recipes

In praise of... Zucchini blossoms

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If you’ve been to your local farmers’ market lately, you’ll have noticed baskets of baby zucchini. These are great; small, firm, sweet, and fresh from the farm, they actually taste of vegetables, rather than having a slightly savory flavor. This isn’t what I want to talk about, though. If you’re really lucky, the vegetables will have their flowers connected to their ends. Now, these are the most readily available of things, so when you do come across them, they are a real treat, and something not to be missed. Read more

Lentil Casserole

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So, the lentil seems to have become something of a bête noir for those who wish to make out that all vegetarian food is tasteless and hard to eat. To be fair, they probably have something of a point, but I suspect that’s at least partly because they’ve never eaten them properly prepared. I’m a big fan of the puy lentil, these tiny nutty ovals that you can pair with almost anything.

I’ve used them to make a simple lentil casserole, which I hope that you’ll like.

Ingredients (makes enough for 2-4, depending on portion size, and what you serve with it. A salad would be nice)

1 cup puy lentils, well washed
2 Carrots, diced
Handful of mushrooms, your choice of what type, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
Half an onion, diced
2 small zucchini, diced
1 potato, diced
1 large potato, finely sliced
Stock cube (or fresh stock, if you have it)
Tomato puree
Fresh Thyme

Method
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New adventures in tofu...

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One of the many, many trials to being a vegetarian (I exaggerate, obviously) is making up for the lack of meat fat in your food. Let’s be fair, those who cook with meat have an advantage that comes through being able to through in a few chunks of bacon, or some chicken stock, or so forth. Obviously, this is something we all live with, and whilst it’s not a huge drag, I do sometimes wonder how it is that restaurants are able to make their food so tasty. One of my favorite dishes from our local Thai restaurants is fried tofu with cashews. It’s great.

So, I decided to have a go at cooking something like it at home, myself. It should be pointed out that the nearest I’ve ever got to South East Asia is Turkey, so it’s not like a have a huge cultural background to this, and I absolutely make no claims as to it’s authenticity. It does eat well, mind.

Quantities are a little vague, and you’ll have to adjust for personal taste in terms of spiciness / how much you like to eat, and so forth.

Ingredients (enough for one, if you’re quite hungry):

Firm tofu – about 4oz Read more

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