PHOTOS!!!

Cooking the jam

Mince pie fruit

Apologies for no more photos at the moment. I did have lots of good ones but my iphone decided to not transfer them to my PC but still to delete them!

My Christmas Gifts

I have actually been doing a lot of cooking lately even though I haven't posted. The food was for Christmas presents so I didn't want people to find out what they were. Everything has been opened now so this is what I made: mince pies with a cinnamon and orange pastry, almond and cranberry biscotti and festive jam and for those preferring savoury some olive and roasted pepper tapenade and chilli vodka. They were meant to be "hampers" but I couldn't find good baskets to put them in so I wrapped them up in clear tuppaware boxes to keep some things fresh or just wrapped the jars or bottles.

I will start with the easiest first. I found this "recipe" from many sources- chop 2 red chillies and leave in a bottle of vodka for around 5 hours (I left it overnight). This was strained and decanted into two 500ml glass bottles (we used two small empty wine bottles). Before they were wrapped I put a whole chilli in as a decoration.

The orange and cinnamon pastry I adapted slightly from a recipe on allrecipes.co.uk:

225g plain flour
4 tablespoons icing sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
150g vegan margarine
2 tablespoons orange zest

Beat all the ingredients together into a dough. Hands work best (especially boyfriends' hands if you don't like getting your hands messy like me!)


We did have to add more flour and icing sugar to make it less sticky (quite a lot but I couldn't quantify it). I would also recommend a little more zest and cinnamon as it was quite a subtle taste and I would have preferred more. This makes around 18 pies.


For our mince meat we adapted a recipe from delia online. This makes at least four times what you need for the quantity of pastry listed but it can be stored in sterilised jars for a while:


225g chopped and cored Bramely apples
110g vegetarian suet
around 500g mixed dried fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, mixed peel)
175g soft brown sugar
zest and juice of an orange
zest and juice of a lemon
25g flaked almonds
2 teaspoons allspice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
a good few slugs of brandy


Mix all of the ingredients except the brandy together and sit for as long as possible (up to 12 hours but we only had time for 3). Add the brandy and cook in a low 120 degrees celcius oven for 3 hours with a loose covering of foil.
Once the pastry has been rolled and put into greased cupcake tins then a spoon of the mixture can be put in each one followed with a pastry lid. These can look particularly good in festive shapes like stars. Brush with some soya milk and put into a 200 degrees oven until light golden brown (around 15- 20 mins). Dust with icing sugar to serve.

The almond and cranberry biscotti was my favourite thing we made. This was adapted from a recipe from food.com.:

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup apple sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup flaked almonds
1/2 cup fresh cranberries cut in half.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in one bowl and the sugar, applesauce, oil and extracts in another. Mix the contents of the two bowls together. Add the cranberries and almonds. push into baking trays lined with grease-proof paper. Preferably with the width the same as you want the length of your biscotti. Cook in a 160 degree oven for about 25 minutes until light brown. Take out and cool for a little while. Chop the biscotti to the right width and turn each one on it's side. Put back into the oven at 150 degrees for around 5-10 minutes and then turn over and repeat.

The olive tapenade was just a made up recipe:

2 red peppers
1 jar of green pitted olives
2 big spoons of capers
a handful of fresh parsley
a handful of fresh corriandar
4 cloves garlic
a few drops of tabasco
a bit of pepper (and salt if the olives and capers weren't in brine)


The peppers were roasted in a hot oven until they were turning black and then very simply all the ingredients were whizzed together in a food processor and put into jars. It made about 2 jars.

The jam was the most time consuming but not as hard as I thought. The recipe was again adapted from food.com.

3 cups of cranberries
2 cups pitted cherries
1 orange and zest
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 cups sugar
1/2 cup of water
85g liquid pectin


I used frozen cherries and cranberries but they need to be thawed beforehand (believe me we broke a hand held food processor this way!).

All of the fruit and spices were combined in a food processor until roughly chopped (or use a hand held processor). This was then added to a big pan with the sugar and water and heated until bubbling vigorously (not stopping when stirred). Add the pectin at this point and bring back to the vigorous boil for a minute. This should be added to sterilized and hot jars. The jars should then be boiled for 10 mins each and left to cool to seal the jars.

These all seemed to go down well and I enjoyed tasting them as well! The hampers started out as a way to give something nice while trying to save money (we are trying to move into a new place soon) but it ended up being more expensive than we managed as quality ingredients are important. But I was so happy with the results and I think it showed how much work went into them.

I would like to say a massive thank you to my boyfriend for helping so much even though he is not a fan of baking. and also to his housemates for letting us cook in their house!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

I am having some trouble putting the photos in at the right places being new to blogging. I also managed to lose the best photos off my phone. I will blog the photos next and see if I can retrieve some better photos!

The Parsnipship- Surbiton

The Parsnipship at Surbiton is a newly established vegetarian and vegan caterers. It is run by my sister and my cousin so you may think I will give it more favourable reviews but I will do my best not to. At the moment they are having a stall at the Merton Abbey Mills market every weekend (Saturday and Sunday 10-5).
My first visit was this Saturday and although the weather was a little wet it was really nice to look round the whole market which had a variety of wares for sale. My boyfriend even had some Mauritius food (he didn't have vegan food but I believe there were some vegan friendly options like deep fried aubergine, yum!).
Anyway back to the parsnipship- of all the products they had available that day, at least half were vegan including a red wine and tomato passata, root vegetable burgers, indian summer pudding (savoury which confused my boyfriend very much), some pate's and two varieties of "flowerpot bread" (so called because they were cooked in flowerpots).
We bought root vegetable burgers, indian summer puddings and some orange and lemon bread.
Last night I cooked the indian summer puddings (they come with cooking instructions- very simple) and had them with salad and some fried potato chunks with onion, garlic and chilli.
They were really really nice. They weren't too big, which I find is usually the problem with pie-like things, and full of a chickpea and vegetable mixture. The pastry was perfect even though being cooked twice. My omnivorous boyfriend ate all of his without a single scrap on his plate which is a massive compliment as if he doesn't like something it usually ends up in the bin (my falafel and morrocan couscous creation- which in fairness was not the best!).
The food they sell has some changes everyweek and if you follow them on facebook or twitter you will be able to find out the specials that week.
I would definitely recommend a trip down there- you can freeze the food for a delicious easy meal at a later date!


grrr...just tried to add a photo but the stupid uni computers wouldn't let me- again I will do this at a later date.

Jules x

UPDATES: PHOTOS!!!

The stall- with my lovely sister on the far right

Indian Summer Puddings

Flowerpot Bread

A Taste of Heaven (Tulse Hill, London)

I have been meaning to blog about this place for a while. I was so excited to hear of this new restaurant opening as I literally live about a 10 minute walk away. I had picked up a menu on my way past one day and had been salivating ever since. A few weeks ago I had my friend Jen staying (which I think I have mentioned in a previous post) and for a weekend treat we decided to have breakfast there.
We were immediately greeted by friendly staff and chose a seat by the window (we did have the full choice seeing as no one else was there!).  I pretty much knew I wanted the full vegan breakfast before I arrived and when we got there Jen decided on the same. It came with sausages, grilled tomatoes, sauteed potatoes, mushrooms with a light covering of a creamy sauce, baked beans and toast. You also get a hot drink. The food was yummy! It was not very greasy- a good thing and I was very glad it wasn't fried bread as I always feel sick after that. I have got to admit it wasn't my top vegan breakfast ever but it was still good and being a new restaurant it may improve even further. With my drink I branched out a bit and got hot carob. I've got to admit I was not a fan. I love hot chocolate and I definitely have a bit of a sweet tooth so it just didn't quite hit the spot for me.
One of the best features of the restaurant though is the absolutely lovely staff. There were just two there when we went- a guy who was quite obviously new as he had to relay all our questions back, and a woman who I presume is an owner as she asked us how we'd heard about the restaurant and we had a good chat.

I would recommend going here definitely. There is still a lot on the menu to explore yet- I particularly want to try the carrot cake and bakewell tart and it would be nice to have dinner there sometime. It would be really nice to get people knowing about this place as I do think more custom would help. It is a little off the map and that's why I think it struggles a bit but with people spreading the word I am sure it will become a thriving business.

Itadaki Zen (King's Cross, London)

Hi Everyone,

My course has been so busy that I haven't had time to write anything recently but I still have some things to write about.

A couple of weeks ago my dad, my boyfriend and I went for dinner to Itadaki Zen- an Organic Vegan Japanese Restaurant! SO many good things wrapped up in one. Now I still haven't remembered to take many photos- the only ones I have of my own is and empty bottle of Sake and a full boyfriend but I will try and find some photos of some of the food we ate on the internet.

I have to say I was extremely excited about this! I hadn't had Japanese food since a fateful trip to Yo! Sushi when I was younger which my dad never fails to remind us of where me and my sister did not like any of the sushi and just ate so many desserts! Dad says he is still paying it now!

As usual on dinner trips with my dad we decided to get many little dishes to share.
Starting we had spring rolls with tofu, some wild garlic rolls and some seaweed rolls. The sushi was delicious, although I couldn't really tell the difference- no garlicky taste and not much filling but all the same I enjoyed it. But the spring rolls- gosh they were good! Tofu should always be put in spring rolls it was amazing. Plus the way they were cooked was just so light and felt much less oily. Definitely the best spring rolls I have ever tasted!
Next came a tempura salad on a bed of noodles, Ryokusaimaki (spring greens wrapped round vegetable and okara) and then another dish with vegetables and a peanut sauce. The tempura was absolutely amazing but I have always been a fan. And the noodles underneath were nice and thick with a pleasing sauce. The ryokusaimaki were also  really nice with a lovely smooth texture of the almost pureed vegetable mixture but the cabbage-y aftertaste stayed with me for the rest of the night which, although I do love cabbage, was not really what I wanted for so long. The dissapointment was the peanutty dish- as you can probably guess from me forgetting the name and details. We purposely chose a dish with peanuts because we all love them. Unfortunately you could barely taste the peanuts. It was still nice to eat but nothing special and a disappointment if you were really looking forward to some peanuts like me!
For dessert we chose: sesame pudding, macha pudding and the itadaki zen muffin. I've got to say I was not a huge fan of either of the 'puddings' but I think I just don't like jelly-like things that aren't classic jelly but both my dad and boyfriend enjoyed the sesame pudding. My favourite was definitely the muffin which was sugar free and came with a tofu vanilla cream which was delicious. I think though next time I would probably order more savoury food and skip the desserts.

All in all it was a lovely experience and I would definitely visit again. It was not expensive at all  and just a lovely setting to relax and have some delicious food.

I have just realised I have the photos I do have on a different computer so will upload another time.

Miss Cupcake (Brixton)

I had heard about Miss Cupcake quite a few times, mainly through the internet but recently through a new vegan acquaintance. I have lived near Brixton for a couple of years but as I have a massive tendency to get lost I don't tend to wander off the main streets and so, as much as I hoped, never stumbled upon Miss Cupcake. Recently I had a friend stay with me for a couple of weeks so armed with her sense of direction and an address we set off in search of the illusive cake shop.


In my head I expected all 70 flavours to be there but there were a selection of about 18 flavours to choose from which rather than being disappointing probably saved us about 4 hours as it still took us ages to pick our four flavours.


In a much deliberated  decision ("..well that one does look good but we already have 2 chocolate ones we want..." "..maybe we should go for two chocolate ones and two non-chocolate ones.." "..how about all different colours..." etc) we went for: Jaffa Cake, Ferrero Rocher, Apple Crumble and Pumpkin Pie. During our deliberation we even got to meet Miss Cupcake herself which almost felt like meeting someone famous!


THEY WERE AMAZING! They are probably about half icing but so well flavoured and deliciously moist cake. You cannot manage more than one. In fact we had 1/3 of one and had to take a break. My favourite was Pumpkin Pie but we had chosen it because Miss cupcake had told us it tastes a bit like carrot cake and I ADORE carrot cake. This was closely followed by Ferrero Rocher which was so perfected it tasted identical to the chocolate. Jen's favourite was Jaffa Cake. All of them were so good though- it was only personal preferences which made us choose our favourites. The apple crumble cake even had pieces of apple in it. I think the only disappointment was that the apple crumble was just slightly drier than it should have been.


That visit was so cupcake orientated that we forgot to check out the rest of the shop but before Jen left I decided to go back to get her a cupcake as a present to eat on the train and this time I spent a little longer checking out the rest of the wares. There was so much to look at for a shop that size! There was a lot of cupcake themed products e.g. mugs, cupcake stands, icing equipment but there was also other vegan products like chocolates, marshmallows, "jerky" style snacks and more. I bought her a Mocha cupcake (feedback was very good!), some marshmallows (one banana and one vanilla- they are quite expensive and I'm only a lowly student!) and also my first ever GoMaxGo Chocolate bar- the Jokerz one which is like a snickers.


The marshmallows were very authentic- I definitely wouldn't be able to tell the difference between "real" ones and those. My only criticism is that the banana one didn't have a very strong banana flavour at all and I couldn't tell them apart easily. But the Jokerz bar! My god that was good!! I didn't even realise quite how much I missed Snickers until tasting this. Even Jen (a non-vegan by the way) was raving about it days later. I definitely want to try some more.

Top = Jaffa Cake, Middle (L to R): Ferrero Rocher, Pumpkin Pie, Bottom: Apple Crumble.

Ferrero Rocher. (not the best photo sorry!)

Tofu in a sandwich??

Today I decided to go all the way to Camden under the ruse of researching vegan DHA supplements for my research project. Although I did succeed in that it was nothing I couldn't have done on the internet so my trip to Camden ended up just being for a sandwich. But what a sandwich it was! The sound of a tofu sandwich has never quite appealed to me. I did not really see how the tofu could really bring anything to it. The main factor in making me choose this particular form of lunch was the gorgeous looking bread (oh how I wish I had paused to take a photo before shoving it into my mouth). It was a thin baguette style roll made from what looked like brown flour and covered in sesame seeds. It was not too big (i.e. upper crust size baguettes that make you feel bloated just looking at them) but big enough to feel like a really good sized lunch. Inside were these big slices of tofu with sundried tomatoes and, I think, some wilted spinach. I can tell you this has converted me to the tofu way! It made such a difference- it was almost like having an out of this world cheese and salad sandwich but 10 times better. Obviously the tofu didn't taste like cheese but it made me realise that the cheese in cheese sandwiches was mostly about the texture, and the right kind of tofu can hit the spot just right. Anyway..perhaps this is a little too much writing on a sandwich but if you are ever peckish and near whole foods.......

Note to self: remember to photograph your food!

Well, although I still have not got a kitchen I still have a couple of things to blog about but I keep being so greedy and diving right into the eating before I have taken a photograph! What a pig!


SWEET POTATO AND FRIENDS RISOTTO
Last night was my first bit of decent cooking in a while. It wasn't very adventurous and was an old easy favourite of mine- risotto. What I love about risotto is how different you can make it with different ingredients. Last night I chose sweet potato, butternut squash, courgette and mushroom. Another fault of mine is adding ingredients my eye- so I basically just add until my instincts say to stop. That said I can guestimate a lot of the amounts so here goes:


Ingredients (serves 4)


2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
a glass worth of white wine
arborio rice (this is the biggest guess- I'd say maybe 2/3 of a mug <---not exactly your usual cooking measurement I know! The packet probably gives an idea of how much you will need)
mixed herbs (probably about 1 desert spoon full)
about 1 stock cubes worth of vegetable stock
1 medium courgette
around 10 closed cup mushrooms
1 medium sweet potato
1/2 a medium butternut squash


What you do:
Chop and fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil until softened
Add in the rice and herbs and fry for a couple of minutes
Put the wine in and let it simmer
add in all the vegetables except for the mushrooms
Add the stock in bit by bit stirring all the time- each time waiting for the liquid to be absorbed. You may need to adjust the amount of liquid-- taste as you go to feel when the rice is the right texture. This could take around half an hour but if you put the lid on and stir every 5 minutes you can speed it along a little but beware of the rice sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Add the mushrooms for the last 5 minutes.


Enjoy with the wine you opened!


Once again- please excuse my poor writing style. I am hoping this will improve!

Sugar rush alert: Millionaire's Shortbread!

OK, so at the moment I have a pathetic excuse for a kitchen in which I cannot cook many interesting things but because I am desperate to start posting I will share a recipe I have done many times to the delight of my friends who all love it. But beware- it is soo sweet and also addictive! I almost always end up feeling sick from eating too much. Make sure you have plenty of people to share it with or you may be working it off in the gym for the entire week after! I found the recipe on a lovely site called Parsley Soup (.co.uk).


Ingredients:
SHORTBREAD:

• 150g margarine
• 75g sugar (preferable caster) n.b. make sure this is vegan- most (or maybe all) in UK are but it's different in other countries
• 175g plain flour
• 75g cornflour

CARAMEL

• 300g sugar
• 60g margarine
• 130ml soya cream
• vanilla: if you have some use seeds from pods (1/4 pod the recipe says), otherwise a dash of vanilla essence is fine (this is what I use)

• CHOCOLATE: the recipe calls for 100g but I usually use more :). Plain chocolate is the classic but experiments are always good if they involve chocolate. My next batch I really want to try adding dark chocolate with cherries to add a fruity element. 

what to do:

• beat the sugar and margarine together (shortbread only)
• add in both flours mixing it into a dough
• press into a lined baking tray and bake for 30 mins on gas 2-3/160 C
• wait for this to be out and cooling before you start your caramel as you want it to have hardened up before you add your caramel on top
• put your sugar for the caramel in a stainless steel pan and heat over a medium flame (or medium setting) until it all melts into a lovely brown liquid, stirring all the time
• add the cream, margarine and vanilla - be careful it often spits and bubbles up at this point and it is very hot (obviously!)
• Cherry (on parsley soup) has a good tip to know when your caramel is ready- have a cup of cold water and put a drop of the caramel in. If you can form it into a soft ball with your fingers then it is perfect. Timing on this for me seems to vary quite a bit but it does take a little while to get there
• put the caramel over the shortbread and leave this to set
• once again I would advise waiting for this to cool before starting on the chocolate
• melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water
• spread the chocolate over the caramel and short bread and put it in the fridge
• cut the finished product into whatever size you wish
• PIG OUT! yummy

Sorry about the rubbish picture. I didn't have my SLR at the time! I promise future photos will be much better! You might be able to tell by the photo but on these ones I got a bit impatient with the caramel and it is a little bit viscous still. Tasted amazing though!


I hope you enjoyed my first post. Hopefully I will get better as time goes on!


Jules x