planet vegan scotland

You remember Rhona, don’t you?  My rescue roasting tin?  Well Rhona’s talents don’t stop at granola baking. 

Here she is filled with a yummy mixture of the following: a sprinkling of olive oil; chopped onions; some cloves of garlic, left whole; chunks of carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, red and yellow pepper; some mangetout, broken in half; a mixture of half and half olive oil and maple syrup, with a wee spot of salt.  She’s about to do duty in the oven at Gas Mark 8/450F/230C  for an hour. 

When the hour was almost up, we heated some tortilla wraps and smothered them in hummus or Tofutti Cream Cheese, according to taste (Jane had one of each) and then we filled them with the roasted vegetables and rolled them up.

Oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So good!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m planning on making these OFTEN!

‘But wait!’ I hear you say.  ‘What’s that got to do with Sundae Wednesday Happy (Birth)day?’  And the answer is, ‘Nothing at all!  That bit comes next.’ 

Read on…

It was my birthday last Wednesday (10^th February) and I had forgotten to buy the jellies for the trifle.  This trifle is the standard pudding for birthday teas in our family.  Here’s how I make it…  

In a trifle bowl I make up one-and-a-half strength jelly with half a (usually chocolate) sandwich cake layer crumbled into it and leave it to set.  I then mix up another one-and-a-half strength jelly with some tinned ‘fruits of the forest’ mixed in.  Then I top it all with a huge mound of vanilla Swedish Glace ice cream.  And I sometimes grate some chocolate over it. Recently I’ve also been making a big bowl of vanilla custard.   Here’s how I make the custard…

First, I heat up most of a pint of soya milk with about a tablespoon of margarine and two tablespoons of sugar.  In the measuring jug, I mix together the rest of the milk and two tablespoons of custard powder.  Then I stir the custard mix into the pan and whisk as fast as my aching muscles will allow until it’s all thick and bubbly.  It’s then put in a bowl and allowed to cool. 

I’m sorry.  I was SURE I had a photo of a trifle I made before, but just can’t find it anywhere.  I must organise my photos SOON!

I would actually like to have the custard on top of the jelly as part of the trifle, but Jane, who’s a creature of habit, loves the trifle the way I traditionally made it, without the custard, so she doesn’t want me to change a winning formula.  She does sometimes have some custard with it, though…

 Also, a note on tablespoons…  We’re not talking wee measuring spoons here.  This is the type of chap you want for this recipe. 

Available at any charity shop near you…  (If you live in Scotland, that is.  I can’t speak for other parts of the world…)

Anyway, back to 10^th February 2010, 63 years since my birth on a cold, snowy day in Glasgow…  And no jelly…  As far as trifle was concerned, I was snookered… 

So, first I thought of just having the custard and ice cream.

Then I thought of my favourite pudding in the whole, wide world: chocolate custard and ice cream.  I could eat bucket-loads of this, with or without a sliced banana on top, if my weight weren’t such a problem.  I make the custard as above, but with two tablespoons of cocoa powder added to the custard powder mix.  OK, so there are probably several days’ calories in a small bowlful… 

Then, however, I had such a good idea that if I’d been a cartoon drawing a wee light-bulb would have appeared over my head.  CHOCOLATE NUT SUNDAES!!!  Now, I’d never made these before, but necessity is the mother of invention.  Here’s what I did.

I made half a pint of chocolate custard, but as I didn’t have custard powder I used vanilla rice milk and cornflour.  I also made some chocolate sauce thus:

84g margarine

90g golden syrup

About 30g cocoa powder (more or less, depending on how strong you want it)

I melted the margarine and sugar together and then added the cocoa, all over a low heat.

Then, in our two sundae dishes plus two tall mugs and a pint beer mug, I layered ice cream, chocolate custard, chopped nuts, ice cream, chocolate sauce, chopped nuts and so on to the top.

It was SO GOOD!  Unfortunately the camera didn’t like photographing it with flash and it was too dark to get a good picture without the flash, so you’ll just have to make do with this one and imagine its chocolate-y goodness, because I’m afraid that not even for you was I going to keep it till the next day, to take a photo in daylight!

So, what could have been a disappointment on the pudding front was turned to unmitigated delight!  I’ll be making these again!  But not too often…  Just for birthdays…

I must tell you about the wonderful home-made birthday card I received from the offspring. Last year they themed my card around my new Vita-Mix; this year it was themed around my new studies and it featured a cartoon bear, created by Johnny, who stars in most of his home-made cards.  There was a chart showing grades for ‘sweetness’; ‘compassion’; ‘inspirational qualities’; ‘sense of humour’; ‘chef skills’ and ‘devotion to family’ and I was awarded the top grade of ‘excellent’ for all of them!  I’ll be honest with you.  The tears were streaming down my cheeks, sentimental old fool that I am!  There was a lot more sweet and loving stuff in it, too…  (sniff)

And here, just to finish with a nice picture, are two people who also tick all the boxes (though not exactly the same ones as me!):  Tom and Mimi…  (What do you mean, ‘Oh, not HIM again!’???)

Today’s title: Sunday, Monday, Happy Days – theme song from the series Happy Days.  John suggested Sundae Girl by Blondie, but I’m not going to pander to his adolescent fantasies about Debbie Harry…

Today’s soup: onions; red lentils; chunks of carrot, turnip (Swede/rutabaga), leeks, celery; passata and water  all pressure cooked together, with some salt added at the end.  Mmmm…  Perfect for a cold winter’s day!