This weekend I decided to make a meal with mostly whole foods, and I came across some recipes that I learnt from a family friend.
For the lentil dish:
400g cooked French lentils 1 large onion 3 cloves garlic olive oil 200g sliced mushrooms A few handfuls of spinach Diced roasted kumara/sweet potato (optional) High quality balsamic vinegar
Combine some olive oil, the onion, garlic and mushrooms in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook for a few minutes until the mushrooms soften and become aromatic. Add in lentils and spinach as well as a few tablespoons of the balsamic. Cook for only a couple of minutes. Add kumara/sweet potato if using. Serve warm.
For the farro/wild rice:
1 1/2 cups farro 1 cup wild rice ~1/2 cup dried cranberries 1-2 bell peppers Zest of one orange
Cook farro with 3 cups of water. Cook wild rice with 2 cups of water. Combine and add the cranberries and bell peppers as well as the orange zest.
After a long and rather hot summer, it finally feels like autumn here in the northwestern US. We had our first real rain storm yesterday. To mark the beginning of the new season, I decided to make pumpkin scones.
I’ve become very attached to this recipe from Sarah’s vegan kitchen, which I made several times last autumn as well. I doubled the recipe and increased the amount of pumpkin slightly. The recipe was unfortunately in imperial units, so I’ve converted it. See below for metric conversion.
For shaping the scones, I used a scone pan, but I think you can just shape them properly and put into a baking tray as well. I skipped the kneading process, so that is excluded in my version of the instructions below. My dough was definitely more wet/moist than hers, so perhaps that’s why kneading didn’t make sense for me. I also omitted the ginger and cloves.
-512 g all-purpose flour -200 g brown sugar -2 tablespoons baking powder -1 teaspoon salt -2 teaspoon ground cinnamon -1⁄2 teaspoon ground nutmeg -180 ml coconut oil or cold vegan butter -400g tin pumpkin puree -2 tablespoon molasses -2 teaspoon vanilla extract -120 ml unsweetened plant milk
for the icing: -400 g icing sugar ~100 ml unsweetened plant milk (just make sure it’s the right consistency) -1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1) Preheat oven to 220°. Line baking tray with parchment or a silicone baking mat. 2) Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin puree, molasses, vanilla extract and milk. 3) Using two knives, your fingertips, or a pastry cutter, cut in cold coconut oil or vegan butter to create a crumbly mixture with pea-sized bits. 4) Pour wet ingredients into flour mixture a few tablespoons at a time, tossing with a fork between additions until dough comes together in a loose ball. 5) Place scone-sized pieces of dough into scone pan or shape into scone shapes in a baking tray. 6) Bake scones for 20-22 minutes, until golden brown on the bottoms. Allow to cool on mat for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Allow scones to cool completely before icing. 7) Combine powdered sugar and milk to create the icing. Dip scones face-down, and return to drying rack to harden. Store in an airtight container.
A long time ago, I found this recipe. Like many other recipes that I find, I bookmarked it and promptly forgot about it. Today I finally decided to make it. I’m glad I did, because it was delicious.
For the eggplant:
2 medium eggplant, quartered & cut into 0.5 cm slices
2 red onions, quartered & cut into 0.5 cm slices
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons chives
Preheat the oven to 230°C. Slice the eggplant and the onions and combine with the other ingredients. Then spread on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes, and then flip over the slices and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Chive pesto
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/4 cup cashews, toasted (I used pine nuts)
2 cups chives, chopped
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, to taste
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and process until the nuts are finely chopped.
For bean spread:
400g tin cannellini or white beans, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
1 garlic clove, peeled
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mash beans or process them until chunky or mostly smooth, depending on your preference. Combine with other ingredients in a pan and cook for a couple of minutes under medium heat.
Spread chive pesto on one piece of toast and the beans on the other piece.
Add eggplant pieces on one side, then put pieces of toast together and slice in half.
Eve made a brief return. It was amazing, other than the end. But we’ll get to that later.
Eve revealed that Remus has Hirschsprung’s disease, and that that was the reason for her return. He needed a bowel resection, and she couldn’t get him the treatment. Eve also told Boyd that she was going to turn herself in.
Dylan was very understanding of her situation – “for a straight white cis male, he’s extremely open-minded.” He pressured Boyd into not turning her in to the police. It wasn’t hard. In the course of one day, Boyd warmed up to her, and wanted to hide her in his apartment.
It was complicated to get Remus the surgery, since bringing him to hospital would make the police aware of Eve’s return.
Dylan convinced them that they could pass Remus off as some other baby called Oliver who was Dylan’s patient, which was absolutely insane. Then they discussed it loudly with the door open, of course. And Drew walked in on them, to their shock.
Boyd managed to get him to keep quiet about this.
They decided to go through with this insane plan.
Oh, I’m just holding this baby that I’ve decided to operate on last minute. I’m very protective of him, and his parents happen to not be around. But he’s totally not my son.
Nicole immediately noticed that something fishy is going on, but decided not to prod Boyd about it. She had some great facial expressions, though.
Of course, Eve insisted on showing up. What is wrong with these people?
She sees Lincoln, and immediately tells him that he must have children – “Oh my goodness. Wow, you are beautiful. If you have not sired offspring yet, for the love of humanity, please do.” Oh my god, how we’ve missed you, Eve.
Yes, you’re really going to fool everyone with your “disguise”, Eve.
She wasted no time in threatening Dylan. Nothing gets past Eve.
“On the contrary, people only see what they expect to. You of all people should know that.”
“Remember that you’re speaking to a former sociopath.”
“You’re so deep in your own lies, you’re even lying to yourself.”
“But if you through action, inaction or inattention, cause my family any harm, I will kill you.”
Eve, you’re amazing. (Yes, that was her “disguise”.)
But then it gets infuriating. At the end of the episode, Boyd tells Eve to flee town with the kids, again, and she does. “I’m determined to become the woman that you once thought I was.” “They need their mum, not me.” What the hell?
So they had the opportunity to bring back the most compelling character of 2017 and provide closure for one of the biggest stories of that year, yet they decided to rush through it in one episode? (It was a double length episode, but still).
There was so much juicy material that they just rushed through. You’re telling me that within the course of one day, Boyd goes from hating Eve and preparing to turn her into the police to wanting to protect her and thinking that the boys need her? How is that possible?
Even if he did pull that 180, now he is perfectly content with his children being raised by a woman on the run? Will she send them to school? Where is she even planning to live? Will she be shuffling them around to a different part of the world every couple of months? And that’s not even mentioning that he won’t be able to ever see them again. And why would they need their mum any more than they would need their father? Give me a break.
They could have explored all of these plot points, and also allowed her to have more interactions with Dylan. The story could have lasted a week, at least. But none of this was explained, and instead she was quickly shuffled offscreen. And now the children are gone too. So what was the point? It doesn’t give Boyd any long term story, and everyone who knows about it has decided to keep it under wraps. So we’re back to where we were before this episode, with Eve on the run with the kids.
My expression after seeing the end of this episode.
Over the course of the second half of this week, Te Rongopai received three bouquets of flowers – two from Pita, and one from Boyd.
It’s pretty hilarious. I guess Pita thinks that if he sends enough flowers, then she’ll forgive him for the affair? Yes, sending flowers is much better than actually visiting in person and making an actual effort. Good riddance, though. Pita was a terrible character.
Boyd also regaled Te Rongopai with some cookies decorated like different planets, which she wasn’t too enthusiastic about either.
Esther also received a bouquet of flowers from Kawe for some reason. She wasn’t terribly impressed.
Does anyone think that Sebastian might secretly be the one buying all these flowers? He’s always so thrilled when he passes them along.
In other news, Frank hired a goon to attack Dylan, but then Dylan paid him off. Then Frank took a crack at attempting to kill Dylan as well after seemingly becoming possessed. He then skipped town after saying goodbye to Kylie.
What the hell was that about? I know Frank can be dodgy, but I thought this was totally out of character. Plus it was played like Dylan was capable of some sort of mind control by egging him on until he cracked.
If this was meant to be Frank’s exit storyline, I’m going to be pissed. I guess Vinnie’s exit storyline was pretty shitty, so I wouldn’t put it past them to do something similar here. Not that I’m at all rooting for Kylie and Frank as a couple. I’ve never bought their “great love” story.
Remember when Frank was just that hot barman at the IV?
It would have been much more realistic for them to have a disastrous breakup shortly after marrying, since they rushed into marriage after being together for barely two weeks. Yet instead they shoved this ‘great love’ storyline down our throats. Ugh. I feel like they never really knew what to do with him, because his storylines have been all over the place.
At first I was totally prepared to cringe when “Sebastian” again graced us with his presence this week, but the whole thing is played in such a ridiculous and hilarious way that I’m loving it. He’s also such a busybody.
In case you’ve forgotten, Jason, or “Sebastian” as he now calls himself, was the orderly who stalked Finn and kidnapped Esther a year ago.
Now he’s shown up again at the hospital, having applied to become the new admin assistant while Leanne is gone.
What the hell?
Needless to say Jack and Damo were pretty confused when “Sebastian” said he’d changed his name and that “Jason was a total screw up, I had to get rid of him”.
Damo’s reaction was pretty funny.
Sebastian: “I was gonna apologise to each and every one personally. I mean, they’ll see that I’m genuine.”
Damo: “Yeah, try that on Dr. Finnbar Warner, aka loose cannon.”
Jack: “Or Esther. You carjacked her and left her for dead!”
Sebastian: “Don’t worry, that was Jason.”
He later told Te Rongopai and Esther some bizarre story about having been left alone at home when he was five.
Esther and T were a little unsure how to react
“I had to live off, like, baked beans and oranges for like two days! Recovered memories, so I didn’t even know this!”
Of course, Esther quickly forgave him and Te Rongopai gave him the job, most likely at least partially because his presence irritated Finn.
He also made two rather hilarious references.
Te Rongopai: “I’ll call you tomorrow with my final decision.”
I’m dead. I bet Paula Bennett is rather embarrassed about this now that Jacinda Ardern is the Prime Minister. Maybe that’s why she’s always so snitty in Parliament?
Thank goodness Sebastian is here. We really need a new busybody while Leanne is in Indonesia.
We enjoyed this with huckleberry syrup and maple syrup, and some herbs on top. It was delicious. I’m sure this would also be tasty with some vegan whipped cream too. Cheers!
Leanne continued her campaign to become leader of her psychic group, but wound up losing.
Rangimarie was almost run down by a rogue skateboarder..
Oh wait, it’s Ezra!
Does anyone remember Ezra? He was the son of the former leader of the Followers of the Light, who mysteriously disappeared after that whole mass suicide disaster. Anyway, it turned out that Ezra was “up north”, presumably with Tillie, Eric Miller, etc. Where are all these “up north” people anyway? Are they in Whangarei?
Is it me or does he look way more mature now? Anyway, he promptly suggested that TK and Te Rongopai become a couple. I’m not sold on that idea.
Speaking of Eric Miller, he is apparently not “up north” anymore, as at the end of the week it is revealed that he’s been arrested in Indonesia for drug trafficking.
Leanne promptly left to see him, which means we won’t be seeing her for a while, likely for a few months. I already miss her. Leanne, please come back soon!
Since going vegan, I’ve missed those classic fudge brownies – the ones with that special crackly top.
For a long time, I couldn’t figure out how to replicate this. I tried to veganise an old recipe that was mostly egg based. I replaced the eggs with flax meal mixed with water, but it didn’t work. I left the brownies in the oven for an hour, but they wouldn’t cook and the batter boiled in the oven, resulting in munted brownies. I had to bin them.
I’ve tested out several vegan brownie recipes – one made with avocados, which, while delicious, lacked the dense fudgy-ness that I was looking for.
However, I came across this recipe from seitan is my motor, which was a total win. It turns out that the trick to the crackly top is vegan mayo! Who would have thought?
I tweaked a few things; in particular, I drastically increased the amount of chocolate in the recipe, and it was amazing. I also did not use parchment paper on the bottom, as it made the bottom become too crispy.
Best vegan brownies
30 g Dutch process cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons instant coffee powder or espresso powder
150 ml boiling water
160 g unsweetened chocolate , finely chopped
210 g vegan butter
120 g vegan mayonnaise
40 g aquafaba
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
250 g granulated sugar
250 g powdered sugar
250 g flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt.
150 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 180°C and generously butter a 20 cm x 30 cm rectangular pan. Then sprinkle flour over it.
Combine the boiling water with the cocoa powder and the instant coffee powder. Let cool until it is below 40°C.
Melt vegan butter with unsweetened chocolate in the microwave at low/medium power or using a bain marie. If using microwave, stop every 30 seconds and stir and let sit briefly. This is to ensure that it doesn’t get too hot. Overheated chocolate becomes munted chocolate. After melting the mixture, let cool slightly.
Add the water/cocoa powder mixture.
Add vegan mayo, aquafaba and vanilla to this mixture and stir until combined.
Add both sugars and combine. Add flour, baking soda and salt.
Add chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. Pour into baking pan. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean.
If you like, garnish with some vegan chocolate drops (I used Little Secrets dark chocolate).
Let cool at room temperature for two hours. Then slice and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving.
Everything about this storyline was amazing. Harper insisting on a home birth, Drew asking Leanne to get involved in the preparation process so that Harper would change her mind, Harper faking contractions while sitting in that weird pool, Drew, Boyd and Harper finding out that Billy is intersex, …
“Ooh your aura, it’s horribly… unbalanced.”
“We can’t have that.”
“May I suggest a shamanic mineral rakey massage, stat!”
I especially loved how they incorporated Harper’s close friendship with Nicole – let’s not forget that it was only four years ago that they were a couple!
And Boyd and Drew shared a great scene too. It’s so rare that we get to see Drew get emotional.
It’s refreshing to see Drew so vulnerable. Who would have expected that he would ever call himself an “emotionally stunted nightmare”?
I also appreciated the mention of Boyd’s twins. When are they going to tie up all the loose ends in that storyline? I would love for Eve to make another appearance soon. It’s already been a year since she fled town with Remus and Romulus.
