Author: Clare

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

The Anti-Vegan (Vegan MoFo 2018)

On By ClareIn veganmofo183 Comments

Life on the vegan internet in the last twelve months has been all ‘impossible’ this and ‘no bull’ that it’s just not that easy to feel deprived. I work at a vegan coffee shop but as far as we can work it out (we don’t quiz anyone or anything) most of our customers aren’t vegan. Most of them will stop short of ordering the facon (fake bacon, naturally) but they’re happy with the oat milk coffees and even the melted mozzarella-style Violife. Especially since we’ve switched to the gorgeous, silky, and fabulously foamable Minor Figures. (I remain awful at latte art.)

In my personal life there is one person who is the ultimate litmus test for the mainstream acceptance of vegan food. My Dad has typical northern working class taste buds. Pie, full English breakfast, and roast dinner on a Sunday. Last year though when we were on holiday Kate was too full to finish her Taifun hot dog. My Dad looked at it, put a puzzled expression on his face, and bit into it. “That’s just like a hot dog.”

So this one is dedicated to my Dad. One vegan Tofu Weiner, on a baguette with chilli and a sprinkle of Violife.

Inspiring Book: Street Vegan (Vegan Mofo 2018)

On By ClareIn books, veganmofo18

I have a lot of cookbooks. My book shelf devoted to cookbooks already has an annex and is still bursting at the seams. I have cookbooks that get weekly use, cookbooks where recipes never go wrong, cookbooks that are simple, cookbooks that are involved and cookbooks that fill me with nostalgia. Each one is a little inspiring and the collection as a whole I find very inspiring. But the one I’m talking about today is Street Vegan.

streetvegan

It’s a beauty of a book: well designed, lovely pictures, and the design is quirky without being distracting. Looking through it makes me reconsider vegan food and think about taking things beyond the simple everyday, and beyond the substitutes. There are some solid recipes. The Cinnamon Snails are my go-to cinnamon roll recipe. The lemonades are wonderful. The other recipes have been sadly neglected though. I’ve been looking at the pictures more than cooking.

snails

I started my day by making the Maple Mustard Breakfast Strips. These chewy, fried strips of seitan are glazed with a gorgeous maple and mustard mix. They came together unexpectedly quickly. It’s probably one of the least fussy seitan recipes I’ve ever made. the frying crisps up the outside but leaves the insides tender and there is no ‘gluten’ taste. It made a really decadent wrap filling.

strips

Then I made the raw brownies. Though technically, as they take 12 hours in the dehydrator I started them first. But then there was topping to make and… you know what, I’ve just lost all track of time. At some point I made raw chocolate brownies and spent a lot of time and money on them (agave, cashews, coconut; oh my!) but Oh My God they are glorious.

brownie

Like most of the recipes in Street Vegan they are a little bit different, they need you to put in the effort but the results are off the charts. That’s why this book is my number one when it comes to inspiration. And why I promise to cook from it more often.

Mary Blair Inspired Cookies (Vegan MoFo 2018)

On By ClareIn veganmofo182 Comments

I’m in the middle of Disney planning so the first thing that came to mind when the vegan mofo prompt was to be inspired by an artist was Mary Blair, specifically the mosaic in the contemporary. Though in the end I settled on the art for It’s A Small World because I thought it would be easier to decorate cookies inspired by this.

So I baked sugar cookies and drew up diagrams and mixed up icing. The intention was for six beautiful individually designed edible tiles using motifs from the picture. So as you probably notice there are only three tiles. Two with the same design. Yep. It’s my annual attempt at icing that goes badly. I am not a gifted decorator. Still I kind of enjoyed the challenge.

Recipe: Curry Rice (Vegan Mofo 2018)

On By ClareIn recipe, veganmofo186 Comments

Today’s theme for Vegan Mofo is Emoji Inspired. It’s a pretty good opportunity to dust off my recipe for Curry Rice.

with emoji

When I started my adventure in Japanese-style curry I was following this recipe from Just Hungry. What sold me on it was the description: “The best way to describe it is probably to say it’s like a English style stew with curry.” So I thought it would be something like a more filling version of chip shop curry. Which it is. I love it.

Along the way I’ve made plenty of adjustments. To start with I took the meat out. Today we’ve used a seitan but I also like to use cubes of fried tofu. This has the side effect of making the dish quicker to cook.

I also like to muck around with the veg. We eat this curry fairly regularly between autumn and spring, often to use up the last of the root veg in our Riverford Box. I’ve used carrot, squash, sweet potato, swede, turnip… anything really. It’s a really good clean-out-the-fridge meal. I also sometimes use edamame instead of peas, just because Kate likes them better.

curry mix

And finally I do use blocks of Japanese curry, instead of making my own roux. I like S&B because you can find it practically everywhere now (or order from Japan Centre) but I use double the amount. After all this is my Cheating English Lady’s Japanese Curry.

Ingredients

(serves 2)

  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 can of tomatoes, blended
  • One cup of assorted mixed root veggies, diced
  • Two squares of S&B Golden Curry
  • Half a cup of diced beef-style seitan or cubes of deep fried tofu or more veggies
  • Half a cup of peas or edamame
  • Rice to serve

Brown the onion in oil over a medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for a further 30 seconds or so.

Add the tomatoes into the pan. Toss in the root veggies, curry and around 1 1/2 cups of water.

uncooked

Cook until the vegetables are done. This will be around 20-30 minutes depending on what veggies you put in and how done you like them (Kate prefers hers mushy and textureless but I’m doing the cooking so…)

Add the seitan or tofu and the peas or edamame and cook for a further 5 minutes or so until they are heated through.

Serve with rice.

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