Mincemeat (for Christmas Mince Pies)

More on the early festive theme today. Quite often the mincemeat you get at the supermarket has suet in it and so isn't veggie (although many now use veggie suet - but you have to check the packet). This year I've decided to make my own, I'll make pies nearer christmas and in the meantime store this in appropriately sterilised jars.

Ingredients
3 cooking apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1 &1/2 oranges (juice and zest)
1/2 lemon (juice and zest)
1tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
100g dark muscavado sugar
175g mixed dried fruit
50g dried apricots
150g dried cranberries
70g flaked almonds
100ml brandy
100ml orange juice (or orange & cranberry)

To Make
put the apples in a pan with the sugar, lemon and orange zest and juice. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about ten mins, until the apple is soft.

Add the rest of the ingredients

Bring to the boil again, reduce the heat and simmer (not covered this time) until the mix is thick and there is very little syrupy liquid left.

Cool - and use for pies! Or if you're not making them yet, like me, store in sterrlised jars.

Christmas Cake!

I love Christmas! I love thinking up present ideas, decorating the house, getting the tree and all the rituals associated with food as well. So whilst there's no turkey in sight on our Christmas table I do make vegan versions of the rest of the Christmas fayre. I can't remember where I came across this cake recipe now, but it works really well.

It's still November but it is wise to make the cake early and to 'feed' it regularly with sherry or rum so that it's nice and mature when you eat it. It's also snowing today, so I'm feeling quite festive. The back garden is blanketed, I've been out to fleece my onions and garlic and put some food out for the birds so now I'm in my kitchen, looking out at the snow and creating lovely spicey chirstmasy smells. All in all feeling rather jolly.

Anyway - to business.

Ingredients
675g mixed dried fruit
1/4 pint veg oil ( I use sunflower)
350g SR Flour
1 lemon rind (buy unwaxed!)
450ml water
2 tsp mixed spice
75g brown sugar
3tbsp sherry or rum

To make

So easy!! Just mix all the ingredients together, apart from the sherry/rum! Stick in the oven (in a cake tin, obviously, lined with baking paper) at 150c for 2 hours.

Once baked leave to cool for half an hour or so then prick the top with a cocktail stick. Feed the cake by spooning the sherry or rum on top. Wrap the cake up well - either double wrapped in baking paper or I do mine in a clean, tightly secured tea towel  and then put in an airproof tin. Feed again a couple of times before you want to eat it!

At Christmas you can either eat it as it is (the Yorkshire way is with wensleydale cheese but clearly not appropriate for vegans) or ice it. I tend to cheat here and buy ready made icing and marzipan, secured with apricot jam.

Ho ho ho

blackberry upside down cake

This was inspired in part by a visit to our dear friends Tammy & Graham down in Oxford and their dedicated campaign to pick all the berries near their house before their neighbour did! There seems to be no competition near here for the berries so we've had a load of crumbles and there are tubs full in the freezer.




Anyway in an attempt to try something other than a crumble I made this upside down cake for dinner when we had friends over, and I was really pleased with it. The cake recipe can be used for a plain sponge as well (and in fact I used it for Iain's birthday cake, photo below).

Cake Ingredients
1 cup of soya yogurt
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of veg oil
1tspn vanilla essence
Juice of one lemon and rind
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder

Mix ingredients and bake for 50mins at 180c

For the 'upside down' bit
Sufficient number of blackberries to cover the base of your cake tin
Vegan marg
Brown sugar

Melt the marg & sugar together on a low heat in a pan, and mix in blackberries. Coat the bottom of a (greased) take tin with the mixture and then put cake mixture on top. I also mixed blackberries through the cake mixture so they were scattered throughout. I'm sure you could make this with any number of fruits too.

Green tomato Chutney

This one is for Tammy! I've had a fairly successful year with my tomatoes but sadly got a bit impatient a month ago and picked a load of them before their time. A lesson learnt for next year... But what I did get from this was a really nice batch of chutney.

My camera has died on me, hence lack of blogs & no pics here - will try to update soon.

This recipe is by Marguerite Patten - I'd strongly recommend her 'Jams, Preserves and Chutneys'.

Ingredients
900g green tomatoes
450g onions
450g apples (cooking) weight when peeled & cored
450ml malt or wine vinegar (I use malt, it's so cheap!)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ginger (depending on taste)
half to 1 teaspoon mixed spice
350g sugar
300g sultanas
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions
place the tomatoes in boiling water for at least a minute if not longer to soften the skins. Remove skins (this is not easy!) and chop
chop the onions finely and dice the apples
put all the ingredients EXCEPT the sugar, sultanas & seasoning in  a pan and simmer until tender
Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until dissolved, then add the sultanas & seasoning.
Keep simmering until consistency of hot jam (so quite thick -this took ages for me!)
Spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal down with waxed circles.

Marguerite says you need to leave it a month to mature - which we have done with most of ours, but we did eat some straight away and it was lovely (chuntey rebels)

Roasted Squash and Rosemary Bread

This is a blessing of a recipe, simple, relatively painless yet very tasty! Good for eating with a hearty stew or some such when warm, or with dips or salad for lunch, or just on its own when you fancy a quick snack

Ingredients:
1 small butternut squash
300g plain flour (white or brown)
1 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
handfull of fresh rosemary (or other herbs, depending on individual taste)

To make:

first of all roast the whole squash, skin and all in the oven at 200oC for about 45mins, so the skin is so soft that you can pull it all off (obviously once it's cooled or you'll burn yourself). Then mash the squash up and leave to cool.



Weigh around 375g of the squash and mix in a bowl with the flour, baking powder, oil and herbs. Kneed it all together and make into a nice round loaf. Bake on a floured baking tray at 200oC for around 30-35 mins. Eat. Hmmmmm. I love this, in fact so much I made 2 this weekend, which is a tad excessive.

Any leftover mashed squash can be served as is as a side vegetable or mix with a few spices and tahini as a dip or spread.

Home grown

I'm trying to grow more stuff at home this year - but we are very limited for space and because we're renting I can't start digging up the lawn for planting space - so I'm restricted to what I can grow in pots.

The biggest crop I'm focusing on is salds & herbs (rocket, basil red & green, rosemary, bay, mint, thyme,coriander) which I had great success with last year - such a big saving financially when you consider how much a mere lettuce will set you back at the supermarket.

I'm also trying aubergine for the first time this year, spring onions, kale, tomatoes (even though they were a bit of a disaster last year), potatoes, courgettes (these were great last year), beans and strawberries which I've had a great crop from already.

Aubergine & Mango noodles

I'm a bit worried that most of my posts have been for cakes & puddings so far! And whilst this is a savory dish it's still fairly sweet - I'll post some more worthy meals soon...



This is lovely though. It's from Yotam Ottolenghi's 'Plenty', slightly adapted.

Ingredients:

For the dressing:
120ml vinegar (I used balsamic, the original said rice but I hardly use it so didn't seem worth buying!)
40g sugar
pinch of salt
garlic clove
fresh chilli, chopped
tsp of oil (I used olive oil but nut oils would be nice for those unlike me we don't have a nut allergy!)
lime juice and zest(or lemon is fine)

For the noodles
2 aubergines (chopped into cubes)
noodles - we used wholemeal soba noodles but I don't think it really matters what type)
a large ripe mango chopped into cubes
fresh basil & coriander leaves
red onion

To make the dressing warm the vinegar in a pan with the sugar and salt until the sugar disolves, then add the garlic, chilli and oil. Allow to cool & then add the lime juice & zest.

pan fry the aubergine*

cook the noodles, drain and rinse in cold water, leave to dry

In a bowl toss the moddles with the dressing, the aubergine & the mango, the onion and half the herbs. Add the rest of the herbs when you're ready to serve.



* there seem to be various opinions about whether you should salt the aubergine before cooking to draw out the juices - I don't always bother & if I'm honest I don't notice that much difference..

Rhubarb & Strawberry Pie

Oh my goodness this was tasty! It was a huge pie & we ate it beween the two of us in no time. It was made following a very kind gift of a HUGE amount of rhubarb from our next door neighbour who has a very productive allotment.

For the pastry
4 oz flour
1 oz white veg fat
1 oz vegan marg
cold water
sprinkling of sugar (optional)

For the filling:
6oz sugar
2 oz flour
1/4 tspn salt
1lb strawberries (chopped)
1lb cups rubarb (chopped)

(all of these filling volumes are fairly random - do experiment!)

For the pastry
sift flour and salt into a bowl & incorporate as much air as you can

Add the white fat & marg - as cold as possible - I measure out the amount and freeze for a bit first - cut into very small lumps. Cut into the flour until evenly blended

Rub fat into flour using (clean!) fingers

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water & bring together with a knife, then with finger tips

Put in clingfilm in the fridge for 30 mins.

Roll out and line a pie dish with half (use other half for top)

The filling is incredibly simple - just mix together and bung in the pie!

Put the top on and bake at 190 (gas 5) for 25 mins covered in foil. Remove foil & bake for another 25-30 mins until brown.

pancakes

This is a brilliant simple way to make vegan pancakes! I used to make a really complicated recipe using soya flour and all sorts but staying at a friends we came across this method and it's great.

All you need:

1 cup of plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup of soya milk
2 tablespoons veg oil

Pre-heat your pan.

Combine the dry ingredients together, add the milk & oil and mix until smooth.

Spoon in a pancake's worth of mixture and turn when bubbles form in the middle. Serve however you wish! We go for lemon & sugar..

Stuffed Aubergine

This is a really nice light dinner, good served with some green veg on the side or a nice salad in the summer. And it is quite simple!

Ingredients (for 2 people)

1 aubergine
50g bulgar wheat (or buckwheat or cous cous would do -or even rice)
1 stock cube made up with around 100ml hot water
1 small onion
1 clove garlic (or for a treat smoked garlic is even nicer)
1 chilli
about an inch of chopped ginger
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
a handful of mushrooms, chopped
half a courgette, chopped
1/2 tin of chickpeas
c 1/2 teaspoon cumin
fresh coriander

1. Preheat oven to 190c/gas mark 5
2. soak the bulgar wheat in the hot stock for about 10 mins
3. Cut aubergine in half and scoop out middle and chop up
4. put scooped out halves into a baking dish and set aside
5. chop up onion, chilli, ginger and the rest of your veg (you can use loads of different veg for this) and fry in a pan with the chopped aubergine until soft
6. Add the bulgar wheat, chick peas, coriander and cumin to the mixture in the pan
7. Put the mixture into the aubergine halves, cover with silver foil and bake for around 20 mins. I usually find that there is too much filling so I bake the rest in a dish and either serve on the side or save as a cold salad for another time (nice with lemon juice added).

Serve with a sprinkling of coriander and a spoon of plain soya yogurt on the side.

Happy discoveries

Today I had a very happy discovery whilst waiting at St Pancras Station for my sister (who I met after a day trip for work for a very nice glass of fizz to celebrate her having finished a massive project - well done Katie!)

Anyway the discovery was a good range of vegan food at 'Sourced' - the market place in the station, including yummy cakes by The Happy Kitchen

I'm posting a link to their website, we tried the strawberry & vanila and chocolate cherry cakes - and we'll definately have more next time I'm down that way!

The Happy Kitchen

Yorkshire Pudding!

I strongly associate Yorkshire Pudding with Sunday as a kid, big dinner, the Archers on the Radio, lots of washing up! I've been looking for a way to bring Yorkshire pud's back into my life and after trying a few different recipes these are pretty good. This is 'borrowed' from a recipe by Jade Pleming

As with 'normal' Yorkshire's you need to grease your tins well and cooking times vary depending on whether you're making a number of small ones or one big one. I recently adapted this recipe to make Toad in the Hole (using veggie sausages obviously) it was a good nostalgia based meal!

These don't quite look the same as the ones my Dad makes, but they taste pretty good!

Batter Recipe
8oz self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 pint of plain vegan yogurt
1/2 pint of soya milk (unsweetened preferably)

Pre-heat the oven to 350f/180c/gas mark 4

Whisk all the ingredients together until it's just a little runny, pour into a baking tray and bake in the oven

Bake for around 15-20 mins and bake until nice and brown on top. The ones on this photo were I suspect left in the oven a tad too long so they didn't sink in the middle like the ones I had in childhood.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

The one thing that it's hard to find readily available in the shops or when eating out round here is vegan puddings and cakes (apart from a few exceptions that I will post about another time). So home made cakes are the way forward.

This is adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (see their blog here http://vegancupcakes.wordpress.com/) which is simply brilliant. It's an American recipe so is measured in cups. I have invested in a cup scoop as a lot of the recipe books I use are American. Otherwise websites like this one (http://www.calculateme.com/index.htm) are useful for converting the amounts.



Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

1 cup of soya milk
1 teaspoon of cider vinegar
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1/3 cup sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of orange extract (or if plain chocolate just put in more vanilla)
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup of cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon of bicarb of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350f/ 180c/ gas mark 4 and line a muffin tin with bun cases

2. Whisk together the soya milk and the vinegar and leave to curdle

3. Add the sugar, oil and extract to the soya milk and beat until foamy

4. In a seperate bowl sift together the flour, bicarb, baking powder, cocao and salt. Add this to the wet mixture in two batches and beat until smooth.

5. Pour into the bun cases (about 3/4 full) and bake for 18-20 mins.

For Chocolate Orange Topping

Melt vegan dark chocolate (I used to use Green & Black's but they've started using milk in their ingredients! so check the ingredients list)

Add a few drops of orange extract.

Carefully drizzle over cooled cakes and leave to set.