Pumpkin curry pie

Pumpkin curry pie

LOVE pumpkin pie. LOVE curry. LOVE pumpkin - Only once a year do they sell them. No more explanation needed. Also - you can carve the pumpkin, and roast the seeds (in oven with a bit of salt, pepper and garlic - yum!)

Ingredients:

Insides of one pumpkin

1 butternut squash

1 pepper

4 carrots

2 onions

1 packet cashews

1 can coconut milk

1 vegetable stock cube or equivalent

Spices (to taste): rosemary, garlic, cumin, coriander, curry powder (1-2 tbsp)

Your basic pie crust (double the flour to butter):

- 1½ cups flour

- ½- ¾ cups vegan butter/margarine

- 1/3 cup water (or however until mixture isn’t too dry/wet and sticks together)

1. Carve out the pumpkin and remove the seeds (for your own roasting pleasure). Leave the gooey insides to a side.

2. Chop up the rest of the veg - put in a pot and cook until softens. Add the pumpkin fillings.  

3. Make pie crust: mash flour and butter (along with cinnamon if using) together until cannot do so anymore with a knife. Then use the very tips of your fingers to mix the rest in until like breadcrumbs. Add water and mix, roll into a ball.

4. Get your shortcrust pastry ball and split into two pieces (so that one is twice the size of the other). Roll into a circle and place on pie tray/9 inch baking tray. Roll the other into a circle too.

5. Add your curry mix into the bottom pie crust. Place circular top crust on top and secure at edges by pressing down the edge of a fork. Prick at top with fork. Bake for ~30mins at 180 ̊or until crust browns a bit.

Also my puppy LOVES Autumn leaves.

Marinated Tofu in Pastry Floret Cups

Marinated Tofu in Pastry Floret Cups

Another recipe from our dinner party there the other night

(as was Vegan Bailey’s‘Cheesecake’)

Ingredients

Approx. 330g firm tofu Filo pastry 6 slices cucumber 1/3 carrot: very thinly sliced (see picture) 1 spring onion finely chopped Marinade (overall about 1 cup): 1/3 cup sesame oil 2 tbsp paprika 1½  tsp soy sauce 1 tbsp each of: cumin, thyme, garam masala 1 vegetable stock cube

Sauces: 1 pea size drop Wasabi paste 2 spoons houmous 1/3 cup dairy free cream 1 tsp chopped mint (or dried) 2 tsp chopped dill (or dried) 1 tsp garlic powder

Tofu:

1. Cut up tofu into pieces about 2.5cm squares and 1cm thick (or however big you want them depending on the size you want your cups). Put into a box or other container.

Mix up the marinade ingredients mentioned above and pour over the tofu. Leave overnight.

2. Take the tofu out and fry it gently on a medium heat until it browns. 

For pastry cups:

1. Preheat oven to 200°. Pregrease a cuptake tray and cupcake liners.

2. Cut filo sheets into squares about 10cm squared (or however big you want it).

For each cup cut 4 squares. Put one square on top of a second one, and do the same with the last two squares (so you have two squares overall each is 2 sheets thick).

3. Overlay them at angles to each other. Coat them in some melted (dairy free) butter.

Put in oven until slightly browned.

Make the sauces:

1. For first one: mix the houmous and wasabi paste.

2. For second one: mix the cream, mint, dill and garlic powder.

Arrange:

1. Once the pastry cups have cooled, remove the cupcake liner off them.

Put about 1-2 tbsp of the creamy minty sauce into the bottom of each cup. Place the tofu squares on top.

2.Cut a small triangle out of the cucumber slices. Put the cucumber on top of the tofu squares and cover with a good dollop (about 1tsbp) of the houmousy sauce.

3. Place the thinly sliced carrot pieces in as shown.Sprinkle the finely chopped spring onion.

(Sprinkle some sesame seeds on if you wish too, I’d say would be nice)

Christmas Seitan Log

Christmas Seitan Log

We were having a Christmas get-together with some friends and I thought to do something special for dinner. Upon talking to my mother about Christmas dinner, I thought it’d be funny to have a dinner themed to  Seitan (pronounced Satan) for Christmas.
Anyway, seitan is yummy and it’s fun to try different ways of making it :)

Ingredients:

1 kg flour

1 cube vegetable stock

Oil

Spices: pepper, cumin, garlic powder (2tsp), curry powder (1 tbsp), oregano, chilli flakes

(to taste, but be liberal)

1. Make seitan as per our recipe here: http://vegannyomnom.blogspot.ie/2012/06/broccoli-seitan-stir-fry-in-ginger.html up to the stage where you’ve it in a ball and ready to be boiled.

2. Cut in two (optional – but only if you’ve got a big enough pot!). We flattened it here somewhat and made it log shaped. You can make it into any shape you want here.  Microwave them for 2mins to remove some water.  Preheat oven to 200°

3. Boil in a pot with 1 cube vegetable stock and the above spices.

4. Put on a baking tray and cover with some oil (enough to cover the top and the bottom of the plate, sprinkle some flour on top of the logs, then the spices. Put in oven for about 1 hour or until browned.

They were lovely! We were trying to figure out how to incorporate stuffing into the recipe, which is hard to do as the shape sets when you boil them and if you try stuff pre boiling…

A challenge for later it seems : )