Chestnut Pancakes

Ingredients:

200 g chestnut puree

¼ cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2-4 tbsp sugar, to taste

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

2 eggs

oil

fruit, to serve with it

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients but the oil together.

2. Warm the oil in a frying pan and fry the pancakes, a few at a time.

3. Serve with blueberries or other fruit.

Easy Lunch

I know this sounds a bit odd, but I had a leftover baked potato (already baked, I mean) and I didn’t quite know what to have it with. I sliced some beautiful fresh tomatoes and squirted a dab of mayonnaise on it and ground some black pepper on top, and it was really tasty! I’d recommend the combination.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This makes one loaf or two small ones. I like to make small loaves so I can give them away as gifts. You can also vary it with dried cranberries or cherries and cocoa or other spices.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp (about 4 g) active dry yeast

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

½ cup milk (I used rice milk)

2 tbsp butter (I used 1½ tbsp Trex, a butter substitute)

water

¼ cup raisins

another 2 tsp cinnamon

another 1 tbsp sugar (I used a mixture of white and brown sugar)

another dab of butter

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, yeast, and vanilla together. Add the egg and mix in a stand mixer.

2. Warm the milk and butter together, so the butter melts.

3. Blend the milk into the dry ingredients and mix well (for about 4-6 minutes). Leave to rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, boil the water and soak the raisins in it. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together.

5. Knead the dough and divide into two pieces, if desired. Shape each piece into a rectangle.

6. Sprinkle the rectangle/s with bits of butter, raisins, and the cinnamon mixture.

7. Roll the rectangle/s up and leave to rise for another 20-30 minutes in a warm place.

8. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 175 C.

Vegan Chocolate Ganache 2

I used this to top my vanilla cupcakes from the last post.

Ingredients:

90 g dark chocolate

1 tbsp coconut oil

1-2 tbsp rice milk (or soy or almond)

Instructions:

1. Melt all the ingredients together.

2. Cool slightly, then spread on cupcakes.

Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes

These are fast and easy to make and can be topped with any frosting you desire. I used vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries once and chocolate ganache another time. This recipe makes six, but you can double it or even triple it.

Ingredients:

¾ cup rice milk (or soy or almond)

1½ tsp lemon juice

¼ cup coconut oil

1 cup flour

½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup palm sugar)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Mix the rice milk and lemon juice together and set aside for 10 minutes to curdle.

2. Melt the coconut oil (if you have it in solid form).

3. Mix the dry ingredients together. Stir in the vanilla, coconut oil, and milk mixture.

4. Pour into muffin cases and bake for 10-15 minutes at 175 C.

Pasta Salad

This recipe can easily be varied according to what vegetables you have at home. You can add smoked salmon or tuna if you eat fish.

Ingredients:

about 50 g pasta per person (I used conchiglie because then bits of veg hid inside the shells)

frozen peas

water

¼ cucumber

1-2 spring onions

6-10 black olives

cream (I used oat cream but dairy cream or soy cream or yogurt would work well too; a touch of mayo could be nice as well)

black pepper

Instructions:

1. Boil the pasta and peas in the water for about 10 minutes. Drain and cool.

2. Wash and chop the cucumber and onions. Chop the olives.

3. Mix the chopped veg with the pasta and stir in the cream.

4. Season to taste and serve.

Tomboy

We saw the French film Tomboy not long ago. It had gotten great reviews and I was very curious about it.

I liked the acceptance of the main character implied in the film and I also liked the sister’s acceptance of the main character. I did, however, question the precocity of the children, especially the little sister. The conversations among the children didn’t always ring true.

But while I liked the main character and the way the film was done, a larger issue for me was that I didn’t understand the character. I didn’t know how s/he saw her/himself. Is this a child who simply wanted to “pass” as a boy? Is it a child who feels that s/he is in the wrong body? Is it a child who is in fact the “tomboy” of the title? Was this a stage? What was going on, really?

I felt it was a trans character, but I didn’t have enough confirmation of that, and the title seemed to speak against that idea. M saw herself in the character and though the character was a girl who just wanted to play with the boys, do “boy things”, and be accepted by the boys (i.e. not as a boy per se). It simply wasn’t clear. The ending certainly made me question my idea that it was a trans film, because it seemed to say that the character was moving on, “maturing”, and living as a girl now.

I suppose one reason why I love literature is that it allows you to get inside the head of the character/s. Film doesn’t allow this as much; it’s much more external. But if the main character had spoken more in Tomboy, maybe it would have been easier to follow what was going on.

Despite that, I actually really enjoyed the film and thought it was mostly well done.

Laverbread Patties

Yum, laverbread. It’s like spinach from the sea. In Wales some months ago, I bought a tin of it and then made laverbread patties at home. Oh, okay, I admit it – I bought tons of tins, and I regularly make patties, and then eat them all myself, since M isn’t a fan.

Ingredients:

1 tin laverbread (120 g)

30 g oatmeal

olive oil

Instructions:

1. Mix the laverbread and oatmeal.

2. Warm oil in a frying pan.

3. Drop spoonfuls of the laverbread into the pan and fry on both sides.

Vegusto

Many vegan cheeses are made with soya, and since M can’t eat that, we’ve had to look further afield for alternatives. Cheezly’s no-soya cheese was okay, but it went mouldy within three days, which is way too fast.

We’ve discovered <a href="http://www.vegusto.co.uk/shop/">Vegusto</a>. It is the nicest vegan cheese we’ve found. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive, but it is worth it. We order a bunch at one time so we don’t have to keep paying for delivery and then we freeze it. It’s actually much easier to grate onto pasta or other dishes if it’s been frozen, we found.

Their cheese sauce is nice as well and we’ve tried various “burgers” and “meats” as well, which were tasty. In short, we’re impressed!

Pizza Toppings

We’ve been making lots of tasty vegan pizzas lately.

We’ve fallen for Vegusto (more on that in the next post), so we’ve used their “hotsami” and melting cheese as toppings on pizza.

One of our favourites is with mushrooms, corn, olives and spinach.

Basically, any combination of vegetables will work fairly well (courgette gets a bit slimy, though).

Just roll out the dough, spread with sauce, add the toppings, then bake for 15-25 minutes at 200 C. Yum!

Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

olive oil

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp agave or sugar

1 tin tomatoes

Instructions:

1. Warm some olive oil in a saucepan.

2. Peel and dice the onion and garlic and cook them in the oil. Add the agave or sugar so they caramelise. Cook for about 5 minutes.

3. Add the tomatoes. Continue to cook, stirring now and then, for 5-10 minutes, until the sauce thickens.

Pizza Dough 2

With M not being able to eat dairy, one thing we have missed is pizza. So we decided to make a nice vegan pizza one relaxing weekend. Here is our pizza dough recipe.

Ingredients:

350 g bread flour (we used 250 g white and 150 g brown, for a nice flavour)

2 tsp sea salt

2 tsp fast-action dried yeast

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp olive oil

200 ml lukewarm water (about 1 cup)

cornmeal/polenta, optional

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together well.

2. Place in a warm spot to rise for about 1-2 hours.

3. Knead on an oiled surface and shape into a pizza.

4. Sprinkle with cornmeal for a little extra crunch (or roll out the dough on top of the cornmeal). Then top and bake as desired.

Vegan Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients:

360 g flour

about 200 g Cookeen

1 pinch salt

4-6 tbsp cold water

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, spread, and salt together until it comes together like breadcrumbs.

2. Add the water as needed. Chill the dough, covered, in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

3. Roll out and use as needed.

Chocolate Almond Cake

My mother sent me a recipe and I am not sure where it was from, but this is my version of it. I made just a half portion (i.e. half of what is here) the first time, as it is so rich.

The recipe suggested this method of baking, but next time I will try it without the water bath.

Ingredients:

340 g dark chocolate

½ cup oil or ¾ cup butter plus extra for the tin

1 tsp vanilla

¼ cup coffee

1 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup ground almonds (or hazelnuts, or other nut)

6 eggs

hot water

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate with the oil or butter, vanilla, and coffee.

2. Add in the sugar, salt, and nuts. Stir well.

3. Whisk the eggs and add them in.

4. Grease a cake tin and put the batter in it. Then put the cake tin in a roasting pan and add the water. Loosely cover the tin with foil.

5. Bake at 170 C for 40-90 minutes (depending on if you have made a full portion or a half portion).

Bagels

You can’t get good bagels in the city where I live, so we have to make them ourselves!

Ingredients:

4½ cups flour (I used plain white, but you can mix in wholemeal too)

1 package dried yeast (7 g)

2-3 tbsp sugar (or some combination of sugar and honey), plus 1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp oil

1½ cups warm water, plus more water for boiling

1 egg

sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion seeds, garlic, oats, etc

Instructions:

1. Mix the flour, yeast, 2-3 tbsp sugar, salt, oil, and water together well.

2. Leave in a warm place to rise 30-60 minutes.

3. Then knead and divide into 12 pieces. Put a hole in the middle of each. Leave to rise another 20-30 minutes.

4. Bring water to a boil with the 1 tbsp sugar. Boil 4 bagels at a time in a large saucepan for 7-8 minutes, turning over halfway through.

5. Brush egg over the bagels. Top with seeds, garlic, oats, or other things, or leave plain.

6. Bake for 15-25 minutes at 190 C.