I once wrote a book entitled "Voyaging on a Small Income" and the parts about provisioning and cooking proved very popular. "The Voyaging Vegetarian" would have followed, but so few people were then vegetarians that I thought no-one would publish it. Now many more people realise that eating dead animals is unkind and bad for the planet. I hope a blog, which I can update with new recipes, will work better than a book for liveaboards and aspiring voyagers, and those living simply in small spaces.
Back in the 80s, I wrote a book called "Voyaging on a Small Income", which was published and sold astonishingly well. It’s become almost a “classic” and is probably why you’ve found this site!
I’ve been living aboard and sailing since the 70s. Nine different boats have been home, sometimes for several months, sometimes for many years. I love the way of life, the small footprint and being close to Nature. I’m a great fan of junk rig and having extensive experience with both gaff and bermudian rig, I wouldn’t have any other sail on my boat. It’s ideal as a voyaging rig, but also perfect for the coastal sailing that I now do. I’d rather stay in New Zealand, not having to keep saying goodbye to friends, than go voyaging, these days.
Between 2015 and 2021, I built the 26ft "FanShi", the boat I now call home. For the last 45 years or so, my diet of choice has been vegetarian and is now almost vegan. I love cooking and particularly enjoy having only myself to please. I am combining all these interests (apart, perhaps, from junk rig!) in this blog. I hope you enjoy it. I also have other blogs: www.anniehill.blogspot.com and http://fanshiwanderingandwondering.wordpress.com
This recipe is so freely adapted from
the more authentic ones, that I hardly dare to put it into ‘Curries
for Cooks’. However, as it uses one or two spices/herb which only
dedicated curry cooks are likely to have on board, that’s how I
shall categorise it. (This, of course, assumes that anyone ever
looks at the pages on this blog!)
I made this when I had been ‘off my
food’ for a while and unable to face the thought of any Indian
food. As I generally adore such recipes, this was a personal tragedy
at the time. I had been sent a malai recipe in one of my blog feeds,
and it attracted my attention as having not too many spices and
looking like something might tempt my appetite. The recipe in
question was for paneer, which I can’t obtain locally (and as an
aspiring vegan, try to avoid), I looked to see if there were any more
recipes on the Internet and came across a mushroom malai, with even
fewer spices – perhaps too few- so I took a bit from both recipes.
When I came to look more closely, I
discovered that these ‘white’ curries usually contain cashew nuts
(this isn’t just a vegan spin on Indian food: a lot of Indian
recipes call for cashews), which I don’t include and malai, which
means cream, which I also left out. Vegan versions use cashew nut
cream; vegetarian versions seem to use cream plus some yoghurt, which
I think is because Indian cream is thicker than what is available in
most countries (the UK being – or was! - a notable exception) and
sounds more like ‘double cream’. Anyway, this is all irrelevant,
because I simply used a goodly amount of nice, thick yoghurt.
The onions, garlic and ginger are meant
to be ground to a paste in a blender. I couldn’t be bothered
(another side effect of the appetite loss) and simply diced them very
finely. They certainly didn’t intrude.
Matar, by the way, means peas, so they
are, strictly, essential. Otherwise it will be simply mushroom
malai. I used freeze-dried peas – essential voyagers’
provisions. The curry, even with all my alterations, was incredibly
good. I could have scoffed the lot – so obviously it also restored
my appetite for Indian food!!
I have made it several times since, and
it has become one of my favourite ways to eat mushrooms. I’ve been
tweaking the spices to keep the curry mellow, but with lots of
flavour and, having now got it about right, I feel I can finally post
the recipe. If you’re not fond of too much chilli, leave out the
chillies and simply use the Kashmiri chilli powder. I have even made
this recipe without any cream, yoghurt or cream substitute and it is
still delicious. I’m afraid the photos don’t show a white
curry: the button mushroom that I buy locally, always turn any sauce
brown. Oyster mushrooms would probably produce a lighter-coloured
sauce. Use as many mushrooms as you think you can eat: this isn’t
a particularly filling meal.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1½ tbsp ghee or oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small piece mace
1 or 2 green chillies,
chopped
1 small onion, finely
diced
1/2 tsp ginger paste
2 garlic cloves, finely
diced or 1/2 tsp garlic paste
2 green cardamoms,
seeds only
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli
powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp water
2 cups of white
mushrooms quartered
1/2 cup thick yoghurt,
thinned to pouring consistency
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup freeze-dried
peas
1/4 tsp ground white
pepper or black, if that’s all you have
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 tsp kasuri methi
(dried fenugreek leaves)
Method:
Heatthe ghee in a
heavy-based saucepan and sizzle the cumin seeds and
mace.
Add the chilli and cook for
a few moments.
Now add the onion, ginger,
garlic, cardamom seeds, coriander, chilli powder and salt.
Cook for a couple of minutes, lower the heat and add the water.
(This is to stop the vegetables browning). Cook until the onions,
etc are soft adding a drop more water if necessary.
Now raise the heat once more, add
the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes, ensuring that they
are well-covered in the ghee/spice/aromatics mixture.
When the mushrooms are starting to
soften, add the peas and a
drop more water if necessary.
Cook
for another four or five minutes and then stir in the yoghurt
and cinnamon and bring everything to a very gentle boil. Now
turn the heat right down until the mixture is barely simmering and
add the pepper.
Put a lid on and simmer until the
mushrooms are cooked. Remove the lid so that the sauce can thicken
to the consistency you want, then add the methi and garam
masala. Cook very gently for another couple of minutes.
Serve with roti, brown basmati rice, or
cumin rice if you prefer.
Notes:
Whole mace, unlike the
ground variety, has a surprisingly intense flavour. If you’re not
used to using it, be careful how much you add. I broke off a piece
about the size of a small cardamom pod
Variations:
This recipe would be a good one
for voyagers who make their own yoghurt, or have cream on board or
have cashews and a grinder. I would suggest that if using dairy
cream, you would add some powdered milk to thicken it.
For a more filling meal, add ½
cup chickpeas or white beans, soaked, cooked and drained. Or a can.
This is quite a quick meal to make
because you can just add everything in order, stirring to ensure
that it’s all mixed as you don’t want the fried vegetables and
spices to turn brown
This is one of my favourite quiches and is especially luxurious when made with cream. It is ideal for for entertaining, especially if you have baby new potatoes to go with it. In hot weather, when you don’t want your guests eating in a sweltering boat, it can be made in advance and eaten lukewarm.
I’m afraid that I don’t accept that a white sauce made with gram flour is an acceptable substitute for a sauce made with eggs. However, if you are well along the vegan spectrum, I suggest alternatives to cows’ milk, which is what I invariably use. You might want to use coconut milk - but I think that it might not complement the tarragon and green peppercorns.
Make the pastry and roll it out to fit a 230 mm (9 in) frying pan. Press to fit, cutting and pasting as necessary, to line the entire pan.
Put the frying pan on a low heat over a flame tamer, and cook uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the pastry is crisp.
Meanwhile, prepare the onion and garlic and fry in the oil and butter. If you don’t have any butter, use an extra tbsp of olive oil, but the butter makes this quiche richer.
Slice the mushrooms and add to the pan. Cook without browning until the onion is thoroughly softened and the mushrooms have wilted.
When the pastry is cooked, put the vegetables in the case, spreading them evenly over the base.
Put the drained chickpeas on top, again spreading them out evenly.
Gently beat the egg, yoghurt or cream and milk or water together. Mix in the tarragon, greenpeppercorns and salt. Pour this carefully into the frying pan, tilting it so that the custard is evenly distributed.
Cover and cook over a low heat, until the custard has risen and is set – approximately 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve, if you can with new potatoes and a salad of mixed leaves. On a hot day, and in the unlikely event that youcan provide it, chilled white wine is delicious with this quiche.
Alternative cooking:
If you prefer to cook the quiche in the oven, line a 200 mm (8 in) flan case with pastry and bake it in a pre-heated, Fairly Hot oven for 15 minutes. If possible, put a heavy baking sheet on the top shelf to heat up with the oven. This gives you a better chance of ending up with a crisp base.
Follow stages 3 – 7. Reduce the oven setting to Moderate, and then put the quiche back in the oven for a further 30 minutes, until the filling is set. It should have risen to the top of the case and be a delicate golden colour.
Note:
I have made this quiche with green peppercorns in brine, when I couldn’t find dried green peppercorns, but the result it disappointing compared with the dried ones.
If you have access to freshherbs, you might well prefer to use these. However, tarragon has its own quite distinct flavour, which I think goes well in this recipe.
Risotto is something that I’ve come
to since living on my own, because it isn’t the sort of
rib-sticking tack that my skippers would have liked. I adore it.
For
a long time I couldn’t get it just right. I kept reading all
different recipes; I carefully kept my stock hot and ladled it
assiduously into the pan, just like the maestros told me to, but the
rice never seemed really to cook through and I never got the creamy
consistency that the cookery books raved about: I think all the variables of
heat, pan size and quantity are very important and unless you cook the same amount in the same pan each time, there's a lot of trial and error. Keeping the water/stock hot is a further complication. Moreover, some recipes imply that you heat up more water/stock than might be called for, and pouring water away on a boat, is a capital crime! Finally, however, I came
across a complete iconoclast who cooked her risotto in the pressure
cooker and, moreover, she assured me that so do lots of Italian
cooks, who, I assume prefer to sit down with the rest of the white
wine, rather than standing over the risotto pot, ladling and stirring for three-quarters of an hour. So
I
tried it, and since then I have produced what I consider to be perfect
risotto (although I have to admit that the one in the photo is a bit dry)! You will have to experiment a bit to get the timing just right: the usual caveat about how long it takes your PC to get up to pressure and at what pressure it cooks applies as usual.
I
have tried it
with short-grain brown rice, rather than arborio, but the result has
been disappointing. From what I have read, risotto is meant to be of a creamy consistency, so it shouldn't stand up on its own, moulded on the
plate. Nor should it have any cream in it - the creaminess comes from the starch in the rice - and really, not even
that much cheese. The Italians are firm believers in Less is More.
Jamie Oliver adds lots of celery to his
risotto and very good it is too. However, celery is not the sort of
thing that most voyagers carry, because it comes in large quantities
and doesn’t keep that well. Instead I have gone for a unique Annie
touch (or so I would like to think) and use fennel seeds. Very
Italian and very voyager friendly. I also occasionally add celery seeds, too, in a nod to Mr Oliver. Classic risotto recipes use neither, however, so feel free to leave them out if you prefer.
What
follows is the basic recipe
with the usual variations at the end. Although I see a lot of recipes include vegetables early in the cooking process, traditionally most appear to be added at the end. I dare say that's because after all the stirring, etc, the veg would be mashed. However, with those that will re-heat quickly like mushrooms, it's better to pre-fry them with the onion and garlic and then set aside. I usually sprinkle in some of my mushroom stock powder, just before adding the water and recommend it, but if you only have commercial stock you can use that, in which case go carefully with your salt. If you don't particularly want to fry your vegetable of choice, for example if you're making, for example
green bean risotto, partially cook the beans first and use the
cooking water for stock. But in reality – just go for
it!
Please check the Notes before cooking :-)
Basic Risotto
Serves 2
Ingredients
A knob of butter and/or olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic crushed and diced
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp celery seed
2/3 cup short grain (ideally Carnaroli or Arborio)
rice
1/2 cup white wine (or, in desperate
circumstances, water)
Heat the oil and/or butter in the
pressure cooker and then add the onion and garlic. Cook gently until
softened, but don’t let them brown.
Add the fennel seeds and/or celery, if you're using them and quickly
mix them in.
Add the rice and stir it around
for a few minutes until it’s thoroughly heated and covered in the
oil and onion mixture. It should be starting to turn translucent and to crackle slightly.
Pour in the wine and continue
stirring until it has evaporated.
Now add the water/stock/cooking water
from your vegetable of choice, or water and stock powder; stir to ensure that everything is
covered in liquid and well mixed.
Put on the lid and bring up to pressure.
Cook for 5-7 minutes and allow the
pressure to reduce naturally.
Meanwhile, grate the cheese and
heat up about a cup of water.
Remove the lid and gently stir the
risotto. Add salt and pepper and taste it. The risotto should be of a creamy
consistency that flows rather than stands on its own. If it looks a
bit dry, add some of your hot water and mix carefully.
Add the Parmesan/Parmegan and gently mix it in. Taste to see if you've added sufficient.
* At this stage, add your
partially-cooked vegetables and mix carefully again.
Put the lid back on and either let the vegetables reheat in the hot risotto for a few minutes, or put the pan back over a very low heat, if you are worried the risotto might cool down too much. Give the consistency one final check adding more hot water/stock if necessary and serve straight away, with more cheese, if you wish.
A green vegetable or side salad go well with any risotto, but especially with the basic one above.
Notes:
If you don't have or use butter, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil; otherwise just use one tbsp plus the butter.
Substitute vegan ghee for butter.
Try to avoid using red onions - they will colour the risotto.
You can heat your extra hot water/stock while the pressure is coming off.
Variations:
Please read through these little recipes carefully before starting cooking.
Broad bean risotto:
Shell the beans to make up about a cup full. Following the basic risotto recipe above, cook the beans in a small amount of water to which you have added 1/4 tsp dried mint, until they are just tender. Scoop them out onto a
plate with a slotted spoon. Make up the cooking liquid to 1 1/3 cups, with stock or water and coninue with the method above. Add the cooked beans at * and complete the recipe.
Broccoli risotto: Following the basic risotto recipe above, cut the broccoli into tiny
heads, simmer them in a small amount of water until just cooked - they will cook a bit more while reheating - and then scoop them out onto a
plate with a slotted spoon. Make up the cooking water to 1 1/3 cups, with stock or water. If you want to use some of the stalk, chop it and cook with the
onions and garlic. Continue as above, add the cooked broccoli at *, and complete the recipe. Sprinkle with chilli flakes.
Cauliflower risotto:
Following the basic risotto recipe above, cut off the
florets, to whatever size suits you, depending on what result you are aiming for. Lightly cook them, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Make up the cooking water to 1 1/3 cups, with stock or water. Take the stalk and any trimmings, chop and cook with the
onions and garlic and 1/4 tsp chilli flakes. Add the water/stock and continue with the method above. While the risotto is cooking, you can thinly slice the florets, if you wish. Add the cauliflower at *, and complete the recipe. A variation is to cook the cauliflower more thoroughly and to gently mash it into the cooked rice.
Green bean risotto. Following the recipe above, cook about a dozen beans, sliced into 30mm/1in pieces,in a small amount of water with 1/4 tsp dried oregano, until they are almost ready. Scoop them out onto a
plate with a slotted spoon. Make up the cooking water to 1 1/3 cups, with stock or water and carry on with the recipe. Add the cooked beans at * and complete the recipe.
Mushroom risotto:
Read through the recipe above. (If you have any, soak a few dried
mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes or so and use the water in the
stock). Take half a dozen or so fresh mushrooms and fry them in the oil/butter with the onion and garlic, together with 1/4 tspthyme and 1/2 tsp rosemary (1/4 tsp sage also goes well if you are using darker mushrooms). When the onions are soft, set everything aside on a plate. Now add some more oil to the pan. Add the riceand cook for a minute or so until the grains start to turn translucent and crackle. Add the mushroom liquid to the water/stock to make 2 cups of liquid (you don't need wine with this risotto), then pour this over the rice. Now add the drained mushrooms, put on the lid and bring up to pressure as per the recipe above. Add the cooked mushrooms at * and complete the recipe. If you are lucky enough to have some, drizzle some truffle oil over before serving.
Pea risotto: Shell sufficient
fresh peas to fill about half a cup. Bring a small amount of water to the boil, together with 1/4 tsp dried mint and a
couple of the pods. Add the peas and cook for one minute, then scoop them out onto a
plate with a slotted spoon. Remove the
pods. Make up the cooking water to 1 1/3 cups, with stock or water, and follow the basic risotto recipe. Add the cooked peas at * and complete the recipe. If you don't have fresh peas, you can use a similar amount of freeze-dried. Cook them in the stock/water, together with the dried mint until they are nearly cooked. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and set aside. Make up the liquid to 1 1/3 cups and follow the recipe. Add the cooked peas at * and complete the recipe.
Pea and sun-dried tomato risotto:
Follow the instructions for Pea Risotto, but add three or four
sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips, with the fennel seeds.
Risotto Milanesa: This is the classic Italian recipe and is very beautiful. Saffron is horribly expensive, but its glorious colour and subtle fragrance make it worthwhile using on occasion. Do not be tempted to substitute turmeric: it will overwhelm a dish like this which is so subtly flavoured. For the same reason, leave out the fennel and celery seeds and make sure you use some decent-tasting white wine.Following the basic risotto recipe above, heat 1/4 cup of the water you intend to cook the rice in and add a good pinch of saffron strands (about 1/4 tsp). Allow them to infuse for about 20 minute. Cook the basic risotto as above, and add the saffron liquid to the water/stock to make up 1 1/3 cups. Complete the recipe.
Sharp-eyed observers may notice a family
resemblance to one or two other recipes on this blog. I make no
apologies. Mushrooms and chickpeas were made for each other and are
complemented superbly by tarragon and green peppercorns.
Mushrooms, a
sublime gift from a benign Providence, are becoming more and more
easily available to cruising people. Because of this, I include them
rather more often than I would have done had I written this blog 15
years ago - if there were blogs, 15 years ago. While canned
mushrooms are a sad travesty of the real
thing, ‘freeze-dried’ ones are a very acceptable substitute and,
where available, are not outrageously expensive. While they don’t
need pre-soaking, it does them no harm. If you're cooking the
chickpeas from scratch, rather than using a tin, put the dried mushrooms
in
at the same time. Half a cup of mushrooms would need about the same
water. You can of course buy such exotics as porcini or Chinese dried
mushrooms, although I find the latter rather too chewy and, particularly
the dark ones, slightly
overpowering unless diced quite small. On the other hand, those packets
of Chinese, dried 'white' mushrooms are wonderfully versatile and have a
lovely flavour profile.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1/2 cup chick peas, soaked
3/4 cup rice
2½ cups water
2 tbsp olive oil
6 or 8 fresh mushrooms OR 1/3 cup
freeze dried mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 tsp tarragon
2 tsp green peppercorns, crushed
salt
Method:
Put the rice and chick peas in the
pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes. If you are using dried
mushrooms, put these in at the same time and add an extra 1/2 cup of
water.
While these are cooking, heat the
oil in another saucepan, slice the mushrooms and chop up the onion
and garlic. Put them all into the pan and cook over a medium heat,
turning frequently to prevent them from burning. Be gentle – you
don’t want to break up the mushroom slices.
Using a pestle and mortar, crush
the peppercorns and grind the tarragon in with them. (If you don’t
have a pestle, crush the peppercorns in a shallow bowl with the back
of a spoon. Be careful, they tend to fly about a bit.) Add these to
the vegetables and stir to mix everything together. Lower the heat
to a minimum.
When the chickpeas, etc have
finished cooking, reduce pressure gradually and then empty the
contents of the pressure cooker into the saucepan. Mix carefully,
and leave for a few minutes so that the flavours mingle before
serving the food.
Variations:
If you’re not fond of ‘spicy’
food, you may find 2 tsp of green peppercorns a bit much. In that
case, reduce the amount to 1 tsp.
If you substitute 1/4 cup wild
rice for brown rice, you get a luxurious version, which you can
happily serve to any guests.
If you don't happen to have green peppercorns aboard, use black
Thyme
can be substituted for tarragon: it goes well with mushrooms, but will,
of course, impart a completely different flavour to the dish.
Personally, I don't think home-made soups need anything added by way of stock: the intrinsic ingredients have enough flavour in themselves. However, sometimes I feel a recipe needs a touch of je ne sais quoi, and I reckon this mushroom 'stock powder' fits the bill. Unlike commercial stock powders, not only does it contain no artificial ingredients, it doesn't even have any salt. All that it is is ground up, dried mushrooms such as the Chinese ones which are available in most supermarkets.
Makes about 1 cup
Ingredients
1 pack dried mushrooms
Method:
Remove the mushrooms from the package and shake the residue into a blender cup.
Break or cut the larger pieces of mushrooms down to around 2 cm/1 in, so that the blender can more readily cope with them.
Add all the mushrooms into the cup and grind them until they are a coarse powder.
Put into a clean jar and keep in a dark place.
Notes:
I always use 'white' mushrooms for this 'stock powder', rather thana pack of mixed mushrooms. That way they don't darken the sauce, soup, or whatever you're adding them to.
Variations:
To make this more like a stock powder, add a couple of teaspoons of salt
Add mixed herbs: you might find a couple of teaspoons of my blend suits. The drawback of this is that you will have flecks of colour in your food and you might prefer to have a white sauce. The herbs may not suit your recipe, either.
For the past several weeks I have had no appetite to speak of. This isn't a good thing for a food blogger, but it is a miserable state of affairs for someone who usually wakes up in the morning, anticipating eating a very hearty breakfast and already wondering what to cook for dinner. Admittedly I have lost quite a bit of weight, but I am one of those rare and lucky people who actually quite likes my body the size and the shape it is. (At my age, this is a sane and sensible place to be!) Apart from fruit and yogurt, at the moment the thought of any Indian food, which I usually eat several times a week, appalls me; the idea of pasta makes me feel squeamish and the only things which seem slightly appealing are bread and potatoes, preferably fried. Sometimes I can face a few florets of broccoli, but an aubergine I bought nearly a month ago - one of my absolute favourite foods - will probably have to be thrown out. If you knew my views about throwing food out, you would realise how bad I am.
However, a couple of weeks ago, I reckoned I could probably fancy some soup. To be appealing it had to be thick, not to have too many ingredients, be very lightly flavoured and not too colourful. I tried a simple lentil soup and that was a success. I ate a whole bowl of it without any problem, which felt like quite an achievement. None of my other recipes seemed at all tempting, so I decided to try and make something which would fit the bill, and this is the result. The barley I buy here in New Zealand is hulled, but not 'pearl and is perfect comfort food. I actually found the soup really enjoyable and again ate a whole bowl without difficulty. It's obviously the perfect soup for an 'invalid'!!
Put the gram flour into your pressure cooker and add about 1/4 cup of water. Mix very, very thoroughly to remove all the lumps, adding more water as you go. Gram flour doesn't tend to form lumps while it's heating in the way the wheat and cornflour do, but any lumps remaining in the original mixture are hard to get rid of.
Now add the mushrooms, barley, dried onion powder ground coriander, za'atar/thyme, salt and pepper. Add the stock powder, too, if you have any.
Bring tothe boil stirring pretty often to make sure the flour paste doesn't stick to the pan - it will thicken as you go. The 2 cups of water should be enough for the gram flour and the barley.
Put on the lid, bring up to pressure and cook for 10 minutes, to thoroughly soften the barley.
Let the pressure reduce at room temperature, remove the lid and stir the soup. If it seems too thick, add more water - I wanted a very thick soup.
Serve as is, or with bread.
Notes:
use dicedonion, if you prefer: I couldn't face it!
To date, I've pretty much followed my plan of making this blog a version of my draft book, The Voyaging Vegetarian. However, I wonder how many of the two or three readers who have looked at this blog, have even opened the pages under "Topics for Voyaging Vegetarians" and so I've decided to do something totally different: write what is really a blog post.
Christmas! Some people love it, some people loathe it, some are quite indifferent. I have very mixed feelings about it: I love the memories of Christmas past spent with my family, before most of them died. I like that it's a special day and it's a fine excuse to buy myself something a little bit special and call it a Christmas present. However, partly because I adored our own family rituals, I don't particularly like joining other people for Christmas. Obviously they do things their own way and to be honest, it's one day of the year when I really don't want to accommodate others. Add to this the fact that I am a vegetarian, who finds the sight and smell of meat offputting; that I'm used to dining quite late; that I can think of few things worse on a hot day, than a roast dinner or any heavy meal; that I dislike sweet puddings and prefer to avoid the giving of unwanted presents, and you can see that I am anyway, a far from ideal guest.
Fortunately, I live on a boat, so a day or so before Christmas, I can sail away to an unpopular anchorage which I am likely to have more or less to myself and be fairly sure that no-one will miss me. The anchorages are often very pretty, but have a very poor mobile phone signal which for many people makes them a bad choice at this time of the year, when they want to talk to family and friends.
Once happily anchored, forecast checked once more, I spend several pleasant hours preparing my own Christmas feast. For the past couple of years, this has been what we used to call a 'buffet', and which now appears to be called a 'grazing table', ideal for idling away a hot summer's afternoon and evening. For anyone interested in doing likewise, I am offering this year's spread for inspiration.
So what did I have? I made seeded-bread rolls, and to go with them prepared two pâtés:
The first one is the variation on the lentil and mushroom pâté, where
walnuts are used instead of the mushrooms. I love this variation: indeed, I'm not
sure that I don't prefer it to the mushroom version. I had some fresh sage leaves, which I fried until they were crisp, and used to decorate it. It goes well with bread or crackers, but I also found it delicious wrapped in a lettuce leaf.
I made a lot of this pâté and finished the last of it off, by watering it down and serving it with pasta. It was very good!
The second pâté I made is the really rich and luxurious mushroom and sunflower seed one, which I feel is on a par with any made from meat.
It being Christmas, I had a generous hand with the brandy and added what I like to think was an authentic touch, by melting vegan ghee over the top of it. Again, it was good with bread, crackers or wrapped in a lettuce leaf. Incidentally, both of these pâtés keep for several days without refrigeration, even with the hot weather we had over Christmas. There is no difficulty on my part, eating them for breakfast, either.
Any grazing table worth its name has to include hummus, of course. I like to make mine by squashing the peas with a pestle, rather than blending them really smooth.
I much prefer a bit of texture, personally and I also like to include plenty of cumin in the mix. This year I added a drizzle of chilli oil, from the chilli peppers I preserved earlier in the year. It added a delightful bit of zing. Olive oil over the top stops it from drying out and adds richness to the flavour and texture. Again, the hummus is great with bread, crackers or wrapped in lettuce. This also keeps for several days without refrigeration - if it gets the chance.
My final creation was to make samosas. I have just realised that, thus far, I haven't included a recipe for these. As I have a very poor signal here (still in a deserte anchorage) and am pushing my luck writing this, I shall have to leave it for another day. The recipe I used is made from smashed potatoes and freeze-dried peas. A lot of people mash the potaoes, but again, I prefer to have some texture.
Additional food to browse on included: some fancy, truffle-flavoured crisps (although, I have
to confess, I think I prefer simple, plain salted!), baby plum tomatoes, broccoli florets, baby carrots, the aforementioned lettuce and crackers, along with a bowl of vegan yoghurt, cherries and fresh dates. Although I am largely vegan, for once I bought some locally-made cheese: a Gouda type. Generally speaking, I avoid cheese because of the horrible lives that dairy cattle have, and the appalling way in which the unwanted calves are treated. However, the Mahoe cheese comes from a farm that looks like something out of a children's book, with cows and a big bull grazing peacefully in the fields, the driveway lined with small paddocks full of pigs and piglets, pottering around in the sunshine. If only all cheese were produced in such an animal-friendly setting ...
As you will see, all this lovely food was washed down with good wine and I very much enjoyed browsing and sipping - and reading the odd chapter of the new Richard Osman book I had bought for myself! Perhaps, unsurprisingly, there was quite a lot left over, but it's all gone now, except for some of the cheese. I can quite understand that most people don't want to spend Christmas on their own, but this grazing table also works will wit a cabin full of guests: we had a similar spread a couple of Christmases ago, with good friends on board. To my mind, it's a far better choice in hot weather, than a sit-down, cooked meal.
I love Brussels sprouts and it always
seems a bit of a shame to use them as an addition on the side rather
than star of the show. They go very well with mushrooms and mixed
with this thick hemp sauce, shine in a really good combination to go
with pasta.
Hemp seeds, aka hemp hearts
Hemp seeds, also known as hemp hearts, are one of the
latest wonder foods, but I particularly like them for making vegan
milk and a cream for cooking, because there’s no need to soak them
first. Hemp is also a very low-impact crop to grow, requiring little
water and no fertiliser; it doesn’t have to be grown in the tropics
and processing the seeds doesn’t mean (generally) women are using
caustic chemicals, often with inadequate protection, so we should
certainly use it in preference to cashew nuts. To serve, linguine,
or fettuccine are my choice.
Unfortunately, you really do need a
blender or this sauce, although, of course, you could take the
concept and use some other form of cream.
Serves 2
Ingredients
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, diced
200 ml water
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1/2
tsp mushroom stock powder
2 tbsp nutritional
yeast
1/4 tsp salt
generous grind black
pepper
2 cups Brussels
sprouts, trimmed and halved
6 or 8 button
mushrooms, thickly sliced
fettucine or linguine –
about 25mm/1” dia. stacked on end
Parmesan cheese to serve
Method
Heat some olive oil
in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and onion
and cook for a couple of minutes, until the onions become
translucent. Remove from heat.
Now add the cooked onion and
garlic to a blender, together with the water,hemphearts, stockpowder (if using), nutritionalyeast, salt and pepper. Blend for a minute or
so to make a smooth and creamy sauce. Taste and adjust seasonings.
Put some more oil in the saucepan,
and add the Brusselssprouts and cook for a few
minutes, until they start to brown on the edges.
Meanwhile, add water to another
saucepan and bring to the boil for the pasta. When it’s boiling,
cook the pastaas
usual.
Now add the mushrooms to
the sprouts and fry for a few more minutes, stirring frequently,
until they are browned. A pinch of salt might help here.
Lower the heat and add the prepared sauce to the vegetables and stir
to combine. Gently cook the sauce until it’s thick. When the
pasta is cooked, add it to the pan, saving the pasta water,
into a jug. Use some of this water to rinse out the blender and add
to the pan.
Cook the sauce a little longer: if
it seems too thick, add more of the pasta water.
Serve immediately with extra hemp seeds and/or Parmesan or vegan
"Parmesan" cheese.
Notes:
The pasta sauce will thicken
quickly once heated. Keep a close eye on it. If it is too thick, add
extra pasta water to loosen it up.
Variations:
You
could use other vegetables, such as asparagus,
green beans,mange-toutpeas,
etc instead of the
Brussels sprouts. But the latter are particularly good!
One
alternative I would
recommend is broccoli,
but cut it into very small florets, the same size as half a sprout,
otherwise the sauce won’t coat everything evenly.
Substitute dried mushrooms
for fresh, if these are unavailable.
I have just suggested 'Pasta' for his recipe, because it will really go with just about any short pasta. Indeed, if you make more sauce, it would also successfully coat a longer type of pasta. While
I've suggested specific
vegetables, this is essentially a meal that can be made using
ingredients you’d have in your lockers, with whatever vegetables
you have to hand. There is, however, one proviso to this: I suggest
sprinkling black sesame seeds over the meal when it’s served: white
sesame seeds can be used as a substitute, but the black ones look and
taste great!
Serves
2
Ingredients
1/2 cup of chickpeas, soaked and cooked
olive oil
1
onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
about 4 button mushrooms,
sliced
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp chilli flakes, or
to taste
about 6 florets from a head of broccoli
4 handfuls of pasta,
such as fusilli
2 tbsp tahini
reserved water from the pasta
salt and
pepper
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
Method:
Cook
the chickpeas in the usual way and set aside.
Add
olive oil to a large saucepan over a moderately high heat.
Add
the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until
the onions are softening, stirring frequently to ensure nothing
burns.
Add
the mushroom and red pepper and sprinkle with salt,
stir into the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until
there is some colour on both the onions and red peppers, then lower
the heat. Add in the chilli flakes, stir well and cover.
Leave over a low heat while you cook the pasta.
Bring
salted water to boil in a saucepan and throw in the pasta.
Stir well to ensure that it doesn’t stick together. Bring back to
the boil, cover and lower the heat so that it doesn’t boil over.
Set the timer for 5 minutes
When
the timer rings, add the broccoli florets and cook until both
pasta and broccoli are just notsoft.
If you like crunchy broccoli, wait a bit longer before adding it.
While
this is cooking, put the tahiniinto a small, together with
generous amounts of saltand pepper.
When the pasta and broccoli are done, remove them from the water,
using a slotted spoon, or drain the water into a jug, and add them
to the vegetables.
Add
a tablespoonful or so of pasta
waterto the tahini and
mix to a smooth consistency. Tahini varies tremendously in how thick
it is, but you want to end up with a sauce that pours easily and
will coat the pasta and vegetables. Mix with a butter knife or mini
whisk until it becomes a creamy colour, then add to the pan.
Stir
gently until everything is mixed and serve.
Garnish
with a generous amount of black
sesame seeds.
Note:
If
you have no black sesame seeds, substitute with white.
I'm not sure the pasta water has the same effect when used with gluten-free pasta, but it can't do any harm!
Variations:
Use
whitebeansinstead of chickpeas.
Replace the
broccoli with cauliflowerflorets.
For a voyaging variation, use chopped cabbage.
Add
green beansor
asparaguswith
or instead of some of the other vegetables.
Replace the red
pepperwith carrot.
Add
a couple of tbsp of freeze-driedpeas with or instead of some of the
vegetables.
Use
bulgur wheatinstead
of pasta. In this case you will have to cook the broccoli
separately.
Even ‛traditional’, meat-based
strogonoff seems to vary considerably. In USA, it’s usually swamped with
sour cream (which is generally both thickened and
soured artificially); in Europe they are more likely to stir a couple of
tablespoonfuls of crème frâiche into the sauce. They also include a
little tomato purée and Dijon mustard is essential: although
mushrooms and onions weren’t included in the original recipe,
mustard most certainly was. Neither tomato purée nor mustard is
generally mentioned in USAnian recipes. A little white wine or brandy
can be added for special occasions.
Apparently allspice was
in the original recipe. I also include paprika for its earthiness, which
I really like.
Many vegan versions of this don’t use a ‛meat’ equivalent at all, so
couldn’t really be much further from the original. I like the
combination of textures of either seitan or lentils with the
mushrooms and I cook this meal in two different ways. The seitan
looks more like the original, the lentils are quicker to prepare. I
decided to put them as two separate posts, because they need slightly
different cooking and also, different pans.
Serves
2
Ingredients
olive
oil
4 or 5
medium/2 cups sliced button mushrooms *
1 small
OR 1/2 onion finely chopped or sliced
1/2 cup
whole lentils
1 cup
water
1 tbsp
flour
1/4 cup
brandy or white wine
1/4 cup
mushroom stock or water
salt and black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp
ground allspice
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp
Dijon or brown mustard
2 tsp
tomato paste
1 tbsp
(vegan) crème fraîche
Method:
Heat some olive oil in a pressure cooker, over a medium-high
heat and add the sliced mushrooms. Cook them for about 5
minutes. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
Add some more olive oil and when it’s hot, add the onions.
Cook until just turning translucent but not browned.
Add the lentils
and stir around with the onions for a minute or so, pour in a cup of water, put on the lid and bring up to pressure. Cook for 10
minutes and let the pressure come down gradually.
Put the pan back
over the heat, remove the lid, sprinkle on a little flour and
stir to coat everything and cook off some of the raw flour taste.
Add the brandy or (far more likely!) wine to the pan.
Stir in the mushroom stock or water, salt and black
pepper, allspice, paprika,mustard and tomato purée.
Mix well and simmer gently for about 10 minutes so that the flavours
combine.
Stir in the crème fraîche and the reserved mushrooms, and
cook for a few more minutes. Don’t let it boil.
Serve with pasta, mashed
potatoes, fried potato wedges or whatever takes your
fancy. (I like either fettuccine or smashed
potatoes.
Notes:
*If you have lots
of mushrooms, or they’re cheap, feel free to use a lot more!
Other varieties would be as good, not better, than button
mushrooms.
Instead of crèmefraîche, use yoghurt, or vegan cream plus 1/2 tsp
lemon juice or vinegar.
I
created this soup one winters’ night, when I had a few mushrooms
left in the locker, and was growing tired of an everlasting
cauliflower that I'd bought. It was, I admit, a huge one, but as it was
the same price as the other ones, which were two-thirds the size, and super-expensive to
boot, I went for the best value for money. I love cauliflower, but
after 6 consecutive nights of eating it, I was ready for a change.
When I'm looking at recipes on line, I often see people suggesting puréeing
cauliflower to make a thick and creamy sauce. I thought I’d try
this idea, to save mixing up a nut cream – and also out of
curiosity. The resulting soup was delicious – better than I’d
hoped for – and I had the added satisfaction of cooking it on my
little fire. It is therefore very much a cream
of mushroom soup. With a slice or two of home-made longevity
bread, it made a filling and warming meal.
Serves 4 as a starter,
2 as a main course
Ingredients
4 or 5 large mushrooms
or the equivalent if smaller
1 bay leaf
4 cups water
1 onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic
olive oil
approx 2 cups
cauliflower florets
1/2 tsp ground
coriander
1/4 tsp za’atar or
dried thyme
1/2
tsp mushroom stock powder
grated nutmeg
salt and pepper
Method:
Cut
the mushrooms into chunks – about the size of a small,
button mushroom.
Put
a cup of water into a large saucepan, together with a bayleaf and the mushrooms and bring to the boil.
Simmer
gently for a few minutes while you chop the onion and garlic.
Pour
the mushrooms and water into a bowl and set aside.
Using
the same pan, heat the olive oil and then add the onion and garlic.
Fry gently for about 5 minutes until translucent. Turn down the
flame if they’re starting to colour.
In
the meantime, divide the cauliflower into florets and dice
any stem that you’ve cut off in the process. Add to the pan when
the onions are softened.
Add in the ground coriander and stir everything around until the cauliflower is evenly coated.
Pour in the remaining three cups of water together with the water that the mushrooms
have been sitting in. Leave the mushrooms to one side.
Now
add the za’atar or thyme and mushroom stock powder,
if you have any. Bring to the boil and then simmer over a moderate
heat until the cauliflower is completely softened.
When it's cooked, mash the soup into a thick purée, or use a stick blender.
Return
to the heat and add the mushrooms. Grate over nutmeg and add
salt and pepper to taste. Be generous with the black pepper
– the soup can take it.
Note:
Add
some dried mushrooms to the water, with the fresh mushrooms for
increased depth of flavour.