Showing posts with label wrapped in pastry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wrapped in pastry. Show all posts

Thursday, 17 September 2015

VeganMoFo 2015 #17: Sausage Rolls



17. Make (or eat!) a traditional local dish.

Sausage rolls are something you can buy at pretty much any bakery or service station, and are considered a fairly iconic food. If you don't know, they are sausage meat (ground up, not an actual formed sausage) that is wrapped in puff pastry and then baked. Generally served with tomato sauce (distinct from ketchup). They can come in cute little party sizes, or huge giant jumbo sizes.

There are a few vegan sausage rolls available on the market, including a Linda McCartney one, but to be honest I have never enjoyed them. They fillings are always just meh. I could live with that, because I was never that fussed on sausage rolls to begin with so if I didn't ever have one again I wouldn't be too bothered. However, then something remarkable occurred. My friend Leigh Drew released her second cookbook, Wrapped in Pastry (now sadly out of print). And within that cookbook was contained a recipe for party sausage rolls that changed EVERYTHING.

These are hands down the best sausage rolls ever. Even my omni mother agrees, and will happily choose these over the meat-based version. Everyone I have ever given them to has raved about them. The thing I love most about these is that the filling is actually made up of lentils and quinoa (and a lot of other stuff as well), but no one is bothered about that because they are just so damn tasty.

Party Sausage Rolls


Party Sausage Rolls


While these are amazing, they do take a bit of time. Leigh is currently testing for a new cookbook, and I am lucky enough to be a tester again. In this book she has revised the recipe to simplify it for faster sausage rolls. I recently made these for my parents, and they were also loved. Again, absolutely delicious! I think the original is still my favourite version, but these are still amazing and will make anyone happy.

Party Sausage Rolls


If you ever happen to see a copy of Wrapped in Pasty, snap it up fast!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo

Leigh and Gizmo


Speaking of Leigh, here she is. While Leigh is well known for her absolute worship of Sahara (she gravitates to her cinnamon radiance), she of course loves all my girls and is an excellent aunt for them. I love this photo of her and Gizmo having a cuddle!

Thursday, 10 September 2015

VeganMoFo 2015 #10: Blue Books



10. Something blue.

Something blue, something blue, something blue... food wise all I could think of was blueberries, and it isn't really blueberry season right now. Blue things in my kitchen? I have a couple, but really my tastes run more to marshmallow pink. What is the greatest resource in my kitchen? My cookbooks of course! In this post I will be sharing a photo of a favourite recipe from each of my blue cookbooks. To qualify they had to have both a blue spine AND a blue base to the cover. In just over 100 books I had eight that fit the criteria.

Blue Books


Blue Books


BIG VEGAN by Robin Asbell was the subject of my last post before MoFo. Thankfully I still had a couple of recipes left to share!
Simple Rice and Veggie Curry One Pot: This simple recipe is made in a rice cooker, and includes sweet potatoes, green beans and cabbage. I used medium grain brown rice instead of short, which worked fine. I had to decrease the curry powder to fit my mild tastes.
Rating: :)

Simple Rice and Veggie Curry One-Pot


BLISSFUL BITES by Christy Morgan is a great cookbook, full of yummy seasonal recipes.
Lemony Roasted Beets, Brussels, and Yams: This dish is absolutely beautiful to look at! It tastes sweet and lemony, and was great served as a component of a bowl (with a grain, chickpeas and tahini miso dressing). I used sweet potato instead of yams. I had to spread the vegetables across two baking sheets as they wouldn't fit only on one.
Rating: :)

Lemon-Roasted Beets, Brussels, and Yams


BUT I COULD NEVER GO VEGAN by Kristy Turner is one of my new cookbooks. It is super fun, with lots of clever and inventive recipes grouped under all the different excuses people give for why they could not go vegan.
Jackfruit Nacho Supreme: This was the first recipe I made from here (well, technically second because I had to make the sour cream recipe first). Seasoned jackfruit is piled on top of tortilla chips and then topped with a refreshing bean and corn salsa and assorted nacho toppings, the most important of which is the cashew-based nacho cheese sauce. I found the sauce became very thick, so you may need to thin it a little. I left out the capsicums and chiles because that is how I roll.
Rating: :)

Jackfruit Nacho Supreme


LA DOLCE VEGAN by Sarah Kramer is not a book I tend to use a great deal, however when I needed to find a miso gravy for my Veggie Grill-inspired harvest bowl for day 6 of MoFo, this book delivered.
Merciful Miso Gravy: This gravy is really yummy, my mum particularly loved it (and she knows her gravy). It is based on roux and milk (oat milk in my case) and then mixed with a miso slurry at the end. I added a little bit of gravy browner, as I prefer my gravy brown, so if you make it as the recipe states then it will be a creamy colour.
Rating: :)

Merciful Miso Gravy


THE NEW VEGAN by Janet Hudson is a book I have not used in a long time. While I have made a few nice things from it, it reads like an omni cookbook with the word 'veggie' in front of what would otherwise be a non-vegan ingredient. Plus some of the recipes just don't look right. I am resharing this photo from a previous post, because I haven't made anything new to upload.
Greek Toast: Cream cheese, olives, sundried tomatoes, cucumber and capers make a creamy and tasty filling, and the toast s coated and baked until crunchy and brown. It is yum!
Rating: :)

Greek Toast


THE ULTIMATE UNCHEESE COOKBOOK by Jo Stepaniak came out a very long time ago, before we were all making artisan vegan cheeses. I got this book from a friend who was cleaning out her cookbook collection, and I have only made one recipe from it so far. It is appropriate for today's theme!
Creamy Bleu Cheez Dressing: This dressing is based on tahini and miso and has a heft dose of lemon juice and white wine vinegar. I replaced the oil in the recipe with hot water, and I only made a half batch. I poured it all over a salad of cos (romaine for my US friends), black beans and cucumber. Yum!
Rating: :)

Creamy Bleu Cheez Dressing


VEGAN COOKIES INVADE YOUR COOKIE JAR by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero really needs no introduction!
Rocky Roads: I made these recently for a bake sale to use up some white chocolate I had kicking around because I myself am not a fan of white chocolate. I didn't have white chocolate chips, rather a bar of chocolate that I chopped up for this, and the chunks melted and made the cookies kind of deformed, but people still snapped them up! The ones in this picture are the prettiest ones, and the one of the right is smiling at you! These also have regular chocolate chips and chopped roasted almonds in them. No marshmallow or jelly, because American rocky road is not as good as Australian rocky road! ;)
Rating: :)

Rocky Roads


WRAPPED IN PASTRY by my friend Leigh Drew is now out of print, which is sad for those who don't have it because it is great and contains my go to pastry recipes! Also, the title is a Twin Peaks reference, so that is awesome. This book has so many goodies in it, some of which I will touch on later in MoFo.
Peanut Butter Caramel Blueberry Pie: This is every bit as awesome as it sounds, and was the first recipe I made when I tested for this book. The peanut butter caramel is so simple (four ingredients), and I have used it many other times for other recipes. Normally I think of strawberry as a friend for peanut butter, but blueberries are amazing. They also look pretty, along with salted peanuts. So yummy!
Rating :D

Peanut Butter Caramel Blueberry Tart


I just realised there are some blueberries, blue cheese and a few blue bowls in this post!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo

Gizmo stares at you


Those eyes! I could stare into them for days. I miss Gizmo everyday, but the last few weeks it has really been hitting me hard again. Sharing these photos and showing everyone what a beautiful girl she was makes me happy.