First problem - what picture to choose to attract you to read? I shall be mostly talking about vegan desserts and the difficulties thereof for non-vegans like me, so what to choose to illustrate this? I searched and searched and finally chose this - which I actually don't think is a vegan cake, but it seems to be suitably, plant focussed.
Why am I talking about vegan desserts? Well tomorrow is a book group night and I am the hostess, so I therefore need to provide a cake or something sweet to have after our discussion - hence choosing a picture of a cake for my leading picture. Actually tomorrow is not the standard book discussion but the end of the year, 'what shall we read next year?' meeting, so in a way it's a little bit special. Besides I always like to make something special and sweet for such occasions. We don't eat a lot of sweet desserts.
My problem is that one of our members is a vegan. So what to make that we would all like and also is something that doesn't use 'special' vegan ingredients that I shall never use again? I could chicken out and go and buy a vegan cake just for her somewhere. I think there is a cake shop in Eltham that has them. But for me, that's a little bit like cheating. I could just make a fruit salad or compote, but that also is a bit of a cop out and besides I think I did that once before. Anyway I decided to check a couple of Ottolenghi books and also Ixta Belfrage's Meczla because they do often talk about how to veganise something, or even make specifically vegan recipes.
Indeed Ixta Belfrage did indeed have this Coconut, chocolate and cofee roll - alas the recipe is not online - but in the end, having read it through a couple of times I decided against it, purely because it was a bit time consuming and I am feeling lazy. Maybe next time. Ottolenghi and his crew, however, in spite of having long lists of vegan dishes in the back of his two OTK books only had one dessert suggestion in each book - and not appropriate ones either. So it was back to the net for me.
Now I have some filo pastry, just opened, that is a possible option - and indeed, I think last time that it was my turn I did indeed make an apple strudel. Which was fine, but not quite as good without butter.
Here and there I had seen pictures of filo tartlets filled with fruit so I thought I could do something like that, but when I checked that option out, almost all of them included some kind of creamy base - and yes I know there are vegan yoghurts and that you can apparently do amazing things with chickpea water (aquafaba), but that seems to me to be altogether too vegan focussed for a majority non vegan audience. Besides my filo pastry has now been optioned by my daughter-in-law for a party for which she would like me to make baklava. And since that is on Sunday, it would be boring to do some kind of baklava, even though there are indeed some tempting vegan options out there - like this Vegan date baklava from Lazy Cat Kitchen. The only out of the ordinary ingredient is date syrup, which is problematic, not just because of veganism, but just that it's difficult to find. Though you can make your own.
What about wonton wrappers I thought, because of late I have seen a few little tarts made with wonton wrappers in magazines. However, I then discovered that wonton wrappers mostly have egg in the dough, so they are out.
And then I thought of puff pastry - not the butter puff pastry that I use but the bulk of the puff pastry you find in the supermarkets. And yes indeed, it's vegan - but check the ingredients to make sure it's vegetable oil that it is made with. And here I thought of Nigel's delicious Quick apricot tarts that I made recently, and I think, commented on. Also further back the upside down ones that I learnt about on TikTok. It's just pastry, jarred apricots and jam. Nothing dairy in sight. However, it obviously doesn't have to be apricots. It can be any fruit, although it would need to be pre-cooked I think. So yes, that's what I'm going to do I think. Monika gave me some rhubarb the other day, so I could use that - maybe mixed with blueberries. Or mango - I made some rhubarb and mango jam a while back that I could use for the glaze. Or I could perhaps make a couple of different flavours, because I don't think I have enough rhubarb for eight people.
The only problem is timing however. They really need to be served hot straight from the oven, although they only take 20 minutes to cook - plus the assembly time. Maybe half cook and reheat? Sprinkle some nuts on top? And I'm happy to buy some vegan yoghurt or something similar. Maybe I could do something savoury with some filo for an appetiser - veggies of some kind? You can put anything in a filo casing after all.
Now I'm off to make a couple of dips though, that we can eat whilst we choose our books. A Muhummara (capsicum) and also a fromage fort to use up all the bits of cheese lurking in the fridge. That won't be for my vegan friend however.
Problem solved. I hope.
YEARS GONE BY
November 12
2023 - Old or new? - en papillote
2021 - Nothing
2020 - Getting old - a Jamie recipe
2019 - A gift of artichokes
2018 - Nothing
2016 - Tea and oranges all the way from China - the death of Leonard Cohen
Comments