Dinner for 10!

My lovely boyfriend and I thought it would be great to have a dinner party before the baby arrived with some friends we hadn't seen properly in ages even though they live really nearby. I happily invited them without really thinking of numbers and our small flat with our 6 person table. Counting them up we had 10 people..at this point I was much more worried about seating them than feeding them! But when I reached the supermarket to buy all the ingredients and was trying to work out how many vegetables it would take to feed 10 it all became clear that this would not be a walk in the park. Luckily a few weeks before I had 2 friends and my sister (who I also consider a friend!) round for dinner and had done a 3 course meal that went down really well so I thought I would do the same as I hadn't blogged about the starter and the main before but change the dessert as that time we had bakewell tart which I have written a post about previously.

So the menu was:

Starter: Marinated tofu, red pepper & red onion skewers (and some cheating vegetable spring rolls in case people were not a fan of tofu) with a homemade peanut satay sauce (and also some ready-made plum sauce and sweet chilli sauce). If I had the time and money I would have made everything from scratch but being almost 8 months pregnant (read completely knackered) I decided to give myself a break.

I used recipes I found from about.com for the Satay Sauce and the Tofu Skewers. (I would just like to add that I have just added to my blogging skills by being able to do those links!!)

Tofu Skewers before they went under the grill

I have to say I was quite worried about how tofu would go down with some of the guests (I was the only vegan) and that was the reason I cooked some ready-made vegetable spring rolls as well but everyone LOVED them...seriously loved them! Everything was eaten and even marinade eaten off the serving plates once they were gone. The peanut sauce is also the best peanut sauce I have ever eaten (and I love my peanut sauces)- it may look like a lot of ingredients but I would seriously recommend you try it. Now everytime I make it I have to make extra to give to my sister!

Main: Thai Green Curry. Once again I used a little cheat by buying the Green Curry Paste but I went specially to an oriental supermarket to get something really authentic (minus the fish sauce of course- you need to watch out for this) and got one which just had the ingredients I would have put into it myself- i.e. none of the additives I often see on jars, just fresh ingredients (the one I used is from the Lotus brand) . I didn't particularly follow a recipe for the Thai Curry other than from some guidance on the side of the jar. I used about a jar and a half of the curry paste (each jar being 210g)  and 3 tins of coconut milk. To this I added some Fry's "chicken pieces" (although I prefer it with just the vegetables) and sweet potato chunks. After the sweet potato was getting soft I added carrot pieces, cauliflower pieces and courgette pieces and then nearer the end I also added sliced mushrooms (the reason for the order is how long the vegetables need to cook- in general add the hardest ones first and the softest last). I ended up using 2 pans (one of which was absolutely huge!). I served this with rice.

Sorry this picture isn't particularly appetizing but I forgot to take a
nice picture of it in the bowls so this what was left in the pan!

Everyone liked the Thai Green Curry but I would have liked to have had a bit more of the paste in it- probably adding both jars. I also prefer the curry to have only vegetable in and not fake meat but I think that's just because I am not particularly a fan of the chicken pieces but wanted something to satisfy the meat texture for the others. But Thai Green Curry is very good for a dinner party- I would definitely recommend it- it's not too difficult and you can have it cooking while people eat the starter. I had cut up all my veg in advance so all I had to do was chuck it in and check on it once in a while. There are plenty of ideas of recipes online with lots of different vegetables listed- pretty much everything works with it!

Dessert: Maple Pecan Pie from "Vegan Pie In The Sky". I did use some walnuts instead of all the pecans because the pecans were about twice the price and it was already getting expensive to feed the masses but next time I would definitely like to try it with pecans only as you could tell it would really make this pie amazing! I think this is my favourite dessert I have cooked so far. I hadn't delved into "Vegan Pie in the Sky" yet- I have the other two in the series ("Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" and "Vegan Cookies Invade your Cookie Jar") and they have both been used quite a few times but I am now going to make an effort to make more from this book as I was truly impressed. One thing I would mention which the book doesn't is that when you pour in the mixture it seems really liquidy- I was expecting a more viscous mixture and was worried I had done it wrong. I persevered however and the pie came out beautifully. I served this with some soya cream and every scrap of it was eaten.

Not showing it in it's best light but people were desperate for dessert
so I didn't have time to retake.

I also discovered this non-alcoholic drink made from hops and citrus so it tasted like a citrus beer. I have never been a fan of beer and never had what this drink is meant to replicate so I can't comment on how good an imitation it is but I really enjoyed it and might try an alcoholic version in the future!

 

Loving Hut- Archway

I have been wanting to go to Loving Hut for so long but we don't eat out very often and when we do make plans just involving us we often get too lazy to go. Luckily for me, two really good friends just moved to Archway giving us the perfect excuse to organise a meal out with them.

I checked out the menu before hand and the choice was overwhelming- I hardly ever get to choose from more than one thing on the menu which actually works out well for me as I am terrible at deciding. I still was nowhere near choosing by the time we got there and opening the menu for real put me right back at the start of what to choose. I was very intrigued by the vegan fish and chips but my boyfriend decided on that so in the end I decided on the crispy "duck" and pancakes. We also ordered the sticky "ribs" for starter. My friends had the Pad Thai and a dish that I cannot spell or pronounce but it had noodles, veg and a few types of mock meat in it.

The sticky ribs were remarkably real looking- so much so that it took me a little bit of encouragement to actually put it in my mouth! I have never had ribs before (I was a vegetarian from birth until I decided to become vegan) but the texture seemed like it would be what ribs are like and the sauce was delicious. The other 3 really liked them too (and were also very impressed with the similarities with the real thing).

When my main course arrived I couldn't believe the size of it! I didn't think it looked very much like meat but the others said it did a bit. It came with thin slices of cucumber and spring onion (I think?) and a delicious sauce. I enjoy making up my food at the table (like fajitas etc.) so I can make it exactly how I like it. I was very impressed with this meal but I tend to enjoy more vegetables with my meal (I knew it wasn't veg laden when I ordered it so it is not a complaint about the dish- it was exactly how it was meant to be) so next time I think I will choose a more vegetable dense dish.

My boyfriend's fish and chips were very impressive. There was even a grey "skin" on the fish. We all tried a bit and were surprised at how like fish it was (let me backtrack slightly and say actually I was a pescatarian until I was 10/11). The chips were nice and they had made their mayonnaise in house which was a nice touch and this was also in the coleslaw that came with it. I would say this is perfect for a vegan who misses fish and chips now and again. My boyfriend polished it off rather quickly and also had one of my pancakes.

The other two really enjoyed theirs too. One thing mentioned was that the Pad Thai could have done with a little more spice but when we were talking to the waitress at the end (she was lovely and asked for our feedback on everything) and mentioned this she said that we could have just asked for some more chilli or next time say when we order and they will make it spicier.

We looked at the dessert menu which looked lovely (a cheesecake particularly jumped out at me) but we were defeated by the savoury food.

All in all I was VERY impressed with Loving Hut and will definitely be going again and trying something different. One thing I would mention is that they don't serve alcohol there (obviously not a problem for me in my current state!). They do have some non-alcoholic beer and some Rose Shloer which tastes a little like wine but if you were hoping for some alcohol with your meal then you will be disappointing.

My Crispy Duck and Pancakes

The Vegan Fish and Chips

Spanish Omelette

In our household for dinner we have a fair few regular meals that we do; the type where we don't need recipes and tend to always have the ingredients in the cupboard. In order to bring a little excitement to our meals OH and I decided to try and cook at least one new recipe a week...particularly since I have a collection of about 20 fantastic vegan cookbooks that seem to only get opened to make sweet things or bypassed for a google search for a specific dish. OH has been saying for a while that he would like to cook for a change and not make ratatouille/bolognaise (which are his 2 specialities and the only difference is the veggie mince added for the bolognaise!) so he looked through "Vegan With A Vengeance" and chose Spanish Omelette. We are not massive tofu eaters (I know, I know...a vegan who doesn't eat much tofu!) so  didn't have the ingredients in right away so postponed it for a few days. By this point OH decided maybe I should make it after all! As I love cooking, this was not a bad thing for me but with a newborn on the way cooking duties may change hands..I am anticipating a lot of ratatouille (which I love by the way)!

Anyway back to the omelette. I did make a few changes 1) I used 1tsp Vegg powder and 1/4 cup of water instead of the saffron & soya milk mixture as I had this in and thought it would provide the colour and an egg-like taste 2) I used a firm tofu instead of "soft"- I wan't sure if this meant silken or not in the recipe and there was only one type of tofu in the shop we went to 3) I think I cut up the potatoes smaller than the recipe- not for any reason, just being distracted! 4) I added some dried herbs (de Provence I think) to the mix. Other than this I followed the recipe.

The results were very good. When I had the first taste I was worried that OH wouldn't like it as I could tell it was tofu and if we are having something called omelette I think he wants it to taste like actual omelette. Perhaps it did- it has been so long since I had one I have no idea! But he LOVED it! We ate what was meant for 3-4 people for dinner (the remainder was meant to be for his lunch the next day but he insisted on second helpings). The texture looked and,  from what I remember felt, really like a real Spanish Omelette and OH described it as "really comforting" which I agree with- it makes a good warming comfort food for dinner.

A couple of things I would mention is I would have quite liked a vegetable in it (other than potato & onion)- maybe tomato or peas , so next time (yes we will definitely be making it again) I will try it with these. We ate it with green beans on the side to get some veg in the meal but I like to have more than one portion for my meals plus I think it would add a lovely colour through it. Another thing is that although it is really easy and not labour intensive you do need to plan a bit as it takes about 1hr45 from beginning to end so not the best if you are hungry before you start!

Other than that I would really recommend it. Bound to be a hit all round!!

One note of caution!: Careful of the pan handle after it comes out of the oven! With my baby brain I kept forgetting it had come out of the oven and kept touching the handle..luckily no damage done- I could just imagine myself dropping the whole thing on the floor!