Macaroni & Three Cheeses

As you will have seen from my recent Byron Burger review, their version of the Macaroni & cheese wasn’t my favourite, even though my lady enjoyed it.

Vegetarian Lasagne (Reboot)

I make Lasagne every other month or so, and have also made many other vegetarian alternatives to this meal in the past.

But I have never really gotten the consistency right, it always ends up being too watery, so the sauces don’t mix together really well.

Until now. This one is a belter, and uses my favourite Vegetarian Mince Meat recipe, that I am sure by now, you are sick of hearing about. So make it and I’ll stop.

Ingredients

Vegetarian Mince Meat

• 200g of Mushrooms
• 4 Garlic Cloves
• 100g Butter
• 1/2 Bag of Spinach
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Tomato Sauce

• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon of caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon of Balsamic Vinegar
• 2 Cloves of Garlic
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Half a bunch/Packet of Basil

The Roux

• 40g/1½oz flour
• 40g/1½oz butter or other fat
• 290ml/½ pint milk

For the Lasagne

• 5-10 lasagne Pasta Sheets, depending on the size of your dish
• 1 ball of Mozzarella
• 20-50g of Parmesan

Directions

Making the Mince Meat

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 5

1. Put the mushrooms in a baking tray and cover and coat with Olive Oil.

2. Chop the garlic cloves, and spread evenly amongst the mushrooms.

3. Cut the butter into cubes, and dot around the mushrooms.

4. Place into the oven, and cook for 30mins.

5. When cooked, put the mushrooms and all of the butter and garlic, into the food processor.

6. Pulse five times to cut the mushrooms up a bit.

7. Add the spinach in, and blitz until it resembles black breadcrumbs. Do not blitz to a paste so take your time.

For the Tomato Sauce

1. Chop up the garlic and add to a saucepan on a medium hob heat, frying gently in Olive Oil for a few minutes.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes to the saucepan, stirring in the garlic and leave to heat up to a boil.

3. Once it comes to a boil, turn down the heat to a simmer as it wants to cook for around 45mins to an hour.

4. At this point, add in the Balsamic Vinegar and the sugar and mix thoroughly. Leave the sauce to cook for 30mins on a medium to low heat, allowing it to simmer.

5. At the end of cooking, add salt and pepper to taste, along with the basil.

Making the Roux

1. Add the butter into a saucepan and put it on the hob, on a high heat. Using a whisk, melt the butter entirely.

2. Add the flour. mixing both together to create what resembles yellow ectoplasm. Whisk continually for two minutes until the flour is cooked out, as per the picture below:

3. Continuing to mix with the whisk, add the milk a little at a time. Continue whisking until the sauce becomes thick. Keep going in this fashion, adding the milk each time, until you have used it all.

4. Take the Roux off the hob and add seasoning as required, depending on what you are actually making the Roux for.

The final build

PreHeat your oven to200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.

1. Get a square/rectangle baking dish, and add half of the vegetable ragu mix to the bottom.

2. Grate over parmesan until covered.

3. Put the lasagne Pasta over the top of this in one layer.

4. Cover with a third of the Roux.

5. Cover with spinach.

6. Redo steps 1-5 two more times, missing out the spinach on the last layer.

Cover the top of the lasagne in the mozzarella and a generous grating of parmesan.

Bake in the oven for at least 45mins, to ensure the pasta is cooked throughout.

Serve with a salad on the side or maybe a little bit of Garlic Bread!

The Origin of Lasagne

Lasagne originated in Italy, traditionally ascribed to the city of Naples (Campania), where the first modern recipe was created in the Middle Ages and published in Liber de Coquina (The Book of Cookery), and became a traditional dish. Traditional lasagne is made by interleaving layers of pasta with layers of sauce, made with ragù, bechamel, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. In other regions and outside of Italy it is common to find lasagne made with ricotta or mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, various meats (e.g., ground beef, pork or chicken), miscellaneous vegetables (e.g., spinach, zucchini, mushrooms) and typically flavored with wine, garlic, onion, and oregano. In all cases the lasagne are oven-baked.

Traditionally, pasta dough prepared in Southern Italy used semolina and water and in the northern regions, where semolina was not available, flour and eggs. Today in Italy, since the only type of wheat allowed for commercially sold pasta is durum wheat, commercial lasagne are made of semolina (from durum wheat).

Emilia-Romagna’s intensive farming economy in the northern region of Italy results in plentiful dairy and meat products, and their commonality in regional cooking – more so than the olive oil found in southern regions of Italy. Pastas from Emilia-Romagna and its capital, Bologna, are almost always served with a ragù, a thick sauce made from ingredients such as onions, carrots, finely ground pork and beef, celery, butter, and tomatoes.

Info courtesy of Wikipedia

It’s Pancake Day!

Or, as it is traditionally known, Shrove Tuesday.

Naan Bread

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To be truthful, I love it but I always buy it, so when doing my research into different recipes, I began to realise how easy it is to make.

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I mean, how easy is it to put everything in a tin and bake it off, flipping it over when done, to reveal a beautiful creation?

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Now, if your not Irish, it is important to know the bread included plays a large part in it’s authenticity.

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I am a great fan of rhubarb and custard, although every one else’s favourite seem to be Raspberry Ruffles.

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I am a great believer in the phrase “Everyday is a learning day”. To that end I regularly scour the TV and YouTube, looking for new ideas to add to soups.

In Northern Ireland, we are bread orientated, in fact, I can’t have soup without bread.

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A good Mashed Spud can be used in a variety of dishes, such as a Shepherds or Cottage Pie, Potato Cakes, Potato Croquettes and so on and so forth.

Cauliflower Cheese

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But a little bit of what you fancy always does you good, they say.

One of my favourite accompaniments to BBQ is Cauliflower cheese.