In my previous post, I shared the recipe for a mushroom wellington, which what the main of my Veggie Xmas menu, you can find the recipe for that and a roasted tomato soup by readingPart One here.
1 large butternut squash (500g needed)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed, or finely grated
175ml double or regular cream
75g Parmesan or Gruyere cheese, finely grated
1 litre (1 3/4 pint) pie dish
1. Preheat the oven to 180c. 2. Using a sharp knife, peel the skin of the butternut squash. Remove all seeds, and cut into fine slices about 5mm (a quarter of an inch) thick. 3. Layer the slices of squash into the pie dish and season with salt and pepper. 4. Place the garlic and cream in a small saucepan, bring to the boil and then pour over the squash in the dish. Sprinkle with the grated cheese. 5. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to one hour, removing the foil after 30 minutes of cooking time. When cooked, the butternut squash should be soft and the top golden and bubbly.
A fresh, spiced orange cake. If liked, you can ice the cake as well as fill it. Use just under half the orange filling to sandwich the cakes together and spread the rest on top
For the orange filling
50g butter, softened
175g icing sugar, sifted, plus a little extra for dusting
2 level tblsp orange pulp, reserved from the cake
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Line two deep 20cm tins with greased greaseproof paper. Place the whole orange in a small saucepan, cover with boiling water and simmer until soft, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2. When the orange is soft and cold, cut in half and remove any pips. Process the whole orange, including the skin, until medium chunky. Reserve 2 level tablespoons of the orange pulp for the icing, and leave the rest in the processor. Add the remaining cake ingredients and blend until smooth. Avoid overmixing. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Leave to cool in the tins for a few moments, then turn out, peel off the paper and finish cooling on a wire rack.
4. To make the orange filling, cream the soft butter, then add the sieved icing sugar and reserved orange pulp. Sandwich the cakes together with the icing, and sieve icing sugar over the top of the cake.
TIP - Thin-skinned oranges are usually smaller – avoid using Jaffa oranges as they have a very thick pith.
Best eaten fresh, but it will store in an airtight container for 2-3 days. You could also freeze the filled cake for up to 2 months. Thaw for 2-3 hours at room temperature.
(FYI: I prepared all my vegetables, par-boiled the potatoes for roasting as well as making the soup and gravy the day before, to save on stress on Christmas day.)
Roast Tomato Soup (from Rachel Allen: Home Cooking)
900g ripe tomatoes (about 8), halved
1 red onion, peeled and thickly sliced
6 large cloves of garlic, peeled
Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
1 tsp caster sugar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
600ml vegetable stock
50ml double or regular cream (I used Provamel soy cream)
Basil leaves, to serve
1. Preheat your oven to 200C. Cut the tomatoes in half and arrange the halves, cut side up, in a single layer on a baking tray and scatter over the onion, garlic, thyme and sugar. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
2. Roast in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until softened. Once cooked, tip the entire contents of the baking tray, including any juices, into a blender. Add the stock and blend until smooth, then pour into a large saucepan. Alternatively, place the cooked tomatoes in the saucepan, pur in the stock and puree using a hand held blender.
3. Bring the soup to the boil, add the cream, reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes to heat through. Serve topped with basil leaves.
This dish is time-consuming, but you can prepare it up to the baking stage and freeze it weeks in advance. Before serving, remove the wellington from the freezer and, after thawing, glaze the pastry with beaten egg (or without if vegan) and put it in a hot oven to bake for 45 minutes at 220C/425F/gas mark 7 until puffed and golden.
Mushroom Wellington Makes 2
600g puff pastry (I used read-rolled pastry, Jus Rol is suitable for vegans)
50ml flavourless vegetable oil
675g chopped onions
450g whole chestnut mushrooms
2 tbsp fresh or dried tarragon
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tbsp soya sauce or tamari, or replace one with marsala or sherry
320g broken cashew pieces
320g ground almonds
175g fine freshly made breadcrumbs, white or wholemeal
1 egg, beaten for glazing (omit for vegans)
salt and pepper to taste
1. Roll out the pastry into two rectangles, 23x30.5cm each, cover and place in the fridge, if you're using ready made, no need to do this as its all been done for you! To make the filling, heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onion with half the crushed garlic for at least 20 minutes or until it turns a deep golden colour.
2. Remove onions from the pan and set aside, then add the mushrooms to the same pan with the rest of the garlic and half the tarragon and cook on a fairly high heat. Halfway through cooking, add the soya sauce or tamari and the alcohol, if you are using it. Continue until the mushrooms are cooked through; there should be no white centre left when you cut one open. I cut mine in two halfway through cooking to ensure they were cooked throughly.
3. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside, reserving all the mushroom liquor (the intensely flavoured liquid given out by the mushrooms). If you have too little liquid, add some water to the pan and swirl around until it combines with the mushroom liquid. In a food processor or blender, blend the cashews with the reserved mushroom liquor to a fine, smooth purée, adding a little water or even more of whichever alcohol you are using, until you have a smooth, sweet paste or pate.
4. Remove mixture from the blender and blend first the onions, then mushrooms – you can mix them up if you wish – until they are perfectly smooth. Mix all the blended ingredients together in a bowl, adding the breadcrumbs, ground almonds and the remaining tarragon. The mixture should gently hold its shape when formed with the hands. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Remove the pastry from the fridge.
5. Divide the mixture in two and place one lot on a sheet of pastry, shaping with your hands as you go to make a long rectangular shape about 28cm long, 7cm wide and about 5cm high. With the thin point of a sharp knife, make diagonal cuts at a 45-degree angle, starting from the left hand corner of the pastry towards the pate mixture. Repeat on the other side, this time starting at the top right hand corner and cutting down towards the centre.
6. The strips should now be about 2cm apart. Fold in the end pieces first. Then draw a strip over from the left, then one from the right, crossing them over so the mix is snugly wrapped up. Repeat for the second wellington. Either freeze at this stage or glaze generously with beaten egg. Place upon a floured tray, using two fish slices or the loose base of a tart tin to help you.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes until golden. Allow to cool for a few minutes before attempting to lift onto a serving dish. Allow 2 slices per person, cut with a very sharp serrated knife.
To serve
Place the wellington on your large platter, surrounded by roasted vegetables. I made a red wine and juniper gravy, from the Cornucopia cookbook, you can find the recipe here.
Behold, a totally uncurated picture of my decadent Christmas dinner, piled high with butternut gratin, mushroom wellington, roasted veg & potatoes, sweet potato & ginger mash and red wine & juniper gravy
I never promised that Meat Free Monday would happen every Monday, but sporadically. Anyhow, I heartily enjoyed this kale and chickpea curry I made last week. My friend Jenny who has been rockin' veganism for the past few months recommended it to me. I adapted the original Vegan Society recipe.
Kale is currently is season at the moment, so buy Irish (or local to wherever you are)! You could always throw in some forgotten vegetables you have in the fridge, end of season courgettes would work well as they can be quite bland and would really benefit from the rich flavours of this curry (I'm so in love with the cardamon in this). As always this is a very economical dish to make.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
2 medium onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 red pepper, diced
2 tins plum tomatoes
2 tins chickpeas
150ml vegetable stock
Pinch sea salt
200g kale
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
6-8 cardamon seeds
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the sliced onion until golden. Add the garlic, pepper (optional) and spices (except for the cardamon) and stir every now and again while cooking for about 1 minute.
- Add tomatoes, drained chickpeas, kale and cardamon seeds. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for 10-20 minutes until the kale has softened to your liking.
- Season to taste. Serve with rice, or naan bread.
- Should serve 4 people, generously, with enough leftover for lunch the next day!
The addition of cardamon really makes this dish special, and would keep for up to 3 days in the fridge for leftovers, I wouldn't recommend freezing as the kale would loose its texture.
This is from a Nigella Lawson recipe, I spend too much time watching daytime tv these days (someone hire me ... soon!) and I saw this on a repeat of Nigella Kitchen on the Food Network UK.
This recipe is useful for when you pick up reduced vegetables in your supermarket, it makes for a good shared meal. I omitted some of the ingredients, as I didn't have them and they were expensive to purchase, or I just plain forgot! I used frozen cauliflower as it was cheaper, and it was just fine.
I have put into brackets what I omitted, and I just doubled the quantities of the mange tout and baby corn, according to what I had at the time.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced
Pinch sea salt
1 green chili seeded and finely chopped
3/4-inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine strips
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 can coconut milk
600ml vegetable stock
1 teaspoon sugar
(1 tablespoon tamarind paste)
(300g broccoli, broken into florets)
300g Cauliflower, separated into florets
125g Baby Corn, halved
150g Mange Tout (or sugar snap peas)
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the sliced onion and garlic, sprinkled with the salt flakes until it softens. Add the green chili and ginger strips and stir every now and again while cooking for about 1 minute.
- Add the chili flakes, turmeric, ground cumin, and ginger. Stir well and cook for another minute or so, before adding the coconut milk, stock, sugar and tamarind paste (if you have it). Stir to combine.
- Bring the sauce to the boil. Add the cauliflower (and broccoli) florets and cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the baby corn and cook for a further 3 minutes. Cook until vegetables are tender (about 5-10 min), then add the mange tout, and ground coriander, and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.
- Season to taste, sprinkle with the fresh coriander. Serve with rice, or naan bread.
- Should serve 4 people, generously.
I believe this freezes well, keeps for 3 days in the fridge for leftovers!
Already a pattern is beginning to become apparent with my meat free meals, I prefer easy to prepare, economical and comforting dishes (which coincidently are the same three words I'd probably use to describe my lifestyle, but anyway). Dishes that you enjoy making and sharing. This week it is the ultimate comfort food dish, and my favourite macaroni cheese recipe.
I adapted this from a Jamie Oliver recipe I cut out from the Sunday Times Style magazine yonks ago. I left out the bacon, and to be honest, for a culchie like me the only 'posh' element of this dish was the addition of the white wine and the fresh herbs. It was delicious nonetheless, though I don't think the wine made much of a difference.
& A tip - if you're not a white wine drinker and probably won't finish the bottle after using it for this recipe, freeze the remainder of the wine in an ice cube bag or tray. You can then use this leftover wine straight from the freezer in any future recipes that require the addition of white wine, such as a risotto.
I have put into brackets the elements I left out, I've never had breadcrumbs in a macaroni cheese and I think its fruitless to convince me otherwise. We only eat soda bread in my house (#culchieproblems), and the healthy five grain bread my mum gets probably wasn't what Jamie had in mind for this carbfest. I like mine with a crunchy golden crust on top, with piles of carby, creamy goodness nestled comfortably underneath.
Ingredients:
50g butter
1 leek, or 3 stalks celery (or BOTH), cleaned & finely sliced
4 sprigs of thyme, leaves only
4 tbsp flour
100ml dry white wine
400ml milk
(250ml double cream)
100g cheddar
50g vegetarian parmesan
A good pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
(2-3 handfuls breadcrumbs)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C. Cook macaroni pasta in boiling salted water according to time on packet, usually 10-12 minutes. Drain and set to one side.
- Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the leeks/celery and thyme leaves. Turn down the heat, put a lid on and leave to soften for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally so they don't stick.
- Add flour and cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly for a couple of minutes, until it forms a roux. Then gradually add the wine, beating with a whisk, to form a thick paste. Cook for a further 2 minutes, then beat in the milk (and cream), and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the sauce has thickened. Mix in the cheeses and cayenne, season to taste and stir until everything has melted and the sauce is smooth.
- Combine the sauce and cooked pasta. Then tip into an ovenproof dish. (Sprinkle with breadcrumbs). Grate cheese over the top. Put in the oven for 25 minutes, or until top is golden and the dish is bubbling at the edges.
- Leave to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with a salad, or greens (see below).
- Should serve 6 people, but usually 4-5 if you like second helpings as much as I do. Mac and cheese is the ultimate comfort food, and is highly addictive!
As this is such a wickedly stodgy dish I served it with some green veg on the side. I wilted some spinach with garlic, olive oil and nutmeg in the pan, some lightly stir-fried mangetout peas and some sliced bell peppers. Any green vegetables you have knocking about in the fridge should be fine.
I have a few blog posts lined up ... in my mind, so I'll get around to typing them out shortly. Now for my semi-regular Meat Free Monday post. This week its a recipe I've been making regularly for the past 3 years. It's Donal Skeehan's Hearty Minestrone Soup. Its very simple to make, nothing fancy, just honest, warming goodness. It's great for using up odd-shaped pasta shells that seem to accumlate in my cupboard.
This is also a great family recipe, especially if yours don't like spicy or exotic dishes. I have my own bottle of tobasco in the cupboard and will likely turn into one of those people who carry it in the handbags. It's simple and full of vegetables that can be purchased cheaply from any supermarket.
Ingredients: (Serves 4)
1 courgette, chopped into small chunks
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 x 410g tins cannellini beans
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped into small chunks
2 litres/4 pints homemade or shop bought veg stock
75g/3oz wholewheat spaghetti, broken into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons of olive oil
A good pinch of paprika
A good pinch of sea salt
Method:
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil and fry the garlic cloves and onion for a couple of minutes or until they become soft.
- Add the celery, carrots and courgette and cook for five minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the wholewheat pasta, paprika and cannellini beans. Give the soup a good stir and cover. Cook gently for a further 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked.
- Season with a little sea salt and serve straightaway. I add a few glugs of tobasco to my bowl for some heat.
&
This is brilliant for bringing in a soup thermos to work, and is very economical to make. It pleases everyone really!
For reasons I set out before, I'll be posting a meat-free monday recipe, tried and tasted by recovered fussy eater, and vegetarian (of 9 years) on ... Mondays! Very good. Ready? Ok, here we go.
I adapted this from a BBC Good Food recipe (they've some excellent recipes posted online). The sweet potato mash and the addition of red wine really transform this dish from a bog standard shepherd's pie to something you'll want to make again and again.
I had tins upon tins of red kidney beans. I seem to acquire them, probably because they're only about 20c a can, and the cheapest tinned beans I can buy in my local supermarket. So I substituted the green lentils for kidney beans, but will certainly be doing this again, with lentils, to see what the texture is like. So feel free to try either. I didn't add cheese or butter - I used olive oil to keep this dish vegan, and the mash was awesome anyway, so there.
A wee tip - I rarely buy fresh herbs because they're expensive, but when I'm making a special recipe, I chop up the remainder, put them in a mini plastic tub or sandwich bag and freeze them, where they keep well for the next couple of months. I did this with the thyme in this recipe.
Ingredients:
Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced
2 large carrots (500g/1lb 2oz in total), cut into sugar-cube size pieces
2 tablespoons thyme, chopped
150ml water
200ml red wine (vegetarian friendly)
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
2 cans of kidney beans (drained), or 410g green lentils
Sweet potato topping
950g sweet potatoes , peeled and cut into chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
Method:
- Heat the oil in a frying pan, then fry the onion until golden. Add the carrots and all but a sprinkling of thyme. Pour in the wine, 150ml water and the tomatoes, then sprinkle in the stock cubes and simmer for 10 mins.
- Add the kidney beans, then cover and simmer for another 10 mins until the carrots still have a bit of bite.
- Meanwhile, boil the sweet potatoes for 15 mins until tender, drain well, then mash with the olive oil and season to taste. Pile the bean and veg mixture into a lasagne dish, spoon the mash on top, then sprinkle over the remaining thyme. (The pie can now be covered and chilled for 2 days, or frozen for up to a month.)
- Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Cook for 20-30 mins if cooking straight away, or for 40-50 mins from chilled, until golden and hot all the way through. Serve with green veg (I served it with grilled asparagus) or a salad on the side.
&
I can't begin to tell you how good this was! It was deliciously rich, with the addition of the red wine. My meat eating family literally licked their plates clean. Job done. My only struggle was trying to take a decent picture of this that didn't look like pie slopped on a plate - besides making adorable mini shepherd's pies for each person, I think its very difficult for an amateur to make a shepherd's pie look as good as this one tasted.
My Dad was in hospital recently and it really shook me up, we're very close. While he is fit and healthy, I do wish he would eat less red meat and animal fats. He's more receptive to vegetarian dishes now, because I do cook a lot, I enjoy cooking family meals at least once a week. After the recent scare, I've been cooking some healthy meals for him, and this evening as I made dinner, I realised that I was cooking a meat-free meal, on a Monday, and I thought of the "meat free Monday" movement, promoted by the McCartney family. So in the spirit of things, I hope on every other Monday to post a meat-free dish, to inspire anyone who does stop by, and to give me some motivation, while I convince my family to make Mondays meat free.
While watching daytime telly recently, I flicked over to Rick Stein's Spain, he was about to cook a delicious looking lentil dish, where the meat element could easily be left out. It's a lentil stew I suppose.
I adapted this recipe, on the cheap. I left out the Serrano ham, and the white wine, I don't have pimentón (smoked sweet Spanish paprika) so I used regular paprika.
Ingredients
300g green lentils
6 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, cloves peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, finely chopped/diced
200g/7oz carrot, finely chopped/diced
1 tbsp paprika (or to taste)
A couple of glugs of tobasco
I tin chopped tomatoes
rock salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
- Check the lentils for stones, then rinse in cold water. Add to saucepan, adding enough cold water to cover them and bring to the boil over a high heat. Reduce heat and leave to simmer for about 30 minutes or until just tender but still a little al dente (or follow packet instructions). Drain, and keep back the cooking liquid, setting to one side.
- In a deep frying pan, heat the oil, adding the garlic and onion, sweating it off for a few minutes, then add the carrot and cook gently for 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and just beginning to colour.
- Stir in the paprika and tomatoes, and simmer for 5-6 minutes or until the mixture cooks down into a thick sauce. I chucked in some tobasco at this point, because I like some heat.
- Stir the lentils into the sauce with 150ml of the lentil cooking liquid, as needed, with a pinch of salt and some pepper. Simmer for a further 5-6 minutes. Serve!
I served this with potatoes fried in olive oil and paprika, 'patatas bravas' style.
You can watch Rick himself whip up this dish via youtube, what a charming man!
Join the movement and tag your tweets/instagram pictures with #meatfreemonday
Sweet potato, hazelnut and spinach en croûte, served with red wine and juniper gravy, from the Cornucopia cookbook.
I made this dish for Christmas last year, and loved it so much I had to make it again. It's a lot of work, as well as being very rich and filling, so making it once a year is enough for me!
I'm going to share the recipe with you here, because I can't find it anywhere online. It seems a shame not too. Of course, all credit for the recipe goes to Cornucopia.
Red wine & juniper gravy
1 large onion
2 carrots
Leaves of a head of celery
1 leek
3 field mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic
2 bay leaves
10 juniper berries
2 tbsp plain flour
A few stalks of thyme
A few stalks of sage
1 heaped tbsp of tomato puree
50ml shoyu/soy sauce
1 heaped tbsp unrefined brown sugar
200ml vegetarian red wine
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
500ml water
Roughly chop the onions, carrots, celery, leek, mushrooms and garlic.
Cover the base of a large pot with a generous splash of olive oil, over a medium heat.
Add all the chopped vegetables, the bay leaves and juniper berries.
Stir briefly to coat with oil, cover with a lid, reduce to a low heat and leave to sweat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing sticks and burns.
When the stock has fully sweated, add the flour and cook over a very low heat for five minutes, stirring continuously.
Add the thyme, sage, tomato puree, soy sauce, water and a good twist of black pepper.
Cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally.
While the gravy stock is cooking, in a medium pan gently heat the sugar over a very low heat. When melted, add the wine. The sugar will crystallise but will melt again.
Simmer the sweetened wine for 10 minutes to burn off the alcohol, and then set to one side.
Place a fine sieve over the wine/sugar pot and pour the gravy stock into it. Stir and press with the back of a ladle to squeeze as much liquid from the mixture as possible.
When finished, discard the vegetables and whisk the liquid so it mixes. This can be prepared the night before and heated on the day. It will keep for about 3 days in the fridge.
En croûte filling
3 medium sweet potatoes (500g)
400g hazelnuts
2 bulbs of garlic
EV olive oil
25g each fresh sage/thyme/parsley (or a small bunch each)
600g red onions (divide into two batches of 300g)
125ml vegetarian red wine
80g breadcrumbs
250g baby spinach (washed)
Half teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 free range eggs
Salt and pepper
Preheat over to 180c. Puncture skin of sweet potatoes, place on a baking tray and roast until soft (about 40-45 minutes).
Set aside to cool and remove the skins, slice them lengthways into quarters. (I left them whole and it looked quite attractive when the pastry is sliced).
Meanwhile, place the hazelnuts on a tray and roast in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
Set them aside to cool and then rub vigrously to remove the loose skins.
At the same time, roast the garlic. Slice the tops off both bulbs, pour in olive oil, ensuring all the cloves are coated, add salt and pepper.
Roast garlic in oven until soft, about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
When cooled, squeeze the soft flesh out, discard the skins afterward.
Chop the fresh herbs very finely and thinly slice the red onions. Set 300g of the onions to one side.
Cover the base of a large pot with olive oil and place over a medium heat. Add 300g of the onions, coat with the oil. Place lid on the pot, reduce to a low heat and allow onions to sweat for 15 minutes.
Add the red wine to the pot, and reduce over a low heat for 15 minutes, to burn off the alcohol.
Remove from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs, and most of the finely chopped herbs (keep aside a small bit for garnishing at the end.) Season to taste.
Coat a frying pan sparsely with olive oil, place over a high heat and add half of the baby spinach. Add some salt and pepper and wilt the spinach until no moisture remains in the pan. Repeat with the remainder of the spinach.
In a food processor, grind the remaining 300g of raw red onions, the flesh of the roast garlic, the wilted spinach and the nutmeg.
Add one egg and half of the roasted hazelnuts, blend for one minute.
Add the second egg and blend for another minute until completely smooth.
Add the remaining hazelnuts, pulse for a few seconds until just roughly chopped. Season to taste.
To assemble:
You can make all of the above the night before to save on time, on the day
When you are ready to assemble, preheat the oven to 180c and prepare an egg wash by whisking 1 free range egg and a pinch of salt.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out your pastry into a 34 x 26cm rectangle, with the longest side facing you.
Transfer the rolled pastry to a large baking tray, with 8 cm of the pastry flopped over the side of the tray. This is the side that will fold over the filling.
Leave a border of 3cm around the pastry so it won't bubble out while it bakes.
Cover 15cm of the pastry with the herb and onion stuffing.
On top of the onions, place half of the spinach mixture on top of the onions.
Nestle the sweet potato batons lengthways into the centre and cover with the remaining spinach mixture.
Cover this with the reaminder of the pastry, ensuring it is securely sealed on all sides, brush the pastry all over with egg wash.
Slice an attractive pattern in the pastry, and grind some black pepper over the pastry.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, allow for 10 minutes rest after removing from the oven.
Slice, serve and enjoy!
We had ours with roast potatoes and grilled vegetables. My meat-eating family adored it. I think its set to become my Christmas tradition.
A note to say: you may end up with twice as much onion and spinach mix as you need. I set this to one side in the fridge, and then remade this a couple of days later. I used shop bought shortcrust pastry for this, you can make your own, but this was much more convenient for me!
A bûche de Noël, with chestnut cream filling.
As you can see the glossy skin of the yule log came off in parts when I gently removed the baking parchment from the cake when it cooled. I added some festive glitter, and left it as is, excusing it as a 'rustic' look. You can add cream to the outside to conceal this, but I don't like very creamy desserts personally.
I made cranberry, almond and dark chocolate biscotti to give as gifts, by adapting this BBC Good Food recipe. It certainly made the kitchen smell like Christmas!
I haven't forgotten about the blog, just been doing a lot thinking about blogging and my place in Irish blogging, etc. But here's some real food for thought! My pal Donna asked for the recipe and I thought I'd share it with you guys. This is delicious. It's taken from Leith's Vegetable Bible, with some of my own modifications and exclusions. It's vegan too!
(Someone recently downloaded instagram for android!)
110g cous cous 225ml boiling water 1/4 pint olive or chili infused oil 1 clove of garlic, crushed 2 shallots or spring onions, finely chopped grated zest of one lemon salt & freshly ground pepper 2 med to large aubergines 30g butter melted (I omitted this) a walnut sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1. Preheat grill to high and preheat the oven to 190c 2. Place cous cous in a bowl, pour over the boiling water and and leave to soak. warm the oil in a small saucepan and stir in the garlic, shallot/spring onion and half the lemon zest and the juice. season with salt and pepper. 3. Trim the stalks from the aubergines and cut each lengthways into 4-5 thick slices. brush liberally with the infused oil and grill on both sides until golden brown. 4. Using a fork, mix the cous cous with the melted butter (I used whatever oil was left over), ginger and the remaining lemon zest (I used the other half of the lemon juice instead). Season with s & p. I also added some fresh coriander that was left in the fridge. arrange the slices in a single layer in an over proof dish, or a baking tray. pile the cous cous mixture on top and bake for about 15 minutes, until the cous cous topping is hot and roasted on top!
Serve with a fresh mediterranean salad, we also had a sort-of-colcannon on the side, where I used up the cabbage left in the fridge and mashed it with onions, garlic, potatoes and olive butter.
I am partial to spicy, mexican inspired food, being a girl who likes her beans and pulses and guacamole.
I'd attempted vegetarian chili in the past, using TVP (or Quorn) 'mince', but the taste and texture was ultimately unsatisfying, I'd abandoned any hope of making a decent chili until I tried this simple recipe I'd come across on a message board.
So I'll never make it as a food blogger, but you get the picture.
Ingredients
1 can Kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can Black beans, drained and rinsed (I just used another can of Kidney beans)
1 can Pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn
1 chopped red/green/yellow pepper (depends on preference, or in my case, whatever was left in the fridge!)
1 red onion, diced
1 can (400g) chopped tomatoes
1 cup vegetable stock (120ml)
3 garlic cloves (I used more like 4-5)
1 generous tbsp of chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3-4 glugs soy sauce
Pinch of tsp kosher/sea salt
A few grinds of black pepper
Directions
Chop the garlic, onion, and red pepper. Saute lightly over medium high heat in 1-2 tsp olive oil
Add everything else into the pot! Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 30 min or longer as needed
Serve with tortilla chips (or brown rice) and add whatever toppings you usually would (depending if you're vegan/vegetarian), like guacamole! But I enjoyed it just as well without!
Been feeling a little uninspired as of late. I've mostly been trying to get assignments in. I was ill last weekend as well and have been generally feeling quite tired. So I've just been watching repeats of That 70's Show and Big Love and using Fair Trade Fortnight as an excuse to buy two large bars of Green & Blacks chocolate on my weekly grocery shop.
I'll be hosting a little giveaway soon to celebrate reaching 100 followers.
So St. Patrick's Day for me was tamer than previous years. I had some friends over to dinner, I made Irish Stew (with the addition of Guinness), colcannon and carrot cake, using Crumbs for Dinner's recipe (highly, highly recommended!) We enjoyed some whiskey ginger & mint cocktails and had the craic.
Recently I also went on a day trip to the Scottish Museum of Costume at Shambellie House -
Hannah as the Dunce in the corner. They do recreations of Victorian classes for children's school groups that visit here, so obviously this is some evidence of that! Children really enjoy reenactments, so we're still big kids then!
They were shutting up the 'Marriage in the Movies' exhibition in preparation for their next exhibition, opening in April, about what the Land Girls and Lumber Jills of WW2 wore. A lot of mannequins were shrouded in these creepy dust veils, for storage.
'Willow Lady' sculpture in the grounds of Shambellie House, designed by Trevor Leat. This really ties in with the ideal of the house and its close affiliation with the landscape surrounding it.
These human like models were very popular in the 1970s. Interestingly they were based on the appearances of famous movie stars. This one is clearly Greta Garbo but there were a few others whose faces were similar and I just couldn't place them. What do you think of these sorts of mannequins - they are usual for action poses and 'personalizing' the costume, but are their facial expressions and make-up distracting? Are they too familiar to ethnographical mannequins (which obviously isn't their purpose)?
Shambellie House is a Victorian country house, originally built for the Stewart family in 1856. Charles Stewart donated his substantial costume collection to National Museums Scotland in 1977 and he also loaned Shambellie House to be used as a Museum of Costume, for the display of his collection.
Other things been keeping me busy recently include our student exhibition of studio ceramics (more on this at a later stage!) (James Tower "Shell Form" stoneware sculptural form, 1981, Paisley Museum collection)
My camera might be getting on a bit, as I only seem to take blurry photos these days. Some day I'll get a nice camera. When I learn to take care of things! (That'll be a long time coming then.)
I made these again this year as they went down a treat. I followed a couple of recipes, but the simplest I've found is Jamie Oliver's:
Jamie's amazing diy chocolate truffles Makes about 40-50 teaspoon-sized truffles, depending on how big/small you want them
• 300ml double cream • a knob of unsalted butter • finely grated zest from 1 clementine (I had none so used a lemon instead) • 300g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces • a pinch sea salt • a splash of brandy • a handful of mixed nuts (Brazil nuts, toasted almonds and hazelnuts)
Put the cream in a pan over a medium heat and let it heat up. You don’t want it boiling, just hot. As soon as tiny bubbles start to appear add the knob of butter and the clementine zest.
Once the butter has melted pour this hot mixture over the chocolate pieces whisking as you go so the chocolate melts nice and slowly. If the mixture splits slightly, don’t worry, you can bring it right by adding a splash of boiling water. (Be very wary of adding hot water though!)
Add a pinch of salt to the mixture; it may sound bonkers, but the smallest pinch of salt actually makes chocolate taste even chocolatier! Stir in a splash of brandy.
Once completely melted and smooth, pour your melted chocolate mixture into a nice little serving dish or bowl. Pop this in the fridge for about 2 hours to set. Christmas is a busy time so you can always do this a few days before you need it if you want. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to make your truffles pull the bowl out of the fridge and let the chocolate warm up to room temperature.
Put your mixed nuts into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to bash them up quite finely. Get some little saucers or bowls and put the nuts in one and your cocoa powder in the other. Put a teacup filled with boiled water on the tray and pop a few teaspoons in there for scooping the chocolate. Get everyone around the table to spoon their own truffles out of the serving dish and roll them in cocoa powder, crushed nuts or anything else you fancy. Or, you can let them smear their truffles over a biscotti like some posh Nutella! Serve with a few glasses of your chilled Vin Santo.
Of course, I'm on student budget so I haven't bottles of Vin Santo laying around, but this is a perfect treat for serving to relatives and friends that call over the festive season.
Oh and I actually ended up not using the cocoa powder in the end. These keep well in the fridge for a week, the nut coating loses its crunch after 2-3 days however.
This comes a bit late for Christmas day, but you've got New Years ahead of you and everyone loves finger food this time of year, so try it and let me know how you get on!
I'm even going to go far as to say that these are better than Ferrero Rocher because you made them yourself!
(crap photobooth picture because they were all eaten before I took a picture of them all prettied up! d'oh!)
Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake Makes about 12 slices
250ml Guinness 250g unsalted butter 75g cocoa 400g caster sugar 1 x 142ml pot sour cream 2 eggs 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract 275g plain flour 2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
ICING: 300g Philadelphia cream cheese (I used mascarpone instead) 150g icing sugar 125ml double or whipping cream (I probably used only a third of this amount)
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
(Melted butter and guinness mixture)
Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
(Before adding the flour. Don't worry that the mixture seems watery, it'll all come together beautifully in the oven)
Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour.
(Typically there wasn't a decent sized cake tin in my house so I put the remainder into fairy cake cases)
Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.
And if you're stuck with Guinness leftovers and you don't drink the white stuff yourself, theres always willing participants!
The finished product:
I got a bit snap happy! It was delicious, despite the small tin, I'm not one for icing usually, but this was smooth and with a kick. There was no Baileys in the house so I improvised and added a splash of:
Gin and tonic (almost) icing of course!
It got the Dad stamp of approval and his opinion of most things is "It's grand". Maybe he was being nice because it was my birthday.
What I ate: Baked butternut squash with all the trimmings.
What I wore: The velvet skirt is from H&M and I love it because it reminds me of Joan's office Xmas party dress in season four of Mad Men.
I received a gorgeous forest green blazer and sensible dress from Zara that I had picked myself, an Italian made natural bristle hairbrush and plenty of socks (at my own request!) and a massive tote bag of Soap and Glory shower products which will keeping me ticking by quite nicely.
