The Mother of All Days

Mothering Sunday. The day we celebrate the mother of all ...well, mothers. Our own is, or should be, the best, whether birth mother, adopted mother or chosen as a mother figure.

Today my own children have been kind to their mother. They have a) (most importantly) treated me with their presence and b) (a close second) treated me with their presents. It's been a win-win! Aside from the beautiful flowers and cards I was given a new veggie cookbook; The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer.

So far I've only had chance to read the intro and gaze at the beautiful pictures (something my children would have done at an early age, declaring they'd "read the book!") and already I'm hooked. I haven't been allowed in the kitchen much today but I'm raring to have a week of tasty easy-peasy vegan and vegetarian tray bakes. The ingredient combinations look amazing and there are a mixture of quick midweek suppers and longer, slower weekend bakes. I love cooking but am quite a lazy cook and really like the idea of swishing stuff around in a shallow tray with a drizzle of this and a sprinkle of that before leaving it to absorb flavour as it cooks without any interference until serving time. 

As Rukmini writes "chop, kick back and let the oven do the work." Yes ma'am!

Jerusalem Artichokes

A friend has just given me his home grown produce - Jerusalem Artichokes, aka sunroot, sun choke or earth apple. It is a species of sunflower and native to North East America. Bizarrely nothing to do with Jerusalem nor the globe artichoke.

I have roasted them like potatoes previously but understand they can be sautéed, mashed, battered and fried or puréed for soup.

They have a brown, knobbly appearance and a nutty, sweet/savoury taste.

I have googled a recipe for soup and intend to make it this week. In the meantime, I have dined out and enjoyed this smooth and creamy creation courtesy of Crafthouse, Leeds.

Celeriac and Jerusalem Artichoke veloute with olive tapenade, goat's cheese cracker - yum!

Having a paddy

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. We celebrated with a dinner party, serving veggie Irish Stew with champ potatoes and soda bread followed by Irish Cream (Baileys) Tiramisu for dessert. After that, copious amounts of Jameson whiskey and Baileys were consumed. A good night - to be sure.

Pre-drinks included Guinness and nibbles in the form of Guinness flavoured crisps - a recent find and completely vegetarian. 

All Change

The weather here in Yorkshire has consisted of sunshine and showers (of rain, hail and snow) with a topping of wind this weekend. So far so March. In February we saw unseasonably warm temperatures with blue skies and sunshine. So nice so wrong.

Climate Change is happening right under our noses and we need to address it sooner rather than later and our food choices have a massive impact on our planet. 

Beef and dairy production are most harmful with 28 billion animals globally producing potent methane gas. A cow, with every breath and burp (not to mention emissions from the other end), produces 600 litres of methane every day. Methane warms the planet and so temperatures rise.

The answer? 

Stop/cut down on beef and dairy products - tick if you're veggie & double tick if you're vegan

Buy British produce rather than anything flown in

Buy seasonal produce or grow your own

Buy/eat a plant based diet

Obviously it's not the only answer but if everyone makes a few changes it will make a difference. Spread the word.

Life of Py(rex)

Tonight I was browning off my macaroni cheese in the oven when disaster struck. My trusty Pyrex dish slid from my oven-gloved hands and shattered into a hundred pieces, spewing mac'n'cheese across the kitchen floor. Double trouble. Firstly, I was without tea. Secondly, I will miss my Pyrex dish.

This type of cooking glassware began life over a hundred years ago. Borosilicate glass was invented by Otto Schott, a German chemist and glass technologist but was developed by an American company; Corning Glass Works. 

It was found to cook things evenly, was transparent and therefore the cooking process could be watched, easy to clean and cooking times were short. After years of producing clear gas, Corning started making it in opaque, coloured and patterned items. As well as being used for baking, from mixing and measuring to actually cooking food, it was also found to be microwave, freezer and dishwasher proof.

The Pyrex brand has gone on to make cooking and baking tins as well as pans. So this Shrove Tuesday you can use a Pyrex jug to measure out your milk, beat it in your Pyrex mixing bowl and cook it in your Pyrex frying pan to make perfect pancakes. Happy Pancake Day!

The Jewel on the Plate

Having missed publishing what I think of as the "red" topics, ie Chinese New Year and St Valentine's Day, I have opted to write about pomegranates.

Native to Iran, their use and popularity spread across the continents, being taken on board ships by Spanish sailors anxious to avoid scurvy. Widely used in Middle Eastern dishes, it now pops up in everything from cocktails to savoury and sweet dishes.

Whilst the pomegranate itself is a tough skinned, reddish fruit, it is the seeds within that offer delight. These precious ruby jewels have a fragrant sweet/sharp juice. As a child, I would sit picking them out individually with a needle (top tip for occupying a bored child) but now prefer to cut the fruit in half and tap them out by bashing a wooden spoon against the outside. Not surprising when you consider each fruit holds 840 seeds! The white pith is bitter and should be disregarded.

Halloumi, the star in many of my family dishes, is delicious cooked, served with a minty dressing and scattered with pomegranate seeds, making a fab starter or snack. 

The season in the uk runs from December to March and comes into its own over the festive period when the seeds glisten like tiny baubles. They work particularly well in salads and grain-based dishes.

In Spain they are called "granada" and the word "grenade" is thought to come from the fruit, resembling in shape the early hand grenades and containing a lot of shrapnel (seeds). I would imagine even having an actual pomegranate thrown in your direction would be cause enough for concern.

China in your hand

It feels like the time my 5 year old nephew came home from school and cried, in disbelief, "Do you know what lamb is?"

Well this time it's me crying in disbelief, "Do you know what bone china is?" I really have never put 2 and 2 together and worked out just what it was. 

In case you too are in need of educating, bone china is made using cow bone which is finely ground into bone ash. It is then mixed with other ingredients and fired twice. A high quality bone china will use anything between 30-45% bone. 

Now I say cow bone but an American artist will commission mementos of your loved ones by using their bone ash collected from the crematorium. 

Gobsmacked? Yes, me too. Luckily other products are available; fine china, porcelain, earthenware etc.