June 2012
13 posts
12 tags
Baked Eggs Florentine
The day after our wedding reception in Liverpool all I could think about was gorging on eggs, bread and fat (it was a very good party). Luckily, we were staying at the London Carriage Works where their Eggs Florentine comes in a big ramekin and smothered with what I think is Mrs. Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese. Nom.
I’ve been playing around with making my own version at home, but sadly poaching...
9 tags
Purple Asparagus
It’s been a funny year for asparagus. Bad weather delayed the British season by two weeks, which had me tearing my hair out back at the start of May. Happily though, this means that the season is only just ending and you can still grab a bunch if you’re quick. Most shops are starting to run out of it now, but yesterday I hunted some down in M&S - a British purple variety, which I’d never...
11 tags
Västerbottensost mini-loaves
A few weeks ago I made these little beauties - mini loaves made with Västerbottensost, which is a lovely Swedish cheese. I followed Bertinet’s standard bread recipe from Dough, and worked in about 100grams of the cheese, which tastes a bit like a tangier, but softer parmesan. There’s a lot of resting and proving in this recipe, but it’s worth the wait. To make the standard white bread dough:...
7 tags
Being a Vegetarian at Noma
Somehow @topfife and I have been lucky enough to go to the world’s best restaurant Noma three times. It’s been a mixture of daring and luck, but I suspect it’s something to do with the fact that we’re young and excitable and clearly not rich, as I spotted this lovely quote from Rene Redzepi recently. When he was 18, he saved up for months to eat at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Arzak:
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12 tags
Courgette, quinoa and samphire salad
Today’s lunch was supposed to be this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall salad, but I added samphire because I still had half a pack, and basil because I love it too much. To be honest, I didn’t really follow the recipe much at all (I made it without butter), but that’s ok - it was really tasty and makes for a pretty picture.
8 tags
Torvehallerne
On our last day in Copenhagen in April, we dragged our families to Torvehallerne - an incredible indoor market in the Nørrebro district (just up from Nørreport station). I’m not sure if they enjoyed it as much as we did, but I spent a good hour taking pictures of the incredible vegetables on display, and lamenting that we were going back to England that same day. I suppose it wasn’t really...
7 tags
Perfect Carrot Cake
I like Felicity Cloake’s ‘Perfect’ blog for the Guardian very much. There’s much to like, particularly the fact that about half of her recipes are vegetarian, and that she’s done the amount of recipe perfecting that would take me months, maybe years if I were the one doing the hard work. I don’t think you generally have to worry about carrot cake being non-veggie, but my attempt at...
12 tags
Potato, samphire, baby spinach and pine nut salad
This was my lunch today (yes, I remembered to make something!) It is a variation on an Ottolenghi recipe, made with what I had in, rather than what the ingredients are supposed to be, and was obviously not warm. It was pretty tasty though, and I’ve got enough for tomorrow too. I’m finding it hard to find good recipes for samphire that don’t involve fish, so if you know of any send them my way.
8 tags
Northcote - 7 course vegetarian tasting menu
I firmly believe that it’s perfectly possible to be a vegetarian and a foodie. No, I don’t eat meat or fish - but I think that a good chef can be just as much an artist with vegetables, cheese and herbs than with lobster, lamb and steak.
Last year, on a whim, I booked a ‘gourmet break’ at Nigel Haworth’s 1 star Northcote, in Lancashire where the amazing Lisa Allen...
12 tags
Quinoa, breakfast radish and broad bean salad
At the start of the week I always intend to take my own lunch to work, but by Wednesday (probably Tuesday if I’m honest) I’ve given up and have resorted to stuffing my face at my desk with M&S hummus and pitta breads. This is one of my more successful lunch attempts. It’s an Ottolenghi recipe from Plenty (I forgot the avocado) and was pretty good. I used lime instead of...
11 tags
Vegetarian Kimchi
Kimchi is great - you make up a big batch, leave it to fizz in the fridge and you’ve got quick and healthy teas sorted for weeks. I’ve never bought pre-made kimchi in jars because it always has fish sauce and/or shrimp paste in, so we’ve started to make it ourselves (that’s me and @topfife). We use David Chang’s Momofuku recipe, and substitute the fishy ingredients...
11 tags
Huevos Rancheros
I’ve never been to Mexico so this recipe is probably far from authentic, but it’s a good way to eat your eggs in the morning, and it makes a pretty photograph.
INGREDIENTS
1 onion (diced, with some reserved for the guacamole) 1 clove of garlic (minced) 1 green pepper (diced) 1 red chilli 1 tin of tomatoes Cayenne pepper (2 tsp) Ground Cumin (1 tsp) Sea salt and black pepper Few...
5 tags
Paneer
Paneer is something that a lot of non-vegetarians don’t know too much about. It’s an Indian cheese (sometimes referred to as Indian Cottage Cheese, but I think that’s a tad misleading) and crops up in curries, or marinated and cooked on skewers. The picture above is of Paneer Tikka, which I ordered last night at Nirvana in Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent. It was particularly...
