Zizi's Adventures - Real Food, Real Stories

Vegetarian Christmas – Cheesy Leeks

by


Christmas time a stress-free meal needs proper planning. There is no such thing as luck – you have to make it happen. That’s why I decided early what to make for my small family on Christmas Eve. 
Christmas is a private, family holiday in Hungary, we don’t go to parties. The main Christmas celebrations take place on Christmas Eve. The evening is called Holy Evening. Most families decorate the tree together on 24 December, but some families keep the older tradition that tree should be a surprise for children who even believe it was bought by Baby Jesus and angels. Children enter the room only when the small tree bells ring and music arises. Gifts lay around the tree with small labels saying the name of someone in the family. Family-members sing Christmas songs together, then open their gifts and spend the night together. The menu for Christmas Eve is usually fish soup from carp, fried fish with potato salad or French fries. The traditional Hungarian Christmas dessert is called beigli. It’s a pastry roll filled with poppyseed or walnut and it can be made a few days, even a week before Christmas.
I’m vegetarian so we don’t make the traditional menu on this evening. We had cranberry and pistachio nut roast – a rich and savoury vegetarian dish -, mashed pumpkin potatoes with rosemary and also this cheesy leeks (recipe from Jamie Oliver) and a vegan stuffing (I’ll share the recipe with you soon). It was the best vegetarian Christmas dinner we ever had.

Cheesy Leeks

Ingredients (serves 4)

– 2 large leeks, trimmed and washed
– 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
– 3 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
– 100 ml cream
– 100 g cheddar, grated
– 100 g brie, cut into small pieces
– sea salt
– black pepper
– olive oil

Method

Slice the leeks on an angle, about 2 cm thick. Put a pan on a medium heat and add 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, thyme and garlic. As things begin to bubble and fry (3-4 minutes), stir in the leeks. Leave to cook and check on it every few minutes to stir (make sure it doesn’t catch). After 10-15 minutes turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients (cream, brie, salt, pepper), stir and spoon it all into a baking dish, sprinkle over the cheddar. Pop in the oven and bake at 170-180C (350F) for 10-15 minutes until golden and bubbling.

More vegetarian Christmas recipes:
Mashed Pumpkin Potatoes with Rosemary
Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast
Pumpkin Pie

Vegetarian Christmas – Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast

by

A nut roast is a rich and savoury vegetarian dish consisting of nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pecans, cashew nuts, pistachio, chestnuts, peanuts), grains, vegetables, vegetable oils, broth or butter, and seasonings formed into a firm loaf shape or long casserole dish before roasting and often eaten as an alternative to a traditional British style roast dinner. It is popular with vegetarians/vegans at Christmas, as well as part of a traditional Sunday roast. 
I made a similar nut roast (Mrs. Myrtleberry’s roast) nearly a year ago. It was love at first sight or love at first taste! 🙂 The main adjustment is to toast the nuts, which brings out a wonderful flavour. This is rich, satisfying and chockfull of protein. 
Even if you are a meat eater you need to try one of them. It is definitely a festive meal with mashed potato and salad.

Cranberry and Pistachio Nut Roast (Jamie Oliver recipe)

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

– 50 g pistachio, toasted
– 50 g almond, toasted
– 20 g dried porcini
– 100 g button mushroom, sliced
– 100 g cheddar cheese, grated (omit to make vegan nut roast)
– 100 g pearl barley
– 1 red onion, finely chopped
– 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 2 small celery root, peeled and finely chopped
– 300-400 ml vegetarble stock
– 1 organic/free range egg, beaten (omit to make vegan nut roast)
– 1-1 teaspoon of sage, rosemary and thyme, leaves picked and chopped
– small handful of whole wheat breadcrumbs
– 1 teaspoon chili flake
– grated zest of 1 lemon
– 4 tablespoons olive oil
– sea salt
– pepper
– 150 g frozen cranberries
– 1 tablespoon brown cane sugar

Method

In a dry non-stick pan roast pistachio and almond for 8 minutes, let cool, chop roughly and set aside. Soak the dried porcini in a little boiling water (enough to cover) for 8-10 minutes. Drain the porcini (keep the soaking water!), chop it roughly and set aside. Butter a 20-23 cm loaf tin and line the bottom with greaseproof paper. Cook the sugar and the cranberries in a pan over medium heat for 1–2 minutes, then tip into the tin and spread evenly.
Make the risotto base first. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over low heat. Add the chopped celery root and onion and cook for 10 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Turn up the heat and add the pearl barley. Cook for a minute or so until you hear it snap, crackle and pop, then add the porcini soaking water and stir until absorbed.
Add the drained, chopped porcini to the risotto and the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring each one in until it has been completely absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir as much as you can – this is what will make it creamy. Once the pearl barley is al dente, transfer to a bowl to cool. 
Preheat the oven to 190C (360F). In a pan fry the sliced button mushrooms in a little olive oil over medium heat for 5–8 minutes, until they are just starting to crisp. 
Once the risotto has cooled, add all other ingredients (button mushrooms, pistachio, almond, grated cheese, egg, sage, rosemary, thyme, lemon zest, breadcrumbs and chili flake), season, and mix well. Pile the nut-roast mixture in the tin and pack it down with the back of a spoon. Cover it with foil and bake for 45 minutes, then remove the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes. Once it’s golden brown on top, remove the nut roast from the oven and leave to settle for 10 minutes. 
Use a knife to loosen the tin, then place your serving platter or board on top. Cover your hand with a tea towel and courageously flip the whole lot over, then carefully lift the tin off. 

More vegetarian Christmas recipe:
Pumpkin Pie

Athens Day Trip to Aegina Island

by

Before we went to Athens I only knew about Aegina because I had watched one of Jamie Oliver’s TV shows, Jamie does Athens. He visited the Greek island, explored it and cooked all sorts of delicious, yummy food. Then and there I decided that we needed to see this island ourselves.
Infinite

When we found out we would travel to Athens, we knew Aegina would be our day trip. It was so nice to get out of the noisy city full of dust and breathe fresh, salty air within only 30 kms away from Athens.

To make the Greek mythology short, Zeus, who was the father of gods, fell in love with the god Asopo’s daughter (he had 20 daughters!), who was of course very beautiful and her name was Aegina. Zeus kidnapped her and took her to the island of Oinoi. There, they had a son called Aiakos and the island was named after her. Aegina was also Achileas and Aiada’s hometown and they were both two of the most important heroes in the war of Troy. In historical terms, there is evidence that the island was inhabited from as early as 3500 B.C.

You can read my article about Aegina Island on the site of The Travel Belles here.

Port of Aegina

Aegina is famous of the export of pistachio

Temple of Aphaia

View from Temple of Aphaia

Picnic lunch

Agios Nectarios Temple

Chilled frappé coffee

More posts about Athens:
Athens Basics
Athens: Lycabettus Hill and Acropolis
Athens Central Market

Jamie Oliver’s TED speech

by

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, “One Wish to Change the World.” Designed to leverage the TED community’s exceptional array of talent and resources, the Prize leads to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.

I used to live in England for 2 years and this is how I “met” Jamie for the first time. That time he was not known in Hungary at all. Since then I have admired Jamie’s hard work, his food and enthusiasm to change the way for people to eat healthier and encourage them to cook more at home. I even had lunch in his Fifteen restaurant in London. This is a huge experience to always remember.

He says in his talk: “I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”It is worth listening to his speech…

The talk can be watched with Hungarian and English subtitles as well!
A beszéd megnézhető magyar és angol felirattal is!