Vegetarian Gourmand

While browsing the isles of Aldi for some good deals, I came across smoked garlic which was brought in from the Orkney Islands – not too far from Aberdeen. A very exciting find as I’ve never seen smoked garlic before. I purchased it and was quite excited to bring it home to try.

It has a very strong, smoky smell and a little can go a long way. Smoked garlic is wonderful roasted, and perfect used in place of normal roasted garlic – anywhere you would like a nice smoky flavour to accompany your dish. I find being vegetarian, I am exceptionally happy when I find ingredients other than meat which have been smoked. Often times it’s smoked meat that is available, so finding a nice smoked cheese, smoked paprika, or smoked garlic can do wonders for vegetarian taste buds.

Perfect uses for smoked garlic include roasted and squished onto crusty bread with some olive oil, and maybe some Brie or Camembert cheese. Or highlight it in a pasta dish – spaghettini with smoked garlic, diced tomatoes and parmesan cheese.

Fusion condoms having been listed as vegan and are now being promoted here in the UK. As Shandip Shah said – ‘Vegetarians and Vegans might not have realized that there is a milk extract in most condoms. Fusion condoms want to help this group make an informed choice about safe sex,’

Not the typical advertising campaign for condom companies. Click here to read the full article.

Poached eggs aren’t something I have tried to make very often. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever tried to make them before. I only had them for the first time I can remember last year, when I had my first (vegetarian) Eggs Benedict at a diner in Vancouver. I did enjoy them, but they don’t often cross my mind in the mornings as a perfect breakfast food – until now.

Yesterday, I decided to give it a try. I had the general gist of it, I knew keeping them together was a challenge, and somewhere along the way learned there should be some vinegar in the water. Likely on a cooking TV show, I watched someone swirl the water to keep the egg whites together.
So to the internet I went to get more details, cooking times, any extra tips. I found a Gordon Ramsay recipe, which along with using a teaspoon of vinegar to hold the eggs together; it also describes creating a ‘vortex’ by spinning the water really quickly in a circle. So off I go for my first attempt at poached eggs.
The first egg yoke broke before it even hit the water, however I wasn’t deterred as my boyfriend prefers the egg yokes cooked, I could pretend this was intentional. With my vortex spinning, I poured the egg from the bowl I previously cracked it into (which caused the yoke to break), and into this vortex. Immediately, the egg split into many small little strings and lost all resemblance of an egg. I thought about taking a picture, but it wasn’t very pretty.

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This is not a quick recipe, however compared to some other lasagne recipes, it is rather low maintenance. The bulk of the work is in preparing the squash for roasting. I remember one lasagne I made with some friends, when we grilled all the vegetables, including onion, on a small George Forman grill. Then we made the sauce, grated the cheese, and compiled it all into one fabulous lasagne. It was a great way to spend the day with friends, but not necessarily always feasible. I also wanted a change from the typical tomato sauce based lasagne. So I decided on a butternut squash lasagne.

This lasagne turned out really well, full of the lovely flavours of butternut squash. Most of the sauce was absorbed by the no-cook lasagne noodles. So if you want it to be a saucy lasagne, add more milk to the sauce. Also, if you have fresh lasagne noodles, you would want to remove at least 1 cup of the milk from the sauce, so it is not too milky.

Ingredients: 1 medium to large butternut squash 5 shallots 2 tsp brown sugar 300g Ricotta cheese 2 cloves garlic, diced 3 cups milk 2 tbsp flour 2 tbsp butter 1 tsp dried sage freshly grated Parmesan cheese sage leaves salt pepper Roasting the squash and shallots For the filling: Peel the squash, and slice into thick slices. Peel the shallots, but leave the shallots whole if they are small or cut in half if they are larger shallots. Then roast the squash and shallots in a roasting pan, with the brown sugar sprinkled over top, in the oven for 1 hour, at 200C. After one hour they should be soft. Once cool enough to handle, dice into 4cmx4cm cubes and slice the shallots into small rings. Mix the shallots and cubed squash pieces together in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. For the sauce: Place butter, sage and 2 cloves garlic in the sauce pan over low heat so the garlic doesn’t burn. Once the butter has melted, add the flour and mix thoroughly into a paste. Then add the milk, slowly so all flour is incorporated into the milk so there are no clumps. Once all the milk has been added, slowly bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil the temperature can be reduced so the sauce can thicken. Season with salt and pepper. The ricotta cheese could be added to the sauce to create a thicker, richer sauce. However I used it as a layer underneath the squash. It likely doesn’t make too much of a difference, but to make things easier, adding the ricotta cheese to the sauce would take away a step or two. Bringing it together: Place enough sauce on the bottom of the lasagne pan to coat the bottom. Lay the first layer of lasagne noodles on top. On these noodles, spread the ricotta cheese, then add a layer of the butternut squash and shallot filling. On top of the filling, add another layer of lasagne noodles and pour over the sauce, ensure you leave enough to coat the third layer of noodles. Repeat these steps for the next layer. On the top layer of noodles, pour the remaining sauce over, top with grated parmesan cheese, and a few small sage leaves.