Walnut herb sauce
In the meantime, here’s The Soul Leaders with their wonderfully saucy song Pour on the Sauce.
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Walnut & herb sauce
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Category Archives: sauce
Pie, Mash & Liquor – vegetarian style
I first came across pie, mash & liquor in the wonderful blog Spitalfields Life. This meal is an east London phenomenon, which consists of a meat pie, a pile of mashed potatoes, and a drenching of liquor (parsley sauce). And it seems to be accompanied, traditionally, by jellied eels. (I haven’t come up with a vegetarian version of this, but it would probably involve okra.) The meal is served in gleaming marble and glass pie shops, which I vow to visit one day!
I used a black bean and mushroom substitute for the meat. From the recipes I’ve seen, there’s a bit of leeway with different flavorings – it’s not as pure and simple as a cornish pastie, for instance. I added marmite, mustard powder, paprika, and beer, and the result is really delicious! I have made parsley sauce in the past, but I was in the mood for something different, this time, so I made an herbed walnut sauce, and stirred a big helping of pesto in at the end so it would be green (and tasty!!)
I used a hot water crust on the bottom and a paté brisée on the top, which seems to be traditional, according to some sources. But you could use one or the other. And I used a large-sized muffin pan, but you could use a regular muffin pan, or, to really keep it simple, just use paté brisée and fold them over like turnovers.
Here’s Dee Dee Sharp doing Mashed Potato Time
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Crepes with chard & pecans
Oh, chard, is there any nut you don’t taste good with? Chard and pecans are lovely together, both have their own special blend of earthy brightness. The fresh ricotta and mozzarella add a creamy texture, the peas add a sweet little bite, and the pecans add crunch. I made this using cheater’s chickpea crepes, but you could use ordinary old crepes as well. Or even lasagna noodles, layered on top of each other, with the sauce all through rather than added at the end. If you do use the chickpea flour crepes, don’t worry if they tear or fall apart a bit. The filling will hold them together, and they’ll look fine in the end, with delicious sauce to cover any holes.
chard!
Here’s Elmore James’s Rollin and Tumblin, which was in my head while I rolled the crepes, and which blows me away every time I hear it. It really is phenomenal. One of my favorites.
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Simple tomato sauce
Simple tomato sauce
This recipe is so easy, so tasty, and so versatile, that you will never buy a bottle of pasta sauce again! In the summer I use fresh tomatoes, but the rest of the year I use canned, and, honestly, it’s just as good. I use fire-roasted diced, in a can, for extra smokey flavor.
You can season this any way you like – you can make it spicy with cayenne or red pepper flakes or chipotle puree. You can add oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme or cilantro. You can add olives and capers to make a sort of puttanesca. You can add roasted red peppers and paprika to make it nice and smokey. You can add ground almonds or hazelnuts. You could add curry spices. You could add grated toasted beets. And of course, you could add any vegetable you’re fond of. Anything you like! My youngest son likes to eat it as though it was soup, which it would be, if you thinned it down a bit with water or milk.
Here’s Sly and the Family Stone with Sing a Simple Song, to show you how it’s done.
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Black bean & butternut squash enchiladas
Enchiladas
Here’s Enchilada by the Scamps. Enchilaaaaaaaada….enchilaaaaaaaaaaada! The maniacal laughter makes it a good halloween song, too!
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Savory vanilla sauce & roasted french fries
The other night, during a bout of insomnia, I started thinking about vanilla, as one does. I love the scent and flavor of vanilla. (I have recurring dreams about vanilla essence, actually. Wonder what that means?) I think vanilla has been unfairly labeled as plain and pale – almost a non-flavor. In fact it’s wonderfully flavorful. I started to ponder the fact that, in my experience, vanilla is always used as a flavoring in sweet dishes. Why shouldn’t vanilla find its way into a savory dish? Other sweet staples, like cinnamon and chocolate have done it. Then I started thinking about fries and a vanilla milkshake. Such a perfect pairing. One hot, crispy and salty, and one cool and vanilla-y. That’s when I came up with the idea for this combination.
The sauce is a tarator sauce – it’s nut-based, and though it’s quite creamy, there’s no dairy in it at all. And the french fries are actually roasted in olive oil in the oven, but they become as crispy as you could hope for. Keep reading for recipes…
Roasted french fries
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Out of the Ordinary 