Mofo Post # 2 - Mezze Lunch

I got the shock of my life (slight exaggeration) this lunch time when I checked my blog stats. One minute I had about 9 people from the UK looking at my blog and then when I refreshed the page at 1pm which I believe is 8am in parts of the USA I had 201 American readers on my blog.

Hello Vegan Mofo'ers!

I've already been trying to work my way through the blog roll although it'll take me the whole month to check out all of the blogs. I decided to work my backwards alphabetically because my last name begins with W so I was at the end of every list from primary school to university. I even found a blog in Spanish which I'm trying to read - I understand the ingredients but don't know whether she's talking about today, yesterday or doing something right now...oh well.

This month is a busy month for me. Not only have I signed up for Vegan Month of Food I'm also launching Housebites Lunches this week. I already work as a vegan takeaway chef in my own home in the evenings and this week I've started doing lunches.

The lunches are a mixture of hot meals, salad boxes and sandwiches. One of my salad boxes is a Mezze box although I've pictured it on a plate here, because this is my lunch! In the box you get homemade falafel, hummus, tabouleh, salad, grilled vegetables, pitta bread and olives. I tried to base my menu on the kind of thing I would like for lunch. When I worked in an office my options were quite limited as the amazing veggie canteen across the road was closed all summer.

I'd love to get more lunch ideas. Tell me what you would have for lunch if you could get vegan lunches delivered to your desk at work!

Bangers and Mash Mofo!

Today is the first day of Vegan Mofo aka Vegan Month of Food. Along with hundreds of other bloggers I have signed up to write 20 blog posts this October all about vegan food.

My posts are going to be all about vegan meals. I'm relatively new to veganism having been vegetarian for almost 19 years before going the whole hog. As I cook for a living I'm always trying out new meals to add to my Housebites menu as well as to try to keep my own diet varied.

I'm kicking off with one of my favourite Autumn/Winter meals. Bangers and Mash is one of my favourite week day meals to eat when it's getting cold and dark.
 
My first few attempts at seitan sausages were a total disaster because my local health food/organic shop only had a gluten free, gluten substitute instead of just gluten flour. If someone tries to sell you this don't take it! It turns out all sticky and horrible and is impossible to mould into shape. Having tried a couple of sausage recipes from The PPK (without that website I would never have become vegan!) I have finally come up with my own variation of seitan sausages. Mine have less gluten in so they are a bit softer and juicier. I finally got my gluten from Earth Natural Foods in Kentish Town eventually. Let me know if you find it anywhere else in London...I need a back up just in case.

All you need to do is blitz everything in the ingredients list in a blender.

• Roll into sausage shapes.

• Roll the sausages in foil and twist up the ends.

• And then steam for about 45 minutes. If you don't have your own steamer then check out this tip!

After that they are really good fried in a pan or brushed with oil and grilled or baked in the oven as you would prepare shop bought veggie sausages. I like to cook too many so I can have some cold in a sandwich the next day.

1/2 cup cooked black eyed beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon agave nectar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegan worcester sauce
A few dashes of chipotle tabasco
2 cloves garlic, grated (with a microplane, or very finely minced)
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons chickpea flour
1 teaspoon dried sage
1 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of chilli flakes
Several dashes fresh black pepper
Salt to taste

I serve my sausages with mash and onion gravy and an obligatory green vegetable. Yes, there is mash in the picture, somewhere underneath all that gravy!

Thai Curry Noodle Soup

This is a new recipe which I have made as a lunch item for my Housebites lunch menu which will be available to order from Monday 1st October. We had this for supper tonight. I don't usually say supper as I'm an un-posh northerner but it felt supper-like as it was a refreshing light but filling dish, perfect for lunch. In fact, today I was uber-posh because I ate brunch instead of breakfast or lunch and then supper at 8pm, how elegant. 2 bundles of rice noodles 1 tbsp Sesame oil 1 clove garlic crushed 2 tbsps lemon grass (I use the purree in the jars) 1 tbsp of grated ginger 2 tbsp fresh green curry paste (in a hurry you could use shop bought)  800ml vegetable stock 2 tbsps soy sauce 1 tbsp brown sugar 1 can coconut milk A bag of stir fry veg 2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves (baby) 2 tbsps fresh lime juice 1 small bundle chopped coriander

	Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet and as soon as they are ready drain and rinse with cold water until they are cold. Leave to one side.  Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, lemon grass, and ginger; cook for 30 to 60 seconds. Add the curry paste, and cook 30 seconds more. Add the stock, soy sauce and sugar to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer with the the pan lid almost all the way on but leaving a little gap, for 20 minutes.  Add all of the veg and spinach and stir in until the soup is almost boiling. Remove from heat. Place cold noodles in bowls and ladle the soup on top. If you like your soup really spicy add some chopped green chillies for extra heat.

Soy Inglesa, voy al España comer Fish and Chips.

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Sometimes people say our national dish is roast beef, I've even heard people say it's chicken tikka masala, I say that's all rubbish it's blatantly Fish 'n' Chips and the only thing that should ever come with that is mushy peas. I've never had gravy or curry sauce on chips in my life. When I lay my hands on that rare eastern delicacy - chip spice, I have been known to go a little crazy, but that's on chips strictly bound for butties and it goes no further.

Having been vegetarian for the best part of two decades I really missed out on Britain's best loved dish for quite some time. A couple of years before I became vegan I stumbled across vegetarian fish and chips in a pub in Wapping which was battered halloumi, chips and mushy peas. It was good but at the end of the day it was just fried cheese - pure badness and I can't eat it now I'm vegan.

The reason I chose to make fish and chips on holiday, in Spain was not because I wanted to be an obnoxious Brit abroad but more because I knew there would be a night where my friends would want steak or fish and I would want something simple that could be served with potatoes and vegetables also.

I had the idea of breading a piece of tofu and frying it like fish a while ago as I thought the texture would work like white fish (not that I have a lot of fish eating experience). I thought wrapping it in Nori seaweed like sushi would work best and happened to find a small Japanese section in the supermarket in La Manga (weird that they had this and no Hummuss!). My friend Kate suggested marinating the tofu in soy sauce and this worked really well. It was much tastier than I thought it would be and not overly salty. After wrapping in moistened Nori I coated the whole thing in flour, then milk (whatever non-dairy milk you prefer), then breadcrumbs and shallow fried in a pan with vegetable oil on both sides until the crumbs were golden brown and crispy.

I served my tofu with a squeeze of lemon, oven-baked chips covered with salt and vinegar and minted mushy peas. My BF tried them and said it tasted fishy (but in a good way - a bad fishy way would be like a quorn fishless finger I imagine). I doubt it tasted of actual fish, not that I'd really remember but I would like to think that the seaweed gave it a taste of the sea.

These holiday creations have been so successful so far, I'm thinking of adding them to my Housebites menu. If anyone would like to comment on whether they would like to see this on my menu or want to suggest any vegan food that they would like to be able to order - I would love to hear from you.

Vegan Food Swap

This month I signed up to the Vegan Food Swap, organised by To Happy Vegans.

All you have to do is go on their site, fill out your details and they link you up with other swappers. The spend limit is £10 and you get a parcel of vegan treats from one person and send one to another.

When I got the details of my swapper I realised that she actually lived in my Housebites delivery area so I asked if I could deliver my parcel in person, that way I would be able to send some good home cooked food her way as well as some of my favourite shop-bought treats.

For my swapper I made summer pudding, gingernut cookies and cream icecream and tofu peanut satay, all from my housebites menu. I also bought some Popped Chips, which I am completely addicted to and some vegan gummy bears.

Rebecca, my swapping partner was happy for me to drop by so I visited her and met her husband Paul and their very fluffy cat. It was really great to meet a vegan couple. Rebecca recommended that I go to the vegan pot luck hosted by Fat Gay Vegan next month. I explained that all of them seem to have fallen on a day that I am away for the last few months. The next one is 5th September, when I'll be in Spain, so I'm hoping to go in October.

On Tuesday I received my food parcel from Jenny, who runs Cottage Cupcake Co. in Manchester. Jenny sent me box packed with goodies. Of these my favourite item was two vegan croissants from Saker Vegetarian Foods organic bakery. I warmed them in the oven for two minute on a high heat and smothered them in my mum's damson jam. It was so good, I have missed croissants so much! If only I could get them in a London train station at 6am with a black americano!


Another highlight was the Wheaty Salami. Salami is the only meat I have ever missed since giving it up almost 20 years ago. It got to the point where I actually dreamed that someone made vegetarian chilli spiced pepperamis and guess what? Wheaty do (Psychic!), but they call them space bars.
 I had a gorgeous salami sandwich with vegan mayonnaise and Dijon mustard this week while I was working and I'll be taking a lot of the chocolate goodies on holiday with me to Spain in case I don't find anything out there.

Jenny couldn't squeeze one of her cupcakes into the box unfortunately (I can see why, they look like they are piled high with frosting) but she did send me some home baked puppy treats. I don't have a dog and am told I'm never getting one (we'll see) so I'm going to accost a dog in the park and give them to him/her although Jenny said they are fit for human consumption.

I apologise for the picture quality in this post. I lost my camera charger and there was no way I was going to wait for the new one to arrive before I ate the food but I still wanted to share the experience, so people can see how much fun it is and register for next month.

I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Who Needs Butter?

As a vegan and reformed cheese addict, my friends and family have been asking me whether or not I miss cheese. The answer is no. Not really. Cooking vegan food is teaching me all about new flavours and techniques and it has really opened up my culinary mind so I haven't missed it at all.

There was however,  one thing that I secretly missed and that was butter. I don't mind cooking and baking without it, that has been no problem at all. But it was when I made toast that I felt a great loss. I had a bad relationship with my brand of vegan margarine. I only stuck with it out of pure desperation. It tasted awful on its own and I in a crazy state of denial I thought that I could overpower the lack of taste with Marmite but it didn't really do the trick because one of the best things about toast and Marmite was the way that the Marmite mingles with the melted butter and in this case the Marmite just sat on top of tasteless grease.

So one day I was out shopping for said tasteless grease in my local Waitrose supermarket and it was no where to be seen. I picked up a few sunflower spreads and they all contained milk and some of the low fat ones even contained pork gelatine. I almost overlooked olive spreads because I've been mislead before, they usually all have milk in, but and then I spotted a new one: Minerva Greek Olive Spread - completely dairy free. I had no expectations but was glad to have something for my toast.

Anyway, to cut to the chase I put the spread on a warm savoury scone and it was creamy, tasty and delicious. It doesn't taste like butter but that's alright because I have stopped looking. I have found something else and now I can move on.