The new commie chef

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

The new commie chef

(Friday 19 December 2008)

DON'T fancy turkey this Christmas? Then perhaps you should try the commie chef's recipe for a nut loaf.

I am not going to lecture you. Hey, it's Christmas.

But, even if you're willing - you surely can't be happy - to contribute to the mega-profits of the cruellest, most exploitative, most stomach-churning "food" production process of all and eat your Christmas turkey, you might find that some of your guests aren't. After all, fewer and fewer people are willing to turn a blind eye to these mind-boggling production methods.

This is a vegetarian dish that's been around longer than the "traditional" Christmas turkey, which was in fact hardly known in Britain before the 1960s.

It's from the Vegetarian Society's Cordon Vert school website and it has the great advantage that you can make it the day before or even earlier.

The "bain marie" mentioned in the recipe is simple and not something that you need to go out and buy.

Simply put the filled loaf tin in a deep oven dish. Fill the dish with boiling water to half way up the loaf tin. Then put the lot in the oven to bake.

You can use aluminium foil instead of the baking paper, but baking paper is a wonderful substance and if you use it once you'll never look back. You can make this without a food processor, but it's easier with one.
No birds were harmed in the preparation of this meal...


What to do

Preheat the oven to 180°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Grease a 450g/1lb loaf tin. Line the base and ends with a single strip of baking paper, leaving an overhang at each end. This will help to ease the loaf out of the tin when cooked.

Gently sauté the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan until soft but not coloured. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Using the remaining half a tablespoon of olive oil, turn up the heat and use the same pan to fry the halloumi cheese quickly until brown on both sides. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool, then cut into very small dice.

Grind the cashew nuts with half the walnuts until powdery and add the breadcrumbs.

Put the remaining walnuts into a processor and process until very finely chopped - you can do this with a pestle and mortar if you haven't got a food processor.

In a large bowl, mix all the nuts together with the onions and halloumi cheese and all the remaining ingredients except the eggs. Season to taste then add the beaten eggs and beat well.

Press the mixture into the prepared loaf tin with a slightly rounded top surface. Put into the bain marie and bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes or until firm. Check after 30 minutes and, if it appears to be browning too fast, cover with foil.

When cooked, remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 10-20 minutes before turning out. Slice with care using a sharp knife, wiping the knife clean after each cut.


Ingredients

1 medium onion, very finely chopped

1-1.5tbsp olive oil

125g vegetarian halloumi cheese, thinly sliced

50g cashews

50g fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs

100g walnuts

50g ground almonds

150g cooked basmati rice (about 75g uncooked
weight), cooled

1 small red pepper, cut into small dice of about
half a cm

2-3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1-1.5 tsp fennel seeds, ground

75ml hot light stock (3 tsp light stock powder to
75ml water)

50g stoned black olives, halved
to taste salt and pepper

2 large free range eggs, beaten

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