Planet Veggie

Two friends said on Facebook how nice pumpkin soup was and I said if it was anything like butternut squash, then I couldn’t be bothered with trying to peel it and one of them said no, you just cut it in half and scoop the flesh out, so I thought oh, ok then, pumpkin soup this week it is.

Unfortunately, is turned into was, as Tesco had no pumpkins (why didn’t I think of this a week earlier?) and so butternut squash it was.  My original recipe called for buttermilk but I couldn’t find it in Tesco (where would it be?  I looked on the fresh milk aisle, the long life milk aisle and near the cooking ingredients but couldn’t find it) and so as my original recipe called for a pumpkin and buttermilk and I came home with butternut squash and no buttermilk, I thought I’d better find a new recipe.

I found this recipe which is a Gary Rhodes’ recipe and I’ve decided that Gary Rhodes is either a) a spiky-haired tight git; or b) anorexic or c) neither of the above and I’m just a fat pig, as his recipe says that it serves 4 but I had a third extra amount of butternut squash and stock and it only serves three.

Still, even though it didn’t make a huge amount and it was a pain in the you know what peeling that butternut squash, the soup was thick, creamy, velvety smooth, delicious and a gorgeous orange colour.

Hurry up tomorrow lunchtime.

Butternut squash soup
Prep time: 10 mins [I took flipping ages peeling the butternut squash]
Cook time: 40 mins
Serves 4: [more like 3 and that's with my extra butternut squash and stock]

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
675g butternut squash seeds removed and cubed [I used just over 800g I think]
1/2 tsp ground ginger [I used about 3/4 tsp to go with the extra squash and stock]
600ml vegetable stock [I used 900ml, as I didn't use orange juice [see below] and had extra butternut squash]
100ml orange juice [I didn't use this as I'm not a fan of sweet stuff in my food]
salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Add the onions and garlic to the pan and fry until softened, but not coloured.
2. Tip in the butternut squash and add the ginger.  Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
3. Add the stock and orange juice and simmer for about 30 minutes until the squash is tender.
4. Leave the soup to cool slightly, before pureeing with a hand blender until smooth.  Season to taste, reheat if necessary and serve.

Ingredients

As I’ve recently rediscovered crumpets, I thought I’d have a go at making my own as, although they only cost 57p for 8 in Tesco, I don’t like the huge list of ingredients you get on packaged things and after scouring the internet for a crumpet recipe, found out I already had all the ingredients in the cupboard.  Result.  The only thing I didn’t have were rings to cook them in, which was easily resolved by a trip to the local hardware shop.  Although with two rings costing £4.25, I’m going to have to make a lot of crumpets to break even.

So, on with the making of crumpets.

First, I got stuck when I re-read the recipe and it said dried yeast.  Is that the same as fast action yeast?  I tried Twittering but got no reply so re-scoured the internet for another crumpet recipe using fast-action yeast but they all looked a bit of a faff, so I decided to risk it and use fast action yeast in the recipe I’d already found.

Ingredients (makes 6 – I halved the original recipe)

4 oz strong plain flour [the other recipes said plain flour so I got confused again but I used strong white flour, the type you use for making bread].

1/2 level teaspoon salt

1/2 level tablespoon dried yeast [I used fast action yeast]

1/2 teaspoon caster sugar

1/4 pint milk [I would have used soya milk to make them vegan but didn’t want to open a new litre carton just to use a tiny bit of it so used the moo juice that was in the fridge]

1 fl oz water

Equipment
Cooking rings [I bought the kind used for making poached eggs]
Frying pan

Preparation

Heat the milk and water together in a small saucepan till they are ‘hand hot’.  Then pour into a jug, stir in the sugar and dried yeast and leave it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes till there is a good frothy head on it [it’s November and therefore not very warm but it did go frothy].

Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.  When the yeast mixture is frothy, pour it all into the mixing bowl.

Slowly work the flour into the liquid with a wooden spoon.  Beat well at the end to make a perfectly smooth batter.

Cover the mixing bowl with a tea-towel and leave to stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes – by which time the batter will have become light and frothy [once again, I had trouble finding somewhere warm and I don’t know about light and frothy, but it did change appearance].

When you’re ready to cook, grease the insides of the cooking rings very well and add a little oil to your frying pan before placing it over a medium heat.

When the pan is hot, arrange the rings in the frying pan and spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter into each ring [1 tablespoon is nowhere near enough.  I used about 3 or 4].

Let them cook for 4 or 5 minutes: first tiny bubbles will appear on the surface and then, suddenly, they will burst, leaving the traditional holes.

Now take a large spoon and fork, lift off the rings and turn the crumpets over.  Cook on the second side for about 1 minute only.  Re-grease and reheat the rings before cooking the next batch [I used a bit of tea-towel to lift the rings off, they slid off easily.  I didn’t re-grease the rings as the first two crumpets I cooked were quite greasy.  The crumpets were quite brown underneath; I don’t know if I cooked them for too long?]

I ate one as soon as it had been cooked and while the taste and texture were pretty much identical to shop-bought ones, they were a bit greasy and really not worth all that time, effort and mess to make, so Tesco will be pleased to know its profits won’t be dwindling by 57p a week after all.

I love mushrooms.  They taste nice, they go well on things, in things, they’re inexpensive and contain only 13 calories per 100g.  And today’s soup must be one of the easiest soups in the world ever.

Ingredients (serves 5)

Big bag of mushrooms
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2,500ml vegetable stock
Mushroom ketchup
Dried thyme
Salt and pepper

1. Chop up the onion.
2. Cook the onion in some stock while you’re chopping up the mushrooms.
3. Add the mushrooms and the rest of the stock to the onion.
4. Add the garlic, mushroom ketchup and dried thyme.
5. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
6. Add the salt and pepper and blend it a bit.

A nice, chunky, warming dish made with potato, beans and pasta for these cold evenings from Good Housekeeping Step by Step Vegetarian Cookbook. It came out thicker than I expected, as in the colour index it says it’s somewhere between a stew and a hearty soup which I suppose it is, but you only need a fork to eat it, not a spoon.

Pasta e fagioli (vegan if the cheese is omitted)
Serves 6

1 onion
1 leek
1 carrot
1 large potato
2 celery sticks
60ml (4 tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
10ml (2 tsp) chopped fresh thyme
5ml (1 tsp) finely chopped fresh rosemary
500g (1 lb 2 oz) carton passata
600ml (1 pint) vegetable stock
225g (8oz) small conchiglie or ditali pasta
two 400g (14oz) cans borlotti beans, drained
60ml (4 tbsp) chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper

TO SERVE

75g (3 oz) Parmesan-style cheese, freshly grated
a little extra-virgin olive oil

1. Peel and chop the onion; slice the leek; peel and dice the carrot and potato; dice the celery.
2. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, add the onion, leek, carrot, potato, celery, garlic and herbs and fry gently for 10 minutes until softened slightly, stirring occasionally to prevent them from sticking.
3. Add the passata and stock.  Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile add the pasta to a large pan of lightly salted boiling water and cook for 5-6 minutes until al dente (tender but firm to the bite).  Drain and immediately refresh under cold water.  Drain well and toss with a little olive oil.
5. Add the beans to the stew.  cover and cook for a further 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  Stir in the pasta and basil, heat through and season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Spoon into warmed bowls and sprinkle generously with Parmesan-style cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil to serve.

I asked The Meat Eater to get me some potatoes from the supermarket.   I didn’t write down exactly the type of potato I wanted as I just wanted one large-ish potato and wasn’t really bothered which type and the only type I didn’t want and didn’t expect him to buy was new potatoes. 

So he came back with new potatoes.  Sigh.  He asked what I was making and I said potato cakes with mushrooms and he said can’t he just have potatoes and mushrooms? and so I said no.

Still, we had some old-ish potatoes in the cupboard, so I cut off the sprouty bits and used them instead.

The recipe says it makes a substantial main course.  Which is rubbish.  I made it more substantial by serving it with sausages and something else now that I can’t remember.

Oven-baked potato cakes with mushrooms and thyme (taken from Leith’s Vegetarian Bible)
Serves 4

Oil, for brushing
450g/1lb floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper
55g/2oz butter
1 egg yolk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Freshly grated nutmeg
Plain flour, for shaping
Chopped fresh flat-leafed parsley, to garnish

For the filling
450g/1lb mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
30g/1oz butter
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
Lemon juice
1 tablespoon dry sherry

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.  Brush a baking tray with oil.
2. Peel and quarter the potatoes and cook them in boiling salted water until tender.
3. Drain the potatoes and return to the pan.  Mash over a low heat.  Remove from the heat and add the butter and egg yolk.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and beat well.
4. Divide the mixture into 8.  With floured hands shape into flat cakes about 10cm/4in in diameter.  Place on the baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Turn, using a fish slicer, and bake for a further 15 minutes.
5. About 10 minutes before the potato cakes are ready, make the filling:  Cut the mushrooms into chunky pieces.  Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan.  Add the butter and when foaming, briskly fry the mushrooms until tender.  Add the garlic, thyme and lemon juice to taste and season with salt and pepper.  Fry for a further 2 minutes.  Add the sherry and bring to the boil, scraping any sediment from the base of the pan.
6. Lift 4 of the potato cakes on to 4 individual plates.  Divide the filling between them and top with a second potato cake.  Sprinkle with the parsley.

I got an email from Graze telling me that they are no longer charging 50p extra if you want olives in your delivery.  HURRAH!  I love olives, so this is very good news to me.  And I even got olives in my first delivery after the no charge thing came into effect.

Yah.

And along with the pitted kalamata olives with herbs, came roasted pistachios, naturally infused pineapple raisins and some white chocolate coated peanuts (that lasted approximately 30 seconds after the photo was taken).

If you’d like to try Graze, you can get your first box free and the second box half price by going to www.graze.com and entering the code HQTGF3G

The Meat Eater made dinner tonight, as he’s in charge of cooking at the weekend (which actually means he only has to cook once as we usually go out Saturday nights) and he actually managed to make the dough in the bread machine all by himself instead of asking me if he was reading the instructions correctly like he usually does.

Toppings of choice this time were mushrooms, home grown tomatoes, home grown chili, onion, jalapenos, olives, spinach, cheddar and mozzarella.

I asked him if he would make me pizza every day, but he said no.

Bah.

Pre-oven pizza:

Post-oven pizza:

It’s a BBC Good Food week this week and tonight’s recipe says it’s a midweek curry treat but that was purely coincidental as I only decided to make this tonight to use up the egg in the fridge that was one day out of date.

I did wonder if it was going to be too hot for The Meat Eater but he said it was bordering on perfection.  As it has coconut milk in it, it was hot and creamy but not too spicy.   

Nice.

I don’t know who got the bad egg though.

Here’s the link to the recipe (and where you can see a better photo than mine).

I made the quantity for 4 as it states (and unlike some recipes it really does feed four), but as I was freezing two portions, only used three eggs not six, as frozen hard-boiled eggs defrost really rubbery and are rubbish.

Another one from my new favourite site – BBC Good Food – and tonight’s recipe didn’t disappoint, especially as it had the addition of a home grown aubergine fresh from the greenhouse (only one grew unfortunately but I’m going down the quality over quantity route).

I especially like this recipe as it’s a proper vegetarian recipe and lists parmesan-style cheese in the ingredients (and you know how much I hate recipes that say they’re vegetarian and then have parmesan in the ingredients).

I won’t list all the ingredients here as you can look at it on the BBC Good Food website and print it off properly or store it in a binder and stuff, but I will post you a pretty picture (they have a pretty picture too and looking at it now is reminding me I forgot to add the basil.  Oops.)

Tomato & chickpea bake

Another BBC Good Food recipe.  The Meat Eater said, after two forkfuls, that if I made this for him every night, he’d marry me.  I’m not sure if that’s reward or punishment? Hmm.

Green garden veg pie 
Easy
Serves 4
Prep 15 mins
Cook 35 mins

Ingredients
50g butter
2 tsp mustard powder
600ml milk
200g mature cheddar, grated
2 large potatoes, sliced into rounds
1 head broccoli, cut into little florets
200g frozen peas
small bunch chives, snipped
50g flour
1 head cauliflower, cut into little florets

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the flour and mustard powder and cook for 1 min.  Gradually stir in the milk until smooth with no lumps, then keep stirring until the mixture begins to bubble and thickens to a creamy sauce.  Remove from the heat, then stir in all but a handful of the grated cheese.
2. Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 and bring a large pan of water to the boil.  Cook the potato slices for 5 mins, tip in the broccoli and cauliflower for another 3 mins, then finally add the peas for 1 more min.  Drain all the veg and pat dry.  Reserve enough potato slices to cover the top of the finished dish, then gently stir the rest of the vegetables into the sauce with the chives.
3. Tip into a deep ovenproof dish, arrange over the reserved potato slices, then sprinkle with remaining cheddar.  Bake for 20-25 mins until the topping is golden and crisp, the serve straight from the dish.

Cooking notes
I used soya milk, didn’t have a pan as big as a house so cooked the potatoes separate from the broccoli/cauliflower/peas and didn’t bother to pat them dry.