Little Bit of Green

There was a tweet that went out Sunday night that read 'Can't believe it's back to Teams and Zoom Tomorrow' (meaning Monday) with a person holding their head with a cigarette.  It's captured exactly how i (minus the cigarette)and many others returning to back to work felt yesterday.  

It was good to have the whole week off. Switching off. I made the most of my time.  Its been nice, just reading some non fiction books, watching nonsense and not so nonsense TV, but as I said before in regards to cooking and baking, I haven't done much of late.  I had wanted to make Johanna's Gingerbread Cookies for the festive holidays and decorate them individually and then share with the people in my life, but it never happened.  I hope I live to be able to make and share them in 2021- well, nothing is to be taken for granted now.

Yellow Courgette Turmeric Quiche

With the weather being so poor over the weekend, I found myself in the kitchen making the most of homegrown vegetable.  

I have made a Courgette Blueberry Cake made with the blueberries I picked last week and another Yellow Courgette Quiche. 

This Yellow Courgette Quiche must be the winner as the most yellowist quiche that I have ever made.  It was enhanced further with a teaspoon of turmeric. Pretty loud. 

We have had  the quiche over three days, served either with new potatoes and homegrown beans or just homegrown salad. 

Spring Onion Salad Dressing for Pasta

Gusts of 80 mph winds last night and the early hours of the morn kept us on edge as we slipped between sleep and being awake.

We heard smashing glass and imagined that our greenhouse was gone. We heard the slamming and pounding of  rain on the window panes and feared dislodged slates from the roof.  We heard the wind howling in rage; and feared that the big tree behind our house may fall and cause our home some damage and there was nothing we could do.  It all sounded a lot worse than it actually was.  Yes there were smashed glass panes and it will be frustrating for D, as it is every year he has to patch it together, but thankful it was not worse. The tree behind our house is strong and home to many birds.  I hope it withstands the battering of climate change. as for the greenhouse, - I always wonder will we ever live in a place where the greenhouse withstands mother natures torment.  I say this as every year, no matter where we have lived our greenhouse has been damaged by the natural elements.

Black Rice and Butternut Squash Savoury Fritters

I am pretty pleased with myself, missing only four days of blogging for Vegan Mofo 2013 two days of which have been the weekend.  Will you forgive me if I told you it was because I had my own vegan/vegetarian food stall at a Food & Craft Market yesterday?!

Anyway, I've enjoyed participating in Vegan Mofo 2013.  As a vegetarian, its not been that hard for me to cook vegan meals at home.  It has been harder to eat out though, there are not that many places in Wales, United Kingdom that offer imaginative vegetarian or vegan dishes, hence the reason all my post have been about home cooking.   

Well for my last post for Vegan Mofo, I thought I'd share a dish I made some time last week.  Its Black Rice and Butternut Squash Savoury Fritters.  

Lemon Thyme and Black Rice Risotto

I purchased some black rice a little while ago.  I don't often come across black rice and when I saw some being sold somewhere or other on one of my day trips, I grabbed a bag.  I had no idea what to do with it, except I knew I wanted to have some so that I could when the time came.

Well whilst going through my kitchen cupboards recently, I came face to face with the bag of black rice fast approaching its best before date.  I did not want to waste the black rice so searched through my many cookbooks for a black rice recipe, typically when you looking for a particular recipe you just cannot find one.  Then I decided to search the worldwideweb and blogosphere and the recipe that caught my attention was one for Black Rice Risotto made by a renowned American celebrity nutritionist Ellie Krieger.  I have to be honest and say that I don't know very much about her cooking and have  only seen her fleetingly a couple of times on satellite T.V whilst channel hopping.   Anyway, I did not follow Ellie Krieger recipe for Black Rice Risotto, but was inspired by it to create my own version (Thank you Ellie). 

Parsnip-Carrot and Spring Onion Fritters

Parsnip and carrot fritters for light nibbles.

These were not binding as well as I had expected, so I decided to add some chickpea flour to the mixture.  When made these were served warm with the sweet garlic chilli sauce left over from the Spiced Sweet Potato Wonton Potstickers.

I am sharing these with Haalo for Weekend Herb Blogging #308.  WHB was the first blogging event I ever participated in, so its exciting to learn that this week WHB turns 6.  It was originally founded by Kalyn.

Parsnip - Carrot and Spring Onion Fritters
Makes about 16 x 2 inch fritters
Ingredients
300g Parsnips, peeled and shredded
200g Carrots, peeled and shredded
75g spring onions, sliced
50g plain flour
50g chickpea flour
2 teaspoons rapeseed oil, plus extra for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
 120ml water
Method
In a large bowl, combine the parsnips, carrots and spring onions. Mix well. Add the flours, oil, salt and pepper. Toss well to coat. Add the water and mix until the batter holds together when squeezed. Add more water if needed.
Preheat a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to the pan to a depth of about 1/4 inch. Form about two tablespoons of batter into a ball, to form 2-inch wide pancakes. Add enough batter to the pan without crowding, leaving enough space to turn the fritters over. Cook each side for about 2 ½ to 3 minutes until both sides are golden brown.  Drain on kitchen towels and eat immediately.  Adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance  by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Parsnip chips with Spring Onion Pancakes

These oven roasted parsnip chips are simple and quite tasty. You do have to be careful baking them, as a little too long in the oven and they could easily end up being charred.

These savoury Spring Onion Pancakes reminded me of of my mothers methi aka fenugreek parathas - a buttery, crispy, flaky pan fired flat bread often stuffed with spicy vegetables - that we as children would often have for brunch at weekends. So when we had two of these Spring Onion Pancakes left over, I knew exactly what I'd do with them. I reheated them in the oven the following day for brunch and served them simply with a fried egg. Though these Spring Onion pancakes are not that tough to make, they do take a little practice, so don't be too hard on yourself if the first two aren't perfect, they will still be good to eat.

Oven Roasted Parsnip chips

Ingredients
Serves - Depends on how many parsnips you want to roast
Parsnips, peeled and if necessary remove the woody core
Olive oil
Sea salt
Method
Heat oven to gas mark 7. Cut the parsnips length ways into eight long pieces. Spread out on a large baking sheet and add enough olive to lightly coat the parsnips and sea salt to taste.
Bake on middle shelf  for 20 - 25 minutes, turning after 10 minutes, until golden brown and tender. Serve immediately.

Spring Onion Cakes
Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients

275g plain flour
200-250ml hot water (you may not need to use all of it)
8 Spring onion, finely sliced
1 teaspoon salt
Sunflower or vegetable for brushing and shallow frying
Method
Pour flour into a large heat proof bowl. Add a little hot water at a time and stir vigorously. The flour will start to form small lumps. Continue to add water until it forms a soft dough, it should not be sticky.
Remove the dough to a floured surface and knead until smooth. Put back in the bowl and cover with a damp cloth and leave for 30 minutes.
Divide into four or six pieces.  Take a piece at a time and roll into a ball. Using a rolling pin, roll it into a disc about 1/8 inch thick. Brush the surface with oil. Sprinkle it with sat and some chopped spring onions. Roll the dough into long sausage shape and coil it around itself like a snake. Lightly roll to flatten the cake to about /2 inch thick. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.
Heat a large pan and add 1/4 inch oil. Add one cake at a time and cook one side until golden, then turn and Cook he other other side. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Repeat with the others. Slice and serve sweet or spicy hot with sauce.  Adapted from Master Lam Kam Chuen's The Feng Shui Kitchen via a ripped page from a supermarket magazine.