Festive Eggnog Cheesecake

 

At Thanksgiving I saw these boxes of eggnog in Tesco (below). I've never tried eggnog but remember Penny from the Big Bang Theory drinking it straight from the carton ("It stopped being eggnog like a half hour ago. It's pretty much just rum now"). I thought it would be great to use in a dessert so just after Thanksgiving I went back to the shop, only to find none on the shelves.

 

I asked someone and he went on a mission into the stock room to track some down, leaving me standing in the world foods aisle for what felt like ten minutes - but that was handy as I spotted an ingredient beginning with X I could use for Alphabakes! When the Tesco worker finally came back with a box of eggnog, he told me it cost £6 - which I thought was pretty steep, but I hadn't realised it was imported from America, and given the effort he had put in to get me one, I felt bad just putting it back on the shelf so I decided to buy it!

 

 

I thought that both the flavour and texture of the eggnog would work really well in a cheesecake, and I love cheesecake at any time. I found this recipe on Taste of Home which I followed, but substituted digestive biscuits for Graham crackers (which are pretty much the UK equivalent). I also left out the rum extract as I thought a child might be eating this (I served it as part of a pre-Christmas meal with friends), even though you can get non-alcoholic rum flavouring, as I wasn't sure that she would like the taste. 

 

I blitzed the biscuit crumbs in a food processor, mixed with the melted butter and pressed into the bottom of a loose-bottomed cake tin. I baked it in the oven and allowed to cool as instructed.

 

Mixing the cream cheese, sugar, flour, eggs, eggnog and nutmeg:

Poured into the cake tin. It only just fit without over-spilling!

I baked the cheesecake in a water bath in the oven as the recipe described. Several cracks appeared on the top of the cheesecake but I think it still looked OK.

It came out of the tin perfectly and has a really good ratio of filling to crust.

This was an incredibly creamy cheesecake and seemed lighter than baked ones I have made before - it was really delicious. I didn't think I could particularly taste the eggnog but would have said instead it had a strong vanilla flavour, but my boyfriend said he could taste the eggnog. I think this would be a great dessert around Christmas time or Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

Vegan Christmas Dinner: Filo Vegetable Parcel

 

When I had my school friends over for a pre-Christmas dinner I made this turkey wellington; one of my friends is vegan so I made an alternative (I knew there were people present who wouldn't like any kind of vegan dish so there was no one-dish-suits-all option!). Of course, this is something that could be - and was - enjoyed by meat eaters as well. It's a filo pastry parcel containing roasted vegetables and would be a good option for a vegan or vegetarian Christmas dinner, or any regular dinner time really!

 

I based it on this recipe from the Food Network for a roasted vegetable strudel with red pepper coulis, but I didn't make the coulis due to lack of time and too many other things to cook at the same time, so instead served this with an orange sauce which was a lot quicker to make - some orange juice, cornflour and a little sweetener. I also forgot to add the tomatoes that were supposed to into the pastry parcel, as you roast the other veg first and add the tomatoes at the end - again I blame too much going on!

 

First roast a selection of vegetables - wintery ones are particularly good, though I included asparagus as that was in the recipe and I felt it added a little luxury, even though it isn't strictly asparagus season. First I roasted some sliced butternut squash, as I knew this would take longest, then added some carrot batons to the pan. In a second small pan I roasted sliced courgette, mushroom and asparagus spears. I roasted the veg in a little oil so the filling of the pastry wouldn't be dry.

 Don't forget to season the veg.

 

After roasting the veg, allow to cool. It's at this point you are supposed to add the tomatoes but I forgot! Place some sheets of filo pastry (I used the ready-made kind) on top of each other and spoon on a selection of the vegetables, then roll up the pastry like a strudel. I made two of these as you can see below.

Preheat the oven if necessary (if you roasted the veg in advance for instance). Bake the pastry parcels in the oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

Here you can see where I have cut the pastry in half. Each one of these parcels would serve two if there are side dishes to accompany, otherwise you could serve a whole one per person.

Here's a close-up of the filling. Have you made anything like this before, and how did it turn out?

I'm sending this to the Vegetable Palette challenge, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen, as the theme this month is festive veg.

Shaheen is also running the Eat Your Greens challenge, asking for entries featuring any green veg, so I am sending this to her for that challenge as well.

Turkey Wellington

 

 

I had some of my school friends over for a pre-Christmas dinner last weekend which was great fun - we had Christmas crackers containing whistles, that were numbered and sounded at a different pitch, and came with a songsheet so we attempted to play some Christmas carols, which was very funny.

 

I was planning to cook dinner for 9 people - my biggest dinner party ever, but now we have a new house there's a lot more room - but unfortunately one of my friends was ill so she and her husband didn't come.  When I was planning the food though I knew I needed to cook something that would feed a lot of people (aside from one vegan, as I made something different) and wanted to do a turkey as it was Christmas. But I wasn't sure how big a turkey I needed to feed 8 people, and didn't want to faff around with all the side dishes. I also didn't want to cook the exact same thing they would all be eating about ten days later!

 

I had an idea for a turkey dish that would be a one-pot meal (with some easy side dishes), go quite a long way and also not cost as much as a whole turkey - turkey wellington. I had a look online to see if I could find a recipe and was immediately taken with this turkey, brie and cranberry wellington from BBC Good Food. Mine didn't turn out anywhere near as pretty as the picture and I wasn't convinced by the brie in the middle - rather than melt, it held its shape and took on a bit of a rubbery texture. I wonder if there is another cheese that work better in this, though brie is quite Christmassy. So if you decide to give it a go, let me know what you think! Overall it was a really nice dish, a change from roast turkey but still very Christmassy. You could make this at any time of year and you could also make smaller portions - maybe individual wellingtons- with chicken breasts.

 

I bought a large turkey breast from Ocado and cut a slit in the middle, into which I spooned some cranberry sauce and then an entire wedge of brie. You also need to preheat the oven to 180C.

 

 

 

I used ready-made puff pastry to save time. I did make my own stuffing from sausage meat, adding sage, onion and breadcrumbs. I found it easier to roll out the pastry and spread the stuffing over the centre of the pastry than to put the stuffing onto the turkey breast.

 

I also found it easier to cover the turkey breast with two pieces of puff pastry and join them around the sides by rolling over the edges, rather than trying to wrap it in one huge piece of pastry. I finished the pastry with an egg wash (a beaten egg, brushed over, to help it brown) and then covered with foil as it went into the oven, as I didn't want the pastry to cook too quickly. I followed the packet instructions for the turkey and I think in total it took about three hours to cook.

 

Here it is when it came out of the oven.

The wellington was easy to slice and you can see the cheese and cranberry in the middle. One thick slice was plenty per person; I served this with roast potatoes and a selection of vegetables, and of course gravy. The turkey breast I'd bought had been cured so it fell apart easily; the texture was likened by one of my friends to slow-cooked ham!

 

 

It made a great centrepiece for a pre-Christmas dinner and was suitably festive without being exactly the same as what my friends would be eating on December 25th, so I was really pleased with it.

 

 

 

 

Vegan Lentil Loaf for Christmas or Thanksgiving

When I had friends over for a Thanksgiving dinner I made this turkey meatloaf and these sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and also served salad and potato wedges. One of my friends is vegan so she wasn't going to be able to eat the turkey meatloaf, and I wanted to make a meat and dairy-free version. I found this recipe for a vegetable lentil loaf on the Simple Veganista website and decided to make a version of it. I didn't make the glaze to go on top, and I baked it in two small square bowls - as I was making the other meatloaf at the same time and could only find one of my loaf tins! It was really interesting to see how the ground flaxseeds combined with water thickened to an eggy texture; this is apparently a good binder for use in vegan cooking.

It was really easy to make though you need a little time - you have to let the lentils stand for a while. I also felt my loaf needed more seasoning so I'd recommend to not stint on the salt and other flavourings. Also, if you are cooking a smaller amount or in smaller bowls like I was, the cooking time won't be as long.

I was quite pleased with this - as a meat eater, it's not what I would choose, and I'm not normally a fan of lentils, but I liked the way everything combined together into the loaf and with a bit more salt (it was definitely lacking) it was actually quite nice. My vegan friend seemed happy with it, hopefully not just out of politeness, as she did ask for the recipe!

Ready to go in the oven

You could mix this up by adding different vegetables - I think it would be nice with the addition of chopped butternut squash perhaps. I'd be interested to know if you are vegan or catering for a vegan, what you make for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!

 My Thanksgiving table - the vegan lentil loaf is in the square bowl in the middle

Another good thing about this recipe is that it's really cheap to make, if you don't have to buy the flaxseed specially (you only need a small amount, and I already had a packet in the cupboard). Lentils are very cheap and go a long way and you could even use leftover veg rather than chopping up fresh veg to put in it if you wanted for a cheap weeknight dinner (though if you are making it for Thanksgiving or Christmas you would want it to be special!). Since it's a pretty frugal recipe I'm sending this to Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

Dairy-free Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake

I had in my head that I would host a Thanksgiving dinner this year and invite all my uni friends, as we all have a lot to be thankful for - in my case not least the fact that my boyfriend and I have bought our dream home, and none of my friends have been over to visit yet.

I had planned a whole menu and one by one they declined or dropped out, until only a couple of people came in the end. By then I had already started making ahead some of the food so we had three desserts between six people! All the better to give everyone a choice...

One of my best friends is vegan so I usually make two desserts, one of them vegan. But this time I thought it would be nice for her to have a choice of what to eat so I made all three desserts vegan! In keeping with the Thanksgiving spirit I wanted to make something using pumpkin.

I recently bought a new book called Sweet Vegan by Emily Mainquist, to give me some inspiration for dairy-free desserts. There was a recipe for pumpkin pie but I chose instead a vanilla pumpkin cheesecake with a gingernut biscuit crust. Luckily gingernut biscuits are vegan!

Many of the recipes in this book use evaporated cane juice, which I'd never heard of. I discovered that it is a sugar substitute - and I thought caster sugar was fine for vegans, but apparently that isn't always the case. The website Vegan Connection states that: "Some refined sugars use bone charcoal as a decolourant. In the UK Tate and Lyle and Billingtons sugars are free of animal substances. British Sugar, trading as Silver Spoon (the largest UK supplier) state that their white sugar is vegan but they cannot guarantee their brown sugars as some bone charcoal may be used by their suppliers. No data is presently available concerning sugar in other countries."

So I think I am OK to continue using caster sugar but it's worth knowing there are alternatives. However, I couldn't get hold of any evaporated cane juice and instead decided to use agave nectar. I decided afterwards that was a mistake as it is extremely sweet (I could have cut down on the quantity) and as it's a thick liquid like honey, that may have changed the consistency of the cake - next time I would just use caster sugar. I did actually use a mix of caster sugar and agave nectar in the end as I realised the latter might make it too runny so I will give the recipe that I used here and you can let me know what you think or if you decided to try something else.

This recipe also introduced me to egg replacer, which I got very easily from Ocado. There are plenty of other ingredients you can use as a binder in vegan recipes, such as apple sauce, but this egg replacer froths up and thickens really well.

The recipe suggests to make a vanilla cheesecake mix and a pumpkin cheesecake mix and swirl the two together but I decided to make my whole cheesecake pumpkin flavour. I also left out the pecan nuts in the base as not everyone likes nuts, and I used a smaller quantity of the biscuits as the packet I had was 250g rather than 290g. So with the proviso about trying your own sugar substitute (or using caster sugar rather than the agave nectar) here's what I did:

You need:
250g packet gingernut biscuits
3 tbsp. melted vegan butter substitute eg Pure
700g silken tofu
100ml agave nectar
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
4 tsp egg replacer, mixed with 6 tbsp. water
250g canned pumpkin puree
2 tsp ground cinnamon
dairy-free white chocolate buttons to decorate

Preheat oven to 150C. Crush the biscuits in a food processor and mix with the melted butter substitute then press down into the bottom of a 9-inch loose-bottomed cake tin.

Beat the tofu with the agave nectar and sugar then add the vanilla and the blended egg replacer.

in the pumpkin puree and cinnamon and spoon the mixture onto the biscuit base.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour until set then leave to cool in the tin. To serve, remove from the tin and decorate with dairy-free white chocolate buttons.

The cheesecake was very nice and one of my (non-vegan) friends said it was the nicer of the two desserts I'd made. The texture is softer and a little grainier somehow than a 'normal' cheesecake and I was worried it would be overly sweet from the agave nectar but in fact it was just right. The ginger biscuit base was the best part in my opinion and now I know that the ginger biscuits I used are vegan I will have to incorporate them into another dessert!

Turkey Meatloaf With Apple and Celery

Christmas dinner is all about the roast turkey and I wouldn't do anything to the turkey other than roast it. However, I'm always looking for ways to use up leftover turkey after Christmas. I made this meatloaf with minced turkey for a Thanksgiving meal with friends and it worked really well as the main course, as it's easy to make in large quantities and you can make it ahead of time. But I think this would also work with finely chopped or even minced turkey if you have a mincer to use up the leftovers after Christmas. Or just make it for a regular meal!

I was inspired by this recipe on All Recipes.com though I made mine slightly differently. Here's what I did.

Serves 6

You need:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp. oil or Fry Light
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 apple, finely chopped
2 slices slightly stale bread, turned into breadrumbs - either by hand or in a food processor
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 tbsp. milk
large pinch of salt
pinch of dried sage
750g turkey mince

                                  

Preheat the oven to 175C. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onion, celery and apple until just starting to brown.

Transfer to a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs, cheese, milk, salt, sage and turkey mince.

Mix well, then press into a loaf tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes then slice into six to serve.

The meatloaf was really good and even my boyfriend who has never had meatloaf before, and doesn't like apple or celery, said he liked it. It had quite a soft texture and I think could have used a little more seasoning but otherwise was pretty good. I served it with green salad and sweet potatoes with marshmallow.

My Thanksgiving spread complete with Thanksgiving paper napkins

I'm sending this to Family Foodies, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers and Mash, and on alternate months Louisa at Eat Your Veg as the theme is festive food and you don't get much more festive than turkey!

 

I'm also sending this to Credit Crunch Munch, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Camilla at Fab Food 4 All, as meatloaf is a cheap way to feed a lot of people - you can either use leftovers or mince is generally cheaper than 'better' cuts of meat.

 

 

Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows

This month's Food 'n' Flix is all about Thanksgiving. The movie chosen by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen is called Pieces of April starring Katie Holmes (she of Dawson's Creek fame) as April.

The story centres around April and her boyfriend in their small, slightly run down apartment preparing a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner - they seem to know what they are doing even though Katie's sister later says she can't cook and is never in the kitchen. She also decorates and makes place cards for her family and has got up very early to put the turkey in the oven- it's clear that April is making a lot of effort. However, her family really don't want to go and talk about the disaster that is April's life as they make their road trip to see her, but her dad tries to defend her saying she has a job now and isn't going out with a drug dealer any more. We learn her mother is dying of cancer which is why April is so keen to get the family together for what may be their last Thanksgiving.

 

April's oven stops working and she has to go to the neighbours, who she doesn't really know, to ask to use their oven; a kindly couple who are initially hostile are moved by her story of how her mother is dying so they agree to eat their Thanksgiving dinner later so April can get started cooking hers in their oven. The couple are making all sorts of dishes from scratch whereas April is opening a can of processed cranberry sauce; April says she likes it from the can but the man says nobody likes it from the can. So they teach her how to make a proper cranberry sauce.

 

But after a while they need to use her own oven so April has to go round asking other neighbours,  most of whom don't want to help or who are a bit strange to say the least. She then finds a neighbour - played by Jack from Will and Grace- who has a fancy new oven and is happy for April to use it. He turns out to be quite strange too and for a while won't let April back into his apartment to get her turkey out of the oven; when she finally gets in she takes her half-cooked turkey and leaves.

 

When her family arrive they are horrified by April's neighbourhood and meeting her African-American boyfriend, who has been on his own mission throughout the film to get a suit so he can make a good impression. When April goes downstairs to greet them they have left and she breaks down in tears. They seem to have gone to a pub and are going to eat there instead, but when April's mum sees a little girl she is reminded of her daughter - even though we have been told earlier they never really got on- and she hitches a ride on a motorbike and turns up on April's door. Eventually the rest of her family follows and they have Thanksgiving together with all the neighbours who helped April.

 

This is described as a comedy but I didn't find it particularly funny; it's a bit depressing in places but also kind of heartwarming and it's nice how the neighbours and April's family finally come together.

So for Food 'n' Flix there was no question that I would make a Thanksgiving recipe - and there is one thing I've wanted to try for a while: sweet potato with marshmallows. Have any of my American readers (or anyone else) ever eaten this? I've seen it on TV and read about it as part of Thanksgiving meals but wonder if it is actually that common? I made it for some friends who had never heard of putting marshmallows on sweet potatoes and found myself repeatedly insisting "It's a thing! Nigella says so!".

The recipe is in Nigella's Feast - my copy of which is now signed by the lady herself after the event I went to last week. I didn't follow the exact quantities as I wasn't sure whether people would like this so wanted to make a smaller batch but the full recipe is here.

I used four sweet potatoes, which I wrapped in foil and put in the oven at 175C for an hour and a half, on a baking tray. When I unwrapped the potatoes I only had to make a slit in the skin for it to peel off, leaving me to scoop out the soft insides.

Spoon the sweet potato into a dish and add a spoonful of butter (I used vegan butter substitute), a glug of oil, a dash of lemon or lime juice, a pinch of salt and a generous pinch of cinnamon.

Mash together then spoon into an oven proof dish and smooth the top. Cover the top with marshmallows. I left a small section without marshmallows; the ones I used were red (OK, pink), white and blue star shaped marshmallows which my boyfriend's mum got me in America. So very Thanksgiving!

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. The marshmallows melted - it did look a bit random and most people only wanted to try a small spoonful!

 

 

You can see here a spoonful of the sweet potato and marshmallow next to some meat loaf I made. The sweet potato tasted surprisingly good - but very sweet and some of my friends said it tasted more like a dessert than a side dish! It might have looked better if I hadn't used coloured marshmallows (see Nigella's picture) but I do think mine looks quite festive. It's not a combination that I expect I will make again, but I did enjoy it!