Balsamic glazed vegetables

The 1^st of May, Vappu with its eve Walburgis Night, is a big celebration and street carnival in Finland, other Nordic countries and Germany. Especially students love to celebrate it, but also children have their balloons and streamers. It's customary to eat nice finger food and baked goods, have lovely drinks and do picnics in the parks (weather permitting). These customs that I listed here are mainly Finnish and may be different in the other countries. 

I wasn't directly inspired by Vappu to make these balsamic glazed vegetables, but I thought that they could make a nice addition to a picnic or when having friends over for snacks. I can't believe that it's almost May, how quickly is this year actually going!? Anyway, this is how I made my balsamic glazed vegetables.

Ingredients

2 bell peppers

1 garlic clove

200 g baby plum tomatoes

200 g green olives

Fresh basil leaves

Oregano

Salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

Balsamic glaze
Pine nuts
Mozzarella pearls

Method

Cut the peppers into thin strips and chop the garlic finely. Cook them for a couple of minutes in a pan in hot olive oil.

Cut the tomatoes in halves.

Put the vegetables into a bowl and season them with the herbs, salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic glaze.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let rest in the fridge for at least one hour. I prefer leaving these overnight.

Serve with salads, pasta, couscous, bread, whatever you can think of!

Hauskaa Vappua! And have nice time even if you are not specifically celebrating any of the early May festivities!

Your VegHog

Provençal produce

People really take pride in their produce in Provence, and they have every right to do so, as the quality of the products is very high. I found all the local shopkeepers and market vendors to be very nice and wanting to talk about their products. Sometimes there was a slight language barrier, but I'm determined to improve my French to be able to understand more. 

I shopped for several different vegetarian food items and drinks there and here is a short overview of some of the lovely stuff you can get in Provence. The quality of the products is normally exquisite, so it was worth a bit of carrying on the Eurostar. You will see me using these products in my cooking now, and I hope that's okay for you. There are always ways to replace stuff, if you can't get the exact thing in a recipe, and this goes for all my dishes!

Wine – Well, what can I say to this subject on French wines that hasn't already been said a million times? I went to the Rhône area, which is a very large wine region with fields and fields of vineyards where ever you look. I sampled many of these wines, both whites and reds while I was there and also brought a few bottles back with me, which shall be saved for special occasions.  

 

Olive oil – Olive trees are everywhere in Provence, hence the quality offer on olive oil as well. We got a recommendation in a friendly wine shop for this local huile d'olive by Bernard Trazic, and indeed it is the most fragrant and flavoursome olive oil you could imagine. I shall only use it for special drizzles on very good dishes only. Then I also purchased a couple of infused olive oils, mandarin and chilli pepper variations. They should be very good in cooking as well and the flasks just look too cute!

Bread – The quality of bread in France is amazing and you can find so many bakeries everywhere. Many days I survived just on baguette and cheese with a little wine. Well, maybe that's not such a balanced diet, but I didn't get tired of it yet.

Vegetables – As I already wrote previously, I did some serious vegetable inspecting and a little bit of buying in Les Halles in Avignon. Particularly the different tomato variations look and taste great. There seem to be fresh vegetables on offer everywhere you go in Provence, most fascinating are maybe those small stalls at roundabouts that sell vegetables and fruits. The French cook a lot with their vegetables, but only rarely make fully vegetarian dishes. That sometimes complicates things for eating out, but when you do a bit of research beforehand, you can find lovely veggie and veggie-friendly places.

Herbs – Herbes de Provence is a widely known dried spice mix typically consisting of marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano and savory. It is a great spice mix for vegetarian cooking and I use it quite often for spicing dishes and salads.

Lavender – When you see pictures from Provence, there's probably a lavender field somewhere on there. Now the lavender had already been harvested in the valleys and was only still growing in the mountains, where I unfortunately didn't have time to go to. In any case I got a bouquet of dried lavender for my home to bring a lovely scent. Have you ever cooked anything with lavender?

Tapenades – Tapenades are mainly olive based spreads that you can eat with bread. Here you have to be careful as a vegetarian and always read the ingredient listing as anchovies are often used as an ingredient. I decided not to buy an olive tapenade, but to make one myself soon (watch this space!), and got aubergine caviar instead. 

Beer – Normally people wouldn't associate southern France much as a beer producing region, but there actually are some good local beers available. I'm most probably going to write a beer review of one local product later on.

This is a really quick overview what products can be enjoyed in Provence, but of course there are loads more. Have you been to Provence? What are your recommendations or favourite local products?

Your VegHog

Les Halles in Avignon

Les Halles is a covered food market with around 40 stalls offering a wide range of local produce right at the centre of Avignon in Provence. You can find the finest cooking ingredients there: the freshest vegetables, fine artisan breads and pastries, cheeses, fruits, flowers, spices, olive oil, wine... almost anything you could desire. I just loved hanging around there and looking around, and that's why I went back almost every day.

In 2006 the façade of Les Halles was covered with an interesting feature, an impressive growing plant wall designed by the botanist Patrick Blanc, who has invented the concept of a vertical garden (Mur Végétal). This masterpiece really is a great sight on the market place, where also outdoor markets take place.

For food lovers this market is a great place to visit and there is a lot to see, the vegetables alone are magnificent. I bought some to take home with me, so some recipes with them will follow. The Provençal vegetables are so tasty and good looking, and it makes me a little bit sad that I couldn't carry home more. I just could go crazy for all those different heirloom tomatoes!

If you ever are in this area, then make sure to visit the market and enjoy the atmosphere! And now have a look at my photos from there.

British style vegetarian Sunday roast

There is a tradition in this country for an opulent Sunday meal, called the Sunday roast. Whether it's enjoyed at home with relatives, in pubs or restaurants, it's an important tradition for the British. Even though the concept has strong connotations with a meaty meal, vegetarians can make a fabulous roast dinner as well and that's what I'm trying to present to you here today.

Nut roast

A vegetarian roast dinner needs a centrepiece substituting the meat products, and I decided to make a nut roast again. This one differs slightly from my Christmas nut roast recipe as this time I used pearled spelt as one component. 

1dl pearled spelt

1tsp vegetable stock powder

240g peeled and cooked chestnuts

1-2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1 carrot

25g dried porcini mushrooms

2tbsp olive oil

100g Red Leicester cheese

2tbsp breadcrumbs

Cook the spelt in water with added vegetable stock powder until tender. This takes about 15 minutes. In the meanwhile soak the crushed porcini mushrooms for about 10 minutes.

Chop the shallots, garlic and carrot finely and fry them lightly in olive oil. I grated the carrot to have it extra fine. Drain the porcini, but save the soaking water, and add the mushrooms to the pan.

When the spelt has cooked add it to the pan as well and some of the mushroom soaking water as well.

Once you are happy that all the components have cooked nicely, add the chestnuts. Press them little between your fingers and add to the mix. Then also add the grated cheese and the breadcrumbs and divide the mixture into small greased ramekins.

Bake them for about 40 minutes at 180C.

Onion gravy

Other important components to a roast dinner are steamed or roasted vegetables and potatoes, and I moistened them with my onion gravy, recipe is here. Reserve enough time for making the gravy as the shallots need to caramelise a while. You can always reheat the gravy, if you make it earlier.

Yorkshire puddings

For the first time I'm making Yorkshire puddings, and used this basic recipe for them. Finnish oven pancakes are very similar to the Yorkshire puddings, but normally bigger and they would only be served as a dessert.

140g flour

4 eggs

200ml milk

Vegetable oil for greasing

Whisk the ingredients together and bake in a greased muffin tin at 200C for about 25 minutes. They will nicely puff up, so only fill the holes of the tin half full.

On the side I served my cranberry jelly. I would recommend making this on the previous day as it needs several hours for setting. You'll find the full recipe through the link.

 

Vegetables

Choose any of your favourite vegetables to be served. These are my chosen ones for this meal.

230g purple sprouting broccoli spears

1 cup frozen peas

150g baby topped carrots

1 parsnip

4 garlic cloves

500g small potatoes

2tbsp vegetable oil

½tsp salt

1tsp thyme

I steamed the broccoli spears and heated the frozen peas in a pan, but the other vegetables were roasted.

Peel and chop the parsnip into thin sticks. If you are using baby carrots, they can be left as they are, otherwise chop them in the same fashion as the parsnips. Peel and crush the garlic. The potatoes just need a quick wash, leave the peels on.

Place the vegetables in a roasting tin and brush them with vegetable oil. Sprinkle salt and thyme on them and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes until all the vegetables are nicely done.

Timing is key when putting a Sunday roast together. You would want all the components to be ready at the same time, so think carefully about the timings when you have to cook which part. Some of them can be prepared on the previous day. Remember that you can get really creative with this and choose only your favourite vegetables, and as the main piece either a nut roast, vegetarian Schnitzel, veggie sausages or anything nice you can think of.

Have a tasty Sunday all!

Your VegHog