rootingaboot

Creole Rice

This is an exceptionally tasty, smoky one-pot rice dish that sets your taste buds alight in a good way.

My tips for this recipe: As someone who uses an electric cooker (not gas) I just deseeded the red peppers, sliced and roasted them for half an hour at 200ºC. Make sure to drizzle some vegetable oil on them first. I’ve also substituted the celery (not a big fan) with roasted aubergine and/or roasted sweet potato. Do these at the same time as your peppers and Bob’s your uncle. Cayenne pepper can also be replaced with a small green chilli. Oh, and jasmine rice isn’t essential. Any old white rice will do.

The Cake Fridge & Tea Room, Roadside, East Burrafirth, Shetland Islands

https://www.facebook.com/The-Cake-Fridge-Shetland-1930633410580496/

On a pleasant green hillside with wild flowers blooming all around, there resides The Cake Fridge & Tea Room on the west coast of the Shetland mainland. Newly opened, it’s an old croft house sympathetically converted into a beautiful tearoom that has VEGAN FOOD AND CAKES. Just thought I’d highlight that important point.

In the tearoom they offer freshly made vegan cheese sandwiches, a good selection of quality teas and their own ground coffee served in cafetieres so you get more than one cup’s worth – my kind of place. We opted to sample some of the vegan cakes made daily on the premises. Both chocolate and toffee cake looked so good we wanted a taste of each as demonstrated in the photo. These cakes satisfied my sweet tooth no end.

They also have a 24-hour cake fridge outside the tearoom. People passing by can stop and pick up some homemade cakes on their way home and leave the money in an honesty box – the beauty of island life. I guess you’re beginning to understand that Shetlanders love their fancies.

Nearby is the waterfall at the Burn of Lunklet (well worth a visit).

Watch out for trowes (Shetland trolls): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trow_(folklore)

In a little field, just by the tearoom, are two bonny little goats so stop and say hello. But be warned, the sweetie pie below is the friendly one. The other goat is a grumpy so-and-so.

‘Rub a bit more behind the ear if you don’t mind.’

Beach Clean at Mavis Grind, Northmavine, Shetland Islands

Since I was encouraging everyone else to try the 2Minute Beach Clean, I thought I’d better do one myself. And what better place than Shetland? Shetlanders are already pretty good at this type of thing. Every year, about April time, they hold Da Voar Redd Up that sees over 20% of the population do a gargantuan litter pick around the beaches, coastline and roadsides. No mean feat.

https://www.shetlandamenity.org/da-voar-redd-up

The litter here was mainly plastic rope and bottle tops.

We picked a pebbled beach at Mavis Grind (which translates as ‘the gate on the narrow isthmus’) situated in the north mainland. This is where the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea are but a stone’s throw away from each other. It was used as a shortcut up until the 1950s when men would drag their boats from one side to the other.

https://www.shetland.org/plan/areas/north-mainland

I have a confession to make. The 2Minute Beach Clean turned into twenty odd minutes because we became like magpies and couldn’t stop. Like true Shetlanders we rewarded our hard work with a well-brewed flask of tea and the infamous big biscuits sourced from a local bakery.

2Minute Beach Clean

https://www.beachclean.net

If you like to stroll along the beach with the wind in your hair, can I interest you in the #2minuteBeachClean?

With summer here (allegedly), it’s great to smell the salty ocean and feel the sand in between your toes without having to navigate through piles of plastic rubbish.

Don’t get angry about it, use that valuable energy to get active and constructive. Just take a bag and pick up for two minutes. If every beach visitor did this, can you imagine the impact?

This has become a global movement and it can make such a difference. Check out their Instagram account here and post the fruits of your labour for the world to see:

https://www.instagram.com/2minutebeachclean/

Rooting Aboot’s Banana Bread

How can you bake without eggs? Pretty easily as it turns out. This banana bread is smashing with a cup of tea. Add some nuts or chocolate chips to this recipe. Go on. Knock yourself out.

2 very ripe, soft mushy bananas

75g Pure Dairy Free Sunflower Spread

100g brown sugar

225g Self-Raising flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

Heat the oven to 200ºC / Gas Mark 6 / 400F

Grease an 18cm x 7cm metal loaf tin and put some greaseproof paper in the base of it.
In a bowl, mash the bananas up until they are runny.
Melt the sunflower spread gently in a pan and add the brown sugar. Let the sugar completely dissolve.
Pour this sugary sunflower spread into the bowl with the bananas and give it a good stir.
Then add sifted self-raising flour and baking powder.
Combine well, but don’t overdo – it should have a thick consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin evenly.
Bake in the centre of the oven for twenty minutes solid. Then take it out and cover the top with tinfoil and bake for another ten to twenty minutes until it’s cooked (depending on your oven). Keep checking every ten minutes.
Test with a skewer at all the above stages. If the skewer comes out clean then it’s baked properly.

Ranjit’s Kitchen, Glasgow

607 Pollokshaws Road, Queens Park, Glasgow G41 2QG

Tel: 0141 423 8222

https://www.instagram.com/ranjitskitchen/

Ranjit’s Kitchen is something of an institution in Glasgow’s south side. The head chef is Ranjit herself who creates the authentic taste of the Panjab and brings it to us in an informal and wholesome way. There is always a new daily sabji (curry) and daal to try, accompanied by two rotis (no rice), as this is the tradition for the region. We always choose one of each and Rooting Aboot suggests you order the special pakora because it’s the best in Glasgow. Tell me if I’m wrong.

Nobody does it better. Even Carly Simon would agree.

You can’t book in advance, which is no bad thing. The restaurant has four long wooden tables and you just sit down when space becomes available. As a result, customers don’t hog them or linger too long when it gets really busy. Everyone just eats, enjoys the food and kindly vacates to let others do the same. They don’t sell alcohol, so this place is a bam-free zone.

You never leave Ranjit’s hungry. Please roll me out when I’m finished.

They updated the menu to clearly show what’s vegan and vegetarian. Oh, and it’s cheap as chips too, which makes Ranjit’s such a winner in my book.

Shiny, shiny happy bathroom

Even vegans like a clean bathroom, you know. Although this isn’t the most glamorous of subjects, let’s face it, we all have to go in there and clean the place. And after many years of trying wishy-washy, hippy-drippy stuff, Rooting Aboot is happy to report that I have finally found a bathroom cleaner that’s the dog’s bollocks.

This stuff makes my taps sparkle and the sink, bath and toilet shine so much that I’m almost tempted to put my shades on (or get a lower watt lightbulb). It also ticks the required boxes: no residues, eco friendly, pet friendly and plant based. Please note that I’m not getting paid to advertise this, so behold the Ecozone.

This stuff is the business: https://ecozone.com/products/bathroom-cleaner/

Marine Conservation Society

Website: https://www.mcsuk.org

We’ve all seen the dispiriting images of beaches strewn with litter and sea life trapped and ensnared in plastic rubbish. What can we do about it individually and collectively?

The Marine Conservation Society “work to ensure our seas are healthy, pollution free and protected” and offer suggestions on how we can all do our bit to help the marine environment around our shores.

They are active in Scotland. To find out more click on the link below:

https://www.mcsuk.org/scotland/scotland

They do really important campaign work. Last summer they petitioned Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, to approve 41 new marine conservation zones in England and this has become a reality.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/31/uk-creates-blue-belt-of-marine-protected-areas-twice-englands-size

Every signature counts and it’s easy to add your name to these crucial campaigns. Their e-news is also worth a read.

https://www.mcsuk.org/campaigns/

Suissi Vegan Asian Kitchen, Glasgow

494 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow G11 6SL

Tel: 0141 339 9331

New kid on the vegetable chopping block is Asian fusion restaurant Suissi. Rooting Aboot was very excited upon reading their menu and headed to Partick to give it the once over. They use Facebook to advertise. Their menus can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/suissiveganasiankitchen/menu/

The main restaurant at the back of the premises is a smart, private and very traditional looking Chinese style restaurant. For starters we tried the crispy vegetable wonton, satay skewers and fried vegetable gyoza. We were blown away at the beautiful presentation. They tasted just as good as they looked, with a good combination of heat, sweet and salty to satisfy.

From left is crispy vegetable wonton, satay skewers and fried vegetable gyoza.

It’s also a great idea to let customers choose their preferred noodle and soup base combo. We had vermicelli spicy sour and ramen laksa. Both bowls contained green beans, tofu, spring onions and two crispy vegetable wontons. Very good value for money and incredibly tasty. It will take dedicated perseverance to get bored of Suissi’s soup based noodles.

From left is ramen laksa and vermicelli spicy sour.

Their banana pancakes rounded off a very enjoyable first trip to Suissi. We’ll be back. That’s a promise, by the way.

Samosa Pie

What could be better than a big, spicy Samosa Pie? Not much, really. We ate this handsome beast with some boiled new potatoes and it was tremendous.

My tips for this recipe: Save yourself the hassle and forget the tedious pastry making. Buy two 320g Just-Rol Shortcrust Pastry Ready Rolled Sheets instead. You won’t need to use all of it, but it ensures you’ll have enough. Under no circumstances use curry powder because it’s bleurgh. Garam masala is a much better alternative. Bake in a loose bottom cake tin so it can be lifted out in its full glory.

To prove Rooting Aboot really does try and test all the recipes posted, here is one I made earlier.

Who ate all the pies? Me, and I’m not sorry.

Find the recipe here: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a26987403/vegan-samosa-pie/

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