A Mayo by any other name.Photo by Andrew "Donovan" Valdivia on UnsplashAs many of you fellow plant-based foodies will know, plant-based alternatives have had to be creative with naming products.For example, the supermarket chain Sainsbury in England was forced to not use the word “cheese” to describe their plant-based cheese, so they called it Gary instead of cheese. Read more about it here.I made a sauce for the restaurant which was a mayo alternative. Not wanting to call it mayo or mayonnaise, I named it Sligo.Why Sligo? I hear you folk not familiar with Irish geography ask. In Ireland, we have a county Mayo and a county Sligo. They are neighbours. So, my sauce was not Mayo, but it was close to Mayo, it was Sligo.Image provided free of charge from Irish Genealogy Toolkit.Look, I need to get my giggles from wherever possible!Anyway, the recipe is an easy to make one and has endless variation possibilities.Ingredients:120 ml (1/2 cup) Unsweetened soy milk.250 ml (1 cup) Rapeseed oil (or half and half with olive oil, if you prefer the taste)1 teaspoon Apple cider vinegar1 Tablespoon Lemon juice½ teaspoon Agave syrup½ teaspoon Dijon mustard¼ teaspoon SaltMethod:1. Blitz everything together until emulsified.If you want to make garlic mayo, substitute the salt for garlic salt and add a clove or two of crushed garlic. For even more depth, add roasted garlic.Replace the vinegar, lemon juice, agave and mustard with Sriracha sauce for a Sligo with a kick.Let me know your favourite flavour of Sligo.For more plant-based and gluten free recipes, check out TheCandiedHazelnut — MediumSligo Recipe was originally published in TheCandiedHazelnut on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How important are photos when publishing recipes?Photo by Suganth on UnsplashI have a publication on Medium named after a restaurant I once had (might even open in a new location again someday) called The Candied Hazelnut. I upload recipes I used to cook in the restaurant and more that I am working on now, to this publication.They are all tasty dishes (of course I would say that) and they all look so delicious when plated. Here’s the thing, dear reader. I can’t take decent photos for love nor money. While the gastronomy police have not caught up with me yet on this matter, it is something that nibbles at me (I know it should niggle at me, but it is a food related post).Not being able to take photos to a good enough standard bothered me so much that it stopped me from publishing recipes for a long time.Do you have an opinion on the matter?Would you be put-off by seeing generic photos of ingredients in a recipe post rather than a photo of the end product?I’d love to read what you think.Shepherd-less Pie Recipe. This was one of our most popular dishes… | by Teresa Heffernan | TheCandiedHazelnut | Sep, 2021 | MediumTo Snap or Not was originally published in TheCandiedHazelnut on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I had been traveling for over 24hrs. I should have booked a hotel in Paris for the 13 hour wait for the connecting flight. No, what I should have done was booked a flight for the following day, or even the one after that and spent a day or two in Paris. Gotten a good night’s sleep in a hotel there. I was weary of hotels at this stage, but one more night wouldn’t have hurt. At least I would have been in better form to deal with my current situation.

Seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge. Me and little Lucy MacAllister was up there last week, Sam Jnr had told her of a good place to catch fireflies. Lucy wanted to catch more than her brother Billie Joe did. He was famous for the number of fireflies he could catch.

Photo by Marin Irene on UnsplashOf course, you can make your mashed potatoes whatever way you darn well want. This recipe is a favourite in my home and it’s a great way to get some additional nutrients into us.Ingredients:100 grams Raw cashew nuts, soaked. (You can either soak overnight or before you cook the potatoes, pour boiling water over the nuts and cover with clingfilm until you need them).2 kilos of a good floury potato. I use Wexford Queens when they are available.2 Tablespoons of Nutritional yeast4 Tablespoons of your favourite plant-based milk1 teaspoon of salt½ teaspoon of ground white pepperMethod:1. Boil the potatoes, remove skins from about half of them.2. Blend the nuts for a couple of seconds until a coarse paste forms3. Add the potatoes and nutritional yeast and blend well.4. Add the milk, salt and pepper to taste.Don’t want creamy mash? Then from method step 3. bash with a potato masher until the consistency you want.Creamy Mashed Potato Recipe was originally published in TheCandiedHazelnut on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This was one of our most popular dishes on our lunch menu in the restaurant. It was particularly popular with the more mature of our customers. I think that could be because the original Shepherd’s Pie was a regular as they were growing up and it is a comfort dish to many of us.

Margaret Murphy sat on the arm of the sofa looking out the sitting-room window. Through the brilliant white net curtains, she could see the odd leaf gently whirl its way to the ground, carried on a gentle October mid-morning breeze. September had been particularly warm this year and now, the second week in October, later than usual, autumn was starting to take hold. Margaret loved autumn; it was her favourite time of the year. She liked the process of getting ready for the winter. It was a hopeful time of year; she remembered fondly the preparations of the children going back to school, the excitement of new starts. Margaret smiled as she remembered the trips into town for new books, stationery, shoes, and, of course, the new school bag which each of her four children were allowed every two years.

Photo by Zineb Sakhaoui on UnsplashJust like falafels, hummus can come to us in oh so many delightfully delicious flavours. I don’t do spicy, very well at all, this was an issue for me whilst working as a chef because I could not taste the spicy dishes I cooked and resorted to thrusting spoons laden with spicy delights at colleagues to try and trust their judgement. The thing with spicy is, like art, it really depends on the beholder.I love many curries, the smells of the spices mixing and the marrying of the flavours. I opt for sweet and mild curries. You, of course, are free to add whichever level of spice you like.Ingredients:250 grams Chickpeas, cooked, strained and rinsed (canned chickpeas is fine)2 Tablespoons Tahini1 Juice of whole lemon3 Tablespoons Olive oil2 to 3 teaspoons Curry powder1 to 2 Cloves of garlic, crushedSalt and pepper to tasteOlive oil and paprika to serveMethod:1. Blitz everything together.Best served at room temperature. Swirl groves into the hummus with the back of a spoon, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.You could take it a step further by using smoked garlic and smoked paprika for an additional level of flavour.Let me know what you added to the recipe to make it your own.Hummus with Curry Recipe was originally published in TheCandiedHazelnut on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.