Pickled Onions Tasting: Technique of the Week!

Garlic Pickled Onions
It’s been over 1 month since I last posted about how I was going to make my own pickled onions and the results were really quite unusual. I first tested my garlic flavoured pickled onions, the first thing I noticed was that the garlic had turned blue! I did a bit of research online to see if this meant they had gone off or become harmful and apparently according to “Lifestyleblock” it can happen because the copper content of the pan you use to heat the vinegar reacts with the garlic, or according to “Sally Strove” it can be a number of factors including temperature but it should still be fine to eat!

I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to try it but I ate half of one and it just tasted like vinegary garlic…hmm!

I didn’t like the flavours of the pickled onions either they were sharp with no balance of sweetness, I think I must have gone wrong with this batch somewhere. I feel a bit disappointed because I spent a month waiting with excitement to dig in to my home-made pickled onions!

Black Pepper Pickled Onions

These were a different story altogether! They tasted nothing like black pepper, not even a slight kick, which is a shame. But they didn’t turn blue! and they didn’t have such an unpleasant vinegar taste when I tried them.

I think they probably could have done with a little longer in the pickling liquid as they could have been softer but over all they had a nice balance of flavour and they were more enjoyable to eat. I used the same liquid for both jars so I can only assume that the black pepper that I added to this jar helped with the flavour balance.

I think over all I won’t bother pickling my own onions again, at least not for a while! Once the memory of the blue vinegar garlic has left my mind I may decide it’s something I really need to learn to perfect instead of just give up on.

I may try pickling other items instead of onion, I’d LOVE to try Kimchi which is a different technique altogether really. I’d also like to try gherkins. But alas….I think my pickling days are over for a while.

Have you successfully pickled onions? What tips do you have for a down hearted pickling amateur like myself?

Curry Leaf Powder: Friday Challenge!

A couple of weeks ago I used curry leaves in a plantain and Mango curry. The leaves were used to flavour the sauce but were then removed before eating because they are quite tough yet full of flavour. I always think it’s a shame to throw anything away even if it has been used in some way, so I did a little research into curry leaves and I discovered that they are actually very good for you.

“Curry leaves contain iron, fiber and vitamins, including vitamin A and vitamin B. Curry leaves are extremely high in antioxidants, plant sterols, amino acids, glycosides, proteins and flavanoids” (source: Live Strong)

Curry leaf powder has many medicinal properties including -

• A good remedy for nausea and indigestion. Extract juice of curry leaves, squeeze a lime and add a pinch of sugar.

• Chew a few leaves every day to lose weight

• Curry leaves are also known to improve eyesight, so make sure you do not throw away the leaves while eating. It is also believed to prevent cataract.

• Curry leaves are also good for hair growth and colour. If you don’t like its raw taste, you can buy the curry leaf powder widely available in the market and have it with dosa or hot rice. You can also make it at home. This will prevent pre mature greying of hair.

•   Alternatively, you can also add a few curry leaves to your hair oil and boil it for a few minutes. Applying this hair tonic will keep your hair healthy.

(Source: The Times of India)

So I wondered what was the best way to consume the leaf to get maximum benefit. A lot of the sources talk about curry leaf essence but I also found out that you can turn curry leaves into a powder and stir them into rice or use the powder to flavour fish and meats. Perfect! A very traditional recipe is mixed with dry roasted Channa dal like in this recipe by ‘Umas Kitchen Experiments‘ but I like to keep things simple so I have just made a very basic curry leaf powder.

I will be using this powder in my Spices challenge own recipe which hopefully I will post this weekend! It needs a second test run

 

Curry Leaves pre roasting

For this I used 1 bag of curry leaves which was approx 1 and a half cups or a very large handful. First wash and dry the leaves and then spread the curry leaves out onto a baking tray and pre heat the oven to around 180c.

Dry roast in the oven for around 8 – 10 minutes, keep an eye on them because they go from perfect to burnt VERY quickly! Once roasted (they will go crispy and a brown colour) then leave to cool.

In a blender add the dried curry leaves, 2 red chillies, garlic powder and blitz untill it is a fine powder.

Do not make the mistake I did and open the lid of the blender, stick your nose in and sniff hard! I was uncontrollably sneezing and coughing for around 10 minutes this is seriously potent stuff!! I stupidly decided to give it another sniff before cooking with it a few days later and again I was sneezing for ages (around 12 sneezes!). so I say cook with it but yeah dont stick your face in it!

A Rather Grown-up Chocolate Rice Krispie Cake

I know what you were instantly thinking…ooh alcoholic! But unfortunately no I have not made alcoholic krispie cakes, although if you were to soak the dried fruit in a liquor of your choice first I wouldn’t tell any one!As long as I can have one too

I decided I needed a sweet fix which wouldn’t be too unhealthy and without the need to actually bake anything and I instantly thought back to the easiest cake in the world to make (which was also the most fun when we were younger) ……rice krispies cakes. These are simply made by pouring rice krispies into a large bowl, melting chocolate in a seperate bowl and then mixing them together. Place scoops of chocolatey rice krispie mixture into muffin cases and set in the fridge. You could add all sorts such as marshmallows and smarties but for us adults I thought why not add some dried fruits and “Superfoods”…

I had recently invested in some amazing varieties of Linwoods ‘Superfoods’ which includes sachets of organic milled flaxseed, shelled hemp, milled flaxseed mixed with nuts, milled flax with seeds and goji berries and finally milled flaxseeds with cocoa berries.

I have also tried stirring these into my porridge but I think this (covered in chocolate) is my favourite way of eating them. These have been great for me because it’s not something I would add to every meal but the mini sachets at a reasonable price has meant I have been able to experiment without buying a big bag of one flavour.

We also had quite a bit of dried fruit left over from our wedding (we had tiers of wheels of cheese with cake stands next to it filled with dried fruits and grapes) so I had been thinking of a way of using these up too. There isn’t a strict recipe for these cakes as I have changed it everytime I make them so I’m just going to give you a few suggestions of the combinations we have enjoyed. Choose a couple of ingredients from each category and have fun!

Cereals:
Rice Krispies
Branflakes
Cornflakes
Granola
Oats

Dried Fruits: Chop into small pieces
Dried Cranberries (craisins)
Raisins
Dried Figs
Prunes
Dried Apricots

Mixed Nuts: Chop into small pieces
Brazil nuts
Almonds
Macademias

Superfoods:
Milled Organic Flaxseed
Shelled Hemp
Milled Flaxseed, Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Walnuts
Milled Flax, Sunflower, Pumpkin and Sesame Seeds and Goji Berries
Milled Flaxseed, Cocoa and Berries

Mix all of your chosen ingredients from the above categories together in a bowl then choose a type of chocolate (any type will do!) and melt it in a seperate bowl. Pour it into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well. I have found that 150g of chocolate will make around 10 cakes. Then fill the muffin cases with the mix and put in the fridge to set.

Chocolate: (I have always used Green n Blacks)
Dark Chocolate
Ginger Chocolate
Cherry Chocolate
Milk Chocolate
White Chocolate

Aubergine Roll-ups with Pepper Sauce: Meat Free Monday

One of my husbands favourite meals is chicken stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in parma ham, in fact it was the first meal I ever cooked for him way back in the day! It’s quite a rich meal so it’s not one I cook often but I decided to make it for him the other day! I wanted to make myself something similar so I decided to replace the chicken and parma ham for some thick roasted slices of aubergine. I think it worked really nicely and it was nice to be eating a dish which looked similar to his just a vegetarian version!

This pepper sauce is so quick and easy to make and it will go with anything so is really versatile! You could jazz it up with some capers and parsley or even stir in some other vegetables and turn it into a ratatouille!

I use Philadelphia cream cheese (it seems less rich than other brands I’ve tried and doesn’t upset my stomach) but you can use any brand you like, you can even buy cream cheese with added herbs which would taste really nice.

Serves 2

1 Aubergine
1 Red Pepper
1 Onion
1 Red Chilli
1 Garlic Clove
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
Extra Light Philadelphia Cream Cheese
100g Spinach
Spray Oil for frying
Drizzle of good quality olive oil for Aubergine
Salt and Pepper

Mashed Potato to serve – I leave the skins on my potatoes for extra nutrients and make my mash with a small amount of low-fat margarine and some soya milk!

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Finely slice the pepper, onion and chilli. Heat some spray oil in a frying pan and soften the peppers, onion and chilli for a few minutes. Crush the garlic into the pan, add the paprika and give it all a good stir then continue to fry for 2 minutes untill the garlic is cooked. Add a can of tomatoes, season and leave to simmer for 10 minutes stirring frequently.

Slice the Aubergine thinly down the length of the aubergine so you have long sliced to roll up (around 1 – 2cm thick), place the slices on a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven for 10 minutes.

Wilt the spinach by steaming or microwaving it in a bowl covered with clingfilm.

Once the aubergine slices are cooked spread the cream cheese on to the top of each slice, place some spinach on one side and then roll them up. Place them back onto the baking tray and put them back in the oven for 3-4 minutes to heat the filling through.

Plate up the mashed potato and pepper sauce then place the aubergine rolls on top and serve hot.

“Don’t you get bored?” – a common question a vegetarian faces!

“Don’t you get bored being a vegetarian?”

“What do you eat?”

I’m always quite taken a back when I’m asked this question because for me it was a very easy transition which opened up a whole new repertoire of recipes, ingredients and techniques! I think people assume that not eating meat means just eating vegetables n a few boiled potatoes or something but there are just endless meals to be eaten as a vegetarian! In fact my food is more diverse now as before I often would just cook a chicken breast with mash and veg, which to me seems boring now!

I know some people who have swapped meat for Quorn steaks or soya chicken pieces but this feels wrong to me because the amount of chemicals that go into that food would probably be worse. Although of course I will occasionally eat a veggie sausage or some Quorn mince – but my point is I haven’t swapped one for the other on a daily basis.

One of my favourite ways to come up with new recipes is to read a non vegetarian cookbook and try to think about how I could make the recipe vegetarian but still have the same substance and look to it.

For example chicken and coconut curry – I swapped the chicken for chickpeas and sweet potato and then used the rest of the same ingredients and it was so delicious, really low fat and also you are still getting protein and fibre from the chickpeas.

Another recipe I love to play around with is burgers! Before I was vegetarian I would always have a vegetarian burger any way because I found a beef burger to be too heavy in my stomach. A beef burger is so fattening and devoid of any high nutritional value but swap it for some mashed beans, breadcrumbs, vegetables and seasoning and it can be a very valuable meal. It’s a great recipe to experiment with and it can be super healthy or a bit more indulgent by adding crumbled cheese etc.

A naughty weekend breakfast can be eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, vegetable patties, grilled spicy potatoes etc without needing a slice of bacon to complete a meal.

Special occasions can include an elegant mushroom tart, soufflé, open lasagne, truffle risotto without needing a rack of lamb to take centre stage!

So my answer to the question “What do you eat?” is always “everything I want… with a little sprinkle of imagination”

Do you feel you have eaten a more diverse range of ingredients since going vegetarian? Are you a meat eater and worried that a vegetarian diet would be difficult or restricting?

A New Year for learning new skills!

In January 2011 my new years resolutions were the usual goals such as lose weight, look after my skin and hair, spend less money and be more productive in life. Well a year later and these are no longer resolutions to pick up again, they are my way of life now.
I have a monthly routine of spending budgets and meal plans and I try to make sure I am doing something productive every day (even an hour of ironing counts!). This may sound boring to some people but to me this is how I can justify having lots of fun! I’d rather pay off a bill and then treat myself instead of spending it all on going out and then worrying at the end of the month! (don’t get me wrong though, sometimes gig/ festival tickets get the better of me lol!)

So now that the big 2012 has come around I feel really inspired to set myself some new slightly different goals. I’m not going to call them resolutions though because I want this to be a never-ending goal the goal being to become a bit better at everything I do! This means facing up to the exams I’m dreading for work so that I can become qualified, finally starting the painting I have been planning in my head all of last year but ignoring the canvas every time I walk past and of course trying new skills in the kitchen. I think from recent posts you will all see how keen I am to learn so much more and to enhance my cookery skills so that I can be a great home cook and so that I can one day bake a fantastic cake for my husband! (he asks me to bake more but aaahh it’s always gone so wrong).

This month’s tofu challenge has been so much fun and just from reading and trying a few recipe’s I have already learnt so much about an ingredient I used to shy away from completely. I’m only planning on posting my reviews of the recipes I found the most helpful so that I can share my experience but I just had to mention a couple of ideas which I found and thought looked fab!

Ok so I’ve seen recipes online which combine silken tofu with ingredients such as bananas, mixed berries, soya milk and honey to create a tofu smoothie! Here are a few links to other varieties which caught my eye:
Tropical tofu smoothie
Tofu and Blueberry smoothie
Peanut butter, Chocolate and Banana tofu smoothie

Another interesting idea I have found (which I have to admit I haven’t tried yet but I am hoping to cook this weekend) is tofu cheesecake! Again here are a couple of links to some of the recipes I found which really stood out to me:
Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake
Baked Vanilla Cheesecake

Just another thing I have learnt from pushing myself to try something new and also these sweet recipes will be great if I ever fancy having something like a cheese cake as it will solve the lactose problem! Just imagine how much more I will know by the end of the year after cooking something completely new every month!

Have a good day x

2011- What a year!! My favourite recipes and moments

Firstly I hope every one had a fantastic Christmas and have a Happy New Year! I’ve been in France and am now visiting family in the UK for some New Years Eve celebrations

It’s been a big year for me as I moved house, got married, I had a new baby brother born in September and I started Veghotpot. It’s been exciting, fulfilling and really one of the best years of my life. I have learnt so much and grown so much as a person and it’s been lovely to kind of share that through my cooking on this blog.

I wanted to share my favourite recipes since starting this blog  (click the link to see the full recipe)

1. Spaghetti Bolognese - This was my first ever recipe posted on Veghotpot and it kind of summed up the type of cook I was then! I love simple, rustic food and this was a meal I cooked all the time. It really is a fail safe recipe!

2. Open Mushroom Lasagna - This was a bit of a happy accident after making a mushroom sauce a few times I realised it would be best presented like this!

3. Minestrone Verde Soup - I was feeling creative and decided to reinvent the wheel a little bit by making my favourite soup using green vegetables! I’ve since discovered that this idea is quite common but oh well I still love this recipe

4. Butternut Squash Fajitas - I’ve had quite a bit of feedback from people who have since made this recipe and I think this was when I really started building confidence in my cooking ability. It’s a great recipe for a big family meal when everyone can dig in and share the food.

5. Spicy Sweet Potatoes in an egg net - I got back from holiday and literally had 3 items in my fridge so I got creative and came up with this recipe. I had seen them make egg nets on Masterchef Australia so I gave it a go. This is a recipe which could be adapted easily with a filling of your choice.

6. Faux Fish Cake - Before I turned vegetarian I used to love fish cakes and so I decided to come up with a recipe which could capture the flavours of a fishcake but without the fish! This “fishcake” is built up with parsley, egg, capers and lemon to create a fresh flavour. It’s now one of my favourite weekend meals

7. Mushroom and Sage Mini Quiches - This is my most clicked on recipe and I’ve noticed that a lot of people have searched for “mini filo quiche” and found my recipe! I think for the party season a healthy version of the mini quiche is great. They are easy to make and they look impressive! I really enjoyed making batches of these hehe.

8. Apple, Blackberry and Ginger crumble - I think it’s obvious I don’t have much of a sweet tooth as there are not too many puddings on here but this was my first attempt at a simple crumble with a twist. I think my favourite part of making this was picking the blackberries and apples from the garden!

9. Breakfast Tortilla - Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day and at the weekend I love spending a bit of time making myself something special! This recipe is all my favourite breakfast items put together in a tortilla! You can also have it cold for lunch with a salad.

10. Walnut Beany Burger - Even though this was a recent post I had to add it into my favourites because it’s one of the yummiest things I’ve made in the last couple of months, and the walnuts came from a tree in my mum’s Garden so I like that

I’m very much looking forward to everything 2012 brings – and I might buy a new tablecloth haha!

Veggie Packed Macaroni and Cheese: Meat Free Monday

This recipe is loosely based on a tuna pasta bake my mum used to make us when we were younger, it had loads of veg, a white sauce and a breadcrumb topping and it was delicious!!

Serves 6-8 (a good one for the freezer!)

180g Sprouts (around 8 sprouts)
140g Broccoli (around 10 florets)
140g Carrots (1 Carrot)
100g Shallots (3-4 shallots)
2 Garlic Cloves
300g Macaroni
Large handful breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon Dried Basil
1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
¼ teaspoon dried Chilli Flakes
300ml Soya Milk
1 Teaspoon Margarine
100g Cheddar
1 Teaspoon Plain Flour
Salt and Pepper

To prepare your vegetables: Peel the Sprouts and cut into quarters.Slice the shallots and carrots. Cut the broccoli into small florets and crush the garlic.

Preheat the oven to 200c

Steam the sprouts, broccoli and carrots untill soft (you can boil them but steaming retains all the goodness and flavour). As the vegetables are cooking put your macaroni on to boil in a pan of hot water for around 10-12 minutes or untill cooked, once cooked drain in a sieve and put to one side.

In a frying pan add some olive oil then fry the shallots and garlic for 3-4 minutes, then add the steamed veg and seasoning and let the veg brown a little. Then take the pan off the heat and stir the vegetables into the cooked macaroni and transfer all of the combined pasta and vegetables into a large lasagna dish.

In a small saucepan make the white sauce by heating the milk and butter in a pan, then add the flour and whisk untill the flour is combined and not lumpy. Add the cheese and keep stirring over the heat untill the cheese is melted. Season the white sauce and mix it into the pasta and vegetables, spread the mixture out so it covers the bottom of the lasagna dish and is level on top.

To make the breadcrumbs put a toasted slice of bread into a blender and add the dried basil, dried thyme and chilli flakes. Blitz untill you have herby breadcrumbs and then sprinkle these over the top of the cheesy pasta/ veg combination in the lasagna dish.

Put in the oven (uncovered) at 200c for around 10 minutes then serve with a side salad!

Photo: Prepared vegetables

Practise Makes Perfect

I’ve learnt a lot of things over the last few years which have helped me grow as a person but I think the main thing which has stuck with me is not to give up if you have a disaster or it all goes wrong. When I was younger, if anything I tried to do didn’t quite go to plan I’d run away from it and decide to try something new – while this meant I have tried ALOT of hobbies and creative ideas in my life, it also means I have a lot of things I look back on and wonder if I could have been really good at it!

This lesson I have also taken forward with my cooking. My family and friends laugh because I am a pretty ditzy person and I have had some disasters in the kitchen which every now and then get a mention and a giggle! I thought in the spirit of being able to laugh at myself and also because I have learnt so much from each experience I would share some of my most memorable disasters with you. so here goes….

Food Tech at School: Age 12:  Project – Baking Bread Rolls:
I’m the first to admit that baking is not my strong point, but back then it really wasn’t something I thought I should ever be allowed to attempt again! I remember being excited at trying to make bread and thinking that when I grow up I’ll be a baker or one of those women who makes her husband a fresh loaf of bread for his sandwiches every week. Well the end result was some very bad tasting, hard as rock and oddly shaped bread rolls which my mum ended up varnishing and using as decorations! I didn’t attempt bread again untill I was nearly 18!

My First Dinner Party: Age 16: Project – Spaghetti Bolognese:
I had 6 friends come over for my birthday and I was cooking dinner for them all. My mum had suggested I made Spaghetti Bolognese because it was simple and easy to make for lots of people. She wrote out the recipe for me and went out for the day so that I could get to it on my own. Only I read the recipe wrong and where she had written “tomatoes x2″ instead of seeing the two cans of tomatoes and adding them, I took 2 tomatoes from one can and added them to my mince. I served up very dry rather bland tasting Bolognese to my laughing friends and I decided from that moment on that I obviously just couldn’t cook!

Making Christmas Gifts: Age 19: Project - Brandy snaps and chocolate decorations:
This is one occasion which gets brought up all the time because it really was my biggest disaster! I had decided to make my dad some food gifts for christmas and decided that brandy snaps would be nice because he could have one with an after dinner drink and it would be ever so sophisticated! Well I didn’t have any golden syrup so I thought “I’m sure black treacle will do the same job”- ugh it did not!! Harsh tasting, gooey, chewy brandy snaps which my dad politely accepted and we all fell about laughing and daring each other to taste them! The chocolate decorations were even worse – smeared, grainy chocolate which looked a mess! Although I have since found out chocolate is quite hard to work with so I’ll forgive myself for that!

Cooking at University: Age 20: Project – A Roast Beef dinner for 5 hungry boys!
I wanted to impress the guys so I decided to cook a roast fillet of beef with all of the trimmings! I had under estimated the need for good timing and also how hard it would be to cook in their tiny oven which had a broken door and it’s only heat source came from the bottom! I took the beef out and it was still pink so I put it back in…for 20 minutes….it was dry and flaky! Gutted! Then I took my roast potatoes out and a sense of pride came over me as they looked delicious…then I turned them over and the bottom of every potato had a thick black crust of burnt potato. And I over cooked my veg. They all happily tucked in but I felt so embarrassed serving it up when all I’d wanted was to be a domestic goddess haha!! I’ve learnt lots since then!

A Romantic Meal with my (then) fiance: Age 21: Project – Champagne and pomegranate Jelly:
My starter and main course = success! My pudding can only be described as tough and strangely chewy, with pomegranate pith and seeds broken into it, and it had a cloudy almost dirty colour to it. And it tasted disgusting! Can’t have been that bad though because we’re married now

Veghotpot recipes: Age 24: Project – Pesto:
I actually had this disaster last night which inspired this blog post! It’s a recipe which I am hoping to post in the next week so don’t be put off as it’ll be perfect when I’ve made it again – Ok so first disaster, after finishing the pesto and thinking it tasted very strange I looked and realised I’d used a whole bunch of coriander instead of parsley! I blame it on end of year tiredness! then to make matters worse I used the wrong measuring spoon for my salt and without thinking tipped a whole teaspoon of salt into about 200ml of pesto. Well after a bit of tweaking and ALOT of lemon juice I salvaged enough to have for our dinner but I now have a huge bowl of awful pesto which I can’t bring myself to throw away. Take two is happening on saturday, with the correct herb and a pinch of salt.

I think that’s the difference now – I allow myself a take 2 or a take 3 untill I have perfected my recipe to the point that I feel proud enough to put it on the website. Sometimes I make something and first time I’m like wowee and sometimes I make something and know it would never taste good even with a few tweaks. I realised it’s the mistakes which make you better because you have to learn to improve and decipher what could be done differently. I have since baked very nice bread rolls and this year I’m braving chocolate gifts again, just this time I have given myself a few days back up to try again if it goes wrong

Have you had any disasters but managed to pull back from it and ended up learning something great?

Squash, Spinach and Red Lentil Curry: Meat Free Monday

A perfect Meat Free Monday dish as its so tasty and filling you don’t really miss the meat. You can swap the lentils for chickpeas etc depending on what you have in your cupboards and feel free to use up any extra vegetables by adding them in. This dish isn’t too spicy just a nice balance of sweetness and heat from the cayenne

Serves 4

300g Squash/ pumpkin
1 Onion
100g Spinach
1 Courgette
130g Mushrooms
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Can Tomatoes
30g Raisins
3 tablespoons Natural Yoghurt
2 Cardamom Pods
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1/2 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
100g Red Lentils

Peel the squash and chop it into about inch thick pieces then parboil it for 5 minutes. Fry the diced onion and crushed garlic in some spray oil untill softened then add the ginger, cayenne
, turmeric, cardamom pods (split them with a knife at one end) and the natural yoghurt. Stir well.

Drain the squash and add to the pan with the sliced courgettes and mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes untill the courgette and mushrooms have begun to cook. Rinse the spinach and add it whole into the pan and stir occasionally to wilt it into the curry.

Then add the can of chopped tomatoes, the lentils and a splash of water. Put a lid on the pan and simmer for 10 minutes then add the raisins and cook for a further 5 minutes uncovered untill the sauce has reduced and the lentils are cooked. Check on it every so often and add a splash of water or a little more yoghurt if it needs it.

Serve with rice or naan and a cold beer! xx