1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
lump of ginger, finely chopped
bit of fennel, chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
olive oil
soy sauce
tahini
lime juice
1 cup mixed brown and black (forbidden) rice
Put rice on: 1 cup rice and 2 cups water. Boil about 20-25 min til rice is done and water evaporated.
Heat oil in large frying pan and add onion, garlic and ginger. Cook a little and add fennel. Saute til soft.
Steam carrots, remove when cooked and steam broccoli.
Add broccoli and carrots to the onion mix. Add in some soy sauce and tahini (to make a coating/sauce) and heat gently. Add some lime juice and eat with rice.
2 cups flour
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
pinch baking soda
2 tbsp oil (used veg)
2 tbsp fake milk
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup warm water
Mix warm water, sugar and yeast and leave somewhere warm for 10min. Sift flour, salt and soda. Add oil and milk/lemon juice mix and combine. Then add yeast mix and combine to a dough. Knead 5 min then cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for at least an hour, until doubled in size. Knock down and knead for 5 min then separate into 6 pieces and roll out to about 5mm thick. Heat oven to 500F and put a baking tray in to heat up. Switch oven to 'broil' (=grill, I think) and then put naans in. Do 2 min on each side. They didn't puff up much - perhaps better to do 4 min on 1 side. Can add garlic, veg butter, kalonji seeds to taste. Eat straight after cooking - had them with baba.
Veg chips update:
Sliced peeled sweet potato and beet thinly with a peeler. Steamed for 2min then tossed in a little oil and salt. Put in dehydrator at 57C. They didn't crisp up for a while: did about 6h at 57C then left overnight at 43C. Did notice that they crisped up as they cooled. These were pretty good, actually.
Made this in the Summer with a glut of tomatoes and chillies from the Haymarket. It was really good - balance of sweet and savoury, hot and sour was all there. Recipe is on the back of an envelope I am using to store stamp edges for jamjar labels in - I just know I am going to lose it or forget it's there...
400g tomatoes
9 red peppers
9 red chillies
6 garlic cloves
thumb sized ginger chunk
700g sugar
200ml cider vinegar / balsamic vinegar / other
I modified this: used only 1 red pepper and more tomatoes. Only had those big long slim red chillies so used a quantity of those that I thought would give a good level of hotness. Used a mixture of balsamic, rice and distilled white vinegar. The balsamic gave it a good, earthy depth of flavour. Overall, the stuff was reminiscent of sweet chilli sauce in a jamlike form, and very more-ish.
We had a mixture of traditional and not so traditional stuff for christmas lunch. It was just me and seb so it was pretty easygoing.
For pre-snacks we had some dehydrated veg chips that had been dehydrating overnight in our new dehydrator...
Some root veg: carrot, beetroot, sweet potato. Peeled and then either sliced v thinly with peeler or slightly thicker with knife. Blanched some in the steamer and put others out raw - trying out different treatments. Also did some tomatoes, some kale and some apple and banana, just laying them out as they were.
The apple, banana and tomato probably came out best. The other stuff dried out ok but didn't taste so amazing. Think that blanching was a good move. And it would prob be good to toss the slices / kale pieces in a little oil and salt before drying.
After presents and family phone calls we went to work in the kitchen...
First up was a celeriac and apple salad - followed Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe here:
Could add a handful of chopped walnuts and a few baby leaves. Serves four to six. 120g quinoa 3 tbsp white-wine vinegar 2 tbsp caster sugar 1 tsp salt 1 red onion, peeled and sliced very thinly (used half a large one) 60ml rapeseed oil (used olive) ¼ head celeriac (250g after peeling and slicing) (used half a small one) 60ml lemon juice 2-3 granny smith apples (350g after coring and slicing) (used 2 1/2 gala) 2 tsp poppy seeds 1 red chilli, sliced thinly on an angle 15g coriander leaves, roughly chopped (didn't have any so left them out)
Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil, add the quinoa and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain into a fine sieve, run under cold water and then shake well to remove all the water. Leave to cool down.
While the quinoa is on the go, put the vinegar, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk to dissolve. Add the onion and, using your hands, rub the liquid into it. Add the rapeseed oil, stir and set aside to marinate.
Peel the celeriac, cut it into 3mm thick slices and then cut the slices into long, 3mm-wide strips. Place these at once in a large mixing bowl, along with the lemon juice, and stir well – this will help prevent discoloration. Quarter the apples, remove and discard the cores, and cut the fruit into matchstick-shaped pieces similar to the celeriac. Add the apple to the celeriac bowl and stir well, so it, too, gets a protective coat of lemon juice. (The apples and celeriac can also be cut using a mandolin or a food processor.)
To finish, add the onion and any juices from its bowl to the apple and celeriac mix, then stir in the cooked quinoa, poppy seeds, chilli and coriander. Taste and add extra salt, sugar or vinegar, if you need them – you're aiming for a pungent, sweet and sour flavour.
Next parsnips - did a version of Delia's mustard and maple glazed ones (from Delia Smith vegetarian collection):
1lb parsnips
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp maple syrup and 2 tsp wholegrain mustard, mixed.
Heat oven to 475F (might use a little less hot next time). Put baking tin with oil in it in to pre heat.
Top, tail and peel parsnips and chop into wedges 1-2 cm square and 4-5cm long. Try and err on the chunky side. Put in steamer and sprinkle with salt. Steam for 6min.
Take tray from oven and put over a direct heat. Add the parsnips (careful, they spit). Baste them with the hot oil, then put pepper on top and put in oven for 25min.
Coat parsnip pieces with mustard and maple mix and put back in oven for 5-10 min. Serve immediately.
Two versions of brussels sprouts - first (and best) was the roasted with maple syrup classic - did them with hazelnuts this time, though they were just as good without. The other was with chestnuts and panfried (cross 4oz chestnuts and roast at 400F for 10min and peel straightaway; peel and halve 8oz sprouts and cook in a little olive oil for 17min; add chestnuts and cook 20min; add 2tsp veg stock, 2 tsp sugar, 2tsp cider vinegar and cook 10min), but the chestnuts were hard and not good - the panfried sprouts were pretty good though - similar texture to the roasted ones.
Also had bean stuff I made yesterday, and cranberry sauce, which had gelled amazingly well and tasted wonderful (note, tasted a bit like rose - perhaps contaminated bowl - which was interesting - in future could do this on purpose) - impressed with how quick and easy yet tasty that one was.
Can't really see anything, but L-R there's celeriac salad, brussels sprouts with maple, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, parsnips, bean stuff and cranberry sauce. We had it with water as we'd run out of juice. I realised at the end that everything (except the beans) had some sweetness added to some extent - I guess I like the sweet-sour / sweet-earthy playoffs, but perhaps should have gone for a bit more variety and less sugar? The celeriac salad was really good, and a half quantity would be plenty for the two of us (which would halve the time spent slicing). The parsnips were good but a little burnt - need to make sure pieces are chunky, and I'm not sure the glaze really added anything. The bad chestnuts were a shame, and generally that dish was good but the roasted ones were similar and better (hazelnuts definitely optional). The beans didn't really fit that well (and were better warm), although I guess it was good to have something less sweet.
For pudding the main option was Christmas cake, which I decorated last night (alternatives being clementines and mince pies) - see here for recipe:
1 tbsp olive oil 1 onions, peeled, halved and finely sliced ½ cinnamon stick 1 small bay leaf 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced approx 1 400g tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (used dried from freezer) about 1 cup vegetable stock (or water) 1/4 tsp chilli flakes or cayenne 400g tinned chopped tomatoes (used 2 large plum tomatoes, diced, and 2 tbsp tomato paste) 1/4 tsp sugar 35g black olives, stoned and roughly chopped (optional) Juice of 1/2 lemon small handful parsley, tough stalks removed, coarsely chopped small handful coriander, tough stalks removed, coarsely chopped Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Warm the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onions, cinnamon and bay leaf, and sweat, stirring frequently, until the onions are very soft, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes more.
Tip in the beans and add just enough stock barely to cover the beans. Let it bubble away for 10 minutes, then add the chilli flakes, tomatoes, sugar and olives (if using), and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the tomatoes have reduced into a thick sauce.
Add the lemon juice, leave to cool slightly, then stir in the parsley and coriander. Season to taste, and serve with a little yogurt dolloped over the top (if wanted) and warm flatbreads or pitta on the side.
The beans I used were a bit collapsed - would have been nicer if they were more shapely. But it still tastes very good.
250g cranberries
100g sugar
juice of 1 clementine, made up to 100ml with white wine
zest of 1 clementine
Put all in a small saucepan and bubble til all the berries are burst (about 10 min). Cool a little then put into a sterilised jar. It will thicken further as is cools. Won't keep forever but I am estimating for a few weeks in the fridge. Haven't fully tasted it yet (although it tasted promising while cooking) - saving it for the big day! Edit - it was excellent - see full xmas dinner notes.
Vegan Victoria Sandwich Cake
175 gr organic white self raising flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
85 gr caster sugar
115 gr ground almonds
grated zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
6 tablespoons of olive oil
PLUS 2 tablespoons of low-sugar jam (rasperry or strawberry) and some icing sugar
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (350F), line the base of 2 round sandwich tins (20 cm diameter each) with non stick baking paper.
Put the flour, almonds, baking powder, sugar, orange zest in a large bowl and mix the ingredients.
Put the juice in a measuring jug and add water until the 300ml mark.
Add the juice and the oil to he flour mix and mix well.
Divide the mix in the 2 tins and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the centre springs back when very lightly pressed.
Once they are cooked, leave to cool in the tins, remove the paper, put the jam on one cake and he other on top, sprinkle some icing sugar and EAT!
Dry toast cumin, coriander, mustard and chili til fragrant and popping. Grind to a powder. Mix with turmeric and grated ginger. Heat oil and fry onion. Add garlic and spices, cook for a few min, add stock. Simmer 5 min. Add chickpeas and potatoes. Cook til potatoes are done, then add kale. Cook til tender. Serve with coriander on top and basmati rice (1 cup rice / 2 cups water).
Tasty and pretty simple. Am exploring my spice cupboard quite a lot at the moment, and I like it. The chilis came from India.
Would like to try veggie naans like Andy made us soon - seemed to be quite straightforward (soymilk in dough, marg and garlic on top).
Wanted to use awesome animal shaped cookie cutters I bought a month or so ago. And to make some of them into tree decorations!
75ml black treacle (used maple syrup, molasses would be better)
60g dark brown soft sugar
60g vegan margarine
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2 tbsp water)
~325g flour
icing sugar for decorating
Combine syrup, sugar, butter, bicarb, spices, egg and 100g flour and beat. Stir in more flour to make a stiff dough. Heat oven to 350F. Roll out dough to ~3mm thick. Cut out biscuits and place on ungreased baking sheet (parchment may help). Bake for 11min. Remove from tray while hot and cool on wire rack. When cool, decorate with sugar icing (icing sugar, lemon juice, corn starch, water, optional colouring).
I took some to a Christmas party and they went down really well. It's all about the shapes but the mix kept the shape well and was nice and spicy...
What can I say, seem to have got a bit carried away with baking for Christmas...
Lebkuchen
Seb likes buying and eating lebkuchen (he's German). Wanted to try and make them for him for Christmas, since we're not going to Europe at Christmas this year.
more or less followed this recipe:
http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=recipes/show/lebkuchen
2/3 cup honey
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegan marg
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup candied peel
1 cup blanched, slivered almonds (used a mixture of flaked and powdered)
Boil honey, sugar, water and fat. Cool. Sift dry ingredients and mix into honey to make a dough. Add peel and almonds and combine. Roll out to about 0.5cm. Cut (used coke glass) and place on parchment on a flat baking tray at 300F for about 10 min. They didn't rise or change appearance - kinda hard to tell when done.
Mix 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp hot water and 1 cup icing sugar to make glaze - glaze when cool.
I made a half quantity (about 12 cookies). They taste really good and lebkuchen-y but the shape and texture is different from the lebkuchen we've had before. Perhaps they need egg? Also seb says they should have pepper in them?
(based on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's one from the Guardian website)
200g sultanas (I used golden raisins - sultanas are hard to find in the US)
200g currants (used raisins - currants also hard to find here)
150g dried apricots, chopped (used mixture of figs, peaches, raisins)
150g prunes, diced (used mixture of dates and cranberries)
150g raisins (used cranberries)
60g candied peel (see below for recipe)
60g dried cherries or cranberries (used glace cherries)
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange (used 2 clementines)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
200ml Somerset apple brandy (used 150ml Pimms)
110g hazelnuts, roasted and roughly chopped
200g unsalted butter (used vegan margarine)
100g light muscovado sugar (used golden sugar)
80g dark muscovado sugar (used dark brown sugar)
4 eggs, lightly beaten (used flax eggs)
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tsp mixed spice (ginger / cinnamon / allspice)
1/4 of a nutmeg, grated
1/4 tsp salt
90g stem ginger, finely chopped
Recipe said to soak first nine ingredients in a bowl, add the brandy, stir, cover and leave for 48 hours - I didn't do this and added the booze when I mixed up the ingredients instead.
Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/gas mark 1. Grease a round 22-24cm x 9cm, loose-bottomed cake tin, and line with parchment to come 4cm above the sides. Pulse half the hazelnuts until very fine. Beat the butter and sugars till fluffy, then beat in the 'eggs' one by one (if it begins to curdle, add a little flour). Sieve the flour, baking powder, spices and salt, then stir gently into the batter. Fold in the fruit, nuts, pimms and ginger, spoon into the tin, smooth and bake for two to two and a quarter hours (took more like 3 1/4 - think I would increase cooking temperature if I made it again, just to like 300F or so), until a skewer (or knitting needle) comes out clean. (If it browns before it's done, cover with parchment.) Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and wrap in a double layer of foil. Store in a cool, dry place, feeding it with a slug of brandy every two weeks.
For decorating:
300g whole dried fruits, such as figs, apricots, apple slices, cherries
120g nuts, such as hazelnuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts, almonds
150g warm apricot jam, strained
A day or so before the big day, brush with warm apricot glaze, lay the fruit and nuts on top, and glaze again. Store in an airtight container.
Took a long time to cook. Perhaps 160C / 320F would have been better? I made it 2 weeks before Christmas so that is how long it'll have to mature I guess - will have to see how it tastes then.
Edit: Fed once with more Pimms a week after making, then it was Christmas a week later so I decorated it on Christmas Eve. Warmed a little strawberry jam (didn't have apricot) and brushed it on top, then rolled out about half a pound (maybe more) of marzipan from Polcari's in Little Italy to about 0.5cm thick and pressed it around the cake. Brushed a little more jam on top (used about 5 tbsp jam total I guess) and then arranged sliced dried figs, walnut halves, halved glace cherries and hazelnut on top and glazed with a little more jam. Would have tied ribbon around the outside if I had some (perfect stuff left over from happy hour is sitting at work, oh well. It was fun to mix in the good bits of cake decoration - I don't like royal icing much, but I have a guilty love for glace cherries. It tastes really good! A bit sticky, perhaps because of the smoke alarm going off and me therefore curtailing the cooking time a little, but it's yummy. The candied ginger addition really made it, I think - definitely try and use ginger in future xmas cakes.
Candied Peel
Wash and chop peel (say 1 cup - any mixture of lemon, orange, clementine, grapefruit etc). Put in pan with water. Bring to the boil for 10-15min then drain. Repeat 3 times. Then make sugar water syrup (1 cup of each) and boil with peel until evaporated. Spread on a baking sheet and put in switched-off oven overnight to dry out.
Mincemeat
(do about several weeks in advance of use)
-adapted from a recipe I found somewhere in the internets and forgot where (sorry).
3/4 pint cider
1 lb / 450g soft dark brown sugar
1 lb cooking apple (cored and chopped finely / not peeled - any kind of apple will do if can't find cooking apples - they are hard to find in the US)
1 tsp mixed spice (cinnamon / nutmeg / allspice / ginger / cloves)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
pinch ground cloves
12 oz currants (used golden raisins)
12 oz raisins
8 oz sultanas (used cranberries)
4oz glace cherries (used dried cherries)
4oz candied peel
4 oz chopped almonds (used flaked)
1 orange, juice and zest (used 2 clementines)
1 lemon, juice and zest
1/4 pint brandy or rum (used double amount of Pimms)
1) put cider and sugar in a pan, heat til dissolved
2) add rest except alcohol and boil (stir constantly)
3) lower heat and partially cover. simmer ~45min to thicken
4) cool completely. add alcohol. put in sterile jars (pack down carefully to avoid air bubbles).
5) Add discs of greaseproof or waxed paper to tops of jars, then lid and store.
deffo fine after 2 weeks. not sure how long it'll last - no suet as preservative, is it enough booze? a less thick texture than using fat, but still tastes really good.
Mince Pies
Traditional Pastry
4oz (~100g) plain flour
2oz (~50g) vegan margarine
(for sweet pastry add 1oz sugar)
Rub fat into flour. Add a little water to combine. Rest in the fridge for 30min.
Combine seeds, ground almonds, flour (used normal flour) and ground chickpeas. Rub in fat and mix with a fork. Add a little water to combine. Rest in the fridge 30min.
For any pastry:
Roll out and cut into rounds for pie bases (deep fill used tall plastic measure beaker / normal size used Coke glass). Put bases into bun tin (or muffin tin - that's all I had and it was OK). Fill with mincemeat or a mixture of mincemeat and cooked apple (or pear, or nashi pear - I cooked with a little sugar and a little cinnamon). Cut out stars and put them on the tops. Bake at 400F/200C for ~20min, til golden brown and crisp. Leave to cool before trying to remove from trays.
Both types of pastry came out better than I expected. We liked the seedy one - more interesting. Seedy stuff made 11 deep fill mince pies; classic stuff in total made 14 normal size ones - I guess the quantities are intended to do about 12?
Also managed to set off the fire alarm (good to test it I guess?) through overspill from xmas cake onto bottom of oven where it burned. We wafted it and it was OK.
We bought collard greens thinking we could make a variant on kale chips, but that didn't work out so we still had a bunch of greens. I've never had real collard greens but thought I'd do some American food, vegan style, before Seb got back from work...
2 tbsp ground linseed
6 tbsp boiling water
1 cup plain flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup fake milk
1/4 cup veg oil
handful of sweetcorn kernels
Heat oven to 425F. Grease loaf tin with oil.
Mix the linseed and hot water with a fork until thickened. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt.
Add the linseed mixture, milk and oil to the flour mixture. Beat just until smooth (do not overbeat). Finally add corn kernels (defrosted if using frozen).
Pour into prepared loaf tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean - it will not be completely dry, don't cook too long or it'll burn on the bottom.
Cool on wire rack 10 minutes; then turn out and cool until warm, about 10 minutes longer. Cut into pieces and serve.
Collard Greens
Chop and fry 1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, bit of chili, some pepper flakes - fry for about 5-10 min til well cooked. In the meantime wash the collard greens thoroughly, remove stems and chop roughly. Add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar (balsamic) and of soy sauce to the pan and cook a little. Add a cup of veg stock and the collard greens and cook til the greens are tender but still green (about 10min). Add some mustard and a little salt to taste.
We went to Prana cafe in Newton, having tried some of their very tasty raw food at the Boston Vegetarian Food Fest. A major discovery while there was kale chips. So good. To make really good ones a dehydrator is best. But you can also make them in the oven.
1 bunch kale
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Wash the kale thoroughly. Remove the stems and discard / keep for stir-fry or stock. Tear the leafy bits into pieces. Dry as much as poss. Then...
either...
Oven method:
Mix through about a teaspoon of olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet (or two - no piling up), sprinkle with sesame seeds and put in oven ~400F / 200C for about ten min / til looking crispy.
or...
Dehydrator method:
Steam the kale pieces for a few minutes, just until tender. Toss with oil, salt+pepper, sesame seeds. Spread out flat on dehydrator racks in a single layer. Dehydrate at 57C for about 2 hours, until completely crisp.
I never bothered with making veg stock before - always thought of it as a bit of unnecessary hassle / a waste of good veg - makes sense when you have the bones of a bird or so I guess - good using-up. And when you have a pot of Marigold bouillon powder to hand that will always do. But I can't find bouillon powder here. So I reconsidered stock. And realised that if I save bits of veg I don't need for anything else then I can make stock by recycling instead of wasting veg. So, outer parts of onions, green ends of spring onions, hard stems of herbs, tough ends of broccoli, outer leaves of brussels sprouts, leaves and fibrous parts of fennel and celery, dried-out herbs from the fridge, ends of or old floppy carrots. Usually add an onion chopped into eighths or quarters and a couple of carrots chopped into big chunks, some dried thyme and a bay leaf. In 2l of water, boil for 1 hour without disturbing, and strain through a fine colander without poking. Cool and freeze in measured amounts.
Tofu scramble sounds gross, is much nicer than that.
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp coriander seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp nigella seed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1/2 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
1/2 large block firm tofu
1 plum tomato, chopped
1/2 cup cooked defrosted chickpeas
1 cup fresh spinach, roughly chopped
salt+pepper
Heat oil, add coriander seed, cumin seed, mustard seed, nigella seed and toasted til popped. Add some turmeric and pepper flakes then a chopped onion and fried a bit. Then add chopped red pepper and fry til nearly done. Add half a block of crumbled firm tofu and the plum tomato. Stirfry til liquid gone. Add cooked defrosted chickpeas and chopped spinach, stir til spinach wilted. Season to taste
The tofu scramble was OK. Ate with allspice rice and with lentils cooked in stock with a bayleaf - the lentils were really good.
Often seem to end up on a big cooking mission one day at the weekend, after rediscovering or buying lots of fruit and veg and realising it needs cooking... Today involved 1) aubergines and 2) red-skinned potatoes
Baingan achaari (aubergine curry)
This was one of my favourites when I lived at home. Shireen introduced me to it, and it originates from Madhur Jaffrey (but has been adapted along the way).
Cut aubergine into wedges 2cm thick / 4-5cm long. Rub with oil and put on oiled baking sheet in a hot oven (~400F / 250C) for 30min. When done put in a colander to drain.
Meanwhile blend garlic, ginger and water to make a smooth paste.
Put ~3tbsp of oil in a large high-sided frying pan on medium heat. Add fennel, kalonji, cumin and gently darken (few sec). Add tomatoes, garlic/ginger paste, coriander, turmeric, cayenne, salt. Bubble until thickens to a paste.
Add the cooked aubergine and stir gently. Cook 5 min, cover and cook 5 more min.
This is delicious. Ate it with jasmine rice (with cloves and whole cardamom in cooking water), fresh coriander on top is also good.
500g red salad potatoes
1 small onion
1 crisp apple (Braeburn or Cox's Orange Pippin), cored but unpeeled
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 1 tbsp water)
30g plain flour
2 tsp poppyseeds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Groundnut or vegetable oil, for frying
Grate the potatoes, onion and apple. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible (in a mesh colander). Transfer to a bowl and add the lemon juice, flax egg, flour and poppyseeds. Season and mix.
Heat ~1cm oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Form the latke mixture into pancakes about 4cm in diameter and drop them into the oil. Cook for about four minutes a side, until cooked through and golden brown. Put the cooked latkes on kitchen paper to absorb oil.
The latkes were a faff, I don't know if I'll bother again - lots of grating (incl my thumbnail a wee bit), smelly frying and oily end product. They tasted quite nice - crispy fried potato and onion on the outside, waxy cooked on the inside, with little taste hits of poppyseed now and again (didn't really notice the apple). S liked them. We ate them with sweet chili or wholegrain mustard, the recipe suggested horseradish cream (2 tbsp fresh horseradish, finely grated, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice, ½ tsp caster sugar, 150ml crème fraîche, pinch of salt) - need a bit of heat and moisture. Maybe sometime in the future when I have a food processor I'll make latkes...
Had an open tin of coconut milk, remembered I'd been wanting to do a coconut rice pudding. We had an amazing thai sticky coconut rice pudding with ripe mango for dessert at the unassuming 'thai place' in allston (which is really good) the other day, think I was dreaming about that. I love how every culture has its own rice pudding.
1 cup rice (ideally jasmine, but almost anything will do - good if it is a bit sticky / starchy - I used some long grain we inherited a huge sack of)
1 tin coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar
Cook rice in 2 cups water til done. Separately boil coconut milk and sugar (next time I might cook the rice in the coconut / sugar mix I think). Mix milk mixture into rice, cover and leave to sit for half an hour. Makes quite a lot (enough for about six servings?).
I ate a few different ways:
1) with toasted coconut and persimmon (instead of mango)
2) cold with cinnamon and raisins
3) reheated with cardamom and raisins
4) with maple apple / squash / pecan mix (see previous post)
Maple syrup is one of my favourite American foods (others are squash, cranberries, blueberries, pecans, corn - more on those later).
A friend at work was eating maple syrup roasted brussels sprouts and said they were the best and easiest thing he'd ever cooked. So I went and looked them up. They are indeed simple and good - much potential to convert haters to sprouts.
Heat the oven to 375F. Prepare the brussels sprouts by removing any yellow or brown outer leaves and the stems, then cutting in half. Toss the brussels sprouts, olive oil, salt and pepper together until well combined, then spread out in a roasting tin and put in the oven. After 15 min, stir the brussels sprouts. After another 15 min, stir in the maple syrup. Roast for about another 15 min until tender (about 45 min total). Toss the roasted brussels sprouts with the hazelnuts (if using) and eat.
I didn't have hazelnuts (seemed to be a temporary Boston-wide shortage), so did without and it was great. I also tried it with broccoli and that worked too. I've subsequently made it with and without hazelnuts a bunch of times (this has become a bit of a fave) and I like it both ways, but might even prefer without.
I did a similar thing with chunks of apple and squash, and threw in pecan pieces to toast for the last few minutes. That was a really tasty and autumnal dessert, with some coconut rice pudding.
We drove up to Canada through Vermont earlier this year, and en route I discovered the extent of my ignorance on the subject of maple syrup. I thought maple syrup was just maple syrup, but it turns out there are different grades...
Grade A amber - the first harvest and the highest grade - most subtle flavour, recommended for eating fresh with pancakes etc
Grade A dark - next after A amber - slightly stronger flavour.
Grade B - last and longest harvested - they get most of this, it is the lowest grade, has the strongest flavour and it recommended for cooking.
maple candy - opaque, solidified maple syrup sweets
maple spread - similar to candy, but spreading consistency.
I actually like the Grade B syrup best for everything. I guess I generally like strong flavours. The maple spread was also really yummy - nice to have a less drippy textured thing.
I moved to the USA about a year ago. Since then I have spent a fair chunk of time in cereal aisles, trying to find anything without added sugar. Some of them have 'natural' sugars like cane syrup, but every single one is sweetened. I like sweetness, I just don't see why I can't be trusted to modulate it myself... The sole exception was an expensive muesli imported from the UK I found in Wholefoods. So I decided I should really just start making my own muesli. This is the basic recipe:
Flakes:
oats (use the 'old-fashioned' type - not quick-cook - ~2 cups)
barley and/or wheat flakes (~2 cups)
rye flakes (~1 cup)
(oats are easiest to find so I tend to upregulate their content. until recently I only found the other flakes in coop shops far from home, but found 'pressed barley' in a japanese shop nearby last weekend. the flakes have a crispier / less starchy texture than the oats, and the rye ones are quite crunchy - that's why there's less of them)
Whole dried fruit (1 cup total). So far have tried:
raisins (brown or golden)
cranberries
cherries
mulberries
blueberries
strawberries
goji berries
Chopped dried fruit (1/2 cup total) So far have tried:
figs
apple
peaches
apricots
pears
prunes
pineapple
banana
Mix it up and store in an airtight container. Eat with real or fake milk, and add fresh fruit (grated apple or sliced banana are favourites, nectarine, strawberries, blueberries all good) and/or frozen wild blueberries (defrost almost instantly and turn the milk blue!) and/or honey / maple syrup to taste.
I vary the combinations every time I make a fresh batch. It's more economical if you use a higher flake to fruit/seed/nut proportion but the beauty of make-your-own is that you can have as much or as little of anything as you like. I could never have cereal before as I always picked out all the good bits: I never do that with this.
I was trying to think of something clever to do as a first post, then realised I'd probably never get around to it so I may as well just start with the first things I ate today... So, fake milk - probably the biggest change to my diet since going vegan is eating fake milk instead of yoghurt (I never liked or ate milk much apart from in baking anyway). So far I have tried: soy, almond, hazelnut, oat, rice, hemp, mixed seed (incl amaranth), coconut. The ones I like best for everyday use are almond and oat or rice - they have a pleasant, subtle flavour. Hazelnut is lovely but does have a distinct hazelnut taste. The seed/bean ones have a distinct grainy flavour that's not always complementary to different foods you might eat it with. There is a coconut yoghurt drink that is really good, but I'm not so excited about the milk (not the milk you buy in cans in asian grocers, milk constituted as a milk substitute). I also have a thing for chocolate soy milk. Most often I have fake milk with muesli...
Can't really see anything, but L-R there's celeriac salad, brussels sprouts with maple, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, parsnips, bean stuff and cranberry sauce. We had it with water as we'd run out of juice. I realised at the end that everything (except the beans) had some sweetness added to some extent - I guess I like the sweet-sour / sweet-earthy playoffs, but perhaps should have gone for a bit more variety and less sugar? The celeriac salad was really good, and a half quantity would be plenty for the two of us (which would halve the time spent slicing). The parsnips were good but a little burnt - need to make sure pieces are chunky, and I'm not sure the glaze really added anything. The bad chestnuts were a shame, and generally that dish was good but the roasted ones were similar and better (hazelnuts definitely optional). The beans didn't really fit that well (and were better warm), although I guess it was good to have something less sweet.
Wanted to use awesome animal shaped cookie cutters I bought a month or so ago. And to make some of them into tree decorations!
150g dried apricots, chopped (used mixture of figs, peaches, raisins)
