Vegetarian Foods Archive

Due to work related distractions and tiredness, I have been missing Five on Friday since it began again at the start of September, but I thought no I will join in today and share Five things in my favourite room - Cooks Library come Dining Room.  Come, let me explain why it has two names This Dining room is where we would entertain guests, family and friends should they ever come over.  Trouble is because we live in the valley s and a little out the way, sadly we haven't had many diners sit at the table, except for us in the evenings or at the weekend when we have a proper cooked breakfast.  We only made this big purchase of dining table and chairs quite recently are quite pleased with it, but as I said only our bottoms have graced those chairs.   I describe this room as so-called dining room, because this room actually is the Cooks Library - my library. The room houses all of my cookbooks, D says I am like a squirrel with my cookbooks hiding them like nuts in...

A few weeks back, we went to Gloucester.  We stopped.  I like these vintage fruit and vegetable jars, I have a number - but no purchasing of them as I have a number of my own including beetroot when I made beetroot hash and crying onion showcased when I made White Broccoli Risotto , so these were for admiring only.  I saw this up-cycled bottle with a peacock and little gems at a rural craft market in this corner of Wales.  I was so close to treating myself to it, but resisted.   A little part of me regrets its, a big part doesn't as I had no place to put it in my home.  Once a week, in my lunch hour I visit Healthy Planet - Books for Free , I have come back with a number of (cook-) books (and did the good deed and donated some too).  I will share with you some books added to my burgeoning  bookshelf, but it was this up-cycled book that caught my attention - if you look close - READ.  This was made by one of their volunteers, very coo...

I feel like I should be sharing things given to me for Christmas, but I only had a handful of food related stuff that found there way into the kitchen. My Czech colleague at work gave me some home baked cookies steeped in her cultural heritage. She made these cookies with her son.  This is the same colleague that made me Daisy Honey a little while back.  She told me what each one was, but I cannot remember them except that I loved the gingerbread boot, its nothing like the crisp crunchy Gingerbread biscuits we have in the UK, these were soft and nougaty.  She did say, there was no ginger in it but mixed spice.  I also loved the hand rolled Rum and coconut balls, we've only just finished them off. Next Lucifers Biscuits from Fortnum and Mason - so posh!  My mother-in- law won them at a raffle and gave them to me because she was not keen on the chilli and ginger. We have started on them recently, the chilli gets you! I like them.  For Christmas, ...

Cooking at times can be a chore for many of us, but sometimes it can be a pleasure.  I am an experimental cook and today for Five on Friday I am sharing some ingredients in my kitchen that are exciting me and sadly somewhat make me happy especially on a Friday when I have the weekend ahead to experiment with them.  So I do hope the lovely Amy will accept these.  Another reason I am sharing these here, is I hope that those of you who visit will leave me some suggestions, ideas and inspiration of what I can do with some of them.  I think that is one of the wonderful things about blogosphere the sharing and genuine encouragement.   First up is one of the most ugly vegetables on earth: celeriac Here it is turned around a little more attractive to the eye.  Its not a vegetable that comes into my home often, but I have grown some in the garden.   In the past I have made vegetarian celeriac steaks, celeriac remoulade, soup, fritters and celeriac burg...

When I first started cooking proper for friends; like invite them over at home at home for a three course meal and wine, I would always Impress them with an South Asian style meal partly because it was expected of me because I am of South Asian heritage and partly that is what I was comfortable in making.  However, in the last few years  South Asian food has become very popular and now every one makes it at home, its no longer deemed to be a meal to impress as in most British homes there is a 'Curry Night' or everyone armed with or without Madhur Jaffrey's cookbook has a good curry recipe that they could knock up in their own kitchen in no time at all. There are a few exceptions to this though, I think Indian cuisine can still impress if you have someone like Reza Mohammad, Vivek Singh, Tony Singh and Cyrus Todiwala, Atul Kocchar to name a few cooking for you and they truly can elevate South Asian cooking to something truly impressive. So these days, I try to impress frie...

I promised some of you if you came back for Harvest Monday that I would hope to show you a bit more colour than just shades of greens. So here is is, some red red roses.  The first strawberries and wild strawberries from the garden plot. But we also still have a lot of green...strawberries  Tomatoes growing in the greenhouse We may actually get some apples from the apple tree - that is if we don't get a gust of wind Some more colour, this time a shade of purple  from these leggy chive blossoms And finally, some more Oriental salad greens.  I apologise that they are a little wilted as the picture was taken a few hours after I had harvested them, but once washed and spun in the salad spinner they were vibrant and were lovely for lunch. I am sharing this blog post with    Harvest Monday  which is hosted by Dave over  Our Happy Acres .  

The weather in the UK is glorious. Over the weekend, we spend time in the garden, but we did more ducking in and out due to the intensity of the heat.  The weather was designed more for those wishing to  sit out and sip on something cool, than us gardeners digging the earth and weeding, but I must not grumble.  It finally feels like Junes weather has arrived in style captured wonderfully in this postcard photograph.   I love this picture taken my husband and the red roses too.  This is leading up our garden path, and I do mean upwards! I have some hanging pots on the side fence filled with colourful violas and pansies, not just for colour but also because they are edible and adorn many a dish from sweet to savoury.  I also have some nasturtium in the garden plot.  I think next week we will see some a spectrum of orange shades tumbling down the path. Here is is my plum tree laden with plums... We may actually get some apples from the tree ...