Tomato, Basil & Red Onion Bruschetta

I know that there are many different ways of making Bruschetta which use many different ingredients, so I thought that I would share my preferred way of making it. Bruschetta or "Brusketta" as the Italian's pronounce it always envokes such an explosion of flavours and taste whenever I eat it.

Personally, I am quite a big fan of the classic Bruschetta. My Bruschetta consists of Tomatoes, Basil, Red Onion & Vegetarian Pesto. I also like my Bruschetta quite chunky and "rustic" and so I don't tend to chop my ingredients very finely.

Bruschetta makes a great quick and easy snack, or lunch dish, and is perfect for a warm sunny day. It also makes a stunning starter for an Italian themed menu. I often serve Bruschetta as a starter, then my Italian Shepherd's Pie for main, followed by gelato to finish when I am entertaining.

Here is how I make Bruschetta, Feel free to adapt it, or make it as is, and most of all, enjoy!

Classic Bruschetta Ingredients Bruschetta Loaf, sliced in half and cut into slices 1 Jar of Vegetarian Pesto 1 Red Onion, peeled and chopped into small pieces 250g Cherry Tomatoes, peeled and chopped Handful of Basil Leaves, torn 1 Clove Garlic, crushed Olive Oil as required. Method Grill the ciabatta on the opposite side to the filling until warm, and then repeat on the other side. Once grilled, spread the vegetarian pesto onto the bread and grill for a couple more minutes (you could leave off the pesto and just rub garlic cloves onto the bread instead). Combine the red onion, tomatoes, garlic and basil together in equal quantities, mix, and add a little olive oil to bind the ingredients together. Remove the ciabatta from the grill, allow it to cool slightly and pile the onion and tomato mixture onto the individual slices. Decorate with more olive oil or basil as required and serve immediately.

Hotel Chocolat "Your Eggsellency" Extra Thick Easter Egg - Review & Giveaway!

It feels to me like we have only just got Christmas and Valentines out the way, but yet here we are at the end of March, the daffodils are blooming, the lambs are a lambing and spring has most definitely sprung. With only a few days left of the school term, Easter is now definitely firmly on the horizon.

Easter is always a lovely time in our household, spent with family, typically by the sea. Food wise, as well as hot cross buns & simnel cake, chocolate also features highly at Easter, just as it does on most other holidays. An abundance of chocolate Easter eggs have been in the shops over the last few months, encouraging us to stock up for our nearest and dearest. You may wonder how eggs are linked to the true meaning of Easter.... well the Easter story recounts how Jesus died & rose again on Easter Monday and so eggs are said to symbolise the Easter story & the start of new life - as a new life emerges from an egg when it hatches. So this is why chocolate eggs are given as gifts at Easter. 

Purely for the good of my readers, I have kicked Easter off early this year and have already begun tucking into a delicious Easter Egg from Hotel Chocolat. I was invited to review an Easter Egg from the Hotel Chocolat range and chose the "Your Eggsellency" Extra Thick Easter Egg. The "Your Eggsellency" Extra Thick Egg contains a milk and a dark chocolate shell and 12 delicious soft centred truffles. I mainly chose this egg as the prospect of an egg filled with truffles was very exciting, and also because of the beautiful packaging - the egg looked so elegant and so grown-up! The packaging is a far cry from the cheap cardboard & plastic packaging you find in the supermarkets, and better for the environment as you can keep the box to store things in. Best of all it was vegetarian too.

This is what I found when I lifted the lid of the Easter Egg, two half shells wrapped in gold paper.

What amazed me most was the thickness of the egg - look how much chocolate is hidden underneath that gold paper! One shell is made with 40% Cocoa house milk chocolate and the other is  made with 70% dark chocolate. The truffles were hidden away in the middle of the eggs.  

Once unwrapped, I found that there are 12 truffles filled with soft cream ganache with flavours including champagne, pink champagne, vodka, amaretto and mojito. The mojito truffles were my favourite - they tasted absolutely delicious, closely followed by the pink champagne truffles - so decadent!

This Easter Egg left me lost for words as I have never seen an egg containing so much chocolate in it! At £26, it may not be the kind of egg you would buy for everyone, but this would be a perfect gift for your nearest and dearest or a special friend.

Hotel Chocolat have a great range of  Easter gifts this year and the range starts at just £5. I love Buttons the Easter Bunny and Quackers the Duck (£6.50) - both perfect for the kids. The grownup range includes this Mini Pink Champagne Truffle Easter Egg (£8) and the classic Easter Egg "H" Box (£12). They also have some wonderful Extra Thick Chocolate Easter Eggs (£26) and you must take a look at these rather lovely Large Ostrich Eggs (£70) filled with Chocolates.

I think you could definitely find gifts for the whole family in Hotel Chocolat, and the quality, individuality and range of gifts is fabulous. 

Giveaway

So how would you like to be in with a chance of winning a Hotel Chocolat "Your Eggsellency" Extra Thick Easter Egg of your own? 

Hotel Chocolat have kindly provided me with a "Your Eggsellency" Easter Egg to give away to one lucky reader of the Vegetarian Experience. 

To be in with a chance of winning:

**Leave me a comment below, telling me which item from the Hotel Chocolat Easter range you would most like to receive and why. The range can be seen here **

For an extra entry you can:

1. Tweet the following: "I would like to win a #Hotelchocolat Extra Thick #Easter Egg with @veggiexperience" and leave me a comment to so that you have done so.
2. Follow me: @Veggiexperience and leave me a comment to say are already following or have done so.
3. Like the Hotel Chocolat Facebook page and leave me a comment to say you have done so.
4. Like The Vegetarian Experience Facebook Page and leave me a comment to say you have done so.
5. Follow this blog (or let me know that you already are).

Please leave a comment for each entry. If you are on Twitter, please leave your Twitter ID as it makes it easier for me to contact the winner. If you are not, don't worry and please still enter the competition, but please leave me your name at least or an email if you are posting as anonymous as I will contact you via other means. If I don't have your name or contact, I can't send your prize out to you! The competition will close at 10pm on Tuesday the 3rd of April 2012. The winner will be chosen via an online randomiser and the prize will be sent directly from myself. 

Terms & Conditions: The winner will receive one  Hotel Chocolat "Your Eggsellency" Extra Thick Easter Egg worth £26. The draw will close at 10pm on the 3/04/12 and only entries received before this time will be entered. There will only be one winner, who will be chosen via an online randomiser. There is no cash alternative or substitution available. The winner will be contacted soon after the draw closes and asked to supply their address to me which will be purely for the purposes of sending the prize to the winner. If no response has been received within 3 days, a new winner will be chosen. Entrants acknowledge and accept the terms and conditions by submitting a competition entry. For any questions or queries, please contact me. Thanks! Clare. 

Disclaimer - I was provided with a "Your Eggsellency" Hotel Chocolat Egg to review and one to give away to a reader of my blog. All views are my own. 

Please Vote for Me in the MADS!

So it's been almost a year since me and my new blog dipped a little toe in the big pond that is the world of blogging. Over the last year I have learned so much, met so many lovely people and have had lots of wonderful opportunities. I have also had the chance to blog about what life as a Vegetarian is like - from the food I cook and eat, to my experiences of eating out as a vegetarian in a restaurant, to my experiences of parenting and lots else in between. I would really hope that my readers have enjoyed reading my blog and seeing the food I blog about.

The third annual Mum and Dad Blog Awards is now accepting nominations. Last year I was lucky enough to go to the MAD Blog Awards via a golden ticket and rub shoulders with all of the fabulous bloggers who were nominated. It was a wonderful night and the whole buzz leading up to and after the awards was exciting too.

I don't often blow my own blog horn or tell people outside of the blogging community and my family and close friends about my blog, but I would be very grateful if you would vote for me in the MAD awards. Maybe you like my blog as a whole, or you particularly liked a post that I wrote. You could vote for my blog in the Best MAD Food Blog Category, the best new MAD blog, or in another blog category.

The nominations are open for the next few weeks so please do nominate if you think that my little blog is worth an award. You can only nominate once, but you can nominate different blogs in all of the different categories, or you can vote for the same blog in more than one category.

Click on the badge, or visit here to nominate and enter your details and my blog URL if you would like to vote for me.

http://www.theveggieexperience.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks so much!

(PS - I will remember you in my acceptance speech if I am ever lucky enough to win!)

How To Keep On Top Of The Housework When You Have Kids.

 

When I was younger my mum's most common phrase was "All I ever do is clean this house!". I never really believed her. I always used to think that she was completely over dramatising the amount of work that she actually did and it couldn't be That hard to keep a house tidy!. The stroppy teenager in me (cue Kevin) thought that my mum asking me to clean up to me was just "ugh- so unfair" and I didn't see why I should have to contribute to the housework so much.

Boy was I wrong!, Since having kids I have realised just how much it takes to run a house and keep it in order. It is a constant job - what's that phrase: "Cleaning the house while the kids are growing is like shovelling snow when it's still snowing" - that pretty much sums it up. When my eldest was born I quickly became buried under a mountain of clothes, toys and child paraphernalia which added to our own stuff just meant that I was never quite on top of keeping our house tidy. I dreaded people asking to come over and would spend hours tidying the house before they did. I slowly started to suffer from CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome).

I needed to find a way of putting some small steps into place so that I could keep on top of the housework and not let it rule me. A friend recommended the Flylady and her website changed my life. I won't go into huge detail about what the website recommends - go and look for yourself, but I will share with you a few ideas of the things I learned that I have found to be really helpful when it comes to keeping on top of the housework. The most important thing I have come to realise (talking to my 14 year old self) is that everyone is responsible for helping in the house as much as they can. Kids are never to young to start helping with the chores. Teaching kids about playing a part in the daily running of the house from a young age and giving them ownership of keeping their own stuff tidy I am sure will help them in the long run - and will also help us busy Mum's and Dad's in the long run too! Encouraging the kids to keep on top of their own stuff then leaves more time for actually cleaning the house, rather than just keeping the surface mess at bay. So my top tips for house work also include ideas of how to make chores fun for kids as I think that the two really do go hand in hand - so here they are!

Top Tips for Housework & How to Make Chores Fun!!   Buckets! My top tip for keeping on top of the housework is BUCKETS!!. Yes Buckets!!. A year or so ago I invested in some flexi-buckets from the local supermarket. Before, when tidying, I would be making numerous trips between rooms putting stuff away and taking stuff up and down stairs. It would take me ages. Now everything goes in a bucket to be transported between rooms just once - it's much quicker than doing each item one at a time. Give a bucket to each member of the family and get them all involved in tidying up. Have buckets around the house We use buckets all around the house so that stuff goes in the buckets rather than being left on the floor - in the hall for mine and hubby's shoes and outdoor gear and in our bedroom for keeping all of my magazines in. I have numerous buckets in youngest's room so that she can get her toys out easily and put them away again without fumbling with tricky cupboards and drawers. Less work for her and me. Having buckets in the kid's rooms will save you time and it's easier for them to find their toys. Keep school uniform in a bucket We also keep all school uniform in a bucket once it is ironed, so that eldest (5) has easy access to it and so in the morning she can get up and get dressed completely out of one bucket from underwear to outerwear rather than running here and there looking for clothes, wasting time and making more mess for me! Don't go up and down stairs empty-handed We have a "dirty clothes" bucket by the stairs which the kids are both adept at chucking their clothes in. When I am going up or down stairs, I always take it with me and transfer the clothes to the washing machine or downstairs washing pile.  Have a box each by the main house door We have boxes for the kids that live by the front door to keep all of their shoes and outdoor accessories in. When they comes in everything goes straight into the box so we know where it is when we need it next and it also stops the mess being all over the floor. Get the kid's to decorate their boxes, or put their name or favourite character on the box so that they know which one is theirs. Encourage the Kids to Help At the end of each day, the girls and I go around the downstairs with our buckets and pick up all of the things from downstairs which need to go upstairs. We then take the buckets upstairs and put the away. Sometimes I set the timer and see how much the girls can fill their buckets with in two minutes, or I reward stickers for putting their things away well. The girls love Mary Poppins, so we pretend that we are in a Mary Poppins film and they sing the songs as they tidy up. It gets the job done much quicker. Involve kids in the Kitchen. Two year old loves emptying the dishwasher, piling up all the plates and cups and saying hello to her cartoon friends on the crockery who have been through the 'whizz' machine. She likes feeling helpful and like a big girl. She will happily empty everything and put it on the side for Daddy or myself to put away. We are not particularly precious about our crockery so she happily handles everything except for the sharp objects. I also encourage both kids to help me set and clear the table. If we all do it together it takes less time and is a small thing they can do to help. I make a big thing of telling Daddy how helpful they have been. Sometimes setting the table also includes picking the centre piece - a candle or some flowers for a special dinner and so they love being involved with picking what goes on the table.  Make the kids responsible for their rooms and reward their good work Both girls are responsible for keeping their own bedrooms tidy. I took a picture of both their bedrooms when they were tidy, laminated them, and stuck them on their walls, so when they tidy up they can see what their tidy bedrooms look like. I reward their tidying up with a sweet treat, or time in front of a DVD or on their Leapster's. Little and Often will save the day!  Now that the mess is dealt with by helping the whole family to keep tidy, little and often is really the key to keeping on top of the cycle of washing and housework. If you don't have long, set a timer and just clean each room for five or ten minutes and see how much you can get done in that time. Even small things like wiping round the bathroom with a baby wipe makes a difference. I try to have a set day to hoover/dust/clean different rooms so that I do a little each day to keep on top of things. And on that note..... Use Baby Wipes! Baby wipes are really great for cleaning. I use them in between big cleans to keep surfaces clean - a quick wipe of a baby wipe over the surfaces with help them to look clean, tidy and dust free. A Load a Day Keeps the CHAOS away!  I aim to do at least one load of washing every day and although it is a constant cycle of washing, it is better than letting it build up and getting lost under the washing pile!. I also make a game of sorting the washing with the kids and it helps them learn their colours. I offer a treat in return for helping me with the washing and so they are almost always eager to help.  Spring Clean Regularly Every six months I spends a week cleaning out every drawer and cupboard - this often coincides with our local Nearly New Sales, so I can clear out the kids toys and make space by selling them at nearly new sales ready for them to receive new ones for their birthdays or Christmas. Anything not sellable via an NNS or Ebay goes to the charity shop if we havent used it for more than a year or it isn't a keepsake so that we can make space in the house regularly. Don't forget your Car & Handbag It's amazing what you accumulate in your car and handbag over the week! I choose one day of the week (mine is Friday) to clean out my car and my handbag. Again with my trusty bucket, I take everything out of the car that shouldn't be there and either throw it away or put it away in the house. I also clear my handbag out and throw away any excess receipts or put them somewhere for safe keeping.  Other Cleaning Tips I picked up a great tip from Kim and Aggie when watching one of their shows. To remove limescale and grime in bathrooms and kitchens, soak large pieces of cotton wool roll in white vinegar and place them around the taps/bath/shower head/places with limescale. Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over the top and leave for a few hours to work. Remove cotton wool and rub clean - amazing Some other things I have found out are: Lemon Juice removes tomato stains from highchairs and tablecloths Jif removes biro from walls Bicarbonate of soda & white vinegar removes lipstick and blusher from carpets Bicarbonate of soda neutralises any food smells in your fridge - change the soda monthly And Finally: Having a place in your home which is free from clutter and has something pretty on will always preserve that tiny shred of sanity you need to not worry too much about the rest of the house. Mine is my dining table. I love my dining table as to me it symbolises the heart of family life. I always ensure my dining room table has a pretty tablecloth on it and is adorned with either freshly cut flowers, candles or an attractive decorative bowl. This is my small part of the house and reminds me that I can deal with the rest of the chaos as long as one part of my home looks pretty! So I hope you found these tips helpful - what are your best housework tips?

Today I am blogging in the hope of becoming a Morphy Richards Innovator. Morphy Richards and the Tots 100 have teamed up to offer Bloggers the chance to become a Morphy Richards Innovator by sharing their top tips for running a home and caring for a family.

Woody's Vegetarian Cafe Apsley - Review

A few weeks ago a few of us from our local Vegetarian Mum's group went along to Woody's Vegetarian Cafe - a Vegetarian cafe/restaurant based in Apsley Marina. Apsley Marina is an area built around the Grand Union Canal in Herts and features a compact mooring for Narrowboats. It also has a variety of restaurants and pubs surrounding it and is a fab place in the summer especially, as you can take walks along the canal and look at the boats, and then dine outside of one of the many restaurants and pubs.

I have been to Woody's Vegetarian Cafe quite a few times now and enjoy eating somewhere where I know that by eating there, I am helping to support green initiatives. Woody's value and support green initiatives. Their electricity is from The Good Energy Company and is 100% renewable. Their water system is filtered and used in their drinks and soups, they use eco-friendly cleaning products and recycled paper from the local mill and they recycle as many of the cans/bottles/tins and materials they use as possible. 

Woody's source a lot of their food from Organic and Fairtrade suppliers. They also buy from local producers with seasonal fruit and vegetables brought and grown locally. 95% of the food served is made on the premises.

I have visited Woody's a number of times now and have enjoyed a delicious meal each time I have been. One of the best things about eating at Woody's is that I can peruse the menu knowing that everything on there is Vegetarian. Therefore, I can choose from the whole menu and I don't have to try and decipher the ingredients to decide if the dish really is vegetarian or not, as I do at other restaurants.

Woody's offers a wide range of menu choices including specials which change regularly and are not on the Main Menu. Main Menu dishes include Pizza's, Soups, Salads and Crepes (Sweet and Savoury). They also have Vegan and Gluten Free options available. Their specials include Vegetarian Burgers, Jacket Potatoes, Mexican Crepes, Quiches, plus a whole array of other dishes. 

The atmosphere is relaxed at Woody's with low key lighting, candles and green plants and vines draped throughout the restaurant. Wooden tables and chairs adorn the restaurant as do paintings and canvases from local artists. The main counter and kitchen is open, so you can see the food being prepared for you, which personally I prefer to a closed kitchen where they could be doing anything to your food and you would never know! My Vegetarian friends and I all agreed that we really liked the ambience of Woody's and after a day spent running around after the kids, a meal in a relaxed, stress free environment was just what we needed!

After scouring the menu and specials board, and debating what to eat because it all looked so delicious, I chose the Vegetable Quiche served with an array of side salads as my main course. At around £9, I did think that the Vegetable Quiche was rather expensive, and I would like to have seen something potatoish on my plate also for paying that amount of money, however, bearing in mind that the food was supposed to be cooked from fresh, home made and locally sourced, I could just about justify the price and the Quiche did taste really fresh and delicious, as did the accompanying salads.

My two companions chose the Mexican High Hat Savoury Crepe - a Crepe filled with cheese, mexican salsa and beans. Again, they commented that for the price (around £8), they would have liked something other than just a small side salad served with their meal, but both agreed that their Crepe was delicious and really filling.

For dessert I chose a Sweet Crepe (£4.50) filled with Milk Chocolate and Banana.

                               

There is a range of Crepe batters available including Traditional, Buckwheat, French Buckwheat, Wholewheat and Rice Crepes. I went for the traditional white flour and egg batter mixture. Again, my sweet crepe was absolutely delicious and definitely hit the spot, however, I am slightly confused how Woody's can justify a main course Crepe costing almost double that of a sweet Crepe, even though they are the same size. I know that the ingredients used may be a tad more expensive, but it doesn't seem to add up in my mind....

To round off our meals, we each chose a Hot Drink from the Fair Trade, Organic range of drinks available. Unfortunately, our Waitress (whose service hadn't been amazing throughout) took our drinks order, then obviously decided that we had ordered too late and she wanted to go home. So rather than bringing us our drinks, after about 25 minutes she brought the bill instead which didn't really go down too well with any of us and was a bit of an unwelcome end to a lovely evening.

So a mixed review really. I really like the ethics of this establishment, the location and ambience are lovely and the food is really delicious too, but the price and the service do leave a little to be desired. That said, I am not put off. Woody's is great for a lunch time snack or meal with the kids, and an evening out with the grown ups. I would return again in the hope of better service and a warmer welcome.

Price: Expect to pay a little more, but the food is fairtrade, organic and freshly made, so you get what you pay for - 7/10

Ambience: Great Location and a lovely place to relax with friends or family - 9/10

Service - I must admit that each time I have visited, the service hasn't been hugely amazing, but I have mostly visited in the evening, so I am wondering if it might be better during the day 6/10

Food - Freshly made, locally sourced, tastes delicious and it is all Vegetarian! However, I would like to see a bit more variety on my plate and a few different side accompaniments incorporated into the dish. 8.5/10

Overall: 8 out of 10

Disclosure: I paid for my own meal at this restaurant and all views are my own.

If you are local to the area and would like to find out more about the local Vegetarian Parents group then do contact me. We currently have members from different areas of Herts. We meet once or twice a month and do daytime meets with the kids and evening meets for just the parents. Most meets so far have been around the St Albans & Hemel Hempstead area.

Mothers Day: Family Fruit Cake

So today is Mother's day and look what I have been given over the last week - two beautiful hand made cards from school and a poster. Apparently eldest thinks I am "As beautiful as a Heart" which is quite sweet and quite complimentary compared to her friend who told her Mummy that she was "As fast as a Cheetah!". I don't know if its just me, but I would rather receive something made with love over a bottle of wine, or spa voucher any day!

As today is about Mother's day, I am featuring a recipe for Family Fruit Cake, which my mother used to cook often during my childhood and still does - in fact I would say that it is probably her signature dish. I don't really remember my mother cooking savoury food from scratch very often (sorry mum) but I do remember her baking cakes, and making this particular cake very frequently.

My Mum's Family Fruit Cake recipe comes from The Dairy Book of Home Cookery (1978 version) which has recently been updated again to a 2012 version! As I have mentioned before, this book is my mother's cooking bible. The Family Fruit Cake featured is a light rather than a dark fruit cake and is mainly light sponge and fruit rather than a very heavy rich dark fruit cake. Rather frustratingly, even though I would consider myself quite adept at home cooking, it seems that I have not yet developed my mother's talent for baking. I can never get my cakes to rise and they never come out anything like my mum's do!

However, the cake is a really delicious cake and it is very quick and easy to make as it only requires one bowl. So here is the recipe:

Happy Mother's day and enjoy the cake!

Family Fruit Cake Ingredients 225g Self-Raising Flour 100g Butter 100g Caster Sugar 100g Mixed Dried Fruit 1tsp Lemon Rind 1 Egg 75ml Fresh Milk 1/2 tsp Bicarb Soda Method Pre-prep or line a round or loaf cake tin, either with baking parchment or butter and flour. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the bicarb of soda. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the fruit, sugar and lemon rind to the mixture. Mix to a batter with the egg and milk. Stir the mixture with a metal spoon until it is evenly combined - do not beat it. Transfer the mixture to the pre-prepped tin. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius, gas mark 4 for between 40 and 50 minutes - (Check after 35 minutes and reassess cooking time). Once cooked, allow to cool and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool before serving or storing in an airtight container

Lemon Posset

Taking children to the supermarket is never a relaxing experience and certainly doesn't give much of an opportunity to vigilantly shop for vegetarian products. All too often, food that you would imagine would be vegetarian, actually contains hidden animal products like gelatine, cochineal (red food colouring made from crushed beetles) or animal rennet. Even honey is not strictly considered to be vegetarian as some people believe that bees are enslaved to produce the honey.

Whilst buying some Strawberry Mousse at the supermarket, I was caught out and inadvertently bought Strawberry Mousse containing pork gelatine. It wasn't until I was half way through the mousse and happened to glance at the ingredients that I realised my mistake. Now I must say that I am not a strict vegetarian, but I do draw the line at some things and gelatine is one of them - eating the ground up bones of an animal fills me with as much horror as eating their meat.

So this week, rather than buying mousse, I decided to make my own. Whilst searching for recipes I came across a recipe for Lemon Posset. A Posset is an old fashioned English dessert, somewhere between a mousse and a creamy pudding. It is super easy to make as it only contains three ingredients and not much preparation is required - although it does need time to chill. Lemon Posset does not contain eggs or gelatine as a mousse may well often do and so I could rest safe in the knowledge that I knew what was going into my bowl would be vegetarian.

The end result was light and creamy and absolutely delicious. We love lemon, and so our Posset had a very strong flavour. If you or your family are not big lemon fans, I would recommend adding the juice and zest a little at a time to reach your desired flavour, or you could use another fruit to make the Posset. Enjoy!

Lemon Posset   Ingredients 600ml Double Cream 140g Caster Sugar 2 Lemons Method Juice the lemons, grate the zest into a bowl and set aside. (Tip - roll the lemons around first to release the juice). Place the sugar and cream in a pan and gradually bring to the boil over a medium heat. Once the mixture has reached boiling point, simmer for three minutes. Add the lemon zest and juice to the mixture and whisk together. Pour the mixture into serving bowls or glasses and refrigerate for two to three hours until the mixture is set.

Chablis Wine Challenge: Food & Wine Pairing

Wine? On the house? For me? Yes please!

That was generally along the lines of my response when I was asked whether I would like to sample two bottles of Chablis Wine and come up with some suggestions of what kind of food I thought would go well with Chablis. I am a firm believer in drinking quality wine rather than large quantities of wine and so I was excited to have the chance to spend some time drinking some delicious wine and thinking about how to pair the food to suit the flavour of the wine.

The Wine Region

Chablis is a white wine produced in Burgundy in the northern regions of France, in an area neighboured by the great wine region of Champagne. The name "Chablis" originates from two Celtic words - CAB which means "House" and LEYA meaning "near the woods". It is believed that this area of Burgundy began producing wine seventeen centuries ago in Roman times when 4 Villas began cultivating vineyards in the area. Fast forward to the twenty first century and now over 300 vineyards operate in the Chablis region, producing over 10,000 bottles of wine per year. 3 bottles out of every 10 are sold in the UK.

Chablis is made 100% from the Chardonnay grape and is considered by some, as one of the "purest" wines available due to the simple wine making style of the Burgundy region. Best served at between ten and twelve degrees celsius, Chablis contains a high acidity thanks in part to the genetic make-up of the land the grapes are grown upon. Fossilised sea shells make up most of the lower soil strata and the grapes, grown on steep slopes are infused with the hints of chalk, minerals and the sea.  

The Wine Tasting

Even though I have indulged in some wine tasting before, I am still a bit flummoxed when it comes to picking wine from the supermarket to pair with food, so I was interested to see how the wine I received would compare to others I had tried before. 

The Chablis Wine I received was:

Domaine Bois d'Yver Chablis 2008, (13.99- M&S)

Chablis J. Moreau & Fils 2009, (12.99 - M&S)

So how does one go about tasting wine?  

Well, aside from the layman's instructions of:

"Lift glass to mouth, sip/swig and swallow",

I was provided with instructions on tasting and discovered that there are actually three steps to tasting wine:

Appearance - Hold the glass by the stem or the base and look at the wine - is it clear and bright? White wine ages darker with age. Swirl the glass and watch the droplets or "legs" - these indicate the alcohol content. The greater the legs, the greater the alcohol content. The speed of which the legs fall also tells you if the wine is sweet (slow) or dry (fast).

Nose - What aroma does the wine give you? Some common aroma's might be:

Fruits (grapefruit/apple/peach)

Flowers (jasmine/rose)

Spice (vanilla/cinnamon)

Vegetal aromas (asparagus/mushrooms/grass)

Palate - Take an initial sip and try to link the taste with your sense of smell. Draw air through your mouth, like taking a mouthful of spaghetti. The taste should intensify. Now think about how long you can taste the wine for: the length of the wine, counted in seconds will indicate the cost of the wine. Apparently, the longer the taste lasts, the more expensive the wine is. 2-3 seconds is short 5-6 seconds is medium and 10 plus seconds is long. I will remember that the next time someone buys me a bottle of wine!

So with the kids firmly tucked away in bed and after a refresher of how to best taste wine, hubby and I set about uncorking the wine and getting on with some tasting over a couple of evenings.

The first wine we tasted was the Chablis J. Moreau & Fils 2009, (12.99 - M&S)

Chablis J Moreau is a crisp, clear, dry Chablis. This wine was quite a young wine, only two to three years old and this was reflected in the taste. The wine tasted very light and creamy and felt like a very smooth, drinkable wine. It's pale to medium colour reminded me of apples and minerals and invoked memories of the sea. Although I found this wine smooth and creamy, hubby said that he found this wine quite acidic and sharp. He still drank a couple of glasses of the wine, it just invoked different flavours for him - which just goes to show that wine affects everyone's taste buds differently! This was a very drinkable wine and I can imagine it would go down very easily on a warm summer's day. 

The next evening, we again bundled said children into bed and embarked upon discovering the delights of the

Domaine Bois d'Yver Chablis 2007, (13.99 - M&S)

The Domaine Bois d'Yver Chablis is completely organic, which I was really surprised about, especially as it is so reasonably priced for an organic wine. In my opinion, this wine is a clear bright, gold coloured wine with hints of apple, apricots and herbs and a slight hint of oak. I thought that this wine had a medium body, medium length and tasted medium-dry. I thought that this wine was delicious and I actually preferred this wine to the other as it was two years older and had a fuller, more distinct flavour. Hubby enjoyed it too as he also said it had more depth and flavour. We felt that this wine also complemented the food we ate much more than the other wine - although that could be to do with our pairings rather than the wine! This is a really good example of a Chablis and one which we would definitely purchase for ourselves.

The Food Pairing

So moving on from the taste of the wine, which food would pair well with Chablis?

Allow me a brief moment to reminisce here.....

In my younger days I used to indulge in some Waitressing every once in a while. It was often interesting watching people trying to choose wine from the wine list to complement their food. The most popular wine people would order was the one listed just above the house wine - yes the house wine would have made them look like cheap skates and so the one above made them look like they really knew their wines! I worked for a chain pub-restaurant, and so our training on wine was pretty minimal, albeit non existent. Generally, it boiled down to the old adage of "Red Wine goes with red meat" and "White Wine goes with white meat or fish", and that is pretty much what people stuck with.

However, this does discount a whole group of food and people..... Yes, what about Vegetarians?

It seems that Vegetarians are completely overlooked when it comes to wine tasting as often wine seems to be geared up to being paired with poultry or fish, and certainly wine marketing in  the media seems to point towards this. So to add a different angle to our wine tasting, and as this is a Vegetarian food blog, I decided to set about discovering which vegetarian food would pair well with Chablis wine.

How does Vegetarian food pair with wine?
Rather than thinking in terms of red meat and white meat, the vegetarian equivalent seems to be thinking in terms of Green Vegetables and Brown Vegetables. It is said that White Wine pairs well with Green Vegetables and Red Wine pairs well with Brown Vegetables - a strange logic I know, but bear with me!

Next I turned to my friend Madame Google for an idea of the kinds of flavours which go well with Chablis. It seems that like foods pair well with like wines, and so the high acidity of Chablis means that it goes well with salty food and food with a high acidity. Tomatoes, citrus fruits and lemons all contain a high acidity so these are well placed to balance well with Chablis. I also wondered if "like foods and like wine" could mean foods from the same regions or countries.....

Additionally, I have always known that fine wine improves with age but I have often wondered whether you should pair different foods with different bottles of wine according to their age. Well apparently, Yes you should! The weight of the food needs to balance the weight of the wine. Therefore, a  "young" Chablis will suit simple food whereas an older Chablis will suit a richer food.

It is also suggested that some kind of Fat or Oil needs to be present in Vegetarian Food to make it wine-friendly. Chablis pairs really well with soft cheese and so a dish with soft cheese, or a creamy dish containing butter or olive oil is said to complement Chablis well.

So to summarise: What do we need to think about when pairing Chablis with Vegetarian Food?

1) White Wine = Green Vegetables
2) Salty Food or Food with high Acidity (i.e. Tomatoes/Citrus Fruit/Lemon) pairs well with Chablis
3) Prepare simple food for young wine and richer food for older wine.
4) Potentially consider pairing like foods and wines from the same regions and countries together.
5) Add some kind of Fat or Oil to your dish to make it wine friendly

With that in mind, here are some previous dishes featured on my blog which I felt might match well with Chablis:

As well as thinking about dishes already in my repertoire, I also wanted to put my skills to the test and create some new vegetarian dishes which would pair well with Chablis, and which we could sample alongside the wine I had been sent. So with my research of pairing wine with vegetarian food in mind, I created a snack/starter, a main course and a dessert to complement the Chablis.

Italian Bruschetta

 

Brie, Asparagus & Caramelised Onion Tart

Lemon Posset

Starter/Snack

Hubby and I matched the Chablis J. Moreau & Fils 2007 with an Italian Bruschetta. This was a really quick and simple dish comprising of ciabatta bread, vegetarian pesto, tomatoes, red onion, basil & a drizzle of olive oil. The saltiness of the tomato and onion, the herby flavours of the basil and the acidity of the pesto meant that the wine went really well with this dish. We ate the Bruschetta on it's own as a snack, but it would also make a great starter as part of a meal.

Main Course

The following evening, we paired the Domaine Bois d'Yver Chablis 2007 with a main course of Brie, Asparagus and Caramelised Onion Tart. Again a really easy dish - ready to roll puff pastry, smeared with caramelised onion chutney, with asparagus and brie placed over the top and baked in the oven. I was very excited about this pairing as I have developed a slight penchant for brie lately and I thought that the Brie and Onions were suitably "french" and would complement the wine, and they really did!

Dessert

In an attempt to pair Chablis with sweet as well as savoury, I made a Lemon Posset with lemon, cream and caster sugar. As well as being delicious, the Lemon Posset complemented the Chablis beautifully. The taste and smell of the Lemon went really well with the hints of apple and apricots in the wine and this creamy, light dessert, when paired with the wine, brought the meal to a lovely conclusion.

So there you have it, some of my ideas of what to pair Chablis wine with. I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed researching, writing and cooking for it. I would like to challenge you now to break the mould and entertain the thought (if you haven't already) that Vegetarian food pairs well with wine, and that wine does not necessarily need to be served with meat or fish to be enjoyed!  

                                     

Disclaimer: I was sent two bottles of Chablis wine in consideration for review and this blog post will be entered into a competition to win a two day trip to Chablis offered by The Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB). Any views expressed in this post are my own.

Sainsburys Heart Kitchenware Collection

I like to think of myself as quite a simple soul. I have no need for designer coats or handbags. I don't buy expensive jewellery, invariably because I end up losing it or breaking it. I am not a massive fan of clothes or accessory shopping and generally have the restraint to go into a shop without feeling the compulsion to buy anything. Over the last few years however, I have discovered a shopping habit which I find hard to keep under control. Somehow as I have married and had kids, I seem to have developed a penchant for kitchenalia and cookware. Yes, whenever we enter a supermarket or department store, I generally make a bee line straight for the kitchenware section. I think it stems from when we created our wedding list and spent hours in the kitchenware section of our local department store. It was there that I discovered my love of dinner sets and quirky cookware!

This week, I ventured into our local Sainsbury's  and came across their new "Heart" Easter kitchen range. In the range was this beautiful pink heart shaped ovenproof dish. I fell in love with it straight away, it is a really beautiful dish and was a bargain at around £6 ish. I am a big lover of quiches and flans, and so I have already started to plan what delicious vegetarian treats I can cook up with this little beauty in my collection. I intend to try and pick up a different piece of the collection every time I shop in Sainsbury's in the next few weeks. Now I just need a bigger kitchen to put everything in!

I've showed you mine, so what's is your favourite piece of kitchenware?

Asparagus, Onion, Chickpea and Cashew Rice

Last week, eldest spotted some asparagus on special offer in the supermarket and asked if we could buy it. As I am partial to a dish with asparagus, and despite it being Mexican rather than British asparagus, I granted her request and made a mental note to cook with it at some point. After a few days of not using our asparagus, I decided that I had better find a dish to use it up. I found this recipe online and decided to adapt it to suit the ingredients I had. Coincidentally, I had been chatting with a vegetarian friend about not using enough beans, lentils and pulses in my cooking, and so I decided to use some canned chickpeas for added protein. The onion and garlic add flavour to the dish, and the cashews add a delicious crunchy texture, compared to the soft texture of the rest of the dish. The dressing adds some extra zing to the other flavours, although go easy on the salt!

My kids won't eat rice with "funny" dressing on, so for them, I left the dressing off and grated some cheese over the top of the dish. A dash of tomato ketchup also helped the dish to go down a little more easily with the kids. This dish is a great balanced meal for vegetarian kids. The rice provides carbohydrates, the asparagus and onions provide the vegetables, cheese provides the dairy, and the chickpeas and nuts provide the protein. (This dish is made even healthier if its brown rice - although mine won't eat it!).

We ate this dish warm and it was really delicious. I think that this would make a fantastic summer salad, served cold as part of a buffet, or as a main meal. You could also use tahini instead of soy sauce in the dressing and make the dish with or without the dressing.

Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think!

Asparagus, Onion, Chickpea & Cashew Rice Ingredients 500g Long Grain Rice 350g Asparagus Spears, washed & chopped into chunks 2 medium Onions, chopped 400g Canned Chickpeas, drained 150g Cashew Nuts 2 Cloves Garlic, crushed Olive Oil for cooking Knob of Butter for cooking For The Dressing: 1 Garlic Clove, crushed and chopped 50ml Vegetarian Soy Sauce 50ml Lemon Juice  Zest from one Lemon 2 tablespoons extra-virgin Olive Oil 2 tablespoons Hot Water Salt for seasoning  Optional Alternatives Grated Cheddar Tomato Ketchup Method Rinse the rice in cold water, transfer it to a saucepan, cover with hot water and cook as per the instructions on the packet. Meanwhile, make the dressing by adding the olive oil, soy sauce, garlic, lemon zest and juice to a bowl and whisking it together. Add the hot water to the mixture, followed by the salt and then set aside for later.  Add a decent amount of olive oil to a pan on a medium heat. Place the drained chickpeas and some salt in a pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the onion and garlic to the pan, and fry on a medium heat until they turn golden, stirring the ingredients to prevent burning. Next, add the asparagus to the pan and stir to distribute the mixture evenly. Cover the pan with a lid and allow the asparagus to steam for a couple of minutes - until it starts to soften. Meanwhile in a separate pan, melt the butter and add the cashews to the pan (reserve a few for decoration). Coat the cashews in the butter and roast for a couple of minutes over a high heat, stirring regularly. Once the rice is cooked, drain and add to the pan, along with the cashew nuts. Stir to combine, so that all of the ingredients are distributed evenly throughout the dish.  Garnish with the reserved cashews, serve in a large bowl and allow each person to help themselves. (You could add the dressing before serving, or allow people to help themselves to suit their own tastes. Alternatively, if you are not a fan of the dressing, serve plain, or with some grated cheddar cheese, or with a dressing of your choice).