all that ashak

the most popular dish on this menu, and therefore the one giving me the biggest headache, is the ashak. this is our recipe.

we make a curry paste using onions, chillis (red de-seeded), and ground spices (corinader, cumin, black pepper, fennel, cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon) and then add oil. we dice the sweet potatoes, rub the spice mix over them and roast them in the oven until tender. once cooled add peas and edamame and chopped parsley, coriander and curry leaves.

take two sheets of filo, and brush the first with oil then put the second on top. brush half of the second and fold over the other half to make a rectangle. (you should have started with a rough square) put a goog mound of the mix into the middle and bring up the sides of the filo to make a nice round shape, the oil will help you form the shape. brush with oil and sprinkle with poppy seeds.

the other recipe i'd like to share is the chocolate and amaretto torte. chocolate and amaretto are a match made in heaven, try some with your hot chocolate tonight to see what i mean. the trouble i'm having at the moment is how much amaretto to add, it's going up by 25ml every torte.

we use ground up dove's farm hazelnut cookies for the base. they are vegan and gluten free so they tick all our boxes. simply melt some butter or vegan marg and mix with the crumbs to form a base. spread in the bottom of a springform pan and cook in a pre-heated (180c) oven for ten minutes or so.

make the choc mix: take 250 ml of soya milk, add 100 ml of amaretto and two teaspoons of orgran no egg. using a hand blender blitz and the mixture will thicken. place in the microwave for a couple of minutes until the mixture is hot enough to melt 200g of vegan chocolate. it will stiffen but don't worry just chuck in the chocolate and stir. depending on how sweet you want it add agave nectar to taste. one you have a nice mix, take one block of silken tofu and blitz this into the mix, making sure it is well incorporated so that no silken tofu is visible. poor onto the biscuit base and cook in a preheated (140c) oven for about 20 mins. it should be quite softly set. if you want to avoid the oven you can let it set up in the fridge overnight. it will be a softer torte (not so easy for us, it is more difficult to cut for service so we now bake.)

hope you enjoy

cheers

wayne