Autumn Dinner and Dance

The sun is still shining and shorts, t-shirts and flip flops are still de rigueur for now.  In fact September in Cornwall is normally a lovely time as the weather is still good, the tourist masses have predominantly gone home and there is a calm air about the place.  However, a little nip in the air is definitely sneaking in and, meteorologically speaking, apparently autumn is officially here.  That means that some of us do start turning our thoughts to darker, wilder evenings and ways to distract us from even colder thoughts of winter.  

One such opportunity of distraction features at the end of this month in the form of an Autumn Dinner and Dance organised by the lovely folks from The Naturally Vegan Plot and Cornwall Vegan Festival.  It's not only an autumnal distraction for you but a very fine fundraiser for Animal Aid, The Naturally Vegan Plot and Cornwall Vegan Festival.

As with most vegans I know, good food tends to be the main event every day let alone during a night out, and this special evening of entertainment promises three courses of delicious food.  Starters and mains are provided in the form of a dining buffet from local vegan caterers Sloth and Sparrow.  Hopefully there would still be some space left under your sparkly dress or suit clad tummies for deserts from The Little Green Vegan Bakery and Mint and Marjoram, both also Cornish based vegan caterers with reputations of providing wickedly delicious creations.  With a licensed bar, and teas and coffees available too, I think any vegan out there could be more than satisfied that the food part of this evening looks to have been well and truly covered.

The only worry would be that, with such a dinner on offer, how much dancing is going to be possible after?  Fear not it seems as the range of music on offer from these vegan musical talents seems to allow for gentle digestion whilst you sit and be mesmerised, as well as have a chance to strut your vegan stuff.  Details of the musicians playing are on the Autumn Dinner and Dance Facebook Event Page.

If you don't already feel lucky enough sat with a full tummy of delicious food whilst being serenaded by talented vegan musicians, there is also the chance of being a total winner in The Grand Prize Draw taking place on the night.  Each ticket holder for the Dinner and Dance receives a free prize draw ticket, with the option to buy more raffle tickets during the evening.  The lucky winner gets a hamper, worth over £100, full to the brim with wondrous vegan foodie gifts and vouchers from The Eco Collective.

So vegan food, vegan musicians and vegan prizes........where, when and how do you sign up if this is your thing?  Treverbyn Community Hall, over St Austell way, is where it's at.  Saturday 28th September is the date to put in your diary.  And tickets are available to purchase from Eventbrite, along with full up to date details on the evening on offer.

Grab a ticket whilst they are still available...

Puff Ball to Puff Pie

We really haven't had a huge amount of success so far this year with our mushroom foraging.  Some of that has been a lack of time due to more pressing issues, but on the occasions we have gone out on the 'mushy' hunt, apart from a few chanterelles and the odd bolete, we've come back predominantly empty handed.  Imagine my delight therefore when an ex-student turned up at work with a prize giant puffball that was going spare.  He was going away and, not having had the chance to use it before, hadn't wanted it to go to waste.  Being a fellow mushroom hound, it seemed my name was written all over it.

I hugged it like a baby and immediately had to ring Phil to tell him the good news.  I really was that excited!  My excitement may have seemed disproportionate but it had been years since we'd found a giant puffball, our very local source having been non-productive for a few years now despite us being very reserved with our harvesting.  A giant puffball represented a very tasty few meals ahead of us.  

First up was pie; creamy mushroom pies to be exact. Having a pack of puff pastry to hand, it was a quick and easy way to inhale and ingest some of the earthy white flesh of this giant wonder.  To counter the naughty pastry element I served the pies with a selection of salads. Only a third of the puffball had been used to produce four individual pies.  'Two Pies Chapman' ensured that only one of these remained to photograph, so he thought they were very tasty indeed.  It's pretty simple to make up a filling for a pie but my recipe is below in case anyone is interested in this quick (and lazy) recipe!  You can use any mushrooms you have to hand.  It involved another element of laziness in using the new Sacla Vegan Ch**se Sauce that has recently come on the market.  We'd never tried it before so this gave us the perfect opportunity and the bonus was, I only needed to use about half the jar so the rest was used on a lasagna the next day.

What's in store for the rest of the puffball? Well that is undecided as yet apart from the fact we will no doubt have mushroom 'steaks' at some point.  This is even more lazy and quick than the pie in that you just cut thick slices off the puffball, pop them on a baking tray, add a topping of your choice (sun dried tomato paste and slices of favourite vegan cheese are good) and just bake until soft and browned.

Puff Pie

Packet of vegan puff pastry, or shortcrust, or make some pastry if you like!

A slurp of olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic, minced

Mushrooms of your choice, chopped or sliced (just judge the amount!)

Salt and pepper

1/2 jar of Sacla Vegan Ch**se Sauce

Gently fry the onion in the olive oil until softening and starting to brown.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue to cook until softening.  Add the salt and pepper.  Add the sauce ensuring a lovely good coating of the mushrooms.  

Lightly grease either one big pie dish or several small ones and line with pastry.  Pop in the filling, top with pastry, ensuring you seal well around the edges but put a little slit in the top to let the steam out.  Bake at about 200 degrees C until the pastry looks brown and crispy.

Enjoy!