Sweet potato, raspberry and cinnamon brownie (recipe to come)

It’s been a bit of a sugar-heavy couple of days. My friend Emma came to stay last night and during our 6-hour adventure around London we consumed the following:

• 2 vegan/gluten free cookies from Cookies and Scream at Camden Market
• 4 cocktails from The Gilbert Scott and 2 pots of smoked butter popcorn
• 4 mini cupcakes from Lola’s cupcakes (they do buy one get one free when they’re due to close for the night)
• 2 mojitos, 1 woo woo, 1 mai tai
• 3 scoops of ice cream from Gelupo on Cambridge Circus

We thought we were all sugared out, but then she made the mistake of telling me that someone had made her some sweet potato brownies and they weren’t very nice.

With 4 sweet pots about to go off in the fridge, we decided to give our own sweet potato-based confectionery a go.

Here was the result:

They weren’t at all what we were expecting, but they were pretty good all the same.

I have a couple of ideas for what could improve them, the main one being to shove in a huge handful of dark chocolate chunks.

So watch this space and I’ll update you with the new and improved recipe very soon.

In the meantime, here’s a cool picture of the mixture:

Fighting the French: an egg battle

Bonjour!

I got back from France last night, and just before we left my parents and I popped into a supermarket to get some breakfast for my stepmum, who left for work early this morning. She normally likes her M&S brioche, so she went straight for the brioche section of the supermarket. Being in a rush for the ferry, none of us thought about the ingredients.

Back in England this morning, my pa realised that brioche has eggs in it and that, being French, those eggs aren’t free range (M&S uses free range eggs in all of their products, so I guess it’s something they’ve stopped thinking about).

So, my mission this morning was to write to the company who made the brioche we bought, Pasquier, and ask them why they don’t use free range eggs. I will copy the email I sent them below, and keep you updated on the response.

Please excuse the less-than-polished French 🙂

Cher(e) Monsieur/Madame,

J’étais en France jusqu’à hier, et j’ai acheté un paquet de votre pains au lait. Je n’avais pas le temps de regarder les ingrédients donc je n’ai vu pas jusqu’à maintenant que vous n’utilisez pas les œufs de poules élevées en plein air.

Je suis très malheureuse comme cette, et j’ai jeté le paquet parce que je ne mange pas les œufs de batterie, qui je pense que vous devez utiliser.

Cependant, aujourd’hui j’ai acheté un paquet de brioche de Marks and Spencer, qui était fabriqué en France, et il contient les œufs de poules élevées en plein air.

Donc mon question est cette : pourquoi vous n’utilisez pas les œufs d’origine éthique dans vos produits, quand je sais que c’est possible.

C’est très surprenant de devoir venir en Angleterre d’acheter les produits traditionnels de France qui considèrent les éthiques animaux, puisque ils n’existent pas en France.

Merci de votre compréhension et j’attends pour votre réponse.

Translation:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I was in France until yesterday, and bought a packet of your brioche. I didn’t have time to look at the ingredients so I didn’t see until now that you don’t use free range eggs.

I’m very disappointed about this, and I threw away the packet because I don’t eat battery eggs, which I think you must use.

However, today I bought a packet of brioche from M&S, which was made in France, and it contained free range eggs.

Therefore my question is this: why don’t you use eggs from an ethical source in your products, when it is possible to do so?

It is very surprising to have to come to England to buy traditional French products which take into account animal ethics, since they don’t exist in France.

Thank you for your time and I await your response.

Vegan Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole is my favourite meal in the world, so I wasn’t buying the idea that batter needs eggs to be batter.

After the resounding success of making a batter that consists of only two ingredients (yes, only TWO), I’m wondering if eggs were superfluous all along.

Note: when I had a search on the web for vegan toad in the hole recipes, most of them used an egg replacer, but in my opinion egg replacers are expensive and not using them has never seemed to affect my culinary creations. My advice would be: if a recipe suggest egg replacer, just don’t bother using one and see how it turns out.

So, this recipe is really quick, really simple, and requires a total of five ingredients you probably already have around the house, plus a couple of spices (if you have them), and just salt and pepper if you don’t.

I’ve now made this three times, and the third time I made it for my omnivorous family, as I convinced them through the medium of photography and enthusiasm how amazing the recipe was. I think they enjoyed it, and my only piece of info for meat eaters reading this is: the flavours and textures are a little bit different to traditional toad in the hole, but if you go in and try it without any preconceptions, you’re definitely going to enjoy it.

So without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• A handful of chopped mushrooms (enough to fill the base of whatever oven tray you are using – choose the size of your tray based on the number of sausages you’re cooking)
• 1 chopped onion
• 70g Self raising flour
• 120ml Dairy free milk alternative (I’ve tried soya and almond and both have worked really well)
• 4 vegan sausages (Linda McCartney’s plain sausages are vegan – when I went into the supermarket the other day they were selling them for less than half price and I scooped about 12 packets into the trolley in one go – they are really versatile, make great sandwiches, and can be used as meatball alternatives for pasta sauces and stroganoff)
• Rosemary
• Salt & pepper

Method

Heat oven to 220 degrees, gas mark 7.

Chuck the onions, mushrooms and sausages into your baking tray, splash a good amount of oil over them and pop into the oven for about 10-15 minutes, until the oil is really hot.

While it’s cooking whisk the flour and milk together just like you’re making pancake mixture. The mixture should be quite thin and runny, so if it’s a bit gloopy keep adding milk until it’s the consistency of double cream.

Add some salt and pepper and chopped rosemary if you have it (I was given a rosemary plant as a Valentine’s present – way more useful than roses and hopefully shouldn’t die as quickly) to your taste.

When you think the oil is hot enough, pull the tray out the oven, pour the batter mixture over the sausages and veg, and get it back in the oven as quickly as possible.

Cook for about 25 minutes and don’t take it out of the oven during this time or it won’t rise. Check it at this point – I’ve had some trouble with the bottom not being cooked while the top is burning, and I think this might be because my oil wasn’t hot enough. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that even when the top has burnt it’s still completely yummy, so don’t stress too much.

—

The mushrooms and onions are a really nice non-traditional touch to this meal and are like little surprises when you get to the bottom. The meal is good with gravy but also on its own with some fresh veg.

I really recommend trying this recipe out – it’s one of those satisfying vegan AND indulgent meals that people not in the know don’t realise exist.

We finished this meal off with ripe mango and Alpro vanilla yoghurt!

Why I’m angry about eggs

Fundamentally, I don’t believe in veganism.

*a sharp intake of breath from the crowd as they examine the hypocrisy of a vegan blog spouting such nonsense*

I have no issue whatsoever with humans eating eggs to maintain a healthy, balanced diet, so long as the hens are treated well. The problem is, a lot of chikens are treated well, but a lot aren’t, and were there a way to tell the difference I would eat eggs…

I maintain my standpoint that if I can see happy chickens running around, chilling out, laying some eggs, I’d happily eat those eggs. I’d whip up one hell of portion of scrambled eggs and I would gorge.

So my problem is this: while some, and indeed most, animals are treated well, there are some that are not, and since I don’t know any better, I’d rather not participate in the acceptance of that system.

A while ago, I went to stay with my Dad, and I’d given him my spiel about eating eggs if I knew which chickens they came from and could see for myself that they were properly free range. Before I arrived, he went off to his local farm shop, picked up some eggs, and asked the guy at the till if they could see the chickens from whence they came.

A simple request, one would assume?

No. He could not see the chickens, because they were eggs sourced from elsewhere. Then, he thought, I can take them home and use the stamp on the individual eggs to check where they are from. No. Also not possible.

He decided to file a freedom of information (FOI) request, asking which farm his eggs were from, but this request was declined on the basis of the data protection act.

The data protection act, protecting a business. This is where it gets crazy. In absolutely no way should a straight-up business, selling eggs, be able to hide behind data protection. What have these free-range egg producers got to hide anyway? It’s completely nonsensical that we cannot trace eggs back to the farm where the chickens are being raised. It seems like a crazy thing to have to even file a FOI for, and yet to have it refused…

Something is wrong here.

We assume our food is fine because we work on the basis of ignorance. We are under the illusion that we could find things out about our food if we wanted to, but it’s not true. And the problem is, this way suits everyone involved. The sellers don’t want us to know what’s going on, and the buyers don’t want to know what’s going on. They’d rather turn the other way and pretend the whole food industry is perfectly innocent because people aren’t immoral, right?

So this is why I’m angry about eggs. We should be able to eat them. As far as I’m concerned, in an ideal world, we have a symbiotic relationship with chickens. We look after them, give them regular food, shelter, protect them from predators, and they give us a few eggs in return. Think of it as rent. But I’m not prepared to accept that system when it’s so caught up in the red tape of government that we can’t just see where our bloody eggs are from.

It was never a big request, and yet the barriers that were erected as a result make me deeply concerned about what there is to hide.

Soy Vegetariano

If you don’t want to sit through the gloriousness of Freddie (shame on you), skip to 1.42 for the music that goes through my head every time someone says Barcelona.

So, during our foray to Espana, we had a day-trip to Barcelona, an insight into Gaudi’s brain and potentially best city in the world – obviously I haven’t visited them all but I’m willing to hazard a guess.

The day consisted of four parts: an intrepid exploration of the wild Parc Guell, a hazardous and exciting drive through the manic streets of Barcelona which are littered with suicidal scooter-riders, including a drive-by of the Sagrada Familia, a stop-off at the cramped city beach to soak our poor aching feet in the soothing sea water, and a tour through the maze of the old city.

The day was glorious, and I hadn’t imagined it could get any better, until while we were trapsing around the back streets of the old town we stumbled across a hidden gem of a square with several vegetarian outlets, including a vegan cafe…

Hold the phone. A vegan cafe?! In Spain?! Home of the chorizo and land of the ‘que es uno vegetariano’. At one restaurant I told the waitress ‘soy vegetariano’, and she asked, in succession, ‘no meat?’, ‘no fish’, ‘no seafood’? When I responded no to all of her increasingly desperate questions, she just waved her hand and said ay-ay-ay, proceeding to bring me out a plate of vegetables to sate my hunger. Oh Spain. YOU have a vegan cafe? A luxury I have not even had the pleasure of finding in England yet.

As you can tell, I was more than excited (only a little frustrated that I wasn’t in the slightest bit hungry). Having pored over the contents of their deli counter, which included such delights as vegan chorizo, vegan tortilla, vegan pizza, I settled for a coconut and strawberry milkshake and a slice of vegan carrot cake.

It tasted incredible. I don’t know that I can do it justice, but it tasted as good as normal carrot cake, only it was lighter, not at all stodgy, and I felt sufficiently full at the end rather than sick with too much cake (usually me after a slice of cake in a cafe).

I was so surprised that we found this tiny square amidst the entirety of Barcelona, and it makes me feel more positive in terms of how us veggies will fare abroad in the future. Admittedly Barcelona has a high tourist density, and big cities are always more forward-thinking than towns and villages, but I would suggest small advances like this are hints towards a better attitude to vegetarians in Spain, and I look forward to it!

 

 

A sojourn to Spain

Disclaimer: I didn’t manage it.

Positive: am vegan again now back in England.

In actual fact, being vegan was manageable all the way through France. I ate bread, jam and vegetables. Not a very varied diet but a diet nonetheless.

The cows were angry because they knew I’d be eating cheese (although these cows actually seemed kinda happy, just annoyed that we were disturbing their family photo shoot).

My big test came on our first night in Spain, when everyone wanted to go out for dinner. We ended up at a lovely little pizza place by the sea, and while I could have asked for a pizza without cheese, I think I was just so tired from the drive and so hungry that my craving for cheese overrode all else.

Throughout the rest of the holiday, I really struggled with finding a variety of anything vegan in the shops, although my saving grace was the lovely market in Vinaros full
of fresh, local fruit and veg.

The local Carrefour supermarket had half an aisle of soya milk, which was cheap and really useful, and while I wasn’t strictly vegan, I didn’t eat any eggs or any product with egg in it (aside from some croissants my friend left that were going to be thrown away anyway). Therefore, the only dairy product I actually ate was cheese, with the rest of my diet being made up of pasta, potatoes and sauces with lots of fresh veg and olives from an incredible olive store at the market (when my friends had ice-cream I had sorbet – watermelon sorbet is incredible).

I didn’t actually take a picture of the sorbet, but here is some sorbet blended with ice – yummy 😀

I was a little disappointed in myself at the time, but having analysed my diet I don’t think I was that bad, and I do have a weakness for cheese that is really hard to subdue in countries like Spain and France when they have such a massive and varied selection!

It hasn’t been that hard to get back to vegan since being home, and I’ve bought some lovely stuff that you just can’t get in the rest of Europe, such as basil tofu, Linda McCartney sausages and burgers, etc, etc.

Last night I even made vegan banana muffins!!!! (separate post to come later, but that was very exciting).

Vinaros seafront from the harbour wall

So all in all, being vegan abroad is quite hard, especially when you love cheese as much as I do, but I’m definitely of the opinion that cutting down on your normal dairy intake is almost as valuable as cutting it out completely, and would be more realistic for a wider group of people.

Certainly this would have been harder if I’d not had my own kitchen, and when I go to Amsterdam in a few days I think I’ll find it harder as I won’t have time to prepare my own pasta sauces, etc, but we will see.

Adios!