Cheesy oven sausages and baked potatoes

 

How are you all holding up? It seems like every day is the same and there is not much to do on the weekends apart from going on walks. We have now found fancy making a small campfire in the woods on our weekend walks. It’s quite nice to have a little break, light a warming fire and have snacks. We even bought a small axe for this purpose and it really is good fun. We’ve had a little bit snow and ice in Copenhagen this week, which is absolutely fantastic and all the lakes look so beautiful. It means we will soon be out and about today as well and just explore the icy city.

Before that I’ll make a quick food post. I made this very comforting dish of cheesy baked oven sausages with these newish vegan BBQ sausages. They were really good. The cheesy oven sausage is a classic 80s dish from my childhood, I just made a vegetarian version of it. I had cheesy baked potatoes, steamed brussels sprouts and salad on the side. It was a really nice winter dish and I can only recommend it.

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

 

Shepherd's pie

Yesterday was just a wonderful weather, and we spent the day mainly outdoors walking in the harbour and in the parks. There was a glorious sunshine at +11C and I swapped to the spring jacket. We also opened the beer garden season, in February, in Scandinavia! Today is cloudy again and slightly colder. Nevertheless we will soon head out for a little Sunday walk, and coffee and pastries.

I made this vegan shepherd's pie with my current favourite plantbased mince made from pea protein. It's a Danish product, so it's nice to support local produce, and it has a really nice texture. It's great in pasta bolognese sauces, this kind of shepherd's pie ragouts and many dishes more. It's also very reasonably priced.

I like to cover my shepherd's pies with a thick mash potato layer. Have a look at the recipe below, which made quite a large oven dish full of comforting pie.

Shepherd's pie

Ingredients

400 g potatoes

3 tbsp margarine

400 g pea protein mince

2 onions

3 garlic cloves

3 carrots

1 can tomato purée

1 glass red wine

Vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Ground black pepper to taste

Smoked paprika to taste

2 vegetable stock cubes

Method

Peel and cook the potatoes. Make the mash for the topping once they are cooked. Add some salt and margarine and use some of the potato boiling water as the liquid to make a smooth mash.

Chop the onions, garlic and carrots, and start cooking the onions in vegetable oil.

Once the onions are softened, add the carrots to the pan and cook further.

Then add the garlic, and finally the plantbased mince.

Cook for a while, and then add the seasoning, tinned tomatoes and red wine.

Let simmer until the flavours have blended nicely.

Place the mince mix in an oven dish and cover it with the potato mash.

Bake at 200 C for about 20 minutes or until the surface is nicely browned.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Braised cauliflower, roast potatoes and beurre blanc

This was our last Sunday's dinner and I think I might fancy something similar tomorrow, as I still almost taste it in my mouth by looking at these pictures. I made braised cauliflower with white wine and cheese, proper crispy roast potatoes and beurre blanc with pink and green peppercorns. It was all heavenly good and comforting. The original plan was to braise a fennel, but as the shop didn't have any, I opted for cauliflower. This was such a good combination, it just needs a little bit effort and time with the different cooking times and phases. 

Here's how I made this dish.

Braised cauliflower

1 small cauliflower

1 shallot

5 cloves of garlic

2 tsp vegetable stock powder

1 tsp sea salt

½ tsp ground black pepper

25 g butter

200 ml white wine

50 g vegetarian pasta cheese

Cut the cauliflower into thin slices. Chop the shallot into rings and the garlic into slices.

Place them all into an oven dish with the seasoning and wine. Cover with foil and slow-cook in the oven at about 150 C for about 1,5 hours.

Mix the grated vegetarian pasta cheese into the liquid in the dish and sprinkle some on the top. Return to the oven for further 10 minutes.

Roast potatoes

400 g potatoes

½ cup olive oil

Sprinkle of salt

Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. Cook them for about 15 minutes in water until soft. Drain the water and dry cook the potatoes for a while to remove excess liquid.

Heat the olive oil in the oven on a baking tray and put the potatoes on there. Roast at 200 C for about 40 minutes. Turn the potatoes around and roast for further 30 minutes.

Beurre blanc

1 small shallot

150 ml white wine

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

125 g butter

Pink peppercorns

Green peppercorns

Chop the shallot finely and heat them with the wine and vinegar in a pot. Reduce until about the half or 2/3 of the liquid have cooked off.

Remove the shallot with a sieve leaving just a clear liquid. Add the cold butter into the liquid, a small piece at a time and keep whisking. Then add the peppercorns.

And all is done, enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

Your VegHog