Leek, Mushroom and Lemon Risotto

This recipe is a veganised version of a recipe I found in the wonderfully colourful Vegetarian. The lemon adds quite a nice flavour and considering that it is not a difficult recipe to prepare and that leeks have the nifty attribute of being in season in the UK from September to March I think this is a great recipe for cold winter nights. We shared this one over a bottle of wine with some friends.

If you want to try to keep to seasonal ingredients ignore the lemon rind and just use bottled lemon juice.

Leek, Mushroom and Lemon Risotto

225g trimmed leeks (about 3)

225g brown-cap mushrooms

2 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

salt and pepper

6 tbsp vegan butter

1 brown onion

1 3/4 cup aborio rice

5 cups vegie stock

3 tbsp lemon juice

lemon rind, grated

2/3 cup vegan parmesen

2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped

2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Wash the leeks and slice them in half lengthways then chop roughly. Chop the mushrooms roughly too. Heat oil in a saucepan and cook the garlic for 1 minute and then add the leeks, mushrooms and lots of salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes until soft and browned. Remove from pan and set aside.

Add 2 tbsp of the butter to the just emptied pan and cook the onion for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute until golden. Add a ladleful of stock and cook gently, stirring now and then. Once the liquid is absorbed add another ladleful until it is absorbed. Repeat this process until the risotto is thick and creamy and the rice is tender but not sticky.

Just before serving add the leeks and mushrooms with the rest of the butter, grated rind and 3 tbsp of the lemon juice. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

So as part of my new year resolution to eat healthy on week days I've been basically making every meal from Susan V's fantastic blog Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I've mentioned this blog a few times before but some of the recipes I've tried making recently were so fantastic that I thought I'd share my pictures and some comments. I'll link to each of the recipes but make sure you check out her whole recipe collection. She has this fantastic feature where you can pick out your favourite recipes or recipes you really want to try and put them into your "Recipe Box". At first I was a little surprised that a fat free blog won the VegNews Favourite Blog award for three years running but once I started cooking from her blog frequently I found out why!

Brussels Sprouts and Shiitake Mushroom Soup: This is by far my favourite recipe. So yummy on cold nights and such wonderful flavours. The brown rice takes a while to cook but it's a very easy recipe to make.

Spinach and Artichoke Pie: So Geoff couldn't get filo pastry and so bought shortcrust pastry instead. Not exactly fat free so I just ate the filling but it so so delicious that I scooped out inside of the left-over pie and hid it in the fridge so I could have it for lunch the next day too.

Chocolate-Orange Cake: I baked this cake for a friend in the lab for his birthday. I actually found it to be a little too dense for my liking but for a fat free cake it's brilliant and everyone in the office loved it. My supervisor liked it so much his wife asked me for the link.

Pasta with Asparagus, Cannellini Beans, and Porcini Cream: I was so excited about the flavour of the porcini cream for this recipe but when I put everything together it tasted a little floury. I also think I undercooked the asparagus.

Chickpea and Turnip Stew with Ethiopian Spices: I don't have a photo of my dish but this is me making up the spice mix. I didn't really like the flavour of this dish. I think I put too many cloves or something in it.

Orange Couscous Curry: This was tasty and very easy to make. We bought the mandarin pieces in a jar but I'm sure you could use fresh ones if you are lucky enough to be currently living in a country where fresh fruit doesn't taste like potato.

Monday: Mushroom & Tofu Strogonoff

I originally got the idea from this quirky blog. I think strogonoff is traditionally served on rice (and sans tofu) but I remember my mother making it with pasta when I was younger (I may have implanted that memory because Mum can't cook). But it was delicious! The only suggestions I'd make is to watch the salt levels in the vegie stock. You don't want it to be too salty.

Mushroom & Tofu Strogonoff

1 tbsp oil

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

300-500g tofu pieces*

4 large field mushrooms, chopped**

500ml/2 cups liquid vegetable stock

250ml soy cream

1/2 cup wine***

Heat the oil in the pan and fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes. When they are translucent add the mushrooms and tofu pieces and stir for a further few minutes. When the mushrooms begin to leak their juices (that's a bit sexy) pour in the stock and wine. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for a good while (10-20 min) until the mushrooms and tofu are sitting in the sauce and not drowning in it. Then stir in the cream and heat through. Don't boil the cream. Boiled cream = bad. But make sure the flavours have been stirred through the cream and the cream is nearly at boiling point (kind of like what you would do for coconut milk in a green curry).

Serve on top of pasta (spaghetti or fettuccine) or rice.

* I used pre-seasoned tofu for this recipe but it threw the salt balance way off. Perhaps seitan would be better but I can never get my hands on any.

** I like field mushrooms but get whatever you want. 4 big handfuls will do.

*** I think normal recipes use white but we are red wine drinkers and never have any white around so I used red and it didn't make that much of a difference with the colour.

Ripe From Around Here

Some of the lovely gals from UQ gave me this book as a going away present when I recently left Australia. I was a little excited when I got it because I was very much looking forward to getting northern hemisphere weather and local produce when I arrived in England. I had, however, forgotten all about the benefit of the EU and find it a bit hard to refuse bananas from Portugal simply because they are "imported" when the distance between here and Portugal would be like Brisbane to Melbourne.

Yes, I'm exaggerating.

I also found it quite hilarious that the first recipe I decided to make (simply because it was listed under her fall/autumn recipes) involved shiitake mushrooms and the only ones Geoff could find were £2 for 120g and were imported from China.

For those of you geographically challenged like myself... China is a long long way away.

Anyway, I couldn't very well change my mind since Geoff had already done the groceries and we had an hour before we had to go bowling. Yes, we computational scientists like to bowl after work.

So I made two recipes from the book to make a whole dinner. Only neither were particularly satisfying (although I made up for that with two pints of cider while bowling). They looked great but the delicate taste of the mushrooms in the salad was drowned out by the vinegar and the sweet potato... well, it tasted just fine but it just wasn't very satisfying.

If I made these dishes again they'd either be together as an entree or as sides as part of a much bigger meal. And I'd significantly reduce the amount of vinegar. And since the shiitake don't really add any flavour to the meal that isn't drowned out I think I'd chuck in some heartier mushrooms and a few more of them. So below is my adapted recipe for these dishes.

I want to make a few more recipes from the book before recommending it (or otherwise). However, I do think that since vegans make up such a small part of the population and that getting any book, let alone a vegan cook book, published is a mammoth effort ( more likely a miracle) we vegans should go out and buy as many cook books as we can afford. And what better month to do it in than Vegan MoFo!

Anyway, below are my adaptations of the two recipes I used in the book. Enjoy!

 

Sweet Potato in Jacket

Serves 2

Preheat oven to 200C. Scrub sweet potato and cut out any blemishes (if it's anything like the poor vegetables in my kitchen they'll probably be growing some sort of mould/arm/attitude). Prick the sweet potato evenly all over and place on a baking tray. Cook in the oven for 45 minutes or until soft. Slice down the middle and serve with butter. (Next time I'm going to make my own herb butter and melt it on top).

Warm Spinach and Mushroom Salad

Serves 2

2 tbsp olive oil

1 red onion

2 cloves garlic

200g spinach leaves

100g (a dozen) mushrooms*

1/4 balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup chopped nuts**

salt and pepper

Toast the nuts on an unoiled hot pan. Set nuts aside.

Heat the oil in the same pan and put in garlic, onion and mushrooms. Stir for several minutes until mushrooms and onion are soft. Meanwhile put the spinach in a bowl and stir through the vinegar with salt and pepper to taste. Then add the onion mix and then the nuts. Stir through until the heat from the onion mix begins to wilt the spinach leaves and serve.

* Shiitake, if it pleases you.

** I used walnuts but pine nuts would give it more flavour or slivered almonds or pecans would also work.

Southwestern Mushroom and Tempeh Crepes

When I was in Seattle recently I had the most delicious southwestern portobello mushroom and seitan crepes at the very tasty Sage Cafe. I attempted to recreate the delicious flavour and texture recently in my own kitchen with some success!

Southwestern Mushroom and Tempeh Crepes

Crepes:

1 cup of flour

1-1 1/2 cups of soy milk

2 tbsp of sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Mix the flour, sugar and salt. Add milk until the batter has the consistency of milk. Try to get all the lumps out. Heat a pan and grease it lightly. Pour a small amount of batter into the middle of the pan (about the size of a pikelet) then gently roll the pan until the batter covers the entire pan (obviously if you have a very large pan it might be a bit smaller than your pan).

Southwestern Mushroom and Tempeh Filling

1 tbsp oil

1 clove garlic crushed or chopped finely

1 red onion

1 tomato diced

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground chilli

200g tempeh sliced

200g mushrooms sliced

Heat the oil in the pan. When hot add the garlic and onions. When onions start to soften add the spices and tempeh. When tempeh starts to brown add the mushrooms and tomato. The tomato should form a nice gravy with the spices. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Creamy Southwestern Sauce

1/3 cup of vegan mayonnaise

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp tabasco sauce

1 tsp flaxseed oil (optional but full of Omega-3!)

Mix all the ingredients together until consistent and creamy.

Finally, spoon the hot mushroom mixture onto the crepes and drizzle in the creamy sauce. Fold the crepe over. Season with a sprinkling of smoked paprika.

Suzi's Birthday

Suzi!

Suzi's birthday is close to mine. That makes us both in the same star sign. Which means absolutely nothing. Although, we do both like Atlas Shrugged. Coincidence? I think not!

Suzi and Mezz came over (Geoff is now a permanent fixture around here since I can't do much for myself) and I made dinner. Mezz requested a paella I had previously cooked on another of my dinner nights and I also wanted to use the mushrooms in the fridge that were looking a little on the dead side so I found a very simple and quick recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms that was delicious.

Stuffed Mushrooms

from Vegan
2 large flat field mushrooms

2 tbs olive oil + extra for oiling

2 spring onions, chopped

1/2 red capsicum, deseeded & chopped

1 small zucchini, chopped

4 olives, pitted and chopped

2 tbs rolled oats

1 tbs chopped basil

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs lime juice

s&p

Preheat oven to 180C. Wipe mushrooms clean with damp paper towel. Don't wash them! Remove stalks and chop them up and put with other chopped vegies. Put the mushrooms aside.

Heat the oil in a pan and fry together the stalks, spring onions, zucchini, olives, capsicum and oats until the oats are golden. Then stir in basil, soy sauce and lime juice.

Oil the mushroom caps with a brush and the extra oil and place them on a baking sheet. Spoon oat mixture into caps and season with s&p. Bake for 15-20 minutes until caps start to soften.

Great with salad for lunch or another side for dinner. Would be great for a special Sunday brunch.

As much as I like the paella it's an awfully complicated recipe for such a simple dish and is also a little on the expensive side to make so I'm not going to share the recipe but you can find it in this great book. What I am going to share is the recipe for the delicious Chocolate Orange Cake that I made for dessert.

Chocolate Orange Cake

from Lynda Stoner's Now Vegan!

11/2 cups flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup orange juice

1/3 cup soy milk

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbs vinegar

zest 1 orange

Preheat oven to 190C. Combine dry ingredients. In another bowl mix together all liquids excl. vinegar. Add this to dry ingredients. Mix until smooth then add vinegar. Instantly put into 20x20cm square cake tin (stops gas from vinegar and soda escaping). Bake for 25-30 minutes.

I'm sure you could serve this with a glazing or icing but the cake itself has such a delicate flavour that it's delicious by itself. I served it with a scoop of soy icecream while the cake was still warm and it was very yummy!