Long Overdue Update

I do love keeping my blog. It makes me very happy to sharing cooking with others, and to hopefully show people that sometimes being brave and trying new recipes really pays off. However, when I just banging out standard cook book fayre, or the same thing over again, I don't much feel like sharing. This is why I have an occasional tenancy for hiatus. When I'm stressed or down about something, its easy for me to slip back to the same meals I know I can safely do with little or no real effort.

I have had, however, a few nice meals of late, most enjoyable of which was a Mushroom Noodle dish, with a little toasted nori for good luck and iodine.

Mushroom Noodles - Serves Two



Neutral tasting oil for frying (Oil, Sunflower etc)
100g Mushrooms
2-3 Spring/Salad Onions
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Cup of Miso Soup (250ml)
1 Pack of 'Wok Ready' Noodles. Blue Dragon are suitable for vegans
1 Tbs of Soy Sauce
1 Tbs Gomashio
Sheet of toasted Nori

1. Finely slice your mushrooms. Remove just the very roots of your spring onions off, and finely slice all the rest. This means the green bits too.
2. Stir fry in a little oil for 2-3 mins
3. Add the garlic, cook for a few moments, then add the miso soup and bring to a simmer
4. Add the noodles and stir until mixed in, now add the soy sauce and 'plate up'
5. Roll the nori into a tube and use scissors to slice ribbons of nori onto your bowls of noodle. Mix this in, then sprinkle with gomashio.

This is a very quick meal, and very filling.

I may well not post another recipe for a short time. One of my three cats, Pippin, will be going into the vets for an x-ray and biopsy on a small tumour on her chest tomorrow. Due to Pippin's age (16) and the location of the tumour, it is likely that it will have spread and we may not have her much longer.

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I love cats. I think because we all use the word 'love' too much, it's easy for that to be underestimated. Cats bring me a joy very little else does. They are so utterly honest in their affections. A cat won't sit with you unless it wants too, likewise, should a cat want to sit with you, it's going to be pretty insistent about it.

When myself and my Husband got married just under 10 years ago, we hadn't lived together first, and as such, we didn't have a honeymoon, instead deciding to spend the time off work setting up the new house. I had known from the start this would involve a cat living with us. We wanted to give a home to a rescue cat, and were introduced to Diva and Hobbit, who soon came to live with us. Diva and Hobbit had various health issues and a background which meant they needed to live indoors only, and we soon got used to the endless cycle of litter tray cleaning etc.

In late 2007 we noticed a lump on Hobbit's face. It turned out to be an inoperable tumour, and at Easter, we had to make the decision to take the pain away from her.

Diva pined for her sister, becoming anxious and unhappy whenever we left the house, and we decided that she needed another cat in the house to keep her happy.

We looked about, and in late May 2008, Maisie and Pippin came to live with us too. Maisie and Pippin were 15, and were life long housecats, so needed a new family that were happy to have older cats that would need to stay indoors. I fell in love with them instantly, and within a few weeks, they had integrated with Diva and they all became friends. Pippin's 'slightly enlarged thyroid' turned out to require daily drug therapy, which I suspect if why her former owners no longer wished to look after her.

Pippin often sits with me as I surf the net or blog, and amuses me by attempting to help herself to my drinks. She is a loving cat, who likes being held and purrs loundly at the slightest touch or glance. She has a special personality, and I love her very much. If it wasn't for my cats, I don't know that I would understand how wonderful animals are, and how much like us they are... and how very wrong it is for us to use them to fill our stomachs.

About two weeks ago I noted a small lump by one of her nipples, and arranged a vets visit. My vet echoed my concerns and performed a needle biopsy. The results came back how we feared, and so she's going in tomorrow.

I write this in part to find an outlet for sorrow, which copious tears doesn't seem to free, and in part because I want to ask that anyone reading this just mentally sends whatever positive thoughts they have to my baby when she is with the vet.

Plough(wo)man's Lunch

Any of my fellow Brits will be familiar with the concept of a Ploughman's Lunch. What they are less likely to be familiar with, is the concept that it might very well be a bit of a ploy from the 1960s by the Milk Marketing Board to get people eating more cheese. This is disputed, as you'll see from my Wikipedia link, but it's interesting none the less.

Before I became vegan, I was convince giving up cheese would be impossible. I have found that I don't really miss it that much. Now and then I have a nice meal which would traditionally be expected to have some cheese in it, and I don't really miss it. More for my Husband, I have Tofutii Cheese Slices on top of pizza, but that's about it.

At the moment, I'm trying to eat a few more nuts, but without just sat there eating a handful of nuts each day. Enter, cashew nut cheese. I'm not going to post a recipe, as there are many of these on the web and I just used a recipe from La Dolce Vegan. I will be making this again, as its very tasty, but I might mix it up a bit.

You can see here, my lunch on Saturday, using some of the Beetroot Bread from a few days ago, I was so pleased to have a mostly home made lunch. The alfala was home spouted, the lettuce home grown, the cashew nut cheese was home made. I can't claim to have grown the brazil nuts, but the beetroot in the bread was from my Dad's garden.



I followed this up with a nice, crisp apple. Now, feel free to tell me this doesn't look like a 'real ploughman's' but I liked it.

Beetroot Bread

I didn't make much of note today, other than some bread containing raw beetroot.

I made this mainly because I still have some of the beetroot my Dad gave me last time I went to visit, and partly because I've recently sown a few seeds myself, and I need something to do with them when I (hopefully) get a glut as a last crop of the year.

Also, it looked a very pretty pink hue in the photo in the recipe book... and is rather red in real life! The inside of the bread itself is nicely flecked with bits of beetroot, and is pinker then the baked crust of the bread.

I haven't included a picture of this cut bread, because the light had failed by the time I sliced it, and all the photos came out badly.

I followed a recipe almost identical to this one on http://www.selfsufficientish.com with the difference that my recipe only call for one tsp of yeast, not the two shown here. My bread didn't rise as much as I like, so I would actually recommend the 2tsp instead. I think the beetroot weighs the dough down a little.

This recipe is taken from "Bread Machine" by Jennie Shapter. The nice thing about this book is that in most of the loaf recipes give you the option of small, medium or large. Small is always big enough for the pair of us.

I never bake bread in the bread machine itself though, using a Pyrex Bake a Round instead. This doesn't give a bread that's the right size for sandwiches, but which is just about perfect for a hunk of bread or a small bit of toast. I got mine from a charity shop, and am now searching endlessly for another one. I would get them off e-bay, but they seem to be a US only thing, and if you google it you'll see they are often used for non bread making reasons.

In gardening news, the courgettes are starting to come through now. Since we only have the one plant that's producing anything, I'm fairly pleased with getting one or two courgettes off it a week. The French peas now have rapidly growing pods on them, and the Raspberry the very start of some fruit. Considering this is my first year growing my own food, and I did start very late, I'm quite pleased.

Cherry Plum Cake

One of the nice things about being quite into the blogosphere is that I often see recipes blossom out from one blog into another, and then another, each making slight changes that that blogger likes or dislikes. This is also the case that I'll see a recipe that includes dairy or eggs, and within a few days someone has veganised it. This was very much the case with the Plum Kuchen that appeared recently in Gourmet Magazine . It then appeared in a number of blogs I follow, including Smitten Kitchen and Vegan Yum Yum.

This seemed very fortuitous as the local cherry plum tree is going cropping very well this year, and I feel it my civic duty to eat some of the bounty. I've never seen any one else picking them off the tree. The photo below was taken in a large frying pan, about 30cm across, and I ended up using less than half the plums. The rest are now sitting in the freezer ready to do something else with. Any suggestions as to what that 'something else' might be would be greatly appreciated.


I followed the Vegan Yum Yum directions, only changing one or two things, which was using Allergy Care egg replacer instead of Ener-G Egg Replacer, and replacing the half cup of Earths Balance with 1/4 cup of Pure Dairy Free, and 1/4 cup of Apple Sauce. This reduced the fat a little, but it baked very well.



Caution, you won't be able to tell from the picture, but this makes a lot. I cut it into 12ths, because I'm trying to feed up my husband at the moment, but even at 16ths this would have given nice big chunks. It is also sinfully good when served warm, which I'm sure would be considered a sin in itself, but if its microwaved for just 30 seconds, it is very much like a sponge pudding. As it's cold today, I treated myself to this as my mid morning snack.

Speaking of the internet, and how it changes what I eat, I'm quite often to be found wandering about on The 'Vegan Forum' these days. There are quite a few UK people there, which is very nice, as we discuss a lot of UK products, and special offered in supermarkets.

A week or so back one of the other members offered a soy milk maker for free, just for the P&P. Being impoverished as I am, and somewhat obsessive over the idea of getting a soymilk maker for some time, I quickly bit his hand off. It turned up on Friday, and I made my first batch of milk later that day. It's very nice, easy to use and makes a litre of soy milk from just 55g of soy beans. This is about 9p per litre, a lot cheaper than the 60p tetra packs from Tesco, and a lot greener too. Plus, I have loads of Okara (soy bean pulp) to use as well, which I'm gathering up for recipes all ready.

Its a little effort to clean, but not too bad really, and considering I normally manage to cause things to boil over if I try making the soy milk on the stove, so really I'm just cleaning a mik maker, instead of a stove. Plus it seems to need a lot less soy then the stove recipes I've encountered. I'm not really sure why this is, but it doesn't seem very thin or anything, so that's another advantage.

Best of all, it seems like the company that makes it have discontinued the make I've got, and now do a fancy electronic one, which by all accounts is no where near as reliable or good. Also, I've become very chatty with the person who sent me the milk maker, so I'm very happy about that too.

Not much in the way of inventive cookery these last few days, so behold a bit of random food pictures.

Broccoli, Chilli and Courgette Stirfry.


Sushi


The beetroot in the sushi was grown by my Dad.

Chilli Beans with Cider Bread


In yet more exciting news, my Brother's fiancée has just started a food blog. It's an omni blog, but a few nice vegan or veganizable recipes are already on there. Its nice to have a shared interest with someone. 'Misty' is a very lovely woman, and really kindly when I first turned vegan offered to buy my a Carob Easter Egg... isn't that sweet of her? She's also a scientist by trade. Isn't it interesting the way people think that science and spirituality are opposing forces. Surely, a curiosity about how the world works doesn't need to be limited to the 'nuts and bolts' of things.
http://mistywood-foodforthesoul.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I sure think it would be nice to welcome her into the blogosphere.

Garden Soup and Treacle Tarts

Yesterdays dinner was a modified Garden Vegetable Borscht soup from How it all Vegan, followed up with a slice of treacle tart. Isn't the soup a pretty red? I modified this by swapping the cabbage for kale, and the spinach for Swiss chard. I topped this with a little soy kefer. It made loads, so I've frozen some down, and ate the rest with some lentils stirred in for dinner this evening.

The treacle tart from last night didn't quite work, but I decided I to have a go at making my own single serve microwave treacle tart. Stick with me on this, as I serve between weighed measurements and volume measurements. Sorry about that ;)

Single Serve Pie Bases - For two

20g Rolled Oats
10g Dry sweetener of choice
5g margarine or apple sauce
small pinch of cinnamon

Mix together and press into microwaveable pie dish or ramekin. Try to leave an indentation for the treacle to go into. Microwave for 1 min on high. You could also bake for 10 mins at 180°C.

Treacle Tart Topping - For two

2-3 Tablespoons of dry breadcrumbs (or 4 of fresh)
2-3 Tablespoons of golden syrup
1/8 lemon essence

Mix all ingredients and spoon onto the top of the prepared base. Press down and microwave for 1 min. If it looks like it needs a bit longer, microwave for 10 second increments. You could also bake for 10-15 mins as above.



Verdict - Very tasty, but needs work. A bit too much topping for the base. I'll play to see what I can do. I expect if I had baked it in the metal dishes it would have worked really well as the main issue was it sticking to the bottom.

Broccoli Skillet Toss

I go through small phases of really longing for certain veg. This week, I've not been able to get enough broccoli.

Saturday Night it was Broccoli and Chili Pasta, which I've posted about before and today I had a snack bowl of broccoli stir fry.

Broccoli Skillet Toss - Serves 1

1/2 head Broccoli.
1 clove garlic
2 rings red onion
2 small slices of fresh ginger
1/2 tsp chili paste
1 tsp oil of choice

• Cut broccoli into florets. Slice garlic as thinly as you can and matchstick the ginger.
• Heat your 1/2 tsp oil in a cast iron skillet to a medium heat
• Add garlic, onion and ginger and cook until starting to go translucent
• Add broccoli and cook, stirring frequently for 2-3 mins
• Mix remaining oil with chili paste and drizzle into pan
• Cook for another 2-3 mins. If you have a lid big enough, place this over your broccoli to help it cook and keep the moisture in.
• Eat. Chopsticks optional.
  

I also had an epic food purchasing fail. Being as I love peanut butter I was very excited to see some cheap in QD (budget shop in my town). It turns out when a jar of peanut butter with chocolate chips in it is for sale and cheap, it's because it seems to contain no chocolate chips, just sugar.

Now, sugary peanut butter might be okay to ice a cake with, but it's not so nice on toast. Queue the quickest peanut butter improve know to man.

Chocolate Peanut Swirl

1 small jar peanut butter
4 squares (c 20g) dark chocolate

• Chop chocolate into chip sized lumps
• Microwave jar of peanut butter for 1 min. It should now be runny enough so you can't dig a hole in it
• Add chocolate chips and stir just long enough to incorporate the chips, but stop before the chocolate fully melts
• Place jar in fridge to harden

Actually, this saved the jar of peanut butter. I wouldn't go as far as buying peanut butter to do this to... but if you have one of those inexplicably sweet jars, go for it. It came out like a very budget version of 'Dark Chocolate Dreams' though not nearly as nice. Admittedly though, it was less than 1/4 of the price. I expect if I added more chocolate it would work better, but I fear that I would be throwing good money after bad.

Also, I've had a bash as coconut milk kefir. Basically, I took about 1 cup of coconut milk and added 1 tbs of soy kefir. I let then rest overnight on the counter top. It had separated out into especially sour 'whey' which has gone to make sourdough, and white creamy stuff. After straining, there was about a 1/4 cup of coconut cream kefir. I wouldn't bother again.

Pandemonium - A Cast Iron Excuse

Unfortunately, I'm not able to bring you pictures of scrummy foods today. I've been cooking, but mostly following recipes, and I don't like to blog if I can't bring you something interesting or new.

What I can bring you, however, is pictures of my new (to me) cast iron pans. Looking at the makers seal on the bottom (Victor) I don't think they are anything special, but I still love them already.



These came from a charity shop, and cost the princely sum of £7 for all three. The two smallest are currently in the oven, being reseasoned.

How do you season a cast iron pan I here you cry? Well, it's most easy.

1. Should your pan require cleaning, you can rub it with a iron pan scrubber with a little salt and oil. Wash this very thoroughly as salt causes rust. If you have an oven with a self cleaning option, you can place your pan into the oven and run the self clean cycle. Personally, I've never tried this before, so I can't recommend this.
   
2. Cover you pan inside and out in some kind of lipid. Some people claim vegetable oil makes the pans sticky. This isn't my experience. Personally, as a vegan I don't make shed loads of options here, so a I've tried coconut oil, rapeseed (canola) oil and olive oil. Rapeseed was best.
   
3. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
4. Place turn your pan upside down and place on a baking sheet. If you can, open some windows as there will be smoke.
   
5. Place pan in oven and heat for about 1 hour. This bonds the oil to the pan, and makes it almost non stick once cool.
   
6. Leave pan in oven until cold.

Some people recommend doing this once a month, but if you use your pan fairly regularly, I don't think it's required. Never put your cast iron away wet, and you'll probably be fine.

Why do I cook in cast iron I here you cry with some excitement. Well, let me tell you.

• Cast iron is almost non-stick. I don't use non stick pans because. I have concerns about the toxicity/carcinogenic properties of the non-stick coating of pans. Considering it's well known that the fumes from non-stick pans can kill pet birds, I find myself ill at ease eating foods cooked in them.
  
• Clean up is very easy. Many people advocate just wiping out your pan with kitchen towel or a clean rag. Unless I'm cooking something that leaves behind a lot of residue, this is what I do. Much quicker then washing up in the sink. If it requires a proper clean, I use use plain water and then heat gently on the stove afterwards to dry it.
  
• Lifespan - Stainless steel and aluminium pans require replacing every few years, yes, even expensive ones warp. A good cast iron pan will literally last you a lifetime. This is why you see perfectly usable pans with a makers mark from the turn of the last century regularly appearing on ebay
• Cast iron increases the amount of dietary iron. As a vegan, this is a very fortunate thing. Acidic foods such as tomatoes will increase the leaching into your food. Its up to you if you think you need this though. Sometimes tomato based foods are a little darker when cooked in cast iron.
  
• Cast iron can go from hob top to oven. Mind the hot handle though!
• Cast iron has very few hot spots, especially better quality pans.
• Cast iron is very good for browning food. This is wonderful for things like caramelised onions or pan fried seitan.
  
• Cast iron works very well on induction hobs. Induction is a very efficient method of cooking, which is about 90% in terms of heat transfer. However, this requires pans to be ferrous to work, and many cheap pans aren't. Cast iron always is.
  
• Cast iron is blurry heavy, and give your wrists a darn good work out ;)

The main concerns when using cast iron are

• It requires a little bit of maintenance. This is normally nothing more then cleaning with a damp rag and then heating until dry. If it gets very gunky you might need to scrub and reseason, but this has only happened to me once in six months.
• They are very, very heavy. If you have weak wrists this can be a problem. My wrists have become noticeably stronger since I started using cast iron.
• Some ceramic/halogen glass topped hobs advise against the use of cast iron incase you scratch the surface or the weight shatters it. I find a strong policy of 'not dropping the pan' seems to have worked wonders here.
• It is possible to get too much iron. Personally I'm not in the least worried by this due to my vegan ways.
  

I now have, including today's pan. 1 small skillet, 1 medium skillet, 2 large skillets and 1 cast iron griddle.

If you have a hob top suitable, you really should think about getting at least one cast iron pan. Check out your local charity or thrift store, or keep an eye out if you have a TJ/TKMaxx near you, which often has these in store.