Vegan Friendly Cooked Breakfast

I stayed in my vegan friend's house last week, and made a pretty good vegan friendly version of a cooked breakfast! Ok, the mushrooms and tomatoes are there already - but this post will share info about the product available to create vegan sausages that tastes like pork, and how to make a scrambled tofu that looks and tastes very much like egg....

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms
• Tomatoes
• Potato Farls
• Asda Meat Free Sausage Mix, Water, Soy Sauce, Garlic Powder, Pepper.
• Tofu, Engevita Yeast Extract, Onion Powder, Salt, Pepper, Turmeric.
  

1) For the sausages, Asda have a fab meat free sausage mix - just add water, mould into shape and pop on the pan. As a pork lover, this didn't really float by boat, but it came close enough.... add some garlic, soy and pepper to bring out a more spicy porky flavour! I probably made it too watery and could do with some practice to get it right....













2) To make the scrabbled tofu, cut out a chunk of tofu, and pop onto a hot pan, using vegetable oil. Use this yeast extract, Engevita, to add a cheesy nutty taste. Add the onion powder, salt and pepper, and some turmeric to give the tofu an eggy colour, and mix about on the pan until scrambled. Now this is delicious!







3) Served with fried mushrooms, fried or grilled tomatoes, and potato farls....and yes, there is soy milk in the tea. A full cooked breakfast, without a trace of animal products!

Stuffed Squid

A friend of mine showed me how to do this about three years ago and I came across the photographs the other day! It was a pretty disgusting task, took a long time, and we STANK afterwards (both clothes and skin - book time for a shower afterwards!), but it was a fun afternoon and the results were goooood.

Ingredients:

• Whole Baby Squid
• Egg
• Onion
• Garlic
• Salt and Pepper (all for stuffing)
  

Preparing the Stuffing:
1) Chop the onion and garlic, beat the egg, and mix all together in a bowl with some salt and pepper.

Preparing the Squid:
2) First, cut off the squid's tentacles. Make sure that you separate the squid's tooth from the tentacles when doing this. You can feel the tooth in the very middle of the tentacles, either cut it off with them and remove, or cut the tentacles from above the tooth.

3) Chop up the tentacles and place in the bowl with the stuffing ingredients.

















4) Take the squid, and place the knife behind its head. Push down to slice through it and then pull away from the body.
















5) Use the knife to pull out the spine and gut the squid. With the spine out, all the squid's insides should come out easily, all together in one go.

















6) Rinse out, and place the body to one side - repeat 2 - 5 until you have gutted all of them.


7) Stir the egg, onion, and tentacle mixture, then take the body, and holding it upright, use a teaspoon to pour the stuffing into the squid.


8) Using a toothpick, pierce through the skin and seal the opening.


9)Line the stuffed squid on a greased tray and pop in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Carrot and Ginger Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes
• 1 onion
• all the carrots you need to get rid of....!
• a chunk of ginger
• butter
• vegetable stock

1. Peel and chop all the vegetables

2. In a pot, saute the onion and potato in butter for 10 minutes. Cover with some paper towel while the vegetables are soaking in the butter.

3. After 10 minutes, add all the carrots and ginger to the pot, and stir. Heat in the butter for another few minutes.

4. Add in the vegetable stock. Cover the pot, and let the vegetables simmer for between 30 and 45 minutes.

5. Once the vegetables are cooked, use a mixer or blender to blend all the ingredients.

6. Serve and enjoy!

Stuffed Chicken Hotpot

This is so simple and quick on a cold night after work!

Ingredients:

• Chicken Breasts
• Tomatoes
• Mozzerella
  
• Baby Spinach
• Potatoes
• Salt, Pepper and Rosemary
• Olive Oil

1. Peel some potatoes and chop them in half.
2. Cut the Chicken breasts in half, and stuff with sliced mozzerella, slices of tomato and pieces of spinach.
3. Coat an oven dish in soe olive oil, and place the stuffed chicken breasts in a row. Place the potatoes in the dish around the chicken.
4. Pour a little more oil over the potatoes and season the dish with salt, pepper and rosemary.
5. Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 45 mins.

Chilli Prawn Noodles

Ingredients:

• Prawns
• Onions
• Mushrooms
• Peppers
• Chilli's or Chilli Powder
• Ginger or Ginger Powder
  
• Noodles
• Soy Sauce
• Fish Sauce
• Black Pepper
  

1) I used pre cooked prawns here, but if they are raw, boil or fry.
2) Mix the prawns with the chlli and ginger powder (or fresh ones) and with some black pepper and leave aside to soak in the flavours.

3) Heat a little oil in a pan, and chop all the vegetables: in this case mushrooms, onions and peppers. Cook gently on a low heat. Separately boil a pot of water for the noodles.
4) Pour the prawns and spices in with the vegetable mix and cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently.
5) At this point, cook the noodles in the pot of boiling water.
6) When the noodles are cooked, drain and pour them in on top of the prawn and vegetable mix. Lightly stir the whole mixture and flavour to taste with soy sauce, a drop of fish sauce (I used a vegetarian one in this case!!), sesame oil etc.

Fantastic Food Trip to Budapest!

Hello there....! No cooking was done by me this week. However a trip to Budapest last weekend brought me across plenty of lovely dishes cooked by my friend Zsuzsanna, who kindly agreed to let me share them here. This is the same friend who created the stuffed peppers with a Hungarian twist - You may notice one particular ingredient findings its way into everything :). Thanks for letting me share Zsuzsu!

Here are some of the fantastic meals we feasted on at her table:

1) Cherry soup.



Need: Cinnamon, Sugar, Sour Cream and Flour.
To Make: Boil the cherries, sugar and cinnamon. Separately, mix the sour cream and flour. Mix it very well: make sure there are no flour bumps. When the cherries are boiling, stir in the sour cream and flour, and then bring to the boil again.


2) Rakott Krumpli (Translates into 'Late Potatoes').


Need:Potatoes, Chorizo, Bacon, Boiled Eggs, Sour Cream and One Raw Egg.
To Make: Peel and slice the potatoes, chops the chorizo and bacon, and boil and peel a few eggs. Then layer all the ingredients (leave the raw egg aside until the end) into a deep oven dish: sausage, bacon and egg, then potato, then sour cream. Repeat until all the ingredients are used. For the final layer of sour cream, mix it with the raw egg, and pour the whole mixture across the top of the potatoes and meat. Cook in an oven at 180 degrees Celcius for a half hour/forty mins.


3) Goat's cheese mixed with Paprika
Need: Either Goat Cheese OR Sheep Cheese OR Cottage Cheese from sheep's milk (but not cow's), Paprika, Mustard, Cumin, Sour Cream OR Butter.
To Make: Mix together to taste and enjoy......


4) Blue cheese mixed with sour cream
Need: Blue Cheese, Sour Cream, Butter, Chives, Nutmeg, Black Pepper.
To Make: Mix together to taste and enjoy....
Zsuzsanna's tip: Excellent with garlic bread.




In the photo you can see the Sheep's Cheese and Paprika in the foreground, and the Blue Cheese mixture behind, to the left of the butter.

Roast Chicken Dinner

Ingredients:

• One whole chicken
• Olive Oil
• Rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Stuffing:

• Breadcrumbs
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Onion
• Salt and Pepper
• Butter

Roast with:

• Potatoes
• Whole onions
  

Serve with:

• Carrots
• Peas
• Gravy
  

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. While the oven is heating, prepare the stuffing. Dice the onion, and put into a bowl with the breadcrumbs. Season with rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Finally, mix with some butter to bind it all together.

2. Peel some potatoes, and boil some water. Boil the potatoes for 5 minutes only. (This will make them softer when they are roasted).

3. Wash the chicken, removing all rope binding, and any pins. Lay in an oven tray and spoon all the stuffing into the cavity of the chicken. Rub the chicken with butter, and sprinkle with some salt and pepper. If you have them, leave fresh sprigs of rosemary here and there as well.

4. Take the slightly boiled potatoes, and cover with olive oil. Place them in the oven tray around the chicken. If you don't have any room then just leave them in another oven dish. But when they are in the same dish as the chicken, all the juices soak into the potatoes, it's really tasty. Also include one or two peeled onions.

5. Put the chicken, potatoes and onion into the oven and cook for 90 minutes.

6. Relax for an hour with the paper and a glass of wine! But every now and then, check the chicken, and spoon the juices and oil all over the chicken and potatoes to make them crispy and moist. Do this as often as you feel like, the more times the merrier.

7. When there are about 30 minutes left, prepare the carrots and peas or whatever other vegetables you would like to have. Peel, chop, and boil for a few minutes. Set table etc.

8. Prepare gravy. I just used instant here, sorry! Am pretty crap at making it myself.....next time.

9. When the chicken is ready, take it out of the oven and let it stand for 10 mins before carving it.

10. Carve the chicken, distribute all the potatoes, onions and veg etc, and enjoy!

Baked feta and tomato

This is so quick and easy, and SO tasty - its perfect for throwing together when you don't have the energy for much else.

Ingredients:

• Feta cheese or goats cheese
• Vine tomoatoes
• Rosemary
• Oregano
• Black Pepper
• Olive Oil
  

Also can use:

• Fresh Basil
• Balsamic Vinegar
  

Serve with salad, as done here, or on a toasted ciabatta or brown soda bread.

Can be baked at 180C or grilled.

1. Preheat the oven or grill. Slice the tomatoes and feta.

2. Put the feta and tomato into a dish with olive oil, season with the rosemary, oregano, and black pepper. Optionally add some balsamic vinegar.

3. Bake in the oven, or grill, for 20 minutes.

4. If using bread, add in for last 5 or 10 minutes.

5. Serve the feta and tomato on the bread and/or with salad. Make sure to scoop out all the olive oil from the dish and drizzle it over the top. Finish with the fresh basil, chopped and sprinkled on top.