Chelsea Buns with Apricot Glaze

Over the bank holiday weekend I felt like baking something a bit different from my usual fare (i.e. cakes), and found this interesting looking recipe for chelsea buns on the BBC website. As ever, I made some minor modifications; I used different (and fewer) dried fruits. It also included orange peel which sounded lovely but I omitted as I had no oranges, and found out the hard way that you can't zest a clementine. Finally, I omitted the icing sugar as Pete doesn't like it, so you might want to add that if you like it. This recipe makes around 9 - 10 buns. They also freeze very well; me and Pete have been eating these buns all this week (although sadly we've now run out) and they still taste quite fresh.

This recipe does take a bit of time as you need to wait for the dough to rise, so it's a good Sunday afternoon/bank holiday recipe.

Roast Potatoes with Shallots and Rosemary

This was originally a recipe for potato wedges but I wanted to make some fancy roast potatoes as an accompaniment to my Tofu Nut Roast, so modified the recipe slightly. The recipe I used suggested baby shallots, and if using them, you can just use them whole. I used normal shallots and just sliced them in half. Of course, if you don't want to use shallots you can always use normal onions. A final tip: keep an eye on your potatoes so that they are not too overdone when you add the shallots/garlic; I haven't got the hang of my new oven yet so my potatoes were quite well done and I was unable to cook the shallots for as long as I would have liked.

Tofu and Mushroom Nut Roast

I've never made nut roast before, but I thought I'd try my hand at a tofu based one and it turned out really well. I like tofu but I don't cook with it often because of the hassle of pressing all the water out; for this recipe I used silken tofu which you can just buy in the supermarket in the asian food section, and it doesn't need to be refrigerated or drained. I used eggs in my recipe but if you're vegan then just omit them (or you could always use an appropriate egg substitute). I cobbled this recipe together from various online recipes I found, so I was slightly worried I'd get the consistency wrong but it turned out perfectly. Not bad for an experimental recipe! I used walnuts, pine nuts, and sesame seeds but I'm sure you could vary the nuts to suit your preferences. 

This makes about 8 servings if cooking a roast dinner. Since there are only two of us (with a third on the way!) in our house, there were quite a lot of leftovers, but it works very well as a cold sandwich filling along with a bit of mayonnaise and lettuce (or whatever condiments you prefer).

 

Creamy Mushroom Bake

This dish is essentially like making a cauliflower cheese but using other vegetables instead, and topping with breadcrumbs, herbs and cheese. You could instead substitute the breadcrumbs for a flour and butter mix (like a savory crumble without the sugar); I was going to do this and then realised I had no flour, but the breadcrumbs were a nice alternative. My choice of other vegetables was dictated by those that were reduced in the supermarket, so by all means use other vegetables if you prefer. Essentially you cook all the veg and mix with a cheese sauce, before topping with breadcrumbs and more cheese. Yum. I served this with plain boiled potatoes but you could serve it with a simple side salad or anything else you fancy. I never measure out my butter/flour/milk when making a cheese sauce, so I've estimated it - you might want to keep an eye on how much milk you put in. Note however you can always thicken it up with more flour (just make sure you whisk it in to avoid lumps) or loosen it with milk.