Monday 13 December 2010

Roasted Butternut Squash, Lentil & Spice Pasties with Yoghurt Dressing


The natural laws of photographing food state that hot dinners and good photographs cannot coexist. I think it's pretty obvious which one I went for in this instance...It was a damn fine pasty though. The recipe is from the October issue of Cook Vegetarian Magazine.

For the pastry (I confess I am a pastry cheat and buy mine most of the time.)
300g plain flour
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
60ml olive oil
125 ml iced water

For the filling
880g butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
400g tin lentils, rinsed and drained
soya milk to brush

For the yoghurt dressing
250g plain soya yoghurt
1 1/2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice

To make the pastry, put the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the oil and the iced water and mix with a fork until the dough comes together, Transfer to a lightly floured surfacem knead until smooth and elastic. Divid into 12 balls, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rest for one hour.

To make the filling, preheat the oven to 200oC. Put the squash on a large baking tray, drizzle with 1tbsp of the oil and season with sea salt and black pepper. Roast in the oven for 30minutes or until golden. Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally for five minutes until softened. Add the garlic, ginger and cinnamon and cook for about two minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and add the lentils and squash. Roughly mash with a fork and season to taste. Leave to cool.

Roll out each ball of pastry dough into a 10cm circle on a lightly floured surface. Spread 2-3 tbsp of the filling over one half of each circle. Brush around the edges with water and fold the pastry over to enclose the filling and make a semicircle. Press the edges together with a fork. Put the pasties on a baking tray, brush with soya milk and bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Sprinkle some sesame seeds onto the pasties after brushing with soya milk if you like,

Mix togther all the yoghurt dressing ingredients and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. When the pasties are ready, serve with yoghurt dressing sprinkled with paprika and drizzled with extra olive oil.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Cranberry & Orange Cupcakes


I bake the cupakes for The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green and each month I try to come up with a new flavour to reflect the new month and the new season. Some months I have felt totally uninspired, but other months the choice of flavours is fairly obvious. This month is one of my all time favourites, a festive mix of Cranberry and Orange and some mixed chopped nuts thrown in for good measure. They actually smell like Christmas! For all my cupcake recipes I almost always use Isa's Golden Vanilla Cupcakes recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World as a base, adapting it slightly and adding extra ingredients depending on the flavours. If you're a vegan who bakes and you dont have this book, the question is...why not?!

1 cup soya milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup chopped mixed nuts (optional)
1/2 cup roughly chopped dried cranberries
Frosting:
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
1/4 cup soya margarine
2 tsp orange oil

zest if 1 orange
2 cups icing sugar

Dried cranberries and orange zest of 1 orange to decorate

Pre-heat the oven to 180oC and prepare a 12 hole muffin pan with muffin cases. Pour the soya milk into a measuring jug and whisk in the cider vinegar. Leave to stand for a few minutes. Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a large bowl and mix. Whisk the oil, sugar and vanilla essence into the soya milk mix. Add to the dry ingredients and mix gently until combined. Fold in the chopped nuts and dried cranberries. Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for approx 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool before frosting.

To make the frosting: Mix cream cheese and margarine together. Add the orange oil. Mix in the icing sugar until smooth. Fold in the orange zest. Pipe frosting onto cakes and decorate with additional orange zest and whole dried cranberries.

Monday 6 December 2010

Moroccan Lentil Soup with Yoghurt and Chilli-fried Onions


I fell off the cooking wagon this past week, what with all the snow and general busy-ness. I also developed a potentially quite debilitating addiction to mince pies which impacted on my desire to cook anything. Apart from mince pies that is.  This time I'm starting the week as I mean to go on and working my way through some recipes I've been hungrily pouring over from another of my latest obsessions, Cook Vegetarian magazine. Mock me if you wish, but not before you've checked out their new website and drooled over the food photography for yourself.

3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
280 red lentils
400g can chopped tomatoes
1.2 litres vegetable stock or water
salt and pepper
6 tbsp roughly chopped coriander plus extra to garnish
for the chilli-fried onions:
2 onions, very finely sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp soft brown sugar
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
juice of 1 small lemon
soya yoghurt, to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and saute the onion and celery until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic and spices, cook for another minute before adding the remaining ingredients apart from the chopped coriander. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes or until the lentils become a puree. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the chopped coriander.

To make the chilli-fried onions, quickly fry the onions in very hot olive oil until golden brown and crispy. Add the cinnamon, sugar and chilli and stir until the sugar has melted then add the lemon juice. Serve the soup will a spoonful of yoghurt, the chilli-fried onions and coriander leaves.