YISCHEF: Chilli Non Carne & Orange Polenta Cake

A new segment on the YISBLOG, Bronwyn's recipes... Vegan too!

Chilli Non Carne

Okay, so after being inspired by a conversation with Block, last night I devised a recipe for a rather splendid ''chilli non carne'', which is possibly one of the most delicious culinary creations I have ever concocted.

It involved vegan mince*, a can of organic bean mix, a bottle of tomato passata, one carrot, a stick of celery, one large red onion, four cloves of garlic, enough vegetable stock to cover, a teaspoon each of ground cumin, coriander and smoked parpika, fresh and dried chillies to taste, two tablespoons of ground almonds and a heaped teaspoon of cocoa. Sweat onions, add finely diced vegetables, chillies and garlic, sweat more, add mince, beans, coriander and cumin, fry for a couple of minutes, add passata, ground almonds, cocoa, paprika and cover with stock, bring to boil, lower heat, simmer for 20 minutes, adjust seasoning and devour. Preferably with homemade cornbread. Fucken tasty as!

*Use the Sanitarium brand in the tin, NOT in the fridge. The latter is full of preservatives and other gross shit.

Orange Polenta Cake

INGREDIENTS:

(PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL MEASUREMENTS ARE APPROXIMATE.)

125ml rice bran oil, plus extra for greasing tin

1 cup polenta

1 cup ground almonds

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 cups golden caster sugar

two organic oranges, boiled whole in their skins for about an hour

For the orange syrup:

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 cup orange juice

3 sprigs of fresh rosemary

DO THIS:

Preheat the oven to 180°C or fan-forced 160°C. Grease the base and sides of a 20cm springform tin and line the base with greaseproof paper, or if you're using a friand or muffin tin, omit the paper. Put the polenta, ground almonds and baking powder in a bowl and mix together. Puree the cooled, boiled oranges with the sugar and rice bran oil. Add the polenta mixture to oranges a little at a time to make a batter. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 50-55 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden on top. Cool for 15 minutes then transfer from the tin to a wire rack to cool.

To make the syrup, put the sugar in a pan with the juice and rosemary. Allow the sugar to dissolve over a low heat, then boil it to a thin syrup, which takes about 5 minutes. Discard the rosemary and serve the syrup warm, drizzled over the cake.

- B.L.