Come Dine with Me - Vegetarian Edition

Hello everybody!

Today I am going to share with you two of my most favourite recipes ever. Since I am a student, nearly all of my favourite dishes are very easy to prepare and do not require any extraordinary ingredients or great cooking skills. I have prepared two different recipes for you, which I have used many times in the past and they have never failed.


Tuna pancakes

Ingredients
1 can of tuna
about ¼ cup onion
1 clove of garlic (optional)
salt
black pepper
1 ts sesame oil (optional)*
1 egg
1 tbs flour
vegetable oil


* This is a Korean recipe, so it requires a few drops of sesame oil. If you do not have it at home, you can replace it with any other oil you like.

Directions

1. Strain out some of the excess liquid of the tuna by using a sieve, a paper towel or your hands and place it in a bowl.

2. Add the chopped onion, minced garlic, the egg, salt, pepper, the sesame oil and the flour to the tuna and mix everything thoroughly. If you have got the feeling that the mixture is not sticky enough yet, you can add some more flour.

3. Heat up your frying pan and add your preferred cooking oil. In my case, I used my beloved peanut oil.

4. Scoop about a spoonful of your tuna mixture and put it in the heated pan. If you distribute the tuna evenly, it should be enough for 6 patties.

5. It is time to turn them over when the bottom is golden brown. The whole process will last about 3- 5 minutes.

6. Transfer the pancakes to a serving plate and serve with rice, salad or potatoes in any way, shape or form. If you use a little more of the mixture per pancake, you can also use it as a vegetarian burger patty.

This is how mine turned out. I personally enjoy my tuna pancakes with some salad and some croquettes. I have also tried them in a burger bun before, but I prefer them plain with some side dishes.  

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

This is a recipe that I have been using for many years and I have never followed it very closely. I will give you the whole list of ingredients, but I will give you the instructions for my own, improvised version of it.

Ingredients
2 small apples (can be replaced by any fruit or frozen berries)
250 g of all purpose flour
1 tbs cornstarch (optional)
2 level teaspoonfuls baking powder
½ teaspoon sodium carbonate (optional)
1 packet of lemon peel

1 egg

150 g sugar
100 ml sunflower oil
200 ml buttermilk

30 g raisins

Directions

1. Add the cornstarch, the baking powder, the lemon peel and the sodium carbonate to the flour. I only used the baking powder, so I added that to my flour.

2. Whisk the egg in your big mixing bowl.

3. Add the sugar, the sunflower oil, the buttermilk and your fruit and the raisins to the egg. I did not add any fruit* at that point but I added some vanilla sugar instead. Make sure to add the oil in small portions instead of pouring it in all at once.
*frozen berries are added at a later point in the recipe

When you are finished mixing the batter, it should look similar to this.

4. Add the dry ingredients that you combined together in step one. Like in step 3, do not add the flour in one go. Use a spoon to add smaller portions, so that the batter can mix well. 

5. Put the batter in the paper muffin cases that you have placed in your muffin tray. If you want to make blueberry muffins like me, add the frozen berries now. You might have to push them in a little with the handle of a spoon, since the batter is very thick and creamy.

Tip: Always use two paper muffin cases at once, since one alone does get soaked too easily. Also, try not to overfill the cases - the batter will rise in the oven.

6. Put your tray in the oven for 20-25 minutes at about 347 degrees. You will know that the muffins are ready, when they start to slightly brown around the edges.

Mine turned out very fluffy and moist and my roommates really enjoyed them.

I hope you like my two recipes – if so, leave me a comment, whether you would want to try one of them yourself. I would also appreciate any feedback on how to improve any of the two recipes even further.