Jane's Recipe page

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This page is for my favourite vegetarian recipes.
I love to cook with flowers; the best cookery book for this purpose is COOKING WITH FLOWERS by JEKKA McVICAR, who also runs an organic herb farm, where I buy all the herbs for my gardening and cooking.

Mayonnaise

I love mayonnaise, and I think it is absolutely ESSENTIAL to make one's own. This recipe is based on various sources, including - er - my own intuition!
2 large egg yolks (use organic if at all possible)
1 teaspoon mustard powder (optional)
clove of garlic, crushed (this is NOT optional!)
290 ml. extra-virgin olive oil (again, organic if possible)
a squeeze of lemon juice
I tblsp. vinegar (white wine vinegar is preferable)
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Put the egg yolks into a bowl with a pinch of salt (and the mustard, if using). Beat well with a wooden spoon.
Add the oil, slowly, drop by drop, (so that it doesn't curdle) beating all the time.
Beat in the lemon juice
Continue to pour in the oil - it is safe to do it more quickly now, but alternate the oil with small quantities of vingegar.
Season the mayonnaise with salt, pepper and garlic.

Watercress Soup

30g. butter
1 medium onion, chopped
570 ml. vegetable stock
3 bunches of watercress, chopped
3 or 4 medium potatoes (These are just for thickening)
290 ml. milk ( I usually use semi-skimmed)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg

Melt the butter, add the onion and cook over a low heat until soft. Add the potatoes and stock and simmer for a few minutes until the potatoes are tender.
Liquidise the soup with the watercress in a food processor or blender and push it through a sieve. Pour back into the pan.
Add the milk and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Reheat, but try not to let it boil.
It looks special if you serve it with some chopped garlic chives.
( I adapted this from a recipe in "LEITH'S COOKERY BIBLE" - the original specified too many potatoes for my taste, I prefer to use more watercress and fewer potatoes).

Carrot and Orange Soup with Ginger

This is one of my favourites - there is a version in THE YOGA COOKBOOK (which I recommend to everyone!) and a version in BRAIN FOOD. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough carrots in the garden this summer (2004) to make it from my own resources!
25 g (1 oz) butter or margarine (obviously if you're a vegan you'll use soya margarine!)
600g (just over 1 lb) carrots, grated
500 ml. water
500 ml. orange juice (as usual, organic is best)
about 3-4 cm. fresh ginger (less or more according to taste, and you HAVE to use fresh ginger for this!)
sea salt, freshly ground black pepper
fresh basil and/or parsley for garnish, optional

Heat the butter or margarine in a large pan, saute the carrots until they begin to soften. Add the water, half cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the carrots are really soft.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Put the carrots and the cooking water in a blender (or food processor), add the orange juice and the ginger and puree until it is smooth. (It is possible to put the mixture through a sieve, but this will probably result in the ginger not blending completely.
Return the soup to the pan, season with salt and pepper and reheat without boiling.
It can be served with the basil and/or parsley for a garnish, or with a swirl of yogurt or fromage frais.

Stuffed Courgette/Zucchini Flowers

This is one of my very favourite recipes - I make it every summer in Italy. It is quite difficult to obtain courgette flowers in England, unless you grow them, so I have grown a few this summer!
Approx 15-20 courgette/zucchini flowers
135g fresh ricotta cheese
a bunch of fresh basil
1 egg
salt, pepper, nutmeg, clove of garlic

Wash the courgette flowers carefully, as they are rather fragile.
For the stufing, mix together the ricotta, beaten egg, crushed garlic, chopped fresh basil, salt and pepper. (You can also add some freshly grated Parmesan, but I don't, usually). Fill each flower with this mixture.
For the batter
200g plain flour (some recipes specify self-raising, but I prefer plain).
pinch of salt
400ml. cold water
2 largish eggs, beaten (organic if possible
two or three tblsp olive oil

Mix together the flour, beaten eggs and olive oil, add the water gradually until the desired consistency is obtained.
Coat the stuffed flowers in this batter, and fry them gently in olive oil for a few minutes until they are golden. Drain them on kitchen paper.

Nasturtium, Rocket and Tomato Salad

(I created this myself, with ingredients from my garden, so the proportions are a bit vague...!!!)
large bunch of nasturtium leaves
about half a cup of nasturtium flowers
a bunch of vine tomatoes
large bunch of rocket (no problem if some rocket flowers get included!)
(all these ingredients should be organic if possible)

1 or 2 cloves of garlicWash all ingredients very carefully, especially the nasturtiums. Slice the tomatoesArrange them on a plate in an aesthetically pleasing manner - the nasturtium leaves, then the rocket leaves, then the sliced tomatoes, finally the nasturtium flowers.
Make a vinaigrette with the finely chopped garlic, some balsamic vinegar (raspberry-flavoured balsamic vinegar is especially good for this!) and some extra-virgin olive oil.

Nigel Slater's almond and lavender biscuits

125 gr butter
50 gr golden caster sugar
100 gr plain flour
100gr ground almonds
2 level tsp lavender buds

(I made these with organically grown lavender from my garden - you don't HAVE to do this, but I think it makes them taste better!)
Whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Set aside a couple of tablespoons, then press the rest into a dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 150C/300F/gas mark 2. Flour your hands, then break off pieces of dough the size of a walnut and flatten into tiny rounds. Lay carefully onto greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, sprinkle with the reserved mixture and return to the fridge for an hour or so.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until pale gold in colour. Allow to cool a little, then use a palette knife to transfer them to a cooling rack.
They will last in an airtight container for several days.

This is one of my favourite flower recipes - I took some to Italy to give as a present to a friend, and she really loved them!

Lavender and Honey Ice Cream

I have been looking for this recipe for years, ever since I had the unbelievable pleasure of tasting this ambrosial ice-cream at a farmers' market. I finally found it in the Sunday Telegraph.
6-8 sprigs lavender
600 ml (1 pint) full cream milk
180 ml lavender honey (In London, you can buy this at the shop in Chelsea Physic Garden.
4 egg yolks
300 ml. double cream

Put the lavender in a saucepan with the milk and bring it to the boil slowly, then cover with a lid. Take it off the heat to infuse for about half-an-hour. Heat the honey in a jar in a pan of boiling water, then pour it into a bowl and whisk it with the egg yolks.
Strain the milk into another pan and reheat it to boiling, then pour it over the honey and egg yolk mixture. Return it to the pan and stir it over a gentle heat till it thickens. Leave it to cool before stirring in the double cream. Freeze.
Transfer to the fridge about 20 minutes before serving.

MARIGOLD CUSTARD

This recipe is from several sources; it appears to have originally been created for the Pagan feast of Beltane, but it is delicious any time!!
2 cups milk
I cup marigold petals (preferably organically grown, from your own garden)
pinch of salt (optional)
3 tbsp. sugar
piece of vanilla bean (about 1 -2 ins in length)
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
pinch of allspice
pinch of nutmeg
some rosewater(amount according to taste!)
whipped cream for topping

Pound the marigold petals is a clean mortar and pestle, or crush with a spoon. Mix together sugar and spices, (and salt if using). Scald the milk with the marigolds and vanilla bean. Remove the vanilla bean and add the beaten egg yolks and dry ingredients.Cook on low heat until it thick enough to coat a spoon. Add the rosewater and allow to cool.
To serve, top with whipped cream and garnish with marigold petals (or rose petals).

Vegan Carrot Cake

3 carrots, grated (approx 8 oz. worth)
6 oz. sultanas or raisins
6 oz. self-raising white flour and 4 oz, SR wholemeal flour
6 oz. sugar ( I didn't ask, but I think it's probably OK to substitute honey here)
1 tsp. cinnamon and 1 tsp. ginger
8 fl. oz vegetable oil
7 fl. oz water
pinch of salt and dash of vinegar
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
ICING
2 oz.vegan margarine
4 oz. icing sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla essence

1. To make the cake, stir all the dry cake ingredients together and then mix the wet ones in.
2. Bake at gas mark 5 (190c) for 45 mins, then reduce oven to gas mark 3 (160c) and cook for another 30 minutes. Cool in tin.
3. To make the icing, mash the margarine and vanilla essence into the sugar with a fork.
4. Ice the cake. Optional; top with roughly chopped nuts (e.g. cashews or walnuts)

This page was most recently updated on 14th. October 2006

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