Veganmofo 2009 – Millennium/Artful Vegan October 9, 2009

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’ll know that I love both of these two books. But I couldn’t leave them out of my review month, and I know that there’s extra people reading this now that Mofo is on too.

I’m lucky enough to have visited Millennium three times. The first time we went was before I was vegan, and I sat through a whole 3 courses without even realising I was in a vegan restaurant! It’s an amazing restaurant and if I found a genie and a lamp and it offered me a flying trip to any one restaurant, I wouldn’t even think twice about going back there.

I also love the books because they symbolise how far I have come as a cook. I originally only bought them because I’d enjoyed the restaurant so much, but after a few glances through I put them away because they just seemed impossible. Over the years though, each time I pick them up I’ve found them more approachable and enjoyable to cook from. There’s no denying that the recipes are time consuming. There are very few recipes you could knock up after work (though there are a few). Some of them need some unusual ingredients, but again after a few years of vegan cooking, my cupboards are better stocked and there’s only a few things I can’t get.You need to read every recipe very carefully because they will quite often use an ingredient which is actually another recipe from the book.

The books are quite different. I like them equally but certainly Artful Vegan is more elaborate. It has more and better pictures and is generally a more refined and upmarket book. Millennium still has some of those rcipes, but also includes more basic pastas, risottos etc.

So the next time you have a day to yourself and its raining outside, put those DVD box sets to one side and spend a rewarding afternoon cooking yourself some great upmarket food.

Some recipes I’ve enjoyed (and I still have many more bookmarked to try):

Buster’s potato torte with rosemary pistachio gruyere
Seitan sate skewers with peanut coconut sauce
Korean style barbecued tempeh over noodle salad with citrus and kimchee
White bean filled phyllo purse over soft garlic polenta with porcini zinfandel sauce
Paella
Saffron and butternut squash risotto
Moroccan marinade
Red lentil, lemon and rosemary orecchiette
Linguine with tempeh bolognese
Thai green curry eggplant stack
Miso-broiled eggplant over noodle cakes with walnut miso sauce and wasabi cream

Millennium Paella September 15, 2009

I had the weekend to myself, without much testing to do. I’d sort of decided to spend Saturday slaving over a hot stove, but when I saw how sunny it was, I had a change of plan. I still wanted to cook myself something nice, but didn’t want to spend the whole day doing it.

I decided to try the paella from the Millennium book. It’s actually one of the quicker dishes from Eric Tucker’s two books, and as long as you do a bit of planning it comes together quite quickly at the end.

It’s based on a saffron rice pilaf, which I made earlier in the day. I also home smoked the tofu at the same time – and it was the best smoked tofu I have ever done. I’ll do a tutorial on what I did when I next do it and get some photos. I didn’t take any because I’ve done it loads of times and didn’t expect it to turn out so well. There was a secret part to it, which was just a happy find.

The other main flavours of the dish included arame seaweed, capers, orange zest, chile flakes, courgettes, cumin seeds and black olives. Looking at the amount of seaweed after it had soaked, I suspected it would be too overpowering, but it just provided a really gentle taste of the sea, which was perfect.

It was served with a chile tofu aoli. I’m always a touch suspicious of silken tofu where it’s standing in for mayonnaise or sour cream. This is probably a hangover from a very early vegan brush with a Sarah Kramer recipe where the tofu ended up tasting resoundingly of… tofu, and had to be thrown away. However, this was deliciously creamy, garlicky and fresh, and worked perfectly with the deep flavours of the paella.

For a really tasty dish, from a book renowned for difficult dishes, this one really didn’t take too long. You don’t need to smoke your own tofu so don’t let that put you off. You can use shop bought smoked tofu or a seitan sausage. I would highly recommend giving this a go. And look! The recipe is available on googlebooks here – no excuses!

Saffron and butternut squash risotto March 7, 2009

My husband’s dislike of vegetables is split into two levels – the “won’t touch with a bargepole” sweetcorn, peas, parsnips and brussel sprouts, and the “would never choose to eat but don’t mind them if they’re well disguised” beetroot, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin.

So when he was away the other night and I fancied something comforting, I found this recipe which contained both sweetcorn and butternut squash and decided to treat myself. It’s one of the relatively easy recipes in the Millennium cookbook and I always like to find a recipe for risotto that is tasty in its own right without needing cheese.

This risotto is really rib sticking and hugely tasty. I think I was a touch heavy handed with the saffron – I seem to remember it was the Masterchef judges who said that if you can taste saffron in a dish, you’ve put too much in. I know that sounds daft but after I’d eaten this, I knew what they meant. That could easily be my fault not the recipe though. I would have served this with some braised greens if I’d had any and I think they’d have gone together well.

I always feel good when I cook something from either of the Millennium books and this was no exception!

Derby County Away – Orechiette with lentils October 29, 2007

Sunday afternoon in Derby is not the most thrilling prospect for a vegan lunch, so I had a huge breakfast before I went. I had toast and marmite, with a sort of hash. I crumbled up leftover burger in with fried onions, potatoes, spinach and grated carrot, and served it with lots of hot sauce. It was delicious.

Result Derby County 0 – Everton 2 Man of the match – Mikel Arteta
Verdict – lucky hash!

When I got in from the match I decided to make a pasta dish from Millennium – orechiette with lentils, lemon and rosemary. It’s quite a straightforward recipe considering how complex some of the dishes in that book can be. The sauce is basically red lentils, chilli flakes, tomatoes, rosemary and lemon, then right at the end it has spinach, capers and parsley added to it.

Aubergine torte with smoked onion ratatouille and flageolet sage sauce October 29, 2007

I’d been eying this one up from the Millennium cookbook for quite some time. Now that it’s getting more wintery I thought it would be a good chance to try it.

I made the sauce and ratatouille in advance, then just did the breadcrumbed aubergine at the last minute. As you see, it looks like a bit of a strange jumble. It was quite tasty but not as nice as I’d expected. I suppose I have such high expectations from this book now that if something isn’t perfect I’m not happy about it. Personally I think the sauce looks a bit of a mess and I’d never have known the onion had been smoked. Not my favourite dish from this book by any means, but OK.

Barley corn risotto cakes September 30, 2007

I finally got round to making these from the Millennium cookbook. They’re in the appetizer section but I decided to make bigger versions and eat them as a main course. They’re served with a smoked onion and chipotle sauce and some lime pickled red onions and the recipe is available on google books.

The risotto needed making in advance then putting in the fridge to set. Except that it didn’t. It was the runniest gloopiest mess I’ve ever seen. There was absolutely no way it would form into cakes and be coated with the flour and spice mixture. I was a bit stressed by this point so I added a bit of flour into the mix and put extra polenta in the coating mixture. They more or less worked this way. I think there was too much water in the silken tofu mix which meant it wouldn’t set. The sauce also needed a little thinning down. But, in spite of the recipe being wrong, it did taste delicious!

Linguine with tempeh bolognese and rhubarb crumble September 9, 2007

I was supposed to be on my own today, so I’d got a cooking extravaganza planned using sweetcorn – my husband’s most hated food (except possibly parsnips. Or peas. Or sweet potatoes). I was going to make some barley corn cakes from Millennium, and was very excited about it. Unfortunately the state of Virgin trains meant that my husband couldn’t travel and turned up back home earlier than expected wanting feeding. I didn’t want to make 2 dinners so I had to rethink my plans. It needed to be quick and based around what I had in, so I decided to try the linguini with tempeh bolognese from Millennium. It involved baking the tempeh in a marinade for over an hour, which I’d never done before. I can highly recommend it because it gave a real depth to the tempeh. The stuff on the top is my own version of a parmesan substitute – ground cashews and almonds with nutritional yeast and salt.

I’ve got the least sweet tooth in the world and hardly ever make desserts at home. But we both love rhubarb and I’d picked some up which needed using. So I turned to my trusty favourite, the rhubarb and ginger crumble from Delia, of all people. I just sub Pure for the butter, and use Swedish Glace ice-cream – yummy.

Thai green curry aubergine stack August 12, 2007

In the football season, Sundays are often the only day when I get chance to really cook. But when I’m going through my, erm, time of the month, I get very indecisive and can’t decide what to cook out of all the wonderful ideas out there. This week I spent ages deliberating and in the end decided to go with something from The Millennium Cookbook, by Eric Tucker. Even though I’m English I’m lucky enough to have been to Millennium in San Francisco three times, and loved it every time. The books are something of a challenge though. I can’t always get the ingredients, and even when I can, all the recipes seem to contain 2 or 3 other recipes, making them pretty hard work.

The Thai Green Curry Aubergine Stack seemed just the job. (It’s eggplant in the book, but I’m English…)

When I picked it out I didn’t realise that the curry paste recipe was on another page. Fortunately I always have a basic home made green curry paste in the freezer so I used that instead. It had similar ingredients to the one in the book so I’m thinking it was an OK substitute. I made the sauce and the barley salad in advance, between the 2 televised games, so all I had to do before the meal was the aubergine and the veg. I chose oyster mushrooms, courgette, green beans, red pepper and beansprouts. Disconcertingly, the veg recipe required you to add some curry sauce that wasn’t listed in the ingredients. I just took a guess and used a bit of the sauce I’d prepared earlier.

All in all, it was a real success. It tasted fresh and zingy, and it went well with the Californian pinot noir we’d picked out. The barley was a nice texture instead of the rice you’d expect with Thai curry and the flavours all went together well. I’d definitely make it again.

Post pub Friday August 12, 2007

Friday nights we usually meet in the pub after work. Therefore, evening meals on a Friday usually fall into categories of being quick, easy, tasty, and none too healthy. Smoked mushrooms and potato wedges regularly fit the Friday bill.

I bought my food smoker about a year ago, on the advice of random_kitty, someone I’ve never met who posts on the BBC Food message boards. My smoker is a Cameron’s brand, and I love it very much. I usually use it for smoking my own tofu, but it also works well with chillis, potatoes, aubergines – and especially these mushrooms.

I smoked the mushrooms for about 10 minutes using hickory woodchips.

Then I slightly adapted the Moroccan Marinade from “Millennium” cookbook. Basically, I blended together the following ingredients:
Tomato puree
Garlic
Lemon juice
Cumin
Fennel seeds
Chilli flakes
Coriander
Balsamic vinegar

I brushed the mushrooms with the marinade and baked in the oven for about 10 minutes until the mushrooms were cooked through. I served 2 per person on ciabatta bread with potato wedges and some salad.

A great success!