Over the past few days, veganised macaroni cheese, pancakes, scones, spaghetti bolognese, and chocolate mousse.
The mousse wasn’t the greatest (sadly, as it was a request), but I was really very happy with most of the results. The pancakes are an ongoing experiment/evolution which are moving in a very pleasing direction, as this batch cooked and flipped extremely easily compared to my previous iterations.
I was planning to make ratatouille as well and didn’t have time, but I’ll do that on the weekend.
On the bad side, my food processor/blender may have actually died… the last time I thought it was broken it came back to life, but it’s not looking promising. I use it so much that I’ll be wanting to invest in a really robust good quality replacement. Actually figuring out the best option at such times is always such a pain, but hopefully I’ll end up with something which will last a really long time, and handle anything I throw at it.
All I can recommend is that you avoid the Kenwood FPM910. It’s actually a jolly good machine, but the handle of the main mixing bowl is over-complicated and contains many small fragile components, including metal screws into plastic; and when they break the connection which tells the machine that the bowl is attached and closed stops working. I think we’ve averaged more than one replacement bowl per year over the five year guarantee that will be running out soon.
Tonight I made one of my traditional stews. By which I mean I started with a recipe; significantly changed the quantities; improvised with some of the ingredients; realised that I’d gotten various proportions badly wrong; tried to fix it by adding more and more ingredients; and ultimately spent about 2 hours longer than planned; until finally everything I’d thrown into the Frankenstew seemed to be fully cooked, and I’d ended up with something that looks pretty bad but thankfully tastes perfectly fine (which is always a relief, because after all the additions there’s inevitably a lot of it).
I was making lunch and dinner for a family gathering, and cooked a ton of things.
Seed crackers (pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, chia, and linseed)
Marinated tofu salad with cherry tomatoes, capers, and olives
Bulghur wheat* with kidney beans, corn kernels, and pumpkin seeds
Cauliflower curry
Cauliflower and quinoa balls in masala sauce
Apple and ginger dhal
(*) I’d not used this before, but it must surely be the least-time/effort grain I’ve ever cooked with. From the packet, just add boiling water, cover for 10 mins, and it’s ready to eat! You could bulk up any meal with this stuff in a jiffy.
I made as many of the dishes as possible the previous day (along with chia pancakes for my partner’s sister and her husband who visited for lunch the day before my family), so I basically spent that whole day in the kitchen, but it all turned out well (which was a relief, as pancakes aside these were all new recipes for me). I was marinating the tofu overnight, so I cooked the rest of that dish in the morning before people arrived for lunch, and in the evening had to bake the cauli/quinoa balls (which I’d already prepared) and make the masala sauce for them, and get everything else re-heated for serving (I definitely should have taken dinner things out of the fridge earlier in the day!).
Dessert was a trio of fruity sorbets and coconut ice-cream (I didn’t make any of these, but they were all good).
Our dishwasher then chose this particular day to form a fault, and it sounds like it’s going to be about a fortnight before it can be serviced – but I’m having a day of doing nothing today, so the dishes can wait until tomorrow!
Bulgur is a really good ingredient if you want to make meatless versions of Chili Con Carne. Sine Carne I mean When it turns out perfect, it gets almost the consistency of ground meat, when it is not perfect it is still quite good. It is also a good ingredient for a variety of salads.
Ever since my Celiac diagnosis almost two years ago, my relationship with food and cooking cratered, and I spent at least 50% of the time just drinking Huel to survive.
That’s started to take it’s toll mentally–physically I’m fine–and the cost of the rest of the house eating out so much has also added up, so I’ve been trying to get back to cooking again and find some new recipes that require minimal prep work.
Today I made a vegetarian red beans and rice using one of the few gluten free vegetarian chickens out there. It came out really well. Needed a touch more salt when cooking–but that was pretty easily rectified by sprinkling some flake salt on top–and the beans were slightly under cooked but otherwise it was really good.
Forgot to buy or thaw bread, so for our lunch (which is our breakfast) we had the most delicious „Asian Carbonara“ which is from my Asian Vegetarian cookbook: Udon Noodles with some egg yolk + soy sauce and a garnish of Furikake seasoning. This is one of those incredibly fast dishes I can make during my lunchbreak.
Tonight, I made the falafel mix too soft and so rolled them in panko and that came out so incredibly nice and crispy… I think I‘ll never do it any other way now. This came with a side of carrot salad and a yoghurt dip and some sriracha (almost every dish can be improved with sriracha).
No pics. Everything was gone before I thought of it.
Lamb raan - marinaded then slow cooked lamb (recipe says leg, we used a shoulder). Then shredded, fried until crispy and add a sauce made from the marinade and cooking juice.
Lamb samosas using the samosa maker the eldest got for Christmas. They were really good, with a nice bit of crunch. Not as good as frying, but a lot safer for a 15 year old and probably healthier.
Chicken korma - in case the kids didn’t eat the lamb. They did! Not my cup of tea, but it was a good curry.
When it turns out perfect, it gets almost the consistency of ground meat, when it is not perfect it is still quite good. It is also a good ingredient for a variety of salads.
