This is a lovely tagine made with lovely autumn ingredients – enjoy!

This is our second tagine recipe – you can find the first  Moroccan Tagine recipe here.

Serves 4 hungry people. (To make this dish vegan leave out the butter and honey)

700ml vegetable stock

3 medium onions each cut into 8 wedges

5 plump garlic cloves sliced finely

4 medium carrots cut into large chunks

250g cooked chick peas

10 pitted prunes cut in half

10 very small new potatoes, scrubbed (or 2 med potatoes cut into 2cm/1” chunks)

½ medium sweet potato or a third of a small pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1” chunks

(if you like parsnips and they are in season, you could add a medium parsnip, chopped into 1” chunks. See how you feel. I’ve never done it, husband doesn’t like them, but I’d give it a go, why not?)

1 med/large green or yellow courgette cut into chunks

Freshly ground black pepper

Glug of sunflower oil & a knob of butter

¼ tsp each ground ginger, herbes de provence & cinnamon

1 tsp each sweet paprika & cumin

½ tsp (or more if you like it spicy) hot paprika, chilli powder OR cayenne pepper

1 tbs honey (not necessary if using sweet potato)

300g medium grain couscous

600ml hot water (enough to cover the couscous an inch above it)

½ tsp salt

1 tbs raisins

¼  tsp each sweet paprika, ginger, cinnamon, ground coriander. A pinch of nutmeg

50g flaked almonds dry fried. Be careful not to burn them, turn off the heat when you see the first flake of almond looking close to burning. This takes only about 5 minutes. You need to keep them moving in the pan, even when the heat is turned off.

In a medium saucepan, heat the oil and the butter. Cook the onions on a medium heat until they start to soften, add the garlic and cook gently until they start to brown. Turn off the heat.

Put the veg stock, herbs and all veg into a tagine or large casserole dish and add all the veg except the courgette, spices and herbs. Leave the tagine to stand all day if possible, stirring once or twice.

Put the tagine in the oven and then put it on to 180`C. Wait for an hour. Take out the tagine and check the potatoes and carrots are soft. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning if necessary. If the veg are not soft, return to the oven for 15 more minutes. If all veg are cooked, turn off the oven add the courgette and return to the oven while you prepare the couscous.

In the same saucepan that you prepared the onions and garlic, put the couscous, spices and water. Leave for 10 minutes. Then add a splash of olive oil and fluff with a fork. If it’s a bit stuck together, add a knob of butter and fluff again.

Scatter the almonds on the tagine, serve the couscous onto warmed plates and put the tagine in the middle of your table so people can help themselves to the delicious juice when they need more….

Marinade the mozzarella (once you have cut it into small pieces) in some olive oil and balsamic vinager (but only for a couple of minutes or it will go hard).

Slice some large cherry tomatoes into 3.

Layer the mozzarella and bazil inbetween the slices of tomato and hold it together with a cocktail stick.

YUM

Cherchez-vous un noël végétarien ?

Rêvez-vous de séjourner dans une maison de caractère (18e siècle) ,  où vous serez  servi les plats, délicieux et faits maison ?  

Les chambres d’hôtes 3 Place des Arbres vous proposent un noël fait pour vous.

Vous pouvez réserver par email ou par téléphone: 05 55 66 52 29

If you are looking for a vegetarian christmas in France, and dream of staying in a beautiful 18th century house, and being served delicious homemade dishes, the chambres d’hotes 3 Place des Arbres have the perfect Christmas package for you.

You can reserve by email or telephone 0033 (0) 555 665229

Serves 4

One pack of ready rolled puff pastry

3 medium onions chopped, not too small

1 med-large aubergine cut into 1-2cm thick slices

A few of sprigs of fresh thyme (or a teaspoon of dried)

3 plump cloves of garlic chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar to deglaze onion pan

In a large saucepan heat the oil in a medium flame and gently cook the onions until they are slightly browned and starting to caramelise, about 10 minutes, add the garlic and cook gently for a few more minutes.  Add some black pepper and salt and stir.

In another frying pan, one that can go in the oven, so cast iron or one you can take the handle off, or a ridiculously expensive tatin pan.  Heat a small amount of olive oil and cook the aubergine slices on both sides until they start to colour. Turn off the heat. Put the onion mixture on top and in the gaps between the aubergines. At this point you can add slices of anti-pasti sliced peppers if you like or a few chopped up black olives, whatever you fancy. Keep the onion pan on the heat and add about 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan. Pour over the aubergine and onion mixture. Pull the leaves off the thyme sprigs and sprinkle over.

Unroll the pastry on top of the onions, tucking in around the edges in not a particularly tidy sort of a way.

Cook for about 20-25 minutes, until the pastry browns. Remove from the oven and jiggle the pan around to loosen the aubergines and turn out onto a plate as soon as you can. Serve hot with a huge green salad with a balsamic dressing.

So far the tarte is vegan. If you are not and you want to add a little something else, crumble some fresh goat’s cheese (not the really goaty stuff as the flavour will overpower the other ingredients), or feta cheese, on the top (see the photo below…

A nice glass of dry cider or Felis brune beer goes rather well with it (as we discovered yesterday)

Not all wine is vegetarian, sometimes isinglass (made from fish bladder) is used to filter the wine (and pigs blood may be used to filter cider, beers and whiskeys also sometimes use animal products as filters). Although there is no isinglass left in the wine when it is sold, wine made by this method is not considered vegetarian.

Organic farmers do not use chemicals to fertilse their crops but they are able to use products derived from animals. And this includes fish, blood and bone (and other bits of animals from abattoirs).

So if a vegetable has been grown using organic methods can we be sure that it is suitable for vegetarians?

It has been a question that Andrea and I (from the vegetarian guesthouse, 3 place des arbres) have been debating amongst ourselves for a while now, and so Andrea sent a question to a new column in the UK’s Guardian Newspaper – Ask Leo and Lucy.

Her question was as follows:

I have been vegetarian for many years and try to eat organic produce, if possible. I am grappling with the issue that many organic fertilisers are of animal origin and wondering if the animals that the fertilisers are derived from are of organic origin, too? Where does it start or end? I don’t really want to eat food that has been grown in a way that causes harm to animals, but I realise that chemical fertilisers and pesticides are potentially damaging to me and to the environment. Help. Are fish, blood and bone fertilisers the most commonly used for growing organic vegetables, or are there other sources? (A local organic farmer tells me that she uses only horse manure and I try to buy as much veg as possible from her … we live in France.)

Andrea Humphreys

It generated a huge number of responses (some more helpful than others) and I recommend you read the column

This was the response from the Vegetarian Society…

Sadly, society’s attitude to animals as disposable commodities or inconvenient pests makes it almost impossible to live without causing them harm. While organic produce is very likely to have been produced using animal-derived fertilizers and soil improvers, the fertilisers and pesticides used in conventional farming cause significant harm to wildlife. Manure from kindly kept animals is one positive option, vegan organic food production is another, but neither currently produce food on the scale needed to allow ordinary people to truly live by their principles. Consumer demand makes a huge difference so Andrea and others should keep asking questions and demanding higher standards. Being a vegetarian is one of the most positive life choices anyone can make – for themselves, for the planet and, of course, for the animals. It’s not a perfect solution, but it is one that millions of people enjoy every day and bit by bit we can all make a truly cruelty free lifestyle more of a reality. Visit www.vegsoc.org for free information and advice.
And this was the response from the Soil Association…

Farms listed by the Vegan Organic Network won’t have used any animal products so that’s one way to be sure. Ian Tolhurst of Tolhurst Organic Farm is a Soil Association licensee. Another option is asking the producer what inputs they have used. Fish, blood and bone is fairly expensive and is not most commonly used for growing organic vegetables – the main ways of building fertility are by using animal manure or compost, and green manures including clover which are also used in crop rotations. Fish, blood and bone is a by-product derived from slaughter-house waste (mainly non-organic), which is properly treated before being sold for use. It is allowed in fertilisers approved by the Soil Association so buying organic products is not a guarantee for avoiding. It might occur as a fertiliser in potting compost, used for transplants of young seedlings or in glasshouse production where nutrient requirements are slightly higher. It also might occasionally be used for top fruit production (e.g. apples and pears).

It is an interesting debate and I again recommend you visit the Guardian column, and add to the debate (although of course you are more than welcome to comment here too!)

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 33 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 112 posts. There were 18 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 15mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was December 5th with 300 views. The most popular post that day was Vegan muffin-brownie-cake.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, vegetarian-vacations.com, vegalicious.org, 3placedesarbres.com, and breadwithoutbutter.blogspot.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for vegetarian tagine, vegetarian tagine recipes, vegan france, vegetarian tagine recipe, and vegetarian tartiflette.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Vegan muffin-brownie-cake August 2010
4 comments

Moroccan Tagine recipe March 2009
3 comments

Vegetarian/vegan places to stay March 2009
3 comments

Vegetarian Tartiflette recipe (Tartiflette végétarienne) November 2009
2 comments

Recipes March 2009
3 comments

Who needs packet stuffing? This recipe is simple and delicious and makes enough for 6 people…

150g wholemeal breadcrumbs

50g ground hazelnuts

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh sage

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 level teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

freshly ground black pepper

olive oil (we use some home made chili oil – just get some oil and put dried chilies in it and leave to infuse)

Fry onions and garlic in oil on a gentle heat. When onions are soft add 200mls water, or white wine (or a mixture of wine and water!). Add the bouillon powder, paprika, breadcrumbs and hazelnuts.

Turn off heat and mix well. Add more liquid if necessary.

Add herbs, and mix well, before putting into muffin moulds (I used brioche moulds)

Cook at 180 degrees C for about 35 minutes until they start to brown.

Serve with your favourite veggie roast and enjoy!

A potimarron is like a pumpkin, but is smaller and tastier. This time of year the organic smallholders who come to the Market at Felletin every Friday, come laden with them. If you can’t find a Potimarron you can use a small pumpkin instead…

This recipe originally used just rice, but we use quinoa in many dishes to provide protein and other nutrients. It works really well with the rice.

1 Potimarron (about 1.5-175kg)

2 tblsp olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsp sage

1 tbsp thyme

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp smoked paprika

125g long grain rice

100g Quinoa

2 large ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped

600ml vegetable stock

40g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

seasoning

Preheat your oven to 180C. Cut the top off the potimarron, to form a lid. Scrape out the seeds (you should try to save all the seeds – they are lovely roasted with soy and tobasco sauce). Scoop out most of the flesh  from the lid and the potimarron, leaving a thin layer (but thick enough that it doesn’t collapse!). Finely chop the flesh and set it aside.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion, garlic, sage, thyme, paprika and turmeric for 5 minutes until the onion is softened. Add the chopped potimarron flesh and fry for 5 minutes.

Stir in the rice and fry for 1 minute, then add the quinoa and the tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, cover and cook over a gentle heat for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the nuts and spoon into the potimarron shell.

Replace the potimarron lid, and place in a roasting pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out hot.

You can garnish with roasted potimarron seeds (if you followed my advice, and roasted them!),  or anything else you fancy.

Yum.

Watch Bill talk about his diet and the reasons behind this change on YouTube