A Vegetarian Christmas

Vegetarian Christmas

Many allotment gardeners walk away from their plots in the winter as they see gardening as a spring and summer or autumn occupation when harvesting vast amounts of fruit and other produce for preserves or just enjoying. Of course, as long as our plots and gardens are well maintained it is very much the choice of each individual how he/she chooses to garden.

I guess I must have a peasant mentality as I find that, while I certainly grow produce for eating and enjoying during the kinder months [when the living is easy] I plan and work towards the winter months and for the real ‘lean’ months of spring time. Of course, all our planning can come to nothing in very harsh winters when our carefully nurtured brassicas collapse under very harsh winters and it is impossible to hack root vegetables out of deeply frozen ground. For the last two winters my brassicas have been most disappointing and I been forced to resort to my freezer for vegetables stored in the good times or even - whisper it – the vegetable shop or supermarket.

So far, this autumn has been disappointingly wet and stormy and I have not carried out or completed chores which should have been done a month ago. At least I managed to get most of my autumn digging done.

I’m not a vegetarian but, over many years have catered for many friend and family with different dietary needs and choices. My grandson, now aged 13 months is seriously allergic to all dairy and all eggs and egg products, which require a bit of thought and preparation. This Christmas, I will have all of my family at home with me and while I plan to have the traditional roast turkey and spicy roasted gammon, I will also make an ever popular dish in my family – a Nut Roast.

Nut Roast

The time in making of this dish is in the preparation of the ingredients. Once everything is prepared, it takes only a couple of minutes to combine them put the ‘roast’ in the oven. It does take a little effort but I have found this dish to be very popular for Christmas either as the main course or cold with salads and pickles. It has also been very popular at dinner parties when I have been entertaining vegetarians – I have found that given a choice, even some of the meat eaters will opt for the nut roast [perhaps that has something to say about my meat dishes rather than the nut roast but, I’d prefer to think not!]

Replacing the butter with margarine or olive/rapeseed oil and leaving out the egg will also make this dish suitable for vegans however, the roast may break up more easily without the egg to bind it.

Ingredients

400gm [12oz ] mixed nuts chopped finely -  I use a mini chopper which is just brilliant for small quantities of all sorts of stuff from herbs, spices, breadcrumbs, baby food and, of course, nuts. Don’t chop too finely.

[You can use most types of nuts from hazelnuts, peanuts (not salted), Brazil nuts, pistachio nuts, walnuts, cashew nuts, pecans but, be sparing with walnuts as they have a very dominant flavour]

1 large onion – peeled and chopped very finely

4 – 5 plump garlic cloves – peeled and chopped

1 good sized leek – trimmed, washed and cut into small pieces

100gm [ 4oz ] butter

1 medium potato – peeled, cooked and mashed

1 small parsnip or part of a larger parsnip – peeled, cooked and mashed

75 gm [3oz] – fine breadcrumbs – from a loaf of fresh or slightly stale bread [not commercial breadcrumbs from a supermarket]

1 lemon [or lime] – grated zest and juice

2 dsp. mixed herbs – preferably fresh [if using dried herbs reduce the quantity – if using frozen increase the quantity] – thyme, sage, marjoram, tarragon, rosemary (use sage and rosemary sparingly as they have a stronger flavour which can swamp your dish.

Lots of chopped parsley – 2 – 3 Tblsp.

Salt and freshly crushed black pepper.

2 tsp – cumin seeds – lightly toasted and crushed

2 medium eggs – beaten

A little vegetable stock – as needed

Method

·         Melt the butter in a pan and ‘sweat’ the chopped onion. Add the chopped garlic, leek and cumin, sweat for another couple of minutes, being careful to not singe the garlic and leek.

·         Add the chopped nuts and mix in well.

·         Add the cooked and mashed potato and parsnip.

·         Add the breadcrumbs lemon zest and juice and thoroughly mix.

·         As the mixture cools down a bit add the salt and pepper, herbs and chopped parsley and the beaten egg.

·         Mix well then add a little stock to the mixture to ensure it is binding together.

·         Put the mixture into a well greased and lined loaf tin [900gm /2lb size]

·         Bake  in oven 180ºC, Mark 5 gas for approximately 1 hour or until brown on top – take care to not burn the top.

·         Turn out. Allow to cool slightly before slicing. Serve with apple or cranberry sauce or redcurrant jelly, gravy made form vegetable stock and roast root vegetables and potatoes.

 While I have been known to buy goose fat to make ‘excellent’ roast potatoes and I have even tried Nigella’s semolina coated roast potatoes, I am conscious of the high ‘animal fat’ content of these recipes and I’ve found my own almost as good – with all the other flavours around in Christmas dinner I believe it is the texture which is paramount:

Roast potatoes

Peel the potatoes and cut into even sized pieces. Par-boil in salted water until the outsides of the potatoes are starting to soften. Drain the potatoes and put them into a colander or large sieve and shake them around to ‘roughen’ the outsides. Put into a roasting pan where oil [ my choice is rapeseed oil – I have used olive oil successfully but olive oil has a much lower ‘smoke point’ and this can impart a burnt flavour has been pre-heated to sizzling hot in a hot oven. Coat the potatoes in the oil and return the pan to the oven.  Turn the potatoes occasionally to ensure they are brown and crisp on all sides.

I do like some mash potatoes with Christmas dinner as well as roast but, as a more flavoursome version try this Mustard Mash:

Mustard Mash Potatoes

1 kg [2lb] potatoes – floury potatoes are best

3 good sized tsp whole grain mustard

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

75gm [3oz] grated cheddar cheese

50 gm [2oz] butter

250ml [ ½pt] milk

Method

·         Wash and peel the potatoes and cut into even sized pieces. If you are using floury potatoes, it is best to steam them or they will break apart. Cook until the potatoes are soft all the way through.

·         Mash or put through a potato ricer.

·         While still hot, add the cheese and butter and mix in until well melted.

·         Add the milk, mustard and seasoning and stir in well. Reheat over a low flame to ensure the potato is hot without overcooking the cheese.

·         Serve with a topping of finely chopped parsley.

I think roast parsnips are also an excellent addition to any roast but, they don’t take as long to cook as roast potatoes so add them to the roasting pan a little later, although they do respond well to the same parboiling and ‘roughing’ the outsides as the potatoes. However, my favourite parsnip recipe:

Parsnip Croquettes ( recipe from ‘Gourmet Britain’) - this is a wonderful for all roasted meat dishes. While this is not my recipe it is exactly as I would have made these croquettes when I was at college. Totally delicious!

·         900g/2 lbs Parsnips, peeled and with any hard core removed - cut into pieces

·         225g/8 oz Potato (floury-type), peeled and cut into pieces the same side as the parsnips

·         1 teaspoon (5ml) Salt

• 60g/2 oz Butter
• plenty of freshly-ground Black Pepper
• 1 scant teaspoon (3ml) freshly-grated Nutmeg
• Dried Breadcrumbs
• 2 Eggs, beaten with a little salt
• Oil for deep frying or oil and butter

Method:

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the parsnip and potato pieces.
2. Simmer them for about 20 minutes or until they're tender.
3. Drain the vegetables and pass through a mouli-légume - or mash carefully to remove all lumps.
4. Mix in the butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg.
5. Allow to cool until they"re cool enough to handle then shape them into croquettes a little bigger than a cork.
6. Dip each in the egg wash, then roll them in the breadcrumbs until they are fully covered.
7. Deep-fry at 200°C/400°F until they're golden brown or shallow fry in a mixture of oil and butter.

Squashes and pumpkins have been brilliant this season. I have had over 80 to use or give away [although many of these have been the small ‘hand-full’ varieties like Baby Bear. I still have, after inundating friends and family about 40 to use before they start to go off in the spring [I think a few more recipes for using them would be a good idea! But for Christmas Dinner try this:

Roasted Butternut Squash with Roasted Potatoes

1 – 2 medium onions - red onions for preference – peeled and cut into chunks

½ kilo suitable roasting potatoes – washed, peeled and cut into large chunks

1 medium butternut squash – sliced, peeled and deseeded then cut into chunks

1 garlic bulb – separate the cloves and skin them

A good dollop of top quality olive oil

A good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Some sprigs of rosemary

Method

·         Prepare the vegetables.

·         Heat the oil in a roasting pan until hot - 200ºC, No 6 gas

·         Toss the prepared squash, onions and potatoes in the hot oil.

·         Add the seasoning, herbs and garlic and return to the oven.

·         Cook for a further 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are golden brown and crunchy ( this will depend on the size you have cut them.

·         Serve immediately with any roast meat or with a nut roast.

Note – an excellent choice for Christmas dinner

Roasted Baby Pumpkins

Allow 1 small pumpkin per person

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

1 plump garlic clove per pumpkin [more if liked] – peeled and crushed or chopped

1 small sprig or a few leaves of rosemary for each half pumpkin

Olive oil

Method

·         Remove the stalk and wash the outside of the pumpkin carefully.

·         Slice the pumpkin in half through the middle, horizontally and scoop out the seeds.

·         Place the half pumpkins on an oven-proof tray or dish. Add the chopped garlic, salt and pepper and a small sprig of rosemary and a spray or a teaspoonful of olive oil.

·         Bake in a moderate oven No5 Gas or 180ºC for approx 30 – 40 minutes. Check with a skewer that the flesh of the pumpkin is properly cooked.

·         Serve immediately.

An Alternative Sweet Mincemeat

Of course you can also add sultanas and raisins to this recipe but, one member of my family does not like those fruits. I have found that she really likes this alternative.

Ingredients

100gms [4oz] chopped dried apricots

100gms [4oz] chopped dates

100gms [4oz] chopped crystallised or glace ginger

100gms [4oz] chopped pistachio nuts
100gms [4oz] chopped glace cherries

2 apples [eating or cooking] – washed and grated off the core

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange

50gm soft brown sugar

2 - 3 Tblsp sherry, cointreau or cognac [optional]

Spices can be added or left out, as you wish - ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground nutmeg, ¼ tsp ground cloves.

Method

·         Combine the ingredients in a bowl adding more sherry/cognac/etc if you wish for a more alcohol flavoured mincemeat [the alcohol will dissipate as the mince pies are cooked].

·         This mixture will store successfully in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

·         Use as for commercial sweet mince.

Mayan Gold Potatoes

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Mayan Gold Potatoes

Well I have long finished my early and 2nd early potatoes and have started to harvest some of my main crops. This is not just because I want to eat my own potatoes rather than those I might buy in the shops but, also because I am worried about blight – always!

I have taken to growing, as my staple crop, varieties which are blight resistant ( that doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t get blight, just that they are less likely to – we must still keep an eye on them, especially in allotments where blight is more likely to be about as many of our neighbours will not treat the crop nor deal with the problem).

Of course, the potatoes I plant will not all be blight resistant, as I like to experiment with different varieties. This year I have tried out 3 new varieties - for me!  British Queen is, of course an old favourite and I’m waiting to see what she is like. However, I have also tried the much-lauded Purple Majesty. Not available as a seed potato, I bought a bag of them from Sainsburys – well a few bags really as I wanted to eat them as well seeing what they taste like. As they really are purple – all the way through, even when they are cooked (just imagine a plateful of purple mash beside your chop), it is quite disconcerting. I found them somewhat different in flavour from the one I was expecting (the shop ones, that is). Not unpleasant but, not brilliant either. The few I grew(and I have said this in a previous Blog, were okay as plants – not outstandingly healthy, but okay). So far I have only tried them boiled and mashed or oven cooked in a foil envelop with other vegetables, herbs and seasoning. They were fine – totally acceptable and with their reputation for being very healthy with their high antioxidant levels, I think I will grow a few of them again, perhaps with a bit more care and attention. I hope they will be available next season as proper seed potatoes.

I love potatoes and am always looking for a new or different variety which might live up to my childhood memories of what potatoes tasted like. Well, this year I found it ! Halleulia! Mayan Gold! I will quote here from their website ( www.mayanpotatoes.co.uk) –

Mayan Gold is unique. Other varieties simply don't have its rich, golden coloured flesh with the real taste of potatoes that we all remember from childhood. That's because Mayan Gold is the first Phureja (pronounced fur-ekka) variety to be made available in the UK, taking the potato industry by storm and winning plaudits from many of the UK's top chefs including Antony Worrall Thompson who uses the variety in his own restaurant.  Brought to the UK by Greenvale AP and the Scottish Crop Research Institute as part of the Commonwealth Breeding Programme, Mayan Gold has been bred from species found growing in the wilds of Peru, some of which are over 7000 years old. Whilst many of the more popular varieties available in the UK have been bred for appearance and yield, Mayan Gold retains all of the fantastic flavours and nutritional levels exhibited by the wild plant.

I have put, on my allotment spreadsheet, that I bought my seed potatoes from Thompson and Morgan and I do hope they will have them again next year. If not, I will just have to save a few for my own seed or look around for another supplier. I didn’t know if they were maincrop potatoes but chitted them along with my other varieties. They seem to be ready quite early so, I planted them at the same time as my 2nd Earlies in the middle of March.. I have harvested them now( mid-late July) as the plants look as though they have finished growing (and they were never the most robust nor lush plants I have grown anyway). However, the crop has been very heavy, each plant producing approx 1½ - 2 kilo of potatoes. I could compare them with the shape and size of a conference pear, some a bit smaller and some larger. Perhaps, if I had left them longer, they would have grown larger but – the blight threat is always there..

So far, I have tried them as mashed potatoes, spicy potato wedges, roasties and a couple of recipes of my own. The flavour is outstanding! They are a dry potato which will cook very quickly – really, I mean this!

Do try these recipes:- a couple of them are modified recipe ideas from the website:

Mayan Gold Potato Recipes

Mayan Gold Roast Potatoes
Ingredients: peeled Mayan Gold potatoes, olive oil, sea salt
• Cut the potatoes into even sized chunks and blanch in boiling water for 2 – 3 minutes.
• Shake the chunks gently in a colander to roughen their surfaces.

• Place the chunks on a roasting tin with high quality olive oil ( I heat the oil in the roasting tin, in the oven first, so that I am adding the potatoes to hot oil).
• Shake some sea salt over and bake in a hot oven - 220°C, gas mark 7 for 30 or 40 minutes, turning them occasionally until golden and crispy.
• (try also with chopped roughly chopped garlic and sprigs of rosemary).



Spicy Mayan Gold Wedges

Ingredients:
450g(1lb) fresh Mayan Gold potatoes
25g(1oz) butter and 3 tsp oil.
1 finely chopped onion
1 red chilli( de-seeded and sliced)
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
Little water
Fresh coriander leaves
• Melt the butter and the oil in a large pan.
• Add the onion and cook over a medium heat until soft but, not coloured.
• Add the chilli, coriander, turmeric and cumin.
• Cut the potatoes into wedges (wash but don’t peel) and add these to the pan.
• Toss well and fry for 2 minutes.
• Add a splash of water and a sprinkle of sea salt.
• Put in a hot oven - 200°C, gas mark 6 for 15 – 20 minutes, making sure all the water has evaporated.
• Put in a hot serving dish and scatter with fresh coriander and lemon wedges.

Mashed Mayan Gold Potatoes

Ingredients:
450g(1lb) Mayan Gold potatoes
25g(1oz) butter, a little milk, 1 – 2 Tblsp.
½ tsp. Wholegrain mustard
Freshly crushed black pepper and sea salt to taste
• Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks and steam the for 10 – 12 minutes ( this time can vary so, do watch the potatoes to make sure they don’t overcook and disintegrate.
• Heat the milk, then remove the potatoes from the heat and add the hot milk and butter. Mash well or put through a ricer.
• Add the mustard, salt and pepper to taste and mix in well. (Don’t use too much mustard or seasoning which might overpower the flavour of the potatoes).

Mayan Gold Potato and vegetable envelopes
Ingredients
450g (1lb) Mayan Gold potatoes - washed but not peeled
3 cloves of garlic - peeled and sliced
3 small tomatoes - cut into wedges
1 courgette sliced
A handful of Runner Beans and/or French Beans - washed and cut into suitable lengths
A small bunch of parsley, chopped roughly
A small handful of tarragon, lemon thyme and marjoram, washed and roughly chopped
Freshly crushed blackpepper and sea salt to taste
* Cut the potatoes into wedges or small chunks.
* Prepare 3 large squares of tinfoil ( greaseproof paper will work just as well), about 30 - 40cm ( if you want to add more vegetables you might find that you will need a larger square).
* Place the potatoes and the vegetables onto the middle of the tinfoil, add the garlic, herbs and the seasoning.
* Fold over the tinfoil and fold up the ends to ensure the 'envelop' is closed.
* Bake in a medium oven 180-200C, Gas mark 5 for 30 - 40 minutes.
Mayan Gold is a particularly dry potato. You might find that this recipe helps to keep the potato fairly moist.