Naked Vegan Cooking

We made these amazing sticky toffee puddings for the Valentines Pop-Up Restaurant. They were simply divine. *Drools*

For the pudding: 250 ml soya milk, 200 g chopped dates, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 120 g vegan margarine, 120 g soft brown sugar, 200 g white self-raising flour, 1 tsp cinnamon

For the Toffee Sauce: 100 g golden syrup, 200 g soft brown sugar, 150 g vegan margarine, 100 ml soya cream, 1tsp vanilla essence

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Put the dates and soya milk in a saucepan and simmer slowly until the dates become soft, then remove from the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda, the mixture will fizz and bubble. While the mixture cools, cream the margarine and sugar in a separate bowl and stir in the other pudding ingredients, then mix in the date mixture. Put the mixture into a greased cake tin, or cupcake tray, and bake. A large cake will take around 30 minutes to cool, cupcakes will be quicker. Test to see if your cake is done by sticking a sharp knife into the sponge, if it comes out clean then it’s ready!

Meanwhile make the toffee sauce by melting the sugar, margarine and golden syrup in a pan and simmering gently for a few minutes. Allow to cool slightly then stir in the vanilla essence and soya cream.

Pour the sauce over the cake to serve, it can be eaten at once or left to cool down and reheated a portion at a time in the microwave. Enjoy!

We’re putting together an anthology on body image – get involved! Follow us on twitter and facebook!

Far from passively reflecting society, advertisements and the media create an entire cultural worldview, shaping people’s attitudes and beliefs. The advertising industry is particularly insidious. In order to meet ever growing desire for profit, it needs to sell something that we don’t already have. We are constantly under a barrage of unrealistic and altered images from toys, adverts, and the world of celebrity. Our children are being taught that the greatest virtue is the possession of bodies that are physically unattainable for most people. It’s no wonder that many of us grow up to have distorted ways of thinking about our bodies and the food we put in them.

We believe that it is impossible to disconnect this phenomenon from the economic system in which it has arisen. Nor is it useful to ignore that this process is disproportionately targeted at women and other oppressed groups, often in different ways.

This anthology will focus on examining how these phenomena play out on our bodies and practical ways of providing support for ourselves and others. Possible topics of discussion include:

-          Practical tips for managing eating disorders

-          Analysis of how prevalent eating disorders are; how much they have become a part of normal female experience, and are fast becoming a normalised in other groups.

-          Contrasts between feminist and medical models

-          Examinations of how the economic and social drivers behind these processes

-          Tips on being a good ally to people affected by eating disorders / other body image issues

-          Intersectionality,  the experiences of trans, BME and disabled people

-          How does illness/wellness effect our body image? Are “illness” and “wellness” useful concepts here?

-          Reports on work already being done to combat these issues

-          And other issues we haven’t thought of yet (we like surprises!)

We want to produce an accessible printed anthology of a range of academic and non-academic writing, including personal experiences, articles, poetry and artwork. Whether or not we self-publish or go to a publishing house will largely depend on the quality and amount of material we get.

Please send content proposals of up to 500 words to nakedvegancooking[at]gmail.com by June 10th 2012, the deadline for finished articles will be in early August. Get in touch if you like the idea and have other suggestions of things you would like to read. Please share amongst your networks.

We welcome comments on this post which offer constructive suggestions, critiques and queries from within a feminist / liberationary framework. Comments which we think come from outside these frameworks will be deleted – we are happy to have the debate around whether patriarchy exists / capitalism is bad, but not on this post. Thanks.

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This recipe is one of Jess’ favorites… whilst porcini mushrooms can be quite expensive they do make all the difference. The recipe is still pretty good with regular mushrooms, too. If you get dried porcini mushrooms, save the water you use to rehydrate the mushrooms as it makes beautiful gravy! serves 4

Ingredients: 2 butternut squashes, 1 onion, 3-4 cloves garlic, handful of walnuts (chopped), handful of parsley (roughly chopped), 250g porcini mushrooms (you can use other mushrooms but porcini is fantastic in the recipe!), splash of soy milk, splash of balsamic vinegar, splash of soy sauce, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

Method: Finely chop the onions and gently fry in olive oil, adding the garlic and sweating down until the onions are translucent. Add the mushrooms, and gently sweat down. If you are using dried porcini mushrooms, save the water you used to rehydrate them – this makes excellent stock and a great base for gravy. Add the walnuts, a splash of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar, and a glug of soy milk, and stir in. Once the mixture has thickened up a bit, add the chopped parsley and stir in, then take it off the heat.

Meanwhile, slice the butternut squash in half lengthways, and spoon out the seeds and making the hole a bit bigger. Drizzle with olive oil and season with sea salt and freshly milled black pepper. Spoon the mushroom mixture into the butternut squashes, and place into an oven preheated to 180’C for 30-40mins. Keep checking on it to make sure that the mushroom mixture isn’t burning.

We served it with brown rice and gravy made from the porcini juice, but a balsamic reduction would work just as well.

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We cooked this for our Valentines Day Pop-up Restaurant. It went down a treat!

Ingredients:

For the pate: one large onion (finely chopped), 2-3 sticks of celery (fine chopped), olive oil, 2-3 slices of wholemeal bread (crumbled up), 2 stock cubes / or 2tsp bullion powder, 350g mushrooms (sliced), bunch of parsley (fine chopped), I head of garlic (roughly chopped), 1 tbsp marmite/yeast extract, 300g toasted hazelnuts, salt and pepper to taste

For the toast: 2 slices of wholemeal bread per person, vegan margarine, sesame seeds

Hazelnut Pate with Sesame Toast

Method: Gently sweat down the onion, celery and garlic in a largish pot with a generous amount of olive oil. When the onions are clear, add the mushrooms, stock powder, and hazelnuts. Once the mushrooms have softened and start to get juicy, crumble in the bread, and add in the chopped parsley and yeast extract. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste – be really generous with the salt, it makes a huge difference. Pop the mixture in a blender and blend smooth.

To make the sesame toast, place your bread in the toaster or under the grill as usual, then thickly spread one side with butter. Cover the buttered surface of the toast with a coating of sesame seeds. Cut into triangles and serve with the pate.

Again, we didnt have a picture of us with the food, so here is a lovely pic of Luke!

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