Happy Holidays

I’m taking a break from posting over the next week or so. Enjoy the holidays and see you back here next year!

Vegetarianism at the Holidays

Ah, holidays. Time for family, friends, overeating, and, um, stress. At least that’s what I find, and apparently a lot of other people feel the same way.

One cause of stress can be if you are the only vegetarian at the holiday meal (or if you are one of just a few vegetarians). Now, some hosts are accommodating and will happily make a meat-free dish or two. But some hosts find this very difficult and/or upsetting. So if I’m invited somewhere, I usually offer to bring a dish that I can eat. That eases some strain on people who can’t possibly imagine what a vegetarian might eat (even though those same people make plenty of vegetable-based dishes, of course; it’s just that they consider them to be side dishes, not main courses).

One things that’s often overlooked, as people are quick to complain about vegetarians’ “strange” eating habits or “demanding” needs, is that for vegetarians, it can be difficult to look at the table laden with animal products and to watch people, sometimes even people they love, shove dead animals parts in between their teeth. Most of us manage not to show our disgust or to give lectures, but it can be hard at times.

Holidays can be hard in and of themselves – we’ve all experienced the alcoholic relative or the arguing couple or the burnt meal – but we should all try to show a bit more sensitivity. If you’re the vegetarian guest, bring your own dish and don’t lecture people about health and morality. If you’re the host of a vegetarian, make sure you have enough vegetable-based or tofu-based dishes, and have a generous cheese tray, and also remember that your vegetarian guest might be struggling too.

It’s the holidays. If we can’t be cheerful, at least we can be kind. Right?

Quinoa and Lentils with Spinach

I love those Merchant Gourmet packages of quinoa and lentils. They’re so easy to make (you boil the bag) and you can vary them in many ways. Quinoa is protein-rich and very tasty, so I love to use it in my cooking. A simple dish I often make is to cook quinoa and lentils and make it with spinach and yogurt. That’s enough for M, but I add plenty of Tabasco to my bowl.

Ingredients:
1 package quinoa
1 package lentils
1 package baby spinach (about 100 g)
1 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt

Instructions:
1. Boil the quinoa and lentils according to the directions.
2. Wilt the spinach with the salt over low heat.
3. Open the packages and pour the contents in with the salt. Add the yogurt and stir.

Cheese Balls/Buns

These cheesey treats can be shaped into balls or buns, depending on what you want. They can be served with drinks or with soup, or simply on their own as a snack. You can vary them by adding different herbs or spices or by using different types of cheese. I like using a strong cheddar.

Ingredients:
50 g cheddar
30 g butter
pinch black pepper
1 tsp parsley
½ cup flour
2 eggs

Instructions:
1. Grate or chop the cheese. Melt it together with the butter over low heat. Then add the pepper and parsley.
2. Remove the mixture from the stove and add the flour. Mix well, until it turns into a dough ball.
3. Whip the eggs and add them. The dough should be thick and shiny.
4. Place spoonfuls of the cheese dough on a tray and bake for about 20 minutes at 170 C.

Lussekatter, or Swedish Saffron Buns

These Swedish saffron buns are traditionally eaten on the Santa Lucia holiday. Lucia, also called Lucy, was supposedly a Christian martyr who is considered to be patron saint of light. That’s ironic because she blinded herself rather than agree to marry a suitor who found her beautiful. She wanted to devote her life to God.

The buns taste like winter to me and the bright yellow colour brings a welcome shot of light to the dark days. They’re great with a mug of tea or coffee, or a nice steaming glass of hot mulled wine or glögg.

Look at the previous post to get advice on using dried yeast.

Ingredients:
.5 g saffron
1 tsp sugar
75 g butter
½ cup milk
25 g yeast
1 egg
½ cup sugar
3½ cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 handful of raisins
flour for the surface

Instructions:
1. Crush the saffron with the 1 tsp sugar in a mortar with a pestle until finely ground.
2. Melt the butter in the milk over low heat. Let it cool and then add some of it to the yeast.
3. Whisk the egg. Mix it into the rest of the butter and milk mixture. Then mix in the ½ cup sugar, the flour, the salt, the saffron, and the yeast, stirring frequently.
4. Cover the mixture with a cloth and let it rise for about an hour.
5. Boil the water and soak the raisins in it, so that they get plump.
6. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead it on a lightly floured surface. Pinch of bits of dough and make bun shapes. The traditional Swedish lussekatter are made in S-shapes, but any shape is fine. Place the buns on a baking tray.
7. Let the buns rise for another 30-60 minutes. Decorate them with raisins.
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 200 C. Serve warm.

Re-activating Dried Yeast

Some recipes call for fresh yeast but it isn’t always easy to find fresh yeast. So dried active yeast can be used instead, but it has to be reactivated. A simple rule of thumb is that you use half the amount of dried yeast than you would if you were using fresh yeast. Also, one tablespoonful of dried yeast is approximately equal to 15 g. So this recipe will tell you how to reactivate 15 g of dried yeast.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup boiling water
2/3 cup cold water
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp dried yeast

Instructions:
1. Mix the waters and then dissolve the sugar in it.
2. Add the yeast and mix well.
3. Leave it to sit for 20 or so minutes.
4. Then use in your recipe as directed.

Courgette with Yogurt and Mint Sauce

This is a really easy side dish. You can also use the yogurt and mint sauce for other vegetables or to cook tofu in.

Ingredients:
2 courgettes or 3 baby ones
oil
sea salt
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
2 tsp dried mint

Instructions:
1. Wash and slice the courgettes. Fry them in oil until they are lightly golden on both sides.
2. Sprinkle with salt and add the yogurt to the pan. Continue to cook over low heat until the yogurt breaks apart and becomes a loose sauce.
3. Sprinkle with mint and serve.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

As I mentioned, last week it was my sweetheart’s birthday. I made a big meal that included recipes I’ve posted here before, such as my goat cheese soufflé and roasted Jerusalem artichokes. For dessert, all M would say was that she’d like chocolate, so I decided to make a chocolate mousse cake.

What I did was to make two portions of chocolate mousse, one with eggs and one without. The one with eggs I baked, so that it turned into a very cream and rich base. The one without eggs I slathered on top of the base. In other words, the cake was composed of two types of chocolate mousse, one cooked and the other not. Mousse overload? Not at all.

This would be a great cake to make for someone who is gluten-intolerant, as it has no flour. You can also vary it quite easily by adding nuts or fruit to the mousse topping. You can also use milk chocolate, but I always prefer dark myself.

Ingredients:
butter and cocoa for the pan
375 g dark chocolate
50 g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp sea salt
12 eggs, divided
¼ cup sugar
another 1/5 cup sugar

for the topping:
125 g dark chocolate
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
¼ cup sugar

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 150 C. Butter a springform pan. Instead of dusting it with flour, I always dust it with cocoa.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn. Add the vanilla and salt. Let the mixture cool.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the ¼ cup sugar. Mix with the chocolate.
4. Beat the egg whites with another 1/5 cup sugar until stiff. Fold this gently into the chocolate mixture and mix well.
5. Bake for about 40 minutes, until just firm in the middle. Let cool completely.
6. Melt the chocolate for the topping, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn. You can always add a touch of milk, butter, or water to the pan to prevent burning.
7. Whip the cream with the vanilla and the sugar. Fold the chocolate into the cream.
8. When the cake has cooled, spoon the mousse over the top. You can serve it right away as it is or you can put it in the refrigerator overnight, so the mousse hardens into a firmer frosting.

Noodle Casserole

A baked noodle casserole is simple and comforting. All you do is cook some noodles (ideally macaroni or penne) until just al dente. Then you mix the noodles with some vegetables, such as peas or spinach, add a protein, such as tofu and/or cheese, and bake it in the oven for 30 or so minutes. The noodles get chewy, with just a touch of crispiness on the top layer, and if you include a cheese sauce, as I do here, the whole dish gets a lovely melted cheesiness. And it’s so easy to vary according to your own tastes, such as by adding ground pepper or smoked paprika, or adding more vegetables. Many people will be familiar with a variation of this dish that includes tuna and either tinned or powdered soup, but I prefer not to use pre-made ingredients, such as tinned cream of mushroom or onion soup.

Ingredients:
about 150 g pasta (macaroni or penne)
100 g frozen peas
olive oil
1 package tofu and/or an additional vegetable
75 g cheddar cheese
¾ cup milk

Instructions:
1. Boil the past and peas until the pasta is al dente. Drain.
2. Lightly oil an oven-safe dish. Pour the pasta and peas into it.
3. Add the tofu and/or the other vegetable and mix with the pasta.
4. Grate the cheese and melt it slowly in the milk, stirring often.
5. Pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and vegetables.
6. Bake at 180 C for 30 minutes.

Orange Sauce

This is a simple orange sauce that you can use over vegetables, potatoes, tofu, or even fish, if you’re a pescatarian. M thought it was too orangey for her tastes, so if you find that’s the case for you too, you can simply use one orange instead.

Ingredients:
2 oranges
2 tbsp butter
½ cup cream
cinnamon
salt
sugar or agave

Instructions:
1. Zest the oranges and mix the peelings, butter, and cream in a pan over low heat, until the butter has melted.
2. Add cinnamon, salt, and sugar to your taste.
3. Serve over vegetables, potatoes, tofu, or even fish.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

As I posted a couple of days ago, I baked two types of cookies for my students. One kind was coconut macaroons and the other type was oatmeal raisin cookies. This recipe can be varied. I often add half a cup of nuts and/or chocolate chunks and/or coconut to it. And sometimes I use different spices, such as cardamom or nutmeg. You can also soak the raisins in rum, for a more adult flavour. Try it out and see what combination appeals to you.

Ingredients:
¾ cup raisins
boiling water
¾ cup butter or other vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¼ cup water (I use the water that drains from the raisins after I plump them)
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
salt, optional

Instructions:
1. Add the raisins to the boiling water, so they get plumper.
2. Beat together in a large bowl the butter, sugars, egg, water, and vanilla until creamy.
3. Add the oats, flour, baking soda, and salt if you want.
4. Add and mix in the raisins
5. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
6. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown at 180 C.

Happy Birthday, M

This blog is a somewhat strange mixture of recipe posts and love letters to my beloved M. Today it’s her birthday and so I just want to use the blog to wish her a very happy birthday and to tell her that I love her.

M is the best and I’m really lucky to have met her. Happy birthday, M! I hope this will be your best year ever.

Coconut Macaroons

I’m a teacher and as it’s the last week of the semester, I baked for my students, as I always do. I made two types of cookies for them; young people tend to go for sweet treats. The first kind I made was coconut macaroons. They taste just like the macaroons I remember from Passover when I was a child and they’re so easy to make.

Ingredients:
5 1/2 cups (or about 400 g) flaked coconut
1 (14 ounce or 400 g) can sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine coconut, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla; mix well.
3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto aluminium foil-lined and generously greased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.

Spinach and Cheese Omelette

I eat a fast bowl of cereal for breakfast on weekdays, but on weekends, when M and I sleep a bit later and can have a more leisurely, relaxed morning, I want to make a nicer breakfast. The other day, I made an omelette.

M and I both love spinach and we had a big bag of fresh baby spinach leaves. And a strong cheese such as cheddar or spinach goes well. Serve with some toasted bread and butter and big mugs of coffee and you have a great weekend breakfast.

Ingredients:
oil or butter
4 eggs
½ cup milk
1 tbsp flour
100 g fresh baby spinach
50 g cheese (cheddar or feta work well with spinach), crumbled

Instructions:
1. Warm the oil or butter over low heat in a frying pan.
2. Mix the eggs, milk, and flour together well. There should be no lumps.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and immediately top it with spinach and crumbled cheese.
4. Cook for 5 or so minutes, until the egg has set and the cheese has melted. Then flip it over and cook the other side. If you can’t flip it perfectly, don’t worry. You can make scrambled eggs or several mini-omelettes instead.

Tomato Soup with Mascarpone and Ricotta

I’ve already posted a recipe for tomato soup, but I wanted to post a slightly different one. I had mascarpone and ricotta leftover from other dishes and I needed to use them before M and I went away for the weekend. So decided to make an extra creamy version of my tomato soup. It was very rich and flavourful and it was a great way to make sure I didn’t waste the leftover mascarpone and ricotta cheeses.

Ingredients:
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sugar or honey
olive oil
1 stock cube, or equivalent amount stock powder
2 cartons chopped tomatoes
1 cup milk
75 g mascarpone
50 g ricotta
garlic baguette to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Peel and dice the onion and garlic and put the pieces in the pot. Fry in oil for 5 minutes, then add the sugar and the stock cube and let caramelise for another few minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes. Then add the milk and cheeses.
3. Puree the soup with a hand blender.
4. Serve with a garlic baguette.

Roasted Root Vegetables with Kale and Ricotta

In the winter, the grocery stores stock many more types of root vegetables and so it’s the perfect time to try out new dishes with them. Simply roasting them and serving them with nutty rice enhanced with a bit of brightly coloured kale and creamy ricotta is an easy, hearty meal.

Ingredients:
1 celeriac
1 swede/turnip
3 carrots
3 garlic cloves
olive oil
sea salt
brown basmati rice (about 50 g per person)
75 g kale
50 g ricotta

Instructions:
1. Peel and dice the vegetables. Place them in an oven-safe dish and drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt. Roast them in the oven for 35 minutes at 180 C.
2. Meanwhile, rinse and boil the basmati rice as instructed on the package. Wash the kale and add it to the rice when there are just 5-10 minutes left of the cooking time.
3. Stir the ricotta into the rice when it is completely cooked.
4. Serve the vegetables over the rice.

Sachertorte

A friend of ours invited us to a murder mystery evening. I’ve never been to one of those before and it sounds like it could either be very silly or else quite a bit of fun. Or maybe both.

No matter how the murder mystery part of the night goes, we do know we’re going to have good food. And I’m to bring the cake. So I baked a Sachertorte, that Viennese classic. It sounds hard to make, but it’s actually quite simple. Served in thin slices with a bit of whipped cream, it is an impressive dessert.

I first had Sachertorte when I was visiting friends in Vienna one cold week in February. We walked around and they took me to all the lovely coffee shops in the city and we chatted over coffee and cake. It was delicious.

Ingredients:
butter to grease the cake tin
200 g dark chocolate
200 g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
5 eggs
apricot jam
about 50 g more dark chocolate
whipped cream to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Grease the cake tin. Melt the chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring frequently.
2. Add the vanilla, sugar, flour, and baking powder, and mix well.
3. Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the mixture. Whisk the egg whites well, then gently fold them in.
4. Bake for 40 min at 180 C. Let the cake cool completely, then cut it in half lengthwise. Fill the centre with jam, spreading it until smooth. Then replace the top half of the cake.
5. Melt the other 50 g of chocolate and spread it over the top and sides of the cake. Serve with whipped cream.

Noodle Kugel

Just a day after the latkes, M got another Jewish dish to try. This time it was noodle kugel.

Kugel is an odd mixture of a dish. It has noodles, so it seems like a heavy main course. And yet it’s often quite sweet and could be more like a dessert. I served it as our main course, but it also works as a side dish. You can cut the sweetness a bit by serving it with vegetables. Of course there are variations on kugel, so you can replace the noodles with apples or carrots if you want.

I remember my maternal grandma making noodle kugel quite regularly. She always made me one when I came back to visit from university and even today she often makes me one when I come to visit. I appreciate that she goes to so much trouble for me, even as she’s in her late 80s.

M can’t know how my grandma’s kugel tastes, but hopefully she got a glimpse of Ashkenazi Jewish home cooking the night I made the noodle kugel.

Ingredients:
butter to grease the casserole dish
½ cup crème fraiche or sour cream
1 cup cottage cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp apricot jam
2 eggs
200 g egg noodles
1 cup corn flakes
more sugar and cinnamon

Instructions:
1. Grease the dish. Mix the crème fraiche or sour cream, cottage cheese, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and jam together.
2. Beat the eggs and add them to the rest of the mixture. Mix all this well with the noodles, coating them.
3. Put the mixture in the dish and bake for 15 minutes at 180 C. Meanwhile, crush the corn flakes and mix them with more sugar and cinnamon.
4. Stir the noodles and then sprinkle with the corn flakes. Bake for another 20 or so minutes, checking and stirring as necessary.

Potato Latkes

Hanukkah is almost over and I was determined to make M some typical Jewish food while the holiday was going on. I’m an atheist Jew, which means I don’t believe in a god or any of the other accoutrements that usually accompany religion, but I do have a Jewish family and grew up with Jewish culture around me. That includes Jewish food.

M isn’t Jewish and never had Jewish food before, so I thought it would be fun to cook it for her. But I also was a bit worried. Even though M is always sweet and never criticises me, I had flashbacks to a previous partner, whose Christian family made fun of the Jewish dishes I cooked for them. They claimed to be interested in Jewish things, because of course their friend Jesus was a Jew, but then they mocked anything that was different from what they were used to, and they seemed to view Judaism as an outmoded set of beliefs that was simply there to make way for Christianity. Again, M is nothing like this, but somehow I was worried that she wouldn’t like the food anyway.

But Hanukkah seemed like a good time to force myself to face my stupid and ill-founded fears. I’d gotten 8 little gifts for M and they were piled up in the corner of the living room, poorly wrapped (I’m an awful wrapper!), and it was snowy and icy outside. So potato pancakes seemed like just the thing.

Potato pancakes – called latkes by us Jews – are quite easy to make. The only important thing to remember is that potatoes can be pretty watery, so once you’ve grated the potatoes, press them and strain out as much liquid as you can. That way the latkes will be much crisper. If you don’t want your Hanukkah food soaked in oil, despite the fact that it’s an oil-based holiday, use kitchen towel to pat the fried latkes dry.

Serve with sugar, crème fraiche or sour cream, and apple sauce, and open a few presents while you’re at it. Next thing you know, you’ll be singing “dreidel, dreidel, dreidel” too.

As for M, she liked the latkes. I was relieved. Now I just had to find something else to worry about, which meant wondering if she liked all the silly and sappy gifts I’d gotten her (heart-patterned socks, anyone?). Time for another latke!

Ingredients:
4-5 potatoes (I used blue ones for variation, but any firm sort will do)
1 onion
3 eggs
3 tbsp flour or matzoh meal
1 tsp salt
oil
sugar, crème fraiche or sour cream, and apple sauce to serve with them

Instructions:
1. Shred or grate the potatoes and try to press as much liquid out of them as you can.
2. Grate the onion and add it to the potatoes.
3. Beat the eggs and add them to the potatoes, then mix in the flour and salt. Blend well. Meanwhile, heat the oil over low heat.
4. Fry heaping tablespoonfuls of the potato mixture until crispy on both sides.
5. Serve with sugar, crème fraiche or sour cream, and apple sauce.

Pasta with Artichokes and Creamed Corn

I remember loving the “green noodles” my mother used to make when I was a child. The dish was simply spinach tagliatelle (the pasta has no noticeable spinach taste, but the colour is spring-like and lovely) with shredded cheese over it. My mother served it with lamb chops and I can’t explain why the dish appealed to me so much, but it created a lasting memory for me. When I went away to university, I used to request that my mother make “green noodles” for me when I came home for a visit.

When I saw fresh spinach tagliatelle on sale at the grocery store, I thought of mother and picked up a bag. One night, I made a simple tomato and pine nut sauce for it. Half the bag made enough food for me and M to have dinner plus leftovers for lunch. I wanted to do something else with the tagliatelle on the second night, which is the evening when I was hankering for comfort food and made creamed corn.

So I thought I’d turn the corn into a sauce. Artichokes go well with corn, so I added them too. A sprinkle of a medium cheddar finished the dish off. It certainly wasn’t my mother’s “green noodles”, but M and I liked it just fine. Instead of being relegated to the side while meat took the pride of place, my “green noodles” were a meal in and of themselves.

Ingredients:
creamed corn (see yesterday’s post)
200 g spinach tagliatelle
5-6 artichoke hearts
30 g cheddar

Instructions:
1. Make the creamed corn according to the post yesterday.
2. Boil the pasta. Meanwhile, chop the artichokes.
3. Drain the pasta, then mix it with the creamed corn and the artichokes.
4. Grate the cheddar and add it to the pasta, then serve.

Creamed Corn

I usually love to cook, but after a sleepless night and a long day at work, I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. There were ingredients in the fridge, but none of them appealed to me. I wanted something fast and comforting. So I peeked into the freezer.

I saw frozen corn kernels. And suddenly I remembered creamed corn. Not the gross, almost syrupy tinned stuff that your mother might heat on the stove and serve as a side with a hunk of meat, but real creamed corn, lightly sweet, crunchy, soothing. A dish good enough to stand on its own, not as an afterthought.

It only takes a few minutes to pull this together and it uses ingredients you most likely already have on hand, so it’s good for a weeknight. I turned it into a sauce that I served over pasta, but more on that tomorrow!

Ingredients:
½ bag frozen corn kernels
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
½ cup milk (use cream if you want it even richer)
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

Instructions:
1. Lightly warm the corn in a saucepan over low heat until thawed (about 5-10 minutes).
2. Add the butter and sugar and stir.
3. Add the milk and continue to warm, stirring now and then.
4. Season with salt and pepper.

Progress

I was Skyping with some relatives recently. They asked what I’d been up to over the weekend. I shrugged and said not much, mainly due to the inclement weather This was in itself true. However, I let them think that I’d been up to not much all on my own.

That is to say, I didn’t mention M.

My relatives were probably feeling sorry for me. They must have thought, “Poor thing. Working all the time and now stuck at home all alone because of the weather, too. She needs a life.”

I have a small family. Some of them know about M and some don’t. Those who don’t know are people who are conservative or who wouldn’t get it or accept it. And of those who do know, most don’t really mention it or ask about her. None of them have met her.

I felt very sad after this conversation. I couldn’t say to my family via Skype, “Yes, I was stuck at home. But it was fine. I was with my beloved, and she makes everything better.” Instead, I just had to let them think I was lonely, and alone, when actually I’m neither.

Some years ago, I couldn’t have walked down the street, holding M’s hand. I couldn’t have introduced her to colleagues and friends as my partner. Clearly, lots of progress has been made. But it hasn’t been enough. One day, I’d love to Skype with my family and to have M sitting next to me, chatting with them. Maybe this will be the case, some day.

Kale with Pine Nuts

You see a lot of kale at Christmastime in grocery stores, and I try to use ingredients that are seasonal. I wanted to lightly stir-fry kale, toast some pine nuts with it, and add a tablespoon or two of yogurt. The strong flavour of the dark, cabbage-like kale together with the pine nuts smells and tastes like winter. The dish looks like a pine tree and is hearty and warming.

I served this as a side dish with mezzaluna pasta stuffed with pumpkin and pine nuts. That was store-bought, because I simply don’t have the time to make fresh pasta. But maybe one day...

Ingredients:
150 g kale
oil
1 tsp sugar or honey
pinch sea salt
50 g pine nuts
Greek yogurt, if desired

Instructions:
1. Lightly stir-fry the kale in the oil. After a minute or two, add the sugar or honey and the sea salt. Continue to stir-fry while stirring for another few minutes.
2. Add the pine nuts and a touch more oil if needed. Toast until golden brown.
3. Serve with a dollop of yogurt, if desired.

Root Vegetable and Apple Soup

Another cold, wintry day. Time, then, for another batch of soup. Not long ago, M brought home a bottle of carrot-apple juice. The carroty taste was a bit strong for me, but I liked the combination. So I decided to make a root vegetable soup that was sweetened and softened with the addition of a couple of apples.

Carrots, a parsnip or two, and apples, pureed with parsley and served with a dollop of yogurt: a milder take on the carrot-apple juice, warm, and healthy. Perfect on a snowy day.

Ingredients:
5 carrots
1 parsnip
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp parsley
1 vegetable stock cube
1 litre water
2 apples (I like the Pink Lady type, but then I would, wouldn’t I? Red would be fine too.)
yogurt or crème fraiche

Instructions:
1. Peel and dice the carrots and parsnip. Put them with the butter, parsley, and stock cube in a pot over medium heat. Cook for a moment or two, then add the water.
2. Boil for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables soften. Meanwhile, dice the apples, then add them.
3. Puree everything into a smooth soup, then serve with dollops of yogurt or crème fraiche.

Tiramisu

On a recent Saturday, I was feeling low. I’d had a lot of expenses lately and was feeling like things just weren’t going right for me. As I told M, she was the one good thing that happened to me all this year.

So a pick-me-up was needed. And what better pick-me-up is there than tiramisu, which literally means “pick-me-up”? Why is it a pick-me-up? Because it contains caffeine and sugar, so you do get a bit of a high from it. Some people add alcohol, too, though I don’t. And when you’re feeling low, a fattening and energising dish can really help. Well, at least it helps your head, if it doesn’t help your waistline!

My problems weren’t solved by a bowlful of tiramisu, but I did feel a bit better!

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar, plus 2 tsp sugar
1/3 cup milk
220 g mascarpone cheese
½ cup cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 package lady finger (or savoiardi) biscuits
¼ cup coffee or espresso
cocoa powder

Instructions:
1. Whisk the yolks with the ¼ cup sugar in a saucepan. Add the milk and bring to a boil. Boil for just a minute, stirring the whole time. When it has cooled, mix the mascarpone into it.
2. Whisk the cream, the 2 tsp sugar, and the vanilla extract until fluffy with a hand mixer.
3. Slice the biscuits in half lengthwise and soak in coffee so they become soft.
4. Place a layer of biscuits on the bottom of a dish. Add a layer of the mascarpone, then a layer of whipped cream. Sprinkle with cocoa powder. Add a second layer of each item, then sprinkle with more cocoa powder. Serve.

Goat’s Cheese Soufflé

I saw a recipe for a cheese soufflé and decided to adjust it to our tastes. Soufflés look very impressive when they come out of the oven all puffy, wafting delicious smells, and their warm, gooiness is sophisticated comfort food. I served this with the roasted root vegetable side dish I posted about yesterday and M really enjoyed the meal. She usually praises anything I make, which I think is just because she’s biased in my favour, but she particularly liked this soufflé. And of course I want my sweetheart to be happy, so I count this meal as a success.

This recipe can be varied in terms of what type of cheese you include and what herbs, if any, you use to season it. If you use a heavier cheese, shred it first.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp basil (or other herb if you prefer)
50 g butter, plus extra for greasing the pan
1/8 cup flour
2 cups milk
150 g goat’s cheese
4 eggs, separated
sea salt
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Chop the basil and fry it in the butter. Add the flour and stir for a few minutes. Then take it off the heat and milk in the milk and cheese.
2. When the mixture has cooled, add the yolks. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Whisk the egg whites and then gently fold them into the mixture.
4. Butter an oven-safe pan and pour the mixture into it. Bake at 200 C for about 30 minutes, until golden and puffy.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes and New Potatoes

M had never had Jerusalem artichokes before, so I thought simply roasting them would be a good introduction. She was surprised by their flavour, which is rather different; one might expect that they taste something like regular artichokes, but in fact they are not even related. Jerusalem artichokes are actually related to sunflowers and are sometimes known as sun chokes. I served this dish as a side with my goat’s cheese soufflé, which I’ll post about tomorrow, and the two items went together very well. This particular recipe can be varied and any root vegetables can be roasted this way.

Ingredients:
1 package Jerusalem artichokes (300-400 g)
8-10 new potatoes
olive oil
sea salt

Instructions:
1. Wash and chop the Jerusalem artichokes and potatoes. You don’t need to peel them unless you dislike the skin.
2. Toss in oil and season with salt.
3. Roast at 190 C for about 30 minutes.

Ricotta Pancakes with Spinach

M was working quite late on a recent cold and snowy night and she had to drive many hours for work. So I wanted to make a warm, soothing, but light meal for her to have when she returned at 10 pm. I decided on ricotta pancakes. I love ricotta and spinach together, and a dash of lemon adds just an extra tart, fresh flavour. This recipe makes 6-8 mini-pancakes or 4 larger ones, and it can be served as an evening snack or as breakfast. In that case, I’d add lemon peel to the batter and serve the pancakes with blackberries or blueberries. They can also serve as canapés for a dinner with guests.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp basil
75 g spinach
butter or oil
125 g ricotta cheese
1 egg, separated
1/8 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 tsp lemon juice

Instructions:
1. Lightly fry the basil and spinach in butter, stirring frequently.
2. Mix the ricotta cheese and the egg yolk. Add the flour, salt, and lemon juice.
3. Whisk the egg white, then add it to the ricotta mixture.
4. Drop tablespoonfuls of the pancake mixture onto the spinach. If needed, add more butter to fry the pancakes.
5. Fry until golden on both sides, then turn out onto plates. Top with any spinach that hasn’t cooked into the pancakes. Serve.

Insalata Caprese

It really doesn’t get much simpler than a traditional insalata caprese, the mozzarella and tomato salad from the island of Capri. You must buy the best possible ingredients for this dish, because this salad highlights the flavours of the cheese and the tomatoes. I use buffalo mozzarella, which has a stronger taste than regular mozzarella, and small, sweet plum tomatoes.

Many people add fresh basil to the salad, but I personally don’t like basil that much, so I chose to just emphasise the flavour of the cheese and the tomatoes. You can also put the ingredients on good bread, such as ciabatta, and you can toast the sandwich, too. As salad or as sandwich, with good ingredients, this is a delicious dish.

Ingredients:
200 g buffalo mozzarella
200 g plum tomatoes
extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:
1. Slice the mozzarella and the tomatoes.
2. Arrange the slices on plates and pour olive oil over the cheese and tomatoes.
3. Sprinkle the tomatoes with sea salt and black pepper, then serve.

Rogan Josh Curry with Carrots, Okra, and Brussels Sprouts

Once I realised that Brussels sprouts aren’t all bad, I wanted to try cooking with them even more. When a jar of rogan josh curry sauce caught my eye, I decided to make a curry with the sprouts and other vegetables. Curries can be varied quite easily; any curry paste you want to use works just fine, and you can use whatever vegetables you have on hand. I happened to have okra (also called lady fingers, appropriately enough for our dykey household!) and carrots, so that’s what I went with, but I’ve made curries with broccoli, cauliflower, peas, corn, and chickpeas, among other things. Sometimes I add tofu, too. In this case, I also included some coconut milk, which I like even though it isn’t necessarily traditional in Indian curries. And I served it all over brown basmati rice. The curry was lovely on an evening when we’d done a bit of shopping and then gotten caught in the unpleasant, snowy, slushy weather. It was nice to come home and warm up with curry, sitting on the sofa next to my beloved M.

Ingredients:
100 g brown basmati rice
1 bag Brussels sprouts (about 20)
1 bag okra (about 10)
2-3 carrots
oil
4-6 tbsp rogan josh curry paste
1 tin coconut milk

Instructions:
1. Wash the rice and boil it over low heat for about 30 minutes.
2. Shred or finely chop the Brussels sprouts, then dice the okra, and peel and dice the carrots.
3. Stir-fry the vegetables in a little oil, then add a tablespoon at a time of the curry paste, stirring it in well.
4. After the vegetables have cooked, add most of the coconut milk to the pan (leave about 2 tbsp). Add the remaining milk to the rice.
5. Serve the curry over the rice.

Fennel and Brussels Sprouts

‘Tis the season for Brussels sprouts, a vegetable I’ve never particularly liked. That’s probably because my mother boiled them until mushy, then plopped margarine on them. Not exactly a delicious dish, although my mother’s cooking is generally pretty tasty, albeit meat-centred (which sadly means I don’t eat it these days).

But I thought it was high time I tried these veg again and now that every grocery store is pushing them, I finally caved and got some. Rather than boil them, I decided to shred them and then fry them lightly with garlic and fennel. This served to create an aromatic side dish that helped to banish my memories of margarine-covered mush.

Ingredients:
1 fennel
2 garlic cloves
1 package Brussels sprouts
olive oil
sea salt

Instructions:
1. Chop the fennel and the garlic. Either shred the Brussels sprouts or chop them finely.
2. Fry all the vegetables in olive oil for 5-8 minutes, then season with salt and serve as a side dish.

Vegetable Lasagna

Lasagna is such a simple dish to prepare and people tend to find it quite comforting. If I am having guests for dinner after a long day of work, I frequently will put together a lasagna the night before. Then when we’ve gathered for dinner, I just put it in the oven and let it bake while I pull together a salad. It’s also a good dish to bring over to people who might be going through a difficult time and who might not have the time or energy to cook. While this recipe makes one pan’s worth, M showed me how it also can be made into individual, freezer-ready portions. Label the packages and give the recipient instructions for baking it. Such a gesture will be appreciated.

You can easily vary the vegetables; I’ve sometimes used fennel for a surprising anise taste, and carrots work too. It all depends on what you’re in the mood for.

Ingredients:
1 onion
oil (any kind works)
1 tsp sugar
1 aubergine
1 courgette
1 tbsp parsley or basil
black pepper
1 tin/bottle tomato passatta
lasagna sheets
1package mozzarella
50 g cheddar cheese

Instructions:
1. Chop the onion and fry it in oil. After a few minutes, add the sugar.
2. Chop the aubergine and courgette into matchstick-sized pieces. Add them and the herbs to the frying pan. You may need to add more oil too. Fry for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with black pepper.
3. Lightly oil a casserole dish or other tin, then put some passatta on the bottom. Place a layer of lasagna sheets on the bottom.
4. Top with some of the fried vegetables, then shred cheese over it. Place another layer of pasta sheets over that, then add more vegetables and more cheese. Do this until you’ve used up all the vegetables and cheese, topping the lasagna with one last layer of pasta and a lot of shredded cheese.
5. Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes at 210 C, then cut in slices and serve.

Endives in a Citrus Sauce

Endives (also known as chicory) are quite bitter, so when I cook them, I like to add sugar, agave, or honey to tame some of that bitterness. Thus I was intrigued by a recipe I noticed for braised endives with tangerines. I thought the bright citrus notes would definitely work against the sharpness of the endives. It only took a few minutes to put this dish together and it was a simple dinner on an evening when I was exhausted. If I’d had more energy, I would have made it as a side dish and served it with something like a chickpea stew.

Ingredients:
2 endives
water
sea salt
olive oil
3 clementines (or 2 tangerines or 1 orange)
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp sugar
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash and chop the endives, then boil them in the water with sea salt for about 5 minutes.
2. Drain the endives and put them in an oiled casserole dish. Peel and segment the clementines.
3. Pour the juice and more oil over the endives, then sprinkle with sugar. Braise in the oven at 175 C for about 10 minutes.
4. Add the citrus segments and season with salt and pepper. Toss to mix. Braise for another 10 minutes, then serve.

Banana Bread

If I ever need to bring a sweet food item for someone, I usually go with my banana bread recipe. It’s really moist and flavourful, and it’s easy to adapt it to someone’s tastes by increasing or decreasing the amount of sugar, shifting the types of spices included, adding nuts, or adding milk or dark chocolate or even just a bit of cocoa powder. I regularly double the recipe and make two loaves. This bread is great for breakfast or a snack with a cup of tea or coffee.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (115 g)
1/2-3/4 cup sugar, depending on how much sweetness you like. I generally use 1/2 cup or even less.
1 cup flour
dash of salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla sugar
2-3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves, optional
2 eggs
1-3 bananas, depending on size of bananas and preferred banana taste; I generally use 3
1 cup chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans, or other appropriate nut, optional (walnuts are tastiest, almonds and pecans are also quite good)
1 cup chopped dark chocolate, optional (milk chocolate is fine as well, but I prefer dark. If you use milk chocolate, decrease the amount of sugar.)

1. Melt the butter.
2. Blend the butter and sugar.
3. Mix flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together, then add to the butter mixture but don't blend yet.
4. Beat eggs. Mash bananas very well.
5. Add eggs and bananas to butter mixture and blend everything together.
6. Add the nuts and chocolate, if using, and stir everything together lightly.
7. Butter and slightly flour a bread tin. I often “flour” a tin by using cocoa powder.
8. Add the dough to the pan and bake at 175 C for 35-45 min, but check on the bread after 20 min, and thereafter every 5 or so minutes. It should be brown on the top. Stick a knife in the middle and make sure it is fully cooked.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Spinach Soup

As the days are getting even colder, I find that soups and stews become ever more appealing. Someone told M about a spinach soup she liked and so M got the recipe for me, because she knows what a spinach fiend I am. The recipe includes nutmeg, which I’m not that fond of, and celery, and a few other items I thought were unnecessary, so I got rid of them and I upped the amount of spinach. The soup was mild, but with a few luxurious hints, such as the thick, creamy yogurt and the toasted almonds. It was great after a walk in the cool, damp afternoon air.

Ingredients:
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1-2 cm fresh ginger (or use some ginger that is jarred in vinegar)
oil or butter
1 tsp sugar
150 g potatoes (about 5 new potatoes or 1 baking potato)
1 vegetable stock cube
500 ml water
300 g fresh spinach (frozen is fine too, but then defrost it and squeeze out excess water)
50 g flaked almonds
Greek yogurt or crème fraiche
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Dice the onion and garlic and chop the ginger. Fry it in the oil or butter in a big soup pan. Add the sugar and let it caramelise for a few minutes.
2. Wash and chop the potatoes. Add the potatoes and the stock cube. Let it all cook for a few more minutes.
3. Add the water and bring to a boil. Cook until the potatoes are tender, about 10-15 minutes. Then add the spinach and if it is fresh, let it wilt into the soup.
4. Meanwhile, lightly toast the almonds in a dry pan over low heat, stirring frequently.
5. Puree the soup with a hand mixer, then add a couple of tbsp of yogurt or crème fraiche to it. Season with pepper.
6. Pour the soup into bowls and top with more yogurt or crème fraiche and the almonds.

Mediterranean Casserole with Tofu

I had tofu that needed to be used, so when I read about a Provencal casserole with aubergine and chickpeas, I decided to combine that with my tofu. I also added a handful of cherry tomatoes, some pitted Kalamata olives, and garlic. I cooked it all in one dish in the oven, then served it with thick Greek yogurt and a garlic baguette. It was a fast and filling meal with a nice Mediterranean flavour.

Ingredients:
1 aubergine
olive oil
sea salt
2-3 garlic cloves
handful of cherry tomatoes (6-8)
handful of pitted black olives (4-6)
1 tin chickpeas
1 container tofu (I had marinated tofu, but this would be fine with plain as well)
Greek yogurt and garlic baguette to serve with the casserole

Instructions:
1. Wash and chop the aubergine into matchsticks. Toss the aubergine in oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast it in an oven-safe casserole dish for 15 minutes at 210 C.
2. Meanwhile, chop the garlic, tomatoes, and olives. Add them to the aubergine. Drain and add the chickpeas, and chop then add the tofu. Stir all the ingredients together and add more oil.
3. Cook for another 15 minutes at 200 C.
4. Serve with yogurt and garlic baguette.

Tomato Soup

M hasn’t been feeling well recently, so I wanted to make her a soothing, warming soup. I love creamy tomato soup served with grilled cheese sandwiches, so that’s what I decided on. Caramelised onions, garlic, parsley, and chilli added extra flavour to the soup, which I pureed until smooth. Marmite on the toasted cheese gave us some extra iron, and the sandwiches offered a salty counterpoint to the slightly sweet soup. This is definitely a great soup with which to attack winter colds, and to comfort the suffering patient.

Ingredients:
olive oil
1 stock cube, or equivalent amount stock powder
2 frozen parsley cubes, or 2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 onions
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sugar
1 green chilli
2 cartons chopped tomatoes
1 cup milk

Instructions:
1. Put the olive oil in a soup pot. Add the stock and parsley and fry gently until parsley is no longer frozen.
2. Peel and dice the onions and garlic and add them to the pot. Fry for 5 minutes, then add the sugar and let caramelise for another few minutes.
3. Chop the chilli and add that as well. Add the tomatoes.
4. Puree the soup with a hand blender. Add the milk and cook until completely warm.
5. Serve with grilled cheese, or cheese and marmite, or simply with buttered toast.

Quotes on Vegetarianism

What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? --Jeremy Bentham

Sweet Potato and Broccoli Pie

In a recent issue of Vegetarian Living magazine, I saw a recipe for sweet potato and broccoli filo rolls. I liked the combination but didn’t want to make individual rolls, so I decided to turn it into a more filling pie by adding eggs, yogurt, and blue cheese. It was very hearty and the ingredients went well together. I served slices of the pie with dollops of thick Greek yogurt, and the creamy tartness added that little bit extra. The pie was good cold the next day for lunch, too.

Ingredients:

1 onion
2-3 sweet potatoes
olive oil
1 chilli
200 g broccoli
2 eggs
½ cup yogurt, plus more to serve with the pie
100 g blue cheese
filo dough
lemon juice

Instructions:
1. Chop the onion. Peel and dice the sweet potatoes.
2. Sauté the onion and potatoes in olive oil for a 5-10 minutes. De-seed and chop the chilli and add it to the pan.
3. Wash and chop the broccoli. Lightly beat the eggs and mix in the yogurt. Crumble the cheese into this mixture.
4. Lightly oil a casserole dish or pie tin and put 4 overlapping sheets of filo dough on the bottom and sides. Add half of the potato mixture, half the broccoli, and half the cheese mixture.
5. Place 3 more overlapping sheets of filo dough on top. Then top with the rest of the ingredients.
6. Make a cover out of 2 or 3 sheets of filo dough and sprinkle with lemon juice and a bit of olive oil.
7. Bake at 200 C for 20-25 minutes, until cooked all the way through and golden brown. Serve with yogurt.

Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

Root vegetables are sweet and tasty and can be made in many different ways. Roasting them in oil, vinegar, and agave or honey brings out their sweetness. This is a great side dish and I served it with the kale, coconut, and tofu entree I posted about yesterday.

Ingredients:
3 parsnips
3 carrots
olive oil (about 2 tbsp)
agave or honey (about 1 tbsp)
balsamic vinegar (about 2 tbsp)

Instructions:
1. Peel, wash, and dice the vegetables.
2. Mix together the other ingredients. Coat the parsnips and carrots with the sauce.
3. Roast at 220 C for 25 minutes.
4. Serve.

Kale, Tofu, and Coconut

Greens are great. I’m especially partial to spinach (I don’t agree with Douglas Florian’s anti-spinach poem, funny though it is!), but sometimes I think I should try some other greens. They’re healthy and flavourful. So the other day, I was tempted by a package of kale at the supermarket. I fried it lightly in rice bran oil and mixed it with toasted coconut and tofu, then served it over whole-grain rice. Kale and coconut go well together, crispy with just a touch of sweetness. I added chilli sauce, of course, but it was good and hearty without it too.

Ingredients:
1 package tofu
½ cup unsweetened coconut pieces
1 package (about 200 g) kale or other green
oil
rice to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Bake the tofu at 200 C for 15 minutes. You can also skip this step and just add the tofu to the pan later, but I like baked tofu.
2. Lightly toast the coconut in a dry frying pan over low heat for a few minutes.
3. Wash the kale and fry it in the oil in a pan until slightly crispy. Mix it with the coconut and add the tofu.
4. Stir-fry for another 5-10 minutes, then serve over rice.

Pear and Fennel Tart

I saw a recipe in a magazine for mini pear tartlets with lime, chilli, and goat’s milk cheese. These were to be served as appetizers. I liked the concept but thought it would be nicer to make a heartier dish for dinner, so I decided I’d add fennel too. I thought the anise taste of the fennel could suit the other ingredients. I also caramelised the fennel and pear before baking the tart.

It’s an unusual flavour combination that worked together – tart, sweet, liquorice-y anise, tangy goat cheese – but because of the unusualness, it is not the kind of dish you’d want every week. I think it would be good as a starter for a dinner party. Apples can be used in place of the fennel, and then this would work as a dessert, too.

Ingredients:
1 package puff pastry
2 fennel
2 pears
butter
1 tbsp sugar or agave
1 lime
1 red chilli
200 g goat’s milk cheese

Instructions:
1. Roll out the pastry and place it on baking paper on a baking tray.
2. Dice the fennel and cook it in some butter over low heat in a frying pan.
3. Dice the pears. Add them to the pan, along with the sugar.
4. Grate the lime peel and add that plus the juice from the lime to the pan. Chop and de-seed the chilli and add that too.
5. Stir the ingredients and spread them on the puff pastry. Crumble the cheese over it.
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 200 C.

Eggs Florentine

Eggs Benedict is a traditional breakfast for meat-eaters. Poached eggs and Canadian bacon are layered on English muffins and topped with hollandaise sauce. Eggs florentine is the vegetarian version, with spinach in place of the bacon. Spinach makes the dish healthier and tastier.

I like to serve this on English muffins, but it also works with focaccia or toast. I’ve also had a version with mushrooms, but since I’m not overly fond of mushrooms, I don’t use them, but it is another option, as is using diced tomatoes too.

Ingredients:
200 g spinach
4 eggs
2 English muffins
hollandaise sauce (see previous recipe)

Instructions:
1. Wilt the spinach by washing it then putting it in a covered pot over low heat. It only takes a couple of minutes to wilt, so keep an eye on it. Keep it warm once it has wilted.
2. Poach the eggs or, if you prefer, fry them.
3. Halve and toast the English muffins.
4. Put a little sauce on the muffins, then top with spinach and one egg per half. Pour more sauce over the muffins.

Hollandaise Sauce

I generally eat pretty healthy food, but sometimes I want something very rich, a dish where you can practically feel your veins getting clogged with cholesterol. On days like that, hollandaise sauce is just the ticket. It’s good served with vegetables, such as asparagus, if you want to feel semi-healthy. Or it’s great with the vegetarian version of eggs benedict, eggs florentine. I’ll post that recipe next.

This sauce is a bit tricky to make, and it’s easiest if you use a blender to get it smooth. Otherwise, it tastes fine but can look unattractively lumpy.

Ingredients:
4 eggs yolks
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp water
200 g butter, melted
tabasco sauce, to taste

Instructions:
1. Stir the yolks, lemon juice, and water together over low heat.
2. Add the butter a little at a time, and continue to stir.
3. Add tabasco sauce to taste.
4. Mix in a blender if necessary. Serve with eggs or vegetables.

Quote on Vegetarianism

The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men. -Leonardo da Vinci

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

Combining friends can be a difficult thing when you’re a couple. It’s natural that not everyone likes everyone else, and sometimes you just have to accept that. It can also be rather nerve-wracking to meet your partner’s circle of friends and acquaintances. M and I spend quite a bit of time with people I know, and that’s always worked fine. She never seems nervous about hanging out with my colleagues or friends. And to know M is to love her (or at least that’s my experience!) and people generally comment on how sweet and nice she is and how lucky I am to have her. All of which is true.

But a few days ago we did something different and had dinner with people M knows. I’d met them a couple of times before, but not in such an intimate manner, and as the time for dinner got closer, I realised I was actually a tiny bit nervous. I worried that they wouldn’t like me and that as soon as we left, they would send M a text or an email saying that I was no good for her and that she should get rid of me.

M being who she is, I’m not sure she’d be particularly bothered by such an email, nor would she necessarily follow its advice, but I still fretted over the idea.

I also worried about what to make to take with us. Sweets are always a good thing to bring as a gift, I think, but I thought a cake would be too much. Also, M didn’t know what kinds of cakes they might like. Visions of sacher torte, apple cake, and white chocolate truffle cake floated through my head, and none seemed right. Then I thought that a sweet bread would be a better option. This way, they could have it with coffee/tea after dinner and/or for breakfast the next day. Plus, they have a young child, and it seemed more sensible not to make something that they wouldn’t want their child to have, and some parents don’t like giving their children sweets.

My initial instinct was to make my banana bread, which people generally love. But that can be heavy, and I wanted something light and cheerful. So lemon poppy seed cake it was. It's tangy and refreshing. I ended up making two loaves, and I was glad I did. I snacked on one loaf in the afternoon, when I was hungry but didn’t want to spoil my appetite for dinner, plus M had some for breakfast the next day, and I also was able to give a piece to a friend of mine at work, who loved it. But you can also halve the recipe and make just one loaf. Or you can pour the batter into muffin tins and make muffins.

As for M’s friends, the dinner went well, I thought, and a good time seemed to be had by all. Whether they honestly liked the bread or not I can’t say, but they appeared to, and M and I certainly did.

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp poppy seeds
2 cups sugar
grated peel from 2 lemons and juice from 1
1 cup vegetable oil or butter
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups milk

Instructions:
1. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, poppy seeds and sugar.
2. Add the grated peel and lemon juice, oil/butter, eggs, vanilla, and milk. Mix well.
3. Pour into greased bread tins and bake at 175 C for 40 minutes. Check that it is done by putting a knife or toothpick into the middle.

Ricotta Gnocchi

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this recipe for ricotta gnocchi and I was intrigued. I have a potato gnocchi dish that I make, in which I caramelise onions and bake them with the gnocchi and lots of cheese, but I had never taste ricotta gnocchi before. They sounded pleasantly light, unlike the starchy potato gnocchi, and not terribly difficult to make.

So the other night, before M and I headed out to meet a bunch of friends and colleagues at a pub for a pub quiz, I decided to make my version of Mark Bittman’s recipe. I used pecorino instead of parmesan, and I fried the gnocchi in parsley and mint rather than sage. The gnocchi were quite tasty, but filling, and in fact I still felt full when we returned home from the pub five hours later.

I don’t recommend making this recipe before going out, because you do get sticky and messy, plus the mixing, boiling, and frying might tire you out. Also, next time I make them, I will turn the oven on and keep the gnocchi warm in there after they’ve been fried, because I had to fry them in batches and the finished ones cooled down by the time the others were fried. I might also add grated lemon peel to the dough, because ricotta and lemon work together so well.

Ingredients:
250 g ricotta
2 eggs
1½ cups grated pecorino, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 cup flour
water for boiling
butter for frying
herbs (Mark Bittman uses sage, and I used parsley and mint)

Instructions:
1. Mix the ricotta, eggs, pecorino, and flour into a smooth dough.
2. Boil the water. Make little lumps out of the dough and drop them into the water. They are ready when they’ve floated to the top.
3. Fry the gnocchi in the butter and herbs.
4. Serve with a little extra pecorino on top.

Chocoholics 'R Us

I do love dark chocolate, I must admit, and Valrhona was my favourite brand for years. I happened to be in Brussels when Valrhona was opening a shop there, and I definitely went wild. The staff there began to recognise me, because I went to the store once a day during my stay in Belgium.

However, in the past few months, M has spoiled me by getting me two fantastic vegan chocolates. They are incredibly delicious, and my old stand-by Valrhona is getting left in the dairy-filled dust.

The first one is Booja Booja, a company that makes chocolate truffles. The espresso truffles are great, with just a slight coffee jolt, and the hazelnut crunch truffles taste like the poshest Nutella ever. I was stunned when I figured out that there was no dairy at all in these truffles, because they are so smooth and creamy. Just today, M brought me a Booja Booja sampler pack, and I've been snacking on flavours such as champagne, ginger wine, and bananas flambéed in cognac (it tastes like Bananas foster). Yum!

The best chocolate bars ever have to be by Conscious Chocolate. Not only are these bars vegan, they’re also raw, and they come in a wonderful range of flavours. I’m partial to the Healthy Heart flavour, which has algae in it, and to the bar with goji berries and coconut in it, but there are still more fascinating flavours that I’ve yet to try (it’s not easy to find them around here). Conscious chocolate bars are silky and lush, and just one little bite is enough to satisfy my chocolate urge for the day. I could quite happily live off them.

I heartily recommend both these brands, because their dark chocolate is amazingly flavourful and rich. I love that they’re vegan, but I would certainly give them to anyone, regardless of whether that person was vegetarian or not.

Potato, Apple, and Cauliflower Cheese

Last month, I posted my cauliflower cheese recipe. A few days ago, I wanted to revisit it and to do something different with it. So I updated it by adding potato and apple, which varied the cauliflower taste. I also used only soy milk and no cream, and I added a hefty amount of mustard to the sauce. The result was quite tasty; it was still comfort food, but with a flavoursome zip to it.

I made so much that I filled two casserole dishes, so M and I will be eating it for lunch and dinner a couple of days in a row!

Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower
2 baking potatoes
water for boiling
3 apples
75 g butter
1/3 cup flour
2 ½ cups milk (or soy milk)
175 g cheddar cheese, or other mature cheese, grated or chopped
2 tbsp whole-grain mustard
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash the cauliflower and the potatoes. Break the former into florets and cut slice the latter. Boil them in the water for about 10 minutes.
2. Slice the apples and set aside. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Stir until mixed.
3. Add the milk. Stir.
4. Add most of the cheese and stir until it is a thick sauce.
5. Season with mustard and pepper.
6. Place the cauliflower, potatoes, and apples in one layer at the bottom of an oven-safe dish. Pour the sauce over it.
7. Top with the rest of the cheese.
8. Bake for 30 minutes at 200.

A Food Challenge

A lot of people complain that they just make the same few dishes all the time. Cooking has become repetitious and dull, and it’s just something that has to be done.

If that’s the case, why not give yourself a food challenge? I aim to make at least one new recipe a week, and in order to get inspiration for these new dishes, I read a couple of food magazines regularly (always Vegetarian Living and delicious), and others occasionally, plus I skim blogs and cookbooks and food websites. Whatever seems interesting to me, I mark, and then I try to create a dish based on what I like about a particular recipe.

So why not try a new recipe every week or two, or if that seems too much, try for one a month? You may find that cooking turns fun for you again, plus you get new dishes to add to your regular line-up.

Post a comment or email mewith your favourite food website, blog, magazine, or cookbook, or to suggest a recipe. Challenge yourself; you might enjoy it!

Leek, Spinach, and Artichoke Pie

Yet again I couldn’t sleep, so I sneaked out of bed and warmed up a croissant and sat down in the living room to flip through some food magazines. I don’t know why I thought reading recipes would make me sleepy, because really what happened is that I started getting ideas and I just wanted to run to the grocery store, get ingredients, and spend the rest of the night cooking.

I noticed a few recipes for pies with leeks and other vegetables. I love pies and casseroles and all such things, because a) they can be made in advance (even frozen for days or weeks, if necessary, before being warmed in the oven), b) they are pretty large, so there are always leftovers, and c) they are so comforting. They come out of the oven steaming and with a golden crust, luscious smells escaping from the dish. Yum.

I had a few leeks that needed to be used in a hurry, so I started thinking about what other vegetables I could have with them. And though it’s autumn, I thought that a very green pie would be nice. So it turned into a leek, spinach, and artichoke pie. I took out a piece of paper and scribbled a shopping list that I could give M in the morning. I asked her to pick up some blue cheese to add to it. I had Stilton in mind, but she got Shropshire Blue, and the slightly milder taste of the Shropshire worked really well with the pie. The whole thing turned out pretty well for a recipe created in the middle of the night.

Ingredients:
1 package puff pastry dough
3-4 leeks
olive oil
1 tsp sugar
500 g spinach (frozen or fresh)
6-8 artichoke hearts
200 g blue cheese
2 eggs
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Put the dough in a dish, oiling the dish if necessary. If you have more dough than fits in the dish, save some for a cover for the pie. Pre-bake the dough for 5 minutes at 200 C.
2. Chop the leeks and gently brown them in oil and sugar. Add the spinach. If it is frozen, defrost it first.
3. Chop the artichokes and crumble the cheese. Add them both to the leeks.
4. Lightly beat the eggs and mix them into the rest of the ingredients. Season with black pepper.
5. Put the mixture into the dish. If you had dough leftover, add it as a cover.
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 200 C.

Pseudo-Guacamole, or Avocado Sauce

This isn’t the most authentic guacamole recipe you’ll fine, but it is easy and it tastes very good with the quesadillas I posted about yesterday. You can adjust the spice level and the amount of creaminess, so it perfectly suits your taste. Some like it hot – I certainly do – and in that case, you might want to use the extra-spicy Tabasco sauce made from habanero (also called Scotch bonnet) peppers, the spiciest pepper around.

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
½ cup Greek yogurt or other plain yogurt or sour cream
1 tsp dried mint
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Instructions:
1. Mash the avocado and mix it with the yogurt into a cream sauce.
2. Mix in the mint and drop in Tabasco sauce to taste.

Quesadillas

Cheese melted on a piece of bread – could it get any simpler and could it get any more comforting? I do love cheese, and a grilled cheese sandwich is such a nice treat, even if I then feel guilty about all the cholesterol I’m ingesting. A recent addition to my grilled and toasted cheese sandwich repertoire, as I have mentioned before, has been crumpets spread with marmite and topped with cheese, then grilled. Salty, gooey, lovely.

Once in awhile, I like to vary my grilled cheese even more. So the other day, for example, I made quesadillas. This is the Mexican version of the sandwich, except it’s on tortillas and can be fried or baked. Basically, you load a corn tortilla or two with cheese and tomatoes, and fry it lightly in oil on both sides, until the cheese melts and the tortilla has gotten crispy. It can be a bit difficult to flip the tortilla, so do be careful that you don’t get hot oil on yourself. If any cheese or tomatoes slide out, just push them back in with a spoon. It can help to seal the tortilla/s with tomato puree.

Serve with guacamole (see the next post) and yogurt or sour cream.

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes
8 corn tortillas (flour work fine too)
200 g cheddar cheese
100 g mozzarella
tomato puree
black pepper
corn oil

Instructions:
1. Chop the tomatoes. Put the pieces of one tomato on each of four tortillas.
2. Shred or chop the cheese and divide this by four as well, mixing it with the tomatoes on the tortillas.
3. Add some tomato puree and also spread some tomato puree near the edges of the tortilla.
4. Sprinkle with black pepper.
5. Place another tortilla on top of each of the four that are covered with tomatoes and cheese and press down, so the sandwiches are sealed. If you want to cut down on bread, just use 4 tortillas and fold them in half.
6. Fry the tortillas in oil until golden brown and the cheese has melted. Serve with guacamole (see the next post) and yogurt or sour cream.

Quote on Vegetarianism

"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being." --Abraham Lincoln

Mustard Soup with Vegetables

On a day when I was feeling chilly and grumpy, I thought of minestrone soup. I like the concept of soup with vegetables, beans, and pasta in it, but I wanted to do something different, more filling and more sinus-clearing. After all, this was going to be our entire dinner, so it had better be satisfying.

So I decided on vegetable soup with tortellini, all spiked with a significant dose of whole-grain mustard. With some buttered bread, it was a lovely, simple dinner. And, as with most of my recipes, it can be varied according to what you have in your fridge and cupboard.

Ingredients:
1 red onion
olive oil
3 carrots
5-6 purple spouting broccoli
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 litre water
2 tbsp whole-grain mustard
1 container cannellini beans
1 package cheese tortellini or 200 g spaghetti, broken in pieces
1 tbsp coriander or parsley
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Dice the onion and fry it in oil in a pot. Meanwhile, peel and chop the carrots into small pieces, and chop the broccoli.
2. Add the stock cubes to the pot and mush them up a bit.
3. Add the carrots and broccoli and stir for a minute, then add the water.
4. Bring the water to a boil and cook the vegetables for about 10 minutes.
5. Add the mustard, beans, and pasta, and cook as long as it says on the pasta package.
6. Season with herbs and pepper, then serve.

French Toast

Due to all the bread-and-butter pudding I’ve been making for my beloved lately, I’ve had more white bread around than is usually the case. So to use it up, I decided to make French toast for breakfast. I emailed a friend about my French toast, but I accidentally wrote “toes” instead of “toast.” I should point out that toes are definitely not vegetarian! However, French toast is, and it’s a great breakfast for a leisurely weekend morning. I like to serve it with sliced bananas or other fruit, and it can be topped with icing sugar or maple syrup or anything else you like.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 orange
seeds from ½ vanilla pod (or use vanilla extract or vanilla sugar)
½ cup flour
1 cup double cream (milk works fine too)
8 slices of white bread (the best type to use is challah, if you can get it, but any plain white bread will do)
butter
fruit to serve with it
sugar, icing sugar, cinnamon, honey, maple syrup, or other toppings, according to taste

Instructions:
1. Whisk the eggs. Grate the peel from the orange into the eggs, then add juice from half the orange. Save the other half to serve with the French toast or eat it as is.
2. Add the vanilla seeds, flour, and cream, and mix well, not allowing any lumps.
3. Dip the bread slices into the batter and fry them in butter until golden.
4. Serve with fruit and the toppings of your choice.

A Word on Measurements

I know I tend to use a variety of measurements in my recipes - sometimes cups, sometimes decilitres, sometimes grams, etc. This is due to me having lived in various countries and having acquired different measuring tools and different ways of thinking about amounts of ingredients. So I apologise for any confusion, but I heartily recommend Online Conversion for any conversion needs, especially in terms of cooking (but not in terms of religion!).

Spanokopita, or Spinach and Feta Pie

Spinach is my favourite vegetable, perhaps because my body craves iron. Whatever the reason, it was the obvious choice for my birthday dinner. Spinach and feta are a great combination and I like to make a hearty filling out of them that I wrap up in delicate filo (also spelled phyllo) dough, but puff pastry works fine too.

Ingredients:
1-2 onions, depending on how oniony you like it
2-3 cloves garlic, optional, also depending on taste
2-4 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
2 cups feta cheese (or 1 cup feta plus 1 cup cottage cheese, if you want lower fat)
2 pounds spinach (if fresh, it should be washed carefully, and if frozen, it should be well thawed)
5-6 artichoke hearts in oil
handful of black olives
1 package phyllo dough

Instructions:

1. Chop the onion/s. Mince the garlic, if using it. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
2. Gently fry the onions in some of the olive oil until golden, then add the garlic, if using it. (This step can be skipped if you would prefer slightly crunchy and more strongly flavored onions in the pie.)
3. Beat the eggs lightly.
4. Crumble the feta. Mix the feta with the cottage cheese, if using it.
5. Blend the eggs, cheese/s, spinach, onion, and garlic in a mixing bowl. Chop the artichokes and olives and add them to the mixture.
6. Lightly oil a casserole dish. Line it with one sheet of phyllo, then brush that sheet with oil, and add another sheet on top.
7. Spread out some of the filling on top of the phyllo.
8. Place another sheet on top, then some more filling. Repeat until the filling is all used up and then cover it with another sheet of dough. Brush it lightly with olive oil (or beaten egg yolk, if you prefer) and tuck any excess edges in.
9. Bake the spanokopita for 30-50 minutes, checking after about 25 minutes to see how golden and ready it is.
10. Serve and enjoy!

Baking Powder Biscuits

I really love heavy, dark breads. But M isn’t so keen on them. Unfortunately, one day that’s all I had in the house, so I thought I’d better quickly make a lighter bread to go along with the meal. So I whipped up some baking powder biscuits, which I like because they are easy and yeast-free. They’re great served warm on their own with butter and honey, or with a soup or stew.

Ingredients:
2 ½ tbsp butter
1 cup flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup milk
1 tsp honey or sugar or agave
black pepper


Instructions:
1. Let the butter soften, then mix it with the flour, baking powder, and salt, until the dough is crumbly.
2. Add milk, sweetener, and a little black pepper, and mix well.
3. Drop tablespoonfuls of the dough onto a baking tray. Bake at 220 C for 12 minutes.
4. Serve warm, preferably sliced in half and spread with butter.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

I remember regularly going to the Cheesecake Factory with my grandmother, who passed away some months ago, whenever I visited the city where she lived. She liked it there, in part because she felt she got good value for the money. This was because the portions were huge, and the same was true for the slices of their famous cheesecake. My grandma and I usually spent some time poring over the cheesecake menu, which must have had at least twenty different types, and then we spent even more time discussing which flavour to get. Grandma always claimed I was the one who would eat the cheesecake and thus I should pick the flavour, but I knew that what would happen would be that she would eat at least half of the slice, and usually more too. So I would insist she tell me which flavour she was in the mood for, and so we would argue in a friendly way back and forth, while the waiter kept returning to our table to find out if we had decided yet. As Grandma was merrily eating the cake, she would say how she never ate dessert and didn’t care for it and really she didn’t want any, and she would act as though I was forcing her to eat it. But she would smile and pile even more whipped cream onto her fork. It was all part of the routine. A routine I no longer can partake in, because my grandmother is gone.

A completely separate cheesecake memory is from a few years ago, when a friend from Taiwan was going to celebrate her first birthday in this country. She felt alone and far from home, so I helped plan a party for her, and I decided to make mini-cheesecakes for all the guests. I spent one long afternoon crushing biscuits and filling tiny cupcake moulds. My friend and the others, who were primarily from Taiwan and China, had never seen or even heard of cheesecake before, and the very idea seemed to repel them. But I encouraged them to try the cakes, and soon the whole room was moaning in pleasure.

A few days ago, M happened to mention liking cheesecake, and all these memories came flooding back. In my mind, I saw my friend, who cried from happiness at her party. And I saw my grandmother, and I remembered the way she used to gossip with me about our relatives, and I could picture her smiling at me and telling me that I was very important to her. So I made a cheesecake. I made it for M, of course, because I want to make her happy and food is one of my major ways of showing love, but I also made it for my friend, who got sick and had to give up her studies and return to Taiwan, and I made it for my grandma, too, who got a lot of pleasure out of food even while pretending not to. And I made it for me, just because.

Ingredients:
300 g digestive biscuits (you can also use a mixture of biscuit types, such as Oreos or gingerbread cookies; I used half digestive biscuits and half gingerbread)
130 g butter
5 tbsp cocoa
½ cup sugar
500 g cream cheese
seeds from 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g dark chocolate
¾ cup double cream
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
raspberries or strawberries or nuts

Instructions:
1. Crush the biscuits. I do this by putting them in a sealable plastic bag and rolling a rolling pin over it.
2. Melt the butter and mix it with the crushed biscuits and 2 tbsp of the cocoa.
3. Put the biscuit mixture in the base and up the sides of a springform cake tin. Pre-bake the base for 8 minutes in the oven at 180 C.
4. Mix the sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla until fluffy. I use a hand mixer, but a large stand mixer works just as well.
5. Melt the chocolate with 2 tbsp of the cream over low heat, stirring frequently.
6. Mix the eggs into the cream cheese mixture, beating well.
7. Add the salt, the rest of the cocoa, and the melted chocolate, continuing to beat.
8. Pour the chocolate over the base.
9. Bake for 50 minutes at 140 C, checking after 40 minutes. The cake should be fairly firm.
10. When it has cooled a bit, top the cake with fruit and/or nuts. Serve.

Vegetable Curry

On a cold and rainy autumn night, I crave dishes like stews, soups, and curries. A curry is so easy to vary, so as long as you have the basics at home – curry paste, coconut milk, and rice – you can use whatever else you happen to have on hand. Basically, you stir-fry some fresh veg (or defrost frozen vegetables) with curry paste, add coconut milk, boil some rice, and then top the rice with the vegetables. It couldn’t be simpler.

Personally, I prefer whole-grain basmati rice, for its nutty taste and slightly chewy consistency; also, it’s healthier than white rice. I also prefer green curry, because it’s a little spicier, but red and yellow work well too. I always add extra chilli sauce to my dish, because M can’t handle the heat the way I can. I like food so spicy I cry. But do watch out for curry pastes that use fish sauce, because clearly that isn’t vegetarian.

On this recent evening, I used aubergine, courgette, fennel, and tomatoes for the vegetables, plus a container of chickpeas. I like using a lot of vegetables for the variety and so I have leftovers for lunch the next day. But on other occasions, I’ve used onion, peas, and carrots, and I often add tofu, too. Use your imagination!

Ingredients:
rice (50 g per person)
1 aubergine
1 courgette
1 fennel
oil
jar of curry paste
4 tomatoes
container of chickpeas
tin of coconut milk

Instructions:
1. Set the rice to boil.
2. Chop the vegetables and fry them all except the tomatoes in oil.
3. Add 2-3 tbsp curry paste and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add the chickpeas and more curry paste, then cook a few more minutes.
5. Add the coconut milk and warm. Add more curry paste to taste.
6. Serve the vegetable curry over rice.

Pasta with Vegetables, Ricotta, and Lemon

I love the taste of ricotta cheese and lemon together. I’ve had delicious ricotta and lemon pancakes for breakfast, but I wanted to do something with the combination for dinner instead. So I decided to make a savoury pasta sauce

The flavour of lemon is very spring-like, so I wanted green vegetables with it. Courgette and artichoke hearts called out to me, but when I make this again, I’d use peas as well. A couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes added a nice juiciness and a sprinkle of red colour too. It was a taste of spring during days that are now rainy, gray, and autumnal.

Ingredients:
whole-wheat pasta
1 courgette
olive oil
artichoke hearts in oil
1 lemon
250 g ricotta
1 dl single cream
2 handfuls cherry tomatoes (about 15)
30 g pine nuts
black pepper
salt

Instructions:
1. Set the pasta to boil.
2. Slice the courgette and fry it in the olive oil until browned. Add 5-6 artichoke hearts.
3. Add grated lemon peel, the ricotta, and the cream. Cook over medium heat for 5 or so minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, pine nuts, and juice from the lemon. Cook for another few minutes.
5. Drain the pasta and mix it with the sauce. Season with pepper, salt, and more lemon juice, as desired.

Parsnip and Pear Salad

Like a lot of food-lovers, I’m a recipe slut, and I’ll look for inspiration for new dishes anywhere, any time. This includes reading through the magazines and brochures that you can pick up at grocery stores and which generally seemed to be meant to sell the store’s products, plus are aimed at carnivores.

A few weeks ago, I picked one up and amidst all the advertisements for the store’s ready-prepared vegetable mixes and ready-made meals, I found a couple of potential recipes I could play with. One was for a salad of parsnips, chestnuts, pears, and walnuts.

Yes, pears and walnuts are a really good combination, but my girlfriend is allergic to walnuts, and a bit wary of other nuts as well. And I personally am ambivalent about chestnuts, and wasn’t eager to spend time roasting and peeling them. So as one often does with published recipes, I took the basic idea and adapted it to better suit our tastes.

The visual side of things isn’t usually my strong suit, but I placed alternating parsnip and pear slices in a sort of spiral on the plate, topped with crumbled blue cheese, and it didn’t look too bad. Also, I thought it tasted pretty good, although I served it after the parsnips and pears had cooled down, and next time I think it would better warm, possibly with a handful of pine nuts sprinkled on top as well.

Ingredients:
2 parsnips
olive oil
2 pears
butter
2 tsp sugar
baby spinach leaves or endive
stilton or other blue cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp mustard
1 splash lemon juice
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Peel the parsnips and slice them into quarters or eighths lengthwise, depending on how thick they are.
2. Toss with oil and roast them for about 25 minutes at 200 C.
3. Quarter and de-seed the pears and then fry them in butter and sugar until softened and lightly browned, about 8-10 minutes.
4. Place the spinach on the plates and top with the parsnip and pear pieces.
5. Crumble the blue cheese over the parsnips and pears.
6. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, and black pepper into a dressing and dress the salad.

Vegetarian Starter Kit

If you’re thinking about becoming a vegetarian or if you just want more information on being a vegetarian, you might find this vegetarian starter kit helpful.

Leek Soup

Still feeling under the weather, I long for soups. The other day, my grocery store was having a sale on local leeks that had been extra trimmed, which meant that I could be a lazy locavore, as not much work was required to get the leeks cleaned for usage. Leeks have a milder taste than onions and don’t make me cry when I cut them, so they’re good to use, even if the many layers to their peel can contain a lot of dirt. And that’s where the extra trimmed type comes in handy, because much of the cleaning has already been done.

While the soup was warming on the stove, M had the idea of toasting crumpets and lightly spreading them with butter and marmite. The salty, yeasty taste on the doughy bread was quite pleasant, and I loved dipping bits of my marmite-covered crumpet into the soup.

Ingredients:
3 leeks
1-2 onions
1-2 garlic cloves
olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 vegetable stock cube
500 ml water
100 ml single cream
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash and chop the leeks. Dice the onions and garlic.
2. Cook the leeks, onions, and garlic in olive oil in a large pot for about 10 minutes.
3. Add sugar and the crumbled stock cube and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Add the water and boil.
5. Mix with a hand mixer until mostly smooth. It looks nice if you leave a few pieces in.
6. Add the cream, stir, and cook another 5-10 minutes over low heat.
7. Season with black pepper and serve with bread.

Butternut Squash with Puy Lentils and Goat Cheese

Puy lentils are the caviar of lentils. They are small and delicate, have a fuller flavour than other kinds of lentils, and retain their firm shape even when cooked for quite a while. M isn’t terribly fond of lentils, but I am, and I thought I’d make her a dish with puy lentils to see if she liked this type any better.

So I cooked the lentils for 20 minutes in boiling water and at the same time, I baked a butternut squash in the oven. I added cream to both the lentils and the squash, and served it all with goat’s milk cheese. The squash’s sweetness, the faint peppery flavour of the lentils, and the sourness of the cheese all combined to make a hearty vegetarian main course.

M still isn’t a big lentil fan, but she said she’d eat this dish again. And that’s a good start!

Ingredients:
1 medium butternut squash
200 g puy lentils
water for boiling
150 ml cream (single or double; it depends on how rich you want it)
honey or agave
100 g goat’s milk cheese
salt, pepper, parsley to taste

Instructions:
1. Bake the squash for 20 minutes at 200 C. Then cut it in half and de-seed it (save the seeds to roast later, if you want), and bake for another 20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, boil the lentils for about 15 minutes, until they are cooked but still firm. Pour out any excess water.
3. Add half the cream to the lentils and the rest to the squash. Make sure it doesn’t run off the squash.
4. Sprinkle the squash halves with a little honey or agave, to bring out the natural sweetness. Bake for another 5-10 minutes, until fully cooked. Continue cooking the lentils over low heat at the same time.
5. Serve the squash halves with piles of lentils that have been topped with crumbled cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley to taste.

Cauliflower Cheese

As usual, if M mentions something she likes, I endeavour to make it. Nothing’s too hard when it comes to trying to please my sweetie!

The most recent thing was cauliflower cheese. Before I moved to the UK, I’d had a dish called cauliflower gratin and it was basically cauliflower cooked in a floury sauce. Nothing special, I thought. But I did some research and found that cauliflower cheese is a well-loved dish in the UK, and that it should have a rich, creamy sauce, not one that was mostly flour and breadcrumbs.

The recipes I found all called for milk; I thought I’d make the dish even richer by using half milk and half cream. Frankly, it was too rich for me, although M liked it! Next time, I’d use less cream and more milk (as in the recipe I’ve given below), and I’d break up some of the creaminess by adding mustard. or perhaps some chilli. I might also use half broccoli and half cauliflower, to give the dish some colour.

I served it with the quinoa salad I posted yesterday, and the two dishes were great together, because the quinoa provided a heartier bite amidst all the luscious cream in the cauliflower cheese.

Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower
50 g butter
¼ cup flour
½ cup cream
2 cups milk
100 g cheddar cheese, or other mature cheese, grated or chopped
1 tsp parsley
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash the cauliflower and then boil it for about 10 minutes. Break it into florets.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour. Stir until mixed.
3. Add the milk and cream. Stir.
4. Add most of the cheese and stir until it is a thick sauce.
5. Season with parsley and pepper.
6. Place the cauliflower in one layer at the bottom of an oven-safe dish. Pour the sauce over it.
7. Top with the rest of the cheese.
8. Bake for 30 minutes at 200.

Quinoa Salad with Pine Nuts and Goat’s Milk Cheese

I really like quinoa, but my usual recipe is to cook some, mix it with lentils, spices, and thick Greek yogurt. That’s tasty, but sometimes you need to change it up. So I thought it was time to try something new. I read a tabbouleh recipe in a vegetarian magazine and that inspired me. Tabbouleh is the Middle Eastern salad made of bulgur, parsley, and tomatoes. I figured I could make a sort of tabbouleh with quinoa rather than the bulgur, and since I didn’t have tomatoes, I decided to use pine nuts and goat’s milk cheese, which made for a more filling salad as well. Quinoa is a complete protein, so it’s one of the best grains to eat, whether you’re vegetarian or not. And the salad is great the next day, too.

Ingredients:
250 g quinoa
1 onion
olive oil
1 tsp sugar
50 g pine nuts
2 tsp parsley
75 g goat’s milk cheese

Instructions:
1. Boil the quinoa.
2. Dice the onion and fry it in the olive oil. Add the sugar to carmelise it (this is not necessary, but I prefer the taste this way).
3. Add the pine nuts and toast them in the pan for a minute or two.
4. Add the quinoa and stir.
5. Add the parsley.
6. Remove from the heat and add the cheese after the salad has cooled down.
7. Serve lukewarm or cold.

Pasta with Halloumi

I like simple, healthy meals that I can make fairly quickly after work. It couldn’t be easier than whole-wheat pasta with vegetables, especially if you use frozen veg that you cook together with the pasta, but such a dish can be changed up a bit. Recently, I fried up some halloumi in a minty oil and served that over our pasta, so we had a lovely green and cream dish with plenty of vegetables and some cheesey protein too. This dish is easily varied according to whatever fresh or frozen vegetables you have around.

Ingredients:
whole-wheat pasta (about 300 g for 2 people, including some leftovers for lunch the next day)
200 g frozen peas
200 g frozen broccoli
200 g frozen spinach
olive oil
2 tsp dried mint
1 package halloumi cheese
salt, pepper, and mint to taste

Instructions:
1. Boil the pasta with the peas and broccoli.
2. Put the spinach in a frying pan with olive oil and cook it until it defrosts.
3. Move the spinach to the sides of the pan and add the mint and a little bit more oil.
4. Slice the halloumi and fry it in the minty oil.
5. Drain the pasta and veg.
6. Divide the pasta and vegetables amongst bowls and top with spinach and halloumi.
7. Season with salt, pepper, and more mint.

Strapatsada, or Eggs with Tomatoes

Yesterday both M and I woke up feeling ill. I’ve been sick for the past couple of weeks, and I must have passed it on to my sweetie.

Being sick requires serious comfort food, I think, so as we were beginning to consider breakfast options, I remembered a recipe I’d seen in Jamie Oliver’s Jamie magazine last week. It was for a dish called strapatsada, and Jamie expressed surprise that there good be a good breakfast dish without bacon.

Jamie’s version called for tomatoes stewed in olive oil for 30 minutes and then scrambled with eggs and oregano. I’m not a fan of oregano, so I replaced it with parsley, and I also wanted something that would be ready a bit quicker, so I skipped the long cooking time. Jamie’s recipe suggested 2 garlic cloves, but since I like garlicky flavours, I upped it to 3 and also added 2 onions. And to add an extra bit of comfort, I used some single cream as well.

I served it with bread that had been toasted with brie on it, which make it pleasantly gooey. M and I thought it was a tasty, soothing breakfast. Just the way breakfast should be!

Ingredients:
2 onions
3 garlic cloves
olive oil
½ tbsp sugar
6 tomatoes
5 eggs
¼ cup single cream
1 tsp parsley (or oregano, if you prefer; dried, frozen or fresh, but use more if you use fresh)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Chop the onions and garlic.
2. Fry the onions and garlic until soft in the olive oil in a frying pan. After a few minutes, add the sugar and stir.
3. Chop the tomatoes into segments and add to the pan. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
4. Beat the eggs and cream.
5. Add the eggs to the pan.
6. Add the herbs, unless you are using frozen, in which case add them in step 2.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Serve with grilled cheese or buttered toast.

Comfort Food: Poached Eggs and Marmalade

I’ve been ill lately and that’s when I most long for simple comfort food. I know it sounds like an odd combination, but poached eggs with orange marmalade is really soothing, plus it’s soft to eat, and gentle on the tummy.

I like lightly poached eggs, so that they run when I stick my fork in them. While they’re poaching, I toast crumpets or bread. While I generally prefer whole-meal bread with seeds, when you’re ill, lighter bread is easier on the stomach. I butter the toast liberally and then add a thick layer of a good marmalade, one with plenty of peel. Top with the eggs, and there you have it.

It’s even better if you have a caring nurse who will make it for you and bring it to you in bed!

Vegetarians Do It Better

Do vegetarians make better lovers? According to this post and similar commentaries, vegetarians are generally healthier, so have more stamina and energy, plus tend to be in better shape, which can mean that they more attractive. Vegetarians are also known to generally smell better than people who eat meat, and no one wants to sleep with someone stinky.

Whether vegetarians are less affected by impotence isn’t of much interest to lesbians, however (I could point out that thanks to the wonders of silicone strap-ons, lesbians are never impotent, but I’m not that vulgar…oh, wait, I clearly am!).

There’s also the issue of how some people find ethics sexy, and if you’re the type of person who doesn’t relish the thought of killing other living creatures, then you might be turned on by a vegetarian.

So do vegetarians do it better? Well, possibly. You’d have to get my girlfriend’s opinion, but maybe I’m better off not asking her to comment!

Still, the general point is a good one. Looks, health, and values are all undeniably important, and if vegetarians rank a bit higher there, then perhaps in some ways, vegetarians do actually do it better.

Pasta with Orange Cream Sauce

About a month ago, I decided to try an Italian recipe that I’d seen in a magazine. It looked really heavy but luxurious, and I thought it could be a nice treat. It was pasta with fish in an orange cream sauce and I thought that the combination of orange and cream would be something different. Obviously, I left off the fish, and instead I used vegetables, which also served to break up the heaviness a bit. The final product looked lovely on the plate: pasta in a creamy sauce, with spring green scattered amongst it, all sprinkled with bits of orange peel. The orange flavour was unexpected and was a nice change from lemon and vegetable, which is more usual.

Ingredients:
500 g pasta (penne looks nice in this dish, and I always use whole wheat)
200 g green vegetables (peas are perfect, and you can also use fresh spinach, or broccoli florets)
1 cup double cream (heavy cream for you Americans)
1 orange
fresh parsley
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the package.
2. To save on washing up, I boil the vegetables with the pasta. At them to the pot when there are about 5 minutes to go for the pasta.
3. Meanwhile, gently warm the cream and grate the orange peel.
4. Add the peel to the cream and then add the juice from the orange.
5. Drain the pasta and vegetables and mix this with the cream sauce.
6. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and black pepper.