Blogging World

The blogging community has a penchant for memes and interactive challenges.

Charlotte at the Great Big Vegetable Challenge threw up an invitation to take part in the fun activity of making vegetable faces as a wet weather pastime and have your efforts displayed in her slide show.

You can see my poor potato head here and when you've looked at all the entries, some of them considerably more artistic than mine, look at the rest of her blog. It's a cracking read.

Cauliflower: Pickled.

A couple of months ago I was expressing a desire for cauliflower pickles which I only half assuaged with a jar of Pickled Carrots. I couldn't find anything to buy in France and in England, well, I've been so disappointed with commercial pickles that I can't bring myself to part with the money. But the need is still strong.

There were some excellent cauliflowers available last time I went to the SuperU so I decided to bite the bullet and be good to myself.

Surfing the web to see what's on offer there by way of recipes I found that
Alice Waters an American cook and restaurateur of some renown has published a recipe for Cauliflower Pickles in Tarragon Vinegar so to forestall any accusations of plagiarism I'm sure Alice would be the first to agree with me that her basic method is in fact the standard pickling system used since long before Mrs. Beeton and applicable to all. Why she chose tarragon vinegar we may never know but my reason was prosaic. I had a bottle that was destined for my son but forgotten by his Dad on his way through my kitchen. Seemed a pity to waste it.



The herby thing pushing between the jars is tarragon in my garden.

For these two jars of pickles, take one large but not enormous firm young cauliflower (quiet at the back!) wash it well and divide it up into lovely neat pieces. Make them small enough to pack tightly in the jar or you'll have a lot of vinegar for not much pickle. And they're easier to eat that way.

When the cauliflower is prepared pack your clean and sterile jars with the florets, then fill the jars with vinegar - like I said I used tarragon vinegar but cider vinegar is fine, make sure it's at least 5% strong. This odd step is just to estimate your vinegar needs and in fact I used about 800ml if you want to skip this part.

Tip the vinegar into a non metallic saucepan, add two teaspoonsful of salt, some mustard seed (try three teaspoons), a couple of cloves of garlic cleaned and halved, half a dozen peppercorns and the thing I was missing, coriander seed; a couple of teaspoons of that too. Throw in a bay leaf, a chilli or both if you like. Bring this to the boil and then drop in all the cauliflower. You'll need more than filled the jars raw because it shrinks a bit as it cooks. Simmer for a couple of minutes, you want to keep the vegetable crisp but make sure it's sterilised by that steaming brine.

Scoop the cauliflower out and pack it tightly into your jars. Pop the garlic and other large seasonings in amongst the florets, then bring the juice back to a good boil and pour it into the jars to cover the cauliflower completely. Make sure the small spices are divided evenly as you do this. If there's not enough vinegar to cover, just boil up a little more. On with the vinegar proof lids and you're done.

Observant readers will notice that one jar is clear and the other jar is yellow. I couldn't decide whether to make the pickles yellow or not, there's some precedence in history but it might be a bit tacky in today's stripped down society. Anyway, after I filled one jar I put a pinch of turmeric in the vinegar that was left and then filled the other.

Store in a cool dark place for three weeks or so before eating and refrigerate after opening.

Soup or Stew?

Tonight's dinner or what to do with a handful of slightly past their best vegetables.

To recreate this gourmet treat in your own home take a potato, a carrot, an onion, some green beans and chop into bite size pieces. Simmer altogether in just enough water to cover adding mixed dried herbs, salt and pepper to taste. If you have celery then definitely add some, it makes a lot of difference.

When the veg. is cooked stir in a big spoonful of miso, add extra water to the broth if necessary and bring back to temperature. Serve with bread and if liked, nutritional yeast or other flavourings.

Go on, try it, it's much nicer than it sounds and has the advantage of being almost entirely fat free.

Horta

The Greeks are well known for their healthy and economical practice of harvesting their weeds and vegetable garden thinnings to make delicious dishes of cooked greens. It is said that at least 28 different plants are used, in varying combinations according to season and availability to make this nutritious addition to the daily diet.

Having tried various weeds for taste over time I can't say I'm a fan of all of them. Hogweed was a particular disappointment when I experimented with it earlier this year and nettle soup is only really edible if well flavoured with plenty of other more appetising additions.

However, I am a fan of wild sorrel which grows on the farm in amongst the grass in the fields. It's easy to find, and the only plant you might mistake it for is young dock. That won't poison you but is no gustatory treat. Sorrel can be recognised by its softer smoother appearance and the arrow shaped points at the base of the leaves.

I also picked a small handful of some sort of mustard or rape greens, clearly naturalised from a farm crop at at a previous time and now endemic around the yard. To add to these leaves I took a few nasturtium leaves for their peppery taste, a sprig of sage, another of mint and a big bunch of thinnings from the beetroot crop. These tiny beet plants have not yet grown proper beet roots but are just tiny red flushed leaves on scarlet stalks.



To add to these tender leaves, really fresh and delicate enough to use as salad, I picked half a dozen pumpkin vine tips, just 15cm from the end of each vigorous shoot. As well as providing me with a tasty vegetable this will have the advantage of slowing the plants down and forcing them to devote their resources to the wonderful pumpkins already formed and swelling.

Each shoot tip has a few soft leaves, a fleshy and crunchy stem and if you are lucky a few really tiny flowers and baby fruits.

Chop the pumpkin tips coarsely and gently fry in a little olive oil until hot. Add the well washed and roughly cut up greens, stir around in the oil and add a splash of water. Put on the pan lid and allow the vegetables to cook in the steam.

Many recipes for call for a longer cooking in more water and this may be good advice if you are using bitter weeds like dandelion or sow thistle but for dainty morsels like these it is not necessary.

When the vegetables are cooked, just a few minutes, tip into a bowl with all the juice formed and dress with plenty of olive oil, salt to taste and lemon juice. Eat hot or allow to cool to room temperature.

Riz Etranger

A pan of Paella, made a couple of nights ago. Paella is another form of peasant food, created from the staples of the Spanish Eastern coast repertoire, rice, beans, saffron and then enlivened with whatever is to hand which for vegans simply means extra vegetables. (Meat eaters get portions of stringy meat; rabbit or chicken, snails and seafood.)

In this dish I added just a few extras making a very simple and soothing meal drenched in lemon juice and salt, for two to share straight from the pan.

The essential ingredients then are Paella rice from Spain although any shorter grained risotto rice would do at a pinch, olive oil, saffron, large white beans (precooked), chopped green beans, good stock, onions, garlic, tomatoes and any extras you like e.g. chopped red and green peppers or mushrooms. You might even add asparagus tips or peas if the fancy took you. Try to stop before it ends up looking like a compost heap.

Chop onions and garlic and fry off gently in a large flat pan, a proper paella pan is the best but if you don't have one don't let that stop you. Add rice to the pan and stir around in the hot oil then add any other vegetables that can stand long cooking and the stock. Add a big pinch of saffron and bring to a simmer. Add in turn all the other ingredients depending on the length of time they will take to cook. Test the seasoning often and add Mediterranean herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Top up the stock if it looks like drying up before the rice is cooked. There is no need to stir continously as in risotto but move things around occasionally to stop it sticking and burning.

When the liquid is absorbed, the rice is tender and the vegetables cooked, garnish with lemon segments and chopped parsley and serve in the pan. It's perfectly acceptable to eat with spoons straight from the cooking utensil if each person sticks within the area on their own side of the dish. Nicking tender morsels from the other diners is considered poor manners!

Bhel Puri

One of the best things about this stay in the UK is the ability to pick up a variety of world foods and know they are genuinely authentic to their country of origin. Nothing attenuated for an ignorant and uncaring French clientele here.

I don't recommend shopping in Tesco, ever, but I was there and from the ethnic shelves collected a bag of sweet and sour sev, cornflake and lentil mix. Perhaps a little light on the puffed rice but an excellent base for the snack or light meal known as Bhel Puri.




This is an infinitely variable dish in that nearly every individual part may be substituted with something else but the basic format is fixed; a light crispy base of puffed rice and sev noodles, a salad mixture of cooked potatoes, finely chopped raw onions and diced tomatoes, a fresh green chutney of coriander, mint, green chillies (as many as you like), salt and garlic thinned with a little water or lemon juice and a luscious brown date and tamarind sauce, sweet and sour with subtle curry spice flavours. These separate parts are put onto a dish in the proportions preferred by the diner, mixed all together and eaten with joy.

Bread roll

and other stuff we've been eating in the last few days.

Since arriving in the UK quite a lot of meals have been prepared and I have to admit they have only been average. I don't know if it's something in me, some subtle virus affecting my taste buds or something to do with the ingredients - mostly store cupboard and local early to late Co-op. At any rate, although they've looked o.k. I've had no desire to photograph or release their recipes to a wider audience.

However, for the record meals have included:
an all day vegan breakfast, thai green curry, barbecued tofu and aubergines (we really were at a barbie cooking on communal veggie charcoal), leftover barbie food with leftover thai curry (an interesting experience), roast spuds and broad beans with garlic, spinach lasagne al forno (which turned out nice but strangely lacking in any real excitment) and last night a Sheep Free Pie with chickpeas and miso, again looking the part but let down by rather inappropriate potatoes (stored early Swift, designed to be eaten as first early potatoes and really hopeless after a week or two in store) and slightly hard chickpeas even though they seemed well cooked when I popped them in the pie dish.

No idea what I'll be cooking tonight, I feel a shopping expedition coming on. If anyone would like the recipes for the food listed above, I could tell you, but then I might have to kill you. I really don't think they show vegan cooking at its best.

gon' fishin'

Missed a couple of days - sorry.

Above the Bubble and Squeak from Sunday. Mashed potato, cooked cabbage mixed together and fried golden brown in lots of olive oil. Uses up all your cooked vegetable leftovers but potato and a brassica are essential.



Last night we had Gado Gado and didn't even take any pictures...but these are the beans I picked from the garden to go in it.

May be missing a few more daily entries as we're taking a trip but normal service will be resumed in 10 days or so.

Fruit Cake

It might seem slightly bizarre to bake this English teatime speciality suitable for the foggy rainy isle on the hottest day of the year but there is method in my madness.

Once the cake is mixed and baked, relatively easy and trivial tasks, then whenever anyone needs a nutritious, calorie rich snack they have only to go the cake tin, take out a hand sized portion and get out of the kitchen. No cooking, no hot stove, no hassle.



For this cake you'll need an approximately 25cm tin, we have a springform which makes getting the cooked cake out easier. Ideally it should be lined but you'll get away with greasing and flouring.

Put 750g of mixed dried fruit in a sauce pan and add 125g of sugar, 450ml of water and a big teaspoonful of black treacle. Bring to a simmer, stirring often and let remain on the heat for a minute or two. Turn off the heat and allow the fruit to steep in the hot syrup until cooled. *** I came back to this entry after a year and realised I'd not mentioned any fat in the recipe. I'm guessing there should be 125g margarine melted into the above mixture with the fruit but can't at the moment remember exactly what I did. Anyway this will work. Sorry. ***

In a mixing bowl combine 450g white flour with a sachet of baking powder (about two teaspoonsful) and some spice. I used a teaspoon full of cinnamon and a half tsp. of allspice.

Combine the fruit with the dry ingredients and mix well, then pour into the tin and smooth the top. Add some glace cherries if liked, press them down into the surface so they won't burn.

It will take about an hour to bake at 170C but check after 40 mins and again at 50 minutes. My oven is a bit uneven and not very well regulated and I burned the bottom of the cake a little. If it looks too brown too quickly turn the heat down a little. When a knife/skewer comes out clear of moist cake mixture the cake is cooked.

Allow to cool in the tin for half an hour, then remove onto a rack and allow to cool competely.

Serve with tea.

Turning Japanese

losing the plot

Posts are slipping behind, sorry.

Last night's dinner was unremarkable, macaroni and cheese. The sauce was made with soya yoghurt flavoured with nutritional yeast and other seasonings. It was o.k.

Possibly the only thing I have to say about it as a dish is that for a while now reading food blogs I've been amazed by the number of bloggers raving about Mac'n'Cheese. Maybe I've led a sheltered life but it took me weeks, maybe months to work out that this title referred to a standard menu item from my British youth and was not some esoteric reference to the haz cheezburger desires of the lolcats or even a description of a simple facsimile of a certain Burger Chain's output.

So I'm naive, what can I say!

Tonight, we just drank. The homelife of the Stripey Cats is a bit less than lovely at the moment, but we're confident things can only get better.