Albóndigas Vegetarianas - Vegetarian "Meatballs"

I was watching MasterChef yesterday and thinking that there aren't many vegetarian dishes on the show. I was contemplating how I would survive on a show such as that one, and realised that I probably couldn't survive on it very long.

There was one vegetarian girl on the show last year and she was quickly outed. From what I've seen there are no vegetarians on the show at all this year.

Anyway so I got to thinking about vegetarian cooking in general and all these ingredients came into mind and I decided to make these.

Ingredients (Serves 4-6)
500gms firm tofu (I used Pureland Organic Tofu)
1 small bunch of chives
1/4 cup chopped parsley
100gms fresh shitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons of potato flour
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 egg
salt to taste
Olive Oil

For the sauce
1 750ml Provista Sugo Classica
2 medium onions sliced
4 baby red capsicums sliced
1 tbs dried thyme
1 medium green chili sliced
3 bay leaves
2 cups of water
salt to taste
Parmesan cheese to serve.

To make the albondigas

1. Saute mushrooms in olive oil, then set aside to cool.
2. Chop half of the tofu and set aside. Put the other half in the food processor.
3. Add chopped chives, garlic, parsley, egg, flour and salt. Process to a paste.
4. Add mushrooms and process, make sure that mushrooms are still in pieces.
5. Add chopped tofu and process, leaving chunks of tofu.
6. Form into balls and set aside.

To make the sauce

1. Saute onion and capsicums in a heavy pan until collapsed.
2. Add sugo and water and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add salt to taste, chopped chili, bay leaves and thyme.
4. Slowly and carefully add the albondigas into the sauce (do no stir).
5. Simmer covered for 20 minutes, serve with brown rice and sprinkle with chopped parsley or Parmesan cheese.
   

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Alfajores de Maizena (Gluten Free)

Alfajores de Maizena are small soft shortbread type cookies which are joined together with "dulce de leche" (thick caramel). Their sides are covered in dessicated coconut.

These are a favourite snack in Uruguay, Argentina & Chile. Some of the ones you can buy ready made, are covered in chocolate. The ones made in Chile have a much harder cookie, but are still assembled the same way.

Maizena is cornflour, and the main ingredient in this recipe.

I just love these!!

I saw some at my mum's yesterday but because of their wheat content I was not able to eat them. They have a small amount of wheat flour in them.

So I went shopping and bought 100% corn cornflour, I found a recipe which I converted into gluten free by replacing the wheat flour with rice flour and potato flour. I also replaced the cognac and lemon rind.

Now I can eat these to my heat's content (although in reality my heart would be much happier if I were eating broccoli instead!!)

Ingredients
200gms low salt margarine (you can use softened unsalted butter)
150gms caster sugar (superfine sugar)
3 egg yolks
300gms pure cornflour
125gms rice flour
75gms potato flour
2tsp gluten free baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp lemon extract

To assemble
200gms dulce de leche (Nestle Top'n'Fill works really well)
80gms dessicated coconut

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 165 degrees celcius (fan forced)
2. Sift flours and baking powder together, set aside.
3. Cream margarine, sugar, extracts and yolks with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
4. Fold in dry ingredients until it all comes together.
5. Place dough on a large piece of baking paper, and knead lightly.
6. Roll dough out to about 1/2 a cm between two pieces of baking paper.
7. Remove top sheet of baking paper, and cut with a round cutter.
8. Place on a cookie sheet at least 2 cms apart from eachother, and bake for 15 minutes.
9. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
10. Place enough caramel on the bottom of a cookie to cover it, and gently press another cookie to it so that some caramel comes out of the sides.
11. Spread the squeezed out caramel all over the sides of the cookies, and then roll that part through the dessicated coconut.
12. Eat accompanied with a cup of tea or coffee. YUM!!!