Merry veggie Christmas!

[Guest guest]

Wednesday December 12, 2007The Guardian

A Gujarati Christmas Dharmesh Lakhani, owner of Bobby's Restaurant, Leicester Hindus don't celebrate Christmas as such, but I've been in the UK since I was four, so Christmas has always played an important part in my life. Plus I've got two sons so it's fantastic for them because before Christmas they've got Diwali and they get to celebrate twice. It's a double expense for the parents, obviously, but the kids love it. Christmas is very important for everybody in the UK, which is as it should be. In India it's not just Hindus who celebrate Diwali, it's Muslims, Christians and everyone. Every festival should be celebrated by everybody. After all, you can never have too many celebrations.We haven't closed the restaurant on Christmas day since we opened 31 years ago. We have certain customers who come every year and it's a busy day, which is surprising given that we are a vegetarian, Gujarati restaurant. For vegetarians, eating out at Christmas is a rotten time, especially when you go to the pub for those set menus where you get piles of bad vegetables and a slice of quiche if you're lucky. For an Indian Christmas feast we do a buffet of finger foods that everyone can share. Dosas are like crepes that are made with rice flour, with fillings like masala, which is potatoes and onions and spices. Another popular dish is channa bhatura, which is a spicy chickpea curry served with deep-fried breads. And instead of sausage rolls, we make samosas. Masala dosa Serves 4

Dosa mix: 100g basmati rice 50g udad dal 30g split chickpea dal 10g salt Filling: 200g peeled potatoes 1 small tomato sliced 1 onion sliced (approx 50g) 5g curry leaves 5g cumin seeds 5g turmeric powder 10g cooking oil 10g salt To make the dosa, soak the basmati rice, salt and dal overnight. Grind into a paste and add water to create a batter. Leave this over night to prove. The next day, heat a flat non-stick frying pan and place four table spoons of the batter in to the centre of the pan. Spread the mix in a circular motion, from the inside out to make the dosa thin. Cook until you see brown coming through the batter. Peel the dosa off and cook the reverse side. To make the filling, first boil and mash the potatoes. Heat the oil in a wok and add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and sliced onion.Mix in the tomatoes and then add the tumeric powder. Finally add the mashed potatoes and salt and stir thoroughly. Place the filling in the centre of the dosa and roll over. Serve with hot sambhar (a spicy vegetable stew) and cold coconut chutney. An American vegan Christmas Jennifer McCann, author of Vegan Lunch Box Many dishes served at Christmas are naturally vegan-friendly or they can be easily adapted for vegans: vegetable dishes, cranberries, salads and pastry rolls can easily be veganised by replacing butter with margarine, milk with non-dairy milk and so on. To that end vegans can sometimes "make do" at a meat-eater's table with a selection of veggie-friendly side dishes. But on a special occasion such as Christmas it's important to offer a vegan showpiece - a special, out-of-the-ordinary main dish that offers a "wow" factor and can serve as the focal point. I usually bake a savoury vegan wellington, encasing a homemade bean and nut loaf in a sheet of vegan puff pastry, decorated with pastry leaves and berries. After the loaf is baked to a golden brown, I bring it to the table on a platter, surrounded by greenery. There's nothing like the "oohs" and "aaahs" you hear as you bring a beautiful dish to the table. Other Christmas main dish possibles are a vegan lasagne, a vegan spanakopita (a Greek pie recipe), a pot pie or baked squash filled with bread or rice stuffing. At first I fretted a bit about what to serve for our dessert, but then I came to the wonderful realisation that my mom's traditional homemade apple pie was already vegan; she uses vegetable shortening instead of butter or lard in her pie crust. Vegan wellington Serves 6 to 8 2 1lb packs of frozen non-dairy puff pastry, thawed at room temperature for about 30 minutes 1 cup walnuts 1 cup cooked brown rice 1 cup canned chickpeas rinsed and drained 1 cup oat bran ½tsp sage ½tsp marjoram ¼tsp thyme ¼tsp onion powder 2tbsp soy sauce 1tbsp Dijon-style mustard 1tbsp natural peanut butter Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6 (give the oven plenty of time to warm up to ensure a good puff pastry crust). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Finely chop the walnuts in a food processor and set aside in a large mixing bowl. Whizz the chickpeas and brown rice in the food processor until the mixture forms a coarse mash. Add to the mixing bowl along with the oat bran, sage, marjoram, thyme, onion powder, soy sauce, mustard, and peanut butter. Using your hands, knead the mixture well until it is thoroughly mixed and holds its shape. Cool completely (if the filling is too warm the pastry won't be puffy and crisp). Unfold the first sheet of puff pastry on a floured pastry board or flat surface - it should still be cold, but thawed enough to unfold without cracking. Roll it into a 12in x 12in square. Form the mixture into a rectangular loaf, and place it in the centre of the pastry. Dip your fingers in the bowl of water and lightly wet the top of the loaf. Fold the pastry around the loaf, using a bit of water to help seal it shut until the loaf is completely encased in pastry. Place the wellington, seam side down, on the prepared baking sheet. To decorate the loaf, roll out the other sheet of pastry and cut out leaves and any other shapes you like. Brush them with water and attach to the wellington. Lightly brush all the pastry with olive oil and put in the oven. Check and rotate the wellington after 30 minutes. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the crust is puffed and golden and the inside is heated through. We sometimes add mushrooms. Saute two cups of minced button mushrooms, one minced garlic clove and a pinch of salt in two teaspoons of olive oil over a medium high heat until the moisture has evaporated, and the mushrooms are soft, fragrant, and starting to brown. Stir this into the nut loaf mixture. A macrobiotic Christmas Nigel Walker, macrobiotic chef, vegiventures.com A basic description of macrobiotic food is that it's what your mother always told you you should eat. It takes the best foods from the healthiest diets around the world and incorporates them into one plan. We also try to make sure that everything we eat is organic and very high quality, and the final aspect is to ensure that you chew properly, because the digestive process starts in the mouth not in the stomach. If a normal Christmas dinner takes an hour to eat, a macrobiotic dinner might take two or even four hours. We try to make Christmas as traditional as we can, but obviously we include substitutes for meat and we provide other dishes which are colourful, interesting and tasty. For example, we make canapes from pumpkins and tofu. We also serve mince pies which we make without suet and with vegetarian mincemeat. We start with hors d'oeuvres, such as a range of colourful, seasonal vegetables prepared in different ways - fancy salad, really. The second course is a standard Japanese broth, which is like a consomme. It's a classic macrobiotic dish made from kombu - a sea vegetable - shitake mushrooms and tamari, a soy sauce made without wheat. You boil the kombu and shitake mushrooms with ginger and tamari and to make it a bit more Christmassy we add a shot of brandy. We serve two meat substitutes. The first is seitan, which is sometimes called wheat meat or gluten steak, and looks like a piece of turkey. We also serve a chestnut and red wine pie with the trimmings - sprouts, potatoes, sage and onion stuffing. Chestnut and red wine pie Serves 4-5 Pastry: 120g wholewheat flour (or 60g wholewheat, 60g white flour) 40g sunflower margarine (or cold-pressed sesame or safflower oil) 30g sesame seeds Sparkling spring water (cold) Filling: 2 medium onions, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 3 sticks celery, finely sliced Red pepper (a few thin strips for garnish) One third of a bottle of red wine 1 tin savoury chestnut puree, mashed with a fork 2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

1-2tsp bouillon powder

Sunflower or sesame oil

Lightly combine the flour, margarine and sesame seeds. It's better if all the ingredients are cold. Add enough sparkling water to make a soft dough. Avoid over-mixing. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow pastry to "rest" for at least half an hour before rolling out large enough to cover a greased flan dish 7-8in wide. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/Gas 5. Heat 2 tbsp oil and lightly saute the onion for three minutes. Add the celery and garlic and saute for another three minutes. Add bouillon powder and wine and simmer gently for about 15 mins until reduced by at least half. In a separate pan heat 2tbsp of oil and saute the breadcrumbs for five to six minutes. Mix the breadcrumbs with the chestnut puree and other ingredients. Place mixture in the flan case. Decorate with the red pepper and a lattice of thin strips of pastry. Bake for 40 minutes · For more recipes from all three, go to guardian.co.uk/food

Peter H

 

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