A WARM WELCOME TO MY WORLD OF EPICURIOSITY!

Hello, I’m Heidi 💕

“Living Blissfully with Kind Intention” has become my little motto for life. Sometimes I wish we could all just wrap our arms around the planet and smother it with love until all the greed of the world just melts away and life becomes bountiful as we restore a harmonious connection with nature and a loving appreciation for one another...

Forever in love with art, it was actually my artistic career as professional dancer and choreographer that sparked my culinary curiosity. In my former life I performed in theatres on the ocean, whisking me off to far away lands where I experienced an indulgence in beautiful worldly dishes from the aromatic delights of Bali to the delicately spiced treats of the Middle East and the deliciously fragrant sweet charms of the Far East.

And so my culinary passion was ignited!

I believe that all life on earth plays an integral part in maintaining a healthy eco system and supporting a beautiful life on our incredible home planet, and it saddens me to see the most intelligent species jeopardise this and cause so much cruel and unnecessary suffering.

To play my part in helping to restore peace, love and joy, I vow to promote a more gentle way of living. And so I celebrate this culinary art form with an abundance of colours and flavours, delighting in nutrition, sprinkling medicinal seasonings and...

“bringing vegan cuisine to the epicurean”!

With love...

Heidi Donna Smith - Aka Heidicha

My "EpCURIOUS EMPORIUM"...

Each time I would come home from a worldly contract, I was eager to recreate the dishes I’d experienced on my travels, tweaking them for a vegan diet and inspiring my own creations, which I found the most fun!

I’d conjure food for friends and family who always showed a lot of enthusiasm for my cuisine and so my Epicurious Emporium was born!

I love to create small bites such as canapés, amuse bouche and petit fours.

I love creating artwork with colours and textures, not to mention the flavours!

I love experimenting with nature's flavours and colours to create uniquely presented tasty treats which not only delight the eye and tantalise the tastebuds but also provide nutritional benefits, and it is a pleasure to share my nourishing ideas.

I mostly conjure recipe magic from my “cottage core” kitchen, housed within a charming old converted barn, part of an historic 1860s' model farm.

Here is where I host cosy culinary tasting menu evenings, showcasing a variety of tasty little numbers for an intimate gathering.

I also source beautiful locations from where to host hands on cooking workshops and dining events and I delight in creating plant-based nourishment for retreats.

Currently I am in the throws of writing an exciting cookbook, featuring my little creations, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I look forward to welcoming you to one of my unique events soon!

Latest Events!

@heidichas.epicurious.emporium

I’m Christmas batch cooking this Sunday!
First up… my Shiitake & Chocolate Stout Puds!! 😋

Stuck for what to give your vegan family members for Christmas Dinner?
Don’t want to serve them that store bought nut roast yet again?
There are many yummy vegan winter warmers to devour over the festive season, from Wellington to Mock turkey meals, but here is one of my very own favourites... presenting…

Vegan “Shiitake, Seitan & chocolate Stout Steamed Pudding with Mushroom & Chocolate Stout Gravy”

*Filling…
100 g Seitan
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 shallot diced
150g Shiitake Mushrooms (Quartered)
65 g Cavolo Nero (Shredded)
2 tsp Dried rosemary
2 tsp Dried thyme
4 tsp Yeast extract
80ml Chocolate stout - I use this delicious Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout @samuelsmithsbrewery
50 ml bouillon
4 tsp arrowroot
Cavolo Nero - as much as you desire.
2 tsp water
*Pastry…
150g Vegetable Suet
300g Self-Raising Flour
1 tsp Himalayan Salt
Water

*Instructions…
Filling:
Stir fry the diced shallot in a small frying pan until browning and set aside.
In a large sauce pan, heat the oil.
Saute the mushrooms, rosemary and thyme for around 4 minutes, then add the stir fried shallots.
Cover with the arrowroot and stir in until combined
Next, pour in the yeast extract, bouillon and seitan, cover and bring to the boil, stirring as the sauce thickens.
Once boiled, pour in the chocolate stout and simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Allow to cool.
Pastry:
Mix the suet, flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl and slowly add water while mixing Knead the dough then roll out until it is about 1 cm thick.
Cut out your pastry lids, then line each little pudding basin with pastry, cutting off the excess.
Fill each pudding case with the cooled filling then pop the pastry lids on top kneading the edges together to seal the pudding.
Wrap each pudding up in foil then place them in an oven tray of hot water and cover the entire thing with foil.
steam bake in a pre-heated oven (200 c) for 1 1/2 hours.

*Mushroom & Chocolate Stout Gravy to follow in my next post :)

Hello my dears 😜
Looks like I’m on a mission to cook every squash under the sun doesn’t it?!
My local farm shops are full of them and they always look so inviting, so for today’s squash number, I bring you…

Vegan Portobello Stuffed Futsu Squash…

Olive oil
Futsu squash - halved & deseeded
4 garlic cloves - minced
1 large shallot - minced
Himalayan salt
1 tbsp vegan butter
1 tbsp dark miso
Splash of cognac (or hot water)
2 large portobello mushrooms - minced
25 g dried mixed forest mushrooms (or dried porcinis)
(Plus their soaking water)
50 g bulgar wheat (soaked in hot water & strained)
A handful of fresh sage leaves - chopped
*Crumble…
1 cup sourdough breadcrumbs
1/2 cup plain flour
45 g walnuts
1 tbsp vegan butter

Brush the squash halves with olive oil, wrap in aluminium foil.
Roast them in a pre-heated oven 190 c for 35 mins.
Sir-fry the shallots in a hot olive oil coated pan.
Add the shallots & sweat with a little Himalayan salt.
Mix in the butter, then miso.
When browning. deglaze the pan with a little cognac and scape up all the flavoursome brown bits.
Add the portobellos & a generous pour of the mushroom water.
Cover & cook on a medium heat for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.
Remove the lid and stir in the bulgar.
Add the forest mushrooms with the rest of their water.
Reduce down uncovered for 10 mins, stirring occasionally, making sure to raise all the flavoursome bits at the bottom of the pan.
Stir in the sage.
Mix all the crumble ingredients together in a bowl, kneading to make crumbs.
Remove the squash from the oven, fill each halve with the mushroom mix, top with the crumble and pop back in the oven for 10 mins.
Serve nice and hot!

#futsusquash #pumpkinrecipes #squashrecipes #autumnflavours #fallflavors #autumnvibes🍁 #portobellomushroom #stuffedsquash #plantbased #govegan #veganfoodshare

Ciao Bella! 🇮🇹 🍋
Can you believe 33 days have passed since 8 lemon rinds joined 170 ml of brandy in my fridge?!
The day is finally here to release them and introduce them to the creamiest of vegan double cream, oat milk, sugar and Madagascan vanilla essential oils 😋

For limoncello one would normally use either cola or grain alcohol, but you’ve probably worked out by now that I am not normal 😜

So did my little experiment work?
Too right it did my friends, and let me tell you also that it turned out to be one of the best things I have tasted!

I’ll tell you something else, it would make wonderful Christmas sustainable gifts all beautifully bottle up with your own label for friends and family 😜

But here I am rambling, so if you would like the recipe for this absolute deliciousness, just send me a DM and I’ll get right back to you 😊

Salute! 🥂 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋

#cremadilimoncello #sorrentolemons #veganlimoncello #homemadecocktails #slowdrinks #real #deliciousness #veganpower #beganinspo #mixologists #whenlifegivesyoulemons🍋

Ok, this is the last of my ghoulish ness, I promise 😜
But hear me out because this is just delicious, and anyway it’s still Pumpkin season, spookily or not 👻

So today I present vegan Chinese Tang Yuan Dumplings made with Munchkin pulp, filled with sesame, go mashup and peanut butter and served in a bath of sweet coconut broth with tapioca too 😋

2 cute little munchkin pumpkins
(Wrapped in foil and roasted in the oven for 25 minutes. Sliced and seeds gutted. Remove the pulp and mash)
1 tbsp tapioca pearls (boiled for 10 minutes and rested in room temperature water, stirring once in a while to prevent sticking together)
2 tbsp gomashio (Japanese black crushes sesame seeds)
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp coconut sugar
2 tbsp vegan butter
(Blitz the gomashio, sesame seeds, coconut sugar & butter to a powder in a blender. Spread the mixture out on wax wrap or cling film to make a flat square. Wrap up and pop in the freezer for 30 mins)
1 cup glutinous rice flour.
(Combine the munchkin pulp and rice flour in a bowl to make a dough, adding a little water is necessary. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside for 30 mins)
(After 30 mins, roll the dough into logs and cut into even pieces. Roll each into a ball and flatten.
Remove the seed mix from the freezer and place each ball into each mochi dough round and roll into little dumpling balls. Plop in to a pan of balling water until the dumplings float to the top)
The both is made from…
1/4 cup coconut sugar and a can of coconut milk heated on the hob until the sugar dissolves.
Fill the munchkins with coconut broth. Add some tapioca pearls and plop in the dumplings et voila my friends, it’s Time to serve up!

#vegansofinsta #plantbasedliving #halloweeniseveryday #munchkinpumpkin #pumpkinseason #chinesedumplings #tangjuan #spookilicious #devonvegans #delicious #boo #ghoulish

Ok so Samhain, pronounces something like “Sow Win” is traditionally a Celtic festival which marks the midpoint between autumn equinox and winter solstice and celebrates our ancestors and those who are no longer walking among us as it is considered to be a time when the veil between the human living and spirit realm is particularly fine, making it easier for those in the spirit world to interact with life on our planet.
So it is a time to honour our ancestors 😊
As with most holidays these days, modern day Halloween seems to have become another bait for consumerism hasn’t it? But still, I’m rather partial to a pumpkin and a bit of spooky fun myself, how about you?

Anyhoo… the soup! It’s soooo good, and I realise you’re chomping at the bit for the recipe, so here it is my friends…

*Vegan Austrian Pumpkin Soup with Fried Jerusalem Artichoke Crispies:

1 pumpkin - diced
4 shallots - thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves - sliced
Rapeseed oil & a little vegan butter for frying
Pinch of salt & pepper
600 ml Bouillon or veggie stock
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cayenne
Vegan double cream
Roasted pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin seed oil

Brown the butter
Stir fry shallots, sweating as you go
Add garlic
Add pumpkin (add a little hot water as you stir)
Season as you go
Stir in the spices
Add stock and simmer until soft
Add 2 tbsp cream
Blitz & pour through a sieve
Swirl in cream and pumpkin seed oil & scatter roast seeds
Scatter JAs (thinly sliced and slow fried until crispy)
Enjoy!

#veganhalloween #samhainfood #pumpkinspiceseason #jerusalemartichokes #pumpkinlove #devonfoodie

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A WARM WELCOME TO MY WORLD OF EPICURIOSITY!

Hello, I’m Heidi 💕

My "EpCURIOUS EMPORIUM"...

@heidichas.epicurious.emporium

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