This follows on from Sophie's post with the lovely photos, but I had to get that title in so I've started another post.
We had invited our friends Josh and Flo round (as well as a bedraggled refugee from Titnore Woods tree protest camp who I met at work but who didn't make it round) and as usual were wondering what to cook. I got a couple of free butternut squashes from work and some cheap beetroots, asked Sophie if she had any ideas, and she immediately replied, "glazed and roasted." She sent me a link to VeganDad's recipe for bourbon-glazed squash. I thought it was a bit unwise to buy a bottle of bourbon when neither of us drink, and suggested...
Blood Orange and Maple Syrup Glazed Squash
2 medium butternut squashes
2 blood oranges
Generous splosh of maple syrup
Salt
Olive oil
2 tbsp cornflour
I peeled the squashes and cut them into medium chunks. Squeezed the juice out of the blood oranges and sliced off some of the rind, which I finely chopped. Mixed the rest together and whisked in the cornflour.
I had heated the oven to gas mark 5, and put the squash in the oven in a tray with about 1/3 of the glaze. Roasted for about 15 minutes, then stirred in some more glaze, and kept doing this til it was cooked.
Along with that we had beetroots roasted with rosemary and thyme, and the Basic Broiled (=grilled in British English) Tofu and Diner Home Fries (what a strange name - something you make at home that's supposed to taste like something they serve in a diner that's supposed to taste like something you make at home) from Veganomicon.
To top it all off perfectly, our friend Flo brought round a wonderful chocolate tart with an avocado-based topping.
A successful and enjoyable evening, with lovely food and conversation - a very satisfying Wednesday Night Kitchen Thursday Meal.
Friday, 26 February 2010
For your viewing pleasure...
... a tantalising trio of 'tubbles... tangy tender tofu... and tremendously tempting tart... But you'll have to wait for the full write up - because it is DEFINITELY Mango's turn to contribute!
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Extremely belated Christmassy cake/snack pics
I've just about recovered sufficiently from the trauma of the festive season to post these rather belated photos of my culinary efforts during said time. No, ok, that's a poor excuse for just having not got round to it yet.
This is only a taster of the various goodies I produced to see myself through the holiday (my family having not really caught on to the concept of veganism - in consequence I spent many a troubled hour planning and preparing my Christmas goods, lest I be forced to survive on slices of stale bread for the week). A brave few deigned to sample them and were, I hope, pleasantly surprised.
On the right, sprinkled delicately with icing sugar, we have my own variation on the mince pie, mince pie cupcakes - for which I adapted Isa Chandra's excellent jam doughnut (well that's not quite how she's put it, but I just can't bring myself to use the phrase 'jelly donut') cupcakes. It's a fairly basic vanilla cupcakes, with - and here's the genius - a dollop of mincemeat placed on top of the batter before they go in the oven. Like some kind of gastronomic wizardry, the filling gently sinks into the cake and winds up somewhere in the middle. Incredible, but delicious.
On the left, an absolute marvel that was pulled together with the addition of lemony cream 'cheese' icing - gingerbread cupcakes, again Isa Chandra's recipe. I wasn't sure about these when I first made them (my complex scheme involved making the cakes ahead of time and freezing them til the night before), my un-iced test cake being somewhat...lacking. Fortunately the icing on the cakes was, well, the icing on the cake, and topped with a few raisins came together to form a not only visually delicious but really rather tasty creation.
These immaculately wrapped golden filo parcels are a take on the Greek snack spanakopita - I'd made the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance (I do have some recipe books not written by Ms Moskowitz and Romero, honest!) before, but less successfully, and faced with a much leftover filo pastry, spinach, silken tofu and a rare glimpse of that precious metal, the pine nut, I knew there was only one way to go. Having totally winged it I thought they came out rather nicely. My folding technique has definitely improved if nothing else.
This last one has nothing to do with Christmas, except that they were made in December, but I thought they looked so cute I wanted to publish them anyway. This is the pumpkin and chocolate chip cupcake recipe from, you've guessed it, Ia Chandra's Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. I adapted it a little and used raisins instead of choc chips - the first time I did it according to the recipe and although nice, along the the pumpkin (I used a Kuri squash, actually) they were just a little bit cloying for my taste. Raisins added a little more bite and a fruity zing. Cinnamon icing and sliced fresh banana on top for the extra je ne sais quoi.
This is only a taster of the various goodies I produced to see myself through the holiday (my family having not really caught on to the concept of veganism - in consequence I spent many a troubled hour planning and preparing my Christmas goods, lest I be forced to survive on slices of stale bread for the week). A brave few deigned to sample them and were, I hope, pleasantly surprised.
On the right, sprinkled delicately with icing sugar, we have my own variation on the mince pie, mince pie cupcakes - for which I adapted Isa Chandra's excellent jam doughnut (well that's not quite how she's put it, but I just can't bring myself to use the phrase 'jelly donut') cupcakes. It's a fairly basic vanilla cupcakes, with - and here's the genius - a dollop of mincemeat placed on top of the batter before they go in the oven. Like some kind of gastronomic wizardry, the filling gently sinks into the cake and winds up somewhere in the middle. Incredible, but delicious.
On the left, an absolute marvel that was pulled together with the addition of lemony cream 'cheese' icing - gingerbread cupcakes, again Isa Chandra's recipe. I wasn't sure about these when I first made them (my complex scheme involved making the cakes ahead of time and freezing them til the night before), my un-iced test cake being somewhat...lacking. Fortunately the icing on the cakes was, well, the icing on the cake, and topped with a few raisins came together to form a not only visually delicious but really rather tasty creation.
These immaculately wrapped golden filo parcels are a take on the Greek snack spanakopita - I'd made the recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance (I do have some recipe books not written by Ms Moskowitz and Romero, honest!) before, but less successfully, and faced with a much leftover filo pastry, spinach, silken tofu and a rare glimpse of that precious metal, the pine nut, I knew there was only one way to go. Having totally winged it I thought they came out rather nicely. My folding technique has definitely improved if nothing else.
This last one has nothing to do with Christmas, except that they were made in December, but I thought they looked so cute I wanted to publish them anyway. This is the pumpkin and chocolate chip cupcake recipe from, you've guessed it, Ia Chandra's Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. I adapted it a little and used raisins instead of choc chips - the first time I did it according to the recipe and although nice, along the the pumpkin (I used a Kuri squash, actually) they were just a little bit cloying for my taste. Raisins added a little more bite and a fruity zing. Cinnamon icing and sliced fresh banana on top for the extra je ne sais quoi.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Cracking the crepe conundrum
In October, I became the proud owner of a carbon steel crepe pan. Such a wonder this thing is that I cannot tell you - perfect pancakes, almost without fail, almost without oil. So why has it taken so long to blog about it? Not through lack of delicious dishes, that's for sure - possibly more through the embarrassment of having eaten very little else since its arrival.
But wonderful as it was to eat meal after delicious meal rolled into soft, fresh pancakes - vegetable curry with chutney, veggie sausage and tomato with white sauce poured on top, Isa Chandra's sweet potato crepes with coriander-tamarind sauce (the recipe that began the whole debacle) - for me, there was something missing from the equation.
I grew up in a house where, when frying pancakes, the aim of the game was thinness. Thin, crisp, golden brown pancakes (and to clarify, I use the word pancake here as in a British or French pancake, what Americans call crepes), wafery, crinkled at the edges, and not a hint of doughyness. It was this that eluded me. Mango, the non-believer, perfectly content with the crepes of average thickness that we were rolling off the pan week after week, told me again and again that it simply wasn't possible to get the same level of thinness in an eggless pancake. And I was almost ready to believe him. I was so close to giving in and settling for second best.
Until today. Yesterday, we made up a mix on the fly for brunch - I more or less melded two recipes from the Veganomicon and VWAV. The one in VWAV is tried and tested, but savoury - and today we were aiming for sweet, but the Veganomicon offering was over-complicated. So I took a little from each and winged it. Disaster nearly ensued. The first pancake stuck a little, refused to be turned, and wound up as a sticky, partially cooked mess on the plate. Mango thought the mix was too watery, and added more flour and a bit of oil. It worked after this, but the product was a little thick, though tasty. The mix went back in the fridge after we'd eaten our fill, and I brought it out again at dinner, after Mango had gone home. I decided to try to achieve the desired crispness. I turned the heat up under the pan a little more, used a little less batter, got some good swirly wrist action going - and the end result was in fact much improved. There were the beginnings of laciness at the edges, and a slightly more toothy bite to the outer layer.
But when I revisited the batter for the third time this morning - that's when the magic happened. I decided to go completely mad, and thinned the batter down a little more so it was almost back to the original consistency. By now the starch would certainly have swelled enough to be able to handle a bit less saturation. Again I turned the heat up higher than normal, wiped the pan with the barest coating of oil, and swirled in the mix. There it was - the delicate, almost translucent crepe I'd been hoping for. But could I lift it and flip it without incident!? Yes! Once the edges had begun to pull away from the pan, I gently slid the spatula twixt steel and crepe... Ta da! And the proof was in the eating. Crisp, wafer thin, spread with a little apricot jam and a few raisins - delicious.
Admittedly this isn't really an easily replicated recipe as it went through several alterations, but I think the key was in the long refrigeration - giving the ingredients time to bind, thereby gaining that all-important stretchyness. It's certainly going to be worth experimenting with! Now I know it can be done.
But wonderful as it was to eat meal after delicious meal rolled into soft, fresh pancakes - vegetable curry with chutney, veggie sausage and tomato with white sauce poured on top, Isa Chandra's sweet potato crepes with coriander-tamarind sauce (the recipe that began the whole debacle) - for me, there was something missing from the equation.
I grew up in a house where, when frying pancakes, the aim of the game was thinness. Thin, crisp, golden brown pancakes (and to clarify, I use the word pancake here as in a British or French pancake, what Americans call crepes), wafery, crinkled at the edges, and not a hint of doughyness. It was this that eluded me. Mango, the non-believer, perfectly content with the crepes of average thickness that we were rolling off the pan week after week, told me again and again that it simply wasn't possible to get the same level of thinness in an eggless pancake. And I was almost ready to believe him. I was so close to giving in and settling for second best.
Until today. Yesterday, we made up a mix on the fly for brunch - I more or less melded two recipes from the Veganomicon and VWAV. The one in VWAV is tried and tested, but savoury - and today we were aiming for sweet, but the Veganomicon offering was over-complicated. So I took a little from each and winged it. Disaster nearly ensued. The first pancake stuck a little, refused to be turned, and wound up as a sticky, partially cooked mess on the plate. Mango thought the mix was too watery, and added more flour and a bit of oil. It worked after this, but the product was a little thick, though tasty. The mix went back in the fridge after we'd eaten our fill, and I brought it out again at dinner, after Mango had gone home. I decided to try to achieve the desired crispness. I turned the heat up under the pan a little more, used a little less batter, got some good swirly wrist action going - and the end result was in fact much improved. There were the beginnings of laciness at the edges, and a slightly more toothy bite to the outer layer.
But when I revisited the batter for the third time this morning - that's when the magic happened. I decided to go completely mad, and thinned the batter down a little more so it was almost back to the original consistency. By now the starch would certainly have swelled enough to be able to handle a bit less saturation. Again I turned the heat up higher than normal, wiped the pan with the barest coating of oil, and swirled in the mix. There it was - the delicate, almost translucent crepe I'd been hoping for. But could I lift it and flip it without incident!? Yes! Once the edges had begun to pull away from the pan, I gently slid the spatula twixt steel and crepe... Ta da! And the proof was in the eating. Crisp, wafer thin, spread with a little apricot jam and a few raisins - delicious.
Admittedly this isn't really an easily replicated recipe as it went through several alterations, but I think the key was in the long refrigeration - giving the ingredients time to bind, thereby gaining that all-important stretchyness. It's certainly going to be worth experimenting with! Now I know it can be done.
Monday, 21 September 2009
Potato & Tomato Thing and Crumble
An improvised meal that turned into a four course feast.
Sophie came round for dinner before we went to watch Age of Stupid at Lewes Rd Community Garden. I prefer the straight documentary style of film, but I can see why they were trying to make a more entertaining type of climate change film with a bit of heartstring tugging thrown in. There was a lot of interesting stuff there, especially the Nigeria sections and the bizarre story of the oil industry geologist from New Orleans who stayed behind during the hurricane to rescue people in his boat. I like Spanner Films as they also made the McLibel film and they helped me out with some footage I needed a couple of years ago. They're definitely coming from a grassroots perspective. However, the 'what to do about it' message from the film seemed to be 'put pressure on the government', which is a fruitless endeavour in my experience, because the government are a bunch of gangsters.
Anyway, back to the food. I had a load of the same almost over-ripe tomatoes from the shop I work in that Sophie used in her pasta. So I made
Potato & Tomato Thing
Lots of very ripe tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Fresh rosemary
Three large potatoes
Oil
Tahini
Miso
I sauteed the onions, garlic and rosemary, then roughly chopped the tomatoes and continued to sauter / simmer until they fell apart, then transfered to a large deep baking dish. I made a white sauce from tahini, miso and water and poured that over the top. Then I sliced up the potatoes, dipped them in oil and laid them out on the top. I baked it for about 45 minutes at 180C. A simple, improvised recipe, turned out rather nice.
Sophie turned up with some salad stuff and a corn cob that was desperate to be used up. The way the timing worked out, we ate each bit separately so ended up with 4 courses: salad, corn cob, potato thing and...
Blackberry and Apple Crumble
My friend Antonia spent several days in the summer filling up my freezer with blackberries picked from our local area. When another friend gave me a bag of cooking apples from his garden, it was time for crumble.
Half a carrier bag of frozen blackberries
Three large cooking apples
Handful of dried apricots
Handful of dried dates
Good pinch mixed spice
Equal parts wheat and rye flour
Rolled oats
Sunflower seeds
Oil
Molasses
I put the blackberries on a gentle simmer to defrost without having to add water, then sliced up the apples and chucked them in with the dried fruit, chopped, for a bit of extra sweetness, and the mixed spice. I left the lid on until sufficient water had come out into the pot to prevent it from sticking, then left the lid off to reduce.
I didn't really know how to make crumble, so I guessed. I used a fork to rub the oil into the flour, then mixed in some oats and seeds, and finally molasses diluted with water. It looked like it might be crumble, but maybe a bit too crumbly. I baked the whole lot at 180C for about 25 mins or so. The topping was still a little tending to fall apart when it came out, but the taste and texture were good, if you don't mind crunching the occasional blackberry seed. The crumble consolidated a lot the next day, becoming more like what I imagined.
Sophie came round for dinner before we went to watch Age of Stupid at Lewes Rd Community Garden. I prefer the straight documentary style of film, but I can see why they were trying to make a more entertaining type of climate change film with a bit of heartstring tugging thrown in. There was a lot of interesting stuff there, especially the Nigeria sections and the bizarre story of the oil industry geologist from New Orleans who stayed behind during the hurricane to rescue people in his boat. I like Spanner Films as they also made the McLibel film and they helped me out with some footage I needed a couple of years ago. They're definitely coming from a grassroots perspective. However, the 'what to do about it' message from the film seemed to be 'put pressure on the government', which is a fruitless endeavour in my experience, because the government are a bunch of gangsters.
Anyway, back to the food. I had a load of the same almost over-ripe tomatoes from the shop I work in that Sophie used in her pasta. So I made
Potato & Tomato Thing
Lots of very ripe tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Fresh rosemary
Three large potatoes
Oil
Tahini
Miso
I sauteed the onions, garlic and rosemary, then roughly chopped the tomatoes and continued to sauter / simmer until they fell apart, then transfered to a large deep baking dish. I made a white sauce from tahini, miso and water and poured that over the top. Then I sliced up the potatoes, dipped them in oil and laid them out on the top. I baked it for about 45 minutes at 180C. A simple, improvised recipe, turned out rather nice.
Sophie turned up with some salad stuff and a corn cob that was desperate to be used up. The way the timing worked out, we ate each bit separately so ended up with 4 courses: salad, corn cob, potato thing and...
Blackberry and Apple Crumble
My friend Antonia spent several days in the summer filling up my freezer with blackberries picked from our local area. When another friend gave me a bag of cooking apples from his garden, it was time for crumble.
Half a carrier bag of frozen blackberries
Three large cooking apples
Handful of dried apricots
Handful of dried dates
Good pinch mixed spice
Equal parts wheat and rye flour
Rolled oats
Sunflower seeds
Oil
Molasses
I put the blackberries on a gentle simmer to defrost without having to add water, then sliced up the apples and chucked them in with the dried fruit, chopped, for a bit of extra sweetness, and the mixed spice. I left the lid on until sufficient water had come out into the pot to prevent it from sticking, then left the lid off to reduce.
I didn't really know how to make crumble, so I guessed. I used a fork to rub the oil into the flour, then mixed in some oats and seeds, and finally molasses diluted with water. It looked like it might be crumble, but maybe a bit too crumbly. I baked the whole lot at 180C for about 25 mins or so. The topping was still a little tending to fall apart when it came out, but the taste and texture were good, if you don't mind crunching the occasional blackberry seed. The crumble consolidated a lot the next day, becoming more like what I imagined.
Saturday, 19 September 2009
An Italian affair (or two)
It's been a tasty few weeks here at the not-so-Wednesday-anymore kitchen.
The week before last I discovered this recipe for stuffed pasta shells via one of the vegan communities I'm a member of on LiveJournal. I knew immediately that this was what I had to eat for my next meal. No substitute would be accepted. Except of course that I couldn't find any giant pasta shells at 6pm on a Saturday night. So I made do with medium-sized pasta tubes, maybe 3/4" long and just under 1/2" diameter.
Let me tell you now, these are not big enough. It was only vaguely entertaining trying to scoop tofu 'ricotta' into these little tubes - as though made for the task, I found some miniature spoons in our cutlery drawer (I believe they are in fact 1970's coffee spoons) which made it marginally less difficult. However I think we'd have been a lot less frustrated, and certainly fuller far quicker, with the proper shape and size of pasta.
We also messed with the sauce a little bit, being that we had no onions, but plenty of courgette. Plus we poured the sauce over the pasta prior to baking, instead of after baking as in the original post. Such heresy.
It was really rather good, however, and neither of us regretted the seemingly endless 15 or so minutes of pasta-stuffing whilst we were stuffing our faces with it. I won't bore you by writing the recipe out again, seeing as it's already up on the link.
This week I acquired my very own copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengeance. Mango and I were both very excited - Isa is some kind of deity among vegan cooks, author of the magical and ubiqitous Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, amongst others. So this week, and on Wednesday no less, that's where we got our recipe.
Orecchiette with kalamata tapenade and cherry tomatoes
225g orecchiette (that means pasta. Any kind will do, really.)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
450g cherry tomatoes (they are yummy but any tomatoes will do if you can't afford/don't happen to have cherries!)
Tapenade:
175g pitted kalamata olives
3 tbsp capers (I balked at the price but it really was worth it)
2 cloves chopped garlic
Handful fresh parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
pepper
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
First, make the tapenade by chucking everything in a blender.
Put the pasta on to boil and then saute the onions and tomatoes in the oil for about 7 minutes (make sure you use a big pan - I didn't and had to swap over for the next step). Reserve 125ml pasta water before you drain it. Add the pasta to the tomatoes (hence the tip about the pan) and saute for a few seconds. Then stir in 250ml tapenade (we seemed to have about the right amount, though Isa says the recipe makes enough for double quantities) and the pasta water until it's heated through. Then eat it.
I'm just going to throw in a quote from the recipe blurb here, as I like it and it seems to apply to us pretty well: 'This recipe is for 225g pasta, which is supposedly four servings. If you are like most people I know, four servings = two servings, so plan accordingly.' We always think there's going to be too much food - and yet somehow we always manage to eat it...
The week before last I discovered this recipe for stuffed pasta shells via one of the vegan communities I'm a member of on LiveJournal. I knew immediately that this was what I had to eat for my next meal. No substitute would be accepted. Except of course that I couldn't find any giant pasta shells at 6pm on a Saturday night. So I made do with medium-sized pasta tubes, maybe 3/4" long and just under 1/2" diameter.
Let me tell you now, these are not big enough. It was only vaguely entertaining trying to scoop tofu 'ricotta' into these little tubes - as though made for the task, I found some miniature spoons in our cutlery drawer (I believe they are in fact 1970's coffee spoons) which made it marginally less difficult. However I think we'd have been a lot less frustrated, and certainly fuller far quicker, with the proper shape and size of pasta.
We also messed with the sauce a little bit, being that we had no onions, but plenty of courgette. Plus we poured the sauce over the pasta prior to baking, instead of after baking as in the original post. Such heresy.
It was really rather good, however, and neither of us regretted the seemingly endless 15 or so minutes of pasta-stuffing whilst we were stuffing our faces with it. I won't bore you by writing the recipe out again, seeing as it's already up on the link.
This week I acquired my very own copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan With a Vengeance. Mango and I were both very excited - Isa is some kind of deity among vegan cooks, author of the magical and ubiqitous Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, amongst others. So this week, and on Wednesday no less, that's where we got our recipe.
Orecchiette with kalamata tapenade and cherry tomatoes
225g orecchiette (that means pasta. Any kind will do, really.)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
450g cherry tomatoes (they are yummy but any tomatoes will do if you can't afford/don't happen to have cherries!)
Tapenade:
175g pitted kalamata olives
3 tbsp capers (I balked at the price but it really was worth it)
2 cloves chopped garlic
Handful fresh parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried tarragon
pepper
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
First, make the tapenade by chucking everything in a blender.
Put the pasta on to boil and then saute the onions and tomatoes in the oil for about 7 minutes (make sure you use a big pan - I didn't and had to swap over for the next step). Reserve 125ml pasta water before you drain it. Add the pasta to the tomatoes (hence the tip about the pan) and saute for a few seconds. Then stir in 250ml tapenade (we seemed to have about the right amount, though Isa says the recipe makes enough for double quantities) and the pasta water until it's heated through. Then eat it.
I'm just going to throw in a quote from the recipe blurb here, as I like it and it seems to apply to us pretty well: 'This recipe is for 225g pasta, which is supposedly four servings. If you are like most people I know, four servings = two servings, so plan accordingly.' We always think there's going to be too much food - and yet somehow we always manage to eat it...
Monday, 10 August 2009
Collage, Risotto and Pie
The food on this occasion took a back seat to our decision to have an evening of creativity: a collage evening. With three other friends, we arranged to collect some potential collage materials. We cut and glued late into the night. Before that, however, we ate:
Seakale and Wild Garlic Risotto
2 mugs short grain brown rice
1 large bag of frozen seakale, defrosted
A slightly smaller bag of frozen wild garlic, defrosted
1 large onion
A large sprig of fresh rosemary
Coriander powder, quite a lot
Paprika, quite a lot
A couple of tablespoons of tahini
Half a tube of tomato puree
A big teaspoonful of yeast extract
A cautious dribble of cider vinegar
Mango: My friend Antonia has spent many hours filling my freezer with wild harvested foods from our local environment. By spring this year I had finished off last year's blackberries, freeing the freezer for a bumper crop of blanched and frozen nettles, seakale and wild garlic. Warning: seakale is locally abundant in certain places but rare in others. Be considerate if harvesting.
Antonia precooked the rice with 4 mugs of water while I was out swimming in the sea. Thanks! I coarsely chopped and sauteed the onion with the spices and rosemary, then added the rice. I gradually added more water as it got absorbed, and the yeast extract and wild garlic. When the rice was soft enough, with enough water to make it saucy, I thickened it with the tomato puree and the tahini. I put the seakale in right near the end not to overcook it. Finally, not quite satisfied with the taste, I dribbled in a little cider vinegar. That did it.
Blackberry and Apple Pie
Mango: this is a favourite of Antonia's. It's probably the most basic blackberry pie recipe you could possibly make. Sometimes she makes it just with blackberries. This time she included some unripe apples for some strange reason.
A carrier bag full of blackberries
Some unripe apples
White flour
Spelt flour
Sunflower oil
A little molasses
She boiled down the blackberries and apples together. To make the pastry, she rubbed the oil into the flour and added water to the right consistency. The whole enormous thing was baked in the oven. For me it was a little too sour but that's how she likes to eat. It was still enjoyable though, especially with lots of plain and blueberry soya yoghurt.
Seakale and Wild Garlic Risotto
2 mugs short grain brown rice
1 large bag of frozen seakale, defrosted
A slightly smaller bag of frozen wild garlic, defrosted
1 large onion
A large sprig of fresh rosemary
Coriander powder, quite a lot
Paprika, quite a lot
A couple of tablespoons of tahini
Half a tube of tomato puree
A big teaspoonful of yeast extract
A cautious dribble of cider vinegar
Mango: My friend Antonia has spent many hours filling my freezer with wild harvested foods from our local environment. By spring this year I had finished off last year's blackberries, freeing the freezer for a bumper crop of blanched and frozen nettles, seakale and wild garlic. Warning: seakale is locally abundant in certain places but rare in others. Be considerate if harvesting.
Antonia precooked the rice with 4 mugs of water while I was out swimming in the sea. Thanks! I coarsely chopped and sauteed the onion with the spices and rosemary, then added the rice. I gradually added more water as it got absorbed, and the yeast extract and wild garlic. When the rice was soft enough, with enough water to make it saucy, I thickened it with the tomato puree and the tahini. I put the seakale in right near the end not to overcook it. Finally, not quite satisfied with the taste, I dribbled in a little cider vinegar. That did it.
Blackberry and Apple Pie
Mango: this is a favourite of Antonia's. It's probably the most basic blackberry pie recipe you could possibly make. Sometimes she makes it just with blackberries. This time she included some unripe apples for some strange reason.
A carrier bag full of blackberries
Some unripe apples
White flour
Spelt flour
Sunflower oil
A little molasses
She boiled down the blackberries and apples together. To make the pastry, she rubbed the oil into the flour and added water to the right consistency. The whole enormous thing was baked in the oven. For me it was a little too sour but that's how she likes to eat. It was still enjoyable though, especially with lots of plain and blueberry soya yoghurt.
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