Stir fry with Cashew Nuts and Noodles

Mr VST and I went to see the final Harry Potter film on Wednesday and so needed something quick to eat before we went out. I went for another stir fry, it was full of goodness and is one of Mr VST's favourite's so it did the trick. 

The film was much like the others, it was OK, I didn't have a clue what was going on as I haven't read the books in years but as with all books turned into films, it wasn't as good as the book. 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Part of the reason that I only had toast for dinner on Tuesday was that I had filled up on carrot cake with cream cheese icing. One of my colleagues got married at the beginning of July and like many of us she had been in a ridiculous diet so that she would fit into her dress. One weekend she had broken her diet by eating some carrot cake. Sadly the calories weren't worth the cake, it looked fantastic but tasted awful.

 I promised that once the wedding was over I would make some proper, good tasting carrot cake for her and bring it into work and so last Monday evening I made some and took it into work on Tuesday when it went down a storm.

Tuesday Toast

Tuesday evening was crazy busy, Mr VST and I were like ships in the night! He bought himself some pasta and sauce from the supermarket and I nibbled away at some toast. I have a new found love for toast which has come from my new found love of real home made bread. I have been making three loaves at a time, slicing them and then freezing two of the loaves. We've never had time to freeze the third before eating it! So on Tuesday I wasn't very hungry but thought I'd better eat something and my home made bread made wonderful toast, topped with some peanut butter, it hit the spot.

Curry

Another Monday, another curry, so easy! Just cook up the veggies left in the fridge, add some Patak's Rogan Josh paste, a can of coconut milk and some lentils and hey presto!

Bangers, Mash and The Best Onion Gravy in the World

Thankfully Linda McCartney bangers, mash (made with soya milk and sunflower spread), peas and the famous Anna's onion gravy are all dairy free. I realise that this isn't the typical kind of meal for July but the weather wasn't much like July weather either and Mr VST and I have to have this about once a month or we experience withdrawal symptoms! 

Linguine with Peas, Mushrooms and Tomatoes

I can't believe I'm over a week behind on my blog, what on earth has happened this week? I don't know. Anyway, last Saturday evening I wasn't quite sure what we were going to have for dinner. It was still officially dairy free week although we had spectacularly blown it with some ice creams earlier in the afternoon. I remembered that I had seen this recipe for linguine with peas, mushrooms and tomatoes earlier in the week and I had all the ingredients AND it was quick, easy and healthy - whoop!

As I recall it was a very easy recipe to make, I didn't have the allspice but it was still tasty without. 

Thanks Emily Levenson for an easy, dairy free, Saturday evening supper.

The Best Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate 'Buttercream' Icing

On Friday night I was lazily surfing the web, the Post Punk Kitchen site in particular, and I came across this recipe for dairy free chocolate mousse cupcakes. I had cooked with tofu for the first time last Sunday when I made another of PPK's recipes, the moussaka with pine nut cream and this recipe for chocolate cupcakes gave me something to so with the left over tofu. Despite being really tired on Friday night I couldn't get these out of my head and decided to make them. I am SO glad I did. 

I didn't have 340g (12oz) of tofu left, I only had 234g (8.5oz) so I reduced the recipe by a third. It made more than enough icing and I had some left over although I didn't decorate them as the recipe suggested. I have adapted the recipe slightly.

For the icing:
235g dark chocolate, melted
235g silken tofu (I used this one it is the soft version and it worked fine!)
60ml plain soy milk (hint 60ml = 60g)
2 tablespoons/30ml agave syrup or maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cornflour (if needed to thicken)

4 tablespoons icing sugar

Method - Icing
1. Crumble the tofu into a blender. Add the soy milk, agave, icing sugar and vanilla extract. Puree until completely smooth. Set aside.

2. Either using a bain marie or in the microwave (in 30 second blasts) melt the dark chocolate. Once melted, let cool for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the chocolate to the tofu and blend until well combined, use the spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender every so often.

4. Let the icing cool in the fridge for about an hour.

For the cupcakes:
240ml soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
160g granulated sugar
63ml cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, chocolate extract, or more vanilla extract
125g plain flour
30g cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method (cupcakes)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and other extract, if using, to the soy milk mixture and beat until foamy.

 

3. Sift in the dry ingredients, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt into the wet ingredients and whisk together. 

 4. Lightly spray the liners with cooking spray and pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

 5. Assemble! Either you can do the classic big swirls of icing or as I did make butterfly cakes by cutting out the top and cutting it in half and filling the hole with icing.

These are the best vegan cupcakes I have ever tasted but they're pretty amazing when compared to non-vegan ones too. The sponge is dense and chocolatey, the icing, I adapted by adding cornflour to thicken it up as I was concerned it would be runny because of the comments, and then some icing sugar to sweeten it so that it is like butter icing. I initially added too much cornflour and no icing sugar and although the icing looked right, it didn't quite taste right. Once I watered it down a bit and added the icing sugar it became the right consistency and the sweetness of the sugar brought out the chocolatey taste. 

I made twelve but there are only two left now!

As for our dairy free experiment this week we broke it yesterday with an ice cream (which was delicious) not really thinking that it had made that much difference to Mr VST. I had noticed that I was much less bunged up. Last night I had a sore throat and a headache, not sure if these were dairy related but I feel better today. Anyway, Mr VST, woke up all bunged up today so it seems as though it must be having some impact. He has decided to continue with the oat milk instead of dairy and only really eating dairy in baking although he won't have to if I keep making batches of these!

Quinoa, Black Bean and Toasted Cumin Seed Salad

Another recipe from Appetite for Reduction, another new ingredient, quinoa. I have eaten it once before this, with a curry, as an alternative to rice and I wasn't impressed. In this salad though with black beans, spring onions, tomatoes, lime juice and a little oil, it went down a treat and just as it says in the book it was better the day after once all the ingredients had soaked together. I toasted my cumin seeds as directed and added them to the salad but I couldn't really taste them. The quinoa made a good base for this salad with its light, grainy texture and slightly nutty taste.

 We had it with some of the left over pink coleslaw from earlier in the week and our first crop of home grown potatoes, which were a little disappointing compared to last year's creamy crop.

We also had some Linda McCartney vegetarian (and vegan) sausage rolls which are always a hit. 

Molasses Cookies (Dairy-Free)

I was reading The Chubby Vegan blogpost which mentioned molasses cookies. I used to drink molasses with boiled water as an iron supplement and I really like the taste so I thought I'd look for some molasses cookie recipes, dairy free of course, and make some. 

I came across this recipe and went for it.

They have a very strong flavour as you might imagine. They went down well with Mr VST. I think that they were a little on the strong side and I might add a bit more sugar next time.

Stir-Fry Vegetables with Noodles

It was great to realise that some of the meals that we normally eat were very much dairy free anyway. We haven't had stir fry in ages and as it is naturally dairy free this was the perfect time to re-introduce it. I had half a cabbage left over from the pink coleslaw that I made yesterday so I bought a bag of 'spring greens' and a bag of beansprouts and added them to it. I also added some red pepper, mushrooms, toasted cashew nuts and quorn chicken style pieces and then lots of soy sauce on top of it all. Lovely!

I seem to have made enough for a family of five!

Rhubarb and Custard

I have been addicted to rhubarb and (soya milk) custard this week. There is local rhubarb on the stall, great big bunches for £1 and I haven't been able to resist. 

Corn & Spelt Rolls, Quorn Burgers and Pink Coleslaw

Coleslaw made with cabbage, carrot and our first beetroot from the garden. 

 Corn and spelt roll with beetroot coleslaw and a quorn burger, delicious!

Dan Lepard's Corn and Spelt Batch Rolls

I've been following this series in the Guardian about using traditionally milled flours and the first recipe was for Corn and Spelt Bread Rolls a couple of weeks ago and so I finally got round to making them yesterday for this evening's supper. They were very easy to make and were very tasty indeed. The small amount of honey in them satisfies my sweet tooth but doesn't overpower anything you eat them with.

My rolls weren't quite as deep as Dan's but they were still delicious and he did reply to my tweet about making them too which was very nice of him. There's just something special about home made bread of any kind.

Mushroom and Rice One Pot

Mushroom and Rice One Pot last night once again made by Mr VST. No pictures I'm afraid as I totally forgot in all the excitement. My sister in law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last night so we were somewhat distracted!

Chilli with Sweetcorn and Spring Onion Cornbread

Dairy free week continues with a hearty, vegetable packed chilli. The summer here is doing its usual thing which includes raining and being cold. It really isn't traditional salad and ice cream weather! I made the cornbread again, which didn't disappoint (please make it!) and this time with wholemeal flour as the original recipe suggests and it was so good.

To continue the cold theme I had rhubarb and custard for pudding while Mr VST had carrot cake and custard for his. 

Vegan Moussaka

I mentioned earlier in the week that there was a vegan week coming up. A friend has recently given up dairy and found that her chest cleared up so Mr VST thought that he might give it a go too and see if it made him less bunged up. He is a cheeseaholic so we decided he would need to wean himself off gently. He's been having oat milk on his cereal and in his tea as well this week just gone and next week we go full on dairy free and by dairy I mean milk based products. I never did understand why eggs were classed as dairy.

So I thought I'd start this evening with an offering from the post punk kitchen, an aubergine, potato moussaka with pine nut cream. It was my first time cooking with tofu and I was a bit nervous. It was a complicated recipe, well for me! There were three main parts, the pine nut cream, then the tomato sauce and finally the vegetables themselves before putting it all together in layers with some breadcrumbs.

Layering, layering

Very pretty end result

I was pleased with the result, the moussaka doesn't have a very strong taste but it was a good filling meal. Not bad for a vegan version!

Carrot Cake with Orange Icing

Made some carrot cake for this week's dairy free cake offering. I made some orange icing instead of the cream cheese icing by mixing some unrefined icing sugar with freshly squeezed orange juice, yum!

Quorn Tortilla Stack, Potato Wedges, Houmous and Refried Beans

Exactly what it says in the title. Quorn mince tortilla stack. Thought I'd put the recipe up as I've made it quite a few times now and it's a good one. I guess it could be made with real mince or soya mince too. 

Ingredients:

300g Mince of your choice

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tsp ground paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

400g chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp soy sauce (or vegetarian Worcestershire sauce)

4 soft flour tortillas

50g mature cheddar cheese

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius/400 farenheit/gas mark 6.

2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan until hot, cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes.

3. Add the mince, paprika, chilli powder, chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and soya sauce and season.

4. Simmer for 10-15 minutes.

5. Place a large tortilla on a large non-stick baking tray, spoon over a portion of mince mixture. Repeat with the remaining tortillas and mince and then add the cheese on the top of the final tortilla.

6. Bake for 10 minutes, cut into quarters and serve. 

Mixed Berry Jam

Some may consider this jam sacrilegious, I confess, I made it with frozen berries!! I bought a couple of bags of frozen mixed berries months ago and had tried them on my ready brek but they were too tart. They had been in the freezer taking up room for a while and so I decided to make some jam out of them. It only made two jars but the bit that was left over tasted good. 

Houmous - Mark 2

As I explained in my houmous post I cooked 500g of chickpeas when the recipe only called for 200g and then got a bit lazy towards the end by not removing the skins before I whizzed up the chickpeas to make the houmous. There was a bit of a bitter after taste to my first batch as a result of this. After I had finished with the first batch I sorted through the remaining cooked 'peas and removed the skins as best I could. This afternoon I decided to give the rest another chance at making good houmous. I used the same recipe although I used only one clove of garlic this time, slightly less tahini and the same amount of lemon juice. The results were awesome, a really creamy, light, delicious houmous with no bitter after taste, houmous heaven!

Stuffed Squash

More donations from my colleague's garden for dinner today. I was given two squash. I am yet to identify them but they were light green on the outside and creamy white inside, they were like a marrow or courgette. 

I fried off some shallots, garlic, celery and mushrooms and mixed this in with some basmati rice and feta cheese. The results were surprisingly tasty.

Mozzarella with Grilled Fennel Salad

I was given a couple of bulbs of fennel this week by my colleague. I gratefully accepted them and then proceeded to search for recipes. My recipe books didn't come up with very much. I wanted something simple so I went for this simple mozzarella with grilled fennel salad recipe by Nigel Slater. 

I didn't have much luck with the fennel grilling but it was OK. I got some great olives, green not black though as the recipe suggested and they kind of stole the show.

I served the salad with potato salad, fresh home made bread and cheese and then we had some houmous afterwards as it wasn't quite ready.

Home made houmous, hummus, homas, however you want to spell it!

Mr VST is getting hungry! He's pretty much always hungry or at the very least ready to eat food but with his promotion at work his brain is having to work harder than it has in a while and it's creating a demand for calories. He has pretty much been eating two lunches a day for the last few weeks (and annoyingly has lost weight!). One of the snacks I thought I could send him to work with was some houmous and various things to dip into it. I googled for recipes, as you do, and came across a whole blog just on making houmous called the hummus blog! As they appear to have tried quite a few recipes and come up with the ultimate one I thought I'd try that one so here it is. The bag of chickpeas I bought was 500g I thought I'd make the lot into houmous!  

Ingredients
[4 bowls of houmous]
200g dried chickpeas (the smallest you can find)
150g tahini
juice from 1 squeezed lemons
1-2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon + 1/8-1/4 teaspoon baking soda
salt
olive oil
parsley

Method

1. Poor the chickpeas over a large plate. Go over them and look for damaged grains small stones, or any other thing you would rather leave out of the plate.

2. Wash the chickpeas several times, until the water is transparent. Soak them in clean water over night with 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Then, wash it, and soak again in tap water for a few more hours. The grains should absorb most of the water and almost double their volume.

3. Wash the chickpeas well and put them in a large pot. Cover with water, add the rest baking soda and NO salt. Cook until the grains are very easily smashed when pressed between two fingers. It should take around 1-1.5 hours, during which it is advised to switch the water once again, and remove the peels and foam which float over the cooking water. When done, sieve the grains and keep the cooking water.

4. Put the chickpeas into a food processor and grind well. Leave it to chill a little while before you continue.

5. Add the tahini , lemon juice, crushed garlic, cumin and salt if desired and go on with the food processor until you get the desired texture. If the Humus is too thick, add some of the cooking water. It should be thinner than the actual desired texture.

Serve with some good olive oil and chopped parsley

I needed to add a little bit of water to the mix as mine was a little thick. I was also a little lazy and didn't remove the skins of the chickpeas. I wish I had as I'm pretty sure it was them that caused the slightly bitter aftertaste. The houmous was less bitter though after it had cooled and I had thinned it a little.

I was slightly concerned after cooking all my chickpeas and then reading the recipe which said it made four large bowls already. I used only 2/5 of the chickpeas for the houmous and then sorted the skins from the remaining 'peas. There weren't actually that many left and the recipe didn't make as much as I first thought it would so I think I'm going to make a skinless batch of houmous and see if I can get rid of the bitter taste. 

More Real Bread

The last of the real bread actually got eaten pretty quickly for bread in our house. Not only the lovely warm fresh stuff out of the oven but the couple of loaves I froze as well. On Wednesday I had the day off work as I had worked the weekend and it was the perfect time to make some more. I was a bit more nervous making these loaves than the last lot because they had worked so well. 

This time I made sure I used the same mixing method (method 2 in the River Cottage Book on Bread), and let the bread rise twice before proving. I improved things slightly in the proving department by reading the book properly and letting the tin loaf prove in the tin as you are supposed to rather than knocking all the air out of it putting it into the tin like last time.

Dan, the writer of the River Cottage book also said that the loaves are happier with coatings rather than naked. I decided to go for one plain loaf, one with a go faster stripe and one with a seedy coat. I mixed together some sunflower, sesame and brown linseeds and added them to the loaves.

The book also recommends that you spray the top of the loaves with water before putting them into the oven. I didn't have a sprayer so I flicked some water over the top instead. I was so impressed with the results, again! The seeds were a tasty welcome addition. The water sprinkling seemed to soften the crust well and the loaf in the tin looked like a real loaf! The crust on that was very soft. Yay for real bread. I certainly aim to continue with home made bready products from now on, they're just so much nice than the supermarket stuff (and cheaper than the 'artisan' stuff too). 

Soft Polenta Broccoli

I had spotted the soft polenta broccoli in Appetite for Reduction a couple of weeks ago when I decided to go for the '40 clove broccoli' instead. As I was home today with some lonely looking broccoli in the fridge and some polenta in the cupboard I decided to try some for my lunch. I had already given polenta a second chance in the cornbread and it impressed me so I thought I'd like to try it 'soft' to see what it was like. It was surprisingly good! I can appreciate it won't be to everyone's taste, or really texture. It was like a thick kind of savoury porridge or ready brek. I liked it though.  I can see this being a winter diet staple as it was only 160 calories and yet really filling. You could add any kind of vegetable to it although some may need to be cooked before hand.