The End

So Vegan MoFo comes to an end. Let's have  a chocolate muffin and reminisce.

It's been a hard MoFo for me. I had bit's of my theme planned back in July but I never got to write about it in the end. My Nan died a little before MoFo so I was out of town doing the really depressing chores associated with that and I didn't really have time, or the mental energy for all the cooking and writing involved. I just took everyday as it came and as a result I feel like I did a pretty weak MoFo. And I hated how little time I had to just read and comment on other peoples blogs.

In total I belted out 26 Mofo posts. I missed two days because of the annual MoFo illness (this year it was asthma!) and Stephen wrote two entries.

My favourite post was the Nasturtium DIY zine (get your copy now!) and these meatballs where my favourite picture.

I received 25 comments, and I'm grateful for all of them and everyone who read along without commenting.

I'm going to take a break for the week and we'll be back on the usual Tuesday to Saturday schedule next week. I hope you enjoyed MoFo

Vegan chocolate mousse with flaked almonds

Treehugger is a great source not only of news but also of recipes, such as this vegan chocolate mousse we whipped up tonight, substituting flaked almonds for the hazelnuts.

Cashew Queso

Just a quick one today. I spent the day in an brightly lit, over air-conditioned hall so I feel sucky.

Happily I have Cashew Queso to keep me going. Not for long though. Night Y'all.

Tempeh Sausage Crumbles (on a pizza!)

Come closer. I'm going to let you in on the secret of one of my favourite recipes. Super quick, brilliantly tasty and guaranteed to leave you feeling full. You ready. It's the Tempeh Sausage Crumbles from Vegan With A Vengeance.

I have the bizarre, uninspiring UK edition. It has no pictures, British English ruining the voice of the anecdotes, a really bad typeface (I know I'm dyslexic but if if I have to struggle to figure out if it's a 5 of an S you need to pick a different font. Hell, you know what, just use Arial, you can't be trusted) Oh and have you seen the cover? Hessian? Leaves? The point is that it's really easy to loose recipes in there, or just fail to be inspired at all.

It makes me mad to think that I've had this book for six years and only been making these crumbles for two. One of these days I'll treat myself to the US edition. In the meantime I'll happily eat the sausage crumbles, as the introduction suggests, on all of the things. 

In sauces, on pizza, straight out of the pan...

Pear Frangipane Tart

Making a tart seems so much more grown up than a cake or a biscuit. Making Frangipane seems like magic because proper bakers make that stuff you know? But I knew I had to make something special with these pears. Half of them came from a friends tree and the other ones where... foraged... from an abandoned tree.

The Frangipane was a breeze to whip up and while laying the pear slices down was delicate work, it was fun delicate work. I just followed the recipe from Vegan Pie... and it turned into a terrific tart. All but a sample slice has been sent into work with Stephen.

Gourmet Vegan Brussels Style Pate

Brussels Pate was a favourite in the days before I went veggie. The occasional treat brought out for supper, ordered in a restaurant and the starter to every Christmas dinner I can remember in my meat eating days. A smooth mixture of pork and pork liver, with some other stuff. A little gross really but I have fond memories.

Those memories made me a little dubious about trying the VBites version But in the spirit of Vegan Mofo I thought I'd give it a go. I liked it! I really did. As a straight up comparison it doesn't have the same sort of gelatinous quality I remember and maybe it is a bit too smoky but it definitely hits a nostalgic spot.

Vegan Eats World Part 2: Sesame Panko Tempeh Cutlets

There is something undeniably junk foody about breaded cutlets with a sweet sauce and noodles. It hits the spot for a Sunday afternoons indulgence and for the first day of autumn. I had virtuous thoughts about shredded cabbage but the half hour walk separating me from my cabbages proved too much. So I just slurped it all up in a vegetable free mess. The recipe is from Vegan Eats World

Vegan Eats World Part 1

Yesterdays stock went into today's seitan. I cooked up a half batch of Seitan Coriander cutlets this morning and turned them into Gyro Roasted Seitan for our supper.

It turns out I have a lot to say about these Gyros. A lot a lot. Starting with how my Nan, who passed a way recently, went nuts for them after she went to Greece. I ate them remembering her. This was also the first time Stephen, who is trying to be less picky, ate seitan. He declared it a bit too lemony but is looking forward to a more seitanic future.

Let's bring it back to the food though. This is the first time I've used American Vital Wheat Gluten. You can get a box of Arrowhead Mills stuff on Amazon now. Which isn't cheapest option at 30p per oz (and it's imperial) but it isn't ridiculously expensive and it's less fuss than using the stuff you can usually get over here so I think it's worth throwing a box on to your order.

The only thing I did differently was cut the seitan into super thin strips. Then I served it up with pitta bread, lettuce, corn, potatoes, and a little chilli sauce and gobbled it all down. The recipe is, of course, from Vegan Eats World

Stock Photo

I haven't made anything but stock today. Terribly disappointing I know. I'll be back on form tomorrow.

Marsh Samphire

Although marsh Samphire (that's in the species Salicornia) is popping up more and more in shops I knew I'd never bother to try it until I found some growing myself. This week, deep in another part of Devon, I finally found some.

In the natural habitat

Marsh Samphire turns out to be everything I've ever been told it is. For starters it's better than Rock Samphire (Crithmum maritimum, so not related at all) as it tastes nothing like petrol. Instead it's a perky little vegetable with a salty taste. A really salty taste. It grows in salty marshes. It's like salt in a vegetable. I enjoyed nibbling on the raw tips while out for walks but when I got home I had to do something more with it.

In my natural habitat

Steamed for 7 minutes (because that's what it said to do in Edible Seashore) and served with a little olive oil and pepper. The almost unbearable saltiness it toned down leaving a delightful green. I don't know if I'll be buying it but I'll certainly be looking out for it on marshy walks.

Rosemary Bread-sticks

Rosemary is one plant I can not fail to grow. It sits loyally in it's corner of the balcony growing in summer and winter. It needs an occasional water in exceptional dry spells and I shape it by pulling bits off to eat. Otherwise it's a perfect plant. It tastes perfectly good too. So here is to rosemary...

Rosemary Bread-sticks
(makes 7 if you are as scruffy cutting them as I am. I think you can do better though)

250g plain white flour
1 teaspoon of yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
160ml water
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

Mix together the flour, yeast, salt olive oil and water and begin to knead.

When the kneading is almost done add in the rosemary and continue kneading to incorporate.

Shape the dough into a round and leave to rise for one and a half hours. Until roughly doubled in size.

Gently knock back the dough. Roll out until about a centimetre thick and slice into sticks with a pizza cutter or sharp knife.

Spread the sticks apart and leave to prove for half an hour. Just before you go off and leave them turn your oven on to 250 C.

Put the sticks in the oven and bake for 10 minutes when they should be lovely and crisp.

Tortas de aceite - olive oil tortas

A couple of years ago Clare and I were having lunch at La Tasca during a trip to Exeter and spotted something interesting on the menu: the torta de aceite, a sweet olive oil biscuit. It was delicious, and I decided to make my own. The Andalusian government publishes the official specification, and Miriam at The Winter Guest has a detailed translation.

My recipe and method are adapted from Miriam's, scaled by a factor of five thirteenths so that it uses a teaspoon of yeast, and adjusted slightly for rounder numbers:

250	g	bread flour
1	tsp	dried yeast
¼	tsp	salt
100	g	olive oil
100	g	water
10	g	golden syrup
¾	tsp	caster sugar (for sprinkling)

In a bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the olive oil, water, and golden syrup, and stir until the mixture starts to come together. Tip out onto a surface and knead until well combined. Return to the bowl and leave to rise for a couple of hours until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Divide the dough into six pieces; each piece will make a ball about five centimetres in diameter. Roll each piece out on a surface to a thickness of about two to three millimetres, or about fifteen to twenty centimetres diameter. (There's no need to flour the surface, as the dough is very oily.) Sprinkle about an eighth of a teaspoon of sugar onto each torta, and bake for half an hour.

The Honesty Box

Honesty boxes are my favourite way to shop. You're diving down a country road and someone has a little stall of jam, produce or handicrafts waiting for you to buy. And how do you pay without an owner in site? Just put your cash in the honesty box.

I've seen them dotted around a few places in rural England but the undoubted capitol of the honesty box is Cornwall. I'm not lucky enough to be there right now but I do live in the next door neighbour county where I've been lucky enough to pick this stuff up.

Jam, apples (cooking and eating) and runner beans in much bigger portions than I could fit in the picture. All for less than £2 on the way back from the beach. I honestly love it.

No Longer A Pattypan Virgin

Look what I found down at the allotment.

The aliens have landed

My pattypan are starting to grow up. I managed to pick three yesterday and got stuck right in to cooking them.

So Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites (an Always Autumn Favourite, it must be said)  has been renamed Home-Cooked Vegan Comfort Food and it has a new shiny cover featuring Stew-Tatouille. I wondered why I'd never made this before and looked at the notes 'instead of zucchini, summer squash'. Yep, this is it. Time to loose my Pattypan virginity.

their picture is better

Like almost everything I've cooked from Hearty Vegan it disappeared quickly. As I spooned the last of it into my mouth I thought 'this is one of the best things I've eaten in a long time, and I've been eating rather well recently.'

Two yums up.

Introducing... Eat Your Nasturtiums the DIY Zine

A while back I hand wrote a little book about Wild Garlic so I could play with the instant book format. I toyed with the idea of typing it up and giving it to a few more people but Wild Garlic was soon out of season and I never did.

Nasturtium Leaf Pakora

The idea of using this format to focus on one ingredient stuck in my mind though and while I was pickling their seed pods I started to write this little nasturtium book.

Inside there is advice about growing nasturtiums, using them in salads, and recipes for Nasturtium Leaf Pakora and Nasturtium Flower Jelly. Small, succinct and six pages long a copy can be yours for the low, low price of free.

Nasturtium Flower Jelly

All you need to do is download the PDF, print it out and fold it up. So choose the version you want.

This PDF is for people who use A4

This PDF is for people who use Letter

Then grab some scissors and get ready to fold

Step one is to fold it in half lengthwise

Open it up again

Fold in half widthways

Take the open edge and fold back to the folded edge. Turn over and repeat on the other side. You should be able to open your book like a fan at this point.

Next make your cut. You want to cut along the fold between the middle two sections. When you are done there should be a cut between the title page and the 'preserve your harvest page' and the 'first grow your nasturtium page' and the second page of the pakora recipe.

Stand your book up like this.

Find the Title Page (it's the one that says 'eat your Nasturtiums') and make sure it's at the front. Press down extra hard on all those folds.

So there you have it. If you do make up the book please let us know. Feel free to use the comments to ask for help with the printing and folding. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Coconut Spice Granola

Today's post is brought to you by the letter 'T' for technical difficulties. We have a surprise and something of a free gift to give away soon however we're having a few technical difficulties with it. It's total user error so we should have it up and running soon.

Instead I bring you breakfast. This is the hugely satisfying Coconut Spice Granola from Whole Grain Vegan Baking. I made it with pecans instead of walnut for extra happiness. It smells -and tastes - amazing.