Category: Vegetarian

Here’s a dish to match the winter waistline.  Hetty cooked this a couple of weeks ago one cold windy night in deepest Suffolk. We had been working outside all day and when she brought it to the table we proceeded to pitch ourselves over the top of the dish and drown in a rich, fragrant, warm, herb infused dish of braised vegetables with the most wonderful muffin top.  And muffin tops  were what we ended up with after third helpings!

Originally posted on BBC Good Food website as a beef stew, it is easily subverted into a vegetarian version.

Gently sweat three or four banana shallots or onions in olive oil, chopped garlic and a bay leaf.  Meanwhile put a good handful of dried mushrooms in a pan with 300ml water, bring to the boil and cook for about 15 minutes till the mushrooms are dehydrated and the liqour has reduced to about 200ml and inky dark.  Chop carrots, celery, celeriac and swede into 2.5cm cubes and add to the onion with a little more oil, a new bayleaf, a little dried thyme and a pinch of dried chilli. Stir and put the lid on and cook for another 10 minutes or so.  Then add 450g chopped tomatoes (minus the pips). Stir again and cook for another 10 minutes without the lid, then add the mushrooms and the liquor and 25ml Worcestershire sauce.  Taste, once all the ingredients are incorporated, and adjust seasoning. You are aiming for what I would call a heavy, rich, woody flavour rather than thin and under-seasoned.  I have subsequently added whole vacuum packed chestnuts and fresh mushrooms and it is equally scrummy.

If you have cooked the vegetables in a double handed pan that can be transferred to the oven, all the better.  Otherwise, transfer to a dish.  Now for the muffin top.

Into 125g plain white flour mixed with 100g wholemeal flour (all purpose, not bread flour) mix 1 tsp salt, 2 flat tsps of mustard powder, 100g strong grated cheddar, 2 tbsp olive oil and 150ml milk.  Mix together until it looks like a wet scone mixture then simply spoon it on top of the vegetable stew base, sprinkle about 50g grated cheese on top and put on the middle shelf of the oven at 150C (or 130C in a fan oven).  Check it after 15 minutes, but its more likely to be  ready in 20.  The trick here is to use a relatively shallow dish rather than a deep one so that the muffin top cooks through. The first time I cooked this, the chickens really enjoyed the uncooked muffin that lurked neath the fine brown golden crust!  I had the fan oven temperature too high and used a deep rather than a wide dish.

Poor mother is ill and not coming for Easter as planned. This meant an unexpected day out for us both today. We meandered down through Banham to Stanton farm shope where they have a great cheese counter, baker and the best treacle back bacon. We came away with Suffolk Gold, Hawes Reserve Wensleydale and Old Amsterdam. And bacon. And other stuff.

Bury St Edmunds is always a surprise, such a civilised place. Grand Georgian houses cheek by jowl with medieval houses. We spent ages in The Cook Shop, replenishing our stock of 40 year old wooden spoons. Next time i do that i shall be 100. Scary thought.

We fell upon Gastronono-me, a Deli and artisan bakery which offerd delights, hummus with chilli, olives, soda bread. That’s supper sorted. Bread, cheese, olives, Rioja, sofa. Perfect.

Just as we were bewailing the paucity of vegetarian eateries we stumbled upon Josef’s Vegetarian Cafe in St John’s Street. Apparent,y they were looking for premises for a Charity shop and decided to open a vegetarian restaurant instead. I like that sort of serendipity. I had a celeriac steak served with mustard sauce, potato wedges roast Portobello mushroom and roast tomato with a perfectly dressed salad. David had a well spiced lentil burger on a toasted bun with tomato salsa. Both were perfect and we recommend you try it for yourselves.

Unlike the rest of my family I am not a great fan of pasta. Maybe I’ve never eaten great pasta. Or maybe I can conjure a meal without the need for quick-pasta solution. Either way, it has never been a first port of call when deciding what to eat. Consequently, I am ashamed to say, I have never made pasta. Until  yesterday. I was pretty pleased with the result but I learned a lot whilst making it.

• you don’t need a pasta machine
• the food processor (again) was king of the kitchen
• my standard 30 year old rolling pin was too short
• it needs to be much thinner than you think
• it is a good way to spend an hour in contemplative mode
• I should have worked on the round table and not the work surface
• unlike pastry it is AOK to stretch the dough as you roll it (although I didn’t at the time and later watched a really helpful clip on YouTube

300g 00 flour, 4 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 25ml olive oil.  Into the food processor you go and whizz round till it begins to bind.  Then turn onto a floured surface and knead away, as with bread dough, for 10 minutes.  Wrap in clingfilm then put to one side for at least half an hour. It is beautifully tactile, smooth and springy and golden yellow.

De-seed and peel half an onion squash (or any squash, but the more orange the better the colour). Chop into 2cm dice and throw into a hot frying pan (or roast them) with a little olive oil, a sprinkle of chilli flakes, a grind of black pepper and a couple of bay leaves.  Put the lid on and shake around every five minutes until soft. Then add some sea salt to taste.  When cool, mash the squash (having removed the bay leaves).  Combine with 200g ricotta cheese. Add finely chopped parsley and a grating of garlic. Check seasoning again.

Now for the pasta.  What I did was to roll it out as I would roll out pastry till it was very thin. The mistake I made was that even though I thought it was rolled very thin, when cooked, of course, it thickens up. So it needs to be even thinner.  The YouTube clip subsequently taught me the helpful trick of using a long thin rolling pin and to roll the pastry onto the pin, stretching the pastry as you go (watch to clip to see what I mean).  No doubt many of you know this already, but it was news to me!

As it was, I rolled out the pastry, dropped a teaspoon of the ricotta and squash filling in rows across the pasta then covered them with another layer of pasta, carefully pressing out the air before sealing the edges, then cutting into ravioli shapes with a sharp knife.  This technique worked perfectly.

Then I dropped half a dozen ravioli into boiling water and cooked for about 3 minutes, drained onto kitchen paper and served with butter sauce (melted butter with a tablespoon of the cooking liquor to emulsify it).

The result was very pleasing.  The filling was delicious, but the pasta a little too hefty for my liking. I think it will be improved by refining the rolling technique.  I shall try again.  By the way you might wonder where are the pictures – the answer is that I have sand in my camera and its not working at the moment. More of that another day.

It works, I swear!

The potato topped bean mushroom and tomato  pie was in the oven but there were no greens in the fridge. Tragedy!

So this little gem (sic.) came to pass. it is adapted from a little gem, pea, avocado and mint salad I  make in the summer.

But this is winter. Take two little gem lettuce and slice lengthways into eight. Snick the bitter end off (but not too much).  Chop a small bunch of spring onions including the green bits.  Add a knob of butter to a shallow pan on a medium heat and a splash of rape seed oil.  Add the onions then the lettuce then two cups of frozen peas, 50ml water and a squeeze of juicy garlic.  Turn the heat up high. Clamp on the lid and when it is steaming, give it 3 minutes.  Then remove from the heat and stir in two tablespoons of coriander chutney (see lamb curry recipe). Swirl around a bit.

It is divine.