Since easter is upon us it seemed only right to make something eggless and vegan. And since I have Vince in the house jumping up and down on giant bubble wrap I will also be trying to make this recipe short and sweet.
Err... except you need to start 5 days in advance to make the sour dough!
And the chilli jam takes a few hours to make, and you need to have collected some old jam jars!
And even with the cashew cheese you need to soak the nuts for 2 hours first.
And you have to nip out to the woods to pick the wild garlic!
But, once you have all these things prepared, and a cupboard full of chilli jam, the recipe is really very quick to make!
First up: Cashew nut cheese wrapped in wild garlic.
You will need:
300g cashews (not salted ~ I bought mine from the Chinese supermarket)
1/2 a lemon
1/2tsp salt
1/4tsp black pepper
1 small garlic clove
A bunch of wild garlic (you can substitute this with any old fresh herb ~ like or parsley, or coriander)
Before you start, soak the cashew nuts in water for 2 hours. Then you need to drain them and whizz in a blender together with the juice of half a lemon, the garlic, salt & pepper. Keep adding a little cold water until it's a good consistency, and add salt & pepper to your taste.
Scoop it all out and cool it in the fridge for a while, then roll it in the chopped herbs/wild garlic. Keep refrigerated.
Then theres: Chilli Jam.
I got the recipe for this from the BBC here ~ thanks madam.
And I bought the pectin from Booths.
Lastly the blinis: remember you need to have started these 5 days ago!
You need:
4tsp rye flour
200g buckwheat flour
1/2tsp salt
some water
Day 1: In a lidded tub mix 2tsp rye flour with 4dsp warm water ~ put the lid on and leave for a day.
Day 2: To the tub add 2tsp rye flour and 4dsp of warm water and stir well ~ put the lid on and leave for another day. This is your starter mix.
Day 3: Add to the starter mix ~ the same as the day before.
Day 4: If your tub is big enough, add 200g buckwheat flour and 1/2tsp of salt and enough luke~warm water to make a nice batter consistency. Leave with a lid on for another day.
Day 5: Ready!!
The batter will keep for days in the fridge and you can just keep adding flour and water to it to top it up.
Heat up a lightly oiled frying pan and drop a spoonful of batter in, for each blini. Cook both sides and serve with the cashew cheese and chilli jam ~ Tasty!
These other little ones here are gluten free flat breads made with buckwheat, rice and tapioca flour and psyllium husks! Let me know if you want the recipe. xx
