Egg-strordinary

Although we are now firmly entrenched in vegetarian mode, and increasingly moving closer to vegan, eggs are still a part of our diet. Vegans don’t eat eggs or honey, but I’m not ready to give up honey yet, and in principal, I don’t have an objection to eating what John Peel once described as ‘a neatly encapsulated hen’s period’.

I’ve now totally eliminated dairy products from my diet and feel much better for doing so. I’ve exchanged dairy yoghurt for soya, milk for a whole variety of plant-based milks: almond, coconut, oat, rice, and of course, soya, and crème fraiche with soya or almond cream. We’re no longer able to taste the difference. I don’t miss cheese at all. Any recipes that calls for a garnish of parmesan or even a few tablespoons can be substituted with nutritional yeast, or if I’ve made it, vegan cheese.

My objection to dairy is both digestive and ethical. The dairy industry is just another aspect of questionable livestock farming with which I find myself in disagreement. It doesn’t really matter whether the milk or its by-products come from sheep, goats or brebis, the production process is the same. The mother cow gives birth to a cute little baby calf, and produces milk to feed him. That’s the natural process. But if the humans want to drink the milk, or turn it into yoghurt and cheese, then the little calf will have to do without. He’ll be taken away from his mother and, initially, there will be separation anxiety on both sides.

I’m less uncomfortable with free-range eggs, although I understand there are good reasons to consider that some of the practices of the larger producers fall into the industrial agriculture category. There is plenty of evidence of free-range hens that never venture outside of their barn, high flock density and short laying-spans. So, I try to buy from local, organic, free-range producers. Ideally, I’d like a couple or three hens scratching around in the garden…

I’ve tried a couple of different recipes for vegan omelettes and they weren’t particularly successful. I think that you just have to sacrifice the true omelette and call it an (egg-less) pancake. I’ve had much more success with baking both savoury and sweet cakes using either chia eggs or flax eggs. [You can also get synthetic egg substitutes called ‘No Egg’ or ‘Vegg’ on Amazon but I’ve not tried them yet].

Recently, I had an egg-sperience that made me think again about my casual acceptance of eggs. In fact, I don’t think I’ve eaten an egg since. I was in the process of knocking up a quick Courgette & Sun-dried Tomato Cake (another lunch-time newbie) to use up left-over ingredients before holiday. Something occurred that I’ve never seen in over thirty years of cooking – a rotten egg. This was a well in-date organic egg from the local bio coop, and, of course, I’d already cracked the two other eggs into the jug – so all three had to be thrown out. It reminded me of a tip from the VegSoc course – crack each egg into a cup and then transfer to the main bowl. Never crack an unchecked egg into a bowl full of recipe ingredients.

 

Fortunately, I only lost three eggs, but I still had a bowl of grated courgettes and other ingredients ready to go. I was a bit miffed. It was too late to go to the shops and that would defeat the whole object of using up the surplus anyway. Then, I thought – flax eggs! I’d successfully used flax eggs (I tbsp. ground flax seeds/ 2.5 tbsp water) in banana muffins, courgette muffins, and gluten free seed cake. But, those recipes only called for one egg – this required three eggs. Still, I had plenty of flax seeds, the tin was lined and the oven was up to temperature – there was nothing to lose but a bit of gas. The result was a perfect loaf. So, now I can rustle up a batch of muffins or a veggie loaf, even if the store cupboard is out of eggs. [Plus, flax egg is much cheaper too].