What I learned from Hare Krishnas

I'm no vego. Not that I hold anything against vegetarians but I am omnivorous at best - I can almost eat my weight in rare steak and biltong is never safe around me - but I couldn't do it. I'd have bacon flavoured dreams, lamb chop fantasies.

So having established that I'm not afraid of red meat i next have to state that I love tofu. Love it. Not consume it for purely aesthetic reasons, actually love it. Even the blonde quite happily consumes tofu when I cook it.

My other vegetarian predilection is for Indian food. I almost always prefer a vegetarian curry to a meat one, the texture is just a bit more interesting, the flavour not quite so same same.

Many many years ago before the days of trade me my Mum had a thing for garage sales. Every now and then I would drag myself out of bed at 6 am on a Saturday morning and act as co-pilot and official map reader on the mean streets of Howick. I didn't tend to buy too much but one of my purchases was a book called Great Vegetarian Dishes by Kurma Dasa (see the anecdote is going somewhere). I must have been about 15 at the time so I have absolutely no idea what attracted me to a Hare Krishna cook book but to this day it remains one of my favourites. It's taught me that vegetarian food doesn't have to be tasteless or healthy!

From this book comes my favourite vegetarian curry.

North Indian Curried Cauliflower and Potatoes

1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin whole seeds
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 hot green chillies, chopped
3 medium potatoes cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 medium cauliflower sliced into thin strips
1 420g tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp salt (yes, that much)q
2 tbsp fresh parsley or coriander chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice (or vinegar at a push)



Spices bottom row L-R: mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ginger. Top row L-R: turmeric, garam masala, ground coriander, salt, brown sugar.


Put oil into large, deep frying pan with lid, I use a large wok. Once hot add mustard seeds, once they start to pop (put lid on!) add cumin and roast for a few seconds til brown.


Add ginger and chillies. Put in potato and cauli and stir fry until starting to colour.


Add tomatoes, remaining spices, sugar and salt. Add a little water is required. Mix well, cover, reduce heat and cook for 15-20 minutes or until veg are cooked.



Add the herbs and lemon juice. This curry doesn't really need any rice just serve with yoghurt and mint and some hot mango pickle.

What Women Want

Now it's not universally true that what every woman needs is a good man but I've met very few who will pass up the opportunity of a bit of quality time with a gingerbread man. Especially not my gingerbread men. Actually they are gingerbread men and women. And they are anatomically correct.

Not completely anatomically correct of course but I do like to put bumps in the right places when I'm making them for an adult audience. My decorations are less gumdrop buttons and more bikinis, briefs and boxers with the occasional thong thrown in for good luck.

Generally I make these gingerbread people for adults rather than children. On the off chance that someone has sneaked their offspring into your gathering I feel I should point out that small children will tend to go first for the bits with the icing and the bits with the icing tend to be the bits with the bumps If you find your toddler sucking on the crotch of your gingerbread man, well you've been warned.








The above group of fine specimens were for a friend's birthday. She has a tendency (we are not allowed to call it a fetish) for ginger haired men. I think that logically it is a very smart policy if you take into account the laws of supply and demand. So taking into account her preferences you will note that these are ginger gingerbread men. Tasty.

Making gingerbread men is relatively easy. The most recent version I have used is from Alison Holst which she uses to make gingerbread houses in her big red book.

Gingerbread dough - makes enough for around 20 gingerbread people
50g butter
100g brown sugar
1/2C golden syrup
2 large eggs separated
2 1/2C flour
1 Tbsp ground ginger

Melt butter, sugar and syrup in microwave. Stir in egg yolks. Stir in dry ingredients, knead to form a smooth dough. Cut the dough into three and put two to chill in the fridge - the dough should be firm enough without needing to be chilled but chilling makes the job slightly easier.

Roll dough out to approx 3mm thick either between two sheets of baking paper or with lots of flour - you don't want to tear your gingerbread men trying to get them up off the bench. Cut out as many gingerbread men as you can then layer the scraps and roll again until the dough is used up.

Place gingerbread men on baking paper lined trays. You may need to get a system going with the rolling and baking if you have limited trays. Roll little balls of gingerbread and place in the gender appropriate positions.

Bake at 180 C for approx 7 minutes. Watch like a hawk to prevent overly tanned ginger bread people.

Once the gingerbread men are cool you can use the left over egg whites to make royal icing for the decorating. Beat the egg whites until foamy then beat in 1/2C of icing sugar at a time until the icing is thick enough to pipe; as the amount of water in the egg white changes, the amount of sugar required changes. After the men are decorated the icing can be set faster by putting them in the warm oven to dry out.

In terms of decorations I usually split the icing out in to three or four small zip lock bags and add a different colour to each, snip the corner and use this to pipe. I'd suggest that you buy the branded bags rather than the house brand ones; they have a nasty habit of splitting at the worst possible moment.