Winter Warmer

It's freezing cold here in Wales (although I'm glad to say we have no snow in Cardiff yet). In an effort to win the battle against the freezing temperatures, I made a big batch of vegetable hotpot/stew this morning. A few weeks back I mentioned that I'd tried Chef Chad Sarno's Wild Mushroom Gravy recipe from the Planeat website with much success. I found a tub of it in my freezer, and it is a perfect base for my hotpot/stew. I simply defrosted the gravy with some vegetable stock to bulk it up a bit, and then added steamed vegetables. Whatever vegetables are seasonal to your area will do, personally I used the celeriac, potatoes, carrots and onions (fried in vinegar) that I bought at the market yesterday. This recipe will be of no use to anyone living in a warm climate, but for those of us currently experiencing winter it's a great way to warm up. And it means I've got my lunch sorted for the next few days. I've even got a little pot of pickled red cabbage to take into work with me and serve with my hotpot/stew.

Eliminate Oil!

My biggest learning this week has been to remind myself of what I said in my very first posting on this blog. Rather than rushing in and trying everything at once, the key to making big changes in life is to take them one step at a time. Although I had some successes with my cookery experiments on the weekend, I also had some total disasters. Being a keen baker, I'm really interested in developing recipes for healthier, animal-free cakes and biscuits. As interested as I am, though, even I couldn't muster enough enthusiasm to eat my first attempts. So, with my 'one step at a time' mantra in mind, I've gone right back to my original recipes and started to make small changes. My first step has been to replace dairy-based butter and fat with a dairy-free option. So far it's been working well, even with recipes that call for a hard vegetable fat.
There's another small change that I've surprisingly found a lot easier than I thought I would. Ann Esselstyn's third rule on her 8 Principles is Eliminate Oil! She urges everyone to empty all oil, even virgin olive oil, out of your cupboards. Instead any liquid works. Vegetable broth (no sodium), water, wine, beer, orange juice, carrot juice, vinegar are all viable alternatives. When I first read this I was dubious, but I have since tried using orange juice, vinegar and white wine vinegar and found that they do actually work. Most vegetables also produce enough liquid that they don't need much else to cook them anyway. Chef Sarno's basting liquid for the seitan brisket on planeat.tv is also a tasty way to cook other dishes, and I roasted some delicious vegetables in my own version by mixing vegetable stock, soy sauce and a drop of marsala wine. Coincidentally, whilst conducting my own experiements with alternatives to oil, I saw an episode of Secret Millionaire where the same thing was being done but for entirely different reasons. The secret millionaire in this particular episode was trying to fry a hamburger, and asked his neighbours if he could borrow some oil. They told him he didn't need oil, and he could fry his burger using water. Theirs was a discovery borne out of necessity, as in such a poor neighbourhood oil was a luxury they could not afford. I found it interesting that in these economically challenging times, the cheapest option quite often also turns out to be the most environmentally friendly.