Author Archives: MG McShane

Vegetarian

Vegetarian Lasagne

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It is years since I made this so I had forgotten how delicious and comforting it is. Made it the other night and there wasn’t a sliver left by morning! Vegetarian lasagne would be my preference over the meat variety but that’s just me. We did feed this to a confirmed carnivore once and he never guessed there was no meat in it! Wolfed the whole lot down *and* asked for seconds!

The method is very straight forward. It may seem that there are a lot of steps but some of these run together so it is not as time consuming as it may originally appear.

This recipe uses a standard size lasagne dish and feeds 4. I prepare it in advance as not only do I like to let the tomato mix stand for a while, I find it easier to put this together when both sauces are cool. I place tin foil over it and slow cook it in the oven. This is my preferred method if using no-cook lasagne sheets to avoid those crunchy ends. I brown off the cheese topping under the grill. I also roast the pepper before adding as I think this enhances the flavour.

What do I serve this with? Mixed salad or garlic bread or both. On occasion, I don’t bother as it is nice enough on its own.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 red pepper
1 aubergine, chopped into small chunks
Salt
2 tbsp, olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 lb mushrooms, sliced roughly
1 large courgette, chopped into small chunks (same size as aubergine)
2 tbsp, tomato puree
1 tin tomatoes (cherry tomatoes if possible)
1 tsp, sugar
1 dessert spoon, dried parsley
1 tsp, dried basil
Sea salt and ground black pepper
1½ pint milk*
2 ounces, butter
2-3 tbsp, flour
Lasagne sheets
Grated cheese to cover the top of the lasagne (I use a mix of cheddar and parmesan)

Method
1. Put the aubergine chunks into a bowl and sprinkle liberally with salt
2. Heat the oven to 180C and place the red pepper on the rack to roast for about 15 minutes or until soft (turning half way through)
3. Heat the oil and fry the onion gently until soft (about 8-10 minutes)
4. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes
5. While the onion is cooking, rinse the aubergine chunks thoroughly
6. Add all the chopped vegetables to the onion/garlic mix and cook for another 5 minutes
7. Add the tomato puree, herbs, sugar and tinned tomatoes and allow to simmer gently for about an hour
8. Season with salt and pepper
9. In another pan, melt the butter
10. Add the flour and cook over a low heat until pale, stirring all the time to avoid burning
11. Add the milk gradually to combine it with the roux until 1 pint is added to the mix**
12. Season with salt and pepper
13. Cook over a gentle heat for 10 minutes until it thickens and set aside (cover the pan to avoid a skin forming)
14.  Heat the oven to 150C degrees
15. Put a small amount of the tomato mix at the bottom of the dish and cover with lasagne sheets
16. Cover these sheets with tomato mix. Drizzle with a couple of dessert spoons of white sauce
17 Repeat this until the dish is full. Cover the remaining lasagne sheets with the white sauce making sure to cover the edges of the pasta
18. Sprinkle with cheese all over the top and cover loosely with tinfoil (make sure that it does not touch the top)
19. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 40 minutes
20. Brown the cheese top under the grill until bubbling

*If I have the time, I heat the milk with a bay leaf and a little grated nutmeg before using it in the mix.

** The remainder of the milk is required if the white sauce needs to be thinned out

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Vegan, Vegetarian

Keema (vegan)

The Teen loves Keema so time to try out a vegan version. I usually make it with beef mince, slow cooked in the oven, but this time I cooked it with green lentils on the hob. I used similar spicing to the meat version although the cooking time and style changed.

L

Neither of us are big fans of Quorn or other meat substitutes so this was a bit of an experiment. The verdict? The Teen proclaimed it to be ‘unreal!’ as she ate a hearty bowl with homemade flatbreads.

Ingredients
1 tsp, cumin seeds
1 tsp, coriander seeds
1 cinnamon stick
½  tsp garam masala
1 tsp, turmeric
8 ounces, green lentils
2 pints, vegetable stock
1 large onion, chopped roughly
1 chilli, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 in ginger, grated
2 tbsp, sunflower oil
1lb potatoes, peeled and cut into large, bite size, chunks
Tin chopped tomatoes
1 heaped tbsp, tomato puree
Ground black pepper
1 cup, frozen peas
Water to add if the mix is too thick

Method
1. Roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and cinnamon in the sauce pan for 1-2 minutes making sure not to burn them
2. Grind the seeds together, add the other spices and cinnamon to the mix and leave aside until needed
3. Put the lentils in a saucepan, cover with 1 ½ pints of cold stock, bring gently to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes
4. Leave to cool
5. While the lentils are cooking, blitz the onions, chilli, garlic and ginger into a paste
6. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the paste for 2-3 minutes
7. Add the spices, ground pepper and cook for another 2 minutes
8. Add the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, remaining stock and potatoes
9. Cover and cook for 30 minutes
10. Drain the lentils and add to the tomatoes and potato mix
11. Cook for another 20 minutes, adding the peas 5 minutes before the end

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Soups, Vegan, Vegetarian

Celtic Onion Soup

Recently, the now-turned vegan teen had a hankering for French Onion Soup. A challenge is a challenge so I set out to make it. Without a hearty beef stock and cheesy bread floating on top, this could never be an authentic alternative to French Onion Soup but it was still worth a try. It turned out, however, to be a very tasty vegan version which I served with the Hairy Bikers’ recipe for Kartoffelbrot.

As with its’ French cousin, the taste and depth comes from slow-cooking the onions untilonion they are caramelised. It takes a while but is so worth it (or so the Teen says!).

Due to its rather pale complexion, we decided to name it ‘Celtic Onion Soup!’

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1½ lb white onions, sliced thinly in rounds
4 fluid ounces, white wine
2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp, dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 ½ -2 pints, good quality vegetable stock*

Method
1. Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan
2. Add the onions and cook over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes or until soft
3. Add the sugar, salt and pepper and continue cooking until the onions turn a caramel colour
4. Scoop the onions to the sides of the pan and deglaze with white wine, stirring back in the onions and adding the garlic
5. Cook for a further few minutes until the garlic is the same colour as the onions
6. Add the thyme and bay leaf
7. Add the stock and simmer for a further 30-40 minutes

* I used a mix of homemade vegetable stock and commercial. I made the stock using some carrots, cabbage and a stalk of broccoli and covered this with about 1 pint of water. I added a tablespoon of dried parsley, a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs and a small bay leaf and left this to simmer while cooking the onions. I strained the vegetables and added a commercial stock cube to give the stock the depth it requires for this recipe. I added ½ pint of water also to this mix.

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Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Roasted Cauliflower Curry

Fresh cauliflower in the supermarket makes me love when vegetables are in season.  With the Teen working flat out at the moment, I promised her something tasty for dinner. With the cauliflower, I thought I’d make my usual Aloo Gobi but when I went to prepare it, I decided I wanted to do something new. So off I searched for a new recipe. As always, I came across a lot I liked but none I loved. Time to mix and match.

I love the idea of roasting vegetables instead of cooking them simply in the sauce. While this can all be cooked at the same time, I decided to cook it in stages. This was partly due to the way my day was structured and partly because I wanted the sauce to be as deepcauliflower and as rich as it could be. So I made the sauce and left it aside for a few hours and I prepped the vegetables so it could all be put together later. I also combined the vegetables with the spices rather than simply sprinkling over and left to stand while the oven was heating. This worked very well as the flavour was even throughout.

And it all worked so well. Hands up, I am not too keen on Aloo Gobi as I find the cauliflower can often be bitter but with this recipe, it tasted delicious. We ate it with homemade flatbread and it was ‘a hug in a bowl’ as the cliché goes. This will be the recipe I use going forward as a main meal or as a side dish.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
I small cauliflower
1/2 lb potatoes, peeled
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 chilli, chopped finely
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 lemon, juiced
6 dried curry leaves
4 tbsp, sunflower oil
1 dessertspoon cumin seeds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp sugar

1. Cut potatoes into chunks and break cauliflower into small florets
2. Crush the cumin, coriander and caraway seeds together with a pestle and mortar if possible
3. Add these to the other spices and combine with half the oil
4. Coat the potatoes and cauliflower completely in this spice mix and leave to stand while the oven heats to 180c (fan)
5. Heat the other half of the oil in a pan
6. Cook the onions until soft
7. Add garlic, chilli and curry leaves and cook for another two minutes
8. Add tomatoes, lemon juice, sugar and tomato puree and cook on a low heat for 30 minutes
9. While this is cooking, heat a tray in the oven
10. Place the spiced vegetables on the tray and cook for 30-40 minutes
11. Combine with tomato mix
12. Serve with flatbread or rice

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Vegan, Vegetarian

Teen’s Favourite Daal

chilli picI used make this Daal all the time. I stopped, forgot how to and kept trying out different recipes. They were never the same as this one. It is both simple and tasty.

Then last week, a scrap of paper fell out of another cookery book. I know I tweaked the original but I have no idea where I found it nor where credit is due. So whoever came up with the basis from which this recipe grew, we thank-you!

 

Ingredients
4 ounces, red lentils
4 ounces, yellow or green lentils
1½ pints, water
1 tsp, turmeric
1 tbsp, grated ginger
1 heaped tsp, garlic finely chopped
2 tbsps, sunflower oil
½ tsp, mustard seeds
1 green chilli, sliced thinly
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 tomatoes, sliced

Method
1. Place lentils, 1 pint of water, turmeric, ginger and garlic in a saucepan and bring to the boil
2. Reduce the heat and cook for about 20 minutes until the lentils are soft (add more water if the mixture becomes too thick)
3. Using a potato masher, gently mash the mix so that the lentils are broken up a bit but not a puree
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan
5. Add the mustard seeds and stir for about 1 minute
6. Add the sliced onion and chilli and cook until soft (5-10 minutes)
7. Add the tomato and cook until soft
8. Add this to the lentil mix
9. Serve this as a side dish or in a bowl with naan bread

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Accompaniment

Kimchi

kimchi picWhen it comes to food, we have yet to meet a cuisine we don’t like. Korean is one of the top favourites at the moment. In particular, the Teen loves Kimchi so I decided to put together a recipe. Any one I found on line required buying additional ingredients. I designed a recipe using things I already had in the cupboard. It’s not authentic but the Teen was very pleased with the result and deemed the taste pretty close.

I so enjoyed making this. The smell in the kitchen was deliciously fragrant. A lot of chopping but very straight forward to make. And it was worth it given how little it costs to make from scratch compared to how much it costs in the shop.

While some recipes said it could be eaten right away, others said to leave the mix for at least a week before opening and to store in the fridge for up to two weeks after. This was left for a week and it was really delicious. One thing I did notice, however, The mixture swells when put into the jar so we were very careful opening it in case it exploded!

Ingredients
1 head, Savoy cabbage
2 carrots, grated
8 radishes, grated
5 scallions, shredded lengthwise
2 in fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
2 tsp chopped chilli from a jar*
8 ozs, table salt
1 oz, sugar
7 fl oz, rice wine vinegar
2 fl oz, fish sauce or light soya sauce
2 fl oz, lemon juice

Method
1. Shred the cabbage finely
2. Add the salt and cover with water
3. Cover and weigh down
4. Leave for an hour and a half to allow the cabbage to soften
5. Mix all the other vegetables in a large bowl with the ginger, garlic and chilli
6. Rinse brine off cabbage and dry off
7. Add to the other vegetable mix and massage cabbage into the rest of the ingredients
8. Put into a large jar and press down to pack it all in
9. Gently heat the vinegar, fish sauce/light soy sauce and sugar until sugar is melted
10. Add the lemon juice
11. Pour warm liquid into jar and seal tightly
12. Leave for at least a week to ferment. Store in fridge for 2 weeks after that

  • I used chilli from a jar as I know the strength of it rather than fresh chillis which sometimes need some guesswork as to how spicy they are.

 

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Vegan, Vegetarian

Burrito Bowl

beans

Heading towards the end of the week, cupboards and fridge are becoming bare and I had no interest in braving the supermarket. I had seen a recipe for a vegan burrito bowl so decided to conjure up my own version.

I served this with homemade guacamole, salsa and jalapeños. I added some chopped onions, tomatoes and shredded lettuce on the side of the bowl. All things that were in the kitchen. The verdict? Quick, cheap and very, very, tasty.

Ingredients
1 cup brown rice, cooked
1 tin, black beans
2 tbsp, sunflower oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 large clove garlic, chopped finely
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 dessertspoon, tomato puree
1/2 tsp, ground coriander
1/2 tsp, ground cumin
1/2 tsp, cumin seeds
1/2 tsp, cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp, smoked paprika
1/2 tsp, sugar
2 tbsp, lime juice
Sea salt to season

Method
1. Heat the oil in a wok
2. Fry the onion until soft
3. Add the garlic and cook for another two minutes
4. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and lime juice
5. Add the spices and cook for a couple of minutes
6. Season with salt and add sugar
7. Add the black beans and heat through
8. Mix in the rice and heat through

Serve with
Shredded lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber
Guacamole
Salsa
Jalapeños

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Vegan, Vegetarian

Vegetarian/Vegan Shepard’s Pie

L

This week, I was back in my cooking groove. Me – and not the Teen – had a craving for vegetarian Shepard’s Pie. I started looking at recipes but nothing much appealed. I then decided to cook my usual recipe and swap the meat for lentils. And it worked – brilliantly! If I hadn’t slipped into a food coma, I could have happily kept eating it. Total comfort food and, dare I say it, nicer than the traditional meat version. I think the Teen gave it the thumbs up too as the leftovers vanished!

With this recipe, there is enough for four generous dinner portions. The mash can be either traditional, made with milk and butter, or vegan, made with soya milk and olive oil.

Ingredients
8 ounces, green lentils*
1½ pint, vegetable stock
2 tbsp, olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 large carrots, diced
2-3 stalks celery, chopped into small pieces
4 ounces, mushrooms chopped into small pieces
3 fluid ounces, red wine
2 tbsp, tomato puree
1 tbsp, dried parsley
1 tsp, dried mixed herbs
1 bay leaf
½ tsp, sugar
Sea salt and black pepper

2lbs, potatoes
3 fluid ounces, milk/soya milk
Generous knob butter/2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper

*These lentils keep their shape while other varieties could turn to mush in this recipe

Method
1. Place the lentils in a saucepan, cover with a pint of cold vegetable stock
2. Bring the lentils gently to the boil and let them cook slowly for about 15 minutes
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan
4. Add the chopped onions and cook gently until carmelised (about 8-10 minutes)
5. Add the carrots and cook for a further 5 minutes
6. Add the celery and mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes
7. Add the red wine and cook for a further 2-3 minutes
8. Add the tomato puree, remaining half pint of stock, sugar, mixed herbs, parsley, bay leaf and season with salt and pepper
9. Strain the lentils and add to the mix
10. Heat the oven to 180 C
11. Leave the lentil mix to cook for about 30 minutes to allow the flavour to develop.
12. Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes or until cooked
13. Strain the potatoes and return to a low heat to let any remaining water dry off
14. Add the milk and butter/ soya milk and olive oil
15. When heated, remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper and mash until the potatoes until smooth
16. Remove the bay leaf and place the lentil mix in an oven dish
17. Cover with the potato mix on top and even out to the edges with a fork
18. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

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Nana's corner

Nana and Teresa’s Christmas Pudding

Christmas

At Christmas, my mother was a traditionalist. With idiosyncratic perfection, she would prepare the turkey, perfectly stuffed with her own recipe of bread stuffing. She would sew up the stuffed cavity with needle and twine. Such time taken to get it just right. and each year, she would whinge and moan about how dry and tasteless this poultry was and how “Did I ever tell you…?” Goose with potato stuffing was the traditional fare for an Irish Christmas before this mass bred import arrived.

Next would come the ham. She would lift the skin off and with such precision, cut the remaining skin into identical squares. She would then stud each and every one of those squares with a clove pressed into the skin. She would cover the entire ham with rings of tinned pineapple secured neatly with cocktail sticks. Glazed cherries placed in the centre of each ring, the ham all liberally covered in brown sugar, she would bake it in the oven until that sugar turned to a caramel covering the ham. And complete, she would place the 18lb ham onto one of the large meat plates handed down through the years. Every year, I would marvel at the result as it looked like the cover of one of those Cordon Bleu magazines she loved collecting.

The vegetables? All traditional. Fresh Brussel Sprouts would be prepared, cleaned, outer leaves discarded and a cross cut into the stem. The Marrowfat Peas would be placed in muslin, soaked in water with a tablet left to dissolve gradually. Carrots cleaned, cut into batons and placed in sugared cold water to keep overnight. The potatoes would be peeled, turned and also left in salted cold water until required.

And the butter? She would take out two wooden panels which belonged to her own mother. Cubing the butter, she would roll each between the wooden panels until it was a perfectly shaped ball with diamond pattern adorning it. Or she would take a more modern gadget. Digging it into the block of cold butter and pulling back, she would create curls of butter. Whatever tool she picked, one thing was for sure – butter would not adorn her Christmas table in a pack, block or tub.

Then there was Cranberry Sauce. Being out of season, she would choose a frozen block of Oceanspray cranberries and work her magic until it was transformed into a bitter tasting accompaniment for the turkey and ham.

The sweet accompaniments of the festival? Every year, she would prepare a Christmas cake. It had a lighter cake mix than the traditional one and she didn’t ice it. Why? She couldn’t be bothered as none of us ate the madeira like cake so icing it seemed silly. She would, however, put a recycled Yuletide frill around it each year to take away the beige-ness of the cake.

And every few years, she would make Christmas Puddings. Rich in fruit and suet (and alcohol), she would place them in plastic bowls, add buttered paper, cover the top and secure each with string. She would boil these puddings until cooked and, when cool, she would seal with a plastic lid, clipped onto the top. There they would lie in the cupboard until required. And I mean that. The amount of alcohol would preserve them indefinitely. Finally released from the plastic bowl, Mum would douse it with brandy, light it and we would all marvel at the burning mass before one by one we would refuse a piece because quite simply, we all hated it. Mum would sit there, solemnly, eating the pudding with the Brandy Butter she had prepared for the occasion.

As the years passed, I grew to love Christmas Pudding – the darker and richer the better. I always wished I could make Mum’s version but I couldn’t find a recipe. In the little notebook of recipes, there it lay. Covered in specks of food from having prepared the puddings with the pages open. Dated 12 December 1955, I give to you ‘Teresa’s Plum Pudding.’

Ingredients
1lb, sultanas
1lb, raisins
¼ lb, mixed peel
½ lb cherries
¼ lb almonds, chopped
½ lb suet, chopped finely
½ lb brown sugar
¼ lb flour
4 large eggs
1 carrot, finely grated
1 apple
¾ lb breadcrumbs
Pinch of salt
1 ½ teaspoons of mixed spice
1 generous glass of whiskey

Method
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together
2. Beat the eggs
3. Add in the whiskey
4. Combine the wet and the dry ingredients
5. Place the mixture into well-greased pudding bowls
6. Cover tightly with butter paper and then with cloth tied with twine*
7. Boil for 3 ½ to 5 ½ hours

This amount makes
4 small puddings – cook for 3 ½ hours
3 medium puddings – cook for 4 ½ hours
1 large pudding – cook for 5 ½ hours

On the day of using
Boil for another 1 hours

Serve with
Brandy Butter
Thick whipped cream
Pouring cream
Custard

*In years to come, this would be replaced by parchment paper

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Nana's corner

Aunty Teresa’s Cherry Cake

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In the days of letters and phone calls and the absence of text messaging, emails and Skype, my aunty Teresa was still a principal character in my life. She and Brendan made their life together in Springfield, in the middle of the emigrant community from West Kerry, socialising in the John Boyle O’Reilly Club and returning home at regular intervals. For visits. Only ever for visits.

I always had this image of her in an American style pinny – of which many were gifted to us – in a flurry of baking and cooking. That probably bears no resemblance to reality but I like that image nonetheless. It is based on the number of recipes she gave my mum and the fact that she was a nice, gentle, lady.

Cherries? I love them. When I was little, they were the only thing among the dried fruit mix that I would venture near. But they weren’t dried but rather plumped up with sugar. Glazed cherries appeared in so many cakes and breads. There were no fresh cherries to be had and my first encounter with those was in the Schwartzwalder Cake which adorned the menu in Jury’s Hotel, Ballsbridge. On all other menus it was Black Forest Gateau but that’s me. Always leaning towards the more exotic!

This is a plainer cake but still one I really like.

Ingredients
½ lb unsalted butter
½ lb castor sugar
¾ lb self-raising flour, sifted
¼ to ¾ lb cherries (adjust according to taste)
4 large eggs

Method
1. Pre heat the oven to 220 degrees
2. Roughly chop the cherries and coat thoroughly with a little flour. Set aside
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale
4. Drop in one egg at a time and mix well
5. Add a little flour at a time and beat well
6. Continue one egg, some flour and beat until those ingredients are gone
7. Add the cherries to the cake mix
8. Turn into a cake tin which has been lined with greaseproof paper
9. Bake in a very hot oven for ten minutes or less
10. Drop the heat to a 180 degrees and bake for 1 ½ hours (this cooking time includes the first 10 minutes)
12. Check the centre with a skewer to see if it comes out clean
13. Turn onto a wire rack and leave to cool

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