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
Tag Archives: vegetarian
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
Cranberry and white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
1 Aug
I know we’re due for another trip to Canada when my precious stash of butterscotch chips has run out…;-)
On the few occasions I’ve seen butterscotch chips for sale in the UK, they were in the specialty imports section and crazy expensive. So I tuck a few bags into my suitcase whenever we make the trip home. And Canadian houseguests have been known to arrive bearing butterscotch chips for me (and Goldfish crackers for the girls).
When oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies aren’t an option, these cranberry and white chocolate numbers are a decent alternative.
Continue reading
Mattar paneer
29 Jul
Mattar paneer is one of my favourite curries to make at home. It’s just never as fresh when you order it in a restaurant. The peas will have gone a bit grey and sad looking, and the paneer will be rubbery.
More often than not, they will have added cream as well, which seems unnecessary in a curry that contains cheese.
Celeriac remoulade
24 Jul
Celeriac is generally considered to be a winter vegetable. Velvety celeriac soup, sausages with celeriac mash, beef stew simmered with carrots, celeriac and shallots – comfort food at its best.
Celeriac remoulade has opened my eyes to its warm weather possibilities. A fresh, lighter alternative to potato salad, we’ve been eating it all summer long. Continue reading
Kachumber
16 Jul
Kachumber is a simple, delicious Indian chopped salad that takes just minutes to make. It provides a welcome freshness to any Indian meal, and works particularly well with kebabs and grilled meat.
Kachumber is so straightforward to make that a recipe isn’t really necessary. But for the record, here’s the way I make it. Continue reading
Peach-basil sorbet
12 Jul
Peaches and basil both say “summer” to me – and in this peach-basil sorbet they can say it together…
I made this sorbet with those little flat white peaches that have been appearing in the shops the last few years. The lovely rosy colour was a pleasant surprise – the result of leaving the skins on the peaches when I puréed them. Continue reading
Hummus
10 Jul
Once exotic, hummus is now a grocery store staple. It is also now considered children’s fare (at least in the UK), along with fish fingers, chipolatas, and those mini Babybel cheeses. Both my girls adore sandwiches filled with hummus and sliced black olives.
Other vegetables are getting in on the hummus act. Butternut squash, red pepper, spinach and beet hummus are all a thing. Call me old fashioned, but if it doesn’t contain chickpeas and tahini, it’s not hummus – it’s a dip. Continue reading
Strawberry shortcake
8 Jul
Strawberry shortcake is America’s take on the quintessentially British scones with cream and jam. Fresher, looser, less “proper”, and somehow more bountiful – for me, strawberry shortcake wins hands down. Continue reading
Lemon risotto
4 Jul
A dish of lemon risotto with a heap of steamed asparagus is one of my favourite spring/summer meals. It also makes a great starter – in which case this recipe will feed four. Continue reading
Lemon-ginger flapjacks
2 Jul
In Canada a flapjack is another name for a pancake. Here in the UK, it’s a sort of baked oat square. Similar to a granola bar, a good flapjack is chewy and dense and sweet with golden syrup.
The first flapjack I tasted was not good – in fact, it was a huge disappointment. While it looked tempting enough in the sandwich shop with its generous coating of chocolate, it tasted of nothing but cheap oil and sugar, compacted itself into my molars and left a coating of grease on the roof of my mouth. I didn’t finish it – or buy another flapjack for a good ten years. Continue reading
Bruschetta al pomodoro (tomato bruschetta)
30 Jun
Bruschetta al pomodoro is simplicity itself – so why write a post about it?
Two reasons:
- While the list of ingredients is short and the preparation straightforward, there are a few things worth knowing that can make the difference between a mouthwatering crispy delight and a confused, soggy mess.
- I’ve been served so many disappointing, and frankly odd, versions of tomato bruschetta that it seems worth setting down how to do it right.
Scott’s martini
24 Jun
There are a lot of strong opinions about what makes a great martini. Personally, I’m pretty flexible. I’ve enjoyed them with gin and vodka – dry, wet or dirty. I’m happy with olives, lemon peel or a cocktail onion (though actually I think that’s a Gibson).
Two essentials for me: A great martini must be icy cold. And it must achieve a satisfying balance between its elements. Otherwise, it’s just a cold glass of gin…
I’m in the happy position of having two good friends who make great martinis. As Scott is visiting from Canada this week, I’m featuring his version here (with permission). Continue reading
Chocolate-raspberry ice cream
18 Jun
Move over lemon ice cream… there’s a new kid in town.
I made this chocolate-raspberry ice cream for the first time other day. It certainly won’t be the last – all four of us were completely wowed by it.
The recipe couldn’t have been easier. Four basic ingredients – cream, chocolate, sugar, raspberries. And being a Philadelphia-style ice cream, there was no messing about with egg yolks and custard. Continue reading
Antiguan pineapple bread
11 Jun
The distinctive taste of Angostura bitters sets this Antiguan pineapple bread apart from the other quick breads and loaf cakes I make.
I’m sure it would work nicely with vanilla as well, but given the last bottle of Angostura bitters I finished was “by appointment to his majesty King George VI” I’m very happy to stick to the original recipe. Continue reading
Champ
9 Jun
Champ – mashed potatoes with spring onions – is the most comforting of comfort foods. Apparently, it’s still sometimes served as a main dish in Northern Ireland, which would work for me…
Pasta alle zucchini
6 Jun
We were introduced to pasta alle zucchini by our lovely Roman friend Mariella. She was a bit dismissive when she served it for dinner one evening, describing it as simple family fare, but we found zucchini and egg to be a winning combination. Continue reading
Aloo achaar (Nepalese potato salad)
2 Jun
Where have you been all my life, aloo achaar? Waiting quietly on page 50 of my well-worn copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s World of the East Vegetarian Cooking, that’s where. I must have flipped past you a hundred times on my way to the very spicy delicious chickpeas or diced potatoes with spinach recipe. Continue reading
Rhubarb crumble ice cream
30 May
Rhubarb crumble ice cream is an inspired idea – tart rhubarb, silky sweet cream, nuggets of cakey crumble. It’s not the most visually seductive of ice creams, at least when made with the chunky green stalks of rhubarb from my garden patch. None of that delicate pink forced rhubarb for us.
