Weekend Carnivore

With a note of sorrow,  I wave goodbye to the summer of 2010.  It feels as if I have barely stood still since the end of spring.    In the summer months alone, I have been to Brighton, Munich, Salzburg,  Paris, York, Wales and Barcelona.  Travelling and tasting food from so many different regions of Europe has been fantastic but it has meant that I haven’t spend all that much time in my own kitchen.

So, while I am going to miss the warm weather adventures, I am also welcoming the opportunity to stay in a bit more and reacquaint myself with my normal cooking routine.  Which, at this time of year is switching from light summer meals to more hearty food. Right about now, my eye turns to root vegetables and finding different ways of bringing them into my cooking.

One way that I have used them in recent years is to create root vegetable mash instead of a normal mashed potato.  Mashing a bit of whatever other root vegetables you have in your vegetable drawer into your normal mashed potato not only adds a bit of colour but extra nutrients as well.   Even if you aren’t cooking a vegetarian meal, swapping a root vegetable mash on top of a traditional shepherd’s pie instead of the normal mashed potato will be a nice change and healthier too.

With a bit of a chill in the air the today, I wanted to make us a meal tonight that was going to warm our insides while filling us up. This can sometimes be a challenge when we are following a vegetarian diet. Of course, I could just make another soup or a vegetarian stew but there will be plenty of those through the course of the winter.  So, I rummaged through my cupboard to help me brainstorm up ideas for a hearty winter vegetarian meal.

We had a can of kidney beans in chilli sauce which kept calling out to me and I decided that I wanted to do something with it for the meal. Not really in the mood for tacos or beans and rice, I decided to play with an idea of a bean pie that has been kicking around in my head for a few weeks.

All I did was sauté some basic vegetables such as onion, carrots and celery.  Then I tipped in the can of chilli kidney beans and added some spices.  I piled it all into two mini casserole dishes and then topped it with a root vegetable mash that I made from potatoes and butternut squash.

What was great was that I was able to cook everything up in the morning and put the casserole dishes into the the fridge. Then, when it was time to cook the evening meal all I had to do was put them into the oven for 15 minutes and the meal was ready.

You have to love it when a meal is simple, healthy and filling.  Perhaps the only change I would make is to add a bit of hot sauce to the mix. I am a total spice wimp so I tend to lay off the spicy heat but anybody who likes things hotter should consider adding a few drops.

Chilli bean pies topped with root vegetable mash

Chilli bean pie recipe

Ingredients:

500 grams potatoes, peeled and quartered

200 grams butternut squash, peeled and chopped into big cubes

1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 a large onion, diced

100 grams carrots, diced

100 grams celery, diced

1 (420 gram) can kidney beans in chilli sauce

1 teaspoon barbecue sauce

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 f, 190 c, gas mark 5.

2. Put a large pot of water on to boil and put the potato and squash into cook until ready for mashing.

3. Meanwhile, heat  the olive oil in a pan before adding the onion, carrots and celery.  Cook over a medium heat, stirring often until the onion and celery have begun to soften.

4. Add the beans, including all the chilli sauce juices, to the vegetables.  Cook for about three minutes until warmed through.

5. Stir in the barbecue sauce and garlic powder until well blended.

6. Spoon the bean and vegetable mixture into two oven proof mini casserole dishes.

7. Drain the potatoes and butternut squash and mash with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.  If you want a creamier mash certainly feel free to add a bit of butter or margarine to the mash.

8. Pile the root vegetable mash on top of the bean mixture.

9. Put the dishes on a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Serves: 2

Part of the fun of moving to a different country is learning about the food traditions of that country. Since I moved to the United Kingdom in June 1996, I have been introduced to so many British dishes that I never knew existed. Of course, I had heard of British staples such as fish and chips and shepherds pie. It turned out though that they are just the tip of the iceberg that is this nation’s culinary heritage.

I have heard so many times from people back home about how bad they think British food is suppose to be. Let me tell you, that is a total falsehood. If you can’t eat well in the UK then you simply didn’t try.  In London alone, you can get food cooked by some of the finest chef’s in the world.  In just this past week, I have eaten Turkish food, Czech food, Indian food, Chinese food and Middle Eastern food while out and about in the city.

British food treasures aren’t just found in the restaurant scene though. The true richness is found in those passed down family recipes that have been made for generations. British food is wonderful and it should be celebrated. The classic British dishes are often master classes in making filling meals out of inexpensive ingredients.

Pan Haggerty is just such one British recipe. It is one of those recipes that is more of a concept than an exact recipe. Traditionally, it would have a bit of meat and then a whole lot of root vegetables.  From what I have learned since moving here, most families have their own idea of what makes a pan haggerty recipe.

My mother in law, makes a dish that is near enough a classic pan haggerty but it uses bacon.  She never calls it pan haggerty but I was watching a British cookery show and saw them making pan haggerty and thought ‘hey, that is that recipes!’.

My husband has always really enjoyed her recipe but there is no danger of him learning to cook well enough to be the one to pass down the recipe. So, I figured that I would take it upon myself to learn a pan haggerty recipe that I felt was as tasty as my mother in law’s version.  Of course, as we are trying to eat a vegetarian lifestyle most of the time, I wanted to make it a vegetarian pan haggerty recipe.

I tinkered around with bits and bobs of vegetables I had and decided upon making it a carrot, butternut squash and potato vegetarian pan haggerty recipe.  For a while, I was afraid there was going to be too much liquid in the pan but by the end of the cooking period I was left with just the right amount of ultra tasty juices.

I sliced up some freshly baked bread and that was all we needed for a truly lovely and very British meal.

Vegetarian Pan Haggerty

vegetarian pan haggerty recipe

Ingredients:

30 grams butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
200 grams onions, sliced in thin rings
550 grams potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
300 grams carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
50 grams, butternut squash, peeled and sliced thinly
500 ml vegetarian chicken flavoured stock or vegetable stock
100 grams cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions:
1. Melt the butter with oil over a medium low heat in a pan that will be safe to go into an oven.
2. Sauté the onions until cooked down and just starting to go golden.
3. Scoop out onions and set aside.
4. In the same pan, layer up the vegetable slices with potatoes, reserved onions, carrots and squash. Repeat the layers making sure to end with a potato layer on top.
5. Add the stock on the pan and cook on a medium high heat and covered for 15 minutes.
6. Take the cover off, reduce the heat and cook uncovered for 10 minutes until most – but not all – of the liquid has reduced.
7. Sprinkle the cheese over the top and put until a pre-heated grill for a few minutes until it is melted and started to go golden brown.
8. Serve

Serves: 4