Berry Sorbet

This is very easy to make. You can replace the berries with just about any fruit you can think of (mango and peach would be great), and you can add spices or nuts as well. I made berry cinnamon sorbet and I think peach almond would taste delicious.

 

Ingredients:

360 ml water

150 g sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

500 g fruit (I used raspberries and strawberries)

spices or nuts as desired

 

Instructions:

1. Boil 160 ml of the water and mix in the sugar and lemon juice. Remove from the heat and stir. Once the sugar has dissolved, set aside to cool.

2. Wash, peel, de-stone, and hull the fruit as needed.

3. Mix the fruit with the remaining 200 ml of water in a food processor. Add the spices, if using.

4. Add the cool sugar water and blend again. Add the nuts, if using, and stir to mix.

5. Place in a Tupperware container and freeze. Stir after an hour, then freeze again. Stir again after another hour. Freeze until set (it takes several hours).

The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions: Book Review

When M and I got married, one of my friend bought us The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman. It was a great gift and it’s a lovely, helpful book.

 

Since I’m a vegetarian and M can’t eat soya or dairy products, sometimes it can feel like a struggle to find dishes we can both make. What I like about this book is that it has a number of basic recipes and explanations for useful substitutions (such as for homemade milks other than soya or non-egg mayonnaise) and then many recipes that use those items, so you can see how to do it and get inspiration.

 

The recipes are very tempting, though there are a few items that I haven’t been able to find in my small city in the UK (rice milk powder, for example). I’ve really enjoyed this book and plan to make quite a few of the recipes. I think it would be a great book for any vegan/vegetarian and also for anyone with food allergies.

Sesame Bread

This is a somewhat unusual bread, with tahini in it to add a tang. Decorate it with sesame seeds too, if you like. It has a sweet and slightly bitter taste and it’s great with salad. Ingredients: 5 cups strong white bread flour (about 500 g) 2 tsp yeast 1 tsp salt 2 tbsp honey or sugar or maple syrup 4 tbsp oil (I used rapeseed but I think toasted sesame oil would be good too) 1-2 tbsp tahini (depending on how strong you want the sesame taste) 1 cup warm water (about 225 ml) sesame seeds, optional Instructions: 1. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add in the honey, oil, tahini, and water. Add the sesame seeds if you want or sprinkle them on top. Mix with a bread hook in a stand mixer or else knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes. 2. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour. 3. Knead again and prove a second time. Sprinkle with sesame seeds now, if you prefer. 4. Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 200 C.

Vegan Banana Pancakes

These are so fast and easy to make, and very yummy too. Ingredients: 200 g flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp salt 2 tbsp sugar (or agave or maple syrup) 1 tbsp cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla 2 bananas 220 ml rice milk (soya or almond would be fine too) oil agave or maple syrup Instructions: 1. Mix all the dry ingredients together. 2. Mash the bananas and add them in, then pour in the milk. Blend well. 3. Warm the oil in the pan, then cook a few tablespoonfuls at a time over medium heat, flipping so that both sides get golden. 4. Serve with agave or maple syrup.

Hummus

Maybe it’s the heat, but lately I’ve been feeling like minimal cooking, so I’ve been making lots of spreads. The latest was hummus. Ingredients: 1 tin chickpeas (about 400 g) 2 cloves of garlic (or more, if you prefer) 3-4 tbsp tahini juice from 1 lemon (or 2-3 tbsp lemon juice) 5-6 tbsp olive oil (use more for a looser, smoother spread, or less for a stickier spread) 1-2 tbsp fresh parsley spices (I use cinnamon and smoked sweet paprika, but cumin is also common) salt and pepper to taste Instructions: 1. Drain the chickpeas and rinse well. 2. Blend all the ingredients except the salt and pepper in a food processor. Then season to taste. 3. Serve with vegetables or pita bread.

Olive Tapenade

We were at a reception where olive tapenade was served on little pieces of baguette and a couple of weeks later, I found myself craving it. So this is what we made. It was delicious on crisp rolls or on focaccia. Ingredients: 2 cloves of garlic (more if you like it stronger) 1 tin of black olives (about 1¼ cups) (you can also mix in green olives) 1-2 tbsp lemon juice 2-3 tbsp olive oil sea salt and black pepper to taste Instructions: 1. Mix all the ingredients together in a food processor until the tapenade is your desired consistency (I like it pretty smooth, with some chunks). 2. Season, then serve.

Vegan Snack Recipes

A relative sent me this link, which features vegan snack recipes. Yum!

Apple and Vegetable Pie

I’d read a recipe that suggested making a mash out of apples instead of potatoes to use as a crust for a vegetable pie. M thought that sounded interesting but long-winded, so we decided to make a vegetable pie that included apples instead.

We used our typical vegan shortcrust pastry to make a nice pastry bottom and lid for the pie.

Ingredients:

200 g flour

110 g Cookeen (or margarine or butter)

1 tsp salt

2-4 tbsp cold water

1 onion

olive oil, plus a little extra to grease the pan

2 Bramley apples

1 parsnip

1 carrot

1 baking potato

1 stock cube

100-200 ml water

1 tbsp tomato puree

herbs (rosemary, mint, parsley, for example)

Instructions:

1. Make the pastry by mixing the flour, fat, salt, and cold water together. Set in the fridge while you make the rest.

2. Peel and dice the onion. Fry it lightly in olive oil.

3. Peel and dice the parsnip, carrot, and potato. Add them and the stock cube to the pot and cook for a few minutes.

4. Add the water, cover, and let cook for 10-15 minutes.

5. Uncover and let the water cook away (this takes another 10 minutes).

6. Mix in the tomato puree and herbs.

7. Roll out the pastry and put it in a lightly greased oven-safe dish. Fill with the vegetables and fold the pastry over it, so there is a lid. Crimp the edges.

8. Cook at 200 C for 20-30 minutes.

400th Post

In the few years I’ve been keeping this blog, I’ve posted 400 times, amounting to around 76,000 words. Most of those posts have been recipes, so I’m impressed that I’ve made so many different dishes in just about three years (plus there were many I didn’t post, obviously). I’m also really grateful to my beloved wife, M, for being my taste-tester through all these posts!

Thanks for reading, too!

Welsh Cakes

I used to live in Wales and going to the market to buy warm Welsh cakes was a treat. I’ve since learned that they probably use lard, so I won’t be going back any time soon, but I can make them at home myself.

You can serve them with jam or honey, if you prefer.

Ingredients:

110 g flour

40 g sugar, plus extra for sprinkling (or use icing sugar to sprinkle)

½-1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon (or mixed spice)

50 g butter or margarine, plus extra for frying

35 g raisins or sultanas

1 egg

1 dash milk, if needed

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon together.

2. Cube the butter or margarine and add it, mixing with your hands until well blended (or put it in a food processor).

3. Add the raisins and egg.

4. Roll out the dough and cut into rounds.

5. Heat the extra butter or margarine in a heavy pan and cook the cakes for 2-4 minutes on each side.

6. Sprinkle with sugar and serve.

Weekend

Why are films featuring gay men often better than those featuring gay women? That’s something I’ve wondered as I’ve seen bad lesbian film after bad lesbian film. If it’s got a teacher-student plot, it’s probably a (bad) lesbian movie. If one character abuses her position of power to seduce the other, it’s probably a (bad) lesbian movie.

I was thus excited by Weekend. It’s about a guy called Russ who has a one-night stand that turns into something more. I loved how the film was intense and sweet, and it really portrayed that early-relationship awkwardness. I also liked that the film was romantic but not overly so, and it didn’t have the expected ending.

The one thing that I didn’t like was the sheer amount of drugs and alcohol in the film. Maybe it’s realistic to the gay scene and the twenty-something age group, but I felt that the two men could have had the same experiences with just a bit less alcohol and cocaine running through them.

I wish there’d be more lesbian films like this, with strong, believable, likeable characters, and an interesting storyline. Until then, I’m going to have to keep watching films like Weekend, and I’ll keep an eye out for its director, Andrew Haigh, and leading actors, Tom Cullen and Chris New.

Delicious White Bread

This was definitely the best white bread I’ve made, so now I keep making it. M prefers white bread to wholemeal (I’m the opposite) so I make it often.

Ingredients:

450 g strong white flour

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1-2 tbsp honey or maple syrup

2 tbsp oil

300 ml warm water

Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add in the honey, oil, and water. Mix with a bread hook in a stand mixer or else knead on a floured surface. We mixed it in the mixer and then M kneaded it too.

2. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour.

3. Knead again and either prove a second time or bake.

4. Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 200 C.

On Travel

I really like to travel, even just short weekend trips around the UK. I always email B&Bs in advance to say that I’m a vegetarian and that M can’t eat dairy or soya and to make sure that that’s not a problem.

Many places are accommodating, asking what they can have on hand instead and so on. But some places behave really oddly, saying they can’t help or telling us to bring our own items. I’m not sure how hard it really is for B&B-owners to go buy a carton of rice milk, but the attitude of not being willing to even try really puts me off. One B&B emailed me, in response to my inquiry, “It’s £85 per night. Bring your own drinks/spreads.” For £85 a night, I think you can buy some oat milk, no?

One place said it would be fine to accommodate the vegetarian diet but when we got there, all they had was an English breakfast for me, minus the bacon and sausage. In other words, they hadn’t even attempted to get vegetarian sausages or a potato croquette or anything. There was just a lack of thought (then again, this place also didn’t seem to see the point in putting toilet paper in the bathroom, so their carelessness was endemic).

Vegetarianism is so common today, as is having food allergies/intolerances, so I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people in the hotel trade who act as though I’m putting them out. I always give them advance notice and, frankly, for the cost of a room at a nice B&B, I think they should try to please the customer.

Bloomington

God, yet another film with a predatory lesbian teacher who seduces a student. I don’t understand why people keep making these films. Is it is because lesbians are seen as predatory? Is there really a plethora of women who were seduced by their teachers/bosses/other people in a role of power? Is this kind of story what appeals  to (male) viewers?

Also, why is it that so many lesbians were “created” because of absent parents or bad relationships with their parents? That’s another part of this film.

There isn’t a lot I can say about this film other than that the script was ridiculous and the acting was nothing special. I’m really sick of these stories and really would love to see a lesbian filmmaker make something unusual and interesting.

Spring Risotto

Risotto is actually very quick and easy to make, though people often think it is a lot of bother. Though it traditionally has cheese in it (usually parmesan), I make it vegan now for M, and it is still delicious.

I call this spring risotto because of the bright green veg I use.

Ingredients:

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

olive oil

1 tsp sugar

1 vegetable stock cube

150 g arborio rice

500 ml water

150 g vegetables (I used a combination of peas, asparagus, and dwarf beans)

1-3 tsp mint

Instructions:

1. Chop the onion and garlic and fry in oil in a big pot. Add the sugar after a few moments.

2. Add the stock cube and break it up. Add the rice and stir, so it gets coated by the oil and onion and garlic. After a couple of minutes, add some of the water and cover the pot. Let it cook for 10 or so minutes, adding more water as necessary, stirring occasionally.

3. Add any frozen vegetables you are using (such as peas or broad beans) and some more water and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, wash and chop the fresh vegetables. Add them, the mint, and some more water and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

5. Top with a dash of olive oil and serve.