Starting with the sweet: Rhubarb Stirabout

I have a friend who for years thought she didn’t like rhubarb because she hated strawberry-rhubarb pie. Turns out she just hated cooked strawberries. I feel her on this, because rhubarb is AWESOME! It’s so freaking sour but cooks up beautifully to a tangy delight.

Rhubarb is in season and I had some from my farm order I was just itching to use. I had been looking around for a rhubarb and custard recipe as Spouse is English I and do like making comfort foods for both of us. This Rhubarb Stirabout recipe, from Good Eating: Suggestion for Wartime Dishes, satisfies all those comfort food + tangy rhubarb desires.

This recipe is dead easy: flour, fat, some sugar and enough liquid to make a batter. There is almost more rhubarb than batter, and this could easily be adapted to use other fruits, fats and liquid (very easy to make vegan if that’s your thing.) I’m betting you could even use gluten-free flours here.

This recipe is a lot of what I love about WWII recipes with its simplicity. I was actually a bit surprised this was baked and not steamed like so many other puddings (desserts) I’ve seen.

The recipe called for serving this hot with golden syrup. I think we have a tin of golden syrup in the pantry, but as far as liquid sugars go, that’s not how I roll. I’m a Vermont girl and if it isn’t maple it’s crap (well, okay, I like honey, but not as a topping.) Instead, I went with my first desire of custard and mixed up a pouring-consistency batch of Bird’s.

And we ate the whole thing.

The next round

I recently had my 15 year anniversary at work and my office gave me a new cookbook. So this round of recipes will include one from Sarah Britton’s My New Roots. This cookbook is really beautiful and the recipes look good too. A little nut-heavy, which is to be expected from a vegetarian cookbook, but one thing I can’t use if I’m cooking for Spouse as well.

The next book in the pile is Bryant Terry’s Vegan Soul Kitchen. I LOVE this cookbook! It is one I’ve cooked from before and never had a bad meal. I recommend this book to anyone, including omnivores.

We travel back in time for the next two. 1987’s Weight Watchers Quick and Easy Menu Cookbook is kind of as grim as it sounds. Lots of “scant teaspoon reduced calorie margarine” and stuff like that. The more fun one is the collection of WWII recipes (and I have a few of those books) in Good Eating: Suggestion for Wartime Dishes.  I find British wartime recipes are great for cooking out of my pantry, and pretty frugal (go figure), as well as putting an emphasis on vegetables, preferably raw (again, duh.)

For the magazine entry, I will be doing the burgers from “Vegetarian Times” this round as well since I didn’t get to them last time. There might be one more from there before the next issue comes as well

No, I didn’t forget a cookbook, just saving it for last. Not all the cookbooks include full meals for every time of day (this assumes you don’t consider cupcakes breakfast, lunch, and dinner), but some do for the liquid lovers. Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric’s Speakeasy is a collection of cocktails to suit every mood.

This seems like it will be a good batch, without too much extra shopping involved, unlike last time. I’ll most likely add additional, thrown together side dishes, or something barbequed to go with a dish, but focus my energy on the cookbook recipes.

See you soon.

 

15-Minute Vegetarian

It was the hottest day so far this year, peaking at 95, so I decided to make three things that involved slaving over a hot stove. Fortunately, they are all from the book 15-Minute Vegetarian so the slaving was in short bursts.

I did an appetizer of battered tofu with ginger dipping sauce, so first up was the sauce. Quick and easy, and pretty tasty. Spouse loved it (child never got beyond sticking her tongue on a piece of tofu.) Later I started the main.

Apart from chopping, this comes together pretty quickly. There was also the bonus of using canned chickpeas and getting to drain off the liquid for later use. I’ve been wanting to try some things with aquafaba.

My only issue with this recipe was that it needed more, or more likely fresher curry powder. With a whole 6oz can of tomato paste, it was very tomato-y.

No pictures plated. I had a complete failure with the pasta and ended up composting the whole batch and making more. I wish we had enough whole wheat spaghetti as I would have used that instead.

The tofu, on the other hand, was a complete success! I used a 1/4 cup aquafaba instead of egg and it battered up nicely. With some non-dairy milk in the batter, this could have been a completely vegan meal.

Who doesn’t love fried food?

So I think I would do the curry again if  I were cooking for others and wanted something no one would really hate. The tofu was great and I would do that again but try different sauces for variety.

Why garnish with parsley when pea tendrils are in season and delicious?