Roasted Baby Vegetable Irish Stew with Pearl Barley

Well hello again! And a rather late Happy New Year to you all! I do apologise for the extended break, I found myself quite ill over the holidays and thanks to the lupus/immune suppression it's just taken me forever to get over it. I'm still not out of the woods yet but am getting better, thankfully.

So, back to the recipes :-) I wasn't really intending on posting yet another soup/stew like dish as there have a been a few of them lately but came up with this the other day and just loved it. I've been wanting to do an Irish stew inspired dish for years now anyway and really love this version with deeply roasted baby vegetables and pearl barley. I was considering replacing the meat in Irish stew with some sort of faux meat like seitan or some beans but opted in the end to add lots of baby mushrooms and just keep it simple with the veggies. The mushroom broth, roasting the veg and Worcester sauce all give a richness to the dish that you will not miss either the meat or faux meat here :-) 

You may notice that I have not added any stout here. I'm just not a huge fan of stout in my stews and would much prefer having a pint of it with the dish instead. Plus, as my Irish husband told me "We NEVER had Irish Stew with stout in it..." So there you go! Personally, I would prefer a bottle of my favourite dark ale with this dish instead. In my case, Chimay blue label - that stuff is gorgeous!

I also wanted to have some brown soda bread to go with it. I didn't have any soy yogurt to make my basic Brown Irish Soda bread so I tried my beer bread recipe, replacing the white flour with wholemeal (whole wheat flour) and used a bottle of the Chimay blue label instead of a lager. It turned out nice, the texture was wonderful - really light and fluffy which was surprising for a brown bread and it was really nice with the stew, but a little bit bitter on it's own. I think this is down to the fact that Chimay blue label is a 9% beer. Still, it's a nice bread option for this stew although I would recommend a less powerful beer ;-)

~Recipe Notes~

♥ This recipe isn't overly 'brothy' - it is a stew after all - not a soup. So it's something you kind of eat with a knife and fork as well as a spoon.

♥ If you can't buy mushroom stock cubes you could make your own mushroom stock or if you able to buy vegan 'beef style' stock cubes or bouillon I would recommend that here. (I swear I'm not being paid by Kallo, lol - I just use those cubes a lot in my cooking).

♥ Leave the veggies whole if you are able to buy ones that are small enough. If not, slice them in half. I halved my shallots, new potatoes and carrots as I could only find fairly large 'baby' ones. I left my baby mushrooms whole as they shrink up so much.

♥ The length of time roasting with depend on many things - the size of the veggies you've used, the heat of your oven, type of pan you have, even how much water is in the veg is a factor. So, use my times only as a guide and check yours regularly. Note that the shallots will fall apart - that is fine :-)

♥ Initially I roasted the rosemary and thyme with the veggies but found they got a little burnt and added a bitter taste to the final dish so I now add them to the pearl barley while simmering.

♥ The Worcestershire sauce adds a nice flavour dimension to the dish but if you can't buy it or don't like simply don't add it.

Roasted Baby Vegetable Irish Stew with Pearl Barley:

Recipe yields 4 small servings.

Roasted Vegetables:

150g shallots, peeled 
300g baby new potatoes, washed, scrubbed and dried. 
300g small or baby carrots, peeled 
300g baby button mushrooms
1 large clove of smoked garlic, left in skin (you can use regular garlic here)
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
½ Tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce
pinch of sea salt 
some freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 220°C

Whisk together the olive oil, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper. Place the carrots, shallots, mushrooms, clove of garlic and potatoes in a roasting tin and pour over the oil mixture. Toss well. Roast for 40 minutes tossing a few times. Test them with a fork to ensure the potatoes and carrots are soft. When done, remove the clove of garlic and squeeze out the filling into the pan.

Pearl Barley:

50g raw pearl barley
2 bay leaves
sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme (1 of each)
1½ Kallo mushroom stock cubes
750ml water

Wash the barley really well. In a small-medium saucepan bring the water to the boil and dissolve the cube in it. Add the barley, rosemary, thyme and bay leaves. Bring back to the boil then cover and reduce to low and simmer for 45 minutes or until tender. Stir now and again.

Finishing the dish:

Combine the pearl barley (with stock) and all the roasted veggies into a large saucepan. De-glaze the roasting tin with a little hot water, scraping the tin to get all the flavour off. Pour this into the pot as well. Note: if for some reason your roasting tin ends up really burnt don't deglaze, only do this to add some of the roasted flavour into the dish. Bring to a simmer then cook gently, covered, for 5 -10 minutes for the flavours to meld. Taste, season if need be and if you have to add a bit more water do. Keep in mind this shouldn't have a lot of broth. Remove the bay leaves and rosemary and thyme stalks (leave the leaves). Stir in most of the chives then divide among 4 bowls and sprinkle with more of the chives.

Beautiful served with some brown soda bread and a pint of vegan stout or dark ale.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving out of 4

Calories: 275

Protein: 6.5g

Fibre: 6.1g

Fat: 11.2g

Sat Fat: 1.6g

Carbs: 37.5g

Sugar: 6g

Sodium: 853mg

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♥

Smoky Potato, Cabbage and Chickpea Skillet

I whipped this up for lunch the other day with some leftover bits I had in the fridge and it was so quick (about 15 minutes), easy and delicious! Recipe is based on and adapted from Heidi Swanson's White bean and cabbage from Super Natural Every Day. If you've been following my blog for any length of time you'll know I love her. Easily my favourite blogger and cookbook author, simply everything I've ever made by her has turned out and been stunning, most have become regular staples in our house.

I made quite a few changes to this one only because I suppose I was in that mood - changing things about a bit, quantity wise and with what I had on hand. Mostly, I have added a smoky aspect here using smoked paprika and smoked sea salt as those flavours go so beautifully with cabbage and potatoes. Further, I used chickpeas as I had some leftover in the fridge but also as I prefer them to white beans in this type of dish. Lastly, I grated some Vegusto mild over top in place of the parmesan and it just finished the dish off perfectly. It has a sharp taste reminiscent of an extra mature cheddar and was gorgeous with this. 

Smoky Potato, Cabbage and Chickpea Skillet

serves 1

• ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 70g baby new potatoes (about 2), scrubbed and diced tiny - leave skins on.

• 1 shallot, halved and sliced thin

• 50g tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed

• 100g cabbage, thinly sliced

• ¼ tsp smoked sea salt

• ½ tsp smoked paprika

• freshly ground black pepper

• Vegusto mild or piquant, finely grated - cheezly parm would be nice too.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, skillet or as I used, wok - but make sure you have a lid or something you can fashion as a lid. Add the tiny diced potato, ¼ tsp of the smoked paprika and 1/8 tsp of the smoked sea salt and stir. Pop the lid on and fry gently, removing the lid now and again to give it a stir, until the potato is cooked and getting slightly crispy, about 5 - 7 minutes.

Add the shallots and chickpeas and fry until the shallots are soft and the chickpeas are heated through and getting slightly browned. If it seems a little dry pop the lid on to let things sweat a little.

Add the cabbage, the other 1/8 tsp of smoked sea salt and the other ¼ tsp of smoked paprika and stir well. Add a splash of water - about a tablespoon and fry over medium heat until the cabbage just starts to wilt and any excess liquid is cooked off.

Transfer to a bowl and top with a good grating of Vegusto mild and some freshly ground black pepper. Enjoy!

♥

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 236

Protein: 7g

Fat: 8.7g

Sat Fat: 1.2g

Fibre: 5.8g

Carbs: 30.5g

Sugar: 4.3g

Sodium: 426mg

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Hot Toddy Layer Cake

Well, a bit of a double post for you today as this recipe *is* already on the blog as Hot Toddy Cupcakes. It was my father-in-law's 70th birthday last week and I was thinking what kind of cake to make. He's actually not that into sweet things, especially things with frosting but he did really like those cupcakes when I made them all those Christmas's ago :-)

So, I thought I would have a go making the recipe as a layer cake - and I am so happy to report that it turned out beautifully! Same light and fluffy yet moist texture, nicely clove spiced whiskey lemon cake with a whiskey buttercream frosting. Sigh. This thing broke my diet but it was worth it!

Hot Toddy Layer Cake

• 240ml soy cream

• 120ml rice milk

• 4 Tbsp Irish whiskey 

• 4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 

• zest of 2 lemons

• 350g plain flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 4 Tbsp cornstarch 

• 1 tsp salt

• 3/4 tsp ground cloves 

• 160ml vegetable oil

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

• 320g caster sugar

Whiskey Buttercream Frosting:

• 80g vegetable fat, room temperature

• 100g vegan margarine

• 540g icing sugar

• 2 Tbsp Irish Whiskey

• zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C and line the bottom of two 7" round cake tins with baking paper and grease the sides. Mix together the soy cream and rice milk then stir in the whiskey and lemon juice, it will curdle! Set aside. 

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, soda, salt and cloves and set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and the soy cream curdled mixture until very well blended and sugar seems to be dissolved. It shouldn't look curdled any more. Add the dry ingredients to this and whisk gently until just blended and no lumps remain. 

Fill cake tins evenly and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin then run a knife around the edges, turn the pans over onto a wire rack and peel off the baking paper. Let fully cool.

To make the frosting, soften the vegetable fat first with a fork, then add the margarine and beat until well blended. Add half the icing sugar and all the whiskey and mix well. Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix well. You may need a touch more whiskey and or icing sugar. Just keep adding what you need until you get a smooth spreadable frosting. Now stir in the lemon zest.

Sandwich the cakes together with some of the frosting then frost the entire cake. Decorate with lemon halves and whole cloves.

♥

I'm afraid we were too busy celebrating for me to get a good quality photo of the whole cake - this is the only one I got! Making everyone wait to eat while I set up a photoshoot never seems to go down very well, lol!

I had much better light the next morning :-)

♥

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Three Grain Brown Soda Bread

I actually didn't start off here aiming for a traditional Irish brown soda bread but basically that's what I got - and a very nice tasting one at that! I got this recipe from one of my favourite cookbooks, 'The Great Scandinavian Baking Book' by Beatrice Ojakangas where it was listed as "Brunbraud" or "Icelandic Three-Grain Brown Bread". A read of the ingredients indicated this was essentially a classic Irish brown soda bread, with a few twists. There is brown sugar in this, just enough so that you can taste a hint of sweetness but not enough to make this a sweet bread and the addition of rye flour gives it a slightly more Scandinavian air about it.

In the end this made a really nice, perfectly textured brown bread, something I've been after for awhile now. You can buy *some* dairy free brown soda breads here in Ireland but this was by far better than any I have tried. It goes beautifully with soup, I made up my Newfoundland Pea Soup (without the doughboys) to go with this which was a lovely combination and a very hearty meal!

It would also be great with any sort of creamy white based soups like Cauliflower or Potato, anything thick and creamy really. I actually didn't make it to go with the previous post of Potato and Leek soup but it's made for it really! It's also great on it's own or toasted and spread with vegan butter and peanut butter, great at breakfast and really sets you up for the day :-) I've made the usual vegan adjustments here and have halved the recipe to just make one loaf and have also measured out the weights.

Three Grain Brown Soda Bread:

50g light muscovado sugar (1/4 cup packed brown sugar)
50g vegan butter ( 1/4 cup)
50g oats ( 1/2 cup)
80g wholegrain rye flour (1/2 cup)
170g wholemeal flour (1 cup whole wheat)
150g plain white flour ( 1 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
300ml unsweetened soy milk (1 1/4 cups)
1 1/4 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F and lightly grease a loaf pan with vegan butter.

Cream the butter and sugar together until well mixed. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients. In a measuring cup measure out the milk and stir in the lemon juice or vinegar and leave to curdle slightly - this is your buttermilk.

Add the dry ingredients and the "buttermilk" to the creamed mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Scrape it all into the loaf pan and level the top - the mixture will be thick. Bake for about 1 hour, until golden and firm on top and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Remove from the pan onto a wire rack to fully cool.

♥

Nutritional Information: per 100g.

Calories: 280

Protein: 8.4g

Fat: 5.5g

Sat Fat: 1.1g

Fibre: 5.5g

Carbs: 50.4g

Sugar: 6.6g

Sodium: 532mg

Calcium: 75.3mg

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Barmbrack

Barmbrack

Happy Halloween!! Vegan Irish Stylie!! ;-)

So, a slight change from my previous Creepy Halloween Food post from a couple years back ;-)

Barmbrack is a traditional Irish Halloween yeast bread made with raisins and sultanas, slightly sweet and spiced with mixed spice and so very yummy. Traditionally various objects were baked into the brack and used to tell ones fortune: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin and a ring. Since we have moved back to Ireland my husband has been pretty outraged that the barmbrack for sale in the shops have only carried the ring. In his day all the items were there and I got it into my head to not only make one but to make it vegan (of course) and add ALL the items, just for him.

Then I read what the pieces mean if you were to find one:

The Pea - the person would not marry
The Cloth - the person would have bad luck or would be poor
The Coin - the person would have good fortune or be wealthy
The Ring - the person would wed within the year
The Stick - "to beat one's wife with" (would have an unhappy marriage) :-O

Yes, you read that last one right, suddenly it became apparent why the modern ones just go with the ring! Blimey. I also decided that it would be much easier to just shove a ring in there than all the other stuff. So apologies to my husband who was hoping for a proper traditional "Báirín Breac" but I think that stick is best left out of the bread ;-) I was also not very comfortable baking a ring in there so I inserted a very well washed plain old ring of mine deep into the bread after it baked and cooled with a wooden skewer.

Vegan Barmbrack: makes one large loaf

500ml strong black tea
140g sultanas
140g raisins
250ml dairy free milk, I use Kara Coconut Milk
100g vegan butter
520g - 600g plain flour
75g sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp mixed spice
1 package instant yeast

Soak the raisins and sultanas in the tea for at least 1 hour, it can even be left overnight.

In a small saucepan heat the milk and butter until the butter melts. Transfer to a bowl and let cool slightly, if you have a thermometer you want it to be between 120F and 130F. If you don't have a thermometer you want it to be hand hot, if you stick your finger in it's hot but you can leave it in there comfortably.

In a large bowl or the bowl of your mixer add the flour, sugar, salt, spice and yeast and give it a whisk. Pour in the milk/butter mixture then with the dough hook attached knead for 5 - 8 minutes until you have a ball of dough, slightly sticky. Do the same if kneading by hand then transfer to a floured surface.

Drain the fruit well and add to the dough a small amount at a time kneading the fruit in. Continue until all the fruit is added, it may seem like it won't all go in but just keep at it. Meanwhile keep adding more flour when it gets sticky. Once all the fruit is added and you have a nice non-sticky ball of dough transfer to a greased bowl, grease the surface of the dough, cover the bowl with cling film and place in a warm place to double in bulk, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.

Give it a few more kneads, shape into a large flatish ball then place in a greased 8" cake pan. Loosely cover the surface with greased cling film and place in a warm place again for about 1/2 hour until risen slightly again, it should fill out the pan.

Preheat the oven to 200C and pop the bread in. Bake for between 35 - 45 minutes, or until golden brown, risen and it should sound hollow when tapped underneath. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly then insert the ring (if using) with a wooden skewer then slice and serve with vegan butter. It's also beautiful lightly toasted the next day, spread with butter for breakfast with a nice mug of tea. :-)

♥

Irish Potato Candy

A fun treat to make with the kids this St. Patrick's day!

A Happy St. Patrick's Day post to you all!! :-) Although I must first explain that there is nothing at all Irish about these. You might be thinking as I live in Ireland these are some sort of traditional sweet. No. I never even heard of them before but came across them online searching for something else entirely. They are a completely American invention but a cute and yummy one at that ;-)

**Edit!** Or so I thought!! The lovely Penny at Scottish Vegan Homemaker mentioned in the comments here she and her husband bought them as kids in Scotland in the 50 and 60's! So.... not American after all, their history is now a mystery!

:-D 

Now, almost every recipe I read for these was different from the others but they all called for a coconut filling. I immediately knew what I would make mine with - my bounty bar recipe filling, for two reasons:

1. It's a sweet coconut filling and
2. Mine actually calls for potato!! Which means of course that my Irish potato candy is made with real Irish potatoes, which is pretty darn cool ;-)

Making these also meant I got to make my bounty bar filling again and take photos of all the steps which I didn't before. They are dead easy but it's nice to see what happens to the potato when you add the sugar. So, here we go:

Irish Potato Candy: makes about 11 small 'new potato' size sweets

2 Tbsp cold mashed potato

120g or 1 cup icing sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

70g or 3/4 cup desiccated coconut

For coating:

1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 Tbsp icing sugar

First cook your potato, you will need about 1 medium sized potato, a floury type you would normally use for mash, not a new potato! You can peel it before boiling or after, doesn't matter, just make sure you do NOT salt the water :-) Boil for about 20 minutes or until very soft, drain and return to the pot. Let it sit on low heat about 1 minute to dry it out further then mash well. Set aside to cool or pop it in the fridge if your impatient, it cools down very fast. 

Now you want to push the mash through a fine mesh seive to get it extra smooth as you don't want any little potato bits in this:

Keep pressing it through until it's all out then scrape off the bottom of the seive to get it all out. Give it a good stir till smooth. Now measure out 2 Tbsp of the mash and place in a bowl.

Now the magic happens, actually no, it's not magic, it's purely scientific - add some of the icing sugar and stir well. The potato will almost immediately dissolve into liquid like this:

Keep adding and stirring in the icing sugar until it starts to thicken up like so:

Now add the coconut and stir well...

Keep stirring, how do you think I'm the one people come to when they need a pickle jar opened??

Add more icing sugar and or coconut until it comes together in a ball like so: don't worry if it seems 'loose' - the mixture stiffens up in the fridge later.

Now make your potatoes, I went for randomly shaped little new potatoes, each one there is about a tsp of mixture. Remember these are sweet candy so don't make them too big. If you are making bounty bars out of this just make them little bounty bar shapes instead. That's mounds to my North American friends ;-)

Now mix together the cinnamon, cocoa powder and icing sugar and roll the potatoes generously in this. Also don't worry if this mixture seems a little bitter, the sweetness of the filling counters them quite nicely.

Now if you like pop some pine nuts in for 'eyes' and chill in the fridge for an hour or so then enjoy :-)

Also, those little dirty looking spuds reminded me of a sign at my old favourite farm shop back in England:

Love it!!! :-D

Nutritional Information: 1 'potato' based on making 11
Calories: 111
Fat: 5.5g
Sat Fat: 4.9g
Protein: 0.9g
Sugar: 11.4g
Fibre: 1.7g

♥

Hot Toddy Cupcakes

Afternoon tea....just got interesting!  I don't really know why I decided to make these but am sure glad I did. I absolutely love hot toddies, never even heard of them until my first winter in Ireland many years ago and they quickly became my favourite winter tipple. The flavours of lemon, cloves and whiskey are so simple but just perfect in a warm drink, and, I started to think, perfect for a cupcake.

These really turned out well, and amazingly taste just like a hot toddy!! So often flavours in a cupcake can get 'lost' but not here, the lemon, cloves and whiskey all come shining through. The cloves are possibly just a tad too strong though, I added 1/2 tsp but think that 1/4 tsp would be too little. Next time I may try something in-between. They are so very yummy though, the texture is perfect - really nice and light and definitely an 'adult' only cupcake ;-)

Hot Toddy Cupcakes:
120ml soy cream
60ml rice milk
2 Tbsp Irish whiskey (I use Jameson)
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (sieve out seeds and pulp)
zest of 1 lemon
175g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp cornstarch (cornflour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves *see blurb above
80ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
160g caster sugar

Whiskey Buttercream Frosting:
40g vegetable fat (shortening)
50g vegan margarine
270g icing sugar
1 Tbsp Irish Whiskey
zest of 1/2 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Mix together the soy cream and rice milk then stir in the whiskey and lemon juice. Now, it will curdle big time, not just get flaky looking but thicken up and look positively revolting!! That's all ok - you want that to happen :-) Set aside. Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, soda, salt and cloves and set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oil, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and the soy cream curdled mixture until very well blended and sugar seems to be dissolved. It shouldn't look curdled any more. Add the dry ingredients to this and whisk until just blended and no lumps remain. Fill muffin tins until almost full up, you will probably have some batter left over, I get 14 cupcakes out of this. Bake in preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then remove to a wire rack to fully cool.

To make the frosting, soften the vegetable fat first with a fork, then add the margarine and whisk well until well blended. Add half the icing sugar and all the whiskey and mix well. Add the rest of the icing sugar and mix well. You may need a touch more whiskey and or icing sugar. Just keep adding what you need until you get a smooth spreadable frosting. Now stir in the lemon zest.

Frost each cupcake as you like - I decorated with whole cloves, even though you have to remove them before eating I thought they looked very cute!

Recipe loosely based on Vegan Cupcakes take Over the World's Golden Vanilla Cupcakes and frosting :-)

♥

Irish Soda Bread

So yes, I'm back from holidays! We went to Ireland for a little while, a usual trip for us to visit family. Whenever we are in Ireland I absolutely love the brown soda bread which is almost always made with buttermilk. We were able to buy some that were dairy free and very good - I brought a couple loaves home and they are in the freezer :) However I always wanted to try my own replacing the buttermilk with soy yogurt as it should do the same function - an acidic, thick liquid that would react with the baking soda. 

Well it works brilliantly, this recipe is a very basic one which is what I wanted, today I made it white instead of brown as the boy won't eat brown bread :( I will however post both versions and will get back to you how the other fares - sorry about the cups measures for the other one, I'll adapt it when I make it. *edit* the brown was really good but I forgot to weigh the measurements!

White Soda Bread:

450g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
350 - 412ml soy yogurt

Brown Soda Bread:

6 Cups wholemeal flour (preferably stoneground)
4 Cups plain white flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
3 1/4 Cups soy yogurt

Instructions for both: whisk all the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the centre and add almost all the yogurt. Using your hand mix it together until just moist but not sticky, add more yogurt if needed. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and gently shape into a round, turning over once, about 1 1/2 - 2 " thick. Cut a large cross over the top and place on a paper lined baking sheet. Bake at 230C/450F for 15 minutes then reduce the oven to 200C/400F and bake for a further 30 minutes. It should be risen and crusty golden on top and should sound hollow when the bottom is tapped. Cool on a rack briefly, slice and serve. *note* when I made mine I halved the amount and thus it didn't take so long in the oven, just 15 minutes for the second bake, so keep an eye on it.

Source: Recipe is based on Darina Allen's from here and here .

♥