Zesty Borscht with Sour Cream and Veggie "Bacon"

Looking back at my last post - this one is right on time. :)

This is a recipe I used to make about twice a month. For some reason, it fell out of rotation - time to make amends!

This traditionally Russian red beet soup is made for this very season. Not so much the holiday season, more like the season where long lasting root vegetables abound. The selleriac, carrots, and beets all lend such a welcome sweet flavour that's balanced out by the tartness of the vinegar and the subtle smokiness of the veggie "bacon" - that is, dehydrated kale with a sprinkling of salt and smoked paprika (or chipotle powder, whatevs). I made it a day ahead for some strange reason (I'm usually never that prepared), and the flavors were even better for it. We had an unexpected dinner guest yesterday, who love-love-loved this soup, so you don't just have my word for it.

Borscht with Sour Cream and Veggie "Bacon"

2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 selleriac, peeled and grated
5 medium-large carrots, grated
1 lb. beets, peeled and grated
3 bay leaves
1 tsp whole caraway ground
2 tsp fennel seeds, ground
pinch cayenne
2 tbsp veggie boullion powder
1+ liter water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp wine vinegar
salt, pepper to taste

Sauter the onion and garlic until soft, add the grated veggies until they start to go soft. Add your spices, boullion, water, and sugar. Let bubble gently on the stove for about 45 minutes. Add the vinegar, and season more to taste (this is the part where I admit that it was a bit on the bland side, so I added a bit of say sauce, worcestershire sauce, miso, and a darker, thicker balsamico before I was ready to serve this puppy).

Veggie "Bacon"  

Wash and thoroughly dry a bunch of kale. Separate the thick stalks from the leaves and discard. Roughly chop the leaves, and massage them with a few tbsp of olive oil. Spread out on a baking tray, and sprinkle liberally with smoked paprika (or chipotle powder), and salt. Dry/bake anywhere from 15-30 minutes in a low-medium heat oven. The higher the temp, the more vigilant you must be. The kale is done when it's bright green, crisp, and crunchy. The sooner it's eaten the better, it gets a little tough after  a while.

Serve your delicious beet soup piping hot with a dollop of sour cream (to make this vegan, use a dollop of soy yogurt instead) and a liberal sprinkling of you smoky veggie bacon.

* This version of red beet soup is inspired by the Borsjtj in Geniale Gryderetter, with a few amends, not in the least my veggie "bacon".

The Vegetarian Reuben

This one's been a long time coming guys.

The Reuben is my all-time favorite sandwich. Oh yes. I have a weakness for sauerkraut. Just typing the word here is getting my glands going. It's a dee-licious ingredient that is only better in a hot sandwich with melted cheese all over it, and you know it.

But. The pastrami. Yeah, right? The pastrami just isn't the star of this sandwich, so why keep propagating doomed animals just to be the supporting role here? I found an excellent substitute, found easily at the local health food store and remedied in a few minutes with a few drops of tamari to give this sandwich just the tasty protein punch it deserves. You're welcome.

You'll need:
Rye sourdough slices (I used Danish rye bondebrød)
Sauerkraut, warmed through
Emmenthaler slices
Smoked tofu, sliced, and gently warmed on a pan with a few drops of tamari on each slice
"Russian dressing" - basically mayo and ketchup mixed well with a dollop of mustard too, if that's your thing

To just explain the smoked tofu, I found that it was still too bland, to I tried the method described above, and it did really turn out perfectly. As I said before, the sauerkraut is what makes this sandwich for me personally, but obviously, if you're a meat fan, I won't hold that against you, and this probably won't do it for you. We can still be friends regardless. But see? It looks pretty good!



Now, slather those slices with the sauce, layer your sandwich as you like, but may I suggest tofu on the bottom, sauerkraut, and then the cheese on top? The melting of the cheese works well this way I find, seeping more downward than outward.

Butter up your griddle and give that sandwich some heat on both sides, until the cheese is melted and the bread is perfectly browned.





Really nice.
I invited my friend Jakob over to test it, he'd never had this particular sandwich before - he had thirds.
Go!

Mummi Hukka's Karelian Pasties or Karjalan Piirakat

As some of you know, I have a Finnish connection. For over half my life, I've had a rather odd obsession with the country, its quirky inhabitants and even quirkier language. I lived there for half a year, going to the university in Helsinki. This quintessential Finnish dish is a comfort food for Finns and foreign exchange students like me alike. I'd often duck into Stockmann's bakery on the way to school and pick up one or two of these as a quick lunch.

Mummi Hukka is a good Finnish friend's grandmother, and the origin of this recipe. It's been made time and time again for years, so it's absolutely perfect!

These pasties are truly delicious any which way you eat them. Fresh, warm, or cold, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, with munavoi (chopped hardboiled eggs in melted butter), butter, or a slice of cheese.

They can also be made with mashed potato filling, but I happened to have leftover rice after dinner today (I added milk, and boiled, simmered, added more milk, until I got a porridge out of it) .

Crust:
2 dl cold water
1 tsp salt
2 dl wheat flour
3 dl rye flour

Mix well, and roll out, thinly and evenly, atop a floured surface

Filling:
3 dl water
2 dl rice
8 dl milk
half a tsp salt

Bring to a boil, then simmer until you've got a good rice porridge

Check out the pictures for the next steps.

Heat the oven to 300 degrees Celsius.
Bake for about 15 minutes.
Moisten them with milk just after you take them out of the oven.
Enjoy!

Gingery, Crunchy Salad

I love this salad. I've loved it since the first time I tasted it at Atlas Bar way back. It's a crunchy mix of finely shredded white cabbage, red cabbage, and carrots (actually julienned). I added finely shredded sushi nori for a little more color, flavor and nutrients.

Then, warm some almonds on a hot pan, add honey and soy and gently warm through and mix.

Then, you make the dressing. The dressing's key.
Finely grate ginger and a clove of garlic (garlic's optional). Add a drop of sesame oil, a dollop of soy, a pour of vegetable oil, a bit of apple cider vinegar (or acidic whatever) and honey. A good squeeze of honey. And mix well, and pour over, and toss, and...yum.

Pointed Cabbage Entré

This recipe is from Nikolaj Kirk's Hverdagsmad, which is a pretty good basic cookbook, nothing special in my opinion ("hverdagsmad" means everyday food, which explains it!), but I came upon this recipe and was really surprised to see pointed cabbage used any other way that as a finely shredded coleslaw ingredient or in a thick sauce as an accompaniment to potatoes. I quite like it, you can prepare the cabbage so that it's softer or crunchier, as you like, and the dressing is a nice protein rich and tangy affair. This can as easily be your dinner entré as it can be the side dish to chicken or anything else for that matter.

It was perfect as the main dish yesterday, with sides of corn and pan-fried halloumi cheese with tomatoes and avocado. A real summer meal.

You'll need:

2 eggs, boiled and chopped
2 tbsp capers, finely chopped
1/2 bunch of parsley, chopped (I used cilantro from my herb patch)
juice and zest of half a lemon (make it organic!), zest needs to be finely grated
1 dl olive oil (I used a mix of olive and flaxseed)
2 pointed cabbages
50 g. butter (I omitted this to save calories)
200 g. firm chèvre (I used a mix of feta and Danish rygeost - it's what I had!)
salt and pepper

Remove the darkest leaves from the cabbage and slice them lengthwise. Cover the bottom of a pot with about 2 inches of water and add salt, butter and cabbage. Cover and steam until the cabbage are still a bit crunchy.

Mix the eggs, capers, parsley and lemon zest with the lemon juice, oil and pepper.

Arrange the cabbage on a serving dish, and crumble the cheese on top of it with your fingers. Drizzle the vinaigrette over it until thoroughly coated, and you're all set!

Red Beans and Yum

This just in!

I've been clearing my cupboards for those half used bags of what not, and decided to put these year old kidney beans to good use in a little something inspired by the red beans and rice I've had on trips to N'awlins in years past. Not much in the mood for meat these days, as bad climate change news is keeping me on the straight and narrow as far as habits go. Cutting meat out of your diet is one of the big ones as far as carbon emissions go, and I was afraid the flavor would take a hit, but with a little help from my friends, and some yummy chipotle powder I got from a friend, it was just perfect! I also substituted rice with bulgur, as it was also laying around in the cupboard, as well as it being healthier.

You'll need:
2 cups of kidney beans, soaked overnight
bulgur
1 can/box of crushed tomatoes
1 bell pepper, your choice of color, diced
1 yellow onion, sliced or diced how you want 'em
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and sliced or diced
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper
flour for thickening

Start by sauteing the onion, garlic and bell pepper in some olive oil in a pot. When they're soft and glassy, throw in the spices for a good mix around. Add the beans, bay leaves, tomatos and a little salt. Fill your pot with water until the ingredients are covered, and let simmer for 20-30 min. I used my pressure cooker since the beans were old-ish, and probably needed a little help. When it's about done, get your bulgur going, as much as you need for as many people as you are, it's usually half bulgur/half water. Taste the beans and add salt and pepper as needed. If it's a little runny, mix som flour with a little water in a bowl and add the mixture slowly over heat until it thickens.

That's it. Serve it up, pick out the bay leaves if you've got kids, and enjoy!

ps - I happened to add some pimentos that I had in a jar, and I added that along with the pimento water. I like the pimento flavor, but the water made it too acidic. I rememdied this by throwing in a teaspoon of baking soda at the very end. It neutralized the flavor just fine, but if you want to make this addition as well, I'd recommend a little caution!

Soupe Marocaine - Harira

As followers of my other blog know, I am in Morocco! I'm two weeks in, in a month stay at our "old haunt" in Essaouira. It's absolute bliss. We've been adopted by some locals, who are kind, so kind. We've been in the country, treated to the hospitality of Moroccan farmers, and their daughter Latifa has continued spreading the love. Yesterday, by celebrating Mikael's birthday (a week late) with cake, Moroccan crêpes, and the traditional soup for breaking the fast of Ramadan, harira.

I love this soup. I could eat it every day without getting bored. This also because each Moroccan person/family/restaurant makes their own variation. It can be vegan, vegetarian or with lamb, chicken or beef. However which way you like it. The main points of reference in this soup are the spices, chickpeas, lentils, tomatos, herbs and vermicelli pasta. Beyond that, you can pretty much do what you like. And it'll still taste fabulous!

Here's lovely Latifa, dishing it out for us and our friend the real estate agent here, Salah. I made sure to watch her closely, making mental and real notes. So here, I will first write out which ingredients you will be needing, and approximately how much, after that, there's a lot of gefühl going on. No matter, the outcome will be tasty. I promise. This particular version is vegetarian, but can be made vegan by using only olive oil, vegetable stock cubes and omitting the egg.



2 cups of chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 cup of small, dark green lentils, (pretty sure it was puy)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tomatos, grated or finely diced
2 cups of finely chopped celery
1 cup of finely chopped coriander
2 eggs, whisked
a small handfull vermicelli pasta
3 tbsp spice mix: equal parts turmeric, powedered safran, powdered ginger
tsp pepper
salt to taste
3 tbsp tomato purée
1-2 tbsp smin (Moroccan rancid butter), or ghee
olive oil
2 vegetable boullion cubes
1 bay leaf

In a large pot (Latifa used a pressure cooker) mix the onion, tomato, chickpeas, lentils, celery, coriander and spices with a big dollop of the olive oil and heat up for a bit, stirring occasionally. After a few minutes, when the spices have released their flavor, and the vegetables and herbs are wilted a bit, add a cup of water and the tomato puree and bring to a boil. Add more water, until the pot is about 3/4 full. Now, this is where Latifa put the lit on the pressure cooker, and let it work its magic for half an hour. If you don't have a pressure cooker, I think you'll need to let this simmer for at least an hour, probably two.

Fast forward. After 30 minutes of pressure cooking, or after your hour or two of regular cooking, mix the flour well with a cup of water. Add slowly, little by little, to the still simmering pot, stirring all the while. Let it bubble and thicken. It must thicken, so if you need to make more flour/water and add it, please do, this soup must be thick! Add your bay leaf and stock cubes, and a small handfull of vermicelli pasta. Also, add more water, if necessary. While the pasta are cooking, add the whisked egg, slowly and little by little, while stirring. You should have something that resembles the "egg drop" in Chinese Egg Drop soup. When your pasta are done, add the smin (or ghee or olive oil), remove the bay leaf, and you should be done! Enjoy with bread if you like, but this is quite hearty by itself!

I hope its everything and more. This soup is made for hangovers, cold nights, sickly children or just whenever. I shall amend the recipe as I continue my Harira making career! Bon Appetit!

Sweet Potato Pizza with Chèvre and Caramellized Onions

This was such a fluke. I just happened to have all the makings of this pizza in leftover form: two wrinkling sweet potatos, one little lump of week old chèvre, three pre-mold stage red onions. I made my pizza crust as I always do:

Pizza crust:
250 g. flour
3 tsp yeast
sprinkling of salt
1.5 dl warm water
olive oil
corn flour

In a large bowl, add crumble the yeast and salt into the flour. Add the water, and mix well, thereafter kneading the dough on a sprinkling of corn flour. Keep adding corn flour as needed. It adds a needed texture to the dough, I find. When you're through kneading, let the dough rest in the olive oil drizzled bowl, until it's risen.

Flip the dough out onto a sheet lined with baking paper, and starting in the middle, massage the dough, spiralling outwards from the center. Should almost fill the sheet. Your dough is done. Now for the toppings. Turn your oven on to 230 C. (less if you're using convection)

Toppins:
2 sweet potatos, sliced thinly (actually I use a potato/carrot peeler for the thinnest slicest possible - I don't have a mandolin)
3 small red onions, thinly sliced.
Chèvre cheese
grated mozzarella
balsamic glaze vinegar
salt
sugar
olive oil

First things first, sprinkle the mozzarella on the dough, liberally. Pop in into the oven for ten-fifteen minutes, until the cheese is barely golden. Take the pizza out of the oven, add the thinly sliced sweet potatos. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt and pop back into the oven. While that's happening (another ten minutes), fry the onions in butter/oil until soft. Add a sprinkling of sugar and a drizzle og the balsamic glaze until they are sweet and caramellized. When the sweet potatos are soft, take the pizza out, add the onions and chévre to the pizza. You might want to warm it just a few minutes now, but if the chévre is otherwise room temperature, you're ready to serve! Delicious pizza, really really good. It was an accident I will gladly make again.

Chanterelle Pasta: A Seasonal Favorite

My mom comes to visit twice a year. Once in September, once in February/March. For this very reason, I always end up making the same dishes while she's here, because of the produce that's available. She luckily doesn't seem to mind!

One of the best and quickest dishes of this season, ready in half an hour is a yummy, creamy plate of chanterelle pasta with a side of steamed artichoke. I usually fry the mushrooms up in butter, but we're downsizing our butter intake at home, so olive oil did just fine. I fry them at medium high heat, until they sweat their own juice out, and absorb the oil. Instead of cream this time, I used coconut milk which did the trick just fine. It does have a coconutty taste to it (surprise, surprise) but I found that adding a spoonful of Herbamare (vegetable broth cube) did a good job of balancing it out. Mix it with your freshly boiled al dente pasta, and you're all set. A sprinkle of parmesan doesn't hurt.

As for the artichoke - I usually boil them, but tried steaming them first this time, with an excellent result! I halve them to start off with, using a paring knife to scrape out the "choke". Steam until the leaves pull of easily. Enjoy with melted butter or a bit of Hellman's mayo, the only thing that kept this meal from being entirely vegan!

A simple meal, but so, so good and fulfilling. The artichoke is practically a dessert, so sweet and satisfying.

A bag of veggies and inspiration

There are a number of services around the globe now that roughly translate to paying a bit of money in exchange for a box of locally grown and/or organic produce, or others of that ilk. For a few years I've been receiving box from Aarstiderne, sometimes just Danish veggies, sometimes a mix of veggies and fruit from far and wide, though all organic. I thought the price was reasonable enough, we'd get a box a week which pretty much saved me from lugging heavy fruits and veg from the store and to the 4th floor, and then we were set for the next week's menu. I then heard of Københavns Fødevarefællesskab which is kind of the same idea, though you collect the bag/box yourself once a week from their fairly central location, it's all organic, and it's all from the island we live on. It happens to be cheaper though. When I brought home my first bag, opened it and spied the choice offerings, I was floored by what I could get for 100 Danish kroner. I can't afford not to buy this weekly bag of produce.



From the top: palm kale, fennel bulbs, red/yellow onions
Middle l-r: beet leaves, orange and purple carrots, tomatoes, beets, seleriac
Bottom: yellow and green squash, spring onions

And can I just add that the carrots were fabulous and the squash amazing! I seriously hadn't tasted squash like that for at least ten years. I'm pretty adept at using veggies like this so a week later, and we've only got onions and seleriac left, which are no biggy since I've got a hankering for some French onion soup soon, and celeriac schnitzels have been on my mind for a while as well.

The other day, we ate dinner that I can only describe as café food. You know, at home sometimes all that gets put on the table is a bit pot of pasta and that's it, but at cafés there's always a few small dishes that make a meal. It's appealing to the eye and the taste buds. So I whipped up my own little trio of dishes, and all proved popular with the lot of us.

First off, a simple chickpea and green bean salad.



I'm not even going to bother writing out a recipe. Steam the beans, boil the chickpeas, chop some red onion, and swirl it all around in a zesty vinaigrette.

Next up, an oven roasted 'salad' with bite sized pieces of beet, fennel bulb and squash.



Chop the aforementioned ingredients into the size you like them. Either wedges, or smaller cubed bits. Add olive oil, salt, thyme and big chunks of feta (I used goat), and bake until the veggies are al dente. Really nice flavors coming together there.

To top of the medley, I made some goat's cheese toasties. I sliced some of my husband's homemade baguette, rubbed it with olive oil, added a nice slice of hard goat's cheese, drizzled more oil on top, sprinkled some thyme, and put it in the oven until the cheese visibly went soft. Took them out, drizzled them with honey, and served them together with the 'salads'.



We ate it all up!

Nostalgia, It's What's for Lunch

Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. A classic. Admittedly, the soup was ready made, and just has to be heated and served, but it did the job. The sandwich - so simple. Spread Hellman's Mayonnaise on whatever bread you've got, add a slice of good cheddar, slap 'em together and heat on a buttered pan until they're golden and crispy. It's a winning combo, to be eaten with one hand only, dipping the sandwich into the soup, while reading the paper with other.

Stuffed, no, Buried Mushrooms

This dish is, was, a mess. A Delicious Mess. It's been a week, so the details are fuzzy, but basically it arose out of 4 portobello mushrooms I'd bought, and some black beans that Mikael had soaked and boiled but just not gotten around to using.

4 portobello mushrooms (with the stems cut off and set aside), prebaked with olive oil and spices, for app. 30 minutes.
2 cups of black beans, soaked and boiled.
2 cups of pearl spelt (or barley) boiled in broth
1 bag of fresh spinach, or half a bag frozen, fried in olive oil and garlic with the chopped portobello stems.
1 can of tinned tomatoes
A handful of grated cheese

Arrange the mushrooms in a baking dish that leaves a little space in and around them. Mix the beans, spelt and spinach, add a bit of salt to taste, and dump it all over the mushrooms. Add the tinned tomatoes to the dish and spread it over everything, adding the grated cheese to the top. Bake until bubbly and the cheese is golden, á la lasagne.

Really nice, messy, delicious dish using what I had at the moment!

Rooty Coconut Chowder

I really really wish I had a picture of this. Alas, I have yet to find a replacement for my kaput camera (tips on better versions of the old point and shoot welcome), so an enthusiastic description will have to do.

I had yet another box of seasonal veggies staring me in the face, daring me to make something tasty out of them. Unfortunately, the biggest offering this time was a rutabaga! Wtf. Well, I actually enjoy the challenge of making anything tasty, but when you're pressed for time and have a hungry brood waiting small droplets of sweat form on your brow, and the nagging question of "what exactly am I doing" plagues you. Luckily, it went well. Really well.

1 rutabaga (by nature a large creature), peeled and cubed
.5 - 1 kg sunchokes, peeled and halved
1 large onion
1 tsp dried ginger
1 can coconut milk
sprinkling of cinnammon
1 tsp herbamare

- Start off by boiling the sunchokes and rutabaga together in a pot of salted water until soft. Drain, and set aside for next step.
- Finely chop the onion and fry it up in a little bit of coconut oil with the dried ginger until soft and fragrant. Add the boiled rutabaga and sunchoke, coconut milk, plus the herbamare. Let bubble, maybe adding a bit of water if it's too dry. When the taste is about what you want, take about half of the contents out of the pot, and blend them until nice and creamy. Add to the pot again, adding the dash of cinnamon. Stir well and serve with homemade bread.

Really really lovely chunky, creamy soup here. Enjoy!

Creamy Vegan Potatoes

Dude! It's been a while, huh? Well, between testing this vegan thing and my studies and my trip to Berlin, and now my mother being here for a visit...you get the idea. My camera is out of commission, for ever, so until we acquire a new one, I'll make do with old snaps of dishes I just haven't blogged about, and then second hand tales of decadent vegan meals, or something.

I made, actually invented, this warm potato salad as a side to an Indian dish I made recently, and it was good! And easy! And vegan!



I simply boiled some cute small potatoes, with skin, rubbing them gently off after they'd cooled a bit.
Then, I fried a small amount of finely chopped onion with light and dark mustard seeds and nigella seeds. When they'd released some of their flavor, I added the cooked and peeled potatoes again for a quick swirl, before turning the heat off. Then, as the creamy dot over the "i", I added a few bid spoonfuls of the white coconut cream that rises to the top of the canned coconut milk*. It was the perfect touch. And the dish was eaten with great fervor by all, young and older.

* Coconut milk has been a lifesaver in this vegan adventure of mine. Can't imagine not having its creamy goodness on hand.

Lent Status Report

Apart from an inadvertant bite of bread with butter/cheese I've been keeping this Lent thing up with no big problems. Just a few days after I started, I lost one whole kilo (2 lbs) which was quite a great perk if you ask me, and also a good reason to keep it up. I've lost another half kilo since then, and I think it's owing to the lack of butter in my diet. Boy, do we like butter here.

My breakfasts are a pretty standard bowl of oatmeal made on water, with raisins, cinnamon/sugar and flaxseed oil. Filling and quite satisfactory.

Lunches have been mostly bread with a smear of bean paste and beets, misc. vegan cold cuts, and cut up fruit and veg. Seriously, I haven't felt like I've been missing out. I would like to note that the bean paste has 15% protein, as opposed to a smear of Danish leverpostej, which has 24%. The vegan cold cuts have as much protein (wheat protein) as turkey cold cuts.

Dinners have been what they normally are, either vegetarian dishes with veggies and lentils, or dishes using quorn or soy meat substitutes. I made a mean chili sin carne the other night, and you could hardly tell the quorn/meat difference. Honestly.

If I am lacking any protein in this manner, just through regular meals, I put extra protein in my daily routine with lots of nuts for snacks, and peanut butter/hazelnut butter on Wasa crackers.

So far, no cravings for "real" meat, though I do miss cheese, so I'll find a good goat cheese to satiate that. I'll post some recipes I'm collecting soon.

Otherwse, I'm enjoying this little experiment, not in the least because I enjoy eating in a thoughtful manner. It's gratifying. And my body feels great, inside and out. 'Nuff said.

Two Days In

Thank you, Anonymous, for that cheerleading!

I just woke up after my second day without eating animal products, and get this, I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed before 7 am, and I hadn't even had my coffee yet! Something good is going down here. I thought I'd post what I'd eaten for the last two days, and I might update every week or so with a Lent update and recipes.

Day 1:
breakfast: 1 cup coffee with soy milk
oatmeal with raisins, cinammon/sugar and flax oil
lunch: apple, pear, orange, high fiber crackers
tea
dinner: Leftover rice, fried, steamed endive, coleslaw w/vinaigrette

Day 2:
breakfast: same as day 1
lunch: rye bread with bean paste/spread and pickled beets, cucumber and vegan coldcuts
dinner: Indian mélange of rice, spinach garam masala dish, carrot curry/coconut dish and potatoes in coconut and mustard

Snacks have included fruit by the bucket, and if that wasn't enough, Wasa crackers with a nice smear of hazelnut butter (better than Nutella!) and maybe a drizzle of honey. And yes I'm still eating honey.

Feeling good, and so far this is easier than I thought it would be.

Lent

For the first time in roughly 20 years, I decided to give something up for the Lenten fast. I don't know what spurred it on, perhaps that Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day/Mardis Gras, and I seemed to have forgotten why that is celebrated in the first place. Something about Jesus being 40 days in the desert, I believe. And people think Islam and Christianity are nothing remotely like each other. Huh. So, having just read Eating Animals, I've decided to eat adhere as much as possible to the food doctrine behind the book, for 40 days. That would mean mostly sticking to a vegan diet, though I'll allow for dairy from goats/sheep since Safran Foer points out that those animals have not yet been targeted by factory farming. Yet. And I'm going to Berlin in a week's time, and I will allow myself to be touristy enough to enjoy a curry wurst.

I've long wanted to give the vegan diet a try, though having three omnivores in the house has kept me back. I think though, that I'm grown up enough now to endure watching others eat a certain food, without feeling deprived. And there is an ulterior motive a well. The weight issue. My bmi is normal, but I want to see what such a diet can do for my waistline. But ultimately, I want to try the diet of the future, and understand its necessity for myself, without dreading it when it becomes inevitable. I think we can do it!

This blog isn't going on hiatus per se, but I have no idea how this will pan out, as far as yummy recipes go. We shall see.

Anybody else doing Lent?

Celeriac Schnitzel

Admittedly, we haven't sprung out as full blown vegetarians here, but the other day, when someone asked if we had, I couldn't even remember the last time we'd had meat for dinner. Sometimes, I do have to make an effort, since you can't just make a salad, and expect two small kids and one metabolically active husband to be satisfied. We eat burgers, just with soy patties. We enjoy "chicken" fajitas with quorn instead. Someone mentioned making schnitzel out of celeriac once, I gave it a try, just winging it, and wasn't that impressed. I decided to give it another try, and scoured up some tips on teh interwebs. This time, I loved it! Not only that, my boys wolfed it down as well, oblivious to the sneaky veggie hidden inside, just happy to eat something pan fried and crunchy.

The lowdown:

- Take 1 whole celeriac, peel or cut the hard skin off. Cut in in half, and take each halve and slice it into finger thick slices.
- Steam/boil the celeriac until a knife easily pierces them, app. 16 minutes. Let them cool off a bit before the next step, and drizzle them with lemon juice while cooling. Don't go easy on the lemon btw.
- Prepare two shallow bowls. One with 1 egg, beaten. The other with bread crumbs. Add a good amount of salt and pepper to the crumbs, to ensure a flavourful crust.
- Melt a knob of butter and a drizzle of your choice of oil in a pan over low heat. Low heat is key here, you want these to fry up delicately and not be darker than golden.
- Dip each slice of steamed celeriac in first egg, then crumbs, and fry 'em up (in butter!), turning after the golden color has been attained.

Serve with a side of salad and/or potatoes like I did. Next time I might do a sauce/gravy to beef it up a bit, but even without this is a mouth watering dish!

Friday Night is Pizza Night

I promised several people, eons ago, to give them my pizza recipe, but somehow never got around to it. So here is my recipe for the dish we eat most often at our place. It is THE meal to have on a Friday night, but also what I throw together if I have to feed more than four adults at short notice (since making two is hardly any more taxing than making one). I always have these ingredients on hand: Canned artichokes, bell peppers, shredded mozzarella, frozen spinach, tinned tomatoes, which makes this an easy dish to put together. The secret is in the preparation of the dough.

To make the dough mix these dry ingredients in a bowl:
250 grams of flour (sometimes I use tipo 00, sometimes I use spelt. Anything goes.)
3 tsp fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Add:
1.5 deciliters warm water
dollop olive oil

- Mix well, before kneading gently with a sprinkling of corn flour on the table. Let rise for an hour in an oiled bowl.
- When the dough has risen, I dump it on a big piece of baking paper, and working from the middle and out, use my fingers to spread it out until it's roughly the size of the baking sheet. May take a little practice, so just use your roller if you need it.
- Then, dump one can of chopped tomatoes on the raw dough, smooth it out with a spatula and sprinkle salt on top.
- Bake for about 20 minutes in a very hot oven (about 250 Celsius).
- When the tomato has a thickened appearance, and the crust sounds a little bit hollow, take it out of the oven and add your additional ingredients.

I use:
- sliced onion
- chopped, canned artichokes
- sliced bell peppers
- thawed frozen spinach, fried in a little oil, with garlic
- sliced black olives
- shredded mozzarella
- occasionally, I finely slice chorizo sausage as pepperoni.

This is all negotiable though, the main point of this pizza being that you prebake the dough with the canned tomatoes. After that - it's a free for all.

Dogmatic Autumn Lasagne

Yesterday, our Teutonic friends and their whippet came by for dinner. I had just received my local veggie box from Aarstiderne and had loads of good stuff to use. I made the perfect autumnal lasagne using the most seasonal ingredients available. All that was left was one piece!

Again, I'm not that adept at writing my own recipes yet, so I'll just describe what went into the different layers. Og course, the lasagne sheets start at the very bottom, and then between all the layers. I used full grain.

- Bottom layer - steamed hokaido pumpkin, cut into small chunks. A few spoonfuls of tinned tomatoes on top of those, and a sprinkling of salt.
- Next to bottom layer - Sliced zucchini, onion, and chopped celery stalks, fried gently with oil and fennel seeds. Then, half a seleriac, grated, topped off with a generous helping of bechemel sauce.
- Next to top layer - a HUGE bag of kale, de-veined and chopped, fried in oil with sliced garlic until wilted. Mixed with a few spoonfuls of 10% Greek yogurt and salt.
- Top layer - Four large carrots, grated, and then topped with a generous portion of tinned tomatoes, a smattering of salt and fresh, hand shredded mozzarella.

Bake in the oven at 200 Celsius for 45-60 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through, and the dish has bubbled for a little bit.

This was a great way to use all those seasonal veggies in a non-traditional way. I will definitely make this (or something very similar) again!