Roots Manoeuvre Curry (Vegan)

Things have been so busy at work lately, I've been leaving the house at 6:30am and then not getting back until 6-7ish. So the last think on my mind is cooking, and I'm not too fond of beans on toast!

So I've taken to making one big meal to eat during the week and as curries work well with this method, last week was a Thai inspired curry, but this week I decided on something more Indian.

I got turnips and carrots in my veg box this week, and I never get round to using the potatoes I get every week, so Abel and Cole's roots manoeuvre curry looked ideal as you can add pretty much any root veg and any other veg you have lying around.  I settled on potatoes, turnips and carrots.  But I was very tempted to roast some broccoli too because, as proved previously, roasted broccoli rocks.

This is a vegan curry, but I had some left over sour cream and chives from making nachos over the weekend, so I dolloped some on which went really well with the curry, but you could always use an alternative if you desire.

The curry was really nice, I think veg tastes so much nicer roasted and was worth the extra effort, plus they retain far more nutrients than boiling. If I made it again I would probably add more potatoes as I parboiled them as you would when making roast potatoes which is unsurprisingly nice. I found this out when visiting a very popular Indian restaurant in Bolton called The Royal Balti House for my Birthday, the website isn't that impressive but it is very popular and was featured on an episode of Phoenix Nights and it was my Parent's local Indian when I was a kid (and I wouldn't touch curry because it looked weird, even though I liked the smell!). Anyway, getting back to the point I had a curry from said restaurant and they roasted the potatoes, and ever since I've been obsessed with roast potatoes in curries!

This would also be an ideal thing to make using left overs from a Sunday roast.

The real faff is grinding the spices, luckily I have a pestle and mortar that I stole from The Boy, but I guess wrapping the spices in a cloth (or sandwich bag) and bashing with a rolling pin would work just as well.

Roasted cauliflower and casperita coconut curry (vegan)

In this week's veg box I got green cauliflower and a casperita squash which is kind of like a white pumpkin.  I knew I was in for a busy week at work therefore I decided to make something that would last me an entire week. So I had a go at Abel and Cole's Cauli and Coconut curry, using the casperita squash as the 'other veg'.

It took a while to make, but thanks to my new food processor, it took less time than it would have done using my hand blender to make the sauce. This seems to taste better when reheated as when I had it yesterday it was a bit 'meh' but today it was an improvement.

I really do recommend roasting cauliflower, I'm not a big fan of cauliflower, but roasted the flavour is a lot nicer.

Mushroom risotto with garlic and mushroom bruschetta (vegan option)

A while ago I went to Manchester's Food & Drink festival and picked up a jar of mushroom and garlic bruscetta topping from Francas.

Francas is actually a Italian pizza takeaway in Bolton, but they also do a lot of local food festivals selling their authentic pizzas and Italian ingredients.

I've been meaning to use this for ages, so when I get some mushroom with this week's veg box I decided a risotto was a good idea.

First of all, I made a quick stock using Abel & Cole's 'Stock and Roll recipe', this is really easy and as with any stock, you can use anything you have to hand. This time I used onion, celery and carrot plus a few cabbage leaves and the stem part of a used broccoli.  This resulted in quite a dark green stock!

My new food processor which I received as a Birthday present from The Boy really helped with the stock recipe!

For the risotto itself, I used a basic risotto recipe, and then added the bruscetta spread near the end.

1. Sizzle an onion in butter or oil (I used Suma Sunflower Spread) until tender
2. Add around 50g of risotto rice per person and cook for a few minutes.  Add in sliced mushrooms
3. Add a glass of vegan/ vegetarian white wine and let the rice absorb it.
4, Add a ladle of warm stock.
5. Set timer for 20, add the stock to the risotto a little at a time until the time is up.
6. Add cheese, or as I did add a bit of bruscetta topping and a sprinkling of pine nuts!

The lady at the festival gave me a tip when I bought the spread: when you've opened it and used it, cover the remaining spread with sunflower oil- it makes it last longer and infuses the oil!

Romesco Cauliflower Stir Fry

Today is THAT day of the week.  The day before veg box deliver day when I try to piece together the last of this week's veg into some sort of meal.

This week, I had left half the Romesco cauliflower, some red onions and potatoes. The onions and potatoes will keep so it was more a case of using up the cauliflower, and although I really enjoyed Tuesday night's tea it took a while and I just wanted something quick.

It was a toss up between pasta and a stir fry, and the stir fry won.

Along with the cauliflower (and noodles) I planned to add chilli, garlic, soy sauce and the juice of half a lemon that I had in the fridge.

All was going according to plan, until I accidentally pour red wine vinegar into the wok instead of sesame oil, and since I thought I'd buggered it up all ready I thought I would experiment a bit so added a bit of Thai green curry paste.

I was expecting something vile, but it actually tasted OK and the only thing was I went a bit OTT on the soy sauce so it tasted a bit like a posh pot noodle!

I would post a recipe/method but there isn't one, I think it probably needs a bit of work. But just shows that with a few store cupboard staples, half a cauliflower, chilli and onion you can make a meal. And don't be afraid to wing it!

Roasted Romesco Cauliflower

I admit it. Cauliflower is one of my least favourite vegetables. So when I started my veg box, I added it to the dislike list so I wouldn't end up with it in my box.

With Abel and Cole, you can see what is in your veg box each week before you receive it, anything you dislike is marked with an 'X' and you will receive something random on the day!

Last week, I was due to receive Romesco Cauliflower, but as I had added cauliflower to my dislike list, there was a big X beside it. I'd recently started to hear more and more about this cauliflower and it's unusual appearance  being intrigued I decided to give it a go and removed the dreaded cauliflower from the block list...

So anyway, here is what one looks like

The top is pointed, so if you had two, they would make an excellent Madonna bra for a fancy dress costume (especially if the theme was vegetable celebs)!

Anyway, I decided to try Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall's Roasted Cauliflower with lemon and paprika (found on the Abel & Cole site) with a side of roast potatoes with lemon and rosemary and some Quorn sticky BBQ fillets.

The cauliflower was really nice, the flavour seems to be a lot more 'delicate' compared to regular cauliflower, and the lemon and paprika went together really well. Surprisingly the big disappointment was the Quorn. It just reminded me of those tasteless Bird's Eye chicken fillets I use to eat as a teenager. The extra BBQ sauce helped to make it more bearable.

Vegan Apple Cake

I have two apple trees in the garden at my new place, a eating apple tree and a cooking apple tree.

As eating apples are now in season, I have apples coming out of my ears!  Here are some I collected that had fallen off the tree:

There are still plenty on the tree and on the grass but given it is now winter I only have a small snippet of time to pick them after work. Although I may try and pick some over weekend.

The thing is, there are just TOO many, and a lot of them are too small or have imperfect skin so are unsuitable to take to work.  So I've had to think of other ways to use them up:

1. Apple porridge with cinnamon: peel the apple and remove the core. Cut into small pieces. Place in bowl and microwave on highest setting for around a minute. Add porridge and milk/water (I've been using hazelnut drink) mix and cook as normal. Sprinkle with a little sugar and ground cinnamon.
2. Vegan Chocolate Orange cupcakes 

Lisa at We Don't Eat Anything With a Face suggested that I should try her vegan apple cake recipe.  Now I'm not a fruit dessert fan, but this was a sponge cake, not the usual apple pie so I thought I would give it a go:

Apologies for the blurry photo. My camera has broke and so I am using my smart phone as a camera. After this one it refused to take any more for some strange reason!

It's lovely and moist, and uses every day ingredients (instead of special vegan ingredients) and have made it twice now. And somehow, I don't think this will be the last time I make it!

Cabbage Stir Fry with Ginger, Chilli and Garlic

I've not really got into cooking until the last year or so, OK I had some staples that I use to make on a weekly basis but that was about it.

Therefore, I tend to stick quite strictly to recipes and don't tend to try and use my own imagination. Hence why so many recipe posts on here are quoted from recipe books, magazines and websites. However I knew eventually that I would gain enough experience to give me the confidence to try and come up with my own ideas.

This week in my veg box I got some savoy cabbage, and decided to make a stir fry.  Along with Thai green curries, this is another regular meal in my kitchen! However, instead of looking up recipes for 'cabbage stir fry', which I normally would do, I decided to improvise and make my own way.  OK, so it's only a stir fry, but it's a step forward!

I made this twice this week, the first time I went a little OTT on the sesame oil and it was a little greasy, but second time was much better.  I used the outer leaves of the cabbage for this and then used the inner leaves, which are packed more closely and stay together better to make cabbage wedges.

Ingredients (serves 1)
Noodles (enough for one person, I used a brand that sold the noodles in a pack of 'nests' that were enough for one person per nest)
Sesame oil
2 handfuls of savoy cabbage (tough stem removed, stack leaves on top of each other, roll and chop to make cabbage 'ribbons')
Red onion (peeled and quartered)
1/2 a red chilli (sliced and de-seeded)
Ginger (as much as you like, peeled and grated)
One garlic clove (peeled and crushed)
Soy sauce

1. Cook noodles according package instructions, cooking for a minute less than needed so that they can finish cooking when you stir fry them. If you are organised, you can then drain and retain the water ready for the next step. One drained, put noodles back in the pan or bowl and toss in a little of the sesame oil.
2: If your cabbage leaves are quite tough, boil a pan of water (hence why you retained the water in step one), and the cabbage and simmer for a few minutes....
3. Whilst the cabbage is simmering, heat a little of the sesame oil in a wok/large frying pan. Then add in the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli. Allow to cook for a few minutes until fragrant.
4. Whilst the onion and spices are frying gently, drain the cabbage.
5. Add the cabbage to the spices and add a good drizzle of soy sauce. Stir fry until the cabbage has shrunk a little and a very glossy dark green. Add the noodles.
6. Mix together and stir fry for around a minute so everything is heated through.

Serve

You may want to add some cashews at the same time as the same time as the cabbage for a little extra protein.

Thai Green Veggie Curry (vegan).

It's veg box delivery day tomorrow, so tonight is when the last of this week's veg needs using up.

One of my favourite ways of using up any veg that's lying around is a curry. Because you can put ANYTHING in it. Thai green curry is one of my favourites.

Tonight's Thai green curry consisted of:

Chard
Potatoes
Carrot
Frozen peas
Frozen baby corn

Mammoth portion!

I usually buy ASDA's own brand Thai curry paste as it happens to be vegetarian, but TESCOS' own brand is also really nice, and also veggie. I did try a more traditional paste I bought from a Chinese supermarket but it was HORRID and far too spicy!  Maybe when I finally get my mitts on a food processor I will try and make my own, if I can get hold of Kaffir lime leaves (apparently the frozen ones are a lot better than the dried ones).

Also when I make it, I use coconut cream instead of coconut milk. It makes far more creamier and less runny. The Boy uses double/or single cream (Elmlee do a low fat double 'cream' version). But I think that coconut cream makes it taste a lot more like it should do, and makes it creamier.  Yeah it adds on the calories, but then, the rest of the curry is just vegetables and you know, live a little ;-). Since the instructions on the back of a jar usually relate to chicken, I thought I would tell you how I do it, not that might is the only way :-)

Method:

For the rice:
Rice is pretty simple, but I've just started to use a new method to cook rice, I've found that using this method, I don't end up with rice stuck to the bottom of the pan!:

1. Put rice in a lidded pan and heat for 1 or 2 minutes until fragrant 
2. Add a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt
3. Add water and bring to boil.
4. Simmer with lid on for 10-15 minutes, until nearly all the water is gone (when you can just about see little bubbles of water still simmering away. 
5. Turn off heat and let rice steam with the lid on until all the water is gone

For the curry:

1. Vegetables like potatoes and carrots will need boiling first for about 10 minutes (ensures that the veg is cooked through, I hate half cooked carrots- either give me cooked carrots, or raw carrots- not some minging in-between!). Then drain and set aside.
2. Add a generous dollop of Thai green curry paste, I use 1/4 jar per person (ignore whatever measurement the instructions on the jar give!) to the pan and heat for a few minutes until fragrant.
3. Add veggies that take longer to cook, like carrots and potatoes.
4. Add the coconut cream and put a lid on the pan, simmer for around 10 minutes.
5. Now add an veggies that don't take that long to cook, such as peas, baby corn and chard. Cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve.

Yum.

Comfort Food

As a child, every now and then my Dad use to make what I fondly remember as Friday tea. Unlike many traditional families, this did not involve a visit to the local chippy, instead this meal consisted of breaded chicken goujons and skinny fries, with mayonnaise.

I LOVED it! I was never allowed fries, so it was very much a treat.

I'd not thought about it until I was browsing in my local ASDA and saw a £2 trial pack for Quorn's chicken style goujons and I just HAD to have them! They had been sitting in my freezer for around about a week and I've obsessed over them constantly, but the 'bad' thing about getting a veg box is that it removes any need to eat junk as everything you need for a healthy meal is already there.

I had planned to do something with the aubergine tonight, but it's cold, wet, dark and I had to get the later train home and I was off swimming. In summary I didn't feel like preparing vegetables, I just wanted something I could just whack in the oven for 20 minutes.  So goujons and curly fries it was!

I decided to make it healthier than it was in my childhood so I added some garden peas with a small dollop of garlic butter, as well as a bit of hummus I used with the left over chickpeas and lemon juice from last night's tea.  I have no Mayo, so I artistically drizzled some ketchup!

It was so good, the goujons were satisfying, as there were an uneven number of goujons (7), I decided it was best to have them all! It's is SUCH a child's tea but you know what? Sometimes that is just what you need :-)

Disclaimer: I've noticed a few bloggers putting disclaimers on the bottom of posts if they had received any payment or freebies etc. for blogging about a product.  Therefore I would like to add that I did not receive and freebies or payment for this post and my views are my own.  Neither have I ever receive any freebies or payment for any previous products I have mentioned, I wish I did. That would be awesome!

Pasta with cavolo nero and chickpeas

It's has not been one of my most successful weeks in the kitchen so far, on Monday I made Green Pesto Pasta with Broccoli and Pine nuts using my first attempt at kale pesto (or pesto in general for that matter). The pesto was a bit too bitter for my liking and I think I need to work on the recipe a bit.

Yesterday went OK, fennel was not completely my cup of tea and although the roast broccoli was amazing the 'roasties' were a let down. So tonight, if it wasn't for the fact that I had already got all the veg for this week (and therefore feel inclined to use it) I probably would have resorted to some kind of Quorn based meal with curly fries!

Tonight was my first taste of cavolo nero, and I found this recipe on the BBC Food website.  I made a few adjustments; the recipe is for 4 so I reduced the amounts accordingly, I used some mild cheddar I had in the fridge instead of the Pecorino and I used some dried wholewheat penne pasta which I cooked according to the packet instructions.

The results were very nice, I just love the colour of cavolo nero and kale when you fry it, it goes such a lovely dark green and so shiny. The taste of the lemon just seem to cling to the leaves giving it a lovely taste. If I was to make it again, I would probably add some chilli, if only to give the dish a bit more colour.

Fennel 'Steaks' with roasted broccoli and potatoes

I took my Abel and Cole cook book (free with my first veg box!) with me for a bit of light reading on the train on the way to Coventry to see The Boy and came across a recipe for Fennel Steaks.  Given that I'd got some fennel in my veg box this week I thought I'd give it a go.

I also had some broccoli left over after tea the day before, and a cosmos potato from lasts week's veg box and given I had a free evening I thought I'd roast them.

My thoughts on fennel- I'd mentioned that I had some fennel to The Boy's mum who mentioned it had an aniseed flavour. I've never had fennel, or smelt/tasted aniseed so I wasn't sure what to expect.  But as soon as I cut into it DEAR GOD I NOW KNOW WHAT ANISEED SMELLS LIKE! This made me a bit apprehensive about how it would taste as I now know I do not like the smell of aniseed. I followed the recipe for fennel steaks, but as I decided to try the rapeseed oil with it that I picked up at the East Midland's Food Festival.

After watching one an Abel and Cole's video on fennel, in which they demonstrate fennel steaks I thought I would try cooking the lemons in the pan along with the fennel before drizzling the juice on them before serving.

The smell either eased off during the cooking or was masked by the smell of the lemon. Either way when it came to eating it, it didn't taste as bad as it smelt, not that the taste or smell of aniseed was totally gone but it was mellower than before, therefore although I wasn't bowled over I would try it again with hope that after a couple of tries I may become more accustomed. I could perhaps try roasting it instead.

Looking a bit bland! Need to work on ideas to make it a bit more colourful- roasting the potatoes properly would help!

As you can tell in the picture, the roast potatoes didn't work that well (despite cutting them into smaller pieces in hope that they would cook in a shorter time) but I sprinkled them with some garlic during the cooking, which really made them taste really good anyway.

The roasted broccoli on the other hand was delicious! I've never roasted broccoli before but it may now be my favourite was of cooking broccoli. It was especially good drizzled in balsamic vinegar.

Abel and Cole Vegetable Box

I mentioned briefly in my previous post that I have signed up for veg boxes with Abel and Cole. Well today was my second delivery day, and since I forgot to take any pictures last week I thought I would do so this week.

I have today off, so didn't need to get up until 8am this morning, but at 6:30am I heard a disturbance outside and like a young child on Christmas day I just had to get up to see what 'Santa' had left, I then put it away before going back to sleep again!

There is:

• Broccoli
• Cavolo Nero
• Watercress
• Carrots
• Fennel (I had to Google this to find out what the hell it was!)
• White Onions
• Organic Milk
• Aubergine (I got a note in my box to say they threw it in as a freebie as they had a few spare!)
• Organic Free Range Eggs (free gift)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (another free gift!)

Altogether (including a 99p delivery charge) this cost £11.03 (£9 veg box and £1.04 for the milk, which is a bit more expensive than in the supermarkets but the farmers get a fair price and as a result the cows are treated better!). 

A few of the carrots will go into making Carrot and ginger soup for work, I'll make green pesto pasta with broccoli and pine nut pasta (using some kale pesto I made and froze last week) and more pasta this time using the cavolo nero with chickpeas. But other than than that, I have no idea! But that's all part of the fun!

Alpro Hazelnut drink

OMG you (un)lucky people! Two posts in one day, you must think Christmas has come early!

Truth is, I've found myself with and unexpected free evening as a friend ditched me to prepare for an interview tomorrow (good luck K, I hope you get it so we can go out and buy pretty things!) so I thought I would catch up on some blogging.

I've tried many different milk alternatives before, with different levels of success:

Soy milk: soy milk is weird. You know how no matter what company makes your milk, it always takes the same? This isn't the case for soy milk, I've tried different brands and they've all tasted completely different.  Some tasted really creamy, which I don't like but I did manage to find one I did like- Alpro's light unsweetened soy milk which is a lot more 'watery' than others.

Hemp milk: this stuff was just horrid, I think I threw most of this away, which is very unlike me even if I don't like something I will try not to throw it out.  Before going veggie I bought a block of parmesan and discovered I do not like parmesan. However I continued to use all of it instead of throwing it away. Perhaps hemp oil would taste better?

Coconut milk: by Kara, this stuff was OK, it was the only milk alternative that I could put in coffee without it tasting rank. However it way nothing to get excited about.

Anyway, I found myself without any milk, so I was forced to go to ASDA to refresh supplies. I always feel a bit guilty about buying milk from ASDA as I have doubts about the welfare standards of the cows used to produced the milk, plus there is the even though they caved in and agreed to pay their farmers a 'fair' price for milk, it only just covers the price of production.

So I decide to try a nut milk after hearing so many good reviews, and I saw ASDA had an offer on Alpro's hazelnut milk so though I'd give it a go.

IT IS AMAZING! I love this drink, it does taste a little nutty and with coffee it tastes like hazelnut latte :-) It also tastes good with porridge.

I like this so much that I'm really tempted to hoard it while ASDA are selling it for £1.

Pasta with kale, garlic and chilli

Last week (on the same day that I signed up to Graze) I signed up to Abel and Cole who deliver seasonal, organic veg boxes (as well as other things) straight to your door, as my plan of getting up early on a Saturday morning to go to my local market isn't really working out!

In my first box I got a bunch of kale, which I hadn't a clue what to do with- I've never had kale before!

So I started googling recipes and I came across a recipe for pasta with kale, garlic and chilli, I pretty much followed the recipe given but adjusted it for one person and substituted the spaghetti for wholewheat penne. I also added some  toasted pine nuts for a bit of protein and added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar at the end.

I've tried other recipes to use up the kale (I still have some left and no idea what to do with it) but this one has to be my favourite so far. As for my opinion on kale? Hmm it's not one of those vegetables your instantly love (I also got spaghetti squash in my box and that was love at first taste!) but I think it's like olives- I love olives now, but the first time I had them I was aware that they tasted OK and didn't make me was to vomit, so I kept having them and now I love them.  Hopefully that will be the case with kale.

Graze Box Review

I was sat in work last week, bored and hungry- a dangerous combination!

I'd heard of Graze boxes before after a friend raved about them and I thought they would prevent me grazing on more unhealthy treats in the office (as I write this, I'm eating a stawberry and cream lolly!).  So after finding a promotional code for a free box I decided to give it a go.

Firstly, you have to create an account and put in payment details, this assumes that after the free box you will continue and buy a box on a weekly basis for a cost of £3.89, although you can apparently cancel anytime and you can put in holidays so a box isn't delivered when you're away.  You are also asked to choose a day for your box to be delivered, the default is one box a week but you can have more than one.  Boxes are sent out via Royal Mail and the delivery cost is included in the price of the box and are small enough to fit through a standard letter box so there is no need to wait in or have to collect it from a post office.  Plus you can get it sent to either your home or a work address.

Once this bit is done, then comes the fun part- you can then browse through their ranges and click on things you love, like, would like or try or 'bin' and you will get a selection of things minus the 'binned' items to try each week. 

I put my delivery date as a Monday, and requested for the delivery to come to my home address as my work's post room can sometimes get a bit funny about personal post (the odd order from amazon is fine, but they may get a little suspicious with weekly deliveries!).  At the weekend, I got an email to tell me the contents of my box and to let me know it had been despatched:

- Olives with garlic and chilli
- the herb garden (oregano rice crackers, crispy peanuts and baked herb bites)
- My thai (baked soy bites with sweet chilli sauce)
- Yin and Yang (Belgian dark chocolate, almonds, jumbo raisins and cherries)

The box was delivered on Monday as promised and did fit through the letter box easily.  Which was a relief, our postman has an irritating habit of putting parcels too big to go through the letter box in the outside bins.  Not too bad if it's the paper bin, but when he chooses the green food bin (which also happens to be the one FURTHEST away from the front door!) it gets a bit messy, plus you have to turn the bin on it's side and fish the parcel out with a mop handle and given the weather in Bolton recently, I did NOT fancy doing that! Anyway I was restrained enough not to open it straight away and waited until I brought it into work today:

I'm trying not to eat them all on one day, so I had the olives today- I love olives (apart from when they leave the stones in, I don't care if it preserves more flavour, I'm too bloody impatient to be nibbling around a stone!) so they couldn't do much wrong there.  Now the question is, what will be tomorrows choice? Decisions, decisions!

Free Graze Box!!!
If you fancy giving Graze a go, follow this link http://www.graze.com/p/PJGPZP4.to claim your first box free!

Special Egg Fried Rice

This is an adaptation of a recipe from September's Cook Vegetarian, it was for low fat special fried rice, using low fat cooking spray.  I heard low fat cooking spray tastes rank so I used sesame oil and  made other adjustments.

Ingredients (Serves 2)
-About 1/2 pints of long grain rice (I used brown rice)- seems an odd method of weighing out rice, but it works.  You want 1/4 pint of rice per person (I use a measuring jug to measure, it also equates to 1/2 of a ordinary mug) and you need to cook it in 1/2 pint of water to every 1/4 pint of rice.  Therefore for this recipe, I cooked the rice in 1 pint of water.
-Sesame oil
-2 free range eggs, beaten
-1 pepper de-seeded and finely sliced, I use frozen multi-coloured peppers
- other vegetables of your choice, as much as you desire- I used frozen peas, and I have a bag of frozen Thai vegetable I got from ASDA (they're really good!) sliced finely where necessary!
-1/2 cm of ginger peeled and grated
-1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce

1. Cook the rice, leave to cool
2. Pour some sesame oil in a frying pan and heat up. add the beaten egg and spread evenly over the base of the pan. Cook for 8-10 minutes until you get something that resembles an omelette (without the milk!)
3. Remove egg from pan and cut into strips.
4. Add more oil if necessary and bring back up to heat. Add the all the vegetables, ginger and garlic and cook on a medium to high heat for 5 minutes or until done.
5. Add rice, egg strips and soy sauce and heat through for 1-2 minutes.
6. Serve

Carrot and Ginger Soup

In May this year, I volunteered at The Vegetarian's Society's Meat Free in Manchester event which kicks off National Vegetarian week and was delighted when I was allocated to help out in the cookery theatre.

I spent most of my time backstage helping to wash up all the dishes used during demonstrations ready for the next act.  One of the demonstrators who I got the privilege of meeting was 'Queen of Vegetarian Cooking', Rose Elliot who was a delight to talk to, and I got a little bit star struck!

Rose was also promoting the new edition of her best selling cookbook 'New Complete Vegetarian' and was doing book signings after demonstrating a Thai bean cakes, Thai curry (with red and green Thai paste) and chocolate avocado mousse. And I'm proud to say I now own a signed copy of the book- it is also the first signed thing I have ever owned!

Anyway, one of the recipes in the book (which is HUGE!) is carrot and ginger soup.  Before making this soup, I had never made soup before, but this soup is so easy (you don't even need to have pre-prepared vegetable stock) and is very tasty.  I now own a Thermos flask so decided to make a batch this weekend for work lunches.

.

The recipe also says to season to taste with salt and black pepper (which I always forget, in general I'm quite bad at remembering to season food) and suggests garnishing with parsley, again something I don't bother with.

This is a really nice alternative to the traditional carrot and coriander soup, especially if like me you're not too keen on coriander, plus it's quite easy to make and is also quite low calorie and healthy.

Veggie "Sins"

It's been 5 months (ish) since I fully committed to vegetarianism, and I'm quite proud of how well I've done, I've not really had any slip ups, or moments of lack of will power and I can safely say that apart from the occassional craving for smoked samon and steak canadian (which is a total surprise, if anything I thought I'd miss chicken!) I've not missed meat.  And I think that is due to it being a gradual process, in the early days I never ruled out ordering meat at a restaurant, and eventually I didn't even think about it.

However...I have do have a few "sins"...

Rose Wine
Oh how I love a nice glass of rose.  But due to manufacturers putting crap like fish bladders etc (often to bring down production costs), and the methods by which wine is refined means unless it says it is vegetarian on the label, it often isn't.  Which is annoying, why the hell would you expect/want animal products to be in a drink? It's not like I've looked at a fish's swim bladder and thought "well, that would make a nice tipple"!

I've managed to find a wine in ASDA (ASDA's own brand Lambrusco Rose) which is vegetarian- is £2.28, 3 units per bottle (so if you wanted you could drink the whole bottle without guilt/hangover plus it's probably low calorie) and actually tastes quite nice- it's quite light and quite 'pop-like'. BUT whenever I go out, I just can't resist a glass of rose, even if in the back of my mind I know that it's probably not veggie, but it taste sooo good!

Shoes
OK, so I own leather shoes from my meat-eating days- I'm NOT getting rid of them the way I see it is that they have already been bought and to get rid of them would be wasteful. But I am trying to make sure that any new shoes I buy aren't made of leather.

HOWEVER, a few months ago, I was looking for some new sandals to take on holiday, now I did spot some on the Vegetarian Shoes website but I spent so long dithering on whether to buy them (they're not cheap, and then there is the added postage cost) that they sold out.  I couldn't find anything else I liked (why are vegan shoes SO ugly?) and when I did find any I liked they were always too expensive (I'm going to wear them for about one week a year!).  Then I saw some Regatta sandals that were nice, not too expensive and looked comfy AND it said they were made out of Nuback NOT leather, so I ordered them.  By the time I had googled what exactely Nuback was, it was too late and I couldn't figure out on the website how to cancel the order! But OMG they are comfy!

Thai Curries
I love curry, and I find it frustrating having to check for the presence of fish sauce in Thai curry pastes.  However, when The Boy discovered that ASDA now do a Thai Massaman paste (I had it once at Rice, it was AMAZEBALLS but it's impossible to find a pre-made paste, never mind a veggie one) that has fish sauce in, I chose to IGNORE this fact and eat the otherwise veggie curry anyway!

Also there was the Thai red curry I ate at a pub, it seemed like the kind of place that the chef would be unaware that Thai curry pastes contain fish sauce. Despite thinking this, I decided that the pub claiming the curry was veggie was enough- so I ate it and it was amazing!

To be honest, I don't feel too guilty about these "sins", I'm good the rest of the time, and so what if there a few things in life I'm finding hard to give up? I see vegetarianism as a belief, people have that belief for different reasons, just like religious beliefs people have different interpretations.  Some Christians choose not to have sex before marriage, some do- they still class themselves as Christians.  I'm vegetarian, sometimes I eat the odd bit of fish product that's hidden within an otherwise vegetarian product, or I accidently buy non-vegan shoes, lifes too short to get hung up about little things.  If anything, I'm not worried about being judged by vegetarians about these things, more by non-vegetarians who use things like this to point out that it's "impossible" to be vegetarian and so, why bother? 

It would be interesting to hear what "sins" other vegetarian readers have committed, and do you feel guilty about them?

Review: QZine, Clitheroe

Wow, I'm finding it so hard to get back into the habit of blogging, but hopefully the tips I picked up on a recent Time Management course should help matters (using the idea of 'Power Hours' I've already managed to blitz a load of house hold chores, including starting cleaning my fridge freezer, something I've been putting off for ages!). Plus, a trip to Clitheroe provided me with inspiration...

After wandering through Clitheroe, around 2pm after not having any breakfast or lunch, I was starved, and seeing signs for steak Canadian- the only time I use to eat steak by choice, was starting to make me regret my choice to go veggie (that and my occasional craving for smoked salmon!).

Then we came across QZine (holding page atm), which is tucked away inside Swan Court, towards Clitheroe castle. Granted, it wasn't an entirely vegetarian menu, but the vegetarian options were plentiful- even The Boy ended up choosing a veggie meal!  The veggie food mainly centred around middle eastern cuisine, but there was a veggie lasagne, and maybe others- I wasn't looking, as soon as I saw the word falafel I became blind to anything else.  I opted for a falafel wrap with a smoke BBQ sauce, and the boy for a meze dish. Unfortunately, the batteries on my camera ran out (or at least thats what I'm hoping the probem is!) so no photos :-(

I would say that the prices are reasonable, for my meal plus chips, The Boys and a glass of rose, pint of beer it was £20, so not dirt cheap but the food was good, and The Boy's meal (the most expensive of the two) was huge! And the staff are really friendly, plus when you've stuffed your face with gorgeous food you can burn off the calories with a walk/run up to the castle, which is just down the road :-)

Mary McCartney's Spicy Nutty Stir Fry

Phew, long time no blogging.  However, course is now finished and moving is now completed so now I have a bit more time, and so many blog ideas!

One of the advantages of my new place is the kitchen is more functional.  I've gone from a tiny kitchen that was designed for students (i.e. big enough to make beans on toast!) to a kitchen where I have multiple cupboards and plenty of workspace.  This has certainly allowed me to be more creative in the kitchen as I now have the space to cook and the storage capacity to store more ingredients.

I have become quite obsessed with buying both the Cook Vegetarian and Vegetarian Living magazines on a monthly basis, one month Vegetarian Living had a free booklet with tasters for Mary McCartney's new cookbook- Food and this is where I found this recipe for 'Yummy Spicy Rice Noodles'.  This has now become a new favourite to cook, however I tend to vary the type of noodles I have and the veg I put in and just make the sauce to the recipe.

This recipe is so good and the sauce is delicious, when I first made it, I was making it for one and miscalculated the sauce and made it too runny. After eating it I shamefully tried to drink the rest of the sauce straight from the dinner plate!

Vegetarian Beans and Sausages.

Sometimes beans on toast can be a bit, well, unsatisfying and monotonous so I don't actually eat it that often.

But, as a child I LOVED the tins of beans and sausages you could get, it just added that little something to just plain old beans on toast.  But as a veggie, this is something I have to say good bye to, or so I thought...

This week is moving week, so I was after meals that would be quick to cook (I have a lot to do still in preparation), cheap, reasonably nutritious and wouldn't require ingredients that I would have left over (therefore more things to take over).  Reluctantly I decided on beans on toast.

However, when I went to procure said beans from my local ASDA I found that they now sell VEGETARIAN sausages and beans! Woo Hoo!

They taste as good as the non-veggie sausages and beans (although I doubt that the normal sausages actually contain that much meat anyway!) and they have made meals this week a bit more bearable.  Probably not the healthiest of options, but then I'm sure I can cope for 4 days.

I try not to make a habit of shopping at supermarkets, and try where possible to use independent shops, but it's not always easy to do with busy lives, especially when independent shops insist on sticking to 9-5 opening hours. However ASDA do some great veggie stuff, including vegetarian chocolate mousse (although there low fat version contains gelatine!) and I think all (if not a great deal) of their vegetarian frozen food is approved by the vegetarian society.

So if, like me, you're a veggie hankering after childhood memories of tinned beans and sausages head to your local ASDA!

*Having read this, it seems like I'm promoting ASDA, and I would like to therefore add that I am NOT receiving any payment in any form (including freebies) from ASDA or the Walmart company and all opinions are my own.

Restaurant Review: The Great Kathmandu, Didsbury

This last two months have been a little indulgent, with so many birthdays and Father's days etc. etc.

Anyway, one of these indulgences involved a visit to The Great Kathmandu in Didsbury, Manchester.

The Great Kathmandu was founded in 1987 and offers traditional Nepalese cuisine in the lovely area of Didsbury.

The first thing that you notice as you sit down and look at the menu is that there is much more on offer than the typical dishes you expect at Asian restaurants, which is great for me because I like to try new things and I can't stand it when you go to a restaurant and every single dish is familiar.

There is a wide range of vegetarian food, in fact a whole section of the menu is devoted to it (rather than the usual 'same sauce, just with the veg instead of the meat') and a lot of thought had obviously been put into the vegetarian options.  There are vegetarian starters but the do not seem to appear on the online menu for some reason?!

I also liked the poster in the window that said 'Keep Calm and Eat Curry', it definitely made me laugh but at the same time, it's so true- the UK has fully embraced Asian food, and food from all other cultures for that matter.  I think Jamie Oliver is right, we ARE a nation of magpies when it comes to food!

I ordered the Muttar Paneer, which is paneer cheese and peas, as I had a craving for paneer and anything with peas gets my vote!  Plus, since The Boys (The Boy plus twin) were present we also ordered a paneer starter as well. The service was good, the waiters were friendly, the food was lovely and reasonably priced. The portions were just right and weren't too filling, and the only issue was the cheese nans, which The Boys ordered, apparently we're that cheesy- although I think they were expecting cheese to come oozing out, so I'm not too concerned by that! We did have the issue of table too small for all the dishes, but that seems to be an issue at most Asian restaurants.  Unfortunately, again I forgot my camera so there are no photos.

I would definitely recommend Kathmandu, and it is worth a visit.

Hospital Inn- Preston.

I've not posted in a while now due to being to busy with studying and moving.  But since I've managed to magic some free time (nothing on TV, except Gok Wan cooks Chinese and since there are no veggie dishes this week there seemed to be no point in watching it) I decided to do a blog post.

One of my favourite pass times is eating out, it stems from frequent pub meals as a youngster, when my Dad use to pick my Mum up from work (he worked nights, my Mum 9-5) and on the way home she'd say:

"So what's for tea?"

My Dad, having got too distracted by Neighbours (and therefore was frequent late on picking her up) to think about tea would say

"Pub???"

Although becoming a Vegetarian has made eating out more challenging, it still something I do whenever I get chance to. So I thought I would start to do my own restaurant reviews. This post is about the Hospital Inn in Preston (sorry it doesn't have a website!).

It all started on the Boy's and his twin brother's (also a veggie) birthday two weeks ago, they planned on going to Smithills, however that was out the question when we found out it didn't open Wednesday tea time so the hunt began to find a new venue. After driving to two other pubs in Bolton- one who's veggie options were mushroom risotto with parmesan and roasted stuffed aubergine with brie (both of these were £15!) the other had only one option of cauliflower cheese risotto with parmesan (and then asked if we ate fish) a decision was made to drive to Preston and go to the Hospital Inn, a place The Boy's family rave about but I had yet to visit.

When we arrived there, I noticed that the specials board- which in most places only has meat options, had a whole section of vegetarian specials. Including:

Sizzling Halloumi with stir fried veg in a teriyaki  sauce and served with rice
Leak, broccoli and Stilton pie
Pasta with home made cherry tomato pesto served with garlic bread

Plus various other options on the regular menu.  I opted for the sizzling halloumi special (halloumi is the one few cheeses I like).  The halloumi was well cooked, sometimes it can be 'squeaky' but this had been cooked to perfection and hence, was 'unsqueaky', the teriyaki sauce was divine and  although I got 2/3 of the way through it and started to feel full, it was too nice not to finish.  So I finished it, and then felt very sleepy afterwards! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I haven't any pictures.

The Hospital Inn goes to show that British pubs can be veggie friendly, and vegetarian food doesn't have to be an after thought, and it can be as different and exciting as the meat options.

I would definitely recommend that you give the Hospital Inn a go.

Vegan Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

So operation use up all my perishables before my move in July continues!

I've been so caught up in trying to use up all my savoury items that I totally forgot my glut of baking supplies that I hoard, so I thought I would start and try and use it up.

I have a fascination with vegan food, I love the show Come Dine With Me and my favourite shows are the ones with vegan contestants because I love to see the creative ways that vegan cooking gets around the problem of not using any animal products. Especially in the case of using egg as a 'glue' in cooking, which is why the thought of vegan baking is so intriguing...

However I did want to use egg replacers or other fancy ingredients, which is when I stumbled upon this recipe from the lovely We Don't Eat Anything With A Face which uses grated apple hold the cakes together.  The only thing I did differently was add 3 tbsp of bicarb as I realised that I only had 60g of self raising flour and the rest of my supply was plain. On reflection the three tablespoons was a bit too much (I was quite scared that the cakes might actually explode in the over, they just kept growing!).

These cakes have to be the best chocolate cakes I have ever made, and the grated apple makes them really moist and yummy inside- I'm salivating at the thought as I write this!

I took them into work and told everyone that they were 'special' chocolate orange cupcakes and didn't tell them they were vegan.  After making 'mmm' noises, and making ridiculous guesses at what made them special, I finally told them that they were vegan and everyone was surprised.  Once colleague actually said that if he know they were vegan beforehand he wouldn't have had one, but will now think again about vegan cakes- then another colleague agreed!

If your reading this and thinking the same- please don't judge, keep and open mind about vegan cooking and try this recipe- it's awesome!

Looking Yummy

Yummier

Pretty Awesome

With the yummy icing- I licked it out the bowl after I made it!

Nutty Sweet Potato and Spinach Pie

Yet another adaptation from Joy May's book!

This was suppose to be a low cost meal using ingredients I had in, as I was planning to use the rest of the sweet potatoes from the Country Vegetable Pie but I forgot to bring them with us (I made this meal at mine) so I had to buy more and the The Boy insisted on the addition of goats cheese (no surprise there!).  However it still ended up a cheap meal.

If I was to do this again, I would probably spread the goats cheese over half the pie and leave the other half cheese less, as me and The Boy disagree when it comes to cheese!

Creative use of left over pastry! 

Country Vegetable Pie.

This week, The Boy had the week off, and his parents were on holiday and offered the use of the family home for the week. This turned out to be cooking heaven, as I'm use to my tiny little kitchen with one single cupboard for supplies and a small work surface (even a simple meal of beans on toast can result in the place looking like a bomb site!). Instead this week I had the use of a large family size kitchen which is well equipped and stocked.  So I put it to good use...

The Boy's Mum's has received was Mary Berry's updated Complete Cookbook as a recent birthday present, which we were told we were quite welcome to use. So I did!

I came across Mary's recipe for County Vegetable Pie and decided to give it a go, adding my own twist including the addition of sweetcorn and peas (not enough things contain sweetcorn and peas!), substituting the ordinary potato topping with sweet potato (The Boy's suggestion) and adjustments to the cooking instructions.

I really need to work on my 'pot to plate' technique with pies!

The result went down well, I was a bit worried by the parsley sauce as I'm not a big fan of creamy sauces but this was quite nice. I've attempted to freeze the leftovers, and I'm hoping this won't effect the taste. There were quite a few good vegetarian recipes in the book (a whole section on vegetarian recipes, plus a few more dotted about in different sections) so I will definitely be 'borrowing' the book more often!

D.I.Y Bean 'burgers' roti wrap.

The Boy was coming over. I needed an idea for tea, that wouldn't cost a fortune. I also had some rotis left over from the curry I've been eating during the week.

So I opened May's Cook Vegetarian and flicked to Rose Elliot's Veggie Bites, my eyes were drawn to D.I.Y. bean burgers, so I decided to have my first ever attempt making bean burgers.  Using the rotis as an alternative to a traditional tortilla wrap.

Ingredients:
1 tin of kidney beans, 1 tin of cannellini beans, drained (you can use any beans, a tin of mixed beans would work well, but I couldn't find any)
Spring onions (chopped)
Paprika (the original recipe says mixed herbs)
Soy sauce
Cheese (I wanted to leave this out, but The Boy being a cheese nut insisted!)
4 Rotis

1) Mash the beans
2) Stir in the spring onions, soy sauce, paprika and cheese (the amount which you add is up to you)
3) Make mixture into individual burgers and fry in oil until browned.
4) Heat a frying pan and warm up the rotis, 15 seconds per side
5) Place bean burgers in middle of rotis, add salad and sauces and wrap!

My attempt refused to stay together, I'm not too sure if this was because I didn't mash the beans enough (I really need a better masher!) or because I was trying to be healthy and didn't use enough oil.  I think the latter may be the case as The Boy eventually took over the frying process and added a lot more oil than I did, and his seemed to stay together better!  Alternatively, adding egg to the recipe would perhaps help the gluing process.

Anyway, since they were used in a wrap, it didn't matter too much that they didn't stay together and they were still tasty. And the grand total came to £2.42, but could be made cheaper.

You can see in this picture why I called this post 'bean burgers'.
This picture was taken before the addition of relish

Why buy high welfare meat

I came across a shocking video today via twitter regarding Animal Equality's undercover investigation into East Anglican Pig Company, which is quoted as "the third largest pork producer and leading supermarket supplier in the UK". 


Please be aware the below video has graphic scenes that some viewers may find distressing (me being one, I watched it once and can't bring myself to watch it again)

Although I think that the end message pleading with people to become vegan somewhat spoils the video (I don't think trying to guilt trip people into going vegan is the way to gain support) I still find the video shocking.


I don't think many of us realise how animals in the meat industry are really treated, I think we have this nice vision of pigs running around and being happy and being treated with dignity and respect- but from this video this isn't always the case.  OK, so (hopefully!) this is a one off case, and since this footage has been taken the farms shown are under investigation- but how can we be sure? The scary thing is this company provides major supermarkets in the UK, and how many of us check the welfare standards of the pigs that made our bacon? Or do we go for the cheapest?


It's likely that people's desire to eat meat regularly, and to pay less for it has gone to increase the need for intensive farming methods as shown in the video.


I really do not want this blog to turn in another vegetarian blog ranting about how "meat is murder" because I don't believe that is the best way to get a message across, and I don't think meat is murder, but I disagree with the way meat is produced and therefore have chose to become vegetarian. However, I would urge people, PLEASE try and buy high welfare meat, it may mean that you may have to cut down on the meat you eat but you're not going to keel over from a few meat-free meals. And it will stop incidents like this occurring again.

Back to the books!

I have a degree in Biochemistry, I think it became clear quite early on that I was on the wrong course, but instead of changing to something more suitable I decided to bury my head in the sand and carry on regardless.  Unsurprisingly, this meant that not only did I not enjoy university as much as I could have done, but I found it extremely stressful and ended up with a classification lower than I expected.

After this, I decided to turn my back to science altogether, and so have been working in administration since graduating in 2007.  Which was going fine until recently, when the itch to go back into science became too much as I saw course mates become Doctors (both Ph.D. and medical) one of these, despite not having completed her Ph.D. yet had a paper published in Nature (scientific journal). EDIT: Another friend, has now completed a Ph.D, and on top of that is a cycling blogger who has been quoted in the Guardian!

But I've been out of the science area for quite a while, and it's not one to stand still, plus I don't want to go back to Biochemistry. So instead of doing what I did at A level and just rush into it (I really think young people are under too much pressure to make such life changing decisions in so little time) I started to think about what I WANTED to do.

During A Levels, I considered Dietetics, as from an early age I've been interest in food and health. As a child, I was quite a fussy eater and my Mum often persuaded me to eat food by telling me it was good for me. I remember being delighted that Beetroot had great health benefits and it tasted good too!  But I dismissed it as an possibility because at the time I didn't feel like my diet was particularly healthy, and I hate feeling like a hypocrite- I don't get how health professionals can lecture patients on smoking and then nip out to the smoking shelter to puff on their own cancer sticks. However, my diet has now improved (and on reflection, my diet wasn't as bad as I thought) so I looked into that again, but again, dismissed it as due to not getting the grades I expected, I would need to do a four year undergraduate course, which I'm not prepared to do, plus the more I looked into it, the more it didn't seem to be for me.

When I started looking into Dietetics, another possibility came to light- nutrition. It seems like it may be a bit more up my street, and seems a bit more 'sciency' than dietetics. Plus I would be able to study it at Masters level.  However, I still wasn't too sure- it looks great on paper, but will it be something I enjoy? Or will it turn out exactly like my first degree?

So when I read that Open University do a short course in Understanding Human Nutrition, I saw a chance to test the waters before diving in. So I signed up for the May start date, and my course materials came today!

I'm really looking forward to getting back into studying again, and I'm hoping to share some of the things I learn along the way on this blog, so watch this space....

Warm Asparagus Salad

After reading May's edition of Cook Vegetarian and seeing Masterchef Finalist Dean Edwards' recipe for Minted pesto British asparagus and potato salad, I decided to do my own version, substituting the minted pesto for the rest of the vegan red pesto I had left over from earlier that week.

There was a slight disaster when I attempted to roast the cherry tomatoes for a full hour as instructed in the recipe- they just burnt and I spent a good while trying to remove the charred remains from my oven dish! So I decided to stick with uncooked cherry tomatoes instead!

Served with some tear and share Garlic bread- a bit too garlicky for  my liking (and I LOVE garlic!). Please note, I did have more than this, I was underestimating my portion size a little here.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
125g cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 bundle of asparagus ('woody' end removed and cut diagonally into three)
125g new potatoes (halved)
Salt and pepper to taste
About quarter of a jar of vegan red pesto (but more would be better)
Olive oil
Pine nuts (toasted)

Recipe (around 25 mins)
1) Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
2) Boil new potatoes until cooked through
3) Put asparagus in oven proof dish, drizzle with olive oil, season and roast in oven 6-8 minutes
4) Add a a little olive olive to pesto to loosen it
5) When potatoes and asparagus are cooked, toss together with cherry tomatoes, pesto and pine nuts.
6) Serve warm with whatever you desire!

The boy, who had never had asparagus before approved of this recipe (despite not sounding overjoyed when I told him we were having salad for tea) especially the pine nuts but thought it could be improved with cheese (his response to everything!). I quite enjoyed it, but when I have a food processor and don't have any pesto that needs using up I'd love to give this a go with the minted pesto as suggested in the original recipe.

A Spring 'Taste of Trafford'

Last Sunday we visited Trafford's Spring Food Festival in Altrincham (are you getting the hint that I'm a bit obsessed with food festivals yet?!).

It was quite a small event and took place in Altrincham's market. The Vegetarian Society's Cordon Vert cookery school were there giving cookery demonstrations throughout the day (which makes sense as the VegSoc headquarters is 15 minutes down the road!) and I managed to scrounge a free taster of the Breakfast wrap with crispy tofu and egg omelette, which was interesting, I never considered tortillas for breakfast!

As well as the cookery demonstrations, they were giving out recipe cards and booklets, I really like the one titled 'Season to taste' which gives recipes for each month depending on what is in season.

As for the rest of the festival, there was quite a selection of independent companies selling food items, including the lovely Lush Brownies (their triple chocolate brownie was divine- lovely and moist in the middle!), Fudgebox with their amazing flavoured fudges and gourmet handmade nut roasts from Thank Goodness! (for their online store delivery is £5 and the minimum order is one box of 4 x 350g nut roast, or 3 x 500g nut roast, however order 4 boxes and delivery is free so it's worth stocking up!).

As for the food at the festival, I thought the vegetarian options were quite limited although this seems to be the case for most festivals. I ended up with a Mediterranean vegetable pasta bake from Bespoke Food Company, where all the food was vegetarian, the only other option (apart from loitering around Cordon Vert and filling up on free samples) was a savoury crepe and I'm not a lover of crepes in general, especially not savoury ones. I was disappointed that a lot of the other stalls didn't offer veggie options.

All in all it was a good day, I'm not too sure if I would visit again, it would depend on how we got there as we ended up on the Metrolink which was £4.30 return, and given that you could go round the market in around an hour or less I don't think it was worth the transport cost.  Another issue was the festival's own currency, which was something called Tesetas (£1= 1 teseta) and was available in books of five (£5) which meant people ended up spending more than they needed, however a lot of the stalls also took proper money and apparently any unused tesetas could be used at participating restaurants in Trafford for a specified period.

"I'll eat cow, but eat dog? That's just disgusting"

We happily chomp down on a nice piece of beef, pork, lamb or chicken, but offer most meat eaters something 'exotic' and they recoil in horror.

Why is that? Why is it that we are happy to eat some animals but to eating others is frowned upon?

I think our general reluctance to eat cat, dog, rabbit or even kangaroo meat in the UK is because we associate it with the animal it came from.  We can't think of these meats without thinking of loyal companions or of animal documentaries on kangaroos carry around their joey in their pouches. 

But somehow we don't make this association with beef, pork, lamb or chicken. Is it because they are hideous animals? I don't think so, we seem to have quite a fondness for these animals when they're alive, people go 'aww' over lambs and micro pigs have really taken off as pets. The truth is that these animals can be just as adorable as cats and dogs.

Then there's the fact that we seem to aid the dissociation of these animals from their meat by giving the meat different names to the animal it came from- like beef and pork. Would people still buy it if it was labelled 'Cow' and 'Pig'? And would people still buy meat if butchers hung up the whole animal instead of us only viewing it in the unrecognisable pieces it is cut into?

Since the recession, people want to spend less but without cutting down on meat, therefore TV programmes like Super Scrimpers show people how to cook cheap pieces of meat such as kidney. It's quite interesting to watch people's reactions to gutting kidneys, they don't seem to like the look of it and the fact it looks like what it is.  But we're happy to eat cow muscle.

I remember working with a Chinese guy, who use to relay us tales of all the different things he had eaten, once he told us he'd eaten donkey and the whole office was horrified.  The next day he came in to have 'Donkey Killer' taped to his chair. There was nothing cruel meant by it, and it was all done in good humour (he actually loved the attention) but even then, before I started to think about the meat on my plate thought "I bet there are Indians that are horrified that we eat cows".

A month or so ago I watched a video called 'Cooking Kitty' produced by the vegetarian society as part of it's butcher's cat campaign which poses the question; 'Why do we make pets out of some animals, but mince meat out of others?' The video itself I'm not keen on, it attempts to use mild emotional blackmail to get you to change how you think.  But the campaign did make me think about why we choose to eat some animals but not others, and that fascinates me, and was one of the reasons that lead to my choice to become vegetarian.

By doing this post, I don't wish to promote vegetarianism in any way, especially not in an emotive one but if you do take anything away from this, take away that all meat is equal, regardless of the animal it came from and if you choose to eat meat, stop being so horrified by people eating rabbit, you're eating a cow.

Britain and vegetarian cuisine

Today I bought my first copy of Cook Vegetarian, and read an interview with the Hairy Bikers on their love of vegetarian food, when I came across a comment by Si (the Geordie one) about how vegetarian options in British restaurants are more of 'vegetarian excuses'.

I couldn't agree more.

I'm not a big fan of cheese, and avoid mushrooms where possible, so I'm constantly disappointed when dining out by the vegetarian options available, which seem to be either cheese or mushroom, or sometimes both.  Or even worse, the 'vegetarian options' are not even vegetarian, it was only last year that I was in a pub and all their fish dishes were labelled as vegetarian and last weekend the vegetarian options at a Cafe included pasta with pesto (made with anchovies) and parmesan cheese (made with calf rennet).  I ended up with a mozzarella sandwich, the other option was a cheese and egg sandwich.

It seems that the restaurant industry in the UK either doesn't care for it's vegetarian clientèle, and these offerings are mere  'token' gestures, or it  assumes that all vegetarians like the same things. This just isn't true, vegetarians, like meat eaters have different tastes, so why should we put up with poor options?

The lack of knowledge of some restaurants scares me- not knowing what is vegetarian and what isn't? OK I can understand if most people do not know what pesto and parmesan contain, but these people work in the food industry, it's their responsibility to know.

Back to the article, which goes onto to say that the Bikers have found that the best vegetarian food is in Italy and India- a fact that I've found myself.  When you go to Indian and Italian restaurants you can always find a great selection of vegetarian options. But why is this? What is it that Britain is getting wrong?

I think it has something to do with their attitude to vegetables and their ability to make it the star of the dish rather than the side kick. If you look at traditional British cuisine it centres around meat and two veg- even then the vegetables are boiled within an inch of their life and look unappetising. This is the main obstacle I had when I first experienced vegetarianism through knowing people who are vegetarians- I could get my head round what they ate for tea if they just had the two veg!

The inability for Britons to get over the meat and two veg concept is what makes many vegetarian dishes in restaurants so dull- you end up with 'cheese pie' or more often these days 'cheese tart' because the chief trying desperately to think of what will accompany the potatoes and peas instead of the meat. Whereas other cultures do this so much better, India has wonderful chickpea curries, Italy has refreshing pasta dishes, and many other cultures are just able to make vegetarian cuisine far more exciting.

Don't get me wrong, some places do make more of an effort and offer more choice to their vegetarian clients, but this should be the norm, not an exception to the rule.

Vegetarianism and me.

Well I've finally gone and done it.

I've finally stopped dipping my toe into the proverbial vegetarian pool, took a big breath and dived in, I have now decided to officially label myself a vegetarian.

The truth is, that I've drastically cut down on meat since last December, and I haven't really missed it, and on the occasions I've eaten meat I've not enjoyed it and felt bad about doing so.

It all started around Easter last year when I gave up meat for lent, during this time I really craved meat and ended up having a meat binge at the end of the lent period. I now put this down to the lack of cooking knowledge and poor options at restaurants.

Afterwards I went back to a more normal level of meat consumption which for me is quite low anyway and consisted of mainly chicken and the occasional smoked salmon bagel at weekends.  But around Christmas I watched the last thirty minutes of a programme whose name escapes me now, but basically the 'presenter' (I presume some TV chief or food critic who I'd never seen before) attempts to grow his own food for Christmas and compare it to what you get at the supermarket.  As part of this he decided to rear his own turkey.  At the end of the year, after all his work he hosts a Christmas meal offering both his home made produce and those from the supermarket.

When it comes to evaluating the turkey, they show his free range turkey, which was a tiny thing which they worked out to be worth around £60 (OK, that's a guess, but it was something ridiculous like that) and an offering from Bernard Matthews, which was twice the size of the free range turkey and would cost around £30.  They then showed a flashback from earlier on in the episode from the presenter's visit to the Bernard Matthews farm, and shows how the turkeys were kept in what looked like large sheds, pretty much like battery hens but with more room- but it was still not good. The representative from Bernard Matthews then explains that if the turkeys weren't kept in these conditions, then the average family wouldn't be able to have turkey at Christmas.

This made me think about vegetarianism again; did I feel right about animals being kept in these conditions just so I could afford it's meat? I would class myself as an animal lover, and I can never understand how people can do such cruel things to cats or dogs, but it can be so easy to turn a blind eye to how animals are treated in the meat industry. I changed my bank last year from a popular high street bank to the Cooperative as I didn't like the thought that I didn't know what my money was being invested in, whereas with the Coop I have that reassurance that they only invest in companies who meet their ethical policies. I feel the same about meat- I can't guarantee that the chicken in my meal has been treated in an ethical way, unless I have the money to spend on free range products.  And even then, that only guarantees their treatment on the farm, not how they were treated at the slaughterhouse.

In addition, I've never been a fan of meat on the bone, or any kind of meat that looks like the animal it came from.  By avoiding these cuts, it meant I could shy away from what I was actually eating. But if I ever catch a clip on TV of someone hacking up a dead pig, I find it hard to watch. The more I see of images like this, the more I find it  hard to disassociate the meat on my plate from the animal. And that I find hard to stomach.

Another factor in my decision is the environmental impact of the commercial meat industry.  Since being at school and learning about the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment I've always been concerned about the environment. Not only do cows account for 1/3 of the methane produced by human activity but farming animals wastes resources such as land and water. In a world with an increasing population- is this sustainable?

I'm not going to to go around shouting 'meat is murder' because I don't believe it is- we are part of the food chain and we have evolved to have canine teeth because it was advantageous to our ancestors to be able to eat meat.  However our increasing desire for meat has driven commercial farming methods which neglect the welfare and health of animal and ignore the environmental impact on our planet.

Nexus Art Cafe

I decided to make an impromptu visit to one of my favourite cafes today located in the Northern Quarter in Manchester.

When I first saw the Nexus, I didn't realise what it was. Out one night I walked past a peculiar building that had a set of stairs behind a glass window. On the stairs were various items, one being a kettle, the identity of the other items escapes me- I was transfixed on the kettle!

It was only when a friend invited me to her jewellery making workshop a few years back that I realised that strange building was the home of Nexus Art Cafe, and the set of stairs behind the glass window is used to exhibit various pieces of art. At the entrance to Nexus, you walk down a separate set of stairs into a basement and it is there you enter the Cafe.

Nexus is a not-for-profit creative community space and an exhibition centre for budding artists of many forms. Whenever I go in, there is always something new to look at, and even the design of the menu painted on the wall is constantly changing. It is the only place I will go if I am eating out alone, or fancy a drink, as I don't feel like a complete weirdo, and you can often find lots of other lone diners just relaxing in the little haven.

Today I found myself in the middle of town, stomach rumbling and decided to drop in for a bite to eat before embarking on the cycle journey home.  I had my heart set on a F.O.S.H sandwich (Falafel, Olives, Spinach and Hummus), but then I spotted their new 'lite bites' menu, which consists of various mini dishes accompanied by rye bread and a salad, it was £2 for one dish but then £1.50 extra for each extra dishes. I settled on the spicy falafel and sweet onion hummus.

It arrived on a wooden slab; their was two rammikins- one containing falafel and the other sweet onion hummus. The falafel was disappointingly unspicy but were nice all the same.  The sweet onion in the hummus was delicious, especially when spread on the brown rye bread (which there was plenty of).  It was definitely chickpea heaven!

If you are in Manchester, and you fancy a bite to eat, a drink or just a sit down to read that book you've just purchased I would definitely recommend Nexus.  The only downside is that it is a bit on the pricey side, but as it is a not-for-profit and the money goes towards it's charity work, I don't mind paying a little extra.