All posts tagged: recipes

vegetarian shepherd's pie recipe, vegan shepherd's pie recipe

Recipe: Vegetarian (and easily Vegan) Kate Sheppard’s Pie

Lots of you (and absolutely everyone who attended the dinner) asked for the vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipe I used to make Kate Sheppard’s Pie for A Feminist Thanksgiving. Here it is! To be honest, the first time I tried this I was a bit surprised it worked.  First, I looked at a bunch of vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipes, and then didn’t follow any of them and just winged it with what I had in the fridge.  Second, my track record making anything casserole-y, or traditionally British comfort-food based is pretty poor.  I just didn’t grow up eating or making those kind of foods!  So I expected a repeat of my fish pie/cheesy potatoes/macaroni & cheese experiments (basically inedible).   Instead, I got amazing!  And it’s not a fluke.  Every time I make it its delicious. This recipe makes a rich, filling, pie.  Most vegetarian shepherd’s pie recipes use celery, but I use parsnips instead.  Their warm, sweet, earthy flavour adds an unexpected element to the pie, and keep it from getting watery and bland, as …

Recipe: Gluten free plum cake

When I posted about Ayyam-i-ha some readers asked for my recipe for gluten free plum cake, so here it is. I’ve made this cake with both gluten and gluten-free variants, and let me tell you, while the regular gluten recipe is good, the gluten free recipe is amazing. Preheat the oven to 425F/220C Have ready a 9 x 9″ pan, greased The fruit: 3 cups sliced plums (I like black doris, but other varieties work too) 3/4 cups sugar 2T real vanilla (skip it if you only have the fake stuff) Shortbread dough: 3/4 cup fine ground rice flour 3/4 cup corn flour (make sure it doesn’t have any added wheat if you are worried about the gluten) 1/4 cup arrowroot powder (corn starch will do if you can’t find arrowroot powder) 1/2 tablespoons salt 3 tablespoons sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoons baking soda 5 tablespoons chilled butter (or shortening) 1 1/4 cups plain yoghurt Combine your fruit, sugar, and vanilla in a saucepan, bring to a boil, turn down and simmer for …

Sweet as

I was planning to write a review of the Jill Salen ribbon corset for today, but decided that I want time to wear and assess the corset, and see how it feels and fits after a bit of time, so…time for a different post. A totally random post. A wonderful, sweet friend was just in Tonga for work.  She brought me back two organic Tongan vanilla beans from her own, personal farm. OMG fabulous!  Even the tin foil she wrapped them in smells good enough to eat. I’m going to use them to make vanilla sugar. I’m using organic sugar (hey, if you have best quality organic vanilla, you should at least use good sugar!) Vanilla goes in the jar: Sugar goes over the vanilla: Put on the lid, leave for a few months, and then your sugar will smell like heaven and taste like vanilla.  Makes the best cookies ever. Mmmm….