Potage Parmentier

I really didn't like Julie & Julia. The movie was fantastic (and was the inspiration for this blog!) but the book paled in comparison. I enjoyed the book but often cringed at the amoral, apathetic yet sometimes psychotic view of the author.

Yes, she made fun of vegans.

But that's not why I didn't like it.

One of the scences I particularly did not like was where she had to get marrow out of the bone of a cow leg. I have no problem with that if she's made the decision to eat meat. However, she goes on to explain how her and her husband have a discussion about buying a country house and a cow and lovingly taking care of it as penance for the marrow extraction. Oh, you feel guilty? Now?

It really highlighted to me that it's not until people are elbow deep in a splintered shin bone that they actually realise that meat comes from an animal. So she felt bad about that cow. But the hundreds of other cows she slaughtered that year don't deserve a single thought. And the lobsters she boiled alive were fine. And the veal comes from the butcher... not the calf.

And the amoral, contradicting opinions about her married life and her friends' love lives drove me nuts.

Her second book is about how she becomes a butcher and cheats on her husband. It honestly made me wonder if she cheated on her husband just so she could write her second book. At any rate I won't be reading it.

However, I did enjoy the bits where she talks about food (the bits without her pathetic attempt at moralising). The opening shopping sequence, as she buys potatoes and leeks for Potage Parmentier without realising it, was lovely. And it made me want to make Potage Parmentier!

So, after all that anger vented toward Julie Powell here is my vegan version of her first blog entry.

Potage Parmentier

500g potatoes, diced

3 cups sliced leeks

2 litres (8 cups) water

1 tbs salt

3 tbs vegan butter

Add the potatoes, leeks, salt and water to a soup pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for 45 minutes.

Blend the soup in a blender (or in the pot if you have an awesome stick blender like mine!). The blending is important. It has to be smooth. Use a sieve if you have to. 

Stir in butter before serving. 

Yummo!

Roasting Tin Muffin Cake

Geoff hasn't been feeling well so I had the brilliant idea to get up this morning, make him some Ginger and Lemon muffins and a coffee from our wonderful espresso machine, and surprise him with breakfast when he woke up. Now, most of my friends will know that being that romantic (or even just nice) is quite unusual for me but Geoff has been so good at looking after the household duties while I'm at the lab that I thought I should be nice for at least a morning.

However, like always, things didn't go according to plan. Instead of nice warm muffins and fresh coffee Geoff woke up to my voice:

"Geoff, you need to get up. I made muffins for you only to realise we don't own a muffin tin yet. So you need to get up and go get me one."

This is my version of nice.

Poor Geoff.

In the end I couldn't remember if we have muffin tins coming over by ship from Australia or not and since we have limited space (because in the UK your flat is 1/4 the size for twice the price) doubling up isn't such a good idea. The next best thing I had was a roasting pan so I made the "muffins" in that.

They always turn out delicious and this time was no exception. However, there is just something nice about having a warm muffin in your hand and taking that first bite into it and watching the steam billow out. A flat, rectangular muffin with a depth of about 2cm is not exactly the same.

Since our stuff won't be arriving by ship until December I won't be baking any muffins for Vegan MoFo. However, if you are lucky enough to have a muffin tin at your disposal I would highly recommend making these delicious little gems.

There will be no photo of the muffin cake. I am much too ashamed.

Scrambled Tofu 2.0

When we were living in Brisbane scrambled tofu used to be one of our favourite brunch meals on sunny Sunday mornings with tea and coffee. Normally just before or after walking the dog.

England is not so sunny and we miss our puppy but we are still enjoying our scrambled tofu vegie mash. Especially when it's wet and cold and rainy outside it's becoming a yummy lunch or dinner.

It's not really something I have a recipe for. I just fry up some onion and garlic in a small bit of oil and then add whatever vegies I have lying around (mushrooms and spinach always make it in but my new favourite edition is sliced leeks) and then add the tofu by crumbling the block with my hands over the pan to get the scrambled look. And I normally add turmeric, curry powder, chili powder, paprika and cumin and those herbs give it a beautiful aroma, gorgeous colour and delicious taste.

The texture and taste is not the same as the recipe I posted a while ago (that one feels and tastes more like scrambled eggs) but I prefer it.

I also saw that Susan V on FatFree Vegan Kitchen had a similar post recently and mentioned how lovely the meal is on an autumn night. I envy that her autumn is the south of the US would be a lot warmer than mine but I share the sentiment about scrambled tofu!

Wednesday: Bangers and Mash

Some of my dear friends will be falling off their chairs when they see this post. Yes, it's true, I hate potato. It's also true that, since I now live in England, every meal is supposed to contain potato. It's also a bit hard to avoid hot, warm comforting things like Bangers and Mash when the weather is miserable all the time. So I've succumbed. A little.

Bangers and Mash 1.0

Bangers and Mash 2.0

I'm not about to give a recipe from mashed potato since... well... even my mother can make mashed potato. You will, however, notice that my mashed potato seems to be a little on the orange side. That's because I make it with half potato, half sweet potato and then mash it, stick in some soy milk and a tablespoon or so or vegan butter, salt and pepper and mash again. Easy peasy.

Version 1.0 is served with onion, leek and sliced mushrooms fried in a pan with a bit of oil. Version 2.0 is served with sliced onion rings that were fried with a bit of oil and then my Garlic & Chili Broccoli except I replaced the nuts with some sliced mushrooms. Yummy and easy.

Of course it's all topped off with some HP. Because we live in England now.

Tuesday: Mexican!

Where Mexican! = not really Mexican at all.

Whatever spicy beans in a tomato sauce with tortilla and salad and vegan guacamole is... that's what I made.

I've posted before about my recipe for the beans. It's basically the same recipe except with more garlic, red onion instead of brown onion, one can of kidney beans and one can of black beans (all the water drained), can of crushed tomatoes and paprika added to the spice mix. I also added in some zucchini because I had some left over. It's an easy recipe and it's easy to change and it still tastes yummy.

Just watch out and make sure your tortillas (which I always buy at the store) are vegan!

I am an unwrapped tortilla.

I am a wrapped tortilla.

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.

Sick Little Vegan MoFo

Surely, being US-based, they realised that MoFo was already in use...

Anyway, I've been sick. I am still kind of sick but since I had to return to the lab I felt I should return to the blog.

I still needed to eat while I was sick so I was still cooking... I was just too exhausted each day to blog. I still am quite exhausted (I constantly feel like I've just been working out and have muscle fatigue despite the fact that I have not) but Geoff has not yet cleaned up last night's dinner so I have some spare time before the kitchen is ready for use.

So I shall now bombard you with this week's Vegan MoFo adventures.