Kolokithopita - Greek Pumpkin Pie

Every year on the farm we grow a lot of pumpkins, squashes and other interesting curcubits - this is a picture of the harvest of a couple of years ago.



This year I plan to grow other favourites like butternut squash and my all time favourite squash the Moschata variety Muscade pictured below.



Charlotte of The Great Big Vegetable Challenge has asked for squash recipes for her Great Big Squash Up event. This is a Greek inspired pumpkin pie which is delicious to eat and impressive to serve.

You will need:

Enough filo pastry (my tin takes a pack of ready made frozen Jus rol, 6 sheets folded double)
250ml Olive oil
150g onion, peeled and sliced into very thin rings
1.2 kg pumpkin flesh, coarsely grated
2 tsps. salt
2 flat tablespoons of sugar
Freshly ground black pepper
2 or more tablespoons semolina (to soak up excess moisture)
190g pack Cheddar Cheezly (animal eaters might substitute Feta cheese here, but I can't recommend that.)


Defrost Filo pastry

Heat oven to 200C.

Fry the onion in 4 tbsp. of oil over a gentle heat until soft without browning. Add the pumpkin and turn the heat up a bit. Stir and fry for at least ten minutes until the pumpkin is soft. If it appears soft before this keep cooking anyway, the moisture content needs to be reduced.

Sprinkle in the semolina, sugar, salt and pepper to taste and stir well to remove any lumps. Allow to cool then add the finely cubed Cheezly. Stir to mix.

Oil a pan (9x9 inches, 1.5 inches deep)

Put two folded layers of filo in the base, brushing with oil between each layer. The pastry will come up the sides of the pan, this is good.

Put one half of the pumpkin mixture into the pan and cover with another two double layers of filo, oiled as before.

Put the rest of the pumpkin mixture on top. If you have more sheets of filo you can divide the pumpkin into more portions and make more layers.

Cover the top of the pumpkin with the last two folded sheets of pastry and use a blunt knife to tuck the overhanging edges down the inside of the edge of the pan. Brush all over the top with more oil, then carefully cut through just the top layer of the pie to make diamond shaped lozenges. This will help with serving.

Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot or warm, enough for 6 as a main course.

Pie Floater

Or How I nearly Did a Delia



I feel a bit guilty about the Haggis post - after all Burns' Night was months ago and then I forgot the recipe but I'm not sure tonight's supper really qualifies as cooking at all.

It's a classic vehicle for short cut cookery, take some ready made short crust pastry, some pie filling of choice (and as this is a vegan blog that's going to be something TVP and frozen) and a can of Mushy Peas. Combine. Add sauce.

Actually, although I did use some commercial pastry the pie filling was almost cookery. Fry off some onions, add some cubed tempeh and then coat in a gravy. I would have used miso but we'd run out. Allow to cool a little before filling individual portion sized pies.

I could have used a can of mushy peas, we keep one in the store cupboard for emergencies but as it happened a serendipitous accident with some split green peas and the pressure cooker had provided a plentiful supply of the old green sludge. Lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, tabasco and a knob of marg. this was heated and thinned down a bit to create the necessary and substantial pea soup that makes this Australian speciality.

Oh yeah, and I quite gratuitously added oodles of garden herbs; sage, mint and rosemary to the pie filling and chopped parsley to the peas.

When Sheila taught me this recipe more years ago than I care to remember she somehow managed to overlook telling me about the tomato sauce that wikipedia assures me is essential. Can't think how that happened, Bruce.

Bonzer!

Late again

I have been cooking but nothing exciting enough to share so here is a picture of some leftovers from Burns' Night.



Individual leek wrapped baby haggis with vegetables. Unfortunately, and this should be a lesson for all would be blogging cooks, I seem to have mislaid the recipe I used so all I can confirm for the time being is that it included oats and some coconut oil and the oil, while it had a good mouth feel wasn't quite right in taste.

Still have two more of these tucked away in the freezer so maybe next time I'll try and deconstruct them more accurately.

Equinox Biscuits

I was going to have a rant about Easter, that xian jollification of torture, human sacrifice and political iniquity which has annexed the Spring festival symbols of eggs and hares to disguise its blacker history but really, what benefit does it produce?

It's time to celebrate the spring and these egg shaped morsels are sweet and lovely, so think happy thoughts and allow the sun back into your life.



These are just little shortcake biscuits, sandwiched together and dipped in chocolate. Preheat the oven to 160C and have two clean baking sheets handy. This quantity makes enough for 24 biscuits which become 12 sandwiches, and few bits to nibble.

You will need 185g of vegan margarine creamed with 60g icing sugar. Add a teaspoonful of vanilla extract and mix in well.

Sift together 185g white wheat flour and 60g cornflour. Add this to your margarine and sugar mixture and mix to combine. It should mix in nicely in just a few moments no matter how unlikely it appears at the beginning.

Using two teaspoons take small portions of the mix and use the spoons to shape the biscuits as if you were making quenelles of your favourite sorbet. You can use your hands but it's sticky and you don't want to add too much extra flour. Place each shaped bit of dough on a tray, spaced quite far apart. They don't spread much but it would be awful if they stuck together.

Bake for 15/16 minutes until just beginning to colour on the bottom. They will still be soft as they come out of the oven but will crisp up as they cool. Don't overcook.



When they cool sandwich together with some butter (margarine) icing, some water icing, some chocolate spread, your favourite jam, whatever. I used some rather lovely sweet chestnut puree but it's really up to you. Use just enough to stick the two halves together or it will squidge out unattractively.



Melt some chocolate. This is always described as hard work with a double boiler but I have good results using a microwave. 100g chocolate will take about a minute and half but check after a minute. If it's not completely melted it can usually be stirred to reduce the last few lumps to a smooth coating consistency.



Dip one end of each biscuit pair into the chocolate, hold it over the pot to drain for a few seconds, then put it back on the rack to set. Put something under the rack to catch the drips but there shouldn't be too many.



Stand back and admire.

Boston Baked Aduki Beans with Sweet Potato Hot Pot

The title says it all really. I had some cooked aduki beans left from an intention to experiment with red bean paste and a need for supper so I made a sauce with tomatoes, onions, black treacle and spices, popped in some smoky tofu and put the whole thing on to simmer for a couple of hours in a coolish oven.

An hour before serving I sliced the sweet potato, lightly oiled them and laid them out on a tray on the top shelf of the oven. Whacked up the heat to give them a lovely roasted appearance (the spare bits of sweet potato went in the pot) then, when they were cooked and golden on both sides used them to cover the beans.

The dish then languished in the warm oven for a while as our dinner guest was late but it was smashing nonetheless.

An Animal Free Life?

We indulged in a bit of retail therapy on Saturday, taking a turn around the supermarket and looking for excitment. Well, sometimes that's all it takes.

On the shelves for our delight we found a selection of products made by Redwood Foods a fairly right on sort of company specialising in meat and animal free products, many of which are suitable for vegans. These fishless fishfingers were among them. We also found products by Taifun another really great vegan resource but that's another story.

So we were feeling chuffed and keen to encourage the shops to keep stocking things for vegans and bought some. Actually, we bought loads of things but these are the items that have sparked a philosophical debate in the house.

When we cooked them, they smelled just like fish. And when we came to eat them, they were so like fish that Mr. Stripey Cat couldn't eat his and pushed them onto my plate. I can report that they tasted (insofar as I can remember) like low end fishfingers but with a superior crumb coating, neither unpalatable nor delicious, just a good vehicle for ketchup. So at the risk of sounding like Carrie in Sex in the City;

Why do vegan foods mimic animal products?

It's not a question that's easy to answer. Besides his very strong ethical stance on the exploitation of animals the Mr. simply doesn't like the taste of fish. Everything about it screams "I am not a food" to him. Fish is off the menu and making vegan convenience food that looks, smells and tastes like fish is not going to sell it to him.

On the other hand, I've no objection to the flavour of some sorts of fish and seafood, but if I wanted to eat them the real things are available and it's not illegal so why would I want a faux option? I have made a decision not to eat meat, fish, eggs and all the rest and I'm happy with that. Am I really deluding myself, are these fakes undermining my principles? Where does my favourite mayonnaise feature in this?

My argument on this in the past has been that it's purely nostalgia. Few of us are lucky enough to have been born vegan and when comfort foods of our childhood are sought we're looking for the things we remember from a time when decisions were simple and Mother knew best. Homely stuff like fish fingers and chips or toad in the hole, sliced meat for our sandwiches and cheese for our pizzas.

There's another significant point that I think needs to be made here too. Why shouldn't vegans have convenience foods, stuff that has all the fats, sugars and salt that seem to be part of 'normal' eating? How many times have you been given the vegan option at an event and found it bland, fat free and colourless because "we thought that's what you wanted". Being vegan doesn't necessarily mean that one has become someone with a food allergy. We like to eat. And sometimes we like to eat like slobs.

Is that enough to justify these almost identical fakes or should we be working harder towards food that is not just animal free but entirely removed from the traditions of animal-centric cooking?

baking experiment

Chocolate Orange loaf cake with Orange Icing.

This is really rather nice, easy to make and with an intriguing moist texture that I love and Mr. Stripey Cat describes as undercooked. It's a thing we have.

Anyway, although this makes a lovely cake and would be fine for a party (there's rather a lot of it, the picture only shows half) my intention is to use this basic cake to create some rather more exotic dessert or pudding. Thinking caps on.

I wasn't going to give the recipe out yet, I've only made this the once and it's very much a work in progress but two requests within an hour without even tasting it has to be an all time record for me and I'm flattered, so here it is. Don't blame me if it all goes horribly wrong!

Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake

This makes a huge cake. My loaf tin is 27cm x 9cm by 6cm high, with a volume of 2.5 pints and this fills it to the brim. Oil the tin and line it with a sheet of parchment paper. Let the paper be taller than the tin. Preheat the oven to, well, on my dial it's about 165C but I have no faith in my oven thermostat and wanted to check this another time. Whatever, but don't make it too hot. I always weigh my oils.

Ingredients:

500ml coconut milk - make this with a can and add water to bring it to the required quantity.
180g light vegetable oil, I used rape (canola) but sunflower would be fine.
Zest and juice of two large oranges.

400g white flour (I'm sure a fine wholemeal would work)
220g sugar (I used golden granulated, but soft brown will be o.k.)
50g cocoa powder
12g baking powder (about two teaspoons)
A pinch of salt if you use it.

Mix the liquids together and then add the dry ingredients. Beat until well incorporated. Pour, and it is very wet, into the lined tin and cook in the centre of the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes. The top will rise and crack a little. Check it with a tootpick or skewer to make sure it's not still liquid before you get it out.

Cool in the tin for 20 minutes or so and then turn out onto its top (i.e upside down) to cool completely. Remove the paper as it comes out of the tin.

To glaze, you'll need (and I'm guessing because I ended up using tons) about 300g of icing sugar, the zest of another orange and some juice. Add the juice teaspoonful by teaspoonful until the icing is just right and then coat the cooled cake. You might need to do this on a rack so the drips can fall off underneath. Decorate at will.

Mothering Sunday Eve Dinner

I'm almost tempted to leave the pictures to speak for themselves. My lovely big children and the former Mr. Stripey Cat came up for the weekend to help me celebrate Mother's Day and the current Mr. S-C and I prepared a blow out for them.


Entrée:
A selection of vegetable ravioli, filled with:
mushrooms, tarragon and reduced porcini tea,
or oven-roasted Pugliese tomatoes and garlic,
served with minted pea puree, and a roast pepper sauce.



Having recently rediscovered the joys of my pasta machine we've been enthralled by making ravioli. Mr. S-C worked on refining his favourite mushroom filling and I prepared a roasted garlic and tomato filling to provide choice for my son who has an aversion to mushrooms. In the event he did have two of the extremely well flavoured mushroom filled pasta and pronounced them good so a small success there I think.

With the ravioli we prepared a smoky red pepper sauce with just a hint of chilli heat and intended to make a minted pea puree as well but time ran out and we served the peas as up market mushies.


Main course:
Rösti, topped with marinated tempeh on a bed of spinach served with glazed carrots and a red wine reduction.



The main course suffered a little because of the attention to detail lavished elsewhere. I've never been good at making rösti and can't imagine why I thought it would be any better this time. In fact this was the closest I've ever come but they were still unpleasantly greasy and a little bit disappointing.

Whilst fretting over this I mistimed the tempeh completely and instead of turning out something sticky and glazed ended up with a softened, simmered sort of mixture which didn't look as appetising as intended. Luckily everyone enjoyed it enough to ask for seconds so we had no leftovers to look accusingly at us every time we open the fridge.


Dessert:
Cardamom suffused chocolate tart filled with crème pâtisserie and raspberries served with a coulis de framboises.



This pudding was designed to recreate one of the puddings made by the winner of this year's Masterchef. In the restaurant critic's episode James made a chocolate pastry tartlette with raspberries which wowed the sour faced looking woman.

Mr. Stripey Cat pulled out the stops for this and created an amazing chocolate pastry that is so good it really is going straight into the book. He says it's the appliance of science but it seems greater than that. Tart cases were baked and I made a confectioner's custard analogue to fill them. They were sat on a puddle of smooth sweetened raw raspberry puree and topped off with the prettiest raspberries, looking fantastic.

Delicious as they were I'm afraid they confirmed my prejudice against using fruit and chocolate together. The raspberries were too strong a flavour even when combined with the densely chocolatey pastry and totally masked the cardamom scent so the tart never amounted to more than the sum of its parts, each yummy but competing rather than complementing.


Petits Fours:
Tiny Treacle Tarts



However, with the trimmings of the pastry we also created some tiny treacle tarts. Served with espresso after the meal they were orgasmically marvellous, the cardamom shining through, the sweetness of the treacle luscious and crispness of the pastry satisfying.