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Book The VFP For Your Dinner Party
Take out all the stress of your next dinner party or get together and book the VFP.
Why Book A Private Chef?
1. No Stress! You literally do not have to do a thing except have a great time. The VFP arrives with all the food ready to prepare and serve just as you would expect in a restaurant.
2. Clean Up! We clean as we go and you never have to face that "pile" of washing up at the end of a party.
3. You Spend Time With Your Guests! No running backwards and forwards to the kitchen to check on food, you just sit back, relax and actually be a part of your own party.
4. Eat What You Want When You Want! You decide the time you want to eat and of course, what you want to eat. We work with you to create the menu so you can literally pick anything that fits in with you, your guests and your budget.
5. Reduces Your Costs! No travel, no parking, no taxis, no babysitting fees which all adds up!
6. The Perfect Gift! Why not spoil a friend or family member with their own chef for the evening. You never know, they may invite you too!
You design the menu, we work on your ideas and inspiration and create the perfect menu for you.
To Book / Enquire, email events@veganfoodpimp.com
VFP AT HOME Recipes!
Vegan Yorkshire Puddings!
Having gone through so many experiments
to perfect these, without a ton of faff!,
here is the easiest recipe!
You will need to make 6 fluffy YP!
1 cup of plain flour.
1 cup of cold water.
1 cup of plant based milk.
2 heaped teaspoons of egg replacer.
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder.
Good pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of oregano.
Vegetable oil for muffin tray.
TO Make
Turn on oven to as hot as you can so around 220+ Now add a tablespoon of vegetable oil into the bottom of each muffin tray and set aside whilst the oven heats up.
Next put all your ingredients into a bowl and mix well and set aside. Make sure everything is mixed thoroughly.
Now put the tray into the oven so the oil can heat until boiling hot.
Remove, carefully, from the oven after 10 mins and add the mixture evenly. If there is no sizzle on the first drop, put the tray back in the oven to get hotter. This is so important, the oil must sizzle as the mixture hits. Do not take too long doing this, fill, and put back into the oven.
They will rise and when golden remove from the oven. Every oven is different but around 20 to 25 minutes is normal. You can make these in advance, then place on a tray and just heat through before serving!
Super easy, the secret, a good muffin tray and the egg replacer, both of which you can order here! xx
CLICK TO ORDER
6 Muffin Tray
Egg replacer
VFP Jelly!
Making vegan jelly is incredibly simple and it allows you the opportunity to be as creative as you like.
You can, of course, buy vegan jelly granules but at the end of the day, this recipe is so simple that once you try it you will never buy it again, because it takes the same amount of time but you know exactly what is in your jelly!
You will need :-
One pint ( I have a glass I keep for this, makes life so simple) of the juice of your choice, fruit juice, sparkling wine or for something a little different on your salads use vegetable juice, yes really, it is delicious!
2 Teaspoons of agar agar powder. (vegan gelatine!)
To make :-
Put your juice into a pan and bring to the boil. Once boiling whisk in your agar agar powder until dissolved. Now take off the heat.
Pour into a dish, tray or individual bowls. It sets very quickly, so I let it cool for about ten minutes then put it in the fridge.
I like to add fruit and I do this just as it is setting so it does not all sink to the bottom.
Done!
VFP Italian Mixed Bean Casserole with
English Herby Dumplings!
Everyone loves comfort food and even better if it is a dish you can prepare easily and basically forget about it until you are ready to eat, plus a great way to use up those leftover vegetables in your fridge!
You will need for the casserole
Two tins of beans we used azuki and cannellini beans but use what you have, chickpeas, kidney beans whatever, just drain and rinse the beans.
Couple of glugs of olive oil to fry your onions and veg.
One onion sliced.
Two carrots chopped into roughly one inch pieces or they will just melt away.
One leak, again, chopped around an inch.
Couple of handfuls of precooked potatoes, chopped. Leftover roasties work great in this.
Couple of handfuls of spinach.
Tin of cherry tomatoes, or any tin tomatoes.
Dessert spoon of oregano.
Dessert spoon of mustard.
Dessert spoon of paprika.
Dessert spoon of marmite (yes really, go with it!)
1 Vegetable stock cube.
Dessert spoon of garlic powder or three cloves crushed.
Salt and pepper.
Nutritional yeast.
For the dumplings
100 grams of self raising flour
50 grams of vegan suet
Maldon Sea Salt
Enough cold water to bring it all together.
To make
Now you can prepare this and put in a slow cooker until you are ready to make your dumplings, or just prepare in a casserole pot for the oven, whichever is easier.
In a flying pan, cook the onions in a little olive oil then add your leeks and cook for a couple of minutes.
Now pour on your tin tomatoes and add your oregano, mustard, paprika, stock cube and garlic powder, marmite and stir through. Now fill the empty can with water and empty in. Once simmering add to your casserole pot or slow cooker and add all the remaining ingredients for the casserole. Give it a good mix and with a slow cooker, put on high until bubbling then turn down to low, you can now just leave this for a few hours. If you are using your oven, put it into a hot oven. 220, and again, once it is bubbling, put your casserole lid on and lower the heat , 180,and leave for a few hours until your carrots are cooked through. Taste it and adjust your seasoning as needed. If you want to make it a bit thicker, just add a mix of cornflour and water and it will thicken up and another trick is to stir through hummus which will also thicken it up and add another flavour, use what you have!
Dumplings
When you are ready, these need about 30 to 40 minutes to cook through and be all lovely and fluffy, prepare your dumplings.
Simply add cold water to your ingredients, you can of course add dried herbs to the mix, and then form into balls, this mix will make around 8 dumplings. They may look small but they swell up!
Pop into your casserole and if it is in the oven, remove the lid and keep and eye on them, if it is in your slow cooker, put back and watch them through the lid!
There you have it! You can make the casserole and then freeze it in batches if you prefer and then take out, heat up, add dumplings and you have meals at the ready! Feel free to add a bit of chili or anything you fancy to create your own style, the great thing about a casserole is you can really dig about your fridge and get rid of all of all those odds and ends in your vegetable drawer!
VFP TOFU SCRAMBLE
This is super easy to make and what you do not use hot you can cool and turn into egg mayo!
You will need :-
1 Pack of firm tofu - Must be firm! - Drain and just break up with a fork.
Teaspoon of garlic powder (optional)
Teaspoon of onion powder (optional)
Half a teaspoon of black salt - Vital for the “eggy” taste
Half a teaspoon of turmeric - Gives it that lovely yellow look!
Half a teaspoon of dried oregano (optional)
Black pepper to taste
Tablespoon of olive oil and a dessert spoon of vegan butter.
To Make
Put your oil and butter into a frying pan and heat until combined.
Take your tofu and add to the pan and give a good mix.
Now add all the other ingredients and continue to break up with a wooden spoon until cooked through and well mixed. Some water will disperse from the tofu, just cook until it is all gone and then you are ready to go!
Super easy!
VFP FRITTERS!
Now these are genius, though I say so myself, the point is, you make too many, this way you have left overs which can then be sliced to be used as a sandwich filling, or eaten cold as a snack, or, if you are making a casserole they make brilliant dumplings! The perfect food to make that just keeps on giving. These can easily be made gluten free too just by using a gluten free option flour.
One small tip, if you are low on milk, start with the milk first and add the flour to the milk and the same with the flour, start with what you have the least off and build from there.
The main secret here is the milk you use. I always use almond milk as it is already much thicker than most other plant based milks so it gives you a head start, but oat works really well too.
I also, surprise surprise, do not measure anything, but the process to create these, in other words the order you put the ingredients into the bowl is vital. You want to start with the batter and build from there.
What you put into your batter is up to you so you could simply add finely sliced onions and some curry powder and create your own onion bhajis, you could also add finely chopped apple and some cloves and some maple syrup or sweetener of your choice and create a sweet version which can be served hot with ice cream, my point is, once you have the batter sorted just go crazy with your ideas and this is a perfect recipe for using up all those odds and ends in your fridge and a little goes a long, long way!
You will need
Almond milk I always use a litre which makes loads but you can use half, or even quarter of this.
Flour Any flour but you need enough to turn the milk into a batter.
Spices Depending on what you are making add spices you like as well as plenty of salt and freshly milled black pepper.
Sweetcorn Tinned is perfect.
Chickpeas One jar or use any beans, however, lentils do not work very well! Drain your chickpeas before adding.
Dried herbs Again, go with your gut but I generally use oregano. Paprika and tumeric, not only adds flavour but gives a good colour too.
Baking Powder. 2 heaped teaspoons
Additions This is where you can use up odds and ends such as finely chopped courgette, onion or grated carrot. Remember not to have the pieces too big as they will not cook through, this is a good time, if you are in a rush, to use a bag of ready chopped mixed veg, quick and simple.
To make
In a large bowl, put in your milk and enough flour to create a thick batter. You want it to be the consistency of a very thick custard. Now, just add everything you want and stir. You want to have a bowl that is more filling than batter, so do not worry about adding too much, the more you add the tastier it will be!
I now pop this into the fridge while I heat up the oil. Here you have two choices. A deep fat fryer, turn it up to 165 degrees, that will produce big fluffy fritters, or, you can use a frying pan and create flatter versions, the choice is yours, however, do put the oven onto around 200 so that as you cook them you keep them hot and they also dry out a little avoiding a greasy fritter! Take a large spoon and begin either adding to your deep fat fryer, leave the basket in and carefully put the batter in, or spoon onto your frying pan. Do not get impatient here, cook a few at a time or you will end up with one, massive fritter!
Note : I also like to cook them quickly in the deep fat fryer to get the crust on them and then I put them into the oven to finish cooking. It is up to you how you cook them but I prefer to do it this way, then I can convince myself that this is not really deep fried food!
I serve these with a salad and a spicy tomato sauce but you go with what you like best, garlic mayo, ketchup it is up to you . If you have made your fritters with Indian spices then you can always serve a cucumber and mint relish which works really well! Serve them on rice or noodles too! Keep any left over in the fridge.
I spent a great deal of time watching people prepare paella and to be honest, they seemed to make a great big deal of it when really, it is very simple, but, and this is a big thing, you do really need to have a paella dish to really get this authentic. Trying to do this in a frying pan will give you something completely different and not as good as it should be more of a one pot rice dish.
A paella should be moist and firm, it should have, at the bottom socarrat, this is the crunchy layer of rice that forms on the bottom of the pan and it is the bit everyone wants a piece of, you will never get this in any other pan or without using gas to cook.
Secondly, get the correct rice, you cannot do this with any other rice except paella rice. Now here we can obviously get this very easily and I use Calasparra rice, grown here in Spain, so when you are shopping make sure you get the right thing, rice for risotto is designed to be creamy when cooked which is not the results you are looking for.
Thirdly, and this is very important, the stock you use will have a huge effect on the final flavour as will the spices you put in.
A word of warning, never use mushrooms in a paella if you are planning to use the next day, it will turn grey!
So, what are you going to need
Rice - This will depend on the size of your dish, I have a huge dish so I use 8 cups of rice, but for a normal size I am going to estimate you will need two or three cups, remember, you are going to be adding more ingredients and double the amount of stock to rice so think about that when you start, a paella can very quickly start coming over the sides!
Vegetables
One onion, finely sliced
One red and one green pepper sliced
One jar of roasted red peppers
One whole head of garlic
Celery - not everyone likes this so it is optional
One jar of chickpeas, drained
A bunch of flat leaf parsley or whatever you can get but fresh
One or two lemons, quartered (these are for the very end so you can hold off cutting these)
Jar of sieved tomatoes - get the best you can.
Spices
Salt
Paella spice mix - I make a big jar of this and then I only have to spoon out what I need, it is made primarily of paprika, turmeric, (equal amounts) dried oregano, about a quarter of the amount of paprika, a large tablespoon of chili flakes and that is it. Mix and store in a jar. For an average sized pan go for a dessert spoon of the mix.
Stock
You are going to need double the amount, and maybe a tiny bit more, than the amount of rice you use, however, I make mine with white wine and a vegetable stock cube. It really does make all the difference.
THE VFP PAELLA RECIPE!
To make
Firstly, get everything ready, it makes life much easier, get your stock ready so it is hot and ready to use and have all your ingredients at hand and then it really is a very quick process to prepare.
Heat the oil in your pan and add the onion and cook until soft, not brown, next add your spices and stir around for a few minutes, then add your vegetables, whole garlic and chickpeas too, if you need a little more oil now is the time to add it. Stir and then add your rice, stir to ensure all the rice is coated in the oil and spices.. Now add your stock, remember, for each cup of rice you will need two cups of stock. Now mix through and then add your jar of sieved tomatoes and mix again.
Make sure your garlic head is in the centre of the paella dish and
wait for it to come to the boil.
Now reduce it down to a low heat and cover with tin foil, being sure it is sealed.
Golden rule, just leave it. Do not mix, do not do anything to it for at least 20 minutes, then check, very carefully as the contents will be very hot under the foil, to taste the rice. If it is cooked through then switch off the heat and just leave it, if not, let it carry on for a bit longer.
I like to let mine sit for at least 10 minutes before serving and then I unwrap and sprinkle over the parsley and then lay the lemon wedges around the outside to make it look pretty.
Serve with a huge salad and loads of warm bread. This makes a brilliant filling for the filo wraps so any left over you know what to do with it!
VFP Summer Pudding
These can be made a big one for sharing or individual servings, just go with what you want. I made individual versions. Again, these recipes are just those I put together, they are not in the “formal” format, but I actually feel that sometimes it is nice to feel like I am with you in the kitchen, so no crazy weighing or getting hysterical about measurements!
In a pan heat two cup of mixed berries, I used frozen, with a little water, a splash of port (optional) and a couple of dessert spoons of soft brown sugar. Add a dash of vanilla extract too and I also added a splash of orange extract to the mix. Heat until the sugar has melted and the liquid is thicker.
In your bowl, or bowls, line the sides with bread. I used sourdough, but remove the crusts and line the bowls pushing into the corners and save bread for the top.
Now fill your bread cases with the mixture, saving a little of the juice to pour over at the end. Once full, push down and when you are happy add the final slices of bread to the top and then drizzle over the saved liquid so it is all covered. Now push down again and use something to weight it, or just keep giving it another “push” now and then. These are best made the day before to ensure all the bread absorbs the liquid. Place in the fridge.
When you are ready to serve, remove from the fridge, run a knife around the edges and then turn out. If they still have a few “white” bits you can heat up a little more berries and then just pour over. Serve with cream or ice cream! Easy xx
Note
Mix it up a little, there are no rules, so if you want to add chocolate to the mix, go ahead or if you prefer to just use one style of fruit, do it. Use wholemeal bread, cherries, chocolate and a little kirsch to create a black forest gateau style. Your kitchen, your rules, go mad!
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