Wednesday 22 August 2007

Me again!

My second post of the day, in which I get down to some proper cooking, and also learn how to take pictures of food!



First thing I cooked on getting back (well, apart from some soup, but lentil and tomato soup in semi darkness ain't that pretty) was a delicious and amazing recipe I'm sure many of you know well: Dreena Burton's Lemon-Herb Tofu. So easy! You don't even have to press it (although I did as my tofu turned out to be quite watery) or marinade, just mixed it all together and whack it in the oven. It's even better cold, mashed up with vegan mayo (I use GranoVita Mayola, the one with added flax oil) and made into sarnies on wholewheat bread with sliced cucumber. Way, way, waaaay better than tuna ever tasted back in my omni days!



We came back with piles of beans and courgettes that family members had foisted upon us, only to find our own veg patch dripping with beans and two oversized courgettes (or "more-gettes" as we call them when they get this big) our neighbours had picked for us waiting in the fridge. Although I didn't see any beans when I went out there at first. Then Mum went out and came back with armfuls of the things. What's wrong with me? I must have some weird bean blindness. We griddled some of the courgettes to have with Sunday lunch. It actually seems to work better with big courgettes than those tiny ones, because you can discard the spongy centres and still have plenty left to work with.



Here's my plate from Sunday, with the tofu, courgettes, beans (we are going to be living on green beans for the next coupla weeks!), roasted potatoes and carrots.



The apple season has started! As usually it kicks off with one of my faves. Discovery. These small, sweet-tart rosy pink apples are around until about October (I think- damn me trying to sound wise!).



Monday evening I decided to cook this yummy quinoa paella from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (sorry Susan - I did add a little bit of olive oil to it!). It was super (although I'll eat nearly anything with artichokes in), although the kidney beans didn't go down too well with Pie. She made a valiant effort to eat the rest, though. We had some yummy sweetcorn on the side.



In an effort to break out of my hummus box, I tried the "Butter Bean and Pumpkin Seed Dip" from Vegan: Over 90 Mouthwatering Recipes. It wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be - it had a weird, sour aftertaste which was a pity as it was otherwise really quite tasty.




From the same cookbook I made the "Spicy Avocado Toast" (the fact I down have a picture is testimony to how yummy it is - looks like I'll have to cook it again. Damn!) and also the "Broccoli and Peanut Soup", which was a great excuse to buy some oat milk, which I adore. I almost couldn't make this due to chronic broccoli shortages (Panic! Tee hee.) because of the recent flood, but I found some in Waitrose and all was well. It was vaguely reminiscent of Stilton and broccoli soup texture-wise and quite weird, but not in a bad way.



And now to the photography! I'd been reading the notes on taking pictures of food on Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (where the photos are so awesome I feel quite embarassed when I see my own) and, having prepped dinner and being at a loose end, decided to have a go! I got some good light (it was dark but we have spotlights in our kitchen which worked great), stuck the camera in macro mode, got up close and personal with the cherry tomatoes, and much to my surpise it worked! So I photographed the pasta...



And some frozen peas...



And then Pie took this picture, which may be the only time in my life I've ever wanted to eat recycling (OK, slight exaggeration).



So finally dinner was ready...



EXTREME CLOSE UP! (If you haven't seen Wayne's World then go rent it immediately.)



Buckwheat fusilli with tofu, cherry tomatoes, and spinach with garlic, balsamic vinegar and tamari. Edit: I adapted it from this recipe (Check out Vegan Cooking! It's never failed me yet). It looks yummy, but I vinegared my nose by accident and couldn't smell very much, so it tasted a bit bland. My mum assures me it was good, though.

In other new, I have a new fish. We call him Comet after this guy (scroll down) and also because he whizzes about!
Edit: Here's a picture!



See you all later!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

G, I'm so hungry -- that looks fantastic!

Alice W said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alice W said...

Sorry about that-tried to put a link and it went wrong.
Thanks stevie! I'll put up a link to the pasta recipe.