Leek, Cheddar, and Sun-Dried Tomato Quiche

This is a very rich dish, so I wouldn’t make it too often. It’s loaded with eggs, cheese, and cream, which is what makes it tasty, but I can envision arteries getting clogged with each bite.

Yes, of course you can make your own pastry, but I bought it this time. Sometimes it’s just simpler to purchase the pastry. Shortcrust works better, I think, but I had puff pastry on hand and that was fine. In fact, M said she liked that it was a bit different.

Ingredients:
pastry (500 g) (short crust or puff)
oil
1 leek
2 tsp parsley
1 tsp lime leaves or basil or other herb
6 eggs
1 tbsp mustard powder
300 ml cream (single or double)
100 g sun-dried tomatoes
50 g mozzarella
100 g cheddar cheese
other vegetables (I had asparagus that I threw in, but next time I might use red pepper or spinach)
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Roll out the pastry.
2. Light grease an oven-safe pie dish or casserole dish. Place the pastry in it and use a fork to make a few indentations in the pastry.
3. Pre-bake the pastry for about 5 minutes at 190 C.
4. Meanwhile, dice the leek. Fry it lightly in oil with the parsley and other herbs.
5. Beat the eggs with the mustard powder and cream.
6. Chop the tomatoes, cheese, and any other vegetables. Mix them into the eggs, add the leek, and season with black pepper.
7. Pour the egg mixture over the pastry.
8. Bake for about 45 minutes at 170 C.

Cornbread

This is a rather rich-tasting cornbread, so it could just as well be called corn cake. Eat it warm with some butter while having tea or coffee or serve it alongside soup or stew.

Ingredients:
½ cup butter (about 115 g), plus extra for the tin
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup yogurt
2 eggs

Instructions:
1. Melt the butter.
2. Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and vanilla together.
3. Mix the dry ingredients with the butter and yogurt. Beat the eggs and add them.
4. Grease a loaf tin or other oven-safe dish and pour the batter in.
5. Bake at 175 C for around 35 minutes.

Salmon Hash

Okay, this is another pescatarian recipe rather than vegetarian, but such are the compromises one must make when living with a carnivore (luckily, a carnivore who rarely eats meat). This recipe is based on corned beef hash, which has potatoes and some sort of processed meat and fried eggs. Instead, I use salmon. And one time when I made this, I also added one flaked fillet of smoked mackerel, for an extra depth of flavour. I plan to try it with tofu at some point soon.

It’s a very fast and healthy weeknight dinner.

Ingredients:
300 g potatoes
oil
1 tsp sugar
300 g salmon
2 eggs
salt
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash and chop the potatoes. Fry them in oil for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they brown. Add the sugar and continue to brown and caramelise.
2. Chop the salmon into small pieces. Add it to the pan and cook for a few minutes, stirring and flipping as needed.
3. Move the potatoes and salmon to the side of the pan. Break the eggs into the middle and cook until just set.
4. Serve the eggs over the potatoes and salmon. Season with salt and pepper.

Better and Easier Hollandaise Sauce

I posted a recipe for hollandaise sauce before, but I’ve since improved and simplified it. It is unfortunately easy to curdle the eggs or to end up with a lumpy sauce, so using a blender or food processor fixes that. If you find that the eggs are curdling anyway, add a tiny bit of cold water and then blend again. I served it this time over vegetables.

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
½ tsp mustard
1 dash Tabasco
1 lemon
125 g butter

Instructions:
1. Mix the yolks, mustard, and Tabasco in a blender or food processor. Add the peel and juice from half a lemon (save the other half for another use). Mix again.
2. Melt the butter and add it to the blender or food processor a little bit at a time, mixing constantly.
3. Serve over vegetables or eggs.

Lemon Ricotta Pound Cake

This is a really moist, flavourful recipe. Lemon and ricotta go so well together and I decided to combine them into a light cake. You can also make the recipe into muffins or a bread shape. I got lots of compliments on it!

Ingredients:
170 g butter, plus extra for the tin
1 cup ricotta
½ cup yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups flour
1½ cups sugar
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 lemon
3 eggs

Instructions:
1. Cream the butter, ricotta, yogurt, and vanilla together.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together.
3. Mix the moist and dry ingredients together well.
4. Grate the zest of the lemon into the mixture and add the juice of half the lemon.
5. Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture. Grease the tin.
6. Bake for 25 minutes at 180 C (or for 15 minutes if you make them as muffins).

Dykes with Veggies

While checking out the stats for my blog (they’ve gone up recently, thanks to a mention in Diva, which is the only magazine I’m aware of for lesbian and bi women in the UK), I noticed something interesting and a bit, um, worrying.

A number of people have Googled the phrase “dykes with veggies” and subsequently found this blog.

Fair enough, really. I’m a dyke who cooks vegetarian food, so there’s a certain amount of veggie-worship that takes place in Chez Veggie Dyke.

But I have a feeling that vegetarian recipes are not what these folks were looking for. I’m guessing they were hoping for some sexy pictures of “dykes” (probably straight women paid to pretend they’re gay) using carrots, cucumbers, aubergines, and other vegetables in place of dildos. I didn’t know there was a market for this kind of porn, but then again, there are all sorts of fetishes out there and the porn industry makes sure that there’s something for everyone.

Perhaps I should start posting pictures on this blog. But I suppose the pictures won’t satisfy those lusty Googlers even if the photos do indeed show dykes with veggies...

Starring...Celery

Poor celery, that much ignored vegetable. People rarely seem to give celery a starring role in any dish. Instead, it’s relegated to an extra bit of crunchiness in a salad, or else used as a snack by those on a diet. But actually, celery has quite a lovely little bite, and I like to keep it around to munch on or throw into a variety of dishes.

When I was a child, I remember being given “ants on a log” as a snack at school. This involves spreading celery with peanut butter and topping it with a few raisins. In my opinion, this is a still a tasty combination. I think celery and peanut butter work together well and it’s easy to imagine a peanut butter sandwich with a few pieces of celery on it.

My lovely M recently introduced me to celery and cream cheese as well. I was sceptical at first, but she converted me. Celery, of course, works well with dips, but then it’s usually served along with carrots, peppers, and other veg, just one out of many. So why not focus on celery and let it be the main player in a dish or snack?

Review of Silicone Bread ‘Tin’

I’d long wanted to try the silicone baking products, because I imagined they wouldn’t need much greasing and would release the products easily. So when M got me a silicone bread ‘tin’, I was excited. But then I tried it (for the olive and sun-dried bread I posted a couple of days ago), and it disappointed me.

The ‘tin’ was not that firm and it didn’t hold the form of the bread. I made a couple of loaves and both times, the rubbery walls of the mould bent outwards from the weight of the batter, which meant that the loaves looked a bit like squat mushrooms. They tasted fine, but I wasn’t impressed with the look. My sweetie thinks that if I put the silicone mould on a baking tray, that will help it keep the shape a bit better, so I might try that next.

The silicone did make it easy to get the bread out, however.

I was glad to try the silicone product, but it wasn’t quite up to my standards. I wonder if a different brand would be better or if smaller batches (such as for cookies or muffins) would suit silicone more, since the batter would be less heavy.

Broccoli Soup

Broccoli is the first vegetable I made for M and it’s probably the one I make her most often, as it’s her favourite. I made a flavourful broccoli soup (and it included my fave veg, spinach), which we ate with the sun-dried tomato bread I posted yesterday.



Ingredients:

1 onion

1 head broccoli

1 tbsp butter

2 tsp mustard

1 tsp salt

2 cups water

1 vegetable stock cube

1 cup spinach

100 g cheddar cheese

bread to serve with the soup



Instructions:

1. Chop the onion. Wash the broccoli and break it into florets.

2. Melt the butter in a pan. Add the onion, broccoli, mustard, and salt.

3. After a few moments, add the water and the stock cube. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

4. Add the spinach. Cook another few minutes.

5. Blend the soup with a hand-mixer.

6. Chop the cheddar.

7. Return the soup to the stove and add the cheese.

8. Serve with bread.

Olive and Sun-Dried Tomato Bread

Making bread is soothing; you can knead the dough by hand and work out any stresses you have. And it’s nice to watch the bread rise through the oven door – I find it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I served this one with soup.

Ingredients:
½ cup olives (about 75 g)
½ cup sun-dried tomatoes (about 75 g)
100 g cheddar cheese
3½ cups flour (I used 1½ cups spelt and 2 cups plain wheat)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp herbs (I used mint, but oregano, chives, rosemary, and other herbs would work fine)
1 tsp nigella (onion seeds)
1¼ cup yogurt
3 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
butter or oil for the pan

Instructions:
1. Chop the olives, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese.
2. Blend the flour, baking powder, baking soda, mustard, salt, herbs, and nigella together.
3. Mix in the yogurt, olive oil, and eggs.
4. Mix in the olives, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese.
5. Grease the pan. Pour the batter in.
6. Bake for 40 minutes at 180 C.

Queer Films

A friend gave me and M a trial membership to Love Film and so we’ve been seeing some films. It’s been enjoyable and I think the service is really good – it’s much cheaper and more convenient than going to a place like Blockbuster, and you can keep the films as long as you want.

Anyway, we’ve been trying to see some LGBT films and one of the first ones was “I Can’t Even Think Straight”. I wouldn’t recommend this one; we both found the acting quite stiff and poor, although some of that may have been due to the less-than-realistic dialogue that plagued parts of the film. It’s about a wealthy Middle Eastern woman, Tala, who is in the midst of her fourth engagement. She meets an English woman of Indian ancestry, Leyla, and the predictable happens. They never really discuss their sexuality or what is happening to them; Tala feels she can’t break off yet another engagement and that she can’t be out in her family and society. Leyla manages to come out to her family (which causes some terrible acting from the woman who plays her mother) and finds another girlfriend.

I won’t tell you how it ends, but you can probably guess. I don’t know if we need lots of coming-out films; I’d rather see films about queers who are happily going about their lives. But I suppose this movie might still be useful or inspirational in some cultures.

We watched this with my mother when she was visiting and she thought the acting and storyline were so bad that she just sat next to us and read a book instead.

Asparagus and Spinach Pizza

Once you’ve made your dough and sauce (see the previous recipes), you can play around with toppings for your pizza. Because it’s been asparagus season, I used asparagus for my most recent pizza, but other toppings having included spinach, olives, and feta, tofu and broccoli, and fake meat products. Anything you’d order from a restaurant or buy at a grocery store you can make at home!

Ingredients:
1 portion pizza dough (see earlier recipe)
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the tray/dish
1 portion pizza sauce (see previous recipe)
1 bunch asparagus
1 cup fresh spinach
1 package mozzarella cheese (about 200 g)
50 g cheddar cheese
black pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Roll out the pizza dough and place it on an oiled pizza stone or a baking tray, or in an oiled oven-safe dish. Pre-bake at 180 C for 5 minutes.
2. Spread the sauce over the base.
3. Wash and chop the asparagus and spinach. Place it over the sauce.
4. Shred the cheeses and top the veg with the cheese. Sprinkle with olive oil and black pepper.
5. Bake for about 15 minutes at 180 C.

Pizza Sauce

As with the last recipe (for pizza dough), there’s no real need to buy ready-made pizza sauce when it’s so easy to make it at home yourself. I like combining tinned tomatoes with sun-dried ones for a depth of flavour that many ready-made sauces don’t have. You can also vary which herbs and spices you use; basil, parsley, chilli, and garlic are all fairly traditional, but play around with others as well.

Ingredients:
1 tin peeled whole tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp basil
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes

Instructions:
1. Boil the tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt, and sugar together over high heat, stirring often.
2. Chop the tomatoes. Add them to the sauce.
3. Continue to cook the sauce until it has reduced.

Pizza Dough

It’s quite easy to make pizza at home, so there’s no real need to order overpriced delivery or take-away pizzas (except on those occasions where you truly need a break from cooking). The fastest method is to use ready-made dough (you can use puff pastry dough for a sort of pizza tart), but it actually doesn’t take much more effort to make your own dough.

Ingredients:
1½ cups flour
1 tsp fast-action dried yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp agave or honey
½ tsp salt
1 1/3 cup warm water

Instructions:
1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. Knead until smooth on a lightly floured surface.
3. Cover and leave to rise for an hour. Then use for the pizza of your choice.

Miso Tofu Stir-Fry

I work long hours and though I enjoy cooking, I don’t always have time to make a gourmet meal. That’s where dishes such as stir-fries or grains/rice/pasta and veg come in. They’re quick and simple to make, you can vary them according to what you have at home, and they’re healthy and tasty. I like to try different vegetable combinations and different spices, so this time I used miso, red pepper, and asparagus, and I found that they worked well together and also looked pretty. Of course, I livened mine up with extra Tabasco sauce.

Ingredients:
1 package tofu
miso paste (about 1 tbsp, but it depends on how salty you want it)
brown basmati rice
water
1 onion
oil
vegetables (I used red pepper and asparagus)
yogurt

Instructions:
1. Drain as much of the water from the tofu as you can. Spread miso paste on the tofu and place it in an oven-safe dish. Roast it for 10-15 minutes at 180 C.
2. Set the rice to boil in the water.
3. Dice the onion and fry it lightly in the oil. Chop the other vegetables and add them to the pan. Stir-fry for about 10 minutes.
4. Dice the tofu and add it to the pan as well. Stir-fry for 5-10 minutes.
5. Serve the tofu and vegetables over rice, accompanied by yogurt.

Lemongrass Panna Cotta

Satisfied with my vanilla panna cotta, I decided to experiment further. M preferred the vanilla flavour, but I liked the gentle lemony touch of this one. I served it with strawberries, but I think this would work well with blueberries.

Ingredients:
1 cup double cream (or ½ cup milk and ½ cup cream)
2 small pieces lemongrass (about 1-2 cm worth)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp Vegeset

Instructions:
1. Mix everything together and warm it over low heat until just boiling.
2. Remove the lemongrass pieces.
3. Pour into ramekins and refrigerate.
4. Serve with berries and/or cream.

Queer Quotes

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group. We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say “common struggle” because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination. -- Coretta Scott King

Vanilla Panna Cotta

Panna cotta always sounds so appetizing. But I never order it off a menu (except at a vegetarian restaurant), because it nearly always has gelatine in it. And I will not eat gelatine (I know some vegetarians who make an exception for products such as gummy candies or marshmallows, but I will not).

But the other day, I found Vegeset. It works like gelatine, except it’s vegetarian. Hurray! The first thing I made with it was panna cotta. I served it with fresh strawberries.

Ingredients:
1 cup double cream (or ½ cup milk and ½ cup cream)
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (for a more luxurious dessert one day, I’ll make this with a vanilla pod)
½ tsp Vegeset
berries and/or cream to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Mix everything together and warm it over low heat until just boiling.
2. Pour into ramekins and refrigerate.
3. Serve with berries and/or cream.

New Potatoes and Asparagus Chutney

We stopped at a stand out in the country to buy some fresh asparagus. There was also some asparagus chutney for sale. I’d never heard of that before and I asked the woman working there what one would use asparagus chutney for. Her English wasn’t good and she shrugged. “Uh, I don’t know. Potatoes,” was her response.

Well, M and I took her at her word. We got some lovely Jersey new potatoes and boiled them up. We had them with butter and asparagus chutney. It sounds like an odd combination, but it actually works! The asparagus chutney is quite mild, with a faint mustard kick, and it didn’t overwhelm the delicate Jersey potatoes.

Ingredients:
new potatoes
water
butter
salt, if desired
asparagus chutney

Instructions:
1. Boil the potatoes in the water.
2. Drain the potatoes and serve with butter, salt, and asparagus chutney.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I’m still experimenting with rhubarb. Strawberry and rhubarb together is always a winning combination and here I mixed the fruits into a filling for a pie. As I was making this, I accidentally took the wrong spice out of the cupboard and managed to sprinkle onion seeds rather than cinnamon on the fruit. I had to go through and pick out as many of the seeds I could. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get all the onion seeds out (I did get most of them however), but the people I served the pie to didn’t notice. They praised the pie and its lovely filling! Still, I don’t recommend the use of nigella in strawberry rhubarb pie!

Ingredients:
400 g rhubarb
400 g strawberries
1 cup sugar (I used ¾ cup white sugar and ¼ cup demerera sugar, to add an extra rich, almost caramel tone)
½ cup flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 portion sweet pastry dough (see previous recipe)

Instructions:
1. Wash and chop the rhubarb. Wash, hull, and halve the strawberries (quarter large ones).
2. Toss the rhubarb and strawberries with the sugar, flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Leave to sit for 30 minutes.
3. Beat the eggs and pour over the fruit.
4. Roll out the pastry. Spread some of it in the bottom of a pie dish (or another oven-safe dish).
5. Blind-bake the pastry for 5-7 minutes at 160 C.
6. Pour the fruit into the pastry.
7. Cut the rest of the pastry into strips and layer them over the pastry in pretty pattern.
8. Bake the pie for 30-40 minutes at 160 C.

Sweet Pastry Dough

It’s healthier to make your own dough rather than to buy pre-made dough at the store, and it’s not that difficult or time-consuming either. You can play around with flavourings; instead of the vanilla here, for example, you could use mint extract or orange peel or mint or any of a number of other things.

Ingredients:
2½ cups flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
225 g butter
1 egg
¼ cup ice water

Instructions:
1. Mix the flour, sugar, vanilla, and salt.
2. Cube the butter and add it. Mix until crumbly.
3. Add the egg and water. Blend well.
4. Let rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before you use it.

Matzoh Brei

This is a traditional Jewish dish, served at Passover. During Passover, you’re not supposed to eat any leavened bread, so matzoh is the carb of choice. Matzoh is a very large cracker and it’s just made of wheat and water. I was very surprised when I found that it was available in the biscuit/cracker aisle of most major British supermarkets; it’s not labelled as Jewish or kept in a special ethnic section, the way it is in the US.

Jews get very creative with matzoh during Passover and one standard item is matzoh brei, which is best described as being like scrambled eggs.

You can have this as a savoury dish, topped with some lemon juice, or have it sweet, like French toast, with cinnamon and sugar and maple syrup. Some people like it with jam or even ice cream too. It can be for any meal of the day and you can vary it according to taste and what you have in the cupboard.

Ingredients:
4 pieces of matzoh
warm water
½ cup milk
4 eggs
salt
pepper
vegetable oil or butter

Instructions:
1. Break up the matzoh into small pieces. Soak it in a little warm water and the milk.
2. Mix it with the eggs and season as desire.
3. Warm the vegetable oil or butter in a frying pan. Brown the matzoh mixture in it on both sides.
4. Serve with the seasonings or sauces as desired.

Queer Quotes

Besides the quotes on vegetarianism, I thought I could do a few queer quotes too. This one I found on http://twitter.com/#!/quotablyqueer

For a long time I thought I wanted to be a nun. Then I realized that what I really wanted to be was a lesbian. --Mabel Maney

Asparagus Tart

I used to think I disliked asparagus. That might be because I was used to having it covered in cheese sauce and there wasn’t anything inspiring about that. Last year, however, my sweetheart got me to try to some local asparagus and then I was converted. I was so excited when asparagus season started this spring and I’ve been making a number of different asparagus recipes so I can make the most of this wonderful veg.

I really enjoy cooking seasonally – it make sense for all sorts of reasons, of course, but also I find that it inspires creativity. It’s as though you’re writing a haiku or a sonnet rather than in free verse; you’re putting limits on yourself, but sometimes that helps you create something you wouldn’t have otherwise done.

Ingredients:
ready-made puff pastry
2 onions
3-5 garlic cloves
oil
1 tsp sugar
100 g goat cheese
2 bunches asparagus

Instructions:
1. Roll out the puff pastry and place it in an oven-safe dish. Bake for 5 minutes at 160 C.
2. Dice the onions and garlic cloves and lightly brown them in oil. Add the sugar after a few minutes. Then put the onions over the puff pastry.
3. Slice or crumble the goat cheese over the onions.
4. Wash the asparagus and trim off the woody bits. Place the asparagus over the cheese.
5. Bake for about 12 minutes at 160 C.

Hair Treatment

This is a different sort of recipe – rather than being something to eat, it’s one you can use as a beauty treatment. I have coarse, thick hair and it gets dry easily. So this adds some extra moisture and shine. And it’s kind of fun to do, too.

Ingredients:
1 egg white
½ cup yogurt

Instructions:
1. Mix the egg white and yogurt together.
2. Rub into your hair.
3. Let sit for 20-30 minutes.
4. Wash out thoroughly.

Spinach Cannelloni

This is such an easy dish, but it looks elegant and impresses people. I love the combination of spinach and ricotta cheese (you can also use cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese). When I have people over who prefer to have fish meals, I add some smoked salmon for them. If you do that, mix it in with the spinach.

Ingredients:
2 cups double cream
1 cup tomato paste, or more to taste
2 cups ricotta cheese or cottage cheese
2 cups fresh spinach or 1 cup frozen spinach, defrosted
salt
pepper
about 12 cannelloni noodles (4 cannelloni per person), uncooked
butter or oil for the dish
2-4 tablespoons parmesan cheese
sundried tomatoes in oil, optional

Instructions:
1. Heat the cream in a saucepan over low heat. Add the tomato paste, warm, and mix thoroughly.
2. Chop the salmon and mix with the ricotta or cottage cheese and the spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Stuff the noodles with the salmon and cheese mixture.
4. Place the filled noodles in a shallow, greased pan. Pour the tomato cream sauce evenly over them and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
5. Bake the noodles for about 20 or 25 minutes at 180 C.
6. Chop up a few sundried tomatoes into small pieces and sprinkle on top of the cooked noodles (alternatively, add some to the cheese mixture before putting it in the noodles).
7. Serve and enjoy!