Suma Bloggers Network - Getting Ready For Christmas

Oh my golly, can you believe it we're in the middle of October already, which means that there is less than 10 weeks till Christmas! In fact it's 68 days away, that's all!

As you can imagine I was delighted when my parcel arrived from Suma Wholefoods and I opened it up to find these goodies.....

Let the Christmas food preparation begin! Amy at Suma had done me proud, this time I asked for a pot luck box so I really didn't know what I was going to get. When I opened it up I actually let out a squeal of delight! My box contained the following ingredients:

• Organic Demerara Sugar
• Organic Dried Sweetened Cranberries
• Organic Almonds
• Organic Figs
• Organic Apricots
• Pitted Prunes
• Ground Cloves
• Vegetarian Suet
• Almond Orange Chocolate

My mind flooded with Christmas ideas, and I'm going to share with you not one recipe but two. I haven't blogged for quite some time and I must admit I had lost my mojo for a while, but this little treasure of goodies soon got my appetite back (excuse the pun) for creating, cooking and blogging! 

The first thing I decided to make was a batch of home-made mincemeat for all those delicious mince pies over the festive period, or if you're like me they start appearing back in my kitchen around Haloween or just as the nights are drawing in. Once the cold dark nights arrive, there's nothing like curling up on the sofa mug of tea in one hand, mince pie in the other.

Quick & Easy Home-made Vegan Mincemeat

Ingredients 

100g Dried Figs
100g Dried Apricots
55g Dried Sultanas
50g Dried Cranberries
50g Dried Prunes
25g Raisins
20g Mixed Peel
50g Alomnds
75g Vegetarian Suet
200g Bramley Apples, peeled, cored and chopped
150g Demerara Sugar
1 Tsp Ground Cloves
1 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
¼ Tsp Ground Ginger
¼ Tsp Ground All Spice
100ml Brandy

Method

Chop the dried figs, apricots and prunes into the size of a sultana and add to a large bowl.

Add the sultanas, cranberries, raisins and mixed peel and give the mixture a good stir.

Add the almonds to a plastic bag or fold into a clean tea-towel and with a rolling pin bash the nuts into smaller pieces. Add to the bowl of mixed fruit and stir through.

Add the vegetarian suet, chopped apples and sugar and stir again making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

Add the spices and stir once again before adding the brandy. Now it should start smelling like Christmas!

Give the mixture a final stir and transfer to a sterilised jar and keep in the fridge. The mixture should last till Christmas and beyond, but I doubt you will have any left by then.

All you need to do now is make your pastry and you're 15 minutes away from taking your first bite out of a mince pie!

Now with all those goodies it really would be rude not to make a Christmas Cake wouldn't it? And yes, even the chocolate went in this cake, not all of it mind you as it was rather tasty!

Ingredients 

150g Dried Figs 
100g Dried Apricots
100g Dried Prunes
75g Sultanas
50g Dried Cranberreis
50g Raisins
25g Mixed Peel
125ml Brandy
300g Plain Flour
200g Demerara Sugar
50g Almonds, chopped

25g Dark Chocolate 

1 Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda 

2 Tsp Baking Powder 

1 Tsp Mixed Spice 

½ Tsp Ground Cinnamon 

½ Tsp Ground Cloves 

100g Vitalite 

6 Tbsp Puréed Apple* 

1 Orange, zest 

1 Lemon, Zest 

50ml Fresh Orange Juice

* To make your own puréed apple, peel and core a few cooking apples and add to a pan, add a splash of water so they won't stick to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes or until the apples start breaking up. Use a potato masher to finish the purée. You can either store in a sterilised jar or freeze the mixture. 3 large tablespoons are the equivalent to 1 egg in recipes. I bag mine up in 3 tablespoon measures and store in the freezer.



Method

Chop the dried figs, apricots and prunes into the size of a sultana and add to a large bowl.

Add the sultanas, cranberries, raisins and mixed peel and give the mixture a good stir. Pour over the brandy. Let this mixture sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours.

When you're ready to make your cake, sieve the flour into a large bowl and add the chopped almonds, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and all the spices. Grate in the chocolate and give everything a quick mix.

In another bowl melt the Vitalite and add the puréed apples, zest of the lemon and orange and the orange juice. Whisk until all ingredients are combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix to combine, if your mixture is a little dry add a little more fresh orange juice. Be careful not to add too much though as you still have the fruits and brandy to add.

Top the cake batter with the dried fruit and brandy and stir to evenly distribute the fruit.

Pour into a greased cake tin and bake in a low oven for 1½ hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool before tipping out onto a wire rack. 

Once the cake is completely cold wrap in greased proof paper and then tin foil and store in a cool dry place. 

Now I will be "feeding" my cake for the next few weeks with a little Brandy so it's not the finished article just yet. I will add a photo once the cake has been iced, so you can see the cake finished. 

To 'feed' your cake make tiny holes with a skewer in the top of your cake and pour in a little brandy. You can do this as often as you like dependant on your taste. Do you like your Christmas cake boozy? Then add more brandy.

After a few weeks of 'feeding' your cake you're ready to ice it.

I still have some ingredients left, so I will be making a third recipe for Christmas and there is only one thing that could be........Christmas Pudding!

So keep an eye out for that recipe too..........................

Jasmine x

Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas? Spending time with family and friends is what Christmas is all about for me. Times full of fun, giggles and games, lots of them! From Charades to Caption it, from New Market to Tsuro, and of course for our family, the whistle game, so many times it has made us laugh, and when I say laugh I mean LAUGH!  Of course there is also the food and the drink, and probably too much of both. Christmas food to me is everything from sprouts, chestnuts, parsnips to Christmas cake, after dinner mints and lots more chocolate!

We spent Christmas at my parents house with my sister and her fiance and we had none stop fun, in fact I can't believe how Christmas day just flies by, before we knew it, boxing day had appeared and we were still playing charades!

So what did the Christmas dinner bring for me? Well I was meant to take a photograph, but unfortunately when it came too dinner I was so desperate to tuck in that I forgot all about it! We started with the Chestnut and Mushroom Soup, but instead of using the vegan cream I used rice milk to make it a little less rich. My main dinner was heaped high with veg from the parsnip and butternut bake to a serving of sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, mash potato, roast potato, stuffing and a field mushroom wellington, which I found on the BBC Good Food website. However, as always I completely changed the recipe to my taste, of course the cheese was removed and replaced with a little of the mushroom and chestnut soup, I swapped the spinach for kale and the egg wash for a wash of rice milk. The verdict - delicious! There was way too much food on my plate, I couldn't face a dessert!

Some of you will have noticed that I haven't mentioned presents yet. We decided as a family that this year we weren't going to go mad, previous years we have been known to spend hours opening gift after gift, a little extravagant to say the least. So this year we bought practical gifts, tickets to shows or events so we had something to look forward to and homemade gifts.

I want to focus on the homemade gifts that my sister and I made each other. My sister made me a vegan hamper which was full of lots of gorgeous and scrummy food and drink. It included a Christmas cake, strawberry chocolate cupcakes, date truffles, peanut butter & chocolate cookies and a bottle of limoncello. Delicious! The peanut butter & chocolate cookies were the first to go, and that surprised me, as regular readers will know I'm not a massive fan of peanut butter, but times are changing!

My gifts focused on upcycling and I made my sister a cake stand, which you can also see in the photograph above, with an orange chocolate cup cake and a bracelet made from her favourite colour, green ribbon and coke can ring pulls, yes really! 

I love receiving handmade/homemade gifts and I also had another fabulous homemade gift from my gardening angel, raspberry vodka, which is delicious!

Vegan food Swap Box - December - Part 1

Yep, its time for the monthly vegan food swap box again! This time I was sending a parcel to Kadian who lives in Middlesex. I was guessing that Kadian would have access to more vegan products than I do up here in the midlands in the small town where I live. 


So to jazz it up a little and of course because it's Christmas I wrapped every item up in wrapping paper!

Once again I chose both sweet and savoury items to send and because it's Christmas I sent one more sweet item than savoury! The sweet items included:

- Bounce Natural Energy Ball - Spirulina
- and Ginseng Defense Boost
- The Co-op After Dinner Mint Thins
- A tube of Love Hearts
- Jamesons Ruffle Raspberry Fondants
- Goody Good Stuff Sour Fruit Salad
- Mini Moos - Original Organic Chocolate Bar

When I first saw the Co-op mint thins I was ecstatic, it meant that our family Christmas dinner could still be followed with an after dinner mint. I'm sure these taste better than any non vegan variety. 



After all that sugar, I had to include a Bounce Defense Boost, these are so darn tasty and as a bonus contain the superfoods, spirulina, Ginseng and Fo-ti Root.

The savoury items included:

- The Spice Taylor - Southern Pepper Curry 
- Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts
- Weight Away - Mixed Vegetable Chilli
- No No Guacamole Flatbreads
- Walkers Sweet Chilli Nuts

I absolutely had to include some chestnuts, these beauties play such a large part in Christmas. Recipe ideas include chopping and including with sprouts as a side dish, chop and add to your stuffing, add to stews, make into a pesto or chop and add to cakes. They really are so versatile.



After you have enjoyed your Christmas dinner you don't normally want much for tea. I think the No No guacamole flatbreads dipped in houmous is a perfect solution. These really do taste of guacamole and could be served with a range of dips, olives and a little salad.

After all that indulgence on Christmas and Boxing day I normally fancy something a little spicy and The Spice Taylor do a range of flavours, including two vegan options. I've not yet tried the curry pastes but the packaging states that you can whiz up a curry in 10 minutes! Perfect after you've spent days in the kitchen preparing the Christmas dinner - or is that just me?

I hope Kadian enjoys the vegan food parcel as much as I enjoyed putting it together. 

Merry Christmas!

Find out what amazing goodies I received tomorrow . . . . . .

Mushroom & Chestnut Soup

Yesterday I posted a recipe, using chestnut cream, which I made from chestnut puree, soy cream, rosemary, salt and pepper. The Brussels Sprout & Chestnut Bake recipe didn't use all the chestnut cream and so I made a gorgeous and rich mushroom soup with the remainder. Now, this soup is very rich and you won't need a lot, just the ticket for a sample Christmas day starter.

Ingredients

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 Clove of garlic, finely chopped

150g Chestnut mushrooms, finely chopped

1 Tbsp mushroom ketchup

2 Tsp Porcini powder

Chestnut cream

200ml water

1 Tsp Vegetable bouillon powder

Method

Fry the onion and garlic in a little rapeseed oil until the onion is translucent. Add the mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes. 

Add the mushroom ketchup and porcini powder and give the mixture another stir.

Add the chestnut cream and stir again.

Dissolve the bouillon powder into the water and stir to combine. Add to the mushroom mixture slowly until the mixture resembles thick cream.

Transfer to a liquidiser and blend until smooth. Return to a pan and heat through.

Brussels Sprout & Chestnut Bake

Christmas is getting closer and closer and I can't believe how unprepared I am in the food department! I started jotting down ideas just after Vegan Mofo but I've not had the time to get around to taking those ideas and creating a recipe! But this last weekend I decided enough was enough and I took to the kitchen to get creative and I had a ball! The Christmas music was playing, there was dancing and merriment and above all, recipes created. Christmas is on its way........

The first recipe I want to share with you is my Brussels sprout and mushroom bake.

My gardening angel gave me a Brussels Sprout tree, which had been staring at me for a couple of days, teasing me, saying "use me to creative some Christmas magic". Personally, I don't think you can get more Christmassy than a Brussels Sprout! Now, we all know that sprouts and chestnuts go extremely well together but did you know that sprouts and mushrooms also have a marriage made in heaven! Well, you do now.

Ingredients
1 Brussels sprout tree
250g Chestnut mushrooms
1 Can of chestnut puree
250ml vegan single cream
1 Rosemary twig
Salt & pepper
100g Seeded bread
2 Tsp Garlic granules
1 Tbsp Nutritional yeast

Method
First thinly slice the sprouts, I used my food processor and the slicing blade as it would take me ages to do this by hand.

Spray an oven proof dish lightly with oil, and scatter half of the sprouts in the bottom.

Next thinly slice the mushrooms and arrange half of them on top of the sprouts. Finish with another layer of sprouts and another layer of mushrooms.

Next prepare the chestnut cream. Empty the chestnut puree into a saucepan and brake up over a very low heat, careful you don't burn it. It just need to be warmed through. Add the cream and stir to combine. Remove the rosemary leaves from the stem and finely chop, add to the chestnut cream with some salt and pepper. Keep stirring over a low heat until the mixture is warmed through. Take 8 table spoons of the chestnut cream and put in a jug, add 80ml of warm water and whisk to a smooth cream. Pour over the sprouts and mushrooms. If you like your bake to be 'saucy' double the quantities of the chestnut cream so you use 16 tablespoons and 160ml of warm water.

Tear the bread into the food processor and blitz to a fine breadcrumb. Add the onion granules and nutritional yeast and blitz to combine. Scatter the breadcrumbs over the top of the chestnut cream. Depending on your crust preferences you may use all of the breadcrumbs or not. If you have any left over you can easily make a stuffing or bread sauce!

Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden and the vegetables cooked. Some of you may have noticed that I never put the temperature of my oven this is because I've used it that much the numbers have 'rubbed' off! So it's a guess every time I cook!

Serve the bake with all your favourite Christmas trimmings and an onion gravy, which is what I did but I forgot to take a photo!

Tomorrow, I'll share with you what I did with the remaining chestnut cream..........

Vegan Food Swap Box - November

Phew the monthly vegan food swap box comes round quicker each month, I'm sure. This month I was sending to Sammy who's known in the twitter world as @cleaning girl. For those of you who are not with the programme here's what happens. Every month tohappy vegans, who organise the swap box (thank you!) assign you a partner to send a parcel of vegan goodies to and in return you will receive your own parcel of surprise delights from someone else. It really is good fun and its like getting a birthday every month!

Because of the time of year I couldn't resist sending a vegan advent calendar. I hope Sammy enjoys her vegan chocolate breakfast sample each morning in December!
My vegan swap box also included the following goodies:

• The Food Doctor Sweet Chilli Soya & Corn Crisp Thins   
• The Delicatessan Beetroot & Red Onion Chutney
• The Delicatessan Sicilian Style Sticks
• Packet of Olives ou Marche
• Blackfriars Fruit Flapjack
• Urban Fruit Superberry Mix
• Pukka Relax Teabag

I'm hoping Sammy loves olives as much as me. I guess you either love them or hate them! I'm a lover of all things olives and I always have some in the fridge or a stand by packet in my cupboards. Sammy is lucky these didn't get gobbled up before I posted them. I also love the Food Doctor crisp thins especially the sweet chilli flavour. 

The Beetroot and Red Onion Chutney was once sent to me as part of the vegan swap box and I used mine in a stiry fry which worked out a treat but you could use it as a dip or on crackers with a bit of vegan cheese or houmous. The Sicilian Sticks would work a treat dipped into it!

For the sweet items I included the advent calendar, I don't care how old you are everyone loves an advent calendar. I actually bought two, one for myself!

Another handy store cupboard snack is the Blackfriars flapjacks, I prefer the fruit one but they are rather large and I always cut into two portions so you definitely get your moneys worth. I've just realised I included one of these in last months swap box too!

I've not tried a packet of Urban Fruit Superberry yet, I'm starting to wish I'd bought two of these too, they look rather tasty. Finally but no means least a Pukka Teabag - Relax, which is a blend of organic chamomile, fennel and marshmallow root.

I hope you like your vegan swap box Sammy, and I hope you enjoy your bit of chocolate for every December morning. Is it too early to say Merry Christmas!