Author: Clare

Cruelty free cook, crafty lady, obsessive reader, animal babysitter, and mistress of lego

Vegan Mofo 2019: Introduce yourself

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It is, once again, the Vegan Month of Food. A whole month of blogging and Instagramming all about vegan food. So lets start with the introductions.

us

First of all I’m Clare (the red head) early thirties, newly unemployed, food obsessive. My other half and our other writer is Kate; brunette, mid thirties, web developer. We like to eat out, watch TV, walk just about everywhere, look at cute animals, drink hot chocolate and play with Lego.

We love to eat Indian food, pizza, and anything baked, and we’ll try any vegan mac and cheese recipe at least once. In the last year I’ve started to started to drift my (embarrassingly large) cook book collections towards more general titles enjoying the challenge of veganising the recipes as well as leaning new techniques and food from cultures I wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to.

books

Right now I’m obsessed with Magnus Nilsson’s The Nordic Baking Book. It was book love at first sight and my goal is making at least one recipe from it a week until it begs me for a divorce. My other cooking project right now is wild cooking. On the woodgas stove or on an open fire if nobody is going to catch me.

So that’s what you can expect from us this month: fire, baking and vegan food.

Wild Woodgas Stove Recipe: Twist Bread Hot Dogs

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My wild cooking project wasn’t the only cooking project I’m working on over the summer: I was also working on veganising recipes from the Nordic Baking Book. The two combined with Pinnbrôd. Or at least that’s what it’s called in Sweden. When I posted it to instagram I was told the German word is Stockbrot.

Both the Nordic Baking Book and Wild Baking recommend making the bread twists fat enough to slip a cooked sausage in; lubricant may be required. Just as god intended. Vegan sausages are better though. They don’t take as long to cook, so you can just wrap the dough round the sausage and by the time the bread is done the sausage is too.

twist sea

The challenge then is getting the stove to the right temperature. You’ll want to burn it down until there are no more flames. The other trick is to find the right size of sausage. The Taifun cocktail sausages are perfect for the size of the stove.

To Make The Dough:

1 cup of plain flour
Two big pinches of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons of water

Mix the dough together just before you go out, and pop in a container.

In The Wild:

Dough
Hot dogs

Allow the flames on the stove to die down and work while the embers are still hot.

Place the hot dog on a skewer.

Break off about a tablespoon of dough and roll it out. Wrap it in a thin layer around the hot dog.

Cook over the embers, twisting constantly until the bread is cooked through.

twist

Wild Woodgas Stove Recipe: Potato Curry

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Each year I set myself a summer project. In the past I’ve learned how to spin, sewn one dress for every week of the six week holidays and, of course, each year I aim to get the flat so tidy I never have to clean again.  This year my challenge is to cook outside more often. As a result I’ve bought myself a Wild Woodgas Stove.

with a veiw

I’m aiming to get one new recipe written up each week that’s been cooked on my new stove. This first one is for a mild, sweet and sour potato curry. It’s in two parts. First you cook the curry paste at home, then you add some water and a can of new potatoes out in the wild to make it a meal. I use the term ‘wild’ loosely. Theses recipes aren’t necessarily going to work for backpacking. It’s more cooking-but-a-little-lazier and with a great view.

Potato curry

This serves two, with flatbreads for dipping

To make the paste

1 tbsp oil
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of black mustard seed.
Pinch of Asafoetida
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
5 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 tablespoons of tamarind paste
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of coriander
1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Heat the oil over a medium-high heat. When hot add the cumin and mustard seed.

As the mustard seeds start to pop, add the asafoetida, sugar, tomato, tamarind, and salt. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

Add coriander and turmeric. Turn the heat to low and reduce the water. The paste is done when it just coats the bottom of the pan – if you drag a spoon through it it should leave a gap in the sauce.

paste

Let it cool and then jar it up.

In the wild

1 can of boiled new potatoes
Water
Your jar of curry paste

Drain the new potatoes and add them to a pan.

stovecooking

Put in the curry paste and enough water so that the potatoes are almost all covered.

Pop the pan over the fire and heat until everything is cooked through.

cury

Review: Mississippi Vegan

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I was intrigued by Mississippi vegan as basically I have no idea what it is people eat in Mississippi. As ubiquitous as American film, television, music, and just about everything else is you don’t get much regional variance. Much in the same way, I imagine, that I keep having to explain to people what black pudding, treacle toffee, muffins and black peas are. There is also an emphasis on regional produce, seasonal food and foraged food that really speaks to me. The whole book is written in a gentle autobiographic style explaining why these recipes are important to the author, introducing the people, places and produce that inspired them.

everythingbagels

First up was a batch of Everything Bagels with all the fixings. I love making bagels, it seems so transgressive to sneak the dough into a pot of boiling water before putting them in the oven. The seasoning was perfect but the bagel itself was a little denser than my preferred recipe. All sins, however, are redeemed by cream cheese.

garlic bread

The Garlic and Herb Bread has been a big hit around here. Garlic and herb butter spread on a split roll and baked. It simple, satisfying and comes in some great, creative variations. This one was the basil and chives. I skimped a little on the fine chopping (must follow instructions in future!) but the taste was spot on.

poboy

Of course I couldn’t resist making a po’ boy, I’m favourite po’ boy is the portobello variation in Vegan Sandwiches Save The Day but I’m not supposed to eat mushrooms so this fried popcorn tofu version is perfect. You’ll have to forgive the inauthentic bread but everything else was spot on. I even ordered some imported Old Bay seasoning for the occasion. The result was perfectly spiced, crisp and succulent tofu popcorn. Fully dressed for a perfect sandwich.

gumbo

And, of course, I couldn’t end this review without trying the Classic Gumbo. I had to make a fairly major adjustment. I’m allergic to celery so my holy trinity was missing a member. This gumbo though was fabulous. Rich, creamy, flavourful. Everything it’s supposed to be.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of this book and I’m looking forward to exploring it a bit more. In the meantime I totally recommend you picking up a copy. It’s thoughtful, inspiring and the food is amazing.