I have friends coming round for a meal next week and they are  both Vegetarian so I thought I would find some tasty vegetarian recipes. I  actually try to make at least one vegetarian meal a week and I use Quorn products a  lot as a meat substitute. The Quorn chicken style pieces are great to put into curries and you really can’t tell the difference between that and a Chicken cury. Here is the idea I had for a 2 course meal.

Quick Korma

Ingredients

3 medium onions

3 cloves of garlic

a thick slice of butter

a thumb-sized piece of ginger

10 green cardamom pods

a tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground turmeric

a couple of pinches of ground cinnamon

a cinnamon stick

a good pinch of ground chilli

3 bay leaves

650g/1lb 7oz assorted mushrooms

250g/9oz spinach

handful skinned hazelnuts

a generous handful of raisins or golden sultanas

200g/7oz plain yoghurt

150g/5oz crème fraîche

rice or bread, to serve

Preparation method

Peel and slice the onions and garlic. Melt most of the thick slice of butter in a deep-sided pan, reserving a little. Peel and grate the ginger and add to the pan with the onions and garlic.

Break open the cardamom pods, discard the green shells and lightly crush the black seeds within. A pestle and mortar is good for this but any heavy weight will do. Add the crushed seeds to the pan with the cumin, turmeric, ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick, chilli and the bay leaves.

Cut the mushrooms into large pieces and add to the pan together with the remaining butter (you will find the mushrooms tend to soak it up). Let the mushrooms cook for a couple of minutes, then stir and cover with a lid.

When the mushrooms have softened and darkened a little, add 200ml/7fl oz water. Stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, wash the spinach carefully. Cook briefly in a separate pan until the leaves have wilted but are still bright, about a minute or two. Remove the spinach and cool under running water to keep the colour bright then squeeze dry and add to the pan with the mushrooms.

Stir in the skinned hazelnuts and the raisins or sultanas. Gently stir in the yoghurt and crème fraîche. Warm through gently and serve, with rice or bread if you wish.

Crêpes with orange butter sauce

Ingredients

For the crêpes

125g/4½oz plain flour

15g/½oz caster sugar

pinch salt

2 medium free-range eggs

325ml/11½fl oz milk

50ml/1¾fl oz double cream

few drops orange flower water

20g/¾oz clarified butter

For the orange butter sauce

10 oranges, 6 juiced, 4 segmented

100g/3½oz icing sugar

125g/4½oz butter, diced, softened

4 sprigs fresh mint

Preparation method

1.For the crêpes, whisk the flour, sugar, salt, eggs and a third of the milk in a bowl to a smooth batter.

2.Gradually stir in the rest of the the milk and all of the cream. Leave the batter to rest in a warm place for about an hour.

3.Just before cooking, stir in the orange flower water.

4.Brush a small 18cm-20cm/7in-8in frying pan with a little of the clarified butter and place over a medium heat. Add a ladleful of the batter and tilt the pan to cover the base thinly; cook the crêpe for a minute each side.

5.Transfer the crêpe to a plate and repeat, stacking the crêpes between sheets of greaseproof paper, until all of the batter has been used up.

6.For the orange butter sauce, strain the orange juice through a sieve into a saucepan and add the icing sugar.

7.Gradually bring the mixture to the boil and cook until the volume of liquid has reduced by half.

8.Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter, a little at a time.

9.To serve, scatter the orange segments over each crêpe and roll up. Sppon over the orange sauce and garnish with a sprig of mint.