TV Tuesday - Julie & Julia Movie

Once again today's daily theme is TV Tuesday, where you cook a meal from a movie or TV show. 

Today I have chosen the beautiful and fabulous film Julie and Julia. I  love this film but why wouldn't I? Its about food and blogging! (the food however is not vegan friendly). For those of you who haven't seen the movie its about two women, Julie a chef in the early stages of her culinary career and Julia, a woman living in New York who aspires to cook all the recipes from the cook book written by Julie. Julia wants to create all 524 recipes in one year or 365 days and Julia detailed the challenge on her popular blog and announced that it would make her a published author. 

My favourite scene is where Julia has another complete melt down after a disastrous attempt at one of the recipes, which was worse than her previous melt down. She sits on the floor and cries like a spoilt child saying that she's a mess. She lies down on the floor and kicks her leg in the air in a massive strop when the phone rings and Eric, her husband answers it, its a reporter wanting to write about Julia! "He does?" She says.

My favourite quote from the movie is:

Eric: See, that's what's so great about blogs. You don't have to be published. You can go online, press enter and there it is, out there!

Obviously I'm not creating one of the recipes from the book, I can't remember there being anything vegan, but I am going to recreate a chicken recipe and replace the chicken with green beans! 

Beans with cream and mushrooms
When sauteing the mushrooms do as Julia says and don't crowd the pan!

Ingredients

200g Green beans

½ Tsp Freshly ground pepper

¼ Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Onion, finely diced

250g Chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced

160ml Vegetable stock

125ml Soy cream

2 Tbsp Fresh Chives or Spring Onions, finely shredded

Method

Top and tail the green beans and put to one side.

In a frying pan add half the oil and add the finely diced onion, saute until the onion is translucent. Add the finely sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally until tender, about 2-3 minutes.

Pour in the vegetable stock and cook until the liquid has reduced by half. Next stir in the cream and chives and bring to a gentle simmer, turn down the heat you don't want the cream to curdle.

Meanwhile heat the remaining oil in a ridged skillet over a medium heat and add the beans. You're looking for charred lines across the beans, turn carefully so you get the lines on two sides. I would recommend using a good olive oil for this, it makes all the difference in the taste.

Transfer the beans to a serving plate and top with the mushroom and cream sauce. Serve with vegetables of your choice and a potato or bean side, like bean mash or new potatoes. I served mine with potato mash, carrots and cauliflower.

The mushrooms really complimented the green beans it was a match made in heaven. I'll definitely being pairing up the two again and soon.

Get Well Soon Stroganoff

After two weeks of going to hospital and mixing with all the bugs flying around I was bound to fall ill, wasn't I? I was tired from trying to fit work in after an 8 hour shift at the hospital and then organise and cook tea for two people who eat at differing ends of the spectrum! Don't get me wrong friends had offered to help with shopping, cooking, cleaning and dog walking, but I thought I was Wonderwoman and tried to do everything. The result was falling flat on my face with a cold and chest infection! I didn't want to surrender to it but there was no way I could carry on visiting S while I felt this poorly and besides I didn't want to pass on the illness to S, she has enough on her plate at the moment fighting Guillain Barre Syndrome.

I figured I needed some good honest healthy vegetables and herbs and put together Get Well Soon Stroganoff.

Ingredients
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 packet green beans
1 packet spinach
1 red pepper
500g mushrooms
Soy sauce
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
Soy cream
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Finely chop the onion and garlic and saute in a little olive oil until the onion is translucent. Finely chop the green beans and add to the pan, saute for another 5 minutes stirring all the time. Finely chop the red pepper and add to the pan, with a little soy sauce to prevent the vegetables from sticking. Add the paprika and thyme and stir to combine. Add a little water if the mixture starts sticking, slice the mushrooms and add to the pan and continue to saute until the mushrooms are cooked and the green beans are al dente. Shred the spinach and add to the pan, stir through the vegetable mixture until the spinach wilts. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Slowly add the soy cream until you reach your desired consistency. I used about ½ a carton and heat through, do not boil else the soy cream may split. Serve over rice or pasta. I enjoyed mine in a bowl on its own, the flavour of the vegetables worked really well together, with the herbs and soy cream.

I decided not to post about the vegan swap box that I sent to Bindy as she has yet to collect the parcel from the post office and I didn't want to spoil her surprise.