Tea and Sympatico

We're back to Sean Connery as Bond for the last Martini and my last Mofo post. The film to go with the Lemon Meringue Pie Martini is Goldfinger and this cocktail is made with real edible gold leaf. The gold leaf was purchased via Ebay and was tricky to use needing two pairs of tweezers! Lemon Meringue Pie Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 1 shot of Limoncello 1/2 shot of Galliano 3 shots of pineapple juice Edible gold leaf ice Shake the ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a martini glass and use tweezers to float pieces of edible gold leaf on the surface of the drink. Garnish with a cocktail cherry. Goldfinger was the third Bond film and the first 'blockbuster' costing more than the first two films combined with extensive use of technology, gadgets and promotional tie-ins. Hope enjoyed the martini series, we've certainly enjoyed drinking them! Now I'm off to spend November catching up on all the blogs I've not had cha...

I've gone to the Black Forest of Germany for the inspiration for this Martini with our next Bond film not set too far away from there in the Swiss Alps. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the sixth Bond film. The role previously played by Sean Connery was taken over for one film only by George Lazenby. Black Forest Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 1 shot of cherry syrup 1 shot of Creme de Cacao 1 shot of soya cream ice Shake all the ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a sprinkling of cocoa powder. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is also the only film where Bond marries. He gets wed to the Countess Teresa 'Tracey' de Vincenzo played by Diana Rigg. Here's the offical trailer.

I wanted to make an apple pie martini. Apple pie seemed suitably British like Bond but I was struggling to match it with a Bond film. Then my friend Sean, a Bond expert and lover of puns came up with the answer in The Man With The Golden (Delicious) Gun. This recipe makes a simple yet really delicious Martini. I only had powdered cinnamon which you could see floating in the drink. For aesthetic reasons I'd probably try this with cinnamon syrup next time. A cinnamon stick to garnish would look good too. Apple Pie Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 3 shots of apple juice 1/4 teaspoon of cinammon or you could use some cinammon syrup 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract ice Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a martini glass and serve. This was the ninth bond film and the second to star Roger Moore. It also starred Christopher Lee as Bond villan Scaramanga. Here's the original trailer.

So, we went to see Skyfall last night and it was brilliant! I won't give anything away but will just say, go and see it, you won't be disappointed. There was dinner first at Wagamamas and of course cocktails. We went to our favourite Happy Hour cocktail bar Lola's and had Meowtinis made with Snow Leopard Vodka, rosemary and vermouth. We're going back to some old school Bond for today's cocktail, the Cherry Pie Martini. These are inspired by You Only Live Twice which is set in Japan a land famous for it's cherry blossom. Cherry Pie Martini Serves 1 1 shot of vodka 1 shot of cherry syrup 1 shot of lemon juice 1/2 shot of grenadine Shake all the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry. Here's the original trailer for You Only Live Twice. It was the fifth Bond film and again stars Sean Connery with a screenplay by Roald Dahl.

We're kicking off the series of Bond/ dessert themed Martinis with inspiration from the first James Bond film, Dr No. It was released in 1962 and our hero is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of a fellow British agent. It happens to star my favourite Bond - Sean Connery. Who's your favourite Bond? I wanted to make something with some spice in it and started thinking about Jamaican Gingercake. There's also coffee and cinnamon in this too. As these have cream in them I reckon you could also get away with serving them as a dessert, maybe with some little ginger biscuits to dip in. All the Martinis this week will be vodka based and of course will be shaken not stirred! Gingerbread Martini Serves 1 Ice 2 shots of vodka 1 shot of kahlua 1 shot of gingerbread syrup 1 shot of soya cream cinnamon Shake all the ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a martini glass and top with cinammon. I'll leave you with the original tra...

I've been stocking up on the treats for Halloween with some handmade vegan goodies. I've got an autumnal Chocolate Box from Deerly Beloved Bakery on it's way and I couldn't resist these marshmallow ghosts from Sweet Vegan . I also found out today that I've been lucky enough to win not 1 but 3 tubs of marshmallows from another vegan company! I'd not heard of Daisy's Marshmallows before but they sound brilliant. The company was set up by a woman called Linda and she has raised over £4,000 so far through Facebook and Ebay which goes to help dogs in distress. She is selling a Halloween marshmallow package on the Ebay page. I'm going to take the ones I've won along to the next Cake Liberation Front meet up to share the marshmallow love and let more people know about this brilliant fundraising idea. What kind of treats are you having for Halloween?

I'm going to be a bit quiet on the blogging front this week as I've a couple of days of hospital tests. I'll be back on Friday though with my last 5 themed Mofo posts. The clue is in the title of this post. Yes, Friday is the opening day of the new bond film and we'll be off to see it after work as Matt's been on the opening day of every one since The Spy Who loved me in 1977. Here he is sat on the roof of the original car from that film. My theme is going to be dessert inspired Martinis. But before that here's a pie I made yesterday that manages to have booze in both the filling and the pastry! I used this recipe for a vegan flaky pastry that uses ice cold vodka as one of the ingredients. Apparently the alcohol does something to the gluten in the flour allowing you to create a more tender crust. It cooks off in the oven and you can't taste it. It's the first time I've made a savoury pastry from scratch and I was surprised how easy it ...

The truffle recipe I blogged about the other day is so good I couldn't resist having a go at another variation. These are made using 4 of those small packets of dairy free white chocolate buttons. I was hoping to use Cherry Brandy but I couldn't get any. I did spot some cherry flavour syrup though for a fraction of the price and this worked really well. Ingredients Makes 20 truffles 100g dairy free white chocolate 50g vegan margarine 1 tablespoon of cherry syrup 1 tablespoon of soya cream 25g of ground almonds 150g of icing sugar 6 glace cherries chopped into tiny pieces Dessicated coconut for rolling Melt the margarine and chocolate in a pan over a low heat. Remove from the heat and stir in the cherry syrup and soya cream. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and put in the fridge to chill. Once chilled roll teaspoon of the mixture into balls. Roll in the coconut and place in petit-four cases.

I'm having a little break from the sweet making today because I'm having an art exhibition and tonight is the launch. It's part of the Glossop People's Festival . There's more of an explanation of my work here  if you scroll down the page in the link but I thought I'd share a few pictures of some food and drink related pieces what with it being Mofo! The title of this picture is a line from Fight Club and the drawings are of the contents of my fridge. A Fridge Full of Condiments and No Real Food Here these papier mache bottles are covered with lots of random overheard bits of conversations. I was exploring the notion of people thinking they have privacy in a public space. There's some quite funny and some frankly bizzare things on there! I learned to read tea leaves to make this work and travelled round to friends houses or invited them round to mine and read their fortunes. The work will be up until the end of November. It's been q...

I really like rose and violet fondant creams but I've yet to find some that I'm 100% sure are vegan. Hotel Chocolat sell them but list them as vegetarian rather than vegan although I can't see anything on the ingredients list to make them non vegan, possibly whatever is the red colouring in the rose ones..  Anyway I was really pleased when I spotted an easy recipe for Floral Cremes in my copy of The Vintage Tea Party Book . This is a lovely book that is beautifully illustrated. Whilst it's not a vegan recipe book there's stuff in there that is vegan friendly such as the Whisky Marmalade and brilliant Chocolate Granola I made for Christmas presents last year and lots of styling ideas. It gave me an excuse to buy this which I'm looking forward to trying in fizz and lemonade too. I remembered to Americanize them too so here's the recipe with cups. These were really easy and came out great. I ended up adding a bit more icing sugar but I think tha...

For day of two of the week of sweet making I thought I'd have a go at something I haven't tried before - honeycomb! Incidentally  I noticed recently that Sainsburys sell little bags of honeycomb pieces in their cake decorating section that are vegan friendly. The recipe I used is this  Lorraine Pascale one from the BBC Website. I just had to sub margarine for butter. I must say it wasn't 100% successful. It did set but it was more of a toffee than a honeycomb although a nice tasting toffee at that. I think I didn't have the heat up high enough and I couldn't resist stirring a few times so I think it's likely to be my fault not that of the recipe. Oh well, it's an excuse to have another go!

When I had to choose a category on the Mofo sign up form I had to admit that my blog definitely falls into the category of 'comfort foods'. After the week of muffins and the week of mash we now have a week of sweet making. These are super quick and easy truffles and make an impressive gift. I've posted the basic recipe before and have made several variations on them. This time I decided to use whisky and ginger. You start off by melting the dark chocolate and margarine.  Then you stir in the cream and whisky followed by the rest of the ingredients. After chilling in the fridge until the mixture cools and firms up you rolls them into balls and roll them into cocoa. Ingredients Makes 25 truffles 100g plain chocolate 50g vegan margarine 1 tablespoon of whisky 1 tablespoon of cream 25g of ground almonds 150g of icing sugar 5 large pieces of crystallised ginger chopped into tiny pieces Cocoa powder for rolling

Today's mash post is one of Matt's. This was made to accompany some Fry's Pepper Steak pies. Wow, these pies are a revelation! They didn't look that exciting in the box, a little shallow and a lot more expensive than that other more widely available vegan meaty pie but they are so worth it. The sides are roasted parsnips, steamed spinach and leeks. The mash is swirled with caramelised onions and complemented the pies beautifully. I've never thought of putting onions into mash before, in gravy yes but mash no. It's a winner!

I am a massive sweet potato fan but I must admit I usually have them roasted or as fries or wedges. This idea for a sweet potato mash is great though and comes from The Great American Detox Diet . This is the book that chef Alex Jamieson wrote that contains the recipes for the food she made for boyfriend Morgan Spurlock after his MacDonalds Supersize Me expereince. The sweet potatoes are boiled and then get a mashing with some flax oil and maple syrup. I served them with veggie sausages, caramelised onion gravy and topped with toasted almonds.

This amazing trio of mash is Matt's creation. To accompany our vegetable bourguignon we had not one, not two but three different types of mash with root vegetables as the stars of the show. On the left we have a mash blend of carrot and swede and on the right we have a mash blend of potato and parsnip. The mash in the middle is a blend of these two, hence the Venn diagram of mash!

Anyone with a copy of Appetite For Reduction will be familiar with Caulipots , a tasty yet lower calorie version of mashed potato. It's basically potato and cauliflower boiled and mashed together and flavoured with your choice of seasoning. I made some to accompany some leftover Chicken Supreme and added olive oil, salt, pepper, stock, nooch and some garlic chives to the Cauilpots alongside a serving of peas. Mmm, total comfort food.

Hello and welcome to the week of mash! Whilst I've had people make me gorgeous veggie Shepherds Pie with beans or lentils when it comes to making it myself I'm a mince girl all the way. And for some reason I can't seem to cook veggie mince without putting red wine in it. Here's the way I make Shepherds Pie Serves 4 Ingredients 1 large onion chopped small 2 cloves of crushed garlic 1 tablespoon of olive oil 2 carrots diced small 1 carton or tin of chopped organic tomatoes 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs 1 teaspoon of yeast extract 1 teaspoon of veggie Worcestershire sauce or Hendersons Relish 1 tablespoon of tomato puree 1 cup of red wine 454g bag of frozen veggie mince 1 cup of frozen peas 4 large potatoes heaped tablespoon of vitalite margarine unsweetened soya milk 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast salt and pepper Heat the oil and cook the onions, garlic and carrots in the olive oil until soft. Next add everything down to and including...