung bean pancake, as it might be a good substitute for omelette? A Korean friend of theirs had given them the recipe and they were not at all difficult. However, I was rather puzzled when my first attempt looked rather like a burger (more on that another […]
Mock Fish
I have a cookbook inherited from my grandmother; Tried Favourites Cookery Book With Household Hints and Other Useful Information by Mrs W. Kirk. It was first compiled in the 1920s and illustrates how to make everything from jam preserves to haggis, take care of invalids, clean your kitchen table with sand and how to rid your cupboard of damp using a […]
Tofu & Aubergine in a Tandoori Sauce
Fusing the elements of Zen-style cooking with familiar recipes is something I love to do. And curries are fun to fuse. In the UK there’s a long history of curries dating back to the 1800s, if not earlier – a legacy of the British colonials returning from India. (Let’s hope with the advent of Brexit we can keep our palates border-free.) No surprise […]
Lentil Bake with a Fresh Tomato Sauce
“Bakes” were the thing to cook back in our student days. We often made them for parties or family gatherings. At the time I chose lentils instead of nuts because not only were we nuts about stretching our student grant as far as it could go (nuts seemed expensive) but also preserving our waistlines. This long-forgotten recipe came flooding back as I […]
Lemon Chinese with Tempeh
Whenever I ordered “Lemon Tofu” in a Chinese restaurant, it was never quite as lemony as I had hoped for. So one day I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own. So here it is. A tangy Lemon Sauce with ginger and five spice, tossed through a melange of colourful vegetables and paired […]