h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have a fantastic, full recipe for ratatouille I would be happy to share, if you're keen. Let me know.

I usually serve mine with a little rice or pasta, but it does make a good sandwich filling.

Hummos rolled up in pitas make nice sandwiches- you can make your own hummos and add artichokes, garlic, red pepper, olives or anything else you like. It's really quite filling.

Another great sandwich filling is felafel. If you combine a little tahini (sesame) sauce with minced garlic, a little lemon juice, and some fresh parsley or dill, that makes a nice topping for felafel. Crumble the felafel up a bit and stuff it into the pocket of the pita.

You can also cut eggplant into rounds, roll in breadcrumbs, and fan-fry on low heat to make breaded cutlets. Good on a sandwich with a little marinara sauce. Some melty soy cheese would be nice with that, as well.

What other sorts of veggies do you like? I've got lots of good recipes.

Hi psychocandy - I'm sorry I didn't see this post yesterday, we went to a gig last night and my mind was rather on that all day.

So sweet of you to offer, thanks! I would love to have the full ratatoille recipe, anything you fancy really. I could even swap you for some myself depending on your fancy?

I tend to do lots of mexican (veggie burritos, quesadilles, tortillas, tacos, enchiladas, chilli) italian (lasagne & all kinds of pasta) and indian food (well, that's easy!) plus the usual casseroles and stuff, like roast vegetables.

If you'd prefer to email me, try ismarah at yahoo dot com

cheersismarah

bugrr!t millenium hand and shrimp*

I also meant to say: "do you know the Epicurious website?"

cheersismarah

*Terry Pratchett. I'm not mad. Much.

I'd love to swap some recipe ideas. I also like Indian, Mexican, and pretty much any kind of casserole. I'm heading off to work in a bit, but once I've settled in, I can copy & paste my ratatoille recipe here for you.

I have seen both the Epicurious web site, which is pretty darn cool, and also Nanny Ogg's cookbook, which seems to include as many body parts in its recipes as veggies.

Swapping by email would be great, also, if you don't want to run a long series of them here. My email addy is wyrdsister23 at hotmail dot com.

PS- I love pasta, too!

OMG! Wyrd Sisters! Terry Pratchett! Pasta! Recipes!

I'm gonna go lie down now.

But very excited!

Cheers ismarah

Thanks for the lasagna recipe- it sounds fantastic. Fortunately, we're doing the grocery shopping tonight, and I can buy the stuff I don't have. I'll be making one of those this weekend.

Replied to your email with my ratatouille recipe.

Nice talking with you!

It's pretty good, actually, my husband's favourite. The trick is to just let everything simmer for awhile, in the order of the longest required cook-time first. Total cook time just in pot is about 30-45 minutes, stirring every now and then.

Because it's so well cooked before hand the oven time is mostly to melt the cheese and cook the pasta. I'd recommend egg lasagne for it though, if you're using dried stuff.

Let me know how it turns out and I'll try the ratatoille at the weekend.

cheers ismarah

OK, we made it tonight. My better half picked up the lasagna noodles on the way home, so it was the regular pasta sort- no whole grain or egg. I substituted ricotta cheese for cottage cheese, as the store was out of cottage cheese. Added maybe 3/4 cup of sweet corn we had with dinner yesterday. For seasoning, I don't have any blended stuff, but used fresh basil, dried oregano, and some red chili flakes.

Woman, that lasagna was to DIE for!!

Thanks so much for the recipe. Will have to swap others sometimes. Do you mind if I share this one?

Again, nice chatting with you, and hope to see you around again. Thanks so much!

Oh, I'm so glad! Go ahead and share this with as many people as you'd like - it's one of my favourites to give to people anyway!

The beauty with that recipe is that you can throw anything and everything in it. I like to put something grated, like carrot because it gives you a little added 'bulk' the way minced meat would, so many times people have actually not even realised that it was meatfree.

I'll try the ratatouille at some point, but as I will be making that lasagne myself at the weekend, I'll have to save it for later.

I do like cooking although I go through fits and starts of wanting to. When I'm feeling really really lazy, it's microwave fries, burger buns, cheese, ketchup and mayo in a carbohydrate sandwich! This is known as a chip butty in the UK, but incredibly yummy when the occasion calls for it. I suppose it could be classed as a veggie alternative to a hang over fry-up.

I work in a company with a bunch of chefs, so if I want to cook something or I don't know how to clean a particular exotic vegetable, I ask them. They've also taught me how to roast vegetables and get high from cinnamon sticks. Although I haven't tried the last one and wouldn't recommend or condone it, obviously.

Oh, I just thought of the next recipe to give you - a banana cake that is sort of bready, sort of pound-cakey, but looovely as well, if you're interested.

I'll see if I can type that up tonight / over the weekend at home.

This is really fun, actually, I've never had an (electronic) epistolary relationships for recipes!

Anyway, you appear to be a Pratchett fan? I started to write who my favourite characters were and it quickly dissolved into a list of all of them, so I stopped and wrote this instead.

cheersismarah (cordon bleu veg chef)

I am definitely interested in a banana cake recipe! I love banana cake. I've never had a chip butty, but it sounds like it would do nicely for a comfort food sort of mood.

I am a Pratchett fan, yes. I haven't read everything- still have the last three Discworld books to get through- but have read (and own) everything I can find. Have you seen the DVD renderingos of "Wyrd Sisters" and "Soul Music"? They're really cool.

I've only recently gotten into exchaning recipes online, though I used to keep a journal entry here dedicated to good recipes. I've also recently assumed operation of the h2g2 vegetarian society, as fords had indicated she no longer has the time to keep it up.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

Lazy Pineapple 'Pie'

1 cup sugar,
1 cup flour
1 egg,
1 teaspoon baking powder

One fairly large tin of pineapple in own juice (Crushed or chunks, can also be mixed. Crushed gives a more cakey feel, whereas chunks make it more fruity)

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 desiccated coconut

Mix dried stuff with egg, adding pineapple WITH juice - mixes really quickly.

Shake / stir / rattle & roll the brown sugar + coconut together and spread evenly over top.

Bake at 160'C / 320'F for a good 1/2 hour. Allow to settle for a few minutes out of the oven, then serve warm with cream or icecream.

This is perfectly edible cold the next day and will also survive being nuked a bit.

This is sooooo quick and easy to make if you have last minute guests or just want a nice sweet desserty thing.

ismarah

Yum, pineapple and coconut! I'll try this one sometime soon. Maybe even over this weekend.

This mixes in literally 3 minutes, the most time is spent baking and opening the tins of pineapple!

I hope you have a fab holiday and i'll post to you later about belated easter eggs.

They'll just be number 1 sizes - the ones from nammi.is wrapped in coloured tinfoil - but they've still got loads of stuff in them.

ismarah

You are so kind! Feel free to drop me an email, sometime, if you want. wyrdsister23 AT hotmail DOT com.

Hope you enjoy your holiday, too. We have to work tomorrow, but we can leave early. I'm planning an unrelated visit to my grandmother on Sunday, so I'm doing something! What sort of plans have you got?

Well, the usual running around seeing friend and family - kind of wish I'd stayed home to be honest. If the weather forecast here wasn't so dreadful I'd have done loads of gardening and cuddle DT.

However, my 88 year old gran said in a very broken sort of voice that she'd been quite looking forward to seeing me and that she'd been poorly.

This was when I told her I'd reconsidered my previous plans due to oncoming brokeness and studentitis.



So DT bought me a ticket and now I'm stuck going when all I want is to relax / chill / recuperate.


ismarah

I made that pineapple thing on Saturday. It was pretty good! Thanks for the recipe.

Went to my gram's yesterday, sans K. He stayed home and passed another kidney stone instead.

Oh, I'm glad you liked it! it's so easy to make (and i wonder if it would work with other fruit also - like apples and applesauce or tinner pears or rasperries?)

I have easter eggs for you and K at home - email me your directions to my yahoo account and I'll try and send them over the weekend.

ismarah

That was so very sweet of you. Is there anything you'd like from the US? If not, I'll surprise you with some random thing sometime soon.

I have a feeling that apples and applesauce would work- with the brown sugar on top, yum! Pears sound nice, too. Pineapple and coconut really are a lovely combination, though.

OK, I *know* I had your email address, but it's no longer in my contacts. This happens sometimes.

Drop me one at wyrdsister23 AT hotmail DOT com and I'll reply back.