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fancy that! March 10, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : pasta , 2comments

you guys, i love when other people are willing to have phil and i round for dinner. it is NOT an easy task, and i am thoroughly impressed when folks insist on making the effort to prepare a, let’s face it, pretty weird meal that we can all enjoy. of course, i love to cook. but sometimes it’s nice to let someone else do it for you – or collaborate on something!

phil’s brother will and his fiancee josie had us over on sunday – we discussed the menu ahead of time, and it looked amazing. a spinach and goat’s cheese lasagne with a vegan bechamel sauce. bechamel! so fancy! we all pitched in together to make this meal – it was a collaborative effort. and i have to say, i think the final product was lovely! it’s been so long since i’ve had a pasta dish that didn’t have a tomato-based sauce – was really nice to try a white sauce for a change. and the combination of spinach / goat’s cheese / nutmeg was YUM. and look how pretty it is with a sprinkling of kale chips on top for decoration! adorable!

spinach & goat’s cheese lasagne

serves 4

the particulars:

  1. preheat the oven to 350F / gas mark 4.
  2. heat the oil in a pan, peel and chop onion, then saute for 10 minutes. leave to cool.
  3. meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling salt water and strain. cook spinach in same salt water used for pasta. strain, then add to onions, stirring constantly. season.
  4. make the vegan bechamel sauce: heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. add the flour, stir it in quickly with a wooden spoon, and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously, without coloring. remove from the heat, add a little of the milk, whisk it in to form a smooth mixture, then add the rest of the milk over medium heat, a little at a time, whisking well between each addition. bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring continuously, until thickened to a velvety consistency. remove from the heat, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and use while still warm.
  5. thinly slice goat’s cheese, take an oven dish and layer lasagne, spinach and onions, goat’s cheese, then bechamel until you have used all ingredients. finish with a layer of goat’s cheese.
  6. cook in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the top layer is lightly browned and bubbly.

lesson learned: lasagne sheets are tricky guys. they like to stick together and cause a fuss. but gosh they are tasty!

yet another salmon dish March 9, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : fish , 3comments

if you took a look at my recipes page, you’d see that salmon is a pretty common part of my diet. and there are so many ways to prepare it. granted, a simply grilled piece of fish works when you’ve got a really fresh fillet. but even our local farmer’s market fish stand doesn’t have the best salmon ever. in fact, i should have paid more attention on saturday, because one of the fillets i picked up had tons of fat on it. gross. but that’s not to say that you should smother fish in sauce and mask it completely – something to complement the textures is best.

so many salmon recipes go the asian route and involve soy sauce, ginger, lemongrass…. etc etc etc. this recipe goes in that direction, without the soy of course, but gives it this sweet crunchy coating (provided you baste often while it’s grilling) and wonderful spices. because the sauce is so delightful, this salmon is better with some simple sides – we had steamed broc with lemon and brown rice. perfect!

spicy coconut salmon

based on the waitrose recipe – serves 2

the particulars:

  1. for the spice rub, mix together all the ingredients except the fish, coconut milk and oil.
  2. in a small bowl, stir together the coconut milk and the spice rub. brush the fish with the mixture, reserving the remainder for serving.
  3. preheat a chargrill pan or frying pan; melt the coconut oil. add the fillets; cook for 2 minutes on each side for medium, or until cooked to your liking. once they are cooked, brush a little more coconut milk mixture onto the freshly grilled surfaces. serve at once (with the sauce for dipping).

lesson learned: i heart spicy-sweet things. add much more cayenne if you prefer it spicier.

to blend or not to blend? March 8, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : soup , 1 comment so far

good morning world! what a wonderful and relaxing weekend this has been. i hope everyone feels ready for spring – i know i do – i’m sick of the freeze.

yesterday, phil and i were treated to a lovely lunch (which i will be blogging about later) – with the raw brownie for dessert. YUM, by the way.

so for dinner, we wanted something pretty light. however, we have a difference of opinion when it comes to soup. phil prefers his blended – i prefer mine in it’s natural form. i like to be able to see and taste the individual parts of the soup. phil would rather have the smooth consistency. so we compromised – i scooped out a bowl full of soup before he obliterated his with the immersion blender. perfect!

he also had his soup with some cheesy mustard-y toast. to all of you lucky ducks who can tolerate dairy and gluten, i highly suggest having this with your soup. i know phil is enjoying his meal because he goes extremely quiet and gobbles everything up in record time. consider this meal a win.

tomato and cannellini bean soup

serves 4 – first photo is my unblended version, second photo is phil’s blended version with cheesy toast

the particulars:

  1. heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion. let it cook for 5 minutes or so before adding the garlic and fennel. fry for a few minutes before, then add the tomato paste. stir to coat everything. cook for 5 minutes.
  2. add the plum tomatoes and vegetable stock. bring to a simmer, then turn down and cook for 15 minutes or more.
  3. add the beans and simmer for 5 minutes. season and serve with a dollop of pesto on top (if you want…)
  4. blend. or don’t.

lesson learned: this is a brilliant take on traditional tomato soup. the fennel and beans bring another dimension to the flavors. if you choose not to blend, it may be better to use something other than plum tomatoes from a can, as these are pretty large and retain their heat (i.e. burnt tongues).

raw-ish brownies March 6, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : desserts , 5comments

ever since i attended that vegan food workshop back in january, i’ve been dying to recreate the raw carob brownies that chooi-leng made. granted, they are not entirely raw (the topping is made from melted chocolate) but there is absolutely no baking required, and most important of all – no eggs, no gluten, no dairy, and definitely no soy! i’d say this is a winner.

i am bringing these “brownies” to a friend’s house for a late lunch tomorrow – so i decided to make them today and stick them in the fridge, giving them enough time to “set” and harden up a bit. i remember at the workshop the brownies had less than an hour in the fridge before we were all leaving, so i had the gooiest meltiest brownie in my hands – still delicious, but would have been awesome if it was all in one nice solid package.

the way i made them was a bit of an experiment, and a little bit different to the brownies we made back in january. first of all, there is no carob here – i used cocoa powder in the main brownie “batter”. i also got a bit overzealous with the moistness of the batter and added a splash of rice milk – highly unnecessary, as this made it impossibly sticky. so i’m only including the recipe for what i think it should be (rather than what i used today) – plus my photos of just the batter, and then with the melted chocolate on top (before putting in the fridge to cool and set).

this is a delicious and decadent dessert without the guilt – it’s pretty harmless, except maybe for the chocolate part :)

no-bake brownies

yields a 15 x 20 cm tray full (the only ruler in this house is metric, i wonder why…)

the particulars:

  1. blend the cashews in a food processor, then add the chopped dates and cocoa powder. blend until fully mixed.
  2. melt the chocolate bits in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. add the hemp (or other non-dairy) milk and the agave nectar to the melted chocolate and stir until fully combined.
  3. scoop the cashew blend out of the food processor and press into a tupperware or glass container. pour the melted chocolate sauce on top. leave to cool – put in the fridge once mostly cooled and leave until ready to serve.

lesson learned: i’ve seen lots of raw and vegan brownie recipes around the web, and most involve walnuts or pecans instead of cashews. this would make for a nuttier brownie – so give it a go if you don’t really want a smooth or cashew-flavored variety.

viva vegan March 5, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : mexican , 2comments

i love it when a meal is accidentally vegan and allergy-friendly. it’s like a little bonus, the icing to my egg-free cake. aw.

it’s no secret by now that i miss being in close proximity to hundreds of mexican restaurants – but with a little stocking up on some key ingredients at whole foods, it’s quite simple to make your own little vegan mexican meal at home (if you’re in london, that is).

the first key ingredient is refried beans (preferably black beans for a healthier touch). this is something you could attempt to make yourself, but i’ve tried and it wasn’t pretty. it’s not as simple as cooking your own beans and then mashing them up. this is an acquired skill that is best left to the professionals. buy a can.

the second key ingredient is a ripe avocado. you could go for the whole shebang and make a dish of guacamole with all of the usual bits and pieces, or you could do what i did last night and just mash up an avocado with some lime juice and coriander leaves and call it a day. this is a nice way of cooling down a spicy dish. did i mention it is also vegan AND raw?

the third key ingredient is tortillas. are? is? oh well. since wraps are the next best thing, that’s what we went with. some nice soft whole wheat tortilla wraps, big enough to fit lots of black beans and veggies. it’s a favorite dinner of ours – a kind of mini buffet, as you can see in the photo. and best of all, it’s ready in minutes.

vegan fajitas

these quantities make enough stuff for 6 wraps

the particulars:

  1. heat up some oil in a wok or large frying pan and start cooking the onion. once translucent, add the garlic and red chili, stirring occasionally. add in the cumin and paprika, salt and pepper, and continue to cook. add the yellow pepper and mushrooms and stir-fry – keep it on a high heat, let it sizzle.
  2. meanwhile, heat up the black beans in a small saucepan. stir occasionally.
  3. combine the mashed up avocado, lime juice, and coriander leaves in a small bowl
  4. heat up the tortillas in a microwave – about 1 minute.
  5. once the veggies, tortillas, and beans are all done, serve everything immediately.
  6. for one serving: take a tortilla, smear on a layer of black beans, followed by avocado, spoon in some veggies, and top with salsa if you want. roll up and chow down.

lesson learned: there’s nothing fancy or refined about this meal. just hearty and tasty ingredients for an evening when only quick and easy will do.

more freefrom fun March 4, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : pasta , 1 comment so far

it was a very weddingy day yesterday. i met up with naomi to discuss a cake – i’m soooo excited to see what she comes up with. she’s such a talented vegan baker! then my maid of honor and i went to look at a venue (it wasn’t right) and spent the rest of the evening looking at wedding magazines, reading wedding planning books, and putting together a big scrapbook that my mom sent to me yesterday. it’s extremely girly and fun. i’m not gonna lie about it.

but after all the giggles and scrapbooking, dinner had to be fit in somewhere. i wanted to try a new recipe involving spaghetti and crab with fennel, but ended up putting something a bit random together. the main excitement of the dish is the new sainsbury’s freefrom spaghetti, made from corn and rice so it’s 100% gluten-free. and once cooked, it doesn’t fall to pieces or go too sticky like other gluten-free pastas can. i mainly followed a recipe i’d used before – spicy crab, chili, and lemon pasta – but with a few tweaks. i didn’t buy a whole crab – just a little pot of crab meat from the store. it was plenty for the two of us!

for the recipe, click here

what i changed:

sweet and gluten-free March 3, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : desserts , add a comment

last night, our lovely neighbors cooked us an amazing dinner – salmon fishcakes, and they were so delicious! i need to get that recipe :) they were so sweet to make us a meal, especially with all of my dietary restrictions. they used goat’s cream instead of regular for the sauce – and i’m so glad they did, because it was absolutely beautiful. i’ve gotten so used to having things without cream-based sauces that i had forgotten how yummy they are!

as a thank you for preparing such a great dinner, i made my standard dessert for us all to enjoy. this has become my go-to pudding to prepare for a small group. it’s great to get a recipe that never fails – but it’s equally great to find small tweaks every now and then to make it even better.

turns out, however, that i was calling it by the wrong name. my easy apple cobbler should really be called easy apple crisp. so that is its new name. tweak number one: new name. tweak number two: using pink lady apples. this isn’t a massive difference, but i just LOVE the flavor that pink ladies bring to a baked apple dish. they somehow maintain some of their crunch, even when blasted in a hot oven for the better part of an hour. tweak number three: using a gluten-free granola for the topping. thanks to sainsbury’s for this one! one of my take-home goodies from the dinner party was a box of freefrom sunflower seed & hazelnut granola, which i knew would be perfect for this dessert. it contains some wonderful and healthy ingredients, too – buckwheat flakes, sunflower seeds, hazelnut nibs, golden linseed, flaked almonds, etc etc. so now we have a pretty healthy dessert on our hands! if you’re based in the uk, i highly recommend picking up a box of this stuff.

easy apple crisp

serves about 6.

the particulars:

  1. preheat the oven to 350F/gas mark 4.
  2. mix together the maple syrup, lemon juice, and cinnamon in a bowl. pour into a metal or glass baking dish. as you chop up the apple pieces, add them to the dish, spooning the mixture on top of the apples as you go.
  3. bake for 45 minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling.
  4. take out of the oven and sprinkle the granola on top. return to the oven for 5 minutes, or until slightly browned on top.
  5. pour out excess liquid (if needed), serve hot. (with ice cream too!)

lesson learned: can’t wait to make this all summer long with different fruit – i’ve made this before with pears, nectarines, and plums. all good stuff.

attention to allergies March 2, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : about the kitchen , 3comments

unfortunately, i don’t have a recipe to share with you today. it’s been a pretty hectic week already (and it’s only tuesday – how did that happen?) but i promise i’ll be back with a great recipe tomorrow, using one of the new sainsbury’s freefrom products that i was given at last week’s party!

in the meantime, i wanted to point out all of the great attention that food allergies have been getting lately from national and international press. i was delighted to be invited and attend the sainsbury’s party last week – a great step in the right direction – but i’m also loving all of the press over in the states around cybele pascal and her allergen-free baker’s handbook. i mentioned her recently when i baked (with success!) cybele’s vanilla cupcakes and raved about it.

being an awesome person, cybele actually emailed me a few days ago to say thanks – how cool is that? she mentioned her upcoming appearance on the martha stewart show. unfortunately, i couldn’t tune in yesterday to watch it – she made allergen-free crumb cake. looks amazing. i had my mom over in san diego record it for me so i can watch it when i visit in april! :)

but i have been doing a little googling and youtubing, and it seems that cybele has made tons of tv appearances – including a previous martha episode. love it! check these out!

p.s. if there are any other rent nerds out there, cybele is married to adam pascal, the original roger on broadway (and roger from the movie version)! lol i know my friend lucy will surely appreciate this :)

out with the old March 1, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : burgers , add a comment

how on earth did people plan a wedding / research vacation spots / search for a new apartment before the internet? there is TOO much information – it’s positively mind-boggling. but at the same time, SO FUN. although i tend to get carried away, as i’m sure it’s quite easy for many of us to do.

so, my recipe collecting is definitely going on the back burner. you may see a few repeats over the next…. year or so. but that just means i’ll be perfecting a new “classic”, right? right.

i did manage to put together a new dish last night for dinner – one that almost worked. vegetarian burgers are really difficult to make yourself, and near impossible to make perfectly. these ones were certainly tasty, they just lacked the right burger quality – as in, you definitely couldn’t eat them in normal burger fashion. it was more of a fork and knife event. regardless, a nice basis for something that could be great.

spiced red bean and bulgar burgers

adapted from a bbc good food recipe – makes 4 burgers

the particulars:

  1. simmer the bulgar wheat/couscous/quinoa in boiling water for 5 minutes. drain really well, put back in the pan and put on a lid to steam and dry out for a few more minutes. cool completely. cook the onion in a tiny bit of olive oil in a small pan until golden, add the garlic and spices and cook for a few minutes. cool. roughly mash the kidney beans with the back of a fork so you still have some large bits of bean. mix in the cooled onion, bulgar and breadcrumbs, then season and form into 4 burgers. chill for 30 minutes, or until you want to cook them.
  2. to cook, heat a non-stick pan with a little oil. cook for 5-6 minutes on each side until golden and crisp, pushing against the edge of the pan to brown the edges.
  3. serve in rolls with lettuce and tomatoes and a dollop of sweet chilli sauce.

lesson learned: these burgers need a binding agent, as they crumble while they cook. at the very least, they need some water or oil to soften all of the dry ingredients (specifically the breadcrumbs). be warned!

banana bread part three February 28, 2010

Posted by particularmolly in : desserts , 1 comment so far

you guys know my love of banana bread. i make it quite often, it seems! check out my previous bundles of joy here and here. both of those recipes were vegan and came from books that already included ways of making it without eggs and dairy. but this weekend, i thought i’d try my hand at following a recipe that wasn’t originally vegan and mix things up a little bit. the result was the richest, butteriest, loveliest banana bread i’ve found yet. there are a couple of little tweaks i’d like to try, but overall it is brilliant. and it comes as no surprise that the man behind the recipe is mark bittman. of course!

so without further ado, i present to you a heavenly banana bread recipe with some exciting twists…

banana coconut bread

based on the recipe from how to cook everything vegetarian

the particulars:

  1. preheat the oven to 350F / gas mark 5. grease a loaf pan using a paper towel and some vegan margarine.
  2. mix together the dry ingredients. cream the margarine and beat in the eggs (or egg replacement mixture), bananas, and agave nectar (if you’re using sugar, mix it into the flour). stir this mixture into the dry ingredients; do not mix more than necessary. gently stir in the vanilla and coconut (and any other optional extra ingredients, if using).
  3. pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until nicely browned. a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread will come out fairly clean, but banana bread is excessively moist compared to other breads. do not overcook. cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

lesson learned: for the monkey in all of us, this is a lovely flavoursome treat that isn’t tooooo indulgent – i wish i had super ripe bananas on hand at all times.