Chinese Shredded Pickled Carrots

Delicious with Crispy Duck Pancakes, and as a side to many other Asian dishes!

Ever wondered how those delicious, piquant shredded carrots are made that you get with Chinese crispy duck and pancakes, alongside the cucumber, spring onion, and hoisin sauce?

Well, the good news is that they're really simple to make, and after a quick mix, only need about thirty minutes before they're ready to eat (or longer if you want to make in advance!)... and if you've never had them with crispy duck pancakes as part of the filling, then I highly recommend you give them a go, they take your pancakes to a new level of deliciousness!

Hearty Root Vegetable and Mushroom Casserole with Herby Cheese and Mustard Dumplings

This really is a cracking dish when you're craving comfort food, and makes a smashing Sunday dinner for vegetarians!

I wanted to make something for my meat-loving family (incuding me!) which wouldn't leave us feeling like something was 'missing' for a Sunday dinner, and I didn't want to do a nut roast! In the end, I decided upon some kind of 'stew and dumplings', and it was that tasty and filling it didn't even need anything on the side - although you could of course serve it with some steamed green vegetables, and maybe even a couple of roasted potatoes on the side, and you'd probably be able to feed a couple more people with it!

If you want a healthier option for a weekday meal (or fast day), you could skip the dumplings, and just serve with plenty of green vegetables, and a few new potatoes or some cauliflower mash on the side. I can't tell you how happy I am with the gravy, it's so tasty and rich, it's the best vegetarian gravy I've ever made - it's amazing, the power of umami (no offence to vegetarians, but I never thought a vegetarian/vegan gravy could actually taste this good)!

Turnips would also work well in this, if you wanted to substitute one of the root vegetables. Without the dumplings, this is a low calorie, vegan, gluten free and dairy free dish. To make the dumplings vegan, use vegan cheese (or omit), and leave out the egg and just bring together the dough with water.

Serves four, 167 calories per portion just for the vegetable casserole, plus 194 calories per dumpling (388 calories for a serving of two dumplings), so 555 calories for a quarter portion of casserole with two dumplings.

Steak and Ale Top Crust Pies (includes Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker method)

In this house, steak and ale pie is the King of all pies...

I've been making steak and ale pie for years - I often start off by braising beef this way, and sometimes it even gets the traditional pastry lids when it actually ends up as a pie (I usually like to do them individually in pots with just a puff pastry or rough puff pastry top), sometimes it ends up not as a pie, but with fluffy dumplings on top, soaking up the juices, or occasionally it's served with baguette slices laid on it near the end, smothered in a mix of butter and mustard and topped with cheese... and sometimes, it's 'just' served as a beef casserole with potatoes and vegetables.

This is my pie - it's a small one - everyone elses' is about double the size!

It's just the kind of braised beef dish that's soooo good, and so versatile that I go back to the core ingredients time and time again but end up using them in different ways. Usually, I make this quantity the day before, and put half in pots for making pies the next day so it's nice and chilled before putting the pastry lids on, and the other half is frozen for another time. You can get away with putting it into the fridge to chill for just an hour or two before putting pastry lids on and baking if you're using individual dishes for the pies, as it will cool down quicker (and if you want to top it with dumplings, you can just pop them on top as soon as it's cooked, and cook for another 20 minutes or so until they're fluffy and cooked - adding mustard, parmesan and some thyme if you have it is lovely!).

This quantity serves eight people (or if they have Desperate Dan appetites, maybe six?) and is easily doubled if you want to cook in bulk.

If you're counting calories, it is 2,965 calories for the whole quantity of filling, not including pastry, and therefore 371 calories for an eighth (of filling only - so for a low calorie meal you could always have the filling as a braise with steamed green veg and some new potatoes, and try to ignore those eating it pie style with chips!!).

Spiced Carrot Magic Bean Cake (includes Thermomix method)

Ohhh these magic bean cakes - they're so addictive...

Whether or not you're eating gluten free (and dairy free and grain free), this is just the most moist and delicious carrot cake! If you do eat gluten free, and you've ever bought any kind of gluten free carrot cake... you'll *know* how absolutely awful they are. Dry. Gritty. Tasteless. And just generally really appallingly bleeeeeuuurgh! (Which reminds me, I still haven't taken back the pack of GF carrot cake slices we bought a couple of weeks ago out of curiousity, and could not eat because they really were that bad... hence the inspiration to make my own. It was actually the first time in my whole life I've genuinely found a cake that bad I've considered taking it back to a shop...)

         

Anyway, I digress. This is definitely not bad carrot cake (although it might be naughty), it is goooood carrot cake! I made it for my son's birthday and he loved it! Now, I'm no Mary Berry, and so occasionally I may resort to unconventional techniques to get my cakes just as I want them. And I'm always open to tips from those more experienced than I am. But let's face it - who *is* Mary Berry? (Apart from Mary Berry of course, who you can always rely on for amazing recipes and elegant twinsets). Most of us go through life trying our best to avoid soggy bottoms and cracked tops and even more unspeakable things, and winging it along the way - and in my opinion, any tips to end up with a good cake, are good tips!

So here's my recipe for spiced carrot cake, a la magic bean cake. You can leave the nuts off the topping, and out of the cake if you want to avoid them (or substitute for a mixture of pine nuts / sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped, for a nutty texture), and you can use an orange drizzle icing in a lacy pattern over the top if you want to avoid dairy (see options). Plus, instead of making a tray bake cake, you could make this as muffins or fairy cakes / cupcakes, using an appropriate tin lined with cake cases.

Makes 24 portions. 140 calories per portion of carrot cake, plus 37 calories for light cream cheese topping with walnuts (see below), or 46 calories if using full fat cream cheese and walnuts; or an extra 29 calories per portion for orange drizzle icing.