Help! There's a Vegetarian at my BBQ!

As a vegetarian, who is the only vegetarian in my close circle of friends, I have been to soooooo many dinners and barbecues where the only food to eat was the salad. And telling you now, seriously, vegetarians like hot food too! Like the amazing skewered vegetable recipe at the end of this post.

The thing is, often someone will bring a +1 to a dinner party or BBQ, and even the partner won't know they are vegetarian. (My husband of 12 years still forgets....) so being prepared for the event that a vegetarian could show up unannounced, and having hot food ready to go.... Guaranteed BBQ success.

The tricks to feeding a vegetarian at a BBQ:

- always have 2 types of salad. I always have a boring lettuce or spinach salad made f garden vege, dressed with salt, pepper, and a little lemon juice. This caters for those allergy types as well, as clearly every ingredient can be seen, saving a lot of, 'are there any nuts in this?'. And then I pair it with either a potato, rice or pasta based salad with a boiled egg in it. This won't help with your vegans, but they have the green salad, and the egg helps to cater to the protein of your vegetarians.

- Corn on the Cob. In summer we always have this growing wildly. I usually just go and pick one cob per guest as the BBQ is cranking up. Throw the cob, husk and all, on the barbie and forget. Peel the husk back creating a handle, and a glorious corn experience awaits.

- Falafel. I keep a ready supply, but if you don't, don't stress. But an instant falafel patty thrown on the hot plate (I use a non-stick aluminium foil underneath) makes an easy burger patty.

- Asparagus. Throw it on the grill, rotating as it gets those grill lines, and serve hot.

- Large, flat mushrooms. Giant flat mushrooms drizzled with oil, pepper and a little chili powder make a meaty meal.

- Potato Slices. Sounds strange, but I learned this one in China at a Korean BBQ... Take a sheet of non-stick baking paper and put it on the hot plate. Using a mandolin, thinly slice a potato. Wash well. Place on the BBQ... When the edges are slightly browned, turn the slices over. These will take the longest to cook, but they are delicious with a dipping sauce.

- Vegetable Skewers. See below

- Dipping Sauce. Everyone loves a choice. I like to have tomato sauce (duh), a Thai Chilli Sauce (sweet with ginger), and a spicy Satay sauce. This gives your guests flavour options which will blow their mind.

Also, those carnivores need to eat vegetables too.... When dished out to the boys, these skewers never disappoint.



Vegetable Skewers

1. Soak long wooden skewers in water for about an hour.

2. Wash button mushrooms in water, slice a yellow courgette, slice a purple onion, slice thickly a green pepper, and rinse cherry tomatoes.

3. Thread into a colourful arrangement on a skewer

4. Optional: marinate in a mix of olive oil, dark soy sauce, pepper and chilli powder.

5. Throw on the BBQ- can be cooked on the grill or hot plate.

6. Serve on the stick, optionally with a drizzle of sauce.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Silver Beet and Potato Curry

Long term followers will be aware of the love the husband has for curry.... and meat.  The curry I don't mind.  Meat however.... I don't eat the stuff and I hate cooking it.  However, a great compromise has been various vegetarian curries.

At the moment, while I am super proud of my winter crops growing in the garden, it's certainly not like the cornicopia of goodness we had in autumn.  The silver beet is going great guns - and finding out that it's called chard elsewhere has made me very happy indeed.  I am not a fan of the stuff.  I need it hidden.  But i do like the colours.

So this is my Silver Beet and Spud Curry

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves, ready to be smashed in the mortar and pestle
4 green chillies, chopped and ready to be smashed
Clump ginger, chopped finely ready to be smashed.  I don't worry about peeling it.

A small bunch of coriander

3 cardamom pods, bashed
2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 purple onion, diced

1 tomato, diced

4 potatoes, chopped into about 8 pieces each.

1/2 cup water

6 massive silver beet (chard) leaves.  Different colours are the greatest.

Juice of one small lemon

Salt and pepper

 

Chop everything.  Admire the colours. :D

Throw the garlic, ginger, cardamon, corriander and chillies into the mortar and pestle, and crush it.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil.  Throw in the dry spices (garam masala, turmeric, mustard seeds, cumin seeds) and the crushed ones with the onions.  Stir and cook until the onions are somewhat soft.  Add the tomato and stir again.  Stir in the potatoes and coloured silver beet stalks, and stir it all around.  Add the water at this point.  Cook on a low heat until the potatoes are ready.  The water will have just about all disappeared.

Throw in the silver beet leaves on the top and lemon juice.  Add salt and pepper.  Allow the leaves to wilt, then stir them all in.

It does look a little dogs breakfasty in the pot, but I was an idiot and forgot to photograph the actual plate. It does make the silver beet palatable.  And the husband likes it because its curry.  Go figure.

Bombay Potatoes

Okay, these are truly nomlicious.  And I could eat them all day.

Bombay Potatoes on the Left.  (the other side is a meh chickpea curry)

Ingredients

5 medium potatoes
Olive oil
1tsp yellow mustard seeds or fenugreek
2 bay leaves
1 onion (diced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1tsp turmeric
1tsp coriander (ground)
1tsp chilli powder or 3 green chillies (finely sliced, seeds in)
juice of one small lemon

Method

1.  Boil the potatoes whole, skins on.  When soft to the touch, but skins still attached, drain in a colander and allow to cool.

2.  Heat oil in a deep fry pan.  Throw in the bay leaves and the mustard seeds.  Lid on the pan as the little seeds jump everywhere. Add onions.  Saute until they are clear.

3.  Throw in the garlic, turmeric, coriander, chilli and mix until all combined.  Add the lemon juice to the hot pan.

4.  Dice the potatoes into big chunks and throw them in the pan.  Stir to coat all the flavours over them.  Fry with the lid off to get them crispy. 

Serve with fresh coriander, or on the side of another curry.  They keep in the fridge for a couple of days... in theory... but these never last longer than next-day-lunch.

I can't believe it's not bacon! Fritatta

 Well, I can believe it's not bacon, but the husband doesn't pay that much attention. ;)  This is my potato oven baked fritatta with red onions.  It is super easy, and fantastic for cold days when a sandwich for lunch is unappealing.  I like it cold, the husband likes it re-heated.

Ingredients (for 6 large servings)
8 eggs (I used 9 because I didn't want to leave one all lonesome in the fridge...)
2 Tbs milk
6 medium potatoes (I use the red ones because I like the colour)
1/2 red onion (diced)
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated cheese

 

Slice the potatoes, about 1cm thick.  You want these as similar as possible.  You could use a mandolin, but I have been showing off my newly accquired knife skills ;) (well, I didn't cut myself so that is a skill).  Boil the potatoes until ALMOST cooked.  Let them drain in a colander.

 Place the eggs in a bowl with the milk and salt and pepper.  Add a bit of salt to create the bacon-esque illusion.  I don't like salt, so I keep it to a minimum.  Whisk until all combined.  There should be a bit of "air" in the mix.

In an oven proof dish, layer the potatoes across the bottom, sprinkle diced onion, then pour some of the egg mixture on top.  I do this 3 times.... but generally until you have run out of potato slices or egg mixture.

 

Sprinkle cheese on top, with more salt and pepper.  Then place into a hot oven at 180 degrees.  Watch the fritatta.  Cooking times will vary.  Mine was thick so took like 45 minutes.  A thinner fritatta takes less time.  Just wait until the egg is solid and the cheese is browned.

 

Cut while warm into servings.  We had 2 servings for dinner, and the rest were cooled, wrapped and refrigerated and sent in lunchboxes.  It holds up well over the journey to work/school, and tastes great hot or cold.  I have also been known to include corn kernels,  peas, carrots, capsicum or other bits and pieces leftover in the fridge... but this was made at the end of a grocery week.  

Comfort Food

I found a bunch of photos from earlier.  I thought I had lost them when my camera died... but it turns out I didn't!  Yay!

So here we have a pasta bake, nut mix with cranberries in the side bits.

In the main section, boiled egg, strawberries, cheese slice and a couple of baked stuffed potatoes.

Review #2: "School Day Lunches"

Ah, here was a book that held great possibilities....

However... after reading through the beginning part about making sure foods would stay safe to eat, and some good advice about keeping food cool, then the recipes began.  After reading many recipes with the phrase, "looks like cake, tastes like pizza" or "looks like soup, tastes like pizza".... or the dreaded "tex-mex flavour".  I am a keen Tex-Mex fan, but the recipes left out all of the spices that would normally flavour the dishes, leaving them bland.

Another of my concerns was that the recipes were so similar, with a lot of things wrapped in cheese or bread, and using a lot of pastry.  There was also plenty of ingredients that I thought were just unnecessarily included.

This was the ranch style avocado dip with wedges.  This was one of the few vegetarian recipes in the book (along with jelly that had zucchinis in it).  However, the avocado dip could easily have been made with just the avocado and lemon juice- the sour cream and ranch dressing were totally surplus.

So, my opinion:

Information:  2/5 points
Recipes: 1/5 points
Originality: 1/5 points
Pictures: 2/5 points
Overall: 2/5 points

8/25.  Maybe a little harsh, but the information was average, the were no recipes that were original and still appealing... the pictures were accurate, but not overly appetizing.  I just felt let down really, as the book had too many recipes that did not travel well, or were uninspiring at the least.

Muffin Tin Monday - Halloween

Ooooo... spooky.  Now, I have never really been a Halloween kinda gal.... so I had to google Halloween to find out more about it.  And in the end, this is what I settled on.

At the top:
1.  Caramel sauce and apple slices
2.  Dragon toenails (okay, so they were potato wedges)
3.  Toxic ooze complete with Zombie.  (Avocado dip and skeleton pick)

On the bottom:
1.  Wicked Witch Waffles with yogurt and bats (That was totally the name of the recipe... sans bats)
2.  Evil ghost eggs
3.  Giant insect lavae (grapes......)

And now for something sorta different

Well, in the mail came a new bento!  I have an obsession, I KNOW!  Here is todays lunch.  THe top layer has a baked, stuffed potato, handful of grapes and some crackers with cheese cut into little flowers.

The bottom layer has capsicum hummus with cucumber and carrot sticks and a boiled egg (with dinosaur/eggshell set).....

And it was put in the new baggie..... that is my ol' drink bottle, that is AWESOME.  It cleans easy as, and the water stays cool.

Review #1: "The Lunch Box"

Ah, I started with a really basic lunchbox recipe book..... and now it has a total of 8 post-it flags attached to it.  This is "The Lunch Box" by Glenda Gourley.  This was published here in New Zealand by the National Heart Foundation in 1991.

I bought this secondhand from trademe.co.nz ..... for like $3.... so I felt like it was never going to let me down.  Here are some of the things I made from the book today:

First I made "Banana Tree Stumps".... these are basically peanut butter and honey around a piece of banana, then rolled in chopped nuts.  They were totally tastey... but... there was not a lot of guidance about HOW to do this.  I discovered that those corn-handles worked well, and a light covering of the peanut buttery stuff was the least messy method.... and then sprinkling the nuts on top.  I think if I was going to put them in a bento, I would make them and freeze them overnight before taking to work.  Interestingly, banana slices out of the skin stay yellow in the freezer.

These were called "Three blind mice".... I did not put 3 on a half slice of toast, but made 1/4 slice pieces that would fit in my lunchbox.  The mushroom ones above looked right, while the pineapple slices looked like a piece of pineapple under a layer of cheese..... And in the picture in the book, well, the chives were fresh and not all toasted from the oven like mine are.  Otherwise the finished product matched the picture.

And then I made this......

But I will mention that you will see the other potato later this week........

So to allocate the scores:
Information:  4/5 points
Recipes: 3/5 points
Originality: 3/5 points
Pictures: 4/5 points
Overall: 4/5 points

This gives it 18/25 points, so not bad.  I think that a second edition would be nice, as a lot of the information could use overhaulling around breads and stuff.  The recipes are easy to do, though not all the instructions are there... there are plenty of good ideas for lunch, and even lists of ingredients that work well together for sandwiches.  No recipe has really expensive or rare ingredients, and nothing seems to take too long to prepare.  There are handy boxes of tips and guidelines included.  There is a section on the food pyramid, and whole pages on what to watch out for in store-bought snacks.

Basically, I was impressed.  The mice will be in my bento tomorrow..... :D