Quiche Lorraine

I've been through a phase recently of not doing much cooking. It's mostly because I can't be arsed, partly because I've lots of other things vying for my time. Whilst hungry and driving 100 miles home on Friday however; my mind started to wonder onto the subject of recipe creation.

There are several things that I've been waiting too long now for other people to veganise. One of which is quiche - I've tried several attempts over the years and none have really hit the mark.

All that I've tried haven't had quite the right texture, level of creaminess or depth of flavour. Adding insult to injury, some contain yellow colourings (such as cumin and pakrika), which weird the flavour. The tofutti ones sold in H&B are probably the best commercial attempt, but like all frozen food they're not that great.

For my first attempt I wanted to go for the 'traditional' lorraine variety, which in the UK contains cheese and lardons. Most vegan versions I've tried have contained silken tofu, which bulks it out but adds no flavour. Therefore I decided to go with smoked tofu as well as fake bacon.

Yesterday I made four test recipes, using various ratios of smoked tofu, soya cream, cheddar spread, soya milk and salt:

My original hunch was right, so I made a larger version today, along with actual pastry:

225g Smoked Tofu

150ml Alpro Fresh Cream

100g Tesco Freefrom (Scheese) Cheddar Spread

Pinch of Salt

Pack of Redwoods Rashers

The result was very good. I'd rather have used a deeper tin with smaller diameter, but I forgot to buy one earlier in the day. Therefore it ended up pretty thin - still good though.

It's insanely creamy. I think it could take more smoked tofu, but the flavour is spot on. The top surface cracked slightly whilst cooking - I'll try a lower temperature for longer next time, as well as possibly floating slices of tomato on the top to help retain the moisture.

You can use ready made / rolled shortcrust pastry if you're feeling lazy - Jusrol is now actually labeling its products vegan. If you've a food processor though then the following is very easy (not to mention far cheaper):

150g Plain Flour

85g Pure Soya Margerine

Pinch of Salt

Place all ingredients in a food processor and wizz till you've 'breadcrumbs':

With the motor running add a small amount of water, so that it starts to come together. Remove and mold into a ball, wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll it out, line a greased 25cm flan dish (leave the edges overlapping) and cover with a layer of foil and baking beads (fuck you Delia). Bake for 15 minutes at 180 celcius (160 fan), then remove the foil/beads and cook for a further 5.

Allow to cool, then trim the edges with a sharp knife:

Meanwhile, slice the rashers into smallish pieces and lightly fry. Don't cook them as long as you would if you were making a sandwich - they shouldn't brown or crispen.

Place all remaining ingredients in a food processor (break the tofu by hand into smaller chunks) and whizz until completely smooth:

Add the bacon, then pour into the pastry case.

Cook for about 20 minutes at the same temperature as before (180/160 fan). Allow to cool, then remove from the tin and slice:

Next time I'll go for a smaller dish and make it deeper, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. It's a simple enough recipe - will experiment with adding extra flavours to it with time.

Mustard Tofu & Chive Mash

I felt bad for not posting any recipes, and for eating far too much junk food. If you look really close you'll even see green bits!

This is a really simple recipe with just a few ingredients. It's basically a honey mustard sauce with agarve in place of honey. It does the trick and gives a similar overall taste.

Pasta works equally well; I just fancied mash because I've not had it in a while.

Ingredients:

• Firm Smoked Tofu
• 1 Red Onion
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 4tbsp Wholegrain Mustard
• 150ml Single Soya Cream
• 2tsp Agarve Nectar

Slice onion, mince garlic and cube tofu. I use a block of Taifun Smoked with Almonds and Sesame Seeds (Waitrose / independant health food stores).

Fry over a medium heat till the onions soften and start to caramelise. Remove from the heat, add the mustard (4 level tbsp) and stir so that everything's coated. Pour in the cream and put back on the heat.

Quite a few wholegrain mustards come with white wine as an ingredient, so its worth looking for one labelled vegan.

When the cream's been heated, add the agarve 1 tsp at a time. Taste until the balance suits your palate. Adding too much will make it oversweet and ruin the other flavours - 2 tsp is just right for me.

Allow to simmer and reduce until you've a sticky, slightly sweet sauce / coating on the tofu and onion.

Mash Ingredients:

• Potatoes
• Single Soya Cream
• Margerine
• Salt
• Chives

I didn't forget to include quantities - I just never measure them and adjust each time to taste. As a general rule: use 2 medium sized potatoes per portion.

Peel and chop, boil until done and drain. Pass once through a ricer, stir then add the other ingredients until it tastes good.

Pass through the ricer again if you can be arsed, the stir in a generous amount of chopped chives.

If you've spent too much time faffing about (taking pictures doesn't help) then transfer back to the pan and heat over a low flame.

Serve immediately.

Keema Naan

Having created a decent vegan version of peshwari naan last week I made a flippant remark at the end of the post that keema was next. Ironically I seem to have had as much interest in the latter as in the former.

I've only had keema naan once that I remember, which was about 15 years ago. I personally remember it as having tandoori meat inside (i.e. bright red), but all recipes I've found online seem to just use mince with ginger, cumin and garam masala. Thus for this attempt I did similar, using soya mince instead of lamb.

The results were pretty good. I'd make it again and would be happy to be served it in a restuarant, but can't vouch for its accuracy to the original.

The recipe uses the same dough and method as the peshwari. Update: Use 5ml agave (not 10ml) and 1 tbsp fresh chopped coriander in the dough for a better balance of flavour/sweetness.

Filling Ingredients

• 100g Soya Mince
• 1 Small Onion
• 2 tsp Garam Masala
• 1/4 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/4 tsp Ground Ginger

To ensure the naan don't split/burst when rolling the mixture needs to be dry and individal pieces not too large. I used Realeat frozen soya mince, which I reconstituted with boiling water, allowed to cool, drained then chopped throughly. Ideally I'd have tried Redwoods' soya mince, which is slightly finer and doesn't need reconstituting. Alas there was none in the fridge.

Finely dice the onion and fry in a little oil with the soya mince for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the spices and continue to cook for 2 more minutes, ensuring that it does not burn. Allow the mixture to cool whilst you roll out the naan, then spoon the mixture on to them, fold over and re-roll in the same way as the peshwari recipe. Try to get them as thin as possible without bursting or the contents coming through the dough. You may find whilst rolling that you get air pockets forming, if so just pierce with the end of a knife. Cook and eat.

Peshwari Naan

It's with great pleasure that I bring to you decent vegan naan bread, made at home without a tandoor. I'm extremely pleased with the outcome - it's the best I've tasted in the past 10 years and as good as I remember naan from restaurants in my pre-vegan days. The vegan naan I've had in restaurants since has just been nasty.

I veganized a traditional recipe a few years back, but was unimpressed with results achievable through oven cooking. Even at the max temperature (260^oc), using a pizza stone and then grilling afterwards the results were just no where as good as you can get using a traditional tandoor (480^oc). Too stodgy and dried out. Ready made naan from supermarkets (sometimes vegan) is often chewy as well.

I revisited it earlier this week, using a blow torch after cooking to try and up the temperature. Whilst this gave better results it wasn't good enough to blog about (a shame, as I took some pretty blow torch pictures!). Last night I tried cooking directly over a gas flame, which gave by far and away the best home-made naan I've ever had.

I'd like to take credit for this discovery, but I owe it instead to a several hour long crawl of the internet. I'm pleased too, as my next idea involved using the BBQ and it's cold outside! You need a wire mesh to hold the naan whilst it's being cooked, but other than that you don't need any special tools.

I'm not sure how 'traditional' peshwari naan is outside the UK. Here it's a curry house staple, consisting of naan stuffed with coconut and sultanas. Apple and almond are common additions too. I worked out the ratios for each of the stuffing ingredients from commercial non-vegan products and used apple sauce for convenience (I know how obsessed Americans are with the stuff). You can change the stuffing ingredients/ratios as you please. If you make without stuffing then adding garlic and fresh coriander to the dough will give a bit more flavour.

Black Onion Seeds (the little black specks you see in naan) improve the flavour of the dough, but can be left out if you can't find them. In the UK they're sold in independent Indian shops (often convenience stores in areas with a high Asian population will have a spice section), though I believe our last bag was acquired from Waitrose.

Dough Ingredients (makes 3 naan):

• 280g White Bread Flour
• 1 tsp Dried Yeast
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Black Onion Seeds
• 60ml Plain Soya Yoghurt
• 10ml Agave Nectar
• 1 tbsp Melted Margerine
• 100ml Lukewarm Water

Stuffing Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp Apple Sauce
• 30g Shredded Coconut
• 30g Ground Almonds
• 50g Sultanas

Place the dough ingredients in your bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer. Put on an italian/pizza dough program (45 mins on my Panasonic).

Chop the sultanas (leaving whole will make rolling out more difficult, as they will puncture it when pressure applied) and mix in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients.

The finished dough should be smooth and slightly sticky. Tip onto a floured surface, knead slightly and divide into 3 balls. Leave to rise for 15-30 minutes.

After rising knead each slightly, roll out thinly, spread the stuffing mixture over then fold over the sides. Turn upside down and roll out into your desired shape, being careful not to puncture the sides.

Rolling a teardrop is easiest if you start with a round disc, hold the side closest to you with one hand and push away with a rolling pin in the other. Try to get the naan as thin as possible (without puncturing), as this will make cooking easier/quicker.

Cook each naan in turn, placing on a wire mesh directly over your largest gas burner, turned to a low setting.

Keep the mesh close to the flame and ensure you regularly move it round so that it cooks evenly. After several minutes when the underside is starting to blacken and the top bubbling; flip it over with a metal spatula.

The photo below shows what happens when're you're busy taking photographs and not moving it around - the cooking becomes uneven!

When both sides are cooked brush with melted margarine and serve whilst still warm. If you're worried it may not be cooked slice one in half before brushing, so it can be transferred back to a lower heat if required. The first I made had the burner turned up too high, so needed a bit of extra time.

Next task - vegan keema naan.

Porcini Mushroom Risotto

Risotto; that slimy sludgy rice pudding stuff served up as the vegan option by omni chefs everywhere. I've had some truly bad ones in restaurants over the years, including one recently where the waiter assured me would be the best I've ever tasted. He lied (or thought I must be very uncultured, one of the two).

The problem is that other than using good quality ingredients you also need to stand and stir it for 30 minutes, which chefs are unlikely to have time to do. Some recipes lend themselves to being made in a restaurant environment (particularly those that require a lot of prep but not much cooking), but risotto is not one of them. Therefore; to be fully appreciated it's something that you should make yourself.

Porcinis (or ceps as they're also known) really boost and improve the mushroomy flavour, but any dried mixed wild mushrooms can be used. Equally, substituting some of the white mushrooms for chestnut or portabello can help develop the flavour.

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• 250g Arborio Rice
• 250g White Mushrooms
• 15g Dried Porcini Mushrooms
• Clove of Garlic
• 1 Onion
• 200ml Dry White Wine
• 1 Litre Vegetable Stock

Make up a litre of vegetable stock and place 15g dried porcini mushrooms in it for several minutes. Stir and remove the mushrooms, then place in a pan over a low heat such that it remains at a gentle simmer. Thinly slice 250g white mushrooms, dice an onion and mince a clove of garlic.

Place in a large saucepan with the porcini mushrooms and a couple of glugs of sunflower oil. Cook for 10 minutes over a medium heat such that the onion turns translucent but doesn't start to burn. Add the rice and coat fully with the oil, then pour in the wine.

It should start to boil immediately. Set a timer for 30 minutes and stir the mixture until the wine is absorbed. Continue to stir, adding the stock a ladle-full at a time, ensuring each is absorbed before the next added. By the end of the 30 minutes you should have run out of stock and the rice be cooked.

Season to taste and serve immediately with wild rocket.

Sweet Pepper & Sundried Tomato Focaccia

Following on from last week's marbled focaccia; last night I had a go at a sundried tomato one.

One thing that I've not appreciated before is that a lot of the nice flavour in this bread comes from the pepper, and that just using slices of raw pepper doesn't allow it to hit that sweet and lovely taste. This time round I made a paste of sundried tomato and sweet red pepper, as well as using whole pieces of each. I also used the basil oil I made (see last post) to inject some extra flavour.

The result? I'm pretty pleased. I've not hit perfection yet, but I'd happily eat it again. The main mistake I made was to use pieces of tomato sold in a bag. I've used ones in oil in the dough before and it makes it too oily. What I didn't realise was that the tomatoes that come in a bag are preserved in salt and need to be washed first. Yuck! Thus I'm recommending anyone who tries this recipe that they use the type in oil, but just try to really dry them off and remove as much oil as possible before adding.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp fast acting dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 350g White Bread Flour
• Basil Oil
• 210ml Water
• 120g Sundried Tomatoes
• 1 Sweet Red Pepper

Again I made the dough using a bread machine. Place the yeast, sugar, salt, flour, water and 1 tbsp of unstrained basil oil in the pan in the order specified by the manufacturer and set on an italian/pizza dough cycle (45 min on mine). I used table salt this time round because the sea salt used last time didn't give it enough of a kick.

Once the dough has come together (5 minutes or so) add 60g of chopped sundried tomatoes to it, removing as much excess oil as possible with kitchen tissue first.

Cut a sweet red pepper (the long pointy type) into slithers and lightly fry in some sunflower oil to soften. Blend half of the cooked pepper with the other 60g of the sundried tomatoes in a food processor, to create a paste.

When the dough has finished it's cycle roll it out on a floured board, spread the paste over it and top with the remaining pepper. Fold the dough up several times in a random fashion, adjusting the direction of each to marble the paste through it. I found this worked better than last week's twisting.

Place the dough in an oiled 9" springform tin, push it into a circle with your fingers and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. When risen, use your fingers to poke holes in the dough and fill them with strained basil oil (see first photo). Leave to rise again for 15 minutes, then cook at 200^oc for 20 minutes, until the top is golden and oil absorbed. Allow the bread to cool completely before serving, to fully develop its texture and flavour.

Stuffed Crust Pizza / Stuffed Doughballs

This a super easy bread machine recipe that I don't make often enough. Since discovering good frozen vegan pizza bases a couple of years back I've been super lazy. I'm totally going to make this again though soon as it is better to eat fresh than from frozen.

The pictures are from 4 years ago in my little flat, when I didn't really understand good lighting or use of depth of field (large aperture does not guarantee a good photo).

Ingredients for 1 pizza or 12 doughballs:

• 225g White Bread Flour
• 3.5g Dried Yeast
• A Pinch of Salt
• 150ml Water
• 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order you normally use. Select the italian dough setting (45 min on my Panasonic). Remove when complete (with the help of some extra flour if too sticky) and knead for a few minutes on a floured surface.

Pizza

Roll out to a diameter a few centimetres larger than you need. Cut meltable vegan cheese (or anything else you want to stuff it with) into strips and place in a circle 1cm from the edge. Work your way round the pizza, rolling the dough over the cheese and tucking it under, pressing down slightly to make a seal.

Blind bake for a few minutes on a heavy pan or pizza stone at 220^oc. If you don't have a pizza stone yet, buy one. They cost a tenner and are great for all types of bread. Remove from oven, pierce any bubbles of air in the centre of the pizza and top as you please. Cook until done (10-15mins).

If you don't blind bake you run the risk of the topping sinking into the dough and making it soggy.

Favourite toppings: sundried tomato paste, pesto, grilled artichokes, roasted peppers, olives, vegan cheese (several types), capers, tomatoes (remove excess juice/seeds), garlic, mushrooms, olive oil, herbs.

Less is often more - tomatoes, garlic, oregano and olive oil is a simple yet winning combination:


Doughballs

Doughballs are great eaten with soup or just on their own. Divide the above dough into 12, roughly roll out each into a circle (smaller than the size of your palm) using your fingers, place a small amount of filling in the centre and fold over the sides and pinch, making a tight seal. Roll around in the hands to ensure there are no cracks. Place on the tray you're baking them on upside down, so that the seal is at the bottom.

Don't be tempted to overstuff them or they could explode, which is less exciting than it sounds.

Meltable cheese and sundried tomato is my favourite filling, but garlic & herb margarine works too. I can't remember how long they need cooking for, but it's probably around 10 minutes at 220^oc.

Mint & Strawberry Sorbet

Continuing on the theme of grossly out of season recipes.

Whilst out shopping a few days ago we acquired 2 punnets of organic strawberries, down from £2.99 each to 49p each. Perfect condition, just in need of eating quickly.

Recipes on line for mint-strawberry sorbet seem to involve mincing/shredding/blending the mint, which can surely only cause little specks that get stuck in your teeth like a bad mojito. The real taste of mint is in the oil, so I experimented with using muddled mint in syrup and discarding the leaves.

The result was pretty damned amazing; it's one of the nicest sorbets I've ever had either in a tub from a shop or in a restaurant. I'm guessing that part of the reason for this is the cost; I didn't use extra water or juice to bulk it out.

It's definitely a strawberry sorbet rather a mint sorbet, however the flavour totally comes through. The sugar and the lemon really lift the taste, but there's only a small amount of sugar added - it's a reasonably healthy recipe.

Ingredients:

• 400g Hulled Strawberries
• 18g Fresh Mint Leaves
• Juice of Half a Lemon
• 2 shots Simple Syrup

Hull the strawberries and blend until totally puréed.

Wash the mint and tear off leaves. Muddle with 1 shot simple syrup. Pour some of the strawberry purée in, combine then add back to the rest of the strawberry. Force the mixture through a sieve to remove the mint, which should then be discarded.

Whisk in another shot of simple syrup and the juice of half a lemon. Transfer to a freezable container and place in freezer for 15 minutes. Take out and whisk briefly then place back. For the next 2-3 hours repeat this process of whisking every 15-25 minutes, to ensure that no large ice crystals form.

Before serving (if your freezer has turned it very hard); remove from the freezer and allow to sit for a few minutes before scooping.

Chips

Diet starts January.

I thought it was worth blogging info on how to fry chips properly. It's not particularly difficult to do, but will ensure you crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside chips every time, not soggy, oily nastiness.

Though not healthy by any means, frying food with high water content essentially steams the inside (as the water boils) whilst crisping the outside. Provided you get the temperature right it should not soak up oil or significantly increase the fat content compared to shallow frying/roasting.

To get good results you need to twice fry the chips, first at 170^c and second at 190^oc. The first fry cooks the potato, the second develops the outside.

Use Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes if available. If not use whatever is considered in your part of the world to be the best for frying. Use cheaper potatoes at your peril. You'll need 1-2 large potatoes per person. Try to cut the slices so that they're roughly even sizes, discarding small pieces if required. This will help ensure that they all cook at the same speed. You may want to shave a slither off the side of oddly shaped potatoes to then get a more even cut, but don't go over the top in a quest to create perfectly identical chips!


Cook at 170^oc for 4-5 minutes, then remove the basket and shake off excess oil. Change the temperature to 190^oc and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. When you think they're done it's worth trying one, just to make sure.


Drain, dry and serve immediately with malt vinegar and sea salt.

Cooking With Beer #1: Beer Batter

Beer: that filthy brown fizzy liquid that on first glance has no use other than helping people get drunk on the cheap.

It was created originally when water supplies were contaminated and unsafe to drink. Hops were added not to enhance flavour but as a preservative, to stop the beer from going off as quickly.

British teens grow up believing that drinking beer (rather than drinks that taste nicer) is in some way manly. The reality is however that drinking something that doesn't taste good just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make you manly at all; it makes you an idiot.

OK. Rant over. As it happens there have been occasions in the past when I have enjoyed a pint, peoples tastes do differ and I appreciate the skill of and craft of brewing. The only beer kept in our house however is used for cooking and to give to guests!

Being a fizzy liquid lager is useful in making batter. You can use carbonated water as an alternative, but the slight taste imparted by beer is a pleasant addition and makes the batter taste less like wallpaper paste.

Ingredients:

• 150g Self raising flour
• 30g cornflour
• 250ml Lager
• Pinch of salt

Method:

It's better to make more than you need as it's cheap to make and easier to coat when you can fully submerse the food rather than try to paste batter on. Ensure the beer you use is vegan; despite popular misconception being made in Germany guarantees only gulliblity, not vegan suitability ;)

Sieve and mix the dry ingredients then add the beer in stages, until you have a semi-thick batter that easily coats the back of a spoon. If you you get any lumps use an immersion blender to remove them. The resulting liquid should be smooth and bubble:


Heat oil in your fryer to 190^oc and coat the food you want to fry in self raising flour. This step is important, as it stops the batter from sticking to the food, allowing it to puff up and float in the fryer not stick to the bottom of the basket.


In this example I'm using mock chicken seiten chunks (link), torn into pieces roughly 1 inch cubed:

Fully coat the food you're going to fry in batter and gently drop each item into the hot oil, with few seconds between each to stop them from dropping the temperature of the oil too much. If they don't bob to the surface give them a little knock with a metal spoon. If there are any legs of batter hanging off the balls knock them off once the batter has started to crisp. Try not to overcrowd the fryer as it will cause the balls to stick together. Cook them in batches instead.


When the balls have turned golden brown remove the basket and give it a good shake over the oil, then dry with kitchen tissue and serve immediately. If cooking in batches then add all batches to the oil together at the end to heat through for a few seconds.


I used to lust after a veganised version of sweet and sour chicken from English Chinese takeaways. After almost 10 years of trying I've finally gotten there :)