Pan Fried “Duck” With Stewed Plums & Fondant Potato

Ok so this probably the most pretentious thing I have made. I was watching Saturday Morning Kitchen and some dude is pan frying a poor ducks breast to put in a salad. I’m like, SCREW THAT!! Let’s veganise this baby, for the animals, for your health and for the planet baby, yeah! See these ingredients! 🙂

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4 Plums

2 large potatoes

1 vegetable stock cube

2 carrots

4 runner beans

2 tins of mock duck

Salt

Pepper

Rapeseed oil

Golden syrup

 

Method:

 

Firstly you  need to do the potato fondants because they take about 35 minutes. Peel two large potatoes and core out a large cylinder.

Fry each end for about 3 minutes each in a hot, oiled pan.

In the meantime make up a pint of vegetable stock and pour it in a baking tray. Now place the two potato cylinders into that tray and place in the oven for 25 minutes.

Now slice the plums into quarters and boil for 10 minutes, before draining and frying with a large tablespoon of golden syrup for another five minutes. Then leave it to cool because that syrup is HOT!

Get your nicest non-stick pan, put a dash of oil in it, turn up the heat.

Open and drain your mock duck. Place the biggest, chunkiest bits in the hot pan and cover in salt and black pepper.

Turn once after 5 minutes.

Chop the carrots and runner beans. Place in a pan and boil for about 4 minutes.

Plate everything up in a way that please you. I did it in the most pretentious way I could think of.

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The bearded one asked for a non-pretentious version so I gave him this:

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I’d never made potato fondants before so this was a good experiment for me. The whole dish was divine and I managed to get everything to just the right texture. A dish to impress for sure! 🙂

 

 

Cheats Cheesy Pizza

Who doesn’t like cheating at cooking once in a while? Sometimes you’re just too busy to make things from scratch or you just fancy something different right? Well the other day when I was shopping in Morrisons I felt exactly like that and then I found this:

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It was in the fresh pasta section, but I decided to look anyway and low and behold, the damn thing is vegan! Instantly pizza came to mind because it would involve minimal work and I could just throw it in the oven for 15 minutes with a few toppings on top.

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I added aubergine, mushrooms, tomatoes, chilli peppers and fresh cherry tomatoes as well as a whole block of grated Cheezley vegan cheese. After 15 minutes and a few Italian herbs this is what it came out like:

 

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It went down beautifully with some homemade potato wedges and a green salad.

Being vegan can be really easy. If you want to learn more about veganism, check out http://www.vegankit.com

Caramelised onion & barley soup with cheeze croutons.

First let me apologise for there being a two month gap in blog posts. Life at Castle Mouche has been pretty hectic! We gave up our jobs and moved to the other side of the UK and then we adopted a new dog called Darcy who is taking up a lot of our time. I have however been cooking and taking pictures. Unlike a lot of bloggers my pictures aren’t staged. They just are what I happen to be eating and I decide to take pictures. 🙂

Let’s start off on a dish that is easy to make, loaded with calcium and can even be frozen for use later in the week.

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Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon of dried thyme

1 tablespoon sugar

1 pint of vegetable stock

60 g pearl barley

Half a bag of curly kale

Ciabatta bread

Grated vegan cheese. I used Cheezley.

Some sprouted beans for garnish. (Optional.)

 

 

  • Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, garlic, thyme and sugar.
  • Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly and then add the vegetable stock.
  • Add the pearl barley to this mixture and cook for a further 20 minutes.
  • In the mean time slice your ciabatta into croûton sized pieces, sprinkle with your grated vegan cheese and place under a warm grill for about 5 minutes. (Watch them carefully or else they are likely to burn.)
  • Add the kale to the soup and heat for another 3 minutes before serving warm with your croutons.

It’s really that simple! Enjoy as the nights start to get colder! 🙂

 

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