Parsnip & Potato Rosti with Spinach, Asparagus, Poached Egg and Foaming Hollandaise

Wow. Life has really been getting in the way of stuff lately. I recently started a new job with a pretty long commute that has been leaving me rather zombie like in the evenings. Cooking has become a little bit of a chore which is never good. But with Valentines Day on the way it has reminded me how I enjoy cooking yummy things for the people I love. Here is my first Valentines recipe that is ideal for breakfast/brunch in bed or as an appetizer or light supper.

Sunchoke (Jerusalem Artichoke) Soup with Thyme and Balsamic Onions

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2012. Sorry it is a bit late but hopefully everybody has enjoyed the holidays. I thought I would kick the year off with a rich, velvety vegetable soup that is perfect for a warming lunch but low calorie, dairy free, gluten free and vegan for anyone with good intentions for the new year. If you haven't tried Jerusalem artichokes before then I really do urge you to try them as they add a really nice nutty flavor to mashed potato or can be roasted or even eaten raw in salads. They do, however, have a bad reputation for making things a bit windy so I don't recommend eating them before a job interview, hot date, or anytime you need to sit quietly! By mixing them with potatoes helps to reduce the amount you eat and hence the after effects. Hopefully this won't put you all off this recipe as I admit that I haven't exactly sold this one to you. But trust me this really is a tasty, hearty and seasonal soup.

Tapas Party Menu

After we spent an enjoyable week in Spain last month I really wanted to have a go at making my own homemade tapas and what better way to eat tapas than with friends. Over the holiday period with numerous parties and entertaining then why not try something different and throw a tapas party instead of the normal canapes or as alternative to christmas dinner. Below is my Tapas Menu (click on the links to go to the recipes) which has the benefit that most of the dishes can be prepared in advance leaving you free to mingle with your guests and glug some sangria.

• Bread with Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar
• Olives, Toasted Almonds & Cubed Almodovar Cheese
• Platter of Serrano Ham & Chorizo
• Manchego with Tomatoes and Olive Oil
• Garlic Mushrooms
• Spinach & Chickpeas in Tomato Sauce
• Spanish Tortilla
• Patatas Bravas
• Patatas Alioli
• Garlic Prawns & Chorizo (I followed this recipe but added a good squeeze of lemon at the end)
• Pork Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
• Merguez Sausages (from our wonderful local sausage shop)
• Red Wine Sangria with Nectarines
• Dairy-free Egg Custard with Caramel Bananas
• Pine Nut & Almond Cookies

Garlic Mushrooms, Spinach & Chickpeas and Manchego Cheese Tapas

Here are three quick and easy vegetarian tapas dishes. The first is garlic mushrooms or 'Champinones al ajillo', the second is a spinach and chickpeas dish in tomato sauce, in Spanish 'Garbanzos con Espinacas'  and the third is manchego with tomatoes and olive oil which I guess is Spain's most well known cheese. These dishes can be made ahead of time and then reheated as required.

Patatas Bravas & Patatas Alioli

Along with Spanish tortilla, patatas bravas is one of my favourite tapas dishes and the spicy tomato sauce really lifts up these crispy little potatoes. I also like the alioli with them and if you are making patatas bravas then for very little effort you get two dishes for the price of one. If you serve the sauces in separate bowls rather than over the potatoes the benefits are threefold, 1) the potatoes will remain crisp, 2) you can add both brava sauce and alioli to the same batch of potatoes and 3) people like me can use it on bread and Spanish tortillas, yummy.

I cooked my potatoes in the oven which I know isn't traditional but I find you need less oil to make them crispy and it freed up the stove top for other dishes. For the tapas party I made the two sauces ahead of time and also boiled the potatoes so that all that was required once the guests arrived was to pop the oiled potatoes into the oven to crisp up and heat the tomato sauce.

As you can see the pictures aren't great as I had to photograph the food under artificial light quickly so that I could serve them piping hot to our guests.

Tortilla Espanola

Spanish tortilla amazes me in the way that such basic and humble ingredients work together to create this delightful dish and I have to say, that for me, no tapas menu is complete without this included. Also Spanish tortilla makes one of my favorite sandwich fillings so if there are any leftovers you know what to do. If you like you can add bell peppers or chunks of chorizo to the potato mix. The tortilla will need to be turned at least once so make sure you have a plate that is larger than your pan to hand to help you flip this omelet.

Egg and Avocado Salad

Once again I find myself apologising for a extended absence from blogging. I have been feeling rather ill for the last couple of weeks after a bout of stomach flu. It has been a real eye opener to have no appetite and no desire to eat or cook anything. Thank goodness for potato waffles, ginger snaps and litres of ginger beer. Thankfully, I am feeling almost back to normal and can now look at and think about food. I am looking forward to sharing among other things some gluten and dairy free desserts including a Christmas pudding ready for stir up Sunday, a cordial for mulled wine and some interesting veggie dishes that make good use of winter varieties. However, to start November off here is salad recipe that is perfect for a light lunch of supper.

I was a late comer to the joys of avocados. I really couldn't understand what all the fuss was about until I tried this dish for the first time. I only ate it to be polite but after that first bite it wasn't difficult to eat everything on my plate. I have only tweaked this recipe a little bit but credit is due to my boyfriend's mum. I like to serve this salad with crusty bread or toast but you could use it like you would any egg salad. Once over my initial dislike for avocados I realised what a versatile fruit it is suited to both sweet and savoury. I love it in a salad of cucumber, tomato, onion, lime and cilantro or mashed with garlic, basil, lemon and black pepper for a quick pasta sauce and as a dessert you cannot beat mashed avocado with a spoonful of dark brown or muscavado sugar mixed in.

Vegan Chocolate Fork Cookies

Having posted a number of gluten free desserts I have realised that most of them are not suitable for vegans. I thought it was time that I rectified this by providing a recipe that is yummy and vegan. I haven't been able to make a satisfactory vegan and gluten free recipe as I find an egg very helpful to bind it altogether. I am going to have a go with egg replacer and hopefully I will be able to post a vegan and gluten free cookie recipe in the near future.

This is a great basic cookie recipe (or biscuit as we call them in the UK) which can be whipped up in a jiffy for any unexpected guests or just to help cure midnight munchies. However, I should probably warn everyone that once you have learnt how easy and quick it is to make these biscuits from store cupboard standbys there will be nothing to stop you fulfilling your cravings within half an hour. Consider yourself warned and I accept no responsibilty for the impact this may have on your waistline!

Parsnip and Apple Slaw

I can honestly say that I didn't think that I liked coleslaw until my mum made homemade coleslaw when we first bought a food processor. Homemade coleslaw really tastes so much better than the insipid and soggy vegetables swamped in mayo that you often get in stores. If you have a food processor it really is so easy and quick to make coleslaw and you can vary the flavor any way you like really. Some of my favorite versions include thinnly sliced kohl rabi instead of cabbage, using lots of carrots and adding a good dash of curry powder in the mayo or how about chopped jalapeno peppers, fresh cilantro and a squeeze lime for a spicy version. I often make a big batch to take to a bbq or picnic and I have never had to take any home with me afterwards. You can use a vegan mayo for this recipe if you require it to be dairy or egg free and as not much mayo is needed for this recipe it makes little different to the texture or flavor of this coleslaw.

Minted Courgette/Zucchini Soup

The best thing about being back home is seeing my family after nearly a year away from them. I was lucky enough to make a flying visit up to my parents in our first week back to the UK. I  saw the alloment plots that they have been working on all this year and see (and eat) all the lovely produce that is ready for harvesting. Here is a picture of my parents' alloment looking very neat and tidy after a little weeding and trimming. It is hard to believe that less than 6 months ago this area was just a regular field grazed by the occassional cow and it is now feeding lots of people with yummy organic produce.

Needless to say I managed to bring home a massive bag of produce freshly picked from the allotment. A pretty good exchange for a couple of hours gardening. However, as with most vegetable garden owners there comes a point when you just don't know what to do with all your zucchinis or courgettes as we call them in the UK. Hence this yummy soup came about to use up a few. I have to say this was yummy with a real summery feel to it and along with curried courgettes and courgette cake this makes a lovely way to use them up.

Tasty Italian Style Beans

It is National Vegetarian Week in the UK (23rd -29th May) and I this got me thinking about recipes that epitomise a healthy and balanced vegetarian diet. I have been vegetarian for 18 years now (wow writing that makes me feel old!) and I am healthy and thoroughly enjoy the food options I eat and very rarely feel that I am missing out. When I first became veggie I was what I would class as an unhealthy vegetarian. I ate exactly what I used to eat except that I substituted real meat with fake meat e.g quorn, fake bacon and textured vegetable protein products. Now, I am not against these products at all, they are tasty, convenient and help ease some vegetarians and vegans into their chosen dietary regimes. In fact, I have had a few mock meat meals in Singapore that have been outstanding in terms of the effort that has gone into making these dishes look like the real thing (I mean who needs their fake prawn to have the exact colouring and pattern of a real prawn!). However, for me personally, my diet improved dramatically when I stopped trying to make my meals like those that I had had as a carnivore and started  using vegetables, beans and lentils as the starting point for dishes. After all, all heavily processed foods should really only feature ocassionally in our diet and fake meats are no exception. What's more lentils and beans are generally low GI, low in fat and a good source of dietary fibre, protein and vitamins and minerals.  Pulses are, for me, an important part of any diet but particularly a vegetarian diet and deserve to be used more and loved a lot. I will be trying to convert everyone to loving lentils and beans with my next few recipes. Have I won you over yet?

If you are not convinced about beans or lentils yet, here is a very easy and tasty recipe to hopefully get you into this wonderful and very useful food group. It is basically a grown up version of baked beans. It can also be used as a canape or appetiser spread on thin toasts or blitzed in the blender to make a tasty dip to serve with veggie crudites. 

Vegan Ngoh Hiangs/Loh Bak or Chinese Sausage Rolls

Happy Vesak Day! Today is a public holiday in Singapore and the event is pretty much the biggest celebration in the Buddhist calender. It is a celebration/remembrance of Buddha's birth, his enlightment and passing away. It is common to eat vegetarian food at this time as a way to show compassion for all living things. Therefore, today's recipe is vegan and suitable for strict buddhist vegetarians who don't eat the 5 pungents. However, I add a small amount of leek as I had it in the fridge but omit if required. Even better, this dish is gluten free which all my recipes this week will be as part of the Coeliac UK's Awareness week.

I love these little beancurd skin rolls which are really quite meaty and tasty. They are called Ngoh Hiang in Singapore after the five spice powder used to season them and more commonly called Lor Bak in Malaysia. The first time I tried one it was under the guise of a vegetarian sausage roll which is kind of how I think of them now. This recipe owes a lot to Rasa Malaysia's recipe for vegetarian Loh Bak but with extra ingredients to make it closer to the versions I have tried in Singapore. 

Eggplant & Black Bean Siew Mai

After potstickers I think these are the easiest dim sum items to make although I find them a little tricky to make them look pretty. Mine kept slumping on the plate as if the they had all the worries of the world on their shoulders. Luckily, I ate them and put them out of their misery. Next time I make them I will chop the filling more finely to hopefully make a sturdier siew mai.

These Siew Mai are traditionally made with minced pork but I got this vegetarian version off the Vegetarian Times website which has a whole page on veggie dim sum. If you want to make this recipe gluten free I think it would be better to use rice wrappers and make these into steamed dumplings rather than the siew mai shape which requires a sturdier wrapper. They will taste just as good and will be a lot easier to eat with chop sticks. If you need this dish to be gluten free make sure that the sauces and seasonings used in the mixture are also gluten free. These dumplings, like the potstickers from earlier in the week, can be frozen after assembling and steamed from frozen.

Spring Onion (Scallions) Pancakes

These crispy pancakes are a popular dim sum dish and make a great snack/appertiser that can be made from just a small number of cupboard standby ingredients. There are versions that are made from a yeast risen dough but given the difference in time required for rising I prefer these no rise one. Although called a pancake, it is closer to a fried bread and is best served with a dipping sauce. This scaled dough recipe can be used to make other dim sum dishes by making pockets of dough stuffed with a variety of ingredients such as tofu and veggies and then fried to make a kind of chinese pasty.

These pancakes can be frozen before frying and then cooked from frozen in a frying pan which is ideal as this recipe makes 6 large pancakes.

Steamed Radish Cake

This dish is a popular dim sum offering that normally contains dried shrimp, chinese sausage or bacon. The mixture is first steamed to set it and then can be cut into slabs and fried to a golden brown crust.  I think it is best served with spring onions/scallions, sliced chills or chilli sauce and sweet soya sauce. 

Here I have added mushrooms and onion but have kept it fairly plain but if you want a more varied filling for these cakes then you could try this recipe at Just Bento. I wanted it plain and authentic as I am looking forward to making the oddly named carrot cake (chai tau kway), which is a popular hawker dish here in Singapore. Needless to say it most definitely is not related to the classic British carrot cake

Once again this is a recipe that can be frozen in slabs after the steaming process although they will need defrosting for a few hours before frying to ensure that they cook through.

Tofu & Cabbage Potstickers

Continuing on from yesterday's bao/buns is the potsticker. A dumpling that is both pan fried and steamed at the same time resulting in one crispy golden side and one gooey side. These are one of the easiest dumplings to make and were my first attempt at dim dum. 

These little dumplings can be made up to the point of cooking and then refrigerated for up to a day or frozen and cooked straight out of the freezer.

I also made some of these potstickers gluten free by using the rice paper roll sheets that I made vietnamese salad rolls with instead of the wanton wrappers. They are more fiddly to make as the rice wrapper is harder to handle and need to be cut to size using either a cookie cutter or scissors or even a pizza cutter. They also don't look quite so pretty as they are more translucent and so you can see the filling. However, they do work and hold together and taste just as good as the original. 

Vegetarian Steamed BBQ Bun

I decided that this week would be Dim Sum week with all the posts relating to a dim sum dish. All the dishes will be vegetarian and most will also have adaptation to allow them to be gluten free. There will be a range of dishes that will explore some of the most commonly found dim sum methods and components. 

I love veggie dim sum and on our last two trips to Hong Kong we have gone out of our way to eat as much vegetarian dim sum as was physically possible. Yummy! There does seem to be a heavy use of mock meats in some of these places but to be honest I prefer dim sum where vegetables are used for a lighter dish but feel free to include mock meats if you prefer.

First up is the bbq bun which is a vegetarian version of the Char Siew Bao (barbecue pork bun). It has a filling of meaty mushrooms, crunchy water chestnuts and sweet peas all in a tasty bbq sauce. 

There is no denying that making these little treats takes a bit of time. However, the majority of the time required is waiting for the dough to rise otherwise there is very little to do. The process can be cut down by using a bao premix (for which you just need to follow the directions on the packet) but as these mixes aren't always easy to find I have given the classic bao dough recipe. These buns can be made in a big batch and then frozen, making this the perfect weekend project. To reheat all you need to do is take them out of the freezer and steam them from frozen. 

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs

The scotch egg, for those who haven't grown up with this snack, is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, breadcrumbed and then deep fried. It is traditionally eaten cold at picnics, in a packed lunch or as finger food at parties and I think it is delicious with Heinz salad cream.

In recent history the scotch egg had become a sad orange-crumbed shadow of its former self that could be found in supermarkets, motorway service stations and corner shops to satisfy the hungry & desperate. However, I am glad to report that over the last couple of years there has been something of a renaissance for the lowly scotch egg with artisan varieties to be found at delicatessens, country fairs and food shows. Yippee, is all I can say. It is about time that this dish got a makeover.

This recipe is a basic vegetarian version made with beans instead of sausage meat but once you have mastered the basic technique you can have a go at making some different flavoured ones. How about adding hoisin sauce and spring onions or curry paste and fresh coriander or sundried tomatos and thyme. Or how about changing the standard chicken egg for duck eggs for a real yolky treat or quails eggs for hors d'oeuvre sized scotch eggs. There really is no end to the possibilities for homemade scotch eggs.

This dish can be gluten free by ensuring the seasonings (e.g. stock/boulion & mustard) are gluten free and that the flour and breadcrumbs are substituted for gluten free versions. If you cannot get hold of  gluten free breadcrumbs you can make your own with gluten free bread or rolls blitzed in the food processor and gently baked in the oven until crisp.

Halloumi with Lemon Dressing

I had some halloumi cheese left over from my earlier post for vegetarian fish & chips and one of my favourite quick suppers is halloumi with a spicy lemon dressing. Unlike the fish and chips recipe, this dish really lets the halloumi be the star, retaining its firm squeaky texture. The cheese is dry fried until golden and served with a sweet and sour dressing to cut through the saltiness of the cheese. This can be served over rocket/argula leaves as an appertiser or light lunch or alternatively made into a main course when served with steamed couscous (or quinoa or millet if you need it to be gluten free) and asparagus spears.

Vietnamese Style Rice Paper Rolls

At the end of March we headed up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand for an activity packed weekend away. One of the great things we did was a thai cooking class. I will try to reproduce some of the dishes in the near future but this recipe is not one of them. Why then, you are wondering, don't I get to the point of how this relates to this recipe. Well we made spring rolls which were delicious and very easy to make but they are something I had never got around to making as I thought they would be really fiddly - but great news is they aren't and they taste great. So although my spring rolls were rather deformed I thought I would try another recipe that requires careful wrapping - the spring rolls' healthy sibling - the rice paper roll. It is stuff full of crisp cool veggies, low in fat and requires little cooking which is perfect for those days when you really don't want to stand in front of the stove.

Now that the stickier humid weather is back with us in Singapore (not that is ever very cool here) I think I will be making these little lovelies quite a bit using what ever veggies and fresh herbs I have to hand. I made half of these rolls with prawns for my OH, JC, and replaced them with oyster mushrooms for me. I think you could put whatever you like in these from mango to chicken or avocado to tofu just remember to use lots of nice fresh herbs and a tasty dipping sauce.I served mine with two dipping sauces but you could just serve with good quality shop bought sweet chilli sauce if you prefered. The hoisin & peanut dipping sauce is not gluten free as most hoisin sauces contain small amounts of wheat. I have therefore included a sweet & sour dipping sauce which is gluten free which is nice but there are no photos of it.