Vegan cheese and cream

pine nut cream
toast the pine nuts then add water lemon juice and salt and blend using a powerful hand blender.
add the water (could be soy milk) little by little until you have the consistency of whipped cream. we then used some white wine vinegar(a little), mustard ( a little) and freshly grated horseradish (quite a lot) to make the finished product.

tofu-cashew ricotta: process the cashews to a fine crumb. process the tofu and add lemon juice and salt. mix with the nuts, add a little oil and some water and process with a hand blender.
for the crespelle we add parsley, pine nuts, lemon zest and juice and capers. for anyone looking for a boursin type feel add some garlic.

the feta simply takes the base for the ricotta, omitting the lemon juice and adds agar agar powder. mix the agar agar with your mix, probably about 1 tsp per 300g of mix, and heat in a microwave (stirring regularly) or in a pan. once the agar has been activated (you'll know when it has because the outside wil look as if it's already setting) then you can add lemon juice to taste. if you add the lemon juice first it affects the setting property of the agar agar. place in a box or on a tray and let it set. once it has set make up a brine of salt and water and cut the feta into cubes. let it sit for a week or so then store in oil with herbs and garlic and chillis and anything else you want. great in sandwiches.


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Vegan coeliac black pudding recipe

Such a success i'm putting the recipe up on the web. you may want to toy with the spicing, i know i was a little heavy handed with the cloves.you will need
beetroot, 3 large, juiced with the pulp reserved.
200g quinoa cooked.
100g chinese forbidden black rice, cooked.
100g (maybe more) potato starch
3tsp agar agar powder (buy from thai stores on line, it's cheaper)
spices (cloves, mace, nutmeg, cayenne, pepper, herbs as well)

finely chop an onion and sweat in olive oil. add the beetroot pulp. add the juice to the quinoa and then add to the onion mix.
add the black rice, the spices, the starch and the agar agar. cook over a low heat for 5 minutes. allow to cool then take handfulls and place onto clingfilm, shape into sausages and tie off the ends. these need to be waterproof. take the sausages and poach in slowly bubbling water for twenty minutes. allow to cool and set.to use, unmould and cut into slices. fry in oil and add to anything.

it's nice in fabada but as an alternative try a recipe by paul heathcote. make some mash and add a little flour and parsley. shape around the black pudding and fry as a potato cake. seve on some sauteed spinach and top with a poached egg.


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Butternut squash lasagne recipe

To say goodbye to the lasagne, here's the menu:

Pasta:
200g plain flour
dash of olive oil
water

Put flour and oil in the food processor and run on top speed. Slowly add water until sticky breadcrumbs form. If a dough forms it's a little too wet so add some flour. Bring together and put in cling film.

Filling:
onion
butternut squash
mushroom
lemon thyme
parsley

Fry onion until soft, add chopped mushroom and fry until liquid evaporates. Dice butternut and add, fry for a couple of minutes and add herbs. Add stock to cover and cook the squash until just cooked. Taste and season.
To finish take a quantity of squash mix and add lemon juice and cream and cook to thicken. Check seasoning.
Roll pasta in machine to second thinnest setting, (we use imperia roller) or on a board until it is just transluscent.
Cut to about twelve inches and cook in lots of salted water for about three minutes. Take out and cool on a board until cold enough to handle. Place one third of the sheet on a plate, put some squash mix on top, fold the next third over and add squash then do the same with the final third, topping with more mix. As long as the mix is hot the pasta will take the heat.

Serve with something green.


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Blinis / caviar recipe

blinis (this is a recipe from veganomicon by isa chandra moscowitz and terry romero), i've adapted it a little


350ml soya milk
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
1 sachet easy blend yeast
100 ml of water
teaspoon of sugar
25 ml olive oil
125g mix of gram flour and buckwheat flour

slightly warm the milk and add the vinegar, set aside to curdle
mix the yeast, water and sugar and allow to bubble
put dry ingredients into a bowl and mix in all the wet ingredients. if it feel too wet add a little more flour. cover and set aside for one hour. it will bubble and rise so knock it back. take spoonfuls and fry over medium heat in an oiled pan. the thicker the mix the more like crumpets they'll be.

caviar

beluga lentils cooked and cooled
red onions sweated until breaking point then blitzed
nori sheets blitzed in a food processor
hijiki or arame seaweed soaked and finely chopped
pinch of salt
lemon juice

mix first four then add the last two to taste. it should come together like caviar.

cashew sour cream

cashew nuts
lemon juice
water
salt

mix cashews with water and blend using a good hand blender. try to get as smooth as possible. season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

plating

take a cooked blini and place sour cream on top, top with caviar and enjoy. for those of a feeble disposition close your eyes and hold your nose.


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Polenta fries recipe

The recipe that most people seemed to want from the Italian menu was the polenta fries, so here it is.

500g polenta measured by volume
4.5 times the volume of polenta in stock.
Mixed herbs, basil, lemon, thyme and parsley, or any others you like.

Bring the stock to a rolling boil then whisk in polenta in a steady stream so no lumps form.
Whisk then stir for thirty minutes until you cannot taste any grain.
Stir in mixed herbs then put onto a flat tray. Allow to set in the fridge. once set, cut into chips and bake.

Once cooled, shallow fry and serve with ketchup of choice. (I'm afraid I've been sworn to secrecy over the red pepper ketchup).


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Canneloni recipe

Here is the recipe for the canneloni served as a starter on our May 2008 Italian menu.

The canneloni are strips of courgette, obtained with a swivel peeler, that have been marinated in lemon juice and olive oil. The filling is a mix of cashew ricotta, toasted pine nuts, chopped parsley and lemon juice and zest and salt and pepper.
The cashew ricotta is made by blending 100g of cashews with some garlic, lemon juice, oil and water to make a cream, then blending in some tofu.
The recipe is based on the one in Veganomicon, by Isa Moscowitz and Terry Romero.

Take a teaspoon of the ricotta mix and roll it into your marinated strips.

The dressing we make is a pea and lemon sauce.

Sweat a shallot, add a little stock and some lemon juice, add some peas and blitz with a hand blender. Pass through a sieve and serve with cooked peas and broad beans. As Martin Stephenson once sang/talked

'What does it smell of Dave?'

'Smells of summer'


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Vegan fig cake recipe

Here's a recipe from the 2008 Millennium Magic menu. It's the fig cake and shows how easy vegan cooking can be.

demerara sugar
160g soft brown sugar
200g self-raising flour
50g ground almonds
tsp almond extract
tsp vanilla extract
100 ml veg oil
200 ml soya milk (i'm not  sure about this, could be more or less)

Mix dry (except demerara) and wet ingredients separately, then mix together to form cake batter.
Sprinkle demerara into a 8" springform cake pan lined with baking paper, place halved figs (fresh or dried and re-hydrated) on the sugar and then cover with the batter.
Bake in the oven at 170c until the cake is set, allow to cool for five minutes then turn out while the caramel is still hot.
Serve with lemon anglaise.


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Butternut ravioli recipe

Pasta: 
I don't really have quantities. 
Plain flour, in a food processor with the cutting blade, say 200g, that will probably do two people. Add  some oil and with the blade running add water until it forms breadcrumbs. Check it is tacky enough to come together by pressing it in your hands. If it forms a ball it is probably too wet, so add more flour.  Roll this out using a pasta machine, taking it down to the second thinnest setting, then stretch it a little. Alternatively you could use pre-bought fresh pasta, for example wonton wrappers.


The filling is butternut squash roasted with fennel seeds. Mash this with crushed vegan amaretti, recipe is on this site.


Cut the pasta into squares and place a teaspoon of the filling on the top-half of your square. Bring the ravioli together aand seal with water or just pinch.


To make the sauce you will need a shallot, some sage leaves, some lemon juice, vegetable stock and butter.


Sweat the shallot in oil until soft, then add the sage leaves, lemon juice and stock. Reduce a liitle. Cut the butter into squares, plop in the stock mix and blend with a stick blender. How much lemon etc. you put in is up to you. Personally I like my butternut sweet and my sauce nice and sour. If you are posh you can add and reduce white wine as well. For a vegan sauce blend in some soy marg instead of butter.


Top tip: do not use butter to sweat your shallot, if you do, when you blend the rest in later it will split.


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Chocolate and stout pudding recipe

I will give you two recipes, an easyish one and an easy one. You can take your pick. One note, we were going to use Guinness but it is not vegetarian as it is fined with isinglass. We used a vegetarian stout available from Sainsbury's, called Titanic.


Ingredients


500 ml stout
500 ml double cream
200 g sugar
6 egg yolks
Vanilla pod
200 g 72% chocolate


Boil 250 ml stout until reduced by one-third, add the cream and vanilla pod and scald. Whisk together the egg yolks with 150 g of sugar until pale, then whisk in the scalded cream and stout mixture to the yolks. Return to the pan and heat gently until thickened. The mixture should coat the back of a spoon. Melt the chocolate and whisk in to the custard. This chocolate custard can be poured into glasses and refrigerated until set.


Take the other 250 ml of stout and 50 g of sugar and reduce until a nice syrup is left. Cool.


Once the custard is set pour on a thin layer of stout syrup and top with cream to give the effect of a stout. If you use Guinness the chocolate custard will be darker and give more of a stout impression.


Easy version:
Once stout has reduced by one-third, add one tin of condensed milk and boil for two minutes. Then take off the heat and whisk in the chocolate to melt. Beat the cream to soft peeks and once the stout-chocolate has cooled, whisk in the cream in batches. Pour this mix into the glasses and refrigerate and allow to set. Top with etc etc


If you use an ice-cream machine, you can turn either mix into a lovely ice cream. You'd probably need more sugar to sweeten the mix.


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Laverbread roulade recipe

First prepare the sauce vierge:


Oil and lemon juice 3:1 ratio then add, to taste, Dijon mustard, parsley, capers, tomatoes (finely chopped and de-seeded) and agave nectar. Finally season with salt and pepper.


The roasted vegetables can include:


Aubergines, courgettes, swede, sweet potato and celeriac all roasted then marinated in parsley pesto. Our pesto was just lots of parsley, lemon juice, oil (olive and veg) and braised garlic. Our garlic is braised (by the string) in the oven in oil until it is sweet and tender. We store ours in the fridge once it is cooked.


Finally the roulade:


Laverbread roulade.


2 oz butter and flour.
4 eggs separated
Milk, 3/4 of a pint.
3 oz Penclawdd laverbread.


Make a roux with the butter and flour then make thick sauce with the milk. Season and then add the laverbread and egg yolks, and stir in.


In a clean bowl beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks, then fold into the sauce mix with a whisk. Put a sheet of nonstick baking paper onto a tray and then tip the mix onto this, making sure it is evenly covered. The tray should be about 16" by 12". Bake this in the oven (160C) until it has souffled and is set to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. It will quickly become flat. Once cooled spread over onion jam and grated Caerphilly cheese. You now need to form the roulade. 
Take one of the long edges and peel the roulade from the paper. You need to take this and roll it in on itself. Continue rolling until all the filling is inside, then wrap in the baking paper and then wrap tightly in foil. This should be placed in the oven for 24 hours to set up. Next day cut in to portions. 


To serve, take a portion of the roulade and bake in the oven at 175C until browned and souffled. Place in the middle of a plate surrounded with a mixture of the roasted vegetables and drizzle the veg with the sauce vierge.


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Falafel recipe

I've decided to do the falafel recipe that we used this past fortnight. The reason for this is that I, and most of you, found them a little dry and no matter how we tried we could not get past it. Any views why that may be would be appreciated. Anyway, here's the recipe.


Chickpeas (we used dried and reconstituted them. Are tinned better?) and (dried) broad beans
Onions (maybe more onion would be better)
Chopped parsley and coriander
Dried ginger, cumin, turmeric and coriander (and a little smoked paprika in later versions)
Garlic
Gram flour

Directions

Soak the chick peas and beans overnight in cold water. Drain and bring to the boil in new water and simmer for two hours. Allow to cool and blitz separately in a food processor. Depending on how much you are doing you can add the other ingredients to the blender, except the flour, and process.

Place the mix in a bowl and add gram flour, a little at a time, to make mouldable patties. You should do this with your hands.

Once the patties are made, let them rest for 30 minutes in the fridge then deep fry at 170C.

One ingredient that I have omitted is baking powder or bicarb. maybe that is my mistake but I've made many these in the past and never had this problem. Please help.

The dressing we do is very simple. You need some (soy) yoghurt, jaggery (or unrefined brown sugar), lime juice and chipotle chile paste. Blend all ingredients and serve with the falafels.


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Frangipane recipe

Frangipane is a very useful addition to any repertoire, both in sweet and savoury dishes. My basic sweet recipe is very simple:

200g ground almonds
200g caster sugar
200g butter
3 eggs

Put all into a food processor and blitz until it all comes together. As I said, simple. This can be used as the topping for any number of sweet tarts. my favourite is pear, but also apple, prune or bakewell.


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Cassoulet recipe

You will need beans; dried, then soaked and boiled, or easier, tinned.
A basic veg mix of chopped carrot, onion and celery.
Some herbs. I prefer rosemary and lemon thyme.
Tomato puree and chopped tomatoes.
Lots of olive oil.
Some seitan sausage (optional) and mock duck (also optional). We included both to try to give some authenticity, and because I like making seitan sausage. I made the sausage using red wine (vegan), braised garlic, herbs and smoked paprika. This gives a lovely depth to the cassoulet when it cooks out.


Method

Bring oil to a medium heat and fry the veg mix and the sausage. Add the herbs and the tomato puree and more oil and cook out the puree. Make sure it doesnt burn. Then add the chopped tomatoes and more oil and continue cooking. The oil should cover the edges of the veg/tomato mix completely and is cooking the tomato out. This is very important as it lends depth of flavour and reduces any bitterness from the tomato. Add some stock and the beans and mock duck, plus any braising liquor, and cook out for a couple of hours.

Serve with crusty bread.

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Chilli bean parcels recipe

The simplest things are the accompaniments, so let's start there.

You will need grated beetroot, roast it rather than boil it for a better flavour. Simply wash it and put it in foil, put into the oven at 200 C and leave for an hour or so. Let it cool and you should be able to slip the skin straight off under the tap. Scare your kids with your bloody hands.

You could leave the beetroot raw if you like, and mix it with the rocket.

The dressing is simplicity itself. Yogurt, salt and pepper and lemon juice. For the vegan dressing we use Alpro soya yoghurt.

The filling is a strong chilli base using fried onions and mushrooms, then adding the chilli powder to cook it out. Try adding some cumin, bay leaves, dried lime zest and fresh or dried oregano to a shop bought mild chilli powder.

Next chop some fresh tomatoes and add them to the chilli, let it sit.

The beans we use are butter beans and kidney beans, soaked and boiled. At home I'd use tinned.

The last ingredient is the roasted vegetables; any will do although we used sweet potato, pumpkin and Swede. Roast the swede separately as it takes longer. Mix the chilli and roasted veg together, season, add lime juice and the leaves from some coriander, no stalks unless you love the taste. This is the filling.


The pancakes were a labour of love. I'd never made vegan pancakes before last week, imagining that without eggs they would be dry, wouldn't look like pancakes nor taste like them. That is what's so satisfying about this journey, finding new routes you never saw.

Pancake ingredients (makes 20 ish)

6oz plain flour
5oz masa harina
1 lt. soy milk
1tbs orgran egg replacer (this is completely unnecessary, I think, but this is what I did)
1 tsp salt
2 heaped tbs. smoked paprika
1 tbs. powdered ginger
1 tbs. cumin


Put into large jug and blend, we use a Bamix. add water to achieve the desired consistency.

Fry in veg oil in large pan. Allow to cool and then form parcels.

Hope you enjoy, and if you can't be bothered come and eat ours!

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