Ilford’s Fozia Nazir shares recipes from her self-published charity e cookbook called Mamma Makes

Great British Life: EXG DEC 20 World RecipesEXG DEC 20 World Recipes (Image: Archant)

Fozia Nazir, a TV producer living in Ilford, has relased a self-published charity e-cookbook called Mamma Makes, celebrating recipes and stories from British chefs and food influencers from multicultural Britain.

From the grandmother who migrated from Iran due to religious persecution to the family of nurses that were part of the Windrush generation, these recipes and stories celebrate the cuisines and cultures of the world, giving you an insight into how the world feasts together, and some great inspiration for Christmas dining. All proceeds will go to One Million Meals to help feed Britain’s frontline key workers.

Here Fozia shares her recipe for Filipino vegetable pansit, while you can find more recipes and stories from the book in the December issue of Essex Life or at mammamakes.org.

Filipino vegetable pansit

Ingredients

Serves 7-8

1 onion (finely chopped)

4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

1 pack of mushrooms

1 pack of Chinese cabbage

2 packs of vermicelli noodles

3 carrots

2 cups of shrimp, chicken or vegetable stock

Kettle of boiled water

2 tbsp of coconut oil for frying

2 tbsp of olive oil

¼ tsp of chilli flakes

2 tbsp of soy sauce

Salt and black pepper for seasoning and taste

Juice of 1 lemon

Handful of chopped parsley

Method

Cut the mushrooms in half, chop the cabbage into small matchstick strips and chop the carrots into matchstick strips.

Soak the vermicelli noodles in a big bowl of boiled hot water for approximately 5 minutes. When the noodles are soft and you can pull and separate them apart, drain. Once drained, hold handfuls of the noodles up, hovering above the draining bowl and cut into the noodles with scissors to help shorten the noodle lengths as vermicelli noodles are very long. Set the noodles aside.

Now heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a pan, then cook and stir the mushrooms in the pan on a high heat for approximately 5 minutes. Add 1tsp of salt to taste. Once cooked, put the mushrooms into a bowl and set aside.

Add the carrots into the pan and stir on high heat. After a couple of minutes push carrots to the side of the pan to continue cooking and add in the onions and garlic on the other side of the pan and fry separately on the side with 1 tsp of coconut oil and stir. Add the salt, 1 tsp of black pepper and ¼ tsp of chilli flakes to the carrots to taste and now mix the onion and carrots together in the pan until the carrots are soft.

Now add in 2 tbsp of shrimp, chicken or veg stock. Add in half of the chopped Chinese cabbage and stir. Then add in the mushrooms and stir. Add in the rest of the cabbage and stir, adding more salt to taste if needed. Now add this mixture into a bowl to set aside and leave the juice from the veg and stock in the pan.

Add the noodles into the pan and put the pan on high heat. Now add in 1 and a half cups of the rest of the stock. Mix in 2 tbsp of soy sauce and 2 tbsp of olive oil (add more soy sauce if needed to taste). When the noodles have fully absorbed the cooking juice, turn off the heat. Add the veg mix to the noodles, serve with a squeeze of lemon juice and chopped parsley.

Mamma’s tip: Add more veg if you wish, such as green beans.

Fozia Nasir

This is always a staple at Filipino parties and no celebratory feast is complete without pansit at the table. Now living in Ilford, Fozia explains: ‘My dad came from Barbados with his parents who were part of the Windrush generation invited to the UK to help rebuild the country after the war. My mum came to the UK from Trinidad & Tobago and ended up studying to become a nurse and working in the NHS. As a child, I remember my mum would serve this dish with a side of white rice and fried chicken. I used to like to mix in the warm rice with the pansit on my plate, ultimate joy!