Author: rootingaboot

Please note: No amphibians were harmed during this activity.

Now the clocks have gone back and the nights are fair drawing in, it’s time to batten down the hatches and drookle everything in hot, thick gravy. Toad in the hole is one meal where this is essential. Getting a good spongy result has always been an issue without eggs. No more. Look what happened when I tried Gaz Oakley’s recipe! The man’s a wonder, so he is.

This toad shrunk clear of the sides (good sign) and check the golden colour – I was drooling. Could have kissed it. Use vegan Cumberland sausages – these Sainsbury’s ones are pretty tasty:

For lump free gravy, always mix original Bisto powder in a cup first with cold water before adding to a pan of boiling water. If it’s too runny, then repeat the above. If it’s too thick, add COLD water to the pan, stir vigorously and bring the gravy back to the boil. Sorted.

Click below to find Gaz’s recipe:

My brother mentioned Jamie Oliver’s mushroom cannelloni recipe and suggested I should have a go at a vegan version. So I did, and it was okay. Only okay. The problem with Jamie is he tells you to season to perfection (cop out alert). No further instructions – nowt, nada. Herbs are non-existent too. Disgraceful.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/mushroom-recipes/mushroom-cannelloni/

While the stages and measurements in this recipe are good, I wanted a bit more flavour and devised my own still following his methods. To veganise Jamie’s recipe just replace coo juice with soya milk, use a hard vegan cheese like Violife and try this vegetable combination instead.

Rooting Aboot’s Mediterranean Cannelloni ingredients:

• 1 red onion
• 1 red pepper
• 6 – 8 chestnut mushrooms
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 teaspoons fresh thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Wilt a bag of spinach and spread on the bottom of a baking dish. Follow Jamie’s instructions for the white sauce. Pour one third of the sauce over the spinach. Load the cannelloni. Pour the rest on the pasta and bake for 45 minutes.

I think mine’s tastier. Get in the sea, Jamie boy!

The Hug and Pint hasn’t reopened yet and I’m missing it terribly. Their pan-Asian food is consistently brilliant, but much to Rooting Aboot’s excitement, they are going to publish a Hug and Pint cookbook, and this household was given a sneaky peek to some of the recipes because we’ve got it on pre-order. Ya dancer!

With all my Christmases coming early, I set about planning a couple of homage nights with chopsticks and everything! Both meals took a good couple of hours to prepare, but man, speak about delicious! The first night we had mushroom and cashew nut curry, puffed rice salad and chilli cucumber peanuts (see top photo). This was followed by a silken tofu and coconut dessert topped with fresh raspberry and cherry coulis.

Lims Chinese Supermarket on Cambridge Street in Glasgow is THE place to go for all the special ingredients required. What a helpful man Mr Lim is too – we got everything we needed in one shop.

The second night was Sichuan tofu, hot and sour potatoes and chilli cucumber peanuts with boiled rice. A Scottish company called Shore makes some cracking Asian Peking seaweed chips so we had some of them along with it.

Once again I practiced the silken tofu dessert. This time I used frozen black cherries cos it was a hot day.

I won’t disclose any of The Hug and Pint’s foodie secrets here, so please contact them direct for enquiries about their cookbook: https://www.facebook.com/TheHugandPint

This sausage cassoulet is a one-pot Rooting Aboot favourite – it’s quick, easy to make and there’s hardly any dishes to wash up afterwards. Fry’s sausages work really well in this recipe because they keep their shape and remain firm.

Chop an onion, two carrots, half a neep and about eight small new potatoes to roughly the same size. Add boiling water to the pan until it just covers the vegetables and mix in one Knorr stock pot. Put the lid on and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 – 20 minutes till the vegetables are soft and cooked through.

Add Fry’s sausages and simmer again for 10 minutes. Now mix in Merchant Gourmet’s Tomatoey French Puy and Green Lentils and three to four tablespoons of tomato puree to thicken up the sauce. Cook for another five minutes and serve.

Note: Any kind of root vegetable can be used here including parsnips, brussel spouts, celeriac, fennel, sweet potato etc.

And for a sweet something to have after my dinner, choc chip oat cookies are just the biscuit (except they’re cookies) with a cup of builder’s tea. For that recipe go to February 2020.

During lockdown Rooting Aboot has been pining for The Flying Duck’s seitan burgers and daydreaming about future times when their scrummy specimens can be reunited with my mouth. With no alternative in sight, I’ve scoured the land for wheat gluten (the Co-op sells it) and sought the helpful assistance of Gaz Oakley’s recipe book ‘Vegan 100’ (Quadrille, 2018).

The secret to tasty seitan burgers is the kneading – no delicate handling of the dough please. A good heavy-handed pummelling is required. It makes all the difference to the burger’s texture.

Divide the mixture into ten burgers and simmer for fifty-five minutes.

Place in a bun with vegan mayonnaise, gherkins, tomato and lettuce and accompany with some chips and a corn on the cob.

Gaz Oakley also has a great website called Avant-Garde Vegan with lots of recipes that has me drooling at https://www.avantgardevegan.com/recipes/

The seitan burger isn’t on the above website, unfortunately, so here’s the ingredients and instructions below.

The book is certainly worth a look:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/vegan-100/gaz-oakley/9781787131248

It’s important to ensure we all get our five-a-day. Even better if it can be counted in cake form. This recipe has lots of carrots (good for the eyes), orange juice and zest, sultanas and desiccated coconut so technically we’re eating fruit and vegetables. It also contains a good amount of walnuts, which is an excellent source of iron, magnesium and B vitamins. Who knew cake eating could be so healthy? Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

This recipe is taken from ‘The Vegan Baker’ by Dunja Gulin (Ryland Peters & Small, 2017). If you buy the book, there is a couple of things I should mention. It took 1 hour 30 minutes to bake in my oven (the book says 30 minutes but no way was it ready in that time) and I covered the cake in tinfoil after the first hour.

Cake ingredients:

• 265 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 40 g desiccated coconut
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 g coconut oil
• 170 g golden syrup
• Freshly squeezed juice and grated zest of 1 orange, plus extra for frosting
• ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon rum
• 330 g grated carrots
• 60 g sultanas
• 80 g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas Mark 4 / 350 F. Grease and line a 7 ½ inch loose bottomed cake tin.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cinnamon and desiccated coconut together in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the vanilla extract, coconut oil, golden syrup, orange juice and zest, cider vinegar and rum.
4. Combine both bowls and mix until smooth.
5. Using a spatula, add the grated carrots, sultanas and chopped walnuts.
6. Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Place tin foil over the tin after 1 hour then continue baking for another 30 minutes. Test with a skewer, but please note this is a very moist cake even when cooked.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 220 ml oat milk
• 2 tablespoons oat or soya cream
• 3 tablespoons golden syrup
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon of finely grated orange zest

1. When the cake is cool, put all the frosting ingredients into a pan and whisk well to dissolve the flour.
2. Place over a medium heat and keep whisking as it heats up.
3. The mixture will start to thicken – keep whisking until it is thick enough to spread on the cake.
4. Using a spatula, cover the cake with the frosting. Allow to set and cool completely before slicing.

As Rooting Aboot is quite partial to the odd crunchy Biscoff biscuit, and guilty of dunking until it falls into my cup, this cake just couldn’t be resisted. Vegan cakes can often be meagre affairs. Not this baby. It’s a big brute.

My recipe tips:

There is a couple of things I suggest to prevent the cake becoming too dry. Bake it at 180 C (Gas Mark 4) and test after thirty minutes. I personally think the recommended temperature of 190 C is too hot and forty-five minutes bake time is a bit too long for sandwich tins. Probably depends on your oven though.

Be generous with the Lotus Biscoff spread to really enhance the flavour.

I didn’t bother adding Trex shortening to the butter icing and just used Pure Sunflower spread, icing sugar and a couple of teaspoons of the salted caramel flavouring which worked out fine.

Here’s the link to the recipe: