Char-grilled butternut squash and pepper risotto

I'm char-grilling again as I'm still excited about my newish griddle pan. I char-grilled the veg beforehand for my risotto and the result was rather spectacular if I may say so myself. There is a nice grilling flavour going through the dish that gives a twist to a normal vegetarian risotto. Making risotto from scratch isn't as complicated as people might think, you only need some patience and stirring strength.

Ingredients

1 Pepper

½ Butternut squash

A few dried porcini mushrooms

1 Cup arborio rice

1 Onion

2 Cloves of garlic

White wine

Vegetable stock

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Olive oil

Groundnut oil

Butter

Salt

Pepper

Parsley

Method

Wash and slice the pepper and butternut squash. The bits for the char-grilling should be much larger than those you put into the risotto. Heat the griddle pan, add groundnut oil and mark these vegetables so that they get grilling stripes on both sides. When the veg bits are grilled, chop them into smaller pieces and set to side.

In the meanwhile prepare the vegetable stock and soak the dried porcini mushrooms. Warm the vegetable stock up in a pan and add parsley into it. Chop the onion and garlic and grate the pasta cheese.

Heat olive oil in a pan and fry onions and garlic there for a while. Add the porcini and fry them for a while. Then add the butter and rice and fry until the rice is translucent. Then make a white wine addition. Let the wine evaporate almost entirely and put the grilled vegetables to the pan and stir through. Make a vegetable stock addition and let simmer under the lid.

Stir often and add more vegetable stock whenever needed. Let simmer at moderate heat until the rice is al dente. Season with grated pasta cheese, parsley salt and pepper and you're ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Oven potatoes with pine nut and saffron butter

Here's a quick entry about easy oven potatoes. This is a great side dish to many vegetables or vegetarian burgers and it almost makes itself. I have paired them with delicious home made seasoned butter. This pine nut and saffron butter goes well with potatoes, barbeque veg or baguette, anything you'd like!

For the oven potatoes:

Potatoes

Cayenne pepper

Salt

Oil

For the pine nut and saffron butter:

2tbsp of pine nuts

Pinch of saffron threads

1 Small garlic clove

100g Butter

1tbsp Milk

First make the seasoned butter, which can rest in the fridge while the potatoes are baking.

Take some saffron threads and put them into warm milk for some minutes. They'll colour the milk nicely yellow. Crush the pine nuts and garlic. Mix everything together with soft butter and shape into a rod inside of kitchen foil or cling film. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Please note: Consume the butter within couple of days.

All you have to do for the oven potatoes is to take some potatoes, wash and cut them in half or quarter. Then they can be placed on a baking tray and brushed with oil. Sprinkle cayenne pepper and salt on the potatoes and bake them for about one hour at 170C until they have a crispy exterior and soft interior. Regulate the heat during the baking if the oven is too hot.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog

Carrot and spelt rolls

For these rolls I used a recipe from the Myllyn Paras Oy's page (Here it is but only in Finnish). However I made slight adjustments by using spelt flour and only making the half of the dough as the original recipe was for about 20-25 rolls, which I thought would've been too much. Now after baking I know that I easily could've eaten them all within no time. Well maybe next time...

Carrot rolls are quite common in Finland but I don't think I've seen them elsewhere. They might sound weird first if you haven't heard of them before but believe me they are very tasty and also easy to make.

Here's how I made them (about 10 rolls):

2,5dl Milk

2dl Grated carrots

25g Yeast

1tsp Salt

4dl Spelt flour

3dl Wheat flour

50g Butter

Oat flakes

First finely grate the carrots and mix them to the milk and heat them lukewarm. Add the yeast and salt and mix. Then add the flour and knead properly. When dough starts to seem fine add the melted butter and knead some more. Let the dough rise for about one hour under a tea towel.

When dough has risen and doubled its size shape rolls of it and place them on a baking tray. Sprinkle oat flakes on the top. Cover them with a tea towel for a moment more to rise again. Then bake at 225C for 10-15 minutes.

Nicky James pony plate and tea towel.

Enjoy baking and eating!

Your VegHog

Homemade butternut squash ravioli with pesto

Have you ever made your own pasta? Believe me it's a rewarding experience and fresh homemade pasta tastes extraordinarily good. I'm making today ravioli with butternut squash filling and pairing it with some homemade pesto. I don't have a pasta machine (however it's on my wishlist) so making the pasta sheets means a lot of hard rolling pin work, but I'm up for it!

For the pasta dough:

400g Grade 00 pasta flour

4 Eggs

Salt

For the ravioli filling:

¼ Butternut squash

Bread crumbs

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Rosemary

Salt

Pepper

For the pesto:

Large bunch of fresh basil

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Garlic

Pine nuts

Olive oil

And this is how it's done:

Make the pesto first as it can rest in the fridge until everything else is ready. Grate the vegetarian pasta cheese (parmigiano equivalent). Grind the garlic and pine nuts, add the cheese, basil and olive oil to it and grind to a smooth paste with a hand mixer. Put it into a sealable container and let rest in the fridge.

Then make the pasta dough. Put the flour into a pile on a table, break the eggs into a dent in the middle of the flour pile and add some salt. Then heavily knead until you have a firm dough. If the dough is too tough, add a little olive oil to make it smoother or if it's too runny, add more flour. Finally knead the dough into a ball, wrap into cling film and place to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Now it's time to make the filling for the ravioli. Peel and slice the butternut squash quarter and boil the slices in water until soft. In the meanwhile grate more vegetarian pasta cheese. Then squash the squash and add the cheese, rosemary and bread crumbs to it and mix to an even paste. It must not be too moist, add more bread crumbs if needed. You can also lightly season with salt and pepper. This mix needs to be well cooled down before you put it onto the pasta.

Start rolling the pasta dough with either a pasta machine or a rolling pin and make thin sheets of it. Cut small squares or circles. Fill them, brush the sides with water and stick another pasta piece on it. The water helps them stick well together, but also press them firmly together with your fingers or a fork.

Boil the ravioli for about 8-10 minutes in salt water until the filling is warm and the pasta al dente. Roll them in pesto before serving and sprinkle cheese on the pasta.

Serve the dish with a fresh tomato, mozzarella and basil salad. Enjoy and be proud of your achievement of making ravioli from scratch!

Your VegHog

The Coach & Horses – London's first veggie pub

The Coach & Horses is a vegetarian public house located in 29 Greek Street in London's Soho. I visited it for the first time couple of weeks ago and have only good things to say about it. The interior was cosy, it wasn't too busy and the staff were extremely nice. It seemed like the perfect place to escape the hectic London streets for a while.

They had many tempting dishes on the menu and also some vegan options and a good selection of ales and ciders. The ales were in a good condition. I decided to have the day's special, a vegetarian lentil and vegetable shepherd's pie. It tasted very hearty, was filling and good value for money. Apparently they also offer vibrant entertainment such as a ”Good old Cockney piano sing-a-long”.

Well worth a visit if you're in London, it's easily accessible from anywhere in central London as well.

Brazil nut cookies

Hello!

It's April and we are going to bake some cookies today to start the month off sweet. These are quick and easy cookies but please note that my ingredient amounts are only approximate, unfortunately I'm not quite sure anymore how much I used of which ingredient.

Ingredients

1dl Brazil nuts

1dl Butter

1dl Sugar

1 Egg

2dl Flour

1tsp Baking powder

1tsp Vanilla extract

½ tsp Salt

Start by chopping the brazil nuts. I chopped them quite coarsely in order to have bigger nut chunks in the cookies. Foam the butter and sugar with a hand mixer and then add the egg to the mix. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the butter and sugar. Then also add the brazil nuts.

I shaped huge cookies out of them so I only had six mega cookies in the end, but please make smaller ones if you don't want them to be so massive. Shape whatever size you'd like (bearing in mind that they'll slightly grow in the oven) on a greased baking tray and bake at 200C for about 20 minutes until the cookies get some nice colouring.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Olive, pineapple and mushroom pizza

I love pizza! If you do too, please take a moment and read about my take on a good homemade pizza. This time I'm making pizza with one of my favourite topping combinations: olive, pineapple and mushroom. For me pineapple is a really important pizza topping but not so commonly used everywhere.

I'm very sorry that I can't reveal the proportions to my secret pizza dough. No, it's just that I have to make it with fingertip feel to get it right and I think it's something that everybody should learn. The secret is also partly in wheat rye flower mix for the dough. By the way I prefer a thin crust pizza with double cheese any day. I normally make a large batch of dough and then directly make several pizzas while I'm at it.

You'll need for the dough:

Wheat flour

Rye flour

Dry yeast

Salt

Olive oil

Water

You'll need for the topping:

Tomatoes

Onions

Garlic

Basil

Black olives

Closed cup mushrooms

Pineapple slices

Cheese

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Make it so:

First make the dough, which can then rise when you're doing other preparations. Mix the dry ingrerients, then add some warm water at room temperature, that'll start the yeast working, and knead until the dough is nice and even. Then add a little olive oil and knead some more. Add more flour or water if your dough doesn't have the right texture. Now the dough shouldn't stick to the bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm room for about an hour.

Then make the tomato sauce. Bring water to boil, make x-cuts on the tomatoes and dip them into boiling water for about 30 seconds. They should now easily peel. Chop the onion and garlic cloves and start frying them in olive oil. When they are translucent add the peeled tomatoes and crush them. Let it simmer under cover for about 20 minutes while occasionally stirring. Towards the end add fresh basil leaves to the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Puree the sauce with a hand mixed and set to side.

Chop the mushrooms for the topping. I leave the olives whole and use pineapple slices from the tin and slice them into smaller pieces. When your dough is done, roll it out on a baking tray. If you prefer a fluffier crust you can let it rise again under a tea towel. Then spoon the sauce on the dough and put the toppings and cheese on it and bake at 220C for about 15 minutes.

If you're not used to making your own pizza, I really recommend you to try it. It's surprisingly easy and you can make it exactly to your own liking. I will be posting many other pizza recipes as I'm an pizza addict.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog