World Food Café - Quick and Easy Recipes from a Vegetarian Journey

Cuban Moros Y Cristianos with Mojo Sauce

So, my second cookbook review and recipe excerpt for you comes from Chris and Carolyn Caldicott's "World Food Café - Quick and Easy Recipes from a Vegetarian Journey".

This is a simply stunning book, I mean look how gorgeous it is??

From the back:

"This is vegetarian cooking at its most delicious and imaginative. For over twenty years Chris and Carolyn Caldicott have been travelling the world, collecting recipes from home kitchens, street stalls, restaurants and roadside cafés - as well as taking atmospheric photographs and picking up travellers tales.

World Food Café Quick and Easy gathers together dishes from some of the world's most fascinating places, with a wonderful diversity of flavours. And each and every recipe is quick and easy to make at home..."

It really is a beautifully made book with gorgeous photos of both the food and of their travels. The book is organised into chapters by places: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Chile, Cuba, Japan, Laos, Helsinki and Lapland, Namibia, Syria and Vietnam. I was initially concerned with this being a vegetarian cookbook that there might not be a lot of vegan recipes but that was quickly quashed - the vast majority of the recipes are actually vegan and those that are not are dead simple to veganize. It's also so much more than a cookbook, full of stories of their amazing travels and it really is an excellent read.

For my tester recipe I was drawn to the Cuban section of the book, in particular to the "Moros Y Cristianos" described by the authors as the following:

"Literally translated as Moors and Christians, this dish of black beans and white rice is still the mainstay of Cuban cuisine. The beans and the rice are either served separately or combined, usually with a simple fresh salad and fried plantain. Or you can enjoy them as we did, mixed together, topped with a fried egg and doused with zesty mojo sauce..."

Now, I obviously wasn't going to add the fried egg, and plantains are not too easy to come by here but I sure as hell wanted to try the gorgeous sounding Mojo Sauce! Which yes, I *do* keep saying in my head with an Austin Powers accent....Anyway, they describe it as the following:

"Mojo sauce, originally from the Canary Islands, is one of Cuba's most adaptable signature recipes. It adds zest to black beans or cooked cassava, makes an exciting marinade and is the perfect dipping sauce for malanga fritters and grilled Cuban sandwiches. There are many recipes for Mojo, often depending on what the sauce is being used for that day, but it's essential ingredients are Cuban bitter Seville oranges, garlic, a little cumin, black pepper and salt. For vegetarian dishes olive oil is also an important addition as is  finely chopped onion for a dip or condiment. The sauce is also delicious with chopped fresh oregano or coriander leaves stirred into it.

When Seville oranges are out of season, simply mix orange juice with lemon and lime. It's not quite the same but a good second best."

I made mine with freshly squeezed navel orange juice, limes and lemons, I didn't add the chopped onion as there was already onion in the Moros Y Cristianos, and I didn't have fresh oregano and can't take coriander so I added some chopped fresh leaf parsley, really just for colour and so those of you adding coriander could see how it would look.

And our verdict overall? An absolutely gorgeous meal!! My husband tucked into his while I photographed mine and his positive exclamations had me rushing the photoshoot! 

The Moros Y Cristianos is spicy and packed with flavour, went perfect with the rice and that zesty mojo sauce was just lush drizzled over top. 

I followed their suggestion and served it with a simple salad with leaf, tomato, onion and avocado but found myself drawn to taking the avocado from the salad and putting it on top of the black beans and I'm glad I did - it went so well with the whole dish. Of course, you could still add avocado to the salad as well - the more avocado the better I say!

Furthermore, like all the recipes in this book this was so simple and used all easy to find cupboard ingredients. You might worry that a "World Food" cookbook would be jam packed with ingredients making you run all over town trying to find or needing to buy online but no, that's not the case with this book at all which is a refreshing change.

Moros Y Cristianos
serves 4 - 6

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 large red pepper, diced

2 dessertspoons paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 generous tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

3 bay leaves

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

2 ½ tins (400g/14oz size) of black beans, drained and rinsed

300ml / 10fl oz vegetable stock

1 ½ tablespoons red wine or cider vinegar

long-grain white rice (approximately 350g / 12oz, depending on appetite)

To garnish

finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

a generous drizzle of olive oil

To serve

a simple side salad of lettuce leaves topped with thin slices of plum tomato, radish, avocado and red onion, dressed with seasoned olive oil and lime juice.

fried plantain slices

     Heat the olive oil and sauté the onion, garlic and red pepper until soft but not brown. Add the paprika, ground cumin, thyme, bay leaves and chilli flakes, cook for a a couple of minutes and then stir in the tomato purée.

     Add the beans and gradually stir in the vegetable stock. Simmer on a low heat until the stock has reduced by half, and mash the beans until they start to break down.

     Add the red wine vinegar and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Simmer for a further few minutes, and then serve either on top of or combined with cooked white long-grain rice. Garnish with finely chopped parsley and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Serve the simple salad and fried plantain alongside.

Mojo Sauce

180ml / 6fl oz Seville orange juice or 120ml / 4fl oz orange juice, 30ml / 1 fl oz lime juice and 30ml / 1 fl oz lemon juice

1 flat teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon crushed black peppercorns

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ small onion, very finely chopped (optional)

60ml / 2fl oz olive oil

8 garlic cloves, crushed

chopped oregano leaves (optional)

chopped coriander leaves (optional)

     Combine the citrus juice, salt, black pepper, cumin and (if you want a thicker sauce) onion.

     Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan. When hot, add the crushed garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes until soft but not brown. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before pouring in the citrus mix (stand back a little, just in case it spits). Return to the heat and bring to the boil; then remove from the heat once more and allow to cool, when you can add the herbs if you wish.

     The mojo sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days.

Excerpted with permission from "World Food Cafe - Quick and Easy Recipes from a Vegetarian Journey" ©2013 Chris and Carolyn Caldicott. Published by Frances Lincoln. 

Published with permission of Frances Lincoln http://www.franceslincoln.com

♥

My Notes

For the Black Beans:

• I used a regular onion in place of a red onion and an orange pepper in place of the red, simply as that's what I had on hand.

• I was only making the bean dish for my husband and I so I halved the recipe and cooked up 150g long grain rice for the 2 of us. This served us generously.

• I didn't have any fresh thyme so added ½ teaspoon dried thyme (for half the recipe).

• I just used 1 tin of black beans for the half recipe I was doing.

• I didn't add the garnish as I was drizzling on the Mojo Sauce.

• I also used the Mojo Sauce as my side salad dressing - it was perfect for it!

For the Mojo Sauce:

• I used the fresh orange juice, lime and lemon juice option.

• I didn't add the onion.

• I used chopped fresh parsley in place of the other herbs.

• Make sure you stir it up well before drizzling as the garlic, pepper, cumin and parsley like to settle on the bottom!

Disclaimer: While I was given this cookbook to review I was not paid to review it and all views expressed here are my own, as are all the photos.

♥

....and coming up next on the blog...

Raspberry Bakewell Tarts!!
(my own recipe)

♥

The Sexy Vegan's "Happy Hour at Home"

Corn Dawggies with the Most Wonderful Ketchup, Okra Fries with White Barbecue Sauce and a Pomarita Cocktail.

Well hello again!! Yes, I am back from my somewhat extended holiday :-) First, I should explain that we spent 4 weeks in Canada this summer, back to my hometown to visit my family. We had an absolutely fantastic time, it was my first time back in 6 years and it was SO good to be back. 

We returned late July but then unfortunately the old lupus decided to act up and I just haven't had the energy to blog. At all. So, that's why the break was a little longer than expected but I'm feeling OK now, it comes and goes but I'm happy to be back for the time being anyway! I would also like to apologise for all the late comment posting, responding to emails/twitter and book reviews....everything gets put on hold when I have a flare up.

Speaking of book reviews, I was contacted way back when, just before we left for Canada if I would mind reviewing Brian Patton's (aka - The Sexy Vegan) new cookbook "Happy Hour at Home - Small Plates, Big Flavours and Potent Cocktails" and I was only too happy to oblige. After all, I love cocktails and anything snacky - this sounded right up my alley! 

It's a great, fun book combining diverse cocktails with small bites, great for parties and small get-togethers. The book is divided into menu's like: "Little India" with samosa pizza, roasted chana and stuffed dates or "Really Little Italy" with rigatoni poppers, grilled asparagus and figs and grilled basil-mint watermelon skewers or "Satay-day Night Fever" with tempeh satay with peanut sauce, grilled baby bok choi and teriyaki almonds....just to give you an idea. Each menu also comes with a cocktail recommendation with all the drink recipes in the back. And of course the whole book oozes with Brian's fantastic sense of humour :-)

It's quite simply a great cookbook, I loved the sound of all the menus but when choosing which one I was going to test there was no contest - I went with the "State Fair Fare" menu: Corn Dawggies with the Most Wonderful Ketchup and Okra fries with White Barbecue Sauce. The reason is simple - I've actually never in my life had corn dogs (!) and have been wanting to try them for AGES now. Corn dogs being of course hot dogs dipped in a cornbread batter, deep fried and eaten on a stick, a common fair food in America. On top of that, brace yourselves, I've never had okra before (!!) So, how awesome was this menu for me??? 

Well, I'm glad to report that everything turned out beautifully, perfect first try and everything was so easy to do as it's clearly written and well explained. 

The Sexy Vegan's Corn Dawggies with the Most Wonderful Ketchup

Now, as I mentioned above I have never actually had corn dogs before so I had nothing to compare these too, but they looked just like them, cooked up a charm, had perfect texture and most importantly, tasted incredible!! I will definitely be making these again...and I will give him this - that really is "The Most Wonderful Ketchup"! Soon to be a staple in this house :-)

Corn Dawggies:
Canola, vegetable, or any other high-heat oil, for deep-frying

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons unrefined granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup unsweetened nondairy milk
1/2 cup arrowroot
4 veggie dogs, cut into thirds
Toothpicks
Yellow or whole-grain mustard, for serving
The Most Wonderful Ketchup (recipe follows), for serving

Pour oil to a depth of 3 inches into a pot, high-sided pan, or deep fryer. Line a plate with paper towels and set it next to the stove. Heat the oil over medium heat until it registers 375°F on a deep-frying thermometer. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, chile powder, paprika, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Stir in the nondairy milk and keep stirring until you have a batter that is slightly thicker than pancake batter. Let rest for at least 5 minutes.

Spread out the arrowroot on a large plate. Working in batches, roll the veggie dogs in the arrowroot until completely coated, tapping the dogs to remove the excess, and immerse the dogs in the batter. Using a fork or chopsticks, take the dogs out of the batter and gently lower them into the oil. Fry for 3 to 5 minutes, or until golden on all sides, making sure to turn them a few times for even cooking. Transfer the dogs to the paper towel–lined plate. When they’re cool enough to handle, cut them in half crosswise, and serve with toothpicks, mustard, and the Most Wonderful Ketchup.

The Most Wonderful Ketchup:

1 cup ketchup

2 teaspoons pomegranate concentrate

½ teaspoon agave nectar

Whisk all this stuff together in a bowl.

Excerpted with permission from The Sexy Vegan’s Happy Hour at Home ©2013 by Brian Patton.  Published with permission of New World Library http://www.newworldlibrary.com.

♥

My Notes for the Corn Dawggies

• I used Fry's brand veggie dogs which come frozen so I defrosted them at room temperature first.
• I cut the dogs in half only as I wanted the more traditional looking corn dog on a stick here.
• I couldn't find ancho chile powder here so I just used a "hot chile powder".
• I used smoked sea salt in place of the salt.
• I fried them in vegetable oil.

My Notes for the Ketchup

• I used pomegranate molasses as it's called here. (Same diff).
• I used Sweet Freedom in place of the agave as it's my vegan syrup sweetener of choice :-)

The Sexy Vegan's "Pomarita" Cocktail

This.Was.Gorgeous!!! Now, the drink recommendation for this menu was actually the lush sounding "Starburst" with citrus juices and strawberry vodka that Brian describes as tasting just like starburst candy (which I would LOVE!) but, I didn't have any strawberry vodka and that stuff is expensive, haha, SO I went with the Pomarita (think pomegranate margarita) as it called for some pomegranate concentrate which I already bought to make the ketchup and well, I liked having another recipe to use the stuff in! 
An amazing cocktail, another regular for sure, and while I would usually shake my margarita style cocktails with ice and pour into a martini glass, I quite like the rustic look of it in my mini beer stein... (which yes, IS a former mustard pot!)

♥

The Sexy Vegan's Okra "Fries" with White Barbecue Sauce

Like corn dogs I also have never had okra before, I heard that they can be slimy and I think this has been putting me off trying them; but thankfully there was no slime whatsoever here, they had a nice crunchy cornmeal coating, were slightly chewy inside and went perfectly with the white barbecue sauce.

Altogether this was a great menu, fun to make and easy to do and I look forward to having some people over and trying the other menus in the book!

♥

Disclaimer: While I was given this cookbook to review I was not paid to review it and all views expressed here are my own, as are all the photos.

Vegan Egg Fried Rice

Well, I suppose I am being a bit cheeky calling this "egg" fried rice as there is nothing eggy about it, I've not used the "vegg" or even black salt here - tofu fried rice would be more apt but I have completely based this recipe on the process of egg fried rice so we'll stick with that! 

I used to LOVE egg fried rice back when I was vegetarian, and that's despite not even being a huge fan of eggs! I remember when I was pregnant with my son I had massive cravings for it and made it through huge bowls of the stuff, especially in those last 2 months ;-)

I'm quite particular about it too, and I'm clearly not the only one - the article I've based this recipe on contained a huge list of comments about what people think should or should not be in egg fried rice. For me, it's onions fried until sweet and golden brown, definitely peas, definitely NOT carrot, seasoned simply with soy sauce and a bit of black pepper and spring onion only thrown in at the end.

That just leaves the main ingredient - egg. The type I used to make involved making a large flat omelette and dicing it up and adding it to the fried rice. This would have been quite easy to veganize by simply making a thin tofu omelette and dicing it up the same way but I came across this Guardian article on the perfect egg fried rice and decided to try a different way. 

The article author tried several different methods of making egg fried rice but settled on Ken Hom's way of pouring over beaten egg and stirring it in vigorously until EACH grain of rice is absorbed  with egg and you have a vibrantly yellow coloured rice with NO noticeable bits of egg in there at all. I loved this idea! Plus, I figured it would be a perfect method of cooking egg fried rice using silken tofu instead of eggs. *whispers* It's also a great way of secretly getting some tofu and thus protein into unsuspecting family members - ssshh!

I first made up my "eggs" by blending firm silken tofu with turmeric, salt, pepper and as Mr. Hom adds it to his eggs - toasted sesame oil. This really adds to the end flavour of the dish and is a most welcome addition.

I was too eager to try this rice right away and I didn't have any cold leftover rice to use so I just cooked up some basmati rice fresh. I then fried some onion until golden, added the rice, peas, soy sauce and some of the tofu egg mixture and fried it up. I ended up with what can only be called a congealed mass of rice porridge - sticky and mushy BUT my God it was absolutely delicious!! As Ken Hom insists you use cold leftover rice I cooked up some more rice, cooled it quickly and got it in the fridge to try again the next day.

Second try I used the cold rice and only half of the amount of tofu egg mixture that I used the first time so it wouldn't be as 'stodgy' and the texture was perfect!  It had intact individual grains of rice each coated in the yummy sesame/tofu egg mixture but this time the flavour wasn't as "wow" as the first dish. I realized this was because when I halved the amount of tofu mixture I also halved the amount of flavour going into the dish.

So....

The third attempt I made the tofu/egg mixture again but doubled the flavourings of turmeric/salt/pepper and toasted sesame oil to ensure that the flavour in the end fried rice is spot on, and finally.....success! This was just perfect - the flavour in this fried rice is incredible - lusciously rich due to the seasoned tofu (with absolutely NO taste of tofu anywhere) and the texture was spot on - no congealed mass of rice porridge this time! I don't often use the word perfect in my recipe titles but after so many test runs for this one, it feels right :-)

Note - you can also make this with brown basmati rice, it tastes great and best of all you don't have to use cold rice if you are using brown. Just boil, drain and rinse and you can use it right away with no stickiness :-) Personally, I stick with white as it's how I prefer my "egg" fried rice but it's another option for you!

Perfect Vegan Egg Fried Rice

Serves 2

• 150g (2/3 cups) dry weight white basmati or jasmine rice - you'll need 350g or 2¾ cups cooked rice.

• 1 Tbsp peanut oil

• 1/2 cup/ 70g/1 small diced white onion

• 1/2 cup/75g frozen peas (I like petite pois here)

• 1 Tbsp soy sauce

• 1/3 cup/22g spring onions, chopped

• 1/2 cup/125ml of the tofu/egg mixture - recipe follows

Tofu Egg Mixture - note: this makes enough for 4 servings of egg fried rice.

• 300g firm silken tofu (UK/IRE readers - I use Clearspring Organic Tofu)

• 1 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

• 1/8 tsp finely ground black pepper

First, make the tofu egg mixture by blending all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. You may have to shake the blender a couple of times and stop and scrape down the sides but it will get going. Please note that the mixture will taste too salty and strong at this point but don't fret - it all gets toned down in the final dish! Use right away or transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until needed. 

There are 2 options for the rice - using cold leftover rice for the optimum texture or with a few tricks you can make it fresh with only slight stickiness - a slight compromise for rice straight away :-)

If you have time to plan in advance, then wash the raw rice really well until the water runs clear, this is to remove all the excess starch. Bring a large pot of just lightly salted water to the boil and add the rice. Give it a stir, put the lid on, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 10 - 12 minutes until tender, giving it a stir a couple of times. Note - make sure you don't over salt the water, the rice will absorb too much and the end dish will be too salty - the egg mixture is seasoned enough.

Drain in a fine sieve and rinse well with hot water. Shake off all excess water then spread out on a large plate to cool quickly. Stir the rice a couple times to help it cool down fast and once at room temperature tip the rice into a bowl, cover and pop it in the fridge. Make sure you get it into the fridge within an hour - health and safety and all that!

If you need the egg fried rice today then you also wash the raw rice well, cook as above, drain and rinse with boiling water but then pop it back into the pot and heat, stirring gently on low heat just until all excess water is gone and the rice looks dryer. If you do it this way make sure your stir fry is ready for the rice once the rice is cooked.

To make the fried rice: heat 1/2 Tbsp of the peanut oil in a large wok on high heat and add the onion. Fry until soft and golden brown. Add the other 1/2 Tbsp of oil and let it get hot, now add the rice and fry until the rice is well coated in oil and hot. Spread it out to make sure it all gets cooked, if it starts to stick, turn the heat down a bit. Add the peas, give it a stir then add the 1/2 cup of tofu mixture. Stir gently whilst frying until each grain of rice is coated and the mixture cooks down and looks drier, this takes maybe 5 minutes, you'll know when it's done as each grain of rice won't look so wet. Also, don't worry if the mixture sticks here and there, my wok ends up in a right state after this :-D Stir in the soy sauce and fry for another minute or so then turn off the heat and stir in the spring onion. Split into 2 bowls and serve immediately!

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving.

Calories: 439

Protein: 14.2g

Fat: 13.4g

Sat Fat: 1.7g

Carbs: 68.5g

Sugar: 3.7g

Fibre: 3.0g

Sodium: 1087mg

To Accompany this Dish:

Crispy Fried Tofu
in
Spicy Teriyaki Sauce

Veggie Spring Rolls
&
Soy Mince Wontons

Sparkling Cherry Limeade

Another cherry recipe! I have very few drink recipes on the blog, something I should really work on....those I do are mostly alcoholic as well :-) Well, this one is alcohol free and healthy to boot! Simply fresh cherries, fresh lime juice, a minimal amount of sweetness and sparkling water. It's really refreshing and very *adult* like - I love that it's not overly sweet, even a bit tart....sigh, coming from someone who grew up drinking the sickly sweet orange/grape and lime Crush, this is a major development!! Plus, the whole recipe is only 86 calories, only 43 a glass :-)

Sparkling Cherry Limeade

makes 2 (or 1 large!)

• 3/4 - 1 cup fresh sweet cherries, washed and pitted

• 1 lime, juiced - sieve out bits

• 1 Tbsp syrup sweetener - I use light Sweet Freedom, you can use light agave or maple syrup instead.

• sparkling water

Place the cherries, lime juice and syrup into a blender and blend until smooth. Push through a fine sieve and discard the pulp. Distribute between 2 medium sized glasses and top up with chilled sparkling water, giving it a good stir. It will foam up, just let it die down and top up some more. Taste, and if you would like it sweeter simply add more syrup - a lot of the sweetness will depend on the cherries. Add some ice and if you like a slice of lime and a cherry for decoration :-)

Note - the "concentrate" does not keep well so use it right away!

....and a first for the blog - photo's taken OUTSIDE!! In typically comedic fashion I was literally running around trying to take these pictures outside fearing the fleeting Irish sun was going to disappear on me....

Son: "why are you running around???" 

Me: "I'VE GOT TO GET THESE PICTURES TAKEN BEFORE IT CLOUDS OVER!!!"

Son: "good luck with that...."

♥

You Might Also Like: (those 2 only *look* taken outside, they are actually on my windowsill!)

Strawberry Lemonade

Orange Julius

Peach Moon

Cherry Vinaigrette

It might be hard to believe that cherries are one of my absolute favourite fruits given the almost complete lack of any cherry recipes here. Thing is, I love them so much I just want to eat them - using them in a recipe feels like a waste! 

That being said I bought a little *too* many cherries a while back (yes, even for me!) and looked into some recipes to make with them. As I'm dieting at the moment I didn't want to go down the sweet route and came across this cherry vinaigrette recipe.

I made a few personal changes and came up with this - it's lovely! A really sharp vinaigrette with just a hint of cherry taste, that little bit of sweetness from the cherries a real nice complement. I tend to always stick to my all time favourite balsamic dressing for most things but this will be a welcome summer addition :-)

Cherry Vinaigrette

• 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

• 1 tsp syrup - I use light Sweet Freedom, light agave or maple syrup can be used instead

• 60g or 1/3 cup washed, pitted and chopped sweet cherries

• ½ tsp Dijon mustard

• 1/8 tsp salt

• freshly ground black pepper - I used 3 grinds

Add all to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour through a sieve to remove any bits and that's it! Recipe makes a fairly small amount but it's quite a strong dressing, only a little is needed :-)

Now, I'm only blogging the dressing here as really, I like it just with crisp bright green leaves of romaine but cherries and walnuts go beautifully together! Whatever salad you choose to have this with, I highly recommend adding some toasted walnuts....a crumbling of the baked almond feta wouldn't go amiss either :-)

Mixed Greens, Toasted Walnuts and Cherry Vinaigrette

♥

Nutritional Information: per 100g of dressing.

Calories: 593

Protein: 0.9g

Fat: 60.2g

Sat Fat: 8.6g

Fibre: 1.8g

Carbs: 19.4g

Sugar: 16.6g

Sodium: 501.5mg

Dark Chocolate filled Raspberries

Just an idea for you today rather than a recipe - these are absolutely delicious, super easy and really quite a healthy sweet!

I saw the idea of filling strawberries with chocolate on Pinterest and as someone who has always loved chocolate covered strawberries I thought this would make an even easier way too eat them. You pare out a hole from the strawberry and fill with dark chocolate. 

It was good but was a bit fiddly with all the paring out, plus my strawberries were too big to eat in one bite which meant they were just as messy to eat as the chocolate covered type, you know, with chocolate crumbling everywhere!

Enter raspberries - bite sized and no paring necessary! Perfect. I've always loved dark chocolate and raspberry together so this was an easy match.

Simply melt some dark vegan chocolate of your choice, I used the microwave to melt and used 50g of chopped chocolate but only used about 20g. Scrape it all into a ziplock baggy, placing this in a mug or glass makes it easier, then snip off the tiniest of corner of the bag. 

To make them easy to fill I placed my raspberries in an empty ice cube tray - 2 fit upright in each cube hole. Then simply pipe the chocolate in. When done place in the fridge to set - mine were set in about an hour.

They work out at about 5 calories each - nice :-)

♥

Smoky Potato, Cabbage and Chickpea Skillet

I whipped this up for lunch the other day with some leftover bits I had in the fridge and it was so quick (about 15 minutes), easy and delicious! Recipe is based on and adapted from Heidi Swanson's White bean and cabbage from Super Natural Every Day. If you've been following my blog for any length of time you'll know I love her. Easily my favourite blogger and cookbook author, simply everything I've ever made by her has turned out and been stunning, most have become regular staples in our house.

I made quite a few changes to this one only because I suppose I was in that mood - changing things about a bit, quantity wise and with what I had on hand. Mostly, I have added a smoky aspect here using smoked paprika and smoked sea salt as those flavours go so beautifully with cabbage and potatoes. Further, I used chickpeas as I had some leftover in the fridge but also as I prefer them to white beans in this type of dish. Lastly, I grated some Vegusto mild over top in place of the parmesan and it just finished the dish off perfectly. It has a sharp taste reminiscent of an extra mature cheddar and was gorgeous with this. 

Smoky Potato, Cabbage and Chickpea Skillet

serves 1

• ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 70g baby new potatoes (about 2), scrubbed and diced tiny - leave skins on.

• 1 shallot, halved and sliced thin

• 50g tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• 100g cabbage, thinly sliced

• ¼ tsp smoked sea salt

• ½ tsp smoked paprika

• freshly ground black pepper

• Vegusto mild or piquant, finely grated - cheezly parm would be nice too.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, skillet or as I used, wok - but make sure you have a lid or something you can fashion as a lid. Add the tiny diced potato, ¼ tsp of the smoked paprika and 1/8 tsp of the smoked sea salt and stir. Pop the lid on and fry gently, removing the lid now and again to give it a stir, until the potato is cooked and getting slightly crispy, about 5 - 7 minutes.

Add the shallots and chickpeas and fry until the shallots are soft and the chickpeas are heated through and getting slightly browned. If it seems a little dry pop the lid on to let things sweat a little.

Add the cabbage, the other 1/8 tsp of smoked sea salt and the other ¼ tsp of smoked paprika and stir well. Add a splash of water - about a tablespoon and fry over medium heat until the cabbage just starts to wilt and any excess liquid is cooked off.

Transfer to a bowl and top with a good grating of Vegusto mild and some freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!

♥

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 236

Protein: 7g

Fat: 8.7g

Sat Fat: 1.2g

Fibre: 5.8g

Carbs: 30.5g

Sugar: 4.3g

Sodium: 426mg

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Noodle Stir Fry with 
Pan Fried Tofu

Hot Toddy Layer Cake

Well, a bit of a double post for you today as this recipe *is* already on the blog as Hot Toddy Cupcakes. It was my father-in-law's 70th birthday last week and I was thinking what kind of cake to make. He's actually not that into sweet things, especially things with frosting but he did really like those cupcakes when I made them all those Christmas's ago :-)

So, I thought I would have a go making the recipe as a layer cake - and I am so happy to report that it turned out beautifully! Same light and fluffy yet moist texture, nicely clove spiced whiskey lemon cake with a whiskey buttercream frosting. Sigh. This thing broke my diet but it was worth it!

Hot Toddy Layer Cake

• 240ml soy cream

• 120ml rice milk

• 4 Tbsp Irish whiskey 

• 4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 

• zest of 2 lemons

• 350g plain flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 4 Tbsp cornstarch 

• 1 tsp salt

• 3/4 tsp ground cloves 

• 160ml vegetable oil

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 320g caster sugar

Whiskey Buttercream Frosting:

• 80g vegetable fat, room temperature

• 100g vegan margarine

• 540g icing sugar

• 2 Tbsp Irish Whiskey

• zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C and line the bottom of two 7" round cake tins with baking paper and grease the sides. Mix together the soy cream and rice milk then stir in the whiskey and lemon juice, it will curdle! Set aside. 

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, soda, salt and cloves and set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and the soy cream curdled mixture until very well blended and sugar seems to be dissolved. It shouldn't look curdled any more. Add the dry ingredients to this and whisk gently until just blended and no lumps remain. 

Fill cake tins evenly and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin then run a knife around the edges, turn the pans over onto a wire rack and peel off the baking paper. Let fully cool.

To make the frosting, soften the vegetable fat first with a fork, then add the margarine and beat until well blended. Add half the icing sugar and all the whiskey and mix well. Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix well. You may need a touch more whiskey and or icing sugar. Just keep adding what you need until you get a smooth spreadable frosting. Now stir in the lemon zest.

Sandwich the cakes together with some of the frosting then frost the entire cake. Decorate with lemon halves and whole cloves.

♥

I'm afraid we were too busy celebrating for me to get a good quality photo of the whole cake - this is the only one I got! Making everyone wait to eat while I set up a photoshoot never seems to go down very well, lol!

I had much better light the next morning :-)

♥

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