Total Request Live

When I was in year 10 or 11 at school, we took a day trip to NYC. As this was around about the year 2000, and we were all around about 16 years old, we felt like we just *had* to stand outside the MTV studio during the show TRL. Carson Daly waved at us! This post is my version of answering your requests. I tend to be bad at (1) posting recipes and (2) responding to specific comments on this blog. I'm trying to change that!  So in this post you will find recipes for tattie scones, olive & basil dip, fig & pecan stuffing,  mango granola, and candy cane slice. Apologies in advance for the often vague-ness of my recipes - we tend to put in a scoop of this, a shake of that, and a bit more of these.

Tattie Scones
This Scottish breakfast staple is actually much easier than I thought it would be. They're not that good for you, but they sure are tasty. Just be sure that your mashed potatoes don't have milk in them, because that makes them too wet.

1 c. mashed potatoes
salt to taste
2 Tbsp. olive oil (or to taste)
1/2 c. plain flour

Mix the salt and oil into the mashed potatoes and adjust the flavours until you're happy. Add flour and mix until fully combined. It should be a soft dough, but not too sticky. Add more flour, if you need to.  Divide the dough into three balls and press them out with your hands onto a well floured surface, until they are a circle about 1/2 cm thick.  Cut each circle into quarters and dust both sides with flour.  Heat a frying pan with a thin layer of oil over medium-high heat. Fry tattie scones until golden on both sides. Serve straight away, or refrigerate and reheat, or freeze for later use.

Olive & Basil Dip
A combination between tapenade and pesto, in creamy dip form. Obviously not for olive haters, but Andy and I really loved this.

1 bunch of fresh basil
1 small drizzle of olive oil
1 small clove of garlic (more, if you don't mind raw garlic)
1/4 c. pitted kalamata olives
1/3 c. vegan cream cheese

Using a mini chopper, blender, or food processor, or by chopping everything *reallly* finely, mince up the basil, garlic, and olive oil into a paste.  Pulse in olives, so they are still a bit chunky. Add cream cheese and blend until all ingredients are combined.  Good with crackers & veggies.

Fig & Pecan Stuffing
Our stuffing recipes tend to be variations on a theme - bread, dried fruit, and some kind of nut. Because bread gets mouldy in Townsville before it gets stale, we dry out our bread by leaving it open in the fridge for a night or two. This year we used white bread, but other years we've used whole grain.  Basically, use what you have and it will be good.

~10 slices of stale bread, cut into cubes
1 c. soy milk, other non-dairy milk, or veggie stock
drizzle of olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
some fresh thyme (we have a plant, and I think I cut three or four stems? maybe a teaspoon of leaves once they've been taken off the stems?)
1 celery stalk, minced
1 carrot, grated
6 or 8 dried figs, chopped up
1/3 c. pecan crumbs, toasted

In a bowl, soak the stale bread in the milk. In a frying pan, gently saute the onion with the black pepper and thyme, until the onion is translucent. Add the celery and grated carrot, cook until they are tender, and then remove from the heat. Add the veggies to the bread, and then stir in the figs and the pecans.  Stuff into something, or press it into a baking dish and bake until it's crunchy on top.

Mango Granola
This recipe is another variation on a theme, and is my daily breakfast. I 'cook' the granola in my dehydrator, but the oven way works, too. Granola is a good way for soy milk making folks to use up okara, but if you don't have okara, try using some kind of yogurt, or perhaps a weeny bit less non-dairy milk, or maybe just more fruit puree. This size recipe fills up all five dehydrator trays - for a version that can fit onto two oven trays, just cut everything in half.

6 c. oats
1/2 c. rice flakes
1/2 c. barley flakes
1/4 c. wheat germ
1/4 c. shredded coconut
1/4 c. sunflower seeds
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 - 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 c.-ish dried currants

1 1/2 c. wet okara
1 c. pureed mango-banana blend
3 Tbsp. orange oil (made by putting the peels of an orange into some rice bran oil and fridging it until you want to use it - or, for orange haters, just use regular oil)

In a very big bowl, mix up all of the dry ingredients.  In a jug, stir together the wet ingredients. Then combine the two, using your hands to make sure every bit of dried stuff gets coated in the fruity okara. For dehydrator granola, spread onto sheets and put into the dehydrator at 45-ish degrees, for about 4 hours, turning the trays 90 degrees every hour.

To make it in the oven, spread onto two baking trays and cook in a 160 (275F) oven for 60-90 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until it reaches your preferred level of crunchiness.

Candy Cane Slice
I was inspired, last year, to make Vaala's recipe for mint slice, except for utilising candy canes instead of peppermint extract. This is a variation on that, with the candy canes left crunchy. Andy doesn't love that about this slice - he would prefer a smoother texture.  For Christmas, my mum got me a ginormous multi-function mix master thingie, so I used that for the mixing. Before I've done everything by hand, and it was just fine.  It's a good way to use up that box of candy canes that you bought on special after Christmas, without remembering that you don't love to eat candy canes.

Base:

125g margarine, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup shredded coconut

Heat oven to 180, line a slice tin with baking paper.  Cream together the margarine and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the rest of the ingredients until just combined and then press into the prepared baking tin.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:
1/4 c. vegan cream cheese, at room temperature
3 c. icing sugar
1 Tbsp. non-dairy milk
10 candy canes, chopped

Beat cream cheese until it is soft, then slowly incorporate icing sugar. Drizzle in milk until you get the consistency of icing, and mix in the chopped candy canes. Spread this onto the cooled base and chill again.

Topping:
100 g. dark chocolate (we used Lindt 70%)
1 Tbsp. soy milk
2 candy canes, chopped

Melt the chocolate and soy milk together in a bowl over steamy water. Pour over slice, spreading to the edges. Sprinkle with candy canes. Fridge again, until ready to eat. Slice into slices, but this is tastiest if you let each piece come to room temperature before eating.

So that was a lot in one post, but I will try to be more efficient at this in future!