The Stripey Cat

Happy New Year

2012-01-02T16:29:00.003+01:00

Happy New Year - it's really just another day, further hours, some more minutes and seconds since the last year but there is something about arbitrarily marking off a period of time makes us draw breath and consider our place in the universe.

For this blog then, the time has come for a radical rethink, a rebuild and a new direction. I'm not yet sure where to take it after five years of documenting a little of my life, some of my attitude to cookery and a lot of my rather mundane meals but I feel this old shell has been outgrown.

Expect a small hiatus, after that I hope to be back starting something new, that won't be entirely unfamiliar but will present the old favourites in a new way and give the new techniques a chance to become more comfortable.

To the next stage... Cheers.

A Christmas Competition

2011-12-30T14:09:00.003+01:00

Although we are a resolutely atheist secular family the winter holidays do offer an excellent chance to express our British socialisation norms and get everyone together to share some time. Trouble is, the standard pastimes of such Xmas gatherings, eating, drinking and slumping in front of the television always leave one feeling vaguely cheated of shared topics of interest and close interaction.

This year a plan was hatched to keep the creative and competitive animals engaged while still feeding the inner beasts.

We decided on a contest. Originally inspired by Masterchef Professional that format was quickly ditched as too complicated to administer and judge, not to mention far too filling with 5 cooks at the pass. So the brief was to produce a small amuse bouche or appetiser, just a mouthful or two for each person to taste and judge.

Tapenade Toast - a really simple tasty morsel that was absolutely on target in my opinion, savoury, crispy and making you hungry for more.

The points were awarded via an anonymous online questionnaire for originality, presentation, deliciousness and christmassyness. That last category did cause some problems as it's a bit intangible and some complained they weren't given enough warning.

Hearts of Almond - a raw savoury marzipan served on tiny crispy crackers and beautifully presented. Recipe available on request.

Everybody tried hard and the standard was extremely high, with just six points between the lowest score and the highest.

Three Types of Tart - Red pepper, Pea and aparagus and a rich Onion Jam on the thinnest of crisp pastry shells. Delicious.

We had to take turns in the kitchen, looking over each other's shoulders and helping out (and making helpful remarks, which isn't quite the same thing) but the gaps between each presentation helped to keep our appetites sharp and our appreciation honed.

Polenta Fusion - Polenta Chips with Japanese seasonings and a seaweed salad garnish.

I was grateful that my Stripey Son and the former Mr. Stripey, neither of whom are vegan, kindly adapted their ideas so that all the offerings in the contest were animal free and could be enjoyed by everyone.

Cold and Hot Fruits - a chilly red fruit sorbet served with a mulled spiced warm tangerine cocktail. A taste sensation.

I'm not going to reveal the winner, see if you can guess.

Underground Pop Up Supper Clubbing

2011-12-04T12:54:00.006+01:00

Last night was the final date for the three public dining dates I'd arranged for this autumm. I haven't felt able to blog about the venture during the last month as it's been something of a roller coaster of emotions, confusion and disappointments and I didn't want to project the wrong impression while I was still trying to encourage people to join the meals.

Keen eyed observers will have spotted that although we had a successful 'dry run' of the Newport Pagnell event with friends from London the actual public night was cancelled as there were only two confirmed bookings by the date and it seemed unfair to get those kind and trusting people to turn out for something that would not, could not be as billed.

This was very disappointing and I put it down to a combination of my poor marketing skills and a dearth of vegan interest in the area.

However to confound my despair the next planned evening, in Nottingham, sold out and we even had a short waiting list. This was more as I'd been hoping and planning for and it was good to give my fledgling catering skills a work out in Paul and Alex's kitchen with tables full of hungry diners to enjoy the food. It seemed to go well with few problems and I hope everyone was as happy and pleased with it as they seemed to be. Nottingham vegans and their friends really are very sociable and lovely.

Particular thanks to Adrian at the Vegan Nottingham guide for allowing me to advertise on his site, it made all the difference.

And so to last night in Ealing. We tried in every way we could to publicise this dinner, with notices in local health food shops, on Twitter, on Supper Club Fans, with a Facebook page, on the Vegan Forum and by plain old begging of our friends and relatives but although I had thought something in Greater London could hardly fail in the end we had just one erstwhile friend in attendance. A very pleasant dinner in great company was had but it could not be described as any sort of public event or successful as a supper club meal.

So, regretfully, the supper club experiment has now ended and it doesn't look like it's worthwhile to try to take it on any further. Time to think of some new adventure to try.

Cooking every day

2011-11-18T14:23:00.002+01:00

But little time for blogging. Here is a haul of vegetables from the local Farmers' market in Newport Pagnell. I'm missing my French veggie patch which could have supplied most of these lovely things but still, it's nice to support other growers.

Things I have learnt

2011-11-07T12:35:00.002+01:00

Yesterday was the Supper Club Rehearsal Lunch. It was a success I think, with no major disasters and a good time had, but it was a learning curve and these are some points to remember.

Despite starting several days beforehand we were still cleaning, assembling tables and ironing tableclothes just before the guests arrived. It is sometimes difficult to know what to do when guests are unavoidably detained in bad traffic. The amuses were a hit, even the garlic dip which is nearly pure garlic with a little salt and oil, was popular. Get the table laid early.

A bread basket is a wonderful and necessary thing but it's difficult to serve oil and balsamic vinegar elegantly and people can feel intimidated. If I'd had an extra person to wait front of house it might have been possible to hand the bread and dressings individually but people don't like to reach.

Even when you think everything is in hand, it's easy to overlook small details. I sent the starters out without their apple crisps. It's amusing to rush around the table and dress things in public once in a while but I think it's a habit that could become irritating.

It's a mistake to cook something on the day that you haven't tested a dozen times before. The tarts were pleasant enough, certainly edible but the presentation was appalling and I nearly lost it completely by not regulating my ovens adequately, trying to cook too hot to make up for lost time.

And we forgot to take pictures of the pudding! Which is a shame. Ice cream does need to be churned before the meal and not during it, no matter how delicious soft serve is. When adding alcohol to puddings be aware it might not suit the drivers.

Everyone still had room for sweets and coffee. I'm not sure if this means the portions were too small, the guests were too greedy or it was all too delicious.

I had fun.

If you would like to join a Supper Club meal in Newport Pagnell on Saturday 12th November then please let me know in the next couple of days as take up has been very slow and I'm hovering on the edge of cancelling.

Nottingham and Ealing are selling well, so if you were thinking of eating with us then it's probably a good idea to get your reservation in now.

Yesterday was World Vegan Day

2011-11-02T17:35:00.003+01:00

And this is the post I meant to put up for it!

After a fairly uneventful journey back to the UK I've had to settle into the work plan for November and really get on with stuff. It's not coming easily to me, beset by worries that everything will go terribly wrong and panicking because although places for the dates in Nottingham and Ealing are going fast there seem to be no vegans or vegan-curious diners in the whole of the Milton Keynes / Newport Pagnell area. It's a worry and with just 10 days to go I need some new ideas for publicity.

Pictured above the Hazelnut Shortbreads to go with the Fruit Compotes and Ginger Ices on the Newport Pagnell menu. They worked quite well and I'll have another go to perfect the cooking times when the private Dress Rehearsal lunch takes place this Sunday. Guests for that are mostly coming up from London, although Alex who is hosting the Nottingham event with his husband will come down for the day.

I hate to beg but I'm going to. If you have any friends, relatives or contacts in the Newport Pagnell area (we're close to Bedford, Northampton and Milton Keynes too) and you think they'd like to try some Underground Dining (they don't have to be vegan, the food will stand on its own merit) then do let them know we have an event on the 12th November. Tickets are available here, I can accept email reservations at catofstripes@gmail.com and the menu and all details are also available at the Stripey Cat Supper Club website.

The vegetables for the mustard pickles, which are degorging before cooking and bottling.

Er... #2

2011-10-27T11:52:00.002+01:00

This Hallowe'en pumpkin head is my current self portrait. I feel orange, ugly, and essentially empty headed. Although I've not quite completed Vegan Mofo 2011 (I've never done one completely yet) it's all over for me.

I was kindly given the Liebster Award by Jeni Treehugger.

“Liebster” is German and means ‘dearest’ or ‘beloved’ but it can also mean ‘favorite’. The idea behind this award is to bring attention to bloggers who have less than 200 followers and show your support during Vegan Mofo!

The rules of winning this award are as follows:
1. Show your thanks to those who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal 5 of your top picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Enjoy the love and support of some wonderful people on the www!

This is very difficult for me because I love you all and I have many many blogs on my reader list. Also I have no idea how many followers most of you have or whether you've been awarded already but this mofo I have mostly been reading...

Tea and Sympatico
Cooking Vegan food Up North
The Vegan Cupboard
Adventures
The Vegina Monologues (I cannot tell a lie, it's the title that hooked me)

But I'm not going to lay the obligation on further. If you think you've found a good blog that's under-appreciated then tell the world. That's all it needs.

Ciao

Supper Club Tests #4

2011-10-24T10:03:00.003+01:00

I'm not really trialling the griddled aubergine steaks for the Supper Club but the rich red wine sauce that goes with them. Onions and mushrooms are cooked together in olive oil until they are richly caramelised, red wine is added, a big glassful, to deglaze the pan and to add fruity acids of its own. More stock, seasonings and some sweetness in the form of redcurrant jelly or brown sugar enhances the flavours and then the whole pot full is allowed to simmer and thicken.

It tasted good but as you can see from the picture it needs to be sieved before serving to remove the slightly unsightly gribbly bits and possibly thickened in the classic manner with a beurre manié (suitably veganised of course).

Les Amuses

2011-10-21T14:36:00.005+01:00

Language is a funny thing. In particular names of things have a habit of changing over time because, usually in an attempt to make things interesting again, someone decided to redefine the wheel.

Time was when these tiny snacks that come with the drink before the meal were called hors d'oeuvres or appetisers but those names now often refer to the starting course of a meal set. Don't even talk to me about entrées, that word is abused worldwide to such an extent it is almost meaningless.

Scratching around for something fancy to call what the honest Brit on the bus would call nibbles, menu writers have seized on another French phrase and made it their own. Enter Les Amuses. You can have amuses gueules or bouches, but to keep it simple for an international audience the qualifiers are usually omitted.

I have a particular fascination with tiny food. Miniature portions of things, tiny replicas, salty savoury morsels to be devoured in a bite all call my name. A book bequeathed to me by a beloved aunt is William Heptinstall's Hors D'Oeuvres and Cold Table which despite being very dependent on flesh as an ingredient is a wonderful, sharp read full of good advice and clever wheezes.

Today I've been playing around a bit in the shallows of the craft. To be honest these very simple bites are not shining examples of their type but, did I say? my kitchen is very very cold at the moment. Still they do fulfil the basic criteria and with a little bit of tweaking or some wholesale alterations will provoke an appetite nicely.

Don't rue the roux

2011-10-20T15:10:00.003+01:00

Aaargh, I was doing so well and now look at me, all behind like the lamb's tail.

Excuses, for there are many, mainly revolve around the fact the roofers are here. I'm not used to people being around, banging and crashing, just being there. It's also rather cold and because the men are on the roof I can't light the woodburners or I'd smoke them down again.

Anyway, looking for light and toothsome dishes to feed myself with I have rediscovered the joys of a very plain parsley sauce, béchamel lightly flavoured with parsley. No excess of fat or creams, no faux cheesiness, just properly cooked goodness. I used it to dress some cooked vegetables and then browned the top off in the oven.

Simple white sauces like this were amongst the very first techniques we were taught in Domestic Science lessons at school when I was 11 or so and consequently they suffer both from the contempt of over familiarity and the forgetfulness of the recipe overloads of the last, well, mumble, years.

We were taught to make them in three densities, barely thick enough to cover the back of a spoon, the middle way; creamy and coating and finally almost stiff enough to stand the spoon in. This option was to use as a binder for rissoles and the like.

I can't bring myself to laboriously write out the recipe, there are plenty of options on the web or in your favourite beginners cookery book but don't be afraid to use a balloon whisk if things start to go lumpy and do make sure the flour is properly cooked through.

Supper Club Tests #3

2011-10-16T12:56:00.003+01:00

A fruity, jammy Bramble Cake with Caramel sauce and Creme. I'm really quite pleased with this one, yes, a success at last! So, dear readers, I hope you don't mind if I don't share the recipe just yet. A girl has to have some secrets. This will be making an appearance on a Supper Club menu although I do need to spend some time thinking about styling and presentation. We eat with the eyes after all.

The Darling of the North Americas

2011-10-16T10:52:00.004+01:00

Kale Chips or Crisps as we defiantly call them in the old country. They are enormously popular (if food blog agglomerators are anything to go by) but frankly I don't get it.

You know the routine; wash and tear your kale into bite sized pieces, shake nicely dry. Spray or sprinkle a little good oil over the pieces and toss to coat well then toast in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so until crisp. Season with salt and get wildly excited. Or not.

I ate mine but next time, if one should ever arise, I'll be tempted to season with a sugar/salt mixture as the Chinese restaurants of Old Blighty do to their 'Crispy Fried Seaweed'.

Achochas de Padrón

2011-10-15T10:13:00.009+01:00

So it begins, a day slips past without a post, is it laziness, lack of time or ennui? And then the need to catch up commences. Vegan MoFo is always a task that is slightly beyond my capabilities but for now I'll try to make good. This is yesterday's post, a little late.

In my garden I grow a lot of odd things. I like to try new varieties and I'm committed to the idea of agricultural biodiversity. It's important to grow a wide range of plants for the benefit of the environment, for food security, for added interest. Mostly this is covered on the other blog but of course I grow food to eat it. There's going to be some overlap.

This year for the first time I grew a plant, Achocha which is popularly believed to be one of the Lost Crops of the Incas. It's a vigorous plant and I won't be the first to wonder how they managed to lose it. Related to cucumbers and squashes it climbs, makes tiny flowers and produces green, slightly spiny fruit that can be harvested in a range of sizes, as above.

Unfortunately, I find them rather dull to eat. The tiny fruit are cucumbery and can be popped into salad, the larger ones are best deseeded and stuffed but that relegates the achocha to the status of tasteless green wrapper. It's not wrong but there seems little point to it.

I've used them cooked on pizzas and in curries, which is probably the most successful method for dealing with the larger vegetables but there's nothing that really can be called a definitive achocha dish, they're just not distinctive enough for that.

A popular tapas dish is called Pimientos de Padrón, small rather mild green chillies are fried quickly over a high heat to blister them and served with a dusting of salt. The twist is that some of the chillies are uncharacteristically spicy. Once in a while the diner gets a surprise. It adds a little piquant suspense to what is basically a bar snack.

I've adapted this basic idea for the smaller, more immature achocha. Fruit too small to need the big black seeds removing are fried very quickly to blacken and blister the outsides, adding some flavour. To mimic the hot surprise I included a few shreds of a not very hot large green chili. It's not the same as the real thing by any means but a part of a mixed selection of tapas it's quite acceptable.

Soak'n'Bake

2011-10-13T17:58:00.007+01:00

One of my continuing niggles at living in France is not that tofu is unavailable but that the tofu that is stocked in the large supermarkets is so unremittingly hard, like recycled tyres. I long to be able to buy fresh tender tofu and have a dream of starting a whole cottage industry here specialising in Japanese style foods because unless I make it myself it's rarely to be found. So, start-up investors, please step forward now.

Of course, in the absence of such a resource I do make use of what's available. Just recently I've discovered that grating the block changes it into a form that can be used with some success but my standard method of rendering the rubber edible follows.

Over the years I've come to rely on a very simple marinade for tofu. This works on all sorts of tofu, not just the French stuff, and has just six main ingredients. Other things can be added, lemon grass or chillies are good, but the basic form is excellent just on its own.

Take the juice of a lemon, add to it about the same volume of soy sauce, a thumb sized piece of root ginger grated as finely as you can manage, as much garlic, crushed or in cloves as you desire. Stir in anything from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of black treacle, depending on taste; I like quite a lot, then add a good dollop of a neutral oil. I have used peanut oil here but rapeseed or sunflower is fine. Olive oil will also work but detracts from the mildly oriental slant. Whisk altogether well and put the marinade into your baking dish.

My favourite little dish will take three blocks of 200g each of the firm stuff. I halve the pieces, then cut each one into six or seven thin slices. Stacked into the dish, each slice is eased away from its neighbour to allow the marinade to penetrate around all of them. The whole dish is wrapped up in foil and can then be left for as much as twelve hours in the fridge or for just a few minutes in the warm kitchen until you are ready to bake.

Pop the covered dish into the oven, temperature and timings aren't very important here. I usually give it an hour to an hour and half, from a start in a cold oven and encompassing any temperatures my other cooking requires. When you think it's had long enough, remove from the oven and allow to cool in its own liquid. Store covered in the fridge with juices around it for up to seven days.

And here it is served warm with some roasted cauliflower, currently my favourite veg. and a little marinade poured over as a gravy. It doesn't look that exciting, this is just the sort of simple supper I make for myself when no one else is around but it tastes good and the rest of the panful will make sandwiches, snacks and additions to everything from risotto to pizza over the next few days.

The Stripey Cat Supper Club underground pop-ups

2011-10-11T16:29:00.009+01:00

My theme for MoFo this year is menu-testing for the Supper Club, of which more later - I'm hoping a string of failures will improve my skills and remove my bad judgement in time for next month - but I realise that some readers browsing past for the first time may have not the slightest idea what I'm on about.

Supper Clubs are aren't that new, but most recently have come to a sort of fashionability peak with celebrity chefs and high end restaurants jumping on board to take the glory. Most people could therefore be forgiven for thinking they are some sort of marketing vehicle for the already established but the origins and ethos is much deeper than that.

Cooked food sales have always been a way to add value to raw ingredients and provide a way of making a living. You don't need to be famous or have a lot of money to get started or to put yourself on a never-ending commercial grindstone. It's a much gentler form of enterprise.

Think street food, artisan producers who work from their own kitchens, the shared meals offered by housewives from their own homes to strangers across the world to help offset the costs of feeding their own families.

I've written about it before here and there's not much point in duplicating that post but inviting diners to your own home is a way of sharing skills and company and food that is intensely personal. It really is a hospitable business.

There are now three dates set for this autumn, all in the UK:

Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire - at our own home, with Mr. Stripey to oversee front of house. Newport Pagnell is near Milton Keynes. 12th November 2011

Sherwood, Nottingham - with Alex, who has been a contestant on Come Dine with Me so will have some stories to tell. 26th November 2011

Ealing, West London - with Chris, who is a talented candid photographer. Bring your cheesiest smiles. 3rd December 2011

At each event you will be welcomed with an aperitif and nibbles, three courses of vegan food cooked by me and finishing with coffee (or tea) and petits fours. Water and some soft drinks will be available throughout the meal but if you'd like wine or other alcoholic drinks with your meal please bring your own. We can provide glasses and corkscrews but we're not allowed to sell alcohol.

Seating is at shared tables and we're happy to accept bookings from single people, groups and couples.

Tickets are already available from Wegottickets for Newport Pagnell and will shortly be available for the other venues. Check on the links above to see when they're up. You can also follow me on twitter @catofstripes or the Stripey Cat Supper Club page on Facebook for more information or email me directly about it at catofstripes[at]gmail[dot]com if you'd like to make a booking and pay in cash.

And if you can't make any of these dates but still fancy an Underground Supper Club experience nip over to Find a Supperclub, become a Fan where you'll find lots of events across the country to choose from (although they won't all be veg*n).

Of Seaweed

2011-10-10T13:54:00.006+01:00

We're always on the lookout for interesting new vegan food items and last week, shopping in the local Super U, we came across these little pots of seaweed goodness, algal caviar, commercially produced molecular gastronomy. They're not cheap at 6€80 a shot but make a fun garnish. Most importantly, they are a form of novelty junk food that helps make shopping a treat again.

The seaweed Perles are made in Brittany, at Algues de Bretagne, ZI de Dioulan - 29140 ROSPORDEN. Sadly the website is 'under construction' but at least the products are being marketed across France.

Les perles de l’océan – vinaigre & echalotes

There were two sorts available, although I believe Algues de Bretagne make several others, one being flavoured with truffle aromas (nearly all truffle flavourings are artificial) and the other with shallot vinegar. They do stock them in the chilled fish cabinet though which makes searching them out a bit traumatic.

Perles Fondantes - truffe

I didn't much like the shallot version, even with my preference for sharp vinegary tastes these were too much for me but the warm earthiness of the truffle version was pleasant if not quite as appealing as the Caviart product which for inexplicable reasons is very hard to obtain in the UK (and despite being told it's available in France I've never seen it here either).

The technique is not beyond me and trying these makes me aware that I can tailor flavours to my own taste but for instant gratification I hope they continue to be available.

Slow Cooker

2011-10-07T18:06:00.004+01:00

I'm not sure where I first read about using a slow cooker to bulk cook onions to a rich browned caramel for use in other dishes. It might have been on Veggie Venture or it could have been, well I don't know, it's pretty much available all over the web these days. I've had the idea bookmarked for a long while and with the prospect of needing to be able to cater for much larger numbers than usual it seemed an appropriate moment to give it a whirl.

Using about 750g of prepared sliced onions (a couple of pounds) it took nearly six hours to reach the stage in the picture above. It is an easy method but I'm not sure that having a slow cooker running for six to eight hours just for a preparatory step in a recipe is worth the hassle. I could have softened, browned and caramelised a similar amount of onions in not much more than an hour by conventional means and felt much more in control of the process at the same time.

Still, it's another option for multitasking and the end result, well cooked sweet soft onions using very little fat, a quality product.

I used half the yield to make French Onion soup which was very good. The cheese covered crouton garnish used Redwood's Soya Free Cheezly - this isn't a product I'll be searching out to use again, I much prefer their more traditional soya cheese substitute. I'd intended to make pissaladiere with the other half of caramelised onions but they quickly disappeared in other cooking so that practise will have to wait for another time.

I will be taking a couple of days break from VeganMoFo 2011, my brain is beginning to boil and I've had no time to look at other people's blogs at all. Should be back on Monday all being well. Ciao.

Supper Club Tests #2

2011-10-06T19:13:00.001+01:00

You know, I really, really don't like the new editor software in blogger. I think I might change back to the old style if it's still possible.

Anyway, today I was messing about in the kitchen trying out a few ideas that I thought were simple no-brainers that would just work and which turned out to be roads to ruination and despair. That's why testing recipes is so important.

First up, some griddled marrow in teppanyaki sauce. So simple, but although the Mr. enjoyed his portion I ended up feeling rather nauseous. This method was intended to be used to make a starter salad but I think I'm going to give it a miss. Even if I enjoyed the taste I think cooking it for 12 diners would be stretching my endurance at the start of a long evening.

After that, I moved on to attacking some simple sesame crackers, destined to be eaten with a paté. I've made these before quite successfully but created by the power of random additions. Today's testing was to try for something reliably reproducible with no nasty surprises at serving time. Trouble is, last time I made them I had a pasta maker to roll the paste thinly and evenly and a properly temperature controlled electric oven instead of my temperamental gas oven here. I made two batches, one with more oil than the other. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which ones tasted nicest but neither recipe was quite what I was looking for. More work needed.

And finally, lunch! This could hardly go wrong, garlicky, tomatoey Imam Bayildi. It was good, but needed more oil, which I would probably have added if I hadn't been feeling so disgusted with the griddled marrow. It's not easy being me.

Chestnuts roasting

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000+01:00

October is the month when our sweet chestnut trees shower us with nuts. Yesterday we gathered a huge bag full and there are plenty more to come. If you can find a tree to forage from take strong gloves as the spiny husks will prickle your fingers cruelly. Discard any nuts that are not plump and full in their chestnut coats and watch out for any that have tiny holes in them, they will be maggoty. When you get your harvest home dump the lot in a big bowl of water and throw away the ones that float, they are probably maggoty or rotten too. After an hour, drain the water away and let the good nuts dry. Then store in a plastic bag in the fridge. They will keep for a few weeks but check for moulding and remove anything nasty as needed.

Chestnuts are really useful in a vegan diet, tasty and starchy, they are great for making nut loaves, burgers or cooked with rice. They're also a traditional street food of the English, roasted over charcoal and served in
paper cones on frosty days.

Unfortunately this Dickensian image is more or less a memory in most parts of the country now although I think some are still available in London, presumably for the tourists.

I intend to dry most of our collection for our winter stores but we had to have some straight away. It's easier to cook them in an oven than over a open fire. Make a slit or peel a little skin on each nut, this is to stop it exploding during baking, and roast / bake in a hot oven for 45 minutes or so until the nut swells up and becomes tender and fragrant. Eat with a little salt and some sweet wine.

A Mediterranean Dinner by Candlelight

2011-10-04T12:44:00.000+01:00

We've been having some late summer sun this autumn and that's meant some wonderful outside days. It seems a pity to huddle around the fire eating soup and stew when it's still possible to sit outside late into the evening, eating by candlelight in the afterglow of the day and watching brilliant stars overhead.

It looks like the best of it is over now but last night we had a last chance dinner of Greek inspired dishes, made with vegetables and herbs from the garden and served with lemon, olive oil and warm summer breezes.

The French and Runner green beans are more or less finished as green vegetables but they're still packed full of big tender beans that can be shelled out of their pods and used in stews and braises like this dish of Giant Greek Beans. These beans aren't yet dry so don't take long to cook; if you are using dried beans soak them well and cook until just tender before using as below.

Take a couple of big handfuls of mature beans without pods. Put them in a pan with just enough water to cover, the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of fennel seeds and a bay leaf. Add a couple of cloves of garlic and a big glug of olive oil and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes until the beans are cooked how you like them. I also added some young achocha pods to the pot. You could add some sliced green pepper if you like it.

Meanwhile skin some big meaty tomatoes, remove the hard cores and chop into small pieces. Add the tomato to your beans in their pot of liquid and allow to heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Finally add a big handful of finely chopped parsley, stir through and turn off the heat. Serve at room temperature with lots of bread for the juices.

Greek roast potatoes are just like ordinary ones cooked in olive oil with the addition of lemon juice. I par-boiled some Pink Fir Apple but other firm roasting potatoes are fine. Coat the hot drained potatoes in olive oil and lemon juice and roast in a very hot oven for 40-50 minutes stirring after about 25 minutes. You can add extra woody herbs like rosemary if you want and a few peeled cloves of garlic tossed in are lovely.

I've been trying to get to grips with the huge list of bloggers taking part in this year's MoFo. It looks like there's some great stuff out there and I hope to be able to visit most of you at least once over the month.

My top tip, use a different browser to subscribe to the blogroll RSS in a reader under a throwaway identity. Last year I tried to put the big list into my usual reader and really messed it up. By having a separate identity in a different browser there's no chance of overwriting your usual settings, which I find really helpful. It's still possible to comment as whoever you want to be, so you're not lying to anyone.

Supper Club Tests #1

2011-10-03T12:50:00.000+01:00

I've been testing recipes for the Supper Club dates for November.

Something I'm considering are vegetables that are salt baked; coated in a thick layer of salt and baked gently until they are tender all the way through. It sounds appealing and jacket potatoes have been done this way by some for many years but more recently other vegetables have become the vogue on tasting and traditional menus alike, familiar and yet a little bit novel, well flavoured without stretching the bravery of diner's palates much further than they're accustomed to.

I had a go with a celeriac root and a similarly sized beetroot as a first attempt. The vegetables were washed very well, grit is nasty, but the skins were left intact to provide a barrier against too much salt pervading them.

I used a deep ceramic casserole for two reasons, mainly to help hold the salty coating around the roots without having to use too much salt and also to catch any juices should they exude. I was a bit worried that the salt would attack the glaze but although it seemed as if the salt crystals were inextricably welded to the dish just after it came out of the oven it came away easily once it was cooled.

The salt was sea salt, my favourite Sel de Guerande from Brittany. Straight from the bag it was just damp enough to cling thickly to the sides and top of the vegetables nestled on a shallow bed of more salt.

They were baked in the gas oven at about 180C-200C for one and half hours. I tested them with a knife for tenderness, smaller or larger roots will need different timings.

Carefully extract the roots from the salt. Some of the coat will break off in chunks and some will need to be brushed off with a cloth or even a stiff brush. It's all rather hot too so use protection for your hands. When all the salt is cleared from the veg. remove them to a clean bowl or board and clean up all the salt from the working area before proceeding. An unexpected mouthful of salt crystals is quite nasty. The used salt can be crumbled when cool and reused for baking.

Then you can carve your dish. It's best to peel the salty skin away and make thin cuts, either sliced or narrow wedges as desired.

This is the moment when I have to admit I was less than overwhelmed by it all. The intensified celeriac flavour was almost too strong to be pleasant, the beetroot no better that roots roasted without salt. I'm going to try again with the intention of dressing the finely sliced vegetable flesh with some sort of balancing sauce but for the moment this lovely sounding idea is still a work in progress.

It was my Birthday

2011-10-02T13:29:00.002+01:00

and for a change I was in the UK celebrating in some of the best weather ever for the month of October, just like when I was born, a goodly number of years ago.

The weather was so wonderful we had breakfast in the garden made on the barbeque.

The family were here to celebrate with me and this is the cake...

it's a no bake cake made with pepparkakor, chocolate, raisins and for the first time ever, malt syrup which worked very well. Very rich, very good with coffee.

A first post for Vegan Mofo, no logos or links today, on the road with cats which is quite complicated enough for this overheated brain.

Vegan Mofo

2011-09-18T17:10:00.001+01:00

I'm mad, but I've signed up for this year's Vegan MoFo. My theme this year will be recipe testing for the Supper Clubs. If you'd like to blog your way through October with a lot of very talented bloggers and me, step over to the form and fill it in. You have until the 28th September to join in, and then the fun starts!

Fry Pan Pizza

2011-09-07T14:49:00.000+01:00

I adore pizza and, just at the moment, I'm making all my own bread so there is always a handful of dough around the place ready to go. But I'm also mean and hate to waste gas. I needed lunch and I needed it now but the loaf that was going to justify heating the oven wouldn't be ready to bake for another three hours.

Frying pan or grill pizzas aren't new but less than fond memories of the Scone pizza of Blue Peter fame mean I've always given them a miss. Sadly I can't quite track down the original from the 70s for you but the links will give you the general picture. By the way, the amount of oil in that Delia clip is horrific.

Still, I've been making flat breads for breakfast for a few days now and decided that it was but a small step from that to a flat bread with toppings, which is almost a pizza.

It's not really a recipe; fry off some onions and other vegetables in a little oil for your topping. I used tomato and courgette. When they're cooked to your liking (they get little more than warming from now on) remove to a plate, season to taste and keep hot.

Shape or roll about 200g of proved dough into a nice disk and place in the hot frying pan. You shouldn't need any more oil but use your judgement. Reduce the heat a bit and allow it to cook for a minute or two to seal the bottom. The top will rise up in bubbles.

When it does flip it over. Use a wooden spatula to press down gently on the cooking dough. With luck you should find it swells upwards into a lovely balloon like a pitta bread or khoubz. Allow to cook for two or three minutes to make sure it's cooked through.

Turn it again and then quickly apply your toppings. I had too many in the end with hummous, roasted garlic and pesto as the sauce under my cooked veggies. Next time, I'll just use the pesto by itself. A sprinkle of capers made the final garnish.

Put the lid on the pan and give the pizza a final couple of minutes on a high heat to warm the toppings and crisp the bottom of the dough but be careful not to burn it.

Eat.

**** Update My UK correspondent aka Mr. Stripey has tracked down a link to a Guardian article which references the scone pizza, just when I was beginning to doubt my own recollection, do take a look ***

Late Summer Pudding

2011-09-05T09:43:00.000+01:00

A few lovely days of late summer means that the berries are still in excellent condition. Perfect for a traditional English dessert, the Summer Pudding.

When this delicious low fat treat is made earlier in the year red currants are used, partly for sharpness and partly because they are so high in pectin they jelly the juices as the pudding chills and add to the texture. It's too late for red currants from the garden now but the blackberries take on their role, include a few reddish ones to improve the set.

I like raspberries but I couldn't eat a whole one... to misquote the old joke. Although they are a lovely fruit with a distinctive flavour they overpower everything they come in contact with, in my opinion anyway, so add them with caution.

On the plate then, raspberries, strawberries; just a few late fruit that I saved from the slugs, blackberries - some plants are better than others this late in the season so taste them before adding too many, elderberries which need to be stripped from the bunch before cooking and rosehips. In the end I decided that preparing and precooking the rosehips was a step too far for this little dish so I left them out but added a big spoonful of last year's rosehip syrup to the pan.

The bread needs to be close textured and made with white flour. Brown bread makes a very worthy meal but detracts from the delicacy of the lightly cooked filling.

For a pudding to serve two I used about 250g of fruit. It was only just enough so if you like extra juice to use as sauce pick a few more berries for it.

Late Summer Pudding

250g mixed soft fruit (see above)
20g sugar or to taste, this was plenty for me.
Sliced white sandwich bread, crusts removed.
Rosehip syrup if you have it.
A pudding bowl which will just contain your raw fruit.

Prepare the fruit, put it in a saucepan with the sugar and syrup (if using) and enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and come half way up the fruit.

Bring to a gentle simmer, cook for a couple of minutes and then turn off the heat, cover the pan and leave to cool.

Line a small pudding basin or plastic dish with the white bread, cut to fit together closely like a jigsaw around the side. Keep a slice to cover the top.

Lift the fruit from the saucepan into the bread lined bowl with a slotted spoon, then gently spoon the juice over until the bread is well soaked and coloured all over. Put on the bread lid and spoon a little juice over that too.

Place a clean saucer or small plate on the pudding and then weight it down with a tin or a stone in plastic wrap. This consolidates the pudding and makes sure the juice is absorbed by the bread, leaving no white patches. Place in the refrigerator and chill until needed.

Unmould the pudding onto a serving plate and serve with vegan yoghurt or cream. Serve any reserved juice in a jug on the side and have a little fine sugar available for any guests who like it sweeter.

Experiments

2011-09-03T13:57:00.000+01:00

One of the recipes I thought I'd try out for the autumn was this recipe from 101Cookbooks , Olive Biscuits, because sweet salty combinations are intriguing and taste enhancing. I followed the recipe pretty exactly simply veganising it by substituting a good vegan margarine for the butter. Although things looked promising oven troubles meant I burnt the first batch and undercooked the second. Worse than that, I didn't really like what I tasted. It was too sweet, too greasy. I needed to rework the recipe (which I'm sure is fine with butter) to compensate for the different properties of the vegan margarine.

Into a tin they went, because throwing them straight away seemed such a waste, and it wasn't until a few days later that I went back to the tin in search of something to have with my self indulgently sweetened coffee. I found no Speculoos but tentatively tasted the almost stale olive cookies and was almost blown away. Against the (I must admit tremendously) sweet coffee they were fantastic. So, the effort of reworking them seems worthwhile and I'll be returning to the attempt when I'm back in the UK with a reliably controlled oven.

While he was here Mr. Stripey bought me a food processor, quite an addition to this largely unplugged kitchen. It's already been useful for rapidly slicing big black radish for our favourite pickle but I thought I'd give it a test on runner beans. Unlike french beans these are usually prepared by slicing and an essential part of any British kitchen is one sort or another of patent bean slicer. I've never seen one in France and slicing the beans by hand was painstaking and tedious work, especially for one.

Of course, the processor is equipped with nothing that would produce the long slivers of vegetable normally used but the speedy reduction to fine pieces that it did give was inspirational enough.

Gratin of Runner beans with Garlic and Sherry Vinegar

Handful of runner beans per person
Tomato passata
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Sherry vinegar
Stale bread for croutons

Slice the beans finely.

Heat a little oil in a saucepan and add the garlic, finely sliced. How much you use is up to you, I suggest lots.

Allow the garlic to cook without browning then add the sliced beans stirring them around to coat in the oil, then add three or so tablespoons of passata, just enough to moisten the beans and salt and pepper to taste. Put a lid on the pan and set over a low heat for five to ten minutes. The beans should be cooked but not mushy.

In the meantime, make tiny croutons from your bread, use about 1 big slice per person. I used the crusts from a summer pudding (of which more later) but any bread you like will be fine. Fry them quickly in a little more oil until they are brown and crispy. Keep warm until the beans are done if necessary.

Finally put the beans into a serving dish, sprinkle over sherry vinegar to taste (good sherry vinegar is divine) and top with fried crumbs. Serve immediately as a side dish or light lunch.

Pfffft!!!!

2011-09-01T09:42:00.000+01:00

Tofu Tomato Fried Rice.

Hello again. It's been a while.

What happened is that the Stripey man had a bit of a health scare (still not resolved, but currently comfortable, thanks) and he's been over here with me, holidaying and taking taking things easy. He went back yesterday, hence the now traditional shot of rice based comfort food taken for my first solo meal.

By the way, the fried rice was pretty damn good, I think the trick is to really let the onions caramelise before you add anything else and use a touch of white pepper in the seasoning. While he was here I was anything but Florence Nightingale but I did cook up three nutritious meals day, all low fat, and during the period managed to resample quite a lot of the back catalogue of recipes I've built up here.

Anyway, we must look to the future and the rest of the year for me is bounded by the new aspiration to become a Supper Club host and cook. It seems like an easy way to get started in the restaurant business, you just open up your dining room to an unsuspecting world but I've discovered that a good deal of the preparation involves things I've struggled to avoid all my adult life, like marketing and a responsible attitude to costs!

Things have progressed, I'm now able to sell tickets via WeGotTickets and I've made a new web site/blog to deal exclusively with the dates, menus and information for the Stripey Cat Supper Club . It's looking a little bare there yet but it will blossom over the next month, promise!

But the most exciting part has to be the cooking. I must really discipline myself to perfecting the new recipes I plan to put on the menus in November. I won't be publishing them here, not yet anyway, but the essential extra time in the kitchen should have enough culinary overspill and kickbacks to have plenty to blog about in a personal capacity. That's the plan anyway.

Tonight's simple dinner

2011-08-09T22:05:00.002+01:00

Swamped with courgettes at the moment, trouble is if I stop to eat them up the beans will overwhelm me.

These are really basic fritters, just sliced courgette dipped in a flour and water batter and shallow friend in peanut oil with a drop of toasted sesame seed oil added.

Served with rice, brown would be more wholesome but white basmati was good and a dipping/pouring sauce of soy sauce mixed with rice vinegar with shreds of ginger and garlic.

Three courses for Amy

2011-07-23T19:59:00.006+01:00

Apologies for the pictures, I'd just forced myself into the kitchen to cook a three course dinner worth blogging and then I heard the news of her very untimely death. So I celebrated as I know she'd have understood. Poor Amy, so young and so lost.

Tomato Pepper Vodka Cocktail

If anyone wants the recipes say so in the comments and I'll update the post for you. ***Update*** Recipes at bottom of post ***

Courgette Custard Tart with Glazed Garden vegetables and roast potatoes

Strawberries and Peaches marinated in Rosé wine

Raise a glass to her, but don't ever drink too much.

Tomato Pepper Cocktail

For one serving:

1 medium tomato
1/2 roasted red pepper (for one person, easiest to take one from a good quality jar, but you can roast and skin a fresh pepper if you prefer)
3 Greek cured black olives (or Kalamata)
a little finely chopped green chilli to your taste
10ml vodka
5ml lemon juice
Salt if needed, most likely if you roasted your own pepper

Skin the tomato, take out the seeds and discard, chop the flesh into small dice. Chop the prepared red pepper into dice of a similar size to the tomato pieces. Remove the stones from the olives and slice the olive flesh into small slivers.

Mix all the ingredients together, taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary, cover and refrigerate until needed. Remove from fridge half an hour before serving, mix around again to combine the fruit and juices and serve in a chilled glass with such decorations as you prefer.

Courgette Custard Tart

for shortcrust pastry:

300g plain flour
150g vegan marg.
pinch of salt

Cut the fat into the flour and salt with a knife or pastry tool, then rub with the fingers gently to make flaky crumbs. Use just enough cold water (about 2 tbsp) to form a soft dough that can be formed into a neat ball. Cover and leave in a cool place for half an hour.

for filling:
500g grated courgette flesh
1 onion
splash of oil, not too much
170g tofu - soft or from longlife block
50g non-dairy milk
50g plain flour
15g nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 to 1 tsp black salt
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Heat the oven to 200C

Chop the onion and fry it in a little oil until it starts to colour. Add the grated courgette and cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes or so to remove all excees moisture. If you want you can sqeeze the courgette flesh in a teatowel before cooking to remove some juice and hasten this process. Set aside to cool.

Mash the tofu with the flour, milk and flavourings to make a smooth batter. The black salt gives this an eggy flavour, use ordinary salt to taste if you prefer. Mix in the cooled fried vegetables.

Roll out the pastry and use it to line a deep muffin cup tray, there should be enough pastry for 12 tarts but if you prefer make a smaller amount of pastry for fewer tarts, left over filling cooks nicely in the oiled muffin cups and will make good 'eggs' for breakfast.

Prick the pastry lined cups all over to stop the pastry puffing up and bake blind for 10 mins. Then remove from the oven and fill the cups with the filling mixture. Return to the oven for another 20 to 25 minutes until the filling is lightly coloured and the pastry is golden.

Can be eaten warm or cold.

Peach Strawberry Rosé Pudding

is so simple you don't really need a recipe. Cut some nice ripe fruit into bitesize pieces, sprinkle on a little sugar if you like and douse in a glass of rosé wine - mine was a Minervois but any that you like will do. Cover and chill for an hour or so until needed. A little chopped mint sprinkled over at serving time adds some slight complexity.

Paranoid Salad and Tomato Tart

2011-07-04T16:58:00.003+01:00

There have been a couple of very unpleasant food-poisoning events in Europe in the last few weeks, one in Germany and another in the south of France. A new form of e-coli is implicated, a particularly nasty variant which seems to kill 1% of all those who contract it and makes many more sick enough to need hospitalisation. After a lot of finger pointing at the Spanish, who appear to have been entirely innocent, the infection was tracked down to beansprouts and has been further identified as coming from some seeds supplied through an Egyptian wholesaler. At the moment I'm not aware of any other information about how the seeds became contaminated.

At the height of the first outbreak ALL salad vegetables were suspect and dire warnings were issued to avoid tomatoes, cucumbers and any sort of uncooked vegetable. Despite believing myself to be an educated sceptic and well able to understand a scientific argument I found myself unable to actually buy any of the vegetables from anywhere because, well, better safe than sorry.

I'm over it now but in case you ever find yourself in the grip of an irrational fear of salad here is a cooked version that will help you get your five a day without tears.

I had lovely vegetables from the garden, baby carrots, baby broad beans, tender young mange touts, some cabbage leaves from the baby cabbages and a courgette (not pictured)

Prepare your vegetables by washing well in cool water, then cut the roots and courgettes into small batons or cubes, shell the beans, top and tail the mange touts and cut your cabbage into small squares (take out the ribs). You could shred the cabbage if you prefer.

Bring a biggish pot of water to the boil, it needs to be quite large so that the temperature doesn't drop when you add the vegetables and keeps boiling. In turn drop your little piles of prepared veg into the pot, return to the boil for one minute and then scoop out, easiest with a slotted spoon or small sieve. Set the blanched veg to cool and drain while you attend to the next batch. When all the vegetables have been through the hot bath, drain well again and coat with your preferred dressing. I used a vinaigrette but if the salad is cool a mayonnaise or yoghurt dressing can be used. Cover and chill until needed.

To serve with the salad I had tomatoes that desperately needed using up before they went off so they were made into a very simple Tomato Tart with a yeasted dough crust, seasoned with a little garlic and some chopped chilli. I finished this with a balsamic reduction.

A Roman Supper

2011-07-02T16:51:00.003+01:00

I've been dipping into recipe books looking for inspiration for the menus for the pop-up restaurants in the autumn. The first date is set, for Nottingham on the last weekend of November and so although it seems a long time ahead I really have to start planning and practising.

Not that this meal is likely to be making an appearance as it's almost painfully simple and homely. It comes in part from the Roman Cookery book I've used before and was appealing enough that when I read the recipe last night I knew it would have to be today's supper.

It's really all about the herbs which flavour the lentils and courgettes and the crispy crunchy texture of the lagana which accompany them. The lentils are cooked with red wine and stock and an onion, spiced with cumin and anise (although I substituted fennel seeds) and then made greenly aromatic with fresh oregano and parsley. The courgettes are lifted with lemon juice, coriander leaf and fresh basil. The recipe for the fried breads is here

The work in deciding on possible dishes for the autumn events continues and isn't as easy as just sticking pins into recipes and going with fate. The produce will be different in November which is practically winter after all, and there's a need to please more of the people more of the time.

Which is where I'm hoping anyone reading will help me. If you were going for a meal at a new vegan restaurant near you what would you hope to find on the menu, what's your favourite eating out food? Even if you usually read this in a reader I'd be really grateful for your comments.

Marinated Artichokes

2011-06-28T13:47:00.003+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I took the harvest from two artichoke plants. Home grown artichokes, at least the ones I grow, are not as large and imposing as the sort grown in Brittany (and California) on farms dedicated to their production and tend to become tougher sooner but picked young they are still a worthwhile and delicious crop.

In an attempt to preserve some of the goodness for enjoying later in the summer these were marinaded in the jar, soaking up garlic, lemon and oil, making them ideal for adding to pizzas, sandwiches and as a salad garnish.

They are a bit tedious to prepare and if you're not aggressive enough with the trimming you may leave some tough bits behind which will detract from the finished product.

Pick your artichokes before they are much more than 5cm in diameter, keep a short stem as on young flowers the stem can be trimmed and eaten too.

Recipe:

Baby artichokes with short stems, enough to fill 1/2 litre jar after prep.
Salt
10 ml Lemon Juice (for precooking)

Marinade:
60 ml lemon juice
60 ml oil, light flavoured or olive or mix
120 ml 5% cider or white wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, large slivers (about 6 pieces)
1 green chilli pepper if liked
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
10 ml balsamico

Prepare artichokes, trim off tough outer lower bracts, peel stem, cut off top and discard. Tiny ones can be left whole, larger ones must be halved or quartered and checked for choke - remove if necessary.

Add salt and 10 ml juice to pan with prepared artichokes and add just enough clean water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes until artichokes are tender. Drain.

Pack into warm sterile jar whilst still hot.

Mix the marinade ingredients together in non-metallic saucepan and bring to a boil, pour over artichokes in jar tucking chilli and garlic down the sides with a clean spoon. Top up with boiling water if necessary. Seal with lid while hot.

Allow to cool, keep in fridge for 10 days, then use as required. Will keep for a few weeks in the cold, for longer storage they will need hot water bath processing after packing.

Pop-up Underground

2011-06-18T16:59:00.004+01:00

Tofu Scramble with dutch oven roasted potatoes - the potatoes are that odd colour because they have a lot of blue colour in them naturally.

I did a whacky and slightly scary thing today. I announced on twitter that I would be doing a pop-up restaurant event in the autumn. I've no idea what made me do it, but it's said now, so that's what must be happening.

What's a pop-up underground restaurant? It's pop-up because it's available for a very short time. Pop-ups typically appear in unused spaces or non-food locations and after one or two nights, the show is over and they're on their way. Underground restaurants serve meals open to the public but hosted in private homes. It's on the edge of legality and most underground venues release their location on a need to know basis. Successful underground restaurants may have regular calendar dates scheduled for meals.

There is either a charge per head or donations are taken for the cost of food and preparation. Alcohol can't be sold, that really is illegal, but patrons are allowed to bring their own. The menu is fixed, sometimes themed and served supper style with all guests receiving each course at about the same time. Sometimes tables are shared as space is usually very limited in a domestic setting.

Have a look at MsMarmite's blog - she was certainly the first underground restaurateur I came across and is a great read. But of course, I've never eaten there because the food isn't vegan. It's too much to expect small concerns, often one person bands, to make extraordinary efforts to feed vegans if their usual metier is more mainstream. Which is where I come in...

I'm hoping to do at least one event in the UK this autumn, more if venues can be found so that the vegan supperclub joy can be spread around the country a bit. This really is a project that's just hours old so nothing is fixed at all yet, but it's going to happen.

Watch this space.

No Knead Bread

2011-06-17T13:48:00.002+01:00

There's no need for that

Although I find a batch of no-knead dough in the fridge invaluable for flat breads and pizzas this attempt at a full sized loaf failed technically as it was under developed, under proofed and sadly a bit under cooked too. The last two can be blamed on the cook but the method really doesn't quite cut it for me on the texture of the finished loaf.

Still, I like to think it has a nice friendly appearance, don't you?

A stew for summer

2011-06-14T19:24:00.002+01:00

The summer vegetables are beginning to be plentiful enough to make whole meals. This very simple little stew uses small artichokes, freshly dug floury potatoes and the tiniest just forming broad beans in their pods, each no longer than half my little finger.

For one person:

2 small artichokes
2 small/medium potatoes
about 15 baby broad beans or french beans
Olive oil
Garlic to taste
Juice of one lemon
Boiling water
1 tsp. sugar
Salt to taste
Green herbs (parsley, coriander) for garnish.

Prepare your vegetables. The artichokes need trimming around the base, the tough scales removing and the chokes scraped out, easiest if they are cut into quarters first. Make sure you get all the coarse bracts/leaves trimmed because they're a bit chewy otherwise at serving.

I peeled the potatoes because the variety has a dark skin that colours the water but it's not essential with light coloured sorts. Cube or slice in pieces to match the artichoke sections for size.

The beans should have any flower debris removed and be washed but need no other preparation.

Put the artichokes and potato in a heavy pan with a good dollop of olive oil. This is an essential part of the dish so don't skimp. Allow the vegetables to cook gently for 10 minutes or so, keep them moving so they don't stick. Throw in the garlic if using and stir.

Add about 250ml boiling water, the lemon juice, sugar and salt to taste. This will take a lot of salt because of the lemon and potatoes and it's good to add some at this stage but be a little cautious, much easier to add a little more seasoning at the end than take it out.

Bring back to a brisk simmer for 15 minutes or so. Serve in a bowl, with liberal chopped herbs and lots of bread. Eat with a spoon to enjoy the delicious salty, lemony, oily broth. Can be served hot or at room temperature.

Eating Greens

2011-06-12T14:15:00.006+01:00

The Mr. has been here for a few days. One of the meals he requested was green vegetables, cooked. In the picture above is the selection I chose for him from the garden, rainbow chard, mixed leaf cabbage and the ubiquitous invasive weedy tree spinach called Magentaspreen.

The chard was stripped from its stems, the stems cooked briefly in boiling water and the leaves steamed above, drained well and dressed simply with lemon juice and salt.

The cabbage leaves were shredded finely and stir friend with cumin, mustard seeds, ginger and a little onion.

The tree spinach was blanched, drained, squeezed to remove excess moisture and dressed with soy sauce, a little balsamic vinegar and topped with gomashio.

I served the three dishes with a miso soup.

Wet

2011-06-05T18:36:00.005+01:00

It's a rainy Sunday in old Normandy and I've spent the day doing nothing much in particular despite a plan to stay in the warmth of the kitchen being cosy.

However, I did take time to make some flapjacks from this recipe using black treacle instead of golden syrup and replacing 30g of the oats with 50g of desiccated coconut which worked rather well and baked a couple of bread rolls to go with a commercial burger for my tea.

By the way, do any blogger users suffer from blogger placing the html code for a blank.gif randomly within the text each time they insert a html link using the editing tools or is just me?

A lovely bunch

2011-06-03T20:04:00.004+01:00

I'm a great fan of coconut and I used to use a lot of tinned coconut milk but recently, examining the ingredients listed on the label I've discovered that the proportion of actual coconut in most brands of can has decreased and the space is now taken with thickeners and fillers. Not good. I decided that my use of tinned milk would cease but replacing it with fresh coconuts is quite hard work. Your coconut should be fresh and healthy looking, they don't keep forever so buy it from a source where you know the turnover is good.

First you have to poke its eyes out with a strong skewer. You'll need to poke out at least two and ideally three before the liquid inside will pour out easily. This juice can be used in cooking if it smells pleasant. If it doesn't your coconut is probably a dud and should be discarded.

It always helps to get a second opinion from an expert at this point.

Opening a coconut open is hard. Some people drop them from high places on to hard floors, I prefer a trusty and weighty hammer. Mind your fingers and tap it firmly on the equator, it should crack and then it can be broken apart.

Then you have to take the meat from the shell. It's usually possible to pry chunks out by slipping a knife blade or a spoon handle between the white part and the outer shell. A little gentle pressure should encourage large pieces to spring out but sometimes it's very tightly attached, all you can do is break the shell smaller and move on the next step.

Having taken the flesh from the shell the thin brown skin must be peeled off, leaving only white coconut meat. I cut mine into fingers because I had some foolish idea I could use a little mini-hachette to grind it for me, but it was too tough for such a small machine and I ended up grating it by hand.

The grated coconut can now be used to make coconut milk by adding hot water and straining or can be used as it is in curries and chutneys. It can also be frozen if you can't use a whole coconut's worth at once.

It's a lot of work so I've not given up on all coconut products, coconut butter and oil are useful and so is creamed coconut, sold in hard blocks that can be dissolved in hot liquid for cooking.

It's pizza it must be Italian...

2011-06-02T18:11:00.006+01:00

I read an awful lot of pizza menus while I was away, I don't recall potato appearing on any of them. Still, the white pizza was represented in a few places and I've always enjoyed the carb hit from a dose of spud on dough, chip butty or foreign.

This was cooked using a tip I picked up on David Lebovitz recently or was it the Pioneer Woman, either way it wasn't exactly something I didn't know already but a useful reminder. To overcome the limitations of my underpowered and inadequately regulated oven I used a preheated cast iron pan for the dough which gave something that much more closely resembled the wood fired oven pizzas I love the best.

Make your favourite pizza dough. I have to admit this one was the absolute simplest I could do but actually that's not a bad thing. For the topping I used 100g of soy yoghurt mixed with a couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a glug of good olive oil and plenty of freshly chopped garlic. The potatoes were some of the batch I cooked yesterday, waxy early season sorts that slice neatly. I'm sure that with a decent oven you could use raw potatoes but that's really not an option with the set up I'm currently using. A proper wood fired oven is on the list but probably not this year.

Get the oven hot, and heat the pan on the hob. Be careful, it's hot. Lightly oil the pan.

Roll or pat out the dough to shape - mine is oval to match the pan, it's not a photographic fail. When the pan is hot, drop the dough into it, then I kept mine over a low heat while I spread the yoghurt garlic base and arranged the potatoes. I sprinkled some chopped cornichons over as I had no capers but capers are best. Dress the top with a little more oil and pepper and put in the oven for ten minutes.

Finally add some torn basil leaves and cook for five minutes more. Tonight I'm enjoying this with a 2006 Cotes de Roussillon which is much better than I expected and I hope I can find some more.

Dinner for one

2011-06-01T17:06:00.003+01:00

I'm beginning to think I should retitle this blog, My Struggle with Eating. Anyway, today's strategy was to be in the kitchen making lots of things, as if I was cooking for several.

So I made carrot pickles, gomashio, a big pot of boiled potatoes for use over the next couple of days and some stuffed peppers.

The pickles very nearly ended in disaster, I'd bought a huge pack of 'economy' carrots expecting to get two or three large jars of pickles stashed away from them but they were in such poor condition that most were thrown away as soon as I opened the bag. No economy there.

To stuff the peppers I used what the French call blonde lentils, large green ones, the cheaper sort, not from Puy. They're healthy and taste fine. I mixed them with some bulgar wheat and lots of green garlic and ginger. The large green pepper was cut in half, filled with the cooked lentil/bulgar mix, placed in an oven proof dish with some water to keep everything moist and baked for about an hour.

To serve with them I took some of my pot of boiled spuds, crushed them with the flat side of a knife and roasted them with olive oil and salt at the same time as the peppers. It's a good way of making dull old potatoes more interesting and they can be flavoured as you like, with extra herbs or spices.

It wasn't the best meal I've ever had but it's a marked improvement on the slops I've been eating. Things can only get better.

Back from Italy

2011-05-29T20:19:00.002+01:00

Spuds from the garden.

It was very challenging getting enough vegan food in Italy, especially given the constraints of our stay which was hotel based and without self-catering facilities. I have a new appreciation of vegetables and a desire to eat everything in the garden. Except the slugs, obviously.

I did get an Italian cookery book, one dealing solely with vegetable dishes. Not many of them are vegan but there's enough inspiration there for some Italian styled creations to come in the next few weeks. And we had one or two nice pasta meals which I shall try to recreate.

Care Package

2011-05-18T14:50:00.003+01:00

A very kind friend sent this little inducement for a picky appetite. It's really very good.

Off to Italy at the end of the week. Past experience of the country suggests that it will be a challenge to eat vegan in restaurants and hotels and Happy Cow and Trip Advisor have no practical suggestions for the area around Como where we'll be.

However, I'm hoping we'll be able to find some breakfast at the hotel and I'll be able to roll our own lunches from local supermarkets. If anyone has any experience of finding vegan food in the area I'd love to hear it.

Ciao.

Don't do as I do

2011-05-13T19:16:00.005+01:00

I don't think I've ever had as little interest in food in all my life as I do at this moment, not even when I was an anorexic teen. Then, it was all about what I could eat that wouldn't make me fat, just at the moment it's all about what can I force myself to eat so I won't faint.

When I discovered I didn't have the motivation to drink the second mug of breakfast coffee things seemed to have reached rock bottom. I couldn't waste it, but what the hell was I going to do with it? Freezing it seemed quite a good idea, at least then it would wait until I was ready for it.

Granita is a water ice, less frothy than a sorbet and extremely easy to make, no ice cream churn or fancy custards to prepare. Any drink can be turned into a granita as long as the flavour is strong enough to survive being served as an icy slush. Coffee is a particularly appropriate option for hot weather, get your after dinner caffeine or mid-morning pick me up as a cooling scoop.

Now, I did this all wrong because frankly I don't give a damn but the basic principle is very simple. Make strong black coffee, I had about 300ml. Sweeten it. This is easiest while it's hot. If it's already cooled then you'll either have to stir like mad to get the sugar crystals to dissolve or use a simple syrup to taste. I had no simple syrup so I used dandelion - not entirely successfully, citrus and flowers don't mingle terribly well with coffee flavours. Then, add a shot of spirits. This really helps the texture, preventing the slush from turning into a solid icecube in the freezer but it's not essential. Vodka is a good flavourless choice, or if you'd like a little sophistication use a rum or brandy. I used gin. Gin is not flavourless and is not a good companion to coffee. I can live with that.

Set to freeze in a plastic container for about 1-2 hours, then remove from freezer and mash up the ice with a fork until it's all broken and frothy. Return to freezer, if you've used enough alcohol and sugar it will easily scoop when required, to be served with or without additions. If you've used too much sugar and alcohol it will never freeze but it might be fun to drink. Responsibly of course...

Coffee Granita

300ml strong black coffee
30ml spirits (vodka, rum or brandy)
Sugar or simple syrup to taste

Sweeten coffee as preferred, allow to cool.

Mix in spirits. Freeze for a couple of hours, then mash and scrape down ice crystals to an uniform texture. Return to freezer until needed.

Serve in a tall glass with a spoon and extras (creamy things, more alcohol) as required.

I have no idea

2011-05-11T16:43:00.003+01:00

what's going on here. All the salad leaves were picked in the garden and served with a peanut dressing that was just a bit too icky to picture.

Pudding, which I consumed before the salad, was this banana bread banana icecream sandwich. I think, if I'm going to blog my food, I'm going to have to blog what I'm eating and not what I think I should be eating. It's not going to be very instructive.

Er...

2011-05-04T12:11:00.002+01:00

This wild vegetable crepe is probably the healthiest thing I've made myself to eat for several days. As a spur to keeping my diet in good order while I'm alone this blog is failing. I haven't been blogging because the food I'm making and eating doesn't meet my criteria for bloggable entry - it's mostly toast, junk foods, breakfast cereal and sweeties. I'm a mess.

The crepe is made from a mixture of 60% gram (chickpea, besan) flour with 40% white wheat flour and just enough water to make a good pouring batter. Fried in olive oil, it was filled with some just picked weeds from the garden; magentaspreen tree spinach seedlings.

Remove the roots, clean the weeds and blanch before seasoning with black pepper and shoyu to make the filling.

It was good. I'm not sure when I'll have the energy to cook or blog again though.

Stinging

2011-04-21T14:05:00.003+01:00

This was a success. Nettle lasagne. Tastes like spinach. Not a lot to say about it, prepare your nettles by rinsing well and blanching for 5 minutes or so, then chop finely and use in your favourite recipe. This was a version maigré, with Mr. Stripey at home we're eating several meals a day and rather too large ones at that, so I left out the béchamel sauce to save a few calories.

Cooking is still taking a less important part of life than growing plants and sitting in the sun but I will be blogging some new favourites in a week or two.

Healthy eating

2011-04-11T18:23:00.002+01:00

Quinoa Nettle Bake

I've not been feeling too well for a few days and have decided this is, in part at least, due to the rather naff diet I've been feeding myself over the last month. I set out to make a meal bursting full of goodness and vital nutrition.

Quinoa is a magical seed grain, full of excellent things. The 100g I used today in this dish provided a third of my protein and iron for the day and half my needs in folate, phosphorus and magnesium. It also happens to be easy to grow so although this particular meal was made with imported produce, it can easily be made part of a locavore diet. I cooked it before combining it with the other ingredients.

Nettles are traditionally established as a good spring tonic, containing Vitamins A, C and K along with iron and other minerals. Pick just the tops (use gloves), wash well and blanch in boiling water for five minutes before draining and chopping well as you would spinach.

To flavour the nettles I used ginger and garlic, both with health merits of their own. Tomatoes, brown bread and sesame seeds made the crispy topping and virgin olive oil greased the dish and was sprinkled over the food to help the bread cubes turn golden. It all cooked in a hot oven for about 40 minutes.

It's good stuff. I expect to be much healthier tomorrow.

In the last week

2011-04-10T14:02:00.002+01:00

Chickpea and rice burgers

A selection of unremarkable meals eaten recently. I had hoped these ground chickpea and rice burgers would be special enough to share the recipe but alas, they were only edible, not great.

Onion fritters with tomato jam

When the going gets tough I tend to resort to batter based snack foods.

Tofu and Beetroot Hash

What can I say? This was only the sum of its parts. The greens were the first harvest from the Good King Henry, which was nice.

A much more successful meal that has formed a couple of suppers already this week is my variation on a recipe which I'm sure I found on Thyme for Cooking but I've just been back to look and can't find anything like it. Anyway, it's just a really simple pasta dressed with olive oil, a little vegan margarine, lemon juice, nutritional yeast flakes, salt, pepper and chopped fresh herbs of choice; I've been using fresh sage mostly, it's wonderful. Naturally the original contained butter and parmesan but you don't need me to tell you that's not vegan. This has just the right amount of starchy comfort mixed with spring flavours for me at the moment.

Finally, everyone loves pizza. This monster did three meals, all of them delicious.

Backlinks

2011-04-09T08:11:00.001+01:00

Something bad is going on although I'm not sure where to point the finger. More backlink issues on this blog so existing ones are hidden and new posts will not be enabled for them.

It's stuff like this that makes me want to stop blogging.

Rhubarb, rhubarb

2011-04-08T16:43:00.005+01:00

I'm feeling a bit peeved today, firstly foodgawker have ignored my submission of the Dandelion post. No comments, no feedback, no show. I'm disappointed and incensed in equal parts since I only submit odd posts there that I think will be more interesting than 'yetanothercupcake' recipe. Still it's their loss. No more free content from me. UPDATE: I just checked the site, they didn't like my photo. Well, see this finger, I don't like you either...

And then I hear via Thyme for Cooking that Google have come up with some fantastic new scheme that seems destined to make the independent food blogger even more alienated. I've resisted strongly every attempt to be coerced into affiliating with cooking themed content agglomerations with the intrinsic implication that I welcome the commercialisation associated with it, although I notice a certain site has included me anyway, and I don't much want to have to start conforming to Google's idea of a recipe post in order to have people find me. Google, if you're reading, stop this madness now.

Anyway, the other day when Rose asked if I knew any savoury things to do with rhubarb it started a train of thought which I now present.

Rhubarb Tzatziki

The concept is simple, instead of cucumber in the tzatziki use rhubarb. Sounds mad, works well.

For a small side dish enough for two;

1 big stick of rhubarb, trimmed and peeled
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt
100g good quality soy/dairy free yoghurt

It's easy to peel rhubarb, just slide the knife blade under the skin at one end of the stalk and holding the slice against the blade gently pull the skin away down the length. You'll need to take two or three pulls like this. Then cube the rhubarb flesh as you would for a cucumber tzatziki. I cut it into short batons and then across into cubes about few millimetres square. Small is better but don't become obsessive.

Sprinkle a little salt (about 1/2 tsp.) over the cubes and leave for a couple of hours to release the juices. Then drain. This removes some of the salt and stops the tzatziki from becoming watery.

Crush your garlic to a fine paste, how much you use is up to you, and mix it with the drained rhubarb. Add a good glug of a pleasant tasting olive oil and stir everything together then add the yoghurt and mix well. Cover tightly and leave to mellow in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.

This is good, the texture is just right and there is no need to add extra wine vinegar or lemon juice because the rhubarb provides the sharpness.

However, I didn't stop there because the Indian sub-continent equivalent of island tzatziki is the Raita.

Simpler than the tzatziki, this time there's no need for anything other than a good handful of freshly chopped mint added to the rhubarb after preparation and draining. Mix in the yoghurt and it's ready to eat within half an hour. The sourness of the rhubarb really shines in this making a mint sauce to die for. It would be brilliant with poppadums or as side dish to rice and curry but it went pretty well with crinkle crisps too.

Rhubarb Raita

Tanpopo - eating dandelions

2011-04-06T16:23:00.003+01:00

Call me weird, you won't be the first, but I've always wanted to try eating dandelion roots. However, despite living in a meadow full of them I've never found any with large enough roots to make it feasible to prepare enough for a portion. Until today.

Digging in the back garden plot, full of rich soil and untouched since last autumn there were several large plants which had been biding their time and just beginning to flower. I suppose the counsel of perfection would have been to take them a couple of weeks ago before the buds were fully developed but no matter, it wasn't too late.

It's really not worth while trying to work with any root thinner than your little finger. Trim off the tops and scrub them well. I used a rough nylon scrubbing sponge, the sort used for washing up but a nail brush might work too. Most of the outer colour will come off. Use a small knife to peel away any difficult spots.

Shred the roots into small pieces. I found it easiest to sit with a bowl in my lap and 'sharpen' the roots like a pencil into the bowl. This is a standard Japanese technique called sasagaki, usually used for burdock root. In Roger Philipps' Wild Food book he gives a recipe where the root is minced but I think this is nicer. In the larger roots you may find a stringy twiggy core. It's easy enough to pick this out as you go but small bits won't hurt.

Stir fry the shreds in a teaspoonful of sesame oil for a few minutes until they are just beginning to turn golden at the edges, then add a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce mixed with water in equal parts. Cover the pan and allow everything to steam for a minute then remove the lid and allow the dandelion root to simmer gently. Stir frequently until all the moisture has evaporated and the shreds are dark and shiny with the glaze.

It's quite bitter so plan to serve it as a condiment with rice and another dish but do try it if you can. I found it addictive.

Lovely Lovage

2011-04-04T17:47:00.007+01:00

Chickpea and Pasta Soup with Lovage

One of the less widely available herbs, with a yeasty celery smell that reaches out to you, lovage grows up to be something of triffid easily reaching 1.5 to 2 metres when in flower. Because it needs so much space in the garden not many people grow it but it is a wonderful way to flavour soups and stews.

It's a perennial herb, dying back to ground level in winter but quite hardy. At this time of year it's wonderfully leafy and green shooting up quickly. When it flowers later in the summer bees and insects all love it. The seeds can be saved and used like celery seed. You can also use the seeds and root to flavour liqueurs which become fragrant rather than savoury in smell and have an intriguing flavour. If you want to preserve some for winter it's better to freeze chopped leaves in ice cube trays and then bag securely but the elusive smell will only last a few months even in the freezer, quickly turning to hay.

I made a spring soup, still hearty with chickpeas and pasta and packed with vegetables but with vernal lightness from a handful of fresh herbs; lovage, parsley and chives. Lovage will be in plenty of meals from now on.

Back with Rhubarb Muffins

2011-04-01T19:05:00.003+01:00

At last things seemed to have settled down a bit and there's a little bit of time and inclination in my life for cooking. For the next few weeks I'm going to try to showcase some of the spring produce that's growing here - not as easy as it sounds as it will be a few weeks before the first crops come in - and foraging for wild and escaped plants to add to the variety.

The rhubarb season is in full swing. Forget the weedy anaemic stems of fluorescent pink stuff sold at enormous prices two months ago, this is the real thing. Great big chunky stems of mouth puckering sharpness and excitement.

Still, I know not everyone is as willing and able to nibble their way through a freshly plucked leaf stem as I am. Making this fruity vegetable into muffins helps the medicine go down.

For nine muffins you will need:

200g flour, white or brown
100g sugar, brown is best
Baking powder; 1 sachet, 11g, about 2 teaspoons full
100g non-dairy yoghurt
25ml non-dairy milk
100g light vegetable oil
1 large stick of rhubarb, peeled if you like and chopped small
extra granulated sugar for sprinkling

Mix yoghurt, milk and oil in a bowl. Add the brown sugar, flour and baking powder. Mix together well. It will form quite a stiff batter. Add a little more milk if you like but not too much as the rhubarb will supply more moisture during cooking.

Line your muffin tins with paper cases (or grease well) and put a couple of large teaspoons of mixture into each case. Add a few pieces of rhubarb to each muffin then share the rest of the batter evenly between the cakes. Put one piece of rhubarb on top and sprinkle liberally with sugar, for extra sweetness and a crunchy finish.

Bake at about 200C for between 20 and 25 minutes. The rhubarb keeps the centres moist so it's not easy to check for doneness, the golden brown of the top should be your guide.

Allow to cool a little and eat a couple at a time as a restorative snack while gardening.

Too tired to cook...

2011-03-21T19:45:00.002+01:00

Cabbage and Bamboo Shoot Stirfry

The weather has been brilliant this week and I've been making the most of it by trying to catch up and get ahead on the gardening. Long days outside and heavy work means that by the time I come in for my dinner I've barely got the energy to light the fire and make a cup of tea. Meals have, of necessity, been rather dull. Food as fuel, not entertainment.

The stirfry above was flavoured in the manner of a hot and sour soup, white pepper and the sharpness of vinegar. It wasn't great and possibly the only thing of note about it was that the cabbage was harvested from the garden. No bamboo shoots yet in the vegetable patch but I'm working on it.

Vegetable Fried Rice

Naturally leftovers are playing their part, this fried rice was made with the spare rice from the stirfry and some more veggies. After stir frying the vegetables briefly I steamed them in a glass of Gewurztraminer wine before adding the broken up cold rice and finally frying it. I had another glass of wine with the meal.

Braised Endive and roast potatoes

I must have had the oven on for some reason, perhaps making that Potato Apple pie because this rather austere meal of wine cooked endive and roast potatoes would have taken me too long on a normal evening. It was only o.k. and I had the rest of the braised endives in a stew the next day, mercifully unrecorded.

Tonight, a sort of porridge of celeriac and couscous. I wanted bulgar but it seems to be rule of nature that whichever I want of bulgar or couscous I only have the other. Not worth photographing, I've saved a portion for lunch tomorrow.

The luck of the Irish

2011-03-17T20:49:00.004+01:00

Potato Apple Pie

Happy St. Paddy's Day although for most of you it's nearly over already.

This is what I intended to submit to the Daily Spud for the Paddy's day parade, a slight tribute to the Spud herself as I think the inspiration comes from one of her recipes although I didn't have it to hand when I made this. But I was too late and serves me right. Apologies for the naff picture too, it's too dark in the evenings for the little camera to cope yet.

This is really very simple and even with all the omissions I made by way of sweetening and spicing ( I forgot the lot!) it's a welcome snack with a cup of tea. A tot of Irish whiskey helps it down too.

The pastry is where the potato is hiding. You will need;

About 400g freshly mashed potato, still warm
70g margarine
120g plain flour and extra for shaping.

A couple of eating apples - I only had one but it was huge.
Lemon juice
Sugar
Cinnamon or other spices to taste.

Prepare your apple(s) by taking out the cores and making neat slices. No need to peel. Sprinkle the slices with lemon juice, this improves the flavour as well as the colour so don't leave it out.

Make a lovely soft dough by mixing the margarine into the warm mash and then adding the flour. Use a fork or something to mix it well. Turn out onto your well floured board and divide into two pieces (or possibly three, I saved a little back and made a potato scone with it). Gently pat or roll one portion out into a rough circle shape about 25cm across. It's extremely difficult to move so it may be easiest to work straight onto the baking tray.

Arrange your apple slices over the base leaving a border all around them of about 3cm. You can pile them up a bit in the middle if you like. Add sugar if you think it needs it and sprinkle in a little of your spice flavouring.

With the other portion of dough make a lid. Start by patting out a circle on the board but before it gets too thin and unwieldy plop it on top of the apples and pat it out across them there. You need only top the apples with it. Fold the base up to meet it and seal the edges. The dough is easy to work.

Sprinkle some sugar over the top and bake in a medium oven, say 170C for an hour. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

That's all.

Roast Cauliflower

2011-03-15T18:39:00.002+01:00

Far too tired for cooking, here is tonight's supper - a big bowl of roast cauliflower decorated with a few springs of calabrese and some shreds of onion.

Tomorrow morning I'm hoping to have the energy to create something for the St. Patrick's day parade over at The Daily Spud but just in case I'm too shagged out to make the deadline there's still time for you to submit your favourite Irish recipe for the show if you're quick.

Night night.

Back to the Farm

2011-03-09T09:40:00.002+01:00

Transition day today - first movements back to full habitation for the summer.

Last night's dinner

2011-03-04T13:03:00.002+01:00

Felafel and Chips with Salad

After a month of feeling guilty every time I reached for the bottle of oil I decided to break loose.

You can find the recipe for felafel here, chips here and tahini sauce here down the page a bit.

History lessons

2011-03-02T11:48:00.005+01:00

Ruby Chard soup with leaf garnish

The first digital camera I owned was a little Ixus point and shoot. I've just spent a happy half hour looking through my archives to see which photo taken with it qualifies as the first food picture. There aren't that many to choose from, mostly birthday cakes, but I think it was the one above which shows some beet and chard (probably) soup probably made with produce from the allotments we had then. That was taken in October 2003, several years before this blog was started, before I'd even considered opening up my mealtimes to the world.

Keeping a blog running for nearly five years has changed the way we live our lives. We stop to take the picture before we eat, the menu is shaped by desires to make the next entry interesting to readers, novelty can sometimes overwhelm good taste and the predictability of weekday meals makes finding something to share in writing a task to fear rather than one to enjoy. It's a funny hobby for someone who's basically not all that keen on telling anyone anything.

Still, here we are and this is what's been done. In the next few months I think there'll need to be some changes around here. Perhaps a new format, perhaps a new direction. History might repeat itself but life never stands still.

Irish Range Dec 2002

Food for lovers

2011-02-15T09:49:00.004+01:00

Pink Gin and Tonic

Valentine's Day - we don't do cards or flowers but it's always nice to have an excuse to cook a little more extensively than usual. There's nothing very novel here, mostly recipes I've made before or dishes that don't need a recipe but the scale of the four courses kept me busy for half an afternoon and of course, now we have leftovers enough for another three days!

Mushroom soup from the ladle

I made mushroom soup because it's the Mister's favourite. It was enriched with dried ceps we'd gathered in the woods last autumn and served with sourdough breadsticks.

Mushroom Soup plated

Descendientes de José Palacios Bierzo Pétalos 2004

With the main course we had this rather nice bottle of Spanish wine which was a gift from a friend.

Tomato Curry

I must admit part of the reason for choosing curries for our main course has to do with blogging. Taking pictures can interrupt the flow of an evening so I wanted stuff that could keep warm while we took the snaps. Also, although it's hardly obvious here curry was on this week's austerity menu list. So we're still on track there, in a manner of speaking!

Sag Aloo, spinach and potato curry.

Aubergine Tikka

The colour isn't very bright on this because we only had smoked paprika and that's rather too strongly flavoured to use with abandon.

We kept everything warm on one of those table top warmers powered with tealights that they have in some restaurants. Ours was a gift from the Stripey daughter.

Raspberries, blueberries and red grapes set in a port wine jelly

Something light and richly red for dessert. Made up as I went along but similar to a million other fruit jellies it ended up being more than the sum of its parts in a rather unexpected way. Very nice to eat but experiments are needed to pin down that novelty value.

And finally, the truffles. We rolled these at the table, an enjoyably sticky mutual task for a meal for lovers.

Chocolate, coconut and chilli truffles

Punch Drunk

2011-02-13T11:36:00.002+01:00

Cottage Pie with Carrot Alfalfa Salad

This month of abstinence isn't going too well. We're eating very good food but a bit too much of it so the only really healthy thing we've managed is to cut right back on alcohol. This weekend we're relaxing completely after a meal out with friends last night and some indulgences for Valentine's day but the intention is to try for another couple of weeks of clean living from next Tuesday...

Pizza with mushrooms, yellow pepper and nutritional yeast

Bread is a real sticking point when trying to reduce calorie intake. We love it, it's an essential part of our usual diet but it's easy to eat and easy to load up with rich toppings and overeat. Still, pizza is essential for winding down on a Friday night and without cheese it's not too evil.

Made in the bottle Ginger Beer

Finally I was fascinated by this recipe for ginger beer, made directly in a pressure resistant bottle (the sort Coke or fizzy water comes in).

I was too eager and sampled it a bit early but it has great potential for brewing on the go. Give it a try,

Stewing

2011-02-08T10:56:00.004+01:00

An enormous bowl of vegetable stew

Two more days, two more meals. Sunday night we had a huge bowl of vegetable stew, just lots and lots of vegetables; potatoes, swedes, carrots, onions, green beans, bean sprouts and leafy greens along with a handful of red lentils to thicken the broth. Seasoned with the traditional vegan flavour kit of nutritional yeast, chilli sauce and soy sauce it was warming and good.

Last night, a very similar meal but this time using Thai flavourings, some commercial green curry paste, lemon grass, ginger, kaffir leaves and coconut milk. We topped it with some cubes of fried pumpkin rice cake, of which more tomorrow.

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

2011-02-06T00:51:00.003+01:00

Food in a Japanese Idiom

We like Japanese food a lot but although Mr. Stripey has travelled to Japan a few times I've never had the opportunity so my attempts at Japanese cookery are well meaning but probably totally inauthentic. Still we enjoyed this supper of inarizushi, tofu with bean sprouts, edamame and some griddled parsnip wafers.

The weekends are always a struggle when we're trying to live clean and frugal. Today we skipped breakfast (apparently a hearty breakfast isn't the way to lose weight) and had a light brunch followed by this rather large comparatively low fat lasagne.

A huge pan of lasagne

I made the pasta myself, which wasn't that much harder than using bought sheets and filled it with two layers of a pumpkin/onion mixture with a central layer of thinly sliced tofu. Some of the last of the home grown tomato passata from the freezer was used top and bottom with a splash in the middle for the tofu.

The topping was interesting (well, for small values of interesting) made from a handful of oven dried okara mixed with sunflower seeds and nutritional yeast and a small splash of oil. The okara worked well like this and could become a regular topping item in place of bread crumbs.

A couple more items to come from the planned menu and then I'll have to think of another one. A problem of planning ahead is that it stifles creativity a bit. We eat well but it's all things I've experience making. Next week I'll try and find some new recipes to share.

Pumpkin Tofu Lasagne with Okara topping

The third day

2011-02-03T21:56:00.003+01:00

Leek and Mushroom Roly Poly

Happy Chinese New Year. I don't really know what came over me when I said there was nothing much going on in February. Not only does the Year of the Rabbit start, pretty important in this household for one reason or another but there's Valentine's Day and we've picked up a dinner date already. Still I won't give up.

Last night we had a thoroughly unhealthy Leek and Mushroom Baked Roly Poly with oven roasted veg and a thick miso gravy. It was great but we managed to keep the portions small and I watched the oil content carefully so I don't think anything bad will happen from it.

Tonight we had Lettuce wraps filled with home-made tofu, home grown quinoa, celery, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes. Everything but the quinoa was stir-fried together in a tiny splash of oil, then the cooked quinoa was mixed in. Seasoning was black pepper and splashes of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar. A final sprinkle of lemon juice reduced the need for salt.

That was so virtuous we had room for some Banana icecream and cherries.

I have a menu plan for the rest of the week but you'll have to wait, it's a surprise!

Lettuce wraps; eat with your hands

It's that time again

2011-02-01T09:56:00.004+01:00

Yes, it's February.

In the Stripey household February is the preferred month for a time of abstinence. Its main virtue is shortness. Shortness and an absence of celebrations. Amongst its virtues are shortness and an absence of celebrations, also pecuniary shortfalls. I'll come in again...

It's a bloody good time to give stuff up. Firstly we're low on money after the spending season, secondly there are no birthdays or anniversaries to break the rule and it's not too long, a nice neat four weeks to mark off on the calendar. So, healthy eating here we come.

But, it's 9 a.m. on the first day, I have nothing to report so here's a recipe from one of our xmas book presents, Vefa's Kitchen. It's for the biscotti like things, the candied peels and orange jellies came from recipes here and here.

This is a naturally vegan recipe so it was bound to be amongst the first I chose to try from the book. It works well although I thought the biscuits were just a little bit dull. However, they perked up considerably with a glass of brandy. Just as well they're all gone now or my month of abstinence might be doomed.

Greek 'biscotti' are known as paximadia.

170g vegetable oil
120g dry white wine
2 tsps ground cinnamon (get fresh, mine wasn't)
the zest of one big orange
pinch of ground cloves (less is more!)
10g baking powder
2g baking soda
150g fine sugar (granulated works, caster would be better)
50g finely chopped nuts. (Vefa calls for hazelnuts, I used brazils and pine nuts would be great)
450g plain flour
sesame seeds for garnish

Makes about 40

Heat the oven to 180C

Sift the flour with the baking powder and soda. Add the sugar and nuts and stir in.

Mix the wet ingredients with the spices and zest. Add to the dry mix and stir until you have a pliable dough. It will look very soft and oily.

Divide the mixture into three parts and shape each part into a flat log about 5 cm across, just under 2cm high. I didn't measure mine but they were probably 20cm long. Use your hands, the oil stops the dough sticking to you. It's easiest to work straight onto your large baking sheet, all three logs can share one sheet as long as they're separated by a couple of cms. They don't spread much.

When the logs are shaped sprinkle sesame seeds along the tops and gently press in with the back of a spoon. Use a sharp knife to mark divisions about 1 cm apart along the length of the logs. Don't go all the way through but this will make it easier to divide the paximadia for the second cooking.

Bake for about 40 minutes then remove from the oven. Reduce the oven heat to 150C. Allow the cooked logs to cool slightly, then finish cutting the slices into individual biscuits.

Arrange them on their sides on baking trays (you'll need two now) and return to the cooler oven for 15 minutes. Take them out and turn the biscuits over before returning them to the oven for a final 15 minutes drying time. I just turned the oven off and left them to cool instead of timing the second drying period.

Store in an airtight tin.

Boiled Burger?

2011-01-19T00:41:00.003+01:00

This is from a recipe I found on a French Canadian (I think) omni blog, La casserole carrée. What interested me most about it was that it uses a novel approach to burger cooking, the burgers are simmered in stock for 25 minutes which dramatically reduces the fat content and creates a much moister, dare I say it, meatier feel to the end product.

Perhaps it's slightly more difficult to plate up than traditional veggie burgers but frankly the change from disks of scorched carpet underlay to toothsome patties of oats and walnuts is very welcome.

150g rolled oats
70g fresh bread crumbs (wholemeal is best, about one slice)
200g shelled walnuts (they will be chopped so broken pieces are fine)
100g onion, chopped. (I think next time I would increase this by 50-100%)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Bunch of fresh herbs (I had parsley and dill)
175g soy milk (or other vegan liquid)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
Olive oil
300ml vegetable stock

Start by weighing out the oats and bread and give them a quick spin in the food processor to make crumbs. Add the walnuts and give it another five second spin to combine.

Add the onion, garlic and herbs, roughly chopped and turn on the motor again. As everything begins to get chopped finely add the soy milk slowly through the funnel or chute or whatever you call it. You may not need all the liquid, stop before it's all in and test the mixture. It should just hold together nicely without being too sloppy.

Season with salt and pepper (quite important to do it at this point, later doesn't seem to be so effective) and mix well, then form into burger shapes with damp hands. This will make about 5 burgers. They should be about 1.5 cm thick.

They need to chill for at least an hour before cooking to help them firm up and gather some strength for the cooking process. I open-froze mine on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for a couple of hours, took two for the meal and packaged the rest back into the freezer for another day.

In a frying pan that has a lid, heat a little olive oil and gently fry the burgers on each side until they are browned. Then add the hot stock (it will boil and splatter), put on the lid and allow to cook very gently at a simmer for another 25 minutes.

Use a metal slice to gently lift them from the pan and serve on toasted baps with the usual burger trimmings. We had chips and celeriac remoulade.

I really like this recipe and think it will be a good starting point for other flavours and styles.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T15:14:00.004+01:00

Last night's celebration dinner...

Green Pea Soup with Bagel Chip croutons

We chose Pea Soup over more exotic ingredients like asparagus in order to remain true to the season.

Chestnut Cranberry Rounds with Roasted Garlic and Squash, a Beetroot Confit and a Red Wine and Forest Mushroom Sauce

This rather traditional range of flavours went together very well. The chestnuts were fresh, cooked and peeled before combining with vegetables, flour and stock. The rounds were cooked in small patty trays but were rather fragile and difficult to turn out.

Raspberry Sponge with Caramel Sauce and Icecream

This sponge was brilliant, if I say so myself, made with coconut milk and frozen raspberries but the caramel sauce was still too hard and chewy when it cooled. The ice cream was Swedish Glace, one of the few short cuts we took with this meal.

Handmade After Dinner Mints

A simple faux fondant forms the middles of these pretty and easy chocolates. They are incredibly rich but rather delicious.

Thanks to Mr. Stripey for taking the pictures.

Happy New Year to all my readers, I hope you have success and happiness in the future and that we can continue to share our cooking and lives through our blogs.

We like Pie

2010-12-30T13:16:00.002+01:00

A great big vegetable pie

I hope everyone had a lovely festive season. After the parties and gatherings and potlucks and snacking we were left with some root vegetables and a portion of puff pastry to use up. We like pie, so we made one.

This pie is ultimate simplicity. Line a loose bottomed cake tin with pastry, fill it with vegetables, I used raw cubed swede, potatoes, onions, celery and a handful of green soy beans. Season with salt and pepper and put on a nice pastry lid. The real trick is to cook it for a good long time. This one took an hour and ten minutes at 180C which allowed all the vegetables to cook through. If the top browns too quickly cover it with a bit of baking paper but it shouldn't be a problem.

Now at the planning stage, New Year's Eve dinner. Come back soon.

Pudding

2010-12-22T15:39:00.005+01:00

No, not a Dickensian Christmas pudding but my current pudding of choice for celebrations and parties.

This is based on a recipe I found on Rawmazing. It's tremendously rich and calorific, nothing to worry about if it's forming part of a diet that is largely composed of dehydrated grass and green smoothies, but something to be quite wary of if you're intending it to follow a traditionally cooked main course.

My version no longer qualifies for the raw label, I have used ready made biscuits, real sugar and prepared chocolate instead of the original raw ingredients, but that's not a problem for me. Just remember that this cake will serve at least 12 portions and is extremely filling. If you use a slightly larger tin you may need a few more biscuit crumbs but there will still be plenty of topping so you shouldn't need to increase that.

Orange Chocolate Cashew Cheesecake

Serves 12

Crust:
150g digestive biscuits
75g margarine
50g golden syrup
100g dark chocolate (save one square back to grate over for decoration if liked)

Smash up biscuits in bowl with a heavy item like the end of rolling pin. Melt margarine and syrup together and mix into the biscuit crumbs. Press mixture into the bottom of a greased 18cm (7 inch) loose bottomed pan. Melt the chocolate, about 30 seconds in the microwave or over a hot water bath. Spread over crumb base. Place in refrigerator to set.

Filling:
2 big Oranges (make sure you have very good unwaxed oranges)
75g caster sugar (or to taste)
300g Cashews (soaked in plain water for at least 3 hours then
drained)
150g Virgin Coconut Oil (from health food shops. This sets hard at room temperature so sit the jar in some warm water if it's too solid to get out of the jar)

Grate the zest from the oranges. The zest is important to the flavour. I left it out of this cake because I could only get waxed oranges but the flavour was lacking. The zest also puts some nice orange speckles through the mixture. Be careful to only get the orange part as the pith (the white) is bitter. Squeeze the juice out of all the oranges.

Place cashews, sugar, coconut oil, zest and orange juice in a food processor and process until very smooth. Pour over crust, smooth and bang down a bit to settle and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Grate a bit more chocolate over to decorate at serving time. Keeps well, covered in the refrigerator, for a couple of days if necessary.

We served this with the Brown Brother's Orange Muscat and Flora dessert wine which went splendidly.

Cuban

2010-12-20T10:42:00.008+01:00

We were going to have a party last weekend. At midday on Saturday the skies were blue and the roads were clear. By 2 p.m. there were 3 inches of settled snow and it was still snowing heavily. We cancelled.

Now we have food for an army and only the two of us to eat it. I expect we'll manage. I had planned a gentle Cuban theme to the meal, based on recipes from "A Taste of Old Cuba"

This is an interesting book, which I hope has truly authentic recipes from Cuba even if they are rooted in a period before the Cuban revolution. Many of them are impossible to veganise effectively as they rely on meat as their principal ingredient but the poor people's food is based on rice and beans and what good socialist vegan could eschew those?

Black beans, plantains, rice, all these things are well represented across the internet but there was a recipe for a side salad which appealed to me for its novelty and style, Guacamole Cubano.

To make enough salad for six to eight servings you will need;

1 ripe pineapple
2 large avocados (ripe but not mushy)
a small red onion (or part of a larger one!)
Olive oil
Lime juice
Salt

Peel, core and divide the pineapple flesh into small cubes. I don't have recommendations for the best way to tackle a fresh pineapple but I usually take off the top tuft and bottom to make flat ends, peel by slicing downwards from top to bottom with a very sharp knife, pick out any 'eyes' that are left and then slice into quarters to make removing the core easy. Catch as much juice as you can. I wouldn't use tinned pineapple for this dish.

Cut the avocados in half, remove stones, peel and dice into similar sized pieces to your pineapple bits.

Slice the red onion finely.

Mix all the fruit and vegetables into a bowl and then dress with equal parts of good olive oil and lime juice whisked together. Add salt to taste.

It seems to me that this very simple preparation could do with a little jazzing up in the form of some chilli pepper but actually served with black beans, rice and fried sweet potato chips (no plantains in Sainsburys this week) it adds sweetness and variety without being overpowering so bear that in mind when making it as part of a full menu.

If you'd like to learn a little more about life in present day Cuba try reading the Havana Times, written by Cubans about themselves.

Crackers

2010-12-08T13:23:00.006+01:00

Khara Biscuits and Moroccan Cookies

Every day I look through my blog feeds and scan through Foodgawker looking for interesting ideas and recipes that I might like to try. In the last week or so I spotted two recipes on very different sites, from very different countries and was intrigued to see how closely the methods and results of the recipes were similar whilst still remaining true to the cultures that created them.

These recipes produce old fashioned, crunchy, almost rusk like biscuits, rather dry and simple and yet taken with tea ideally suited for a light snack or restorative break.

The Khara Biscuits are spicy, fragrant with ginger and curry leaves and originate in Bangalore. Enjoy them with chai or another spicy brew. I based my recipe on the one at Red Chillies.

200g plain Flour
50g vegan margarine
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (I thought even this much was a bit too much so go carefully)
3 tsp sugar
10ml water
Spice/Herb mix.
You need about 1 mixed tablespoon of grated ginger, grated green chilli, grated lemon grass and finely chopped curry leaves. I made mine from a thumb sized piece of ginger, half a large chilli, 1 thin stem of lemon grass (just the tender bulb end) and about 10 curry leaves. The original recipe calls for green coriander but I didn't have any so substituted the lemon grass. If the chilli is frozen it grates really easily on a microplane.

Heat the oven to 180C. You'll need one large baking tray.

Mix the dry ingredients together well.

Rub the margarine in with your fingers as if making short crust pastry. You should be aiming for a finish rather like bread crumbs.

Add the spice paste. This is moist and should start to form a dough in the bowl as you mix it in. Make sure it is evenly distributed then add about 1 teaspoon of water. You should now be able to form a stiff dough. Press the loose crumbs together firmly and gather everything up into a smooth ball. If you really need to add another teaspoonful of water but try to add as little as possible. It needs to be very stiff.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 cm thick, prick all over with a fork and cut the shapes required. I used a pizza cutter to form (not very) squares but the mixture is stiff enough to use cutters if you'd like to. Gather up the offcuts and re-roll until it's all used up. Arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet, brush with oil and bake for about 20 minutes until golden.

Yield: about 24 depending on size chosen.

The Moroccan cookies seem to be big in Israel. I found the recipe on Food Bridge although it made an enormous quantity which I've reduced to a quarter. Researching later I also found a twice baked version called Fekkas which like biscotti are cooked, sliced and cooked again. It looks interesting enough to try another time but this much simpler form will give you a taste of the delights that can be yours.

250g plain flour
20g ground rice
1 tsp. baking powder
50g sugar
20g sesame seeds
2 tsp. anise seeds (or fennel at a pinch)
1 tsp. grated orange zest
60g oil
100ml water or orange juice

Preheat the oven to 180C. You will need one large baking sheet.

Mix all the dry ingredients, flour, ground rice, baking powder, sugar, sesame seeds, anise and orange zest in one bowl.

Combine the oil with about half the water or orange juice and whisk well. Mix this into the dry ingredients with a fork then slowly the rest of the liquid kneading with your hands so that the mixture forms a firm ball. You may not need all the liquid, try not to add too much more than 100ml. This dough needs to be firm.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 cm thick. Prick all over with a fork. This biscuit is traditionally shaped as a narrow rectangle but you can use any shape you like. Gather up the trimmings and repeat until all the dough is used.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. They should be lightly golden and crisp when cooked.

Delicious with mint tea. Yield: about 25-30 depending on size chosen.

Both sorts of biscuits store well in an airtight tin.

When Good Vegans go Bad

2010-11-30T16:53:00.003+01:00

Here it is, the end of Vegan MoFo and I've not hit the quota. Including this post just 14 entries for the month. Still, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, it's been a good experience and there's been so much interesting writing going on from other people to read that I doubt my laziness will have been noticed much.

My excuses, well, they're many. This week we've been doing some house redecorating and meals are hearty, basic and easy to cook, but hardly worth blogging about. For example, tonight we're having Pasta Bake made with the leftovers of yesterday's Turkish Lentil and Bulgar soup and if I can't restrain myself including the even older leftovers of a bean loaf which was itself created from a leftover Thai Green Curry. At least I'm good at recycling.

This month has also seen a storm in a teacup over the defection of Voracious Vegan to the dark side. I'm almost disinclined to link to it, I think she's had far too much exposure already but I was really surprised to find her shockwaves spilling over into omni forums I inhabit and not even foodie ones at that. It seems she's touched the same chord in the meateaters as the one that makes them feel really good about themselves.

As far as I'm concerned she's welcome to eat what she wants but did she really think that her exposition on her changed lifestyle was the best way to let a disinterested world know about her return to her old dietary habits, or is she so far up her own fundament that she thought it was news worth reporting in such an attention grabbing manner? What do you think?

Okara Fudge Cake

2010-11-24T13:37:00.005+01:00

My experiments in creating our own tofu and soy milk are largely being guided by The Book of Tofu by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi. I actually have two copies of this, one a small format paperback of the original edition that was bought second hand and an updated large format version which I notice is being sold at a tremendous price on Amazon. It's also available in French at a more reasonable price so I don't know what's going on there at all.

The book is full of stuff, only some of which is relevant to a vegan diet and some which seems bizarrely dated and old fashioned. Still, the basic principles of tofu making haven't changed in many centuries and there is plenty to glean from the history and techniques described.

Now that I've started to produce soy products regularly I find I'm beginning to be overwhelmed by the quantity okara or soy bean pulp that is left after the first stages of making the milk. The book has some useful suggestions for using up this by-product which is rich in fibre and protein. I'm going to try several of them over time but the first one to catch my eye was a method of sweetening and toasting the ground bean pulp to make breakfast cereal or granola.

I had the residue of 250g of soaked, liquidised, boiled and strained soy beans. To this was added 60ml of rape seed oil, 60ml of maple syrup and about 60g of granulated sugar along with a pinch of salt. Mixed together well, the pulp was spread out on a large baking tray and placed in an oven at about 200C for an hour or so. You need to turn it every 15 minutes to stop it scorching. The maple syrup is not essential but I thought it would add flavour to the cereal.

When the cooking was done it looked like this.

Much more like cake crumbs than granola. Which gave me an idea. Rather than have a bag of sort-of breakfast food I would likely never use I could make a sweet with them. Based on our favourite Candice Cake this is a rich fudgy delight. I replaced the biscuits crumbs and nuts in the original recipe with the toasted okara crumbs (but kept the rum soaked raisins!) and didn't bother with the extra topping layer, this baby is plenty rich enough.

Serve in very small squares with strong coffee. Brilliant.

Everything Soup

2010-11-23T15:41:00.002+01:00

Minestrone soup. Make it like this.

No matter how hard I try I'm not going to succeed at making 20 entries for this year's Mofo. Which is a bit sad. I could cheat and put out a couple of posts a day between now and the end of the week but really, I haven't got the will power, even though there are several potential sources of inspiration bubbling under. Let's hope they reach the surface before Yule.

Anyway, above is Minestrone soup and it's something we have quite often. Most people will already have a favourite recipe but mine is linked to above if you need it.

This Mofo has been interesting for me, I've found lots of new blogs that will help expand my understanding of cooking and the lifestyles of other vegans. Here a few of them, there are many more.

Alf Hana means "a thousand delights" in Arabic. This is a great blog for finding out about all sorts of Egyptian delights, nicely veganised and easy to read.

In fact, that's something that really affects my enjoyment of blogs, clearly laid out sites ideally with dark on light text to page. Anything written on a black background, too fussy or with brightly coloured text hurts my eyes too much to continue.

Juu's German Kitchen is very inventive and fun to read, giving me insights into how they eat in Germany. I love his 'just go for it' approach to veganising traditional German foods.

I've enjoyed reading Our life in Sandarna, a Swedish blog showing Swedish home cooking. It seems to have been started just for Mofo but I'm hoping they'll keep writing.

There's a bit of a Nordic theme to all this. Seglare in Copenhagen is another Swede, living in Denmark and reporting on what she finds there. Lovely writing and some nice recipes.

And last but not least, special mention to Dandelion. I was already a regular reader of Rose's blog but she has excelled herself this MoFo with some wonderful posts on recipes from all around the world. Her industry is an inspiration.

By the way, if you've subscribed to the MoFo RSS reader bundle and you plan to unsubscribe by removing the whole bundle in one fell swoop, make a note of anyone who was included who you are normally subscribed to. Google reader deletes all regardless of the tags, and it's taken me some time to rebuild my usual reader favourites to the state they were in before I loaded and unloaded the Mofo bundle.

Pommeau Cake

2010-11-20T16:58:00.003+01:00

Another menu item from Rootmaster was an Apple and Rum Cake, not so very different from a recipe I'd bookmarked on David Lebovitz's blog for veganising later. So that was my cue for this cheeky little pudding.

It is more of a pudding than the sort of cake to be devoured in slices with coffee, but it's nice warm or cold served with some banana ice cream enlivened with 50g of sugar and a slug of Calvados instead of the lemon juice.

I used Pommeau for flavour mainly because I've had the end of a bottle sitting on the kitchen table for some days now and it needed to be used but it's appropriate, a sweet apple alcohol in a sweet apple cake. If you don't have it substitute Rum (mine is still in France) or Brandy.

130g Self raising flour (or plain flour sieved with 1 tsp. baking powder)
120g non-dairy yoghurt
150g sugar
50ml Pommeau
80g light vegetable oil
400g peeled and chopped apples - I used Bramley's Seedling and Russet, choose anything well flavoured.
A pinch of salt.

You will need a 20 cm springform or loose bottomed cake tin for this. Grease and flour it well.

Mix the yoghurt and oil together, then add the flour and salt. Beat it all together well then add the Pommeau and stir it in.

Fold the apple pieces, the chunks should be about 2cm square but apples don't lend themselves to precision like that, into the batter and pour into the prepared tin, smoothing it level.

Bake at 180C for an hour. This is a moist cake but a skewer or toothpick should come out clean at the end of this time, if not, leave it a little longer.

Serve warm or cold with ice cream or custard.

Tofu Teriyaki Stack

2010-11-19T12:39:00.003+01:00

A couple of the things on the menu the other night seemed appealing but I didn't choose them for my meal because they looked easy enough to recreate at home. One of them was a tofu stack made with locally produced tofu which tickled me because I had some locally produced (by me) tofu sitting in the fridge at home.

In the end what I made didn't quite recreate their take on it but incorporated elements of two of their dishes.

It's a work in progress but we enjoyed it. The tofu stack is made from deep fried wonton wrappers - I had some left over from a packet that I'd bought for gyoza. Slip them into hot oil and they bubble up beautifully. Drain and keep warm in the oven while you prepare the rest.

With my home made tofu I used some onion, garlic and marrow. I made disks of marrow flesh, fried them off in a little oil and then coated them with teriyaki sauce. These were held in the warm too, then the tofu was made into a scramble with the onions, garlic and a little more teriyaki sauce. Finally everything was assembled into stacks.

With them we had some brown rice and a stir fry of quartered brussels sprouts with some green soy beans which worked surprisingly well.

On the Bus

2010-11-18T11:27:00.008+01:00

Last night, as promised, Mr. Stripey and I joined some friends for a meal on the Rootmaster Bustaurant. This entirely vegan establishment is housed in an old Routemaster, a number of converted containers (like the ones on container ships!) for storage and an awning covered seating area by the bus, which would be lovely in the summer but not in the torrential rain of autumn. Luckily for us we had secured the most comfortable seats in the place, a lovely table for eight situated upstairs at the front of the bus.

And this is where my dreams of being a restaurant reviewer of note come crashing to the floor. With my cook's hat on, with my health inspector's hat on, with an eye to the cost and value of the meal I find there were many flaws in the experience BUT I had fun and the staff were friendly and I don't want to give anyone a hard time over it. So, when I'm critical, don't take it badly. This is how it was for me, on one evening in November. It's not a final pronouncement on the end of the world. 'k...

Also, all the pictures are rubbish. Sorry. You can read the menu at the web site above.

Starter of stuffed mushroom - Mr. Stripey had this and I only had a taste. He liked it, my mouthful was stuffed with raw garlic but tasted good.

Starter Mediterranean Quesadilla - mine. This was pleasant enough. The alfalfa sprouts could have done with another rinse before serving, they had that slightly musty taste of sprouts stored a little too long.

Several of the party chose the Panissa for starter and enjoyed it but we didn't take pictures. Soup of the day was Broccoli, a particular dislike of mine and the restaurant had run out of olives which was surprising and a bit disappointing.

Moroccan Vegetable Bake, the Mr's choice. He was underwhelmed although it was perfectly edible. There was a flavour that I identified as pickled lemon and he felt was soapy. The most expensive dish, we both thought this was probably overpriced.

Roasted Pumpkin and Walnut Tart, a few people had this. The bite I tried had good pastry and well matched flavours. A winner.

Stuffed Cabbage dish. This was my main course and I have to admit I chose it seduced by the thought of roast potatoes and red wine sauce. I did get some of those but not quite enough and not quite as my imagination had furnished them. The barley filling was easy to eat but the savoy cabbage wrapping everso slightly tough. Either the 'polenta' was lumpy or it was mashed cauliflower, I couldn't be sure.

And so to puddings. Vegans will know that to be provided with a full dessert menu is a real treat and we all saved room for the novelty.

Chocolate and Caramel Fondant was the pudding of choice for most, although it has to be cooked to order and takes 20 minutes to prepare. The menu does suggest that if you're going to want it you should order when ordering your mains but of course, we didn't actually read that far when perusing the menus at the start of the meal. The wait wasn't a problem as the conversation was flowing well.

As Chocolate fondants go, these weren't bad although the inevitable cracks about Masterchef were made, chocolate fondant being the nemesis of many an amateur cook hoping to impress.

The diners who tried the Walnut and Caramel tart said it was good. It must have been, I couldn't get a bit to try.

I wanted to be different so I had the cheesecake which, frankly, tasted stale to me. Others ate their portions so maybe my tastebuds were off but I had to leave it.

As a group we are greedy drinkers and we had a little difficulty getting our wine bottles replaced as quickly as we would have liked. Also the bus has no toilet facilities, if you need to go you are directed to a bar across the square (I assume they have some arrangement). The toilets there are fine but you have to negotiate the rain, the gaggle of smokers outside the bar and a tremendously loud interior to get to them, all of which contributed to a headache which followed me all the way home to Newport Pagnell. Well, it was mostly the smoke to be honest and I can't really blame Rootmaster for that, it's everywhere.

The bill for eight came to just over £320 including tip. This isn't a huge amount per head for London, particularly as we had several bottles of wine in there but it does put it at the more expensive end of the range of veggie restaurants we've tried. If the niggles could be addressed I'd have no trouble paying it again but as it is, I think it's a bit high for the standard of food and facilities being offered.

Don't take my word for it. Try it for yourselves.

Puzzle of the Pine Nuts

2010-11-17T15:03:00.003+01:00

It may not be something that's ever caused you a problem but there is trouble about in one of the most essential ingredients of many delicious vegan foods. The issue is Pine Nut mouth or "cacogeusia" to offer up an entirely arbitrary medical sounding name for the phenomenon.

After eating certain types of pine nuts some people develop a nasty metallic taste in their mouths which persists for days or weeks even. It's not an immediate effect and can vary in intensity. There have been reports of stomach pains and upsets as well although this is less well supported. It's not obvious what's causing the problem.

Although the issue has been registered with the British authorities since the middle of 2009 at least no formal answer is yet forthcoming, indeed it's not clear whether any official scientific efforts are being made to resolve this, although you can register with Food Standards by emailing here; toxicology@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk.
Let them know the details of the pine nuts you consumed and the length of time you experienced the bitter taste.

The Danish food ministry have released some details of their researches which suggest that it may be related to Chinese sourced pine nuts, perhaps from species of pine which have not been traditionally used for eating but which are now being exploited because the world market in these nuts has grown but it doesn't seem to be as simple as merely avoiding Chinese sourced nuts although I must admit this has been my strategy for some time now.

Then, today, my attention was drawn to a website run by a graduate student in the Netherlands, The Great Pine Nut Mystery. This looks like a really useful resource for gathering together all the information about pine nuts that can be found and helping Grace and the researchers at Wageningen University unravel the mystery.

Slipped off the MoFO wagon for a spell but I'm out to dinner tonight so look forward to some bleary phone photos of my dinner tomorrow!

MoFo ate my reader

2010-11-12T14:45:00.003+01:00

I've had to unsubscribe from the RSS bundle - not only was I drowning in reading that I had no chance of keeping up with it seemed to be overloading Reader in some way and causing all sorts of errors and anomalies. I'm going to make a point of popping over to the Where in the World page instead and working my way through what catches my eye there.

Anyway, I've not done anything very exciting to report. Mr. Stripey made a request for Millionaire's Bar, the sort of thing you give your wealthy uncle so he dies young and leaves you all his money, it's that rich. My first attempt at this has shortbread which is too crumbly and a caramel layer that's too chewy (although delicious and worth a posting to itself).

So it's back to the drawing board. I hope our bodies can take the punishment.

And then, I made soya milk. I know, it seems so unlikely, but this is the first time I've ever made soya milk in all my life. Truth be told, I don't like it much and for the small quantities that have been necessary it's just so much easier to buy some.

However, I have a cunning plan and it requires that first I master all aspects of soy product manufacture enabling us to enjoy home made tofu, tempeh and in the fullness of time maybe even miso and soy sauce too. I used the recipe here although it's not going to be particularly different to any other recipe. All I can say is, what a faff. It's not difficult but it is boring. I shall be working on my attitude problem assiduously I can assure you. And here are the results of my labours.

Rush job

2010-11-10T22:26:00.004+01:00

Just a quick one to make the quota! Dinner tonight was pretty simple, boiled spuds, steamed cabbage and a rich onion miso gravy with slices of smokey tofu simmered in it.

Pudding was another very simple construction. Apple Fool. Most usually made with the mouth puckering green gooseberry or the equally sour faced rhubarb, fruits fools make any sharp fruit puree delicious, sweet and creamy.

If you google for recipes for fruit fools you'll find plenty that demand huge quantities of double cream but in the cash strapped middle England of my youth fruit fools were made with custard alone, not even an egg custard but the magnificence that is Birds Custard, just cornflour, sugar, vanilla flavouring, colouring and milk.

We've come a long way since then. Although I still have a can of the good stuff in the cupboard I splashed out on some ready made custard from Alpro. They may make rubbish soy milk and yoghurt these days (someone in marketing has decided that even the unsweetened versions need to have vanilla keynotes!) but it's hard to fault their instant custard. It's a gem of its kind.

Use equal quantities of freshly made fruit puree and custard by volume. I had some excellent cooking apples; Lane's Prince Albert, but any cooker that will give a soft frothy sauce will do. Mix the two together and chill until required. A tall glass and a shortbread biscuit will dress it up for company but we just ate ours with a teaspoon.

As usual apologies for the photos. I can't wait for the daytime to be longer than night again.

Get out of Jail Free Card

2010-11-09T12:28:00.003+01:00

O.k. I'm taking the easy way out today. Reading the VeganMoFo RSS feed is taking so much time I don't have any energy left to cook. Seriously, although I've linked to the RSS feed page you might prefer to bookmark the Where in the World page and concentrate on one country at a time. My brain is fried trying to keep up.

This is the list from IEatTrees that everyone's doing... if you've not done it yet, hang on to the thought. It just might save your life.

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?

You know, I don't think there is one. I knew I'd miss meringues and I do, but I'm working on it. I do miss good cheese, and I expected to. I suppose a lot of commercial confectionery - I had a mild sweetie addiction but if I do take a bite of something by accident these days I find it tastes stale and rancid, not very nice at all.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?

I was mainly brought up in a houseful of conventional eaters and it stunted my curiosity to an extent. Luckily I had an Aunt who was a great foodie and she introduced me to the complexities of French cooking. From there, the world was my oyster.

What vegan dish or food you feel like you “should” like, but don’t?

Oh, anything with buckwheat in it. Yuck.

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?

We talking volume or frequency? A lot of low caffeine teas, like redbush or herbal blends and then I make up for that by as much espresso as I dare.

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?

That weird stuff that was strangely addictive! My safe offering to omnis is baklava. They love it, and so do I.

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?

Am I OCD? No comment. I don't much like fusion cooking but luckily that fad has fallen out of fashion.

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?

Pickles

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?

Everything.

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?

Chocolate, oil, spices. Almost anything really, although sometimes corners can be cut in the interests of economy.

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favourite snacks?

Normally, not much of a snacker. I just have six meals a day.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?

Marinated artichoke hearts.

What is your favorite vegetable? Fruit?

I love aubergines. And grapes are so easy to eat but really, all fruit and vegetables are fab.

What is the best salad dressing?

Classic vinaigrette.

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?

Seriously? Soy sauce. However, I eat a lot of marmite too.

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?

Any kind of soup. Feeling feverish? Miso Soup. Full of cold? Hot and sour soup.

What is your favorite cupcake flavour? Frosting flavor?

I don't eat cupcakes. Really.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Or cookies. Well, I'm lying. I like pink wafer biscuits but they're hard to get vegan. Also Nice biscuits, a sort of fine coconut thin shortbread biscuit which are probably not so well known world wide. Oh, and Bourbon creams... eh, takes me back to my youth!

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?

Most frequent is probably a big pan of mixed roast vegetables. I love all the food we eat, or I wouldn't make it.

What is one dish or food you enjoy, but can’t get anyone else in your household to eat?

The Stripey male is much less keen on foods that are acid or bitter than me, so I don't make meals like that. He'll eat them but he won't ask for seconds and it breaks my heart.

How long, in total, do you spend in the kitchen on an average day?

You mean cooking? Depends, the evening meal usually takes about an hour but other food prep and meals can bump that up to three hours or so.

Waffle waffle waffle

2010-11-08T13:07:00.003+01:00

I had a good birthday for cooking aids. This lovely shiny Cusinart waffle iron was a present from my son and I've been trying some different recipes to see how to get the best of it.

First of all I went for the absolutely most simple recipe I could find, based on this one called Frasvåfflor (you'll need to scroll down a bit to find it.)

Lacking enough vegan marg. I made substitutions and came up with this;

60g neutral flavoured vegetable oil
125g soya milk
100g flour (I only had spelt)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla essence.

This made four waffles, which were nice enough to look at but really tasteless.

So the next experiment used this recipe:

(based on the one at GroupRecipes)

115g strong white flour
115g rye flour
115g spelt flour
(the reason for this odd mixture of flours is that I only seemed to have a lot of strong bread flour on hand and thought it would make the waffles tough. Substitute 345g of plain or cake flour or use half that and half fine wholemeal flour)
50g sugar - white, brown, whatever
1 teaspoon (about 9g) baking powder
pinch of salt

25g light vegetable oil
350g non-dairy milk
170g water (you may not need all of it)

Get your waffle iron hot before you start to mix.

Weigh and mix the dry ingredients. Weigh the wet ingredients and add to the dry. Mix well. You may not need all the water but I found the mix much too thick in the original recipe and needed to thin it down a bit.

This makes about 12 waffles in the Cusinart. Ladle a good tablespoon onto each section and spread it a little bit.

Close and cook to your preference. I found these needed about 4 minutes and could maybe have taken a little longer if they were to be eaten immediately. As I was expecting to freeze them, I took them out before they were perfectly golden to allow for further browning in toaster.

They freeze well, allow to cool, bag up with some parchment paper dividers and toss in the freezer. You can then remove one or two for breakfast and reheat in the toaster from frozen. Almost as good at the freshly cooked ones.

Mofo Day 5 - Greek Chickpea Soup

2010-11-05T16:52:00.006+01:00

Another reason for hating the winter, flash photography.

Recipes pop up in all sorts of unlikely places. My pointer to this absolutely classic simple Greek staple came from Agricultural Biodiversity, a site which brings together all sorts of interesting things about humans, crops and the wild relatives that spawned them. Today a link there about the European Food Information Resource took me to a recipe file (it's a downloadable .pdf) where I found the recipe.

The original (on page 51) made far too much soup for two and I wanted to use the pressure cooker to reduce preparation time, so I soaked 500g chickpeas in hot water for two hours and then pressure cooked them at high for 20 minutes. Half the chickpeas were put aside for another dish and I continued with the remainder.

250g chickpeas (dry weight)
Water
1 large onion
70g Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
15g (1 scant tablespoon) white flour
7g (1 heaped tsp) salt

Soak the dried chickpeas overnight (for about 12 hours) in a bowl of cold water, then rinse them thoroughly and place in an uncovered saucepan filled with water over high heat. When the water starts to boil, skim off the foam which forms on the surface and reduce the heat to a medium temperature.

After 10 minutes, add the onion and the salt (the onion is added at this early stage so that it can dissolve and blend into the soup). Add hot water as required during cooking so that the chickpeas don't dry out and stay "soupy".

Test the chickpeas whilst as they cook until they are soft. This will take about 2 hours. Or speed this step up by soaking the chickpeas in hot water for a couple of hours and then pressure cooking according to your pressure cooker's instructions. You can add the onion and salt to the pressure cooker at the start or in the next stage.

Take about a quarter to a third of the cooked chickpeas from the pan and mash them with a potato masher or stick blender. Return the chickpea pulp to the pan and stir in. Add the finely chopped onion and salt now if it's not already in the pan, and cook for a few minutes until soft. Bring the volume up to about 1 litre with more hot water if needed.

Mix the lemon juice and the flour in a bowl and add to the soup. The amounts in the original recipe are a bit odd, I think for 500g chickpeas as described it should be 30g white flour or two tablespoons. The flour both thickens the soup and helps the olive oil stay in suspension. The lemon juice is for flavour so adjust to taste but you'll need at least one whole lemon's worth. Allow the soup to cook for 15 minutes or so to cook the flour and meld the flavours.

Then add the olive oil and simmer for a few minutes more. It should be comfortingly thick and simple. Add some chopped green herbs if you like.

Serve, with bread, salad, olives, vegan cheese or whatever.

Aubergine Tikka

2010-11-03T10:09:00.004+01:00

Instant Fail on VeganMoFo as I totally didn't make the necessary post for yesterday. In my defence, well, there isn't very much, but that post will be along shortly, probably in the company of several others.

So, this is a meal I cooked for myself about three weeks ago. An Aubergine Tikka Masala. The sauce tasted great but was strangely unappealing to the eye (and not entirely like the original) so for now, here is how I made the Aubergine Tikka part without a Tandoor.

Cut large aubergine(s) (it's delicious, do plenty!) into biggish chunks, they will shrink by about 50% when cooked so cut with an eye to finishing with bite sized pieces for serving.

Sprinkle a good teaspoon of fine salt over the pieces and leave to degorge for about an hour. Now, this step is often regarded as unnecessary with modern varieties of aubergine but the point here is not to remove bitterness but to slightly dehydrate the fruit so that it will absorb more of the marinade in the next step.

When the pieces are oozing liquid, squeeze them dry. You can rinse the salt off first if you like, probably a good idea if you have high blood pressure but rinse quickly and squeeze well.

Make a marinade of 100g non-dairy yoghurt, a tablespoon of mashed garlic, a tablespoon of grated ginger and a half teaspoonful each of ground turmeric and a good red paprika. These spices will help with the colour. You can also add a little garam masala or your favourite curry powder if you like but don't overdo it.

Mix the dry aubergine into the marinade so that it is well coated and leave for an hour.

Heat your oven to hot.

I used a hob to oven pan for this, a wonderful cast iron oval skillet which holds a fearsome heat. Heat your pan up as hot as it will go on the hob with just a splash of rapeseed or peanut oil in it. Put the pieces of aubergine in, with the marinade still clinging to them, making sure they are well spread out. Turn them over so that they are sealed on all sides.

Add a sliced chilli and some finely sliced onion rings and pop the whole pan into the oven for about 15-20 minutes until the aubergine is richly golden.

Serve with naan breads, a raita, salad and other curries.

Decisions, decisions.

2010-11-01T14:55:00.003+01:00

Whose idea was it to run VeganMoFo actually in the same month as NaNoWriMo? For someone with a very limited ability to get myself motivated even as far as making breakfast it is definitely taking the piss. I don't think I can do both and my ability to choose rationally is pretty poor too, so I may end up doing nothing at all.

Anyway, I can at least have a go at blogging this. For my birthday, a whole month ago now, I received a kit of secret powders and special tools so that I could start to experiment on the rather well trodden paths of molecular gastronomy.

I'm still learning techniques at the moment so it will be a while before our meals start to show much influence from the higher echelons of fancy cuisine and even longer before I'll have any original recipes to share but for the moment please be amazed by my first attempt, a beetroot caviar.

Foraging

2010-10-14T19:27:00.005+01:00

One of the best things about living on the edge of a forest with your own land is that wild food collection is as easy as stepping out to the vegetable patch. Today I went out for the first of the sweet chestnuts and scored some lovely wild mushrooms too.

Even so I was about to consign them to the fridge and have a slice of bread for supper when the phone rang and Mr. Stripey told me not to be so silly. So I made the fancy dinner I'd planned whilst walking around the fields.

It's nothing more complicated than a sweet chestnut and chanterelle stew served with a big dollop of comforting polenta to soak up the red wine sauce.

Sweet chestnuts look a little like horse chestnuts but the green cases are much much spikier. Wear gloves to collect them and pick them over carefully. Any that are not plump within their chestnut skins aren't worth having and any with tiny holes will have a worm living inside, so best discarded.

Chanterelles are some of the easiest wild fungi to identify but it's still worth doing your homework before heading out to the woods. You can substitute any sort of edible mushroom if you can't find any.

To serve four, although perhaps not with quite such large portions as the one I gave myself you will need:

300g fresh sweet chestnuts.
100g fresh wild fungi (or use oyster mushrooms from the supermarket)
Olive oil
1 medium onion
2 stalks of celery
2 cloves of garlic
300ml red wine (I used a supermarket brand Merlot)
20g dark miso
15g ready made Dijon mustard
Black pepper and salt.

Peel the chestnuts by slitting the hard brown skin and pulling it away. It should separate easily leaving a thinner pinkish skin over the nut. Bring a pan of water to the boil and drop the chestnuts in to simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Refresh in cold water and peel off the thin underskin. This isn't particularly easy and if you've left them to simmer for too long the nuts will crumble. Just do your best.

Clean and slice your mushrooms. Heat a clean pan and add a big slug of olive oil to it. Quickly fry the mushrooms until they have lost moisture then, retaining as much oil as possible in the pan, remove them to a warm dish to rest until needed.

In the same pan and oil as you cooked the mushrooms, cook the finely chopped onion and celery until they start to brown. Season with plenty of ground black pepper and add the crushed cloves of garlic. Stir everything around then add 300 ml of wine. Bring to a simmer and allow to reduce for five minutes. The liquid should reduce to about half its original volume.

Mix the miso and mustard with 200ml of cold water and add it to the pan stirring well to combine. Add the peeled chestnuts and stir, then cover and keep over a low heat while you make the polenta.

I used five minute polenta made according to the packet. At the end of cooking add a good measure of a well flavoured olive oil or some of your favourite vegan margarine and keep warm.

Add the mushrooms to the pan of simmering chestnuts and mix well together.

Serve a dollop of polenta for each diner topped with chestnut and chanterelle stew. Make sure everyone gets their fair share of the gravy. Decorate with finely chopped parsley or chervil if liked.

Eat immediately with a glass of good red wine.

Indian Summer

2010-10-09T17:44:00.002+01:00

I was born in an indian summer. My mother tells me she sat in the hospital gardens with me, mothers in those days spent 10 full days in hospital, and we soaked up the unseasonal sun together.

This year, my birthday was grey, wet and cold but after a week when I was sure that autumn had set in properly the skies cleared and the temperature rose. The perfect moment for a celebration drink I've been meaning to share all summer.

The fruit punch bases known as Pimms are very traditional English drinks and the most well known version is based on gin, the quintessential English spirit. It's almost impossible to buy the branded version in France, a secret recipe which has been guarded since 1823.

However, it is possible to create a home grown equivalent which is almost as good. Serve it with plenty of ice, slices of orange, lemon and cucumber, add small pieces of aromatic soft fruit like peaches or melon, a sprig of mint (not in picture!) and decorate with borage flowers. You can make it in a jug or the glass but it's a long drink. Serve it in an old fashioned half pint dimple mug or use a straight pint glass as I did.

To make a full 750ml of Pimms No1 style basic alcohol fruit cup mixture which will allow you to make over 3.5 litres of drink you will need:

300ml Dry Gin (no need to use a Bombay Sapphire or other expensive brand)
300ml Italian Red Vermouth (again, pick one you like but it doesn't need to be expensive)
150ml Orange Curaçao (Cointreau works)

If you mix these in a 750ml screw top bottle you can keep it in the fridge and serve yourself delicious drinks on any sunny day that calls for it.

To serve, take your glass and half fill it with ice. Add a measure of Fruit Cup mix and fill the glass with fruit and flowers. Top up with 3-4 measures of lemonade, soda water, tonic water or a mixture to taste. The final alcohol content will be about 6%, equivalent to a strong beer or half the strength of wine so take care and drink responsibly.

Saturday Breakfast

2010-09-25T10:40:00.002+01:00

Latkes with Tomato Jam, served with a big mug of coffee.

Back soon.

Beetloaf

2010-09-11T18:19:00.002+01:00

This is a favourite recipe I don't make often because I'm too lazy to do the grating required but it's filling, tasty, economical and, dare I say it, good for you. It's also just the sort of no-nonsense old fashioned vegetarian home cooking I crave from time to time.

The recipe makes a large loaf tin roast which can be served straight from the oven, eaten cold with bread or crackers or reheated in a sauce so despite making six good servings it's ideal for the single diner. I've never tried freezing it but I'm sure it would.

You will need:

250g grated potato (about one large, well scrubbed so no need to peel)
250g grated beetroot (about 2 medium. Scrub them well, no need to peel, trim the root end and use the leaf stem stubs to hold the root while you grate it)
150g finely chopped onion
100g fine breadcrumbs, wholemeal is best.(I used my coffee grinder to make mine!)
100g coarsely ground nuts - almonds, walnuts, cashews, whatever. (the grinder struggled here, and few nuts were left whole which was rather nice)
75g tahini (or peanut butter or if all else fails a tablespoon of oil)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
black pepper
2 tsps dried herbs (thyme, sage, mixed, de Provence) or the equivalent in fresh

Mix the vegetables, crumbs and nuts together. Dilute the tahini with the soy sauce and mix everything together with the pepper and herbs.

Bake in a well oiled loaf tin for about an hour at 180C. Line the bottom of the tin with a strip of oiled baking parchment if the turning out whole is important but usually you'll get away with it anyway. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out to decorate in whatever retro fashion floats your boat. I've seen meatloaf recipes suggest masking in tomato sauce or ketchup even. Interesting.

I served mine with dutch oven steamed potatoes and leaf cabbage, dressed with an onion miso gravy.

Ketchup catchup

2010-09-10T20:45:00.004+01:00

This is what I made with the pot of tomatoes I was working on yesterday. Two litres of simple, rich, thick tomato ketchup.

Last year I tried quite a range of different recipes for tomato jams and ketchup and they were good but they weren't quite the same as the thick red gloop of my misspent youth. This is much closer to the mark and has no garlic or onion in it.

You will need 9 litres of fully ripe, washed and roughly chopped (in halves or quarters) red tomatoes and a pot big enough to take them all. I'm not sure what the weight is but I'll be filling the pan again tomorrow and will weigh it then for an update. *** UPDATE *** The weight of tomatoes in my pan full is about 7kg/15lbs.

Without adding any extra water, set the pan of prepared tomatoes over a low heat until the juices start to run, then give it all a good stir and turn the heat up for 20 minutes or so until the whole pan is full of soft, cooked tomato goodness.

Turn off the gas and allow to cool a little. This is for your comfort, so if you can take the heat move straight onto the next stage.

Run the softened tomatoes, skin, seeds and all through a food mill. You'll need something like this, I bought mine four years ago and it's still going fine.

This will remove the seeds and any lumpy bits but still press most of the skin and flesh through. When it's all done you'll have reduced the volume in the pan to about 6 litres.

Put it back on the heat, bring to a simmer and allow to reduce, stirring frequently to avoid it catching, until it's 3 litres, a half of what you started with. A big preserving pan with graduations on the side is helpful but you could use a ruler. Measure the depth of liquid when you start and stop when you get to half of that. It does take a bit of time so keep yourself busy in the kitchen while it does its stuff.

Add to the pan, 500g white (or any colour you fancy!) sugar and 500ml of 5% (or greater) vinegar - I used a 5% cider one. Season with two teaspoons of paprika, 1 teaspoon of ground allspice, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and three dried red chillies. The spicing is up to you, this is lightly fragrant. If you use whole spices you'll probably want to strain them out before bottling. Add 25-30g good salt. I used sea salt.

Stir everything in and then reduce the volume again to two litres. You'll need to stir much more frequently now and the sauce will spit so use a long handled spoon, wear an oven glove or wrap your hand in a tea towel to avoid burns.

When the sauce is reduced it should be thick enough but you can reduce it a little more if you like a really rich dollop with your chips.

Pour into warm sterilised bottles or jars and seal the lids. If you want you can heat treat this for longer keeping. Put on the caps but don't tighten and process in a simmering water bath with the water up to the neck of the bottles for 25 minutes, then remove and tighten caps. We'll use it all up before it has a chance to go off so I haven't bothered. Refrigerate after opening.

Macaroni con funghi

2010-09-09T16:34:00.002+01:00

Hello again! The long delay hasn't been because I've died due to mushroom poisoning, rather that the season has progressed from potatoes and courgettes to fungi and tomatoes pretty much seamlessly and it's still stretching my ability to come up with something fresh and interesting.

My days are spent rendering tomato products and drying and freezing various fungi for the winter. Today I had a big pot of tomatoes that were becoming passata and some mixed varieties of mushrooms - chanterelle, sheeps' feet and parasols - to preserve.

It seemed hopelessly Italian so for my supper I had to include some pasta. Start the pasta first, if it finishes cooking before the sauce is ready, drain and keep warm but it should all come together about right.

The sauce was made with a clove of garlic and a small onion (or use a shallot) chopped fine and softened in plenty of olive oil. When this starts to smell delicious add your prepared mushrooms and stir them around in the hot pan so that they cook and take on the caramel sugars of the onion. Add a couple of ladles of hot fresh tomato passata, salt and pepper to taste and allow to simmer down for a few minutes.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce, toss well, sprinkle with some fresh green basil and serve.

Puff Ball Puff

2010-08-26T17:57:00.003+01:00

I'm sorry it's been so quiet around here. Mostly it's because I'm just eating what's growing and cooking it as simply as possible. There are only so many ways of displaying a plate of potatoes, beans and courgettes before everyone falls asleep from boredom, the eater included.

Anyway, after the heat came the rain and that has proved to be ideal conditions for the Giant Puff Ball, currently known as Calvatia gigantea in botanical terms. Before I get too bored with these as well, and regular readers will be aware of my ambivalence to all things mushroomy, I thought I'd show you a typical presentation.

The Giant Puff Ball is a robust creature and can be chopped up and used pretty much as you would use a soft tofu or aubergine in any of your favourite dishes but I particularly enjoy them sliced and coated in a thin batter before pan frying. They also make damn fine tempura if you're in the mood for a Japanese theme.

Here the cooked slices are served with a garden salad of onions, tomatoes, mild chilli pepper, golden purslane and basil leaves. No need for dressing because of the oil already on the puffball puffs and just a bit of salt and lemon juice to bring out the flavours.

If you get the opportunity do try them, they're really quite special.

First of a New Season

2010-08-10T20:08:00.007+01:00

We've been eating new potatoes from the garden for several weeks now but one of the varieties of potato we grow is chosen because we think it makes especially good chips. The variety is British Queen. Potatoes for making chips are usually fully mature and conditioned before use which can mean waiting until September or October before the spuds are fit but we decided to have a go with our just grown and barely legal tubers. It worked surprisingly well.

Making delicious full fat chips is pretty simple, prepare potatoes, make nice chunky chips, cook once in hot oil to cook the flesh through, then remove the chips to drain, reheat the oil and pop them back to crisp and brown. See full instructions here.

With them, because we are on the continent after all, we had real home made vegan mayonnaise.

We've always bought it before, the Plamil version for preference, one or two other less pleasant ready made alternatives but it actually took a post on David Lebovitz's blog to show me how easy it was to make this for ourselves.

You absolutely must have a good quality blender to make this but if you have that essential it's pretty easy. I've made it a couple of times now, the first time using some cereal milk, the second a small pot of soy yoghurt. Both worked just fine, so the liquid you start with isn't too significant, and you could probably experiment with whatever you have to hand. I have used grape seed oil and a mixture of grape seed and olive oils. I think all olive oil would be too strong a flavour for most purposes although if you were making aioli it might work.

80 - 100g chilled cereal milk, soy milk or soya yoghurt
20 ml lemon juice
1 clove of garlic
pinch of white pepper if liked
150g vegetable oil in a small jug with good pouring lip
Salt
Herbs or seasonings to taste

Put the milk liquid, lemon juice and chopped garlic in the blender and give it a 30 second whizz to combine, then with the motor running add the oil very, very slowly through the lid into the blades. Try to add just a few drops at a time to begin with and then a very thin slow stream so that the whole process will take several minutes to add all the oil. The mixture will begin to thicken and may make gloopy explosions as it does so don't be alarmed. When it's thick, stop the motor, scrape the mayonnaise out into a bowl and add salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp. for this quantity), extra chopped herbs and a touch more lemon juice if you like it.

You could also add hot chilli sauce and more garlic to make a rouille type sauce or chopped capers, gherkins and herbs for a sauce tartare. Just use your imagination.

If the worst happens and the mayonnaise fails to thicken, perhaps because you added the oil too quickly, then pour the curdled mess back into the jug. Put 80g of cold milk or yoghurt in the blender and start again, adding the jug contents very very slowly as if it were just oil. This classic rescue formula works, I've done it!

Intermediate Interval Separating

2010-08-02T17:09:00.003+01:00

So I'm really sure the WHOLE WORLD would like to know what it is that I eat on those days when it's not good enough to blog about.

Here we have a prime example - casually entitled Rat Charlotte it is a tempting combination of 3 day old leftover ratatouille and some pain de mie, the French equivalent of Mothers Pride, manipulated in a classic manner.

I don't know why it is that I can't make food in portions for one person, or when I find myself with far too much to eat at any one time I don't just throw the excess away immediately. Something in my frugal guilt laden upbringing just keeps me hanging on, resenting it and yet eating it although driven to the point of anorexia.

You might make this yourself, some evening when you've no money, little other food and in desperate hunger but really, if you were me, now, you'd be better off if you didn't.

It was o.k.

Sweet Caramel

2010-07-27T17:36:00.005+01:00

I read quite a lot of non-vegan blogs. Omnivores still eat vegetables and sometimes the techniques used on meat can be subverted to more suitable foods.

This recipe on Sunflower Food Galore is something that appealed to me, so that's what I made for my dinner tonight. It's a sweet and savoury flavour, rich with garlic and pepper. Delicious.

Instead of the chicken in Sunflower's recipe I used a very firm tofu, the sort of vacuum packed longlife product which is all that's available in supermarkets here. It worked well because it was strong enough to withstand the two cooking processes needed.

True garlic and elephant garlic compared.

In the garden I've been growing elephant garlic. Technically it's not a true garlic but a leek, however it looks like garlic and smells like garlic, it's just much much bigger! For cooks, it isn't perhaps as pure a garlic flavour as it might be but it has the advantage of making nice large slices and freshly picked the sugars in it caramelise rather beautifully. It seemed the obvious candidate for the dish.

250g firm tofu
Sesame oil
Garlic (use plenty!)
30g sugar
30g soy sauce
150g water
2 tsps white vinegar
Black peppercorns - about a dozen, crushed
30g roasted cashew nuts (optional)

Slice your tofu into pretty shapes, I made triangles but cubes or batons would be just as good.

Fry them off in a little sesame oil. Keep the oil hot so that the tofu takes a good colour then remove to a holding dish. Put your sliced garlic in the hot pan for just a minute or less to colour without burning. Scrape the garlic and any remaining oil onto the reserved tofu.

In the pan, sprinkle the sugar and allow it to melt over the heat. Watch it carefully, it will start to turn quite quickly and you don't want it to burn. When it's nice and golden brown remove the pan from the heat and add a little water from your measured quantity. It will splutter and spit like mad so hold it away from you and swirl the pan so that the hot sugar dissolves - it might solidify a bit but should stir back in.

Put the pan back on the heat, add the soy sauce, vinegar, pepper and the rest of the water. Bring to the boil and return the tofu and garlic to the pan. Allow to simmer for a few minutes while the gravy reduces and thickens to about a third of the original volume. Add the cashew nuts if wanted and swirl in the sauce.

Serve with rice and other vegetables if you like.

A housekeeping note: I'm still having many more spam comments than real ones. I've no desire to help Asian Babe sites publicise their tacky goods. If it goes on, and Google have been no help over this, I might just ditch the blog. It's all rather depressing.

Breakfast for Supper

2010-07-12T17:40:00.004+01:00

I'm not averse to taking supper dishes for breakfast but tonight I decided to reverse the theme and have what most people would call breakfast food for my evening repast.

This is just a fresh fruit variation of the old Bircher-Benner oatmeal dish.

Take a handful of, ideally organic, rolled large oats as simply processed as you can find and soak them for 12 hours (this was overnight in the Swiss Alps) in water or non-dairy milk. I used an oat based milk this time. If you want to have dried fruits in your cereal, raisins or chopped apricots for example, put them in with the oats overnight.

In the morning, grate an eating apple complete with skin and mix it into the soaked oats. Add other fresh fruits and if you like a few chopped nuts or seeds, then top with a couple of teaspoonfuls of soft dark sugar and some more milk to taste. Eat immediately, slowly and enjoy your meal.

Banana Oat Bread

2010-07-08T10:25:00.002+01:00

Remember all those bananas I bought at a bargain price the other day. I've made six loaves of this bread from them since then, using 18+ bananas and there are still bananas in the freezer and all the fruits that were eaten by guests in the interim. Didn't we do well?

This bread isn't a world shattering revelation of a recipe but it's tremendously popular - which is just as well, really. The method is simple and the basic bread would lend itself to all sorts of innovative additions if you had a mind to it although the novelty of the basic banana flavoured loaf hasn't worn off yet in this house.

It's also packed full of oats which render it positively healthy as a food. What are you waiting for - make it now!

You will need:

290g flour - I have used plain white and a fine wholemeal, both work
100g granulated sugar - white, brown, Demarara or muscovado, your choice
1/2 tsp. salt
11g baking powder, see method
150g rolled oats
3 ripe bananas (or 4, see method)
125ml non-dairy milk (or water)
25ml light flavoured vegetable oil

1 9x5 (2lb) loaf shaped baking tin

Mix together all the dry ingredients. The oats I've been using are jumbo oats but Quaker porridge oats would also work. Don't use instant porridge powder because I think it would be horrible.

100g of sugar is plenty in my opinion but you can bump it up to 125g if you have a sweet tooth.

Salt is always optional.

Baking powder - people get so worked up about their raising agents. In France levure chimique is sold in little sachets containing 11g. This is plenty to raise this loaf. If you don't have a sachet, two flat teaspoons of baking powder is sufficient. If you don't have baking powder then mix together 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (sodium bicarbonate) with 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate), use 2 teaspoons of this in your loaf and throw the other one away! Simple, non?

In another bowl mash the bananas until gloopy. Mr. Stripey likes to find bits of actual banana in his bread and this is what the fourth banana is for. Don't mash it, add it in little bits just before the batter goes into the tin.

Add the milk (or water, nobody ever died from using water instead of soy milk in banana bread) and oil to the banana mush and stir together. Then add the whole lot to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. It should make a nice wet batter, add a very little extra water if you feel the mix is too stiff.

I line my tin with a piece of baking paper, just the long sides and bottom but you can grease the tin if you prefer.

Put the batter into the tin, rap the filled container on the work surface to settle the mix and bake in a medium hot oven, about 180C for 50 minutes to an hour. I'm sorry that's a bit vague but the oven here isn't exactly temperature controlled. Test your loaf after 50 minutes with a skewer and if it comes out a bit wet with uncooked batter be prepared to give it the full hour.

After cooking, allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then finish cooling on a rack. It doesn't cut well warm but is nicest fresh from the oven. If you keep it in a sealed container or plastic bag it will slice more cleanly on the second day but the slices are still a bit crumbly. This hardly matters as you'll need to break it into pieces to cram it into your mouth.

Served with apricot jam and banana icecream it's a pretty good pudding too.

French Breakfast

2010-07-06T09:20:00.002+01:00

Had the family visiting for the weekend. Lots of cooking and drinking, not much time for blogging. They've all gone home now.

And now I'm on my own again, with only the cats for company, there's no excuse for failing to share my meals with the bloggyverse again. I give you breakfast!

Actually, I'm not so far subsumed into French culture as to breakfast on a cup of strong coffee and a Gitanes merely. I also had bread and jam.

And I made the jam myself. From apricots.

This is not the entrée to a scholarly exposition on bottling; full of arcane tips from the WI on extracting the pectin, dire warnings of botulism from inadequately prepared jam jars or comfortable intimations of middle class smugness. I chopped up the fruit, removed the stones, applied the commercial jam sugar and stuck the stuff in bottles. You can read up about that sort of stuff anywhere, even on the back of the sugar packet which saves buying books.

But I would recommend you try it, because fresh apricot jam is a step or two closer to heaven even than bought apricot jam and that's pretty damn good.

Smashing Radishes

2010-07-02T21:19:00.006+01:00

I went to the supermarket and there were bags of vegetables, at the end of their shelf lives in huge quantities for tiny prices.

I bought a bag of three huge bunches of radishes, perfect because the recent hot weather has driven all the home grown crops to seed, a huge bag of peas in the pod, ideal because I was so late planting this year my peas are still flowers and a bag containing about 5kg of ripe bananas, a crop that the Normandy weather usually precludes. And all for less than 5€.

Most of the bananas are still fit to eat out of hand, unless you are one of those who prefers their fruit green. With the rest I have frozen some for ices and made banana oat bread, recipe to follow another day.

With the peas, I made Penne con Piselli and just like before it was a little bit ugly where the yoghurt separated but the flavour was fantastic. And with the rest of the peas, yes, there were that many, I made fresh pea soup with fake ham I found in the BioCoop in Coutances. An ideal meal for the second hottest day of the year, if I say so myself.

But it was the radishes that really challenged me.

When I arrived home from the shops it was still before breakfast so we had the first handful chilled in cold water with golden crispy fresh baguettes, salt and vegan marg. But, whisper who dares, vegan marg. is no substitute for real butter in this situation. I'm sorry, I know we all pretend that the ersatz are good enough but not for butter and radishes. Not for this girl. And butter is off, obviously.

So with the, not inconsiderable, remainder I resorted to an idea that I'd read about years ago. It was either Claudia Roden or Madhur Jaffrey that gave me the idea of a smashed marinated radish dish, ideal as a snack or appetiser.

Clean and trim your radishes and then smack them smartly on the head with your rolling pin. You're not aiming to make pulp, just crack them a little to increase the surface area and allow the flavourings to penetrate the root. The picture gives you the clue.

Then marinate your radishes briefly in a flavouring of your choice. This is easiest if you put the smashed radishes into a clean jar with a lid. Pour in a little marinade, close the lid and shake well. Leave in the fridge for about an hour, shaking occasionally and your radishes are ready to serve. They will keep for a day but lose their crunch and begin to be sad if you wait longer than this. The radishes exude their juices so you end up with far more liquid than you start with.

I tried a sprinkle of salt with the juice of a lemon which gives a clean flavour. Add green herbs for variety, or omit the herbs and add some cracked coriander and black peppercorns.

However our favourite was a much more oriental mixture of equal parts wine (or rice) vinegar, soy sauce (about a tablespoon of each) and a teaspoon of sesame oil with a finely sliced clove of garlic and about the same volume of grated ginger root.

And I don't seem to have a picture of the finished product. Wonder why that was?

Really Living in France - Update

2010-06-28T08:48:00.003+01:00

Virginie mentioned in comments that there is an online resource for buying vegan products in France and in case it was missed I thought I'd mention it again in an update.

Un Monde Vegan

sells many of the products like Plamil and Redwood that are available in the UK and also has some ranges that are new to me. Not tried them yet but they look good.