Friday 8 July 2022

Good bye and good riddance to Boris Johnson

It’s a worry that he hasn’t yet properly resigned to the Queen, but hopefully the Tories will make sure he does.

Hoping for the best and going ahead and celebrating…





Of course there is now the worry which swivel eyed idiot the loonies will inflict on us next… but let’s enjoy this for a minute….

Monday 4 July 2022

Vegetarian Lasagne

I read the Delia recipe but made something not the same as I didn’t have all the ingredients and I put it together like I do my meat lasagne. I think it would be nice with bacon or chorizo in if you wanted a bit of meat.

Brilliant way to use a whole marrow that isn’t too courgette like for variety when you are swamped with them ;)


Makes enough for 8 people (or 6 if you don’t serve with much else…)


For the filling

2 onions

1 pepper

4 medium tomatoes

1 clove of garlic

6 courgettes or 1 marrow (I used a round courgette and most of a marrow). This looks like a lot but cooks away to nearly nothing…

200 ml tomato puree

200g black olives (stoned)

A block of ricotta cheese

If you don’t want it to be vegetarian add some bacon!


To make the lasagne

600ml béchamel sauce (you can buy it ready made in the supermarket in France, I presume in the UK too if you can’t be bothered to make it)

Grated cheese (emmental and cheddar or what ever you fancy…). I use a good covering og emmental and then a bit of cheddar on top.

Lasagne sheets


Dice the onion, pepper and tomato. Put in an oven tray with olive oil and crushed garlic.

Cook at 170°C for about an hour until the onion is translucent and the liquid has evaporated.

Dice the courgettes/marrow and put in a bowl with 1tbsp salt for a couple of hours. Stir occasionally if you can. Liquid will come out. Rince the pieces thoroughly and put in an oven dish with some butter and half the tomato puree.

Roast for an hour at 170°C or until no liquid is in the bottom of the pan (may take longer)

Cut the olives in half and the feta in to cubes.

Mix together the filling ingredients including the rest of the tomato puree. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Put 1/2 in the bottom of a dish and cover with lasagne sheets

Put in the rest of the filling and cover with the rest of the sheets.

Then the béchamel and top with cheese

Cook for an hour at 180°C or until the top is crisp and brown 


Instructions

I used all the yellow one and about two thirds of the green one. If the marrow has large seeds then scoop them out and just use the surrounding flesh.



Courgettes before roasting, they will end up only a fraction of this volumn.


The filling needs to be reasonably dry so the lasagne doesn’t come out all sloppy. So make sure you roast the veg for long enough. 

Cooked!




Sunday 3 July 2022

Mexican black bean veggie burgers

1 onion

1 pepper

Some garlic (crushed - I used 1/2 a clove as didn’t want to make it over powering)

Good splosh of olive oil to cook the onion and pepper and garlic in). 2 tbsp maybe)

Some Mexican spice (I used 20g pack of old el paso guacamole spice)

2x 400g can of beans (the beans will weigh less when the water in the tin is drained off, I think my tin said the beans weighed 250g)

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used panco)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil (or walnut oil, or whatever you have)

Salt to taste - the spice pack i used had salt in it so I didn’t need much more)


Cut up the onion and pepper and cook in a roasting tray with oil at 180°C until soft and there is no liquid (except some oil maybe) in the bottom of the tray.

Open the cans of beans, drain and put in to an oven tray. Cook at 180°C until the beans have dried off (no liquid when you stir them). About 20 mins.

Mash the beans with a fork, leaving some large lumps. They should be very soft and easy to mash after the roasting. 

Dice the cooked onion and pepper up small, I wizzed them briefly in the chopper.

Stir everything together and chill the mix (to firm it up)

Should be a firm mixture you can make patties from. If not add more breadcrumbs.

Shape in to burgers and BBQ (or fry or grill). 

If you want to bbq them you may need to do it on foil or a tray or BBQ mesh as they are a bit crumbly.

Serve with avocado, tomato and lettuce in a bun


I forgot to take a photo before scoffing! So here is one of the preparations to BBQ them, and of the oven ‘dried’ beans.