Carrot Soup, Scones,, risotto and chick pea browny waffles

Carrot Soup was lovely, we added 1 chopped red pepper and 1 celery stalk to the mix, after blending it, we topped it with chopped almonds and parsley

Our main meal as Leek, Pea and pesto risotto, although it called for 200 gr kale, which we did  pick in the allotment, by the time we were back, Carmen and Julie who stayed to stir the pot, felt there was already so much in the risotto it would have been over kill. So we left it out.
When we plated it up we stirred some gorgonzola and parmesan through it and topped it with pea shoots.

The chickpea brownie waffle went down very well too.
we used the chickpea brownie recipe from the 3rd cookery book but rather than pouring the batter in a baking tin and put in the oven for 30 minutes. We put a dollop in the middle of the waffle iron to make them into little waffles,  we then topped them up with lemon mousse.

For this we had 400g cream cheese, 1 cup icing sugar, juice of 1 lemon (we used 3 small limes) pinch of salt and 1 cup of the whipped aquafaba. We mixed everything except the whipped aquafaba, then folded it in.  Part of the mousse we put in small dishes (to give away to some of the residents of Victoria Homes) the left over was put in the fridge for 1 hour and used to top the chocolate brownie waffles.

A bit of impromtu cooking

Today I went to the allotment to pick vegetables for the morning session. Due to the amount of rain lately I have found that some of the carrots had split. So change of recipe and Carrot and Ginger soup 
it will be.  As the soup contained butter beans, we did not want to throw away the bean liquid (Aqua Faba) so decided to make a lemon mousse with it.  So that was the dessert sorted.
  

Last week I made a lovely recipe Chive waffles with maple and Soy mushrooms. As it was only for the two of us, I put the other 8 waffles in the freezer for another time.



Well, the other time was now. The waffles this time were awful, taste was good but they just got stuck in the waffle iron, so we cheated  and warmed up the previously made waffles in the toaster and followed the rest of the recipe. The mushroom in maple and soy sauce were delicious, I think that they would also be lovely on a bed of mash potatoes, rice, polenta etc.

We made some rocket, pear and parmesan salad to go with it. Karina mentioned that in the past she used to crumble goats cheese instead of parmesan. Something to try in the future.
  Although Hao came a few weeks ago, he picked the rocket then too and I found a picture of him, preparing it.


The table was laid for 9 people today,  a filing lunch with some delicious Elderberry and ginger cordial.

Wonder woman, June, managed to open the corddial bottle where others failed!!

Pancakes, Spinach and sweet potato curry

I ran out of eggs, milkman was late and 9 friends were about to arrive for this mornings session. So what did we do?

 Made oat milk for the pancake mix,
   

vanilla extract for the oat milk. 
Used the orange and lemon juice for the crepe suzette sauce, the peel for orange and lemon extract. We used rum instead of vodka as we had a bottle we would otherwise never us.


   

We mixed Meghan Holmes wild rice that she gave to us as a Christmas present with some basmati rice and then topped it with spinach, sweet potato and coconut curry..


 

he vegan pancakes were delicious especially with the orange topping.

Chard and Peanut Soba noodle bowls

Today we used the chard from the allotment and the home made peanut butter to make this lovely Chard and noodle dish

Lesley making the noodle dough

We first made the noodles, Lesley made the dough, and whilst it was resting, we made the peanut butter and the sauce.

Kim, June and Hiroe making the noodles

Look what we made

   
Kim made the peanut butter for use later in the sauce and for the week's peanut butter and jelly



This recipe called for a cucumber pickle. As we have no cucumbers at this time of the year, I used a jar I made in autumn

The smoked  Chickpea tofu was lovely with it too. Crunchy on the outside, and soft in the inside.


      

New to us all, this is a keeper. Instead of cumin or garam masala we used smoked paprika and a table spoon of liquid smoke (because I have it)

It was a very tasty, quick and healthy meal, and most of the recipes will end up in the next cookery book. 

Experimentation and first sowing of 2020

A few weeks ago I soaked some green peas (from the grocery store) for a few days until they started to sprout, then planted them in some compost and ended up with a tray full of lovely pea sprouts.
As they became a bit leggy, I chopped 3/4 of the shoots, to go into the fridge and the other 1/4 started growing thicker for another cut in a few weeks time.

Today we soaked another lot, for use in February. The pea sprouts we also mixed with some corn salad and parley, a citrus dressing topped with grated and shaved parmesan cheese.     
  

Last week we made a tahini sauce, with some left in the fridge we turned it into oil free Hummus where we used yogurt instead.

   Whilst Rurie and Manami made the hummus,  June, chopped the Yacon, celery and carrots we used to go with the dip.

We made a delicious vegan Mushroom Soup, which will no doubt end up in our 4th book


Then as a dessert we made a souffle mango pancake. Slightly over done, next time, we will make it just before serving, we got our timing wrong. Although we used mango and an orange maple sauce. The original recipe called for blue berries and strawberries, so will tty and perfect it in the summer when blue berries and strawberries will be in abundance.

All in all a lovely meal again

Avocado Chocolate mousse, Noodles and stir fry

This term I am trying to find recipes that are easy to make from scratch and create hardly any waste.

So we started to turn the 4 avocados that were given to me into a delicious Avocado and Chocolate Mousse. The original recipe was by Gordon Ramsey but we added orange juice to the mixture to make it a little lighter, as Rowan did not know what Aqua Faba was we whipped up some aqua faba (chick pea water) and folded into the avocado Chocolate mixture. It made it nice and fluffy and set well in the fridge. When we were ready to eat we topped it up with a dollop of black currant jelly, some orange zest and a mint leaf. It turned out really well.
  

We then made some egg noodles to go with our stir fried vegetables.

As I had harvested our first Yacon, this went  in the stir fry together with the carrots, onions, peppers, mung bean sprouts, ginger and garlic. We added a little soya sauce and put it on a bed of noodles, sprinkled sesame seeds  and the satay sauce.



We made the peanut butter first and then proceeded to turn that into satay sauce.
As I had a tin of coconut milk, I used this but had a tin to get rid off. Rowen suggested to use coconut powder and then add milk. As I had not heard of this before, I will be on the look out for this in the local corner shop

All in all a wonderful meal