Seaweed 'Bacon' and Mock King Oyster Mushroom 'Scallops'

We have been indulging in King Oyster Mushroom 'Scallops', I know how decadent! And here is the handsome proof.

The King Oyster Mushroom 'Scallops' here are served on a bed of green pea puree, I know how original - not, and Sea Bacon, now that part is original.  

I was actually going to make rice paper 'bacon', but wanted to try the Sea Bacon which are dried strips of dulse. I've had a packet of Sea Bacon in my kitchen cupboard for a little while.  I had forgotten that I had it until I came across it looking for something else. I fried it in a little oil for a few seconds to crisp up. 

To the uninitiated, the Sea Bacon looks like thinly sliced potato peel, roasted and then strewn across the plate, but it really is seaweed. And no points for presentation, presentation skills are not my forte. 

The King Oyster Mushroom Scallops were absolutely amazing, the sea bacon was good too, crispy but very salty.  You would not want loads of it here.  I think the amount I served on the plate here was plenty. For the green pea puree I used frozen peas.

I am sharing this with The Veg Hog who is hosting #EatYourGreens this month.  There is plenty of time to join in, so please do.   

King Oyster Mushroom 'Scallops'

May I present to you homemade King Oyster Mushroom Scallops.

I made these mock 'scallops' last month during Veganuary (which I was doing quietly) for St Dwynwen's Day - Welsh Valentines Day. 

For an extra touch of elegance, I served them in these sea shells that I picked up from Cornwall a couple of years ago. 

King Oyster mushrooms are hard to track down where I am, but suddenly some supermarkets have them and I have been loving it, as it finally gave me the opportunity to make these vegan mock 'scallops' a number of times, and let me tell you these were superb!

Black Eyed Pea and Courgette 'Crab' Cakes

Since making the Cincinnati Spaghetti from The Superfun Times: Vegan Holiday Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, I have been perusing the cookbook quite a bit of late.

Over the weekend, I made these vegan Black Eyed Pea and Courgette 'Crab' Cakes as I wanted to start using my tub of Old Bay Seasoning.  I made the recipe from scratch.  Soaking the black eyed peas overnight and cooking it the following day; and blitzing fresh breadcrumbs at home.

This is not a sponsored blog post - I bought this product to try

These vegan 'crab' cakes were nice, but they did not blow me away. I think I would prefer the Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes from Vegan Brunch for more 'fishy' flakiness, as these ones were made with grated courgettes and seemed to impart an element of dampness to these savoury cakes.

Still nothing goes to waste in our home, they were all eaten with homemade Sriracha mayo.

Other Savoury Cake Recipes 

Fishless Japanese Sea Vegetable and Nori Cakes

Savoury Kale Cakes 

Purple and Green Cabbage Potato Cakes

Parsnip Potato cakes

Courgette Potato Cakes

wild Garlic Potato Cakes

vegan Korean Kimchi Jjigae Stew

For those of you who follow me on Instagram will have seen me post this Kimchi Jjigae aka Kimchi Stew which I made last weekend, I have been to busy with Vegan Month of Food and work that I had not got round to sharing it on my blog, so here it it now.  

This  Kimchi Jjigae is not authentic by any means, but these days on blogosphere and cookbooks do you see many authentic recipes, everyone has their twist on Shepherds Pie to Bread Pudding, even the fillings of traditional British Christmas mince pies are given a makeover. This is not so much as a twist, more of an adaptation to make it suitable my vegetarian diet and in an effort to make it vegetarian, it is also  accidentally vegan.  

The photograph is not the best as it is tinged with poor lighting issues,  The evening s are getting darker and I live in the Welsh valleys between two hills, so the darkness impacts on my photographs even more so come Autumn and Winter.   Anyway, I wanted to find ways of using my homemade vegan Kimchi that I made a couple of months back.  It was my first attempt at making Kimchi at home, and although not perfect, I was pleased with myself.  I hope to make another batch soon and hopefully it will be a lot more redder in colour.

Kimchi like any fermented food is an acquired taste.  I quite like it, but it is not to every ones taste like sweets from the Indian subcontinent or pickles steeped in mustard oil. This includes my husband.  

D was not keen on either the Kimchi or the Kimchi Stew, but I was not surprised at that.  The first time we had Kimchi at home was back in 2011 and I made a Bibimpab.  He did not particularly enjoy the Bibimbap then and nor the Kimchi Jjigae this time round either, but ate it nonetheless.  

However, I enjoyed it, but if I am totally honest I think the sauce lacked body.  I think this was partly to do with my homemade vegan version of the Kimchi; and my adaptation of the Kimchi Jjigae recipe.  My version required something to thicken it up .  The original recipe has anchovies, and pork, that perhaps give it a depth.  The spices were just right.   I served the Kimchi Jjigae simply with plain white rice.   I am sharing this with  I am sharing this  Cook Blog Share co-hosted between Easy Peasy Foodie and  Hijacked By Twins and with Healthy Vegan Fridays hosted by Rock My Vegan Socks and V Nutrition.

Fishless Fish Free Japanese Sea Vegetable and Nori Cakes

These Fishless Japanese Sea Vegetable and Nori Cakes would make a fantastic light starter 

I think these Fishless Sea Vegetable Cakes look marvellous without the panko coating that its a shame it has to be cover the colourful seaweed shades of greens.   This is my submission to #EatYourGreens food challenge.  Please do join in with you Green Vegan Mofo blog post, the rules are here.

Before I give you the recipe, I want a little bit of a rant.  Yesterday was not the day we had planned.  All our good plans went pear shaped.  We were on our way to Bristol to celebrate and have a little fun with my nephews, but the icy weather played havoc with our car that we had to turn back home and go to the garage.  It cost us £300.00.  Happy Birthday. There was no point in grumbling but I was very mift and wished we had never left the house in the first place.  All the signs with the weather were warning us to stay indoors.  When we got back home we just tried to make the best of what was left of the day at home and outside it poured ice buckets. 

Anyway, I digress.  I had so much fun getting back into Food 'N' Flix, so I am joining again.  The movie chosen this month is Burnt.  As a foodies, I have to admit I had not seen it or heard of it and to be honest, I am not a fan of either Bradley Cooper or Sienna Miller, but I wanted to play along with Food N Flix,  so I purchased the film.  I watched it one weekend.  

Although there are loads of food references, it did not terribly inspire me - perhaps because I am a Vegetarian and many of the food references were to meat and seafood, but whilst I was racking my head for ideas the scene when the two lead characters are in Billinsgate Markets,  London's most famous fish market inspired me to make some 'Fish' Cakes.

Of course I was not going to make anything with fish or seafood, but I did have sea vegetables and these Fishless Fishfree Sea Vegetable Cakes were created . 

Vegan Taste of the Sea Seaweed Spaghetti Pasta

Wow, it feels like a long time ago when I last shared a recipe on my blog.

Well today I wish to share with you something different - my Taste of the Sea Spaghetti. Some of you will remember my La-Vish/Lavish Vegan Ocean 'Fish' Pie, well this recipe is loaded with some similar ingredients: such as sea vegetables, spaghetti seaweed and sea flakes to give it that natural taste of the sea, but instead of mashed potatoes we have spaghetti pasta.    

The Taste of the Sea Spaghetti Pasta was silky, chewy and slippery, but in a good way.  I added a few drops of liquid smoke to mimic that smoked salmon flavour, but if you don't have that you could also try vegetarian 'fish' or 'oyster' sauce, but its not essential. There was lightness to this homemade pasta meal as we both fancied having a dessert afterwards.   

Luxurious Vegan 'Vish Fish' Pie with Sea Vegetables, Spaghetti Seaweed, Smoked Tofu

This is perhaps the most luxurious vegan fish = Vish pie you will ever set eyes upon or eat, if you choose to make it.  

I made this rather La-Vish/lavish Vegan Ocean Pie over the weekend.  D wasn't feel too good, so we didn't venture far at all.  I decided to play with some new ingredients and incorporate them into this experimental Pie.  This vegan 'Fish' Pie is packed with vegetables, smoked tofu, sea vegetables, spaghetti seaweed and sea flakes to give it that natural taste of the sea.    

Unlike the other vegetarian and vegan pies featured on my blog, this one is made with lots of unusual ingredients and has a lot of processes before it reaches the plate, but its all worth it. One of the other things I wanted to do was cut the tofu to resemble little fishies, click here to see my Tofu Fish, but couldn't find my cutter, but I did get round to using my new EZ Tofu Press (see below).

I feel for D, he eats mostly vegetarian meals because of me. The only meat he will eat is fish, but its not often.  Its only if we ever go out to eat or on holidays overseas, he will order a fish or seafood meal, but even then its quite rare.   He doesn't moan, but I know sometimes he hankers for some Fish Supper Fridays.  So I made this with him in mind.  I was a little unsure if he would accept this meal, but he has always been gracious and accepted whatever I have put on the table for him to eat.  He thought the ingredients mimicked the flavours of a Fish pie well.  Lots of textures and flavours from the vegetables, seaweed and liquid smoked tofu.  

The cream sauce was delicious enhanced by the nutritional yeast.  The only thing that muddied the creamy sauce was the chestnut mushrooms, if I could have found oyster mushrooms locally, I would have thrown them into the pan, but its a small aesthetic thing, it did not impact on the dish as a whole. To finish off it was topped of with mashed potatoes that were doused with Green Nori flakes and then put into the oven to bake.

Laverbread, Samphire and Seaweed Flakes Also Known as 'Sea Vegetable' Quiche with Perl Las

One of the prettiest Quiches I have ever made.  Strewn with samphire spears, sprinkled with sea flakes and hidden under the pillowy creamy cheese softness, you will find a thin layer of Welsh laverbread on the still crisp pastry crust. 

When I went to Swansea Vegfest we also went to Swansea Market. Swansea Market is absolutely thriving.  There is a positive vibe and buzz in the air with the jostling and bustling  - not an empty stall in sight.  I brought back home some samphire known fondly as asparagus of the sea and some fresh laverbread (known in Wales as Welshman's Caviar); and some Perl Las cheese.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make with these ingredients as a recipe for 'Sea Vegetable' Quiche has been in the planning.  

At home I  also had some  Atlantic Kelp Organic Seaweed Flakes (see below), but I had to wait for the samphire and laverbread that are not so easy to come by, even though I live in the Welsh valleys, but travel a little closer to the coastline then you have may just be able to acquire some. And the decision to add Perl Las to the quiche was well rather poetic as Perl Las translates as Blue Pearl.  Perfect and a bit corny at the same time. 

The Sea Vegetable Quiche was absolutely lovely.  It tasted of the sea, you know that taste on your lips when you have been at the beach....but I have to add it is a bit of an acquired taste.  I think most people will not mind the salty samphire and the seaweed flakes, but the laverbread - well that is where it comes to personal taste.  I don't love laverbread, but I don't mind it now and again.  I have one little regret and that is not showing you a cut slice of this gorgeous quiche, as it was very pretty inside - flecked.