Oven-baked polenta chips

This recipe uses cold polenta, ie leftovers. Usually, we don't have leftovers when it comes to polenta. But I had some polenta with bean stew for lunch when working at home the other day, and there were leftovers! So I put them in a loaf pan in the fridge until Friday, when I tested oven chip-making, using a method similar to that for panisse. I'd found the panisse stuck to the tin really easily, so thought it might be smart to use a coating here to try and prevent sticking.

For the polenta:
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
3 cups water

For coating / baking:
grapeseed oil 
~1 tbsp cornmeal
~2 tsp paprika
~1/4 tsp salt

To make the polenta, mix cornmeal and salt in a bowl. Heat the water until just boiling in a small saucepan. Add the cornmeal mixture, gradually, while whisking constantly. Keep whisking until it thickens. Turn heat really low, cover and let cook for a minute or two. Pour into a greased, straight-sided tin, let cool and either make chips immediately or refrigerate the tin until needed.

To make the chips, heat the oven to 400F. Grease a baking tray with grapeseed oil. Turn the polenta out of its tin onto a board (it will hold its shape). Cut into chunky chip shapes (~2 cm thick). Mix the paprika, cornmeal and salt in a small bowl. Roll each polenta chip in the paprika-cornmeal mixture so that all sides are coated, then transfer to the greased baking tray. Put in the oven for about 20 min, turning halfway through. The outside should be lightly browned and crispy. Take out and eat immediately, dipped in whatever sauce you fancy.


We ate with the last of the bean stuff and some liquorice ketchup. The polenta chips were pretty delicious, and the coating really made them.

Okara cornbread (gluten free)

After my tofu making escapade, I had about two cups of okara going begging. Last time I had okara I scramble-fried it but I didn't love it like that. I think its vocation is as a filler - it has a pleasant texture and mild taste - would be good in burgers and that kind of thing. This time I tried baking, veganising this cornbread recipe.

1 1/3 cups cornmeal
1 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2/3 tsp salt
1 1/3 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1 1/3 cups fake milk (used dried soymilk)
1 1/3 tbsp molasses
2/3 tbsp veg oil
2 cups okara

Heat the oven to 425F. Grease a loaf tin and line the base. Mix the cornmeal, bicarb and salt in a bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl beat together the linseed mixture, fake milk, molasses and oil. Add the okara to the wet mixture and mix well. Transfer the wet to the dry and mix til just combined (use your hands if you like). Put the mixture in the tin and bake for ~45 min, til firm in the middle.


This remains kind of squishy, but is surprisingly savoury and moreish. Good with green tofu spread and mashed chickpeas. Think the same mixture would have worked quite well shaped into patties and baked on a greased tray.

Gluten-free bread

I went to the woods today with A, D and K. We planned to have a picnic in the woods. I wanted to take something straightforward to eat, considered making these cookies again since everyone liked them and I wanted K to try them. But fancied something savoury. I realised I had never made a yeasted GF bread - I have made some excellent accidentally GF breads, but never one that was intended to take the place of a regular bread, to be sliced and toasted and so forth. I decided to try this recipe as a first pass (note, I had eggs from A's CSA needing used so the egginess was fine this time).

(makes one loaf in large loaf tin)

2 tsp dried yeast
pinch of raw sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) fake milk
3/4 cup (185ml) water
2/3 cup (115g) brown rice flour (subbed TJ's GF flour mix for brown rice flour and potato starch)
1/2 cup (85g) potato starch (subbed TJ's GF flour mix for brown rice flour and potato starch)
1/3 cup (60g) cornmeal
1/2 cup (62g) millet flour (ground millet seeds in spice grinder)
1/2 cup (56g) ground almonds
2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp fine desert salt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
sesame seeds to sprinkle on top

In a small bowl combine yeast and sugar. Add warm water to the fake milk so that it reaches body temperature. Pour the milk mixture over the yeast/sugar and mix to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes to ferment.

Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with a fork. When the yeast starts to bubble, add it to the dry ingredients along with the remaining ingredients and mix to form a smooth batter. It will not become kneadable (more like cornbread batter), but will thicken slightly after you have mixed it for a few minutes. Pour into a greased loaf tin with a lined base, scatter the top with sesame seeds and set aside to prove.

Once the dough has nearly risen to the top of the pan (around an hour) turn your oven to 220C/425F. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown, then turn the oven down to 180C/350F and cook for a further 20-25 minutes or until done (should sound hollow when turned out and tapped). Cool on a wire rack. Slice when cold and store in the fridge.


I had trouble turning it out of the pan - would recommend lining the base. It bakes up well, with a nice crust. Slightly sweet - I might leave out or reduce the honey as the cornmeal is sweet on its own. Quite moist - perhaps it was slightly under (could also explain difficulty turning it out?). Pretty satisfactory though, and I always enjoy mucking around with different flours. I sliced it and took it to the woods along with some lentil dip and muesli muffins. Also ate some with this amazing Speculoos-cocoa vegan (but not GF) spread I found on a foray to TJs - too pretty to eat for about 5 sec (above), then too good to leave alone.

Elderflower, honey and cornmeal biscuits (gluten-free)

I found elderflowers the other day for the first time in ages, and made elderflower cordial. A lot of flowers were falling off the heads I collected, so I saved and dried the fallen ones (spread them on a baking sheet in the oven with it switched off (it has a pilot light so is always warm) for about 24 hours). Then I stashed them until yesterday, when I had the oven on to make bread and felt like doing some experimental baking as well. These are inspired by this recipe. I used all the elderflowers I'd dried (started out with two baking trays spread with fresh flowers, ended up with 3/8 loosely-packed cup dried flowers).
 
(Makes ~12 medium sized biscuits)

30g icing sugar
2 tsp honey
20g grapeseed oil
20g olive oil
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 1 1/2 tbsp boiling water
75g fine cornmeal
25g cornstarch
Pinch of salt
3/8 cup dried elderflowers*

Heat oven to 360F. Beat sugar, honey and oils together in a mixing bowl. Add linseed mixture and beat some more, so it goes thick. Add elderflowers, cornmeal, cornstarch and salt and mix until combined. Flatten to about 1cm thick, use a cutter to cut flower or circle shapes, then transfer to baking sheets and bake for about 10 min, until they are golden. Let cool on the tray for 10 min then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

*I think this would also work with dried chamomile (or maybe calendula) - I have been meaning to test this out as I have some of each at home.


The batter was a bit greasy and soft, and I wondered if I should have used less oil. But they baked up lovely: the honey and elderflower come together in a wonderful, delicate, slightly flowery sweetness. And the cornmeal adds crunch; with the biscuits coming out beautifully yellow, flecked with brown from the linseed mixture (use golden linseed if you want to avoid this). I didn't bother lining or greasing the baking sheets and they came off just fine. I made flower shapes because I have an accidentally, ridiculously big selection of cutters (came in a bargain pack with something I wanted), and I couldn't resist the kitsch. But round ones would also be fine. Remember that because this is a GF dough there is absolutely nothing to worry about regarding handling the dough - re-roll and re-cut as much as you need to.

Parsnip muffins (savoury and sweet)

Yesterday was crazy.

We biked the course of the Boston Marathon overnight on Sunday night: took a train from South Station with 700 other bikers at 10pm, started the course around 11.30pm having biked from the train station in Southborough to the start line in Hopkinton among a vast throng of red blinking lights (lots more bikers arriving in buses and cars as well as the train). S and I lost the others quite early but we sailed all the way: it was a beautiful night: so much energy, fun, camaraderie. Finished about 1.30am, but then I was too excited and didn't really sleep - got up early and went to work in beautiful Spring sunshine. Felt off-kilter, but like the first weekend of Spring... almost Summer.

Food for lab meeting was cheesy pizza (was a last minute solution as originally ordered from the other side of the marathon route), so I couldn't eat it and went down to Brigham Circle about 3pm to get something to keep me going. I was in Green T (tea shop) waiting for a banana-coconut-pineapple smoothie as masses of sirens started speeding past. So many. Unusually many, despite being in an area full of hospitals. There was rolling news on a little TV in the shop. The headlines were about explosions at the marathon finish line. Two and two came together, and my heart clenched. The girl brought out my smoothie and we stood watching the headlines with another customer for a few minutes, exchanging words of shock and disbelief, before I ran back to work: my heart still aching; my thoughts with the people at the finish line, the people in the hospitals, with this tough little city, with all my friends who could so easily have been in the wrong place on this sunny holiday Monday.

Baking can be my way of winding down and taking my mind off things. So I made these last night, after I eventually biked home, having waited for the runners to finish passing our street and the hubbub to die down. I'd wanted to do more, different things with parsnips, the idea of making a bread occurred (thanks to Delia), then I decided to adapt it into a savoury muffin to make it quicker and more portable, then decided to try sweet ones too. Used this recipe as a base; borrowed the idea of a rye-wholemeal-cornmeal flour mix (in the savoury version) from Boston Brown Bread (I needed something Boston-related to creep in, somehow).

Savoury:
(makes 12)

1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup rye flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ground cumin
2-3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 1/2 cups grated parsnip
1/3 cup oil
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1 1/3 cups fake milk mixed with 1 tsp cider vinegar

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare a muffin tin. Mix flours, cornmeal, baking powder, bicarb, thyme, cumin, salt and pumpkin seeds in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl mix the oil, linseed mixture, milk mixture and grated parsnip. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. Dollop into prepared muffin cups and then bake for ~25 min, until a skewer comes out clean.


Sweet:
(makes 12)

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 1/4 cups wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup slivered toasted almonds
1 1/2 cups grated parsnip
1/3 cup oil
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1 1/3 cups fake milk mixed with 1 tsp cider vinegar

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare a muffin tin. Mix flours, baking powder, bicarb, sugar, spices, salt, nuts and raisins in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl mix the oil, linseed mixture, milk mixture and grated parsnip. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. Dollop into prepared muffin cups and then bake for ~25 min, until a skewer comes out clean.


Sweet ones are good: not too sweet, nicely spiced. Think pecans or walnuts might work better than the almonds. You can't really taste the parsnip.

Gluten-free baking

Photo by Alvin

My friends A and K asked me to teach them what I knew about GF baking. I was unsure at first: unconvinced that I knew any more about it than they did. But they persuaded me that even what little I knew would be helpful to them, and I figured it would be fun whatever happened - I like hanging out and drinking tea and cooking, and they are good company. So we got together for a day of GF baking.

I think the main thing I have figured out about GF baking is that you often need a combination of flours - something like glutinous rice flour or tapioca flour or cornstarch or potato starch to stick it together, and then a combination to give good texture: rice flour alone is light but tastes dusty, gram flour is heavy and its taste is overpowering (although lends a pleasant eggy flavour when used in small quantities), oat flour I like, others such as quinoa or millet flour are different again, and some combination (varied depending on the taste you are looking for / what goes with the other stuff in the mix) is what will make it good. Getting a good rise is doubly challenging when doing vegan+GF (no eggs, no gluten).

I thought of three things:

1) Oat-sunflower-raisin biscuits
(I knew these would work (and they did), also thought they were interesting because of the lack of flour / most of the fat coming from the nut/seed butter)

2) Savoury corn muffins
Wanted to do a basic muffin type thing. A mentioned he got coarse cornmeal from his CSA and this idea suggested itself - though it would be nice to do something simple and savoury as most of the GF things I have baked are sweet... I also recently noticed that Trader Joe's started doing a GF flour blend (brown rice flour, potato starch, white rice flour and something else), so thought it would be fun to try something with that. This is based on my favourite basic cornbread recipe, made in a muffin form and with lots of additions.

2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with ~5 tbsp boiling water
1 TJ’s GF flour mix (see above)
½ tsp xanthan gum
1 cup cornmeal
4 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp paprika (note, spice combination is very flexible; adding dried chili or finely chopped fresh chili would also be good)
1 tsp sumac
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tbsp honey (or sugar)
1 cup fake milk + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
¼ cup oil (used grapeseed, any oil would work here really - even stronger flavoured ones - as these are savoury)
Handful sweetcorn kernels, defrosted
~4 spring onions, cleaned, trimmed and chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat oven to 425F*. Prepare muffin cups by lining with paper cases. Mix flour, cornmeal, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, dry spices and seeds (and sugar if using) in a bowl. Add vinegar to the milk, then mix this with the linseed mixture, oil and honey (if using). Add the sweetcorn, coriander and spring onions to the dry ingredients and toss. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix until just combined. Bake for 20-25 min.

These came out well: pleasant, savoury, corny taste, with a robust texture from the cornmeal and a slight sweetness from the kernels. Quite dense, but held together well and rose enough to give a nice shape. *Could perhaps try a slightly lower temperature next time: they browned up on top quite quickly (not a problem really).


3) Little nutty cakes (an educational semi-disaster)
I'd seen these a while ago, and thought they sounded interesting: liked the nuts and the olive oil. But noticed the reliance on eggs and thought maybe they'd be too difficult to adapt. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to try anyway - I think partly because I got into the idea of mixing nut flour and buckwheat flour.

3 tbsp linseed mixed with 7.5 tbsp boiling water (or 3 eggs)
1 cup (200g) sugar
2/3 cup (90g / 3 ¼ oz) ground almonds (or hazelnuts)
1 ½ cups flour – sub ¾ cup oat flour plus ¾ cup buckwheat flour plus ½ tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
¾ cup plus 2 tbsp (200 ml) mixture of extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oil
About ¼ cup (25g) mixed chopped untoasted nuts for sprinkling (used hazelnuts)

Heat oven to 400F. Prepare muffin tins. Beat linseed (or eggs) and sugar together with a whisk, a lot – til doubled in volume. Mix ground nuts, flours, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. Add olive oil to the linseed-sugar mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fill muffin cups halfway. Sprinkle mixed chopped nuts on top. Bake for 15 min / until springy (might take a bit longer without muffin tins).

These kind of rose up massively and spilled out of the muffin cups across the surface of the tin, leaving a sunken middle - ended up looking a bit like little bird's nests. But they actually tasted delicious: the top parts were all crispy and like a nutty meringue or something, the middle/bottom was squishier but also lovely and nutty, with a hint of grassiness from the olive oil (although quite well stuck to the paper liners). Could have been fun as Easter nests with Greek yoghurt and fresh fruit (grapes to look like eggs?) in the hollows.

My guess as to what went wrong: they rose due to the baking powder and the air from the beating, but lacked enough of anything (no gluten, no eggs) to hold them up and give structure, so sank right back down again. I forgot to add the xanthan gum, so that was probably part of it, but I feel like that might not have been enough anyway. Perhaps adding some cornstarch or glutinous rice flour would have helped (or using eggs instead of linseed, if that's an option). I also found them a bit too oily and a bit too sweet (reminded me a bit of these) - try dialling down the sugar and oil if making again. And, I wondered how the mixture would have fared in a cookie form: perhaps they would have turned out as delicious, nutty, meringue-like things like the top parts tasted like...

Tamale pie

It's S's birthday tomorrow and I've been devoting a lot of my daydream time to thinking up ideas for what to do to make it special. He is playing football in the evening, which he likes, so that's good. I'm going to make a cake. But then also thought it might be fun to go for lunch somewhere. El Pelon (little Mexican place near work) sprang to mind: I heard good things about it but didn't get around to going there for a long time; when I did get there I discovered joyously tasty, filling vegan tamales. So the taste of tamales was drifting temptingly around my brain when I came across the concept of tamale pie: it's sort of like shepherd's pie with Mexican influences. S had accidentally bought masa harina (corn flour made from hominy) a while ago. It's what you need to make corn tortillas or tamales or pupusas. All those things are delicious, but somewhat fiddly - tamale pie is a super simple way of getting that tamale fix. Note: this is my reinterpretation / amalgamation of a bunch of recipes.

(this took me about an hour to make from start to finish - it's a good idea to prep the veg sequentially as you cook to minimise the total time)

For the topping:
1 cup masa harina
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 tbsp fake butter
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:
1 tbsp veg or light olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1 400g tin tomatoes
2 cups pinto, kidney or black-eyed beans, pre-cooked
1 cup frozen sweetcorn
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp mushroom powder
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp red wine
3 tbsp chopped coriander
salt+red chilli flakes

To finish:
1 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tsp paprika
few squeezes of lime

Heat oven to 400F. Mix masa harina, salt and paprika for the topping in a bowl with a fork. Add boiling water gradually, mixing to form a soft dough. Cover and set aside.

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan. Add the onion, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add garlic and chilli and cook a few more minutes. Add grated carrot and cook for a few more minutes. Add the tomatoes, beans, sweetcorn, cumin, paprika, oregano, soy sauce, mushroom powder, wine and coriander and simmer until it is thickened and all the veg are cooked. Taste for seasoning and add salt and chilli flakes to taste if required.

Mix the butter and baking powder into the masa mixture. Put the filling into a lidded oven dish. Squish the masa to cover over the top as if making a shepherd's pie. Put the lid on (or cover with foil if no lid) and put in the oven for 30 min. Uncover and cook about 10 min more, until it is lightly browned and crispy around the edges.

Let it sit for 5-10 min before serving. Sprinkle with chopped coriander, paprika and a squeeze or two of lime juice.


Notes: Could use squash, mushrooms, courgette, peppers instead of carrot. Tomatilloes might be good too. Could use polenta (or cornbread) as topping instead of masa.


This was filling and tasty - the topping definitely had that tamale taste and went really well with the inside layer.

Polenta (cornmeal mush)

I am currently addicted to polenta. It's the simplest, quickest starch, and somehow fulfills all my wintry needs (warm, filling, comforting, bland yet tasty) and goes with anything, while still managing to be ready in minutes. It's basically porridge made with cornmeal.

(makes enough for 2 people)

1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp salt
3 cups boiling water (less for thicker polenta)
1 tbsp butter (or olive oil)

Boil the water in a saucepan. Mix the cornmeal and salt in a small bowl. Add this mixture to the pan gradually, whisking all the time to avoid lumps. Once it is all added, continue to cook with the lid on until the mixture is thick and there are no hard bits in it. For me, with a 'stone ground' cornmeal, this has been taking less than 5 minutes. Add the butter (and / or olive oil), stir and cover until required.

You can also add black pepper, chilli pepper flakes, herbs or whatever else takes your fancy (sweetcorn? halved cherry tomatoes? olives?). If you have extra, you can move it into a greased loaf tin and chill, then cut slices and fry.


Last night we ate polenta with a thick, simple tomato sauce:

(I have been making variations on this sauce since I was about 10: probably one of the first things I learned how to cook by myself = ultimate comfort food)

1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large tin of tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
~8 black olives, de-stoned and chopped
1 tsp red chilli flakes
salt to taste (if needed - olives may be salty enough)

Heat the oil, add the onion and garlic, cover and fry until softened but not browned. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, chilli flakes and olives and cook until sufficiently reduced and thickened. Taste for seasoning.


You could combine the two to make a polenta 'pizza': splodge the polenta on a greased baking tray in a large circle with a 2-inch dyke around the edge. Put the tomato sauce in the middle, sprinkle with chopped basil leaves (if wanted) and bake in a 400F oven for 20-30 min.

Variants: coconut and plantain polenta, coconut and banana polenta with lemongrass tofu

Molasses Flood: Boston Baked Beans and Boston Brown Bread

The Great Boston Molasses Flood happened at this time of year in 1919. I was incredulous when I first heard of it - seemed like such a strange and awful source of disaster (21 people died, drowning in a huge flood of molasses after a storage tank burst in the North End). A friend of ours is having a commemorative party. Not sure if it's something that should be partied about, but I guess it's important not to forget.

I thought of making Boston Brown Bread because I'd been keen to try making it for a while and knew it had molasses in it. Then I started suspecting it wasn't the only regional recipe to involve molasses and I was right - Boston Baked Beans also makes heavy use of molasses, as does Indian Pudding. The Boston-molasses connection, it turns out, is through the Triangle Trade and alcohol production. Apparently slaves were shipped from Africa to South American sugar plantations, then sugar and molasses were shipped to New England to be distilled into rum or other alcohol (hence the huge molasses storage tank and the disaster), then the alcohol (and ice, to make up the weight) was shipped to Europe and elsewhere (including back to Africa, completing the triangle).

Quite a series of connections. I made a Brown Bread and a vegetarian Baked Beans (usually it has salted pork or bacon in it).

Boston Brown Bread

(based on this recipe, although I used the flour mix recommended here and this recipe also looked good)

(I used the in-oven cooking method written out below, as opposed to the stove-top steamer method, due to the fact my coffee can was too tall for my steaming apparatus)

I first came across Boston Brown Bread at P's house in New Hampshire - my friend G and his uncle P are from a big New England Irish family, and P had half a can of brown bread in the fridge left over from a fry-up. I'd never seen anything like it before: bread in a can?! But, bread packed with molasses and wholewheat and raisins - sounds like something I'd love (and similar to a malted tealoaf)!

Butter for greasing loaf pans or coffee cans
1/2 cup (heaping) wholemeal flour
1/2 cup (heaping) rye flour
1/2 cup (heaping) finely ground corn meal (must be finely ground)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup molasses (any kind - I used blackstrap)
1 cup buttermilk (I used 1 cup almond milk with 1 tsp cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

One metal 6-inch tall by 4-inch diameter coffee can, or a 4x8 loaf pan (used a coffee can)

Heat the oven to 325F and boil a full kettle of water (to do oven steaming method). Or heat oven to 350F (for oven baking method - use loaf tin).

Grease the tin with butter. In a large bowl, mix the wholemeal flour, rye flour, corn meal, baking powder and bicarb, salt and allspice. Add the raisins if using.

In another bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla essence (if using). Whisk in the molasses. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir well with a spoon.

Pour the batter into the tin taking care that the batter not reach higher than 2/3 up the sides of the container.

Oven steaming method:
Cover the tin tightly with foil and tie in place with string. Put the prepared tin into a high-sided oven-proof pan that can hold water up to 1/3 the height of the tin. Pour boiling water into the pan until it reaches 1/3 up the side of the tin. Put the pan into the oven. Steam the bread for at least 2 hours and 15 minutes. Check to see if the bread is done by inserting a skewer (or thin metal knitting needle) into it. If the skewer comes out clean, you're ready. If not, re-cover the tin and cook for up to another 45 minutes (I ended up cooking it for the extra time but I think it would also have been fine earlier).

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before putting on a rack. Let the bread cool for 1 hour before turning out of the tin (it turned out quite easily, although the edges were soft from condensation and I wondered if it wasn't done yet, once turned out and fully cooled it was totally good).

Oven baking method:
Put loaf tin in oven (at 350F) and cover the top with a baking tray. Bake for ~45-50 min, until it is coming away from the sides and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin.

This also worked well  in muffin form (I like this form because they're easy to freeze and defrost in portions): I filled four cups down each side of my muffin tin (8 total), and filled the middle cups with water / put an oven dish of water in the bottom of the oven to stop it drying out - this might have been overkill. Bake for ~25 min at 350F.


Slice and eat plain, or toast in a little butter in a frying pan.

This is delicious - rich with irony molasses loveliness; definitely reminiscent of malted loaf, and of course pleasingly can-shaped. Loved the cooking process, even if it did take rather a long time - was really pleased to find an actual empty coffee can of about the right dimensions in my cupboard - it had already been repurposed once to store bulghur wheat, now onto its next life... Also made use of some string, a large steel pan, and a knitting needle.


Boston Baked Beans

(based on this recipe, being the tastiest sounding veggie version I came across... there are an awful lot of variants out there)

The molasses contains lots of sugar and calcium (as well as iron, magnesium and potassium) - apparently these are what allow you to cook the beans for so long without them collapsing.

I have never eaten real Boston baked beans, veggie or otherwise, so don't know what this should turn out like. Still, feels right to eat Boston baked beans at least once while living in Beantown.

1 1/2 cups yellow eyed or navy beans, with water to cover (I used ~ 4 1/2 cups pre-cooked kidney and black-eyed beans)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar (I used turbinado)
2 tbsp ground mustard (used ground white mustard seeds)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp paprika
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp sea salt
16 oz tin chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup molasses (used ~1/3 cup blackstrap - was running out of molasses!)
1/4 cup cider vinegar

Heat the oil in a high-sided frying pan and add onion. Cover and fry until softened and starting to brown. Add garlic and salt and cook for a few more minutes. Defrost beans if frozen, then add the beans, tinned tomatoes and tomato puree to the pan and mix.  Mix the brown sugar, mustard, nutmeg and paprika in a small bowl, then add to the pan along with the molasses and mix. Add vinegar last and stir. Cover and put in oven for about 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Check for liquid level, adding a bit of water if mixture is too thick or drying out. Uncover and cook an additional 15 minutes.


Really like the texture of the beans - nice and firm. In general a good balance of spiced, sweet and salty.

Cornbread v. 2

I felt like eating cornbread on Friday. Cornbread is great stuff: fills the need for breadlike substance quicker than any other kind of bread. With garlicky spinach and beetroot salad, mmm. I've made cornbread a few times before and was really happy with the results. In my original search I'd found two good-looking recipes, but I'd never got around to trying the second since I liked the first just fine. Thought I'd give the other one a try this time - this one.

Makes 12 to 16 squares
 
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup veg oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 cups fake milk
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F and grease the bottom of a metal loaf tin lightly with oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the milk and the vinegar and set aside. In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt). Add the oil and maple syrup to the milk mixture. Whisk with a fork until it is foamy and bubbly, about 2 minutes. Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix together. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Slice into squares and serve warm or store in an airtight container (can also freeze slices and toast as required.


This one was fine but I think I liked the other one better - perhaps I prefer sugar over maple syrup (felt like you could taste it a little, wasn't sure about that), perhaps I like having linseed in it, perhaps I like it slightly saltier and sugarier... Not sure, both are fine, but think I'll stick with the other one as default.

Squash, chanterelle and sage flatbread / pizza

My lab hosted a pumpkin themed happy hour on Friday, and it was out of control. We ran a pumpkin carving competition, delivering pumpkins to each lab / group (17 in total) a week in advance and then fanning a wildfire of competing posters from different groups advertising why you should vote for them (in homage to the upcoming election). Then on Friday we made a feast of pumpkin based food, decorated the department in orange and black, ran the ballots for the competition and awarded the trophies (gold-painted gourds on pedestals). The food making was epic: I hacked up 11 butternut squashes with a crappy knife and I've got a blister to prove it. Everything we made contained something squash: pumpkin bruschetta (baguette slices with a smear of baked squash, plus some combination of goat cheese, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, fresh coriander and seasoning), 'squashamole' (dip made with mashed baked squash, lime juice, chopped red onion, ground cumin, chopped coriander and seasoning) with hexagonal multigrain chips (Paul's special request / invention), roasted butternut squash and tofu chunks with rosemary / sage, wild and brown rice mix with toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh coriander, roasted squash seeds with cajun spice, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin-white chocolate muffins. We bought the baguettes and the pumpkin pies but we made pretty much everything else from scratch.

So, I couldn't imagine eating another squash after all that, what with the blister and the overexposure. But a lazy Sunday rolled around and S popped up wondering what was for lunch, and I remembered an idea I had of using baked squash instead of tomato sauce on pizza... And also that I had a tub of baked squash left over from happy hour in the fridge, plus a batch of bread mix, the last of the chanterelles and some rosemary and sage from Andrea's yard - seemed like an irresistible plan!

2 orange-sized chunks of dough
1-2 cups of baked squash (peel removed)
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper
1 small onion, finely sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
8 black salty olives, pits removed, torn into quarters
3/4 cup chanterelles, checked for imperfections and torn into large pieces (sliced chestnut mushrooms would be a decent out-of-season substitute)
1 tsp chopped sage leaves
1 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
semolina / corn meal for lining the baking trays
(optional cheese - S is still eating his way through the cheese mountain his mum left behind, so he put some brie and parmesan on his bits)

Heat the oven to 450F. Roll or stretch out the dough as thin as you can - try to get down to ~2 mm thick.  Move the pizza base to a baking tray pre-sprinkled with semolina or coarse corn meal (this quantity is for 2 pizzas).

Mash the baked squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Smear the bases with the squash mixture, making an uneven covering 2-3 mm thick. Scatter the onion, garlic, olives, chanterelles and herbs over the top, and season / drizzle a wee drop more olive oil over the top.

Put the baking trays in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes / until the crust is crisp and starting to brown around the edges and the toppings are cooked. Remove, let cool for a minute and then eat.


This was a very successful experiment all round. It was a lovely, rich, colourful pizza topping combination that tasted great, and the base came out really crisp. The high speed bread mix worked great as pizza base (which is brilliant news - that stuff is super useful); lining the trays with semolina / cornmeal was much better than using flour; and the squash made a wonderful, very seasonal sauce (less wet than tomato although still moist, perhaps this contributed to the crispness).

Savoury caraway-wholemeal muffins

While looking for the carrot muffin recipe, I came across this one and thought it sounded interesting - why not make double the muffins for the same amount of washing up?

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/2 cup plain flour (original recipe 1 cup rye flour and 1 cup wholemeal)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 5 1/2 tbsp boiling water
1/4 cup veg oil
2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 1/2 cups almond milk mixed with 1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Heat the oven to 375F. Prepare muffin tins.

Mix the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl with a fork. Stir in the cornmeal and the caraway seeds.

In a separate bowl, beat together the linseed mixture, oil, blackstrap molasses and milk mixture. Add wet to dry and mix until just combined.

Spoon into muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes, until lightly browned and a skewer comes out clean.


I really like these - the darkness and caraway are great, and they are proving a handy lunch addition - I keep them in the freezer and throw a couple in my lunch bag if I'm short: they take an hour or so to defrost. Perhaps another time I will try with the prescribed rye flour.

Blueberry, lavender and corn muffins

For some reason I felt like doing something with blueberry and lavender.  Muffins are always the convenient option, as what we don't want to eat straight away can easily be stored in the freezer so we don't end up eating a crazy excess of cake all at once.  I based this on a recipe I'd used before, as I didn't feel like too big an experiment.  On reflection, I think they would have been better with oats instead of corn, next time...

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp dried lavender flowers, pulsed in blender to break down a little
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup veg oil
3/4 cup fake milk (used soy)
3/4 cup orange juice (used mixture orange, lemon and water)
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 cup blueberries

Oven to 400F.  Stir dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients and berries.  Mix til 'just mixed'.  Spoon into lightly oiled or lined muffin tins and bake for 30-40 min.  Test with a knife for readiness.


Initially I wasn't too keen on these - thought they were a bit stodgy - but I defrosted some to take along to a garden picnic and on a second taste they were actually pretty good - I think I might have been a bit off-colour when I first tried them.  The citrus and lavender notes are quite mysterious - they taste good but it's not easy to guess where the flavours are coming from.  They all got eaten and there were definite seconds so yeah, I guess they worked.

Pumpkin, orange and fresh cranberry cornmeal muffins

When I started making the carrot and lentil soup, I started thinking about making something with the fresh cranberries we had in the fridge: something that wasn't cranberry sauce.  This is what I decided upon.

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 6 tbsp boiling water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
zest of one large orange

Heat oven to 350F.  Mix linseed and hot water in a mixing bowl.  Beat in sugar, oil, vanilla and pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking soda, ground ginger and salt, then add and mix in the orange zest.  Add pumpkin mix to dry mix and stir until just combined.  Finally, mix in the cranberries.  Spoon into a prepared muffin tin.  Bake for ~45 min, until a skewer comes out clean.


These were very good but rather sweet - more of an afternoon teatime snack than a breakfast snack.  The fresh cranberries were lovely - offsetting the sweetness somewhat with a whole lot of zing (way more zing than the pre-dried ones, although the taste was obviously similar).  I realised these were a very American combination (pumpkin, cranberries, cornmeal) - perhaps a reaction to the Scottish-ness of yesterday?

Apple cinnamon cornmeal pancakes

This recipe is from How It All Vegan! vegan cookbook.

I made them as a Saturday morning breakfast, before we headed out to beach and punkinfiddle.

1/2 cup oats (used wheat flakes as ran out of oats)
3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup apple sauce
2 flax eggs (2 tbsp ground linseed plus 6 tbsp hot water, mixed)
2 cups soy milk

Mix dry ingredients.  Mix wet ingredients separately, then add the wet to the dry and mix.  Put about 1 cup into a frying pan and cook til bubbly, solidifying in the middle and golden (~5min).  Turn over and cook on the other side.  Repeat until batter all gone.  Made 4 big pancakes.  Eat with maple syrup.


These were OK.  The cinnamony-ness saved them but they were pretty stodgy.  Won't make the same again.

Gluten-Free Wedding Desserts: Carrot+Pinenut Cake, Chocolate Black Bean Brownies, Lime Tart

Our friends Hannah and Orion got married this weekend.  So we were at Earthlands in Western Mass for the party (+camping Sat night).  H asked me to bring some gluten-free desserts as my contribution (she eats GF).  S and I decided that first up would be as many cherries as we could get from the Haymarket for $20 (below is about 2/3 of them).

I also decided it would be a good opportunity to test out some gluten-free dessert recipes I was curious to try.  Another advantage of vegan food, I have realised, is that it is typically pretty resistant to going off - all this stuff was kept at room temp on a sunny day and was absolutely fine. 

1) Nigella's carrot and pine-nut cake

I found this one on the BBC website, and figured Nigella would know good cake.  I got doubly excited when I realised I could use some carrots we harvested from the community garden last weekend (H+O and I met through the garden).  I also used 2 eggs Sadie gave me the other day when she had loads from her CSA - I feel like eggs are OK if I know they come from a good source, especially if they would otherwise go to waste!

3 tbsp pine nuts
2 medium carrots (approx. 200-250g/7-9oz)
75g/3oz golden sultanas
60ml/2¼fl oz rum (used Pimms instead)
150g/5oz caster sugar
125ml/4½fl oz regular olive oil, plus extra for greasing
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 free-range eggs (used 2 plus 1 flax egg (=1tbsp ground linseed+3tbsp warm water); reckon would work fine with 3 flax eggs)
250g/9oz ground almonds
½ tsp ground nutmeg, or to taste (forgot to put this in)
½ lemon, finely grated zest and juice

For the carrot cake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line the base of a 23cm/9in round springform cake tin with baking paper and grease the sides with olive oil.

Toast the pine nuts by browning in a dry frying pan; set aside.  Or use pre-toasted ones and skip this.

Coarsely grate the carrots, then sit them on kitchen paper to soak up excess liquid. Set aside.

Put the golden sultanas in a small saucepan with the rum / Pimms, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 3 minutes.

Whisk the sugar and oil until airily mixed.

Whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs and, when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, golden sultanas (with any rum that clings to them) and, finally, the lemon zest and juice.

Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very shallow in the tin.

Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts over the cake and put it into the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the top is risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out sticky but more or less clean.

Remove from the oven and let the cake sit in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unspring and leave it on the rack to cool.  To serve, transfer the cake to a plate.

This was dense and sticky and yummy.


2) Chocolate Black Bean Brownies

Stumbled across this recipe (liked the blog too) and thought it would be worth testing...  Here's an alternative that might also be worth a try.

~1 1/2 cups black (or black-eyed) beans, defrosted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup applesauce (edit: tried subbing this with blended silken tofu plus a little more sugar - worked fine)
1/4 cup flour (rice flour for GF)
1/4 cup ground linseed
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
good handful walnuts, coarsely chopped
handful chocolate, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 350F, and lightly oil a baking pan.

Blend the beans until smooth.  Measure the dry ingredients (except nuts and chocolate) into a bowl and mix with a fork.  Add the applesauce and black-eyed beans and mix thoroughly with a fork.  Add 3/4 of the nuts and mix.

Spread mixture in pan, and bake ~35 minutes, until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Sprinkle the top with chopped chocolate and nuts, and cool well so that the chocolate re-sets before eating.

These were really simple, and really, surprisingly tasty (quite solid though).  Might need to find an alternative to the applesauce as that's the one thing I don't often have in the cupboard.  I used black-eyed beans as I discovered I didn't actually have any black beans in the freezer, and they were fine.  Often rice flour can impart a nasty gritty texture to baking, but here I think it is in a small enough proportion that it doesn't matter.  I made this again already (since I'd opened the jar of applesauce...)!  This time I sprinkled some chopped walnuts on top as well as the chocolate, so it looked prettier.


3) Lime Tart

I was interested in making something with agar and found this recipe on ppk.  I needed a GF, vegan piecrust, and remembered a nice-looking pie here.  So...

For the crust:
2 cups ground almonds
1 cup ground linseed (used a mixture of linseed and chia)
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water

For the filling:
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest (~2 limes)
2/3 cups fresh lime juice (~6-8 limes)
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons agar flakes (or two teaspoons agar powder and skip the soaking step... used powder)
1 16 oz can coconut milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (used cornstarch)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F.  Mix the almonds, linseed and cornmeal with a fork, then blend as well as possible, while adding salt and cinnamon. Keep going until the mixture becomes forms crumbly clumps. Then add in the water and maple syrup and keep mixing until well combined.  Transfer the mixture to a 9 inch pie plate (lined with foil) and press it into the bottom and sides to form the crust. Make sure the tops of the sides are not too thin.  Bake the crust for 10 minutes, remove and set aside.

Mix the almond milk and agar powder in a saucepan (or soak agar flakes for 15 min).  Separately, mix together coconut milk, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla.  It’s important that the coconut milk is at room temperature so that it doesn’t affect the agar when you add it.

Turn up the heat on the agar and bring to a boil.  Keep a close eye so that it doesn’t boil over.  Immediately reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until agar is dissolved.  If using powdered it will only take about 5 minutes to dissolve.

Once dissolved, slowly whisk in the coconut mixture and then the lime juice and zest (don't add too quick - that'll make the agar gel too soon).  Then whisk often for about 10 minutes, until it has thickened.  If it isn’t thickening, turn the heat up, but you don’t want it to boil.

Pour into the pie crust and let cool for about half an hour.  Then move to the fridge for at least 3 hours, until fully set.  Garnish with lime slices, if you like.

I wound up with about twice as much pie crust as I needed, so froze the other half.  I also had too much filling so poured the rest into a bowl and added some pink food colouring.  Probably half quantities would be fine for making one tart in future.  When it was all set I cut the pink stuff into 2cm cubes.  Then I cut some of those into thin hearts to make kitschy decorations.

I liked it, but the jellyish filling and robustly textured crust might not be to everyone's tastes?  The colour was a bit off - could have been more green.  I expected the crust to fall apart but it was fine.  It was quite a lot of work squeezing the limes!


Everything disappeared without trace, so I take that as a good sign!

Spaghetti squash / another version of pesto / wholemeal+corn rolls

Got excited about a spaghetti squash at the Haymarket, as I don't think I've ever had one before.  Eventually got around to cooking it.  It is funny stuff indeed.

1 spaghetti squash

20-30 cherry tomatoes
1 medium, sweet onion, finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 tbsp basil leaves, roughly torn or chopped
olive oil, salt+pepper, balsamic vinegar

for the pesto:
handful basil leaves, washed
handful shelled edamame, defrosted
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 small clove garlic
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Heat oven to 400F.  Cut squash in half lengthways (past the stem).  Deseed and set seeds aside.  Place cut side down in a large baking tin.  Add ~1in water to the tin.  Put in the oven for 30-40 min until a knife goes in easily / the flesh is tender.  Meanwhile you can spread the seeds on a large baking tray and toast them for ~5min as a pre-snack.  Around the same time as the squash, bung in another baking tin containing the tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, and olive oil / salt and pepper to taste.  Take the squash and tomato mix out of the oven when ready.  Add a little balsamic vinegar to the tomatoes and mix in.  Allow squash to cool a little, then scrape out the flesh into a large bowl (don't burn your fingers).  Season and add a little olive oil to the squash and mix up / separate the strands with a fork.  Serve with the tomato mix and pesto (to make the pesto, whizz all the ingredients in the blender, adding water and/or olive oil to get a good consistency).

It really looks like spaghetti!  Totally bizarre how it separates out into perfect strands.  Doesn't taste of much, but does have a pleasant, slightly squashy taste that goes well with the pesto and / or tomato mix.  This pesto iteration is getting close to the best yet.


Spelt / wholemeal and corn rolls

We're planning on going to one of the harbor islands tomorrow to check out an art encampment.  Thought it might be nice to take some bread with us for snacks.  This Guardian recipe looked quicker than the other breads I've done, and was on my list of ones I fancied...


75g cornmeal or polenta
200ml boiling water
300ml cold water
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp yeast
300g spelt (or wholemeal) flour / used wholemeal
200g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
Oil and flour, to finish

Put the cornmeal in a bowl, pour in the boiling water and stir. Leave for 15 minutes, then whisk in the cold water, honey and yeast. Add the spelt, white flour and salt, mix to a soft dough and leave for 10 minutes.
Knead for 10 seconds. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave for 20 minutes, until it has risen slightly.
Wipe the worktop clean and dry it with a tea towel, then dust with flour. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces and shape into rounds. Place these in two rows of four, and just touching, on a baking tray lined with nonstick paper. Flour the tops, cover with a cloth and leave for about 45 minutes, until risen by half.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 240C (220C fan-assisted)/465F/gas mark 9. Lightly flour the tops of the dough rounds again and bake for 20-25 minutes, until just coloured on top. Leave to cool, and tear apart to serve.

These look super, but haven't taste-tested them yet...  Now I have.  They're really hearty and wholemeal - excellent with salad.  Quite heavy, but not awfully so.

Mushroom soup; sweet potato cornbread

Mushroom Soup

1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
~30 mixed mushrooms (mostly field mushrooms), sliced / chopped
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp white wine
2 cups veg stock
1 tsp soy sauce
salt+pepper
olive oil
~ 1/2 cup almond milk

Heat ~ 2 tbsp olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Add onion and garlic and saute until softened and golden.  Add mushrooms and saute some more, until browned and softened.  Add white wine, soy sauce and veg stock and thyme, bring to the boil and simmer for ~ 15 min.  Allow to cool a little, then blend roughly until about half smooth - nice to leave some pieces.  Add almond milk and seasoning to taste.  Reheat gently and eat.



Sweet potato cornbread

From How it All Vegan! cookbook.

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp allspice
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup sweet potatoes, boiled, peeled and mashed with a fork
4 tbsp oil
1/4 cup sugar or maple syrup
2 tbsp powdered flax seed mixed with 4 tbsp water
1/2 cup sour milk (almond milk mixed with 1/2 tbsp vinegar)

Heat oven to 375F.  Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, allspice and cornmeal in a bowl with a fork.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix til just combined.  Put into a greased loaf tin.  Cook for 30-40 min til a knife comes out clean.


Both were good.  Mushroom soup good and mushroomy.  Cornbread also nice, although I think I like this one better.

Polenta fritters / Pea and mint soup

Polenta Fritters

I decided to try polenta last night - don't know if I ever really made it before, but I know I like it.  Did a cupful of polenta in 3 cups of hot water (+1 tsp salt), cooking for about 15min total.  It was good, if a bit lumpy (need to whisk it together more gradually in the beginning?).  I expected it to firm up in the fridge overnight but it remained soft.  Used leftovers today to make fritters:

~3/4 cup cooked soft polenta
1/2 banana, roughly mashed
small piece of yellow chili, finely chopped
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
1 spring onion, sliced
handful sweetcorn, defrosted
~1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
salt
squeeze of lemon juice

Mix ingredients together with a fork.  Heat a little veg oil in a frying pan.  Shape the mixture into rough patties (was still quite wet) and drop them into the pan / flatten into shape.  Cook ~3 min on each side / til done.


Pea and mint soup

This is one of my super quick and easy standby classics.  We got pretty wet today looking around at Wake Up The Earth in the rain, and when we got back I felt like something soupy and minty to eat with good bread so this was it.

1 small onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped
2 cups frozen peas
2 cups veg stock
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper
olive oil
~ 2 tbsp almond milk

Heat ~1 tbsp olive oil in a medium saucepan.  Add onion and garlic and sweat for ~ 5 min without colouring / til soft.  Add the veg stock and frozen peas and bring to the boil.  Simmer for about 5 min.  Take off the heat, add mint, and allow to cool a little.  Blend in liquidiser til smooth.  Add almond milk and season to taste.

Muffins: Gluten-free raspberry cornmeal / apple and raisin

Based on recipes from How it All Vegan! vegan cookbook by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer.  I bought the book as all the baking I tried from it was really successful, and these were no exceptions.  I made these to take to garden brunch.  Muffins were the plan as they are easily portable and I needed to bike to JP with them.  As Hannah eats gluten-free I wanted to do some gluten-free but didn't have much g-f ingredients so just did a few g-f ones and some other ones too...


Raspberry cornmeal gluten-free vegan muffins

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour (used sweet rice flour to make GF)
dash of salt
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup fake milk (used soy)
3/4 cup orange or apple juice (used orange)
1 tsp vinegar
1 cup raspberries (used black raspberries frozen from orchard days in Summer)

Oven to 400F.  Stir dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients and berries.  Mix til 'just mixed'.  Spoon into lightly oiled or lined muffin tins and bake for 35-45 min.  Test with a knife for readiness.

These were super simple and amazingly good!  The sweet rice flour had the amazing effect of making a GF baked product that stuck together really well (it was the stuff we bought for mochi) - the texture was a little odd but I thought they were wonderful.



Sugar-free applesauce muffins

I realised having settled on this recipe that they had no sugar (and hardly any fat) in them, how odd...

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup fake milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 cup applesauce
3/4 cup raisins

Oven to 375F.  Sift dry ingredients together.  Add rest.  Mix til 'just mixed'.  Put into lightly oiled / lined muffin tins and bake 15-20min.  Test with knife.

These were good too.  Good texture etc.  Could maybe have done with a little more sweetness, and they didn't keep very well though.

What an exercise in -free baking!