VEGAN KITCHEN – The Greatest thing since Sliced Bread ! 

There was once something so ful-filling , so spiritual in a fresh loaf of bread, the staple food basis of all civilizations since the raising of the pyramids, yet today as appetising as eating a roll of kleenex !

Bread is an unmitigated disaster in the UK these day’s, a tasteless grey misery, an ascetic’s dream and pitiful example of how far austerity had taken hold in abstinence from the normal pleasures of life, and sucking out all satisfaction all nourishment from the pantry.

What nightmare is this laid out before me in the local superstore ? Bread of every description, hundreds upon hundreds of loaves sitting like bricks on a wall of endless shelf life,. white bricks and brown bricks in the supermarket bakery showcase isle,  all seemingly with one thing , apart from being bread, in common, they are all loaded with bulking agents and eternally product preserving chemical warfare not to forget to mention an ethics ecological disaster, unseen by the grey stony eyed shoppers who shuffle from white to brown checking prices, picking up putting down, picking up again….

putting down..

the endless, brainwashed consumer walking dead,. bricks of tasteless cardboard…to satisfy grey unthinking unfeeling palettes….

We found EVERY bread except the “Polish Bakery” (http://www.thepolishbakery.co.uk/bread-and-rolls/) breads had the usual bad boy “Palm Oil” packed in them. Yes, Palm Oil in varying types, (so called) sustainable, non sustainable, palm fats, endless palm derived rehashes and along with those, a supporting cast in the horrific theatre of the bland, a ghastly selection of additives, such as calcium propionate, amylase, chlorine dioxide, fats, bleach and L-cysteine hydrochloride are all now crammed packed into our daily bread.

Whats the problem with Palm Oil ? check the link…https://www.fishinaboxrecords.com/palm-oil-how-can-a-product-that-harms-animals-be-called-vegan/)

Polish Bakery, though blessingly Palm Oil free, do still use Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, pretty standard these days though we are dubious of as the origin of added Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids E471 as it still is not 100% clear and so it doesn’t meet our vegan standard for the day, we are going back to baking basics …

Monoglycerides and diglycerides are both naturally present in various seed oils, however their concentration is usually low. In industrial production it blows the low levels out of the window by a chemical reaction between the fats and oils and glycerol. (Lud turns in his grave !) Whether the original oils are animal or vegetable is often hard to decipher. Basically it just ain’t going to be guaranteed to be vegan without constant fixed supply confirmed as vegetable based (non palm) from the manufacturer, and that is not something that is jumping out on the reviews website or ingredients lists out there..

The switch in turning bread into a food processing nightmare started to happen in the 1960’s and the additives have been growing since in number and health risk, lighter yet tasteless long lasting breads, all come at a price, and that price is your health.

What’s in your average supermarket loaf ?

FAT
Keeps it standing up and looking like “bread” when its a long way towards the sell buy date.

FLOUR TREATMENT AGENT
L-ascorbic acid (E300) makes a loaf look bigger than it actually is by retaining gas in the dough !

BLEACH
Chlorine dioxide gas, your white flour just got “whiter” !

REDUCING AGENT
L-cysteine hydrochloride (E920), comes from animal hair and feathers, that’s not vegan but bread should be !

SOYA FLOUR
Well that sounds better  right ? soya flour basically helps the production process allowing more water to be added and retained in the dough and as such increasing the size of the bread above expectations. sounds like a consumer scam ?

EMULSIFIERS
lets the dough to hold more gas and therefore grow bigger and make the crumb softer, everyone needs more gas right ?

PRESERVATIVES
Calcium propionate makes bread look ok when left on the shelf for sale for ever basically

Find out more about the commercial Bread scam:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-shocking-truth-about-bread-413156.html

What should be in a loaf of bread ?

Well your basics are: Flour, yeast, water and salt. If you want something more “artisan”, then add seeds ,pesto (vegan version), sun dried tomatoes etc to get a real rustic loaf in any healthy combination that takes your fancy. Shelf life is not a problem with any of these home baked breads we made as they did’nt last 15 minutes after baking.

We took a walk out the supermarket door with a pack of organic wholemeal bread flour yeast and some healthy goodies to bake with and left the commercial palm oil stocked loaves on the shelf.

Whats in our Strong organic bread Flour ? Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin). That’s about as clean as you are going to get for baking so we are going with that.

A history of AWFUL Bread: http://www.theoldfoodie.com/2011/03/sawdust-bread.html

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD….Let us turn our backs on darkness and let’s get baking

500g as a rough guide of organic strong bread flour . We tend to mix any quantity and go by the consistency of the dough for baking, but you can use 500g as a guide.then add your oil, we used flavoured oil that had been soaking in Sun dried tomatoes, or Jerusalem artichokes, chilli’s or peppers, anyone will do that add flavour, 4 table spooks on a 500g should do it and throw in a handful of seeds. We used pumpkin seeds.

To make a began dream bread, add b12 and flavour again we use engevita b12 flakes,. then add the sundried tomates and a FULL 10g pack of yeast. Most bread recipes say add 7g but you are baking without all the treatment agents and emulsifiers so add the full 10g yeast pack.

Mix in water and turn until consistency is sticky, on a 500g that’s about a cup full of water, you can also replace water with aquafaba which gives it more lift again but it’s not necessary. salt, pepper and Tumeric.

Why Tumeric ?

It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is strong antioxidant, all good stuff, nice and natural too, throw it into the mix. mix it up and drop it in the bread maker on a large wholemeal loaf setting. If you want you can roll it out , add patterns , cut to shape and bake it in the oven (its a 4 hour bake !!) but as far as we are concerned, jobs done so get it in the bread maker and clean up.

While you are waiting for the Bread to Bake. Here are some great quotes on Bread to keep you busy

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight… ― Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher

“All sorrows are less with bread. ” ― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?” ― Julia Child

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.” ― Victor Hugo

“The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown: The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the town.
Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown: Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town.” ― Lewis Carroll

Ecclesiastes 9:7

NOTE:

We will skip the “wine”in the bible quote and expansion below and focus on the bread only as “wine” these days is mostly filtered using fish guts (gross !) and fails to meet the vegan standard.

#Giveusthisdayourdailybread

So there we have it,. enjoy baking people,. don’t accept the lowest common denominator in what you eat,. strive for something more !

Leave the ranks of the Walking Dead and get VEGAN baking now !

DISCLAIMER: Links to information on sites other than those operated by FISHINABOX RECORDS are for your convenience only and are not an endorsement or recommendation of those sites. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not control or provide any content or information at these sites, makes no representation or warranty of any kind with respect to these sites or their content, and does not maintain, operate, or take responsibility for information provided. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of such content or information and any use thereof is solely at the user’s risk.

VEGAN KITCHEN – Super Simple Shepherd’s Lie (Shepard’s Pie)

We have been getting a bunch of messages in asking for more quick and easy meal planners. With that in mind we have added another belly filler, this one will get you snoozing all afternoon.  A Big meal for rainy days.

The History –

The first mention of the Shepherds or Cottage Pie was in 1791, by the Rev. James Woodford. Originally, a pie made with any kind of minced meat and mashed potato was called a “cottage pie”. In modern English, the dish is usually called “cottage pie” though the Irish also lay claim to it’s origin calling the dish a “Shepherd’s Pie”.

The argument has never been resolved though the majority ruling is that if it was made in days gone by with minced beef (R.I.P) it was usually an English dish, and it was made with minced lamb (R.I.P) it was usually an Irish dish.

Since the late 19th Century both pies were common place in both England and Ireland. Early cookery writers did not use the terms “cottage pie” and “shepherd’s pie” and the terms did not appear in recipe books until the late part of the 19th century. From that time, the terms have been used interchangeably.

It was called a “shepherd’s pie” because a shepherd looks after sheep and the Shepherd when tired with or bored with looking after the sheep , decided to slaughter them and mince up there worst bits of their corpses for use as left overs in a pie.

The foundation of all meat pies is that they are the ground discards of the slaughtered and innocent.

Gone are the days where we can be fooled in to believing that meat is necessary to make a dish, we have learned and now know better. These days we are able to evolve on archaic cooking traditions such as cottage or shepherds pie by replacing pound for pound with Soya mince, as it’s meat free we called it the”Shepherds Lie”.

Soya – Cheap , lean, clean and just all round excellent culinary evolution to meat. No death, no Bad Karma no Coronary heart disease and much better flavour. #GoVegan #GoMeatFree

So, here we have it, the fastest most simple Vegan Shepherds Pie ever, A cheat dish using soya mince (89 pence  – £1.00 from Corner shops, usually stocked in Tamil / Indian and sometimes Turkish Global Food stores / corner shops, ask form mince NOT chunks) or if you haven’t got a decent global foods corner store near you then you can get a Linda McCartney Soya mince in main supermarkets.

boil up your potatoes to make the mash top and when ready mash with Soya or Hemp Milk (Good hemp milk can be found in the long life section in Tescos). Whilst they are boiling make up the base o the “pie”.

A simple mix,

Pre-Boiled: diced carrots and peas get these boiled.

Pan-fried in vegetable oil:  The soya mince and diced onion until browned.

Once both those small steps are completed mix both the pre-boiled and pan friend ingredients with some brown sauce (HFCS free) a tin of baked beans, yes baked beans and you have your Shepherds Lie base.

As most Baked Beans are loaded with Glucose Fructose Corn Syrup (HCFS) we opt for either the Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s own brand as (at the time of writing this – and ingredients may change) both own brands do not contain the dreaded High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) (also called glucose-fructose, isoglucose and glucose-fructose syrup).

What’s the problem with HFCS ? watch the below and get up to speed on the “bitter truth about sugar poisoning” and get this insidious poison out of your diet #justsaynotoglucosefructosecornsyrup 

Mix up the base and get it into the glass baking tray. As soon as the potatoes are soft, drain off the excess water and mash then with Hemp milk and put over the base.

bake in the oven at 200 degrees until the top is crisp and browning (around 25-30 minutes) then serve. job done.

DISCLAIMER: Links to information on sites other than those operated by FISHINABOX RECORDS are for your convenience only and are not an endorsement or recommendation of those sites. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not control or provide any content or information at these sites, makes no representation or warranty of any kind with respect to these sites or their content, and does not maintain, operate, or take responsibility for information provided. FISHINABOX RECORDS does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy or reliability of such content or information and any use thereof is solely at the user’s risk.