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.

Five Ways with Capricorn Goat's Cheese

Last year I won a "best blog award" sponsored by Capricorn goats cheese, and my prize was... a year's supply of goat's cheese! I was very pleased and quite intrigued to see how much a year's supply would turn out to be, and whether they would send it all in one go... luckily they sent me vouchers instead. I received 24 vouchers, each for 100g of goat's cheese worth £2, which works out at a packet of goat's cheese every fortnight. Unfortunately it took me a little while to find anywhere that would accept the vouchers  - through trial and error I found that the only supermarkets which appear to stock Capricorn are Waitrose and Tesco and the vouchers could only be used in store and not for online orders. There was a small Waitrose and a small Tesco near my office (there is neither near my home) and for several weeks I went in only to find the shelf space for the Capricorn cheese empty. I'm not sure if they were having supply issues - this was near the start of the year when big parts of the west country suffered from flooding and Capricorn is based in Somerset after all. Eventually the goat's cheese came back in stock and I was able to use my vouchers, though Tesco told me I could not use more than one voucher at a time. Even so, it won't be hard to use them all!

I love goat's cheese, particularly the soft kind, and there are so many things you can do with it. Here I'm going to give you five ideas.

First of all here's an idea from my mum as I gave her a few of the vouchers: grilled mushrooms with goat's cheese. You need one large portabello mushroom per person, which you fry on both sides in plenty of oil to keep them moist. Slice the cheese and place on top of the mushroom, and place under a hot grill for a few minutes. These are great as a starter or as part of a salad.

Speaking of salad, goat's cheese is a lovely addition to any kind of salad but one flavour it goes particularly well with is pear. For this salad I made some toast - Melba toasts would probably be better to use here - and used little gem lettuce as it's my favourite kind. Peel and slice a ripe pear and arrange on the plate and then place a portion of goat's cheese in the middle. This is particularly nice if you warm the cheese in the microwave for a few seconds so it softens and the inside is runny. Finally drizzle with balsamic glaze or balsamic vinegar and serve.

From salad to burgers... my staff canteen at work was advertising a burger with goat's cheese one day which I thought sounded lovely, and wasn't something I had eaten before. But when I got to the counter I found that while the sign said goat's cheese, what they put in my burger was most definitely stilton. Never mind... so the next time I cooked a burger at home I decided to try it with a slice of goat's cheese. If you haven't tried this particular combination then I recommend it!

Gnocchi
I don't often eat gnocchi and have never made it before but I do enjoy it, so when I came across a recipe on the BBC Food website for goat's cheese gnocchi I decided to give it a go. It's fairly simple to make but there is obviously a trick to getting it just right as mine was quite doughy. To make enough for three or four people (depending on appetite) you need:
2 large potatoes
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
150g goat's cheese

For the sauce:
200ml chicken stock
150ml double cream

Peel the potatoes, bring to the boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes until tender. Mash the potato and gradually add the flour, mixing together to make a dough. Add the goat's cheese and mix in.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface into a long sausage shape and cut into small pieces.

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and drop in the gnocchi. They only take a few minutes to cook and are ready when they float to the surface.

To make the sauce, bring the stock to simmering point in another pan, remove from the heat and stir in the cream. I made this to go with chicken breasts so I cooked the chicken in the sauce. Add the gnocchi to the pan with the sauce and serve.

Ravioli
On a similar note I decided to make ravioli. You can easily find a recipe for the basic pasta dough online; I have a pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid which is great.

Roll out the pasta and cut into squares and place a few pieces of cooked bacon and a bite-sized piece of goat's cheese on each pasta square.

Place another square of pasta on top and press the edges to seal. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil.

Boil for a few minutes until the pasta is cooked. I served these sprinkled with parmesan cheese - the ravioli parcels are quite uneven so I think I should get the special ravioli attachment for my Kitchenaid next!

National Spam Appreciation Week - Spam and Mushroom Filled Pancakes

Spam, spam, spammity spam - I'm not really a Monty Python fan and I wasn't sure I remembered ever having eaten Spam either, though according to my mother we had it a lot when I was a child!

March 3rd sees the start of National Spam Appreciation Week and it seemed a good time to reintroduce my tastebuds to the chopped pork and ham that is Spam. The name apparently comes from the description of spiced pork and ham. Did you know that it was invented during a meat crisis- but rather than when meat was scarce, it was when there was too much meat? There was an excess of pork which would not keep for long, and the head of Hormel Food Company in Minnesota had the idea of grinding up the pork, mixing it with ham and cooking it to create a long-life meat product. This was all the way back in 1937 and Spam has been around ever since. It is widely associated with war time when meat was more scarce - and also famous due to the Monty Python sketch and Spamalot musical.


I think people who turn their nose up at canned meat should also ask themselves whether they have ever eaten corned beef, as that's not much different  - and that was another staple of my childhood. I buy tinned ham occasionally as I think it works really well in pasta bakes, and I found that the Spam had a similar taste and texture.

I was sent three packs of Spam to try out - it's also interesting that it now comes in plastic tubs, so you don't need a tin opener - making it ideal to take on camping trips or picnics. I had a look at the Spam website where there are loads of recipes, and chose to make these Spam and Mushroom Filled Pancakes (or "Spamcakes"!). I made them for lunch with my parents and we all really enjoyed them. I made it slightly differently to the directions, as time was ticking on and I didn't want to wait the extra 20 minutes to cook the pancakes in the oven at the end, and so rather than sprinkle the cheese over the top I incorporated it into the sauce, which was delicious. I also doubled the quantity of the pancake mixture given, but I did make quite large, thick pancakes, so that part is up to you!

To serve three/four, you need:

For the pancakes:
200g plain flour
pinch of salt
3 eggs
500ml milk
Oil or Fry Light for frying

For the filling:
340g can of Spam chopped pork and ham, diced
1 small onion, finely chopped
115g mushrooms, sliced
50g butter
40g plain flour
300ml milk
100ml single cream
60g grated cheddar

I started on the filling first, as it took a little longer and the pancakes were quite quick,though I would also recommend making the pancake batter and allowing it to stand while you make the filling.

Fry the onion and mushrooms in a small frying pan. Meanwhile melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the flour to make a roux. Beat in a little of the milk and then gradually add the rest of the milk and the single cream. Stir in the grated cheddar and heat the sauce until melted then stir in the onion, mushrooms and diced Spam. Heat until the sauce has thickened.

For the pancakes, make a well in the flour in a bowl and break in the eggs; beat in a little of the milk to make a paste then the rest of the milk and the salt. Heat some oil or Fry Light in a frying pan, pour in a thin layer of pancake batter and cook on both sides until browned. Keep the pancakes warm either in the oven or under a layer of foil.

When the filling has thickened, spoon onto each pancake.

I rolled the pancakes but I think they would have looked nicer folded in half to make a semicircle. Either way, they tasted delicious!

Pork in a Spiced Cider and Mustard Sauce

 I created this original recipe for the Co-operative Electrical's Winter Warmer competition. I thought about the flavours and textures that I like to eat on a cold winter's day and wanted as well to keep the recipe largely British, to showcase some of the Co-operative Food's best ingredients. Pork and apples is a great traditional combination so I decided to use cider rather than apple sauce and slow cook the pork in the oven in a casserole dish so it would be beautifully tender. I love the zingy taste of mustard and there are some great mustards available from the Co-op, so I decided to combine two of them from the Co-operative's Truly Irresistible range, the wholegrain and the dijon, in this recipe. However, I also wanted to add an original twist and a slightly unexpected flavour that people would enjoy and perhaps wonder what it was - so I used star anise. Mushrooms add to the texture and make the dish more substantial; what's more this is a relatively inexpensive recipe as you could substitute pork chops for the pork fillet.

To serve 4, you need:
about 750g pork fillet

salt

pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, diced

100g button mushrooms, halved.

150ml Co-operative Tillington Hills premium dry cider

100ml pork or chicken stock made up from a stock cube

1 tbsp Co-operative Truly Irresistible wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp Co-operative Truly Irresistible dijon mustard

2 star anise

150ml plain yogurt (optional)

1 tsp cornflour

Preheat the oven to 180C. In a large frying pan, season the pork fillet and sear on both sides in a little oil then remove from the pan.

In the same pan, fry the chopped onion and button mushrooms until browned.

Make up the stock cube and mix with the cider in a large jug. Stir in both mustards. Place the pork fillet in a large casserole dish, add the onion and mushroom and star anise, and pour the liquid over the top.

Cover and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Five minutes before the end, remove from the oven, carefully pour off the liquid into a small pan and re-cover the pork to keep warm. It doesn't matter if a little of the onion and mushroom gets into the pan, but do remove the star anise.

Mix the cornflour with a little water and stir into the liquid in the pan. Heat, stirring, until the liquid has thickened and reduced.

If you want a thicker, creamier sauce, you can stir in a couple of spoonfuls of plain yogurt or creme fraiche. Slice the pork fillet on the diagonal and pour over the sauce to serve.

This goes really well with mashed potato and green veg like cabbage or broccoli and carrots. It's a lovely winter warmer!

I am sending this to Co-operative Electrical for their Winter Warmer competition; you can enter the competition here.

Russian Shashlik Kebabs

You may already have noticed that my birthday party had a Russian theme this year... I made a vodka and lime cake shaped like a Russian doll, some chocolate vegan cupcakes decorated with Russian doll wafers, and some sugar cookies (which also happened to be vegan) which I decorated to look like Russian dolls.

I also wanted to make some savoury food as we were going out in the evening to the local greyhound stadium (I thought we'd do something a bit different!). It needed to be something that wouldn't take too long to prepare, since I had to do all the baking as well, and also be easy to make vegetarian and meat options - oh, and ideally be finger-food as I barely had enough room for everyone to sit down! I also wanted to tie the food into the Russian theme of the party so had a look online and found all sorts of  'interesting' Russian foods I could cook... then was very pleased to discover this recipe for Shashlik kebabs, which are apparently Russian.

It's a simple recipe that essentially involves marinading chunks of lamb in a mixture of onion, garlic, shallots, parsley, cayenne pepper and pomegranate juice. I'm not entirely sure to what extent this is Russian, or why, but it sounded nice and fit my requirements, so I decided to make it, and thread the lamb chunks onto skewers with mini potatoes and vegetables as well.

I decided to make some garlic mushrooms by marinading mini button mushrooms in a mixture of garlic puree and melted butter, though I used dairy-free margarine so these were suitable for vegans.

I then followed the recipe and mixed onion, garlic, parsley and pomegranate juice

Marinading cubes of lamb in the mixture

I threaded the lamb onto kebabs along with mini onions, red, green and orange peppers, the garlic mushrooms and mini baby new potatoes which I had pre-roasted. Rather than grill the kebabs I oven-cooked them as it meant I didn't have to worry so much about keeping an eye on them. They were pretty tasty and it was good to be able to combine different items for meat eaters, vegans, and people who are just generally a bit fussy!