Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

One thing that you rarely get as a vegetarian is a decent pie. Sure a lot of people aren't huge fans of the humble meat pie (and the insane amount of fat enclosed in each little pastry parcel), but it's so Aussie, and can actually be quite delicious. When done well, of course. With the quality of veggie mince these days, pies are finally within our grasp.

I was asked recently by an ardent pie lover, who is also vegetarian, if I had a recipe for a traditional meat pie.

"Sure I do," I said.

"Really? with the gravy?", he said wistfully.

And I understood that feeling... when you've grown up with something (party pies for school lunches, anyone?), it can be hard to fully strike it from your menu for the rest. of. your. life.

Luckily for me, I am determined to reach as many omnivores as possible with my veggie food, so see this kind of memory re-creation as of great importance. I want a meat pie with tomato sauce, and I want it now! And you meat eaters want a meat pie without the golf-ball amount of fat with every serving (is that rumour even true?), so consider this a public service to all.

Ingredients:

1 packet veggie mince (I used Quorn in this recipe)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, chopped

1/2 cup each peas and corn

1 cup water (you may need more, depending on how thick you want your mince)

1 veggie beef stock cube

1 tablespoon flour or gravy powder

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons tomato sauce

1 teaspoon mustard

3 potatoes, peeled and chopped

1/2 sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 220C.

2. Put the potato and sweet potato in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and cook 15-20 minutes until soft. Drain, mash, and add butter and milk.

3. Saute the onion, carrot and garlic in a little oil until translucent. Add mince, peas and corn.

4. Dissolve stock cube in boiling water and add to the mince. Add all the sauces and cook over a low-medium heat for five minutes. Add the flour or gravy powder dissolved in a little water and adjust the consistency to your liking.

5. Spoon the mince into a casserole dish and top with the mashed potato. Cover with cheese and bake 15 minutes until cooked through and cheese is golden and bubbling.

6. You're welcome.

I tweet, but I'm not a twit.

When people dismiss blogging and Twitter, I get a little testy. "Oh who wants to read that you've just eaten breakfast?" they say. "Blogging is so narcissistic". As is the case with most things, once you're open to looking past the facade, there's often so much more to see.

Except if you're Ricky Gervais and you're making fun of the uber-serious internet lover "clogging up" this vast resource with home-made websites about themselves. "My name is Rupert. This is my cat... here are my favourite Cure songs in order", then this is perfectly acceptable.

But for me, blogging and Twitter have become an absolute gold mine of amazing ideas, writing, hilarity and people. When I was in the last weary stages of pregnancy, there were like-minded people with which to whine. When I'm up at 3am with the baby, there are people with whom I can chat. When I had difficulty feeding in the first few days, I had genuinely helpful advice given by mums who had been there. Even before I had Abby, people would tweet to find out if I was OK, and if it was "time" yet.

Once she arrived, even complete strangers sent well-wishes, and I can't tell you how much all this has meant to me.

The first time I heard K.Rudd was being toppled, I read it on Twitter. It's how I learned of the floods, the earthquakes and the cyclones that have happened this year. I've found some genuinely funny things from following people with fantastic senses of humour, I've learned more about other cultures, other times and other lives. And the best part is I've made new friends.

People have even sent Abby gifts... people I've never even met. People who are just generous souls and without this 140-character digital meeting place, I'd have the extreme misfortune not to know them. So for those who tweeted the love, thank you.

My friend and neighbour, Nikki from Styling You gave Abby these gorgeous little shoes just a few days after she was born. We found out we were neighbours when I tweeted a picture of my back yard, and she recognised the fence... small world!

The beautifully talented Cat, from Wouldn't it Be Loverly made this gorgeous picture, and although she doesn't know Abby or I, except what she's read, she made the most perfect present that I absolutely adore.

Miss Zoey, from Good Goog, sent Abby this gorgeous hat she crocheted herself. She didn't have to do that, she had a toddler and was very pregnant with her new goog, and probably should have been sitting with her feet up and a good book. But she took the time, and I thank her for it. Zoey also has never met me, and doesn't know me from a bar of soap.

sure it's a little big right now, but not for long... veggie baby has a massive head!

 The ever-hilarious and totally gorgeous Bern from So Now What? sent the little miss a new outfit and possibly the cutest card I've ever seen. She has three kids of her own... and a life. But still thought of me.

So I wouldn't be without Twitter. It's so much more than a selfish, indulgent time-waster. And sadly, the people I need to convince of that will never read this...

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cookies

In March, I held a giveaway for Veggie Mama's first blogobirthday... and these delicious cookies were the prize for one lucky recipient. What's a birthday without presents?

The problem was, they were really good. Like, really good. And it was very difficult not to eat several one as I was packing them up to be shipped to New South Wales. I couldn't stand it. I had to make another batch. I'm not into sharing food! I'm the kind of person that eats popcorn one kernel at a time, and have to defend my stash from the handful-grabbers... I'm always left with less than a third of the goods after I've shared with another. Plus I just really like food, and want it all to myself!

Now, though, I can share with y'all by giving YOU the recipe and you can make 'em. And I'll go take a nap.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup frozen raspberries

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 180C.

2. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. It will be much easier if your butter is softened beforehand. I usually make biscuits at the drop of a hat and have only rock-hard butter. short bursts in the microwave is a winner!

3. Add egg and vanilla.

4. Mix in flour and baking powder. Stir in half the white chocolate chips.

5. Drop tablespoonsful on a tray covered in baking paper. Press in some raspberries and chocolate chips. I do this so they don't break down in the batter and go all squished and turn the batter a weird colour, especially if they're frozen. But you can do it however you like.

6. Bake 15-20 minutes until lightly browned and cool on a wire rack.

7. Post some to me.

What a ride!

They say the first few months of new motherhood are a rollercoaster. Whoever "they" are, I concur. It's mostly a rollercoaster where it's fun for the first few times, then you wonder why on earth you ever decided to climb aboard, then you really regret the hot dog you had for lunch.

Occasionally you want to get off.

And you really don't want to get caught on camera with a terrified look on your face amid the beams of those around you.

But the more you ride the rollercoaster, the more you begin to anticipate the twists and turns, and the track's leaps and loops begin to feel familiar. You can hold down your lunch, you feel more and more comforted by how snug the safety bar is into your chest, and little by little, you can relax, throw up your hands and enjoy the ride.

But no matter what happens you never get to sleep...

Veggie Baby will be three months old in a matter of days. I'm told the first three months are the hardest, and sometimes it's that thought I've repeated over and over when I'm so tired at 3am I'm on the floor in her room, strategically covered in baby blankets with a cat trying to paw at my face and a baby that just can't quite get the hang of sleeping in her cot yet. Three months... things will be better by three months.

I'm pleased to say she's an awesome kid. She's happy, eats well, sleeps reasonably, smiles at everyone and generally is delightful. She's growing every day and doing things that babies do. And whether things "get better" after this week or not, I've had one hell of a ride. With a great companion.

I was totally not lying about the cat.

The inimitable Audrey Gordon guest posts!

I'm all sorts of excited that celebrity chef Audrey Gordon has taken the time to share with us her thoughts on vegetarian food today. Considered one of the world’s ultimate food authorities, Audrey began her career as lifestyles editor of Implausible Homes magazine. Voted ‘Britain’s Sternest Chef’ for three consecutive years, she has devoted a lifetime to telling would-be cooks what they’re doing wrong.  In her lavishly over-sized new book, Audrey Gordon’s Tuscan Summer, she takes us on gastronomic tour of Tuscany, sharing her experiences, recipes and thoughts on the inadequacies of Italy’s motorway system. I am sure she'll make me feel suitably guilty for interrupting her very important work for someone that doesn't even confit anything.

I’ll be perfectly honest, as a restaurateur I always tended to be somewhat wary of vegetarians. And it wasn’t just their dress sense or inability to tip. Vegetarians were always the sort of diners who would insist on coming into the kitchen and examining your stock. Or who would refuse to order dessert because the bavarois might contain animal-derived gelatine. And then demand extra bread.


But over the years I’ve come to appreciate the pleasure of vegetarian food and I am now having regular meat free days. My first one was on August 5th last year, and I’m planning another some time in July. Next year.

My recent cookbook Audrey Gordon’s Tuscan Summer contains several vegetarian recipes, including Fava Bean Soup, a wonderfully exotic Rucola Salad and my very popular Vegetarian Surprise (the ‘surprise’ being that it actually contains veal. Sssh!)
My thoughts on salads…

I like my salads to be conversational. I want the lettuce to really bond with the tomato, not just merely sit alongside it. They should be snuggling flirtatiously, saying, ‘Let’s make a go of this.’ Meanwhile, the Spanish onion must be curled seductively around the olives, exchanging flavours like smouldering glances across a smoke-filled room. You simply can’t expect to just toss everything into a bowl and hope the ingredients somehow get along. Lower the lights, put on some Enya and be prepared to use plenty of good quality oil…

Unfortunately I neglected to play Enya when I tried a recipe from this book, the roast vegetable salad. How remiss of me. Perhaps that's why the potato refused to converse with the pine nuts. Sigh.

Audrey Gordon’s Tuscan Summer by Audrey Gordon (with a little help from Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch) is available now ($34.95, Hardie Grant Books)

Slow-Cooked Peas in Butter and Garlic

I eat my peas with honey
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
but it keeps them on my knife.


Ok that's not entirely true. I've never eaten peas with honey. Or on a knife. But I recite that little poem just about every time I eat peas, and I've done that all my life!

I actually quite like peas. They're fresh, green, and taste great with gravy. And mint. And mint gravy. But never before eating this dish had I ever closed my eyes and groaned in pure pea heaven.

"Pea heaven?" you say. "It does not exist."

Well let me change your mind. If you like butter and garlic and deep flavours in your veggies, you'll like this. I promise. The peas don't even taste like peas. They taste like little morsels of heaven.

I have adapted the recipe from here. The post that changed my life.

Ingredients:
4 cups frozen peas
1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:
1. Melt the butter over low heat. Add peas and garlic.

2. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

3. Tweet me and tell me you were wrong about peas never being palatable, ever, full stop.