Turkish-Style Stuffed Aubergines/Eggplants

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This is my variation of the Turkish dish Imam Bayildi. I add cheese which is not in the traditional recipe, so you could leave this out for a vegan meal. You could stuff other vegetables with the same mixture (even baked potatoes/sweet potatoes) if your kids don't like aubergines.

Serves 4

• 2 medium or large aubergines/eggplants (or use large courgettes)
• 1 large onion, sliced finely
• 2 green bell peppers, sliced finely
• 4 tbsp sun dried tomato paste
• 4 tbsp cider vinegar* 
• 200g feta, diced
• 1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp paprika
• pinch of cinnamon 

Cut the aubergines in half lengthwise.
Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and bake, cut side down, for around 15-20 mins at 190C/180C Fan/Gas 5 in an oven proof dish, or casserole.

Meanwhile soften the onion and green pepper in a pan with a little olive oil.
Add all of the remaining ingredients to the pan, except the feta, and stir well.
Allow to cook for about 5 minutes and then turn off the heat until the aubergines are ready to stuff.
After 15-20 mins, the aubergines should be soft enough to carefully scrape out the flesh (with a spoon), leaving the shell intact - I do this while they're still hot, but you might want to let them cool a little first!
Cut up the aubergine flesh and add to the pan.
Add the cheese to the pan and stir gently to mix.

Divide the stuffing mixture between the aubergine halves.
Pour about 200ml of boiling water into the bottom of the dish and cover with foil or a lid. This stops the aubergines drying out.
Bake in the oven for a further 15-20 minutes.
Finally uncover the dish and cook for a further 10 minutes to give the ingredients a chance to colour and to allow some of the moisture to evaporate.

Serve hot, warm or cold with a salad or green vegetables.

Not suitable for freezing. 

For this recipe, I used Higher Nature* Organic Cider Vinegar, as I was sent a sample to review. This vinegar has a lovely fruity flavour which balances its acidity well. It can be used in a variety of recipes - especially sauces, marinades and salad dressings.
*Supplier of vitamins, supplements and organic foods Higher Nature.

Integrity Statement
I received a bottle of Higher Nature* Organic Cider Vinegar to review and use in a recipe. I did not receive payment, and the views expressed are genuinely those of myself and my family.

Join in the Meningitis Trust's latest campaign

There are a lot of blogs covering the subject of meningitis at the moment, thanks to the Meningitis Trust (and other charities) really embracing the digital media in the quest to raise awareness about this horrible disease.
Every time I hear or read the word meningitis, it makes me shiver, even though it's now 10 years since my daughter contracted pneumococcal meningitis.

Whilst my daughter was in hospital, we were warned that if she survived, she could be left with long term side effects. We found out that some children are left with obvious disabilities including epilepsy, profound deafness and limb loss (for those who develop septicaemia) and that others are left with less visible side effects such as learning or behavioural difficulties, co-ordination problems and headaches. As the disease affects the brain, it can impact on many aspects of a child's emotional and physical development. Thankfully, my daughter was only left with a minor hearing loss - many children are not so lucky.

My daughter was under the care of her hospital consultant for a year after she came out of hospital, and she still has an annual hearing test to check that her hearing loss remains stable. Unfortunately, I had no follow care up at all from my GP or Health Visitor. It was up to me to inform her playgroup/nursery/school about her hearing loss and my concerns that her learning and behaviour could be affected.

That's why I've signed the petition for the latest Meningitis Trust campaign for:

The automatic right for any child who has had meningitis to have timely and appropriate assessments throughout their academic life, to identify early what help they need and ensure they get it.

So, I'm asking for you to sign the petition too, to help other children in the UK get the support they need throughout their school lives.

If you want to find out more about the symptoms of meningitis, visit the Meningitis Trust's website.

Image courtesy of the Meningitis Trust.

Herby Glamorgan Sausages

This recipe came about as we fancied a cooked veggie breakfast last weekend and didn't have any vegetarian sausages in the freezer. I had a couple of bits of cheese that needed using up, so made up some Glamorgan sausages, using the left over cheeses instead of Caerphilly.

If you have a food processor, you can make these in just a few minutes.

Makes 8 mini or 4 large sausages (or about 8-12 'meatball' sized balls).

• 100g/4oz grated hard cheese (you should traditionally use Caerphilly, but I used feta and cheddar)
• 2-3 slices of stale bread made into breadcrumbs
• 1 small onion, diced finely or grated
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped herbs (I used parsley, sage and rosemary)
• black pepper
• ½ tsp English mustard powder or paprika

Cook the onion in a drop of oil or a knob of butter, until soft (I microwaved it in a covered bowl).
Mix the cheese, breadcrumbs, herbs and seasoning together.
Add the onion and stir in the egg to bind the mixture and make a firm dough.
Add more breadcrumbs if the dough is too sticky to handle.
Divide the mixture into the required number of pieces and roll into sausage shapes (or meat balls).
Heat a drop of vegetable oil in a frying pan.
Cook the sausages for about 5-8 minutes, turning once or twice, until golden brown.

Serve as part of a 'traditional' vegetarian British breakfast; Instead of meatballs with a spicy tomato sauce and pasta, or eat cold for lunch with a salad.


Alternatives: Add extra flavourings such as chopped sun-dried tomatoes, olives etc.
To barbecue, brush with oil first.

Suitable for freezing.

10 questions meme

I've been tagged by Alison from Plus 2.4, to answer 10 questions about myself.

What you have to do if you want to join in, is:

1) Answer the 10 questions below.
2) Tag someone to do the same.
3) Go and leave a comment on the original blog post over at Super Amazing Mum to say that you've joined in, to find out who else has been tagged and to compare answers!

So here goes….

1. Describe yourself in seven words
Vegetarian working mum with an untidy house.

2. What keeps you awake at night?
My husband's snoring.

3. If you could be anyone for day, who would you be and why?
Oh, that's a difficult one...there's lots of people I admire, but I'm not sure I'd like to be them, even for a day. OK, how about Gordon Ramsey? I'd be him and make him only eat, cook, serve and talk about vegetarian food for a whole day! Maybe I'd pop round to the Beckham's with the kids too!

4. What are you wearing now?
Long, grey and black Per Una skirt, a black top and black boots (just got back from work).

5. What scares you?
Spiders :-(

6. What is the best and the worst thing about blogging?
The best - having somewhere to record my thoughts and recipes, plus finding out that there are like-minded people out there in the blogosphere.
The worst - feeling that I should be trying harder to 'network', when I'm really not a networking kind of person!

7. What was the last website you looked at?
Yahoo - I just checked my emails, very boring I know.

8. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
To be tidier.

9. Slankets – Yes or no?
Nooo! What's wrong with a duvet?

10. Tell us something about the person who tagged you?
I was tagged by Alison, who's a Pagan mum of 3 kids. Like me, she loves cooking and inflicting cultural and educational days out on her children!

I'm tagging:
@mum2alesha http://www.mum2alesha.blogspot.com/
@LouiseLongworth http://www.vegetariankids.co.uk/blog
@picklesmum http://picklesmum.blogspot.com/
@jadeheathfield http://www.bunnykind.wordpress.com/
@Jojomololohttp://jojomololo.blogspot.com/

Aloo/Potato Masala Parathas (Vegan)

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Miss Kahonie and I made our own parathas for this recipe, but it was a bit of a faff, so I'd suggest using ready-made ones (look in the frozen Asian foods section in larger supermarkets), or use chapattis or tortilla wraps instead.

If you want to made your own, I've added the recipe at the bottom of this page. 

Serves 4 (fills 4-8 parathas depending on size)

• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp black mustard seeds
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 2 heaped tsp ground coriander
• ½ fresh chilli grated, or finely chopped, optional

Boil the potatoes until soft (as you would for mash), then drain.
Fry the cumin and mustard seeds in 1 tbsp vegetable oil, for a minute or so, until they start to pop.
Then add the onion to the pan and cook until soft.
Add the garlic, chilli and remaining spices.
Add the potatoes and a drop of boiling water and stir.
Cook for a couple of minutes until piping hot.
Crush the potatoes lightly with a fork or potato masher (the mixture should still be quite lumpy).
Spoon into warm parathas/chapattis and serve. 

Alternatives: Add a handful of frozen peas or some chopped spinach to the pan along with the cooked potatoes.

Parathas
Makes 6-8

• 100g/8oz plain flour
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• Warm water
• Dairy-free spread/butter

Mix the flour and oil together (I used my food processor), then slowly add the water until the mixture just starts to form a dough.
Chill the dough for about 30-60 minutes.
Cut into 6-8 pieces and roll each into a rough circle, on a lightly floured board.
Spread each circle with a little spread/butter. Fold in half to make a semi-circle.
Spread with a little more spread/butter and fold over again to make a triangle.
Gather up the edges of the dough and make a ball.
Roll this out to make a circle again (about 10-15cm across) .
Heat a frying pan (with no oil).
Cook each paratha for a minute or two on each side.
Keep them warm in the oven until they are all cooked. 

Mocha Cream Biscuits

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I fancied baking some biscuits yesterday and couldn't decide what to make. I came up with this recipe after browsing several recipe books and not finding anything I wanted to cook! They're based on a gypsy cream recipe I found in Cookies Galore .

• 100g/4oz dairy-free spread/butter
• 50g/2oz soft brown sugar
• 75g/3oz plain flour
• 50g/2oz rolled oats
• 25g/1oz cocoa powder, sieved

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Mix in the dried ingredients to form a firm dough.
Roll the dough into 16-20 small balls, using your hands (make sure there's an even number!)
Place on a greased baking tray and flatten slightly.
Bake for 12-15 mins at 170C/160C Fan/Gas 3
Cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from the tray and cooling on a wire rack.

Mocha Icing/Frosting

• 50g/2oz dairy-free spread/butter
• 100g/4oz icing sugar
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder, sieved
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Cream the butter and cocoa. 
Mix in the icing sugar, adding enough coffee to make a smooth, spreadable icing.
Pipe or spread the icing onto half of the biscuits and sandwich together.

Suitable for freezing.

Alternatives: Substitute the coffee for orange or mint extract, and up to 1tbsp boiled water.

Make mini biscuits (divide mixture into 32-40 balls), sandwich together as before and then dip each biscuit into melted chocolate. Leave to set on greaseproof paper. Package up in cellophane and give as presents, or add to a homemade hamper.

Paneer and Vegetable Tikka Masala

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Chicken Tikka Masala may be Britain's most popular food, but vegetarians don't have to miss out on a tasty alternative to this delicacy... It's taken me a while to come up with this recipe, which is as close as I can manage to one of my family's favourite Indian take away dishes - Paneer Tikka Masala.

I've added extra vegetables to make it into a slightly healthier meal, but this doesn't detract from the flavour of the sauce/gravy. I still think there's some sort of spice missing, so I'll update this recipe if I ever work out the secret ingredient/s!
Miss Ony said that this was my best curry recipe yet, which is praise indeed.

• 100g/4oz paneer cheese, cubed 
• 1 small onion, diced finely
• 1-2 bell peppers, sliced or diced into chunks
• 50-100g/2-4oz sweet potato/butternut squash, peeled and diced into small cubes
• 8 chestnut mushrooms, sliced thickly
• ½ tin chickpeas or other pulses, drained and rinsed
• 250ml passata
• 25g/1oz cashew nuts, ground (or ground almonds)
• 25g/1oz creamed coconut
• 2 tsp tandoori/tikka masala powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp ground fennel seeds
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1" piece of root ginger, grated
• ½ red chilli, grated or finely chopped, optional
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2-3 tbsp double cream, optional

Marinate the paneer in the tikka masala powder mixed with 1 tbsp lemon juice. Leave in the fridge for an hour or so.

Fry the onion in a drop of vegetable oil until soft.
Add all of the remaining dried spices, ginger, garlic and chilli and cook for a minute.
Add all of the vegetables and coat well in the spice mixture. Cook for a further 3-5 minutes on a low heat.
Pour in the passata and add the chickpeas.
Increase the heat slightly and bring to a simmer.
Allow to simmer for about 15-20 minutes, with the lid on, until the vegetables are soft.

Meanwhile, fry the paneer in a drop of vegetable oil (in another pan), until warmed through and slightly crisp.
Add the paneer to the saucepan once the vegetables have almost cooked, and stir well.
Finally add the sugar, cashew nuts, creamed coconut and cream.
Stir well and allow to simmer for a few more minutes, or until the creamed coconut has melted.

Alternatives: Use any combination of vegetables or pulses, or use extra paneer and less veg.
You could also swap the paneer for vegetarian chicken-style pieces (marinate and fry as per paneer).
For a vegan curry, replace the paneer with firm, drained tofu (marinate and fry as per paneer), extra pulses or extra mushrooms. Omit the cream.

For a BBQ version, thread the marinated paneer on skewers along with chunks of onion, pepper and mushroom, brush with vegetable oil and barbecue. Make the gravy separately on the hob and pour over the cooked kebabs.

For more Indian-inspired recipes, pop over to A Celebration of Indian Food at Lisa's Kitchen.

More sweet potato and Indian recipes.