cooking is a craft.. right?

Vegetarian stovies:
1 bag of frozen soya mince,
1 leak,
half an onion,
lots of carrots,
lentils,
parsley,
(optional)otateos, celery, corgets, turnip (1), parsnips, frozen veg, any thing you feel like.
Rinse lentils throughily, put in a big pan with every thing else (except parsley), bring to the boil then leave to simmer for about half an hour before adding as much parsley as possable. Feel free to flavour with mustard, pepper, Boulen (tesco's salty salty flavour!), salt or any other herbs.

I know it's basic, but I vertuly live off the stuff!

 

I'd be inclined to put the whole thing in a big, ovenproof dish, spread a load of mashed, boiled potato across the top and call it a veggie shepherd's pie!

Speaking of which.... top tips for veggie shepherd's pie.....

1. Layer of cheese beneath the potato.
2. Use a fork to create ridges on to of the potato. This will help it crisp up nicely in the oven.
3. Another way of helping it crisp up is once you've made the ridges, place small spots of butter at regular intervals on top of the pie.
4. Marmite in your pie makes it very flavousome!

 

mmmm... marmite...

 

so,jess, i think the marmite would give it a good kick. that, or chili sauce...the extra strong kind....


tasty? apple cider vinegar is full of flavour too btw

 

Ooooh.... cider vinegar! Most certainly another essential weapon in the arsenal of the veggie cook!!!

 

aye, most potent! and hard to swallow, or so i found the other week. although mixed with assorted ingredients such as ginger and lemon it makes your immune system superhealthy...

 

Just buy tonnes of fresh veg!! i dunno how much your looking on spending but i spend about a tenner a week on my food and its mainly veg and fish...i know you dont eat fish but substitute it with kidney beans, chickpeas, lots of seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flax etceetc) and twill be just as good fresh veg is dead cheap too and is the healthiest stuff to eat so its a bonus have found cans of kidney beans for 9p too

 

I made this the night before going on holiday, cleaning out the cupboards as you do. The effect of eating it is not unlike a landfill bomb in the stomach of a randy old tramp.

Ultimate Stew (Serves 4)
-Half a pack of frozen Sausages
-Fair old whack of bacon
-Remnants of a bag of frozen mince
-Small lump of cheese
-2 tins of beans & sausages (Lidyl Variety)
-An old jam jar half full of that crazy patak's stuff
-Oregano dust
-Garlic powder
-2 Marlboro Lights
-An Onion

First, throw those sausages into the oven with the force and verocity of casting off a dead layer of skin. Next oil up a greasy old pot or cauldron, failing to find one of these hollow out a cardboard box. Scatter the mince gracefully into it and fry it up, whilst with great precision laying the bacon on top. Now wait for a bit, you could smoke or read an old magazine if you wanted at this point. After waiting for about...3 bits take the sausages out of the oven and flop them into the pot, along with all the other ingredients. Smash it with a wooden spoon for a bit and then fill your tum.

 

i'm more of a desert man, so here's a couple of good ones to bear in mind:


crumble top:

put 3.5 oz of flour, 1.5 oz of oats and 3 oz of butter into a bowl, mix together and rub together with fingertips to form breadcrumb texture. add 1 oz of sugar and mix together. Add to fruit, best in my opinion is apple (try getting different cookers to bramley for better texture) and blackberries

sweet pastry (a variation on pate sucre, as used in french apple tart):

this forms a sweet crumbly pastry...sift 4 oz of flour, 1 oz of icing sugar and a pinch of salt into a bowl. add 3 oz of butter and mix together as in the crumble mix. when thoroughly mixed, add an egg yolk and nead together, adding milk if the mixture is too dry. (with the egg white, you can make mirangue instead of throwing it away). put in the fridge while you prepare the fruit, soft fruit is best, just lay them in a bowl and add some sugar to sweeten it. roll out the pastry, place on top and cook for 20-25 minutes (untill golden brown). when done simply flip upside down on a plate, to get an upside down tart

i can't remember the heats/times exactly, so you'll have to trial and error a bit, but neither of the dishes is too precise, and the results are scrumptious...anyway, a main course i hear?

simple healthy veg stew for youuu...

chop up an onion and start to fry, then chop up a carrot and fry. let them fry for 5 minutes, and then add a chopped up courgette and mushrooms. after 5 minutes, put some pasta on. 5 minutes later (remembering to stir the veg all the time), add a tin of tomatoes and some herbs to the veg. whilst you wait for the last 5 minutes, grate up some cheese, then when the 5 minutes is up, put the pasta in a bowl, add some of the stew and the cheese...you should have enough stew for 3-4 servings, and pasta enough for whatever!

for a lazy quick meal, fry an onion whilst you boil noodles...add some frozen stir fry veg (i got some from iceland) to the onion, then a minute before the noodles are done add some type of curry paste and chili, my fave is korma as it seems the hotest paste i can get, and red chili's for a kick. drain the noodles off and add em, stir it up to get the flavours mixed, and serve up...a meal in about 5 minutes

enjoy, love

Kieran xxxx

oh, and another lazy dish, fry an onion with chickpeas and erbs, add some spagheti and cheese, and eat!