XL Vegan Lent: 5 days to go

Today was pretty uneventful. There was a special healing service and I went to the 9.30 m service. But our friend the stalker was there too and I had to duck out pretty sharpish and change my road home. The last time I tried rush out to avoid him, I left my bible at church. I think I should definitely change my church time for a while (See the I lost my bible post).

Since I have not been home for few days, so, I had a lot of “tâches ménagères” to do including planning meals for next week. I had a very late lunch at nearly 3.30pm. it consisted of left-overs from yesterday: left-over dessert and roasted potatoes with the left-over tahini sauce.

To make the sauce, please see yesterday’s post. As for the roasted potatoes, use the smaller salad potatoes. They don’t event need peeling. They are much easier for me to use as I can’t really peel many potatoes due to a slight disability on my left arm (see cause here). The day I learn that I could eat some potatoes without peeling them I was really pleased as the peeling pressure on the left arm can cause me some real pain forcing me to have a break after peeling 2 or 3 potatoes.

So for this dish, I have just rinse and cut the potatoes in 2, added salt and black pepper. A spay of vegetable oil, shoved in the oven for 30 minutes. Once cooked, I reheated the th tahini and mustard sauce, adding more water to make it more fluidy, then I chopped some fresh parley and added in the sauce just before serving. Voila!

For the dessert which I made yesterday, I used some strawberry which were going off, 2 apples, 1

banana and a handful of Red Camargue & wild rice. I have never come across this rice before and found it when walking around Waitrose purposelessly after the trip at the dentist on Friday. This compote is inspired by one of my preferred childhood compote from Andros.

So, prepare and chop all the fruits, add the red rice, cover it completely with water and cook for 30 minutes until the rice is cooked. Then blend, leave to cool at room temperature, then in the fridge to refrigerate before serving.

The compote tasted good, but I will need to do it again later adding whole milk, more strawberry and perhaps 2 table spoons of sugar.

Compotes and yogurts are very popular in France and often used as desserts or as replacement for mid-morning snacks or even the Gouter (the mid afternoon snack at 4 pm). It is also at around 3.30 4pm that time that the baker will be bringing out of the oven the last set of viennoiseries so the children can buy a croissant aux amandes or chausson aux pommes or even a mini tarte aux fraises on their way home from school. I really missed that (click on the coloured words to be directed to corresponding website).

If you would like to try a real croissant, chausson aux pommes and creamy hot chocolate, head to Paul in Wimbledon village, Regent Street or Knightsbridge, They also do a weaked beignet au chocolat (Nuttella filled doughnut). The later cost £1,95 each, but it is worth it. Do try it.