Blogging about Vegie Mince.

Sometimes, being with a meatatarian can be very difficult...especially for someone who would be vegetarian if she didn't have to cater to meatatarians.... I have however come up with a solution that helps to alleviate a bit of the meatage onslaught - I am by no means the first person to ever do this but I thought I'd share it anyway...Vegie mince. it is basically the best way I have found to make meals that appeal to the palettes of meatavores and still make my quota of 50% meat free. It goes a little something like this.

2 large carrots, finely grated
2 large zucchinis, finely grated
6 largeish mushrooms, diced
6-7 finely chopped sundried tomatoes
one bunch of radishes, diced or grated
400g red kidney beans, crushed

This quantity makes enough for a huge lasagne or nachos for like 8 adults...so you can adjust the quantities of ingredients accordingly...

other things you can add are things like cauliflower, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, parsnips - but it depends on what you are trying to make as to whether you would use these things or not. For example, Pumpkin is good for lasagne not so great for nachos or pasta.

You could even add lentils to this for a lot of extra bulk, but basically this is what I use as a substitute to meat in things like nachos, lasagne, pasta, pies and stews. I use it just like you would use regular mince... It requires more cooking because of the extra liquids, but it is so worth it.

So there you have it...

Working with eggs.

Cooking for someone with a chicken egg allergy has led me to a wonderful world of duck eggs, quail eggs and other eggs. And if you have ever had any doubt, I am here to assure you that cooking with duck eggs is WONDERFUL! The taste is beautifully rich and contrary to popular belief, I believe they taste better than chicken eggs.

So far, my favourite recipe for treating those in your life who are limited to duck eggs is a duck egg baked custard. This rich and creamy treat is sure to set mouths watering! Serves 6.

Ingredients

• 2 whole duck eggs
• 2 extra duck egg yolks
• 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 1/2 a vanilla bean
• 2 cups of cream

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees C (300 degrees F)
2. Place cream in a saucepan over a medium heat. scrape the bean half and place both the seeds and the pod in the cream.
3. While the cream is heating, add the eggs, yolks and sugar to a bowl and whisk until pale and creamy.
4. Add egg and sugar mix slowly to the hot cream, stirring all the time.
5. Continue to stir custard regularly until it begins to thicken - coating the back of your spoon.
6. From here you can either use this custard as a pouring custard by removing from the heat and cooling, or you can create a delicious baked custard, which can be eaten on their own, or turned into crème brulee!
7. To make a baked custard, take 6 half cup ramekins and place them in a deep baking dish. pour the custard into the ramekins, distributing evenly.
8. Pour hot water into the deep baking dish so that the water comes half way up the side of the ramekins, creating a Bain Marie. Place the whole tray in the oven and cook for roughly 35 minutes, or until the tops of the custards start to brown (if this starts to happen before the first 15 minutes are up, cover your dish with tin foil to stop them from burning).
9. Once cooked, remove your custards from the oven and allow to cool in the water bath.
10. To enjoy your custards, they can be eaten warm or cold. you can also add some fine sugar to the top and blast them with a butene torch to make crème brulee!

You can make anything you can normally make with chicken eggs using duck eggs and these delicious baked custards are a perfect example!

The perfect curry.

This curry is the perfect lamb curry, for any occasion. Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 500grams diced lamb leg
• 3 large potatoes - diced
• 2 large onions - diced
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 2 tablespoons ground turmeric
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander seed
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon of your favourite masala (my favourite is kitchen king)
• Extra chilli if your masala is not as hot as you would like your curry.
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 600grams of diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups of strong beef stock
• 1/2 cup of red wine
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil on a medium heat. Once hot, add lamb and potatoes and cook until meat is browned all over.
2. Add onions and cook until onions are soft, then add spices and garlic - heat until the spices' aromas start to become very strong.
3. Add stock, wine and tomatoes, cover and turn hear down low.
4. Cook for roughly 2 hours, until liquids have reduced and potatoes are soft and disintegrating. Season to taste with salt and pepper
5. Serve hot with basmati rice and popodoms

Curry and Knitts

So, it's been a while since I blogged....

Lots has happened, and I have been quite busy. Firstly, I was accepted and have now enrolled in Uni, and am currently selling everything of mine that has value to pay for my texts. I need $689. So if you see something of mine for sale, PLEASE BUY IT! I admit, I'm a little desperate.

I am really excited about uni. I can't wait to get my texts and start reading :) I feel my life moving forward now. I WILL make something of myself. I will make my family proud of me. I have been such a disappointment to myself and my family. I want them to have a reason to think of me in a positive way, and I want to set a good example for Jordis.

I donated some of my wool to the flood relief Auction at Kiss my serendipity, trying to do what I can to help. Me being poor, there is not much else I can do, so it is nice to know that other people will be donating on my behalf.

I was diagnosed with gall stones a few weeks ago, and have changed my diet to a vegan one in an attempt to avoid surgery and reverse some of the damage. I have been trying hard to find vegan dishes that i and my family like, and it has been fun. It is lucky that neither Jordis or Ryan are particularly fussy when it comes to veggies, so it gives me a lot of room to experiment. tonight was a wonderful red lentil curry, the recipe for which is thus...

1 cup red lentils (I soak mine overnight to make them softer... I like them that way, but if you like a firmer lentil, then just rinse them before hand)

1 400g can of red kidney beans, rinsed

4 cups of sweet potato cut into inch cubes

1 cup of sweet corn kernels.

1 sachet of Thai red curry paste

1 litre of vegetable stock

1 small can of coconut cream

half a red capsicum, diced

half a yellow capsicum, diced

1/2 tsp of masala spice.

The method is very simple. add the lentils, potato, corn, stock, curry paste and masala to a large pot and cook on medium/low heat for about 40 minutes, then increase the heat to medium/high for about 15 minutes, allowing much of the water to boil off. then, add the diced capsicum and coconut cream and simmer for a further 15 minutes, or until it is the consistency you want. It is quite a thin curry, but you could make it thicker by adding a cup less stock in the beginning. We had ours served in bowls with biryani rice. It was amazingly good.

lastly, I have been looking for Jean Greenhowe knitting patterns for ages, and i finally found some. they arrived today :)

I am particularly excited about the clowns. :) My grandmother knits them, and they are full of memories for me. My eldest sister owned one, and now, so does my daughter. I desperately want to make one, and i will be starting with this one.

Blueberry Pancakes

This morning's breakfast menu includes, Blueberry Pancakes.

Ingredients:

1 punnet of blue berries
2 cups of self raising flour
2 cups of lite milk
1 egg
1/2 cup of raw castor sugar (or honey if preferred - or for a less sweet variety, add only a table spoon of sugar/honey)
pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped, discard pod. (or 1 tsp of vanilla extract)
60 gms melted butter


I am lazy, so I put all the dry ingredients into my food processor, add the melted butter and pulse for 30 seconds, add the egg and pulse for 30 seconds, then I mix the vanilla with the milk and slowly pour it in through the top, with the processor on medium, and then process until smooth (about 2 minutes).

But for those who don't have a processor, crush up the blue berries with a fork, then add the sugar and egg and beat with a whisk for about 5 minutes. then add the butter and mix for a minute. Then mix the vanilla with the milk and add the milk and flour alternately in small amounts, mixing thoroughly after each addition, to avoild lumps, beginning and ending with milk. I normally let the batter proof for one hour, covered on the bench, but this isn't essential - it just helps with cooking - if you cook them straight away, they can sometimes fall appart or be hardto flip.

To cook, I use canola spray, but you could use butter or margarine as well. Spray the entire inside surface of a small fry-pan, and place on a low heat. Add the desired amount of batter to the pan, and wait until they start to brown around the edges and bubbles form on the surface (this will take about 3-5 minutes). Then, using a clean, metal egg-flip, flip the pancake over onto the other side to cook, for about 1-2 minutes. using the handle of the fry, pan, shake the pancake loose, and turn it onto a plate, or you can lift it off with the flip.

Do this with all of the batter. The quantity will depend on how big you make your pancakes. I get about 8-10 from this mix, but mine are HUGE.

I like to eat mine with more blue berries, sliced banana and strawberries or with drizzled honey and lemon juice.

Snickerdoodles!

I have been having a bit of fun with some cooking :) My friend Rae used to make this kind of biscuit called a snikerdoodle, and I thought I would try my hand at making them. I have managed, once again to surprise myself with my ability to cook biscuits - a skill I thought I didn't possess. However, as a successful attempt at making gingerbread men and now snikerdoodles proves, I am in fact capable of cooking biscuits without them becoming little charred lumps.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

1 & 3/4 cups plain flour

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 egg

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

1/3 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 cup raw sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Method

1.Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F)

2. With an electric mixer, beat margarine at a low speed until it goes lighter in colour( about 15-

20 seconds) and add castor sugar and beat for one minute.

3. Add vanilla and egg, and beat for a further minute.

4. Add bicarb and cream of tartar, followed by flour. Mix with a wooden spoon.

5. mix raw sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Roll biscuit dough into 2 cm balls and roll them in the sugar until covered. Place on greased, lined trays, about 3-4 cm apart to allow for some spreading.

6.Cook in oven for 10 minutes. allow to cool on tray for a few minutes, before transferring to a plate or wire rack.

Makes a butt load.

EASY AS scone recipe

I love to bake and cook. I have worked in kitchens as my primary form of employment and have come across many wonderful recipes. Of all of the wonderfully delightful fun time and company snacks, nothing beats good scones, but if you are anything like me, no amount of experience has allowed for the making of a decent batch using the traditional methods. Traditionally, scones are made with cold butter (HAS to be cold or the scones will be greasy), plain flour, milk, baking soda, sugar, and salt. It is a precise and precarious process which involves practically having a PhD in chemistry and I hate it. But my love for scones led me to find a new method that produced superior scones with zero fuss. I found this method. 3 ingredients, no hastles.

EASY AS scones.

2 cups Self Raising Flour

2/3 cup thickened cream

2/3 cup of cold lemonade

1. Preheat the oven to 225 degrees Celsius

2. Mix lemonade and cream together.

3. Sift in flour and fold together (not too much or scones will be tough)

4. Turn out onto floured bench and give a light squish until all combined and pat out to about 2 cm thickness.

5. For cutting, you can use a scone cutter, or a knife. Flour you cutter/knife EVERY time you press it into the dough so that the edges don't get pushed down too much, as pressed down edges will prevent the scones from rising properly. I prefer to cut my scones into squares with a floured knife, as it uses all the dough in one hit. You should be able to get 9 regular sized scones or six large scones out of this mix.

6. Place the scones on a greased and floured baking tray. To aid in the rising, scones should be placed very close together. Cook for about 10-15 minutes. They should be lightly golden.

So there you go. Quick, easy, yummy scones for any occasion! Serve with jam and cream!