Foaming Hollandaise Sauce

This is a Delia Smith recipe that I really like as it doesn't  tend to curdle, doesn't use more yolks than whites and is lighter than a traditional hollandaise sauce. It is perfect as it can be reheated and you can freeze it. You will need a blender or food processor for this. The original recipe can be found here.

Christmas Menu of Wild Rice Stuffed Squash, Cider Braised Red Cabbage & Gluten and Dairy Free Bread Sauce

I know it is a bit late in the day but I thought I would finally get around to posting about our Christmas dinner dishes. This is more of a theoretical exercise as we are going to my other half's family on Christmas day. So here is my virtual Christmas day menu.  Below are links to recipes I would use followed by my recipes for wild rice stuffing for the squash, braised red cabbage and bread sauce.

Maple Glazed Turkey for the meat eaters

Stuffed Squash for the veggies or Parsnip, Cranberry & Chestnut Loaf

Wild Rice Stuffing

Roasted Root Vegetables

Roasted Green Beans with Lemon & Garlic

Cider Braised Red Cabbage

Gravy, Cranberry Sauce & Bread Sauce 

Followed by 

Christmas Pudding & Brandy Butter

Quite a bit of it could be made in advance and reheated on the day for an easy relaxed Christmas morning in the kitchen. The day before I would make the wild rice stuffing up until the point where you put it in the oven, I would also make the red cabbage to be reheated in a crockpot or in a pan the next day. I would also steep the milk with the onion, bay leaves and cloves overnight. A family tradition is to all help to peel and cut up our root vegetables the night before which are then left in cold water overnight until needed the next day. Yes you will lose some of the water soluble vitamins but for one day does it really matter? If you do all this the hopefully, apart from the turkey cooking in the oven, everything else can be done in the hour leading up to serving.

 Merry Christmas everybody!

Dairy Free Brandy 'Butter'

Brandy butter is great on warm mince pies and is must for melting over you Christmas pudding, well this is all true if you are my other half who spoons bucket loads of the stuff over any Christmas dessert and, annoyingly never puts on a pound. As he cannot be trusted to leave well alone from dairy if it is in the form of brandy butter or cheese I decided to make a dairy free version in an attempt to save him from himself. It works really well with the vegan and dairy free sunflower oil based margarine I use. If you can have butter then just substitute in unsalted butter and make sure it is at room temperature so that the sugar and brandy can easily be combined with it. 

Pea Sauce for Pasta or Gnocchi

With the weather turning and the nights drawing in I fancied something bright green, fresh tasting and spring like to keep the feeling of summer going just a little bit longer. So I came up with this pea puree to use as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi or even as a vegetable side dish. It is so quick and simple that is has become one of my quick go to supper dishes.  Plus I almost always have all the ingredients to hand.

Spiced Pickled Onion and Beetroot in Vinaigrette

My mum and dad have had a very productive summer in the allotment and my mum has been busy preserving some of their produce. These yummy spiced red onions are made from a Use Real Butter recipe which is amazing. They have a much more interesting taste than the often ridiculously sharp large pickled onions you get in store. I think jars of this would make a wonderful present and it is a great way to use up a glut of red onions. I also made some 'pickled beetroots' which are marinaded in a sweet spicy vinaigrette as I didn't want to just repost someone elses recipe although if just one more person tries these onions because of me it will definitely be worth my time posting this. Both these recipes are great for impatient people like myself as both can be eaten as soon as they are made. These recipes are wonderful with bread and cheese or cold meat. 

 

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.

Vegetarian Beer Battered 'Fish' & Chips

With the Royal Wedding putting the UK into the spotlight as well as a reminder of our recent trip to New Zealand where fish and chips is a considered a national dish I thought I would have a go at a vegetarian version of this traditional dish. I used slices of Halloumi cheese as an alternative to fish although you could use tofu instead as a vegan/dairy free alternative and use vegan mayo for the aioli. I made halloumi fish for me and beer battered snapper for my OH so if you can eat fish feel free to use this recipe with any chunky white fish. You can also make a gluten free batter with sparkling water or a gluten free beer and substitute plain flour for a gluten free one. I have included variations of the recipe in italics next to the recipe where the recipe need changing to accommodate gluten free 

I served this dish with simple sweet potato chips, herby peas and lemon aioli -yummy. Just makes sure you leave enough space for this filling dish!

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.