Sunday 28 April 2013

Peanut butter, banana and chocolate chip cookies.

Hello, hello.
Sorry it's a late one today. Also I promise I will try to post things other than recipes soon. There is more to veganism than just food and this isn't just a food blog (...is what I tell myself.)

Anyway, I made some really great cookies yesterday. Remember when I was going to make cookies for my new housemates in third year at uni? Well I've finally made cookies for my housemates... One and a half years later. This is another recipe from allrecipes.co.uk - The ingredients will all be knocking around the kitchen so it's another (almost) no-effort yum fest!

I use dark chocolate from aldi and cut it up into small chunks. The 200g bar is vegan but the 100g bar is not... wierd. Anyway it works really well and I think it actually tastes better once it's been in the oven. These will still be tasty without the chocolate too.

Another sweet treat this week was a tub of ice cream from BohoGelato. It was reminiscent of ben and jerry's with little chunks of moreish dough but the ice cream itself was verging on sorbet and at £2.50 a pop I probably won't be having too many more!
Should perhaps have included a coin for scale!
FYI It was the size you would usually get at the theatre.
Adieu x



Monday 22 April 2013

Fennel?!

A super quick post this week. What with being the birthday girl AND having just moved house it's all rather hectic.

After doing a little exploring on Saturday morning I came across a great little fruit and veg shop at my local market (Brighton Open Market). Feeling brave I bought myself some fennel and set about experimenting. I'd actually only had fennel once before and wasn't impressed so this was it's last chance!

I used this recipe after a quick search and was sooooo impressed! There were points during the cooking process when I thought we were doomed but it all came together into a really wholesome dish. I served mine with seeded toast but this is a whole meal in itself really. Half of the stated ingredients served two of us with a tiny potion left for my friend to try (and love!) .

That's all I've got time for tonight - Lots more to tell about all the places I've been eating out recently but that will have to wait till next time. Till Sunday x

Sunday 14 April 2013

Polenta.

This week I had lunch at The Gladstone, Brighton. Only one vegan option but a tasty one at that! Veggie sausages (the vegetable kind, not the fake meat kind) with polenta mash and an average vegetarian gravy. This was my first taste of polenta and I was impressed, the texture made for a more interesting mash and the seasoning was spot on.

I stumbled upon this recipe on - by now you know it's my favourite food blog - Chocolate-Covered Katie (She does savoury food too, who knew?!) and decided I should give polenta a shot in my cooking.

I changed the recipe to be one big pie rather than single serve and bought ready made polenta from Sainsbury's - way less aesthetically pleasing! I also used a tin of mixed beans in chilli sauce rather than pinto beans. I cooked up a few matchstick fries which added a nice crunchy texture on the plate. Overall though, I don't think the polenta added anything to the dish, perhaps I did something wrong (sliced and laid on the pie, how wrong can that be?) but the chilli filling was great and would perhaps have worked well with rice or nachos. If anybody has any polenta related stories, success or otherwise, I'd love to hear. Or if you want to tell me how much you love my blog or that it's super boring you can do so now - ANONYMOUSLY! The comment box is working yipee.
Warning: Moving to a new kitchen (and house) next weekend so my next post could be early - or, more likely - late.

Sunday 7 April 2013

Tofu - Sweet&Savoury

I haven't experimented with tofu as much as I'd have liked to - mainly because I always run out of patience trying to find it in Sainsbury's and they don't stock it in my beloved ALDI. Luckily Mum bought me some tofu last week whilst I was home which I ended up using in a mid week lunchtime stir fry. At some point I'll write a blog highlighting how to make it yummy and not just solidified yoghurt (when i've done a little more research) but for now feast your eyes on this awesome pie by chocolate covered Katie. I made this for a certain person's birthday a few years a go and it disappeared in the blink of an eye, luckily I still got to lick the bowl so I can vouch for it being super rich and delicious.
vegan chocolate cream pie
Chocolate Fudge Pie

Stir fry is a great transition dish to showcase how similar dishes can taste/smell/feel once veganised, my basic process for stir fry is below but really it can be however any other recipe advises sans the meat and ensuring egg free noodles are used. Another plus, not much washing up!
I always start with roughly 1 tbsp each of sunflower oil, white wine vinegar, sesame oil and 2 tbsp soy sauce. After I've drained and pressed the tofu to make it firmer, I cut thin slices and fry until well browned (got to be patient here, takes longer than you want it to!) I remove the tofu from the pan for the rest of the stir fry preparation as it's kind of a wimp if you go near it with a spatula too many times.
The rest of the ingredients include some of the following depending on my mood/whats in the fridge:
thinly sliced carrot
thinly sliced celery
mushrooms
mange tout
baby corn
Once everything is nearly cooked to my desired level I add noodles, these ones from ALDI are cheap and easy and they've started doing wholegrain which are even tastier.

Then once the noodles have warmed through I add the tofu carefully and usually add a little more soy sauce. Et voila!
P.S. For my loyal readers, I'm working on making the comment box work - I'd love to hear your thoughts!