Hannah’s heavily reworked mushroom moussaka.

hannahnicklin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:10:08 +0000

I’ve spent 3 days reworking this to satisfaction. Based on the Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook which included potato and no herbs or spices, and some weird and not-quite-enough quantities (at least, when you scale it down to cook for 1, anyway). Tastes much more like moussaka now. Unfortunately the images are of my first attempt so you’re missing some of the ingredients (namely nutmeg, oregano, cinnamon, soya cream, wine) and you’ll see an egg and potato that I took out. Anyway, I’ll explain as I go. And promise you it’s worth it.

Prep Time: 20 mins | Cook Time: 30-35 mins | Servings: 2
Nutritional Info: 235 kcal 19g carbs 11g fat 9g protein

Preheat the oven to 220’c, brush oil very thinly on the sliced aubergine, season well with salt and pepper, and spreading out on the baking dish, bake for 20 min (ignore the potato).

Melt the butter in a large pan and soften the onion and garlic,

increase the heat, add the mushrooms and a pinch of oregano, and stir continuously for 2-3 mins until soft.

Splash in the wine, reduce, then add the tomato and a pinch of cinnamon, reduce the heat and simmer for 8 mins until reduced, set aside.

Then melt the sauce butter in a large pan over a low heat, add the flour and whisk for 1 min,

slowly add the milk and stir continuously, simmer unit thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream and parmesan, and a pinch of nutmeg.

When the aubergine is done, reduce the oven to 180’c, pop half the mushroom mix in the baking dish, cover with half the aubergine, then the rest of the mushroom, a layer of the rest of the aubergine, and pour the cheese sauce over the top.

Sprinkle the sauce with the remaining parmesan, bake for 30-35 mins. Stand for 10 mins before serving with an ace side salad.

Soya hot chocolate. Better than all the other hot chocolates.

hannahnicklin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:35:00 +0000

Being lactose intolerant and stuff I’ve been making this soya hot chocolate for so long, that it’s only just occurred to me that people might not know how to make a yummy vegan version of THE KING OF HOT DRINKS – especially if you’re used to using the horrible hot chocolate mixes with milk powder, etc. In fact this is the only hot drink that I like (you all know that tea and coffee are horrible, right?), and having tried it with regular milk, I can confidently say that even if you’re not vegan or lactose intolerant you should ALWAYS make hot chocolate with soya milk; it’s thicker, and slightly sweeter. You’re going to want to experiment a little with sugar depending on what brand soya milk you use (Alpro Soya sweetened, for example, is much more vanilla-y and sweeter than the version I use, for example, so I’d back off on the sugar), or even try almond milk or hazelnut milk. Here’s my basic recipe though:

Serves: 1 large mug
Prep/cook time: 5 mins
Nutritional info: 172 kcal

MAKING:

pour about 15ml of the soya milk into the bottom of the mug you’re making the hot chocolate in, and then put the rest on a pan on the hob. Keep a very close eye on it and don’t be tempted to microwave it, soya milk tips over into crazy foaming monster stage very quickly. don’t walk away from it. You have been warned. Anyway, while bringing the soya milk to the boil, put a tiny bit of cinnamon (like a 1/12 of a tsp), the heaped cocoa, and sugar in with the 15ml of cool soya milk and mix to a loose paste. Add a little more of warm soya from the pan to loosen it if you want.

When the soya milk is bubbling, and just before it starts to foam, pour the milk into the mug about a 1/4 full, thoroughly mix the paste so you don’t have clumps of paste in the bottom, then add the rest of the just-foaming soya milk (catching the skin bit that sometimes forms, if you can)

et voila!

Variations: mix half soya cream with soya milk, and add melted spiced chocolate to the paste for SUPER luxury hot chocolate

soya milk – Food That We Make

Hannah’s heavily reworked mushroom moussaka.

Soya hot chocolate. Better than all the other hot chocolates.