All posts tagged: vegetarian

Colcannon: A Traditional Irish Potato Dish

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Elves and Dragons! Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don’t go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you’ll land in trouble too big for you. J.R.R Tolkien Last weekend, one of my friends came to visit. We spent nearly all weekend cooking and eating, eating and cooking. From pizza baguettes to chicken sandwiches to stuffed zucchinis and a hummus platter, we had it all. Some adventures were had, lessons were learnt, and other lessons were re-discovered. It was so much fun, and we had a great time just chatting and creating. One thing we both discovered was how fast time goes when you are cooking with someone else. Or, really, just doing anything with someone else. The morning after she arrived, we got up at 8.00 as we had to leave at 9.15 to help at a party for some local kids. Somehow 8.45 came with a bang when we had barely started preparing breakfast (nevermind actually being dressed). We had envisioned a lazy breakfast of scrambled eggs and …

Slightly Boozy Homemade Apple Cider

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Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple. – JK Rowling As much as I love spring and summer, there is just something enchanting about Autumn and Winter flavours, smells, colours and holidays. I love the look, taste, and smell of everything these two season have to offer: warm fragrant soups, pumpkin pies, apple tarts, oranges stuffed with cloves, hot minty chocolate, and hot apple cider — to mention just a few. The first time I ever had apple cider was at my first Thanksgiving in America as an adult (way back in 2001!). I was confused. I didn’t understand how it could be cider as there was no alcohol! Eventually I came to appreciate this kind of cider and now I really, really love all the flavours. Last year, for a tea night I decided I wanted to make American apple cider, however, most recipes I saw called for pre-made cider. I didn’t understand why, when surely you could just use apples to …

Decadently Delicious Chocolate Refrigerator Cake

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Will looked horrified. ‘What kind of monster could possibly hate chocolate?’ – Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel. Back in July, my friend, Becky, who also edits for me, asked me to make my Chocolate Refrigerator Cake. This cake, which is scrumptious, is one of my favourite things to make both here in Korea and at home in Ireland. It’s decadently full of dark chocolate, shredded coconut and banana chips, and it’s packed to the brim with nuts and dried fruit. The first time I made it I used Usbourne’s Beginners Cookbook . It was for a Cake Bake that we used to host once a month, in my department, in my old company. It was a major success and many people asked for the recipe. When I made it here in Korea, I didn’t have that cookbook, so instead I relied on this BBC Good Food recipe instead for inspiration which, to be honest, I still use for some of the measurements in the chocolate mix. I don’t like apricots so instead I would substitute whatever other dried fruit …

Vegan Apple Chia Pudding

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An apple a day keeps the doctor away. A couple of months ago, I went on a smoothie bender. I made smoothies every evening so that I’d have a healthy breakfast the next morning. I created my own recipes and I eagerly tried out tons of recipes from tons of different blogs. One of the recipes that quickly became a firm favourite was this Apple Smoothie Recipe from Food Viva. It was simple, delicious and I was able to use up my apples in no time at all. Using up fruit is one of my biggest downfalls. While I like fruit, I am not a big fruit person. Even with it sitting on my counter staring at me, my brain rarely registers that I have it on hand, and, more often than not, it goes bad and I have to dump it. I hate this because I think wasting food is a terrible sin; there are so many people in the world who don’t get enough, and those of us that do waste far more than we …

Gorgonzola Salad Wraps

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A meal without some cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye. – Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin When I came back from my holidays, I went shopping for food the second day that I was home.  Even though I was supposed to only be buying the ingredients to make last week’s recipe I was wandering around looking at all the food. Despite the fact that I know I have a bit of a cholesterol problem, my favourite part of Homeplus (a store similar to Tesco or No Frills) is the cheese section. Though it’s mostly really processed American or, as my family call it, plastic cheese, they fortunately have one shelf constantly stocked with Brie, Camembert, Mozzarella, real Philadelphia Cream Cheese, and Smoked Cheese. The main reason I peruse it so often is because sometimes you come across a rare gem – a couple of months ago for about 6 weeks they had Edam Cheese and, last week, I found Gorgonzola. I was over the moon. I’d just been thinking that I’d really like some blue …