With a daughter called Nova, I would have chosen this dish for its name alone. For a girl whose first word was “cakey”, cherry bubble cake is tres Nova, indeed… 😉 Continue reading
Tag Archives: vegetarian
Potato pancakes with sauerkraut (zemiakové placky)
15 Jun
This Euro 2016 challenge has made me aware of how many eastern European teams are competing – the menu plan for the next month is a bit cabbage-tastic. Potatoes are well represented too – and Slovakian potato pancakes feature both.
Seasoned with majoram and garlic, these differ from the potato latkes I usually make. Unlike latkes, they also include a significant quantity of flour, resulting in a breadier pancake.
Barmbrack
13 Jun
Barmbrack is a traditional Irish bread made with dried fruit that has been steeped in tea. Often served on Halloween, I chose it to represent Ireland in our Euro 2016 food challenge.
There are both yeast and quick bread versions of barmbrack – I decided to make a yeast one using a recipe I’d clipped from a magazine years ago.
I soaked my fruit in the morning, planning to bake mid-afternoon, in time for the Ireland-Sweden match, but the dough had other plans… Continue reading
Glamorgan sausages
11 Jun
We’d intended to eat these Glamorgan sausages as a late family lunch before settling down to watch the Wales v Croatia match. However, events overtook us and I ended up spending most of the day at the hospital with my youngest daughter. Continue reading
Salata de boeuf
10 Jun
I first encountered salata de boeuf when we visited some friends over the Christmas holidays, and were treated to a generous spread of Romanian delicacies. Continue reading
Sourdough bread
5 Jun
I grew up eating homemade sourdough bread. My dad got bitten by the sourdough bug (metaphorically, of course), and eventually built up a little business selling his extra loaves to colleagues and neighbours. He installed a second oven in the basement, doubling his output to four loaves a day. Continue reading
Guacamole
3 Jun
Guacamole is one of those things it should be impossible to get wrong. Mash and season a ripe avocado, serve with tortilla chips – the shortest recipe ever.
And yet, there is so much lousy guacamole out there, it seems worth writing a few words on the subject. Continue reading
Sourdough starter
4 May
Sourdough bread baking is on the rise (pardon the pun). To get in on the action, the first thing you need to do is acquire some sourdough starter.
There are three ways to go about this. The easiest way is to get some from a “culture-d” friend (like me). You can order dried starter culture through the mail, which should arrive with instructions on how to activate it. Or you can make your own. Continue reading
Cheese saganaki
1 May
I can still remember the first time I tasted cheese saganaki (pan-seared Greek cheese). Having finished university, my then boyfriend and I were spending the summer travelling round Europe before moving from Vancouver to Toronto so he could start a law degree.
Woefully misled by a guidebook called something like Europe on $10 a Day, we’d spent a lot of nights sleeping rough or on overnight trains, and buying cheap food in markets and bakeries to make our money go further. Greece was the first country we could actually afford to eat out.
Lemon bread
25 Apr
What I now recognise to be a mighty close cousin of the British classic lemon drizzle cake, went by the more modest name of lemon bread round ours.
Christmas baking aside, lemon bread was my hands-down favourite out of everything mum baked. I particularly adored the way the lemon syrup crystallised on the crust before seeping down to creating that thin layer of sticky citrusy goodness. Continue reading
Beet borani (borani chogondar)
20 Apr
Borani are Persian dips or side dishes of thick yogurt combined with vegetables and herbs. I’ve come across aubergine, spinach, and courgette before, but beet borani was a new one.
Beets are so often paired with sharp flavours like vinegar or lemon, which masks their flavour, but that’s not happening here. Just the mild tang of the yogurt, and woodsy dried mint to play against the earthiness of the beets.
Beet borani is most startlingly gorgeous fuschia colour – the girls adored it on sight. Having made it with both raw and cooked beetroot, I’m surprised at how little difference cooking makes to the taste or texture of the finished dish. Continue reading
Hamburger buns
14 Apr
Store-bought hamburger buns are always a huge disappointment. It seems such a shame to go make fabulous patty, top it with fresh veg and a slice of good cheese… then stick it between two washing-up sponges.
So I forgo the bun, but that’s not entirely satisfying either. With a bit of planning, you can make a batch of hamburger buns that are so delicious, you might decide to forgo the patty…;-) Continue reading
Lemon mint
11 Apr
We spent Easter in Bahrain visiting friends, where we were introduced to a drink called lemon mint. One glass and we were hooked, ordering it at every opportunity.
Lemon juice and fragrant mint are blended with ice to make a lovely, refreshing pick-me-up. The key is not to over-sweeten the mix – add just enough sugar to take the edge off the lemon’s sharpness. Continue reading
Margarita brownies
6 Mar
A few weeks ago, I made a batch of chilli chocolate brownies to serve after a Mexican meal. While they were tasty (it’s hard to find a brownie I don’t like), the chilli flavour didn’t feel quite right at that point in the evening.
That sparked the idea of making margarita brownies (it’s also hard to find a margarita I don’t like…) Continue reading
Twelve-bean soup
3 Mar
I’m naming this twelve-bean soup because that’s what I called it in Canada. Here in the UK, I have only ever found ten-bean mix. (I’m not sure which two types of beans have been omitted, but the soup seems none the worse for their absence.) Continue reading
Fruit and vegetable tagine
29 Feb
Tajine, cous cous, tajine, cous cous, tajine… When visiting Morocco, you have to go out of your way to avoid eating one or the other – or both – pretty much every day.
In Morocco, a tajine is both a slow-cooked savoury stew and the conical pottery cooking vessel in which they are prepared. So strictly speaking, while drawing on the flavours of Morocco, this fruit and vegetable tajine is not a tajine at all.
It is delicious though, and less oily than most I’ve eaten, especially those featuring chicken or lamb.
Continue reading
Indian beans on toast
24 Feb
Indian beans on toast is the happy result of one of those “what can I possibly make for dinner?” evenings. The kind where you’re that close to admitting defeat and ordering pizza.
But then you notice a couple of tins of cannellini beans you’d bought to have with the chicken breasts you forgot you’d already eaten, and decide that the onion with the shoots emerging from the top is still usable, and remember there are a few slices of sourdough bread in the freezer.
And with the last tin of tomatoes from the garage, you produce something that – while far from dinner party fare – is pretty tasty, if you do say so yourself.
Sweet potato and carrot soup
15 Feb
This sweet potato and carrot soup comes together in no time, making a great choice for weekday dinner. The sweet potato gives it a silky smoothness that contrasts beautifully with the crunchy seeds. Continue reading
Passion fruit chocolate truffles
11 Feb
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about chocolates is the element of surprise. Shapes can be a giveaway – square toffees, dome-shaped cherries and so on – as is the printed guide when it exists. But until you commit and sink your teeth into a chocolate, you don’t really know what’s inside.
The acute disappointment of biting into a strawberry cream with its cloying taste of cosmetics. The outrage of a square chocolate unpardonably filled with fibrous coconut. The double delight of getting whatever chocolate you and your brother both favour after he went first and chose wrong…;-) Continue reading
Tea eggs
8 Feb
We love to celebrate Chinese New Year in our house with a special Chinese meal. The menu varies from year to year, but we always start things off with edamame, prawn crackers and these tea eggs.
Carefully cracked hard-boiled eggs are simmered in their shells in a mixture of tea, soy sauce and spices, then left to steep until flavourful. When peeled, the cracks in the shell create a beautiful marbled effect.
Gung hay fat choy! Continue reading
Vegetarian mole de olla
18 Jan
Mole de olla (or kettle stew) is a traditional Mexican dish made from beef and vegetables – typically corn, potatoes, green beans and courgette.
This vegetarian version comes from the Sundays at Moosewood cookbook – I’ve been making it for years, and always serve it with fresh cornbread to soak up the delicious sauce.
We’d eat this tasty stew more regularly if the girls weren’t so stubbornly resistant to its charms – they remain deeply unconvinced by cooked courgette. Continue reading
Granola
9 Jan
Granola is mainstream fare these days, but when mum first made in the early 1970s it was pretty exotic. You certainly couldn’t buy it in the grocery store.
I’m not sure where she came across the recipe – perhaps in an issue of Prevention magazine? – but I’m glad she did.
Mum’s granola was my go-to breakfast throughout my childhood. When I went off to university, Mum would send big jars of her granola in my care packages, and there were plenty of times I’d opt for a bowl over whatever the canteen was serving up.
Cheese and nut loaf
3 Jan
In many years as a vegetarian, I’d never encountered a nut roast before moving to the UK. The veggie food I cooked was Asian in influence, and – bean burgers aside – dishes that deliberately replicated meat were unknown to me.
British vegetarian food in the mid 90s seemed all about producing veggie versions of sausages, meat pies and roast dinners. And in this pre-Quorn era, the nut roast reigned supreme. Continue reading
Mum’s shortbread
8 Dec
For a recipe with so few ingredients, it is surprising how variable shortbread can be. I am completely loyal to my mother’s shortbread recipe, having never tasted anything to equal it.
Rolled thin, decorated with a single silver ball, and baked until the edges were tinged with gold, mum’s shortbread were always light and crumbly-crisp.
When you bit into one, after a second’s resistance it would dissolve deliciously in your mouth, leaving that little silver ball on your tongue like a seashell stranded by a receding wave for you to dispatch with a single, satisfying crunch.
Butterscotch fudge
3 Dec
This year, I’m kicking off my Christmas baking by making butterscotch fudge.
I use my precious stash of butterscotch chips for two things – oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies and butterscotch fudge, and I’m always careful to keep a bag in reserve for this moment. Christmas just wouldn’t be as sweet without butterscotch fudge.
Chocolate tart
27 Nov
There’s been a hiatus in the Great British Bake-off project, but the girls were never going to let me get away without making the double chocolate tart.
Chocolate pastry is new to me. My go-to pastry recipes have little or no sugar, and I wasn’t confident that would be enough to balance the bitterness of the cocoa. The pastry recipe I followed starts by creaming the butter and sugar, which resulted in a biscuity-crisp crust. Continue reading
Warm glass noodle and edamame salad
21 Nov
I made this warm glass noodle and edamame salad to accompany some Vietnamese-style pork meatballs the other evening.
Edamame are great favourite with the kids – though what they like is best is eating them from the pods.
Fasoulada (Greek bean soup)
6 Nov
I love the way the word fasoulada rolls off the tongue. I’d order it just for the pleasure of saying “I’ll have the fasssooolaaadaaa please.”
And the girls are just as same. It’s “pass the fasssooolaaadaaa”, “my fasssooolaaadaaa is too hot” and so on throughout the meal.
Pumpkin soup with coconut milk
31 Oct
Pumpkin soup with coconut milk is a Halloween staple at our house. I always feed the girls an early dinner before they head out trick-or-treating.
The menu hasn’t varied in years – toasted pumpkin seeds, witches’ fingers (chicken strips rolled in crushed potato chips), steamed green beans and bloodsucking jellies for dessert.
Mocha cream horns
29 Oct
Cream horns are delightful things – and were completely new to me when I saw them on the Great British Bake-off the other week.
The concept is a simple one. Thin strips of puff pastry are rolled around a conical mould. Once baked, the pastry cones are piped full of sweet cream.
Cacik
21 Oct
I’m not going to wax authoritative on the difference between cacik and tzatziki. One is Turkish, the other Greek – reason enough to stay out of it right there.
The similarities are more apparent: both are made with yogurt, cucumber and garlic, both are typically served as a dip or with grilled meat. Given that cacik is pronounced “ja-jik”, they even sound pretty similar.
Oatmeal school cookies
18 Oct
Oatmeal school cookies strike the right balance between healthy and treat. Despite the wholewheat flour and wheat germ, there’s just enough sugar and butter to spare them being worthy.
I’ve made these cookies dozens of times, using whatever dried fruit I have on hand, or swapping the fruit for chocolate chips.
They are just as nice with nuts – but then they wouldn’t be school cookies, unless your school is bucking the “nut-free-zone” trend.
Mushroom barley soup
9 Oct
Mushroom barley soup is a homely Jewish classic. I’ve been making this comforting, nourishing stuff for years. It’s perfect student fare, costing pennies a potful.
Pear frangipane tart
6 Oct
The Great British Bake-off signature bakes seem to be increasing in complexity as the weeks go by – which is as it should be I guess.
Still, I find myself watching in trepidation, wondering what challenge I’ll be inflicting on myself next…
Sugar-free orange cake
29 Sep
When the Great British Bake-off contestants were tasked with making a sugar-free cake, I immediately thought of Claudia Roden’s orange cake.
This Judeo-Spanish cake relies on puréed whole oranges for much of its sweetness, which I thought would make it relatively easy to adapt. And because it calls for ground almonds instead of flour, it’s gluten-free as well, which seemed in the spirit of the challenge.
As this was my first attempt at baking with agave nectar, I did some reading first. The recommendations are to cut the quantity of sugar by about quarter, reduce the liquid in the recipe and lower the oven temperature – all of which I did.
Skunk
26 Sep
I can’t see Paul and Mary being very impressed with this 1970s classic… But as a child, I was wowed by it, particularly the stripes. We called it skunk, but it doesn’t appear anyone else did – my Google search on skunk cake brought up very different results!
Crème brûlée
21 Sep
Crème brûlée is – without a doubt – my favourite dessert. I love the moment when you crack the crust of caramelised sugar, and the shards shift apart to reveal the creamy custard waiting beneath. I’m already happy before I even raise the first spoonful to my mouth…
Until now, all my crème brûlée moments have occurred in restaurants. But the fourth Great British Bake-off signature bake was crème brûlée, so it was time to give it a go. Continue reading
Soda bread
16 Sep
Soda bread and I have never got on… My go-to quick bread has always been baking powder biscuits – I could throw together a batch with my eyes closed, and they would turn out light as air, fluffy and delightful.
Soda bread is another story. Whatever I do, it turns out heavy as rock, dense and… undelightful. I still remember making it for the first time in Home Ec. The ugly brown lump that emerged from my oven had a crust like rhinosaurus hide and a sullen, pastelike interior. It had somehow doubled in weight– though not in size – and could have been used as a weapon in close combat.
So when the Great British Bake-off contestants were tasked with producing a signature quick bread, my first thought was to make something based on biscuit dough. That would have been the easy way to go… Continue reading
Cranberry and almond biscotti
13 Sep
Biscotti is the second signature bake on this year’s Great British Bake-off. I’ve eaten plenty of biscotti, and even knew that the name means “twice cooked” in Italian because they are baked once as a log, and again in slices. But I had never tried baking them myself. Continue reading
Madeira cake
10 Sep
The Great British Bake-off has returned to our tellies, and the family is following along enthusiastically. Inspired by the contestants’ efforts in the tent each week, I’ve signed up to complete each week’s signature bake. Baking and desserts are not my forte, so this will be a stretch for me. First up, Madeira cake… Continue reading
Ten More Bites 