Striking while the iron is hot

Preparing the Christmas dinner was both exciting and inspiring. Less than a week later and I have been putting my ideas into action.

I made a second nut roast, based on much the same ingredients. However, I added two ingredients to help retain structural integrity: vegetable stock, and flour. It worked. Or as French people might say: il marche - it walked. Not that French people are likely to be interested in eating nut roast.

I also made more bread sauce. Why have I never made this before? Although far from quick, it is so easy, and so tasty. I have made a lot, and have frozen some in pots for future Sunday evening meals.

As for the sauteed cauliflower and broccoli, I could not resist preparing these again, this time as a chow mein (garlic, ginger and shoyu) flavoured dish. It is barely possible to imagine any food that could be more satisfactory.

Christmas dinner

It was not a massive, pig-out meal. To be honest, it was neither the most accomplished nor the tastiest meal I have ever cooked. (It is often the case that the tastiest meals are not primarily about the quality of recipe, food or preparation, but about how hungry I feel for some particular food: in the right mood I find that lovage soup, or roasted olives, or vegan sausages dipped in mustard, or vegan guacamole, can hit the spot in the dead-centre of the bullseye.) However, it was wholesome, satisfying, full of flavour and rich in variety. With the exception of the peas and peppers, everything was from fresh. The Mediterranean vegetable melange came in a pack, peeled and chopped, but everything else was prepared from scratch.

How could things have been improved?

1. I wish that some of the food had come from the garden. Next Christmas.
2. The Mediterranean vegetable melange was opportunist, and a good idea, but I could have done it better myself. I am not sure about the sweet potato in the melange, although it went well with the butternut squash. Next year I shall prepare two courses: a Mediterranean vegetable course of tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, onions, olives and garlic, served with homemade ratatouille, followed by a British vegetarian course, to include sweet potato and butternut squash mash, and swede and carrot mash.
3. Boiling the cauliflower seems so uninspired. Maybe next year I shall fry some cauliflower and broccoli florets with baby patty-pan squash, and toss them in shoyu.
4. Whilst my nut roast tastes good, it never achieves physical coherence. I am reluctant to use much oil, in an effort to keep the high fat content as low as possible.

Here is what I prepared for Christmas dinner:

Potatoes (first parboiled in vegetable stock) sprinkled with freshly-grated black pepper and roasted in sunflower oil
Carrots (first parboiled in vegetable stock) garnished with fresh rosemary and roasted in sunflower oil
Mediterranean vegetable melange: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, courgettes and red onions, garnished with fresh rosemary and roasted in olive oil
Brussels sprouts, boiled, and served in a glaze of lemon juice and toasted sesame oil
Cauliflower boiled in vegetable stock
Petit pois (from frozen, and sadly boiled without fresh mint)
Swede, boiled, and mashed with vegan margarine, ground nutmeg and freshly-ground black pepper
Bread sauce, made from freshly-baked homemade wholemeal bread, onion, garlic, unsweetened soya milk, fresh thyme, curry (not bay) leaves, ground nutmeg and freshly-ground black pepper, simmered for 40 minutes
Nut roast, made from the crumbed crusts of freshly-baked homemade seeded, wholemeal bread, onion, garlic, capsicum peppers (from frozen), peanuts, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, herbs and spices, and studded with pumpkin seeds for decoration
Cranberries, freshly cooked, slightly sweetened with vegan sugar

This was not just Christmas food, it was clear-conscience, pure vegan Christmas food.

Happy vegan Christmas!

East Asian cuisine

In common with most British people, I have a good deal of familiarity with Mediterranean cuisine: pizza, pasta, polenta; tomatoes, aubergines (eggplant), courgettes (zucchini); olives, onions and garlic; basil, oregano and rosemary. Moving to the eastern Mediterranean, I include hummus, felafels and pitta bread: staple vegan food when eating out in Paris, Berlin or Kyoto. Likewise, I am familiar with a wide variety of Indian dishes, and although I have never visited India, I have eaten in Indian restaurants from Edinburgh to London, Bruges to Toulouse, Tokyo to New York. Consequently, when I cook Mediterranean food (several times each week) or Indian food (fortnightly), I have a good idea about what it is supposed to taste like.

I do not know what most East Asian food is supposed to taste like. As a vegan, I have never eaten in a Thai, Indonesian or Malaysian restaurant. I have twice eaten in an excellent partly-Vietnamese restaurant in Berlin, and very occasionally eat in vegetarian Chinese restaurants, such as in Boston or New York. In Japan we ate in so few Japanese restaurants (we ate felafels and Indian food in Tokyo and Kyoto, and Mediterranean food in Tokyo), that I have as much familiarity with Japanese food in New York. Consequently, when I cook East Asian food, I have little idea about whether a person from the country would recognise what I had prepared.

For me, the ultimate case in point is my miso soup. I make it with miso, lots of miso. I also use vegetable stock, onions, garlic, capsicum (bell) peppers, sauteed shi-itake mushroom, fried tofu, arame (seaweed), ramen noodles, basil and black pepper. It is delicious ('oishi'), but we never tasted anything like it in Japan. Similarly my Chinese sweet and sour vegetables is packed full of vegetables (such as bamboo shoots and water chestnuts) and flavours (such as pineapple and vinegar), whereas in Chinese restaurants the sweet and sour has been a sweet, sticky sauce packed with MSG. My chow mein cauliflower and broccoli florets are sauteed in garlic, ginger and shoyu. My sauteed mushrooms, tofu and mange tout in black bean sauce is extremely moreish, but I doubt that it has a trace of authenticity. My South-East Asian noodle soup/stew, made with coconut milk, tomatoes, capsicum (bell) peppers, baby corn cobs, arame (seaweed), spring onions, garlic, basil, vegetable stock, turmeric and chilli pepper, rarely lasts long, but who knows where the recipe would be recognised?

Does it matter if the food tastes good? To some extent, yes it does matter. I enjoy using authentic ingredients, such as tempeh for Indonesian dishes, and wasabi, shoyu and mirin on my sushi. Without an intent towards authenticity there is a danger that everything I cook will eventually taste like variations on a single theme.

My holiday in Japan

I went to Tokyo and Kyoto. I stayed in Japan for two and a half weeks. I went by aeroplane, from Newcastle to Amsterdam and then to Tokyo.

In Tokyo I liked Ginza. Ginza was near our hotel, it has lots of shops and bright lights, like Times Square in New York. I liked shopping there, looking at kimonos and the paper shop and choosing presents. We saw lots of ladies wearing kimonos in Tokyo and Kyoto and watched people trying them on in a big department store. I bought a kimono and a little toy puppy called Mitzy and a lucky cat. Mummy and I chose pretty cards and origami paper and presents in the paper shop.


Ginza at night

The Ghibli Museum was my favourite place. Studio Ghibli makes Japanese animated films, I have lots on DVD, my favourites are Whisper of the Heart and Kiki’s Delivery Service and I like My Neighbour Totoro and Howl’s Moving Castle. At the museum I saw a toy cat bus and a little film and how the films are made. I bought a little Totoro key ring and a little charm for my phone.


Ghbli Museum, Mitaka, Tokyo

I liked visiting other museums too. In the Japanese National Museum I liked the Buddha sculptures and the kimonos and the woodblock prints of Mount Fuji, I chose a tee shirt with Mount Fuji and the huge wave. We went up the Tokyo tower, it’s a bit like the Eiffel tower, and we saw Mount Fuji at sunset.


Tokyo Tower


Fujisan at sunset

I went to the zoo in Tokyo, I saw Japanese monkeys and pandas.

In Kyoto we visited temples and shrines. I washed my feet before I went in, Mummy and Daddy had to take their shoes off.

In Nara I saw naughty deer, they ate people’s maps and papers, I thought that was funny. The deer live in the park around the temples.


Shika deer, Nara


Statue of Buddha at Todaji Temple, Nara

I thought Japanese wheelchair toilets were really good, not like in England. I got bottom wash and blow dry and the seats are warm! When we went on the train at Shimbashi station near our hotel in Tokyo, I went up the escalators on a special platform for wheelchairs, that’s different from England. At the stations men helped us and cleared a path for me through the crowds, I felt a little bit like a princess. On the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto we had a little wheelchair room, it was nice but it felt a bit lonely.

In Tokyo I ate noodles, just once. I wanted to eat more noodles, but it was hard to find vegetarian food. I liked choosing cakes from the Stick Sweet Factory shop in Tokyo, and the nice French patisserie in the hotel, it made really good chocolate croissants. I liked the vanilla cream frappuccino in Starbucks too!

The weather was hot and sunny, in Kyoto it was a little bit too hot, I felt sweaty and thirsty and wanted to stay in the shade.

I liked going to Japan, I thought it was exciting and different. At first I felt confused because I can’t understand Japanese writing, but I learned to speak a little bit of Japanese, I said ohayo (good morning) and arigato (thank you) to people and they understood me.

Jemima

June: a time of mists, but neither mellow nor fruitful

June has shambled in, cloud hanging heavily over disappointed trees, and the mournful lowing of the Sunderland fog horn audible through my office window. Plants in the greenhouse are getting tired of waiting for a long-absent sun to make a shamefully-belated appearance: tomato plants hunch themselves in the gloom, and the aubergine plants appear more aetiolated by the day. The okra seeds have steadfastly refused to germinate, along with radishes, beetroot and romanesco. Outside, cruel northerly winds have shredded the green beans which were attempting to scramble up bamboo poles. However, the potato plants, snugged up deeply in mulch, are looking good. I have little doubt about global warming, but at the risk of sounding complacent and flippant, we could do with a little bit more of the warming, please.

Peter

The plot develops

"When that Marche with his shoures soute hath perced the droghte of Aprile to the rote, ..."

Easter and subsequent glorious weekends have nudged and prodded, conceding no quarter. The Leylandia hedge has been cut down to size: much wood and many branches having gone to the great industrial compost heap in the sky, as Burnham Wood was moved in five van loads to Dunsinane (Coxhoe Domestic Recycling Facility). The greenhouse has been cleared of chicken, eggs, pots and debris, and its glass has been repaired and scrubbed inside and out with a toothbrush. A greenhouse bedful of soil has been dug and finely seived, ready to receive tender okra plants. A new garden bed has been dug and conditioned with compost, planted with Harmony potatoes, and the rows marked with sticks. Young, seed-grown strawberry plants have been snuggled into cots, protected from slugs and snails. Seed trays have been filled and seeds pressed into the soft, black seed compost, then watered and placed in window-sill incubators: climbing green beans and salads, pumpkin and sunflower. Compost has been dug out of last year's bins and worked into soil. Seeds and shoots have been tucked up with fleece to protect them from any late frosts.

Peter

A time to sow, ...

As the mornings and evenings gadually lighten, and March puffs and blows towards a windy conclusion, thoughts inevitably turn to planting seeds and growing vegetables, fresh for the plate and the pot. Why should I give Tesco my hard-earned salary, when I could be lifting my own potatoes, cutting my own cabbage, and picking my own courgettes. As well as a good all-round seed potato, I have a swede, a carrot, and both a golden and a white beetroot. Representing brassicas, I have savoy cabbage and romanesco broccoli. Legumes feature broad beans, runner beans and a pea. A pumpkin and a courgette are the solitary gourds. The crackerjack is okra, with its vicious spines. A few herbs and some mushrooms end the list. Although there are no tomatoes, onions, garlic or peppers, which means no arabiata sauce, I still believe that we might have to rotovate the front garden.

Peter.

Oh My Newsnight and other movies

I have uploaded a short movie onto the YouTube website. The address of the movie is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0XqoOZ4vik

The movie is riddled with production flaws, including a two or three second sound drop-out, that I wish to remedy.

The movie script is my posting in my Digitation weblog entitled Green Issues of 4 November 2006. I anticipate leaving the movie text unamended, because I intend to make several more short movies looking in greater depth at a wider range of green issues.

In the meantime, I have made and uploaded half a dozen other movies, the addresses for which can be obtained from my own weblog (www.digitation.blogspot.com).

Peter.