Vegan Coconut and Ginger Panna Cotta with Rhubarb

It’s rhubarb season…yay! I love rhubarb, I really could eat mountains of the stuff. What is not to love about this beautifully pink, tart and tangy foodstuff. Apart from the classic rhubarb crumble, I generally prefer to eat mine just gently stewed with a bit of brown sugar and served with a large lump of greek yoghurt. However after baking up my tropical hot cross buns I found I was left with quite a large amount of coconut milk so I decided to combine these two ingredients to form a slightly alternative rhubarb desert. And so the  coconut and ginger panna cotta was born, accompanied with my favourite….lightly stewed rhubarb. I also decided on making the panna cotta vegan by using my vegetarian setting agent 'Vegeset' in this recipe (although I think to be honest I slightly overdid it on the setting front and my panna cotta didn’t quite have enough of the required wobble but it was still delicious so that’s all that matters right?!?).

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE PANNA COTTA

500ml coconut milk

1 large knob of ginger, peeled and grated

2 tablespoons of caster sugar

1 level teaspoon of Vegeset (or other vegetarian friendly setting agent)

FOR THE RHUBARB

250g of rhubarb

20g soft brown sugar

The zest and juice from half a lime

Makes 4

Place the coconut milk and sugar in a large saucepan and place over a gentle heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

Once the sugar has dissolved add the grated ginger to the pan and let the mixture gently simmer for 20-30 minutes (or longer if you want a really gingery kick to your panna cotta).

Pass the coconut milk mixture through a sieve to remove the grated ginger, add the vegetarian setting agent as instructed (I allowed by mixture to cool, sprinkled my Vegeset on top and then brought the mixture to the boil until thickened).

Divide the mixture into four ramekins and allow to cool before covering with cling film and transferring to the fridge to set for a couple of hours.

Before serving slice the rhubarb into 2cm long chunks, add to a saucepan with the sugar and lime juice and zest and gently heat for 10-15 minutes until the rhubarb has begun to break down.

Remove the panna cotta from the fridge, remove the cling film and carefully turn out onto serving plates. The panna cotta should just come away from the ramekins but if you have any troubles quickly dunk the ramekins into a bowl of hot water to loosen the edges. Then serve with a generous helping of stewed rhubarb and enjoy!

Vegetarian ‘Pork’ Pie Recipe

Since starting up my ‘Something Missing’ blog I have wanted to set myself a bit of a baking challenge and stretch my imagination in terms of substituting one set of ingredients with another but still getting a final result that matches the original product. After thinking long and hard about things that I enjoy that others on restricted diets may not be able to I decided upon attempting to make a traditional pork pie but replacing the pork with a vegetarian alternative. I didn’t just want to make a vegetable pie but wanted something that was similar to the texture and taste of a pork pie (not that I was planning on coming up with something that tasted majorly of pork but that had the subtle flavourings associated with the British classic). With summer coming and a season of picnics and packed lunches on the beach ahead of us (yup I am on optimistic Brit and am ever hopeful that the sun will shine all summer long) nothing beats the crumbly texture of a Melton Mowbray Pie, filled with pork and lined with luscious jelly. So I dissected each of these elements, turned them veggie and produced a final result that I think any vegetarian would be happy to eat alongside a carnivore (in fact I think a lot of carnivores would be pretty happy to eat these too)…and if you didn’t bother with an egg wash on the pastry these little beauties would be vegan too!!

INGREDIENTS

PASTRY

290g plain flour

2g salt

120g vegetable fat (I used Cookeen – a vegetable alternative to lard)

80ml water

FILLING

350g silken tofu

1 medium carrot grated

75g breadcrumbs

25g oats

1 teaspoon mustard

½ teaspoon dried sage

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon mace

Pinch of salt and pepper

1 beaten egg to glaze the pie with

JELLY          

Vegetable stock

Vegetarian setting agent (I used Vegeset)

MAKES 8

Put the flour and salt into a bowl, add half of the fat and rub into the flour mixture.

Add the remaining fat and the water to a small saucepan and place over a medium heat until the fat is melted and the mixture begins to boil.

Add the hot fat and water mixture to the flour and mix together with a wooden spoon.

As soon as the mixture is cool enough to handle knead well on a floured surface for 5 minutes until the mixture has a smooth texture.

Divide the mixture into 10 equal balls, wrap in cling film and place in the fridge overnight.

The next day remove the pastry from the fridge and allow to warm slightly so that it is easier to handle. Then pre-heat the oven to 200 deg C / 390 deg F.

Whilst the pastry is warming put the tofu into a large bowl and mash until it is broken down. Then add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix well until well combined. Set to one side.

Now is the part where you mould the pastry to form free standing pie cases (as detailed in the photos below). To start take one of the balls of dough and form it into a small disk. Then gradually work the disk with your forefingers and thumbs pushing into the centre of the disk to make an indentation whilst raising up the sides of the pastry to form a small dish. Keep doing this until the sides have been worked up to about 4-5cm in height trying to ensure and even thickness of the pastry all the way around.

Repeat this process with another 7 of the balls of pastry dough (you want to leave 2 of the balls to make lids to the pies with). Then spoon the filling mixture into each pie casing, pushing it down and packing it in quite snugly. Depending on how large you end up making your pie cases you may have some filling left over so don’t panic if you do…it’s quite yummy just gently fried up and stuck in a sandwich!!

Now take the remaining 2 balls of pastry dough and split each into 4. Using either just your finger tips or if you prefer use a rolling pin to make 8 disks that will form the lid of each pie. Place the lid onto the pie and use your fingers to pinch together the edges of the pie case and lid (see photo above). Then trim any excess from around the edges to neaten up the pie (I did this with my kitchen scissors!!)

Place the pies onto a baking tray and make a hole in the centre of each lid with the tip of a sharp knife. Then use a pastry brush to coat each pie with the beaten egg. Place the baking tray into the oven and bake for 50 minutes to an 1 hour. After this time the pies should be nicely golden brown so remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Now for the jelly (a ‘pork’ pie wouldn’t be a pork pie without it!) I used a vegetarian setting agent called Vegeset. There are other veggie friendly gelatine alternatives available on the market so best to follow the instructions for whichever you get. But I added 1 large teaspoon of Vegeset to a pint of cool vegetable stock (I cheated and used a vegetable stock cube, then added a couple of bay leaves to the stock and allowed it to infuse for a while to enhance the flavour a bit…but if you make your own stock from scratch this would probably taste even better). I then brought the stock up to the boil stirring all the time until it began to thicken.

Once you have followed your setting agents instructions transfer the jellified stock to a small pouring jug and then pour the contents into the top of each pie through the small hole in the pie lid. This process make take a bit of time and patience as you allow the stock to bubble through the hole. But once each pie has had its helping of jelly (and this may not use a whole pint of liquid, again depending on how large your pies turned out to be) leave the pies to cool.

Once cooled pack up your pies for your summer picnic…or alternatively dive right in.

Pastry recipe adapted from Channel 4 Pork Pies

Tropical Vegan Hot Cross Buns

It has been a long standing tradition in my family that we all congregate together on Good Friday at a trout farm in the midst of the Kent countryside. For most such an event would probably not signal the beginning of their Easter celebrations but for us it has become a much anticipated annual event! Part of this reason is due to the hot cross bun baking competition that accompanies the trip.

You see for as long as I can remember my extended family have all headed to the said local trout farm on the morning of Good Friday to collect fresh fish for our lunch. We go equipped with flasks of freshly brewed coffee and a batch of homemade hot cross buns and whilst waiting for our trout to be fished out of the collecting ponds we gather around a picnic bench by one of the fishing lakes surrounded by daffodils and the odd greedy goose and tuck into our ‘Easter Elevenses’. I can’t recall the exact year but on one past Good Friday rather than feasting on just one batch of hot cross buns a couple of members of the family brought along their home made goodies and the rest of us made comments on which we preferred….and before we knew it we were all getting up early before our fish farm visit to bake up a batch of the best possible hot cross buns we could muster in the hope that the rest of the family would deem ours to be their favourite. My family if nothing else are a competitive bunch and our hot cross bun baking competition has become a toughly fought event ever since.

This year I thought I had better make a hot cross bun that would fit in with the theme of my blog so went for a vegan option that replaces the normal milk and eggs used with coconut milk. And seeing as the coconut brings a bit of a Caribbean vibe to these traditional buns I decided to go the full hog and added dried papaya and pineapple for a truly tropical twist….fingers crossed the rest of my family like these on Friday!

INGREDIENTS

350g plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon mixed spice

7g sachet dried instant yeast

45g caster sugar

50g dried pineapple core

50g dried papaya chunks

50g sultanas

Zest from 1 lime

70g margarine

175ml coconut milk

FOR THE CROSSES

50g plain flour

45 ml coconut milk

FOR THE GLAZE

2 tablespoons golden syrup

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C

Put all of dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Put the coconut milk and margarine into a small saucepan and gently heat until the margarine begins to melt. Then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly so that you have a lukewarm mixture.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the coconut milk mix.

Bring the wet and dry ingredients together with your hands until a large ball of dough is formed. Tip the dough mixture out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, return to the bowl, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise for about 1 hour until doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen divide into 10 equal portions and shape each into a round ball. Evenly space the balls on a large baking tray and score the tops with a knife to make a cross. Then allow to rise again, this time for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime mix the 50g of flour and 45ml of coconut milk together in a small bowl until you have a smooth paste. Transfer the paste to a piping bag (you can make one of these out of a square of greaseproof paper, or alternatively just use a plastic sandwich bag with the corner snipped off).

Once risen pipe a cross onto the buns, along the crosses previously scored into them. Then bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Place the golden syrup in a small bowl and heat in the microwave for a couple of seconds until nicely runny. As soon as the hot cross buns are removed from the oven use a pastry brush to glaze the hot cross buns with the syrup.

Allow to cool just slightly then tuck in….add a knob of butter/vegan margarine to a warm slice of hot cross bun for an extra indulgent addition to these seasonal treats.

Foodie Pen Pal Parcel – Carob and Goji Cookies

On a fairly recent trawl of the numerous food blogs that are out there in the world wide web I stumbled across http://thisisrocksalt.com/ which is great little blog with some inspiring recipes and ideas.  So I began following @thisisrocksalt on twitter and as an added bonus won some cupcake cases as a result. The arrival of the cake cases coincided with me moving into my new house and greeted me on my arrival…a perfect culinary housewarming present. 

Getting post is always fun but food related post is just that little bit better. So when the idea of setting up a foodie pen pal network was suggested on thisisrocksalt I signed up in eager anticipation of more foodie parcels arriving on my doorstep.

The idea was actually started in the states a little while back but the basic principles are as follows…

On the 5^th of the month you get sent the contact details for some other culinary enthusiast to whom you will be sending a parcel.

You compile your parcel (with a value of no more than £10) full of foodie delights whether that be things to eat, bake with, use in the kitchen, shop bought or homemade.

You send of the parcel by the 20^th of the month.

During this time some other foodie who has signed up to the pen pal scheme (not the person you are sending your parcel to) is compiling a parcel for you.

You receive your parcel, open it and revel in the delightful morsels it contains…and graciously thank your sendee for your goodies.

Then everyone who has received a parcel blogs about it and we all get a chance to be nosey and see what everyone else sent and received!

So pretty simple and stupidly exciting!!!!

And thanks to Lucy from http://offallygood.wordpress.com/ I received the most wonderful box of delights this month.

I really had no idea what to expect (I knew what I had sent on to my FPP recipient) but was seriously not disappointed when this beautiful little box all tied up with a bow dropped through my letter box (although actually it didn’t drop through my letter box as it didn’t fit so had to be retrieved from the local postal office….which just made the situation even more suspenseful!!).  

And if the presentation wasn’t exciting enough look at what I got inside!

 The contents were as follows;

Durban Curry Mix…I am yet to use this but will be cooking up an amazing diner for me and my housemate at some point soon!

Dried pigs blood…well Lucy is eating a lot of offal this year in the aim to become an ethical carnivore…see http://offallygood.wordpress.com/ for more details…and again I haven’t put this to use yet but as someone not averse to the odd slice of black pudding this will be added to a stew soon!

Violet creams…these worried me a little as I can’t stand parma violets, but the flavours are so much more subtle than those evil purple sugary discs I avoided as a child and I have been steadily munching my way through these!!!

Himalayan Salt

Goji berries

Chilli flavoured rock…I love anything with a kick and this is certainly firey :o)

Pukka Clean Greens

Kung Fu Panda Cases…think I am in need of a mass cupcake cooking session

Hollyhock seeds…not to be munched but planted, unfortunately I only currently have a patio an no real garden but I think I shall be getting involved in some guerilla gardening soon and dispersing these on a local roundabout! 

So thank you Lucy so much for this wonderful little parcel, I couldn’t have been more delighted with its varied and exciting content.

I also thought that I had better use a few of the ingredients provided to come up with a recipe that suits my blog. So I adapted a few ideas I found on-line to make Carob and Goji cookies. These little moreish monsters not only contain a superfood but are gluten free and vegan so what’s stopping you from creating some of these yourself…well you might need to find a pen pal called Lucy first to send you some yummy things but apart from that……

INGREDIENTS

40g cup goji berries

60ml orange juice

120g rice flour

25g carob powder (can be replaced with cocoa)

80g gluten free oats

60g dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder

½ teaspoon of Himalayan salt (can use any kind of sea salt)

125ml rice milk

2 tablespoons on molasses

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C and line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper or non-stick baking parchment

Put the orange juice into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiling add the goji berries, remove from the heat and allow to stand for 10-15 minutes to allow the berries to absorb some of the juice.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl.

Add the milk, molasses, berries and any extra juice that hasn’t been absorbed by the berries to the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.

At this point the mixture will seem quite runny but don’t panic! Cover the bowl with cling film and stick it in the fridge to chill for an hour.

After an hour remove the bowl from the fridge and use a teaspoon to dollop heaped teaspoon sized blobs of the mixture to the baking tray, ensuring an inch or so is left between each blob to allow the cookie mixture to spread slightly during cooking.

Place the baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes, after this time the cookies should have firmed up nicely and have quite a glossy exterior. Remove from the oven and allow to cool then dig in!

This recipe should make approx. 20 cookies.

Thanks again to Lucy for the ingredients that inspired this creation and to My Vegan Cookbook  from which I adapted the above recipe!

Vegan Cutter Bicuits

Well Spring is well and truly here with the daffodils in bloom and the lambs prancing around the fields. In fact it has felt a lot closer to being like summer this weekend, but it’s best not to get too far ahead of ourselves as we still have Easter to look forward to. In fact Easter is just around the corner so what better spring type treat to make than some ‘Vegan Easter Bunny’ Biscuits. I actually first made these for a rabbit obsessed friend on her birthday but I think they are perfect for this time of year!

INGREDIENTS

2 ½ cups plain flour

1 cup caster sugar

175g margarine

1 tablespoon rice milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C.

Cream the margarine and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir until well combined.

Finally add the milk and bring the ingredients together with your hands until a smooth dough is formed.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for an hour.

Dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour and roll the chilled dough out until about ½ cm thick. Then cut out shapes of your choice using your chosen biscuit cutter.

Use a palette knife to transfer the shapes to a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly brown and remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then decorate with icing as desired!!

To make chocolate biscuits reduce the flour to 2 cups and add 2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder.

Tomato-less Sauce

If you have followed the blog over the last month or so you might have picked up on the fact that I have recently moved! And as well as having a new house I have a new house mate. Luckily we both share a love of all things ‘kitchen’ and are embarking on a joint journey of Rayburn baking experiments as we adjust to using an oil fired oven for the first time. But as well as becoming a baking compadre my new house mate has opened up a whole new avenue of ‘something missing’ recipes for me to experiment with because I am now living with someone who is allergic to tomatoes!

I find it nearly impossible to contemplate life without the wonders of the tomato. There is always a half squeezed tube of tomato puree lurking in my fridge, which I regard as an essential ingredient for most stews and sauces. And how I would have survived my student days without value tins of chopped tomatoes I just do not know! But apparently a tomato allergy isn’t that uncommon, possibly because these juicy little red delights are members of the nightshade family!

This discovery immediately made me set to work to create an alternative for one the other tomato products which I am never to be found without….tomato ketchup. To be honest the result of this experiment more closely resembles a spicy brown sauce than a traditional tomato sauce, but it still tastes great in a bacon butty and contains at least 3 of your 5 a day so isn’t a bad substitute for the red stuff!!

INGREDIENTS

½ red onion – finely chopped

1 clove of garlic - crushed

2 medium carrots – grated

1 medium bramley apple – peeled, cored and chopped into medium chunks

1 420g tin of apricot halves in syrup

50ml white wine vinegar

50ml balsamic vinegar

2 bay leaves

½ teaspoon black pepper corns

¼ teaspoon of allspice

¼ teaspoon of mace

1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

Put the onion, garlic, carrot, apple and drained apricots into a large saucepan.

Add enough water to the syrup from the tin of apricots to make 1 cup or 240ml of liquid and add to the saucepan. Place the saucepan over a medium heat, bring to a simmer and cook all of the ingredients for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.

Meanwhile add both vinegars with the remaining spices to a smaller saucepan and simmer, again for about 15 to 20 minutes until slightly reduced.

Once cooked place the vegetable mixture from the larger saucepan into a liquidiser and blitz until fully combined and smooth.

Now add the contents from the vinegar saucepan to the vegetable mix and pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the bay leaves and pepper corns as well as any larger lumps from the vegetable mix.

Return the sieved mixture to a large saucepan, add the sugar and simmer quite rapidly for at least 30 minutes (although this stage could take quite a bit longer depending on the water content of your original vegetable mixture) until the mixture has reduced to a thick, sticky, ketchup like consistency.

Allow to cool and store in a sealable container in the fridge, this should keep for at least a week.

Apple and Blackberry Flapjacks

So I need to apologise for the lack of recent blog updates but I have been a little preoccupied with the process of moving house. A process that was made more complicated than necessary due to the location of the Irish Sea and my new house being on the opposite side of it from where I was previously living. But after carefully packing (stuffing) all of my wordly possesions into 2 cars I have successfully made it (via ferry) to a rather rural part of Northern Ireland and am starting to settle in pretty well. I now have a beautiful sea view, a Rayburn (which I am yet to get totally to grips with) and a five minute commute to work. It all sounds rather idylllic, but broadband providers don’t seem to acknowledge that people living in such idyllic locations may want to access the internet so it has taken longer than I would have liked to be connected to the world wide web and get active on the blog front. But I am back and ready to get cooking on the Rayburn to provide more delicious ‘Something Missing’ treats!

Whilst I perfect baking in my new oven however I thought I would dig out a recipe I made ages ago and have managed to miss off of the blog to date. But here is my apple and blackberry flapjack recipe, and unlike most flapjack recipes there is no golden syrup or treacle. Instead the golden syrup is replaced with blackberry jam (which I had quite a large glut of last year after a slightly over enthusiastic blackberrying session). The blackberry jam provides the sweetness that the syrup would normally contribute to a flapjack although these flapjacks turn out slightly softer than a syrup fuelled jack and lack the chew normally associated with these treats…but a delicious tea time treat none the less, oh and they are suitable for vegans!

INGREDIENTS

250g porridge oats

150g margarine

100g blackberry jam

50g caster sugar

1 large eating apple (a crispy variety works best)

Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C / 350 deg F

Grease a 20cm square baking tray and line with greaseproof paper.

Put the margarine, jam and sugar into a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Occassionally stir the ingredients until melted and once well combined remove the saucepan from the heat.

Core the apple and dice into small chunks (I left the peel on, but you can always peel the apple first if you prefer). Then place the diced apple and oats into the saucepan and stir all of the ingredients together until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the lined baking tray and press flat with the back of a spoon ensuring the mixture is evenly distributed in the tin.

Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the top is golden brown in colour.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before carefully turning the tin over onto a flat surface. Then remove the baking tray and greaseproof paper and slice into squares or fingers before serving.