Dana's Vegan Fish Sauce - adapted (vegan & gluten-free)

Rocket & Roses Kitchen Play List:

Melissa Etheridge ~ The Prison
Chely Wright ~ Just The Way We Do It
Gossip ~ Coal To Diamonds
Truth Hurts ~ Addictive (Instrumental)
Train ~ This'll Be My Year
NIN ~ Eraser
Rob Thomas ~ Lonely No More
Paloma Faith ~ It's The Not Knowing
Clawfinger ~ Wonderful World
QOTSA ~ The Blood Is Love
Gary Moore ~ Parisienne Walkways
Dead Sara ~ Some Have It Bad
Gossip ~ Yr Mangled Heart
Thunder ~ What A Beautiful Day

Blimey...it's been a week! What with one thing and another. This has meant I haven't made it into my kitchen as much as I'd hoped. The one thing I have managed to make is today's recipe...

...now I come to this fish sauce nonsense as a completely clueless person. Having never eaten fish much less fish sauce I have nothing to liken it to. But nearly all the areas of cooking I am hoping to explore this year use the smelly stuff. In the past I have just omitted fish sauce from recipes but I made the decision to try and find a vegan alternative. I recently was able to pick up some vegan oyster sauce and thought maybe I could do the same with fish sauce but to no avail. ML made some searches and found some online recipes and that is how I came to make the vegan fish sauce from TheKitchn.com. Dana's recipe was easy to make, if not a little stinky, and very soon I had a large colander of wakame mix draining off a salty stock. Now for Dana's original recipe post simply click here. My adapted version is vegan but also gluten-free. I should mention that Thekitchn.com is not a vegan blog.

Given my lack of knowledge of how a fish sauce tastes I am going by the fact that it has a intensely salty and piquant flavour. I can live with never knowing the difference between this vegan alternative and actual fish sauce. I look forward to trying it out in the lists of recipes that I want to make over the coming year. 

Dana's Vegan Fish Sauce

Dana's Vegan Fish Sauce - adapted
(Original recipe from thekitchn.com)

1 1/4 cup dried wakame
5 cups filtered water
8 dried shitake mushrooms
3 garlic cloves, whole, skins on, crushed
1 cup tamari
1 tbsp peppercorns 
1 tbsp brown rice miso 

In a medium sized sauce pan add the wakame, garlic, peppercorns and water and stir well. Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. Strain well and add the stock back into the pan. Add the tamari and bring the stock back to a boil and reduce the stock down. Remove from the heat and stir in the miso. 

Decant to a glass bottle and store in the fridge. Use one-for-one to replace fish sauce in vegan recipes. 

Enjoy the salty goodness! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are looking forward to a great weekend? 

~Red~ 

NB: This is not my creation but an adaption of a great recipe by Dana @ TheKitchn.com. I thank her for sharing such a great recipe. ~R~ 

   

Bountiful Brown Rice Salad Bowl with Melissa's Homemade Sriracha Sauce

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Jamie Cullum ~ But For Now
Beware of Darkness ~ Sweet Girl
Buckcherry ~ Lit Up
Joan Jett ~ We're All Crazy Now
Anna Nalick ~ Drink Me (early demo)
Bonnie Raitt ~ Used To Rule The World
Artful Dodger ~ Twentyfourseven (Radio version)
Beyonce ~ Green Light
Brad Paisley ~ She's Everything
Audioslave ~ Sound Of A Gun
Pearl Jam ~ Jeremy
Brandi Carlile ~ Rise Again
The Union ~ Fading Out Of Love
Gin Wigmore ~ Happy Ever After

More often than not the best recipe creations are the ones you just throw together at the last minute. I made this salad for lunch yesterday. My Mum was here for her regular Wednesday afternoon visit and as quickly as I could chop the fresh veggies she was pinching them...like a Pick n Mix stand. lol. I don't mind as this recipe makes enough for 4 servings. I used brown rice as my starter base but you could use any cold cooked grain or seed. There was no thought to the selection of veggies used...I just grabbed what I could and chopped and threw them in. The star of this salad was the Sriracha Sauce I added at the end. Last week I found a recipe by Melissa over at mywholefoodlife.com and after a particularly horrid hospital appt I came home and boy did I take it out on my mountain of chillies...lol. Kitchen work is my therapy...always has been and that day I was grateful to have this recipe to test out and for Melissa's original recipe and posting about this sauce simply click here...

Now my only experience of Sriracha Sauce has been the standard bottled variety and to be honest I wasn't that taken with it. I was a great fan of sweet chilli sauce at that point so I found Sriracha just...well..hot. But since eliminating all refined sugars and most other forms too I've lost my taste for Sweet Chilli Sauce so I thought maybe now I would appreciate Sriracha (I just wish I could actually pronounce it...lol) Sauce but when I scanned the contents list on my shop bought bottle I was horrified by the ingredients. I have to admit that bottle went straight into the bin and I searched out a homemade recipe and that is how I found Melissa's recipe. I did have to make two minor changes...you cannot buy Fresno chillies here so had to use the regular reds you can buy in almost all supermarkets. Also Habanero chillies are hard to find so I swapped them out for Scotch Bonnet chillies. The one major change I made was using apple cyder vinegar instead of the white vinegar because apple is the only vinegar I can eat now. And although I was tempted to try using Stevia in this recipe I caved in and bought a bag of coconut sugar and I am happy to report it hasn't made me sick so phew..lol..but it was such a small amount I was hopeful my system could tolerate it. 

The sauce is nothing like the bottle processed kind although you could blitz it until it's smooth if that's your wish. I like that it's quite thick but would happily blitz some down if I wanted to make a Sriracha drizzle for a recipe. I enjoy this sauce...it has some heat, a warming heat as opposed to hot heat. It is very slightly sweet but that is maybe the difference between using white vinegar and apply cyder vinegar. I would also reduce the coconut sugar next time too...take it down to maybe 1/2 tbsp. Overall this sauce is great and stored in a glass jar in the fridge Melissa says it will keep good for a couple of months which makes it an economical homemade alternative to the store bought kind.

Bountiful Brown Rice Salad Bowl with Melissa's Homemade Sriracha Sauce

Bountiful Brown Rice Salad Bowl    Serves 4 

90g cooked brown rice, cooled 
1 med carrot, peeled and finely diced
2 celery stalks, trimmed and finely diced
6 red radish, trimmed and finely diced
handful mooli/diakon noodles, slightly chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
15 mange'tout, trimmed and chopped
7oz cooked green lentils, cooled 

Peel, chop and trim all veggies and place into a large serving bowl with the brown rice and lentils and toss to distribute and you have your salad bowl. 

Melissa's Homemade Sriracha Sauce

 Melissa's Homemade Sriracha Sauce  Makes 2 cups
(Recipe from mywholefoodlife.com)

1lb red Fresno peppers
2 Habanero peppers
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup white vinegar 
1 tbsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Cut the peppers and mince the garlic. Add all the ingredients to a processor and pulse until everything is mostly broken down. 

Add the processed mixture to a saute pan and cook on high for about 5 minutes stirring constantly.  Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool. 

Transfer the mixture to a jar and store in the fridge.  This sauce should keep in the fridge for a couple of months. You can also freeze it for longer storage. 

Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Thursday is a great one..

~Red~

NB: The Sriracha sauce recipe is not mine and therefore I take no credit for it whatsoever. It is the hard work and creation of Melissa @ mywholefoodlife.com and hers alone. I thank her for a great recipe. ~R~  

Rocket & Roses Slow Roasted Veggie Sauce (Oil free)

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Beth Hart ~ Boom Boom Bang Bang Album

What do you do when you have a broken fridge and a kitchen filled with it's perishable contents? You get busy and try and cook off as many as you can...until you remember you have no fridge to store the cooked dishes afterwards! Argghhh! Nightmare. lol. 

Yesterday was a very trying day but today has been much better. I still have the lurgy I'd picked up but I am dealing...I have a small temporary fridge thanks to my sister and her hubby so some of the veggies etc are keeping cool but overall today has been a lot better. I've had the company of my niece for the day which is never a chore and the extra company of my lovely pal Ann who brought a rather fluffy Archie with her to visit. He loves his stays at the Doggie Hotel with Ann and Caz but I am rather relieved he did look a little pleased to see me. I was also amazed that I was able to see his large chocolate drop eyes thanks to the cunning skills of the Doggie Whisper aka Ann..who had managed to convince him after his bath to let her near him with a pair of scissors. He is just at the end of his winter scruff...next month he gets his first 'strip' of the year and he will be back to spivvy and smart...although everyone seems to love his shaggy, scruffy Westie look. lol. 

Last night after a heck of a day I sat at my temporary desk/dining table barely able to keep my eyes open and realised I hadn't eaten. To be honest food was the last thing I wanted to ever see again...*cue drama queen sigh*..lol. I walked into my chaotic kitchen and switched my oven on to heat up..grabbed a baking dish and a random selection of the perishable veggies and a chopping board and knife and sat at my desk...and got chopping. Then the creative edge kicked in and this sauce was the end results. Sometimes it's that easy, eh? 

This sauce isn't rich at all despite the ingredients and it's so very tasty with the delicate flavours of the roasted veggies, chopped tomatoes and herbs. I made a choice not to use any oil in it and it worked very well. I ate some with brown rice last night for my evening meal and today I enjoyed it with pasta. I think it would work great as a filling for a baked potato too...an all rounder sauce. If you have time to let it roast away in the oven then I recommend you try it...it's simply delish.

Rocket & Roses Slow Roasted Veggie Sauce...

 

Rocket & Roses Slow Roasted Veggie Sauce (Oil Free)
(Original recipe from the Rocket & Roses Vegan Kitchen)

1 medium aubergine, small dice
1 large courgette, small dice
2 small red onions, quartered and thinly sliced
10 Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved 
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 long sweet red pepper, small dice
1 small head of broccoli, cut into tiny florets
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 heaped tsp dried oregano
1 large handful of fresh basil, sliced into ribbons
handful of small basil leaves to garnish

Preheat the oven to 350'F/180'C/GM4 and make ready a shallow baking dish.

Place the chopped aubergine, courgette, onion, sprouts, garlic and basil ribbons. Using your hands, mix them up well. In a jug add the chopped tomatoes and the dried oregano and stir well to evenly distribute the herb. Pour it over the veggie mix and stir once more to evenly coat the veggies. Place the broccoli florets stalks down into the top of the veggies.

Cover with tin foil and place in the oven for 1 hour. At this point remove the foil and gently stir the veggie mix. Re-cover with the foil and roast for a further 20 minutes until all veggies are cooked down. Serve with pasta, brown rice or as a baked potato filling....

Enjoy!

~Red~ 

Cannellini Beans in Tomato Sauce

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

King and I OST ~ Shall We Dance?
Melissa Etheridge ~ Miss California 
Faith No More ~ We Care A Lot
Dead Sara ~ I Said You Were Lucky
Cult ~ Fire Woman
Foo Fighters ~ Walking After You
The Gossip ~ Coal To Diamonds
Beth Hart ~ There In Your Heart 
Pitbull ~ I Know You Want Me
Sting ~ Desert Rose
Weezer ~ Buddy Holly 
The Pretty Reckless ~ Light Me Up
Eddie Vedder ~ Once In Awhile 
Katy B ~ What Love Is Made Of 

Today I have the pleasure of the company of my littlest niece Layla so no doubt it will be a busy day lol. She recently turned 3 and already I have her practising her kitchen skills. lol. She can peel root veggies like a pro (on a bad day..ahem) and she loves to bring her stool into the kitchen and stand next to me as I cook at the stove. She enjoys stirring the pot (flipping half of the contents over the hob..lol) and her smile when we've finished making her soup for lunch is adorable..the little minx. I am awaiting her arrival so right now I am unsullied but give Layla an hour and I'll be covered in paints, drinks and food products. lol. I love it...and I'm learning Spanish watching Dora, don't ya know lol.

Last night I made a new pasta recipe and I have to say I gave it an 11/10 in my scoring system. It was delicious. I served mine with a little buckwheat fusilli which was a good combo and, as always, some steamed side veggies. I don't know about you guys but I always save my favourite part of my meal until last. I like to savour the last few mouthfuls which is almost always Brussels sprouts or broccoli...or chickpeas. However last night I hastily ate my side veggies and slowly ate every mouthful of the pasta and sauce, taking in every flavour as it hit my palate. 

This sauce recipe comes from Linda Majzlik's A Vegan Taste of Italy. I have the whole series of Majzilk's cookbooks and they were among the first I ever bought. I love them because they are interesting recipes, made with great ingredients and I haven't had a duff one yet. Maybe one that wasn't to my personal taste but you can't hold that against her..lol. I am always on the lookout for new pasta sauce recipes as pasta is one of my favourite foods. And now I have found a good version of GF shaped pasta, I decided to give this one a go. 

I adapted it by using dried herbs because I didn't have the fresh ones available but I don't think it lost anything for it. The hardest work when making this recipe is finely chopping the carrots but, really, is that hard work? lol. I can only use one brand of tinned tomato because they don't put citric acid in them and when I added them to the pan it was clear that it would need a little tomato paste (also without citric acid added) boost so I added 1 tbsp of that too. 

I really lucked out with my cannellini beans yesterday because they were tender and succulent and not hard as bullets as some canned varieties can be. The sauce they were cooking in was intensely herby and the onion, celery, garlic and carrots cooked down into it beautifully. To be honest I could've happily eaten the sauce without the pasta and may do just that with the leftovers. As the recipe serves four I separated it into four portions...one to eat last night..one as leftovers in the fridge for later in the week and two portions for the freezer. Marvellous..and I think this recipe would be great with pasta, rice, jacket potato, quinoa..oh well, with all the usual suspects...lol 

Cannellini Beans in Tomato Sauce...so good!

Cannellini Beans in Tomato Sauce     Serves 4
(Recipe from A Vegan Taste of Italy/Majzlik)

30oz/850g tinned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (I used 2 tins)
14oz/400g tin of chopped tomatoes 
8oz/225g carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery sticks, trimmed and finely sliced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped 
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil (I used 1 tsp) 
1 dsp finely chopped fresh sage (I used 1/2 tsp dried)
1 dsp finely chopped fresh basil (I used 1 tsp dried)
freshly ground black pepper 
1 tbsp tomato paste/puree (my adaption)
roughly chopped flat leaf parsley to garnish 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion, garlic and celery until softened. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender and the mixture thickens. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. Serve..

Enjoy!    

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Tuesday is as busy as mine but also as full of joy...

Grrrrrr...Polar Bear sugar cookies ala Layla & Auntie R...lol

...and it was a fantastic day. Yes I did end up covered in food but I really don't care. lol. Layla was very proud of her Polar Bear cookies and kept Grrring as she handed them out. She also made a new friend in Ann...happy day. xx

~Red~ 

NB: This is not my recipe so therefore I take no credit for it. It is the hard work and creative talent of Linda Majzlik and hers alone. I thank her for such a great cookbook series and the inspiration...~R~  

Brown Rice Spaghetti with Green Lentil Sauce

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Justin Timberlake ~ Sexyback 
Hootie & The Blowfish ~ Hold My Hand
Jack Johnson ~ Wasting Time
Jack Johnson ~ Tomorrow Morning 
The Jam ~ Going Underground 
Ultra Nate ~ Found A Cure
Azizz ~ Return To The Pharaoh
Nelly & Tim McGraw ~ Over And Over
Skin ~ Raised On Radio
Doris Day ~ I Remember You
Foo Fighters ~ Come Alive 
Jackson Browne ~ Your Bright Baby Blues
The Union ~ Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution 
James Morrison ~ You Give Me Something 

It has been interesting times at R&R HQ since going completely gluten free and yeast free. But luckily I am up for the challenge..well most of the time. On the whole I am quite enjoying the experimentation process and I have come up with a few new recipes of my own. However the one food I am struggling to get adjusted to is pasta. I have always been an ardent lover of wholemeal/wheat pasta. I rarely ate white pasta as I didn't enjoy the gloopy and bland taste of it. I loved the nutty and robust flavours and textures of the wholewheat variety and it was always my ultimate comfort food. Give me a steaming hot bowl of wholewheat spaghetti and rich tomatoey garlicky sauce and I was instantly happy. Oh my stomach is growling at the very thought. lol. Those were the days....

I have always enjoyed buckwheat noodles and have found a couple of new gluten free noodles to satisfy my noodle days. But pasta...boy has it been hard work. There aren't many varieties to choose from and most have a rice/corn mix which gives you with a 'white wheat type' alternative. Which is great if that is your yen but for me it falls far short. I am currently trying out brown rice spaghetti and its been a trial..lol. The first attempt wasn't cooked anywhere close enough to be edible and I experienced crunchy spaghetti with a very bad avocado sauce..epic fail. The second attempt which was served with a Cashew/Garlic cream sauce wasn't much better but at least it was edible but made me fear that I wouldn't find my spaghetti 'happy'. Then I got a grip and tried again. I extended the cooking time drastically and allowed the pasta to sit in the cooking water whilst I plated up my steamed side veggies. Then I drained off the spaghetti and it instantly looked better than the previous attempts....lesson here is to ignore the packet instructions! The green lentil sauce wrapped itself around the spaghetti strands and it looked like a nice bowl of pasta..even if it was a little white lol. Fussy or what? I sat down to try my first taste expecting the worst if I'm honest but was quickly surprised. It wasn't my beloved wholewheat hit but it wasn't awful. A huge improvement on my previous attempts. It wasn't robust as spaghetti should be and it was more noodle like but...and its a huge but...it was really good. I think the sauce helped a lot as it was a delicious accompaniment and I have leftovers. Have I found my ultimate gluten free replacement for my wholewheat spaghetti?...No. But I am closer than I was this morning. I will keep looking for and experimenting with as many types as I can find. So I ask you this...if you are GF/Vegan, what pasta can you recommend? Drop me a comment or email me at rocketandroses@aol.com I would welcome your thoughts..

So to the sauce..it was the first time I had tried this recipe. I had seen it many times when flicking through my copy of Rose Elliots The Bean Book. I chose it because it was something a little different from other sauces I make. I loved it...from the first mouthful to the last. I am finding it hard to come up with the words to describe it other than...it's just so freaking good. lol. Eloquent, eh? But it really is. If you love lentils...you must try this sauce.

Green Lentil Sauce with GF Spaghetti

Green Lentil Sauce    Serves 4
(Recipe from The Bean Book/Elliot)

175g/6oz/scant 1 cup dried green lentils
1 onion
2 garlic cloves 
2 tbsp oil (I used 1 tsp)
125g/4oz/1 1/2 cups of mushrooms, wiped and sliced (I omitted this ingredient)
1 small green bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 tbsp red wine 
1 tbsp tomato paste 
1 tsp ground coriander 
pinch of chilli powder 
sea salt 
freshly ground black pepper
225g/8oz spaghetti of your choice 
15g/1/2 oz/1 tbsp vegan butter (I omitted this)

Cook your green lentils as per your package instructions. I cooked mine for 35 minutes and they were perfectly soft. Set to one side. 

Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion and crush the garlic. Saute them together in the oil for 5 minutes, then add the mushrooms and green pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes. Drain the lentils and stir into the vegetable mixture, together with the tomatoes, wine, tomato paste and seasonings. Let the mixture simmer gently whilst you cook your pasta. Drain it and put it back into the saucepan with the vegan butter and stir until the pasta is coated. (I skipped this stage ~R~) Turn the past out onto a serving dish and pour the sauce over the top of it. Serve...

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Tuesday has been a fantastic one...

~Red~ 

NB: This recipe is not mine and therefore I take no credit for it. It is the hard work and creative talent of Rose Elliot and hers alone. I thank her for a great recipe. ~R~  

Pea and Mint Pesto

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Buckcherry ~ Nothing Left But Tears 
Beth Hart ~ Easy 
Soundgarden ~ Never The Machine Forever
Foreigner ~ That Was Yesterday
Peggy Lee ~ My Old Flame
The Zutons ~ Not A Lot To Do
The Union ~ Cut The Line
Alisha's Attic ~ The Golden Rule
Thunder ~ Can't Get By On Love
Joan Jett ~ Pretty Vacant
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
Eddie Vedder ~ Guaranteed
Nicola Benedetti ~ Tzigane 
Caro Emerald ~ Absolutely Me 

Delicious...delicious...delicious! This pesto is a little bit tasty. lol. I made this with the help of my little nephew Myles and he was less than impressed. However he did enjoy stripping the mint from its stalks...oh and pulsing the processor but he wasn't so keen on the peas. 

If I'm honest I wasn't too sure about this pesto myself but was very brave...come dinner time I cooked off some spaghetti and peas and stirred in some of the pale green sauce. Leaving it a few minutes to heat through...I took my first mouthful...and was completely taken with it. I know..the spaghetti helped obviously, it being my ultimate comfort food but this pesto wasn't at all like I expected..it wasn't overly fresh or raw and using garlic infused oil made it a very mellow pesto sauce. The mint is a gentle hit despite how potent it smelt going into the processor. And I have leftovers! I'm looking forward to using it up...as the littlest niece would say...Ooooh Yummy Yummy. lol.

Since making this batch of pesto I have enjoyed it as part of a sandwich and also cold in a simple pasta salad as in the picture below..using a 'new to me' pasta shape Trofie. It's a great little pasta that holds sauces really well as well as it's shape. 

Pea and Mint Pesto Salad

Pea & Mint Pesto   Makes 1 heaped cup

2 cups defrosted garden peas
1/3 cup raw cashews
juice of one smallish lemon
1/4 cup loosely packed, fresh mint leaves
3 tbsp garlic infused oil

Place the first four ingredients into a blender or processor and blitz down. Then with the blade running drizzle the oil into the feeder and then blend until its a smooth paste.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a great day...

~Red~

Linguine with Broccoli & Cauliflower Florets with Mustard Sauce

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List: 

Audioslave ~ Jewel Of The Summertime
Beth Hart ~ Monkey Back 
Foo Fighters ~ Rope
Buckcherry ~ Liberty
Court Yard Hounds ~ Delight
Faith Hill ~ There You'll Be
Foo Fighters ~ Cold Day In The Sun
Joan Jett ~ Bad Reputation
Dead Sara ~ We Are What You Say 
Jose Carreras ~ Puccini: La Boheme 
The Eagles ~ I Can't Tell You Why 
Caro Emerald ~ Paris
Chely Wright ~ The River
Tina Dico ~ Do Something

Music and cooking makes my heart beat...nope no biology happening here...lol. I have long since given up on that so now I just surround myself with the things that keep me ticking over until my health concerns start to pick up. It's a slow process but I am hanging in there. So when I am well enough to get my ass in the kitchen to cook...I get my Pod set up and playing...set up my kitchen counter...and then I am lost in my own little capsule with the four legged fella pottering in and out from the garden...he licks my ankle to let me know he's keeping his eye on me and then crashes out in his bed or disappears back outside to sleep on the railway sleeper in the yard area. And as I'm not well enough or wealthy enough to do my third 'heart beating' activity..travelling..I travel via my substantial cookbook collection. I make up vegan dishes from around the world. It's all about finding your happy where you can...eh?

My kitchen cupboards are crammed full of all kinds of stock items and I have many spice and herbs boxes...all packed to the hilt with common, rare and wacky ingredients. But there are a few items that I never seem to use much. One of them being mustard...I always have a jar of Dijon and Multigrain mustard in my fridge door which get used in the usual dressings etc. And in my All Kinds of Everything spice box...and yes it does have a label with that written on...Hush!..my kitchen..not yours! lol...I have three versions of English Mustard but as it's my least favourite...that's where it stays! lol. As I've never eaten meat I've never understood the whole English Mustard and Beef pairing. *shudder* 

I was secretly introduced to mustard during my time in New York. My friend would buy the bagels that were still warm from cooking then she would sprint home with them and make us a fantastic brunch with sesame seed bagels, a Swiss cheese, an American cheese, crisp lettuce and a mystery ingredient. I was still vegetarian back in those days so I devoured these bagels and it never occurred to me to enquire about the mystery ingredient. We never cooked...she used the oven as a magazine rack and plant stand and had a draw filled to the brim with takeout menus. One day we were sat having brunch in the Village and the very attentive waitress offered me mustard to go with my brunch. I balked at the idea but politely refused only to find my friend laughing. She then explained that she had been smearing a Dijon/mayo blend on my bagel and that was the mystery taste. I was stunned and sure enough Dijonaise was indeed in our fridge. Up until that point I had hated the regular mayo...I was a salad cream kind of a gal. But all this became redundant when I became vegan. A closed chapter food wise. 

Mustard since the vegan days has always been simply an ingredient in a list that makes something else. And then I found this recipe...it intrigued me. Three items are on my foodie favourite list...linguine, broccoli and cauliflower but mustard sauce for pasta, had me gripped. I clicked on the link for the entire recipe and was surprised by the simplicity of this sauce...and I had everything in my stocks and fridge to make it straight away. So linguine was cooked, broccoli and cauliflower was steamed and set to one side. I sat at my kitchen counter and minced the shallots and garlic...finely chopped the remaining half of a punnet of baby plum cherry tomatoes and then sat patiently sauteing until I had a intensely aromatic mustard sauce. I also used multigrain mustard instead of plain Dijon mustard which satisfied my visual foodieness. 

Oh wow...oh my goodness...food of the food goddesses...did I say wow? lol This simple pasta dish when assembled developed into a one serious powerhouse of flavours and textures. The mustard wasn't overwhelming which I was relieved to find and it blended into the shallots, garlic, tomatoes and balsamic vinegar perfectly. The freshness of the veggies and the comfort of the linguine just added with the mustard sauce almost brought this foodie to my knees with respect. I wish I knew who created this because I would be shouting out credit from the roof of my kitchen. I think this might even be tying in first place with my ultimate comfort food of spaghetti and tomato & garlic sauce. So good....try it...please? 

Linguine with Broccoli & Cauliflower Florets and Mustard Sauce

Linguine with Broccoli & Cauliflower Florets and Mustard Sauce    Serves 4
(Posted by anon on the web)

1 tbsp olive oil    (I used canola/rapeseed oil)
1 cup of shallots, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup chopped tomatoes (I used baby plum cherry tomatoes)
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp country style Dijon mustard (I used multigrain mustard)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Cooked linguine for required amount of people, kept warm to one side
(use your preferred linguine be it wheat or Gluten Free)

2 cups of broccoli, small florets 
2 cups of cauliflower, small florets

Cook linguine to the package or your preferred method of cooking and drain well and set to one side covered to keep warm. 

Steam the broccoli and cauliflower until just tender and then add to the linguine and toss to combine. Recover to keep warm. 

Heat the oil in a small skillet over a medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and saute 2 minutes. Add tomato, parsley, mustard, vinegar and pepper and cook for three minutes or until thoroughly heated. 

Gratuitous close up on the sauce..see those little mustard seeds...yum!

Add the sauce to the linguine and veggies and stir gently to make sure they are coated in the sauce and then serve...

Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week has started well...

~Red~

NB This is not my recipe so therefore I take no credit for its creation. But i send my thanks and respect out into the foodie zone to whomever is responsible and I would be happy to update this post if you recognise this as yours. Many thanks...~R~ 







 

Rocket & Roses Kale and Pine Nut Pesto

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Stone Temple Pilots ~ All In The Suit That You Wear
Queens of the Stone Age ~ Long Slow Goodbye
The Cranberries ~ Free To Decide (Live)
JET ~ Seventeen
The Stranglers ~ Walk On By
Anna Nalick ~ Breathe
The Police ~ Every Breath You Take
Soundgarden ~ Non-State Actor
Rod Stewart ~ You Go To My Head
Joan Jett ~ I Need Someone
Def Leppard ~ Pour Some Sugar On Me
VAST ~ Bruise 
Ethel Waters ~ Stormy Weather 
Lacuna Coil ~ I Won't Tell You

 Warning! This recipe is not for the health conscious...lol This is a High Days and Holidays Dish.

Contrary to what the rest of the world imagines...England doesn't get that much snow and if we get so much as a dusting of the white stuff...the country shuts down. lol. Wimps. As a card carrying snow addict the lack of snow saddens me...especially in the run up to the holiday season. How I would love to wake up one morning to see snow on Christmas Day...but its rare and I have long since stopped believing the Weather experts who always start speculating about its arrival about now. *sighs* During my time in the States I would get frustrated with peoples Christmas card picture of how England looks during the winter...and I confess I miss the Minnesota snowfalls. Ah well..I have the memories and the photos. 

In between bouts of super resting I have been getting in some great kitchen time...mainly cooking recipes I've printed off over the last year. But just being in the kitchen with my knives, equipment and an abundance of veggies has helped with my mental health..lol. I have been getting great Zen...and can't wait to be able to get 'bendy like a pretzel' and physically Zen too. It will happen just not this side of the holiday season. Today has been very downcast and it feels like winter..probably one of those days that other people hate. But I can find peace in the darkness but I have to be careful as it encourages me to comfort cook...lol. Today I was craving a soup that my former partner from back in the day used to cook for me. A great bean and veggie overloaded soup. It was so overloaded it could be argued that it was more of a stew...but I love a chunky soup. I did find a good recipe that was pretty close to that old soup...but I will share that tomorrow.

I have been trying in earnest to use up my sack of kale before it goes bad...and I managed to use a good couple of cupfuls in the soup but it still left me with masses so I decided to have a play with a pesto sauce. Like I warned above this sauce isn't low fat...and I would never use this recipe as an everyday pesto but it is packed with flavour and would be a great 'treat' sauce. 

One of my gripes with pesto is the harsh garlic hit you can sometimes get. Don't get me wrong..I love garlic...but raw garlic can be too overwhelming. So I decided on a first step of steaming the kale along with the garlic cloves for five minutes and it really made a difference. I didn't want to load it with vegan Parmesan either. This recipe is very simple and has just five ingredients and I hardly ever use oil without carefully measuring it out and using the bare minimum amount...but this time I allowed my instinct to kick in when I 'felt' it was enough. And that is what I advise you to do with this recipe too...its all about your personal taste. I very rarely use Pine Nuts for much of the same reason as the oil...I usually use walnuts or my absolute favourites...almonds but I had a small bag of pine nuts in my stocks and decided to go with it.

The results, which I served with a small amount of wholewheat fusilli, was very comforting. The pasta was slightly al dente, which is my preferred  texture, it held the pesto sauce to each curve and the steamed kale and garlic combined with the oil, salt and pepper seasonings made for a subtle pesto. Together it made each mouthful a wholesome but indulgent meal. I only used 2 tsp of pesto sauce and it was plenty in my opinion...and that still leaves me with a good heaped cup of pesto sauce to freeze for other meals. I hope you try it for yourself...

Rocket & Roses Kale & Pine Nut Pesto

Rocket & Roses Kale & Pine Nut Pesto                Makes 1 heaped cup of sauce
(Original recipe from the Rocket & Roses Vegan Kitchen)

2 heaped cups of kale, stalks removed and chopped down
6 small garlic cloves 
olive oil - to your own personal preference
1/2 cup of pine nuts
low sodium salt and freshly cracked black pepper to season

In a small pan lightly toast the pine nuts but don't leave them as they can burn very easily..you just want them to start to go golden and become fragrant. Remove from the pan into a dish to stop the cooking process and set to one side. 

Place the prepped kale and peeled garlic cloves into the tray of a steamer and once the water comes back to the boil..steam for 5 minutes. The kale will have wilted and the garlic softened. 

Place the kale, garlic and pine nuts into a processor or blender and pulse to break them down. Remove the lid and push the ingredients back down into the bowl of the blender and then season with the salt and the pepper. 

With the machine running drizzle oil in through the feeder until you have the consistency you prefer. Check for seasoning once more and then remove to a airtight container and store in the fridge until needed...or fridge some and freeze some. 

Enjoy! 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Friday is a splendid one folks...

~Red~ 

Walnut Pesto

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Gary Moore ~ Parisienne Walkways
James Morrison ft Nelly Furtado ~ Broken Strings
Madeleine Peyroux ~ J'ai Deux Amours
Foo Fighters ~ Still
Joan Jett ~ Misunderstood
Bowes & Morley ~ Freakshow
Natalie Clein ~ Brahms: Cello Sonata #2 in F
Garbage ~ Fix Me Now
Beulah ~ I Can't Wait
The Union ~ What Doesn't Kill You
Joan Jett ~ I Hate Myself For Loving You
The Ting Tings ~ Shut Up and Let Me Go
Queen ~ Love Of My Life
Depeche Mode ~ I Feel You

When enjoying a meal that includes pesto..I often find myself sitting there in disbelief that I avoided it for so many years. I have a slight issue with oil so I always found shop bought versions too..well..oily! lol. And when I stopped eating dairy it was yet another excuse to avoid the stuff. And then I saw a recipe for vegan pesto and decided to give it a try...and obviously making it myself I was able to control the oiliness. And what do ya know...I loved it.

I started off just having it with pasta and veggies and keeping it simple with the basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil. Then ML found a Healing Foods recipe for Almond Pesto and from there I was a self confessed Pesto junkie. And have tried many different types...varying the greens...varying the nuts..flavoured oils...no oils. Loved them all and especially Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Lemon Pesto Panini recipe...two words...picnic heaven!! And I am planning on a whole pesto pizza experiment soon.

ML loves a bargain and often comes home with a large bargain batch of ingredients and this week it was basil. And instantly it was a case of what we could use in our stocks to make a good batch of Pesto. No pine nuts..not enough almonds...but we did have a bag of walnuts.

This ever simple recipe was blitzed up and ML used some in a very tasty Tofu Scramble and last night it was the pastas turn at trying this new recipe. Wholemeal pasta smothered in the walnut pesto and served with some Tenderstem Broccoli made for a wholesome and earthy meal.

Walnut Pesto

Walnut Pesto  Makes approx 2/3 cup of pesto

4 pkts of basil or 1 tightly packed cup of leaves
75g raw walnuts
1 clove of garlic
2-3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil (or to your preference)

In a food processor or blender roughly blend the basil, garlic and walnuts. Then with the machine running drizzle in the oil until you have your own preferred consistency. Spoon into a sealed container and store in the fridge until needed.

When using with pasta take out the required amount of pesto and allow it to get to room temp before you add it to the pasta.

Dinner..wholesome pasta with Walnut Pesto and Tenderstem Broccoli.

Naturally if you are GF just simply use GF pasta instead.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your Friday is a fantastic one...

~Red~

Simple Pesto Pasta Salad

Rocket & Roses HQ Play List:

Audioslave ~ Like A Stone (Live)
Beth Hart ~ Skin
Stevie Ray Vaughan ~ Life By The Drop
The Fratellis ~ My Friend John
Evanescence ~ Lacrymosa
Gwen Stefani ~ The Real Thing
Bon Jovi ~ I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Kid Rock ~ F**k That!
Ritchie Kotzen ~ You're Crazy
Bob Marley ~ Sun Is Shining
Otis Reading ~ Cigarettes and Coffee
The Calling ~ Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Dean Martin ~ Return To Me
Sensible Pets ~ Agitated

It's a national holiday this weekend so I have had the pleasure of having ML home an extra day which meant we had the time to make an extra effort to see our gang of pals. So yesterday we invited them over the bridge to our house and we caught up, drank wine, ate a scrumptious bowl of pasta, garlic bread and salad, drank wine, played a seemingly endless game of Trivial Pursuit, drank wine, ate a beautiful bowl of strawberries with vegan vanilla ice cream, drank wine and played some more. lol. But as ever the most important thing above all others was drinking of wine spending time with each other. I would pretty much spend time anywhere with my friends. And I have to send a shout out to our pal C who was a worthy winner of the game...well done pal.

Our pasta sauces were simple but made from scratch. The first being the K.I.S.S Marinara Sauce from Isa & Terrys Veganomicon..that rich tomatoey garlic sauce that makes the house smell glorious when its simmering away on the stove top. We served that with wholewheat penne pasta and it was devoured. The second offering was a very basic Pesto sauce so basic it almost seems silly to post the recipe but everyone loved it so much that I felt it was worth it. I don't like complicated pesto...I like to taste the freshness of the basil...the warmth of the garlic and the wholesome nuttiness of the pine nuts. We served this with a wholewheat fusilli pasta for plenty of potential pesto stickiness. lol. A vegan garlic bread was also part of the offering with a simple baguette drizzled with garlic infused oil and that worked really well. And of course it wouldn't be a good meal without a massive bowl of beautifully fresh leaves to complete the meal. Everyone decided to have both pastas lol and second helpings.

However we are left with quite a lot of leftover Marinara sauce which will be bagged up and frozen for future meals. We also had some Pesto left which will be used many ways and one of my favourites is in a breakfast tofu scramble..Yum! And secondly used as a pasta salad dressing. So none of it will go to waste.

Dinner was followed much later by, for D & I (the vegans) a luscious bowl of In Season Strawberries that were so ripe and succulent. I confess there was a drizzle of strawberry juice running from my lips moment. So happy! It was a moment of food bliss for me...lol. The weird non vegans had theirs in the form of an Eton Mess and they oohed and awed at it. But give me fresh strawberries and a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream any day. lol.

Simple Pesto Pasta Salad

Simple Pesto

2 cups of fresh basil leaves
100g pine nuts
2 cloves of garlic, bitter green centres removed
extra virgin olive oil

In a running processor add the basil, pine nuts and garlic and blend until finely chopped down. Then drizzle the oil through the feeder tub until the desired texture is reached. (I prefer a lot less oil then the average person so I haven't added amounts here but you need to make that judgement for yourself folks) Then scoop out into an airtight container and store in the fridge until ready to use.

For the salad simply add a scoop to cooled cooked pasta and devour. We did! lol. This pesto also works just great with Gluten Free pasta or noodles.

Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week has started well...

~Red~