Using Stuff Up: One

Using stuff up is one of my preferred ways of cooking. Especially if I'm a guest and cooking at somebody's house. I never feel bad about using ingredients if they 'need to be used up'. Same reason I like skipping. And it means I don't have to make big decisions about what to buy and deal with that horrible ordeal. So, this is one of those and I don't have a name for it.

The base for this was the end of my rocket pesto pasta. It was quite oily but there was a lot of flavour there. So I wanted to expand on it and make it something different. I threw in a lot of things that were around me and I'll try to recount them, mostly.

I chopped up the leftover, oily spaghetti pasta and heated up the pot. There was some really stale bread that needed using up, so I broke it up and stirred it around in the oily mixture, adding some tahini and some old juice that may not have been so nice to drink but worked to offset the bitter-but-creamy tahini and softened the bread. I threw in some tomato puree, some chopped carrots, possibly some vinegar and maybe nutritional yeast. I'm not sure. It's a bit of a blur. But I enjoyed it more that the original pasta. Don't follow this as a recipe. Just use stuff up.

It's fun to use stuff up.

- Dara

Vegetarian Travel: Czech Republic/ Vienna

I recently went on a trip that took in lots of the Czech Republic and Vienna and took photos of my meals for a travel blog. I stayed with lots of lovely hosts who showed me great places to eat and drink and even cooked me some lovely meals. So big thanks to Paty, Lenka, Sarah, Anna and Michal.

I had been eating little or no dairy before the trip, but thought that might be a little hard while travelling. So here are a few shots of the vegetarian & vegan meals I had along the way. I'm afraid I was a poor journalist and forgot to record the names of the places I ate, but hopefully my hosts might be able to help me amend this after reviewing the meals we shared!

Prague: 

Indian Restaurant near Old Town Square

 This was charged by weight and came to about 6 euro,
which is expensive for Prague, but it was quite the meal!

This dirty snack is available in lots of Czech pubs, good for hangovers!

Camembert Cheese pickled in oil with garlic & onion

Vegan City - a strange Asian/ faux meat restaurant

 Vegan Prawns & Mushroom Soup

Quite tasty! No idea what these vegan prawns are made of.

Tofu Wrapped in Seaweed

aka. Horrible Explosion of MSG

Thanks to Paty, one of my hosts in Prague, for making this delicious one:

Pastry with Spinach and Balkan Cheese

Brno: 

Vegalité

This two-course lunch cost me about 3 euro!

 Beetroot Soup Starter

 Fried Cheese and Potato with Salad

Vienna:

Thanks to my host, Sarah, for this delicious Austrian dish:

Marillenknodel,

Traditional Austrian Apricot Dumplings

Maschu Maschu

Fried Pastry filled with Feta Cheese & Spinach, served with tzatziki

I also made a wee film on my trip, which you can see here:

http://www.fakedogfilms.com/blogs/article/64/dara-s-travel-blog-one

 - Dara