The Recipes - How to make a Vegetarian Shepherds Pie

This recipe took a lot of tries to get it just right. I made quite a few samples on this. Quorn did not work with it, it had to be more of a mince. I started with Vegemince. Then I had to decide the amount of carrot which gives the recipe the sweetness. I needed a good onion gravy and found the Bisto one in the glass jar had a great taste. Then I had to find a good vegetarian Worcester sauce  Then at last I had it. I tried it out on mum and her friend when they came back from their holiday in Torquay and they loved it, and so did my friend Gail who nearly always insists on having this whenever she comes to see us. Even my daughter Lia ate the lot too, the first time she tried it. You can have this with beetroot, pickles, and red cabbage, or beans even.  Recently I made it with the red onion gravy in a jar which gave it a different taste, but just as good!! It's real comfort food and there is NEVER any leftovers.... 

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - How to make Vegetarian Quorn Spaghetti Bolognese.

A friend suggested this recipe to me, and I tried it. Then I changed the mushrooms, removed the salt, topped up the garlic, and Voila! It was the first time that I had made Spaghetti Bolognese at home. It's tasty and you can feed a crowd with it. A one pot meal. Sometimes I grate a little vegetarian hard cheese, (parmesan style) over it, if I make it for guests, and this has been a staple in our house for years. This Spaghetti Bolognese works well with the Quorn because it has a mince style texture. It doesn't work half as well with the other commercial minces I don't think. Further on in the blog you will see how you can use this Bolognese sauce in other meals too, but for now

Here is the recipe

The Recipes -How to make a Sweet potato chilli with celery, chestnut mushrooms and tabasco. (Vegan Friendly)

This recipe started as a recipe in a newspaper. There was a large amount of tabasco sauce  in it and no liquid, so when i made it it was unpalatable, but i saw the potential. Adding more mushrooms, drastically reducing the tabasco sauce content, and adding vegetable stock and more mushrooms. The resulting effect was really tasty. Guests always ask for more whenever i make this - so if you haven't tried it yet, definitely do at some stage. Don't be put off with the sweet potato, because in this recipe it tastes nothing like it does normally! Be careful with the tabasco sauce though and use a small teaspoon not a regular sized one!! And don't forget to shake up your tabasco sauce bottle before you use it. We serve this chilli with either basmati rice, chips or fresh salad.

Here is the recipe

The Recipes -How to make Perfect Irish Coffee with Irish Whisky, Demerara Sugar, Instant Coffee and Squirty Cream

 Christmas isn't complete without Irish coffee, and you have to use proper Irish whisky as it has a mellow taste unlike Scottish. We used Nescafe because it's the best. I don't drink anything else! We also used squirty cream but you can use real cream if you want to as that's the correct way to do it! The squirty cream worked well though here too. These were served in Irish coffee style glasses too. Available here

Here is the recipe

 

The Recipes - Microwaveable Old School Chocolate Pudding with a Mint Custard.

 Well who doesn't love a chocolate pudding. Microwaveable as well, so it's fast and easy. Maybe too easy ha! The chocolate pudding we had to mess about with the water content to get it just right. So we had to try many samples.....that's our excuse anyway. Then there was the mint custard. Although my daughter who was five at the time and didn't like mint, would say mint was the worst thing that she had ever tasted! So we have to do a custard version just for her. Oh well more for us...i could have made it a pink colour but she would still know. Kids have amazing sensory perception. There never seems to be any of this particular chocolate pudding  left over for the next day either? Oh and it's good with custard too, and cream, and.....you choose.

Here is the recipe

The recipes - Spinach and Edam bake

 This recipe was one that I tested out from a book. I then added more spinach, messed about with the ingredients and got a much nicer taste. If you want a runnier bake and to put them in small separate dishes, don't drain the spinach as in the video and you will end up with little creamier bakes. We sometimes have this with just a salad or you can have it with new potatoes and veg of your choice! 

Here is the recipe.

The Recipes - Lancashire Egg, Cheese and Milk Oven Supper Dish

This dish is what my father used to make for us when we were little, and it was really good, to say that it was only three ingredients. One of our viewers wrote in with this little snippet of information for us: C Lou1 day ago (edited)

Saw this in the book "The Craftman", a murder mystery by Sharon Bolton. She was raised in Pendle, Lancashire. Here is the quote, it is near the front of the book. "I’ll just give them their tea.’ Nancy carried a metal dish to the table, where four young children sat, and began spooning food onto waiting plates. It was a supper dish I’d seen before in the North-West: an egg for each child, drowned in milk and crumbly local cheese, and then baked until the whole thing set."  

Served with sliced white bread. Yours is the only real reference I can find, other recipes have beaten eggs, tomatoes, cream, onions or other things and are more like a baked omelette. Very cool to find a unique regional dish. Thank you for the video.

I like it just as it is though, without the bread - Paige

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Butter Pie

I made this recipe because I have always liked home cooked Butter pie. For me it has to be served with sliced brown onions that have been steeped in a dish of malt vinegar, with a little salt and pepper added, and left overnight in the fridge. Then grab a good helping of  pickled red cabbage, and beetroot too, sliced or pickled. ..
The first version I made didn't have enough onion in it for me to balance out the flavours, So I tried it again with more onions and this time got it just right!
I usually get ready prepared shortcrust pastry because it is quicker, but you can make your own.
One of our viewers, a lady called  Eunice Swan informs us that, "These were Catholic pies when I was young. You had them on a Friday cos it was a no meat day. Loved them then and love them now. Delicious!"  I have to agree with her because they are very warming and filling...and very tasty too!

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Pizza Margherita

With this one you can roll out the base as thin as you like. My daughter who is 6 years old likes the crust a little thicker than on the video, so i make her base about 8 Inches across. I also slice some ball mozzarella very thinly and pop a few pieces on, then cover with the grated mozzarella as on the video. Mum likes this thinner crust version too so do try them both ways! Oh and always use the Italian tomatoes passata as the home brands are no where near as good.

We updated this recipe slightly to make it even more tasty. We added half a teaspoon of garlic puree, (just squeeze the tube and it comes out in a line, just the line length), to the passata base, and sometimes I make this pizza topping with sliced mushrooms, thinly sliced red peppers and the jalapeno green chilis that come in a jar, on top. I also serve it with some sprigs of fresh rocket on top too in the middle for a sophisticated look! Delicious....

Here is the recipe.

The Recipes - Quick Jacket Potato

Jacket potatoes although very tasty usually take an hour in the oven to bake.
Then, one day, after scouring various bargain stores, I came across a tool that said you could make a great jacket potato in the microwave in 7 or 8 minutes.
So i tried it.
This tool turned out to be fantastic, and the quality of the potato wasn't very far removed from an oven baked one, so we started using it quite frequently. Try it yourself from Amazon here
In this recipe we added mature cheese and beans, although you can fill them with cauliflower cheese or chili from this channel too, or anything you like!
My personal favourite is cheese, beans, and coleslaw on top when it is cooked!
If you have a favourite combination do let me know...

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Chocolate Cake

The Chocolate cake was a tough one to get right. After a few attempts we got the chocolate taste just right but it a was still a little dry. A this point we added milk in small proportions to both the mix and the cream and then voila! we had it just right. So as Marie Antoinette would say, "Let them eat cake." We say yes but not this one!
P.S. you don't need anything else with this one but if you are a cream lover I know that some of you will be adding a naughty dollop of cream on the side.......

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Vegetable Broth and then Hash

With this recipe my father used to make Broth a lot and this is his own recipe. He also made dumplings - so I adapted them with vegetable suet and this is the result. It's a simple dish with celery, leek, carrots, swede, savoy cabbage, fresh and dried thyme, vegetable stock cubes, a dessert spoon of cornflour and some ground black pepper. This is a great and warming one pot Winter dish both vegan and vegetarian. For an even better taste add 18-20g of the fresh thyme to this recipe along with the dried.
On day two he would make up some mashed potatoes with a little milk, butter and black pepper, and then fry up some mash with a couple of ladles of broth mix, on a low to medium heat until the liquid reduced. Then serve it as it was with either a squirt of brown sauce in it or a squirt of tomato ketchup! I am in the brown sauce camp myself as was my father but it's entirely up to you.....

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Spicy Carrot, Coriander and Celery Soup

Part of this recipe came about when mum was making a recipe from a book. At the time I had some herbs chopped up and frozen in bags. Part of the books' recipe used Parsley in it and mum and her friend mistakenly used the frozen Coriander, luckily they dropped some of it on the floor or it would have been too spicy to eat. I liked the Coriander taste though in the soup and played about with the quantity so that it didn't overshadow the vegetables.With a little tinkering with the quantities of the other ingredients too this is what we ended up with. Hope you like it too.

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Indian Style Mushroom and Red Pepper Curry

This recipe came from one that was given to me at a party. I converted it and made it vegetarian with mushrooms and red pepper and  used fresh ginger and garlic and lots of Coriander. It tastes very much like a Rogan Josh as it's got fresh tomatoes in it. This is lovely served with Chapattis and a small salad of shredded Iceberg lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, and onion. Squeeze a dash of fresh lemon juice on the salad just before serving. If you have it with rice be sure to use Basmati rice as the taste is far superior to plain rice.

Here is the recipe

The Recipes - Fresh Spinach Soup

This is a really easy to make and very tasty soup - with just sunflower oil, onion, potato, vegetable stock, pepper, cornflour and spinach in it. Ideally use the spinach the first day you buy it. Some packs are pre-washed, some are not, so always check the labels.
It is also one of the first soups I made, and it is a great hit at dinner parties as everybody who has tried it loves it. All good soups start with a similar base, usually potato, onion, and sunflower oil or butter. Don't use vegetable oil, sunflower oil is far superior both in taste and texture. My daughter at the age of five said this was her favourite soup, and it still is even now.

Here is the recipe