Well this is week three that I along with many other people in the world have been in social isolation and working from home.
Its the first time I have been fortunate to work for an organisation, that has permitted me to work from home. Its not always been like this, a couple of years ago I worked for an organisation that pressured me to come in from my rural location to the city when we had 'The Beast from the East', even though all public transport from where I lived had been cancelled, afraid of being stranded I ended up taking annual leave that period. I am thankful that I now work for a considerate employer, I know that not everyone has that.
In fact both D and myself have been working from home. Its easy to get distracted with all the homely comforts, but we are disciplining ourselves. D works from one room and I work from the other, the only time we cross paths is for lunch or in the kitchen for a cuppa. And please don't be impressed with our expresso machine above, we have hardly used it! Its become more ornamental than useful.
This brings me onto my Brazil Nut Banana Muffins. I made these in the first week of social isolation. The recipe is adapted from Heidi Swanson of 101 cookbooks from her Super Natural Cooking. I didn't have all the ingredients to hand, for a start I only had one leopard spotted banana. So I halved the recipe quantity and topped off with brazil nuts as I did not have the recommended pecans. These were surprisingly good, especially the crunchy Brazil nuts which I haven't had in a long, long while - felt like a treat!
I no longer have an allotment plot and presently I don't have much growing in my back garden plot at the moment, so I have decided to trial Riverford Organic Farmers Vegetable Box for a month.
The Riverford Vegetable Box scheme began when Guy Watson began delivering vegetableses locally to 30 friends in Devon. It now delivers around 47,000 boxes a week to homes around the UK. Riverford delivers to most of England and South Wales.
I chose the medium vegetable box which has eight organic varieties which was recommended for 2 - 3 people. This week the vegetable box contained: Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Fennel Bulb, Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Courgettes, Onions, Oakleaf Lettuce and Tomatoes. It was hard to know what to cook with first, I finally settled on the Purple Sprouting Broccoli - a seasonal star, I should know I used to grow some and the sweet potatoes.
I decided to make a Warm Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sweet Potato Salad with Hazelnuts that were given to me by a friend. To make this warm salad more of a substantial dish, I finished it off with some sliced of vegetarian black pudding, but that is optional. This certainly made a welcome change from our boring lettuce, cucumber and tomato salad.
I am sharing this Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Sweet Potato Salad with Soups, Salads and Sammies hosted by Kahakai Kitchen.
Riverford in South Wales is run by Jon and Janet Mier. You will often find them and their knowledgeable staff at food events across Wales. If you would like to keep up to date with news from Riverford South Wales, then follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclaimer: I was kindly given the medium vegetable box worth £14.85 by Riverford South Wales, in return for a plant based recipe using seasonal and organic vegetables from the box. All views and opinions are my own.
This Dippy Green pate was made in the same week as the Blood Orange Tart when time in the kitchen was becoming more annoying than enjoyable.
This originally started off as a walnut and spinach pate that were meant to be turned elegantly into quenelles, but it didn't work out so well. The mixture was just too wet, so in a bid to rescue them, I adapted or rather enhanced the recipe.
I turned some of it into Spinach Cream Cheese. Here it is spread onto some rye crackers and then finished off with some alfalfa sprouts.
Here is the Spinach Pate au naturale.
I am sharing this with The Veg Hog is hosting #EatYourGreens Vegetarian and Vegan Blog challenge this month, so please do join in there is plenty of time. For those of you who have not participated before, please Follow this link on how to join in.
It's Friday evening and the start to our weekend. Yay, even better its a long weekend with the public Bank Holiday in the UK on Monday.
Later on this evening, we will be sipping white wine and snacking on some crackers with some homemade red Nut Cheese.
Nut cheeses are all the rage right now with vegans.
I first came across Nut cheeses in 1990s when I stumbled across publication by a little known vegetarian writer called Dave Dutton - I think the cookbook was The Green Revolution Cookbook, but I cannot remember for sure as he has a few publications. His vegan nut cheese recipe also contained soya flour which is not used often as it once was. However, the recipe I made was not based on his recipe, as I could not locate the book on my shelves.
The red in this vegan Nut cheese comes from smoked paprika. To give you an idea of how this red nut cheese sliced. I have served it on some red crackers. It was really good with umani undertones from the miso paste. I have also stirred in into a pasta salad for lunch.
The April weather continues to tease us. Yesterday, the sun was shining and I actually walked about without my raincoat. Then we woke up today and its spitting rain. Its late afternoon and its still raining. So today, we play catch up with laundry and house work related stuff.
Whilst going through some of the kitchen cupboards, I came across a packet of ras al hanout; purchased it for Moroccan Tagine with Spiced Seed Confetti,, but I find that I rarely use it as I often have all the spices at home to make from scratch, but as a person who dislikes waste. I decided to use the ras al hanout to coat some cashew nuts.
This recipe is inspired by the Rosemary Cashew Nuts I made earlier in the year. Once made and cooled down, I tipped them carefully into a recycled jar from Douwe Egberts Coffee (my instant coffee of choice). Every time I go into the kitchen to make a cuppa, I find my mitts reaching into the jar and munching some.
I made this Luxurious Hazelnut Tempeh Pate a few weeks back when I needed a bit of a mental break and sometimes kitchen therapy helps.
The Hazelnut Tempeh Pate is packed with rich flavours.
This vegan meat-free Pate seriously puts those tube ones to shame, but I understand there place as I have used them in the past and see their convenience when time is of the essence. But if you want to impress or just want a pate with deep 'meaty' flavours, then it is definitely making your own from scratch.
This Hazelnut Tempeh Pate does take time to make, but its well worth the effort when plated up and served to your guests with good crusty bread.
I have been admiring Johanna's efforts over the festive season. She got round to making everything that I wanted to, but did not from nut roast, mince pies to fudge and even panforte. However, it was after seeing Johanna's homemade Sweet and spicy nuts that I was prompted to make some savoury nibbles at home.
D moved my bread loaf tins somewhere and could not remember where he moved them. I have looked in all the obvious places. I told him many times, if he is unsure where to put kitchenalia to let me know and I will put them away. He has done this to me a few times and it makes me frown when I go to look for whatever it is, even some of the ingredients for shopping are put away in wrong places. Grrr
He looked everywhere he would put them and he could not find them either. so over the weekend, we went shopping in Cardiff and I picked up a decent loaf tin as I wanted to make Zucchini Bread.
Ah if this is all the grief he gives me, then I am in a happy relationship. I know I am blessed and very very lucky.
The Zucchini Bread was very nice by the way. D of course had his with a bit of butter, I don't think it needs it, but it definitely does need a cuppa of some sort with it to wash it down. Apricots are optional, but they are in season and I had some in a bowl that were not very juicy, so i used them in the loaf, but dried apricots will do just nicely too.
I am slowly going through some of my bookmarked recipes and starting to tick them off.
Today, I share with you this Raw Vegan Carrot Cake with Cashew Cream. This Raw Vegan Carrot Cake comes from Lorraine Pascale.
I have to be honest, I don't really do celebrity chefs, so when I first saw Lorraine Pascale on British TV. the first thought that came to me was, here we go again another model turned celebrity chef, but her approach was really different from all those domestic goddess wannabees. Lorraine Pascale gained popularity without the gimmicks. She really did win me over on her first cookery show and her down to earth honest approach, I have also come to have a much deeper respect for her as a person too.
Anyway, this Raw Vegan Carrot Cake was the first that I had bookmarked from her Eating Well Made Easy from Lorraine Pascale. The only change I have made to the recipe was the use of hazelnut, the original recipe uses walnuts and I did not have to pop this in the freezer, my fridge was plenty chilled.
The recipe makes a generous cake, I took a lot of this Vegan Carrot Cake into work and gave around tasters. Everyone who had a piece was stunned first at the fact that it was completely raw, secondly that it was very much like baked carrot cake and lastly how Delicious it was, some even wanting a second piece. The only person who was not that crazy about it was my husband. He said. I will eat this, but raw cakes just don't excite me. Oh well, you cannot win everyone over.
For the recipe for Raw Vegan Gluten Free Carrot Cake with Cashew Cram see here.
Keep refrigerated.
Eat within the week.
This prettily dressed up Hazelnut Swede Lemon Drenched Cake has come and gone in our home and while it lasted, it made every one who had a slice or a taste, first crinkle their noses and then purse their lips and nod their heads in approval. It was intriguing.
For my overseas readers, you may know Swede as Rutabaga. It is a vegetable that I avoid eating in savoury meals, I find it sweet like parsnips and don't often enjoy it, but hide it in a cake then it takes on a different flavour all together. I know it won't convince everybody, but all I can say is try it before you pass judgement.
I have made a few dishes with both swede and turnips of late. Previous to this blog post you may have seen my Turnip, Kale and White Bean Stew,
Swede Mash on top of a Veggie 'Meatball' dish and of course that dark Rutabaga Cinnamon Nutmeg Cake with Miso Caramel Sauce reminisce of Sticky Toffee Pudding.
I have to admit, at first I also was not sure sbout theHazelnut Swede Lemon Drenched Cake. I found it a little earthy on some bites, but as each day passed and I had another slice, I came to like it, really like it. It was unlike anything that I had ever eaten, which made it a delight. It also loved how the rosemary lemon syrup seeped beautifully into the hazelnut sponge.
This cake can be made with eggs, or flaxseeds which will make it suitable for vegans or those who do not eat eggs. Oh did I mention its also gluten free too. I am sharing this with CookBlogShare hosted by Hijacked By Twins; and Simple and In Season hosted by Feeding Boys - even though Swede is a winter vegetable, you will still find it in the supermarkets springtime and Honest Mum for Brilliant Blog Posts.
Over the weekend, I was going through my larder, well its not really a larder I pretend it is. Its just space under the stairs where I store excess things mostly from the kitchen as space in the kitchen comes at a premium, so things like my Kitchenaid Food Processor and Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer (both Birthday presents from D many years back) live under the stairs. As I was fumbling about I came across the box that contained loads of homemade jars of preserves, jams and chutneys that I made last year including a Marrow Curd.
I decided to approach the jar of Marrow Curd in the way I would approach Lemon Curd, so this cake is really a Lemon Pistachio cake with the lemon curd substituted with homemade marrow curd.
I guess you can make this Marrow Curd Pistachio Cake with other fancy pants curds like blackberry curd, strawberry curd, clementine curd, banana curd and many others - experiment, but then make sure you match the fruit or vegetable curd with a nut that compliments it.
This Marrow Curd Pistachio Cake was delicious, I mean really delicious. If you look close at the above photograph, you will see a thin line of the marrow curd. I just wish the green from the pistachio nuts came through too, but it certainly did in flavour.
It is the Blood Orange Season.
I had picked up some Sicilian Blood Oranges from a supermarket and wasn't completely sure what to do with them other than just peel and eat them, of course.
It was only when I started reading an on line article by Media Diversified on the much celebrated cook Claudia Roden and author of A Book of Middle Eastern Food (1968) and The Book of Jewish Food (1996) that I decided to make Orange and Almond Cake.
In the article the writer mentions Claudia Roden's famous Almond and Orange Cake which she made with blood oranges. This Orange and Almond cake has featured on many gluten free cookbooks and food blogs as its made without flour. Even Nigella Lawson spun the recipe replacing the oranges with clementines.
Even though I have New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
- the cookbook from which the recipe is from, I took my lead from the article and made the Orange Almond Cake with Sicilian Blood Oranges.
The Blood Orange did not impart any colour to the moist sponge, but plenty of flavour. The cake itself was truly amazing to eat.
I wasn't going to post the Sicilian Blood Orange Almond Cake recipe, its plastered all over blogosphere with minor variations: lemons or grapefruit in place of the oranges and a hint of spice: cardamon, caraway or fennel seeds, then I decided to do so. Another gluten free Orange Almond Cake recipe on blogosphere wasn't going to make a difference, but complete credit goes to the amazing Claudia Roden for sharing the recipe with the Western world.
For a person of South Asian heritage who is not that bad in the kitchen, I still have quite a few South Asian Indian cookbooks on my shelf as cuisine from the Indian sub continent is wide, vast and diverse, just like its people.
Most of the Indian cookbooks I have come from Madhur Jaffrey, Reza Mahammad, but I also have some by Dala Tarla and lesser known cooks in this part of the UK Viji Varadarajan. I also have all the cookbooks by the beautiful Vicki Bhogul who has just made a comeback with the republication of Cooking Like Mummiji. A couple of years back I was super excited by the publication of Prashad cookbook. However I only have a handful of Gujrati Indian Vegetarian Cookbooks. The one I flick through quite often is Hansa's Indian Vegetarian Cookbook (2001) by Hansa Daghi who combines her Gujarit home cooking with touches of her East African upbringing.
However, its my newest cookbook that I want to put in the spotlight. My husband got me Fresh India: Quick, easy and Delicious Vegetarian Recipes For Every Day by Meera Sodha for Christmas. This Cauliflower Korma with Blackened Raisins (Gobhi Korma) was the first recipe that I bookmarked from the cookbook.
I have to say Meera Sodha's Cauliflower Korma as you may know it, its very different. There is no coconut or coconut milk in the recipe , but there are nuts not what we often see cashew nuts but ground almonds that act as both thickener and give it that rich creaminess. It made for a change and I like change.
We always have fresh cranberries this time of year, but not for too long. Like Pumpkins during the Autumnal Season, they disappear from the supermarket shelves as soon as Halloween has passed; and this is the same with cranberries. Cranberries vanish once and for all as soon as Christmas and the festive season has come and gone.
I try to make the most of fresh cranberries while in season. Around the festive holidays, I often make Nigella Lawsons Cranberry, Orange and Almond pudding for Christmas. Its become a firm favourite in our home, however this time we actually had a traditional Christmas Pudding. I think it came in a hamper last year or even the year before, but I can't remember for sure. So we tucked into the steamed Christmas Pudding late Christmas evening and this Cranberry and Pecan Torte was made early this afternoon.
The recipe comes from Entertaining Vegetarians by Celia Brooks. I have made this Cranberry Pecan Torte before, a long time ago. In fact it was in 2004 on Christmas day. This made me smile to myself and the fact that I was making it again, over a decade later. I know this, as I had scribbled in pencil how delicious the recipe was with a note to make again...Gosh I am getting old.
This morning was our fourth day not leaving the house (except to go in the garden to empty the kitchen scraps into compost bin and refill the bird feeders - its been a busy garden with the bird life). I spent the day in the kitchen trying to get creative and use up some of the excess fruit and vegetables I picked up last week for the festive holidays. Also, we both go back to work tomorrow, so I cooked a couple of dishes in advance that could easily be reheated when we get in late. This Cranberry and Pecan Torte though, was more out of greed than necessity.
The making of this Cranberry and Pecan Torte was a joint effort. D cracked the pecan shells for me, gosh he made such a mess with the shells flying here, there and everywhere. He's a much better housekeeper than me, as soon as he finished shelling the pecan nuts, out came the hoover and the mess was cleared away. He is also my dishwasher!
This Cranberry and Pecan Torte is very, very sweet and sharp which D loved. Its sticky and chewy too. I loved how the fresh cranberries burst bleeding into the batter.
I would like wish all my dear blog readers: new and old a very Merry and Happy Christmas.
This is not Christmas Dinner by the way, I made this a couple of days back.
I garnished the Christmas Tree Puff Pastry platter with some ribbon carrots and Brussels Sprouts baubles and some fresh herbs that blew when we took it out in the garden for a photograph.
In case your wondering, here is the Christmas Tree in our home with lots of eclectic ornaments hanging from it, including some wooden spoons, hedgehog, Frida Kahlo and a lady in a sari carrying a pineapple (from a fair trade shop) and finally baby Jesus held by Mary. The tree went up on the 1st December.
I've had a busy weekend, time spent finishing off wrapping the last of the Christmas presents and some planning ahead cooking, one of which is a very time consuming Chestnut Mushroom Wellington.
The Chestnut Mushroom filling was so vast that I made a number of small Mushroom Wellington loafs and put them in the freezer, but I still had plenty of Chestnut Mushroom filling to experiment with.
At one point, I had thought to make a Pull Apart Christmas Tree, I made one with veggie mincemeat early this year, but then decided on a Pull Apart Wreath.
My homemade edible wreath is not perfectly round, but I am one of those people that that hates waste, so its kind of square, but I think that is what makes it a little more visually interesting. However, I am still hoping to make a round wreath again in the future, perhaps with a pizza filling.
The recipe is slightly adapted from the brilliant Nadine Abensur's Mushroom Wellington filling from The Cranks Bible. The slight adaptation I make are with the nuts, sometimes I use mixed nuts or just what I have and I often use dried tarragon in place of fresh. I know Nadine Abesur would be good to share the recipe, but here's the link that will also take you to her website. To see step by step instructions for the Pull Apart Wreath, I followed this photograph.
I have been enjoying participating in Food 'N' Flix, so I am joining in this month again. The movie chosen this month is Kampus. I watched it last year. I originally wanted to make the wicked gingerbread man character in the movie, but with time running out I changed my mind. Then I spotted the big bowl of Brussels sprouts on the table during the Dinner fight scene, but again I changed my mind making this Christmas Pull Apart Wreath. My inspiration comes from the opening scene of Krampus you first see a wreath, before the camera slowly scans down to the Black Friday chaotic madness in the supermarket. I am sharing this Chestnut Mushroom Wreath with Food 'N' Flix hosted by Heather at All Roads Lead To The Kitchen.
I am also sharing this with am sharing this post with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave over Our Happy Acres as the herbs, the bay leaves and rosemary are from my garden, not much else is growing. Its also an opportunity for me to say Thank you to Dave for hosting and to those who have visited my blog through Harvest Monday - Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year Monday Harvesters! I hope to participate a bit more regularly come 2017.
This is not a cake 'cake' with a sponge, and its not a cheesecake though on first glance that is how it appears.
This is a Butternut, Mango and Orange Marigold Layer Cake, which I have also pretentiously dubbed as Sunrise Cake.
The bottom is an almond crust, the middle Mango and butternut Squash filling is infused with Mango sweetness and then the topping finished off with a zingy zesty orange jelly made with agar agar and then finished off with a light scattering of dried marigold flower petals - all depicting colours of the Sunrise.
I was impressed with myself, though I have to admit the rice paper butterflies actually look a little out of place, here or maybe dare I say it tacky - I did like the scattering of the dried marigold petals.
This is not a very sweet cake, needs a squirt of (soya) cream to cut the richness of the butternut mango filling and the sharp twang from the orange topping. Its also a very big cake, you can slice it in 8 pieces generously or in 14 slices. I took some of it into work and shared it with my friends and some colleagues from omnivores to vegans and told them this Butternut, Mango and Orange Marigold Layer Cake was a Raw, vegan and gluten free cake. They were all very impressed and said they felt virtuous and quite light eating it.
I am not organised enough today cook something from a country on the other side of the world, so for Vegan Mofo prompt Far Away I share something that I associate with the vegan Western world - non dairy nut 'cheese' spread.
I have been wanting to make both a hard and soft spreadable vegan 'cheese' for a while. The first time I came across a vegan alternative for 'cheese' was in an old secondhand copy of a 1970s vegan paperback cookbook that I found a charity shop in Glasgow. This vegan cheese alternative was made with soy flour. I wanted t make it, but at the time I could not track down soy flour, then I forgot all about it (I must dig out the cookbook), but in the last 10 years there has been a rise of modern and contemporary versions are made with rejuvenac and probiotic capsules.
Today though, I am still keeping it basic or traditional as this is the first time I have made a spreadable vegan cashew 'cheese' spread. I did not want any hard to get ingredients like those mentioned above.
The recipe made quite a fair bit. I ended up with eight of these heart ramekins. I gave most of it away as I was not sure how long it would last. To make them different, I decided to douse smoked paprika and parsley over some of them.
The verdict by my vegan, vegetarian and omnivore Guinea pig colleagues was that it was really tasty. Some compared it to cottage cheese, some to goats cheese and some to hummus. They all enjoyed it and said they would be happy to have it on their plate with crackers.
Here is a link to 14 Vegan Cheeses including one from the awesome Maple Spice whom I discovered when I first started blogging in 2009 sadly due to illness she is taking time out from blogging. My version is adapted from In Vegetables We Truest and Olives for Dinner
